Christmas Train

Get it while it's hot!

I am having a 20% sale of the Shirley J stuff I have at my house right now. Here are the items up for sale and the quantities I have left:

2 Onion Seasoning 6.00
4 Chicken Bouillon 6.00
4 Beef Bouillon 6.00
2 BBQ Sauce (my fave) 9.60
4 Pizza/Pasta 5.50
2 White Cheddar Sauce/Soup Mix 32.00
1 Corn Bread/Muffin Mix 10.00
5 Dough Enhancer 5.50 (makes homemade bread nice and fluffy)
1 Honey White Bread Mix 8.60
1 Slow Cooker Pork Seasoning 7.75

I'll pay for shipping, and get it out to you as soon as I get the payment! Let me know what you want!

Paul's BFF

My friend Sherry did a really cute post about Paul's BFF Carter.

I'd like to introduce you to Carter's friend, Paul. Paul is, as Carter says, "really cooool, mom. Really cooool." What makes Carter think Paul is so cool? Let me give you a run down.

Paul shares the same love of Thomas the Train that Carter does. Between the two I dare say they know every Thomas Train. And Paul is content to sit and look at a Thomas catalog with Carter.

Paul has the same taste in movies as Carter. I've yet learned to appreciate the Thomas and Friends DVDs, but Paul? Paul gets them. Paul loves them. And then we get to real play. Clearly these boys share a common love of trains, but there is more than that. Paul knows the fun that jumping on a bed in a cape brings.

Or the more subtle joy of throwing chalk into an empty clothes basket.

What can I say? These two boys just get each other. I think Carter summed it up best when he told me, "Paul isn't my brother, Holland is my brother. Paul is my friend, mom. Just Paul."

We are working on the "just Paul" part though. Especially since Carter tells me he won't play at preschool because "there aren't any boys named Paul there mom."

Cinnamon Rolls

This morning as I was rolling out my cinnamon rolls with a mason jar, and cutting them into slices using a string, it made me think of my Grandma Brown. Even still, though she has been gone a little while, I think that I would really like to visit with her, and show her how much Paul has grown. She loved his blond hair, and she loved seeing Sammer so much too. I think about her asking if Jocelyn was twins, and telling Gordon that he was old. I remembered her telling us about the fact that you have to have a "start" when you make sourdough bread, and how she used to ride her horse to go get a start in Mexico. She loved to tell me stories of when she was teaching 6 grades at the same time, and when I would get home from school when I was living with them, she was ask what problems I'd had that day, and offer advice on what to do. It makes me giggle when I think that she never believed me when I told her a certain tablecloth that I had given her was really hers.

When I leave dishes in my sink for days at a time (please don't tell), I know she would not be pleased. I always had to finish eating really fast and hop up and do the dishes since neither grandma or grandpa could rest until all was neat and tidy in the evening.

I am blessed to have such great examples in my family. I like to think I have taken the best parts of them, and try to live that way, as well as teach Paul to live that way.

I know this is a lot of rambling, but there ya have it.

P.S. The cinnamon rolls were delish!

Christmas 2009