Things I am thankful for:

From the most important to the trivial, here are the things I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving Eve:

1) My awesome husband and my amazing girls and the fact that everyone has been healthy again this year. The fact that I get to hear my children laughing, singing, talking, and yes fighting, while some parents will never hear their child again. The fact that even when I work late at night, I get to still come home and crawl into bed next to my husband while some only get to curl up with memories.

2) My family. I'm so lucky to have my parents, Mozzie (my grandmother), aunts, uncles and cousins so close so that we can spend holidays together. My sister is in California this year for Thanksgiving, but will be home for the Christmas/Hanukkah holidays. My parents and my Mozzie are very involved and close with me, my husband and my girls and for this and for all of their love and support, I am thankful.

3) My friends. I'm also lucky to have so many wonderful people that I can call friend. No matter what happens I have great friends that are there for me no matter the day or the time. They encourage me, support me, counsel me, play with me and fuss with me and I am truly blessed to have them in my life.

4) My job and my husband's job. In these turbulent times I'm glad to know that nurses will always be needed and that my position is relatively safe. Which brings me to the thankfulness for the food that my husband and I are able to put on the table to feed our family.

5) The men and women in our armed forces who fight to protect our country, including my cousin Brad who is in Iraq this Thanksgiving. I will give even more thanks when they all return home safely.

6) Facebook. I know its silly, but it has helped me to reconnect with some old friends who I wouldn't have otherwise. I'm also thankful for this blog and the people who read it and comment on it. I know everything I have to say isn't that important, but I'm glad you all care enough to read it!

7) The fact that Gracie, the stray that is staying with us is potty trained. As you can tell we're heading into the trivial things here, but are you kidding? Who wants pee or poop on their floor! And I'm thankful for Stitch who is not only potty trained but the most awesome dog ever!

8) Lastly, I'm going to give you all the stupid, little things that I'm thankful for. Seriously these are dumb so hold on to your horses.
- Toilets (need I explain?)
- Toilet paper
- indoor heating (I do not like being cold and being able to come into a warm house is very nice)
- indoor air conditioning (I live in the South, the summers can be brutal. How did they do it in those huge dresses with no air conditioning?)
- Chocolate milk that is sold premixed
- Bathtubs
- A husband who can cook (and will cook!)
- Blazing Buffalo and Ranch Doritos
- Kayson's Philly Cheesesteak
- Wendy's Fries and Frosty....mixed
- Swifer's
- Dusting mitts with nubbys
- Fleece blankets
- Turvis Tumblers
- Sweet Tea
- Starbucks Caramel Apple Cider
- Wet to Straight Hair Straighteners
- Duck Tender Dog Treats (actually that would be what Stitch and Gracie are thankful for but since they'll do pretty much anything to get them....)
- Washers and Dryers
- Microwaves
- Cell phones
- XM radio
- Steak and potatoes
- Parades

It would seem that I'm definitely a child of the Electronic Era. But those are my trivial things. Things that make you say, every once in a while, "I'm sooooo glad I have this!" I'm sure there are ones I've left off. If you think of any that should have made the trivial list add a comment and let me know.

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving and may all the ones that you're thankful for be able to spend it with you!

Gracie Update

I've had people tell me I needed to post some pics of Gracie. So I took some and here they are. I also was told that I needed to post an update. Really not too much to share but here goes. I took her to the PetSmart vet on Thursday. I didn't know this, but when I called I was told that they do free vet checks on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2-4! I thought that was perfect. I wanted to make sure that she was healthy so that keeping her around Stitch and us wouldn't be a problem. She is healthy AND already spayed. Got to love that! She has abrasions to both back feet. The vet thinks it is from her being on the street. The vet thinks she was somebody's dog and they couldn't take care of her anymore and dumped her. She thinks she was probably abused a little since she is so timid around new people and cowers when you scold her. Well, she used to, now she just goes "oh sorry" and moves on. I guess when you get comfortable somewhere.....

Anyway, they scanned her for a chip. None to be found. We've driven all over the surrounding neighborhoods and no signs are up. We've put some signs up with no response. I'm agreeing with the vet and think she was a good old fashioned dog dump.

Mom met her on Friday and is seriously considering taking her. She left for California today and will be back next Monday night so Gracie is definitely here until then. She has a crate that Mom got her so she sleeps inside now and really enjoys that. As I told the vet last week, "We call her Gracie; she calls us Suckers."

She has finally started walking around with her tail up. It took her about two days to stop carrying it between her legs and being scared at every little thing. She is still interested in the cat but more so in a "what are you?" kind of way instead of an "I'd like to eat you" way. In other words she is doing great. She is cute, smart, sweet and housebroken. If Mom doesn't want her, do I have any other takers? ;-)

Say Goodnight Gracie

My husband would like to know "Out of all the houses on our street how did a little stray dog know to come to our house?"

I got the call yesterday while I was helping Hayden with homework.
"Gin, where's Stitch?"
"Sitting right behind me. Why?"
"Who is this brown dog looking at me through the fence?"

The answer was that I didn't know, but I had an idea it might be a little dog that we had seen earlier in the day at the top of our street. And I was right. She was barking at Andy like it was her house and what was he doing trying to come in the gate! He told me to watch out because she could be mean. That was before she came up to me with her tail between her legs, looking like I could possibly beat her and leaning up against my leg. My response: "Yes, she IS vicious."

We put her outside the gate, shut the gate, got the car into the garage and went back up to the top of the driveway. No dog. "Good she's gone." Turn around. Here comes said dog UP the driveway! She had gone through the neighbors yard to the back and jumped the fence into the yard. She was quite proud of herself too. Go through this procedure 3 more times with the same result as before. "Fine, we'll leave the gate open and go inside. She'll go away." Seriously? Did anybody else besides my husband think that was going to happen? I mean she's jumping to get INTO the yard. Most dogs jump to escape, not her.

So here's this dog, at this point, on the front porch. After a little whining at the front door, it gets quiet. I went to the front door and looked out thinking "okay she's gone". Or she could be wedged into the corner next to the front door shivering and looking oh so pitiful!

I told Andy to leave the gate open while he took out the trash that maybe she would move on.
She didn't.
He walked up to the top of the hill to see if she would keep going.
She didn't.
She stayed by his side the entire time looking at him with big sad puppy eyes. I give her credit for knowing who she needed to win over!!

"She looks hungry."
"Go ahead and feed her. We don't want her to starve. But, not too much. We don't want her to stay."
"Its supposed to get REALLY cold tonight."
"I'll put the doghouse together with some shavings and she can sleep in that in the pen."
"Its too windy."
"I'll move it closer to the house. And get her a blanket."

I know you're asking yourself: was she there this morning? Are you kidding? Of course she was!

I started calling her Maggie. Andy said not to give her a name. My Mom says she was thinking Gracie. It fits. She is now Gracie. My Mom is coming to take a gander at her tomorrow to see if she might want her. And that would be great. The problem? There are actually 2 and their names are: "Please Daddy?!?!" and "We love her Daddy!!!"

So, she has a bed tonight in the garage with a nice warm blanket, food and water. Stitch loves to play with her. The girls love her. She gets lots of pets and scratches from me. The cat has smacked her (we'll call that a truce.). And Andy....?

Say goodnight Gracie!

Oh Happy Day!!

Yes, it is a happy day for the male member of the Wiggs household! Why? Because for the first time in 5 years he is able to park his car in the garage alongside mine! We have purged, cleaned, rearranged and stored and finally, FINALLY, he can park his car in the garage. Hallelujah!

I just have to brag a little bit

I don't know how many of you knew that Hayden was enrolled in a "Budding Authors" session of College for Kids at Mercer University this summer. She also did a session of "Math Wizards" and thoroughly enjoyed both of them. Well, this past weekend we had the ceremony to present the kids with their bound and published works! Each child in the BA program had one of their stories picked out and published in a book of all the works from all this BA kids this summer. Hayden was super excited. She says she has always wanted to see her name in print. Maybe that's why we had to get an L drive notebook to hold all the stories she has been writing!! She also got a trophy for her MW session. The best thing about that was her comment "I never knew math could be so fun!" And that seems to have held over this year since she is doing great in math with no complaining about how awful it is!

At the ceremony on Sunday, Hayden was so nervous about walking up on stage that I thought she was going to throw up. She wouldn't even look at me as I tried to take a picture. So of course being the Mom that I am I took 8 consecutive pictures of her not looking at me until she finally looked at me with this grimace and said "Are you happy? Now go away!" Such sweetness!

Imagine 8 pics exactly like this until.....

This was the go away pic, not a smile, but I think I proved my point!

They had the kids sitting in one section with the parents in the other two. She sat near the back in the same row as us, right near us. Once the ceremony started I think all she could think about was getting the book and finding her story. She looked over at me and asked if she could move up a few rows (at this time they were working on the second row). I told her it was fine for her to move. So she scoots right up to the third row so that she is the next row to go. She stood in the line peering around the other kids at the stage. Then when her name was called she hopped up there, gave a little curtsy to the dean of Mercer, accepted her book, accepted her trophy and then hot-footed it off the stage. She wouldn't even pause for a picture! She then jetted to her seat where she instantly began flipping through to find her story. I kept looking over there and never saw her head raised again as she read it over and over. After the ceremony she was all smiles, I'm surprised her mouth didn't hurt from the huge smile. But if it did, it was a good pain, because as she pointed out "I'm a published author, Mom." Look out world, here she comes!

Hayden with the Mercer Bear

The book

The start of her story. It's actually 2 pages long.

There's something about little girls and their Granddaddys

I know when I was growing up my Granddaddy was the best guy ever! I loved doing things with him and going places with him. I spent pretty much every weekend with him and my Mozzie when I was young and we went on all sorts of fun adventures.

My girls feel the same way about their "Grandy". Their eyes light up and they get so excited when they know he's going to be with Mom picking them up on Wednesdays. They love hanging out with him, playing with him and just generally being with him. All of this is on my mind today because Isabelle is having mystery readers in her class this week for National Book Week. For those of you not in the know about mystery readers, it is exactly what the name implies. They are people who come in and read stories to the kids and the kids have no idea that they're coming. Belle was convinced that I was going to be a mystery reader for her class. Repeatedly she has told me that she knows I'm coming in to read. I kept telling her that I wasn't on the schedule and not to be disappointed when I wasn't one.

Flash forward to today: My Dad walks in to Belle's class to be the mystery reader and little Belly looks like she might cry she is so happy!!

My Dad has been going into Hayden's classes since she was in Kindergarten and being the mystery reader. The first year he went as "Crocodile Grandy" all dressed like Crocodile Dundee. The kids thought it was a hoot! He has played his digaridoo and juggled for her classes. He has never been into Belle's class but was all over it when I asked if he was interested in going this week. He brought a huge stack of books and Belle got to stand with him while he read to the class and the whole time she had this HUGE smile on her face. I asked her at the end if she had been surprised and she said "Yes, and I'm soooo happy that Grandy came!"

I'm telling you, little girls and their Granddaddys have a special bond. I know how important my Granddaddy was to me and I'm so blessed and lucky that my Dad loves to do stuff with the girls and is as crazy about his granddaughters as they are about him!

A Good Saturday

--Deciding not to drive to Auburn for the game: disappointing

--Getting stuff done around the house: rewarding

--Waiting 2 1/2 hours at Snipits with three complaining kids, oops I mean 2 complaining kids and a complaining husband: mind-numbing

--Seeing the smile on your kid's face when she gets the haircut she has been wanting for 6 months: PRICELESS!!!

TMBITT on Wednesday!!

Sorry for being so late! Life being what it is I was unable to get this posted yesterday. TMBITT's topic was Fall. Fall to me means football games, going to Auburn to watch them play and participate in all the game day activities, walks in the woods with that "fall" smell in the air, horseback rides through the woods with hooves crunching on the fallen leaves, gorgeous leaves- you know the ones so bright gold and orange that they can hurt your eyes if the sun is shining on them the right way. It also means leave piles. I don't mean just that the leaves have fallen into a pile; I mean leaves piled up so high that you can jump in them and wallow around in them and lose grown people in them.

This tradition started for us when we moved up to the lake in the fall of 2002. No one had been up to rake the leaves since they had started falling so the yard was covered under a huge layer of leaves. It took Andy and my Dad using two blowers to get them all into a huge pile. Hayden was 2 at the time and when she saw the pile getting bigger and bigger her eyes kept getting bigger and bigger and she started begging us to let her jump in the leaves. Of course who can resist a 2 year old's pleading eyes and a 3 foot pile of leaves? Not us! All of us started jumping in the leaves; my Mom and Dad, Andy, Hayden and a 6 month pregnant me. It was great fun. The next year when it came time to blow the leaves, Hayden begged Andy to make a big pile. He did and the rest is history. Every year the girls pester, beg and whine about when will the pile be made. Of course it is a great time for pictures too. My only concern is that as they get older the runway to jump in gets longer. So that begs the question: who will be the first one hurt in the "Jumping of the Leaves"?

2005: Dressed to cheer for Auburn and the leaf pile

2006: Trip to Auburn and the leaf pile

2007: Hiking through the woods and, once again, the leaf pile!

I swear my heart was breaking!

As I mentioned in my last post, Belle lost her tooth the other night. She put it in the little velvet bag that they both have used for all of their teeth for the Tooth Fairy. We're putting the kids to bed and Belle says to me "There really isn't a Tooth Fairy is there Mom?"
I said, "of course there is!"
"No, there isn't Mommy. You put the money under my pillow and take my tooth."
"No I don't!"
"Well, then Daddy does it."
"Daddy doesn't do it either. It's the Tooth Fairy."
"Yeah right Mommy, like you and Daddy are going to let a random person in my room at night."
I told her that there was no way that Daddy or I would be able to get the tooth/money exchange done without her waking up; that only a fairy can do that. She goes to sleep and all is well. The Tooth Fairy DID come that night and perform the exchange.
The next day we're having a discussion about Santa and Belle says:
"There isn't really a Santa Mommy. You just buy us presents and put them on the hearth."
"No, I don't. Santa brings me and Daddy presents too. Why would we buy our own presents and put them on the hearth? I hope there is a Santa because I love Santa and the presents he brings and the elves he lets us keep over Christmas."
"I know there is a Santa Mommy; I was just kidding."
Now there were other comments during this conversation and my response was spread out through the conversation, but I gotta tell you my heart was shattering all over the place! She's 5!! How can she not believe in Santa? Of course there is a Santa!! I'm not sure where she's getting these ideas (actually I have a pretty good idea that its one of the kids in her class) but I'm not happy about it. How can we help her to believe again? The elves will be here soon. Maybe they'll help. And some Christmas decorations. Yes we have started putting them up already. Of course Belle has had her tree up in her room all year. I'm not too proud to admit that leaving it up was easier than fighting her on it!! Maybe the lights need to be lit in the tree tonight. I'll start with that and go from there. Maybe my heart will recover too.

All Belle Wants for Christmas...

Is going to be a mouth full of teeth! She lost her third tooth the other day and now has all 4 of her top front ones loose. I mean when you touch them her whole gum moves. I have a feeling that they will be out well before Christmas and she will be "Gummy" through the month of December.

Loose teeth is another example to me of how different my two little ones are. For example, when Hayden started losing her teeth no one was allowed to touch them. She tried to not touch them when she brushed her teeth, she would eat around them. There was no wiggling them and pulling them was DEFINITELY not going to happen. When her front two were coming out they were so loose they were sideways, literally, and she still would not let me pull it! We had to wait for gravity to make the poor tooth finally fall out because she surely wasn't going to help it out.

Hayden and her loose tooth 08/06

Then there is Isabelle. Her tooth was loose on the bottom. I told her it probably wouldn't be out before Thanksgiving because it was loose but not that loose. So she started wiggling it with her fingers, with her tongue, making me wiggle it. She was working that tooth over. Every so often she would come up to me and ask me to try to pull it. Finally last week it really was loose enough. She asked me to try to pull it. I tried without much success, she told me to keep trying. I did and there was a little blood, she told me "KEEP TRYING MOMMY!!" It turns out I just didn't have a good enough grip because once I got a napkin it popped right out. No dangly sideways teeth for this kid!! And now she has the top 4. There is one that is looser than the others, so while they all get their wiggle time, this one is definitely on her hit list. Yeah, I don't see them lasting until Christmas and I can't wait to be able to scrap the "All I Want For Christmas" page for her!!