Just because I haven't blogged in awhile doesn't mean that I haven't thought about blogging, haven't written posts in my head that are soon lost in the chaos that is life. I imagine that when I die and get to heaven, there will be an entire book filled with stories I have "written" just before falling asleep or while I cook dinner stored away in my brain. If only...oh if only...I could make time to just sit and write. But let's face it...time management is not my strong suit. I do love to write though...sorta evens me out, organizes me...makes me less flighty.
So...I have forced myself to sit...after lunch and before nap...because I have something to write. Not necessarily something you have to read...but something I need to remember, because someday (most likely tomorrow) it will be forgotten.
I have written before about moments in my life. Moments I wish I could stop and go back to...funny thing is, these moments aren't big events, or even momentous occasions. Just small pieces of my day...when I stop...and breathe...and wish I could hit the pause button.
It is snowing. That quiet, peaceful, wet sort of snow. I am washing the lunch plates, looking out at the window...wishing for spring. But then...I breathe...deep. And I am reminded that today won't come again...ever. I hear the sweet noises of my children. My chattering 5 year old...my quiet, contemplative almost 2 year old. It is music...lovely music. There is a plant in the window. Grace's plant. The seeds have just pushed through the soil and are bending, bending, bending toward the sunlight--what little of it that shines through the snowy sky. The snow is sticking now...wet and heavy. Sam brushes my leg with his soft sweet liddle hand...a hand that will someday, soon, be man's hand...large, hairy...much like his Daddy's. Breathe...remember that feeling...remember that tiny hand. Grace comes to me...complains that there is "something sticky on my cheek"...I look...it is nailpolish. "Nailpolish is for fingernails and toenails....not for faces. Do you understand?" She nods "yes"...and I begin to wipe off the glittery purple polish. Precious cheeks. Full and round with youth...pink and glowing. She is so animated. Oh...remember...remember. Time goes so quickly. When I think of it...I get weepy. Breathe...remember...enjoy the moment. What gifts I have been given.

Dave the frog...on the hunt...

Here he is...our resident cricket killer in action...one of the highlights of my day...no really, it is...

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Very quickly...before my children realize I'm blogging. (Blogging seems to illicit the same response as talking on the phone...the kids completely ignore you until the phone rings and the receiver is held to your ear...OR...the laptop is opened and the children hear the "click click click" of my typing fingers on the keyboard. Like right now for example, I just started typing and Grace is screaming from the bathroom "MOM! Come wipe my bootie"...sheesh)

There are many posts in my head and many more pictures to go along with those posts to describe to you the fun we had over Christmas...but before I get started...I'm posting these pictures to prove to you that adults were in fact present and accounted for during 5 days of complete and joyous chaos...


Em and Mike. In pajamas...because that is how we spent most of our days...with a cup of coffee, still in our PJ's. Well, Mike and Earl drank other beverages as well...and played a whole lotta Xbox.


We ate a lot too. Here is a picture of Grandpa Trumpet putting ketchup on his eggs. Please forgive him for this culinary fo paux...he's from Nowata. He cain't hep hisself...


And then there's Earl. Sweet, sweet Earl. I believe his is taking a break from the Xbox. Or maybe he is going crazy (short trip...lemme tell ya). Perhaps both...yes, definately both.

These two...Oh my...what a pair. GrandTone and Aunt Emily. They knitted most of the time they were here. I'm not sure that they actually finished anything. But then, that's not really the point now is it? They were able to teach Bailey Rose to knit and they convinced me to pick up a pair of knitting needles again (I learned to knit in college). So we can count that as progress. And you can tell this picture was taken on a different day than the one of Emily and Mike above...Emily is in a different pair of PJ's.

And me? Well...there aren't a lot of pictures of me. But here I am doing something I did a lot of over the Christmas holidays....cooking. I love to cook...love to have a houseful of people I love.

We had a great Christmas. I have LOTS of pics to post of the kids...but I wanted to post these pictures first, to give you proof that there was "adult supervision"!!! If you can really call it that...

Don't worry...

Were you worried? Missing me? Well...don't. I'm here. Just down a hand after having a ganglion cyst on my right wrist removed last Friday morning. I have a nice sized bandage/splint thing on my hand/wrist/forearm that keeps me from lengthy typing. It comes off today...at 2 pm...Hallelujah!!! Hopefully I'll be up to full operating mode soon....I do have a GREAT tale to tell about Grace, Grandtone, a couple of shovels, a collie, and a ginormous pile of snow. Plus I've taken up knitting. As usual...there is much to blog about. Stay tuned.

Remember this post?? I sorta left ya hanging, didn't I? Sorry...
But, I'll answer the question now....
WHAT has Grace so "de-cited", you ask?
Why...it's Dave...the white tree frog

WHERE did you get a white tree frog in the middle of winter, you ask?
Well that my bloggy friends is quite a good story...and it's a fantastic way to kick off a series of posts I will title 10 people, 6 dogs, and one homeless frog...it must be Christmas

Here goes... post #1
Because of Danny's work schedule, we (the Farris family) were unable to leave town for Christmas. So...everyone came to us. Quite a deal if you ask me. I sure do like sleeping in my own liddle bed. My sister and her family arrived on the 22nd. I was THRILLED!! No really...I was! I miss her dearly and don't get to see her as often as I'd like. (Although I have a sneaking suspicion that if we did live in the same town--or in the same state for that matter--we would get arrested). I was also glad to have them come a few days early so that Grace would STOP asking me "Are they here yet? Are Bailey Rose and Isaac here yet? Huh, Mom? Huh? Are they here yet???!!!" So they arrived before lunch on the 22nd and we immediately loaded up in my van and headed to take the kids to see Santa Claus. (I like to get a picture of each child with Santa Claus every year. It's a fun way to see how much they've grown over the past 12 months, plus I like to torture them...nothing like a big fat guy in a stuffy suit with a creepy beard to freak a kid out.) Then we went to my absolute favorite restaurant ever...Noodles and Company...can I just give a quick shout out to that delicious noodle filled place?? Seriously, it is ah-ma-zing...if you have one anywhere near you, go...go now...order the pad thai with tofu...and sink slowly into a food coma. Yum. Anyway...then we went to the DAV thrift store. Of all the thrift stores to choose from in my area, the DAV takes the cake. Great prices. High quality merchandise. Lots of stuff to dig through. I go at least once a week. I love that place...almost as much as Noodles and Company. And if you know anything about my sister and I, you know that going to a "hot" junk store is our version of going to a really rocking mall. We love a good deal..gets our blood pumping. We survived the DAV with 4 kids in tow...even found a cartload of wonderful deals, then headed out to the car to go home and relax and enjoy the joyous holiday sounds of our husbands playing the xbox (if I knew how to "strike through" on a post...I'd do it now...there is nothing "joyous or relaxing" about the xbox...nothing) As we headed out to the parking lot, I looked down (dunno why I looked down) and saw--in a puddle, in the middle of a concrete jungle, in the pouring rain--a liddle tiny frog. Well, I couldn't just leave him there. It was cold...the weather man was talking "rain turning to ice and then snow" and he was a FROG for goodness sake...he woulda been a frog-SICLE in a matter of hours if left to his own defenses. So I scooped him up, showed him to the kids, and placed him in an empty snack container I had floating around in my van. And there he lived until GrandTone arrived (she came a day later than my sister)...GrandTone (lover of all living things) immediately sat in the middle of the kitchen floor, grandchildren all around her, and began her inspection of our little foundling. She identified him (via the Internet) as a White Tree Frog. And announced that we needed to go to PetSmart (a place we've been frequenting a lot lately) and get him a small terrarium with a heating lamp. We would also need to get some live crickets...for him to eat...lovely.

So we did...and now...almost 2 1/2 weeks (or is it 3?) later...Dave is alive and well. We aren't really sure how he found himself in the middle of a parking lot in the freezing rain. Nothing really adds up...he shoulda been hibernating. But he wasn't...and now he is fat from eating crickets (5 a day!) and warm in his little terrarium on my kitchen counter. My mom, my sister, and I like to believe that he is a gift. From our dear friend Susy. She has been gone for almost 2 years now....we miss her everyday. She loved frogs. They were her "signature" in a way. And she loved to give gifts. Esp. to our children. We like to think that Susy sent Dave to us...a very fun and unique gift for Christmas from a sweet friend in heaven. We'll release him in the spring (if we don't go bankrupt buying him crickets) but I'm glad we got to spend these chilly months with a very amazing creature in God's creation. Thanks Sus...one of the best gifts I've ever received.

Every house needs a little cat hair...

Meet Sara...the cat.

She's the newest member of our family. Sara...the cat. Her name was Precious. Grace re-named her. We adopted her from the Saline Animal League. She was rescued from the shelter and then brought to PetSmart on adoption day by some amazing women who run the shelter (you know what I'm talking about right? Local animal rescue groups bring animals to PetSmart on Saturday? Yeh, that sort of thing) She is Siamese (with a little calico thrown in for good measure) and about 4 months old. We have been looking for a cat for our family for about 2 months. Grace even asked Santa for a cat for Christmas. I had my heart set on an orange tabby male kitty. I love orange male tabby kitties. But God...oh my...He had different plans for our family. We went to PetSmart to look at a little orangy tabby kitty I had seen earlier in the week, but before we could make our way to his kennel, we were greeted by Sara. She was pulling out all the stops to get our attention. Rubbing up against the door of her kennel, meowing, purring...like I said before, all. the. stops. So we stopped to take a look at her. Then Grace wanted to hold her. "Sure Grace...but we're just gonna hold her. We're not taking her home." 10 minutes later? Yup...you're quick...Earl's on his way to the car to get the cat kennel we brought along "just in case", and we're the proud owners of Sara the Siamese cat.

We brought her home, let her meet the dogs, gave her a bath....

(Earl said something about "Welcome to our house Sara...blah, blah, blah...she likes to clean everything"...but I blocked him out...afterall, isn't cleanliness next to Godliness?)

It was a traumatic arrival I'm sure...that's a lot for a little creature to take in a matter of 2 hours. But Miss Sara took it all in stride. She greeted the dogs with an obligatory hiss, was compliant during the bath, and even relaxed and purred when I got the blow dryer our to dry her fur. She is an amazing liddle thing. And the perfect fit for our chaotic family. At first we thought she might be deaf. Nothing seemed to startle her or get her attention. Barking dogs, crying children, noisy toys, loud instruments...she seemed to be oblivious to it all. Only later did we find that Sara the cat has selective hearing, for when a food bowl is rattled anywhere in the house...she comes running.

It also didn't take her long to find the heating vents in the floor...she likes to be warm. I don't blame her. The high today was 11 degrees...did you hear that? 11 DEGREES! I'm thinking about laying on the floor vent too...

We wanted a cat that would snuggle...and let me tell ya, be careful what you ask for because this little thang is a professional snuggler! She wrote the book on snuggling. And we wouldn't have it any other way...we have all fallen in love with Sara-girl. Oh how good if feels to have a little cat hair back in this house!

(Side note: the scratch on Sam's face is not from Sara. It is from Mommy...it was totally an accident. And I feel super bad about it...and yes, I put neosporin on it...oh, and second side note: I promise I'll blog about Christmas....someday. Most definately by next Christmas...)

Sara and Sam

These two snuggled like this for over 10 minutes. Now, I don't know about you...but I've never met a single cat in my life that would snuggle with a 21 month old boychild. Pretty amazing animal if you ask me...God sure knew what He was doing when He sent this cat to our local PetSmart yesterday. Funny that we doubt Him with our big stuff, when it's so obvious that He cares so much about our little stuff...like cats and such.

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