George Washington, dumb a**

She's so sweet.   So smart.  So funny.  And so foul-mouthed.  Not really that last one, not really.  She is a good mimic, though.  Something her father may need to remember.  Hey, he even took the blame on himself for it.  Little Miss and I were chillin', taking in some iCarly on TV.  The troublemaking sidekick, Sam, had to answer a question about the United States in order to get a border guard to let her into the US from Canada...or something like that.  Anyway...the question was who was the first president of the United States.  Sam's response was Abraham Franklin.  Little Miss immediately muttered, "George Washington, dumb a**"  with an undertone of disgust in her sweet, quiet, little voice.  It took a couple of seconds to register what she said, kind of did she?  did she? running through my mind.  She didn't have that sheepish look kids get when they've been caught at something.  And frankly, it was funny.  It was a dumb a** answer.  Of course, I made the usual parental cluckings about not saying things like that, etc, etc.  So, now the Nockinbirds have an inside joke/insult.  No disrespect meant to the #1 Prez, but if we call you George Washington...well, we call them like we see them.

Eleven months until Christmas!

So, one of my resolutions for 2012 was to not let Christmas sneak up and overwhelm me.  I want to do a Christmas craft on the 25th of every month--nothing extreme, just sprinkling a little holiday spirit throughout the year.  Luckily, the after-Christmas sales helped a lot with this.  At 90% off, I spent less than $10 and have a giant bag full of Christmas crafty goodness.  Tonight Little Miss picked a Charlie Brown Christmas wooden cut out to color in.  She also found a chocolate covered Peeps tree (that she forgot Santa put in her stocking).  Things just really line up sometimes, don't they?

Now we have the first of our new Christmas decorations ready to go.  Just eleven more months!  I really like the ruddy cheeks she added, but noticed one was actually on the back of Charlie Brown's head.  Little Miss informed me that, since he's practically bald, it's a sun burn spot that won't go away.  Of course.

4710--the year of yum!

Molly entertained our tastebuds tonight with homemade "Nutt House" meatloaf--Mary Lou Watkins' gen-u-ine recipe!  Little Miss provided after dinner entertainment by drawing our portraits.  I particularly like the emphasis on chins and cheeks.  And that she gave us all blacked out teeth.  And pig noses.  Maybe we can start hiring her out to do caricatures at parties, or the soon to open Mary Lou Watkins Dinner Palace Theater at the Nutt House Hotel.  You read that right!  Shortly you too can enjoy a catered dinner and live entertainment inside the Nutt House Hotel.

But will you be able to purchase an orginial work of fine art?! 

Happy 4710, by the way.  We Nockinbirds welcomed the Year of the Dragon last night with homemade Buddha's Delight, bacon fried rice (probably not favored by Buddha), store bought eggrolls, and traditional Chinese New Year oranges, or clementines in our case because they are so much easier to peel.

I found this inspiration at Walmart while shopping for our Year of the Dragon feast (my sweet baby brother is a dragon...explains a lot really).  I felt all inspired to come home and stitch it up...I probably should have just bought the $3.96 plaque.  Ooooh!  Chinese New Year resolution:  actually stitch this!  That's it!  I'm committed!  I'll post updates.

A day of cookies and strolling the park...

It's been a crazy week--the power went out for several hours one evening, we had to pick up 13 dozen cases of Girl Scout cookies, Little Miss had a field trip (to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving), and today was the first grocery store Girl Scout Cookie sale we've had to work.  Of course, it was also the coldest morning all week.  The cookies did not fly outside of Kroger from 9 to 12 this morning.  We did almost see a cookie turf fight as we were packing up.  Apparently Kroger double booked troops.  It's probably good we got the little girls out of there quickly.

I forgot to take pictures of the fun this morning, but after we had a troop lunch at Cici's, Little Miss and I went to our favorite library and then she wanted to walk around the park behind the library.  It had warmed up considerably by then, so why not?

We finally got to see the new fountain up close and personal.

We saw a lot of turtles catching some rays and Little Miss irritated a lot of squirrels.  Cookies, library, nature, my girl.  A great day.

The 7th birthday invitation photo shoot

Little Miss's birthday always sneaks up on me.  Just as I'm starting to recover from the holidays, getting back into the swing of school then BAM!  I've got to get the invitations out NOW so there's at least close to two weeks' notice.  So, despite the fact that she's been under the weather today, my little trooper agreed to at least try to cooperate and get one one non-goofy face picture.  I'll let you judge if we succeeded.  Obviously the lighting needed some adjusting in the first one.

 The she lapsed into bug-eye stare face.  At least they weren't crossed.

This was my personal favorite.  Just the right amount of impish-ness to hint at her personality.

Lighting not so good.

Pretty close.  Smile's not quite...normal.

Clearly getting bored with this.

Nuh-uh.

About to call it quits.

Holy cow!  A normal face, natural expression.  This was my first runner up.

She was determined to get a picture with the dog calendar.

I went with the third picture.  The invitations should be ready at 2:47 tomorrow morning.  But I think I can wait until the afternoon.  I'm not in quite that big of a rush! 

What happened to the weekend?

The Nockinbirds were a busy bunch this weekend.  Friday night we had to go to a Girl Scout meeting to talk to the girls about how to behave and be safe at the table sales.  By the way--one gross of Girl Scout cookies SOLD!!  I got rid of the last four boxes at the end of school Friday.  Who knew 144 boxes could go so quickly?   After the meeting, we had a birthday party to attend at Chuck E. Cheese's.  How we've managed to go almost seven years without attending a full-on Chuck E. birthday party, I don't know.  But the streak is broken and Little Miss has been reminded how much she loooooooooooves Chuck E. Cheese. 

Saturday was the second cheer competition of this season, so back we went to Fort Worth.  It's the closest, and cheapest of these we've been to.  We even got to catch a little of the parade for the opening of the Stock Show and Rodeo.  Little Miss was her typical cheerful self at a cheer event.

That makeup!

At least Loverboy was able to make this one.  It makes it a lot more fun when you have someone to people-watch with.

There's Little Miss, second from the right.

Despite the proximity and cost, this was by far the lowest end of the competition spectrum as far as awards.

Little Miss was not impressed by the CHEER! pin.  I'm not sure why they would go with a 50 states license plate theme for cheer...

At least we got to take a picture of her with the team trophy.

The most fun was the elevator ride in the parking garage.  Great views.

But by far the most delicious event of the day was our first trip to the In-N-Out Burger in Fort Worth.

Double-double animal style and heed my advice and go for the french fries animal style as well.  You'll thank me.

It was Little Miss's first In-N-Out.  She seemed pleased.

We had to make a quick stop at the grocery store on the way home and who happened to be strolling about but everyone's favorite grocery bag...H E BUDDY.  The excitement never ends when you're a Nockinbird!

Molly and I took a short Sunday drive together today and happened upon this business...which one of these is not like the other...I hope.

I would like to say that this week will, hopefully, be a little more quiet, but who am I kidding?  I pick up 200 boxes of cookies Thursday!

Ask not for whom the bird poos...

Something that certainly goes into the catagory of "stuff I never thought I'd take a picture of" would be that.  Bird poop.  On the molding around a doorway.  In my house.  A little wren decided to visit, how she got in, no one seems to have an explanation for.  Loverboy tells me she was quite taken with the Christmas tree.  As he and Little Miss were trying to shoo her out the patio door, she detoured to visit all the upper windows in the kitchen dining area.  While I would have liked to have watched this ballet choreograph itself (Loverboy, Little Miss and the wren), I'm glad I missed a bird hopping around on my Christmas ornaments.  Anywho, in all the excitement, a poo occurred.  This all happened yesterday.  When we sat down for dinner tonight was the first time I noticed the aforementioned poo.  Loverboy said he kept forgetting to clean it up as he bebopped (my word, not his) around the house today, no doubt cleaning multiple other surfaces.

Enter the ever helpful Little Miss.  She is much enamored of these sticky notes Molly gave her at Christmas.  "Blah, blah, blah" is one of her favorite sayings of late.  So she jumped from the table to write her father a to do list: to do poop bird.  I'm not sure what else I can add to that.

And she made sure to put it where he'll be sure to see it.  Such a smart girl. 

Funny/Fuzzy

I don't know how Loverboy could doze during Little Miss's dramatic reading of a comic book.  Every character had it's own voice and was filled with emotion.  That little girl is hi.lar.i.ous.

On the fuzzy side of things, Emily has taken to her fluffy bed as a cold front blows in tonight.

Meanwhile, Mama is still slogging away to get holiday decorations packed away.  Judge me as you will, I worked too much getting them up, I'm willing to take my time taking them down.  Shnnah.

It would have been a pretty picture...

So, I was passing through the living room and saw a bright gold streak in the tree line down by the river.  It was really eye-catching since it's been a overcast day, and it was just running along one "row" of tree tops parallel to the river--a gold line sandwiched by dark gray.  But by the time I hoofed it out the end of the drive way, the sun had gone back behind the clouds...so here's a picture of gray, leafless pecan trees.  Enjoy.

Still selling cookies, by the way.  In fact, we've sold out of several kinds.  The Caramel deLites went quickly, followed by Peanut Butter Patties.  And I sold all the Lemonades before I got to buy a box.  I'm able to sleep because I know there will be many more boxes coming in the next couple of weeks.  Whew!

Cookie sales: day one

I am shocked at how quickly these things move.  I almost sold everything I took to school with me.  Loverboy and Little Miss sold several boxes to the carhops at Sonic when they got their afterschool beverage.  I'm sure the new will wear off, but people have seemed excited to get their annual fix.

The Pecan Pickers

Despite the drought, and the really long time they took to fall, it looks like we have a pretty good crop.

Cookies, NOW!!

Cookies, NOW, indeed.  My first experience with the Girl Scout Cookie pick up went far better than I predicted. I am most impressed with how well this machine was oiled.  Park, get in line, fill out a form, turn it in, they look you up the Girl Scout Binder of Being, reward you with a patch, you walk down the path to Cookie Nirvana, pick up your pre-stacked dolly of cookie wonderfulness, roll it to your car, unload, return the dolly and drive off to SELL, SELL, SELL!!!  Note to self:  getting there at 1:30 is a good time.  It started at 10:00 and apparently the line wrapped around the zoo parking lot.  I was in and out in less than twenty minutes.

Molly accompanied me to the Great Cookie Disbursement (though she stayed in the car), and we managed to squeeze in a little shopping, too.  Why has no one told me about Charming Charlie?  Pretty sparkly goodness everywhere you look!  I did manage to get out without buying anything....this time.  The real money was dropped in the Girl Scout Store, mostly by Molly.  We're in deep.

After such a taxing cookie/shopping day, we needed to refuel.  Neither of us had ever been to an Applebee's.  I know.  Molly had a giftcard, so it was fate.  It was pretty good, particularly the french fries.  But I don't foresee this being a Nockinbird go-to mainly due to the people sitting behind us.  After listening to a baby barf up a tortilla chip (again, a baby) and then scream its head off for twenty minutes, I'm soured.  I particularly enjoyed listening to the mother repeatedly ask little Jesslyn "what's wrong?" every three seconds.  I expected the infant to reply it was concerned with the news coming out of Iran and worries of skyrocketing fuel prices.  I guess Jesslyn wasn't up on current world events.  Her mother must have been right that she was constipated.  The poor older kid in this family was sent out the car a half dozen to times to fetch various things for Jesslyn and didn't get to eat any of his/her (really, I couldn't tell) food before the mother announced they'd have to box it up so they could go and buy medicine for Jesslyn.  So...that's my association with Applebee's now.

How many boxes of cookies can I put you down for?