Black Friday sunrise. Best deal in town.

My girl hopped in bed with me this morning.

 She immediately pulled back the curtains and said, "Look, Mom. It's so pretty with the snow on all the trees."

She was right. It was gorgeous. 

 And so was the sunrise. Beautiful oranges and pinks this morning. 

I'd pick this over the Black Friday shopping frenzy every time.

The elusive smile

*Sigh* My boy, he is his father's son. Smiling for the camera is strictly off limits. They both smile all the time, but it is hard to convince them that they need to smile for the camera.

But yesterday I caught him. 

  

I pulled tho oldest trick in the book. You look at him and tell him not to smile in a sing song voice. 

"Don't smiiiiile.... Don't do it, don't smiiiiiiile, Sonny Boy." I have very distinct memories of my best childhood friend, Lori, doing this to me after we had a fight. And I would do it to her as well. Nothing pisses you off as much as smiling when you don't want to. It's almost as bad as me crying when I'm really angry. That really makes me mad. And then I cry more. It's an awful, horrible, viscous cycle.

"Dooon't smiiiiile....." Ha, he's starting to crack. I've almost got him!

"Doooon't smiiiiiile....." And there it is, a full fledged smile. He's taken to smiling with his mouth closed lately, and I'm not gonna lie, it's a good thing. Grown up teeth are trying to force their way into a small seven year old mouth. It takes a while for the rest of your body to grow into those teeth. He thinks he looks like a vampire with his two giant front teeth. Unless vampires have suddenly started taking after Bugs Bunny, he is wrong, but I won't tell him that. He can be a vampire all he wants, as long as he doesn't start biting people.

At this point the poor kid couldn't stop smiling and had to duck into the house to get away from me and my camera. It took some work, but I finally got a photo of him that can go on my wall.

Brotherly love

I came across this photo today. It made me ponder the strange thing that is an (almost) eight year old boy's love for his sister.

These are my kids. They are having loads of fun playing outside in the snow. At this point it was raining on them and they were still out there having a ball.

They are having a ball but this photo is deceiving. At first glance it looks as if Sonny Boy is actually hugging his sister, but be sure of one thing, Sonny Boy has never voluntarily hugged his sister in his life. He is actually tackling her and trying to shove her face in the snow, however, in Sonny Boy's book tackling and hugging are roughly equivalent acts of affection. 

He loves his sister. He will never say it out loud and he will never hug her, but he loves her. He shows her by wresting with her, building forts with her, playing in snow with her, pile-driving her, farting/burping on her, and being a general nuisance to her (in that they are equals. They each pester the other incessantly). 

His way of showing affection for her drives me batty sometimes, but I just need to remind myself that he is just saying that he loves her in his own weird way. If he didn't love her, he'd simply ignore her. So even though he'd just as soon drop kick her as he would give her a hug, he'd do it in love.

The end is near

My husband is finally coming home. He's been at tech school for two and a half long months and he will finally be back this week.

DH has been gone before, although he has never been deployed so I can never complain about that. A few years ago he had to leave for two months for some advanced training. It was hell. The kids were 1 and 3 and being stuck at home all day with two toddlers for two months is not something I would recommend to anyone. Sonny Boy also got very sick with bilateral ear infections and had a 104.5 temperature for a few days. It's always while the husbands are gone that the kids get sick. This time it was Princess Blondie with strep throat. But that was a piece of cake compared to last time.

I have to say that this go round was really easy (but I haven't had to plow the driveway yet, so I'm not sure it's a fair assessment). I'm sort of awesome at this single mom thing... as long as my kids are in school, my sister and brother-in-law live only five miles away, and I have unlimited funds at my disposal. Just kidding on the last one but the first two are key here. That and good friends. I find myself looking forward to Scouts even more than Sonny Boy because I really enjoy all of the other parents there. They have become good friends. I also jump at the chance for adult interaction. On a daily basis I teach preschoolers, babysit my nephews (infant and toddler), and then hang out with my five and seven year old. Forgive me if I get a little excited when I actually get to talk to a grown up. So if I've recently cornered you and talked your ear off I'm sorry. I blame it on the forced solitude.

My husband being gone is not something that I regularly advertised on my blog or any other sort of social forum (so it may be news to you that he was even gone. Surprise!) because I'm slightly paranoid. I don't need any local serial killers knowing that I'm living alone with my two kids and attack beagle. But just for all of those serial killers that may still be lurking, I have a viscous, feral guard dog, a security system complete ninjas, and I sleep with sawed off shotgun under my pillow.

Halloween, Alaskan style

We had our second Halloween in Alaska. In some ways, it reminded me of Michigan Halloweens. Cold, snowy, and dark. We were pretty good at finding ways to put our costumes on over top of snowsuits, or at the very least layer up. DH is still in Texas so we went trick or treating with my sister and her family. 

Princess Blondie was Clifford the Big Red Dog, Sonny Boy was a skeleton, and my nephews were a a pumpkin and a bee. 

I was surprised that Princess Blondie decided to be Clifford for trick or treating. She got terribly upset when she wore her costume to school because everyone called her Clifford and not by her name. I was glad though, because a hula girl was her other choice and she may have frozen to death in that. That costume is decidedly more difficult to wear over warm clothes. That, and there is nothing more depressing that a hula girl in a parka and snow boots.

 We drove to a nearby neighborhood so that we could walk from house to house.

 I was really impressed with their pumpkins. Someone in that house was very talented.

 When we got home we hit up our neighbors who gave my kids huge handfuls of candy because there hadn't been many trick or treaters. I only had one group stop at my house. I think my kids got half of their candy from the last three houses we went to and I finally met some of my neighbors. We've been here for over a year and there are still people on my culdesac that I don't know. It's a little sad.

 Princess Blondie's creation. Nothing scary here. She doesn't handle scary very well. 

 Sonny Boy's pirate pumpkin sans half of his teeth. He got a little carried away.

We decided that next year the best way to go is to load the kids up in the meat wagon and tow them behind the four wheeler.  We'll have this down to a science soon.