Peggy's Pretty Priceless Passing Points: "So much to say, so much to say..."

Hello friends/family/Internet crazies! I have had so much to blog about but no computer upon which to blog so settle in for a nice long post! (You'd better make yourself a snack--I recommend Chex Mix.)

First, a public service announcement. I feel its important--especially during this holiday season--to give back. And now I would like to take the opportunity to do so by sending out a message to women of all ages, everywhere. That message is this: CRACK IS WHACK! If you insist upon wearing thong underwear, that is your right. I don't understand how it could possibly resemble anything close to comfort, but your unders=your business. That being said, I reserve the right to not be subjected to your bum crack. A plumber you are not and a plumber you should not imitate. Leave that to the professionals. (Take that how you will!) I just can't tell you how tired I am of being blinded by the crack of some girl stooping down for whatever reason. You may be saying to yourself, "Just don't look!" Well, friends, let me tell you that even a nanosecond of a glance is enough to scar a person. Remember this post? It doesn't take much to traumatize a person. So please, for the love, either tuck in your shirt or pull up your britches. Just say no to crack.

Second:

So I went in for my ultrasound on Thursday. Good times. Most of you know, I convinced Scott to find out if we're having a girl or a boy. (He was dead set against finding out!) The plan was to have my midwife put either a pink or blue piece of paper in an envelope and we were going to open it on Christmas Day. Well, she's doing the ultrasound and gets a GREAT profile pic of the baby. I was so excited that you could see everything so clearly that I didn't look away when she moved the probe. So I found out. I felt so guilty that I called Scott, who was bugged that I looked (especially since he didn't want to find out!) but wanted to know. So I told him and we decided not to tell everyone else until Christmas. So after Christmas, I'll post here what we're having. Good times!

Third:

Stench update: So we've been at Scott's mom's house in Salt Lake since Thursday while we were having our house "ozone treated" to try to get rid of the various repulsive smells that made my first trimester hell. We rented a little machine with a fan that you plug in and it blows out Ozone to neutralize airborne smells (the cigarette smoke upstairs, the "mystery smell" downstairs.) We had it 3 days total and were told we could come back after letting the house air out for about 45 minutes. Well, when I got home I had a pounding headache within the first 5 minutes of being in the house. (It isn't a STINKY smell, to me it smelled like fresh laundry--you know when it's hung out to dry? Scott described it as the smell of a dry cleaners. At any rate, not unpleasant, just STRONG.) So we went back down to Salt Lake for a few more days while the smell dissipated. We're now back in the house and it's only every now and again that we catch a good whiff of it, but it's not horrible. And it's better than cigarette smoke!! However, I was downstairs last night and the mystery smell seems to be coming back, which is not a good sign. This means there is a source to the smell and we're going to have to shell out the $95 to have them come in and identify what it is and where it's coming from. Sigh. The joys of home ownership. Who knew stinkiness was so expensive? Although the Ozone treatment was a little less than we thought it would be, still...for heck's sake!

Fourth:

Have you ever had a moment when, as a parent, you finally feel like you got something right? I'm not normally a self-tooter (I'm talking about my horn here, people!) but I have to say, I had one of those moments and it was DIVINE. Mostly because it will never happen again, but hey--I will take what I can get! So in many European nations, December 6th is Saint Nicholas day. In Belgium, where I served my mission, it's celebrated much like Christmas with gifts from Saint Nicholas and grownups usually get candy in their shoes. Well, I've felt really strongly this year about maintaining and creating holiday traditions so I decided that maybe we needed our own version of Saint Nicholas to visit. So when I got up in the middle of the night on the 5th to...powder my nose...I put all of our shoes in the living room with our favorite candy bar (king sized of course!) and a Christmas ornament that is indicative of who we are (or have been this past year.) Lucky for me, Hallmark had a sale where you got a free ornament if you bought 2 so I had a spare for Nana since we were at her house!! I put everything out and went back to bed. Scott actually woke me up first on the 6th because I took his shoes downstairs where we were sleeping the night before (but took them back up in the middle of the night to put the candy and ornament inside.) He woke me up and asked where his shoes were. Groggily, I said, "Upstairs." He said, "But I thought you took them downstairs last night." I told him I did. He was totally confused. "You brought them downstairs last night, but they're upstairs??" I laughed and told him to just go upstairs and he'd understand. (As it turns out, he'd put his glasses in his shoes before he went to bed and he was looking for them!) He came back down and said he understood and I went back to sleep. I woke up an hour later to Jack jumping on top of me shouting, "There's stuff in our shoes!! There's stuff in our shoes!!" I went upstairs with him and we read the note Saint Nicholas left in french that said that he was really busy making toys for the good little boys and girls, but he was in the area and stopped by to bring us a treat and let us know he is watching to see if we've been naughty or nice. Scott actually got a little choked up when he started reading it in french and Jack went wild with the idea that Santa had come!!! I have to honestly say, it's the first time as a parent that I've felt like I got it right. It was so much fun to see Jack so excited, I love each of us having a personalized ornament (of sorts) each year and it's a good reminder to Jack that "Santa is watching!" Plus, who DOESN'T want to eat their favorite candy for breakfast??? ha ha.

Anyhoo--here are pictures of the magic:

Our shoes with the ornaments, candy and note from Saint Nicholas

Jack with a Handy Manny ornament and M&M's. Jack LOVES Handy Manny and is pretty much obsessed with anything construction-related. He wants Santa to bring him his own tools. He's almost always puttering around the house "fixing things." He was playing with some tools at Nana's house and one morning he went in her room around 7:15AM, and groggily told her, "I have GOT to get to work!" Said tools were taken away from him after he took the claw part of the hammer to the back of her bedroom door and he angrily told me I had to call his boss and tell him the job wasn't going to get done because his tools were taken away. This kid is something else!!

Daddy with his "Honey-Do Santa" and Almond Joy. This ornament is so cute. It has Mrs. Claus's list of things for Santa to do--appropriate for Scott since he's recently (wrongfully, might I add!) accused me of having a "honey-do" list for him and since he's so busy fixing things in this money-trap we've acquired and are living in!

Me with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and a "Mom" ornament. The Mom is made out of candy. You know, because I'm so sweet. (The advantage of picking out your own ornament! ha ha!)