Christmas Morning

Jadelyn woke us up at the butt-crack of dawn this morning. It took us a while to wake up Maddy, but when she realized it was time to open gifts, she went into overdrive. They tore through their gifts. I think they got everything they wanted and more. As for me and Tony, we are still trying to get stuff out of those darn packages!

Finals Finished!!

Hooray! Hooray! I made it through the week and survived. Now I just have to see if I die when grades come out. I am so relieved! I have been stressed to the Max the last month or so. I am gonna get to catch up on some very needed sleep now. I have been lucky to get 4-5 hours a night for a long time. I slept All day and am loving it!

Winter weather Fun

We had a blast playing in the ice and sleet. Our hill is perfect for sledding and we took full advantage of it. Jadelyn and Tony were able to sled from one stop sign to another because it was so slick. When I tried, I crashed and burned! I rolled out of the sled, down the hill and into the neighbor's front yard at the bottom. I left the sledding up to Tony after that.

Ready for xmas

We have had a lot of holiday activities going on around the Cunningham house. The cats (Kooky Cookie and Itchy Kitty Doo) have been fighting for the best spot under the tree. Jadelyn got to lead a mini pony in the parade. She was thrilled! Tony wrapped Maddy up like a xmas gift and she stayed there for over 30 minutes 'till I arrived back home to unwrap her. Right now Tony is outside putting up more lights. Yep, that's right, it's freezing rain and Tony decides it is a perfect time to decorate! I am sure I will have photos of his injuries later!

What a Performance!

Today was Jadelyn's Thanksgiving play at school. She was Hope. I can't believe that 20 years ago I was playing the same role. How Cool! She did so good. All of the kids had worked very hard on it. It was just the cutest little thing I have ever seen.

My Madelyn is 6!

I can't believe my baby is 6 years old! She looked so big today at her party, I just couldn't believe we have had her in our lives for 6 years! We had a party here at the house for her today. She picked out red and yellow for her decoration colors. I made star cupcakes as she had requested. She got a new bike, roller skates, pixo's, Tinker bell movie, a beautiful butterfly bracelet, and tons of art stuff like she likes. Thanks to everyone who sent cards and called, it really made her feel special. She loves having something Jadelyn doesn't!

Boo at the Zoo

Instead of doing the normal Main Street thing this year we went to Boo at the zoo in Little Rock with Rita and Bill. The girls got to trick or treat, ride carnival rides, go on the train, walk through the fun houses and even tried the haunted house(which was a huge mistake). It was much more fun than Main Street. It was fun for everyone, especially Tony who also got to trick or treat with the kids this year. Jack Hanna was even there doing a live taping of a show. I'm sure the girls are gonna want to go back every year from now on!

Jack-O-Lanterns

Every year we go to my dad's house and carve pumpkins. It's not just typical triangle eyes and such, we get detailed with these things. Even the kids have become very good at following the patterns in the books. It's an all day affair and a bunch of fun. the kids and I look forward to it every year. Tony even got in on the action this year. My dad's house has been referred to as the "house of pumpkins" for years now.

Bright ideas for Maddy's birthday!

I let Maddy open up a couple of her birthday gifts early because I just couldn't wait for her to see them. I ordered her a cup and umbrella with LED lights from wowcoolstuff.com. I was just as excited about them as she was. She feels so special having something totally unique and unlike anything Jadelyn has. That's rare in this house. Maddy can't hardly wait for show and tell in the morning! My pictures didn't really get the cool effects of the cup. It has all kinds of changing colors that were hard to take a picture of. I didn't realize a $3.95 cup would be one of her favorite gifts ever! Now is the huge decision of which one to take to show and tell in the morning, major dilemma! I don't think the girl will be able to sleep tonight. I have a feeling it's gonna look like a disco in there because she is probably gonna sleep with both of them tonight!

Political Rivals

I was outside checking the mail earlier when Jadelyn told me that the neighbor's house was for sale. I asked her how she knew. She pointed to the OBAMA sign in the front yard. I told her that wasn't a For Sale sign. It was a sign for the presidential candidate. She asked, to my surprise, "which one?" I said it was for Obama, thinking she really had no idea what she was talking about. She replies, "Oh, I'm voting for McCain." Oh My Gosh! I just about lost it at this point. She was so serious! I said, oh you are? Well when did you decide this? She said, "When Mrs. Foley wore a McCain shirt to school, that's when I made up my mind." She then asked who Tony was voting for. I said he wasn't. To this she says"Yeah, he's not really a votin sorta dude, he's like yeah whatever." What she doesn't realize is Tony is more into politics than most I know, but I just agreed with her. She then asked me and I told her I was voting for Obama. She didn't much like this idea and now every time a commercial comes on for one of them she is super into it! I guess we will just have to agree to disagree until she can convince me of better reasons other than Mrs. Foley's shirt!

A bad country song

You ever just have one of those days, or weeks, where everything seems to be too much to handle. Well, that's where I am right now. I often feel overwhelmed, but now more than usual. I ran over one of my cats last night and didn't realize it 'till the kids found it before school this morning. I have fleas in the house because of all the kittens and now have scheduled the pest people to come spray at 3 today. My sister-in-law ran off with another man and left Jr. heart broken. I have 2 papers that I don't know how to even start due Tuesday. I am working my ass off at Lyon for minimal grades. I have to pack up everything before 3 for the flea guys. I have 5 kittens that have to live in the garage now, and need to find homes for. I was at a stand still, so overwhelmed I didn't know what to do first. I decided to run and get trash sacks to bag up all the girls stuff animals. Guess what, I get in the car and the ABS light is on and the car is dinging and making all kinds of alarms at me! At this point, I know a little black rain cloud must be directly over my head. I think I will lay down and try again tomorrow. My life is sounding a bit like a really awful country song!

Bang It!

I have bangs! I have not had bangs since the infamous poodle doo of 5th grade! On the way to get my hair done today, I all of a sudden had this notion that I absolutely must have bangs. That's another problem with Harrison Street traffic, it gives me too much time to sit in the car alone and think about things like bangs! Anyhow, I love it. I never wear my hair back anyway, so it doesn't really matter. When the lady asked me what colors I wanted to do I said, " Something Halloweenie", so this is what I got. It is actually much more subtle than some of my past experiences with hair color. Anyhow, it was a welcome change, I just hope I still like these bangs tomorrow.

Halloween Decor Cunningham Style

We never decorate for Halloween or any holiday really. This year we decided to put a few things out for Halloween. A lot of the things were used in the haunted house we helped with last year. We thought it looked pretty cool, then got to thinking we might have freaked out all the neighbors. This is the only holiday we have decorated for and they might think we are kinda strange. Although, I'm sure this isn't the first thing we have done to leave this impression. Anyhow, the kids love it and I hope we can keep adding to it.

Dirty Latte

Do Not, I repeat Do Not try the new "gourmet" coffees from McDonald's. I went there this morning and got the iced hazelnut latte. It tastes like strong coffee, water, a little ice, and like someone accidentally dropped a potted plant in it! It will for sure hype you up. I managed to get down a little bit and am still shaken! I have now termed it the "Dirty Latte!"

Ceramics

I took the girls to Ollie's today to paint ceramics. They have been wanting to go for a long time now. We met Randi, Travis, and Haley there. It's the coolest little place. You get to pick out something and then paint it however you want. It has to be sent off to be glazed and fired but it is an awesome crafty thing to do with the kids. Jadelyn made a flower and Maddy and Haley made unicorns. I think they all enjoyed it and I can't wait to see what they look like finished.

New Potty-o Furniture

My dad came and replaced the cracked toilet for me, but was not gonna lug it down the stairs. He sat it on the back deck. We have never bought any chairs for the deck so the girls have started using the old potty to sit on outside. It's just the redneck touch we needed to match all my driftwood out front!

Chores Galore!

I informed the girls that they owed me $126 bucks as soon as they got in from school. "Well whatever, we don't have any money, so" was their reply. I then informed them that they would be participating in a little thing I like to call, "Chores Galore!" In order to work off their debt and a little punishment for screwing around with the toilet, I will no longer do any house work. They will be responsible for all household duties including: litter box detail, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, laundry, and cleaning the bathroom except for the new toilet. They need to stay away from it! I took them both in the bathroom, lifted the lid off the tank, and showed them what it looked like inside. Now they will have no more reason to mess with it. I'm not sure how long the chores will last but I think I could definitely get used to it!

Crack

I was enjoying the way the girls were playing so good together earlier this evening. I was trying to get homework done and they were being wonderful. I hadn't heard hardly a peep out of them. This is when I should have known something disastrous was about to take place. I heard a loud bang and then the girls came running down the hall. They were both in a frenzy. They were yelling, "Mom, mom, mom, something is wrong with the toilet!" They were jumping up and down and squealing with an odd mixture of laughter and horror. I could hear the water gushing as I headed down the hall. " The toilet just broke" they both chimed, "It's crazy, mom.!" My feet splashed down in water as soon as I stepped into the bathroom. I waded through and managed to turn the water line off. As I stood almost ankle deep in water with my pajama pants soaked, I turned at looked at them as they stood in the doorway still and quiet as little mice. I knew what had happened and at this very moment, as I stared them straight in the eyes, they knew I was no dummy! They immediately spilled their guts and began to cry and beg and plead their case. This is a very summarized version on their story: Maddy wanted to see what the toilet looked like on the inside and Jadelyn wanted to show her. Jadelyn set forth to take the lid off the tank(only because she was trying to be a good sister and help Maddy learn) when she realized it was to heavy, and she dropped it. It cracked my tank from top to bottom! I sent them both to bed and used every towel I own to soak up the water. Tomorrow I will have to go buy a new toilet and luckily my dad is going to put it in for me(thanks dad!). But for now I can not use the toilet and have had the urge to pee more than normal. I am certain I will wake up with the runs in the middle of the night and I'm gonna get those girls!

Halloween Preview

Last night, after the skating adventure, the girls wanted to stop at one of the Halloween Express superstores in Little Rock. They were all closed so we took them to Wal-Mart instead to ease their frustrations about the whole night. They ended up finding some really cute costumes. They both wanted to be something scary this year because in the past they have been things like peacocks and princesses. I think they will look awesome when we paint their nails black, do face makeup and put some black and pink hair streaks in.

Ice Skating!

Last night on the spur of the moment, like all the great Cunningham adventures, we headed to Arkansas Skatium in Little Rock. Tony had me looking up fun stuff to do in the area when I came across the site for this place. They were having family night from 7:30-10pm were you got 5 people in to skate, no shoe rental fee, a large pizza, and 5 large drinks for 30 bucks! We just had to go. The girls were super excited! They slept all the way down there, so they were refreshed and ready to skate once we got there. They have both ice and roller skating there. The girls chose ice skating. Note: none of us have ever ice skated before. Well, we made it about 5 minutes out there and turned back. Maddy absolutely hated it! I should have known that if you can't really roller skate then your probably not going to be able to ice skate! Jadelyn hung in there the longest but got super frustrated that she was not a natural pro. She had even worn her fancy ice skating shirt! Well we gave up on that and I was able to talk them into letting us exchange our ticket for roller skating. We had a little better luck with this. They were not that great at it but did enjoy rolling around in the carpeted area outside the rink. Needless to say, this family does not do skating! Oh well, it was worth a shot.

Oh Hail!

Yesterday around 5pm I think we entered the twilight zone in Meadow Heights. The weather outside was great, no indications of rain, and then hail hit. I'm not kidding, it looked like we were in the midst of a hurricane over here. It was lightning and the wind was blowing harder than I have ever seen it. We couldn't even open our screen front door it was blowing so hard. The heavy rain caused yards to flood within minutes. The hail was like nothing I had ever seen. We were worried about the car it was hailing so hard. We made the kids get away from the windows and turned on the tube to get some info on what was going on over here. There was nothing! It only lasted about 20 minutes and then went right back to the way it was before. I called 2 people, one in Southside and the other in Moorefield, they both thought I was crazy! It hadn't even rained in Southside and only barely coming down in Moorefield. At least I had my new camera to document the hail that everyone thinks I imagined. So, here you go guys: I've got proof! It was hailing so hard I had to take pics through the sliding glass door, but here is the hail piling up on the deck!