This is an intersection near my kids' school:

And, this is what I imagine every time I see the sign:

There is something so right about the marriage of these two minds.

Look what I found written on Jessica's bedroom mirror today:

I don't know when she wrote it, or what prompted her, but I will take it.

(This photo was taken last Friday, but I was so overcome by the pooey car that this post had to wait.)

Adam participated in his school's basketball skills tournament and did especially well on the shooting part of it.  He made 4 out of 5 shots (actually, he made 5 out of 6 shots, but they didn't count the practice shot).  I was very proud of him--even when he wasn't doing as well as he wanted to, he kept his emotions under control and cheered for the other competitors.

1st Advent Sunday

According to the internet, the first advent Sunday symbolizes hope.  So, over dinner, we all shared something we hope for.  Here are our hopes in 2011:

Luke hopes to someday play college football.

Adam hopes we all will do well in school.

Pepper hopes Jesus will come again soon (he gets extra credit for his answer).

Jessica hopes we can all be happy.

And, I hope all my children will make choices in their lives that will make them as happy as I am.

(I also hope that next advent season, Brad will be done with this ridiculous job and can be with us on all four advent Sundays.)

Guess what movie we saw tonight!

(I'll give you a hint:  I actually had to ADD red-eye to this photo)

Yep, we saw Breaking Dawn Part 1.  Only those of us who are actual fans were allowed to go - we had a couple of anti-Twilight friends who thought about joining us, but we didn't want their pooh-pooh attitude towards sparkly vampires and ripped werewolves to spoil our fun.

Just because it's stupid doesn't mean we can't love it.

One of the perks of Brad working for a car company is that they give us a brand new company car every six months.  I'm not going to lie - it is pretty nice (I thought about downplaying it for modesty sake, but then decided that would be ungrateful of me).

So, about a week ago, we traded our six-month old company car (full of old french fries, dead leaves, and forgotten school art work) for a pristine, brand-spanking-new car.  For a few days, we cruised around, basking in the hum of a new engine and the scent of stiff new leather.

Then, on Wednesday when I took the kids to their church activities, Pepper stepped in a huge pile of dog poo on his way to the car.  It was dark, and Pepper was oblivious, so he climbed in the car and proceeded to smear said dog poo all over the carpet on the passenger side.  It took about 10 seconds before all of us in the car were gasping for air and totally grossed out.  

Of course, when we saw the problem, we immediately stopped the car and made Pepper get out and clean off his shoes.  We wiped up the poo the best we could with the packet of tissues I had in my purse (five minutes I never want to relive), and when we got home Jessica took a bottle of sanitizing cleaner to the carpet and gave it a good scrubbing.  Problem solved, right?

Wrong.  

Despite all the scrubbing and leaving the windows open at night when the car was in the garage, for days the car has still stunk.  Reeked.  So bad that every time we drove anywhere, I would look in the rear view mirror and see Adam's head hanging out the window and Luke's eyes watering as he tried to suppress his gag reflex.

So today I couldn't stand it any longer.  I armed myself with a scrub brush, soap, and rubber gloves to attack the offending carpet.  But before I started scrubbing, I found what I believe to be the lingering culprit:

This was hiding under the seat - a big hunk of dog poo wrapped in dead leaves.

Holy Crap.

  Brad is in the U.S.A for work, so he was able to eat turkey with his family in Utah, but the kids and I had an absolutely de-light-ful Thanksgiving dinner with our friends