Christmas #1

It's our first Christmas of the season. Due to the multiple families and various locations, we usually celebrate Christmas about three times a year. This year we're starting Christmas at Heather's maternal grandparents in Texas. Lots of food and family. It's always a fun time here. We'll be going home Monday only to pack up again and head off to my mother's house in Ponca City. Hope everyone is having a Merry Christmas!

Father's Brother's Nephew's Cousin's Former Roommate

Ah, I love "Spaceballs". Anyhoo, this is Laigan (I think I spelled that right). She's my wife's cousin's daughter. So what does that make us? Is there really a family connection when it's that tenuous? Second cousin-in-law once removed by marriage? Wiser heads than mine will sort it out, I'm sure. Anyhoo, here is the newest addition to the ever expanding Washburn family tree.

Another Poll

Jonesy had another good idea and forced me to swipe it (Damn that man for coming up with all the good ideas). Anyhoo, it's another poll to see who is trolling the blog.

Ouch!!

What we have here is my new hair color. What you don't see is the chemical burn that is happening on my scalp. We switched to a new hair color line the other day and there were some colors that hadn't been tried out yet. Always eager to help out, I offered up my hair as test subject A. I got some Blonding Gels applied to my hair to lighten it. The theory is that you can lighten the hair up to 4 levels (I've explained the level system previously...what, don't you read this thing?) without bleach. What the label doesn't tell you is that because you have to mix the developer (the substance that actually lightens the hair) in a 2:1 ratio it can have some adverse effects on your scalp. So now I've got some fairly irritating chemical burns going on all over my scalp. It doesn't HURT, per se, but it itches like all get out. I'll prolly start scabbing up tomorrow which means I'm going to have some severe dandruff over the next few days. And you thought beauty school was all fun and games.

Sleepy Time

I've made mention of Emery waking up on a regular basis before the sun comes up. Here we see the toll it takes on both of us. After waking me up to get some juice and turn on Spongebob, Emery decided he wanted me to recline in the chair so he could lay down and get some sleep. Not that I was complaining, as you can see.

Family photos

We killed about three birds with one stone on this one. Heather's parents scheduled family photos Saturday. We also decided to take our family pics as well as Emma's one year picture (yes, I know that was last month). If you're wondering why I have a slightly (obviously?) pissed off expression on my face it's because, well, I was. Emery and I were actually color coordinated for this shoot but he ran outside and fell into a puddle, necessitating an on the spot purchase of new clothes. Then, because he hadn't had a nap yet (he's becoming increasingly difficult when it comes to nap time or bed time) he was fussy. VERY fussy, as you can no doubt see (and this coming from a kid who loves to have his picture taken). The people working the camera seemed determined to take a picture with both of the kids smiling, even though Emery started kicking and screaming from the minute we walked in the door. After about 5 minutes I was getting exasperated, especially since Heather had told them to just take the picture. But no, the people just KNEW they could get a good shot in (much like WMD's in Iraq, this would turn out to be a fond wish). And they kept at it and kept at it, all the while Emery cried and fussed. I think they finally realized by my expression that I was about to walk out (I was) and took two quick shots.
Emma was a completely different story, however. She laughed and smiled and appeared to have a good time, especially when it came time for her solo shots. She is far more docile than Emery was at her age (not that Emery is a bad child, he's just...energetic).

Updates

School's been out due to the weather, both today and tomorrow (and maybe Wednesday). And I'm about to climb the walls. I kept the kids home today so I would have something to do (we haven't had cable for several months to cut expenses while I'm in school, so Emery and Emma constitute my "entertainment"). Emery is tall enough to turn on the lights, which he discovered this weekend and no goes about the house turning on EVERY light (this is also my new wake up call as he wakes up at 4-ish in the morning and turns on every light on his way to crawling in bed with us). Emma is sloooooowly starting to walk. She took about five steps tonight on her own. Hopefully she'll be up and running about by the end of the month. Heather has been working a lot of nights recently to bring in some extra dough, especially now that school is out for her until January (I get about one week off during Christmas).

Another Birthday

Yesterday was my sister's birthday. She's now 25 years old. Yep, she's just about half way to a senior citizen discount. I sent her a rather humorous text message, which I'll refrain from printing here (if you're female and in my phonebook, you'll likely see it on your birthday)

Courtside with Pete

Some time ago, Heather's dad entered her sister, Courtney, into a contest to appear courtside at an OSU game with Pistol Pete, the school's mascot. On Monday, he received a phone call informing him that Courtney had been chosen to appear. Tim, much like me, is a major OSU fan. So he was pretty jazzed about it. A few phone calls later and he had scrounged up some extra tickets for everyone to attend (the contest grants two tickets to the game for the winner and a parent). The game was yesterday at 7pm. So we left Enid about 5 to head to Stillwater. Courtney was excited to go and she scored some cool swag to boot. The game was kind of lackluster considering it was against a soft non-conference opponent (we won the game by the by).

A Daddy moment

Had one of my first cliched Daddy moments about an hour ago. Emery finally went down about 9:30 (he is determined to stay awake as long as possible). About fifteen minutes after that, the heater kicked on. Why does the heater enter the story? Without going into the schematics of the heating and air system in our apartment (it sucks, by the way), every time either the heater or the air conditioner kicks on, it creates a vacuum in Emery's closet and rattles his closet door. This time, the door was only partially closed so when the heater kicked on, it slammed the door closed, instantly waking him and scaring the beejeezus out of him. Furious cries of "Daddy!" rang out from his bedroom and I hustled down the hall to his room. It took about five minutes of me holding him and soothing him before he would allow me to put him back to bed. As soon as his head hit the pillow he was out. And me? I'm practically glowing. You always see in movies and commercials where a child is frightened and calls for the their Daddy. Enter said Daddy to scare away monsters or some such and kid goes back to sleep, convinced their Daddy is a superhero. I've finally experienced that moment. Yep, I'm ready for that big "S" on my chest now.

Old school dinner theater

My mother got us tickets for a Madrigal Feast at OSU tonight. What's a Madrigal Feast? Try wikipedia.org, I don't have the time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrigal_Feast.

The crappy part? No pictures. Oh, I had my camera and tried to take a few snaps but was told, very politely but firmly, that there is "no witchcraft allowed". Basically, it comes down to destroying the illusion, much in the same way you don't take pictures at the opera. Of course, they could have told us that before we started the whole thing. Anyhoo, if you have a chance to go to one of these, I heartily recommend that you do so. Very fun and entertaining