Seven

Today you turn seven. Holy cow - how on earth did that happen?

Seven is being so excited about a specific wish that you can't contain yourself.
Seven is sassy - finding that "no" is worth a try, and slamming your door when your sister gets in your face.
Seven is smiles and giggles and holding hands with a best friend named Ruthie.
Seven is first grade and confidence and finding out that you ARE a good reader, even if you don't love books.
Seven is happiness, because you still believe in the good.
Seven is Minnie Mouse - who you love and is your dear friend. (You? Have the pictures to prove it!)
Seven is being the little sister - and realizing now that you will always be the little sister. Seven doesn't love that very much.
Seven is knowing in your heart that Santa is going to deliver the Zhu Zhu pet and play set that you want more than any other present for Christmas.
Seven is assuring your mom that you will still be her baby, that the end of Six won't ruin this place you have in my heart.
Seven is happiest snuggled up to her daddy watching cartoons.

I love you at Seven even more than I loved you at One, Two, Three, Four, Five, and Six. How is that possible? I love you more each and every day. You are our Peach. You are our Baby. You are the humor, the thoughtfulness, the quiet, the silly, the wonderful, and the beautiful that completes our family.

Today you are Seven.

There was a get together at our house this week...

A house full of kids, Drama (not the kind you'd expect from my family - the kind where my husband notices that the pot he's already poured the oil in for the deep frying of the turkeys is split), happiness at seeing out of town relatives, tension (yes, the kind you'd expect), togetherness, avoidance, "Who wants more wine?", eye rolling, teasing, sarcasm, "Can I get anyone another beer?", laughter, being all in the same room for the blessing (since my mom passed this seems to have worked itself out... in the 'olden days' dad started the blessing while mom was still in the kitchen dishing up the gravy), the men all hanging out outside to supervise Husband while he fried up those birds (it was a beautiful day), "Who wants Baileys in their coffee?", compliments on our home improvements... it all went off without any major hitches once the new cooking pot was procured from Walmart (LAST one on the shelf).

In a nutshell? Thanksgiving.

Next week...

I'm back to blogging. (It's my Thanksgiving Resolution - because New Years just doesn't seem to do it for me.) I'm going to post about our home improvements next week. Can't wait to show you how it's going!

Happy Thanksgiving to my friends and family, and to those 50+ random people who (every single day) click on the May 2009 post of Hugh and his wife.* Most of you in the latter group are European - so I'm not sure that my wishing you a happy day on what is exclusively an American holiday is appropriate. However, since you never see anything on my blog except that one post? I'm not too worried.

*Seriously, it's STILL going on. Some days it's only 20 or so people, sometimes 75 foreigners come looking for Hugh and Deb. I think the highest one day number of people that landed on that post was 77... and it's hardly ever Americans. I told my kids that I was a world famous blogger, and tried showing them my counter that has the flags of the different countries that people are from... but they aren't buying it. DD2 believed me for a while - but that went down the drain when DD1 said, "Mom, people land there by accident. You're not famous." How in the world does she know that?

Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday, because - again - thats how I roll)

This? Hilarious.

http://newyork.grubstreet.com/2009/11/flow_chart_helps_you_determine.html

SMA Friday (brought to you on Sunday... because that's how I roll)

Ahhh, our new SMA! It's gonna be a good year - not the same as Hugh, though. Only Colin Firth could have come close to being "that guy." Johnny is more like the edgy, sexy, musician, bad boy in high school or college you'd like to date but wouldn't dare. (...and by bad? I mean good.)


The boy you would never bring home to mom.
The guy that would give your dad a heart attack.
That boy? Is our SMA.

Yes!

People Magazine did not cave to the Twihards.


Johnny Depp? The right choice. It was going to have to be someone pretty amazing to follow after Hugh - and Johnny is it.

For good or bad, the tradition of SMA Friday continues with the hotness that is Johnny Depp.

Sigh.
Yum.

Hugh must surrender the crown...

It's almost time. November is when People Magazine announces their Sexiest Man Alive - and since no one yet has manged back to back victory we can assume that Hugh will be displaced this month.

Sexiest Man Alive (SMA) has been a long standing People Magazine feature. For reasons not known to me, they didn't announce winners in 1993 or 1994 (I've only really noticed these guys since the late 90's)... but every other year since 1985 has had a SMA. Not always a strong choice, but a crown was issued nonetheless. Here is a list of the past winners:

1985: Mel Gibson (Really, back then? So hot!)
1986: Mark Harmon (?)
1987: Harry Hamlin (The 80's were strange, no?)
1988: JFK, Jr. (No argument here.)
1989: Sean Connery (Yes, in agreement.)
1990: Tom Cruise (No doubt the gays loved this choice
1991: Patrick Swayze (Sigh, he was a hottie back then.)
1992: Nick Nolte (No, no, no! Revolting choice. I'm betting that they didn't sell more than 100 magazines with this choice - and that is why SMA disappeared for two years.)
1993: People didn't name a sexiest man, they did name a sexiest couple... Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford.
1995: Brad Pitt
1996: Denzel Washington
1997: George Clooney
1998: Harrison Ford (No. Just no.)
1999: Richard Gere (This doesn't count as a second, since he didn't actually get sexiest man in 1993)
2000: Brad Pitt (First man to double.)
2001: Pierce Brosnan (ummm, well I guess if you really go for that type.)
2002: Ben Affleck (Would have been better as Sexiest Fraternity Type Man That You Might Beer Kiss Alive, but cute enough.)
2003: Johnny Depp (One of their strongest choices ever.)
2004: Jude Law (He looks better on film.)
2005: Matthew McConaughey (I agreed with this one fully - until I found out that deodorant wasn't part of the whole "Matthew" package. Then it fell off for me
2006: George Clooney (Nine years after his first honor he gets SMA again.)
2007: Matt Damon (SO right!)
2008: Hugh Jackman (Perhaps the sexiest SMA ever.)

Rumors of this years nominees include Robert Pattison (NO!), Bradley Cooper (Like Harrison Ford... is "cute" necessarily "sexy"?), Justin Timberlake (uh, no), George Clooney (he IS sexy), Jon Hamm (this would work), Brad Pitt (I don't know, he's sort of over isn't he?), Ryan Reynolds (super nice to look at, rumor has it he's a jerk), Will Smith (cute, funny, could work), Gerard Butler (no), JayZ (say what you will, but power is sexy), Colin Firth (hands down should be the winner - love him and would gladly post SMA Fridays for him), and a handful of others that don't really warrant inclusion.

There has been no mention anywhere of Robert Downey Jr., Edward Norton, Matt Damon, or Johnny Depp - all of whom would warrant a continuation of SMA Friday.

Winner will be announced soon... and, unfortunately, People is more interested in selling magazines then pleasing an unknown blogger. I fear Edward Cullen for the win.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

SMA Friday

In the midst of chaos I must stop, and remember the sexiness that is Hugh.

Sigh.

We will miss our SMA!

Not really "sick" sick...

Icky sick. That sick where you aren't sick enough to really say, "I'm sick." I'm not sick enough to call in sick to work - not that I do. Work, that is.

You know how you feel when you are up really high and look down? You get that sort of vertiginous, "fally" feeling? That's what I feel like.

Right now.