Anyway, I was intrigued by a recent news story on subject of grabbing a little shut-eye during the work day. According to the story, Google, the Huffington Post and the New York Times have devoted office space to napping on the job. How cool would that be?

Maybe more employers would consider devoting office space to naptime if they read this quote – my favorite line in the story:

“A lot of people still don’t understand that napping at work can increase your productivity and creativity, maybe even make you smile at your co-workers more.”

Next time your co-worker has the grumpies, keep in mind that he or she probably just needs a cat nap.

I’m surprised that Isis – at the wee age of 6 – gets so emotional when watching movies; I wonder if I did at that age. I have to admit, it’s kind of nice having someone to cry with during the sad parts on movies.

So as I was crying with my daughter (she was cuddled up with me) while trying to hide it from the boys, I was thinking about how super fabulous kids are. They’re all so unique and special and wonderful, and they just make life better. I was overflowing with love for my children as I watched this movie. 

After the movie was over, Val came over to Isis, with a notepad in his hand. The two had been playing “school” all afternoon with their pets (what they/we call their stuffed animals, all of whom have names and are part of the family). One of the many reasons why I was all sappy during the movie is because it was a little about relationships between siblings. I recall my relationship with my sister when we were little – sometimes we fought but, for the most part, we got along. And I think Val and Isis have a lovely relationship. They get along pretty well, even though they fight occasionally and need to spend time apart from each other now and again. But they’ve been playing this club/school thing for weeks now, and I just love it.

So yeah, bawling about relationships. And also bawling about just the wonderful things they do and the precious things they say.

Which brings me back to Valon and the pressing question he had for Isis at the end of the movie.

“Isis, which of your pets would like to go for a report card this year?” he asked.

Gosh, I love ‘em

I figure it’s got to be the same way with cleaning out your closet or de-cluttering your house – if you haven’t worn it/used it in years, you probably can get along without it. I know with work there may be some exceptions, but when I was “spring cleaning” last week I found a ton of stuff that I can definitely get along without.

And my office just feels lighter now, which results in an easier, more productive day. It just makes it nicer being here, which can be hard sometimes… especially bright and early on a Monday.

10. Pomegranates are not the evil fruit I thought they were when I was a child. They are a lovely and delicious treat that I’ve been missing out on for all these years.

9. It’s so nice to see the world around me. For years I’ve been squinting and only occasionally wearing my glasses. This past year I started wearing contacts and, well, it’s awesome.

8. Puppies come with all sorts of work and trouble, but it’s hard not to love ‘em.

7. Most things are replaceable – something I learned from having a puppy.

6. Having a puppy also taught me that some things, specifically Isis’ blankie and stuffed puppy Bailey, are irreplaceable. I pray Shembo never ever gets them.

5. I heart Big Sky. It’s a perfect place to get away to anytime of the year.

4. I’m probably not going to win the lottery.

3. If you and your sweetheart both forget to buy tickets to the Sasquatch Music Festival, you’re probably going to be outta luck once Memorial Day weekend rolls around (unless you want to pay the big bucks).

2. It’s very hard to keep up your blog when your computer tries to give up the fight. It’s kind of come back to life so, hopefully, it hangs in there.

1. Your job may change, so you have to keep your knees bent. Maybe it’ll turn out to be a good thing – you never know.

There are a few more things, but I’m going to save those for another day.

Happy New Year, friends!

“All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth, my two front teeth, my two front teeth…”

She is about the cutest thing I’ve very seen. Not sure if she’ll get the two front teeth she’s asking for, but it should be a pretty good time.

Merry Christmas, everyone. Have lots of fun with your families and kiddos.

(I sure love Christmas!)

… three in a row. No kidding – Thursday, Friday and then Saturday. And she worked hard all day yesterday to try to get that other big tooth outta there. I imagine it’ll be out in the next day or two.

The tooth fairy is exhausted (so I hear).

It’s been busy, as I’m sure is the case with everyone this time of year. We’re definitely in Christmas mode, with Christmas shopping, setting up the Christmas tree, enjoying Christmas parties and brunches and lunches, receiving fabulous Christmas cards and photos, looking forward to Christmas programs, etc.

Isis: She’s been undergoing one transformation after another. First, a couple of weeks ago, it was Mrs. Claus. I think it was brought on after spending the day with my mom, who gave her a stuffed Grinch doll. So she was all about dressing up as Mrs. Christmas and playing with the Grinch doll, who was her child (or something like that).

Then, last weekend, she transformed into cowgirl Isis, and I gotta say, she was about the cutest cowgirl I’ve ever seen. If we hadn’t already bought all of her Christmas gifts, I would have considered a cowgirl hat, belt or boots.

Cute as a button but sly as a fox. I worry that her chances of being on the naughty list might be kinda high; our little sweetie keeps getting busted for sneaking toys to school in her pockets. She just can’t stop even though she keeps getting in trouble.

Smith and Shembo: It’s young Shembo’s first Christmas. Of course, she’s still in the age of destruction, so it’s not exactly easy going through this with her. She has ransacked the house a few times this past week – trashing ornaments, knocking down lamps, shredding magazines, murdering the stuffed Grinch doll as well as our longtime tiger pal Francis (the star of our annual Michael Jackson Memorial Party), killing my sweet new brown boots and Val’s tennis shoes, and ripping up one of my favorite recipe books, one that my sister gave me long ago. Damn dog. (Pardon the profanity but I can’t help it at this point.)

So the battle of the coyotes (Errol and I) versus the roadrunner continues… My worst nightmare will come true if Smith decides to show her how to open the bedroom doors one day.

And Valon: We had family movie night last weekend and watched the Christmas classic “A Christmas Story” with the kids. We all laughed, the kids liked it, yada-yada.

Then, Monday after school, when I asked the kids how the day was, Val proudly told me he had double-dog dared one buddy and triple-dog dared another buddy. (Recall the movie, if you’ve seen it.) Yep, the stinker dared his friends to stick their tongues to a frozen pole.

I couldn’t believe it – did he not understand when we watched that movie that you shouldn’t really dare your friends to do that? After the kid got stuck to the pole and then had to walk around with his tongue all bandaged up? Oh my gosh!

Luckily, his pals didn’t bite on his idea. And, after we talked about how you really shouldn’t dare your friends to do anything that might hurt them, he promised to tell them the next day that they absolutely should NOT stick their tongues to a frozen pole ever.

Ah, Christmas. Hope Santa doesn’t change his mind about stopping at our house.

The great news: I’m the only one in my family that likes Samoas (we all love Thin Mints). So the two boxes of the caramel/chocolate/coconut delights have been sitting there waiting for me.

It was a Girl Scout cookie morning. It’s going to be a five-star day.

This was a tricky one – do I run home and get it for him? I thought about it for about 10 seconds and realized the answer was no. It’s his responsibility to remember his backpack. Plus, I couldn’t think of anything in his homework folder that he had to turn in today.

“I had the noun worksheet, the story I had to read to you, and my spelling words in my homework folder,” he said, starting to turn into a very sad-looking little boy.

The thing about Val is he is very responsible; he’s all about following rules, especially at school. And I knew it would be very hard for him to show up at class without his homework folder.

But I also knew that he doesn’t ever have to turn the story back in, and the list of spelling words was simply a practice sheet for him to use each night at home. The only thing that really needed to be turned in was the noun worksheet.

And I also knew Val is a great student and that his teacher likely would give him a break. It’s the first time in his life that he’s forgotten his homework folder at home.

His little eyes were starting to well up with tears and, I’ll admit, I so badly just wanted to run back home and grab his backpack. I told him that we should walk down and talk to his teacher and find out if he can turn in the noun worksheet tomorrow. I reminded him what a great kid he is and said she probably would be OK with that since he’s such a good student.

She was all smiles when we walked in. Val explained that he’d gotten “too busy” at home this morning and forgot his backpack and could he hand in his homework tomorrow? (I think he said it all in one breath.)

“Yes you can,” she said. “Valon, you do a really good job and you always remember to bring your homework back everyday. It’s OK with me if you bring your homework tomorrow.”

The things that turn our little boy blue. I hope he’s feeling better now.

The weekend was nearly perfect, too. We headed to Big Sky on Friday morning with my sister and her kids. We went with sweet thoughts of skiing (it was opening weekend), sledding, hiking around in the snow, watching Notre Dame beat Stanford (and my two Survivor pool teams win), playing games and watching movies.

Unfortunately, only three of the 150 runs at Big Sky were open, so we decided to bag skiing. And, more unfortunately, dear Valon caught the stomach flu bug (that my niece, nephew and sister had been passing around the week before) and spent Saturday feeling just terrible. Thank goodness it only lasted a day, but then my sweet niece caught a dumb cold, probably the terribleness I had dealt with the previous week. And ND wasn’t able to pull off a win against Stanford.

We still got in a ton of sledding, hiking, eating, playing games and watching movies. And my Survivor pool teams won. It was super nice having so much together-time with my sister and her kids and, aside from the sick stuff, it’s hard to complain about the weekend.

Now it’s back to work and, hopefully, a brighter day than the last one. So far so good.