PACKING & MOVING:
How did Trail Mix get all over the floor?
How did Teletubbies get on the TV?
Why did I put all the crib parts in the living room?
Is the mac&cheese burning?
Where is all the packing tape going?
Was that my back?
How long until Dukes of Hazard comes on?

We would love to post a million pictures of Sammy enjoying Christmas. He is unbelievably cuddly and fun --


As the girls in the Princess Dress-up Commercials say, "All of my dreams came true!" Belinda was luxuriating in the beauty of several dress-up combos. This one is just a princess --

This is the ballerina princess --


Take a good look at this toy from Fisher-Price. It's a toddler arcade game. It goes so far beyond annoying that it actually induces a state of frenzy in your children. This makes it very entertaining. What you can't see in this picture is our children trembling and drooling as if they'd had 1 million Smarties. Thank you Uncle David:




For some reason this looks like the Russian alphabet to me. Maybe that's how it ended up at Big Lots --


Here's how to get a bath pillow for a man without compromising his manliness:


The grown-ups' favorite gifts are probably our gift certificates to Hackman's Books (for Jon), Olive Garden, Mirror Images Spa (for Leigh), Macys and JC Penney.

MERRY CHRISTMAS
We're really having a great time, but we're sooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo busy!
Jon's finishing a final research project for school. That's due Thursday.
We're moving to another town (PERKASIE, PA) on Friday.
Our house is such a mess -- the kids' Christmas toys everywhere,
all around our boxes!
You really don't want the insider's view of our life right now, trust us.

THIS ISN'T A REGULAR POST. . .

Well, I wanted to hiatus this week, but I had to post this.
I moved my family from the Ohio Valley to the slightly less polluted Philadelphia/NJ metro area.
Most people don't believe it when I tell them that the Parkersburg metro has some of the filthiest air this side of China (which has really, really bad air).
Well here's the proof:
(from the Parkersburg News) "Officials with Eramet Marietta are disputing an Associated Press article that ranks the local plant as the top polluter in the nation in terms of dangerous emissions. . .Officials with Eramet Marietta are disputing an Associated Press article that ranks the local plant as the top polluter in the nation."

Yes, I remember driving down Ohio Rt. 7 and thinking quite a number of times, "I wish the EPA would shut this place down." Well, they are starting to pay attention.

This would be good for the 140,000 people in the area who don't work there.

On the same news page was another story:
"DuPont agrees to settlement ... PARKERSBURG - DuPont has reached a settlement agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in which the company will pay $10.25 million in fines and $6.25 million for environmental projects in an agreement over allegations it hid information about the dangers of a chemical used in the manufacture of Teflon, officials said Wednesday. . ."

I hope for the sake of my family that lives in the area that this AP story will be a bright light on a dark little secret that hurts so many people's health in that vicinity.
Ew, check this out.
Original Story
NOW BACK TO EXAM WEEK.
THEN REGULAR POSING. . .

"Dominion of the earth is mine. All bugs and moss must fear my random poundings!"

"Dad, I don't think I need your help anymore."

You have no idea how many rocks and sticks were thrown in the resevoir. It's used to it by now.
Beinda calls it the "duck lake" but it's pronounced more like "ducklake."
The Green Lane Resevoir was one of our first dates between school years. Leigh and I
went on a canoe ride and ate lunch out there.

Sometimes we feel like we are in the Eddie Bauer catalog. Except Leigh's parka came from Wal-Mart.

Belinda is singing a funny song: "I've ne-ver been on a branch be-fore (repeat 400 times)."
We don't know why it sounded funny. Probably because it sounds better than whinning and complaining.