NEW NAMES

Mimi informed us today that dad and mom now have new names. We are now known as "Big Daddy" and "Big Mama". Also since her baseball team is known as the Lugnuts, Mimi should be called "Naomi Nut",

SIGNS

The other day when Erin was here, she and Mimi got real busy with making signs for Mimi's bedroom door. At first the signs read girls were welcomed but not boys and definitely not dogs, Butch in particular. When I explained that if they put the "no boys" sign up Liam (Erin's brother) and Blake might get their feelings hurt. They then decided that boys were ok to enter but still no dogs. Mainly becaause Butch likes to steal away with Mimi's toys.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT

This afternoon Mimi did the girly thang with her friends at the nail salon and then she says "We went to Black Diamond Bakery!!!" I asked what she ate and she said grilled cheese sandwich and cake. She really had a blast getting her nails done today.

BATTER UP

This morning was the first T-Ball practice at another elementary school not far from home. TodayZoe and Ryan are the only other friends of Mimi's that showed up. Erin was at her last soccer game and Blake is on his way home from California. It was colder than a witches brew this morning on the field. Mimi had a blast anyhoo. Mimi was really being a little devil at practice. She was supposed to be practicing throwing the ball to Ryan, she pretended to throw the ball to him and threw it sideways instead. Then they both proceeded to chase the ball. That continued till I saw what was happening and put a stop to it. Poor little fella. Mimi making him chase the ball when she was supposed to be throwing it to him. Heaven help the person who she ends up with later in life.

Then it was time to head over to Safeway to purchase a few items for lunch. Around 2:00 it was time to head back over to the Starbucks located in Safeway. Today is Maddies birthday and she invited Mimi to help her celebrate this auspicious occassion by doing the girly thing. I did not count but there must have been around 12 girls in the party. No boys allowed. First the girls went next door to get their nails done. Then they headed over to Black Diamond Bakery for a late luncheon. In about half an hour I will go over to pick her up. I just now got home from shopping a Kohl's. Fortunate for dad I HATE SHOPPING. Kohl's is having a sale and Mimi needs a nice dress for the Father/Daughter Ball that is coming up in about a week.

Come this evening we will go to downtown Kent to purchase the needed items for T-Ball. The league will provide the Jersey and cap, we need to buy everything else. The sport shop is having a one day sale and mom is all about the sales. More than likely we will have dinner down there. Not sure where though.

While Mimi and I were out doing all of this running around, dad stayed behing to clean the backyard of all the fallen debris from the trees in the greenbelt just behind our backyard fence. I think he got tired of listening to me bitch and moan about it this past week. What a guy!!! He gave up a skiing day to please mom. What a fantastic guy he is! Maybe that is why I love him so much.

In a few minutes I have to go pick Mimi up and then the whole family will head over to downtown Kent to purchase the baseball uniform that she needs. The league is purchasing the Jersey and caps for the kids, we have to supply everything else. Then on Monday after her piano lessons we will go to Walmart to get her shoes and gloves.

We received a bit of good news yesterday. Group 119 (we are grp 123) have been matched with a child and may be going to China late March or early April. Woo Hoo! The line is inching forward finally.

WHY'S,WHY'S AND MORE WHY'S

At home this morning:

Mimi: Mom, why didn't dad kiss me good-bye this morning?
Mom: He did, you were sleeping.
Mimi: Why does dad have to go to work?
Mom: Maybe it's because we like to eat and have a roof over our heads and keep warm ya think?
Mimi:Why does dad have to come home late sometimes?
Mom: He takes the train to work and sometimes he has a lot of work to do.

At Costco (now mind you, the girl had just finished a huge breakfast about one and a half hours earlier):

Mimi: Mom, in about 5 minutes I'm going to be starving. Can I have some pizza?

I bought the girl her usual slice of Costco cheese pizza, her favorite. Another male customer asked her if she could eat that whole slice. If anyone has ever had a Costco slice pizza, they are huge so therefore I cut the guy some slack since he does not know our child very well.

After Costco we went to Fred Meyer's:

Mimi: Mom, can I go to Freddies Playland?
Mom: No.
Mimi: WHY?
Mom: They're closed.
Mimi: WHY can't I go to Freddies Playland?
Mom: They're closed.
Mimi: BUT WHY CAN'T I GO TO FREDDIES PLAYLAND???
Mom:THEY ARE CLOSED!!!
Mimi: Why?
Mom: Pat (attendent) is taking a break.
Mimi:Why does she need a break?
Mom: You know Mimi, you can drive a person to drinking in a heartbeat.
Mimi: Am I making you crazy now???

That's the understament of the year. Then I found out from Mimi tonight that the reason why Halli came downstairs sopping wet the other day was because she and Mimi were having a water spitting contest in Mimi's bathroom. Each of the the girls would fill their mouths up with water and spit on each other. EGADS! I think I need a drink right about now. All is finally quiet and peaceful in the Putney household at this moment.

ERIN AND MEEMER'S

Although the majority of the snow has melted by now, it is still considered a snow day by the school district. I really did not want to stay at home. Starting to get cabin fever ya know. So I packed everyone up in the car and off we went. First I thought that we would head over to Costco. I saw Shelley's industrial strength mixer yesterday and really want one. I'm finding that alot of the moms do baking up here in the Winter months and I am getting darn tired of mixing everything by hand. So off we went. While in the car ole' Butch started to get real ansy so I thought that first we would stop down by the lake so that he and Mimi could get the sillies out of them. When we reached the lake it was very picturesque something out of Mayberry on the old Andy Griffth show way back in the day. Kinda wished I had my camera with me darn it! There was no one there so I let Mimi and Butch run loose. They both had a grand old time together. Then on Costco we went to look for my mixer. Unfortunately they did not have it but we did see Erin and Patrick and their mom Janet. They were killing time while Liam was in school. We then went over to Fred Meyer's to check out their mixers and they did have them but they cost a whopping $249.00 therefore that killed that idea right then and there. However we did get some grocery shopping done while we were out and about. Now that we are home Mimi and Erin are playing quietly in her room and Butch is passed out cold. I may take a nap myself as I have not been getting much sleep lately.

THE WEATHERMAN WAS RIGHT

Every now and then the weatherman can be right and sure enough he was right today. It started to snow last night and continued into the wee hours of this mornig. The stinky part about living in an area where it snows is that the school board will call with the latest conditions. For the past two days Mimi has been waking up earlier than usual. This morning the school called 3 times starting at 4:30 this morning. The first call was to let us know that there will be school even though it is snowing, a little while later they called back to say that the school will start 2 hours later than usual, finally the 3rd and last call came about one hour ago to say that due to the bad road conditions there will be no school at all. I live for the day when I can sleep until 9:00 am without any interuptions. I don't think that is asking too much, do you??? Mimi is quite thrilled about snow days but she does not realize yet that it cuts into their summer vacation. The kids have to make up these snow days by going to school in the summer. Also since there is no school due to the snow, her gymanstic class is cancelled and we will have to make that up at a later day. Usually our make - up days are Monday afternoon but now that she is on the Lugnut T-Ball team, they have their practice on Mondays afterschool. So I am not quite sure what we will do at this point but I quess that I will cross that bridge when I get to it. At first living here where it snows was quite exciting but now it is starting be a drag. The novelty of it all is starting to wear off. It can really put a cramp in your daily routine.