Vacuums, Iraq, Santa, Shorts............and Valentines Day?!?

I know it has been a while since I last wrote, but I have been sick with an awful cold. Sean, Hannah and Matthew had it too. We are almost over the cold, but have a lingering cough.

Last time I wrote I forgot to add this: As I was vacuuming the other day I thought the vacuum was sounding funny and just wasn't working very well. I started taking the vacuum apart, starting with the dirt bin, but it just didn't seem to change things. It still sounded funny and wasn't working properly. I finally took off the curved tube at the bottom. It appeared to be jammed with pine needles. I thought it was strange that pine needles were the cause of the problem. I mean we vacuumed up pine needles last year and had no problems. As I was pulling out the pine needles (which weren't as many as I first thought) I found this:

HOW DOES SOMEONE VACUUM UP A PEN!?!? I know the answer.....only a child would do this. Of course no one in the house remembers vacuuming up a pen. The good news is, my vacuum is back to sounding normal and is working like it did the first day we got it.

We also got another email from Chris' brother in Iraq. He said (minus the personal family stuff): Things are ok over here. It is actually a little easier then when I was in Kosovo. There I was living in a tent for a couple of months. Here we have hot and cold running water, good chow, and a laundry service. The big difference is here we see tragic events on a daily basis. These young kids sacrifice a lot so please remember to keep them in your prayers. Take care.-Steve

We finally decorated our tree and I had to take a picture of one of my favorite ornaments. It is one Matthew's Sunday school teachers made when he was two years old. He was in his cowboy hat and boots phase.

Today Chris and I went out to lunch at Panera. I haven't ever been there before, but Chris has had food from there at his office. I had a delicious sandwich and a yummy brownie for dessert. I could have gone crazy in the bakery there. Everything looked so good!

It was so warm outside Chris and Sean wore short and I had on my capri's and flip flops! That just isn't right to be dressed like that 5 days before Christmas!!

After lunch we went to the mall to see Santa. Sean just wanted to SEE Santa, not get near him. So we went and looked at him from the upper level. Sean was too funny. He was happy to just stand there and watch him from far away. When he was finished looking at Santa, we went to Build-a-Bear and let Sean build a puppy dog. He named his puppy dog Puppy. He thought it was fun to watch the stuffing roll around in the big machine, but his favorite part was giving Puppy a "bath". He insisted he could carry that big box all by himself. He was too cute. I wish I had brought the camera. Here is a picture of Sean at home with Puppy.

After the kids got home from school we ran to Wal-Mart to get some stuff the kids needed to take to school for their classroom parties tomorrow. As we were there we noticed that they are putting out VALENTINE'S STUFF!!!! Excuse me? We haven't even celebrated Christmas or New Year's yet and they are putting out Valentine's stuff? Am I the only one that finds this ridiculous?