december birthdays

December birthdays can be rip-offs, according to my December birthday children, of which I have three. Okay, I am guilty, poor Aaron got only one thing for his, a t-shirt no less. But it WAS from A.E., a nice store in the mall, and I did pay too much for it. Well, today is Margaret Cheryl's 15th birthday, and I got her a few nice things. Just to make sure she doesn't feel slighted because it is so close to Christmas.

Our Mr. Swanson is actually, um, MISS Swanson. Kitty Kitten is a girl. oops. Took the guy's word for it when we got him, I mean her, never looked. One of the kids did look yesterday, and, um...the first thing they started to ask is Please Please Please can she have kittens! No, she is going to the vet and getting fixed. Because if she has kittens, it will break my heart to give them all away.

Kathryn is 13 years old. She has an ipod, a hand-me-down from her older brother. It has a cracked screen, but it works. She texted me from school like five times yesterday to please pick her up, and Evelyn. So I did. Mirielle, Camille, and I...we went to Kohl's for Margaret's birthday presents with our 15% off coupon...then to Aldi for some Christmas treats, like a pineapple and some shrimp. Then to Wegman's for a few more things, then home. I had made the meatballs before I left, and called home and had Joseph put them in the oven. After putting away the groceries, Jonathan and I wrapped some things, then it was dinner time. I had some canned bean sprouts with my meatballs instead of pasta, not too bad. I baked some chocolate chip cookies from dough I had made the night before, and ate a few spoons of dough. I can pass up the cookies, but the cookie dough, yum!

Anyway...after dinner, I went to the town board meeting. Without boring you with all the details I will say this: when the board classified the anticipated noise level as a "minimal impact", I protested, said it would not just be the cars racing through the mud that would be loud, but the attendees, cheering and yelling, and the music, ect...the neighbor who is proposing this project looked at me and suggested that my boys would be his best customers and that one of my sons used to ride his four wheeler all over his land. True, but what does that have to do with anything? I did not argue with him, since we were reminded to keep the meeting civil, and it was very distasteful to see the other neighbors getting offended and personal about things. Anyway, the board gave their recommendation to the county: The project will have a negative impact on the environment overall. Now the county will do their own study, then we will move onto other issues, such as re-zoning and legal matters. It will be a while before we know anything, probably February. I hope and pray that no Mud Bog Racetrack is born next door...he is seriously petitioning for parking for 1000, yes ONE THOUSAND cars!!! blah.

After the meeting, I went to my niece's house to pick up Benjamin and Ashley...my sister was there, as were her other girls...Will was in bed, but those little baby twins weren't! I held Sebastian Peter for a while, and fell head over heels. He is a sweetie! He is so tiny! He was doing that sucking-while-sleeping thing, oh so cute...I haven't held little Linnea yet, but I will one of these days.

More cookies today, cleaning up the house, doing some laundry...good times. I am so excited about Christmas, and love having Ben and Ashley here.