Freeeeedooooommmmm!*

* this must be said in your best braveheart voice.

     yesterday we dropped the kids off with our wednesday babysitter, jean, and she had them all night until today around 2:30ish.  let me start off by saying i have never left the kids overnight.  ever.  even with jagger, the only time i have ever left him with someone for the night was when i was in the hospital having the twins.  so though i was excited to have a night off, i was still anxious.  now, i trust jean completely and i wasn't worried about the kids.  no, i was more worried for jean.  because these kids are crazy.  and a handful.  and they're loud.  and they get into everything.  and slade hardly sleeps at night.  and jagger spits.  and i'm not sure she fully understood what she was getting herself (and her family) into.  but in the end we left them with her and we had a great night.

  we had big plans to go up to cleveland, eat somewhere nice, maybe do some christmas shopping and see a movie.  but it was cold out.  and it's even colder in cleveland.  and the stores we were going to walk around in are all outside.  and penny (that's our name for our gps) died on us.  so we headed the opposite direction and went to boardman.  after a quick stop to say goodbye to magen (bye magen! come back and visit often!) we went to carrabba's.  oh man, do i love carrabba's.  it was so ridiculously delicious.   if loving carrabba's is wrong, then i don't want to be right.  because it is just that good.  we checked out the theaters, but there is nothing really good playing right now, so we decided to skip a movie and headed over to mall to look around for a while.  at gap kids we bought the kids christmas pjs, but then i felt so guilty about how much they cost that i turned right around and returned them (well, i kept jagger's, but returned cash and slade's).  i just couldn't justify spending that kind of money on pajamas, no matter how cute they were.  i figure we can get cute pjs for a lot less somewhere else.   after a very short stop at barnes and noble (because they were closing), we headed home where we lounged around, watched tv, and then went to bed.  

holy cow, was sleep glorious.  i think it was the best sleep i've ever had in my life.  i didn't wake up until 11:00 today.  11:00!  i had forgotten what a solid night's rest was like.  boy, do i miss it.

    anyways, today i dropped off ali's birthday present at the post office (sorry it's soooo late!), dropped some books off at the library,  made a stop by pat catan's, and then came home.  corey and i set up the christmas tree (sans ornaments) and then we went and got the kids.  jean said they were good, but the night was a little tough.  don't i know it.  i don't know how to thank her and her family enough.  it was so greatly appreciated (any suggestions for a good thank you gift, please leave in the comments!)  corey dropped us off and went to work, so the kids helped me put up the ornaments.  and by helped i mean, took the ornaments, threw them all over the living room floor and broke half of them.  jagger was pretty impressed with the tree.  well for all of 5 minutes.  then he could care less.  he did keep trying to blow out the lights though and that was pretty cute.  i can't believe we actually put up a tree :)

trying to decide what to get

everything was so good

this seems like such a bad combination

setting up the tree

snowy, slippery mess on the way to get the kids

cash "helping" with the ornaments

trying to blow out the lights

self portrait, ornament style  (while being attacked by cash)

there, we have a tree.  now you all can get off my back.