She'll never be satisfied by another man.*

I'd like to dedicate a blog post to my adventures at my sister's house over the past few weeks. As anyone who actually reads this blog knows, I had been living with my sister since December 16th (just moved home January 14th - my birthday woot woot!) I had many fun adventures while living with my sister and her family. So - in a collection of stories and pictures - here is my life from the last month:

Making Gingerbread Houses

Christmas

Lots of cuddle time with this one.

Lots of laughs with my sister, who may think that she has lost some social skills...but Jo, you still got it.

In one month, my sister made cinnamon rolls three times. Not because we devoured them so quickly (which we did) or because they taste so dang good (which they do) but because of a yeast debacle. Cinnamon rolls are supposed to expand like a peep in the microwave and attempts number one and two just weren't doing that. After some internet research - the third time was the charm.

In my sister's house they like to use the term 'bust' (sorry Jo, spilling the family secrets here). Tommy in particular has taken to this (p.s. busting is another word for passing wind, cutting the cheese...you get the idea). One day I was eating breakfast and Tommy was sitting on the couch in his PJs waiting to truly wake up. He looked up at me and said, "Jess, I busted through my nose." I said, "Really?" and he said, "Yeah, it was like this," and proceeded to take a deep breath in and blow out through his nose. "That must smell really bad." I said. All he said back was, "yeah."

Another time (since I think Tommy had it out for me because just like cats can sense and will sit with those who do not actually like cats, I think kids can smell a germaphobe from a mile away) I was babysitting the kids. Ava was asleep and the boys and I were watching a movie. I hear Tommy's little voice, "Jess, look at this booger." I hesitated to look, I don't like the idea of what I am about to see...I'm not big on inspecting these types of things. Part of me hoped he was just kidding...he was not. He had his finger pointed at me and on the end was a booger, too close for comfort. I jumped up from the couch the way I would if there had been a spider coming at me, and grabbed a tissue. I told him to take care of that and to go ahead and get the booger's friends while he had the tissue. Then, as part of his diabolical plan, he handed the used tissue to me to throw away...

I came into the kitchen one day to find my water bottle surrounded by a couple dinosaurs. Jacob told me it was the watering hole...

I was also introduced to the world of Wonder Pets ...I didn't have the heart to tell my nephews what Ming Ming's future would possibly be...

...We haffo help him!

My sister has this thing about smells and one day she was on the hunt for the malodorous perpetrator. She had determined that it was coming from between the counter and the oven, so she told me to "smell down there". I leaned forward, bringing my nose to the crack between the counter and oven when everything went WHITE...okay, so nothing went white, but it felt like it should. I found myself, or rather my nose, had been shocked by the oven. I may have handled the situation dramatically...jumping back, throwing both hands to my face and I may or may not have screamed - and then laughed really, REALLY hard.

I'm really going to miss "living" with them. I mean...who wouldn't?