Ben showed me the package of bread crumbs from our kitchen. He said in a very concerned tone, “why do they do this to bread?” You could hear the sadness and concern in his voice over that poor loaf that was crumbled-to-bits. He just knew “they” was a secret group of people that destroyed food! I told him in my educated matter-of-fact mommy tone… it’s a cross between sarcasm and baby talk… “So we can put it on chicken and make nuggets.” His face lit up like the loaf had been raised from the dead. He made his mouth noise that tells us he understands and is excited, sort of like a raspberry that is sucked in, instead of blown out. He said, “OH!” His world was right again. There will be no future protests against those vicious bread crumblers for Ben Page! No way, Jose! He’s a nugget man.

The following is a conversation with Jessica Page… I mean, Caetie Simpson.. no wait… Caetie Page.

Caetie: *holding a box of Honey Nut Chex* “Mom, is this cereal?”

Me: *an intense look of whose-child-is-this*

Caetie: “I mean, is it just used for Chex Mix or is it, like, cereal?”

Me: *a sarcastic look that screams- are you serious?*

Caetie: “SHUT UP! I mean, like, can you put it in a bowl with milk?”

Me: *laughing with an expression that says- your really are retarded*

Caetie: “STOP IT! Shut up!” *giggling whimper*

Me: “First of all I don’t use Honey Nut Chex in Chex Mix and secondly, you are showing me a box of CEREAL, bought in the CEREAL aisle, and you want to know if it is CEREAL that you can put in a bowl with milk?”

Caetie: “SHUT UP!” *laughing whimper*

Caetie: *fixes CEREAL*

Ohhhhhh baby.. I feel the blog resurrection!! Holler back yo.

Ben went pee pee today on the potty! I am excited yet sad. It is the end of an era for the Page’s. Could that have been the last diaper ever last night? *sigh* He was so excited but weird.

He is EXTREMELY shy. He doesn’t want me in there and he doesn’t want me to tell anyone. He is humiliated at the idea of people knowing he wears underwear or goes potty. Poor baby. I hope he does good with Maw Maw while we are in Biloxi.

I will probably blog from Biloxi. Watch and see! We leave Friday at 5am!

She made the Chris Sligh video!!! Too cool!

Whoever  said people spending money they don’t have is America’s problem hit the nail on the head. All these people with loans above and beyond their limits are the ones in deep doo doo. It is really sad that we have reached the age of credit. For a lot of people… credit makes them feel important. What is sad is when all these banks go belly up.. they are going to call all the loans and we are all going to be royally screwed.

So basically… I am VERY thankful for a cash only Christmas. I would hate to have to pay the finance charges and such on Christmas. Barkey worked out an AWESOME budget plan with us. I know I talk about it a lot and so does Danny but it is LITERALLY changing our lives. As Dave Ramsey says, changing our family tree. Wow. Powerful.

This year we have been able to do Christmas all for ourselves with cash only. And it is turning out to be a good Christmas. We have even had the privilege to help others. That makes me REALLY happy. Giving is an AWESOME thing.

Today we started a new tradition. I hope to still do this when my kids are all grown up. It was soooooooooo fun! I thought of it and Danny agreed and we put it to practice today.

All the kids got $1 for each sibling and $2 each for me and Danny. We hit the Dollar Tree. They each got their own basket and went to town. They LOVED it! It promoted GIVING, which is the WHOLE POINT of Christmas. And it made them stop and think about their siblings and what they might like.. PERFECT excerise in consideration. They will get a nice dose of the joy of giving. I can’t wait to let them give their presents out on Christmas morning. And it helps teach them to keep a secret. They are DYING to tell but no one has yet.

I will be surprise if they make it all the way to Christmas without letting the secret out. haha. Oh yeah… the girls got to get a present for Carolina and the boys got one for Blue. They really liked that. They are so excited. It is funny. It put LOTS of presents under the tree. I am cracking up waiting for some of them to be opened. It is funny how well they know each other. Silas and Allie picked the same thing for Toby. I had to tell Silas so he could get something else. It was something NO ONE but your sibling would know about you. HAHAHA! I wont rat Toby out but it was HILARIOUS! Caetie asked me if anyone got repeats.. I told her that Allie and Silas almost did for Toby.. she GUESSED what it was. haha. So she knows him well too. If I told you what it was, you would CRACK UP!

Allie is a TOTAL Daddy’s girl. She was really trying hard to think of something loving to give him.  She wanted to get him flowers but we couldn’t find any that looked good without a vase. They were all kind that went in the styrofoam bouquet. YUCK. She found something else. It was sweet. Danny better appreicate it and realize how much effort they put into this. Awwwwww… Toby too. He asked me over and over if I thought Dad would like what he got. We will have to be careful not to say if we have a favorite. LOL! It might crush someone. Even Ben was cracking me up! He got Allie a headband with Blue hair like Caetie’s. It was funny! He picked all his own stuff too. I was amazed.

So now, with us learning the whole budget thing.. and using envelopes… Starting in January we are putting Christmas on the budget to save up a little all year. I am going to do the same with the kids. They will get a budget envelope that has Christmas Fund wrote on it. They need to put $1 a month in the envelope at least.. more if they want. But I am requiring $12 by December. I told them they could buy presents for everyone again with their own money and something for 5 of their friends. Their eyes lit up. They were excited then. I can’t hardly wait. This is going to be soooo cool! I will take tons of pics! Just thinking about all the things Danny got cracks me up and warms my heart. We have some good good kids.

Too pooped to really blog…
I am just plain ole exhausted. Seriously… I am wore slap out.

But I did have to come share one thing. Maw Maw took us to Sir Pizza tonight. Have you ever ate something really stringy like cheese or gum… or something. Where if you don’t chew it good and break it.. when you swallow… some of it goes down and the rest is still strung up in your mouth. It feels like you are choking and you either have to puke the bite you swallowed back up into your mouth like a cat with a hair ball or swallow a even bigger piece of food to get all the attached parts down in one swallow.

A few years ago… Doug, Jodi, Me and Danny all went to Fox’s Pizza in Murfreesboro. They have an awesome calzone but they are SUPER cheesy. Doug and I both had a moment of panic where we thought we were going to die at the hand of cheese. I was cracking up.

Anyway…. we were eating cheese sticks. Toby all of the sudden jumped up and flung his chair back and was grabbing cheese from his mouth and stinging it out to the plate with a look for utter fear on his face. I started cracking up saying he is okay. I was laughing cause I had just done the same thing without the obvious panic. I was telling him to just swallow it down. He had a string of cheese hanging out of his lips. It was HILARIOUS. He was scared to death. LOL!!! He was running around. LMBO!! When I saw the piece on his lip slide back, I knew he had swallowed and recovered from his near death experience. haha!! You wont choke or die.. it is just a weird scarey feeling. Maw Maw was snickering, so was the guy behind us. Everyone that has done it can relate. It is too funny.

He was shaking for a few but quickly recovered and went right back to woofing his food down.

Beware of the cheese sticks at Sir Pizza, calzones at Fox’s Pizza in Murfreesboro, and slimy Big League Chew. If you go to these places… please take me with you. I want to have my camera ready next time. hahahaha!!!

These are from cutting the kids hair…

This is Ben, Toby, and Silas’ hair. Weird eh? They all have very different hair.

These are the blue stacks and gold UGLY purse I was talking about in the blog below…

I forgot to blog about taking the boys to the dentist. Anyway… this is Toby getting his teeth cleaned.

I always stay with Toby in case he has a seizure. But I could see Silas. He isn’t scared and I knew he would be fine by himself. Here is what I could see from where I was sitting.

I thought it was HILARIOUS!! He was so tense!!!! LMBO!!!

Caetie’s new shoes…

We get pretty sunsets at church…

I was playing with the focus on my camera while I was waiting on Rachel. I took this and think I could do a devotion on this pic. A picture is worth a thousand words. Focus on the road ahead not on what’s right in front of you. You will surely steer off the path.

Allow me to “copy” Megan… Can you tell me what is “funny” about this pic?