Lard, anyone?

I really need to know this, so please respond.

I LOVE the oreo cookie itself, but CANNOT stand the nasty stuff inside. In elementary school someone told me that the filling was made of sugar-flavored lard, or shortening, and i've never been able to eat it since!! In face, I just finished scraping the insides of 3 cookies and had them with milk...yum...and the filling got thrown away. (Does that just kill some of you pseudo-lard-lovers??)

I just need to know if there's anyone else out there who prefers the cookie without the filling. I've asked over 20 people over the years, but thought i could reach even more through this post.

Am i the only one??

EDIT: i'm not saying that it is lard inside (i'm sure it's not), that's just what i was led to believe, and i've never been the same.

And then there were none...

one by one i cut grace's binkis last week. she just would not stop hitting/pushing/taking toys from her sister, and i'd had enough! so, they're gone! and so is NAP TIME!! and sleeping 11-12 hours at night!!

I'd been planning on getting rid of them soon anyway, so it wasn't just cause of her naughtiness. But now i'm really wondering WHY?!??! who's the idiot that convinced me that i needed to get rid of these precious sleeping aids? honestly, she only had them at night time/nap time. she'll get new teeth (if that was a concern). She's speaking as well as any other kids her age. So why the %$#@ did i do this?!?!? it's been almost 2 weeks now, and she WILL NOT NAP anymore and i'm loosing it!! She's gone from sleeping 12 hours at night, plust 2 during the day, to 10 hours at night--total!!!!!

really what i want to say, for all those moms with Binki Babies, don't take it away just because of peer pressure!! i caved and now i'm paying--big time!!!

Christmas Concussions, etc.

We had such a fun, and crazy christmas vacation this year! We decided last minute that we'd leave 2 days early to beat the snow. I packed up all the stuff the night before, and then that morning, while trying to get last minute work projects done, Reid packed up the car.

Thank heavens for DVD players in minivans...and yes, i hate to say it, mcdonald's (specifically their play yards and their apples). The 8 hour road trip is only doable because of a combination of the two.

By Saturday, the 22nd, Abby had just started warming up to the Ashworths, and that's when the craziness all started. i decided to just list things, rather then write them in paragraphs - hoping for a great shock effect.

Grace got hives (22nd)
Abby fell down the stairs at friends, landed on tile -- got a concussion (22nd)
Abby and Mom went to Emergency Room, and abby got a CT scan (23rd)
Abby got the Influenza (24th)
Grace got a TERRIBLE cold(24th)
Emily got a TERRIBLE cold(24th)
No one slept at night(22nd-29thth)
Grace got into the Tylenol and overdosed (24th, call #1 to poison control)
Reid got sick(26th)
Abby plays in urine in the unflushed toilet (28th)
Mom and Abby ate some green beans that had botulism (3oth, call #2 to poison control and ER)
Mom gets the stomach flu and thinks she's dying of botulism...honestly (31st)
Abby's head kept swelling where she had fallen (26-31st) (3rd call to ER)
TOTAL amount of sleep obtained by Emily in 12 day period =39 hours
TOTAL amount of sleep obtained by Reid in a 12 day period = not much more than me

It sounds even worse when i tell it in person (you know the dramatic flair i can add to any story). and it was. it really was crazy. Yet somehow we managed to have SOOO much fun with all our family. Visiting with family, eating AMAZING food, and rounds of charades (celebrity bowl game), Apples to Apples, Farming Game, Scategories, and Speed Scrabble made it all worth it!
...and watching Grace open her Wiz o' Wiz of Oz present --she got a Toto dog and basket, Red Ruby slippers, and i made her a Dorothy dress out of some old curtains (very "Gone with the Wind" of me, i know!) She couldn't have been happier. sorry, no pics, just videos that i don't know how to edit and download yet...

maybe we'll just stay home next year.... :) (ju, you know i'm kidding)