{{cough, cough & a bunch of etc}}

Man, I feel like a bulldozer has hit me square in the chest and ran me over! Last Wednesday the girls & I usually hike w/ a bunch of girls after school. It was foggy, and no one showed up but us. We decided to go ahead with the hike, and we had a great time. Maddie is learning about rocks in school, and is now obsessed with rocks. She picked one up and said "well, if Daddy isn't going to let me have a dog, I'm going to have a pet rock". ::snort:: She carried that heavy rock the entire hike, until I made her put it down. Katie was totally into playing Truth or Dare, so it was fun to learn some interesting facts about her when she chose Truth!! (i.e. she lied to me once about putting makeup on Maddie at a sleepover years ago... she was afraid she would even get in trouble now! and Yes! she has kissed a boy! The boy was Daddy! I reminded her then that she's kissed a bunch of boys then (Grandpas, uncles, etc) ::duh:: Do I have a rebellious kid or what?)

Halfway up the hill, Katie & I heard this weird noise. It stopped us in our tracks completely. Freaked us out, is what it did. Katie started whimpering "Mu-OH-MMM I told you we shouldn't go on this hike!" Ummm... actually, she was the one who told us to still go. It was foggy out, we couldn't see very far, and this was the same park where there are warning signs of bobcats, mountain lions, snakes, etc posted everywhere. I just stood there moving in a circle, just waiting to see if a mountain lion was doing this weird purring noise, and just about to pounce on us. {{Course, in my dreams, Edward & the Cullen clan is right around the corner waiting to eat said mountain lion... hee hee.}} Just then, Maddie started giggling. We finally caught on. The little stinker was the one making the terrifying noise!

Anyways, we finished our hike..... and headed home. Later that night my sore throat started in. The next day I could add a cough to my list of illness. Blech.... I hate being sick.

Mike made me stay home from church yesterday to try to recuperate. This morning the drippy nose started. UGH!

Friday night we had our Christmas party at church. It was simple & fast. We had a delicious dinner followed by a nativity put on by the kids. My girls were thrown in (I don't think they were originally casted). Katie was a shepherd & Maddie was an angel. The angels look so thrilled, don't they?

I bought the movie "Mamma Mia" last week, as an early Christmas present to myself. Target had a special if you bought the movie you get the CD for a little more, so I did that. The girls started watching it a few days later (yeah, there are some questionable parts in the movie, but they didn't notice) and now all they sing are the songs. I think they particularly love "Honey, Honey" and "Dancing Queen". I had such a blast seeing this movie with my long time best friend Jennifer, right before we moved. We giggled all night long watching this movie..... truly a movie all girlfriends should see together!

I did get to read a good book over the weekend though (actually, I read it in one day, so an easy read). It's called "The Last Summer (of You & Me)" by Ann Brashares. She's the author who wrote "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants". This book was her first adult book, and it was pretty good! Make sure you read it when you want to cry, b/c it's sad.