On a happier note, the basement seems to have made it out of the water debacle unscathed! Everything is dry and clean and seemingly fine. Wahooooo!! Now I can spend all that money on Christmas presents (because Lord knows that's not hard to do). I've bought a few things already and I'm getting a little excited. I have always been a staunch believer in waiting to break out the Christmas cheer until after Thanksgiving is over. It only seems fair, right? But this year, I can't help it. For whatever reason that I can't explain, I'm gettin' downright cheery already! Maybe it's because this is the first year that the girls will be able to understand what's going on (to a certain extent). Or maybe it's because we're going to my sister's house in Arkansas and I haven't seen her family and my dad and stepmom in well over a year. Or maybe it's because this year is bound to be better than last. Or maybe it's all those retail ads that have been bombarding me since before Halloween (which is beyond wrong). I will try to contain it until after Thanksgiving, but I can't make any promises. I've already belted out "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" once this week. And I'm downright giddy thinking about watching "The Year Without A Santa Clause." Bring. It. On.

You know what's been cracking me up every time I think about it? The other day, the girls and I were driving somewhere and running late, as usual. The section of SE Division we were on has two lanes in each direction, but there was a truck in front of me driving down the center of the two lanes like it was one big lane just for him. I normally would've let the litany of expletives flow forth (Pick a lane, you blankety-blanker with your big blanking truck, thinking you own the mother-blanking road. Get out of my blanking way!), but I've been trying incredibly hard to have some restraint around the girls. So I said, "Dang it! Move over, TRUCK!" Pretty good, huh? But as soon as I said it, the Bug let out a long string of, "Dang it! Dang it, Daddy! Dang it! C'mon, Daddy. KA-MON, DADDY!" I totally whooped aloud as I tried to hold back laughing. It sounded exactly like me. I mean, EXACTLY like me. I immediately called Dude to apologize for saying that. I haven't the faintest clue when I said it or to what it was in reference, but I obviously said it. There can be no doubt. 

My friend's two-year-old daughter outdid the Bug, though. The other day as they were driving along, my friend heard a little voice from the back say, "That's not a lane, jackass!" Sometimes it's a really, really funny thing to see - or hear - yourself in your child.