CHILLIN'

Actually, that should say "Illin'" because I have been really sick. Fortunately, I'm getting better now - still congested and coughy (coffee? lol, I crack myself up) but at least I have more energy.

Last Thursday, as I was getting ready for the Christmas party, I was so fatigued that every activity caused me to have to lie down and rest. Even painting my nails wore me out - I had to stop and close my eyes after each hand. Even after my bath, which should by definition be relaxing, I had to flop down on the sofa to try and make the world stop spinning. No fun, lemme tell ya.

The party itself was nice. It was held on the 43rd floor of a downtown Houston office building. The views were spectacular, the decor was elegant, the bar was open (!), and the food was delicious. Or so I was told. With all the congestion running amok in my head, I have not tasted a thing since last Wednesday.

Hubby and I got to the party at 7:00, and left at 8:45. We are so lame. Actually, we're not that lame, but I was not feeling well. Plus, since dh had to work the next day (who gives a big party on a THURSDAY???), we thought it would be a good time to go. My MIL, who was babysitting, was quite surprised to see us walk in the door so early. I barely made it to bed before passing out.

But as usual when one is sick, one does not sleep the whole night through. I have not gotten more than 4 hours of sleep at any one time in nearly a week, and I am exhausted. It's like having a newborn baby all over again, only without the good-smelling cuddles.

Eh, I can't smell anything anyway.

YEP, I'M SICK

I woke up at 2:17 this morning with a very sore throat. My nose was also "stucked up" (as little Pey used to call it), but the throat burned on all cylinders. Ouch.

I wearily made my way downstairs, took some Sudafed, and popped a throat lozenge - then realized it would probably be dangerous to go back to bed with a quarter-size blob in my mouth. So I propped up on the sofa and turned on the TV. Middle of the night is the best time to catch old movies on American Movie Classics, by the way, especially if you're hoping to fall asleep. The reason for this is that AMC doesn't have commercial breaks, so the volume stays pretty consistent. I saw most of two movies: one 1940s flick with Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, and one painfully boring movie with Lucille Ball, which was apparently made before she found her comedic niche.

Unfortunately, I never did fall asleep. The Sudafed unclogged my nose all right - then made me start sneezing. It's very hard to doze off with a constant stream of - uh, you know - heading out your nasal passages.

So here I sit, almost 13 hours later. I'm still congested and/or sneezy, but my throat doesn't hurt much. That is a blessing in itself. I'm all dressed up for tonight already, with the exception of my house slippers, which are currently warming my cold feet. Later I'll change into my hot-mama heels, but for now, I am incredibly cozy.

I just hope I can stay awake long enough to enjoy the party. Wish me luck.

GOOD TIMING

Tomorrow night is hubby's company Christmas party (yes, Thursday; yes, weird), complete with free food and an open bar. Naturally, I'm coming down with a darned cold today. How am I supposed to look all hot and sexy with a runny nose and watery eyes?

Despite the fact that all I want to do is snuggle up on the sofa in front of the fire with a hot cup of tea, I have actually gotten some stuff accomplished today: I cleaned up the kitchen, complete with sweeping and mopping and dusting and polishing the cherry-wood table. Of course I do all this every day [ahem, cough cough], so really, no biggie.

Oh, I have also finished cooking dinner already. I made Heinz 57 Soup*, which is hearty and delicious. I'm pretty sure it will make my stuffed-up self feel much better. I do have to make some cornbread to go along with it, but that should be pretty easy.

I also put the finishing touches on the Christmas decorations. Last weekend, my MIL gave us a cute little metal scrollwork tree, about two feet tall. Today I covered it with shiny and matte gold balls and three bunches of silk poinsettias. It looked good, but I decided it needed a skirt. Not having any extra Christmas tree skirts on hand, I went to the drawers of my china cabinet and pulled out several green placemats. I spread them around and set the tree on top, and voila! The tree is now fully dressed. And it looks nice, too, if I do say so myself.

Last night the family watched "Miracle on 34th Street" (the original version with young Natalie Wood). That may be my favorite Christmas movie of all time. Wait, actually I think it's tied with "A Christmas Story," which I also love. Rudolph and Frosty and all those are good, too, but give me a good live-action holiday movie and I'm a happy girl.

So what are your favorite Christmas movies? I need to know if I'm missing any good ones!
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*Recipe for super-easy Heinz 57 soup:
1 lb lean ground beef
1 large (family-size) can vegetable soup
1 can Ranch Style Beans (optional)
1 bottle Heinz 57 sauce

Brown beef, then add rest of ingredients and heat through. Serve with jalapeno pepper slices, if you like it spicy (I will definitely be doing this!).

AN OLD SONG ONCE SAID...

"...you can't please everyone, so you gotta please yourself."

I'd like to know just how you do that. I am having an impossible time of trying to please anyone, much less myself. Whom, I might add, perpetually remains at the bottom of my "trying to please" list.

K came home from school in a pissy mood today. Attempts at finding out what was wrong or trying to help were met with grunts. Yes, this is common with teens. No, it doesn't make it any less frustrating.

And...well, I just typed out a bunch of stuff, but it makes me sound bad, so I deleted it. Plus, it did not need to be on the innernet in perpetuity. That wouldn't have been pleasing to anyone.

And so it goes.

Q & A

Today I thought I'd do a little catch-up on other posts and also on some of the comments I've received. Onward!

To Robin regarding The Grocery Game: You should DEFINITELY give GG another chance. It only costs $1.00 for the first four weeks, and I promise you you'll more than get your money back. Start here: www.thegrocerygame.com. And kiss generics goodbye! ;)

To Pez regarding the Cranium coupon: Go to Target and purchase a 10-pack of Minute Maid Kids orange juice boxes. On the outside of the package it says something like "Cranium Savings Inside." Inside the package are two $5.00-off Cranium coupons. One of them is very specific; the other says "Save $5.00 on any Cranium product (except Ziggity)." That's the one I used.

In other news:

Tnk's friend's son Trey, who was hit by a car, has been released from the hospital and sent home! He has months of rehab ahead of him, but he will survive. God is truly good.

K has still not asked Ashley for her phone number. He is incredibly shy. I just hope she doesn't break his heart without knowing she's doing it. lol

Pey is definitely over whatever bug she had the other day. As her mommy and clean-up crew, I am very thankful for that.

Ry misspelled "layette" in the school spelling bee. This is a child who could spell "acknowledgement" at four years old. I felt really bad for him. But hubby, three children later, didn't even know what a layette was, so Ry is actually ahead of the game.

Tree is loving his new police job. His hours at the moment are 6:00a to 2:00p Monday through Friday. We've all told him to forget about that - he's a rookie, and as such will soon be relegated to chasing perps in the crappiest part of town in the middle of the night and every weekend. But as his worried big sister, I like his current hours much better.

Tnk is about as fully recovered as she will ever get. Her right thumb will never bend again, and she has nerve damage on her left hand that will forever keep it from bending fully. But she is back at work and doing a great job, and I could not be prouder of her.

EMTsis also continues to impress me. On Thanksgiving Day, when we were all at my great-grandmother's house celebrating her birthday, my aunt D fell ill. EMTsis grabbed her medic bag and checked her out, then immediately recommended that aunt D go to the ER. She went with her, and as soon as they got to the hospital, the physician put aunt D on medication to regulate her heart. She will likely have to stay on that medication for the rest of her life. EMTsis's quick action may have saved aunt D's life.
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I'm stopping there because once again I'm starting to feel like a failure. (I am not posting this for sympathy; I am just documenting my thoughts.) The other night at Tree's graduation, Tnk was in her police uniform, Tree was in his, and EMTsis was in her EMT uniform. Tnk's partner even came to the graduation, and he too was in uniform. I stick out like a sore thumb in all the pictures. The other night I told hubby I'd start looking for a job to bring in some extra money, but even that feels like I'm failing my children and my family. At 39 years old, it's time I found purpose and direction for my life. So far, I have accomplished what feels like nothing.

Okay, I'm stopping there. I mean it this time. :)

HELLO, DECEMBER

And greetings, winter weather. I have missed you so.

This morning I bundled up in my warmest jacket and braved the crowds at Tarjay to do some grocery shopping. Bonus: I met a fellow Grocery Gamer today! Her name is Erin and we met over the Kraft mac & cheese aisle. That was cool.

Anyway, typically Kroger is much cheaper on groceries, particularly because they double and triple coupons. However, from time to time Target.com has excellent, stackable coupons on their website, so I was able to score lots of good food (and a Christmas gift, too) for a really low price.

Here's a breakdown:

• Cranium Cadoo game (originally $14.99; on sale for $7.49; I had $5.00-off coupon) = $2.49
• 4 packages of Nestle chocolate chips (originally $1.99; I had two stacked coupons for each one equalling 90-cents off each) = $1.09 x 4
• 5 boxes of Kraft mac & cheese (originally .82/box; on sale for .60/box; I had coupons for .50 off each) = $.10 x 5
• 2 containers of Daisy sour cream (originally .92/container; I had coupons for .50 off each) = $.42 x 2
• 2 packages of dairy-sliced cheese - Monterey jack & provolone (1/4 lb. at $1.25 and $1.35 respectively; I had coupons for $1.00 off each) = $.25 + $.35
• 2 packages beef steaks, 6 per package (each just over $5; $2.00 coupon on package, plus $2.00 coupon from website) = approx. $1.00 per package
• 2 lbs. 93/7 lean ground beef ($3.49/lb.; I had two coupons for $1.25 off each pound) = $2.24 x 2
• 1 package taco shells (1.29; I had coupons for $1.00 off each) = $.29
• 2 packages flour tortillas (1.49; I had coupons for $1.00 off each) = $.49 x 2
• 1 package frozen waffles ($1.52; I had coupon for .50 off) = $1.02
• 1 package frozen meatballs ($5.99; I had no coupon, but these are a dollar cheaper than at Kroger - does that count?) = $5.99
• 5 cans diced tomatoes (.49/can; I had coupons for $1.00 off each) = they paid ME $.51 x 5
• 2 cans Mexican-style tomatoes (.89/can; I had coupons for $1.00 off each) = they paid ME $.11 x 2
  

Grand total before coupons: $56.29
Grand total after coupons: $21.19

I bought thirty items and paid just over $21 - which includes the game. And as we all know, games are typically really expensive.

My coupon savings equaled $35.10 ... Even the cashier was impressed. heehee

The Cadoo game is going to be a Christmas gift. I love getting good gifts so inexpensively. And needless to say, I am also loving Target! :)

How's your December shopping coming along?

END OF THE LINE

This is my last post for November 2006. Wow, that sounds final. I can't believe I made it through the entire month and posted every single day. That's quite an accomplishment...maybe next year I'll actually shoot for NaNoWriMo. But don't hold me to that.

Thanks for letting me know what you guys had for dinner last night. As it turns out, beef was not for dinner here at the Pley household. I'd been feeling a little lightheaded all day yesterday, but around 4:00, nausea hit. Fortunately (?), I never did throw up, but I felt bad enough that I skipped dinner altogether. The rest of the family had to fend for themselves:

K - raviolis & Doritos (I am so not winning Mother of the Year this year)
Ry - cereal with milk
Pey - leftover chicken spaghetti
Hubby - tacos and an egg roll from Jack in the Box

Today I am feeling really lightheaded, but a little better overall. But this morning I got a call from the elementary school nurse, who told me that Pey was in her office with a severe headache and nausea. I picked Pey up from school and brought her home, where she promptly threw up not once but twice. The second time was apparently the charm, as ever since that time she has been eating like a horse. I told her to take it slow, which she has been trying to do (poor baby is hungry!), and we've been fortunate that the vomiting has apparently abated. We're now at hour three of non-pukage, so I think things are looking up.

And with that nauseating paragraph, I say "happy November." Have a great day, everyone, and try to stay well!

BEEF. IT'S WHAT'S FOR DINNER.

I couldn't think of anything earth-shattering to write about today, so I thought I'd let everyone know what we're having for dinner tonight:

Mexican food.

I'm defrosting two steaks that I plan to cut up and make fajita-type foodstuffs out of. To go with it, I've got a boatload of salsa, chips, cheese, and jalapenos (thank you, SuperTarget coupons). I do not have guacamole fixings, so we shall have to do without the green stuff, unless I get a hankering to drive down to the local taqueria and buy some. I could make my own, which is super delicious, if I do say so myself, but I'm feeling lazy today.

Why am I going to the trouble of making fajitas if I'm feeling lazy? Because I've got a ton of food thanks to www.thegrocerygame.com, and no good excuse to spend money on going out to dinner.

What's on the menu at your house tonight?

WHAT ARE PENNIES MADE OF

Answer: "dirty copper." That's what hubby always used to say whenever we'd pass a police car sitting on the side of the road. LOL

Tonight, after six months of intense training, my baby brother graduates and becomes a real-life police officer. The ceremony is being held at the Houston Police Academy, where the actual, real-life Houston mayor will be speaking. And thanks to Mr. Mayor, we now have to arrive about two hours early to the ceremony if we want to find a parking place for either our cars or our tushes.

(I hate waiting. Tree owes me one.)

I am pretty sure I'll be teary-eyed at the sight of him all grown up and in uniform; in my mind, he's still the adorable little four-year-old who couldn't stand to be away from my side. But I couldn't be prouder - or more scared. My police officer prayer list continues to grow: it includes Tnk, her partner, and now Tree.

Lord, protect those who protect us. Amen.

MONDAY MONDAY

...really sucks.

I like having everyone home, so the end of this Thanksgiving holiday is a real bummer for me. The whole family staying up late and watching movies together is one of life's good things. I am sure hubby and the kids would agree with me...that is, if they weren't all at school or work right now. Phooey.

The only caveat to this thought process is that K, now that he's a teenager, has other interests at school aside from schoolwork. I'm not naming names, but her initials are "Ashley." I'm actually really okay with this (wow!), so long as K keeps his grades up. It helps that Ash is a very good student - K's Language Arts grade has actually gone up recently (he sits right behind her in that class).

All that to say this: K can't wait to get to school today. He was actually depressed last Tuesday after school because he knew it would be five l-o-n-g days until he got to see her again. We were able to distract him with things like video games and turkey dinners and family time, but I know that in the back of his mind he was thinking about her.

Puppy love is so cute. I just hope I still feel that way when he actually starts dating. Three more years - yikes!

HOME IMPROVEMENTS

Yesterday hubby and I (but mostly hubby) finally hung a new ceiling fan in our bedroom. Installation took a long time, but it looks great and is a vast improvement over the undersized white one we used to have in there.

The white one, by the way, is going to be hung in the breakfast room soon. And by "soon," I mean "hopefully before Easter." That's just the way things work around the Pley household. Best laid plans and all that...

I've been on a Christmas decorating spree since last week. Most of the indoor stuff is done, including hanging a stocking for the pooch, as this is her first Christmas with the family. I just hope Santa remembers pack some bones in his sack. Doggie toys do not go over well around here, as our furbaby immediately destroys any that pass through our doorway. She has even eaten a tire. What a goober.

Yesterday I hung the outdoor wreath and put lights on two bushes that sit on either side of the front porch. It's simple, but looks really nice. I am not a fan of the big inflatable stuff; I'm all about pine garland and plaid bows and the like. Although I did see a VERY cute "ice cube snowman" at Lowe's this morning. If it wasn't forty bucks, it might have found its way into my cart.

Today my mission is to finish setting up the Christmas stuff, then clean and vacuum the house a bit. All the beautiful decor seems a little out of place when I put it on dusty furniture. I think my Dyson needs to come out of the closet and enjoy the scenery for awhile.

Ho ho ho, y'all!

PLEY'S 2nd ANNUAL CHRISTMAS BAKING DAY
Sent this email to dad, his S.O., and my siblings this morning. Man, do I love the holidays!

Hey, everyone! It's about that time again, and here's the plan for this year:

DATE - Tuesday, December 12th
TIME - 9:00 a.m. (or however early you want to get here) until whenever
PLACE - Pley's kitchen
ACTIVITY - Baking Christmas goodies

Feel free to bring your own recipes, or you can use some of mine. I've got a ton of cookbooks, from Better Homes & Gardens to Grandma Deanie's old family cookbook.

I also have a brand-new KitchenAid stand mixer that I'm dying to use. And yes, I'll share. I have two baking sheets but four oven racks (two ovens), so if you want to bring an extra baking sheet, that would be fine.

I have lots of mixing bowls and spoons.

I also have plenty of brown sugar and white sugar, and will be purchasing more baking soda and baking powder, so if your recipes call for those, please save your money. What I do recommend you bring is something on which to take your goodies home. Since I switched over to the stack-n-store system, I'm no longer overrun with extra Tupperware! ;)

We'll have Christmas music on the stereo, the tree will be lit, and of course there will be coffee and/or hot chocolate to drink. Hope to see you all here!

Love,
Pley

NOT THANKFUL

My beloved Longhorns lost today in a suckass game against the Aggies. Way to let us down, UT.

I AM THANKFUL FOR...

1. The good health of my family (knock on wood)
2. Mom's old Home Interiors nativity scene, even though it no longer has its original sheep
3. The replacement sheep I bought on ebay (after K broke the original one), which arrived with a broken ear but still fits in nicely with the rest of the set
4. The Saturn, which continues to chug along after almost a dozen years
5. The red sweater I'm wearing today, which my mother-in-law gave me as a hand-me-down
6. Our digital camera, which was one of the better purchases I've ever made
7. My sister Tnk, whose recovery continues to amaze me and make me cry at the same time
8. My EMT-sis, whose knowledge of emergency medicine is impressive and strangely comforting
9. My brother Tree, who graduates from the police academy next week and about whom I am already worrying
10. My brother in Oklahoma, who is going through marital problems right now but continues to be an incredible dad to his two sons
11. My in-laws, who graciously gave up our Thanksgiving Day celebration this year so that we could celebrate my great-grandmother's 98th birthday with her today
12. My friend Mary, who despite losing her 4-year-old son a dozen years ago, has somehow gone on with her life and prospered
13. My friend Jenn, whom I love like a sister and I don't get to see nearly enough of
14. All my scrapbooking buddies, who make me laugh while helping me get things accomplished at the same time
15. And last but certainly not least, my wonderful husband of 16+ years, without whom I would not be the person I am today. I love you, M.

DECORATING DAY

The kids are out of school for the holiday, so today we decided to get a jump start on Christmas decorating. The tree is up and lit, the stockings are hung, two nativity scenes and a village have been put out, and the bathroom towels have holly and/or Santa on them now.

Still lots more to do - for example, I've gotta get garland around all the banisters, STAT - but we've made a great start.

Tomorrow we're heading to my great-grandmother's house for Thanksgiving. It's also her 98th birthday...and I just realized I have no gift for her. Dang.

Gotta run.

THE ONE FOR EVIL AMY

Let me preface this post by saying that in my 39 years of living, I have encountered only ONE intelligent female radio personality. Her name was Shelby Sweeney, and Houston lost a really good one when she left us. In my experience, most female DJs rely on their perky personalities and ability to laugh at every.single.thing their male counterparts say in order to keep their jobs. Honestly, I would prefer listening to trash-talking males than to bubble-headed bleach blondes in the morning.

So this morning, a local radio station was having a Battle of the Sexes contest, in which a man and woman answer questions for prizes.

The bobblehead female DJ, when introducing the contestants, says "Today's female contestant is Maria, who is a stay-at-home mom. Maria has a part-time job working with computers, so she's one of the smart ones."

The male DJ, to his great credit, replies "But she is at home with three children, so her full-time job is not an easy one."

Bobblehead responds, "Yes, but at least she doesn't have to report to a boss."

You ignorant bitch. Do you honestly think that at-home moms with small children have it easy? I don't know a single sahm who hasn't wanted, at least once, the chance to dress up and go to work and get paid and have lunch with grownups.

And what does "she's one of the smart ones" mean? If you're implying that most at-home moms are stupid, here's a newsflash for you: Some of the stupidest people I know have college degrees and jobs. I think you know who I'm talking about.

THE ANSWER IS: ANN-MARGRET

The Ann-Margret reference in my previous post is from the 90's TV show "Wings" which starred Tim Daly, Steven Weber, and Crystal Bernard.

A recap of the episode entitled "Sports and Leisure": After a fishing trip is ruined by Roy, the gang uninvites him to the Trivial Pursuit party at Helen's. Angry at them initially, he nevertheless accepts their re-invitation to the party and decides to be nice and try to fit in. But his new resolve is foiled by his game partner, Lowell. Lowell has played Trivial Pursuit once before, and his only memory of it is that one of the answers is "Ann-Margret." Therefore, he answers every single question with "Ann-Margret." Except for one - on the last question Lowell and Roy were posed with, the answer actually WAS Ann-Margret, but this time Lowell gave a different name.

Pez, is it what you were thinking? :)

FAMILY THANKSGIVING & GROCERIES

Today we (my side of the family, that is) had our annual Not-On-Thanksgiving-Day Thanksgiving dinner. Tnk hosted it at her house, which was really nice. As I suspected, I strongly felt Mom's presence throughout the afternoon, and I think Tnk did, too. She got choked up during the prayer. I completely understood.

My contribution to the dinner was pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and dump cake - all homemade. And root beer - not homemade - for the kids. All four were big hits amongst the diners.

When we finished eating, my dad decided to clear up Tnk's backyard a bit. He grabbed some old wood we'd stashed outside and started a bonfire. Fortunately for Tnk, her house is in a subdivision with no deed restrictions. Weird, definitely; against the law, nope. The fire grew with more and more wood, and eventually we even tossed the old patio furniture into the flames. Thirty years has that furniture existed, but it was high time it was put out to pasture. Burning the pieces was a little sad for me, though, as I have fond memories of hanging out on that furniture during childhood summers when we'd take breaks from the pool. (Tnk had the pool filled in last year, as the maintenance had become overwhelming.) So farewell, old and decrepit patio furniture. You won't be forgotten.

Moving on...

After bonfire, we played Trivial Pursuit, 90's Edition, which I had picked up for $4.98 at Target earlier this year. It was different from your usual Trivial Pursuit game, but still pretty difficult. We even had a couple of "Ann-Margret" guesses tossed in for good measure, even though that was never the correct answer. (If anyone doesn't get the Ann-Margret joke, let me know.) I won the game, with a little help from Tnk and hubby. Okay, a LOT of help. Hey, I told you the game was hard!

We left Tnk's just after 5:30, which is really REALLY early for one of our family gatherings to end. But it's Sunday and the kids have school and hubby has work tomorrow, so it's good that we came on home. We even had time to fit in a little America's Funniest Videos, which is a Sunday night guilty pleasure in this house.

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Forgot to mention my trip to Kroger this morning. I purchased 55 items, including but not limited to: a frozen turkey, a bag of dog food, two dozen Eggsland's Best eggs, six cans of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls, three cans of Pillsbury crescent rolls, four bags of Goldfish, five bags of pasta, two bags of Clementine oranges, and a bunch of other groceries. Shelf price was $93.02, but after my coupons, I paid only $34.38! MAN, I love the Grocery Game. :)

LET'S CALL THIS "THE ONE ABOUT TARGET"

Woke up this morning to the sound of the dog's collar jingling at 6:50 a.m. That's really too early to get up on a Saturday, but I did it since hubby is the one who gets up and lets her out about 99% of the time, and I figured I owed him one.

Turns out it was good that Bailey had awakened me early, as I had to make a run to Target to take advantage of their sales and coupons. If you ever shop Target, you should definitely avail yourselves of their coupons - go to www.target.com, then scroll down to the bottom of the page. There you'll find a link to their current coupon deals, which are typically fantastic. Keep in mind that you can stack coupons on many of the deals, too, which makes their prices even lower.

Quick "stacking" tip: Most stores will allow you to use two coupons on one item, provided that one of them is a manufacturer's coupon and the other is a store coupon. You can easily tell which is which by looking at the top of the coupon. Oh, and for the record, all the Target coupons on their website are store coupons, so if you happen to have a manufacturer's coupon for, say, Diet Coke, you can use both and get sodas really cheaply.

Today I purchased 18 items (including four 12-packs of soda, three packs of cheese, two bottles of salsa, three bags of chips, one set of Glade Trios candles, and several other items) and had 19 coupons (stacked two on the candles). The shelf price for everything I bought was $44.73. After my coupons, I paid $19.75.

Love me some Tarjay.

UNDER THE WIRE

Just woke up from a doze on the sofa and realized it's 11:33 p.m. CST, and I had not yet blogged today. Better hurry.

Today was Girl Scouts, where we worked on our Safety Patch. My EMTsis took good care of us and pretty much ran the meeting. She brought the local training ambulance to the house and went over safety measures. She also had a really cool machine that allowed the girls to "call" 911 and practice giving their names and addresses to a recorded-but-very-real-sounding voice. I wish I could remember what this machine is called...I'm going to find out and will post it here soon.

Part two of the meeting involved making fire escape maps. My sister had drawn up a simple floorplan of my house and had the girls draw colored lines to the nearest exits (of which my home has three). She even drew in a "fire" in the kitchen and told the girls to be sure and avoid it when they were drawing the lines. For example, they had to draw a red line from the breakfast nook to the nearest exit, a yellow line from the living room to the nearest exit, etc., but since they had to avoid the fire in the kitchen, it took a little more thought than simple A-to-B line drawing. Clever, sis.

The girls also made bookmarks that said "911 - Police, Fire, Ambulance" on them. I wish we'd had time for everyone to write down their addresses on the back, as several of the girls don't know theirs. Moms - please make sure your kids know their own addresses and phone numbers ASAP. You just never know when they will need that information.

Lastly, EMTsis took the girls outside and told them, "On the count of three, all of your clothes are on fire. Show me what you should do." On three, all eight girls hit the ground and did the right thing - Stop, Drop, and Roll. Yay for my troop!

After all the activities, the girls were allowed to tour the ambulance, where they could touch the oxygen masks, lie on the stretcher, and basically lay their hands on anything they saw (no drugs or needles are ever stocked on the training ambulance, so they were perfectly safe). In a big finale, EMTsis turned on the lights and sirens and gave the girls an earful. It was the perfect end to a really fun meeting!