Friday Night Leftovers (Sunday edition)

Happy weekend, folks.  I realize that Christmas vacation was just a few short weeks ago, but I am extremely grateful for our Monday holiday.  Thank you Martin Luther King, Jr. - not only for the injustices that you fought but also for your fight for the freedom, equality, and dignity of all races and peoples.  Did I also mention I'm way grateful for a day off from work?

• In the last 2 weeks, Marilyn has seemingly grown by leaps & bounds.  She looks taller, more slender (both face & body), & her hair longer.  It's like she is growing up right before our eyes.  Please stop this... I didn't authorize this to happen to my baby.
• We had a YouTube night with the kids this weekend - we have a wireless connection from my iPhone to our TV that allows us to watch any and all videos that I've ever uploaded to my YouTube account.  It took us 1.5 hours and we watched every. last. video. and the kids LOVED it.  They were just fascinated to see themselves and each other doing all kinds of hilarious & adorable things that dated all the way back to when Thomas was just 1.5 years old. 
• We are up to 6 hours & 45 minutes of daylight, peeps, and gaining 4.5 minutes each day!  Whoop-Whoop!  You have no idea how big of a deal this is until you have lived through an Alaskan Winter.
• Speaking of Alaskan Winter, we are one big mess up here.  Temperatures have been climbing into the mid- to upper-30s which is just causing all kinds of a melting mess.  One day we even reached 48 degrees.  To top that off, we have seen quite a bit of rain, not snow, these last 2 weeks.  What in the world is going on?
• As Thomas & I were driving home today, he says from the back seat, "Did you know that Heaven & Hell are opposite places and really bad people go to Hell, Mom?" {short silence as this Mama tries to figure out where this even came from & what to respond with}  I ask him where he heard this from.  He tells me one of his friends in his class.  And just as casually as he brought it up, he casually tells me, "Don't worry, Mom, I'm never going there" and then asks what's for dinner tonight.
• If I could figure out how to make it fit into an already busy-enough schedule, I would gladly heed to Abby's continual requests to join ballet.  The girl really wants to dance. 
• It just occurred to me today that when we travel to Florida over Spring Break, it will have been a year since our friends & family down there have seen us.  That is a lot of missed time, especially for the kids. To make matters worse, we haven't seen some family in more than 2.5 years.  They won't even know the kids the next time they see them.
• I hope none of my mommy friends hate me when I say this - Brian and I got to sleep in until 9AM on Saturday morning & then 8:30AM on Sunday morning.  And yes, we have a 6, 4, & 2-year old.  Life is crazy, right now.