Challenge Accepted...

David learned long ago to think about the way he phrases a question or statement to me before he says it. For instance, he used to convey his "helpful" suggestions by starting out, "Hey honey, you know what you should do....."....which automatically put me on the defense and got my blood boiling as I sarcastically thought, "Oh please, oh please, oh wise one....enlighten me with what I should do by instructing me in the only correct way, your way, since I have not been blessed with such an astute mind and advanced problem solving skills as yourself. And since I am just lying around on the couch all day eating bon bons and having myself fanned, I welcome any suggestions on errands/chores you may have in mind for me to do in order to break up my relaxing day at home with our children."

Of course, it took a few times before he finally figured out that with a simple wording change, he could detour around my bad attitude and actually get me to do what he was suggesting. (Wait a minute, I thought I had finally trained him, but it sounds like he's the one who has learned to train me.) BLAST!

Case in point...the other day I got an e-mail from him while he was at work saying, "Here's a challenge for my highly creative wife....I have a picture of the girls lying on their tummies. Can you get a similar picture of all three kids doing this?" Well I jumped at the "challenge" and the fruit of my labor is published below.

Now, had that e-mail read, "Honey, you know what you should do....take a cute picture of our children lying on their tummies for me to take to work".....he would be sleeping in the doghouse that night because I would have been in a huff that he actually assumed I had an extra 5 minutes in my busy day of doing laundry, scrubbing toilets, diapering children, and making supper to sit and pose them for a picture!


**Just a sidenote....this was actually the "first try" picture and I can't belive all three munchkins are: (a) looking at the camera (b) smiling and (c) not pulling each other's hair, kicking each other, or trying to smother poor little Tate with kisses. (When I pose them all for a picture I usually end up taking about 20 just to get 1 that looks presentable).