Rats, a Brat and Santa

This morning I had an appointment to go get my hair done and I could not wait. There is just something about getting your hair colored and cut that makes a girl feel pretty, healthy and good! I'm not one to splurge on manicures, pedicures or massages so getting my hair done is my one luxury! Anyway, Roy offered to drop me off and pick me up. I get my hair done in uptown Charlotte, so it is a little drive there, but he didn't care. So, I got my hair done and came outside and called him to see where they were parked. He told me that they were across the street... and then he told me to watch out for the RATS when I crossed the trolley tracks! What?! I HATE rats. He said that he and the kids had been sitting in the car for about 30 minutes just watching rats. As I walked past a big dumpster, sure enough, a big rat ran back in a hole. I shrieked and quickly ran into the car. Now, this part of town is not a dumpy place. It's a nice, cleaned up part of uptown, so I was surprised with the rat infestation. We were in the parking lot of a restaurant, so the dumpster was full of food, I'm sure. Anyway, I am not joking.....there were at least 30 rats that we could see going in and out from under the fence. At one time, I saw 15 long skinny tails sticking out from under the door of the fence. I threw some of RoyBoy's hashbrowns from Chick-fil-a out the window and the rats quickly came to get them and gnaw away!!! It was diss--gusting, but interesting.

It was hard to get a good picture, but at the bottom of the middle of the door, you can see a gray blob. That would be a rat and right behind him there were about 15 tails are twirled together. I told Roy that I kind of wanted the door to open so we could see how many of them there were! I know I'm going to be dreaming of these rats tonight!!

After that, we mozied on over to the mall to look for a belt for Roy Austin and ended up going to Joseph Beth's Booksellers (a ritzy-Barnes and Nobles for you out of towners). They have a nice children's area, and the kids love playing with the toys there. While Roy and I were watching the kids play, we noticed a little girl with a woman that was definitely her nanny. Let me just say that this girl was a B-R-A-T! She was being so rude and bossy. Apparently, they were there picking out books for her Christmas list. She would find one and then say "Put this back!" to the nanny and she would do it, or she'd say "STOP IT!" if the nanny took one that she wanted. She was being so rude and ugly, that at one point, Roy said we needed to go because it was making him mad! Caroline was noticing it, too, and she didn't like it. Sasha (the brat), had a whiny voice and it was just awful to see her behavior. Oh, and the best part...her shirt said "Snow Cute". I had to get a picture:

Here is the sweet girl reading one of her wish list books while her nanny quickly writes down the title. Dolly, I wished so badly that you were there. I was trying so hard to get her attention so I could make a face at her to let her know that she was being a bad girl. I know if you'd been there, we would have had some serious fun with her!! And I had to be nice to her, because when I started reading Caroline a book, Sasha came over to sit and listen.

Then tonight, we went to a local shopping center for a tree lighting ceremony. The kids had fun getting hot chocolate, cookies, and balloons:

We also went on a sleigh ride and the best part was seeing Santa and Mrs. Clause. As you can see, Roy Austin was not a happy camper:

It was a nice weekend having our Daddy back home and kicking off the Christmas season--rats, brats and all!