2009 is Almost Here!

As 2009 rapidly approaches, I am realizing something. Maybe it's because I'm turning 37--closer to my 40's than ever before, and I'm sure there are more reasons, but I suspect that 2009 will be an interesting year.

A year of Changes. In my own life.

What sort of changes? Not sure. But I have a feeling there will be more than a few. How's that for a cryptic post?

Happy New Year to Everyone, and I will be back to regular blogging, soon!

Lara

We're Heading Out of Town...

Okay, so, I am hoping the next snowstorm that's supposed to hit us tomorrow night hits AFTER we've taken off from the airport. We're going to Idaho for the holidays, and I want to wish everyone a very happy, safe and joyful Christmas and New Year's. And if you didn't get a card from me, don't fret, I did not send any out this year. Yes, I am bad.

This blog will return Monday, January 5th. Unless of course, I find something to really blog about. Then I promise I will. Be happy, everyone!

XOXOXO

Lara

Buried. 'Nuff Said.

I have a confession to make. I am not a person who "keeps up" with the laundry. I wait, until it gets so overwhelming I either need an A) Intervention or B) a Cloning Machine in order to get it done in a timely fashion.

I'm a "lazy" laundry person. My kids have enough clothes to last them for a few weeks, so, why should I do it every week? I know, BAD LARA. I need to reassess my stance on laundry. I constantly have "Mount Vesuvius" in my laundry room. Let's think about it. Six people create a lot of Towels, Socks, and Underwear, on a daily basis. Thing Two, can only wear stuff once, because he's All Boy, and doesn't really care what his clothes look like. Thing Two can wear shirts three times, because he's meticulously clean and isn't old enough to sweat. So, there you go. And Thing One just "hides" all her dirty clothes in drawers instead of the laundry basket so I never think she has any dirty laundry, and I am scared because she's always asking for clean socks, and she has more pairs than all of us combined. So she either A) eats them or B) throws them away after she wears them. I'd better look into that...

Anyway, I'm currently "buried in laundry" since I have to pack us all up by tomorrow, and I've gone and raided all the kids rooms looking for their clothes. And after doing that, I have a few questions, and I've discovered a few things:

1) Why is it that my boys can't put clothes in the hamper? There were more clothes on the floor of the bathroom than the hamper. Are they missing the "Pick Things Up And Put Them Away" Gene?

2) Why is it, that I am STILL finding CLEAN clothes in the dirty clothes hamper? WHY??? WHY???

3) Thing One has been hoarding every washcloth in the house. They're all in her shower. I counted twelve of them. What's wrong with REPEATING uses? And then, what's wrong with PUTTING THEM IN THE HAMPER???

Her answer? "They're all wet, Mom, I didn't want to put them in the hamper."

Okay, that makes PERFECT SENSE. SO KEEP PILING 'EM UP IN YOUR SHOWER. THAT'S MORE SENSIBLE.

4) What's wrong with using a bath towel two or three times? I have a hook for each towel. WHY do we need a new towel every shower? We RUN OUT OF TOWELS if you use a new one each time...

Okay, I had to get that out of my system. I'm up to my ears in laundry, and by the time today is over, I will have all the suitcases PACKED with CLEAN clothes and life will be good.

One can hope, right?

One of These Things Is Not Like the Other...

Hmmm, can you spot the difference? I'll give you a hint. One jar of peanut butter was bought a month ago, and another jar was bought yesterday. Sure, one is "Reduced Fat" and one isn't, but there's ANOTHER difference.

Yeah, a size difference. However, the PRICE is the same. The scary thing is, I didn't really notice how much smaller the new peanut butter was until I saw the other nearly empty jar.

I've blogged about this before. We have shrinking cereal boxes, icecream cartons and bags of chips. Apparently peanut butter is now biting the dust. Instead of raising prices, the companies are simply downsizing their products. Somehow this just seems wrong. Especially when you have four kids and a jar of peanut butter won't last as long as it used to...

We got about seven inches of snow last night, but it was fine and powdery (because it's DANG COLD OUTSIDE!!!) so it was an easy snowblowing job this morning. I have DirecTV guys here, (the RIGHT ones, who WON'T be drilling holes in my house!) and so I'm sequestered in this morning for a while. The cable prices have gone up so much, it just seemed logical to go for DirecTV. It's HALF the price I'm paying for cable television. Sad.

Okay, I don't want to end on a depressing note, so have a happy day all!

Check. Check. Check.

Man, the days leading up to a big trip are always fraught with...what is it exactly? Stress? Anxiety? Craziness? I just might be with you, Laura. Maybe staying home for Christmas and relaxing could be a good thing...

But Hubby is not like that. He likes to be surrounded by "lots" of family for the Holidays. Probably because we have ZERO family here, and we only see them a few times a year. I see my own family even less. *sigh* That's what we get for moving so far away!

So, yesterday I was mostly a slug. I had a near-migraine most of the day, in my left eye, and nothing seemed to touch it. So, I started editing my NaNo story. I rewrote the entire beginning, because I think the way I originally wrote it was unappealing to teens, who are my target audience. I let my daughter read it and she begged for more chapters, so I guess that's a good sign. It's nice having a kid who appreciates my work! She's almost the age I'm shooting for, so it's all good.

Today, the headache is gone, but replaced by new ones--namely starting to pack, making cards for Hubby's work people, baking cookies for all the kids functions they have to bring cookies to, dry cleaners, grocery shopping (because one gallon of milk will NOT last us until Saturday night) AND I have lots of odds and ends to take care of. I've held the mail, and programmed the lights to make it look like we're home. Alerted the neighbors (we have a security system so it's not like anyone could break in anyway but I like to tell the neighbors). And I'm checking off my list. Check. Check. Check.

Hubby picks up his new car today (his lease expired) and he decided to "shake things up" with the color. Instead of a black sedan with black interior, he got "Smoky Granite Mica" (which I call "Gunmetal") with black interior. Yeah, I know, he's a major risk taker, isn't he? ;-)

Okay, now I have to make some phone calls because I have to run make a church visit and this woman's house is NOT on Mapquest! It's a brand new subdivision, so it isn't mappable. Niiice.

---------------UPDATE--------------------

She cancelled on me, because her daughter is throwing up. So, I don't have to go anywhere this morning! Woo! I'm glad, because it's COLD.

Gotta run! Happy Tuesday!

Baby it's Cold Outside...

Well, maybe not for WISCONSIN. It's a balmy zero degrees, with minus twenty windchill and gusts up to 30 mph. PERFECT weather if you're partial to frostbite and hypothermia...

I know, I'm a sarcastic brat. What can I say? Besides BRRRRR....

So, we had a good weekend. Saturday was busy, we had a soccer game and that night the kids got to go to a Bucks game with Hubby. His boss gave him four of his tickets (he has COURTSIDE season tix!) and the kids had the best. Time. Ever. And I got some "quiet time" with the baby, although he's not really that quiet anymore. He's VERY talkative. All those dendrites in his brain must be firing and going crazy, or something, because he is suddenly Chatty Kid. Seriously. But I think it's cute. He's more like a "stream of consciousness" talker. He'll talk about dinosaurs, pickle sandwiches, taking baths with rubber duckies and going "Bye-bye" all in one monologue. It's cute.

Sunday was interesting. We had family coming here for Christmas, but Hubby's dad fell and tore his OTHER rotator cuff in his shoulder (he had just had surgery to repair the left shoulder, now the right's out) and so they decided not to come here. Hubby was depressed because Christmas here, with no family would have been sort of lame.

So now, we're going to Idaho for Christmas. It all happened very fast, and we're leaving Saturday. We'll be there through the second of January. I feel like I need to cram five lifetimes worth of stuff into the next five days...or else. You know that feeling? EEEK!

I'm just SERIOUSLY looking forward to having the 19-month old on my lap on the plane. THAT will be a joy in itself. I'll have to take toys, games, snacks, load movies onto my iTouch, etc. just to pacify him. Although I may have an advantage: we don't leave until 7pm, and we get in at midnight. I am hoping he'll zonk on the plane and we won't have any of the "screaming-to-get-down" drama.

*sigh* Part of having kids.

Happy Monday!

I'd Rather Stab Out One of My Eyes...

...than go through what I went through last night.

What, you ask?

The Kids' Christmas Concert.

Mind you, the concert was just fine, but we got there five minutes before (instead of 15) because Thing One forgot her recorder and we had to run back to the house to get it, and by the time we got there, there were cars parked as far away as two blocks. Cars in ditches. Lining the streets on both sides. Parked on the playground of the school.

You can surmise, at this point, that we have a very small parking lot at the school. It's an old school. They can't help it.

I got stuck not once, but twice, trying to park, and finally drove BEHIND the school and parked in a loading zone. I didn't care at that point. Got the stroller and baby out (I had already dropped the kids off at the front of the school so they wouldn't be late) and walked about a mile in the freezing cold to the other side of the school, because all the other doors were locked.

I was frozen by the time I got inside the gym, and there were already several dozen people standing, because all the chairs and bleachers were full. Yeah, and and of COURSE I was wearing my cute black spiky boots, which aren't very fun to stand for long periods in. They weren't so "cute" after standing in them for an hour and fifteen minutes, the last half or so which was spent running after the baby because he discovered (to his glee) that if he screamed, I wouldn't pick him up and restrain him. So, he toddled everywhere, and I just had to watch him and curse my ill luck. I missed my daughter's solo (because at one point he almost ran out of the gym and I had to run after him in front of everybody, nearly tripping on my lovely black spiky boots) but for the most part it was Okay.

Hubby didn't make it. He tried to park about a half mile away, and the car by him slid into a ditch. He texted me, telling me he hated his life and he was going back home. Poor guy. Having to worry about that after a long day probably sent him over the edge.

SO, it was a very lame night. Getting OUT from where I parked was interesting too, because two more cars had copied me and had blocked me in. So we had to wait about ten minutes (since unfortunately for me, my car wasn't capable of sprouting wings and flying over the school) for the people to get to their cars and move them, so I could get out. I was gnashing my teeth pretty much by the time we finally drove out of the school lot.

SO, I redesigned my blog! I think this look is a lot more festive. I just wish I'd thought of it sooner. Oh well. Better late than never!

I am saying that a LOT, lately.

:-(

Potty Training A One-year Old???

I suspect Hubby is out of touch with reality. Especially about our youngest. Granted, I have an admission to make about Thing Four. He's 19 months old, and frankly, it's like he's a three-year old. He's an "old soul" in a baby's body. He rarely cries, he's sharp as a tack, and he talks like no tomorrow. He's...well...different from our first three kids.

And I know why.

It's because he has an 11, 9 and 8-year old, constantly playing with him, talking with him, reading to him, and he "thinks" he's older than he is. He's taken on a lot of things at a younger age than he technically should. I can actually "reason" with him and everything. HOWEVER, I will draw the line at potty training.

He's become "obsessed" with the "potty" lately. We had a few days where he liked to wander into the bathroom and "play" in the water. (Yuck.) Now that he's over that, he is obsessed with watching others "go potty." He talks about "going poo poo in the potty" and going "pee pee" in the potty. His favorite thing is to watch, and watch it get flushed.

I am not sure how I feel about this, but Hubby is convinced we should start letting him "go on the potty." HUH? Being curious about something and being "ready" for it are two different things.
Trust me, its not like I want to "hold on" to his babyhood or anything--changing diapers is NOT on my list of fun things to do. But I just think he's too young. I am glad he has a healthy interest in bodily functions and how to deal with them, but I think starting to potty train him is not in his best interest.

Hubby disagrees. Thoughts?

I am willing to buy a small potty, and let him sit on it while someone else is using the "grown up" potty, but that's it at this point. He's NOT EVEN TWO YET, for pete's sake!

I'm going to Target today, to round up some Christmas shopping. We're nearly done. Frankly, I hate being on a budget now, but it's just the time we live in. And frankly, I am REALLY GOOD at getting fun stuff on a budget. It also helps that my kids are easily pleased. I could go to the dollar store and buy them a bunch of cheap crap and they'd love it. They aren't toy snobs.

The kids' Christmas concert is tonight, and Hubby is making an effort to go. He rescheduled his business dinner for super early, so he could make it to the concert at seven. I told him I'd be on the front row, so I could make an escape to the side with the baby, if he decides he's "had it" with sitting in the stroller. :-)

Happy Thursday!

Lame Morning.

I just found out the Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit is at the Milwaukee Public Museum! I want to go! Thing Two is obsessed with Titanic, as I myself have always been. He built a model of Titanic, he's got these giant books and DVD's about it, and to his delight, I was able to download scans of the original manifest for him. He is interested in all things Titanic.

I've always been fascinated with Titanic myself. Thing Two hasn't seen the movie (for obvious reasons, he's a little young) but I was so excited when it finally got made.

Here's the kicker--admission to the exhibit is $25 per person! Eeek! Maybe I'll have to make that one of his Christmas presents. It seems a little steep for a few hours in a museum, although it will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The snow finally stopped yesterday. I was snowblowing around 6pm, and it was nice to not have snow blowing sideways into my face. I really, really HATE that.

Yesterday was a sort of lame day. And I went around in a perpetual state of NAUSEA, because wouldn't it be my luck that the NEARLY-FULL bottle of Downy Ultra-concentrated Fabric Softener fell on the floor and pooled there, all over the tiles. The smell was so cloying after a while (especially since I had to mop up the mess with towels) I smelled it on my clothes, in my hair, EVERYWHERE. I still can smell it. It is making me want to throw up. Niice.

So, we were supposed to get DirecTV this morning, and the tech guy said since I have a finished basement, he needed to drill holes in my house and run cables. Um, NO THANK YOU. So I had to cancel it, and I have to call a service to get someone out and run a cable through my house, so I won't have to have some person drilling holes. That just isn't right.

So--this morning has been a dud so far. Not to mention, I have a whopper of a headache. And now I'm cranky.

At least it's not snowing.

---------------------------------------UPDATE-------------------------------

I got on the phone with the company that wired my home originally, when it was a model home, and they said the tech guy was full of well, poop. It IS wired and satellite ready, and since they are also DirecTV installers, they can come out and do the right thing, since they know the house already. How awesome is that? And I think my Tylenol kicked in. No more headache. Things are looking up.

Now, to get rid of that nasty fabric softener smell!

Never Mind!!!

My kids literally yelled when I woke them up this morning. They were SURE it was going to be a snow day. But nope, the schools are open. We only got about seven inches. Nothing to close down school about.

Okay, that's another thing I hate about snow. When my kids TRACK IT IN THE HOUSE.

The geniuses who designed our house decided it would be great to put WOOD FLOORS in the mudroom. Yep. Wood floors. So when my kids come in, stamping all the snow off themselves (because somehow they've managed to roll into a snow drift about SEVEN times between the school bus stop and home) if I haven't put about 7842 towels down, there's water and mud and caca everywhere.

So, I make a "pathway of towels" to the laundry room, which has stone tile flooring, which is much safer than the wood. So they disrobe/deboot/shake themselves out in this room. And yes, I have to stand over them to make sure they put their snowpants in the basket, their gloves and hats in their coat sleeves and HANG them up, and their boots in the cubby.

Once I didn't stand over them and I had coats and hats, boots, mittens and snow carnage strewn from the back door in. I think when I finally went back and saw it, I might have broken a blood vessel in my eye, yelling at them to come clean it all up. :-D

Hubby and I got the snowblowers out and did the driveway and walkway this morning, and its supposed to snow all day and not end until midnight. We'll probaby do one more snowblow this evening, just to keep up with it.
I'm not going anywhere today. Just staying in. I ran around yesterday, getting groceries and stuff I needed. Now we're stocked and snug, and I'm just hanging out, enjoying the decorations. And cleaning bathrooms. And Laundry. And De-popcorning the basement theater carpet. (Oy, kids and popcorn, don't get me started!) So, I've got plenty to do.

Hope everyone is safe in the snow!

Hmmmm....

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my "big" little brother, Chris! Woo!

You know, for the Holidays approaching as fast as they are (well, Christmas, anyway) I am feeling quite...calm. Almost a little down.

I suppose it's because we are in for another really hard winter. Last year was ridiculous. Especially in February. We were so hard hit. They were cancelling school left and right, and the snow piled up and up and up. Our natural gas meter broke, in the extreme cold. So the Gas company decided to bill us what they "thought" we should be paying, which to this day, seems a little "unethical" to me.

And from what we've had so far (we're expecting another foot of snow by tomorrow night) things are shaping up to be similar to last winter.

UGH.

I really don't mind snow, honest. It's the biting, bitter cold, and the wind, that I can't handle. You know, when it's 40 below, with windchill, and as soon as you walk outside, the inside of your nose freezes up, and your ears suddenly have twice the pain receptors they normally do. I know, I'm sure that's tame compared to some parts of the world, but to me, it's difficult to maneuver around in.

I'm running to Home Depot this morning and getting some "stuff" before the big storm hits. And then the grocery store, because we're out of milk, and they seem to sell out of milk VERY quickly just before a storm. My children are milkaholics. I sometimes have to tell them to just "have some water." Although I'm secretly pleased they like milk. Healthy bones are important!

I'd better get going. I just wish the temps weren't in the SINGLE DIGITS. Gotta bundle up!

WOO HOO!

I am SO excited--it was a whopping whole FOUR degrees this morning! Or so my car told me as I was driving the kids to school. FABULOUS.

The sun is out, at least, and it's a beautiful (if cold) day.

Today Thing Three is eight! He is so excited. Instead of cupcakes for his class he wanted me to make Snickerdoodles. Apparently, he has bragged up my Snickerdoodles to all the teachers, and so I have a lot of pressure to deliver some tasty goods. Oh well, at least I know *he* likes them!

We have Thing One's last basketball game of the season tonight, then we will head straight to Five Guys (Thing Three's birthday request) and home for presents and cake. Last year I made him a Legend of Zelda cake, and it was a hit. This year, he has requested yet another theme from the Nintendo family: a Luigi's Mansion cake. For those of you who don't know, Luigi's Mansion is a now-defunct Gamecube game where Luigi goes through a mansion full of ghosts, to rescue his brother. It's the only game besides Mario Kart that I ever wanted to play. It's super fun! My boys loved it. So, I will make a Luigi's Mansion cake. Thing Three wants chocolate cake with chocolate frosting again, so that shouldn't be too hard. :-)

I have officially gotten all my Christmas decorations up, and I love how festive the house looks. LOVE. This time of year rocks. Only twenty days until Christmas!

It's Friday! I hope everyone keeps safe and warm. Happy Weekend!

I am Too Trusting.

So, as I was thinking about what to post about this morning, a "Java update" came onto my computer, and prompted me to proceed.

I have no idea what Java is. I know it's coffee in the "non" computer world, but in computer lingo, I'm lost. I only have the vaguest of ideas what Java does. Yet, I pushed "proceed" and installed the update.

Scary. Seriously. The next generation of hackers will probably think of something creepy like that, for Luddites like me. They'll cleverly disguise a program update (say, for "Java") and in actuality I'll be downloading a program that records my keystrokes and sends them back to the hackers/thieves. And I wouldn't even know, because I am so trusting, when it comes to software upgrades/updates.

SCARY.

Thing One is bugging me. Like a fool, I let her read the first book in the "Twilight" series. But ONLY the first book. I think the ensuing books are just a little sexually mature, for her eleven years. But now she's BEGGING me, every moment she can, to let her read New Moon. (The second book.) Apparently, SHE'S the one who got all her tween friends into Twilight, they all went and saw the movie (she hasn't, because Hubby doesn't like the subject material) and she has a mean, cruel mother, who won't let her read past book one, when all her friends are apparently greedily gobbling up the second book...as I type this.

I'm a mean mom. Cruel, I know. I gobbled up those books myself in about a week. But the main core of the story is a love story between a Human and a Vampire. And frankly, the Human is a Horny Human and is always trying to "get" with the vampire. Not exactly the fare I want my little girl reading. I told her when she's 14, she can read the other novels...maybe.

She probably hates me. She said if she saw the book in the library she'd check it out and read it behind my back. I told her I would be disappointed in her, and not trust her any more if she did that. She apologized.

She's a good girl, and I do trust her, but I am smacking myself in the head for even introducing her to the world of Twilight. Even my own MOTHER is obsessed (sorry Mom, but you subscribe to the Twilight Moms Website--that is pretty obsessive). It is very "Obsession-worthy," I'm the first to admit.

I, however, have chosen not to be obsessed. I have read all the books only once, and frankly, I skimmed through a fair amount of the last book--unfortunately Ms. Meyer lost me as a reader after she went against her own canon in the beginning of the book...and therefore I'm safe from "Twilight Obsession."

Yet my daughter, who is now "in love" with Edward Cullen, is not. Tedious. Very tedious. I'll have to be very very careful with this one. There's nothing as formidable as Tween Angst. ;-)

Time to run and get some birthday presents! My sweet seven-year old boy (Thing Three) will be turning eight tomorrow, and I still can't believe it. Time flies!

Stranger than Fiction.

I've been having strange dreams lately. And I mean STRANGE. Is it the Christmas candy? The quesadillas I made for dinner? (Cheddar cheese, hello!)

I'm just not sure. But I have had a strange dream literally every night for about two weeks. But last night's dream? Strange, but AWESOME.

If any of you have been watching Eleventh Hour on TV like I have (yes, I know it's chees-ey and really tests your intelligence sometimes with its leaps and non-realistic plotlines--but I just watch it because I adore Rufus Sewell) you will know the relationship of Dr. Jacob Hood and his FBI-trained handler, Rachel. Well, we watched our DVR'd weekly Eleventh Hour last night, and I proceeded to have the following dream:

Dr. Hood and I (I was playing the part of Rachel) ended up at a University to find a drug smuggler. I happened to know this was the particular university an ex-boyfriend of mine was attending, so I was a little nervous to see him again. (In reality, he broke my heart in 1992--and he would be 37 years old today, but yes, he was still attending college in my dream). Let's call him "Bozo." I won't use his real name. And yes, I'm still a little bitter. Maybe because I've never gotten true closure.

ANYWAY, Dr. Hood knew of my trepidation over running into "Bozo" and just to be funny, he tripped a fire alarm on purpose, so all the students would have to troop sleepily out of the dorms in the middle of the night. And lo and behold, there was "Bozo," looking just as young as the day he dumped me...for a petite, perfect blonde freshman. (And tragically for me, her apartment was just across and to the left of mine--I had a clear view of her front door, and so for an entire two semesters I had no choice but to watch him go to her apartment every day, and watch the two of them date and fall in love and get engaged. Yeah, they got married too. It was a very low point of my life. Although I WILL say, I couldn't eat anything for about six months, so I lost a LOT of weight. So, a small perk. But I digress...)

ANYWAY, Bozo saw me and I tried to look all aloof and professional, but he gaped at me and I rolled my eyes and Dr. Hood appeared and told me I needed to search Bozo's dorm room. So I did. And I found lots of drugs, in his roommate's drawer. BUSTED.

Anyway, Bozo struck up a conversation with me after they cuffed and hauled his roommate away, and told me he was happily married with eight (Yes, EIGHT) kids. I looked at him, and realized that he was in NO WAY near as good looking as the man I married, (Bozo was too buff, with hair like a brillo pad, etc.) and I told him I had four kids and I was happily married and he congratulated me and walked back into his room.

And we were done. And I felt like I had some closure. Who knows if Bozo actually has eight kids, I really don't care anymore, because he got to see that I was truly over him. I think after last night's dream, after 16 years, I finally am? Maybe now I can go trash the box of 104 letters and countless pictures he sent me every week for the two years he served a mission--as I WAITED FOR HIM. Yeah, you're starting to put the whole story together, aren't you?

Strange dream, but nice.

Anyone care to intrepret THAT one? I believe it was pretty obvious.

;-)

We are supposed to get lots more snow today. I ran to the store and dry cleaners early this morning, and the flakes started coming down just as I was driving home. Now I'm going to hang out at home and just decorate and play with my cute chubby little buddy. Except the whole "touching the Christmas tree every chance he gets" bit. I am not so fond of that one...

Murphy's Law # 472898

Okay, so what is the deal with me and "yardwork?" This time of year, it will be snowblowing.

I will admit, I've never used a snowblower. My dad always did it, and until Monday morning, we had a service do our driveway.

So, this year, we decided, to save a bunch of $$ per month, we'd do it ourselves. Hubby had the brilliant idea to get TWO snowblowers, so we'd get it done in half the time. We tried it together the first time. I had to remember to flip about five switches and make about three adjustments before I could even start the darn thing, and once it was started, I had to maneuver it and switch gears and levers AND figure out the chute spray...highly complicated. But I did it. I was proud of myself.

Yesterday, we had 30 mph winds. And of course they were blowing OPPOSITE of where I wanted the snow to go. The end result was me, finally giving up and stomping inside looking like a human snowperson. I just needed a carrot in my mouth and some coal buttons. The wind blew it in my face every time. UGH. Figures.

At least I tried.

I got one tree up yesterday, and hung the stockings, but that was about it. Then I spent roughly five hours vacuuming up fake pine needles. Those are the worst. They're not thick, like real pine needles, so unless you have the Super Sucker Vacuum, you're out of luck. After vacuuming the family room three times, I figured I'd call it a day.

This is, hands down, my favorite time of year. Everything is new, the decorations are a novelty, the stores are still crammed with merchandise...the frenzy hasn't quite begun. Although, the baby has decided that despite my attempts to explain to him that he CANNOT TOUCH the vintage decorations on the Christmas tree, he wants to touch anyway. Or flick. Or jingle. I'm waiting for when he takes on the tree at a run. It's happened before.

Oh well. Babies and elaborate Christmas trees just don't mix. Anyone with cats can understand my frustration. :-)

On today's agenda: Grocery Shopping (Prince Caspian is out on DVD), dry cleaners, get two more trees up and the lights and garland on the bannister, frou frou the rest of the house and remember to take Thing One to her basketball tournament.

Tomorrow I get to go to Home Depot! Hurrah!!!

Peace and Quiet

*Sigh* I almost don't know what to do with myself!

The last two weeks have been...nothing short of CRAZY. INSANE. Whatever word you can think of. But I got through them, and I'm here. Kids are at school, Hubby is back to work, and it's just me and Thing Four, and a quiet house.

It's actually sort of...weird.

I had gotten used to the constant chaos. I had gotten used to never being on the computer, and literally being busy from morning until wee hours of the morning again. (They LOVED late-night movies!)

And we have snow now...lots of snow. Hubby and I were busy with the snowblowers last night, and I can't really move my arms, they are so sore. I am going to attempt getting the Christmas decorations up this week, and that should be fun. I'm pacing myself.

I have decided I want to edit the NaNo story, but first, I have to finish it. Apparently it needs a little more "telling." 50K words just wasn't all the story. So, I will finish it while I have the momentum going, and edit, and see what happens. Maybe it will end up in a file, or a drawer. But hey, at least I did it!

Now I am itching to work on my sequel--and I broke down and went to B&N last week and bought "Archaeology for Dummies" and I'm using that as a reference.

I hope everyone had a happy and safe Thanksgiving! Happy December First!