Any New Year's Resolutions?

Nah.


I'm not one to make too many resolutions, but I have an overwhelming since of starting fresh this year. Kind of like an early attack of spring cleaning. (Or very very late, since it should have been done last year.)


I think the reason is several-fold.


One, this December (thanks to each family Christmas celebration) the girls have come down with two colds in one month. And I have an urge to Lysol the entire house.


Two, there is hardly a clean surface to set the mail down on when you walk in the door. In fact today as I was cleaning a stack of old mail off the counter, I found not one, but two unopened Christmas cards. One was postmarked December 14th! Shameful! Thank goodness I had already included them in my card mailout.


Three, the mess doesn't end there. Clothes. Piles and piles of clothes. And over half of them don't fit anyone in this house. So why are they still taking up valuable real estate???


Four, we have a boy child on the way--and no place to put him or his paraphernalia!


Five, the tree is still up! And it's real, remember? That means vacuuming needles on a regular basis. You know, like when I get off my lazy booty. And the huge Barbie dollhouse that the girls got for Christmas is in the middle of the floor because until the tree is down, there is no room for it.


Six, back to the boy child on the way. I need to get things done before he gets here and there is no room (or time) to do crafty stuff (like finishing Little's m's Christening blanket so I can start on his Or working on about 50 birth announcements) without reorganizing the house.


So long story longer, I need to make a New Year's Resolution this year (and keep it). I need to re-organize this house and pack away stuff we don't need until we move to the new one. The hard part is having the energy. Seriously, when these attacks of organization usually hit, I go through like a whirlwind getting the room, or closet, or whatever it is finished--fast as fast. But there is not so much whirl in my wind....tee-hee. That means I have to do little bits at a time, and that gets frustrating!

Oh well. I'm not down about it. Just on a mission! And guess what came in the mail yesterday? Scrapbooks Etc. Now I have to put reading that on hold...(and you know how I feel about that!)

Magazines

I am acutely addicted to magazines. I currently subscribe to Papercrafts and Scrapbooks Etc. My mom just signed me up for a free subscription to Better Homes and Gardens and my mother in law says she's signing me up for Country Woman.

I'm likely going to drop my Papercrafts when it comes due. It's only coming (late) every other month, and it's getting thinner and thinner. I'm seriously considering signing up with All You. It has lots of info and tons of coupons.

My favorite thing to do is sit with a big old stack of brand new magazines and just page through them. Good advertisement catalogs are fun too. I prefer ones like Current and Mary Maxim. But I'll happily leaf through Victoria's Secret or Chadwicks. And I love how right around Christmas I'll get ones like Signals or What on Earth. And of course all the toy magazines.

When I'm travelling or under stress (like travelling to the inlaws) or about to be checked into the hospital for childbirth, I make a special trip to the store to purchase a big stack of magazines. Then the hardest thing is not peeking at them until I get to my destination! There they sit, all shiny and unopened just calling to me. It's worse for me than the anticipation of Christmas morning was as a child.

So how about you? What are your favorite magazines? Am I alone in my addiction?

Santa came to town on a motorcycle

For the last year or so my dad has been saying he wants to buy a motorcycle. He used to have one years ago and he also had a small bike that my brother and I rode on when we were younger. It was so much fun.

So last year we even went with him to a couple of bike shops in town. Turns out that at the time, gas prices were so high, that the shops couldn't keep the bike dad wanted in stock. Bikes get really good gas mileage. And in fact that's what spurred dad to look then, he could use it for driving around POC and back and forth to work. My mom (and I) have always half-heartedly protested his purchasing a bike...mostly for the safety issues.

My dad has eight brothers. He is of course closer to some than others. Mostly the ones close in age to him, the ones he 'grew up' with. My Uncle Paul is one of the ones he is very close to. Paul is my mom's age and they used to drive to college together before my dad and her were married. Then when my brother and I were small Paul lived with us for a short while. He later got married and had two wonderful boys. Sadly his wife passed away after battling melanoma several years ago. As you can imagine, her teenage sons and husband were dealt a harsh blow.

Through it all my dad and Paul (and his boys) have remained close to our family. Paul now travels a great deal for work and he and my dad golf every chance they get. Paul has one of the most generous hearts of anyone I know. So it really was no shock at all that he played secret Santa this year for my dad...

Well, I guess initially there was some shock...

And tears of joy...

And smiles. Definitely smiles.

What an amazing family I am a part of.

Merry Christmas!

We're off to POC tonight! This girls opened presents here this morning--Santa did good this year, and mom and dad didn't do to bad either!

Maybe when we get back I'll upload pics of all our Christmases. For now here's a couple more from the 'photo shoot' in front of our tree. The one in the rocking chair went out in our Christmas cards.

Y'all have a blessed and safe Christmas!!

Digital Images

I've never really been a fan of digital anything. It took me years to break down and get a digital camera. And not until I recently got the Canon SLR digital did I actually like it. Forget digital cell service. I mean with analog at least you could hear a person through static, with digital...just dropped calls.

So with scrapbooking I'm the same way...big shocker there. I never grasped why you would want to use fake embellishments. That's not to say I haven't seen beautifully done digital pages. In fact I've seen lots of gorgeous ones. But to me half of the fun of scrapbooking is trying to find an adhesive that works! Ha!

Yesterday though I was looking at Leslie's blog and she posted a link to some digital images at Karen's Doodles. Now I'm still not sold on the whole digital thing, but you have to admit, those are some cute pictures to color in. As I scrolled through her work, THIS one stuck out to me. I mean it would be easy enough to color it to look like two older sisters with a little brother, right? And how appropriate and cute would that be for next year's Christmas card?!?

And how funny is THIS one? As an occasional 'hunting widow' I can totally see the humor in that!

Anyway, my point is if I do decide to go digital with scrapbooking stuff it would have to be on something like an image. Because then I could still color it in. And I do love to color...

PS Sarah, I haven't forgotten your blog candy. It's a little hectic right now, so I'll try to get it in the mail next week. I'll be sure to email you and let you know it's on the way!!

To excited to sleep

Remember this commercial a few years ago? That was me at 4am this morning. Not because I was going to Disney world, but because we were going to our ultrasound! My appointment was scheduled for 1:40pm. HOURS away! And then the doc's office called before nine this morning. They wanted to push my appointment back to 2pm. UUUHHHHGGGG! I can't wait any longer. "Sure, no problem, see you then."

First we went to the wrong office. Then we finally got there. Okay here's what you really came here to find out...It's a BOY! We are still in total shock! And very excited to begin a new rollercoster!

He was moving around SO much he kept the tech laughing. She was chasing him all around my belly with the wand. Everything looks good and measures normal. He weighs exactly one pound.

We are so very grateful for another healthy baby-boy or girl-what a blessing!

Third Time Around

There is something profoundly exhausting about being pregnant with two small children. Yes, Little d is five, but I consider her small in that she's not driving and running errands for me. And Little m has enough energy for all of us...and then some.


I am much more out of shape and older this time around. With Little d's pregnancy I was still walking on the treadmill (insert hearty laugh here) at this point in the pregnancy and...let me check my book...yes I only weighed SIX extra pounds. Are you kidding me? I think I weighed SIX extra pounds before the test turned blue this time. And at this point, I'm the one turning blue, gasping for air just doing simple tasks like...telling a story to my BFF on the phone or walking halfway up the stairs.


Okay let's talk about the weight gain for a minute. Now I am one of those people who HATE to hear a pregnant woman say she is fat. I mean I really hate it. That being said, I am afraid that this time I will go well over the recommended weight gain. I mean well over. Which I can deal with but I just know how frustrating that will be once the baby is born. (Okay not right away, but like six months down the road.) I plan on breastfeeding and if you've ever done that you know that dieting (or even just curbing what you eat) while breastfeeding is cruel and unusual punishment. I mean breastfeeding hunger is like pregnancy hunger magnified with a good helping of sleep deprivation thrown in. And besides that, it's not healthy for the baby. So, as with pregnancy, the only restrictions I will follow is no caffeine, medications, and alcohol. (I don't drink, but you would be surprised how many really good salad dressings have wine in them. And that's how anal I am about following the no alcohol rule!)


Stress. This time around I stress about things way out of my control, like H1N1. But I'm also stressing about building the house or rather, not building the house. About Little d starting school next year. About politics. About the economy. You name it, and I've probably broken down in tears about it at some point.


Varicose veins. They're not just for legs anymore.


Here's something funny. I told my husband (during the summer I was preggo with Little m) "next time you're knocking me up in the winter." He dutifully complied, God bless him. And guess what? Turns out that being hot and pregnant is just as miserable as being cold and pregnant. Good news is I have a cousin who passed on several pairs of blue jeans so I don't have the headache of short-shopping this time around with the bonus of not jean shopping either!


This time around I'm in new territory. Neither my mom, or my best friend, or really anyone else I know well have more than two kids. So that leaves me charting the path to mommyhood-with-three on my own. Dragging everyone along with me for the ride!

Slacker!

I have been a bad blogging buddy of late. I find myself doing things around the house or just being lazy rather than surfing the internet. And of course Little d is always wrestling the laptop away from me for playing dressup games and Disney princess stuff.

For starters this week, I was just relaxing after getting back from the weekend at the inlaws. Then Little d, promptly followed by Little m came down with a cold. Nothing too serious thankfully, just enough for crankiness and sleepless nights. Both girls are much better now and I sit and wait to see if I will inherit it. Mostly I am of the mindset that I don't care if I catch it, I just want to get it over with before my ultrasound appointment Tuesday!

Speaking of health care...we were weren't we?.....it appears that this monstrous bill will pass. You all know my feelings on it. I got to page 90 of the bill. I'm glad I didn't waste any more time reading it since it's not the one they are passing. The version I was reading was FULL of beauracracy. I really have no idea how they think this will lower costs. For one reason, if doc offices have to hire more people to handle all the new paperwork...guess who they will pass that cost onto? Enough of that.

I am so excited to watch the girls open presents on Christmas. I can hardly wait. I still need to wrap them, but that may wait until Monday.

Still nothing new to report on the house building front. D is thinking about getting railroad timbers to help build up the driveway since it has turned to mush with all the rain. Sigh. I just wish things were moving along out there.

Did I mention I can't wait until Tuesday?!? Boy or girl? Hopefully we'll find out then!!

Keep warm and dry where ever you are!

Long lost cousin

Well I guess that title isn't entirely accurate, she hasn't been lost. We just haven't been in contact.

I got to meet someone today for the first time. She's my cousin. My mom's brother's daughter. She is my age (35) and the last time I 'saw' her we were babies. My uncle had a severe mental illness and he and his wife divorced many years ago. They lived in another state and I never saw her. Eventually my uncle moved back here, but he really had no contact with his daughter. And if you knew him you would know why.

Two summers ago my uncle passed away from cancer. By the time he was examined by a doctor (he refused to see one), it was stage four and he was given a couple of weeks to live. My mom was with him in the hospital the night he died. I can't imagine what that was like for her. He was so mentally ill (paranoid) that he was very verbally abusive to her even though for the last several years she has been his primary caretaker. Yet she loved him through it all and never turned her back on him even when the rest of us were so fed up with him we couldn't stand to be around him. Mental illness is a wicked wicked thing.

My mom decided she needed to get in touch with his daughter to let her know he had passed away. They kept in touch through facebook and have over the last year been getting to know each other.

She's in the military between assignments and decided to stop here to visit her grandparents before checking in to her next base. It was a surreal experience for me. Here's this girl that I am just as related to as my other 30-odd cousins, but I really don't know at all. She looks a little like my uncle to me. More like old pictures of him than the crazed image of him I hold in memory. We have some things in common. We both crochet. We both like stuffed crab. We both have worked in a male dominated field. But there is so much I don't know about her at all.

Does she like the color pink? Does she believe in God? Does she want children someday?

I hope in time I get to learn more about her. I hope she can find peace with her dad's illness and the rift it caused between her mom and my grandparents.

I am thankful for today. She's no longer "the cousin I've never met."

Home again, home again

Big sigh that the weekend is over. Of course since I've become the golden daughter in law, things are much easier on me. That and the fact that I'm carrying another grandchild.

We somehow came home with way more gifts than we took, the girls had a good time for the most part. Little d had more fun than Little m. Little m doesn't really get loud boisterous crowds of people she doesn't yet know, so it was Sunday evening before she came out of her shell and acted like herself around her Nana and Opa. They rarely get to see that side of her, so I was happy about that.

I was pretty peaceful the whole weekend. I prayed the entire trip over there. I prayed for my daughters, my husband, myself. I prayed for family and friends. I prayed for all kinds of things. And I think it helped. I find when I'm in the car driving or somewhere quiet and I'm antsy or bored I think, 'mere, you have this whole time to pray, why don't you use your time wisely.'

There were some things that occurred with my oldest niece that have me a little concerned. I don't exactly know what to think about it yet or what to attribute it too (meaning the divorce or not). I've talked to my husband about it, and my BFF who works as an aid in public school and deals with all kinds of kids and situations. I won't blog about it, but I ask that you just keep her and her family in your prayers if you're inclined to do so.

To sum things up, I am so glad to be home again. My biggest gripe is people who take their clearly miserable sick kids out in public. A) the child is not having fun. B) we don't want our kids to get it. AND C) pamper your ill child and don't act like he needs to quit whining and suck it up...he's not even TWO years old for crap's sake! Ok, enough.

Home again, home again....and so glad!

On 'Vacation'

Well tonight we leave for the inlaws house. I'll be out of the loop until Monday--how will I survive??!

Wish me luck! D is taking the trailer over there, so if things get too hairy, we have a place to hide...HA! Hopefully all will go smoothly and the girls will all get along and rainbows and fairies for all!

On that merry note I'll leave you with the last picture from our little Christmas photo shoot yesterday. Right before the meltdowns began....

Hope you all have a great and relaxing weekend!

Peppermint Bark 09

Here's something productive and sweet. For the past few years I've been making peppermint bark at Christmas time to put in gifts. It's most fun to do with two wild monkeys wanting to help.



In case you wanted to make some for your very own...here's a breakdown. It's pretty easy. Even I can't screw it up.



First crush a box of candy canes. Or if you are lucky like me, you sat up all night with insomnia when you were pregnant in 04 and fell in love with the infomercial for the Magic Bullet Blender and your wonderful mom got you one for Christmas that year. Because those things pulverize the candy canes way easier and less messy than doing it with a mallet and Ziploc bag.



Next you melt a bag of Andes mints baking chips (or box of the unwrapped mints). I put mine in a measuring cup in the microwave. You have to stir it and work with to get the mint to dissolve into the chocolate. Next pour it out on a sheet of waxed paper. Let it set up. It starts to loose it's shine.

Next step, you melt half a package of white almond bark. You know it's that vanilla candy coating. I do mine in the microwave also. Then pour and spread it over the chocolate.

Immediately sprinkle the crushed canes on it. If the pieces aren't quite powder like mine end up, press them gently into the white bark because some with fall off when you break it into pieces. Which leads up to the next step. Break it into pieces while peeling it off the waxed paper.

The original recipe called for putting it on a cookie sheet and refrigerating between layers, but I found that it stuck to the cookie sheet and was a pain to get off. Also when I pulverize my canes, I end up using only half of the canes on one recipe. Actually today I made three recipes with only one box of canes.

Good night and sweet dreams!

What I accomplished today.

First I woke up way too early. But it was nice to see my husband and dad off on their hunting trip.

Mom stayed here with the girls while I ran errands. What a blessing. The weather was horrible. Well I should re-phrase. The visibility was horrible. It was like driving through an M Night Shamalan movie. All mist. (PS I've really only seen one of his movies and that was Signs and it didn't have mist that I remember. Creepy. But no mist.)

Anyway. First stop the photo lab. There is the little place in town that's been here forever. And if you want good prints, I mean really high quality prints, you go there. Not Walmart. And definitely not (shudder) Walgreens. So I had pictures of D's grandparents printed. They should be ready tomorrow. (See-not really a ready in an hour type of place.)

Next I shopped like I have 25 kids. I went to Walmart to get gifts for my two nieces, and three boy children in the family. Oh and while we're on the subject of boy children types...I have no idea what a little boy would like. Legos? Transformers? GI Joe? Swords? Hot wheels? Crap. I started to get stuffed animals, but thought....no, definitely more girl... So I ended up with three 5 packs of Matchbox cars. We'll see. These boys are 2, 4, and 5. I figure the 2 year old will play with the same thing his 5 year old brother would play with. And the 4 year old is their cousin, so they can all race or dog pile them or what the hell ever boys do.

I also had to get toys for the two names that were drawn for Little d and Little m. Guess what? All the kids at Grandma's house and we got two boys. Ages 6 and 10. I got the 6 year old Legos, and the 10 year old GI Joe walkie talkies. Then found out this evening that the mom of the six year old gave away his Legos...guess he wasn't playing with them. SO now I have to return those and get him a gift card to "Gamestop" a video game store. Whoa is me if this baby is a boy. I am sooooo clueless.

Then I had to get two baby gifts. One boy and one girl. Those are fun to shop for though. And some warm PJs and hats and mitts for my girls. Let's just say the shopping bill today...high with a chance of thunder. HA! I'm so clever. Any way. I am SO prepared for Christmas this year! BRING IT ON SANTA!

OH I have to tell one more funny. (I hope I haven't already told you this story--I'm too lazy to go check) I bought my husband Transformers 2 for Christmas. We really aren't doing gifts this year since we're building the house {I totally use the term building loosely since nothing has been done in weeks due to weather.} So I get him this DVD knowing it would totally surprise him and totally be his type of movie. Then he tells me the other day he wants to order it on pay-per-view. I distract him. No not like that! I convince him we should watch G I Joe...which I totally fell asleep during. ANYWAY he went out shopping yesterday and bought GI JOE so I could finish it (how sweet) and TRANSFORMERS 2 for himself. Goof-nut. So the surprise is blown.

I totally used the word totally 4 times in the last paragraph. English teachers everywhere are groaning. Have a good night!

Merry and Bright

I've taken the time to upload a few more pictures and our computer is SO slow right now, it took forever!

Here's a few more of the girls playing in the snow from Friday. Why, yes, Little d is sticking her tongue out in every single picture I have of her in the snow...

And the moring after the snow we woke to a brillant frost covered yard. Yes this is the back yard, and yes, the weeds really do grow that big in Texas...especially if you don't mow.

Here's a glimpse of one of my favorite ornaments on the tree.

And these are the beautiful flowers my husband bought me for our anniversary last week. These flowers seem to last a really long time. Not sure what they are called. I've seen them a lot in arrangements.

I have so much to do this week. We are going to the inlaws for Christmas next weekend, and I need to do stuff for that. Yeah. Hopefully we get to take our Christmas pictures in the next few days also...

A couple of wedding cards

The first one is the one that D's aunt ordered for next weekend. Really love Silhouette papers for wedding cards.

Here's a detail of the vellum flower. I stamped in bamboo and then used clear e.p.

D's going to his cousin's wedding today so I made this quick card for him to take. The base is from a set of black and cream cards by Paper Studio.

I really really wish CTMH would keep the adhesive pearls in their embellishment section. I use the heck out of those things!

Details: all CTMH except Paper Studio card base on second card. (oh and the scallop border punch from SU!)

This global warming stuff isn't so bad...

And this post isn't even a commentary on the whole global warming-oops-now-we're-calling-it-climate-change scam.

For the second time in my life, I've witnessed snow falling. The first was in 2004 in POC. We had about 14 inches of snow. It was the first time in snowed in over 100 years there. It was completely awesone. Little d was four months old and it began snowing on Christmas Eve and snowed all night until mid-Christmas morning. Absolutely magical. I have no pictures of my daughter's first Christmas in POC because I spent my ONE roll of film taking pictures of snow. I know, who packs one roll of film? Can I blame it on sleep deprivation...severe sleep deprivation?

Anyway, today it snowed here. A little, but enough to take pictures of. This was our yard:

Here's Little m in the snow. I have a few pictures of her with a bewildered look (not here on the laptop). It was as if she was wondering 'what the heck are we doing out in this crazy cold?' The novelty of the snow wore off quickly and she said "cold cold cold" and then "back inside".

Little d however, could not get enough! She wanted to eat the ice so bad she was scrapping it off the truck and licking her hands! Ewwww! I tried to stop her. She loved it.

And I told D to get a picture of the baby in the snow too. Well that means you get to see me in all my puffy face, no makeup glory! You're welcome.

D and I went and got our real tree this morning in the falling snow. I'll post pictures tomorrow. Magical!

Updates and Candy Award

Congrats to Sarah for winning the blog candy...it was a close call...what with one entry! {wink} Seriously, stop by her blog and check out all the cute work she does!

Also Kelley (who I told you was battling cancer) has had a successful surgery and great pathology report. You can get updates through her blog, or her husband's blog.

Now I must go make a wedding card for D's aunt. Remember me telling you she ordered those 20 Christmas cards? Well when D dropped them off, she paid me $20. (that's what I told D they were worth.) But then today I get a thank you note from her and she included $50 in local gift certificates!! That woman! She's sneaky. Anyway, she wants a wedding card for two weeks from now, so I'm going to get it done now!

Thanks for stopping by!

Rain rain go away!

Well things are definitely on hold with all the rain we've been getting. I'll say a big "you're welcome" to farmers and ranchers around Texas for single-handedly ending the worst drought in 50 years of Texas history by starting our house.

We still don't have a tree. Our artificial one is in storage in POC and it would be Thursday or Friday before D could go get it. (it weighs a TON). So I'm leaning towards trying a real one this year. It might be fun to have a real one for our last Christmas in this house. Don't tell D but I really want to put up a couple of trees in the new house...

If any of you fellow consultants have a MyCTMH site you would like me to direct customers to, let me know. I'll be sending out an email telling them about the online clearance sale later today or tomorrow. I don't have one, and I don't know anyone locally that does, so I thought if I were throwing business around I would try you my fellow bloggers. Don't get you're hopes too high though. None of my customers are really buying anything...for months now.

I feel like this pregnancy is racing by. I think it's because I am so busy thinking about house and Christmas stuff and plans. I have been feeling more and more movement which I am so happy about. I am savoring every minute of that, because this will likely be my last pregnancy. I have a feeling there will be a lot of sappiness on my part because of that, especially with every milestone that passes. {Of course watch God surprise us in a couple of years....}

New Moon was an awesome movie in my opinion. Get this. We purposefully waited until it had been out for a while to miss the huge crowds. The Cinemark here has it showing on 3 screens, so I thought it would be pretty safe by now. Then we chose the noon time slot to avoid screaming tweens and teens. So we pull up and are happy to note about 5 cars in the parking lot. As we are waiting in the concession line, guess what? A bus of teens from an area school pull up. Wild guess as to what movie they ended up seeing... Oh well, I guess it wouldn't have been the complete theater experience without a couple of teen girls screaming when Jacob took his shirt off.

My wonderful husband brought me flowers last night for our anniversary AND an evergreen wreath for the door. (I get one every year and hang it on the inside so even with a fake tree we still have a little of the real tree smell!) It was perfect timing too, just yesterday afternoon Little d said "mom, it seems like everyone is getting ready for Christmas except us!"

Okay today's the last day for the BLOG CANDY draw. It closes at midnight tonight.

Eight Years...

or at least that's which anniversary I think it is if I did the math correctly.

It's seems longer, but in a good way. We're great compliments for each other. He's laid back. I'm high strung. He's slow with everything. I'm at ninety miles an hour. He's an early bird. I'm a night owl.

He stops in stores to say hi to people he knows....I hide and pretend I don't see them.

He loves country music. I'm more rock and roll.

Around the house, I'm very vocal. He's very not.

But we have alot in common. We love to laugh. We have a strong faith. We're conservative. Our goals are the same. We work well together on projects. We make amazing kiddos. We've been together long enough to complete each others thoughts and sentences. We put up with what I call each others 'weird stuff'. You know, our proclivities.

The best part about D, and I've said this since I've met him, is he accepts me just the way I am. He has never tried to change me. And to be married to someone like that is a pretty good place to be. If fact I could never fathom why you would marry someone and want to change them. I even mentioned that last year.

If you want to read about our wedding HERE's the post from last year. It really was a perfect day.

(Oh and guess how I'm spending my anniversary? Going to see New Moon with my mom and sister in law. Hehehe....D has to work.)

Almost forgot to mention the BLOG CANDY.