HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We decided to just have a "quiet" New Year's Eve at home with all our kids. (That's five kids running around crazy on caffiene and snack foods - so it's not REALLY all that quiet!)

At first we were sad because it's the first time in eleven years we've experienced New Years without at least ONE set of friends over!!

But it turns out that was really a good decision.

#1 all that snow that's been melting all day has suddenly frozen solid and all roads are now covered with ice.

#2 all the usual New Year's Eve (usually drunken) crazies are out tonight.

#3 all the full moon crazies are out tonight.

and # 4 all the BLUE MOON crazies are out!!

Thank goodness everyone I know is staying home!!!

HAVE A HAPPY AND SAFE NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

(2010 just hit New York ... less than an hour to go!! I'LL SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!!!)

PS I'm not drunk (with five kids it's a dry NYE) but by golly I'm so tired I might as well be!

The Tragedy of the Comet Goldfish

My son Teddy got a coupon for a goldfish. After finding one of our old fishtanks we headed to the pet store. It turns out the coupon was for a comet goldfish (commonly known as the "feeder" goldfish like the ones you can win at a fair). I made sure everyone knew that ONLY Teddy was getting a fish.

Weeeell, the four year-old just fell head over heels in love with this tiny white one. He just got so excited that my heart melted and when I found out the fish were only ten cents each I went ahead and let everybody pick one out. I knew these little fish were infamous for not living very long, but most websites I researched said if you take good care of them they can live for ten years!

Weeeeeell, Angel's "princess" died yesterday. She took it well.

And today we found out that Bossman's beloved white fish died. He did NOT take it well. We couldn't bury it because the ground is frozen and there is 6 inches of snow over it. We had to flush it. Poor little Bossman held his fish and put his cheek to it saying goodbye. It was enough to break your heart!! After the final flush he plodded out to the living room and crumpled on the floor. He is sad but he isn't crying. I feel so bad about it I'm tempted to buy him a new one - but I don't want to have to go through THIS again!

Poor baby.

Holiday Hangover

Okay, so everyone was excited that Christmas was coming. Everyone got a bunch of presents. Now all the gifts are open and all the wrapping paper, boxes, and excess Xmas garbage has been cleaned up, we're living off the Christmas dinner leftovers and now we're sitting in a semi-clean house while all the kids are quietly busy with their new toys.

I should be relaxed and happy, instead I am so exhausted I just can barely keep my eyes open. I have talked to other people I know and I am not the only one suffering from this phenomenon. I am calling it "holiday hangover" because none of us is ourselves. We are all so tired! The days are supposedly getting longer but I haven't felt it yet. The five inches of snow and ice that have fallen in the past 72 hours certainly isn't helping in THAT sense.

I am so tired I can barely speak correctly. I am slurring words and have forgotten which name goes to which kid (lol).

For once I am grateful my two stepkids are gone because my two youngest will go to bed early if I need them to and my middle child - who is the oldest when the stepkids are gone - is perfectly content to play his little games quietly or watch TV until he goes to bed. He is the only child who doesn't have to be almost constantly watched.

So I might go to bed early tonight. I am just so tired.

Good night!

Yay!

Wow, hope your Christmas was a good as mine! (It'd be hard to top, though).

Here's some random reading for ya:

God in 2009

and

2009's top news stories (for this website anyway).

Enjoy!

In case you care (and usually no one does) I am reading the Lord of the Rings appendixes, the complete works of William Shakespeare, the Bible, and soon I will restart The Clan of the Cave Bear.

Luvies:
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Is there anything else I can do wrong today??

Xmas Eve. Always a fun day if you know how to channel your stress right.

Stores close early so I tried to make sure I had everything we needed. I knew we were planning on having Xmas dinner at our house. I did not know Ed had invited his parents.

I spent all day cleaning the house. I managed to make devilled eggs, a vegetable tray (that was called "beautiful" thank you very much) and a "meat and cheese" tray.

Ed gave me a last minute gift for someone which I promplty lost (cuz I was cleaning) but I found it and wrapped it quick and we were off.

First of all I was suprised at the amount of compliments I got because I wasn't wearing one smidge of makeup. Apparently I look better without it? I'll still wear it because in PICTURES (you know, the things that last forever?) I look better with makeup on.

The present I picked out for Mark turned out to be way too small (I don't see size when I look at a person - sorry!) and the present I wrapped last minute? Whoops - not the present. Instead of the game card I accidentally wrapped up my warantee card for the stereo I bought poinsetta. Boy did I feel STUPID LOL!

Then when we had to leave I was trying to get home and this happened to be the second time ever I was driving home from my brother in-law's new house and it was dark and it was raining. Anyone who really knows me knows I have a stigmatism which is worse at night and downright awful in the rain. I have glasses to help compensate but wet roads at night are still hard - even worse when they are roads I'm unfaamiliar with. Well we were headed down this stretch of road and suddenly the road ended. It split into two turn-off roads with grass between them. I had no idea that was coming and I misjudged where the road was and ended up in the mud. Luckily I was going fast enough that I slid back out onto the blacktop and except for the Mr. no one knew I had just driven over that grass island. But boy was the Mr. mad LOL! I thought it was funny (that may not have been the case if I had actually gotten stuck but thank God for small favors).

Then at home I find out that you can't just take a can of pumpkin pie filling and throw it into a pie shell no, no ... you have to add something called evaporated milk. I have heard of evaporated milk but never actually seen it (I actually thought it was milk flakes or something dry). I happened to have bought one can for brownies but I needed two for pumpkin pie. Then I found out I actually only have ONE can of pumpkin pie filling - the rest of my cans are pure pureed pumpkin. CRAP. Luckily I had all the other ingredients I needed except I only had the one can of evaporated milk ... I needed two. WELL JUNK! So I called my mom-in-law and she had something close to evaporated milk which I went and got and made my filling.

Then I tried to pour it into the pie shells. And it got pretty full. And then I tried to transfer them onto the cookie sheet (cuz I'm not smart enough to put them on the cookie sheet and THEN fill them up with filling) and made a HUGE MESS ALL OVER MY KITCHEN!! Boy the Mr. was mad at that too!! But still, I thought it was funny.

Teddy (my stepson) asked me why I was laughing when I just made a huge mess I have to clean up. I said this was the first time in my life I was making a pumpkin pie from scratch so of course I'm going to mess it up in every way possible until I learn how to do it right - just like them (the kids). The Mr. can sit and get mad all he wants - he isn't perfect either. Why get mad? DON'T CRY OVER SPILLED EVAPORATED MILK (ha ha). The more mistakes I make the more I learn right?

Well then The Mr. wanted to make chicken and noodles for tomorrow.

You'll never believe this:

WE ARE OUT OF CHICKEN.

Thank God I deal with stress well!!!

Christmas is almost here!

The Mr. said he wanted to get me something really special. I keep telling him the only thing I really want is a puppy. PREFERABLY a Dalmation but I don't think we can afford one right now. But any puppy would make me happy. I've thought of all the pros and cons - the vet bills, the food bills, how to deal with an inside puppy with an outside almost 8 year-old dog, the kids, the time, going other places, the cats ... I still really REALLY want one. I'm almost desperate for a puppy. I've wanted a dalmation puppy all my life but for some reason this year I want one no matter what.

Do I think I'm getting a puppy for Christmas? Probably not - Christmas time is the absolute WORST time to get a new pet ... but if I don't get one I'll start cruising the shelters looking for one because I really want one that much.

My schedule for the next few days is as follows:
Today (Tuesday) we are cleaning Angel's room because it's getting scary in there and we have a rule that no new stuff will be added until old stuff is either put away or thrown away.
Tonight we are taking Poinsetta and Teddy out for their birthday dinner. I think they have chosen Red Lobster (ouch on the wallet but if that's what they really want it's worth it). The Mr. may take half the kids out to pick something for me for Christmas.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) I will be taking the kids to a babysitter so I can attend EJ's funeral (he died last Sunday morning). I imagine I'll be spending quite a bit of time there afterward.

Thursday is Christmas Eve. Our tradition is to go to The Mr.'s family and have a party. It's mostly food but Santa Claus usually takes time out of his busy schedule to come over and hand out a few presents early for everyone. We spend most of the day cooking to get ready for it.

Friday is Christmas day. This is the second year we don't have to travel to Chicago to see my family (my family has since dispersed to Hawaii, Oregon, etc) so we may spend another day cooking and have our second real Christmas dinner right here at home. Later that evening we will take my two stepkids up to see their biological mother because it happens to be her weekend (unless she cancels - we NEVER can tell if she's going to cancel or not; we just assume we're going until we get that call/IM/email saying she doesn't want them for whatever reason - usually at the last minute so the kids get really mad ... once she called while we were heading out the door!)

Saturday my dad will probably come over for our special miniChristmas.

After that will be Christmas cleanup and/or New Year's Eve planning depending on whether we are celebrating NYE at our house or not.

Happy Holidays everybody!! And please PLEASE be safe. Be safe while driving and make sure if you leave your house all lights and ovens are shut off and all candles are out, and always remember to lock your doors.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Can't cash a check!

My stepson Teddy had a birthday. My stepmother sent him a card with a check in it. He was extremely happy about this. He wanted to go down to the bank and cash it himself. I told him he could just let them know he was my son so they would cash it.

He came back angry because they said he couldn't as he doesn't have a savings account there. The last time I knew, opening a child's account under a parent's account cost $10. So I went down there to open him a savings account. They said it would cost FIFTY bucks!! Well I can't afford that right before Christmas!! So I said, fine - cash it under my name, then.

They said they can't do it and I needed to go to the bank where the check was written to cash it. I said "Uh - it was written in Hawaii." She said she hadn't even looked at it - well, how can you not cash it if you don't even know where it's from and you've known ME for SIX YEARS??

So I'm mad at my bank, now. I'm taking the check to my husband's bank to see if they will cash it for him - and while I'm at it I might see how much it costs to have my kids get savings accounts THERE.

humph.

Sometimes He's Real Sweet

My husband asked me to write a list of everything I wanted for Christmas if we got rich somehow. He said to write down anything and everything no matter how outrageous. So I did.

This morning I was looking for it to add "Tripod for camera" and "New CD/DVD drive for computer" but I couldn't find it. It was mysteriously gone.

I think the Mr. took it.

Do I think he's getting me a Dalmation and a trip to California? No, but it's nice that he's out there somewhere thinking about it.

;)

When do the good things come?

I have a very close friend who's father in-law is at death's door. He found out he had cancer this year and we are told he won't live to see Christmas. My friend and I both are torn between wishing for this man - we will call him EJ - do die quickly and therefore not suffer any more and wishing for a Christmas miracle and that he could live at least another month. We both realize that we want him to live for selfish reasons. My friends husband, EJ's son, is devastated at the prospect of his father's immenant death. If EJ dies now his son will be a wreck and every single Christmas from this one on will be nothing but misery for him. We love him dearly, but he is not one to hide his emotions and usually when he is miserable, everyone else around him is miserable as well.

My mother died when I was eight years old. I am still not completely over it and I am now 31. My friend's husband is the same as I am in many ways and I just know he will never get over the death of his father.

At the same time I hate talking about EJ as if he's already dead. He is not a chatty guy but I've known him 11 years and I consider them very good friends and not just my friend's in-laws. I've been to their house a hundred times and even their autistic child, Brad (now 25) knew me as a friend. I wish he could live longer, but I don't want him or his loving wife to suffer any more. His wife JJ just got over cancer herself last year and I can't imagine what she's going to do without her husband and a completely empty nest.

The worst part is how helpless I feel. I cry a lot and I try to be there for my friend (I guess we can call her TJ and her husband MJ), but I can't even reach her husband. This is all so awful. I hope one day I die quickly (and hopefully in my old age) so my kids don't have to suffer this much. It's heartbreaking to not be able to do anything at all except sit around and watch someone you love die. And this has to be the absolute worst time of year EVER to have to go through such an ordeal.

I'm still torn - a Christmas miracle and he lives? Or he finds peace and ends his suffering now?

All I can do is just be here.

Cookie Party

Huge success!!

This year has been different than the past three years. For starters, our younger sister Bree actually came over to be a part of it (yay!). Also in the past we have only made our deceased mother's special Christmas cookies to give out to people. We've never ever found a recipe special enough to replace it and I think we've pretty much stopped trying. But this year we decided we'd try a few other cookie recipes, too.

At first we wanted to make gingerbread people (girls and boys) but the gingerbread recipe was a little complicated. But remember when I blogged about my ginger cookie recipe that wasn't really a ginger cookie? Well I pulled that out. They are called "Gob-Gob-Gobblers" and I got the recipe from one of my sister's "Name Brand Recipe" books. We decided to make those, too.

We all had "Hershey's Kiss Cookies" when we were younger (A Fran recipe maybe?) and Jen and I hadn't eaten them in the past, oh ... 15 years. So we decided to try them! Jen found the recipe in a magazine, I found it on hersheys.com. So we made those, too!

We were GOING to make "Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies" (look it up on allrecipes.com) BUT we didn't have time. I MIGHT make them later except I promised my husband I'd attempt a "Pumpkin Roll" (also on allrecipes) so the cookies may have to wait.

When the kids got home from school they helped decorate all of the cookies except the goblers. Us sisters decorated those.

We were very happy Bree decided to join us because she had several very good ideas. (All my siblings are smarter than me.) And we ended up making over 20 lovely special cookie tins to give out as gifts.

THANK YOU SISTERS!!!

Isn't one drama a day enough?

Well, after I posted that last entry my day went about as usual. I started some laundry, got onto the computer. I didn't get around to checking facebook but that's only because I made a blog entry (see below). My youngest son only goes to preschool for half a day so when he came home I brought him to my bedroom (the warmest in the house) and we were going through channels to see which one he wanted to watch while I made him lunch.

Then: (this all happened in a milisecond)

The power blinked as I heard a horrible crashing sound. I instantly knew what it was and then the power all went out completely. It even made that screechy sound that you hear in the movies as it went.

Then: (this happened in about two minutes)

I freaked out!! But I told Bossman to be calm and stay in my room so I could see what happened (I think the "be calm" part was really to myself - cuz he didn't care) I went out the front door to find AN ENTIRE TREE BLOCKING THE WAY OUT!

Ug! Of course my first thought was my 4 year-old. It was 19 degrees (F) outside and with this horrible wind the temperature was actually less than that - so I called my mother in-law to make sure she was home and I told her I was bringing Bossman over so we could stay there. Then I called my husband as I was bundling my little boy up. We went over to my MIL's house and I immediately called the power company because while I was pulling out of my driveway I saw the power lines all on the ground. I assumed they were still live and dangerous (a friend of mine lost both his legs due to downed power lines - and his cousin who was with him died instantly).

I then spent the day at my MIL's house. I helped her clean her house a little and I set up her Christmas tree for her. I also checked her LED lights to make sure they were working properly so she could get them on the tree with minimal effort. Then I repaired one of her windchimes. My husband kept calling me to send me home to check if the power company had fixed the lines yet. I was worried the kids would come home from school and try to climb the tree and therefore the downed wires to get to the front door, so I was getting ready to go to the school to pick them up (and avoid such a scenario) when I drove past my house and saw they had reattached the power lines. I went in and yup! Power's on! (YAY!)

There is still a TREE blocking my front door but whatever! It's all good!

Baby It's Cold .... INSIDE!!

Every morning before he leaves The Mr. is nice and understanding enough to hike the heat up to around 80 degrees (F). This is because after ten years together he knows that when it's cold I cannot force myself out of bed for any reason. I usually turn it back down after the kids leave and I'm dressed. Well today I just couldn't get myself out of bed. I realized it was way too cold in the house!! I went out and checked the thermostat and it said it was set at 80 so I left it. I got the kids all set up and on their way to school.

Suddenly the wind picked up monstrously and snow went pelting all over town. A large branch from one of my two dead poplar trees fell and it resting precariously on the other tree. But in the house it still just would not get warm. After wearing my large winter jacket in my own house for a couple hours I went back to the thermostat. It still said 80. While I was staring at the thermostat trying to process why it was so freaking cold in my house I heard my two cats playing with something in Poinsetta's room. I went in there to make sure they weren't tearing anything up or, even worse, peeing on something in there. When I came in I found out why it was so cold in my house.

My first thought was a branch came in through the window while I was at the bus stop (I would have heard it otherwise) because there was wind and snow blowing all through the room (as a matter of fact, I can't think as to WHY the cats were in there in the first place! It was below freezing in there! SNOW WAS SITTING ON THE DRESSER!!) But as I looked I realized that whatever The Mr. put up to seal the rest of the window over the air conditioner had disappeared. So basically the window was just wide open.

Well since I was frozen my brain didn't work and my first thought was to call The Mr. and see what he thought I should do, but he wasn't available. I thought about calling my father in-law but as I stood in the cold looking at the open window I figured I could probably drag the air conditioner out by myself and at least shut the dang window.

So I did. I left the air conditioner there on the dresser and even though I couldn't lock the window shut I got it shut ENOUGH so at least it can warm up a little in here!!! I'M COLD! I'm glad it happened when no kids were here.

Candy Canes

For the record - I have found some of my right-handed gloves LOL!

My littlest boy we call bossman on this blog. He is the boss! He definately thinks he is anyway. He brought home a tiny candy cane from preschool. He told me he needed to hang it up on the tree. I told him he could.

After a while I noticed him taking the candy cane off the tree, licking it, putting it back on the tree, and later picking it up again and licking it then putting it back on the tree. Well I have an artificial tree that we've had around three years now but I haven't the first clue how to clean the thing - so we just pack it up every year and set it back out. It has to be filthy. So I told him if he wanted to eat it he needed to just eat it and not set it on the tree.

He seemed very upset about that and told me there HAD to be candy canes on the tree for Christmas. I told him we'd call his dad.

My four year-old then took the phone from me and spent the next FIVE MINUTES explaining, in great detail, to my husband that he needed candy canes for the Christmas tree - and they HAD to be red and white candy canes, not any other color.

My husband came home with two boxes of candy canes for Bossman to put on the tree so now he's happy.

Funny kid!

The Gloves are on! (Sort of)

It's getting to be that time of year again when the temperatures drop to well below California standard. I think in the winter my hometown in SoCal only got below 60 degrees (F) once - and snow even fell but it melted three feet off the ground.

In my now home of Illinois usually in November the temps start going down and somewhere around Christmas it starts snowing. Then it stops somewhere around April and in June it starts getting warm again.

Last year I put all the gloves and hats and the kid's scarves into storage (I don't put my scarves into storage because I wear them up until June) and since I was getting Christmas decorations out I brought all the gloves, etc, also (good timing, too since the weather is calling for snow this week and it's only the first week of December!!).

Of course the first two sets of girl's gloves I gave to my daughters. They come first in a lot of areas of my life but also they have to go out every morning and go to school and if I don't want to I don't have to leave the house LOL.

I found four gloves from my sets. That's four sets of gloves but I only found one glove from each pair (I often have the same problems with shoes until I found my shoe storage things - problems no more and I have a floor in my closet again!!)

If these gloves of mine were those normal little knit gloves I could just mix and match them. I'd look stupid but my hands would be warm. But nooooo, I get the gloves I can drive with because usually if I go outside in the winter I need to drive somewhere. These gloves can only be worn on one hand. And guess what?

Every single glove I found is for my left hand.

LOL! How did that happen? I was pretty sure I packed all the gloves at the same time in the same box and yet I have four left-handed gloves and zero right-handed gloves.

SIGH

This is my life people. The important little hands are covered, though. I also bought all five of my kids gloves for Christmas and I do have my scarves so until I find the gloves for my right hand I guess I could just keep my right hand in my pocket LOL!

Or I could do what I've done the past couple years and just buy myself another pair of gloves and worry about it next year when I've lost the right hand for this pair!