'Tis the season

Is it me, or is this year flying by? I can’t believe that this time next week we will be in the middle of November. In an attempt to not get behind and turn into a crazy holiday person, I took a step. We did our family Christmas pictures the first week of November. And, since one of my goals is to simply this Christmas we had our pictures taken at home. From start to finish we were done in 40 minutes and it was wicked easy. In fact, I had the CD of the pics the next day (because my photographer rocks socks) and we have several great shots to choose from. I usually just put the kids on the card, but I may use a pic of the whole fam…the jury is still out.

I have taken some time to reflect on what I love about this season and figure out a way to eliminate the stress and create more time to just enjoy being with friends and family. The month is already filling up of activities and parties, so if I don’t start planning ahead I will be doomed. Here are the things I enjoy…

- Decorating my Christmas trees (maybe not as many this year though)
- Hosting a cookie swap party and inviting some people we don’t often have over throughout the year, along with the regular suspects
- Taking the kids to a holiday movie
- Sending cards
- Finding just the right gist for the people I love

Because I truly do love this time of year there is not a lot of things I don’t like. If I had to pick something that made me feel a bit Grinch like it would have to be cleaning up the Christmas decorations post celebration and rushing to find gifts just to check a box. So maybe I will brainstorm some ways to avoid those things this year.

Overall I’m excited for the season and am looking forward to the smell of my Yankee Candles Sugar Cookie scented candle filling my house with delicious smells.

140 fingers and toes...

I have a few days to myself because I am traveling for work. I compiled all my bills to input them into the Tyndall FCU online banking (a task I have been swearing to myself I would accomplish for well over two years) but I left them all on the TV stand (I think…hope.) So instead, I will blog.

Above are some of the pictures from Caroline’s birthday party. We had 7 girls over for making cupcakes, going to get their fingernails painted, and a bbq with family and friends. A few even spent the night. Caroline turned 10 and her friends are such fun little humans. Listening to them talk and play is a real treat… even if I have to remind her every once in a while not to be so bossy. I wonder where she gets that?

It is hard to believe I have had my girl child for 10 years already. Here are a few things you may or may not know about my Caroline…

- She falls asleep fast (unlike her brothers)
- She has two birds in her room (Bluebird and Lime)
- She likes to change clothes about three times a day
- She does well at school with very little effort
- She loves to paint, write, and draw
- She insists on someone singing “You are my Sunshine” at bedtime
- She eats when she feels like it
- She loves going to church
- She has my handwriting (so unfortunate)
- She talked me out of taking ballet this year (modern and hip hop instead)
- She is told she looks like her dad by everyone
- She likes shoes
- She is wicked funny
- She has been working in the nursery for over a year
- She loves attention
- She enjoys time at her grandparents sans brothers
- She rarely gets sick
- She is competitive
- She loves to tell you a story about her day
- She is counting down the years until she can get a cell phone
- She can run faster than everyone (even the boys) in her class
- She is a fan of all things girly
- She hates the seams in socks
- She likes her hair above her shoulders
- She has more purses than me
- She loves New York
- She likes getting mail
- She doesn’t play with dolls anymore
- She wants a full size bed
- She is in the 50th percentile for height
- She is in the 10th percentile for weight
- She doesn’t like “fluffy” jackets
- She has a good heart

Sharp turn ahead

Most of the time transitions with kids seem to happen so slowly they are hard to notice. No hard shifting (like me looking for reverse in my Jeep.) It just kind of happens. You have a baby who becomes a toddler. Then a toddler who is a preschooler. A preschooler who becomes a school kid and then so on…riding on the bus, losing teeth, making friends. All of it just kinds of happens. You thinking potty training will be a big deal, but it’s not. Same with going from a bottle to a sippy cup. That’s what it was…until now.

Although it won’t be official for another few weeks I feel like I am now parenting a teenager. Conversation while going over the Hathaway bridge last night…

Jeremy: Would it be okay of I just said one cuss word a day?
Me: Jay, why would you say that?
Jeremy: Everyone at my school cusses, but me.
Me: Oh, hmm. Well, do you have a certain word in particular you want to use?
Jeremy: Yeah, all of them.

Well, we had a good conversation about cussing and fitting in and at the end he decided he was okay without adopting a new colorful vocabulary. But these little talks happen daily now. My game plan is to stay calm and have a poker face so he will still keep asking/telling me things.

Thanks to some advice from a couple friends I have also rethought how we are handle teenage attitude. I think the new plan will make the next few years a bit more bearable.

Picture is 100% unrelated...just want to share a picture of T-bone, our new pup.

Thriller

You know, so many times it really is the “little things” that make my heart happy. I was killing time at Wallgreens this week while the kiddos were having their passport photos taken and decided to carefully inspect their coupon paper to see if I needed anything on sale. Well there was a coupon for buy one get one free razors and blades from Schick Quattro. Although I have been buying these overpriced blades for Jeff for years, I usually settle on whatever disposal razors are on sale…or better yet, whatever it at the checkout counter where I usually decide I need them. So because of the coupon (and the fact that I had worn pants to work three days in a row because of my scary legs) I decided to try them out. What a difference! I am now a believer and will never again return to the Target brand razors of the past. I swear the new razors made me happy for the entire evening and even thinking about it now makes me smile. As an aside, I got laundry detergent there for $2.99- a big 72 loads bottle, isn’t the crazy?

Now for some more randomness…

Caroline and Nick know a little girl who had small accident and needed some plastic surgery this week and this is a conversation between the two of them about it.

Caroline: Emily has to have plastic surgery.
Nick: What does that mean?
Caroline: It means an operation, you know like Michael Jackson.
Nick: You mean their making Emily black?

What in the world!? Nicholas says something daily that makes me laugh and how odd is it that the King of Pop is Caroline’s only frame of reference for “plastic surgery.”

Well the weekend is finally here and I couldn’t be any more excited. Jeff and the kids have stuff at church going on in the morning so I think I will attack some laundry, vacuum dog hair, and maybe frame some pictures I had printed a few weeks ago. One thing’s for sure…there will be sleeping in tomorrow!

Shoo Earl, don't bother me

I must be the world’s most inconsistent blogger…oh well, it is what it is.

Caroline, Mum, and I have just returned from a trip to New York and Massachusetts. The “reason” we went was for my cousins Tom’s wedding. As an aside, the last time I was there was when my cousin Lauren married her husband Tom and now I went back for her brother Tom to marry his wife Lauren. Isn’t that funny? I find it amusing.

Because Mum had not been to see Chris and Katy in NYC so we decided to fly there and hang out for a couple days and then drive to Boston for the wedding. In the beginning of the week there was a lot of talk about Hurricane Earl and I was pretty sure we picked the worst week ever to head to New England. But, Earl stayed clear and we were good to go.

We had a great time in the city and sometimes I think to myself, “you only live once, why wouldn’t you live in NYC?” I realize I still have a “dream like” idea about New York, but I can’t help but love it there. Once we got to Massachusetts we went to my Aunt Jan’s house and had the best time. I wish my kids would get along like her girls do…I don’t think they ever fight. Granted, they are now young adults, but even so they are amazing, smart, athletic girls who are just as pretty on the inside as they are on the outside. Caroline loved being around them…they make excellent role models.

My aunts make me laugh. They are some of my favorite people and I have the best memories of them from when I was younger. Their homes make me smile, maybe because they are a constant and I remember being there as a kid. My Mum is blessed to have sisters…I wish Caroline had a sister.

The air was cool and houses were old. The roads were winding and the accents were a hoot. I just love it there. I keep telling myself that the winters are cold and the college is pricey. I would live there…Jeff would too.

Above is a photo we took in Plymouth. We saw the Plymouth Rock and it was pretty anticlimactic…but even still it is an area that is incredible rich in history.

Pool party!

I got an email from my buddy Karen a couple weeks ago challenging me to do the end of summer pool party for the neighborhood kids so I could scratch it off my list. What a good influence she is…I love that girl.

So, right then I told the kids we were going to do it that Thursday. And if you know kids, that meant we were doing it. Caroline and Noelle made invitations and set out to invite the kiddos. I think it is worth mentioning that at the bottom of their invitation they wrote “no cussing allowed.” That was geared at one of Jay’s friends, but just to be safe they put it on all of them.

Unlike most parties I throw there was very little preplanning. I stopped by the store on my way home for chips, hot dogs, macaroni and cheese and a box of brownie. Jeff grilled out while I baked brownies and it was pretty low impact. There was a competition to see who could make the biggest splash, a whirlpool was created, Marco Polo was played, and of course there was one or two games of chicken with me screaming, “ not so close to the edge,” Nick’s buddies weren’t able to come by so he spent part of the night crying that he had no friends.

Overall, it was a fun evening and I hope one that the kids will remember…I may even be up for it next year. Now…what’s next on my list?

Yippee for Saturday!

Saturdays rock. Especially Saturdays when we don’t have to rush out. Today I cleaned out my dresser and am on laundry load number four. May not sound that exciting, but it really is. We have an open house for Jay’s new school and a baby shower for Stephanie and Brian at 3:00….still need to figure out how to get to both places at once…still need to shower and it is almost noon.

After telling the kids about 5 times to stop playing on the stairs I decided to give up and grab my camera. I think I remember sledding down the same stairs with my brothers. This morning I asked Jeff about a cable cord in the corner of my living room. He said he thinks it belongs to my dad’s old satellite television. “Can I cut it?” Maybe you should check with Bub first was his answer. Is it strange that we have lived in this house for EIGHT YEARS and there are still things only Bub knows the answer too?

Kids start back to school in a couple days…need to make a Target run for supplies…bet there will be crowds today.

Productive week at work…getting ready to send our new magazine to the printers. I got a call Wednesday morning from my boss, he said, “grab a camera and head downstairs to the Men’s Room.” Okay. Turns out there was a coral snake in the bath room…yuck. As if that wasn’t enough wild life I spotted a bear crossing the highway on my way to work Friday morning. It was amazing. My first Tyndall bear spotting and I couldn’t believe it.

Yesterday was Jeff’s birthday and we had tacos with friends and family. It was a great night. Our friends are the best! The guys at “Old Mexico” make the dinner eventful and yummy. Jeff has decided that his next birthday will be a big deal…he will be 35. He is planning a year of physical and spiritual renewal that started with a trip to GNC and to join a health club first thing this morning. He is going to start working out with his friend Dustin and their goal is to become “beefcakes.” Who uses that work? I crack up every time I say it. I told Jeff I’m buying him the URL www.journeyto beefcake to journal the year. Ha!

Sorry about the randomness…