Dec 31

Happy New Year’s Eve everyone! In honour of the last day of the year I’m linking to some of my favourite posts from 2008.  Enjoy yourselves and be safe tonight! Cheers!

Dec 30

I am finding it hard to write these days. I keep opening up the computer and staring at the blank screen hoping the words will come. But weeks of hectic running around, holidays, visiting friends and family and Christmas chaos have wreaked havoc on my mojo. And the less I write the less I seem to have to write. 

But now. Now the holidays are over. Because the hubby’s patience with the dry and brittle Christmas tree starts ticking down the moment after the presents are opened Christmas morning the tree had to come down today. I couldn’t handle the whining anymore! Now the house looks bare and empty. Family is gone. The hubby is back at work. Avery has the week off school which is kind of nice. I’m not quite ready to get back to the normal routine yet.

Putting away all the Christmas decorations was strange today. I was remembering the last time I had taken them all out – two Christmases ago. Last year we were away for 2 weeks over the holidays and we had a small place with no room for a tree so our decorating was minimal. Two years ago I didn’t know that my next two years would involved two new homes in two new cities. I didn’t know how many new places I would see and people I would meet. I’m glad for all I’ve experienced and the friends I’ve made and the adventures my family has had. 

But I can’t help wondering where I will be when I next take the ornaments out of their boxes to decorate a Christmas tree. This same living room? Or somewhere else entirely? There are no definite plans afoot. But there are stirrings. We are waiting for the right times and opportunities to present themselves. I wonder what changes will have happened by this time next year or the year after. Sometimes it’s too overwhelming to think about. Sometimes one day at a time is enough. That’s the best way to get things back to normal after the holidays anyway. Just one day at a time, little by little.

Dec 24

Still through the cloven skies they come
With peaceful wings unfurled,
And still their heavenly music floats
O’er all the weary world. 

-Edmund Sears, It Came Upon A Midnight Clear, 1849

May your angels be near this Christmas! And may you hold your loved ones close and give thanks for another year’s blessings.

And may you always have someone reliable to stand between you and the freaky man in the red velour pantsuit!

Dec 23

Many of you have asked to see the picture of my daughter’s teacher daughter with Santa and I just wanted to say that it is coming. After a short trip out of state I am now at home with family visiting for the holidays and posting may continue to be sparse for a bit. Back to your regularly scheduled blog reading soon!

Dec 20

I finally remembered the last bullet that I had forgotten from my last post. Here it is:

  • If you want to make parents of young children go completely psycho with the pitchforks waving and burning people at the stake, just tell their innocent young babes that there is no Santa. The music teacher at my daughter’s school burst a grade one kid’s bubble the other day and OMG the DRAMA. I agree that it was not the teacher’s place to say such a thing however mostly I was just laughing a bit at the righteous indignation and the parents going postal as they gossiped about it with each other. 
Dec 17

Aaaand the busy Christmas season strikes again. We’re back to bullet points folks:

  • So it turns out that a state of emergency was declared in several counties in my state this past weekend including my county due to an ice storm. People were without power for days in some places. Except the weekend here in my neck of the woods was sunny and mild, if a little windy. So you can imagine our surprise when we got several calls from friends and family in Canada asking if we were safe an ok. Because apparently Bush declaring a state of emergency is bigger news in Canada than it is here in the middle of the apparent emergency. 
  • The much celebrated Santa picture made it’s way home yesterday. And yes, Avery’s teacher was IN the picture, strategically placed between Avery and Santa. I’m guessing to protect her from the lasers that ostensibly shoot from Kris Kringle’s eyes. Avery has this wide, half-terrified grin on her face and she’s clinging to her teacher’s hand like it’s her only hope for . It may be my favourite Christmas picture of her ever.
  • Apparently every kid’s size 11 and 12 winter boot in every shoe store within driving distance of my house has been sold out. Because I can’t find a pair of snow boots to save my kid’s life. How is this possible?
  • There was something else important I wanted to say and I can’t remember it. No matter how long I put off publishing this post it’s not coming back to me, so I guess we’re done here!
Dec 15

Have you ever gone to the hairdresser and had the stylist try to convince you to buy their expensive hair products? They promise this shampoo will make your hair more (insert your desired adjective here).  Damaged hair? Frizzy curls? Flat and dull? They always have the product that is the exact solution to your problem and they always GUARANTEE that it will do what every other shampoo, conditioner, mousse, gel, spray, wax, cream, or freaking putty never has been able to do. Turn scraggly looking hair into the luscious celebrity styles you see on TV.  

Not that I have ever bought insanely expensive salon brand shampoo that smells exactly like cigarette butts when lathered up in the shower in hopes that my super-fine, straight hair will magically develop fantastic body. Because I am totally on to my stylist and her sneaky schemes.

Dec 10

It’s time for a bullet post. Sorry. If you don’t like it you can come back another day! 

  • I think I have the only five year old in THE WORLD who is afraid of Santa. I know, I know, just weeks ago I was saying she’s about to blow the lid off the whole Santa story. But she seems to have embraced her belief for the time being and that belief includes sheer terror at the thought of the Jolly Old Elf. When she was 2 and 3 years old this terror made a little more sense. But at five I thought we would be able to reason through the whole thing a little better. When I was a child I had my picture taken on Santa’s lap every year from birth to maybe 8 or 9 years old. But I have not been able to convince my daughter to sit on Santa’s lap one. single. time.  This year her school (for some bizarre reason) had a Santa come to the school and the kids were allowed to have pictures taken with him. Avery told me she most definitely did NOT want to do this. No matter how much we discussed it, tried to assuage her fears, and tried to figure out just what kind of unholy atrocities she expected to experience while sitting on the lap of a mythical gift-bringing creature, she would not give in. So I wrote a note to her teacher explaining her apprehension and that she was not to be traumatized by standing beside Santa for a picture unless she changed her mind. Well, bless the teacher’s heart, when Avery’s turn came, she held her hand and walked her up to Santa and even stood with her. So I’m not sure if we’re going to be sent home a picture of our daughter’s kindergarten teacher or if she jumped out at the last second. But either way, it’s a small victory for confidence!
  • Age two has descended upon our household with the vengeance of a…well… a rabid, drooling two year old. Where two year old equals screaming defiance, stubborn refusal to let sustenance pass his delicate lips, stamping, time-outs, shrieking, climbing, hysterical wailing with a healthy second helping of OMG THE STUBBORNNESS! 
  • Today I helped with a PTA fundraiser at Avery’s school which mostly involved wrapping dollar-store presents that the kids were purchasing for family. Can I just say that a two foot long back scratcher is a bitch to wrap!!! And I had the distinct pleasure of wrapping at least a dozen of them. Also? Five year olds have NO CONCEPT of buying gifts for anyone other than themselves, the little narcissists. I can’t tell you how many kids the adults had to gently explain that they had not been given ten bucks to blow on themselves, but to buy for their family members. And still, almost every one of the little narcissists came through the “check-out” with something for him/herself. Five year olds are also utterly incapable of any real thought regarding appropriate gifts for people. To my family coming for Christmas: be prepared to smile in appreciation for pencils that say “#1 Teacher”!
  • It is a fact that if I walk into a salon I will ALWAYS get the stylist who I deem to have the worst haircut/style and will therefore, in my mind, give me a bad haircut/style. But sometimes I am lucky enough to be wrong and get a sweet cut by a large, Hungarian woman with a rat’s nest on her head.
  • Starting tomorrow I will have houseguests every day for the next 18 days except for the 3 days we will be gone on a short vacation. So posting may be a bit sporadic while I’m busy entertaining drinking partying overeating celebrating. Happy Holidays!
Dec 7

Today, for the first time, I actually realized that my five year old is coming close to the point of becoming a useful person in contributing to our household (in more than general cuteness and telling goofy jokes).  She helped me clean the bathrooms y’all! THE BATHROOMS!!! It won’t be too long before I can hand one of my most hated jobs into the capable hands of my offspring! Hallelujah! 

I had totally forgotten about this part of parenting, possibly because I really haven’t experienced it yet. I mean, she can clean up the toy room and her own room. If I’m willing to wait two hours for the task to be done. But this! This is something that will make a substantial difference in my our quality of life!

Do you remember doing chores as a kid? I remember a period of time when my sisters and I had to either wash the dishes, dry the dishes or sweep the floor each day after dinner. And, like any bratty kid, I whined about this. Because why does the floor need to be swept EVERY DAY???  That little handful of crumbs we swept up could be done at least every other day or even less frequently! My mom was SO UNREASONABLE.

But now that I’m the one who sees each of those little crumbs as an assault on my home and sanity and not just annoying but basically innocuous, it is a freaking gift from the sweet baby Jesus to have a couple of my own slaves helpers to lighten the burden of housework! I realize it’s going to require a bit of training and instruction and probably a couple more years before we get there but I think after two awful pregnancies, two c-sections, two colicky babies, sleepless night, rocking and kissing and wrapping and loving and soothing and just making it through the preschool years by the skin of our teeth, I have earned myself a little slave labour help around here!***

*** And by I, of course, I mean we, because my hubby is forced to do cheerfully does a lot of the work around here.

Dec 4

In case you didn’t know? Flu shots that get delivered straight into the muscles on your upper arm/shoulder can render you completely helpless as your muscles turn into a big ball of OWOWOWDAMMITOW within hours. And FYI, if you get another shot delivered into the other shoulder muscles at the same time by a nurse with point to make you will be lying on the couch in the fetal position in the near future. Prepare yourself.

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