Thank you GOD!

We had a wonderful Christmas. The kids of course were extremely happy about the Wii under the tree. They have played it pretty much non stop since Christmas day. I am really glad we were able to score one. If your still looking, I hope you can get one soon. It is tons of fun!

On to more important stuff....Mikey(soon to be 14 on New Years Eve) went hunting with his Grandfather and Uncles. This is his first hunting trip. He was really excited about going. Everything was going just fine. He called several times and we knew he was really enjoying himself. I was not at all nervous. I know he is in good hands. But today on my way to my parents house to drop off my younger two kids for a couple nights with their cousins, I got the call that we parents all dread. The one that makes your stomach turn to a vat of acid and your legs turn to jello. My husband called me and asked me if Mikey is allergic to anything?...Of course I immediately knew that this was not good. You don't get a call asking about allergies when everything is hunky dory. I told him that no, he is not allergic to anything. Why? What's wrong? Mike goes on to tell me (while on the phone with the HOSPITAL) that Mikey was shooting a gun and something hit him in the head. OK, Mike was acting very calm so I am thinking it was, I don't know, something not so serious. Otherwise, he would not be so calm. SO I felt better(despite being told something hit my son in the head while shooting a gun). Turns out the gun kicked back and put a gash in his head. He is OK 5 stitches later and no broken nose. Thank you GOD! When they got back to the farm he called and said he wanted to stay. I said "OK. No problem! Just don't fire that same gun again until your head heels". lol Oy! It could have been bad but it is really just a right of passage. He got to almost 14 years old without stitches or a broken bone so that is pretty darn good. SO we are thanking God that he was not seriously injured and I guess he is just happy to still be with the "guys" on his maiden hunting trip. I doubt he will forget it soon.

So tomorrow I plan to do some cleaning around the house and then on Sunday the family is all coming home and my sister and brother and their families and my parents, cousin and aunt are all coming up for dinner and a little birthday celebration for Mikey's birthday.

On Monday for New Years Eve we will be having our annual New Years Eve party. We are sad one of our good friends wont be able to make it this year but plan to have fun with the rest of our friends and ring in the new year. Since it is Mikey's actual birthday I told him I would honor his request for clams for dinner so we will be steaming shrimp and clams, have crab appetizers as well as maybe some seafood bisque and who knows what else. We usually do a pretty big seafood dinner.

On New Years day we usually have family up for dinner but since they are coming on Sunday this year we plan to relax and just recover from two days of partying. Maybe take the kids to a movie and then to bed early for them because they go back to school on Wed.

So that's it. I will try to post some pictures soon. Hope everyone has a very happy New Years Eve and enjoys their family and friends and stays safe!

Go hug your kids.

If you think you like breakfast in bed......

Try breakfast in jacuzzi tub. Yup, that's right. Mike totally redeemed himself (from the little salt incident). I decided I could use a nice long soak in the tub this morning. Just me, my book, my coffee, two cats and a dog. Yup, just an intimate little group. And Mike, the dear sweet husband that he (sometimes) is, brought me a delicious breakfast of an omelet and toast. He even remembered catsup. I have to admit, breakfast isn't really high on my list of things that I like, and breakfast in bed usually leaves me feeling way too full and lazy. But breakfast in the bathtub? Lets just say everyone should try it. For one thing, your naked. Who doesn't enjoy eating naked? For another thing, your in the tub. SO any crumbs just wash away. No worries about getting anything (like globs of catsup) on your clothes either cause your naked. Its a wonderful thing. So try it sometime. Really. It's a very good thing. :)

Mice, salt and Santa/ham

OK, so we will go in order here. Mice. Mice seem to be a problem year after year for us. I am not a particularly messy person. I do a fairly decent job cleaning up, no food or excess crap laying around my house. Yet the mice just seem to gravitate to it. We do have a farm that backs up to our property and you know, corn field = mice. They just cross over our property line and realize they have hit pay dirt when they enter our home. Cause we have lots of good stuff for them to eat. Dog food and cat food just out. Yea, I know, out in bowls waiting for them to stuff their little cheeks full(or is that hamsters?) whatever. They have a veritable feast here. They get in my pantry and I find bags of potato chips and packages or Ramon noodles gnawed on. Nothing is too good or not good enough for these little field mice. They are apparently not particularly picky. They eat anything. So we have had mice for quite some time. Basically since we moved here we have battled them. Putting out traps with peanut butter, hoping they will take a bite and SNAP! off with their heads. Yea, that's right! I am happy for them to be dead. I do not shed a tear. Not a one! So last night while I was making dinner, Mikey opened the laundry room door and immediately slammed it shut and ran out of the room in a panic. Yea, he is a little bit afraid of mice. Has to do with the time when he was like 7, his hamster escaped and ran over him when he was on the floor playing PlayStation. Scared the crap out of him. Been afraid of rodents ever since. Can you blame him?? So anyway, after I stopped laughing (if I haven't already established this, I am one of those mean parents that enjoys seeing my kids flip out from distress brought on by rodents), I told him we would deal with the mouse problem once and for all. Of course, cocky as I am, I called my friend Trudi and told her all about the mouse Mikey found and how he was scared by it and I was just laughing! I told her that I would not even flinch if a mouse ran right by me. They are just cute little dirty rodents, nothing to be afraid of.. After I hung up with Trudi, I opened the dishwasher to load some dishes and wouldn't you know it, there was a freaking mouse in there! What the??? I swear it ran 2 inches from my fingers! I jumped back and slammed that door closed and screamed like a little girl! OK, so now this is war! So I called Mike at work and told him what had happened and that we need to find any and all entry points in our house and close them. So Mike stopped at Ace and picked up some traps(like 8 of them) and some poison and some spray stuff that you spray in the hole and it closes it up. How great is that? So he took care of setting traps and putting poison out all over the place(only where mice could get to it-not pets or kids or husbands or anything). No sooner did he put the traps out and we heard a snap! Yup, got that little bastard. Wont be running over my dishes anytime soon. Or anytime, actually. So there you have it. The mouse saga. Hopefully we will effectively prevent any new mice from entering our home and if there are any still in here, well good luck you little mouse! Your gonna need it!



Salt.... Every morning for breakfast I have half an everything bagel with veggie cream cheese and a slice of bacon on top. It is yummy! But I am out of bagels so this morning I decided on an egg sandwich. Not just any old sandwich either. I chopped up a little red pepper, a little mushroom, and scrambled it into a nice and purty. It was cooking perfectly. The toast was done and I was about to put on a little slice of cheese when I decided a little s&P would be just the thing. Sprinkle, sprinkle went the pepper. Then a dash of salt. Sprinkle................Dump! went the salt. Huh? What the? Who the ***beep*** took the ***beep***ing lid off the ***bleep***ing salt shaker?!?!??!?!!! OMG! I dumped an entire salt shaker of salt right on top of my wonderfully cooked scrambled egg. I was so pissed! Now I knew, without a doubt, that my wonderful husband(dork) took the lid off the SALT and didn't put it back on. Now the question was why? Why did he take the lid off of the salt? Who does that and why? And if they do that, why not put it back? Simple questions right??? So that is how I started my morning. Turns out in my husbands quest to close all entry points for the mice, he pulled the stove out and the salt lid fell back behind the stove(I still do not quite get why the freaking lid was taken off to begin with) But since it fell back there in the mouse turds, he decided it would be a good idea to put it in the dishwasher before putting it back on the salt shaker. Why, I don't know since the mice seem to think our dishwasher is their "Old Country Buffet". So he put the lid in the dishwasher and stuck the shaker up on the back of the stove where we keep it. But when you are standing there at the stove, you cant see the top of the shaker, only the bottom. So when I picked it up sprinkle a DASH of salt on my eggs, I had no idea the lid was missing. GRRRR!!!! Anyway, I threw that egg away and made another and all was forgiven (but not forgotten-just you wait Mike, when you least expect it....)



After breakfast I had to go to my kids school because today is the day Santa visits. Since I am president of the PTO, I figured maybe I should be there to give out the 300+ gifts(books) to the students. So I travelled around with Santa for a couple of hours visiting classrooms and handing out books. Then I went to my sons classroom to help set up for the luncheon his teacher had planned. It was really nice. He made a ham and all of the parents brought in side dishes and cookies, etc. It was delicious. After the lunch we cleaned up and I headed home. I am really tired. I still have to wrap a million gifts and make dinner and well, you know the drill. All the stuff that needs to be done. But I figured since I helped out at school I deserved a little treat. So I am having a beer. Yup, you heard me right. A nice, ice cold beer. At 2:00 in the afternoon (it's 5:00 somewhere). And it is going down nice. :)



So there ya go. Mice, salt, Santa and a ham. What a day!

Tag! I'm it!

So my good friend Gina Tagged me for this random meme so I will go ahead and do it since I love Gina so much.

Here are the rules:- Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.- Share 7 random and or weird things about yourself.- Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.- Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Seven Random Facts About Me!

1. I love to watch sad movies that make me cry. I guess it relieves pent up tension or something because I almost always feel better afterwards.

2. One of my favorite "Me" things to do is to get a glass of wine or a hot cup of coffee and take a long hot bubble bath in the jacuzzi tub. I always bring a book in with me as well. So relaxing!

3. I talk to myself. I often answer myself as well. I guess you could say I hold conversations with myself. I know, sad isn't it?

4. I love to go to the beach during the summer. I could pack up a chair, umbrella, cooler and a book and my ipod and spend the entire day at the beach. Pure bliss! The hotter the better!

5. I would like to adopt a baby someday.

6. We have mice. Not pets, uninvited guests, that the two cats and the dog do nothing about. I have no idea why we keep them around.(the cats and the dog that is....I know why we keep the mice around, we are powerless over them).

7. I would rather cuddle than kiss.

OK. so I know I am supposed to tag people but since I just did that with the Christmas Hooplah thingy, I am going to skip this part. Get over it people! And count your blessings that I didn't tag you!

Stuff and more stuff

So, I know that I haven't posted in a few days so I will just do a big ole update..Nothing terribly exciting but you know, life none the less. So lets see...




Friday night had a wonderful evening out with friends. Each month some friends of ours (about 6 couples) get together for dinner. We call it our travelling dinner party and the host decides on the main course and the guests bring all of the sides, etc. We played guitar hero(my first time) and it was so much fun! I am totally hooked!




Saturday we went Christmas shopping and then just spent the evening home. In the middle of the night the electric went out. No heat, no electric, no television and gasp! No internet! Also, the saddest thing of all is the beautiful tree in my front yard split in half from the ice. What a mess! I am really sad about it. I hope that the rest of the tree will recover but I seriously doubt that it will.




Sunday, went to church and when we got home our friend Tim, was in our yard with a chain saw ready to help us cut the branches up. Now that is what I call a good friend. And, by now the electric was back on. Yea! Sunday evening we went to a concert that was sponsored by the Diocese of Harrisburg. The group led by Martin Doman is awesome. We really enjoy his work and miss him as he used to be the music director at our church. Check out his web site Martin Doman, you can even buy his cd's. He really is wonderful.




OK, so then Monday, went up to the kids school and wrapped 300 + books to give out to the students for Christmas. Then came home and wrapped gifts for our friends and family.

That brings me to today. Today I spent the day baking Christmas cookies.




Are we having fun yet?




So of course the rest of the week will be taken up with preparing for Christmas, baking more cookies, going to a couple of parties, all that fun stuff.




And onto more pressing business....Menu plan Monday (again on Tuesday) Sorry!!!

Monday: Spaghetti and Italian sausage

Tuesday: Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, corn

Wednesday: chicken and rice

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: Going to a Christmas party

Sunday: Dinner at Mom and Dads

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just wanted to drop by to let you all know that I passed my math final!!! Woohoo!!! I am so happy. OK, you can go back to whatever you were doing. :) I am going to go celebrate!

Christmas Hoopla

I have been tagged by my most excellent friend Leeann (dang it!)to do this Christmas Hoopla. As she writes: Ok, this is specifically not a meme. It's a HOOPLA. Got it? Here are the rules: 1. List 12 random things about yourself that have to do with Christmas2. Please refer to it as a 'hoopla' and not the dreaded 'm'-word 3. You have to specifically tag people when you're done. None of this "if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged" stuff is allowed...then nobody ends up actually doing it. The number of people who you tag is really up to you -- but the more, the merrier to get this 'hoopla' circulating through the blogosphere. 4. Please try and do it as quickly as possible. The Christmas season will be over before we know it and I'd like to get as many people involved as possible.

SO here ya go!

1. We always cut down our own Christmas tree each year.
2. I think people who get an artificial tree because "real trees are just too messy" are wusses. If you are allergic or something, I forgive you. :)
3. We always have a spiral ham with homemade mac and cheese for dinner on Christmas Eve. even though the kids pretty much hate ham and if it's not Easy -Mac, they want no part of it. So basically I am trying to foster this tradition for them, that they hate. Figures, right?
4. I have two Christmas tree's and one is fake. haha
5. I hate to go to church on Christmas. It is always so crowded. You can never get a seat and if you do get a seat(because we went 2 hours early) you are packed in there like sardines.
6. I like burnt christmas cookies. Actually, I prefer burnt ones. Thanks mom!
7. I hide a pickle on my tree.
8. My kids each have an Advent calendar each year. When they were little they were Playmobil. Now the older two have Starbucks ones and my youngest has a legos one.
9. Christmas is my favorite holiday. And not just because I get presents. Nope, that has nothing at all to do with it. ;)
10. We get our cats and dog presents and we wrap them up, and we laugh our asses off watching them unwrap them. We make sure there is lots of tape. We are mean that way.
11. One year we got snowed in on Christmas day and all we had to eat was a small piece of ham. The next month we bought a Suburban so that we would never get snowed in again!
12. My husband and I do not have stockings. The kids do but they are just not that big a deal at our house. However, we always put an orange in the toe, just like our parents did.

OK, so now I am tagging Subservient No More , Undomestic Diva, and Crystal. I chose them because they are funny as hell and you will hate yourself if you don't start reading their blogs.

I have a weird kid...

I lost part of a filling the other day. It is in a molar that I have been warned will eventually need to get a crown on because there is not much tooth left. I was blessed(not) with my mothers wonderful, soft, teeth. My youngest son Brooks was also blessed with them. Lucky boy. So today I had to go have that tooth fixed. Luckily it was not a big deal and I didn't need Novocaine or anything. A good thing because Brooks was with me and he was there to get a tooth pulled. I knew they would be numbing him and I didn't think it was a good idea for him to watch as they numbed me. But he insisted he wanted to watch. In any case, no Novocaine for me. So, Brooks watched closely asking the dentist if he likes his job and if dentist make a lot of money. Oy! Watching the dentist work is the last thing I would want to do. I can barely stand to be in the office with the smells and sounds. Ick! So after I was finished, it was his turn. The doc stuck the needle in and did his little wiggle trick so that Brooks didn't feel the pinch, and before we knew it, he was numb. Did I mention Brooks is the only kid on earth that actually laughs when getting Novocaine? Yea, he is that weird. So while we were waiting for the numbing to take full effect, he asked me how they were going to pull it. I explained that they have these great big pliers, like the jaws of life firefighters use, and they will just yank it out. He of course knew I was kidding. He is used to me, don't worry, I didn't cause any irreversible damage....Not today anyway. So then I quickly told him that they would probably just put a little pliers around the tooth and pull it out. Which is exactly what they did. It took about 30 seconds. He thought it was very, very cool but was a bit disappointed that they didn't need to use a hammer and chisel to get it out. So that's my weird kid. Loves getting Novocaine, loves having teeth pulled. A masochist in the making? I hope not but geesh, he is pretty weird right?

Menu Plan Monday.....OK Tuesday!

OK, so in the hub bub of studying for finals, I neglected to post my menu for this week. And I know how my many many readers (all three of you) wait with baited breath for my menu to be posted each week. So all though it is a day late, I will make you wait no longer. Enjoy!

Monday: spaghetti with chicken

Tuesday: Beanie Weanie Casserole

Wednesday: 15 bean soup and grilled cheese sandwiches

Thursday: Breakfast for dinner(pancakes, bacon, etc.)

Friday: Pizza for kids-grownups going to monthly traveling dinner party

Saturday: bacon cheeseburgers, home fries

Sunday: Chicken of some sort.

I am so so so tired...............................

I really don't have much to say. Other than I am completely, totally, exhausted. Tomorrow is D- day. The day when I go in to take my math final. The day I have been dreading for months. The day I have been studying for, almost non-stop for weeks. Seriously, I feel like my mind is awash in numbers, and formulas, and other crap that I will probably not ever think about again. Or at least that is my hope. Pray for me people. Tomorrow morning at 9:00, I will be taking this danged test. It is amazing to me how much of this stuff I remember while at the same time I totally can not remember how to do some other things. Things that I actually knew before. Like synthetic division. Why can't I remember how to do that? What the hell is my problem? OK, I am going to take a little break(God I wish I had a beer), and then back to studying. Tomorrow night it will be all over with. Hopefully I will fee like celebrating. At least for a little while before I start cramming for the rest of my finals. Finals week sucks!

Finals

Finally, after 15 weeks of dragging myself to school 4 days a week. After 15 weeks of homework and papers and tests, and other crap that tortures every student, finals are finally here. "It's the most wonderful tiiiime, of the year"... (Did you just sing along? I know you did, just go ahead and admit it)...Not really. But it does signal the end of another semester- which my friends, is a very good thing! So while I would like to be cleaning my house (yea right). And while I can't wait to tackle the 9 loads of dirty laundry and the three baskets of clean laundry that is littering my house, (bahaha) I will be doing none of that fun stuff. Nope, no- sir-e-bob! I will be studying my butt off. Cause I have a hellacious algebra final that is threatening to torture me. How you ask? Well, I will tell you. If I don't get a C in this freaking class, I have to take it all over again. Yes, that is right. I have to spend another 15 weeks of torture 4 days a week learning algebra. I am shaking in my Uggs here people. I do not want to repeat this class! It has almost completely monopolized my entire semester. I have never worked harder on anything in my life. And I am failing dismally. Or failing fabulously? I don't know. All I know is my once 4.0 average had dipped, plummeted, threatened to get me kicked out of school. (not really) But it is bad and I am worried. So if you see me fooling around on the computer, or going to Starbucks(hey, I may need to do that one-it is like my lifeblood), or gasp, cleaning anything...Come over and shake me. Cause I need to dig in and start a studying. Palease!!! LET ME PASS!!!

For all of you wussies that were smart enough to get your degree right out of High School, go out, have fun, drink lots of spiked eggnog and enjoy your weekend. But think back to finals week and have some sympathy people. And if you pass a Starbucks and want to pick me up a beverage, I will take a venti sugar free vanilla latte with non fat milk and light whip.

Oh Christmas Tree

So, only a couple days later, but here at last are a couple of pictures of our Christmas tree. A friend's kids were over, and they helped decorate. So we had quite the motley crew here. But it all came together quite nicely, and fun was had by all. Or I had fun, anyway. The tree doesn't look quite as puny as I thought it would either, so a success!


The first couple are all of the kids decorating.



Next is the tree finished. Sorry, I guess I need to take a better picture since my son apparently cut off not only the top of the tree, but the bottom as well. But you get the general idea. The final picture is me holding my new niece Lucy. Isn't she adorable??? Lucy that is. I know I am adorable!

Menu Plan Monday

This week is going to be a doozie. There is so much going on. I have finals next week so I will be studying (in between classes) this week. Also, basketball starts tonight so more running. Now 4 days a week. Oh fun! :) SO I am going to try to keep the meals simple since I just wont have time to do a lot of cooking.

Monday: Chicken Parm. zuccini (we have some sort of spaghetti every monday)

Tuesday: Cheesy beef bake (carried over from last week), spinach

Wednesday: Beef roast, mashed potatoes, slaw

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Chicken and rice bake, spinach

Saturday: Going to a party :)

Sunday: Cramming for my math final so it's all up to Mike!

In search of the perfect tree....

We went yesterday and got our tree. You know how when your walking through a field of Christmas tree's, they all look small? Well, sort of small. Cause when you get them home they are absolutely huge? Well this year I was not going to be tricked like that again. Usually we get our tree home then proceed to chop a foot off the top and two feet off the bottom and have to move the sofa WAAAAYYYY over to fit the ginormous tree that looked like a little baby tree on the lot. No, I was determined that this year, I was not going to fall for that old trick. So we went out a searching for the perfect tree. After perusing a few acres of lush green trees, we finally went back to the first one that we all fell in love with(I did the same thing with my Wedding gown-but that's another story for another day). Anyhoooo, the tree is beautiful, and fragrant, and, and, puny! What the? How did that happen? Anyway, the good news is we don't have to move the furniture into the neighbors yard to fit the tree in. So it's all good.

Pregnant

OK, so I know this is quite out of character for me. I can barely post once a day but yet today I am posting twice. How about that?? So, back to the reason for my post. Did you ever dream you were pregnant? Well I did last night. It was so real. I can vividly (still) remember in my dream feeling the baby, and how I "felt" about it all. The bump growing, the emotions attached to it. The joy and the fear of it all. It was really quite amazing. SO I am not actually pregnant but was in my dream. What do you think that means? Hmmm???

Christmas Survey

My friend Mer, emailed me this survey and since I thought it was so much fun, I thought I would post it here.


1. Get kissed under the mistletoe or in the snow?Mistletoe-I hate snow.

2. Santa or Rudolph?Ick, neither. lol Oh wait, if your not talking about "doing" Santa or Rudolf, I guess I would have to say Santa. The big guy always come through Christmas morning so he is the bomb!


3. Stocking or presents? Um, presents of course!


4. Egg nog or hot cider? Hot cider is repulsive. I love eggnog. Especially the spiked variety but omg, it is soo fattening. But if you are looking for a GREAT eggnog recipe check out this recipe. My friend Janet posted it on allrecipes.com and it is a hit each year. Amazingly good eggnog
5. Angel or star?
Both. One tree with an angel and one with a star :)


6. Decorating the tree, or putting lights on the outside?
Decorating the tree....Yeah!!!



7. Warm cozy fires or sleigh rides?: Warm cozy fires...like I said snow is no good!



8. Family time or friend time?Both



9. Expensive presents or presents that come from the heart?Expensive presents! (That come from the heart) ;)

10. Snow ball fight or snowman? snowball fight. If I have to be out in the snow, someone is going to pay for it. hehe...



11. Coal or present?Who would say coal? Seriously!!!



12. Open presents quick or slow?Slow all though it never happens that way.



13. Diamonds or rubies?Diamonds baby!



14. Caroling or Christmas stories?caroling



15. Snowy days or ice days?Snowy!! All though my kids had great fun last winter when we had a lot of ice on top of snow. They were flying on their sleds in the field behind our house. It did look like fun but I didn't try it. That would have entailed me going out in the snow and since I hate snow, that just doesn't work.



16.Red or Green?red



QUESTIONS



1. Best Christmas present received? Honestly, I don't know. I remember as a kid I really wanted this horse that you could get on and rock and it sort of galloped across the room. It was really expensive though and I didn't expect to get it. But I did. I was so happy.I didn't have that thing an entire day before my older brother broke it.



2. What's the number one thing you want for Christmas?I would love a diamond necklace.


3. Have you ever been kissed under mistletoe?Yes


4. Age you stopped believing in Santa clause:? I have no idea how old I was but I remember lying in bed as a kid and waiting to hear santa. Then I would hear the stairs to the attic open(they squeaked) and then I would hear my parents make several trips up and down the steps. lol So I guess I was fairly young when I realized the truth but had a younger brother and sister who I kept the secret for. When I had kids we started from when they were very young cleaning out their toys in the Fall and made a big production of their picking toys to donate to the poor. We also always would sponsor a child for each of them through church. Well they eventually asked us why santa didn't give poor kids toys. That was when we came up with the story that santa only brings each child one toy(and he doesn't give electronics-eliminating the questions about why santa wouldn't bring that latest gadget that we couldn't afford). SO they were told that the toys we donated were so that the poor kids would get more than just that one santa gift. That satisfied that question and it also explains why mom does so much shopping around the holidays. So, long story short, my kids up until last year all still believed. Now my two oldest I am pretty sure do not believe(they are in 7th grade) but they have never asked. My youngest who is 9 has recently asked but we said of course he is real! What are you nuts? lol Shut him up.

5. Do you send thank you notes?Well, I used to always send thank you notes. ALWAYS! But in the past two years since going back to school, I haven't sent one note. I feel really bad about that. But I cant help it. I just dont have time.Actually, I guess that isn't quite true. I manage to find time to get on here so I guess I have no excuse. I am just a big ole slacker. I do try to thank everyone personally though and do appreciate their thoughtfulness.



6. Did you wake your parents up early to open presents?Yes! OF course. Sometimes it was still dark. Actually, it was probably always still dark. But they would make us wait. We would all sit at the top of the stairs and wait until they 1. took showers. 2. made coffee 3. turned on all the lights 4. set up the video camera 5. sat down and then yelled OK you can come down now! Oh but they had to take the requisite top of the stairs picture first! Great fun! We make our kids suffer in a similar fashion. lol

Life and stuff...

So, sorry I haven't posted lately. I am so seriously busy right now. Blah blah blah. You know the drill. School, kids, family, etc. This time of year always just comes crashing down on me at once. You would think I would see it coming by now. End of semester = last minute papers and stuff to get in, then exams in a week. Plus, add onto that all of the Christmas activities. Kids have lots of stuff at school happening, parties, etc. You know. Fun stuff. Really. I am serious, I know that is hard to believe but totally serious here...I love this time of year. But I am overwhelmed. SO you will have to forgive me for not posting every day. Sorry!



OK so that said, have I mentioned how proud I am of my girl? She is doing soooo well at school. She is such a very conscientious student these days. I never, ever would have expected this complete change in her. Last year she seemed to struggle so much more. I know a lot of that was social stuff. We live in a small town. Rural area. Small, very small school. So if one kid says your a dork, they all believe it and you are now a dork for the next 180 days. But this year, she is in a bigger school with lots of new kids and is just blooming! I am so happy for her. Now don't get excited. We do not allow her to run around, going to football games with high school kids (even though according to her everyone else at her school is allowed to). But she seems to be finding her way anyway. I think there is a part of every parent who hopes their child is one of the "popular" kids but you know what? I am glad my daughter is exactly who she is. True, she is not one of the most popular, or cool kids. But she is so much safer this way. I was at her school this evening for conferences and saw one of her classmates from last year. This is one of the "popular" kids. This little 12 year old girl looked like she was 18? She is a cheerleader so she was wearing her little cheer leading outift. Which in all reality is quite cute. But little miss popular is heading down a road I am soo happy my daughter is not on. I really worry about some of these little girls. Who think it is cool to look like a woman at 12. To act like a little slut at 12. To take naked pictures of themselves and post them on the web, at 12. So yea, I guess a part of me always hoped my daughter would be one of the cool kids but you know what? Being cool isn't all that cool. I am happy she is just a normal 12 year old girl who isn't all that interested in boys yet, who loves christian rock, and stays in on Friday night with her family laughing and playing games and surfing the web with her webkinz....instead of hanging out at a High School football game getting into god knows what kind of trouble. Yup, I will take my average kid over a popular kid any day.

You have got to be freeking kidding!!!!

OK, so I know that there are many people out there who are struggling with things way more important than the crap that I am going through.But heck, it is my crap and this is my blog and I will complain cause I can.

This was one of those days. You know the type; no matter what I "attempted" to do, it didn't work out exactly right. OK so first of all, I had school this morning. Of course it was cold and rainy and foggy out. The kind of day that makes you want to stay in bed. But no, I went to school. Now my husband used my vehicle all weekend and wouldn't you know it, left it on empty. How nice is that, going out to your car in the rain and fog and cold and finding that you have to stop for gas. And I really did need to stop because I drive a big ass Denali that burns gas like, well like a big ass truck. SO I really needed gas. OK so that was the first thing. Then I went to class and got a wonderful grade on my most recent math exam. Not! It sucked! And what sucks more is I am really working my ass off for these grades and I am honestly beginning to think that I am either retarded or up until now I earned my 4.0 GPA by pure luck. Cause this class sucks big time. After school I ran by Old Navy to exchange a coat I got for my daughter. They didn't have the correct size in. Of Course They Didn't!! SO then on to the grocery store. I just needed a few things. An hour later I am on my way home. Get home and my kids(who were off school today) were in the process of making lunch and a royal-big-ass-mess. Still in their pajamas of course. So I cleaned up their mess, put groceries away, made my lunch, made my bed, sorted the clean laundry and then gathered the dirty laundry. Put in a load (it is now 12:30-tired? Yea, me too!). Then I decided to make a cake for my brats..I mean kids. Got the cake in the oven and started on my split pea soup. OK so things are starting to go a little better. Soup is cooking and I am doing homework. My oldest son comes into the kitchen and offers to stir the soup. I of course was delighted that he wanted to help. Unfortunately in my fog of joy I neglected to watch him. He proceeded to put the lid on the pot. You know what happens to split pea soup that is boiling away with the lid on??? Do you????DOOOO YOUUU???? It burns. Yes that's right. It freeking burns. Luckily I was able to save the soup (I managed to get it into another pot without stirring the burnt part so the burnt part didnt spread through the soup. Make sense??). All righty then. Now I am sort of peeved. I have managed to do maybe 3 problems and still have many to go as well as other work and dinner to make and all I really want to do is lay down and cry.

But now everything is all better. Dinner is over and mostly cleaned up. I have just one more math problem to go and then on to my other homework. The kids are also blessedly being quiet at the moment. It has nothing to do with my threats a few minutes ago. Nope, they just got up from their dinner, cleaned the kitchen and went upstairs to study. Yup, thats right. Cause they are angels. haha If you believed that one......Ok, so now maybe, just possibly, tomorrow will be better. Probably not but a girl can dream right?

OK, so it is also Monday so you know what that means right????

Monday: Spaghetti with sweet sausage and fried zuccini

Tuesday: Cheesy potato beef bake

Wednesday: stuffed pork chops, beans and potatoes

Thursday: leftovers and pea soup

Friday: Pizza

Where oh where does the time go?

It seems only yesterday I was looking forward to the long weekend. Turkey day with family, crazy early morning shopping with my hubby. Oh and my kids staying at my parent's house for the weekend. That is actually the highlight of my weekend! How horrible am I? I just really look forward to them having a little vacation. Cause I want them to be happy and have fun with my mom. Yea, that's it. It has NOTHING to do with me getting a break from the everyday mundane aspect of being a mom. I mean, yea, I love it. I wouldn't trade it for the world. But having a day or two off. Ahh,,,heaven! But alas they are back. Back to eating me out of house and home. Back to fighting over the TV. Back to fighting. But my little angels are all home again. Which signals the end of my little weekend reprieve. Which wasn't actually a whole weekend but it was two nights so I am not complaining. And Mike and I were able to have some quality time alone (as long as you don't count the two cats and the dog who were constantly vying for our attention since their brothers and sister(the kids) weren't home). Anyway, tomorrow Caitey and I are going to a baby shower and then Monday it starts all over again. At least for me. My kids have off. Funny thing PA. They give kids off on the first day of hunting season. Crazy huh?

Black Friday...Oh what a relief it is!

Yes, quite a relief. I managed to get my shopping, almost all of it, finished! I am so happy. Now I can actually concentrate on studying for finals. I have a few items for stocking stuffers yet and will do a couple online orders. Woohoo! It feels good to be done early. Of course we did get up really early to do it. Got to Walmart first and scored what we went for. I would tell you but then I would have to kill you...Then we skipped on over to Circuit City. OMG! What a hellacious hell pit of hell puss. Or something like that. I was horrible. I got two of the items I went in for though so I can't complain too much. But there has got to be a fire marshall out there having fits over how they packed people into that store. I shudder to think what would happen if there were a fire...Oh and don't even get me started on the nimrods that brought their kids out shopping 5:00 in the morning on Black Friday. Lets face it people, that is no place for a child. I literally saw one poor 5 year old boy knocked down by some idiot woman. She never even slowed down to make sure he was OK. But I blame the mother. Stay home if you cant get a sitter! Good grief!!! Some people have no sense. Next we mosied on over Ollies for the Star Wars figures they had advertised for $1.99, unfortunately, they neglected to mention that they were M&M star wars figures! WTF? OK so then on toDuncan Donuts for a coffee and then to Radio Shack. Nothing there. Then we went home to sleep for a couple of hours. After we got up we went to Old Navy for new coats for Mike, Mikey and Caitey and then Kohls and then Best Buy. Now I am home and home is where I plan to stay for a few hours at least. We will be going out to dinner tonight. No kids so we figure we may as well make the most of our childless freedom. Not sure where we will be going but it wont be McDonalds! Hope you all had a good black friday experience!

MY HERO

Mike came through! He got up at 5:00 AM, drove to TRU in the cold and rain, and stood outside until 9:00 this morning when they opened. But he scored! Woohoo! I will stop whining about getting a Wii now. Isn't he cute? Yea, I know, not the greatest picture. HAha. That was Mike on Halloween. Here he is nice and mellow while camping this summer. A much better representation.

MENU PLAN MONDAY

Here we go again! Menu Plan Monday. We have a short week this week because of the holiday. Yea!

Monday: Chicken Parmesan, spaghetti, salad

Tuesday: soup and sandwiches

Wednesday: leftovers

Thursday: Turkey day!

Friday: Go out with Mike (mom has the kids) :)

Have a great week!

To Squash or Not To Squash...

I am an avid fan of the Pioneer Woman, and she recently posted a recipe for butternut squash. Well, since I am a squash fan(the food not the sport), I thought it would be perfect to take to my parent's house for Thanksgiving dinner. So off I went to the grocery store to get my butternut sqaushes(is that right?). Well thank goodness for those new fangled scales they have in the produce department that print out your label, cause when I weighed those suckers, even with my bonus card it was going to cost me $14.97! That is for two lousy squash(es)! What the heck? OK, maybe I am spoiled because I buy almost all of my produce from a local Amish farmer. I do realize that they are selling pretty cheap since it is just a roadside stand that isn't even manned by anyone(you just put your money in a little box). So no real overhead there, right? But come one people, who the heck pays almost $15.00 for two vegetables? It is not like they are some rare fruit from some far off corner of the globe. It is squash! So now I need to come up with a plan B since I am not rich and can't afford to pay that much money for one side dish. Any suggestions?? Send me your favorite recipes for Thanksgiving.

So not a good blogger

I know I am failing at my November challenge to blog every day but I am just too busy! Yesterday Caitey had a swim meet and it was crazy as she had to be there at 6:30. After the meet I took her and Brooks to the mall and got some ideas for Christmas for Caity. She is 12 and is all about clothes this year. Well, that and the Wii! I think this will be the first time since she was born that I wont be buying her a baby doll (of some kind), for Christmas. Sniff sniff....It is kind of sad to me. My little girl isn't so little anymore. Now it is all about Abercrombie and Aeropostile and American Eagle and what's that other store? The one that is pitch black inside with music blasting? Whatever, I guess I am getting old. lol Brooks of course still wants toys. He is all about Legos and Playmobil and anything Star Wars. He is so easy. Mikey on the other hand is very difficult. He wants expensive game systems and expensive clothes and of course the requisite cell phone that every tween/teen wants. Oh my. To go back to the days when they were happy with whatever Santa left under the tree.

Anyho, today we went to Sams Club and Circuit city and Best Buy. Looking for a Wii. No such luck. Tomorrow is another day. Oh well. I have to stop worrying about it. I have a math test on Tuesday that I am studying for and just about ready to rip my hair out over. Who the hell came up with imaginary numbers and why the hell do we need them? I mean, come on!

Beat that horse...

OK, I know I am beating a dead horse here but....Today I was working the book fair at my kids school. I run it every year and it is a lot of fun but a totally overwhelming commitment of my time. However, this year I was smart and got a lot of people to help me. I have finally come to the conclusion that I can't do it all alone. WOW! What a revelation. Anyway, back to that horse... My BFF (yea, I said BFF and yea, I am 41, you wanna make something of it?) Anyway, Trudi was helping me at the book fair so I skipped out to run a few errands. As I was leaving, I asked her to call around town to see if anyone had a Wii in stock. She was going to call me on my cell if anyone had any and I would go there. Well, wouldn't you know it but TRU had 4 Wii's in! Woo hoo! I was off! Of course of all days it took me a freaking 30 long nail biting minutes to get there when it normally would take me about 20 minutes. You know how annoying that was? Ok, well after I cussed out everyone around me for driving too slow and keeping me from my mission to get to TRU before anyone else got there, I finally arrived. I pulled in the parking lot and it was packed. I am talking parking- lot- full. What is going on here people? Why is everyone Christmas shopping so early? I just knew when I pulled in there that there was no way that one of those four Wii's would be available. But, heck I just drove 95 MPH to get there, I may as well check for myself right? SO I go in and go right to electronics (which was packed) and what do I hear??? I will tell you, "Sorry, we just sold the last Wii." GRR!!!!!!!!!! OK so back to the dead horse....I know, I am beating a dead horse here ,(I bet your minds went to that dirty place when you read the heading to this post-Didn't they? Go on, ADMIT IT!) but what is going on? Why don't these stores have them in stock? Yesterday another store said they were getting them in at 2:00. So we called at 2:00 and the very helpful person on the other end of the line confirmed that yes, they did get some Wii's in. They went on to say that we couldn't buy one though. Why? Why you ask?? I will tell you why, because it is a huge frigging conspiracy to whip all of us suckers(parents) into a frenzy. That's why. So this clerk did say that they would put them for sale on Sunday. So I guess that is where I will be bright and early Sunday morning. I was kind of hoping for one morning this week when I could actually sleep in past 6:30. Oh well.

Ahhhh.....

I just have to say, ahhh......I am so glad that tonight, I have nothing to do. I do not have to take Caitlyn to swimming. I do not have to take anyone to scouts or basketball. I have no PTO meetings. I don't even have class. All I have to do tonight is make a nice meal and enjoy relaxing with my family. Nights like these seem few and far between these days. It seems I spend more and more time running all of the time from one activity to another. And with Christmas right around the corner, shopping and preparing the house (not to mention studying for finals) will soon take up every free moment I have. So tonight, as a gift to myself, I am going to relax. I will make dinner (meat loaf), have a nice glass of wine, and take a bubble bath. Then, after I am properly relaxed, I will get my p.j.'s on and settle in for a nice night of television. Hmmm...What's on? Lets see. Life, Criminal Minds and Dirty, Sexy, Money! Yea baby! And a few other shows that I will TIVO for later. (yea right, who am I kidding?) Then I will go to bed and tomorrow, well tomorrow is hell day. I will be running all day long between school and book fair and then school again in the evening and teacher conferences and book fair, oh my! But for tonight,I will forget all about that craziness that is my tomorrow and I will just sit back and breath a great big sigh of relief because tonight, I will just relax. Ahhhhhh......................

OK, now that I have that off of my chest, it was brought to my attention that I have neglected my youngest and oldest offspring by not including their pictures on my blog. So here ya go!

The first is Brooks on the 4-wheelerAnd this is Michael having a blast on the 4-wheeler. Thanks Timmy and Tammy for allowing us to borrow it. We had a blast!

Did you know......

Did you know as of this minute(or at least as of this second in time in which I am writing blog post-not this actual second when you are reading it) (Wait, now I am confusing myself- Nevermind!), there are just 41 days, 17 hours and 17 minutes until Christmas! Now I know you think that is a long time. It sounds like a reasonable amount of time right? Time for you to prepare for that holiday we all love and look forward to every year...Well, you are wrong. 41 days is not a long time. Not when the main thing your kids want for Christmas is a Wii. Why you ask? Well, I will tell you. You can not find those freeking Wii's anywhere. They are SOLD OUT! Do you know how annoyed I am with Nintendo right now? I have half a mind to write them a letter! Now it is not like the Wii is brand new. It has been out for a year. There is no reason on earth why Nintendo couldn't make sure they have enough of these produced so that everyone who wants one, can actually get one. It isn't as if they are giving them away, either. They are charging a whopping $249.00 for them. And then you have to buy an extra controller and games. Before you know it you are getting a second mortgage on your house to pay for it. And that is only if you are one of the lucky few standing in line outside of Targetbestbuycircuitcityebgameswalmart, etc. when they get a shipment. And I am not talking about Black Friday either. Now my friend, now is the time when you have to start shlepping out at 5:00am just so you can maybe get in line with 50 other idiots for the 12 Wii's that are coming in on the truck at 11:00 am. Yup, that's the truth. Merry Christmas!

Because I am very busy while interestingly enough lazy, I plan my 2 week menu before I do my shopping. It is the only way I can ensure that a. my family will actually have food to eat every day and b. I have a plan for dinner because honestly, I hate planning meals. I don't mind cooking; I love to eat, I just hate, I mean I absolutely despise, deciding that day what I am going to cook. I don't know. It is just too much pressure I guess. So, I sit down every payday and write out a 14 day meal plan. Following the lead of my good friend Leeann and the amazing Laura at Organizedjunkie.com, I will try to post my weekly menu each Monday. Now you will see just how lucky my family is. haha!

Monday: Spaghetti & meatballs, zuccini
Tuesday: Hot turkey sandwiches, fries
Wednesday: Meat loaf, mashed potatoes, green beans
Thursday: grilled cheese sandwiches, homemade turkey soup
Friday: going out!!

I have arrived!

Well, sort of. See, I have been thinking about this whole blog phenomenon for awhile now. I enjoy reading what other people have to ramble on about. Delving into their little corner of the world, spying on their lives. With their permission of course. So I have tossed around the idea of having a blog of my own. Not that I think I am particularly interesting, (I am) or that anyone will actually want to read about my life (what? Are you kidding? Of course they will). I guess I like the idea of having a captive audience, who wont talk back or interrupt me when I am rambling on about some topic that I deem to be important. I also love the idea of being able to look back on my life via the many years of archived blog posts. (haha we'll see how long this lasts).

So, I guess to get started, I should give you a little history. My name is Nicole (Nic) and I am married to a wonderful man who I love dearly and three great kids. I live in South Central PA and have recently gone back to college. I am sure that will be fodder for many posts. Me complaining about professors, course work, (math), etc.

Here I am with my beautiful daughter Caitlyn.