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.