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.