Butting Heads

Or butt heads....either or really!!

From the time we left the house, the kids were fighting about one thing or another...we woke up kinda late, and Sam did NOT wanna wake up! It was cute to see her shake the cobwebs from her sleepy eyes and realize I was serious! We woke up at 7:37...obviously I need to set a second alarm!...and we were out the door at 8:10...way better than I thought it would be! We pull into the drive way of the school and DJ says to me "do I have to get a tardy slip?" awww poor kid! He had plenty of time to get to class before the bell rang.

Sam and I headed for home to have breakfast. We were both HUNGRY!!!! So cereal it was! Thankfully just enough milk for both of us. It was an Avon morning, but I was all caught up on orders, and just waiting on my come-lately's to order...so Sam and I snuggled in the chair a bit and looked at the family album of pictures she LOVES reading!!  I like that she likes it so much! She can usually pick herself out in the pictures too, which is impressive.

As she was eating her lunch, and I was in the middle of making mine, a new client stopped by to pick up her order...a Sultan police officer...first time meeting her, and she's just as nice in person as she has been on the phone. We chatted a bit and then she went on her way, and I came in to finish my lunch prep. Sam was done eating, so she played Starfall on the computer...she's getting the hang of the mouse and clicking on what she wants. Its cute!

We went to pick DJ up from school and I had to go in and chat with the office about my driving some kids this week from the church to the school on Thursday, from Christmas rehearsal, and then from the school to the church on Friday for the afternoon performance. And while I was there I inquired about heading up the Auction that happens every year, they're in need of someone to organize it and I figure, if I take this one, I can drop recess, drop hot lunch, drop anything else and concentrate on this and make mega hours every year for it...plus, if we're gonna be there for 10 years, I may as well find something I can really be in charge of! Howie thinks I'm anal enough to pull it off! I have a meeting with the administrator and a couple other people next Thursday to go over things and talk about when to get started. YIKES!!!! I can do this!!

Then we headed to the salon I deal with to drop off an order, then to the bank, and then to Freddy's for some milk...and other things! Howie beat us home and was getting the Christmas decorations down so they could come in the house and warm up before we decorate...which I think is gonna happen on Thursday as we have Awana tomorrow nite. The kids are SO anxious!!!! Me too!!!!!! I'm hoping the 500 coloured lights I bought will be enough...altho DJ said I can mix in white if I need to...I'm thinkin I'll just get more coloured ones if need be!

After a yummy dinner I hopped in the shower and then put on a fashion show (VERY different than the VS one) to try and decide what to wear to the Christmas party this weekend...SO undecided!!! ugh! Hate that! And I don't wanna spend money on something that won't fit me next year either! Because of this, it was close to 9 when the kids got into bed. Howie was watching Biggest Loser cuz there was NOTHING else on...and then he went to bed about 9:30 and I watched Glee, which was great! LOVED all the songs they sang tonite!! Sang right along too! Kind of like karaoke in your living room! Then New Girl, which I'm really not sold on yet... Then I switched over to the Victoria Secret fashion show to watch Maroon 5 (specifically Adam Levine) sing Moves Like Jagger, which is such a great song!! And I have to say...I MUCH prefer him singing it WITHOUT Christina's voice!!! The rest of the "talent" for the show left me empty...Jay-Z and Kanye (blech) and Nicki Minaj (there's a reason I hadn't heard one of her songs before tonite!) but the bras were cute! Darn shame VS doesn't make 'em in my size! ha!

Then I flipped on Raising Hope, which is always good for a laugh...Bro-gurt...HA!! Altho, bacon flavoured yogurt does sound good...somebody get on that! Then Parenthood...which had me holding my breath!!!!! Having a child go missing is NOT my idea of fun!!! And you could feel the panic!! Such a fantastic show!!! And now, I must go move DJ from the couch back to his bed...he came out saying he couldn't sleep (and he has been for 4 hours now) and instantly fell asleep on the couch...goofy kid!

Til next time...God bless!

Lazy blogger

When I don't actually sit at the computer and type this post up!! But I gotta say, I do enjoy being able to sit in my warm chair beside the Christmas tree and blog about my day!!! My only complaint is the "keyboard" on here...it doesn't turn sideways and get bigger...the upside tho is that it's pretty good at fixing my typos as they happen!!! And there are a few...ok, more than a few!!! 5 in that last sentence alone!!!

This morning the kids were up a ill before 8, which was nice! I had DJ beside me...no clue when he crawled in bed. And of course SamSam was calling for me from her throne! When I went out to the kitchen this is what I saw (not sure if the pic will actually attach here or at the end...) but they were having a "party" in the kitchen!! While they cleaned it up, I got breakfast going. We puttered around til 11:30 and then headed to the shed to do the book gathering...Samantha watched a Barney movie and DJ played Angry Birds...he's officially addicted!! Even asked santa for one!! The crazy thing...he's actually clearing levels!!!!! That's just wrong!! lol

We got back and I made us lunch and the kids went out to play as the sun was shining for a change! While they were out, I headed to the warmest spot in the house: Samantha's room with her heater!!! It lasted all of 20 minutes and they were in the house. DJ set up xBox and played done games...SamSam watched him and I got busy with dishes and dinner prep. Howie wasn't gonna be home on time and then only ended up being an hour late...better than he thought he'd be! But dinner took far too long to thaw and chicken chili didn't happen...so we had BBQ chicken instead. The kids had leftover pancakes with tonnes of fruit on top! I'd bathed the kids before dinner, so that took pressure off getting ready for bed...and instead we moved furniture and brought the tree up!! This may be THE best Christmas yet!!! This is the best age!! Well, maybe next year will be better, but so far, this one is good and it's just started!! Wait til they see the advent calendar!! Even tho we've done them for a couple years now, I'm willing to bet they forgot!! And they didn't see me buy them, which is quite helpful not to be nagged about them!

Once everyone was in bed, I worked in some Avon stuff, some Norwex stuff, and got lunches ready. It wasn't til almost 10:30 that I sat down! With the Christmas season, my shows are hit and miss...tonite was just Hart of Dixie...which was good!!! A late Thanksgiving show, but still good!! Now, DJ's been up for bid nightly bathroom ritual...and I'm camping out in SamSam's room where its warn to finish my lazy blogging!! :)

O Christmas Tree

This weekend FLEW by!!!!

Saturday's accomplishment was family pictures!!! All five of us!!!! Jake met us at the mall in Lynnwood, and we had SUCH a great photographer! She drew Jake out of his mood and got real smiles!!! It was fantastic!! What was to have been a 91.00 order cost me 7.67 (plus 10.00 living social deal) and I was more than pleased!!! And, since we were already at the mall, and the kids were in dressy clothes...AND the lines were ridiculously short...we got pix done with santa!!!!! Again, pleased as punch!!!! If you a friend of mine on fb, you've already seen them!!

After the mall we headed for home. Jake came shortly after us and stayed for dinner and some kinect play with fj! The Apple Cup was also on do he an Howie watched that. We had a great dinner and an enjoyable day!! It was good to have him all to ourselves and not at the end of a football game. I can only hope he enjoyed his time with is too as they will be getting fewer once he starts college. *sigh*

Once the kids were on bed, I took off for the Panera run for the shed. And instead of coming home, I headed out to play bingo with some girlfriends!! None of us won either :( There was hardly a crowd, but no luck!! They owe me so I can at least break even for this last year!!

So that's why I didn't blog last nite...I got in at 1:40 and went straight to bed!! Didn't even pass GO!! Definitely didn't collect 200.00!!!

The kids got me up this morning as Howie was off fishing again. He caught a steelhead yesterday, but with Jake over we saved it til today! We were just about ready when he got home and we were off to church at a decent time as I had SamSam's class to teach today and she was thrilled!! I think it went well!

We came home for lunch and to change before heading back out fof some Christmas tree hunting!!!!! Before living here we would drive an hour and a half to the mountains to get a tree...now that we live on the mountain, we go up the road!! Almost literally too!! We found a place this year that I'd been looking for last year and this year the sign kinda jumped our at Howie. We found our tree after a good search (money IS an object!!) and loaded it up! They even had a shaker there to get the critters off it! DONE!

We got home with plenty of time for Howie to blow leaves while I gig laundry and dishes done. We had the steelhead for dinner and it was beyond good!!! Then the kids and I headed to the shed to shop...then home to bed for them! After Howie went to bed I watched Amazing Race (I'm now team Andy/Tommy!!!) and Once Upon A Time which is such a good show!!! And since it was still early, I got a Hallmark movie in!! Now blogged up and out!

Black Friday

Something about Black Friday excites me!! Is it the proximity of Christmas!?!?  The ads?!?!?! The deals!?!?! I don't know, but like an addict looks for its drug, Black Friday is my drug!!!

Of course, I'm not THAT addicted that I'm out there at midnite or 5 am for the store opening...oh hell no!!! I finally figured it out...go at 10 am...you still get the same deal and there's WAY less people idiots in your way!!!

So after a nice breakfast with the kiddos, we got dressed and headed to Freddy's for some Black Friday shopping. I had a tentative list...if I got it, great, if not, that's okay too! Of everything on my list...I got it!! Having the kids with me was less of a challenge than I thought it would be...I just told them we were shopping for other people...and they bought it, hook, line and sinker! Even the Angry Birds t-shirt I got for DJ! He picked it out even!!! I got the kids two pair of pj's each, no question about them from either one! I got a set of legos for DJ and he never said a word! Are they oblivious, or just that trusting!?!? lol

We got outta there just after 11...I think my receipt says 11:01 or something like that. The lines were ridiculous, but if you go into it expecting it to take longer to check out than it did to shop, it goes by quicker! lol From Fred we went to Ben...I had a coupon (yet another drug) for 40% off one item...and I'm REALLY good at going in for just that one item!! Which I did!!

Oh, while I was trying to decide on what yarn, my children were wandering the store and came back to me with a fake rock...I had NO clue where they got it from, so told them to return it! They didn't come back, so I went in search of them and found them one aisle over looking at the aquariums. (can someone tell me WHY aquariums are in a CRAFT store!??!?!?!) and then DJ says to me "Look mom, I got a fish!!!!" and opens his palm to show me a fish...in complete shock I tell him to return it to the water and wait breathlessly for the fish to start swimming....which it did!! YIKES!!!!!! That would/could have been traumatic...more for me than him I'm sure!! lol  What a kid!!! As we were walking away (oh yes, we had an audience of one) he says to me "that fish was really easy to catch!"  Spoken like a true fisherman!!! LMAO

We head for home after Ben and get lunch on the go. As soon as slowpoke Sam was done her lunch they were off to see if Jessica was home...she was, and they brought her back! The 3 of them played downstairs for a bit, and then came up to colour a bit before going over to her house...and then back here. It's been a while since they'd seen each other and they were getting along great! Meanwhile, I was wrastling the carcass of a turkey we ate yesterday!! Yes, I saved it from the garbage!!! I made an AWESOME turkey noodle soup!! Big HUGE stock pot full of it!!! What I thought was too much water (something like 24 cups!) was actually not enough! But it'll do! Quite the hearty soup!! Since I was in a domestic mood, I tried my hand at sugar free caramel corn....should have stopped at the soup!! lol I ruined it by tripling the "sauce" for a doubled recipe and it went soggy first and then baked hard as a rock! Next time I'll skip the salt too! Howie didn't like it one bit! Not sure he's a fan of molasses tho, so that might be the problem! 

After dinner (which was pancakes, not soup!) I bathed the kids and we snuggled to watch a movie....which I should know better than to judge a movie by its picture! The title was A Golden Christmas with 3 little Retriever pups on the front.....they didn't show up til the very end of the movie...which the kids didn't see  cuz they were in bed. I kept wanting to change it for them and put a more kid appropriate movie on (It was a Hallmark type movie) but they wanted to watch this one. So we did! Howie got home and that ended movie time with them! Off to bed they went!

Howie had soup while I read to the kids (he LOVED it!) and then we tucked them in and he went downstairs to work on his fishing stuff and I watched the rest of the movie, which is how I know the pups weren't til the end.  It was a corny movie to begin with! Then I picked Gnomeo and Juliet....watched maybe 20 minutes of it and decided I really didn't need to watch the other hour of it!! No thanks! So I'm 0 for 2 in the movie department tonite!!  So I flip thru the netflix queue and find "One Week" and it looks interesting...yeah, it wasn't! But it was set in Canada, so I enjoyed the scenery. That's about it. I HATE that Netflix doesn't have closed captioning! It's my one beef with them!! I loathe watching movies without subtitles so I can know what's being said instead of creating a dialogue from what I think I'm hearing!

Thankfully it was a 94 minute movie, and I shut the xBox off! I finished the movie I started last nite in the dvr...fell asleep with a half hour to go while watching it. Again the acting was terrible, but it was on a book I'd read YEARS ago!! And I wanted to see how it ended. Man I'm striking out in the movies this weekend!! Who knows what tomorrow will bring!! But for right now, its sleep!!!! :)

Til next time...God bless!

I could be...

One of those people who are out there shopping Black Friday....but I'm not! Thought long and hard about it tho!!

I could also be one of those who over ate the Thanksgiving feast...but I'm not!!! No siree!! I did have some pumpkin pie tho!! definitely the highlight of the meal!

I could also be one to tell you I didn't watch football, but that would be s lie!! And it wasn't that I watched it so much as it was in all day! I did catch the highlight reel for the Green Bay game...that Suh guy has issues!!

I will tell you that I'm incredibly thankful I didn't have to host Thanksgiving this year!! My responsibility was to do the veggie tray...as DJ would say "easy breezy lemon squeezy" We had wonderful food...the turkey was succulent!! Along with dressing, mashed taters, peas, corn, bread, and pickled things! I'm so proud of the kids as they ate everything but mashed potatoes AND they both tried gravy for the first time!! Samantha loved it, DJ not so much. Night and day those two are sometimes!!

All in all we had a great day with lots to be thankful for!! I'm thankful for my husband and all he endures to provide for our little family!! I'm thankful for my children and all their silly nonsense every day!!

I'm just thankful!!

And tired! The tryptophan is having a delayed affect on me ;)

Breaking Dawn

This morning was going so smoothly til we were on our way to ballet and I realized, that while SamSam was in her outfit, we'd forgotten her slippers. I asked if she'd be ok without them and she said no, so we turned around to get them. And that move right there cost us being on time...bugger! Not sure she even noticed the difference in teachers...Miss Rachel is in Arizona for the holiday and we had Miss Jessie. It was a different class for sure!! But Samantha enjoyed it nonetheless!! DJ enjoyed hanging out with Jaxon too, Delaney's brother. He had my phone as Jaxon had a DS and DJ was feeling left out. I let him play Angry Birds and he was showing Jaxon how to do it. It was funny! Especially as I don't let him play!!

After class we dropped off a book to one oft regular customers and then headed to the bank. There was no pizza to pick up anywhere...rather off this close to a holiday, but it gave ilus time to hit the dollar store up. I love how clueless the kids were when I was putting stocking stuffers in the cart. Works for me!!

Lunch was next when we got home and within minutes if their last bite they were begging for the craft I'd promised we'd do. Making Christmas ornaments, some we painted and some we baked. The painting ones were first..,and totally kid done!! The baked ones were mostly mommy done! They were much harder than they seemed! I did get LOTS of instruction tho!! :) Now that they're done, they don't want to give them away! Hahaha They each took off for next door about 5 mins into the baking process...which was more than fine with me! Less stressful for me!! Nor to mention quieter!! Once they were in the oven, I got started on dinner. With no Awana tonite, we had a lovely sketti dinner!! And those kids came home hungry!!!! Love it when that happens!! We were all done in 22 minutes!! A new record for sure!!!

The timing was perfect for me as I was headed out to the movies with a g/f of mine. She got me hooked on this series, maybe you've heard of it...Twilight...yeah, it's all her fault!! And since we've seen all the other ones together, it was a no brainer who I was going with!! We did have plans for last Sunday, but she wasn't feeling well, so we postponed it to today as it would. be a couple weeks if it wasn't today!!

I completely enjoyed it!!!! Like I said to Howie and on fb, it was WAY better than my imagination saw it as I was reading it!!! I do hate that they broke it up and made it two parts!! AND that they're a year apart in viewing!!!! Why?!? It's already filmed!!! Argh ! And besides, I would have gladly say there for another 2 hours!! Easy!!!

I got home just before 11, and got Howie 's coffee ready for tomorrow. And then I watched Modern Family which had me lol'ing for real!! So did Happy Endings!! Revenge was juicy tonite!!! But now I'm off to la la land!!

I really can tell

When I don't take the vitamins....but it isn't til much later in the day that I realize my error!!! :(

Last nite, after a busy day and evening (I sorted a 1200.00 Avon order with my g/f for a fundraiser we did for her daughter's dance team) I got home and made Howie's lunch before sitting to veg. I was even too tired to knit!!! Then DJ came out at 12:30 and snuggled with me in my chair...next thing I knew, it was 1:30!!! Oops!! Got him back in bed and then went to bed myself!

This morning I woke up to THREE kids! No, we didn't secretly have another one...DJ had a sleepover and Kristopher actually stayed the whole nite!! First time in a long time!! However, the boys went to sleep about 10:30 (10 minutes before I got home) and were up at 7:30!!! Sam got up just after 8 and I got up when they were "starving" and we all had breakfast.  Then the three musketeers went downstairs to play after getting dressed. Sam stayed behind a bit to see the new clothes I'd gotten from a g/f of mine who's daughter out grew them. A big pile of "now" clothes, a box of "later" clothes and a box of "really later" clothes!! She was oohing and ahhing all over the place!! Well, more like WOWing and gasping!! It was cute! She's definitely a shoe horse too...there were two pair  of shoes to grow into and a pair of tinkerbell slippers which she put on right away! And the novelty item...an apron! Go figure! It's now hanging in the pantry for when she needs it....heaven help me!

After 11 I sent K home so we could go grocery shopping...the boys tried their hardest to make it so DJ could stay behind and play, but Lara had errands to run this aft too and I knew we'd be gone all afternoon. And we were!! We headed to Sultan first to drop Avon books at the pizza place I leave them at...and then by request, dropped one at the Sultan P.D. as I'd gotten a call earlier this week (and an order!) from an officer and she wanted the current book....SWEET!!  When she suggested coming to pick up her orders whenever they came in, I fully supported having some police presence at my home! *chuckles* She even knew my street when I told her as we have a "regular" on our street that is always causing trouble!!!

Then we headed to the bank and Goodwill before heading to Costco to do the shopping...I knew going two days before Thanksgiving would be crazy, so I put my patience hat on...and it worked!! The guy honking his horn at me while I was waiting for a prime parking spot, he forgot his today!!! Idiot!  We did lunch there too, and ate before we did the shopping. All told, we were in there for 2 hours!!!! Oh, and DJ fell asleep about 10 minutes before we got there, so Sam and I let him sleep another 20 before waking him...but that wasn't included in my 2 hour total! The kids are VERY excited that we got our gingerbread house kit!! Me too!!!!! lol

After Costco we went to Freddy's, where again, I put on my patience hat...wish I'd remembered the kids' listening hats!! This trip was only an hour thankfully, and they were prepared and had ALL checkouts open which was good as I was able to check out quickly! Then we dashed back into the rain(oh yeah, did I forget to mention it's rained steadily for the past 24 hours...but I'm thankful it's not the "s" word, as that kind of down fall would be debilitating!! On our way home from Freddy's we made a couple Avon stops and a couple Norwex stops before FINALLY pulling into our driveway. Howie was already home and was able to help carry things in the house. I'd gotten a roasted chicken per DJ's request (cuz we haven't had it in "SO long") and that helped with the dinner madness and putting things away madness!!

Bath madness happened after dinner...ohhhhhhhhh but first let me tell you...while at Freddy's, I was picking out a butternut squash and DJ found a gold hubbard one and wanted it badly!! So I found a smaller one and we got it...and Sam wanted a  yellow squash, so we got a small spaghetti squash....hey, who am I to deny my children their squash!?!?!? Even if I'd never had them! I'm game! So it was decided that we'd have the "macaroni" squash (oh she cracks me up!) with our chicken and just for safe measure, we had broccoli too! I will say...the spaghetti squash is very different in the squash family! I'd go so far as to say it's the black sheep of the squash family! Not a smooth flesh at all!! Yet, you could twirl the strands like spaghetti and eat it....and with enough butter and salt, it was tasty!! If we do that one again (Sam FOUGHT eating it) I'd pick a smaller one...half of the one we ate was rather a bit much!

Sam fell asleep sitting with Howie while I was bathing DJ...so she was easy to put to bed...DJ and I read a couple books and then he went to bed nicely...he was tired too! Howie and I watched X Factor for a bit til he went to bed...and then I missed the last 15 minutes of it as I was busy on the computer getting another fundraiser ready to go in tomorrow. I did get to sit for a bit and knit while watching last nite's Castle, which was good! Really good!!! And then I watched tonite's Parenthood...which was definitely a pre show for next week's drama!! DJ came out while I was making Howie's lunch and so I snuggled him a bit before putting him back in bed....and before blogging...peace out!

Til next time...God bless!