Busy, Busy, Busy

So things have been a bit busy around here. Nothing too unusual, it is Christmastime after all, but busy nonetheless. I am always amazed come January when I feel like I have nothing to do. Because compared to November and December I truly don't have anything to do!

The kids had a Christmas party yesterday. Well, I had a Christmas party and invited the kids and their friends is really how it went. I don't recall them doing much to get ready for it--other than cleaning the house under protest--because in the end they are not at all horrified by their friends seeing the toilets dirty. That won't happen until much later in life. I think the party went well. They made some ornaments, decorated gingerbread men cookies, played Christmas bingo and had a gift exchange. Oh, and they had lunch. There was a total of 17 kids including ours. So it was a bit hectic with kids going here and there. I was in a mental fog for the rest of the day. Well, a more severe mental fog than normal.

And this week will be travel prep. We are heading off to Chicago for Christmas (for the first time since 1999). The kids are really excited, but two of them are bothered by the fact that they are going to miss school on Friday morning. Seriously. They are having a half day and they can wear their pajamas and there is going to be a Christmas sing-along so it's like we told them that we were canceling Christmas. The moaning and wailing and gnashing of teeth is pathetic to watch. I'm certain we'll be hearing about it when they are trapped in the car and bored on Friday. Yes, we are driving to Chicago. Yes, it's a long drive. Yes, please pray for me. This will definitely be an opportunity for God to work on my patience. You can be sure I will be letting them watch movies on the laptop the ENTIRE drive. Happy passengers is my one goal. So, they'll be switching between video games and movies as often as is necessary. I offered to have our own sing-along but that was met with much derision. Apparently it's not the same if you aren't in your jammies with hundreds of other elementary school kids.


We're seriously hoping for snow--once we arrive that is. The kids want to play in the snow something bad--you could even say they are dreaming of a white Christmas....(now I KNOW you all heard Bing Crosby in your head just then.) Yesterday my parents got a whopping 9 1/2 inches at their house. Unfortunately that snow won't look very pretty by the time we arrive. So we are praying for pretty, white, perfect-for-building-a-snow-fort snow that arrives on December 25 after 3:00 p.m. (when we arrive at my parents' house from my mother-in-law's). Not too much to ask I don't think. :-)

Time to go wrap some presents. Don't know when I'll be back on here so Have a Merry Christmas if I don't get back before then.



Here's a few pictures I've taken lately:











Some of the gingerbread men from the party

Noah's first cast from his fractured growth plate. I forgot to tell you that he fractured his growth plate which was something I didn't know you could fracture. So he's been in a cast for about 4 weeks now. They put a new one on last week because of the pleasant aroma coming out of the first one. Apparently that is standard procedure these days with casts.












Our family Christmas picture. We even got Macy the Wonder Dog in there. And it didn't take very many attempts. Really. Seriously. Well, maybe it took a few tries...

















Katya at her Christmas concert.



















Noah at the same concert. I can't get enough of him in that shirt and tie.











Emily's choir Christmas concert. They sang a lot of songs in different languages. A lot. And did I mention that there were 6 different choirs singing those songs? It was a bit on the long side...

Money's worth

We're all about getting our money's worth around here whether it's at the doctor or the dentist, so today when I took Katya in to have a baby tooth pulled (just so we can go drop a ton of cash on braces in a few months, but that's a whole 'nother story) it was very gratifying to get our money's worth. That is one serious baby tooth!

I mean, look at the octopus-like roots on that thing! That baby was never coming out on it's own.

During the same visit--because I'm all about doing things at the same time and saving myself trips--save money, save trips, it's all the same--Tommy had some work done on his front teeth. Quite a few of his teeth have some serious issues--most likely as a result of poor nutrition in utero and as an infant. His front teeth were half good and half bad. The lower half has really bad enamel and is very thin and jagged. He needed to have them built up so that they didn't break off at some point while he was eating a potato chip or something. That is still a risk, but the bonding should buy us time before he needs to have them crowned. Here's the before and after:

Before (it's hard to see them, but trust me

they were jagged)

After

He sure is a handsome little fella!

To Chaperone or Not to Chaperone, That Is the Question.

Tommy's class went on a field trip today. As field trips go this one sounded pretty fun--lunch and a show at the Broadway Palms Theater. I have done my share of not-so-very-fun field trips (the rock museum (twice!!) with the rock Nazi museum guides who clearly should not be in a job that involves children!) so I volunteered to be a chaperone for this one but I was told my services would not be needed as they had already filled the chaperone slots. Oh well. So, this week I got three days of subbing jobs instead with today being a day at home. Yesterday I found out that one of the other moms couldn't go and my friend Kathy was hoping to go but couldn't find a sitter for her kindergartner for the afternoon, so she suggested that I go. I thought about it for a few minutes and then decided that I needed to be home for the day and so I offered to babysit her kindergartner instead. When I spoke to Tommy's teacher about it she was putting on the hard sell--I'm guessing because it should be a fun field trip for the parents to sit through. Unless she was hoping that I would be just the right parent for those boys that need some extra "encouragement" for proper behavior (including my own)...Anyway, I stuck to my guns and said no.

And then this morning, being the genius parents we are, we realized that they are eating lunch at this place. It truly never crossed my mind before this morning, probably because field trips don't usually involve eating anything except a bag lunch. And of course our Tomster is on his special water and carrot diet and I had to leap into action to figure out what he was supposed to eat. Thankfully there was a website for the theater and they listed the choices for the "kid friendly" buffet: hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken fingers, pizza and macaroni and cheese. I'm hoping there are fruit choices in addition that they just didn't mention since fruit, historically speaking, isn't "kid friendly"--otherwise Tommy will be filling his belly with hamburger patties and bunless hot dogs.

It's at this moment that I suddenly was overwhelmed with thankfulness that I was not going to be a chaperone--a buffet with second graders?????????? Wow, I think I made the right decision!! Buffet means carrying a plate of food some distance while attempting to not spill it--which 7 year olds are not exactly always able to do. That's too much stress for me! If I didn't work with elementary students several days a week it would have been a different story, but this would have been like work--with a "kid friendly" buffet and no paycheck! So, I'm going to get laundry done (well, work on taming the beast anyway) and enjoy being home and maybe actually get dinner ready early tonight! (it could happen)

And I will look forward to hearing how Tommy enjoyed the play and his hamburger patties buffet.

It's Alive!!

Okay, this is reaching epidemic proportions. It's crazy out of control. I'm talking of course about my laundry. It's absolute insanity in my laundry room every day since the temperatures dropped and everyone decided to start wearing jeans and long sleeves. There have been times lately when I have wondered if my neighbors were sneaking into my house and putting their laundry into the hampers. How could we possibly have this much clothing that needs to be washed daily??? I mean, I'm not a total idiot (well, most days anyway), and I can do the math: 7 pairs of jeans and 7 long sleeved shirts/sweatshirts (plus of course the requisite 3 shirts layered underneath for the female children to create the "right" look) equals a lot of clothes. But it is unrelenting!! It's constant!! It's becoming like the Hamper That Ate New York, er, well Phoenix! Every year about this time I have to rethink my laundry patterns, but I think my kids all had major growth spurts or something so that all of their clothing is much bigger and therefore takes more space in my rather large washing machine than it did last year. I don't know if these machines are rated for constant use like this! And our poor machine has already been given a terminal diagnosis. The last time it broke the repairman said we may only have a year left--an estimate that I'm sure didn't have hard labor factored in! I'm certain you will be hearing the death knoll for my poor faithful washing machine sooner than later. We'll say some kind things about her as she is wheeled out of the house that sad day. And you can be sure I'll replace her with the largest capacity machine I can fit in that laundry room!!