play here often?

Ok, so I never checked in after the 19th.  I have a good excuse - the unappealing dial up option became non-existent after a lightning storm on the 26th fried my parents computer - for the third time in two years!

Our trip to Western Kansas (or at least what Kansas Citians refer to as Western Kansas, meaning anything west of Kansas City) started in a frenzy.  There was a sudden ice storm that had me packing the car all morning in an attempt to beat the ice.  We didn’t succeed though.  My first trip out of the house with a load of bags, I fell hard on the sheet of ice covering our driveway.  It was a slow trip and since we were driving separately (the kids and I were staying longer), I had to drive.  Yuck.

An extra two hours later (for a total of five hour on the road), we were there.  The kids were better behaved then I could have hoped for, though I busted out the portable dvd players after two hours.  We had a fantastic Christmas.  It was great to see my sisters and relax for a while.

We got back on friday night and Grace promptly came down with the stomach flu.  She is doing better today and so far John has been unaffected.  I did ten loads of laundry yesterday and now am dreading taking down all the Christmas decorations.  Things are getting back to normal.

Seeing as I still have a number of presents to buy and many to wrap, I will not be blogging for a few days.  Well, longer then that.  I will be back in the land of dial up Christmas Eve until the New Year (my big sis will be in town for the first time in almost 2 years!).  I may peek back in but it will be brief as I find it painful to wait say ten minutes for gmail to load.  Have a Merry Christmas!

Tags: wordless wednesday

More snow today and freezing temperatures.  We have been vegging out all day and are getting cranky.  I have so many things to get done before we leave town in a week and so little motivation.  The cold weather just saps all of my energy and I just want to lay around.  Tonight I must pack the gift bags for Grace’s school party and I need to finish her tutus that I haven’t really started.  Plus the pile of wrapping that need done and two dozen sugar cookies for the Santa Breakfast we have coming up.  Yikes, I need to find some holiday cheer.

Last night, as I was getting ready for Grace’s Christmas program, I realized something.  I haven’t been taking care of myself.  I looked in the mirror after I had finished putting on my make up - concealer and foundation, usually I just wear a little powder and eye shadow if anything - and I couldn’t figure out what was so different.  Then I realized it was the lack of very dark circles under my eyes.  I was so used to seeing myself looking tired, I didn’t recognize myself.

I didn’t really ponder this very long because I had myself and two kids to dress and feed, but later, as I was clearing my feed reader, I came across the Blog Blast announcement from The Parent Blogger Network who is partnering with Big Tent.  The topic is Your Life is a Circus and it is about what I am going to do in 2009 to make my life easier.  Very timely for me and maybe making my resolutions three weeks in advance will help me stick to them.  So, here goes.

1.  I will work out three times a week, even if this means John has to go to the gym daycare.  He is not a fan, but socialization is good, right?

2.  I will be in bed by eleven and out of bed by seven.  Now I am doing good to be in bed by midnight and up in time to get Grace up at eight.

3.  I will eat better and remember my vitamins.

4.  I will sign up for the photography class that I have been talking about taking for two years.

5.  I will force my husband into a monthly date night.  We both need to get over our fear of babysitters.

Hopefully these five things will help renew my mind and body.  I would love to look in the mirror December 2009 and see myself looking back.

Tags: Blog Blast, Life

We got a couple of inches of snow Tuesday and the highs have been in the low 20s, so basically the kids and I hadn’t left the house in 48 hours.  Until I decided to head to Chick-fil-a for lunch.  Our Chick-fil-a has many things going for it - less then 10 minutes from our house, clean play area, and edible food (for me, the kids would eat Happy Meals if allowed).  We seldom go at lunch time and when I pulled up and saw the parking lot and drive-thru were overflowing, I should have made an excuse and headed back home.

After waiting in a long line holding John, who was fighting for freedom, and trying to keep sight of Grace, who was collecting napkins and ketchup, we made it to our table.  The kids actually ate great but then it was time to check out the overcrowded play area.  Before we even got our shoes off, there was a scuffle between two boys.  One boy had hit the other and both mothers had seen it.  The hitter’s Mom was unconcerned and gave her son a weak “Don’t hit.”  The crying boys mother was clearly annoyed.  Ok, I thought to myself keep on eye on hitter in blue shirt.  Luckily he left without another incident, but then came a group of four and five year old girls.

The girls and their mothers had been in line the same time we were and were hard not to notice.  All the little girls were dressed in leopard print, faux fur, or patent leather.  Seriously, a group of five year olds dressed like - well, like their over the top mothers teased hair and all.  Grace was desperately wanting to play with them, and they weren’t really paying any attention to her.  They were too wrapped up in their game of pretending one girl was dead as the other four girls dragged her up the steps through the tunnels and down the slide.  They did this repeatedly causing lots of traffic jams for the other children and making me wonder where they had gotten such an idea.  It looked a little crazy and the girl they kept dragging was lucky she didn’t get her head cracked open on one of those steps.  Where were their mothers?  Across the restaurant probably discussing the next sale at their favorite store - “The Trashy Toddler.”  Ok, so it should be “The Trashy Preschooler” but toddler has a better ring to it, don’t you think?

Tags: Life

Tags: wor

On Sunday, Grace and I went to the Nutcracker Ballet Tea Party.  It is an adorable idea.  Little girls and their Moms get all dressed up, have cookies and tea (or punch) , and then watch (an abbreviated) performance of The Nutcracker.  Grace was beside her self with excitement all night.

I, however, had forgotten that I would need something to wear to the thing.  So about an hour before we needed to leave, I began to dig in my closet.  I have not cleaned out my closet since before Grace was born almost five years ago and as I cast aside many things that were too small, too dated, or just too ridiculous to consider, I realized I was due for a huge clean out.

After we got back instead of putting all I had taken out back in, I started to fill bags.  I easily filled three bags with just winter sweaters and pants before I lost motivation and decided the summer stuff could wait until summer.

Bags of stuff.

What we ended up wearing.

Tags: Life

I saw this article today on cnn.com and found it oddly fascinating.  A woman sold 27 inches of her hair for $1200 on the website www.thehairtrader.com/. The website claims that there record price for hair is $2600!  That seems crazy.  I looked around the website and there are lots of people out there selling their hair!  I suppose most of the hair is going to perfectly normal people making wigs, but it still strikes me as a little creepy.  What do you think?

Tags: Wierd

Over the last few years, James and I have not really adopted any Christmas traditions as a family.  This year, since Grace is at an age were these things matter, I have put together a few new things that I hope will become our Family Traditions.

The first is an Advent Calendar.  I found this cute one and bought one for Grace and one for John.

I painted their names on the front to personalize them a little.  Grace has been loving to open the little doors for a surprise every night.  She even begs to do her chores early because she knows she can’t open the calendar until after chores are done.  John didn’t really get it at first but after two days of toys he is running to them when I say it is time.  The gifts are small and a couple have just been things I was going to do anyway.  The first night I put up the outside lights while Grace was at school and then did a scavenger hunt that lead her outside to see the lights for the first time.

Then last night her gift was our other new tradition - “The Elf on the Shelf.”  If you have never heard of it, it is a storybook about a little elf that works as Santa’s scout to let Santa know who has been naughty or nice.  The books explains how the elf keeps on eye on a family all day then flies to the North Pole while the family sleeps to report to Santa.  He is back in the morning hiding in a new spot around the house.  Grace was a little skeptical at first, but is a believer now that he has come home in a new spot!  She was running all over the house to find him this morning.

I am still on the lookout for a couple new traditions.  I would like some sort of craft project that we could add onto every in a display.  Let me know what traditions you do, or some great craft project ideas!

Tags: Family fun