Holiday Symbols

Jeff and I decided that we would be putting the tree up this year after a taking a break last year. And since we are finding ourselves in a better monetary situation, we made the decision to spring for some 'shatterproof' ornaments rather than the classic 'shards of fun' glass ornaments that we usually have.

We've been lucky enough to have Aunt Stacey's tree for the last several years. Lucky because it is a beautiful pre-lit tree.

Saturday night, (after the obligatory mourning for the Husker's loss . . .) I wisely put up the tree so all that we needed to do on Sunday was decorate.

Picture this lovely domestic scene on a Sunday morning:

We hang the garland, quickly discovering that Mommy didn't get enough packages of garland to sufficiently cover the tree.

F#@$^&&$#!!!

Now for the new ornaments! I open up the boxes and tubes of 74 shatterproof glittery red and gold orbs to find that some asinine person has decided that tiny little strings would work soooooo much better than hooks. So now Mommy is sitting on the floor, cursing quietly to herself as she ties strings for 71 pretty ornaments.

F#@$^&&$#!!!

71 of 74?

I only tied strings for 71 of the 74 because apparently the 24 gold ornaments weren't cool enough to come with strings for each ornament and I was too cranky to hunt down some matching strings in my sewing stuff upstairs. So the last 3 are banished to storage until next year.

F#@$^&&$#!!!

Now picture Alaina running around attempting to tell us all exactly how this is supposed to go.

NO! Not the shiny ones just the Glittery ones!
Kayla! Stop Throwing the ornaments!
Please hurry up tying those strings Mommy!
KAYLA! Stop touching the ornaments!
Mommy can you lift me up to put the high ones on?
Kayla! Don't touch THAT!
When do we put that star on the top.
MOMMY KAYLA'S TOUCHING THAT AGAIN!!!

F#@$^&&$#!!!

And Kayla, for almost the entire time I've been tying silly little strings, has been tossing the ornaments like she's trying out for the Olympics' first Bean-the-Cat event.She'd win the gold for sure.

F@#$%#$@#$!!!!

And as I get up to get the star I realize,I bought all these pretty GOLD decorations,

And my star is SILVER.

And as crazy as I am, that just will NOT do for our tree.
So we brought home a pretty new glittery red star when we got the rest of our garland.

F@#$%#$@#$!!!!

You still hear that cursing in the background? What do you mean you thought it was ME?!?

Nope!

That cursing going on the entire time, is Jeff. Because if there is one thing in the world that irritates Jeff in this world more than GLITTER, I haven't found it yet.
Jeff is a glitter magnet. If there is a glittery object in our house, Jeff will be wearing glitter to work for 3 weeks. The poor guy could double as a pixie.

(A very manly pixie, my dear. You wear your glitter well.)

And now for the Moment of the day. Oh dear weak of heart friends and family, avert your ears.

As we are decorating the tree Alaina casually says,

(Take a deep breathe and wait for it.)

Hey Mommy, boys have a tongue between their legs.

And now you can begin laughing your ass off.

But this post has gone on long enough. I leave you with this fun little tidbit, and I will post the conversation I had with Alaina about this tomorrow, or as soon as I can.

BLOG TAKE TWO

I had a morose blog typed up, but it was [insert appropriate negative comment here]

I can sum up the lame-ness of it in two sentences:

I couldn't figure out how to post my pretty Christmas pictures.

AND

Kayla and I have been sick.


MOVING ON!


I popped over to a new blog that Stacey found. http://www.hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/ and am feeling much perkier.


So I will leave you with this Tale of Two Sisters.

Imagine being a twin . . . . . .

One twin is a home body, likes to cook, has kids, a minivan, cats, and a closet that would make Tim Gunn cry.

The other is a bit of a fashionista, loves clothes, Starbucks, and actually has a social life. She actually reads style books written by Tim Gunn.

Needless to say I am twin one.

But thanks to my sister living with me for a while, I am trying to mend my ways.

Actually . . . . I'm trying to look better because I'm sick of that 'You are soooooo lame' look that she delivers to me along with phrases like "Burn that when you take it off today" and "I am veto-ing that barrette in your bangs. What are you 12?"

I'm starting from the inside and working my way out because sister dearest works at Victoria's Secret and is my instant snitch for all things on sale. In the last 2 month I have purchased 3 new bras, had 2 given to me by sis, and bought about 30 smoking pairs of VS underwear.

And that's where the problem begins.

Have you ever had "Garment Amnesia?"

Garment Amnesia: def When a person doesn't recognize a garment purchased recently because they forgot what it looked like in the first place. See catch phrases like "I've been looking for this" and "Why did I ever buy that?"

My sister and I tend to lump laundry together and wash a mix of hers/mine clothes every time we do laundry. She, however, doesn't suffer from Garment Amnesia. My sister can look at a garment from 6th grade and tell you if it was hers or mine.

So tell me, dear friends, how ridiculous is it that I have to ask my sister to help me sort my laundry because I can't even identify my own underwear?

Tim Gunn, please know that I love you and am working on my fashion issues. . . .

Recipe

We had a very full weekend, including a Christmas photo session which I will intentionally forget to mention until a later date, due to the happy tone I an striving for in today's blog.

How to whip up a fun weekend in fall:

Start with a night of dressing up in halloween items that mommy bought on clearance.
Add a touch of cookies to decorate throughout the week. . . .


Sprinkle in some dried leaves . . . .
And toss in a couple of little girls to get some super big smiles!


(In hindsight, we should have used this recipe to get good Christmas pics, but the leaves may have posed a problem. . . )

Mad as a hatter!

"What's going on in your life?" you ask.

My second favorite answer is I got a promotion at work! Jeff and I have been planning all the ways to spend all that extra cash I will be earning like. . . yachts and private planes.

Just kidding, but I'm totally psyched because I haven't had a promotion since I started and due to the economy getting a raise has been pretty tough, so this is pretty big news for us.

And what has taken me so long to post?

Well let me see if I can sum up in one word what I have been doing with my last month.

Halloween.

While Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday over all. Halloween is the holiday that I was built for . . .

Because I LOVE costumes.

Do you know about me and theater? Have I mentioned it yet? I am a pretty poor actress and singer, so I didn't get to do much on stage, not to mention I pretty much sucked at hitting my cues to enter and leave . .we won't mention the one time I was spacing out in the green room and completely forgot to go on stage. (Don't worry, I didn't have any dialogue that got dropped.)

But I did fall in love with this lady.

Donna

(Ritchie Valenz has begun crooning in the background)

Dear Donna taught me everything I know about doing this . . .

No! Not dressing in drag! Costuming!

While Mom and Grams get all the credit for teaching me how to sew (yes I did leave my high school home ec teacher out on purpose . . .) Donna was my college theater professor of costume and makeup design. Due to her fun and laughter, when I wasn't with my boyfriend off campus, I was in her shop stitching away merrily.

And once a year I let that theater minor loose on the world and wind up with something a little like this . . .

The Mad Hatter!!!

This is me downtown competing in a costume competition on Saturday.
And yes I did place, I came in fourth after Han Solo riding a Tonton, a Chilean Miner, and a Husker *ahem* violating the Mizzou tiger (yucky, but it was well done.)
Currently there are probably 100 plus pictures of me surfing around the intranet and I'm sure several videos of me dancing like a loon
oh, excuse m I mean I was "Futterwacking" like a loon. When in Wonderland . . . .

And now here is where I brag. I made almost the entire thing myself. Yep, the hat. the jacket, the gloves and eyebrows were all me. The pants were modified from Goodwill, and my sister actually had the socks and boots in her closet. Between my makeup design starter kit and my sister's collection of eye shadow, I didn't have to buy a single piece of makeup.

And the gift card that I won wasn't anywhere near what I spent. But I always figure that some of these pieces will be reusable, so they have been retired to the costume closet upstairs until needed again.

I did save a bit of time for my girls' costumes.

Sadly the camera was running out of batteries and I was running out of patience, so these pics are all I have.

And, alright, I admit it!

I purchased the Tink costume! (I just heard Donna's gasp of outrage from across town . . .)

I just couldn't find the right color of stretchy fabric to make a tink costume that would last for at least 2 years. And if I'm going to make a princess/fairy dress for Alaina, it needs to be built to fit for a few years because she loves to dress up.


Jeff was very fortunate in that I didn't have time to make a costume for him, because he would have made a nice Peter Pan. (Ha ha!) Don't mind Kayla, I swear she's just screaming "Take the picture already!!!" : )

I swear if I had the time, I would costume everyone I know for Halloween.

and really that's about it. I've signed us up for holiday photo sessions this weekend so I've resigned myself to rushing around getting haircuts, dresses and everything else for the little ones before Sunday.


And with that planned, Jeff and I are looking at zero relaxing weekends before December.

*Sigh*

I don't know why I ever think that I can get anything done between Labor day and Christmas.

So Suh me . . .

Jeff and I had a great football weekend. We went to a Husker bar and watch the Huskers eek out a rather unsatisfying win and then rounded out the weekend by watching Suh and the Detroit Lions have a harsh loss dealt to them by an old man who can throw a football really well with the Vikings.

But just to shake things up a bit, we did this all in Minnesota.

Yep! That's right! A husker bar in Minneapolis! I have to admit, its actually a lot cooler than a Husker bar in Nebraska, because you don't have to stake out a table three hours before kickoff and you can actually get a drink served to you in under 5 minutes without having to flash the bartender.

Not that I've EVER done that!

And then we attended the Lions/Vikings game here . . .

It was AWESOME! except for the pesky fact that the team I was cheering for lost. Its rather humbling to be surrounded by thousands of people who are NOT cheering for your team. Quite the change for a Nebraskan.

Jeff's cousin took the chance to rub it in.


I look forward to next year when the Lions have their actual quarterback. It is soooo on Primo! And that's about all I have for today . . . I tried to take pictures of Alaina and Kayla playing in the yard, but my camera hates me, so they just turned out blurry. What a shame because we had a little picnic and played "guess what Kayla's pointing and babbling about this time?" Alaina does a pretty good job of narrating in between Kayla cooing and chatting.

What's new?

I'll tell you what's new. After battling with our old computer for months on end, we finally went to Best Buy and got a new computer. Maybe I'll feel move compelled to blog with our shiny new computer.

Next up on my list of wants and desires is a nice camera that I can take stellar pictures with like Mindee or Pioneer Woman, but since I'm really hard on cameras, that day probably won't come for a while.

But since I have taken a few pictures, I'll share what I have, rotten or not. Here's my small landscaping project. As you can see I took advantage of the torrential downpour that interrupted my project and took a picture of my progress. There will be about 20 pastel tulips and 40-50 crocuses here come spring next year if all my work pays off. And that tacky looking downspout coming out of the siding? That's the former homeowners great idea for a dryer vent.

I guess I've been setting a good example, because the girls latest hobby is cleaning. They each get a towel, a spray bottle, and permission to hose down any surface that is glass or shiny plastic. Next on the list of fun things to do is go to the library. I spend most of the trip chasing Kayla around and trying to prevent her from eating crayons, but Alaina has a lot of fun picking out 4 books. She gets to pick out four books and then mommy picks out a few more for her to read.

That rule came about because I have to admit that there are some really weird children's books out there, and I want to make sure that I have a few good selections to read her as well. Here's my little lovelies rocking together is Uncle Scott's rocking chair. I had to run and get my camera, and I wish Alaina would have given me a smile, but Kayla would only sit still for one picture.

I just couldn't resist taking the photo of the girls because it reminded me of this picture that Mimi took of my brothers. Big brother offered to rock little brother to sleep when Mimi was took pregnant to do the job herself. (Did I tell that right Mimi?) We also had friends over for the great Husker victory last weekend. Alaina was ecstatic that her friend 'Phie' was able to come over and stayed for 2 hours past the football game while her parents went to the Husker volleyball game.

I had a small taste of what life was like for Mimi as I bathed and got four kids, ages 6 months to 4 years, ready for bed that night. Baby K went first, then Phie's brother. And while I was putting him down, Phie apparently got sick of waiting for me to get her bath ready, so she shed her clothes and got into the tub and played with the bath toys until Alaina told Daddy that he needed to fill the tub for them.

A good time was had by all.

Yay! Look I posted!

Yesterday I got the bring idea to take the afternoon off to finish up a little planting around the house. Jeff and I have slowly started to tackle landscaping around the house and it is looking pretty barren around the house.

Of course the day that I decide to work in the dirt is the day that the heavens decide to open up and rain on and off all afternoon. I gave up after getting 200 bulbs in the ground with 40 to go. Actually I gave up because I didn't know what to do with the last 40, but since I bought them, they are going in somewhere.

Saturday, Mimi and papa came up and we took Papa to the football game. Its always a good day when the Huskers win in Nebraska. And when I say 'we' I mean Mimi and I stayed with my girls while everyone else went to the game. We had a great time at the Children's Museum.

Maybe I can post some pics tomorrow. . . .

I'm too tired from getting up and attempting to kick my sister's butt at the gym this morning.