What I didn't want for Christmas

I got a new dvd player for Christmas and SH had to hook it up... I really wanted that.

I also got a blow dryer, mixing bowls, a mixer, a flash for my camera, lotions, a blanket wrap to keep warm with, a new willow tree angel from DD, blank dvd's and a couple of movies from DS, a pretty sign from an aunt that just says simplify, candles, dish towels and some berry vines from other Aunts and a cousin or two....and a cd from my cousin with a song she wrote in 2001 called "Grandma's house on Christmas eve" Which is what we did every year from the time we were born until the Christmas of 2002 when Grandma was no longer with us. I cry just opening the cd case so listening to it may take awhile.
The most popular thing being passed around Christmas eve, which is now at my Aunts house, is one gift I hope I don't get.... a horrible stomach virus. It started with my cousin the next night... my mom the day after Christmas and now has went through 4 Uncles and one Aunt... so far. Since I spent Christmas day with my mom, and she didn't come down with it until early the next morning I am still not in the clear....every twinge makes me think I am going to start puking. People from my family and SH's family are on their way in for our second Christmas celebrations this coming weekend... if we all aren't puking.... wish me luck!

Amen

Tonight it feels like all is right in the world again. My DS and DD are both here, under my roof, waiting on Santa. The boys that used to spend a lot of time here are back here tonight, playing video games, cards and eating chocolate. I'm tired, but in a good way. The house being full of teenagers is what makes life fun. Santa doesn't come to our house until everyone is in bed..so I may be up all night, or I may put gifts out and cover them with a blanket so I can get some sleep. No matter what, I am happy, my stomach is full and the shopping is all done.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL....AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT

Deck the halls...and all that crap

Today is going to be a quiet day. I'm going to straighten up the house, dip everything in my cabinets in chocolate, and get ready for a bunch of people who will be stopping by tonight. My DS and his girlfriend are coming out to help me dip things in melted chocolate after while and exchange their Christmas gifts since she will be traveling back to her parents house for the holidays. DD and her friend K are babysitting for one of their teachers this morning then off to meet some guys for a movie and lunch before heading to the basketball game tonight and then maybe back here to eat some of that chocolate. I have an After Prom planning meeting tonight.....yes we are already planning prom and the after prom party. I can not believe it! I was thinking the other night that prom dress shopping usually starts in January....which is almost here. Prom dress shopping, for those of you who have never had to do it, consists of weeks of going to different dress shops, trying on 200 dresses that weigh about 78 lbs. each and finally going back to buy the first one you tried on...if it is still there. Then comes the dreaded accessory shopping. Accessory shopping can take up to a month and sometimes you end up with 3 different necklaces that look perfect with your dress which means another month of trying them on together over and over. Last year DD's dress needed altered and the woman that altered it did not do a good job and DD spent prom night not being able to exhale...at all. Her dress was that silky material that you couldn't change after you had it altered because the holes would have shown. It looked good and if she stood just right you couldn't tell that one of the straps was longer than the other. Needless to say we will be finding someone else to do the altering this year, if it is needed.
Hopefully I will have time to update before Christmas but in case I don't I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas.

So...you wanna date my daughter?

Like most teenagers DD seems to really enjoy boys. It seems that boys really like being around DD too. Superhubby and I try to keep an eye on the boys hanging around and usually that isn't a hard thing to do. The high school DD goes to has around 350 students in 9th through 12th grade. Most of the teachers are people we know. It is very hard for kids to get away with anything when mom and dad know your teachers, or are related to them. Once in a while DD drags in a boy from anther school or older boys who have graduated and we don't know well. Superhubby and I have different ideas on what we want in a boyfriend for our daughter.
My ideas are ...
1. kind and considerate
2. loves his momma
3. willing to spend time at our house with us and DD
4. must be planning to do something with his life

Superhubby has his own ideas, as this boy found out this week.....

We love to feed the birds during the winter months. My family room has a bunch of big windows that look right out to the pool deck. This fall we forgot to get out the bird feeder and looked outside one cold day and the birds were lined up looking in the window at us. I went and bought a bunch of bird feed and we loaded up the feeder. The birds loved it for a few days and then we noticed the amount of food they were eating slacked off considerably. Today when I got home from work I think I may have figured out the problem.....I guess I will save money on bird feed this winter.

If you have a moment....

Earlier this fall my cousins daughter tore her ACL during a volleyball game. This girl is the star female athlete of the entire school. Terrific at softball, volleyball and basketball she was destined for a college scholarship in at least one of the above sports. The ACL thing ended any dream she had of that. She had surgery to repair it a couple of months ago and there was even talk of letting her try softball in the spring to see if her leg could take it. Then yesterday she went to the doctor with a few concerns about pain and found out one of the screws had come loose AND there was some type of infection inside her leg. She is back in surgery today to repair the problems and see what type of infection they are dealing with. Her doctor and her parents are hoping it isn't some type of MRSA infection because that will be so hard to treat. If you have a few minutes keep Emily in your prayers today....

Now where did I put that %&*# Ark?

All summer I complaineddiscussed the extreme dry spell we were going through. By the end of September we were about 10 inches behind in rainfall for the year. Not anymore. It has rained....and rained.....and rained for days. Today it started raining before daylight and by 7:30 A.M. we had already had over an inch of rain. Then it rained some more. Schools in the area were scrambling to get kids home while the roads were above water. Some people were using it as an excuse leaving work early to make sure they were able to get home without traveling through the mess. I don't personally know anybody who would do that, I'm just saying it may have happened(-;
I drove the long way home from work today to make sure I didn't run into any water and the whole way home guess what...it rained. I thought about starting to gather two of every animal together, just in case, but I am not going to clean up elephant poop if he must go on my boat, so I am just going to have to hope it eventually dries up. I don't think I could allow any snakes on my boat and I'm pretty sure the original rules specify two of everything. There are a few animals (like the snake) that I have no idea how to tell a male from a female and I think the whole thing would be pointless if I ended up with 2 of the same sex.
As of now it has quit raining. I can still hear water running down the hills everywhere which means the bigger creeks will still come up and driving around will get annoying. The good news is the news says a clear day tomorrow and then Saturday night and Sunday a mixture of rain, ice and snow. Is it spring yet?

It takes a village

I finally got my Christmas village out. I love my Christmas village and really look forward to seeing it. Up until last year I had a miniature village that I only got out every few years. I had always wanted one of the bigger villages but they were so expensive that I couldn't justify the expense to myself around Christmas every year. Last year SH and I talked about it and we decided I should buy a couple houses and just add to it every year. DD and I went shopping to pick out the first few and on the way we stopped at a flea market. There, in the middle of the flea market was a couple of women selling an entire village. Their mother had passed away and they were selling her Christmas decorations. The houses were all under 5 dollars apiece.....so I bought the entire village. My village sits on SH's Great Grandmothers old cast iron wood cook stove. It alone weighs about as much as a real village.

I love it when night falls in the village and you can be nosy and peak in the windows (just call me peeping kate)

If you look in the window of the village toy shop you can see the shop owner playing with his puppets and looking out the window at the snow.

If you look in the window of this house you can see mom and dad putting the kids to bed.. so visions of sugarplums can dance in their head.

This picture, well, you can figure this one out for yourself. I just wish he would shut the door.

A few of my favorite things.....

I'm putting up my tree. I love my Christmas tree and so many of my ornaments have a story behind them. I want to share with you some of my favorites and I hope that everyone who reads this will share a few of their favorite Christmas ornaments with me. If you don't do Christmas ornaments then share something special and let me know so I can come to your blog and see.

This little fellow is my favorite little mouse. Normally I am not a big fan of mice but this one is a little special. I am a addicted to a big fan of peppermint. I also get a horrible cough every year. My Grandma W always kept peppermints around and gave me one when I started coughing. One year she saw this mouse and it reminded her of me...so she bought it for me. I miss my Grandma W so much but my little mouse makes me happy.

This ornament is special to me for about the same reason as the first. When I was little Grandma W. made me this ornament with my name on it and here it is probably 30 years later.... still on my tree every year.

The next three I like just because of what they are. Every year when my mom goes to the beach she tries to find me a new Santa at the beach ornament. I love Santa sitting here with his binoculars.....

Santa surfing just makes me giggle, I think he probably needs a summer vacation.

I absolutely love this one of Santa having a drink on the beach in his board shorts. I have a few more but haven't unpacked them yet.

This one is the first ornament SH and I owned after we got married. My mom bought this for us for our first Christmas together and I have bought a dated ornament every year since this...I have a lot of ornaments.

I have a few baby's first ornaments for each child and each are special to me. This is DD's and it is waiting for her to put on the tree....because each year they must put their own on the tree.

This one is DS's and he was my first baby, and this was my first baby's first ornament. I can't wait until he stops by to hang it on the tree. I had to hold them up to take the picture but I won't hang them until they are here.

I have unpacked a couple of little boxes of ornaments, which means I have more in the basement somewhere. One of my favorite things about Christmas is getting everything out and every year it seems I find stuff I have forgotten about and it gets me excited all over again.

Remember, share with us some of your favorite Christmas things...or whatever it is you celebrate.

On love and marriage

I have no idea where that title came from, just a thought as I started typing and it makes me sound like an expert... which I am most definately NOT. I was just thinking today about how marriage changes over the years and the difference age makes in your life.
Remember those early years when, to your husband at least, you always looked like this....and every night was like a romantic trip to Paris, or at least to a romantic motel. You didn't have to go anywhere to feel like you were in the most special place in the world..... his arms.

During those same early years you husband looked exactly like this. Even if he didn't look exactly like this he looked close enough to it that you thought he did. When he lay in bed it looked just like this to you, you could tell he was just there waiting on you.








Back then you could do amazing things with your body. You could put your legs and back in some odd positions and not need pain killers the next day, or a chiropractor.

Your children, when they were born, were going to have the most perfect mother, the one that worked (or stayed home) but also baked cookies and took care of the dog.

Then a few dozen years go by. Things start to change and those nights of Paris like bliss are replaced by quickies during naptime. Your wonderful children are still wonderful but you can not figure out how the future President of the United States is ever going to get to the Oval office if he can't figure out how to tie his shoes.














Sometime you feel like this is what you must look like to your husband. Stressful days do not alway make for the most romantic nights.

That handsome prince you married looks like this most of the time. Not that there is anything wrong with this, it just makes you use your imagination a little more. This man has flowers in his tool box. Superhubby doesn't bring me flowers other than the ones stuck to the bottom of his shoes after he mows the yard. I will take what I can get. I'm just glad that SH has a toolbox and knows how to use it...

My entire point to this post was that even though things change (some a lot, like the size of my butt) there is always a bright side to everything. I know that SH is busy but soon he will be a little less busy and then he will find time to spend at home with me, which will probably make us both crazy, but I'm willing to take the chance.

Tonight the forecast is for snow. 1 to 3 inches is the thought of most weather people in our area. We very seldom get a "good" snow anymore. We used to get them a little more frequently and I'm sure in the future we will get more, but for the last few years we have been fairly dry, with only a few small snows every winter. The road crews around here are ready in case it actually does snow and I noticed today by noon most hills on state roads were already being treated by the liquid brine solution they use. This is a road I travel about every day. It isn't my road, which you can tell by the fact that it has guardrails, and lines, though whoever painted this one must have been up way too late the night before.

I have been having some neck pain lately so I decided to clean out my purse and get out an old favorite. This change was mostly in the bottom of my purse. I deserve a neck ache for being too lazy to clean this out earlier.
I went to the doctor today and my blood pressure was a good 130/68. I haven't taken the water pill she prescribed to me for the last few days because I had ran out and didn't want to call her office for a refill when I was going to be there anyway. I was sure it was going to be high. She rewrote my prescription for that and added wellbutrin to try to help me get a little control over my ADD life. I hope this helps me focus a little because my life is so chaotic and it doesn't have to be, I just make it that way. It is weird to be an adult that has full blown ADD. It isn't something you discuss with too many people because it is thought of as a childs problem. I had it as a child but I wasn't very hyper so no one noticed. I do have to be moving in some form, but I do this weird little thing with my fingers that no one really notices but me or my foot is shaking constantly. My brain runs in fast forward anytime I try to sit still so I have no idea what is going on if I am in a quiet setting where I should be paying attention. Movies are out, tv shows that don't have commercials are misery for me and paying attention in church is impossible. I have been typing this one paragraph for 39 minutes and have gotten up and swept half of the kitchen floor, put clothes in the washer, walked the dog, made half a sandwich, changed the tv channels to something else I am not going to watch and twice just got up and wondered off and forgot completely I was doing this. This is my life every day and it gets annoying. I know it annoys me and it really annoys DD and SH, both of whom like their lives and home organized and neat....they have the wrong person here to do that.

I'm trying to make myself drink more water too. I am so bad to only want to drink caffeinated soda's and no water. I have had a case of water in the kitchen floor for a month and never drink it. Tonight I put it in the fridge because that makes it much more desirable to everyone here. It's kind of like that weird boy you went to school with that you have nothing to do with until that one evening when you have had a little too much to drink and you are wondering around and there aren't any other guys around but him ..... That never happened to me, I'm just saying it could happen, to someone else.

That is exactly why I did it

I have mentioned before that SH is not the least bit romantic. I have grown used to it and really don't mind at all, even though sometimes I give him a little bit of a hard time about it. About the time I think it's time to start teasing him again he goes and does something nice. I didn't say romantic, I said nice, which in his world is the same thing and I am so very happy with that.
In Ironton there is a little store call Bartram's that sells chicken salad. I love me some chicken salad but only a few people make it the way I like it. I have been wanting to get in there and get some for the last few weeks but for some reason it never works out that I am in there when they are open or we get half way home and realize we forgot and don't want to go back and add 15 or 20 miles to our trip.
Today I had to go to DD's school to watch Beta club inductions and SH had to go to the dentist and then stop by my parents house to help my dad with something. I called in there a few minutes ago to see if he had left and mom said he left 45 minutes ago. She said right after he left she went to Bartram's and SH was there buying chicken salad. Now SH isn't a big chicken salad fan and I only mentioned to him once about a week ago that I really wanted some of their chicken salad. That, my friends, is why I feel so lucky and love this man so much.
Don't forget to check out the cooking blog.....does anyone have a good chicken salad recipe?

For the last few weeks I have been working on a top secret, undercover, covert...uhh....hiney widening project with my friends Monkling and Kim. We all love recipes. We love sharing recipes and trying out new recipes. I especially love it if other people try out recipes and I just taste test, but that doesn't happen often around here. So we decided to work together and make a recipe blog. We want to share our recipes with you, and get new ones from you. When you get done reading this I ask you to go to http://cookingforacause.blogspot.com/ and look at our recipes and see if there are any you want to add from your collection. If you would like to add one just email me at themyers@frognet.net or 3bloggers@gmail.com.
I have one little favor to ask, if you look in the side bar of the cooking blog you will notice some links to charities. We are asking that you make a donation to one of the charities in the side bar. We have no ties with any of them and the links take you directly to their donation site. This is just a way to help some people while we all get to play around with some new recipes. This is an honor system type thing completely so we are only asking you to donate and the rest is up to you. Have a great weekend.....and make something new for your family!