Have yourself a merry little Christmas

This is going to be a crazy few weeks here. We've got company coming for a week, a 2+ week long school break, and a major deadline for me. I'm helping out on the yearbook committee for B's school, and I've got to have the kindy montage pages finished before mid-January. So I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa. Whatever you celebrate, I hope it is great. I'll see you around.

Here are the kids with Santa.














We call this one "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" though it should really be "The Ugly, The Bad, and The Good" because of the kids' faces. LOL!

And the ubiquitous family shot.

What bet did his parents lose?

I'm currently watching a late night episode of Jeopardy and one of the contestant's first names is Lizard. I kid you not.

What a nightmare

Tis the season. I found my more precious decorations, which were stored in the house, yesterday and continued decorating for the holidays. As I decorated the tree, I thought about the ornaments as I put them on the tree. There was the mirrored cowboy hat, which I received the year I was pg with S. The person who gave it to me was a Texan and member of the expecting board I was on. Then I unpacked the ornaments I received in 2003, 2004 and 2005 from that same board's ornament exchange. I thought back fondly on all the memories of these wonderful ladies, our laughs and our tears. And again it hit me. I am sad and lonely. And I cried.

I moved here, away from my friends, voluntarily over a year ago. Since then, I've managed to lose nearly every single one of my online friends. I've been dealing with this sense of loss and isolation for a few months now, but the feeling has become particularly acute now.

To make matters worse, DS is sick. He's wheezing and coughing. Last night we pulled out the big guns and started giving him xopenex in the nebulizer. He got nebbed right before bed and went down easily. However, about 4 hours later, he got up and was roaming the halls upstairs. DH got him settled back in bed, where he stayed for maybe an hour before he visited us. This time I took him back upstairs and tried to sleep with him for about two hours. However, between his fever and the coughing, I could tell he wasn't getting any rest and neither was I. At 4am, I gave up, took him downstairs and gave him more motrin, cough medicine and another neb treatment. Then I put him back in his bed and went to cuddle with B, who had come down and asked me to snuggle with her.

It was during the time I was with B, between 5 and 9am, that I had the nightmare. During the last two weeks I have called my parents and have had trouble reaching them; either they're out, Mom is working late, or other excuses. The last time they were this evasive was when Mom was diagnosed with bre*st cancer and didn't want to tell my grandmother or me until after our birthdays. In my nightmare we were visiting my parents, who were acting a little strange. I kept prodding them to tell me what was wrong, when they finally admitted that my grandmother had died. They didn't want to upset me before the trip north, so they didn't tell me until I had arrived. If I remember the dream correctly, my trip was scheduled about a week after her passing, so they didn't tell me, held the funeral without me, and then I arrived. I was so upset and hurt.

So here I am, still upset by this dream. The irony of me being deceived with respect to what happened to my online friends has not gone unnoticed, and I've been reflecting about that a great deal today. Meanwhile, not a day goes by that I don't think of them, wonder how they are, and wish I hadn't hurt them.

I've got to call my folks and check on Granny.

Curled up in a corner crying

Last night was B's investiture ceremony for her Daisy troop. At her last meeting, she learned a song and some choreography to perform during the ceremony. Although I'm pretty shy around new people, I always enjoyed performing in front of an audience. Likewise, DH is one hell of a performer, being a music major, and has no problem standing in front of a crowd and teaching or performing. So where did Miss B get her stage fright? As the ceremony was about to begin, I realized that B was not in her spot nor was she anywhere in the room. I searched the church annex for her and found her curled up in a corner crying and sucking her thumb. She does NOT suck her thumb! She was quite nervous, but Miss Rosie, her leader, was able to convince B to stay in the front of the room, but stand behind her.

Once B was comfortable with that idea, the ceremony began, and it went wonderfully. Miss Chris, the other co-leader, and I began the ceremony by introducing the idea of Daisies exploring the world of Girl Scouts, and who Juliette Gordon Low was. Then Miss Rosie said her part, about the Girl Scout law, and each girl affixed their colored petal to the Daisy center Miss Rosie was holding. Then each girl recited the part of the Girl Scout Law for which their color represented. (There are 10 parts and ten colored petals; green stands for I promise to use resources wisely.) Following that, they recited the Girl Scout Promise, and then they performed their little song and dance. They were all so proud of themselves and they should be for the great jobs they did. B managed to recite her part of the law, but didn't want to perform the song and dance.

Just watch, I bet the kid goes into theater! LOL!

Lollipop

As I was putting S, the 3 year old, to bed tonight, we talked about Santa. We sang "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and I asked her what she wanted Santa to bring her. She told me she wanted a new big girl bed. I explained that I didn't think he'd be doing that since she got a big girl bed for her birthday this summer. Then she told me that she really wanted a crib and that she really wanted to sleep in her crib and not her big girl bed. So I dutifully explained to her that she was a big girl and had outgrown her crib and that is why she's in a big girl bed.

"You're a big girl," I said.

"No I'm not," she replied, "I'm a lollipop."

More proof

Now the heater for the upstairs isn't working, and hasn't been all day. And, best of all, the repair company can't be out here until tomorrow morning...

Cosmic karma

I'm sure I deserved it. The final night of FIL's and grandMIL's visit, our plumbing backed up. At 11pm DH and I discovered sh!t, water, and toilet paper floating in our shower pan. Four hours of furious plunging and two bottles of Drano later, we cried uncle and awaited the morning's arrival so we could get a plumber to snake the lines.

Then over the weekend B, the eldest, called to us to come upstairs. She wanted us to know that the younger two were playing in the toilet and drinking the water. DH had gone to see what B wanted, and put the little ones in time out for playing in the toilet. He told me that S said she had peed in the toilet, but he thought that she had flushed before they started playing in it. Of course that makes it only slightly less repulsive.

Fast forward to this afternoon while B was on the phone with my parents. I heard the little ones playing in S's room, and I went to investigate. I discovered S next to the toilet after having peed in it, while A had his fingers in his mouth, and a water stained shirt. I had just caught him red handed playing in the toilet. After washing off his hands and face, he got a time out. And I thanked God that S had decided to wait to poop, which she did while I washed her brother's hands.

I don't know how to make the toilet less attractive as a playground. Any advice for that would be greatly appreciated.

Meanwhile, I'm not quite sure what I did to deserve this sh!t, but clearly I earned it.

It's been a long time

since I moved from Brooklyn to the suburbs. Almost 30 years, in fact. I'm certain I was living there when I last heard about this crime, although I think it was portrayed in "National Lampoon's Vacation".

This morning the phone rang at 8:30 and I figured it might be one of our east coast relatives calling. Nope, it was one of the guys who works for DH. I passed the phone to DH and listened to his half of the call:

"What?! Oh my God!"
"I'm not sure, but I think...I'm pretty sure insurance will cover it."

I imagined that the guy had been in a car accident. When DH hung up I asked him what had happened.

Imagine my surprise when he said that "John" just found his car on blocks. And I thought back to the last time I had heard of anyone having their tires stolen. DH then told me that at John's apartment complex his car and the car two spots over had both been put up on blocks. Since both were relatively new cars, it seems clear that someone had been casing the lot.

When was the last time you heard of this crime?!