Catching up, catching colds...but no catching snowflakes

Hey blog friends!
Long time, no see!
I sense a pattern here...
So sorry.

I blame it on the short people in the house.
They just don't get my "blogging career". They are always needing food, attention, nose pickin' and bottom wipin'...such demanding folks! ;)

Anyway, really not much going on here...

We were supposed to have snowmageddon 2012 here in our parts.
There is nary a flake on the ground.
That's a big surprise.
Much like my blogging career.

We all seem to have this cold/sinus funk thing going around.
Ya know, one of those annoying little things...
Stuffy nose, pounding head, sore throat...
Probably because we live in KY and one day it is 20 and the next it is 60.
But I assure you.
It never snows.

I know this is just riveting information folks.
You are probably on the edge of your seat.
You should stick around for later in the week when we discuss the politicization of climate change and polarization in the American public's views of global warming.

I kid.
Seriously, I do.

However, that does sound like the type of television the hubby watches at night.

Me? Gimmie the Real Housewives of (insert city). Now that is quality television at it's finest.
Some may say...why watch that?! It's trash! That's not reality!?!

Well, let me tell you something.
When you have been climbed on all day.
Puked on.
Sat on.
Had your food stolen.
Not gone to the bathroom by yourself in 6 years.

You just need a little comedy to unwind.

Speaking of quality television. Did y'all watch Whitney's funeral?
I had not planned on it. But out of curiosity I turned it on Saturday and was totally mesmerized.
The funny thing is, I thought I am not really gonna watch it, so I turned it on our tiny little box TV (did you all know those were still around!?!) in the kitchen.

I stood there watching in awe.
There was Jesus' name being mentioned on TV!
Praise and worship!
Amen-ing!
Moving stories about a little girl growing up in church...not the Whitney most of us saw and remember.

I sang Jesus Loves Me with Cece Winans y'all!
And she asked all of America to sing.
I pictured all of America sitting around their TV sets singing this age old classic. So cool!

You know that doesn't happen very often.

The Housewives pale in comparison to the quality television I saw on Saturday.

And the best part?

I have a friend who watched it.
And it has opened up a door for me to talk about Jesus with her.
Wow.

I am still amazed.

Hope y'all enjoy this President's Day! I hear there are linens on sale at Macy's....

(I am going to leave you with Kevin Costner's speech from Whitney's funeral. If you didn't see it you should. It was very touching. Kevin Costner.)

I was sick and briefly part of the Ingalls Family.

So the other night.

Sunday, if you are keeping score.

I noticed I had a little "tickle" in my throat...

I thought to myself, "self, you better not be getting sick".

Momma's cannot get sick. Ya just can't. Too much to do. Too many mouths to feed. Too many bottoms to wipe. Too many math homework sheets to do. Y'all know how it is.

However, when I awoke Monday morning I was pretty sure the sickness was comin' after me.

I decided to fight back.

I loaded up on Mucinex...which I felt like a convict buying. I had to show identification and sign my life away.
Clearly I haven't bought high dose cold medicine in the post-meth lab era.
I also grabbed some vitamin C, ibuprofen, orange juice...and the new US Weekly (I would need good reading material if I was confined to the bed).

I popped my pills (see, I do sound like a convict) and decided I would beat this funk. I would beat it while shopping at the Fayette Mall. No measly cold can stand between me and my shopping.

I was wrong.

By the time I rolled up to the carpool line I felt as if a mack truck was slamming into my head. I was chilling. And I am pretty sure that there were voices in my head saying, "come to the light"....

The following two days are but a mirage...

I was down and out. Went to bed at 7pm on Monday night and had a fitful night's sleep where I am pretty sure I felt as if Jesus was going to ride down on chariots of fire and rescue me from my misery.

However, I have since recovered and am back to at least 90%...

Not really sure as to where I was headed with this...

Although I will say that while I lay in bed Monday fighting off the plaque I wrote some of the best blogs in my head... I had these deep meaningful conversations/writings...at least in my fevered state they sounded good.

I also remember thinking this must be how they felt on Little House on the Prairie when the entire town came down with Typhus (is that what it was???).
Here I am laying in the bed...a fever overcomes me...beads of perspiration dot my forehead, I am moaning, tossing and turning, my body shakes...Pa comes in to tell me that Doc Baker is on his way over (via horse carriage of course). I can hear Ma come in to check on me... It's like I am living in Walnut Grove...

And that is the last thing I remember.

Again, I am not sure where I was going with all of this...except maybe to get some sympathy?? Ya know Momma's don't ever get any sympathy.

And now Daddy has the plaque.

And he acts like he's dyin' or something.

MEN!?!

They can be so dramatic.

Vacation...and Dumpsters...

hi.

remember me?

it's ok if you don't.

i am a blog failure.

and i am not using capital letters.

and i am not sure why.

I am not certain why I opened that way...I am not certain why I do a lot of things though. And my husband would say he is not sure why I do 99% of what I do...but enough about me.

How about you?

How have you been? Are my 5 readers even still with me?!?

I am so sorry that the Christmas chaos sucked me up... I promise I had intentions of checking in but it was like a fuzzy enigma, I couldn't escape...the wrapping paper, carolers, dancing Santas, and fruitcake had me glazed over like a Krispy Kreme doughnut.

Anyhoo, we are alive and well!

We had an awesome Christmas, and even took a little trip down South between Christmas and New Year. I must first say it was a FANTASTIC trip. However, words cannot describe the home that we rented. Let's just say that the description online didn't exactly live up in person...here are just a few examples:

I give you the quotes from the website...then my version:

1. "Enjoy use of 36' Yacht, Jet Skiis, Catamaran sailboat and daily housekeeping."
-Lets just say that 1 of 3 jet skis was working most of the time, the sailboat didn't even have a sail, and the "yacht"...well, there was no way I was getting on that thing.
We never saw a housekeeper.

2. "Voted "Best Vacation Ever" by all 10 members of the Peterson family during their spring vacation."
-I have to believe that either a) the Petersons had never been on vacation before or b) they were blind

3. "Family room equipped with 3D TV and library of 3D Movies"
-ok, I know we were on vacation in FL and the TV should have been the least of our worries...however, there are times with three children under 6 that TV is very much a necessity.
So this TV (the ONLY TV in the 5BR house) had 6 channels.
And 3 of them were in Spanish. AND, the "library" consisted of 3 movies, all of which were rated "R".

4. "Gas/Electric BBQ Grill : More than just a grill....many new features will even let you grill a pizza on the pizza stone"
-This in fact was a rusty gas grill with a circular metal pan on it.

5. "The spa is equipped with many different pieces of aerobic gym equipment"
-The "spa"...and I use that term loosely, was located on the upstairs balcony. OUTSIDE.
I'm pretty sure the equipment was from the early Jane Fonda era and it was all rusted.

I could go on and on...but honestly, the trip itself was AWESOME. We had lots of family bonding time, the weather was GREAT. And the backyard with pool and inter-coastal views made up for the other areas that left little to be desired... We all will have fond memories of our "Griswald vacation"!

We haven't done much since we got back and I hate to bore you (if you have read this far) with the mundane details of our days...

But I will add that the hubby went out of town this month and I took full advantage of his absence to address his hoarding issue. We actually know the builder building the house across the street from us so I had him deliver his dumpster for his job site to my house first. I managed to clear out our garage...where I found a box of books that looked old enough to be first editions...as well as oil lamps. Yeah, oil lamps...you know, in case we need to go all Little House on the Prairie out here.

I also cleaned out our back deck. We finished our basement 2 years ago...and the scrap lumber, paint, and various other pieces o' junk were STILL back there.

Needless to say I was pretty proud of all my de-cluttering...aka, throwing stuff in the big dumpster in the driveway.

I asked the hubby when he got home if he noticed anything...of course in my head I am thinking, "yeah, he's gonna think I'm a rockstar...I got so much cleaned and done with THREE kids, BY MYSELF...he has to give me a pat on the back...or a high five....or those Frye boots I've been coveting..."

Um, no.

I should have known better.

He said: "I hope you didn't throw those little pieces of siding away that were on the back porch. We need those to complete the front of the house."

Gulp.

Ooops.

Um, helloooooo...I just have to say...the house has been built for 4 years now.

What do you mean "to finish it"??

I don't even remember seeing siding....honestly I was so excited to have that dumpster in my driveway and to be clearing out all that junk...I was like a kid in a candy store...

Anyway, I am sure you can get extra siding or whatever it is somewhere?

Right?

Or perhaps he might want to go across the street...

Giving...

I love giving.

I love helping.

I love sacrificing my time, talents, _______(fill in the blank) in order to make someones day.

Do I do this all the time?

No.

Do I try really hard to do this all year?

Yes.

Does it happen?

No. (I tend to blame the three kids, and husband...which is not a good enough excuse if you ask me)

What is about the Christmas season that really brings out the need to help others?
Is it the churches we go to, whispering in our ears that this is the season for giving?
Is it the homes we were raised in, that taught us, "tis better to give than to receive"?
Is it the realization that we are so abundantly blessed, so much so, that probably all of us can at least give something this Christmas season? Even if it's just our time!
Is it the fact that we know we are all afflicted with "stuff-itis" (me included) that we in fact NEED nothing this Christmas?

Whatever it is...it's true, this is the season for giving. And as I said before I LOVE it.

I love reading the stories, like this one of the people paying off the Christmas layaways at K-mart.

How awesome would it be to walk up to pay on your account and realize it has been COMPLETELY paid off. No strings attached! What a blessing it must be to know that it is one less thing that family has to worry about this Christmas!

I don't know all the science-y stuff behind it, but I know there is some kind of "feel good chemical" that is released into our brain when we do something for someone...
Whether it is something big like paying off a layaway account, or something small like taking a plate of cookies to a hospital waiting room...
Something about it just makes us feel good.

And I don't know about you....but I don't EVER want to lose that feeling.

And it's a feeling that I want to bottle up and pass on to my kids.
I don't want them to come down with "stuff-itis" too...although I know it is a contagious disease...an epidemic...that has infiltrated our society.

I am definitely one of those people with a servant's heart, and I want to help EVERYONE...I see the story about a woman who was killed in a house fire and I want to find out where her family is and what they need...
I hear about a mother who was killed in a car accident and I want to provide a Christmas for the kids that will take their pain away...
I hear about a family who's dad was injured and is now back in the hospital and I want to find out if a hot meal or gift card to a restaurant would ease some of the burden...

It's just the way I am wired...

I just wish I could help everyone.

But you know what? I can't.

But if I can make a difference in ONE person's life.
If I can just make ONE person's day.
If I can bring a smile to ONE person's face.
I will feel like I have made a difference.

And I would be remiss to leave out perhaps the most important reason why I feel like I need to do this.

Because I know it is what He would do.
And if anything, that little bottled up feeling that I want to pass on to my kids is wrapped in the most precious paper of all.
His love.
The love of Jesus Christ.

Why do I want to do all these things?

Because I have a Savior who has done so much for me...and there is no amount of giving that will ever measure up.
But I feel like the best thing I can do is to spread the word of His love.
To be the hands and feet of Jesus.

So this Christmas, I pray that my kids will take away more than just the presents under the tree...that they will see the love that their Father has for them and spread it around to all those who need it.

I love this song by Matthew West, I think it sums it up... Give This Christmas Away

Of mice and men...

Actually (I hope) it is is just "mouse" not mice.

Sorry to leave you hanging, but earlier in the week I mentioned we had a mouse in the house.
Yes, we also recently got rid of fleas too.
Why do I feel like we are one creature away from being on the cover of the Orkin Pest Control Christmas card?!?!

Anyhoo, I went to our bathroom a few nights ago to get ready for bed and lo and behold a small gray mouse went flying across my vanity. I suppressed the need to scream since all the children were sleeping...and there is hardly any creature that would scare me enough to scream and wake the kids. That in itself would cause pure pandemonium...

So I quickly rushed out to the living room to alert J that we had an intruder in the house! He stared at me blankly then said, "what"?!? In the most exasperated tone you could imagine...I cannot even convey it with mere words.
I then possibly choose a minor expletive followed by the word mouse. Then bathroom. And then COME NOW.
Needless to say I finally got him up off the couch and moving.

Sure enough when we arrived back on the scene the "said intruder" was behind my collection of various face washes, hairsprays, lotions, and anything else I have over there that can hide the fact I have three kids and showers don't always happen...

I told J I could not go to sleep if we didn't catch it so he headed to the garage to grab some old boxes. He was going to capture it.

Did y'all know field mice are quick?

Real quick.

Needless to say the mouse decided he had just about enough of our shenanigans and he tried to end it all by leaping to his death off the vanity counter.

I, in turn, also nearly met my maker when I tried to leap up onto the edge of the tub...
(I swear that little thing was coming after me)

I lost my footing, and ended up sprawled out in the tub like some sort of circus act gone bad.
It wasn't pretty.

It turns out the mouse ran for the safety of the linen closet. I mean where else would ya go when very large humans are after you...

J declared he was no match for the mouse so we stuffed an old bath towel under the crack of the door and I prayed to the big Guy that the little furry guy would stay in there for the night.
I slept with one eye open.
And let the record stand, I never thought a bath towel would prevent the little varmint from escaping.

But alas, it did.

So the next day I head to the local Lowe's in hunt of semi-automatic weapon in order to take this guy out. I was lured to the traps with the words "KILLS INSTANTLY". But alas, J has heart for animals.

(Which again, I know I say this a lot, but is another post entirely. Like when he nearly gave us all whiplash because he was avoiding hitting the wooly worms in the neighborhood... Or the time we rescued a baby bunny and I told him to let it go, but he took it up to the office and left him in a box to supposedly let go the next day. Well, the rabbit got out over night and they had to hunt all over the office for him the next day.)

So I bought 12 dozen of the "live traps" and was ready to go into battle.
Ok, really I just bought 2.
But I wanted to buy 12 dozen, to be certain we got him.

That afternoon we placed the trap...and to make a long story short, we had him captured by the next evening.
(I think he was leery of the gourmet cheese I laid out for him.
We had just hosted a Christmas party so the only cheese I had in the house was Gruyere cheese.)

So I am thinking to myself, all right, let's take him out to the field and dump him.
Oh, noooooooo!
Dr. Doolittle had other plans.
I had to clean out one section of the hamster cage so that we could gingerly place him in there, keep him until morning (we wouldn't want to put him out at night, that wouldn't be safe), and then set him free into this big bad world.

Well, I had news for Dr. D, ain't no way I am keepin that thing in the house one more night.
So you know what he did?!?!
He put it in the hamster cage, then put the hamster cage in a box, then put that box in another box. And then put him in his car.

I thought to myself, now who's the animal killer??? He's going to suffocate. But I didn't say anything.

And to sum it up...next morning: mouse still alive, kids got to see him, he drove it to some remote field and let it go.

Where 5 minutes later a hawk probably ate it.

(But we won't tell him that)

Picture-y Post

I have several things I want to share today.
I noticed I have quite the backlog of pictures and I figured they could do a good job of showing what we've been up to.

First off, we are all decorated for Christmas! Now as I have mentioned before, we might STILL be decorated for Christmas in July. But hey, that just means when Thanksgiving rolls around next year we will be done!

O' Christmas Tree...
Which I must admit, I had help with. My amazingly talented friend Heather assisted... She had me buy two dozen lights to add to the "pre-lit-ness"...if I had been calling the shots we woulda just gone with the half lit tree.


And the stockings were hung by the chimney with care...not by momma...Heather did this too. See, on the talent front again, she can just look at a pile of tinsel and stuffed snowmen and make it into something pretty. Me? Not so much.


And the other mantle...I will save you the explanation. I had help. Again.


And here are a few other little decorative touches....




We hosted a little Christmas soiree the other night and I tried a few new recipes...thought I'd share the links in case you too had a soiree of your own that you might need a yummy appetizer for!


Phyllo Wrapped Asparagus These were a HUGE hit, I followed the recipe, but also wrapped a small piece of Havarti in there as well!

Mac And Cheese Cups...I wish I had taken a picture, I was quite proud of these...and they were YUMMY! The kids LOVED having them as leftovers the next day! (**I did 2 cups cheddar cheese and one cup mozerella)

I also made a little potato dish, that on paper sounded fabulous...however, it was not a hit, at least in my book. I'll spare you the details!

For dessert I made red velvet cheesecake brownies. Again, no picture.
I made two batches of the icing.
Because I ate the first.
My guests are lucky they got any at all! :)

Finally...I have been doing a little baking. Again, I have a few recipes and one dud.



Peanut Butter Fudge
I use the Jet Puffed marshmallow creme recipe. Substitute the chocolate chips for PB chips...and I never add nuts. Totally ruins it for me.



Hershey's Candy Cane Blossoms
Super easy! And I think you could even use the pre-made cookie dough to save yourself the time, measuring, flour mess, and sanity...

And now for the dud...again, on paper it sounded fabulous. In reality. Not so much.
Pre-baking they looked good...


After baking...


Fail.

And finally, I will leave you with this...
The kids were playing the other day and broke a vase sort of thing I had on an end table.
After resisting giving them a good 'ol fashioned beating I calmed myself and decided to try to salvage the vase.

I contemplated my options and settled on good 'ol super glue.

Luckily it was just in two pieces and so I figured I could totally handle the task.

I diligently applied the glue. And easily pressed the two pieces together.
I did not have a lot of time so I got two pieces of masking tape and put them on either side for a little reinforcement while it dried.
I then sat it on a table in our laundry room.
After an hour or so I figured the super glue had been super and done it's job.

Wellllll, it had been super all right.
Here is where I set it to dry:


And this is where it shall forever remain.

Yep.
It's stuck.
Like glue.

Well, I now must leave you to go check a mouse trap.
More on that later.
It's a post in itself.

Christmas christmas...time is here...

...in 19 days to be exact.

And I have one gift purchased.

One.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE giving gifts.

I HATE HATE HATE shopping for them.

I wish I could be one of those savvy people who go online and save all this money and buy their gifts free of the hassle of the shopping mall.

Who are these people?!

I went on Amazon...because I was feeling brave...or perhaps more accurately because I was feeling too lazy to fight the crazies that come out of the woodwork this time of year.
Well, I picked Amazon because I hear it's name thrown around all the time, FB statuses mentioning how Amazon boxes are lining up on people's porches, or how Amazon takes over their credit card statement, or how they are wrapping presents at Amazon...

Which, speaking of lazy, brings me to a whole other point. Why pay the extra to get the gift wrapped?!?! It's like 3.50 to have the gift wrapped!
Did y'all know you can get a whole roll of wrapping paper at Hobby Lobby for $3.50...and maybe less, because let's be honest, if it's not 50% off this week, it will be next week!

So anyway, where was I...

Amazon. Yes.

I went online to shop and I did a simple search of a DS game I knew Will wanted. Well, it came up with about 12 prices...
There was the "new" price.
The "used" price.
The "Buddy's Electronic Superstore" price.
Along with about 5 other ones...

Well, what the heck?!? I guess you just pick the price you like.
I resisted choosing the "used" even though at 6, Will could care less.
I choose the second best option, Buddy's price.

Fast forward to me putting about 12 other things in my online cart and I get to checkout.

Well, the other thing that always amazes me is that shipping doesn't deter more folks from this whole online shopping thing. Don't get me wrong $12.95 for shipping is probably worth dodging the rednecks in the shopping mall parking lot...but still...it's the principle. I cannot pay 20 bucks for something that causes 12 bucks to ship.

I'm cheap.
What can I say.

(*sidenote: when Elliott, our elf, toilet papered the bathroom I rolled the whole thing back on there the next day. Granted, it was about 12x bigger than when it was originally on there, but hey, I am not wasting a roll of Charmin! Plus, the hubby makes me buy the expensive "aloe" toilet paper...don't get me started...that's a post for a whole other time...)

So I get to checkout and half the items are not even coming from Amazon..and of course those items don't include the FREE shipping...and my order is going to come in about a dozen different shipments...on a dozen different days...one of which may be after Christmas.

So you know what I did?

I cancelled the order.

I think I will just take on the shopping mall.

And curse about it later.

At least I still have 19 more days.