Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Another post in which I attempt to catch up

Still hacking. Still snuffy.
Still tempting fate by using my neti pot with tap water. Yup, we're dealing with a bad-heinie here.

In other news, we survived Christmas. And we had presents for everyone. Phew!!

Now I need to get thank-you notes cranked out. And have the kids do them, too. Better get in the habit, right?? ^_^

What else have we done? Let's go through the list ...
  • We had a playdate over at Joseph and Jenny's. Which was a blast. For the kids and myself. I got to chat with one of my favorite couples EVER. (We've known each other for over a decade ... and Michael's family and Joseph's family have been friends since the early 80s. In fact, Joseph's sister and Michael were best friends in the first grade. I enjoyed getting to know her better during Savior of the World. Good times all around.)
    And they humored me as I added some black humor to the Christmas cookies we decorated. (Hey, the angel's wing had TOTALLY fallen off. It was BEGGING to have some gel-blood and x-out eyes and a screaming mouth! Michael tells me that they shouldn't humor me with this. Spoilsport. :P ... I know that he's secretly proud of me.)
  • We finished Christmas shopping. Even though I ALMOST forgot Michael's grandma. ALMOST. But we didn't. And people seemed to like their presents. PHEW.
  • We went down and visited my family -- Nana, Mom and C, Dad and L, and my Aunt J. And that was very nice. Even though I got about the worst night's sleep, with the kids in the same room (since Bucket was HACKING and snorting. And I had to keep waking up ANYWAYS to pee. And then I couldn't fall back asleep with her racket AND my stepdad's snoring being audible THROUGH the wall. Oh well). AAAAAND, in other news, Mom and C discovered why the well kept running dry (a hose that's leaking will drain it pretty easily! But that's all fixed now. And I don't have to stress about now being able to flush the toilet or wash my hands after peeing THREE TIMES in the night. Ugh).
  • We enjoyed the Ward Christmas party (BEST SWEET POTATOES EVER. Srsly, they tasted like pumpkin pie! SO GOOD!) ... and we also got to go to church on Christmas. We had been told (and so budgeted our time) that it would only be an hour-long meeting. But it was longer. So we were later getting up to Mom and Dad C's than we would have liked. But it was all fine.
  • Even though the kids ended up getting into trouble. ONE COUSIN told Bruise that he had to take off his pants. Which Mom Cox walked in on him with his pants down. Bucket and the other older cousin didn't stop it. ... And later, a younger cousin flashed his goods to the girls. ... I love my family ... but sometimes I really think that some of their cousins are not great influences on my kids. They get SO ROWDY when they're together ... but maybe that's just what happens in larger families (I wouldn't know, seeing as how I only got [older, out of the house-type older] stepsiblings when I was 16).
    Still, I gave Bruise and Bucket THE TALK about respecting everyone's bodies, INCLUDING THEIR OWN, and being like superheroes ... in STOPPING bad behavior. --- That it's okay (in fact, ENCOURAGED) to say, "No, that's not fun/ny. Let's do something else." And that if someone DOES try to get them to take off clothes without their parents in the room, to go tell an adult. STAT!!!! ... And that (I hope) ends my rant.
  • We went to ZooLights ... and waited in a CRAZYLONG line for the train. But it was good overall ... even though this fetal-girl kept trying to stretch out THROUGH my abdomen. Owwwww. And, wow, after all the walking we did, I was SORE. My back hurt, my feet hurt ... and I was exhausted.
  • Bucket got her Christmas wish (after thinking that Santa didn't love her and wouldn't deliver) -- She now has two goldfish: Bubbles and Fishie. They are orange and white fantails. And they've happily acclimated to our house. Freyja-cat enjoys watching them, too. (Well, when she's not playing with HER Christmas swag. Obviously, she was a very good kitty this year.)
  • We've worked at cleaning the house ... progress has been made. And there's still room for improvement. I scrubbed out the shower while I was in there today. I won't tell you how badly it needed it, though. Ew.
But yeah, Bucket got her reply from Santa last Wednesday or Thursday. She read it and cried since Santa described goldfish as slippery and slimy, saying that they might be hard to take in his sleigh.
And she did get a fish tank and supplies for Christmas, along with a gift card to be able to pick out her own fish. It came with a letter from Santa, telling her that Mrs. Claus told Santa that it'd be too cold on the trip to take goldfish ... unless she wanted a fish-sicle. But there was the gift card that enabled her to get TWO fish, a fake plant, a little home for them to swim through, and a thermometer for the outside of the tank. With the $20 gift card, $5 of PetCo Rewards, and a 20% off freshwater fish coupon, we were out of the store only having shelled out eighty cents out of pocket. Phew!
And, when I explained to her, before we went to the store, that the gift card had quite a bit of money on it, Bucket said, slightly awed, "I guess Santa really does love me after all!" Huh, ya think??? :P

I can't wait to be over this plague, this creeping crud that I have. I'd like to be able to breathe through my nose ALL THE TIME. And not cough. AT ALL.
And then, after I have this little girl, I'll be able to sleep at night without having to wake up 2-3 times (on average) to pee. Or I won't go pee and then realize five minutes later that I have to PEE! AGAIN!!!

Later this week, the kids have a dental appointment. And Michael gets to go. Which is good. Since I don't know that they'll let me back with the kids, since they're going to be using Nitrous ... and it's not really good for the baby. And it's not like I can lie about being pregnant, since I'm feeling huge. AND I'm WADDLING (stupid center of gravity having shifted).

It's been pouring today. That should be good for the reservoirs and all. It's been such a dry fall/winter so far.  I hardly knew what to do with non-wet Oregon weather. :P

The kids watched Kung Fu Panda 2 today. They liked it. And I agree, it was cute. I still wish that Jackie Chan (who voices Monkey) got more lines. I heart Jackie Chan.

Bruise has enjoyed playing our game of Battleship (a Christmas present) with Michael.

Oh, we also went to Deseret Book ... the kids had gotten Triple Combinations (for those who don't know Mormon-speak, those are Book of Mormon/Doctrine and Covenants/Pearl of Great Price) for Christmas from my mom. We picked them up Bibles (to complete the set) and Scripture bags to tote them to church. My babies are growing up! They were pretty excited to get their own scriptures, too. Which warms the cockles of my cold, shriveled-up, little heart.

Bruise is reading more and more. At the Book Fair at his school almost two months ago, his choice was a Lego Sticker Book. ... So we've worked it out that HE reads the book (collection description and character descriptions), and as he reads the character descriptions, we put the stickers in there, one by one.
He only has about ten pages left. I keep being more and more impressed by how much of a reader he is.
Bucket still excels at reading. Frankly, I think she'd going to start reading chapter books without any pictures before I'm ready for her to do so.
But Bruise is making such progress. I'm very pleased with them both.

Michael got me a new subscription for Mental_Floss. AND a t-shirt.
(It's the one "I'm an English Major. You do the math." ... No, I'm not an English major. I'm an ECE/Elementary Ed major ... with emphasis areas in Children's Theater and Asian History. I was one year away from having German as an emphasis ... but I was kinda scared of the other German teacher. I had the nice one for my two years of foreign language.)
Now I need to get myself the "Comma Sutra: Making Language Sexy since 1875" tee. It makes me laugh.
So does the "Christians Have The Best Sects" one ... I'm such a bad influence, huh? :P

Well, the kids and Michael will be back at school and work, respectively, next week ... So we're trying to make the most of what we can do right now.
Which makes me REALLY IRRITATED that I'm not completely healthy and well-rested. It feels like I'm dragging down the rest of them. *sigh* Oh well. We're still getting things done.

Even if it involves me being woken up to help save the fish tank after Bruise (trying to be helpful) WAY OVERFED the fish ... and Michael rinsed out almost all the gravel, we had to suction out a lot of flake-infused water ... It was not restful. And I was a cranky mamma-jamma. Ugh. Oh well.

But, besides that, we're doing well and are VERY MUCH enjoying having Michael home for the week.
If it were up to the kids, he'd retire so he could be home that much more.
And, really, I wouldn't argue.
Now, if only we could afford that.

(But we're SO CLOSE now to having the van paid off. Then to pay off his school loan. ... Then it's just the mortgage to go!! Wish us luck! Pray for lots of business for his company! ^_^)

Hope you all had a very wonderful holiday season!

(In other news, we have a Hanukkah velcro chart ... the kids love putting up the candles every evening. Now, if only I could find where I put the dreidels ... since we DID buy those gold-wrapped chocolate coins ... Now, if you can say some prayers so I can find THOSE, I'd appreciate it!!)

1 comment:

Jennifer said...

Oh Allanna - you always brighten my day :) You are pure awesomeness! And that angel cookie was epic - I know Michael was secretly proud of you or just jealous he didn't get to do it first :)