A New Year

There are a few of my favorite bloggers writing their years in review such as here, here and here. Since I have not been blogging that long (and even some of those posts are mediocre at best) I can not participate in that particular topic. I can offer a couple of resolutions that I am going to attempt. My first is to increase my patience. Parents know that it is very difficult to have patience when your 9 year old stands in front of you and bold face tells you that she did NOT put those frozen waffles under her pillow, knowing full well that she was the only possible one who could have and would have done this. My second is to try to be a better mother to my children. This would mean less time in front of my computer, especially when they are home (Hello, my name is ShortyMom and I am an internet addict). How about y'all? Does anyone else have any resolutions for this year?

An Extra Person

Darling Hubby has been home for the last week. Actually, as of tomorrow morning, he will have been home one solid week and doesn't have to leave again until Wednesday. It has kept us busy. We seem to run more when he's home. There's more things that need to be done, places that we need to go. Of course, there is extra laundry and dishes, and with us on the go, I never seem to catch up. I'm trying to stay afloat with the housework and spend time with him and he's trying to spend time with us while working on his "honey-do" list. He's replaced an electric outlet in "K"'s room that would no longer hold a cord. He put the kids to bed last night (without giving them the option of me to do it instead), put the dogs out one last time before bed, checked the doors, turned out the lights so that I could just go to bed. No last minute responsibility, just go. He's gone on a job quest for a local job and had his glasses prescription updated. Tomorrow, he cleans out his truck so that it's ready to leave again while I play catch up on the housework. I'll try to finish the laundry, wash the dishes and maybe get the tree down. If I'm really lucky, I'll get him up in the attic to put a few things away. It's crazy when he's here, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Keeping the Beliefs Alive

We've been busy this year, especially "T", with all of the things that kids believe in. Of course, Santa made his rounds this year, but the tooth fairy made quite a few appearances this year as well. As recently as last night, since "T" just lost his 6th tooth, his 5th tooth this year. She was nice enough to bring him a whole $1.50 for his tooth but looks like she was really busy last night. Not only did she bring him money, but she brought him a new permanent tooth to fill in the gap on the bottom, a tooth he lost a few months ago.


The kids enjoyed a wonderful Christmas! They were real excited to find that Santa had brought them a new trampoline and had the elves set it up. I later found out that one of the elves must have been smoking because there were cigarettes all over the backyard according to "T". Memaw and Papaw outdone themselves with a camera for "K", a toy guitar for "S" (supposed to teach you how to play), and walkie talkies for "T". Kiddos also got watches from mom and dad, a chalkboard each, as well as two webkins apiece. They were very happy overall and it was a very enjoyable day.

Christmas in Photos

Proud is Defined by the Parent(s)

Both "S" and "K" had basketball games today, and both of their teams got beat. "K" got the opportunity to shoot the ball again and subsequently missed her shot. "S" got to shoot the ball a couple of times during his game and made two points! Not only did he make his points, he fouled another player! He got aggressive! Anyone who knows my kids, especially "S", knows that he is not aggressive in anyway. He will not play football because he doesn't want to get hit. But today, while blocking another kid's shot, he didn't put his hands up correctly and really tried to block the shot. Makes his parents proud! We're now finished with basketball until after the new year. A week of no practices and games. Oh, what's a mother to do!

My Duo

I was very proud of the kiddos today! They did a wonderful job at their program! I'm putting up a couple videos, the first one being part of the solo's of "T"'s performance (saving you three minutes). He is the second soloist. I'm also putting up "K"'s dance that her and 13 other kids performed. It was a very cute routine! I didn't put up video of "S" for a couple of reasons. First reason was that he was too far away to record well since he didn't have a solo or dance routine and second because I've already put up video of his violin performance and now they've all had video time. They are now out of school for the next eleven days (Lord, help me). True to form, this morning's performance was packed, but not near as packed as this afternoon's performance. The school called me this afternoon saying that "T" was complaining of a stomachache but not running a fever. I got up there, just before his class was to sing and talked him into singing for his performance so that his music teacher didn't have to find a replacement for his solo. I figure it was a mixture of nerves and sinus's since he is now home and doing fine. We stuck around and enjoyed "S" and "K"'s second shows and I brought them home about 45 minutes early. Enjoy the videos!

Busy Day

The crew has a busy day today. Today is their last day of school for this year. They are having their Christmas party and exchanging gifts as well as eating all of the cookies, candy, cupcakes, chips, dip, and who knows what else they can get their hands on (according to "K").

They are also performing their Christmas music program today as well. Since they were dressed for the occasion, I took a quick picture before rushing them out the door for school. "K" will be receiving a red vest at school for her performance, as she is a "candy cane dancer" and the teacher is supplying the vest. I'm excited to see them perform today, because "T" has a solo and "K" is dancing. They are having two shows today, one this morning and one this afternoon to ease crowding of previous years and let me tell ya crowding is an understatement. The crew's school is one of three new schools in this county that was completed 3 or 4 years ago. They assumed that because it was an elementary school that the need for decent gym seating was not necessary. WRONG. For basketball games, you have a choice of three levels of bleachers to sit on. Granted they run the length of the gym, but considering the size of parents and add to those parents any siblings and grandparents and that leaves absolutely no room to move. They totally underestimated the number of parents that would come to support their children during performances. For last year's Christmas program, they brought out the bleachers to their full capacity, set up chairs in front of those bleachers and still had people standing on the sides. I was one of those people standing. I had just finished eating lunch with "S" and didn't get the opportunity to go to the gym early for a seat like I usually do. It was after the 2nd grade performed that I got the chance to sit down, after some of the parents of the younger children left to return to work. The kids in the school watches the entire program the day before (yesterday) so they are not in the gym for the parents show unless they're singing. Otherwise, parents wouldn't be able to fit in anywhere. They're hoping that having two shows will ease the problem, and I'm attending this morning show so we'll see how it goes.

This and That

This is what I awoke to this morning. Frost had covered everything within sight. We had a chance for snow this past weekend and unfortunately all we had was enough flurries to collect in the corner of my french doors for me to see it. Not even enough to call a dusting. This morning's frost looked more snowy than the snow did.

I love getting up and finding frost like this, simply because the kids are amazed by it. They get out in the yard and drag their feet through it, melting it so that they leave tracks behind them. They talk about how it looks like snow and how they want to play in it. "T" left tracks down the driveway as he took a shortcut through the yard to the bus.

I had errands to run this morning. I had to run Hubby to his truck on the north end of town so that he could get to sleep before his co-driver got to the truck to leave. I failed to notice how beautiful the frost was at that point. I guess I was still too groggy. Then I had to run to the town east of ours. At that point, looking at the fields with new grass or hay, I finally noticed how beautiful the frost was with the sun shining across it, sparkling like diamonds. On my way home I got to enjoy the rich color of that same grass, as the sun melted the frost and it added color to the bland winter surroundings. I enjoyed it so much that I actually missed my turn to come home and had almost made it to the next community before I realized it.

I also found myself disappointed this morning. The holidays always remind me that people can really show their rudeness during this time of year. This morning was no different. I found myself following a tractor this morning. Odd for December, but he was hauling a device that looked like it was filled with grain. That "trailer" he was hauling was so wide, that it covered 3/4 of the street when he was completely on it and had enormous floater tires on it. So I patiently followed, waiting to see where he went and hoping he turned off soon, because eventually I was going to tire of driving 10 miles an hour. At one point, we came up to up a bridge that he was going to have to almost block in order to get across. Up until he got to the bridge, he had been weaving in and out, avoiding mail boxes, so that the traffic could get past him. As he got to the bridge, there was no traffic there, but a couple of cars coming towards him with enough time to stop and wait for him to cross the bridge safely before coming across themselves. That would've made to much sense. After he had already made it onto the bridge, the first car made it to the bridge. Instead of stopping, she proceeded to slowly drive across. The gentleman driving the tractor had to completely stop in order to let the car pass to minimize the risk of sideswiping the car. Seeing the closeness of the car to the tractor was also not enough to stop a second car from pulling the same stunt. I guess she assumed that if the first car can make it, so can she. A little of patience could've saved everyone a little less worry.

This is the kids last week of school before the holidays. Their parties are on Thursday and they have Friday off. I wish I could say that this week will be an easy one, but it won't be. "K" and "S" both have ball practice tonight, and all 3 children have practice tomorrow. Thursday is the Christmas music program at the school, so I will be attending that as well. Friday has "T" with practice again. Another busy week before the quiet non-practice time starts with the holiday vacation. I hope your week isn't as busy as mine.

Glowing Christmas

I've mentioned in other posts that Hubby hails from southern Mississippi. His grandparents and a few aunts, uncles, cousins still live there. A couple of Christmas's ago, we had decided to make the 500 mile trip to spend Christmas with them. This would be the first Christmas we had spent down there in 5 years. It would be "T"'s first Christmas there, and Hubby's granddad's last Christmas with us.

To be prepared for the trip, I had wrapped all of the gifts from Santa and they were hidden in my room. The kids each had a gift from their daddy and me that we gave them before we left. I had taken the time to wrap them late because we had gotten them Gameboy Advances to play on the trip and I made sure they were charged and ready. Getting ready to leave that night (so the kids would sleep some on the way down), we loaded the kids in the car and Hubby and I brought out all of Santa's gifts and placed them under the tree. We didn't have the space in the car to take all of the gifts with us, not to mention bring those back plus the gifts they received from family, so we took a couple of gifts from Santa along and a few things for their stockings. We told the kids on Christmas morning that Santa had let us know that they had gifts under our tree here, waiting on them when they got back. One of those gifts under the tree that year was a glow-in-the-dark Doodle Bear for "K".

"K" had been talking about Doodle Bears since they had came out earlier that year. I hadn't realized the one that I picked up was glow-in-the-dark until we got ready to leave that night. Hubby turned out all the lights and this one package "glowed" under the tree. We turned the lights back on for me to discover which gift it was and for me to determine what was actually in it. That's when we realized the bear glowed. We laughed at how it was strong enough to glow through the wrapping paper, locked the doors behind us and started the 8 hour trip.

Now to today. "K" decided earlier in the year that she was too big for a night light now and slept better in total darkness. She has a light in there, but only for when friends sleep over. I put her to bed last night, turned on her fan, turned out her light, gave her kisses and went to leave the room and stopped. I spent a moment focusing on a light that shouldn't have been in there. That darn bear was glowing on the foot of her bed and realized that I never noticed it being there before I turned out the lights. Apparently the bear is still going strong, despite repeated washings. I left it there and said goodnight to "K".

My Little-Big Violinist

Please excuse the quality of this video as it was taken with a still camera and not a video camera. You may also hear "T" whispering beside me because he wanted to take a picture and you will definitely see his hand since he decided he had to put it up in front of my lens. All in all, I'm very proud of "S", he did a wonderful job! He is the head to the right of the conductor.

Science Fair Hoopla Meets Office Products

Today was the kids school first annual science fair and my oldest two had to participate. As in required to participate. Yes, I realize how lucky I am for this to be the first annual and if I'm really lucky it will be the only science fair we endure (unfortunately, the raving that went on at the awards ceremony hints at another fair next year). I hated science fairs growing up, because I never knew what kind of experiment to perform, which always lead to a mediocre experiment. Hubby was no help in the matter. He took the 0 grade rather than participate. Ummm, not going there.

I fought with "K" last week to work on her project. She opted to run outside and play with the neighbor instead. "S" worked on his, so most of his physical work was finished. He just needed to work on the display board. Last night I was helping "K" with her board by putting two-sided tape on the back of her work and giving it to her to place on construction paper when she realized she had never seen this tape before. She studied it, touched it and asked about it. She was amazed by it (really should've use it as a science experiment). She informed me that it was cool! I've already instilled the importance (and coolness) of office products into at least one of my children!

This afternoon was the awards ceremony, which neither kid placed, but were told about the BIG science fair at the local college. Daughter could care less but "S" really wants to go. I'm hoping he forgets about it before it actually arrives.

Only Us

I am a sucker for sappy, love stories. Ever After, Sleepless in Seattle, The Lake House are all a part of my DVD collection. A couple of weeks ago, Hubby and I were shopping at Circuit City and found You've Got Mail for $7. I bought it, seeing how you can't turn down a sappy love story at just $7. Since basketball season and the holidays are here, I haven't had a spare moment to even remove the plastic cover on the box, much less actually watch the movie, so it has sat on my desk. Until yesterday. Hubby picked it up yesterday and put it in the player for us to watch. Actually he watched, I listened as I helped two kids with science fair projects but that's a whole other blog. I love the dialog of this movie, the way they use their words just so to explain what they feel and are thinking. I only wish I could be that articulate. We reached the point of Tom Hanks saying he would give Meg Ryan a "bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils" in the fall, because to him fall and freshly sharpened pencils go together. So I asked Hubby "Would you give me a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils in the fall?" He looked at me.

"I would give you a bouquet of mechanical pencils."

"Would they be the cool ones with skulls on them and stuff like that?"

"Yeah."

"Ok."

I guess romance is unique for all.

Warmest Spot in the House

Found this when I went to put the next load of clothes in the dryer.

Keeping the Tooth Fairy in Business

He informed me this week, it had to come out, that it was bothering him. Then asked to call Uncle and Pepaw to come pull it. Dad came home this morning and out it came.

11 Years Ago Today

I can remember how nervous I was. Mostly because I hated being in front of a crowd. There wasn't that many guests but it was still too many. Daddy walked me down the aisle, where Hubby waited with one of his best friends and my brother, all in tuxes. My two closest friends were standing up for me in dark teal dresses. They carried a single white rose. I was excited, finally getting married, but ready for it to be over with. Three months of planning and decisions were too many. Too many dresses to choose from, too many flowers, too many cakes. We said our vows and lit the unity candle. Of course, it didn't go off completely trouble free. The person working the music forgot to start the track for us to move to light the unity candle. It finally clicked and the ceremony continued, but not without a laugh. The ceremony and reception were short. We cut the cake, threw the garter and bouquet, and went for pictures. So many pictures, my face was sore after we were finished. Many believed we wouldn't survive the first year together. Three kids and a few trials later, we made it to our eleventh anniversary and I wouldn't change a thing. Happy Anniversary, Baby! I love you!

Halfway There

Since becoming unemployed and sending the kids back to school, I've had this amazing free time on my hands. Free outside of grocery shopping, house cleaning, dishes, laundry, you get the picture. But I have been doing some crocheting. A few years ago, Mom had crocheted a blanket and somewhere down the line, it ended up with me. Unfortunately for the blanket, I washed it. One of the knots came out, in the middle of the blanket of course, and the only way to fix it would be to rework the entire blanket. It would be impossible for me to match her stitches and she wasn't sure she could even get it worked the same way. So over the last few weeks I have been unraveling this blanket and creating yarn balls, much to the amusement of the kitty. I decided to change the pattern of the blanket as well. Instead of making it alternating stripes, I decided to make it into alternating blocks. I've reached the halfway point tonight, as I finished my last block in the solid color.

Please excuse the fact that I had to cut off part of the photo in order to get the full effect. I have come to the conclusion, that my wonderful camera (which I love whole-heartedly, even though I would like a new, expensive, camera with exchangeable lenses and fancy buttons..ahem..) needs a new memory card. The one in it is two years old and a lot of the photos I have been taking, as of late, has left me with a nice, undeveloped look like you would find if a printed picture didn't come out. I am not happy.

You Know Those Days..

When all you want to do is climb back into bed, regardless of reason? Today was so one of those days. I didn't get to bed last night until after midnight. Then my dog, Sophie, spent a big part of the night being unhappy in her bed. So she kept me up. Until after 1:30. Then woke me at 3. And at 5. Of course, going right back to sleep wasn't an option so I didn't get a whole lot of sleep before the alarm went off at 6. I got the kids up, put them on the bus, showered, and drove DH to his truck so that he could leave today for his weekly run. I came home, checked my email and laid down on the couch about 8:30. Finally I slept. I slept for over 3 hours! Almost four actually, so can you imagine what it's going to be like tonight when I try to go to bed? Yeah, uh-huh, that's what I thought too, another sleepless night.

A little bit ago, I decided that I was going to run some rope lights up along the side of the driveway. These are the same rope lights that we usually hang on our house, but since I had to throw out the icicle lights we hang up there too, I figured why bother going through the trouble of hanging the rope lights this year. Then I walked outside, looked at the length of the driveway and the length of the house and came back in. There is not going to be near enough lights to do what I wanted so I didn't even start.

I put on a coat that I had forgotten DH had wore this weekend. A coat that I had just washed last week because it was ready for a wash. A coat that is his, so it shouldn't have surprised me that he had worn it (especially since I saw him in it), but I went to zip it up, and happened to take a deep breath. I could smell him. To make sure I wasn't losing my mind, I lifted the collar and breathed in deep. Yep, it's his cologne all over it. It makes me realize how much I miss him already and that the short 26 hours he was home was no where near long enough. Then I hurt more because our anniversary is Friday and he's going to miss it. Again. I know that supporting our family is much more important than a day on a calendar but it would've been nice for the year that it fell on a Friday, that he could've been home for us to enjoy a night out together, since those nights are few and far between.

Now I hear the call of the laundry on the couch, waiting to be folded and put away, the floors that need to be mopped and those that need to be vacuumed, and the rush of my hormones raging. It's best that he's going to be away.

Milestones

My youngest two have been busy reaching milestones today. "K" played her very first basketball game today. Not only did she play, but she got the ball a couple of times and even got to shoot!! She didn't hit the shot, but that's irrelevant. If you've ever gotten to play any bit of little league basketball, it's all about getting the opportunity to shoot. Usually there are a couple of better players on the teams that make up most of the points, so shooting is a huge deal!


"T" is not with us tonight. He went to his first real birthday party this afternoon and is at his first sleepover. Now, I'm in no way saying that he hasn't been invited to any birthday parties. Birthday parties in this day and age seem to be around every corner and technically he did go to the party for the son of his babysitter. But this is for a friend that he talks about all the time. Both "T" and this boy call each other their best friend. This is his first time for staying the night with someone other than memaw and I haven't heard from him once! My baby is growing up!


I have been thinking about whether or not "S" met any milestones today, not that he hasn't met enough already. I can't say that I've come up with anything yet, but I'm sure in a couple of days he'll find another one! He played his second game this season, his second season of playing, and unfortunately they lost. He was pretty bummed about the whole situation.


As for me, I've decided it's time for a change myself. I think that if you've reached a milestone in your life or know someone who has, you know that once they reach one they want a change. They need a change. And it doesn't have to be a drastic change. I've reached that milestone. It was intensified by the fact that I turned 30 this year. Alright, that statement isn't entirely correct. It was the fact that my hair has been, for the most part, almost the exact same style for the last twenty years. Yes, you read that right, 20! I've always had long, straight hair with no real style. Usually it just hung down my back unless it was in a ponytail, bun or braid and it usually is just above my waistband. I cut it in high school to my shoulders to let it grow out again. I cut it again while pregnant with "K" because I needed it to be easier. I let it grow out. Again. Then I decided I didn't need bangs any more and had it cut when "T" was about 18 months to blend in with the bangs. You guessed it. I let it grow some more. I cut about 12 inches off of it in 2005. I cut another 10 inches off of it in February but it's always the same thing. I don't actually get a style, just chop it off and layer the ends a bit. When I realized last night that a 9 year old "K"'s basketball team had the same hairstyle as mine, I knew I needed a change. I informed my husband of that complaint tonight. Any recommendations??

(Please excuse the exhausted, half aware look, I was up until 1am last night and was dreading the flash on the camera...)