Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Merry Christmas!

Well, here it is... only 28 minutes until Christmas...

I did (almost) everything that I wanted to do. I have a few more gifts to pack up for the neighbors. And I did not get all my Christmas cards out yet. After running out of stamps, that project got put on the back burner. So my apologies to the half of the people on my list whose cards will be late! Also, I cannot for the life of me find the calendar that we bought for my Mom just last Sunday. Drat!

Overall though, things have gone smoothly this December. I'm ready now to enjoy Christmas Day and then Winter Break.

Hope I can get the rest of everything done in the next 12 DAYS before Ron comes home...

Merry Christmas everyone!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Quote

Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.

-James Buckham

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Hungover? Or just getting old?

Last night was the Cowboy Christmas Dinner Show. Ryan wanted a cowboy birthday and Lynne mentioned this great show she had seen with her family. After a little investigation and conversation, Ryan and I decided that we should do this activity as a family plus one special friend in lieu of a party at the house.

The show is about 70 miles away. Google Maps listed drive time as 1 hour 20 minutes (and in parentheses, up to 1 hour 50 minutes with traffic). I thought that was nice to see how Google took into account the fact that we live in a major metropolitan area. So, the gates open at 5:45 and there are activities up until dinner time at 7. The kids got out of school at 3:15. After gathering everyone in the lobby and dropping off the extras in our carpool, we got home around 3:30. Mom went back to her place to get a warmer coat and we had to wait for Melissa to get home from her babysitting job. Once everyone arrived and we loaded the car and got on the road, it was 3:58.

Now let's add a little more background info for our drive... It is Friday before Christmas. It is raining. And it's still a major metropolitan area. Google... I would've loved to have been there in only 1 hour 50 minutes. Unfortunately it was more like 2 1/2 hours. We pulled in to the parking lot of the show at 6:30. We saw the horses in passing as we rushed to the wagon ride. It was the last ride of the evening and they held it for us as they saw us coming. Two more families got on behind us and off we went. After the ride, the other activites had already shut down and they were asking people to be seated for dinner. So bathroom breaks for everyone and then the dinner and show began.

My first impression - I've seen real cowboys. And these guys ain't it! But we are living in a big city. On the East coast. And this is just a theater, not a ranch. The tricks they were doing were pretty impressive so I got over that hangup pretty quick.

The kids enjoyed the show. The adults enjoyed the show. And we left the parking lot at 10:00 p.m. Stopped for a bathroom break before we got back on the highway. And google, you were right. When there's no traffic, it is a 1 hour 20 minute drive! One small wrong turn (the highway split and I went left instead of right) only set us back a couple minutes. I delivered Owen home at 1130. All tired out and ready for his drive to Florida today!

So anyway, we didn't get settled in to bed until about midnight. And of course I didn't go to sleep right away. Had to do important things like check my email and waste time online. Which means I was up until about 1. I woke up at 7:40 this morning and panicked that we would be late for school, why hadn't I set my alarm?!? but then realized that it was Saturday. I was still tired but had to get up anyway to let Darby out. And ever since then I have been feeling completely hungover. Headache. Dizzy. Tired. There was no alcohol involved in our cowboy adventure though so I'm thinking that it must mean I'm just getting old. How depressing.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Making progress, one breath at a time

Well, as Ryan pointed out this morning (almost as soon as he woke up), only 8 days until Christmas. I think the kids see this countdown in a different way than I do. They are so excited and can't wait and the time just creeps by so slowly. I, on the other hand, am trying not to worry because oh my gosh there's only 8 days left to get everything done!!!

I still haven't found the notebook but I've made new lists and hopefully not left anyone off! I was at the post office with everyone else in the world this morning and all packages containing gifts for kids have been mailed. All you adults on the list - your packages might be late. I hope you understand. I also ended up ordering my stamps online after all. Too bad I didn't just do that to start with on Sunday when I ran out of stamps. They might have been here already. Instead, it will take 5-7 business days. So Christmas cards... are going to be late. Oh well. Too bad, so sad. Better luck next year!

Over all, I feel pretty in control of the situation. Which means on Tuesday afternoon I'll suddenly remember something huge that I forgot. And then I'll panic! But until then, we're all good.

Felisa is not sleepy tonight. Private Practice is on and someone on the show couldn't breathe. Which prompted Felisa to tell me that:
Breathing you really need to do.

Then she started talking about the fire and air experiment that they did in school. She talked and talked while I tried to type fast enough to get it all down. Here's my best effort:
The fire uses the air. put container on a candle. and a cup or a dish it traps the air and that's how much air the fire is getting. it goes off when all the air is gone. it borrows it and when we put the dish earlier again he lighted again and then put the dish fast and then it gives it back a little tiny dish and you can't see anything and you put a little dot. just put one. don't put dish there very long or it will get more air than us and it will get so much air. so small dish goes out faster and big dish goes slower.

So... don't forget to breathe everyone!

some tigers they live in teh jungle. there is air. they get some leaves. some tigers do this.

Sunday, December 07, 2008

Lost

You know you're reading Sheila's blog when... she's complaining about something she lost!

That's right, folks. I've lost something again. This time it's my Christmas notebook. You know, the one where I keep all my gift lists, hot chocolate mix recipes, Christmas Season To Do List, etc. The game plan. It's gone. Again.

Again, you say? Why yes, I did lose it last year too! I remember finding it at the very end of the season, buried at the bottom of the gift jars supply box. So I'm thinking that I would have put it away in a very safe place so that I wouldn't lose it again. (I looked in the gift jars supply box, in case you're wondering. It's not there.)

Or not. Because I CAN'T FIND IT!!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

(pulling hair out, kicking and screaming in a tantrum on the floor)

Okay then. I guess Christmas really is cancelled. Ron gave me permission to just skip it (except for the tree and the kids' gifts of course!) this year and blame it all on him being gone. I just didn't think he would go so far as to hide my notebook so that I would be forced to go along with his plan.

(Okay, I know he didn't hide it. But it's easier to blame someone else for my problems than it is to accept responsibility for my endless disorganization and laziness and procrastination.)