All I can do is shake my head and smile. After everything we went through to get our BabyGirl on a plane to leave the US, I'm just as anxious to make sure she gets home! I could only LOL when I saw her airline (Virgin Atlantic) is set to strike, but luckily it seems they won't strike until January 9th. Maybe her trip home will be better than her trip there? I'm still going to anticipate problems in Chicago! (Thank goodness at least, that she isn't flying into Denver!!!!).

Labels: Kat, London Trip

Due in part to the holidays, in part to the dark, gray skies that don't allow me to see the sun coming up, due also in part to me waking and being awake from about 2-4 am every 'night', I am completely off schedule. Not only do I have no idea what day nor date it is, but even the time is off as this morning I didn't get out of bed until 7:00 am - which never happens. By looking out my window I would think it was about 6:30 but it's now 8:00! Dark winter days are not my friend.

Kid Count is 2 extra.
Coffee: Folgers Gourmet Coffeehouse Series, Dark Blend

Last night I made homemade pizzas since no one was home on Saturday (our regular pizza night) and later the kids made homemade ice cream using the new soft Serve ice cream maker we got them for Christmas. I only had about a tablespoon of the ice cream as 4 teens and pre-teens were gobbling it up but this morning I'm craving pizza and ice cream and thinking it sounds like a fabulous breakfast! LOL. (I'll stick to coffee though, thank you.)

As fabulous as the Boyfriend is, he has never had a truly serious relationship before. The longest he had dated anyone was about a month. He isn't used to having a true 'girlfriend' so he doesn't realize that being overly friendly to other girls, hanging out at their house playing video games, or poking them and other playful games like that are 'no nos' when you have a serious girlfriend. He's just so outgoing! The other thing he still has to realize is making comments about the 'hot' girls in movies to your girlfriend is not a good idea.

"I wish I was him... he gets to make out with some hot girls!" said to your girlfriend during a movie is a sure way to piss her off.

"What!?" "I'm not saying you aren't hot. You are! I'm just sayin....."

Dig a little deeper boy... LOL.


(Boys are so funny! Having a 15 year old now as well, I just laugh at how he can have a serious girlfriend that he adores... (he does)... yet tells me about the 'hot girls' he saw at Target the other night with his friend. Hello? You have a girlfriend! LOL. "I know. But Mom, they were HOT!")

PS:
Edited to add that I just finished two (2) pieces of cold pepperoni pizza for breakfast. LOL. I have no willpower.

Labels: Christmas, cooking, Kat

Continuing the London saga in true "what could happen next" form my daughters birthday started out with the hotel not giving her room a wake up call. As she and her roommate slept their group was gathering for breakfast below and getting on the bus. The tour group leader called their room upset that they were not there so the girls grabbed clothing and ran downstairs clutching their hairbrush, makeup and purses. No breakfast and did their hair and makeup on the bus on the way to Windsor Castle.

And from then on the day turned out wonderful. From a 'smooch' from the tour guide operator, to having a great group leader (there is a wonderful leader that sometimes takes the place of her 'regular' group leader who really, just wanted a free trip, and hasn't any interest in leading anyone at all but likes to go off by herself with another leader and shop on their own, leaving their group with others). She thoroughly enjoyed the tours, bought her little sister two birthday gifts, had a wonderful lunch and enjoyed a terrific day.

When they returned to the hotel she had large group cheer practice and after, they went to the restaurant downstairs for birthday ice cream. The wait staff brought out a piece of chocolate cake with whipped cream and a candle and everyone sang.

With a little helpful footwork from London-Blogger, "Dear Uncle Bert" a fruit tray and chocolates were delivered to her room with a card from Coffeehusband and I, Uncle Bert and 'Someone'. She was thrilled. And even though I don't care for talking on the phone, a phone call between Uncle Bert and I lasted almost 45 minutes and I can tell you he is the most charming ever. I smiled and laughed many times during our conversation and I thank him (here as well) for helping me procure fruit and chocolate for her birthday overseas.

The funny part was later that night when the Boyfriend called me. "Meritt?" "Yes..." "My Mom wants to talk to you."

Apparently the boyfriend had been attempting to call all evening and couldn't get through, getting a quick 'ring ring' signal more like a busy tone. His mother kept questioning the number he had and he was insisting it was the one BabyGirl gave him. I think when they called me they were both quite frustrated. After the mother read the number to me, sure enough, it was completely and utterly wrong. No wonder he hadn't been able to call BabyGirl all week!

Later his Mom emailed me to say he tried the number I gave them and he was able to get through. She only allowed him to talk for 5 minutes, long enough to say hello, and Happy Birthday and such... but because he and my daughter are huge NFL fans and rivals, just before they hung up she heard him get this dig in; "The Bears won and the Vikings lost - you aren't going to the play-offs!"

LOL. What a brat. But I'm sure she laughed.

Labels: Kat, London Trip

Let me get some fresh coffee... just a sec.

Ok!

This morning I realize that I was so busy this past week that not only have I barely had time to visit any blogs online (if I haven't visited, accept my apology - or I may have visited quickly but didn't take the time to comment as I rushed through everyones) we never talked about Christmas on this blog. Let's see....

The kids convinced me that 6:45 am was a better 'rule' than the 7:00 am rule I had implemented a few years ago for what time they could get out of bed and wake us. After agreeing to it however, they didn't wake up! I was up at 6:30 and laid there, but only one child got up (the 11 year old). The other two slept. She had to wake them and even then took 15 minutes to get out of bed and get downstairs so I guess we can go back to the 7:00 time slot without worry next year.

Actually we didn't have to start that rule until the two oldest were about 8 and 6. Before that they would always sleep until about 8:00 or 8:30 and my husband and I would lay in bed pounding on the walls to try to wake them up! We wanted them to be the first up to see that Santa had come. LOL.

This year my husband tracked down two movies for me that I wanted and also got me an external hard drive. 500 GB of photo and file saving power at my fingertips. I also got a pretty pink striped box from Victoria's Secret.

Ooooo... Victoria's Secret!? Sexy!

Um, ok. If you think that flannel is sexy. LOL.

Here are my new VS jammies;



If anyone hasn't seen "I Am Legend" yet my son gives it a huge 'thumbs up'. He saw it last night and couldn't stop raving about how good it is. I would love to see it but I rarely venture to the movies. I'll probably wait until it comes out on DVD but we already know it's one that we'll buy.
If you've checked out my Budget blog or my Recipe blog you'll find some simple retro recipe cards to print. If you wait a little longer though I'll find time to upload some of the recipe cards I made yesterday. Quick and simple, they aren't anything special but they were fun to make. I actually am making them for myself, for fun, but I'll put them up on the blogs so others can print them if they would like.

Here is a generic sample; just click on it to open it in a new window full size and then print.



My coffee is chilled so I'm off to top it off and sip. Thanks for joining me for morning coffee chat!

Labels: cooking, Frugal, Happy Housewife, rambling

Before I started typing this I hovered my mouse over the date on the computer to see just what day this is. With Christmas and the London trip and the kids being out of school my days are completely messed up. I thought it was Tuesday or Wednesday... guess what? It's Saturday! All day. Imagine that.

Last night Coffeekid and his friend left our house to go to a friends house across town. It was about 11 degree's outside when he left and a fresh 3-4 inches of snow covered the ground.

He rode his bike.
No winter coat.
And he was wearing shorts.

Yes, it seems he is his mothers son. Except he had shoes on at least.
At first.

Which is where this post is going.

Last night at 10:45 he got home and checked in with me by coming into the master bedroom to let me know he was home.

I wasn't sure where our conversation was going when he started it this way;

"Guess what we did tonight?"

"What?"

"Well... you have to remember that I'm a kid though."

silence - because really, where was he going with this?

"And kids do this kind of stuff."

I didn't get any calls from the police and he was here in one piece with no blood or broken bones so it couldn't be that bad.

"We played soccer."

"Ok?"


"In the snow."
"In bare feet."
"And no shirts."


Me: "Did you make sure to get pictures?"

"No...."

"Too bad. You'll have to remember that for next time. If you do stuff like that you've got to make sure someone takes pictures!"


I love teenagers.

Labels: coffeekid

When you don't watch tv and find yourself with a few minutes of 'down' time it's easy to turn to your blog. So here I am! I have Seattle's Best Cinnabon coffee and although I know I shouldn't be drinking it right now because the acid will not be my friend in the morning, I am yawning so much I am trying to drink it to stay awake. I wanted to use Diet Coke instead but I bought caffeine free so I guess that wouldn't really work now, would it?

This morning I had something odd happen... I thought I was late for work.

Yes, I'm still getting twinges of the "oh crud am I late for work!?" moments of panic as I look at the clock in the morning. You would think it would be gone by now as I resigned in October! But no... mentally I still haven't accepted that I'm a housewife right now and that I don't have to rush off to the office. I just laugh at myself. What a loser. My heart skips a beat and my stomach flips and I go into overdrive. Then again, I still have dreams about being naked in school and late for class and I can't remember where my classroom is... so maybe this will never leave me.

We started in another bedroom today. BabyGirls room is emptied out (into my room and the hall!) and her carpet is ripped up. We (as in - my husband) still need to rip up the tack strip around the edge but they used double tack strips in this particular room. (?) They didn't do that in the other bedroom. We aren't sure why they did in this one but it's a pain in the back side, that's for sure! We hope to have the wood floor installed in her room within a couple days as my husband gets time.

Since he almost never reads my blog I'm going to share a TMI (too-much-information) topic with you. Why? Because I thought it was funny and made me laugh. Today he didn't have to work until 2:00. He was upstairs showering and getting dressed for work. I was in the kitchen getting started on dinner for tonight and our son and his friend were in the basement family room, our daughter and two of her friends were hanging out in her room. My cellphone sitting on the kitchen counter rang. The ring tone let me know it was my husband (who was upstairs). I was laughing when I answered.

"Are you stranded in the master bedroom without underwear and calling to ask me to go into the laundry room and get some for you?" LOL.

"Uh, well... yeah, that too."

"Ok, then why in the world are you calling me on my cell from the bedroom?"

"You have to come up here."

"Why?"

"Because you have to come up here and have sex with me."


ROTFL.
No, he wasn't kidding. LOL.

Labels: Coffeehusband, Happy Housewife, rambling

Back in grade school I remember studying famous artists in Art class. My parents were never into the 'arts' in any way, shape or form so until then my only exposure to framed prints included the 'Daily Bread' print on our dining room wall and a couple white framed prints my mother got from Avon and hung in my room.

When I studied art in school I was instantly drawn to Monet. All my life I've love Monet paintings although of course I know I'll never be able to afford one. Instead I do have two custom framed prints. Today I stumbled across a website that offers reproduction oil paintings, including monet reproductions. Instead of a flat poster print I can pay about the same amount of money to receive a reproduction oil painting. The testimonies on the site spoke highly of the work of the artists of the company and the examples I viewed were impressive. What a great idea! I love the look of oil paintings so much more than a print, especially when it's a well known, famous artist. They had a thousand prints, so even if you don't care for Monet they probably offer reproductions for some of your favorite artists as well!

Labels: Gifts, PP, shopping, Useless information

Looking at my daughters schedule (handed out by the Cheer association before the trip) I guessed she would be in her room briefly around 5:00 pm London's time and wanted to try to catch her at that time. I called the hotel and was told by a very angry sounding front desk clerk that the line was engaged. I suppose all these calls by American parents are keeping them more busy than they would like (??). I hung up fairly sure that she would try to call home and sure enough, within 5 minutes the phone rang.

She was in a much better mood (see what a little sleep can do for your disposition?). I asked her if her luggage was delivered yet and she said they told her it should be delivered to the hotel around 7:pm tonight. She won't be there at that time but hopefully when she returns this evening it will be waiting for her.

Then she said, "Guess what I did?"

"Oh no. What?"

"I sprained my ankle."

"Sprained sprained? Not just sprained?"

"Yep."

"How?"

"I tripped going down the stairs of St. Paul's."

"Oh. Hmm." "You loser. How are you going to do the parade? It's a four mile route right?"

"Uh-huh."

1... 2.... 3....

"So! Was the cathedral beautiful?"

Laughter.

"Very!"

Labels: Kat, London Trip

In 1982 a Frank and Ernest comic strip was the first to utter one of my favorite quotes; "Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, except backwards... and in high heels." To me it shows the strength of a woman behind the man. This is especially true in our marriage as I'm sure it is in many.

Until tonight I never really thought about where the quote came from but I was reading about the new Ginger Rogers Musical that will be debuting in the Spring of 2008 I started to read about Ginger Rogers history and one thing led to another... and there you go! Suddenly I knew a little trivia about where the true source of this popular quote came from. In the process I also learned that Ginger was literally forbidden to kiss Fred Astaire - it was in the contract! Astaire's jealous wife had had it written in (which is how the song Dancing Cheek to Cheek came about). And Ginger (whose real name was Virginia McMath) was married five times - none of which worked out and never had children of her own. She lived with her mother most of her life.

I love finding out new information! Perhaps this is why no one in my family will play Trivial Pursuit with me anymore.

Labels: I should be sleeping, PP, Useless information

I'm literally drowning in boxes and bags and packing material... the Christmas decor is just waiting patiently for me to start packing it away but it's such a daunting job that before I knew it I found myself sitting here in the kitchen thinking I should probably just go check my emails. You know... just in case I had some riveting, earth shaking, life changing email waiting for me! Or, maybe just because looking at the knee high pile of bags and papers and waist high empty boxes waiting for my attention just makes me want to cry a little bit.

I was reading the news... and getting frustrated and rolling my eyes and talking back to my computer screen so I switched to entertainment news as sometimes fluff is just better for my disposition.

I saw that Brendan Fraser and his wife are divorcing. This was a tough one for me as you see, I've always had a bit of a crush on Brendan (why do you think I watch The Mummy?). So the first words out of my mouth were "Oh no! Don't divorce! Give it another shot, you even have three children together... just try to make the marriage work! It's been 9 years already, don't give up!" and a little voice in the back of my mind was saying "Yeah, if I wasn't married I'd date him in a heart beat! Marry me Brendan! We'll be like the Brady Bunch with three kids each!"

And Barron Hilton announcing he is going to donate 97% of his fortune to charity trust funds instead of handing it over to his family. Oh how I WISH I could have seen Paris' pouty little sharp featured face when she heard that! She and her mother have turned the Hilton name into a joke and I give a Barron a high-five for taking a stand. Yes, I suspect a huge family fight will come of this and lawyers will get rich fighting Grand dads decision but Paris is a 26 year old spoiled rotten baby who has the maturity of a 12 year old little girl. She'll still have more money than she'll know what to do with... and it won't make her grow up any, but I guess just having the disapproval of her grandfather makes me feel like Barron has a pretty smart head on his shoulders.

And that's about all the time for 'fluff' I have this morning.

Oh - Mr. John McCain... if you really wanted the vote of the Iowa public you should have gotten your sorry arse to Iowa to campaign a little instead of putting all your ducks into the New Hampshire basket and ignored the heartland! Now, just days before it's important you say to the Iowa voters; "Oh, I love you guys... don't forget about me!" But hello? Mitt was here constantly... you? In New F-ing Hampshire. Get your butt over here and tell the voters what you stand for or don't complain when you fall on your face here after the first caucus.

Labels: News, rambling

I've wrote and deleted two of them as I sat here and sipped my coffee. They both got a little too 'political' in talk and I realize that getting into big political disagreements on my blog probably isn't what I want to do today. Suffice to say that our caucus is coming up and I need to make up my mind and I'm frustrated because the person that shares most of my beliefs on the issues at hand probably couldn't get elected in the long run so it would be better to go with my second choice because I believe they have a better chance at getting elected.

That's about as political as I'm willing to get this morning.

Today is an ex-boyfriends birthday. Ex as is waaaaaay back in like, 7th grade. (Remember I started dating Coffeehusband when I was 15 so all my ex-boyfriends are going to be from junior high and my freshman year of high school.) He broke up with me this week too - because I couldn't meet him at the skating rink to go roller skating because we had been at my Grandfathers funeral. I couldn't go to the movies and I couldn't go skating so he told me on the phone that we never got to see each other and we should break up.

3 years later we became best friends and stayed that way all through high school. He and I would drive to school together, stopping at the local Kum & Go gas station for a jumbo sized burrito for breakfast, and hanging out in a friends apartment at night. When I returned home from my honeymoon with Coffeehusband his was the first house I stopped at to see friends. We took off on another friends motorcycle and drove for hours on back country roads just talking and laughing.

We lost touch after I moved to California with Coffeehusband but he stopped in and stayed with us one weekend in 1994 when we lived in Tennessee. He had turned into a snob by that time and was kind of an ass. He was a financial something or other at the time and was being relocated by his company. He had changed so much from the person I knew 6 years before. I suspect he's come down a few notches since then as we've aged and matured. I hope he has.
I haven't seen him since. But... today is his 38th birthday. Happy Birthday James.

Labels: Childhood, Friends, Happy Housewife, housework, politically correct

BabyGirl called from the international terminal asking which ticket counter she needed. After all was said and done she ended up at the exact ticket counter in the exact terminal that she needed to be at the exact time they were supposed to meet! (3:15 pm). You go, Babygirl! Woo Whoo!

She told me she saw two people in the cheerleading windbreakers they were supposed to wear, but no adults. I told her she had a choice. Go to the ticket counter and get checked in because she knew what to do and how to do it even without her chaperone there - or approach the other two people she saw in red and see what they were doing.

The next time we talked she had her ticket and was waiting at the gate.

Her Chaperone/Group Leader never showed up.

But she found her London roommate so what did she care? She is off to London! And I just checked the flight status online. She lifted off at 6:51 pm.

Labels: Kat, London Trip

Well my dear friends and readers the day that I've been both anxious for and dreading since July has come.

Her Christmas gifts were new pink luggage, luggage tags, a travel pillow, a camera and a messenger bag I got off ebay. After a huge debate of whether or not she had to bring her winter coat, (the consensus in the end was yes) she was packed and we were off to the airport.

What a mess. I knew it would be.

All this time I've expressed apprehension it had nothing to do with the fact that my daughter would be in London without me or anyone we knew for a week. I really have no qualms with that. The only thing I've worried about since day one was her getting her ticket and boarding pass and making her flights. Not due to her incompetence, but due to the airlines apathy and incompetence. Delayed flights, canceled flights, long security lines that make you miss planes, changing the gates at the last second... all things a novice flier hasn't a clue about. (And yes, our family are novices.)


Her original flight to Chicago was on United and to leave at 1:40 pm.

We checked in at the ticket counter at 11:00 and were told that her flight had been bumped to 5:00, arriving in Chicago around 6:10.

She was going to miss her London bound flight from Chicago.

Oh crap.

Talk talk talk (at this point my husband and the Boyfriend left to stand elsewhere while BabyGirl and I and the ticket counter woman discussed options) and talk talk talk and.... whew! The airline employee was going to put our daughter on another airline.

We got a special voucher and left United to get in line for American.

We got a mean old nasty grinch lady at the American counter but heck, if she can get us checked in, what do we care if she is as sour as vinegar, right?

"Flying to Chicago?"

"... and then on to London." as I pulled out the information sheet she needed to make sure BabyGirls luggage went through to London.

"What airline?"

"Virgin Atlantic."

"What?"

"Virgin Atlantic."

"I've never heard of that."

Oh crap. That doesn't sound good.

She asked another worker (a much friendlier worker) if she had heard of it. "Uh-huh, it's that new one that that rich guy started... what's his name? Uh...."

"Never heard of it. Well, I don't know any code for it."

And she dinked around on the computer trying to find a code for an airline she didn't actually believe existed.

And then she tagged BabyGirls luggage with the non-existent code for London. LOL.

She was still INCREDIBLY grumpy and mean to us at this point but a crew member came to the counter and said hello to her and then I heard them say, "Bad day?" which must have gotten her attention and showed her just what a b*tch she was being. She said, "No, I'm just tired... very tired." to him but at that point got a tad bit nicer to us.

She even offered to let us go through security as escorts if we all had ID on us. (Ok there was a bitchy moment there too when I had to call her to the carpet for something she didn't say but we'll leave that story out. Suffice to say she realized she screwed up AND she was being mean on top of it....) and then we got escort passes so we could walk all the way to the GATE with BabyGirl!

I questioned (twice) that her luggage would get to London and not stop in Chicago... "It'll be dirty!" she said. "That's ok... as long as it GETS there." I responded.

Labels: Kat, London Trip

If you give me a gift of a purple stuffed elephant with green ears and a baby bottle in it's trunk, I'd probably keep it. If you bought for me a yellow sweater, 2 sizes too small with green Christmas Tree's all over it... I'd smile, thank you and keep it. Candle holders that are ugly? A t-shirt with a rip in the sleeve? I'll probably keep it.

I hate returning things that much.

I will come up with every excuse why it's just easier or ok to keep it rather than have to return it. Anything. Anywhere. At any time of the year... not just Christmas.

So in our home we either keep the item (doesn't even have to be a gift... it can be something I bought that just doesn't work out...) or my husband swoops in and returns it for me because he knows I won't. I've returned maybe 5 things in 10 years and doubt that my return ratio will ever go much higher.

But that doesn't mean I'm not upset when a gift or purchase doesn't work out. On the contrary, my husband and daughter (who are willing to return things) don't mind quite as much as I do, but for me, it ruins everything. Everything. My type-A personality won't let me relax my standards and when a gift is opened and it's broken or doesn't work it immediately grays up a perfectly blue sky and I hear imaginary thunder and rain on my parade.

Yesterday was a wonderful morning of slowly opening gifts, enjoying watching each other open them, laughing and talking about each gift, telling some crazy story about how we found it or the process to procure it if there was one... and finally, opening and putting together or playing with the new items.

One of the literally 'last minute' gifts for my oldest daughter was a Def Leppard Limited Edition Electric Guitar with an authentic signed book by the band. She loved it because it has the Union Jack flag design on it. My husband loves it for being an awesome cool electric guitar. When I bought it there were just 5 on the shelf and as I was debating which to buy a lady came and snapped one of them up, so then there were 4. I decided to go with the box that was in the best condition hoping it hadn't been too banged up in shipping.

Only after the joy of the purchase was shared by both BabyGirl and my husband and they were getting ready to play it, did I spy, from across the room, a crack on the back of the guitar.

"What's that line down the back?" I asked as I took a picture of them with smiles on their faces.

"What line?" Coffeehusband asked at the same time that his finger found it and he inspected it further.

"It's gotta go back. It's a crack."

That stupid crack sucked the joy right out of the morning. One of her favorite Christmas gifts and it was immediately taken away, put back in the box and set aside for an early morning return.

That's where Coffeehusband is now. He called the store yesterday and heard they open at 7:00 am this morning so he was out the door, with a very sleepy Coffeekid to help, to return the guitar. I'm only hoping they have one to return. Remember, they were down to three when I bought it and they weren't getting any more in.

Gol darnit.











So... does anyone else hate returns as much as I do? LOL.

Labels: Christmas, Coffeehusband, Kat

Not that I personally would suggest such a thing, but I wanted to share with you a conversation with my best friend - you know, the one that is unorganized, flighty, scatterbrained and has that whirlwind around her at all times!

We were talking yesterday about shopping this week as both of us had been 'out and about'. I remarked on how polite shoppers were in Target on Sunday even though it was packed with people and of course many toys and such were going to be sold out. She told me about her shopping trip last year. On Christmas Eve.

Yes, my friend always ends up shopping on Christmas Eve and last year, sure enough, she found herself in Walmart on the Eve of Christmas. She said it was quite possible that she was the only female shopper in the entire store. It was her and a billion husbands and Daddy's scrambling to find something, anything (!) at that last minute. As she walked in the store there was a cart person at the door

"Excuse mam, would you like a cart?"

and walking into the store she was greeted by another employee,

"What's on your list? What can we help you with?"

"Uh, a _______ (insert any toy here)."

"No problem! Aisle 5, half way down on the left side. Better hurry! There are only 3 left! Here, let me take you there!"

She said it was awesome!

Red carpet treatment all the way as the employees were anxious to help all the panicked last minute shoppers!

So this year she shared with me that as of 10:00 am on Christmas Eve day she still needed to do shopping but she wasn't concerned. She had learned the trick. Go out that night and not only will the crowds be thin, they will all be males, willing to buy anything that might remotely resemble a gift, and the employee's will be on standby, ready to deal with the crowds, helpful and ready to calm the most frantic of shoppers.

She said she plans to shop Christmas Eve every year. The red carpet service can't be beat!

Labels: Christmas, Friends, shopping

It's been quite awhile since we've had anything 'strange' go on, but then again we've been so incredibly busy in the last 3-4 weeks you'd have to be pretty blatant about anything for us to even notice.

However... about 20 minutes ago I came into the Family Room to check emails. My youngest daughter is on the other laptop on the couch. Because it was so chilly in here, I decided to turn on the gas fireplace to warm up the room a bit. I walked over to the switch on the wall (like a light switch) and turned it on, then came to sit down. After about 5 minutes I realized I didn't hear the clicking of the fireplace anymore and looked over my shoulder only to find that the fire wasn't going anymore. Immediately thinking of all the ways the gas could have been turned off, the pilot light gone out, etc. my eyes traveled to the light switch on the wall that powers the fireplace only to see that it was off.

As in... the light switch had been turned off, to the down position.

And no one else had come into the Family Room.

Coffeegirl and I were the only ones in the room, both of us on our laptops and not paying attention to the fireplace until we realized it was no longer on. A fireplace going out by itself is one thing... but the switch literally being turned off is another.

Labels: ghosts

The First Step: Kill all the lawyers.... (well, except one, that is a faithful reader and friend of mine... LOL.. hug him, don't kill him.)

The lawyers are not letting the Christmas gifts be delivered because of possible liability issues with the gifts. Read here.

Labels: News, Pathetic, vent

I just got my husband off to work after debating about which tie to wear. We opted for the red striped as it was more 'Chrismassy' than the dark blue. The snowman and Christmas tree tie didn't work with the color shirt he had on but in the end it looked good and he is off to retail hell on this very Merry Christmas Eve day. *wink*

Plans for tonight include the traditional Oyster Stew, Cheese Soup, Garlic Toast, Sparkling grape juice for the kids, Not-Egg-Nog (recipe below) and a Christmas goody tray. We'll play board games and watch either A Christmas Story or Christmas Vacation. The Girlfriend is coming over this afternoon (supposedly around 2:00 pm but I'm hoping we can push that back to about 4 or 5 at least?) and the Boyfriend is coming over around 6:30 or 7:00, after he attends church with his family. My big excitement for the day will include wrapping the last 2 gifts and doing load after load after load of laundry and spurring the children to get their rooms and their bathroom clean as well as making sure my oldest is packing for London.


Last night I asked my daughter if she knew what The Boyfriend was getting her for Christmas. She said "Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's a necklace." When I asked her why she said, "Well, it was pretty obvious when it's all he talked about for a week...."

"I like the necklace you always wear...."

"So, that necklace your wearing, it's gold huh?"

"Do you like gold better than silver?"

"When did you get that necklace?"

"Do you know what size it is?"

"So is that your birthstone?"



We'll both be surprised if he doesn't get her one... because you know, he could have been faking it and talking about the necklace that much just to throw her off and then get her a bracelet or earrings or something. LOL.

Labels: Christmas, Coffeehusband, errands, rambling, shopping

Answer: Why, none of course!


As I bop around the internet I'm surprised at how many parents (Mothers especially) are in a tizzy about how to distinguish between the gifts from Mom and Dad and the gifts from Santa. There are huge, long posts about this very topic which seems so darn easy to me (and thankfully, quite a few others who offer the same advice as I do.)

Santa doesn't wrap his gifts!

Problem easily solved.

For those of you thoroughly confused, let me explain.

Apparently mothers and fathers all over the world are causing a hullabaloo about using special wrapping from Santa, using the computer to print name tags, disguising signatures or placing the gifts from 'Santa' in a different spot from the ones from Mommy and Daddy just to try to find a way to distinguish which gifts are which.

One mother, who believe it or not was the parent of two children already was posing a very serious question about how in the world to do 'Santa' gifts because the wrapping paper was the same so how would she make one from the jolly old elf and one from her?

I admit that question was so silly I read it twice just to make sure I wasn't missing anything.

The responses ranged from "Just don't use the same wrapping paper. Buy a different roll." to just printing "To Seth from Santa" on those gifts instead of "To Seth from Daddy and Mommy".

(Both of those solutions seem far too simple don't they? How in the world she didn't think of either is beyond me.)

But the best answers (I thought) were the parents who responded by saying; "Easy. The gifts that are wrapped and under the tree are from Daddy and Mommy. Santa brings one gift and it's unwrapped."

I'm partial to that answer because that is what we've always done. It's how my parents did Christmas for my brothers and I, and when Coffeehusband and I had children we discussed Christmas traditions and he liked that way better than his.

In his family the tree stayed empty right up to Christmas morning. On Christmas morning they would wake and suddenly the tree was filled with wrapped gifts... but they weren't allowed to look at them until they had all sat down and had breakfast and his mother and two sisters had done the dishes. Then they could go into the room with the tree and all the gifts were from Santa and could be opened.

In our family most of the gifts were from my parents, were wrapped, and under the tree. On Christmas morning we would find one gift for each of us, be it a Big Wheel, a Baby Doll in a carriage, a video game player, etc. sitting out in the room, unwrapped... and we knew Santa had came and left that one. I now know as a parent this works great when you can make the most difficult gift to wrap from 'Santa' - thus the baby carriages, the bikes and the Green Machine and Big Wheels of my childhood! Ha.

I was surprised to see the huge issue parents all over the country are making about this. But, then again I never was one for drama, nor taking part in typical female discussions. Women always remind me of a bunch of hens peck peck pecking and getting their feathers ruffled about everything. I've always preferred to be a loner, be on my own, do my own thing and never think nor care what others do or how they do it. Apparently I missed out on the big drama surrounding 'how' to distinguish Santa gifts from the rest of the Christmas gifts.

Now that my kids are older and have seen how other families handle Christmas, they have each said at one time or another that they prefer our method of gifts and Santa gifts. Most of the families we know do it the same way, but there are a few that are still wrestling with the wrapping paper and hand writing issue. Me? I don't have time for stuff like that. LOL.

Labels: Childhood, Christmas, Friends, rambling

In the interest of staying anonymous and not posting anything about my extended family that could, you know, actually lead them to my page if they were to search, I can't tell you much about our Christmas with the inlaws and outlaws. Don't ya hate me? But the two funniest stories about drinking and Mexico would absolutely lead them here through even the most basic of a search as the story is unique and the words used would be unique because, well, one of my brothers made them up and you can't tell the story without them!

Mostly I'm just posting to let my readers know we made it there and back again safely in the ice and snow so I don't start getting phone calls and emails asking if I'm alive since I haven't blogged!


I came home with a pile of old pictures from my Grandmothers albums (the one that just passed away last month). Last night I took a picture of a picture and uploaded them into my computer so I could have them on disk. 90% of them I've never seen before as they were taken by someone else. Here is one that melted my heart. It's of my youngest daughter with my youngest brother (the Iraqi soldier brother). In the real life larger version the way the camera captured the sparkle in her eyes and the way she is gazing at my brother is just precious. You can tell she idolized him at the time.

More later... I just wanted to let everyone know I'm alive and well and survived!

Imagine being stuck in a sitcom that is a mixture of Friends, Gilmore Girls and Everybody Loves Raymond with a strong dose of the movie Christmas Vacation. I'm sure there may be tv shows that might better sum up my family but since I stopped watching television in the Fall of 1998 my repertoire of tv shows is almost a decade old. Let's see if I can give you a visual of the cast of characters I'm soon going to be thrust into....


Cast of Characters

My Dad: Frank (Everybody Loves Raymond)
My Mother: (mixture) Emily (Gilmore Girls) and Marie (Everybody Loves Raymond) and Judy Geller (Friends - Monica's Mother)
My FIL: Max (Grumpy Old Men)

Me: Mixture: Monica (Friends) and Lorelai (Gilmore Girls) and Debra (Everybody Loves Raymond)
My husband: Mixture of Ray and Robert (Everybody Loves Raymond) and Ross (Friends)


1st Brother: Cousin Eddie (Christmas Vacation)
Wife: Catherine (Christmas Vacation)


2nd Brother: Joey (Friends)
Wife: Amy Green (Rachels sister in Friends) and Rachel (Friends)


3rd Brother: I can't think of a character that fits him - crap.


Now throw in a few hellions running around, wrestling, screaming, breaking things and taking bites out of everything on the Christmas Cookies and Desserts platters....

Well, this is where I'm going to be going today.