Answering the Call

10:54 am

Well, although I really should be baking for my party tomorrow night, or doing laundry or continuing on with the project I started this morning (painting the area above and beside the desk first with magnetic paint and then with chalkboard paint)


I decided I would take advantage of a little quiet time and respond to Martha's tag. This was a great thought since Adia was sleeping and Steele and Justin went to get snow tires on the car until... Adia decided to wake up at just about the same time Steele came clomping in the house with his new snow boots on and Justin told me he decided he didn't want to wait at the tire shop with a 2 year old for an hour and a half (come on, sounds like fun to me). All this, literally a couple minutes ago. So I'll keep you all on the edge of your seats and return to this later....

Snow!

Snow!
It won't be long before we'll all be there with snow
Snow!
I want to wash my hands, my face and hair with snow
Snow!

I long to clear a path and lift a spade of snow
Snow!
Oh, to see a great big man entirely made of snow

Where it's snowing
All winter through
That's where I want to be
Snowball throwing
That's what I'll do
How I'm longing to ski
Through the snow-oh-oh-oh-oh

Those glist'ning houses that seem to be built of snow
Snow!
Oh, to see a mountain covered with a quilt of snow

What is Christmas with no snow?
No white Christmas with no snow
Snow!

(from White Christmas)

That's right folks! It's snowing! And you know I love it! Justin is so excited 'cause that means the mountain is opening. He has a pass this year and is planning on taking Steele up. They both went and got little I.D.s with their pictures on them. There hanging on our rear view mirror in the Euro and are so cute. Let the skiing begin!


On another note - the Dancing With the Stars finale just finished and it was totally disappointing! And I'm so tired of all the fans booing when the judges give their critique. I, for one, think they're usually right on. And they're professionals! They know their stuff. Sheesh. Well, it will be interesting to see how it all turns out. Marie needs to go if you ask me. The doll dance tonight was uncomfortable just to watch.

It Might Be PMS

I'm tired. Like, physically tired (my eyes are aching) and mentally tired (think Jazzercise). I feel like crying (in fact, I already have once today). I haven't done school with Steele in who knows how long. Justin will be gone most of the week and I already feel stressed over the week's upcoming events. Wednesday my Bible study group is coming over after we meet. I decided I want to make chocolate peppermint bark cookies which means I'll need to make peppermint bark first. (Can you see me starting to drag already?). Our Junior Jazzercise Holiday Hop is supposed to start Friday and we only have 2 kids signed up. Doesn't that sound like a barrel of fun? (moving even more slowly) Saturday I decided to have a little (turning huge) get-together after our town's lighted Christmas parade (slumping over). My guests would probably enjoy some warm beverages and treats so I better get on that too (flinging myself onto my bed and into my cozy wintry flannel sheets).

And now? I'm practicing my set for tomorrow so that my students can have some new songs to dance to. The problem is that all of this fun stuff should be just that. Fun. And it would be if I didn't have Jazzercise always hanging over my head. All of it wouldn't really be that much to do if that were all there was. It would be a blast! I'm just gonna to be honest here. I don't need to work, I don't want to work, I don't make any money for myself doing this. So far it's just a glorified hobby. (A nice new pair of shoes every so often would be sufficient pay for me) All I really want to do is stay home with my babies, bake, cook, decorate, home school (and probably get fat without Jazzercise...) I've had 2 or 3 anxiety attacks in the last few months (they suck). I'm a grown, mature (that's arguable sometimes) woman and it's silly that I get to that point. Hmph. I hesitated to write all of this and finally decided to just do it. To be honest, as well-intentioned as everyone might be, I don't usually care for shallow "I'm sorry"s and "You're doing a great job"s (if you know what I mean). I just need to logically think it through, pray, and make a decision.

But like I said, it might just be PMS. (don't you just love parenthesis?)

Since I'm talking Jazzercise...
Last year's 80's themed Halloween Class
Yes. That's me. Yes. That's my hair.

PS. I went searching for reminders of why Jazzercise is so much fun. Here's one. I found these pictures of me at a former students' wedding. We were bustin' out the Jazzercise moves!

Lose My Breath

Scenes of the Season

And by the way, did you know that when vultures get scared they vomit? A little known fact I just learned thanks to the discovery channel....

Ha, Ha, HA!!

I found this too...


Poor guy... doesn't know the difference between "your" and "you're". (Stacy?) He can fight a darn good fire though!

Ha Ha!

I just pulled out an old spiral notebook and found something that gave Justin and I a good laugh. Check it out for yourself....

(circa 2002)

Some change is good.....

Double Drat!

So, to catch you all up - Justin had surgery on his shoulder at the beginning of October and hasn't been back to work since. Aside from the first couple weeks when he couldn't do much, we've been having a great time hanging out, getting some work done and doing fun things together as a family. He reminded me today that the last time he went to work was September 28th - or something crazy like that.

Justin's a firefighter and works about 9 (or less) shifts a month. He works a couple hours away which works for us since he works long shifts. We love it - he gets paid according to the cost of living in a big city, works for a great established department and we get to live in a quaint little rural town. It's great.

Unfortunately, though, his shoulder is not quite healed yet and his sick leave is running out. We discussed the possibility of him using some of his vacation days but in the end decided it would be better for him to go back to work a little earlier on light duty. Now that I think about it, that may have been the only option the department gave him but it actually works out better for us... in the long run.

In the short run it means that Justin has to go back to work tomorrow - 2 hours away - for 8 hour shifts. Blech!!! So I'm going from having him home ALL the time, to having him home NONE of the time. I'm in a surprisingly bad mood about it. And does anyone else do this? I'm sad about him going back to work and I almost feel mad at him for it. It's not his fault. He doesn't want to be gone any more than I want him to be gone. In fact, he specifically told me that he's going to drive home every night because he wants to be able to kiss the kids goodnight and at least be able to sleep in the same bed with me. He said if he stayed at his sister's house he'd just be sitting there bored, by himself for a few hours every night when he could at least see us even if it's only for a few moments. Isn't he great? He really is such a wonderful husband.

And, to top it all off, this is going to be the busiest week I've had in a long while. Wednesday both the kids have a doctor's appointment. I have to miss BSF for that which is sort of ok since it will be one less thing for me to do - and I don't have anyone to watch Adia anyway. Friday night my instructors and I are having a Friends and Family night at Jazzercise - so I'll be running around getting food and prizes and making general preparations for that all week. And if I really wanted to - I was invited to a home party and a baby shower this week which I'm going to opt out on. Saturday? One pumpkin cheesecake, two pumpkin pies and one apple pie for Thanksgiving with Justin's family on Sunday. And I really should put together a new set to teach, my students are getting tired of my current songs.

One day at a time.

And finally, I couldn't believe what happened today. I had an appointment with the "woman" doctor. I've been waiting and waiting for this appointment since I was overdue and also wanted to talk to her a bit about fertility treatment - you know, since Justin's grandparents have offered to "pay for the fertilization" and all. Another long story but I had surgery last year and never made it to my post-op appointment in the middle of the craziness of adopting Adia. So, lots to catch up on. Anyway, I'm sitting there, robe on, sheet over my lap and from the next room I can hear my doctor explaining to another patient that she got a labor and delivery call from the hospital and had to leave. No!!! I am so bad at making appointments - it will probably be months before I get back in there.

Oh well, I'm really not that excited about being pregnant. It can wait a little bit longer. Seriously. I've been hearing so many bad pregnancy stories lately. I'm perfectly content to watch the babies come out, have them handed to me and walk out of the hospital in my same jeans. It's worked brilliantly for me twice already. I am SO not being sarcastic here. It's true. Just ask Amy.

Ramble, ramble, ramble....



I just went back and re-read that post. I guess I really needed to vent about some stuff! Now I can go to sleep.

I Know, I Know

Two posts in one day. But I really just had to write and say that there is absolutely no reason I should go about looking anything but absolutely adorable when there are stores like this out there. Why have I never heard about this before?! ?! I NEED cute clothes. The more children I have the cuter my clothes need to be. I just don't have time to decide if things are cute or not. They just need to be. That's what I decided. I cannot waste my time worrying about the cute-ness of them or spending more than 5 minutes considering the cuteness factor - that would be too shallow. I just need to buy things that are innately cute. Granted, being 15 lbs lighter would probably make all my clothes look even cuter but that's beside the point.

I found it by looking at this blog which I am so intrigued by. Reading it sometimes makes me want to change every piece of decor in my house. But that just sounds like too much work. The problem is that I don't really know what my style is. Sometimes it's dark leather couches, Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn and the likes. And sometimes, more often lately, it's more Cath Kidston (who I just found and I love but can't figure out if it would even be worth it for me to order anything from the UK) Anyhow, I'm starting to embarrass myself by writing about all of this - but I was thinking about it.

Shallow post for the day? Check.

And by the way, if you were wondering... new underwear? Check.

Any Ideas?

Every year our church has a Thanksgiving Eve service with lots of singing, some sharing, testimonies of thankfulness and general good fellowship. I got a phone call last night from our pastor asking me if I would like to sing at this year's service. Now, I never pass up the opportunity to sing but he asked me to sing a "Thankgiving-ish" song (I added the "ish" for emphasis) and I'm a little stumped on this one. I reviewed my newest Sara Groves album this morning - nothing there. I may look through my Jennifer Knapp today (found something there for Christmas Eve last year) but I really have no ideas. So, any Thanksgiving-ish songs come to any of your minds? It can be contemporary or traditional - piano accompanied would be best. I had a hard time finding a guitar player last year but we seem to have an overflow of pianists at our little chapel.

And sorry, no prize on this one. Although you are more than welcome to attend the service - I'm sure you'd be blessed!

And while I'm on the subject of thankfulness - I sure am thankful for these joyful moments...

Snuggled in his new cozy sheets (flannel)

Doing Chores

Getting Teeth

The funniest part of this picture is that neither Steele or Adia
have ever really used pacifiers. I guess it just added
to the effect of the leaf blowing uniform.

Jakers!

Bath Time

I Won! I Won! I Won!

Isn't this crazy! With the exception of one, all the blogs I have on my blog roll are people I know personally. There are a few that I read regularly though, that I don't have listed. One of them is Elizabeth Hill Cottage. I won't link to it yet. I don't want to ruin the surprise.

So I've been reading regularly, posted some comments, got some comments back!!... and so began our blog friendship. My first and only blog friend that I don't know "IRL". That's "In Real Life" for all you non-bloggonians. I have to say that having your first non IRL blog friend is a little like getting your first boyfriend in 7th grade. You post a comment, feeling a little funny and giddy about it and then you wait... Wait to see if they think you're a freak or if they're cool with it. And then, just maybe, they reply to your comment on their own blog. And then..... they post a comment on your blog - about your own cute pictures or your writing about your own crazy life. Oh the sheer excitement of it all!!!

If I'm being honest I must admit that I'm still a little skeptical of this whole blog thing. I vacillate between wanting to blog about "deep" things, getting freaked out that someone is stalking me, being annoyed by things I read, feeling like I waste too much time on here, having fun reading others' blogs, enjoying the things I learn from blogs like this one, etc. etc. etc. I wish my blog had a little more direction sometimes but anyway.... I'm rambling now.

I have thoroughly been enjoying keeping up with Martha at Elizabeth Hill. She has a great sense of humor and the things she posts about don't make me feel like a Martha Stewart school drop out. From what I read, she seems real, down-to-earth, creative, domestic (but not obsessively so) and honest. I appreciate those things. AND, she thinks my kids are cute which always scores big points with me.

So I few days ago Martha posted a contest - complete with a prize. We were supposed to find the "something" that was wrong with her fridge. I must have gone back to that picture a handful of times over 24 hours searching that picture. I even showed it to Justin and he couldn't see it. Here - see if you can find it. Could you see it? Well, even it if you found it it doesn't matter because..... I WON! I WON! I WON!! Me! Cutzi! And the prize is all MINE! MINE! MINE!

Isn't that too funny! I've seen contests on other blogs and really wondered if it all wasn't just a bit hokey. I thought that until I WON!!! At which point I was yelling from the living room out to Justin "I WON! I WON! I WON!".

By the way, did you happen to hear that I WON!!??

In case I was wondering, Wii are still fun.

Oh man, we went over to some friends' house last night and played Wii. It was Hilarious!!! We had such a blast - people would have paid to see us jumping around swinging at wayward tennis balls and especially to see us boxing. Ok, well, maybe they wouldn't have paid but they would have been highly entertained. Justin was sitting on the couch watching me "box"absolutely cracking up. I guess I have a pretty good right hook. Or he might have been laughing at my super duper wham-o bam-o high speed body blows....

Glad to know I've still got it.

In Loving Memory

Our fish Toot died today. I bought him for Justin on his birthday the first year that we were married. Six years seems to be a pretty long life span for a goldfish I think. Even so, we did feel a tinge of sadness. Over the last couple of years Toot had ongoing swim bladder infections which we were able to manage pretty well. Amazing the things you can learn on the internet. But the last couple of days he was alive and floating upside down. Poor guy. And tonight when Justin went to feed him he found an unresponsive Toot. Rest well Toot.

I Needed These

Today, in the middle of my very bad attitude, this made me laugh and this made me think. I am thankful for and needed both.