Tuesday

Well, everyone is well and back in school.  The past week was a rough one around here!  Thank goodness Christopher and I were spared from the strep the kids were passing around.  And after having to cancel twice already, I was finally able to get my hair done today!  Phew!  Now no one has to fear going blind from the glare off of my greys!  Not sure I'm 100% pleased on the color, though.  No matter what we try, the little bit of natural red in my hair comes through.  The last time it was really orange, this time it looks very deep red.  Not the best look when I'm trying to match my almost black natural color.  But at least there are no greys.  That's the main point.

It is COLD today.  COLD.  It was 11 when I woke up.  Even though the thermostat says 70 degrees, it certainly doesn't feel like it!  This morning I had to put on a sweatshirt over my pj's and an extra pair of socks.  That tile floor is like ice.  We're still trying to get the heating zones back to normal after that one nasty windy day.  Christopher takes a poll each night to see if everyone was warm enough, and how warm they were.  Now, the basement, which is usually warm because of the boiler, is cold.  I'm guessing he turned off the two registers down here.  The main level is the coldest, though.  Upstairs is like an oven.  You can't go in the bathroom and shut the door without breaking into a sweat.  Pleasant, huh?  I'm ready for spring!

I'm in such a cooking rut and it's driving me nuts.  None of my recipes sound good.  Nothing on Pinterest sounds good.  I'll plan out my weekly menu and by the time it comes around to cook, nothing I planned sounds good.  Even though Christopher's cholesterol is back into normal range, he doesn't want to eat red meat.  We maybe have it once a week.  No one likes pork (except ham) and no one likes fish, so that leaves chicken for every night.  There's only so many ways to prepare chicken before you get sick of it...  I got a dutch oven for Christmas so I'm going to try it out with a roast tonight, and I'm actually excited (because it's not chicken).  The last time I cooked a roast in the oven, it didn't go well.  Let's hope this one works out a bit better.

I'm so glad that January has been a slow month.  After being so busy in December, it's nice to not have to be somewhere every day, and have so many things to get done.  I've been able to do some sewing and finished two dresses for my shop- I'll share them later this week when I finish the third.  I've got Kate's scrapbook caught up through her last birthday- Preston's is at his 8th (way behind there...).  Lately I've been busy planning Kate's proppa British birthday party.  Sorry to all of my Pinterest followers who've been bombarded with everything British this past week.  I can't wait!  We're even going authentic with the food.  Not sure how well that one will go over, but the birthday girl insists that we have to be authentic in every way.  I'm even going to pick up a refrigerator box from Sears closer to the party and turn it into a phone box.  Should be a great time!

A case of the sickies

Our house has been a veritable haven for germs lately.  Spring can't come soon enough! 

Preston woke up at 4:30 Friday morning and I could tell as soon as he lay down in bed that he had a fever.  Neither one of us got back to sleep.  He started complaining that his throat hurt and didn't eat his breakfast.  When he won't eat, I know something's not right.  I looked at his throat, but it didn't look bad, but I took him in anyway.  Good thing, because it turned out to be strep.  We got him started on some Zithromax and by Sunday he was back to his old self.

Friday evening, Kate had plans to stay at her friend Jenna's house.  She has a bad record of coming home from Jenna's sick.  One time she came home with a 103 temp and spent 3 days in bed not able to do anything.  So when we found out Preston had strep, I made sure she was well before I sent her, and gave her orders to call me immediately if she even thought she was getting sick so she wouldn't give it to everyone there.  She is the queen of strep, after all.  She actually came home well!  But then yesterday morning she woke up with it.  Thankfully our dr. will call in a script for anyone else in the house who gets if someone has a positive strep test, so we didn't have to take her in.  But when I went to pick up her meds, the dr. had called in a ml that didn't exist, and instead of them catching it and calling *before* I got there, they waited until I arrived and then told me they'd have to call them and get something else.  So I ended up making two trips to town before her meds were ready.  She still isn't feeling too hot, but hopefully she'll be back to normal tomorrow.

I'm praying Christopher and I don't get it!

New year, new hope

Happy new year!  I still can't believe it's 2013 already.  I'll still be writing 2012 on checks until March like always!

Our NYE was pretty uneventful- the night that is.  I had a ton of exchanges to make, so we decided to go to Fairview to get them all done and Granny came along with us.  We knew snow was forecasted but decided that we'd make it a quick trip since it wasn't supposed to start until mid-afternoon.  Well, overnight they changed the snow to mid-morning and it started snowing hard halfway there.  We buzzed around getting stuff done as fast as possible to make it home before the roads got bad, and thankfully, made it home with no issues and only one slick spot.  Phew!  The rest of the night was pretty par for a normal night other than a pan of brownies.  Preston insisted he was going to stay up until midnight- maybe 2:00 if he misread his clock, but was asleep by 9.  Everyone was in bed by 11:00- real party animals, huh?  I figured it was 2013 somewhere in the U.S., so I didn't need to stay up another hour.

Today we enjoyed more sledding and and afternoon with Granny and Pa.  Granny fixed ham and beans for dinner for good luck and it was delicious.  I'd better have really good luck with the amount of beans I ate!  Kate ate one bean, Preston ate none, and then while sledding after dinner, they both had a wreck with each other, ending sledding for the night.  His tablet also stopped working tonight and has to be sent back and replaced.  Lesson learned... eat your new year's beans!

I'm looking forward to a new year, new experiences, and hope for the future.  I have an exciting project that I'm looking forward to sharing in the future- a seed God no doubt planted in my mind as it's been on my mind constantly ever since.  I'm hoping to get into it in depth once the kids are back in school next week.  Until then, I wish each of you a prosperous and blessed new year.

Snow much fun

Just two weeks ago we sat at the table discussing the fact that it was mid- December and we'd yet to have any snow.  Usually by Thanksgiving we've at least had a measurable snowfall, but this year was looking to be a repeat of last year where there were only a handful of days in the 30's and we didn't get to play in the snow at all.  The next day, we got a surprise snow that came with an entire day of 67 mph winds.  It was horrible.  It blew so hard that it blew through all of our a/c vents and our house was freezing.  Christopher adjusted our heating zones to warm the upstairs more and we're still trying to get them back to normal...  It blew off several sections of shingles, particularly on the corner right above Kate's room.  We heard a loud banging so I went out to look and a huge section had blown loose and was beating down on the roof.  It sounded like someone taking a bat to the roof every 10 seconds.  Thankfully we got the roof repaired the next day.

Winter has officially arrived in Southern Illinois, and even though I hate cold weather, right now I'm enjoying it!  We were supposed to get 6-10 inches Christmas night, but it missed us by miles and we got nothing- not a flake.  Then Friday afternoon, it started snowing a bit and I didn't give it much thought.  With the kids home on break, I don't get time to watch the weather.  Well, that little snow turned into 3 inches!  I went out Friday night and took some pics because I knew it would be gone by morning.

Come morning, it was still here.

We had our last Christmas with Christopher's mom's family at noon, but when we got back we went outside.  I didn't think we needed to get our snow clothes down from the attic, so we just went outside in coats.  We were back in within 5 minutes.  We were COLD!  And the sole came off of Preston's boot!?!?!  I'm glad he got a new pair for Christmas- the others went in the trash!

The snow was amazingly still here today, so this afternoon we got the snow clothes down and headed up to Granny and Pa's and spent the entire afternoon outside.  When we were little, their house was our snow day destination.  They live on 7 acres and Pa would spend the day pulling us behind the four-wheeler on sleds.  When we'd get cold, Pa had a fire going in the wood burning stove in the garage, so we'd warm up and go right back out, only going in to eat.  Though he didn't have a fire going today, we did go in the garage to warm up a bit between rounds.  I'm so glad my kids have had the chance to have Pa pull them, and I know it means a lot to him, too.  He was ready to take them out as soon as we walked in the door!

 Kate outgrew her snow clothes, so she wore my snow pants, so I had to wear Pa's.  They were quite big!  On the agenda tomorrow... buy Kate some snow pants!

It's only supposed to be 24 degrees tomorrow, so the snow's not going anywhere, and we're getting another 3 inches tomorrow night and the rest of the week is slated to be cold.  I imagine we'll be spending the week up the hill enjoying the snow since the kids are out of school until next week.  Loving it!

Busy Christmas

Hold on to your hats, folks!  This one's pretty long- you might want to grab a cup of tea, maybe something to eat, because you might be here a while!  I plan on doing some catching up posts, but wanted to get Christmas out before we got too far behind!

We have a BUSY Christmas every year.  With big families, we have to split things up, which makes for some long days, but it's always fun and we enjoy it.  Last Saturday we had Christmas at my dad's.  As always, the food is GREAT!  Steaks, baked potatoes the size of small footballs, salad, and more goodies than you can shake a stick at.  I left feeling so full!  The kids had a blast and got so many fun gifts!

 We got a kick out of Lilly's Christmas sweater!

Sunday morning we had Christmas with my in-laws.  The kids were so excited and were practically begging to leave to go as soon as they were dressed and ready!  Again, they got way too much, but had so much fun!  We also gained a new member of our family...  Harry Styles now resides in our home- Kate's bedroom to be specific.  She'd been begging Grammy to kidnap one of the boys from One Direction for her Christmas gift, so here he is, and Kate couldn't be prouder!  He's scared the &@%& out of us a few times, but at this point, we're pretty used to seeing that smiling face.

 Abbie and Issie got a go-cart.  Issie climbed right in and so did Kate.  Issie promptly pushed the gas and ran Abbie over.  That's why you don't drive with a horse in one hand!

Christmas Eve is always spent with my mom and grandparents.  It's always a lot of fun- especially giving Pa his Christmas toilet paper each year!

 I made Cooper this dinosaur tail since he's super into dinos and he was SO excited!  He put that tail on and proceeded to swing it at everyone there!  He even figured out that he could move it around to the front so he could sit down.  That was a sight!

Christmas morning the kids woke us early at 6:00.  I told them that was the earliest they could be up.  Preston was up at 4:00, though and asked me to check the santa tracker to see where he was.  By that time, he was already back at the North Pole, so he did a quick cookie check, saw that he'd eaten them and went back to bed.  He says he didn't go back to sleep.  All I know is that I did!  And no, that's not a bottle of wine from her stocking!  Santa always brings her sparkling grape juice!

 After getting ready, the kids enjoyed a few of their gifts before we headed out to Uncle Kent and Aunt Karen's house.

Kate got One Direction tickets from Santa and is thrilled!  She and I will be headed up towards Chicago in July for a fun night.  I've never driven that far by myself before.  She's already begging to drive into the city but I'm not sure I'm that brave!

 We had lunch with Christopher's extended family at his aunt and uncle's house.  It's always a busy, fun time, but we have to cut it short every year to be at my dad's family's Christmas that evening.  Kate and Sarah getting excited about something...

A few months ago, I got an idea to do and ugly Christmas sweater theme at Me-maw's Christmas, so I told my sister, Ali and she thought it would be more fun if it was just us, and to act like it was no big deal.  Then she got Ashley in and Kate wanted to.  When we were at dad's Saturday, we decided we couldn't leave Diana out, so she was in.  We almost had Seth agreed to dressing up like Cousin Eddie in his bath robe, but he chickened out...  So we all showed up at Me-maw's house dressed up in out homemade ugly sweaters.  It was so much fun!

Diana went as Cousin Eddie with his dickey.  Loved her bow!  Her earrings were taken straight off her Christmas tree and went back on when she got home!  Hilarious!  Ashley was a gingerbread man.  When I was helping her spray paint the "flour" on her shirt Saturday night (she was wearing it), I accidentally painted her hair!  I still wish my hair curled as well as hers!  She got the good hair genes of the bunch!

 Ali was a Christmas tree. Kate had a googly eyed Santa.

 And then there's me...  I was an elf.

 Three sisters, a sister-in-law and a daughter.  I can't wait to see what ideas we cook up for next year!

Overwhelming

Hello!  It's been a week since I last updated and figured that with this next week, I'd better update or you might wonder if I was still alive.  Things have been busy- way busier than I expected, and this week is going to be the worst.  Backing it up a bit...

Thursday I did a little baking.  Didn't go so well.  I've been making these pretzels with Hershey Hugs for years (way before Pinterest) and decided to start with these.  I obviously wasn't paying attention and bought Kisses instead.  They don't work- they have to be Hugs.  So after trying to no avail to press an M&M into them, I just gave up and used a spoon to somewhat mash the Kiss into the pretzel so they'd still be edible.

 I'd like to say that my go at fudge went better, but alas, it was an epic fail, too.  You pretty much have to eat it with a spoon if it sits out for more than 5 minutes, but I'll admit that it's good.  GOOOOOOD!  I had planned to give them to our ENT Friday for Christmas, but we went empty-handed.  But we did get a good report!  Preston still has his left tube and the right is completely healed.  We see him again in May unless winter rears its ugly head and things go downhill like usual.

We've been having fun with Bobby Boy, our elf on the shelf.  His first week back, he was pretty tame, but he's been a little ornery since December hit.  One day we caught him driving around with his arm around a married woman!  Mrs. Blueberry from Kate's dollhouse family was out and about with Bobby while poor Mr. Blueberry was asleep in his bed.  Tsk, tsk!  I've been keeping up with his daily adventures on twitter.

Our weekend was pretty low-key and we spent most of Saturday working on Kate's newest Lego movie which should be finished this week.  I was promoted to Supremo Editor-in-chief for this project because of the amount of editing required.  We're so close to being done, and it is SO good!  That girl has talent, and it keeps her focused for hours.

This week is going to be a mess.  I have to volunteer at Habitat again tomorrow, then we're going to the Lions' Christmas party with my grandpa that night.  I have two dress orders to make this week and have out by Friday (Sat. at the latest) and the fabric has yet to arrive...  Plus, we're going back to Fairview for the second Wednesday in a row to finish up Christmas shopping.  We have two parties next weekend (birthday and graduation).  A guy is coming next Monday to refinish our bathtub.  We have a dentist appt. next week, plus having to do ALL of my baking then.  Such a mess.  I'll be happy once I get these dresses done.  But that means I still have to do my sewing projects for gifts...  Next year I promise to start early!

Is it April or December?

Holy cow!  It's been a warm weekend around here, and I'm not complaining!  It was 68 degrees here today and it's supposed to be even warmer tomorrow.  I swear this morning when it was really sunny, that it looked like spring- then the clouds came and it looked just like December, but as soon as you walked out the door, it certainly didn't feel like it!

Saturday was the Christmas parade downtown and Kate had to march.  She was all decked out in necklaces and a Santa hat, and even wrapped wrapping paper around her flute!  The parade only lasted 5 minutes (short and sweet) and it was nice not to even be cold while we waited.

That afternoon we went and borrowed Keith and Dee's slide projector and spent the evening watching old slides.  It was fun.  Everyone always tells me that Preston looks just like Christopher and I never really saw it until we saw those old slide and he looks JUST like him.  Heaven help us!

Today was just too warm to stay in, so we went to the park for a little frisbee golf.  I still can't get over being outside in just a shirt and not being the least bit cold.  I'm afraid we're looking at another snow-free winter this year.  Boo!  I at least want one good snow to go out and play in.

Preston is really big into dominoes lately.  That's all he's wanted to do since Friday.  Tonight he built a tower that was 5 feet tall before it finally fell.  I was able to catch a pic shortly before he finished it.

I also ventured out to take a picture of our lights while it was warm.  I hung the ones on the bushes.  Spiffy, huh?