9 stockings!

That's right, 9 stockings! It seems crazy to think that not one more stocking will fit on our fire place! There is just no room! I think we felt like we were running out of room when we had to add # 8, but # 9 really just takes the cake!

All in all, our 9 stocking'd family had a nice day yesterday! We manage to get all of the getting together taken care of on Christmas Eve, so there is plenty of time on Christmas day for our children to enjoy their new toys. I like it that way.

I hope everyone enjoyed a healthy, happy, blessed, eventful, stressful, fun, wonderful, irritating family Christmas just like we did!

Whew, Where Did the Month Go? Oh, and How Did that Branch Get on in My Roof!?!?

Man, I have been either busy or lost most of the month! First, my family was hit with serious stomach flu! Then, we just had too much of everything to catch up on like my Christmas projects and house work, to do too much blogging! Now, we have had no power a few days out of the last 4 or so and on top of that we had a tree branch poke a hole in our roof!

More about that!!!

I was not pleased to be jerked awake by the sound of a tree branch, several by the end of the night, hitting the roof right above my bedroom! I jumped out of bed and grabbed the two littlest in the family and headed for the livingroom. After getting some sense about me, I went back for my husband and told him he really needed to come out there with us. I am serious about just how scary that was! It was soooo awful! I pulled the love seat into the middle of the room and he laid on that, while I positioned myself for the least amount of discomfort in the chair! Then, I decided that I did not really want my kids in the bedrooms that they sleep in either, because of the big trees around them! Well, I woke them all up, which did not go so well, and then I pulled the couch into the center of the room too, because the living room is right off of my bedroom, so limbs falling over my room could hit the living room too--and did! After more than three miserable hours of NO SLEEP, I finally decided to give up and try and get some rest. My long needed sleep lasted an hour and then I got right back up again, because I just could not sleep in that chair! Especially not with the baby in my arms! About 45 minutes to an hour after I got up, the power went out and was out all day, until almost dark! I was not pleased, but it was not terrible, because we have giant windows in our living room, therefore having plenty of light, until night fall, which was almost upon us when the power FINALLY came back on!

I have never breathed a bigger breath of relief!

Until, my husband begrudgingly climbed atop the roof and found the softball sized hole in our roof! He became the crabbiest man alive at that very moment! I immediately got on the cell phone, of course we have modem phone, so we did not have our phone to use either, with our insurance company. The adjuster was at the house assessing damage before our power was even back on! I was impressed! He was very nice and hopefully will have some sort of good news for us! Of course, that side of our roof is the side that did not need to be replaced! HA! Not much luck with things like that!!!!!

Ok, done rambling!

Just know that if you have not talked to me, I am neck deep in baking, projecting, and crocheting and we have a family Christmas tomorrow!

Have and blessed and wonderful Christmas!

I Made Fudge Today And...

I made fudge today and it did not turn out looking like a big puddle of baby poop!

Yippee!

Mommy wins!

Mark one for the Mom-O!!!

Random Acts of Kindness

I know, I know, too much posting, but I have an idea...

Year after year, we go forth with little thought about how things work and how the small things come to be.

For example:

An older couple from our church always sends birthday cards to our family, which leads me to believe that they are sending cards to everyone on the church list, as they happen. I always wonder how people on such a fixed income can afford the simple stamps to send the cards, let alone the cards to send to everyone! I think every year that I should send her some stamps anonymously. I think I will really try to accomplish that this year. (Our budget is really rather fixed too, so it is not as easy as it sounds!) I am not telling you this so you will think I am sooooo great or even good for that matter. What I am trying to achieve is a challenge.

I want to challenge all of the people who read this to doing a simple kindness to someone who could use a kind word, gesture, or something else. You will know it when you see it. As I said, we don't have money, so I don't just walk around giving money to people, but I have tried to make a few dollars stretch by making something to help someone out, when they would not normally get a Christmas gift, or for whatever reason. I have simply given someone my cart at Aldi's without taking their quarter, for the cart lock. I know it is very small, but the simplest things can really make someone think! I know that all of you, my friends, are good people and you can really make a difference in someone's life by doing the smallest things, so let's get out there and do it!

(Around Christmas pretty much every year since we took on our first "extra" child, people have been showing us kindnesses in one way or another and we VERY TRULY appreciate it! You never know who could really use your children's old clothes or shoes, or the coat that you can no longer wear. There are so many things that we can do to help others that we just don't always think about. Let's have a giving Christmas starting with the simple things!)

Childhood Memories!

The other night when Meeeeema puked all over my bed, I had to search the world over for a sheet and pillow cases to outfit my bed with. The beautiful thing about that is we don't have extras of our sheets. Well, we do, but when we got our new bed set, my dear husband decided to throw the old set up in the attic! Great, right!?! Anyway, I came across some kid's sheets that my mom had given me a long time ago and in the mix was my pillow case from when I was a little girl.

I can not begin to describe the flood emotions that came with that old pillow case. I immediately found myself trying to fight back tears. I was unable to win that battle! Ponch, who happened to come in on my meltdown, asked why I was crying. I told her that I was really sad, because this simple pillow case meant so much more to me than she could understand. It was a time when my mom was not sick. She was alive and well and the meanest mom alive, of course! A title which I proudly hold today!

I miss my mom terribly! When you are a little girl, you never think about your mom dying, although, my kids do, because of my mom's death. I feel like they have been cheated of their innocense in that respect! It makes me sad! Some days, everything makes me sad! Not freak out and lose it sad, for the most part, but just plain sad!

And, when we left the "freshly" made bed, with sheets that had not been washed in atleast 18 months, since mom has been gone for more than a year and gave them to me while in good enough health to do so, Ponch looked up at me with her arms around my waist and asked me if she could have my pillow case when I die!

She gets it!

She really gets what that pillow case means to me and wants to have it in her life after I die.

I told her, "sure," of course!

The damned thing is 25 or so years old now and I plan on staying around 'til God decides otherwise, so why shouldn't she have it! IT WILL LAST THAT LONG!

Good Luck Today, Snot Face!

To my sister who has today to cram in a few finals for school, I want to say


Good Luck!

SICK, SICK, SICK!

Well, it was bound to happen, but I prayed it would not! My whole f'ing household got sick! 7 of the 9 to be exact! And, that is not to say that the other 2 will not fall soon too! N got sick Friday and we thought he must have been coughing until he threw up, but he did it again Saturday night. Sunday he laid around a lot of the day and we knew he must have come down with something. Sunday evening Meeeeema started throwing up. Yep, the baby! The baby is still throwing up as of last night too! It really has been a beautiful day in our neighborhood! Sunday B started throwing up too, which is just great, since he does not know how to make it to the toilet when he is sick! That is the best thing ever! Boog has only had a headache since Monday, which is a blessing, I guess. A 2 year old loose and puking through the house would not be too much fun to deal with! S and I both got sick on Monday! Severe butt explosions around the house! What a great week!!! As for me, the butt explosions that I thought were on the way out seem to have returned! LUCKY ME!

I hope you all are having a wonderful, magical, sickness free week!

Sorry that the entire entry is TMI, but I figured some of you might think I was dead if I did not post something soon!

Mom's Birthday!

Today is mom's birthday and as you all know we lost mom on Sept. 19th, 2007. I am sad to have lost her. I can never say that enough, but I am excited to be going out with her loved ones and friends to celebrate the anniversary of her first day of life! I want to try and keep this as a tradition from year to year!

We are going to enjoy a night of friendship, love, laughter and fun!

I am ready!