The Mother of Geese

Best Movie- Runner Ups -Hairspray, Enchanted, Harry Potter, Bourne Ultimatum Worst Movie - Never have I hated a movie so much this year. Just so bad. Kept waiting for the creepy bunny to tell the girl to kill everyone. Favorite TV show- Runner-ups : Heroes, Pushing Daisies, Ugly Betty Guilty Pleasures: Runner Up : Dirty Sexy Money Favorite Thing to listen to : Runner Ups : Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me Song that describes 2007 : Just Fine Mary J. Blige Runner Ups : "Woo Hoo" Gwen Stefani Worst Moment of 2007: May 8 Runner Ups : (Include bad words as needed here)When the CNA "forgot" to give me the pain medicine and I was writhing in pain on day 2. "Oops I've created a monster" Moment -Max's straight up refusal to be left far from me because I have the leche Runner-Ups: Abbie now expects to have a healthy and/or tasty afterschool snack on the cute plates with matching cup. If its not ready..LOOK-OUT!!! Best Meal of 2007: Lemon, Blueberry Pancakes w...

"Service is FUN!", says Max In an effort to teach my kids the true meaning of Christmas one of the activities on the event calendar was to go to the toy store and buy a present for some children who wouldn't have any presents otherwise. The radio station in our area that plays 24 hours of Christmas nonstop since August (or so it seems) did a donation drive for the homeless shelter and I got to thinking of how blessed we are and how much we have. Enter bright idea. We have a travel trailer that wasn't used last summer because I was very fat and it would have been like a toaster oven if we went camping in it. We have taken the trailer camping in Oregon, to the Sawtooth Mountains, Yellowstone, up to Coeur d' Alane, and several places here locally. Brad has spent hours making improvements on it, welding, fixing the electrical, trying to fix the water etc...We basically grew out of it and it had been sitting on our RV pad like a sad old lady. I had wanted to sell it b...

I was given 2 choices of what to do with the kids this morning. Which do you think I leaned more towards? Option 1: Sledding with Abbie and the neighbors in our balmy 19 degrees? Option 2: Stay inside with Mia Mia and Max and have a very wet tea party? If you chose option B, you would be 100% correct. I did however, provide the hot chocolate to the dearies and offered them a warm basement movie by the fire when they were finished. That Mr. Bean is so funny.

Amelia: 1 Mommy: 0 Since I am so very over changing 10+ diapers a day I thought it would be a good time to start Amelia on the exciting world of flushing. Santa brought Under the Sea panties, I bought Under the Sea pull-ups, found the stickers and I had committed myself to the next week of not leaving the house and spending the whole time with her. I found her potty friend chair and told her it would be her special chair and would go around wherever she went today. Lucky girl! She just looked at me. I took off her diaper and told her she gets to wear the lucky Under the Sea pull-ups and wouldn't it be neat that she can pull them up and down all by herself. Cue Meltdown. I wrestle her down and put the pull ups on knowing for sure that once they are on she will love them and will only want to wear them forever. Cue Kicking. She pulls the pull ups down. I say WOW! aren't you smart doing it all by yourself! What a big girl blah blah...Cue glaring. And scene.

Can you tell I finally had Brad pull all the pictures he took from his phone? Quality is not great but whatev. Looking for the Christmas tree: We have decided that we are a family that has a real Christmas tree but one that buys their Christmas tree from The Home Depot.

What do you do when you live in the NWFB (Neighborhood with Few Babysitters) and you have plans to go out on the town with your man? Why you cross your fingers, curl everyone's hair and take them with you!!! Brad had made reservations for 2 but the universe wanted us to take the whole family. We had so much fun that we decided to make it a yearly tradition. (Now I only have to talk Brad into the horse and carriage ride, which for the record, he is SO against. "Look at all the traffic those stupid horses are holding up?!") The romantic Ambient light did not really lend itself to great pictures. After dinner Amelia had to burn off all the ranch dressing she drank so decided to have Brad chase her up 3 flights of stairs. Here I am pinning her down. Afterwards we froze our Christmas hams off walking and looking at the lights.

I just casually told the girls that Santa probably will just bring them clothes because they don't play with the toys in their room anymore so they probably don't like toys. Result? The girls are looked up in their room playing the snot out of their toys. Peace at last....

Sacrifices- Explanation: Its really not that I don't like animals. I just don't like what animals do to my body. You see, I am allergic to just about all organic life including all animals, changes in weather, most wooded trees (yup.), dust, mold, mites, wool, perfume, and it goes on. I am willing to make certain sacrifices for my children, ya know, IN THE NAME OF CHRISTMAS. So when we got a real Christmas Tree for our fake ornaments to compliment our fake Christmas Tree for our real ornaments I was scoffed at. Thanks to modern medicine I am able to live with a real Christmas tree as long as I do the following: Mucinex 2x daily, Zyrtec before bed, Advair 1x in morning, drops of Allergyese following schedule (today its 8 drops), and albuterol as needed. I am not willing to make these certain sacrifices for my children EVERYDAY for the next 10 years if we were to have a pet in the house. So when the girls found a box elder bug they spent the morning taking care of their pet which...

Report on the "event calendar": Day 7: Read Christmas Books by the fire-check, but I will not read Santa Cat. (because its stupid and very long) Day 8: Watch Olive the other Reindeer or other movie (went and saw Enchanted instead. GREAT movie) Day 9: Make Cookie Houses Day 10: Go get a treat with Daddy (McDonald's)-moved that one till Tuesday. check! Day 11:Be silly and dance to loud Christmas music-can't wait for the video. It will be fantastic. Since the Cuz is in town we got together for a great afternoon of soup, sugar, and great conversation. Hard to say who had a better time, the kids or the adults, but we decided that we are definately going to do it again. We also totally poached an idea from here and got our neighbors together for a great evening of cider, sugar, and great conversation. Hard to say who had a better time, the kids or the adults, but we decided that we are definately going to do that one again too. (we might even reuse Jessica's invitatio...

"Event" Calendar Report: Day 5-Donate Food to food Bank. Abbie opened up the event and looked at me and said, A: That's not really that fun, ya know. me: Course, starving's no fun either A:What? I took a moment and explained to her that not everyone has a full pantry to go to for food anytime they want. We talked about how the food banks work and how at the place where I work out they have the special bins for the food bank. She then got excited and started filling bags with food. She even went into the basement food storage and filled another bag. Amelia was trying to lug the bags around but couldn't. I loaded the girls into the car and off we went talking about how Christmas is a great time to look for how we can give to others when we have been so blessed. There was lots of warm fuzzy feelings and I recognized those and mentioned to her why she was feeling so good and happy. Great parenting moment. We walked into my gym and I helped her put the bags of food in ...

Since Brad and I got married in January we had quite a few after-Christmas sale type presents. Therefore, I have quite a Christmas collection (13 boxes worth, thankyouverymuch). I mostly have it all up and Brad thought he would take some pictures (which actually look sort of wickedy wack, it looks much better in person). Real tree with VERY fake ornaments the girls chose and decorated themselves. We will not be winning the neighborhood lighting contest but its quality not quantity ... Fake tree with real ornaments with train. Santa stops here. Really cool vintage Christmas tree WAY out of the reach of Mia Mia New Christmas tradition. We have the chocolate book. We have the Santa Advent calendar (which Brad has always called the "Event Calendar"). Last year we got another advent, count-downy type thing and Abbie and I decided to make it an "event calendar". Here's what we have done so far:1. Buy real Christmas tree (whole other posty), 2: Make Christmas ornam...

This past week Amelia has: Gone through a whole box of Q-Tips, (licking them all both ends after dipping them in choc-ey milk), Gone through a roll of toilet paper square by square making a wet mound in Max's bath while I was getting him ready for bed, Squeezed toothpaste on the rug in her bathroom then licked the floor, eat sequins during craft time with Abbie...I could go on and on. On Friday I spent the whole day cleaning it from top to bottom because that's how I roll on Friday. Then we got a package from UPS (don't you worry bout a thang...) (What word is Mommy probably saying?!) Abbie was pretty ticked when we made her clean it up too.

So I think Abbie is a pretty good little artist. She had the opportunity to showcase her talents at her elementary school Reflections contest "I can make a difference by..." It was a little tricky getting her to sit down and focus long enough on the question and make it match with her drawing. Some of the drawings went like this: "I can make a difference by...(insert picture with happy flowers and clouds)... I would then ask her to clarify how that drawing matched with what she wanted to do to make a difference. Brad said I was being way to bossy and I made her start over a couple of times because it wasn't "quite right...". Well la-di-dah. Momma definately knew best because she did get a nice little honorable mention. She was recognized and got a nice little ribbon. Brad made her promise not to do her "wierd kindergarten smile" for the pictures and Grandma was there as a surprise. I was so proud of her and am looking forward to making her win nex...

Abbie- I didn't see you very much this week because you were busy playing with your cousins. You loved playing with Tino Bambino, Pay Pay, Dee-Dee, and ARRRRj. We really wish they all lived closer and sometimes feel like you get gypped with no cousins nearby. Woof Mia Mia- You also loved hanging out with your cousins, especially Uncle Bob. You have been a little sad since they left and wander from room to room looking for them. You are however, still my biggest dirty bird. As I was loading my food in the car on Thursday(many trips with the pies, sauces, potatoes, and such plus Max, clothes to change into--your Dad could NOT be bothered to come up and help me....ahEM) you decided to keep yourself busy with the Costco size vaseline jar Abbie left out in your room. You schmeared it all over your hair, face, sheets, dirty clothes hamper, and clothes. I wanted to scream. Her hair is NOT wet, its just vasegreasy Note to readers...the only way to properly remove vaseline from hair is NO...

This year for Thanksgiving we did something that has never been done before....waited until the Sunday before to plan the menu. Heidi, Anne, Momala, and I got together and made our assignments. Our menu was as follows: Rob-Turkey; Heather-Turkey, Apple pies, pecan pies, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping; Heidi-Turkey, creamed corn, sweet potato souffle; Anne-(she had been upgraded from whipping cream and filling the glasses with water)Mashed potatoes, spinach salad lemon blossoms, chocolate; Rachel-mac and cheese, veggie tray; mom-pumpkin pies, rolls, fruit salad, banana cream pie. Both Rob and my turkey required brining the night before (his in maple syrup, mine in White Jesus Juice. We don't have one of those fancy schmancy brining bags so Kirtland delights worked just perfect for us. The bags did not, however, hold up to the wing prick. No biggie. That's what the holiday storage boxes are for... While the men negotiated the turkeys I worked on pie ...