Turkey is done, on with Christmas...

Ever notice how poor ol Tom the Turkey gets ignored? I mean really stores go from Halloween to Christmas! Jackson asked me this year "why don't they do anything for Thanksgiving?" I told him.. "babe, people just go NUTS over Christmas".

I love Christmas. I love the music, the decorations, the Christmas smelling candles, the trees, the gifts, the kids excitement and the joy we see on their faces. I love the services at our church around Christmas, the Advent Wreath lighting, the stories of Christmas and its true meaning. I love the sharing of stories, the cards from old and new friends, the calls we make because we are thinking of someone at this time. The memories triggered, the memories made, and those yet to be made. The time with family, the fellowship and the love.

See? I love it all. I love every aspect of Christmas EXCEPT the one that should matter the least but seems to have taken over as the most... shopping. I don't enjoy shopping ANY time really, but I truly don't enjoy it during the Holidays. The crowds of people, the grumpy people who have about as much Holiday spirit as the Grinch, and the greed. I love getting things for my family and friends because they MEAN something to each person, not because they were on clearance. Do you get what I am saying? Its all about the meaning of the gift, not the price tag, the deal you got or just simply having something under the tree.

I guess this is kinda eating at me after the tragedy at Walmart on Black Friday. I mean a man, a YOUNG man, lost his life for merely standing in the walmart ready to open the store for the biggest shopping day of the year. I wonder if he was excited about "craziness" and being there. I wonder if he was the type of man that maybe LOVED Christmas and thought this was a cool temporary job assignment. I wonder.. I wonder.. I wonder...

What on earth Walmart had at SUCH a good price that these greedy stupid people trampled a man over. Not so much as a care in the world that the man was down.. they just kept on shopping. It really sickens me to think about what that mans last thoughts may have been. Our minister talked about this in church this morning and really got me feeling sick to stomach. I mean after all to me Christmas is the season of joy and celebration of Jesus' birth. I guess it all just hit me just how bad our society has become with greed and selfishness.

Wow this kinda turned in to a bad post. But honestly my point is, that in another week Hubby and I are taking a day off and doing our shopping for our wonderful boys and family members. I am EXCITED to do this because I love each and everyone of them and want to see that joy on their face. I also know that with each store that I step into, no matter the crowd, no matter the bad day the cashier may be having, I'm going to smile and be appreciative for the life that I have, the family that I have and the friends that I have.

Today I watched my 10 year old, Jackson, who doesn't like to speak in front of people and has ALWAYS refused to do school plays with lines for this reason, volunteer and stand up in front of a Sanctuary full of people and read scripture. The 4th and 5th graders were lighting the first candle of Advent this morning. It was short, sweet, and I was never SO proud of him. I sat there juggling Nathan around to keep him quiet for a few minutes and he stood up there beside the Christmas tree and the candles and I just thought to myself "now THIS is the Christmas spirit right here". Its not wrapped in a box with a bow, but its wrapped up in our hearts.

And I am so thankful for for my true meaning of Christmas. Which, in the end, outshines all the greed and selfishness in world.

French Kissing Life.

I love that song, its by Kenny Chesney. One of the lines in this song..

Don't really know what day it is
been rocking nine days in a row
All I know is its hurricane season
And any minute she's gonna blow.

Its kinda how the last month has felt. We've had a run of Birthdays, Family visiting, sickness that seems to last and last. I am finally feeling better, as are the boys and Hubby man is working his way back to health. It just kinda feels like I've been running on empty and moving in this fog of life. So today I feel better and I'm going to try to start taking each little thing ahead of us minute by minute.

French kissing life. Take it nice and slow and just as I can.

We have 2 days of school this week and then Jackson is out for Thanksgiving. We aren't traveling for the Holiday nor are we hosting any guests. So its just the 4 of us for Thanksgiving. Nobody is really in to the idea of me cooking (should I be insulted?) but we did have a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner back in October when my folks were here for Jackson's birthday. So we are honestly thinking, we'll hit the road around town and see what is open. So informal but you know what? We go and do so much I think we'd all be thankful for a good meal that nobody has to cook or clean up from. I know I would!


Then we face Christmas rush. I've not started shopping at this point, because well why bother when I don't know what the kids want. Well I could find lots for Nater-bug but Jackson is at a hard age. I was ALL stressed out about it but Hubby man has 2 weeks off before Christmas so we're going to take a shopping day and just get 'er done! So see, more stress that should be off my shoulders... taking it nice and slow.

Kinda hard to believe honestly that 2008 is wrapping up. Its been a fun year with Nathan coming in to his own little personality, Jackson approaching those pre-teen years and obviously already reeking the pre-teen attitude, and Bryan's job having ups and downs and me just getting on through like a champ with only a few breakdowns. lol

So I guess we're all kinda "French Kissing Life" - square on the mouth, and sailing on through our days of craziness, fun, family, and love.

Whats that coming out of your nose?

OK so Nathan is sick. Full blown, high fever, nasty funk coming out of his nose, coughing until he gags and pukes. It's fun times like these I love being a mom.

OK that was a stretch.

I hate when my kids are sick. Yes, KIDS, Jackson has just started with the stuffy nose.

Funny thing about toddlers when they are stuffy, they still can make you laugh to keep from crying.

For example..

Nathan is pretty good with a "tish eww" - and will get one if he sees the box, and wipe his nose, all the way across his face. Hello dried snot face.

Nathan will, if no tissue is in sight, come over to mom and use her perfectly good and soft sleeve, and say "ewww mommy. Bogish"

Nathan will cough until his eyes are watering and he gags and makes this lovely throwing up noise, and report "mommy das nastee"

I don't know why mom gets sick.

Jackson being sick is a little different. At the ripe old age of 10, he can blow his nose, but doesn't like to. He mostly likes to talk about how terrible he feels and there is no way he can go to school the next day. You see, if you don't blow your nose it stays plugged up and he sounds worse. Smart kid!

Jackson doesn't get to cover his nose/mouth when he feels a sneeze coming on, and this was evident in our recent photo session where he sneezed and it lingered and stretched from nose to shirt. PUKE!

I don't know why mom gets sick.

I have sprayed the house with Lysol, every room, doorknob, EVERYTHING. I have taken Nate to the Doctor and he's on an antibiotic, Jackson is probably soon to follow.

I woke up sick.

SO me and the boys are sick. Gotta love it (at least I don't use my sleeve or let it all spray when I sneeze and cough) ... good times.

Bryan is thinking the guest room is a fabulous room to sleep in.

Ok my story and Im sticking to it.

Wow its been a busy few days.

Back when we were a 1 kid family we used to have a little more dough, cash, money!! Now, with diapers back in the game, inflation, and silly spending, we've tightened up the belt again. We do this often. lol Just never seems tight enough.

Where is this going? Not a post about financial woes, or the crappy economy or politics.. I promise that.

We used to save up and pay people to do things for us. Bryan and I aren't really all that in to projects. Now don't get me wrong, we love having projects done.. but HAVING them done and DOING them are two VERY different things. Now that we're watching our Ps and Qs we're taking on some projects by ourselves.

3 years ago, when we got the astounding news that little Nathan was brewing, we immediately said FENCE. I could just not see myself waddling around with both of our dogs on leashes pulling me around the back yard to do their business when I was all fat and puffy. We also had visions of our newest addition toddling right down to the lake behind our house and going swimming... and sinking. So you can see where the fence was a must.

We priced them out and got what we could afford, a nice little 4 foot picket fence. The old man, gosh I can't even remember his name now, was a good old Georgia boy who was honest and nice and won our bid. We settled on a price, what we wanted and then we were off to Virginia on a little vacation to see family and friends. While in Va., Bryan got a call on his cell from a neighbor saying how great our new fence looked. Yup it was up and done in like 2 days and we couldn't wait to see it. Its been a GREAT investment, a GREAT peace of mind and a GREAT look to the yard.

However, 3 years of Georgia hot summer sun, heavy tropical storm and hurricane rain and wind, has done a number on our little picket fence. It went from a nice looking fence to a grey weathering "thing". We've been talking about how it needed to be stained for over a year now. Finally Bryan HAD to take time off or he was going to loose the days with work so we just jumped in to the project with both feet.

Bryan had prepped the fence a few weeks back with a power washer so it was ready. We just up and went to Home Depot and picked out a color we liked and went with it. So, we have been having some serious couple time outside daily for the past 3 days staining the fence with paint brushes. After the first day we decided to go buy and try out the Wagner spray painter. Its GREAT but just didn't spread the stain thick enough or evenly enough so we went back to hand painting.

Picket fences aren't the easiest thing to paint.. lots of little sides, cracks, and corners. But we worked feverishly to get it done between my working from home, Nathan's naps or lack of naps, Jackson's school, and getting the house "company ready" for family coming in this week.

It's been exhausting, brutal and we have discovered aches and pains in joints and places we never knew we had. My hands end up stuck in this curved position from holding the brushes for hours on end. Bryan's knees just hardly work anymore and we both fight over a hot shower and a heating pad every night.

All of that said... we've done it ourselves. It really looks fabulous and new. We can look outside the windows now and see our hard work has paid off and didn't break the bank. Self satisfaction in our hard work, our learning experience, and the time we spent together outside, with just outside noise and a few sporadic interruptions.

Our little picket fence is all great again, serving its purpose in keeping Nathan and our pups in close range and safe. Our bodies are somewhat battered but its that "good" hurt. We did it, and I'm quite proud of us!

Disclaimer: we are not 100% finished but we are so SO close!

ADDED PHOTOS... in the first photo you can see the dull grey boards that Bryan is staining.

I am not gone...

and hopefully not forgotten. I have been a real slacker in writing, reading, responding, breathing here of late.

I'm currently working tonight but will update all when I get a chance to come up for air.. so stay tuned!

Halloween 2008

OK not my typical long drawn out post today because I'm kinda reeling from all the candy still. Thought I'd make a few observations about Halloween these days.

Back in my day (yes, I just said that) we would spend hours getting together costumes that we pieced together with whatever we had. My dad, the old man, had some CRAZY fabulous costumes.. he even dripped candle wax on his face once to make him scary - and yes it was scary and DAMN I wish I had a picture of that! Anyway - you get the idea. In the day the streets were crawling with kids that were just happy to be running house to house to get candy. In my day the highlight was coming home and getting changed and dumping out our pumpkins for mom to go through all the candy to make sure it was safe.. and then DIG IN. I used to divide mine out bubble gum all together, chocolate all together, see I was anal as a kid too.

Fast forward to many years.

Jackson is kinda on the cusp of being to old for trick or treating, but he loves candy. Last night he was bummed because he had to go around with dad. Not his friends, who had to go around with THEIR parents.. but somehow his night was worse. But he got candy and he's happy with that. Nate - of course, was just happy to be outside and had a great time saying "Peese Canny Peese" - that was his trick or treat. So my kids had fun. Daddy took them around while I hung out on the front porch happily greeting kids and giving out candy, generously at first and then slimming down as we started to run out.

So my observations are:

When did kids get to lazy to walk to each house, since when do they require hayrides and golf carts?

When did coming up to someone and standing there looking at a person waiting for free candy become socially acceptable... I started not giving any candy until I heard TRICK OR TREAT.

When did teenage girls that can drive themselves to the driveway across the street, get out of the car they just drove, fully dressed like hookers, come up to me talking on their cell phones and holding out a bag for candy. Rule 1 - if you can drive don't trick or treat. Rule 2 - if you can't hang up the damn phone long enough to say trick or treat, don't trick or treat. Rule 3 - have some dignity girls.

When did it become politically correct for darling infants in strollers sleeping dressed in cute character PJ's have their moms or dads come up with a bag overflowing with candy asking for more.. when you know the kid still on the bottle can't eat it.

On the flip side...

The toddlers were adorable. My heart melted over a little boy 2.5 years old dressed as Mickey Mouse. He was in a wagon, which I find acceptable when your legs are so small and give out after a house or two. It took him a while to get up the porch, and he so proudly said "tik teet Ms." as in trick or treat Christmas. lol It was adorable so I had to ask him what he liked. He picked some M&Ms and smiled and said "tink two" and I just wanted to squeeze him. He got 2 packs of M&Ms.

Some of the older kids were really cute, and done up very well and had good manners. One dude, about 5 years old walked up to me and said "well hello there how are you this evening" - caught me Totally off guard. It was adorable. He got extra candy too.

2 Princesses had to stop by a second time to go potty. Yes we knew them.

So overall it was a successful Halloween and I'm just glad it done and over. Not to be a Grinch about it, but its just not what it used to be.


So there ya have it, our great Halloween adventure.

Here are my trick or treaters for the year. Jackson was Indiana Jones and Nathan was Mr. Bones.