It's hard to blog when everyone is home!

Kids home from school, husband home from work...that all equals 'too much stuff happening around me'. We had a nice Christmas, but I don't think I got to spend more than 5 minutes with my mom. Seriously. I was really sad when she left. Plus, the few days around Christmas are always really tough with Ethan...too much excitement, stuff going on, new stuff, whatever...just puts him in an awful mood which makes it hard on everyone.

Steven decided to start on putting in "wood"-not real wood, but the fake whatever they call it wood-floors. We have always planned on painting, also, so I thought we should paint before the new floor, so he's doing that right now. It only took us 5 tries to get the right color green. We wanted a Sage Green, but everything is either minty or too dark. He first painted the whole downstairs hallway, and it was so light that you could only tell the difference between the new green and the old white if you knew to look for it! So we picked 2 more colors and got a quart of each. One was so dark the house would have looked like a cave, and the other was totally mustard yellow! Mind you, we were putting a lot of thought into this...not just throwing a dart at random colors. So back to Lowe's for 2 more quarts of different colored greens. Finally, one of them worked ok, and we weren't going to mess with it anymore! Why can't they make those samples more true to life???

So far, he's gotten the downstairs hallway and the kitchen. Oh...and I bought curtains for the kitchen and got them up right before Christmas, and Molly has been climbing on them and now they are full of holes. (She climbs the curtains when she's not trying to climb up the chimney. She is so dirty! And we have to pin the gate closed in the middle to keep her out!) I have big plans on curtains for the family room, but...I'm rethinking those. Oh well, we've already gone a year and a half without curtains....

Also...I'm going to redo my office and make it a real craft room/studio/Mommy's Work! I can't wait to get started on that! I was going to do it this past week, also, but now I think I'll just wait until Ethan and Allison are back in school. It also involves the new flooring and paint (but not green) and new shelving so I'll have somewhere to put my stuff other than the floor. And as soon as I can find my camera, I will take a before picture-because you wouldn't believe me if I told you how bad it is anyway. lol! Well, maybe my mom would, because I grew up in her house...and she tried to walk in there last week. "Tried" being the operative word here.

Just in case anyone was wondering if the girls were actually my children or not (there's never really been a question about Claire, but Allison does lean more toward Steven's side), Allison is heading full-speed into Teenagedom, and is now growing cultures and various other things in her room in the bowls and glasses she leaves in there, hidden for weeks at a time. You know, just like mom taught me to do when I was a kid. And Claire has been announcing, "We need a maid!". LOL! I totally agree!

It's hard to clean house when everyone is home, too!

That's about it for our holidays so far...everyone fairly healthy and no one hurt and no ER trips. Well, unless you count my vaccuuming accident yesterday. That's what I get for trying to be domestic. It didn't require a trip to the ER, but, I did cry, so you know it hurt! It was worse than childbirth AND breaking that bone in my foot put together!

Wishing everyone a happy, safe and healthy 2007!

Happy Holidays to all!

Let's just keep this our little secret...

...and not tell Santa until AFTER Christmas!

Your Wrath Quotient: 65%

Everyone around you pretty much fears your wrath... which is probably what you want. But just remember, there's a very thin line between fear and hate!

How Much Wrath Do You Have?

Why does this keep repeating in my head?

So you know the song, "Here Comes Santa Clause"? Well, for about the last week, it's playing over and over and over in my head.
But, when it gets to the part about:

Bells are ringing
Children singing
All is merry and bright
So hang your stockings and say your prayers
Cause Santa comes tonight

Instead of "Hang your stockings and say your prayers", I keep singing "So drink your coffee and say your prayers". Why? I guess because I'm looking at it as a mother, rather than a child. But, shouldn't I substitute something a little stronger? Like the Jack and Coke I could always have at my mom and dad's Christmas Eve parties? Crown Royal? Tequila? Margaritas? Hmmm...margaritas sounds good there...

"So drink your margaritas and say your prayers..."

That settles it. Margaritas all around!





The Real Lyrics for "Here Comes Santa Claus"

Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus,
Right down Santa Claus lane
Vixen and Blitzen and all his reindeer
Pullin' on the reins
Bells are ringin', children singin'
All is merry and bright
Hang your stockings and say your prayers
'Cause Santa Claus comes tonight!
Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus,
Right down Santa Claus lane
He's got a bag that's filled with toys
For boys and girls again
Hear those sleigh bells jingle jangle,
Oh what a beautiful sight
So jump in bed and cover your head
'Cause Santa Claus comes tonight!
Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus,
Right down Santa Claus lane
He doesn't care if you're rich or poor
He loves you just the same
Santa Claus knows we're all Gods children
That makes everything right
So fill your hearts with Christmas cheer
'Cause Santa Claus comes tonight!
Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus,
Right down Santa Claus lane
He'll come around when the chimes ring out
That it's Christmas morn again
Peace on earth will come to all
It we just follow the light
So lets give thanks to the lord above
That Santa Claus comes tonight!

So I spent the WHOLE morning...

...setting up an Etsy shop! Just click on the Etsy button on the right sidebar. The name of the shop is 'munkeepod' (well, duh, since that's the name of the business and all) and hopefully I can get the website going soon and consolidate these 2 blogs and have lots more stuff over there.

Maybe I just don't know what I'm doing, but, it isn't as easy as it sounds. I managed to get 3 things listed...just totebags. I'll work on some other stuff later. I have to take pictures of everything and write up descriptions and all that, and that takes a lot of time. I should delegate those kinds of things to my assistant, but...last week when I asked her to do something for me, she said, "Hey, you could be your own assistant!", and went about her business. I haven't gotten a formal resignation, but I don't think she's working for me anymore! lol!

OMG! It's "snowing"!!!

It is so cold here that right this very second it is sleeting outside! Ethan and Claire think it's snowing, so they are running around yelling, "It's snowing! It's snowing!"

Allison is having a "social" after school-they can't call them "dances" anymore, and they can't have them at night. **Just inserting my opinion here: I think that really sucks! Even though they were Middle School Nightmares to me, they are like a Rite of Passage. It is really sad how one or two people, literally, can ruin something for everyone. OK-off soapbox now.** Anyway, it's like driving through the mountains to get to Allison's school. You are either going straight up or straight down. She may just have to spend the night there! lol!

Our Evening in Gruene, TX

Saturday evening, Dec. 2, was when the City of Gruene had their town Christmas Lighting. I have to admit the lights were not quite as spectacular as I thought they would be, but, the shopping was 100% better!!!

They were also having their "Market Days", which are normally the 3rd weekend of the month, but we didn't have time to even look around at all of that. But...the very first shop we went into had these marvelous ceramic sculptures by Sandy Coulter of 'Full of Spirit Creations'. They were all so beautiful! And the red one was screaming out to me, "I am yours! I was made for you!". It was one of the bigger sculptures, and I just couldn't buy it right now with Christmas coming up. I'm just praying it will still be there in January. I was able to afford one of her smaller sculptures...and it was even my second favorite, so I didn't feel like I was settling. The picture doesn't do it justice, but here it is anyway.



By the time we got out of that shop, I had about 2 minutes to zoom through an antique shop-real, live, 100+ year old antiques-with some very cool and beautiful things!

By then, we had to run on down to town center to see the lighting. Then we had to wait for Cowboy Kringle to get there. A local Santa, I suppose, riding on a horse. The kids (Ethan and Claire) thought he was great. He finally hitched up his horse, made his proclimation, did the countdown and voila! The Christmas lights all came on! Got this shot of Claire on Steven's shoulders.


Then, everybody in town made a beeline for The Grist Mill restaurant! That place is great! Of course, the perfect weather didn't hurt...but there is a HUGE park size waiting area outside, that is lighted and fenced, so if you are keeping an eye on your kids at all, you can't lose them. We had to wait an hour but it was no problem. Ethan, as usual, made friends with two other boys and ran around the whole time, and Allison and Claire just kept themselves entertained with different things.

And the food! It was all so good, and the Chocolate Sundaes the kids got for dessert were, I think, actually Chocolate Sunday, Monday and Tuesdays! Huge freakin' big! I think they only ate about a third of them.


From there we walked around town a little bit. We went into the General Store, but it wasn't anything real special. However, across the street is an "antique" store...but mostly a "vintage store". Anyway, they had some wonderful things! And I only got through about 1/8 of it before they kicked us out so they could close! lol! I did buy 3 things, though...one was this vintage Vera Christmas tablecloth.



Another was this vintage Christmas apron. They had several, but I love this one. Now I'm going to have to come up with a Christmas outfit to match it!


And this is my favorite thing of all! These little nesting owls! I thought there would be 3 in there, but they just kept on going and going...the tiniest one is sooo cute!



I'll leave you with this picture of the whole family that this nice drunk lady took. She was nice enough, but, she wouldn't wait for anyone to get settled, and we were all on the far right edge with part of Ethan's face chopped off, and some other girl in a very plump pink coat like I had in 1972 was the whole rest of the picture! Thank goodness for editing! lol!

The 'D-List'?!?

Give me a break! I know these stories are more interesting that that! lol! But hey...still better than my math grades in elementary, middle, high school AND college!

We're off to Gruene (Green), TX today, for some Christmasy celebrationy type stuff...including SHOPPING from INDIE artists and craftsters! Also in search of the elusively defining question..."Just what is "vintage" anyway?"

If anyone here knows, please let me know. The answer seems to be defined generationally.