Happy Valentine's Day from the Zs!!

Daddy Wears Pink Panties

I must show you the main reasons why, in 6 years, I have never ever included a photo in a Christmas card...


Exhibit A:

Reason 8,954,231:

Don't tell Zephina, but I don't blame her for not wanted to be in a picture with whatever THAT thing is...

Thanksgiving. On a Tuesday. In June.

I am feeling kinda guilty right now.

I am not doing a Thanksgiving lunch with the daycare kids this year. We're learning about the Pilgrims tomorrow, since we're out of Native American and turkey pictures to color. We've made our own apple sauce, and debated whether pumpkin pie or sweet potato pie is better. (No one won the debate. We've agreed to disagree.) Yet we aren't having turkey and stuffing and yams and cranberry and green beans, or any other Thanksgiving fare on our last school day before Thanksgiving break.

I would feel a little more guilt about this, except I just looked at the menus for the next two weeks and discovered we're having "Thanksgiving" in two weeks for lunch. Because we can. And I remembered that this ended up in the menu rotation in August.

I was providing care for lady who used to do what I do, and when I showed her my menu to gather info on her picky eater she saw "turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, milk" listed for lunch on one of the days. And she accused me of being dedicated and awesome for cooking all of that for the kids.

So I confessed. It's not REALLY as amazing of a meal as it sounds. While it IS a crowd pleaser, it takes no more time than browning up some ground turkey.

What it really should read is:

Ground turkey mixed into a box of Stove Top, a can of sweet potatoes nuked in the microwave and sprinkled with cinnamon and brown sugar, and a can of cranberry sauce plunked into a bowl.

There is never any leftovers, and while I should feel guilty about the easy prep food, I don't.

I wash 14 plates, bowls, cups, forks, and spoons every day.

Basting turkey is up there on my to do list with having bamboo shoots jabbed under my fingernails.

Hallowieners

A vampire, a tap dancer (or magician, she couldn't make up her mind what she was), a bride (or a Jodi if you ask HER), and the cutest dinosaur I've ever seen!!

Happy Halloween dudes!!

Day 26: Highlights

This month...

Is it sad that I'm checking Facebook to see what exciting things happened this month?

I was officially inducted into the Soccer Mom club. I had to bring snacks for after the game for the first time. I went with S'mores popcorn. (Popcorn, chocolate chips, mini mallows, and Golden Grahams.)

I stole a picture off of Facebook from my cousin. She's an amazing artist. I hate her. (Not because of her talent, but because she's prettier than I am.)

I changed the name of my daycare/preschool. 

I finally got the packet I needed in order to get my CDA, and promptly decided it was too much work to actually do. I gave up. Then I decided to act like a real, live grown up and actually do the work.

Zeph got glasses.

I almost fell off our 3rd floor balcony trying to hang Halloween lights. (This may or may not be a slight exaggeration.)

We went to the pumpkin patch.

And I will be closing out the month by running the Red Ribbon 5k. Which is fitting, since my mother was the Just Say No coordinator when I was young.

Poppies

     ~In Flander's Field~

In Flanders fields the poppies blow


Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky


The larks, still bravely singing, fly


Scarce heard amid the guns below.



We are the Dead. Short days ago


We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved, and were loved, and now we lie


In Flanders fields.



Take up our quarrel with the foe:


To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.


If ye break faith with us who die


We shall not sleep, though poppies grow


In Flanders fields.

~ Major John McCrae - 1915

As the daughter, granddaughter, great granddaughter, niece, friend, and wife of amazingly brave and selfless members of the armed forces, every day is memorial day for me. We are currently waiting for countless friends and colleagues to return from war, have recently welcomed home countless more, and know that saying goodbye to someone else may come as soon as tomorrow. 

This is what we do. And I know that I will never forget the sacrifices that have been made, and that are being made as I type this. And I hope that you won't either. 

Gutes Neues Jahr!!

I am a huge fan of New Year's Eve. Previous years have found me celebrating in various ways, some years loudly with family, other years loudly with friends, and sometimes quietly with friends. Some years we drink glüwein, some years I lose my shoes at the homes of people I don't know, and other years we've played a few cut throat games of dominoes. And I can't forget about the year that we welcomed midnight on the side of the road with a flat tire. And these are just the New Year's celebrations since I"ve been married! The only constant over the last 6 celebrations is that I haven't seen the ball drop in Time Square live. Which, is weird for me, seeing as how for the first 21 years of my life I lived in a state in the Eastern time zone. It always seemed funny to me that other people, in different places in the country were watching the event with "previously recorded" on the bottom of the screen. Our first married New Year's, was the year of the flat tire. Then we moved to Colorado, and I was one of the weird people with "previously recorded" on my tv screen. Now, however, we will usher in 2010 a full 6 hours before anyone in the US, and at this point there is no "recorded using a time machine" feature, so we miss out yet again. I hope you all have a safe and happy New Year's Eve/Day, and if you are partying, have a drink for me. I'm sitting at home all night, and could possibly be asleep when 2010 gets here. Also, learn from my mistake, and if you party, try not to lose your shoes!

No Explanation

I have no Christmas spirit.

None.

I seriously think I could sleep from right now till Sunday and I wouldn't care.

Don't get me wrong. I love watching my children love the daylights out of this season. We've baked. We'll read the Christmas story from the bible before bed tomorrow. We'll put out the cookies for Santa. (Or cake balls. Or both.) They wrote their letters, picked out their gifts for each other, and Mommy and Daddy. We've discussed numerous times why Santa only brings 3 gifts per child. (Reason: Because if Jesus only got 3 presents, there's no need for Santa to leave us more than that, since it's a celebration of the birth of JESUS, not of us.) I've explained what frankincense and myrrh are 900 million times.

Presents have been wrapped. Christmas lasagna is in the freezer, ready to be put in the oven. And I feel like I'm just going through the motions. Each year, for 7 years now, our Christmases have been marred by one or two truly suck-tacular events. I don't know if this year my holiday joy boycotted because it knew something was going to happen to yank it away, or if this year no holiday joy IS the suck-tacular event.

Don't get me wrong. I will enjoy the next four days with my family. There will be pictures to take, and some to color. Games to play, skates to learn how to use, and candy to gorge on. It won't be a Norman Rockwell painting, but it will be full of memories painted by the inherent joy, curiosity, and innocence of a 5 year old, and her 4 year old sister. We'll make cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve. We'll stalk the fat guy in the red suit thanks to NORAD. Sunday, Paulo and I will "celebrate" being married for 6 years. And Monday, life will be as mundane as ever, and I won't have to worry about this missing Christmas spirit thing.

Can we just skip to Monday?

Also, this is the first time in my life I've ever wished it were a Monday. This might be a bigger problem than I thought!

Wordless Wednesday ~ Punkins!

For more WW check out 5 Minutes for Mom and Wordless Wednesday!

14 February Again...

I had an anniversary....

A week ago, the Hubs and I celebrated 5 years of marriage. We love each other to death. But mostly the death part. (Just kidding...I think...) Here is what we looked like on our wedding day... And last April we looked like this... Aren't we cute? Okay, not really. But he's pretty cute. I'll keep him for at least five more years. (Can I make a comment on the girl in the white dress? Why didn't anyone make her eat a cheeseburger?! That is not okay...the dress is a size 2 1/2. I never want to fit in it ever again...)

Decorations

Since we are moving soon, we decided not to pick out a new artificial tree, that we will just have to lug over seas, and then lug back. We probably will not have that much storage space. So, I did little decorating this year. The new "theme" for my holiday decorations is a Victorian Christmas. And it makes me want to dress up in period clothing to celebrate. Here's what started it. Santa's head. He is gorgeous. So that lead to me discovering (with Holly's help, she saw Mr Clause here first...) the entire line of Victorian ornaments. In my garland there is a bird, an angel, a sled, and Santa. As well as the pretty "berries" and coordinating green poinsettias. I just love it, and can't wait until next year to make a wreath to go with my garland!

There's Nothing To It!

I have on my hands, a little poser. I tried to get a good picture of her on Friday while she was dressed in her finest Renaissance costume. I guess I am going to have to settle for her Madonna impression for a while. I hope it's just a phase...

Come on, vogue...

Let your body move to the music...

Hey, Hey, Hey...

Come on, vogue...

She drove me crazy all evening. And had this next shot come when it did, I would have hung her up by her toes to the fence in the back yard. And left her there, as pug food.