what i did today

Tonight we’re lounging around the house. It’s finally the end of our busy week. Friday went as planned with the dinner at Scott’s coworker. The boys were as silly as ever. There may or may not have been a shotgun that got fired at one point for no good reason except to scare someone.  But we were out in the boondocks.  Like WAY OUT IN THE BOONDOCKS.  So far OUT IN THE BOONDOCKS that they had no access to cable.  They still used dial-up.  Such bad living conditions.  It’s so sad.  JK.  Their house is actually really nice.  They just have to use dial-up.   Still a sad state of affairs.

Saturday we slept in and then spent the rest of the morning shopping for Christmas. We were able to get all but one present. Yesterday evening we went out to dinner with Mom, Dad and Heather.  I then spent a good hour or so at CVS.  I got a call from MIL that one of our CVS’s in town was going to allow us to do this week’s deals a night early.  They had a huge sale with 17 items for free or better.  I had to do I think 5 transactions and got over $200 worth of stuff for $1.76 out of pocket and earned $11 ECBs.

Today I was so tired from staying up last night so I took a nap as soon as I got home.  I got up (ok, was forced out of bed) in time to wrap all our presents and straighten up the house for our guests this evening.

We had Scott’s entire family over for our Christmas dinner. Scott’s grandmother’s husband is sick with pneumonia so we moved it here last minute. It turned out really nice actually.  One funny story from that is Scott decided to make the brownies for me while I wrapped presents.  Except to find a cake when he pulled it out of the oven. Yes, Scott had made a Devil’s Food Cake instead of brownies.  So I whipped up some of Mom’s chocolate icing, poured it on and called it done.  It ended up being really good.

Scott’s dad is going in for a catheter tomorrow morning so I’m guessing we’ll be visiting with him tomorrow. Besides that, this week should be relatively quiet up until Christmas day.  Scott is working Mon and Tues and I’m working through Wednesday.

After Wednesday afternoon, it might get a little crazy again.  Wednesday night we’re going to do Christmas at Mom’s.  Not really sure what’s going down Thursday exactly but I’m sure it will involved a lot of driving around town and having people over.  Friday morning we’ll be headed out to Maryland until Tuesday. I’m so excited!

Let me walk in the house from being gone for two hours and be doing this in the bathroom:

Or this:

Or making the food pantry go from this:

to this:

All without me asking.

Yes.  Very happy.

Today Emma had her Christmas party. The parents were invited 9-11 but from the schedule she had posted it looked like they were having stuff going on all day. When I was there, we rotated to four different craft sections and then were with them for snack and recess. Emma loved me there. She wanted me close although she did great at participating in the activity as well. And to be honest, I let her curl in my lap as often as possible. Her and I don’t get a lot of alone time with no other distractions. Her and her friend were almost oblivious to me at recess though. It was a nice morning with her and I was able to get some great pictures to remember her Kindergarten year.

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Lexi did so well at her Christmas program this morning. She sang all the words and did all the movements. It was so sweet! We were so far back though I didn’t get very good video. I was able to sneak up to the front on the last song We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Lexi is in a white shirt near the woman’s hand.

And by the way, all the other kids are in red and green shirts but since I’m such a procrastinator I didn’t read that until after she was dressed this morning and then Lexi was too stubborn to change and really, I thought white would be just fine with red and green especially since the 4 year old class was in white. She’d just look like a badly placed four year old. And really, I was willing to deal with that a lot more than I was with Lexi at 7am. And that’s that story.

OK, not really but tonight we met with our good friends Joni and Wayne and Dani and David at J&W’s new house.  It’s GORGEOUS!  We had a great time eating, talking and opening presents.  Dani and realized we hadn’t seen each other since the New York Hot Blogger trip!  Not too many details except to say next year, we’ll have more kids than adults and very glad to say they all played GREAT together tonight.  We actually all sat down together at the same table to eat!

More pictures on my facebook page!

This month is going WAY too fast!  We’re right in the middle of a really busy week.

• Sunday evening was our final Christmas choir special.
• Monday we did get the night off but Scott had a meeting at church.
• Tuesday I met Melissa out for coffee
• Wednesday I had my work party and the assisted living visit
• Tonight we’re visiting at Joni and Wayne’s with Dani and David and our SIX children (and one on the way)
• Tomorrow night is Scott’s shift party
• Saturday will definitely be a shopping day.  We have several more gifts to buy.’
• Sunday evening is Scott’s family Christmas gathering

And then…it’s Christmas week!  I can’t believe it’s only one week away!  And then….we leave  Friday for Maryland and will be gone until the next Tuesday.  I’m telling you, December is whizzing by!

I opened Emma’s folder today to find a yearbook order form.  Her first yearbook.  Kindergarten year.  It made me feel REALLY old.  And of course I thought of all my yearbooks sitting in a stack in my hall closet floor.  Sometimes I think what’s the point.  The only time I use it is to look up someone that I should remember on Facebook but don’t or to get a good laugh from some of the inscriptions.  But without all her yearbooks, Emma won’t be able to do a fun little Photoshop project like this in 25 years.  (Of course I can’t find 1st or 4th grade yearbooks) I feel like I should apologize in advance for all the permed hair and awful bangs.

And shoulder pads.

And collared shirts.

And crooked teeth.

And cheesy Senior year dedication.

And Kindergarten spelled wrong.

And Sophomore.

OMG, these prove I really did go to school.

Yowzas.

And by the way, does the long straight brown hair remind you of anyone??

Wow, today was busy.  It went a little (ok, a lot) like this:

• Get the kids and I ready for the day
• Pick up Scott’s cousin for choir practice
• Choir Practice
• Lunch at/after choir practice
• Stop at CVS to get coupons
• Run Scott’s cousin home from choir practice
• Take the kids home and say hey and bye to Scott
• Go to the other CVS to get some really good deals
• Go buy Darian’s birthday present
• Clean the playroom
• Vacuum the house
• Clean out our hall closet including putting together 5 bags of CVS stuff to giveaway to a cause for the homeless (I had over FIFTY boxes of toothpaste)
• Clean out a corner in the kids’ room where a ton of stuff had been stuffed
• Do the dishes
• Recycle laundry
• Wrap cousin in law’s baby’s birthday present for tomorrow
• Wrap Darian’s birthday present
• Go to Darian’s birthday party
• Go to Target to pick up clothes for the girls that they need for the choir special in the morning that I didn’t realize they needed until about 7pm
• Get a snack for the kids and put them to bed
• Catch up on computer time and write

So once again, this has been another full day that has left my eyes sore and my body tired.  But I don’t think I’d have it any other way.  Feels good to be productive.