Friday, December 21, 2007

Do you see? Do you see??!?!?!

This is what happens when I am not bound to anything and there is no deadline.... my blogging gets totally slacky... is that a word? Slacky..... if truthiness and woot can make it into the dictionary, surely slacky can too.....

Random bullets because it is the holidays and I haven;t posted in awhile:

- Big huge annual meeting at work is over. It nearly kills me every year because it is so overwhelming to gather and analyze the numbers, it is terribly boring and monotonous, and this year the numbers sucked so it was hard to report those numbers. I knew going in what the numbers were going to look like, but I always hate being right. I had the power point presentation done and loaded with only 15 minutes to spare before our advisory committee showed up. My mother was on my patooter every hour or so with... are you going to make it? Are you going to get done? And as I told her before, I will never be done. I will never have a project or show or anything that is done with plenty of time to rest before hand. I just can't do it. It is not in my nature...why, pray tell is that?? Because there is always room for more and there is always room for improvement. Truth be told, I was complete with the numbers long before 15 minutes before presentation, but I was constantly re-evaluating the numbers, pursuing the story deeper, and coming up with more things to report. As I sit here now, there are still things I want to know from those numbers.

- So 48 hours after said big meeting, I hosted the office Christmas party at my house... uh huh.. you heard me..... I like to cram it all in with no time for things like, oh I don't know.... sleep. It was great though, the food rocked and the people all showed up with their jingle bells on.

- I have bought no Christmas presents yet. This would freak most people out... but no.. not me....UPDATE..... I saved this as a draft before lunch and went shopping at lunch, so I cannot say that I have bought no gifts... because lunch was a haul!! I am clearly not done quite yet, so tomorrow I will arising at the crack of dawn before Mike leaves for work, to go and do some last minute shopping.

- We are going to visit my grandparents this weekend. They were supposed to come here, but my grandfather fell after a trip out to eat. He was fine, but the issue arose that if he is so tired after a quick trip to a cafeteria, how is he going to do traveling 3 hours and staying someplace he is not accustomed to for an extended period of time. I am sad they are not coming, but I am more sad that this is another reminder that things just will never be the same.

- if you don;t have a digital frame... get one! They are the coolest things I have seen in a very long time. My cousins, sister and I are all going gin on one for my grandparents. My grandma has always had a problem with too many picture frames of all the grandkids and great grandkids. Now that they are in an assisted living apartment, space is even more of an issue. i am solving this by having the families forward me pics that I am including in the frame... lots of pics... one frame.....priceless... problem solved.

- So I made a tomato basil bruchetta type thingy for the office today. I stopped at the store for the bread and then decided, well, it could be served with tortilla chips too... so I head over to that aisle... and well if we are having tortilla chips, we HAVE to have queso..... and if we have all this salty crunchy stuff, we HAVE TO HAVE something sweet, so I pick up some Christmas cookies... next thing you know I have made a mini brunch for my office staff.....

- Speaking of office staff, my assistant has quit as of next Friday.... pissy pants pissy pants pissy pants...... I cannot say that I didn't know nor can I say that I begged her to stay, but it still is crappy. She never wanted the job in the first place so I have spent the majority of the past year yelling at her to rise to the occasion or get out and she chose to get out. I am pretty sure that I am going to have to take some time to fix the bumps in the road in her position before we ever consider hiring a new person here.

Merry Christmas People...... I say this because I have no clue if I am going to find time to come back here before the big day......

P.S..... I just bought the boys this jungle gym dome thingy from Sam's .... you know, one of those dome triangular climby things that you see at playgrounds.....it is gonna be a bitch for Mike to put together outside on Christmas eve.......in the dark... in the cold.....and all those hexagonal screws..... yeah...sucks to be santa-daddy on Christmas eve.....

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Happy Birthday, Ben!!

My angel, Boo Boo Bear,

Three years old..... my goodness... three years old. I am still in amazement that MY BABY BOY is three years old.

But I cannot call you my baby boy, anymore. You make sure to correct me by reminding me that "I a big boy now!" And you are. You breezed through potty training, you dress yourself, and you will always try to do something by yourself first before asking for help... "I do it, I do it" is the most common phrase in your very large repertoire.

In the past few weeks, you have run head strong into your big boy shoes. You know what you want, how you want it and when you want it. Your sentences and thoughts are clear, and there is no confusing your opinion with your brother's opinion... because most of the time, it is usually the complete opposite. You two can have a heated debate over the correct sound an ambulance makes and follow it up with a friendly game of "I spy with my little eye...".

Max, your big brother, is your very best friend. The two of you cannot be separated. Even when you are fighting, you still manage to hug and say I love you ... and I still believe it. The other day, it was just the two of us in the car and you were talking about a little boy in your class. I asked if that boy was your friend, and you said, "Yes, but he not my best friend..." and I asked, "Well, who is your best friend?"... "MAX!!!"

If Max is your best friend, then daddy is your best buddy. You two have a relationship unlike any other father son relationship I have seen. There are a lot of times when you and daddy have taken off to the man store (Home Depot) or just to run some errands, and somehow time escapes you both and several hours later you are walking in with toys and treats and I am never really sure if you accomplished your original task. You are daddy's shadow from the moment you see his car parked in our driveway at the end of the day.

You are my teddy bear. There is no place you would rather be at night then in my arms. There have been many times when I have woken up in the middle of the night, and you have made it into our bed and crawled into my arms to snuggle up to my neck. If you are not feeling well, the only place that can comfort you is my lap. We have a kissing game that we love to play. It starts by me asking you if you know where my kisses are? You respond by pointing to you lips enthusiastically. I say that I don't believe you, and you show me by planting a big fat wet juicy kiss on my lips. I exclaim, OH THERE IT IS!!! I then ask if you want the kiss back, which of course you do, so I plant a big kiss on your lips. The you tell me, no mommy, you keep the kiss and give it back. We can go back and forth for forever giving each other kisses..... and you always close your eyes when we kiss... always. There have been a few times that I keep my eyes open and you open you eyes with frustration... no mommy...close your eyes!!!

I have to thank you, pumpkin, for coming into my life when you did. You were born right after your grandpa had died, and it was a very sad time for your mommy. I was so sad that I was a little worried I couldn't be the happy mommy I wanted to be for you. But when you came into our life shinning like a star, I had no choice but to instantly fall in love with you. And I know that you and grandpa never had the chance to meet here on Earth, but there is so much of him in you, that I feel blessed to be loving him through you.

I love you, angel.... every bouncing ounce if energy and every sweet kiss!!

Love,

Mommy


Because it is MY blog

Because this is MY blog.... I present to you the boys' Christmas production that will bore all of you to tears, EXCEPT, of course, maybe Grandma, Oma, and Tiff..... and maybe you, Christina....

Max in "All Around the World is Christmas"



Ben in "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer"



There is potential trouble in my future now that I am figurng our this technology...

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Please send prayers

Please go visit these wonderful people:

(****UPDATE***** Please be prepared that the most recent post from Alex's mother is very difficult to read, I know some of you read this blog at work, and I do not want you to be caught off guard.)

Alex's blog

I have silently witnessed this family's journey from Alex's diagnosis of brain cancer through their blog. His very long and courageous journey ended today.

I became attached to this family because their son Alex and my son Max were the same age. My heart ached for this wonderful woman as she candidly shared their story on a weekly basis. I prayed for healing everyday as I clicked their blog on my blog roll to check up on his progress. When the news turned for the worse, my daily prayers were to surround this family with love and support. Now my prayers will be for strength and courage to face each day without Alex.

God bless Alex Kasnoff and God bless the Kasnoff family.

Monday, December 03, 2007

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....

There are 2 questions you ask yourself when you are looking at a new home:

1. Can I make it my own?

2. How will I decorate it for Christmas?

It is these 2 questions that have entered my mind each and every time I have ever walked into a new apartment, home, etc. In my world, there are 2 different faces for a home, the regular face and the holiday face. I would honestly keep the holiday face on year round, if it was socially acceptable, but it is not, so I have to wait until late November-ish, early December-ish to haul out all the lights, glitz and glam that I decorate my house with.

The past weekend started on Friday night with a light dinner of scrambled eggs. We did not want to waste precious time with a messy dinner and long clean up. We brought all the boxes down in order for me to do a quick sweep of "Oh, yeah, I remember I have that" and "Oh gosh, I completely forgot about that" and "Wait, I did buy that last year in clearance!" Then off to the Garden Ridge to get the additional things needed. Moving into a bigger house this year, meant we needed more stuff.... more banisters to wrap with garland, more windows to put lights in, you get the drift.

Saturday was planning day. It is the hardest day in the process. It requires me to open and TAKE OUT all the crap in the boxes and decide where it is all going to go. I would randomly walk through the house with stuff in my hands trying to decide themes, plug access, do I have enough garland for both the window AND the door opening.... ya know, important stuff. Everything was laid out and then reassessed for what additional things were still needed. We had to interrupt the process to go to a house warming, but at least it got me dressed and out of the house once.

Sunday, go day. Sunday we were in a race against the clock to do the outside decorations before the rain started (FYI - we lost the race, but the rain did not deter us, just made us wet.) By 4 PM we were headed back inside the house to work on the inside,and at 11 PM, I was so exhausted I wanted to throw up.

I am almost there. Just a few minor things that need to be finished and the empty boxes put back up in the attic. I promise pics soon, just a little more tweeking before the final presentation.