Thursday slunk along slowly!

Sleeping in.

Long talk lying on the bed.

Getting everyone ready for the last day of the year.

Wal Mart.

Lowe's. (the tv table is now fixed, such a clever man I married!)

Marsh.

The mall.

Back home.

Nap.

Doggy tended and fed.

Cat ignored.

Extra kid picked up.

Extra tv loaded into the CRV. (monster video game marathon tonight for the guys)

At the in-loves.

Eating.

Playing Games.

Eating.

Ringing in the New Year.

Happy 2010!

Wednesday fell into the week with a BANG!

Okay, I figure I had to share this here...

I've been growing out my hair for hubby macho man.  Plus, I hadn't had time to have it colored or highlighted lately, so I'm looking kinda dark.  Actually, my grandma Payne was starting to stare back at me from the mirror, so what happens next probably isn't totally the poor woman's fault.

I shop at Goodwill.  You all know this. 

One day I was in our LGWS and had a couple of sheets and pillowcases to add to the stash.

It was Wednesday.

For those of you who don't shop at Goodwill, that means all the mean little seasoned citizens who live in our town and shop there can go in and get a huge discount.  And be rude.  And grab things from your hands.  And run their shopping carts into you.

Obnoxiousness to the max!

The woman at the checkout register asked me if I got a senior discount.  Me!  Who still feels 23 inside, is barely into my 40's, rides shopping carts down the incline at Marsh's, totally flubs at parenting 98% of the time because I still don't feel grown up enough to be a parent!  Me!

Once I managed to pick my jaw (which is still full of all my own teeth, thank you very much!) off the floor, I told her I might if AARP keeps lowering its membership age.

Pasty white and shaking with shock, I walk to the cute little Honda Civic that I thought I looked cute, young and sassy in...and wept.

Thursday morning.

Over to Misty.

Who cut off about 9 inches of hair, winter highlighted me and made me look like Victoria Beckham.

Well.

Almost.

Close.

Think me.  Only without the tattoos!  LOL

That was a couple of weeks ago.

This morning.

2:30 am.

Middlest comes into the room and says "There's something downstairs I have to show you."

Holy Crap!  You don't just sleep through that one now, do you?

I need to back up about 6 months here.

Middlest, who has responsibility and short term memory issues LOL was carrying around his wallet (which he'd already lost once...and found in the pocket of a pair of jeans he put away in the bottom of his drawer) with over $90 in cash and about that much in gift cards.  Wherever he went.  After he'd been told to leave it at home wherever it was he was going whenever.

So, I confiscated it and have it hidden somewhere in the house for security reasons.  Everything is still in there, just...safe.

Last night this morning, he apparently felt the need to look for it.  And thought it might be on the shelves in the family room.  The shelves that can't be reached by a non-thinking 14 year old boy...unless you stand on the...

Mom and Dad, you might want to stop reading here.

fiberboard tv stand your grandparents gave you mom and dad when they got a new one.

Yup.

Crack went the fiberboard.

Thunk went the kid.

Sliiiiiiiiiide went the tv.

He woke us up and we flew down the stairs.  Bless his heart.  He did try to fix it.  With duck tape.  With superglu.  With blood, sweat and tears.

No children were injured in the telling of this tale.  Thank God.

But, Mom and Dad, if you're reading this and are thinking you don't like your old/new tv stand and would like to get another one...he he.  We're in the market.

I love kids.

Tuesday sort of rolls into the week...

Tuesday.  Already.  Rats!

It's only the second day of our second week of break and I feel vacation slowly slipping away!

Argh!

Last night, I asked hubby snookums to do something in bed that in almost twenty years of marriage, I've been too hesitant to ask:

sleep on pink sheets.  LOL

Aren't they loverly!  These were part of my Christmas gift from the in-loves.  I picked them out!  Sew loving how they go with the shams and quilt and everything!

Thank you honey!

This is a closeup of the quilt I made for our bed.  Even though it is very girly, hubby dove loves it!

This

is part of another queen size quilt (I know, I know.) for our bed.  I bought a remnant of what I thought was plain white muslin one night last summer at Joann's.  I was very tired and not in my right mind (I know, I know.).  I started sewing on this the same night and the next morning realized I had bought shirting quality.

Doh!  Sew now I'm finally ripping out the yucky fabric and putting in the stuff I want.  This will be a summer, lightweight quilt.

Another strip in progress seen here on my nice, new, blue cutting mat!  A Christmas gift from a very thoughtful family!  Thanks guys!

KT surprised me with this sweet little bag when we met up before Christmas

...it's hanging up on the knob of the table next to my side of the bed so I can slip my glasses in there when I go to sleep.  Our vulture cat has this very bad habit of perching on the side of the table as close to my face as possible during the night and just...watching...me.  It's like she's just waiting for me to die.  Spooky really!  Sometimes she sits on my glasses, which is really gross as you can imagine (I know where that cat's bum has been!), so this solves my problem quite prettily!

Friends over most of the day yesterday and two of them got dropped off again today with the third, I'm sure, to follow as soon as he rolls out of bed.  Javi is up now.  We love sleeping in on vacation!

Happy Snoozeday to you!

...and Monday rolls around.

Looking back, looking forward.

Last night, hubby best friend and I were lying in bed.

He asked me if I had any regrets.

Thankfully, none of them involved him! 

LOL

Looking back, some of my regrets have to do with people I've lost touch with, cut ties to or stay distant from (because they're not healthy relationships).

I have a friend who went back to school and is now working full time.  We used to spend every day together in the summer.  Our kids swimming together and the stay at home mommies chatting and keeping an eye on them.  I talk to her maybe once or twice a year now.

Another friend whose son at a much younger age, would hit, kick, push and be very forceful with my boys.  The mom was very much at a loss as what to do with her son. 

I had to sever that friendship for the sake and safety of my kids.

Relationships that are potentially toxic or unhealthy.  Where they want to control your every thought and judge you by their standards instead of letting you be you and enjoying the uniqueness of you.  There is a closeness and friendship that I wish were possible, but allowing myself to become the kind of person I would need to be to have this would shrivel my soul.

Looking forward, that would be my New Year's resolution.  To restore these relationships back to where they were.  But, that's not going to happen.  We're different people now.  I'm a different person now than I was during these times.  I miss my friends and family.  I miss what they could have been, should have been.

But, I'm at a loss.

Looking back, what are some of your regrets?  Looking forward, is it possible to change them or fix them?

Happy the Day After!

We had an ominous start to the day.

We plugged in the tree and...

no lights!

LOL

I think it's revenge for my not wanting to put the tree up this year.

Hubby pessimist-sees-omens-everywhere asked "I wonder what this means?"

I optimistic-sunshiney-glass-half-full sort of person says calmly "New lights next year."

Snowbirds called from the Sunshine State in the am.

Almost all of hubby-sees Death's angel in the door-'s family came over for breakfast.

Day spent at the in laws with all the family in attendance and chaos reigning supreme!

Home at a reasonable hour.

Sleeping in on the 26th.

No sewing like I'd hoped for.

Bummer.

One of my favorite days of the year is December 21st.

"The 21st?", you ask.

Yes.

The shortest day of the year means days can only get longer from here.

And you know what that means!

Spring is on the way!

Woo Hoo!

Why I Hate Christmas!

Or...more probably...why I hate what we've been told and sold Christmas should be.

Perfect.

Obedient, grateful children.

No sibling rivalry.

Baking gingerbread houses and never thinking of themselves first.

Houses that are immaculate and festively decorated for all the dinner parties and carolers who drop by.

Every Christmas card remembered and sent in time.

Every charity given to.

Perfect gifts bought and wrapped with matching paper, bow and tag.

No thoughtless words falling from our mouths on ears that will never forget.

More money left at the end of December than the other way around.

Relationships restored.

Miracles performed.

But...

it isn't that way.

And if it were, there wouldn't be a need for a Savior.  And Christmas wouldn't be celebrated all around the world. 

Which is why I love Christmas.

A reason to celebrate.

A need so great we can't fill it.

We can't shop it away.

Eat it away.

Drink it away.

Overdose or pop pills it away.

We can't love it away.

It is a need every human heart feels.

Some ignore or deny...

but that hole is there.

A hole that can only be filled by a knowing who we are, because of Who He Was-Is-and Will Be.

A silence of all our internal clamoring that can only be given when we stand before Him in our own silence of the heart, mind and might.

I love Christmas because it is a Beginning that has an End.

An End to pain.  Fighting.  Anger.  Jealousy.  Bitterness.  Loneliness.  Depression.  Fear.  Hate.

It is a long time coming, that's true.

But there is a purpose in the Plan.

So I think it's okay to hate all of the things we're told and sold Christmas should be.  Because these things really take us away from the meaning of it all...that we are imperfect and have a Need.

And that Need knew this and was willing to come and be like us, talk like us, feel like us...to understand us and help us understand Him.

In the end, the Beginning is a glorious thing to be celebrated!

And in the Beginnind, the End was already known and chosen to be experienced anyway.

For love.

Merry Christmas all!

Peace that passeth understanding and Love that knows no limits be yours in 2010!

Lady Threatens to Set the T-Rex On Me!

Sunday, hubby snowflake took the boys "shopping" and they were gone a long time.  Before they left, they had helped tidy up the house so I would have time to work on finishing Aunt B's quilt.

This summer I got a new Janome Quilter's Companion and it came with a walking foot.

This close to Christmas I didn't have time to quilt using a meandering stitch like I like...sew, I just did a simple grid quilt pattern.  I really like the way it turned out.

And so does Lady.

Who doesn't want to see the quilt leave the house.

And threatens to tell Rexy.

Which is a whole other story that will have to be told later!

Also, by the end of last week, I had finished up this

for a certain, sweet, shy, friend from Middlest's science class.

Ahem.

When Sew Mama Sew went insane a couple of weeks ago...I cashed in on the insanity!

Tina of cutelittlepiggytoes was gifting away

"a pair of New-Mommy Warming Slippers (made with Amy Butler fabric) and new-Baby Booties. The booties should fit 6-12months and the slippers fit up to size 8. The mommy warming slippers are something new I'm making. The bottom of the slippers have pockets full of rice. So, just pop these babies in the micro and you've got some soft warming slippers."

They came.  I saw.  They conquered!

They are...absolutely...the Bomb!

My feet get so blasted cold in the winter, I could not have won a better giftaway! 

This is also a "Moments' picture.  On the left, last year's school stuff, some of which we still use.  Behind my feet, this year's school stuff we definitely use!

Also included in the package of sunshine and cheerfullness

little bitty buddy shoes that need to be shipped to Florida!

An origami ornament (which thrilled the male people of my house to no ends!) which is too cool!

And

star fabric and quilt labels!  Tina went above and beyond and I am adding her to my blogroll, because anyone who can survive three boys and a husband is a Superhero to me!  I hope you stop by and take a look and maybe order yourself a pair of the best slippers in the world!

Thanks again Tina!