Christmas 2011...sort of

I just realized that I don't have one good photo from Erick's house or my parent's house at Christmas.  For my children, here is the Christmas recap of 2011:

Trip down south for a day - Christmas with Erick's family.

Home to meet friends from Colorado staying over the Holidays.

Christmas eve and morning church services.

Tons and tons of gourmet food prepared by said friends from Colorado.

Impromptu dinners with family and friends.

More food, more chasing kids around the house, more food, and more food.

The end.

It was a wonderful Christmas.  Tomorrow we are going hiking and hunting for fossils with both sides of the family, so I shall take the camera along.  Who says good Christmas pictures can't happen two days before the new year holding handfuls of ammonites?  

Sweet Christmas babies

Matt is undoubtedly arranging music, Tamara researching her next gourmet meal, and I'm just pretending to fit in a crowd of really smart people.

There is NOTHING more attractive then men baking and handling homemade bread.  Nothing.

A song

The week before Christmas my frenzied life gave me....

Two rockin' concerts,
One unwatched purse,
One stolen card,
a ton of purchases,
Fifteen hundred dollars (fraud)
One police report,
One Catholic wedding,
One Sandi Patti,
Thirty-seven ornaments,
two homeroom parties,
One Dirty Santa,
One school performance,
And a dirty houuuusssseeeeee......

And it's not yet done,
But that's half the fun,
This is a cruddy soooonnnngggg........

But it's a blog and it may be the laaaasssst. (for a few days)

Whew.

Memories (and an adorable baby boy)

Sweet Lyndon.  You will never know the thousands of miles I have traveled with your Mommy, the laughs we have shared, the clothes we have traded.  Memories of hideous yellow variety show dresses and sharing twizzlers on boats.  Detective work and secrets that only we share.  Vans, swimming pools, apartments, and dorm rooms.  Seinfeld at midnight and your Mama's infamous gurgles.  Guitars, lipstick, church camps, and insect bites.  Picking marshmallows out of Lucky Charms and Elvis Impersonators named Smokey.  Opening cans of tuna in small enclosed spaces, abhorring artificially flavored chips, and bran muffins.  Lots and lots of bran muffins. Speaking a language only she can understand, your Mom will attempt to speak in any language, in any country.

Despite our hundreds of travels together, no trip or performance will ever compare to you, sweet boy. 

You are the perfection that was so long in coming, such a beautiful sight to behold.

You (and your Daddy) are the light of her life.  I hope you both know what a treasure you have in my Lisa Gail.  Thanks for coming over to play!

Luckily for her, photo quality improved greatly in a decade.  

Lucky for us, nothing has ever changed.  Nothing ever will. 

Love you Lis.

I will not cry next time, I will not cry next time

I become a blubbering speaker at my students' recitals and inevitably end up crying.  Yesterday was no exception. All of my kiddos played so well and I'm once again bursting with pride.  This time a certain little four year old made his debut with the Reindeer Stomp Song and the Monkey Song.  They were both squeaky and precious.

I played with the Trans Siberian Orchestra twice today and all I could think about was that I didn't practice violin with the kids before I left, violin recital tomorrow, and whether or not my daughter had fed her guinea pigs their bell peppers.

I am totally a Mom.  I am totally not a rocker.

So, although I didn't take any contraband photos this year, it was still fun, it was still loud, and it still really wreaked havoc on my 120 year old French instrument.

Here are pics from last year.  The only difference this year was that I decided to go with the straight hair look because my husband told me this morning that he likes my hair better when it's not so big.

Ouch.  The Chi is coming back out of the drawer.  And I'm going in for a trim.

Goodnight!

Us.

We don't really go on dates.  We work.  We raise kids.  We laugh about how insanely loud two children can be.  We sing, dance, and chase each other in circles around the house.  Ok, well usually we're chasing two kids round and round and round and running into walls, but at least we're together.  When we're done chasing and the babies are in bed we play Mario.  We defeat castles and we hurdle lava pits and we sit in kids' Ikea chairs because we're both so scrawny.  We sip hot tea and talk about how proud our kids will be of us in the morning.

And then we go to bed.

And sometimes wake up sore.

Because we're getting older.....

I guess.

I love getting older with you, E.

For my light sabering students

Because the mere mention of Star Wars brings a smile to my students' faces, I thought I would post this video.  Add an electric cello into the picture, and it's doubly cool.  Please overlook the fact that this guy slightly resembles Mr. Bean.

Perfect Saturday.  

No plans.  No obligations.  No commitments.

Just jammmies and lots and lots of Christmas music.  

Have a wonderful weekend!

Freckle faced dreamer and the other thing

I had a chocolate milk/coffee date with my son today.
It was heavenly.

My daughter figured out in less than a week that the tooth fairy and Santa are connected.
Connected as in they're not real.

I'm really sad about this but I didn't feel like I could continue with the fun.  She was pleading with me several times a day to tell her the truth.

So, I told her.

She didn't wail and gnash her teeth and compare Santa to Jesus.  There was no condemning of my past choices to encourage her belief in a fictional character.

She just gasped and asked about the American Doll last year.  Yep.  And the marbles?  Yep.

That was it.  She has made a solemn vow to keep this little secret to herself.

And since she's so grown up all of a sudden, I believe she will.

Tonight

Tonight my daughter figured out the tooth fairy isn't real.  She told me that "she just used her brain and figured it out."  I swore her to secrecy to NOT tell her brother and she gave me her word.  Then she promptly went to my bathroom, shut the door, and called her BFF.  I told her that her good friend had found out about the tooth fairy too, but her Mom had told her NOT to tell Raegan.  They had a good giggle about being so intelligent.  

Thankfully Santa dodged the bullet.

I was chasing the kids around like an idiot in pants that are too long and completely wiped out on the wood floors.  I managed to injure my wrist, top of my foot, and my knee.  On top of that, I probably re-injured my lower back that has been plaguing me for three weeks.  Erick told me that some age, there are probably some things we shouldn't do.  I punched him.

I just spent twenty minutes actually reading and commenting on blogs.  It's way more fun to read them and comment then to just click on and click off.  The strange thing is, the only stories I remember are the ones I invest thirty seconds in.  I've decided I'm going to start commenting on my own thoughts and things I need to remember all day long.

That's all I have.  Mainly I wanted to remember the night my daughter lost part of her babyhood and I remembered my age.  :(

Stay little, little one.

Random thoughts Friday

It's 4:15 on a school day afternoon and I am sitting on the couch relaxing.  This never happens.  Kids are playing the Wii and I have a dog that keeps nestling her head on my laptop.  I'm doing the most minimal amount of petting because she has recess smell.  Recess smell is the worst, second only to maple syrup smell in the middle of the afternoon.

Let me just say, I went to Sam's today for the first time in months.  ONCE again I made the same rookie mistakes I always make.  I grabbed one loaf of bread instead of two (and had to settle for the stale substitutes they made me choose from at the register), and I bought $220 of bulk items.  As I was piling things into my cart suffocating my son, I kept having flashbacks of Kramer shoving wholesale items into the hood of his car.  No list, no budget.  Just sweeping the aisles and imagining huge savings.

I now have eighty rolls of toilet paper, huge bags of dried mango, fifty fiber one bars, and five pounds of steroid-ed grapes with seeds.  I hate grapes with seeds.  

The Friday before Thanksgiving is not the time to go to Sam's.  Every person that somehow missed out on lunch makes their way to the produce and frozen foods section for free food handouts.  There were fifteen people in line for teeny weeny cheesecake handouts, I kid you not.  And the funny thing is, they really don't budge to make way for your cart that is overflowing with Christmas lights and processed foods you have no business buying.  They move about an inch and give you a half smile.  The half smile that says, "I'm so glad that cart is hers and not mine.  Thank goodness my kids are grown."

Well, that's it Sam's.  I will go back in January and buy some more lights for next year when they are on clearance or something.  Wishing I had done that last year.

Playing some Mahler this weekend with the Philharmonic.  Fun times.  Other weekend highlights include: Annie, stringing Christmas lights, and sweeping out the garage.  If I know my husband and his major pet peeve of leaves and trash coming in, he will be out there with a broom the second he gets home.  I tend to light light and fresh air, and I tend to drive him crazy.  I might have let a box of packing peanuts get blown into the mix.  Whoops.

Time for some Tom and Jerry and some laying around with the kiddos.  Have a great weekend!!!

Torture by violin

And THIS is why I shoved violins into their hands before they could even speak.  They keep me laughing (and sometimes crying), but mostly laughing.  I love these crazies.

Thank you

Thank you to the veterans and those serving in the armed forces.  

To my cousins, Patrick (Major Kelly) and Brian Kelly: thank you for your sacrifices to your country.

Thank you for your willingness to be gone for months and years on end, 

away from your families and babies.

We are SO incredibly proud of you both.

Major Patrick Kelly

Sweet Brian and Beth

I don't know why they say boys are easier than girls

I love my boys and their home alone photo nights.

Please never stop being sweet, easy, and a little weird.  Both of you.

Combover Friday

Today I'm thankful for November and an extra day home with the kids.  A night out with girlfriends is ahead and I'm ready for that.  Soooo ready for that.  I think Star Wars episode 5 is on the roster for Erick and the kids.

I have lost a little love for my blog and I don't know why.  I think I loved it when the kids were little because I wrote down every funny little thing they did and I just thought this whole blog world was IT.

I'm still into it I guess, I'm just in a rut.  It seems like I've covered every topic I want to cover in a lifetime and can't think of anything more interesting to say.  I'm out of pictures, out of ideas, out of blog steam.

And in the background all the while is my son whining that "I really need a drink.  I wish I had a drink."  He knows that I ignore whines and pouting, but he refuses to do as I ask and use manners.  Overnight my son has reverted to toddler behavior.

I guess that's news, right?  I could go into everything that entails but I shall refrain.  Because frankly, it's boring.

Erick and I had a good discussion about comb overs last night and what in the world men with the said hair styles look like in the shower.  I guess there would be one long piece hanging down to a shoulder.  Here are a few beauties I found....

The upward comb

The cliffhanger

The low swoopover

The all over, all over

I feel so strange saying that I would give anything to see those wet.

But I would.

Happy combover Friday, friends.

Family's where it's at

Halloween lessons learned this year:

1. No more rock star wigs.  Ever.  They ruin every picture.

2. Always take Transformers to the bathroom BEFORE taking pictures.

Hair-tastrophe

2.  Gladiator brothers can still be tough and carry an Elmo basket.

3.  My son really does know how to smile.

4.  I will never be more tan than Jeff.  Ever.
Come to think of it, he has me beat in the chest department, too.

5. Families stick together no matter what life throws our way.

6.  Must remember to take photo with my husband next year.  Sorry hon.

I love October part one

34

I have had a wonderful, glorious day.

Although blurry, this photo a mom e mailed me has made me smile a bunch.

There is a sweet 3rd grader hiding under this mask.

She learned Minuet 3 by Bach in two weeks.  

That's kind of a big deal.

In other news:

I'm 34.

I like this because it's a round number and just feels good.

I like this year and the promise it holds.

I don't think I will 'claim' it with a certain word like some of my friends do.

BUT if I were going to pick one word for today it would be confidence.

I feel confident in where I'm heading and who I am becoming.

Probably when I was 20, 34 would have seemed ancient and hopeless.

Somehow, it still feels like a beginning.

I hope when I'm 60, I'm still just beginning and growing.

And playing with my Grandbabies, of course.

For today, I will just be a Mom and drink lots of Starbucks and dream my dreams.

Take that, 20 year old self.....

Time out

Today I gave my children their first 'real' time outs of their lives.  Two separate corners, two separate rooms, and nothing to entertain themselves with.  It took me seven years of parenting to figure out what a horrible punishment this is for my little toots.

Greyson was really disturbed with having nothing to occupy his time.  He whined and cried the whole ten minutes.

My daughter was much more quiet, dare I say compliant.  Apparently, she was too busy scribbling her way back into my good graces.

She emerged from her time out with this.

I picked her up and spun her around and around while blubbering how much I loved her.

Time out negated.  Kid: 1    Mother: 0

Happy Fall Break and just thoughts in general....

I feel like I'm neglecting my blog, and really I have no pictures to post.  I just wanted to wish all of the other Mothers that are with their darling children who are already arguing about play dough, shells, up, down, right, left and whether or not the sky is blue or not to have a wonderful fall break.  Or at least a bearable fall break.

My four year old has reverted back to some two year old crying spells, my second grader is determined to mentally beat the crying spells out of him and subdue the hysterical fits, and I am trying to juggle several balls in the air while simultaneously trying to leave town.  It's weird how kids' personalities can change overnight and back again in two weeks' time.  A month ago, my son gave me eighty kisses in a one hour period.  Now I have to just stare at him through his crying and wait for him to realize that he needs his dearest Mother and, oh yeah, might actually love me.  It's then and only then that I get a sob filled, "I loove you Moooom."

In addition:

Field trip to a pumpkin patch not in the middle of nowhere.  Daughter fell into a pond.  Tears and tears, then laughs with friends when she realized she could garner some attention/sympathy from the event.

Guilt about not taking son to a pumpkin patch.

I had a bathroom remodeled this month.  I said I HAD A BATHROOM REMODELED THIS MONTH!  The final traces of 19 seventy-something are vanquished from this house.  Good riddance harvest green.  Hellloooooooo beautiful tile and new shower doors!

With that I say, helllloooooo fall break and hello to family togetherness.  Hello to a weekend in and out of a hotel room and in and out of a rehearsal hall.  It's family camping of a different variety.  Our variety.

And I feel the need to document that my son just came up behind me, gave me a thirty second hug and said "I love you."  He also told me I smell like bananas and cream, but whatever.  What the promise of a cruddy hotel room and a psychodelic CD won't do.......

Happy Fall Breaking!

Happy 2nd Zoey!

Happy birthday to my third love.

If 2011 has taught my family anything, it's taught us how much we mean to each other.

It's definitely taught us how much we love this baby.

Have a wonderful 3rd year, Zoey!