Cherish is the Word

It's the end of 2011!! Patrick and I spent the day at Legoland Discovery Center in Schaumburg with Evan and Corinne (while Justin was with friends doing Older Kid Stuff). There was a balloon drop and sparkling apple juice and way more of the under-10 crowd than I've ever been surrounded by on a New Year's Eve before. And it was fun.

Something about New Year's makes people want to make resolutions...

...to promise themselves that next year will be different. Next year will be BETTER...

In 2012, I promise to spend more time with my family.

I know, I know; I spend nearly ALL of my time with my family, so how is it possible for me to spend MORE time with them, right? Well, you'd be surprised how easy it can be for our family to separate into different rooms, doing different activities, moving in different circles and pathways. I want to be spending "time" with them; not moving through time with them nearby.

Time is the most valuable asset we own, and we spend it every second of every day. It's the one asset we cannot "save". I hate to think of all of the moments I've let pass me by without pausing to cherish the people that surround me.

So, in 2012, I vow to cherish my family and friends and be appreciative of the valuable time they are choosing to spend with ME.

I also vow to wear these boots more often. Patrick's eyes bug out whenever I put them on. :)

What are your resolutions for the New Year? Do you believe in resolutions? Do you believe in ghosts? Do you believe that the world will end 12/21/12? Do you believe in magic, in a young girl's heart?

This post is sponsored by Trop50 which is a very tasty (I've tried it) orange juice with way less calories and sugar than regular OJ and without any artificial sweeteners. We are also privileged to have received the tickets to Legoland Discovery Center as complimentary passes. We are truly grateful!

Puppy Dreams...

I have been holding out on you guys. You may have been wondering why my posts are so distracted, so meh. I mean, even MORE "meh" than usual.

What do you mean, "No"? You mean you have lives outside of reading my blog and obsessing over my comings and goings?

As if.

So, as I was saying, since you're obviously curious about why I've been so distant, I'll enlighten you.

I have been sucked into the scary world of puppy adoption.

Oh yes. We're getting a dog.

This sounds simple. It sounds incredibly simple! You call a shelter, specify size, age and general breed, and they announce that you can come over and rescue a needy puppy that they have available for practically no $ at all. You take said dog home and he/she becomes a new member of your family for the next 10-15 years. Case closed.

HA.

I forgot to enter the factors of the universe into this equation including, but not limited to: allergen requirements, size issues, shelters that don't answer phones, shelters that are just plain weird about how they approve for adoption, and to add in about 3 months of strife and pondering, just for kicks.

You would think we were trying to conceive the darn puppy ourselves!

Petfinder.org has been my website of choice for at least 6 months now. I can tell you all about all of the shelters, their requirements, exactly WHY we want a dog, how we're planning on training him/her, and that YES, we WILL agree to a home visit, if it comes down to that. (I kid you not. A home visit. For a Dog.)

Please, please, please cross any loose appendages you may have available so that we will be the chosen "parents" for the puppy we're meeting next Saturday! My heart has gotten attached to so many little faces, only to find out that they have found their homes somewhere else. (which, YAY! I'm glad they're finding homes. But I wish it was OUR home...) My children are beginning to think that we're making up the whole "we're getting a dog!" promise that we made back in APRIL...

Christmas memories....

How do YOU pay for Christmas?

Anybody else breathing a huge sigh of relief? I mean, I adore Christmas. I do. But it's also quite delicious to know that I have a full year to wait before we go through that kind of overload on our senses again.

There's nothing quite like the Day AFTER Christmas, either, is there? Sitting amongst the shreds of paper that never got thrown away, my children have enjoyed the many presents that were showered upon them all. So have Patrick and I, for that matter. In fact, I got to watch him practically skip out the door in his handsome new sports coat and pants. He loves new clothes. :) I suspect that today will find us all in relatively the same locations; playing new games, reading new books, drawing with new media, wearing new clothing... We spent our Christmas budget well this year!

I will say that while I am still committed to using cash for a majority of my purchases, I diligently used the American Express card that I was given. I found presents for our loved ones at different stores and used the AmEx card to purchase them. I was never turned away from a register or told that my card wasn't good somewhere. And it was much easier to carry one card than a wad of cash, but with my wad of cash, I always know how much I have left. And this tight-fisted mom likes to be in control of that spending!

However, the temptation of a purse or wallet of money is a double-edged sword. It can be wonderful to KNOW how much money you have. But it is difficult to not whittle away at that money on $5 and $10 purchases that weren't in your initial budget.

I know that this poses a problem for some people (aka, my husband). When he has a big ole pile of greens in his wallet, he has a bit of a block on how far it will actually stretch. If you tend to have a block like that, then the American Express gift card would be a truly wise choice for you.

Next Christmas, try to take your budget and invest it into the card. You will still only be able to spend what you have budgeted but there won't have a pile of presidents' faces encouraging you to pick up a pizza or extra pack of gum at the gas station. What you WILL have is a card that is usable just about everywhere and the security of knowing that if it's lost, you can report it, just like a regular credit card! Check out their site for information regarding the rules on American Express Gift Cards. Start thinking about picking them up throughout 2012 for next Christmas. You'll be so happy you started early when the stress of next Christmas doesn't involve setting aside extra money.

Disclaimer: I received 2 gift cards in exchange for a series of posts on my views about the American Express gift card and rewards program. While I did receive compensation, all views remain strictly my own.

Ho Ho Ho TO ME!

Guess what I am doing?

Right now as I am typing this?

I'm writing on my new, fancy-schmancy, super-speedy laptop.

I am SOOOO out of the last century!!

Zip! Super fast!

I'm sitting on my comfy couch, not stuck in the computer corner, waiting for the dang PC to load up and drag itself through the tons of crap my kids have downloaded. I am watching the kids play their new Jenga game while Patrick makes crepes and sausage and Justin loads his new Halo map codes onto the Xbox. I might just take a picture of myself with the freaking webcam that's INSTALLED into the fancy skype-thingy-bob (I am still very technologically minded with my wordage, eh?).

This means that I can actually PARTICIPATE in social media AT the social media activities!!

I feel like a grown-up.

Heheheheh. My husband ROCKS.

Oh yeah. The kids and Pat had a good morning, too.

:)

But really? It's all about ME right now.

And peace and goodwill. That's kinda important, too.

Seriously, though; I hope you're all surrounded by people who love you as much as you love them. I hope you're smelling something delicious to eat, listening to the sounds of laughter and music, and feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude for all of the blessings you have.

If you're feeling less than joyful or happy; if you're missing the ones you love or have lost; if you are hurting right now? Please know that I'm sending you love, however far away you may be.

Have a Merry Christmas, everyone. Thank you for reading my blog and sharing in my life...

The Sounds

I've been privileged to listen to some fantastic sounds this year:

Finches chirping on the bird feeder outside of my kitchen window on a warm, summer morning...

My nephew's genuine belly-laugh as I raspberried his belly...

"Morning, Mommy. I love you," from the mouth of my stumbling, sleepy-eyed children, just before they begin to whine about not having ample breakfast choices...

The absolute absence of human noises in the "silence" of some of my favorite Illinois parks...

That delicious "pop" of the cork from a freshly opened bottle of good, cheap wine...


However, I believe that the most underrated but beautiful sound of this year was the metallic ring of our doorbell when my final online purchase Christmas present was delivered. Merry Christmas to ME as I am done shopping and wrapping and fully intend to just sit back and ENJOY this season!!

My heart is overwhelmed

Evan is amazing. He has found his "niche". HIS activity. His space outside of the family where he feels happy and confident and welcomed. When he won a free month of martial arts this summer, he wasn't so sure he wanted to even go ONCE, let alone attend on a regular basis.

And now? Now he attends karate lessons twice a week with joy. He practices his moves and is the most respectful, confident kid on the mat (no bias). When we watched him receive his first level above white belt yesterday, his face was beaming with pride and light.
His instructor is confident that he will rank up very quickly, due to his dedication and interest. I'm just happy that he has found an activity that he adores so much. I fully believe that this child has the ability to get his black belt, someday. Without a doubt.
In other news, our first Christmas party was a success! As the grandchildren get older and bigger, the volume in my parents' house gets louder and wilder, but it's always fun when we all get together; Especially when my dad has plenty of Franzia available.
Going through my photos from yesterday has reminded me to Take More Photos! Sometimes, I take pictures for a bit, and then put the camera away to enjoy the day more fully. And then I am left feeling a bit deflated because of the lack of ample shots to browse through. I vow to be a shutterbug this Christmas. Maybe not for every holiday hereafter, but this Christmas will be amply documented!Evan's going to make a great Daddy someday... He adores babies and little kids; and they adore him!
I also vow to make sure I am IN more of these pictures! (No gray hair! Thank you Nice n Easy.)

I think I prefer braids and ponytails, thanks.

"Hmmmm... de dmmmmm.... de hmmmm...." Corinne hummed a very random song while she brushed and braided my hair. She could have been reciting sports' plays for all I care, because as long as someone's messing with my hair? I'm happy.

Eventually, I noticed she had stopped braiding and arranging ponytails on my head and had started making odd parts in my locks. She'd also stopped humming and had began to talk to herself;

"A little line on the left. And now a loooong line on the right. If I just pull this piece over, I can make the line cross her whole head...."

Wait; what?

"I did it, Mommy! I made your gray hair into a stripe from the left side of your head straight across to the right side of your head!!"

I guess it's true that no beauty treatments are ever truly free.

RAN.dum.

Dang. Has it been a full week again since my last post? Seriously? Well, shoot. Here's some stuff we did since last Thursday, in no particular order other than it is popping into my verrry tired brain:

~ Visited Bass Pro Shops to visit Santa and found out that the ONLY thing that my 6 year old asked him for was a "make up kit" which is the ONLY thing that Santa didn't know she wanted. Naturally. (FYI, Bass Pro Shops has a FABULOUS winter wonderland set up. Free pictures, free kids' meals, free games and crafts...)

~ Visited The Museum of Science and Industry along with about 40 bajillion other kids and their school field trips resulting in waaaaay too many children with waaaaaaay too little supervision and waaaaaay too much noise for my eldest's sensitivities. Especially since he was hungry. Never a good combination. Needless to say, it wasn't our best trip to MSI. Still, we played with our homeschooling co-op friends and the youngest 2 seemed to have a blast. Not a total bust, I guess... Exhausting? Yes.~ Fixed the damn lights on the damn tree. Again. And yet? There is still a strand that is out. It's in the back of the tree, though, so I'm pretty positive that this tree decorator is hanging up her gloves...

~ pinched my neck in a, ah, private moment with my husband. This resulted in having to move verrrry slowly for an entire day and then deal with a splitting headache this morning as a result of not moving all freaking night. Seriously, this "aging gracefully" shit is for the birds. Or it's at least for people who know how to be intimate without getting into awkward positions.*


~ Was featured in Mommypage.com. Well, that didn't really require any work, persay, I wrote that info page a long time ago. But still. I was FEATURED. It should count on lists of things accomplished. I liked to read it, mainly because I am super tan in the bio pic I sent them. Sigh... I miss sunshine.

~ Drove to Legoland! Notice I said "Drove to" Legoland and not "visited" Legoland. This is what happens when you don't visit the website and check the hours. You'll end up walking up to the doors as the doors are LOCKING. And you'll have some superbly devastated children who can only be persuaded to be Happy Little Elves once again by visiting the nearby Rainforest Cafe. Legoland is open for YOU, though! CHECK THEIR HOURS. They are all decked out for the holidays. (Or so I hear....)

~ Did my all day shopping extravaganza. It was everything I'd dreamed it would be and MORE. 6 hours of uninterrupted, child-free, shopping bliss. I say "uninterrupted" because I don't have a cell phone and couldn't be contacted every 45 minutes to see how long I'd be gone. I don't have a cell phone because I am way too cool for that.**

~ Lived it up with various other over-30 folks at a White Elephant party. Went there with some very cheesy romance novels and an unopened Security light and returned home with an extremely cool, avocado green party dish set. You'll have to see it to understand why I liked it so much that I made Patrick steal it.

~ Did the usual runs to and from karate twice, gymnastics and dance classes. Managed to not catch the cold that seems to be residing in every 9 and under's mucus membranes.

~ Answered a FEW emails, but truly, I am perpetually struggling to get on the internet thankyouverymuchJustin.

~ Was continued to be amazed at the brilliance of my children. My 6 year old who is reading Stuart Little. My 9 year old who is just ABSORBING the American Sign Language studies he's jumped right into. My 12 year old who informed me that he spent 2 hours on the computer, getting rid of some virus or something by looking for the directions on the internet. They're all freaking geniuses, and I absolutely AM bragging!

~ Smiled whenever I found a hidden message left by my daughter. I love that she uses hearts in her alphabet. It's such a sweet reminder that we're doing SOMEthing right in our raising of them...

*Don't tell the kids, though: I told them I must have hurt my neck when I was Christmas shopping for them.


**Actually, it's because I'm too lazy to pay a bill and too cheap to pay it when I REMEMBER, so my Pay As You Go phone just kind of gathers dust on my counter top...

All I've got for titles are Christmas song lyrics....

Still here! I'm definitely feeling the joy of Christmas but also feeling the pressure of lots of irons in the oven, too. That is how the saying goes, right? "Irons in the oven?" I wonder how old that one is. I mean, obviously, it's from the smithy days, but really, didn't they ALWAYS have more than one iron in the oven? It seems like a bit of a waste of valuable fuel to heat a fire up to hot enough to make metal soft to just heat ONE iron at a time...

I digress.

What with all this ironing and such, I haven't felt the call of the blog very much these past few weeks. Well, that's a lie. I've FELT the call, but I've always been pretty occupied with trying to keep the upstairs hallway clear of laundry (and failing) and stressing over the idea of doing a One Day Christmas Shopping Marathon for the first time in my LIFE. It's starting to freak me out a bit. We'll see if I spend more or less in the long run. Pat's betting on less, but I'm wondering if it will mean I may make last-minute changes to "The Plan" simply because I want to make sure that everyone we love gets properly represented (yo) on Christmas. This is where shopping with cash/debit is valuable. I can't spend what I don't have, right?

Shoot, I'm just happy that the Christmas tree lights have stayed lit for an entire day seeing as how I've had to fix them not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES. It's like a festive lottery when I walk into the living room: will the tree be bright and cheerful or a darkened shadow of Christmas Yet To Come? Much swearing, a few tears and several threats of having a "lightless Christmas" were thrown about, but, thanks to my sweat and blood, we currently own a LIT and freshly cut Christmas tree (from the best tree farm in Chicagoland. Trust me. I've shopped around a LOT). The ornaments may be all jumbled from the jabbing of my arms into the branches to untangle unlit lights and the beads may be completely skewed from the shoving and pulling of said tree from the corner to the middle of the room and back again and again and again, but damnit!!! It's our tree. And the kids said it's beautiful. And we can AFFORD a tree and are privileged enough to have a family to celebrate Christmas around it with.

And that's all I could ever ask for.

Well, what do you know? I wrote a post. Heh. Completely unintentional, especially since I'm supposed to be starting my "online browsing" portion of the shopping program...

O Happy Day!

Truly, it has been quite some time since I last felt such elation; such anticipation. In fact, I could probably trace the most recent incident of this extreme happiness to somewhere in the winter of 2000, when I purchased a leather coat that I still love and adore.

My friends? It was well past my time for joy...

Flannel. Is. Back.*

I KNOW!

I literally leapt out of my seat and clasped my hands together when not one but TWO TEENAGERS and an adult who works at a high school (an even BETTER fashion advisor than the teens!) confirmed this revelation in my fashion-ignorant head. How did I miss this development? Why didn't I see it coming when the 80's reared its ugly head in scrunch boots and over-sized sweaters?**I mean, it makes perfect sense NOW, in retrospect, that after the 80's big bangles and flourescent colors would come the NINETIES!

Ahhh... the 90's. A time of perfect fashion. A time of flannel shirts, body suits, jeans I understand and hand-beaded necklaces. Bring it ON!

I am so pumped for this comeback! Not only because I may just look "fashionable" for once, but also because I can now stock up on the styles that I LIKE, before they are out of style again. I totally understand why women tend to pick a style and stick with it. This whole "changing the fashion rules every 5-8 years because teenagers want to appear 'unique' and 'special' even though they're really just repeating the styles from a couple of decades ago but using different colors and fabrics so everyone completely KNOWS that the outfit you're wearing and trying to pass off as 'new' is 23 years old instead of purchased yesterday" SUCKS. I want off of this fashion wagon! I don't want to ride anymore! Just let me fill my backpack with ample Grunge-worthy clothing and I'll watch it drive off into the distance. I'll laugh from the ditch in my flannel the entire time the next generation tries to twist bell-bottoms and pedal pushers into some weird concoction made out of see-through fabric that has Wifi capabilities.



*Ok, It has come to my attention that flannel has actually been "back" for quite some time now, but I must argue that it couldn't have been really, TRULY "back" if I hadn't noticed it. I.E. I am confirming the actual START of the Flannel-Come-Back movement. Let your Grunge-wearing commence.... NOW.

**The truth is, I kinda like oversized sweaters but they really only look decent on the very tall, very thin, and very hip. I fall short (literally) on all 3 of those counts and the result is a lumpy potato with hair that is showing its grays...