Ah, holidays

Last Tuesday Bogie's cousin and I decorated my mother-in-law's house for Thanksgiving.

 We were rewarded with this amazing sunset that evening.

 I love this mug, I use it every time I'm over at their house!

 Sleeping Beauties. We had barely finished breakfast, much less Thanksgiving dinner!

 Flower's for MIL's recovery on a decorated entertainment unit.

 The entryway and a lovely drawing of my in-laws by my sister-in-law.

Back Door.

 Garage door.

 Bogie and the D-man watching the Patriots game.

Tables are all set and ready to go, with ZaZa getting a head start to keep her out of mischief.

It was a lovely Thanksgiving meal, tons of amazing food that we all ate too much of and lots of football accompanied with some yummy pies.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope you had a good holiday. I'm currently deciding where to put the Christmas tree!

Thank you

Thank you for the world so sweet
Thank you for the food we eat
Thank you for the birds that sing
Thank you, God, for everything
Amen.

We sang this song as a blessing throughout most of my childhood. I tried finding a video of the song, but the few songs that had the right lyrics had the wrong melody and were cheesy obnoxious kiddie songs. Unless you grew up Mennonite or with Mennonite family, you probably have no idea what the song sounds like but suffice it to say that this little blessing always makes me think of the Holidays.
The biggest table in the house loaded with clear crystal and shining china awaiting icy water and hot food. Tapered candles in elegant candlesticks, white cotton wicks sticking straight up ready for the touch of a match. Folded napkins, baskets of hot rolls, a fresh pot of coffee ready to accompany the many slices of pie. This, to me, is what a holiday is all about. All the members of your family sitting around the same table with multiple conversations going on, usually with the person at the farthest side of the table. There's a general melee of migrating dishes, tinkling china and silverware, and overlapping "your grandfather used to play that at the-" "of course she didn't know there was-" "the other day the kids said to me-" occasionally punctuated by a loud laugh that halts all other conversations as the amused one fills everyone else in on the source of merriment.

Family.
Food.
Friends.
Thankfulness.

If I haven't said it lately, I love you. I am thankful that you are here. Thank you for reading my blog. Thank you for being a part of my life. I hope that your Thanksgiving Day is a day of rest, and a day to delight in the company of your family and friends as you eat delicious food and nap during the football game. I hope that you are able to be thankful for something, be it family, friends, food, a job, health, or Jesus.
I am thankful for Jesus, because he's the reason why I can enjoy all of the other things that I love about the holidays.

Thank you for the world so sweet
Thank you for the food we eat
Thank you for the birds that sing
Thank you, God, for everything
Amen.

Updates

The D-man had a checkup today, he's 20 lbs, 12 ozs, 30 & 3/4 inches long and he got a DPT shot today. (We didn't start shots until 6 months and then we only do one at a time so I can tell if he has a reaction and what he's reacting to, we did ZaZa the same way).

The shot combined with the imminent arrival of his top teeth is making my little charmer cranky. He drops a toy and starts SOBBING as if he just got hit in the head, it's rather heartbreaking. He is so close to sitting up on his own, and crawling! It's very exciting to watch, he gets up on his knees and elbows and rocks back and forth with his little hands clasped and a big grin on his face. His current mode of transportation is rolling, it's very effective until he gets stuck somewhere (and then he commences the aforementioned sobbing until someone comes to rescue him)
MIL is doing better! She's home, healing, and doing her level best to follow the doctor's orders. D and I spent most of the day with her today since she can't lift, climb stairs, or bend over to pick things up. He served as the cheerful, cute distraction while I did some dishes, got her mail, and we had lots of girly talk. We're going back over tomorrow to decorate the house for Thanksgiving since the in-laws are hosting, Bogie's cousin will be helping me and we'll raid MIL's stash of Autumn decor. good times.

speaking of the in-laws, this was the view from their front porch the other evening.

A safety-pin (thanks, Sooz!) pinned through the top of her zipper has kept ZaZa from being able to unzip her sleepers, so I have been able to catch up with the laundry and stop cleaning up puddles from the carpet. I'm going to have to get some more, because I only had two and Bogie misplaced one.

I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am for Christmas, my whole family is coming here so not only do I get to host my very first Christmas but we don't have to travel!!! (Don't get me wrong, Bogie and I love road trips, just not with a "jack russel" of a 2 year old, and a teething 8 month old in tow.) and if those weren't enough reasons to be excited, it's CHRISTMAS! teehee. my favorite season, and the most wonderful time of the year. cue Burl Ives! I have to figure out where in the world I'm going to put the tree, last year it was sitting exactly where I'm sitting right now. We can't have that, I can't type witty updates with an evergreen all up in my business.
have a holly jolly christmas...okay, I'll stop now.
you have been updated!
in summation, my child is a giant, my mother-in-law is doing better, safety pins have stopped the peeing, and Christmas rocks my socks off.
Carla is out. Peace! (phineas & ferb, anyone? no? hey. where's perry?)

I killed the fish

there were lots of things that went wrong yesterday.

potty-training is on a hiatus, she isn't ready and neither am I.
not only is she not ready, but even though we have her PJ's on backwards so she can't reach the zipper, lately she still manages to get them off and remove her diaper and inevitably pee somewhere.

so bedtime was rough because she got punished for taking her sleepers off and peeing on the floor, and then of course she didn't want to calm down and go to sleep so she stayed up and cried. I get all anxious and scrunched up inside when she doesn't go down easy, when I can hear her up there crying and saying "mommy, mommy", I just hate it. normal bedtime is I read her a book, tuck her in, give kisses and hugs, and then I shut the gate and tell her one last "goodnight" and "I love you", to which she usually pipes up "lub you! nigh-night!". When bedtime goes smoothly, it's an "all is right with the world" feeling and I'm at peace. When bedtime doesn't go well I get anxious, what if she's crying because she's scared? could we have handled that differently so she wouldn't have had to go to bed on a "bad" note? I know that she will eventually fall asleep and wake up in the morning and all will be good...I dunno, maybe it's just me because nighttime has always made me anxious. I had a really tough time sleeping for a long time growing up, some nights not even the tape of lullabies would help (Sleep Sound in Jesus, anyone?). The only failsafe was our cat, Angel, when she slept with me it was like her purring wrapped us in a big bubble of Safe and kept all the fear and bad dreams away. I know that ZaZa's only 2, but I want to make sure that she feels safe, I want to keep all the fear and bad dreams away from her. but I also want her to stop peeing on the floor. I am currently working on figuring out a gadget that will hook the zipper tab to the top of the PJs so that the zipper can't be pulled down. if she can't unzip, she can't get out! mwah-ha-ha! (and no, safety pins won't work because she could get it open and poke herself).

and THEN, after all that, I changed the water in the fish's container and did something wrong because 2 hours later bye-bye Clyde and Janet. "hitched a ride on the porcelain express".
I killed the fish.
it was that kind of day.

Jinkies

I am stressed out. Not in a "we pulled off the mask and the ghost zombie is the professor" kind of way, but the Thelma swear word seemed appropriate anyway.

My mother-in-law had surgery this morning. Took a LOT longer than they originally thought, like 4 extra hours. zoinks! (don't hate. I have a theme going here). Good news is she came through it just fine, everything went well and hopefully we can bring her home tomorrow to recover. Please continue to pray for her recovery!

We started potty-training today. In an effort to avoid an Eeyore mentality ("we can't all. and most of us don't.") I will state that some progress was made because by the end of the day she was telling me (as she was going in her pants) that she had to go. I will spare you the rest of the details, but suffice it to say I did a rather large load of laundry this afternoon while fervently wishing I had all hardwood floors. Kudos to my amazing Grandma, who reminded me not only to be patient but that all 6 of her children are potty-trained now. Haha. I love my family.

> totally off-topic, but can I just say that the Philadelphia Eagles are absolutely CRUSHING the Redskins right now? I mean, I'm an Eagles fan by marriage/geography, but they just scored another touchdown to make it 59 to 21 in the 3rd. FIFTY-NINE. in the THIRD. with 5 minutes and a whole other quarter to go still. say it with me...Jinkies!

back to the topic at hand: Not only is it stressful not having money to pay bills, but I'm even more stressed about it because my desk is totally unorganized and I'm not even sure where half of them are! *snaps fingers Mary Poppins style*
okay, somebody please explain to me why my desk didn't arrange itself while whistling me a cheerful tune!
maybe I have to sing to it. snap AND sing. just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down! is it sad that I actually did just snap my fingers at my desk, just in case? What I really want is a personal assistant for the day, to organize my desk, find all the papers I need to do something about, and then help pay my bills, make photocopies, mail letters and whatever else I need to do. or watch the kids while I did all that, but if that were the case I'd need a nanny instead of a PA. or a multi-tasking PA.
Today was almost a 2 cups of coffee day. By lunchtime I needed another cup, but then ZaZa went upstairs for quiet time and then the D-man followed suit and I got to take a nice long shower. in the middle of the afternoon! it was awesome.
If you think of it, keep me in your prayers too. I'm having a hard time getting into the potty-training mindset. Bogie's all "make a big deal whenever she gets on the potty! positive reinforcement" and I'm thinking "what for? she didn't even do anything on it!". I know he's right, I'm just having a hard time remembering that she's 2 and training your bladder isn't as easy as I think it is just because I can already do it.

I think it's time for a Scooby-Snack. and by that I mean a cup of chocolate milk. that's right. I like chocolate milk. deal with it. boy, spell check did NOT like zoinks, jinkies, or scooby. and on that note I will leave you with
"and I would have gotten away with it too, if if weren't for you meddling kids and your dog!"

You might be a mother if:

-you get adept at picking things up with your toes so that you don't have to bend over with the baby
-you hear your husband say "you can't eat your pants, man"
-you only pee with the door shut when there's company over
-your 2-year old starts saying "I TOLD you...", "Don't touch!", and "look at me!"
-being pooped on doesn't phase you, but watching your kid stick her finger in her ear and then in her mouth makes you gag
-you have to explain to your daughter that your son doesn't have a tail because tails aren't in the front
-there are pen and crayon scribbles all over your "you might be a mother" list
-you realize you've been listening to kiddie songs for the past 20 minutes, but your kids have been asleep for 30
-you've ever had to say "that's not a bathtub, that's my left breast"
-phone conversations go something like this: "yes, I was calling-get down!-to see when you-no more juice, sweetie-were open until? Okay, thank-I said no, sweetie-thank you very much!"
-you hear a juicy burp that didn't come from your child but you check your shoulder for spit-up anyway
-uttering things like "please get your crayons out of your ears" and "petting zoos probably shouldn't have lions in them" are everyday occurrences
-you can breastfeed and cut coupons at the same time
-you open the freezer and a plastic cow falls into it because there are so many toys on top of the fridge in "time-out"
-you finally have an excuse to listen to as many Disney and Broadway songs as you want
-the phrase "don't play with his drool, please" has ever crossed your lips
-you recognize the look on a baby's face that says they're chewing on something they shouldn't have
-you watch a movie or TV show that features a newborn baby and think "pshft, that kid's 3 months old, easy"

What goes on inside my head

*  On Sesame Street, Elmo has a goldfish friend named "Dorothy" in every Elmo's World episode. I wonder how many goldfish they go through?

* If you can't make the effort to proofread your advertisement for spelling and grammar errors, what makes you think I'm going to grace you with my business?

* The world should work like a Mary Poppins film. I want to snap my fingers to tidy up a room and hop through a chalk picture to go on a vacation. Someone should get to work on that.

*There is a Gluten Free section in almost every grocery store. Why don't they have a High-Fructose Corn Syrup Free section, too?

*I find it irritating that nursing and maternity bras not only don't support, but also squish. If there was ever a time when the ladies needed a boost and to stay put, it's now!

*I really want to drive a VW bug so that I can watch people punch each other when I drive by.

*Regarding Disney's "Beauty and the Beast": I'm sorry, but there's just no way the shallow, superficial, muscular hunk is going to ignore the hot blonde triplets and go for the anti-social brunette bookworm. not gonna happen.

*We have a little basket full of magazines in our bathroom. It is mostly ESPN (there is one Real Simple with a fancy cover that I'll put in front when company comes over) because let's face it, I'm not in there long enough to need reading material. My husband thought it was weird that I had to turn the magazine around so that the athlete on the cover couldn't "watch" me pee. Am I alone in this?