what does THIS dancer say about YOU?

Left brain vs. right brain.

This is so weird. I know e-mailed this to most everyone after my SIL e-mailed it to me. When I first looked she would only go counter-clockwise and I couldn't make it switch. Then I opened it again to show Mike and he saw it going clockwise. We sat there and argued about it since we were watching it at the same time. I opened it again today and it was going clockwise. The more I stared at it the more it randomly switched direction. It's nice to know I use both sides of my brain. Also, kind of shock that my ANAL husband doesn't see it going counter-clockwise. Which are you?

The Princess Party

This year Mia wanted to dress-up with her friends so we had a "party" Saturday. We only invited her "girlfrieds" and Mason was the lone male. I made flower cakes (forgot to take a picture of them), red punch, meatballs, a bowl of mixed fruit and every kids favorite- mac & cheese. We let them just play for awhile while us moms just sat around and talked. Gotta love it when the guest list includes your friends. Then we made crowns and wands. One little princess had to go home for a nap before we took the pictures but here are the rest of the little ladies with Prince Mason:

My SIL told me that whenever there is girls for a party there is ALWAYS drama. Thank Goodness we didn't have any of that! We did have a little prince pretending to be a monster chasing princesses and whacking them with his sword though.

There were times when Mason kind of questioned Mia's party. I'm not sure if he's putting together that she got a birthday party and he didn't. My poor Christmas Eve baby we'll do a half birthday party for you this summer so you can have at least one to remember.

Signs of non-active parenting

In our defense... Mike and I have been sick for almost the last 3 weeks. Two weekends ago was so bad it was like a movie marathon in our home. We were just so sick but the kids were fine. We were like, "How about a movie?".... two hours later, "How 'bout another movie?" and so on.
Yesterday Mia was watching a Wonderpets show and at the end the baby bee and mom bee were flying outside the hive.
Mia - "Where's the Daddy?".
Me- "I know he's probably working."
Mia- " I know! He's probably inside sitting on the couch watching TV".

Yikes! Do they really view us as deadbeats?

I'll post about the birthday madness tomorrow.

Deal of the day

I went to Younkers today thinking I would just look to see if they had any boy's winter coats on clearance. I usually buy my kids winter coats (& snowpants) for the next year when they're on clearance at the end of the season. I usually never find stuff in Mason's size and there was one style coat left on the clearance rack with a final price of $24. It was trimmed in blue and the next size up was trimmed in black which is what I would have preferred. So I decided I'd get it since I can always take it back if I find a better deal down the road. Then at the last minute I decided I'd go check in the "boys" section in case some clothes got misplaced. They did have one coat left overthere trimmed in black in 3T. So far so good. Then I noticed a rack of coats marked $14.99. The sign said originally $60-$45 and I saw 2 snow suits on the rack but they were marked originally $80. So I took one up to the counter and asked her if it was on sale. It was. So I got a snow suit for $14.99! It's a 4T so it will be probably 2 years before he wears it but $14.99.
The brand is London Fog. Not too shabby. She said I could have even used my coupon but I brought the wrong coupons which were dated Friday-Saturday. It would have been another 20% off.

In other news I've decided I'm pretty much done with the kid's rooms. I really messed up the pillow shams I was trying to do for Mason's room so I salvaged what I could and made pillowcases. Mason's bedroom is in the pic below followed by a picture of his bunk-bed bag that is on Mia's bunkbed. Below is Mia's room.

Have passport want to travel

So way back in August we talked about getting the kids passports in case Mike gets sent to Japan again. I also pointed out that if we should ever want to go to Canada or Mexico we now need passports. I finally got the kids applications put together over the Holidays and took them in on Friday Jan 4th. They weren't turned in early either since I needed to run home to write separate checks instead of the one combined total that I had ready. She said if I got the checks back by 4pm they'd go out that day. I think I delivered them around 3pm. Imagine my surprise when Mason's passport arrived Monday the 14th and Mia's the 17th. I was thinking it was going to take 3 months and it was less then 2 weeks. Impressive! Maybe we should take a winter escape to Mexico to test them out. I WISH.

Weather update here: SNOW, SNOW & more SNOW!

Sir Mason

Mason in his knight costume. Disney was having 50% off the sale price and I spent $5.99 for the costume, $2.99 for the sword and shield and $8.50 for shipping. CRAZY! Anyway the quality is great and he loves it. He's so short that when he puts his boot covers on you can't see his pants:)

The Next Mia Soccer Star

Mia had her first soccer class Tuesday. It all started out well but then about halfway through she sat down and refused to move. Then she came over to the side and told me she's bored. She said she knew how to play soccer and they weren't playing a game.

The last 10 minutes of class they let the siblings come out and run around. Mason LOVED it!

I'm going to have a hard time keeping him away from the class now that he thinks it's his class too. It was a little ridiculous that the kid's had 3 or 4 water breaks for a 45 minute class. My friend Becky said something though to the people that run the place so maybe it will be different next week. We signed up with some friends so Mia gets to see her friends and I get to see mine. She has asked repeatedly since then when "soccer practice" is again. I said, "why, you didn't play with everyone else". She claims she likes it. She said her favorite part is one the brothers and sisters get to come out. Of course, who wouldn't love a bunch of kids running around like mad. It's kind of like a a little mosh pit.

Here's Mia getting ready for soccer in her "Mia Hamm" soccer shirt she got for Christmas from the Ferg's. She keeps telling me she's "number 9". Very cool that she gets her own personalized shirt to run around in.

Valtrex

Mike and I were watching the pre-game for the OSU game yesterday (we won't mention the game) when a commercial for Valtrex came on. I started laughing because it made me think of the SNL skit with Alec Baldwin. When I watch SNL (once a month or so) I generally don't think it's very funny anymore but there are quite a few skits when I think of it that really crack me up. So click the link above for a good laugh.

Bunkbed Bag

Tried to get caught up a little today with some sewing and finally made Mia a bunkbed bag. It is a bag to hang from the rail in her bunkbed to hold books. I'm hoping this will keep them from ending up all over the bed and buried under the sheets. I'm also thinking of putting a pack of Kleenex in there in hopes that this will end the existence of the "booger wall". OK, maybe there's only one booger every few months but it still grosses me out.

A few months ago I decided to do Mason's room in an Airplane theme and finally made him a curtain. I'll take a picture of his room when I finally get around to doing his bedding.
I still have lots of ongoing projects but at least I got something done.

Christmas Sales are killing me

I just go to make a return and then I see something that I want (don't need) that's 80% off. I went into Kohl's to return a few things and see a table in the back that has their nice hardcover books for $2.50. Then the Christmas Corner. They had apothecary jars marked down from $40 to $8. They even come with the holiday stuff to put in them. Of course, I'll have to stash the holiday stuff until next year but I hope the jars look as good in my house as they do in everyone else's. I also got a new coat that I needed. What I need are some clothes but I either don't have the time to look or I'm not in the mood to try things on. After a break of just eating and PMS set in trying on clothes is some kind of torture.
Anyway, trying to gear myself up to run to the store with the kids today. Never a fun time.

Mia's Fake American Girl Doll

Mia had saw some ads in the Tuesday Morning ad in November for some Gotz dolls and commented on how she wanted one. The dolls in the ad (IMO) were UGLY! I'm not keen on the dolls with the crazy bangs. I did happen to go to Tuesday Morning later that week for something else and took a stroll down the toy aisle. I did find a doll that I thought was cute and for only $30.
I thought for $30 we'll give it a try as there's no way I'm spending a $100 on an American Girl Doll to have her destroy it or just not play with it. So my mom bought it from me and gave it to her for Christmas. She loves it. So far anyway.

I did find out yesterday though that there is a new American Girl doll out named Mia. Mia is a figure skater but is reddish blonde with freckles. She does resemble her cousin Bailey though (on left) who Mia also LOVES. So if I do decide to ever break down and get an AG doll. That may be the one.

I keep checking back at Tuesday Morning everytime I go to see if I can find another "cute" (I have my standards) doll to get for Bailey but so far no luck. I'll keep trying though.

Football is painful yet wonderful

I'll admit I was very pessimistic about watching my Wolverines play yesterday. Michigan never seems to play well after a break and I was wondering which Michigan team would show up to play. I've been a fan forever. I've been watching Michigan football since I was in Elementary school and even started attending some of the games when I was in middle school. Both my dad's grandparents moved their families to the Ann Arbor area for the express purpose of my grandparents attending Michigan. We (me and my Dad) are true blue Michigan fans. That being said we both know that the Michigan football team is bi-polar. They either come out and play INCREDIBLE or they come out and look like they're not even trying. So it was with anxiety and angst that I sat down to watch the game yesterday. True to form the game brought me nearly to tears while I cursed like I had Tourette's syndrome at the TV. But it the end, it was worth it.

Now that I live in a split household having married into an Ohio State family I'll have to root for the Buckeyes next Monday. Actually, I would anyway. If the school is not playing Michigan, I always root for the other Big 10 schools. Unlike my Father-in-law who hates Michigan so much he went out and bought an Appalachian State shirt. At least Mike suffered through the game with me yesterday cheering for Michigan. There could have been some blood shed had I heard any of those well-deserved anti-Michigan comments during the game yesterday.

What Boys Dream Of

When I went to check on the kids the other night I found Mia sleeping in the top bunk sprawled out among her dolls. Mason on the bottom was asleep with his football. I just had to get the camera. I was so scared that I was going to wake him up with the flash but he didn't even notice.

Well Santa thinks they were good

The kids in front of their haul. That's not even all of it. That's what we could make visible for a picture. Mike has five sisters so you can imagine the amount of gifts they get from Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents. As you may or may not be able to tell from the picture Mason just wants to rip into that box he has his hand on. Nothing fills you with Holiday Cheer more than screaming at your kids trying to get one good picture. First comes the challenge of getting them both within a couple feet of each other so they will both be in the same picture and to stay there. Followed by getting them to look at you, then look at the same time, then smile and finally to look and smile at the same time. Virtually impossible. It doesn't matter if Mike or I am manning the camera it always ends with one of us saying, "Well, that's as good as it gets. I think there might be one decent one in there."

Even Barley was happy with his gifts.

Keeping it separate

Christmas Eve is Mason's birthday and it's really getting to be a challenge for us to keep it separate from Christmas. We had hotdogs for dinner since that's one of Mason's favorites and tried to keep the day focused around his birthday.

The evening gets pre-empted for other programming however: Christmas mass and then preparing for Santa by laying out the cookies, carrots and beer.Yes, Santa gets beer from our family. We figure Santa gets milk from all the other kids and would probably enjoy a nice cold beer for all his efforts. I thought about celebrating his half birthdays with a party six months later since the poor kid never gets to have a party but that would make it days away from his cousin's who generally is visiting in Michigan at that time. I'm on the fence but I think we can manage a half birthday party in the summer.

Christie Rocks!

At least so far. Mike got Guitar Hero II for his PS2 and he tried it out yesterday. What we realized.... he sucks at it. So I gave it a go and am MUCH better. Hence, today when he went and bought new "shoot em' up" games that he's good at and told me he won't play Guitar Hero anymore because it's "impossible". It's nice to be better at something finally:)

The kids have been wanting nothing but to stay in and play with all their new toys. We dragged them out today to run to some stores: Target and ToysRUs. Mia got a giftcard to ToysRUs and they had the Leapster games BOGO free. So we drove to Muskegon (as the Holland TRU closed a couple years ago) and let her use her gift card to new games. We also went to Target where I bought wrapping paper, etc for next year and Mike finally broke down and bought some lights for outside. The kids have been asking us to make our house a "Christmas house" which in their lingo means put up some outside Christmas lights. I guess the two little wreaths I have framing the garage didn't cut it in their eyes. Now I have to wait almost a whole year to what I anticipate will be Mike on the roof with a lot of cursing.

I asked the kids what their favorite gifts were: Mason- "I don't have any" which means he likes it all. Mia- "the Leapster". So I guess getting up and going to Kohls on Black Friday was worth it.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Lights - TSO - Christmas Eve in Sarajevo - 2007

I'm thinking that we're going to the TSO concert next year. I think the kids we'll really enjoy it.

My Supermodels

Well for the first time Mason was actually used in the print ad for one of his modeling ads. He has had his pictures taken multiple times but in the end he never made the ad. This time he didn't take very good pictures. He always had fingers in his mouth, a finger up his nose or his tongue out so I'm pretty surprised that this was the time he actually made the ad. He's on the back page of the Meijer mid-week flyer.

Mike sent an e-mail and pictures to the kennel where we got Barley and Mia, Mike and Barley are now on the kennel's website.

In other news, today was the last day of school until after the new year. How will I survive?

Cotton candy, sweet and low, let me see that "crayon" roll

Decided last minute to make crayon rolls to stick in my "treat bags" for my kids in the Faith Formation class. So Tuesday night, up forever making crayon rolls and baking cookies.

I decided to use elastic to close rather than the ribbon that you tie because my kids can't tie yet.

The week before in the Faith Formation class the kids made St. Nick hats(mitres). Here's Mia and Mason wearing the one Mia made.

Just got back from my SIL's this weekend. She has an annual "wine and cheese" party and Mike and I have been lucky enough to go the last two years. It had been years since we made the one last year and I forget how much fun it is to be out. I got my mom to babysit and keep the kids for the night so we had a free ticket to party. The food is always FANTASTIC and the wine is great too. Since I've had kids though I only get to have a couple or more drinks and I'm done. Not because I stop myself but because I've become such a lightweight and will spend the rest of my evening "praying to the porcelain God" if I don't. Since most of Mike's family was attending the "Wine and Cheese" fest we decided to do his family Christmas today. The kids are so excited about their haul (presents) that I can't get them to go to sleep.

SNL Christmas Song

Too much going on to post to the blog today. This is to get you into the Christmas mood.