And we're off! (I have that cartoon image of us being flinged out of a giant cannon.)
The van isn't as full as I expected (which is good because we'll probably have more on the way back), none of the kids' gifts are wrapped (but taped into boxes), and I did finish all my sewing projects! Go me!
Oh and the most exciting part is we're going to Canada! I'll have my laptop so look for updates along the way.
Merry Christmas, Happy New Years, and all that jazz!
I *pink puffy heart* the internet. I just paused newspaper delivery and held the mail in less than two minutes. No phone calls, no paper forms to fill out, no hassles...
Now if only the internet could wrap presents and pack suitcases.
I'm receiving phone calls on why I haven't updated so I'm updating already! (I spent most of the day at the sewing machine or in line at Kohl's. Joy.)
My blood tests came back with my thyroid levels in the normal range. So the doctor says my symptoms are probably either stress or hormone related (next up, the GYN visit, haven't gone in 5 years, oops) and I should exercise more. Blah...
Kelly's finally feeling better and back to her rotten self. Terribly rotten. As in she couldn't walk at any of the stores and why can't she have candy at each one? And then I didn't immediately turn on Play House Disney at home. The trauma I put that poor girl through today.
I finally see the light at the end of the Christmas tunnel. Especially since I gave up the idea of knitting sweaters for the boys and bought two at Target this morning. I did just finish sewing their PJ pants so they will be wearing one homemade item. The girls' dresses are finished as well (and the angels sang joyously). I have the fabric for the girls' crayon holder gifts but I'm waiting until they go to sleep to sew them.
The rest of my sewing/knitting projects are harder to talk about because they are Christmas gifts for some of my lovely readers here. So all I can say is that one is finished (started on Monday), another is 90% finished (also started on Monday), and the last one just needs put together (ongoing for a few months). I'll take pictures before they are given away so I can still share the projects with you. Unless of course my love of the items overtakes me and I keep everything and give gift cards instead. lol
In other Christmas news, I have the teachers' gifts purchased and all wrapped up as well as a few "Christmas treat" boxes made (our version of the token cookie plate for those people we'll see over the holidays but with whom we don't formally exchange presents). Both of those were completed today.
A completely new item on my list: Greg wants a couple of batches of jam made to give to co-workers. Guess who will be canning strawberry jam tonight? (Or tomorrow morning if I get lazy or more likely, pass out with exhaustion).
Right now at 7pm, I'm taking the kids shoe shopping. After school tomorrow the twins have their yearly doctor check up and Friday after school I'm getting my hair cut. The rest of Friday I am wrapping gifts and packing. Because Saturday we're getting up at 7am for a hockey game. (This has become the story of my life: getting up at 7am for hockey games.) And then onto Ohio and Christmas, woohoo!
Kelly's sick. (Like puking, fever, and sleeping all day sick). Which sucks not only because she feels awful but also because I can't run my errands. Too bad I can't go to the post office at 10pm.
I owe the twins a nice birthday post.
We're not putting up the Christmas tree here. Santa will just bring the gifts to Ohio at my in-laws. I feel kinda crappy about this but between the gifts I still need to make, hockey, laundry, wrapping presents, packing, and now Kelly being sick (and probably soon the others), I don't have time to think let alone decorate. I really hope I'm not knitting Christmas sweaters on Christmas day again...
Also? I have no idea what I'm wearing next week since I only seem to have one pair of jeans that fit along with 3 very old long sleeve t-shirts. I suppose it's good that I remembered this today instead of Friday when I'm trying to pack. Blah, I don't want to go clothes shopping...
Alright back to work (and cleaning up puke).
A few updates:
(Alternate title: "Breathe in, Breathe out")
Gifts and cake mix have been bought for the twin's 9th birthday tomorrow. (9?!?! Is that right?)
The Christmas tree will go up today, come hell or high water.
I'm down to 2 custom orders (1 drawstring bag, 1 notions pouch) and 1 donation (drawstring bag) for Blue Kitty Designs, none of which must be done before Christmas. Whew!
Although the 3 Christmas dresses, 2 PJ pants (for the boys), and various other sewing and knitting projects (i.e. gifts) have not been made yet.
Girl Scouts are finished for the year and we have one more Boy Scouts meeting on Tuesday. Although like a zillion hockey practices and games between now and Christmas break....
I'm paying the kids $1 for every 5 Christmas cards they color. Next year? Not coloring Christmas cards.
And I bought Mountain Dew at the grocery earlier so bring it on...
Case in point of me making others miserable today:
At the blood test lab, I noticed that my first name was spelled wrong on the printed paperwork I was to sign. So the admission lady corrected it and reprinted the paper. Oops, then I noticed my last name was misspelled. The first name was correct now though. So she reprinted the sheet again. And just to show that I really am losing my mind, on that 3rd version I finally noticed that the house number in my address was backwards. If looks could kill, I wouldn't be sitting here typing this right now. That poor admissions lady...
All I want for Christmas is for it to be January.
I'm having a grumpy day. Although the way this usually works is that I bitch about everything here and then I feel better. Except then all the people in my life get grumpy about what I wrote and then I feel bad that I made them grumpy. Although since I haven't finished this yet and therefore de-grumped myself, so they control their own emotions and it's not my fault that they are now grumpy. Um, maybe I should have left this whole paragraph at "I'm grumpy today."
Okay so my list of venting:
Kyle cut his hair last night while I was at hockey practice with Zach. He chopped off his bangs but left the rest alone. It looks like he has a huge forehead. Continuing the hockey practice with Zach rant, Greg stayed home with the other kids so I had planned to get some BKD expense/income spreadsheets finished on my laptop(also the ice rink has free WiFi). Except after about 5 minutes on the ice, Zach said his head hurt too bad and we had to leave. He was then "fine" when we returned home. So much for some nice alone time to get some work done.
The laundry is taking over the house. I now understand how this can be overwhelming (it only took me 10 years).
I'm sewing Christmas dresses for the girls instead of knitting sweaters due to the time crunch. Except the piping I "bought" didn't end up in my bag and so I have to go back to the fabric store because "insert piping" is step 2. (Step 1 being "cut fabric")
I feel fat. I'm quite grumpy about this. The weight keeps going up and I'm really watching the calorie intake (although not exercising. The time, there is none!). In fact (I'm now counting down the seconds to when I get a phone call from my mom...) I'm going to have blood taken today to check my thyroid. I've also had some serious hair loss (just ask Greg how much he hates my hair clogging the shower drain) and tiredness (more than the usual "I have 5 kids" type) and a few other possible symptoms. Usually if I watch what I eat for a few weeks, the scale easily goes back below 140 for me. Instead it keeps going up and it's pissing me off. Seriously 150lb is way too close at the moment (I'm 5'3" by the way) and I'm going to give up eating. (Seriously.)
Zach's home from school and I have a million and two errands to run. Isn't that always the way? He's sort of okay, just like last night (I think he has the low grade fever thing Kyle had the other day) so he'll be going out with me.
I have a Girl Scout meeting tonight that I haven't planned. I know, I'm a broken record with the "not planning Girl Scout meetings until the day of." And because irony loves me so, everyone wants to buy cookies now that the sale is over. Of course during the sale I couldn't get anyone to take cookies. I kicked my own butt to get the boxes sold through Emily and Ally so the troop wouldn't get hit with unsold boxes. I'm actually feeling rather violent about the whole cookie sale thing right now and I will NOT be doing it next year.
Oh yeah the twin's birthday is Saturday and I have nothing planned or gifts purchased. Who's brilliant idea was it to have two children 10 days before Christmas? They want Gameboy DS's. I don't want to buy them. But their Christmas/birthday lists were of no help with all the random crap that they wrote down just because it popped into their head and not that they really wanted it like "my own room", "Santa costume", "umbrella", and "new blue baby blanket" that it was hard to enough to buy Christmas gifts.
The Christmas tree is not up. Our house was all pretty last year at this time. And don't forget the outside lights. The kids have not seen Santa. Obviously the Christmas cards aren't finished. I'm really doing a horrible job at this Christmas spirit crap.
I think I'm done ranting. I'm still not in a better mood though.
Okay so my list of venting:
Kyle cut his hair last night while I was at hockey practice with Zach. He chopped off his bangs but left the rest alone. It looks like he has a huge forehead. Continuing the hockey practice with Zach rant, Greg stayed home with the other kids so I had planned to get some BKD expense/income spreadsheets finished on my laptop(also the ice rink has free WiFi). Except after about 5 minutes on the ice, Zach said his head hurt too bad and we had to leave. He was then "fine" when we returned home. So much for some nice alone time to get some work done.
The laundry is taking over the house. I now understand how this can be overwhelming (it only took me 10 years).
I'm sewing Christmas dresses for the girls instead of knitting sweaters due to the time crunch. Except the piping I "bought" didn't end up in my bag and so I have to go back to the fabric store because "insert piping" is step 2. (Step 1 being "cut fabric")
I feel fat. I'm quite grumpy about this. The weight keeps going up and I'm really watching the calorie intake (although not exercising. The time, there is none!). In fact (I'm now counting down the seconds to when I get a phone call from my mom...) I'm going to have blood taken today to check my thyroid. I've also had some serious hair loss (just ask Greg how much he hates my hair clogging the shower drain) and tiredness (more than the usual "I have 5 kids" type) and a few other possible symptoms. Usually if I watch what I eat for a few weeks, the scale easily goes back below 140 for me. Instead it keeps going up and it's pissing me off. Seriously 150lb is way too close at the moment (I'm 5'3" by the way) and I'm going to give up eating. (Seriously.)
Zach's home from school and I have a million and two errands to run. Isn't that always the way? He's sort of okay, just like last night (I think he has the low grade fever thing Kyle had the other day) so he'll be going out with me.
I have a Girl Scout meeting tonight that I haven't planned. I know, I'm a broken record with the "not planning Girl Scout meetings until the day of." And because irony loves me so, everyone wants to buy cookies now that the sale is over. Of course during the sale I couldn't get anyone to take cookies. I kicked my own butt to get the boxes sold through Emily and Ally so the troop wouldn't get hit with unsold boxes. I'm actually feeling rather violent about the whole cookie sale thing right now and I will NOT be doing it next year.
Oh yeah the twin's birthday is Saturday and I have nothing planned or gifts purchased. Who's brilliant idea was it to have two children 10 days before Christmas? They want Gameboy DS's. I don't want to buy them. But their Christmas/birthday lists were of no help with all the random crap that they wrote down just because it popped into their head and not that they really wanted it like "my own room", "Santa costume", "umbrella", and "new blue baby blanket" that it was hard to enough to buy Christmas gifts.
The Christmas tree is not up. Our house was all pretty last year at this time. And don't forget the outside lights. The kids have not seen Santa. Obviously the Christmas cards aren't finished. I'm really doing a horrible job at this Christmas spirit crap.
I think I'm done ranting. I'm still not in a better mood though.
What's up with this free will crap?
So every year since like 2002 or something, I've printed cute little black and white Christmas coloring book type images on blank cards and let the kids color them as our Christmas cards. On the back where the UPC code would go are the kids' names and they circle theirs on the cards they color. It works well because all the friends and family get a little piece of the kids' artwork and the coloring keeps the kids busy for a few hours. It's also funny how all the friends and family like to report back whose card they received. It's now our little tradition, awwww...
Except this year the children are striking.
Zach out right refuses to color. Last week I managed to get the other 4 to color about 3 each before they whined that they don't want to and went back to destroying the house and fighting over the computer. Let's see, 12 finished cards and a Christmas list of at least 75 addresses. This is not going to work.
Rotten free will...
Do you really want an update?
I just brought Kyle home from school. He's running a high fever and definitely not himself. I always feel like a rotten mom going in to pick up my sick kids from school. I swear to God he was fine this morning.
Also I waited in line for an hour at the post office. Crazy international orders.
And now back to the sewing machine...
Ah ha! Last night I stayed up late and
Although now that I think about it, I probably should have bought a Thank You present for my UPS guy...
* (Don't ask about the items I'm making. I might need to break the whole space time continuum to finish everything planned.)
Today's been one of those "Let's knock as many things things off the To Do list as humanly possible." So far:
- Purchased Christmas gifts for Boy Scout service project
- Purchased Christmas gifts for Girl Scout service project
- Bought a few Christmas gifts for my kids (I told Kelly they were going to the Scouts, hehe)
- Returned extra gifts from Black Friday shopping (it would have been nice if those could have gone to the Scout stuff but they were the wrong ages/genders)
- Bought printer ink and stationary (for letters to parents asking for money to give the teachers one big gift)
- Bought dress pattern and fabric for Christmas dresses (only Kelly's though, I'll let the twins pick theirs out later)
- Started knitting Kyle's Christmas sweater (and then Zach's eventually)
Again with the moving back to the Midwest where people know how to deal with snow...
So yesterday I watched the snow fall and fall and fall. Except it was light flurry stuff, not the type that accumulates a foot in an hour. And I also answered the phone from half a dozen parents, "it's snowing! The roads are slick! Are you canceling?"
NO! The roads are wet like when it rains. It's only 2 inches of snow. You people are insane. (Only I just said "No" and thought the rest in my head.)
We went. And the roads were fine. Course I have a heavy huge van with new tires and it takes a lot to get the van to slide (I know, I've tried. Minus kids inside, of course) It had even stopped snowing at that point. The animals were cute, the shelter was pretty empty thanks goodness (maybe a dozen cats, 8 dogs, 2 rabbits, and 1 bird). And the staff was grateful for our donations. Or maybe because we had finally made it and wouldn't be calling to reschedule. For the 5th time...
This morning the schools are on a 2 hour delay. I suppose because there's white stuff on the ground (the roads are fine). I don't mind so much because St. Nick brought the kids new gloves last night. And if you tell me that the shoes are suppose to go out tonight (I can never remember the exact date), I don't care. I think it's one of the few privileges a parent gets, the ability to change holidays as needed.
Now if only it wasn't so cold...
Finding your happy place
I think I need a map.
Nothing's really wrong, I'm just a little worn out (as usual). I almost always have too much on my plate and for some God forsaken unknown reason, I'm taking second helpings (Most recent example: baking 4 dozen homemade cookies for Teacher Appreciation gifts. And they can't be chocolate chip.)
I'm not even sure I have the time to be blogging this.
Also? It's snowing outside. Guess what I have scheduled for after school today with the Girl Scout Brownie troop?
The Animal Shelter Tour
*bangs head on desk*
I'm feeling a little bit icky today. It's one of those "my throat is a little bit sore and my head hurts a little bit and my nose is stuffed up a little bit. If I were a kid, I'd totally play this up to get a day off school. But since everything is just a little bit off, I still need to do all my regular crap (today: pay bills, take out the trash, go grocery shopping, go to the bank & post office, send emails, sew).
I guess I should take a little bit of medicine and see if that helps with the symptoms. I don't usually hate Mondays (the kids are back in school!) but for today I'll make an exception.
Humans should be allowed to hibernate.
Quote of the Day: "Sleep is a symptom of caffeine deprivation." -Author Unknown
All Content at katiefleck.com is Copyright 2003-2007 by Katie Fleck, All Rights Reserved.
