Quite A Year

Another year gone, but it was a fun one.  Hope the new year offers all the fun and excitement as the last,  maybe a little less of the scary excitement (Mom's cancer and surgery, the flooding of the upstairs, etc.).  Gonna try and add some pictures from Christmas to this post too.

The Perfect Storm

Carpet, Jennifer's surgery, Christmas, work, kids... all combine to make the perfect storm of getting the house ready.  I am in the process of getting everything piled into the kitchen and family room into the  garage where Layne's new bed was.  Her bed is now in her room and the garage is now empty, well, just not as cluttered.  We need the kitchen and family room back so we can actually eat and sit down.  Neither of which was really possible the last two days.

Some pics of Charlie our elf and Layne painting.  Charlie made his presence known via graffiti on Layne's wall, that Charlie.

The Price of New Carpet

Yes, the carpet is in, but the house is an absolute disaster.  I know I've said the house was a disaster before, but this... this on a biblical level, this could put us on the show "Hoarders".  Want to sit down and eat at the table, well there is a path that can get you to the table, but you'd need a chair five feet high to reach the top of the stacked piles.  Our bathroom didn't fair much better.  Some stuff has been put back so it doesn't look as bad as the kitchen.  Looks like we've got a dirty clothes monster growing in the tub.  "Don't Walk, Run from... The Dirty Clothes Blob... in theaters just in time for Christmas."  It's making for an interesting holiday season this year, but we'll pull it off, we always do somehow.

We are leaving it like this for a reason, we want to really get rid of some things and go through it all and keep only the stuff we need and want, the rest goes.  It will be hard for all of us, but this a great opportunity to clean house.  Almost like a fresh start.

The good thing about it all is the carpet.  Jennifer and I like it, but the kids are ecstatic.  They like it so much, the first thing they did when we got home was take off their shoes and go upstairs to see and feel the carpet, then the realization that it's just carpet kicked in and the deity that is tv regained it's dominance.  We'll see how much of the house we can put back in order before Christmas and get decorations out as well.  We don't have any holiday stuff up at all.  Time to crack the whip and get those kids working or I see coal in their future.

A Festival of Lessons and Carols

Today, on the 2nd Sunday of Advent, we had A Festival of Lessons and Carols at our church.  Joshua is the only one who is singing in the choir at this time.  He is in the Epiphany Choir.

It was a bit of a rough day.  Joshua is pushing all the buttons right now.

We had instructions that the children singing were to wear their "Christmas Best" as they were leading worship this afternoon.  So, our son, who was upset last night that he did not have a suit coat to wear to the Puppet Theater - and "settled" for a shirt and tie, would not dress up for church this afternoon.  He ended up wearing his new tennis shoes, khaki slacks, and a guitar t-shirt.  The mention of the guitar t-shirt at this point would be foreshadowing.

Joshua did well in the first half of the singing.  He was a little fidgety and couldn't seem to stop waving at us - but did sing along.  For some reason, even though he knew where we were sitting and waved at us the whole time, he didn't know how to find us when it was his time to join us.   So he wandered a bit and then got a little frightened and was very snuggly for a bit.

Then Joshua was my sweet kid for a few minutes and asked if he could go give Rev. Jenna a hug.  I think she was surprised, but he gave a real good hug.

Then he got antsy and had to go sit with Layne, Jacob and Zackary in the front row with Miss Wendy.  He started to get real silly and I had to go sit with him and use my Mommy Voice and give him the Mommy Look a few times.  So when it was time for him to go back and sing he was so not happy.

He stood up there in front of church with his arms crossed and shooting daggers at me.   Then he started taking his choir robe off and playing air guitar with his t-shirt.  We were soooo proud.  The best was when he started giving me 2 thumbs down - just to make sure I really knew how upset he was with me.

I at least got a cute picture of the 3 of them in front of the Christmon Tree.  You wouldn't know the day we had and they yelling and screaming that is coming from upstairs by Joshua when looking at this picture.

Well - Merry Christmas!!!!!

Super Boy and his Dog

Way to go Midnight Wolves!

They definitely went out with a bang at the end of their season.  They won their first game, 5 to 0.  Layne made 2 goals, Laramie made 2 goals, and Lauren made a goal.  I am so happy that Lauren made a goal.  She is the Head Coach's daughter and she has been so upset this year about the team never winning and how bad it has been for this group of girls.  Her dad used to play soccer in college, also.  Big game for them!

We had the first game of the day - 8:00 a.m.  It should not be legal to have an 8:00 a.m. soccer game when it is only 40 degrees and the mist is so thick you can hardly see because the sun isn't even fully up!  But at least it wasn't windy and Grandma brought lots of hot chocolate.

Since we had a game that was so early, we of course decided that pizza would not work.  So I got doughnuts from Sara's Doughnuts in Alpharetta.  They are really the best doughnuts.  Matthew said I should get a referral fee - everyone wanted to know where the doughnuts came from and where they could get them.

Here is Layne on the field today:

 

And here is the whole team together: 

The coaches are in the back, Coach Allen is on the left with dark hair, and Coach Shulstad (I don't know his first name - he is the soccer player) is on the left. 

The girls standing from left to right are: Rachel, Sofia, Fiona, Laramie, Layne, Lauren, Maddie

The girls kneeling in front from left to right are: Ansley, Emma, and Ashton

Way to go Midnight Wolves!!!!!

We also got a little into the holiday spirit today.  We went to see Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer at the Center for Puppetry Arts.  It was really good!  The puppets were exactly like the ones in the TV show.  So cute - and the mesh screen in front with the projected images really added to the show. 

We also went ahead and got tickets for the Muppet Christmas Show on December 3 - can't wait!

Just another day

Oh, yeah - except for the part where we woke up at 7:00 a.m.  I  know, I know - how does that happen?  Well, we were out trick-or-treating and didn't get home until almost 9:00 p.m.  Then I insisted on everyone taking a quick bath/shower.  Which means we didn't get in to bed until about 10:00 p.m.  I think everyone was sound asleep in just a few seconds.

For some reason Joshua decided to climb in our bed about 1:30 a.m.  Which led to reshuffling, grumbling, and lots of pushing with little feet. 

Then at about 4:00 a.m. I hear "Daddy, I wet the bed".  UGH!!!!!!  So - off Joshua goes for another bath and mom cleans up the pee and starts laundry and we climb back in bed again about 4:30 a.m.

Then we have the pushing / shoving / grumbling - "please Joshua go to your bed" discussion again.

Next thing we know - it's 7:00 a.m.

So I had big plans to get home early, go to Miss Dawn's to get our nuts / chocolate order from Girl Scouts, then get home, have dinner, be the happy family and ask everyone about their day - while daddy plays basketball.  Nope - not going to happen.  I have management classes tomorrow at work, interviews to perform for new EEG Techs, patient calls, Dr. Flamini on call and needing help, etc.  I didn't even leave work until after 5:30 p.m.  Then I realize that I have a total of 14 miles until I am supposed to be out of gas.... grrrrrr.  So I make it to the most expensive gas station on my way home at Northridge - with 1 mile to spare!!!!!  Get Joshua - who is out of control playing with Jack (his best friend at school) - get Layne and Jacob, go to Miss Dawn's.  Now it's almost 7:00 p.m.  Yep - we ate out - Taco Mac and cheese dip with tortillas.  I still can't seem to get it all done.  I feel like I spend my days rushing all the time.

Had to elect our new health benefits for next year.  Yes, they increased - AGAIN.  Yes, we get less benefits for the same money - Thank you to the current government (sorry had to say it).  We have further limits on our Flexible Spending Accounts - less allowed and less items that can be applied.  It gets even worse in 2013.  Hopefully something else will reverse this trend.  Going to be a tough election year.  Not intending to make a political statement - but every year when I have to review / renew benefits it really gets to me.

Here is one of Matthew's artistic photos - he loved the curl of the pumpkin:

This is a picture from our trip last weekend to Burt's Pumpkin Farm.  We made the trek again.  We went up on Sunday and took a picnic lunch and ate at Amicalola Falls State Park (along with a million other people from metro Atlanta).  Enjoyed some great weather.  Then came back out of the park to Burt's and picked our pumpkins.  I think it's a pretty good picture - except Grandma looks like she is visually impaired - and there is some girl in a pink t-shirt trying to move in to the shot :)

Here is Jacob amongst the pumpkins:

  And here are all  kids - Pumpkin Farm 2011: