Choxie!

Well, first let me say that the name of this gives me pause: According to the packaging *cough- pardon the pun that I surely didn't intend* but... Chocolate with MOXIE? In my brain, "moxie" makes me think "balls", so now I'm thinking chocolate-covered testicles. Although not an overall unpleasant thought, still not something that renders me drooling. Unless shaved, you'd have bits and pieces of little hairs pokin' out and then the "crust" that forms as chocolate dries and cracks and holy ball sac, Batman, the visual is endless.

Anyway...

My dear, DEAR friend eliana sent us some Choxie for Christmas. The SPICE NUT TOFFEE is to DIE for.

So, if thinking of chocolate-covered testicles is the punishment I have to endure for the savory sensation of spice nut toffee dancing across my taste-buds and awaking me with little bits of oral orgasms pinging off my teeth with each crunch, well... okay!

Man oh MAN!

So the Art of Procrastination, which I have down to a science now, just bit me in the butt again.

Remember my posts about the small town book I was working on? I was going to call it RUMOR HAS IT (it's all about rumors in a small town). And just now on TV I heard an ad for a new movie with Jennifer Aniston in it with that title! (I don't watch much tv, so if this isn't "new", ignore that part.) I couldn't BELIEVE IT!

Coming up with titles is no easy thing - Rah! Now I gotta think of a new one for it. *grumble*cuss*grumble*

The Morning After

It's done. It's over with. And yet I know now, as I sigh deeply in relief from just the survival of it all, that I'll blink and it'll be here again before I know it. Christmas is evil that way.

Or maybe it's Time that's evil.

Or both. Yes, let's go with both.

We spent Christmas Eve at my parents this year. Usually we stay home for Christmas Eve and have Santa here at the house then pile in the car for the three hour drive to my parents. But this year, we went on Christmas Eve. We let the kids open their gifts from us that morning so we didn't have to haul them, but then they all ended up hauling 1/2 of the new stuff with them because they couldn't bear to go 1.5 days without. I guess that should be a good thing - they must have really like what they got.

One of my favorite things I got this year was this bracelet from my mother. I'll try to post a picture of it soon, since I'm sure I'll fail miserably in trying to describe it. It's got a jewel, then a tiny gold flat link. Each jewel is one of the kids' birthstones, then the plate next to it has the child's name engraved. Goes all the way around with all four kids, plus Brian. I LOVE IT. It's gorgeous and I've never seen one like it before.

Speaking of cameras, I remembered EVERYTHING I could think of for the trip, but one thing. ONE LITTLE THING. One LITTLE but MAJOR thing: My camera. So no photos. Hopefully Mom got some good shots with her digital and can email me some. I just couldn't believe of all things to forget, it was THAT. I blame being tired on that.

Or the fact that Christmas Eve morning the entire honker-ass Christmas tree here at the house fell on top of me.

I'll refrain from mentioning this is the third time that's happened to me over the years.

Merry Christmas to you all. I hope you found every blessing possible.

Bah Humbug - I heart Scrooge.

So here it is, all upon us in its tinsel glory and chocolate-fills fits of hysteria - CHRISTMAS TIME.

Like a moron, I made the mistake of going to Target today, a mere 5 days til Christmas. The parking was wicked, even with handicap plates - because they were ALL FILLED. And it was the middle of the day - what happened to people, oh, I don't know - WORKING?! It should not have been that busy. No excuses are acceptable either.

So, anyway, why was I at Target, you ask? To get a t-shirt that reads: I MAKE STUFF UP. Given the latest slew of shyt that some ugly, melting petty jealous ...*cough* woman... has been saying about me, I *almost* didn't get it. But that would be giving her way too much power of me, and she's way too freakin' ugly (both inside and out) to do that, right? Right. Anyway, I heard about it on the chick-lit loop and had to have it. And yeah, baby, I GOT IT! And I didn't get beaten or bloodied while in the store either.

So here I am, in my cute, rockin' new t-shirt, and I'm printing off a gazillion labels for Christmas cards. This is, by far, THE latest I've ever sent them out. I got all the names printed from the message board (about 35 total) and then I went to get my address book to print off the family ones. Cept, yanno, I can't find the freakin' address book!!!! I have to mail them tomorrow to get them out on time. Gah - writer's procrastination bit me in the ass with freakin' CHRISTMAS CARDS!!!!

If you were my address book, where would you be?

Don't Eat the Yellow Snow!!!

Snow Pee

I've written my name with pee in the snow. My life is complete - I can die now.

A special thanks to kitten for the link. I think. Or she needs to be beaten, not sure which.<

Well, it's 1am, but...

It was a semi-productive day.

I took Squishy Baby to school, telling the teacher about the incident and the shaking and stuff. By 10am, she called. He was shaking and dizzy and walking crooked again, and she was so freaked she CARRIED him to the nurse. I decided that was IT. I mean, he's #4, right? I've been through all kinds of stuff with the others, I'm a pretty good judge of what requires a doctor and what doesn't. But after five days since the incident, I was getting kind of worried, and I didn't want my "I'm a mom for years" mentality to really screw up my kid. So we headed off to the ER.

They did a CT Scan and also a chest xray to check for pneumonia since he had a bad cough. I'm relieved to say that both were fine. I didn't break the boy! YAY! He has a slight ear infection, but the doctor didn't think that was enough to make the way he walked so weird, or cause such drastic dizziness. BUT, he said the slight ear infection COMBINED with the head trauma was. So there ya go. He wanted him to stay home til Friday, but said if he was up to it, he could go back tomorrow.

Now this is the crappy part - this is THE best week of school for the entire year for elementary school kids. High school sucks this time of year - semester finals, which Shandie is cussing greatly over (figure of speech.) Tonight as we were decorating the three, there were about 5 ornaments Sydney had made last year. Cooper only has one so far, because he's been out all this week. Syd was so upset over that, she wanted to take some of hers down. One of her tender moments - as few as they are - now recorded in history. On top of that, we buy them an ornament each year. I haven't found THE ONE yet for Cooper for this year, so he only had three plus the one from school. Shandie and Carly had a crapload. Syd even had a good number - 5th Christmas and all the ones from school last year and this year. So poor little dude was like, "This mine? What about this one?" I finally started letting him hang up just anything. He was happy with that.

So yes, that brings me to this: THE TREE IS UP AND DECORATED! Finally! Whew! And I stayed up (as you can see) and got rest of the gifts wrapped. I'm almost back on schedule!!!

Now tomorrow I have to finish cleaning and I have to have lunch with Carly because I can't make it to her class party on Friday, because Friday I have TWO school parties I have to attend: Syd's and Cooper's. Both at the same time. Ugh. And, with Syd's, I have to bring cupcakes. Ugh again. Now, am I going to be smart and just buy some to take? Or am I going to let my anal-perfectionism kick my ass further by making them from scratch? I'm guessing the latter, but I'm so worn out I just may go with store bought. Plus, they'd all get like a cool little cheap-ass plastic ring or something that'd come on the top. How's that for justification.

I'll let ya know what I do.

Man, it's good to be blogging again.

AND, I'm hoping after Christmas to start blog-hopping again. And writing fulltime like I've said I'd do. The slump sucked - time to get on with it, right? Right.

zzzZZZzzzZZZzz

I'm running on empty, and fast. Today is Wednesday. Tomorrow is early out for the high school and Friday is packed with a Pre-K Christmas Party, a Kindergarten Christmas Party, and a middle-school Christmas Party, and then school out by 1pm. Umm, okay. That's doable. NOT.

Straight from school on Friday afternoon, we're heading up to DFW with a stop by Cameron to pick up B. So that means I have to do the following between now and Friday morning:

Finish the freakin' tree. It's up, but not remotely decorated.
Finish wrapping presents.
Finish SHOPPING for the presents I've forgotten, which, btw, include three teacher gifts.
(Go to the crafters mall to look for teacher gifts)
Finish laundry for this weekend's trip.
Finish cleaning.
Pack for six.

And the WORST part is that this morning, I realized I won't get to sleep in until MONDAY! And only then because it'll be Christmas Break for the kids. I have sleep issues. I need my sleep. I crave my sleep. Right now, though, there's just no TIME to sleep. And right now, I'm seriously hating B's job that keeps him away 72 hours at a time. ~sigh~

I'd stay longer and whine more, but yanno, I got stuff to do and I'm quickly running out of time to get it done. This is the first year I've ever felt the "pressures" of Christmas, and I'm really starting to understand why adults never seemed to like the holidays when I was growing up.

If you think homemade cookies are on the list, ha! Slice and bake, baby!

My Little Squishy

Remember that line from FINDING NEMO? Dory loved her little squishy, yanno, until it zapped her. Dang jellyfish anyway.

Well, I apparently tried to make my own Little Squishy. Since January, my kids have wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese that they built and I kept putting if off - "Yeah, okay, by the end of the year." Well, the kids called it on me: End of the year is almost here and I hadn't taken them yet.

Fine. Git in the van then.

The big teenager, Ms. Angst, stayed home. So it was me, the 11 year old mini-me named Carly, the heathenistic 5 year old daughter Sydney, and the angel boy, 4 year old Cooper. We drive to the next town, and although it was already 7pm, the place was pretty packed. We parked, and the way the van was angled, the nose of the van faced downhill.

I get the kids out. We're right next to the mall, so I'm being careful with the two tiny ones to stay by me. I go to nudge the sliding door, since gravity will pull it rest of the way closed.

Yanno that saying about an object in motion tends to STAY in motion? That's true. In case you were wondering.

At the last minute, as I watched the sliding door zip shut, Cooper puts his head back in. I watched as the van door slammed into the side of his head, pushing it against the frame on the opposite side, causing his head to be smashed in the door.

It was like slow motion. My hand was trying to grab on to stop it, but it really was just like watching helplessly. It seemed to go on forever when in fact it was less than a second. I had this flash in my brain that he was suspended between the door and the frame and the moment I got it open, he'd collapse.

He didn't. He screamed. He cried. I tried to load the kids up into the van to go to the ER, but Cooper wiped his tears and said, "I fine." (He's working on "I'm".) He's got a knot on the side of his head and a small scratch, and that's it.

Mom aged twenty years instantly. He went inside and rocked with Chuck E. Cheese for two hours. Now we call him, "My Little Squishy", to which he replies, "MoooOOOooom!!!"

Dude, where's your blog?

Umm, right here. And I'm back.

A mighty big thank you to Mr. Doyle. He knows why.

To those that emailed, thank you. I'm very appreciative of your support and concern. I had a lot of stuff going on here at home but I think it's all been straightened out now. At least, I hope so.

So it's now less than two weeks til Christmas. I don't even have my tree up. I did finish my shopping earlier this year than before, then realized I hadn't gotten three gifts I needed. But this is, hands down, the latest I've ever spent in getting the house decorated. We finally got the lights on the outside of the house today and rearranged the living room and deep cleaned it, so that was good. Now I'm staring at the new arrangement wondering where to put the freakin' tree.

Ho freakin' ho ho.

No, I did NOT call you a freakin' ho just now - I have someone else I'd call that, not you. So no worries.

Anyway, in addition to re-activating my poor neglected blog, we've opened up the forums on the website. I hope you register and come and meet us. There's only a few really active ones right now, but we're building and literally everyday someone new comes along. Mostly women, but we do have a few guys in there, including the Infamous D. Check it out if ya get the hankerin'.

I need to go and spread some holiday cheer - with my bat.

I look forward to reconnecting with you all again soon. And yes, I've started writing again. Woot!