5QF ~ December 28, 2012

Oh my word.

I was too lazy to blog my Five Question Friday so I decided to vlog it instead.

Sweet mercy... what an effort! First I had to try to remember my youtube password, then I had to create a new account because I couldn't find my password, upload it, etc.... it's been a two day journey.

But... here it is. In all it's awfulness.

My face looks so fat.

Ugh.

Meh.

After the lengths I went to just to get this video on this blog... I no longer care about my fat face!

So, without further ado... here is my first vlog courtesy of my ipad.




Have a great weekend, peeps.

Chatter

Happy Christmas Eve Eve!!

So excited.

We still have a ton of wrapping to do. I love wrapping.

I spent yesterday and today at my mom's house, hanging out and doing food preparation for tomorrow and Christmas Day.

My sister arrived home for Christmas today.

Last week Sam got his ear pierced for the third time because he keeps letting the hole close. He wants both ears done eventually because "girls think guys with pierced ears are hot". The next day at school some girl told him he looked sexy. Sweet mercy.

I have been trying new foods lately. This week it was chicken souvlaki (however you spell it) and a cranberry. Very tasty. Last month it was a crab cake. That just about killed me. My throat closed over and was all itchy. I went to the pharmacy and got some benadryl and survived. In case you haven't noticed. All my life I was allergy free and now... crab cakes.

Ian and I are so overdue for a date. We were going to go out last night but ended up sitting in our living room by the light of the Christmas tree, just talking about life and our faith, and our hopes and dreams.

I've been loving these last few days at home with the children. Yesterday we tried a craft I saw on Pinterest that I figured I could handle. I bought four plain white mugs at the dollar store and pulled out my sharpies, and the kids and I each decorated a mug. Then I baked them at 400 for 40 minutes. The idea is that the marker becomes permanent on the mug and then can be used as a regular mug. Well let me tell you that wasn't what happened. The head faded what we wrote on the mugs and you can still wipe off the writing. So, we'll use them as pen holders or something.

We've renewed our lease until January 2014 which has brought me great relief. Our original lease was until the end of January 2013, and I was feeling very unsettled and worrying if we'd have to move again so soon. I'm very happy to have another summer and Christmas here.

I didn't send out any Christmas cards this year. Again. I had a list made up, but things were just so busy and I never got around to writing them out and mailing them. Maybe I'll send out Happy New Year cards. Who am I kidding, I'm not doing that.

Tomorrow night I'm going to mass with my mom. I haven't been to Christmas Eve mass in several years so this will be really nice. I was a semi-practicing Catholic until I was 30 then we started attending an awesome Baptist church about 10 years ago. Every so often I long for the traditions and reverence of the Catholic church.

I have a gross cough and a sniffly nose. This nonsense has been going on now for about two weeks. I'm worried it will turn into bronchitis. I had it back in the spring and it went on for seven weeks before I was completely healthy again. I don't have time to be sick!

Last week Julie got her arm caught in the car door. I don't know if I can even explain how it happened. She opened her door and leaned against the door jam thing as she got out, at the same time that Sam opened his door, which kind of crushed her elbow. Cue the screaming and tears. It was all swollen and she couldn't move it so we went to the ER in case it was broken. It wasn't and we were on our way about 2.5 hrs later. She wore her arm in a sling for a couple of days, and except for some bruising she's ok now.

We took the kids to see Santa last week. All four were in the picture together which just makes me laugh. The older two, of course, know the truth about Santa, but they're so committed to keeping the magic of Christmas alive for the little ones.

I'm sure there's more to talk about but I'm pretty tired. I need to answer some email and then head to bed. Tomorrow will be a long and exciting day for the children.

Catch ya next time!

Forgot To Tell You ...

Oooh look at me... blogging two nights in a row.

I feel wild now.

I forgot to tell you about the cool thing that happened yesterday. Every morning I stop at the Tim Horton's drive thru to get a large steeped tea to take to the office. The woman in the box that takes my order recognizes me by my order and will comment that I'm early that day or running behind and better hurry. They notice if I've missed a day and will comment on it. Very sweet ladies. Often I will pay for the person behind me because it makes me feel so good to bless someone else.

Well.

Yesterday I was driving up to the drive thru lane and I saw a woman waiting to get in line but the car in front of me wouldn't let her in even though she was there first. I held back and gestured for her to go ahead of me and she waved and waved at me. So I waved and waved back because I'm all about making friends wherever I am. When it was my turn I placed my order and when I got to the window they told me that the lady ahead of me had paid for my tea.

!!!

What a sweet blessing to start my week.

Julie's final dance class was tonight and we all went to watch the class perform what they've learned. At one point the instructor had the girls choose someone from their family to teach them the steps. Julie went for Sam first but he wasn't having any of that, so she asked Ian. It was so sweet to see the pride and love on her face as she held his arm while she waited her turn.

Afterwards we went to Baskin Robbins for ice cream to celebrate. There was a couple sitting at the next table and the woman thought it was the coolest thing ever that we both had a Jordan and a Matthew. She said she also had a Bentley. We refrained from telling her that we did as well, only our Bentley is a guinea pig.

My course homework is done, my little peeps are all in bed, and I'm heading there now too. My throat is hurting and I've started sniffling and sneezing. Hopefully I'll wake up well rested for tomorrow because Wednesdays are my longest days. I leave the house when it's dark, before everyone wakes up, and I'm home after the children are asleep. Last Wednesday I watched the sun rise on my way to work, watched the sun set out of my office window, and stood outside watching the stars before I came in for the night.

Blessings... they're everywhere.

Goodnight!   :o)

Christmas Chatter

14 days until Christmas!

Eeeeee!!

We have most of the children's gifts bought but will likely pick up a couple things here and there to make sure everything is pretty even between the children. I am obsessed with making sure everyone is equal.

We're planning to bring the Littles to see Santa on Thursday night. They won't go and sit with him on their own, so I'm hoping that Sam and Julie will each take one Little and sit with them, and then I'll have a Santa picture with all of my sweeties!

We're doing a Secret Santa gift exchange at the office next week, and we each drew names to see who we'd be buying for. I've been trying to get to know my co-workers over the last seven months but they're pretty private people! I drew the name of the only guy in our department and I was completely lost as to what to buy for him. Then someone put up a sheet of paper with Christmas Wish List written on it, and everyone has been writing down what they want. Perfection! Seems like everyone wants Walmart or Shoppers Drug Mart gift certificates. Easy peasy.

I did a little online shopping. Unsupervised online shopping. I felt all...tingly. I'm expecting something to arrive this week and I don't think I'll be able to breathe until it arrives. So excited.

I have a few vacation days that I need to use up before the end of the month, so I'm taking this Friday and Monday off. I think I'll start wrapping the gifts on Friday while the children are in school. Then they'll come home to gifts under the tree and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.

In other news...

I got my hair done last week and it looks fabulous. Someone actually stopped me to tell me how great my hair looked and asked who my stylist was. I was happy to refer her because I have THE BEST stylist on the planet.

My Mama had cataract surgery last week and is feeling great one week later. It was such a quick procedure and everyone was so kind to her. All except one nurse who had these long, yellow, dirty fingernails and poked my mother in her eye while she was putting drops in. She was wiping her nose and not washing her hands afterwards... so gross. She was rude to my mom, and it was a miracle I held my tongue let me tell you. It wasn't until she was in the post-op area that I mentioned to her nurse about the previous nurse's treatment. She called someone over for me to talk with, and it wasn't until after she asked me to put something in writing and gave me her email address, that I realized we went to high school together. I hadn't seen her in 20 something years and the first thing I do when I see her again is to complain! Sweet mercy.

Tonight I stopped to do a bit of Christmas shopping/browsing and heard someone call my name in the parking lot. It was my childhood friend who I met when we were six years old. Over the years we've lost each other and found each other again, lost and found... We stood there talking for almost a half hour out in the cold but it was so worth it.

Lots going on this week. Julie's final dance class is tomorrow night so we're all going to watch her. Wednesday night is my last night of Freedom Session (the course through my church), and we'll start the next book next month. I'll be thankful for the upcoming break in classes/courses/appointments/commitments over the holidays to just enjoy being with my peeps.

Hopefully sometime soon I can write about my experience with Freedom Session so far, and how I can feel myself changing inside. I'm learning excellent tools to change my ways of thinking and my behaviour in some areas. As I sit here and write tonight, I have so many things on my mind that cause me to feel anxious, yet there is a growing sense of peace in me. We'll talk about that as soon as I can wrap my head around it better.

Tomorrow I need to get up and out to the office extra early so I'm going to wrap this up and get to bed.