What an end to the year

I am sitting here listening to the police scanner go off telling the local rescue squad where to go and that they will have a snow plow headed that direction to help them get where they are going. Looking out my window, there is maybe 3-4 inches on the ground in my driveway. I am told this is because we live out in the open, the wind has blown most of our accumulation away from us, in town there is 18 inches. In the last 2 days we have gotten that much, preceded by freezing rain and sleet. In short, a mess. We stayed home (not that we could go anywhere anyway) for Christmas, just our little clan. I made my very first prime rib roast, twice baked potatoes, asparagus and cracked out cheesecake. We sat as a family and ate. It is so easy to forget to do simple things like that. The kids spent all day playing with their new stuff and Mike & I were totally lazy. It is killing him today though, he has gone to town twice, burned the trash, and is trying to find a shovel to scoop out the driveway. Chick and 411 have gone through their clothes, getting rid of all the too small and just don't likes. And I am going to go make chicken and dumplings.... Something with a certain stick-to-your-ribs quality!a> In the meantime, here are a few pictures of recent festivities.

The Great Tree adventure '09

We decided this year we would go cut down our own Christmas tree thanks to a leaky basement ruining the fake one (lil blessing in disguise!) So we loaded up our family and Chelles and went to the tree farm. Didn't put two and two together that a foot of snow 4 days earlier would probably still be on the ground....

















Mr gave up and wanted Mike to carry him. I am surprised this picture turned out ok, I was laughing so hard. Poor little guy was up to his chest in some spots.
















So we found one that we liked and gathered everyone up to take a picture....

Then we changed our minds and Mr refused to do anything but be carried.

The pre-cut trees at the house were so much easier to get to and transport!!

There was this really cool old church I HAD to get pictures of. It always makes me a little sad when I see old buildings just rotting away like this but it made an awesome backdrop!

Coming soon: pictures of the Christmas program '09!

A tale of my days....

So I spent all day yesterday wrapping packages for under the various Christmas trees at work. I thought I was kickin' butt doing it too. Till I realized that it had taken me ALL day to do it. To be fair to me, I was interrupted to go do other things a time or two. The district manager was there and she told me I was crazy because I like to wrap gifts. I will admit 10 hours of it was a bit much. :)
Bubba's procedures went fine, he was in a hurry to get it done so he could eat. Poor little guy had to stop eating Monday night and didn't get it done till Wednesday @ noon. That seemed like forever. I think he has finally stopped hoovering everything in sight.
Chick got four of her teeth pulled. She wanted me to stop and get her all this food that she couldn't eat. She doesn't get to go to the city as much as everyone else and she was sooo disappointed. I couldn't see doing it when she couldn't eat it though, fast food is NASTY reheated.
411 got her Girl Scout nut money turned in finally. I was really lazy about taking her to sell them and she still sold over $200 worth of stuff. She is a natural seller. Or everyone knows how good the stuff is.
Mr goes into a reading class to help him catch up speed wise with his classmates. He is starting to really enjoy it, he finally caught on that if he learns to read, he doesn't have to ask 'what does that say?' . I can always tell when he hasn't done his "homework" for her though, he doesn't want to go to reading that day. I have to make time every night to listen to him read his two books. It gets to be frustrating when I don't get home till 8:30 or 9 but I am the mom :)
Today I have to go to work, we are bringing Santa back to the Brandeis. Apparently, that used to be a huge deal back in the day. I was amazed when we were out handing out flyers for it how many older people remembered going to the Brandeis to see Santa and were totally jazzed to bring their grand babies. I am really thankful that I don't have to wear the elf suit.

Feeling overwhelmed

I have been getting alot of grief lately for not updating. I know I am slacking, there is just a lot going on right now and I feel under alot of pressure, it doesn't make me too chatty. To give lay it out there, I changed to a day time position that I am confident I can do once I have all the means to do it. The kicker is though, I am getting bits and pieces, lots of 'O, I didn't tell you?' things. Kind of frustrating. We are looking for another house because we have decided this one really isn't going to work for us, so once again we are looking at moving in the middle of winter. Great. Bubba has to have a colonoscopy (sp?) and upper GI scope tomorrow. Nerve wrecking. Chick has to have four baby teeth pulled to try to make room for her permanent ones to come in tomorrow. Groovy. Trying to think of something cool for all my kids for Christmas when all I want to do is sleep. Aggravating. I have 3 quilts I am supposed to be making and I just can't get inspired. Poor poor me, I know I am wallowing. Sometimes you just got to take a minute to assess where to start.

On a lighter note, our good friend/brother/pain in the ass BEB (or Snatch, as he is known) was here for the Thanksgiving holiday. It was really good to see him and his son again. He drove 10 hours to get here, stayed 3 days and drove 10 hours back. He says it was worth it. It must be a guy thing, I HATE driving long periods like that.

So that is what is going on, now, aren't you sorry you asked? ;)