tifi

This was one of the roughest years so far in my short life. I am just thankful to have made it to the end in one piece physically and (almost) mentally. The older I get, the less I know for sure, and I think that’s what wisdom is.

(Mèsi is “Thank You” in kweyol)

Don’t forget, Jane Eyre on PBS tonight!

Hat tip: Brontëblog

Updated! And hooray for me, I just about met my goal of reading 52 works of fiction this year. I want to accomplish the same thing next year.

So I’m gearing up for the new year by trying to get the house in top shape. I’m a little superstitious when it comes to the new year and follow the bit that says how you ring in the new year is how you’ll spend the rest of the year. I’m trying to start it with a clean house, no dirty laundry…oh, and my family, haha. We’ll see how that works out.

The kids are so ready for school to start. Every day, Girlie asks if today is the day, and ZB keeps asking why the break is so long. We’ve done a couple of fun things: went to the cool park today, library as usual, and they got an easel as a belated gift, so they’ve been “arting” up a storm (Girlie got a painter’s kit with tubes of acrylics, watercolors, etc). They’re a little disappointed that they no longer have a “daily activity“, so I may just use that idea year round. About half the day I love having them home and have homeschooling fantasies in which I also bake bread and live on a farm, heh. The other half, I am whining right along with them for the winter break to be over, lol. Well, it will be over soon enough and I’ll go back to fantasizing about homeschool while they trip over their tongues and call me Mrs. Mommy, blending the way they address me and their teachers.

The kids were up at 4:30 Christmas morning yelling that Santa came. They spent a good part of Christmas Eve tracking him on Google Earth. (Can I say it’s somewhat scary how tech savvy some kids are nowadays? ZB also uses Google Earth at school.) Luis and I managed to fight them off for a bit, but finally gave up and got out of bed at quarter to 5. We set up their new tent after they went to bed the night before, and there was a giant Christmas stocking in it. You see, Luis made up a story about Santa having this gigantic elf helper who loses a sock every year. There was glitter scattered near the cookie crumbs, footprints by the front door, we went all out, lol. I didn’t ever really believe in Santa as a kid, it wasn’t something my mom pushed. But Luis was into it big time, his dad even dressing up as Santa one year and so we tell our children lies now. Kidding, hehe.

They love all their gifts, of course, but one of their favorites is the tent, which they can use together. “Camping out” is one of their absolute favorite things to do. They slept in it last night, with Izzie, of course. Another big hit is the mp3 player Girlie got. I filled it with stuff by The Cheetah Girls, threw a little High School Musical, Jack Johnson, TMBG, and a bit of kiddie safe Ella, and she’s good to go, hehe.

Favorite individual gifts are: ZB-Basketball hoop that goes over the door, and new remote control car. Surprise, surprise. Girlie-Raven Cheetah Girls doll and MP3 player. Bebe-Fire truck and school bus, his favorite vehicles in the whole wide world. Me-Gift certificate to my lys, my favorite musicals on dvd, and books, of course!

OK, off to eat some leftovers. Per Girlie’s request, we didn’t just have dinner, we had “a feast” which includes drinking sparkling cider and bowing to one another, lolol. Hope you had a wonderful holiday!

Ooooh, and congrats to my fried T who had her baby girl Ava on Christmas Eve morning. I guess I really need to get that baby gift in the mail now, huh?

Have a wonderful holiday.

The kids enjoy Luis teasing them in a way they would never tolerate from me.

Oh, is the camera on?

I made Bebe this hat a few weeks ago but he snatched it as soon as it was off the needles. This was the first chance I got to take a picture of it.

Dana Milena’s birthday was a few weeks ago, and we missed it. So, we threw a belated birthday party with cupcakes and all.

“That’s wasn’t the real Santa, I could tell by his face.” That was the reason Girlie gave for not sitting on the big guy’s lap at the library.

Last Day of school for 2007!

Me, DH, and Bebe crashed Girlie’s Christmas party. OK, it wasn’t crashing, we were invited!

And then we headed over to ZB’s Pajama party. I let him wear his new Christmas Eve Pjs from Grandma early. I love the look on his face here, he makes those kinds of faces all the time now.

Happy Solstice!

• Girlie upset the Advent box yesterday and since I didn’t have the envelopes numbered, I’m going to have to guess what activities went where.
• Went to Reesie’s house to drop off Tristan’s present and she has a beeyotiful tree. I was trying to permanently borrow quite a few of her ornaments. She also inspired me to rearrange my trees. And so now the family ornaments are on the big tree where we can see them all the time.
• I decided I’m going to have a book page here. Maybe with reviews, maybe not. OK, more like a book log, I guess.
• I’m the world’s worst pancake maker. Really. Girlie can make better ones than me.
• Speaking of Girlie, she doesn’t like syrup on pancakes or waffles, and comes home on Fridays singing songs in Spanish or telling me how to say random phrases in Spanish. She spends part of every Friday in the ESL kindy class. Hehe.

• Why am I so excited about the return of American Gladiators?
• Why does Extreme Home Makeover make me get dust in my eyes*?
• Why did it take months for me (and other parents) to realize that the new school playground equipment was finished? Seriously, it’s a climbing ball that has some modern art wtf qualities.
• Why is it 80 degrees one day and 40 the next?
• Why am I just as excited as the kids that we got High School Musical 2 from Netflix?
• Why am I mad that my friend had the great idea to get the kids a magazine subscription for Christmas? I wish I had thought of that for her kids!
• Why did I really wish I lived abroad after watching Sicko? I know a lot of negative things about living in other countries like France were glossed over, but hey, my dad, aunt, and several half siblings live in Paris, built in babysitting is a plus!
• Why is DD like a little ghost at night -floating from room to room and turning lights on and off?
• Why did JcPenney send me 2 $10 off a $10 purchase coupons after I spent $10 on a new top? (Worn in the pic below)
• Why am I surprised by how much I like Eat, Pray, Love?

*almost cry

I had that meeting. It was interesting. I am thrilled about the prospect of this group, but also, a little I dunno, apprehensive?.

ZB has an asthma attack in the middle of the night Friday, so we spent Friday night and Saturday morning in the ER. The thing that pisses me off is that it could’ve totally been prevented I think. His doctor’s nurse never got back to me on Friday after several calls asking her to have the doc write him a prescription for a new mask for his nebulizer. He’s almost 100% now. The respiratory therapist that saw him recommended allergy testing which was recommended to us last year, but I’m still on the fence about that. I mean, the kid hates needles and if he turns out to be allergic to oh, I dunno, trees and grass, what am I going to do, ya know? My brother and I both have allergies, his more severe. I went with bro to get his testing done and I know exactly what they do and I really don’t think ZB could handle it without 5 or 6 people holding him down. I’m not sure that’s worth it.

Since he seemed better on Saturday night, we decided to go ahead with that day’s advent calendar activity which was attending our local Christmas parade. DH and I wore our Santa hats and the kids wore their reindeer ears ‘cuz we’re cool like that. You know you’re jealous. The kids’ favorite part is when Santa throws candy off the firetruck and it hits me on the head. Yay. LOL. Bebe loves firetrucks. What toddler doesn’t? And so I think this was the highlight of his year besides getting to go inside one a few months back.

I took DH out to VA for a follow up visit for his carpal tunnel and so Bebe and I dropped him off and headed over to the new Super Target and Michael’s. I checked out all Martha’s cute stuff at Michael’s and got jealous that we have no Starbucks at our Target. *Sigh* It’s ok, in about 6 months, there’ll be a Super Target about 5 minutes away. Yay!

Oh, and how could I forget? I got a package full of books from Anna in the mail! Two knitting books for me, and a few books and stickers for the kids. Plus, a cute card. I love goodies.

Random:

A trip to Hobby Lobby with Bebe can take up to half an hour longer than I usually take b/c he has to squeeze and sometimes bite, every plastic grape he sees. I don’t mind him biting them. Germs are good, make boy strong. Kidding.

Reindeer on a scooter

As if you never dressed up your dog in a onesie and pretended she was a baby! No? Um, pretend you never saw this.

I just thought this shot was cute. The vest and shirt were ZB’s, and before that, my cousin’s! And she ditched the puffs for little buns. A rare occurence.

Our stockings.

And yours truly! My skin looks awful in this photo. I think I need to go inspect it right now…