I Think I Can...

I’ll make it. Just a couple more days. Life will be returning to “normal,” or what has become our sense of normal, on Wednesday when I go back to work and everyone goes back to their regular routines of sitter, work, school, etc. I was ever so thankful to be able to spend the holidays at home with my kids rather than going in to work at a thankless and tiring job. And when it came down to it, by the Thursday before Christmas I was more than ready for a break.

But this Christmas break thing really kind of blindsided me. I was all in work mode, and then - poof! - out of nowhere, two weeks off!! It was great to have the extra time at home and all, but I don’t feel like I was really “prepared” for it. Sounds pretty lame and ungrateful, I know. Especially since last summer, I felt pretty ready for the time at home with the kids. Maybe it was all the other stuff associated with this time off...the shopping, wrapping, planning, cooking, driving, hiding, preparing, and not sleeping. There’s not much of that stuff happening during the summer. Or maybe I can’t completely rid myself of the idea of work, since I’m going back in two weeks instead of three months. In any case, I’m ready to get back to it. Ready for the heinously crazy mornings and long “witching hour” afternoons. Ready to see my coworkers and the kids at my schools. Ready to get on with a new year.

Reeeeeeaaaaallllllly ready to put the Christmas decorations away. And to start on my reunion/wedding diet. And to think about some other resolutions and goals and things for 2007. As if putting the Christmas decorations away isn’t goal enough!

Who Says the Honeymoon’s Over?

Just having celebrated our 8th anniversary in December, one might assume that there’s precious little we’ve not done or seen or experienced together. Well, let me tell you something...today we had two things happen that I cannot recall ever happening before in the entire time I’ve known D.

I woke up laughing at around 4:30 this morning. When I finally woke up enough to realize what was going on, I realized that my darling husband’s hands were all over my chest. I was laughing hysterically and asked what he thought he was doing. He sleepily said that he was just having a dream about making omelets and was digging through the cheese drawer in the fridge. He was disappointed to find that we “only had mozzarella.”

Just hours later, he had gone off to work and I was at home cutting quilt squares with this. On the first square, I sliced into my finger. I called him at work and told him I was pretty sure I needed stitches. I really only called him so he could move along and get home because my plan was to go to the ER, where I was sure they could just put some of that glue stuff on my finger. But apparently he had different plans. He told me to meet him at his office so he could “take care of it.” The kids and I hauled over there, where my -ahem- darling husband jammed a needle full of lidocaine into my left ring finger then proceeded to tie the wound closed with three stitches.

No, folks. You’ve not lived until you’ve been sewn up by your spouse.

I can only imagine what he’ll be cooking tonight in his dreams...

2006. Buh-bye.

I don’t really expect that this will be my last post of the year, but I saw the format suggested on here, and I thought it might be fun. Here’s a 2006 retrospective, courtesy of the first line of the first post from each month in 2006.

So the holidays are now over and I’ve got at least a little time back to myself. No more sitting in a freezing basement wrapping presents for me, no sir. It was a wonderful holiday, but I’m rather over it now and am looking on to 2006. (OK, that’s more than one line, but it fits...)

It occurs to me that I’m perhaps the suckiest blogger in the world.

The kids and I spent the weekend at my mom’s since D was on call this weekend. We’ve decided it’s best for us to get out of his hair on those weekends when he’s unusually grumpy and gets a million phonecalls. (Again with the more than one line, but again, it fits...)

I don’t even know what that means. Whatever.

There are lots of things that I’ve heard people say about “you’re not really a mom until…”

I don’t know which is grosser...

So. Here we are.

Today was A’s first day back to preschool.

...for A not to be so funny.

I SO don't have time to be doing this, but hey.

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Hm. That was fun. I'm debating now whether to do all of the Christmas dinner shopping tonight when I run to the store to pick up the stuff I need to make D’s contribution to his office potluck, or whether I’ll brave the sure-to-be horrible crowds this weekend. I’m thinking...that’s one thing to cross off the to-do list. It might behoove me to do it tonight.

On the happy side of things, I got my Christmas presents today!! Yay!! Well, I didn’t actually get them, but I took a step in that direction. I finally dropped off a cocktail ring of my grandmother’s that I inherited and have had sitting in my jewelry box for about 10 years. It was the god-awfulest looking thing in its old setting, so I’m having it re-set into a single-row band to wear with my wedding band and engagement diamond. I SO can’t wait to get it back!!

Today’s laugh came courtesy of the J-Bird. We were sitting at dinner, almost completely done. She had made it abundantly clear that she had NO intention of eating her vegetable soup, so D removed the bowl from her tray (lest it end up upside-down on the carpet, thank-you-very-much). There was a stray piece of celery left on her tray. She poked at it, asked “What’s that mean? It’s nasty!” and squashed it into her tray. Greeeeeaaaaaaaat. A two-year-old who says “It’s nasty.” We’re in for some fun teen years come 2017.

Observations and Musings

I SO don't have time to be doing this, but hey. Christmas break starts tomorrow at noon, and I haven’t had a Christmas break since 1996, and I can cram a lot into those few days before Christmas. So what that I haven’t wrapped a single gift or made the dinner menu or attempted to clean my house? Fa la la.

Some things have come up in the past few days:

• It occurs to me that I can gauge the general health and well-being of my family by the magazine rack at the store. Whenever I run to the pharmacy to pick up that prescription or those over-the-counter medicines or to sign my life away for a bottle of Sudafed, I always look to see if there’s a new quilting magazine to pick up. I realize on some level it’s pretty lame that I get excited over quilting magazines...and yes, that’s kind of sad. Sadder still that there haven’t been any new ones on the shelf for the last several weeks. No, no, it’s not the store’s fault. It’s just that I’ve had to go to the pharmacy way too many times in the past month and I’ve cleaned ’em out.
• One of D’s patients told him today that he thinks I’m a good judge of character. Hm.
• So A’s reading. It’s pretty amazing most of the time. Funny other times. Like when he told me he colored a whole picture at school and when I asked him what color it was he replied, “non-toxic.”
• I wonder if there’s a way to figure out just how much space one needs in a house. Or one family needs in a house. Like, how much is too much? Is there such a thing? We’re entering what could become a heated debate around la maison de la voiture. Not that I want a billion square feet that I have to clean, but how great would it be to actually have a playroom to put toys where I wouldn’t have to step over them or on them or clean them up to run the vacuum because someone’s dropping by with Christmas gifts? You know. That sort of thing.
• I spent way too many hours making our Christmas cards. They were cute, if I do say so myself, but now that they’re done and sent, I’m wondering if they were really worth the trouble. I don’t know. Anyone who is reading this that gets one in the mail, let me know what you think. If it makes people say, “Wow. They took the time to make their cards this year. They must really think we’re special,” then OK. I’ll start working on next year’s cards in February.
• I just found out tonight that I’m going to be a great aunt. This will be our third grand-niece/nephew. I just think that’s weird, that I’m 31 and have been a great aunt for 7 years. Weird, but completely cool. Even though I’m so done having kids, and even though pregnancy has become something of a fearful event rather than a joyous one for me, I’m way excited for my niece and her husband. And I’ve already started thinking about the awesome baby shower I could throw in the house we’ve been eyeing (see above).

With that, it’s beyond time for bed. The kiddies are nestled, as they say, and from the snoring sounds creeping upstairs from the living room, I would say the mister is too. I’m going to enjoy some quiet moments while the electric blanket heats the bed I will crawl into very soon.