For Unto You Is Born This Day....

We Have a 187 in Progress...

...5 victims, 4 female, 1 gender unknown.

We have 2 possible suspects in custody at this time. Each suspect says the other is responsible for the crime. We have photos of the crime scene and none of the evidence has been tampered with or removed from the scene.

What Next? A Plague of Locusts?

Yesterday, I woke up with a sore throat and a stuffy nose. Great, another cold. My third one in three months. My immune system has been compromised because of my illness and my body is jacked up. Merry Christmas to me.

I needed to get firewood, clear the stairs, take out the garbage and do a few other things outside. Of course I didn't want to go outside. It is cold and we have 10 inches of snow. When I got outside, I decided I should clear some of the snow off of our van. I unlocked the van, grabbed the scraper and shut the driver-side door.

Crash. Shatter. Small avalanche sound.

This is the results.






Needless to say, Webster's Dictionary of Curse Words was running through my head at that moment. I have no idea what happened. There was only a few inches of snow on the rear window, not enough to cause this damage. So then I needed to triage the whole situation. Every time I touched the window more pieces fell, little pieces, the size of pencil tip erasers. More snow in the van, more glass chunks in the snow. Ten inches of snow. Bah!

Shop-vac to the rescue. I ended up having to bust the whole window out. I shop-vacd our driveway full of snow. I'm sure the neighbors thought I was crazy. I spent two hours outside cleaning up the mess. I ended up having to put a tarp over the whole back end of the van. Have I mentioned yet that we don't have a garage? Have I mentioned the ten inches of snow we have that is preventing the van from getting out? Have I mentioned that we live at the end of a dead-end road? Yeah.

I manage to get the van out after some fun times shovelling out loads of snow. We get it to a shop. $400 later...


Next. I'm still sick and feeling worse after spending so much time outside. We get back home and our neighbor points out that one of his trees has fallen onto our property. Missed the house by inches and is now resting on our lilac & forsythia trees. Out comes the chainsaw.

Fast forward to the middle of the night. I can't sleep. P comes in the bedroom at 1am. "Mommy I'm gonna throw up." I get her in the bathroom just in time. Clean her up and get her back to bed by 2am. 7am she wakes up all bright and chipper. Bah Humbug!

O Christmas Tree

Another boring day. Some more free fun with the digital camera.

I'm Dreaming of a White December 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th...You Get the Point

Because snow rarely happens here. We had the best of luck to have it snow while at my parents' house. Way better than being at home. And we got snowed in an extra day. Darn.

She doesn't mind her wet jeans at all. I'm too cheap to buy sleds, snowsuits, boots and such. Who knows if we will ever have the chance to use them again? Most of the time the snow is gone the next day, or the same day.

"Mom, I'm really, really, really cold and I want to go inside."

"Just one more picture. Smile this time, please."

The view from my parents' bluff. Mt. Baker is out there somewhere. Don't ask me where though.

So much better than running around in our backyard where everyone can see/hear what we are doing.

Side note: Once when R was little, my neighbor 2 HOUSES DOWN came into our backyard to make sure she was OK. She thought she was hurt because of the way she was crying. R had been screaming for me to pick her up because I had to put her down while I was putting the laundry on the line to dry. Of course I wouldn't pick her up. I don't play that reindeer game. My neighbor thought otherwise...

"Mom, I really want to go inside. I'm cold."

Spoken not more than 10 minutes after going outside and after I warned her REPEATEDLY not to stomp in slushy/icy puddles while wearing tennis shoes.

She really didn't mind getting whitewashed. She thought it was amazing fun. Wait till her dad does it to her.

Great Stocking Stuffer Ideas

I'm holed up at my parents' house this weekend for a little R, R & F (rest, relaxation & food). I was reading the local newspaper and had to pass on some great stocking stuffer ideas:

1. Light bulbs. I kid you not! Lest you think (as I did), that they were off-their-rocker and being cheap, I read further and saw that they didn't mean just your regular ol' light bulbs. The kind that would shatter into a dozen bite-size pieces in our stockings. No people, they meant the fancy-pants LED light bulbs. Thank goodness. I would be over-the-top happy to receive LED light bulbs in my stocking.

2. PUD gift cards. What is PUD you might ask? Public Utilities Department. Riiiiight. I'd like to ask Santa to pay for my utilities for Christmas. It would be the best gift ever! I promise that I have been a good girl this year....

It's just gonna be one of those months people...

After reading my posts for a while, you may come to think I am a bit odd. I am. You would be too if your world looked like this some days. On the one hand, I look like Rebecca Romijn for the first time in my life. On the other hand, the children look like evil minions. Which is so unlike their true angelic personalities.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

This is what that means to me. And no, those are not my legs. Grow baby, grow!

Elder Wirthlin

One of my favorite apostles from my church died this week. I have grown much because of the messages that he has shared over the last few years. Here are quotes and links to some of my favorites:

The Great Commandment

"Sometimes the greatest love is not found in the dramatic scenes that poets and writers immortalize. Often, the greatest manifestations of love are the simple acts of kindness and caring we extend to those we meet along the path of life."

Come What May, and Love It

"Adversity, if handled correctly, can be a blessing in our lives."

"...She may have meant that every life has peaks and shadows and times when it seems that the birds don’t sing and bells don’t ring. Yet in spite of discouragement and adversity, those who are happiest seem to have a way of learning from difficult times, becoming stronger, wiser, and happier as a result."

"I remember when one of our daughters went on a blind date. She was all dressed up and waiting for her date to arrive when the doorbell rang. In walked a man who seemed a little old, but she tried to be polite. She introduced him to me and my wife and the other children; then she put on her coat and went out the door. We watched as she got into the car, but the car didn’t move. Eventually our daughter got out of the car and, red faced, ran back into the house. The man that she thought was her blind date had actually come to pick up another of our daughters who had agreed to be a babysitter for him and his wife."

Concern For the One

"The Lord did not people the earth with a vibrant orchestra of personalities only to value the piccolos of the world. Every instrument is precious and adds to the complex beauty of the symphony. All of Heavenly Father’s children are different in some degree, yet each has his own beautiful sound that adds depth and richness to the whole."

Good Night, Good Morning, Good Night!

The other night I was out late and came home to my husband shouting for me to "Come quick!" I look down the hallway to our bathroom and see R sitting on our bathroom stool and my husband laughing hysterically. Apparently, R had been sleepwalking and my husband wanted to see what she would do and not interfere. Men. So you figure out the rest of the story. Ha. Ha. Guess who had to clean up the rest of the story?

R was still not awake while I gave her a shower. She would follow my commands, but she wasn't there. It wasn't till 10 minutes later that she woke up and asked why her hair was wet... Did I forget to mention she didn't remember the incident the next day???

Next day. This is what I woke up.

That is a Nalgene bottle lid. You know, the virtually indestructible water bottles? Well, it was no match for my dishwasher. The funny thing is, I didn't smell any scorched plastic while the dishwasher was going, but when we melted it off, it smelled terrible.

After that, we did this.

The End.

Dreams

As of late I have been dreaming heavily and remembering my dreams. They have all been a little on the slightly crazy side. What dreams aren't though?

So here is a rundown of some of my more interesting dreams:

1. I dreamt I was one of Barack Obama's daughters. I was getting a wardrobe makeover a la Sarah Palin. We also rode around in a beater pickup truck and Daddy Barack was wearing overalls.

2. I was in the Middle East against my will. Pretty much like Sally Fields in "Not Without My Daughter." Complete with all the melodrama and burquas as well.

3. Dreamt that a Winco was built a block from my house. Sad I know, but I was soooo happy when I woke up.

4. I went to my Ob's office with a friend to get Botox. Because I was sick. The friend will remain unnamed because she was getting Botox done as well. And she reads my blog.

5. Fighting space aliens. Including fist fights, jumping walls, flying, etc. I think I might have been Will Smith, although I never got a good look at myself.

So now for the piece de resistance. This one isn't so much a weird dream as a dream I have had many times. Meaning at least 20 times in the last few years.

The dream is always the same. I know that I am married, and I know that I have kids, but I am in my senior year of college. I am moving into the house that I lived in during that year, although my roommates are different. Sort of like the guys from Animal House, completely undesirable and male. I am struggling to get unpacked and get ready for school, I just can't seem to get anything done.

Flash to the first day of school. I can't seem to make it to the HUB to get my class schedule and when I do get it, I have already missed several classes and am late for my next class. I try getting to that class but for some reason I can't find the classroom. I finally get there and class is over. I then have to make my way back to the HUB to get my code to open my mailbox. This is really important for some reason. I get the code, accidently forget it and the mail people won't give me the code again.

This is where I freak out in the dream and wake up. I've been picking it apart for a long time and could use some fresh insight. I always try to address what might be nagging me at the time or what I'm struggling to get done, but I still have this dream. Any thoughts on this dream?