German Breakfast

I mentioned before that the outlaws bring us a German breakfast each Saturday--brotchen, bierschinken, German pastries, and pretzels for the kids. Junior knows as soon as the box and bags arrive that there is a pretzel and he runs and asks for it. I can never get it to him fast enough! This morning the pretzels were larger than normal and reminded me of Germany.

45 minutes later and Junior has given up on eating the pretzel. He brought back a pretzel in shreds and tole me it was "tooooo big".

I *heart* FLY

Em's new pen is great. I am half tempted to get one for Abs for her birthday. Abbie has a fine motor skill delay and attends OT after her PT each week (and I can't find the address of the girl that asked me about that, but Abs is what they consider a "low tone kid". She just didn't develop her muscles, although you could never tell from looking). Anyway, she has to practice her handwriting which she hates since it is difficult for her. Em let her try out her FLY pen and Abs is now penning a letter to her dad. We can hook the pen up to the computer, it will gather the info, we can select to change it into type or send it in her handwriting, and email it off!

Oh, and the only reason that Em loaned out her FLY pen is because she wanted to get her hands on Abbie's Diji. Junior is in the crib protesting having to take a nap, and I am on a tossing rampage still. I just finished a bowl of Oma's german potato salad for lunch. She made me a huge bowl of it for Christmas--maybe she's not so bad after all. I would love for her to learn to say my name correctly though, I mean I did marry her son 14 years ago.

This morning we had to go get Ab's prescriptions and take them to get filled. I love to go to Sam's because their pharmacy is fast, but they were out of one of her medications. We did peruse the aisles looking for Christmas deals, but I controlled myself and didn't go overboard. I am seriously working on the 1,000 of white tissue paper for $2.50 that I got there almost three years ago.

We were walking by the meat aisle and I was looking for lamb chops. Em chose to remind me that she had decided to become a vegetarian--she hasn't had meat since yesterday. Then Abs decided she wanted to be a vegetarian and so I had them name off vegetables that they would eat. My food budget should drop dramatically for one or two days until they start eating meat again. I guess at least this would prevent Abs from having access to bones that she could save...

Scrooge & Bones

Yes, our Christmas tree is down, loaded into the garage, and all I need to do is vacuum. Our neighbor, Megan at Fort Lewis, used to call me Scrooge because I wouldn't leave the tree up. I love Christmas, but our house is so small and it takes up so much room. We still have one more Christmas celebration at my mom's house on Sunday.

Since I was cleaning up the Christmas stuff, I got on a roll and while the kids were playing with their new toys. I am a stacker by nature, and come by it honestly on my mother's side. It's bad. I decided it was time to file and sort and toss. I found Ab's backpack from last school year hidden in the corner behind some boxes.

I started to clean out her backpack (the nice one we got her in Hawaii before Gunner deployed) and found all of her missing socks...dirty of course. I found tons of scraps of paper, broken pencils, hair pretties, rocks, and then I reached in a pocket and pulled out a bone. I kind of freaked out for a bit, and then sat there looking at it.

It's a bone from a t-bone steak. One that is dried out. I'm sure she found it outside at BLORA this summer, and that's what I get for not cleaning out her backpack sooner. I'm totally disgusted. I might need to clean her room tomorrow and make sure she isn't hiding anything else out in there. I guess at least it wasn't a human bone....

Merry Christmas!

Looks like a lot of presents, but I bought a tree that you can't put much underneath, so it all sticks out.

Probably the only year he will be excited about toothpaste.

Ab's big present. I found a great deal on these, for half the price at the px, plus a game and $20 off! Woohoo!

Em didn't pose for any pictures, but she was happy with her Fly Pen. (Another great deal I found--woohoo!)

My mom came over for presents, and we were waiting for the outlaws to bring over dinner like they said, but so far it has been an hour and they haven't called or anything, so I guess we will eat Christmas dinner here. Not a big deal, and less drama that way!

....They showed up. It wasn't so bad. They stayed about 45 minutes to an hour and then left. Gunner called last night and today and will call again tonight when we don't have all the hoopla to interrupt our conversation. His Christmas was uneventful, but he did talk to the kids and so that made him smile.

I'm ready for a nap......

Look What I found...

I finally uploaded some pictures and videos that I had on my camera. I found this video that I shot of Abs right after I found half the house flooded. I wanted her to explain to her dad why everything was wet. She looks kind of homeless since she hadn't brushed her hair yet, and she was sleeping in one of Gunner's brown t-shirts.

And this my friends, is my daughter Abs....live...how can you not love this face?

Christmas Eve

I cleaned today. The maid hasn't been able to come in three weeks and it is killing me!

I wrapped presents. Still have Santa ones to do, but we are halfway there.

Junior and I ventured out to the mall with 25 million other people. I checked out kaybee toys, since they are going out of business, but didn't see anything my kids needed. I look at everything now with the idea of "do I really want to pick this up when it is all over the floor?" and then I put it back.

We hit Steve and Barry's since it is going out of business. They had tons of stuff for cheap, cheap, cheap. I got a pair of shorts for Junior, two tank tops for Em, two pajama pants for Em, a shirt for Abs, a shirt for me, and I think another shirt, for $10. You have to sort through all the stuff, so I didn't have time to look since Junior wasn't cooperating. There was a lot of stuff that wasn't very nice--as in I don't need to have a shirt advertising pot, or one that says "I have big nuts" or anything crazy like that. People were buying carts of stuff and so I anticipate that all of Killeen will be dressing the same and wearing the same 84 cent baseball caps. One of the guys told me that they were closing on Saturday so things would be even cheaper on Friday and Saturday. I think I'll pass.

I tried to go in a few more stores, but the lines were so outrageous that I just couldn't do it. Now I know why I do most of my shopping online except for the small stuff or a few specific items. I am not one to go peruse the mall looking for a gift, unless I know exactly what it is that I want.

We are watching The Chronicles of Narnia right now, and I am about to tuck Em, Abs and Junior into bed. More later.....

Christmas Eve Eve

Apparently in Em's book, this should be a holiday as well.

I took Junior and Abs to daycare today so Em and I could get some shopping done. While dropping off Abs, she heard that 5th grade was going to see a movie tomorrow and she wanted to go. I signed her up to go, which required three wild goose chases, and 2 phone calls. If you travel down Battallion here at Hood, rest assured that the numbers are not in order....ANY ORDER--Expect to go from building 125 to 190 to 368 all within two blocks.

I did get Em's respite care updated so she can go for free tomorrow. I planned to spend Christmas Eve with all the kiddos, all day, and now two want to go to daycare so Junior jumped on that bandwagon as well. Hmmmm....a day to myself? I'll take it, and I think I will go play catch up at school or something. I'll get Junior early and then we can do a few last minute purchases.

Em and I took Junior for a haircut today since he was starting to look really woolly. I got a high and tight, and it's just as cute as can be. Pictures to follow once I find my battery charger for my camera. The guy tried for about 5 minutes to get his cowlick under control and finally told me it was hopeless. Gives him personality.

I had dinner tonight with my FIL and BIL. I think Tom is overwhelmed when he spends time with the kids. Junior adores him, and he's really good with them. Tom got a strawberry on his dessert so he was going to divide it between Abs and Junior. He put it up to Junior and told him to take a bite. Junior inhaled the entire thing, stem and all.

I just realized that I started this yesterday, so it's a day late...probably a dollar short too!