Thankful

Why does it take a tragedy to remember to be thankful?

I started out this night frustrated. I ordered a specific gift and the company I ordered from sent the wrong thing. Not really cool. Especially considering what I ordered was discontinued and showed there were only 4 in stock when I ordered and now show none. I would rather they sent me an email saying they were sold out so I could find another gift instead of me paying them, them sending it now me having to deal with them.

Also, we bought Amelia a Hello Kitty Karaoke machine from Best Buy (shhhhhh, don't tell her). I wanted it before Christmas Eve so I spent the extra $11 on "expedited" shipping rather than free shipping that guaranteed it on Christmas Eve. I actually just wanted to make sure I had it for Christmas and felt that having it delivered standard was a bit of a gamble. I checked the tracking number this morning and it was rescheduled. I was pretty pissed. So I tried calling them earlier today and had some rude lady act dumb when I said "ka ro key" instead of "kay ree o key". Then I sat on hold. I didn't have time to hold much longer so I hung up and sent an email. They sent an automatic message back telling me to check their website for the answer or call them. I called again tonight and was disconnected when they tried to transfer me. So I called back and got another proper-pronunciation person who finally transferred me to the online orders division.

By this time I was mad and Best Buy was on my list, and I ain't talking the good one. As I was stewing in my anger, I was watching the news when a clip came on and said that two young children were killed in a city just a few hours away today. Kind of put my issues into perspective.

It reminded me of the Christmas of 1999 when we lost Candace and Tyler. The memories of that time started to come back and I cried. As soon as I started crying the nicest customer service rep got on the phone. By this point I felt stupid asking her to reimburse my shipping but she did and she was wonderful about it. I feel ridiculous that I am obsessing about gifts that were wrong or not delivered on time and not too far away from me there is a family with broken hearts that probably has presents under their tree. Presents they hoped would make their children so happy but now will never be opened. They would trade every Christmas gift just to have their babies back.

I thank God for my family and pray he keeps them safe. I wish it didn't take such a tragedy to make me remember why we celebrate. Wishing everyone a safe holiday.

Christmas 2 of 4

This weekend we had my family's Christmas. I took off early on Friday so I could get a few things made. Amelia took a nap after I came home so it was the perfect time to get my stuff done. I made chocolate covered PB ritz, thin mints, chocolate and white bark covered pretzels, round pretzels with peppermint kisses melted in them, peppermint bark and I think that is it. But I got a lot done. Then we went to see Santa. She refused to let go of me but when I told her that Santa gave her candy and she needed to thank him, she stopped whining, looked at Santa and in her sweetest voice said "Thank you, Santa." As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she continued whining and clinging to me. At least she is polite.

The weekend went great. We played games and had a lot of fun. My dad was sick so he didn't have that much fun but the rest of us did.

We went shopping on Saturday and I picked up some pink shelves that are perfect for Amelia's room. Don't you love it when you come across things and it seems like fate that you did. That has been happening a lot for my choices for Amelia's room. I was showing my mom a different lamp and was in the process of telling her what I would with it when I turned the corner and found a lamp identical to the one I was describing. It was a $25 lamp on sale for $12.50 with a pull cord (which is what I wanted) and it turned out to be a perfect fit for her room. I set out without a real style and ended up with turquoise, black and bright pink throughout her room. She is only two so I am constantly in the process of cleaning it out and packing stuff away but it is slowly coming together and I love it more every time I find something like my lamp or my shelves. It will probably take awhile but I can't wait to see the final result.

Cheap Diapers

This morning I went to Sam's Club to pick up diapers. Normally they are like $39 but this morning after placing a box of diapers and a box of twice baked potatoes (cuz I am too lazy to make my own) the girl says $27.XX dollars. I figured I heard her wrong so I checked the card reader screen. Sure enough, I was being charged $16.XX for a normally $39 box of diapers. I was so excited I wanted to grab another box but I didn't dare say anything for fear it was a fluke and they would reverse it. (To answer your question mom, no, I don't feel guilty, sorry.) I couldn't stand it. The deal was too good. I recruited a co-worker/friend of mine to come with me on our morning break. The plan was that we would each grab a box, bring it up and I would scan mine and if it was $39 she would bring hers back. Well, I am not lucky enough for that to happen twice so she had to bring hers back. Did I mention she is a good friend?

On Saturday, Amelia and I made cookies. By the way, I am totally changing the subject. We made one of my favorites growing up. Sour cream cookies. My grandma always made them but never used a recipe. One year a very long time ago, I asked her to try make me a recipe. It never worked for me so I broke down and asked my mom for her recipe this year. That one works. They turned out great but Amelia kept "eating" the cookie dough. That pretty much just means that she tried to destroy the cookies by ripping the dough off of them and throwing it on the floor then declaring "I eat dough". I even let her put sprinkles on them. Turns out the sprinkles I let her use were watermelon flavored (eww). I now have new Christmas sprinkles. It was still fun and my floor is still sticky. The non-watermelon cookies taste good though. Totally bring me back to childhood.

An extra week, or not

Today I was doing math in my head. Normally it doesn't go so wrong but today it put me in a panic. Two weeks until Christmas. How much shopping do I have done? Pretty much none. Christmas decorations...none, unless you count the tree I put up at work. Then I realized, it is actually three weeks. At first I thought, 'whew, an extra week' but then I realized that the Christmas for which I have to do most of my shopping is in being celebrated in two weeks. Back to panic.

I am sitting watching Ghost Hunters while I stuff Christmas cards. Using a friend of mine's creative point of view, I created my own from my daughter's 2 year pics. They are pretty simple but I love them. I am excited for people to see them. See why I am in love?

This weekend we have a free weekend for the first time since I can't remember when. We have a surprise party for a friend to go to but that is all we have planned. I am looking forward to it. I may even decide to try my hand at my grandma's sour cream cookies because are the best cookies EVER. My mom used to tell me if I ate too many I would get a stomach ache. For the record, that never happened. I am getting hungry for them now so it would probably be a good idea to go to bed. Good night!

Been Awhile

Life has been busy. Amelia is turning two on Friday. Last week was Thanksgiving with a little black Friday shopping, Amelia's 2-year pics right after that, my sister and brother and their spouses were in town so it was off to my parents house after that. Saturday we celebrated Thanksgiving at my parents until 5:30 because that is when we had to be at the pizza place to set up for Amelia's birthday party. A lot of people were unable to make it because of Thanksgiving plans or illness but we still had a great time.

The theme of the party was, you guessed it, Elmo. I also added Abby to the mix so it wasn't SO much Elmo.

Amelia was crabby most of the day. We dealt with a lot of meltdowns. I checked her mouth this morning and sure enough, she has another I-tooth poking through. Aside from the crabbiness, she got lots of wonderful gifts but most importantly, they were from wonderful people whom I love dearly. We couldn't have asked for anything better. Except next time I will know that they don't actually come to the party room to take my order so I have to go to the front counter to place my order. Luckily the order included lots of beer so I was forgiven for the 45 minute wait on the pizza.

A few pics:

Even though her Auntie made her a special cake, she insisted on eating the Elmo Cake:

One of her happier (and goofier) moments:

You would never guess she was really crabby that day when looking at the pictures.

This is the cake I made. For some reason I have a need to make Amelia's cakes no matter how stressed they make me. It took me 2 1/2 jar of no-taste red to make Elmo (I made way too much frosting), and it took me 1/2 jar of powder black and 1/2 jar of Wilton black food coloring for the mouth. Not to mention the 3 trips home and one trip to Walmart because I kept forgetting stuff (I decorated it during Thanksgiving at my parents but prepped everything there the night before).

Mommy Guilt

First off, on Saturday I decided Amelia's hair in the back was way too frizzy from sleeping. It kept tangling and let's face it, I was sick of feeling the frizz any time I would touch it. So I cut it off. I have seen my stylist cut my hair many times, how hard could it be. Famous last words. Really it was just a small area and it turned out fine but I started with a little on Saturday, then chickened out but finished on Sunday. She has the most beautiful little curls at the base of her neck and there is no way I am cutting those off. She would not stop moving! I need to get over the "do everything myself" mentality. But I feel guilty, like I am missing out on something.

On to the next guilt trip I am laying on myself (because isn't there always at least two).

About two weeks ago Amelia's daycare lady asked her if she had owies and where they were. Amelia pointed in the area of her jaw/neck. I figured she was getting teeth. That night and over the course of the next five days, she would get a slight increase in her temp, anywhere from 99 degrees to 101.2. But they didn't last and she didn't act real sick, just really crabby, so I didn't think anything of it. She stopped getting temps. On Sunday, I started getting a sore throat, by Sunday night I had body aches. My temperature has been hardly elevated. The highest it got was 100 point something. But it comes and goes, sometimes the sore throat is a dull ache, sometimes it feels like I got my tonsils out again. So today I went to the doctor because it is hard to take care of a two year old. I didn't have a fever but I did have BAD body aches and sore throat. He came to the conclusion that I most likely had strep. I have never had strep in my life and let me say, I never want it again.

I felt terrible. the parents of one of the kids at daycare both had strep and my daycare lady mentioned it when she told me about Amelia pointing to her "owies". I figured she would have a higher fever and fuss more. Her doctor was out today so I made an appointment for right away tomorrow morning. I don't know if they will even test her but I feel like such an ass. I feel like I completely ignored my daughter's symptoms, even if they were small. But on the other hand, the night before I hosted my first Thanksgiving, I had to take her to the emergency room out of fear she had pneumonia (just croup...OF COURSE. I shake my fist at you, croup.) but at least I knew. I didn't get home until almost 2:00 and didn't make it to bed until 2:30. So, the lesson I learned, not all fevers are created equal.

If anyone reads this, this is the part where you tell me that it happens to everyone, I am not a bad mom and all that other good-feeling stuff. Thanks!

You Capture-Halloween & Silence

Since I have so many Halloween pics I am going to do Silence first. This was Monday after Halloween. My baby was sick and she just fell asleep on the couch. She took an almost 2 hour long nap.

We had a good Halloween. We made it three whole places this year. We left around 7:00 and got home around 10:00. Good thing it was only three because I totally forgot the cute little Elmo candy bucket :( Thankfully my mom had taken a paper bag with handles and glued a halloween printout on it so it doubled as her candy bucket. Considering it was pretty full when we got it and we put her other grandma's stuff AND my aunt and uncle's loot into it, I am surprised it survived. One tough bag. These are my Halloween pics:

This is the pumpkin Mark carved:


These are the pumpkins I carved:


This is our candy...we got 6 trick-or-treaters before we left so we still have 95% of it:


This is the cake I made for work:

Mark and Elmo

Me and Elmo

That's it. To see more hop on over to Beth's.