I recently hooked up with Ginger over at BabyJane’s to redesign my blog. I’m really excited to see what she comes up with. I did this as an early birthday present to myself… my birthday is later this month and it’s a milestone (so, I hear anway). I decided that I wanted a new look to start out the new year and enter the next decade of my life.

I started blogging in 2004 because it was something I wanted to explore. By the summer of 2005 I was completely addicted and began meeting some really wonderful people. Blogging is not as easy as it looks, there are times when it’s incredibly hard to write something worthy of the great people who choose to visit.

So, out with the old, in with the new (all sorts of “new” to look forward to this year)!

I hope that all of my wonderful friends out in the blogosphere have a wonderful New Year!

Stealing a great idea from Marti (my current renter… give her a click please!!) I wanted to thank some of the people who have gone out of their way to leave comments and just be all around awesome people to read daily!

ZubeGirl
Bonanza Jellybean
TJ @ Zazzafooky
Marti
Mergrl
Crazy Lady
TXSM
Windfall Woman
Chickie
Painting Chef
Empress Baggie

Today I had a splitting headache. I plopped Maggie down for her nap and crawled into my own bed to try and sleep off the migraine. What felt like seconds into my nap my “mom radar” began going off.

Drifting back into conciousness I heard, in a harsh whisper, “Ethan…. Ethan… you HAVE to wake Mom up NOW!”

I heard Maggie in the next room calling for me at the top of her little lungs.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ethan and Kate go into the girls’ room and I heard Ethan gagging (he can’t stand the sight of blood and other… uh… things). Trying to keep his lunch down I heard him whisper, “Is that… uh… uh…?!?!?”

Kate sounded like she was enjoying his reaction a little too much when she replied, forgetting to whisper, “Yep! It SURE is!”

Yep… my darling angel Maggie, just a day away from her 2nd birthday, had finally proven that human beings are, in fact, more closely related to monkeys than we might have previously suspected.

It seems that when she should have been napping, she actually decided to strip completely, dump the contents of her diaper on the floor, and then pitch the diaper overboard as well. At a loss for something interesting to do next, she leaned over and managed to get her finger stuck in the VCR. This last little stunt is what originally brought Katie rushing into the room and thank goodness she did because this could have all been much, much worse.

Toddlers are strange, weird, little people.

Holy cow! It’s finally happening… they have actually started BUILDING our house. It was like some kind of magical Christmas gift. We drove by our lot yesterday and there it was… the beginning of the next chapter of our lives in all of it’s 2×4 glory! ;o)

Ok, that little blurry bottom arrow there actually says - House next door. And, the houses on both sides of us are single stories… so those will probably be finished before our house because the two-story houses are taking a little longer to build.

See that? That is our future driveway!

Yep… we only have about 12 weeks to go. We should be moving in by the end of March / beginning of April 2006!!!! *sigh* it just seems like last week that we put a deposit down on our lot. ;o)

If you haven’t yet, do check out Marti’s blog. She had the most wonderful Christmas and posted about it in three parts, it was just great, sounded like a wonderful Christmas movie. Click on the Rent My Blog Thumbnail over there on the left, please!!

Yep, those are Christmas lights, because let’s face it, most people still have their Christmas lights up. I’d like to draw your attention over to the lovely thumbnail on the left there… I have a new renter, folks. Marti over at “Digital Doorway - Enter The Laughter” was kind enough to rent a space on my blog for the next week. Do me a favor and give her a visit, she has a great sense of humor and I know you’ll enjoy her blog as much as I do - since she’s one of my regular reads.

Christmas was wonderful. Although, somewhere in the back of my mind I had hoped that there would be something spectacular about the last Christmas in this house. Instead, it was a relatively quiet Christmas filled with wonderful food and great conversation.

Everyone is exhausted, including me. The house feels like it is in shambles. There are still boxes stacked in the corner, the tree looks a bit lonely without all the presents piled around the bottom, and the girls’ room is a complete disaster. Which is probably why Kate has escaped to my mom’s house… she’s trying to avoid the post-Christmas clean up.

I have never really been one of those moms who cleans up their children’s rooms. Once they were old enough to do it on their own, they’ve been doing it ever since. Occasionally, I go in and put things away or hang up some clothes or help out rearranging a closet or something… but 98% of the time, it is their responsibility. Which is why Kate’s room will be waiting for her when she comes home. I’ll keep the door closed so I don’t have to look at it.

The entire family seems to be in some sort of strange competition, we’re all trying to see how long we can make it without silverware. All the silverware in the house, with the exception of some large spoons, are in the bottom of the sink. We have a dishwasher, actually, we have 4 of them; Mike, Amy, Ethan, and Katie. All are on some form of Christmas vacation because none are functioning in their usual capacity. Last night some members of this family were attempting to eat leftover turkey and mashed potatoes with the extra large spoons in the drawer.

(my mother and mother-in-law are reading this now rolling their eyes and giving their monitors thoroughly disgusted looks. Deep down they are most likely horrified that I would admit to this sort of thing in a public forum.)

I’ve never implied that I was some sort of June Cleaver. I’ll get around to cleaning up the mess , most likely today or tomorrow… it’s not that I don’t mind the house looking like this, I just have a higher tolerance for it than the afore mentioned ladies do.

covered in chocolate.

I bought my husband a new fishing pole, lures, and “special” fishing backpack to hold all of his crap fishing equipment, for Christmas.

Yesterday we got up and went hiking in the mountains for a few hours. Then we stopped at a pizza place with the most heavenly pizza of which I got to eat 2 slices while wrestling a 2 year old (she turns 2 on Sunday… I’m still trying to get used to the idea, so I’m starting early) who kept screaming, “Let go!!!!” This place was really small so they didn’t have highchairs… which meant I had to hold the demon Maggie on my lap.

On the other side of the booth sat my husband with a frosty mug of draft beer happily munching pizza and offering “helpful” suggestions as to how I might better manage Maggie.

Jackass.

She slept the entire way home, which meant that when she woke up she was brimming with refreshed energy.

Once we got home Mike started organizing his new fishing equipment so he could try it out the next morning at the lake. He assured me it would only take about 30 minutes to get it all together and then he’d take Maggie off my hands for a while.

It ended up taking 2 hours.

While Mike organized, I chased Maggie around the house. Exhausted, I decided that there was only one way to ensure that Mike had as interesting of a time with Maggie as I had. Maggie and I opened my box of See’s Candy that Mike had stuffed in my stocking.

Thirty minutes later my monkey daughter was hopping back and forth across my bed on her tiptoes singing at the top of her lungs and giggling at anything that came into view. She gathered all of her foam balls that were in her stocking and began tossing them around the room. She sprinted back and forth up and down the hall.

Finally, Mike came in to “relieve” me.

Me: Oh good, she’s all ready to spend time with Daddy!

Mike: Good! (watching her bouncing around with a look of worry on his face)

Me: And, I’m so sorry you missed it… but Maggie had her very first taste of See’s Candy tonight. She seems to prefer the Scotchmallows.

Mike: (look of panic on his face) What did I do to you?

It was a solid hour or so before Mike could sit down again. I managed to answer a few emails, reply to comments on my blog and laugh as Mike followed the whirling dirvish around the house cleaning up spilled coffee (that never would have happened on my watch… but then, I usually manage to stay a step or two ahead of her) and barely restraining Maggie before she leapt off of furniture or poked the dog’s eye out.

And, lest you thing I completely abandoned my darling husband (who at this moment is enjoying a peaceful fishing trip out at the lake while I wait for Maggie to wake up) I made sure to offer helpful suggestions and the occasional warning as he followed her around the house:

“Oh… she has a coffee mug!”

“Mike, she’s climbing up on my desk!”

“Oops! You better catch her I don’t think she should have that…”

Next time, he might keep his helpful suggestions to himself.

I’ve strained to think of something wonderful to say to you on Christmas Eve. But, I’m afraid the rising temps are putting me in a nasty mood. It’s supposed to be 72 today… and it’s foggy right now. How icky is that for Christmas?!?!?

Let’s see, I’ve got to make a MonkeyBread, I have to get my breakfast casserole thrown together, and I am planning on doing the mashed potatoes today so that I won’t be peeling and boiling on Christmas day… after all a big, boiling pot of water is all I need when it’s supposed to be 67 tomorrow. As Elf might say, “Son of a NUTCRACKER!!!!!!”

The perfect Christmas poem for Bloggers everywhere can be found at Digital Doorway, Marti has a phenomenal Christmas post that you shouldn’t miss. You could not find more perfect Christmas wishes anywhere!

And, in spite of my foul mood, I’d like to wish you and your family (those of you who celebrate) a very Merry Christmas!

Much love and Christmas Cheer from my family to yours!

(feel free to insert your choice of profanity here)

Guess what the high temperature was today?

No, really… guess.

72 freaking degrees. It’s 4 o’clock now and it’s starting to cool off a bit…

67… absolutely ridiculous for this time of year. I am so sick of warm temps I could just puke.

Yes, I know that many of you are dealing with snow, storms, rain, and other types of unfriendly weather. I do understand cold, wind chill, snow, ice, etc. I lived in Colorado for a while. (another piece of useless info I bet you didn’t care to know about me, huh?)

Yes, I live in California. But, I live in an area that experiences triple digit heat throughout most of the summer months… by the time we start to cool off it’s more than welcomed!

Average temp in December is supposed to be high 40’s low 50’s…

NOT 72. And just LOOK what I have to look forward to on CHRISTMAS WEEKEND?!?!?!?

We live about 45 minutes from the mountains… there should be SNOW up there now (which I was planning on experiencing next week while my husband takes some time off) - is there? No. None at all. But, I’ve been told there is some REALLY COLD MUD.

(insert more profanity here… lots of it)

We bought a space heater from Costco… because our house has cold, damp spots (it’s old, thus why we are moving). And, we were going to rotate the space heater about to dry the place out.

Know where the space heater is now? Still in the damn box!

My geraniums have started BLOOMING again.

##$%%$#*&^%$##$#$

Merry Christmas… let’s have turkey and then go out and get a tan.

Why the #$%#$$% not?

I think I am on the downside of this cold, finally. Even with a head cold I’ve been out almost every day this week getting the rest of the things I need for Christmas Day dinner.

On Tuesday I was at Target. I got up to the counter with all of my stuff and when the checkout girl got to the Robitussin she asked for my ID. I swear all I could think about was Bonanza’s post about her Target Experience, it was all I could do to keep from letting out an evil giggle. In fact, I was so preoccupied with the thought that I handed the girl my ATM card instead of my ID. She looked at me as if I’d lost my mind and politely asked for my ID again… that’s about the time I became paranoid she was about to hit the “button” summoning security. She started mumbling something about “that new law…” and I just decided it was best to let it lie.

Speaking of Bonanza, she was kind enough to nominate me for a Best of Blogs Best Mommy Blog award.
I was extremely shocked to see that because I certainly don’t consider this blog to be the best of anything… in fact I regularly find blogs that make me ashamed to even have my own blog. ;o)

Still, thanks a bunch, Bonanza!

Today the appliance repair guy is coming out to fix our oven. It’s not acting right and two of the burners need new strikers. Can you imagine having your oven decide to go on the fritz just days before Christmas? My husband is the “Meat King” of holiday feasts which means there is A LOT of roasting going on in this house on Christmas Day. I keep having recurring nightmares that the guys shows up, pulls my oven into the middle of the kitchen, disables it completely and has to order the freaking parts from God knows where, thus leaving me ovenless for Christmas.

So, the oven is on the fritz, the roof is leaking in several places, and the septic system is planning a revolt. I think the house is really pissed that we are having a new house built. The person who said, “Hell hath no fury…” referring to women, obviously never had a new house built. Our house is like some jilted woman screaming, “WHAT!?!?!? I’m NOT good enough for you?!?!? I’ve given you the best years of MY LIFE!!!!!”

Which would totally not be true… because the best years of this house’s life were undoubtedly in the 50’s and 60’s I’ve heard tales from older neighbors that this neighborhood used to be quite the swingin’ place with regular huge blockparties where there was no shortage of alcohol and mayhem. And this is from a neighbor in his 70’s (who I swear does not look a day older than 55) who a few years ago got completely ripped at the county fair and ended up spending over $5,000.00 on a covered redwood deck, bar and spa for his backyard. He woke up the next morning with a massive hangover and a crew of guys in his backyard hammering away on his new purchase. His wife loves telling this story complete with the “you got what you deserved, you moron” look in his direction every time she tells it.

One thing this house has no shortage of is memories and there are a lot of them here. You know what? I’ll cherish the memories, always, but I am not going to miss this house… not one damn, little bit!

I am in the midst of a battle here. I am battling a cold. Thanks to my darling daughter. I’ve been in a daze of Thereflu Strips (love those… but can see where it might be easy to overdose, they taste great) and Sudafed. It’s affecting my memory and ability to maintain consciousness. But, I’m refusing to go down without a fight!!!

So this morning I found myself with a lovely post title idea (see above) and a cute idea to introduce my new tenant (see above) and I found a way to solve my two problems (again see above - my apologies for assuming that you have memory problems as well). As I made coffee this morning I chanted my blog title like a mantra, if you will, which caused me to forget to add cream to my coffee. When I went back to get the cream I became worried that I would forget the blog idea or wonder why I was standing in front of an open refridgerator. Fortunately, I remembered the cream and the post title. The coffee is keeping me conscious… for now anyway.

Ok, this is the downside to this time of year. The eager anticipation wishing the days would go by faster… only to have the day arrive and realize that it is all over for another year. Worse yet, once the DAY has arrived there is only 1/2 of winter break remaining. *sigh* Talk about a life lesson for the kids, huh? Every year is the same, they are excited and completely ignorant that come the afternoon of Christmas Day - it’s all over with. At least as adults we recognize there is a let down coming and brace for it… but the kids seem just as surprised and traumatized by it every year.

On the grown up end of thing (which equally sucks) there is the anticipation which sits stewing in the background of our minds while grocery lists and “where did I put that recipe?” occupy the forefront. There is the the child within eagerly anticipating Christmas morning (only instead of just being curious about your own presents you are equally looking forward to the expressions on the faces of gift recipients) then there is the adult who dreads the post-Christmas clean up and worries if neglecting to put a plastic liner under the Christmas tree this year is going to result in a stain on the carpet. Ahhh, the split personality that is the grown-up Christmas.

Every year I get the kids chocolate advent calendars. I realized that Ethan is definitely growing up when he elected to let the calendar sit in order to enjoy all the candy in one sitting. That is restraint that most females, young or old, do not have.

Katie insists that the chocolate candy at the beginning of the month is never as good as the chocolate the last week before Christmas. It doesn’t matter how many times we try to tell her that it’s ALL the SAME chocolate, she stubbornly insists that it isn’t. We’ve given up.

As I prepare to post this entry Kate and Maggie are seated on the floor. Maggie has a bib on and just exclaimed, “Oh WOW!” as Kate pulled out her advent calendar. Maggie has been sick and chocolate has been the last thing on her mind. Her desire to rip into this advenet calendar along with her frequent shouts of “Choc-ett” (thus proving that even if she doesn’t look like me - she IS my daughter!) seems to indicate that she is nearly recovered. I lost count but I believe Maggie has at least a week of catching up to do.

Lucky girl!