(YES I still have to get the OTHER back-dated stuff up, and I will. BOTH kids go back to school on Tuesday! CELEBRAaaaaaaaa-TE good times! COME ON!!! In case you were not aware, I'd totally be dorky enough to make that cool).
Just thought I'd pop in. I heard I got the hopes up of a few with my last visit here, and let everyone down with no photos or video...sorry. I'll put a disclaimer at the beginning from now on. How's that?!?! haha
Our Christmas was really good. I took it a little better this year. I do fine through out the year, it's just certain times, mostly the holidays that I really wanna be with all my peeps. I feel like such a tittie baby too. "I WANNA SEE MY SISSY!!!!!". (I'm totally gonna get it for that one!).
I assume that'd be a normal reaction for anyone else, to wanna see their whoever, but it's still a bit foreign to me ya know.
Anyway, the Kade's school had several programs going on for the season, I'm sure all the teachers and staff were exhausted!! It was really neat though how involved everyone gets. Then on Christmas Eve we went to our friends home for dinner. We had a nice ham and the boys exchanged gifts with their buddy Tyler. It was still pretty icky out with lots of snow and slush on the roads and we had to get back to do our Christmas Eve rituals so we didn't get to stay a long, long time but it was a nice evening. We had to fight Co to stay awake, I think the addition of even MORE dark to the days and the fairly busy schedule had him worn out so he'd been sleeping a lot. We got home though and opened up our Eve gifts of a set of jammies and a movie. I could not find Christmas jammies in this whole entire country! I'd tried to order from the states, but unfortunately...Kade is too big for the awesome Old Navy ones and Co really is just about. I don't like the big boy ones and looked other places...their size, I swear has ALWAYS run along the masses of other kids the same size I guess. There will be piles of what I want in every size BUT the one I need. It's been that way since Kade was born. It's annoying as hell.
So...I just got them jammies. They really needed more jammies, so it didn't matter. ;o) They didn't notice there was no reindeer or penguins on them. We baked some cookies and watched Mickey Mouse Christmas and wrote our letters to Santa. Cody was too tired and grouchy, so he just scribbled all over it. Kade, oh did I just MELT or what?!?!, wrote his ALL by himself and it's seriously AWESOME. So we got everything out and put out carrots for the reindeer, b/c Comet needs to eat healthier (The Santa Clause 2). Then off to bed they went. Cody was pretty insistent he was going to sleep on the sofa so he could catch the big guy in the act, but we finally got him to believe no one would really come if he didn't get in HIS bed. (isn't that argument not supposed to start for like a few more years?!?!). Yikes.
Sooo....then Mike and I hurried up and got ourselves in bed so Santa could get here!!! Man, it's hard to sleep on Christmas Eve, even when you're a grown up.
As it was, well...my kids have somehow gotten their Dad's early riser, morning person genes so they didn't get up any earlier than usual. If they had...it would've been ugly. ha!
It really is my favorite thing I think, when they first walk in the living room on Christmas morning. Of everything, all year long...nothing compares, to first reaction on Christmas morning. I think next year, I may set up the video to record automatically so I don't have to rush ahead of everyone and try to tape it and photograph it etc....
Its that expression though, that I love to grab. It's the same of kids on Christmas morning, or when I shoot weddings. (I am the lame-o who tries to dissuade couples from seeing one another beforehand, regardless of the "new" way of doing it). I HAVE to get that first expression. It's the best. :)
Anyway, Santa...that ol' softy, he was pretty darn generous this year. For all of us. :o)
Due to his generosity, I was able to finally get a new lens!! I've been DYING without it! Seriously. Torturous!
The kids, as always got way too many things. They are so spoiled already, but we're all about to sit down and THEY are going to pick several of their toys to donate to less fortunate children. Best of all? They got LOADS of jammies!!! Its ridiculous how excited me and Mike were about that! ha! We just love it when they have pretty, matching jammies. We're just weird I guess.
Between Granny and Aunt Stephanie and Santa, those boys are totally decked out in jammies! Love it! I haven't had to scrounge for something suitable at all!
After we did our gifts and played with our toys and got things put away, we had some friends over. I'd made chicken spaghetti. My second attempt since we got here, the first one was edible...but so not great! This one however, freakin perfection. I've eaten myself sick on chicken spaghetti! I did awesome and I totally don't mind bragging on myself at all. ha!
We wish a few more of our friends could have joined us, but they were unable to do so...it's okay though. They know they were in our thoughts. 8o)
We had a fab time though. The kids all played great together with the new toys. The dads kinda took the lead with the kiddos so Mamas got to have a fewwwww drinks. hehe! It was really nice. I enjoyed it very much!
So, even though we were not able to be with our extended family. We were with our own little family and tried to open that up to anyone that needed a few more people around them on Christmas. Next year we will be on base, so I'm pretty sure the guest list will be much larger. Good thing that chicken spaghetti recipe makes so much (and Shannon will laugh hysterically, Mike asked me if I should double up on the recipe! hahaha).
So. Now, today we face the end of the year. I've seen so many people saying how they can't wait for 2009 to be over, it's been such an awful year. While I can totally relate...I have to say that actually, its been a pretty damn good year for me. Sure there are trials and tribulations always, but comparatively to what soooooo many others have gone through. I don't have a single damn complaint. Not one.
Resolutions? Well...you know I hear people have issues with the word resolution. I resolve to do something, does tend to sound like something I wouldn't WANT to do, but I must. However...anything I need to change, are things I WANT to change and I hardly care what time of year it is. So last year, when asked, rather than coming up with ways I could do things for myself really, or these totally unrealistic goals that few ever reach "lose 40lbs, write a novel, marry a prince, win the lottery...."
Yeah. Okay.
So anyway, last year I said that in the year 2009, I wanted to laugh more. I think I did that. I wanted more smiling and laughter in my home, to spread that virus on to others. Whether I did that or not, who knows. My huge goal was to get more of a handle on me and my home. While I still have a LONG way to go, there's been loads of progress and for that, I couldn't be happier. I call it a successful year.
So this year, I again seek even MORE laughter. Less fretting. More togetherness, better health, more activity for the whole family. I promise I will let my imagination and my creativity run away with me. I will not do anything artistic half way, for fear of the work to go into it, or it being too....whatever for anyone else. I will set it free, and not hold anything back. That is what I expect out of myself this year. On one hand, I see that could seem a bit selfish, but it will, just as laughter is, be contagious. There's at least one other creative monster in this house that is screaming to be set free, so now that he's got the bug up his butt and he is, rather obsessively, coloring and drawing anything and everything at the most random moments...he will only see, that you should never hold back your art. Whatever it is. That is the lesson I want them to learn this year. I want myself to learn it and feel it.
I imagine it feels as good as being horseback, in a big open field and letting go of the reins, yelling, "GO!!!". That's an amazing feeling in itself, so I look forward to feeling it again and sharing that.
So, that's where I'm at, for the year of 2010.
I still crack up and SO wish, as I wish many things like this, that someone had saved my old school projects. Papers and drawings etc... I remember throughout my elementary years being asked what we thought it would be like in the year 2000. We were all in flying cars and space suits etc... I think back to that nearly every year now and still laugh on the inside.
Oh, and absolutely nothing to do with new years or resolutions etc...
I've quit smoking. 8o)
Yes, its only been a few days and perhaps people will doubt me. Do not. Remember I am but a strange creature and know how I am when I make up my mind. That is something about me, that is sometimes to the disadvantage of others, but advantageous to me. It may take me a long, long, LONG time to get to a point. When I get there though, and it is pretty randomly decided without much forethought at all, I am there and there will be no reconsideration.
I've gotten sick a few times before and thought, "what a good opportunity to quit." but usually would slowly go out and smoke as if I had no control over my actions. Quite pathetic actually. Which, any sort of out of control, pathetic behavior on my part always pisses me OFF. I am not so cool with feeling weak in any manner you know. Smoking is a weakness. Just as not exercising, eating like shit....whatever your vice may be. Those are several of mine.
So, smoking is, as quitting any sort of addiction, be it a dietary, chemical or emotional just a habit. Something that ANYONE can do, you just gotta tough it out.
I mean, its not like quitting freaking meth or something, come on! Is it hard? Um...yes. Of course it is. It's easier TO smoke. To be a bad example for my children, nearly guarantee myself a tank and tubes to carry around when I'm older, smell nasty, spend LOTS of money...yeah I mean that is easier than stopping. However, I have quit LOTS of things, made LOTS of big steps that have made me a better person several times over in my life. I'm fairly sure that cigarettes are pretty small in the grand scheme of things.
So I got sick this week, didn't smoke for many hours and thought, "oh hell...this is it. I"m done." I have now made that announcement on here and my facebook where at LEAST 600+ people have seen it. I absolutely will not wimp out now. No way could I allow myself to look weak to that many people. ;o)
So. That is what is going on here.
Next big thing??? Bring on another 30-something year! I'm can handle it.
Now.
Photos.
No Captions. My office has been invaded too many times and now they won't leave (and we SHOULD be leaving very soon for our appointment with bob the barber).
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