Monday, and the hubby's back at work. Ahhhh. He was starting to irritate my nerves, being home since mid-Wednesday and all. Our weekend was boring. I did some cleaning on Saturday, although not much. Yesterday I finished the cleaning, finally caught up the laundry, redecorated my living room. I did a little bit of deeper cleaning in the kitchen, rearranged my counters and washed the wall behind the stove. I could really use a backsplash. I hate the way mobile homes are made, so cheap. If we build on, I'm having the original trailer redone, in addition to building new rooms. Seriously, no baseboards? Things like that is ridiculous. But it's a place to live, keeps me warm in the winter and cool in the summer, and it's mine. I could be paying rent to someone else, I suppose.

My countdown to a healthy life is on. Darrell is going to be in for a rude awakening soon. As soon as my Mom gives me my Christmas money I'm going to join Weight Watchers online, and then buy an umbrella stroller for my daily walks. Darrell's getting new bulbs for the fish tank with his part of it. I'm getting excited about it though. Maybe I can encourage Darrell to give up some of the sweets and Diet Coke. Probably not though.

It's raining outside. There's supposed to be a front coming through today taking us down to the 40s. It's been too warm these past few days to be December. And we're supposed to hit the mid-60s the first couple of days of January. Craziness.

The kids got up and I fixed them some breakfast this morning. Kenzie fixed Nubby some food and they were all eating. Then Nubby came over and puked up a bunch of dog food right next to Mackenzie. She then decided that she had to use the bathroom before she could clean it up. Hunter ran out of the room gagging, and then Shelby went to Hunter's place at the table and started eating his food. Kenzie finally got it all cleaned up, I couldn't look at it either without feeling queasy, so it was all her. Then, after breakfast, I had Hunter go get the dirty clothes basket from their bathroom so I could do a load of clothes. He stepped in a big pile of dogshit right outside the bathroom door. So Nubby got an all expense paid trip to her kennel! ;p

Today I have to do that one load of laundry, vacuum and mop. I hate mopping when it's raining, but my floor is too dirty to wait. I think the kids and I will make some Jell-O in a bit, and I'll let them cut it out with cookie cutters to make those jiggler thingys. Mackenzie just came in and asked if she could get on nickjr.com. LOL She loves the computer, maybe as much as I do. Scary thought, that. Must go now, there's screaming in the living room.

Today was pretty boring. I slept in until 9:30! Wow, that's the latest I've slept in a long time. I'm starting a bad habit though. When the kids go back to school I won't be able to stay up late and sleep in. Shelby's already gotten used to the later hours too, she's went right back into her old summertime routine. Last summer, she would get up around 9 or so, then nap at 2-3, then not go to bed until 10 or 11. When school's in, she gets up at 6:30-7, nap at 10 am, bed by 7-8. I've had hell getting her to bed the last few days. She's fought it until 10 or later. I was lucky to get her to sleep by 9 on Christmas Eve so we could get Santa stuff set out.

Anyway, after I got up and got ready, we went to town. We took off all the Christmas garbage, then went by the pet shop and got Princess some dog bones, and had her nails trimmed. Then we went and visited my M&FIL for a while. My MIL had one of those candycane things full of mini-whoppers for the kids and a big 3 pound box of chocolates for Darrell and me. Yum-my! Then we went to Wal-Mart and got Shelby some shoes, and Diet Coke and dishwasher tablets. I also got her some panties, we're going to try this potty training gig next week. I told Darrell he'll have to take the car all week, so I don't have to worry about leaving the house and taking diapers off and putting them back on all day. We'll see how she does. If she doesn't show that she's ready enough, we'll wait until later. Maybe summertime when the kids are home again. She'll be 2y3m when they're out for summer.

I took down all my Christmas decorations today. I was going to leave them for a few more days, but Darrell wanted to take them down so I said okay. I contemplated leaving my snowmen out for a few minutes, but decided to go ahead and put them away. My house looks so bare. I think I have more decorations for Christmas than I do for the rest of the year. We still have a lighted garland on the fence, and lights on the trees, bushes, and shed to take down. There's still a bow on my mailbox too, I'll get all that tomorrow probably.

We've decided to make redoing Mackenzie's room her birthday present. I'm going to start on it in the next week or so. It'll take more money than a traditional present, so we'll start now and hopefully be finished by her birthday (Feb. 24). I figure this way, I have somewhat of a deadline, so I'm more likely to get started. We're going to do a joint compound treatment on her room, troweling it on with a smooth trowel. After it dries, we'll paint it like normal. She's getting a funky, multi-colored daisy comforter set from Wal-Mart, it comes with a dust ruffle and sham. Then she'll get 3 sets of solid color sheets to match. She'll get new curtains (custom made by Darrell's aunt) on her window and closet door. I'm going to be on the lookout for a new dresser and end-table to refinish and paint. I'm going to put a closet organizer in her closet, although I don't know just what yet. I've seen plans for DIY organizers, the ones you buy are so freaking expensive. We'll have to see on that one. Then I've picked out a bunch of accessories for her through Home Interiors. I plan on making her a headboard too, to attach to the wall. I don't know what yet, maybe a big daisy. LOL I'm going to have to try to book a show or two this month to cover the cost of some of this. I've already got over $100 just in accessories picked out. Eek! I wish I had $500 like on Decorating Cents. I could definitely do it for that. :)

Christmas is over.

It builds up for what seems like a long time, and then it's over just like that. All the weeks (or months) of planning, shopping, baking, wrapping, decorating, and it's done in such a short time. It's always sort of a letdown after all the gifts are opened. Or maybe it's just me. ;p

We got up around 6:30 this morning. Darrell heard one of the kids up, and our living room is open to the bedrooms, so we didn't want them up before us. I got up and Hunter came running in talking about a kitchen in the living room (he mistook Kenzie's dollhouse for a toy kitchen). LOL It was funny. We all used the bathroom (haha), and I let the kids look at their Santa gifts for a few then I made Kenzie take the dog out, and we waited for her to get back in. Then everyone dove in and opened all the gifts. The kids got a ton of stuff, and I am happy to say they are all very happy with all of their gifts. There is nothing that they don't really like or haven't played with. Well, the books have kind of been ignored today, but they'll get to them I'm sure. :)

As for me, I got some nice stuff. Darrell got me a snowman for my collection, a space-saver can opener and some White Diamonds perfume. I've been wanting some of that for a long time, but never would spend that much on good perfume for myself. LOL From my swap partners, I got perfume from my mom and a chenille throw from my SIL Karen. It's so soft and warm. I've been covering up with it on the couch all evening. My MIL got me some kitchen towels/mitts/potholders, and FIL gave us $100. My mom (additionally) got me a snowman for my collection and also $100.

We usually do our dinner at around lunch time, or between 11 and 1. This year I decided to do it later and we didn't eat until around 4:30. The upside to this is that I didn't have to start cooking immediately after present opening. I started at 10 this morning with the cornbread, and put the turkey in at 11. I cooked a turkey and ham, so it was about 4 hours of cooktime altogther, then cooking the dressing and rolls. The other upside is that since we basically ate supper, we snacked for lunch and then I just cleaned the kitchen up once after we finished eating. Usually I'll clean up, store leftovers, etc., and then when we warm food up for supper, I have more to clean. The downside of this method is that I was cooking practically all day. When we eat earlier, I get started earlier and all cooking is done early on and then the rest of the day is mine to lounge or whatever. I don't know how I'll do it for next year. I'll worry about that when the time comes, I suppose.

I am kind of glad it's all over, but boy am I dreading putting away all my decorations!
Merry Christmas!

I can't believe it's been so long since I've put in an entry. Oops. :)

Well, Shelby ended up getting sicker. The day after my last entry, she woke up with a 103+ temperature, which she kept off and on (mostly on) for the next four days. I ended up taking her to the Dr. mid-week last week, along with Mackenzie who came up sick the next Tuesday. They both were just suffering from viruses. Shelby was already on the mend by the time I took her in to the ped, and Mackenzie was only sick for a couple of days. She ended up being home all week though. I let her go back to school Friday for the Christmas party. She hadn't had a fever in 24 hours at that point, so I figured it was okay. She didn't get to take her reading test over the last story though. I hate for her to go back in January and have to take a test from December. But she's smart, she'll ace it.

Darrell did sell his truck. He got the $500 he was asking for it and I got to finish my Christmas shopping. I was so relieved when I went and got the rest of the kids' things. We also got our swap stuff. I gave Mom one of my big Home Interior candles that I had previously ordered, and we bought Richard one of those water themometor things. It's filled with water, and has all of these trinket looking things in it. You tell the temperature by which ones are floating, and how high up they are floating. It's neat. It doesn't give you a accurate degree, more of a neighborhood temperature, but it's cool.

We had the family Christmas party the other day, Sunday. It was fun. Everybody was there, my grandparents' house was so crowded. That's the best though. ;p We had a finger food buffet and everybody brought something. There was punch to drink, chips & dip, veggie trays, meat/cheese/cracker trays, chocolate covered pretzels, sugar cookies, nuts, ham rolls, and a sub tray. The ones with kids came an hour early and all the kids decorated the tree with homemade ornaments that we had made. It was fairly well loaded, there was like 3 or 4 balls on one branch, etc. It looked nice, though, and the kids had fun. I got some perfume from my swap person, and Darrell got a new wallet.

Today I took the kids over to Mom's house to play with Matthew, Lucas, and Alanis. Mom got them Sunday evening and took them back this evening, so she could see them and give them their gifts. She's going to try to get them again next week, so the kids can play somemore then. I'm going to try to get a hold of Joey and ask him if Matthew would be interested in writing back and forth with Hunter. I figure they can both use the handwriting practice, and this way they can keep in touch and keep up with what the other is doing.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. I can't believe it's finally here. They're getting their checks first thing tomorrow, so I have to get Darrell's and go to the bank to deposit bill money. I have to pay a bill online, and the other that's coming out this week is direct withdrawal. Sara called earlier and asked if I'd take her to Columbia to get some clothes and Mom a Christmas gift. Nothing like waiting til the last minute, eh? I said I would, but then I had to call her back and say I couldn't. I forgot I had to go to the bank, and it's only open half-day tomorrow. Darrell's only working half-day too, so I have to get my running done in the morning. There's no way I could make it to the bank and then to Columbia and be back in time. The bank and Columbia are in opposite directions. :) Plus, I have to make my pies and stuff tomorrow evening. I'm only making three pies, two of which are no-bake so they're quick.

I guess that's it then. I hope everyone that celebrates has a merry Christmas!

I can see I'm gonna be lucky to update this thing a couple of times a week. It just gets pushed to the end of the list (the never ending list, that is). Darrell's over on the bed watching some silly teenage horror movie called Wrong Turn. It's got these kids trapped in the forests of West Virginia being hunted by some crazy inbred mountain men. I wonder how offended the people of W. Va are? LOL

We had to move the fish tank over today. It was stressing the floor too bad where it was. We had to move it to where it was closer to the cross beams or some such. I'm really not sure. But I tell you, moving that thing is a bitch. We had a 32 gallon garbage can, half of another one (Darrell had previously cut some of it off, reason unknown), and I had to go buy three more. We had to siphon all the water out, take out all the live rock, fish, corals, starfish, shrimp, snails, crabs, etc. etc. and put them in something else. We got the water down to about 2-3" with all the crushed coral still in the bottom and we could.not.budge the thing. We had to dip the rest of the water and coral out with a bowl, and then we could barely scoot the thing two feet down the floor. Ugh. It took all Darrell and I could do together to lift the empty tank up on the stand. IT is 6 feet long, probably 2 feet deep, and the glass is thick. Darrell started at about 9:30 or 10, and it was 2 by the time he got everything put back together and put up. I made him do most of the work, it's his tank. LOL

Shelby has been a whiny ass today. She's feeling bad, running a low temp and got throat problems. I don't know if anything hurts, she doesn't act like it. She has a slight cough, but it's not all the time, just occasionally. When she does cough though, or when she cries, it sounds like she's losing her voice, that raspy kind of sound. She's been tugging at her right ear too, but she's not having trouble sleeping or anything, so I'm comfortable letting it go for a bit longer and seeing if she can shake it. I'd like to avoid the doctor's office if possible at the moment. I don't want to go in for a slight ear infection and her end up with the flu.

This next week is the kids' last before Christmas break. Friday morning they'll just go in long enough to have a short Christmas party. Hunter's room is ordering breakfast from Hardee's, so I have to send in $1 on Monday for him to have a sausage biscuit. They aren't exchanging gifts in his classroom, and the teachers asked that you don't send them gifts either. I am still baking cookies for them, and for Kenzie's teacher too. Mackenzie's room is also having a breakfast, but her teacher is supplying the food. They are doing a coloring book exchange, we bought the coloring books last night - it's a $2 limit, so we bought two $1 books. I can't believe how much coloring books cost. The cheapest Wal-Mart had after the $.97 was $2.62, and some were even $3-4. That's crazy. I can go print a bunch of Spongebob pictures off the internet. Screw the $4 coloring books.

Someone is coming by in the morning to look at Darrell's truck and possibly buy it. Darrell doesn't like to drive anymore because of anxiety, and the Paxil doesn't help while driving. He got the truck in February, and hasn't driven it since July. He made a fairly decent check this week, but half of it went to the electric bill, and the rest was nickel and dimed up, $20 to send a few boxes at the PO, $30 at Wal-Mart for diapers, wipes, garbage bags, etc. Things like that. I still lack about $175 being finished Christmas shopping for my kids, and about $65 being finished shopping for our swaps. So hopefully the guy will want to give us $500 for the truck tomorrow and I can get finished. If he doesn't, I don't know what we're going to do. How am I going to explain to Hunter that Santa came for Mackenzie and Shelby but not him? Ugh, I don't even want to think about it. It'll work out, it has to. And starting next month, I am putting back $5-10 dollars of every paycheck in the safebox, so we'll at least have money at the end of the year to get our kids' gifts. I know December is slow every year, and yet I wait until then to try to pay bills and buy gifts all at the same time. I'm an idiot.

I'm jealous of all these pretty blog backgrounds. I'm trying to resist the urge to look into getting one. Like I need more time spent on the computer.

This week has been okay so far. Mackenzie fell off the top of the slide at school Monday, so I kept her home yesterday and took her to the ped to get her shoulder looked at. Luckily, it's not broken. My nephew fell on some playground equipment and broke his arm, and it wasn't even detected for a few days because it just didn't hurt that bad. You'd think a break would equal big pain, but apparently not always. So I wanted to have Kenzie's shoulder looked at just in case. Darrell had a pretty bad anxiety attack late Monday night. Well, early Tuesday morning more like it. It was the worst one I've ever seen, and pretty scary. He felt kind of weak and shaky all day yesterday. This is the first day he's gone to work this week. Which is so not what we need right now. I'm hoping and praying for enough money to pay the bills that need paid and finish our Christmas shopping this weekend. I've got to get Darrell's and my swap gifts on his side of the family (his sister and his sister-in-law), and the gift for Richard. I'm going to go to Wal-Mart today and get Hunter and Mackenzie each a gift from Shelby. They've already got their gifts for the other two. I think it'll just be a couple of coloring books and crayons each.

Last night we decided to put together a gingerbread house that I actually bought last year and never used. First of all, I filled up the water to the line on the cup that had the picture of the gingerbread house. It said '2X' on that line, so I filled it to that line twice and put in two cups of water. After about 10 minutes of mixing with no thickening in site, I realized that it didn't need two lines of water. I have no clue why it said 2X on that line. So, I had to dump a ton of powdered sugar in to thicken it up. LOL And just a tip, putting together a gingerbread house is not as easy as it may seem. I had icing all over the place. LOL It was fun, though. The kids decorated it with all the candies, peppermints, gumdrops, etc. Then we sprinkled powdered sugar to look like snow.

After that, the kids watched Rudolph and we colored. They're doing a paper chain advent calendar, and coloring was the activity on yesterday's chain. Tonight they get to stay up for 30 extra minutes. Which is good, because I need to trim Hunter's hair.

I can't believe Christmas is so close. I can't believe that this year is almost over. The kids only have the rest of this week, and then 4 days of school next week. On the 19th, they'll go in for about an hour for Christmas parties, and then they'll be on vacation until January 7th!! Nearly 3 weeks!! I hope they don't lose interest in their toys, I can totally see myself going insane. :)

I really, really have to go clean the house now. It's not bad, Darrell actually got up and unloaded the dishwasher this morning, and reloaded it with all the gingerbread house makings. We ate McDonald's last night so there were no dishes from supper. But I need to straighten the bathrooms and living room, wipe the counters in the kitchen, sweep and swiffer, fold a load of clothes and wash another. Shelby will probably be awake by then and we can go to Wal-Mart. I've got to take some candles to my Mom too. She's buying all the candles in a jar that I have, I'm giving her a discount on them at $5 each, they're regularly $5.99+tax. That's still more than I paid for them though. I get them for $3.80 apiece, so I'm still making a little bit anyway.

Maybe more later, if I can find the time!

I'm a bad blogger. I like to do my entries in the evenings, to kind of recap my day. But by the time I get around to it, Darrell is asleep and the clicking of the keyboard is really loud when it's the only sound in the room.

So yesterday (Saturday), we went to Columbia to get coats and shoes. Hunter had to get a size 3 shoe. The ones he was wearing were 2s, so we tried a 2 1/2 and his toe was at the end, so we had to go up to 3. It's funny, because when we got him a pair of Nikes last year, he had to have a 3 in them. I guess they run smaller. Anyway, we found him a coat at Wal-Mart, a 3-in-1 type. It's two jackets that zip together to form a thick coat. He likes it, but of course he's only wearing one of the jacket pieces instead of the whole thing. It can be 0 degrees outside and he wants to wear a jacket. We found Shelby's coat at Sears. We got it for half-price, which is a good thing since it was $50 originally. There's no way in hell I'd give that for a child's coat. Maybe I'm cheap, but it better change diapers too or something for that price.

After we got the coats and shoes, we went to the pet store, liquor store, then to Burger King for lunch. As I was pulling out of the parking lot at the liquor store, I dropped my Coke can and spilled it all over myself, so BK was drive-thru. ;p While we were at Wal-Mart, I also got the kids' the gifts for their swap partner. Jacob got a little micro machines set, Rebecca a kitty doll with hair that has a brush and other accessories, and Destiny got a doll with bottles, baby food, bib, etc. I'm giving my Mom a candle, so I've already got that. The only ones I'm lacking is Richard, Dora and Karen. I'll pick those up next weekend, I guess.

Today I've been cleaning and baking. I still have a load of clothes in the dryer, and need to vacuum and mop. I baked some chocolate chip cookies with little red, green, and white candy coated chips. Also cornflake peanut butter balls, milk chocolate fudge w/walnuts, and a chocolate chip cookie bar that has walnuts and coconut in it. Yum! :) Shelby has been cranky all day. It took me until around 2 to get her down for a nap, then once she went to sleep I couldn't get her to lay down without waking up. I finally got her laid down and gathered up Hunter and Mackenzie to do their craft. Doing a craft was on their advent calendar today, and it was painting the ornaments for the tree at the Christmas party, so I definitely wanted to get it done while Shelby was asleep.

Wouldn't you know, as soon as I got newspapers spread on the table and was giving the kids their paint, Shelby woke up. I lost my mind for a second and decided to let her paint too, but just on paper. Before it was over she had craft paint all over her legs, feet, hands, arms and face. I had to stick her in the tub, luckily the stuff washes off easily. And, the grossest thing happened. While they were painting, she grabbed Mackenzie's cup of water that she was using to rinse between colors and took a drink out of it. YUCK! It was kind of funny though. Heh.

So Shelby's been as cranky as ever this evening. It's almost bedtime though. Yay! Oh Lord, the dog bit Shelby today, too. It was her fault, the dog was trying to take refuge under the end table and Shelby crawled under there trying to pull her out. They're both having to learn how to act around each other, and it's slow going. Nubby got her on the cheek, it's just too small scratches. She's not big enough to do any real damage. Hopefully we'll all have an understanding before that time comes.

The format is back to the old way. They're trying to drive me insane, I tell ya! ;p

So, this week has been blah. I think my hormones are back in check, I'm not feeling quite so volatile these past few days. When I was a teenager, I never had cramps or much in the way of PMS, but since having kids it's come on like a ton of bricks. I guess too, it could have something to do with nursing and just getting my period back last month. 19 months without, woohoo! Hee!

Darrell sold a scanner he had on Monday, so I was able to get groceries at least, and gas and diapers. Luckily, an overhaul job came in yesterday, so that's good pay this week. It's either $14-1500 labor, of which Darrell will get 60%, so $840-900. Whew! I can pay bills this week and do some more shopping. Hunter and Shelby still need coats and Hunter has to have new shoes this weekend also. It never ends, I tell ya. Shelby has to have a new carseat too, and soon. She is about 1/2" from being too tall for hers. We're supposed to get our cell phone deposit back next month though, which will be $250. So if I don't get to get her a seat this month, I'll use that next month.

Dontcha know Shelby JUST went to sleep, and I have to go pick Darrell up for lunch in less than 10 minutes. I need to go take the dog out to potty too. BRB
Oh, just damn. The little bitch shit on the floor, which is to be expected since I didn't take her out in time. But then she played in it and smeared it all over the floor in Mackenzie's room. There was little shitty pawprints on my living room rug and the kitchen floor. She got spanked and put out in the fence. Remind me again why we wanted a dog.

Well, now I have to wake up my sleeping child so I can go pick up my husband. Maybe more later.