Small Blessings

Forgot to mention this ... after I'd put aside the tithing and bill money and spent all the grocery money (on food for us this time, not fabric or roaster ovens or just food for thanksgiving), hubby told me we were out of Ramen.

Ramen is a food group in our house.

1. Meat.
2. Ramen.
3. Chocolate.
4. Fruit/Veggies.

I wish I was kidding.

It's so bad that I capitalize Ramen and we have Ramen with dinner at least once a week -- dinner being composed of all 4 food groups listed above typically (sometimes missing the chocolate and/or fruit though).

So obviously, I had to go back to the store before the Christmas party. RAMEN being the first thign on my list, there were a couple of other items we needed. We were out of reverse osmosis water (I drink it; hubby and kiddo put it in their humidifiers; his is attached to his cpap machine, so we really needed it), and hubby was craving fish (and since he'd given me his blow money for groceries this week, I had to get him some fish, too, or he'd just be cleaning out the fridge eating everything but his craving since he couldn't just go buy it). I took a deep breath and spent another $20 at Macey's from the bill money and didn't touch the tithing.

We picked up the mail on our way home. In the mail was a check from the hospickle for over payment on one of my accounts.

For $20.

Thank you Heavenly Father.

Santa Claus and a Fave Five

It was errand day today. I took the kids to Walmart this morning (after the bread store, Macey's, and the gas station). Our Walmart has a Subway inside, and inside the Subway, Walmart was doing Santa pictures. I'll have to go pick them up Monday. Anyway. I was wearing Mojo in the wrap, and he saw Santa and started giggling. He giggled while I took him out of the wrap and put him in Santa's lap. He giggled right up until I started backing away to let them take the picture of him with Sissy (kiddo) and Santa. He started pouting, then smiled when I did and started giggling again. It was cute.

Then tonight, I took the kids to the ward Christmas party. Hubby had planned to attend (as he said, free food, let's go eat), but Mojo had come home from the store very grouchy and wouldn't take his nap and woke up hubby, so by the time we started thinking about getting ready to go to the party, hubby decided he had to sleep again. So, they also had a Santa at the party and took pics again. Mojo screamed. Every time the guy shook his bells, Mojo screamed louder. I don't know what the difference was except the loud bells, but my gosh, that was wretched.

At least kiddo had fun and behaved. And she sang well with the primary kids.

And the food was good, but the garlic mashies probably had at least some milk in them. I ate them anyway because I was starving. Brought home a plate of dinner and another of dessert for hubby. Woke him up, he took a few bites then realized he had a migraine, took some meds and went to work. He'll eat it in the morning I'm sure.

I've been spending time with DisGrace this week, which has been fun. We went to 3 fabric stores combined on Wednesday and Friday. She sent me an email from Jo-Ann for 50% off in stores, which I used to save half off the overlay for the skirt for kiddo's Christmas dress. Good thing since it was 9.99/yard and I needed 4-1/2 or 5 yards (I bought 5). I have to change the pattern a bit though because the dress fabric is dry clean only and the overlay fabric is do not dry clean. hahahahaha. It'll be an apron-ish sort of thing. Owell. ANYWAY. Totally missed DisGrace, so it's been good to hang out. Going over Monday to sew. Squeeee.

Work has gone pretty well this week, too. Goal next week is to be more focused and get the work done faster so I'm not up as late, although I'm still only working an average of 4 hours a night, just broken up around nursings and I'm up until around 3 a.m. most nights. At least Mojo sleeps a lot during the day still, so I'm able to nap with him.

So, for the fave five: CHRISTMAS MOVIES!

1. Elf. "These toilets are ginormous!" First movie I liked Will Ferrell in.
2. Christmas with the Kranks. "We want Frosty!" Love Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis. Not a dynamic I thought would work, but it rocked.
3. The Santa Clause trilogy. "Not valid in the state of Utah." Again, love Tim Allen. The only thing I didn't like was in #3, as the actress playing Charlie's mom had had bad plastic surgery between #2 and #3 and reminded me of the plastic Santa in #2, only worse. *shudder* But I love these movies.
4. VeggieTales: The Toy Who Saved Christmas. "with a fully functional buzz saw on his right arm!" What kid wouldn't want that???
5. White Christmas. I've only seen it a few times (seriously), but wouldn't mind watching it again soon.

Note: I've watched "This Christmas" and "Fred Claus" in the last few weeks. I enjoyed both of them as well for different reasons. "This Christmas" didn't have everything tidied up in a pretty bow at the end of the movie, like most try to do. There were still problems and things the characters would have had to face and work through had they been real people, due to their actions during the film. I *liked* that. And I liked that even though some members of the family couldn't stand each other, they came together and stood together when things got rough. "Fred Claus" was ... different. It did show the story of the TRUE Santa (that he was a real person in Turkey a long time ago, although they didn't name the country, that he gave all he had to the poor and needy, and that he was sainted for doing so). The theory of Santa having a sibling was an interesting one because I'm sure if any of you have "perfect" or "holier than thou" siblings, you could probably identify more with Fred feeling somewhat resentful and rebellious. It did wrap everything up nicely at the end, and Vince Vaughn didn't bug me. For once. But neither of those movies are Christmas faves, which I would define as a Christmas movie I'd want to watch more than once, and maybe even not during the holidays, and would stop flipping through channels to watch if I came across it on cable.

Update on the stuff

*Make another sample cloth grocery bag; figure out the handles better --- I decided not to make them for military man and his wife anyway. i'll be making them for myself because, while the bags at the store are nifty and cheap, I don't want to be "branded" by using various stores' bags. Instead ... I'm going to make matching/coordinating aprons for them all and still do a game.
*Wrap for YSIL --- still going to do this, but haven't found fabric i like yet
*quilt for Mojo --- Am about to go start cutting strips. It's flannel on top, 4 inch squares, two fabrics. It will then be tied and bound. The back is a blue cotton which reminds me of water. I'll just cut a bunch of strips and sew them together, then cut those into strips the other direction and piece them together.
*quilt for kiddo --- bought her some fleece instead and hemmed the edges for a blanket. Rock on, one present down.
*re-bind hubby's mission quilt --- need to iron the fabric and make the binding this weekend
*doll for kiddo --- I found a doll pattern/kit which is cute, but I'm not sure I have time to order it (next week after payday again) and then make it. we'll see
*surprise for The Architect and fam on or about 12/15 --- still planning on making them dinner and taking flowers over, maybe a live plant instead of flowers
*figure out what to do for the folks and the in-laws for Christmas --- Still don't know what I'm doing
*Seagull -- games for Military Man and fam; Willow Tree figurine for us --- I'll get over there closer to Christmas
*rice cooker for hubby, maybe the gaming mouse and/or phone he says he wants --- definitely getting the rice cooker, closer to Christmas. the figurine above, too. Not sure what to do with the phone/mouse sitch though.
*dress for kiddo. Yep. Really. I now have all the fabric and notions, bought the pattern quite a while ago. I'll be working on this this weekend as well.
*EZ Bake Oven for kiddo. Just have to buy it when we have more fundage.

Not Christmas related
*Pick up the pace at work and hit my goals so we can get our baby emergency fund done and get started on our debt snowball --- I've been forcing myself to stay awake later and have actually hit my target 3 of 4 days this week. Hallelujah.
*Use the rest of the free formula coupons before they expire 12/31 --- Next week.

You may notice ...

This may be more public of a blog than it used to be ... I changed my profile to show this blog and not stewie's life. I almost never post on that one and the drama has chilled, I'm doing better, and really ... I blog stalk enough people, it's really not fair for me to only have a blog I never type on in my profile. If you're going to stalk other people, they should be allowed to stalk you too. bwahahaha.

TTFN. I gotta get back to work while Bambino is sleeping. Mwah.

9:09

I woke up this morning to kiddo getting on the bed and saying, "Hi."

"Um, hi. what time is it?"

she looked at the clock. "It's 9:09."

"Crap, why didn't you wake me up before? Go get your stuff."

"Daddy just sent me in to wake you up."

"okay. I'm up. Go on."

I looked over at the clock. It was 9:10 on hubby's clock, which is set 15 minutes faster than the rest of the house because that way he gets to work on time. She knows this. I know she knows this. I also know she told me that time on purpose, since there is another clock on the wall that shows the correct time. I got dressed, got her in the car and said, "You didn't tell me the truth."

"Well, I knew it would get you out of bed." She said this like I'm the laziest mother in the world.

No. I finished work at 3:15 a.m. Not kidding.

"Honey, you know I'm not just 'sleeping in' right? I stay up late working. and if you and the baby don't cooperate, I still have to stay up and finish my shift. You know that, right?"

"uhhhhhhhhhh ... no. I didn't."

So all this time, she just thinks I'm lazy mama. *snort*

what a kid.

What happens when...

Mom is in the bathroom being sick, the baby is tired and screaming, and the 9-year-old is trying to help but doesn't hold the 16-pound 4-1/2 month old with both hands?

Booboos and more tears, that's what.

*sigh*

Stuff

Just random crap I need to get done before Christmas:

*Make another sample cloth grocery bag; figure out the handles better (I made one tonight but don't love the handles)
*After I figure out the pattern, make 5 bags for Military Man and his wifey-poo
*Wrap for YSIL
*quilt for Mojo
*quilt for kiddo???
*re-bind hubby's mission quilt (someone made it for him and gave it to him on the mission; it is now falling to pieces just around the edges, so I need to make a new binding and add it)
*doll for kiddo??? (she wants this one, which I think is weird and way too much $, so I'd rather find a doll/dress pattern and try and make one and add a little "uterus" and boobs, and a tiny baby, lol)
*surprise for The Architect and fam on or about 12/15 (the day they were supposed to have their baby)
*figure out what to do for the folks and the in-laws for Christmas
*Seagull -- games for Military Man and fam
*rice cooker for hubby, maybe the gaming mouse and/or phone he says he wants


Not Christmas related
*Pick up the pace at work and hit my goals so we can get our baby emergency fund done and get started on our debt snowball
*Use the rest of the free formula coupons before they expire 12/31

there's other stuff but mojo is done letting me type.