Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Snow Day!

I know this won't thrill most of you, but to us, it's a miracle. Cool

It wasn't snowing when the triplets left for school. They said it might, but we all know what that usually means...so off they went. But by the time D (10) was ready to leave, I told him he could stay. The Big Kids went on, because missing school would mean they would miss the band concert tonight. So D. and I stayed home and lit a fire and were just hanging out...waiting.

We couldn't believe when it started to stick! Wow!












So I went to get the little ones from school. I had to go to the store anyway, and I couldn't bear the thought of them missing SNOW!

I didn't go to the High School, because of the band concert. I just didn't think of them at all.

The kids jumped right out of the van without even taking their book bags off! Mary made a snow angel right away.








When their things got wet, they came in to toss them into the dryer for another run. I still haven't found all the gloves! In between, they ate Puppy Chow and drank hot chocolate. What a great day.

Of course it ended pretty soon after they got home, and the rest of the day was spent going nuts. I don't know how Northerners do this so often!

But the day did not end completely happily. When A got home, he said they had cancelled the concert in the morning. "Why didn't you come get me?" Well, of course I didn't know it had been cancelled. Why didn't you call me? "I'm not allowed to use the phone at school". So he got a quick lesson in going into a bathroom stall if he needs to text me for something. His older brother does it all the time! LOL! I know there was nothing else I could have done, because even my saying he had to go to the doctor would have made him miss the concert. The rule is NO participation if you check out for any reason. But Mommy guilt is a real bummer! Hopefully he will get another chance this winter.

I must say there is nothing to get one into the holiday spirit like making cookies while watching the snow and listening to Christmas carols! Who knew? :P

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Tis the Season

I admit I am having a super-de-duper rough time getting in the mood for Christmas this year. We had our Thanksgiving trip last week, and it went fairly well, if you don't count the fact that anything and everything (and nothing) was causing me to burst into spontaneous tears every five minutes. The cousins had a great time and the Hogs won the football game (sorry, honey.). On Sunday we checked out of the condo and Hubby took the 5 youngest kids home. Big Kid and I stayed in Hot Springs to hang out for the day, and embark on a couple of campus tours before heading home.

The big news is it SNOWED while we were there! Yeah, real snow! If you count "melting as soon as it touches anything" as "real", anyway. We were in a coffee shop across from the National Park and I swear almost every adult in there went outside at least once to wave their hands in the air, take pictures and stand with their face pointed up, mouth open to catch a flake.

So, long story short, we hung out on Sunday, toured a campus in Arkansas on Monday, and one in Louisiana on Tuesday. We think he made a firm choice for the LA one, but he wasn't ready to commit to me buying the "Campus Mom" coffee mug, so that will have to wait! it was FUN hanging out with him, talking about stuff (topics ranged from politics to religion to music to "nothing") and just enjoying spending time with this beautiful person God gave me to raise.

We got home and I went back into my funk. Everything reminds me of Mom, from the music to the decorations to the food. It seems like every adult woman in town is out shopping with their mother. I'm supposed to locate the stockings and the Advent calendar today at the very least. I am not in the mood to decorate and there is a lot less time left because of the late Thanksgiving. Yes, I know I need to pull myself together for the kids, and I am trying, and in the end I will. But it's HARD, dammit! Will it be easier in January? I sure hope so.

Ending this on a better note: I discovered the "Cake Wrecks" blog about a month ago and it has been my daily smile. I was feeling particularly down this morning (rain and PMS don't help when you already feel like crap!) and I was laughing my head off after reading today's entry. Now maybe I am ready to face the attic and get going on my junk. Hope you enjoy!

Here is Actual Snow, Southern Style :P



On Monday night, we witnessed the "frowny face moon". We were out in the absolute pitch-blackest middle of nowhere, so I stopped to try to get a picture even though I didn't think it would take. But look!!

This is the original, untouched shot:


And here it is, cropped and flipped into a face:


Super cool! :)