Waiting....

The anticipation of the snow storm that is bearing down on New England is nerve racking! The schools were all cut to a half day last night. Everything has been canceled or postponed for this afternoon and tonight. I went to the grocery store and bought food like I might not get back there for a month! I have enough baking goods to open my own bakery and sustain it for 3 weeks! My kids are practicing their sledding moves on their new sled in my office.

But as of 1:20, we haven't seen a flake.

Now DH and I have a bet going as to how much snow is going to fall. I say 6 inches, he says a foot. Doesn't really matter, because I will be the one shoveling it. Maybe we should say winner gets to sit on the couch?!

My Email Box is Full!

The first thing I do in the morning is turn on my computer and check my inbox. I am not sure how many people would even send me something between 10pm and 6am, but you never know. Well, this week my email home page has been popping up with 12-15 new emails every morning! That makes me happy! Then I go into my email box and none of them are from a real person.

They are from every website that sells something I. Need. To. Have.

And the emails are getting more frantic. "One day left of free shipping!" "Don't miss out on the last day of 25% off site wide!" "Last pre-Christmas sale, MUST ship today!"

OK, I am a very good shopper and have avoided the mall for the last few weeks for the sole reason that all those last minute shoppers STRESS ME OUT!

Now my beloved email inbox is stressing me out! It is making me go over my lists in my head every day wondering if I have missed someone or something! What if I order something and it doesn't get here by Christmas? Oh the horror.

It's OK. I will survive these last minute holiday deals. I just have to hold on long enough for the even better AFTER Christmas deals.

Then I can start shopping for next Christmas!

More Christmas Fun

Had to include the live video from the Santa escapades.....

Dashing Thru the Kitchen?

I stated my expectations early yesterday, hoping that "Santa's watching, you need to help me clean up around here" would be enough. HaHa. All I had to do was mention Santa and the girls decided to reenact the big night complete with Santa, sleigh and 2 reindeer. 

This is what they said to me, "Get your camera ready. This will be great for your blog." 

This whole thing went on for over an hour, it was quite involved. In this first picture, you see the back of Santa's sleigh with lots of gifts. Please notice Melisa, they put in a tiara just for you!

Next, we have Santa B trying to help the lead reindeer K convince reindeer G that this was going to be great. Santa can't move much due to his overstuffed belly. He kept demanding cookies and milk every 5 minutes!
Reindeer G took a break from the action as Santa and his reindeer trot off through the kitchen. Notice DH in the background with coffee. It was a very long day for him. Hear the pity dripping sarcastically from my words? You have to read previous post to completely understand.
After an epic turn around in the hallway, it was back into the family room. (There you will see DH on the couch, where he spent a good portion of his day saying, "Never again...")
And here we have the team complete with all the kinks out of the system and ready to ride on the 24th. 
HOHOHOHOHOHOHO!

Oh, What a Day!

It's no wonder I have no time to blog these days. I think of posts in my head throughout the day, but they go as fast as they come. Yesterday is the perfect example of how a typical day has been of late.

I went with the 4th grade to the Museum of Science in Boston. You may have heard on the news about all the rain, ice and snow New England was getting yesterday? That meant nothing to us hardy New Englanders (or 'living in a bubble' Cape Codders), we perservered and went anyway. It was pouring buckets when we left (and had been for the past 3 weeks, I mean 2 days). It took us almost 3 hours to get to Boston on a typical 1 1/2-2hr trip. Let me simplify that for you

yellow school bus + 30 kids + 7 chaperones + lots of rain = 4 advil

If it had been any longer, I think the kids would have had to relieve themselves in their water bottles.

I hadn't been to the Museum in ages! They had some really cool things in there! Amazing, right? We saw an Omni theater presentation on Coral Reefs (very cool) and an electricity show and as many of the exhibits as we could fit in. B got a little friendly with a not so friendly dino.

The skyline from the museum of the city was beautiful albeit wet.

The kids were great and we all had a lot of fun. Then we hopped back on the school bus for the 1 hour and 45 minute ride home. We thought HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA that the kids would be whipped from the day. 

NOPE.

For the last 1/2 hour the front of the bus (read girls) started singing Christmas carols which would have been lovely except the back of the bus (boys) wanted nothing to do with them. Or actually the boys wanted to recreate their own songs like Jingle Bells, Batman smells etc and they tried to get a rousing rendition of We Will Rock You going. Yup, the girls kept singing the nice Christmas Carols throughout all of this. Guess who was sitting in the middle of the bus, knitting her second scarf of the day? Yeah, me. So

yellow school bus + singing kids = 4 advil and a bottle of wine

Wouldn't it have been lovely to come home at almost 5 to a husband and daughter who had done some household chores instead of riding their horses in the mud for 2 hours? Yeah, it would have. Instead, I put in dinner, folded 2 loads of laundry, did more laundry, did the dishes from the day before, caught up my MIL and mom on the day and averted a fight between 2 tired girls. 

Then I went to a Christmas party. This feat included 6 different outfits, standing on the toilet to look in the mirror, thinking to myself that I probably shouldn't have put back 6 pork chops for dinner (no I didn't!, but felt like I had) and applying makeup to hide the circles under my eyes. We drop the girls off at my parents because I knew I only had an hour or so in me and arrive at the party.

Walk in, hello to the hosts, hug my friend Faith and realize that my dress is on backwards (yeah, that's right), run into the bathroom and switch it, go straight to the bar, talk to a bunch of people that turned to yelling because there were a lot of people and I couldn't hear myself or anyone else for that matter, watch my husband do shots of Jagermeister with his brother, said "Goodnight, find your own ride home" and left. 

Yes, I am a movie star and I made a cameo appearance at that party.

Picked up 2 extremely tired girls, came home, put them to bed, looked at the mail and found the best little package from Melisa that included some very creative and beautiful cards complete with initial and a tiara!!!!

Totally made my day and I went to bed with a smile on my face thinking of my friend that I have not even met in person(yet), but know so much about!

My smile lasted until about 2am when I heard DH stumble in...

today could be another long day! 

To the Ortho's

Yesterday was the first day the girls were going for a braces tightening together. B hadn't had hers tightened yet and K was an old pro. The conversation in the car went something like this....

k, "Are you farting yet?" (she has lots'o gas when she gets nervous!)

b, "Yes, I have been for awhile. I will really need to go when we get about 10 minutes away."

k, "It's not that bad. As long as you get Kim or the new lady."

b, "What if I don't get them?"

k, "They're the nicest. Hopefully Dr. N won't yell at you like he yells at me."

b, "I am good at brushing my teeth. My gums aren't swollen like yours. Just to make sure, I'll have some water to cool them down."

k, "I brush right, but my gums are genetically puffy." (That's questionable!)

b, "I think I am going to hurl. Remember the time I threw up on Kara?"

k, "Whenever Dr. N yells at me I zone him out and think about the cute boy at school I like. Today, my friend threw my hat right in front of him so he would have to give it back to me."

b, "Did he pick it up?"

k, "No, he didn't see it. I was so embarrassed!"

Lots of giggling.

OK, it sounded funnier in the car and I couldn't write down all the good stuff while driving. Plus they would have said, "Are you writing that for your blog?!" Both wound up having puffy gums and the Dr must have been in a bad mood because usually he calls me sweetheart. I got my 100th explanation of how to brush their teeth which I smiled and nodded to, all the while thinking of how WW3 would ensue if I even tried to brush K's teeth. Even mentioning brushing sends her over the edge.

The good news is that we had cupcakes from the absolute best cupcake store ever (yes, after the dentist)! I had a cupcake called "hostess with the mostest" and it was 4000 times better than a Hostess cupcake (which I happen to love). B had a chocolate chip one and K had vanilla/vanilla. My mouth is watering just thinking about them. Good thing I live a good 45 minutes away from there!

Sunny, Warm Spots

This post brought to you by "she who rules the roost" (otherwise known as Gretel).

We set the tree up the other day, put on decorations yesterday and today I got around to sweeping up the needles. After sweeping, I put down the tree skirt that one of DH's relatives made us for our wedding. Gretel has been pretty much ignoring the tree, even though it is in the middle of the kitchen. Until, that is,  I put the comfy tree skirt down. Not 2 minutes later, this is where I found her....

Actually a nice sunny spot with a clean blankie sounds pretty good to me about now, too!

An Oldie, but Goodie

Since no one knew who I was in blog world back in February and I wrote the most fantastic post about communion Sunday and we had communion Sunday again today and similar things were said by B; I thought I would write this run on sentence and offer this post up to you again.

Read it here.

The Doghouse

I tried to get this to come up as direct video feed, but maybe you will have to click on it or copy and paste into your browser. Rebecca over at Seaside Designs (who make the most beautiful seaside products you will ever see!) sent me this. It is a good reminder before the holidays! Enjoy!

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1370868150/bctid3130509001

Disney Vacation: Magic Kingdom!

The MK is our favorite park. So favorite that I almost cried when I stepped into the park. It's just THE happiest place on earth. The best was that it was decked out for Christmas which made it extra fun. I could have put in 100 or so pictures, but I picked some out and put them in a video. We went to Mickey's Magical Christmas too, which required another pass, but kept us in the park for free hot chocolate and cookies, Christmas shows, the lighting of Cinderella's castle, a parade down Main Street with SNOW and awesome fireworks! Phew, I am exhausted reliving it! Check it out!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happy Birthday, B!

How did my youngest get to be 10? I am the mother of two tweens! Oy!


Dear Buggy,
I am so proud of so many things about you. Number one, you understand my sarcastic sense of humor. I really appreciate you laughing at stuff that comes out of my mouth. You have a love of learning and will work and work to figure out a problem, a new skill or just to get information. You are a good friend to others and you have a lot of nice friends.

I love listening to you and K play. Whether you are playing at the beach, making up a new dance or playing dollhouse etc.. I love listening to your laughter and your imaginations.

Mostly, I love your joyful spirit. I think you came out of me singing and, lucky for me, you haven't stopped. I love that you sing when you wake up, I love that you sing in the shower and I love that you sing everywhere in between.

You are the snuggliest snuggler I know! Have a super, excellent, fantabulous year being 10! I love you so much,
Mommy

PS, I knew you would like this colorful!

Magic Kingdom update tomorrow, for those of you living vicariously through my vacation!

Disney Vacation: Hollywood Studios/Downtown Disney

One morning we went to downtown Disney because that is practically a park in itself! There are of course the shops, but there is plenty to see and do as well. The lego store is absolutely amazing and there are many lifesize lego structures outside of the store as well! You can also fill up a bucket of any color/size legos that you want. This is where we get a majority of our pink and orange legos!
A toy filled Christmas tree.

Watch out honey! A lego sea monster is about to get you!

K and Thumper with their new family.

Call me, ok?

Hollywood Studios is a park where I could happily hang out all day. There is always something going on in the street whether it be a pretend movie scene, comedian, show, etc... The rides are more like shows, so sometimes the younger kids get annoyed with that. We did go on a fun back lot tour that had a fake dam break. For those of you confused, Hollywood Studios used to be called MGM. That took me awhile to get the name change. Oh and if you like crazy rollercoasters, you would probably like the Rock and Roll-er coaster, but none of us were brave enough!
How does Disney do stuff like this?

DH and K went on this and wished that they hadn't!!!!

3d glasses are so hip.

And cute!

Loved this live show out on the plaza! The only thing missing was my heart throb, Zac Efron.

Were we at Disney or in NYC?

I almost squealed with delight when I saw this huge wall of M&Ms!

Hey Zac, if you are out there, and you feel like doing HSM4, we're your girls!