Chellisms

It Just Takes a Little Imagination

Right?

Over the past few days I have been putting together ideas for the girl's upcoming double birthday extravaganza. I vetoed High School Musical and Hannah Montana right off the bat. Themed parties are nice the first time out but we have been to three HSM parties in the past few months and well, quite frankly, I am so over Troy and Gabriella.

So we are going with bugs. Bugs. You heard me. BUGS. INSECTS.

Worms. Butterflies. Caterpillars. Bumblebees.

The girls are pretty darn excited and have gotten into all of the cupcake designs except the... worms!

I have described it over and over and they just can't get  it into their heads so this afternoon I demonstrated. I took a sheet of foil and rolled it into a ball. I had an open container of frosting in the fridge so I smeared some on top and told them to imagine it green, it was white. Then I poked a hole in the cupcake and stuck in a green straw that I had cut into thirds, I told them to imagine that it was a wiggly gummy worm laid out on the imaginary green frosting. Then I took one of Baileys precious Cheez-It's and crushed it and spread it around the worm hole to look like dirt or a crushed Oreo.

Do you get the idea? Does it make sense to anyone but me?

Party Weekend

Does massive partying include a lot of sleeping in? No, darn. Then maybe we only did a smidgen of partying.

Tim celebrated his 30th birthday on Saturday. We slept in until at least 7AM when a little blond person promptly popped into our room with an exchange that takes place every weekend morning

Little Blond Person: I'm hungry.

Not Amused Parent: Grab a granola bar, I will be down in a minute.

LBP: Oh, just like always?

NAP: *sigh* Just like always...

LBP: Okay. *skips away humming merrily*

NAP: *lasers shoot from eyes*

Once my eyes stopped smoking and the heathens were fed we did some house stuff. I may have gotten a wild hair up my ass to rearrange the kitchen cabinets. This means that I emptied them all out onto the kitchen floor and then reorganized them back into different locations. Not such a great idea when we were on a schedule but it worked out well and I am much happier with the layout now.

After that we met mom and Petey Poo for a late lunch at a Japanese steak house. It was great. The girls had never been to one before and were quite impressed by the egg rolling and rice sizzling and fast knife chopping. Somehow I can never impress them at home with those skills. The sushi bar was already closed for the late afternoon lull so Tim had to promise to take Bai back for her birthday.

From there we came home for a bit to let our very full tummies settle and then back out we went, to moms for brownies that I made that morning with ice cream and several toppings and presents. What's a birthday without presents?? Tim is darn hard to shop for. Any time he wants something for himself he buys it or talks himself or me out of it. I did manage to snag him a new outfit where only the shirt needs to be returned, I think it was made for a giant. That or mismarked. A case for his gaming stuff, don't ask. You are better off not knowing. And some Frank Miller books.

My mom and Pete won the present competition though. They got him a gift card for his favorite gaming store. I think he may have slept with it with first night and has since moved to faux shopping in their online store to see what he wants to use it on to get the most for his money. It's quite funny to say the least.

Why is it when I set things on fire at home no one oohs and aahs? Maybe I need a job at the Japanese steakhouse?

2008, Ain't it Great?

Is that not the corniest title ever?

I cannot stop laughing. Sorry.

In less than 24 months, from 12/2005 to 12/2007, we had lived in 3 states. Hawaii, California and Washington. Okay, to be really picky it happened from 12/2005 to 03/2007, 15 months.

Please stop and take a moment to absorb the pain that my body feels upon waking up to 34 degree temperatures. Done? Thanks, I appreciate it and so do my aching knees.

With all of that complaining being done you would think that 2007 sucked, right? Well...

Just kidding, it didn't. It was really pretty darn good. Tim got out of the military, that was super fabulous. We moved to WA, that was an experience all in itself. The move itself could have been slightly better but, eh, it involved the military what else can I say (check March 2007 for those wondrous archives). Adjusting back to civilian life has been just that, an adjustment. Living full time with my husband of 10 years whom I had never truly lived full time with is the best, having him home every night (albeit late) is very nice. We have made some wonderful friends.

The girls are wonderful, they love the friends they have made and the things they have experienced . We now have a Kindergartner and a 2nd grader, a soccer player and a, well, a soccer ballerina type person, a full fledged tooth loser and newly first tooth faller outer (EW!). They took they move to WA in stride, they love the greenery and the slight snowfall and the icy mornings with crunchy grass. Not so much on the rain... eh, can't win them all.

All in all we love our new life, looking back 2007 was pretty darn good to us.

Hope you have a Happy and Wonderful 2008

White Christmas!

Yay!

Oh oh oh!

Happy Christmas to all!

All of the presents have been opened and the kids are enjoying their spoils.

Tim surprised me this morning with news that he had the day off. Originally he was supposed to go in for his regular schedule, from 2PM to 11PM, but in the end he worked it out and is spending the day with us. I sent Tim on a scavenger hunt for his gift this morning, up and down the stairs he went and up a block to mom's house for the final clue. He was surprised and excited, that is the best part for me. To be able to surprise him with something is the best gift.

Pete got into the spirit as well and surprised my mom with a new wedding ring. She was really very surprised.

Okay, it's a bit blurry. She was so excited and hopping around that I couldn't get a clear shot.

Even the cats got in on the action. Max wasn't too interested but Madison thought it was great.

I am off to celebrate and eat good food, the prime rib is in the oven and the potatoes are ready to be mashed.

I hope that your day is as wonderful as can be. Happy Holidays to all!

Christmas Overload

I have gotten a few e-mails asking about whether or not we are really canceling Christmas. I would very much like to tell you yes. But I was vetoed by the man. I am not exactly sure why he is adamant we have a Christmas. He hates every bit of it. He did his shopping on Friday, waiting until the last moment as usual. Because I bought the Nintendo's so long ago I can not return them at this point, had I still been able to return them I would have and just started over.

While Christmas has been reinstated it has not been added to. It was left as is, same presents under the tree. Same decorations, nothing new has been added since that post. The below picture also includes presents for my mom and Pete, presents from Ashley Glen and Ethan, and presents from Lisa and John.

Look, no present overload.

Or should I say there was no present overload until Friday evening when I came home to discover that the UPS man had left 2 large boxes on my doorstep. Boxes from my dad and G. The girls always send then a list of ideas, this years list has 7 items on it. Total.

Somehow, somewhere someone got carried away...

On Vox: I'm cancelling Christmas

We put up our tree on Friday and yesterday I wrapped all of the presents at my moms house and then put them around our tree. Since then the girls, namely Taylor, have counted them and rattled them. She has even picked out the boxes that contain their new Nintendo DS handhelds. Both of them. Crimson and black for Tay and pink for Bai. Do you know how hard I had to hunt for that crimson and black one when I bought it months ago?

Now, we don't do Santa gifts. They don't get to ask for one special thing and for certain get that. We ask what they want and go from there, some things they get some things they don't. It's all luck of the draw as far as they are concerned and some fun sneakiness on my part.

Not this year. This year has managed to go to shit within the first 2 days of December. Today our tree comes down. All of the presents that I painstakingly wrapped yesterday have been opened or put away. Tim has no clue, he is at work. He hates Christmas anyway so I am sure he won't mind.

Better luck next year.

Oh, and I love Christmas so this has me in a fairly bad mood today. Steer clear.

Originally posted on chellisms.vox.com

Edited to add: This is a cross post. I am a bit undecided about blogging at this point. Not in continuing, just whereabouts I should continue. Heck, after today maybe in continuing.

Turkey Day

We had an awesome day. We spent the day cooking and laughing. Ashley and Ethan are still here, Brian drove in and Mom and Pete came over. Mom and Pete each made a turkey, one baked and one fried. They were both good but I have to say that the fried one was superb! Crispy skin and juicy inside.

I made the ham. Well, in all honesty Honeybaked and the UPS man were responsible for the ham but I heated it so it would be edible.

Ash and I also made the cornbread stuffing, bacon macaroni and cheese (you soooo need the recipe, yummy!), the carrots and the non-pictured pumpkin cheesecakes and caramel apple pie. It was my first from scratch pie and crust, it came out pretty darn good.

We are very thankful that we could all be together and that we all had so much fun. We are thankful for great friends and a wonderful family.

Boo 2007!

The ladies first stop was Nana and Pappy Petey Poo's house, where they scored some See's candy and I stuffed my pockets with Milk Duds. Bailey is showing us her "game" face. She was one vicious witch, until she rang a door bell and a large dog was there as well as a person. The dog barked, Bai screamed and took off running. The owner felt bad and gave Taylor an extra candy bar for Bailey. I think that was our only case of Boo 2007 tears, we got off lucky.

And they're off! Bai is off to the left, with the black and green pointy hat. Tay is in the middle, between the Storm Trooper and the baby, she was a pirate.

This is our gang of kids waiting to cross the street. Our neighborhood party planner organized a pre-TorT pizza party in her garage. It was perfect, everyone hit the streets with full bellies. There were a ton of kids but it went super fast and I think everyone went home happy.

Pumpkins!

Happy 4th or Wednesday!

Or just plain Happy Day, whatever.

 

Yay for having fun with friends! We spent the evening with some neighborhood friends, tons of fun!