Sweaty Betty

I am SO sweaty! I have been hot all day and the sweat is not ceasing. I'm actually looking forward to the cold front now. I was sweating all day yesterday too. I guess my body doesn't react kindly to warm weather in fall.

"Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things."
-George Carlin

Haha!

"On the ninth day of Christmas...mi mi mi mi mi mi!"

Last night we were listening to a Muppets Christmas tape (one of my favorites!) and on that part the green guy with the glasses and Beaker, the muppet that can only say "Mi" were singing. Its our favorite part. We finally got our tree up last night! It looks so beautiful all lit up. We listened to our Muppets album, part of our tradition, and I made chocolate chip cookies while Jessie wrestled with the tree limbs. Then he ate his while I wrestled with the lights and somehow, Lily and I managed to wrap him up in lights when he came and sat down beside the tree! It was pretty funny. Lily was "helping" with the lights. We had fun. They are just like me when it comes to being in awe of the Christmas tree. They always want it to be lit up, and they just look at all of the ornaments over and over. Its so sweet.
Tomorrow it is supposed to turn cold. I wish it would wait until the weekend was over, but oh well. We've got a pretty full weekend. My work Christmas party is Friday night, and then Seth's birthday party is Saturday. My poor mother has an even fuller weekend. She has to be in the Christmas parade Saturday morning. I'm sorry Mama! Hopefully by Sunday my voice will be back to normal so I can go to choir practice. I didn't even go last week because I pretty much sounded like a frog. Its getting better though. I'm excited about doing our Christmas Cantata on Christmas Eve morning. Last Christmas I was late!! I could've kicked myself! But this year, I will be on time if I have to spend the night at the church!

"To the dull mind all nature is leaden. To the illumined mind the whole world sparkles with light." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Well, I've begun the ceremonial wrapping of the presents. I wrapped and bagged my first 3 Christmas gifts last night. That sounds funny. I asked Jessie to move a desk in our living room so we would have room to put the tree there, but apparantly the desk rebelled and imploded when Jessie attempted to move it. When I got home last night, there were pens and all kind of desk litter all over the floor, and as I suspected, Jessie told me the desk had collapsed! Well, at least now we don't have to figure out where to put it! We didn't get the tree up yet though. One step at time, I suppose.
I have to take a moment and brag on my daughter now. Sometimes the kids get on my nerves and make me want to pull my hair out, but then there are times when they act like angels and I just want to hug them forever. Last night, I was doing some laundry, and I heard Lily call from the back of the house for me and Jessie to come see what she'd done. So we go back there, and she leads us in our bedroom, and shows us: she made our bed up for us! It was the sweetest thing. She'd put our pillows in place, straightened the bedspread and even pulled back the covers for us. I couldn't hug or kiss her enough. I asked her why she did it, and she said, "I wanted you and Daddy to be happy"...it made me want to cry. Its sweet gestures like that that make your whole life worthwhile. Nothing can compare to that kind of love and sweetness!
Seth had a good birthday yesterday. He got to wear the "birthday hat" and be the leader of the line at school! Such an honor :) He's very excited about his Superman birthday party. I'm excited at the prospect of him getting new clothes as presents! So now I have a 6 year old and a four year old. Soon to be a 6 and 5 year old. Does that make me sound old?

Happy Birthday, dear Seth

Dominos, anyone?

I didn't mention in the last post (which, for some reason, is not coming up on the page) that today is Seth's birthday!!! He's 6 years old today. We made up cupcakes and goodie bags for him to take to school today (I ate one of those cupcakes last night..man they were good.) He's growing entirely too fast for me. We bought him some Super Mario Brothers dominoes and a football for his birthday. Somehow, despite Jessie and I being his parents, he's crazy about football! Oh and we got him a pair of jeans, which he desperately needed. I gave those to him last night. I gave him a little present this morning, which was actually supposed to be a stocking stuffer for Christmas, but couldn't resist giving him something on his birthday. I put up two red balloons last night after he went to bed so he could wake up to them, but this morning he said, "I couldn't tell what color those balloons were". Apparantly he got up to go to the bathroom last night and saw them...lol. I can see I'm going to have to be more secretive and crafty from now on! We're having his birthday party this Saturday. Birthday parties are always exciting (and usually tiring) times.

Christmas, Christmas time is here...

I'm back...yes, I survived the shopping madness. I only have about 2 or 3 more gifts to get! Hooray! I lapsed back into my sinus sickness over the holiday, so we didn't put our tree up...I just couldn't get myself off the couch long enough! I had absolutely no energy. I went back to the doctor yesterday, and now I'm on some new antibiotics...geez. I was taking Cipro and wasn't getting any better, in fact, I was getting worse! The doctor I saw yesterday said, and I quote, "Cipro is a very good antibiotic, but not for a sinus infection" !!! So now I'm on Omnicef..but enough about that.
We had a very good Thanksgiving. I ate lots of good food, saw all of my family, and got alot of shopping done. A tragedy struck last week though. On Tuesday last week, my ex-brother-in-law, the father of my eight-year-old niece, died. I was just dumbstruck when I heard the news. Being that they live 10 hours away, we couldn't make it to the funeral, which was Friday, though we all would have liked to very much. Its still so unbelievable to me. I feel so sorry for my nieces, all three of them..but especially Kelly, she's only eight. It seems so senseless that he died, and now she's left without a father. It brings back old feelings for me, as my dad died when I was eleven. Its somewhat different for her though because she didn't live with him. Not that that makes it any easier. She lives with her grandparents, who take wonderful care of her, so I know she'll be ok, but it breaks my heart to no end to think that in the blink of an eye, she no longer has a father here. I need to stop wallowing in these thoughts. I just wish so much that it hadn't happened. I've been praying for their (and my) family every night.
For a change of subject, my closet is now stuffed to the brim with Christmas gifts. I stuffed them in every possible nook and cranny of that closet, so that kids, if they happen to wander in there, won't see them. I'm planning to wrap them as soon as possible..it makes me nervous to have them out in the (sort of) open like that.
Ooh, I watched a horror movie this weekend..An American Haunting and it didn't give me nightmares!! I was so glad! Amber forced me to watch it (haha) but it was really good. We didn't totally understand parts of it, so we watched the alternate endings (all 500 of them) on the bonus features on the DVD, and figured out what happened, who the haunter was. Freaky movie, but they say its based on a true story. I also watched part of Anne of Green Gables last night. Ah...I love it. Now for the Anne quote of the day:
"It must have been a terribly romantic way for the mouse to die". (after a mouse got into an open container of pudding and drowned- gross!)

the rest of the poem

She Walks in Beauty
by Lord Byron

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place.
And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

It's just too beautiful not to post the rest!!

"Would you please call me Cordelia?"

She walks in beauty, Like the night of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright, Meet in her aspect and her eyes ~Lord Byron ~

Doesn't that quote just give you chills?

My excitement is mounting! Today is my last day of work before Thanksgiving holidays :D I'm actually really excited to go shopping on Black Friday because of all of the wonderful sales!! I'm a little apprehensive because I'm not a very agressive shopper and I'm afraid I'll have one of those experiences...like one of those you hear about, where some mean crabby lady grabs a highly prized item out of your buggy and snaps "I saw it first!" and she looks too mean and scary for you to argue. haha
There's really not a whole lot more on my mind today. Just the usual thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas and what I need to do and buy. I began watching Anne of Green Gables (the first movie) again last night. Those movies just enchant me! I love Anne and the way she always talks so dreamily. (Now I'm starting to talk like her, ha) In my heart, I've always been a romantic like that.I guess I love the movie because it inspires me to continue to be that way, to never lose that kind of spirit. Now I've seen the first two movies. I'm a little afraid to watch the third (Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story) because I've heard its nothing like the first two..its more of a war movie than anything. But I'll give it a try one day. I wish I'd discovered these movies when I was younger, but I still feel young when I watch them, so I guess that's good enough!
That quote in the subject line is from Anne of Green Gables, by the way. It's the scene where Anne meets Marilla (the woman who takes Anne in) for the first time and Marilla asks Anne her name. Anne says "Would you please call me Cordelia?" because she thinks it's much more beautiful than "plain, old, unromantic Anne Shirley". That scene cracks me up.

spam, schmam

The post I wrote, just this morning, had a comment on it about 2 hours later. It was a SPAM comment! I'm enraged! How dare that automated thingie leave a spam comment on my page? So I fixed the comment part of my page to where when anyone leaves a comment, they have to confirm they are a human being by typing in one of those weird wiggly series of letters (sorry Amber - the only one who leaves me comments!) I felt violated by that spam so I took the appropriate measures. And I deleted it!

Just a nice, soothing picture

It's officially the holiday seaon!! I guess it has been, but now it seems official, being as it is the week of Thanksgiving. I'm excited, and all this excitement has made me a little bit insane, as I've agreed to go shopping on - da da dum - Black Friday! Aughh! My wonderful mother agreed to watch Seth and Lily though, so I'll be sans-kids. Amber and I are going, so it ought to be an adventure...it always is when we get together. I'm also excited, as you know, about my mother's fudge, and I keep thinking about deviled eggs. Mmmmmm. Another item of excitement this week is me getting my paycheck tomorrow! :D Which means I can go Christmas shopping Wednesday!! And Saturday, if time allows, we can put up our Christmas tree. That is one of my favorite times to spend with the kids. We put on Christmas music, and I told them we'd bake Christmas cookies, and if I can remember to, it would be nice to put some of that stuff on the stove that makes the house smell like apple cider...mmmm! I love Christmas. I just try to ignore all the stress-inducing hassles that seem to come with the season. The commercialism (thank you Charlie Brown) and the pressure to make everything perfect..yada yada yada. It's getting down to the root of the season that I like to do. I try to remind the kids why we are celebrating, or who, rather, we are celebrating...and they understand. Lily loves to look at the tiny baby Jesus in our nativity scene. I think we have two...two small glass scenes. I remember setting up our nativity scene when I lived with my mother; it was my favorite thing to do. It looked so authentic..it had the fuzzy hay-like stuff, and then I arranged the wise men and animals so that their necks were all craned, looking at Jesus. Mary was special, because she got a front row view. I saw a similar nativity scene (like my mother's) at Wal-mart and I'm thinking about getting it. There was something about setting that scene up every year that made the story intimate and personal for me...so I'd like my kids to have that too.
So! Another celebration coming up is Seth's birthday. My Sethie will be 6 years old! It's unbelievable but this is not quite as hard as his turning 5 was haha. I think it was his becoming school age that was so difficult for me to accept! He wants a Batman party, with a pinata. I'm planning to announce to anyone who is having difficulty buying him a present, that he needs clothes!! Jeans, to be precise. He wears holes in the knees of his jeans quicker than any kid I've ever seen!! Anyway, he's excited. I'm making cupcakes for his class the Monday of his birthday (don't I sound domestic? haha) and we're making up the obligatory goodie bags. Darn those other efficient mothers!! lol anyway, I'm in a good holiday-cheery mood, so this ought to be a good week.

I'm still dreaming of a White Christmas!

This is a "picture of Winter in Northumberland, England." Its beautiful and probably as close to a white Christmas as I'll get. It feels cold enough to snow today though. It is cold today! It would make me so terribly, terribly happy if it would snow this year around Christmas. I don't know what it is, I guess it's just that childhood wish that never dies. Jessie and I had talked about taking a trip somewhere northward after Christmas, staying in a cozy cabin, in a state where snow was abundant! But...I don't know if that will happen, being as Christmas sprung up and my wallet looks like those cartoon wallets with the moths flying out of them. I mistakenly mentioned to the kids that we were thinking about doing it, and Lily still asks me, periodically, "when are we going to go to where it snows?" But we'll see. Anything is possible!! (nervous laugh) It's just kind of a cruel irony (moneywise) that the kids' birthdays have Christmas sandwiched between them...Seth's is in November and Lily's is in January! haha its 3 times the spending and 3 times the new toys in their room! Nice one! Seriously though...I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, because I love Christmas and I love kids' birthdays and I love celebrating, so its good. But I still want snow for Christmas! For the kids, of course.

Christmas bells are ringing

Ah, back after a long weekend. It was a nice Veteran's Day holiday..and next week comes Thanksgiving! My mind can't comprehend the fact that it is so close now. Everything is swirling around me, like what gifts to buy for who, and by what date; figuring out daycare when Seth is out of school; where do we have to be on what date and how many hours can we stay before rushing off to see the next family; when are my library books due..lol you know, stuff like that. One of my main worries right now is gifts, gifts, gifts! When I get paid at the end of the month, I will have to go gift-buying crazy. I'm frightened, because I'll need to get started the weekend of - dum da dum - black Friday. Isn't that the term used for the scary day-after-Thanksgiving-shopping-madness? It'll be a busy December as usual. Also, the day after Thanksgiving, the radio airwaves will be filled with the sounds of Christmas music..and in the stores too. It'll be the soundtrack of our lives for a month. Which is alright with me. I love Christmas music. And Christmas food. My mother's fudge will be making its annual appearances at Thanksgiving and Christmas! Hooray! It is just the most delicious fudge ever...I am always at its mercy, I can't resist it. Who am I kidding, I can't resist any holiday food. I'll have to lost 10 pounds now, just to maintain my current weight after the holidays. :P

I'll go sailin'

I wish I had an ocean to jog beside! Isn't that gorgeous? I'm starting to get mad at myself because I haven't exercised in such a long time. If I'd kept up what I had started a couple of months ago, who knows how much weight I'd have lost by now? So...I was talking to my mom last night and she said that a book motivated her to lose weight. It's called I Left My Fat Behind by Barbara Zara. It sounds like my kind of book. She said it was humorous but motivating. So I'm going to check it out. Literally. I'm embarking on a new exercising quest this weekend. I've had some questions about my blood sugar, and I read this morning (from the book 101 Weight Loss Tips for Preventing and Controlling Diabetes, page 55, must have proper documentation) that "a weight loss of 11% body weight (more than 15 pounds) was associated with more than 80% reduction in risk of getting type 2 diabetes." It also talked a bit about a reasonable body weight..meaning your weight doesn't have to match up exactly to that horrible Body/Mass index table (I hate that thing). It describes "reasonable body weight.. as a weight that you and your health care team.." (??-I am my own health care team!) "agree that you can probably achieve and maintain the rest of your life" (p. 6 - I feel like I'm writing a paper). So that sounds good to me. Its a long road though, I know. Which is why I wish I had an ocean to jog beside. I think I'd be more likely to do it if I had an ocean. :)

The Morning Sun is Shining Like A Red Rubber Ball!

Is it Santa Claus, or is it a turkey?

"And I think its gonna be alright, yeah, the worst is over now, the morning sun is shining like a red rubber ball!"
Now who doesn't love that song for one reason or another? heehee its kind of a family song for me. Amber and I laugh when our mothers sing it. I don't know why I thought about it. But it cheers me up.
I've just been thinking and thinking and driving myself up the wall. You know, sometimes you can think yourself crazy. I think about life and the things going on in my life and the things I love about it and the things I don't love about it....and I wonder what my purpose is and what I'm supposed to be doing and my thoughts are usually one long run-on sentence like this one. I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but, maybe I should take "Red Rubber Ball" as my new mantra: "I think its gonna be alright" b/c I do think everything will be alright. Life can be so overwhelming at times, you know, but situations always pass. Don't mind me, I'm just thinking things out as I'm writing. I really, really do want to know my purpose, what it is I should be doing with my life. I think its time for me to move on to a new chapter, a new beginning, but I'm not sure where to look for it.
Last night, Seth had the cutest homework assignment. He had this coloring picture of a turkey and the assignment was to disguise the turkey so no one would eat it at Thanksgiving. heehee! At first Seth wanted to make it into a football player, but I wasn't sure I could do a good helmet, so then he though about Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer but we ended up settling on Santa Claus. So I made the turkey a little beard, a Santa suit and hat and some black Santa-turkey boots. LOL! It was so cute. I love assignments like that.
In spite of myself, I'm getting excited about Christmas. I'm getting nervous b/c its so close but I'm excited about it as well. I've been trying to make a list of what I've already gotten for Seth and Lily, but I've forgotten what I put on layaway for them! Hopefully I can get it out by the end of the month. I know the kids are going to be SO excited when its time to decorate (in TWO WEEKS! Unbelievable!) Lily really, really gets into that. Seth does too, but Lily gets beside herself with giddiness when we decorate. She tries to do it all, resulting in the decorations ending up in some strange and low places. When they decorate the Christmas tree, most of the ornaments tend to end up crowded on the lower branches, its really very funny. I love that they get so excited about it though, I was and still am the same way. I hope I can get into the spirit this year..it just seems like the year has shot by so fast. Anyway, its coming, ready or not, and some people have already decorated for Christmas, and to them, I have to ask, "are you crazy?"

La dee dah

I'm back at work after a small hiatus. Is that even the correct word? Well anyway, Seth seems to feel much better this morning so I'm very glad about that. Yesterday he coughed so hard and so much he couldn't take a nap, couldn't keep his lunch down, and was basically miserable. Hopefully we're through the worst of the sickness now and he'll be ship-shape in a few days.
I don't know why I put the picture of the gnome here, I just thought he was cute. And I like having pictures to accompany my ramblings.
I'm so ashamed of myself. I was home for 4 days and my house is still messy. I just...I mean, I cleaned, I did! I washed clothes, and dishes and picked up and blah blah blah..but its still cluttered!!! And the floor needs to be swept and mopped! I guess that shows you what bad shape it was in before. :( Well, I'm off tomorrow too (how lucky is that?) so maybe I can finish what I half-heartedly started.
Hmm...what else? Oh as long as I'm complaining (I'm almost through, I promise) I'm tired. I'm having major trouble sleeping again. I think its cause the rambling thoughts are back. Before I started my Lexapro, I had these running thoughts in my head at night that I could not turn off. You know, just worries. After I started the meds, I started sleeping better. Now...its back to square 1. I'm thinking that next week I'm going to march back to the dr. and see if they'll up my dosage of Lexapro and maybe give me another refill of sleeping pills. Those worked well and after I ran out of them, I was able to sleep pretty well on my own. So, that's my plan.
Now...I'll try to be less depressing. On an up note, I had choir practice Sunday night and enjoyed it thoroughly. I've nailed the alto "Glorias" in "Hark the Herald"! Remember I was having trouble with those? Another positive is that I've spent some good quality time with my kiddos these past few days. They are just so darn cute!
I saw a preview for "The Office" last night. The Scranton branch is going to be closed down? What? There's some kind of interesting twist involved, for sure.
Oh, something so cute I must share it. Seth tried to write, "I love you Nana" yesterday by sounding out the words, and I am SO proud of him, may I say. This is how he spelled it:

"I lfv yoo Nana."

It was quite possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen! And the fact that he is writing now, by himself, makes me want to cry! Its so cute! But it also means he is really and truly growing up..I'm going to save that piece of paper, b/c it reminds me of why I am a mother and why life is so worth living and why God put me here. He knew I would "lfv" being a mother.

"I wore the time like a dress that year ,The autumn days swung soft around me, like cotton on my skin.."

That quote is from a song "Pale September" by Fiona Apple...It seems to fit (even though this is November)...Now for some autumn beauty:

Isn't that beautiful? Now look at this one:

Doesn't that make you want to go for a walk? I've been seeing these beautiful autumn colors everyday now, and I LOVE it. I just think of the world as God's beautiful painting and doesn't He have a great sense of color? It's so amazing.

What is also amazing is that Halloween is over and its only what, 3 weeks till Thanksgiving??? This morning at work we were talking about our Christmas party!! My body has not realized how deep into the year we are. It's still trying to adjust from summer being over. Seriously! Time moves too fast for me and I think its starting to move without me. I just cannot fathom, that in one short month, it will be time to put up Christmas decorations. I'm usually super excited about doing that, but as of now...I'm just going to try to enjoy these beauteous colors while they last. :) I love Christmas, don't get me wrong, but I'm going to try to NOT think about it's impending arrival until after Thanksgiving. If I don't, my body may go into shock. That's just how I'm feeling today.

Otherwise..we had a great Halloween night! The kids were as cute as two buttons and they got lots of loot (bad for me, good for them) I have a super sore throat today...but its only sinus stuff, not strep, thank goodness. Hmm...what else...Mrs. V (haha) is gone on vacation this week and I miss her!! But I hope she's having a good time. Oh, in other shocking news, I talked to my brother yesterday!! Amber, I know you're passed out on the floor from this news. The non-existent brother still does exist!!! It has been proven! He knows nothing about his holiday plans, he is still excruciatingly hard to talk to on the phone (I've compared it to pulling alligator's teeth) - not that he's boring or dumb or anything, he just doesn't contribute much to the conversation, you ask questions, he answers in the least amount of words possible-anything to make the conversation shorter! But I'm being too hard on him. To his credit, he did call me back the day after I tried to call him. Success! I just miss him sometimes. We are all so caught up in our lives we don't have time to make time for each other. Anyway!!! Friday is almost upon us again...Yay weekends!! Hope everyone is having a good day. :D