A Year in Recap

So, I read my brother's blog the other day, and he gave a recap of all the things that went on for him and his family this year. So yet again, I will not be original, and I will steal this from my brother.(Honestly plagiarism is the highest form of flattery.)

In January we pulled Ashton out of regular middle school and decided to homeschool him. Within the next few months, as friends and family saw him, everyone remarked on how much he had improved. His speech was better, he seemed more outgoing and had loads of self-confidence. Score one for the Ash! In February, Kenan turned 11 and decided school wasn't important anymore. He is currently (I am proud to say) back on track, finally. March and April went on like life always does. In May, the love of my life turned 30, we had a big party and everybody celebrated what an awesome guy he is. (I can't believe we've spent more than half of our lives together, already, I'm very lucky) In June, I got to spend a fabulous 5 days in Costa Rica with my two very best girlfriends, with no cares or worries. (see I told you he was an awesome guy) After we came back from Costa Rica, I got to spend an additional 3-4 days meeting my ultra cool niece and nephews, and visiting with the aforementioned big brother and his lovely, glowing, pregnant wife. July came and I got to go to the beach alot, and surf a little, and I remembered why I liked being a stay at home mom. Yes, they still fight alot, but for some reason I took it in stride. In August, my pretty girl turned 9, and we made the big decision to take her out of regular school and homeschool her as well as Ashton. In September, not only did I turn 30, but my oldest son, turned 13, OMG! In October we had a lot of fun planning for Halloween (the one holiday everyone is excited about in my house) and the kids totally rocked their costumes. Spawn, a Shaolin Monk, and a Beautiful, yet deadly Ninja. In November, we had a great Thanksgiving, lots of people and lots of fun. I can't believe it but here we are at the end already, Xmas came yesterday. It was great. I had earlier lamented the fact that my kids were too old for toys and such, but my husband proved me wrong yet again. They received mega amounts of fun, cool toys. Genevieve is at this moment pelting me with her Nerf Blaster gun, (who gave her this thing), and giggling maniacally. The boys are playing with their dad. I am currently counting all my blessings. Lots of things happened in between, we went camping, the boys had their "first official up all night geeked-out on games" evening. I started gardening, which I'm really excited about.Parties and massive amounts of mischief. The year however, is not over yet. Chad is playing his first official gig, next week on the 30th. Which I am extremely excited and proud about, he is a great musician. Then we have New Year's to contend with.

It's good, real good.

To: You

From: Us

Merry Christmas

and a

Happy New Year!

I do believe in fairies, I do, I do!

I got

my Xmas

spirit back. Yeah!

I know for all you scrooges

out there, this may

seem trivial, but to me

it means alot. It came in the

form of a free Xmas tree, two to be exact.

I picked up my very cute nephews

from school yesterday and thought

it would be fun to go and look at the trees.

So we went, while we were walking around we heard

how they were going to throw

away a whole trailer full of trees. So

we go over to check them out and the gentleman

tells me, he is going to write them off and I could have them

if I wanted, but they probably won't last until Xmas.

*Poof*, a little twinkle came over me and I declared

that with a lot of love and water they would be just fine. Well

he looked at me like I was nuts and walked away. Luckily, I had Chad's

work truck with me and I pulled it up to the trailer and threw two beautiful trees in the back. We pulled out of the lot, tires squealing, feeling like it was too good to be true. I got home and cut a ton of branches off of them, sawed the trunk way up and gave them lots of *love* and water. Then I called a friend over, who had also been in need of a tree, and gave her the other one. *BAM*, there it was,

that old wonderful feeling came back with a

vengeance. So today, now that it's sat for a

night, we are going to decorate our tree. We are

also going to start the baking, and the

Xmas carol singing, the crafts, and the gift giving.

Watch out Ebenezer.

Do you ever feel like talking to yourself?

I told Chad the other day that I realized I like to talk. He wasn't surprised, maybe even a little amused. I frequently find myself having conversations with myself, I even answer back. Now, I have heard that's a sign of mental instability, frankly me and myself don't believe that. I think that's what a blog is, right, I mean you are talking to yourself. Maybe in hopes that you will be read by millions or just friends and family, but essentially you're talking to yourself. I think that during the day when I need adult company that's all I'm doing, just talking to myself with hope that someone will come along and talk with me. Maybe that's why somedays I blog alot and others not at all. Either way I've decided that yes, I like to talk alot, no, I don't care what you think, and be grateful that I don't fill your ears with all the nonsense I fill mine with.

Some things are worth saving

So awhile ago I wrote a post on Lazy Days (aug. 31, 2006). Basically in that post I realized that I've have been lazy in regards to the environment in which my children are growing up in. I vowed to do something about it, now my solution is not going to stop global warming, or impact very many people, but the animals around my house are going to be happy. When we first bought our house, 5-6 years ago we were one of 5-6 houses on our immediate street and probably one of 30 houses in my immediate neighborhood. What this means is that there were tons of empty lots filled with trees and wildlife all around us, we thought how awesome. Our kids can run, bike, and be free to roam our neighborhood without too much worry on our part, in short the kind of childhood we had always wanted for them. It has been great, but in this relatively small amount of time, we are now one of 9 houses on our street and there are more than 100 houses in our immediate neighborhood. This obviously means no more frollicking in the "woods", less and less wildlife everyday, basically not enough nature and too many neighbors for my taste. Yes, this was inevitable but no one really saw it happening with the quickness that it did in our area. We have seen black racers (snake), marsh rabbits, turtles, tree frogs, whooping cranes, countless other animals flushed from their homes (even a very scared rattlesnake on a bike ride one day) due to the development out here. Which brings me to my point. The kids and I have decided to create a natural wildlife habitat as sanctuary to some of these animals (hopefully the rattlesnake is long gone :) So to keep track, for school and fun, I have created another blog. If you're interested check it out

HERE

The '50s, what an innocent time

So Ashton and I found those old Dick and Jane books at the library recently. You know the ones, Run, Spot, run. See Spot run. Anyways we were reading one today and I felt like a huge pervert I could not help myself from giggling and here's why, verbatim from the book:

Find Dick

...."I can not find Dick.

Help me, Sally.

Help me find Dick."

Jane said, "Oh Father.

I can not find Dick.

And we can not play.

Help me, Father.

Help me find Dick."

Father said, "Look Jane.

Look, look, look.

You can find Dick."

Sally said, "Oh, oh.

I see Dick now.

Father and I see Dick.

We see funny Dick.

Look, Jane, look.

You can find Dick now."

I still feel like a pervert, because I'm still giggling.

Tell me if I dote too much....

This kid is pure in heart, mind, and soul. I think that's why the dark side attracts him so much. Oh yeah, and he loves that shirt.

This one is in trouble right now, that's him to the right in his dungeon, the pictures above are of a happier time. What I don't think he realizes is how much we love him anyway.

The epitome of happiness

So have I ever said how much I love this kid. We gave each other pedicures the other day, didn't she do an awesome job!

It started out as a Thursday night normally does...

Chad and I chillin' like villains on the back porch.

When...... Jabin and Natasha came by.......

this is what follows.................

lots of merry and mischief, wish you could have been there........................

One of those life days.....

Sometimes you just have to take charge.

Freedom, woohoo!

So this morning I wake up to lots and lots of disgustingness (is that a word, oh well, it is now).

1. My septic tank has backed up into my shower, ewww, and toilet in my bathroom. It has not yet reached the kids' bathroom (thank god 2 of them are at grandma's) but who knows how long we are going to be able to "hold it". Chad is in Ft. Lauderdale visiting with friends, (supermom is busting out her uniform) so I am here to deal with it.

2. The sky is greyish/black because the heavens are going to open up and lavish my yard with much needed rain at any moment. Don't get me wrong I absolutely love the rain. Any other Sunday morning I would be rushing out to get the paper, making a huge pot of coffee, and envisioning a whole lot of nothing going on today. Obviously this is not the case, all I can help but think is, will the septic guys pump my shit in the rain, are they going to charge me even more than they already are, shit, shit, and double shit, I mean that literally folks.

which leads me to.....

3. I sit down at my desk make a few calls, I only have to wait an hour or three for someone to get here, and decide to make the best out of it. Screw the paper I'll save a tree and read my news online (which is what I do all week, but I like the crosswords on Sundays) and lo and behold what do I see Suddam Hussein has been sentenced to death. I bet you are wondering why this disgusts me, right? If you have been following this at all, you know that this trial has dragged on for various different reasons, he has so much contempt for the court it's almost laughable. They finished trying and convicting him, I believe more than three months ago, here it comes.... they sentence him to death 2 days before the elections. Some of you naive folks out there are going yeah and... well I am cynical enough to believe this was planned. Any one, anyone? Come on people, the republicans were worried, they had the potential to lose, their representatives are coming out of the closet albeit, not on their own, they are being accused of *hush* gay sexual harrasment *hush*, and they are not winning this war, not at all. They won't even put that their party is Republican on their t.v. ads, all you see is an itsy bitsy tiny "R" at the bottom. ( An interesting sidenote: a bit ago I saw a poll of Iraqi teenagers asking them if violence would go down in their country if Americans pulled out, an astonishing number said Yes. ) So here we are 2 days before the election, and amazingly enough Suddam Hussein is going to hang, unless he wins on appeal, but that won't come for another 2 months or so, long after the election fight has come and gone. So Bush will get to tout that he brought down this monster, but before everyone starts waving their flags around, does anyone remember that we weren't even looking for this guy, that Bush Sr. was the one to give Suddam so much of what he had, didn't we go to Iraq looking for WMD! Have we found any( besides No. Korea, and the only reason we know about those are because they started firing them off, has anyone knocked on their door to say WTF!, I mean really) did we find Osama Bin Laden, who don't forget was also given weapons, money, and power, by the Bush adminstration, does any one even care anymore?

I am disgusted this morning for a lot of reasons: for people who don't think before they vote, Hey assholes, my kids have to grow up in this country and I don't want your right wing conservatism shoved down their throats. For people in Iraq who were thrust into a very political war, not for their freedom, as so many want us to believe, but lets face it folks, our President and our Vice President have much to gain if the oil in Iraq is under our control. Like I said, I'm disgusted and it's not the smell that's wafting from my bathroom, there are too many to name, this is starting to become a diatribe, so I'm done.

There is good news: the septic guy is on his way, yeah! the rain has held, so maybe I will get to enjoy it with peace of mind, yeah!

Let's all just keep our fingers crossed that on Tuesday it ends up the same way.

Rock Star

All right, I suck I could have sworn I got video footage of my beautiful girl rocking out with her daddy and friends, but alas as I go to post I see I only got pictures. So the world wide debut is not as spectacular as I had planned, but here it is anyway.


Ain't she cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!! she's got style and all the makings and personality of a real rocker.

I love that kid.

Dogs do smile

So I wanted to fool around with adding videos and I love my dog. Isn't she cute? She loves the H2O, frequently ruins my sprinklers, and never allows my plants to get watered. But I love her anyways. Continue to stay tuned for Evie Eden's world wide debut...
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Candy, Candy, Candy

The red ninja a.k.a. Ethan, supercool Spiderman Jack, Kenan the wise shaolin monk

the beautiful yet deadly ninja Genevieve, Ashton is..... SPAWN.

No halloween is complete without a couple of cats (especially a black one) some jack o'lanterns and a shitload of candy!

Homeschooling Rocks!

We decided to make papier mache' pumpkins to celebrate Halloween, it was a blast, and super easy if anybody's interested. Hope you like! The finished project is on top with the artist's themselves.

Punk rock lives on....

stay tuned for the world wide debut of my rock star daughter.........

This is Halloween

Halloween is right around the corner, which of course means that Xmas decorations have been up for ages. SIDENOTE:(For all you christians out there who resent the fact that I took christ out of Xmas, give me a break and try and pretend that Jesus is still the reason for the season). Anyway, I got in my mail yesterday the big toy book that Toys R Us sends out every year, and as I was glancing through it I realized my kids are too big for toys. They don't really have any toys in their room, not ones that they actually play with anymore. Sure it's great that they are getting older and I can buy them other cool stuff: real drum sets, radios, they like getting nice clothes, etc. But the past few years my heart has not really been in it. I don't think it's because they are older, well maybe a little, when you have young kids around at Xmas it's fun and exciting to watch their little eyes light up at the tree with all the presents around it. I'm not trying to say that my kids are unappreciative, that's not the case at all. What I'm trying to say is I've lost the spirit. Everyone feels it, the hopelessness of not enough money, the huge list of people to get for, the guilt when you can't, and the frustration that you feel because you think you have too. Well this Xmas I still have yet to figure out a compromise, to keeping the fun loving spirit alive while keeping away the horrid compulsive consumerism that we are raised with in this country. I can't imagine waking up on Xmas morning and not having the tree and the presents and the stockings, but I also know that this is exactly what I have been entertaining the last few years. I told my beautiful husband that this year we are boycotting Xmas, he looked at me and smiled because he knows I could never do it. I want too, though really bad. It's the kids I tell myself, how disappointed they would be, but I know deep down that I would be also. So yet another dilemma for me to figure out, any suggestions? Oh and by the way Happy Halloween.

I love my kids. Simply, happily, wonderfully. Absolutely love them.