Day 12

So, I've been trying to figure out how to post Day 12 and don't have a good solution, yet.

Today started with me (pulled out of bed before the boys) in the shower, to get ready for our 1/2 hour drive to church and leaving early enough to pass out the programs (Yup. I'm the Ward Bulletin lady. That, and three other callings... gotta love a small branch!). When the boys woke up at 7:30, we went straight for the stockings! The boys loved the gifts Santa brought in them! I'll have to post pictures later. Maybe when I figure out how to post my gift...

We finished up the stockings and got the boys in the bath and off to church in a timely manner. We knew that we wouldn't be able to open all the presents casually, like we wanted, so we made the boys wait until we got home around 12:00.

The boys had a great Christmas, Josh included. Josh waited until after all the gifts had been opened and dinner was started before he called me into the kitchen and set me at the computer for my gift: a 15-minute video montage of pictures of our life together (dating through now) set to a mash up of songs from our past. (Hence the trouble sharing it with you, it's just too much data... ) It was so sweet! I wanted Josh to go away so that I could cry in peace, but he enjoyed himself too much. The more I cried, the bigger he smiled.

I couldn't have asked for a better Christmas.

Day 11

Josh had to go and drop the Doctor on Duty pager of to his commander today. I was still in bed when he came back with a big bag of goodies for me. Goodies, indeed!

I've been running short on lotion, and the other day, Mason lost my second tube of lipgloss since we moved here. And, believe it or not, I requested the warm grippy socks. I can't tell you how many times I've nearly killed myself running through my house in socks. It's a matter of safety. So, really, I prefer to think of Day 11 as the day of yummy-smelling necessities.

Day 10

Every night, when I go to bed, I like to lull myself to sleep with a good book. Since I have found myself out of decent reading material of late, I have taken to playing a few rounds of solitaire each night on Josh's iPod Touch. I hate to brag but, I'm pretty good... but it gets old. So when I read a recent review in People magazine for "Out of Oz", the final volume to the "Wicked" series, the glowing words they had to say for the entire series intrigued me and I decided that I would read it next. I mentioned it to Josh in passing once or twice, since we generally share books, (he'll read it first, and I follow closely behind.) and waited for his work schedule to slow down.

So, tonight, as I lay down with the iPod to get my game on, I am surprised instead to find on the screen the Kindle App open with the title page for "Wicked". I'd write more, but I am too excited to get reading!!

Day 9

I'm not going to say or show exactly what I got for Day 9 to spare any unwanted mental images. Let's just say that I found it in a basket of clean laundry I was folding and it was definitely more for him than me. I still will say that it was really cute, though!

Day 8

Everyone has traditions for the holidays. Most of mine center around food. For example, food like this:

Which is exactly what I woke up to on Wednesday! I was happy because just the night before, we were at the mall, and walked past a Hickory Farms pop-up stand and I suggested that we get some Summer Sausage for Christmas Eve to which Josh made a face and shrugged his shoulders and said, "Nah.". I was a little hurt, thinking that he had never told me that he didn't like one of my traditions and inwardly sulked a little. Little did I know, he does like my tradition, and had just so happened to receive this gift box in the White Elephant exchange at his work Christmas party.

Of course, that surprised me, because I had asked him what he had gotten in the exchange the Friday before and he LIED! He came in with a Tuna MRE and said that "... it was between that or a bottle of booze. At least food storage might be useful.". Turns out, the Tuna MRE was left over from his C4 course the beginning of December and he had pulled it out of the trunk, knowing that he'd have to come home with something. I think that my husband is a lot more crafty than I give him credit for.

Day 7

It took me all day to find it. My kids had a play date at a local bounce-house place called Jumpin' Jax, so Josh put it in the diaper bag, thinking that I'd find it. Fortunately, Mason is halfway potty trained (He only pees in the potty...) and I had no reason to get into the bag. When he called on his way home from work, he asked if I had found it yet, which sent me excitedly ransacking it's contents. After a few more hints from Josh, I found it!

A Buckle Gift Card!! I recently discovered the joy that is shopping (as a big-bootied woman) for jeans at The Buckle. A far better experience! Thanks for the tip, Morgan! Anyway, Josh realized that I only have two pair of jeans and thought that I could use more, but knew better than to buy them for me. Smart boy! I can't wait to go shopping! Now all I need is a good shopping buddy...

Day 6

He's getting more clever with each passing day! Today he made the kids breakfast while I got in the shower. As usual, I gathered my clothes from the closet and brought them into the bathroom with me, set them on the counter and got in the shower. When I got out of the shower, I found a new outfit waiting for me where the one I had picked used to be! Tricky, tricky!

Not too bad at picking up my hints, that man... Oklahoma is COLD! Cold without snow. Bah.

**For the record, I am not posting these things to brag about my husband. Since it seems that I am basically the only one who reads my blog, I am mostly doing it for journalling purposes. So I am sorry if you think that this is a "brag blog". I hate those, too...**

Day 5

I think Josh must be trying to get me caught up on sleep! Today after church, I was cold and went to my bed to relax under my blankets. Of course, I fell asleep and had a three-hour nap! That hasn't happened, I think, since before Ethan was born! When I woke up, Josh was making dinner (watch out, Josh! A girl could get used to this...!) and told me to look in the "... foremost quadrant of the house." for my gift. In the laundry room, I found the jeans I washed yesterday, hanging to dry, with a new accessory attached!

I love it! I've been saying forever that I need a new belt, and when I figured out the other day that I could take off a pair of my jeans without unbuttoning them, I guess that threw him into action. Before anyone asks, it's not that I've lost any weight. On the contrary, my butt is as big (or bigger) than ever and with a relatively small waist, meaning that my pants gap in all the wrong places. But not anymore!!

And I'm happy to say that he's got pretty good taste, too!

Now on a different note, we had our Branch Christmas Party last night. It was so fun and the Young Women put it together. (We all know the youth of the church are amazing!) And they also put together a video for us, featuring our children. It was pretty good, so I have to share:

Enjoy!

Day 4

Today Josh let me sleep in until 10:00! It was blissful! I only felt a little guilty that I was sleeping while he was playing with the children...

When he came in to cuddle with me and I discovered the time, I figured that was my "Day 4", but not so! I walked out for breakfast to find one of these, burning in my kitchen.

The other day we went shopping for gifts for his Dental Assistant and the boys' teachers and found ourselves at Bath and Body Works where I inadvertently gave him oodles of hints while testing all the yummy scents. Evidently, he took notes because he went back to the Mall (quite the feat, 9 days before Christmas!) and got me some of the yummiest ones!

Day 3

This morning I woke up with a cold. My third or fourth one this year. Actually, my third or fourth one since I moved to Oklahoma. Needless to say, I was not in a happy mood. Until... I got a text and opened my phone to read it and found a note inside my phone. The note was a clue and it began a scavenger hunt through the house. The last note I found was inside of this:

And read:

"Happy day 3!

I tried to pick something

out of here myself, but

then my brain exploded.

So hopefully you can think

of something you need in

here..."

Are you kidding me?! If you know me, you know I L-O-V-E Stampin' Up! products, so of course I have no problem thinking of something I absolutely NEED in here!! It's just a question of how much needing I am to do... hmm?

Second Day

Flowers! Josh never gets me flowers, but I only have myself to blame for that one. I LOVE getting flowers but Josh forgets to get them for me because, you see, I am weird about them. I don't want flowers on my birthday or anniversary and I'd probably kill him if he spent double to get me some on Valentine's Day. I prefer to get flowers at random on some Tuesday in March. A Tuesday in March that he was thinking about me and how much he loves me.

So, since it's Thursday the 15th of December, the Second Day of Christmas rocks! He also said that he picked these particular flowers because they "... reminded me of our wedding.". Bonus points, for sure!

Really excited for tomorrow... but now I'm going to go and smell the roses.

12 Days of Christmas

Josh took me on a date the other day. As we trolled the isles at the Lawton Wal-Mart, Christmas shopping without kids, he told me that he was tired of being a "lame" husband. Apparently, he found some of our old dating paraphernalia the other day (you know, back when you used to have time to woo each other?) and decided that he wasn't taking out enough time to woo me anymore. I'm pretty sure that I have the sweetest husband ever, and I told him that he was over thinking it and that wooing me was folding the laundry or taking out the trash without being asked or some other mundane gross task that I don't want to do. Evidently, this did not satisfy him because this is what I woke up to this morning:

In case you can't read it, it says, "Happy First Day of Christmas. -Santa" and yes, that is a note on toilet paper. But, more importantly, it's what the note is hanging on. When we moved into this house, the toilet paper holder was hanging halfway out of the wall. Each time I got some toilet paper, I was certain it would fall off the wall, and I would do my best to push it back. It got worse and worse until I didn't feel it could support the weight of the roll. Josh kept telling me that it was an easy fix and one day he'd get around to it. In hind sight, he must have been saving it for a special occasion...

And, yes, it made me cry.

Happy First Day of Christmas! I can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store!!

Every. Day.

Every day I sweep at least this much stuff off my floor:

I don't understand, either. Can someone explain?

My Life in Cartoons

Most days, I feel like I am stuck in a Tom and Jerry cartoon.

I have taken on my role as referee and am already tired of it, even though I know this is just the beginning; having children ranging in age of only 2 1/2 - 7 1/2. Can't wait for the teenagers... Oh, and Ethan has chosen wrestling as his extracurricular activity, meaning he spends his Monday evenings learning how to more effectively pin his brothers to the ground. For the record, my vote was for piano...

But lately, I have found myself in another cartoon entirely.

Sleeping Beauty.

Mason has always had a difficult personality, that is to say, he's been more stubborn than either of my other boys and as a result, he and I "fight". A lot. He's also a very smart little weasel and at 2 1/2 speaks much better than his brother's did at his age. Meaning, I find myself actually arguing with a toddler. Daily.

Our latest battle began when we put up the Christmas tree. We got a new pre-lit tree from Costco that I have been wanting for a while now. This year's model however, had an unexpected feature:

The lights have a foot switch that enable them to toggle between white and colored lights. As a general rule, I prefer "pretty" trees. I don't like colored lights on a tree except in certain circumstances. Circumstances that do not currently exist in my home. The first night that we put it up, we let the boys see both the colored and the white lights and do all the proper ooh-ing and ah-ing. When it was over, I turned the lights back to white and admired a job well done. That is the last time I looked upon my beautiful tree, thanks to Mr. Merryweather himself.

Merry multi-colored Christmas!

**The picture does not accurately display just how badly the lights clash with the decor. Promise.