What are you doing for New Year's Eve?

This is how my wonderful sister and her family will be spending New Years Eve...yes in Paris and this is how I will be spending my New Year's Eve not in Paris but in Iowa with 5 - 10 year old boys doing this....

and this is what I will look like tomorrow after those boys have ruined my house and stayed up all night!

My son James turns 10 today so I don't think we will be celebrating like all of you for quite some time.... like when he is 18 and out of the house. Do I really have to wait that long, what have we done? I guess we are just gluttons for punishment and can't get enough celebrating during the month of December....remember Christmas, my anniversary and now a birthday. On the eve of the millennium I was giving birth at exactly 11:00 p.m. and while beginning a horrible contraction and wanting like holy hell to rip the sucker out of me, the nurses all asked if I wanted to wait another hour so I could have the 1st baby born in 2000...yea me! Just kidding like I cared. My husband said I wasn't all that kind but mind you I had been doing this since 5 a.m. and I didn't care how kind I was, it was time. I gave that ugly grin of a smile you give to people when you can't actually call them an idiot and said "just get this kid outta me!"

None the less we had a 9lb baby boy after all that and he has brought us so much joy that I would do it all over again! Well maybe not that awful labor!

Happy Birthday James we love you to the moon and back!

Love Mom and Dad

P.S. I couldn't fix the Happy New Year near Woody, so know that I am wishing you all a Happy New Year. I am so excited to have met some of you and cannot wait for what the new year brings for all of us!

Megan

17 Years Ago Today......

17 years ago today, on a snowy Tuesday night in 1992, I married the love of my life and we started a life together. This morning while wearing flannel snowman pj's, hair looking a little disheveled and glasses, I asked my dear husband, "So, is this what you thought it would be like after 17 years?" He so sweetly answered, "Well, I'm not dead yet, so I guess it hasn't been that bad". I gave him a love smack on the cheek and we chuckled. We know what an adventure it has been together and couldn't imagine spending it with any one else. I gave him his coffee to go and kissed him goodbye and off to work he went.

Now, after 17 years of marriage I did think we would have a couple of kids, but did I ever think in a million years we would have....1 chihuahua, 1 corgi, 1 leopard gecko, 1 armadillo lizard,

1 bearded dragon and 1 African Pygmy hedgehog.....hell no, but I'm sure there is worse out there. So for now I will take all of these creatures and wish for the new year not to get any more! Is it bad that I called my children creatures?

Honey, thank you for being a hard worker, patient, kind hearted, creative, funny, lovable guy.

Meg

12 Days of Christmas!

I have been a little MIA from blogging these past couple of days to spend time with my family, but I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Ours was quite normal, well at least that is our opinion, so here are some highlights...

On the 12th day of Christmas my Family (and Mother Nature) gave to me:

12 inches of snow

11 broken ornaments

10 hours of shoveling

9 angry cuss words

8 hugs to make up

7 piles of dishes

6 shouts "Go to Bed!"

5 golden doggie piddles

4 painful PS3 reboots (now its dead)

3 tummy aches

2 exhausted parents

and a Hedgehog named Henry!

Now, this might not be your Normal, but its our Normal and I wouldn't trade it for the world! Come on back and see how its never a dull moment in "The Partridge Family"! And yes, that really is our last name!

Megan

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

Have you ever seen one of these? I came upon this and thought we would give it a try. The kids and I had so much fun putting this together, I think we may have watched it 75 times already! But before you watch, please pause the music at the bottom , enjoy!

I'm not in the mood, and I don't mean that!

Ok, so we just got home from school, the kids had holiday parties and whoo, hoo, (can you hear my enthusiasm, or should I say the lack there of ), the kids are now on Christmas break. Do you know how many days the kids are on break for? 18, did you hear me?... 18. HELP! What am I to do with them for that long? We have no plans really but to hang out at home. I am not ready for the "I'm bored, there is nothing to do, no one to play with!" Can't you just hear the whining in that?

I am still trying to shake off a kindergarten party where I spent 2 hours doing crafts, watching several children pick their noses, then hold hands to sing a group song and yes, I even witnessed a couple of hands go missing in the pants. I am still trying to breathe here. The kids then proceeded to their tables to have their snacks. I thought, "wait, surely the kids will wash their hands right? Oh, hell, the teacher isn't saying anything, and there go the cupcakes, the crackers and the cheese. Ok, do I walk and never volunteer again? If the teacher doesn't have them wash their hands I'm gonna lose it! Well I did, lose it that is. I yelled "Stop, do not eat one bite, you need hand sanitizer!" Now if you ever want to quiet a group of kids and their mothers down, this"ll do it every time! Lets just say, I don't think Claire will be invited over for any play-dates this winter break, oh well.

I have OCD I know, what a germ freak!

"Claire, mom will find something fun to do I promise." So, if anyone has any ideas, I am open for suggestions. But, for now I have a few things stocked to get me through these long 18 days...

I have hot cocoa with some rum, yum! and the cookie jar filled and plenty of chocolate. I don't think you can go wrong with peanut M&M's.

Now, I need to go and finish my cocoa!

Megan

December Houseguest!

I just wanted to introduce you to a friend of ours that we like to call Zeke! He is our elf on the shelf and only visits for the month of December, and then travels back to the North Pole! He is the elf sitting in the coffee cup. Those other elves are just some elf on the shelf wannabes!

Most of you may already know what the elf on shelf is all about, but for those that don't, he is an elf that watches your kids and then reports back to Santa every night on how they are doing. Then, the next morning he is in a new hiding spot and the kids have to go find him. I have to admit I am really enjoying finding a new place for him every night.

James is a good sport and plays along for the sake of Claire and my raised eyebrow I might add. I think he likes to hear Claire squeal in the morning when she finds him, she is so excited that he really flew away and spoke to Santa. Now, there are some nights I am too tired and I forget to move him and then I feel horrible because Claire says, "Mom, I was good yesterday, why didn't Zeke go and tell Santa?" I tell her that I am sure he did but he just likes to got back to that spot! My husband decided to feed Zeke Lorna Doone cookies because he wanted to see what Claire would think about the crumbs. She couldn't believe he ate cookies just like Santa! I would say by the looks of it, poor Zeke has a belly ache!

I have the feeling that Zeke thinks he is in the North Pole right now talking to Santa. I think he needs to lay off of those cookies, don't you?

Move over Santa, there is a new driver in town!

Uh Oh....Sick Kid!

Yesterday after school my son James came barreling in the back door yelling "Mom, Claire threw up on the bus!" Poor Claire, not only was she feeling crappy but I think she was a little embarrassed that her friends saw her do that. So sad to see this little cutie not feeling well! I gave her some pepto and had her crawl in my bed where she fell asleep for a couple of hours. Later when we were eating dinner, she threw up again and if James could have gone through the wall he would have.

Let me tell you about James. He is almost 10 and walks around the house speaking with an Australian accent. Don't ask me how that started, but he is hilarious. So when Claire threw up, he said "Oh good golly" and ran holding his ears, because he didn't want to hear it. James does not deal well with gross things. The other day the dog had some issues that I would rather not get into, but it had to do with the other end and James flailed his body behind the couch, holding his ears and yelling "La, la, la, la, la", while I chased the dog. I of course would have loved some help with getting the dog off the carpet, but I knew there was no way of getting James out of hiding!

And now he tells me that for Christmas he wants a Didgeredoo which is an Australian Aborigine instrument. If you are curious about this, check it out on youtube. He tells me that this is all he wants, nothing else, oh Dear God help me! The thing with kids is they sure keep you on your toes, at least mine do!

Happy Saturday to you all!

School is back on!

I was able to snap pictures of my kids (James in cream hat, snowboarding and Claire sledding on red sled) during their 2 snow days. We live in Iowa and we were hit pretty hard. I have to say when the kids are home and tell you they are bored and hungry like every five minutes, you feel like pulling your hair out! I am so grateful for school and the wonderful teachers my kids have.

Claire is in kindergarten and has the same teacher James had when he was in kindergarten. James is now in 4th grade. Claire's teacher is Mrs. B. and I am just amazed at her patience with these kids and how much she loves her job. I volunteer on Tuesdays in her classroom and sometimes I feel like I need a drink after I leave, and I am only in there for 1/2 an hour.

One thing you should know about me is that I don't really like kids. I mean yes I have 2 and I adore them (on most days) but truthfully kids just drive me crazy! I know I am not the only one out there that feels that way, right?

Well, I better get something done around here before the little munchkins return. Have a Happy Day!

Megan

Hark the Herald Angels Sing

I wanted to share a favorite picture of mine. This is a picture of my mother probably when she was 7 years of age. I just love putting it out every year and still laugh at how serious my mother was in this picture. Christmas is a hard time of year for all of us because my mother is no longer with us. She died in 2002 at the age of 58. That is only 20 years older than I am now. I know it has been several years since she passed but I still find myself grabbing the phone to tell her things that have happened throughout the day. Now I don't mean for this to start any waterfalls, I think I was just having a moment.

I sang Christmas songs to my kids before bed last night and one of my mother's favorite songs was Hark the Herald Angels Sing. My mother wasn't the best singer, in fact she was quite tone deaf but that never seemed to stop her. I can hear her now. She is up singing with the Angels and she sounds beautiful!

I love you mom!

Our whimsical Christmas Decorations!

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures of our festive holiday decor! Last year our house was on the Holiday Home Tour so there was a little pressure in getting out the decorations before December 1st. This year it was nice and stress free!

My favorite thing to decorate is my upside down tree. I love
putting bright fun ornaments on it because it is the first thing you see when you come in the front door.

The lady on the door was painted by a very talented lady named Julie who co-owns JB Knacker in Gilbert, Iowa. I'm sure some of you bloggers out there have heard of her. I have attached a boa and santa hat to keep her in the holiday spirit!

Boy Oh Boy Oh Boy!

Can't you just hear him saying that? This is our dog Theodore and he is in heaven. I laugh at how much he loves the snow. He is constantly at the door whining to go out so he can run laps around the yard and roll in the snow. I just wish he wouldn't bark at every snow flake that fell down. Did I mention he is cute but not that smart?

Well, it is officially winter in Iowa! It snowed yesterday and the kids got home from school and went sleding for 2 hours! How do they do that? I swear, my kids are like polar bears, they love the snow so much. They never complain about how cold it is and my daughter didn't even have socks on under her boots! It could have just been the frostbite kicking in but I think she was having too much fun to notice! I contemplated not shoveling at all, I mean its just going to keep snowing right? I decided I didn't want to get any nasty looks from the neighbors. I just wish that tylenol would kick in for my aching back!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

We're starting to get into the spirit of the season!