Just haven't had the time or inclination to sit and type up a post lately...  but have lots of cute and/or fun things to say, so will try to get to it tomorrow...

 

For now, I need to get this off my chest.

 

I'm not sure if I have mentioned that we have to find our cats a new home.  I think I have, but not sure.  I've been avoiding it because I love my cats and I don't want to find them a new home (yes, I'm whining).  I've had to step up efforts big time.

 

We went out of town for Thanksgiving and Colleen was away from the cats for a week.  Her skin was looking a lot better, scabbed over and you could tell that it was starting to heal.  We weren't home 12 hours and every patch of ezcema was bigger and redder and more raw than ever and she started shredding her back to bits with her fingernails.  It got so bad that we had to take her to the doctor.  She is now on oral steroids, topical steroids, and a very powerful allergy medicine.  Although they are helping quite a bit, she can not stay on any of them.  Steroids have serious side effects and the allergy medicine is evidently some pretty serious stuff.  She's only got 10 days of oral steroids (Prednisone) and only 30 days of the allergy medicine.  So that is my dead line to find our cats a new home.  I've called the shelters, no one really cares about my sob story and no one has agreed to take them.  I just put an ad up on Craigslist.  Maybe someone will respond to that, hard to say.  There were LOTS and LOTS of "free cat" ads, and I did not say that our cats were free.  I didn't say that I would charge for them, but I have heard that you should never advertise that your animal is free, lest you attract people that do not have good intentions.

 

Shawn said that he will take over finding them a new home at the end of this week if I haven't had any luck.  I am very afraid that we are going to have to take them to the pound... a DEATH SENTENCE.

 

I am happy in all other regards of my life, but the cat situation is causing me a fair amount of stress and breaking my heart.

For those of you who may not know, I am the oldest of four girls.  As the oldest, I spent most of my early years being the pioneer in all of life's major events: first to go to school, first to graduate from high school, first to go to, and then drop out of, college, first to move out, first to move back (LOL), first to live with my boyfriend, first to get married.

 

My whole life I have been reminded that I am the example and that my sisters are watching and learning from my every move, so I have always tried to do things "the right way".  My wedding was no exception.  If a bride traditionally did it, by God, so did I.  As you can imagine, planning for all those things was exhausting and it made the months leading up to the wedding difficult for me and those around me.  I don't have very many good memories from planning my wedding. 

 

Of the few that I do have, the one I cherish the most is when me, my mom, and my sisters were driving out to Beechmont because the bridal store out there had the bridesmaid dress I thought I HAD to have, based on the picture in the magazine.  The radio was playing in the background but we were talking over it until a new song came on and we told mom to TURN IT UP.  It was "Inside Out" by Eve6.  It was brand new at the time and I remember feeling "cool" that I knew the refrain like my more "with it" little sisters.  We all sang at the top of our lungs:

 

I can't tell you much about the rest of the evening, except that Becky and Diana tried on lots of dresses and we took pictures of the ones we liked best.

 

We ended up choosing a completely different dress, from a totally different shop (one that was right down the street as opposed to about an hour away!) and after all the frustration, anger, doubt, tears, fights, compromises, and stress of planning it, my actual Wedding Day was amazing.  It represented both mine and Shawn's personalities, our relationship, and where we were in our life perfectly.  I wouldn't change a thing, not even the part when I tried to get up from kneeling during the ceremony and accidently ripped a hole in the back of my wedding dress with the heel of my shoe.  Or the part where Shawn mashed cake in my face and I was so upset over my make up getting mussed that I actually left the reception and sulked in the bathroom till Lauren came in, touched it up and talked me into NOT killing Shawn when I first went back out there.  LOL

 

I heard "Inside Out" on the radio the other day and I've been thinking of that memory and my sisters ever since.  We are seperated by distance, time zones, work schedules, responsibilities to our children and our significant others, seperated by Life in general.  But each of them has my undying love and unwaivering loyalty.  If any of them ever needed anything, and I could provide it, I would.  I cherish the good memories we made together growing up.  Yes, we have our differences and we don't always approve of each other's choices or actions, but I know, deep in my heart, if called upon, the bonds of sisterhood would unite us and we would help each other through whatever the fates dealt us.  That solidarity is one of my most treasured possessions.

 

 

I've been bee-bopping around, doing day to day stuff and not really keeping track of what the date was, when Shawn asks which day we are going to leave for Florida (we spend Thanksgiving week with his grandparents down there).

 

I'm all like "We'll decide when it gets closer"

 

He's all like "Well, its this coming week"

 

I'm like "HOLY CRAP!!!"

 

I haven't quite recovered from Halloween yet and it is already time to think about Thanksgiving?

 

We decided to leave on Sunday morning, so that we are hopefully there by dinner time.  After looking at the calendar, I realized that Colleen is going to miss 3 days of preschool, not a big deal, but one of those days is the Thanksgiving Feast and I am the room mother in charge of the craft for the party.  I've been semi-looking for a craft to do for a few weeks now, but I wasn't trying very hard and hadn't found anything that tickled my fancy.

 

Since the above conversation between Shawn and I, I've flipped into "Planning Mode"

 

 

 

I FOUND IT!

 

I found Colleen's Christmas present. 

 

It is a bed that can be converted from a toddler-sized bed to a twin-sized bed.  She is still in a toddler bed right now and she probably wont outgrow it for a year or so, then we can get a twin mattress and convert it.  Will she have it forever and ever and take it to college?  No.  But, we will be able to let her fall asleep in our room on Christmas Eve, sneak into her room, assemble it and make it up with a cute new bedding set and she will be AMAZED come Christmas morning.

 

And, the more I think about it, this really is the way to go.  Who knows how long Princesses are going to last with her?  She could start Kindergarten next year and all of a sudden develop an all consuming love of horses, or soccer, or ???  Best to hold off on the entire room make over until she is a little bit older.

 

Shawn even likes it!  He hasn't been a big fan of anything else I've shown him (except one wallpaper border, but I digress...). 

 

I feel so happy and relieved now that I have it worked out.  It was bugging me like that bit of random trivia that bothers you until you remember the answer.

 

Hurrah!  I'm ready to load up the CD Changer with our Christmas CDs and put the trees up!  Bring on the holidays!  :)

 

 

 

After last year's Christmas Present Fiasco, I have decided to change my approach this year.  The Christmas Present Fiasco began last summer, when I started buying things for the kids and hiding them in various closets, the garage, etc.  By the time Christmas actually rolled around the number of gifts was staggering.  I was intimidated by the sheer number of them.  We ended up having to unwrap presents in several sessions, giving the kids a chance to eat and play with a few of their new things, before being overloaded with MORE new things.  Shawn and I ended up unwrapping the last batch ourselves, the kids wanted no part of it by the end of the day.

 

So this year, I had the brilliant idea of getting each of the kids a couple (ok - no more than 6!) small gifts and one large gift.  Easier all around, and I'm sure the kids will have more fun on Christmas this way.

 

Wesley was easy.  I have already picked up several Cars things on sale at the Disney store and yesterday I found the most perfect thing for his "big" present.  We were planning on getting him one of those battery operated cars to drive around, and I found one that is Lightning McQueen, with actual phrases from the movie.  I went ahead and ordered it, because I'm sure they will be impossible to find in a few more weeks.

 

Coco is not so easy.  She already has over 60 Barbies, more furniture than will fit in the 3 story "Dream house", a big plastic bin full of their clothes, shoes, purses, etc.

She has two big hampers full of dress up clothes, at least 8 pairs of dress up shoes, countless tiaras, bracelets, necklaces, etc.  She has half a dozen or more doll babies and their accessories.  She has far too many stuffed animals (espeically for a girl with allergies like hers!).  She is literally a girl who has everything.  I had this idea to redo her room - to get her a big girl bed, paint, decorate, the whole nine yards.  Two problems with that: #1 Even Santa Claus would not be able to pull this off in one night, especially without waking her up and #2 The things that I really want for her room far exceed my Christmas present budget for her.  Truthfully, they far exceed my budget for Christmas entirely, including cards, stamps, and shipping fees! 

 

The only thing she has asked for is a swing set, and the way our yard is right now, we don't have room for one!  We need to have the yard re-graded, at least one tier made with retaining wall blocks, and preferrably a fence before we can get a swing set.

 

I thought that maybe we could get her one of those play houses with mini play furniture, and I found one that seems reasonable, but the suggested age range only goes to 5 years old and she is already 4 and a half - is it something she would really be interested in?  Where would we put it? 

 

Ideally, I'd like to spend no more than $250, including purchase price, tax, and shipping fee (if applicable).  And NO!  I do NOT want to get her the Fur Real Pony.  That thing creeps me out!

 

Does anyone have any ideas? 

Our Halloween was wonderful.  Colleen kept saying "This is the best Halloween EVER!" 

 

To kick things off, Colleen had fun at Preschool, they had a costume parade and a little party.  We had a quiet afternoon, resting up for the big night.  I was a little TOO excited and had everthing ready a couple of hours early.  It was maybe 5:30 when I couldn't stand it any longer and got the kids dressed up and out the door, on the pretense of going and visiting Ms. Gay at the community sales trailer.  She is the lady that sold us our house and we love her.  She calls us her "peeps".  Unfortunately, she had a new family that had decided to build in the community and they needed to pick out their lot, so we didn't get to stay very long. 

 

So there we were, all dressed up and literally, no where to go!  It was still broad daylight!  We kept getting strange looks from people who were just arriving home from work, we were asked several times if it was time to trick or treat already.  I was embarassed!  We ended up walking down a street of unfinished houses, passing the time until we saw that magical first house with the porch light on and the owner sitting on the front porch with a book and a big bowl of candy.  The kids went up to her and shyly whispered "trick or treat", but once that candy hit their buckets, they were changed kids!  They were her best friends!  Since we were the first visitors of the night, she kept giving them "one more piece".  Finally we went on to the next house.  For the next several houses, when people opened their doors, Wes walked right in.  I had a hard time getting him to come out of a house where their little baby had a "jeep" style walker.  Everyone was very nice and understanding about our little trespasser and he got the hang of staying on the porch after a short while.

 

There were a fair number of houses with lights on, I'd say a little more than half.  There weren't many trick or treaters out, I'd say most houses got two dozen or less.  There were only two instances of teenagers not dressed up but still asking for candy, but they were not rowdy and they were semi-polite (ie didn't say Thank you).  Colleen said Happy Halloween far more than she said Trick or Treat, and she usually had to be reminded to say Thank You.  Wes either let Colleen do the talking for him, or nicely asked "Gimme my candy, peas?"  After prompting he would usually say "Tank" (thank you) and he did his cute lion growl for almost everyone. 

 

We did not plan our route ahead of time, but we ended up walking in a circle and it was exactly the right duration, the kids were tiring out just as we could see our house.  Any time Wes would slow down before then, all I had to do is say "Oooh there's another house with their light on!" and the bounce was right back in his step.  Most of our neighbors have dogs.  My kids are total "dog people".  They were in heaven every time they could pet a dog.

 

Both kids were possessive of their candy, but Wesley was comical about it.  Our kids were loaded down with candy, their baskets were overflowing.  Wes was having a hard time carrying his because it was so heavy, but he would not let me carry it for him.  Finally, when he was distracted by a dog or another child, I dumped his basket into the stroller and gave it back to him empty.  He was not thrilled with my trick, he kept checking the stroller to make sure his candy was still there!  Once, at the end when we were turning back on our street, Colleen got excited and jumped and a bunch of candy went flying out of her bucket.  I helped her gather it back up, but the look on her face as that candy was flying out of her bucket was priceless.

 

We took as many pictures as we could, but pictures aren't going to capture the magic of the evening.  I hope I never forget the emotions I felt as I watched them walk a few paces ahead of us, with my husband leisurely pushing the stroller by my side.  I'm very lucky, indeed.