Can Posting Random Pictures Count As A "Catch-up Post"?

If you answered "No, BoringStayatHomer, that would totally suck! We know you've been doing awesome, important things with your free time. And, we've waited patiently for every last detail.", then you are going to be disappointed.

Random pictures it is.

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. (and, if you are just learning this fact, you're in deep trouble). I am not one of those wives that expects a gift on Valentine's Day. Seriously. Nor, do I get my husband something. In the 15 yrs. we've been married, I think we've celebrated,with gifts, V. Day maybe three times. We just aren't "into" it. Now, I do expect a nice gift (or at least, effort) at my birthday and our anniversary. Those days are exclusively ours, where as V. Day is the whole world's.
But, the kids get excited and we do buy them one small box of chocolates and try to make the day somewhat special.
I made these for dessert:

The kids thought I was a genius and a gourmet chef. So, win-win!! 

My two youngest boys go to public school (my other two stay home and do school with me) so they had Valentine's Day parties in their classrooms. Between the two, they needed 50 valentines!!  They got store bought, cheap ones.
But, for my class, the one I teach, at church, we made these:

Again, I was a genius and super crafter, in my kids' eyes.


The other day, while trying to rent "The Smurfs" at a Redbox, I noticed this movie in the little advertisement thingy on the side:

2-Headed Shark Attack. 1 body, 2 heads, 6,000 teeth!

Why, oh WHY!?! haven't I heard about this movie!?! It obviously was so epically awesome to go straight to Redbox and skip the theaters entirely. Carmen Electra. Brooke Hogan. That alone is worth $1.20.
Alas, the kids had their hearts set on the little blue people.

That's it. That's what I've been up to. Strawberries, elephants and two-headed sharks. You know, normal stuff.

James

We are without internet these days. Our piece of crap lovely modem took an early retirement. So, I came to the library to do a quick post.

Lots going on. Too much of it's uninteresting. Except for this:

This is my brand new nephew!

James was born 10 weeks early and is very tiny, 3lbs 9oz.
He is doing awesome, though (takes after Auntie) and mom is recovering from emergency C-section quite well.

If you could keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers, I would appreciate it.

Hope to have modem replaced and be back online soon.
In the meantime, please don't take it personal that I haven't commented on blogs.

I've used up 15 min. of my one hour internet time, just to post this, and check email. I should spend the rest of the time letting kids fill in their school things.

Hey, blog post trumps school and education every time. Am I right?

On the Fence Covered in Dog Hair

I see I lost a follower. I would like to say "it doesn't matter" but for some reason it does. Why? I have no idea. I spent a few minutes trying to figure out who it was and finally told myself to move on, already. Criminy sakes, I'm not in Junior High anymore! But, obviously, it's still bothering me as it's the first thing I mention in my first blog post of 2012.

2012. What will you bring us this year? I don't see any flying cars or jet packs nor are people being beamed up to various places. Interesting how 25 years ago, the year 2012 seemed a lot more exciting! Of course, if you are one of the whackos that believes the year will end in December, then that's probably enough excitement for you .

Christmas here was good!  We got all our get togethers done between Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Which was awesome! We usually have a couple more after Christmas day, but not this year. We sat around and played with our new toys and ate junk, the day after Christmas. Which was just what we needed.

New Year's isn't very exciting here but we did let the kids stay up until just after midnight.  They thought that was a big treat. And, mom and dad enjoyed them sleeping in the next day.

With New Years comes resolutions. Blah. Hate that word. But, of course, it's hard to not stop and think about some changes that I would like to see in my life. So, I do have a few things I'm working on. But, making resolutions just to make myself feel bad when I don't keep them, is not my thing.

Some time ago, we lost our only dog, Daisy.  At the time, we were all very sad, but after awhile, all the things that bugged me about having a dog?  I enjoyed not having to deal with them. But, it has been almost 2 years and my husband is ready for another dog. And...I'm on the fence. The kids would REALLY love a dog.  And, kids need a dog, right? To play with. To protect them. It's part of growing up, in my opinion.
But, I hate dog hair. And dog slobber. And dog poop.

When my husband's friend needed a dog sitter for their TWO dogs, I volunteered. Yup. VOLUNTEERED. My house. And, not only are there two of them, one is a rottweiler and the other is a pit bull. I know. (Please, don't lecture me in the comments. I know how horrible it sounds. But, I swear to all things holy, if I get one more person's opinion about anything that is none of their business, I will lose it. Oh, and I have another blog post in the works about opinions but I'm just a tad heated up about it right now so it probably wouldn't make much sense so we will just go back to talking about dog hair, m'kay?)
But, the reality of it is, they are the sweetest dogs. And, so well behaved. However, they do have hair. Lots of it. And, one of them is all kinds of  large:

168lb Bo with my niece, Brandi. I don't know how much she weighs. But, she's skinny. I hate love her anyway, tho.

We are looking at the next 10 days as a trial run of how a dog would fit back into our family. So far, the kids are an unified "Heck, yes!!" and Dad too. Mom, (me) is kinda coming off the fence. All the hair, people!! Literally, at one point Saturday, I was following around this dog, with a broom. But, there is just something about an animal loving you unconditionally and doesn't talk back or demand to wear shorts no matter that it is 30 degrees outside and throws a fit 3 min. before the school bus is due and wins the battle because I'm too exhausted to fight anymore. There's just something about a dog.

So, we will re-evaluate after this trial run and in the spring, when puppies are due. We do have a certain breed in mind and we would only get one dog. And...it won't weigh 168lbs. Hopefully. But, I bet it will have hair. Sigh....

My Pathetic Attempt at an Interesting Last Post of 2011

It ain't gonna be pretty but I feel it necessary to put up one last post this year.

We are still on Holiday High here. Although all the Christmas decorations have been boxed up and the tree is now residing in the back yard (in the garbage pile. Not planted. We are not that earth friendly, unfortunately.), my house is still not back to working order. We still have a box full of toys that haven't even been opened yet.

But, we have been playing alot of board games and eating alot of junk. So, time not totally wasted. 

As this year comes to a close, I am once again shocked at how fast time really does go.  2012. Shouldn't we all be flying around on jet packs by now? 

This year has taught us many things. My children have learned some valuable lessons. Jarrett has learned* to not try  and ride a sea lion.

Josie learned, just 2 days after Christmas, that sucking helium out of a balloon will make you pass out, fall and hit your head on your dresser, and require 6 stitches.

Jeven learned, the very next day, that putting your hand UNDER the grocery belt at Winco will inflict pain and cause you to bleed and make the management of Winco come running with proper first-aid equipment, (unlike Jarrett's sea lion experience) and an accident report.

I've learned to not trip over things: 

I told you it wasn't gonna be pretty!

I wish I could be more specific and tell you what I tripped over, if only to prevent you from learning my lesson the hard way. But, alas, I do not know for sure. I am clumsy. I trip. Often.

I'm sure there were other lessons learned this past year but these are the ones that are freshest in my mind as they've all happened in the last 3 days.

Here's to hoping 2012 is happy and full of lessons learned with less pain. And blood.

*learned or learnt?  I tried both. But spell check didn't like learnt and I'm too tired to look it up to see which is correct. And, yes, I homeschool my children. Don't judge.*

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas Eve. Just thought I'd throw that out there in-case you have been living in a cave somewhere. Perhaps your cave was neighboring mine?

You know when people say "Christmas sure snuck up on us, didn't it?"  (Which is ironic since the stores display Christmas decorations starting in Oct)  I know what they are talking about!

My hubby and I stayed out late last night finishing up the shopping. I hate the fact that we had saved so much for the last minute but we don't have lots of extra cash laying around so we had to spread all the shopping out a month or two. But, surprises of surprises, we had a good time shopping and now we are done!!

That leaves today for laying around in my pjs, maybe doing some baking and wrapping some gifts. I've always thought that is what Christmas Eve is for. Relaxing.  And for sure this year as Christmas being on a Sunday makes it extra busy. And special, really. What better day to celebrate the birth of Jesus than a Sunday!

I hope all of you get exactly what you want for Christmas and that you have a happy and healthy 2012!

A Note

Jarrett gave this to me last night:

"Dear Mom, think you for bing niss to me"  (Dear Mom, thank you for being nice to me)

Many thoughts went through my head, in this particular order:

• Omigosh! How awesome! I love, love, love to get notes from my kids that they do ALL.BY.THEMSELVES! With misspelled words and everything. 
• I love how he is learning to sound out words and his writing is improving so much!!
• I wonder if my husband got an awesome note like this?
• Probably not because I am so much nisser than he is. 
• Wait a minute. How bad of a crank have I been that when I'm actually decent to my child, he feels the need to write it down?  
• I love this little bugger so much! 

At Least She Has Her Spelling Down.

Getting Josie to do her school work is like...getting Josie to do anything she doesn't want to do.  In the past, I've threatened, bribed, physically made her and any other means necessary. 

Now, I just wait for the storm to pass and move on. It seems to be the most effective. 

Today, she was doing her Language Arts at the kitchen table, while I was in other room helping Jayce with History.

Josie:  MOM!!! I'm D-O-N-E!! 

Me:  Josie, did you do B-O-T-H pages?

Josie: Well, P-O-O-P!!! 

( : 

(if poop is the worst word she ever spells, then we're good)