Thankful

Yesterday we spent the Thanksgiving holiday with Josh's family...good food and lots of family. I realized, after seeing how old my nieces have gotten - they are now 11 and 13, and they were flower girls in our wedding at just 3 and 5 years of age - time has gone by so fast, and while they enjoyed being around the adults, it was different in the sense that they were so self sufficient and had to be hassled at times to visit with everyone. I realized that my little girls will be there, and not too far into the future and that I should cherish all the time that I have with them at this age. The girls had a great time hanging out with their nieces, and there was a lot of girl bonding to be had.

The day before, however, I had some bad luck...all around. Talk about things happening in three's, well it seemed to be much more than that. First of all, I am going to Chicago on Monday. The hotel I'm staying at called to tell me they had overbooked the rooms, and well, I was going to be put at another hotel far, far away from my coworkers. At least I had a hotel room. Then, I decided to head out of work early for the day because there was a lot of pie making to be done at our house. I arrived home and set my bag down and forgot that my portable coffee mug was in my bag and I had laid it on its on side. A few minutes later, my work laptop was soaked. And now my work laptop is dead.

So, a little while later I decided to start peeling the apples for the pies. I ended up skinning part of my finger in the process. Painful. I also peeled the apples in the sink. I didn't remove them from the sink and instead put them down the rain. I take the blame for stopping up the sink and clogging the disposal that Josh so kindly dealt with on Thanksgiving morning. There is possibly one other thing that went wrong, but I can't for the life of me remember what it is now. That's probably a good thing.

Thanksgiving ended up being so much fun, and I've so much to be thankful for. I think Olivia was most thankful for a bowl of whipped cream:


And today? Well, I'm on the upswing folks. I was researching new iPods and about to run out and get one, but decided to look around one last time in hopes that I wouldn't have to spend money on a new one. And I found it.

Accomplished

I'm basking in my weekend of accomplishment:

Finished the girls Christmas shopping (well, all but a few stocking stuffers)
Finished painting the dining room area (WHEEEEEEE!!! It's yellow instead of "owner's white")
Wrote round 1 of holiday card letter (hopefully approval from Josh will make it final)
Made dinner on Saturday and Sunday night (I'm not typically the chef in this family)
Me time with TWO uninterrupted movies after everyone crashed out (Wedding Date - entertaining, typical, but cute; Made of Honor - Typical, eh.)

So, the dinners weren't crazy by all means. Saturday night I made the classic tuna noodle casserole, which Olivia loved and Bea hated (I like all the stuff momma, just not together). Sunday I did a crockpot recipe I found off the internet, and it was so delicious that I want to share it with you. Both Josh and I were astounded at how delicious roast beef can be with little prep:

Layer the bottom of your crocker with mushrooms.
Place a 2 - 4 lb of roast beef (loin) over it.
Add a packet of Lipton onion soup mix over the top of the beef.
Pour in one bottle (12 fl. oz.) of beer. (I used the Dos Equis amber)
Cook that sucker on high for nine hours.

The result was amazing, fall apart and juicy roast beef. The juice left in the crocker Josh turned into gravy and put it with mashed potatoes and over the beef. It was so worth smelling it cook all day. I can't wait to make it again, and it was so little work. I'm still full. I should have taken a photo of it. Next time.

This weekend wasn't an easy one by all means with the girls. They played together happily for the most part, but when they got into it, it wasn't pleasant. After I came back from holiday shopping, Bea told me I better give her the presents or I'm going to go to jail. Or, when I told Olivia that no way she cannot go outside in her tank top and underwear and she went into hysterics. There was a lot of bickering between the girls. There were some raised voices around here, and I am proud to say I think I finally got the hang of the disciplinary mother voice. It worked.

I'm now officially wiped out, and ready for a very short work week. The next month is going to be crazy, but fun...

Making A List, Checking it Twice

Ok, not that kind of list.

I was a bit overwhelmed in my last post, and I have to say that I do have more of a handle on things now. I don't know what I would do without the Internet, believe it or not, and sad to say really...

I've completed more holiday shopping online, so now I'm about eighty percent there. Also, I did our holiday cards online and those should be here by next week. Have I ever mentioned how much I love Shutterfly? You can do personalized gifts there as well, and I found a bunch of codes to use at my other favorite site, retailmenot. There's bargains everywhere right now...did Black Friday come early this year?

I've got the holiday letter written in my head also, so I just need to get it down on paper. During the Thanksgiving break I'm going to try to get everything signed, sealed and delivered. I'm off to Chicago for work the day after the break for a couple of days, so I'm going to attempt to make up for lost time.

I've also made some decisions on where we are holding/having Bea's fourth birthday party.

As you can see, I'm kind of cranking things out. Not on my list? Painting rooms in the house. Last weekend Josh took the girls out to the zoo while I stayed back to get some things done. I ended up painting some yellow walls in our dining area. Not all the walls, unfortunately, but at least Bea continues to tell me "your walls are beautiful, mommy."

Speaking of which, there is a lovefest going on over here lately. The girls have been so kind with their words, minding their manners, and playing together happily. Do they know that Santa is the one making his list, checking it twice? Or are they outsmarting me already?

Sigh

I’m not sure what to do about this here blog. I love it and having a way of documenting things for the girls to see when they get older (and the reason I started it in the first place), but I’m finding it harder and harder to write in it. Actually, it is more like finding the time to write. As I look into the next six or so weeks, I just don’t know how to fit it with all of these other things:

Holiday cards/letter
Thanksgiving
Holiday shopping (already 50% done – woo hoo)
Hannukah and Christmas
Trip to LA: Disneyland and family visits
2 already scheduled holiday parties
Chopping down our tree
Planning Bea’s 4th birthday party and starting Olivia’s 3rd.
Making both girls b’day videos

Did I overwhelm you, too? Not much I can cross off that list unless we forego the actual letter part of the holiday card. I love the holidays, but why is there so much to do?

What to do, what to do.

Oh, and the iPod update you are all on the edge of your seats for? It’s gone. No stone left unturned.

Day of Mourning

What’s more frustrating than two toddlers vying for attention by crying and whining in what feels like hours and hours but is only about one hour while you’re trying to get ready for work and you’re not ignoring them but possibly continuously feeding the fire that is them without knowing it*?

Well, my beloved iPod has gone missing, and I’ve looked everywhere. It’s possible that the girls took it (as they did our keys last night and had Josh looking for a half an hour this morning to find them**), but I think I would have found it by now. It’s been a few days. And I’m frantic. What’s even stranger is that the earphones were still in my purse with no iPod, when I know that they were attached. Nothing else was missing. What I hate is the fact that it is “missing” and not exactly “lost” or “stolen”. What if I go buy a new one only to find my original iPod a day later?

iPod, WHERE ARE YOU???????????

So, I guess I know what I’ll be asking for Christmas this year. Or, maybe a belated birthday present?

*It is quite possible that yes, we are having competitive attention complications/setbacks right now.
**One tactic used to try to get our attention.

Happy Halloween, Part II

I don’t have too many more photos to display of Halloween, unfortunately. I didn’t get snap happy as usual this year. The girls were amped up on sugar from their party at daycare, so instead of cooperating, they were running around screaming from excitement. Fortunately, we got the help from our friends V and E (who are expecting their baby any day now) to help us pass out candy. This year, I couldn’t tell if the girls liked handing out the candy or trick or treating more. The weather was unusually windy, but at least we didn’t get rained on. All in all, I think we hit about 25 – 30 houses, and we were sad to see so many unlit homes this year. Here’s a few photos of last week:

She loves them pumpkins so much:


Getting ready to carve the pumpkins and gathering the SEEDS (all in good fun until some girls got some of the pumpkin goop on them and then wanted nothing to do with the carving):


Our pumpkins (hard to tell what some of these are, but the one in the back was this awesome skull that Josh did...looked 3d when it glowed at night):


The same one with an excited Bea (she was in about 10 others like this):


Waiting patiently before we head out to trick and treat:


This one wasn't feeling so well:


The four of us: