Sunday, December 21, 2008

Christmasness Is Not Really A Word (But It Should Be)


I haven’t posted in a long time. I’ve been content to let all of your creative Christmasness permeate my soul for a little while. This year has been a tough one and I suppose it’s been harder to share. I didn’t send out very many Christmas cards. I sent out a few handwritten ones to family members and friends far away. I was going to include the following Christmas letter inside the cards, but thought instead I would share that here. So here goes:

Tony has kept super busy. An example of the nights he has been experiencing: the baby up coughing, Conner up losing his dinner, and me recuperating from surgery. There is a special place reserved in Heaven for a man who cleans up vomit two nights in a row, from two different people…or else a special place in hell experienced right in the moment. The bags under his eyes are mostly hereditary, but when you see him out on the road, move away a little bit because he hasn’t been sleeping well. He recently switched jobs and Human Resources is the next best thing to saving the world. I sometimes have to pull him out of the super high energy trance that benefits and employee recruiting puts him in. He started a new blog. Someone made a comment on it once and he’s still talking about it. It’s about politics, a topic that Tony only has a LITTLE interest in, so throw him a bone and check it out. The address is conservativegrange.blogspot.com. Tony rocks Rachel’s world and keeps her grounded and she still loves him even after 13 rather long years of marital bliss.

Rachel’s been running amok in the past year. Not running literally, because that would be a form of exercise and she has been putting that off. After a gall bladder attack that was her own fault really since she had tried to take her own life in a chocolate frenzied overdose, she had the offending organ taken out and is feeling much better. She manages to now belong to two book clubs, and one and a half writer’s groups where she dazzles (er…rather dazes) with stories of murder, mischief and camp. She is recovering from addiction to her own blog. That’s right admittance is the first step in recovery. She checks her own blog so much that the stat counter at the bottom is probably mostly her. When she’s not chanting “serenity now” while driving so that she doesn’t say anything else that could be construed as offensive or staying out past her bedtime giggling with pals, she’s molding young minds in the primary. She is grateful for her favorite calling as wife and mommy and loves those in her life.

Conner is mapping out the rest of his life. No really, he makes A LOT of maps: World maps, road maps, maps into different worlds, maps of major battles. Yes he realizes (we think) that he is seven years old, but believes in thinking ahead. How can he earn money for space camp has been a riddle for him to solve. He figures if he sells something for 5 dollars wouldn’t it be wiser to sell it for 10 so it won’t take as many to sell? He is approaching baptism and scouting and longer legs at lightening speed (well the legs not so much…but you just wait) He got top spot in the classroom Geography Bee and second overall in the second grade round and was delighted with the silver medal. Conner enjoys public speaking. He was the youth speaker in sacrament meeting and spoke for seven minutes. Mommy has asked him to not speak quite so much before she fully wakes up in the morning when he enjoys discussing important topics like the Revolutionary war, electromagnets, and deep doctrines of the church. He at least needs to wait until after breakfast so she can google anything (everything) she doesn’t know. We are so grateful he’s in our family and that he is thriving in school and with his friends who are so important to him.

Cecilia has only caused a few injuries this year. We upped our premiums due to the head butting incidents, but they are usually in church during the sacrament and inflicted on members of her immediate family, so we are not going to sue at this time. She can say 1,739 words- well maybe not that EXACT number, but at least 75. She has stopped walking like Frankenstein and occasionally lets us brush her hair. She can sound like a kitty or a dinosaur at any given time, and trust us, that’s talent right there. She gets a joke, refuses to eat anything green, is careful not to hurt herself when she throws a tantrum (because that would be silly), and is extremely adept at throwing a ball. She has a larger than life personality and is quite a social little thing and we apologize now to anyone who has a hard time concentrating in church because our daughter is oinking or dancing or pulling faces at you. It’s not you, it’s her. We adore her and love to see her and her brother interact. We waited a long time to have her in our family.

So there you have it. If you wanted a polished, perfect look at our family I’m sorry you didn’t get it. That’s just not us and we are grateful for that. The Lord has blessed us tremendously and allows us to grow and develop through out the year in the hopes that we will ultimately become more like Him. We frequently mess up and chaos and hilarity ensues, but we keep trying. We love our Savior, we love each other, and we love you.

Merry Christmas everyone! This will probably be my last post until Christmas so have a beautiful one.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

This, That and the Other

Well, first things first. The surgery went well and I am slowly getting back to my life. My days of gorging myself on chocolate are over...at least it's been a few weeks and for me that might as well be forever. I'm still pretty sore and can't pick up the baby yet, but the surgery story and the gift basket I received are a post in itself. One of these days I will share! I have a few things I need to catch up on. I won a contest over at my super cool new friend Kerri's blog. It arrived a little while ago and I have loved reading it as I've been convalescing! A huge thank you to Kerri for an awesome blog and this great gift she sent. Thanks Kerri :D
Also, I have a couple of tags to catch up on. Kerri tagged me with a tag to show the fifth pic from the fifth pic file so here it is: It's Conner smooching his sister. Not the clearest photo, but the sentiment is there! Also In Time Out gave me an honest scrap award (soooo cool- thanks, love it!) but I have to name 10 honest things about myself. I just named eight random, but detailed facts about me, so I will keep this brief.
1-I have a temper
2-I feel bad about that
3-I can be sarcastic
4-I painted my toe nails and finger nails black in honor of my surgery
5-I don't paint my nails very well
6-I really want to jump out of an airplane
7-I don't like to cook
8-I like to win
9-I don't like to lose (yah, I really, really DON'T, but I try to be polite :D)
10-I check all the time to see if more people are following my blog...is that honest enough???
Thanks so much to all that have and if you haven't yet, just take a moment and click the mouse...it only takes a second. You don't even have to check my blog EVERY day or anything...it can be every other day...I won't mind :) hee hee (I'm pathetic)

*Also, my hubby has been a gem through this whole ordeal! The kids have both been sick, I've been down and I know he is just exhausted! Thanks babe!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

'Gall'y What A Day


Oh Gallbladder we used to be so close. I admit I never really knew you all that well at first, but this last little while we’ve spent some quality time together. I know you must have been one of my favorite organs to hang out with. Your function of storing all my lovely Bile was much appreciated. I admit I really resented it when you brought your friend ‘Stone’ into the picture. Did you really have to introduce him to me on Thanksgiving and did it have to be in the ER? It wasn’t that I was jealous, but things started feeling a little crowded between us. At 1.6 centimeters he really threw his weight around. I wish he could have left us, but you made your choice and now I’m going to have to ask both of you to leave. I wish you could just go quietly and that there need not have been a third party involved, but I’m going to need some help when you move out. I’m actually going to need to throw some money at you (money that was earmarked for Christmas I might add) to help with the final goodbyes. I want you to know that I will miss you and I wish you and Stone the best. Oh by the way, thank you for the five pounds you’ve helped me to lose. It’s funny how your last meal requests have been applesauce, PLAIN noodles and alfalfa sprouts. We have until Thursday, so think about what activities you’d like to do together until then…sleeping…not eating…not drinking…resting…lying around. Yes, yes, Stone can come too…but only until Thursday. I’m already talking to my new favorite organ Small Intestines about Bile and I think once I introduce them they will make a beautiful couple. Dang, I HOPE they get along well! I’m not nervous at all, no not ONE LITTLE BIT. (oooohhhhh)