I thought I'd hurry and write something while I have 5 minutes. Courtney and Lexi fell asleep together in the chair, and Josh is asleep on the couch. Josh is sick, so I've been home with him today. I ran over to the school to assess the damages after being gone, and to get sub instructions together for tomorrow, and got back to a sleeping bunch. Very nice.

Not much going on around here over the last week. Just the same stuff, which is good, actually. I like most of the stuff I do, and also doing the same stuff means that we still have our jobs and our health and all that. I've been so exhausted. I just can't seem to recharge or catch up with myself. If I sit in front of my computer for too long at work, my head starts nodding. If I sit in front of the elementary school waiting for the kids to come out, I start falling asleep. It's crazy. Lexi hasn't been sleeping well, at all, so I haven't either. I swear I slept like an hour last night. Ok... so maybe it was 3. Oh well.

I'm so ready for spring, just so that these germs that keep circulating around will hopefully go away. Sean, Courtney, and Brittney got sick last week... now it's Josh's turn.

We went ice fishing last weekned. Well, I stayed in the car, of course, because I hate cold. Josh did pretty well. He got cold pretty quickly, but they stayed out about half an hour. That's about all he's good for most of the time. He took all his snow gear to daycare last week and they all played in the snow. It was really cute. But he only lasted about a half hour there, too.


They are the little dot in the middle. Sorry, no way was I climbing down there just to get a better picture. It was bloody cold!

Yesterday we went to my parents' house for my sister's birthday. It was nice to see them and visit for a little while.

Sean has been working 12 hour days, which of course means he's gone 13.5 with the commute. We can really use the money, so I'm thrilled about that part, but I miss him being here. Trade-offs.

I've been trying to find time all day to work on my taxes and do some school stuff, and I need to get to the library, but it's just not happening.

Well, I better go. Josh and Lexi are awake.

The Office- Jim Imitates Dwight

Here is some Office for anyone going through withdrawal like me.

Weekend

Yay for the long weekend! So happy to have a 3 day weekend. I have so much work to do on Tuesday, though, that it's not even funny. I brought some home, so hopefully I can get some of it done. Although... I just start reading a good book, so it's doubtful.

Well, it is now the end of the semester, and I did not lose 20 lbs like I set out to do. I probably lost 2. Bleh.

Sean, Courtney, and Brittney all got sick at the beginning of the week, but somehow the rest of us avoided it. Yay! Everyone is feeling better now, and I'm hoping it will last. Lexi is teething, so she's a little bit slobbery and cranky. But cranky for Lexi is still totally mild, so no complaints.

Since my Bears didn't make it to the playoffs, we're going for Green Bay. I like football playoff season because it makes Sunday afternoons fun instead of depressing. I'm looking at ideas for the Super Bowl menu.

The new season of Survivor looks somewhat promising. I'm not too excited about most of their picks for "favorites" (Johnny Fairplay, Amanda, Eliza) and some of them I'm just meh about (Cirie, Ami, James)... but there are a few of my favorites (Yau Man, Ozzy, Jonathon) Hopefully it will be a good season. Amazing Race is shaping up for a fabulous finale. I wish the writer's strike would end so we can get some new Office episodes.

Anniversary and Snow

Well, another week has come and gone. It's amazing how fast it goes. Last Saturday Courtney had a debate tournament. She and her partner took first in one of their rounds, so that was fun for them. Brittney audtitioned for a part in the 6th grade play. She didn't get the one she wanted, but she is Sophocles and she's happy with that. Courtney is reading Oedipus Rex right now, so she's like... Um, your character has a pretty twisted mind. :)

Thursday was our anniversary. We went out to the Olive Garden for dinner and Sean brought me 16 roses for 16 years. That is a crazy amount of time.



Friday night I wanted to go see the production of Les Mis that my school is putting on. I was too tired, though, and Sean really wanted to finish rebuilding his carburator, so I just stayed home and cleaned. I'm going to try to see it one night this week. Courtney went last night and said they did such a great job.

Saturday Sean went up the canyon to shovel the snow off the roof of the cabin. There's quite a bit of snow up there this year! We have had some pretty good storms.



The snow comes almost halfway up the door


This is looking at the neighbor's property. There is like a 6 foot snowdrift at the property line where the snow has been plowed up.


This is the roof-- that's how much snow he took off.

I really hated him getting up there because I worry that it will collapse. The cabin needs so much work. We need to fix the subfloor, but first the roof leak has to be fixed, and the walls needs some serious work, and then my head starts to explode thinking about it all.

And finally, my list of "The Things That Must Go":

Germs. Sean is getting sick again. If we all get it, I will... I don't know. Something drastic.

Sunday nights.

Kids who complain.

Messes, and the kids who make them.

That's about it for now. I'm off to make dinner and watch the Amazing Race. Pulling for TK and Rachel or Nick and Don.

New Years Resolutions

Well, it's that time of year again... The making (and soon to be breaking) of New Year's Resolutions. With that winning attitude, how could I possibly fail?
Actually, I think last year I made really realistic resolutions that I actually stuck to, like "I will eat cookies" and "I will not try to exercise" or something like that. My list this year is more like a "To Do" list than actual resolutions, but I find that works better for me anyway. Here they are:

I will lose 15 pounds.

I will get all my memory book and photo album projects done.

I will finish my house projects (paint some bedrooms, yardwork, etc).

I will revamp my writing curriculum.

I will actually make time for and schedule "family council" meetings instead of just saying, "We need to have family council and talk about this!" all the time.

OK that's all I want to commit to at this point.

So what's new around here? We got lots of pretty, pretty snow overnight. I can say that because Sean is the one who went out and snow blowed it all this morning.

My number one priority today is to get my Christmas tree taken down and my decorations put away. Why have I not done that yet and it's Jan 5th you ask? Well, partly because I'm a slacker. But mostly because Lexi has been sick. Sean and I have been taking turns staying home with her, and he's definitely better at getting stuff done than I am. I stayed home on Wed and got very little accomplished. Partly because Josh wouldn't take a nap and it took me 2 hours to take Lexi to the doctor and she cried all day and wanted to be held and had blowout diapers, etc. But then Sean stays home on Thursday and manages to do a few loads of laundry, clean the bathrooms, change the sheets, make peanut butter bars.... I love it when he stays home! Hopefully she's getting better, but now he and I are getting it. Fun, fun. Oh well, at least it's nothing too serious.

Courtney is at a debate tournament today, and she's doing a new event, so I'm curious to know how it goes. It was snowy and wet when they left at 6:30 am. Hopefully the weather is OK when they're coming back.

Well, that's about it for now. I'm going to go eat lunch and then try to wrangle Christmas back into the box.

Christmas

We had a nice Christmas this year. We've had several snow storms, which has been fun. We had a whiter Christmas than we have in the past, so that was really pretty. We're supposed to get more this weekend, I think.



Sunday I spent the day baking and watching the Bears/Packers game. (That was an *awesome game. Sorry Green Bay fans.) We went to my mom's for dinner that night. My brother and sister-in-law are visiting, so it was great to see them, as well as my sister who lives here. We missed you guys, Heather. :(



On Christmas Eve we went to the Chamberlains and had a great time, as always. The kids did some great Christmas music, and we had some lovely ballet performed by Mike in a tutu. I'll be putting the video on YouTube later in the week.

Christmas Day we hung out at home until afternoon, and then went to my mom's for a while. My sister Heather is so talented. Look at the cute hat she made for Lexi and the Superman cape she made for Josh. It reverses to Batman. She also made Brittney a cute blanket, and sent Courtney that Saint Louis hat, which she loves.








I have a few days off school, which is really nice, but I'm not getting anything done. Every time I start something I get interrupted. Plus I'm so ADD, combined with being a Virgo, so I always get distracted or decide that the hall closet needs to be organized before I can just get the dang sheets out of it and make the bed. I am now going to get up from this computer and go get something done. I will not get distracted by children, Christmas candy, shiny objects, Judge Judy, or by all the jobs that need to be done but are not on my list. We'll see how I do.

brian regan UPS

Here's some funny for anyone with the after-Christmas blahs. Katie and Wendy got me hooked into this guy over Christmas. Really funny!