Aunt Bethany, does your cat eat jello?

I can not believe tomorrow is December.
The last few weeks have flown.
It's been sort of like I've been on a
neverending episode of the surreal life,
but that's ok....
The weekend before Thanksgiving we left for Jared's weekend tournament and within the first 20minutes of the car trip, Colten had thrown up, and we blew a tire.
Not to be outdone by his brother Jack followed up Coley's w/ his own puke festival on thanksgiving night.
Nice.
Sort of ended the evening for all....
pumpkin pie for breakfast anyone?!
Jared decided to hold off until we started decorating the Christmas tree.

Where do you think you're going?
Nobody's leaving. Nobody's walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas. No, no.
We're all in this together. This is a full-blown, four-alarm holiday emergency here.
We're gonna press on, and we're gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny fucking Kaye. And when Santa squeezes his fat white ass down that chimney tonight, he's gonna find the jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse.

Ok, I'll stop making everyone gag....no more strepthroat speak.

I am NOT making Christmas cards this year.
There...I said it.
I know that whole bit about making myself accountable...
yeah, well...it didn't happen, I don't feel guilty,
and Martha Stewart cards were 50% off at KMart.
(definitely, definitely KMart...could she not have gone with Target?!?.....sheeesh)

Jack has taken to singing "Smack THAT"....
which while comical hopefully isn't taking place at school.
I so do not need to try to act like an adult while being reprimanded by the principal. (she kind of scares me)

My favorite thing from the boys Christmas lists (so far):
Jack after listing various toys, games and a slushy maker...."$20,000, infinity money, and beer that I can have"...HUH?!?!? Later that was edited to add "root" in front of the beer....in an effort to not upset Santa I believe.

Our tree is up (I said that already)....
I wanted to make sure we got it up before Colin had the chance to say "Merry Christmas, we're moving Monday"....
Now we have to stay until at least December 26th....right?!!?

Signed up for the christmasjournal... Can not wait for tomorrow....totally needed a little creative fun just for me. Here I'm suppose to make my intentions known....
and err...this will NOT be like the Christmas cards...nope.

Manifesto: Noun. A declaration of one's intentions.

Starting December first, I will keep a Christmas journal. In it, I will write something every day to reflect on the holidays of my past, enjoy the holidays of the present and dream about the holidays of my future. To some, this will be a stack of papers and trivial scribbles, but not to me. I am taking back my Christmas, I am letting it be something I relish and, most importantly, I am giving at least fifteen minutes every day to myself no matter how crazy this season becomes. I hope you will share, encourage and understand as I make something with my own hands, my own words and my own memories.

I may post some or all of my entries here. Other artists are doing this with me, and you can see their work here. Or you may join us.

Above all: enjoy the season. I will.

and with THAT, I leave you w/some random Christmas photos and outtakes to go w/ my random post...because you HAVE to have photos...and looking back, some of these are just funny...(look at baby jack w/ NO hair!) xxxe

Poptart nightmares

Whew....my husband is back from Chicago.
How in the world do single moms do it?!? I mean I'm fine with the boys....I can do it all, except I canNOT be two places at once. And that was my dilemma last night. Gabby got to hear about it live and in stereo. Colten had his big end of season tournament game (soccer), and Jack had his last football game and was getting a trophy. At the SAME time. Thankfully I have a 12 year old, who, when he needs to be, is quite responsible...so we worked it out...but really, I have the upmost respect for moms who juggle this daily.

I have a new best friend, I met her at Panera...it was a brief moment, but I know we'll be friends forever....
Ok, not really, but when she said "Are these kids all yours? because you look all of 15"...
Yes, my heart fluttered....and she became my new favorite person ever.

Of course, this morning, when the boys have no school, and sleeping in was so in the cards for me...
Jack wakes up crying.....
So, I fly out of bed....run into his room, and say what's wrong?!?!?
He's half asleep...
muttering....
through tears.....
"Mommy, mommmy......
Can you get me some poptarts for my snack at school?
Maybe chocolate?!"
SERIOUSLY?!?
Ok, whatever kid brought a poptart in for snack yesterday, causing my child to have some sort of inferior snack nightmare....
Well, I'm not ok with that.

I will be at a soccer tournament ALL weekend.
And all next weekend.
And the next.
November is apparently the best time for soccer tourneys.
This one and the next are for Jared (who is number one in his division...Go J!)
and the last is for Colten....
(I will clearly be taking pictures of Jace...because I have no recent ones...geez...badmomma....)

As far as what is on the job front...aka where are we moving...we don't know yet.
But Colin did suggest we live in a hotel for 2 months....I am totally there on the reasoning and get why it's a clever idea....but i had to laugh....
what the heck am I going to do in a new town in a hotel...
for 2 months?!?!?!
crazy.

Happy Weekend.

***GO BRIT!***

Inspired....

The high school art class nearby totally inspired me this weekend.
I was blown away by their needlepoint planets....VERY cool.
They combined fabrics and colors...they were ridiculously cool.
I never did needlepoint in high school....or ever for that matter.
Completely inspired me to want to do something....ideas have been flying around my mind.
I want this for Christmas.
I want to learn to sew.
I want to make the boys something like this, or this, this or even this.
Some sort of collage...something textural, and funky.
I want to learn to oil paint.
I'm not sure what exactly I want to do...but i'm toying with ideas...
and lately for me, that's HUGE.
I also want to do something collabortive with the boys....ideasideasideas....

I've also decided to make Christmas cards this year....coughcough...I figure if I say it outloud it will make me somewhat accountable.
I sometimes end up with "Sorry this is a little past the New Year and almost just in time for Easter"cards...but damn it, it's the thought!

Jack had a dentist appointment this morning.
I went to pick him up from school just as they were starting to have a practice lock down.
Police and all.
Errr....NOT a good idea to be the stranger in the hall during a lock down.
Nono, it's not.
I HATE that lock downs are a reality for kids today.
I HATE that I have to explain to my son when he asks,
"...But WHY would someone come to my school and shoot kids?"
Now why would they, really?

Lastly,
when shooting photos of children, an important tip...
don't just look at their charming little faces...
because sometimes you'll discover they were making rude gestures at you without your knowledge.
(ok, I really have no idea what jack is doing, but it sure looks rude, eh?!?)

And check out Jared's new bike (the new bike that is stored INSIDE)

Banner love

Check out my NEW banner made just for me by the amazing Nisa!
I LOVE it. Thankyou Nisa.

Sunday we went through our storage unit.
When we moved, we went from a four bedroom house w/ a garage,
to a three bedroom house w/ a carport. (no basements, it's the south)
SO we now rent our house, AND a 10' x 20' storage unit.
PACKED full....from floor to ceiling.
Now, I won't lie, I didn't do a good job of organizing the garage when we moved, so I knew a lot of the storage stuff could go to goodwill, or to the trash.
However it was a monsterous undertaking, and Colin and I found just a couple of excuses why this weekend wouldn't work, or that weekend was no good...
finally, on Sunday we said...let's just DO IT.
So, after church and linner (because jack pointed out, it was WAY past lunch, and could no longer be considered brunch) we headed to the unit.
We worked our butts off....and now...it's DONE. (Just in time to move again!)
The ironic part was the boys had a blast...
everything we pulled out was "new".
tiny trikes, and old toys....jumpropes, and kites....old cars, and trucks.
Colin and I were blown away by how well they played together. They seriously had the best time, it was so much fun to watch.
We've since decided to keep a box of broken and old toys hidden, and we will just pull it out periodically for fun.

So, as we repacked, and organized, some things lost their "homes" and I decided to bring the homeless stuff back to the house, so the movers will pack it all correctly.
So, we now have a few baby toys hanging around...and the thomas the tank trains, and tracks.
Monday was a teacher workday, no school.
Jack comes over to me and whispers....
"Do you think...if I got my hotwheels, and the thomas trains, and tracks, and set them up and played....Do you think my brothers will make fun of me?"

umm...I'm going to say no...

Hallooooooooooween

last night was BIG fun.
the pirates pillaged the neighborhood...

They ate worms for dinner,
and dessert.
(after a near miss on the dessert dirt)

A funny-
I screwed up making a box mix of brownies a few weeks ago.
I put in too much water, and not enough oil, or something along those lines....it was a Jessica moment....
Suffice it to say I read it wrong...and made it wrong.
Colin had to go buy more brownie mix. Bad e.
So Colin found this incredibly funny, and isn’t one to let something that dumb die a slow and painless death, so I’ve heard about it frequently.
Fast forward to last night,
I was making dinner,
and said to my dear sweet husband--
“you better make the pudding...
you know how well I do w/ box mixes.”
(Ba-dum-dum)
Yeah,
well,
guess who made the
BOX MIX of pudding WRONG?!?!?
Luckily
his brilliant wife had some extra pudding on hand, and dessert was saved.

The End.

PS. Hey, can anyone help me make a new banner for my blog?! I LOVE the one Hanni made, but I figure it's been a year, I should switch it up. Only, I have NO idea how to do that.

OH, AND...one more thing.
HUGE congrats to Jen on the safe arrival of baby Ayla! Happy Baby!!! She is sure cute!