Patience???

Why is it that my husband has so much patience with so many things, and yet not so much on other things???

The man will sit for HOURS on doper time, waiting for the drug deal of the century to go down, nabbing the suspect in the process.

He will sit for HOURS waiting for a suspect to reoccupy a stolen auto, thus nabbing the suspect in the process.

He can sit and watch baseball or football for hours, never losing interest.

He golfs for goodness sakes. One of the most boring "sports" on the planet (sorry golf lovers). It certainly takes patience for that.

Give the man a gingerbread house and all patience goes out the window.

So without further adieu, (for the sake of my kids feelings, please, no laughing)I give you our 2009 Gingerbread "Creation":

So glad...

That this holiday season, well most of it, is behind us. I was so happy in fact that on Saturday after my last family guest left, I took my tree and all the inside decorations down. I put my tree up just before Thanksgiving so I was ready for it to come down and have my living room back.

Christmas Eve we took the girls to see Alvin and the Chipmunks -- The Squeakwel. It was super cute, and the girls loved it! Even better they all sat in their seats quietly and watched it.

Admission for the six of us: $35.00
One large soda, one large popcorn, one small popcorn, one order of nachos and one pizza for daddy: $32.00 It would have been more but I smuggled juice boxes in for the girls.

So $67.00 later, our first movie out with the 6 of us was a success!!!

We hurried home since the rain was turning to sleet. Then came the snow, lots of it. Add in the winds that made it a blizzard and man was I thankful to not have to go anywhere. I had a mini-breakdown reminiscing about my dad, but was thankful to my hubby for helping me through it.

We watched Christmas Vacation (the girls watched Santa Buddies) as is our tradition every year. The girls were eager to go to bed so that Santa could come. So daddy read 'Twas The Night Before Christmas and off they went.



They camped out in Kori's room in anticipation of Santa's arrival:





And sure enough, Santa came!!! They got lots of goodies and had a great morning opening gifts. We had a big breakfast, complete with homemade waffles, thanks to my new waffle maker.

It was a nice relaxing day. We would have been snowed in if we would have had to be anywhere, but we didn't so we were happy to stay home. We stayed in our jammies all day and played with our new loot. It was blissful!

Saturday we had a "Mexican Fiesta" here with my family. It was nice and relaxing, which is sometimes unusual when my family gets together. There was no drama and good times were had by all! Woo hoo!!!

So now we look forward to 2010. I am ready to put 2009 behind me!

December -- Thus Far

Nothing too exciting happening in December. Kori is two days into Christmas break. Everyone has received the first booster of the H1N1 vaccine. Kori turned eight on the 17th (I can't believe it!!!!), and lost a top front tooth on the 18th (thanks to daddy pulling it). Times they are a changing!!!

Christmas shopping is done (Thanks Becky and Jason for keeping the crew so we could get it done!) It hasn't been wrapped but that's okay, I still have a little time. I have done lots of baking and I'm trying to psyche myself up for it all. It can be a bit overwhelming.

So that's the past couple of months for us in a nutshell.

Merry Christmas!!!!

November

Well it went by like a big ol' blur. It ended not so great. But now here it is,three days before Christmas?!?!? How in the world did that happen?????

The majority of November was pretty uneventful. It ended with a bang if you will. Thanksgiving was nice. Very sad for me without my dad. It was typically "our day" we have always loved Thanksgiving. So for me it was especially bittersweet without him here with us. He didn't come strolling in like he usually did with the specially holiday section of the paper in his hand. For the past several years he brought it because he'd found some recipe he thought "sounded good and maybe you'd like to try it too". That was code for I want you to make this for me. He was right, it usually was a pretty good recipe. I missed that so much this year. I thumbed through it but it didn't hold near as much appeal as it did in years past.

Dinner was great. Jason deep-fried a turkey and we had ham as well and all the trimmings. We had a little "family drama" but hey, it wouldn't be our family if we didn't. I'm over it and trying to get everyone else to let it go as well. **Sigh**

So the day after Thanksgiving we headed out for family portraits. I had ZERO expectations this year. Last year I assumed since the girls were 2 it would be easier. NOPE! Except for Kori there wasn't a smiling kid in the shot. Thankfully this year was MUCH better!!! Everyone did so good!!! Hard to find a bad shot. We went to see Santa and ride the Christmas train at the mall and then headed to Five Guys for some burgers for lunch. We came out of lunch with Alexis claiming that her back and throat hurt. She asked for a nap when we got home, even though everyone else was going to be outside riding bikes and "helping" daddy with the outside Christmas decorations. After her nap she was warm so I gave her some Ibuprofen. As the night wore on the fever went up. Finally at 103 degrees and 8:00 pm I took her to Urgent Care. After an extensive wait she finally was taken back and swabbed for the flu's. She had a chest x-ray because the doctor thought he heard something in her lungs. We left with four prescriptions and a diagnosis of the flu and pneumonia in the left lung we got home just before 1 am. Saturday she spent most of the day in my bed watching TV but seemed to be responding to the medicine good enough. Sunday she was up and playing a bit and ate a little. Monday, not so good. Back in bed. Fevering again. Rapidly breathing. Unable to stay awake. Finally about 1 pm I called the doctors and got her back in. Her oxygen saturation levels were low and her lungs still sounded bad so we got sent to the Emergency Room at the local children's hospital to get checked out.

I dropped Morgan and Kamryn off with Jason, who had picked up Kori from school, and then headed off to the hospital. We were admitted since her fever was still very high and her oxygen levels were very low, even with oxygen. No problem, I figured a day or so, they'd figure out what it was and fix us up. Well her new x-rays came back clear from pneumonia and two flu swabs were negative. We kept hearing what she didn't have but not a lot of what she did have. Jason stayed with Kori and Kam and Morgan and I stayed with Alexis at the hospital. I came home for a bit on Tuesday for a shower and then Wednesday to see the other girls for a while and hang out with them. Finally Thursday afternoon she was stable enough and was deemed to have "some sort of infection" and we were on our way with new inhalers and a follow-up appointment with our pediatrician. She slept lots once we were home but no surprise there. We were both exhausted and so glad to be home.

Friday night Morgan woke up about 1am complaining of her "face" hurting. After giving her some Benadryl (she gets a rash on her face sometimes -- I thought that's what it was) she then complained it was her ear. Some Ibuprofen and she went back to sleep with no problems. Saturday morning she professed her ear to be "all better" and no need to go to the doctor. I should have went with my "mothers intuition". Well about 12:30 p.m. Kamryn started complaining about her ear hurting. Off to Urgent Care we went. Her left ear was infected and we were given more "pink medicine". I no sooner walked in from the Pharmacy and Jason left for off-duty before Morgan started crying about her "ear hurting too". Seriously????? So I take Alexis, Kori and Kamryn to my mom's and off Morgan and I go to Urgent Care. The staff was so surprised to see me, yet again. Morgan's right ear that had previously been declared "all better" was infected to the point of the ear drum bulging and the left side looked "angry and red" as well. So more pink medicine and we were off to pick up sisters and search (in vain) for a drive-thru liquor store for me.

So in a span of about 10-days there were: Three Urgent Care visits, two Pediatrician visits, $120.00 in co-pays and $170.00 in prescriptions co-pays. Thankfully everyone is healthy now and I've regained some of my lost sanity back.