by Sarah | Dec 11, 2008 | Crap, Holidays
Don’t ask why I haven’t blogged since Sunday (actually, technically late Saturday night). Because I can’t honestly say…well, I can…and you didn’t ask, but I’m going to tell you anyway 🙂
I spent the weekend baking approximate 750 cookies and candies. I got all but about 80 of them frosted by Tuesday. I love baking cookies for Christmas…so this wasn’t a problem to me…but it took a LOT of time.Â
I’ve also been sewing. I finished a skirt for Riley, and am about 3/4 done with the pettiskirt for underneath it (I scored a great deal on some organza to use for the pettiskirts). I have the fabric cut for a skirt for Angel, and have some amazing organza (also at a great deal) for her pettiskirt as well. So I’ve been sewing my arse off as well – because pettiskirts are awesome, but they take a TON of time and effort.Â
In between I’ve done some cleaning (although not enough…but I been busy), some laundry and occasionally cooking.Â
I have also for some strange reason, decided that after 3 months of non-activity I needed to get involved in playgroup again. And have attended two playgroup events this week so far (One I actually hosted), and I’m supposed to go to one tomorrow (though I might cancel that).
We’ve met with the psych this week, and had Angel’s annual appt for Early Intervention (including her transitional meeting).Â
The only thing I haven’t done yet is decorating for Christmas/Yule…and it’s killing me. This weekend I’m determined to get our tree up…Probably Sunday…because on Saturday I’m going to see Lion King with my Dad…and he’s taking me to eat at the Rathskeller – his treat since I bought the tickets.Â
I still have to make more felt foods for the girls for Christmas (on top of their skirts), buy shirts to match their skirts, get Brandon’s Christmas presents wrapped up…and then I’ll be able to breathe…
Unless hubby’s coworkers want me to make the cookies that I haven’t made this year. I made them last year and they were a huge hit…and when Archie took the cookie tray into work today everyone wondered where they were. I may have to make another type of cookis 😉
by Sarah | Dec 5, 2008 | Crap, Holidays
Life lessons from Cookie Land Central – i.e. my house for the next 3 days.
1. DO take out your butter and eggs several hours before you begin. It allows for much easier mixing.
2. DO NOT – I repeat – Do NOT crack your egg so hard that it splits completely in half, dropping half the shell into your running KitchenAid that promptly shatters it and mixes it into 1c of butter and 1c of shortening.
3. DO ignore directions and go with your instincts on cookie size. Otherwise you end up with one GIANT cookie where 5 smaller ones were meant to exist.
4. DO NOT think that the fit of the bowl is “Good enough” to be a double boiler if it moves at all…the chocolate gets burnt and you get miserable.
5. DO make plans for a bigger kitchenm and then pretend you’re in it so the misery of no counter space seems far away while you’re trying to work under those conditions.
5. DO NOT forget to clean as you go…makes it much easier to get to the NEXT type of cookie.
6. DO make a complete list of ingredients needed and make SURE you have enough so that last minute supply replenishing isn’t required.
7. DO NOT forget to enlist the 10 year old to frost cookies so that once they are baked you can put your feet up and let them have the misery of frosting 10 dozen cookies.
I’m sure many more lessons are left to be learned…but we’re still on day 1 of cookie time!!
by Sarah | Nov 26, 2008 | Crap
Total and complete denial.
About everything that I have to get done today.
No, I’m not having company, really. My parents will probably stop by, some time during the day (no, they aren’t joining us for a feast. Why would that do that? Why would ANYONE join us for a feast…and no, no one is…despite the TONS of food I HAVE.)…and my neighbor will join us for leftovers and some friendly conversation at dinnertime. But we won’t have a houseful of guests. It will just be us.
But still I have no dishes…well, I have dishes, but never enough in this house. So I need to do dishes…and then do dishes AGAIN after dinner. I have to finish the laundry (seriously…it’s overtaking my house again).
I have to make my stuffing.
I hve to make sure that I do dishes after dinner so that I can get the turkey in the sink to finish defrosting overnight.
I have to make my pies.
I have to have hubby bathe the girls (yes, dear…that’s a hint).
I have to start prepping and planning my adopted soldiers care package. AND send him a letter/email to let him know about us. (It only took ONE day to get our soldier! I’m so excited!)
I have to figure out how to hook up my printer to my computer in its new location. See, the printer cable is VERY short…and I can’t afford a new one just yet.
I have to clean off my camera card just because I can’t let it get as bad as it was before.
I have to finish the remaining 3 layouts before the weekend is over. (OH, didn’t you know? I just redid THIS site for my BFF. No, I didn’t do the coding, but I adjusted the coding and did all the graphics on my little lonesome.)
And yet…despite all of this I’m still sitting here writing a blog post and chatting with my BFF before she abandons me for the weekend.
Oh, and over the weekend I have three books to read that I need to do reviews on. I’m supposed to have a fourth book, but it never came. I also took out a couple of craft books from the library last night and I need to pick out craft ideas that I want to save (and copy) for later use.Â
Oh yeah…and somehow I have to get back to writing. Maybe my muse will return to me when I haven’t got so much to do (HA! Yeah…like I’ll never have 5,000,000 things on my plate).
by Sarah | Nov 21, 2008 | All About Kennedy, Crap
And right now HER well-being is not good. Not Riley. Riley looks like nothing ever happened. She’s running and laughing and smiling with clear eyes and no sign of her previous pain.
Angel, on the other hand. First she developed the stink pink-eye. She was given drops…NOT antibiotics. And while I’m grateful that she no longer looks like this:
Â
She does look like this:
Â
And this (by ear):
Â
This does not rest easy on my soul. Not when she sounds gravelly…and her breathing is shallow. The pulm on call last night acted like I was just silly for calling in…but with a first thing this morning temp of 102 by ear…a runny nose and generally grumpy disposition…I worry. No, she’s not coughing…but I still worry…how soon will she? Since it’s Friday should I take her in to the ped and have them check her breath sounds? Should I sit on it? I’m treating with motrin and snuggling with her since she has the chills and shakes…but I don’t know how to call or when or if I should? After last night I feel like I’m over-reacting…but I worry…I always worry about my baby-girl.
(And I keep hearing the pulm’s final words before I left the office Wednesday. “With CF kids it’s real easy for this all to move to their chest.”)
ETA: I DID call the pediatrician. Angel will go in at 1:30 EST to have them do a cursory check of her lungs and get some antibiotics (which I am specifically asking for)
by Sarah | Nov 19, 2008 | All About Kennedy, All About Molly, Crap
Apparently my beautiful girl Riley, who likes to become non-verbal when distressed, became to distressed to tell me her ears hurt.
Apparently there was a severe double ear infection (again – this happened last year).
Apparently I waited too long to take her to the doctor.
Apparently waiting until eyes are draining green goop is far too long to wait.
Apparently waiting a long time on a bad ear infection can spread the infection to the eyes and cause pink eye.
Apparently that is EXACTLY what happened to Riley.
Apparently it is highly contagious (I sort of knew that already)
Apparently I wasn’t fast enough with the hand sanitizer.
Apparently Angel is now showing the signs of it.
Apparently I’ll be spending the next two weeks doling out doses of antibiotics to two toddlers.
by Sarah | Nov 14, 2008 | All About Me, Crap
It’s a stack of photos - three rolls of film’s worth. They lie buried in a box under my bed 99.9% of the time.
They are photos of monuments and landmarks. Graves and soldiers. Capitols and statues. No groupings of friends. No wacky close up’s trying to get me in the frame. No friends at all.
It was a long awaited trip. One met with excitement and anticipation. Three years of begging to follow in my brother’s footsteps. To join my best friend and classmates. To go to Washington, D.C. for a full week without my parents. Just me and my best bud, and a few other friends…and fifteen other classmates, a few teachers.
I was in seventh grade. The school did it every year. I wasn’t exceptionally popular (I’d lost that goal in sixth grade)…but I had two of the bestest friends, and a small group of friends that accepted me. One of those best friends was going on this trip with me.
By three days into the trip…I had no friends. It happened so fast and so embarassingly so it still pains me to even look at these pictures.Â
My BFF and I were huge into NKOTB (yes…yes), and we both were totally in love with Joey. She’d brought along a picture and set it gently into the frame of the hotel picture that was on the wall. Someone (a maid? classmate? roommate?) defaced the picture during the trip.
Somehow I got blamed. That wasn’t the embarassing part, though…they didn’t tell me they for some reason they thought I’d done it…they waited. Then, after a day of sightseeing I went in for my bathroom time. I went in, did my business, took a shower and came out.
By the next day the rumors swirled. They were ridiculous…but no one cared. Suddenly that night I was the focus of hilarity and someone even wrote a song about how I had managed to wash my hair in the toilet. My ‘friends’ and roommates attacked me verbally in the room, hurled insults and accusations…and I spent the remainder of the trip sleeping curled up on a hotel chair to sleep without even a blanket or one person to stand by me and be my friend.Â
The remaining tours were done in the back of the trip, talking to a teacher. I had no one to eat with, to talk with, to take silly pictures with…while my former friends latched on to more popular kids on the trip and boosted their own popularity talking about me.
It was among the darkest periods of my youth. It is why I absolutely loath the thought of my kids going to middle school and having to face fellow middle school evilness. It is why I never look at these pictures, why I never think of my trip. When I think of D.C. I think only of the time I lived near there and went to see shows a few blocks from the white house.
So why today?Â
Brandon came home with a permission slip and letter explaining the fifth grade trip to D.C. (much, much shorter…like an INSANELY FAST trip).Â
I like to think I’ve forgiven those girls for what they did and how they acted…at least I try to…I don’t like holding grudges (even if I am good at it)…but it’s something I can never forget because to this day it’s affected how I am, WHO I am. I feel it every day I look in the mirror and find something worng with myself. I feel it every time I feel like the odd ball out at a party, watching everyone else have fun wishing I could disappear into the shadows.
I want my son to see the capitol. I want him to be able to go with his friends. I know he WANTS to go…but I hesitate. My own past holds back his future and enjoyment. Can I forgive…Can I forget? Can I push past my own past (and cough up the dough) for him to go…
Can he have the trip that I never could? I have to let him try…for both of us.
