Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day, I've got a wonderful feeling, everything's going my...oh wait, I forgot this is my life!

So far this morning...

Got up late. (no shower)
Dog saw cat while taking his morning pee & ran off. (maybe he'll get cold & come back)
Welcomed an extra kid. (babysitting all day)
Played pioneer. (chopped wood for fire)
Took a call from the city. (about dog, what a surprise)
Bundled kids for a trek to the garage. (to find dog)
Dug out drift in front of garage. (about 2 ft deep)
Wrestled van onto driveway. (took a few tries)
Found dog. (who did NOT want to get in the van)
Took 5 tries to get up driveway. (and actually made it into garage)
Un-bundled kids. (me first, I have ice in my boot, mom help)
Fixed 2 boo-boos. (band aids go fast in this house)
Rescued extra kid from my kids. (she's 3 & they play very rough)
Discovered daughter cutting up my brush. (took the bristles right off)
Scolded boys for riding old crib mattress down stairs. (miraculously nobody was hurt)

And all this before 9:30!

~~~~

Interesting Sam pronunciation:

Sam "hey mom, a question mark means a question & a es-qu-ash-kon (exclamation) mark means a question too!"
Mom "gotta work on that buddy."

I had to have him repeat that a bunch of times before I could figure out how to spell it. And I'm so not correcting him...it's just too cute for that!

~~~~

I have recently learned to be grateful that Chris is working in Ellensburg. At first I was very resentful & angry. I mean, we just moved away from there to be closer to work & now he's working right back where we came from! But the general contractor at this particular job is tarping & heating the job which means they can work all winter, even in extreme temperatures. Chris found out last week that they are the only crew working right now. All the other jobs are shut down due to nasty weather. So once again, God knows what He's doing & I haven't a clue.
Go figure :)

~~~~

Yesterday I finally finished decorating the house for Christmas. Now I just have to finish the gifts I'm making & wrap everything. Every year I plan on getting it all done early & every year I go right down to the wire. Nothing like a little added stress to spice up my everyday life.
We are getting up early on Christmas morning to open our gifts & have breakfast together. Then we will make the trek to my sister's house in Richland & spend 2 days with the rest of my family. Should be a blast & a little deja-vu, to see all our kids playing together, just like we did with our cousins when we were kids. You see, my sister bought my Grandparents old house & we spent many-a Christmas playing in the basement. Now it's come full circle & we're the boring adults talking upstairs.

~~~~

I introduced my kids to the movie Rudolph yesterday & naturally they loved it. It was so much fun to see them enjoying what I've loved for so long. Today I'm going to see if I can find A Charlie Brown Christmas online for them. I just love sharing all the old traditions with them & knowing they will pass them on to their kids someday. The best part though is sharing the real reason for the season, our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ. We've always told them a bible story every night before bed but at this time of year we linger on the story of His birth. I want them to understand from an early age that Christmas has nothing to do with santa & getting lots of stuff. It's about celebrating the King of Kings & what He came here to do for us.
So we talk a lot about how santa is a character & it's fun to pretend he's real but he's not really real. And when you see santa at the store or he comes to your school party he's just a man dressed up in a costume like at Halloween. But I also make sure to tell them not to ruin it for other kids who might think santa is real.

~~~~

We took our annual trek to see the Christmas lights Saturday night. As usual we got started too late & didn't get to finish our list. But we did see some beautiful houses in parts of Spokane we hadn't been to before & it was magical for the kids. We can't afford to put up much by the way of lights so it's fun to check out the families who can keep the power companies happy.

~~~~

Random recipe:
I made some yummy waffles for breakfast the other day. I use the recipe from the better homes and gardens cookbook (aka red & white book) but I use half whole wheat flour & I add a scoop or 2 of wheat germ so I can pretend it's good for us. I also make my own syrup which tastes so much better than that crap from the store...well, unless you buy the real thing which of course, is fabulously yummy. To make syrup you just boil 2 parts sugar & 1 part water with a little vanilla & maple flavoring until it's slightly thickened (emphasis on the slightly, if you boil it too long you'll end up with sugar-crystal'y syrup.) What made these waffles so great was that his time I didn't know I had run out of maple flavoring. I improvised & threw a couple of cinnamon sticks in & it turned out so good I don't know if I'll make it any other way.

~~~~

Hey I blogged today, can you believe it?
Have a wonderful day & enjoy your snow if you have it :)

Random thoughts & and an Eli'ism

I made ravioli a few days ago for dinner & this is the conversation I had with Eli about it.
"What you makin Mom?"
"I'm making ravioli, rrrrrrrravioli." (rolling the r's)
"Can you say that Eli, rrrrrrrrravioli?"
"Llllllllllllllllabilowie!"
~~~~~~~~~~
Over the weekend we went to my sisters to visit for a night & get our hair cut. My kids love seeing their older cousins, in their eyes B & L are the coolest kids on the planet. L is almost 12, B is 9 & they are both boys so there was lots of rough & tumble. They played basketball, ran around the backyard & pretty much blew up the basement.
I got my hair trimmed & my highlights fixed. The kids all got trimmed. The boys now look like boys instead of wild animals & Adah looks "so prrrreaty" after being sprinkled with aunt Margaret's princess glitter. She was in heaven!
I love to visit with Margaret & Trevor. Margaret & I hated each other most of our childhood & I used to beat her up on a regular basis. Come adulthood, Margaret & I are like best friends. We talk on the phone at least once a week & visit each other as often as we can. Trevor & I have a lot in common, so I very much enjoy hanging out with him & giving him a hard time.
Good family, good times.
~~~~~~~~~~
It's raining today & I love it! This weekend was very warm. I'm told it was about 75 here, at my sister's it was 85 & I'm not ready for that yet! I grew up in Kirkland, across the lake from Seattle & had lots of rainy days. I don't miss having them for months on end, don't get me wrong, but I love me a good gloomy, rainy day every now & then. Great time to curl up with a blanket & a book, all cozy in my home.
~~~~~~~~~~
List of things to do today.
Take a shower.
Call to get prescriptions refilled
Find an eye doctor & get Chris an appt.
Find a dentist. Been putting this off for a loooong time.
Make appt with vet for Gihli - he's been funny about his ears lately.
Do 43 loads of laundry.
Clean the kitchen.
Figure out what the heck to make for dinner.
Plan my menu for this week.
And the most important...read blogs :)
~~~~~~~~~~
Have a great day y'all!!

Geez & random stuff

I'm back y'all!
We were gone an extra day due to having to replace the water pump in my van but home safe and sound now. I thought gas would be the most expensive thing on the trip - HA! But thankfully our taxes came through so we actually had the money for it - A very novel event for the Michels family.
~~~~~~~~~~
Mom & Dad took us out to see Horton hears a Who. It was a great movie & the first time the kids went to a theatre. We were a little apprehensive, you never know how they'll react to that huge screen & the volume & all, but they did great & loved it. I was glad that I had checked out the movie on pluggedin a couple of weeks ago & didn't have to worry about the content.
~~~~~~~~~~
Every time I visit my parents I remember why we moved away from the Pacific NW. (And no, it has nothing to do with my parents :).) We moved because of the horrendous traffic, condos everywhere, cost of living, and just too many dang people. Did I mention horrendous traffic? It's funny, when Chris & I got married I used to laugh at his driving. He came from a rural area in OR & had such a hard time driving in Seattle with all the crazy & rude drivers - if you don't shove your way in you won't get anywhere there, you must be aggressive. Now we've come full circle & I'm the one who's freaked about it. I'm so used to rural driving, I hate traffic & cannot believe I used to drive in that mess every day.
~~~~~~~~~~
Geez! I started this post on the 4th but have not had any time until today to finish it. And it's not actually finished cos there was a whole nother topic I wanted to blog about but NO TIME to do it ... girrrr!
Chris hogs the 'puter evenings & weekends so updating last weekend was out. Believe me I tried & was dE-nied time & again. This week I have been busy all week. I have a goal in life people, a goal to not be busy but it fell apart on me this week (sigh). I hate being busy, I mean I've always got the kids to run around after & the house to take care of, yada yada yada, but I'm talking go there, get this, drive here, bla bla bla stuff. I hate being on the run & avoid it like the plague. So far this week I've had to drive into either Spokane or Cheney on 3 different days. 3 DAYS! That's like, half a week I was draggin around the big city - not fun for this small town girl! I usually plan so I only drive that far once a week - otherwise it just wastes too much dang gas - but I had SO much to do that I didn't have a choice. Oh well, this too shall pass & all that jazz.
Hopefully I'll be back to my normal blogging schedule now. Didn't realize that 4 days out of town would throw me this much out of whack!
~~~~~~~~~
I missed y'all while I was gone. No time for blogging means no time for blog reading & I'm jonesin bigtime. MUST.READ.BLOGS.NOW!!!

Have a dandy day everybody :)