Well, that didn't go as planned....

I mentioned on my facebook page earlier today that I was trying to get 3 Christmas stockings made that are for a last-minute special order. I figured that I could get them pretty much done today. Maybe not done, but close.

So I dug the fabric out of the closet and started going through the unorganized mess of Christmas stuff.

It's always been disorganized. I toss all of my Christmas fabric into this one bin, use some of it for a project, then toss the scraps back in on top of what was already there. So there are scraps, then big pieces, and more scraps, and actual yardage, all jumbled up together. And wrinkled.

So I came up with a plan - like I always do. But as usual, my plan sidetracked any sort of progress that I was going to make today.

Not to mention that these kids - I swear, I fed them yesterday, but they wanted food again today! Sheesh! I would get started on something, and they would want food. Or need help with something. Or whatever. It's only the first day of Alex and Daniel's winter break - but they definitely kept me on my toes today.

I started pulling out all of the fabric and sorted it. Solids in one pile (to use for the backing) and prints in another. Scraps sorted from yardage. And so on and so forth. And then I started ironing. And then I started cutting.

So as of right now, I have lots of strips of fabric, but no stockings. But, once I get all of the prep work done (hopefully later tonight) I'll be able to get cracking on the stockings themselves and whip them out fairly quickly.

After all, I do have a couple more days to get them done....no pressure.

On the plus side though, Alex actually helped me to fold and put away 4 loads of laundry tonight, I ran the dishwasher, and the kitchen is clean-ish. So although I totally did not get what I needed to do done, the day wasn't a total waste. I still have to get up in the morning to get the older 3 to school (assuming that the predicted snowpocalypse hasn't hit by then) for their last day before break....and of course I have a million other things to do tomorrow along with the sewing. Woot!

And yes - I will post pictures of the finished stockings - but only after I make sure that the person who is receiving one as a gift doesn't read my ramblings!

Monday in pictures.

I love seeing this guy along the highway. He makes me smile.
(By the way, if you happen to know this guy, you don't have to say it.
Remember, I try to keep specifics about our location
kind of quiet.)

About 40 miles into the 65 to get to Sarah's game.

*snicker*

To me, these are weird bleachers. To others,
they are normal.
What say you?

My little girl is becoming quite the star
of her team.

They're getting bored.

Woot! Finally, a win!

I just really thought that this was cool - they turned their water
tower into a giant Christmas bell.

Ooooohhhhh.....aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh.....
That would be an oil refinery. At night. With the camera set on the
wrong speed.

We had a special guest at Scouts last night.
And apparently the camera was STILL on the wrong speed.

They were deep in conversation.

And then we got a story.

The end.

I have to keep him.

The stockings were hung
'cross the doorway with care....

I kind of hinted around last night about a super secret project that I had finished, but I couldn't say anything about it yet.

Part of what I finished was getting all of our Christmas stockings hung up and ready to go. Since we don't have a fireplace, I have to improvise. In our old house, I hung them down the staircase, but in this house I just go across the doorway between the front rooms instead. It works, and they're up high enough that the kids can't mess around with them without climbing - and for the most part they know better than to do that.

Anyway, I decided that since it appears that The Dude is going to be a permanent fixture - he needed a stocking too.

How's that for cementing a relationship? No marriage, nothing official or on paper or anything like that, but a homemade Christmas stocking instead....

I told him that this means that I have to keep him - because I don't go through all of that work for just anyone.

Hey, it's a step, right?

Not sure if he's more proud of the stocking
or his silly football team.

Changed plans - but not all bad.

Today was supposed to be a fairly easy day. The older 3 kids were with Ex1, so I just had to get Alex and Daniel up and dressed and to Jared's basketball game by 10am. No biggie, right?

We got up, ate, got dressed, and took off. It was a fairly ugly morning and was cloudy and overcast but since we actually got rain last night, I was not complaining at all.

We had about a 35 mile drive to get to the game, and we were running right on time. About 10 minutes before we got there, my phone rang. It was Ex1, and I figured that he was just asking where we were to make sure that we were going to be there - but instead it was him telling me that the game had been cancelled.

Oh yay. Fabulous. In my mind, I started thinking about the amount of gas that I had just wasted, but he said that he'd wait there for me so that I could see the kids before they left to head out of town, which they had planned to do after the game. We got to the school a few minutes later and visited with the kids for a while before they left. After yesterday, it felt so good to hug them for even a few seconds.

After they left, the boys and I hung out in front of the school for a few minutes to check out their fully functioning oil well. It's not often that we get to get up close to these (although we see them all of the time) so it was really kind of neat.

And yes, this is literally in the school's yard. Maybe 25' from the building.

When we left there, I had to get some gas in the van. The gas station there in the tiny little town was a little higher priced than I wanted, so we drove a few miles to the next bigger city to get gas and to get something to drink. As we were cruising, I happened to notice a farm supply store that I needed to go to in order to get a bag of corn - so we got our gas and our drinks and then stopped there (although there is a similar store right down the road from me).

Call it fate, call it coincidence, call it divine intervention. Whatever it was, when we walked in the front door of the store, we were greeted by the big man himself! The boys were THRILLED! They chatted with him for a few minutes - and whispered what they wanted to him - and then posed for the picture.

Seriously - they whispered to him. Now how on earth does that help me to figure out what they want for Christmas??? Although Daniel did finally tell me afterwards that he just wants a new pair of sneakers. Gotta' love having one kid who enjoys the simple things in life. Alex still won't tell me what he wants.

Anyway, we got the corn (which turned out to be the wrong stuff, and I had to take it to the local store to exchange it)(where there was no Santa for the kids, so ha!) and we headed back home. By then the skies had cleared and it was a beautiful day.

We hung out at home for the rest of the day and the boys played and watched movies while I worked on a super-secret project that may or may not have ended up as a final something-or-other that I can't talk about or post pictures of until a certain person sees it first *hint hint*.

After I got done with that project-that-shall-not-be-mentioned, I started working on another project - that actually involved the corn that I bought today. A friend wanted me to make her one of those (I don't know what to actually call them) corn bags that you can stick in the microwave to warm up to use like a heating pad.

I made just a little tiny one out of some scraps to play around with it, and I'm already hooked. I warmed it up a few minutes ago and have it just sitting on the back of my neck while I'm typing, and I love it.

Probably a good thing since I have 50 pounds of corn to use - too bad it doesn't come in a smaller bag! The mice are going to have a field day with it if I'm not careful.

So anyway, this is the start of her bag, custom made to her measurements. I still have to make the cover for it, but I have a feeling that won't happen until tomorrow since that will involve digging through multiple tubs of fabric to get to the stuff that I want to use. But at least it's a really simple project, and one that I can make a bunch of for the next time I do a craft show.

So tomorrow's plans? Church. That's it. That's my only actual plan other than hanging out around the house and sewing. Hopefully, I can actually stick to those plans.

But knowing me, life will happen, and my plans will totally go out the window.

I have to choose hope.

Today.....today was truly a horrible day.

By now, we all know what happened. We all know about the 20 children who lost their lives at the hands of a gunman in Connecticut.

We don't know the whole story yet, and we probably never will. We know bits and pieces of what happened, but those bits and pieces are disjointed and scrambled and out of order - much like my own thoughts and feelings right now.

I sit here tonight, still in disbelief. I didn't know about it until well after it happened because I was busy living life. I was busy living a normal every day life, while so many innocent children lost theirs...while my children were safe in their own schools, just as oblivious as to what was happening as I was.

How do I as a mother wrap my head around this?

The answer is simple.

I don't.

There is no way for me to comprehend the enormity of what happened today. None. I can not imagine the fear, the terror, the anguish that those families are having to deal with right now. Instead of planning holiday parties and trips to see Santa at the local mall, they are now planning funerals.

How does that happen? Why does that happen?

I could drive myself insane trying to come up with the answers. All I can do at this point is hope.

I can hope that the families who have been affected can somehow come to grips with this.

I can hope that this will never happen to another child, another school, another family.

I can hope that this will never happen to my family.

I can hope.

But because there are no guarantees in life, I can change the things that I can control. I can tell my kids that I love them even more often than I already do. I can hug them tighter, kiss them more, and appreciate having them around even when they are annoying each other and picking fights. I can love the messy rooms and the temper tantrums and the chaotic schedules and the dirty laundry - because it means that I still have my family. 

At the same time, I realize once again that it can all be taken away in an instant. It doesn't have to be a crazed gunman. It can be a fire, or an accident, or an illness, or any number of things. I never know what is going to happen, or when it might happen. 

All I can do is hope - and be thankful for every single day that I get with my family.

Where's the Tooth Fairy?

So here's the story....

Last week, when I went to the dentist, they called the oral surgeon and scheduled the appointment for me. I was standing right there. I heard her schedule it. And confirm it. And she wrote it down on the surgeon's card and handed it to me. She even asked them how much it was going to cost while I was standing there.

So the appointment was for 10:15 this morning. It was about a 30 mile drive, so The Dude and I left here around 9:30 just to be safe. We got there, I panicked a bit, and he got me in the door. I gave the lady my name, and she looked confused. Then she asked for my birthdate. And then for which doctor I was seeing. And then I handed her the appointment card.

I wasn't on the schedule. They didn't have me on their schedule. How does that happen???

She handed me the paperwork anyway, and we sat down and filled it all out and I handed it back to her, but she still said nothing about whether or not they were actually going to see me today. After a short wait, I was called back to the exam room. I grabbed The Dude and made him go with me, because there was no way that I was going alone.

We got back there and she proceeded to tell me that they were going to squeeze me in - unless I wanted to be sedated. If I wanted to be sedated, then they'd have to reschedule me because they just didn't have time. I knew at that moment that I was going to go through complete and utter hell, but I told her to just do it because if I walked out of that office today, I wasn't coming back.

So the dentist/surgeon walked in, introduced himself, and *bam* got to work - after he figured out that he was about to pull the wrong tooth. Yeah, there was a typo somewhere and he asked if he was pulling one on the left and I about freaked and showed him which one it was. Things were not starting off well at all. The initial shots to numb it weren't bad, until he got to the one on the roof of my mouth, where I pretty much lost it and started crying. Cripes, I hate when I do that. But he left to give it time to work, and The Dude stood there and held my hand and talked to me until I calmed down, and then it was time.

The procedure itself was brutal. Absolutely brutal. I'm not going to lie and I'm not going to sugarcoat it. He worked extremely quickly - almost too quick for my taste - and I white-knuckled my way through it. He warned me at one point that I was going to hear cracking....yeah, I'm sorry, that wasn't "cracking" - that was the most horrible sound that I've ever heard in my life, and it was coming from MY mouth. The pressure was incredible, the pain was intense (he did ask at one point if it hurt, but didn't even pause to hear my answer), and the sounds were unbelievable.

I'm not sure how long it took. Maybe 30 minutes? By that time I couldn't even think straight. I know he had to put a few stitches in on the side of my gum, but those are supposed to dissolve so I don't have to go back. He gave all of the instructions and the prescription (yes, I accepted a prescription for pain pills this time) to The Dude, and then looked at me and said something to the effect of "maybe you should consider being put under next time". I really wanted to snap back and say "maybe you should have put me on the schedule this time so that could have happened" but I couldn't form the words.

So I paid and we left. And I cried. It hurt so much and I was so upset by the whole scheduling debacle and this did absolutely nothing to help with the fear of dental work.

The Dude drove me home and then went and got my prescription filled and picked up some lunch for us - mashed potatoes for me! And I took a pain pill and we started to watch a movie...but when the couch started spinning I decided that it was time to lay down for a while. I napped while he watched the movie and then went and got the boys from school. He had to go into work for a few hours, so I'm going to make something for the boys to eat and get them into bed and then become one with the loveseat until he comes back from work. I'm still in an  unreal amount of pain, so I plan on drugging myself up really good tonight after he gets back since he can stay with me tonight - maybe if I drug up enough tonight, I can get ahead of the pain.

On the plus side, I'm not *too* swollen (right side) so he
must have done something right.

A little less nakedness.

Our poor Christmas tree has been naked far too long. I bought it almost 2 weeks ago, but we just haven't been able to get our acts together long enough to get it in the house, upright, and decorated.

Actually, that's not true. I got it in the house and fought with it and got it upright last week. And then it crashed.

No, it got pushed. Of course it was an "accident" but regardless I didn't have time to mess with it again and so I just leaned it up against the wall and left it there until I had time again.

Yesterday I started working on getting it back up straight. Things just didn't work out as well as I had hoped (at least partially because of 5 little attitudes) and I ended up sending a rather panicked message to The Dude to come over and help me. So we finally got it back up......but we won't talk about how much fishing line is being used to hold it in position.

"Upright" is all that counts, right? Right.

Anyway, we started decorating it tonight. We got an exceptionally late start on it and rushed through it, but I wanted all of the kids to be able to help. Of course there's always the one who refuses.....*smiles through gritted teeth*....but still.....

I like a lot of lights - and I start by wrapping the
first strand around the trunk.

Not as many lights as I wanted, but it'll do.

Hanging the first ornaments.

Very focused on the job.

I swear....I hate this worse than tangled lights.

Finished for now.....but not complete yet.

I still have to rearrange a lot of the ornaments, add a bunch more, and add the tinsel before it's done. But this is how far we got with it tonight before I sent the thundering herd to bed.

Yes, we have a lot of ornaments. Someone *cough* got this brilliant idea when the kids were babies - and the idea was to get each kid a couple of ornaments every year for Christmas. We use a Sharpie and write their names and the year on each ornament, and then they're wrapped and put in their stockings. It's a fairly inexpensive stocking stuffer, and they get to accumulate ornaments that they can take with them when they move out of the house. Well, some years - the ornaments went on sale before Christmas, and so they were really inexpensive, and *cough* someone *cough* might have gone a little crazy and bought maybe 4-5 ornaments for each kid, without doing the math and realizing that purchasing that many would add up to 20-25 new ornaments each year. *cough*

Yeah....so.....we have a lot of ornaments. And that's why we usually get a 9' tall tree - but we went smaller this year.

Along with the tree, I figured that I'd get the rest of the decorations up too - and that can be a pain when someone is vertically challenged.

Do as I say, not as I do. But take pictures of me while I'm doing it.

This is where the stockings get hung too - once I find them.

That's as far as we've gotten. But it's progress at this point. My tooth is still killing me (especially after I got desperate and ate solid food tonight and got a piece of chicken stuck in it) and I'm down to something like 35 hours before it gets pulled. Yes, the one with the phobia of dentists is counting down the hours until this thing is ripped out of my head - that's how bad it is.

It's been a crazy busy weekend. We had basketball yesterday of course, and Jared's Christmas program was Friday night, and it was super intense and emotional. One of his classmates is dealing with a brain tumor and they had him on Skype during the program, and they sang to him and waved to him and it was beautiful and touching and gut-wrenching and the tears were flowing. But, he got to come home on Saturday and was able to attend a chili feed that was held as a fundraiser for him and his family - so Jared got to see him and talk to him for a few minutes, which was wonderful. Seriously, for all of the whining that I've been doing about my tooth, seeing this little boy putting on his game face and fighting for his life just makes everything else seem so trivial. I got to visit with his mother for a little while, and she was amazing - I can't even being to imagine how I would feel if I were in her position.

Don't take it for granted. That's all I can say.