Turkey and the tree

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving...

Ours was pretty laid-back. Lots of food...and a second attempt at the peanut butter pie. At least I finally got a piece (or two) of it this time, and yes, it was worth it.

Then it was time to do the unthinkable. I headed out into the ghetto-garage and dug out the Christmas stuff and we got to work. I have to admit - I believe that this is the first time that I have ever decorated the Christmas tree while I was wearing shorts.

Daniel got the honor of hanging the first ornament, and then it was a free-for-all. But it's pretty much done (of course I had to send the girls to the store to get more lights since half of mine decided to die) and now I just have to 'adjust' some of it and clean up the aftermath.

I still have to put the garland in the big doorway and get the stockings hung up and hang up the lights outside....

Where are the outside lights? I didn't see them in the boxes tonight....

So much to do....and although I hated doing it this early, I'm glad that I still have a month to get everything done. At some point I'll start doing some shopping, after the initial crazies get done doing their thing over the next few days. There is no way in hell I'll go shopping tomorrow. No way. Nope.

Tomorrow we get to get up early to get Sarah to basketball practice, then the older 3 are gone until Wednesday....Alex is supposed to go to his father's for the weekend....so I'm looking forward to some quiet time with just Daniel for a few days. Maybe I'll get some more stuff done around the house, including a sewing project or two that I *need* to get done.

My mother is now supposed to have surgery on her shoulder tomorrow morning, and then should be able to go home. Hoping and praying that all goes well in that department.....

Broken Stuff and Unidentified Objects

Welcome to another day in my life.

Sometimes I seriously wonder if I'm not being secretly videotaped for some reality show. I mean really....

It's not that it was necessarily a bad day. I had a horrible time getting up this morning - finally crawled out of bed at 9:30 (I was awake - just in no mood to move) and grabbed a quick shower before the boys and I headed for church. After the service we had lunch there and then helped to decorate the sanctuary for Christmas. I hadn't planned on doing that, but it was a nice distraction for a couple of hours.

We came back here and hung out for a while. I started some laundry and just kind of putzed around the house. Made a couple of phone calls to get updates on Mom's condition (surgery tomorrow) and to talk to Ex1 about scheduling for this week.

Which, by the way, let me ask this....if school is closed for a holiday, should sports teams practice? Curious to see opinions on that one...

Then I went to clean the boys' room a little bit and get their laundry and discovered this little gem. Luckily, it doesn't usually hold anything, but still....I wasn't really planning on doing any repair work today.

The boys had an "accident" with the eggs in the fridge. OK, I can accept the first 2 being an accident, because I knock them out of the little egg holes in the fridge door occasionally if I open the door too fast (or more often, slam the bottom of the door into the top of my foot as I try to open it) but I'm pretty sure that all 6ish of them didn't just 'accidentally' fall out of the egg holes.

Yeah, don't even get me started on this one....I mopped the floor and had it almost sparkling yesterday. I say "almost" because it's just an ugly floor, and it will never sparkle, no matter what I do. And I'm ok with that, because I don't *own* said floor.

Anyway...Alex came to me with this lovely mystery object tonight. As of right now, it is still unidentified.

If you would like to participate in the "Name This Object" game that I am currently having, go to my facebook page to see more specific information about the mystery object.

Until it is identified (or I give up and throw it in the trash) and on the off-chance that it is actually something important, I have located a very safe place to keep it. Right inside my desk with Tigger's chin and the Tooth Fairy Pillow.

This part of my desk is starting to get full. That's telling me something about my (lack of) organizational skills.

But for now, I'm going to go plant my butt on the couch and watch a movie and fold laundry. After I finish cleaning up the living room and sweeping all the rest of the crap off of the floor. Maybe I'll find some more mystery objects to add to the collection in my desk.

Mom

I got one of *those* phone calls tonight. You know the kind - the phone rings and you see that it's a family member, and you're not expecting a call - and your heart jumps into your throat before you even answer it. And you can tell by the tone of the voice on the other end that it's not good.

And it wasn't good.

It was my sister, letting me know that our mother is in the hospital. She fell this afternoon and broke her shoulder. I don't have a lot of details at this point, but apparently she was helping Dad to split some firewood, and she was heading back into or toward the house. Dad heard her scream and found her where she had fallen.

She somehow got to the hospital - I assume that he took her and didn't call an ambulance. She's been admitted and will be having surgery sometime in the next day or two. They're also doing some tests on some other issues while she's there.

Dad will be 85 next week, and Mom will be 83 the week after that. Not a good time in her life to be dealing with a severe injury - not that there is ever a good time.

So, here I am, stuck in Kansas while she's in the hospital in Pennsylvania.

Waiting for the phone to ring.

Waiting for updates.

Just....waiting.