Christmas Rush

First of all, Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

I am enjoying the remaining few minutes until I begin the Christmas rush.
Tomorrow we are going to my dad's house in Crystal River. We will spend the night and come home some time Sunday. Then, Monday I have to work and I have a playdate scheduled for lunchtime. I have cookies to make for Santa and a few things to wrap because they are in hiding and/or too big to wrap (the kids will notice a big box if it's wrapped but a plain box blends into the garage mess,LOL)

I can't figure out how to get the stuff off the hard drive in my video camera. I really would like to video Christmas morning so I need to do that.

I have text books that I need to get up on ebay very soon (tonight preferably)

And on top of all that Stella saw a VERY cute Tinkerbell stocking, so I got it for her, BUT it's a felt one that you have to sew on all the pieces and some beads. So I MIGHT or might not get that all done before the big night (wish me luck since I'm a slow sew-er)

I hope to have some great pics of my stay at dad's house and Christmas for you all next time I post. Until then, have FUN!!!

YUP!!

Yup, because I opened my big mouth.
She peed in her pants.
Not once.
Not twice.
But three times since I posted Saturday morning!

I said I was jinxing myself,
I knew I shouldn't of said it,
but I did anyway,
look what I got for it,
A big pile of pee-peed laundry to do!

No more diapers

So I even hesitate to post this because I know it'll jinx me ......
buuuut........
I will anyway because I'm so excited for her! (and me!)

Stella is pretty much potty trained at 2 yrs and 5 months old. She only wears a pull up at night time, but only because I don't 100% trust her. She doesn't wake up wet and she has even woken me up at 2:30am to take her to the potty. I also keep a potty in the car for those times when no potty is available. So she has been wearing big girl panties and recently we haven't had any accidents except the one time Lucas was in the bathroom and dad was in the other one and she just couldn't wait any longer. She was mad about that one. I felt bad for her too.

Now if she could just get her pants back up all by herself. She still needs help with that part. I'm OK with that because I don't have to buy diapers anymore....

ever!!!!

Christmas lights

I love to drive around and look at Christmas lights. Do you? I like to see how creative and festive other people are. One of my friends says that her neighbor rents a lift thingy to get his lights up in his trees and up to the top of his tall palm trees. I think that's a bit much, but it does look really nice. But there's no way I would do all that!!!

I've been secretly wrapping gifts while Stella naps during the day. I have just under half of them wrapped. I'm a slow wrapper. Plus, this year I want them to actually look good. In previous years I just didn't care about presentation. I mean they are just doing the 'grab and rip', right?

So this year I'm being a copy cat. I am going to make really pretty and big gift tags for all of Santa's gifts (That equals one gift to each kids so I'll be making 3 tags) I want to make them all super fancy and special and magical. Maybe it's something they will remember and do for their kids. I also want to do the secret elf thing (You know where the elf watches and if they are good they get a couple of pre-Christmas gifts in the weeks before that are just small but helps them to remember to be good) but funds were really tight this year. And funds will probably be that way for at least 2 more Christmases (I'll be a full time student= poor family) So for now I'll do fancy tags.
Really, it just makes me feel like I'm making Christmas a little more magical for them. Of course, they will grow up thinking that their crazy mom thought it was cool to make those dumb giant tags that she thought made us think it was really Santa bringing the presents when we have known since we were 7 that it was just her and dad.......

Did you follow that?


Nope.... Me neither!

Check out my Meez... and duck!!!!

Christmas break

I finally got my grade for my Microbiology and I got A's in both the lecture and lab portion! (Did you think I wouldn't???LOL) I got a 94 on the lab final and an 82 on the lecture final which was cutting it really close for the A in the class. So now I have Christmas break until Jan 7th.

ba-zillions of cookies

I feel like I am making ba-zillions of them, they are everywhere!! LOL We (my mom's group) are having a cookie exchange tonight and I, of course, have waited till the last possible hour to make them. I am making Andies Candies cookies. I hope and pray that they turn out good, I haven't made them before so I'm taking a huge chance.

Last year I made Chocolate Rum Balls. Most people said they were too boozy.... hello?? they are RUM balls, they are supposed to taste like rum!!! Oh well. At Least my good friend Julie liked them. She liked them so much that she posted that she is going to make some this year for her and family (or maybe just her).

OK, my timer is going off, I must go,
bake...
cookies...


I do hope they are good!!!

Christmas Parade

For the first time since living in Lakeland, I took the kids to the Christmas Parade. It was fun. I would never have gone but I met a good friend down there and I hung out with her and her family (They were really nice to share their space with us!) You can go see pictures on Jen's blog. Sorry but I don't feel like down loading pics right now. I went without Andrew because he had to work. Thank goodness I did meet a friend down there because Stella is potty training and there were several times I had to just pick her up and practically run to the bathroom with her. She made it all night with no accidents !!! That wouldn't have happened if I would have had to gather up both boys every time she had to go. So THANK YOU JEN(and John)!!!

As for the rest of my weekend... it was miserable!! I came down with a head cold and felt terrible and I also had an abscess that was not draining and VERY painful. Hunter was very helpful with Stella since I pretty much spent the whole time on the couch. I feel much better today!! Head cold almost gone and the abscess is draining on its own, no surgery needed (whew!!)

I took one of my finals on Sunday for my Microbiology class and did well enough to get an A for the class!!! YEAH Now I just have the lab final to do by tomorrow night. Wish me luck!

One more thing, the girls in my Moms group want to have our very own little blog-a-thon for the month of January. Who ever post the most wins. Wins what? we're not sure yet, but sounds fun and it'll be nice to go read their blogs and have something new to read!

Finals

Finals are this coming week. I'm looking forward to having it over with and being able to enjoy the holidays. I'm so anal about my classes that I have sat down and figured out what the lowest grade is that I can receive on the finals to still get an A in the class. In the lecture portion I have to get at least an 80% and in the lab a 67% or higher will do it. Send good grade vibes my way, please!!!

I am signed up to take 2 classes for the spring semester. I will tackle Human Nutrition and Sociology. Sounds like fun to me too!! J/K!

I have started to check out daycares in the area to prepare for me going to school full time next fall (August). I have not been too impressed so far. The only place that I like doesn't open early enough for me to get to school on time some mornings (some days classes start at 8 and other days at 9). My mom suggested that I put Stella in the daycare at the college but then on days I need to study and don't have school I'm outta luck unless I want to pay someone over and above daycare cost. I don't know if that's an option because the going rate for a babysitter is about $10/hr. Maybe a co-op with another mom would be an option. We'll see. I still haven't checked out the center at the college to know if I would even leave her there. I'm so nervous about putting the kids in daycare. I'm so nervous about going to school full time. I'm afraid I won't be able to handle it. People do it all the time. There's no reason I can't. I'm just........stepping into new territory for me. I'm not one of those people that just jumps in to the pool, I wade in slowly.
very slowly....

new things everyday

I do learn something new everyday. Ta Da! I now have music for you to listen to whilst reading my fabulous blog!!! LOL I will have to add more songs and change them for the seasons and/or moods.

The house is starting to look like the holidays are coming. I'm a little behind this year. Actually I'm right on track with all previous years of being the last to decorate. oh well! We have a tree up but not decorated yet. It's fake! I am tired of spending $100 for a tree that will die in 3 weeks and won't even be green on THE day. I mean really. So we got a fake, which is great for Hunter's and Andrew's allergies.

I'm pretty sure we are done X-mas shopping! whew! Now for the cards to be made out and mailed. And wrapping the gifts and keeping it all hidden.

Oh I almost forgot. I painted the front door finally and it looks great. BUT, Andrew thought it would be a good idea to replace the threshold that was sorta rotting and needed replacing. Which it would have been if it were not for the fact that in this house, NOTHING is that simple, nothing!!! Turns out the door frame is rotting at the bottom too. It had never been painted apparently. Paint protects wood from the water. WOOD + NO PAINT + WATER = ROTTEN WOOD. Thank goodness my dad is a skilled carpenter!! He's going to mill us a new door frame out of PT wood (pressure treated= more weather resistant) and come down and install it for us! I do wish we had the know how and tools to not have to rely on someone else. Anyways, so now the door is painted but not the frame because I'm waiting for the new piece that is not rotten.