Happy New Year!

I'm blogging at the office since J1 is camped out in the computer room at home. Also, it seems to be running slower than Christmas...possibly because everybody's online all at the same time. The girls stay on their laptops all the time. One of the hazards of sending them to Tech, I guess. There is no use for paper at that school.

Just got back from the mall because J3 had money from Christmas burning a hole in his pocket. I am reminded on every visit just how much I hate our mall. It is, for lack of a better word, so lame. Basically, if there was ever a good store in that mall, it closed and was replaced by a teenybopper store. We have every "cheap crap that costs way too much and looks like it's for a hooker" store in the known universe, along with Vitamin World and Banjo.com. (banjo store in a mall....I could not make this up if I tried). The food court has about 12 restaurants, 6 of which have someone standing in front of them trying to make everyone who walks by eat a piece of chicken.

I'm always curious when I see tour buses in the parking lot. I can't even imagine signing up for a tour to that crappy mall....the crappiness from which they all come must be astounding. I do see lots of letter jackets, etc. from the schools up in the N. Ga mountains, but I can tell you if I was coming down from the hills for a shopping excursion, I'd keep driving right on into Atlanta.

Our department stores even stink. We get the third tier Macy's merchandise, and our Parisian is now a Belk. Kill. me. now. Sag Harbor and Alfred Dunner right by the door. I think we have one of the only two JC Penney stores left in Atlanta (I couldn't even tell you where another one is located, come to think of it).

I need something to wear tonight (sadly lacking in the casual partywear department) but after the tussle at American Eagle and a fight for a table in the food court, I'm too tired, so I guess I'll scrounge something up from my newly pared down closet (8 large trash bags to Goodwill!) and hope the lights are low.

We're going to a party, not sure how long since we will probably have to pick up/drop off our nondrivers at various fetes. J2 is heading to some fraternity parties at Tech and plans to stay in her dorm room. Not sure what J1 is doing, since she hasn't come out of her cave for a day or so. J3 has party plans at a friend's house (big 10th grade shindig) . Hopefully J4 can find something to do or someone to spend the night. I think I'll offer to be the designated driver since I already saw three police cars on the way to the mall at noon.

Party on!

Burn Baby Burn

Well, we have survived Christmas. The tree has been dead since December 17th (long argument about when to buy the tree, which I lost, but then I got all the "I told you so's", so what the heck). We got that thing outta here the day after Christmas and it was substantially lighter on the way out than it was on the way in, due to the fact that all the needles were on the floor.

Christmas Eve was great. We spent most of the day running around cleaning up for the masses who were to descend on Christmas Day (who wouldn't notice whether it was clean or decorated, but whatever, I'm just funny that way). Finally got all the decorations up just in time to take them down.

I got a call a couple days before Christmas Eve that our most experienced acolytes who were scheduled for the 4:00 candlelight communion (family of 3 kids) were going out of town for Christmas because of a recurrence of their grandmother's cancer and impending surgery. So, I found some subs, but felt like I had to go to that service to help out one of our "green" coordinators on her first Christmas Eve. I was scheduled to only do the 7:00 service only, but since none of the 4:00 acolytes had ever done Christmas Eve either, I just decided to go to that one, too. So, Monday morning, our associate pastor called to tell me he was deathly ill with a stomach virus and neither he, nor his daughter....one of our acolytes....would be there because his wife and other daughter were already out of town at Grandma's. So, I scrounged up another sub and showed up an hour before to do a little "run through" with the other coordinator and the new acolytes. Candlelight communion and all that jazz, not hard but different than the normal Sunday morning duties and we are working with kids...and fire, so a rehearsal was needed. No problem, two adults, 4 kids....we're set.

Everything went fabulously until the very end (when we lit the candles) during "Silent Night". Our pinch hitter acolyte, a sweet adorable little 5th grader, did exactly as she was told and went to the advent wreath, got the light from the Christ candle and turned around to light our two ministers' candles. Unfortunately, our two ministers (in their late 50's) always get a little bit over excited and they were running up to the advent wreath, lighting their candles, walking all over up in front....when one of them backed into sweet little acolyte and caught the sleeve of his robe on fire. The little girl's dad was sitting in the front row, luckily, and ran up and put it out and she went on to do her duty (lighting the person on the aisle in each row so they could pass the candlelight down the row), but when she finished she got back to her seat and burst into tears. It was actually very comical if she'd not been so upset and it was soooo not her fault. The funny thing is that usually we have the associate minister (the one who was sick) kind of "wrangle" the two others, but since he wasn't there, they were all over the place. The poor little girl was still upset well after the service was over--I know it was just so embarrassing and J2 was so much like that when she was younger, I can sympathize. We told her that those two were just loving that they would have a good story to tell from now on, and she was not responsible at all, but I know that I still have some of those life's most embarrassing moments and I still get that creepy feeling in my stomach when I think about them 20-30 years later.

So, at the 7:00 service, the story was confirmed from the pulpit since the rumor was already going around before the service (there was a kids' service between the two candlelight services, so there were plenty of people around to fill the rumor mill!) And since the minister who caught fire wasn't there (he's semi retired, so he hadn't planned to be there for the 7:00 service), everyone was reassured that he was alright, didn't lose a limb, and all was well.

We even made the front page of the AJC on Christmas morning, with no mention of all the excitement, just a sweet little story about the enthusiasm for playing the roles of Mary, Joseph and Jesus in the two childrens' services....so they have to draw names. We have, I swear, a thousand kids in our preschool and nursery, so I was glad I wasn't in charge of either of those services.

I'll take a robe fire over that anyday!

Little bit of this and a little bit of that

And so the countdown to Christmas begins in earnest. I finally got DOTR's business Christmas cards out yesterday and then spent the day goofing off with Favorite SIL. She was in town to drop off her car at the BMW dealership for an oil change, and being Favorite SIL, managed to score a courtesy car for the whole day. (Whoops, it only took them 30 minutes for the oil change after she nixed the $1400 repair they called about during lunch...little too much "play" in the steering wheel....give.me.a.break).

Last night J2 and I went to her friend's annual Mother/Daughter Gift Exchange. It was so good to see everyone again, especially since all the girls have gone off to college. Her mother was just happy that they still wanted to have the party--it's been a tradition for a long time now. We do some very serious stealing of ornaments/Christmas decorations, etc. and over 60 played, so it took three hours! Not to mention the food. I've tasted every Christmas treat in the world and didn't have to cook a thing. Love it.

Today we saw our "family movie", the new National Treasure flick. Not bad, highly implausible, but definitely good for a Friday afternoon. Luckily, the county schools were still in session today, so the theatre was not crowded at all. That was a nice surprise. J1 took off to meet a sorority sister to look for bridesmaids' dresses (she was surprised and thrilled to be asked to be in the wedding). J4 has already begged to have someone spend the night and I'm sure J2 and J3 will find something more exciting to do than hang around here with us.

I have to go through the gifts (still unwrapped and really unorganized) and see if I need to do a little more shopping. It was so much easier when they were little, they loved everything, you could buy them a lot of stuff for a little bit of money, and you could do it way in advance.

Now, not so much. The boys only want really expensive stuff. The girls are too busy to go shopping so you can even see what they like, and what you once knew they liked....well, they don't like it anymore. They get stuff all year round, so there's really nothing left to buy for them as a gift.

It's been nearly a week since the girls came home and we are all feeling a little claustrophobic around here. The house is plenty big for all of us, but we're used to having our own little spaces, girls included. J1 never leaves this room, so I never get any privacy on the computer. Every tv is occupied with somebody else running the controls. Lots of foul tempers are starting to bubble to the the surface. Mine most definitely included. So tired of being talked to like I am stupid and a pest to be put up with for the duration.

I think this is a preview of what will probably be one long summer.

Yikes!

Only a week left before Christmas Eve. I had great intentions of getting gift baskets for my family from the fab-u-lous coffee and chocolate shop on the Square (owned by green magsterpie's fireman), but it just didn't happen. So, plan B. I found these adorable gift bags online at Lands' End, so I ordered them for my brother, sister and parents. We've stopped the individual gift thing, my parents have everything they could ever need, and in my own cleaning frenzy this past month or two, I've decided that I'm only giving consumable gifts from now on (with the exception of the adorable little gift bag, which can also double as a Husker purse after the candy is gone!)

I promise I'll get my act together next year and give my family something exquisite from Winans!

MIA

I will be MIA for the next few days.

After many years of too much volunteering (I won't even begin to bore you with the details) I've managed to pull back in the past couple of years, but this weekend I'm in charge of the hospitality room at our JV Wrestling tournament. After a trip to Costco for supplies, I'll be cooking today and in the morning and then I'll be stuck in that room for the rest of the weekend!

And I'm so trying to get all the bags of crap out of our house before the girls come home from college...I want their rooms to be warm and welcoming (for a change) instead of a huge mess. My goal is to get rid of half the stuff I am storing for no reason. I cannot tell you how many tshirts, magazines and paperback books we have (well, I can because I've counted....but I won't!)

My new chair and table will be delivered tomorrow and the new washer and dryer come on Sunday. So I had to clean my laundry room. Fun times. Even messier than the girls' rooms.

And just to top off this spectacular week, we got an email that J3 has to get a good grade on his Algebra 2 final and turn in.....drumroll, please.....a bunch of missing homework, or he will fail. And he's also failing French right now, because he's missing.....you guessed it.....a bunch of homework.

Is there something difficult about writing down your homework, actually doing it and turning it in on the day it's due?

Didn't think so.

Joyeux Noel

I'm hosting the family Christmas celebration this year. We don't really have any firm traditions, but one thing I don't like to do is a repeat of Thanksgiving (my MIL and Homeschool/Farmlovin' SIL always want to do this--for every holiday.....Easter, Mother's Day, you name it, they're drying out a turkey).

I'm acolyte coordinator at our church and Christmas Eve is crazy, so I'm tired on Christmas and the last thing I want to do is get up early. I don't want to go anywhere, eat marginal food and sit around being bored until we can safely sneak out. Therefore, usually, I'm the hostess with the mostess. (I skipped hosting last year and we had to eat off of...you guessed it....paper plates, sitting around card tables on lawn chairs...real uptown!)

Usually I try to come up with some kind of a theme. When I turned 40, DOTR took me to Maui a couple weeks before Christmas, so we had a Hawaiian brunch. Lots of tropical fruits, french toast with coconut syrup, etc. Truly one of my more inspired menus. One time I did 4 different kinds of soup, and another I made everything out of my "Prairie Home Cooking" cookbook, since we're all Midwesterners living in the South. I've done the Southern thing to death over the past twenty odd years, so this year I decided to go French. Sorta. (they'll never know anyway!)

I invited everybody to come for appetizers and desserts at 4:00 pm. I'm making cheese fondue, chocolate fondue, jambon(ham) on croissants, lots of baguettes, all kinds of olives, pickles and charcuterie, and a buche de noel....I'm still working on the menu, but that will be French enough to fool DOTR's family!

Ho ho ho.

Real Men Don't Each Quiche Anymore

Boys. Ugh.

Our family has always been "even steven"...two boys, two girls, one dad, one mom. Totally in balance on the hormonal scale. Now that the girls are gone, it's totally out of whack. The testosterone level in this house is beyond what I can handle. I give kudos to all who live with only boys (Favorite Sister in Law....how'd she do it all these years?)

We eat crappy food now because they bitch and moan if I make something that I actually like (always wondered why Favorite SIL ate like a man...well, now I know). They are perpetually in crappy moods. They lose EVERYTHING (J3 lost his $250 letter jacket after owning it for 25 days). They forget EVERYTHING. They can't remember to do their homework, and if they did it, they don't turn it in. They think getting a 70 on something is just fine because it's "passing".

Even after being told nine thousand, two hundred million times, they cannot 1) hang up a towel after using it, 2) pick up their clothes from in front of the shower, 3) flush the toilet after using it, 4) dress themselves in clothes that match, 5) change their clothes after they're told they don't match, 6) wear a coat when it's below 30 degrees, 7) not wear a coat when it's above 65 degrees (which means you will take it off somewhere and LEAVE IT THERE!) 8) ask to drive through McDonald's every single day at least once and sometimes twice....I can't go on. It's just too depressing.

If one more person tells me that boys are so much easier than girls, I'm going to smack the crap out of them.

My girls were a piece of cake.

A New Era

Turner Gill and Bo Pelini in 2003 (LJS)

Well, we have a coach. I wasn't paying much attention when he was at Nebraska for one season in 2003, but my brother (Husker expert) was pretty lukewarm about him when we last spoke. I was hoping that God...I mean Tom Osborne....would hire Turner Gill, Husker Legend.

Oh well. Happily, Bo says that Nebraska is his dream job. Hope so, since he's never stayed at one job for more than 3 years. Since DOTR and I went to college with Turner, we were rooting for him to come back home and save the Huskers. DOTR says that Bo doesn't like to lose (unlike our latest regime, who didn't seem to care one way or the other) so hopefully he can lead us out of the darkness and into the light.

Bo Big Red.

Did yo daddy dress you?

We always call DOTR "Monochrome Man" because he always, even after twenty plus years of my nagging, ALWAYS tries to wear the same color shirt and pants. He will come out in navy blue shorts and polo shirt or red shorts and a solid red shirt. We actually have a picture of us in Hawaii when we were young and attractive that would be a great picture if DOTR had not insisted that he looked just fine when I told him he needed to change his clothes because #1) you don't wear red and red, and #2) your reds don't match.

So, just in the past couple of weeks I have noticed that they must've left one too many men in charge of the football uniforms, because all of the sudden everybody's monochrome man on the field. The two most heinous examples this past weekend were Tennessee and Oregon. Ewww. Stop. the. madness.

The Huskers looked ridiculous in all white when they played Colorado. I'm sure that's why we lost. Lack of self esteem because they were dressed like retards. That's why we're sitting home this New Year's Day and not going to a bowl game.

But at least we do have a coach. More on this later.

I should be old enough to know better

Well, Pilgrimage 2007 is one for the books. I think it went well. I was a house chair on Saturday and the weather was absolutely gorgeous. Our lines were not bad, but I was at a two story house, so you can get more people in at one time. The real cloggers were the little cottages and house #1....because everybody thinks that's where they should start. I toured for awhile yesterday but I was still kinda tired and I needed to get busy on my own decorating (there's nothing like standing in a house for five hours that's been spiffed up and decorated for a holiday tour to make you go home and get busy!)

I remembered why I usually do my house chair duty on Sunday instead of Saturday...the Preview Party on Friday night. Oh baby, it was fun. Very, very fun. Way too much fun.

And I wasn't the only person in Blue Devil land who was movin' waaaaay too slow on Saturday. I barely got going in time to do my shift at 1:00, then as soon as I got home at 6:30, I changed my clothes and decided to watch tv in bed (until 8:00 Sunday morning--I was dead to the world).

We went to early church, then DOTR took the boys out for lunch and I went to some of the houses. I stopped at the Garden Center and got a bunch of fresh wreaths and garland. Then I went home, opened three new boxes of white lights, made sure they worked, wound them in and out of the fresh garland (took me about an hour....yes, I am challenged when it comes to stuff like that!), I hung it up again and voila.....half the lights on one of the strings didn't work.

So I did the only thing I could do...I went in the house, put on my pajamas and got in bed to watch reruns of CSI.

How old am I again?