Dirty Little Secret

We all have one. Or two. A dirty little secret. Some we care to share, others we like to keep in the deep dark corners of our room. I'm willing to admit to two today just because of the stigma attached to them and how hilarious I think they are!

Dirty Little Secret #1: The Snuggie

I admit it. I OWN a Snuggie. I'm not proud of it, but I do have one in my possesion. In my opinion, they are dumb. A backwards robe; just take your bathrobe, turn it around and put it on. Everyone has a snuggie. But mine is an officially licensed namebrand bona-fide real one. How did I get it? Was it gifted? Nope, I spent my own money on it. Why? Because I didn't know what I was buying. At the end of October, we went down to Provo for a weekend. We also went to a BYU football game. (one of only two games they lost this season) At the game, I saw this great poncho; it had sturdy duckcloth on the exterior, a nice embroidered BYU logo on the front, a hood and on the inside; warm, snuggly goodness. It was lined with polar fleece that had BYU logos on it. Perfect for any Cougar fan! They told me where they bought it and my memory remembered 'WalMart'. So we swung by WalMart and I searched high and low for that darn poncho. They were cleaned out of a lot of BYU merchandise. I flagged down an employee and she said, "Oh yeah, it's at the front of the store on an end cap." Perfect. I grabbed the box, threw it in the cart, checked out and ran to the car. We got home and I'm unpacking our loot. (we hit Ikea that weekend too) I open up the supposed poncho box and I pull out a Snuggie. What?? Yes, a college football themed Snuggie. Apparently you can buy them for just about any sports team. I thought I might as well try it since I'm stuck with it. Yes, it does keep you toasty, but my back gets cold. Especially the back of my neck. And those commercials where the fans are wearing a Snuggie then leaping to their feet to cheer on that homerun? Completely impossible. I tried a one person wave on my couch and you just get colder. And I tried turning it around and it doesn't meet evenly in the middle. What's the point? Just put on your robe and quit complaining, people. Oh, and I was mistaken about where the poncho was bought; not WalMart, Costco. Ahhh, that explains a lot.

Dirty Little Secret #2:

Um, let me interrupt. This post has gone on a bit longer than I intended. I won't air all of my dirty secrets today. Besides, I haven't given my Christmas Idea #2 yet.

Christmas Idea #2: Evening Devotional
Have a nightly Christmas themed devotional. A song & poem or story. I am lucky enough to have a book with a scripture, carol and story for each night leading up to Christmas. But here are some great sites that have all of the aforementioned topics available. Last night, the kids and I sang Angels we have heard on High and read the story "The Littlest Angel". If anyone is interested, I can email you the current devotional. Wait, I just had an idea. I'll try and make a sidebar "thing" with the day's scripture, carol & story. We'll see how it works out.

All Things Christmas

North Pole.com

Apples 4 the Teacher

YouTube Tuesday: Are you Sure?

Ah, commercials from the 80's. Much like full length songs of the era, those jingles were power ballads. For once, people belted from the rooftops their love of deoderant or soap. Why aren't commercials like this anymore? I guess it's just not cool.

The First Day of December

Wow, where did the year go? Really, I was just here, December 1, 2008. Except it's 2009. A lot has changed, but at the same time, not much either. I am not in Cairo, but am without husband. Last year he was gone, too. But I'm fine with that. We keep in contact every day; talking at least once daily and emailing everything.

I do miss not having my husband around the house, but I also miss the "Man Around the House" aspect of it, too. Like wrestling with the Christmas tree yesterday. I bought a new, fake, pre-lit behemoth. I love it. 7.5 feet tall. (2.3 meters) But it's heavy and unwieldy. It would have been a lot easier with some help. I already solved the "Christmas Lights on the House" dilemma. I paid someone to do it. 6.5 hours later, I have a lighted house.

Or hauling out the Christmas boxes, bulging with decorations. I did it. It just took me longer. But I feel like the house is holiday-ready. Green pine scented candles are scattered around the main living area and I have all my nativities set up. I'll probably rearrange them a few more times, but that's what they're for! The kids are making present lists and delivering them to my office, complete with illustrations. My sister and her husband visited at the beginning of November and Uncle Chris asked Mairyn what she wanted for Christmas. Her response? Egypt. Hmmm, I don't know how to package that up, sweetie. She has since rearranged her priorities and already has 9 items on the Santa list. You want to see it? I think it's hilarious.

For Santa
What I want for x-mas. (yes, she wrote x-mas)

1. A snuggie.
2. A Pillow pet. (dolphin shaped, i think, b/c there's a dolphin drawn next to it)
3. All of the doll's like this. (and there's a nondescript 'doll' drawn)
4. A pair of roller blades.
5. A pack of animals.
6. A sticky frog, red.
7. A toy of Troy and Gabriella (with troy & gabriella drawings)
8. A toy of an ayd kid ( i'm thinking a first aid kit?)
9. A glow dome

Alright, kid, we'll see what Santa can do. The kids do miss Spencer, but they are handling it pretty well. They get to talk to him occasionally. He gets off work about mid-morning our time, so they're at school when he calls. Sundays are our reconnect days, they get to talk to him. Saturdays sometimes, but they can be busy days, too.

I am going to try and post a Christmas idea every day until said holiday. First holiday idea? Plan to do the 12 days of Christmas for someone, anonymously. Now, I know there are different ways of doing it. The original 12 days of Christmas actually begin on Christmas and continue until January 5th. Is it called Epiphany? I don't know, I'm not Catholic. But the Americanized 12 days of Christmas begins December 14th and continues until Christmas. For me, that usually means 12 anonymous gifts to a person(s). Keeping it with one person usually makes it quite fun and full of mystery for the receiving end. But start thinking about it now. Usually I realize that, "Oh, today is the first of the 12 days of Christmas, crap!" and hurriedly whip something together. Take time, put thought into it, and I know you'll feel like you received more!

Finally

Well, here we are, the last day of NaBloPoMo. I feel like I should write something profound or riveting, like my life has found serious purpose because of this challenge. Not that it has, that just sounds like something that should have happened! Or that I want to blog every day now that I've done it for a month. No, actually the opposite reaction has happened. Though the thought of not blogging makes me feel like I'm slacking and I should post something!

Truth be told, I have learned from this month of daily publishing that I have more ideas than I thought I did. I have at least 6 nuggets of blogging gold in my notebook, waiting their turn to be melted down and turned into a charm on my posting necklace. (eh, how's that for analogy?) More often than not, I was met with the evening panic of, "Eeek! What the heck am I going to post about tomorrow?" I always had back-up ideas, it's just I didn't always have the time to compose. I felt like I'd be wasting that idea if I just threw it out there for the sake of posting it. I wanted to spend time with it, feel it out and create it. I just wish I had a computer that could translate my thoughts as fast as I think them!

Now, another question I have for myself. What did I hope to accomplish by participating? I think I wanted to complete the challenge. I wanted to see if I could do it. And I also hoped that I would have more ideas and that I could hone my writing skills a bit. Practice makes perfect, even in writing. Even if I didn't compose my magnum opus this month, I learned some things about my writing. If I really like the topic, the ideas just flow. Alternatively, I can be just as passionate about an idea and be completely stumped when it comes down to conveying my message.

All in all, it was very therapeutic for me. I ignored the taunts and jeers when I mentioned that such and such would make for great blogging fodder. I think I've been surrounded by blogger haters most of the time and I thought there was a stigma attached to the practice. I'm also not one to follow the crowd; if everyone is blogging, well I'm not going to. Just because I'm facetious that way. I'm glad that I did resurrect this blog and have kept on posting. What I have appreciated is all the support from my bloggy friends! Comments make my day! And since I've had such a positive experience, I will be posting more regularly. I am a little more "okay" with posting something that isn't exactly perfect. Thank you NaBloPoMo! Even if I don't get a prize!

**Tomorrow is still YouTube Tuesday!!**

Traveling: Part Deux

Where did I leave off? Oh yes, Grant and his nice 'present' to me. Well, we hopped back in the car and continued on down the windy road. Gina the GPS kept us informed that we would be arriving in Boise at 5:15 pm. As we neared Nampa, I all I felt was hungry. I asked Gina to find me an Olive Garden. Lo and behold, there was one 2.5 miles from the next off-ramp. My sister and I pow-wowed and decided that if we still fell the need for speed, we would just skip Boise and continue on to Rexburg. After all, Gina said we would arrive at 11:34 pm.

We had a lovely, filling dinner and exited the restaurant to a steady rain. Hmmmm, not ideal, but we still wanted to sleep in our own beds that night. Baby Taylor was crying, but she always calms down once the car starts moving. She doesn't like it when the car stops! Well, Baby Taylor did not stop screaming and I had hit a wall. Being on the road for 12 hours was enough. We pulled off and found the Auntie's house and crashed.

I set my alarms for 5 am, just wanting to plow home and be done. I laid in bed until 5:45 am when Baby Taylor started her alarm. I piled the kids into the car and we were back on the road by 6:45 am. 40 miles down the freeway, an interesting sight loomed ahead of us. It looked like a sandstorm wall cloud, except it was black and not sandy. Steady drizzle followed us all the way to Pocatello. *sneer* And, I think the stretch between Boise and Pocatello could be on par with I-80 that runs along Southern Wyoming as the most boring piece of scenery that ever was. It also doesn't help that I had a snoozing co-pilot and zoned out kids. Not much for conversation.

We reached Rexburg by 11:10 am and beat Gina's prediction of arriving by 11:30 am. Yes, my whole purpose in life is to beat arbitrary time limits set by a mini-computer on my dashboard. The rest of Saturday was spent unloading (a little) and then taking my sister to Idaho Falls for some shopping she needed to accomplish. Baby Taylor managed to poop through 2 outfits during the outing. And we had to cajole and sweet-talk the eye doctor at Sams Club to give Katelyn one contact. See, she forgot her glasses in Montana and last night, she somehow missed the mark and her left contact did not make it to the case. So she was a cyclops all day, trying to figure out how she would make the drive home to Montana today. We waltzed up to the Vision counter, baby visibly bundled in arms and looking very cute. We explained the dilemma and, after much persistence and cute baby showcasing, they forked over one contact. Whew, mission accomplished, time to head back home, crash into bed and get up in the morning and do it all over again. Except not for me. Only Katelyn. Sorry, sis. But she only has 4 hours to go. I'm glad we did it, but I'm glad it's done!

Traveling

*sigh* I'm pooped. We arrived, finally, at home today. Friday morning at 5:30 am, my alarm boing-ed off (yes, it makes a *boing* sound) and signaled the beginning of a long journey. Though nothing compares to traveling internationally; it was still arduous. I had the kids, bags, my sister & her 7 week old packed in the car and headed down the road by 6:30 am. It was cold, drizzly and the weather was not happy I was driving. Mounting the passes by Crater Lake, there was already 6 feet of snow on the ground. Creeping along at speeds between 35 and 50 miles an hour, it took us almost 3 hours to reach our first pit stop of Bend. The clouds had thankfully parted while we ran in and out of WalMart & the gas station, to feed both the hungry humans and the car.

Once we were back on the road, the clouds decided that they were sad we had left Bend, and started crying. It cried all the way to Burns. We were able to up the speed since there wasn't any snow & ice, but still not fun driving in spats of rain. Potty stop in Burns and then we piled back in the car. Literally, 5 minutes down the road and Grant proclaims,

"I've gotta go to the bathroom!!"

Crap. Little did I know, that would soon be literal. We pulled over into a small turnout and I took Grant around to the side of the van. Since it's a van, we only have one door to open and act as his "stall". He kind of shuffled his feet, with his little red sweatpants around his ankles, and tried to attempt the roadside relief effort. He was not being successful, so I offered to hold him on my arms and let him sit, like a toilet and I would look away. As I am squatting in the gravel with my 5 year old slung between my arm and him clinging to my neck for dear life, a truck pulls up behind us. Crap again. She was peering over her steering wheel, assessing the situation, trying to figure out if we needed help. (it was pretty unpopulated out there) In her defense, I was next to the front tire. She soon realized we needed some privacy and pulled back out onto the road. I told Grant to just ignore her and get this DONE! (it had started to sprinkle rain again) I was thinking he had #1 to accomplish; noooo, a nice fragrant #2 was deposited at Mommy's feet. Double crap. Fortunately, we were traveling with an infant and we used a diaper to scoop up our "present" and be on our merry way. (I couldn't leave that desert blossom on the side of the road; wipes, tissue and all.)

Tune in for part 2 of our merry trip tomorrow! I'm going to bed, but darn it if I'm going to skip blogging!!

Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving get together! Now it's time to start the 8 hour drive to Boise, then another 5 hours over to Rexburg on Saturday. Fun fun fun. It has been a wonderful visit, but I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed. No matter how great the hotel bed may be (there have been one or two) it's still not the same as my own beddy.

I am so thankful for a car that works without worries.
-- family that I care about and that I like to visit!
-- our health. Because with 4 little kiddos, the germs could be rampant!
-- beautiful weather! Fog every morning, burning off by quarter to noon.
-- lush, green nature walks on the mountain.
-- and friends that read my blog!! Even slogging through the boring posts with me! ;)

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!