Surprise, Surprise!!!  I’m posting and it hasn’t been a week or more since my last post!  See, Christmas miracles can happen.  I don’t have a lot to report.  As of today, I am officially almost finished shopping for everyone and only have to pick up 1 or 2 tiny little gifts…you know…stocking stuffers for the husband, and a couple of gift certificates to complete the gifts for others.  It feels good to be finished, but I must admit that I really do love the thrill of picking out the perfect gift.  I hate it when people want really crappy stuff that isn’t fun to buy.  My brother for instance told me that he wanted an ironing board.  ?#$&%#??  What’s that all about?

Speaking of Scuba Steve, he’s been working on his degree by taking night classes and he had a paper due a few weeks back and had paid (yep, he’s awesome) me to type it for him.  Well, he got his grade back yesterday and he made 100%!!  I was really impressed.  Of course I would like to think that it was my stellar typing skills that were the main cause for the grade, but I know better than that.  LOL!

We have a busy month planned already.  I was making out a calendar for the fridge since I know I’ll have a hard time keeping everything straight and WOW!!  Tonight, Rudolph on TV (yippee…more for me than LittleMan, but don’t tell), tomorrow is Christmas at LuckyHusband’s job, Friday night is the Christmas Express Train in town with Santa and everything, Saturday is visiting Santa with LittleMan’s friend Hunter at the local Wal Mart (I know…cheesy, but fun…it’s the same Santa that I saw when I was little), and Sunday is the Christening of our photographer’s baby.  And the rest of the month is shaping up to look exactly the same as this week!!  I’ll be so exhausted when Christmas gets here!!  I’m having my LASIK touched up on the 22^nd, so at least I’ll get a little rest then. 

Until my next rambling post….

Melissa

Well, Thanksgiving is over, and of course, not without incident.  Wednesday, LuckyHusband and I went out into the middle of nowhere so that I could check out some stuff for work.  We had to go and look for an old water well at an old school (long story) and it was pretty cool.  The school was falling down, but the gym and auditorium were still in tact.  It was really neat.  But then again, the smallest things amuse me.  LOL!  Wednesday night, we went to eat at my mom’s house, which all in all went pretty well. 

Thursday, we began at 10 am with lunch at my aunt Sarah’s house and then went to LuckyHusband’s dad’s house at noon.  I was so tired when that was over and LittleMan didn’t nap very well because he was sooo tired. 

Friday, Scuba Steve and I went to the movies and saw Ice Harvest.  Dark comedy is one of my favorites and this movie was great!!  Billy Bob Thornton is hilarious and the movie was really well cast. (or is it casted??? hmmm…not sure).  When we returned to my dad’s to pick up LittleMan, he had fell and hit his head.  He had a HUGE goose egg on his forehead.  But, it really didn’t seem to bother him too much.  We also managed to get him to sit still long enough for a picture for our Christmas cards.  You can see the pic at http://cuteboyphotos.blogspot.com if you want. 

Saturday was the parade in town.  LittleMan and I were supposed to ride in the passenger seat of Hooker’s car (she was in the parade for being on the Homecoming court), but it rained and so rather that sit up on the back of the convertible and us sit in the front, she had to sit inside with the top up and so we didn’t get to ride.  It was so rainy and cold.  I couldn’t believe that people had their kids out in that mess to catch $1 worth of candy!  Instead LittleMan and I went home and ate supper (spaghetti, I was so sick of all that holiday food!!) and snuggled up on the couch and watched a cake-off on Food Network (which reminds me…I need to get on their website and see if those recipes are on there). 

Sunday (yesterday) we woke up and went to Sunday School and then to LuckyHusband’s mom’s house for Thanksgiving.  His two sisters kinda argued a little, which I found to be funny, and then his sister and mom were in the corner whispering (which I’m fairly sure was about me), and then we ate.  Nothing overly eventful.  LuckyHusband and I sent each other “help me” looks throughout the “visiting” stage after eating.  I hate that visiting stage.  You never know how soon you can leave and not be seen as rude.  I really hate lounging around at anyone’s house other than my own or at Hooker’s.  Everywhere else I just feel uncomfortable.   

Anyway, after eating, we went home and played outside where I tried to take some pictures while LittleMan played.  I got a cool pic of a fly that I’ll add to the photoblog soon.  Then we went into town and visited with LuckyHusband’s grandmother and that was about it. 

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! 

We’ve been so busy with the upcoming holidays!  It’s amazing how much stuff you can cram into one little weekend! 

Saturday, my friend Cristi and I took LittleMan and her little boy, Hunter shopping for a day.  LOL!  We went to an arts and crafts expo at the local civic center, then went to Hobby Lobby and Sam’s Club.  We had a pretty good time and then took the kids to Olive Garden to eat.  That was interesting.  The Sam’s Club trip yielded lots of good food and a gigantic package of grapes that LittleMan just HAD to have after eating a sample.  (I guess that serves me right for grazing and not buying when I go in there sometimes). 

Sunday after church, we went grocery shopping and came home to cook a HUGE supper for Hooker and her boyfriend, and her mom, dad, brother and his girlfriend, my mom, and Scuba Steve.  We had ham, mashed potatoes, homemade mac and cheese, crescent rolls (I love those!), sweet potato casserole, broccoli with potatoes and cheese, corn, pecan pie, and cheesecake.  It was yummy (and I was stuffed).  I love to cook big meals, but have to invite people over so that the food doesn’t go to waste.

We are all eating at my mom’s again on Wednesday night and I am going to try to remember and take lots of pictures.  I love family pictures and don’t have nearly enough of them.  I wish I had gotten some last night, but being the one doing all of the cooking, I was way too busy!  

After everyone left, I realized what the holiday was all about.  One of the people at our gathering last night really broke my heart.  This person is going through a lot at home and was so glad to be invited to eat with us and thanked us multiple times.  I’ve never been at a point where I felt alone.  My family is HUGE, and as our preacher pointed out yesterday, we are like the mob…we always travel in little family cliques.  I can’t imagine not having that strong family background to fall back on.  I know that at any given time Hooker’s mom and dad would take me in, no questions asked, if I needed.  I know that my aunt Sarah (the crazy one….all families have them  I guess) would give me the clothes off her back if I needed.  I just can’t imagine not having that.  So, this Thanksgiving, the old cliché is actually true, I am most thankful for my family.  It just took seeing us through the eyes of someone else to realize it.

Well, it’s that time again:  the holidays.  The time when a family tries to emulate Stretch Armstrong and string themselves in various directions all at once while simultaneously trying to keep a “happy face” because heaven forbid you act like the idea of eating grandmother’s tree-bark turkey isn’t foremost on your to do list. 

Discussions have begun in our household about the many engagements being booked for the holidays.  We have anywhere from 4-6 venues that we MUST attend every holiday.  One year, we hit a grand total of 11.  Yes, after that I insisted that once I had children, the madness must stop.  And for a large part, it has; however, not as much as I would like. 

I guess it should be flattering to know that the presence of my family is a definite must for our families, but I also realize that it’s more like the presence of LittleMan is a must for LuckyHusband’s family and that I am just an unfortunate accessory which they must tolerate.  Sadly, I would love to give them the deepest desires of their heart and not show up, but I honestly would be sick with worry if LittleMan were to go without me.  I have nightmares of the hyperactive cousin kicking him in the head (probably due to the fact that while LittleMan was about 4 weeks old, the kid fell on LittleMan’s head and I was made to feel like a b**** for getting on to him and then I was basically called a liar and assured that I really didn’t just see what I know that I saw), or of the in-laws feeding him something that will inevitably choke him and lead to irreversible brain damage.  Unlikely (well the last one anyway) I know, but being a mother has made me worry about the unlikely far much more than I have ever done. 

Anyway, as usual, these are my ramblings…tell me I’m not the only one.

There are some new pictures up on my photoblog  http://cuteboyphotos.blogspot.com  Hope you enjoy!  We are going to see Hooker’s big night tonight.  She is on the Homecoming court.  For the first year ever, they decided not to give roses to the court, so I decided to let LittleMan “buy” her some at the flower shop and he’s going to take them to her after the court presentation.  I think that will be really cute.  I’ll take tons of pictures. 

Well, Saturday was my papaw’s 74^th birthday.  We have always had a “love-hate” relationship.  I’ve never really called him “papaw”, just Wayne.  He was never really an overly active grandparent.  I can remember spending the night with him when he came into town to visit his parents, but that was about the extent of it.  He lived in our state capitol and worked in state government, so I rarely saw him.  When I was a junior in college, I received a call that Wayne had suffered a stroke and wasn’t doing well.  I made the 4 hour journey with my dad to bring him home, but he suffered a massive stroke our way to pick him up and was unresponsive when we got there.  He gradually came back around, but has never been the same.

He turned into a sweet, caring, overly involved person (apparently the mean sensors got fried).  So, in a strange way, the stroke gave us the papaw we always wished that we’d had growing up.  He is really attentive to LittleMan and LittleMan is fascinated by “Waynie”.  In fact, instead of Halloween, we celebrated “Hallo-wayne” as LittleMan called it.  LOL! 

Anyway, we had a little birthday party with some sugar free pudding at the nursing home.  Wayne moaned and groaned because we didn’t bring cake and said “It’s my damn birthday and I can have sugar if I want it!”.  He also argued with Hooker on her latest choice in someone to date.  Pretty funny stuff. 

I’ll try to post a few birthday pics tomorrow.  Be sure and check them out.  Wayne’s a hoot and the pictures are pretty good.

Well, LittleMan came home yesterday with a new girlfriend, Mawry.  I know this because he said her name every 5 seconds….Mawry, Mawry, Mawry aka Mallory.  He apparently likes older women.  She’s about 19 or 20 years old and is a freshman in college.  She’s one of Hooker’s friends and was over at Hooker’s yesterday.  So, when LuckyHusband got home, I told LittleMan to tell him who he loved.  He replied, “Mawry”.  So, there you go.  Already I’ve been upstaged….and he’s only 18 months old.

Have you ever had one of those days that start out beautiful and leave you optimistic that this will be one of the best days you’ve had in a while?  You know what I mean, the weather is good, your hair looks great despite the fact that it desperately needs a little color touch-up, you are on time (early even!), and your pants button with no embarrassing bulge.  Well, that’s how my day started, but as soon as I walked into the door at work BAM!, it all came crashing down. 

I take some things a little too personal at times and this morning was one of those mornings.  If an isolated incident, I would have probably been able to blow it off with no problems, however, after that more things started to go wrong.  I won’t go into details, because it honestly wouldn’t do any good.  I ate lunch with my beautiful little boy and tried to get a more positive attitude.  But, I came back to work and learned a startling piece of news that I can’t share with anyone because I’m too paranoid and now I have to do what I do very poorly….wait for the other shoe to drop on the piece of news that I learned.  Grrrr…..I hate that! 

Anyway, maybe my afternoon will be better.  I hope so.

Melissa

It hasn’t rained here in 2 months, but put on a costume, load up a wagon and start trick or treating, and you can rest assured that the thunder, lightening, wind, and rain will all make an appearance.  We made it to about 6 houses when it looked like we were going to get drenched.  We had decided to trick or treat in my dad’s neighborhood this year because we could walk to all of the houses and take our wagon to haul home our loot.  So, after about 30 minutes, we were back at my dad’s house, getting ready to head home before the rain melted us in all of our sweetness.

We ended up at a party at a local bank that was indoors and then hit a few houses on our way home.  The most fun LittleMan had all night was when we stopped by an elderly neighbor’s house partly to trick or treat and partly to check up on him after his knee surgery last week.  He had gotten a hospital bed for the living room and had his walker beside the bed.  All of this fascinated LittleMan and he cried when we left, much to the enjoyment of our neighbor.  LOL!

Overall, we had fun and when LittleMan got home, he begged for a diaper change, pajamas, and the bed.  He was exhausted.  We should do that more often! 

Melissa