Happy New Year In Four Fast Photos
This was Christmas and New Year’s. It’s January 3. These lights are gone, put away already. It was the only holiday stuff we had up due to some house painting and carpet replacing we did this winter break. No Christmas tree, stockings, decorations, etc, versus that fresh new house feeling? So worth it. And the house really does feel sort of new considering most of our stuff is still outside in the garage. I’m trying to de-clutter, so if it stays out there long enough we don’t need it right? Luckily I have been working every day so I missed most of the mess and most of the manual labor. This “re-filling” of the house could take awhile. And, no snow. Thank you Midwest weather. Seriously. Thank you. True to Chicago fashion, our “Winter Storm Alert!” is 33 degrees of rain. Not a problem as I see it. It can just keep on raining. Anyway, that’s it. I’m still here. We’re all still here. And I’m going to post 3 more pictures going backward now to catch up from October. Then we’ll be back on track. Even got some new bird pics to share. Yes fair readers, it’s true. Crows. Three big crows. From I don’t know where. They came, they walked around the yard, they flew away. 2015, here we go.
Random Sunday Butterfly
I’m going to go babysit my brother’s new baby for the first time today! Although technically since he’s 6 months old now, he’s not all that new. So expect the random pictures, I promised, plus new and updated baby pictures, throughout the day as I add this new thing into my Sunday of football, work, and posting. Our dinner was very nice except we forgot that they had the lighting/parade/Christmas thing downtown (in Chicago–in case you want to look it up) and we got caught in a million people’s attendance and traffic. No joke. I heard the news last night, they said one million people were estimated to have attended. If I research and confirm this factoid, I will let you know. But I probably won’t. I won’t research. I won’t confirm. Or refute. Heck, I probably won’t even ever speak of it again. If you want to keep it real, feel free to comment with the correct number and facts, otherwise, let’s just all agree we were downtown with a million other people last night and leave it at that! I will post pictures of anything food/fun related the kids took as soon as they send it to me. I am also planning on a lot less words to go with the rest of the posts I put up here today. Consider this all the reading you need to do for the day! I have to shower and gather my things. Time is a ticking. The kids are going to their dad’s and I think the BF is staying home. It’s individual Sunday. That can totally be our new thing! Later.
I’m On An Adjusted Sleep Schedule!
That title is from New Girl, the TV show. I won’t go into why that’s funny because, 1. I AM on an adjusted sleep schedule!; 2. It’s late, and I’m trying to hurry and type fast; 3. I am lazy and don’t want to; 4. If you don’t watch the show you won’t think it’s funny anyway; and 5. Watch the show!; but 6. It’s probably too late, because the end of the world is fast approaching and the show airs on Monday, and this is Thursday, and I think you missed your last chance earlier in the week; and 7. Major sad face all around 😦 Emoticon. Finite. The End.
That’s our chalk family portrait done by my daughter over the summer in the driveway. I was trying to find just-the-right-picture for this close-to-the-end post and as I was browsing through my many, many, many bird pics, I saw this one, and bonus(!), it looks like we are all waving. Waving goodbye! It’s perfect!
So I don’t really think that the world is going to end in 24 hours or so, but, if it does, I will tell you this: One, I am avoiding Facebook like the plague. I can’t even imagine what people are posting about it. I mean the whole 12/12/12 thing was bad enough. I hope it’s mostly jokes. But I will never know. Two, I have the day off. Thursday. So technically I get to spend the entire last day on Earth (provided the world is ending at midnight going into the 21st) with my family! We will all die in our sleep I guess, in the house, or something…I’m not sure how it will end. Quickly I hope. I don’t want to live in a zombie world. Too old. Too tired. Isn’t the whole zombie thing played out? Like vampires? Three, If the world keeps spinning and spills into Friday, I’m good until, like, 1:30 at least on the 21st. Then I have to go to work. My kids will be at school. The BF will be at work. All of us scattered around Illinois. That would be sad. But, Four, Even sadder would be if the world crawls its sick self all the way until midnight on Friday. The kids and BF will be snug in their beds and I’ll be driving on the expressway. Blah humbug.
At any rate, this is something I wanted to sneak in, just in case. Thanks for reading. Thanks for checking every day, whoever you are, and keeping me active with approx 10-20 reader “hits”. Or the same reader over and over. Either way. Even if you were just randomly searching and came across the site and stopped for a minute just to scan the words and liked even one sentence, I thank you. Also: I love my kids. And the BF. My family. My friends. And that feeling of peace and comfort and total relaxation that I get at 8 am when I am laying in my bed, on my side, covered to the neck in a heavy, warm, down comforter, eyes closed, body loose, about to go back to sleep, after getting the kids up at 6ish to send them to school, and after going to bed around 2-ish (3-ish or even 4-ish, like tonight) because I stay up too late after work playing stupid app games on my phone and because I’m not tired. Whiny whiny whiner. That feeling right before falling totally asleep again is really the best feeling. Like, I could die on the spot and not care if that’s how it felt, kind of feeling. Deep sigh. Then shake it off, because yuck! Too much. Too ghastly for tonight. Wasn’t my intention to make this, possibly the last post, so long and wordy. I can’t even reign it in near the end. And I need to wrap this up seriously and get to bed already.
I actually have a plan for the day and it involves doing, and completing, every single Christmas thing I need to have done before the big day, especially since I have to work right up until we do our family Christmas. That would be Sunday. I am off Monday, Christmas Eve, and that’s when I wanted to do my personal family x-mas. Just me and the BF and the kids. And the Sears repair man. Oh yeah. Did I mention that my clothes dryer took a big crap a few days ago and that I also have to go do laundry tomorrow, at an outside facility (outside the house, not actually outside outside)? No? Well it did. And I do. And the repair guy is coming on Christmas Eve morning to fix it (I hope). Sucks for him because he has to work. I am only off on Monday because it’s my regular day off, otherwise I would be working too. That would have been a fun family x-mas to remember. The kids are going with their dad, later in the Christmas Eve afternoon, the way they always do, and since I have to work on Christmas anyway (First time. EVER. In my whole life. I was soooo spoiled with that office job) I won’t see them again until I get home on x-mas or the next morning. On Wednesday. Just another day. Also a day that I have to work. No more winter breaks or office shut downs for me. Oh well. That’s why everything has to be done tomorrow.
But don’t get the wrong idea, I am not complaining. Big whip, a broken dryer and no time to buy a present? Boo hoo, cry me a river. I know that I already have what is most important in my life right now and I won’t waste any time fretting over something like wet clothes and a botched up day. My kids are with me. I have a fab BF. And a rockin’ set of family and friends. I have a pretty decent job, some money to spend, and a house to live in. It’s good enough. I think I already said that earlier in this Armageddon novel, but it bears repeating all the same.
I also have a list and a plan and a general direction of which stores and in what order and what needs to be done in my house. Like, all of it. I dragged all the decorations out into the living room, 3 big boxes worth, and put out about 4 of them. 4 single decorations. 5 if you count the tree. It has lights and a star. And one decoration. It’s a green glitter glass ball ornament that my daughter got from school. I thought, at first, it would be the starting point. Then I thought, well, we can just have the one ornament, like it’s a “thing”, and move it around every day. Then I had another thought: We can just have one ornament. And it can just stay where it’s at. Bottom left when you look at the tree, hanging off the lowest fake branch. Picture proof coming right up.
Anyway I really do have to end this. It’s almost 4 am Chicago time. No, now it is 4 am. Almost 4:30. Tick tock. The weather is supposed to take a big fat ugly turn in a few hours and dump our first sticky snowfall on us here. But right now it is pouring rain. Pouring. Like non-stop. And it has been since I left work at 11. That is 5 hours of fun rainfall just soaking in and pooling up all over the cold-ass ground. They say the temps are going to drop, and the rain will turn to snow. That’s good right? Snow covered ice slicks all over everywhere. Damn Midwest. The BF has work. The kids have school. My son is sick and has had a 102 degree temp for 2 nights in a row now. He hasn’t had a fever in years and years. But he went to school with that temp down to a cool 101 on Wednesday for finals and he has to go again today for more finals. He’s tough. Both my kids are tough. But I still wake them up every day for school because I can.
Here’s to all the hard working, staying up late, getting it done people I write all this crap for. Have a very merry Pre-Christmas and Weekend-Before the holiday. I will try and write more words in the next few hours and days to come if time and the universe allow. I apologize for all the “likes” used in conversational phrasing and the numbering thing/gimmick. I also used way too many commas, parentheses, and italics. I just can’t help myself sometimes. I love love love English and punctuation! What a nerd! Thanks for hanging out with me anyway. Peace, and that picture as promised. Later.
This is Christmas Day!
The sky is mostly blue with white and gray clouds that look like snow. But it’s windy and warm. Warm for winter where we live anyway. 45 to 50 degrees depending on where you are. And it feels warmer in the sun. A sun that has been shining all day. It is beautiful. And no snow. I could get used to this. Hope your day is just as great!
Merry Christmas!
May all be well and safe out there and keep those lights all burning bright. Eve is gone and time has turned, most magical of nights. Darkness sets across the land as stars reveal their light. The air grows cold but we won’t know, we’re tucked in good and tight. Make your wish and quiet now, let silence reign with precious might. Spirit, joy, and all your dreams, may they come true tonight. To you and yours, Peace and Health and Happiness, now and always.
Christmas Eve Eve
This is the kind of sky we have tonight in the Midwest. This was at sunset. I looked out the kitchen window and everything seemed pink. So when I went outside this is what I saw. Facing southwest. This is taken with the camera and the color has not been altered at all. It’s the color of all my dreams. As it is, and has been every year, for most of my life, Christmas is really more than one day. All the prep stuff is done. The kids are finally off of school. They kept them down to the wire this year. They leave with their dad tomorrow and return to me Christmas Day in the afternoon. We try to keep it as stress free as possible for them. Lots of people travel and my kids have spent many a Christmas Eve traveling on long, cold, dark and icy roads to get shuttled back and forth between his family and mine. Thanks to my sisters and brothers and their new families, compromises needed to made, and I am able to now forfeit the 24th in order to get the 25th and more. Once you give up the notion of Christmas morning it’s really quite magical and it seems like Christmas lasts, like it’s longer somehow. Christmas night, when all of the lights are on and everyone is warm and cozy and tired from the last two days, is when I finally get my real gift. Just us. Being together. Talking about everything that happened while we open our little presents to each other. Laughing so hard that sometimes I just can’t believe I brought these two clever and humorous children into this world. As the years have gone by they started focusing more on the stockings and what was inside them. It’s funny because even though Santa fills them up, I seem to spend an awful lot of time thinking about the things that go into them. They’ve become more important than any actual present. It feels so quiet and peaceful to be awake as most everyone else is getting ready to sleep and say goodnight to another Christmas. This year my family is celebrating on Monday the 26th. It works out really well with family and work schedules. No stress of other places to go or a big meal to cook. We’re doing appetizers and desserts only. Which makes it even better! Everyone is always sick and stuffed to the gills with fat Christmas dinners and we all know that appetizers and desserts are the best part of a party anyway. I get to hang out with all my sisters and brother and all the kids. It’s loud and crazy and never boring. Then on Tuesday we all get to go back to our regular lives for another year. Every year I say I would love to go to a place where they don’t celebrate Christmas at all. Preferably a place that is warm and has a beach and an ocean, because it just becomes too much and not very special at all. But secretly…no, even secretly I still wish I could go anywhere else but here. Luckily though I am easily persuaded. With a few good songs and some well placed advertising and sitcom episodes, that Christmas spirit grabs me by the heartstrings and yanks me right back in. What a sucker. As usual, I have typed way too much and I am tired. Besides it’s Christmas Eve now. I am going to try and post pictures throughout the next few days as this holiday wraps and folds around me, but you know how that can go. So, from me and mine, to you and all of yours, I wish you the very merriest of Christmases. Pay attention and find the joy wherever it may be. I believe in the good. I truly truly do because you just never know. Peace.
11/11/11 Silliness and Stevie has a new hobby
Feast your eyes on this tasty morsel! Believe it or not, this is the final, cooked, product of Stevie’s new hobby: Baking.
This really has nothing to do with 11/11/11 but I thought it was a good way to work in a post about it AND talk about my daughters new love of baking things. We can use this date as the starting point of a new, potential career choice or as the date we can tell the ER that we first started having the symptoms of food poisoning. Either way it’s a memory immortalized on a historic date in time that I will never live to see again.
The way she starts a project is by looking up something she wants to make on the internet. Then she gathers ingredients, measures, stirs, mixes, combines and then cooks. This particular recipe is her 6th attempt at it. First off, let me clarify that this was supposed to be a cupcake recipe. That’s what she looked up but this is what she created: The brown lump you see above.
It was only at the very end, after the batter was in the liners, in the muffin tray, that she realized something was not right. The batter was way too thick and sitting in the cups like dough balls. Like, cookie dough balls. Then she looked back at the internet and saw that her recipe was NOT for cupcakes, but actually for chocolate chip cake cookies. Not chocolate chip cup cakes. See, it’s those words that can be confusing! You see cake, you automatically think cupcake! Her only other fleeting clue was that there was only enough “batter” to fill 4 cupcake liners. She even had her brother in the kitchen wondering what the heck they were looking at. I can just imagine both of them staring at those lumpy “cupcakes” and trying to figure out what went wrong. Then they scraped all the dough out of the liners and put them on a baking tray to cook. Her finished recipe made this many cookies, plus two, that we ate for quality control purposes:
They are not pretty. They are not really good either. They kind of taste like brownie bites with lots of edge. They do have chocolate chips in them though! The problem, besides following the wrong recipe all together, is that when she does find a recipe, she reads it off the internet and doesn’t follow the order of ingredients. She tends to measure and mix things out of order and then loses track of what’s in the bowl already and what is not. Her last cookie attempt, deliberate cookies, may have had salt as an ingredient at least 3 or 4 times. Her motto is: “If you can’t remember, add it again! Then double the recipe!” What you end up with is twice as many salty, chewy cookies to feed to the big, fat squirrels we have growing outside. I swear they gather near the backdoor like they’re having a company meeting when we turn our oven on.
Since I was actually at a job fair for most of this, (2 fairly good interviews I think!! Cross your fingers please!! I really need a job. If anything, just to be able to afford more butter and flour and sugar) I walked in on the turds just coming out of the oven. And heard the story while she was already preparing her next assault on my kitchen and baking supplies. Before she got too deep, I suggested she might consider printing the recipe and then using a pen to check off each item as she used it. She did. She carefully checked to be sure it was really a cupcake recipe. It was. And then she put them together. Obviously baking is a skill that takes time and practice. I was mostly in the room when she mixed and measured, but for some reason, something goes wrong somewhere in the process and the finished product ends up just slightly “off.” These are her vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting:
They are not the worst cupcakes you have ever eaten by any means. They look pretty good. Mostly “risen”. A lot are flat, but that’s ok. The chocolate frosting is good. The problem is that they taste like corn bread muffins and not vanilla cupcakes. We can’t figure out why. It’s a basic recipe. The only difference is that it asked for egg whites instead of whole eggs. It’s weird. Either she is completely missing something or reading the teaspoon/tablespoon/½ and ¾ type measurements wrong. So they can just sit there for a few days and I’ll throw them at the squirrels on Monday. Keep them off my bird feeders for a few minutes. Totally off subject…but I have a red-headed woodpecker that I have been trying to take a picture of for the last few weeks. He was here today so I have to think he’ll be back regularly if I keep the bird seed out and full. I don’t know why it’s exciting to see new and different birds eating in my backyard but it is!! Yay winter!
Anyway, she is done for the night now and I will wrap this up and clean the kitchen. Again. Despite this posting, which she fully read and can appreciate the humor behind (because my kids are cool like that!), she will try again soon, and I will let her. How else is she going to learn?? Send her some love and encouragement so she doesn’t give up because, heads up!, she’s planning on baking ALL the Christmas cookies this year. And unless you want to break a tooth or outright lie, and shatter the holiday dreams of an overly ambitious teenage girl, you all better hope she gets really good at this super FAST! Later!
Torn! X-Mas Catalog Number 2!
It’s a Christmas catalog. But it’s the NFL Christmas catalog.
I want to say this one came the next day after the Target one. We were all pretty excited for this one. Including me. I think I even vocalized an “oooh” or two. Being the proud owner of three NFL Reebok Women’s Premier Jersey’s, I am loving the fact that I now get a catalog mailed to me for easy shopping reminders.Well, it was technically mailed to the BF, but since it’s the same address…what’s yours is mine right?? I was going through quite a football phase the last two years. It probably had a lot to do with the extreme stress I was feeling with nursing school. I needed something to focus on other than failing out. Which of course, if you’ve been reading this website for any length of time, you know that I did not. I am an RN, even if I don’t have a job to prove it. Anyway, the point is, I kind of lost my manic devotion to football this season, as I underestimated how much more intense the feeling of failure would be when I couldn’t find a job right away. Football is not helping this time. It’s not diverting like it used too. Probably because even though I’m still in school, my class is Wednesday and there is no football anywhere near that day to distract me from my homework. I do that all on my own now. So it’s not like much has changed. Again, if you read this site, even occasionally, you know that I spend all day chasing after jobs and all night wasting study time goofing around here or just watching TV. It’s sad really. I got to take someone to the doctor last week and I had a long opportunity to read that never ending book by Denis Leary. I was hoping to finish it so I could finally post about it and be done. Seeing as I originally talked about it 2 years ago. Anyway, you would think I could just take an hour out of one afternoon and finish the stupid thing already. It’s embarrassingly easy to read, with fairly large type and lots of short, double-spaced sentences. It even has pictures in the middle! I’m not kidding when I say I could have read that book in a few hours many years ago, but my brain has altered its core function so that it is now only able to concentrate in short, random bursts. Like firecrackers. Not even. More like snap pops, those things you throw on the ground that make a popping noise. My brain kind of bubbles gently rather than erupting violently anymore. See? I just typed an entire paragraph in a direction that nobody saw coming. Not even me.
Let me see. Scroll back up. Re-read. Pick up original topic. I don’t even know what my original topic was going to be! I guess it was about the catalog. It’s football. I still want another jersey to add to my collection. My sister says they are quite flattering and very fashionable. I know she is being sarcastic, but it gives my mom something to buy for me. Actually this year, I might need a new stethoscope and some work shoes so I may go with that instead. (hint hint Rita) The other thing about the catalog is that they have the Green Bay Packers featured on the front. SuperBowl champs you know. 8 and Zero at this posting time. With my favorite player in the NFL right now, Clay Matthews. Number 52. He’s the jersey I got for my birthday. It’s so pretty and green. Really brings out the color in my eyes too. I included the Green Bay thing because, 1, Clay Matthews really is my fav right now. 2, they are undefeated. And 3, I wanted to talk about football in some post, so it looks like this is it! My original favorite, and very first jersey, was Peyton Manning, of the Indianapolis Colts, who I still love, but sadly has been injured this year and is unable to play. His past winning SuperBowl team is now Zero and 9. It’s painful to watch and the news is always saying how bad Peyton wants to come back, and how he keeps trying to find ways to play, but I just want to call and tell him it’s just not worth it. He could be paralyzed with one wrong hit and no football game or amount of money is worth that risk. I feel so strongly you would think that we were actually friends. We’re not. Or that I at least knew him or his family. I don’t. Or that I knew someone that knew him or was friends on Facebook. Nope. This is probably how the “casually following” type person begins the “dedicated stalker” journey to crazy. My last contribution to this football paragraph is to say that my third jersey is an Eli Manning. It was really the second one I got, but third in this list. Eli is Peyton’s little brother and quarterback of the NY Giants. Interesting that I have both brothers. One step closer to the evening news!
Ok last thing. Well, two last things. I just typed another whole paragraph NOT on the subject I wanted too. And it was almost as long. This will be it for the night. I was going to try and read while I keep watch on my daughter, who is pretty sick tonight, but I can’t concentrate with the worry. I think I better try to sleep. We will be going to the doctor in the morning so it’s a good thing I didn’t finish that book today because now I can bring it with me tomorrow when I take her.
The very last thing is, that I noticed the NFL Shop catalog also threw out the word “holiday.” It’s an epidemic.
Holidays to all and to all a goodnight!
Because Christmas will be starting promptly at…..NOW!
NEVER underestimate the power of the TOY catalog for Christmas! Even if your kids are teenagers now. Even if they are 6 feet tall. Even if they begrudgingly dress up for Halloween and complain that trick-or-treating is lame, but still go out there and then eat so much candy that they are sick the next morning. Even if they barely let you take a picture of them in said costumes. These children are powerless against the allure of the magical and colorful, red-ringed, fake wreath of holiday, dunt, dunt, dunnnn, TOYS!! No child can resist. Mine could care less about anything other than video or audio products, but they still like to look. They get all excited and starry-eyed. It’s sick. And truthfully, I think parents like to look too. What else would you have to talk about with the other desperate parents just before you shoot yourself in the head after the second hour of potentially paralyzing, soul killing fun at the Monkey Joe’s or Extreme Trampoline?? Yeah yeah….I signed the waiver…it’s my own damn fault.
The only negative comment I have on the greed of Christmas commerce being shoved down our throats two months early, and the fake anxious panic Target is trying to instill in parents everywhere by deadlining all these “great deals” by November 23, (not even Thanksgiving yet!), when they damn well know everybody who missed these first great deals will be flocking to their stores the Friday after for even better deals, is that their catalog is UGLY!! U-G-L-Y! You make your momma cry! You’re ugly!! Seriously. My picture is pretty true to life. And I tried to get it against a nice, dark background to make it look better. It’s not even a true white cover to give the red something to really “pop” against. It’s this sick, creamy, off-white, dingy pearl color. And speaking of the red, it’s too red. Like, dark red. It makes the green look like lime and not Christmas tree. I am NOT a fan of red and green together. Especially Christmas red and green. But if you’re going to print and mail the first toy catalog of the season you should make the cover bright and cheerful, and not some half assed attempt that looks like it got thrown together on somebody’s lunch break the day before Halloween. Not to mention the failure to use toys from this year. Buzz, Lightning McQueen, Elmo, Barbie, Rubik’s Cube, Etch-a-Sketch, Yahtzee?!?–thank goodness Hollywood cooperates every year with Christmas sales and releases another installment of the same movie so companies can use the same toys with new packaging.
That seemed kind of rough and harsh. I like Christmas actually. It always feel like something good is about to happen. But I kind of like my Christmas to wait until after Thanksgiving before it shows up and carol’s me to death. It doesn’t feel very special when it’s been going on for weeks and weeks and weeks. I also like Target. They do have good deals and they have had much better catalogs. It’s all about eye appeal. Luckily kids don’t care. The clever market research team probably told them not to bother with a fancy look because this is the catalog the kids are just going to flip and tear. Mine did.
All this rainy day, gloomy evening, dark-at-4:30 ranting post (Weather update! That’s for my newest official reader/cousin Linda. Shout out!) has made me thirsty! And since it is dark now, it must be nighttime, and that earlier talk of lime reminded me that I have Corona in the fridge. (That is some “chain of reference” for my other cuz Lorraine. Holler!) And just for the hell of it…Go Sox! (For my sissy, not forgotten, you were the first after all, and next year of course, ’cause baseball season is over. Woop! woop!) Later.
Quick extra note, without comment: The front cover does not say “Christmas” or reference “Santa” specifically. It does on the inside though. Holiday is all you get for now.
just shy of pretty 