Happy Birthday!

Merry Christmas everyone, and Happy Birthday to Jesus!

Nick and I had the opportunity to help Santa out last night. It really helped bring the Christmas spirit, and made it Christmas for us.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

Well, it will definitely be a White Christmas!


These are the branches that couldn't hold the weight, and fell. Luckily, they didn't break anything on their way down.






The snow keeps piling up. I think we got a foot or two from the storms. I know we've shoveled a lot! And it is now high enough that when Stitch jumps in he disappears up to his back. He is not afraid of the snow and keeps begging to go out in it.




Stitch loves to chase snowballs. However, he can't figure out what to do when the snowballs hit the ground and blend in. So he sticks his nose in the ground looking for the ball. He will also jump for them in Nick's hands....which usually results in a snoutful of snow.



Hope you are all enjoying the white stuff! I will. But not until Monday afternoon when I am done work until Friday and don't have to drive in (or be a passenger in) the car.

It's not peaceful anymore

I used to like our apartment. Sure it's small. Sure it's odd shaped. The bathroom and kitchen are minuscule. I can barely turn around in the shower without hitting a wall. Literally. Yeah, we can't really have anyone over unless it's summer weather and we can eat on the porch. But, it was fairly quiet. Our landlord upstairs was a fairly quiet neighbor. She didn't have a lot of company regularly. She only had really loud and obnoxious drinking parties about once a quarter. There's a yard of sorts for Stitch to play in.

But not anymore. Now she has company, loud company, alot. Her parties have occurred about every other weekend. Today has been bad. Today I've been afraid someone is going to come through the ceiling and land on my head.

I think it's partially because we didn't plan on living here this long. A year max. But jobs changed, and we really love it out here. It is a very big push to find a place of our own. Especially when we get discouraged in our never ending quest to find everything someone else loves.

Entertaining Blogs

http://mormonhusbands.blogspot.com/

http://seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com/

I love that we can find joy in our culture!

Another House Bites the Dust

'Nuff Said.

Not Quite World Peace

http://www.freerice.com

But at least I feel like I'm learning and it's addicting.

Vocabulary not your strong suit? Try changing subjects Math and Geography are also options.

A Funny Old Memory

So my last post was very sad and angry. Inspired by a friends blog, I'll share an entertaining story about bumps and bruises.

I'm not sure who's idea it was, the 9 year old (me), the 6 year old (likely), or the 5 year old. Regardless, the idea of playing hide and seek tag came up. There were very simple rules- you must put a coat over your head and find your siblings then tag them before they run away. As the youngest, of course Dustin was "It" first. As we ran up the stairs around the cedar chest- he didn't. Instead he hit the corner at full blast, and then the screams came at full blast. He managed to not get blood on the coat, but there was a fair amount of blood on the chest, on the floor, and on my brother.

We went to the Emergency room. Which by the way is a great punishment for the older kids. We sat and sat and sat. No television or gameboys or ipods or anything. Just a verbal lashing. And then my brother finally went back, they determined he needed stitches, and pulled out the needle to numb his head. He yelled and screamed SO loud that all the other kids in the emergency room started crying and some of their parents had to leave with them.

We never played hide and seek tag again, although we did end up at the emergency room a few more times, usually because of my dad.

Argh. And a Rant.

We put an offer in a great place over the weekend. After much hemming and hawing, it came back denied. Someone else put in a higher offer. Higher than the asking price. In this market. SERIOUSLY????

And while people mean well, I think if I hear the phrase "Well, that means the house for you is still out there" one more time I will scream. Loudly. My head may know that that's true. But I don't want to hear it. I'm not finding it. So unless you'd like to find the house for me- do not use that phrase.

In fact, while I'm thinking about it, there are a lot of things that applies to. I think as a human race we suck at trying to sympathize and in trying to "make" others feel better. Most funerals I have been to have included the phrase "At least he/she is in a better place". Really?!? How is that supposed to be comforting to someone that just lost their soul mate/child/parent? Are we that afraid of grief?