It Happened This Week

MAJOR NEWS, Y'ALL.

I willingly ate a SALAD the other night.  I KNOW!  I can't believe it either.  Thing is -- I went to dinner with a group of people I don't really know all that well yet.  The entree I ordered came with a side salad and rather than refusing it, I decided to be a big girl.  Because, yeah, every once in a while I do care what other people might think.  Plus, I figured it would somehow balance out the garlic mashed potatoes I'd be inhaling.  And, yes, I DID just write an entire paragraph about salad.  Somebody buy this girl a bottle box of wine beause if this is what now calls for a blog post then . . . well . . . I don't even know.

I'm two weeks behind on P365 pictures so herrrrre we go:

 

 

 

** I'm not posting the picture from 1/16.  It's from Jaidan's honors ceremony and has a bunch of his little classmates in it **

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It Happened This Week

Am I the only one who feels like January is dragging by soooo slooooowly?  October, November, December all went by super fast and now it's ONLY January 13th and, ohmygawww, can it please just be April or May already? 

So, last night at 8:30 it was still 73 degrees outside.  A couple hours later I was outside in short sleeves and not even the least bit cold.  It was downright pleasant for January.  This morning I went to hunt for my newspaper (that's NOT in my yard.  What the hell, man?  The only reason I get the thing delivered is for Sunday morning coupons.  If I was brave enough/ amoral enough I would consider going to "borrow" from my neighbors because, yeah, THEY got THEIRS) and realized the temperature has dropped by at least 35 degrees.  Not only that, but I checked the app on my phone and that temperature is just supposed to keep on dropping all day long.  January is such a sneaky bastard.  "Ohhhh, I'll give them a couple days of spring-like weather then as soon as they pull out their flip flops and decide to throw steaks on the grill, it'll be back to bone chilling."  And that concludes the meterology portion of this post.

In other news, Eddie and I had a Date Night last night and it was only January 12.  Odds are good we won't get another one till July so we made sure it was an extra special date.  And by "extra special date" I mean after we ate dinner at Rendezvous we went to Walmart.  I KNOW!  Please young singles with no children -- please be SO JEALOUS of the wild life I lead.

A look at our week:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All right, folks, if you're Sunday is looking to be anything like mine there's a good chance the dreary rain and return of cold temperatures has you debating whether to build an ark or wash away your Seasonal Affective Disorder with a glass or five of Pinot Grigio.  Choose wisely, my friends.  Choose wisely.



It Happened This Week

Now that Jaidan is in school and "first week of the year" is also synonymous with getting back into routine, not being able to sleep in, not napping in the middle of the day, yadda yadda, I feel that I can appropriately deem it: worst week of the year.  Nothing bad happened.  I mean, we're all here and healthy and my husband didn't surprise me with bringing home a puppy or anything.  But the week has just been pure BALLS.  It's been dragging a six-year-old out of bed, having to force him to do every SINGLE LITTLE THING in the mornings, cursing under my breath when I realize that it's 27 expletive expletive expletive degrees outside, fighting school traffic, etc, etc, on and on and on.

I do not like January.  I do not like it in a house.  I do not like it in a mouse.  I do not like it here or there.  I do not like it anywhere.

A little look at our week, last two pictures of 2012 and first five of 2013:

 

 

They aren't Red Solo Cups but I think Dollar Store Blue is pretty good for a redneck new year!

 

 

 

 

It Happened This Week

I took the week off.  And by "week" I mean last Friday through maybe - okay, probably - this coming Tuesday.  We've all been sleeping in.  I haven't been working out.  I've been eating whatever I wanted to eat whenever I wanted to eat it.  I've watched two SVU marathons and roughly 32942092 episodes of Roseanne.  I've done the bare minimum when it comes to keeping the house sortakinda clean. I have drunk more wine than Coke Zero and pretty much no water.  And it's.been.awesome.  Great week.  I wish we could have "the holidays," like once a month.  'Course, I'd probably weigh somewhere in the neighborhood of six HUNDRED pounds.  But, damn, I'd be happy.

Before I get on with the pic-cha's, let me share a few things I've learned this week off:

1) It does no good to fall back on your party girl roots and yell, "puke and rally, puke and rally!" when you have a kid pulling a Linda Blair. For starters, six year olds don't know what it means. And also? "Rally" to the kindergarten crowd means spending copious amounts of energy driving you effing nuts. Like to the point of you beginning to wonder if you'd rather just clean up puke than deal with their rallying ass.

2) Buying your 2.5 year old daughter her own bracelets and lip gloss so she'll leave yours alone? Worst idea ever. She eats the lip gloss, we're still stepping on beads in the living room, and my make up brushes are more precious to her than any of the toys she received from Santa.

3) Wreck-it Ralph is a seriously cute movie. Also? Even though it's been out for awhile does not mean that would should assume the theater will be practically empty on a Friday afternoon showing. One would be wrong. Very wrong.

4) Drinking + Instagram can lead to some pretty interesting pictures. And by interesting I mean 293042 pictures of the EXACT SAME board game.  Winning!

5) I want a Dream Lite of my very own. 

6) Just because a four-year-old asks for a Spiderman Stunt City toy every single hour of every day for MONTHS and dances and jumps up and down and yells, "THIS IS WHAT I'VE ALWAYS WANTED!" when he opens it does not mean he will play with it past Christmas day.  Four-year-olds are kind of assholes, y'all.

7) Gus's Fried Chicken was the most crowded place in Memphis on Wednesday afternoon.  Even with snow on the ground!  (This is southwest Tennessee, people, no one here likes to get behind the wheel when there's white stuff on the ground).

8) Sometimes my level of lazy can surprise even ME.  Like when I'd rather lay around the house with Netflix, the remote, a Coke Zero, and a turkey sammich than GO SHOPPING.  That's right.  The extent of my after Christmas shopping was . . . three rolls of wrapping paper.  I'm not sure whether to be amazed or disappointed.

Anyway.  Pictures of our week.  Only three more pictures and another year of P366 will be completed -- my THIRD year!  I have a picture for every single last day of 2010, 2011, and 2012.  And I think that's pretty damn cool.

 

 

Out of focus and the girl isn't even bothering to look.  Such is life.  Such are most of our Christmas photos!

 

 

 

 

The real star of this photograph is neither one of the kids (including the Snaggletooth wearing his LOWE'S Build & Grow apron to COOK) but rather that shiny, beautiful, RED crockpot that was a Christmas present from myr gandma.  I needed a new one and this one is much larger and, basically, just plain awesome.  Thanks, Mawmaw!

 

 

 

 

 

 

It Happened This Week

Up until 2006, (almost) every Christmas Eve of my life was spent at my Granny's house.  And that meant that, pretty much without fail, Uncle James would meet you at the door and wish you a "Merry Christmas Eve!"  We no longer head to Granny's house for Christmas Eve and Uncle James has been gone many years.  But it never fails that someone in the family will say something along the lines of, "As Uncle James always said, Merry Christmas Eve!" 

So.  In that spirit, Merry Christmas Eve Eve!

I have a four-year-old this year so we have been in OMGIT'SALMOSTCHRISTMAS!!!111!! overdrive.  I really think four is the magical year where these children go crazy with joy.  Every day is a rush to change the mouse on our advent calendar (or to wake brother up if it's his day to change the mouse), to find the Grinch and his daily activity, to somehow soak up just as much Christmas as humanly possible.  Jaidan is six so, obviously, he's all about some Christmas as well -- Kyan is just a smidge more excited.  Karis, on the other hand, at two pretty much only cares about seeing how many sweets she can shovel into her mouth.  She's not the only one . . . it'll be a Christmas miracle if I can actually fit into my jeans on the 25th.  (Seriously).

We've spent most of the week in a Christmas-getting-ready frenzy.  Jaidan has been on winter break.  Eddie came home Tuesday after being on the west coast for nearly two weeks.  I finished up my Christmas shopping, took a trip to the post office (nearly an hour in line!), and actually got everything wrapped.  We are ready as we're going to be!

Our week:

 

 

The date on this one is supposed to be 12/18.

And, SERIOUSLY, this kid loves her Daddy.  The first thing she said Friday morning was, "Where my daddy?"

 

 

 

 



 



It's hard to believe only NINE more pictures until I'm done with Project 366 for 2012!

It Happened This Week

I still cannot wrap my head around this shooting, this tragedy, in Connecticut.  I'm assuming it's because I have a six-year-old myself that this feels so personal.  I can't help but think about the room in my house that's full of presents that were expressly picked for one little particular little boy.  They were picked with love because I could imagine, I could see, the joy on his face when he ripped into them on Christmas morning.  And then I can't help but think that in attics and basements and closets and storage rooms in Newtown, Connecticut, there are presents picked with the same love.  Presents that will never be opened because those sweet babies will be spending Christmas in Heaven this year. 

It just kills me - it physically hurts - to think about what the parents of these precious babies are going through.  Instead of planning Christmas with last minute visits to Santa Claus, drinking hot chocolate while watching Polar Express, reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas . . . these parents are planning the funerals for their babies. The world is cruel and unfair.

When my stepdaughter came home from school Friday afternoon, she proclaimed it to be the "saddest day ever."  Memphis, just like the rest of the country, was reeling from the Connecticut shootings, but also from the death of a police officer who was killed in the line of duty.  Hitting even closer to home, she was the mother of four.  Two of her daughters attend school with Z, one is in her grade and she described her as a friend.  It was a heartbreaking day for their school.  Not only that, but this -- this school shooting -- it was her Columbine.  She will always remember that she was in the seventh grade when it happened.  She'll always remember that it was the day her friend's mom was killed while serving a seach warrant.  Friday was a somber day in our house.

A little look at our week:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It Happened This Week

I have a feeling I'll regret every saying this approxomately eight minutes after winter break starts but . . . I am ready for the holiday break!  I'm ready to have time off from the absolute cray cray that is getting out the door for school in the mornings.  I'm ready to sleep in a little bit (Ha!  Hahahahahahaha).  I'm ready for the cookie party and other fun things we have planned during the days the kids are off.  I'm not ready, though, for the inevitible arguing, fussing, fighting, back talking, and general carrying on.  Sigh.

A look at our week:

We have had absolute wonderful weather this week.  Most days in the 70's.  Ahhhh.  Bliss!

 

 

 

 

 

 

THIS boy was the most excited kid in Memphis yesterday.  He's been waiting several weeks for that tooth to come out and yesterday he was finally able to pull it.  He was so excited!