4 Hours Til Lights Out

Poor Bret and Ryan are on their way home from Grandma & Grandpa's house. They have no idea what they're in for. All five girls (1 didn't show, 1 is in Disney and 1 is sick.) are upstairs waiting for Bret to get home and hook up the DVD player to the new TV so they can watch The Nanny Diaries on the big TV.

Ashley scored pretty big with gifts earlier. You know your daughter is growing up when she gets all gift cards for her birthday from her friends. Tomorrow we'll be shopping at Aeropostale, Claires, Target and the new mall. Sweet.

Partytime

Two years ago when Ashley had a sleepover party for her birthday (it took me that long to recover), my friend Em made Ashley's name out of sugar cookies since my daughter is not a cake lover. This year I was on my own since Em moved away last summer. You gotta love break and bake. Only this year I stopped at "Ash" because two years ago the girls were so high on sugar that they didn't go to bed until 4am. Ouch.

The girls are all here now and they have the camera so there should be plenty of interesting pictures to share.

She's Growing Up

Ashley's 12th Birthday is today and we had Bret's side of the family over for Pizza and Ice Cream Cake. She didn't know that we had a huge surprise in store for her.

She opened her presents, unsuspecting that her biggest wish was soon going to become true.

*

She's been wanting a tote for school badly since her backpack broke. I found this really cute one at Aeropostale for my Grandma to give her.

Bret's parents bought her a much needed new bike. Her legs must be longer than mine already, because it was quite hilarious seeing me try to swing my leg over the seat.

Ryan got his traditional "Pity Gift". We were going to buy him this movie anyway since it got deleted off of the DVR. It's his all time favorite movie. Uncle Grant may have had a little too much cake.

Mitchell was quite the little helper opening up Ashley's gifts.

So now we come to the unsuspecting big moment. Ashley thought she was done opening her gifts and was cleaning up all of the wrapping paper when Bret told her to go look in the drawer in the front hallway. Inside the drawer was a note that told her to ask everyone to be quiet. As everyone quietly listened, the faint strains of Happy Birthday started to play from her new cell phone that was wrapped and hidden in the breakfront cabinet. (Tip: If you want to be able to hear the phone ringing, don't wrap it and hide it in a cabinet. It will confuse the heck out of the birthday girl.)

*

She did find it - and I've never seen her look more excited before than at this moment...

Lucky for us, her best friend also has a Verizon cell phone, so they can talk for free until the battery goes dead on them.

One happy almost teenager.

We're pretty laid back here. Cake in the living room? Sure, why not.

She got all 12 on the first try.

Ok, we're not THAT relaxed around here. In the kitchen, messy ones.

Yes, you're all still pretty cute.

Happy Birthday, Ash!

(This weekend I'll be questioning my sanity when I have 8 girls overnight for Ashley's sleepover party with her friends.)

Must Sit Down And Write Post

You'd think that with the school carnival being over, I'd have time to breathe. I've still been pretty busy tying up loose ends and trying to figure out our profit. I swear, you can tell people until you're blue in the face to get their reimbursement forms in on time, but there are always some that don't listen. So, I still don't know what our profit is yet. I keep trying to get numbers from our treasurer, but she's not done yet and it's frustrating. Until I get those numbers, I can't even come up with a rough estimate. So I wait.

Saturday night couldn't have run any smoother than it did. Everything went off without a hitch. Many parents and teachers have said that this year was more organized than ever and that the kids finally had enough to do to keep them busy. In the past, it's always been about making money through the Raffle and the kids ended up bored because they haven't had enough to do to last the whole night. This year we added all kinds of activities and games and it was a huge success. The kids had a blast and the parents were impressed. That's what matters.

As I mentioned in a previous post, my family and I did pretty well in the Raffle ourselves this year. We won the iPod Nano Video (that is now mine after finessing it out of my daughter's hands), a Picnic In The Park classroom basket filled with all kinds of fun stuff, a Cold Stone Creamery Gift Basket (which reminds me that I have to order Ashley's ice cream cake for tomorrow), ice skating passes, a small gift bag that included a $15 gift card to Anecdotes, a small gift shop here in Peoria, and a bunch of free kids meal at Chili's. My mother in law won a Remote Control Helicopter for the kids to play with at her house. I'd say we all made out pretty well.

While Bret and Ryan enjoyed the carnival, Ashley and her friend ran a booth all night. They worked their butts off. The only moment I got to sit down was to eat dinner with my family for about 15 minutes. I had Bret go through the line and get all of our dinners and met up with him and the kids at the table. My reasoning was that the carnival had me all night, but I was determined to eat dinner with my family. Once dinner was over, I did indeed run around all night, making sure everything ran smoothly and keeping the DJ on track. It was a lot of fun, but when I did finally get home and into bed, the wheels in my head were still spinning at a hundred miles per hour.

There have also been some new developments since all this started. A week before the carnival, our PTO President announced that she and her family are being transferred over seas to Australia for 3 years through her husband's job at Caterpillar. He leaves this weekend. She and the kids leave next month. It's going to be really sad when they go because she has done so much for the school this year. I'm now preparing to learn how to run the PTO for the remainder of the year in her shoes. Will someone please knock me in the side of the head to see if my common sense returns?

Throughout all of this, I've remained smoke free. Over the weekend I did have some really strong cravings to smoke. I got through them, but it wasn't fun. I've been trying to get back on the Chantix since my doctor's appointment, but I just can't remember to take it - or my other medicine. Life should start to calm down now this week, which might help, but I'm not sure what to do with the Chantix. I don't want to slip up, but I just can't remember to take the darn stuff. Without it, I do notice more cravings so it may be best to try and discipline myself into taking it.

Ok. I'm off to try and get my poor neglected house back in order. Everyone is about out of clean underwear here and I've been trying to get the bathrooms clean since last Wednesday.

Oh My!

Wow. That went really fast. It's all over and done with and was a HUGE success! I'm going to go drag myself down the hallway and find my bed.

I'll share all the details tomorrow, but will leave you with this: We only have a rough estimate at this time, but we made more money this year than any other year.

Plus Ashley won a classroom basket and we also won an iPod Nano and 4 other prizes in the Raffle! Whoo hoo!

I'm beat, but man was it awesome!

Rock The House Decorations

After 3 more hours at school this morning the decorating is done and we are READY to ROCK!

This is the quilt that all of the first graders made for our Silent Auction. I want it bad!!!

Ryan's square:

To see all of the decoration pictures, click here.

Preview

Guess who's son was the top seller of Raffle Tickets in his classroom? Ryan was super excited and very surprised during school yesterday when he was announced the winner.

Yesterday was pretty much a whirlwind of chaos and fun. The big night isn't until tonight, but we were at school until 7pm setting up last night. I snapped a few pictures in the gym, but the lighting isn't very good in there and I have no idea what setting to put the camera on. We're suppose to meet back up at school this morning to blow up balloons and finish up the decorations. I'll get more pictures this morning because I stopped taking them last night when I realized I was going to have to take new ones today when we were done. These are just a few of the booths in the gym. Wait until you see the commons area where everything else is. It looks awesome, if I say so myself.

Margarita, Anyone?

Well, well, well. Would you look what I found while cleaning my kitchen this afternoon. I forgot I had this baby. Does this stuff expire? LoL.

I am READY for this carnival to be here. As of today, we've made a profit of at least $9000.00 and the carnival isn't even for two more days yet. And that's just an estimate from Raffle and Dinner Ticket Sales sold so far.

Ok, back to cleaning my house. I have got to get it done so I can get back to it!

Stop The Clock

I just need a few more hours in each day. Can someone make that happen for me? Between taking care of the catering order, redecorating ticket cans, painting Plinko boards, drinking Margaritas at TGI Friday's (yum), carting kids to and from volleyball and tutoring, collecting dinner ticket orders daily, keeping tabs on 20-some committees.... I'm ready for this thing to be here already.

Today was the final day for raffle and ticket sales. I spent most of the school day going through and filling orders and am happy to say that our dinner ticket orders have officially exceeded last year's total. Adding the gondola option along with the original Spaghetti dinner that we have catered in paid off. Our raffle - which is our major money maker - is only $600 away from last year's total. And the carnival isn't even hear yet. I think I may have pulled this off after all.

The kids are excited, which is the best part about the whole thing. All day today, as we worked through 3 lunch periods, we had kids coming up to us and asking us who the top winners were. It was great to see them so into it. My son doesn't know this, but he is one of the top two sellers in his classroom. His classroom also sold the most tickets. (Don't look at me - another kid in his class sold over 800 tickets and we weren't even really trying.) The funny part is that they win a pizza party and my son doesn't even like pizza. Ha! He'll be really surprised and excited on Friday when he finds out he won. Maybe I'll bring him a Happy Meal the day of the party instead.

*Sigh* In 2 more days it'll be here. (Friday pretty much means it's here because that's when we start getting the school ready for Saturday night.) The most relaxing 25 minutes I've had all week were when I sat in my van drinking a White Chocolate Mocha from Starbucks while I waited for my son during his tutoring session. Chloe snacked on graham crackers and juice and I sipped away in a relaxed haze. And then it was over before it began and it hasn't slowed down again since.

Two more days.... And you bet I'm taking pictures that night to share!

Back From The Brink

(I have no idea what is up with Blogger and their line spacing problem these days!)

I'm back. Did anyone miss me? Does anyone still come here? It feels like forever since I've posted.

I'm still not smoking. How, through out all of this stress I've been under the past week or two, I've managed not to smoke is beyond me but I'm still going strong at 10 weeks and 3 days. I had an appointment for my annual physical on Friday with the doctor that prescribed my Chantix. She was proud of me, which in turn made me proud of myself. I told her that I've been weening off of the Chantix and even then am still not remembering to take it. She told me that she recommends patients to take the Chantix for 2-4 months longer than the recommended 12 weeks to keep them on track and to keep them quit. I've got a prescription to extend it, but am not sure what I should do. I do still get the tuggings, and while I get through those tuggings just fine, I am wondering if I should stay on the Chantix. The only reason I had stopped taking it was because I couldn't remember to take it routinely, so the nausea had been a real problem. We'll see.

In less than a week, the school carnival will be here. Friday the craziness will truely start and by Saturday evening it'll be all over with. I pray that it's a big success. As long as it makes as much money as it's made in the past and the kids have a great time, I'll be able to sleep at night again.

Below is our baby. My co-chair's husband made this Plinko board for the carnival. The kids have all complained that there weren't enough games in the past, so we've loaded them up with lots of choices, but this here below is our baby. I've put many, many coats of paint on it and am ready to add the letters and numbers to it now. (My house looks like a mini carnival with a Plinko board in the living room and a bozo type bucket game in the hallway.)

Along with planning the school carnival, Ashley has thrown a birthday sleepover party in the mix for the following weekend. She decided that she wanted Dance Dance Revolution for the game system downstairs to use during her party, so my mom and brother went in on it for her birthday. Bret has it playing through his stereo system and she's been practicing all day. I tried it - it wasn't pretty. LoL. But with that and Karaoke, I think she'll be set for her party now.

Ryan's Blue & Gold Banquet for Cub Scouts was tonight. His Den made a dragon costume to go with the whole theme they had going on. It was way to cute to see them trying to keep up with each other while they walked around the room.

Ryan earned his Tiger patch and 5 belt loops. (Guess I have to go buy the belt now.)

As soon as the banquet was over, we headed over to catch the rest of our Niece's birthday party.

Where they had trick candles. I love those things.

It's been a long day and I'm ready for bed. Last night we had friends over for dinner and drinks and I'm really dragging now. I'll try not to be such a stranger, but it may be difficult until after next weekend.

The Day After My Almost Breakdown

Today has been a much better day than yesterday. I got my van back this morning and am so glad that the whole curb nailing nightmare is behind me. Teri, my co-chair for the school carnival got a lot of things taken care of on the school front over the past two days while I dealt with a lot of behind the scenes stuff that piled up over the 5 day weekend. I've determined that the 5 day weekend may have contributed to much of yesterday's stress. Yesterday pretty much felt like Friday, Monday & Tuesday all in one. I was in bed by 9:30pm last night and got a really good night's sleep.

There is still a lot left to be done for this carnival, but I feel like we've gotten a lot accomplished in the last two days. I just have to remind myself that I'm doing this for my kids.

I'm sorry I don't have much else for you, but if you saw my kitchen table (and the rest of my house for that matter) you'd tell me to close the computer and get back to work.

The Countdown To Insanity

9 days. That's all that's left. The school carnival is in 9 days. I'm stressed out and ready for it to be here and gone. The sad part is that I probably won't even be able to enjoy any of it because I'll be running around the whole night like a chicken with its head cut off.

This event has taken up so much of my time and patience that there just isn't enough left in me for anything else. I just about broke down today. There were so many things going on this morning that I thought I was going to lose my sanity.

My van is done ($1800 later), but getting the check from the Insurance company has turned into a nightmare. Apparantly it takes more than 6 hours to print out a check. Now I'm here at home with 6 kids so it's not looking hopeful that I'll get my van back today.

I should have known this was going to be a difficult day when I rolled over to turn off the alarm clock this morning at 6:13am (already running 13 minutes late) and rolled over my son in the process. I have no idea when he climbed into bed with me, but he was there when I woke up.

I have no idea where I'm going with this, other than that I am exhausted and just want to sit down and spend time with my family and have no other obligations beyond that.

I apologize for ranting - I'll try to be in a better mood tomorrow.

Finally

But I'll be seething mad if Journeyman is dropped!

Smooth Move

Last May, at the end of the school year, the school PTO sponsored a Teacher Appreciation Week. Each day the students brought in a gift for their teacher, based on the day's theme. One of those theme's were fruit. Instead of bringing them an apple or an orange like everyone else, I got the teacher's ingrediants to make yummy smoothies.

I just found an extra packet in my pantry and thought a chocolate banana smoothie sounded really good. I made it. It tasted great. Ten minutes later I was in the bathroom. (I know - TMI) My tummy is still not doing well.

The real kicker? I've already got dinner simmering on the stove....a big ol pot of chile. I don't know how my tummy will be able to handle that later.

I wonder, now - nine months later - if I inadvertantly gave my kids' teachers banana smoothie poisoning.

Coming Off Of The Chantix

It's time folks. I can no longer take the nausea and the moodiness. I have 11 days worth of Chantix left. Over the past couple of weeks, I've forgotten to take it more times than I can count. When I have taken it, my system isn't use to it since there hasn't been a constant level of it inside of me, and I'm overcome with nausea within 5 minutes. So, I've taken my last 1 mg dose of Chantix tonight. I've cut a week's worth in half and added them to other stuff I take daily. (Yes, I should really be 30 years older than I am.) I am now going to try and remember to take a half of pill twice a day for the next week and then just one half a day until they are gone.

I went back and forth with the idea of just not taking them anymore, but am a bit nervous that the tuggings will get stronger or more frequent as the Chantix leaves my system. I also worry that as spring approaches and I'm outside with the kids a lot again, it may be harder to stay quit. That was one of my major triggers. Being outside.

However, I really think at this point that is up to me to continue to stay strong. I'm proud of myself and have no intention of ever starting back up again. None of my friends smoke, my husband is still quit and you can no longer smoke in public places here in Illinois. So, this time is for good.

My neighbors will probably thank us when spring comes and they aren't smelling the smoke that drifts their way with the warm breeze.

Event Of The Year

I must have lost my mind, or may have just chosen to forget how bad it was the last time we attempted this.

Ashley is having a Birthday Sleepover Party the last weekend of the month. We gave in and did this two years ago with 13 girls and were still feeling the pain and lack of sleep from it last year (hence no party last year) but are giving in and doing it this year. I put my foot down and said 4, maybe 5 girls total. We're now at 8. Bret and Ryan are going to be out staying with Bret's Grandma that night while his parents go out. That leaves me alone here with EIGHT 12 year old girls. What was I thinking?! Maybe I can con a friend or my mom into being here that night.

Last night, Ashley and her friend, Danielle were filling out the party invitations. When it came to the date, they wrote down Feb 29-30. On all of the invitations. That would be my straight A child there, too. Do you get it? If not, ask someone else, because I'm still too busy laughing about it.

Now I'll be planning a sleepover party on top of a school carnival. It's no wonder why I'm so sick this week. I haven't told Ashley this yet, but my goal is to decorate downstairs, where all of the girls will be, with blown up pictures of all of funny pictures of Ashley from birth to present. If they get to have all of the fun that night, I can at least have some fun planning it.

Maybe I'll get to her Birthday DVD slideshow this year.

T.G.I.F.

I'm not sure how I've made it through this week. It's been a long one. I woke up Monday with a horrible cough. A cough so bad that I was holding a pillow to my ribs everytime I had to cough because they hurt so bad. By Tuesday the cough started to break up a little bit, but my ribs and my abdominal muscles still felt like they had been run over by a semi and I was beginning to run a fever. On Wednesday, my day went to crap before lunchtime even got here. I was still running a fever, my cough was determined not to go anywhere and by now my sinuses must have felt left out because they decided it was their turn to make me miserable. I was tired, cranky and just wanted to crawl in bed and hide under the covers.

Instead, I got in my van and made the trip to school while the snow started to come down. I nailed a curb, got stranded, had to call a tow truck and now we still don't have a total estimate of repairs, but were up to a grand, not including labor. That curb is going to hear from me, darnnit! (Ha, we're not going past $4.25 today.)

Last night was our second school carnival planning meeting and everything went fine, thank goodness. I think I may have the hang of this now. Went out for an appetizer and drink with my co-chair (Thanks, Teri.) to go over everything that had come up during the meeting so that we were on the same page. Felt like crap, so I went home and watched Survivor with Bret and Ashley. Toss and turned, got up to pee, choke and blow my nose all freaking night long and now I feel like a zombie with three kids to take care of. My ear hurts, my glands are swollen and now my throat hurts. I should have gotten that flu shot!

Can someone maybe clone me and send in my replacement so I can take a nap?

$1.75, But It's Not My Fault!

Ok, it is my fault. I agreed to pay myself a quarter every time I say a bad word, but at the time I didn't know that I would soon be dealing with the effects of winter and my own stupidity. *Sigh* My minivan is sitting in the middle of a parking lot right now, waiting to be towed to the car dealer.

At 10am this morning, the snow started coming down and I thought I could get up to school in time to collect the dinner ticket money before it got really bad outside. I loaded Chloe into the van and away we went - until I wrecked the van going a wimpy 20 miles an hour. Just kidding - I didn't "wreck" it, but I slid making a turn and we nailed a curb. The wheel and rim were dented, but it seemed fine, so I continued on to school.

Ten minutes later, I was leaving school and noticed that alignment was way off and there was a rubbing (I'd say grinding - but it wasn't that loud) noise coming from that area of the car. I pulled over into a parking lot and called my husband. (I am so in the dog house right now!) Remembering that the warranty included road side assistance, I called GM and put in a request for help. I probably could have driven on it, but with my luck the wheel would have fallen off and we'd be *#$@ a creek. Or in a ditch.

So, I'm sitting in a parking lot with an 18 month old in the car who is crying and unhappy while I'm trying to figure all of this out. I have no car seat to transfer over to another car because she is in the car's child integrated seat, so requesting a loaner is not an option. (We don't have coverage for that anyway.) I have no diaper bag - because I'm an idiot - so all I have to bribe her with is my iPod. This makes her happy for awhile and we sit and wait for my friend, Teri, to grab a car seat and diaper bag from my house and pick our butts up. The tow truck wait is 3 hours and I am so not sitting there for that long with a toddler who hasn't had lunch or a nap yet.

We're home now and I'm really wishing that school would dismiss early because it's getting considerably worse outside. I should receive a phone call when the tow truck gets there. Hopefully the van will still be there since I had to leave a key inside. I'm really not looking forward to getting the bill for this.

I Voted Today

Did you?

I changed my mind three times while standing there, but I do know which two candidates that I don't want to win.

I don't consider myself to be a very political person, but this morning my vote was based on what the candidates stand for, since the candidate that I wanted to vote for is no longer in the race.

Don't just sit there, go vote now.

Potty Mouth

It's recently come to my attention that I have a potty mouth. I never thought too much about it, but over the last week, I've noticed that Chloe is starting to repeat words I say. Since neither of her parents use that kind of language, I better get it under control. I'm sure that in a matter of days she'll be repeating everything I say and the last thing I need is for her to go home and drop the F Bomb. I'm kidding. That's the one word I rarely use. I just thought it sounded good.

So, I will now be paying myself a quarter for every naughty word that comes out of my mouth. (Creepy googlers are going to go nuts with that one.)

No more bad words that start with D, S or H.

****

My cough that I picked up over the course of today has gone from midly irritating to downright annoying. I'm starting to feel it in my chest and back. I'm hoping it's just my asthma and suffucating fog that's doing it, but we'll have to wait and see.

For now, here's a picture of what I had to (dumbly) brave to go get toilet paper and cough syrup tonight. I swear it's just getting worse out there.

Apocalypse

I'm fairly certain we're looking at the beginning of the end here. The fog here has only gotten worse. Last night we got 3 inches of snow along with some crazy thunder and lightning. It's pretty much all melted away now. Tonight we're suppose to get rain. Tomorrow? 6 more inches of snow. What?

In fact, I feel like I have smoker lungs again. Ever since I woke up this morning, I've been coughing like crazy and am pretty sure it's got more to do with this fog than it has to do with smoking. How am I so sure, you ask?

Because today is my TWO MONTH anniversary as a nonsmoker. However, it really feels like it should be longer. Like 6 months or something. It feels like such a long time ago - like a lifetime ago - that I quit smoking. Kind of like something you would hear a new mom say a couple of months after having her first child.

So now I shall go celebrate my milestone with a box of mac & cheese for dinner. What, you don't want that for dinner? Too bad, the kids out numbered us.

Oh, Lovely Day

It's suppose to warm up here, but it's not looking like the kids will get to go outside and play anytime soon.

Chloe and I ran to school to take care of some school carnival stuff and then ran to the craft store to get more supplies. Let's just say it was slow going...

...and wasn't much better on the way back to our neighborhood - where the road drops a good 6-8 feet off the side of the road. Hmm.... Fun....

....at least Chloe thought so anyway.

Weekend Update

Yesterday, I took Ashley and Danielle (and yes... you came along too, Teri) to see 27 Dresses. I laughed throughout most of the movie and while it was a little on the predictable side, it was still really good and worth seeing. I'm horrible at movie reviews, so I hope you ladies weren't expecting more out of me. It was good - go see it. LoL.

I spent the better part of today getting the house clean and trying to catch up on my mountain of laundry. (It's still a work in progress even at 10:30pm.) I managed to finish my cleaning, shower (if you were here, you'd have thanked me), transfer 3 boxes of appetizers from freezer to oven (if you expected better than that, go see Maggie) and sit down and relax with a fruity drink all in time for the big game.

Wow, what a great 4th quarter! I think I may have further damaged my son's hearing with my excited screams for the Giants. Even as there were only 30 some seconds left on the clock, I knew they could do it. They had played strong throughout the whole game, never backing down from the Patriots. Might be the best Super Bowl I've seen yet. (Last year's game would have that title if the Bear's had been able to come through.)

So now I'm off to bed as tomorrow will be another busy day. I think I'll leave you with a few pictures before I go...


Isn't it nice when they decide they like each other for a little while?

Just as the game was getting ready to start tonight, we got pounded with some major thunder, lightning and snow. It was really something. I bet we got 3 inches in about an hour and a half's time.

(I panned left for you this time, Em. Looks as though someone forgot to put the umbrella away, though. Oops.)

I Get To Be A Big Girl Today

I feel I deserve some time for me. I'm taking Ashley and her friend Danielle to see 27 Dresses this afternoon. I can't remember the last time I went and saw a non G rated movie, and since I can't find the time to escape into a good book, I'll have to settle for 2 hours of escape this way. Besides, the mountain of laundry and messy house aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

How To Know You Can Expect A Snow Day

• Your kids will wake up at the crack of dawn because they're excited to see if school will be cancelled, but on a regular school morning you have to drag their butts out of bed.
• Your son was scared by all of the racket that the plows were making at 3am this morning and climbed into bed with you. So, you've been up since 3am, but you can't crawl back into bed because it's a snow day and your kids are home.
• Your daughter will have stayed up late the night before trying to get her homework finished, only to have 3 days to get it done now.
• Your son knows his spelling words as well as he knows his baseball card collection, and will now have to wait three days to take the test.
• You have an important school newsletter that needs to go out, now it will have to wait until Monday.
• You were going to go to the gym for the first time in two weeks since you did God know's what to your knee, now it seems you may never get back there.

These are just a few of the signs that made me pretty sure that we would actually get the 6-8 inches of snow that they were calling for over night. Since Bret works for the city, his work cell started going off at 6am this morning. He's been pulled off of his normal work load to supervise the plows. He's relieving the guys that have been out there since 7pm last night. At least he got a day shift, but it could be really late before we see him back here.

Chloe is staying home today with her mom so it's just me and my kiddos today. I think I'll go throw some soup mix in the crockpot and watch last night's episode of Lost while curled up under my big fluffy warm blanket.

(By the way, what is up with blogger and their awful formatting lately? My paragraphs are all over the place. It's making me want to scream!)