Quote of the day

"I can feel my ovaries starting to clog from eating all those eggs."--Alex

Update: Alex wants to make sure everyone knows that he was just kidding, he does know it is arteries, not ovaries!

Teenage Drama Update

The one with the attitude and the one who had the cell phone taken away for the turn in violation are both cleaning their rooms, without being told! One came down with four bags of trash (Walmart size, not trash size!) and the other came down for a bucket of soapy water to wash the bedroom floor! Yay!

The one who needs the dermatologist is still looking in the mirror and now "needs a frickin' haircut soooooooooooooo badly"!

Oh, by the way, none of the teenagers have any problem eating all the Christmas goodies I have been slaving over!

More teenage drama

Two confiscated cell phones. One taken away for not turning it in at 8:00 pm, as required. One taken away for wearing brother's jeans without permission and then lying about it. Caught in the act when the jean pockets were checked and an excused absence slip from the school office, complete with the date and the name!

Add one who refuses to do his household chores before he goes to work, one who thinks I am a maid service, and one who has an attitude about everything. How I love being the mother of five teenagers!

The drama of teenagers

"I need a frickin' dermatologist!"
"I thought you were cleaning the bathroom, where does the dermatologist come in?"
"There is a mirror in there and I can't stop looking at myself!"

Baking Day

I was exhausted last night. I spent about 12 hours baking. I made 11 loaves of Portuguese Sweet Bread, 6 dozen hand-dipped truffles, two batches of cream cheese pastry, and two batches of refrigerator cookies and 5 pounds of fudge. When I write it out like this, it seems like so little, yet it was so much work and so time consuming! I actually made the fudge and refrigerator cookies on Saturday.

It was so much work, but also fun and worth the effort because the goodies are such an important part of the traditions that my kids love so much. They really hate it when anything changes about the holidays. There is no such thing; in my eyes, as saying, if I don't have time or money, I just won't bake this year. It is too special to my kids and makes them so happy, I just won't compromise on that. I've seen how much deviation from the norm upsets them. Last year, my mom stopped her annual tradition of giving each kid a personalized Christmas ornament on Thanksgiving. My kids were devastated! They were upset again this year, although not as upset as last year, since they had been hoping she only took one year off, but no such luck. I remember how much I loved the holiday traditions when I was a kid, like getting a Life Saver's Christmas Book every year. I guess since the kids of this generation are being raised in such a scary and tumultuous world, keeping things the same is more important than ever.

Last Weekend

Last weekend, Hannah, Shauna and I went up to Northern VA for Mike's work Christmas party. We had a great time! The party was so much fun and the food was delicious. I've never had upscale catering before and it was wonderful. I'm used to pulled pork, fried chicken and beef sandwiches! Not that those aren't all delicious, this was just a bit different for a change.

We spent the weekend there, doing a little shopping and a fun tacky Christmas light tour. We saw some really pretty houses. The girls and I left on Sunday afternoon and Mike just stayed, since driving home that night and driving right back Monday morning would have been silly!

Reece's Rainbow Angel Tree

There are still SEVEN children with no sponsors! Please, if you can, sponsor one of them. It would be great to see all of the children have at least one sponsor. I believe that THIRTY kids have found new homes, since this year's Angel Tree started! Yay!

http://www.reecesrainbow.com/angeltree2009sponsorpage.html

Please put this on your blog

You might have noticed the new button on my blog. We are helping to raise money to save four year old Tonya from going to a mental institution in her country. Please put this button on your blog and help pass the word!

Thank you!

Socks

I just had to search through our 'sock crate'. This is actually one side of a huge coffee table/trunk that opens for storage. It is full to the brim with unmatched socks. I was looking for Hannah's choir stockings. Luckily for me, they are black. I searched through a sea of mostly white socks. Still could not find both of them. I found a fork.

*Update: Found the other one on attempt two! I was hoping for a spoon, as well.

Birthday Central

Six out of nine of us have birthdays between September 29th and December 1st. Today is the last one. Yay! It gets expensive and time consuming, with a lot of baking going on. CUP's is September 29th, Shauna's is October 13th. Then we have three in November, Hannah on the 11th, me on the 25th and Drew on the 30th. Alex was thoughtful enough to be born 5 hours into December, so I wouldn't have three November birthstones on my Mother's necklace!

So, happy birthday, Alex! I can't believe he is 15 already. Drew was hanging out with friends for most of the day on his birthday, so his birthday dinner & dessert is scheduled for Wednesday. I will have to try to find some baby pictures to post!

Now that the birthdays are almost over, I can start concentrating on Christmas. Alex already decorated for me, with some help from Shauna. We have two small trees, instead of one large, because our cats climb the large ones and wreck them. The small ones can be put in the sun room at night, so they can't get at them. Last year, I just put the small green tree with blue lights in the sunroom, fully decorated. Now we just have to remember to bring it out every day! This year we put the white tree on top of my computer desk. For some reason, the cats never go up there and so far they haven't bothered it. Last year we folded it up and put it away in the box, but left the ornaments on. It still needs to be fluffed and I would like to get some garland for it, but it is almost ready to go. We are having some issues with the electricity where my computer is, so I now have a lovely orange extension cord running across the floor between the family room and kitchen. Mike fixed it a few days ago, but apparently putting in a new outlet wasn't enough because it went out again yesterday. We now have no light or ceiling fan above the kitchen table. Our outside outlets in the front and back stopped working several years ago. Our house really seems to be a lemon!