Is It Naptime Yet

For the first time all the dirty dishes in my house fit in my dishwasher and are being cleaned as we speak, er, as I write, I mean type, as of this very moment.

I know you’re so proud.

I did dishes last night, and then just now, and now my sink is empty, void, of dirty dishes.

OK, so I don’t have much to blog about right now, but having a clean sink does make me happy.

Maybe the Flylady does have something on having a clean sink, I’m just not willing to stash dirty dishes under my sink to keep the illusion of clean.

If it’s clean I want it to be clean for reals.

And mine is clean for reals and I am so happy.

Granted I do have times where my sink is clean and there are no dishes in the sink, but then there are dirty dishes in the dishwasher waiting for more dishes so I can start the load, but instead of being on top of it I let my sink get filled with dishes and then I’m back at square one; a full dishwasher with some left over dishes in the sink waiting to be cleaned but, hypothetically, if I empty my dishwasher before I make lunch I can have nearly all the dishes in my house clean and put away. I say nearly all because there are always the current water cups lying around.

I probably won’t be emptying my dishwasher before lunch, so it’s just a nice dream.

Hopefully I empty it before dinner.

Since we had (still have) two sick girls and no life, Jon and I stayed home for News Years Eve.  Traditionally we have IBC root beer floats at midnight, but we were feeling frugal and had already bought some sparkling cider and neither of us wanted to go to the store so we enjoyed the sparkling cider after midnight.

We put the girls to bed around 8ish and tucked in for some movies. Jon had Netflixed Persepolis, which was rather interesting and intriguing. Then we popped in The Prestige about 20 minutes till midnight. We paused to see the worst fireworks show Las Vegas as ever given and kiss at midnight. (New regulations made the fireworks be fired off from ground level or the top of parking garages instead of the top of the hotels roofs. They had totally lame shots of the fireworks and I’m sure anyone who wasn’t totally plastered, and maybe some that were, thought that the fireworks weren’t that  good too.)

Jon had napped during the first movie so he was awake at he beginning of The Prestige, but he did not last long. I stayed up till 2:30am watching the movie and then some temping infomercials, though I think it was the sleep deprivation that made me want to buy a hair straightener and the pilates chair.   Eden also woke up for a short time after midnight due to being congested.

The girls woke up super early on News Years day, like 5 o’clock, and Jon stayed up with them while I slept in, with many interruptions mind you, till 10:30 am. I’m a little ashamed to admit I slept till 10:30, but I did.

We had a very lazy New Years. Eden loves lazy days where she’s able to keep her pajama’s on. I do not let them do that but Jon has and even today Eden was wearing her pajama’s till she decided she wanted to go outside at like 2:00 this afternoon.  Lilah was dressed today, but that’s only because she wore clothes to bed and has yet to change.

Chaos, utter chaos, when Jon is home.

That said with the very early morning on New Years day Eden took a super long nap, like she almost did not wake up from her nap, so we let her sleep longer but then she woke up at 8pm for a couple of hours and we sent her back to bed at 10pm.

Lilah feel asleep on the couch around 6:30pm and we put her to bed and she stayed there till 7:30 this morning.

It was a lazy New Years with two sick girls.

Today I finally did something productive outside the house, grocery shopping. We were completely out of milk and thus an expedition out of the house was necessary.

We still need to take down the tree so it can go in the trash for pick-up tomorrow, but as nap time approaches it may not happen unless we get motivated tonight. (funny note: Lilah saw a thing about taking your tree to the Springs Preserve to be recycled and she said we should do that, but I had to explain they wanted real trees not fake ones. So she then suggested that we grow our own tree and then cut it down next year to be recycled. )

Monday my yoga class begins and I’ve signed the girls up for a gymnastics class. If they’re over their coughs, and if Eden stops getting a fever every night, than they’re be able to go on Tuesday.

I just hope they’re better by Sunday so Eden can attend her first Sunday in Primary and so Lilah can be there to show her the  ropes.

My baby is going to be in Primary, I think I need to have another child but not for a couple years since life has taken some unexpected turns.

Happy News Years.

Also I am setting no goals this year. I never keep them or I only keep part of them, so this year my only goal is to continue going to Yoga and hope it doesn’t get cancelled due to the small class size.

With Jon being home for two full weeks we’ve gotten into some bad habits. Most of them are sleeping habits, though some have to deal with not doing the dishes or feeding the girls breakfast till late or lunch even later, though those are kinda because of the bad sleeping habits.

Bad habit #1: Going to bed late and sleeping in.
Now I usually have this bad habit, but Jon has adopted it in his own way and him being home has allowed me to sleep in even later.  I’ve been sleeping in till 9 on average and though I love it, I feel so unproductive during the day and lunch time comes to soon.

Bad habit #2: Our food schedule has gone to the pits.
Jon does feed the girls when he’s up and I’m not, but it’s still late and then we eat lunch even later and dinner is sometimes at our normal 6 o’clock time and other nights a little later.

Bad habit #3: The girls coming into bed with us in the morning.
We’re suckers for morning cuddles and Eden has definitely been coming into our bed regularly for morning cuddles. The main problem is she thinks anytime she wakes up after going to bed is time for cuddles and thus she wakes us up around once a night, and with Lilah being sick we’re woken up 2-4 times a night and when I say we I really mean me because usually, though not always, I am the one woken up and the one to deal with getting the girls to bed. Now I see why I’m sleeping in so late. (Last night Jon wasn’t feeling well and he was on the couch and he woke up with Eden lying on his chest and Lilah at his feet.)

Bad habit #4: Not doing dishes.
So our dishes do get done but when Jon’s home I don’t like to do them as often. I want him to pitch in, though if he’s really busy with something I do them. I want Jon to do dishes, but he doesn’t always know I want him to do them. He does today and has promised to do them by 4, so we can have the dishwasher cycle done by five when I start dinner and thus will need the pots and pans to cook with.

Bad Habit #5: Just sheer laziness.
For some reason we’ve had a lot of lazy days around her. Granted some are due to sickness but others are not and today I should be doing something productive, especially since I might be sick later this week, but I really don’t want to. Having Jon around sometimes does this because he too is being less productive, well I see it as less productive because he’s on his Mac a lot, though he is doing things that are important to him they’re just not things around the house that I deem as important. I have not been the nagging wife, I think, and I am to some degree letting him do whatever he wants on his staycation. (Staycation being a vacation where you stay home.) I want to organize my room and hem some pants, but for some reason I just can’t find the motivation. (Jon also does do a lot around the house and some days he’s working while I’m just watching a movie.)

Do you have bad habits when you’re spouse is home for long periods of time?

Is your spouse ever home for long periods of time and I should just be happy that I get this log period of time with mine?

I want to blog about Christmas, but the thought of organizing pictures and videos is a little overwhelming right now.

So I’ll blog about today, or the day after Christmas.

I went shopping, it was suppose to be as busy as Black Friday and one of the two stores was pretty busy, but overall I think it was not that busy.

I first bought myself a nice wool and cashmere blend jacket. I really wanted a nice jacket and the price was right and I had a gift card. (originally $200, why anyone would pay $200 is beyond me, down to $60 with a $10 off coupon to make it $50 and a gift card from my mom and dad to pay for it. I am so happy to have a nice warm jacket to wear to church rather than some stretched out sweater. I just couldn’t bring myself to pay even $50 for a jacket before, even if it was a nice one.)

Then I went to another store to get a Christmas tree. Apparently a lot of stores had sold out before Christmas so I was happy to have my sister tell me which Target was carrying some. I got one half off and it’ll due. I really don’t think I would have paid the full $70 though, it was not that nice. The tree my father gave us is a rather nice one, big when fully put up but nice, so it’s hard to get a new one and compare, even when his is breaking and lights are burnt out.

So we now have a new tree to put presents under. You’ll understand this comment when you see our tree this year. I also bought 60 feet of garland, and I think 20 might be enough because it’s kinda  a skinny tree to. Anyone who wants red garland let me know, I can hook you up.

Once home I was greeted with chaos and pajama clad children who were just finishing breakfast. Lilah was just waking up when I left at 8:30 and Eden woke after I left and I returned home by 10:30. (Jon lets them take everything out at once when it comes to Christmas presents, I’m a little more organized and try to have them clean up in between.)

The girls eventually finished their movie, and we tried on clothes to see if dresses and tights fit. I played Go on Lilah’s laptop with her. She installed it herself and I guess will take after her fathers interest, of computers and games. He’s pretty smart so I don’t mind.

We made chex muddy buddies to give away  as reindeer poop and labeled some play dough to also give to the girl’s friends. I just have to get motivated to go outside. It was a nice and windy day and it is really cold out there but tomorrow is going to be just as cold and I want to get the little gift bags out of my house and our Christmas day after cheer spread.

My only problem, we haven’t eaten dinner yet, it’s almost ready and only 6:55, and I don’t want to be out too late.

I hope everyone had a merry Christmas and a relaxing day after too.

Lilah had a stuffy nose last week that began on Monday night. Eden wasn’t getting it so we thought it was allergies or because of the temperature change we first experienced on Monday. Then Friday Eden got Lilah’s stuffy nose, or as Eden would say snuffy nose. (It was too cute and I had the hardest time not repeating it since we try not to baby talk to our girls.)

Since the girls were sick on Saturday we stayed home instead of doing some holiday festivities, like making cookies and going to a holiday dinner, we’ll I went to the holiday dinner since Jon was a sweet heart and stayed home with our girls.  Sunday Jon stayed home with the girls for two reasons. Eden still had a stuffy nose and he too was feeling sick.  I got some herbs from Sam and we made tea for him that afternoon and myself since I started to feel a little swollen in my throat. So much for Lilah not being contagious. ( I apologize to anyone who was exposed to our germs, it’s just hard to tell if something is a viruses or just due to freak weather like snow storms on Las Vegas. )

Jon’s taken the next two weeks off so Monday  we all went to the planetarium at CSN with our internet home school group. Jon and I felt OK, and the girls were both over their congestion problems. Then we went to Target for the girls to get gifts for one another.  Then since Smith’s was on the way home we stopped and I ran in to get sausage and cinnamon rolls for our Christmas breakfast, then to JoAnn’s because I needed some tear away to do the buttons for the girls pajamas.  (When I expressed we should stop at Smith’s and JoAnn’s after Target he was like, is this going to turn into a long morning of errands? )

That’s my final Christmas project. I’m making the girls matching pajamas.  I have buttons and buttons holes to put on both the girls tops and Lilah’s pajama bottoms to do. I waited till late, but I should get them finished and wrapped tonight so they can open them Christmas Eve. Even though they know they’re getting these pajama’s, I’m making them at night after they’re in bed and I’m hoping Lilah is somewhat surprised, I know Eden will be since she’s littler, but I’ve talked about them in front of them and Lilah remembers everything I say.

Anyways, Jon and I are both having some throat problems, but whatever we had didn’t get too bad and we seem to be on the mend. I’m just hoping it gets better and we can enjoy our Christmas without any illnesses.

Just one day till Christmas, or two depending on how you count.

I’m so excited.

Due to the record snow fall in Las Vegas yesterday, Jon was sent home early that evening. He wanted to make a snowman and play in the snow, so I got layers on the girls, found their hats and gloves and got them ready to have some snow evening fun.

First we built a double sided snowman/ snow teddy bear.

Having fun.

Acting like a kid. ( Isn’t he so cute though?)

Getting the head ready.

Patting the snow down.

Cute smile.

Getting more snow on the head.

Putting on the face.

Putting on buttons.

Lilah working on her side.

Final product on one side.

Eden showing me snow…

…and then starting a snow ball fight.

Lilah’s final snowman. (Mommy helped with the face since Jon’s hands were so frozen and he and Eden were busy having a snowball fight.)

The aftermath.

wet shoes

And wet clothes in both bathrooms.

The family warming up.

Jon didn’t have gloves thus he hands got a little too cold and were still not the same this morning. We think he may have suffered some nerve damage all for the sake of having a snowball fight with Eden and us. Eden was having lots of fun ‘throwing’ the snow. Since she can’t throw far and she knows it, she would gather it in her hands walk up to you and then hit you with the snow point blank by hitting you with her hand and a handful of snow.  Eden’s thumb also was hurting when she got inside, but there have been no complaints today so I imagine she’s fine.

In Henderson my sister still had about 4 inches on the ground and Clark County called off school for the day due to the snow. Oh how unprepared we are for snow in Las Vegas.

Our snow started melting in the night, we got rain after 8 pm or so, and we had a nice wet driveway this morning and afternoon.

We were thinking of visiting Mount Charleston over the break sometime, but honestly I think I’ve had enough snow for the winter.

We don’t have the proper clothing and it gets everything so wet and that’s just not that fun to clean up afterwords or be in.

It’s snowing in Las Vegas and actually sticking to the ground. We’re at a pretty low elevation, so I’m impressed it’s staying. (Where as Henderson and where my in-laws live get snow and we don’t.)

Here’s some video of the girls and some pictures I’ve taken. Now that it’s getting dark, and still snowing I won’t be getting any good pictures till the morning. It’s suppose to snow all night too.

Totally weird. It takes longer than normal to get cold this winter and now we’re getting snow!

Our garden.

Our pomegranate tree.

The ground 30 minutes after the girls made tracks in it.

A light.

We tried to build a snow man, but the snow was still pretty thin and I’m a wimp. I hate cold hands and boy does snow make your hands cold.

I’ve been a little preoccupied. I made truffles this week and have been mostly ignoring my children all morning. We’re down to 6 pieces of bread. Luckily we only need 5 for our lunch.

I need to go grocery shopping, as told by our bread situation.

I’ll post pictures of my worst truffle making experience later.

As of right now I’m gonna shower and have lunch with Anna and then bake cookies at my mom’s house for Anna. She’s unprepared for her kids class tonight and I’m exploiting her for food and a reason to leave my house. Never mind I need to do dishes. I’m breaking out of this place!

Ever since Halloween and having candy everyday, and yes they have a piece everyday and since they’re happy with one piece a day I just keep letting them eat one piece a day, Lilah and Eden share candy everyday and they make me share too.

Now not only do they share but there is a level of expectancy to share. Like when I eat a tootsie roll I have to give each of them a bite and they in return will give me a piece or two of their candy. If Lilah has a sucker she gives everyone a lick and expects them to then share with her.

All this sharing is a bit out of control.

I love that they’re sharing, I just don’t love the expectancy to share. Sometimes I want my Kit Kat to myself and sometimes I don’t want a lick of a sucker, or perhaps I don’t want to share my own sucker, which I’m sure grosses some people out.

If I didn’t have a headache as I write this I might now compare the mandatory sharing to some socialist or other economy that has mandatory “sharing” but atlas I’m tired so this sentence is all you get.

Besides sharing candy it’s spread into our real meals. Now mind you I’m not a short order cook, so what one gets we all get, except maybe Jon who makes his own food for lunch because he eats differently than us.

So while were all eating the exact same thing, Lilah will  offer some of her sandwich or fruit to Eden and then Eden will do the same. Or Lilah will want to have a sip of Eden’s juice box or hot chocolate which is exactly the same as her own drink.

Now it’s driving me nuts.

Am I strange to not like all this sharing going on all the time? Of course some days there is more sharing, other days less, but without fail their is a sharing of candy.

I just find it funny and maybe a little annoying. Like I said before,  sometimes a girl just wants to eat her candy in peace, or sandwich in some cases.

Last night I spent the night with my sister Carolyn at the house she was house sitting. We talked and decided to do some Black Friday shopping and since all the stores were in Henderson, and she was in Henderson, and I didn’t want to drive to Henderson early in the morning, it just worked out better to stay the night there.

I had met her at her in-laws house. Derek had gotten off work late with it being a Holiday and they were playing games. I played Scene It with them and didn’t do too bad. I knew some answers that others did not, but I didn’t know a lot that they did. Derek is a huge movie buff, where as we watch movies from Net Flix and not all of them are in the main stream.

We left his parents house around 11 pm and then got to bed around 1am. You know girls, we like to talk and Carolyn and I can often talk about almost anything with one another. I really cherish the friendship I have with her and my other sisters. It’s nice getting older and being able to share one another’s burdens or talk about silly things that you think are ridiculous, or might make you a little weird, only to find out someone else is just like you!

We went to bed at 1 am and set our alarms for 5:30 am, and got up at 5:40 am. I didn’t want to hold her up so I was actually the one to get her up and startle her at 5:40 am.

We left the house around 6:45 – 7 o’clock and went to Kohl’s first. It was a bit of a bust and had the longest lines of all the stores we went to and the $20 that Carolyn was going to spend was not worth the wait.

We then tried to find Radio Shack but the first one we went to had had closed down. It looked like our Black Friday might not be very productive, but eventually we found a Radio Shack, thanks to Carolyn’s cool phone, and she was able to buy what she needed.

We then went to a less traveled Michael’s that was close by. I was able to get my chocolate for truffles for $1.29 a bag plus an additional 25% off my total purchase, so around $1.05 a bag with tax, the normal price at JoAnn’s is $2.59 or so, it was a total score. (Thanks Carolyn for noticing the ad!) They also had the cheapest gingerbread house kits so we bought some of those to put together with the girls also.

After Michael’s we went onto Old Navy to buy dresses for the girls, and I found a sweater for myself too.

We then stopped for a bite to eat and hot chocolate at Starbucks.

Then to JoAnn’s. Carolyn was buying a Christmas tree and the amount of people there was crazy. Nearly all the fabric was 50% off so the cutting lines were the worst I’ve ever seen. It took over an hour to cut all the fabric for one woman and she took out three cart loads of fabric! My poor mother was there buying fabric for my aunt, she grabbed a number right when she got there, #67, and when we left, around two hours after my mom got there, they were only on #20. It was nuts. Luckily the line for check out wasn’t too bad and Carolyn saved a  lot of money, while I just bought a few things I needed since I was standing in line with her.

We then went to Costco and I bought my final gift of the season for my little family. I still need to get something for my brother and his wife, my dad, and I probably will be doing the shopping for my in-laws once again this year. The girls will be buying gifts for one another, but that’s not anything I need to worry about for right now.

I dropped Carolyn off and before I came home I went to Target to get a blanket I desperately wanted and was on sale, along with a couple other things. I was able to get in and out very quickly, so over-all it was a pretty good day and I think we saved a bit of money on the items we needed/ wanted to get.

Normally I do not participate in the whole Black Friday craziness, we honer Buy Nothing Day, but since we are in an stable situation, the economy is down, and there were deals to be had, it seemed like the right thing to do, plus I had someone to go with me and it makes it a lot more fun if you’re not by yourself.

I had a great day and to top it off I came home to a tidy home and Jon doing lots of laundry and dishes. I also took a way too long nap this afternoon thanks to my wonderful husband. ( I don’t function well on only four and half hours of sleep, especially when it happens two nights in a row. I am a person who needs sleep and I’ll admit it.)

Black Friday turned out to be pretty bright.