Goodbye and Good Riddance 2013

I have never met a year that could not end fast enough. This year was truly awful. We've had family deaths, pet deaths, ghastly illnesses (both ours and close friends), and incredible expenses. I don't think I've ever had a year with so much bad juju. I cannot wait to say goodbye to 2013.

This means a lot coming from me, I'm always reminding my girls to never wish their days away, but I seriously cannot wait for the symbolism of washing off the old and welcoming the fresh promise of a new year full of positive potential. 

Last year I had a lot of entertaining activities. The girls have been asking me about the balloons to pop every half hour. Not this year, 2013 made sure of that. I was going to go to the store after Howler's speech appointment to pick up some poppers and knick knacks, but the car wouldn't start this morning.... Yes, seriously. Thank you 2013 for tripping me up one more time.

Tonight I plan on keeping it laid back. Make some pipe cleaner firework rings and have the girls fill out this new year resolution sheet. Probably pop some popcorn and watch Disney movies till midnight. That's it. Nothing spectacular or amazing just chillin' with my monkeys.

Best of luck to you in the New Year! Hope it's better than the last!

10 Days Till Christmas

10 Days!! All the shopping is done!! Can't contain excitement!!! Here - have a present, kid!

If I had more than 10 gifts I probably would be handing them out already..... I am a terrible gift giver.... I like to buy a gift, drive to the party, hand them the gift. No, you can't open anyone else's first. It has to be mine.... now.... no... no food or cake, NOW! 

So what do I do? I bake. Can't give you presents.... have a cookie. 10 Days of cookies... I like that plan.... it could cut back my gift giving anxiety a bit I think.... 

Today we will be using our new cookie press to make snickerdoodles! I'm excited...

In the mood for something a little denser? We made this monkey bread a few days ago and it was WONDERFUL. The girls had a great time coating the little dough balls and throwing them in the pan. 

It was delicious too. I think I'm going to make it again today to take to my grandmother's house.

Am I alone in this?? I never liked having surprise gifts as a kid. I was a spoiler who would sneak into closets, under beds, the cobwebbed corners of the garage and shed searching the weeks leading to Christmas. It was not a successful year unless I knew what was in every box. I guess I just don't like surprises :)

What's the Deal?

Okay, many of you, my friends, may be wondering, "What's the deal?"

I may have started flooding your Facebook feed with posts about Young Living Essential Oils and Pampered Chef.

Let me take a minute to tell you why.

The story starts about a month ago in the wee hours of the morning with a phone call. A groggy Chris says, "Hello." To which the reply is screaming. No, I am not exaggerating. I'm laying in my spot in bed, the television is still on and yet I can hear every. word. this woman is saying. Chris calmly explains to her why the machines she is screaming about are not functioning optimally because the parts are on order. She continues to scream at him the same dozen or so sentences until finally Chris insists to her she needs to calm down and she finally hangs up on him.

This behavior was not unusual. He took this job six years ago and has hardly gotten a good nights' sleep since. When he was out with the flu, he repeatedly got calls at 3-5 in the morning. When we were on vacation he was expected to have his phone by his side at all times. I lost count how many nights he would get home from a twelve hour day, be about to put his keys in their spot when he would get a call and have to go out to work again. He was working 55-60 hours a week without overtime pay. He missed the oldest three girl's first birthday parties and many of those after because they expected him to immediately leave whatever he was doing and go work.

This late night call was the last straw. Something snapped. He was done. The next day he put in applications everywhere. He had a new job lined up by the end of the week. The draw back - a 10% decrease in pay and no insurance until March. Something that before now would have made for a difficult decision, but in light of recent events it didn't matter.

This brings me back around to why - why have been flooding your Facebook feed with a dozen posts about Essential Oils and Pampered Chef? In order to try to make up for that missing 10% I decided to do something I had considered for a long time. I have bought from both of these companies for years. I love Pampered Chef cookware! I've been using oils around my house, on myself and my kids for years! I've been tempted for some time to sell them, but lacked the motivation. Well, I found my motivation :)

Cobra insurance would have been 40% of our monthly income. We've had to take Howler out of Occupational Therapy. We've had to cut back on our expenses. You'd think we'd be stressed and upset, but no, not really. Chris loves his new job. He likes his coworkers. No one is screaming at him on a nearly daily basis. Overtime is optional except for two weeks every two months. He found out yesterday that if the weather is awful they will close shop and he will get a paid snow day! Every bit more we learn about this new company the more we love them and wonder why we didn't make this switch a long time ago.

So there's why and I'm happy to be doing it. If you need any oils or cookware, let me know! I'm happy to help :)

One Year! and Back to Normal

One Year!
Yes, my littlest monkey turned a year old a week ago.

Hard to believe it's been a year! She's walking more and more. She has a big attitude, no idea where she gets that from. She'll eat anything she can get her hands on. Her favorite thing to play with is pom poms and cups. Put it in, pour it out, throw it at mama (usually the pom poms, occasionally the cups).

Back to Normal
It wasn't until the week before thanksgiving that I began to get my energy back. It took that long for my body to recover from the nasty tick disease that ruined our fall. We survived thanksgiving with a bunch of family at our house. It was a good time, but I am so happy it's December! Can you tell?

How bout now?

Or now?

We may have gone a bit overboard this year...... I still have another little tree to put up in Capuchin's room and need to put the blue lights on the dark tree.

How many trees is normal for one house? Anyone else out there a little tree crazy?

Where have I been?

I have to admit. I spend more time thinking about my blog and writing posts in my head than is probably healthy  normal. I turn my inner monologue into a voice over script and hope it flies with my wonderful readers. This gets drastic enough I find myself waking up from blog riddled dreams. Yes, really. So why have I been so silent?

...... 

I found a new obsession.

It involves needles.... 

 And soft balls of fur....

Or cotton....

I cannot believe how relaxing this hobby is. Now, this is my third or fourth time to attempt knitting. I never finished a single project in the times past, but thanks to youtube, a couple of good books, and some great knitting friends (Thanks Dianna and Leslie!!) I made it through quite a few projects in the last few months.

So I traded my late night keyboard sessions for knitting needles. So, yes, we are still here, we are well, all is good. I'm just... knitting..... A simple joy from simple tools.

Halloween!

What a great way to end a month full of so much unpleasantness!

Want to know a fun and safe way to carve jack o' lanterns? A rubber mallet (or hammer if they are big enough) and a round cookie cutter set. They think it's great fun and the worst you have to worry about is bruised fingers. No blood! Yay!!

Micheal's had their gingerbread houses half off already! Five dollars for a couple hours of entertainment.

I got Tamarin's green cake makeup on amazon. I wanted to put more coats on (we did the night we went to Story Book Forest and she got so many comments on her costume!), but she's already tired of putting on makeup after doing it multiple nights this week. Tamarin and Lemur's costumes are clothes from the girls' section of Target. I prefer costumes that can be worn anytime and the pieces of these outfits can!

The books we read this week:


This is one of our favorites:


And lastly you can download a song version of this one for free over at Scholastic:


Hope everyone had as great of a night as we did :)

Blood Sucker!

This is a dark tale about an evil creature that killed my dog and attacked my husband. Nope, no holy water or garlic is necessary. Trade in those things for Frontline. I'd rather be talking about vampires and other things that go bump in the night, but I'm actually talking about this little blood sucker

Two thirds of my life I have lived in what would be considered by most to be "the country." Surrounded by yard, dogs, and other wildlife. I have always pulled ticks off my pets and squished them between my fingers without a second thought. They are just an annoyance, nothing serious, that is until two months ago.

I found the tiniest ticks I've ever seen on my husband and myself. The spot itched for days afterwards, but eventually it stopped and the experience was sent to the back of the memory bank.

Fast forward to three weeks ago. Chris asks me repeatedly over the weekend if I can see a bite or a rash on his back because it burns and he can't figure out why. A few days later he calls me from work saying he feels like he's going to pass out.

I picked him up and took him to the closest doctor's office. Fortunately, this doc had a good eye. He immediately zeroed in on tick borne illness and told us to go get the antibiotic that night instead of waiting for the blood tests to come back.

Sure enough my husband was diagnosed with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Despite the fact there was no rash.

I knew I had a tick the same evening he did and I've felt off for a couple of weeks (at the time he was diagnosed) so I decided to get tested. While the RMSF came back negative the short Lyme detected something (turns out the short Lyme test can pick up a whole laundry list of diseases including RMSF). So the doctor put me on the same antibiotics.

Well, if we have it. Surely, the dogs have been exposed since I find ticks on them regularly. As I was reading up on RMSF in dogs, I realized, this is what killed Bill.

I took one of the dogs in the next morning for blood work. Sure enough, it was positive. Which means all the dogs have it. Unfortunately, the vet only had enough antibiotic for two of my dogs. I'm waiting to hear back from her on when she will have enough for the rest of them.

This experience is making me seriously rethink my belief to not spray pesticides on our property. The girls have not been bit or infected, but they also have not been allowed outside to play since this ordeal started. Another reason I've not had a lot of time to blog lately. Besides illness and me throwing out my back I have been busy entertaining children with cabin fever! Mama needs her recess back!