I elected to not do a family Christmas letter this year. Usually I make notes through the year about "big" events, activities, etc. But this year, I just didn't do it. Then I found a Facebook app that would compile my status updates for a year. I decided to pull from it and do a silly "Christmas letter" for my blog. Here it is:
February:
If you tried to call my house sometime after 4:01p.m. and before 9:16p.m. and didn’t get an answer (or the machine)…well, that would be because my son unplugged the phone line from the wall. Why, good morning, snow! Thought this winter weather was supposed to be “no big deal” to Central Arkansas. Yeah – a foam brush, cardboard tube and votive candle will usually keep the toilet from flushing Two years ago today we welcomed this precious baby guy into our family and what joy he brings us! Happy birthday, baby boy!! When one hears a thud in the laundry room, one should immediately go to investigate…otherwise one will walk into the laundry room only to find about 100 oz of a BRAND NEW 125oz bottle of liquid laundry detergent all over the floor. Just sayin’ 3 hours and 45 minutes later…the laundry room floor is clean and smells like Spring Rain ALL. Top of the washer and dryer are clean. Behind the washer and dryer…clean. UNDER the washer and dryer…clean. AND, I’ve got some clean towels!! Y’know what? I love friends I’ve known forever.
March:
Thinks she and Brad should play Super Mario Bros Wii in celebration of our engagement 21 years ago tonight. We were playing Super Mario Brothers when he proposed!! Walked into the family room this morning to find a dozen white roses in a vase on the table – and a very sweet card. A happy anniversary, indeed! 20 years ago today! If you’d stop throwing dirt and sand at one another, you might get to stay outside longer. Just a thought. Harrison sleeps better when he is covered by my Grandma’s quilt. I find that so interesting…and sweet! A freshly-mopped kitchen floor is a guaranteed magnet for a homemade Cherry-Limeade. Annie got dressed. I told her she looked adorable. She ran to her room and said to her sisters, “Guys! Look at me! I’m adorable!” Has no status today. Now has a status: “ Mom, you are the master cooker of the burritos!” Does it get any better than being the master of burrito cooking? I think not! Little darlin’ it’s been a long, cold, lonely winter…here comes the sun, and I say, it’s all right.
April:
Just found yesterday’s lunch in the microwave. Guess that’s why I was so hungry when Brad brought pizza home last night, huh? {sniff} it’s a proud moment in The Shoe. I just taught Elizabeth Jane how to IRON! Just as an FYI…name-brand Crocs shrink if they get dried in the dryer. Licorice jelly beans remind me of my Grandpa Harrison. He always ate them. My Annie *loves* them. She had to have gotten that from him because she didn’t get it from me! Going to pick up 166 pounds of beef! Sheets and mattress pad in the wash. Pillow and pillow covers next. Then the comforter and blanket. Then the bathroom rug and a whole bunch of towels. Dontcha just love that unexpected kind of sick? Yeah. Me, neither. Elizabeth just had her Daddy take the training wheels off her bike. Then she jumped on and took off! So thankful for friends who walk the path with us…just when we need them…just how we need them. God is good to orchestrate things like that.
May:
“Mommy, I want a turkey sandwich for lunch!” “Bitsy, we don’t have any turkey.” “I know, Mommy. It’s okay if you make me a turkey sandwich with ba-yonee.” So, Bitsy had a turkey sandwich made with bologna. So, this morning my son proved he’s ALL boy. He pulled out the almost-empty gallon jug of milk and DRANK FROM IT! I was on the phone with my sister and said to her, “There’s something on the Y chromosome that makes them do this, isn’t there?” Six years ago today we welcomed our 2nd Miracle into our lives. She is our little entertainer and drama queen. She loves God and His Word (for which I am eternally thankful), her family and piggies. She is the one who is guaranteed to make us laugh. We love her like crazy. Happy 6th birthday, Katherine Martin!!! Elizabeth Jane leaves for Grammie’s today. She’ll be gone for TWO WEEKS!!! Elizabeth Jane lost a tooth while at Grammie’s. It fell out during the night…and the tooth fairy left her money before she even knew the tooth was gone! Listening to my sweet boy play with his Matchbox cars. Harrison, to Brad when Brad changed the TV from hockey to basketball, “HEY! I like hockey!” Freedom has a price and often it is a dear one.
June:
Is almost certain she didn’t raise her children to think they live in a barn Harrison sitting with me on the sofa singing La-La-Lullabye (Pajanimals). So sweet! Love the song, too…it reminds me of when I was pregnant with him. Trying to convince my two oldest children that sleep is a good thing when I was told, “I’m afraid you’re going to have fun while I’m asleep!” “Yeah! We both are!” Apparently I have parties while my children sleep. Yeah. Riiiiiiight. Is so thankful for my BFF coming to the rescue by keeping me from appearing on “The People of WalMart” website. I walked out of my house to go to WalMart and had on my slippers!!!!!!!!!!! Granted, they were Vera Bradley, but they were slippers none the less. Panicked call to Kim solved the problem and I ended up in stylish flip flops. Getting ready for the first slumber party of my parenting life. Let the slumbering commence! Sweetness overheard from last night’s slumber party, “Katherine, I’m about to go to sleep. I’d like to hold your hand.” They took all the trees and put ‘em in a tree museum. Harrison’s preschool and college tuition savings will be used to pay for the heat pump repair.
July:
Pillowcases drying on the line. Hope it doesn’t rain while they’re out there. Horrible, no-good, very bad mood. Annie is officially registered (deposits paid) for preschool! I just spent an hour obsessing over a “missing” Netflix DVD. Went through the trash. Went through the recycle bin. Went through the house with a flashlight looking in, on, behind and under everything. Checked my Netflix account. They shipped the DVD YESTERDAY. I wasn’t remembering the DVD arriving. I was remembering getting the email that said the thing had been shipped. {sigh} Seriously? Is making laundry detergent I think the top of my head just flew off! Katherine lost her first tooth! Is listening to Brad as he explains the intricacies of open-wheel racing to a 2-year-old. He also loves watching the Tour de France…the original open-wheel racing! Paid off Brad’s truck! Katherine lost another tooth!! Pineapple KoolAid slushies apparently turn one into “the best mom, EVER!”
August:
Performing emergency surgery on Elizabeth’s BehBear. He has a flesh wound near his left subclavian artery. I don’t think it’s deep enough that he’s going to bleed to death (how does a bear bleed stuffing, anyway?) And it’s certainly not as significant as his arm wound from last week. But to a certain 7-year-old, it is tragedy. History, grammar and handwriting start tomorrow! Just in case you were wondering: it’s really, really, REALLY uncool to discover your a/c unit is backed up and draining INTO your house at 1:30 in the morning when you happen to step upon super soggy carpet! Yikes!!! Televised flag football. Why? The Big Girls and Brad are off to Chattanooga for the weekend. Brad and Nin will be home Sunday. Elizabeth will be home in two weeks! Fresh sheets on everyone’s beds. Line-dried in today’s wonderful sunshine! Has a little boy who is upset that he doesn’t have a handwriting book of his own. Uh-oh! Looks like I’ll be heading to Mardel this weekend to buy him one! When Annie talked to my mom today she said, “Boop, today was my first day of preschool and I didn’t get kicked out!” Harrison was asleep when Elizabeth and Brad got home. He was so surprised when he woke up. “Girl!!!! You’re HOME!!!!” and threw himself at her to give her huge hugs and kisses. So, so sweet! {in case you don’t know, Harrison calls Elizabeth “Girl” most of the time}
September:
Three words: Pumpkin Spice Latte. It’s a GREAT birthday! (to the tune of The 12 Days of Christmas) “from the first full week of preschool my Bitsy gave to me: a cough and a nose that’s runny…” Mmmm. Lovely. Listening to Katherine read LITTLE BEAR. Yay! She finally feels confident enough to read a real book. Hooray!! Katherine just lost yet ANOTHER tooth! Tomorrow is preschool Pajama Day and as is his tradition, Brad is going with Annie…and yes, he’s wearing his PJs. Then he’s taking her to lunch. So, if you happen to be in Purple Cow and see some man and his little girl in their PJs…well, they belong to me. (I had three children with bronchitis and two who had it bad enough that it moved into pneumonia during September…it was a slow month for status updates)
October:
Came into the office where my mom informs me I have paint all over the back of my pants. Um. How long has it been there? (it was dry so I’m going to assume it had been there a while) YIKES! The dried paint? It was actually melted crayon. Lovely is snuggled under my Grandma’s quilt with my baby boy watching the weather – he loves yelling out the numbers when he sees them. I’m ironing (I know you’re shocked) and Annie is sitting on the sofa singing Black-Eyed Peas Harrison has my phone, “I call somebody” so if you get a phone call from my cell phone – it’s really him. Wasn’t it Nolan Richardson who used to call Razorback basketball “60 minutes of hell”? Well, he’s never been at my house with 4 kids while I was on a conference call. Just sayin’. Is thankful for my fix-it-dude husband. He watched a video online to learn how to fix what was ailin’ the dishwasher! Loves, loves, loves that Annie is singing “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong. It is one of her favorites and she learned it in music at preschool. Thank you, Mrs. Laurie!!! Okay! It can get cold now!! Thanks to some wonderful friends, we have our new heat pump installed!
November:
7:30a.m. and the kids are already asking, “at 10 or 10:30 can we have some candy?” dividing your 20 item WalMart purchase into two 10-item orders does not qualify you for the 10-item-or-less check-out. Just sayin’ Bittersweet time laying my Great Aunt Kate to rest, hearing stories about her love for Uncle Wendell, about her and my grandmother (and my uncle who was rotten to the core!) left debit card in the ATM at the bank, on the phone with poison control since my son drank 2oz of Dimetapp Cold and Allergy, left the van with the mechanic, cluster migraine, met with the Speech Path for Annie (she’ll start therapy in the next two weeks)…just a taste of the past 24 hours in The Shoe. You wish you had my life, don’t you? Why must I suffer through fishing shows on TV? The things I do for this man…. so very thankful that it’s going to cost HALF of what we budgeted to fix all the stuff on the van! (Kittle’s Garage in NLR, my heroes!) some days there’s just not enough red wine “Get inside with your sisters, you Turkey!” to which he replied, “I not a turkey! I a BOY!” That you are, son! “Wash my armpits!” all four of my kids say this in the shower. They’re so funny. Glad to know I’ve instilled in them a desire to not stink up the joint. Those of you who know my husband very well know that he is NOT the world’s biggest Razorback fan…at all. Well, today, I witnessed, for the first time EVER, him actually rooting and cheering for the Hogs! WPS!!! I don’t care if it says “I love Happy Days” you are NOT hanging a Post-It Note on my Christmas tree!
December:
My redneck son: I take him to Fresh Market, he looks at me and says, “Mommy, we need to go to WalMart” Oh. My. Gracious. Nooooooooooo!!! Dontcha love it when you’re walking into Target and your kids say, “Mommy, there’s blood all over the back of your shirt. And you have a rip in your pants.” Yeah. Me, too. Too bad there’s not a Facebook app to compile status updates for a selected date range, export them (so they are editable) and let that become the family Christmas letter. App writers, get on it. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas from The Shoe!!!
2 comments:
That's cool! Send me the info on that app. That looks entertaining, to say the least.
hey, Gina! You've had quite a year! Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment. Too bad you had to miss the meet-up {hope your pictures were great!} but that's the thing about the internet...always just a few key-clicks away :)
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