Thanksgiving weekend

So being off work for four days was wonderful. I wish I could have that every week.

Since we did Thanksgiving with my sister on Sunday we got to stay home on Thanksgiving. I cooked a big meal. Susana and my mom stopped by. My mom is allergic to the the dogs and the cigarette smoke so she didn't stay long. She brought her stuffing for Karl, so all is well. :)

I got up with Melanie and hit the day after Thanksgiving sales at 4:00 in the morning. We hit Toys R Us, Target, Walmart, Kmart, and Value City by 10:00. She had to go to work after (haha) and I went home to take a nap.

Susana and I went out for a bit that evening. Dropped Tati and Bree off with Christa (Sean's wife) and went to Panera for a bite to eat. We hit Gordman's and then home to watch some TV with Karl.

Cianah spent the night with a friend so nice quite night. Saturday so didn't feel like Saturday. I slept a lot. Trying to recuperate from the day before I'm sure. Cianah cleaned the WHOLE house (including her sisters' rooms.)

Susana came over to get Cianah to hang out at the mall. This is a slightly sore subject. Karl says he doesn't think this was intentional or deliberate so I'm trying to let it go. She took Cianah up to Mallory's job. Ummm, what part of out of my life (and my kids) do you not understand? So Mallory gives her a gift for Christmas (and something for the other 2 girls as well.) My opinion is...if you want to see the kids, work it out with your brother. Don't have your mom bring them to you. That's sneaky to me. And if it wasn't planned then why did she have the gifts there? I don't know maybe they came from her store and she just bought them right then? I don't know and I don't care. I'm letting it pass. My energy is not well spent worrying about the intentions of others.

So Saturday night Karl's drunk behind drops a glass on his foot. He bled all over my floor. LOL I butterflied him up and he's good to go. Last week he slammed his thumb in the car door. He had so much blood pooling under his nail that he took a drill and drilled a hole in his nail to relieve the pressure. Crystal thinks this makes him a stud. lol

So after the thumb drilling and sliced foot, he said he's ready for a tattoo. LOL He's wanted a lion with dreadlocks for a long time, just never had the courage (I guess) to get it. He wants one eye the African Flag and the other eye Puerto Rican flag. I say he just needs to get my face tattooed on his forearm. He said he'll pass. lol

Poor guy.

I'm like 90% done with my shopping. That usually means I end up buying more. :)

Cianah has a iPod nano, a coat, some jewelry, make up, a new cell phone, a death note necklace, speakers for her iPod, and a mini digital camera. She had an expensive one 2 years ago and lost it so cheap it is.
Tatiana is getting an iPod Shuffle, new cell phone, makeup, Dream Girls DVD, digital camera, Night at the Museum DVD, and I still need 2 other things for her.
Bryana is getting an MP3 player, twin babies with a stroller car seat and high chair, bratz doll (a big one that is like 2 foot tall), digital camera, a coat, Shrek the 3rd, and some polly toys. I have a rain check for a bike.

Then they all get PJ and some slippers. This for the traditional, "Mom can we please open one present on Christmas eve?" To which I say, "Sure as long as I get to pick the gift."

I got my niece (Ashanti) a baby Bratz doll and nephew (Qualil) a Hotwheels 18 wheeler that comes with 5 matchbox cars. Haven't started on the other nieces and nephews. My sister seems to think I should not buy for them this year. So we're still in negotiations.

My mom is getting a plate. (See previous blog) I have NO idea what to get Karl's mom, plus I think she reads this so I'd leave her gift out anyway. LOL

OH YES and my fabulous father-in-law (yeah so I'm not married to his son anymore, I still love my father in law the same) is getting the kids a Wii. Karl and I are chipping in a small amount and he's covering the bulk. So cool.

So all I have left is Karl's gift from me. I'm not sure is this is really for "him" as much as it is for the kids, but he asked for Rock Band. So they can all play together.
Then the few things for Tati, maybe Bree's bike, maybe my nieces and nephews in MO and my sisters in NJ. They are not making it easy on me though. I'm a bit of a freak when it comes to Christmas. (It's my mother's fault.) I don't get into other people buying me gifts, it actually makes me feel uncomfortable. But I LOVE, LOVE to give gifts.
If they don't help me out with some ideas, maybe the girls and I will just bake some cookies and ship them off to them. I don't know. It's just my small way to say I love you. Sappy and corny, but true.

So no pictures this week, just my babbling. :)

I thought I had nothing to do this weekend.

Friday night was Steph's going away party. So after getting reamed at work about my aging increasing$100K in one week (that's what happens when you double my work load and give me the same 3 people to work it) I was ready for a drink. :) I only stayed for a short while, enough for one drink. Then off to Glazed and Confused for "girls night" All I can say is even if Cheri's artistic nature did make me look bad, I'm glad I sat by her. :) She wrote all the words for me in her awesome handwriting. :) I painted a cute plate for my mom for Christmas. It says "Grandma's Garden" and has a flower pot (thanks to Cheri) and 10 flowers with all the kids' names. I think she'll like it. I pick it up Friday. It was fun. I skipped Bunko for Instant Iguana's CD debut concert so it was good to see everyone. :)

Saturday Karl went in to get some OT so I can shop on Friday. Yeah!! Bree had a game at noon. They got their butts kicked but I see improvement, so I'll take it.
I didn't upload the pictures yet, but I'll work on it this week.

Sunday I woke up at 6:30 to go to Marsha's to fix her hair and do her makeup for her family pictures. I guess she thinks I like her or something? She better be glad I do. That was too early to get up when I didn't have to. LOL

Then off to my sister's. She and her fam are headed to Branson this week so we did Thanksgiving a few days early. It was nice. Plus I got my baby fill cuz I got to hold Sophie the whole time...YEAH! I had to fight with Bree to hold her, but I'm bigger and I can ground her if she bothers me too much. :)

My friend Christine's father passed away last week and the wake was Sunday. I didn't make it up there. How awful. He and his wife were at Lowe's and he had a massive heart attack and never woke up. So unexpected. I so feel for her. On top of that, her two kids were sick all night Saturday AND her husband was in the hospital on Sunday with what they think is appendicitis. How much can one person take? I guess it puts life into perspective. All the little things I complain about are nothing. Everyone keep Christine and her family in your thoughts and prayers. She's got to be having a rough time.

Not much else. But what I thought was "nothing to do" ended up a pretty busy weekend.

Tomorrow going to say goodbye to Stephanie. I'm already PMSing so this ought to make for more tears than I'm ready to shed. I really hate that she is leaving. First Ebony, now her. Apparently all my friends are headed to the West coast. I tried California for awhile. Although the lure of the beach one minute and the mountains the next was great, who can afford to live there? I spent 2 hours a day in the car commuting, one way. No thanks. I complain about 40 minutes now.

This Weekend

So Friday night Karl and I went to see our friend Jon's band play. They were actually really good. We had fun.

It's starting to sink in that Steph is actually leaving. I'm getting sad. We've been friends for 15 years. She is such a great person and an amazing friend. I'm not saying this because she reads my blog (she doesn't) but because I really love her. I do not think for a minute that her moving to Seattle will make us loose touch, it won't but I won't get to meet her for lunch whenever I want. I'll have to save it for an annual trip to Seattle. Since her family has all moved up there chances of her coming here to visit are slim. :)

Back to the band.

Instant Iguana...good stuff. And the Affton bar scene? Well, not my kinda crowd...but oh well I liked the music.

Stephanie and Karl. Gotta love the Pabst Blue Ribbon sign above their heads, right?

This place has something every night of the week...from line dancing to swing dancing, from 80's night to Rat pack night....What a bar huh?

The band. This was their CD release party and possibly their farewell gig. They might squeeze one more out before Jon joins Stephanie in Seattle.

So late night and then Bryana had a basketball game at 8:00. Adrianne I do not know how you function on as little sleep as you get...because I looked at the pictures I took at the game, and I have no idea what I was doing. LOL

I had the shutter speed set much too slow so Bree is a blur in most pictures. I know she's fast...but not that fast. :)

Look at my baby drive down the court.

Ok she really didn't wake up until the second half. And she was still a bit rusty. I think we may get her a hoop for Christmas. Not sure how much she'll get to play on it, but they said we're going to have a mild winter. Since it's been 70 degrees in November...it looks like it.

What a pass.

Then later in the day Saturday we took family pictures. I only melted down once (yeah right) while trying to get everyone to match. I don't think the lack of sleep helped at all. Karl, (the poor baby) at one point actually said, "Babe, I'll pulling out my best stuff here and it's not helping." I think I hung up on him. :) Poor guy, the abuse he takes. But we did work the outfits out. And the photographer said "You guys look great. You're the best matched family we shot all day." Karl (smartass) says, "I appreciate you saying that, if you only knew what it took to get us this way." (Meaning my meltdowns.)

Cianah being a typical (brat) teenager didn't smile like I think she should have. So she looks a bit unhappy. I even tried bribing them. Ice cream, anything. It didn't really work.

Here are some *unedited* and low res proofs:

It's so hard to get 5 people to look good at the same time, even if they are as hot as my family.

Thanks to Colortouch Photography for doing their best to make us all look good.

Please over look Bryana's white shoes. I couldn't find any brown one's in her size. It took 5 stores to get us all shirts and brown pants to match..I wasn't going to 5 more for a pair of shoes for Bryana to wear only a couple of times. Oh well. I'm sure no one but me notices stuff like that.

Sunday (since I hair Saturday) I got to relax. YEAH ME!!

This weekend we're doing Thanksgiving with my sister on Sunday. They're heading down to Branson on Thanksgiving (lucky dogs) so we're celebrating a little early.

Then I'll cook a spread for my family on Thursday. And hit the ground running on Friday for the sales. :)

Hope everyone is having a lovely week.

This week in History

So a pretty dull week in the Hobby House. Not much going on to speak of.

Bryana had the stomach flu on Monday and was nice enough to pass it on to me on Wednesday. So far we're the only two who have come down with it so fingers crossed it's all over.

I'm feeling almost human again so I'm happy.

Last weekend I shot a retirement party for a friend of mines mother. Ok, if you EVER need a caterer, I *highly* recommend Rachael's Restaurant & Catering. OMG! This food melted in your mouth it was so good. I actually kissed Rachael (on the cheek.) It was amazing. A week later I am still dreaming about it.


So good. I wish I would have known about her when I was booking a caterer for Marsha's wedding.

The photo shoot was fun. Angelia's family was fun. Plus I got to eat Rachael's food. So bonus right?


Bryana has her first basketball game is tomorrow. She missed the first practice because it was Monday night and she was sick. I hope the coach still plays her. I'll post some pictures from the game if she plays.

Tonight Karl and I are headed out....I know mark your calendar it must be a blue moon. Since Stephanie is abandoning me in a few short weeks I am taking every opportunity to hang out with her as I can. :) Jon's band is playing a gig near the house so we're headed out.

I'll probably take my camera there too so I'll blog about the Affton bar scene later. It's sure to be a blast. LOL

We're taking family pictures tomorrow too. I hope to have them fairly quickly so I can make up some Christmas cards since I actually have family out of town now. :) I can mail Christmas cards. YEAH!!

Can you believe it's that time already? I can't. Karl wants an iPod touch for Christmas. Why? I don't know it's not like he goes anywhere that he needs to take music with him. Whatever, if that's what he wants I guess I'll try and get it.

Cianah wants an iPod too...not the touch but an iPod.
Tati wants the Dream Girls CD and a makeup kit.
And Bree....well she wants whatever toy she sees in a book.

So there's this website http://www.blackfriday.info/ and it shows everything on sale (without the pictures) the day after Thanksgiving. I see nothing on my list yet.

I brave those wee morning hours with hundreds of other shoppers in the cold for deals. Darn it, we need a sale.

It gets harder every year as they continue to grow. Darn them. I remember when a bucket of legos, a barbie and a baby doll was Christmas and they were happy. I'd like those days back please.

Since Karl grew up Jehovah's Witness and they never celebrated holidays, his first year with us at Christmas it was like having 4 kids. He was just as excited. Well not much has changed....he still gets just as excited (or pretends very well.) Here's a picture from last year....



I don't remember but I think this was a wallet and a DVD.

Big kid right?


Usually I have mixed emotions on Christmas morning. The kids have usually snuck around for the previous month trying to find their presents (last year we actually put a lock on the storage room downstairs. So I'm annoyed that they already know all their presents. But happy that they are glad to get them.






One year one of those brats actually blurted out "Oh you thought this was for you, it was for me." UMMM BUSTED!!! I think that year I stopped taking pictures because my feelings were so hurt.
BRATS!!!

Last year was classic. I wrapped presents and went to bed earlier than the kids. Karl (since he didn't have this experience as a child) mistakenly thinks that if you let them stay up later, they sleep later. That may work on most days....but not Christmas morning.

So I didn't put up a tree. It was a busy time last year and I didn't get around to it. Plus the tree is broken and we need to get new one. So no decorations.
When I woke up...or was awaken by the children....I had a tree and Christmas lights all over the house. The lights....hung with duct tape. And the tree...tied to a broom stick to keep the top up straight. Great kids huh. I think I actually put a disclaimer on the pictures before I sent them out. :) LOL

So until next time....Hope everyone had a good week!!

Halloween

So against my better judgement...my kids keep growing up. I tell them all the time this is not allowed, but they refuse to listen. So this year Cianah decided she's too old to Trick or treat and wanted a party instead. Fine. (Turns out Tati is too old too but she didn't discover that until *after* I bought her a new costume.)

So Friday October 26th we had a party for her. (Thanks Adrianne for making me realize I worried about nothing)

The kids had a good time! Minor tragedy, Bree's friend didn't show up. Of course Cianah, being the wonderful sister she is, only pointed that out 10, maybe 12 times...cause if you can't torture your own flesh and blood, who can you torture, right?

I made these cute little spider cookies and *attempted" to make witches with marshmallows. Ok so I skipped the food coloring on the hair so you can't see it and I couldn't find "chocolate wafers" for the brim of the hat...they still ate them.

Hannah made some cute "fingers."

I made dirt cake too, didn't take a picture of that though.

Ok Adam is the only boy who showed up. He got really mistreated because, well because that's what we girls do to boys. :) Deal with it.

Girls left to right:

Abby, Miranda, Hannah, Cianah, Kelci

Tatiana had Katie over too...Cianah wouldn't allow her sisters in the picture though. Sweet kid huh? Notice a theme with her?

They did an "eyeball hunt" with balls in spaghetti, a "mummy making contest with toilet paper, and the traditional bobbing for apples.

Tatiana won the "eyeball hunt."

Kelci dripping wet...doesn't that look like fun?

Then they watched Dawn of the Dead. I think they were scared, but no one will admit it.

Halloween itself. Well here's my opinion of the "costumes" they have available for girls. You can either be a princess or a hooker. It's hard to find any middle ground. So last year Cianah was a Geisha (aka hooker) Tatiana was a Cat, with go-go boots (aka hooker) and Bree was a spooky spirit (happy middle ground)

Since Cianah wasn't trick-or-treating the previous hooker costume was what she got to wear...I think this is the last year before her entire butt will hang out...so no more. Tati (as seen at the Halloween party) who hasn't grown too terribly much had to wear shorts under her costume from last year...because hookers don't wear long dresses..any growth can result in this problem. Bree still fit in hers with no appendages hanging out..so we were safe there. Tatiana was a doctor, nice and safe. No exposed body parts. In fact she had a mask and surgical hat so I think even in a Muslim country she'd be safe.

As always my friend Melanie came to trick or treat with us. Again, her kids continue to not listen to me and grow up too. So only 4 trick-or-treaters this year.

Bryana

Tatiana

The twins - KeAndre & Kizmet

Kayla - She's 10 and as tall as I am. Ok so I'm only 5'2" but come on.

Kalen - Melanie gave him the cute little curl on his forehead.

Kendale - "too old" to trick-or-treat so he hung out with Karl.

Kyle - 15 (16 in February) - also too old to trick-or treat. He'll just steal candy from the little ones. :)

To see all the Halloween party pics: http://hobdypix.smugmug.com/gallery/3728535#214047228