Happy New Year and my Non-Resolution post!!

I hope all of you have a very blessed New Year!! I don't make resolutions, because I can't keep them. Mostly due to the fact that I have the attention span of a gnat and lose interest by bed time on the first of January. There are some things I plan on working on this year though. For one, I want to be more intentional about the time I spend with God. Less reading on the fly, and more focused meditation on scripture. I want to spend more FUN time with the kids. We have played pretty much non-stop this week, and you know what? I'm actually remembering how to use my imagination to play again. It's odd they way you lose that as you get older. Oh, I also need to lay off the Pathwords a bit. For the two of you who aren't on Facebook yet, it's an addictive word game, much like crack for the stay at home mom, and it's beginning to take over a good portion of my sleep time. I only play by myself, you can play with friends or even challenge people you don't know. I'm thinkin' that would not serve my inferiority complex well, so I'll remain solo.

I also need to lose weight, but I really don't see that happening. So I'm not EVEN gonna put that on the list so as to avoid the shame and humiliation of failure. If I could control my hair growth, which I obviously can't, I'd like to slow that down. My hair grows faster than a chia pet and I seem to run back and forth to my hair cuttin' pal on a way regular basis. I used to be able to trim it in between appointments to keep it out of my eyes. However, now that I have the new shorter 'do', if I mess with it, I look like the kid in preschool that cut her hair with her mom's kitchen shears. Oh my word, now I'm just rambling like an idiot. I will go for now, I need to play at least three or twelve rounds of Pathwords before I can go to bed. G'night!!

Obligatory picture post.....

Hey guys. For both of you that read this and are not actually members of my family, you may want to skip this one becuase it is the obligatory picture post from the Christmas season. Most of our family resides else where, so here I will share the love with all of them.....Here goes..actually, I think I'll get some chips and dip first....
M'kay, I'm back....posting and snacking, multi-tasking at it's best I'll tell ya.

Okay, first up are a couple of pictures of the girls open house for the homeschool co-op they attend every other Monday. They attend this co-op with roughly 100 other children. They performed together on stage by age group, and then several of them performed as soloists. The first couple are of the girls in their group, and then one of Sydney playing Silent Night.




Also, Sydney got an award for winning the spelling bee. She was not expecting this plaque so it was a nice surprise....



**Note to self, the next time you buy French Onion dip, don't skimp and get the Wal-Mart brand. It tastes much like I imagine rat poison would taste.

On the 13th and 14th our church had it's Christmas musical A Christmas Prayer.
The Chilren's choir performed with us as well. Here is a picture of Syd before we left..

Elly and Tracy were at home sick. Elly with a nasty sinus infection, and Tracy with a terrible cold...here they are for your viewing pleasure....

I don't have a picture of me by myself, and believe me, it's just as well. But here is one of the whole choir.I'm on the back row.... If by any chance someone in this picture doesn't like their image in the blogosphere due to say...the witness protection program, America's Most Wanted, etc....let me know and I will collect any award available remove it. Thanks.....

We made dozens and dozens of cookies, really, I stopped counting at 15 dozen and two pounds of chocolate dipped pretzels. I thought my ears were going to start getting pointy. Anyhoo, the OCD meds must be workin' because I let the girls do ALMOST all of the cookie decorating this year, including decorating the gingerbread house all by themselves!! You can also see that I have loosened up, because my children are STANDING on my counter, and I am taking a picture like it's perfectly normal.



I made matching aprons for all of us...


This is our new camera smile.
Isn't it PRESH.US!



On the Saturday before Christmas we celebrated at my parents house, for some reason I have three pictures and two of them stink, so here's the good one...


On Christmas Eve night we had a special service including The Lord's Supper at church, then we came home and read the Christmas story, searched for Baby Jesus, this a game we play at our house where they have clues that go along with the story of His birth, when they find Him, they can put Him in the manger. Then they get to open three gifts from Mommy and Daddy. After that, we put out milk and cookies for you know who, and went to bed....


Then came Christmas morning...





Now, don't you feel like you spent the holidays with us????

Thankfully, no one needed stitches!

Tell me peeps, why is it that we have gold stored in vaults, being guarded 24/7 when we could just package the stuff in clam shell toy packages?!!! I can't believe the twist ties, zip ties, plastic clamps and wires that is used in this death-to-the-thieves blister packaging that holds everything from a Dora toothbrush to Barbie in her box. I even had to open one toy that was screwed, yes screwed, to a thick cardboard base. That one sent me into full on wrap rage. That plastic is so sharp and hard to open it's insane. ....."Yes, 911, I have an emergency, my husband just amputated his hand opening up My Little Pony." I can't believe a manufacturer hasn't been sued for dismemberment. Besides if you don't lose a finger with the packaging, you will with one of the tools involved in opening the things up.

What about you all? Did you all have a great Chrismtas? The girls had a blast. Elly was so excited she went from present to present screaming with glee over everything. Each gift was "smazactly what she wanted." I took tons of pictures but if you know me, you know they aren't on the computer yet. I hope to get them on here soon. I also hope to get the Christmas background off the blog before Valentine's Day, but don't hold your breath.

I have tons to blog about, but feel the need to sleep right at this moment, so off I go. G'night

God Bless Us Everyone!!

Merry Christmas peeps. I love ya to stinkin' pieces! I hope you have a WONDERFUL CHRISTmas. Don't forget to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. It just gives me chills, thinking about the Baby Jesus, laying in a manger, not able to speak a word, yet he came to BE The WORD Made Flesh!! Wrap your minds around that and tie it with a bow, 'cause HE is the greatest present you can ever get!! Merry Christmas!!

Love ya!
Calista

And what do you think number 4 would be??

Well, I was right, Elly has a sinus infection. She is on Augmentin. Every Mother that just read that line said "oh, bless her" 'cause you know what goes along with Augmentin. Why don't they just automatically hand you a bottle of Imodium AD when you get that prescription filled? Has there ever been a drug harder on the intestines? I'm thinkin' not. It's good stuff no doubt, you take that and your gonna pooh those germs right out. The good news is, her nose is no longer running like a water hose, the bad news is, her tail IS. Last night after having to make a mad dash to the rest room, She said, "Mommy, I went number 3"....ummm, okay, "you mean number two right?" She said, "no, number 3, dat's when number two is like number one" okay, GOTHCHA. Just, Eeeew.

Well, I have to run, I've got tons of wrapping to do, and guess what? Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, if I wait much longer I may as well give out gifts in my Mother's favorite wrap, the Wal-Mart bag it came in.

See ya later!!

Just checkin' in.........

Hey bloggies. I hope y'all are warm. It's taken a turn for the cold here. I was just reading my email and catching up on some blogs and thought I would drop a line before bed.

Elly has a terrible cough and a major runny nose, so we are off to the docta tomorrow. He hasn't seen us in about 3 weeks, so I'm sure he's gettin' pretty frantic that he won't make his rent anyway. The doctor's office we go to has recently grown by leaps and bounds, so they have added several new pre-schoolers in lab coats young doctors right out of med-school to their staff. This does not please me. When I took Elly with her last ear infection we saw one of these new doc's. He was completely whack. It was all I could do not to finish his education for him. She had an ear ache, low grade fever and a cough. We don't need a CAT scan and a lab work-up. Write out a scrip for some decongestant, and some amoxicillan and let's get the show on the road. Let's hope I have better luck tomorrow, but with this being Christmas week, I'm not gonna hold my breath.

I noticed in the front page of Yahoo News (why it's there I don't know) that the Duggar family has welcomed their 18th child. When is Energizer gonna sponsor this woman's uterus? It keeps going, and going..... To each his own, but sheesh???? How do they have time to..er, plan their family? Or brush their teeth for that matter, which really could infringe on the whole planning another one thing......


I am off to bed. Hope you stay warm and cozy all night long!!

Finally she posts the pictures....

Okay bloggy people, I am finally going to post my pictures for BooMama's Home lurking Tour. Sorry, I have taken so long, I seem to been chasing my tail a good bit lately, and there's a lot o' tail to chase, therefore it's keepin' me busy. I hate to ask for comments, it makes me feel so needy. But in keeping with the "Tour of Homes" etiquette, please drop me a line, doesn't have to be big, anything will do, "great job", "looks nice", you suck", just sumpin. M'kay? Thanks.

We'll start with the outside and work our way in since that's the way we would do it if you were really here unless, of course, you have the ability to just appear in my kitchen, in which case you scare me and you're not invited.


This is my foyer....
The kids love this train, they call it the Polar Express train.

This is my Christmas card tree. I LOVE this thing. I used to hunt for ways to display my cards and never found one that satisfied me. My hair dressing diva Joann had one of these in her house. I admired it every year, but could never find one of my own. Finally I borrowed hers, and had my wood working neighbor make one for both me and his wife. I painted them in return. It has little holes on each 'branch' where I can tie on my cards. LOVE IT!!

Moving on to the Dining room....



The breakfast room.....



Now we'll go into the kitchen where I spend most of my time, I just finished washing the Thanksgiving dishes yesterday.
Not so much in the decoration department for the kitchen, just the places I look at most of the time, the window above the kitchen sink, and the back of the stove.....Thank you very much.

On to the living room ....







There are several other smaller things, like I forgot the bathrooms where I have greenery and candles, but I don't think ya'll need a picture of the bowels of our home.....pun intended.....I may get around to putting a few more on here. I had every intention of putting up a tree in the classroom upstairs, but I never got around to it. I didn't have time to dig through the junk to get to the trees in the girls rooms, so no pic's of those either.

I actually had refreshments available earlier and I meant to take a picture of them to put on here, for your virtual grazing, but my Bible Study group came over for snacks and nothing can desolate a snack table faster than a group of Baptist women with forks. So, no pic's of that either.

I do hope you all have a lot of fun stuff planned for this weekend. We are going to have Christmas with my family, and hopefully get to lay around a bit. I will post some pictures of the various programs we've been in/to in the next day or so. Have a great day, and thanks for lookin'.

Now I know what a nervous stomach feels like.....

Hey there! I'm back. We finished our Christmas Musical tonight at our Church. We worked so hard all week. I have to say when something like this ends, it's bittersweet. I also have to say, I'm glad to be rid of the terrible case of nerves I've had for the last couple of days. My good friend Ginny and I were scheduled for the same solo, she was to sing it on Saturday, and then I was gonna sing it on Sunday. I had a mild case of the jitters which is normal for me, but then my friend Ginny got a sore throat and called me on Friday to warn me. The jitters turned into the shakes. Then when she called on Saturday afternoon to let me know I for sure had to fill in for her on Saturday night, I actually yacked, tossed my cookies, spewed, you name it. I have been nervous before, but I must say I have NEVUH been so nervous I threw up. UNTIL yesterday.

Finally, in the song just before mine, the Holy Spirit seemed to work on me and tell me that I was singing to God. Just to focus on Him, and sing to Him. The most discerning ears there, the choir, had already heard me sing the song many times, and they are my friends, JUST sing to God. Anyway, the LORD worked it out and the whole musical turned out really nice.

I am off to bed to catch up on some sleep before school tomorrow, and hope to be back to normal this week.
G'Night

The Theology of Horton and the Who(s)

Hey peeps. Tonight we rented Horton Hears a Who.....CUTE movie. It had a lot of teachable moments. The homeschoolin' Momma in me really was starting to get on some little nerves, I'm sure. But, I mean really, when Horton was holding the little flower with the speck on it, and he was telling them "I am here, I have you, holding you in my hand, I'll take care of you," and the little tiny Who people who lived on the speck kept saying, "but we can't see you." He said, "just cause you can't see me doesn't mean I'm not here. Have faith." I mean, Hello?

Anyway, I'm rambling I know. I'm tired. Head ache. No sleep. Busy week. Choir practice every night(and nervous about the program) Two kids parties, one Mom and Dad Christmas party, (I started to type adult Christmas party, but that wouldn't look good now would it?) Anyway, there's a thing or nine going on all the time. If I could call in sick, I would, but the thing about homeschooling, NO substitutes, nope, it's all me. Scary thought. Speaking of calling in sick, I noticed in the Yahoo news that they are fixing to have "Day without a Gay" day, where all the gays are supposed to call in sick so the rest of the workforce can see how invaluable they are. This is just a wild guess, but I'm thinkin' this is one day all of the men I know would go to work with a severed artery before they would call in sick. I mean really. Can you imagine the water cooler fodder? "You know, Dan's not here today. Have you ever noticed he has a slight lisp when he talks??"

I have signed up for BooMama's Tour of Homes on the 15th, so I am going to be taking pic's of the Christmas decorations at the mall of my Christmas decor to put on here in a few days. Are you all finished decorating? What about shopping?

Twas the Night before Menopause.....

As many of you know my foe, menopause has taken over my life. I wrote this ode to the affliction tonight.......I would like to dedicate it to my friend Claire who is a pharmacist extraordinaire, and my friend Stephanie who is going through the EXACT same thing.....If either of them had blogs, I would prop them here,,,,,but they don't, so ....here goes.

Twas one night during Menopause,
And all through the house,
The children were hiding,
and so was my spouse.

From my yelling and crying ,
they all were aware,
The stress of no memory left me pulling out my hair.

Do all women go through this, and lose their clear heads?
I think I’m goin’ crazy, where are my meds?
With hubs soundly sleeping, I thought that perhaps,
I might get some sleep, if only a nap.

When just as I snoozed,
my dreams came to a shatter,
Hubs sat up in bed, and said,
“what is the matter?”

I threw off the covers,
I had a heat rash,
“quick, get me some ice,
It’s another hot flash.”

The sweat it was streaming in a long steady flow,
And I missed my ovaries, more than you know.
When what to my wondering eyes did appear,
But my spouse with my hormone pills, he’s such a dear.

I pried open the bottle,
To take them so quick,
But the bottle was empty,
I think I’ll be sick.
Where is my memory?
I curse you my brain,
I meant to refill my pills, that keep me half sane.

On Estrogen! Progesterone! Testosterone too,
I can’t take one day without all of you.
As dry leaves that before a wild hurricane fly,
So flew my car through the darkness of night.

To find a pharmacy open at this hour I knew,
Would be a task -so hard to do.
I searched with blurred eyesight, each dimly lit roof,
When at last I saw “Wal-green’s”-- complete with drive thru.


I tugged at the wheel, quickly turning around,
When I gasped as I heard the police siren sound.

I was dressed in my bed clothes, from my head to my feet,
Not planning to move from my mini-van’s seat.
But the pad full of tickets he held in his hand,
Gave me the impression that wasn't his plan.

My eyes how they twitched, my voice how it carried,
As I begged and I pleaded his mercy not sparing.
“You made a U-turn, that’s illegal you know”
Were the words I heard spoken from the mouth of my foe.

“Just give me the ticket,” I spoke from clenched teeth,
“I’ll happily pay it, I just want relief.”
He had a grey beard, and a biggie sized belly,
With a stain on his shirt that looked like grape jelly.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
Writing my ticket, that do-nut crazed jerk.
Then wiping my cheeks, my tears how they burned,
To the counter I headed to wait for my turn.

The pharmacist refilled my little blue pills,
The precious concoction that stifles my ills.

They heard me exclaim as I drove out of sight, I can’t wait to get home it’s been a long night…..
CDP 12-8-08

Merry Menopause!!

Happy Unspecified Holiday Season........

Hey peeps. Don't you just love it when God uses an everyday event to speak a word to your heart? I do. Tonight when I was tucking the girls in, Elly said to Sydney, "I love you so much, Sissy" to which Sydney replied, " I love you so much too". Let me just tell ya, that made my ear drums ring, and my too fast beating heart, skip a beat. It made me proud, happy, delighted. It also made me think. When God sees two of his children here on Earth loving each other, and taking care of each other, with genuine love, does it make his heart skip a beat. Does he smile and say, "Oh, I love it when the kids play so well together." I think it does. Thank you for the reminder God. I'll try not to complain, or be apathetic, or just plain ole pathetic for that matter.

I also wanted to share something with you that I first received in an email, and promplty forgot, cause you know, I only have two working brain cells and I try not to use them both at the same time. But I saw it today on BeckyJo's sight and I wanted to share it with you, at a time when everyone wants us to spend our money on a holiday they can't mention......here it is....Merry Tossmas!

This, and That, and our trip to the mall........

Blog, I miss you. Remember the days when I used to greet you each evening with Moutain Dew and cookies in hand? Busy times, blog, busy times..... I have a 15 minute break from my week, so thought I would sit down and type a few lines. By all regards I really should be sleeping, but I'll chat a bit since I'm wired up on Hot chocolate and dark chocolate covered coffee beans, introduced to me by friends over at Hisnando, thanks Brutha Joey these things are off the chain.

Today we had our annual visit to Santa with a pit stop at Build A Bear, and a ride on the Merry Go Round. If you live in this area, then you know that means we stepped into the smashpooery of the Wolfchase Galaria Mall....jk, it's not that bad, as long as you enjoy insane traffic, outrageous prices, and the convenience of 784 stores under one roof with 12 parking spots. Seriously, the only places on earth the such distorted visitor to parking ratios are hospitals.

I normally don't mind parking at the furthest spot and walking, but remember "THE Mall" is in close proximity to MEMPHIS. I like my car, it's certainly not fancy, but it's mine. I would like for it to be there when I come out. Oh, your over exaggerating you say, and I can see why you would say that, since, well, it is me your talking to, but.....NAY, Picture this. Christmas 1989. I go into the Mall to pick up some last minute items from Sears.I come out, NO CAR. It's an empty feeling folks. And cold on the badonkadonk as you walk around for oh, EVER, thinking surely you just misplaced your car. Then the eternal wait on the police, who really don't care, because it's a victimless crime...oh really? I felt like a victim. Anyway, if there's no victim, then there's no crime, that's the way I look at it.

But really, we had a great time. The kids had a good visit with the Jolly old Santa impersonator, and made cute friends at Build A Bear, and we even got to hold a Sugar Glider. That was a cute little critter.
I wanted one, until I heard $389 come out of the mans mouth. Really though, I would never buy a pet from a gaggle of guys with a make shift stand in the middle of the mall. You should have seen these guys. Apparently the animal hails from Australia, so therefore they were all dressed like Steve Irwin. 'Cause you know, all Australians wear khaki attire, all the time. A shady character was runnin' the show. I would have taken a picture of the setup but when I pulled out the camera to take this picture of the girls, he ran over and said, "it's illegal to take pictures in the mall." I said, "um, yeah, tell that to Santa, whose right behind you with a million Moms snappin' away." Then, Aussie wantabe said "well, you know with terrorists and all, they just don't like pictures being taken." ...M'Kay....I proceeded to tell him I wanted to research the Internet about these things before I considered buying one, at which point he warned me, "well, you can do that, but you have to remember the stuff on the Internet is old it was made for the military, and the government, and it's not for everybody."......Really? I'd better beef up the blog, I didn't know I was being watched ..... I honestly think I may have seen this guy on America's Most Wanted before,,,,that's probably why he didn't want the camera around....hmmmmmmmm.

Here are some pics from the day..........

Shitzu surprise...

I love to feed my inferiority complex by viewing home decor magazines and cooking periodicals. Southern Accents, Southern Living (I think I have all of their hardback Christmas books) and Traditional Home are some of my faves. After typing that list, I realize it's no wonder I have a facial tick. Over Thanksgiving weekend I took time to sit down and look at all the magazines and sales ads I had not had time to look at in a while. I don't know what snack you're planning to bring to your office Christmas party, but Sam's would like for you to bring this:


Pomeranian Poo, Shitzu Surprise, Terrier Turds.....I mean really Sam's, does this look appetizing to you?



And Martha wants you to do this....

No, kids we won't be able to go to see Santa this year, because I'll be too busy TYING RIBBONS AROUND EACH INDIVIDUAL PIECE OF FUDGE! What?? Who has time for this? That's one way to ration the fudge, 'cause who in the heck is gonna mess around all night trying to get the ribbon off. I'd just pop the whole thing in my mouth and spit the ribbon out when I was done. When it comes to chocolate, back away slowly, 'cause I'm not playin'. I really don't think I would be invited to a second party at Martha's house.

But this was the tackiest thing I believe I found, taking hand made gifts to a new level, home made cuff links.....

Made from Legos...... and this was not a craft for kids either.....

I feel a little bit better about my menu, unadorned fudge, and store bought gifts. Sleep tight.

Christmas Poem #1

I am a writer of sappy poetry. I have been since I was around 12. I am no sonnet queen, no haiku diva, iambic pentameter pish posh....but sometimes the voices in my head speak in rhyme, when they do, I write it down....don't worry, I'm only kidding, sort of.......

Anyway, here is one I wrote for my Christmas cards last year.....

NO ROOM
There was no room to be found at the Inn,
But is there room in your heart for Him?

He came to this world, lowly and meek,
to offer compassion and grace to the weak.
Not a bed of soft comfort, but a manger with hay,
was offered to our King, that first Christmas Day.

God's perfect gift, to all of mankind,
Heaven's treasure on earth, was ours to find.
From a throne to a stable, from the stable to the cross,
Living and dying to pay for sin's cost.

He is knocking once more,
This time at your door,
Your heart is the Inn,
Is there room for Him?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

....unless you live in Tate County MS or anywhere in Arkansas, where it's looked like Christmas all year, 'cause most people didn't bother to take their lights down.

I put my Christmas Tree up last week, and got most of my decorations up outside, but it appears I am going to need at least one more full day of it. Have you peeps got your houses decorated yet?

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend, which started with my Birthday festivities on Wednesday, and ended with Alabama taking Auburn to the woodshed on Saturday, and lots of fun family times in between. I don't think it gets much better than this last weekend. I have lots of pics to post, but hubby doesn't allow me to download the pics because he has them organized "just so" on the computer,,,blah, blah, blah and, whatever, so soon as he gets them on here, which may be the 5th of Never, you'll see them.

I did not venture out into shopping purgatory otherwise known as Black Friday. But I've heard stories of how bad it was. The local Wal-Mart apparently had a two hour wait in line to check out at 6:00 Friday morning. I'm a little high strung, you may have noticed, so it doesn't always do for me to get into situations like this. Sometime I'll tell you the story of the fight between me and a little old lady wretched old hag, over some Sister Schubert's rolls at the Kroger. Anyway, I'd love to hear about it if any of you have tales to tell from Friday.

For now, I am going to bed. Elly has a bad cold, non-stop night time coughing, so I may or may not get two hours of sleep tonight, see ya tomorrow!