Objects of My Affection

'Tis the end of the year and the blog well is a bit dry, so I'm turning back to Maggie Mason for inspiration. Her book, No One Cares What You Had for Lunch is where I go when I'm outta ideas.

Number 37 on Maggie's list of possible blog topics is "Find the objects of your affection."

At 3 a.m., the fire alarm wakes you. You realize that the house is aflame, and that you're sleeping naked. After grabbing a robe, and making sure that people and pets are out of the building, what would you search for next?

First, let me clear up some things:

(1) I do not sleep naked, so we could just skip the robe step (I might stop to put on a pair of Crocs)

(2) I think it's stupid to go back into a burning building once everyone is safe (but, hey, we're pretending, right?)

So, let me think...

(Putting on my thinking cap, drumming fingers and contemplating...)

What would I save, what would I save, what would I save?

I'm trying to visualize each room in my home, and I honestly can't think of much that I would need to grab that couldn't be replaced. There are some things that I can't buy anymore, but substitutions would be okay.

I guess I'd grab my camera. I don't go a day without documenting my family and our lives on film (well, not real film, but you get the picture... pardon the pun!)

I'd take my grandmother's measuring spoons out of the kitchen drawer and the tatting of our name that my aunt had made for me as a wedding gift (the lady who made it died awhile back...)

I'd grab the crocheted ornaments and Christmas tree skirt that my grandmother made, because those couldn't be recreated.

I'd take the cross stitch pieces I've created over the years... the stacked teacups, the "Welcome Friends" on Irish Linen that was a pain in the patoot to make, the one I did as a wedding gift to my husband, the ones I've done for the kids over the years, and the "Amazing Grace" lyrics I made for my grandmother, because that is her favorite hymn.

I'd have to take the drawer of my jewelry chest that contains all of my grandmother's costume jewelry. My sister and cousins and I always accessorized ourselves with it when we played dress up at Ma Ma Dos' house, and I took it all because I wanted it. No one but my sister asked about it, so I figured nobody else had the attachment to it that I do. I still wear pieces of it from time to time, and I always get compliments. The earrings are the "clip-on" style and hurt like heck to wear, but it just makes me feel so beautiful to wear those things of hers.

What else, what else....

I'd have to load up all those scrapbooks I've been making for the kids over the years. I really should get my rear in gear and scan all the pages and put them on disks, but life happens and leaves very little extra time to take on such a task.

Oh, I forgot about the baby blanket that my grandmother crocheted for my firstborn. She was already suffering from Alzheimer's by the time Camryn came into the world, so that blanket is so very precious to me. I don't let Camryn use it (and I need to have it framed and hung in her room...) My mom crocheted blankets for Camryn and my other three children, and those are just as special. They're all in Lillian's closet, so I wouldn't have to go far to find them if the house was burning down.

And I couldn't forget the Wii, because they're hard to come by lately, and the kids would need something to occupy their time in the shelter.

I'm really having to reach into the recesses of my brain to recall things that are special to me. I'm not a person who's really attached to possessions, 'cause I can't load up a U-Haul and hook it to the hearse when I'm gone, so this is a hard assignment. I guess there is stuff I would miss if it was gone, but right now I can't think of what those things might be.

Let's hope I never find out.

2007: A Year in Review

I just got People magazine's "Best & Worst" year in review issue, and after reading it from cover to cover, I decided to dig through my notes from 2007 and come up with my own list of highs and lows for the past year.

I can't guarantee it will make for fascinating reading, but pop some popcorn anyway. That way, when you reach the end of this entry, at least you can say you had a snack. Time spent eating is never wasted, right?

Hmmmm.... Should I hit the lows first and end with the highs, or celebrate the highs and leave you depressed at the end by recounting the lows?

Choices, choices.

Hey! I think I'll alternate!

And thus, I present to you, in no particular order, highs and lows of 2007!

LOW: In February my best friend moved to Atlanta with her family. My daughter and I both lost a friend, because Camryn was best friends with my friend's daughter, Madison.

HIGH: I celebrate every day the friendships, both real and "cyber", that I have built through my favorite internet site, ScrapShare. I made new friends there and strengthened old relationships, and I renewed some real life friendships as well. I attended a ScrapShare retreat in Helen, Georgia and had a BLAST. Love those ladies!

LOW: My daughter lost another good friend (her first crush!) in January when he moved with his family back to Fort Worth, TX. The friend's dad had a serious accident that left him comatose from October 2006 until he passed away in May of 2007.

HIGH: I turned 34 in February. I've never been more confident in who I am and what I'm on earth to do than I am right now. Life is good. It's very, very good.

LOW: My mother-in-law moved closer to us in May. She's put us through some trying times with some of the choices she's made since moving.

HIGH: My mother-in-law no longer lives with us, and she has her own place to stay, so she will never, ever have to spend the night with us again. She's also regained her mobility and health after her bypass last year, and she is local so she can babysit in a pinch.

LOW: Our beloved kitty child, Harry, passed away very suddenly on February 11. That was some hard, hard stuff. Not as awful as losing one of my human children, but definitely not something I want to experience again anytime soon.

HIGH: We adopted sweet, vivacious, energetic Annabelle in May. She's got lots of spunk, and keeps 12 year-old Beeson (our other cat) on his toes!



LOW(s): Every time Quinn & Lillian got into mischief. There was the famous shampoo and body wash all over the bathroom incident, and the nail polish all over Lillian and the carpet incident, and the pouring my Chloe perfume all over Beeson incident, and the two times I had to call poison control because the kids ingested something they shouldn't have (once it was Correctol, and the other time it was zinc lozenges...) Ah, the joys of parenthood.

HIGH: My sweet hubby took me to see Billy Joel in concert in February, and I got to have a whole day at the spa with my sister in July. I guess that makes up for all the stuff I deal with on a daily basis. Love me some hubby!

LOW: Dry, hot, arid (did I mention HOT?) summer!

HIGH: We got a pool in June. I don't think we could've survived the summer without it. And, 3 of the kids can now swim confidently without floaties! Lillian is working on it. If she can conquer her fear, she'll be swimming unassisted next summer.



LOW: My maternal grandmother's health is steadily declining. We thought we were close to losing her in October, but she rallied. She can't speak, though, and with Alzheimer's, she can't remember much, either. It just seems like an unusually cruel way to exist. I don't think she'll hang on much longer, because since early December she's been getting steadily worse.

HIGH: I took my daughter to her first Auburn game in November. I may not always remember it when I'm old, but I know she will. It was an awesome day and a fabulous memory that makes me smile.



LOW: Our cats continued to poop on the carpet in the basement. They're healthy and have no reason to keep pooping (per the vet's assessment), but they did it anyway.

HIGH: My hubby ripped up the carpet himself and installed linoleum. We moved a desk and reorganized the entire basement. I really love the new layout and functionality of the basement, and without the cats' pooping, we would never have rearranged anything. Silver lining and all that, I guess.

LOW: I realized that our 2004 Chrysler Pacifica just wasn't working for our family, and I mourned having to give up my sporty SUV for yet another minivan.

HIGH: I love my new 2004 Toyota Sienna. It has storage space EVERYWHERE (no stuff rattling around in the van!), the kids and adults alike have lots of elbow and leg room, and the real bonus is that it smells just like the Monorail at Disney World. Cool beans!

I can't think of anymore Lows, but I do have a few more Highs left, so I'll wrap up with those!

HIGH: This was the year for milestones in our family. Not only did the kids learn to swim, but I officially changed my last diaper in 2007. My youngest, Lillian, is fully potty trained. Wahoo!



My older son lost his first tooth this year, too. The Tooth Fairy was more generous than I would've been, but hey, it was the first one! He lost another one on the bottom, and the top two are getting looser by the day. Won't be long 'til he loses his two front teeth!



HIGH: Being fortunate enough to get involved with helping produce the first ever ScrapShare cookbook. I got to know my friend Joanie a lot better, and she has become dear to my heart. Then there are all the great recipes that went into that book, and getting to pack them with love and send them all over the country and to Australia and Canada... it was a blast. Lots of hard work for me and the sacrifice of time with my family, but it was worth it to make so many people happy with a little ole cookbook. That book has become one of my earthly treasures, and it means so much more to me than recipes on paper. Part of my heart is in that book, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity I got to help with it.



HIGH: Going to Disney World with the family this month. What a wonderful vacation we had. So many smiles and laughs and memories. I just love that place; it truly is the happiest place on earth, and now we own a piece of it through the Disney Vacation Club!



Looking back over 2007 makes me realize just how much living I've done. The time has flown, but I enjoyed just about every single minute of it. Everything I've done this year has changed me in some small way, and I am so happy with the person I am now. There's some stuff I could fix (I'd like to lose a lot more weight...) but I'm content. I can't imagine 2008 being much better, but I look forward to the highs and lows that the new year brings!

Hear that?

That's the huge sigh of relief I breathed this morning after helping my older kids deliver all of their teacher gifts and food goodies to their classrooms. Ahhhhhh...

I pick them up at 12:15 pm. Then we'll head to Pizza Hut to eat lunch, and then...

THEN....

We will come home and just be.

NOwhere else to go. NOthing else to make. NO more gifts to buy...

We'll just BE.

Two weeks of sleeping late, staying in our PJs if we so desire...

Two weeks of bliss. And the occasional whine.

Oh, gosh. The kids are all going to be with me 24/7 over the next two weeks.

I think I'm starting to sweat.

Who's the idiot that invented Christmas break? I'd like to give him a piece of my mind.

Rolling up my sleeves...

....because today is baking day! Can you feel the excitement?

Not.

My 4th grader's class is having breakfast at their party tomorrow, and my daughter requested that I make sausage balls and pigs in blankets for the soiree. No problem. Those require very little effort. Can do.

The 1st grader came home on Monday with a slip of paper from his teacher. The room mom for his class must be crazy nuts, because she thought it would be fun to have a cookie exchange for the little ones (she only has one child, so I guess she doesn't realize what she's asking of the rest of us who have multiple school parties to work on...) So, now I gotta make some cookies.

I cleaned out the pantry on Monday afternoon and found one package of sugar cookie mix (yes!), and then my darling son told me he hates sugar cookies. He wants chocolate chip instead. Ahem. I have no chocolate chip cookie mix, and I do not want to venture to the grocery store to get chocolate chip cookie mix. Thus, the cookies will be made from scratch.

Wa-hoo.

Dear husband's family has decided at the last minute to exchange gifts. It will be "Dirty Santa" style and I can buy 2 generic, gender neutral gifts, but still.... that's 2 more gifts I have to buy. I was just at Target YESTERDAY, fer cryin' out loud. Some notice, please? Christmas comes on the 25th of each December. It ain't like this snuck up on y'all.

This is what makes me cringe about Christmas: all of this last minute, annoying, have to get it done stuff. I get all of the shopping and the wrapping over with before November even starts. I like to be done with the busy work so I can enjoy the season. But, every year stuff like this pops up and makes me crazy. CRAZY, I tell you.

So, if you see a news report tonight about a woman pelting her family with chocolate chips and sausage balls, know that it is me and I have finally snapped. I'll be the one huddled in the corner singing "Silver Bells" and carving little reindeers out of cocktail weiners.

This time last week....

.....I was enjoying being at Disney World's Animal Kingdom. What a difference a week makes.

Since arriving back home last Sunday, I've:

• endured an awful head cold accompanied by a deep, mucousy (lovely!) chest cough
• done untold loads of laundry (sweaty clothes stuffed in a bag for a week smell oh, so good! And if I could smell it through my stuffed up nose, it must have been strong!)
• edited 600+ photos from our Disney trip
• uploaded those 600+ photos to Snapfish for printing TWICE, because the first time they failed to upload
• wrapped way too many presents
• tried to remember & find everything I'd purchased for the kids' teachers, aides, principals, directors, etc.
• been told that the party I'd planned for my 4th grader's class (I'm the room mom) was scrapped in favor of joining the 5th graders in their party (hmph!) while I was on vacation. Nice.
• not slept through the night once due to the aforementioned cold & cough
• gone to bed around 9 or 9:30 each night to try & catch up on my sleep
• accompanied 2 children to 2 separate appointments: 1 dentist, 1 doctor
• seen my gyno for my annual appointment (a Christmas gift itself!)
• been to the dentist myself and told that a previously fixed chipped tooth had lost part of its filling. The old filling will have to be drilled out (yea!) and replaced (yippy!)
• made my MIL mad (what's new?) Unbeknownst to me, my husband had invited her to the older kids' school Christmas program. I had to have the kids there at 5 pm, so my husband stayed with the younger kids and brought them and MIL to the event closer to its start time of 6:30. I had only saved 4 seats, and the place was packed. Our row was full. MIL ended up sitting on a different aisle, and she thought I did that on purpose (not saving her a seat & making her sit somewhere else). I truly didn't know she was coming. Someone on our row ended up moving, so we scooted over and invited her to our row. I stayed on the end for a better picture-taking view (and told her that's what I was doing when she tried to sit beside me) so she went to the middle of the row and sat next to her son. She thought I didn't want her to sit by me, but that wasn't true, either. Aisle seats were better for pictures, because no one's head got in my way. Anyhow, now she's mad, and I'm to blame, of course. Merry Christmas to me.

I love Christmas, but this year has just seemed to wear me down. I am so ready for it to be over. I hope I never have another Christmas season like this. I swear, I will never, ever, ever go on vacation in December again. It makes things too hard.

Borrowed Blog

I borrowed this from my friend Stacy's blog. Too tired to do anything creative on my own.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?

Wrapping paper. Always. I detest gift bags. They spoil the fun of opening up the gift. I like the ripping of paper and all that jazz, so gift bags are just not fun for me.

2. Real tree or Artificial?

Artificial, and this year we have 3 of them. We have the one that was given to us when we were given a Christmas shower the December before our January wedding, and last year I bought 2-4' trees to spread the ornaments around. One of the smaller trees is decorated with the kids' ornaments they've made over the years, and the other is just for Hallmark and other keepsake ornaments.

3. When do you put up the tree?

A couple of days before Thanksgiving, if not on Thanksgiving day. I don't think I've ever waited until December to put it up. I love Christmas.

4. When do you take the tree down?

Usually the day after Christmas or the 27th. I never leave it up past New Year's Day. I get tired of looking at it after a month of having it around!

5. Do you like egg nog?

Blech. No. My husband loves it, though. It's too sweet for me.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?

The year my sister and I got the homemade table and benches for our room, along with Big Wheels for each of us and a Play Doh fuzzy pumper barber shop.

7. Do you have a nativity scene?

I have a wooden one and a resin one, but neither are collectible. I might start collecting a nicer one after the kids get a little older. I'd love the Willow Tree set.

8. Hardest person to buy for?

My husband. He buys whatever he wants, so there's nothing left to get him for Christmas.

9. Easiest person to buy for?

The children.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?

Mailed. I usually have them addressed and ready to be mailed on the first day of December, but I haven't even thought about doing them this year. I don't think I'll get around to it, either. I haven't been able to put my hands on my address book since we moved last year, so that has a lot to do with it.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?

Every year I get a big, clunky piece of jewelry from my mother-in-law. What she hasn't realized yet is that I don't wear a lot of jewelry. She usually gives me a charm for a charm bracelet I don't own, too (SIL has one, but I don't...)

12 . Favorite Christmas movie?

The only Christmas movie I can watch every year is "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation". The Jell-O mold with the cat food cracks me up every year...

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?

October

14 . Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?

Yes. See #11. If I don't wear it, I hate wasting it.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?

Queen Anne chocolate covered cherries. I just bought a box of them at Walgreen's!

16 . Clear lights or colored on the tree?

Clear. They're my favorite, but the kids like the colored ones. The big tree has colored lights and the 2 little ones have white lights. I insist on white lights on the outside of the house. I don't want colored lights on my home.

17. Favorite Christmas song?

"Blue Christmas" by Elvis and "Christmas in Dixie" by Alabama.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?

Home. I hate traveling during the Christmas holidays.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers?

Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder and Blitzen and Rudolph.

Impressed?

Don't be. I had to Google it.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?

There's an angel on top of the big tree, and red velvet bows on the little ones.

21 . Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?

The kids get to open new PJs on Christmas Eve, but everything else is saved for Christmas morning.

22 . Most annoying thing about this time of year?

That song about the Christmas shoes.

23. Favorite christmas ornament?

The crocheted wreaths and stockings that my grandmother made. She used to make them and give them away every Christmas. When we cleaned out her house after my granddaddy died (and we had to move her to an assisted living facility because of her Alzheimer's) I found a bunch of those ornaments. I hogged them all and now they hang on my tree. I also found a gorgeous crocheted tree skirt she'd made, and I use it every year.

24. Favorite thing for Christmas dinner?

Anything I don't have to cook.