Holiday Insanity

We are leaving in the morning for our 10+ hour drive to Colorado.

Oh goody. I might as well start knocking back shots right now.

As always, everything has been left up to me to take care of. And there is sooo much to do.

And traveling with a 2 year old and a 4 year old is not easy. Nor is it fun.

We had originally planned to leave this afternoon when I got off work early but I am having to work all day so we will leave in the morning.

I am so not even going to get the boys dressed. They can stay in their pajamas.

Things done:
I have their car bag packed. Hopefully, I packed enough stuff in there to keep them occupied for at least half the drive. If I remember correctly, this is what is in their travel bag:

• 2 boxes of crayons and 2 coloring books (we all know that they won't share)
• Monk Man's Leapster 2
• Bobblehead's "Laptop"
• a couple of Baby Einstein books I got in the mail Saturday
• a few action figures (X-Men, G I Joes, Little Peoples)
• the new V-Motion (because Monk Man won't let it go in their suitcase)
• some picture books
• and some of their cds

I also have a "secret" bag packed with juice boxes, suckers, Teddy Grahams and 2 candy bars.

Oh, and I found their beanies, mittens AND hoodies already.

And stuff I have to do still:

• pack clothes
• pack Bendaroos
• pack some books and magazines for me
• buy MIL some nacho cheese (her Walmart wont carry the good stuff)
• find the phone chargers
• find my sunglasses
• pack bathroom stuff (makeup, shampoo, conditioner, toothbrushes, toothpaste, tweezers, nail clippers, hair brushes)
• find a blanket big enough yet small enough for the car
• pack up the gifts

Plus, I guess we are doing some kind of cooking competition thing. MIL said that they got the idea from Top Chef. Ummm, we don't watch Top Chef so I have no idea. All I know is that I have to come up with something to cook. Riiiight. I think she forgot that I can't cook. Hubbs, BIL and step FIL are cooking the main dishes. MIL and I are cooking sides.

After days of stressing about this (because I can't even make Crescent Dogs without someone getting food poisoning) I have decided on either my Baked Mac & Cheese or Fancy Mashed Potatoes.

I am still keeping my fingers crossed that I get to leave work early (due to no business, that is another blog post) so I can make a dent in all the shit I still have to do. Even if I do get out of here early, I am sure I will still be awake at midnight trying to get everything done.

It is going to be a giant Red Bull kind of day.

But What If Santa Is A Dirtbag?

Monk Man gets a little worried about the craziest stuff sometimes.

We had just finished the first part of our 2 part Christmas eve tradition, the boys opening 1 pre-determined gift each.

Pajamas! Sometimes matching, sometimes not, sometimes festive, sometimes not. How fun, I know. But they are adorable!

So the boys are getting their pajamas on and their coats because we are off to complete our 2nd part of our Christmas eve tradition: Driving through town to look at all the houses that are decorated with lights.

All of a sudden, Monk Man freezes. He has gotten his pajamas all the way on except for an arm and gets this terrified look on his face.

Mom: Dude, finish getting dressed. It is time to go see lights.
Monk Man: Mom! What if Santa is a bad guy! What if he is a (gasp).....dirtbag?

Hubbs and I look at each other and bust out laughing. By the time we finally get our shit together enough to be able to breath again, Monk Man has forgotten about Dirtbag Santa.

Where he got that idea, I have no idea. So far, he hasn't brought it up again. I need to figure out what to say the next time he asks something similar. Because you know he is going to.

Work Music

The bosses are gone this afternoon and the shop manager has had MY kind of music on.

We are currently rocking out to Head Like A Hole by Nine Inch Nails. Right before that, we were listening to Tool.

At work.

I am in Heaven!

New Tires

Sooo not a bargain.

My driver side rear tire has been going flat every couple of mornings for about 2 weeks now. I go out to start the car so it is warm for the boys and there is a flat tire. So I drag out the air compressor, let it charge up, air up the tire and put it all away again. All at the butt crack of dawn in the freezing cold. My neighbors are starting to really hate me.

It was getting to be a HUGE pain in the ass so I took it to the tire shop Friday. They said it was a valve stem. They fix it and I bring it home.

By Saturday morning the damn tire is flat again. So I make Hubbs air up the tire so we can run our errands. By 7 that night, the tire was flat. Again.

Yesterday, I took my car back to the tire shop. Obviously it wasn't the valve stem because it is worse than before. I tell them to fix my stupid flucking tire right and call me when it was done.

Yesterday afternoon I got a call. Apparently Friday when I said the driver side rear tire was flat they thought I meant the passenger side front tire was the one with the issue.

That sounds totally the same, right? Stupid shits replaced the valve stem on the passenger side front tire. And the valve stem wasn't even the problem. Uhhh, duh?

My tire keeps going flat because it is separating on the inside. Ok, so I need a new tire. They also casually asked if I knew that my front tires were a different size than the rear ones.

YES? I have been telling them for a year that my tires are rubbing on my struts. I can hear it every time I turn. Plus if I look in the wheel well, I can see where the rubber is being worn away on the inside.

I get that I am a chick and am inferior because I don't have a penis *snort* but I am NOT stupid. I was temped to ask him if he had forgotten that I work in a body shop. Dummy.

So really, I need 4 new tires but can get away with only getting 2 right now.

I had to sit down when they told me how much each tire cost. $250 each tire. I told them very nicely where they could shove those $250 tires. I can get them cheaper somewhere else and would never be using that tire shop again.

In order not to lose business the tire guy said he would give me 2 tires for $211. That was a little more reasonable but not even close to what I really wanted to spend which was nothing since it was their screw up in the first (and second) place.

Ugh, it killed me to write out that check. And I should have just picked up my car and not let that shop touch another thing on it. I know better than that! But it had to be done right then.

I only spent the money I had and didn't have to put it on a credit card. So a teeny yay for me.

BUT, if everything goes as planned........in a couple of weeks Hubbs and I will own half of a business. BIG yay for me! Keep your fingers crossed for me please.

Check back to read more about our big business venture. I have a post started already but it is all jumbled because I am still trying to process it all.

Our Dogs

Our crazy dogs are as bad as the kids!

I just got out of the shower (yes, I am aware it is already 10 a.m.) to find the kitchen trash can knocked over. Even better....there is a garbage trail from the trash can across the kitchen, down the hall and out the doggie door.

I don't even want to look outside and see the mess they created in the back yard.

Duke is hiding under my computer desk and Molly has buried herself under the stuffed animals in the boys closet. They KNOW they are busted.

Wet coffee grounds, egg shells, a rotten bag of salad mix and cardboard is going to be SO much fun to clean up.

PS3

So our PS3 is broken. It suddenly stopped reading discs the other day.

Wonderful. The family gift from Santa is Guitar Hero for the damn PS3.

I know what the problem is. It is a faulty laser and I am one of about a hundred thousand people that have had this problem. Playstation wants (you might want to sit down for this) $160 to fix it. Plus they will probably keep it for 6 months too.

The lasers are selling for that much on Amazon and ebay so no luck doing it myself for cheaper.

Sonofabitch.

Very Excited

A few months ago I found out the my BFF (Bugs) had gotten engaged and she had mentioned that she would like me to help her plan it.

Well, she sent me a note on Facebook officially asking me to be her Wedding Planner.

I am soooo excited and kinda scared all at the same time. I got married in Vegas so I have no experience at all.

But who better to practice on than my BFF?!? Plus I am doing it for free, as my gift to her.

Time to start getting my ass in gear. For real this time.

I will (hopefully) keep our progress updated on the blog.

Holiday Ramble

After going a little overboard on Christmas presents this year and a VERY expensive hunting trip, I have accepted that money is back to being tight again.

So I have another year of making decorations instead of buying them. Last year, all I made was construction paper garland for the tree. The tree is prelit but I have no ornaments. Well, I DO have ornaments but they are glass and are in storage until the boys are a little older.

The boys begged me to put the tree up on the Sunday after Thanksgiving and I caved. The tree went up and was plugged in. It looked sooooo bare. We found the 2 teeny trees that I had forgotten I had. Those got fluffed out and now flank the big tree. It was cute but still looked incomplete.

Last Sunday, the boys and I sat on the floor and made construction paper garland again. Cut, loop, staple. Repeat for hours. The garland got draped around the tree. The presents not from Santa got wrapped and put under the tree too. That still didn't look festive enough.

So last night, I decided I was going to make Salt Dough Ornaments. It turns out that I make ornaments as badly as I cook. Instead of rolling the dough to 1/4 inch thick, I rolled it out to more like 1/16 inch thick and they burned. BUT I have some super thick white paint that should cover up the ugly so we can paint them to look decent. Tonight, I plan on painting the ornaments white so they will be dry enough to decorate tomorrow night.

Salt Dough Ornament Recipe:
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 cup water

Mix flour and salt. Add water and mix. Take dough out of bowl and knead until smooth, like sugar cookie dough. Add more flour if the dough is too sticky. Heat oven to 300. After the dough is mixed, roll out to 1/4 inch (very important) on a well floured surface. Cut into shapes with cookie cutters and poke a hole in the tops to thread ribbon through after baked and decorated. Place on foil lined cookie sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes or until firm and dry. Let cool and decorate with paint, glitter, beads, ribbon, whatever. Let dry and hang on tree or use as gift labels.

Snow?

What a night it was!

The wind started blowing hard around 11:30 and blew ALL night. The power went off when it started to snow. Since no power means no heater, it got COLD!

Luckily, the kids have more blankets on their bed than they know what to do with and have decided to share the bottom bunk. I got up and piled all the blankets on them and tossed Molly (the little dog) in with them so they would stay warm.

I am SO happy I made them put on their warmer pajamas when they started to fight with me before bed instead of giving in and letting them sleep in their undies.

By the time I got back to bed, I was frozen. I made Hubbs move over to my side of the bed since his was already warm and cuddled up with Duke (the big dog).

The sun was up around 7ish and still no damn power. By 7:30 the power was back on. The heaters kicked back on so I decided I had better get up and get ready for work.

I was pissed when I remembered that my coffee machine is a Bunn. I got to the kitchen, stopped in front of the coffee machine and did the whole "Forehead slap-Doh!" thing. I have a love/hate relationship with it. It has to stay plugged in so that the water inside stays hot. If it gets unplugged or the power goes off, the water inside cools down very fast. As long as it stays hot, the coffee is made like it should be. If it isn't hot, all that comes out is cold yuck.

But there is coffee at work!

So that is where I am now. Sitting at work watching the snow melt.

It is going to be a sloooow day. School is cancelled because they don't think the power is going to stay on consistently. No mail because the wind blew the truck over on the highway last night. No parts delivery because the roads around us are closed.

I have been here an hour and 43 minutes. Not a damn thing has happened. Wait, the phone rang twice.

At least the internet is working and I have coffee. I will survive. Off to blog stalk!

I Feel Like Crap

Uuuuggghhhh.

My stomach is SO angry. I really hope I don't barf.

Plus I am a little dizzy, am having hot/cold flashes and I can hardly concentrate.

Bobblehead was sick on Saturday but was fine on Sunday. I am not sure if it was a bug or if I gave him food poisoning.

Why yes, I am the worlds worst cook! Thanks for noticing!

Hubbs is out in the woods chasing Elk for another 2 days so I have no other choice than to cook.

The boys had better be happy with a bowl of cold cereal for dinner tonight.

Dinner, a bath and then bed. I am sooo not messing around tonight.