Grown Up Christmas List

I promised Elijah a wish list. He hates wish lists, but after ten years of being married to a control freak, he desperately needs one. He used to buy me the most amazing presents. I remember our first Christmas together, before we were married, he bought me an Easy Bake Oven (and baked cakes with me) because he remembered that I'd never received one as a little girl. Now he says that the best present I could get him is to just buy my presents myself. I think he just needs a little nudge in order to be reminded of how thoughtful he truly can be.

Sweetheart, this list is merely meant to point you in the right direction.

Monogrammed Mugs from Anthropologie - I want enough to spell out our last name along with little hooks to hang them by the coffee maker.

A place to hang my running medals - I want it customized to say "Run Like A Girl"

Next year's reading list is going to include books recommended by NPR, I'd love you to pick out a few that you think I'd enjoy. So far I'm interested in the following:

The Boy: A Holocaust Story
Unbroken
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
When They Come For Us, We'll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry

Carrying on a tradition that meant so much to me would be wonderfully thoughtful.

I'm running low on pajama pants. I know you think it's lame, but I LOVE wearing pajamas (and am pretty much always in them) so a few new pairs are in order. I prefer the flannel pants with t-shirts to the flannel sets.

I'm due for some new cookbooks. This one is on my wishlist, but you can look for some other ones and surprise me if you'd like.

Still at a loss and feel like splurging?

This should give you a pretty good idea of what I'd like to have under the tree. Surprises are also nice so dig deep and look back at all the things I've lusted after over the past year - I know you hang on every word I say!

The Happiest Christmas Tree

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Ours was filled with good friends, great food, and a lot of late night laughter. It was nice to have our very first set of holiday guests. Plus, I always prefer to have the food filled holidays at home; that way I get to eat all the leftovers!

As soon as our friends left, I was ready to jump into Christmas. Saturday we picked out the tree and set it up so we could decorate Sunday. We also worked on the outside lights but we still have so much more to do since we're in a bigger house now.

Yesterday was tree trimming complete with Chex Mix and my annual freak out about everyone ruining the Hallmark boxes so we won't be able to put the ornaments back after New Year's. All in all, it was a perfectly lovely evening.

Amelia's first candy cane tasting went over rather well.

Money Spending Woman

In our family we have a saying.

"You can't afford NOT to buy that!"

And we really take it to heart. It means that it doesn't matter that we already have two perfectly good working refrigerators, when the one you've had your eye on (ish) gets cut by $700 and can be financed for 18 months at 0% - you can't afford not to buy it.

Oh and throw in a new dishwasher since it was $200 cheaper as well.

Merry Christmas to me!


I'm seriously bummed that the oven we'd wanted wasn't just a smidge cheaper so I could get the whole set in one fell swoop! Oh well, I'll keep my eye out for another deal too good to pass up.

Picture Perfect

Elijah is an extremely talented photographer.

For example:







So why is it impossible for him to take a good picture of me? Ever?

For example:












Sure, as I was looking through our photo library I found a few good shots of me. But mostly, my photos look similar to the ones shown above. I can't help but wonder how I look in real life to people if this is how I'm captured on film. My poor friends and family seem to endure a terrible affront to their visual senses on a daily basis. And I don't even have a nice personality to counteract the unfortunate looks.

Today, I'm grateful for the people who are willing to spend time with me in spite of what the above pictures show!

New Coat of Paint

Well, I couldn't wait. I had to write about what we've been working on in Asher's room. It's not finished by any means, but I feel like we've really accomplished a lot so far, and I wanted to show it off!

Elijah and I decided that after we were settled into the new house, the first projects we'd tackle would be decorating/updating the kid's rooms. I always pictured Pottery Barn-esque rooms and have thus far fallen dismally short of my personal expectations. I vowed this time it would be different. We settled on a Super Mario Bros. theme for Asher's room and set to work.

Through my extensive online research (read: pouring over image after image of "Super Mario room" Google'd results) I thought it best to paint the entire room a sky blue. I chose Glidden's Pool Party, but had them mix it in Behr's semi-gloss. I make it sound so easy, but seriously the paint choice took longer than any other part of this project!

Before. Asher's blank canvas.

An unwilling assistant cutting in. I suck at cutting in.

Totally worth the work, look at this adorably helpful boy!

Elijah's first, but definitely not last, crown moulding job.

I'm not usually this happy when I paint, Elijah must have been making me laugh.

Finished, with the bed.

We've since moved the bed further up and moved Asher and all of his crap stuff into the room. We've got some more work to do on the walls and I'll definitely post when it's finished. We are cutting it really close to our November deadline. We're supposed to start on Amelia's room in December.

P.S. I realize that all the blues look different. The true color is closest on the pictures of Elijah.

Simple Man

I married a Texas born, Oklahoma raised, simple kind of man. He had always pictured himself married with two children, and was willing to wait almost six years until I could picture it too. After serving four years behind a desk in the Air Force, he knew he wanted to make a career doing anything but sitting all day. While I always imagined I'd marry a scholarly man, I accepted, with some trepidation, his decision to pursue what he dreamed. In our ten years together I can honestly say that he has never steered me wrong. He is a thoughtful man when it comes to making decisions while I'm more hasty and impatient.

He is the reason we have such a wonderful life together. Which is why I didn't hesitate to make another one of his dreams a reality. We are now the proud owners of...

...a garage fridge dedicated entirely to beer (ish)!

Our new home came with a fridge so we had an extra one and Elijah was finally able to fulfill a lifelong dream of filling a refrigerator entirely with beer. After everything he's done for me, this was the very least I could do. Plus, I get to fill the freezer side with Edy's seasonal peppermint ice cream so I can enjoy it year round!

You Wonder How These Things Begin

"This is the bed that gave us the agent
That started the search that brought the house
That had the room that fit the bed
That lay in the house that Jack built!"

Even before we'd moved to Texas and were living in our small rent house, I was obsessed with finding Asher a captain's bed. It seems there is never enough room in his dresser for the piles of clothing I insist on buying him! Seriously, at this point he probably has about 30 pairs of shorts. Add to that his shirts, pajamas, socks, underwear, pants, and his uniforms for various extra-curricular activities, and we have a serious space problem. I have been trading out his summer/winter wardrobe for the past few years and I dread the days of washing, packing, washing and then unpacking. I really wanted enough room for all of his clothes to be out at once. Keep in mind, that simply buying less clothing was not an option for me.

Craigslist to the rescue!

After weeks of scouring the site, I found the perfect bed. In fact, it was so perfect that I bought it that day and it's been sitting in the garage, while Elijah and I debated how to finish it, ever since.

But the most interesting thing about this bed is the fact that it was sold to us by someone who is now real estate agent. We'd sold the Oklahoma house and I'd been toying around on MLS just to get an idea about prices and availability in the areas we liked. After meeting Amy and buying the bed, she offered to set up a search for us just so we could focus in on what we really wanted.

The rest, as they say, is history. Less than two months later we were putting an offer on the house we're in now and the bed is finally finished and being slept in.

Craigslist to the rescue!

I swear the green will make sense once the room is completed!

I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)

"This week on Hoarders..."



Elijah and I attempted to clean and organize the garage yesterday. After all we have a three car garage with no room for the vehicles!

This picture of our 2nd living room/dining room is the end result. And the garage doesn't look much better.

Ugh.

Friday I'm In Love

Here is my I love this cooler weather edition!

The weather has finally turned cold and I am starting to get excited about the change of seasons. Here is a list of things I love about Fall.

Crock Pot cooking. I love the smell of dinner cooking all day. It makes the house seem so much more cozy.


Sweater Weather!!!


Mums. With the move, we haven't been able to plant them yet, but I'm hoping we can squeeze in at least a potted mum on our doorstep soon.


We finally get to use our new fireplace!

I love turkey. If I could, I'd eat it every week. Unfortunately, having the oven on all day only makes sense when the weather turns cooler.

There you have it. My opinion of the greatest things about the weather turning cold.

All Messed Up

Before you judge me as a terrible over sharer of my children's most horrifying moments, keep in mind that I am totally allowed to share this about my son because I asked his permission.

This past Sunday (yes I'm talking about Halloween) was pretty busy. Aside from the craziness that is our normal daily life, we were rushing around trying to get things put together in Asher's bedroom. Halloween is also the day before Asher's birthday which adds another layer of excitement and anxiety throughout the house.

We were feeling a bit neglectful since the kids had spent most of the day either in car seats running errands, or else in front of a TV screen so I really wanted to make sure we had enough time to have a smooth, fun, child-focused evening. Elijah finished up the trim/crown moulding project around three and spent some time playing with the kids while I roasted our pumpkin seeds and got dinner ready. I wanted to start trick-or-treating by 6 so that we could be finished by 8 and there'd still be enough Snickers for me to swipe without notice.

I decided to make chicken pot pie. We had leftover rotisserie chicken from the night before and I had a super easy recipe that used frozen veggies and condensed soup. That is so how I cook for my children these days, as much as I'd like to serve locally grown organic foods, I just don't have the time or energy for any recipe that doesn't have "quick and easy" in the title.

We were totally on track and seated for dinner by 5. I am usually a terrible judge when it comes to how long things will take, (yes, even with a timed recipe), so I was pretty pleased that we'd made it to the table with time to spare. I served dinner and everything seemed to be going well. Amelia and Asher were eating quickly and I thought the meal didn't taste half bad even with the heavy handed slip of marjoram.

Suddenly Asher, after eating about half of his meal, declares that the food is disgusting and he cannot eat another bite. I calmly told him that we were not trick-or-treating until his dinner was finished. We don't usually make him eat everything, but he has a tendency to quit dinner early when there is something else he'd rather be doing and then claims starvation an hour or so later. I knew he'd be walking around all night, eating crap, and I really wanted him to have something at least somewhat nutritious to assuage the "all you can eat" parental guilt.

He was adamant. I mean down-right stubborn. We told him there'd be no trick-or-treating, that Amelia would go out without him and he'd have to stay home and hand out candy. We even used the few early kids that came to our door to drive home the point. All to no avail. He would not budge. Unfortunately, he and I have trouble communicating at times and our disagreements tend to escalate fairly quickly. Elijah was upstairs getting Amelia into her costume so I was left to duke it out with the boy.

Needless to say, it did not go well. The evening simply disintegrated before my eyes. He came at me screaming and crying, refusing to eat his meal. He was sent to his room, sent back to the table, but nothing worked, we could not get him to back down. I was so wrapped up in our battle of wills I didn't even stop to think that he is rarely this obstinate.

Elijah finally pulled the mean dad card, got in his face and told him he had 10 seconds to finish those last two bites or his evening was over. Crying, Asher got the first bite down quickly and the second bite into his mouth.

Then, he proceeded to vomit all over himself and the dinner table.

Elijah and I looked at each other, then at Asher, then we all just started laughing. In between snorts and giggles he just keep saying "I told you so, Mom" over and over again.

We had pushed him past his breaking point and he showed his opposition in the most appropriate manner. My son is so creative.

This post is written in response to a prompt from:

The Headless Horseman

Let me just preface this post with the caveat that I realize it is WAY overdue. I refuse to apologize for writing it so late, since this is the first chance I've gotten to sit down and write and I really wanted to do it justice.

Every October (at least for the past three years) we have taken the kids to Marval Resort in Gore, Oklahoma. This is a particularly special campground to our family because Elijah used to go there with his family when he was little. It's definitely become a yearly tradition that we all look forward to. We go in October for two main reasons. First, it is much too hot to go out there in the summer and second, they celebrate Halloween all month long which is a super plus for us heathens.

We go "cabin camping" which I realize is a bit of disappointment for the boys, but really the weather is much too fickle in October to sleep in a tent. Plus, I think tent camping is yicky. I need my own bathroom, shower and microwave. I make no apologies for that either, since aside from our very first sleepover being in a tent, Elijah knew about my lack of outdoorsy-ness when he agreed to be shackled to me until the end of time.

Throughout the month in addition to trick-or-treating every Saturday, Marval has a "magical" pumpkin patch that we travel to via hayride and most importantly - at least to Asher - a costume contest. Every year when the time comes to pick out a costume he goes over all his options and wonders which one gives him the best chance of winning. The first year he dressed as a dinosaur, the second as a dead zombie. Both costumes were fine but not really award worthy.

This year, I picked his costume for him and even though I'm biased, it really was the greatest costume ever.


He totally won.

Now I only have 11 months to think up next year's winning costume idea!

For those interested, here are more pictures of our cabin camping weekend.