...and now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

finally, the holidays are over. it's amazing how much more work they are when you have children. the whole mystique of santa and waiting for them to go to bed before everything can go out under the tree. and the meshing of traditions -- i've always been a shaker and my husband never had anything under the tree until Christmas eve, when they did the exchange between the siblings, and Christmas morning when santa's gifts arrived. but the kids were great -- i allowed them to shake and squeeze things (but not the coughing, sneezing baby from grampa & gigi *smile*) and they quickly grew tired of it when they realized that Christmas was still DAYS away. the torture! *smile* but we managed to have a wonderful Christmas morning, and they adored all of their gifts, even the ones with lots of tiny pieces that we're kicking ourselves for letting them open (obviously we would never have bought tiny legos! *smile*).

and now that the holidays are over, and christopher is back to school, we can finally get back to our regular lives -- watching tv all day (pbs kids, mainly) and eating when mommy remembers to feed everyone *smile*. actually, my days are pretty scheduled: mondays are gym days, so i do 30 minutes on the elliptical machine before my pilates class and then a group of us let the kids run wild in the "basketball room". tuesdays are usually laundry or groceries. wednesdays are pilates and spinning (which kicks my butt! *smile*). thursdays are either laundry or groceries. and friday is my free day. of course, sometimes the schedule alters cuz i may have a client or a doctor's appointment, but for the most part, we're pretty regimented. i also have to squeeze in a trip to my allergist, but that's changing since my friend lisa is no longer my shot technician. the girl that gave me my shot this morning hurt me so badly that my arm still hurts almost 12 hours later! needless to say, i am not gonna be her guinea pig and i'll be getting my shots at my pcp's office from now on. if i could get a stash of needles i'd try to get lisa to do it for me in exchange for free haircare, but there's probably some laws against that or something *smile*.

but the cookies are almost ready and i've got to get the cocoa going so when the kids come in from sledding they'll be ready. we're probably the only family that routinely goes sledding after dark *smile*. actually, i just looked outside when i went to take the cookies out of the oven and saw alexander out there shoveling the patio! i'd bought the kids snow shovels at biglots thinking that they could "help" daddy shovel the driveway sometime, but i never thought they'd use them *smile*. i wonder why they're shoveling the patio? i'll find out when they come in. *smile*

so much to do ... why am i playing online? :)

i'm so glad that my family is used to getting their Christmas gifts late cuz i haven't even started them yet, so there's no way they'll get there in time *smile*. i have so much to do, and i just don't feel like doing it. right now i'm uber-stressed with everything else going on. one good thing is that my stress has alerted me to another problem -- i have a 9mm nodule on my thyroid. yay! what fun! now i have to go and have it ultrasounded and get blood work done to find out what's up. the good news is that your thyroid has a little bit to do with a lot of things, so it may be the underlying cause of a lot of my issues. but it'll be a while before we figure out what's up. always something to keep me on my toes *smile*

and i wish the men in my life wore jewelry. it would make my life a lot simpler *smile*. i can't even make they key keepers, cuz they don't carry their keys like that. i guess i could make key rings, but why? *smile* i had a really great custom ordered handmade gift for everyone, but i underestimated the popularity of my favorite fibre artist and they won't be ready until after the new year! i was really bummed, cuz that meant that i actually had to do something. *smile* they're still gonna get their special custom order gift, just REALLY late, so i won't mention what it is, but i know they'll love it. *smile* but since i've been trying to go to bed at a decent time and do what i can to reduce my stress level, there's just not enough time for creating. how old do the kids need to be before they can cook their own meals? since isabelle came into my room this morning naked as a jaybird, i know they're old enough to dress themselves *smile*. and she's good at doing buttons, too *smile*.

but i've got to get off the computer so i can get dinner started so we can go get a tree tonight. yay! finally my house will start to smell like Christmas *smile*

third day's the charm :)

well, today was day three of panties for isabelle. and i told her on wednesday (day 1) that if she made it all day without peepeeing in her panties that we'd go to the store and buy the princess panties we saw. needless to say, wednesday was not the day. she pooped in her panties, and then when we went out to dinner (i know, i know, what was i thinking! *smile*) she peepeed and had to ride home in wet panties and tights, which really upset her. so thursday was better, but not all the way. today, however, was wonderful! we went out shopping and i had not 1, but 2 changes of clothes for her, extra panties and dora underwear just to cover our bases. but we stopped and pottied everywhere we went, and she kept her panties dry all day. so tomorrow while mommy's at work, isabelle will get to go to the store and buy princess panties.

i'm so glad to finally be able to stop buying dora underwear all the time. it was really a pain in the neck. i prefered the dora underwear (pampers) to the cinderella underwear (pull-ups) becuz they don't open on the sides and seemed to conform to her body a little more. sometimes the sides of the cinderella underwear would open on their own, which kinda defeats the purpose *smile*. but, with the dora underwear, she wears a size 6, which they only sell at target. and even when every other size of everything that pampers makes is on sale, size 6 dora underwear is not. very frustrating.

christopher didn't understand the need to call things certain things. diapers were cloth diapers and the occasional disposable. underwear are pull-ups. we started that with alexander, cuz even though he's potty trained, he's a really heavy sleeper and heavy wetter, so he wears "night-time underwear" at night. he's pretty good at naptime, though. but panties are panties. she gets really upset if you call her panties underwear. they're totally not the same in her mind. she loves the fact that she can do it all herself. for some reason, she had a hard time getting the dora underwear up over her bottom. but with panties she's all good. it also helped that we were sick most of this week, so we stayed in the house and she had on dresses. much easier to just pull up your dress and potty. and we had her little potty downstairs so she could potty and not miss her show. oh well. but only pee pee goes in the little potty. poopey goes upstairs in the big potty. mommy doesn't like cleaning poopey out of the little potty, cuz it's icky *smile*.

so we'll see what happens tomorrow with daddy being home. i don't know if he has plans to leave the house, cuz that'll make a huge difference with him and her pottying. he doesn't like to take her potty in a store cuz they have to go in the mens room. i guess it wouldn't be bad if it was like the women's room and was all stalls, but with the urinals, it's a different story. plus the men's room always seems to smell *smile*. well, we'll figure it out.

RIP *sniff*

well, my creative microphoto mp3 player died. i did what i could on line to try to revive it. creative has a resuscitation program, but nothing worked. i'm very sad. i really loved my little mp3 player. and now i don't know what i want to do. i have all the accessories for it, but i don't know if i want to get another one. they're a little old and they don't make them anymore, so they don't sell *new* ones. i looked on ebay and there's actually several available, but they're all used, and do i really wanna pay $80 for a used mp3 player?

but we had some good times, divazen and i. it was perfect for travelling, since i like gospel and showtunes and christopher likes bluegrass and johnny cash. and while traveling through the barren flats of western ohio on our way to columbus, it was great, cuz the only radio stations seem to be country. bleh! *smile* and with my nifty speaker system it was perfect for labor with isabelle. especially since there was a remote that i could use from my bed. my labor & delivery playlist was my favorite :).

so now, i have the delimma of what to do. should i just abscond with my husband's mp3 player that i got him for his birthday last year? or should i just buy myself a new one for Christmas? my Christmas gift is actually being delivered today, but it's not really a gift for me -- it's an oven and curling iron set for work -- so i don't think it really counts. but do i want another creative zen, which i really like, or do i want an ipod since we're a mac family anyway? the only reason i still have my dell computer up and running is to rip cd's and upload music onto our mp3 players. it would be nice to be able to do everything on the same operating system. but 8mb ipod's are expensive. i can get a 8mb zen for much less than an 8mb ipod. bleh.

let me finish mourning my divazen before i commit to replacing her. she was a good friend :)

early Christmas music and other random thoughts *smile*

so, i turned on the radio the other day and was thrilled to find Christmas music! already! and it's not even thanksgiving! :) I'm so excited. i listen to Christmas music year-round anyway, so it's nice to be able to just turn on the radio and have it for my listening pleasure. what bothers me, though, is that the day after Christmas, it's nowhere to be found. couldn't they wean me off it slowly? i mean, in the stores, they've started adding it every 3 songs or so, but even they make me go cold turkey. it really sucks :)

but today is alexander's birthday. 4 years ago right now i pushed him into the world. amazing! i can't remember a time that he wasn't here with me. my life without him seems just a fond memory or like something i read in a book--similar to my life, but not really something i can relate to. but we had an awesome day. his nana, grandma and aunt amie sent him money, so he & daddy spent it all at big lots :). meanwhile isabelle and i went dress shopping. she's been on this dress kick lately, and we didn't really have any with sleeves, so we had to go shopping. when i was revamping their fall/winter wardrobe she wasn't into wearing dresses, so i made sure she had jeans that fit and long sleeved shirts, but no dresses. so now she has some, but she's wanted to wear a dress every day this week so far. we need to make a trip to once upon a child :)

so alexander's birthday party is tomorrow. he's SO excited. he's invited 7 kids, 6 of whom are coming, and christopher has really outdone himself thinking up games and activities. i just hope it turns out the way they hope and everyone has fun. with alexander's track record lately he'll spend his entire party in time out :)

and i made my first sale of the Christmas open house! i'm so excited! check out audrey's blog for all the info on how to enter the contest to win this beautiful red jasper & pearl bracelet, as well as 13 other beautiful prizes (including one from the quilted house!). for the open house, i'm offering buy one get one 1/2 price on everything, and with all orders of $15 or more (not including shipping) you get a beautiful keychain! you even get to specify the color! i've only got 2 for sale in my shop right now, but i've got many more in progress, and i'm having a great time playing with color combinations. :) i've added some beautiful sterling silver and 14k gold items to my shop, i've also got several special orders in the works, and we haven't figured out what we're doing for the laret family Christmas gift. we've been doing a handmade gift exchange for the past couple of years, but we haven't decided what it'll be this year. at this point, though, it had better be something quick and easy :)

life doesn't get any easier

well, i'm tired. that's really nothing new, cuz i'm always tired. but i've hit a new level of tiredness, cuz i'm trying to do so many things--play with my kids, feed them regular & nutritious meals in a timely fashion, take care of the house, work a little to pay my bills, take care of the house (do we really need clean clothes EVERY day?) and make jewelry in my spare time. there's not as much spare time as my many projects demand, so i've been stealing time from my other duties to do jewelry, which hasn't been going over well with my husband. oops *smile*. but i've got so many projects going on!

the holidays are coming up and i'm participating in a Christmas open house (check out the button on the right hand side of my blog). there's 13 other etsy shops participating and you can check out the particulars either on my other blog or on Audrey's Country Crafts. the open house doesn't start until november 15th, and audrey won't have all the info up until then, but each shop is have a special promotion during the open house (i'm offering 1/2 off your second item and a free gift for purchases over $15 *smile*). and we're each donating a giveaway prize, so everyone has 13 chances to win! my giveaway is this beautiful pearl & red jasper bracelet. who said that 13's an unlucky number? *smile*

so in addition to that, it's the holidays, so i'm trying to make sure i've got enough stuff in my shop to make some money this holiday season. plus i've got the stuff i'm doing for blossoms of verona. she's got her grand re-opening on saturday, 11/14, and so i'm trying to get another set of stuff ready for her, too. and it's different than the stuff i've got in my shop. so many design ideas floating through my head simultaneously!

and to top it all off, my husband expects the children to be dressed and fed every day! too bad they can't live on fruit snacks and sponge bob yogurt *smile*.

but i'm in my pj's and my snuggie, ready for another evening of creating while i do laundry. there really is no rest for the wicked. or is it weary? either way, if the shoe fits...*smile*

shopping with children--not for the faint of heart...

...at least not with my kids *smile*. my sister & mom can really appreciate this, since they've shopped with me recently, but alexander especially likes to push the envelope. he's almost 4 and likes to make sure that the boundaries are still firmly in place. i swear! but today was the icing on the cake. i just wanted the floor to open up and swallow me! *smile*

we had to go shopping today becuz they needed new pj's and isabelle needs pants (which is another story altogether *smile*). so we went to the mall with our friends kellie & clare & erin. gymboree was fine. children's place was okay. lunch was showing signs of needing a nap. so when we got to burlington i knew that i had no hope of keeping them in the stroller. fine. we found some jeans for isabelle and found some pj's for both of them and we're checking out. i know that my time is limited. even though i didn't force alexander to stay in the stroller the whole time, i knew that he was at the end of his rope, patience-wise. but he flips out while we're putting on our jackets to leave and knocks over my bottle of water, spilling water all over the place. i desperately wanted to thwack him in the back of the head, but i'm well aware of all the eyes on me. sheesh! i really just wanted the floor to open up and swallow me! when i was childless i used to look at those mothers with the uncontrollable children with pity and think about what poor mothers they were. clearly, if they were better mothers, they would have more control over their children and they'd be well behaved like my brother, sister and i were. how little did i know *smile*. but i was proud of myself, becuz even though i was embarrassed to the soles of my feet, i did what i would have done at home, and once he calmed down a bit, i took him out of the stroller and made him help me clean up the mess. i was so angry, but helping to clean up helped me to calm down, too, so that by the time we were done i wasn't afraid that i'd have to kill my child (don't call cys*smile*).

of course both of them are asleep now, and i have a moment to breathe before i have to deal with them again. thankfully there are still some things that isabelle doesn't follow in her brother's footsteps in. she flips out, but not as regularly and not as extremely. although until i saw her have a temper tantrum, i didn't think that children really threw themselves down on the ground kicking and screaming like you see on tv. the first time i saw her do that, i just looked at her and told her that when she was ready to settle down and behave like a sane, rational human being that i'd be in the living room. i had to leave cuz i was gonna laugh! amazing!