Sunday, November 25, 2012

No-Show November


 my blogging has been non-existent lately. I wrote more in the week after Emma was born than I have the past two weeks. 
No serious excuses for this, I just haven't made it happen. 

So let's play catch-up with the Holding Family:

We took Lexi (and only Lexi) to a family wedding in Lawrence a couple of weeks ago. She loved the 'prince and princess' getting married, the dancing, the cupcakes (which she and her cousins pre-tasted for everyone), and the photo booth.  
Oh the photo booth . . . . 


We set up our Christmas-ness last weekend. 
The small children love it. 
Emma points at everything that lights up and says "Please" extremely loudly until her demands have been met. 
She is insistent but so cute.

When I was little, it was a big deal to get to put the tree topper on, We had to take turns. Scottie had odd years, I had evens. Kelly was too cool; she didn't care about tree topping. I tried to get Lexi excited about being the tree-topper-helper this year, but she was not all in. She like the idea in theory, but she ended up being scared of heights. I guess there is a difference between being 6 feet in the air (when my dad would hoist us up to crown the tree) and 10 feet (we have a large tree and Paul is part-giant).
 I guess Daddy gets even years.
 Our finished product:
 IF I sent out Christmas cards - this would be the winner. 
But I don't send out Christmas cards, so  . . . . .

Other happenings:
 - Emma has 4 teeth coming in. It's painful and sleepless and cranky. And that is just how I am feeling. She is less than pleasant right now, also. 

 - I got my haircut. Finally. 

 - Paul submitted a request to participate in Movember (similar to No-Shave-November, but the boys grow mustaches instead of just beards). Naturally, this was denied. Mustaches make Paul look like a serial killer.

 - We hosted Thanksgiving here for our little family plus my parents. It was pretty good, but I still managed to burn a pan to it's black black death. 

 - I tried to go early black Friday shopping (Thursday night) to find an $8 crock pot and a new pan to replace the one that died in the Great Gravy Armageddon of 2012. Mom and I drove to Target, saw the line wrapped AROUND THE WHOLE BUILDING, laughed a lot, then said 'no', went home and drank more wine. 

 - As a diocesan teacher I have to take religion classes the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving. This year I chose a class about exorcism. I haven't slept in 6 days.  

 - My Etsy business is keeping me hopping. Which is great - it allows me to keep shopping! Coincidentally I am 3 gifts away from being DONE with my holiday shopping. What the what?

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Let's Go Wildcats!

 Lexi is a HUGE K-State fan! 
She was taught (mostly by Nana) at a very young age to love Wildcats and only Wildcats. 
She is disgusted by Jayhawks. 
She for real actually watches the games on TV. 
She bleeds purple. 

Willie the Wildcat came to Wichita on Thursday 
(probably just to meet Lexi-Lulu) 
and Nana and Papa took my girls to meet him. 

Lexi loved it, of course. 

K-S-U Wildcats!!!!

Friday, November 2, 2012

Thank You

I've been seeing a lot of people posting on Facebook about their thankfulness today (must be November or something) and it got me thinking about what I am thankful for. This might seem a little odd, but hear me out. 

Things I am Thankful For:

1. Paul's Business Trips
      I know this seems selfish, but keep reading. Paul has traveled more for work lately than ever before. It used to be one 5 day trip, once a quarter. He was gone almost 2 1/2 weeks in October and he will be gone again at the end of November/beginning of December. I hate when he is gone - but it has taught me that I can be more independent. Most importantly, when he comes home I appreciate him so much more. It's not just the gross things, like crunching the bugs either. When he is gone, I realize how much he does to make my life run more smoothly - the coffee is ready in the morning when I wake up, the trash magically takes itself out, and the ironing actually gets done (confession: ironing scares me - I just throw stuff back in the dryer to get wrinkles out), just to name a few things.
I am thankful for Paul's business trips because they make me appreciate him more.

2. Emma's Peanut Allergy
   I know what you are thinking: "What the what? Why is she thankful for Em's allergies? Wasn't she having a breakdown and stuff about this back in March?"
    Emma cannot have peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, fish, or coconut. Do you know how much stuff has coconut oil in it? Almost all Halloween candy is processed with/near/around peanuts. Even though keeping Emma away from this list of stuff is difficult, it has helped me be a more conscientious consumer. A trip to the grocery store takes twice as long because I am checking labels and ingredients on EVERYthing, EVERYtime. 
Subsequently, I have started cooking with more basic ingredients, which in turn makes me feel better about the nutritiousness of what I am feeding my family.  Eating out is pretty much a nightmare, though there are a few places with special allergy menus. But I would rather not run the risk of needing to use the epipen, so we rarely eat out. 
I'm thankful for Emma's allergies, because they have made our lives more nutritious. 

3. Lexi's timing
   There must be something magical about the grocery store. No matter what, every time I take Lexi with me she announces that she needs to go potty. It's Pavlovian at this point, I think. She always waits until I am about halfway through - too late to just walk away, but still at least 20 minutes until we get home. If you have ever seen us at the grocery store, you would notice that I have a look of panic on my face as we dash from aisle to aisle trying to go as quickly as possible before Lexi declares her need to go to the bathroom. Sometimes she has already decided she has to go, but I really need to finish shopping and I am really moving quickly to get her home (I have germophobia, we don't do public bathrooms). 
  I am thankful for Lexi's timing because it saves me from browsing and spending unnecessarily. She makes certain I stick to the list, and only come home with what I need, nothing else.