the craziness of life.......

sit back, grab a snack and don't say you weren't WARNED that this blog will be long and ugly.

when you start your morning off with your electricity going out in the middle of you blowing drying your hair, your whole day just becomes a cluster-f. kids screaming for waffles and pancakes, trying to pee in the dark, things just weren't pretty.

and I feel so petty bitchin' about frivolous things, when there are people who have things so much worse. If you don't keep up with my friend Amy over at Chunkyrhino, please keep her and her family in your thoughts and prayers. Her dad had to have a Quadruple Bypass last week and I'm sure any thoughts or prayers on him pulling through would be much appreciated. Love ya Ames!

so most of you probably cringed yourself last week hearing Jay was on steroids and neb treatments. most of you know about the fun of 'roid rage. I've been dealing with it for 5 years now and remember dealing with it growing up with Kenny. it's something I'm accustomed to. but I tell you, there's always something that comes along that blows my mind. it's when Hunter wrote H's all over my walls and furniture. it's when both boys smashed a whole bag of purple grapes onto my floor. it's when the boys cut the blinds apart. oh....the list goes on. and now we get to add when Jayden colored Hunter's new wooden desk completely with a purple crayon. where was I, you ask? making dinner and listening to Hunter read. I had NO idea Jay had a crayon in his possession. and I can't get mad because I know the poor child just didn't know what to do with himself. so all last week became watching Jay like a hawk.

The weekend couldn't get here fast enough. but it went down the drain quick enough. Friday night Justin asked me to swing by my parents house to pick up his dog, "Rocky." No problem. Just as we pulled into town, the smell started lingering. yes, Rocky took the liberty of pooping all on the back floor of my car. poop like he hasn't pooped all day. Justin got left to clean that up.

Saturday morning was a bit of a rush. Hunter had basketball practice at 11:00 and we had to leave home by 12:30 to make it to Yoakum for a wedding. needless to say, we didn't leave until 1:00 and were rushing to get there in time and not be late. and we did make it to the church with about 10 minutes to spare. just as we turned to park, Hunter started throwing up. and not just a little either. I made a mad dash to the church for house keys. thankfully 5 of my aunts live in Yoakum. we rush to Aunt Jane's and spend an hour, cleaning and washing the car and carseat. the good news was that Hunter was completely fine. nothing but a case of being car sick. which reads NO more playing Nintendo or leapsters in the car for a while.

after Rocky and then Hunter, my car smells TERRIFIC!

the wedding reception was nice and lovely, but Kreg and I were beyond exhausted and we headed home early.

mom and I had planned to do some shopping in Austin on Sunday.

we have this German/Czech/Catholic tradition of St. Nick visiting on the night of the 5th and fills your stocking. well Hunter needs new pj's for his school program and this was the perfect stocking gift. except for the fact that I was pretty much out of luck finding something in La Grange. so I had to make it to Austin and I really wanted to jump start some shopping already.

after much debate, Kreg and I did decide to get Hunter a Wii. okay......so Kreg pulled the fact that he wanted one too. anywho, I was out to nab one at Best Buy. which sounds like a good plan, right? so I march into Best Buy and tell the friendly little sales associate, I needed a Wii please. and the kid laughed at me. I just looked at him. He asked if I was serious. Yeah, I have no better way to spend my Sunday. He proceeded to tell me that they didn't have any so I asked when they would be getting more. He said they received 83 this morning and they were already all gone before the store opened. I asked did all the employees buy one or what. He said, No, people started lining up at 11:30 the night before to be able to get one. There were more than 83 people in line this morning. WHAT THE HELL? I'm not doing that crap again. just when I thought I had everything figured out...............................

and if people insist on buying you something for Christmas, don't you think they should at least bother to ask you what you would like. I know that will take the fun out of things but neither Kreg nor I have too many wants and definitely not any needs but we are both tired of getting stuff from people that don't even bother to try and get you something that could be of use. and I've tried telling people to NOT get my anything and then they end up getting offended. why can't people be respectable of your wishes? there's nothing worse than someone telling you they've already put their time, efforts, thoughts into other gifts and they just don't want to take the time to deal with even bothering to ask you if there's something they could get you that would mean something or help out. they want to give you their leftovers and want you to feel pitty for them because they feel they've over exhausted themselves buying a bunch of other gifts. then please listen when I say to not do anything for me. be respectable of my wishes.

I know......I'm off on a rampage, but I'm sick to death of the emphasis put on presents/gifts this time of the year and the way it's dealt with. Kreg and I've taken a cold hard look at what we want to change about this holiday for us and our kids. We aren't Grinches or Scrooges. We just want to reject what we consider to be the wastefulness and stress of the season. And it's really hard when people won't consider our feeling on the subject and just think about themselves.........

I'd better get off my soapbox.

Here's a few pictures from the weekend:

it's impossible to get a good picture with this many of us (and 1/2 of us were missing):

the infmaous Aunts and Uncles (back row) and my great aunts and uncles