I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. We did - we spent the day in Anchorage with my sister and some of her in-laws. We became part of the extended McCormack family! Thank you to Carole, Joel, Carolyn and Peggy and Pat, we really enjoyed ourselves. I think the kids had the most fun digging tunnels in the snow...
I tried making a non-shortening pie crust for the apple pie I brought, it just didn't seem right. If I can find this stuff, I'll try it for whatever pie I put together next. I used to hate making pie crusts, but I finally figured out a few years ago that all of the ingredients and utensils need to be almost frozen for the crust to turn out. Duh.
In spite of all the encouragement blaring from the radio to combat-shop at 5am on Friday, I slept in and shopped instead at 10:30am. I heard that people were parked outside WalMart at 1am, to be the first to get in there and save big bucks. Well, I'm not an expert, but doesn't it cost loads of money to run all those Wasilla-style rumble trucks' engines for hours at a time?
The girl-cousins are easy to shop for, but I don't have a clue what to buy for boys ranging in age from 6 to 11. I'm at the point in my auntie-ness of just sending money. I know just what 3-year-old loud silly self-centered car-loving boys would want for Christmas, but for the older ones, I can't even guess. When I was that age I remember getting things like shirts. And socks.
So my brilliant husband figured out that the car needed some antifreeze. Now it warms up, yay! We only had to suffer through one city-drive with the kids fighting over whose turn it was to use the scraper on the inside of the windows. My next hope is for some studded tires, since the poor mamavan could only get two-thirds of the way up the neighborhood hill tonight. Hopefully the hill will be scraped and sanded tomorrow when we drive to the city for the Nutcracker.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
here comes santa claus here comes santa claus
Thank you, State PFD Division, for approving my dividend application. Socialism is alive and well.
My first act as a Person With An Income is to turn up the heat a little. I can't function in cold air.
Next, who knows... a haircut, maybe? Some Danskos, a FILE CABINET, some fancy long johns, Christmas gifts... and 529's for the kids. It would probably be wise to get the car checked out, since the heater doesn't actually produce heat until we've been driving 65 mph for about 15 minutes. My New Year's Resolution will be to stop ignoring the check-engine light.
It's been FOREVER since I wrote last, because I didn't feel like it. I was busy, too, and K was in town so I got to detach myself from Mama'sBoy for three-and-a-half days in a row. I threw myself into accompanying the kids at T's school during music class. Now I can't get all of those Christmas songs out of my head. I even dream with those songs going on and on and on.
The students are all over the map: obedient, bored, psycho-hyper, cranky, musical, coughing, screaming, jumping, tone-deaf, content, fighting, eager, whatever. I practiced my stare-down with a few of the brats who were ignoring the teacher, that was fun. There were some really good moments all week, though, when they all got into it and just sang because it was fun and not just something they had to do. "I wanna keep SINGING!!" they'd say when the bell rang. One morning I brought Mama'sBoy with me - I stuck him behind me with his new train set and his lunch bag and hoped for the best. He did really well for about three hours and then started a slow melt-down. He climbed onto my back, then my lap (while I was playing a song), turned off the (digital) piano twice, and pulled out the contents of my purse, waving some feminine products in my face, saying "What's THIS Mama? What's THISSSS???"
My first act as a Person With An Income is to turn up the heat a little. I can't function in cold air.
Next, who knows... a haircut, maybe? Some Danskos, a FILE CABINET, some fancy long johns, Christmas gifts... and 529's for the kids. It would probably be wise to get the car checked out, since the heater doesn't actually produce heat until we've been driving 65 mph for about 15 minutes. My New Year's Resolution will be to stop ignoring the check-engine light.
It's been FOREVER since I wrote last, because I didn't feel like it. I was busy, too, and K was in town so I got to detach myself from Mama'sBoy for three-and-a-half days in a row. I threw myself into accompanying the kids at T's school during music class. Now I can't get all of those Christmas songs out of my head. I even dream with those songs going on and on and on.
The students are all over the map: obedient, bored, psycho-hyper, cranky, musical, coughing, screaming, jumping, tone-deaf, content, fighting, eager, whatever. I practiced my stare-down with a few of the brats who were ignoring the teacher, that was fun. There were some really good moments all week, though, when they all got into it and just sang because it was fun and not just something they had to do. "I wanna keep SINGING!!" they'd say when the bell rang. One morning I brought Mama'sBoy with me - I stuck him behind me with his new train set and his lunch bag and hoped for the best. He did really well for about three hours and then started a slow melt-down. He climbed onto my back, then my lap (while I was playing a song), turned off the (digital) piano twice, and pulled out the contents of my purse, waving some feminine products in my face, saying "What's THIS Mama? What's THISSSS???"
Sunday, November 09, 2008
another busy week
Obama won the election, surprise! About the only comment I have is that maybe Sarah Palin will come back to a desk in Juneau piled high with geography textbooks, a copy of the Constitution and some Diet Dr. Pepper. Put down the Blackberry, pick up a book.
A bigger event this week for our family happened Monday afternoon when my grandma Nuz broke her hip, ice-fishing for trout at her camp near Golovin. She was flown to Anchorage for surgery, accompanied by my brother. We've been visiting her as much as possible. I think most of her time each day is spent with visitors, SO many people have stopped by! She's recovering quickly and has been using a walker to get around for the past few days. Mom will spend about a week with her at home in Golovin once she's out of the hospital.
After Halloween, with all of the visiting going on, a virus worked its way through the family... the Barfovirus. R was hit with it about a week ago; T was miserable with it Thursday night and missed a day of school. Fortunately the barfing sessions only lasted about 5 hours.
Our baby, sometimes called Stinky, Eyeball, Misterguy, Screech, Misters, Scooby, LittleDude, and MonsterBoy, will be three years old on Wednesday. He says it "ffwffweee". His speech is getting better, and it still has that warbling Julia-Child-style intonation. He loves trucks, fire trucks, Caillou, drawing, cutting paper, and bugging everybody. Right now he's combing my hair and talking about getting the buzzer out to cut it.
A bigger event this week for our family happened Monday afternoon when my grandma Nuz broke her hip, ice-fishing for trout at her camp near Golovin. She was flown to Anchorage for surgery, accompanied by my brother. We've been visiting her as much as possible. I think most of her time each day is spent with visitors, SO many people have stopped by! She's recovering quickly and has been using a walker to get around for the past few days. Mom will spend about a week with her at home in Golovin once she's out of the hospital.
After Halloween, with all of the visiting going on, a virus worked its way through the family... the Barfovirus. R was hit with it about a week ago; T was miserable with it Thursday night and missed a day of school. Fortunately the barfing sessions only lasted about 5 hours.
Our baby, sometimes called Stinky, Eyeball, Misterguy, Screech, Misters, Scooby, LittleDude, and MonsterBoy, will be three years old on Wednesday. He says it "ffwffweee". His speech is getting better, and it still has that warbling Julia-Child-style intonation. He loves trucks, fire trucks, Caillou, drawing, cutting paper, and bugging everybody. Right now he's combing my hair and talking about getting the buzzer out to cut it.
Sunday, November 02, 2008
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