Half Santa, Half Scrooge!

Confession: I have no Christmas presents hiding in my closet.

You know what this means, right? SHOPPING! And I don't say that in a good way. I say it in a more Alfred Hitchcock, screaming and running in terror, kind of way.

At this time of year, yeah... I'm WAY behind.
Don't get me wrong. I love giving presents. I love finding that perfect gift that practically screams the person's name as I walk by it in the store. Its when I can't find it or its really expensive, that I'm frustrated and irritated and wishing I were somewhere else. Wishing Charlie Brown's Christmas were true and that we only sent Christmas Cards to people we really actually like, rather than every person we've ever met in our lives (and some we even haven't).
But the fact remains, I'm not Oprah with an endless supply of money to spend. And I'm not putting Christmas on credit. (Sorry, but THAT'S BAD!!!)

So this year, Santa Clause is not shopping at Enstoms(tear), Macy's, or the Apple store. Santa is going to the dollar store! An apple, orange, and a bag of peanuts fill a stocking up cheaper than anything else. I still get a thrill from wrapping up a two dollar box of chocolate covered cherries and hiding them under the tree(seriously, it's fun).

Well, now that I've psyched myself up for this... time to get going.

And by the way, we haven't done our Christmas Card photos yet either. *sigh*

Cutest Ever!

I swear to God, I do not make up cuteness....

I was sitting in bed listening through the bedroom door to the kids.

Justin says in a high pitch voice "Give me the ruby slippers or I'll sic the monkeys on you."

Cody says "NOOOOOO!"

Justin says "Oh look! A munchkin!"

AC runs giggling though the house.

Have You Had Your Daily Dose of Depression?

Raise your hand if you know who Debbie Downer is.

If you don't know, she's an SNL made-up character. The kind of person that would remind you of how many people die from malaria each year if she saw you get a mosquito bite. Or she would inform you of the average puppy death statistics if she saw a pet food commercial.

My point?

Ever notice that the news is a lot like Debbie Downer?

Two people died in a...they found more bodies...plane crash in the...SWINE FLU!!!

I'm sorry, but you know what... this information does me NO GOOD! Its gone from being informative to just gossip. The news people sit in their little cubicles thinking of ways to freak out the public, cause paranoia, and digging for the worst "shocker" story they can find.

Well, today I found a great website. FINALLY!!! Finally, we get to hear about nice things.

www.goodnewsnow.com

Don't worry, I'm well aware that its religious-based and that may tweak someone's hair. Well, I don't really care! If your too much of baby to get past the fact that something nice is being said about someone in a religious pretext... GO CRY TO DEBBIE DOWNER!

Party the Right Way!

Now, I'm all for a fun birthday party. Who doesn't want to feel special on their birthday?
I have five children. (For those of you aren't observant enough to notice) But five birthdays in one year is excessive, don't ya think?
Fortunately all of my kids were born in two months (different years, of course... lets not be silly). November and May!

So...we have two parties. One in May and one in November (duh).

Obviously, gender specific parties are just irritating and dumb. It doesn't make the party any more special if you had transformers or strawberry shortcake on your party favors.
It just says "Mom was dumb enough to spend all that money on cheap crap that's going to be destroyed and thrown out the second it leaves the area."

And NO! I refuse to invite all the neighbor kids and every child mine have ever met. Relatives and cousins are good enough!

Okay! So what is important?

Pick a theme! (and no, Spiderman and Disney princesses don't count)

Need help?

*Fiesta -(mexican style fun -pinatas, margaritas(for the adults) and I YI YI YI music is totally cool...not to mention sopapillas!)

For those of you wondering, it's okay to drink at a kids party. It's just not okay for anyone to get drunk. There's a difference...but that's another story.

*Luau -(everyone wears hawaiian, get those little umbrellas for the mai tai's, leis, barbecue hot dogs if your uncool with the pig roast.. and dont forget some beach boys music or ukalele style is great. Fruit pizza on cookie dough is a great alternative to cake. BE CREATIVE!)


If creativity is just really not your thing... there are a million ideas online.

This November Party's theme was fall. Seems too obvious, right?
*Well, bobbing for apples is an endangered tradition so we did our part to bring it back.
*Bale of straw costs $7. (game appropriately named "needle in the haystack") I hid two bags of candy in all that mess. Handed each child a bag and said, "go find it."
*Who doesn't like to roast hotdogs and marshmallows over a fire?(finicky adults...but again, that's another story) Fire-pits are a wonder. I can't imagine why they weren't popular sooner.
*Follow it up with throwing the ol' pigskin around.


Yep! We had ourselves a great time!

Its All in the Head

Recently, Luke to the boys hunting. This is a good thing! It's guy time! You know, when they don't have to worry about belching and farting and getting dirty and smelling like sweat, dirt, and foul boy funk.
I have visions of them running through the woods half naked and howling at the moon.

Well anyways, they managed to shoot a deer. This is a good thing! It's guy time! He's training the boys the most basic survival skills, right.

After field dressing (ick) and taking it to the meat packing plant (ick) they brought all the meat home last weekend.

I've been overly supportive. I made Burgandy Venison with Egg Noodles, Venison Tacos, Steak Au Poivre, and Chili.

Did I eat any of it... NOOOOOO!

I was raised to gag at the idea of "field fresh" meat and any kind of fish. I know I shouldn't be like this, but I can't help it.

And yeah I know.... It's all in my head.

Yay!!! I did it!

I knew persistence would pay off. Actually, I think my video camera is just a pill that doesn't know how to talk to computers....
Anyways, here it is...Justin Murray playing Allegero.



You know what this means right? LOTS OF MAUI VIDEOS- COMING SOON!!!!

(HEAD BANG!)

You ever tried to bang your head on a brick wall?
Most people would give up about the second time, but I'm blonde, so I figure it's bound to be something simple that I'm just not getting.
This morning, my challenge was to get out the video camera, and set it up for our vacation. (This to anyone who knows me is a major no-no)
But, seriously, people do it all the time. You all have FB videos, I could do that too... right? (HA HA HA HA HA HA)
First, shoot the mock video. Cody singing his best rendition of Pavarotti. Sure, that works.
Next, plug it in. Sounds simple right? Wrong! Thus, the head-banging begins...
Install this software... I must have installed it ten times and still couldn't get it to recognize the USB. (HEAD BANG!)
Whatever, I have a Mac, that's suppose to be a piece of cake. Moves to the "easy" computer. (HEAD BANG!)
After about five hours of this torturous head banging, I have a headache,and not only did I manage to NOT get the video uploaded, but I erased it and over-wrote it with me swearing out the entire process. (HEAD BANG!)