Fort Worth Concert

The girls had their first night out on the town!

We took Lindsey and her sister Tanya (along with two other couples) to see Robert Earl Keen last night at Bass Hall.


I LOVE Bass Hall and REK is fun to see. Last night, however, REK had to have been drunk on stage. Chuck and I have seen him play four other times at Bass Hall - so obviously we enjoy the show which is always December 30th. It's nice to always have plans for that day. Anyhow, when REK got on stage, he started talking and swaggering and I looked at Chuck and said with disbelief, "I think he's drunk!" Now, I don't know why I would say this with disbelief since musicians are known for being drunk or high when the perform, but for some reason I was just shocked. Yes, I'm naive, and yes, I'm a stick in the mud.

The concert was still great, and we all had a good time. REK was fully capable of playing music and mumbling through the lyrics only half the time, plus, he only stumbled on the stage once. Apparently, he had a nightmare of an experience at a football game a few years ago when he was so drunk that he couldn't even sing the national anthem. Geez. Our favorite song was Merry Christmas from the Family (which we had already played (and sung along with) for Lindsey. He sang it and we loved every minute - as usual. Click here to hear it and see the video. So freakin' funny!

We ate dinner before the show at Reata - a real Texas-themed restaurant. Tanya's eyes got big when she saw a man wearing a cowboy hat at the restaurant. The guys insisted that the English girls needed to try calf fries, but the wives came to the rescue and insisted that it wasn't necessary, since no one should be tricked into eating calf testicles - I don't care how nice the restaurant is.

I insisted that the girls take a picture with the creepy stuffed cowboy, because I couldn't find a real young cowboy.




After the concert we headed to a bar called Grace, where we all sipped on drinks and chatted. It was so fun going out on the town and I hope Lindsey and her sister enjoyed it.

My Cowgirl

Lindsey took Evie to the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame here in town a few months ago. (Very interesting place and worth a visit). Evie picked out this shirt as a souvenir and recently insisted on wearing it, along with her cowboy hat and boots. She looks a bit bedraggled (like me today) in the picture, but she's still cute (not like me).


She was very proud of her outfit. I think the shirt is pretty darn funny. Lindsey, bless her, tried to talk Evie out of it, but that's what Evie wanted, so that's what Evie got.

Movie Quote 52

We watched this movie the other day and this quote made me laugh heartily. I could totally see myself being this awkward. It's an oldie and it's been on TV more than usual lately. Hopefully you've seen it and remember this part.

I carried a watermelon.

If you don't remember this, then I suggest you watch the movie sometime soon (once the answer is revealed, obviously). Totally worth it!

Is the day over yet?

It's 9:30 a.m. and I already look as bedraggled as I do at 6:00 p.m. when I've had a rough day full of negotiations and hair pulling. I hate these days: stepped on the scale and discovered I've gained four pounds in the last week, my hair won't do anything attractive, my clothes are too tight (thanks to the extra four pounds), and my face is looking more round than I ever remember. Crappy day already. Perhaps I should set some New Year's resolutions.

Here it comes again.

It's officially snowing. I'm going to head home soon and curl up in front of the fire. (for approximately 30 seconds before one of my three children wants me to get them a drink, change their diaper, or play barbies). Still, it sounds nice, right?

Tanya & Snow Arrive

Expecting snow again today! God must be smiling on me!

Lindsey's sister (Tanya) arrived yesterday afternoon and she is fantastic, of course. The kids freakin' love her! Evie is all over her. It's rather weird. - Good weird.

I took them all out for Mexican last night (while Chuck was at the game in Shreveport). They are going to do some shopping today before it starts snowing and sleeting. We're looking forward to a really fun visit!

White Christmas?!?!?!?

Christmas Eve was wonderful! It snowed all afternoon and into the evening. The kids went out to play and had a short (very short) snowball fight. Luke cried for five minutes after he came inside because his hands hurt from the cold. Goofball. Every time he asked to go outside again I reminded him that his hands would get cold again and he would change his mind and just played inside.

SNOWBALL FIGHT!

We drove off to church on Christmas Eve and attended a very uncrowded service at 6:30. George was quite chatty through the whole thing, and the kids acted like they had never been to church before. Embarrassing, but truly not terribly behaved. Before we went to church, the kids decided they wanted to give Jesus a star for his birthday and they pulled two ornaments off of our Christmas tree to take to Jesus. Here they are placing a gold star/snowflake ornament by baby Jesus.




After church, we went home and enjoyed the snow by a fire with some champagne. Loved every freakin' minute of it!





Earlier that day, the kids made cookies for Santa with more sprinkles than is reasonable. Poor Santa choked down a bite of each one, but it was rough. At least the kids had a good time making the cookies.




Christmas morning, the snow was sparkling and beautiful.



I made a french toast casserole for breakfast and started the turkey. The kids eventually showed up, after George had his breakfast, but I missed it because I was in the kitchen.


I insisted that I had to have my coffee (with Irish Cream) before we started opening presents and that there had to be Christmas music playing in the background. Luke asked for a steam roller and Evie asked for barbie dolls whose hair switches. They both got what they asked for. They also wanted a crucifix. Yup, that's what I said. They got it, but apparently there are no crucifixes out there that are geared toward children, so the crucifix is pretty harsh. They loved it anyway.



Lindsey got a watch, a fancy pillow that plays her ipod, a tea kettle, and a random assortment of other gifts. I think she had a good time. It was probably very difficult for her to be away from her family, but we got to talk to them over Skype that morning and she talked to them again that evening. She's such a trooper. She also made sure we enjoyed some of her English traditions including Christmas crackers, minced pies, and Cadbury chocolates. It was so much fun to have her with us!


Oh, and Chuck got me a new iphone. Chuck got an iphone too, and now we are proper dorks, with the his and hers docking station.


(Forgive my lack of makeup).

Evie got Chuck a Ken doll so that they can now play barbies together:

He's beyond thrilled.

Most bizarre gift was Chuck's parents' gift to him:


We're still not sure what this is about.

Our friends Mr. & Mrs. Chesapeake came over for dinner and brought their daughter Savannah. I know I'm bragging, but you'll have to get over it. I made the turkey (which I knew I could do), but I carved the turkey for the first time by myself and I did an amazing job. The slices of meat were beautiful and actually looked like meat instead of looking like a hacked up turkey carcass!



We drove down to Houston Saturday morning to celebrate Christmas with my family. The drive was miserable because Evie was carsick the entire four hours and ralphed about 6 times. I'm starting to get better at it. We also got to see my sister Mary and her family who live in London and came to visit all of us this Christmas. Here she is with her daughter Alexa, holding my sweet George.


It was a great Christmas. I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas as much as we did!

Today's a New Day

It's SNOWING on Christmas Eve! I love, love, LOVE it! Fire glowing in the fireplace, snow falling gently outside, sick kids cuddled up inside - PERFECT!

Happy Christmas Eve!

Lots of love and joy to you all today.

Shopping for Christmas Dinner Gone Awry

After a long day at the doctor's office (multiple visits) and having to deal with sick, clingy children, I decided to take care of my shopping for Christmas dinner this evening. I thought I could go to Target and get everything on my list. When I showed up, this is what I found.




The refrigerated section was completely empty!!! No turkeys, no meat, no milk, no cheese, no eggs - NOTHING!

I guess the power went out on almost all of their refrigerated items. They had to throw it all away. I watched as one guy scanned each package of wilted, soggy celery and toss it into a trash bin. Then I saw this man wheeling away the only turkeys that were left in the entire store.

And, of course, I stood there defeated, taking pictures of the debacle with my iphone. I'm sure the Target staff members were just loving that. So much for Target, even though it is my absolute favorite place to shop. I gathered a few items and then went to another grocery store. I swear this stuff only happens to me.

Back again & Movie Quote 51 *UPDATED*

No kidding. I am back at the doctor's office. Luke has some nasty infection on his Flintstone toes. Yick. He can barely walk. How does this stuff develop in just a matter of hours? ** It was a staph infection and it took four people to hold him down while the doctor pierced it and gathered a sample to send to the lab. Disgusting. I have officially been to the doctor's office three times this week, called the doctor's office six times, and filled five different prescriptions.**

Now for the movie quote:

"I want to live again!"

Nothing better than "It's A Wonderful Life" y'all. Go watch it and remember how fantastic it is!

Update and Movie Quote 50

So, George developed a few yucky looking bumps on his hands last night. Damn it. I called the doctor this morning and got an appointment. When I got home to take George to the doctor, the the bumps had turned into a nasty rash and spread up and down his arms and legs, as you can see.

Plus, he had a few bumps on his face. Poor baby. I had to explain to the doctor the big long story about everyone being sick. Then he explained to me that George does not have the flu, but instead he had a virus which has passed but resulted in this nasty rash and there is nothing to be done about it. I love the doctor - so I sort of accepted my fate. It seems like there really isn't ever anything you can do for a rash anyway, so I was expecting his answer. What I wasn't expecting was that the doctor announced that George also has a raging ear infection and he was surprised that George wasn't more unhappy about that. George just smiled at him.


So, I got a prescription for antibiotics to address the ear infection and headed to our local Walgreens pharmacy. When I pulled up to the drive thru window at the pharmacy (love those), the woman behind the window said, "Berend, right?" I sighed with defeat "Yes." The freakin' pharmacy employees know us by name - both me and Chuck. Ridiculous! She asked, "You're picking up, right?" Me in a resigned voice, "No. Dropping off." And then I handed her the prescription.

And so our saga of illness continues - not that you all wanted to hear the details. Hopefully, I can get everyone well before Christmas, including this cute little boy.


I guess we'll have to get back to the movie quotes, so here's a great one for you all. You BETTER get it.

That's one thing I hate! All the noise, noise, noise, noise!

Movie Quote 49

Vomit has abated . . . thank God.

Here's the next movie quote!

You'll shoot your eye out!

Movie Quote 48

I'm finishing out these last days until Christmas with lots of Christmas movie quotes. Hope you all enjoy! (Plus, I'm pretty sure no one really wants to hear all about the vomit going on in my life. But feel free to email me if you do and I'll give you each and every nasty detail.)

Here's the lovely movie quote, This is seriously one of my favorite movies!

Vermont should be beautiful this time of year, with all that snow.

Movie Quote 47

And the vomit continues . . .

On a happier note, here are some quotes from one of my favorite Christmas movies. Gotta love that Christmas spirit.

Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, kiss my ass. Kiss his ass. Kiss your ass. Happy Hanukkah.

She falls down a well, her eyes go cross. She gets kicked by a mule. They go back. I don't know.

Effin' Flu Effin Up X-Mas

Cute Baby Syndrome has passed - all THREE children have the flu. Luke started with a high fever and we went to the doctor so that I could get him checked out. The doctor ran a couple of tests and announced, "Merry Christmas - He has the flu!" I have prescriptions of Tamiflu for each of the children in anticipation of what has befallen us this evening. Luke and George have fevers and Evie is throwing up. You might remember that I don't handle vomit very well. Today, was the masterpiece of vomit -- Evie was in her room and threw up in a bowl (good job), but then she started to come down the stairs to bring the bowl of vomit to us and she dropped the bowl sending vomit spewing all the way down the stairs - step by disgusting step - until it reached the bottom and just a few special chunks remained in the beautiful pink plastic bowl.

Got a picture of that in your head? You're welcome. **** Interrupted for a bout of dry heaves from Evie. **** Happy fucking Holidays.

Cute Baby Syndrome

Seriously, this kid couldn't get any cuter. We are officially at the stage where Chuck and I have to constantly remind ourselves that having another baby would be exhausting and that kids don't just pop out this way. No, there are nine sober months of discomfort followed by another 12 months of exhaustion and sleepless nights. Must remember - no babies, no babies, no babies. But damn he sure is cute!


Remember! -- when he is crying at at 2:00 a.m., He. Is. Not. Cute.

A Catholic Hanukkah

Luke learned about Hanukkah at school and constantly mentions the one Jewish girl in his class named Alexis. He's learned several tidbits about Hanukkah, but he definitely doesn't have it figured out. We are Christian, but I think it is great that he is learning about other religions. Still, I guess I hadn't planned on having to explain other religions quite so soon.

He's learned about the king named David, the menorah, a dreidel, the Festival of Lights, and the Star of David. The only problem is that he's more interested in Hanukkah than Christmas (probably because it is new and interesting). Last night, while playing with his friend Maddie, he asked her if she was going to come visit us for Christmas. She answered no since she is visiting her grandparents during the holidays. Luke copped a know-it-all attitude and said (without any malice or judgment), "Jews don't visit people on Christmas, so you must be Jewish." I was laughing too hard to know how Maddie responded. So, I am officially apologizing to Maddie's parents for any confusion Luke may have incited with his comments.

I even had to buy a book on Hanukkah today so that I could attempt to explain it all to him, iron out the details and field the questions. But, he's so obsessed with menorahs and the Star of David (which he also once described as the Parallelogram of David). Hell, I even did some research and even found myself of Judaism.com - a website I never considered or thought I'd visit. We're going to work on it, but being Catholic, I feel like I shouldn't allow his education on Hanukkah to outweigh his education on Christmas, but what's the harm in him learning more about religion, the bible, and the wonder of God? Then again, he has no interest in the three wise men and he keeps asking if we're going to get 8 candles. Even at church this morning, while the priest was giving the homily on the fourth Sunday of Advent - preparing for the birth of Jesus, my son loudly "whispered", "Is he talking about Hanukkah?" I glanced around to see if anyone was giving me a look, and then mentioned said, "No, he's talking about Jesus. Hanukkah is not about Jesus. We'll talk more about it at home." Not sure how to handle it, or if I should even give it another thought. It's rather amusing really. Any thoughts out there?

Happy birthday to my sister Mary! Love you and miss you!

Show & Tell Suprise *UPDATED*

My son took an item from Victoria's Secret for Show and Tell today. I'm not sure if I should have sent an email warning the teacher. Can you guess what it was?

Nope, not underwear.

It was this:

Cabbage Patch

Remember how I told you that we call George "Cabbage Patch" sometimes? You can see the link here. Well, it is still true that he looks like a Cabbage Patch doll. I even got him his own little Cabbage Patch doll for his birthday. I think it looks just like him, but you can judge for yourself.


When I showed it to Luke, he actually said, "It's a George Doll!" I agreed. It really is a George Doll.

Here are some other random photos from his birthday.

My face hurt from laughing

Get ready for lots of pictures! I finally downloaded pictures from my new-to-me camera (thanks Krista)!

Here are the most recent and most hilarious pictures I've got. Sooo funny and all the credit goes to Lindsey. She bought the outfits, put them on, and snapped the pictures, laughing the entire time. Chuck and I almost peed our pants when we got home and saw this last night.

ABBY

FERGI

FERGI

ABBY

These are CLASSIC! Abby is fucking pissed! Fergi was oblivious. Fergi ran out the door to have a little doggie adventure when I got home. She was wearing this outfit. If you remember, she got lost this summer when she had a similar escapade. I was almost tempted to lock her out just so I could see what the people who found her would say about her being lost and running around in a Santa costume. (Remember, she's chipped now - so no worries about her being lost without any trace to the house. Of course, we still have to worry about her getting her dumb ass run over by a car, but it is almost as funny to picture road kill with a santa hat, so long as it isn't actually my own dog.)

Merry Christmas to all the fur-babies out there. Show them this picture and they'll realize how lucky they are to live with you and not me!