Hannah/Miley love

I am finally feeling almost like myself. Boy have I been busy which consequently makes me feel tired. Zoe and I went to the Hannah Montana concert last week it was so much fun! We had a blast, just the girls. It was a crazy experience. I feel like my mom's generation must have felt when they saw the Beatles or Elvis. I have never heard such screaming in my life. Even my days as an elementary teacher didn't compare to this pandemonium. The little girls at the concert screamed at the top of their lungs for two solid hours. And when the Jonas Brothers were singing, it was even louder. Impossible, I know but it's true! I am so happy Zoe and I got to go together, it was something I'll never forget. I don't know if she'll remember it but I will. Her eyes lit up like Christmas morning when those Jonas boys came out, she said, "mommy that's the real Jonas brothers!" She was in awe. We both sang our hearts out, yes I know every word, pathetic! We danced and ate a impossibly sweet slushy while swinging our $10 glow stick. Fun, fun, fun, and truly unforgettable. I even shared a money-saving tip with one of the moms while we waited in line to buy the outrageously overpriced glow stick, we bought Zoe's Hannah Montana t-shirt at Wal-mart for a mere $6. The shirts at the concert were... $35! Now, Hannah/Miley we love you and all but come on! So if you plan on going to one of these shows I highly recommend purchasing your shirt and glow stick early, you'll have more money for $5 slushies. Definitely, the best of both worlds!

Sharing goodies

Having all those parties back to back has really made it hard for me to keep up with my regular cleaning and house work. I am still trying to recover from the weekend of fun. I have a lot of sweet stuff left over from our gatherings so I have decided to package some up for our neighbors as a token of our good neighborness. We haven't ever given them any gifts but I thought better them than us eat all that sugary goodness. It was my attempt at being overly organized and prepared which has caused me to have double the amounts of chocolate yummies in every corner of our fridge. I guess for future reference, a way to make things easier for yourself would be to double your favorite holiday recipe and that way you have enough to enjoy and share.

On another note, my daughter and I are lucky enough to be going to see the one and only Hannah Montana in concert tomorrow night. I think I am more excited than she is! We have been jamming to her CDs for about a week, getting "ready" for the big show. I hope it is all that we are imagining it to be. I am assuming that since Miley/Hannah is a product of the Disney enterprise, it will be fantastic. Just about everything they produce is top notch in my opinion. Zoe has been planning our outfits for a couple days/ Yes I said "our". She is determined that we both look cool like Hannah, which I'm sure will include anything glittery/sequined/shiny/ and/or cheetah print. The things we do for our kids... I'll be the one looking like a Cheetah Girl gone bad belting out "Pumping up the Party" with my 4 & 3 quarters year old cutie pie.

Christmas cards

My Christmas cards have been mailed out and I am enjoying getting a few everyday. I just love getting Christmas cards. My friend told me it's like a stack of love everyday. I have to agree. I just love seeing the designs people picked out to send this year. I love the photo cards, especially the ones of people I don't get to see very often, it is amazing how much kids grow each year. I love homemade cards. I even love the ones that have a newsletter, again especially from those people I don't get to see very often. I have had two cards returned back to me because they are outdated addresses. I am not sure how I don't have the current ones but I found a neat way to find current addresses, yellow book.com. It's pretty easy to navigate this site and I found the addresses I needed. I wish I could find a site that includes people not listed in the phone book... I guess that would defeat their purpose for being unlisted! I also have been referring to our photo album that holds all the old photo cards people have sent us, to see the changes in all our friend's families over the years. I found that my kids love to look at it also. I only keep it out during the holidays so it's fresh and new (and it doesn't get destroyed). It's a fun way to organize all those photo cards. I just cut off the unnecessary part (like the snowman graphic) so it's small enough to fit in my album and glue/tape it (using scrapbooking tape) to the photo album page. I write the names and the year and it's done. Simple and easy and probably the most looked at scrapbook in my house! I can't wait for my stack of love to arrive tomorrow...

Party overload

Three parties in 4 days, all at my house. Yep, I am insane. It's official. My playgroup (just moms and kids) came to play on Thursday, not technically a party. But I still had to clean, bake, etc. So I am counting it as a party. Friday night, our playgroup had a holiday get-together, this time moms, dads, and kids. We had a blast, sampling food, chasing the kids out of areas they were not supposed to be, and chatting. This was a real party with more cleaning, cooking, etc. Sunday night, my husband's assistants and their spouses came over for a holiday dinner cooked by myself. More cleaning and cooking, but no kids. My munchkins went to Gigi's for the duration of this party. I must say, that it was a crazy, blurred, busy weekend. It was fun and exhausting all at the same time. I am officially in recovery from too much partying. I do not want to cook or clean anymore. I do not want to do the 12 loads of laundry that I didn't get to this weekend. I do not want to put away the borrowed china and serving pieces. I just want to veg out on the couch and sleep. Thank goodness, the Hills season finale is on tonight, so I can at least relax for a few minutes. Mental note to self: do not have three parties in four days ever again. I have to go and organize all my new hostess gifts (thanks all) and put away that china before my kids find a way to break it all.

Ooops, he did it again

So on Sunday, we had to take Parker to get stitches again. This makes our third time taking him for stitches in a year. I am worried Children's Services is going to come and take me away. How did he bonk his head again? That remains a mystery to us. During our Thanksgiving meal (a week later), he and Zoe go into the bedroom at my mom's condo, a mere 30 feet from the table, and about 3 seconds later (about 3 bites of stuffing) we hear the screams. I jump up from the table and it looked like Freddy Kruger had been hiding in the closet and attacked Parker's face. There was blood everywhere! I screamed for someone to bring me towels (why when these things happen do they happen where someone has white carpet by the way?) and after cleaning him up a little we decided to take him for stitches. My mom said there was an Urgent Care right down the street. Driving in the pouring down rain, we find that Urgent Care is closed. OK, now what? Paul is wanting to find a Walgreens to get butterfly band aids, all the while I'm thinking my son is going to be gooshing blood all night and have another scar on his cute little mug. We find another Urgent Care not too far away and they hesitantly stitch Parker right up. I think the doctor was more nervous than we were, after all we've done this twice already. Parker is a little champ, he just lays there looking at everything. He is a cool customer.So my organized mommy tip for today: pay attention to those "H" hospital signs on the road, you never know when you might need one.

Deck the halls

So now that Thanksgiving is done, everything is going to be kicking into high gear soon. There's going to be presents to wrap (and buy), cookies to make, cards to mail, parties to attend (and host), and who knows what else will come along. One thing I have found myself having to make time for is repairing all the stuff that gets broken this time of year. Those fragile ornaments and figurines don't stand a chance around my house. We put our Christmas tree up and the first ornament I gave Zoe to put on the tree smashed to the floor sending glittery shards of glass everywhere. Now did we learn from this? NO, I proceeded to give her three more bulbs and smash, crash, kerplunk, they all broke. OK, I remained calm, I didn't yell, although I wanted to, I just started giving her the plastic or wooden ornaments. So here comes Parker, by golly he's gonna break one too, he finds a little bear holding a basketball and I think he can do it, it's plastic. Oh yeah, he did it all right, he pulled that basketball right off the bear. "Baball mommy" and hands it to me. Thanks buddy. So my organizing tip for families of young children, buy a couple bottles of super glue. Be ready to stay up late watching TV holding pieces of your favorite ornaments and decorations together waiting for the glue to set. Have fun decorating!

Thankful

It's that time of year when my husband makes us go around the table and say what we are thankful for. Most everyone groans and moans but really we should be comfortable talking about the things we value, things we are proud of, moments that make us happy. So of course, I am trying to prepare my answer ahead of time, I love to organize, even my thoughts! The obvious things always come to mind first: my family and their health, our home, our happiness and contentment, a safe place to live, the right to free speech, I could go on. The things I am really thankful for are those little moments that might otherwise be forgotten. When Parker says, "Zo Zo bed, shhh" (in the morning as he is getting out of bed, he knows Zoe is still asleep), that's pretty priceless. When Zoe tells me I'm pretty, I take that as a huge compliment coming from my 4 year old fashionista. When Paul lets me watch "Antiques Roadshow" instead of his HGTV gardening shows, I know it's true love. So trying to say what I'm thankful for is a little harder than I thought, I still have one more night to get my thoughts organized! An organizing tip for today: write down what everyone in your family is thankful for, save it to read next year at your Thanksgiving feast and compare answers. (Maybe keep with your family calendar or tucked in with your Thanksgiving decorations so it won't get lost.) Happy Thanksgiving.