December 31, 2008

a new year

Hello, hello!!! I hope your holiday was filled with much love and happiness. Ours was very relaxed and mellow. Mother nature dumped mounds of snow upon us and although it was delightful to have a white Christmas, it forced our little world to slow way down. It also slowed Fed-Ex down big time and we were without our matching Christmas jammies and two very important Santa gifts. It's been very frustrating to see Fed-Ex trucks drive through our cal-de-sac and not stop at our house. They are supremely disorganized!

We've also been buried in garbage and recycling. Because of the snow and the holidays always landing on our pick up days, we have been without service for a month. The city put one single dumpster on the main road and some dumped their months worth of trash which promptly over-filled the dumpster and it all spilled out onto the side. It is a disgusting eye-sore.

But enough complaining...

Any plans for the New Year? Any resolutions? My long time college pal and I decided to start a blog where we support each other getting healthy for the year 2009. She lives in Connecticut and I, here so we've titled our new blog 2896 because of the 2,896 miles that divide us. It's getting started so bare with us through the kinks.

We decided not to try and keep the kids up until midnight and ring in the new year (which, to be honest, we've never done). Instead we are going to get up tomorrow morning and use the J-man's new waffle maker and celebrate 2009 with a fun filled and delish breakfast. Hopefully, I get some pictures posted.

Besides the absolute "getting healthy" goal, I resolve this year to teach my children the value of volunteering. I want them to understand it's not always about the getting. And getting the perfect color, size, cost of something. But how to enjoy giving as well and making others feel good. This is a goal I think I can keep and my hope is it will make us closer as family that truly appreciate each other.

Until then, Happy New Year!!

December 24, 2008

merry christmas

Hope your holiday is better than this!
Merry Christmas!

December 18, 2008

December 17, 2008

12 days

The 12 days of Christmas? Nope. 12 days of no blogging activity from Little Irish. Zip. Zero. Many apologies to my five loyal readers. What I have been doing these last 12 days? I have no idea! The usual, boring, crazy, mom-frenzied kid shuffling, house cleaning, grocery buying and holiday preparing. Plus, I must admit...I have been completely addicted to Facebook lately. And I find loading pictures there is way easier then loading only as many as five at time here on blogger and then having to edit the order in HTML and labeling them and then trying to add in text, etc, etc, etc. It's all about the pictures right!! Plus chatting and catching up with dear friends from high school in real time via instant messaging has been extremely entertaining. In fact, I had a little conversation with my pal from Australia just the other day and it was fabulously fun.

All the kids' schools and activities were canceled today because of a pending snow storm (more on that later). I keep looking over my shoulder for Ashton Kutcher because I'm feeling ultimately punk'd right now. The roads are dry and clear at the moment. There has been no snow falling. And the sun is shining. Today is an early release day too...so the kids could have gone to school and been back before Mother Nature dump a single drop of snow on us. I hear things are bad down south and it's coming here but I can't help but wonder if our superintendents and school officials, who called no school today, feel like gigantic dope heads for this little faux pas.

I had Miss O's five year old portrait framed and it's sitting at Aaron Brother's waiting for me today. Along with my Christmas cards at Costco. However, taking three kids on errand running is grounds for committing oneself to the mental institution. So they continue to sit and wait for me. Sigh. I skipped sending cards out for the holidays last year because too much was going on. I vowed I would do it this year no matter what. Right now, I'm hoping to get them to you before the new year. Cross your fingers.

I went to my six week hysterectomy appointment with the doctor that will forever go down in my history book as a God. She is wonderful and although having to drive 70 miles to see her is a bit of a pain, it is well worth the trip. She sincerely laughs at my jokes, puts me at ease and knows her stuff inside and out. (pun intended). I feel much better and have been given the green light to go back to my life 100%, only better. I am relieved.

We went tree hunting and brought home a small but beautiful tree. We decided to put it downstairs this year. We have gone very low key in decorating and didn't pull everything out of the Christmas boxes. I must say this year's festive montage, if you will, to the holiday is feeling very warm and magical to me. I love it. Not to mention being able to close the gate leading downstairs comes in very handy when trying to keep small children and little dogs away from the creations.

For now, I must go soak up some of this sunshine during our "snow storm" before it goes away. Much love to my peeps...you know who you are. xoxo

merry christmas dance

December 5, 2008

the good doctor says

Don't cry because it's over.
Smile because it happened.
-Dr. Seuss

December 3, 2008

2008::a year in a review

My editing skills still need work but for now, enjoy our 2008 in pictures.

40th recap










We had a great time in Disneyland. If you've never been as adults (without kids) I highly recommend it. It's a blast!! Roaming around the park avoiding the wrangling of small children and pushing strollers makes everything easy and twice the fun. We went on many rides, several times. Saw most of the shows. Ate lots of good food including the best sourdough chowder bowl evah! Sat, soaked up the sun and people watched. Enjoyed parades and fireworks. Teared up during falling snow with magical music and lights. Screamed and thought we would die on more then one ride occasion. Got soaked on Pirates of the Caribbean, but not on Splash Mountain (stayed dry as a bone - weird!). Missed the kids terribly. Saw the Twilight movie. Shopped. Closed the park down at midnight every night we were there. And, walked too many miles.
After we got up at 2am for our flight home, same day, later that afternoon, J-man then took off to an AC/DC concert relivin' it big time! I think it's safe to say he had a pretty great 40th birthday. And he has six years to plan my 40th that is equally enjoyable. Wink, wink!

some days

I feel very fortunate to have found a little niche with a group of people that I love dearly near and far. People who remind me of their sweetness often. What I would do without the little notes, texts, hellos, pictures, cards and emails I simply do not know. They hold me up. They make me smile. They make me laugh. However, there are some days where my faith in humanity is tested. My patience and tolerance for rude and mean behavior goes missing. It always feels like the holiday season brings out the worst in people and is when our tolerance and patience is most tested. The time of year when we are to be appreciating what we have and making magical memories with our loved ones, is the time of year we are faced with fighting hoards of people acting like jerks.

A friend recently posted a wonderful challenge called 29 Gifts on her blog. In which for 29 days you focus on giving one gift each day...whether it be a few dollars to charity, or holding a door open for a woman with a stroller, or dropping off coffee to a teacher, or an acknowledging smile to a mother with a screaming toddler, or, or, or. The possibilities are endless. I was instantly inspired and have been somewhat, secretly, participating. but for the month of December I committed myself to concentrating on giving at least one gift per day. The thought process is in the act of giving, you will open yourself up to receiving. In focusing on making another's day a little more happy, I hope to gain more tolerance and patience for those forgetting what the holidays are truly about myself. Let's see if it works. Seasons Greetings to you and yours!!

December 1, 2008