MY NIECE IS ENGAGED!

WHEN I WAS 11 MY SISTER KRISTI MADE ME AN AUNT.  SHE HAD MEGAN AND MEGAN WAS THE APPLE OF MY EYE.  MELISSA AND I SPOILED HER AND FOUGHT OVER WHO GOT TO HOLD HER AND BABYSIT HER.  SINCE I WAS IN 7TH GRADE I WAS THE PERFECT BABYSITTER...NO SOCIAL LIFE AND IT WAS TOO COOL TO BABYSIT!  ALSO, I WAS THE COOLEST KID IN JR. HIGH BECAUSE I WAS AN AUNT!!!  ANYWAY, APPARENTLY TIME HAS FLOWN BY BECAUSE LAST NIGHT MY BABY NIECE GOT ENGAGED TO A GREAT GUY...DARRIN.  WE ALL LOVE DARRIN...I THINK  PATRICK MIGHT BE MORE EXCITED ABOUT THE PENDING NUPTUALS THAN MEGAN.  BUT...EITHER WAY, MEGAN IS GETTING MARRIED..AND THAT MEANS I'VE GOT MYSELF A FLOWER GIRL!!!!!!! YAHOO!  I SEE DRESSES AND CUTE SHOES AND FLOWERS AND SHOWERS AND OH BOY!  CONGRATS MEGAN AND DARRIN...MAYBE AS A FAMILY WE CAN GET A LITTLE BIT MORE EXCITED!   (****PHOTOS TO FOLLOW SOON!****)

I am Worse than a KID @ Christmas!

So, it's 2am and I am here, on the computer, wide awake, because I am hearing the ice tick on my window and wondering if school will be canceled.  Either way, there will be disappointment in the house.  Ben says he's up for a snow day because his teacher told them their holiday party will be the Friday they return to school after break and  it will be a New Year's party (fun!)  Emily on the other hand really wants her party tomorrow so there will be tears.  Mom  is pulling for  a snow day because I would love to finally have a day in our jammies where we HAVE to stay home because it's just too darn dangerous to go outside!  I hear Christmas music (mom got me the new Josh Grobin cd...Noel...it's awesome!)  and I smell cookies baking, I think I will clock some hours in my scrapbook room too...watch some Christmas television with the kiddos and maybe take a snooze since it's now 2:45 and I've been up since 2am!  

So, here's to a snow day to all, may your home be toasty, your fireplaces roaring, your creativity flowing and your merry heart singing..."Deck the Halls"  to all!

Two of my FAVORITE Holiday Decorations

I am happy to report that on this day, the 10th of December, 2008 I am...

1.  Fully decorated (or as decorated as I plan to be this year)

2.  Have no intention of baking any Christmas cookies other than the pre-cut GFS cookies I bought so my kids could have the fun of decorating them.

3.  I am completely caught up with my wrapping (that is going extremely well this year considering I went on a HUGE Hobby Lobby shopping spree for wrapping paper and accessories when they were all 50% off)

4.  I have had a sitter for all holiday parties...really this one is HUGE!!!

5.  I am about 80% done with my Christmas cards.

I believe this is all possible because I haven't worked at all this week, but that's ok.  It was a major week of getting things done.  My first "Christmas Moment" occurred a few weeks ago as I hung one of my favorite decorations.  This year it's a picture, instead of a tray.  It was really cute as a tray but I didn't believe it got enough "face time" so I had it reframed so I could hang it on the wall in my entry way so that even the UPS guys could see it if I could get to the door in time!  It is a wedding gift from my cousin Sara.  She cross stitched me old time Santa's and it must have taken her a million years to do.  It has so much detail and it's priceless!  She must have started making it when we were 12 just assuming I'd find some unassuming male to propose to me some day.  Well, he did and she did and now I have the most beautiful Santa picture ever...I mean it, it's one of those decorations you know you will hand down through the generations.  Not like that lovely bowl my Aunt Virginia gave me that she claims my great grandma Nelson put our beloved cranberries and rice dessert in each year.  I've never seen that bowl in my life and of course I can't get rid of it because if she was right that is just too sentimental...but I doubt it has such value.  I think she was just cleaning out her basement and decided to dump the bowl on me.  I won't do the same to my children and grandchildren.  Nope, my offspring will be fighting over the Santa picture and it will be the tool I use to get put in the very best nursing home!

My other favorite holiday decorations are our Christmas stockings.  They were ALL made by my mother.  SHE KNITS!  Yep, Mrs. "NO CRAFTS" can knit.  She's made all of our stockings and they are amazing and the other favorite holiday decorations in my home.  I even (in a not so sensitive manner) commanded her to get knitting because I want those stockings for my grandchildren and she needs to make extra for posterity!  I love that mother of mine!!!!

Anyway, amid all the hussle and bussle of the holiday season those two decorations help me remember the true meaning of the holiday season.  To give of yourself and be eternally grateful for all of your blessings.  Also, that it's not the store bought gifts that are treasured but those made lovingly by people who like you enough to take the time to make you something with their own two hands.  Thanks Sara and Mom!!  Love you guys!

A DAY TO CATCH UP....I GOT IT!!!!

I always say I need time to stop for one day so I can get caught up.  Chris will even ask "What can I do for you?"  And I will say, "I need more time, please."  And guess what?  I got it today.  It all started last night when the substitute coordinator didn't call me to work today...of course instead of being happy that I have an extra day I go right to..."Why didn't she call me?"  But, then Ben was up last night not feeling well so I figured that it's a sick day anyway, just go with it.  To be on the safe side, I went to see our favorite Dr. Sutler and paid her $20 to tell me Ben has a cold.  "Thank you!"  So, with my boy home and my girl also fighting a cold we hunkered down this afternoon and had ourselves a good old fashioned Midwesteren cold day.  While Em was at kindergarten Ben and I hung out.  He watched tv and played with his figures while I caught up on the laundry and a last bit of holiday decorating that required my attention.  I was in my glory!  A day...a whole day, minus an hour to visit the doc and pick up some McDonald's for my boy.  When Em got home there was  more hanging out and a trip to the video store for a new Wii game to try and the Prince Caspian movie to watch.  We even laid on the couches in the basement and watched Charlie Brown's Christmas.  BLISS I TELL YOU!

We needed this!  A day to just hand out.  No obligations, no errands, no outsiders...just the Dows, enjoying our cozy home and resting.  I swear with all the obligations during the holiday season my children are missing that quiet down time, even on the weekends.  The time they need to just be peaceful and do nothing.  I haven't heard one "I'm bored" all day!  I started addressing my Christmas cards, caught up on all the laundry and maybe tonight I'll get some wrapping done.  Even if I don't, I don't care.  It was nice to just be home today.  I know Ben could have gone to school but I'm glad I didn't make him.  I didn't even pick up his school work.  It will be there tomorrow.  Tonight is breakfast for dinner and a fire in the fireplace and more "hanging out".  I got a happy surprise today...time...extra time...a catch up day to just "putz" as my mother puts it.  And I loved it.  It put me in a happy peaceful mood.  It made me get excited for the holidays.  And if nothing else...it gave me a chance to pump my kids with some extra vitamin C and liquids and some extra time to just...CATCH UP!!!!

December ...WHAT???

OK  Father time...slow down!!!  Didn't I just post for November that I couldn't believe it was November?  And now I blink and it's December...which I might add is creeping into my least favorite month spot!  I know, I sound like Scrooge but just hear me out.  This month is CRAZY!  It's jammed packed with parties, to do lists, events and way too much stuff.  Add that it is know to be the month when my kids tend to be the most ill and you have all the makings for a month I won't cry about when it's over.  All the elements of Christmas I love, the decorating, cookie  making, card making, shopping and wrapping...LOVE IT!   But it's the doing it all under the gun and throwing in all the other obligations I can't say "NO" to and you've got your self a girl who is counting down the days until January.  January is a happy, do nothing month and that sounds awesome to me!!  I feel like that not so recent song on the radio that said something about sleeping through the month, or something like that...it sounds good to me right about now.  Either I sleep through the month like a bear or someone has to extend the month by a good 15 days so I can take a few off and catch up.  

I am also stressing about my holiday cards.  I came up with what I thought was a cute and cleaver idea to make them and not waste paper...use what I have and borrow a bud's stamps, really conserve this year.  Without thinking I made them all and now realize that they are too big for standard envelopes.  Upon a trip to my local Staples I realized that the only possible option would be an envelope much bigger than my card and the anal girl in me is really not taking this well.  I don't want my card to swim in the envelope.  It looks so homemade and sloppy but what other choice do I have?  I even considered remaking the cards but that would defeat the entire idea of using what I have and making the most of my supplies.  So, I know I will send them, eventually, they are done and everything.  But those big envelopes...ugh!  

Did anyone shop the day after Turkey day?  That was a really fun day.  Joey and I got a bit too excited and started out @ 3:30 in the morning.  What were we thinking?   And then we ended up at the WalMart on Weber Rd. with all the crazies circling their prey.  The best part was the coffee and donut we got from the 7-11!  But we had fun and didn't come home until ten thirty.  Got lots of shopping done and loved it! 

Well, best of luck to you this holiday season...go get em...keep your chin up...isn't it sad we all need a holiday pep talk????

Heaven Just Over the Border

I know everyone's idea of heaven is different.  Some think of puffy clouds and angels flying about as in the Philadelphia cream cheese ads.  Others think of seeing loved ones who have passed and living amongst days gone by. And still others take comfort in the knowledge that heaven is more like a Salon Spa.  All the facials and full body massages one could ever dream of having...forever.   For my sisters and I heaven is a big old home just over the IL Wisc. border...it's name you ask?  The Scrapbook Manor.  This is a place of creative bliss complete with comfortable double beds and three delicious meals that are prepared for you and cleaned up after you.  Our little heaven has a Cricket machine, a Sizzix and as many die cuts as we can ever want.  It has a quaint little store that is available 24/7 with papers and chipboard and stickers galore.

Our type of heaven doesn't come cheap.  We are lucky enough to have a "Sugar-Momma" who foots the bill for her daughters to have a weekend of bliss.   I secretly think she loves the idea of her son-in-laws having to "figure it out" for a weekend with kids and meals and the occasional nightmare...something she never got as a young mom.  But she also revels in the idea of her daughters having such a good chunk of special sister time each year.  I believe she says (and I quote)  "It warms my heart."  

During this special weekend we start out full steam ready to accomplish book upon book of wonderful memories.  We set goals and arrive ready to work work work.  But our little heaven has a very sneaky way of settling us down and helping us understand that the creative process is the destination.  All that paper cutting, ribbon tying, journaling and eyelet setting has a certain calming and renewing affect on us that we Bell girls have never found in anything other than ice cream.  We take time to revisit old vacations, holidays and everyday photos that make us smile and laugh.  We remember that we really do love our children and by Sunday at about 3pm...we actually miss them.  It revitalizes us in a way no Day Spa could ever (but just to be fair there is the massage option that 2 out of the 3 of us usually partakes.)

And then there is the Sunday we get home.  Since I am the baby sister I come home to the littlest people in the family and I am always greeted with happy little faces anxious to see what I have created.  That really is the cherry on top of the weekend sundae!  People who actually want to browse through the finished products and "ooooh" and "ahhhh" over each page the way people should over such art.  But what they don't see is the happy times and memories that are created during the creative process...with my sisters!  (And this year with my bestest cousin Sara...brave girl!)

Highlights From the Big Day!

My baby is officially six...and we had a great birthday weekend!!!  Of course it started with the AG Fashion Show for Easter Seals and progressed into a party at our house for the family!  Em had lots of "fans" at the show and was just a bit frustrated when the 4 year old (who was her size exactly) didn't know when to turn and when to stop holding hands.  That kind of explained the sour expression on her face as she dragged her partner down the aisle.  Let's hope some day when she gets married she won't do the same to her husband...although I wouldn't put it past her!

It was a really fun day and Em was so excited to have all her family and her best buds (the Meaghers) over to celebrate.  (***By the way, it was Christine's b-day too...happy birthday friend!)  It was drinks, good food, and of course presents for the birthday girl!  Some of the most memorable was the lovely, sparkley dress given to her by her Godmother and over it, the perfectly "Emily-decorated" jacket she received from the Uncle Bob family....way to go Aunt Lissa!  She just added the sparkley purse from Katie Dow and company and she was ready for a night on the town, or pole dancing...which ever!!!

The sad news is our girl is down today...home sick with a touch of the flu.  But, we both decided while snuggling this morning that we were lucky she wasn't sick all weekend...that's my glass half full girl!

I was called to sub this morning and had to call back a few minutes later to cancel (love that sub job!)  when I learned my baby was sick.  Isn't mother guilt funny...we feel guilty when we work and guilty when we can't work because one of our kiddos is ill.   Of course my amazing, wonderful hubby reminded me that my #1 job is being a mom and that this is where I am needed most, where I am suppose to be and I felt so much better.  I remember when I was little what good care my mom took of me when I was sick.  I hope my kids feel that same complete comfort that they can just be sick and hunker down knowing Mom will take great care of them and do everything to make them feel better.  Like this morning, we snuggled on her bed and read books and browsed through toy magazines and she must have told me 100 times that she loves me...and now she's sound asleep hopefully dreaming about her fabulous birthday and getting better!!!