My Happy Place

I found my happy place this last week. It was in several different places and in several different moments. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

The boys and I crafted it up this week. I know the next few weeks prior to Christmas will be filled with school, homework and standard activities of the week. I wanted to make sure that we took the time to get into the craft box and decorate the house. We still have more up our sleeve, but this is a good start.

Every year the boys make a gingerbread house. This year I let each of them pick their own gingerbread kit. The Santa and sleigh that Colin picked turned out to be a little technical. However, what's not to love about candy and sugar?

Cam picked an entire village. That translated into more candy and more sugar. I know you are not surprised.

Both of the gingerbread creations turned out really cute.


In our crafting frenzy Steve and I managed to buy a new couch. Let me clarify, I went furniture looking on Friday afternoon. Then I came home and Steve went Friday night. The on Saturday morning, Steve went and purchased the couch that we both agreed on in separate shopping trips. Oh the life of parenting. I love this couch. We can all sit and snuggle together.

Every year the boys add a "tree" to our holiday collection. They are so easy to make. You just cover a piece of floral foam with fabric. Then use decorative push pins to add the buttons and foam pieces to your tree. This year the boys decided to use glitter paint too.

These are the completed trees over the last three years. I just love them.

I have to give credit to Steve. He put up all the outside decorations. Notice the straight lines of the lights? Notice the bicycle decorated in lights? Notice my cute little penguin and snowman that my sweet kids bought for me?

The boys and I decorated the tree. This is the first year that I have not put every single ornament on the tree. We were on ornament overload. The boys each buy one new ornament a year. Steve and I buy one new ornament as a couple. Combine those with all of the ornaments we already have and it takes hours to put them all on the tree.

We also went skiing over Thanksgiving break. It was a great success with both boys really picking up on their skills that they learned last year in lessons. We went tubing too. Lots of fun!

Of course I can't forget to mention that the boys played hours and house of their DSi games. Nice and relaxing. That's how I like my holidays.

Of course let's not forget that I made two batches of chocolate chip cookies, spent Thanksgiving with family in Aurora, took a kid to urgent care, saw a movie with a great friend, cleaned out the storage area and went Black Friday shopping at midnight. I know how to make the most of a holiday break. Only three more weeks until Christmas break!

Ten on Tuesday

1. Steve found a crack in the regulator valve on our BRAND NEW oven. He has been going round and round with GE since Appliance Factory Outlet won't do anything to help. It sounds like we are going to have to pay for them to come out and fix our BRAND NEW oven. Word to the wise...don't purchase appliances from Appliance Factory Outlet.

2. I almost did not write this Ten on Tuesday because I forgot it was Tuesday. My days have been all off. I am very surprised that I have not forgotten to pick up my kids or take them to appointments the last few weeks.

3. I just learned from my boys that stapling jello to a tree is impossible. Good to know.

4. We are cat sitting Snicks the Wonder Kitty for the next several days. I miss that little fireball! She still growls like she is going to take you head off.

5. I can not wait until Thanksgiving break. Really. Can. Not. Wait.

6. Cam seems to have made a full recovery from his horrible round of strep throat this weekend. The horribleness only lasted one day but it was bad.

7. I have discovered that being a school nurse is a lot like being a mom. You give the kids some ice water and a piece of candy (maybe a band aid or two) and they are all better. Maybe I was destined to be a nurse. Or maybe just a mom. Yeah, knowing what my sis is going through in nursing school, I think I will just stick with being a mom.

8. Since our oven is out of commission, we ordered Chili's for dinner tonight. Not a bad gig.

9. I had someone come over and clean the house last week. I can't seem to keep up with all of the chores since Steve and I are both working full time. The woman that cleaned our house did such a great job on our kitchen floor. It's slicker than snot. Each of us have wiped out at least once. Wearing socks in our house is no longer a good idea.

10. We still have not bought a new couch. We only went couch shopping once for about 1 hour with both boys. We did not get a whole lot accomplished on that trip. I sure hope we can buy something soon because I can not sit on our couch. It hurts my back more than sitting on the floor.

Not So Much

You know how we got a new fridge? And microwave? And oven? And dishwasher? Well, one of the three works properly. It seems like our luck has just not been great lately. I know there are bigger things in the world to complain about but I just feel the need to complain about my petty little problems for just a minute. So, if you can stand it, read on. If not, I'll catch you on the next post.

Sooo....when we went to install the new microwave, the door would not shut properly. Well, it shut but every time it shut the microwave came on. Not a great feature so we took it back and got a new one. No problem. Just time and effort on our part.

Steve installed our new oven and after a few tries to get the gas line connected properly, we just can't seem to get past the very faint smell of gas coming from the oven. I think we have narrowed it down to the burners on the top. The connections in the back all seem to be sealed. However, I'm pretty sure that smelling even the faintest odor of gas from your oven is not normal. We are either going to have to take it back or have someone (who will probably charge a ridiculous amount) come out to see what is wrong with the oven. Since I don't think we should be having problems with a brand new oven, we will probably have to return that too. Again, I am sure they will take it back, but it's our time and effort.

In comes the fridge. Besides the fact that it is ginormous, the water/ice dispenser on the front only works intermittently. It has only stopped working on me. Steve joke saying that I am impatient and am not waiting long enough for it to reset from one selection from another. Since the fridge was the floor model, I have a feeling it was "used" a lot prior to becoming ours. So, the fridge might have to be returned too.

Those are our appliance woes. Nothing major but just a lot of time and effort on our part. Time is something that is in short supply around here. We are always coming and going in opposite directions. This was supposed to be a relaxing Saturday at the Silva house. When Cam woke up early in Saturday after a horrible night of sleeping on Friday, I took him to the doctor and he had strep. My kids don't get "normal" strep. They get high fever, shivering, vomiting strep. Aren't we lucky? So I cancelled our appointment the we had scheduled to get our Christmas pictures taken and cancelled to amazing sitter that we had scheduled for the boys. So instead of going on a date with my husband, I spent the day taking care of Cam while Steve went to work and ran errands. Not the way that I planned to spend the day.

It just seems that we can't catch a break. I'd like to stamp my feet and throw a fit but I'm a grown up now so I'll just blog about it and deal.

They Love Me...They Really Really Love Me!

As the last post might have indicated, I'm a little Christmas crazy. My family typically does not willingly support my habit. However, on a recent trip to Home Depot, my boys thought about me. All three of my boys. They love me. They really really love me.

Christmas Mania

Yes, it's that time of year for me! November 1 marks the beginning of my Christmas season. To all those people in the world that are dismayed about Christmas decorations replacing Halloween decorations in the seasonal aisle on November 1...why be a hater?

Embrace the crazy. Embrace the beauty. Embrace the snowman that sings and dances when you walk by. Embrace the inflatable that is larger than your house. Embrace the zillion lights in your neighbor's front yard. Embrace the person that starts listening to the "all Christmas music" station the minute it hits the air.

Mostly, embrace the reason. Embrace the joy and the love. Embrace the symbolism and the tradition. Embrace being with family and the warm smell of cinnamon. Embrace the happiness and the smiles. Embrace that our Savior is born.

Just so we're clear, you can also embrace that in about 10 days it will look like Christmas threw up in (and outside of) my house.