18 Days Off and It's Snowing Outside...No Problem

So, what do you do with your two boys when you are facing down the long end of 18 days off of school and it's snowing outside? Why, you hold Boot Camp, of course.

This weekend Steve and I just about had it with the whining, complaining, fighting, sighing, wrestling and general grumpiness around the house. We went to the mall for Build-A-Bears on Saturday morning. Each kid got an amazingly cute animal but 10 minutes after we got home, the cuteness wore off. Grumpiness ensued and we listened to them argue until we left later that afternoon for our annual Christmas pictures.

Taking Christmas pictures is never a fun process but this time it turned out to be even worse. After arriving 20 minutes after our previously scheduled time (at least they were nice enough to call and let us know they were running behind), we still had to wait an hour. I did not think to bring the boys' DSi's since I thought we were going to walk right in because they had bumped us by 20 minutes. Bad move on my part. So after 2 hours we were finally done.

Again, insert complaining and arguing boys here. Since neither Steve nor I felt like cooking, we decided on pizza for dinner. Since neither Steve nor I felt like entertaining the boys for the next 3 hours, we invited our fabulous neighbors over. Best. Idea. Ever. The kids all had a great time and so did we.

Sunday rolled around and our boys complained about going to church. We persevered and made it through. (It seems horrible to talk that way about church but Cam complained the entire time that his throat hurt and Colin sat there like a sack of wet noodles.) Amazingly, when we got home Cam was better and at the mention of going bowling later that day, was very happy and fully recovered. With 5 hours to wait for bowling, the whining, wrestling and complaining continued.

I knew when I woke up this morning that it was probably going to be a long day at home. Anyone that knows me, knows that I love to spend time with my kids. However, I have some things that I need to do around the house, I slept later than I expected and I want to get some exercise in since the Christmas cookies are the bane of my existence.

I cleaned a bit and ran 4 miles. By 11:00am the boys had already unwrapped two Christmas presents (with permission but for lack of anything better to do), played wii bowling, Boom Blox and ate lunch. Colin was in his room pouting in his bed and Cam was following me around like a lost puppy.

This afternoon I plan on taking the kids to see Chipwrecked with the fabulous neighbors in the picture above. Being stuck in the house all day AND sitting through a movie leads me to predict that the boys will be up well past their bedtime and complaining through most of the day. Insert boot camp here....

Both boys ran a mile on the treadmill. Colin finished in 16:38 and Cam at a slower 20:05 pace. While one boy was on the treadmill, I stretched and lifted weights with the other boy. We did lunges, sit ups, push ups, planks, curls and tricep dips. I must say, I am very proud of myself for thinking outside of the box on this one. Ordinarily, this would not be my cup of tea. Both boys seemed to enjoy the exercises and now I feel better about letting them sit around the house and do nothing all day. Mommy guilt be gone!

Ten on Thursday

1. I always feel like if I don't have anything funny or creative to say, my message is not "blog worthy". That's why you have not seen any recent posts.

2. I also feel like if I do not include photos, my blogs are boring. Agree or not agree?

3. Once again this year I have overbought for my kids. Between what we have bought for them and what everyone else has bought for them, it's going to be Christmas Pallooza 2011. I started out with only 4 things for each of them. That sounded like enough to me. But then this video game needed this attachment and this electronic needed this cover and the needed points cards for this....and on and on and on...

4. I actually sort of bought something for Steve this year. Okay, so he ordered a bike frame and said, "This is what you are getting me this year". But usually he orders something and does not even give me a chance to put it under the tree. I am not sure if the bike frame will fit under the tree so maybe I will take a picture of it, wrap it up and put that under the tree. No, too much work. just go ahead and put it in the garage honey.

5. I have made so many cookies, candies and batches of chex mix. I don't even think I can eat anymore. However, I must continue on, put on a happy face and make more cookies with my kids.

6. We have not been able to go out in the evenings to look at Christmas lights. Get prepared neighbors, we will be driving by your houses this weekend.

7. Speaking of the holiday break...I am so ready.

8. I went to the dentist yesterday and and finally found out that the annoying discomfort on one of my back teeth is due to a crack in my tooth. The dentist gave me a few options. 1. Wait until it cracks completely off and have an emergency root canal. 2. Have a root canal now. 3. Have a crown put on now and a root canal in a few years. None of those sound like like great options to me.

9. Slices Pizza in Erie, CO...you are not going to last very long if you can not have any pizza ready for your customers when they come in to order a slice of pizza for lunch. I can say that I am not terribly impressed.

10. I hate to admit this but I had two Nutella sandwiches yesterday.

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.