Humbug

I don't know what it is. Extra busy lately, not cold enough, my Prozac hasn't been working...but I'm not feeling the Christmas spirit this year.

I usually take the last two weeks of December off every year and really look forward to it. This week I was supposed to make time to finish Christmas shopping, maybe bake some cookies, run errands, meet friends for coffee, take some awesome naps, etc. but I ended up needing to go into work for the better part of two days, Claire was home sick with a fever for three days. And every night I can barely get the girls in bed without falling asleep myself.

I'm just in a negative frame of mind and I need to shake it off.

I did get to meet a college friend for a quiet dinner one night and catch up. I got my passport pictures taken for Ireland, met up with an old (boy)friend from high school and got to meet his adorable 2 year old. My sister took the train to St. Louis from Chicago last night. I've sold more than a handful of ornaments this year. I even got a bonus at work! So there's plenty of stuff to be thankful for.

I just don't feel myself.

12.16.12

Today is my 35th birthday. Best one ever.

Sleeping in.
French toast and thick bacon.
Beautiful flowers and beautiful cards from my hubby and girls.
Costco membership! Woohoo!
dark chocolates (does Mikey know me or what?!)
Phone calls from all the important people (mom, dad, leah, mother-in-law)

We all headed down the street to Costco and had a crazy time. Literally saw no less than 6 families we knew in the first 20 minutes. The kids ate a second breakfast with all of the samples (popcorn, cherry jam quesadilla, egg rolls, cheese, pretzels, etc.) We got some great filets for dinner, cute christmas gifts for my niece and nephews and saved a bunch of money.

Then we had lunch at Pasta House.
Caesar salad and my favorite cheesecake on the planet. Mike snapped this hilarious picture of the plate a second after the server set it down in front of us. Evie literally couldn't wait to fork the first bite! This picture just cracks me up!

Nice nap.
Fire in the fireplace.
watched the new Footloose (where has Kenny Womald been?!)

Mike made...wait for it - grilled filets with gorgonazola cream sauce, roasted asparagus and mashed potatoes. It was TO DIE. melt in your mouth. better than any steakhouse.

(have you noticed how most of the highlights of my birthday involve food!?!?)

read a christmas story "The Little Christmas Elf" to the girls and tucked my babies in. Making lists of everything I need to do this week at work and personally. I technically have the week off but I still need to tie up loose ends and get stuff ready for the new year.

Thanks for a great birthday Mikey! Thanks for letting the docs rip me out of your womb with only half the anethesia for the C-section Mom!

Too cold to think of a title

Took the girls to Breakfast with Santa over the weekend at C's school. Breakfast consisted of bagel thins and cupcakes (?). I was the cool mom and let my kids shove their faces with cupcakes. Here's E showing you how it's done. Good girl.

get it in there girl!

C's showing off her first Christmas book from the Pinterest pin I talked about HERE. She's really enjoyed doing this most every night. And I keep finding inexpensive books to add to the collection.

Barbie celebrates Christmas wth the Pop Star or similar lame title

We usually make a big Sunday dinner for the four of us. Spend time grocery shopping, making a roast or lasagna or something special. This weekend we were all exhausted and just phoned it in with a rotisserie chicken, which I love btw. I found a recipe for roasted potatoes on Pinterest. They were amah-zing.

 

My house was SO freezing cold last night that I couldn't fall asleep. I kept trying to snuggle up to the husband but he wasn't even as warm and fuzzy as he usually is! I finally got out of bed at like midnight to find a pair of sweatpants, socks and a friggin hoodie that I zipped up and covered my head with. Can you say "time to turn up the thermostat!?"

Trying to figure it out.

I went crazy for several minutes this morning and signed up for a diet bet via Courtney from Journey of a Dreamer. $20, 4 weeks, 4% body weight loss. Over $6,000 is in the pot and EVERYone that reaches their goals split it. Cool idea. The thing is. I had to get on a scale and weigh myself for the first time since over the summer. Another 7 lbs have crept on and I'm now officially heavier than I've ever been in my whole entire life. It's really, really depressing. I need to get a handle on it. I know what I need to do, I just haven't wanted to do it. My friend Casey says "You don't have to want to do it. Just do it. " that's hard for me to grasp bc I'm in a field where I'm encouraging people to do what feels good all the time. It feels, weird, to do something that doesn't feel right. I'm a therapist and I could go on and on analyzing myself so ill spare you the details. But I need to figure this shit out.

I walked in the treadmill for an hour tonight while watching tv. That's a start.

MUSIC MONDAY

I've been wanting to do a blog solely on my music preferences and more specifically the sense memories that go with them for a long time now. Music is SUPER important and influential in my life. I absolutely DO NOT understand people who are like "I don't really care about music." or even the ones that are like "I like everything...(and then go on to list everyone currently on the top 40)" That doesn't count! I'm a music snob. I said it.


99% of the songs I write about will probably be ones that I heard on the radio the very same day. My memories need to get triggered that way. My first installment was the first song that came on the radio this morning on my way to drop off the girls at school and daycare. I listen to 88.1 and this morning Cat with Emotional Rescue did not dissapoint.

"Black Metallic" by Catherine Wheel, 1994. Take a listen....

 

Hearing this song immediately makes me look for a pack of marlboro menthols and I haven't smoked (regularly) since before Claire was born. I didn't discover this song for a good 4 years after it was released. A group of friends from Branson got me into them and I will forever be grateful. I want to marry the lead singer and have a million of his babies. This song reminds me of long nights spent under the stars, talking, smoking cigs, laughing, making out, and feeling teenage angst more authentic than "Smells Like Teenage Spirit" could ever embody for me. This song was back when I was in my perfect body, was discovering the power I never knew I had in the world and was learning how to use it. The break from 5:00 that crescendos at 6:05 makes me wanna die.

I posted two versions because I wanted you to see the video, but the second version is the full-length song and that's where you can hear all of the awesomeness that is "Black Metallic".

You're welcome.

Pinterest Made Me Do It #3

Welcome to my third installment of Pinterest Made Me Do It. I saw this idea to individually wrap a bunch of Christmas stories and keep them under the tree. One is chosen to read each night and then the kids run off to bed with visions of sugar plums and stuff.

 

You're 'supposed' to do it with 24 books...but that's just for show offs! I went searching around the house for holiday book and found about eight. To supplement a found a few on www.bomc2.com. That made a total of 12. That's a nice, round number and we'll just have to do it every other night.

On an unrelated and gross note, we woke up to sounds of Eve screaming her face off this morning. Mike went in (I was actually ever so slightly hungover from the whole 4oz margarita I'd had the night before at the STL Blogger dinner). Eve had puked all holy hell up into one full corner of her room. I mean it looked like a crime scene! Poor girl. We popped her in the tub and got her changed in fresh Jammie's and started snuggling downstairs while daddy vacuumed, and sopped and lysoled the mess. She wanted to nurse a lot, which is usually good for an upset tummy but god I hope my milk wasn't still margarita flavored! We colored (with markers) and drank juice and she started feeling better.

After the vomit-thon we headed to Sams to buy a new flat screen Mikes been eyeing. It was really cheap and was Hd and 'smart' and all these things I don't understand. I just know I don't have to give it a love tap every time the volume turns off for no reason. No we 'have to' get HD uVerse and a blu ray player. Mm hmm. Just like I 'have to' redecorate our bathroom. Likely story.

marker comes off really easily with eye makeup remover. just in case you need to know.