Monday Morning Musings - Chotskies And All

So Addy had no trouble adjusting to the time change last week. But it's catchin' up to her now. Saturday and Sunday night she fell asleep at the dinner table before she even took a bite of her food. We carried her up to bed at 6:30 both nights and she slept until about midnight both nights. She is giving a whole new meaning to midnight snacks for me. She wakes up starving since she didn't eat her dinner. I have to take her into the kitchen and get her a snack and then put her back in bed. Then she comes in again and wakes me up at 6:30 in the morning. My alarm goes off at 6:45. And I have this thing about getting every single minute of sleep I deserve before that alarm goes off. So to be cut off from my snoozin' even 2 minutes before my alarm goes off is a tragedy in my opinion. We are gonna have to figure somethin' out and figure it out real quick like.

My children, I love them. More than anything, I do. They can talk though, lemmetellya. Sometimes I feel like I might actually have a nervous breakdown if they don't stop talking and give me a few minutes of peace. One big problem is, our house has a ridiculously major echo..echo..echo.. And sometimes they all talk nonstop for like an hour. All at the same time. To me. When I'm in the middle to trying to do something. And usually that something is a thing that requires a lot of concentration. Addy last night when we were having our midnight snack, I don't know how she managed to eat anything because she was jabberin' the entire time. I was like..ADDDDDDYYYY. Pleeeeease. I. Want. To. Go. Back. To. Bed. EAT! But I must admit, it was kinda cute to hear all the funny things she had to say. She is a funny girl.

Aubrey has been learning about the pilgrims at school and she is telling me all the things she is learning about pilgrim children. Like they didn't have chairs for the kids to sit on to eat. Or that kids didn't have their own beds. One night, I was trying to make dinner and do about 50 other things at the same time. The kids were sitting at the counter and they were supposed to be working on their homework. And they wouldn't stop talking. And I started to shake a crazy nervous sort of way because I felt like I was gonna lose my mind. So Aubrey said, "Hey mom! Why don't we do like the pilgrims did? Their kids couldn't talk unless an adult talked to them first!" I said, "Aubrey, that is the most fabulous idear I have heard all day!" Yeah....my kids wouldn't have made very good pilgrims.

There are certain things that always happen at our house when Steve is out of town. For one thing, burritos always show up on our dinner menu. Because the kids and I could happily eat burritos every night for dinner, but for Steve, he thinks it is some sort of punishment when he has to eat a burrito for dinner. Another thing that always happens when he is out of town in the month of November, we set up the Christmas trees. Because he thinks it is some sort of crime to put up a tree before Thanksgiving. Well, phooey on you, Mr. Scrooge! I sent him a text last week when we were putting up the tree and asked if he would be mad if he came home and the trees were up. He sent me a text back and said, whatever makes you happy sweetheart. And then I sent him a text back and said, who is this??? Anyway, we were able to decorate the tree Saturday night.

I love decorating the tree. When I was growing up I hated my parents tree because of all the mix matched ornaments. I wanted a fancy nancy schmancy tree where everything matched. And now, I love our tree with all of its mix matched, homemade ornaments. Every year when we put the tree up it is like a trip down memory lane. The kids remember when they made certain ornaments that are special to them. And we get to remember all the trips we have taken over the years. When we go on trips we always buy an ornament from the place we are visiting. It started with the very first trip Steve and I ever took after we were married, and it still continues today. Here is a picture Emily took of our new Disneyland ornament we just bought.

I have to be honest and say, the ornament idea came from my extreme dislike of souvenirs. I hate souvenirs. My favorite thing to do with a souvenir after we get home? Throw it in the trash. It's the hard, cold truth. But you know, when you are visiting a place, you feel like you have to buy something to remember it by and to be able to say, "HEY! I WAS HERE!" But I can't bring myself to spend money on something that I know will end up in the trash two days later. Thankfully most every place we visit happens to have an ornament section in their souvenir shops. There have been a few places we have had to improvise, and we might have a few key chains hanging on our tree as ornaments. But hey, if you are going to have a chotskie tree, you might as well go all the way with it, right? That's what I'm sayin'.

As for Mr. Scrooge, he's getting soft in his old age. I think he likes having the tree up now just as much as the rest of us. And he says he is finished going out of town for a while, which is good for us. It might mean no more burritos on the dinner menu for a while, but we'd take him over some beans and cheese any old day.