Late night

December 31, 2011
To ring in the New Year, we stayed up until 3 a.m. playing Pitch with my parents and Kurtis. Jeff's parents offered to put the kids to bed so we were headed out to party no matter what.

Way too many crackers, cheese, beef sticks, ooey-gooey popcorn, and two games of Pitch later - did I also mention the seven cans of soda and three bottles of sparkling cider later, I was falling asleep with the cards in my hand. Being the designated driver of the group (I was the only one to stay soda and Martinelli sober), I blame it on the lack of bubbly.

It was really fun. Us "old" people know how to have a good time. I'll admit I was hoping for a game with a bit less strategy and more speed - like Hell - but I think I just might have the hang of Pitch now. Although if you ask my Dad, he will tell you my Mom and I have absolutely no clue what we are doing. He's probably right, especially considering he won both games. He even threw out a classic Jenny-late-night-card-game line!

Here's to 2012!

Temple Square Lights

December 30, 2011
We went to Temple Square tonight to see all the lights. The millions, no make that bazillions of lights.

It doesn't matter how many times I've seen Temple Square at Christmas time, I can't help but look at all those dazzling lights with wonder and awe. How on earth do they get them strung on every single branch of one huge pine tree in particular? How long does it take to engulf downtown in lights? How many people work on this and for how long?

It's gorgeous.

The weather tonight was perfect. It wasn't cold or snowing. The crowds weren't too big either. Aside from missing the train and having to drive downtown and park with a few thousand Jazz fans and after Christmas sale shoppers and the fact that my family thought I was starving them because we didn't eat dinner before we left, we had a good time. Of course you wouldn't know it from our family picture. Typical. Pearl was tired, grouchy, and uncooperative. Cole was tired of eating crackers and sitting. And Jeff was starving, although to his credit he did smile and said he had fun minus the pains of hunger.

Little black rain cloud

December 29, 2011

I'm just a little black rain cloud,

Hovering under the honey tree.
I'm only a little black rain cloud,
Pay no attention to little me.

Oh, everyone knows that a rain cloud,
Never eats honey, no, not a nip.
I'm just floating around, over the ground,
Wondering where I will drip.

Yep, I've been a black rain cloud today. One big, black rain cloud. For your own good, I'd just stay away.

Switch-er-roo

December 28, 2011
A couple of days ago we decided to switch things up a bit.

Little did we know the consequences.

Our 101-year-old house is handling about all it can. It's bursting at the seams, well floors, from trying to house, feed, clothe, clean, and entertain four people. We had three options. Get a new house. De-junk for the umpteenth time and start getting rid of stuff we actually want to keep. Oh wait, we did that this week... six huge bags stuffed with clothes, shoes, blankets, household items, toys, books, etc. Or move Pearl and Cole into the same bedroom and make a toy room.

We went with option 3.

It took all day to move Cole's crib into Pearl's bedroom and then rearrange both rooms. We figured we might as well make Cole's crib into a toddler bed while we were at it. The kids weren't quite sure what to think of things. I admit I almost told Jeff to move things back when I saw my baby's room empty. It was weird.

Night one went surprisingly well. Cole was still pretty sickly and didn't put up much of a fight. We had more trouble with Pearl not wanting to be quiet. But night two and beyond? Ugh. It has sucked. Apparently there really are monsters in Pearl's room like she's been telling us for years now. We were completely blindsided by the difficult transition Cole has had with the change. He's gone from a sweet, snugly angel who would just lay down and go to sleep on his own to a banshee screaming monster. The second night of the new set up had Cole up from 4-6 a.m., getting out of his toddler bed twice and then screaming the rest of the time. I told Jeff I was not getting up again with a kid who can escape his bed so on night three, Jeff put the crib back together.

There's still screaming for at least an hour every night - poor Pearl who has to fall asleep in our bed now - but at least that twerp can't escape. And we can shut the door to the now toy room and pretend the disaster isn't there.

Any advice?

I drool

December 27, 2011
This is obviously not me.

Nor is it Jeff.

He doesn't drool. But I do. A lot. Especially when I'm really tired, worn out, emotionally drained, and overly sensitive. And when I'm coming down with Cole's nasty cold. During dinner I just laid my head on the table. The next thing I knew, the doorbell rang (it was the neighbor's... it's on the same wave frequency as ours) and I woke up. The kids and Jeff were gone and I had drooled all over the table and my arm.

Jeff sent me straight to bed, before 8 p.m. It was in the best interest of everyone. Minus my pillow who had to endure 12 hours of drooling.