Lindsay's Christmas wish

All Lindsay wants for Christmas is her two front teeth!

Pics

I Thought I would post some pics since I haven't done it yet and I finally downloaded the last two months of photos onto my computer. We decorated the tree a couple weeks ago, so here's some pics from that.

Flu Going Around

I guess there's been a flu going around because a couple of my friends families have been sick this week. At the beginning of the week, I felt achy and just "off", but nothing I could really complain about, and no one else in my family seemed to be getting it. Well, Thursday I ended up coming home from work at 10 because I just felt horrible and needed to lay down. I didn't wake up again until 6 that night and that was just for an hour before I slept again. I ended up not getting out of bed for almost 24 hours. It was crazy. I like to sleep, but never like that. The biggest thing getting me out of bed at that point wasn't that I couldn't sleep anymore, but my back was killing me from being in bed so long. Other than the fatigue, I was nauseous, achy, and my head was killing me. I took Friday off from work and tried to spend the day awake but ended up napping again because I was just exhausted. Today I seem to be a lot better, but the headache is horrible. It's fine when I lay down, but the moment I get up, it just hits. We're doing family pics this weekend so I'm hoping that I'll be up for it. It should at least be less exhausting than the last time we did family pics (I was pregnant with Lindsay the last time) since the kids are old enough to do most things on their own. I just like to check their hair and make sure their faces are clean (Cole and Lindsay must have an aversion to soap, I swear). I have to say the best part through all of this has been Jason. When the kids were little and I got sick, it really didn't matter that I was sick, I still had to do everything. This time, he's been a champ and has helped me so much, all without complaining. He even took a sick day yesterday to help me out and make sure I was taken care of.

Dentist Visit

I had to take the kids to the dentist today, one of my all time favorite things to do (not!). Of course somehow the appointments always manage to be on days when J can't come with me, so I always do it alone. Lindsay is terrified of anything to do with her teeth, so she has never let the dentist do more than count her teeth and I've been worried that she has cavities we don't know about because of that. So today she was really brave--she let them x-ray her teeth and she let the dentist brush them (with a manual toothbrush...she really didn't like the electric one). One of the x-rays had slipped and they didn't want to make her do it again, but she doesn't have any cavities so far. Bailey and Cole have had issues with cavities in the past, so I was worried about them. In fact, I've met my deductible on them for the year because in January, they both had a bunch of cavities (and cost me $300!). Bailey was great--no cavities. But Cole...well, technically he's got two cavities, but he doesn't floss the right way, so it affects four teeth. And of course, each new tooth is another payment. I was thinking it wouldn't be so bad since I've already met the decutible. Yeah, right. So between his cavities and the sealants they want to do (Bailey had them done and it really seems to help but of course the insurance doesn't cover it fully), it's like another $350. Ridiculous. Somehow we ended up with a $200 credit, so I only have to pay $150, but still. I'm not happy with him. He already got my cavity lecture (is it sad I already have a cavity lecture?). Not to mention, he made my day harder with Lindsay as well. After school, we were in a hurry to get to the dentist, so I planned on getting them really fast, grabbing a quick snack and then going to the dentist's office. When I picked the kids up from school, Cole was nowhere to be found. I finally had to park and found his teacher who at least had a guess where he was--shopping at the Secret Santa gift shop. I was so mad! Of all the days to run off and do whatever you want! So, of course, we didn't have time for a snack before the dentist. On the way home, I'm telling the kids they can't eat or drink anything for an hour, and Lindsay just freaked out! I know she was really hungry, but boy does she get on my nerves! I finally caved 15 minutes early--I just couldn't take it anymore. I had been hoping that I would be able to reward Lindsay's behavior at the dentist's office but I didn't have it in me tonight after that. Maybe tomorrow.

In other news, I went to fill up yesterday, and with the discounts we had saved up from Safeway, I only paid $1.25/gallon. It cost me just over $20 to fill my whole tank. So much better than when I was freaking out trying to decide if we had $60 to fill up!

Thanksgiving Weekend

It was so nice having those four days off, it's hard to go back to work today and be bored again. We had a great Thanksgiving with a couple families that live in our neighborhood. They are definitely our family here since we're all transplants and don't have much family around (each of them at least have one set of parents around--we're all alone!). I had considered doing Thanksgiving on our own, we haven't ever had one with just the five of us doing the turkey and everything, but when it was time to eat, I was glad I hadn't. Just making my dishes was enough work, I can't imagine having made more! I did manage to screw up one dish, which you know, is my goal for every Thanksgiving. This year it was the green bean casserole again--I messed that one up a couple years ago too. It must be my subconscious because I hate green bean casserole, and I only make it for J, but he said it turned out ok. I was too busy working on my strawberry banana napoleon, which turned out excellent! I made it up to him with the banana cream pie too, so I guess it's not all bad. After eating, we just hung out with our friends and played games (phase 10 especially) and had a good time. The families all have kids our kids ages, so everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Lindsay made me especially grateful because as we were talking about the holidays coming up, we had a discussion about which was our favorite holiday. My little sweetie (and if you know her, she's not sweet that often!) says that Thanksgiving is her favorite holiday because she likes to think about what she's thankful for. Sometimes she makes me think we must be doing something right. And then there's Bailey...Mom, just so you know, Bailey's favorite holiday is her birthday cause it's the only day that's just for her. That's such a kid thing to say. Oh well.

I was very determined this year to not go out shopping Friday morning, but Jason had heard that Circuit City was having great deals on video games this year since they're closing the one by us, so we both decided to go. Got up at 4:30, almost left Jason at home cause he wasn't getting up, and headed out to get to Circuit City close to when they opened. Well, J is the one who told me they opened at 5 and like a dork, I didn't check to make sure he was right. We got there at 5:15 to find that they opened at 7. We ended up going to most of the other stores we wanted to hit before it even opened. I have to say it really was not worth getting up at all. The sales were horrible. I guess if you want an HD tv, this was the year to do it, but we've got more than enough of those. We finally did buy some things just because we were out, but nothing that we were looking for was on sale at all. It was hugely disappointing. But, I'm happy to report that I finished shopping for the kids before Dec. 1. That was my goal this year and I made it. So I can relax and try to find something for J and then I'm good.

The other thing we did this weekend is our traditional day after Thanksgiving decorating. The kids love to help, and we think it's funny when they're done inside because everything is all clumped around one area. I think J's looking forward to when Cole is old enough to help hang lights too, cause I know it's tiring for him. He had Cole help just holding the lights and I think that was frustrating enough because Cole is Mr. Space Cadet. I swear, that kid lives inside his own head most of the time, which is great cause he's got a great imagination, but not so great when you want his help. I got to add one more blow up decoration this year too, so I was happy. Charlie Brown and Snoopy joined the Grinch in our front yard, so now we have my (Charlie Brown) and Jason's (Grinch) favorite Christmas shows represented. I'm really happy with how the yard looks this year too. I think we do a pretty good job. I'm going to try to take a pic at night and post it, but we'll see.