Anybody out there?

If so, I am alive and well and started a new blog here.

Not again!

Here I am sitting at 8:15 a.m., waiting for my son to wake-up. This has now happened twice in the last week. I get up around 7 and think, I'd better get up because Elias will be up soon, wanting "jush"(juice) and "o-meal" (oatmeal). Great, I'll get up, get his jush fixed and even get his bowl of o-meal in the microwave and be ready to go and get him out of his crib. This morning was no different. I finished my tasks and go in and listen for his usual gibberish...nothing. OK, maybe I can eat my breakfast really fast before he gets up. I eat. Still nothing from the monitor...ok, great, I can go and check email. Done...shut down computer. I go and read for a while. Still nothing...I go back on-line to catch up on reading other peoples blogs...no time to post comments because I never know when he will arise. Log off. Turn on the morning news where I see Dana Reeves has died...sad. Wait, I actually have time to post! Back on the computer to type this post. Still waiting...

I am a grown-up

I know we aren't officially in our house yet, but I have had to make major decisions the last 3 days. We found out we got the house on Monday afternoon around 1. Our realtor calls me back about 4:00 and tells me to call the general contractor, Dan, and let him know my decision on the cabinets. I only saw the cabinet choices once in passing. I knew I wanted a red brick (color) kitchen, so he suggested painting the cabinets the color of the trim. Sure...sounds good. I later told Dallas who was very unsure that painted cabinets would look good. Here comes the stress. I made the wrong choice...when I had talked to Dan, he was on the other line with the carpenter, who had sanded the cabinets and was waiting on me. The deal was done. We would have to live with painted cabinets. I was still worried and stressed that it wouldn't look good.

Tuesday morning I was to be at Hollier's Flooring to pick out our wood floors. I met with Ann who showed me a couple of planks and I had to decide right then and there what kind of wood would be in my house. Crap. I chose Brazilian Cherry with a second choice, Russet. I later called my brother who said that was the wood that they chose to be in there new house and low and behold, it shows scratches really easy. With a cat, not good.

Wednesday morning, mom and I head over and look at the house around 7:45 a.m. We then meet with Val, Dan's wife, to pick out colors for everything. I find out that the wood I chose might already be on a truck waiting to be brought to the house. We end up picking great colors and it was much easier than I thought. I originally thought I wanted a different color in every room because we have lived in apartments our entire married life and was sick of white walls, but luckily, they talked me out of that. Mom and I finish early enough to go and run by the floor store to make sure the wood is ok. I ended up picking a great color wood, not too light, not too dark. Turns out my brother's Brazilian cherry wood was from a different company.

I also picked out the granite for the kitchen counters. That was pretty easy...I only had 5 choices. I would rather have just a few things to choose from then endless choices...have you walked around Lowe's or Home Depot lately? It is really overwhelming! So, for now I am done making decisions. I think the only thing left is to pick out kitchen hardware, if I want to. We are going to see the house tomorrow and we will post some updated pictures.

The grown-ups close on March 15.

The List

1. Sonic chocolate malt
2. Margarita snow cone from Cajun Sno
3. Ice cream
4. A&W root beer
5. chocolate of any kind
6. Sprite or 7UP while waiting in line at the grocery store
7. Really...sweets of any kind

What is this list you say? Not a list of stuff I have vowed not to eat because of a New Year's Resolution, but a list of stuff I am craving and can't have since 2 weeks ago. I found out I have gestational diabetes. I have to prick my finger and check my blood sugar 4 times a day, stay on a specific diet, and get more exercise. So far, it hasn't been bad. But I do miss my regulars from the list above. The good news is that we will have an ultrasound every month until he is born and there is really no harm to him except that sometimes the babies are bigger. So they check for growth every month. Since starting the diet, my blood sugar has stayed totally normal. So, Dallas or any friends who live in Lafayette, right after I have the baby, you now have a list of stuff you can bring me in the hospital!

Christmas

I love Christmas. There...I admit it. I love getting gifts, I love all of the songs, I love getting a tree and then decorating it, I love the lights, I love buying gifts for people I love, I love being with the people I love, and I loved having Santa Claus bring me gifts as a kid.

This year, right around the beginning of November, I started seeing Christmas decorations in stores and advertisements for buying decorations and gifts. I thought, "Wow, already!" I was almost saddened because I knew that just as fast as the season begins, it ends. Is that crazy? I almost didn't want it to start.

So this year, as Elias is over a year and a half, we had to have "the talk". You know...are we going to do the Santa Claus thing with him? I have many fond memories of Christmas. On Christmas Eve, we would all go the candlelight service at church, then on to my grandparents for food and singing with carols with the player piano. We would rush home because we didn't want to miss Santa's bells (my dad ringing them from another room). I remember Christmas morning, waking up my brother and sister and mom and dad and waiting until we could run out the door and see what Santa brought us and what kind of note he left for us (we always wrote him a note about how good we were and left it by the cookies and milk...my dad would always write something clever that rhymed in response).

My husband has hated Christmas all of his adult life...the commercialism, the hype, the not celebrating the REAL reason. He enjoyed Santa when he was little, who wouldn't?? But when faced with deciding if we should do it with Elias... He asked me one question...what do you remember most about Christmas...Santa or Jesus? My answer was so quick, it almost scared me. I had missed why we should celebrate Christmas. I felt like the Grinch in the last scene of the movie where he talks about how the Who's didn't have presents, or trees, or a big turkey dinner, but they were still singing and gathered together, the tall and the small...well, you know the rest. I think I had my answer. But is there a way to do both well where when our kids grow up, they have memories not all about Santa?

Okay, I have to be brutally honest. On Christmas Eve this year, it was time to put Elias to bed and I wanted so bad for my dad to go in the back and ring the bells. And I wanted to write Santa a letter from all us kids and leave him cookies. And the following words flew out of mouth, literally before I could think, "Elias, right now, Santa is coming and Jesus is being born!" Dallas did not hold back the laughter and I joined in with him at the absurdity of my words. I felt like an idiot.

So when Elias is old enough to understand, I will not lie to him and tell him Santa is real. I will probably tell him about how the Santa thing got started,
St. Nicholas and all, but I don't want to lie.

My brother and sister-in-law are kind of doing this. I had to hold back my laughter when one of my aunts asked Will what Santa had brought him for Christmas. His answer, "Nothing". She was taken aback...it was hilarious. My mom quickly said, "What presents did you get?" and he spatted off his favorites.

So, to all of you who post comments...what are your Santa/Christmas thoughts?