It's New Years Eve! Rip out the carpet!

I get the bug to rip stuff outta my house twice a year~September and January. It's like the blinders come off and I realize we live two boxes short of an episode of "Hoaders". It's a sickness. The rest of the year I am happy as a pig in mud. Literally. Now I find myself uttering things like . . .

"As long as we're ripping out the carpet, let's re-face the fireplace."

or

"For only $400 more, we could . . . ."

or

"Pass me the liquid nails and QUICK!"

Of course, I took no before pictures. I might take some during photos. Or not. I will take some afters. Maybe. If I can find a camera that works.

Jelly Fish and Other Cool Things in South Carolina

I'm a little slow. I got a new Mac Book in June~thank you Thirty One! I hit my sales goals for the first half of the year so I won a $1000 Best Buy gift card. Yippee!! So now I am cool and own a Mac. I have absolutely no clue how to use it. Hence, I am just now figuring out how to load pics from my ancient camera.

Hubby got a chance to do some sales calls in Savannah and some training in Columbia in August. Hmmm . . . what is nearby? Hilton Head, of course. So we made a family vacation out of it and had a fantastic time!

Amelia on the tire swing in Harbor Town park. Always the kids' favorite part of the island.

Caroline is all teenager now. She makes me feel so old.

Greta and Wyatt on the tire swing.

The beach! The beach! We spent two full days at Folly Field Beach. The waves were great and all four kids learned to body surf. We made the little kids wear the floaties just so we could spot them easily~I did realize that they are not life saving devices. Things were fabulous until the very end of the last day. Caroline was wading back out to drag Amelia back in to leave and she got wrapped up in a box jelly fish~the worst kind. Poor kid was miserable for two weeks and ended up with a skin infection. She has sworn off all nature from here on out.

Every year we go see Gregg Russell aka the Jerk Under the Tree. He is a Hilton Head institution but we all agreed that he's losing the magic. He totally phoned it in. Caroline asked him to sing her favorite song for her b/c it was her 13th birthday. He said he would and then didn't. Jerk.

Elf on the Shelf and Other Dumb @$$ Ideas

I resisted with my whole being but I was sucked in. All those cute Facebook posts and Pinterest pics . . . or more accurately Facebook posts with ideas lifted from Pinterest. They swayed me. Going into it, I had two large reservations.

1. How on earth was I going to remember to have Elf do something cute and oh-so-silly every night? I can barely remember to make their lunches or check their backpacks or any number of other important mommy jobs.

2. The purpose of the Elf is to report behavior back to Santa. Well, I might as well cancel Christmas then. I am not a fan of things that show my kids I'm a liar. While we have always had fun with the whole Santa thing, I have never tied it to good behavior. Santa brings us presents to celebrate Jesus's birthday. I didn't want to back myself into a corner.

I was going to be the FUN MOMMY! Well, the fun cheap mommy. No freakin' way I was going to fork over $30 for a creepy plastic elf. We took a cute little snowman ornament and created "Mr Snowman". Don't judge. I was a Poli Sci major, not a Creative Writing major. They are lucky I didn't name the dude Spiro Agnew. I explained how this shtick would work . . . Mr Snowman would go back to the North Pole at night and tell Santa all the dirt. That didn't sit well with Amelia AT ALL. She is no dummy.

So Day #1. We find Mr Snowman with his nose in the ice cream. Silly Mr Snowman. We all ate breakfast with the best manners ever. Hhhhmmmm . . . . maybe there was something to this. I am not above child manipulation.

Day #2. Mr Snowman is playing with Wyatt's cars when we wake up. Screaming ensues. "MY CARS!!!" Mr Snowman goes flying and leaves a lovely mark on the wall while Wyatt sobs "I don't want to share my cars!!!"

Well, that scared Mr Snowman. He is now living in the liquor cabinet until I can figure out what to do. Maybe he'll make me a martini.

Happy Holidays!

I really do like to blog. I am attempting to resurrect myself back into bloggy-land for like the fifth time. Let's see if I can stick to it for more than 4 months! How 'bout 2 posts per week? I started blogging again last winter as a way to process our new normal after a move to Indianapolis. Then Tim lost his job and life sucked for a while. I was not really digging that "new normal."

Christmas is less than two weeks away. Bah humbug. Why does this happen every year? I do love the Christmas spirit and all that but it is depressing that the holiday season seems to bring out the worst in people, especially Christians. What is that all about? Everyday I read ten more Facebook statues or links with people screaming that the clerk at Target wished them "Happy Holidays!" Or the town had the nerve to place a menorah in the park next to the manger scene. Or that the cartoon on TV talked about having a "Winter Party" instead of a Christmas party. Is this really a reason to have a temper tantrum? I understand people's feelings behind this but I really don't get the anger and then sense of entitlement. It makes me sad when I see Christians~or catch myself~acting in a way that is not loving. If we are going to act like petulant children why would anyone be interested in our Jesus? The Bible is not a weapon to smack people over the head. It is the very story of God's love for us.