Dear Doctor,

Thank you for looking after my husband and taking care of his hand. I really appreciate your expertise in this field especially since you are the third doctor to examine it. The first doctor wrote it off as a "boxer-bruise" and kindly told my husband to please stop hitting hard objects....especially when working on the Ward Calendar. The second doctor asked Ry-Ry if he had any "anger issues". (Shhhh, we won't tell him this is not the first time something solid and stationary has "brushed" against his hand. Wink, wink).

No, Doctor, you passed no judgement and gave him what he needed. A brace to heal his broken hand. Now, I know you x-rayed it and felt that even though it had been 3 weeks since the "incident" that his hand was healing properly. I feel there may need to be a more radical route taken. I am worried that the hand may be misaligned and I am thinking the only way to correct this problem is by undoing what has already been done. By that I mean.......RE-BREAKING what has healed. I know. Frightfully painful. But if we must, we must. Please consider this route as I feel it may solve two problems. Teaching my husband a lesson being the first. Anyhoo, just let me know when you're available and I'll prep my brave, sweet hubby. Thanks again for all your hard work.

Sincerely,
Ryan's "sympathetic" wife

PS. Painkillers will not be necessary ;)

Random News Bulletin

• Break's over, school has started and I now have to wake up to an alarm clock that is not human. (I can't decide which wake-up call I prefer).

• I noticed if I don't bother to look in the mirror in the morning I can get out the door much faster. And if I avert my eyes and avoid eye contact, people can't see me. Or the fact that I didn't brush my hair........or teeth. Duh.

• Ryan is now working in Sacramento. The week feels much longer because I'm used to him being home late Wednesday night. So on Monday when he shows up I start thinking I'm halfway through with my week. Bummer.

• I have to cook dinner more now. Way more. My left-overs that used to last for 3 nights don't even make it "left-over" status. Because Ryan's home. (refer to above bullet)

• I can start watching my 48 Hour Mysteries again because now I don't have to be scared of the creepy pirate that showed up on my doorstep at 10:00 at night wearing a wife-beater. Who was on something close to crack. And started talking to me through the door when I wouldn't answer. When I was home all alone. Ahhh, Ryan's home. :)

• Kyson didn't wake up once last night????? I almost thought I was in some sort of delirium when I woke up to the alarm clock and realized I hadn't been up at all. Although my body was totally stiff and achy because I'm not used to staying in bed all night. And I need a new mattress.

• Kyson thinks it's funny to roll all of the balls he can find under the oven and then call, "Uh-oh". I found 5 of them under there today.

• Kendri thinks the people who live in other countries who don't have actual phones can use their "finger-phones" to talk to people.

• Kyson threw my real phone in the toilet earlier this week so then I had to use my "finger-phone" to fish it out. And now I'm down to one.

• Lexi says she's so lucky because she has "freedom......oh, and really long eyelashes." Well, who can argue with that?

Christmas Re-wind

Okay, so I got a little excited about my Christmas clean-up and totally ignored Christmas which I was okay with last night, but now 18 hours later I'm feeling guilty that I didn't even post a picture. So we're back-tracking to Christmas Eve....

We had a great day getting ready for Christmas. Ryan came home early and we all went up to his parents house in Angel's Camp (20 min away) and had clam chowder for dinner. Mmmmm, good. Then we waited for our special guest to show up (which happened around 7:00) to bring the kids some treats. When the knock on the door came we told the Lexi and Kendri to go open the door. Lexi looked out the window and saw Santa standing there and turned around with a "what do I do now?" look. Kendri ran over and saw who it was and with a look of disbelief said "Santa's out there!" With a little planning, Santa was able to bring the girls cute nightgowns and Kyson got a little pull toy.

Here's the picture of Santa at the door.

Here's Santa digging in his bag for some Christmas cheer!

And all the kids with Santa....Kyson wasn't so sure about him.

After Santa went on his merry way, we read the Christmas Story and talked about baby Jesus being born (which is one of Kendri's personal favorites :) Then we left to get the kids home to bed so we'd be ready for the big day.

We were all up by 6:30 Christmas morning ready to open presents!

After we had our little family Christmas we headed back up to Angel's Camp for a yummy crepe breakfast and to play with some new toys. By 1:00 pm the whole family had arrived and so we had another Christmas celebration (meaning we opened more presents :) and then had our Christmas dinner. The girls had a slumber party with their cousins at Gammi's house and Ryan, Kyson and I headed home to clean up presents and try out our new surprises! Overall, we had an awesome holiday season and can't wait for next year!

Christmas Clean-up

It is finished. Finito. Terminado. DONE! I'm talking about my house cleaning, of course. But not just any ol' house cleaning. We're talking house cleaning that rivals the meanest spring cleaning done by the biggest neat freak you know. Yeah. Like that.


Wanna know what I did?? I'll just give you a sample because I could seriously be here all night if I decided to write EVERYTHING. So here goes. Bathrooms are clean and shiny. Floors have been mopped and vaccuumed. Tops of cabinets and cupboards are wiped and dusted. Ready to get a little crazier?

Window treatments and hardware? Clean. Couches? Vaccuumed and fluffed. And behind my couches? Cobwebs and dust bunnies gone. Do you know what you'd find in my garage? A place your neat-freak grandma would want to move into. And if you ask about my attic, there would be no secrets. Nothin' to hide here people. My house is seriously clean. Oh, and my light fixtures and chandeliers did not get ignored either. Abnormal? Sure. Crazy? Maybe a little. Obsessive complusive? Probably. But breathe in.....ahhhhh, refreshing. Definitely worth it.

So, what started this obsessive compulsive behaviour? Taking all of the Christmas decorations down. (By the way, we had a great Christmas. Hate to see the holidays end, but such is life.) Now, back to the madness. Every year Christmas clean-up usually results in a cleaning frenzy but we took this one to all new heights. I just had things I had been putting off for too long. And I love starting the New Year in an extra clean house. Anyhoo, that's what I've been up to for the last two days. That's right....two days. You'd think I was crazy. Maybe I am. And now you're going to hate me and my craziness because you're going to walk around your house and start seeing all these little nooks and crannies that have so far gone unnoticed. Until now! So sorry! ;)

Santy Claus and the Polar Express

Okay, so it wasn't the real Polar Express, but almost! Last week we went up to the Murphy's Ward Christmas party where Ryan's parents are the activities committee. (Yes, THE committee. No mistake there. Small ward:) Anyway, they planned an awesome Christmas party with a Polar Express theme. There were trains set up all over and the decorations were great. The women who were helping wore engineer outfits and Ryan's dad even dressed up as the conductor and punched holes in "believe" tickets. They even had a "Hot, hot, hot! Hot chocolate!" moment when train engineers came out with hot chocolate for everyone. It was fun. And I must add that, although the girls thought the costumes were great, Kyson did not! He would get this terrified look on his face and start to cry anytime Pa came around. Even if he was across the room. Yikes! Here's the girls with Pa. Not too scary, right?

The Primary program that our kids joined in although they obviously have no costumes...still fun for them.We also had a visit from good ol' St. Nick. Lexi had no problem telling them what she wanted.

Kyson hated the conductor costume, but wasn't afraid of Santa Claus. (Probably because he knows the conductor was fake but Santa is real. Of course. Doesn't everyone? ;)

And here's Kendri at our Ward Christmas party. Not nearly as exciting as the Polar Express unless you count the near "flasher" incident we had. Enough said. Okay, fine I'll say one more thing. The best judgement is not alway used for these ward skits. Especially if you live in the foothills. Which I do. And....I would vote for a tighter screening process for ward talent shows, but then there goes the element of surprise, doesn't it? And who isn't up for a little excitement?

Next on the holiday list is Lexi's class party. It's tomorrow and I've spent all morning assembling gingerbread houses for it. Stay tuned for the final product!

Snow Day!

We had our first snow of the year this week! (make that the first snow EVER. Well, since we've lived here anyway. Unless you count the fat slushy things that fell from the sky one year. We called it "snow" that year, too, but now since I know Valley Springs is capable of real snow I can't count it.)

And because it was "blizzard" conditions, they had to cancel school. That's right. It was the only safe thing to do. We used our snow day. I'm not going to judge. Because growing up in Colorado and then living in Utah for 7 years doesn't make it fair for me to judge the California perception of snow. (By the way, I hear it's the same way in Seattle when they get snow. The city shuts down. ) But what I will say is, I think I like it! We had a great snow day! And when we built a snowman, the snow was gone. Used it all up for one snowman. But the girls loved it. After all, I had just told them that they should "stop asking me when it is going to snow because how many times do I have to tell you that we don't live in a place where it snows. Because that will just never happen in Valley Springs. Ever." They like it when I'm wrong. So, here's our front yard.
We didn't really build this snowman. Our snowman was only a foot tall. Some of our neighbors built it and we took a picture by it. See what I mean about the snowman using up all the snow?:)Lexi playing in the snow. And yes, those are rainboots.
Kendri playing in the backyard.

Well, the snow lasted for a day and a half. But that's a day and a half more than we thought! And now we can say we had snow for Christmas (almost)!

Christmas Tree

Did I mention in my last post that I think Christmas and glitter go hand-in-hand? Well, I do. As you can see from my Christmas tree. I am fully aware that I'm a little nutty when it comes to my tree....no one is allowed to help unless they are over 18 and willing to take orders from a mad-woman. (Ryan? Ryan?? Are you reading this? See? You meet the qualifications!:) And so far I haven't had any takers. And I should add, I am NOT a mean mommy. The girls have their own little tree that they are completely in charge of and they love it! The picture doesn't really do it justice (imagine everything really sparkly) but you get the idea. My day was swallowed up with the tree. But it's done and now we're ready for the holidays! HO! HO! HO!