December Miscellaneous

• It's 2 days before Christmas and I am done! One more present to wrap and that's it. I should be wrapping it now rather than blogging, but I just don't have the energy. I've shopped, I've wrapped, I've baked, I've taken many pictures of the boys by the tree, now it's time for Christmas to begin.
• Garrett has had many and varied items that he has requested from Santa. I'm not even sure I've bought most of the things he's mentioned. He goes from asking for a skateboard (how he even knows what they are is beyond me) to asking for a new Buzz Lightyear. The one he has is a bit worn, but still completely functioning so I don't think we'll see Buzz under the tree this year. (The new Buzz Lightyears that are out in anticipation for Toy Story 3 next summer are upwards of $50! That's a lot to spend on a toy that he could outgrow at anytime.)
• For the first time ever, I had to make sure that the gift count for the boys was even. Now, before you roast me for even buying Cooper many things seeing as how he's only 6 months old, he needs several things so I just bought what he's needing and wrapped it up. I figured it was easier to do that than to explain to Garrett why Cooper had nothing under the tree.
• I really appreciate our household appliances for deciding to all go on strike at this time of year. Well, not all, but our stove blew up (pretty much literally) and our kitchen faucet went down the drain (har har). So we had 2 expenses we weren't planning on in this, the most expensive time of the year.
• Stove story: One morning last week, I turned on the stove to heat up pigs in a blanket for breakfast. This in itself is unusual for me. During the week, we're cold cereal and the occasional piece of toast kind of people. But for whatever reason I thought pigs sounded good. The stove had already preheated and I had stuck the pan in the oven. Keith was about to walk out the door when he said something was on fire in the stove. So I told him to turn it off thinking maybe the foil I covered the pan with had fallen onto the heating element. Turning off the stove did nothing for the fire (and no foil had fallen onto the element.) So Keith grabbed the fire extinguisher and sprayed it in the stove. It did absolutely nothing to that fire, but it did make a total mess all over the kitchen. At this point we kind of felt a bit panicked. Here was a fire in the stove that was not phased by the fire extinguisher. Keith grabbed the stove, yanked it away from the wall, unplugged it and started dragging it to the garage. His plan was to just haul it into the yard and let it burn down, but thankfully by the time he got it to the garage, it had quit. A piece of the heating element had completely split open and the fire was following around the element as if it was a lighted fuse. Weird and scary. Thankfully a new element and a good cleaning (from the extinguisher mess) was all the stove needed. I was thankful I had a weird craving for pigs that morning because under normal circumstances, I would have had the stove on when Keith wasn't home. So I'm not sure how all of that would have gone down if it had been up to me to keep our house from burning down.
• While Keith replaced our kitchen sink and faucet all by himself, he wouldn't recommend anyone else trying it. It was a rough couple of days at our house. But I love my new stainless steel sink and faucet. The ones that came with our house were very cheap, basic white ones that we haven't liked since day 1.
• So for those of you keeping count we've had to completely replace our a/c unit, dryer, kitchen faucet and repair our dishwasher, stove, and refrigerator, all within the past year. The only appliance left standing with all its original parts is the microwave. Please don't quit on me now baby. That's where all the real cooking in this house takes place.
• Garrett is now a commercial afficionado. He told me the other day that I need "Bump-It hair". How awesome that even my 4 year old recognizes my lack of hair volume. (If you have no idea what a Bump-It is, just google it. Southern women like big hair and that's supposed to help you out.)
• I'm feeling weird because I'm actually looking forward to my new eating and exercising lifestyle. My plan is to start this on January 4, so I'm thinking I will try to do a weekly progress report. That will help me to feel as if I have someone keeping tabs on my success/failure so I will maybe feel motivated to keep it up. I WON'T be posting my weight, but I will share losses or gains weekly. So we'll see how it goes. 5 pounds a month is my goal.
• I hope all my wonderful friends and family have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. If you have snow in your area, enjoy yourself! We don't see much of it down here.