To splurge or not to splurge. That is the question!

I don't know if it's because it's coming down to the wire, or because I'm just desperate to feel some kind of joy this holiday season, but I'm seriously considering getting this for Peyton for Christmas:

I mean, HOW freaking awesome would it be for Peyton to have his very own ride on dinosaur? It has realistic sounds, it stomps it's feet, AND it pretends to eat a leaf that you feed it. What 2 year old wouldn't want that? And the best part is the price -- retail price is $299, which turned me off right away as soon as I saw it, even though Peyton went absolutely crazy when he saw it set up in the store. But Target just lowered the price to $99! WAY more affordable.

So now I'm thinking to myself, do I want to splurge and spend $99 on a present for my 2 year old? Am I crazy? I don't know where the hell I'd put it. I can't really stick a 3 foot tall dinosaur in the toy corner of my living room. I see my 12 and 11 year old wanting to ride on it. I can even see Peyton being scared of it at first, probably refusing to get on it. All of these should be warning signs, but DAMN it I feel like I NEED to buy it!!!

Stay tuned. We'll see if my impulsiveness kicks in and I end up buying this bad boy, or the voice of reason comes over me and I save the $.

I have ZERO Christmas spirit this year

Here it is, mere days before Christmas, and I have NO desire for Christmas to come at all. Usually I look forward to all the preparations -- the tree, the lights, the decorations, the Christmas shopping, etc. This year; nothing. I feel like I'm going through the motions. I shop aimlessly, and nothing excites me. I have the tree up, but I think it looks awful. Let me tell you, after the freaking cat knocked the tree down three times, the tree has taken quite a beating. The branches aren't sitting right, and aren't 'fluffed' enough. The lights are all messed up, and somehow all the ornaments have disappeared. How the hell do ornaments disappear from a tree? I think a little blond boy had something to do with it, in cohorts with the damn cat.

Every year I used to look forward to seeing what my husband bought me for Christmas. He always did a good job of listening to little hints I dropped all year, and would buy a big gift bag and load all my presents into it. This year, we won't be exchanging presents and last year might have been our last Christmas together, which makes me sad thinking about. We won't get to share Christmas morning together with the kids. Instead, they'll be waking up with me Christmas morning, and then going out with him for the rest of the day into the next day.

Nothing just seems 'right' this year and it's depressing me. I want things to be happy and magical again. I wish I wasn't wishing Christmas would hurry up and be over with so I can stop being so sad :-(

Random Sunday Ramblings..

I usually try to do this on Friday's, but Friday was my Holiday office party and it completely slipped my mind to do it. SO since I have a lot on my mind today, I figured it'd be a perfect time to shake things up a bit and do it on a Sunday!

I'm so glad Sophie & Peyton got to see Santa today! Our town does a mini Santa parade when Santa and a few fire trucks come around each neighborhood, with Santa standing on the back of the fire truck. They never announce when it's going to be ahead of time, so it's always exciting when you see it coming. Now Sophie wont' stop asking when Santa's coming 'for real'. I keep telling her we only have 11 more days, but to an almost 4 year old, that probably seems like a life time!

I HAVE to get to the post office this week. Somehow going to the post office has become one of my most hated tasks, and I hardly ever go there. I think it's because the closest post office to my work is kind of hard to get to - it's too far to walk, but it's really hard to park at, so I never go during my lunch hour. And I keep saying I'll go on a Saturday morning, but I never end up getting there. I have to ship ONE box, and I finally found a box that everything will fit into, so all I have to do is get my lazy butt to the post office!

Peyton squeezed a whole bottle of red Crayola craft paint today ALL over my one couch cushion. I was so angry! I was washing dishes and Sophie kept telling me Peyton was doing something, but I couldn't understand what she was saying. So after the 2nd time, I went to investigate, and I found the huge puddle of paint on my black and white cushion. All I can say is thankfully it was washable paint, so I was able to wash the cushion in the sink and put it outside to dry. It's on my back porch so hopefully an animal doesn't come in the middle of the night and mess with it.

I never baked Christmas cookies with Sophie today, and I was secretly relieved that she forgot all about it. I need to get a cookie pan. I usually buy those disposable ones, but I ran out of them baking cookies for Thanksgiving. Hopefully I remember to pick one up so we can bake our cookies. The girl has a mind like a steel trap and I'm surprised she forgot!

Only 11 days to Christmas, and I have SO much to do still! I don't know how I'm going to get it all done.

Sophie's birthday is a week from tomorrow -- she'll be 4. Where did my baby go? I looked at her today and realized what a big girl she's turning into. *sniff*. We're going Ice skating for her birthday, since it also falls on the first day of Hanukkah. Our Synagogue is having a free ice skating party, so I figure it's the perfect excuse to turn it into a birthday celebration as well!

Seriously... I *AM* going to strangle my kitten

I seriously think this cat has it out for me. I treat him nice. I clean his liter box on a twice daily basis, I make sure he has enough food and water, and I stroke behind his ears when he sits on my lap. But WHY oh why does he insist in taunting me the way he does???

My Christmas tree has been leaning up against my living room wall for the past few days, since the last time the shithead knocked it down. Tonight I got tired of looking at it sitting there, so I struggled, by myself, to get the tree back in the base, screw the bolts in, and get all the ornaments on it.

I go into the bathroom to clean up and get ready to go upstairs, and not FIVE minutes later, I hear the same CRASH that I heard just mere days ago. I knew what had happened -- the freaking cat got to the tree AGAIN.

Sure enough, I walk out in the living room and the tree is toppled over on its side again. *Sigh*. Why does he do this to me? I'm really starting to wonder if I should just skip a tree this year, but that seems highly unfair to the kids. Or maybe get one of those little table top trees and put it on top of a table. OR I can just do what I've wanted to do all along, and secretly let my kitten escape out the front door.

Ugh.

Kittens + Christmas tree = nothing but trouble

I swear, I am going to STRANGLE my kitten. He's not cute; he's a trouble maker. We found this cat as a stray, and my kids begged me to bring him home. Here we are, three months later, and I'm ready to secretly leave the door open and let him wander outside, hopefully never to come back.

We put the tree up a few weeks ago, and it's been torture with him ever since. He is constantly trying to bat the lights down or the ornaments off. OR he's jumping with all his might straight into the middle of the tree, and I'm always afraid he's going to knock it over.

Well, tonight it happened. I'm sitting upstairs working on the computer and I hear a horrendous crash. I run downstairs and there's the tree, on it's side, with half the ornaments on the floor. Kitty is sitting right there, taking it all in. You would THINK he'd have the sense to at least hide if he knew he was in trouble. But cat's don't realize they're in trouble, because they're stupid. And it wasn't like he cared that he just knocked over a 7 1/2 foot Christmas tree. He sat there and batted an ornament around while I yelled at him.

So now I can't get the tree back into it's base. It's in this old base that my father gave me, where there's screws that tighten up and hold the base of the tree into the metal base. I'm going to have to find a way to rig it up tomorrow, and pray that stupid ass doesn't knock it over again. It's going to be a long 2 weeks until Christmas know that he knows how to knock over the tree.

Anyone want him? I'll ship him for free and I promise I'll poke big enough holes in the box.....

When will the bad luck end??

So today was another banner day for me. I'll just start out by saying I'm not having ANY luck with cars this week, and I'm soooo ready for all this bad luck to blow away and for some good luck to start coming my way.

I dropped the kids off at my in-laws house today, 35 minutes away from home.... I went back out to my dad's truck, which I've been driving since my car broke down. It was then I realized that even though I still had ALL the keys in my hand, the damn key for the truck *and* the remote had fallen off somehow and were sitting right in Peyton's car seat. Damn, Damn, Damn, Damn, Damn!!!!

So my Father In Law drives me back to my parents, which would normally take 30 minutes if he was normal and took the highway, took almost 45 minutes because he took every back road known to man. If anyone knows me, they'll know that I HATE being stuck in a car with someone and having to make small talk. It was a torturous ride.

We get all the way back to my FIL's house, and I'm all excited because I have the keys in my hand. I put it into the lock, turn it, and nothing -- the doors won't open. FIL tries it -- still won't open. Say it with me -- "Damn, Damn, Damn, Damn, Damn".

So I do what I've avoided doing all morning, and called the Lock Smith. UGH. I HATE waiting for lock smiths. An hour and $95 later, I was into my dad's truck. Talk about disasters.

Tonight I picked up my van from my parents -- it apparently needed a new battery and serpentine belt, which I have NO idea what that does. All I know is that it cost me $350. Ouch!!!

Needless to say, I'm afraid to drive my car, or any car, anymore. I'm afraid the bad luck is going to continue and something else is going to break in my van!

Wordless Wednesday

This is Sophie after her dance recital on Saturday. We came out of the theater and look who we found waiting for the kids?