Changes...

So you may have noticed that the blog looks different today.  I have decided it's well past time for me to roll my sleeves up and redesign it a bit.  Like all other projects I undertake, this will probably take a lot longer than it should.  So, please bear with me as I attempt to try something new.  In the meantime, please enjoy the basic template provided by Blogger since I could no longer stand to look at the blog in its previous state.

Making wishes come true

Yesterday was K's final school field trip of the year. The class went to a local family owned market. K had been doing the countdown to the day of her field trip for almost 3 weeks. She was really excited to go, mostly because she was going to finally ride on a school bus.

(Since using the school transportation system would have my kids sitting on a yellow bus for nearly 2 1/2 hours each day, a neighbor and I take turns carpooling the kids to and from school thus depriving my kids of all the joys and delights that would await them if they were allowed to ride the bus.)

Ironically the market they visited was within walking distance from our house, but I still had to drop her off at her school 6 miles away. Since I was one of the parent chaperones, I waited in the parking lot of the school for 15 minutes & then hopped on board a big yellow school bus with the kids to travel the 6 miles back home to my neighborhood market. As expected K was thrilled with the ride.

It was a fun morning, the kids got a tour of the entire place including the stock rooms, receiving docks and even the large freezer where the ice cream is kept. Each child was given a paper grocery bag when we arrived and in each department we visited they were given something. It was like a grocery store version of trick-or-treat.

They picked out an apple in the produce department, small cookies from the bakery, a string cheese stick from the dairy section, a juice box from grocery and they even got to watch as 2 pizzas were made for them in the kitchen behind the prepared foods section.

(This may have been my least favorite part of the tour since we all --including the chaperones-- had to wear hair nets. It wouldn't have been too bad except for the fact that
1. The store employees all wear hats instead of hairnets - which by the way looked much cooler
...and more importantly
2. Many, many pictures were taken once the hairnets were in place. K's teacher was almost gleeful about getting pictures of us. Pictures I may add that she made sure she took so there was no photographic evidence of her in a hairnet. I fear those hairnet pictures will be appearing on the school's website in the very near future.)

But everything on the tour paled in comparison to the item that the kids got when they visited the meat/deli department. An item that is apparently coveted by children everywhere...Lunchables.

K squealed with excitement when she discovered the prize. K like her brother before her has discovered the harsh truth that her beloved mother will not buy Lunchables. When K accompanies me to the grocery store (which thankfully isn't too often) she asks for them and I always say no.

When she starts pleading her case I tell her the same thing I told her brother when he used to ask for them, "They're really not that good for you, and even if they were... you won't like them. I know they look cool, but trust me you'd take one bite and then decide you don't want to eat them after all. And I'll end up throwing them away and making you something else." To which always replies, "Oh I would love them, Mama I know it...please, please?!"

Clearly though I am not the only mean Mom that refuses to buy them, because most of the children reacted in the same way as my own child upon receiving their Lunchable - with total joy and excitement.

At the end of our tour the kids were shown to the loft area where they could eat the pizza that was made for them and drink their juice boxes. Most kids were disappointed that they couldn't eat their Lunchables right away, but they all decided that they would be eating them for sure come lunch time (our tour ended at 10:00, so the pizza was really like a mid-morning snack).

As we boarded the bus to head back to school, K looked at me and asked if she could eat her Lunchable for lunch. When I told her she could, she hugged me and declared, "It's my dream come true. I've always wished for a Lunchable and now I finally get one!" Seriously...all this joy over a few crackers and some bologna. Who knew?

While a lot of the kids in K's class headed to an extended day program once school was over at 11:15, K came home with me -much to her dismay- so we could eat lunch together. (K is longing for next year when she will head to all day kindergarten and can at last eat lunch with her friends instead of her boring mother.)

Once she discovered I was not going to let her eat the Lunchable in the car, she spent whole trip home planning out her Lunchable eating strategy (K forumlates an eating strategy before each meal. I have no idea why she does it or what it may mean. I figure if it gets her to eat, it's fine with me.) "I think I'll eat the crackers first, and then the cheese, and then the meat and then I'll eat the cookies. Or maybe I'll eat the cheese first and then the crackers. Or maybe...." I'll spare you the rest of her strategic ponderings.

As soon as I got the car in the driveway she was out the door and in the house. She ripped open the top of the Lunchable before she even got her coat off. She ran to wash her hands (under much protest) and then ignoring all of her previously made eating strategies proceeded to make the "sandwich" shown on the outside of the package. She carefully piled her meat and cheese between the two crackers and took a big bite.

She looked a bit surprised, then turned to me and said, "Hmmm...I don't really like it. Maybe I'll eat them separately."

So she ate all her crackers and then took a tentative bite of the bologna before asking, "What is this meat? It tastes like cold hot dog." I tried to explain bologna to her as best I could, but since I'm not really sure what it is myself, I'm not sure I was doing a good job. I finally told her she was right, it's just like a cold hot dog. To which she replied, "Well, I don't really like it."

I told her to try the cheese. She took a bite of it, then looked at me and asked, "Isn't this the same as the yellow cheese it our fridge? " When I told her it was, she took another bite then looked at me and then sadly looked over at the two cookies that came with her Lunchable.

"Don't you like the cheese?" I asked.

"No. Can I just have the cookies?"

The answer to that was no, so I ended up making her a peanut butter sandwich which she ate with zeal so that she could finally get to those cookies.

When I commented that I the whole reason I didn't buy Lunchables in the first place was because I didn't think she'd like them, she just replied, "Well I did like the crackers and the cookies. Maybe next time I'll have to try another flavor."

Hope springs eternal...

Row, row, row your boat

Back in college Mr. Crackers was on the University's crew team (rowing team?). He often recalls his time on the team fondly and has shared many memories with me over the years. When I think of rowing teams (crew teams?) my mind has always immediately turned to that classic 1984 film Oxford Blues starring Rob Lowe. And while Mr. Crackers & I did not attend Oxford University in jolly old England, our college was located in the the town of Oxford (Ohio). The movie reference may help explain why, even though Mr. Crackers & I did not know each other yet back in those college days, when I picture him rowing (crewing?) a boat, I always picture him looking just like this:

Mr. Crackers love for boats with oars did not stop when he graduated college. Although he never joined the Atlanta Rowing Club, he often talked about it. So, on one fateful afternoon while driving through the north Georgia mountains, it came as no surprise when Mr. Crackers pulled the car into the parking lot of a canoe and kayak outfitting store. Admittedly though I was a little surprised when we left the store 30 minutes later with our very own (gently used) red canoe strapped to the top of our SUV.

Our friend Karen, who was with us on that fateful afternoon, took this photo when we got home with our new prize. You can see the pride & joy clearly evident on the face of Mr. Crackers can't you? You can tell he was ready for many canoeing (rowing?) adventures in our future.

Thankfully north Georgia was full of lakes and rivers, so Mr. Crackers and I (and our two dogs Max & Sadie) did have many fun times on the canoe. Although I will tell you that I will never again get in a canoe on a lake crowded with jet skis and ski boats on Labor Day weekend. I have never been tossed around so much in my life. I have learned that for me canoeing is best either on placid lake waters or on gently running small rivers.

But once C was born back in 2002, we never got in the canoe again - not even on a placid pond. Thankfully we were smart enough to realize that small active toddlers & canoeing were not a good combination.

So when we moved to Ohio back in 2004, we left the canoe behind in Atlanta with our friend Karen and never gave it a thought again. Or at least that is what I thought, until Mr. Crackers began talking last fall about how fun it would be to go canoeing as a family now that the kids were older. I kind of nodded my head and said uh-huh until I realized how serious he was. He wanted to plan a trip down to Atlanta to retrieve our old canoe from our friend Karen who was ready to finally get it out of her garage after 7 years.

While making our plans to get the canoe my biggest recurring question was always, "Where are we going to store it?" If my memory served me correctly, I remembered that the canoe was pretty large and I knew that our garage has got to be one of the smallest 2 car garages in America. I mean the thing just barely fits our 2 cars inside. In fact I can't even get into Mr. Crackers car if it's parked inside the garage. He has to pull it out in order for me to climb inside the vehicle.

In answer to my question, Mr. Crackers would just smile at me and say, "Don't worry, I've got it all planned out." Since Mr. Crackers is an idea man (as evidenced by his many past projects) I figured he had some plan up his sleeve, so I took his advice & didn't worry about it... for awhile. Until the next time I tried to figure out where the thing would go and I'd ask him the question all over again.

We headed down to Atlanta last week and the trip was really fun. We saw some good friends, had a blast showing the kids around the city we called home for almost a dozen years and after our trip was over, we strapped that canoe back on the car & headed home. After 7 years, we were once again the proud owners of a (gently used) canoe.

Once we got back to Ohio, Mr. Crackers began executing the plan he had hatched in his mind all those months ago. It involved hanging the canoe from the ceiling of the garage. It also involved many, many trips to Home Depot as he revised and then re-revised the plan a few times.

Pulleys, moving straps, heavy ropes, giant hooks, and a big red tarp were just some of the items he used trying to bring his plan into fruition. I tried to cheer him on during the day, reminding him of all his past project successes - but after spending one entire day trying to get his system to work, he shook his head, looked at me & said, "I don't think I'm going to get this to work after all."

Honestly, I was a bit relieved by this news. The longer he worked at it, the more I could picture the canoe breaking free of it's restraints and crashing down on our cars... or even worse on our kids. While I felt bad that he had tried so hard & hadn't gotten his plan to work, I felt like maybe we had dodged a bullet.

We talked briefly about some other options, including storing the canoe on some kind of stand outside the house. Little did I know that the next morning he decided to have another go at the whole garage ceiling system again. After another 2-3 hours of work he called me out the garage again. I thought it was to review a new plan he had, but instead it was to try to help him raise the canoe to the ceiling again. It was at that moment that I decided to air my concerns to Mr. Crackers. You know, the concerns I had about the canoe coming crashing down on our cars....or children.

To Mr. Crackers extreme credit he remained calm as he stared at me somewhat incredulously. "This might have been something that you should have shared with me a little sooner. You know, before I just spent 2 days working on this." he very calmly replied.

He was right. I should have spoken up sooner, but I really wasn't sure what the storage system would involve until he had spent quite a bit of time on it. I was trying to be supportive, cheering him on while all the time worrying about potential canoe disasters (as Mr. Crackers would tell you, I'm somewhat an expert at inventing things to worry about.) And honestly, he had spent so much time on it that I felt really bad telling him the whole thing was giving me some seriously bad juju.

In the end (after I am sure he silently cursed me for about 2-3 hours) he came up with plan B. A plan that seemed much less likely to smash our cars or kill our children if it had some kind of catastrophic failure. To his continued credit he called me out the garage to review the plans with me & make sure I had no lingering doubts about any potenial disasters before he put his plan into action (seriously the man has limitless patience with me sometimes).

And so, without further ado I present to you Mr. Crackers latest brainstorm...the side-of-the-house-canoe-holder (I probably need to come up with a catchier name, but that one works for now):

Here's another view of his handiwork.

Ta-da! Not only does it keep the canoe out the of the way, but it has the added benefit of providing our recycling container with a little shelter from the elements.

Thank you Mr. Crackers for your perseverance and your tolerance for your worst-case-scenario-imagining-wife. I love the new "system". And I'm also very happy the canoe is back in our hands again. With all of the non-stop rain and flooding that have been plaguing our part of the country for the past 3 weeks, we'll be getting more use out of that canoe than we ever imagined.

Updates around the house

So, I think I posted back in January that we were going to finally re-do the kids bathroom. Since it's one of the smallest rooms in the house, you'd be right in thinking we could have done it all in a single weekend. But why get it done so quickly when we could stretch it out and have everything in total disarray for weeks?

It honestly didn't take us three whole months to complete. The wallpaper border was a little challenging and took a bit more time to remove than I had planned. But once I repaired all the walls (Someone needs to explain to me why the previous owners felt the need to use over 20 drywall anchors in the walls of such a small room. Once I removed all of them, the bathroom walls resembled a piece of lacy swiss. A delicious bit of cheese to be sure, but not anything you'd want your drywall to look like. Needless to say, I went through about half a container of spackle to fill all the holes and make the walls smooth once again) the painting only took a couple of days.

Mr. Crackers helped out a lot by installing the new light fixture, towel bar and new faucets. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. At some point I hope to put a wood frame around the mirror, but for now I'm calling it done.

For those of you who can't remember, here is what the bathroom used to look like:

It was a fish theme that had started to get on my nerves. The wallpaper border, the worn out rugs, the "Hollywood dressing room" light bar all needed to go.

Not to mention that the brass fixtures in the room had all started to corrode a bit.

So, I found this cute shower curtain at Target & we (eventually) proceeded to update the room to it's new look:

Voila!

I don't know about you, but I like it much better. The paint and accessories are bright and fun without being too juvenile. And I really like all of the new bronze fixtures in the room. I seem to have a thing for bronze, so now this bathroom matches the powder room downstairs. It's almost like we've got a design point of view for the house.

And I just fell in love with these little owl pictures I found on Etsy. They are so cute & just happened to match the colors in the shower curtain perfectly.

Since this room serves as our guest bathroom when we have overnight guests, I'm happy that we finally got the room done. Our first guest arrives in less than a week. Nothing like cutting it a little close.

We (and by we I mean Mr. Crackers) also managed to hang new shelves in the pantry and in the laundry room to make the room usable again after the "cabinet incident" back in February. All of these projects have had the nice side effect of getting us to organize and clean out a lot of the spaces where we had let junk accumulate. I ended up selling a lot of stuff on Craig's List and made a nice amount of cash from the sale of all of our old stuff.

So now that all that Spring cleaning is done, we're ready to spend a little time outside...if it ever stops raining. It seems like it has rained non-stop for the past four weeks. Hopefully all of these April showers will bring us some gorgeous May flowers.

I think my laundry room might be haunted

So as you can tell I really haven't been delivering on either of my resolutions for 2011. Unless you count posting once a month as "more regularly" or if sitting at my computer can count as "exercising at least 3 times a week". Oh well, as usual I will shoot to do a little better.

It's kind of imperative I get going on the exercise regime as soon as possible since in the last 3 weeks I have had to retire 2 pairs of jeans. I was still able to wear both of them somewhat comfortably (a big thank you to whoever came up with the genius idea of adding spandex to denim. A marriage made in heaven for those of us in our 40's!). Although I could button & zip them up, I had been noticing that they were getting a bit snug around the upper thigh & derriere. In the end it was my keister that did them in. Apparently the task of stretching over my ever-widening tuckus was such a strain that the fabric just plum wore out. The first pair ripped as I was sitting down to play a game with the kids. I could have chalked that up to shoddy workmanship except for the fact that about a week later (while wearing a different pair) my daughter pointed out that she could clearly see my underwear through the holes in the bottom of my jeans. Hmm...it's probably a little past time to get myself under control again.

But before heading down to see what special kind of pain Jillian Michaels can inflict upon me today, I thought I'd share a little bit of the craziness that has been the House of Crackers over the past couple of weeks.

I'll start with Valentine's Day. This is a somewhat meaningless holiday as I seemed to have married a man (who just like my father) feels that it is a made-up/phony holiday created for the sole purpose of selling cards and flowers. And while I may agree with their opinion, I still like getting flowers from time to time & don't begrudge the floral industry their chance to make some money while at the same time delivering beautiful spring blooms to my doorstep.

But since flowers have not made an appearance in my house for many years, I choose to think of Valentine's Day in a different light...the day before my birthday. Having a birthday the day after Valentine's Day served me well in the years before I met my husband as in "Who cares that I don't have a Valentine, tomorrow I'll get presents & cake!". And it has served me well in the years after I was married when it was decided that we wouldn't celebrate the holiday anymore since we were long past the wooing stage.

Anyhoo, as I was saying I really had no expectations for Valentines Day beyond the fact that I would be helping out with my daughter's Valentine's Day party in the morning. Except for that small diversion, the day was looking like any other Monday. At least it was until C found the last tiny bit of ice left on the driveway and promptly fell down right as my neighbor arrived to drive him school.

He promptly screamed and clutched his left arm to his chest. He's a pretty tough kid, so as soon as I looked at the pain in his eyes, I got my daughter into the carpool van and then took him inside to assess the damage. Since I have no medical degree, my assessment didn't take very long, and my conclusion was simple. A trip to the doctor's office was in our immediate future. So instead of attending the Valentine's Party for my daughter's Early 5's class, I spent the morning in our doctor's office and then in our local Childrens' Hospital X-ray facility where we discovered that C had indeed broken his wrist.

I'm happy to report that it was a minor fracture and that it was splinted and he was able to return to school in time for his second grade class Valentine's Party. Thank goodness! He's still upset over the fact that he missed the class Christmas party because of an ear infection.

Sadly though, Valentine's Day wasn't quite done with me yet. Later that evening I was upstairs talking with Mr. Crackers on the phone when I heard what can only be described as a giant crash coming from downstairs. Knowing that C was down there alone with his newly broken arm put me in a tizzy. I frantically hung up on Mr. Crackers and ran down the stairs two at a time. Visions of him pinned under a large piece of furniture began running through my brain. When I ran into the kitchen, I was relieved to see him standing there looking at a magazine. He looked up at my panicked expression and simply said, "It wasn't me."

I did a quick scan & found nothing out of the ordinary in the kitchen and family rooms, so I headed toward the laudry room since it is adjacent to the kichen. It's a tiny room, really more of a hallway that links the garage to the kitchen than an actual room, but I figured I'd check and make sure everything was A-OK. But as soon as I started to open the door my nostrils were assaulted by the smell of alcohol. Lots of alcohol. My laundry room smelled like a distillery, and for some reason I couldn't seem to get the door open all the way. That's when I looked down and saw the 3" layer of broken glass all over the floor.

Apparently the noise I heard was one of the laundry room cabinets -- the one that held all the laundry detergent and most of our crystal vases along with a few bottles of alcohol -- falling off the wall and spilling its contents all over our tiny laundry room. Sincerely, forget the fact that it was Valentine's Day, this was shaping up as one of my worst Mondays in recent memory.

Once I called Mr. Crackers back to tell him what had happened (it turns out that screaming "Oh my God what was that!" Followed by "I have to hang up now!" is not the best way to end a conversation with a spouse who is making his way home in rush hour traffic.) I began to pick up the million pieces of glass that now carpeted the floor. Mr. Crackers walked in the door about 20 minutes later just as I swept up the last of the glass and helped clean up the rest of the mess. We were both happy that no one got hurt and that we didn't really loose anything that we really needed. In the words of Mr. Crackers, "We never used those crystal vases for anything anyway." Truer (and more depressing) words have never been spoken.

Thankfully, I'm happy to report that the rest of the day passed uneventfully. True to form, my birthday was great and filled with more than enough good stuff to make up for my lackluster Valentine's the previous day. It was a wonderful day that included both presents and cake as well as chocolate fondue. Trust me, the chocolate fondue was so good I completely forgot about the laundry room accident. At least temporarily.

We haven't had the time yet to fix the laundry room yet, so all of my detergent, dryer sheets and other laundry stuff has been living in a large plastic tote on top of the dryer. Since all of us were down to our last remaining pairs of clean underwear, it was time for me to do a little laundry yesterday. So I took the detergent out of the tote and placed it on the dryer so it was easier for me to access as I began my weekly laundry marathon. I put the second load into the washer & left the room to finish making lunch. When I left the laundry room the detergent bottle was on the dryer -- but when I came back 45 minutes later to change loads, the bottle had fallen off the dryer and the floor was now covered with bright blue Cheer laundry detergent. It's like there's a poltergeist living in my laundry room.

Seriously I don't know how else to explain that the bottle fell and manged to spill its entire contents (96 loads worth of detergent if the label can be believed) on to the floor. The bottle was completely empty. Not a drop left. I can't empty the bottle that well when I'm trying to squeeze out the last little bit. Clearly someone doesn't want me in the laundry room anymore (I mean someone besides me).

I'm still working on the laundry and I a little afraid to see what happens next. I just hope whatever it is doesn't ruin any of my jeans. Only a truly evil spirit would force me to go jean shopping before I can shed a little of the extra padding I've put on over the past few months.

Peace and other dreams

Like many schools across the country, the school that my kids attend has been busy this week working on all kinds of projects to honor the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King. K brought this particular project home today & I thought I'd share it with you...

Dr. King had a dream... Peace

My dream... is to pet a unicorn.

Clearly our dreams aren't as lofty as Dr. King's...

Hopefully we may someday fully realize his dream (I don't think K has much of a shot at achieving hers though).

Blue, Green or Yellow?

So I finally decided yesterday that it was time to join the party and get going with some New Year's resolutions. I suppose one of my resolutions should be to get a little more on top of things in a timely manner, but meh...I'll save my energy for other resolutions instead.

I won't bore you with the whole list (I can see the relief written all over your face), but I will tell you that one of my resolutions is to try and blog with a little more frequency than I have of late. While this resolution may go by the wayside as so many do, I'll at least make an attempt to get into the spirit (two weeks late) today.



In the almost seven years we've lived in our house, we've made a concerted effort to repaint and redesign the rooms to better fit our family "style". I'm not sure I could actually define what our style is, but I can tell you that it is very different than the people who lived in the house before us. The previous owners were really big fans of sponge painting and wallpaper borders. Not that there's anything wrong with that...I'm not here to judge. It's just that personally I don't happen to be fan of those two particular design tools. I'm more a fan of traditional paint jobs with an accent wall thrown in here and there to inject a bit of color.

Within the first two years we lived here we got most of the rooms repainted and removed almost all the wallpaper borders in the main living areas and bedrooms. It was a relief to put our own stamp on the place, but as life got more busy we slowed down and then finally stalled out completely with two rooms left unchanged.

This past fall we finally tackled one of those rooms - the office. Not only did the room have seafoam green carpeting, but it had a sports themed wallpaper border, a chair rail, and a maroon and tan sponge painting job. It was honestly a lot to take in, especially considering the office is the smallest room in the house.

Finally Mr. Crackers had had enough (Since I spent more time in that room than anyone else in the family I had become immune the room's wild decorative elements) and so we decided it was time for a change. Mr. Crackers took down the chair rail, made me a new desk and put a new closet system in place so that I could organize all of our accumulated junk important stuff. Once all the hard work was done, I repainted the room a light tan with a burnt orange accent wall (I wasn't kidding about that accent wall thing - I'm a huge fan). I'd post a picture of the completed office here, but I can't seem to locate them on my hard drive & honestly I'm just too lazy to re-take pictures to show you right now. But trust me, it looks great!

That left just 1 room untouched. The kids bathroom. Thankfully this room had been spared the sponge painting found in so many of the other rooms in the house, but it did have a wallpaper border - a school of brightly patterned fish. We didn't love the border, but the walls were a satisfactory shade of light blue and since the fish theme was an easy one to work with, we ran with it.




And seven years later we still haven't done anything to update the room. To be honest, I am really starting to hate the fish. I didn't like them that much seven years ago and they really haven't grown on me since that time. So since the walls need a fresh coat of paint anyway... you guessed it. It's time for a re-do.

I found a really cute shower at Target that fulfilled all of my needs:
1. It was cheap inexpensive
2. It was colorful, but didn't hurt the eyes
3. It was NOT a fish theme
4. It was whimsical but not too juvenile (I'm hoping to go another 7 years before the next update)

Now comes the hard part...what color should the walls be? Here's a picture of what we're dealing with.

Even though the walls are currently blue and I normally like to make a big change when I paint a wall, I'm still leaning toward repainting the walls a slightly darker shade of blue that is already on them.

I like the green too, but I think since our bedroom was close to that same shade when we moved in & I was so relieved to paint over it that it seems a little weird to reintroduce the color in another room (Of course since this room will NOT be sponge painted the green will probably look a lot better).

I'm really not sure how I feel about a yellow bathroom. Does anyone want to enter a bright yellow bathroom first thing in the morning? It seems like it might have the potential to permanently damage your retinas. It could be a little overpowering in such a small place. Hmm...I just don't know.

I put a ballot up on the wall so everyone can have a vote. We'll see what happens. Do you care to weigh in on the subject? What's your color preference? I'm open to all opinions at the moment, so fire away.

I'm slowly acquiring all of the accessories to go with the shower curtain. Hopefully within the next month or so I'll have the paint and everything else I need to start the job. And even though completing home improvement tasks in a timely manner is not on my newly minted list of resolutions (much to Mr. Crackers chagrin), I'll still try to have the whole thing completed by the time spring break rolls around. Since more regular blogging is on my list, I'll do my best to keep you updated on the status (or lack thereof) of my latest home improvement project.

Holiday recap

Happy New Year! I know I've been absent from the blog for awhile, but honestly I've been way too busy hanging out in my PJ's until 2:00 every afternoon to write anything. Now that the kiddos are back in school and Mr. Crackers has returned to work, I figured it was about time to get back in the saddle again.

We had a wonderful and relaxing Christmas. We got to spend lots of time with my parents, my Grandma, and uncles, aunts & cousins on both sides of the family.


As predicted, the lights on the Christmas tree continued to go dark until we were left with a single glowing strand on the very top of the tree by Christmas morning.

It didn't seem to dampen the children's enthusiasm though...





We've built a lot of Lego sets,

we've played a lot of Wii,

(and I managed to show my family how bad dancer I really am...and to think I used to go dancing a few times a week in my younger days. Thank goodness that was long before the days of smart phones and youtube!)

we've played lots of board games,

we celebrated C's 8th birthday (Wow! How is it possible that he is 8 years old?!)

we even managed to get out of our PJ's a few times and leave the house to go see the movie Tangled (which we all loved) and visit our local Children's Museum.

And the whole family actually stayed up until midnight on New Year's Eve to welcome in 2011 (even though I think Mr. Crackers & I would have happily gone to bed long before the ball dropped - the kids were wide awake). I fear that Dick Clark's countdown proved to be a little anti-climatic. I think the kids were expecting something a little more dramatic for all the hoopla associated with the holiday. Perhaps next year they'll decide they don't need to stay up quite so late (a girl can dream, right?!)

But all good things must come to an end. So this morning we all woke up at our "normal time", dressed by 7:30 (bye, bye comfy PJ's) and got back into the swing of things. Here's hoping 2011 proves to be just as wonderful as the year we left behind.

The Spirit of Christmas

Do you want to see something truly amazing? Something that will touch your heart? I know I sound like I've spent too much time in the greeting card aisle, but trust me on this. Head on over to The Bloggess. She posted a blog a few days ago where she offered $30.00 gift cards to the first 20 people who weren't going to be able to buy their children any gifts this year. Not surprisingly in this economy, those 20 gift cards disappeared quickly.

But since that time something truly incredible has happened. Since that initial post more than 800 gift cards have been given out. Most of those cards have come from individual donors who stepped forward have been matched up (by the Bloggess) with a family in need. Someone they didn't know who wouldn't have been able to celebrate Christmas this year without a little help.

Go look at the blog. It's inspiring and humbling. It's watching the spirit of Christmas at work.

7 years ago

I thought it was time to share one of my favorite pictures with you again.

I will forever love this photo. It was taken seven years ago (wow!). We were a little surprised at his reaction since C was one of those babies who happily went to anyone. He'd let anybody hold him without becoming even the slightest bit bothered. When we first put him on Santa's lap he seemed fine, he was his normal smiley self. I think it was our backing away that elicited the scream seen in the picture above. My favorite part of the picture is the perfect smile on Santa's face despite the obvious distress of the wee child sitting on his lap. I remember seeing the pictures and wondering if we should order them - but they were so funny, we couldn't resist.

Clearly the experience did not scar my son. This picture with Santa was taken at the Christmas festival held at our church a couple of weeks ago. As you can see, C has definitely gotten over his Santa anxiety. In fact, he wore the red shirt, vest and hat with the express purpose of looking like the big guy. They chatted for quite some time.

We don't have any screaming pictures of K on Santa's lap because she wouldn't even let us get close to him until she was 2. After some coaxing and a chocolate candy bribe this Santa was actually able to touch her hand - but that was as close as she would come. There was absolutely no lap sitting.


This year all it looks like all of our Santa jitters are a thing of the past. In fact, I think this Santa was afraid my kids were never going to leave. This year the candy bribe was used to usher them off the stage so the next kids in line could have their turn. It's amazing what a few years will do.

A Christmas tour

I've noticed that this time of year that a lot of blogs I read take their readers on a holiday tour of their Christmas decorations. They all seem to link back to other blogs and everyone's pictures look to me like they came straight out of a design magazine.

My home clearly doesn't look like a designer had a hand in any of the decorating, but it is a pretty good reflection of our family. And while I have no plans to link my blog to any of those other ones, I kind of like the idea of logging my decorations here so that I can remember what I do from year to year. I have a terrible memory & every year when we break out the Christmas decorations I wander around & try to remember where everything goes. Those people with skill at home decoration may view this memory lapse as a chance to mix things up a bit, but for those of us without that particular talent it's like reinventing the wheel every year.

I figured if I actually record what I did this year, it'll help jog my memory a bit for next year. So if the thought of looking at Christmas decorations bores the pants right off of you, please feel free to skip this post & return another day. You won't hurt my feelings, honest.


So with all that in mind, let's being the tour ...


Our good friend KK sent us this nativity set a few years ago. We all love it & it sits in our entry way every year. It's really the only Christmas decoration that you see when you first enter the house. It's small and very simple and is after all what the season is all about. I love it.

Our dining room is really the first room that is really decked out for the holidays that you see when you come to the house.

I think last year I hung a bunch of ornaments from the dining room chandelier. I couldn't really remember which ornaments I hung last year or even how I did it, so this year I scaled back (or maybe I was just lazy) and decided to just hang one ornament. It's working for me though.

The bowl of ornaments on the dining room table. These may or may not be the ornaments that hung from the chandelier last year. In a bout of confusion I decided just to place them in a bowl this year. Festive and lazy yet simple. It seems to be my theme this year.

My parents bought the kids the advent calendar gingerbread house and the train from Kohl's this year. They are a big hit. What's not to love? They are adorable and behind every door is a chocolate surprise.

In the past I always bought those cardboard calendars from Trader Joe's and after the first few days of Advent we'd start forgetting to open the doors each evening. I think there have been years where we threw away the calendars after Christmas and there would still be chocolate inside them. With these new calendars that is not a problem at all. They wake up and immediately want to know if they can have a chocolate. It's all I can do to hold off them off until after lunch.

This is perhaps my kids' favorite Christmas decoration...the nutcracker. He is played with constantly during the season. It may be the best $15.00 I ever spent at Target. Yesterday I had to rescue a small Calico Critters bunny from his mouth. K assured me that the nutcracker wasn't trying to eat the bunny, the bunny was just tired and needed a place to sleep.

One of our favorite holiday traditions is making gingerbread houses. My parents buy the kits every year and my kiddos along with my sister's children spend an evening after Thanksgiving decorating the houses.

Not surprisingly, the kids love eating the decorations as much as they like making the houses. It's the one time of year they have unlimited access to so many sugary items. All of the kids kept looking at us with wonder as we allowed them to eat whatever candy they wanted as long as they continued to work on the houses.

My sister finally had to cut my niece off. All of the other kids had finished their houses and had gone off to play but she had figured out that the longer she decorated the more candy she could eat. Once my sister saw that every ounce of house had been covered with candy my niece was finally cut off from her sugar supply and dismissed to the other room.

It's become our annual kick off to the holidays and we all look forward to it every year.

This is my favorite nativity scene. It was made by C two years ago when he was in Kindergarten. It's just 3 small pots, some wooden beads and three pieces of cloth. Simple. Beautiful.

I probably should have taken this shot when we had an actual fire in the fireplace. It would have looked a bit more festive. The lights on the wreath were the only lights that worked as soon as we plugged them in this year. (Of course now that I think about it, I replaced the light strand on the wreath last year.)

If you are wondering what is up with the piece of wood blocking the fireplace opening, let me introduce you to one of Mr. Crackers' latest inventions. He made it last year. It is a piece of pink foam insulation that is attached to a piece of wood to appease his wife who hated the concept of pink foam as a focal point in the family room. Add a couple of handles so it can be easily removed and ta da... you have a something that is both practical and attractive. It may not look as warm as a fire, but it sure keeps out all those cold drafts when we don't have a fire blazing.

I love these 3 little snowmen on the mantle. My Mom found them in a catalog. So whimsical. They make me smile. Their hats seem to be "wiggled wildly with excitement" (to borrow a line from the Rob Scotten book Splat the Cat).

This picture contains the favorite ornaments of both Mr. Crackers & myself. Mr. Crackers' favorite are the white doves. He found the white "love birds" at Target a couple of years ago. He always puts them toward the top of the tree right next to each other. "These birds are Mommy & Daddy" he told the kids as he put them on the tree. How could I not love this guy?

One of my favorite ornaments is the Christmas moose in the top corner of the picture. He reminds me of the felt ornaments my Mom made that used to decorate our Christmas tree when I was a kid. Well, except for this moose is a bit more goofy. He makes me smile. I'm not sure what it says about us as a couple that our favorite ornaments are so very different. It kind of gives you a glimpse into our lives doesn't it? Poor Mr. Crackers.

All goofiness aside, I also love this ornament. The colors and glitter look beautiful against the twinkling lights of the Christmas tree. And speaking of lights...

Our tree...it actually looks better in the daylight than it does at night. The dark mid-section isn't quite as noticeable. Mr. Crackers and I keep waiting for the bottom strand to burn out too. It hasn't happened yet, but I feel certain it will soon. The only new strand on the tree is on the top and I feel confident it will be the only one still glowing on Christmas morning.

A giant snowman and his many minions. The more I look at this picture the more disturbing I find it. They kind of look like a terrifyingly cheery snow army... I didn't even remember that we had a Christmas salt and pepper collection. I'm not sure how this collection even came into being, but the kids love it, so it's staying.

For the last item on our tour, I need to give you a little bit of a back story. Last year at Sunday school K made a nativity banner. It was made from just 4 pieces of felt on a white background. It very simply conveyed the meaning of Christmas & I loved it. I think though that K found the banner to be a little too simple. So, she corrected the problem this year with a Sharpie she found on the kitchen counter.

I like the smiles on Joseph and Mary's faces. Jesus looks a little bit toothy for a newborn to my eye though. But what do I know? I wasn't there now, was I?

And that (for anyone who actually made it to then end of this post) concludes our tour of the House of Crackers. You'll be happy to know that now that I've done it once, you won't be forced to go on this tour again next year. Since I've taken pictures of where all the decorations go, it will hopefully look about the same from year to year. So we'll all be spared from going through this again. See everyone wins!

O Tannenbaum - the update

It appears as though we've lost yet another strand of lights on the tree. Oh well. We now have a tree that has gone completely dark around the middle but is still very brightly lit at the top and has one sad and lonely light strand at the very bottom. Not quite a Charlie Brown Christmas tree yet, but give us another week and we may get there. Seriously, someone needs to remind me to buy new lights next year.

In other news, we went on our annual Christmas decoration scavenger hunt this evening & had a great time. We stole the idea from a man that Mr. Crackers works with and it's become an annual tradition around here. There are a few items we never can seem to find, but it's still fun to try.

Here's our list if you want to go on a scavenger hunt of your own:

Santa Claus
Mrs. Claus
Rudolph
Reindeer
Elf
Snowman
Penguin
Polar Bear
Charlie Brown
Snoopy
Grinch
Tigger
Winnie the Pooh
Mickey Mouse
Angel
Ice Skater (we've never found one...maybe you will have better luck)
Sleigh
Car
Motorcycle
Train
Snow Globe
Sled
Star
Christmas Tree
Ornament
Wreath
Bow
Candle
Bell
Present
Candy Cane
Manger
Hanukah Lights
Icicle Lights
Palm Tree
Cross
Nutcracker
Snowflake

Hope you have as much fun hunting for decorations as we do.

O Tannenbaum

Last Thursday we headed out to get our Christmas tree.

Every year I imagine our whole family driving out to a local farm to pick our own Christmas tree. I dream of us looking around at all the beautiful trees around us and settling on one that catches our collective eye. It is beautiful and full and fragrant.... And then we chop it down, strap it to the top of our minivan and haul it home where it will spend the rest of its short life decorated with white lights and sparkly ornaments.

But then as December comes, reality sets in. I look at our busy calendar and remember how cold December in Ohio can be. So instead of driving out to a farm, we head to our local home improvement super store to pick a tree.

Once at the store, a yearly pattern emerges. Mr. Crackers holds up a tree & says "What do you think?". Our son C is usually not even in the same row with us. He's typically running around, so hopped on Christmas tree fever that he can't even stand still long enough to look at any tree for more than 1.2 seconds. Meanwhile K is bundled up in her winter coat with her hat covering most of her eyes & the collar of her coat up over her nose. You can't really even see her face as she continually complains, "I'm cold!".

Once Mr. Crackers has the tree in his hands, I keep asking both kids, "What do think guys? Is this the one?" From the next aisle over C shouts "Yep, that's the one Mom". While K gives me a muffled, "I'm still cold! Can we go home?"

I try and give the tree a critical look while shouting "C, please come over here. Stay where I can see you please! Stop running around like a maniac!" Finally I say, "I feel like we should look at another one, before making our decision."

This goes on for about 15 minutes as Mr. Crackers continues to patiently hold up tree after tree while C runs around the store, K whines about the cold and I say, "Hmmm...I'm not sure this is the one. Maybe just one more."

Finally I reach a point where the whining and running start to wear on my patience and I decide that whatever tree Mr. Crackers is holding is the tree we are buying. Not necessarily because it is the prettiest or the most full. Simply because he is holding that particular tree when I decide it's time to go.

Thankfully, most of the time we've gotten pretty lucky. I mean, once you put lights and ornaments on a tree it typically looks really good, even if it isn't very full and has huge gaps that are missing branches. Put enough ornaments and lights on it, and usually looks just like every other Christmas tree we've ever had.

Once we bring the tree home, it is my job to put the lights on it each year. I am a crazy person about lights. I like a lot of lights on the tree, but I don't like to see the wires. I go nuts when I can see too many wires (insert Mommy Dearest joke here). Because of this lunacy it takes me a bit of time to get the lights on the tree. I blame this problem on my Dad who was afflicted with this same issue in my childhood. I remember waiting and waiting for what seemed like hours for him to get all of the lights on the tree. I also remember complaining about how long it took him to get the lights up.

So in a twist of irony and fate, I now do the same thing to my kids. Kind of... Since according to Mr. Crackers it is "EXTREMELY PAINFUL" to watch me put lights on the tree, I try to get the lights on when no one is around. That way, I get to take my time and be a true maniac about wrapping the strands of lights around each branch I come to. And the kids and Mr. Crackers don't have to watch me do it while continually asking, "are you done yet?" See, everybody wins!

Usually, putting the lights on the tree takes me a couple of hours. But since I am listening to Christmas music and am thoroughly wrapped up in the task, the time usually goes pretty quickly. This year though for some reason EVERY STRAND OF LIGHTS THAT WE OWN STOPPED WORKING! I know that sometimes I am prone to exaggeration, but I am telling you the truth. It was both incredibly frustrating and really odd. So, a job that normally takes 2 hours, took me ALL DAY!

Thankfully though last year we bought this tool:

O Light Keeper Pro Bulb Tester and Repair Tool, how I love thee!

Although it took quite a bit of time, my handy light repair tool and I finally got all but one of the strands working again. Admittedly there were quite a few bulbs out on each of the newly repaired strands, but since each strand had about 200 lights, they still glowed brightly. And honestly, I was just happy that I got the strands to work again. Now I know most normal people upon finding that their strands of lights were no longer working would just truck their hiney over to their local Target to buy new strands of lights, but as you now from reading this blog I am not normal.

So it was with a sense of pride (and also a bit of leftover frustration) that I finally announced to my family late in the afternoon that the lights were on and tree was ready to decorate.

We spent a really nice Friday evening decorating the tree and looking at all of our ornaments. While picking the tree may not have been a warm family moment, decorating the tree definitely falls into that category. Once we are done decorating, everyone shares with the family their favorite ornament and I think everyone's favorite changes every year. Decorating the tree is always one of my favorite things to do during the Christmas season. Maybe that is why I am such a lunatic about the lights.

As I came down the stairs the next morning, Mr. Crackers looked at me and said, "I have to tell you something. But first I want you to look me in the eye and take a deep calming breath. Are you calm?"

"Well, I was a moment ago before you started freaking me out What is going on?!"

"I just need you to be calm. Are you calm?"

"Holy cow! Just tell me what is happening! Is everyone OK?"

"Look at me. Just promise me you won't freak out."

"WHAT. IS. IT!"

" OK. Here it is. A strand of lights just went out on the Christmas tree".

"Oh. Is that all?! Geez, you had me really freaked out there for a second. I thought something awful had happened. A strand of lights huh? That's OK. Geez."

And it was. I'm not sure if that was his plan or not, but in terms of all of the terrible things that could have happened, the darkening of a strand of lights on the Christmas tree wasn't even a blip on my radar screen. So I may be a lunatic, but at least I have my priorities in order. Whew, dodged a bullet on that one.

Then two nights ago another strand blew out. Oh well. Our tree may be getting a bit darker, but it's still really beautiful.

Just remind me next year to get new lights.

Something's fishy

I'll start this post by telling you that sometime this past summer we took care of a fish for a neighbor/friend for about a week (I originally typed that we fishsat for a friend, but it looked really weird & I was pretty sure no one would understand what I was talking about). And despite all of the fun trips and activities we participated in the rest of the summer, the presence of a fish in our home for a week seems to be one of the biggest highlights in the recent life of my two hooligans.

For weeks after, we'd hear comments like, "When I grow up & I can have a pet of my own I want to get my very own fish." Really!? Most kids want a horse or something with fur. A fish? I would remind them that we have a very sweet dog at home & tell them how lucky they were to have her. But, in the usual way they would ignore my comment and continue to weave fanciful tales about their future lives of fish ownership.

They must come by this love of fish from their father. When Mr. Crackers and I started dating he had a 20 gallon aquarium set up in his living room. I'm sure there were fish in it, but honestly I can't remember them. For me, fish are occasionally interesting to watch, but they don't really seem like pets. I mean you can't pet them or play with them or really even interact with them in any way. I'm not really sure they should be considered pets. To me they really seem to fall into the same category as house plants. You know, something that requires a little bit of attention from time to time but really act more as a part of the general scenery.

That may be why we've never really had the fish tanks (and we have 3 that we have moved from house to house over the years) filled since we have had kids. There were years when I could barely keep a houseplant alive. Taking care of fish in addition to the kids and our 2 dogs seemed ridiculous.

But I seem to be the only member of the family that feels that way.

About two weeks ago, while I was busy upstairs on the computer (Christmas shopping, not really working) Mr. Crackers and the hooligans started to quietly pull our 20 gallon tank out of the basement crawl space and get it ready for fish. By the time I came downstairs the kids were vibrating with excitement about the prospect of owning their own fish. Their dreams were finally coming true!

That Sunday after church we headed to our local pet store to get the fish. Everyone got to pick out a few and we came home with a total of 7 fish and a crab (the crab was my pick). We also joined the fish of the month club. Who knew such a thing existed? Apparently for just $2.99 we now get to come back to the store every month and get a free fish to add to the tank. Can you think of another "pet" that you can purchase by the dozen for just $2.99?! I'm telling you I don't think I'm the only one who thinks of them more as scenery.

Once we were home the fish were eased into their new aquarium and were promptly named. K named her guppies Angel, Angelina and Katie. C chose Cameron, Sweetie Pie and Snowbell for his orange fish (not to be confused with goldfish). Mr. Crackers picked Frank the Tank for his picasimus. And I dubbed the crab Milo.

In the days that followed both Angel and Frank left us for the big fish tank in the sky. Apparently it's pretty common for a lot of fish deaths in the early stages of aquarium ownership. Something about the "nitrogen cycle". My brain shuts down upon hearing anything involving chemical reactions, so I'm not sure I completely understand what is happening. But, thankfully Mr. Crackers knew it was coming and had warned the kids about it before we even got the fish home, so their deaths were not at all traumatic. Whew! And even better, the store has a return policy on all their fish, so we were able to get a store credit for the 2 that died. Wahoo!

The kids have had a really good time watching the fish. They'll sit there and stare into the tank for long periods of time just watching them swim around. I have to admit that I am also having fun with our new "pets". While I still find the fish a little boring (especially now that I don't have to count them a few times a day to make sure they are all still alive), I find owning a crab to be fairly interesting especially since Milo (the crab) seems to be an extreme recluse.

It's like a live version of where's Waldo. It takes me at least 3-5 minutes to find Milo every morning. A few times we've actually resorted to taking the castle out of the tank and turning it upside down to find him. And both Mr. Crackers and I have caught him hanging out at the top of the tank like he's poised for escape. The crabs in the store were all out and about having fun. It was like a giant crab party in the tank. Perhaps Milo is lonely. Maybe we'll have to use our store credit to buy him a friend.

But for now Milo, Sweetie Pie, Snowbell, Cameron, Katie and Angelina will have to wait. We've still got a couple of weeks until the "nitrogen cycle" is complete and we can add more friends to the tank.

In the meantime I'll just thank my lucky stars that we didn't have to care for my neighbor's cat.

simple color

Ta-da!

Here's a preview of this year's Christmas card.

I took the picture when we were outside decorating the big tree & Mr. Crackers & I liked it so much that we decided to go with it as our card this year. And as an added bonus Mr. Crackers & I (and even more importantly our family photograper -- also known as my Dad) all get to take a year off trying to get all 4 of us to look in the right direction while smiling. A task that often took few glasses of wine to recover from.

In Living Color Christmas Card

Shop Shutterfly for elegant custom Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

I even managed to get it ordered before December (by the skin of my teeth). Now I just need to get them in the mail...

Thankful

Today I am thankful for more than I can possibly say. The older I get, the more I realize how truly blessed I am. I am grateful for my health, the smiles and laughter of my children, the love of my husband, the strength of my family, and the friendships of those whom I see everyday as well as those that are separated from me by miles.

I am thankful for friends who have come home safely to their families after bravely serving their country overseas and grateful to all those I don't know who are still serving so far away from their loved ones.

I am thankful that I live in a country that celebrates the freedom of its citizens and sets aside a day each year so that we can remember how truly blessed we are.

Happy Thanksgiving from the House of Crackers!

All clear

For about the last 11 months I've had stomach pains. They were somewhat intermittent and although sometimes painful, never seemed quite so bad as to warrant a special trip to the doctor. Just when I would consider seeking some medical help the pains would subside for a bit & I'd get on with other things.

Over the course of the past year I have slowly figured out some of the things that exacerbated the problem and did my best to eliminate them from my diet. I was very sad when I discovered that coffee, Coke, alcohol and spicy foods were some of the worst culprits. My abbreviated diet made feel like I was pregnant again -- but without the frequent peeing, weight gain, and childbirth that usually accompany a real pregnancy.

I found a couple of over the counter medications that seemed to help a little bit, but over the long haul the problems kept coming back. So, on a visit to my doctor for a separate issue a few weeks back I mentioned my ongoing stomach battles.

I guess I figured my doctor would prescribe something or give me the green light to take Prevacid everyday (being a rule follower, I didn't want to take it for more than the 2 weeks that are recommended on the bottle without a doctor's go ahead). Instead, I was told that I would be getting a call from a GI doctor and that I would be the lucky recipient of both an upper GI endoscopy and a colonoscopy! Wahoo! Apparently my family history was a deciding factor in going for the whole work up. As my new GI doc said,"You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family history." Bah-dum-dum!

The fateful day of my digestive adventure (this is what I will be calling my procedures from here on out since it sounds more daring and less like something that was done to me while I lay unconscious on a table) was Wednesday of this week.

Unlike some people in my family (& I'm looking at you Mr. Crackers) the part I was dreading was not taking the laxatives and cleaning out the pipes. No, what I was dreading was the day of clear liquids before the cleaning even started. You see, I'm a grazer. I eat all day long. I never seem to be able to eat a lot at any one sitting, but you can bet that about every couple of hours I'm looking for something else to stuff into my pie hole. So, the idea of not being able to eat anything substantial for an entire day had me in a bit of a tizzy. I mean really, I'm the person who eats all the noodles and chicken in a bowl of chicken noodle soup and leaves the broth behind. A day of nothing but jello, broth and hard candies sounded a bit like torture to me.

Where's all the good stuff?

When I originally scheduled my digestive adventure (see, it sounds better than colonoscopy doesn't it?) I had a few requirements: I wanted a day when I wasn't driving the carpool in the morning and one that was immediately proceeded by a day where I've got a lot going on. It just so happens that Tuesdays, especially Tuesday mornings are really busy, so I scheduled the adventure for Wednesday morning figuring that all that activity the day prior would keep my mind occupied.

Little did I know that both of my kids would get sick and that we would be spending all of Tuesday in the house together. And since the kids were lying on the couch watching TV in a somewhat vegetative state that my "busy day" would turn into a very long, very quiet day.

As you can imagine, I was doing everything I could -- cleaning, laundry, reading books -- to keep my mind off food. I eventually had to hide the cookies since I found myself clutching the bag several times almost involuntarily. The only upside was that since the kids were sick enough to spend the whole day on the couch, they were safe from my increasing crankiness. And trust me, I was getting really cranky. I was having daydreams about cheeseburgers. And it was just about agonizing to sit with the family watching them eat Chinese take-out for dinner while I forced down more clear broth while trying to pretend it was really chicken fried rice. Sadly, my imagination just wasn't that good.

I won't go into the details of the evening before my digestive adventure began (I hear you thanking me from here), but I will say that I really didn't get more than a few hours of sleep. Except for the lack of sleep, the process itself wasn't bad at all and as a perk I finally got to take advantage of the fact that we still subscribe to HBO. I have to say I got lucky and there were some really good movies on at 3:30 Wednesday morning.

By the time the sun started to rise, my preoccupation with food had been replaced by a new worry...anesthesia. I have luckily never been sedated before and was secretly terrified that I would be the 1 person in 100000 who would go under, have a reaction to the anesthesia and never wake up again. I knew myself well enough not go and do any research on the subject online. Past early morning Webmd research jaunts have proven that I have a tendency to overreact and focus on the worst possible scenario I find. Once the kids were up, the rest of the morning flew by and thankfully I didn't have time to worry about the risks of sedation.

Before I knew it I was at the doctor's office and found myself being called back to get ready for my digestive adventure. They had me undress and change into a giant hospital gown, yet for some reason had me keep my shoes and socks on. I'm sure I must have looked as weird as I felt wearing my a hospital gown along with brown socks and brown suede shoes. I felt a bit like a flasher especially since the hospital gown was about 5 sizes too big and despite all the fasteners I had to keep a death-like grip on the front to avoid flashing the nurses and all of the other patients in various states of consciousness.

I laid down in the bed and they put in an IV and rolled me into the procedure room. Once there, they told me they were going to mix a little "medicine" in with my oxygen and that I should make sure to breathe through my nose. I had a moment of worry, then I took one deep breath and said "Wow you aren't messing around, this stuff really packs a punch." And then after that, everything else is a blank.

Thankfully my Mom was there, because apparently (although I don't remember the conversation since I was still a little out of it from the anesthesia) the doctor met with me after the procedure and informed me that everything looked good. Whew! I was in the clear - no ulcers or other issues. It looks like my stomach just produces too much acid so I was given a prescription to take everyday to control it.

The next thing I can remember is getting back into my Mom's car and requesting that she drive as quickly as possible to the nearest Arby's -- even though I had been dreaming of cheeseburgers I wasn't sure my system could handle all that grease. And besides, I just can't get enough of that French Dip and Swiss sandwich. Whoever came up with that one is an evil genius!
I've been on the new meds for a few days & so far they really seem to work well. So, I guess in the end I got what I wanted: a prescription for something that is safe for me to take everyday. I guess I just had to go through a bit of an adventure to get them. With medicine in hand I feel like I'm finally ready to take on all of the holiday feasting this season...which is definitely something to be thankful for.