As I sat spellbound I was taken back to my childhood….
I grew up in a house where we did not own a TV. Occasionally (like three times) they would rent a TV. One was for “The Wizard Of Oz” (my sister did not come out of her closet for an hour for fear of the green witch) and the other was for “The Sound Of Music”. So basically I grew up my whole life around reading.
When I was around 9 years old my parents gave me “The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe”. I was captured inside my thoughts that such a world could exist even if it was the creation of someone’s imagination. I read and reread the whole series. I probably read the series once a year. I enjoyed fantasy books and in the crowd my parents ran in there were not many fantasy books available.
My imagination painted the pictures of these four ordinary children being placed in a huge house where they did not know anyone. I pretended I was Lucy. I was captured by what a fawn might look like and how a beaver might talk. In my mind’s eye I was in awe of what Aslan might look like and how the dark side of the creatures might look.
When the children went into battle my heart would race. The faster it would race the faster I would read. I could feel the anticipation of the army waiting to attack, I could see the White Witch attack and secretly wish her to lose and be thrilled at the victory.
We took Hula Girl (Hula Boy stayed with Sashoo) to see the movie a few weeks ago. All through the movie she had questions. I barely got to see it because I wanted to make sure she was OK with what she saw. We have never taken her to see something like this so this time it was not about me. Yesterday was all about me.
I went alone yesterday to go see it.
At first I felt a little foolish going to see a movie by myself but as the plot thickened I anticipated seeing my childhood imagination come to life. I am not too old to admit that it certainly did. I became less self conscious.
As the ground work was carefully put into place I noticed that it followed quite close to the book. Normally I am not an advocate of books being made into movies but in this case…it was magical.
I felt myself transported back to my childhood, sitting in my room reading my beloved books. I felt the anxious feeling of the children being chased by the wolves. I still cried as Aslan was being shaved and killed. I felt that familiar race of my heart when the horn sounded for the war to begin. I was mystified by how the breath of a lion could bring the frozen army to life. Needless to say there was a standing ovation in the movie theater. It brought me out of my memories and into the present. Rarely does something take me so completely back. Back to a more innocent time where I sat in my room that could be made into anything I could dream. An imagination so active that I would leave this world and enter the painted pages of a book.

**addendum added to thank Mrs. Kendall my 3rd grade teacher for convincing my parents that this series was not evil. Smooches to her. She saw that this series of books were not only for boys but also for girls.

Have you ever been gripped by the uncontrollable craving for guacamole that you consider smashing an unripe avacado? Nope me neither. One would think I was pregnant. So NOT the case.

Can someone please tell me why it takes so freaking long to get a problem resolved. For instance when something I ordered for Christmas did not come I called. They had their people call my people (me) and we had a chit chat on customer service. Then after that they called back and said that it was shipped but they did not know who signed for it. Then the next response is that it was shipped, no one signed for it. It’s out in limbo somewhere. It has taken me way too much of my time to get one lousy gift.
We recently changed insurance for like the 3rd time in 8 months. (lovely corporate buyouts and changing jobs) I had some tests ran in October and then had some more done in November and December. Because they can’t seem to catch up with our tag team insurance they want us to pay over 500.00 for this. So again I have to call, get the doctor’s office to file it differently and get the insurance to recognize that we have officially changed to a different plan. You would think that this should be all together.
It seems like automation has helped with some things, yet with others it seems to just makes things more difficult. Some days I just want to scream at the top of my lungs because I waste so much of my time doing other the job of others.
The other thing that just bites me is the misuse of information. Let me clarify. I am sick and tired of there being no litigation for those who steal identities. Meaning….there is no litigation for companies to secure their records. There is no charge to a company if someone hacks into their system. There is no punishment for such a thing. There also is not any accountability or legislation for such things. After being a victim of identity theft it infuriates me that it is still happening. It literally puts a person on hold for years. For example recently Marriott lost a back up disk. They don’t know whether it was stolen or what happened to it. All that happened was an, “Oh we’re very sorry and we have notified those who’s SS#’s were stolen. WHAT THE HECK? Their hands have been washed. They have fines, no nothing. Meanwhile over 280,000 customers have to worry about their credit score. Freaking thieves. Hubby and I had a HUGE disagreement over this last night. Because we were victim to identity theft in the past we have a SS guard on our account. If we want credit we have to apply, go home, wait for the call and then go back to the business. IT SUCKS! This all happened because some lame person decided that greed was more important than their own dignity. It took us 6 years to recover from that one. SUCKS!
Don’t mind me today. I’m grumpy. I did not sleep well and I’m bugged by all the redo and back tracking I have to do today.
**grumble grumble moan…cuss ( which I rarely do)

There is a tradition in this household that the day after Christmas is our “Thanksgiving”. It’s the day we take out the list of what was given to us and write thank you notes. The last few years we only wrote to friends. This year I think we are going to try to do friends and family. I think it’s important that the people who sent things to us know that we are thankful for them not just for what they sent but for their presence in our lives. I also feel it is important that my children learn thankfulness from the top to the bottom.
For those of you who out in blogland please consider this my thank you note to you. Now I sit at almost 100,000 visits and I am amazed. Thank you for coming and visiting. Thank you for being a part of our lives. I have learned so much. Thank you for sharing your lives with us. I am a better person for knowing you.

The mayhem of the holidays is over. It is almost too quiet. Christmas Eve we had 14 for dinner and then turned around Christmas day and had 17 for Christmas dinner. It was strangely wonderful to be the host of all of the family. I enjoyed the cooking and everything else in between.
The children did beautiful. Sure when the cousins get together you can’t help but have a bicker or two but all in all they were angels. Hula Boy did not know what to think about all of the presents. He would open one and start playing with it. Then he would have another one and did not want to stop playing with the first one. So we opened his presents later and one at an attention span time.
Hula Girl got a make up set from her aunt and uncle. It had more make up than I have. They love playing dress up and putting on the make up. Yes, she’s only 8 but she doesn’t go out of the house with it on and enjoys the colors and experimenting. She also got an easel from her other auntie. She has been begging up to open it. We will. Just not right away. There’s enough stuff going on right now and too many people. It would get broken or lost right away. I think we will set it up tomorrow. Those some assembly required things are CRAZY!
Speaking of assembly required…Santa pulled a fast one and gave us bikes for everyone. Hula girl asked Santa for only one thing and that was bikes for the family for family time. Talk about laying it on thick…SHEESH! Anyway Santa delivered some assembly required bicycles. Hula Hubby was up until 2:00 am saying interesting things about Santa. Of course he showed like a pro and got it done…at 2:00 but it was done needless to say. I think Santa is on his naughty list next year!
Anyway I pray this entry finds everyone in good health and happy. Merry Christmas and happy all the other holidays to everyone.

I need a little guidance on boys. Understanding of course that I have a very active, intelligent and wonderful little boy. Lately trouble has been finding him a bit. It’s like the orneriness has come to full head and I am finding myself being overwhelmed with his antics.
Prime example… He went to his nap the other day. He was extremely tired. This generally means that he will fret around for a few minutes then fall asleep. He would have done that EXCEPT after 30 minutes of listening to him fool around I decided to intervene and go into his room. What I was met with would shake any mother to her bones.
I walked in to discover HH’s room in a shambles. He had taken everything out of his drawers to make a “nest”! Ok I had just done laundry and all of his stuff was (emphasis on WAS) clean. I noticed that he had used his dresser drawers to walk himself up onto his dresser. On his dresser there is a baby station and it has wipes, grooming items, CD’s and Vaselin*. He had taken the tube of vaseline and used it (while standing on his dresser) to get down the Vic* and Pediatric Cough Syrup. This shelf is HIGH! He managed to knock his name letters off as well. All of the wipes were out of the box and all over the floor. The tubes of Vaselin* he squirted on his bed and his wall and the floor. He used the baby lotion to “decorate” his sheets. He could not get the Vic* open (thank you God!) Then he got open the cough syrup. YES THE CHILD “SAFE” SYRUP! He drank most of the bottle. The rest was on the floor. When I opened the door he was spraying his eye wash all of the wall, his bed, and l himself and pouring out what little cough syrup was left onto his bed.
Most would call this chemistry, I call this destructive. I freaked out and called Poison Control and picked him up to put him in the car to go down the street to the hospital. By the time Poison Control answered me on whether the dosage was lethal or if it was alright we were at the hospital and getting out of the car. He would be either sleepy or wired but perfectly fine. Guess which one he was???!!! WIRED OF COURSE!
When asked repeatedly why he did this his only excuse….he wanted a pull up because he won’t come out of his room to go potty during nap! He has not used a pull up for a while now. The last pack I bought was in September and we are still using them for bedtime. When asked why he did everything else…his reasoning…he had gone potty on the floor and used everything else to cover up what he had done. AAACCCHHHHHHHHH I think I may lose my mind!
So in the true spirit of natural consequences he could not come out of his room until he had brought me every stitch of clothing to either A.) be put back in his dresser or B.) put in the washing machine. Then he had to strip his bed, not sleep with cookie for a night, (because cookie got pee on him) and not sleep with his normal bunny because bunny had an unfortunate smear of Vaselin*. He went to bed early because after being wired for 3 hours he dropped like a rock.
We have always talked about medication and how to not take it unless we give it to him. We have discussed climbing and how he needs to be safe and not climb his bed. (never thought of his dresser because of the safety buttons installed and yep he has figured them out as well) We have discussed EVERYTHING that he did. Obviously there is a disconnect when it comes to common sense! It’s going to be a long childhood for us if he keeps this up!

This is the first year that we are doing Christmas at our house. Granted our house is…well small. It’s 1200 square feet up and the same in the basement. So basically it will be a cozy Christmas. This is the first year that we have not had Hula Hubby’s parents in town to host the festivities. Because Genuine’s house is larger we generally go there, but this time we just felt like we should try to do something here and not make them do everything all the time. So voilà it will be here! I’m actually excited! 9 adults and 6 children. We can fit…RIGHT?
The menu is ready to go. It’s simple but I’m salivating just looking at it!!!

Appetizers
Prime Rib
Scalloped Potatoes
Broccoli
Salad
Mushrooms
Gravy
Pies

YUMMY! I can’t wait! It will be worth the close quarters I hope.

For Christmas Hula Hubby decided that he was going to build Lincoln Logs for our Genuine Nephew. As he was going along the set became bigger and bigger. Along with the set he wrote and is enclosing this note. For some reason it just makes me smile clear down to my toes when I read it!

“My grandfather made Lincoln Logs for all the grandchildren in the family along with 100’s of other children who passed through his life. Every couple years he would add to our set so by the time I was a teenager the set my brother and I had was capable of making some pretty extravagant structures. I always cherished the Lincoln Logs as they were something my grandfather took the time to make. I have many childhood memories of building and playing with them. Since my grandfather has passed away I have taken to making them for the next generation. The first set I made was several years ago for Hula Nephew. This year I am making a set for Genuine Nephew, nieces Findland Niece and Paris Niece along with several other sets for the families that opened up their homes to my family as we spent time in Europe this last year.

Hopefully in the midst of electronic toys and video games the next generation of children will continue to enjoy playing with a simple set of Lincoln Logs that brought me endless hours of enjoyment in my childhood.”

And that folks is number 1,034,988,400 why I love him!

Today Hula Boy came crying to me. He was horribly upset.
Him - “Mommy I need to go to the hopital” (that’s how he pronounces it!)
Me - “Are you alright honey? No I don’t think you need to go to the hospital.”
Him - “YES I DO!!!!! MY COOKIE NEEDS TO GO TO THE HOPITAL” (Cookie is his blanket)
Me - breathing a sigh of relief and trying not to snicker too loud “No honey Cookie does not need to go to the hopital. He’s fine.”
Him - “NO HE’S NOT! HE’S LOSING HIS STRINGS AND HE NEEDS TO GET THEM FIXED!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Me - “AW honey (giggle snort) it’s ok. He will be ok.”
Him - “HE’S SICK. HE’S BAD SICK. HE’S LOSING ALL HIS STRINGS! HE NEEDS HELP. CALL 911!”
Me - “Well honey, I’ll take a look at it and see if we can fix it.” *giggle snort turns and runs away

So guess what I’ll be doing??!! Cookie repair. Now how to fix a chenille blanket (my blanket that he adopted!)

What an amazing time. Those who got to watch the show to answer your question…YES! I was the woman in the middle with a black shawl and gray skirt. The one that was always picking a fight!!! It was a FUN FUN part to play! There were a few blurbs and blunders but through it all it was the best show to be a part of. What an amazing experience.
We had a friend in from Belgium this weekend as well. We had a lovely time and did all of the tourist type things. That is always enjoyable. She brought chocolate. YUMMY! Of course we don’t just love her for her chocolate but we love her more for bringing the lovely morsels of sweet blessing!
Yesterday we ditched school and took our friend skiing. What a hoot. HG did AMAZING! I was shocked to see her running the hills like a pro. (of course that’s mommy language for I’m so stinking proud of her for not crying and giving up!!) I hiked and sat in the lodge all day. I just really wanted a day of rest. It was amazing. I saw tracks through town that looked like bear tracks and by jingle they were. That set my feet pointed toward town in a fast hurry.
Thank you to all that watched our production. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed performing!