Home, for everyone

Thank you to everyone who has sent their well wishes, thoughts and prayers for my Dad. We are all thankful that after a 10-day stay in the hospital (and our family's MOST unusual Christmas ever) that he was able to come home on Sunday. So he is home and recovering and will start chemo in a month. I am home with the kids now for New Years, but my heart is with my mom & dad and will be until this ordeal is over.

I hope you all have a happy and safe New Year's!

Update

My dad's surgery went well. Unfortunately, the tumor was large -- the size of an apple!!!!!! -- and it had completely breached the colon wall. It had engulfed his urethra and was resting on his sacrum (tailbone). So the removal itself was a lot more involved. They had a urologist come in to re-attach the urethra, but they had to scrape the tailbone which causes significant pain. They won't know until Tuesday if the cancer has spread into the bones, but right now it doesn't look like the liver, kidneys or any other organ is involved. He will definitely need chemo.

The upside? He'll be able to eat again by Sunday. Also, because the tumor was so high up he won't need any "accessories" down the road. His colon should function fine. Now he needs to get his strength back up for the chemo.

It has all happened so suddenly -- I woke up this morning thinking it wasn't real.

We're heading to Naples this morning.

Now what?

That stress from the other day? The one where I was wondering how I was going to get everything done? And had presents to make/wrap? And was still thinking of more things to do? That stress?

That was nothing.

Yesterday my wonderful, loving Dad was diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer. As I type this he is being prepped for surgery.

NOW I'm stressed.

Mom is maxxed

I'm feeling the Countdown to Christmas stress right now, that feeling like you want to do so much more, but you know you're not going to get around to it. So if you don't get a tin of cookies this year, I'm so sorry but we we've been playing Candy Land for hours every day and it really cuts into my ability to get things done. But I'm thinking of you!

I might even wimp all the way out and pick up dinner from Let's Eat or Foodies - you know those places that might as well be called "Mom Gave Up on Cooking But Doesn't Want to Order a Pizza." Nothing wrong with that, right? I mean, when it comes down to it what's better: a homemade meal of grilled cheese and apple slices or picking up a frozen tray of chicken marsala? Oh hell, I don't even have to think about it to know that the kids would eat neither meal. Whatever. Cheerios it is. Maybe I can talk M into getting Pei Wei.

I love the concept of those dinner places though. Very handy. Some of their choices even look like things the kids would at least try (at least D. Not so much A.) Too bad they don't have one called "Your Kids are Ready!" which would deliver your children to the breakfast table in their school clothes, faces scrubbed, hair & teeth brushed, bed made, lunch/snack made, backpacks packed, ON TIME. The amount of nagging it takes to get them to breakfast by 7:15 is incredible. I don't have any idea AT ALL how my mom did it with five kids.

*NOTE: My dad & my aunt are scheduled to have major medical procedures this week. If you are a praying sort of person, please say one for them. Thanks!

This old house, part 24203

Note to self: If you have any desire whatsoever to go to bed in a cozy house on a cold night, you must turn the boiler on before 5:00 pm. Especially if your house is an un-insulated, leaky-windowed, 85 year old. With only an ancient boiler/radiator system for heat.

The Christmas spirit

Take one rainy, chilly, grey morning. Add a toddler. Subtract two humongous outdoor shopping malls, three Targets, two Michaels, one Bed Bath & Beyond. Multiply by one Starbuck's Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate (ohmygoodnessyum) and a donut.

Add an impossible-to-find mini-bundt Cake Pan (which I've spent hours* searching for):



The result? Christmas Spirit!!

It may also have something to do with looking forward to getting our tree tonight, and decorating this weekend, and M & I have a party to go to tomorrow. YAY Christmas is almost here!

*Most of the hours I spent searching for this pan are a direct result of 1) my failure to secure said pan well before the Christmas baking rush and 2) the young, male customer service guys at Target who have NO IDEA AT ALL what I meant by "mini-Bundt." One dude even asked me if it was something for a car. So when one guy at a store told me he had found it and was holding it for me and when I showed up it was actually a pan for oversize muffins, I wasn't too surprised. But I was a bit miffed that I had spent an hour driving in pouring rain to a Target that is practically in another county.

Apres-ski

We are home from our wonderful ski vacation and boy did we have a great time! Park City was so cool, the weather was perfect and M got in three straight days of skiing. There was just a bit of snow in PC, so we ended up skiing Snowbird and Alta. M declared Alta "perfect." At one point there, he was gone for about two hours straight. Since I didn't know about things like mid-mountain lifts, I thought he was lying dead in some snow covered ditch and was just about to get worried when he came back down.

And can I call myself a skier now? I don't know 'bout that -- but I did have two lessons (I probably need two more) and managed to ride a chairlift and ski down a hill. I freaked out on the chairlift and let out quite a yelp, shriek, screech, terrified scream when I got off. But it was great fun and I'm already looking forward to doing it again.

But now.... I've got a house to decorate, groceries to buy, cookies to make, presents to wrap, and 28,000 loads of laundry. I love vacations!

Do they show SEC football in Utah?

Oooh I hope so. I just realized we'll be in Utah for the SEC championship game. I will probably have to go directly from dinner to a sports bar and hope they have a CBS satellite feed. Otherwise I'll be the chick in the Salt Lake City airport at 6:00 a.m. Sunday running around asking people if the Gators beat the Tide.

When we lived in Pittsburgh I got burned many times watching SEC football, only to have it rudely, suddenly preempted by something local. Big East. Whatever. Ugh.

GO GATORS!

What am I DOING?

What do you do before you go on a trip? A little laundry? Last minute errands? Pack?

Yeah, me too. BUT I also clean the whole house top to bottom like the Queen Mum herself was coming to tea. AND I still have to do errands, laundry and pack. But not until my rugs are washed, darn it.

How we roll

One of my sisters paid us a very nice compliment this week saying that she thought it was awesome that we give the kids freedom to be creative and express themselves without going crazy correcting them. Thanks sister Debbie! Though, truth be told, I never really thought I was being awesome. It was mostly me being too lazy or too tired to correct every little phonetical spelling error. D is a very prolific writer.

I hope she also thinks it is awesome that we give the kids freedom to be creative and express themselves in the way they dress. Because I am also too tired and/or too lazy to try to get everyone into matching outfits unless it is a Very Special Occasion. So here's how we roll:




Good thing the kids are cute, huh?


And that, my dear friends and readers, concludes NaBloPoMo 2008. Whew. We're off skiing this week so I won't be blogging, but catch me next week for awesome pictures of me wearing ski pants! And hats! And ear-warming-thingys. You know you can't wait. Kisses, T.

Hitting the wall here

Home from Thanksgiving, pleasantly full of turkey & pie.

Got home later than expected - kids eating cold cereal and noodles with butter. I'm looking forward to some Pei Wei in about an hour when they are tucked in and dreaming.

Tired, but happy and looking forward to skiing next week! Woohoo!

One more day of NaBloPoMo!

Black Friday

I normally don't shop on Black Friday, and normally don't shop in stores. I'm an online kinda girl. But I have been enjoying all of the super November sales, so much so that I'm pretty well done with my Christmas shopping. Woohoo! Go me!

Which means this year I can go out with my sisters on Black Friday and shop for myself! I carefully pre-planned the trip, first by telling M he can go golfing on Thursday morning with my dad & Shane. So now he'll have kid duty Friday -- mmwwwhahahahah. Next, I've got my coupons carefully arranged, including the awesome Beauty Insider one I just got from Sephora (smooches!), and my list planned. I definitely need stuff for our ski trip next week: the best moisturizing sunblock money can buy, lip balm by the gallon, something warm and pretty to wear to dinner, a pair of slippers, comfy pants for the plane ride, ear wamer-thingys, a knee brace. But the thing we need most of all is not to be found in sunny Florida: ski socks. We'll probably have to wait until we get to Utah and buy them there when we rent our skis. Actually, I probably need a couple of regular pair of socks too, which bums me out because I hate socks. They make me so uncomfortable. And I don't really own any. I've got a few pairs of the little white ones you wear to work out, two pairs of SmartWool short hiking socks and one pair of black trouser socks. Except for hiking or working out, I've only worn socks maybe a dozen times since I stopped working four years ago. I kid you not. My feet just don't get cold. And, like I said, I don't like socks. But I do wear them under boots. And I guess that goes for ski boots too.

Happy Shopping! Maybe I'll see you at the shops as I walk off the turkey and pie in support of our economy!

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm doing this for NaBloPoMo (just 3 more days!), but I can't imagine why anyone would be reading today.

Go enjoy your family, turkey, pie, peace and quiet, whatever you've got going today.

Love,
Trish

Perfect egg salad in 23 minutes

We love egg salad here at Three's Company -- we usually have eggs in the house and it is cheap, easy and delish! And since the kids don't eat eggs I can tart it up however I'd like.

But hard boiling eggs is one of those kitchen tasks that I always forget I'm doing. I'll put my pan of eggs on to boil, walk away merrily, and hey! presto! 20 minutes later I'm wondering what the bubbly rumbly noise is coming from the kitchen. I'm lucky I haven't burnt the house down.

Anyway, when I do remember the eggs are cooking before they turn to rubber, I make the bestest egg salad in the world.

Twenty-three Minute Egg Salad

Place eggs in saucepan, cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and cook for one minute, uncovered. Turn off heat, cover pan and let sit 12 minutes. Drain water, cover cooked eggs with cold water and ice cubes. Let sit for 10 minutes.

Peel eggs and chop roughly. Mix eggs with sour cream, mayo, salt & pepper, dill, dry mustard, pickle relish, chopped, rinsed capers, or whatever else floats your boat.

Yum!

For the birds!

We went to the beach yesterday with a friend and her two kids. It was a perfect beach day - high 70s, no humidity, bright sun. Freezing cold water. There were some tourists sitting next to us and they were the only ones in the water. They must have been from someplace really cold like Iceland or Canada or Maine. I got brain freeze just sticking my toes in. Of course the kids were having a blast splashing and splishing.

We also brought along a picnic lunch, but were totally molested by hyper-aggressive seagulls the minute we started to eat. Why, why, why do people insist on feeding these things? It's just crazy. Feral cats, squirrels, seagulls... they should all be fending for themselves. So two huge seagulls dive bombed us just as we started eating, one grabbed my sandwich right out of my hand, the other went for poor D... actually nipped her finger and drew blood! Later, A was standing with a large seashell in his hand and it must have looked crackerish to the birds because they bombed us again. Two hovered right over my friend's head, flapping in her face. It was nuts. And a shame because it is (was) one of the nicest picnic beaches around.

Today is baking day and we'll see how that winds up what with the two kids home all day. Already I might have screwed up because I was making my sugar cookie dough this a.m. and D distracted me (she wanted to know how to spell something) and I dumped the baking powder into the butter/sugar mixture instead of sifting it with the other dry ingredients. So there's proof positive that I can't spell & bake at the same time. Then I slightly overtoasted my pecans because the dog suddenly threw up. Of course she threw up because she's been off her regular food for a day now because I keep forgetting to go to the pet store so we've had to feed her some little sample packets (Duck & Potato!) of food we've had lying around.

So I'm sticking all the cookie dough into the fridge and running out RIGHT NOW for dog food. As soon as I email my pecan pie recipe to my friend who needs it. And stop the kiddos from killing each other.

Have a nice Tuesday!

Elf on the shelf?

We're going to start the "Elf on the Shelf" tradition with the kids this year, in addition to the Advent calendar, setting up the nativity scene and our other traditions. I think they'll get a kick out of it and it will help prolong D "believing" for a while. Although someone at school must be spreading rumors about Santa as she's been asking some pointed and difficult questions. Like I said, it's hard to put some things past her.

But first, Thanksgiving! We're going to my parents this year and they're hosting our whole family plus my s-i-l's so it'll be quite a crowd! Tuesday sister Debbie is coming over to help me decorate my Thanksgiving cookies - I've made acorns, turkeys, leaves and pumpkins in regular sugar cookie dough and (my new fave for decorated cookies) chocolate-cayenne pepper dough. The pepper isn't hot, compliments the chocolate and cuts the sweetness of the royal icing. I'm sure the kids won't eat it but maybe the adults will.

I'm also in charge of the kid's craft table and I was hoping to get cute little Thanksgiving themed foamie kits at Michaels, but they were totally into Christmas when I went in this week. Apparently the time to shop for Thanksgiving is Sept/Oct. So I'm going to improvise with paper plate Turkeys and other fall crafts from Family Fun. Lotsa fun.

Facebook = crack

Yeah, I'm on Facebook. I've gotten in touch with a bunch of my high school buddies. I love it but can't believe I let it happen. Between the blogs and that, I could be one of those online addicts you hear about. I have to make a (more) serious effort to only go online after the kids go to bed.

What would happen if I got a iPhone? Would I grow a wi-fi port on the side of my head?

One of those nights

Last night M was sick. Kids were on sugar-cookie-highs. One of those nights when it was all I could do to crack open a can of vegetable soup and make french bread pizzas.

One more week of NaBloPoMo!

Dere Santa

D has been hard at work on her Dear Santa letters.

Here is what A wants from Santa (according to big sis D):
Paritkit with paritkit food
Robot
Lots of balls

Here is what D wants:
Paritkit and paritkit food
A magik kit
easy bak ovin
a Pixos (Santa is NOT bringing anything that has 42,000 small beads. I'd rather get the paritkit.)
A totally funky science kit (this she saw in a Wal-Mart catalogue)
iDog (Huh? I'll have to google this)
Easy bak frosting pen

She ended both the letters with the p/s "I will give you cookies"

I'm not sure where the "paritkit" idea came from. But she is definitely getting the ez bake and the magic kit. We've spent almost a year explaining to her that magic tricks are tricks, not real magic and I think she's about 75% of the way to understanding that. Although she'll still say things like when I get my magic kit I'm going to change all the lightbulbs to candy! Then I'll explain (again) how magic is just tricks and she'll go on about how candy lightbulbs ARE a real trick because we wouldn't have any light.

Can't argue with that. Mommy needs some hot buttered rum.

Only one problem

We are all set for our ski vacation. Got the gear, got a plan for apres-ski, got our tickets, got reservations for a fancy-schmancy dinner, got my parents to watch the kids. Only one little problem....

THEY HAVEN'T GOT SNOW!