The month in review…

Why yes, I have been meaning to write for OVER a month now! Life as been running at 1000mph since we returned from Maui! I had all of these great and hilarious stories to write about but I realize now that I will NEVER catch up if I stick to my obsessive/compulsive need to write things in chronological order. So, I think I’ll bullet point and picture post to catch up:

• Returned from Maui and found that if you are a week behind on your life when you leave for vacation…you will come back and be 2 weeks behind on everything in your life!
• Had our dear friends over for Thanksgiving. Fact #1 – the heart-healthy websites that state mashed cauliflower are a great healthy alternative to mashed potatoes are lying! We had mashed gloppy goo. Ick. Fact #2 – You can eat whatever you want on Thanksgiving and not gain an ounce IF you and your equally deranged girlfriend decide to stay up ALL NIGHT to go Black Friday shopping from 3am – 10am. Talk about calories burned!! [I REALLY will have to write about that shopping experience!]

Here we are at the mall at 4am!! It was like the running of the bulls!!

• If you wrestle near the sharp corner of an entertainment center too many times, someone will eventually get hurt. The Captain cracked his head open. After my initial panic when I actually screamed "Oh my goodness – your brains are falling out of the back of your head!" I realized his brains were still intact and safely tucked away behind his skull. I ended up gluing him back together with superglue. The hardest part was trying to cut his hair away with him crying without stabbing him in his open wound. I am SO not cut out for a career in nursing!!! Look away if you have a weak stomach – seriously!

Told ya!

• We took the kids down to Ocean Shores for a few days right after Thanksgiving. Freezing but fun! I’m glad we went when we did. Exactly one week later it was hit with over 100mph winds during our big storm/flood.
• I spent the next few days after our trip, planning/decorating/putting on an all-church talent show and Christmas dinner. I spent 12-14 hours days at the church – but in the end it was all worth it! The decorations were beautiful! I will post video soon of my talent show acts.

Here are the decorations. The hanging stars took HOURS to make but are beautiful!

Here is a photo of my all girl band "The Go-Go’s". I rewrote the words of their song "Vacation" to "Salvation". Very fun!!! I think I want to be in a band now…

Sadly, I had forgotten my tank top at home so I couldn’t complete my flashdance look and had to wear my long sleeve shirt under my cut off sweatshirt.

• Decorated the Christmas tree and nobody could reach to get the star on top. I climbed onto the bench in our bay window and tried to hoist Chia up with the star. I lost my balance and we ALMOST fell on top of the tree.

Then I tried a kitchen stool…

• The Colonel has had a little too much "Nacho Libre" in his life lately…

• This is what happens when I try to make a gingerbread house. It ended up being a "Man vs. Wild" lean-to:

• Here’s Jen’s (she won the contest):

(I took this when It was only partly done.)

• I finally hit the "lost 50 lbs" mark this week! YAY!! A friend was kind enough to give me a box of See’s candies. (Which I love!) I realized by the time I took a little bite out of each on e to see what the flavors were…I had already reached a serving size!

I don’t know if you can tell – but they all have a nibble out of them. I feel that I’m doing the family a favor by enlightening them as to what all of the flavors are. Hubby disagrees.

Ok – I have a haircut appt in less than an hour so I have to scoot. Maybe my New Year’s resolution will be to write more consistently…