Ode to the Christmas Tree

Oh Christmas Tree, oh Christmas tree,
Why do you cost so much mon-eee.

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree,
Why must you take so much from me.

My husband allllmost broke his back,
trying to cuuutt you down so flat.


Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree
I think Jack haaasss to go pee-pee.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, I hope you are as blessed as we are feeling today. If you are hungry, come on over because I think I cooked WAY too much food. If you are not hungry, come over because everyone can eat more. If you don't know if you are hungry, come over and eat but really work on being a bit more decisive in your life. And for a bit of fun, Sonia's Top Ten Thankfulness Thanksgiving 2008:

1. Jesus. He died for you, you know. You should check the man out if you don't know him. He cool; very, very cool.
2. Alabama, Alabama, Alabama
3. A husband that just came home from Peru with varying gifts of Peruvian origin
4. Kids that helped serve the homeless this morning and woke up at 6am to do so; bright-eyed and ready to serve. I heart them.
5. Alabama, Alabama, Alabama.
6. Friends who are on Facebook and off...though the one's ON Facebook I enjoy slightly more.
7. Trader Joes. Because no one really carries better Thanksgiving food than them.
8. The lovely people at Costco bakeries across America who never fail to deliver the world's best pumpkin pie for only $5.99.
9. Alabama, Alabama, Alabama.
10.Our Alabama house awaiting us. God is good.

Have a great Thanksgiving! Be blessed!

Learnin lessons like a grown up

Do you ever have those moments in your life when you really feel like the grown up? When it hits you that the balls in your court kid, only it's not playground basketball anymore..it's the big leagues and these decisions will last well beyond recess? I am having one of those moments..again. Without going into too much detail we are dealing with another tough school decision...seems to be our running theme since we moved here hasn't it? John and I are big supporters of Christian education, always have been, always will be but boy are we experiencing SUCH disappointment. Long, long story very short...we removed Jason from 1st quarter English because we STRONGLY disagreed with the chosen novel, The Hatchet.


He ended up being independently assigned the honors english novel, Call of the Wild...not a problem there but it was a big stress for Jason and I to keep the pace of that, get the work done, take all of the tests, all with ZERO support from the school. It was very much a you don't like what we choose, then here. Figure it out yourself type of mentality. Knowing it was the right decision we pushed through. When I was informed of the next novel they were studying(now that I have lost COMPLETE faith in their ability to make sound choices) I started looking into it and let me just say...it's happening again. The Giver.


Anyone read it? Note that they are both Newberry Medal winners...uhhh, Broke Back Mountain won the Oscar, enough said. These secualar awards mean nothing to me. I start reading it tomorrow before Jason begins/or doesn't begin for that matter next Monday. I am actually in shock that this is happening again. So that's my story for the day. Sorry no smiles here today....I'm too busy playing in the grown up league. Grown up league bites.

There she goes again

So by now I know you must all be writing John letters begging him to come home with the camera so you can log on to the blog and just see good ole' fashioned cuteness about the boys instead of listening to my ramblings and musing on life. So sorry people, you still have a few more days so hang on! Here we go again:

Does this bother anyone but me?


Who says YOU are doing the most good? Was there a contest? Were you certified by someone as doing the MOST good? Does it come off kind of cocky to you? Hmm, it does to me. I know plenty of people and organizations that are doing A WHOLE LOT OF GOOD, who says their not the most. Other suggestions the Salvation Army might want to consider:

The Salvation Army: Doing a whole lotta' good!
The Salvation Army: Giving people food cause people can't live without food, and clothes...because no one wants to see other's walking around naked. Yuck.
The Salvation Army: Embezzling all of your money for our own selfish gain. Oh, wait that was Enron. My bad. Disregard last suggestion.
The Salvation Army: Trying our best in this economy. (Because again, we all must blame something on the economy(reference about me post)
The Salvation Army: We don't have guns like the real army but we can throw canned goods at your enemy if you need us.

There you have it, another peak inside of what fills my mind on a daily basis. The good(not the MOST good apparently), the bad and the ugly.(I think the ugly is the chicken/egg sandwhich post)the egg industry has my sincere apology. Kind of.

Justin v Compound Words

Had a good laugh today...Justin and I began working on syllables and compound words today. I began reading him a sentence that he was then supposed to pull out the two words that would become the compound word, the sentence went a little sumpin like this,
"A cloth for a table."

Justin's reply:
"A really big napkin that you can spread out."

Huh, maybe I should re-evaluate my skills and/or aspirations at teaching my son first grade. Perhaps my knowledge ended somewhere around this age:

What the?

Deep thoughts by Sonia...edition 3. The egg. Who, I ask you who! Saw an egg fall from a chickens hiney and said, "hmmm, I think I could eat that." or "Hey kids! I just found lunch!" And then when they cracked it open and saw the raw yolk in all of it's slimy glory were they more excited or less so? And at one point when they must have cracked it and discovered this:

Did they do this?

did they try to eat that with a side of bacon? Is this how Chick-Fil-A got it's name?
The times in my life I have ever seen anything fall from anyone's or anything's hiney(which four kids and many farm field trips later is surprisingly often) I have NEVER had the urge to pop it on the grill and eat it up for dinner. Never. So who was this mysterious person. I shall add him(because let's just be real people, we know it was a HIM) to my list of people I'd like to meet one day.

Clip Art

Whilest we are on the subject of things that perplex Sonia; let me just throw another one out there. Clip art. How do those pictures of those people come to be a part of clip art? Did they audition for this? Are they compensated for their time and downloadableness? I have some submissions for clip art that I would like Mr. Bill Gates or whomever to consider.

Exhibit A:This is my suggestion for water, or children, or...my personal favorite:grass seed. Because if you look in the background this is what our yard looked like when we first moved in. Boy have we come along way and I owe it all to grass seed, thus I feel strongly that this is clip art worthy.



Exhibit B: Cute. Come on people, it's twins...on a well SEEDED lawn with a teddy bear. That should pop up first when one types in "cute."



Exhibit C: Military, wife, lonely, stinkin funny. This is what happens when this country goes to war. Women are left behind with no one to kiss, hold, hug when the Air Force Ball rolls around...I mean really. Where are our priorities?!



Exhibit D: Multi-tasking. Don't laugh, I'd like to see you breastfeed, talk on the phone and feed a baby all at the same time..on about 2.1 hours of sleep. Yep, multi-tasking..definitely clip art material.


Exhibit E: Cold. This was our yard in North Dakota. Nuff said. Anyone who thinks this doesn't qualify as cold I am going to beat up.




Exhibit F:Loveable....and/or spoiled but loveable none the less.(and who would want their picture to come up when someone types in spoiled. Yuck.


Exhibit G:History. This would NEVER happen in our home now. Yep, most definitely HISTORY!




Standby for more clip art suggestions. I must go mother my children now...sigh...time to feed them...again. Does anyone know if they sell troughs for your kitchen? Oh! Trough! There is another one! I have four suggestions for that!
1.

2.

3.

4.

A bit about me

So I have no camera and in my quest to document our life on a somewhat daily basis and John boy not due home with my camera for a few more days I am forced to be a bit more creative...yikes. So here goes, a few things about me. I was going to name this post 10 things about me...but that was a lot of pressure to see if I could come up with 10 things. And with the state of the economy who needs more pressure...ha, just kidding, the economy has nothing to do with it, I just think everyone needs to blame something on the economy...it makes it sound like we all watch CNN..a lot. TMI doesn't even begin to cover it so look away now if you wish. So, with no further adoo..a few things...


1. I am intrigued by canned meat. I saw ground turkey in a can today at the commissary and let me just tell ya...it ain't lookin nothing like turkey. Who buys that? And while we are at it, who buys the pigs feet in the jars too? Our commissary doesn't carry fresh basil, but jarred pigs feet we got!



2.My favorite word is serendipity. I must confess I don't even quite know what it means but it's just such a happy little word to say.



3. Every morning when I put my makeup on, I inevitably poke myself with the mascara brush in my left eye. It then starts to water, and hurt like heck, and then it waters more so there I sit in my underwear on the toilet seat with toilet paper over my eye trying to stop the deafening pain occuring in my eyeball. Which then leads to the makeup on that side of my face running off my face and looking like a smeared mess and giving the appearance that I have been crying. I then do my best to fix it, come out of the bathroom and then get asked by my husband what is wrong. To which I reply, "nothing is wrong, I poked my eye." To which he says, "No really, what is wrong." To which I then get angry..irritable that he keeps asking me when NOTHING IS WRONG! So then we start our day in a huff even though nothing is WRONG! The next day, I rise, poke my eye, and the vicious cycle starts all over again.



4. People arguing with someone whom they are talking to on their blue tooth makes me giggle.



5. I have learned more about the character of others in the last 4 months than I have in 30 years. Disappointing, frightening and encouraging all at the same time.



6. I love movies. There is few things I enjoy more than a funny movie with a big bowl of popcorn in my pajamas. I love the movie "Elf." Yet I only watch it beginning on Thanksgiving day until Christmas and then it goes back up on the dusty shelf until next year. I look forward to that movie every year. I don't know if it's the grown man in tights that does it for me or what.



7. I don't pee or fart in front of my husband. I find that to be weird.



8. I find marriage to be one of the most entertaining gifts that God gave us on this earth. I love how each marriage is it's own story..or soap opera whichever the case may be...and I adore listening to stories of people that have been married to each other for decades. I can't wait to be one of those people.



9. I never thought I'd do two things in my life: have twins and homeschool. Nuff said. I adore both.



10. I think argyle looks equally good on men and women.



11. Tid-bit 2 made me feel as though I should look up the word serendipity whilest I was thinking about it. So here it is the official definition of serendipity:the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely. ...



12. I often wonder if my husband finds me funny. It takes a lot to make him laugh out loud. Of course he has seen me naked so that would provoke a laugh in anyone.

Arghhh!

What to do, what to do!
He:


Took this:


With him on a trip somewhere here:


So I have:


It's like the Seinfeld blog now. Nothing to blog about because I have no ability to add photos which serve as proof of the exact level of mayhem that occurs around here. Because really, we all know ya'll(I am practicing my southern for Alabama) wouldn't believe half the stories I tell you without the photographic proof. (Which my lawyer tells me would hold up in a court of law....okay, I don't have a lawyer, nor do I have a court of law...shucks)
All the more reason why I REALLY want one of these for Christmas!

Sincerely Sorrowful Sorry for Sophie- sigh-

I am post office challenged. I cannot seem to ever get here:

So that gifts end up on their way via these:

Which technicaly makes me one of these:


I am currently looking for a support group for assistance in this area. And I owe SUCH a sorry to the cutest little one year old girl ever, Sophie. The boys and I were so excited to get her a birthday present, I mean come on! Finally an exscuse to go down the pink aisle! Hello! This was a big day for us! We bought her such a cute gift that the boys picked out that is practically oozing pink and lookie-look. Here it sits. On my buffett. Not in a big brown truck on it's way to Chicago. -sigh- So Sophie, here is a picture of it...may it be as fun to look at as it is to play with? Uhhh, no. I promise it will get to you sooner or later....maybe for your sweet 16 perhaps?!! I am sure you will find it practically endearing at 16 as you would at 1...maybe....possibly....uhhh, again no.

Did you hear?

Did you hear that brown is the new black? Did you also hear that $304 a week..$304.87 to be exact.. on groceries is the new $200? Yep, do not adjust your computer monitor.....$300 this week for groceries. Ummm, hello! I am feeling a bit weak and nauseous....$300 a week....$1,200/month on groceries...it's only a $100 a week increase over last year but goodnight! At this rate we are going to be at $3,000 a month once they all end in the age of ..teen.
I may sell a boy.
Buy a herd of these:

And live on one of these:

Because these kids are going to put us in here: