ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Shhhhhhh...........do you hear that........it's the sound of peace and quiet! No more shopping, no more wrapping, no more cleaning the basement for the next party, no more "after party clean-ups", no more holiday visiting! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Blissful relaxation! The thought of stepping foot into another store just makes me want to vomit!......Did you ever think you'd hear me say that I'm all shopped out??!! Me either! But I am! I'm never shopping again! LOL!

I haven't blogged in over 2 weeks because I just haven't had the time....and when I did have time I was either sick or didn't have enough energy to lift my lazy ass off the couch! So I'll recap the last 2 weeks.

Before the official holiday started I had 4 classroom Christmas parties to help out with...I had to skip out on one of Smurfette's (she has 2 different schools and so had 2 different parties....so I didn't feel all that bad) because it was my last chance to get HER Christmas shopping done.

The last time I blogged I was feeling sick. Well, the week after the doc told me to let it "run it's course" I STILL had a sore throat. So on the morning of Sunday the 22nd (the day we had the my family's Christmas party) I hit my Doctor neighbor up for a prescription....I had been sick for almost 2 weeks and had had enough but didn't have the time to go back to my doctors office. So I begged my neighbor to call in a prescription for me which he graciously did....I have to say that having a doc next door definitely has it's perks! Within 24 hours of the 1st dose I felt like a new person! I finished my last dose of the z-pack on the 26th and now, 6 days later I think I've reinfected my self with my toothbrush....I forgot to get rid of it when I was on my antibiotics and now my throat hurts again.....UGH!

So anyway, we hosted our annual Christmas party with my Dad's side of the family on the 22nd. It was a good time. Santa made his yearly stop to our house with gifts for the kids. It was a fun day. I had a minor melt down with my family because I found out the day before the party that 19 of the 38 family members that had previously told me they were coming.....suddenly couldn't make it. I was a little peaved to say the least. But what can you do?

Then we also had Christmas day at our house with my mom's side of the family. We enjoyed ourselves and had a great Christmas Day. Hefty Smurf scored it a 9.5 on a 10 point scale...lol!

Then the Thursday after Christmas Hefty went to bed with a low grade fever and said he "just didn't feel right". We woke up at 2 am to the sound of "splat cough cough, splat cough cough"......that would be the sound of Hefty standing in the middle of the hallway (right next to the bathroom door) puking....So I started yelling "HEFTY.....THE TOILET!........GO..........TO.......THE TOILET!!!!" What would possess an 11 year old to just stand and puke on the floor. I understand not being able to make it to the toilet but at least show a little EFFORT in getting there! It was everywhere.....the entire length of the hallway was covered in vomit....it was up the walls.....covering the baseboards.....It took us a half hour to clean it up. I thought being a nurse was kinda like riding a bike....once you develop a strong stomach for certain things you'll always have a strong stomach.....Yeah....not so much.........I'm definitely out of practice!

That bout of stomach flu prompted us to cancel our plans to attend our friends' holiday party on Friday night. These friends live in Arizona and were in from out of town for the holidays staying with her parents and were throwing a holiday party at her parents' home. Part of me was of course disappointed to not see them because we only see them a couple times each year but the other part of me was almost relieved to not have somewhere to go that night. I needed to just sit back and relax for an evening.....the irony of that story is....the next day...Saturday....I drove the boys to gymnastics (Hefty was feeling better by then) and I ended up running into them at Walmart! What are the chances!?

Then Sunday night we had a holiday party at a neighbors house and had lots of fun.

Of course we had to add to all the stress by having the brilliant idea of giving our kitchen a face lift during the middle of the holidays. We went shopping for new appliances and HAD to have them delivered the day after Christmas....brilliant aye?!....and then we went shopping for counters and just HAD to have them come out to have the template for the granite made the day after that....the Thursday after Christmas....brilliant aye?! Why couldn't we wait to do all this until after the holiday's you ask?.....that's a very good question.....and I'll get back with you as soon as I have an answer to that!......But it looks really nice so far and the counters should be in in a couple weeks! YEAY! We've hated our counters since the day we bought this house....We see these damn counters in bowling alley bars.....gas station counters.....and the latest... Barnes and noble bathroom vanity.....it was time!

Let's see....what else....oh yeah....got a new van somewhere in there too! I called the dealership and said...."look, I know exactly what I want.....and exactly what I want in it.....I'll run down the list and you can tell me if you have it available....I want all this done on the phone because I don't have time to spend an hour there while you do all the credit checks and such......and I need it done quickly because every day I drive my current lease is costing us more money because I'm already almost 12,000 miles over my allowance.......I want to be able to just walk into the dealership when it's ready and sign the papers and trade my old lease for a new one on the spot.....can you do that?" It was the quickest and easiest purchase I ever made....did it all over the phone. Spent 30 minutes at the dealership signing papers and transferring plates and having the old lease inspected....it was quick and painless and I'm LOVING my new van!

Somewhere in there I made a trip to the travel agent to pay the remaining balance on our trip to Atlantis in February...and also to inquire on possible destinations for our girls long weekend trip in april...I think we've decided on a resort on Clearwater beach 4 miles from down town Fort Myers. Can't wait!

Last night was our annual New Years party and we had a fantastic time. The adults were in the basement and the kids were up stairs (for the most part). It's so worth the trouble of having the party at your own house just so you don't have to worry about driving home drunk or finding a baby sitter! My kids didn't get to bed until 2:30am (Smurfette actually passed out around 1am) and I ended up having to wake them up at noon! Sunday night they had their all night party at the gym with the rest of their team....they were up until like 5 or 6 in the morning....we picked them up at 9am and they went directly to bed and woke up at around 2pm....so the last 48 hours has completely thrown their schedules off and I'm afraid it'll take them the rest of the week to get back on track! ....I'm editing this blog entry to add that Since starting this blog entry this morning I have discovered a huge glop of a neon green substance...looks like silly putty....stuck inbetween my couch cushions....the couch is ruined and the silly putty won't come off....the cushions were stuck together and this shit is in a huge 5 inch circle glob. I think for future new years partys the parents will for now on be responsible for their own kids....if anyone reading this has any idea how to get silly putty off a couch cushion please let me know....in the meantime, I'm off to do some on line researching on the subject....UGH!

So...the holidays are over and I'm getting back on the fitness wagon!

New Years Resolution #1....I'm going to work out 4 x /week and fit in at least one 3 mile run OUTSIDE each week. I'll start the official marathon training in April but I want to at least be able to run 3 miles when I start....so that's my goal.

New Years Resolution #2.....keep New Years Resolution #1 for more than 2 weeks!