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Happy New Year! Ok so it is new year's eve.... big deal.

This Christmas break was pretty bad. Just because I spent most of it stuck at home. I have been cleaning and getting Christmas put away. I like to get things done before I have to worry about going back to work. Mitch is off for the next few days- yippeee.

it is the time of year that we all make resolutions so I am actually going to be a bit insane here and write mine online.

First I am going to be a meaner mother. I often give in and let Jo get away with stuff cause she wears me down. Come on mom please please please. I need to make her do her chores, homework and be tough when it comes to her responsibilities. She is a pretty good kid, but like all kids needs guidance and I have not been all that great at limiting her video game time or lap top time. She is going to hate it- but oh well. Joelle and I are pretty good friends which is great, but she needs to also know that I am the mom and what I say goes. Not in a minute or later. I may be pulling the plug a lot.

Next i am going to take better care of me. This is not me saying I will lose 20 pounds or whatever. It is that I need to really take care of me. I have to go to the gym consistently and watch what I eat. I am going to do my best to limit my caffeine and drink more water. I also need to take care of my skin and all that stuff we start to worry about as we get older. I am going to try to deal with stress better and enjoy the little things. Do my best to keep organized and such.

Another thing is my book. I have yet to re-start it. I have a bit of guilt as I should have been working on it while I was snowed it, but I am going to get on it and keep it going. Mainly I think I need to do a bit more research about the historical stuff I want to use in it.

So there you have it. Now I am going to go yell at Joelle and go to the gym- LOL. Kidding.

Tonight we are going to Mike and Kerry's. That is if Micth can move. He hurt his back carrying groceries out to the car- something about a case of beer and three bags in one hand while he was looking for his keys.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year's.

Oh my head...

OK I have a huge headache. I am not sure when it started, but now I know why I do not coach soccer. Today Mitch and I coached soccer. Jo's team played in a little indoor tournament- for fun. We didn't have the full team but we only need about 8. We had 10 players and they did a great job. Their first game was at 9:50 , their last game started at 3:15. They played four 20 minute games. They lost two and won one. They made it to the quarter finals where they also lost, but they played really well. They do not usually play indoor so they did well. They also played against three top level premier teams and that was tough. They managed Ok, but a lot of it was mental. It was fun though.

Ghosts of Christmas

First I will start by saying I finally changed the music on my blog again. These are a few of my favorite holiday tunes. I hope you enjoy them- i know jackie and Megan will like it better than my Obama songs! So Merry Christmas to you.

We got move snow overnight. It is a good thing I got my shopping done yesterday. Now i can get prepping for tomorrow. I am making potatoes and banana cream pie and all that jazz- I got a ham from costco so we are pretty much set. We have cable and I was going to DVR It's a Wonderful Life tonight, but now I think we can just watch it. I don't think Joelle has ever seen it which is poor parenting on my part.

Mitch is working today- he was supposed to be off. I almost waited for today to do the shopping so he could drive the truck- good thing I didn't. The Outlander handles pretty well in the snow so I went for it.

I know it is the time of year that is hard for all of us. i know this year will be especially hard for Jackie as Megan is not home. I think the last time we has Christmas together was 1997. So that makes it over ten years. I have some great Christmas memories. Surprisingly it is not of awesome presents or getting that cool Lego set I wanted. It is of us all together doing things. I have great memories of Joel. He was so great around this time of year- I remember him pulling me around on my sled and shoveling the driveway into a big pile so I could dig my forts. I remember what a big production it was to make tapes for Grandma. I remember the year Jeleen was in Brazil and we had that flocked tree. Dad dressing as santa and shoveling off the roof. Falling asleep in the living room in front of the fireplace and that funky shag carpet that mom even had a rake for! When Jackie was driving and we were rounding the corner from reserve st to hiberta and the car started spinning cookies. DId we tell mom about that or not? The great programs at Hawthorne when Mr Rolshoven (spelling?) would dress as Santa and throw candy canes at everyone. My solo I sang and my mouse costume- pajamas with the feet. Walking to school and the snow- the year we watched the school burn from our window. All that crazy Christmas candy mom made- almond bark, peanut brittle, bourbon balls and the snacks Christmas Eve and the huge Christmas dinner. Getting an orange in my stocking every year because that was something really special for mom. The first Christmases with Tom and Pete- was that when Tom threw up in Jackie's mouth, down her shirt and in her bra? Always being warned to not stick my tongue on the light post or anything else. Going to recess - it was an ordeal as we would all put on our snowpants and gear to go out an play in the softball field which was flooded and covered with ice. The smell of snowpants drying and picking snowballs off my pant cuffs. Mitze running around in snow deeper than she was tall and coming in the house with the same snowballs stuck to her belly. These are the things I remember this time of year. I still feel like I grew up in Missoula rather than Vancouver- which is funny if you think about it.

Mitch is at work today- he was supposed to be off but he had to go in. This time of year is always busy for him and he gets stressed out. I try to not give him a hard time as I know that he can't do anything about it and me getting upset only makes it worse. He doesn't know when he will get home tonight. We won't be going to his parents house. I know he feels really awful about that, but again he can't change the circumstances or the roads. Mitch's mom said it is the first time she hasn't had her boys on Christmas Eve- pretty amazing when you think Mitch is going to be 40 this year. It would be so nice if we all lived close enough to do that, but as it is we are all still so close- with email and phones and all that. We do our best. I know when Michael has soccer and how he is doing and the same with Jeleen's boys, and Joel's family. We all keep in touch and I know we all wish we could get together more. Mitch will be working a 12 hour sort today so he might be home by 11 pm tonight- which means he'll be home some time after we watch It's a Wonderful Life. I need to be thankful that he will be home. There are so many families with people overseas in Iraq and kid's that won't have another Christmas with their fathers, mother's whose sons will never have another Christmas with them, wives with no one coming home. I am pretty much stuck at home because of the weather, but I have a home that is warm, and there are presents under the tree. We'll have our Christmas dinner tomorrow and that will be nice. At least being stuck slows me down enough to think about things rather than just running around trying to do everything. So with Mitch gone and me stuck it makes me appreciate all that I do have and all that we are able to do with Joelle. That is what the memories really are anyways.

On a side note I have lost a couple of pounds (yay me). I think it is because I am home and not on an eaing schedule- I just grab something when I am hungry- I also have to make stuff to eat and I am basically lazy (not as bad as the cats) so it really cuts down on what I eat. I made more of those pretzel things and even the turtle things mom told me about- I used almonds though and they are really good.

So Merry Christmas All- I am sure we'll all talk on the phone soon. Mom- say argh to Dad for me when he has his eye patch on! I know it is clear but still..... does it make him look like Johnny Depp at all??? *Wink*

Cabin fever

So we have about 8 inches of snow on the ground- maybe more. We are supposed to get more tonight. I actually ventured out today- first time since Saturday. I had to get groceries so I had what I need to make Christmas dinner. Mitch has been working everyday. He has been working a lot as they are short staffed. They have not collected our garbage this week and the buses and everything is limited. We might not even be able to go to Joby and Arlys's tomorrow night. Not a whole lot going on. Joelle and I started building a snow fort and I have been bringing in fire wood everyday. Brewster is loving it as she is in the house a lot. I have been noticing how incredibly lazy the cats are. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas.

Go Play in the Snow

Well--- we had a soccer game today. It was interesting and the girls seemed to have fun. Do they even do this in Michigan or are we nuts? They close the schools and all that , but soccer stops for no reason.

Odd week

This week has been weird- very weird. For starters it has been cold and snowing off and on. It was freezing Monday, but the roads were OK so we had school. It was awful. It was below freezing and the heaters did not work. I froze all day. Then I could not warm up and I felt awful so I stayed home- did not play soccer and went to bed early. Tuesday i did not feel very well and ended up leaving work early- I felt like I was going to throw up. Wednesday I still felt bad so I stayed home- schools were open, but the let out two hours early. Today i felt fine and the weather seemed better- about freezing. It was snowing a bit this morning and the weather report was that it would cool off. They closed the schools. I did not hear this until I had already drove into work- the roads were fine. on the way home it was really snowing. Now it is about 1:00 and the temp has risen and everything melted- the roads are fine. I am pretty sure I will have school tomorrow- unless it snows and freezes again- which they say will happen but they have not gotten one thing right this week so who knows. I am a bit sleepy so the extra day home is probably a good thing. We had trouble with our heat system. The condensation tube froze and the heat shut down. It was about 50 degrees inside Wed morning. The repair guy came out and fixed it- wrapped the tube so it would not freeze again. No charge- because it should have been done that way when it was installed. I have been cleaning things a bit- going through the cupboards and shredding stuff I can't just throw away. I have had some nice fires in the fireplace. Mitch is working a lot and going to the gym- I am proud of him. I have not been to the gym this week- I just feel rundown.

Joelle had a couple soccer games last weekend. I was so proud of her. She played really well and has earned a new position. She got really aggressive and headed the ball three times in one game! That is a pretty big step up from flinching. She was also a captain for the game and got a lot of playing time. (is was about 30 degrees when she was playing). The team might have a scrimmage this weekend- should be interesting. Joelle loves to play soccer in the snow.... crazy kid.

Well I am going to get some Christmas cards done now.

What a week..... oh wait it is only Tuesday! Yikes.

I have been to the gym everyday since seeing the facebook stuff and I have lost two pounds- this is fully dressed and on the scale at the gym so I am hopeful. I went last night after my soccer game- we won I scored. :) I have been doing weights and cardio and tonight I did yoga for an hour and then cardio. The yoga class was interesting. I need to plant my tree a little better. It is much harder than it looks. So the class starts with everyone doing three long ohmmm chants. It took everything I had to not laugh. it was good though- very relaxing and I am going to try to do it twice a week.

Facebook...

So I had said I have been on facebook. People post photos on facebook and this has really motivated me. Maybe it was the old friend who has a couple kids and looks incredible, maybe it was the old boyfriend who apparently did a fireman's calendar. The point is there are a lot of people I went to school with that look really fabulous. I know no one will post the photo of themselves that makes them look short,f at, bald and old... but still. Dustin called the other day wanting to know if we had any photos of him from a couple years ago when he was thinner that he could put on his facebook page. I guess I could do something like that. I would rather go to the reunion looking---- healthy and happy. I am both.... but think I would be healthier and happier 20-30lbs smaller. So now I will be hitting it that much harder- I think I will look at these people on facebook everyday to keep my motivation up. I am also cutting back the calories and hopefully I can accomplish something. It is not like I don't know how, and Mitch is totally on board which should make it easier this time around.

Yawns.... I am yawning. I am also very sore. My calves, thighs and butt are sore. I guess it could have something to do with yesterday. I went to the gym on Sunday- I had not been since Wednesday when I went to yoga with Kerry. Yesterday I went to the gym and worked out while Joelle did her training. Then I played soccer at 8:20 and the next game did not have enough players and the next game did not have enough players--- so three games and the gym and now I am sore- duh. I scored a goal in each game. Anyway I do not feel much like blogging but it has been awhile so I thought I would blog---