As Donkey puts it, "Really?" and Shrek answers, "Really, really."

I'm only hours away from 2012! Where did 2011 go?!?

Let's recap...

My year literally started with my going to work, getting pulled around in slush, spinning my car around to face the DIRECTION I came from, totalling a power pole and my car, and getting a ride in the ambulance. Finally found out I had an incomplete fracture on the right side of the head of my right tibia, did soft tissue damage to my left ankle, and have essentially been off work since then. All we can figure is my right knee hit the steering column and my left ankle hit the emergency brake. I miss my Impala... Driving a Suburban is NOT the same!

I'm not remembering anything that happened in February, other than I got to be on crutches for what seemed forever. I also got to drive myself to physical therapy.

I tried working for a 4 hour shift in March. Ended up having my knee swell to the size of a basketball and stay that way for 3 days after... That was the end of working this year for me.

March also saw Traci and the girls come for a visit (and FINALLY get to celebrate Christmas with them--I fully blame my accident since we were going to head to the East side of WI the weekend following my accident.) We had a lot of fun. Hopefully, they can come again.

I don't remember anything for April and May saw Monster finish Kindergarten. I remember him being little!!! Now he's 7 and following in my footsteps a bit too much... (I need to pray more often then speak.)

The garden got planted with 17 tomato plants, a couple pepper plants that didn't want to do anything, some celery I let go too far, 2.5 rows of strawberries that will be bountiful in 2012, and way too many squash/pumpkins...

June, July, and August saw me working in the flower garden and garden. We also got to spend quite a bit of time at Traci's while Luke worked on her downstairs bathroom and guest room. We're glad she likes how they have turned out, even though they aren't fully finished.

September saw Monster start 1st grade... When the days were decent, we walked up to school. Then I'd take Peanut and we'd go get Monster after school. I got 3 miles of walking in those days at least...

September also saw Luke and I celebrate our 7th anniversary. It seems so short, but then again, it seems like forever. I love you, Luke!

September also saw us getting involved in Cub Scouts. Monster joined and has earned his Bobcat Badge. He is working on his Tiger Cub Badge (only 2 more requirements! YEAH!)

October saw the Tiger Cubs without a leader. Monster asked if I would, and since I have time while Peanut and I are home, I became the Tiger Cub Den Leader. I am the leader for 8 1st graders. Luckily, I have 2 people I can turn to if I have questions or need help. Thank you, Jenny and Staci!  Also, I luck out that the Tiger Cubs have to have an adult partner at all their meetings.

I also got to take the boys to Cub World (a 6 hour day camp for Cub Scouts) North of Rice Lake, WI, in October. Monster got to do wall climbing, shoot a junior compound bow (where he shot the target with 3 of 5 arrows), make a paper boat, make a pinecone birdfeeder, do an obstacle course, and several other activities. It was a long day since I didn't know exactly where I was going, so we got up and left really early. (I think we left the house by 6 AM, and luckily, because we left so early when I got lost we still made it to Cub World in time.)

November saw the boys celebrate their birthdays. Monster turned 7 and Peanut 4. Where DID the time go?!?

December saw Peanut try to eat a Christmas tree light bulb and therefore a trip to the Urgent Care. Luckily, he's fine. We got hit with the stomach flu. Monster was sick for 1.5 days, Peanut 1 day, and me 1.5 days. Luke only felt icky; he didn't vomit.

We did Christmas morning/day just us four. The boys made out like farming bandits.
Then we did Christmas with Luke's family on the 26th, and we all got very nice gifts.

Hopefully, we'll get to do the Seefeldt family Christmas January 6-8th. *fingers crossed and lots of prayers being said*

Alright. Here goes... I'm 2 hours 4 minutes away. I don't think I'll make it awake, so I'll say it now:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2 gift openings down, 1 to go...

We made it through another gift opening. I think we need to move gift opening to no later than 10 am. All 8 of the kids got cranky and tired because NONE of them could get naps while there were gifts to open... Needless to say, we all got a lot of nice gifts. (How do you let people know that less is actually more?) Thank goodness one of the boys' and my New Year's Resolutions is to go through the toys and figure out what they truly play with and donate the rest.

Now, to get the boys to sign thank you cards for all the gifts they received. And for all of us to feel better again. Peanut ended up with diarrhea today. I'm not feeling good. Luke said he isn't feeling good.  Oh the joys of family get-togethers...

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. Have a safe and Happy New Year! God Bless!

Merry Christmas!

Ok, I'm hoping the bout of stomach flu is done going through the house. Monster was sick Wednesday and Thursday, Peanut Friday, and me Friday night. Hopefully, Luke only gets the upset stomach he had.

We didn't have Christmas with the Albers family yesterday due to people being sick, so that has been changed to the 26th. (What a way to keep people off the streets with the ungrateful unhappy people exchanging/returning gifts and all the After-Christmas "bargains". As if materialism is any form of bargain...)

Because of the stomach flu, Christmas with the Seefeldt family is post-poned until next weekend. (Which actually works better,  because then we won't arrive late at Traci's.)

Monster and Peanut made out like farming bandits this morning. Below are some of the pictures showing opening gifts and what they got. Daddy and Santa sure know how to pick out gifts for the boys.

The boys waiting for Daddy to come downstairs so they can begin.

Monster is ready to start!

Peanut's Santa gift: a gator!

Monster got a bale wagon.

Monster's Santa gift: a New Holland (blue) tractor.

Peanut got a forage wagon

Peanut got a John Deere 6140D scale size (Daddy oopsed on this one...)

Ha, ha! Daddy got to "help" with all the twist ties/cable ties that each implement and tractor had!

The boys with their gifts from Mama & Daddy and Santa. They really like them all.

The best Christmas present available in our home: a lapful of little boys. Our greatest blessing!

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas. Remember, the Reason for the Season is Christ, so please show your thanks to our Father, God the Almighty!

God Bless everyone!

Christmas plans completely changed

Yesterday at 12:05 PM I got a phone call from school: Monster just threw up all over himself. Could I come get him? By the time I got to school, he had done it again. By 12:15 PM when we got home, he did it again. By 2:30 PM I figure he had thrown up at least 20 times. He rested from when he got home but didn't get any rest since his stomach was rebelling and then he started a fever. 5 PM last night his temp was 101.5 F. At 7:30 PM it was 102.5 F. He got a dose of ibuprofen and got to sleep on the couch while I slept in Luke's chair. (I'll sit in it but will never sleep in it again...) He's got a slight low-grade temp this morning and is still throwing up when he tries to drink too much.

So much for going to have Christmas with my family... I guess we'll see if we can have it with Luke's. If not, we have our own Christmas.

Peanut is a very lucky little boy. His eating glass Christmas tree lights actually ended just fine. No complications. It might have helped he's been eating apples and frosted mini wheats, which essentially go right through him, so I'm sure took all the glass with. Thank You, God, for watching over my over-zealous child.

I want to apologize to my family for not being able to make it this weekend. We were all looking forward to it. Keep praying we'll all feel better and can come next weekend.

Lord, please help Monster feel better quickly. He knows he doesn't feel good, but is really getting bored. Also, help Peanut be patient while Monster is recovering. Sometimes the attention doesn't need to be on him 100% of the time. Help me, Lord, be patient with my children and husband while everyone is stressed and trying to make sure recovery is possible. This I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Merry Christmas to the Seefeldt families: Mom & Dad and all my siblings and their families.
Merry Christmas to the Albers families: J & M and Luke's siblings and their families.

May God bless us all and keep us happy, healthy, safe, and with full knowledge that each of us is extremely loved.

Our Christmas present to each other will go to the hospital instead...

I love my children. Really, I do! Yesterday, though, Luke and I found out what turns a parent's hair gray...

Peanut, Monster, and I had just gotten home from church, which both of the boys fully enjoyed the Children's Liturgy (so WANT to go to church now). I went to change my clothes and then to the bathroom. I come out to Peanut crying, running towards me, yelling, "It hurts! It hurts!" I got him calmed down enough to for him to tell me what was wrong, only to find out it was a parent's nightmare. We have miniature lights on our Christmas tree. For some unknown reason, he decided to see what they TASTE like! All we can figure out is he bit a light, spit out at least 75% of the glass from the bulb, and then swallowed the small pieces he couldn't get off his tongue. Thank You, God, that there were no pieces larger than 1/8th of an inch. But STILL!!! We called our clinic and  found out they wanted us to bring Peanut in for a check-over. So all of us (Luke included) climbed in the Burb and drove 30 minutes to our clinic/hospital. We were told the bulb portion of our lights were plastic, which they're NOT. Anyway, we get to watch him closely for the next 1/2 week or more to see if he spikes a fever, has bloody stool, or complains of abdominal pain. (He wasn't force to purge his stomach.) Please pray for him that none of those symptoms show up. I really don't want to deal with a body cavity infection or any other infections. 

All this while, Luke is getting a no-caffine headache so needs to go home when it is super sunny out. Well, we got home, I'm making lunch for everyone, only to hear Luke tell Peanut, "Get that out of your mouth!" Lord, didn't we JUST go through all of that?!? Peanut put the cord for a lighted Christmas decoration in his mouth promptly after just having had glass in his mouth... (I think I said at least 5 "Our Father"s at that point. It was that or burst into tears.)

I'm thankful that the lights on our tree our newer so don't have lead in them, but how grateful can you truly be that your 4 year-old decided to try a glass bulb?!?

I think I'm going to buy a box of haircolor next time I go shopping... That way no one will see how many gray hairs my children have given me...

Thankfully, they have given me so much more joy and happiness versus the gray hairs. Thank You, God!

To whom ever reads this, please say a prayer for my children--that they survive their explorations as children and that Luke and I don't kill them for their explorations as children. In Jesus' name, Amen.

              Faith Hope Joy Love

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I think my give a darn is busted...again or is it still busted?!?

Ok, I just don't care today. It is drizzly outside so is a dreary day. I did my errands this morning. All I HAVE to do the rest of the day are: pick up Monster from CCD, make Wednesday night pizza, put dishes in dishwasher, add soap, and push the button, read to the boys and put them to bed, take a shower, and put me to bed. To bad there's a list a mile long that I should do. My give a darn is busted. (Catholic upbringing and two little boys really do change how a person things and speaks. Besides, if I swear, both boys think it is ok. But if Luke swears, they know it's naughty and don't dare repeat what Daddy said. Not fair!!!!)

Tomorrow I am going to do laundry, as it's piling up again, take treats up to Monster's school for the teachers, make Beer and Cheddar soup with homemade bread, and get my Christmas cards mailed. Pictures will have to wait until I have a nice professionally done one of the boys. (Unless I can get Luke to join us for a family picture.... *fingers crossed, saying a prayer*)

I hate dreary days. I'm a carb-addict and dreary days always meant munching on something that made me sluggish. AKA CARBS! Today's has been Snowball treats (peanut butter, corn flakes, powdered sugar all mixed then rolled into balls, dipped in powdered sugar glaze, then rolled in coconut). I need to get the treats out of the house. They're evil, and I have no will-power, I swear it!

*big deep breath in---hold it, hold it, hold it---slowly let it out*

Dear God, help each person in our family understand the true meaning of Christmas. Fill us with joy. Make us more loving. Amen.

Cookies & treats for teachers

Well, I volunteered through our PTO to bring in 6-7 dozen cookies and/or treats for the teachers this Thursday. I made 16 ivory bark dipped sandwich cookies, 38 hint of mint chocolate chip bars, and 30+ snowball treats (peanut butter, powdered sugar, and this year's have corn flakes, dipped in powdered sugar glaze then rolled in coconut). I have a total of 4 containers to take to school on Thursday.  Now onto baking 4 dozen white chocolate macadamia nut cookies and making another batch of snowballs. The first are a Christmas gift; the second are for the boys.

The Tiger Cub meeting last night went well. We made a Food Pyramid and discussed the MyPlate idea of eating. We also made Reindeer puppets (Thank you, Traci!). All the boys got to decide how they wanted their puppets to look. Monster made his look a bit in need of a hunter: one antler is under the ear while the other is on top of the head. I think we need to call in Daddy or Grandpa to put it out of its misery...

My MIL gave me a good idea for the adults in Luke's family for Christmas gifts: supply some non-perishable groceries in a basket or bucket. I can handle that, I just need to talk with Luke about the idea.

I have come to the conclusion that I really dispise the word "No", especially when kids learn to spell it and then spell it for their answers... Peanut is now doing that.

Monster needs to find out the spelling of his CCD teachers' names for me. That way I can make sure I spell them correctly on the gifts Monster is giving them for Christmas.

The boys got to decorate the Christmas tree on Sunday night. I put together the tree, put on the lights and garland, and then let the boys put on the ornaments. I also put on the star. Next year, hopefully, we'll get a better looking artificial tree or (if I am unlucky) a real tree (Luke wants it). Only 10 more days (everything permitting) that we go across state for Christmas with my family. We've had a late or even non-existant Christmas with my family the entire time we've been married. This year I said we were spending Christmas with my family. Sorry, Lord, but I got tired of making my family always second fiddle. Please forgive me. Amen

Dear God, help each person in our family understand the true meaning of Christmas. Fill us with joy. Make us more loving. Amen.

Dear Lord, one more request: please fill Luke's heart with love and understanding. Help him find the truth not his biased view of Catholicism. Help him to fulfill his duty as not only a Christian but hopefully a Catholic father and husband. I ask for your help in this, in Jesus's name. Amen.