Mom's letter to Santa

Found this at http://childfun.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=197 and thought it too good not to share....

Dear Santa,

I've been a good mom all year. I've fed, cleaned, and cuddled my two children on demand, visited the doctor's office more than my doctor, sold sixty-two cases of candy bars to raise money to plant a shade tree on the school playground and figured out how to attach nine patches onto my daughter's girl scout sash with staples and a glue gun.

I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmases, since I had to write this letter with my son's red crayon, on the back of a receipt in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows when I'll find anymore free time in the next 18 years.

Here are my Christmas wishes:

I'd like a pair of legs that don't ache after a day of chasing kids (in any color, except purple, which I already have) and arms that don't flap in the breeze, but are strong enough to carry a screaming toddler out of the candy aisle in the grocery store. I'd also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere in the seventh month of my last pregnancy.

If you're hauling big ticket items this year, I'd like a car with fingerprint resistant windows and a radio that only plays adult music; a television that doesn't broadcast any programs containing talking animals, and a refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can hide to talk on the phone.

On the practical side, I could use a talking daughter doll that says, "Yes, Mommy" to boost my parental confidence, along with one potty-trained toddler, two kids who don't fight, and three pairs of jeans that will zip all the way up without the use of power tools. I could also use a recording of Tibetan monks chanting, "Don't eat in the living room" and "Take your hands off your brother", because my voice seems to be just out of my children's hearing range and can only be heard by the dog.

And please don't forget the Playdoh Travel Pak, the hottest stocking stuffer this year for mothers of preschoolers. It comes in three fluorescent colors and is guaranteed to crumble on any carpet making the In-law's house seem just like mine.

If it's too late to find any of these products, I'd settle for enough time to brush my teeth and comb my hair in the same morning, or the luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without it being served in a Styrofoam container. If you don't mind I could also use a few Christmas miracles to brighten the holiday season. Would it be too much trouble to declare ketchup a vegetable? It will clear my conscience immensely.

It would be helpful if you could coerce my children to help around the house without demanding payment as if they were the bosses of an organized crime family; or if my toddler didn't look so cute sneaking downstairs to eat contraband ice cream in his pajamas at midnight.

Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is ringing and my son saw my feet under the laundry room door. I think he wants his crayon back. Have a safe trip and remember to leave your wet boots by the chimney and come in and dry off by the fire so you don't catch cold. Help yourself to cookies on the table, but don't eat too many or leave crumbs on the carpet.

Yours always.....Mom

PS: One more thing...you can cancel all my requests if you can keep my children young enough to believe in Santa.

In the sky tonight

A very amaturish photo I know but this is sort of what we saw in the sky tonight... the moon with Venus on the left and Jupiter on the right. WOW isn't God awesome in His creation?!

My Dad had phoned me about this yesterday saying he had seen it on Saturday already... missed that... and last night there were tooooooooooo many clouds... so tonight was the night!

Found this link with a bit more info.... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27958792/ but I'm now confused as to which "star" is which on my pic.... Venus is the brighter one and that was definately the one on the left!!!! Maybe what is said in this article is for the northern hemisphere and we are "upside down" here in the south!

Weekend roundup

This past weekend was BUSY.... enjoyably so though. By the end of if I didn't totally fall into bed exhausted... but rather thankful that it was over.... except for the fact that the week ahead is just as hectic.... why must this time of year always be sooooooooooooooooooooooo BUSY!!!!!

So to let you in on the happenings, here goes:

Friday night was Aaron's school's Praise Evening.... this is one awesome way to end off a year.... songs of praise to our Lord and giving HIM all the glory for a year well done. The even started off with the Grade O nativity play.... tooo sweet and it even had the Grade 1s sitting on the edge of their seats enthralled. Each grade (or group of grades) sang some songs too.... pics below show the Grade 0s, the Grade 1s and the Grade 4s. The Grade 1s did "If I were a butterfly" and "This little light of mine"... Aaron even did all the actions... made Mommy feel VERY proud.

On Saturday it was normal wash day routing for the morning and then the afternoon we spent at Kiara's 6th birthday party. Her mom always picks the most stunning venues but they are usually out in the sticks!!!!

This pic shows the three friends from Tiggers Play Group many many years back... Aaron is the oldest at 7 and the shortest! Sebastian (in the middle) will be 7 in March and then Kiara who's party it was.. the tallest! Such fun seeing these kids grow up together.... lets hope we can keep the friendships going for many years to come.

We got home from the party around 5:30 and within minutes Keith got back too and..... wait for it..... presented me with a bunch of roses..... so sweet.... Thanks hubby! Well I put them in with my flowers that I got for my birthday... yip still going strong a week after the event!


And then even MORE excitement for a Saturday..... Aaron had a shower.... HIS FIRST EVER!!! And I just had to take pics to scrap (and blog!)


So all in all a good Saturday. Sunday was spent at church.... we had our service in the morning as per usual and then we also had a congregational lunch to welcome our new minister... such a fun day and something that I think should definately be repeated more often.

We got back home at 2:30 and while Aaron played trains on the pc upstairs again, I did the ironing and then vegged on the couch reading..... even managed to have 40 winks! I ended my weekend by watching Ocean's Twelve on tv till after 11pm.... worth it.

And then it was on to the new week.... started with the alarm going off at 5:30.... ouch....but only 4 more mornings of that as school (and Grade 1) finish on Friday!!!!

I met with the school prayer group this morning.... we have met and prayed for our school each Monday of the school year.... and we had a breakfast together.... lovely start to the day.... then it was off to our new offices in Bryanston.... yip work has moved.... I had two days off last week while they did it.... and boy am I glad!!!! The chaos that I found on arrival at the office just told me how badly things went.... we had been told that the movers were packing us up on THursday and moving in on Friday and unpacking so that when we arrived today we could start working.... yeah right!!! There were boxes EVERYWHERE.... furniture in all the wrong places and not even assembled.... I couldn't even get into my office..... hopefully by tomorrow there will be a bit more semblance of order.

The rest of my week is also pretty hectic..... seeing my brother tomorrow, have my last bible study of the year on Wednesday evening and then Aaron's got prize giving on Thursday morning and Friday is his last day of Grade 1..... where has this year gone?

Phew but I have rambled haven't I.... hehehe.... well hopefully my next post is shorter.

new in blog land

Look who just joined us in the land of BLOG.... CANDIC GREEWAY. Go visit her at candicegreenway.blogspot.com and give your support.

Look what appeared in my house...

Christmas is around the corner and our countdown is about to begin. My friend Judi told me that Woolworths was selling train advent calendars and so I just HAD to buy one. And now Aaron is sooooooooo excited about it and pushes it all over the lounge floor.... hope it lasts till Christmas and beyond.

Where I was today....

Hubby paid for me to go to the spa for my birthday.... sooooooooo nice. So after doing a bit of research, asking questions and then deciding... I picked Chicama Spa at Glenburn Lodge. What a wonderful morning.... okay 2 hours! But it was sooooooooooooooooooooo worth it!

The treatment I had was: GRAPESKIN EXPRESS BODY TREATMENT
This treatment is designed to create warmth in the muscles and joints, hydrate the body and restore the elasticity of the skin, leaving your mind, body and soul refreshed. You will begin with a full body exfoliation, and then your body will be cocooned in a Body Mud so suite your skins need. While letting the mud get to work you will slip into bliss as your therapist gives you a pressure point scalp massage, followed by a foot massage. Then it’s into a HydraVine Hydrotherapy Spa Bath……. followed by a back, neck and shoulders massage

The lady who did my treatment, Stephanie, was so nice and her hands worked their magic. I dozed and relax and came out of there flying on air. Much refreshed. I would definately recommend this to anyone who wants to be spoilt.

An award

I got it from Desire who got it from Kim... such a fun idea... just a little butterfly fluttering past and going from one blog to another... so if you're a visitor here and you leave me a nice comment from time to time (THANK YOU!) you are welcome to take this little award and let the butterfly touch you blog with some love...

Silly me....

I don't know if this has EVER happened to you before... but now that I think about it, it's the second time it's happened to me.... WHAT? you ask... hehehe... running out of petrol... that's what.

Yip it happened to me this morning. My red light in the car has been on for a few days and I planned to fill up this morning on the way to work. Well..... murphy's law right!... I no sooner pulled off from school having dropped Aaron off and sat for an hour reading (my usual routine), when cough splutter jerk... nothing... car dead! Yip it was empty.

Thank goodness I was only one block from school so just locked the car and walked back. Got hold of one of the moms who was still there and she kindly agreed to take me to a garage to get some juice for my car. We borrowed a container and makeshift funnel from the school grounds staff and off we went.

Got some petrol, put it in my tank and after pumping the pedal a few times... success! Drove quickly to the garage and filled up! Relief. Now it was off to work... only 1/2 an hour late!

So you see... even with my winning luck, I still manage to do silly things.

Please vote for me

I joined a group on Facebook called "Scrapbook Showcase" and have entered a whole bunch of my layouts.... please go vote for me....

http://www.facebook.com/photo_search.php?oid=33314341575&view=user#/group.php?gid=33314341575&ref=mf

I hope to be able to do this one each week.... will just have to see the criteria... so keep it in your favourites!

I won....

hehehe... see me doing a little dance here.... I w-o-n I w-o-n.... okay it's not much but it is mine! hehhehe.

I commented on a post on Creative Souls and got lucky... I'll be getting my very own one....

Thanks to Lara and to Stephanie.