Santa's job

The sleigh was was all packed, the reindeer were fed,
But Santa still knelt by the side of his bed,
"Dear Father, " he prayed, "Be with me tonight.
There's much work to do and my schedule is tight.
My sack will hold toys to grant all kids' wishes.
The supply will be endless like the loaves and the fishes.
I can do all these things, Lord, only through You.
I just need your blessing, then it's easy to do.
I do this only to honor the birth of the One,
That was sent to redeem us, Your most Holy Son.
So to all of my friends, lest Your glory I rob,
Please, Lord, remind them who gave me this job."

Christmas Eve Eve

Here it is the Eve of Christmas Eve and I am still not ready for Christmas. The shopping, for presents anyway is done, but there will have to be a trip to the grocery store tomorrow. I still have a few gifts to wrap, which shouldn't take very long, if my kids will allow me the time to get them wrapped. Trying to get everything done with both kids home this week has been trying at times, but this only happens once a year.

We should have company coming on Friday, aka my sister Patty and her crew. I need to go and pick up my mother today or tomorrow and finish the house cleaning. The laundry is done, the floors have been swept and mopped, the kitchen is cleaned, now it's on to cleaning the kids rooms, our room, two bathrooms, the carpets and making Santa cookies. It should be a very busy day. I guess I'd better get to it.

Bugsley's Holiday Contest from SmartKids

Tell us what your little ones call those annoying lumps or bumps in their socks and we'll add them to "the naughty list".
SmartKnitKIDS is proud to offer our First Annual Holiday Contest. It's getting cold outside for most of you and that means keeping your little ones in socks so their toesies stay cozy! We've put together a prize with SmartKnitKIDS socks to make those little feet happy and lots of other cool stuff for your child and even a few things for you!
1 Grand Prize worth over $400 will be awarded: 3 Pair SmartKnitKIDS Seamless Socks Wii Fit Holiday Scrapbook Kit HoMedics Massaging Cushion Kids Holiday Cookbooks and Apron Sponge Bob Eyeball Speakers Holiday DVD Set Kidorable Knit Set Walkie Talkies See offical entry rules below.
You can enter up to 4 times! Here is how: 1. Sign up for the SmartKnitKIDS Newsletter. It's free and full of information on new products, promotions, contests, and resources! Be sure complete the entry form and select "I Subscribed" in order for your entry to be counted. Current subscribers are eligible for this entry type but you must complete the entry form for the entry to be counted. 2. Write a blog post and link back to this contest on your blog. Complete the entry form with the link to the post in the comment box. 3. Follow us on Twitter and Tweet our back to school giveaway. Complete the entry form with your twitter name and the link to the tweet in the comment box. twitter.com/smartknids (click here to follow now) 4. Become a fan on our Facebook (click here) page and select “Facebook Fan” in order for your entry to be counted.

Catching up

This past Monday just added to the craziness from last week. Last Tuesday I had a flat tire and thankfully was able to call my mother-in-law to pick Courtney up from school and my father-in-law came home early from work and was able to change the tire. The lug nuts were on so tight, I don't think I would have been able to change it. Of course all of this is happening with Carson running around and wanting to be in the middle of it.

Okay so back to Monday. I got up, got Courtney up and got myself ready, Carson was still sleeping so when I was ready to leave I left him at the house with Stacy. I got almost to the school and the check engine light came on. I immediately called Stacy knowing I would need to stop and have it serviced and hopefully find out what was wrong. I was overdue for an oil change anyway, but that hasn't fixed the problem. The light is still on, but we are going to have to disconnect the battery to see if it just needs to be reset before we take it to have anything else done to it. While I was getting it serviced we had them look at the tire that had gone flat, and of course it couldn't be fixed. So, we had to buy new tires. This was not an expense we wanted to have right before Christmas with money already tight.

I have been working a few hours a week for a Realtor in Jonesboro doing some work on his website. It's not much, but every little bit helps. Hopefully, it will turn in to something more later on down the road.

I was finally able to finish my Christmas cards yesterday, now I just have to buy the stamps and get them mailed. I didn't do a letter this year updating everyone on our progress, but most people have been following us on Facebook and now I have the blog.

I am still working on trying to get Carson potty trained which is not much fun. He just really doesn't seem to want to do it. I'll keep at it and eventually he will.

Now, it's time to do a little cleaning around the house so I can get started reading my friends book he wrote during the NaNoWriMo in November and then on to proofing and editing my own. I promise eventually I will have it done so other people can read it and no it's not about Vampires.

Courtney had her picture in the local paper this week. Her school had a Penny Harvest to benefit the Lonoke Family Resource Services to help buy food for struggling families for Thanksgiving. Each of the students shown raised the most money for their classes and their classes earned a pizza party.

Update on Carson's therapy.

I took Carson today for the next step in getting his speech therapy started. We will be going through the Wilbur D. Mills Co-op for his therapy. It is a program that will not cost us anything which is amazing. It was going to cost us $50 a visit and they recommended two, one hour visits a week. That would have been $100 a week and something we definitely can't afford. The appointment today was just a speech assessment. They will also evaluate him for articulation and fine motor skills. Once we have the other two assessments he should be able to start therapy. They haven't said yet how often since they need to coordinate with the other therapist if he needs any help in the other two areas. I will let everyone know when we have his other assessments done and what the outcomes are.

Sneeky little bugger.

Just another way to show my children are different. Yesterday was another day of attempting to get Carson interested in using the potty. He came up to me after hearing him say "OH NO!" and had wet underwear. I cleaned him up, changed him and went back to trying to get him to go. I even had the timer set for every 15 minutes. Every time I asked him if he had to go he would say "Nope", but I made him sit anyway. Finally, I put him on the potty and he went and went and went some more. I gave him a sucker, after washing our hands of course. He enjoyed the sucker very much and seemed excited. Then it was off to get Courtney from school. We got home from picking her up and she went in her room and closed the door as usual. The next thing I head was "MOM, MOM, MOM MY OLIVER DOLL IS WET. WHY IS MY OLIVER DOLL WET?" I used caps lock because she was screaming at me. I went in her room and where Oliver had been sitting was a big wet spot. I guess Carson decided to use Sissy's room for a potty. Now, I get to clean the carpet in her room. Well, at least he went once.

A potty training nightmare

The nightmare is that Carson will never be potty trained. He started off wanting to go last year, but soon decided it wasn't his idea of a good time. Well, my idea of a good time isn't changing his pants, so here we go again. I have had him without a diaper for most of the day today and caught him trying to #2 and put him on the potty. He was pretty funny about it, as soon as it hit the water he reached back and flushed and then didn't want his bottom whipped. He has yet to #1 since I took off his diaper unless he did it somewhere and I didn't see it or have not found it yet.

Carson has now been passy free for almost two weeks now. He has started going to bed a little easier, but it still takes him a little bit to go to sleep. My philosophy is out of sight out of mind. I'm hoping to keep it that way. I did find one hidden in the couch when I was vacuuming last week and was able to hide it before he saw it. This should hopefully help with his speech issues.

I have learned Courtney and Carson are definitely two different kids, not only by gender but everything else too. I just hope he picks up on this potty thing and we can quit buying diapers every week. I'll be so happy when I can post that my house is diaper free.

A November to Remember

Last year I found out about a unique opportunity for being creative through one of my old roommates, Jennifer, from Fayetteville who participated in the National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo, and wrote a novel. The requirements for this particular venture is to write a 50,000+ word novel between November 1st and November 30th. She said it was an amazing experience and it got me thinking. I through around a few ideas over the past year, even started and stopped on a few projects. Before I knew it, November was creeping up on me again. I finally decided to sign up and give it try.

I came up with the idea for what I was going to write based on a dream I had about a week before it started. I put together a playlist of music I thought I could listen and write to and on November 1st I started writing. It has been a long month, but I finished writing on Sunday, November 29th. I completed the process of writing 50,000+ words and was declared a winner for NaNoWriMo 2009. Jenn was right, it is an amazing process. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get finished in time, but I did and it feels good to have accomplished my goal.

The next phase will come tomorrow when I will be able to order a proof copy of what I have written, to edit and do rewrites if necessary. I think it will all feel more real once I have it in my hands. I'm not sure what else I will have to do, but I know Jenn was able to proof and edit hers and now it is available at www.amazon.com. She currently has two novels available. I have read the first Jump, Fall and loved it. Her new one is An Evening at the Purple Cat is available now as well and I can't wait to read it. She completed novel #3 during the month of November and I'm sure it will be available soon. I know I will be able to at least get it printed on amazon and will be able to pick out the cover art and so on.

Now, that the main writing is done I can concentrate on decorating the inside of the house, making Courtney a snowflake costume for the school Christmas program on December 18th, plan her Christmas party and just get ready for Christmas.

I will keep everyone posted on the progress of the book and hopefully we will all see Stargazer soon.