embracing the chaos

I can now check off 'writing a really random sentence' from my list of things to do today.

_____________________________

(first half of the random sentence)

But seriously.

Our electricity went out yesterday morning and stayed out for 15 hrs.

Nothing like going without to make you remember what you have.

When our electricity goes out, so does our water, because the pump is electric.

And so does our cell phone coverage.

And so does our phone, apparently.

And the generator that came with the house that started up just fine last year, wouldn't start and the $6 phone I bought that says 'WORKS IN POWER OUTAGE' (liars) didn't work.

This is all really depressing when you can hear all your surrounding neighbor's generators roaring at full blast.

I think they were actually audibly laughing at us.

No, I know they were.

Jerks.

I had to drive down the hill to call anyone .

Like the power company, whose message on the machine says that you can now check power outages online? um....this makes sense if you live in a city but is almost comical here.

No, it's just comical.

No water.

No phone.

20 degrees outside.

1 broken fire place.

1 half cleaned fish tank sitting in the kitchen sink because the power went out right in the middle of me cleaning that nasty thing out...

but not before we discovered that 10 min's prior to me deciding to clean it out, the cat ate the fish.

I love electricity.

The end.

(I have that 'Technology' song from Napoleon Dynamite stuck in my head now.)

Just so I have company in my misery, here you go:

_______________________________

(second half of the random sentence)

And then there was this.

There's always this.

It's like the cats have it out to defeat me.

ME: "_____(insert daughter's name) please go do your school"

Cat: "Time to destroy all concentration in all children in the house!!!!!!!!!"

ME: "Noooo!!!! (wait, let me get the camera...but then STOP IT FOR GOODNESS SAKES!)"

I should just stop buying school items with string.

Maybe that would help?

And pencils.

And paper.

They like to play with those too.

We are going paperless, stringless and pencil-less, that's all I can think to do.

I'm going to hit publish now just to prove how much I love electricity!

1. This month's issue of Voice of the Martyr's has wrecked me all over again.

Did you see it?

Stuff straight out of the Old Testament. Only it happened this year. We live in a bubble over here people. The padded room variety.

You can adopt a front line worker this year...did you know that?

Like child sponsorship, but adults.

Be cool like me and do it!

(just click on that sentence. no need to finish this post, just go!)

2. I love Christmas cards. Late or not. I really love getting them but my favorite part is going through my address book and remembering the part that each person has played in my story.

I have a rich rich story.

There were 185 cards this year. Not 'cause we're cool but because I rarely take anyone off. Because once you're a part of my story, there's no erasing it.

If you find a tear or two on your card....it's just me. Being uncool.

(they go in the mail today baby! I managed to track down all the changed addresses except one but they are in Russia so they get the 'it's ok 'cause you live in another country' free pass)

I also love that Canada, Australia, Africa, Hong Kong, Germany and Russia are on our lists! It's a small world after all! Next year I think I'll get to send one to Israel!!!!

3. We showed the girls Elf for the first time this year.

I think that movie is ok. Not like my favorite, just cute.

BUT it is my favorite movie to watch with Samantha.

The girl's humor is right up Will Ferrell's alley.

Sister loves her some burping humor and the escalator scene just about made her pee her pants.

Her belly laugh was almost too much for me!

She was curled into fetal position almost the whole movie.

4. White Christmas (my actual favorite)

was watched the day after Christmas this year

(while I worked on Christmas cards finally!).

I cry at the last scene when the general comes in...every. single. year.

Lenora is the girl to watch that movie with.

That girl picks out the funniest stuff to repeat from movies

and she has "The Best Things Happen When You're Dancing" song memorized. (she has a lot of other songs memorized from that movie too....but that one is just quirky for her to memorize to me!?)

Her favorite thing to watch in that movie are people's feet.

And 'Mutual, I'm sure' is a line that she uses all year long.

Bet you never even really paid attention to who says that in the movie before...I never had.

But Lenora....she heard it once and it was locked. The same character says, "Isn't this a lovely party?" later in the movie and that gets repeated all year as well.

So funny. (do you know the characters name!? we do...)

4.5. I cry through the entire movie of Nativity Story every year. This year I cried over who Elizabeth was to Mary...like, ugly cried. I think I would have wanted to be Elizabeth in the story.

5. My kids are hysterical.

6. I got spoiled for Christmas. My girls are getting old enough to have fashion sense and it's awesome. I will now smell good all year and look good too. No more noodle necklaces will be rocked for now.

7. Our church does this wild Christmas variety show that literally ate,

like for dinner,

our December.

And it was awesome.

Such a fun memory of learning dance moves, singing, costume making, set building....

We were all in happy places.

The music pastor and his family are basically the coolest people on the face of the earth (like...besides you!) and we felt spoiled to get to do this with them and with the whole choir. A++ people.

(separate post with more pictures later...)

(yes, dang it, I see that spot. I don't want to talk about it!)

There were four performances and we all kinda went (are going through) withdrawal!

8. We had 26 people over for Christmas Day dinner and we partied. Like hard.

Standing rib roast - wow wow wow.

Christmas at the Panter's will now taste like steak from this day forward.

It's a done deal. There's no going back.

Also, cookie dough truffles. Those will also dominate Christmas Day.

We also played Reverse Charades.

Stop what you're doing right now (like stop reading this) and go get yourself this game on Amazon. Dude. SO FUNNY. So so so funny......

9. Because A Very Merry Christmas Show ate my December for dinner I was worried that Christmas morning would be a bust. The girls presents weren't, in my opinion, very creative or varied in any way.

Good news. They had no clue and were more than satisfied. It was a perfect morning.

The Nerf guns didn't hurt.

10. Jake is hysterical.

I got the 'kids' Nerf guns.....buuuut....I'm pretty sure it was Jake's favorite gift.

And it came in handy when the fire place wouldn't stop smoking up our house or light or basically cooperate.

You can shoot the heck out of a fire place with a Nerf gun, feel better about the whole situation and no damage was done. True story. It will also leave your wife in hysterics.

11. We got to shoot some real guns a few days later at some friend's house. Dude. I'm redneck way down deep or something because I love shooting a gun (like at a piece of paper or tree stump....let's not get weird and start calling the cops on me or anything. I do not, for the absolute forever record, like to shoot guns at anything other than inanimate objects....however, if you mess with my kids in serious ways...you will become an inanimate object, just sayin'.)

12. I probably shouldn't blog about guns.

I'm probably being watched by a drone right now.

13. The two days after Christmas, this year, were so amazingly relaxing. Like, I didn't do anything kind of relaxing.

These days need to be scheduled that way every year!

14. I've had the opportunity this month to flex my photography's flabby muscles.

1 family photo shoot - 1 really really fast family photo shoot!

and 1 event where I set up a 'studio' at church and took family photos (and just groups of friends photos!) of people living at a rehab center here in my town.

I can't show you pictures of the attendees but here are some of the high schoolers from our church helping me set up the studio lighting:

these boys kill me.

15. Lydia did this through most of November and December.

Man she's cute:

See, I told you. Cute.

Her absolute favorite thing to do during any and all games was HIGH FIVE every. single. person. for. every. single. play.

To watch her encourage her teammates like that was so inspiring.

I love her!

16. My kids and these candles. It's one of their favorite Christmas 'things'.

16. Jake and I dominated the ugly sweater Christmas party we went to this year.

By dominate I mean they were chanting our names as we left.

Oh...you want a picture! Ha! I think one or two exist but I don't have them yet. If/when I get it, I will prove the dominance. In the mean time, just take my word for it. We were both decked out in nasty from head to toe.

17. This is long and only interesting to me.

That's what happens when you just up and stop blogging everyday.

I shouldn't do that.

We'll see what happens.