A Christmas Recap

*Kitty raked in the goods this Christmas. She loves her new zebra jumparoo, which she immediately fell off of on Christmas morning, right into the tree. Daddy didn't hold on tight enough....i think the video may be worth $10,000.

*Kitty also got a wagon from Santa Claus, which we've been giving her rides around in in the kitchen. She thinks she's top dog in that wagon....I"m so excited for Summer.

*For the week before Christmas, Kitty had been very stuffed up. Christmas Night she was unconsolable, and she didn't sleep overnight. So, Dec. 26 I took her to the Dr, where she was diagnosed with a double ear infection and a sinus infection, which had been around for a few days. I felt like mother of the year...I thought she was just crabby. Oops.

*After Christmas, Farmer and I also came down with terrible head and chest colds. We all sounded like death. Thankfully, we are all feeling a bit better.

*Kitty learned how to open gifts, which was fun to watch. However, if she got a piece of tape on her finger, look out. She was amused for several minutes.

*I got two new Cricut cartridges, the John Adams DVD set, and other wonderful gifts. Santa was wonderfully generous.

*Kitty has been sleeping in, and CELEBRATE! she slept all night in her own crib last night. She only needed to be comforted for a bit, because.....in the midst of all the snot, she's also popping out two teeth. It's been a banner week for poor KittyCat. But before that, she's been having a camp out in mumma's bed....Daddy's been less than enthused.

*Last night The Sound of Music was on, and Kitty enjoyed watching it. I know she did....she loves music and dancing. She's just like her Mumma....right down to the crush we both have on the handsome Captain Von Trapp. I think he's another secret boyfriend.

*Tonight Grammy and Poppy are coming down for some Christmas Cheer. Kitty really knows them now, and she squeals like a piggy when she sees them. It's quite fun.


*Watch out....a Historygirlie Year in Review is on it's way!!!

A christmassy weekend and other random thoughts

So, here we are, the weekend before Christmas. We are booked solid this weekend. Today is Farmer's maternal family christmas party, and tomorrow we head up to my Brother's house for a seeing trees gathering. I've got the garlic bread made, the jumbo blanket finished, and all I have left to do is put ribbon around some gifts and bathe Kitty. Not too shabby.

Last night Kitty was up 4 times, but Farmer and I held strong.....she DID NOT camp out in the middle of our bed. She yelled and whined and moped around, but she stayed in the Crib. Go us.

Only two more days of school before our almost Two week vacation. Huzzah. We didn't have a snow day yesterday, but it was close to needing one. The roads were just not happy yesterday morning. But since I teach in Metropolis, the city never sleeps, or shuts down for snow. That includes the schools. But I live in CowTown, so the roads In to work were rotten. But even Cowtown Disrict only had a 2 hour delay. Hmmmmmm.

Navy Girl comes home tomorrow!!! I'm so pumped. I foresee some great conversations, and perhaps a Margarita stop? ahead of us. What do you think, NavyGirl? We need to see what your frantic family visiting schedule is and fit in some time for drinks and convo. The New Years gathering is at M and K H's house, and kids are invited, so since we don't have a sitter, that's most likely where we'll be....for at least part of the time. Farmer would like to get together with his friends, but he needs to organize that.....so I'm seeing us at the H's house.

Huzzah! I woke up in the total Christmas Spirit this morning......just in time!!!!!!

Ok, time to go stick the Cat in the Tubby.....Have a great weekend all!

Bloggy update

So, an update from last night:

#1: I finished the paper and submitted it immediately. I've never been, unfortunately, one of those people who go back 16 times and revise and rewrite. I tend to write papers from the gut...and once I'm done, I almost mentally shut my mind off to them. I figure I wrote over 150 papers in undergrad and 1st masters, and did fairly well GPA wise in both of them, so this paper is good to go. Huzzah!

#2: The 9 foot blanket is 3/4 way done. Kitty went down relatively early tonight (8pm) and I got right to work cutting and knotting. Now, even if we don't have a snow day on Friday (possible, but not likely. we'll know more tomorrow) I'll be able to get it done.

#3: It's my night for Kitty.....pray to God she sleeps.

#4: Today was George F. Kennan day in Honors American. Kennan's my secret history boyfriend (props to Green Girl for creation of "secret boyfriends") because his containment policy of 1947 blows my mind. It's so simple, but also somewhat effective. He was this young guy who was the Department of State's head guy on Soviet Russia, and he came up with the way the USA fought against the evil Communist spider throughout the entire Cold War. In fact, some of his strategies are still in effect today against what the USA now considers "Evil". But anyway, I make my kids read the paper Kennan wrote outlining Containment, and normally, they HATE it. It's dry and political, but his hottie genius shows through. (Is it wrong to be crushing on a 1940's political advisor??? hmmmm....) However, this group of sophomore smarties were able to get past the dryness and get to the meat of his argument, and they also now admire Kennan for his genius and skill.

(Yes, That's Kennan. Yes, the amazing political power of his brain made his hair go away. It's ok, I still adore him.)

Ahhhhh, yes. Time to go put clean sheets on the bed and crawl in for a night of sugarplums dancing in my head.

Hey....that kinda rhymed. :)

Thumbs Up and Down: Historygirlie version

Thumbs Up: To my Honors American Studies classes, for willingly donating to the Adopt a Family program at school. We decided, as a herd, to adopt a family for the holidays through the Key Club. My co-teacher and I were nervous that they wouldn't bring in money and we'd have to get everyone in the family Pez dispensers, but wow....did they come through. 58 kids donated a total of over $240.00, and we were able to get great gifts for a mom, dad, and 3 kids. I'm so proud of them all. What a great show of Christmas spirit from a group of kids who can be somewhat materialistic at times.

Thumbs Up: to my mother in law, who called me last night to tell me that I don't need to make a pan of lasagna for the christmas party this weekend....all I have to bring is garlic bread. Huzzah!

Thumbs Down: To the stupid Wisconsin weather. It's been below zero the past two days (freeze your nose hairs cold, to quote my dad) and now, it's snowing. We're to get 2-5 inches overnight, but KHS already had their snow day, so I will be going to work anyway.

Thumbs Down: To me. I have to make a 9 foot long tie blanket by saturday, and have been postponing it FOREVER, and now I'm down to the wire, and my historiography paper is due on Sunday, and takes presidence over the blanket. I foresee some late nights in my future.

Thumbs Down: To Kitty, for needing to play in the middle of the night the last two nights. She ended up sleeping in the middle, where she crashed, but us parents were up, afraid of rolling over her. But she's still wonderfully adorable, so it's not a full thumbs down, just a thumbs sideways and a slight frown.

Thumbs Up: To me (yeah, I get double credit) for rocking the socks off this paper I'm writing for historiography. Yeah, I've had 2 months to write it and now i'm craming it in the week before it's due, but for me, that's nothing new. I've always been late at stuff like this. But I think i'm really hitting it out of the park tonight. I only have 3 pages left before I've hit the minimum requirement. It's about the little life changes that every day people went through because of the Protestant Reformation, and so I'm mentioning the change in art and patronage, the changes in christmas carols (when I get this flushed out, I'll post about it...tis the season) the changes in the practice of the Rosary, and the differences in the deathbed.

Thumbs Up: To George's Steakhouse, where we had the farm christmas party this past weekend. Awesome steak, Great Cosmopolitans, good time had by all. I want to go back this weekend. I think my favorite thing to do is go out to eat. I'd do it quite often if Farmer and the bankbook allowed.

What do you celebrate/boo-hiss at lately?

Book Club and Cookies

Well, the flu has now passed by our house. We all three seem to be healthy. Farmer had the achy bone flu, but no ickiness, and Kitty is back to her perky haired self.

Tonight I had book club with the Bumble Book Club at a local establishment, where we discussed an awesome book: "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society", which is a series of letters written between a London author and residents of the German Occupied island of Guernsey, located in the English channel. Even for a history girl, I've never read a book set in post war England. Most war books take place during WWII, but this one was refreshingly different. I'd recommend it to everyone. Excellent read. And excellent discussion amongst women who've accepted me as one of them without question....for which I give thanks.

Tonight we met at an establishment where their specialities are called Dirty Snowballs, which is a blended ice cream drink.....which tastes like my favorite Chocolate Martini. Joy in a Glass. Joy! seriously.....JOY!

But enough excitement about an alcoholic drink....it makes me sound iffy.

Now, we look forward to the weekend. Saturday morning Kitty and I head up to GBC for the Christmas Cookie Extravaganza, where Auntie Mousie, Auntie-to-Be and Grammy will help me make bazillions of christmas cookie and candy. Grammy will also be taking Kitty to Breakfast with Santa, which Grammy's wildly excited for. Then, Kitty will stay for a sleepover, because Farmer and I have the rollicking night out of the annual farm christmas party, which basically involves us two, the other Farmers (bro and sis in law) and Former Farmers (my parents-in-laws) go out for dinner. When we bought the farm, and Farmer left the 5 day a week working world, I was bummed out because I was always invited to all the Christmas parties associated with Farmer's old job. He was in landscaping, so the area landscaping associations and other groups would have their parties at restaurants-->which meant that I didn't have to cook for the entire month of December, or so it felt. I really missed those parties. So I insisted that the new business have a party. My in-laws, being as they are, thought I was, once again, off my rocker (just about everything I do is slightly left of center to them....grad school twice, stilletos, different hair color every month) but they went along with my idea. So on a Saturday in December we go out to a supper club and eat steak and drink old fashioneds (or chocolate martini's in my case....another so thought oddity about me) and celebrate the Cows and Milk and the end of field work (thank GOD!) for a few months.

SO, long story short, we have a fun weekend ahead. Thrown in with these big items, we are also going shopping for christmas for Kitty tomorrow night, along with our godchild's 5th birthday luncheon on Sunday.

THe christmas spirit is in the air!!!! Huzzah!

I've got a fever.....Fever! (NOT FOR THE SQEAMISH)

We've had a first last night in our parenting life. But first, a preface.

Kitty was sent home from school on Thursday afternoon with a 102.2 fever. We treated with tylenol, and throughout thursday night and all day friday it went up and down.

Last night around 9 I took her temp again, and it was up to 104.6. Yikes. I called our dr. and he said that since she's just feverish and sluggish, there's nothign they can really pinpoint. It may be teething or a virus, most likely, and they can't do anything for either of them. So we dosed her up again and sent her to bed.

Fast forward.

2:00 AM

She was not sleeping, so I brought her in by me to cuddle until she fell asleep. That normally works. well, she tossed around, and around 2:30, she let out a scream, and then proceeded to get sick all over the side of my face, neck,and shoulder. Twice.

The first nighttime sickness. What a moment.

Farmer sprung into action, still asleep. He delivered about 10 different towels for me to mop up with, and then ran some bathwater for Kitty while I cleaned her up with towels. I then bathed her, then bathed her again since she got sick in the tub, and got her smelling fresh again. While this was occuring, Farmer changed the sheets. He then cuddled kitty and tried to get her to drink something while I finally showered. We then slept pretty well, three in the bed. Kitty was fine once the poison was out of her. She started snoring almost immediately. Farmer and I were running on pure adrenaline (esp. Farmer, because I don't think one of his eyes made it open during this whole process) so we laid there, waiting to hear another scream.

This morning, she's still kinda sluggish, but no full ickiness....jsut a few stomach lurches. But this means that my pedicure appointment for today with my good friend MH is going to be cancelled. Farmer does NOT change diapers, and she's had some loose ones this morning, and I'm not going to saddle him with those, even though last night in the fiasco he said I could still go. He'd take care of it. I'm sure his feelings will change once he hears about the 'ree.

NOTE: this post was mainly for NavyGirl, since I seem to like to keep her up to date on the random, meaningless things that occur back in Cow Town while she's out west with Lewis and Clark. IF anyone has read this post and could no longer look at their St. Nick candy, I apologize. :)

I've found a new workout

Ok, so it's not really a workout, but last night it sure made me sweat.

Ok, you pigs, heads back out of the gutter.

I'm talking about trying to get Kitty to take the Christmas Card Picture. In my mind, I had this awesome Norman Rockwell scene all set up, where Kitty is sitting in her adorable Christmas jammies in her red chair in front of a christmas tree, hugging her kitty. She's smiling and almost winking at the camera. Christmas card perfection.

Instead, here are some of the examples of what I got.....

The first two she was running away from the Christmas tree, which she suddenly got afraid of. Between shots, she was best friends with the tree, but when the flash went on, look out....panic. The third shot she was just done smiling. Finished. Nothing I would do would make her even give me a tiny grin.

45 minutes after we started, I had 9 pictures. I was sweating from wrestling Kitty back into a respectable position. She was irritated with the world. We took some alone time for awhile.....she sat in her crib for 5 minutes alone while I took 5 mintues to wash my face and calm down. I have a lot of patience with my daughter, but last night she wore it all out in one shot. I even told Farmer that I didn't know I was really sure I wanted another baby, as I'll never get a good Christmas picture wrestling both children.....it was either not having another baby or he had to quit farming so he could help me take this darn picture. He thought I was being melodramatic....quit his job for 1 picture???

He obviously doesn't know how important this picture is to me.

Grammy said she'd come down this weekend to help me, but only if Kitty wore one of her Christmas dresses, and not her jammies. That deal hasn't been signed yet....I love babies in Jammies, so we'll have to see.

Maybe when she's 17 she'll sit nice for this yearly issue....but knowing her attitude, I doubt it.