Skinless

There is officially no skin left on my hands. I mentioned awhile back that they were chapped and dry - well, they were nothing compared to how they look now. They are drier than the Sahara and I fear that I have become something from a Seinfeld episode - I have man hands. Mr. Diva, the Taters and the OkieMuds are going out tonight on a real like triple date and I bet Mr. Diva won't even want to hold hands with me. Wait. He doesn't hold hands with me no matter what condition my hands are in. Nevermind.


Monday night was Ladies' Night. The machines weren't hitting crap. I think I came out with pretty much what I went in with, but I certainly didn't break any records. We found out later why the machines weren't hitting - they paid out TWO $10,000 jackpots during the evening. Congrats for those two lucky people. I'm sure they needed it. I know I do.

Tuesday was the usual karate night, then TaterSis and I took all five kids to Wal*Mart because we had to buy things for Brownies. By the time we got everyone home it was after 9. Mr. Diva wasn't feeling well and didn't go to Men's Night. He figured the machines were still making up for the $20,000 they paid out the night before.

Wednesday night was LOST night. When LOST was over and the kids were in bed, I laid down on the couch and slept until 11:30. The fire was blazing, it was quiet and the power of sleeping by the fireplace was too great to resist.

Yesterday was Brownies. We made mommy and daddy Christmas gifts. Next year I think we'll draw 'em a picture. Oy vey, that was something else! The girls were great, but it was hectic. I got cranky and I hate it when I get cranky at the girls. I'm going to have to buy them all new cars for being such a bitchy Brownie leader. After Brownies was over, I yelled at my kids awhile, made them cry, fed them dinner, visited with Mom awhile, then after everyone was asleep, Mom and I went down to TaterSis' to help her with the house. Bub is on a swiftly approaching deadline for his Master's Degree and she's pretty much moved in on her own. There were boxes everywhere (and there still are) and she's pretty overwhelmed. We helped her for a couple of hours and although it's still pretty chaotic, we accomplished quite a bit. Mr. Diva is sick with a nasty something in his chest and never even knew I left or came back home.

Throw the usual craziness of the week in with 4 out of the 5 kids here in the house during the day with snotty noses, plus one with a cough, and it makes for exhaustion. Poor CLB, his nose is like a faucet. I wipe it with a tissue, throw the tissue away, GermX my hands and by the time I get back to him, it's run down to his upper lip again. *gag* CBB has a cough that would rival anything you'd hear in a TB ward. Chan's nose must be hooked up to the same faucet as CLB. CBG has had an ear infection and runny nose, but thankfully she seems to be MUCH better today. My child is (so far, knock on wood) the only one not snottin' around.

Abby stayed home from school today. She woke me up at 5:30 saying she had a really bad stomach pain. She's been off of her Zantac lately, due to the fact that I suck at this working mom thing sometimes. She told me the other night that her stomach had hurt at school that day and she needed her medicine. Then I forgot. Then I made chili for dinner last night, not knowing that yesterday was chili day in the cafeteria. I guess that pretty much all that chili ate a hole in her stomach during the night. She tried eating something but that just made her nauseous so I put her in my bed when I got up and she curled up, knees to her chest, and laid there moaning till the medicine kicked in. She's eaten nothing but bread and drank tea today. She'll be constipated and wound-up now.

Tonight, as I mentioned, we're going out. Dinner, a movie and HOPEFULLY this time we'll actually make it to the bar to play darts. We always go to the casino and lose track of time and never make it to the bar before 2. I really need to play some darts and drink some beer. Yes, I said need. Sometimes, don't you just need to do stuff like that? Oh, so it is just me. Great. I need a meeting now I guess.

I got all creative and frugal this year and was bound and determined to just take pictures of the kids at home with my handy dandy digital camera. No going to the mall in our Christmas duds and worrying about the hair 'do lasting the car ride or someone spilling something on themselves. Nosirree, we were going to do it at home. After 30 minutes of that nonsense, I called Penney's and made us an appointment for 9:30 tomorrow. Hey, I can only do so much.

Here are a few that I shot last weekend:




Bet you can't guess how many times people see him and then burst into a rousing chorus of "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth." Yeah. It was cute at first.
















My gosh, but she's getting big.















She's one cute kid, I gotta say.















But this one . . . oh yes, this one is for the Christmas cards for sure. I call it "Christmas Tards".



It was that picture that prompted me to call Penney's for that studio appointment.