lately.

I've been on a blogging hiatus this past month. Life kicked into full gear and things got a little crazy around here. My final clinical rotation consumed my days for 4 weeks. Ninety-six hours, on top of work, school work, caring for kids, eating, drinking, and showering, leaves little time left over for blogging. I'm sure I had good stuff to write during that time, just wish I could remember what it was??

I guess I'll start with today since it's fresh on my mind. Monday morning greeted us with a total parent FAIL! Someone lost a tooth and the tooth fairy forgot, OOPS! Parent of the week right here folks. The chance of this fail blowing over quickly is slim, damage has been done FOR.SURE! Two years ago this tooth fairy left $2 in change instead of dollar bills (another parent fail, don't ever do this) after all, money is money. Turns out it's not. I'm still hearing about that one and again that was TWO YEARS AGO! The boy's memory is just a little to good for my liking. So yeah, it was a rough morning. I tried to smooth it over best I could but at 7 all he thought was "that damn tooth fairy broke my heart." I can guarantee that this was also shared with the entire 2nd grade today. Lesson learned, now let's move on.

Last week I had a 5 day stretch at the hospital, so naturally we get a dusting of snow, and by a dusting a mean 30+ inches. It was rough. Driving was almost impossible by Tuesday morning. Josh so kindly got out of bed to plow the drive so I could get out, which didn't really matter because there was no way I was making it up the hill. "Just gun it!" He says. Oh I gunned it alright, and got a whole 2 inches from where I started from. This went on for awhile as Josh and the neighbor were confident I could make it out. You know, sometimes in situations such as this, I am RIGHT. As I sat there "gunning" it, I couldn't help but think "oh you poor souls, this is such a waste of time, because in the end you will be pushing me back to the drive way." And they did. Fortunately my friend was able to pick me up, our 10 minute commute took an hour. This went on ALL week! Oh yes, it was TONS of fun.

Not even the deepest part.

This kid, was lovin it. And the fact that there was no school for three days.

Seeing as how we now have our snow, we've been getting into the magic of Christmas around here, although our tree has yet to be decorated. Let's talk about the tree shall we. As we drove home from our Thanksgiving weekend we discussed picking up the tree that night. After all the weather wasn't too bad.

Me: "So should we just swing by and grab a tree tonight?"

Josh: "Ah......................or we could just grab one tomorrow?"

Silence

Me: "Sure. I'm lazy, it's cold. Tomorrow sounds good!"

Hello Monday morning BLIZZARD. No worries, we'll grab the tree tomorrow when this blows over. It's now Thursday, we're still waiting. The snow has stopped but we're literally trapped because our roads have yet to be plowed.

OH.MY.GOSH. We seriously NEED to get a tree!!

The kids have been on our case about this all week and now all this snow business is just starting to tick me off. I manage to make it to work on Thursday evening, thanks to security, and at 5pm I receive a text "Roads are plowed, we're now one of the 6,000 without power, and we're going to get a tree."

Ugh.

I arrive home late that night determined to get the tree up. We drag it in and start the fun process of getting it into the stand. Fifteen minutes in, thirty, forty-five, an hour. That's it I'm going to bed!
As I walked downstairs Friday morning I was reminded why I love a real tree. The smell. Oh they smell so wonderful and my house was filled with this Christmas scent. Then I saw the tree, leaning up against the wall, the broken stand, the pine needles EVERYWHERE. And this reminded me of how much I once enjoyed the hassle free artificial tree. At that moment I was tempted to just throw some lights on, hang a few ornaments, and call it a day! But then came Saturday, a brand new stand, and TA-DA! The tree is up. I will ignore the fact that it's slightly leaning. Oh and the kids were beyond thrilled. Just don't ask how it went over when we told them they couldn't decorate it because the branches need to open up. Oh yeah, we're on a roll here with disappointments.

With all the craziness over the past month I've fallen behind in our Christmas planning. The final weeks of school have taken over everything. No big holiday plans this year with family, we're just gonna wing it and see what happens. We insta-grammed our holiday card this year. I had other ideas but time got away from us. Gift buying is almost complete and I feel confident that by tonight our tree will shine with lights and ornaments.

Until then we're staying warm and cozy cuddled up inside, with Christmas tunes at full blast.