Catching up

Oh my it's been awhile! SO much has happened since December 10th, let me catch up on it all:

Dec 13th - Eric goes to Syracuse to take the last of his teaching tests (neccesary for tenure) and due to a clerical error one of his tests are not there! He was so angry! Now he has to take another one later...hhhhh

Dec 15th - my husbands excellent concert - except that the percussionists missed the whipcrack in Sleigh Ride...on purpose

Dec 16th - 3 lessons and 2 1/2 hours of musical rehearsal, followed by snow...boy was I worried. If we had a snow day the day of the concert it would have messed up the whole week.

Dec 17th - only a 2 hour delay, dress rehearsals all day and then my concert, it was a good time, the kids did well (my Sleigh Ride whip crack wasn't all that much better - though it wasn't on purpose!!)

Dec 18th - choir practice, and I got to go to the basketball game for a little while and see the pep band. It was nice to see my husband for once:).

Dec 19th - SNOW DAY EARLY START ON VACATION!!! We got SOOO much done on the house, cleaning and such and started on the bathroom downstairs so we can paint. So nice to have 17 days in a row to spend with my family.

Dec 20th - Choir practice, getting ready to sing the Hallelujah chorus at the Christmas Eve service, we had pizza and lots of fun:)

Dec 21 - church, Eric painted the bathroom!! So nice to have time to work on our house!

Dec 22 - Eric and Mike went shopping, and Genni and I went shopping. That night I started to wrap presents. We must have been really broke last year because I don't remember wrapping that many presents!!!

Dec 23 - The last of the Christmas shopping is done. Eric's mom came over in the morning so Eric and I got to go shopping by ourselves, had lunch with Gary and Cathy and Debbie, and we got so much done! More wrapping tonight!

Dec 24 - Happy Birthday Eric! My husband is 30 now, I'll be the last one to get out of my 20's, not till September. I cooked and cleaned all morning while Eric went to get my brother from the airport in Rochester, than Christmas Eve service and dinner party for Eric's Birthday. Didn't really expect that to be as stressful as it was, but it was also a good time. The choir did a great job, and we used every single robe! My parents where at my house when we got home, so it was Eric and I, my parents and brother, his parents and our friends Mike and Laurelyn with Graham and Dean. Genni fell asleep on the way back from church and slept through the whole party. I feel guilty that she missed the party, but it was nice to not have to worry about her for a little bit.

Dec 25 - Christmas! It was soooo much fun to watch Genni open presents this year. She was really into Christmas and Santa Claus. She was excited that the milk and cookies where gone and that she got what she asked for. She loves all the pretend food and dishes she got and is constantly making us tea, coffee, and sandwiches and soup (she's actually drinking out of the teapot as I type!). After we got ready it was to Eric's parents house for more presents and dinner. She especially loved her new baby doll and the shopping cart, and I had to reorganize the living room so everything would fit!

Dec 26 - my parents leave for home and we go to Syracuse to see Eric's grandmother and Aunt Joan and Uncle Rick. Lunch was nice, and the Birthday cake for his grandmother (93) - she's been in and out of the hospital lately though so keep her in your prayers.

Dec 27 - another dinner party - Eric's dad, Ken and Marcy, Brett and Chelsea, and Gary and Marie and Ethan - we did a turkey with the fixings and pumkin mousse parfaits. We love cooking and having friends over to visit. Genni and Ethan had a great time, I believe there is a picture of them rolling all over Ken.

Dec 28th - today! Eric went to a Bills vs Patriots game with Mike, Genni and I went to church and then hung out all day. Except for naptime (took and hour and a half to get her to sleep again) everything has been great. She'll go to sleep for Sarah and Grandma fine, it's just for me she has issues.

Well tomorrow we go to CT, then back on Tuesday and I guess that Tim and Sandi and Emily are coming on Thursday now, so hopefully we'll still have some time to relax and work on the house before we go back to school.

Genni has been so much fun, I mean we still have temper tantrums and moments of purposeful disobediance while smirking, but her language skills are great and she comes out with the most interesting thoughts. When we were Christmas shopping she wanted to know how the got stuff down that was on the really tall shelves, so I told her they would need a ladder, then the other night she told Eric she needed a ladder to get somewhere up high in our house. She woke up yesterday and said to Eric, "Daddy, it's so good to see you!" Seriously, we weren't dreaming. I have gotten some of her "I want...." to be May I have....please - and it's so nice to hear her being so polite. We did find out this week just how much TV she used to watch at the babysitters - all these shows we've never heard of that she wants to watch. I'm happy she is going to Larelyn now and we don't have to worry about her watching TV all the time.

Well, I'll write again soon - I promise not to let it go for so long again!!

The Christmas Season

The house is decorated,the shopping is at least started, and there are only 7 more days of school left till our two week vacation! The only thing we have planned is going to CT, but that is up one day and back the next. Still plenty of time for stuff around the house!
Genni is getting better - We had a talk in the car yesterday about her "attitude" and I've been sending her to her room when she starts, so that has taken the tantrums down a bit. She is still always asking for chocolate and cookies (at like 6AM!) and getting mad when I won't give them to her, but maybe sometime she'll realize she never gets them when she whines and stop doing it. (yeah right, I know)
Musical rehearsals have begun and we had almost 60 people at rehearsal Monday night. I'm looking forward to tonights rehearsal! I've been practicing and my pian skills are improving. Maybe by January I'll be able to play everything.
Well rehearsal tonight, choir tomorrow but from Friday night till Sunday morning I'm free! I also plan on sleeping downstairs Saturday night in an effort to sleep more than 3 hours in a row. Excited!

Getting Better!

Well - I feel better health-wise, though eating is still an issue. I am now so far behind in everything though that I shouldn't even be writing this post. Eric is in Rochester for the rest of the week for NYSSMA, and so it's just Genni and I at home. Of course as usual she woke up in the middle of the night thinking it was morning (1:21AM) and didn't want to go back to sleep, then she woke up again at 5:45 and the dog started barking in his crate two floors down because somehow he heard me cough. Then my two year old daughter refused to get dressed, didn't want to have her hair done, would not put her coat on, the dog would not come to go into his crate and then she lost it when I didn't have any granola bars for her (how on earth am I supposed to have granola bars for her if we don't have any!). My goodness what a morning. Yesterday she literally laid down on the floor in the hallway at West and was kicking and screaming when my mother-in-law was trying to watch her so we could cast the play. Luckily all of the other people in my life have much more patience than I do - Cathy had her in a wonderful mood before we left choir. Unfortunately the fact that she had to go to bed (though I prepared her many times in the car) when we got home made bedtime sound like I was severly harming my child. So I held her blankets down while she screamed at the top of her lungs, and when I couldn't take it anymore and left the room without a word she was silent and 10 seconds later I look in and she is asleep! I do NOT understand two year olds!!!
Before I get back to the wonderful things in my life, I want to complain for a second about my lack of sleep. Yes I know I shouldn't, other moms out there are laughing at me for thinking it should be any different, but I still can't stand it. My daughter used to sleep through the night just fine. Now it's been MONTHS since I've had more than two or three hours of sleep in a row. I think basically it's been since we moved her out of her crib. What am I supposed to do now? I can't move her back into the crib and this phase does not seem to be ending. How can she survive with such broken sleep? It's driving me crazy!
Deep breath, I'm better now:)
Well, I'm looking forward to Christmas and Christmas vacation, these next two weeks are always stressful as we prepare for concerts and stuff. My first musical rehearsal is Monday night, so here's hoping it goes well and everyone can sing. Since these aren't kids I know very well it's going to be kind of like the first day of school for me, so I'll probably be really nervous till I get there, and then I'll be in my element.
This weekend is pretty light, Genni and I are going over to the Simon's new house to help move things (well I'll move things, Genni will probably play with Graham and maybe be in a good mood for the rest of the day! *side note, it's been awhile since she's seen Graham but the first person she says good night to every night is Graham) and then Sunday we have church and Eric should be home in the afternoon. My big goal for the weekend is laundry. I'm actually tempted to put it all in the car and spend two hours at a laundrymat just so it'll all be DONE.

Back to completing all the things I should have been doing!

New Hampshire for Thanksgiving and the Flu

Well - lots of things have happened since last post, I just haven't had time or energy to get on the computer. Last Tuesday we left for New Hampshire, got there about 1AM I think, and had a nice time with Eric's brother and sister-in-law and family. Got a head start on our Christmas shopping. We got back Sunday early evening and School was fine on Monday. Then Monday night the flu descended on me (that's really what it felt like) at about 9PM and I've been trying to function since then. I'll write more about it later...don't have much energy now.