Radio Silence.

You're right.  I said I had ALL sorts of time on my hands.

Then kids got sick, I got sick, birthdays happened, Holden got REALLY sick, and I had to finish Christmas prep.  (i.e. waiting in line at the post office).  As Christmas approached, I was not on the computer as much, I spent the time enjoying the Holiday with the boys.  They're becoming pretty cool people and I really enjoy hanging with them.

I'll blog a lot of the events as they happened, but for now I'll leave you with our "Christmas card".
I was pretty sick/still having a hard time with my ankle and wasn't able to stage our annual family pic.  In the new year, I promise. 

Too much time on my hands...

With entirely too much time on my hands last week, (Kenny is in school full day now - as he turned five last week),  plus receiving the depressing news of having to delay school - I decided to bring cheer to my house.

Christmas cheer, that is.

So, thanks to Ikea and some free printables, I decorated two walls for about $50.

Here are the final results:

Not Ikea... or a free printable.
But the boys have been begging for a nutcracker
And this guy got me in the right frame of mind.
Uhm... yes.  That is B's inhaler. What? Don't you decorate for Christmas with albuterol?  
The boys named this guy "Mr. Sweet". 

The boys and I made snowflakes...
Not all of them turned out well. 

I redeemed myself, I think. 

Free "Let it snow" printables, in three different styles.
(Yes, I could have made all of those myself.  Interwebbing it was easier.)
Ikea silver frames.
Foil snowflake wrapping paper to cover the mats.
Cut out snowflakes.
Unamused husband.
It's not super flashy, I know, but it fills the giant blue wall, and I
love that it is more winter-y rather than Christmassy,
that way if I get lazy I can leave it up and not freak people out... too much. 

Crappy pictures, I know.
This is at the top of our first stairwell.
Four more Ikea frames
Four more free printables.
What you can't see is that the colors all coordinate.
The other 8x10 is Linus' speech from "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown". 

I've done more, but these were things I did while vegetating on the couch. They may not be the coolest thing ever, but, I'm proud of them.  I'm not so great at the decorating side of life - so this is a pretty big deal.




**Side note**
In an answer to a much asked question, there is no problem with our dog and our pig - because we no longer have our dog.

We haven't spoken of it much, because we were very sad.  Back in August, she woke from a bad dream and charged Holdeezy.  She grabbed his face (There were also teeth marks under his chin.). We got very lucky that she didn't grab his eye and that essentially all that happened was that he got scratched.  Since the attack was unprovoked by Holden, and we are not sure what triggered it - she went back to the rescue society to be rehomed to a family with no kids.

It's not nap time yet...

But I'll blog anyway.

Now that I'm here, I'm not sure how to start...

I'll go with this:

1. Five weeks ago, I snapped my leg in half.
Last week, I started putting weight back onto it and today I drove the kids to school for the first time in over a month. OI!
But a good oi.  It's nice to be gaining a little control back over my own life.  It's very humbling to have to rely on so many for so much.
I cannot express how thankful I am, truly.  Hubband and I are blessed. 

So with what is the end of the worst of the leg saga, (I'm sure I'll complain once or twice about physio...), I'll leave you with my x-ray.

The only part that didn't break was the titanium reinforced ankle area...
Leg bones, broken. Foot bones, broken.
Ankle? Not broken. 

2. I am currently registered for a full course load at the local college.  I have been pretty stoked about the idea of returning to school.
Unfortunately, a snafu with the program I'm using to pay, it looks like I'll have to delay.  Again.
A very difficult concept.  To be so close, and yet so far - as they say.
So, I am sad. Very, very, sad.


3.  On a happy note - we brought home a new family member.  We call her Lola.

This is an extra small dog bed.
She is TINY. 

Weren't expecting porcine... were you? 

So far, she is fantastic.  She is already litter box trained, is unfazed by the noise my circus can create, and is not afraid of the vacuum.  Oh, and she's adorable.
Both of her parents are under 11 inches tall, weigh about 35 lbs and she will be about the same at the end of her growing period - in two/three years.  Not exactly huge.
It feels good to have a pet in the house.  I'll also not lie, and tell you that bringing home a little girl - even if it is a little girl pig - was FANTASTIC.

So thats our life the last five weeks.
It's amazing what can happen in that time period, isn't it?

Big happenings.

And hopefully this week, during nap time, I'll post about them.

But I really wanted to say - HOW IS IT DECEMBER ALREADY??????


With that, I hope this season is merry and bright for all of you.

I know that I've gotten bitten by the bug a little stronger than normal, thanks to my couch sojourn.
That will be posted, too.

For now, just enjoy these guys.
I'm a sucker for acapella groups... 

Hats for everyone!!!

I love zombies.  I do. I love movies about them, books about them, and when I heard about a race where you run from zombies, I loved that too. 

So I signed up with runner buddy.

Thinking maybe, maybe it wasn't the brilliantest of ideas...
Some of the zombies were mondo creepy and gave us the
heebity jeebities. 

Thank you, Capstone Photo, for this rather priceless picture of me
succumbing to the zombie hordes.  

Until... 

Notice how I'm still caked in mud????
Not the best ambulance ride ever. 

That happened. 

You see, there was a hole in the ground.  A hole covered by leaves.  My foot managed to find it. 

But, the rest of my body didn't.  

*snap*  

Literally.  The runners around me thought I had tripped over, and broken a branch. 

What I really did was break my fibula in half, right above the ankle, and cause hair line fractures in my tibia and malleolus.  

As of this morning, it looks like this: 

It almost looks like a normal foot, as far as swelling goes.
(For those wondering, I'm in a removable air cast, in the hopes that
I'll have a quicker recovery than a traditional cast.) 

 ::sigh:: It's going to be a while before I run again.

There are perks, though.

Like, not standing in line to vote.  (For those that followed the coverage, my county was the county that still had people in line at 11pm waiting to vote.  Still waiting to vote when the new president was announced.  So, truly - not waiting in line probably saved my bacon.) 

And since I can't get up to fill milk glasses, or sweep the floor, I can bust one of these out in a morning. 

Maybe I could turn my busted leg into a profitable thing... Etsy, here I come!!!   

More letters from Holden to Mommy.

Dear Mommy,

I have reluctantly climbed out of your lap.  By "reluctantly climbed out of your lap", I mean, you pried me out and strapped me into my carseat.
I'm going to exact my revenge by screaming "I need your hand" over and over again until we stop and get out of the car.

So, have fun in all that traffic, and stuff.

Love,

Holdeezy Lee

Letter from Holdeezy to Mommy.

Dear Mommy,

I am never, ever, ever climbing out of your lap.  Ever.

So, good luck with life, and all that other stuff.

Love,
Holdeezy Lee

Homebody?

I've never been a big homebody.  The yen to adventure, see things, meet people, and do things has always pulled at me.  It drove my mother crazy, growing up.  "Why can't you just sit still?" 

I never could.

Most of the time, I still can't.  Exception: lately, I need a 30 minute nap after the gym.  

However, after a weekend of doing things and seeing people, I wanted nothing more than to just sit still at home.

This was my Sunday night.  I tucked into the series, "Parenthood", brewed some tea (Ok, I'll give credit where credit is due - Hubband brewed tea for me.) Climbed under my couch blankie, and worked on some of my Christmas crocheting.

Aaaahhhh... That's the sound of relaxation.

The curve of his cheek.

That curve of his cheek.  The curve that will disappear as he grows.  

The rumpled hair that he'll eventually learn to comb. 

The slightly pouty lips, that when awake make me crazy and stupid happy - often at the same moment.  

I never get tired of seeing my babies sleep.  

In Lieu of Running...

... I'm going to reminisce - Dominican style.

Ok, not really Dominican style, there will be a lot less meringue music involved here.

Alright, as you should now know, Hubband and I went on a vacation, purchased through livingsocial.com.

Four nights, six days, for $500 for the two of us at an all inclusive resort.  Plus, a historical tour of Santo Domingo and a couple of resort upgrades.

It was an awesome deal.  We'll definitely be purchasing vacations through living social and groupon again.  Though, I will add the caveat that we did do and will do research about that particular deal before purchasing.


Anyway, onto the good stuff.
(Yes, Lonely Island's "Captain Jack Sparrow" did just start playing in my head.)

Part 1:

The grounds on the first morning.

 Part of our deal was a tour of Santo Domingo.  We started out in the historical part, with a tour of Christopher Columbus' house.

What? You don't have full armor in your foyer? 

The first balcony of CC's house. Designed and positioned so that he could keep an eye out for
that scoundrel, Francis Drake. 

A special stone, that starts out as coral? (Some facts are fading...)
It's super strong, and holds up amazingly in the damp climate of the Dominican.
I've never really seen anything like it. 

Loved the floors throughout. 

The bishop's bedroom, with an elephant skin trunk.  

"Mark, would you just learn to take a good picture of me?" 

The English speakers finished up their remote control tour, and waited in the
heat.
We were amused, can't you tell? 

The "Royal Ladies" walking road.  No men allowed. 

The "governator's" palace.  (Our tour guide couldn't actually say governor, so it came out
Govenator.  Which, made us giggle inappropriately. 

The honor guard in the hall or heroes.
[Hall of heroes: Big giant mausoleum that one of the dictators had built during his reign,
had a whole bunch of dead important guys moved into it, then made his wish to be buried here when he died.
Peoples didn't listen, and dumped his body off the side of a boat instead.]

Painting of "Birth to death".  

Just in case you forgot...

The first Cathedral built in the Americas.  Very gorgeous.
Built in like... 1540? 

Hey, little guy! 

Tour guide: Lady drivers all over the world are terrible.
It's a real problem.
Half the tour van: [if looks could kill...]

Cuevas de la Tres Ojos.
Well... one of the Ojos. I would have loved to have spent more time here.
I would have loved to take the raft to the back lake, that's completely in a cave. Sadly, there was not time.

National monument: "Kiss of the Stalagmite".
Geology rules. 

On the tour bus back.
Hello, neck veins... 

And then we came back to the resort.

Him: Piña Colada
Me: Drink of the day... something fruity with Rum 

And didn't watch the sun go down...

Ooooh la la... 

Hurry, Hurry.

This poor, poor, neglected little blog.  

So that I'm not accused of abandoning anyone, here's a quick update on us, and our lives as of late.



Hubband and I took an "US ONLY" vacation.
To the Dominican Republic.
I'll post a more comprehensive recap of it all, later.

We did a nerdy history/geological tour of Santo Domingo
our first full day there. 

Drinks, beach, sun, little grass hut thing.
Perfecto! 

Holdeezy continues to dominate my iphone photo library.  Funny how being with me ALL the time does that, eh? 

We continued on with life.  (As you can see in the background that DOES include wine.)

Soccer started up...again.

There was some yoga.

The boys got new beds.

Gearing up for the transition of Holdeezy to a big boy bed, sometime in the next  year.  

I had a house full.

 I started my second year of being 26, with a new rearview dangler.

Doctor Who! 

 And Holdeezy killed off the last of a block of cheese by eating a few bites, then dumping it on the bathroom floor.

No, I did not give him that block of cheese.  He stole it out of the fridge.
Obviously, he was pleased with himself.