Twas the night before Christmas

I am SO excited. Ari and G are fast asleep (dreaming of sugarplums?), Aidan and Max are still awake but trying hard to fall asleep.

I feel like I am five. Can't wait for the morning. Can't wait to see the boys open their gifts.

Hope I can fall asleep!

forgot about the gingerbread house

well.... long story short. We ended up with some lovely and yummy decorated gingerbread cookies, a kitchen covered in flour, a broken mixer, 4 boys whose mother sent them from the kitchen to watch tv so they wouldn't hear her swearing like a sailor and learned that not all gingerbread recipes are equal.

da tree

seems i am a week late in most postings. we decorated the tree last week. all of our lights were out so I ran to the store and bought some news ones. the boys thought we shoudl try multi color this year. (okay...that was a lie. I just out and out lied to you. there was only one strand out in the box and it was out. Chris later found the smaller box with all the lights. this is what happens when you a/ take down your lights a few months after the holidays b/ are just gernerally unorganized)














anyway... G was a bit excited

ahem

the brighter side

last weekend we got our tree. this year we cut down our own rather than buy one from a lot. I always thought it sounded like a nightmare but it was actually fun. maybe because G is older. We decorated it last night..was a shockingly sane event. Today we are making a gingerbread house. from scratch... i'll post a photo of the finished product... if the boys dont' eat all the candy first. wish us luck.




















Notice the prices on the sign.... this antique dates back to 1965. sigh....




















Gabriel's heavy load















finally we found the perfect tree









Upon our arrival Chris found his ideal Charlie Brown Tree.

'tis the season

to be sad it seems. or so I thought. While I am feeling very happy and excited about the upcoming holiday's I haven't' been able to shake this deep feeling of sadness. I have been thinking about this for a while. If all is well, why am I sad? then last night as I was reading before I fell asleep, it hit me. I am reading and listening to, two of the saddest books. In the car I am listening to The Woman Who Walked into Walls by Roddy Doyle. then reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Two great books but terrifically sad. what hit me was the last line I read before I closed the book.

(in case you haven't read it, this book is narrated by death and takes place in pre and during WWII Germany, here death is talking about fighting in a war)

" I've seen so many young men

over the years who think they're

running at other young men.

They are not.

They are running at me. "

case closed

the good, the good and the bad

the bad
yesterday at recess Aidan ran into a pole, hard, and fell back onto the pavement. I am not quite sure if he blacked out but he said when he opened his eyes the boy who was chasing him looked white with fear. He started having breathing problems and head pain after that. Did he tell his teacher and go to the nurse? no. but after school (and this is after he played a game of football) he shared this with me. we went right to his doctor and found out that he has suffered a "chest contusion". luckily he did not get a concussion also. I have tried googling it a bit but have read some scary stories so I am going to stop. he is on anti-inflammatory medicine and a muscle relaxer (which is making him loopy as hell).

the good

Aaron's class had their Shakespeare presentations last night. Was so impressive. Aaron's seems so happy !!

more good

Max and Chris went to Portland Highs open house. They loved it. Max said he feels at home there and has all these ideas of what classes he wants to take . He plans on talking to his math teacher today about how insure that he is on the right track. my one complaint is of course.. photography is not offered as an option for art class.

looky what Aaron and G brought home from school today

not sure what to say about The Dead Dog Face but I sure am happy Aaron's favorite is smirnoff's and not night train.

If I were a dog I would have bit her...

The boys, Henry and I took a nice long walk around town this afternoon. Our last stop was the library, the only place Henry was unable to go inside. We were inside for 10 min, as I brought the books to be checked out the boys ran down to be with Henry. well... some %&$# busy body complained that Henry was left out for so long and the librarians were in a tizzy looking for the horrible people that left there dog (with HUGE fur coat) outside. I calmly explained that the poor abused creature was mine, we were here for 10 min. This did not change their attitude. I asked what do people normally do when they have their dog with them and she curtly replied that most people do not bring their dogs when they need to go to the library. i know I am rambling and most likely not making too much sense but I am so damn mad. I know if Henry could speak he would tell that snarky woman that a 10 min wait outside was worth all the fun he had. much better than staying home alone. GRRRR....

on the counter there is a sign staying that we and Books ect are donating 20% to the library. i'd like to give them 20% of Henry's poop instead.

taking a break

i have been editing ALL DAY LONG. I am tired, but need to get it done today.

Here's a photo of Glenn... Leslie and the kids are up there to the left.

we ended up getting to Augusta a bit on the late side but Glenn was able to get us in (much to the dismay of those waiting by the doors). was happy that I was able to grab some photos.

it's cold today. not happy about that. why do I live here??

spaghetti boy

This weekend I shot Max's friend Jesse's bar mitzva. caught this photo of Max dancing. ha ha...i laugh every time I look at it.

it turned out to be a great job and party. i thought it would be strange to take photos of Max's friends but it turned out to be fun. They pretty much ignored me and I was just free to shoot. Plus Jesse is one of the nicest boys (or should I say men) i know.

I was able to hire an assistant and really lucked out there too. She and I are seriously thinking about doing more of this. Something I thought I would NEVER say but we worked really worked well together. pkus she is very nice. i like nice people.

The boys are all doing well. Chris is at work a lot and I am doing the seasonal bean job again. not tons of fun but money is good and I like the people I work with. one woman worked for governor king so there's lot's of good political stories. oh... Glenn is being sworn in tomorrow.

oh...i do have a photo in the photo a gogo auction. here's the link.


all in all things are pretty quite...not getting kicked out of clubs or anything.