A New Side To Christmas

Church this evening was nice, it was good to be surrounded by my church family and their warm greetings. Especially when most people were rejecting me from outside the walls. I was there for the candlelit midnight service and we were there till just before midnight and then went home to a nice warm house with a cat waiting to be loved and a pile of gifts waiting to be wrapped.

I am not the biggest fan of Christmas, right off the bat I will tell you that now. I think it is the most commercialised, over-advertised piece of crap on the planet. Christmas is about Jesus, and the gifts are just for the kids. When you get over the age of 20, Christmas no longer holds any special sparkle or happiness for you- especially if you’re alone at that time of year.

I, myself am 27 and have pretty much felt this way about the seasonal affair for the last six, seven years. A special person in my life feels the same way too. It’s only fun for you when you get older if you have kids and you get to watch the joy on their faces as they unwrap their gifts under the tree on Christmas morning…which in a few hours I will get the opportunity to do. I bought her some really awesome stuff and so I’m looking forward to seeing her in the stuff I got. I’ve still got a crap load more stuff downstairs from my friends for her, and I need to wrap it before I get picked up this morning at 9am.

I wanted to get some other people some stuff too, but money has been limited to say the least this year so I’ve been kind of bummed out about it. I’ve been up all night talking to a friend of mine and he’s gone off to bed now for a couple of hours sleep before everything kicks off…but I’m here watching the sun rise on yet another day in my life.

It’s Christmas Day, have a great day…get drunk and merry on me and Happy Christmas!

Mmm…

I’m such a slacker. I’ve honestly not done a lot recently that’s worth reporting other than playing WoW (after putting more money on the account) and doing housework. The weather rapidly dropped in temp here, so now we’ve got the flannel sheets on the bed and Abby has her quilt back. We even had to put the heat on the other day because it dropped to 55F and I complained that I was frozen. The heat has gone off again now, since it’s above 60F outside again…but sometimes the nights still get a little chilly and I shuffle around the house with my favourite Hello Kitty blanket draped around my shoulders like a shawl.

I guess I have a couple of things to report. We went to the zoo on Wednesday, and it was a fairly cold day. My friend from church has a Zoo Pass for the local zoo and we went along with our daughters and her son (Our daughters go to preschool together and are becoming pretty good friends). We saw a few animals, but we mainly stayed at the indoor exhibits where it was a little warmer and then we sat outside and ate lunch (me and my friend packed lunch at her house while the girls were in school). Was a lot of fun, but I think we’re going to find something a bit warmer to do for next time.

Myself, Nick and Abby went to a birthday party today- was a pretty low key affair but it was for one of Abby’s best friends, Izzi. It was so cute cause they saw each other and hugged each other straight away, totally adorable. We bought her a Curious George book for her birthday, cause my friend (her mom) told us that she loved him. Her family was all there and another of my friends, who’s birthday is next week like mine- so I got an invite to her birthday next Saturday, I really hope I can go cause I need to spend some time away from the computer and out of the house.

And then tomorrow is another little girl’s birthday party, this time is one of Abby’s schoolfriends from preschool…and it’s almost right after church so I’m gonna have to say my goodbyes and get on the road. My friend’s daughter is also invited so I’m gonna see if I can get a ride with her- otherwise I’m gonna have to catch the bus or something.

Quick Post

So I’m typing a quick entry on a friend’s laptop because my internet connection is currently down and it blows. We’re all over at a friend’s house and we’re watching the Packers game with Jagerbombs every time they score a TD. It’s awesome and there’s peel and eat shrimp, a veggie platter, pot roast and other yummy food. I have a birthday party to attend this afternoon which I hate because:

1. I hate birthday parties (unless they’re my own)
2. I am just not in the mood because I just want to sit here all day and veg out with guys watching the football with my guy friends and eat and drink.

In other things, I am not getting the new camera for my birthday but I am getting a new iPod to replace the broken down Shuffle I currently use. They just released a new iPod Nano so I can’t wait to get it and fiddle about with it.

Anyway, I’m gonna get off because I have to have my eardrums blasted out and get a pounding headache from all the screaming. Will type again if I get the internet back in the next century- damn you AT&T

Preschool Start

So this morning was the start of preschool for Abby. Nick stayed up and took us so he could check the place out for himself, so we got Abby up and dressed and then we set out for church. We got there on the dot and luckily people came after us too, so we weren’t the last people in through the door. Abby already knows her way around the rooms, because we also use the rooms for Sunday School during the fall/winter season every Sunday morning. 

Things got started and they played with the toys and Abby found the stash of Little People. There was another little girl there with her parents, and Abby played with her while Nick and I introduced ourselves to her parents. Turns out that the dad was from England too, but from a little north of my home town- Newcastle. He had no accent anymore but it was still really fun to talk to someone about familiar topics. It’s hard to be so far from home and it’s really nice to have a friend who understands what it’s like to live so far away from home and family. 

All in all, Abby really enjoyed herself and seemed to get on well with the other kids so I guess we’ll see how things pan out on Monday when she has her first full day.

Empty Head

I’m sorry I’ve not wrote for a couple of days- my head’s been pretty empty and there’s not a lot going on over here. Well, maybe a couple of things.

Abby’s not very well at all and she’s been keeping me hopping. She has a cold, a sore throat and a cough. Luckily for her, she’s still as chipper as ever so at least she isn’t being all crabby. I need to find her some better cough/cold medicine though because I swear the Kids’ Tylenol that we’re currently giving her is almost a placebo. No cold medicine ever seems to work with her and we just let her sleep more and give her lots of fluids. Which is what I imagine they did before kids cold medicine was available. 

Me and Nick had a little time to ourselves last night. Our next door neighbour was willing to look after Abby for an hour so we snuck out to the local bar to discuss WoW tactics with our Guild Master, who happens to work down there. Yeah I know we’re weird, but what else are you supposed to do in the space of an hour? Can’t go out for dinner or see a movie. Can’t do much at all. It was nice though to spend a little time together before I went home to look after Abby for the night. So she got to bed a little late. 

Ugh. I just thought, it’s volleyball tonight and I don’t think I’m gonna go because well, 1. I suck at it…and 2. Abby’s sick and I don’t want her being around kids like Kai or Hailey or even worse Samuel, who’s only a few days old. Yep, think we’ll stay at home tonight.

VBS is Great!

It was the third day of VBS today and I am enjoying myself so much. After my half hour with the kids, I don’t do anything else for a whole 90 minutes so I walk home and eat dinner with Nick while Abby is occupied with her classes. It’s nice because it gives us a little time to spend together doing things we’re not allowed to do while Abby is around, like watching Family Guy. We both love that show so much (I like American Dad too) but we can’t watch it while Abby is around because it’s not age-appropriate. Bummer :p 

I was a little uneasy about doing VBS at the start, but as the week’s gone on I’ve loved more and more of it. I love working with Brad because he is so easy to get along with and we have a blast together. Faith Fusion Finale is definetely my favourite time because the kids get to be involved and they have a blast with us. Brad’s also one of the Sunday School teachers so he’s automatically better with the kids than I am. I just get nervous in front of people I don’t know very well. I’ve learned with kids though that they don’t care if you screw up, because they don’t know what it’s supposed to be like in the first place. So being up on stage in front of them has turned out to be easy. 

Now, Pastor Kelly asked me tonight if I’d like to do a song with the kids on Sunday during Children’s Time and myself and the kids have to perform a song for the congregation. Ohhhhhhh crap. That’s what’s making me nervous. If I keep my back to the congregation I think I should be okay. So they get to watch me wiggling my butt in church….BIG DEAL, get over yourselves. I’m enjoying myself and so are the kids. Isn’t that the most important thing?

VBS, It’s A Learning Process

So tonight was the first night of VBS (Vacation Bible School), and it was about 50/50. At the beginning, I’m supposed to start off the whole night with some songs and a skit with ‘The Crazy Professor’. The skit went great, but my bits wern’t so great. I think it was because I was following the booklet that came with the CD for the music program and it threw me off so much. We were originally having the DVD projected up onto a big screen and then a separate CD playing, but we had a problem with them trying to cue up on one of the songs…so tomorrow I’m gonna scrap the DVD, and just go with the CD. We used just the CD at the end and it went much better because the kids wern’t distracted by the DVD. I’ve also typed up my own version of my music class so everything is going to be far less chaotic tomorrow. 

Abby also took part in VBS this year, since she was now old enough. She had loads of fun I can tell you, with red dots on her face and four cups of Kool Aid in her belly. I’m surprised she fell asleep that quickly with that much sugar inside of her. She did make me a cookie while we were there, and she was really proud of herself. I felt so proud of her in return because she was being such a good girl  

The most fun I had though was the Faith Fusion Finale because me and Brad (the guy that plays The Crazy Professor) got to do a science experiment for the kids using dry ice and dish liquid…and their eyes just lit up it was the most insane reaction. It made me so happy to see them enjoying what they saw, and I don’t know what the experiment is for tomorrow night but Brad says it’s going to be even better. So bring on tomorrow night because it’s going to be far better than tonight.

Heck, anything can be better than the shambles that was tonight

Time Slipping Away

So, like a fool I volunteered to be the music teacher for this year’s Vacation Bible School (or VBS for short). Luckily, I’m not thinking about stuff I have to learn for choir so that takes up that part of my brain. I have a whole CD to memorize including the actions. I have the CD about half way done, with no actions yet. VBS is July 21…that’s in 11 days. Eek. So to help me a little, I ripped the mp3’s from the DVD and put them on the computer…so I can listen to them on my iPod and I’ve also burned a CD for Diana, incase she wants to use the music at all. It makes it all a little easier with the fact that the tunes are pretty catchy, and some I actually want to sing along too. 

The actions are going to be a little harder to learn though, so I’m going ask Judie who did the music last year. She’s also the Children’s Choir Director so I think she’ll be a big help. I play with her partner Ann-Marie at the Tuesday volleyball game. I’m really nervous about standing up in front of a bunch of kids doing this, but in some ways it will be okay because kids don’t care if you screw up. They don’t know any better and they’re just following along with what you’re doing. Which is why I am now buckling down and getting this perfect. I refuse to screw up :p

To get an idea of what I’ve gotten myself into, this is the program we’re following at the church:

Group’s VBS Power Lab

Nightmare On Kid Street

I have been having reoccurring dreams recently. Mainly about kids, not Abby but future children. I keep having this one dream where I find out that I’m pregnant again…but instead of having one baby, I’m having triplets. Now don’t get me wrong, if this WAS to happen tomorrow…I would be scared out of my mind but I’d also be pretty excited. Having multiples is my idea of getting pregnancy over with once and for all. Three might be a little too much, and I know that me and Nick would be pulling out hair out having three at the same time but you know, once it’s happened there’s not really a lot you can do about it.

We’ve talked about having more kids recently, and I think we’re gonna start trying again soon. Nick says that he wants to have more before Abby’s 5th birthday, which is two years away. And we’ve both decided that three would be the magic number. But if two were to come along at the same time, sure we’d be shitting bricks but at least I wouldn’t have to be pregnant again after having them. Any more than four kids though would be pushing it. Heck, three is pushing it in my family as most of my cousins are one of two. I only have two sets of threes in my cousins. And most of them only have two kids each, so two seems to be the ideal number I guess. I love Abby with all my heart and she socialises so well with other kids so we really want to have a sibling or two for her to play with. We don’t want her to grow up an only child  

But as I said to Nick yesterday, you can’t put a time line on having kids. Heck, we never wanted to have kids as soon as we did…but it happened. Who’s to say that it can’t happen all over again? 

Kids and Video Games

So I’m slightly miffed about something. I’ve been reading a lot of things recently that seems to state that some parents today are giving their children who are as young as three VIDEO GAMES. I don’t mean the lame-o V-Smile systems or Leapfrog. Heck, Abby has a Leapfrog Leap Pad and she loves that thing- best $40 ever spent on her, it’s taught her a lot when it comes to colours and stuff. 

I mean Nintendo DS systems. You know, that one that I got for my 26th birthday last year so grudgingly (Nick still likes to bring it up in arguments from time to time). I’ve been playing Nintendo since I was about 8…and Abby loves to watch me play, but there is NO WAY that I am letting her touch them until at least her 7th birthday. Until then, she can have a Leapster L-Max and it will be at least teaching her stuff instead of frying her young brain. I honestly cannot get my head around it, why on earth are parents giving their young ones video games to play on? I DON’T CARE if they have games like Dora the Explorer or Care Bears. It’s just wrong, did your parents not teach you the difference between right and wrong? Do you have that little amount of patience that you cannot tolerate your kids being bored, so you just shove a video game system in their hands and tell the to shut the fuck up? 

YOU NEED YOUR HEADS LOOKING AT. HOW ABOUT SEEING A SHRINK, YOU DUMBASSES?!