The artist at work

So instead of the fantasy world I live in where the kids are diligently working on their homework, Paul is making a delicious calorie-free dinner made entirely of cheese and garlic, the pets are all napping cuddled together on the couch while classical music plays on the stereo (you know–to build up the brain power during homework), and an ice cold Landshark beer (or glass of red wine–depending on the time of year) is waiting for me, I came into the Red Hot Chili Peppers on iTunes, cats fighting in the hallway, dogs drooling on the new couch, and….well…. this:

The scene at my kitchen table when I arrived home from work.

Tyler had been asking to make and launch (? is that was you do to a volcano?) the volcano that Elli, Michael, and Sydney gave him. So that project started while Anna channeled her inner Gerogia O’Keefe by painting with her new easel and supplies. She is SO gifted in her artwork.

Another angle

Fido the Fit before his much needed---and deserved-- trip to the spa after keeping us safe through 14 hours of snow and ice on our trip back from Indiana at Christmas after only 12 hours of visiting (really 6 b/c we slept some too).

The house and pets took a beating too. Check out this picture of Bluesy amongst the chaos of leftover Christmas crap-o-la. No matter how ruthless we are at cleaning out before the holidays (and the kids were REALLY thorough this year), there is never enough room for all of our treasures. We are very good, after all!

Waiting for Santa was exhausting!

Paul takes a much deserved nap. So tired--this is even DURING a Carolina game with the kids playing all around him.

The pets have to handle so many schedule changes: Paul staying home from work, then the kids are there all day of some days, then all of us leaving for days at a time to travel, coming home late from parties (ok, late for us). Their whole world gets turned upside down. Barton and Katie even forgot they were not supposed to like each other!

Sign the Apocolypse is upon us.

I started feeling the old twinges of needing to make a list today though. This year we are not going to take on any major new projects. More like just finishing up that last 2% of the projects that never get done. We will keep you posted of course! Stay tuned.

I love being organized and having organized surroundings. I am sure Paul and the kids would help me maintain that if only they knew where to put things right? Before I had ghetto hand written labels or perhaps labels I typed and laminated, but I am THE worst cutter in the world. It never comes out straight so the ghetto-ness is in full effect. So I redid all of the existing labels and added a few. Last night was the perfect night to do it b/c Paul went to his friend’s house to play guitar and the kids were at Robin’s. I was alone. For hours. With my Brother. OK, the dogs and cats were here too, but I created  “dog food” and “cat food” labels first so they were ok with it.

The other bonus is that I will no longer be the household St. Anthony, Patron Saint of Lost Things. I know we did this to my mom (sorry, Mom!!!) and now I know how annoying it is to be asked to find socks, shoes, school papers, backpacks, etc.I also give the equally annoying answer, “where did you have it last?”

I love reusing items so labeling is key. Side note to emphasize my point: My favorite column in Real Simple Magazine is the “New uses for old things” [did you know they have a BOOK OUT WITH 869 NEW USES?!?!?!]. As you see here with Brother’s home, some may mistake it for an old shoe box, not the resting place of the Holy Grail.

Although, now The Others know where it is and I might have to share it… crap.

What is a favorite tradition from your family holiday season?

Paul and Susan on Christmas morning

This post has pictures that represent Christmas Day to New Year’s Day. Just to recap, we had 9 celebrations in 11 days. For some reason I also thought that was a good time to do a home improvement project of painting all the door knobs. Which also means the latches, screws, etc. You probably realized that. Wish I would have…

Christmas w Steph, Roy, BizNKids, and MomMom, Dec 26

Point of interest on this photo–I THOUGHT both eyes were crossed. I did a redo for Paul just now, thinking my eyes were crossed again. No such luck. My sister was like this all the time from birth and had surgery to make her normal. Perhaps I had preemptive surgery to make sure mine did not wander…EVER!

Anna--Dec 26 Christmas; celebration #9

I just love love love this photo of Anna. You get glimpses of what she will look like as a young woman, yet she still has that baby look too.

Tripp gets a robot for Christmas!

Sleepy Becca posing for pictures

The robot Tripp got for Christmas was very cool, it even danced to a Duran Duran knock off song (sounded like the song, but like they changed it to not have to pay royalties). But then it started to somewhat stalk MomMom. Kind of scared us. Rebecca was SO sleepy, but she always wants to get a good picture. And the truth still holds–sometimes the kids like the box the toy comes in rather than the toy itself!

New Year’s Eve 2009. Basic math I should have realized when I bought the sparklers: [(Sleepy kids x bad weather so they didn't get any exercise for days) x (Paul has been w said kids for 80 hours x Susan has been sick for 80 days)] x fire sparks shooting off a stick = probably not a good idea. Not to mention I had accidentally sprayed some grass (and a little driveway) with my door knob project so Tyler of course wanted to prance there w his sparklers. He was drawn like a moth to a flame. (get it–flame??)

Skinned squirrels in the refrigerator. Seriously. Ugh.

Paul took Tyler hunting w some friends and their kids. Tyler was a little loud (lucky for the squirrels), but the others were more successful (unlucky for Susan). We had 6 dead bodies in the fridge. It was like The Soprano’s. Paul made fried squirrel, scrambled eggs, grits, biscuits and squirrel gravy for New Year’s breakfast. They say that how you spend NY Day is how you spend your year. God help me.

Day 1, 12/17/09: Anna’s 8th birthday. Paul and I met Robin and Jason, and of course Tyler at Rio Grande for Anna’s birthday dinner. Anna chose the restaurant–Rio G won for the 3rd year in a row. I just LOVE this picture of Anna.

Anna at her Rio Grande birthday dinner, Dec 17

Day 2, 12/18/09: Kids Family Birthday Party. Stephanie and Biz planned a party for Anna and Tyler at their house. Sandie, Brandon, Haley, Hunter and Mom Mom all celebrated with us.

Tyler had a Star Wars cake complete w light up light sabers. Anna had a doll cake complete w Barbie-like doll you lifted out of the cake before cutting.

Day 3, 12/19/09: Tyler’s 6th birthday. Before we could celebrate Tyler’s birthday, we had to play in the snow! That’s right, we had about 7 inches of snow on Friday night/Saturday morning. Then we met Robin, Jason and Lacey (their baby) at Chuck E Cheese to celebrate Tyler’s day.

Anna, Tyler and Frosty. This was after sledding off the ramp Paul built for them!

Ahhhh, my NRA reps.

Day 4, 12/20/09: Extended Sanders Family Christmas/Susan’s half birthday. OK, 1 was celebrated a little more than the other, but still…

Paul and me before starting to open presents at MomMom's.

Day 5, 12/21/09: Susan’s manager Christmas party and Cole’s Annual Christmas party.

(photos unavailable, cameras confiscated by security, paparazzi bounced from property)

Day 6, 12/22/09: Celebrated Paul’s birthday at UNC vs. Marshall basketball game!

My first time in the Dean Dome! I mean... me doing whatever Paul wanted to do for his birthday!

Paul and I are vegging out tonight. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, not sure what the plans are. Then we get the kids on Christmas Day about noon. Then Christmas w Steph and Biz, et. al on Sat afternoon! 9 events in 11 days! Whoooooo hooooooo! Keep in mind this was including 10 loads of laundry, 0 minutes of napping, 3 days of work (which included creating a plan to restructure our cardiac rehab program to make up for $96,000 worth of revenue that we cannot bill for in 2010 and 4 days of 11 state inspectors surveying our hospital), baking 120 cookies and only 30 minutes of physical activity and NO tears shed! Happy Sanders Hanukkah!

But am I simplifying… NO!!!! Just planning ahead!!! I found this kick ass website, 100DaysTo Christmas.com. It has really given me a lot of great ideas and resources. You should check it out!

Matter of full disclosure: By mentioning the website here, I get entered in a drawing for a Christmas CD. Paul, Anna, Tyler and I had a fire Saturday night and we decided that we were going to sleep under the tree one night as a family. The kids like to have music on when they go to sleep so a Christmas CD would be great. My wish is for the Enya CD.  Merry Christmas!

Susan and her mom shelling at Lover's Key Beach (Elli's shadow)

Paul and I returned from Christmas with my family in Ft Myers, FL (they have a condo down there). Elli and Michael (and of course Zoe the Zygote) were there too. We arrived on the 25th in the evening and just got back tonight (Sunday) about an hour ago. Here was the basic schedule:

Wake @ 7:30am; exercise til about 10-ish; big breakfast; pool time (80 degrees and no clouds); dinner (we rotated which couple cooked); games; bed about 9pm. That’s right folks–I almost got my 12 hours/night of sleep!

Other activities that were interspersed were shopping (Paul bought Life is Good pj pants and a ball for Maggie), reading (yep–Paul too!!), shelling (girls only–the picture shown) and napping (ok, mostly me there). It was very relaxing.

We are both off tomorrow, and we have the kids so we are planning some activites: pool, movie and getting the kids their library cards!! I promise we will blog about their birthdays and celebrating Christmas–there is so much to tell and so many pix, its hard to narrow it down to a blog.

Lauren and Elliot Blue host THE most awesome fundraiser EVER each year at Christmas: a gingerbread party! For $25 you get a blank house, all the “fixings” and food and drink (including beer and wine for those so inclined). Last year I went as a single 33 year old crazy cat lady, this year I am a 34 year old married mother of 2. What? What a difference a year makes. What a difference kids make at the G-bread party! Here is the picture that Buck (the official from our wedding) took. We did not have any other pix–I dropped our camera and it is busted. I can’t even talk about it. We are back to the old camera for the kids’ birthdays and Christmas and who knows what else.

Susan has also seen first hand now that kids are sponges and anything you say will come back at some point. Recently Anna was saying something that Tyler wasn’t interested and his response was “blah, blah, blah”. Later that day Susan was joking with me and said blah blah blah to me…it immediately hit her that he got that from her.

Now back to the motorcycles. We were on our way to my mom’s house to have a birthday party for the kids, and Tyler was talking about us getting motorcycles for Christmas. Susan told him the same thing that she has been saying ever since he first brought it up a few weeks ago, “sorry, but you two can’t get motorcycles.” (I like the idea of getting a motorcycle so I don’t like this answer either ). His response was “sorry Susan, life isn’t fair– we are getting motorcycles”.  So December 25th Tyler and I will be excited to get up and see that Santa brought us our motorcycles!

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