Blah-dee-blah blah!

Current mood: blah

Busy, busy, busy!

Yes, Christmas is next week and the kids are driving me absolutely insane about it. We are having Christmas, but as I keep reminding them, this will be a skinny Christmas. We just can't do it in the same grand fashion as has been our tradition since forever. Skinny or not, I think they'll be at least part-way satisfied.

Yes, still no buyer. I went to transportation this morning for the briefing and they put our move on "hold" status. Great. Just like everything else from marital relations to selling the house to everyfargingthing, "hold." I am sure it could be worse, so no need to remind me. Blessings do abound, but I am blogging (i.e.-venting), so I get it out and then I move on. Or at least that's the plan. I will add, however, that I am just about ready to start acosting peeps at the grocery store asking them, "Do you want to buy a big, cheap house?" Surely, someone somewhere wants to buy a big, cheap house.

It seems that the teenaged drama has faded a bit. Taking the bull, or some other entity of your choosing, by the horns has been effective. Well, at least for now it has been. I'll keep you posted.

Travis will be here by this time next week. He is leaving SC Saturday morning. He is driving straight through. He said he doesn't want to stop at a hotel. He's just going to take breaks at rest stops and nap if he needs it. I hope he stops and naps. Dear Lord, please make him stop and nap. Please. Amen.

I have been in a non-Christmas mood. I am not even sure we should put out our gifts, since there is always a possibility that someone could stop by to see the house. No, not a probability, but an absolute possibility. The experts (yes, the ones who told us to wait until fall to list our house) say that we shouldn't leave any valuables out. Do Christmas gifts count? How bad will it suck for my kids to see nothing under the tree until Christmas. Depressing, if you ask me. Whatcha think?

So, along those lines, how do we keep the Snooptastics from snooping? Last year there were a large number of presents which had been unwrapped and clumsily (and crappily) re-wrapped, if they even bothered to cover the snoopage up. I've grown quite accustomed to the newest reply in my house, "I don't know. It wasn't me." I really hate that phrase. This year, I have a couple of new techniques. I will not list them here as news tends to travel fast. However, one could depend on the use of shipping tape and sealed seams, among other things. I love a challenge. I will be triumphant. If not, no gifts go out until Christmas morning. Still, depressing, wouldn't you agree?

I am sitting here in my room quietly sneaking Pepperidge Farms cookies while one of the kids is sleeping (or at least he better be faking it real, real good) and the other is watching TV. I never used to use the TV as a babysitter when the kids were little, but now that they're older, I just turn it on and they leave me alone for a while. Until they get hungry or have some tragic dilema I have to solve. Pepperidge Farms makes cookies just for me (you knew that, right?). I got lucky, they didn't hear me unwrapping the celophane from the inner box. Normally celophane crinkling is to my kids as the triangle bell clanging is to cowboys needing chow. Ms. Austin, Mrs. Bryan, Mrs. Wheatley and Mr. Krznarich taught me how to use similies correctly. Thanks gang!

So, I am sleepy, but not sleepy enough to go to bed. I am thirsty, but there is no ice in the house right now and the thought of drinking something which is not frosty cold is ick-nasty to me. So, I guess I am not thirsty enough to either drink it warm or go get ice. I am cold, but not cold enough to turn up the heater (because that would mean I would need to turn down my finances next month). I am cranky. I am nervous. I am stressed. I am eating cookies quietly in my room. I don't have any clean jeans for tomorrow.

Hmph. I guess I'll just go play Mafia Wars.

Currently listening : Sesame Street - Cookie Monster's Best Bites Release date: 2004-01-27