One Stop Boy Shop

Tis the season to be jolly, but I always seem to be extremely stressed out 3 days before Christmas.  I worry myself to death on if I’ve bought the right things or if I’ve remembered everything… or I struggle with those last hard people to buy for.  Supposedly that isn’t what Christmas is all about, but I can’t tell that!

It is SO hard to shop for people that you don’t know extremely well or for those that won’t tell you what they want!

My husband is a prime example.  Now I DO know him very well, that’s not the issue in this case.  The issue is, when he wants something – he goes and gets it!  Makes for very difficult Christmas shopping.  Then there’s the “Let’s not do a lot for each other this year… let’s just buy for the kids”… and like an idiot, I agree.

Fast forward to 3 or 4 days before Christmas and what do my wondering ears should hear?  My husband exclaiming “I bought you 6 more presents last week”.  WHAT!?  What happened to “Let’s not do a lot for each other”?  GRRRR  Now here I am, at zero hour, scrambling to buy something for the man that doesn’t wait for Christmas.  And I’m dumb enough to fall for this EVERY year!

Then there are the people that have everything they need/want and don’t give you any assistance in what they’d like.  How in the heck am I supposed to figure those out!?  It’s not like I spend every waking hour with them, nor am I clairvoyant.  So inevitably I end up buying them something they won’t want and providing them with a receipt so they can exchange it for something that they DID want… the something I would’ve bought if they’d TOLD me!

So Bah Humbug, I say!  Bah Humbug.

There is my Christmas rant/rave/vent.  Now go and have yourselves a very Merry Christmas! 

Last night we went to Ian’s school Christmas performance.  I’d love to post more about that and show you the video.. .but unfortunately I’m out of time today. Hopefully I can tomorrow.  But I wanted to quickly share the “Cookie Issue”.

Ian’s classmates were all given a cookie when they went to collect their antlers and props for their Holiday Performance.

“Look Mommy, I have a COOKIE!”

Nathan

“I WANT A COOKIE!”

Mom

“honey, I’m sorry but we don’t have a cookie for you.  Would you like a bite of Ian’s?”

Nathan

“NO!  Where my cookie?”

Yikes!  I don’t think he’d appreciate the humor if I tell him that he’ll step on his lip. (that’s what my dad used to tell me!)

Wow, he REALLY wants a cookie!

Mommy:

“Ian, would you please go and ask your teachers if your little brother can have a cookie?”

Ian

“Sure!”

Nathan’s thought: Why are you laughing at ME!

Ahhhhh, Yummy cookie.  Life is good again.

I’m posting my Wordless Wednesday (late and not quite wordless) because I didn’t want to take away from yesterdays blog. PLEASE visit the 7 sites that are participating in the auction to benefit fellow bloggers in need.

Here’s my Wordless Wednesday — The DEMONIC (and sweet) Puppy, aka Sookie

AUCTIONS BEGAN TODAY!  PLEASE HEAD OVER AND PLACE YOUR BID ON SOME WONDERFUL GIFTS!

In our blogging community, we become a sort of extended family so to speak.  We meet each other, cheer for one another, cry together and just bond in a way that is really pretty magical if you think about it.  When some of us are in trouble, you want to do SOMETHING to help.

When Francesca my blogging friend from Mayhem and Moxie (formally 3 Bay Chicks) emailed me to let me know that 2 of our family was in trouble and could One Stop Boy Shop help by donating an item to an auction, my answer was YES!

Firstly Anissa from Free Anissa had 2 strokes within hours of each other and is in bad shape.  Her husband is keeping us all updated on their other blog.  She collapsed a few days before Thanksgiving, she’s only 35!!!!  Their children are 11, 8 and 6 years old.  I’m following their fight closely and praying for a miracle for them.

A Dad blogger Matt Logelin also needs our help.  One day he was proudly blogging about the birth of his daughter and the next was sharing the news that he lost his wife to a pulmonary embolism.

This is the season to give.  They need our help and it’s within our power to help them.  One Stop boy Shop has donated an adorable hat and mitten set made exclusively for One Stop Boy Shop by Carol of Cobblers Cabin, hand crafted and oh so soft (washable too)!  Perfect for a little boy OR girl (toddler OR baby sets available for the winner)!

Seven fellow bloggers are hosting an auction to help these families.  Please visit them in the coming days and bid on items that could help you with your Christmas shopping and could help some families in great need this holiday season.  The auctions begin tomorrow (December 8th) on the following sites:

Buried with Children

Mayhem & Moxie

7 Clown Circus

Scary Mommy

The Extraordinary Ordinary

Mama’s Losin’ It

Adventures in Babywearing

PLEASE visit these sites and help out if you can.  Bidding begins at just $10.00!!!!  The auctions only last 3 days beginning tomorrow so Please join in and make the donations from the small business owners count towards helping these families.  One Stop Boy Shop’s item will appear (I think) on Mama’s Losin’ It.

I know, you’re in Arkansas , but I miss you!

We were just up to the cabin for a week of family vacation. As always, once I’m back home all I can think about is when can we go back? We’ll be going again soon, but soon isn’t even soon enough.

The peace, the quiet, the family time…. I just love it. The kids just love being outdoors and playing in the fall leaves.  They also supervised Daddy when it was time to burn some of the piles off.  My very favorite parts of the cabin are in the still of the night or if Daddy takes all of the kids and leaves me all alone at the cabin.  I can just “chill” and it’s pure bliss.  No car noises, no neighbors, no nothing….

Hercules (our big dog) turned out to be a mighty hunter, he killed a mole that was racing around behind his tail.  Poor little mole.

Speaking of “mighty hunters”, I was on the side screened in porch and all of a sudden Hercules started barking. I heard this ominous sounding growl and wondered, What In The World IS THAT!? I couldn’t see anything it was pitch black outside, but whatever it was, was very close.  I quickly brought Hercules into the cabin and tried to wake Robert up (oh he of many guns who was born and raised in dem der woods).  I told him there is something BIG and MEAN out in dem der woods!  He said “okay” and went right back to sleep.  My Mighty Hunter/Country Boy is a fraud!  hehehehe  I went to a website and was able to discern what I’d heard.   A BOBCAT!  (I linked the sound I heard)

Just to show you how much we “rough it” at the cabin, I thought I’d share one last picture in closing….

ahhhhh bliss,  Dear Cabin in the wilds of Arkansas, I miss you but I’ll be back soon!  Please keep and protect the peace and quiet for me!  (and no busted water pipes again this Christmas would be nice too!)  I confess that our cabin is far from “roughing it” but it’s a home away from home and we crave it dearly.

I may not be able to tell you (or my family) about what I want for Christmas, but I can let you in on something that would be an awesome gift to anyone ages 2 to 102.

I want to start by apologizing for this sounding like yet another movie review. Two in 1 week isn’t cool, but I just love this movie so much and wanted to tell you about Nathan so I couldn’t help it.

Even though (or maybe because) I’m a mom, I’m not a huge fan of animated/kid movies.  There are very few exceptions, I like the movies Cars and Madagascar… occasionally Ice Age is amusing but they all get old, quickly!  I can still watch Cars quite a bit because I love “Doc” (Paul Newman). 

I’m here to tell you about a new flick in town and it is AWESOME!  I’m sure you’ve heard of “Up“.  I was just blown away by this movie.  It has enough in it to really captivate the young and the old alike.  Nathan (my 2 year old, aka “Trouble”) is addicted to it and it’s playing at my house as often as he can convince me to turn it on. Usually no movie can hold his attention, but he sits there and watches it over and over again. He literally laughs out loud at some of the scenes and is completely engrossed and fascinated by this movie.

Young or old, will love this one, it’s such a great story.

Nathan will pretend to be “Carl” (Mr. Fredricksen) or Russell and sometimes even Kevin or Dug. Just yesterday he came to me and said “Look Mommy, I’m a Explorer – Mr. Fredricksen!”.

I was cracking up! The swimming goggles were just pure genius of improvisation in my opinion. What a clever little boy and he’s so stinkin’ cute! LOL I think that might mean that these need added to the Christmas list… got to give that boy some better props!

Anyway, if you haven’t seen “Up”, please do! Borrow it, rent it or better yet buy it and watch it a zillion times like we have. It would also make a great Christmas gift. Two Thumbs Up for “UP” and Pixar.

Well it’s December and that question is being asked on a regular basis again.  What do I want for Christmas?  Have I updated my Amazon Wish List?  No.  I’ve bought everything that I’ve wanted recently as far as books go.

Last year I wrote my husband a letter and begged for “Alice” from the Brady Bunch and Santa didn’t leave her under my tree.  So rather than live with that disappointment again, I’m searching the depths of my brain (those that were left behind by my children, you know the ones… the useless non-thinking ones) and am trying to come up with an appropriate answer.

What I want for Christmas.  Alice keeps popping into my mind.  I want….. ummmm I have no idea!  I know what I don’t want, does that count?  I don’t want clothes, household items, nothing for my car.  Hmmmmm, no beauty products, no electronics, books or movies.  I’m stumped.  I wouldn’t mind a day of bed rest…. one of those lazy days where you never get out of your pajamas, never wipe a poopy butt and never assist someone in blowing their nose.  No meals to cook or worry about snacks.

Revisiting the Alice wish reminds me of a funny my husband did one day several years ago.  I was at work, he was at work and we were fighting over the phone (ok, “fighting” is too strong a word… having a disagreement is more accurate).  He said “How can I make you happy?”, and I replied with a BMW and hung up the phone.  Thirty minutes later, our receptionist called me up to the front to say that I’d received a delivery.  I went up there and my husband had been there and left leaving behind a MatchBox BMW!  All anger slid away.  Maybe Robert can figure out a way to work Alice into a box after all… LOL  NOT!

I guess all that I want for Christmas is for my boys to be happy.  To wake up with the magic of Santa in their eyes and the mountain of presents that await their destruction.  I’d like for there to be no fights, no whining and the house to be filled with pure joy.  Who am I kidding though, I have THREE boys!  The magic and the destruction will be there – as will the joy, but there is bound to be whining and fights and absolute chaos.  I can smile through that though.  It’s a happy day when your children are happy, no matter what.

What do YOU want for Christmas?  Maybe I can steal your ideas….

But the gag order has been lifted!  I will warn before I write any spoilers, so feel free to read the beginning of this post.

I went to see New Moon at the 12:02 am showing when it opened.  My friends had sworn me to silence until they’d seen it for themselves.  So I kept my mouth and my fingers shut.  The friend that was especially adamant that I speak no evil is SMM and I don’t even know if she reads my blog!  But I couldn’t take that chance (btw, in case she does read this, I’ll admit that she’s my girl-crush, LOL).  Now that they’ve had a chance to see it, I can now talk about it!

A guy friend on FaceBook posted “what is this new moon”?  My response?  It’s between the waxing and the waning. 

The first thing that I discovered is that I’m TOO OLD to go to a midnight movie on a week night.  I got home at 3:00 am and then had to get up with the kids at 6:30.  OUCH.  I had what I called a “New Moon Migraine”.  Friday was an awful day, the kids wouldn’t nap and I was completely exhausted.  The theater was of course PACKED with tweens and teens.  The gasps and ohhhs and ahhhhs were kind of annoying and sometimes interfered with hearing the dialogue but overall it wasn’t too bad.  My husband cautioned me to beware of teen girls swooning in the aisles but I responded with “I’ll just step over those silly girls”.  I’ve tried to weigh in my mind whether the movie was worth the sleep deprivation hangover and I’ve come to the conclusion that Yes….. it was worth it (but barely).

On to the actual film!

I thought the new director did a MUCH better job.  It seemed like a more polished film and I loved the parts that they managed to squeeze into the movie that I thought they’d have to drop.   I was impressed with how they worked in the narratives and kept the feel of the book.

I love the way they handled October, November, December.  They were able to help you feel the pain without dwelling on it too much.  Very clever.

I loved the Volturi parts and think they nailed those characters perfectly (including Dakota Fanning, which I was certain wasn’t going to work).  Loved the red eyes!

Here’s where my mild spoilers come in!

I loved that they finally said that Jasper could affect moods even if they snuck that in there quickly.

I loved Alice throughout the whole thing.  And I enjoyed the narrative with the emails that bounced.  I thought that was a clever way to work in the feelings they couldn’t actually portray.

I HATED Edwards bare chest.  EWWWWW, his nipples don’t look right, one is different than the other and his chest was just plain ugly!  If I knew my chest was going to be ogled by a group of girls, I would’ve worked out SOME.  I know he’s not supposed to be buff, but he could’ve at least looked pasty toned!

Jacob tried to win me over and almost succeeded.  I was certain he was the wrong guy for the part but the chemistry was really there and I really enjoyed his role.  I had to keep reminding myself not to drool, he’s only 17 (thankfully I already have a Hollywood crush (my first ever!) and I’ll post about that soon)!!  I think he (Taylor Lautner) did a great job.

I had no idea ahead of time how they could come up with the wolf transition or to make the creature be believable.  I feel they hit the mark.  This was a much more action-packed movie than the first.

The best actors in the film were the more seasoned ones such as Harry Clearwater, Billy Black, Charlie Swan (Billy Burke), the guy who played Aro and surprisingly Jacob!

In my opinion Bella (Kristen Stewart) still needs some acting lessons.  She looks perfect for the part, but her acting could use some more polishing although she did much better this film than the first one.

I didn’t leave the theater like I did with Twilight — obsessed but I did enjoy the film so much more if not the story.

I saw the film again this Wednesday (night before Thanksgiving) and was glad that I did.  I enjoyed it more the second time than the first (except that I had to sit in the second to the front row and it killed my old neck!).

Ah yes…. it feels good to spill the beans!