So this is Christmas...

Totally enjoyed/enjoing our tirp to Utah. Thought I'd post a little of what we've been up to. I've never made a bonefied Gingerbread House, so I can now cross that off my "Bucket List". We made the Gingerbread fro scratch and decorated to our hearts content.
I love my family so much! It makes me feel a little less crazy to be around them. (I think this picture needs to be entered in some kind of contest for weirdness or ugliness or something. We even caugh the crazy, recluse surgeon waking from a long winter's rest in the background.)

We wish ya'll a merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year; may it be a little less . . . crazy.

Hope

Melancholy. I think that's a pretty good word to describe the way I've felt for the last few weeks. My family and good friends would probably agree with that. What's bugging me is that I'm not usually like this. I'd even consider myself a fairly optimistic person. There are many factors causing this "Debbie Downer" attitude, too many to count, but I think it boils down to THE UNKNOWN.
Luckily, after a wonderful and much needed spiritual refill yesterday, I realized that THE UNKNOWN is never going away. I need to embrace and {enjoy} life as it is, right now. Period. There are so many things I do have and life is pretty good. The Tender Mercies my Father in Heaven has blessed me with are too many to count. So, I'm done. Goodbye Melancholy and Hello Hope!

Laughable.

We woke up to snow. Approximately 2 inches of it. School is cancelled. So much for making a trip down to Eugene, since there were more than 35 accidents and 5 jack-knifed semi-'s on I-5 this morning. Maybe we should think about investing in more than one snow plow for the city, and teaching these Oregonians a few things about driving in the snow, eh? (In their defense, there is a layer of black ice under ALL THAT white. Even Cory was sliding around.)

I couldn't resist.

Every time I have to go to our storage shed, I "shed" tears. It is horrific, and unorganized, and chaos, and ugly, and the worst! In an effort to make myself feel better, I purge some area of our minuscule apartment when I get home. I was running out of areas, then thought I'd clean out my files a month early. (I do my files after the New Year; this is very adventurous and daring of me.) And look what I found! I'm sorry Cory, I couldn't resist.

This girl looks like she could eat him for breakfast, and that she might be his teacher.He looks like a baby here.And this one . . . well, I wish ya'll could've seen the girls' faces when they saw this one. PRICELESS; eyebrows raised, not quite sure what to think about this girl, and her boa, all over their dad. I still can't stop giggling.

And the hits just keep on comin' . . .

Tessa told me the other day, as I was getting out of the shower, that she "didn't want to grow up." We have a Peter Pan enigma that hangs around our house, so I wasn't totally surprised. Until . . . she closed her eyes, squinted really hard, grunted a little, and said, "Good, no more growing; cuz I don't want a big bum like you." Really.
Then this morning she told me, "Stop saying naughty words or I'll throw-up on you!" Seriously.

The time has come, the Walrus said . . .

To scratch, until we bleed.

You'd think, for how wet/humid-ish it is up here that this wouldn't happen. Like Father (my dad), like Daughter (me) and like Daughter (Tessa)! Bring on the Curel and Aquaphor.
Finishing up our October festivities were some traditional Hot Dog Mummies and babysitting.

Tessa is baby hungry. When we had the opportunity to watch a baby a couple weeks ago, she was over the moon. She was, literally, by his side for most of the two hours. Everyday since that she's told me to, "Get a baby in that tummy!" Which is laughable because I've had to dispel a few rumors because my kids were telling people we were having a baby. ("Congratulations!" "For what?" "Aren't you pregnant?" "No . . . do I look pregnant?" "But Tessa told me . . .") So, in conclusion, I'm NOT pregnant, nor will I become so, anytime soon. So, yes, much to the dismay of my children and extended family, no more little Maughansters for us. For awhile.

More Visitors

My mom and sister came for a UEA visit a couple weeks ago, and we had a great time entertaining them.
We walked to The Wetlands, obsessed by the water-drop laden spiderwebs. We wake up to this type of fogginess about 3 times a week.
There was some nature hiking in McDonald Forest. We saw caterpillars, slugs, a newt/lizard thing, huge Maple leaves, toadstools, and the last of the blackberries. There have also been a ton of cougar sightings, but luckily, we didn't see one of those.
We did a science experiment, and learned about the chemical reaction that makes Flubber. We had a little too much fun with the Flubber.
We went to the Coast and had AMAZING seafood! We also found out how Patrick Starfish got way up on the dock. There was a family crabbing and they catch all sorts of stuff, and show it to the kids on Saturdays. The beach was fun with kites and seaweed junk, but then got ultra cold. Cory lost some man points when he was unable to light a fire in gale force winds with no kindling ;) Also found a super cool road along the way!
The cutest chefs ever, with a super talented Grandma who made the aprons and hats. (We also did a little sewing project called THE PETTISKIRTS OF DOOM! We only finished half of one, so I had the pleasure of finishing the skirts on my own. I had nightmares about ruffles.)
Good times with Our Girls!

Happy Halloween!

Praise be! The rain stopped for one afternoon of Downtown Trick-Or-Treating! (The term "Downtown" being used loosely.) Tessa is sans antenna, they "hurt her brains".


We had our traditional viewing of Hocus Pocus and ate lots of goodies. Surprisingly, Cory spent most of the weekend with us! He's been on-call since Thursday, and generally Halloween is a VERY busy Hospital Holiday (right up there with the Super Bowl ;), but he's only had to go in for a couple hours of Rounds each morning. He did get a special disgustingly, delightful Halloween procedure on Friday. I'll leave out the specifics, but lets just say it was a Boil taking up a Basketball sized portion of a man's back, that had to be Lanced, Drained, and Stuffed with Gauze! Cory was extra grateful his nose was stuffed up (due to a cold) and that he couldn't smell, because the nurse was holding back multiple heaves; although, just the sight of handfuls and handfuls and handfuls of puss was nauseating!
Oh, we can't forget my sister's awesome costume! Can you guess who she is?

Astrid from How to Train Your Dragon

Tessa's 3rd Year

Tessa Elaine:
Lover of Drama, Getting in Trouble, and Fights!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

For your enjoyment

We were having too much fun with glow sticks, and when you have too much fun with glow sticks, someone is liable to get punched in the face.

My baby . . .

On 10.10.10 Tessa turned 3 years old! We love this chiquita a lot, but she is, most definitely, the drama of our family. She and I butt heads like nobody's business, I can't even fathom what's coming in 10-11 years. Seriously.

Our Laner basked in all her birthday glory, enjoying waffles for breakfast, sharing mini-cupcakes in nursery, tater tots for dinner, and birthday cake and ice cream with the Marcus Family. She got Beauty and the Beast, a Fancy Nancy doll, a little pet, money - to be put towards a dance or gymnastics class, and CANDY, which was all she wanted. The CakeShe is such a poser; most of the pictures are blurry because I was laughing so hard.This funny little girl loves to ride in this on my bike. She always wants to have a friend over to play. She is so loving and affectionate and I love her little person talk. "Yes, Momma, that is exactwy purfect for me," or "You are a bad servant, Mom," when I don't give her what she wants. She's a blankie lover to the end and misses Kirby "so, so much!" Happy Birthday, little sister!

Visitors

We had our first visitors this month! Cory's sister, brother-in-law, niece, and Grandma came for quick stay as a result of a football game being near-ish-by (Thank goodness Nebraska killed Washington!). Cory was finishing up an intensive care rotation in Portland, so we met up with him later. In a short rundown we went to the coast, walked, picked berries, made jam, shopped at the outlets (Grandma holding a $480 Coach Bag), had our first Oyster Shooters, and got stuck in HORRIFIC Duck and Beaver traffic. All in all it was good, rainy fun and we basked in the glory of having our Mahal around. "I miss her everyday," Tessa says.Thanks for coming guys!!!