Goodbye Spongebob

When we moved into our current house almost a decade ago I let one wall of our living room turn into a drawing wall. The kids were free to cover it in scribbles. At the time it was fun.

Now with a move looming I'm now having to clean all the marker and crayon residue off the walls so we can paint and it's a much sadder process then I thought it would be.

One of my most favourite works of art was on that wall. Here it is:



Catherine did it when she was 5 or 6.

I nearly cried as I scrubbed Spongebob off the wall.

I'm Back

I know I dropped blogging without notice but frankly, this Christmas season has been stressful. Not always in a bad way but simply in the way that every day was filled with things to do and time for myself was simply not availible. And what does a mom do when she's overwhelmed and has to much on the go? Why, drop the stuff that's important to only her first so others around her won't have to make that sacrifice.

D'uh.

It has been a happy Christmas season. I have a growing collection of most excellent RL friends that I got to visit and have fun with. We had enough money this year that we could not only splurge (I'm watching my text appear on a beautiful 21 inch LCD monitor my DH got me for Christmas) but not add a penny to our debt. We've have multiple Christmas gift exchanges (and another this coming Sunday) so that we could spread the fun out instead of constructing the usual orgiatic singularity that is Christmas morning.

But I've worried also about family get togethers. About loved ones will serious health problems. About finding a new house in the new year (veiwings start next week). About inviting people over to our shabby little house. About concerts, recitals and pot lucks. About gifts arriving on time. About not blogging or connecting with blogging friends. About realizing I'd put drawing aside yet again. About what I need to teach the kids now so they can get through Physics and Calculus by Grade 12. About baked goods that never did get baked. About a house that is so small that there's not one damn room that's private enough that a mom can go to and have a good cry.

Thank goodness for Lynn with her ecard. Thank goodness for Cheyenne and her Facebook messages. Thank goodness for Lise and her gifts of pies. Thank goodness for Nancy and Perry and their new friendship. Thank goodness for my sister who likes to take my kids away from me. Thank goodness for Kathy and David who made me feel welcome at a wonderful church service despite my doubts. Thank goodness for my mom who listened to me cry. Thank goodness for my MIL who I really do love. Thank goodness for my husband and my kids who stick with me whether I'm cranky or weepy or crazy.

Anyhow, I'm back now. Enough with the squishy emotional crap. I want to write again and have lots to write about so the break was probably a good thing after all.

Oh yeah. I actually had this post written just before your comment Molytail but I still figure it was you that prompted me to get off my ass. Probably by magical mind signals or something.

Advent 2008, Day 2

Today's offering is recycled from last year (as many offerings will be) but darn it, it's a lot of fun and a game I've been playing for years.

Bouterdart is a gnome tossing game. Yes, a gnome tossing game.



The game is mostly in German but the key buttons are in something close enough to english. Controls are simple. Simply click on the gnomes you want to use, holding the mouse button down. When the dart board appears move your mouse forward a buit to throw and release the mouse button when you want to send your gnome flying.

Hours of fun and giggles.

When you do finally tire of the game there are some very cute little gnomes to make over at Our Little Nature Nest. Not strictly a Christmas craft but it could be a fun seasonal thing if you grab a good knife, take a nature walk, find a nice stick then cut it into stubs and whittle one end to a point as in the picture on the blog. Paint the gnomes in Christmasy colours and then set them up around a minture tree and voila!

If Gnomes don't say Christmas to you feel free to substitute every instance of "gnome" in this post with "elf" and you're good to go!

Our One Worry About Moving.

It looks like we may finally be able to look for a house in the new year. The one thing that's been holding us back, my husband having a permanent local position, should be resolved by early January. I can't wait.

Except for one thing and the following pictures detail that one thing.




That is Jello. He/she is a stray we've been feeding for about two years now. Jello is confident around us but never lets us get within about 4 feet of him and he has never even considered coming in the house.

So we're all worried what might happen if we move. Right now the option seems to be to attempt to catch him. That's why we've now put his food in the pet carrier. The pet carrier is sort of a last resort to trap him if I can't get ahold of a live trap. I'm not sure how I'd rig it up but I'm sure we'll find a way. Hopefully I'll get some calls back from local shelters though and one of them will have a trap we can use.

Now, what Jello will think of all this, I don't know. Even once we get the poor chap trapped he'll have to deal with Chewy, our cat and the dog, Kia. Not to mention all of us. Oh well. None of us want to take the chance that once we leave, no one will look after Jello.

Advent 2008, Day 1

Ground Rules:

-I'll have some old stuff from last year that I love and some new stuff that I've found this year.
-This will be sort-of secular in nature meaning I'll feel no compulsion to include religious stuff but if I find some nifty stuff that tickles my fancy and happens to have something to do with the baby Jesus or wandering wise men, I'll be sticking it in.

On to the goodies.

Here's a little video some clever person did of a Christmas Tom and Jerry tale with her cat and mouse. Catherine loved it and Harry likes to watch it over and over again while giggling like a madman.



We started decorating today and one site which would be a really big help and a lot of fun if we happened to have a colour printer is Origami Christmas. Some of the decorations are ridiculously cute and would make great ornaments for the tree or a nice garland.