am I ready?

am I ready for Christmas? NO! I just haven't been able to get in the spirit, we do have our tree up and some decorations outside but I can't get into buying gifts...I've been shopping lots but can't seem to buy anything...and to make it worse, if it doesn't get done today while the girls are at school, I'll have them with me from now until after Christmas everyday until they go back to school...I hate shopping in crowds but I have to get it done today...HELP!

Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday to my babies

my big baby was 12 on Saturday (Dec 6)...this is her Dora cake

this is her blowing (well faking I missed the real thing) out her candles

my baby was 9 on Sunday (Dec 7)...this is her pretty lime green with pink polka dot cake

this is after she blew out the candles and everyone is shotting her with those popper things

Merry Christmas!

Jenna asking for snow...wonderful if he can pull that off

both my girls with Santa...Chelsey was laughing because "Santa" is a Florida State fan (poor guy)

so hard to believe...

it is so hard to believe that Chelsey turned 12 years old yesterday and Jenna turned 9 years old today...time really does fly, I always thought old people were crazy when they said that but now that I have children time really has started to fly...in 6 years Chelsey will be in the middle of her Senior year of high school deciding what college she wants to go to, that is so scary...

my point; enjoy every second you have, they grow up way too fast

idk...

I don't know which is worse...a birthday party with six 8-9 year olds or a birthday party with seven 11-12 year olds...

but other than being drove crazier than I already am by 2 birthday parties this has been an awesome weekend...my GATORS are the 2008 SEC CHOMPIONS!!! GO GATORS!!! CHOMP!!! CHOMP!!! CHOMP!!!

just thinking

this time of year makes me think about how lucky I am...

I have a wonderful husband who would do anything in the world for me and the girls (even if he does drive me crazy with everything having to be perfect)

I have 2 healthy, happy, smart, beautiful daughters

I have an amazing family who is always there

I have wonderful friends who this past year helped me through the most difficult time of my life

I have a great job (yes I have a job, I'm a Tastefully Simple Independent Consultant) that allows me to work when I want and allowed me to take the time off that I needed to deal with my Granny's death and the remodeling and moving into her house

I am really lucky and I'm very thankful for all the amazing people in my life

my "Ruby" red kitchen

my Granny's name was Ruby Allred, her favorite color was red and her favorite room was the kitchen so my kitchen is in memory of my Granny and it has nothing to do with UGA

Jenn'a bright room

yes that it lime green and it's very bright but she picked it out and she loves it

Chelsey's pinkish purple room

I was in shock when Chelsey picked this color. Chelsey got Granny's bedroom furniture...excuse the unpainted window frames

my Granny would be proud

my Granny would be proud...my Granny passed away in January, she fell and broke her hip the Sunday before Christmas last year so for the 1st time in my 36 years I had nowhere to go for Christmas dinner...Christmas dinner is suppose to be at my Granny's but with her in the hospital last year there was no sense in going to sit at her house by myself...fast forward to present, I'm now living in my grandparents' house so to carry on a tradition my family's Christmas dinner will be at my house this year...my grandparents had 3 children but one family goes somewhere else on Christmas day but that's still a LOT of people (24) to be in my house eating on my new light carpet...am I crazY?

I'm back...

but for how long...it's been a while since I last posted but my life have been (yes you guessed it) CRAZY...we stayed with my Daddy for 1 1/2 months while our house was being finished since we sold our other one faster than we ever expected and for the past month I've been trying to unpack and get everything organized (I am married a to Marine, once a Marine always a Marine, so everything has to be perfect) and I still have some trim to get painted (I'm sick of painting but I'm the one who said "let's save a little money and do the painting ourselves")...so who has time to blog? (not me Tracy)

but here goes...my daughters have birthdays a day apart (Dec 6 & 7) so I always try for the 2-in-1 special (get 'em over with in one shot) but no not this year...let's see I'm a HUGE Gator fan and the Gators play Saturday in the SEC Chompionship game at 4 against Bama so no party Saturday afternoon so I was shotting for Saturday 11-3:30 but I forgot about the Byron Christmas parade which 5 of Chelsey's friends will be in (cheerleading & dance team) so then I go for Friday 5-10 (you know I can't miss that football game and I don't want a lot of girls running around screaming, only I can scream at bad calls), I call all Jenna's friends and then Chelsey said "Momma there is a basketball game and the same 5 girls have to be at the game"...long story short we are having 2 parties this year, Jenna's on Friday night and Chelsey's on Sunday afternoon but I will be watching my Gators win the SEC Chompionship without all those extra girls running around screaming

nothing else to blog or complain about right now but I'm sure Tracy will keep on me until I do antoher one (you know I love you Tracy or I wouldn't be doing this)

so why that guy?

what is it that this guy has that Chelsey likes so much? Chelsey is a honor student who has never gotten in trouble at school, her teachers always tell me how quiet she is in class...so what attracts her to this trouble maker? he has been in ISS 3 or 4 times this school year (school started Aug 7), he has "asked her out" 2 times and broke up with her the 1st time the same day for another girl and the 2nd time it lasted 4 days before he broke up with her (last night) again for another girl...and she still likes him!?! if he told her today that he wanted to "go out with her" again she'd say ok...I don't get it, what makes her think she deserves to be treated this way? she deserves so much better...11 and already atttracted to the "bad boys", I've got some rough years ahead of me!

I liked it so much better when boys were gross!

will I ever learn?

I have this problem, I can't say NO...anytime I'm asked to do something, I can never tell someone NO...

January 18th my Granny passed away...very sad day...my Granny was a very important part of my life and I miss her dearly...what does that have to with saying no? good question!

in February I was asked to be the President of the Byron Middle School Booster Club...
I said "I don't know, I don't think I have time"...
"but Kristie you will be so good at it, it's 1 meeting a month"...
I said "Chelsey is just going into Middle School, what if she doesn't make a team"
"but Kristie, you know she will. Kristie you are an awesome leader, look what all you've done with the Relay for Life. Please!"
I said "Ok, I'll do it"
what the crap was I thinking?

July all the legal stuff was finished with Granny's will and her house is mine...my Granny & Grandaddy's house that they lived in most of their married life is mine...that's still hard to grasp...we started remodeling the house, it was built in 1930 has had lots of remodeling through the years but we have to make a 2 bedroom 1 bath house big enough for the 4 of us; we will soon have a 3 bedroom 2 bath totally renewed house

August, it's time for recreational soccer...Chelsey and Jenna both love soccer and what do I do...I'm the soccer coach for Jenna's team, 2 nights a week I'm coaching soccer...do I really have time for this?

I'm trying to pack up all the stuff in this house (we sold house #1 and have to be out by the end of the month but our new house won't be finished by then so we have to stay with my Daddy), pick out colors for my new house, run the Booster Club (it's more than that 1 meeting a month they told me about), coach soccer, be Momma, be a wife, etc...oh yeah, my business, my Tastefully Simple business just keeps getting thrown to the side while the rest of my life takes over

when will I ever learn that simple 2 letter word...NO!

to be continued...

ok Tracy

ok Tracy I'm doing this just for you because you know I have all this FREE time...where does my time go? maybe if I learn to say "no" I will have some FREE time...

just last week (September 10th) I celebrated my 14th wedding anniversary...that was a shocker to ALOT of people, we were told by everyone that we wouldn't last a year...pretty neat how we met, my friend Trica's boyfriend Windle went off to Marine Corps bootcamp and met this fellow Marine Jerry and Windle knew that we had to meet; we wrote letters back and forth for about 2 months then finally met on April 16, 1994 and it was love at frist sight...after a year and a half of Jerry being in California and Japan we got married, we may have spent a month together from first time meeting to marriage (September 10, 1994)...I guess I can see their concerns...I was a Marine wife, that is a very hard job and I have the upmost respect for all Military wives...THANK YOU ALL for the sacrifices that you and your families make...

on my 25th birthday I got the wonderful news that I was going to have a baby, wonderful news but oh so scary when you are 8 hours from home luckily my baby was due a month and a half before Jerry gets out of the Marines or I would have really gone crazy...my daughter has always been very stubborn, 2 weeks after her due date I was induced...December 6, 1996, welcome Chelsey Logan

January 7, 1997 we moved back to Byron...home at last!

Chelsey was going to be an only child until I had my eyes opened at the funeral of one of my favorites Aunts...my Daddy is one of 9 so that's a huge family and one of his sisters who I always thought the world of died of cancer on December 8, 1998...she was the perfect woman, wonderful wife & mother of 5...after seeing her children and how much they supported each other through her illness and death I knew Chelsey had to have someone who she could always count on...April 10, 1998 I found out I was pregnant with baby #2

baby #2 being stubborn like her big sister was also late, I was scheduled to be induced on December 10, 1999 but the day before the 1 year anniversary of Aunt Dot's death, December 7, 1999 Jenna Nicole decided she was ready to make her enterance...also the day after her big sister's 3rd birthday

that's enough for now...more of my life later