Christmas Family Photo

Okay, every year I attempt to take a family photo (usually at Christmastime) without employing the help of another photographer. Don't ask me why we put ourselves through this torture. Maybe it's because of all the funny outtakes we end up with. Maybe because Michael loves to watch me set up the camera timer and go running into the picture, only to end up looking the worst of all of us. But when it's all over, and I hate my picture, I don't have the heart to make my family start all over and get it "done right". So here are the pictures.
Some are good, some are not. Some are just funny.
I love the individual shots the most...

grrrr....

Okay, so it looks like we need to find a new place to live. Our landlord just declared Chapter 7 Bankruptcy so things could possibly move along faster than we thought... the big word being "possibly".

I really don't like all this uncertainty and it's really putting a damper on the Christmas holiday. I'd like to put up the tree and decorate, but now I'm focused on legal matters and packing and purging. It just plain stinks. And Amanda, poor girl, is worried that she'll have to go to another school when she hasn't even gotten used to this new school.

I'm going to set a date to put up our tree and decorate anyway. I really don't want these Scrooge's to screw up our Christmas Spirit... it's just going to take a little recovery time for Michael to come around.

We've had some bad news about Michael's health lately and we really want this to be a great, memorable Christmas. I suppose we can't avoid it being memorable now - but I'm really gonna have to work on the "great" part. It's all attitude, I know, I know...

-A.

UPDATE

So after talking to the banks lawyer, we can take a small breath and relax just a little. It seems that they haven't served our landlord her summons because -get this - they can't find her. So, until they actually find her and serve her papers they can't really do anything. But how long can that go on?

Even so, the lawyer said that even if they were to find her today, they wouldn't be able to get a court date till like January and wouldn't be able to evict us till March. So as long as everything the lawyer said is true, then we can relax and enjoy the holidays, whilst keeping a lookout for other places to live.

Amanda is begging to be in a two story townhouse or house. She just may get her wish.

Just when I thought things were going well...

Our household woke this morning at 7am to the sound of our doorbell ringing. Apparently the person we've been writing our rent checks out to since July has been served foreclosure papers and it's quite likely that we will be kicked out of our home in 20 days. We'll lose our deposit. I *just* painted our living room last week and started decorating a little to make this place more home-like. We've powerwashed the exterior, trimmed the bushes and trees nicely and FOR WHAT? She hasn't made a mortgage payment since June - before me moved in!

All this and it's my husbands birthday - Happy birthday to him! We didn't get to do any of our traditional fun stuff that we do for birthdays because we were too busy freaking out.

I'm so mad! What a waste of time and money! I thought we'd be here for another 2 years!

Amy

These are a few of his favorite things...

Hayden made out pretty well as far as birthday gifts go.

Exhibit A:

So could someone please explain to me why these are his favorites?

And does the "government" test our vacuum cleaner parts for lead paint?
Is China making those for us too?

I didn't do it...

Happy Birthday Hayden!

Hayden had a great 1st Birthday! Poppy George, Auntie Debby, Uncle Danny & Auntie Marilyn all came to celebrate Little Gremlin's 1st year of survival in the Gove home.

They all came bearing noisy gifts to Hayden's delight, and Auntie Debby brought her famous Homemade Mac & Cheese! Hayden LOVES Mac and Cheese and stuffs fists full of it in his mouth!

Here are some pics from the party!

Hayden didn't blow out his candle...he grabbed the flame and out it went!
It freaked us all out, but it didn't bother him a bit!

Hayden stuffing his face with carrot cake...yummy!

achhh! How funny is that?

Okay, I signed up to do Google ads on my site 'cause, well, why not? They're not too big and they seem to be related somewhat to the content of my blog. Except this one ad that apparently clung to my site because my son is named after their cleaning system.

Hayden Central Vacs - Free Shipping Units, Install Kits, Accessories.

To funny. Now if anyone says that Hayden sucks, they'll have a point. NOTE: IF ANYONE EVER DOES SAY SUCH A THING ABOUT MY SUPER SWEET LITTLE GREMLIN MAN, THEY WILL SUFFER THE WRATH OF AMY'S ALTER-EGO "ANGRY MAMMA"...BEWARE!

If I had a (really big) ladder...

I'd almost be done painting our living room... but I don't have one. I hate how everything is left unfinished. Especially when I have family coming over. Oh well. What can I do...

I've decided to leave it till next week and concentrate on cleaning the rest of the house that has been neglected since I started this painting job. It's all going to look great when it's done, it's just not going to be done as soon as I would like. :(

My favorite part is the milk chocolate brown paint around the breakfast bar (or as well like to call it, the junk counter). It makes me go running to the pantry for chocolate chips!

I K E A !!!!

Can I just say how TOTALLY EXCITED I am that we are getting an IKEA here? Granted it's a little bit of a drive, but it's only a little bit farther away from us than the one in Tempe, Arizona was.

I'm already making my list. I have halted all shopping (starting tomorrow) until November 14th. I *might* have to rent a Uhaul for the day. Okay, not really, but the thought did cross my mind as I talked to some IKEA fans in our ward about the upcoming event. I won't be camping out for 2 days to get in though- I'm not that crazy. Okay, yes I am. I would do if I didn't have kids. But I do. So I won't.

I plan on getting a bunch of frames, new bowls and cups for the kiddos that MATCH, instead of the junk our dishwasher warped. I want to get some kitchen stuff and baskets, LOTS and LOTS of baskets for organizing. I'm hoping to find the perfect area rug for our living room as well. I also plan on taking advantage of the FREE CHILDCARE -Woo hoo!!!

Now if only IKEA had magic wands to quickly organize the garage into a neat and tidy dream... someday, maybe!

On another note, Hayden is not sleeping well at all. So none of us are... except Amanda. That girl sleeps through the smoke detector alarm and huge thunderstorms. We are considering something that might be a little strange, but I just have this feeling that it might work. Has anyone ever hung a hammock inside their house? We think he might sleep better in a hammock. He wakes up screaming just because he turned over and the bed squeaked. He loves the rocking motion... We have a hammock - just don't know if we should put bolts in the ceiling of a house we are renting...ya know? Any comments welcome!

So I didn't make it to Sam's Club...

... but I did make it to the Tax Collectors office to get my car registered. Yes, that right - here in Florida you go to the Tax Collectors office to get your car registered or renew a registration. And the office is like the size of a small bank. AND the lines are short. AND the people who work there are super nice and helpful. SO REFRESHINGLY WEIRD!

I got Mod Podge, 4 cute outfits for Hayden, a Steam Cleaner and 2 gallons of paint all within an hour! Gotta love strip malls! And I got the steam cleaner we really wanted at Linen's N Things with a 20% off coupon from Bed Bath and Beyond! I saved $60 WOO HOO!!!

When Amanda got out of school we headed over to my favorite thrift shop - Sweet Repeats. We always find great stuff for her there for super cheap. We got a beautiful Christmas dress for her that I am sure was originally like, $80 for just $13. She also picked out some tap shoes (because she "wants to dance like Chim Chimney Chim Chimney Chim Chim Charoooo" from Mary Poppins) for $4.00. Hayden got a bunch of stuff too - toys, more clothes for $2.00 a piece.

Tomorrow morning it's back to work painting this place. I can't wait till it's all done and I can sit back and enjoy it all.

Sam's Club will have to wait till tomorrow I suppose...

Big day ahead of me...

I have so much to do today and all of this week. On the list today is to buy a new carpet steamer 'cause the piece of crap-o-la that we bought 3 years ago is a leaking and clogged at the same time NIGHTMARE.

I've done my research and have decided on the one I want... now I have to get 'the deal'. I'm shopping around and trying to get the best price 'cause these suckers ain't cheap. (Pun intended... sorry, that's all I got.)

We're painting the living room and I've discovered that we didn't get enough paint and the pitch of the ceiling is way too high and I need a bigger ladder. And I need it like, tomorrow because the relatives are coming over for Hayden's 1st Birthday party on Saturday and I want it all to be DONE.

I also need to go to Sam's Club and stock up on food storage stuff plus some of the regular essentials... Milk, Bread, Highly fattening and ever so scrumptious appetizers, and at least 3 other items "I never knew I needed till I saw it".

I also need to get Hayden his birthday present.

Then I have a bunch of artsy fartsy projects to do, but I think I'll wait to do those tomorrow night while the paint is drying...

Wish me luck!

Chickenbutt is getting older...

I LOVE this picture I took of Amanda in Sarasota... and I hate it. She's 6! She looks like such a young lady - she's growing up too fast!

One hundred and five dollars later...

I need a haircut

I got my hair cut about 4 weeks ago and have hated it ever since. It's horrible. I mean, I went so far as to check the BBB to see if anyone else had complained. I have considered sneaking a peek at the "license" said hairstylist had posted by his station to see if it's brand new or just plain fake. But that's kinda hard to do with a 1 year old boy in tow. I really miss my hair stylist back in Arizona. I know you all are thinking, "Ohhh, Amy has a favorite hair stylist - how fancy sha-mansey of her". But oh no, I'm talking about Kathy - at Great Clips. Which is why I thought I would be safe going to a Great Clips here in Florida. Uhh. No.

So now I am looking at the more expensive places and HELLO? Since when did it cost $100 for highlights? I'll go get my $12 bottle of sunshine at Walgreens, thank you very much! I want a real haircut, but I am sooo scared to go anywhere now. Seriously, how hard is it to cut a layered bob? I get home and there is not a layer in sight. I look like a boy with a long bowl cut.

And no, there will be no pictures - it's THAT embarrassing.

On a similar subject, I've never had my brows done, and I want to, but I'm scared. Any tips, suggestions, things I should avoid? Anyone ever do that thing with the string where they pull each hair out?