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December 27, 2006

Merry Chrimmus

Two days past the event and I can finally sit down and blog. It's been a crazy holiiday season and a really really good one at that.

Sunday I had to work at the wine store. I worked more hours than usual last week and by the time Noon on Christmas Eve came, I was done done done w/ the wine gig. I came home, watched some tv with my sweet husband and then we all got dressed and went to the Robinson Family reunion as always. This year was especially nice because my dad's sister came and my cousin Michelle. I hadn't seen Aunt Jacque or Michelle for about 4 years so it was good to finally catch up. How pathetic is it that we live a mile away and she'd never met Dan or Tess?

Christmas day was fun. The kids got us up at 5:30 and by 6:30 the whole living room looked like a war zone. Jake, Trev and Kendall had to go to their dad's house til 4 so Dan and I came home and had mimosas and naps til time to go get the kids. Then we went to mom's house for more chaos. Mom made a super ham dinner and we drank wine and played with kids and everything was merry and bright. fa la la la la la la. I think it was around 10pm when we all collapsed.

***

Today I had my interview for the computer engineer job w/ the county. I pray I did well. I feel like I did ok. They said they have 3 interviews next Wednesday but after that they'll quickly decide and let everyone know. If I don't get that job, I do have another interview lined up for Jan 8. I hope to not make it to that one.

***

Tonight mom and dad are coming over to put up the futon they bought for Trevor and the book case they bought for Dan and me. I made a big pot of zuppa toscana and a salad. It smells so good in here.

***

New years eve is going to rock rock rock. We have reservations to go to the Melting Pot with some friends. I'm so looking forward to going out. What a great way to bring in the new year...eating and drinking with good friends.

Posted by krystal at 3:18 PM | Comments (3)

December 23, 2006

The day before christmas eve

And Dan goes out and buys himself the same thing as the only nice gift I bought him. Fucking great.

Posted by krystal at 8:34 PM | Comments (5)

December 18, 2006

bagged and tagged

"Six Weird Things About You" Meme Rules: THE RULES:Each player of this game starts with the ‘6 weird things about you.' People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged' in their comments and tell them to read your blog."

Six Weird Things About Me:

1. I'm afraid of birds.
2. I've never been in a fight, which is not to say that many people haven't wanted to kick my ass, and vice versa.
3. I would watch Law and Order 24 hours a day if allowed.
4. I've never been sent to the principal's office, fired or arrested.
5. It's been over a year since my last car accident. Before that I'd been in at least one per year since 1998.
6. I know all of the words to "The Dog's Convention" by heart and if you ask, I'll tell you the whole poem over a beer. (thanks daddy!)

Posted by krystal at 7:59 PM | Comments (8)

whwhawhaat?

I'm so stoked about life right now. First of all, I have completed my shopping except for anything small I might feel I should pick up while I'm out and about. I have to wrap it all, but that's ok, I'm done working at the school after tomorrow at 3pm. I will have 2 glorious school free weeks. Of course, I'll still be slinging wine, but that's secondary.

I also have an interview for a position that'd double my pay. The interview is next Wednesday so please keep your fingers, toes and eyes crossed for me on that day. If I get it, I can quit the wine slinging and just focus on becoming thin. That's something that's staring me right in the face every time I have to look in a mirror. For now, until Jan 2, I'm going to just live with the fattitude and then I'll bandwagon and lose weight. I have too many cookies to eat until then.

Tlee, I know you'll read this sometime this week...we need to get together and do Christmas at some point, I also need to get fambily pics from you if you got a chance to mess with em. Are you working Friday? I have to work 12-5 but I could drive up early that morning or we could do something that night. I'm also free during the day on Wednesday and Thursday, but not at night on Wednesday. (HI TREE!!)

Posted by krystal at 8:25 AM | Comments (3)

December 13, 2006

Return of the Estes clan

My grandfather Richard had two brothers, Charlie and Joe. Their parents owned a grocery store on Caroline Street for eons and when Charlie got older he ran it. The store was basically a tackle shop with a bar in the back informally called "the batroom". It wasn't exactly publicized that you could go back there and drink. I remember spending a lot of time hanging around the store as a tiny girl, as did my mom when she was young. Uncle Joe ran another grocery store. My granddad was the only one who didn't. The brothers were no strangers to good times and all three enjoyed a nice healthy drinking habit. *cheers*.
Now, even though the family is all basically in the area, we do tend to have issues with keeping in touch. In fact, the last any of us saw each other was probably at the funeral for Uncle Joe at least 10 years ago.

I did see one cousin over the summer for a graduation party but otherwise, we all keep to ourselves.

Last night Trevor was dropped off after chorus practice by the grandparents of his friend (her name is pronounced kah-lair-ah but i call her colera because it's funny). Anyway, they showed up and all bailed out of the car babbling wildly about "WE'RE RELATED! WE'RE COUSINS!!"

I stood there sort of baffled and said "no, we're not". The grandparents said excitedly "YES WE ARE!! THIS IS YOUR COUSIN RICKY!"

I stared at him and there wasn't even a flicker of recognition. So I said again "nope...no relation, you must be mistaken". He says "I'm your uncle Joe's son". I said "no, he had little Joe, Sandra, Dicky and Ricky...oh...wow, we are related!" Apparently they live in my hood, 2 streets away. We caught up on old times, talked about the relatives we'd seen and those we hadn't...things that people do who have no intention of really keeping in touch. Roots can ground you or choke you...I'm glad to see my old family members but I'm not sure I need them living 2 streets away. I fear the choke.

Posted by krystal at 9:09 AM

December 12, 2006

overheard in the computer lab

Student 1: theres too many misKalanious languages. There should just be "american" or "other".

Student 2: dude, did you just say misKalanious??

Student 3: forget that, he thinks American is a language.

Posted by krystal at 10:01 AM

You take the good, you take the bad

Yesterday:
Take sick baby to dr. to find out she's got her very first ever ear infection AND croup. good times.
Spend lots of money on drugs and prescriptions that we really don't have.
Drive to Roxbury Mills rather than a real tree farm to buy a tree with money that we really don't have.
Quickly fix dinner, feed baby, check to see that lights work and get tree inside. Dan puts the tree up and puts the lights on and most of em even work.
Jake decides that he'll only hang ornaments which aren't his, causing much wailing and bitching from Trevor and Kendall. Fun fun fun! Dan yells at Kendall for trying to pull this same trick on Trevor. Kendall gets sent to room for talking back. I send Dan down to get her, but her attitude is now sour and we decorate the rest of the tree with an air of shitatude all about. Party on, y'all!
We finally get settled and find our way into pjs at 9pm and manage to watch one tivo'd Without A Trace before falling to sleep exhasuted.

Today:
Tess wakes up at 4somethinggodawfuloclock this morning coughing and crying. (Dan gets up w/ her because mommmy is mean).
Dan notices that the tree has fallen to the corner.
Trevor bitches about the fact that I am forcing him to try on clothes that don't fit because he needs them for his chorus recital and I have 2 days to learn to hem or talk Gayle into doing it for me. Trevor, as always, is the ray of sunshine around our house.
Dan points out that one of our sons has left a nice crescent shaped turd in the toilet in the hallway and refuses to flush it because he didn't do it. Meanwhile, the puppy craps on the rug by the front door.
I ask Dan to help me stand the tree back up and he tells me that there's no water. We fill the water back up and it promptly runs through the HOLE IN THE STAND WHICH HAS APPARENTLY HAPPENED OVERNIGHT. Dan informs me that the floor is soaked and the tree will need to be undecorated, a new slice sawed off of it before putting it into the new stand we're going to have to purchase with the money we really don't have, so we can decorate the motherfucker again tonight.

I leave for work, completely defeated, ready to throw in the towel and just admit that the holidays have defeated me.

Car...filled with gas because Dan took it out last night and filled it as a surprise for me. I love him. He's a good husband and a good dad and I'm lucky to have a great family.

But the tree still sucks and I'm not over it, so please do not remind me of the good things today. I plan on wearing this scowl for just a while longer.

Posted by krystal at 8:05 AM | Comments (4)

December 11, 2006

Cramming in the good times

I'm one of "those people" who love every second of the holiday season. I like to bake, shop (online, of course), entertain, sing Christmas songs, eat too much...the works. I'm determined not to be undone by the fact that we don't have any money and I'm never home. We're gonna have fun, dammitalltohell.

Friday we had some friends over for fondue and games and wine. It was a buhlast. I love sticking meat on skewers. It may take hours to eat but that's the point. After we ate we played 80's trivial persuit. I don't think we (the girls team) won, but I did take pride in the fact that I knew the few answers I knew because I WAS ALIVE THEN. See, there is an up side to being the only old person at a party.

Thankfully we didn't get tuh-rashed Friday because at around 11pm, Tessie started coughing. She has continued coughing ever since. I have to take her to the Dr. today. She's been a trooper through it all but I feel like we've passed the point where it'll just blow over.

Saturday Dan stayed home with the kids while I worked at the wine store and then the mean mommy club gathered again for our "hey it's been at least a week, we need to hang out and drink" time. We did too...drink. We had fondue again since it was already there. We also watched Clerks 2 and MOST OF US didn't get trashed hehe.

Sunday we were supposed to go get our tree at the tree farm as always, but with the baby coughing like mad we decided to just postpone. We'll probably look for one this week since the kids will be with their dad this coming weekend. I hate to break tradition, but sometimes kids screw everything up errr sometimes you need to put the health and safety of the babies before time honored traditions. It's the best time of year. God bless us everyone...and all that happy stuff.

Posted by krystal at 7:55 AM | Comments (1)

December 7, 2006

Faces only a mother could love

For weeks I have been asking Dan, the keeper of the good camera, to take a Christmas card picture. Yesterday I gave up on him and decided to attempt my own version so that we could actually mail our cards before Christmas.

It's hard to get 4 kids to focus on one thing. It's hard to get my camera to focus. It's just hard. I hope that Dan will take pity on me and my ineptitude and take a worthy picture. Otherwise, and this is not just an idle threat...this will be the christmas card picture of choice.

I'm not kidding.

Posted by krystal at 10:30 AM | Comments (2)

December 6, 2006

Like people do

Last night Dan and I left the kids at home and met some friends over at the Tavern. It was so cool to drink a few beers and share some good times outside of our house. I remember how we used to go to open mic night or meet people for drinks or poker every now and then back when Dan and I first dated. Back before we got Tess and more truthfully, back before we got Tivo. I'd like to spend more time entertaining and visiting this holiday season and less time stressing over what we have yet to buy. Plus, as Terri said, it was nice to go OUT on a school night.

Posted by krystal at 9:45 AM

December 5, 2006

Why I love him...

Dan: Let's go hang out with connie if she wants us to come over

me: hahah she's having a church thing
church meaning, she needs me to get her some wine really cheap

Dan: it's not really a church

me: jeebus would love that too

Dan: yeah

Dan: I heard from Ken that Jesus had a drinking problem. but VVV (they didn't have the letter A back then) helped him recover

me: HAHAHAHAHAHA
dan, did you make that up?

Dan: yes

Posted by krystal at 9:58 AM | Comments (1)

December 4, 2006

wonder

Turning 40 was to be a non-event for me. I started saying "I'm almost 40" just as soon as I turned 39, so it hasn't seemed scary or bad or anything like that. Dan offered to take me out to dinner anywhere I want to go and I chose Melting Pot.

I worked during the day so when I came home I took a long bath while the baby napped and Dan crashed out in front of the TV. I thought that he should show a bit more entusiasm about taking me to a nice restaurant w/ my parents for dinner but he was cranky and tired and I was aggitated. I sent a quick AIM message to Gayle that we'd be bringing the baby as soon as we could wake her and that Dan was crabby so I wasn't looking forward to my dinner. Then I told him that I'd appreciate it if he could at LEAST fake being happy about going out with me, but he was just so tired. I was in a snit by the time we walked into Wil and Gayle's house, but determined to just suck it up and have fun regardless of my crabby husband.

When we got there I was remarking about how beautiful Gayle's house is. She's going out of town for the holidays and her house looks 100 times better than ours does. It was a wonderland. Lights, winter decorations and snowflakes hanging from the ceiling. I was trying to take it all in when everyone yelled SURPRISE!!! First I saw my Dad and couldn't register exactly why he was at Gayle's house. Then I saw Jake...then more and more friends and family. I swear, I'm sharp, but I was baffled for more than a second.

From what I hear, this party had been in the works since just after Halloween and I had no idea. Dan, who is notorious for letting no secret stay kept, never once let on that he, Gayle, Tree and my mom were plotting big things for this day. I am so honored and impressed by my family and friends. Not only did they have a room full of friends and family and happiness, but every one of my favorite foods was there...including fondue. Dan had asked that there be no teasing and over the hill stuff...just classy nice wintery beauty and that's what they had. I got the best of everything and I still can't believe I deserve a bit of it. Thank you to everyone who came. You're way better than Melting Pot.

Also a huge thanks to Dan's folks for the beautiful flowers that came Saturday. They're so pretty that I wish I could preserve them forever.

Posted by krystal at 9:44 AM | Comments (6)

December 1, 2006

Oh...so you wanted to comment? ok!

We're still working out some kinks w/ the change-over of the webhosting thingy...sorry bout the comment thing being b0rked. Luckily Dan fixed it this morning.

Last night was whine and wine with Peggy and then beer with Terri. My head has forgiven me even if my liver has not. Good times though.

Today I was "helping" put together the fake Christmas tree in the liberry because I like hanging out there. My cousin's daughter came in and I was telling her and a few other kids about how her dad and I went to school together. Then we got out the old yearbook from 1980 and I showed her all of us from back then. The kids giggled so much to see how we looked. Then I told her the story about how her dad and my brother got in trouble for jumping the fence at Loriella Park to play tennis back when they were teens. She was so tickled by that. While that was going on, one of the male teachers came in and was listening. He told me that I'm very lucky to have such deep roots around here. I think I might be one of the few people who realizes just how fortunate I am to be from here and to have stayed. I love having roots.

Posted by krystal at 10:16 AM