My Amazing Teenager

I am incredibly grateful for Paige this morning! She really saved our rear-ends. Lately, she's been coming down to our house on Thursday nights since she has to work weekends. When we take her to work on Saturday she goes home afterward since she has to work again on Sunday. Living an hour from James' girls is extremely less than convenient (I can't wait till we move closer this summer), but we've managed to find a way to make it work.

This morning, it was seriously a life saver that she was here. Lena is currently on her choir tour today to all the schools in town and the library. I made sure she showered last night, I blow dried her hair so it would be easier to straighten in the morning, and we laid out her required outfit. Literally as we're getting ready to walk out the door, Lena freezes in her tracks, and tells me "Oh mom! I forgot! I need a lunch today." Most people would think this was obvious, however she's a hot lunch kid. I don't ever make her a lunch really. I just deposit money into her account every payday and then it's one less thing I have to worry about. Well... She won't be at school today for lunch, i.e. she needed a sack lunch. Ummm... SHIT!

 I've mentioned several times before that neither Lena nor myself are exactly morning people and that she's also terribly distracted constantly. We're always rushing out the door at the last possible moment and pulling up to the stop as the bus gets there (or sometimes after the bus gets there and then we rush two more stops up and do a drive-by shove out let her get on with Luke instead). Even with all my preparation the night before, this morning was really no different than the others. There simply was just not time to make her this lunch that she failed to mention to me in the last two weeks. Coincidentally, she had also lost the sheet that came home with all details I would need. Frankly, she's lucky she had pants!

But I'm getting off track here... At that moment, I was faced with either A) being late to work to make this lunch and then drive her into school OR B) I could wake up Paige and ask her to drive Lena into school. Keep in mind folks, were talking about a teenager here, and her ability to sleep is one that I envy and miss greatly. Typically, we don't have her help out with the kids because she does enough of that at her other home (there are 6 kids in total there). We believe in our house she should be the kid and not a co-parent. I did end up waking up Paige though, this was an emergency after all, and thank the freaking gods she was willing and hell, even happy to help me out of this jam.

I kissed both my girls goodbye and dashed out the door. I made it to work with two minutes to spare thanks to Paige. She's one amazing kid and I'm grateful for her always, but especially today!

There's Never Enough Time

It has been an extremely busy week here in the Nowhere household. We've basically been running nonstop since Saturday. We got our Christmas tree, made cookies, and have been getting ready for the upcoming Nifty Notes concert that Lena is in next week. This required new shoes, new pants, new tights, and she was in serious need of a haircut.

I've spent every lunch break this week running errands trying to get everything put together and by the time I have been getting home, I'm just exhausted. We've been in bed by 9pm every night this week so far.

So instead of going on and on, I'm just going to share some photos instead today.

Saturday we hit up Luer's Christmas Tree Farm in Crown Point. This will also be our
Christmas card photo this year. Speaking of which, I need to get those ordered.

We cut down our own tree. And by "we" I mean James.

The girls decided to fight over who got to haul the tree.

So naturally, we made them take turns.

I don't have a lot of photos from decorating.
We finally learned how to use Skype and had the
Great Grandparents from FL join in the festivities.

And we ran out of lights when we got to the top.

Sunday we made cookies and they promptly ditched me
when I wouldn't let them keep eating the dough.

Sam has decided to help encourage Lena with her reading.
This seems to be working very well, because she doesn't
want him to leave her bed, so she reads longer than required.

Oh, and he wants to go to school.

How to Tell Dad Was in Charge

Thursday morning Lena and I went to Meijers to get a few last minute things for Thanksgiving dinner and then the remainder of the day was spent quietly at home. There was no huge family meal, although I did make a Thanksgiving dinner. It was just Lena, James, and I. My family was scattered about with their various commitments with their significant others. Anne and Paige spent Thanksgiving with their mom this year because it was her turn, but they did come down late Thursday night since it's our weekend with them. Plus, we had already celebrated with James' family a couple weeks ago since that's what worked with everyone's scheduled. All and all though, Thanksgiving was not very eventful, which was nice. Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with my family, but it's a good feeling to just stay home sometimes.

Friday I did have to work. James was off though, so he got to stay home with our girls which basically ended up being an entire day to himself (sorta, he is on call this week and spent a decent amount of Friday on the phone). Paige and her boyfriend wanted to head out for Black Friday and she decided to take her two younger siblings along since dad was answering call after call after call. Now, I do understand that he was most likely distracted during the hustle and bustle of the girls getting ready to leave for what turned out to be an entire day's adventure, but you would think he would have noticed a couple small things...

For instance, what they left the house wearing would have been a worth while observation...

I might be mistaken, but I'm fairly certain I've put this shirt in the donation pile more than once. Not only did Anne not match, every time she lifts her arms even slightly, it exposes her whole mid section. A whole 5 extra seconds of looking in her closet and she would have found the shirt that actually came with the pants. When I asked James about it he informed me that he didn't even notice. She's old enough to dress herself and therefore it translates in his male mind that whatever she should happen to put on is sufficient. Oh dear... Just because she's 7 and physically able to dress herself, it doesn't mean she isn't in need of a little guidance at times. My sweet child walked around Toys 'R Us, Walmart, the entire mall, and out to dinner at Baker's Square dressed like a piece of spin art gone wrong. Lovely!

That's not all though. He also failed to have them brush their hair and their teeth before sending them on this shopping adventure. Lena's hair is already a labyrinth of tangles when she wakes up. The child honestly sleeps like a mini hurricane and somehow manages to get all of her hair mated to the point of looking like some sort of mental patient with a fear of hair brushes... Every. Single. Morning. Again, this is something that James is well aware of. Yet somehow, it slipped his mind as she slapped a pony tail holder in her hair and jettisoned out the door. 

When my girls got home Friday evening and I saw this all I could was shake my head and grab the camera. Maybe I'll write up a list of instructions next time it's his day to watch the girls. You know, with the basics?

1. Have the children brush their teeth: while Lena does believe that is part dragon or part werewolf, please make sure she does not smell like one.

2. Have the children brush their hair: this may require some assistance on your part. Neither child is very skilled in this arena and they tend to leave gigantic knots on the undersides of their heads.

3. Make sure they where clothes that match: it is only cute when they dress themselves in mismatched clothes when they're toddlers. Once they have passed that phase, it just looks tacky to send them out in clothes that are too small and in wonky colors.

4. Feed them before they leave the house: we already know our teenager is addicted to all things fast food. If you fail to feed them prior to sending them off with the oldest child they will eat nothing but french fries and chicken nuggets for all three meals with ice cream in between.

5. Please text me if you have any doubts: in this wonderful day and age of technology, you can send me a picture if you're just not sure. Believe me, I will help you.