Let the countdown begin!

Well, today is November 30, the last day of November. That means one thing in the House of Payne: tomorrow the notorious Christmas Calendar starts! Every year on November 30, the kids make a sort of Advent calendar. It's just a piece of poster board with a big calendar in the middle. They work together to name the calendar and decorate the poster with their own Christmas-y drawings. This year everyone was so tired from the Thanksgiving weekend...staying up late watching Charlie Brown or football games or Hannah Montana...that they couldn't work together and the naming ceremony for the calendar was an all-out brawl with kids yelling at each other, hurt feelings, etc. You know, all the stuff that sibling rivalry is made of, and that seems to dominate when people are overly tired. Finally, we went around the table and everyone said one word. Then they put the words together to make the name of the calendar. The final decision was Santa's Christmas Holiday Season. Nice, huh? The creative juices were just a-flowin'. It was like a flood. So, they decorate the poster and we tape little red and green flaps over each day on the calendar leading up to Christmas.

Every day they will rip off a flap (yes, RIP it off!) and discover the surprise underneath. The surprise is either a craft we all make, something we bake, somewhere we go, a game we play, or some other activity designed to ramp up the Christmas spirit. As if we need any ramping up this time of year. But it's fun and this has become a tradition that the kids simply cannot live without. The anticipation begins in November with them wondering out loud, "What will be on the Christmas Calendar this year???" Or, "I wonder if (insert your own creative idea here) will be on the Christmas Calendar this year?" Or they sometimes just get bold and ask for something specific to be put on the calendar. But I'm always a step ahead of them. The calendar activities are decided by me with no input at all from them. Sorry, but that's the way it has to be. I make my list of calendar activities way in advance and narrow them down so that we have a fairly even amount of baking, crafts, activities, and field trips. There are some things that are on the calendar every single year, like decorating the Christmas tree, baking cookies, and movie & popcorn night. But they never know when those will be. And last year we had a huge hit with Secret Santa week. It will be modified this year so that it lasts only a day. Little people can't keep secrets for a week, nor can they be discreet for that long. One day is probably going to be a challenge for a couple of them.

So stay tuned, people. December is going to be a busy month in the House of Payne. Check back here daily to see what we've done. And prepare to be impressed. These Payne kids have got it going on when it comes to Christmas.

Sorry, Alec. But 'tis the season!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Six secrets/six tags

Good grief. It's 1:36am and I just found out I've been tagged by Gina and must now reveal 6 secrets about myself. I am not going to be happy at 7am when my alarm goes off!

1. Little noises irritate the crap out of me. Like the sound of someone swallowing or breathing too heavily or the ticking of a clock in a quiet room. I hear all of those right now.
2. Sometimes I regret having Roger get a vasectomy. Sometimes I want another baby. That used to happen a lot on Sundays when I kept the nursery at church. By Wednesday or Thursday I would come to my senses. I'm too old. My body would completely revolt. The other kids are "easy" now - all potty trained, out of strollers, done with naps. Would I really want to go back to all that? No. But babies are so soft. And they don't talk back. And they smell good. And they are babies. I still want one. Sometimes.
3. I am a night owl. Obviously - it's 1:45 and I'm still up. I used to be such a morning person. I wish I still was. I miss my mornings.
4. I used to want to be an aerobics instructor/personal trainer. I'd still like to do that. But I'm out of shape now and don't really have the motivation to change that. I love to exercise, but I also love to eat. And I don't mean veggies. If I ever did get back into shape, I doubt I'd get certified as an instructor. I have started that venture 3 times and each time I got pregnant just before I was ready to take the test. Hmmmm.....
5. I don't really like to read. Occasionally I will go on a reading binge and read 2 or 3 novels (yes, that's a binge for me), and I enjoy it for that week or two. That happens about once a year. Email is about the extent of my reading.
6. I don't really like to watch movies either. My attention span is too short. It's not that I don't like the movies themselves, I just don't like to sit around for 2 hours while there are so many other things I could be doing.
7. I'm pretty stupid. I used to be sort of smart, but motherhood has really dumbed me down. Most women can confirm that when you push out a baby, you also push out at least 100,000 brain cells. Women who go back to work can replenish some of them. And women who have only one child somehow get all of their brain cells back and then some. And women who have c-sections don't seem to be as affected. My sister, Lm, is a good example. She has one child, who was born by c-section, and she works. She was smart before she had her daughter, but she's really smart now. She doesn't forget things she should automatically know - like a blanket is called a blanket. You know how you're looking right at something, and you know what it is, but you can't remember what it's called? Women who have pushed out multiple babies and stayed home with them know what I mean. But Lm probably doesn't. And she's old. She's almost 41 and she can tell you the difference between a blanket, a quilt, a duvet, a coverlet, a throw, and an afghan. That's pretty impressive. She could probably even come up with more types of blankets than that, but I can't. It hurt my poor empty little mind just to name those few.
8. I am 39 years old. I have to reveal that because Lm is going to get me for picking on her for being old. Roger is also old, so I pick on him, too. But I don't have much time left to do that. I will also be old less than a year from now, so I have to live it up and pick on Rog & Lm for the next 11 months. But I say my age is a secret because most people think I'm younger than I am. Or at least they used to. When I had 4 kids, a lot of people (strangers, I mean) would comment that I didn't look old enough to have 4 kids and I must have started when I was a teenager. I don't get a lot of that anymore. Maybe I do look my age now. So I guess this one turned out to be not much of a secret after all. What a waste of time.
9. I'm afraid of heights. I used to not be, but this is another one of those things that results from having babies. The more kids I had, the worse it got. I don't like to look over balconies, out of high windows, or go up into an attic with pull-down stairs. That hole in the floor when you get up there freaks me out. I don't like ladders or flying or going into houses that are under construction and the railing is not on the stairs yet. Or even worse, if the stairs are not complete and there is just a narrow board for the steps. I can do all of those things. It's not like I get vertigo or panic attacks. I just don't like any of them, and all of those things used to not bother me a bit.
10. I am more of a saver than a spender. I'm thrifty. There are people who have called me a miser, but those same people have gotten a taste of reality and they should have eaten those words by now. I don't know if they have, because they don't know that I know they called me a miser on a regular basis for years. But I do know that they look for bargains, don't buy things they don't really need, and will buy a generic brand of something just to save a couple of bucks. Those are the things that won me the title of miser. Most people understand that if you save a little bit on a lot of things, it adds up pretty quickly. And then you have money to buy things you really want. Or to donate to charity, which is something else that I do regularly. How many misers do you know who do that? You know at least one. :)

If you made it through the entire list, you have proof of Mommy Brain. I was only supposed to give 6 secrets, but I gave 10. And it's not because I'm an overachiever either. It's because I'm stupid and I forgot it was only 6 and went to 10. But if you think I'm going to delete all that stuff that I stayed up until 2:30 to type, you're nuts. So now I am supposed to tag 6 people and they have to reveal their secrets. But let's be real. There are probably not 6 people who are going to read this so I stayed up his late for 5 people or less. You people better appreciate that. And you better put some secrets about yourselves in a comment. Good night. Or good morning. However you want to look at it.

Good things...

1. Hearing "I love you, Mommy" so many times in one day that you lose count.



2. Security. Nobody knows what the future brings, but I know mine is secure in Christ.
3. Getting blogger to put a break between list items right here, just like it did with the others - that would be good. Aesthetics are important.
4. Playing a game of spider solitaire, with a winning streak of over 300 games, but you're in the middle of an unwinnable game, and then Windows updates itself, restarting the computer so that the game is wiped out and you get a new game without blowing your winning streak. Nice.



5. People with caring hearts. Someone from the church we have been attending called me today to check on me after my oral surgery. She made us a pound cake and brought it over and visited with me for a little while. That was so sweet. We haven't spoken many times, and she wasn't sure I would know who she was when she called, but she reached out and let me know she had been thinking about me this week. God bless you, Laura.



6. Motrin.



7. Tylenol.



8. Motrin and Tylenol combined. (Not a fun day for me today. Or yesterday, for that matter.)



9. Alabama beating LSU in overtime, remaining udefeated, and (hopefully) the #1 team in college football. Texas Tech would have had to lose their game to guarantee that, but they didn't. If Alabama had lost....I don't even want to think about it. It makes me want to hide under a blanket, hugging my knees, rocking back and forth, sucking my thumb. College football is very important in the House of Payne. Very. You probably don't understand the relevance of this game. The obscenities that would have come out of Roger's mouth.... scary. There are children in the House! But, even better than that...



10. 
    The Gamecocks beat the Razorbacks today!
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

Digging for worms

It's a beautiful day here. Nearly 80 degrees and sunny and gorgeous. The perfect day to plant some flowers. Or dig for worms. Your choice. For Landon, there is no contest.

That's the nice thing about being 4 years old. You can dig just to dig. There doesn't have to be a purpose to the digging. You can just dig for fun. Or for worms. Nevermind the flowers.

It's even more fun to dig once all the mulch is out of the way.



Man, that's quite a hole. He actually had two holes going - one for flowers and one for worms. This one's a multi-tasker.

Any worms in there???

Nope, nary a worm to speak of. But that won't get this kid down. He'll be out to dig another day. Just for the sheer joy of it.

Eat Mor Chikin

I had my wisdom teeth removed yesterday. It was surprisingly painless. Really. I was expecting the worst - nausea from the general anesthesia and pain and grogginess lasting for a few days. So I had 3 days' worth of meals prepared for the family ahead of time. Well, that was the plan. When Haley found out I had chicken nuggets planned for tonight, she asked if she could make them herself instead of me making them Tuesday night and Roger reheating them. I thought that was a good plan. Reheated chicken nuggets aren't all that good. I was pretty sure I could manage stove supervision even if I wasn't feeling well. But I feel fine, and I still got out of cooking! Here's how it went:

Haley started out by cutting the chicken into bite-size pieces.

Landon counted the eggs for her. She only needed two, but he had to count how many there were in the carton. He got to crack and beat both eggs for Haley to dip the chicken nuggets in. Then she dredged them in a flour/breadcrumb mixture.

Meanwhile, Erin made fruit salad.

And Alec and Carrie were still doing their homework.

Then things started to break down and Haley and Alec started wrestling.

This makes my face hurt. Aren't we supposed to be cooking dinner and doing homework??




But Landon kisses my boo-boo and sets the process back on track.




Erin and Landon prep the tater tots. They are such good helpers.

And Haley cooks the chicken nuggets.

"Mommy, I don't want any tater tots. I don't want any shicken nuggets. I just want fwuit salad." He's tired. And he has a bruise on his right eyelid. It's a boo-boo from a few days ago.

Moooove over, Chick-fil-A!

Dash waits patiently for something to fall on the floor. Poor doggie.

Ever wonder what a meal for a family this large looks like? Here it is all laid out. I fill the plates, in birth order, on the island and everyone takes their own plate to the table. Plastic for everyone under the age of 12. "Real" dishes for adults & kids 12 and over. Now that's a lot of food! Notice that I got oatmeal. Yum.

Bon Apetit!

We have arrived!

Now that we have finally settled (hopefully!) in North Carolina, I decided it's about time I started documenting the day-to-day happenings in the House of Payne. Let me introduce the family. I'm Lisa, the CarolinaMom. Don't get confused. We live in North Carolina, but my Carolina is for South Carolina. That's where the Payne family started. I was raised in Columbia, SC, went to school at The USC (that would be the University of South Carolina) where I met Roger, my wonderful husband. We were married on September 4, 1990. We were babies. I went on to finish college with a degree in mathematics and got certified to teach 6th - 12th grades. I taught middle school for 3 years and we found out our first darling, Haley, was on the way the summer before my 4th year teaching. After my 4th year, I quit my job and we moved to Greenville, SC where Roger found more gainful employment. We lived there for about a year, then his company moved us to San Diego, CA. That was culture shock for me as I had only lived in the south my whole life. Roger grew up in the Army, so new places were the norm for him. We were in San Diego for about 6 months, which was long enough for Haley to catch chicken pox, bronchitis, get diagnosed with asthma (which was bogus, but with the air quality over there, who wouldn't wheeze?), and for me to get pregnant with Alec. At that time, getting pregnant was not easy for us. It took almost 3 years, many tests, lots of drugs, and a surgery to conceive Haley. Alec was drugs, drugs, drugs, then artificial inseminations. Right about the time I finally got pregnant with him, Roger's company was having financial difficulty and we were sent back to Greenville, SC. I think we were both ready to come home! We lived there for 4 more years, had one more child (no drugs this time, although we were about to start again!), and the addition of Roger's mother after his parents divorced. The financial difficulties with the company Roger worked for were continuing, so he started looking for another job. He ended up going back to the company he worked for in Columbia before we had any of our kids. Now, at this point in the story, there is a definite pattern. We moved back to Columbia, lived there a year, and had another baby. Then we moved to Ocala, Florida, lived there a year, and got pregnant again. We moved to Nashville, TN, lived there a year, and had the baby. Then we moved to Stephens City, VA. This time it wasn't just for a year and there and there were NO MORE BABIES. We lived at the top of Virginia for 3 years and loved every moment. Too bad it wasn't in the south. We love the south. But we also loved the 4 distinct seasons in northern VA and the 360* mountain views. Now we are in the Raleigh area of North Carolina and we believe we are done moving around. Our kids are Haley, age 12; Alec, age 10; Carrie, age 8; Erin, age 6; and Landon, age 4. They keep my hoppin', that's for sure! So, through this blog, you will get a glimpse into our crazy life. We love it.