Hum-de-HO-HO-hummm

Where oh, where have I been???

Not that many people noticed... but I took a blogging break (with the exception of Friday Finds).

Why?

Well, let me share.

First, we put our dog to sleep on Wednesday, November 12. That was a tough thing. We knew she was old. We knew she was sick. We knew it was coming. What I didn't expect was to take her to the vet for a checkup and to see why her belly was swollen, and to be told she was in end-stage liver failure, and to prolong her life any longer than THAT DAY would be unwise and unkind. So I walked in at 11:45 WITH our dog, and left at 1:00 permanently WITHOUT our dog. And dropped $200 in the process. I cried my eyes out. And Hunter didn't miss a beat. "Mommy, good girl at the docors?" (he leaves out the t) or "Mommy, good girl dead."

Sigh. How do you reply to that? Yes, son, she is indeed dead.

Our poor dog. She was a part of our lives for 15 years and three months. She was the sweetest most adorable dog in all the earth. She patiently endured torment from children without a complaint, was faithful to the end, and returned our love each and every day. She knew she was loved. We knew she loved us.

Having said that -- I still won't be getting another dog anytime soon. If ever. Unless maybe my precious son begs me for one, in which case, I will probably slam my hand in the car door first to draw my attention away from the fact that we might be bringing another dog into my home. I'm sure my husband feels the same way.

Anyway -- the very next day, I was slammed with a miserable cold that robbed me completely of my voice for 5 days. I couldn't even whisper.

Then, upon having sufficiently recovered (it took 10 days!), I spent several days preparing items for a craft show. Which was followed by ANOTHER cold. I totally blame the flu shot for this one.

Somewhere in there we celebrated my 41st birthday. It's all a blur... quite possibly brought on by two cycles of antibiotics and enough cough syrup to drown a small animal -- like that blasted rabbit that ate all my veggies in the garden this summer. Thank goodness my doctor prescribed cough syrup with codeine last week. I'm loving that stuff. I mean -- it works really great. You should try it.

Oh, yeah ... I also sank into a 3-week bout of depression. Not sure where that came from, but it hit me pretty hard. I hate it when depression sneaks up on you and takes you for all your worth before you even have a chance to realize that it's taking you, if you know what I mean.

In the midst of all this funk, we attended a cooking class hosted in a woman's kitchen. We had fun. It was good. And I'm still in a depressed funk.

Then, we went to North Carolina for Thanksgiving, and I got sick. Again. This time, sinuses. And I'm firmly convinced that it had EVERYTHING to do with driving up and down in the mountains for 7 hours. Each way.

Now, I'm preparing for Christmas. I'm a wee bit overwhelmed by the quantity of things I've committed myself to MAKE (sew, bead, bake), and may, in fact, decide to purchase gifts and gift cards instead of MAKING gifts after all. It may be the one saving grace for keeping my sanity intact. We'll see after this weekend, as I'm planning on sewing all day Saturday.

And I know Etsy has homemade stuff. I love Etsy stuff -- really, I do -- but I look at it all and think, I can't possibly pay for that when I can MAKE IT and MAKE IT GOOD. Yeah, I'm prolific. Whatever.

As of this writing -- I'm still sick with the tail end of the cold that will be forever known as the Great Cold of 2008. Fortunately, Christmas preparations always make me happy and joyful, and I'm greatly anticipating the celebration of the birth of our Savior. Although somehow, I committed to singing 4 songs this season -- one is a quartet of Let There Be Light, one is a duet called Mirror Mirror (Barlow Girl), one is a solo of What Child Is This, and one that is six people singing Chrismastime -- I'm not sure about the last one, as I don't recall signing up for that one. I was handed a cd and music on the fly last Tuesday night at church, and at this point, I'm not sure what I did with either one.

And sadly, my voice has not been fully returned to me after this last month of colds (hence, the Great Cold of 2008), nor can I hold out a note for any length of time without running out of breath or cracking. And my lungs are still hurting. This should be interesting! Four songs will sap my voice for sure, as I lost my ability to sing strongly when I had my tonsils removed about 5 years ago. I was trained in a classical style, sang some light opera with my voice coach, sang in choral groups through my young adult life (that is the one good thing about public schools -- or rather, USED to be a good thing) and now? My voice pretty much sucks. Can you say that on a Christian-family-friendly blog? Because it does.

Has that happened to anyone else??? Any tips?

I still have to find that one elusive good picture for our Christmas cards. That always gets me each and every year, and I find my Christmas cards get mailed out later and later and later -- oh heck. I may just use a picture from the summer. Who cares that Hunter is in shorts, right?

Speaking of Hunter ... He JUST learned about Santa -- not sure who told him about this man dressed in red, but we have repeatedly said that mommy and daddy bring Christmas gifts for Christmas. Maybe this ho-ho man can fill his stocking. Still undecided about that, as I refuse to cloud the true meaning of Christmas with a fantasy-man that has at some point acquired vast sums of money and can make presents magically appear under our Christmas tree. If only it were true. That would have saved me a ton of money.

Now I'm depressed again. Just kidding!

Does anyone have any tips on teaching a child how to say S's?? For instance, Spank is Pank. And it isn't all the time, just most of the time. It's cute now, but I'm pretty sure Hunter will appreciate being able to say words with S when he's 18 and the captain of the high school football team. I mean... how motivating could it possibly be to hear the team captain say, "Let's give these pansies a good panking!"

So that's what's been going on here. It is 12:34 am, I'm battling insomnia, my brain is jammed with lists and tasks and projects, oh, yeah -- work is busy, and I'm fresh out of blogging ideas, although I'm sure I'll come up with something for the week!

Any thoughts?

Enjoy your week.