An Olive by any other name…

This last week it was a mom win meal night.  I was making nachos. What is not to like with nachos?  A whole meal piled on chips!

I had everything for the nachos except olives. The ground turkey was seasoned and simmering on the stove top, the beans were warming in the oven and the queso cheese bubbling away.  I had plump red tomatoes and a perfect avocado. (You all know how difficult it is to get a perfect one!  I had a perfect one.)  I realized I did not have black olives. So I sent Keith on a search for sliced black olives. He took the baby along with him. Now at this point I feel like I should say Keith is a very smart man, and he is quite skilled at many things, he goes to Publix, weekly for me but he does not like to go buy things that he normally does not buy. If it is new to him, he wants a specific name brand. So I gave him one. I even spelled it out to him.

They left and I proceeded to slice and dice.  Shortly after, he called a kid asking them about the olives. I spelled the name again. The kid repeated the message. I grumbled about how could he not find the can. Then as I was slicing the avocado with one of my new Christmas knives (thanks Kim) I took a huge slice in my thumb. Hilarity broke out as bandaids were searched then antibiotic cream while trying to clean and bandage my poor thumb with a heart beat, Keith called again. Then came a series of texts and pictures. As I stood being bandaged by R and C took away the sharp knife  I smartly said how can it be so hard?  I sighed at the time it took him, My sweet husband is ever so patient with me.  He texted me a picture asking if ‘these’ will work.  He could not find the brand I sent him for.  I was so wrong.  It was the brand I THOUGHT I sent him to get, only not at all what I actually told him, and S P E L L E D O U T F O R H I M…  I almost told him a red can but instead I told him a brand that does not exist in Olives…

When he came home  I apologized and hugged him. I showed him my bandage thumb and apologized for being so wrong and so confident.

Nachos for the win, non-existent black olives for the not win

What about you, ever been so confident and so wrong?
go hug your kids they need the love!
jen

We Survived Another Year of Christmas Card-slash-New Year Card Pictures

It is that time of year again Christmas Card Picture time, as you all know it was once again Keith’s favorite way to spend an evening.  He loves getting the pictures taken.  He loves to plans out outfits, and shops for new clothes, he likes to organizes schedules, he makes deals with a friend to come take our pictures.  He works so hard to make this a reality for us.

Okay…
so in reality, yes he is awesome, but he just barely tolerates these pictures.  He smiles and plays along, he does not complain, at least I have never heard him complain.  That is why he is awesome.

Getting schedules together was almost more difficult than getting coordinating clothing for everyone.  Well, actually, now that I am thinking it was more difficult getting schedules together.  C works, O was away at college, we had to wait for her to get home, for C to be off work and for R to have a night with out activities.

I went through the kids closets and realized that if we went with the red/black theme than the boys were the only ones needing new clothes.  On black Friday, I went shopping.  Not super early I just did not even care that much, and I only went to one store!  Score for easy shopping, and sales!  Belks had just what I needed.  After literally an hour and burning up my phone battery trying to find shirts everyone would agree on, and in the correct sizes C walked in the store.  He was a huge help since I was really struggling.  Now we all coordinated but no one “matched.”

We met at a lake downtown for our pictures, if you have read all my Christmas card posts, than you will recognize this background for pictures.  This used to be the old paddle boat rental area, the boats are long gone, years ago the city began to revitalize the down town, this area is beautiful and much safer than when I was a teen.

We tried for the organized family look.
But the darn tree was just too awkward and spacing was off…We tried the album cover.
Which I was a fan of but everyone was worried that PS was going to fall…We went back to the gate with the Christmas banner
but you can see how that worked…

We laughed and the boys made fun of me, We tried and tried but just were not feeling it that night.   Thankfully the friend who took the pictures works with college age students, she was not annoyed by the big kids who could not stop messing around.

After the sun started to set and we were about ready to give up THIS is what we ended up with.  I love it!   When we were done getting the shot little A started to cry and asked NOT to be turned upside down anymore.

We did it, we survived another year of Christmas Card Chaos.  We lived to tell our story, I cannot imagine what next year will be like.

Go hug your kids, and take a minute to plan a family picture.  It is likely you have not done one in a long time, and life is just too short to miss the opportunity to make another family memory, and get another family picture.
jen