havocandmayhem.com

I was very busy yesterday. I completed 3 layouts. Day 25 Day 26 Day 27 I also made up my end of year to do list, what needs backed up, what needs deleted and what needs printed. The what needs printed thing is a bit embarrassing. Today I finally ordered some of those photos that I uploaded to Wal Mart over Thanksgiving vacation. Just the ones from 2002-03. And I've resolved that I won't order 2004's until I have put all of these into their album with their dates & details written on the tabs provided. So I should be ordering 2004's sometime in late 2008... Fortunately as time goes by I take less photos, so I should reach parity about the time the boys start high school. I'm going to make a softcover photo book of my JYC layouts. I'm going to use Viovio and get their 8.5x8.5 book. It will be less than $15 for 36 pages. Considering I pay $1 a page for each 8x8 I get printed, that's less than half the cost. The problem with doing it for all my pages is y

Back up my F drive Back up my Documents Delete kits owned more than 6 months & never used. Burn .psp files to DVD Burn 2007 photos to DVD Sort through 2007 photos & choose those to print Ditto 2007 layouts Size & border JYC layouts for photo book Uninstall all programs past their 30 day trial I have no intention of buying. Defrag all drives and the worst.... move music to F and redo everything in Zen.

I was given a nasty cold for Xmas. I had chills, aches & chest congestion all day Xmas day. I had chest & sinus congestions on the 26th and spend most of the 27th in bed with a hot water bottle due to stomach & intestinal issues. But today I am feeling much better and am getting caught up with some Journal Your Christmas prompts. Day 23 Day 24 and Day 28 Before I get these all printed I'm going to have to go back through all of them & make sure they are numbered and that the numbers are correct. At least 3 that I know of are numbered wrong and 2-3 more have no numbers at all.

We got the kids a Playstation for Xmas.  The original Playstation - from 1999.  Last century's Playstation.  And we didn't actually 'get' it for them, unless you count 'digging it out of the storage closet where it has lain since 2003' as 'getting it'.  Yep, parents of the year, that's us. Ok,it wasn't an actual 'open on xmas' present. It was a 'hey look here's something to do over the weekend before xmas' thing. The boys love it. They play Jet Moto 3, Madden 2000, a Tiger Woods golf game & some racing game or other.  There are a couple first person shooter games as well but I got a bit huffy when DH played them in front of the boys.  Age inappropriate if ever there was such a thing.  We decided to take advantage of the window of opportunity we have been given. We borrowed a Wii for a couple weeks in November. The boys loved the games. They are fascinated by video games. We cannot afford a Wii, assuming we could find

one of the many

Havoc got his shiny red tow truck & Mayhem is delighted with his new trains, but the surprising favorites, at least so far, are the games. Mayhem got Ants in the Pants and Hungry Hippos (and damn that game is noisy). Havoc got Chutes & Ladders and Let's Go Fishin'. We've played all those games several times so far already.  They haven't yet gotten into the card games or the Leapster games, but as they are off school for another week, this is fine by me. They both got Transformers. This is such a boy toy. Mommy had to sit & read the instructions to open them from a vehicle to a robot & then couldn't get them back to the vehicle but Daddy just folded a few things an bingo! Transformers apparently come in different difficulty levels. We have the level just above the boys' actual ability apparently. I got 2GB RAM for my laptop & a new Vera Bradley purse.  DH got a 6qt professional Kitchen Aid mixer & jumped up electronic kitchen scale.

Your Holiday Stress Level Is Low You take it easy over the holidays, and you only take on what you can handle. You know the holidays are about celebrating and fun - not standing in line at the mall! What's Your Holiday Stress Level?

What Your Handwriting Says About You You are a fairly energetic person. You know how do pace yourself, and you deal well with stress. You are somewhat outgoing, but you're not a natural extrovert. You think first before you act. You tend to be independent, rational, and logical. You are balanced and grounded. You know how to get along well with others. You need a bit of space in your life, but you're not a recluse. You expect people to give you a small amount of privacy, and you respect their privacy as well. You are somewhat traditional, but you are also open to change. You listen to your head and your heart. You are a decent communicator. You eventually get your point across, but sometimes you leave things a bit ambiguous. What Does Your Handwriting Say About You?

I had a hard time with this one

never thought I would get this into a layout

had to twist the prompt a bit to use it

credits at my DST gallery

You Were Nice This Year You Were 40% Naughty, 60% Nice Okay, so you weren't *entirely* nice this year But Santa doesn't expect a modern girl to be perfect You were good enough - and you'll be rewarded for it Were You a Naughty Girl or Nice Girl this Year? Had I been single the past year I would have been a lot naughtier according to this quiz. :)

I'm getting this for my husband. as usual, all credits can be found in my DST gallery

I'm going to stop marking them belated. They are all belated at this point This isn't our actual holiday meal, unless the local Cafe is having a Xmas day buffet. It is the meal I would like to serve if more than 2 adult and 2 very picky preschoolers were having dinner.

I'm working on day 17 now. I know how I want to do 16. I can't do 15 because we are going nowhere & no one is coming here. That just leaves 18, 19 & 20, and by the time I get 16 done, 21 & 22. I think I am just going to resign myself to being 4-5 days behind.

Here is the layout for this prompt. Loaded my Zen up with holiday music as well. :) Credits at my DST gallery

The prompt for the 13th is about passing out the gifts. How does it get done in your house? I can't see how I will turn this into a page so I'm just going to write it out. The gifts a placed under the tree on Xmas Eve (usually as they wrapped, because we put that off until the last minute). On Xmas day, after I get some coffee, we all sit in a circle & I hand gifts out to everyone, assembling gift piles next to each person. If we are at my mom's house, then she hands out the gifts. This is because we don't put tags on the majority of our family gifts. We write a small initial in one of the corners & only the person that writes it is really certain where it is or what it is. Tags are for non-family gifts. Once all the gifts are handed out, then we take turns opening a gift at a time.  It is very important in this scenario that small children have the exact same number of gifts to open. They don't seem to notice that a package holds 2 toys instead of one or

We ended up buying a LEGO advent calendar. A friend gave us a chocolate filled one last Sunday but Monday morning Mayhem woke up at 5:30am, went in the living room, opened all the windows & ate all the chocolate in it. Howls of protest from Havoc when he discovered it. Mayhem cannot assemble the LEGO figures & knows it. He seems to understand that after lunch every day we open a new window & doesn't bother the box any other time. I think we may make this a regular feature. Credit can be found at my Digishoptalk gallery PS thanks to my secret santa for the Christmas kit :)

We start the holiday movie viewing season off early here. The day after Thanksgiving we watch Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. We will watch that movie several dozen times before Xmas. We also watch The Grinch that Stole Christmas many times. Frosty gets an occasional airing but the boys don't seem to be that fond of it. My favorite of the animated ones is The Year without a Santa Claus. My favorite regular holiday movie is A Christmas Story. I can so see the boys asking for a BB gun for Christmas in a few years. We have a couple boxed sets of the traditional kids movies, maybe 8 DVDs & a dozen shows all together. I have a hard time watching some of them. I used to love the Little Drummer Boy and Nestor the Long Eared Donkey when I was a kid but now they just seem so full of meanness. Sure everyone is redeemed at the end but I have to wonder really if they would even be made today. I have that problem with Rudolph too. Santa really is a callous old so & so at the beginnin

The journaling is about how I prefer gift bags to wrapping paper Credits can be found here at my DST gallery

The thing that seems to have changed the most over the years is the people. When I think about Xmas past I think first about who was there and then where we were.  What we actually did together is much vaguer in my memory. When I was a little girl we would usual go to my paternal grandparents house on Xmas eve. I can't recall if we went before or after Mass or if we had dinner with them. I know we did sometimes. I remember my grandfather had many trains set up and running around the house for Xmas & we loved watching them. Xmas morning it was the immediate family opening gifts & then we'd go to Mass if we hadn't gone the night before. After lunch we'd go to my uncle's house or my maternal grandparents' house or they would all come to us. It rotated around. My mom & her brother seemed to have some sort of game going between them involving giving each others' kids noisy toys.  It was one of the few times we got together with our cousins even th

I got lucky today. I visited Traci Reed's Hawt Mama Team blog and found the perfect template for this topic. She is running a 12 Days of Christmas challenge until the 21st with great prizes. credits can be found in my DST gallery

I'm a little behind with this journal prompt because I have no idea what do with it.  We never really counted down the days until Xmas, except to say out loud there were this many days until Xmas. I have a vague memory of an advent calendar one year, maybe even 2 years. It was on the fridge and had perforated windows you had to be careful pulling open. There was a picture behind them & possibly some sort of treat. I'm hazy on that part. I remember feeling excited to open the windows & not liking taking turns with my brother.  I have no idea how old I was but I'm assuming somewhere between 5 and 10. I connect this memory with grade school, possibly CCD, which would make it 5 and 8.  It just wasn't something that caught on. I'd like to do something like that now but I am not sure just what we would be counting down...Santa, Jesus's birth, the Solstice? We could count the days until Santa I suppose, but I don't see many secular 'advent' calend

Credits can be found here

Credits can be found here

We have 2 local radio stations.  One is a preprogrammed SAM station & cannot be relied on for school closings & traffic issues.It does announce closings in the morning, but does not announce early dismissals. It has no idea what the roads are like.  I like SAM. If I must listen to the radio I prefer SAM.  However, when there is snow on the ground I am forced by circumstances to listen to the other station.  It has actual live human beings in the DJ booth and they more or less keep on top of the traffic situation. They also announce all closings, dismissals & even tell you when these things are being considered. But they play country music.  I really don't like country music.  All that depressing wailing about wasted lives & broken love affairs & how sad it is that daughters become women and date men who will want to have sex with them.  A real downer on an already gray day.  Fortunately, if I am home, I can just check the school website from time to time &

My fantasy Christmas decor is all rich white and gold with touches of red and heirloom glass ornaments, lots of candles and Father Chrismas. Call it a Victorian Velvet Christmas.  A 9 foot Douglas fir tree covered in red & gold ribbons with lots of handblown glass ornaments and real candles on it.  Fir swag draped on the walls, the banister, and the mantelpiece, wrapped with white lights and velvet bows.  Fir boughs on the mahogany table & sideboard in the dining room surrounding centerpieces of white & gold candles in glass lanterns.  Hand beaded velvet stockings hung by the fireplace, Father Christmas statues and pots of poinsettias thoughout the house witt more lighted fir & velvet swags all over the place.  Potpourri contaniers, golden tinsel, crystal snowflakes, candles and mistletoe scattered everywhere. Now, I know people who know me in real life are thinking "I need to call Stacey & tell her her blog has been hacked by some Martha Stewart wannabee.&quo

Mayhem spent most of yesterday morning with no direct supervision whatsoever.  I was in bed felled by a doctor given mix of percoset & lunesta and my husband was crashed out on the sofa due to lack of sleep. We had spent about 4 hours in the ER in the middle of the night. I woke up shortly after midnight screaming in pain as my entire torso had repeating muscle spasms. They turned out to be triggered by a rupturing ovarian cyst. They gave me a couple percosets for the pain of the cyst. I asked about the combination with lunesta, because I had taken some around 11pm. They said it would put me to sleep but that's all.  It made me incoherent and sleepy until 1pm. DH took Havoc to school, leaving Mayhem in the nominal care of his nearly comatose mother. I remember at some point Mayhem coming in the bedroom and telling me he would get me my pants so I could get up & play with him.  I eventually had him bring me a book to read. It was one of those large print, 4 words per page k

I managed a layout for this one. Credits can be found here

credits can be found here

I am doing Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas this year. I've decided to make it a mix of blog entries and scrap pages.  I know I will not scrap a page every day, so this seems best. I'll eventually just print the entries out on a background when I print the whole album. I have been a practicing pagan since 1993 & stopped attending Catholic church in 1985. Christmas itself has not been a religious holiday for me in a long time, but I still celebrate the spirit of love, peace & giving on that day. Now that the boys are older I am struggling to work out just how this holiday and Yule work together in my life, so I can share that with them. I am hoping this project will help with that The first thing is to do a manifesto. This is the one Shimelle gave us, with a few alterations. I declare my intention to journal my Christmas. Writing something down every day. Creating a little bit whenever possible. Getting my stories documented for myself and my family. I hope that