happy new year?

As I sit here listening to three little girls giggle their heads off whilst having a tea party upon towels on my kitchen floor I ponder how I got so lucky in life.

I really do.

What did I do in my past life to deserve these precious little beings I call my children and my brothers and sister's children?

Heavens, I simply do not know.

Well, it's the new year. It's the time where I see everyone making resolutions and recapping past resolutions. I suppose I could go back to last year at this time and see what I said but I'm lazy soooo...

What was I saying?

I know I did say I wanted to lose 30 pounds by my birthday. I didn't quite reach it but I did lose the 30 pounds by the beginning of December.

That counts for something. Has to.

Remember that year when I did a goal a month? Man, I must have been bored that year.

This year I have but one goal and the perhaps the continuation of another. Okay, we'll call a spade a spade, it's two goals.

One, to lose another 30 pounds by my 40th birthday in October.

DID I JUST SAY 40TH BIRTHDAY?!?!?!?!?!?!

I just threw up in my mouth a little. How is that even possible that I will be 40 this year? Man, my parents are OLD.

I digress. Another 30 by 40. My nutritionist is all over this and so am I. Why not spend my 40's feeling fabulous?

I mean, really, why the heck not?

And the other goal is to continue on this new found happiness path. I will give credit to a little white pill and perhaps a little credit goes to being back at university and doing something with my mind that makes me feel alive. I would probably feel more alive if my freaking communications professor would post our marks already. Yesterday I did receive the relieving news that I got 92% on my comm final which is awesome but I still don't have all my marks for that class and therefore I don't have my final mark and school starts again on Tuesday!

Good grief, is my response to that.

Anyway, this Christmas break we did something new as a family. Something we have never done before in the 17 and a half years of this family's existence.

We all got sick.

Every last one of us got hit with something. And it's been super fun-like. Youknowwhatimean?

The poor man spent almost 5 hours at the walk-in clinic in Edmonton last night waiting to see a doctor. You know the man is sick when he's willing to do that. We won't discuss his mood when he finally left. I'd show you the text but, well....

Inappropriate. You know?

So let's recap: Amelia, ruptured eardrum and flu, one missed week of school and 10 days of antibiotics. Continuing sniffles and she's good. Holden, flu. Poor dude, he never complains. Jack, strep throat and 10 days of antibiotics. Cicely, cold and cough and since she's an ox and never gets sick she wasn't quite sure what was happening to her. Me, bladder infection, one week antibiotics. Strep throat, one week antibiotics. Then the man came home and graciously gave me his head cold. The man, head cold, the one-plugged-nostril-crappy-sleep kind of cold and then his head cold turned into ear infections and now he feels like a 2 year old.

And that, my friends, is how the Dabels welcomed 2013!

Happy New Year!

i dreamed a dream

Tonight I get to go see Les Mis with my mum, my daughter, my sister and my niece. Can you think of a better Christmas present than that? I can not.

Yes I can. I just want to say that there has been a lot of trauma in the near world over the past few weeks and every time I look at my 6 year old I am reminded of how fragile our state is. And the best Christmas present a mother could want is healthy, happy children that have been allowed to stay with her on this earth. I have that. And there are no words to express my gratitude.

But this is not why we're here. Every now and then I get all verklempt, but I'll focus. I promise.

Last night I had a dream. It is pretty par for the course of this sleep cycle I'm in right now. You see, it isn't a good sleep cycle. But it isn't anxiety related so again with all the gratitude. This sleep cycle usually involves lots of tossing and turning and general unsettlement. Apparently unsettlement is not a word but for Christmas I want it to be a word so let's just say it is.

Everyone okay with that?

Good. Moving on. When I am in this particular sleep cycle, which I'm sure has a name but I do not know what it is, I dream a lot. Really vivid, whacky dreams that leave me highly unsettled when I wake. I will now share one I had last night.

Last night I dreamt I wanted to throw a party. So I did. Except no one I knew would come so I invited strangers. (This is sort of like real life where I wanted to throw a New Year's Eve party but no one wanted to come so I cancelled it. Anyway, obviously my subconscious took issue with it.) So a bunch of young single strangers show up to my dream party and they bring the best food I've ever seen. So strange for a bunch of young singles, right? The party is pretty lame and Amelia, my beautiful living 6 year old, keeps pestering me for a piano lesson. (You see, in real life I am her piano teacher and she's had one lesson since September because I am the worst mom/daughter piano teacher on the planet.) In my dream I finally succumb to her incessant pleading and give her a piano lesson right in the the middle of the party. When we're done I turn to the group and everyone is gone. And it is only 8 pm.

Lame.

So I eat the leftovers and go to bed. In the morning I decided to NEED to workout. (Now, in real life this is something that is plaguing me. I have not worked out in months and I know I need to but there is some sort of block there that I can't seem to bust through and obviously my subconscious has caught on.)

So I try to find my elliptical and low and behold I see it in the middle of a concentration camp where young foreign children are being forced to march around in their school uniforms getting sprayed with water if they laugh at me.

I have no clue what my subconscious is doing with this. Let's not ask it. And in my dream my friend Shelley keeps following me around and refuses to get me water when I ask for it because I keep calling her Shelley after she's told me a million times she's changed her name to Katrina.

Geez Louise, cut me some slack dream Katrina, don't you see what I am dealing with here?

So I don't get to work out because I look at the clock and I am supposed to be showered and at school. As I am going inside to shower, after having busted through lines upon lines of soaking wet foreign children in uniform laughing at me, my mother comes around the corner to inform me that 3 young adults and a snake died at my lame party and she had the bodies removed so as to not upset me unnecessarily.

Um. Thanks?

And people wonder why I don't like to sleep...

christmas in photos

Nieces who don't want their pictures taken.

And nephews who don't want their new Christmas jammies.

Stuffed stockings.

Santa doing "his" thing.

Christmas morning. Ahhhhh....

Handsome husbands.

Teenage boys and their plaid.

Teenage girls and their makeup.

Happy children.

And making pop for breakfast, of course.

To pooped out nieces.

Equals one very merry Christmas at our house!

from us, to you.

Merry Christmas, from the Dabels!

please give

Today I spent the day in my comfy clothes working my brains to death on this correspondence course. I can put it off no more.

This does mean that I did not shower yet and therefore will not be doing a vlog.

Weep no more, my loves. All will be well.

There is so much to say and talk about but there just isn't time. Naming my new truck, wearing pants to church and the newest wee angels that went to heaven last Friday. My heart shattered, I can not even fathom...

But alas, not now. For now please go over here and if you are looking for a charity to donate to this holiday season please consider Art à la Carte.  There are many sick people in the hospital who don't get to spend Christmas at home with their families and some of them may never leave at all.

Thank you.

thirsty, anyone?

Meet my new friend, Popsie.

And Amelia......

the devil's dessert

The devil is chewing me up but instead of spitting me out he's covering me in chocolate and whip cream and devouring me whole.

Jerk.

Is this month over yet?