Welcome back silly season!!

Black Friday traditionally opens the holiday season for a lot of Americans. NOT the Mahoney's!! It's not that we don't 'do' crowds. It's not that we don't like to shop...au contraire! It's not that we dread the seasonal hoop-la and over-commercialization. It's something really BASIC!



Starting with Mari's December 1st birthday, we have a total of FIVE more birthdays to celebrate before it's Christmas and TWO of them...well counting Auntie Peggy( who might as well live here) there are THREE... in this house!!!!!


December is both the month that never ends as well as the month that flies by waaaaaaay too fast. I was sternly warned by Auntie Peggy, who's December 12th birthday gave her the authority on the matter, after discovering that both of our children were to be December babies that there were to be no Birthday/Christmas presents NOR joint parties!!! Being just ever so slightly older than Peggy, I witnessed the raw deal she got when it came to having a December birthday, so every year I 'get' to squeeze birthday present shopping and party planning into an already crowded month! Yeah, yeah I can hear some of you saying " so do it in October or November in anticipation". As soon as Auntie Peggy finishes wiping her eyes from the laughter, she will read that I am publicly acknowledging (AGAIN) that 'procrastination' really should be my middle name. So my days tend to fly by as I'm 'plate spinning' as fast as I can but the evenings seem to never end with parties, cantatas, caroling, tree lightings, more parties, and even more parties. The net result......


SILLINESS!!! Too much food, too much sugar, too little sleep...you name all the precursors and I can say "check" after each and every one!


Sometimes they cannot even stand because the laughter engulfs them!


See what I mean?? It's early yet to even mention this but no one has suffered any injuries just yet....but there's time still to add E.R. visits into the already overflowing schedule.

Yep, even the adults have trouble keeping their composure around here in December! This would be Auntie Jenny mocking Mari's 'standard' pose after opening each of her gifts!


But only the lady with the 'hair' obsession added recycled bling!



I do get brief moments of calm in which I can record their lives. We're doing a kind of a slow job on decorating our tree. It's been up for three days now and just tonight we got to ornament hanging! Bedtime arrived before we finished so it drags on yet another day!!! As they hang the ornaments there is a LOT of reminiscing! They each have a couple of ornaments that they dive into the box to find and hang first and then they have that one or two that just 'speak' to them! Yes, there are more than a few horse themed ornaments on our tree!!!!!



Just a few fashionista themed ones as well! No, haven't come across too many with a 'hair' theme....



and then we're right back into the silliness!!!! (Note, a break with TRADITION in that our 3 Kings have already 'made' it to the manger! We usually have them 'travel' around the living room all month and don't place them near the manger until Little Christmas. Baby Jesus is already in attendance too...the girls just felt like they wanted the 'tableau' all month.)


All the while I'm refereeing, Patrick is obsessing about the lights that we have used on this same tree for SIX years now without even a hint of singe let alone a fire!!! This from a man who's fondest memories of Christmas are gathering holly branches to set on the window sill where a jelly jar with a candle waited to be lit at dusk on Christmas Eve. Yeah, the bulbs are a fire risk but a LIT candle behind CURTAINS is just fine????

....and we're right back into silliness!!! Any wonder bedtime arrived before all the ornaments were hung?
Gotta go, Julia's party invitations need to be designed, printed, AND addressed TONIGHT! Just finalized (with a very SPECIAL locale) for a December 12th date which means I'm soooo not giving the guests very much notice this year....sigh, so what else is new?!?!


You know I gotta end a post with a quick peek at my latest outfit on eBay....


Decided to do up a holiday outfit that showed the 'reason for the season'!


It's a 3T very full, twirly top featuring a manger applique paired with jeans that have ruffles and appliques of the drummer boy and a lamb. I have a couple of cute vintage Santa knot-style jumpers that are 90% done and I REALLY need to get them done and listed before it's too late!!!

ZERO more days!!!!!

Well my dearest Mari THE day has finally arrived!!! You need not announce over your bowl of cereal this morning just how many more days until your birthday.



Twelve years ago today Josefa and Manuel made that difficult journey into the Tiquisate Hospital to bring their twelfth child into this world. Their world was one of hardships beyond our comprehension. Their love for you was so great that they decided that you should not endure that life and three days later they kissed you good bye and prayed that someone else would give you a life filled with love and happiness in a safer, healthier place. For this gift of theirs your Dad and I are eternally grateful!


Someday we may come to know the reason God had for not letting us be together for your first or second birthdays but I am confident that Mama and Papa Salgado saw to it that they were wonderful days filled with love and happiness. I know it as sure as I know that at some point today the phone will ring and a distant voice will say, "Hola Susana! Como esta mi amor?" They will all be crowding around the phone to shout out Feliz Cumpleanos Tati....and how surprised they will be when this year you will be able understand because you have become an excellent student in Spanish at the middle school!!

It is stunning to me that this will already be the tenth time we will sneak your pillow present in so that you can know from the minute your eyes open that today is your birthday! That first set of pictures we saw of you are so fresh in my mind!

Where did the time go??? How did you manage to sneak in all those years of growing up? Maybe I can" put a brick on your head to slow you down"?? How often have you heard that and how much did I love it when you would grin and respond, "You can't stop God's power Mom!"

You cannot know how relieved your Dad and I were when this picture was taken! You had been such a serious little lady as we waited together in that hotel room in Guatemala for the powers that be at the U.S. embassy to find your lost passport. That first night as you screamed and cried and clawed at the hotel room door begging for Mama Salgado to come and get you had broken our hearts altogether. While you never cried again you also had never smiled again....until this picture! Taken the very first morning you woke up in your new room in America. A blessed sign that the future was bright and promising for this new little family. By the way, why is it that your first big smile was for Auntie Peggy?? Or maybe it was the ridiculous life-sized Teletubbie that lifted your spirits? Either way, it has so become YOU to plow through tough times with serious resolve only to break through and grin again!!


You're as stubborn as a mule but boy, oh boy once you've decided to do something by darn it gets done! You are no push over and pity the person who tries to tell you what to do!! You have a huge brain and I do not know what God has in store for you but this I'm sure of.....he meant for you to land in a safe place where you would be able to go to school!


Just look at this picture every time middle school starts getting you frustrated! Do you remember this day? You could not WAIT to get into pre-school!!!! I was one of the only Moms who got a peck and a "You can leave now!"....and it made me proud even if a little bummed that you were in such a hurry to grow up...even then!!


Keep aiming high...remember how nice it felt to see your name on the honor roll!! Keep filling that big brain with wonderful books and classes and the path God has planned will appear! Remember the sun shines brightest above the clouds and what's a few clouds for an angel like you?

Okay, so maybe I've gone a little soft and mushy and you're getting a little freaked with this post! Let's say my definition of 'angel' is...say....broad?!?!? I mean you do have that little thing about hair.....

like the phase when you'd wear pants on your head and pretend that the legs were long locks of hair???


...or how you preferred the "spike" curlers over the black sponge curlers????



...or that infatuation you had with wigs????


....or should I say, STILL HAVE with wigs?!?!?!


You've tried most everything from perms to pink highlights! One thing for sure, you've got a wonderfully unique sense of style and (lucky for you!!) a great head of hair with which to play!! Here's to the surprises you have in store for me and your stylist in the years to come!!!...now back to that angels thing.......

Naw, I don't need to make you fit any definition! You are you!


Whether on sand......


or snow you are one totally, awesomely, adored, twelve year old daughter!!!!! So as you party tonight remember that not ALL the cheese pizza in this world belongs to you....


and the chocolate frosted cake (as usual!!!) needs to be shared with your guests.....

but no need to share your chocolate ice cream (of course it's chocolate!!!!) cone.....that would be just too gross!!! I hope this day is the best birthday ever and here's to many, many, many, many, many, ...okay you get the idea, MORE!!!!!!

Bye, Bye, Birdie!

So just how do I write another upbeat post when I am anything but "up" lately??

Just like I've gotten through this past holiday....gritting my teeth and JUST DOING IT!!

Here's proof that Thanksgiving dinner made it on the table!!!

Our Norman Rockwell dinner scene full of stuffed smiling faces! Wait!!! Something looks odd with this picture doesn't it?? Seems to be lacking a face or two, eh? As well documented in past posts, you would be right to surmise that Auntie Peggy can be found on the other end of the camera. Hmmmm, now where in the world could the author be found???????

That would be correctly answered if you guessed.... HOME IN HER BED!!!!!!!!!

Now I did not miss from lack of trying I assure you! I gulped quantities of prescription drugs and tried every trick right down to a good long soak in a very HOT tub to make the world stop spinning and the nausea end. It just wasn't in the day's plan! Patrick and the girls tried their utmost to get me upright but to no avail. They stepped up big time and peeled, chopped, and stuffed in order to get our portion of the community meal ready but in the end the partial preparations were run up to Auntie Peggy who finalized the cooking. The chemical cocktail churned in my insides and then knocked out my lights!! I slept through the whole party. I would have slept through this whole weekend except that my girls are in a tailspin from worrying about my unusual behavior! So from my prone position on the couch I have directed the beginning of Christmas. They are bursting with the pride of accomplishment to know that they alone were able to dig out the nativity set and set it up, dig out the box of ornaments and carry it up the stairs to the living room, get all the tree parts laid out and staged so that all I had to do was pop up for a brief moment to assemble and place in it's stand! I am living in eternal optimism that I will be a fully contributing member of the ornament hanging team tomorrow!! Those tests and appointments that I whined about in the last post...cannot come soon enough!!

Just thought I'd let you see why I have the BEST DAUGHTERS in the whole world!!!

Mari's drawing of God watching over me....


and Julia's showing God watching over me as I pray at my bedside. Can't do anything but improve when you have these guys on your team!!!!!

To Knee or Not to Knee....

that has been the question around here for OVER FIVE YEARS now! After back to back gloomy and moody posts I thought I'd try to give you change of pace.


The weather is very wintry of late! Still no sign of snow, thank goodness!!! But when you can see all the bare branches loaded with squirrel's nests you know the first flakes won't be long in coming!


We've not only been busy with the day to day grind but some social obligations were squeezed in as well! There will be a new little cousin arriving around Christmas and his baby shower was this past Sunday! Basically the most boring kind of party for my girls at this age but since the Mom-to-be is a teacher there was a BOOK theme which helped this one be a bit more interesting. We chose our favorite 5 Little Monkeys book as the 'gift card' and the gifts were a memory card for their camera along with a digital picture frame and scrap booking starter pack which included monkey stickers and band aid stickers (:

No, not another visit with Auntie Peggy at work!! Her pediatrics unit is fun but they still require scrubs...not jeans. As you may remember from earlier posts, my Mom has been falling ALOT lately. Most of it is not technically 'falling' as she senses her knee about to give out so she sits herself down and then cannot get back up! She remembers a pretty bad bang to her knee back in her thirties after which her knee was never the same. I do not know about that but I DO KNOW that I sat with her in the orthopedic surgeon's office at least FIVE years ago as he showed us the x-ray of her knee....if you could call it a knee at all!! I was looking at a stump of a femur with it's sturdy 'ball' GONE. Not only was the femur worn to a stump but it was trying to work with a non-existent 'cup'!!! Bone on bone was a generous way to describe how she has been functioning with that knee!!!!!!!!!!!

So here she is after FIVE YEARS of stubbornly refusing to undergo the knee replacement surgery that was clearly needed! She's not really sleeping here....just in a morphine induced state of suspended animation!! Julia climbed straight over all the tubes and machines to get in and give Grandma her kiss.

While my future nurse .....NOT!!!!!! Mari clearly has no future in the medical profession. Walking past all he paraphernalia was a challenge but she really loves her Grandma so....

she made it past the 'scary' stuff to get to the only open stretch of Grandma's bed in order to give her kiss and get a chat! The 'chat' was brief to say the least!!! Grandma thanked us all for our concern and love and then invited us all to GO AWAY!!!! Seems the only thing she wanted to do was push her little magical pump button and sleep(: So they put their get well cards up on her cork board and we headed out! Today we'll go again and hopefully she will be minus a few tubes.

Cannot close a post without showing you the latest salt mine production...

the regional championships in Irish dancing are in Columbus, Ohio over the Thanksgiving weekend and this is the last dress I had to complete for that event. Purposely posted this not so great shot just so you can get an idea of how sparkly these things are on the stage. Still feels like 'playing' when you get to sew with velvet and rhinestones!!!

Treading as hard as we can!

Been a while since my last post! Must admit I've been too busy/tired/'sick'/uninspired to get around to a new post. It just seems to be my modus operandi to post in fits and spurts of late. Hopefully this confession will jump start another spurt!

Busy= Not handling the time management needed to be back in the work force nearly full time would be a more truthful way to describe my current state! Just seems that I'm always chasing after the next thing on my 'to do' list rather than striding confidently up to the tasks in a timely manner. This past week has been a blur of alarm clocks, blow drying wet heads, packing lunch boxes, finding matching socks, double checking back packs for required books, folders, water bottles, and healthy snacks and....then doing almost all of that again to get MYSELF out the door!

Tired= Having precious little down time because in some sadly misguided sense of needing to CONTROL things I come home from work to dinner prep, homework assistance, elder care, and housework. Must admit that Auntie Peggy and Uncle Peter are shouldering the yeoman's share of care of my mother but I do have to find time to leave my house and get over to help bathe, feed, and lift from the floor. Psycho but I also feel that should I get a 'found' moment or two that the need to sew outfits for $$ guilt's me off the couch. There has been a steadily increasing push from a certain dearly beloved Auntie for me to recognize the potential workload reduction that could be had if I would only abolish the reign of the resident princesses...who are growing a tad narcissistic and demanding if I do say so myself!!! The ownership of a backbone would be a necessity to accomplish the feat of getting royalty to actually sully their hands...anyone know where I can get one? CHEAP!!!

'Sick'= A lot of my sense of always being two steps behind, of late, also has a lot to do with the fact that my vertigo is snowballing!!! What used to only be a rare inconvenience is now a multiple times per day occurrence. What used to take only a few minutes of laying down to pass is now persistent. So in all my free time (read HEAVY sarcasm here!!) I've had to squeeze in a visit to the doctor who has ordered some wonderful time saving tests and specialist's consults for me (HEAVY DUTY sarcasm there!!!). These tests and consults are to be scheduled right in the midst of the princesses birthdays!!!! Yep, that's right....BOTH Mari and Julia have birthdays early in December... and they both are opting for a party rather than the 'big' present option unlike last year when the Nintendo DS saved me from having to plan and carry out a fiesta. I cannot put the doctoring off anymore...even if I wanted to the dizziness and nausea are getting so intense that it is now affecting my ability to function...because one of Patrick's nieces who is near me in age and who ignored a pain in her side that she assumed to be gallbladder has just been diagnosed with an inflamed spleen.....because she has leukemia!!! So Patrick won't let me put off the doctoring for any reason.

Uninspired= Pretty much says it as it is....no pictures or opinions have made their way to the forefront of my brain. Assuming, of course, that what is twirling around up there can still be called brains!! I live in the hope that the mini-vacation provided by the Thanksgiving Holiday will reignite a new little spurt of posts!! Here's to optimism!

Hazards of being a News Junkie

I know some of you would never dream of putting something like this in writing! I just need to vent and this ether world seems like a promising place to shoot the words to my fears in the hopes that calling them out reduces the power they have over me.

I GOTTA STOP WATCHING THE NEWS!!!!!!! I do not know how I can actually accomplish this self intervention. I've tried many times, since the whole hysteria over the two cases in Florida involving child abduction and murder, to just put on one of my favorite Opera C.D.'s instead of the T.V. I've pumped the volume on some of my favorite show tunes and even my high school phase of John Denver has seen a mini-revival! But then the girls need to know the weather to pick an appropriate school outfit so on goes the local weather channel and then as with all addictions I'm sucked into surfing the news networks. I could just check the weather on the Internet BUT there's another whole topic on an addictive influence. I'd consider blocking the channels on my cable remote...if I even had the remotest clue how to do that! BUT then there is the whole conundrum of how to be an informed adult/citizen if you're not familiar with world events???

I JUST DO NOT WANT TO HEAR ANYMORE CHILD ABDUCTION/RAPE/MURDER STORIES....OKAY!!!!!!! Nancy Grace is no longer 'my friend'....I'm 'ignoring' her friend request from here on out. It's not her personally!! Nor her strong support for trying to publicize Amber Alerts! I just CANNOT bear to listen to the in depth analysis of how a FIVE YEAR OLD child can be sold into 'sexual servitude' by her own MOTHER?!?!?!? I do not need anymore fodder for my already over worked mind nor visions that give me insomnia. I do not want to lay awake and wonder if I have enough pictures of my children to provide to the media in the event the worst were to happen!!! I do not want to lay awake and contemplate just how to invent an implantable GPS chip that would be non-toxic and legal! I do not want to look at a beloved picture and the first thought be, "Oh yeah, she has a horrible scar on her left bi-cep (from a stupid and unnecessary vaccination given to her in Guatemala) which could be used to identify her."


I've always loved this picture of my two girls...but lately I 'see' Julia's BCG scar...and the unique way her toes overlap....and the little freckle on the back of Mari's calf...and this leads me to say to myself, "And don't forget that Mari has a VERY flat spot on the back of her head from being left in a car seat too many hours as a baby!" This very well may be a 'normal' Mother phase but I'm thinking the spate of news stories has hyper-sensitized me. I want to be able to go back and look at a picture like this and just see the genuine smiles because Julia was only too happy to sit on Mari and Mari, who is sooooo very ticklish, was trying not to laugh from Julia's touch. To remember the carefree day we had at the mall that day when Julia had her first 'short' haircut and how Mari opted for a special do because her perm was still growing out. How I had just bought those dresses for the 4th of July at the Gymboree store and as we passed the Picture People shop we impulsively went in to capture the memory of the new shorter hair on Julia and missed the scrunchie on Mari's wrist. And then I think...well at least I HAVE pictures. How many Mothers around the world have had a child stolen from them who have NOTHING to hold? How many of those children could possibly be sleeping peacefully in an American bedroom? Or how many are sleeping with Jesus?

I am not so naive as to think if I do not see/here these stories that they do not happen or are any less horrific. I just do not need them in MY BRAIN. So I will give myself a pep talk every morning as I pump up the volume on my C.D. player and hope that I have the will power to walk away from the remote. I wonder if there is even enough Diet Coke in the world to handle the DT's?

Same Old, Same Old

Well here we are at the end of another weekend filled with sleepovers and salt mines! The poor Dad in this house is finding it hard to keep up with all the antics of his women!

He's taken to snatching sleep when he can! Note that he firmly maintains control of the remote even while napping!! While I took this to tease him I must admit to being desperately jealous of his ability to power nap. I always feel tired these days but I dare not lay down because my naps require HOURS of sleeping not moments!

BFF/Cousins Deirdre and Julia spend countless hours every week trying to manipulate the Moms into allowing the maximum number of 'together' minutes possible. As is now becoming the norm, Deirdre was here for a sleep over AGAIN!! So while the posse played like mad I made a foray into the salt mine. Christmas is looming and I NEED to get cracking on raising money for the Tamale Basket which we send to Mari's first family. Tamales at midnight on Christmas Eve are a huge tradition in Guatemala. Those too poor to make or buy tamales go door to door begging for a Christmas tamale so it is also tradition to make extra for the poor. Our dear local shopkeeper made arrangements last year for Josefa to receive a basket full of the supplies needed to make the holiday tamales only to send me an urgent email....Josefa had ALWAYS been one of those too poor to buy/make tamales and therefore had no idea how to make the traditional recipe!!!!! Just heartbreaking to know that a woman who made such a huge sacrifice for her daughter had NEVER had the simple luxury of Christmas tamales. So not only do I have to raise the money for the ingredients but I also need to make a bit extra to hire the shopkeepers wife to make the tamales for Josefa and Manuel. This year I'm also hoping to make just that bit extra so that we could actually send a small gift from Mari to her first family!

Found a clearance bin clearing out 'fat quarters' of fabric for 50 cents a piece. There were a couple of Hanukkah fabrics so I thought I'd squeeze out this one outfit to see if there was a market. It's a size 6x and I've already put it up on eBay. My ID is drsilk1 if you know anyone who might be interested!

BTW, Our Lady of Guadalupe is on it's way to San Jose, California!! The interest was limited so now I've got to rethink what I'm going to do with the 2 1/2 yards I still have. I was thinking if I had somehow listed it in Spanish it might have garnered a bit more action but while I'm functional I'm not confident of my skills to do an eBay listing in Spanish.

Started a few 'cutified' denim pieces! This is the first one completed...

this is the back view of my Christmas Sweets jumper. It's a 4T denim jumper to which I've added appliques of candy canes and cupcakes. It too is already listed on eBay in the Custom Boutique section. Julia thought it looked "scrumptious"....so if I make another in her size what are the odds that the new found desire to dress up for Mr. C will last until December????? I think I'll wait a little on that project.