Dear Santa

Dear Santa,
We really need you to help us reach out to at least 15,000 friends this Christmas! Please have Rudolph shine his nose on our blog so that we can have our Christmas dream come true. If we can reach at least 15,000 friends by Christmas Day, we could afford a down payment for a home of our own. This has been a really hard year, but it has also been a really amazing year. We are so blessed with our healthy, usually happy daughters, and now we would like to blessed with a home to raise them in. And if you haven't heard, we're really good at baking and brewing- so we'll leave you extra on Christmas night ;)
All our love,
The Youngs

I like to think this is Santa reading my letter and saying, "You got it, babe" - maybe not "babe"... 

Dear Friends and Family,
Please help us share our Christmas letter and consider a dollar donation to our YouCaring site...  we're really hoping we can make a Christmas miracle and FINALLY get ourselves a home and stop having daily panic attacks about our never-ending bills. (Can hospitals please not send bills during the Holiday season?! Thanks.)


A side note from LiliElla:
lkmxmi98u07657tg l.a asdln., c
kln                                     jlkjm,.90]52 7un  N,MSM m mm

Translation: Santa, I've been good and only hit my sisters 3 times today. Please bring us a new house.

We've got a lot of Thanks to Give!!!!

Hello everyone... are you still out there? I know I've left you in a dark abyss only found in cyberspace when your favorite blogger (okay, I know my blogging skills are far from putting me at the top of your favorite bloggers list, but I'd like to think I might come in close to last place at least) goes MIA. I'm sure it's been a rough couple of weeks not hearing from me. I apologize.

Our YouCaring page has felt lonely, too. And I finally have some time to dedicate to writing a decent blog post- so, let me start by saying, I've missed you!!! I've also missed all your friends and family you haven't shared this blog with, so please feel free to give them the gift of my writing this Holiday season ;) Don't forget to tell them there's bread and beer at our house should they feel the need to meet us in person. However, also be warned that at this point in the school year, should you choose to show up for bread and beer, you might also find you are suddenly in charge of 3 lovely little ladies because their parents have hightailed out the door to sneak in a nap in the car.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I'd like to use this blog post to give some thanks.

First, THANK YOU to everyone who reads this blog and shares it. That simple act shows us that you care about us, and whether or not you've been able to give us a dollar, we feel the love :) Thank you to the 197 supporters who have donated to us- I'm going to try to name at least a few here...

Thank you Henry Grundle! You are very much in the lead for a keg of Aaron's beer! We super appreciate you :)

Thank you Sachelle Saunders and CBS 58 for making this seem possible! You are such a great team of support for the people in Milwaukee!

Thank you Jenny Wittemann, for being my next-door teacher and donating to many causes- including my need for chocolate on bad days ;)

Thank you to all of our coworkers and teacher/school friends, we know that sharing money isn't easy... and we appreciate you for all you do!!! It's been a tough year for many of us, but your support and encouragement keeps us going :)

Thank you to our family, Aunts, Uncles, Cousin, Mom, Sisters, Brothers and family friends for supporting us, sending us your love, and sharing your encouraging messages with us! Because we have such incredible family and family friends, we never feel alone (and often have great babysitters) :)

Thank you to my bar family. I dearly miss shooting the shit with you all at the bar over a pint or ten. Years have passed and I miss you all and the warmth of a pub... and the pints ;) Thank you for remembering me and supporting my family.

Thank you Wendy Sostock for your clever donation and supporting us while you were on your amazing vacation! You're an amazing woman and I love knowing you're still living an amazing life and growing younger by the day ;)

Thank you Angie and Eddie, for being my family away from family and still loving us after all these years :) I miss the Thanksgiving we spent together, I'll have some Asti in your memory- but will be avoiding the Tofurkey xoxo

Thank you to all of our friends all over the world- we are blessed that we have too many to name! Believe us, we talk about you daily and wish you all lived closer so that we could thank you personally :) Thank you for supporting us, whether we've been friends for 30 years, or 1, we love you and miss you!

Thank you to our neighbors in Jackson Park. We loved living there and truly felt we were part of a strong and caring community. Hopefully we can get back there :)

Thank you Jaynee, Jessica, Linda, Lindsey, Bubba, Ian, Sean and Pam, and everyone else who shared and supported our site time and time again :)

Thank you Julien (even though I told you not to donate) and all my former students for always showing me love and supporting me when days are tough. I am the teacher I am because of you and I will never give up because of you.

Thank you AV-W alumni and all my childhood friends' parents for keeping us in your thoughts, remembering us, and always making Minocqua home :) Maybe we'll move there?! ;)

Thank you Stephen Powers for... teaching me a lot of things about life... and making a donation when it could have been better spent on Dolly Parton swag ;)

Thank you Ellen DeGeneres for not choosing my name to win any of the 12 Days of Giveaways because you're planning to show up at my school and surprise me and my class (or just all of MPS coz they really need it) ;) You're amazing!

Thank you couch for eating our change so that we can save money unintentionally and put it towards a house :)

Last, I have to give a really special thank you to the family, friends, and even strangers who donated in spite of your own hardships. Your donations really mean so much, and they remind us how special our time here on earth really is. When we finally get our home, it will mean so much more because of you.

Thank you- from all of us xoxo

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

When life gives you lemons

I apologize for being MIA lately... as you know, we've been haphazardly moving, teaching, and parenting these last two weeks, and I haven't found a second to breathe. Our YouCaring page has felt the neglect, so I better be entertaining today, hey?!

Let me fill you in on some things that have been happening:

1. I had to file a police report on a student yesterday. In 6 years of teaching, it's the first time I've had to do this. I'll just ask "What happened to drug-free schools?" and "What happened to treating adults with respect?" I'd really like to know. In case you haven't noticed, there's been a disgusting new fad of posting videos on social media in which teachers are being attacked by students. My mind and my spirit is consumed with anxiety and sadness about the state of Education-- I'm fighting a battle every day and I'm not sure if I can win it anymore. Life has handed me lemons and I'm expected to make gold out of it. Hmm, maybe that's a bad analogy. I'll work on a better one for later- I know you'll be waiting in anticipation.

2. Lili got hives. I don't just mean little bumps all over, I mean hives the size AND shape of Texas all over. She caught her sisters' colds, and then BAM, she wakes up with hives. We sat in urgent care for 3 hours to be told "Meh, well. It's hives. Try to figure out what from." Okay... let me find time to wash everything in the house and then find out it has nothing to do with that. I've been on the hunt for spiders and have found nothing (this is both good and bad).

3.All three girls have colds. As if we don't go through enough paper products between diapers and pull ups, now we're using all the tissue in the house to blow noses approximately 89,533 times a day. We also wake up approximately 89, 532 times a night. And by we, I mean the girls and I. Apparently men take no notice of night-time meltdowns and freakouts.

Oh- these are just the things that happened within the last 42 hours.

In the last two weeks...

4. We moved. WE MOVED. We have boxes and boxes and boxes (okay, garbage bags and garbage bags and garbage bags because we packed mostly last minute) to unpack and sort. There's no time for this, though, so we just keep playing an intense game of Tetris with them every night/morning. But that's okay, because hopefully, by the time I'll find time to unpack, we'll be moving again, to a home of our own!

By the way, as soon as we moved I did a little bedtime reading on Realtor.com and found the PERFECT house for sale that was just blocks from us. Life. You're really screwing with me right now, and you're NOT funny.

While I'm on a side note, I have to give a big shout out to Stephen Powers for being our sole donor during my hiatus from blogging. I also have to shout him out because he's hilarious and awesome and writes great things like Dolly Parton poems and crazy funny Facebook statuses- and also deals with the ridiculous world of Education.

5. Lili learned to flip the bird. "Dad, you want a present? BAM!" Bird flipped.

Life. Sometimes you are funny.

Life.