Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

May the coming year be filled with abundant blessings!

Braces, Part 2

By the way...they all go to the same orthodontist. I'm thinking he and his family had a very merry Christmas this year, compliments of our two families!

Braces + Apples = Uh-oh!

I've got 4 kids over here right now, and I'm pondering the gourmet lunch I'm going to make for them. Something like ravioli from a can and an apple for each kid. Then it occurs to me that 3 of the 4 kids have braces (the 4th one should too but he's a wienie), and they can't bite an apple unless I first slice it up. That seems like a lot of work. I'm leaning toward opening up a few cups of mandarin oranges instead!

Books!

Remember last summer when I posted a photo of a big ol' pile of books that I needed to read? Well I read them all! I was down to one book left on my nightstand, but luckily, I've been replenished thanks to a friend who gave me a bag of books, a secret santa who knows I'm a reader, a trip to my mom's, and two new books for my book clubs!! Yippee! I decided to start a list on my blog of books I read this year with a simple star system to denote if I think they might be worth your time. No star means DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME!

And more good news on the reading front: we often get book club kits (10 books and a question sheet) from the library for our book clubs. Due to the limited number of kits and long waiting lists, we often read the same book for both clubs at some point. But the library recently added several more kits so that should get us through a few months without duplicates! Life is good when you're a reader! This year make it your New Year's Resolution to read a book! I highly recommend it.

Ouch!

Let me start out by saying that I have gross feet. They are deformed. I've come to accept it. In fact, I often think of that poem about 2 footprints in the sand and at one point one set disappears. Later Jesus says, "I didn't abandon you. That's when I carried you." If Jesus and I were hanging out on the beach and he picked me up--it could happen; he's JESUS after all--you'd know it was Jesus because you could definitely spot where my footprints ends! That being said, I had to photograph those ugly feet--or one of them--for my tail of woe.


While in AZ we had a rental car problem. I know, that's a shock...us and car trouble!!! But we did. It had NO oil in it. We think they changed the oil but didn't put any back in. How it made it to AZ from Vegas without blowing up the engine is a true Christmas miracle.


Anyway, we were having the car traded out (yep, some poor tow-truck guy had to drive from Vegas to AZ with a new car on a flatbed to trade ours out on Christmas Eve) so I went to make sure we hadn't left anything in the car. As I was getting out of the car a gust of wind caught the door and slammed it on my foot. Can you see the bruise below the two toes? That's not where it got slammed--it was further up the foot, but that's where it bruised. Weird. It still hurts to put a shoe on, but once it's on I'm okay.


If you check the sand right now, Jesus is probably carrying me! I hope he picks you up for a minute or two too when you look at the photo because you might faint. Not because of the bruise, but because of my ugly foot! And consider yourself lucky. This is the foot that has the NOT-SO-BAD bunion! The other foot is much uglier.

Christmas in Arizona

Behind the first photo, you can see the swimming pool. Although it's too cold right now to swim, it still looks inviting. (It was in the high 50's and low 60's while we were there. Too cold to pay to heat the pool. The wind blew a lot too, but it felt warm to us!)

Now that they are older, electronics, videos, cds, and gift cards

are the favored gifts.

Plus they pack well!

Hot tubbin' it!
They sat out there for a couple of hours.
I had to bring them eggnog!



Merry Christmas!

Now let's eat!!!

(Oh, and look...in the backgroud you can see

our stockings from when we were kids!)

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary Grandpa and Grandma!

Yep, it's today. I know how you never remember.

You're getting the best gift of all this year though,

US!!!

A Living Room Fort

When the prince was a little boy, he used to love to build forts in Grandma's living room. I have photos of the princess and a cousin building one in our old living room. But we were a little surprised last night when the prince and Skunk Boy decided to build one. Harmless fun, right?

They hung out in there for over an hour. At one point the king checked on them, and they appeared to be sleeping. When he asked what they were doing, they said they were cat-napping.

Good times! By the way, Skunk Boy has asked that in future blog references (and he's come to know that there will be future references that feature him as they are always up to something photo-worthy whenever he spends the night), I refer to him by his given name. So from this point on, Skunk Boy will be known as Reed.

Good Advice

I am passing this on because it definitely works and we could all use a little more calmness in our lives, especially this time of year.


By following this simple advice heard on the Oprah show, you too can find a sense of inner peace. Dr. Oz proclaimed, "The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have started and have never finished."



So, I looked around my house to see all the things I started and hadn't finished. I set about to finished off a bottle of Zinfandel , a bottle of Tequila , a package of Oreos , the remainder of my old Prozac prescription, the rest of the cheesecake, some Doritos, and a box of chocolates. You have no idea how freaking good I feel right now.

For Your Holiday Enjoyment

You can even see our wreath "swag" throught the front-door window.

The TWIRP picture is gone now, replaced by Christmas cards.

Can you read it? "All I want for Christmas is a trip to Arizona!"

That's a First

Yesterday, at work, I told an 8th grader to get out his math book and get to work on the assignment he had due in about an hour. He looked at me and said, "Way to be a buzz kill."

I'm pretty sure I've never been called that before!

Christmas in a Box

Imagine my children's dismay when I packed up this box.


"What's in the box," they asked?


"All your Christmas gifts. I'm shipping them to Grandma's for when we get there?"


"Everything fit in that box," they choked??? (These are the kids who got the big ol' Wii bundle of maximum spendage and fun last year.)

"Well, no. There are two boxes."



They looked only slightly less concerned but didn't want to appear greedy.


Then I said, "Of course, those boxes have gifts for all of us."


"All of us???"


"Yep, you two, me, your dad, Grandma and Grandpa! Merry Christmas!"

Shhhh....don't tell them that I did buy about 4 things that I had shipped directly to Grandma's house. It's still not a merry Wii Christmas, but it's good to see them sweat. They have no idea how blessed they are!!

Again???

How many times can I feature my plants in this blog before you all start telling me to change the name to something more horticultural? Can you believe that in the middle of winter, close to the shortest day of the year, amid a below zero cold snap, my geranium is blooming??? I just finished learning all about short and long bloom lives for plants in 6th grade science (don't worry, I'm learning all about the periodic table in 7th and 8th grade science right now), and technically, this plant should NOT be blooming. I mentioned it to the science teacher, and it's a mystery to her too because it should not be getting enough sunlight. I figure it must be all those extra rays of sunshine we radiate around here! And enjoy that last photo. That's just my little proof to myself later, when I'm senile, that this really did happen around Christmas time, and not in the early spring.

Gotta Dance, Gotta Sing

Saturday the princess had her last holiday dance performance at the mall! Good thing it was at 11:00 BEFORE the crowds really thickened. (I stole this photo off Mary Beth's blog, but since my kid's in it, I didn't think she'd mind.)

Last night the princess had her holiday choir concert for school. Three bands, three choirs in just over 1 and 1/2 hours! Phew! They did great!

She's got a party at dance tonight, we've got friends coming over Friday night, family coming over Saturday night. Phew! And then we get to pack! YIPPEE!

That's her in the white, puffy vest on the right!

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

This is going to sound a lot like last Monday's post:

MINUS 9*, but MINUS 20* with the windchill! Oh yes, and it snowed big, fluffy snow last night and is to continue today.

"I really should go."
"But baby, it's cold outside."

"Baby, It's COLD outside!"

What Could Have Been

When I went to Northern California this fall we hoped to take a boat ride out into the ocean to see dolphins and maybe even whales. The water was too rough, and our trip was cancelled. So it goes on the big ocean. Jeanette (whom I was visiting in CA) has taken the trip numerous times. These are some of her photos of hump-back whales and dolphins. The dolphins are my personal favorite, but what's really remarkable are the whales, as they are much more difficult to get photos of because they don't like to play with the boats the way the dolphins do!

Great photos, J. Thanks for letting me put them on my blog!

We're Losers!

We're losers. The last of our Survivor people--Monica--was voted out Thursday. There goes our shot at $50! But there's always next season! And Monica even made it into the jury, which never happens with our people. Maybe we're getting closer to a win! Of course, at the rate we're going, Survivor will have to stay on the air another 20 years, but...

Go Lions!

Yesterday the princess went to a middle school basketball game after school. There were many people there to cheer on our Lions. In fact, some had made signs to show their support.

Unfortunately, one sign was spelled wrong.

It said,


"GO LOINS!"


First of all, I'm still laughing about that.
Secondly, we're doing some fine teaching at our school!

The Awesome Power of a Wife's Love

A very old man lay dying in his bed. On death's doorstep he suddenly smelled the aroma of his favorite chocolate chip cookie wafting from the kitchen. He gathered his remaining strength and lifted himself from the bed. Leaning against the wall, he slowly made his way out of the bedroom, and with even greater effort forced himself toward the kitchen. With labored breath, he leaned against the door frame, gazing into the kitchen. Were it not for death's agony, he would have thought himself already in heaven.


There, spread out up on newspapers on the kitchen table were literally hundreds of his favorite chocolate chip cookies. Was it heaven? Or was it one final act of heroic love from his devoted wife, making sure he left this world a happy man? Mustering one great final effort, he slowly approached the table. The aged and withered hand, shaking, made its way to a cookie at the edge of the table, when he was suddenly smacked with a wooden spoon by his wife.


"Stay out of those," she said."They're for the funeral."

King's Ransom

The king has been wanting a new front-loading washer/dryer for a LONG time. He thinks they're the next best thing--don't even get him started on his Dyson vacuum--oh, how the man loves his appliances. (He keeps the stove-top spotless as well. Gotta love him!) We almost bought them a year ago but held out. This pair runs about $1800 but was only $1000 the day after Thanksgiving, so while I was shopping with the girls, he was at Lowes. They arrived Monday. As you can see...they stick out much farther than our old pair! Yikes. The garage door closes, but only by about 1/2 inch. And the thing that has held me back from wanting them is that the washer door must remain open to keep the stench out. Excuse me, but it's 2009. You'd think they would have a handle on venting a $1000+ machine. Anyway, the prince and king have successfully used the pair. I'll try them out over the weekend. Oh, and one more thing, if you enter our house through the garage, don't stub your knee on our new appliances!

Pasties

The king got it in his head to get in touch with his German side and make some pasties. As with most things the king does, bigger is better, so he used 36 bread rolls, 2 pounds of hamburger, lots of onion, potatos, carrots...

The mix.

Ta da!

But I like I said, more is better!

I'm not big on meat and brown gravy,

but I have it on expert authority

(like the king, my kids, the neighbor's kids)

that they are delicious!

*&^%$#$#%^&*

MINUS 6* right now, but MINUS 19* with the wind chill.

Good morning!

I Win!

I won this cool soup basket at the PTA basket auction the other night.

It's full of bowls, soups, crackers, salsa, and cookies!

YUM!

The king wants to know what it cost us to "win"!

$35

Fire Starters

Last night the prince, Skunk Boy, and Dev thought it was the perfect night for a fire in the fire pit. Of course it was 8:30 PM, FREEZING cold (probably around 0* with the windchill), and windy. After getting wood from the neighbor--sure is a good thing Nate has a wood burning stove and is generous with his scraps--they wadded up some newspaper, got the BLOW TORCH, and started to pull the fire pit up to the deck to get out of the wind before starting the fire.

WHAT??? Danger, danger Will Rogers!

The king stopped that in the nick of time. Otherwise this would be a sad blog entry about how our house burned down right before Christmas!

KNUCKLEHEADS!!!

After getting a roaring fire going, and posing for photos, they tried to pen the perfect song. I'm not sure how that turned out because the notebook is still sitting out by the fire this morning.

They did last about an hour outside though, which is about 40 minutes longer than I thought they would!

One More Twirp Photo

This is the professional photo taken at the dance. It's much better than the photos I took though I'm not sure it scanned as well. I didn't crop it well either, as it looks like I about cut the prince's head off!

Prince Charming

What if your knight in shining armor turns out to be a frog in tinfoil?

It's Nowing!

When the princess was young, she had SEVERAL speech impediments. There was some speech therapy--which really consisted mostly of playing board games and getting prizes at the end of the 1/2 hour--and time, but eventually, she overcame them.



Back when she was at her most stubborn--and cutest--when she was about 3, she couldn't say the "s" sound at the beginning of words, and the "th" sound came out as an "h"--among many others...



This was funny at Christmas time because she couldn't say the word "snow"; it came out "no." And her favorite song was "Frosty the Snowman". Her stubborn streak came through when she messed up somewhere along in singing it, and she would have to start over FROM THE BEGINNING! Over and over and over... Really, I have the video to prove it, but I'm not smart enough to convert it and put it on here.



Yesterday we woke to snow. All day long I kept thinking about that cute little princess singing:

Frosty the NOMAN...

Humpity, hump, hump

Humpity, hump, hump


OVER, and OVER, and OVER! Gotta love that!


And in case you think this speech thing was most noticeable in the winter when it was "nowing," you'd be wrong...she was an equal opportunity speech wacko. In the summer one of her favorite things to do was "WIM!"

December 1

It's December 1st.


****31 days until 2010!



****30 days until New Year's Eve



****24 days until Christmas



****19 days until we leave for sunny Arizona



****14 more school days!


Let the countdowns begin!

That's Cheating!!!

Our neighbor is a contractor, and when we got home from the grocery store, this is what we saw! There are three people on that lift hanging the Christmas lights. I'm pretty sure that's against the rules!

Still a Little Boy at Heart

We put up our Christmas stuff this weekend. The prince decided this was the year he would set up his electric train under the tree. He worked for quite awhile to get the track to match the tree skirt. Eventually it all came together. He filled two of the cars with fake snow and little gifts and a small Santa! It's very cute. The only trouble seems to be that whenever we walk by it, the vibrations from our footsteps sent a car or two off the tracks! YIKES! I'm thinking the track is not too fond of the carpet--either that, or there's a lot of earthquake activity going on in trainland!

Black Friday Madness

I was up at 3:30 yesterday (couldn't sleep) and out the door at 5:30 to begin the shopping madness. I met 5 other women, and we had a great time shopping ALL DAY LONG! I had thought we'd just be out a few hours, but I didn't get home until 4:15. Though non of us had "must haves" on our lists, we managed to fill up a van with all our good stuff.

Because I know you care, our day looked like this:

6:00 AM--we all met at Applesbees (west end) and piled into one van.

First stop Walmart--Karen got a great parking spot. The 5am madness crowd was long gone, so it wasn't too bad. Lines were short when we left. I found something for each of the kids there.

Next stop was Bed, Bath, and Beyond--we all had coupons and they were giving more out here. I think most of us bought stuff FOR OURSELVES! I got a new paper towel holder, sink drain rack thingy, potato peeler, and a baster for my sister-in-law, who was in the market for one but wasn't going out. The prince also scored a little something here. The only negative here was when some of us were checked out and others were still in line, we were waiting patiently when a nice man with a tub of cookies walked up to us, offered a cookie to a lady near me, and then walked by the rest of us. HUH??? Did I look like I didn't need a cookie???

On to Target--the princess scored big in the Christmas bonanza here.

Next we headed to the mall--By now some of us were ready for breakfast/lunch/a break but on we charge! We stopped at Herbergers (got something for the king here), The Calendar Store (scored here too), Bath and Body Works, Zummies, and JCPenney (where I got GREAT deals on outfits for the 3 kids in the family we've adopted this Christmas.

Okay--time for LUNCH! Though Karen--our driver--hates Dos Machos, she graciously consented to lunch there since the rest of us wanted to go there. I don't know if 11:30 is too early for a margarita, but it felt right! So most of us had one! Our waitress brought us chips by the pound--yum, and we ate lunch. Now, in hindsight, the big lunch and margarita were a bad idea, since I'd been up since 3:30, but who knew before hand? I really needed a nap after that lunch!!! But we weren't done shopping!

Off to the Copper Colander we headed--I didn't need anything here.

Then we hit Kohls--the princess scored again. Lines were worse here than anywhere else we went yesterday. What's up with that? Maybe some portable cash registers next year...just a thought.

I really crashed for most of the "waiting in line" time at Kohls, but I did get a second wind about the time we finally reached the cashier. Good thing too because we were NOT DONE SHOPPING YET!!!

Next stop was Shopko: I bought a cute little sign to hang out front here, but no gifts for anyone.

Last stop was Costco: I bought some dish towels for my sister-in-lay that she had requested I pick up for her. Other than that, I didn't buy anything, but Costco was giving out free cookbooks so I snagged one of those!

I'm pretty sure Karen would have kept shopping though there weren't many places we hadn't been by now. The rest of us were DONE, so she let us go!!! I do thank her for driving us all over the west end and for being such a good sport about Dos Machos.

Note to self: Go again next year but skip the margarita at lunch!

There's Been a Jesus Sighting

After a delicious Thanksgiving dinner yesterday we sat around discussing various topics. One of the topics was vision. The princess is certain she needs glasses. I'm not convinced. She went and put her father's glasses on while we visited. No one was paying any attention to her, and there were probably 3 different conversations going on, when all of a sudden, above all our voices, we heard her say, "I CAN SEE JESUS!"


My, oh my! She was focused on the picture of Jesus we have hanging in our dining area. At least I think she was. Maybe she really did see Jesus! Or maybe I'd better take her to the eye doctor!

One more thing, I finally have a full smile--braces and all--but it wasn't intentional, and I'm sure it'll never happen again. I caught her mid-laugh! But she looks so cute!

Do you love her bangs? I cut them myself, and I think they're about PERFECT, but she thinks they are WAY TOO SHORT. Twelve-year-olds BUG me!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had the queen mum, Duke and Duchess of Guckenland, and Princess Jacqueline over for dinner. The duchess won a round of dominoes. Much feasting and merriment was had. Left-overs tomorrow too. We had the royal photographer (you know, the timer on the digital camera) snap a group photos. Gotta love that!

Happy Thanksgiving to One and All!

Flowers

We gave the princess flowers after her dance performance last Saturday.

Her current favorite color is purple--I know, very girly, but she's been in a purple phase for many months now. It must be hormones.

Anyway, the flower people did a great job of putting every kind of purple flower available this time of year in this part of the country into this bouquet. You can't tell it in the photos, but they really did. That's why I posted the second photo--it's better of the flowers--sort of.

And did you check out that first photo? She's almost smiling!!!