Shot of the Day

This morning was nice. Woke at 6 and jokingly told my hubby, "lets go wake the kids". He got out of bed and I called after him thatI was just joking. I got our ham in the slow cooker and our Christmas morning cinnamon roles in the over. Shortly before seven we went and woke the kids. It's so much fun jumping on their beds saying "It's Christmas (insert child's name here)! It's Christmas, it's Christmas! My younger two wake up immediately, the others taking just a smidgen longer.

We have been so blessed this year. I just have to share this favorite shot of the day of mine.


Michael is 10 and he's entered the stage of joking around with me faaar too much, and always trying to get the better of me. So I told him I was going to 'get him good' this year, and boy did I ever. My son has recently been all about basketball, unfortunately they couldn't find a coach for St. George's kids, so it looks like he won't be playing this season after all. Anyhow, he's had his Dad's old ball for a while, the thing is flat and doesn't hold air for anything, he wanted a new basketball so bad. So, all the presents are open and there's no basketball. He told me "I have $40 so I'll get to buy a basketball. That's when I suddenly remembered that there was another big box. I presented it to Michael, he was very excited.

So he opens this big box, just to find another box in it, and another box, and finally a little tupperware dish. He's giving me looks, inside is a little 3x3 card, written on it is a clue. He gets a clue which leads him to my bathroom which leads him to the fridge, which leads him to the laundry room. Funny thing is, he's still tripping out over the fact that Mommy 'got him', and his siblings are the ones figuring out the clues!

So in the laundry room he finds a big box, opens it up and inside is his basketball. He's glad and relieved, till he finds that there's another clue taped to it. That clue leads him to the microwave where a little box waits for him. He opens that up and finds a net. He keeps saying, "I know you didn't get me a basketball hoop. What is this for?" Meanwhile his sister is reading the clue that was with it which tells him to get some fresh air. He heads outside and finds a basketball goal in the drive way with a big red bow on it. He was so shocked and surprised. I'm quite satisfied that I got him so well. I've proved once again that I am still able to get the best of him. :)

It's that time of year...

It's that time of year, the time of family, friends, laughter, good cheer, and.... not much time to blog. Today is the last day of school for my little ones, so starting tomorrow I have two and a half weeks of constant noise and having to find something for them to do. I don't suspect I'll disappear entirely but my much decreased frequency will probably continue for a while. I'm spending my time with my family, which is finally whole for a change. I pray everyone has a fabulous Christmas. Remember, it's not the gifts, or the money that makes Christmas great, is the memories of being with one another, and remembering our Savior's birth. :)

A Perfectly Imperfect Christmas

One of my kid's teachers forwarded this to me. It reminded me of my crooked Christmas Tree that I posted earlier. I know nothing about Jim Fay or the Love & Logic group this is from, so I can not either endorse them or discourage their message. But I do know that this particular message made me smile, and in this season of stress and worries, sometimes us adults need to allow things to not be perfect.

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HAVE A PERFECTLY IMPERFECT CHRISTMAS

What was your best Christmas as a kid? Was it the one where there was a lot of stress about a perfect meal elegantly served—on time—to a perfectly dressed family? Or was it the one where the dog pulled the turkey off the stove and dragged it away through the dog door? There was no perfect meal that day. Everyone rolled with the punches. They rolled up their sleeves and worked together in the kitchen to salvage a makeshift meal.

The beauty of that memory is not in perfection and organization, but in remembering the joy of being together and doing things together. It was the laughter. It was one of those days when the choices were to laugh or to cry, so you all laughed it off and enjoyed one another. It brought you all together in a different way.

Holidays are times for enjoying one another. We are not suggesting that you purposely feed the turkey to the pets, but we strongly suggest that an imperfect day with little stress will create better memories of loving relationships.

We wish you a perfectly imperfect holiday season.

Thanks for reading!
Jim Fay
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Though I seriously do not hope anyone's dinner runs away from them, I'm hoping everyone will allow joy to fill their hearts during the imperfect moments.

Now it's looking like it!

This is what I woke up to this morning! Isn't it so pretty! So yeah, a couple days ago the cookies had it smelling like Christmas, now the snow has it looking like Christmas. I'm so glad my hubby's home to do a share of the shoveling! lol I did not enjoy doing that last winter.

I hope everyone is staying warm! I'll be huddled around the dryer, stove and craft table at different times of the day today. :)

Quick check in

I love my kids with all my heart. Just last night I was whining to my husband about how lonely I will be when they all grow and leave the house. I told him he better be prepared for my mid-life crisis when my baby girl moves out. But one thing I think I will enjoy about a quiet house... being able to sleep in when you plan on it! I had planned to sleep in till like 7:30 this morning, but noooooo.... two boys and a puppy made sure I was up at 6! *sigh* So is the life.

Yesterday was a very busy day. Johnathan had a tournament to participate in. I'll have to see if I can get a picture or two up on here later as my camera is currently in the back of my van, which I'm not allowed into because there are Christmas presents there from our shopping trip last night. One must be resourceful to go shopping for five different people and not let anyone see what they got. lol Thank heavens for big jackets that cover contents of shopping carts!

At least this morning I woke to an e-mail letting me know I made the Design Team at the Christmas Cards all Year 'Round blog! I'm so excited. It's my first excursion into this realm and I hope it leads to new and excited things. People have always told me how "creative" I am, it's time to put it to the test. :)

Well, off I go... gotta get this day started. Sunday School to prepare for, a Lord to serve. :)

It's begining to smell a lot like Christmas

Anyone who knows me, knows usually my Christmas decorations are going up before all the Thanksgiving dishes are washed. This year has been unusual for me, the outside of our house still has no lights, and my tree has been in my living room for one week, all it has is lights and garland.

Friday evenings in our house are known as "Family Night". It's the one night that there is no where to go, nothing to do, I love it! Tonight we're making my famous Chocolate Chip Cookies (what do you mean you never heard of them?) and hanging ornaments on the tree. I decided to get just a small amount of baking out of the way this morning. Caitlin and I made Spritz cookies together. It was my first time doing them, as my friend gave me her Pampered Chef Cookie press when she moved to California in June. I love it!

Anyhow, something that's been bugging me lately is that there are nearly no pictures of me with my kids. As I make their scrapbooks it seems I'm not even in their lives! So I bugged my hubby to sit and take some pictures, boy am I glad I did!

I won't share them all here, but there's a few I just have to.

Caitlin of course is given the job of pouring the already measured ingredients into the bowl, keeping the mixing bowl steady, and decorating the cookies. She had done some snowflakes with blue sugar, some wreathes with green. Then we did some squares of which I gave her my big Christmas Mix to decorate with.



I had the side with holes opened, so I knew she couldn't dump them out, however this quickly led to "It's too heavy for me!" So I put some in a dish and instructed her to use her fingers and sprinkle them on. While I turned to tend to something else, she promptly picked up that little dish and dumped all the Christmas goodies on one cookie. While I missed it, thankfully her Daddy did not.



I just love the distressed look on her face. It's priceless. These are the memories I'll cherish when she's all grown up with little ones of her own.

We will be making more tonight, so the others aren't left out of the baking fun, so beware there might be more pictures tomorrow. So, as I conclude this post, I'll share just one more.



A happy little girl feeding a happy daddy Cookie Dough. :)

Why?... How?? and other such laments.

Let's start with "Why?" Why oh why did I ever get a puppy? I know, Michael had been begging me for a dog for years. Chocolate labs are hubby's favorite breed of dog. I knew the owner of the momma, and she's a fantastic gal. How often will you find a pure chocolate lab at the price of $50. And lets not forget... she was soooooo very cuuuuuute!

Yeah, well now that cute, can't pass it up, puppy is driving me nuts! She's going into bedrooms, getting kid toys to chew on. She's slowly tearing apart my Christmas tree. Each morning I wake to at least three branches torn off the bottom and scattered around the living room. Why oh why did I get a puppy?

As for how... Thursday I visited Mrs. Kirsten (Nahla's original human mommy) to get my hair fixed. I had my hair highlighted for my Sister's wedding back in Sept. 07. I hated the job and went to Kirsten to fix it a couple months later. She did such a fantastic job I wanted some more highlights put in for hubby's return. Well, hubby returned early, but I didn't care, I wanted my hair touched up.

Anyway, she washes the color out and says "You only had three grey hairs, not bad." What?!? Gray hairs? When did that happen? I'm only 31!! I can't have gray hairs! "I think I got them all." she comforted me. I jokingly told her that if any remain she can just pluck them out. Low and behold a minute later she finds one as she blow drying my hair. "You're going to have such pretty silvery hair." she comments. Uh, like hell no I'm not! lol I had her pluck it. My mom chastised me for that one, saying I'm going to only get more, but I wanted that hair gone. It was funny cause you could see the dye mark like halfway down of when I had tried to fix the bad highlight job. I brought it home to my husband, with strict instructions of telling the Army that's the damage deployments do to his wife. I swear I didn't have grey hair before he left!

I'm so not ready to face getting older. Not ready at all.

On to other non-news. Today I created a card for a Design Team call for the Christmas Cards All Year Round blog. It's a small blog, and they've posted the call several times, so I get the feeling they haven't had that many takers. I had thought I'd pass on the chance with hubby being home and all, but today I decided why not. You've got to start somewhere right? Besides it was fun. They'll make the decision on Monday, then I will post my entry on my crafty blog. Win or loose, I like it, it's cute, and I'll share it.

Now I must get my butt in domestic gear. After the kids school they have dentist appointments and Calvary Kids Club. So I gotta get things cleaned up now and a take with us dinner made.

Oh, I can't believe I almost forgot to share this cute picture.
Yesterday was really cold, when hubby came home he directly to our bed, hoping to warm up under the covers. Caitlin and I joined him and they ended up taking a nap.



Aren't they too cute?

My brain is sleeping

I'm up, I've been up for a while, but I swear my brain is asleep. I've tried to start this post several times over the last few days, but I always end up just staring at the screen. I have nothing witty to say, so I shall just ramble.

Hubby braved the Saturday crowd at Walmart and picked up a tree. We did have a nice artificial one that had prestrung lights on it that we bought five years ago. Unfortunately we couldn't get it pulled apart last year so I just let it stand in the corner of the garage. We brought it in and started to clean it up. There were some things on that tree that neither of us felt comfortable with, so out it went.

Anyway, hubby braves Walmart for me (he's so courageous) and we got it up on Saturday. The thing is extremely crooked. I mean, the trunk of it is, it just grew crooked. So depending on where you stand in the living room it looks like it's falling over. We let it stand overnight with nothing on it to allow the branches to fall and settle. Our dog loves to chew on sticks so we also wanted time to teach her it's off limits before anything electric/breakable got on there. She's learning, thankfully, but she's still not broken of it completely. But that's not what worries me, her tail hitting the thing worries me more. lol Her tale has been nicknamed a lethal weapon, it wags, a lot.

Anyhow, I finally got lights and garland on it today. It's not as lit as our old one was, because it was pre-lighted plus three strands. Now this one just has three strands, but you know, I'm happy with my not quite so bright, very crooked tree. Christmas is not about perfection, if anything it reminds me just how 'crooked' we are, and why Christ came to earth for us.

Anyhow, today is a day of chores, if I can get my headache to go away. I may do my best to sneak a nap in today. I'll need patience and a clear head for putting ornaments on the tree with my kids tonight. :)

The tale of two wildcats

Okay, so my husband's alarm went off at 4:30 this morning. What the heck is the army thinking?!?!? These soldiers just spent 15 months in a desert who's recent weather averaged 75 degrees F. After being home less than a week, they want them to go PT in less than 20 degree weather. Idiots... I swear!

Anyway, so though I try as I might I can't get back to sleep. So after some prayer time I'm on my laptop still in bed :), checking my e-mail. I know I've said it a thousand times over, but I love living in this smaller atmosphere. Back about a month ago, the 1st and 2nd graders had a poster contest for the K-state Basketball season. Johnathan's class won which got them a visit from the K-State mascot, Willie the Wildcat.

Now this isn't going to matter to anyone but me, and those friends of mine that grew up in Arizona. See, my home town, Tucson, Arizona is home to the University of Arizona, which happens to have the wildcat as it's mascot also. So I grew up with one distinct "wildcat" mascot, it's weird to see a different logo and different mascot attached to the "wildcat" name.

Wilbur Wildcat:

Willie the Wildcat:

Honestly, I think the Arizona one is superior, because the wildcat head on a human body just gives me the willies. (pun intended) I mean, yeah, we all know it's a guy in the costume, but at least Arizona tries to mask the fact.

And my friends that are loyal to Tucson may want to throw tomatoes at me for this next comment... I think the superiority stops there.

Where Wilbur is a fun character, great to have around at game time, I don't recall it ever being involved with the community, with younger children outside of sporting events. Willie the Wildcat is. My sons class got to go to the K-State college and see the locker rooms and basketball court and football field first hand. Willie was with them as they took the "secret stairs" that led them outside. Willie signed autographs and if you didn't have something for him to sign, he'd sign your arm for you. (I know... the marker still hasn't come off my sons arm!)

The fact that K-State is involved with the youth at the younger ages outside of sporting events thrills me. My little man came home so psyched up about his visit, he was just bubbling over with excitement. Though this might seem un-important for most, think of the early impact. It is making young kids excited about college really. My son will never forget the day he got to go to the college, he's going to feel that connection, and how he felt important and special, like he belonged there. It's just awesome that's all.

So as I leave this post that I'll be scratching my head about later, wondering where the heck it all came from (I blame the 4:30am alarm clock!!) I shall leave with a picture my son's teacher sent me.



PS Oh, and if you're like me and interested in useless little trivia facts when you have time to kill... According to Wiki, K-State created the costumed wildcat mascot first. Willie is 12 years older than Wilbur.

Back to Normal

Well, it's finally come, a day that goes back to normal. My husband's alarm went off at 5:30 this morning. He went off to work just before the kids wake up. Then it's get them off to school and now it's just myself, my baby girl, and the dog. Laundry is started, e-mail is seen too, dishes are calling my name, and my craft table is screaming to be cleaned. lol Yup, back to normal!

It's below freezing outside, so it looks like my Christmas yard decor isn't making it out today. I usually have the Christmas stuff going up before the Thanksgiving dishes are washed, but with the circumstances this year I haven't gotten to it. With a rowdy pup and my husband's homecoming, it just hasn't happened yet. Hopefully soon. Hopefully.

Okay, so this was a useless post. Guess I just wanted to check in. :) I'm off to get something done. lol

All about hubby

My friend posted this list on her blog, and given my husband's recent return home, I just HAD to snag it!

All about Hubby...
1. He's sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen? An action/adventure movie.

2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad? Ranch

3. What's one food he doesn't like? Artichoke Hearts

4. You go out to the bar. What does he order? We never go to bars, but if we did, it would be a German Beer.

5. Where did he go to high school? Sunny Side High School, Tucson, Arizona

6. What size shoe does he wear? 9

7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? Coffee mugs

8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? Philly Cheese Steak

9. What would he eat every day if he could? Mexican Food

10. What is his favorite cereal? Cocoa Puffs

11. What would he never wear? Pants hanging down low

12. What is his favorite sports team? He doesn't have one, he thinks they all get paid too much.

13. Who did he vote for? McCain

14. Who is his best friend? Me

15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't do? Bug him with silly blog questions

16. How many states has he lived in? Five plus Germany and Japan

17. What is his heritage? All mixed... like most Americans

18. You bake him a cake for his birthday what would it be? It would be a cheesecake

19. Did he play sports in high school? Track & Cross Country

20. What could he spend hours doing? Reading, putting up with his wife

21. What's something cool about him? He actually laughs at my jokes. He has a photo memory when it comes to technology. He can list stats of all sorts of gadgets and tell you exactly which one can do what and how much it costs. He can instantly revert to boyhood and play with the kids, but when I need him, he's all grown up. :)

Home

Are those happy kids or what? That was the scene yesterday, and the reason why I may be a little hard to nail down. The ceremony time kept changing, first it was on Sunday, then it was Monday at 11am, then it was Monday at 8:30am, then when we got there we were told it changed to 10. Thankfully though, once it did start, it was super quick. They marched them all in (about 100 guys) and some high ranking guy thanked the men for a job well done, then said let's get these guys released to their loved ones. I was so thankful for that! Finally someone who knew his droning on and on meant little to the soldiers, they just wanted to be with their families.

So for now things are going slow. He has to go back to work full time on Thursday, I'm sure I'll be pestering my blog then. :)