Friday, December 26, 2008

Whew! Another Christmas is behind us. We actually had a wonderful Christmas, made complete by having a White Christmas as well! We had my cousin and her husband, my brother and his family, and my mom over for Christmas Eve dinner. All evening long the kids were tracking Santa on the internet, so it was fairly easy to get Adam to bed early. It is a tradition of ours to look for Santa's sleigh in the sky on Christmas Eve after dinner, but since it was so cloudy we weren't able to see him, although Adam thought he saw a light below the clouds. We put out magic reindeer food to make it easier for the reindeer to spot our house.
Traditional Christmas Eve dinner - Mexican food
Necessities for a college-bound senior!
Can't forget the carrots for the reindeer - this year Santa got eggnog
After reading " 'Twas the Night Before Christmas" the kids all piled into one bed
Adam was the earliest riser on Christmas morning - 3:30 am!!! He was so excited about Christmas, which of course makes it all the more fun for us parents.


Clay tries out the WII Fit
We spent Christmas Day as we know how best to spend it - enjoying family and being grateful for all we have. We remember the reason for the season, and know how blessed we are to be able to have days like this.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

What a week! And am I ready for Christmas? Well, mentally I'm so ready, but every time I think I'm ready I remember another gift I need, or present to wrap, or another thing to add to the list, or....well, you get the picture.
Mornday morning was a very slow drive to work. The good part about snow is - the snow! But the down side to all the snow is driving in it. This is what it looked like on my way to work Monday morning:

Thursday in Adam's class they had sundaes and watched cartoons. I got to go in a help out. Whew, that is a busy class. When I think of sundaes I think of ice cream, hot fudge, nuts, whipped cream, all the classic items. These kids had brought really fun things for their toppings: sour balls, gummy worms, peanut m&m's, to name a few. They had a great time, and with all that sugar the kids had, it was enough for me to want to take a nap when I got home! It's so cool when the kids start to know me a little better. One girl even drew me a picture - so sweet.


This morning we went to our church's Christmas breakfast. 8:30 is a little early for me on Saturday. We brought a chili relleno casserole. It's very tasty and really easy to make.


CHILI RELLENO CASSEROLE
2 (7 oz.) cans whole green chile peppers, drained (I used 1 27-oz. can
8 oz. Montery Jack cheese, shredded
8 oz. Cheddar cheese, shredded
2 eggs, beaten
1 (5 oz.) can evaporated milk
2 T. flour
1/2 cup milk
1, Preheat oven to 350 degrees (I had to turned mine up to 375). Spray a 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Lay half of the chilies evenly in bottom of baking dish. Sprinkle with half of the jack and cheddar cheeses, and cover with remaining chilies. In a bowl, mix together the egg, milk and flour and pour over the top of the chilies.
3. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven, sprinkle with remaining cheeses and bake another 15 minutes or until done.
Enjoy!

Erin brought her knitting along to the breakfast to try to finish a Christmas gift.
Syd snuck some chocolate while watching the program.

A special guest - Santa!
Tonight Clay and I went to a Christmas party. I must admit, I am really tired right now, and I have caught quite a few typos in this post, so I am trying to make an excuse for the ones that I won't see before I publish this. Tonight we saw friend's we hadn't seen in some time. The family that had the party used to be neighbors of ours and we have known them for 19 years. This was a fun party. I even remembered to bring my camera and take pictures. We ate lots, and got to open presents for the gift exchange. Too fun. We love you Gayla, Roger, Amber, Haley and Mike! It was a great time.

Their "Blue" Christmas tree. They've been decorating with blue since I can remember.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

It is now 10:15 pm, and everyone is in bed except for me. I even think they are asleep. After a weekend at home it just seems a little quiet. Still working on my Christmas cards. I really think next year I'm just going to buy all of them and not worry about making any. Do you make your own cards? Do you ever wonder what happens to them? After all the time spent on making those cards, do you think they get thrown into the trash with the rest of the cards after the decorations are taken down? I don't think I want to know.

Found this really cool pair of glasses and couldn't pass them up. The store had a couple other pairs but I chose this one. Syd wore them to her Christmas party she attended last night. The down side to these is they don't fit over my own glasses, so I'd have to wear my contacts. At my age I'm more about comfort than fashion, so I guess I'll stick to my own glasses and put these on just for the photo.
It is supposed to snow tonight, the weather man says 4-8 inches. The kids are hoping for snow and really hoping for a snow day or at least a delayed start. I am hoping the snow won't make the roads too bad, as I have to go to work tomorrow. Right now it is snowing just a little, and it is cooooooold.
I need to go to bed. Really. So I will leave you with these two pictures - both of which I am sending out as our Christmas card photo. You can see that it was a little difficult getting all five of us to take a good picture, but we had fun.


Saturday, December 6, 2008

Where were you on Black Friday?

Yes, I did get up early, early, early on Black Friday. Syd and I got up at 3:30 am, got ready, then hit our local coffee shop at 4:00 am for hot cocoa and a muffin, and went to stand in line at Old Navy. All for a MP3 player they were giving away (with a purchase, of course). We stood in line for 45 minutes, and were so proud of the "get-your-free-gift" bracelet we received because we were one of the first 50 people in line and got that cool MP3 player! Actually, I haven't even opened it up yet; I am giving it away as a gift, but ssshhhhh! From there we went to Michaels and stocked up on even more Stuff, and that's with a capital S! Got some baskets to put more yarn stash in. You know, that yarn stash that I promised myself I would never accumulate? Yep, that one. Now we're working on getting our Christmas cards out. This year they come with pictures of the whole family, and you know how it takes time to Photoshop us old people, aka Clay and I in the picture, so it may be a while. Here's fun pictures to keep you occupied until then:
Syd and I at Klunker's, with our hot chocolate, ready to face the morning, uh, I mean the night - about 4:00 a.m. here.

Standing in line at Old Navy. We were the 10th and 11th person in line. It was around 4:15 a.m.
around 4:40 they showed up with coffee and hot chocolate for us. Too bad we already got ours!

Yep, we were in line for the freebie!

We met our friends Lee Ann and Deidre at Old Navy, then went to breakfast at IHOP when we were done with our early morning shopping

Sunday, November 30, 2008

What the heck is Cervical Lymphadenitis????

Yep, it's a big word. I had never heard of it until Wednesday when I took Adam to the pediatrician. Seems that is what he had. Here's the definition of it that I found on the internet:
Lymphadenitis is the inflammation of a lymph node. It is often a complication of a bacterial infection of a wound, although it can also be caused by viruses or other disease agents. Lymphadenitis is marked by swollen lymph nodes that are painful, in most cases, when the doctor touches them. In most cases, the infectious organisms are hemolytic Streptococci or Staphylococci. Hemolytic means that the bacteria produce a toxin that destroys red blood cells.

Seems he had strep in his tonsils but made it to his lymph nodes. I noticed the night before that his neck looked swollen and that he had a fever, which concerned me. The next morning (the day before Thanksgiving, my luck!) I got him in to see our pediatrician (love that guy!). So, with some antibiotics and a little Motrin our little man is finally back to normal. This poor guy has been sick off and on all month. It's so good to see him feeling better.

You can just see his neck slightly swollen from the front.

You can see how swollen his neck is from the infection.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Big highs and lows this weekend. In November we have several family birthdays to celebrate, one of them being Clay's. We (just the two of us) went to the Outback for dinner to celebrate his birthday. It's so nice to know that even after all these years, and three kids later, we can still enjoy one another's company, just the two of us. Makes me feel better knowing that, especially when the kids are growing so fast and before you know it all three will be living on their own. I have really been thinking about that a lot lately, which I think I've even mentioned here. I either have to accept that graciously or just add more kids to my house - and no, I'm NOT pregnant, nor do I plan to be :-)

Happy Birthday, H.B.!

On a sad note, Xena, one of our little guinea pigs died. We took her in to the vet on Friday and found out that she had pneumonia. They gave us antibiotics and pain medication and sent us home to do what we could. Saturday she was worse so it was another trip to the vet to get food and a syringe to force feed her because she wasn't eating. Shortly before noon, our little guinea pig passed away. That's the hardest part of having pets.
Xena Mighty Warrior Muffin Pig

Thursday, November 13, 2008

On Tuesday Syd participated in a Pinewood Derby Race for BOTH young men and women. She has always said she wishes she could have been a boy scout when she was younger because they did more exciting things than girl scouts. Of course, she never went on past Brownies. She received the prestigious award of "Most Muscular" car. Hmmm.


After much running around these past few weeks I have to say: I am sick. There, I admitted it. I wanted to deny it for so long but after three weeks I had to suck it up and go to the doctor. My family - and myself - are tired of hearing me blow my nose and cough, cough, cough. Yuck.




Monday, October 27, 2008

One thing about our family, like most families, you never know what to expect from day to day. Adam lost one of his top front teeth last week, and the other front tooth was really loose. So loose, in fact, that Clay and I kept bugging him to either pull it or have one of us do it for him. He refused, but kept asking us if we thought it was ready. At one point I even bribed him with taking him to Wal-mart with his money from the Tooth Fairy. Finally he had taken enough of us, he made a face at me and said, "That's it!" and promptly went into the bathroom and pulled out his tooth all by himself. He proudly came out of the bathroom, tooth in hand with a trail of toilet paper and announced, "I did it for Wal-mart!"

The excitement of this morning didn't end there. Clay had let the dogs out earlier in the morning, then as he let them back in asks me if I've noticed anything different about Nestle (our oldest dog). No, should I ? Once I saw it I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed it before since it was practically a neon green. Yep, it was our "Breaking Wind" slime/flubber stuff. This slime stuff is supposed to go into a container and when you push on it it sounds like a bodily function, thus the name "Breaking Wind." Apparently it never made it into its container, but landed on the back side of Nestle. Yuck!

Tonight the family went to Ferrari Farms to go through the corn maze. We let Erin lead the way. We thought we'd go slowly, to get our money's worth. Remind us not to let Erin be the leader if we want to take our time! She found the exit in about five minutes. Clay led us through the maze again and tried to let her find the exit again, this time hoping for it to take a little longer. Erin must have an amazing sense of direction because she quickly found it the second time. We all got a good laugh when Clay hid behind the corn stalks and really scared the girls!





No need to buy pumpkins this year - we finally grew our own








Happy Fall!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

It Was Bound To Happen

Sooner or later, I figured he would need glasses. With both of us wearing glasses (I got my first pair in second grade), I knew the odds weren't in our kids' favor of having perfect vision. So here you have it, his first pair of glasses. I had to bribe him with a toy from the treasure box so he would let me take a picture of him. But I think it was worth it!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Peace Offering

So, today I received a present from Erin's boyfriend. A peace offering, you might call it. So, take a look and tell me what you think.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Homecoming

We are now home thawing out from an evening sitting on bleachers. Actually, it wasn't too bad; warmer than I thought it would be.

Tonight was a special night - Homecoming. Normally that would not be a big deal in our household, but tonight both girls would be "performing" out in the cold. Erin is in Marching Band, choosing the "easy" instrument - bass drum. Syd also took the field - she was nominated for Homecoming Queen. There were six girls total, each of them drove in riding a convertible, with their fathers escorting them. All six of them braved the freezing weather (including snow flurries) in their dresses. How exciting to be nominated! But, she was not named Homecoming Queen, although I think she had just as much fun getting all that attention just walking up to the middle of the field even if she wasn't chosen. Our girls are growing up.

At home, before getting out in the cold and snow. This is a vintage dress she borrowed from a friend, and we made a matching shrug.

Halftime with the big bass drum

Father and Daughter - where's the princess wave?

Halftime performance. It was soooo cold

Syd with her escort, David

October Snow!

Yes, it snowed today! Apparently I didn't watch the latest weather report because I heard there was just a possibility of snow flurries. We got 2-3 inches out here! It is already starting to melt, which is a good thing because we are going to the football game tonight. It is homecoming night. I'll be posting more on that soon.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Opening Day at Pyramid Lake

Wednesday, October 1, was opening fishing day at Pyramid Lake. Clay and I both had the day off and Clay asked me to be his "fishing partner" for the day. After we got the last child to school, we loaded up - made sure we had fishing supplies, snacks, drinks, and of course, knitting! - and headed for Pyramid. We only live about 20 minutes away so it's the perfect spot. Clay had been working for weeks on the boat to get it ready for this day. He repatched, sanded, and painted. It looks great! This boat is older than I am; it used to belong to my grandfather. We not only got to enjoy the day, we also enjoyed each other's company. It's nice to spend time just the two of us. We both agreed we need to do this more often.
On our way to catch fish! The weather was perfect. Clay catches a fish.
Took the picture of this while waiting for a fish to bite.Clay made this purple pole for me. Have I mentioned I love the color purple?
Oh look, Clay caught another fish! I work on my knitting....
You guessed it, that's Clay's fish (I'm still knitting)
We're getting ready to bring the boat in and Clay catches yet another fish.
How many did you catch, Clay? Four! Apparently that was considered a good catch for this day. A lot of people were only catching one or two. Let's see how well I did.....
Yes, I caught absolutely nothing.
But look how much I got done on my sweater. I need to go fishing more often!

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