Whirlwind of Activity

First off . . .Allison's well . .. we're all well, for the moment.

We've been quite busy. Of course, Allison occupied all of Thursday. Then I worked on her class party on Friday. Can I just say thank goodness for xyron machines! The craft is one of those oriental trading foam crafts . . .and they just never stick with glue or the glue gets all runny. So I'm xyroning all the pieces and will be able to hand each kid a xyroned strip.

Then last night, Andy and I went Christmas shopping. Finished up the kids' gifts. We waited too long to get all the things I'd planned on getting. Hoping Alaina's not too irritated when she doesn't get the big giraffe she wanted. Thinking not, as she keeps saying she's getting a Gameboy, and we keep telling her she's not old enough. She's got one under the tree. . .tehehe. Also got a few gifts for some of the adults I needed to buy for.

We stayed up until after 4 this morning wrapping everything! EEK But I wanted to wrap them while we had the chance . . .ever since the year that I waited until Christmas Eve to wrap and we ended up spending most of the night in the ER with Ian and a broken leg. . . .I try to get them wrapped as we buy them.

Today's light display:


These pictures didn't turn out very well, because there wasn't a lot of lighting. Got a giggle out of these because, 1) there are so many inflatables and 2) they spilled out over their neighbors' yards. They had to outline their display so you could tell what all was theirs, as both neighbors have inflatables too. Anyone see a problem with any one house having THIRTEEN inflatables?

And another house, to make up for yesterday's lack of pictures:



{sigh} didn't realize how blurry this one came out. On first glance, I didn't like this house . . .don't know why, it just didn't hit a chord with me. Upon further glances though, I actually decided I liked it. . . the different colored lights, the way the bushes were covered. This wasn't a buch of net lights (which I'm not that fond of . . .they never cover all they should), these were those large bulb lights and they covered everything well.

Another One Bites the Dust . . .

I told Andy that today over the phone, and he thought I was saying the last hamster died (I WISH!). But I was actually talking about Allison . . . .I had to go pick her up at school after she got sick this am. That makes 4 of us since Sunday morning! And to make matters worse, I'm starting to feel a relapse coming on. {sigh} How am I supposed to get Christmas shopping done like this?

So, instead of this wonderful gushing post about how much of my Christmas list (well, the one in my head anyway. .. . haven't written anything down), here is a house that makes me giggle.



Looks pretty normal in the dark, right? See those glowing things in the weird trees (they put horrible looking skeletons in these trees for halloween). Take a closer look at this picture taken in the daytime.



The 2 circles to the right (How cool am I? I finally figured out how to draw circles!) Those are Santa heads in the trees. The circle to the left . . .another Santa trying to get in the window. And then here's the view you can't see at night . . .this is to the left of the breaking and entering Santa.



TWO more Santa. . .they gotta be more thieving Santas (see yesterday's post) . . . look how skinny they are! No way is that the real thing. You'd think people were trying to say something about the neighborhood . . .really we don't have many break-ins. I'm not sure what store you buy these at.

Okay .. . tomorrow, a house I really like. I promise.

Hoping Time Slows down

Well, another short lapse. The kids have been sick, and apparently I caught it! ARGH We've been trying to keep up with the advent calendar. . .have a couple of days to make up. {sigh} I was hoping this would help keep me in line! Let's not even talk about the lack of Christmas shopping around here. I'm afraid I will never be caught up!

Hope you guys enjoyed the links to the videos of those houses I shared on Monday. Here's another set of pictures for you to enjoy.



These people actually have some lights on the back side of their house too. I find that whole thing a little odd, as they just about backed up to a small cemetery that the subdivision north of us is built around. And a closeup of the door area:



Yep, that's one Santa in the window, with another one hanging down in front of the door. Makes you wonder if they're really Santas, or just thieves trying to break in! {vbg}

Today, we started our work on the "Gifts from the Heart" that we're planning on sharing on Christmas Eve (Erin, 2 things . . . 1-- will give you more info in the invite that will hopefully be going out Friday, and 2 -- stop reading here so you don't see Ian's gift!)

Ever since Ian took an ornament class several weeks ago, he's wanted to make more. So I bought supplies for him to make some fancy ornaments. I helped him a little, but he did the mod podging and painting by himself. And picked out who would get each one. Take a peek (once again . . .except you Erin!):

Festival of Lights . . .

So, Erin, the kids and I all went out for the yearly looking at lights. As I haven't shared any for the last several days, I'll give you a few as the highlights.

First of all . . . a house we didn't go by, but I find the description written about it very funny!



This is my small semi detached house, it took me five years to get this far, collecting for cancer and to cheer people up, MERRY CHRISTMAS. Karl Grizwald

tehehe . . .I just get a hoot out of the fact that this is a true Griswald house!

I'm going to share with you 3 houses this evening.

Erin and I decided these people gave up on the decorating early on. In fact, Erin described it as a blue monster who threw up all over the place.



Yep, those blue rope lights, haphazardly thrown all over the bushes, with a good amount of them on the ground.

The next house . . . well, it's the house that started this driving around looking at houses tradition with Erin and I. It keeps getting more elaborate every year.



According to their sign (which looks darn professional), they have approximately 50,000 lights, power draw is 118 amps at its peak, 4.1 MILES of total wiring, Only $45 extra for the month in electricity . . .and the expression on a child's face . . . priceless. They have an FM Transmitter, so when you drive by and watch it (well, park in the coldesac and watch it), you turn to 107.3 and listen to the music the lights flash to. Yep, you heard me! You get more info about the house when you listen there . . .such as it takes them 12 hours to program what the lights are going to do for a 4 minute song! The kids absolutely love this house and would've stayed there all night if I would've agreed to it!

Wanna see a video? Watch Feliz Navidad on your own . . .my picture doesn't do this house justice! I was rushing because there was quite the line forming behind us. They do say to come back for more footage later. You'll find the video here if you scroll down a bit.

Okay, so I've given you several hints about our neighbor's house. On nights we're out and about, we *have* to go by at least twice. Sometimes the kids ask for more times around the block. And if the night is nice (like Sunday night was), we'll walk down to see it. The kids absolutely love this set up. It's been fun to see what all they add to it each year.



Seems like the first year it was just the tracks, the train, and the garland around the yard? Not for sure on that. Once again, this one picture doesn't do the display justice. I have a whole series of pictures, but one again, it would be easiest to lead you to their website, where they have several videos you can view .. . including the toy factory in action, and close ups of the train . . .and probably a history in pictures from where it started until now. You can view all of that here. If you will go down the left hand sidebar, you'll see a link for video clips.

For those of you who asked how I did the CDs, I used a program called exPressit. I saved a desaturated picture first, then dropped it into a file in the program. Really quite simple if you spend 5-10 minutes figuring it all out.

Oh yeah, that Grizwald house at the beginning . . . .you can find it, and many others here. Enjoy!

Will Continue Soon . . .

I've been swamped since the 8th, which is why there haven't been any updates. This is one of the things I've been working on:


I've burned a total of 12 CDs full of pictures (2 copies of each one) . .. after organizing them. I still have a ton to do, but wanted to get as much as I could done last weekend.

Plus we had Mom's birthday, movie day on Saturday, headache for me on Sunday plus 2 kids have been sick! ARGH

Tonight, we're going out with my friend Erin to hunt down this year's best and brightest Christmas displays. I'll be back with pictures.

Rudolph has made his appearance

First of all, a little aside. Can someone please remind me why on earth I buy these scrapbook calendar things? I dug out the Designing with 2005 calendar today . . . .and it was on August 11! So flipping through the thing trying to get "caught up". What was I thinking when I bought DW 2006????? (oh yeah, I thought the store might be closing and I bought whatever I could with my $300+ credit. {sigh} now they're getting new stuff in). And then there's the Simple Scrapbooks 2005 calendar. I used it daily for about a month, then gave it up. Yet, I'm considering getting 2006 because this whole bigpicturescrapbooking thing with Donna Downey suggests it!

Okay, back to the holiday cheer. You know, back in the day . .. pre video/DVD, we only had that one chance a year to see our holiday favorites. Andy and I were talking about this with the kids a couple nights ago. That we'd look up in the TV Guide and find out what holiday special was on which nights. I remember wishing that they wouldn't show up on Wednesday night, as we'd be at church and miss them for that year. The kids were amazed by this fact (not sure why, since one of them thought I was alive during the Civil War! {snort})

So, this year, I decided 2 things. First, I was upgrading all those videos to new DVDs. And second, they didn't get to watch Rudolph until the special night on the advent calendar. Due to our lovely "winter mix"/sleet... . today became that day. They canceled church for tonight (man, I would've loved that as a child. . .if it came on a "special" night), so I postponed the Christmas book reading we were going to do tonight, and decided the time was right for Rudolph and popcorn. The kids were excited to finally be seeing it. And there are actually extras on this DVD. . . Destiny's Child singing Rudolph. Even their "claymation" (wasn't really clay, but kinda had that look) selves wore those short, short skirts! They also had that "Fame and Fortune" song that Rudolph and Hermey sing. I don't guess I ever realized that they replaced the Misfits song after 1 year with the Fame and Fortune song.

Then the kids loved seeing the original TV ad for it. It was neat to see. And Ian picked up on the fact that Christmas was celebrated on Sunday in 1964, just like it will be this year.

Hoping that Erin and I get to make our trek to see the lights tomorrow night. We'll have to see what the weather holds for us. Here is today's picture:


This picture reminds me of when I was growing up. One year, the next street over decided to do those poles with lights hanging down in all directions to make them look like a Christmas tree. There was someone Jewish on the street, and they did a star of David (don't even ask me how they accomplished that!). The whole thing is like a less elaborate version of the street in Christmas with the Kranks. tehehe

Christmas songs . . .. the band width is messed up on Santasearch.org, so I'm going to wait until it's back up to continue that.

Kids are hoping that it sleets enough that they can't go to school tomorrow. They don't get the ramifications of this . . . .losing a day at Easter. I'd much rather have the day in the spring, than a day to be stuck inside.

Singing your way through the holidays. . .

Well, no secret that I love Christmas music. There are so many good songs.

Today was "Christmas Karaoke" day at our house. We pulled the karaoke machine Allison got last year from my parents into the living room so we could sing by the tree. Each of the kids got to pick a song (we would've done more, but my parents got home from Austria today and we wanted to go see them!). Alaina picked O Christmas Tree . . .she's got some kind of fascination with that song this year. Allison picks the song she loves to sing, and no one else does . . . 12 days of Christmas, and Ian picked out Frosty. Follow that up with my 2 selections . . . .All I Want for Christmas is my 2 Front Teeth and Rudolph and we had a good little show going on.


I have to add this next picture, because it's SOOOOO Alaina!



Today's song . . . no santasearch happening today for some reason . . . so will just give you a song with an unknown artist (well, he's known, just not by me!). Every time I hear "Go Tell it on the Mountain" I think of childhood. . . and I associate it with my dad. Should check and see if that was a favorite of his, or he sang it a lot or what. Once again . . .version matters. It's the guy with the deep, rich voice. Love that version . . . old version. I think it was on one of Dad's Firestone records. From the 60's or so.

House picture of the day. I might be reissuing this one, if I can get a good picture of the item they're still missing from it.


Think you might be able to see that clear enough. That's a close up of the window over the front door. There's a chair up there. . . a chair that Santa gets put into and he's reading a list of all the kids on the coldisac. I'm not sure how they get it all up there. . .. the owner told me he had the same floor plan we did, and there's no way to get something that wide on our ledge. And, yep, that's four white lighted trees in their house.

So, DSL decided to give us a ton of trouble yesterday. Believe me, one in a long line of issues we had yesterday.

- I sent 2 boxes of books to 2 friends in different states. Send said boxes to the wrong people . . .so my OK friend got the PA friend's books and vice versa. {sigh}
- Ian tried to use the timer on the microwave yesterday afternoon. It wouldn't work. Andy flipped all the circuit switches in the house making sure that one hadn't blown. We ended up spending an hour at Sears deciding what we wanted to replace it with. Got home, Andy still thought the whole thing was fishy . . .checked the cabinet above the microwave. Lo and behold . . . the plug had been unplugged! ROFL . . . microwave order cancelled today. Good new is, we discovered it, not the delivery men!
- When the circuits got flipped, computer shut off. When we tried to log back onto the internet, it wouldn't work. Tried calling CS, as Andy was able to verify that the computer and wireless was working as it should. They were closed. He ended up spending I don't know how much time with them this am .. .before he discovered they'd changed what address you had to have somewhere on the Linksys log on. {double sigh}

Anyway, no dsl service last night, no ability to log on and get this done.

Advent activity for December 5th . . . visit Santa. I'd have to go back and look, but I *know* this is the 5th year we visited this particular Santa, because I remember taking baby Alaina there and hoping to get a shot of the 2 kids sitting on the floor, "shushing", and Santa laying across his huge chair and pretending to be asleep with a sleeping Alaina on his stomach/chest. I had a friend who did this picture and it turned out sooooo cute! No such luck. Alaina slept until about 15 minutes before our turn. {sigh} I'm pretty sure we visited him the year before Alaina was born too.

We love this guy . . . he has a real beard and moustache. He has real "Santa" hair. And he's so, so sweet to the kids. We ate across the aisle from him at Chili's last year, and all these kids came up to him, and he was still sweet to all of them. I told mine we were going to leave Santa alone so he could eat in peace. . .and he actually called them over to visit with him!

He doesn't look like your regular every day Santa . . .first year it was hard to get used to, but now we all talk about how he's "our" Santa. So . . . here are the kids with Our Santa!


Christmas decorations picture for today:



Yep, apparently these people love UT (University of Texas) so much they've put an inflatable Bevo (the mascot) in the front window. . .not on the the lawn . . .actually in their front room of the house. Guess they're worried about it getting stolen? Also, and hard to see here, they have that side of the house decorated, but on the other side of the sidewalk . . nary a light! ROFL

Another preview of my neighbor's display . . .I'd show you a straight out picture, but he's still finishing it all up. Talked to him, and he says he thinks it'll be finished on Saturday.



Music for the day. Well, it's a song that's not at santasearch.org. . .which apparently is okay, as none of the songs I tried to play there were working today. It's a song by a group called Acappella. I grew up on music from this group . . .starting back when it was just the founder and one other singer. They've been around for 23 years, and I think I've been listening for at least 21 of those years! This song is called "That's What I love about Christmas". . . lyrics here:

Hooking up the Christmas lights, last minute shopping spree
Putting decorations on the evergreen tree
Oh I can hardly wait, that's what I love about Christmas

Shaking packages, mistletoe above the door
Eating too much food and laying down on the floor
Lots of memories, that's what I love about Christmas

Chorus 1:Everyone's sneaking a holiday sweet
No one wants to leave
Little kids acting like they're asleep
While they're trying to catch Santa on Christmas Eve

Mom is cooking dinner, presents underneath the tree
It's a Wonderful Life is showing on TV
Wouldn't change a thing 'cause that's what I love about Christmas

Chorus 2:Stockings stuffed with gifts galore
Home is feeling warm
If you want a good cup of Christmas cheer
Watch a child's expression on Christmas morn

Look at all the Christmas cards, kids playing in the hall
Dad's in the easy chair watching football
Yes it's finally here, that's what I love about Christmas

It took it's time getting here, that's what I love about Christmas
Hope you feel it, that's why I wish you a Merry Christmas

Dueling Neighbors, Part Deux

********Edited to add photos throughout entry. Blogspot finally let me!

Today's music selection: "Do they Know it's Christmastime" sung by a conglomeration of artists known as Bandaid. I remember this release so well. It was winter of my 8th grade year. . . my friends that year were a bit on the "Flock of Seagulls" side. We listened to the Thompson Twins, Eurythmics, Howard Johnson, David Bowie. I was like the preppy dresser among them, although I do remember a certain neon sweatshirt I wore with a belt that wrapped around my waist twice! Anyway, we are were wild about the song, especially as it came from Great Britain.

So, today's advent activity was an easy one . . . hang stockings. Well, we knew we had a Christmas party at church tonight, but I didn't want to put that on a circle, as I never know if we'll go on a particular year. There must've been 12 million people there! Okay, that's a stretch . . .but quite a few. Hundreds! Pizza and Santa showed up .. . and there was a cake walk. My kids came home with one of the batches of brownies we made, some gumdrop cupcakes, and some of those little mice made out of chocolate covered cherries and hershey kisses. The kids sat on Santa's lap and asked for what they'd told us they wanted . . .thank goodness!




I just love the look on Alaina's face. She was so excited to hang up her stocking.

As I promised, here's Dueling Neighbors, Part Deux. These people live to the left of the house from yesterday .. .Notice the lights in every window. . . and the fact that only ONE half of their yard is lit up . .. I guess because they don't want to draw attention to the next door neighbor's house??

Growing Up

Today seemed to be a day to remind me of all the ways I'm no longer (obviously) a child. Christmas is just so different as an adult. In that vein, i'll share Grown-up Christmas List with you today. It's sung by several different artists, but I just like the Amy Grant one best (I promise, this won't become an Amy festival!).

Andy asked me again for a Christmas list .. . I have absolutely no idea what to put on it! Mom and Dad are getting me a 50mm fixed lense. I like the sound of a macro lense, but I have no idea what I'd actually do with one! ROFL Just sounds cool. Hmmm . . . we need a new toaster and could use a new can opener, but what kind of Christmas list is that? I'll throw in a couple books, but there's no way I have the urges for enough for my mom, my sister, my brother and Andy and the kids to get me stuff from a list. Unlike Alaina's list. . . I wrote down TWO PAGES of ideas, and then just told her she'd completed her list. . .she would've gone on for days! And those pages don't include her American Girl wishlist. tehehe

Today's advent activity was putting up the Christmas tree. I remember always waiting anxiously for the day we could do that. Now I know how Dad must've felt about it. . . pulling out that box, trying to read all the numbers on the pieces to figure out what goes where. . . moving the furniture. It's just not much fun as an adult. . .except the joy you see the kids getting out of it. (in a side note, talking about trees and dad, I remember the flocked tree we had several years. . . I'm going to have to see if I can get slides/photos of that time!)



Then we took a look at some Christmas lights. .. not the big one that had a line waiting to see it. @@ . . . there's a guy that sends a weekly newsletter to people in Frisco, and he had that one on his list this week. The neighbor near us is STILL working on his display . ..it'll be breaking news when it's finally finished. In the meantime, another little nugget from his yard:



House of the day . . . this is one part of what I affectionally call the "Dueling Neighbors". Their places remind me of Tim Taylor trying to get in one last lighted piece because he thinks his neighbor is going to win the neighborhood contest! tehehehe The kids ooohed and aaahed over the houses. The more lights the better (yet another way I'm no longer a kid!).

On the Second day of December . . .

While you're reading, check out another one of my favorite Christmas songs. Amy Grant's Heirlooms. Click on the link and it should pull up a screen that will automatically play the music, unlike the one I linked yesterday (gotta go back and fix that). This is like the ultimate scrapbooker's song. All those letters and memories. Drat . . .if you just go to Santa Search, you can have it play in the background, but linking it it navigates away from the blog. Anyway, check out the song. . .

Did a ton of running around today. Had to pick up a ton of pictures for my mom's books . . . trying to get those done today before the challenge is over. Ran to a half dozen places at the same time . . . had to go pick up my engagement ring that we had resized . . .finally decided I should just make it bigger until I lose some weight. The size 5.5 ring just wasn't working for me!

Today's Advent activity was to buy Christmas tree ornaments. After Ian's less-than-enthusiastic response towards shopping yesterday, I was afraid he'd be bummed to have to shop again. Apparently shopping for ornaments is a totally different beast! Alaina told me she wanted a Backyardigans ornament. . . after much searching on the net, I decided the things just don't exist unless you wanna buy a ceramic ornament that someone's mod podged a picture of the gang on! So Alaina instantly jumped to wanting a giraffe ornament. . .let me tell you, she's got a thing for giraffes! Then Allie requested a horse ornament. Thankfully, Ian said he'd look around and decide on something when we were at the store. I thought I'd have to talk the girls into another movie ornament, but surprise, surprise . . . Hallmark had a giraffe AND a horse! What are the odds of that??? And Ian found a Harry Potter one he that was "sweet!" So life's good here.

Still waiting on the Griswolds to get going on their displays . . . I know this weekend has to be the working weekend for a lot of them.

Today's entry is more of a yard display than a light display. These people must be in the running for the yard with the most yard art!


Here are a few closer up pictures.
Snowmen, pooh characters, Barney . . . just a bit too much going on!



And I think they're striving to get all 101 Dalmations!

Ahhh . .. the sights of Christmas

Ahhhhh . . . .December. I love this month. . . the getting ready, the excitement of the kids, the decorations, shopping, the traditions.

I came home to a nice little surprise in my mailbox today from my "Griswold" friend Erin.


Inside, it says "Happy Decoration X-sess!" Tehehe . . .I know "they" say there's a card for every event. . . .I didn't know our Griswold Adventures was one of them. Thanks Erin!

The kids had their first Advent event today. Ian wasn't super thrilled to find out today's activity was "Go shopping for PJs". I won't tell him it was supposed to be "Watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" until I saw them putting out pjs at Old Navy today.



This month I'll be sharing Christmas music and lights with you.

Santa Claus and Popcorn is my all time favorite Christmas song from my youth. I know this had to come from some Firestone record (yep, LP) that my dad had from waaayyyyy before. I didn't know until I started searching for it that Merle Haggard sung it. tehehe . . .we were not big country folks at our house. I can't tell you how many times my sister and I listened to this song each Christmas season. I don't think I have ever met anyone who actually knows this song! But click on the link and take a listen while you continue to read.

So as not to be misunderstood, all of my house photos for the month will NOT be in the Griswold finals. (Heck, most of the Griswold finalists are still working on their displays!) There are some lovely decorations around and they need recognition too! You know, the sincere kind. So, here's a house from a large, well-known neighborhood not to far from here. This house doesn't show up nearly as well on the photo as it was IRL . . . .hard to get some of those nighttime pictures. They've done a simple white outline. I may be boring, but I love the white light look. And yes, for those of you who've told me I have a big house, ALL of these lights are on 1 house, not 2 seperate ones. It sits on a corner and wraps around 2 sides.



edited to add: Another Alaina funny (man, I might need to dedicate another blog to her and her quotes!)

We went out to dinner last night, and I (as usual) had to take Alaina to the bathroom. She always waits until right before the food's supposed to come out and then needs to go. She got in there and looked in the toilet and said "OH, this is yucky business!" ROFL . . . it was the residue of a good toilet cleaning. . . some blue water and bubbles. She flushed, and said "Good! The blue's gone, but the bubbles are still here. I like bubbles!" Then, after finishing. . . she started her rendition of "Shake your Booty!", which involved chanting "Shake your booty!" and shaking it! All through the pulling up the pants process, the hand washing process, and walking back out to the table. tehehe . . .that kid!

Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peek for you . . . . this is part of one of the holiday displays you'll be seeing in the upcoming month. These people live a couple doors down from me, and the street is clogged for most of the month as people come by to see what he did this year. Andy always complains about the amount of time this guy has in the garage . . . he's made ALL of his Christmas display stuff, he has built at least 2 go-carts. I keep reminding Andy that the guy's got no kids. Well, a couple days ago one of my other neighbors told me his wife's expecting. Andy laughed with glee!



And the latest Alaina story . . . .

She was wearing one of her pairs of sunglasses on Monday night when we went out to eat with my parents. Mom and Andy were telling her she looked like a star.

Her response: "I don't wanna be a star . . . .I wanna be an action figure!"

Andy laughed and told her you had to be a movie star, THEN you'd get an action figure.

So last night, I said "Who are you?"

She responded "I am that grown up you are after the movie star!"

Tehehe . . . kid cracks me up!

I am still alive!

I know, it's been a long, long time since I blogged . . .a week! EEK . . . .now that I'm down to -12 visitors (I don't know how that would be possible, but I'm sure I can figure out a way!) I'm back. We took a little trip to San Antonio to celebrate Thanksgiving with Andy's extended family . . . had a good time. We went to the Alamo (again) so that Ian could experience it immediately before he started studying it at school. I tried taking Christmas card pictures while we were there . . . and no, they weren't in Christmasy attire, but seeing that I have THREE pictures to send out in Christmas cards this year (I haven't sent out the last 2 years, but had pictures printed for them), I figured it's okay if only 1 of the 3 is a Christmasy picture (the one from "last year" is actually one from the series of V-day pics I took).

It's not so easy getting good pics of the 3 kids . . .at the same time. I would really love to know how to cut and paste a head so that it looked totally realistic!

Here are a few of the "rejects" . . . you'll have to wait for your Christmas card to see the winner!



In other news . . . .the "Griswald" families already have their yards full of decorations . .. in fact, some of them were fully decorated before Thanksgiving. We'll see if our decorations make it up this weekend.

So, plans are that every day of December (prior to Christmas, that is!), I'll share with you one of my favorite Christmas songs and a photo of a yard somewhere within 20 minutes of me (Hey, Erin . . .when are we going to make our annual car drive looking for the most "Griswaldy" house???)

And speaking of every day before Christmas, I have a pocket advent calendar that I need to fill with one activity per day for us to do . . . .HELP! Anyone have any ideas???

The War

Allison went to stay with my parents on Sunday evening. She and my mom had an interesting conversation:

Allie: "Mimi, how old was my mom when the war happened?"

"What war, Sweetie Pie?" (Mom's got a nickname for each of the kids . . . Allie's is Sweetie Pie. . .I keep telling her I don't know what's going to happen when someone has a boy; Ian's name is "Favorite Boy"!)

"You know . . . . . The Civil War!"

ROFL, how the child knows about the Civil War in the first place, I'm not sure! But that she thought I was alive during it is even funnier!

My mom spent the next several minutes convincing Allie that I wasn't alive during the Civil War. That Mimi, Dad-Dad (what the kids call my dad) and Nana (Mom's mom) weren't even alive during the Civil War. Allie really didn't believe her for the first few minutes.

So, yesterday, I was driving Ian and Allie home from the dentist and said "Hey, did you guys know Mimi and Dad-Dad came over on the Mayflower?" Both Ian and Allie said "Really????"

Tehehe . . . .nothing like "getting" your kids back when they think you're 140+ years old.

Been Working . . .

Even though I've been sick most of this week, I've been trying to complete some projects that needed to get done.

I've now done 131 5x7, 6x6, or 7x7 pages for my mom's books. All I have left is to get pictures from this year printed, work on the books, and I'll be done. I have all the pages journaled, page covered . .. ready to go. I've got until Dec 10 to finish the rest.

Then I had some pictures a friend sent me from her trip near Beslan last year. She is a crisis counselor for a (some?) school districts and after that horrible school shooting last year, she went on a trip to share experiences, help prepare the counselors there in Beslan. I was so proud of her and her work. I had the whole album almost completed (except the covers and the pictures) and I lost it. I'm sure it's here somewhere . .. unless it was in a bag I sold in a lss garage sale last month! One of the classes I took at CKU-A from Chatterbox taught this album.

Hey, Connie. . . if you're reading, don't look any further! Be surprised when it shows up in your mailbox.

I created an entire second album this week . . .and like it better. I have the newer Sun Room papers in it, used wood frames/tags, I just like the way this one turned out. Here's the cover for it:



I have a few more pictures of this album Here. (Look Jamie and Jess, I finally started my challenge blog!)

Sick . . .

Middle of the night Thursday night, Alaina woke up wheezing. . . bad. Pulled out the nebulizer and spent from 3-4 up with her. I didn't go to bed until 2:30, so you can imagine how much sleep I got on Thursday night! Had to do two more treatments on Friday, she started a temperature and was coughing terribly. Only time her RAD acts up is when she's sick. Then she gave it to me. I've spent the last several days in bed. Mom picked up Alaina last night so I could rest today . . .slept until 1, except for about 45 minutes I got up this morning to get Ian and Allie dressed, fed and to school. And lucky me, I have this lymph node in the crease behind my ear that hurts like heck! Had PA sister take a look, and she says it's part of this infection. {sigh}

So . . .that's what I've been doing. Being sick and working on my mom's mini-scrapbooks of each one of the kids. I usually only have to do one year's worth of pictures, but I'm WAAAYYYY behind, so I have to do the pictures for 2003, on. So far, I've completed 65 6x6 or 5x7 pages. Still have all of 2005 to do (gotta pick pictures out and have them printed), half of Allie's pages and all of Alaina's pages. {sigh} better get working.

The Thanksgiving Season

Nothing like starting the Thanksgiving celebrating 2 weeks before Thanksgiving! Today was Alaina's Thanksgiving meal at the preschool. Isn't she a cutie? (Sad that this is the best picture I have of her from today!)

Alaina spent the night with my parents last night, and was so excited to see me. She actually said "I KNEW you'd be here!" like I hadn't told her 157 that I'd see her at school today. Then she wanted to make sure her cookies made it. She'd helped me make them and was so proud to see them on the dessert table.

I had several people ask me about the recipe. . . you might know it, now that you've seen the finished product. World's easiest cookies. And everybody must've loved them . . .they were gone quickly.

Peanut Butter Cup Tarts

1 roll of slice and bake Peanut Butter cookies (or if you're so inclined, guess you could do it from scratch, like my mom had to do during my childhood!)
1 large bag of Mini Reeses PB cups (I used a "big bag" . . .it had 80 cups in it)

Refrigerate PB cups at least an hour, then unwrap them and stick them back in the fridge. Preheat oven to 350. Spray mini muffin pans with cooking spray. Slice cookies and then quarter slices. Drop one in the bottom of each muffin pan cup. Bake for 6 minutes. As soon as you pull the cookies out, push a cup down into the center of each cookie. Let them cool and then put the pans in the fridge to cool further. When they're cold, use a knife to gently "pry" them out of each cup.

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In other happenings . . .is there a problem with me being addicted to a children's show? I hope not! We love the Backyardigans (Nick Jr) here . . . all of us! The music is just so darned catchy and they dance. . . and the story lines are so cute! I bought the CD "for Alaina" this week (yeah, right! It was because *I* wanted it!) and we've been singing along with it on a daily basis. Alaina left preschool today and wanted to leave like a "secret agent". . . sneaking through the halls so no one would see her and creeping on her tiptoes. . . just like the Backyardigans do it.

A Rose by Any Other Name . . .

Today, Alaina and I were talking about a little boy in her Bible class whose mom is a friend of mine. All of the sudden, she says "Hey mom, there's a new boy in my class .. . and his name is Villain!"
"Villain??? Are you sure?"
"Yes mom (that kid is 4 and is already calling me "Mom" instead of "Mommy" . . .sigh), his name is VILLAIN!"

At this point I pause and think. Surely no parents would go so far as to name their kid "Villain"! After a minute, it came to me.

"Hey Alaina, do you mean *D*ylan???"
"Oh yeah . . .that's what his name is!"

So we now can add to the list of names my kids have butchered!

Ian came home from the early days of Kindergarten talking about his friend "Shovel". Once again, pretty darned sure that wasn't a name a parent would bestow a child with. Took us weeks to find out the kid's name was actually "Sheldon". ROFL

Last year, when Allie started kindergarten, we had several days in a row that I emailed her teacher to ask what the "real" name of the student was. According to her, there was an "I-I", a "NaDING" (emphasis on the "ding") and an "Omart".

They were actually named "Aya" (pronounced eye-ya), "Nadeen" and "Omar". We've giggled and giggled about going to shop at the "Omart". Wonder if that's Oprah's store.

So now, we get to add Villain to the list of names.

So, I guess that old Shakespearian quote is actually true: A [insert friend's name here] by any other name WOULD smell so sweet.

In other family news:

-- Ian's soccer team ended up in 3rd place. . . they had a swim party yesterday to celebrate the season, and are apparently playing in a tournament during the first part of December. (there go my Dec. weekends already filling up!)
-- I'll be spending this evening making those peanut butter cup tarts (peanut butter cookies with a Reeses in the middle) for Alaina's Thanksgiving feast for Thursday.
--I was listening to one of the sessions of one of Beth Moore's studies last night, and Ian wanted to listen, and actually GOT some of what she was saying.
-- Allie's reading has improved dramatically over the last 2 weeks . . .WHOOOOHOOOO!
-- I've finished handmaking 70 Christmas cards! Now to just get them sent out in time (this has been my issue the past 2 years).
-- Yippee . . spending tomorrow with my sister, scrapbooking.

-- eta: It was voting day all over the country today. We didn't have any candidates to vote for (did anyone?), but did have one controversial proposition . . .the marriage proposition (prop 2). Doesn't matter which side of the issue I'm on . . . I don't wanna turn this into a political debate.It was confusing in several ways . . . some people were confused that a vote AGAINST prop 2 would mean a vote against the 1 man, 1 woman = marriage, and vice versa. They got that straightened out, and then this happened:

"The campaign had been enlivened over the past week because of a controversial tactic by the amendment's opponents, who argued in recorded phone calls to voters that the measure is so poorly worded that it could jeopardize traditional man-woman marriages. Amendment supporters denounced the effort as misleading. " (www.wfaa.com)

It disturbs me that the opponents would try and trick people. We didn't get one of those phone calls .. . we're unlisted, so we don't get solicitor/political phone calls, but my neighbor mentioned in a casual conversation that she'd gotten one of these calls a week or so ago. Then several days later, got another (automated) call "clarifying" the law (from a proponent, of course). You know, I guess they pretty much knew the writing on the wall . .. Texas is a red state. But come on . . .trying to trick voters to not use their vote in the way they wanted to vote? Latest polls I've seen says that 74% of Texas voters voted for prop 2. I can tell you they were out in droves today (unlike what "they" thought would happen . . .I don't know, maybe it was less in other counties, precincts, etc). I stood in an hour to exercise my constitutional right.

Tehehe . . . another election aside here . . . .my bil answered a call about a month ago asking if he was for or against the "illegal sale of alcohol." (this was something being voted on in their county) He asked the caller if it was ever okay to be against something illegal. ROFL . .. don't think they were too impressed with his answer. They apparently were done with him at that point.

Run for your Life!

I was sitting here just a few minutes ago, and Alaina started running around the coffee table. Then she shouted out "I running for my life!" I looked at her stunned. Where had she come up with that?!?!?! ROFL, I should've known. Mom and Dad took the kids to see Chicken Little on Friday night, and he says that in the movie.

But it got me to thinking. How often is it that we run for our lives? Not in the sky-is-falling kinda way, but that hectic running, trying to get it all done? The pace of the world nowadays is almost frantic. Kids to run to lessons (and we hold them to one type of lessons .. . I can only imagine how bad it would be if we let them all do multiple things!), getting things to fix up the house, a million trips to the grocery store (because i never remember everything!), laundry, laundry, laundry. And a house that never stays clean. Put on top of that church, a Bible study, the occasional scrapping time, eating out, seeing movies, planning parties for the kids' classes. Man, it just never ends! My October calendar was crowded!

I'm gearing up for a more relaxed November and December (yeah right!). I'm going to try hard to schedule less and have more time to enjoy LIFE. . . .enjoy the kids .. . .do things that will make us all happy. (I say this as I'm trying to figure out how I'll get Alaina to school at 9:15, when I have a meeting scheduled for 9!) I'm not going to get all hung up in the Christmas running around . . and this year at the family thanksgiving, Andy's promised me some "me" time.

So here's to making things more simple . . .to stop all that "gotta run now" stuff.

Whirlwind of activity

The past almost week since I posted has been full of activity . . .

Cleaning house (UGH)
Packing up Andy and Allie for their camping trip (meant tons of laundry)
Movies with my mom (Elizabethtown) while Ian was at my sister's and Alaina was at home with my dad
Soccer Game (we tied, {sigh})
A trip to the ER
Sunday afternoon brownie meeting shortly (picture is Allie showing off her stuffed animal as part of their "try-it" badge)

Huge rain storm Monday
Dressing up in costumes for Dance class
Trick or Treating

Yep . . .you read that right, a trip to the ER. Alaina got her thumb closed in a heavy door at Super T and commenced throwing a huge fit that I had a hard time talking her out of. After talking to my sister about how to dx a broken thumb, we decided it was best to take her to the hospital and have them x-ray it. So sis met me at the hospital and took Ian . . . and we hung out at the ER. Shortest ER trip I've ever experienced. We were there about 1 hour! No broken thumb, thank God! Just painful.

Trick or Treating . . . it rained almost the whole day Monday, so I was glad it stopped in time for TorT! My Brother,sil and niece came by, so we could do the annual taking of the halloween pictures.

I'll have pictures posted as soon as blogspot stops causing me grief!