Pictures

Ok, better late than never. Today has been a bit hectic and I haven't gotten a chance to sit down and blog. Since I am awfully tired I am just going to pop a few pictures on here and head to bed.
This is my favorite one and will probably be our Christmas card this year.

Christmas Pictures On Black Friday

I took the girls to Sears yesterday to get their pictures taken for Christmas. I know, I know, what was I thinking....going to the mall on Black Friday. To tell you the truth, it really didn't cross my mind until much later and I just wanted to get them over with so I didn't want to reschedule.
We were actually supposed to get them taken on Wednesday. We had the whole day planned out. Jump in the van, Dan would meet us at the portrait studio, get the pictures done, Dan would take the younger two home and we would meet my friend Pam and her daughter Micayla and just hang out for awhile. Ah, the best laid plans.... My van didn't like this idea so it decided it wasn't going to start. Several hours later, I had a new battery and a working van but no pictures...bummer. So I called and rescheduled, not thinking about what day it was but just to go them as quickly as possible so they would be back in time to send out with our Christmas cards.
Of course I forgot until the next day that it would be a CRAZY idea to go to the mall on Black Friday. I decided to just go along with it and hope for the best. Sometimes I am such a blonde it scares me. The whole reason I had planned the pictures for Wednesday was the buy one sheet get one free coupon that only worked Monday - Thursday. Guess when I remembered that one....at the portrait studio...AFTER our pictures were finished. Talk about bummed. I am all about portrait coupons. I did have another one but I REALLY wanted to use the other one.
Anyhow, I will post some of the pictures tomorrow when I am not so sleepy. They came out pretty good (not biased at all) and I actually have the copyright release so I can do anything I want with them. I am pretty excited about that since it's the first time I've gotten that.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a terrific day! I am already stuffed and ready for a nap!

Updated: Rebecca just shared this song with me as I was getting her ready for bed. I just had to share it with everyone else and wish that I could have put it on my blog earlier. I was cracking up the first time she sang it for me.

Wordful Wednesday

Imagine your kids looking out the window and seeing this right next door. At the neighbors house...the ones with NO kids. They were having a birthday party...her 30th birthday party. They were nice enough to come over and invite our kids to jump around on it since they had it until 5pm. Rebecca and Jaquelyn had a blast even though it was pretty chilly out.




Our house is to the right but you can't see it.
This is our house behind Jaquelyn.

Not Me! Monday # 9

Here we go again. Time to unload our guilty conscience with all the things we didn't do this week. If you want to know what other folks haven't been doing, head over to MckMama's and start clicking away.

I DID NOT have this post finished and the stupid computer wouldn't let me save it or do anything so I lost the whole darn thing. I am not irritated now with the prospect of trying to remember what I said before.

I didn't skip last weeks Not Me! Monday because of Dan's surgery. When I did think about it my mind wasn't completely blank because I hadn't written anything down.

I did not forget to go grocery shopping on Thursday, the last day of the sale. If I had, I certainly wouldn't have remembered at 11pm, checked how late they were open until and run out to pick up the things on my list. (I DID save almost 2x what I spent...well worth it.)

If this had happened, I wouldn't have had to stay up until 4am finishing the work I didn't do because I was shopping.

I did take Teresa to the Cardiologist today to get checked out. (she's fine!) I did NOT try to hurry the doctor just a bit because we had to be back home by noon to pick up Rebecca.

I did not justify taking Rebecca and Teresa out for fast food (which we rarely have but love Wendy's) because the Cardiologist said Teresa needed to increase her salt intake. (never thought I would hear that coming from a doctor...eat more salt)

Taylor did make some scrumptious treats this weekend called "Reese's balls". They are sooooo good and taste better than the peanut butter cups. I have NOT been eating them like crazy because they are so addictive. That would be counterproductive to losing weight. They do not have like a million calories in each one....ok, maybe only 1/2 million.

A New Contest At MckMama's

Just a quick post to mention the latest goings on at MckMama's cool hangout. She is hosting a Small Fryday contest that sounds pretty cool. She also has some ideas for raising money for string of pearls. Anyone interested can just hop over and check it all out.

It's Report Card Time!

This week was the "honors chapel" at Jaquelyn's school. She made it on the "superior" honor roll this quarter for making straight A's. We are very proud of her. She has been struggling a bit in math and science so this is a big deal for her.

Taylor did well on her report card also. She received 4 A's and a B. She is working very hard to bring up that one B and she is getting pretty close.

Teresa....got grades that are all passing. And that's all I've got to say about that.

Wordless Wednesday

I Love My Van

I really like my van. My reliable, mostly, Dodge Grand Caravan. Tried and true I have stuck by it for almost 9 years and it has stuck by me. We have had our problems...a new engine at 107,000 miles....new transmission at 175,000 miles....multiple serpentine belts over the past 6 months trying to find one that won't fall off in the rain. But every relationship has it's problems and even with these problems, I love this van. We hit a big milestone today which I just had to share. I even pulled over on the side of the road and took a picture to remember this day by. I have been watching our odometer faithfully for the last few days and today it finally hit the big 200,000 miles. I don't know how much longer we will be keeping the van but I know I will always have fond memories of my van.

(of course stow & go seating will go a long way to ease my pain)

Surgery

My husband had surgery yesterday for a hernia. He is doing fine and recovering slowly. I am running on practically no sleep since he needs help for almost everything. Luckily we have older kids who are good helpers....most of the time. Of course we had to also have a thunderstorm last night which woke up Rebecca and she was fussing on and off for over 30 minutes. We have multiple things going on today which require me to drive the kids all over the place....and of course they are all supposed to be picked up/dropped off at the same time. Noon is going to be a difficult time here since I supposed to be in 4 places at once....everyone will end up being a bit early or a bit late I'm sure. Anyhow, just wanted to drop a quick update to explain the lack of posting for the next few days. TTFN.

Triple Digits

Updated: I just realized, after a good nights sleep, that what I MEANT to have for the title was Quadruple Digits! I guess that goes to show you what lack of sleep can do to a brain.

I glanced at my site meter today and noticed....I am only 2 visitors away from hitting 1000 visitors. Totally cool. I know that it is a bit off, since every so often it has a total brain fart and starts logging my visits but I don't care. The one at the bottom of my blog is WAY off because everytime I close this window, it resets the "blocking cookie". It is much farther off.
Anyhow, I just thought it was cool that it was getting close....nothing like MckMama's which is collecting visitors quicker than McDonalds and their "over a billion served".

My Husband Was On TV!

My husband is a part owner in a coffee shop. They recently opened their 4th shop here in our town. He was on TV on Veteran's Day promoting their company. I think it was pretty cool. Here is the link if anyone is interested.

http://www.abc2news.com/content/gmm/story.aspx?content_id=6dd5a030-c8f5-4269-99d4-c55dbf02a376

Wordless Wednesday

Not Me! Monday

I did not get a phone call at 5:45 am from one of the employees at my husband's coffee shop on Thursday because she didn't have a key and needed to get in. If that did happen, I certain wouldn't have gone and dropped it off in my pajama's because I didn't feel like getting dressed. That wasn't me. I would never go out of the house in my pajama's, especially if I knew I was going to see someone I had never even met. I am also not the person who picked her daughter up from the bowling alley at 11pm on Saturday in her pajama's.

I am not the person who just blogged about gas prices hitting $1.99. I am much more interesting than that. I have lots of things going on in my life to blog about. Who gets excited about the price of gas anyhow? Not me!

I am definitely not the woman who went to the dentist and had two cavities filled and had tears streaming down her face. That was absolutely not me! I am not a big coward when it comes to the dentist. I love getting shots and the noise of that drill. What fun!

I did not forget about BOTH Teresa's and Jaquelyn's girl scout meetings this week. On two seperate days! I always have everything written down and make sure we are early and not 20 minutes late.

I am not the woman whose teenaged daughter had a date this weekend. That would mean she is growing up. My children are all too young to date and will be for the next 20-40 years.

If you enjoyed these little bits of fun, be sure to head over to MckMama's and read everyone else's.

$1.99!!!!!!

Ok, I know this is soooooo lame but i couldn't help it. I bought gas yesterday for $1.99!!!!! Life is good, life is awesome. I am very easily impressed. My whole outlook can be changed by cheap gas prices. This particular gas station is not actually close to our house but I happen to be driving past it yesterday and conveniently needed gas. (desperately needed) In our town we are hovering around 2.03 and I am still hoping ours will drop but who knows.

A Trip To The Park

Here are a few pictures from my dad's visit last week. We picked up Jaquelyn from school a little early and headed over to the park. Rebecca and Jaquelyn had a blast.

Wordless Wednesday

Not Me! Monday Once Again.

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Ok, here we go again. My week was very busy so my not me's are a bit sparse. (since if I don't write them down, I forget them)

I did not neglect my blog this past week because my dad was here for his annual Halloween visit. I am great at multitasking and was able to post often while still spending lots of time with my dad.

My kids came running into the living room last week. "The bookcase is falling over!!" We have a wire rack stacked on top of a shelf with some of their books and toys on it. It was falling apart and I ran over to try to save it. 3 people(Taylor, Teresa & Mike my nephew) watched as I tried to carefully take the items off it. I did not lose my temper because I was trying so hard to do it all while everyone watched me. I DID NOT shove the entire thing onto the floor and watch it fall to pieces. I controlled myself and calmly asked for some help.


While we were at the Y on Sunday, swimming with my dad, we were playing Keep Away/Monkey in the Middle. I was in the middle and holding Rebecca because she wanted to help. I did not lift her up to catch the ball for me and let the ball hit her in the face(very soft ball, she wasn't hurt). But if that did happen, I totally wouldn't have burst out laughing. I would have felt horrible and immediately comforted her.

Here is my contribution to our favorite day. You can head over to MckMama's blog to read more about everyone's week. She is not participating this week since she just gave birth to beautiful Stellan as you can see by my side bar. (I am not totally tickled that I finally know how to link a website to a word)

Halloween

I know this is several days behind the times but this is the first chance I have gotten to sit down to the computer for awhile.
We had lots of fun on Halloween. Teresa is in the color guard at school and there was a football game on Friday so she wasn't even home all day. Taylor and my nephew Michael gave out candy and managed not to eat it all before giving it out to various children. Dan had to work at his local coffee shop that is opening (hopefully) this week. My dad and I took Rebecca and Jaquelyn trick or treating in a neighborhood close by.(since only 1 in 6 houses usually have lights on in our neighborhood)
As we are getting the younger girls ready to go, Rebecca decides she has no interest in being a ragdoll. Nothing like last minutes changes to keep things interesting. But really, this is actually ok with me since we have more costumes/dress up clothes in this house than Walmart. In the span of 10 minutes, she changed her mind at least 4 times, none of these choices were ones that I would have liked her to wear. Oh well, she finally makes up her mind that she wants to be a ballerina. I tried oh so hard to push the costume my mother gave her but she had her mind made up(finally!) So by this time, we are 45 minutes after the time we were going to leave and no costumes on yet. We finally got everyone ready and out the door. Trick or treating was a bit on the thin side this year it seemed to me. We went to the same neighborhood last year and it was jam packed. But the girls both got plenty of candy and had a blast so all is well. Here are my pictures to document the evening.

Pumpkin Carving

I know this is a little late, but we have been sooooo busy these past few days. My dad is here visiting for the weekend and we have been keeping busy doing activites with him. He comes to visit every year for Halloween and the girls and I really look forward to it.
We usually leave our pumpkin carving to do when he is here so we carved our pumkins on Thursday night. I think they came out very....interesting. Rebecca's is by far the cutest (in my opinion) but Jaquelyn and Teresa did theirs completely on their own, so they get credit for that. Taylor was busy making some treats for Teresa's last football game so she never got around to carving one.








Pumpkin Carving Fun.






Rebecca gets in on the action.

Teresa's Pumpkin



Jaquelyn's Creation




Rebecca's Princess Pumpkin