Ahhh...it's over.

We had a great holiday...but don't you kind of love that it is all over for another 11 months?

I am glad the hoopla is over, but I am NOT ready for school to start back on Tuesday. Uggh. That means a schedule and I love NOT having a schedule.

We had a sweet, quiet Christmas day. It was just hubs, blonde rascal, MIL and I. MIL spent the night Christmas Eve so she could be present for the early morning Santa frenzy. We told blonde rascal there would be no getting out of bed until sun up Christmas morning. He made it to about 6:30 which was acceptable. It was an enjoyable relaxing day.

On the 26th pesky brother-in-law Mark & family got into town and we celebrated with them. On the 27th blonde rascal and I drove to Houston (10 hours for pete's sake) to celebrate with my family. It was like a never ending opening of gifts! Have mercy.

On the 29th we all drove to Galveston to stuff ourselves with some de-lish seafood and see how the island looked after hurricane Ike. While we were there my sweet Mom stumbled on a curb and fell. Thankfully it was nothing too serious. However her arm was in pain and she was a little panicked. She struggles with anxiety so the fall was frightening for her. EMS came and determined she did need medical attention for her arm...but the hospital in Galveston was still closed from hurricane damage. There were no bones sticking out or blood, thank goodness, but she was in pain and combined with her anxiety, EMS decided that instead of a 50 mile ambulance or car ride back to Houston that they would call the helicopter! No kidding!

After a lot of excitement with the helicopter and a long night in the ER, they discovered 2 cracked ribs and a fracture in her shoulder. Also her blood pressure and heart rate were elevated. They admitted her so they could try to figure out what was causing that to happen. They never found a cause but she had to stay in the hospital until Thursday when they could get it all regulated with medicine.

My brother was in town for the holidays and my sister lives in Houston, so I was glad we were all there to support my Dad and encourage my Mom. She is doing fine, thank goodness for pain meds!

I am a wet dish rag...after all the celebrating and then the worry. We got back from Houston last night and I totally vegged out last night...and today. We skipped church and just chilled. The house is a mess, decorations still up, car only partially unpacked, suitcase still full...but that will all be there tomorrow! And the Marine is in town until Weds. but most of his schedule involves his friends and not us!

Let's have a pictorial review of all the madness, shall we? (Feel free to stop reading now...you've been warned!)

Christmas Eve, cookies (or cupcakes as the case may be) for Santa...Blonde rascal took a little nip from the milk. Excuse the lighter fluid in the background, hubs does not believe in having any sort of struggle with lighting a fire in the fireplace!


Ooohhh I love the glow after Santa comes......not that I was still awake or anything.


Then there was lot of present hugging...

It did my heart good that the quilt that caused me lots of blood, sweat and tears got a thrilled look upon opening....
We all had sore "Wii arm" by the end of the day...That Wii boxing is way incredibly fun. I let out a lot of frustration! Good times.


My sweet hubs got me a 300mm lens for my baby love Canon Rebel! I could not be more happy! Cool close ups...
...and loving getting close ups from far away...

Or how about a close up of little snookum cakes all fresh from her pre-holiday bath and foo foo Christmas collar...
.... after rolling in the grass.



On to frolicking in the surf while in Galveston...
The devastation from hurricane Ike was mostly cleaned up but we did see lots of destroyed homes and random boats in parking lots. The weirdest part was that the sand was all gone from the beach....or I guess you could say the beach was gone.

Sand was being brought back in. That was cool to see the dump trucks and tractors working in the water.


On to the "bird" experience!

See you in the ER Mom!
She said the helicopter ride was scary. The best Christmas present is that she is OK! (By the way Mom & Dad, I will be hitting you up for that missed seafood dinner the next time I am home!)

So there it is, Christmas 2008 in all of its glory. Happy New Year friends!

WHO'S CRANKY?

When the Marine got out of boot camp, one of his favorite drill sgt. catch phrases to imitate was "who's confused?" He told us that the drill sgts. would bark out an order and then forcibly ask...WHO'S CONFUSED?

That makes me giggle, using it in my everyday pollyanna housewife life..."Dinner is ready! WHO'S CONFUSED?" Try it at your house.

Today my question is WHO'S CRANKY? Well, I am. Not so much cranky really, I am full of holiday cheer and joy...but I am over all the preparations/obligations. Done, over, I am through, closing up shop, thanks for asking.

I thought this week would be smooth sailing...but take 2 days out of your life, due to strep throat, the week before Christmas and you are sunk.

The house is a MESS. I did appropriately Lysol & bleach all potential strep contaminated areas & wash sheets. It is worth mentioning that I did also wash my pajamas which I may or may not have had on for 3 days straight. But other than that....A MESS.

Monday and Tuesday were a wash. So Weds. I geared up to make up for the previous 2 days. Which included quilt blonde rascal's quilt, make gift for teacher and treats for classmates, prepare for class party and throw in attempting to eventually cross everything off the mother of all pre-Christmas to-do lists.

Luckily on one of my favorite blogs came to the rescue for classmate treat ideas. Meg at Whatever gets all the credit for these...Unfortunately at this late state in the game WM was sold out of the more budget friendly simple treat bags so I was forced into buying these danged pricey Hallmark numbers. With that in mind I opted out of the candy cane and ribbon embellishment route like Meg did. Hers DO look so much cuter though! Go visit her blog, seriously. She totally keeps it all real, her photography is amazing and her house is family friendly wonderful and so charming!!!

Blonde rascal's teacher is the best he has ever had and we love her to pieces, so for her... a stay up half the night in order to finish in time for the party tote bag was the only way to go.
I had whipped one out last week for my neighbor's who are in Russia adopting a boy, so the motions were still fresh in my brain and luckily it is an easy pattern.(please excuse the ham in the background)

The class party went off without a hitch thanks to the rawkin' room mom (ahem) and on top of decorating gingerbread houses there was enough sugar to have all the wee children spazzing out for days.
So on Weds. & Thurs. between all that hoopla made cookies to send to the Marine. He doesn't get leave to come home until the 29th. So I sent him a package of a few small presents, snacks and of course cookies. I wanted him to have a little love on Christmas day.

I am done with the gift shopping, on a positive note, and all is wrapped & under the tree. That is a huge woo-hoo!

Sunday morning the kids will be having a birthday party for Jesus at Sunday school. The children's minister asked for volunteers to each make 2 dozen mini cupcakes each. I volunteered, no biggie because what's a little more baking at this point...

He sends an email asking that the cupcakes be peanut free, due to peanut allergies of course. Okiedokie. While at WM a few days back I spy their mini cupcakes in the bakery and upon further investigation of the package see that they are made in a nut free facility. Perfect. I planned on running by later in the week to pick them up. That was until the NEXT email from the children's minister asking that we do not buy bakery cupcakes due to potential cross contamination. And that specifically if we buy a mix that it be Pillsbury or something.

Good grief, I can't buy bakery, I can't use the mix in my pantry...this simple volunteer act is now stressing me out!! I bought the Pillsbury mix feeling really good about myself. Then I realize that the cookies, I previously mentioned making for the Marine, were peanut butter cup cookies. So now MY kitchen is cross contaminated for the love of pete!

I think I will send my 2 dozen cupcakes Sunday morning with an epi-pen (sp?) strapped to the Tupperware container. I will not be held responsible for a throat swelling up at sweet baby Jesus' birthday party for crying out loud! I thankfully don't have a child with a nut allergy and bless your heart if you do, I can't imagine how that must worry you senseless on a daily basis. But please if that is your child, bake him a sterile nut free cupcake and send it to Sunday school...just so I can sleep peacefully.

SO I finished quilting blonde rascal's quilt THIS morning. Now I have to attach the binding, which has to be done by hand...and now school is out meaning b.r. will be home ALL day and staying up late at night....leaving me when exactly to hand sew the binding on a gigantic quilt???

I may have to lock myself in my sewing room a few evenings. Darn the luck.



What's left now? Well, breakfast with Santa tomorrow morning at church and hub's office party tomorrow night....and then the calendar is clear. Blank. No writing anywhere on it at all next week. Amen.

While I love volunteering and being involved, but that tied in with Christmas preparation stress, shopping, strep throat and going 90 to nothing all wadded up in a crazy 2 week period is waaaayyy too much and I am so glad it is over. Now it is time to chill with my family and enjoy the season!

Speaking of fun, after school blonde rascal and I went to PetsMart to pick up dog/cat food. What was entertaining was that we took Missy the wonder weenie dog. Much to our amusement she, in no particular order... barked ferociously at some people, peed on aisle 6, took many, many toys off the shelves and made a valiant effort at getting into the cat in the adoption area. Good times at PetsMart.

And lastly a very special Merry Christmas to the post office employee who was cleaning the glass doors as I entered the post office today. She politely stopped cleaning & stepped aside so I could get in the door. Which is ALL she did while I schlepped in my large 20lb box to send to the Marine, balancing it in one arm while awkwardly reaching for the door with the other. Her hands were apparently too full to open the door...with her one bottle of Windex and all.

Little did she know I pressed my hands all over the clean glass as I exited. Hmmmph. Merry Christmas to you! (I was gifting her with job security, really)

What about you? Are you past the frenzy? I really hope so! It is time to have fun, right??

Holy Toledo!

How did that saying come about? Why Toledo?

Anyway, last week was a blur. Just like all of y'all are experiencing too, it was fast and furious. Every day held 3 or 4 obligations and in between those, errands/shopping were crammed in.

It didn't stop over the weekend either. Saturday a local hot rod car restorer/builder guy was having an open house at his new shop. Being that blonde rascal is a lover of all things car, we thought it would be fun to check it out.


Dear Santa, I have been a fairly good girl this year and would really like this...


After that B.R. had a birthday party to go to. After which we went out to eat. Then on to the Ranching Heritage Center where they do a candlelight walking tour of Christmas time in the 1800's.That was fun to see how simple life was back then. Simple...but they sure did work harder than we do.

Blonde rascal was pretty sure he did not ever want to attend school at a
one room school house!

I on the other hand was pretty sure that I did not want to give up my electric, computerized, high tech Pfaff sewing machine!

On to Sunday. Church, followed by the annual cookie exchange at my very hospitable friend Lorie's house. She does this every year and it is lots of fun! However due to my schedule I did NOT make cookies to exchange....I just couldn't fit it in. But I did go to the party for the festivities!

I did steal a few cookies to snack on. My friend sweet Mary makes the worlds best chocolate chip cookies. Seriously, she could go into business. The irony of it all is that Mary weighs 90lbs soaking wet. How do you make cookies that good and be tiny?? It is just not right. She has a metabolism like no other. I had to stand next to her in the cookie party photo. Not fair, compared to her I look like some kind of hearty Helga German woman or something. Mary...EAT more of your cookies!!!!

Stacee, I had her adorable daughter in the baby room when I worked at Parent's Day Out, made some terrifically tasty coco puff peanut butter numbers. Oh Lord have mercy....yum!
Go visit her blog. She is every bit as adorable as her daughter(who is no longer a baby!) AND she is a funny funny girl!!!

So I left the cookie party with a full tummy in time to race home and then be on our way to a concert that my sweet sister-in-law Sherri was in town, from TN, to perform in. The concert was fabulous, but the best part was getting to see Sherri if only for a few minutes.

It was at this point however that I guess my body gave out and decided to force me to slow down. I had a headache all day and then about halfway through the concert my throat started aching, all of a sudden. By the time we were driving home my head was splitting and my throat was in horrible shape.

I slept terribly Sunday night and immediately went to a clinic in the morning. 102 fever and strep throat...rewarded me with a full day of sleeping yesterday! In all my 38 years I have never had strep...and I hope I never do again. Antibiotics and Tylenol have me feeling like I will live today!

This week is much slower thank goodness. Monday was my day to stay home, which I obviously did, but my plan was to quilt blonde rascal's quilt. That did not happen, since I was in a coma in bed shivering with fever, but today will be the day. Tuesday is my day to help at school, but I emailed and explained that my germs would not be welcome at school.

Thurs. is blonde rascal's Christmas Party at school and that night we are going out to eat with hub's boss. Friday school gets out at 1:15 for the holidays....YEEE HAW!!! Saturday morning there is a Christmas breakfast for the kids at church and that evening is hub's office party. And THAT is it!!! We will be done with craziness and on to enjoying family and the holiday fun.

Now I have a quick public service announcement... In the midst of my crazy week I had the good ol' yearly exam. Dr. announced that since I am 2 short years away from 40 and because my grandmother had breast cancer that it would be wise to start my yearly mammograms. WHAT? So Friday I had a mammogram. I was a tad nervous...envisioning vise grips, a huge scary machine, steam powered metal monster. Ouch.

Piece of cake. The machine was far from scary. Lots of Plexiglas, instead of crushing metal slabs that my mind had envisioned. Nothing about it hurt. Sure, you know your boobs are being smashed, but it never even for a minute hurt.

So ladies don't be afraid of the boob squeeze and certainly don't let your unfounded fear keep you from having a mammogram. Can I get an amen for early detection?

Speaking of sweet sister-in-law Sherri, 2 years ago she was diagnosed early with breast cancer. She fought very hard and won. The cancer is gone, thank you Jesus! Get your mammogram done girls!!!

To celebrate her victory, guess what Sherri did a few months ago?
Can you guess???


Heck yeah!!! She strapped herself to a young hard body beefcake!!!! Oh, I mean she went sky diving. Now that is what I call living!!

I am now off to my sewing room with a tall glass of water and Tylenol in hand.

Sharing the love

It felt good to finally leave the house today after my self-imposed hermit like, p.j. clad Thanksgiving holiday! We went to church and then this afternoon my Marine Parent group packed up Christmas care packages to send to the soldiers.

Blonde rascal went with me and did a fantastic job packing boxes. We filled them with tons of items that our community so generously donated. Non-perishable food, snacks, Bibles, books, magazines, candy, DVD's, socks, toiletries, toys(decks of cards, whoopee cushions, water guns...) and handwritten cards.

Our Marine got orders to deploy to Iraq in May. With that in mind, I teared up a little while jamming those boxes full of love for our soldiers. Very soon that could be my Marine opening, with much delight, a care package from home. That could be my Marine spending Christmas in Iraq.

I prayed over each box I packed. I prayed that the package would bring joy to the soldier, that the soldier would know that he/she was loved & appreciated and most of all for his/her protection.

I was proud of blonde rascal for helping, he really had fun although he wanted desperately to dip into the candy supply!

I talked with him about the importance of helping others, which includes giving of your time just like he did today.
(Pictures taken with my phone...so excuse the poor quality!)


I don't know what the final count was....but I would guess about 300 boxes.
God bless our soldiers!

Tag, kindness and basking

My girl Martha at Elizabeth Hill Cottage tagged me with 7 random things. Go see her. She is a funny gal. Her sarcasm is classic, her family is cute, she shares house stalking with her readers and she is a lover of all things re-purposing/painting/decorating. In a nutshell, she rocks!

I am too lazy to go back and read my previous tags to avoid repeating myself...but you wouldn't remember anyway, right?

1. My toenails are always painted, have been since high school no doubt, which was longer ago than I choose to accept. However due to that fact they have become a little yellow. This winter I have decided to give them a break, my toes are sans polish until spring. This is killing me because I normally wear flip flops until it snows (and it hasn't even been really cold yet) but I refuse to have my nasty yellow toes seen in public. Did you need to know all that? Probably not. I will be brief from now on...

2. I can't stand to have dry lips or hands. I am a chap stick/hand lotion addict.

3. I never go to bed w/o washing my face and brushing/flossing. Never. I don't care how tired, how late, how sick...whatever. I can't rest with a make up face and yuck mouth. The only step I will occasionally skip if I am devastatingly tired is flossing.

4. I miss prank calling. I am so glad I grew up in the pre-caller id days. (Right Linda??)

5. The house next door to us when I was a kid was haunted or whatever you want to call it...the spirit world was wreaking havoc. After the original owner died people would buy the house and then move out quickly. One family that stayed the longest, we became good friends with. The day they moved out they came over and told us all about it. Good creepy stuff that to this day can give me the chills. I love a good scare...I mean as long as that stuff happens in a house other than mine.

6. A dirty, cluttered car interior is a pet peeve of mine.

7. I had a stalker in college. He would leave notes on my car telling me he saw me on campus and liked what I was wearing or how my hair looked. The fact that at a university of 20,000 people and he could pick me out on campus and then find my car was somewhat disturbing. The campus police caught him and made him come apologize to me face to face so I would know what he looked like. He was a weenie. I so could have taken him down.

I tag Jen A. aka Lori E. with 7 random things...because she is nothing if not random. And I think it has been 2 long weeks since she posted last. Shame.

Look what my sweet new friend Tricia Anne at Notes of Sincerity blessed me with!

She likes me, she really does!! She is a doll. Creative, kind and a city girl turned country girl like me! I could so sit on the front porch and drink coffee with her. We could compare notes on the precarious, dangerous, problematic and dubious situations that girls like ourselves can get into while facing life in the country. Unfortunately she is clearly more refined and graceful than I am so we would be discussing my fumbling country mishaps.

If you are reading this...then TAG! I heart your blog!

So Thanksgiving has come and gone. Our theme this year was chill. We basked in the chilled out environment. I have not left the house since Tuesday! heehehehehe! It was just hubs, blonde rascal and I. Don't misunderstand me, I love my family and cherish having family gatherings, but a quiet holiday this year was soothing.

We have stayed in jammies for most of our waking hours every day. Many of games of Sorry have been played, tossing the football around outside, laughing, watching movies...ahhh.

Hubs cooked some pork rump butt on the smoker all night for T-day lunch. I fixed a salad, green bean casserole and some rolls. DONE. Easy, not rushed and casual. It was so nice.

Turkey day morning we watched the Macy's parade and then the dog show. In the hound dog category, the Dachshund did not place. I had to console our little fraulein Missy...She felt it was a terrible injustice. Something about there being prejudice against her breed's German heritage and the fact that dogs with the long legs always win. I told her life was not fair.

Also to pass our time we pulled out the "box-o-pranks" that my pesky brother-in-law Mark & sweet sister-in-law Sherri gave blonde rascal for his birthday. (Actually I believe the story goes that my red rascal nephew chose this gift) Sure guys, every 8 year old boy needs to get his hands on itching powder. Funny, thanks.

Anyway we tried out the old "I found a severed finger in a box" prank.Pretty good huh?

Operation: BOO

A friend of blonde rascal's from school "boo'd" us Monday night. You know...put a treat on the front porch, ring the door bell and run.

We decided in turn to boo 2 of our neighbors who have kids that blonde rascal plays with. Our country neighborhood has quite a bit of room between houses so we had to make a trek.

The first house they opened the door quickly after b.r. knocked. It was dark and the driveway is long, so we made it into the shadow of darkness in the nick of time. Our identity was concealed.

We ran with our flashlights to the next house all the while we were having fits of muffled giggles at our trickiness. This is our next door neighbor so we were traipsing through the pastures between our houses, crawling through fences, stepping in Lord only knows what, while the horses I am sure wondered just what in the tarnation we were doing.

B.R. ran up onto their porch dropped the goodie bag, pounded on the door and ran. We stood for a minute in the darkness and they never opened the door. So B.R. ran back up there and pounded again. They started turning lights on so we scurried off back through the fences & horse poop, giggling with our flashlights.

The next door neighbor called a few minutes after we got back home....

QC: "Hello"
neighbor: "Was that you?"
QC: "I have no idea what you are talking about"

The fun news was that we really spooked them! After the first knock they looked out the front door window and didn't see anyone, so the second knock freaked them out! Hehehe har har har! Neighbor said to watch out though, what goes around comes around. Can't wait!

I was just downright giddy during the whole silly adventure. It brought back so many good memories of toilet papering houses, back in the day, running around all secret like in the dark with lots of laughing going on! I had to explain to B.R. what toilet papering a house was.

I guess I let the cat our of the bag with that one. That is ok because I will be driving when it comes time for a big group of the boys to go toilet papering!

Here we are prepared for our clandestine maneuver!


Tomorrow afternoon B.R.'s class is having scary story day. They get to wear their p.j.'s, bring flashlights and then the mom's can come and read scary stories in the dark. Of course I will be there in MY jammies (legitimately in my jammies) and I have already perused Barnes and Noble picking out a cute scary story.

We made treats this afternoon to take tomorrow to school. I saw this on a blog somewhere...sorry I don't remember who and therefore cannot give appropriate credit!

We rolled ice cream cone tops in orange candy melt stuff and then sprinkled them with Halloween sprinkles. When they were dry, we filled them with m&m's and then put them in clear goodie bags.

Cute! Well, I'll be honest...cheap and easy!!!

Tomorrow night we are off to church for our Fall Fest! I volunteered to work a shift at the spiderweb booth, it will be tolerable though because I fully intend on being on a sugar high just like the kids.

AND my parents will be in town this weekend to watch blonde rascal's big playoff game on Sunday. Go Tigers!

My stomach is starting already to get knotted up over the upcoming Texas Tech v. University of Texas game Saturday. Go Tech!! Those dang Longhorns get on my nerves just like the Aggies do.

Whew. Busy times...I am tired just typing all this!

Stopping by to say hi

I have no idea where last week went, it flew and this coming week is shaping up to be a duplicate.

So in this small reprieve between the weeks...hi!


I know some of you can't read so here is a picture to look at....
There is the blonde rascal all dressed up as a dirt bike racer dude. Yesterday afternoon was the fall festival at his school. He was attempting to dunk the poor varsity football player that was in the dunking tank.

We just got home from blonde rascal's last football game of the season. They won!! Undefeated for the season. Yeah baby. The playoffs are next weekend. Nail bitting fun at the football field!

I have some big news, actually 2 big pieces of news, that I will get around to sharing maybe this week. I will say right now that no, I am not pregnant!! My Mom and my silly girlfriends would immediately think that. I have no desire to be pregnant, thank you. If I want to hold a sweet baby I will go to Kristen's house and hold that adorable newborn Evyn!

Anyway.... I have big events coming up that, if nothing else will be 100% blog worthy! So you'll have to check back periodically to see if I have made you privy to the information. AND while you are here you might as well comment!

Baby it's cold outside!

We went to see Santa on Thursday after school. For 7 years now I have taken my camera and just snapped pictures while blonde rascal chatted with the jolly big guy. However this year there were "No camera" signs posted all over Santa's lair. So as I stood in line fuming over the racket that is Santa pictures I decided to just let him talk to Santa and no pictures. As we inched closer to Santa I was waging a battle in my mind, sensible vs. sentimental...."we don't need a silly picture....yes we do, this may very well be the last year the little guy believes in Santa." The sentimental part of me won! But seriously, look how cute he is (my son, not Santa)! That was worth $19.99 for 2 rinky dink 5x7's! Right?

I made the master grocery list last night and was at the Super Wal-Mart at 8:30 this morning. Smart move on my behalf, if I do say so myself, because it was not crowded, yet. I am set. I will not leave the house again until the 26th! Yeah! Yippee!I have to finish one gift today, make cookies for Santa, balance the check book (yikes) and pay all bills....then I am on easy street! No thinking, no lists, no errands... I am done. I am eating, drinking, lounging around, laughing and being merry until 2008!

It is 30 degrees, flurrying and the wind is ferocious with a bitter wind chill factor. We had firewood delivered yesterday, got "A Christmas Story" on pay-per-view last night. Of course we DVR'd it......and we are watching it again, per blonde rascal, this morning! Add to all of this Shabee Chick's homemade hot chocolate, dang folks go and get that recipe, it is really good....rich and creamy! That is how it is going down today....sugar both in baked and liquid form, fire in the fireplace and the ultimate Christmas movie of all time!

Need a last minute cheap, or it would sound better to say inexpensive, gift? Check these out...




Cute ornaments! So fun and easy! I got the idea off of some, no doubt brilliant and creative, person's blog but forgive me as I don't remember who it was in order to give credit. Glass ornaments, scrapbook paper & sticker letters and a little ribbon. Blamo~ quick, easy and cheap!!!

Whew.

I am done. Finito. Washing my hands of all shopping. Yesterday I went out with my final, revised, edited, re-edited and scratched through master list. I got it ALL. I am done! Even down to the stocking stuffers! Everyplace was crowded but since I knew exactly what I was getting and where, I pretty much zipped in and out. OK well, except at Circuit City with the pimply faced teenage holiday help who have no customer service skills and only begrudgingly have jobs because their parents made them! I do have two catalog orders that I am keeping my fingers crossed will arrive this week. Not to mention the Guitar Hero I ordered from WalMart online...and chose to have it shipped to the store, because it is free and I am cheap. Well it would be the nature of the beast that I will probably sweat that one out until Christmas Eve!!!

It was cold here Friday and we got a little dusting of snow Sat. morning. It is warming back up to the 60's this week. Saturday night we had dinner with two of hub's friends from high school and their wives. Those 3 boys were trouble makers of epic proportions back in the day and are still the best of friends. We had an uproariously good time at dinner and no doubt made way too much noise with our laughter at the quiet reserved restaurant we were at!

So today, today I am wrapping (in order to keep a curious blonde rascal out of trouble.) I am cleaning this house. Oh my heaven above it is a mess. Blonde rascal's room looks like the end of civilization as we know it! I am throwing away broken and/or missing piece toys, giving to Goodwill what the child no longer plays with and I bought a shelving unit to put in his closet. (Architects should hire moms as consultants before designing closets, yes?) Of course I must do the throwing away and donating before the little elf gets out of school! You know what I am saying!?!? Then I must finish my scrapbooky gifts AND I saw some cute and easy ornaments on a blog that I am going to make. I will show you later.

My neighbor is having some sort of book party tonight. Osbourne is the name of the company I think. Never heard of it. I am a sucker for children's books, but really need to lay off the check writing...for the rest of the year!!! Tomorrow night is book club, we are going out for Mexican food as a little Christmas celebration and drink margaritas....oops well I mean discuss our book! Thursday is blonde rascal's party at school. Finally that is it, the obligations are OVER! Then comes the reward of the crazy month, when you can relax with your family and enjoy the beauty of the season. Ahhhhhh.

Hello Christmas!

It's coming whether we are ready or not! I think I am on the downhill slope of the craziness...I hope. The weeks surrounding Thanksgiving were where all of the madness took place for me with parties and obligations. From here until Christmas the hustle and bustle is more evenly dispersed on the calendar so I am sort of breathing a sigh of relief!

We got back Tuesday from our trip to Dallas. It was such a quick trip but fun none the less. I was so glad to see my pesky brother-in-law Mark, my SIL and niece & nephew! I sure miss those turkeys! It was fun running around with Aunt Gay and MIL..."older ladies" can be entertaining you know! (They are both terribly guilty of "blurking" so maybe now as they gasp in disbelief that I called them old they will be prompted to LEAVE A COMMENT!!!) I had fun laughing both AT and WITH them!!!!!!

Yesterday I ordered the Christmas cards, put my thinking cap on and made a list ( yes pesky brother-in-law Mark there is something big and very, very expensive on the list for you...however, you should know, just being "on" the list does not insure that said item will in fact be purchased!) and now am feeling much better about the whole thing!

I also had a dentist appt. yesterday and then had to go and have my blood drawn. At my yearly exam my Dr. said my thyroid was enlarged, to which I told him no way I just need neck lipo! Anyway, I went and had a sonogram and thankfully there were no masses or growth on my thyroid. So off to run blood tests. I am a needle phobe of epic proportions so this is not my favorite thing to do. I have notoriously hidden and rolling veins! The blood drawer guy, who was very nice & funny, tied off one arm and could not find a vein. I told him I was a robot. So he tied off the other arm and found a vein, stuck it and then told me I was the bionic woman because I had no blood! At which point I start to feel really pukey because I know he was moving the needle around looking for blood. Ugh. However, it did not hurt, he did indeed finally find blood AND then he gave me a sucker. I did not think I had thyroid symptoms but after a little research I think I actually might. So who knows I might start taking the meds and feel like a new woman!!!! My big 3-0...opps I mean my big 3-7 is on Saturday and I attribute this new malady due to my rapid approach to 40! I will begin to fall apart no doubt! Well, I have always been so very healthy and so if thyroid problems is all that is wrong with me right now, then I will take it and continue to be so thankful for my health!

I took my machine quilting class last Thursday and I think I will be able to do it!!! I am going to make my first attempt on the quilt I made in my beginners class. Appropriate to do my first machine quilting on my newbie quilt I think. I am excited about it. I'll keep you posted on my progress but I won't show close ups of the finished project!!!

After my weekend in Dallas and then running around yesterday it is really time to get with the gameplan today. Namely, laundry. Yipee for me. Before I go I'll give you a little Christmas tour of our house.

Here is the tree. Placement in this house has always been a bit of a predicament for me. We have an open living room with not much wall space which usually means I have to move a chair out to make room for the tree. Which leads to another predicament because you need all the seating you can get at Christmas time. So this year we put the tree sort of between the living room and dining room. The final predicament is what to do with the presents as I know of a little puppy elf who may think it would be fun to spend her free time unwrapping!



This was our first fake tree. A little rustic looking Charlie Brown-ish tree. We did not have a lot of room in our previous house so this sweet little tree was perfect. I put it in the corner of the breakfast area. Notice the irritating grapes/vine/brick faux painting number sprouting out of the top of the tree. Ugh...must paint!


Yeah! Looky what I got! While in Dallas Macy's was having half off of their Christmas Spode. I have collected some random pieces through the years but did not have a complete set of the dishes. So sweet MIL bought me a 12 piece set for my birthday, and hubs (who was not with us but that did not matter!) happily, although unknowingly, bought me a set too! So now I am fixed up! I need to work on the "table scape" but just wanted to show a picture. I also bought those adorable Spode s & p shakers.



Next in the dining room is my Willow Tree nativity which I simply adore.



More nativity action on the end table.



Here is our shout out to Christmas in Texas!



This is blonde rascal's favorite way to count down the days!



Here is the fireplace. Those glowing red orbs are really cute red sparkly bandana print balls. The are not lighted so I have no explanation for the glowing phenomenon.



Some of our favorite Christmas books to snuggle up with and read. Along with the plate and cup ready to leave offerings for Santa!




More Texas fun with cowboy Santa stocking holders!



Here is my Dickens Village collection. We bought our first piece on our honeymoon and then continued that tradition for a few more years...but then you run out of display room! So I am happy with my little collection that fits perfectly in the bookshelf.

With blonde rascal, you always know where he has been by the trail of hot wheels. He does not wander far without a hot wheel or two. It seems that the blonde elf procured the step stool and worked his magic in my village! Upon closer inspection here is what I found....


It would appear that there is a Christmas tree buying frenzy in the village and people are loading up their cars!



Opps a little traffic mishap! Someone drove into a tree! Hmmmm, a little too much eggnog at the company party perhaps?



Finally we have the "Po-Po" pulling over a muscle car. Damn teenage drivers.


Nothing says Christmas like hot wheels in the Christmas village!