Home

I have an obsession with houses. I love to look at other people's houses. Old, new, big, small it matters not. Driving through neighborhoods when it is dark and going by a house with the lights on and blinds open, love it. Not for any freaky voyeur reasons...but because I love to see how they have decorated...is it cozy, sterile, too modern, too outdated? Going to someones house that I have never been to...love it! Sometimes if insomnia hits at 2am, I lay in bed and think about how I would decorate a house I have been in.

I love all "home" magazines, not because I aspire to have the latest decor, but more because I like to gather ideas. I even love looking at houses for sale online like on Coldwell Banker or whatever...the still lived in houses, not the already vacant ones. And blogs...oh have mercy that is why I spend waaaaaayyy to many hours blogging....I get to see inside houses! Oh bliss.

Maybe I should join a 12 step program?

My dream career would be that of a realtor. They get to see houses for a living!

On Thursday hubs and I will own the 3rd house in our 14 years of marriage.

When we got married we lived in an apartment for the first almost 3 years. Hubs wanted a little piece of land so he could keep his horse there. We searched and searched to find one in our budget. Our budget was...small! Hubs was a police officer and we knew we didn't want to buy including my salary because our goal was for me to stay home after babies.

So we found a little fixer upper on an acre. I would show you a picture but that was before digital and I am too lazy to scan right now! It was a little 1700 sq. ft. house with a basement. It was really cute, all stone on the outside. When we bought it, it was horrible on the inside. In need of updating and rather dirty. But we could afford it, so we worked our fingers to the bone cleaning and doing all of the cosmetic updates ourselves. The only thing we hired out was getting new carpet installed.

We made do with what we had, hand me down furniture, my couch from college and a wealth of frugal decorating ideas from my beloved magazines! And it turned into a warm, inviting, cozy home.

We lived there for 7 years. By then the Marine was in the teenage years, blonde rascal was 5, the street we lived on was going down hill, the school district was not the best, we knew any further improvements on the house would not be recouped in a sale...so we decided to move.

Hubs had retired from the P.D. at that point and gotten his job in the auto resale field so finances were not quite as tight and we made a pretty good profit on the sale of our little stone house. We found our 2,400 sq. ft. house that was only 2 years old. We loved everything about it. Hubs loved that it was on 10 acres & had a roping arena. I appreciated that it was his "country" living but it was still a neighborhood, so I could borrow a cup of flour when needed!

That fact that it was relatively new was great. Everything is fresh and current...but I never could get that cozy feeling that I love. I have told hubs that while our house is nice, it just isn't me.

I miss something about our old small house. Was it because that was our "first" house as a married couple? Was it because that is the house we lived in when we brought blonde rascal home from the hospital? I am sure those both have a lot to do with it, but I think it was because it was lived in and quaint!

The plain truth is that I am an old house person. Granted wherever I live will always be "home" because the people I love live there with me. However, my preference would be to own an older house. It doesn't sound right when I say that I don't like our house because it is very nice and we are certainly blessed to have it...but it is just not me!

The way I see it now, after having owned both an older and a newer house, is that a new house with all the bells and whistles dictates how you will decorate. Whereas an old house that you have to paint and primp...takes on your own very unique thumbprint. Our current house with columns and arches and curved ceilings, trendy paint techniques, high ceilings... has led to a more stuffy feel. New homes have beauty & style and older homes have charm. Sign me up for charm.

(This is all MY opinion of course....love the house YOU are in for your own reasons!)

We would have stayed in our current house forever, and I was fine with that, had our life plan not changed a little!

So tomorrow we will own our 3rd house. A 2,000 sq. ft. house built in the early 80's. We have to give it some paint, love and TLC....but then it will be "us". My goal is to have the house be warm, cozy, a little quirky, charming and welcoming. I have no doubt that we will achieve that and I am very excited about it.

We have been to see it 4 or 5 times and every time we go, you know what it feels like? A vacation. Not a fancy 5 star resort (there is NOTHING fancy about it I can assure you!) but more like renting a cabin in the woods type vacation. A get up and watch the sun rise with a quilt and coffee on the porch type vacation. Or watch deer from the porch at dusk. BBQs on warm summer nights. Swimming, exploring, entertaining friends. And then best of all ending up back in the small cabin, snug as a bug, with my family.

I honestly can't wait for my old, small, quirky, charming house!

What about you? What do you love about your house? Are you an old or a new house person?

Uhh...ohhh. I am in trouble now

Small town living lesson to be learned #1.... everyone knows everything.

The very day last week that hubs got the commercial building permit for his car lot, a reporter from the newspaper, The Snyder Daily News, called him to ask a few questions.

Yesterday that story was on the front page of the esteemed Snyder Daily News. (Slow news day?)

There were "kin folk" (you know, relatives) calling my MIL asking if that was her son moving to Snyder. It seems hubs has a handful of distant relatives in Snyder.

Heaven help me. I am going to have to keep my antics and foolishness on the down low. Or else I'll be in the paper and my MIL will get phone calls. I am going to have to stay locked up in my sewing cottage instead of painting the town red.


On to a different subject....after 2 days of looking for the remote control for the tv in the living room, I am relieved to say we found it. In the artificial Christmas tree storage bag, that was already packed and ready to store for the year. Whew, that was a close call.

A special shout out to my girls, my girls that I adore more than life itself, who are acting morose like I will never see them again! I have told them me moving will be like nothing has changed. It is only a 1.5 hour drive to Lubbock and I will always have a place to stay, with MIL, if I need to spend the night....like on scrapbook night!

Remember that I am moving to a town of 10,000. There is no Target, no SteinMart, no Super WalMart (there is a plain WalMart...but I have my standards), no quilt shop. I will still be going to my dr. and dentist in Lubbock, going to my quilt clubs, book club and most of all heaven knows I WON'T be getting my hair cut in any small town beauty shop!!!! So you will still see me, lots of me! I lurve you girlies!

I bet when the big town scrapbook girls come to Quilty Chick's house for slumber parties that WILL make the newspaper! Yeehaw, can't wait! MIL will have to take her phone off the hook those weekends!

***Disclaimer***I don't totally mean to dis my new hometown(in case the newspaper has found my blog). I have done some shopping research during many of our trips to Snyder. There is a bitchin' cool antique-junk store. A huge ancient rambling building that goes on for ever and you wonder if the floor might cave in at any point. It is stuffed full of enough treasures to keep me wondering around in there for the next 20 years. On the square, yep the small town square, there is a kind of a cool little coffee shop (it's no Starbucks, but it will do), a scrapbook store, the token small town pricey gift shop (where all the local girls do their wedding registries) which honestly had really cool stuff and a small craft mall type shop. The only down side is I am not real sure on clothing stores....small town clothing stores will most likely be scary. I will have to drive to Lubbock to keep my Target wardrobe in tact.

"I'm going off the rails on a crazy train"

Sing it Ozzy. Hey, don’t judge...he makes me giggle, the old brain fried coot.

It’s a new year and my thoughts are all willie nillie. I need to be going in many directions all at once...but need some kind of a plan.

It’s a new year and should I be spouting resolutions I ask? Aw heck no. I don’t believe in a list of resolutions that get acted on for a month and then turn into a miserable failure. Who has time for that?

I do resolve to do whatever it is I need to do improve myself. No stringent rigid changes just a few areas I am working on improving. SUCH as....

1. Eat more fresh fruits & raw veggies, grains, etc... Admittedly too much processed food is going to kill us all, right?

2. Work on my running schedule. From about Thanksgiving on, through the great strep epidemic of 08 and on into the Christmas holidays my running was sporadic at best. I bought a new pair of bouncy Shox yesterday...and splurged a little on the Nike chip thing that goes in the shoe and corresponds with your ipod...it gives you your pace, mileage, calories, power songs that kick on when you start sucking wind, computer tracking of your workouts, competing against other Nike+ users all over the world. Way soooo cool. I am ready to resume some now high tech running! Those Apple folks are brilliant. Love them forever.

Even though I adore my early morning first thing runs, ("my runs", not to be confused with "the runs") if I don’t get up exactly as early as planned then my workout length is just not adequate. So I am going to start alternating those shorter run days, with longer run days happening after blonde rascal leaves for school. And then also try to change it up and run outside a day or two weather permitting. Varying your distance builds good lung capacity. I love me some good lungs.

3. Time management. Can I get an amen? The main thing is that I want from the time I pick up blonde rascal at school until he goes to bed to be family time, instead of a time where we squeeze in homework while I hurriedly do the things I did not finish earlier in the day! I feel like my “coffee-start the day-read a few blogs-loaf around" morning routine is taking WAY too much of my time, so I am going to limit that. Which will then allow me to accomplish more before blonde rascal gets home!

I gave this a trial run yesterday after school. I let blonde rascal play the Wii for 30 minutes, after a day at school he does need a little down time for crying out loud. Then he worked hard on homework, he cleaned his room, he played outside while I made dinner, he showered and we leisurely read 2 library books...all with time to spare. I laid in his bed after the books and we chatted & giggled.....unlike so many nights where it is past his bed time when he is finally getting into bed and I am cranky!

It was so much more enjoyable (and productive) this way. By the way we read this book which was adorable. I will be buying it for my already too large childrensbooksthatIadoreandwillnevergetridof collection.

The large time consuming event of 2009 will be us moving! That is my big news that has been lingering around my blog. Life changing events here. I didn't really want to waste my time blogging about it until it was 100% for sure. Now it is, so here goes....

We are moving to Snyder (technically about 5 miles outside the city limit in the middle of nowhere) which is 90 miles south of Lubbock where we now live. Hubs is jumping into self employment and starting a small retail used car lot. He has been in the dealers only wholesale auto auction business for the past 4 years, which he has excelled at tremendously. Car trading has always been in his blood and for our entire married life I have said he needed to be in the car business, even while he was a police officer.

So this is big, huge, life changing and crazy. Bad economy you ask? It has not affected used car sales much, at least not in our neck of the world. Everyone needs/wants a car and no one can buy new...you do the math.

All of that aside, the man I married is a hard worker (too hard most of the time!), he accepts nothing less than success, is driven like no other and is very resourceful. This has been brewing for a long time with much research and homework done by hubs. We have prayed and prayed for guidance and wisdom over this decision and all doors have been opened....so we are going forward with confidence!

We close on our house in Snyder next Thursday but will stay in Lubbock until school is out in May. So there is where all of my scatter brained chaotic thoughts are centering... Packing, cleaning out, organizing, what to do with the boxes of x-mas decorations still lingering...

The up side is that the new house has 2 huge ginormous barns just waiting for us to junk up!So that means come next Thursday I will be able to pack crap up and store it in the barns at the new house.

I would rather take a hot poker to the eye than deal with the moving process. Have my toenails ripped off one by one...

The saving grace obviously being that we do have a long time to move. So we can slowly pack it all up and then we will hire movers for the furniture.

On to more exciting things like the house!!! It is not new actually, built in 1984 or something. It is just a simple small ranch house...but I am in love.

More on the house tomorrow.....or more like for the next 6 months!! We will be doing some small renovations and cosmetic stuff to the house. Blog fodder galore. That, combined with the fact that Snyder’s population is 10,000 will have blog worthy nonsense FLOWing out of me like a river!

So if home improvement is not your cup of tea and you could potentially be bored by the foolishness that a big city girl moving to a small town can provide...then you better not stick around.

I will leave you with a hint of why I love our "new" old house...



This will be my quilting room/cottage/sweat shop/place where I will spend all my time...WOOHOO! The current owner is a hair stylist, I guess her clients drive out to the middle of nowhere and get their hair cut. Here is the inside as her little hair salon...
Dreamy. Yep it even has a bathroom. And look what it overlooks in the backyard...

...that would be the pool! We were with the Realtor while I was rapidly taking pictures, so my pictures are not so hot.

(I envision it like this....I will be sewing away in my sewing cottage probably sipping a margarita some cold ice tea, with the door open while gazing at the pool boy cleaning the pool watching blonde rascal and friends swim.)

When I get tired of the sewing cottage then there is the little sweet front porch where I will be spending lots of time.

It looks out over the front and driveway...
When I get tired of lounging and loafing on the front porch I will just move to the back porch...
...which overlooks the pool and barns and my little quilt cottage!

Hubs went and looked at the house before I did. He knew in a heartbeat that the cottage would get me and if that failed then the porches would do it. He was right, I was sold!

I am off now to make no less than 46 lists of all the tasks that need to get put into motion on this crazy train!

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!

Send in the reinforcements

I finished binding the quilt last night (this morning) at 12:30. Yah!

Blonde rascal woke me up at 3:00 am.

Blonde rascal woke me up again at 4:30 am.

Blonde rascal woke me up for good at 6:45 am.

Bless his heart. He was on the couch all day yesterday and did not make a peep. Far, very far from normal for him.

OTC meds. were not even scratching the surface of his symptoms and he had a low grade fever.

We were at the dr.'s office at 8:00 this morning.

102 fever and strep throat.

The dr. said since it had been a week since I had it, he didn't get it from me. But instead picked it up most likely at school Friday.

Hubs is considering staying at a hotel tonight. Chicken!

The little guy is breaking my heart...he looks so pathetic. Eyes glazed over, red nose and completely lethargic. He is curled up in our bed, fast asleep now. Full of antibiotics and Tylenol.

The bleach it out again, the washing machine is getting a workout and even though it is 40 degrees outside I have a window cracked a hair. Germs be gone!!!! I have a spiced pumpkin candle burning. Nothing about the smell of bleach says Merry Christmas.

Between all that and constant hand washing... please send hand cream. Very heavy duty thick hand cream!

And you might want to wash your hands after reading this. We seem to be highly contagious around here.

Happy things!

To offset me being a big whiny baby about being worn out yesterday, I thought I should post about some happy things today.

Right now I am happy for....

1. The fact that I am sending out New Year's cards instead of Christmas! Woo Hoo! I mean really, what else is there to do in January? (If you are wondering where your card is, there is your answer!)

2. Hot chocolate with a shot of Starbucks liqueur and a quick squirt whipped cream! What holiday stress? It brings great joy late in the evening when I have slowed down and am snuggled in my chair.

3. Head colds. Why would you say that Quilty Chick? Well I'll tell you. Blonde rascal has been showing signs of a cold and at about 6:30 this morning I heard him crying softly. I went into his room and he was distressed because his nose was so completely blocked he couldn't even blow it. I gave him some medicine and all he could do was just whimper. In the warm darkness of his room with the soft glow of his closet light being the only light (wards off monsters you know) he laid snuggled under blankets, and I tried to comfort him by patting his back and running my hand over his silky blond hair. At that moment my heart swelled up at the sight of his sweet sleepy face and I thought thank goodness for simple colds. He will be back to normal in a day or two and the cold will be a distant memory. Unlike some parents this Christmas who are trying to soothe their child who has a serious or terminal illness and at the same time soothe their own aching hearts.

4. Candy Cane Hershey Kisses. You. Have. No. Idea. Get a bag and you will consume half of it before you know what hit you.

5. Uggs. Hubs got me a pair of Uggs, that I unmercifully hinted about, for my birthday. I know they were really hot among the trendy beautiful people like 12 years ago, but I thought they were UGGly then. As is par for my fashion sense, I am catching the way tail end of the fad...but oh well. I am pretty sure I have worn them EVERY day since Dec. 8th and they are like wearing your freakin' slippers all day. I couldn't be happier about that. They claim to be all-season with the sheep fur fleece whatever adjusting to every temperature. I may very well wear them year round...forever.

6. A good mystery. I love to read mysteries, but I also enjoy the heck out of real life mysteries. Hubs was homicide detective for the final 4 of his 19 years as a police officer. I loved to hear how the crazy and bizarre crimes unfolded.

(A few hours have passed since I started this post, I stopped midway. Since blonde rascal was under the weather we did not go to church but I felt compelled to take the nutfreebutpotentiallycrosscontaminated cupcakes(from previous post) for the Sunday school party. Dadgum.)

(During this delivery trip I squeezed in 2 errands and picked up carry out from Pei Wei for lunch. That is definitely #7 on the happy list. Pei Wei. Dadgum.)

(Don't be confused I am still on #6.... lovin' me some mysteries.)

I must first preface this story by reminding you that we live in the country surrounded by miles of dirt roads. About 3 weeks a dead cow, or steer or whatever, appeared on the side of the road. Who knows how or why it got there? Anywhoo, every morning on the way to school we drive by it and out of natural curiosity look to check on the state of decomposition, which has disappointingly be pretty dull. It has... ummm... remained mostly intact.

Fast forward to this morning when I turned the other way on the dirt road (not going to pass the cow) and in about 1/2 a mile I came to a large rack-o-ribs in the road! Bones, with the meat pretty much picked clean. I will assume it is from the dead cow up the road, but these ribs were a mile from the carcass. The mystery is just what on earth drug a rack of cow ribs a mile down the road? My good friend Lori E. a.k.a. Jen A. is a wealth of.... ummm.... trivial information, well she informed me once that coyotes are fresh meat carnivores...so it wouldn't have been coyotes. What does that leave? Could a buzzard carry a rack-o-ribs that far? Who knows? There is a scary rib dragging beast on the loose!

Oh, and yes.

The answer is yes.

Yes I did stop the car and take a picture with my phone.
Oh, and you're welcome. I was afraid to get closer for a more detailed picture because my gag relflex was starting to get a little touchy.

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.

8 things

The uber cool Lori/Jen A. tagged me. I have much nonsense to blog about but was short on free time last week. To feel somewhat productive this morning, before the rush to get ready for church, I will spill out my 8 things...

8 Favorite TV shows.....sadly I honestly don't watch 8 tv shows. That is actually not the sad part, the sad part is that we pay $100 a month for 645,000 Dish channels!

1. HGTV That would be my most watched channel.
2. The Office
I TiVo and get hooked on the following "quality" reality shows...
3. Tori and Dean
4. The Real Housewives
5. 17 Kids and Counting
6. The Amazing Race
7. Rock of Love
8. Keeping up with the Kardashian's (sp?)

8 Favorite restaurants....
1. Chez Suzette
2. Double Nickel
3. Carinos
4. Pei Wei
5. Baker Brother's Deli
6. the cool Italian restaurant in NYC ,which I do not remember the name of, that had the most incredible pasta I have ever put in my mouth.
7. Chicago Pizza, while in Chicago. I think it was Uno's. God Bless America there is nothing better.
8. Orlandos

8 fun things that happened this week
1. Finished my Christmas Shopping
2. Book Club
3. Coffee while at book club
4. My quilt club Christmas party.
5. Good finds at Goodwill
6.Presents all wrapped and under tree
7. Drake & Josh Christmas was on!! Wooo hoo! (That was on blonde rascal's list)
8. Packing Christmas boxes for soldiers.

8 things I am looking forward to
1. Christmas holidays and seeing all the family.
2. Christmas holidays and r-e-l-a-x-i-n-g.
3. Girlz night Friday night.
4. Breakfast with the girlz tomorrow.
5. MY birthday tomorrow!!!!
6. My annual Dr. appt. being o-v-e-r on Tuesday.
7. People magazine in my mailbox
8. my long list of quilts to make.

8 things on my wish list

1. My family being safe and healthy
2. Buying some new clothes with birthday money.
3. A German Shepard
4. For hub's career to be fulfilling and profitable.
5. For my neighbor's trip to Russia this week, to adopt a sweet boy, to go 100% smoothly!
6. Me to trust wholeheartedly on my FAITH in God and His guidance as the new year brings lots of exciting changes for my family. (Changes to be announced soon!)
7. Laughter forever!
8. Blonde rascal always being a momma's boy.

I tag Mary, who has yet to respond to Lori tagging her so I am just going to bug her until she does!

Ahhhhhh.....gotta go hit the shower!!

The 8 year old said what?

This morning as we were all afluster with the last minute out the door school preparations, a classic one came out of blonde rascal's mouth.

He was telling me how he likes the salisbury steak from the school cafeteria. (Bleh...excuse me while I throw up a little in my mouth)

I said well ok I will find a recipe, and you can help me make it. He likes to cook.

I then went on about how he should be chef when he grows up. You know, open a fab restaurant (preferably in NYC cuz then hubs & I would have to move there to support his
dream) and have people travel the world over to devour his culinary masterpieces.

To which he replied...."Nah, I want to be a tattoo artist"

I threw my head back in uproarious laughter!

Hubs was sitting at the bar eating his breakfast, quietly shaking his head in disbelief.

I told blondie I would proudly be his first client.