Merry Christmas!!

I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas. We spent Christmas eve with Mike's family, and there were quite a few people there this year I must say. We had dinner, visited and there were gifts all around. We do things a little different with his family because there are so many siblings, 8 most with spouses and kids, we do a rotation of who is giving to who. I think for the most part it does OK. Some are more generous than others and some have a very small memory. We stopped by, not really it is another county afterall, my parents house for a late snack of crab and beef wellington then off to home to open the customary Christmas eve gifts of new jammies, don't want pictures for posterity to reflect that one day last spring you touched up the paint in your pj's cuz you didn't think anyone would notice and now you are forever explaining that yellow spot.  Anyway, new jammies, egg nog or hot cocoa and the reading of Twas the Night Before Christmas. That was our Christmas eve, Oh, I did manage to put in 1/2 a days work also. Christmas was different for us since we were here in California and no longer in Illinois. I think it is clearly noticeable in the new jammies. And, yes, it is warm enough for them. We spent today with my family. There were gifts, snacks, dinner of prime rib and stuffed potatoes, cookies, candy, a nap and more visiting with family. Oh and I did work diligently at getting pictures of all who were there. So, this year the loot was intense and we will now spend the next week trying to find a place for the new waffle iron, cast iron roasting pan in RED!!, a new phone, clothes for all, and so much that I can no longer sit in the living room we just stroll past and appreciate the generosity of all who love us.  I truly hope you all were able to spend the day exactly the way you wanted. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!

A VERY LONG WEEKEND...

OK, so this was an exceptionally long weekend for us. We had 2, yes, count them, 2 thanksgiving dinners, black Friday shopping, a movie, a trip to the airport, and best of all, some much needed catching up with family.

First I must say, the pic has nothing to do with anything I said in the post, but I can never find a time to use it and it cracks me up. Since I haven't downloaded my weekend yet, here is Mike and I at the L.A. County fair, wishin the corn field was real. OK, so the weekend started with a trip to the local Mexican restaurant with my m.i.l and one of Mike's sisters. So, I hadn't been to that particular restaurant in years, it was ok, but just that, ok. We did have a good visit. We worked out some of the plans for the weekend and discussed current medical plans for a sick family member. I love having teenagers that give us the opportunity to do things like that. Thursday we spent the early part of the day resting, OK so I slept until 10. It was fabulous. It was the best present I have received in a while. Mike made 2 pies for his parents house and a green bean casserole and then a green bean casserole for my parents house and rolls, just plain white rolls. But, he makes excellent bread. Anyway, the "lunch", or 2 pm feed, was at my parents house. We visited for a while. It was nice to be here for thanksgiving, after all, it has been 11 years since we were here for thanksgiving. We then traveled over to the in-laws for the "dinner" feed, about 5ish. We had more turkey and all the rest that goes with it. But it was funny because Mike proceeded to get the mayo from the fridge and decided this was sandwich time and made himself some turkey sandwiches on homemade rolls. We also had tons of family to see especially Steve and Jennifer who were here visiting from Reno. It was so much fun to see them and the kids had a blast.

I then managed to get roped into Black Friday shopping. I don't get up early, I hate getting up early that is why I keep the hours I do. Anyway, I shopped with mom and lil sis and they bought lots and I bought some and that is about all I can say about that since I know I have little visitors periodically. Anyway, the many cousins played the afternoon away and then again on Saturday but Saturday we found this really cute scrapbook store near Ontario Mills. I will be going back. They had these really cute kits for little books and I would like to get a different one made for each of the girls. We also saw BOLT. I liked it. It is cute and it has some funny parts and if you have ever had a hamster or something you put in one of those hard clear balls, you will get a good laugh out of the hamster. He RoCkEd!!

Anyway, today we closed our weekend with church this morning and the afternoon with my parents. Everyone does their thanksgiving leftovers different. Mike's mom, homemade turkey and noodles, My mom, turkey enchiladas. I will take either any day of the year. This year the enchiladas closed out our weekend. Thanks mom you rock! Anyway, I am working on my list of 100 things I am thankful for and with a very ill family member and spending time with so much family this week it has certainly helped me prioritize my list. I hope however you spent your weekend you enjoyed it and spent it surrounded by those most important to you, except Mike, he had to work and those guys aren't the ones most important to him, that title is reserved for me. ;)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

I've spent the last couple of days thinking about this post and have decided that, in following the advice of a blog I periodically peek at, simple is best. So, Happy Thanksgiving. I have a friend who is trying to make a list of 365 things she is grateful for, I have decided to follow her lead and try, well my list is nowhere near 365 but it is growing. Aside from the basics, family, friends, house, weather, I have added, the lowering of the price of gas, clean matching socks, the sounds of my girls ENJOYING each others company, the rain washing away the charred smell from the brush fires. This just to name a few. Whether you spend your day serving in a soup kitchen, watching sports, playing with your family or stratagizing tomorrows shopping trip. I truly hope you have a day filled with all you could hope for. Enjoy and love to all! ME;)

Icky sick and finding thanks for it...

OK, so, I spent the first part of this week, depending on where you feel Sunday falls in your week, I am thinking that Sunday is the first day for this discussion. I spent Sunday keeping an eye on the hills around our house burn. This was a first for us and an event I will gladly pass on ever experiencing again. The fires started over a week ago and our neighborhood smells like something bad burned on the barbecue, everything is covered in a fine dust of soot and I have incurred a lovely respiratory infection from breathing chunky air. Gee, this wasn't one of my more favorite weeks now was it. Well, I spent Monday camping out at a local hospital while a family member went through surgery, things seem to have gone well. The road to recovery seems to be long and bumpy but they are up for it. Tuesday, I went to work and found out the main doors to the facility got stuck open on Saturday during the fires and now the entire facility smells like a toasted marshmallow, not the best place for someone with a compromised respiratory system. Then there was Wednesday, I started to really feel sick and Grace needed to be packed for the weekend band trip AND deliver her luggage to the school. They were allotted 1 carry on suitcase. Someone needs to explain what that means because I flew recently and some of the bags I saw would require an oversize fee for the airlines. She took her nifty backpack across Europe bag. I ended up staying home from work for the last 2 days, yesterday since I was home I did take Grace some chicken nuggets and snacks when she left on her band trip. Do you really think she will behave or should I worry more? So, that leaves us with tomorrow and that would be Saturday. I need to clean my house, get some groceries and visit with my sister in law. Then, there is the overwhelming glimpse into next week with a family visiting, working 3 days, a major holiday, a major shopping day and hopefully some down time resting. I hope you all have a great time preparing for the holiday and remember if it won't be remembered next year or in 5 years, don't stress over it. ;) I do want to say that I have spent many days this month thinking about what I am thankful for. My family, my kids, Mike, our friends, our furry kids, and really I just hope that all of you that read my blog know how much you are appreciated for your support and love.

Aargh!!!

Well, my plan was to post often. Then I realized that "often" is subjective, kinda. I wanted to make sure that I posted every few days but then work and life in general got in the way. There is also the issue that my camera is always in a different room and I don't want to go and retrieve it so I put off blogging since I don't want to go down the stairs that when I traverse them late at night I tend to fall 1/2 way down. So, no new blogging and no new pics. I promise that by Monday I will post new pics. There's some from Halloween, the dogs got a new pillow, the Homecoming dance, and the band competition, and the birthday party and just life in general. And besides the forefront of my thoughts lately haven't been good. You see we have had an attack of ants. Not an ant here and there but ants everywhere. For example, why are they in my underwear drawer. And, yes, I was going to put a certain persons name here who has a tendency to be ornery about things but will let it slide tonight, my underwear drawer is home to only the cleanest of undies. So, why do we have ants. And you know, they aren't in the pantry on the honey jar or the dog food dishes. Just in weird places. So for the record, I HATE ANTS!!! I also am not to fond of some of my coworkers but that is for a different day and time, like if and when I have a different job. But, I do want to say, I don't appreciate stupid, ignorant people that use the comment "you know I am joking, right" to try and hide behind their stupid ignorant comments. Nough Said, time for bed. g'night all. ;)

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE

People today is your opportunity to stand behind what you believe and voice your opinion. Get out there and vote. I know as I leave for work this morning I have given myself time to get to the polls and cast my vote. The opportunity to vote is part of what this country is based on, your freedom. So, let's go. It doesn't take long, ok, so the poll I am going to has a line and I may be a little late to work, but it is so worth it because if you don't vote you have no right to complain. So, having had my moment on my soapbox, I am off to vote. You better vote to or I will kick your butt!!!! Besides, Liza is sad that she missed her opportunity to vote by 1 year and 1 day. NOW GO VOTE!!

BOYS SUCK!!

OK, not all boys, just certain boys. The ones who hurt feelings of girls. So, someone got her feelings hurt today. I am sad. I was thinking on my way home from work today, why are boys mean? I know that most mommy's don't intentionally turn their sweet little cherubic darlings into little heart stomping creeps on purpose. But, how does this happen. I don't really know, I have girls, therefore, I can tell you all about tea parties, training bras and Barbie. But, I don't know much about boys. So, now that the little twerp has hurt someones feelings should I pinch him, run him over with a shopping cart? What, really, what..I don't know, I guess we will try to squelch it with new lip gloss and some chocolate malted crunch ice cream.

And why is it that I know all these people with a blog and they don't blog. Why go a month or two,or even, how long has it been for one, since April. Why start a blog if you aren't going to blog. I guess he succumbed to the blogging pressure but is a really boring person and has nothing to say. I don't know, I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks. Not because I didn't have anything to say but because I had the flu and kids with social activities that require parental attendance or at least a ride.

In the next couple of weeks we have Homecoming, Halloween dance, Band competitions and football games. I promise to post more often....now I just have to do something worth posting besides - get up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, go to bed, get up, go to work.........

Happy Fall