After Christmas

Phew! We're home. We got home late last night and we all slept in until almost 9:00 a.m.!! We were up late while we were at my in laws playing with our new Wii. That thing is addicting and WAY fun!

We never made it to the beach but we did get to spend time with Michelle, Chris, and Hayley. We went bowling! So fun! The girls got to see Rachel and Alicia which was a big deal for them. And I even fit in a shopping trip to the mall with my mom! We took Katie and my niece Michayla with us. We had a super good time!

We've decided we need one of the roof things to put luggage in. I'm still not sure how we fit everything in our van! We went up with a VERY full load and came home with an even fuller load! And just to test the true capacity of our MINI-van we stopped at ToysRUs on the way through Portland and the girls got MORE stuff with gift cards they got! Somehow everything fit!

My wonderful husband took down the Christmas tree today and put all the decorations away! I'm always more than ready to have my house back to normal as soon as Christmas is over but I dread the whole task! Ed just dives in and gets it done! The kiddos still have some things to put away but most of that stuff is pretty much taken care of too. YAY!

Ed is watching the Patriots/Giants game as we speak. Giants are down by three points with ten minutes left in the game. I'm not a football fan and Ed isn't a Patriots or Giants fan but the game is a biggie I guess so it's interesting to watch. Not interesting enough to keep me up any longer though. I'm off to bed! I'll see if I can get some pictures from Christmas on here real soon.

'Night.

Merry Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve! I wanted to try to post this picture of Allison and Rebecca with Santa. I had to scan it on our new 4 in 1 scanner, printer, copier, fax thingy. I still need to figure it out a bit but this picture came out all right!

Anyway, we are laying low today. I've been doing some packing for our trip to Maine. Packing always involves LOTS of laundry so that's primarily what's keeping me busy today. The girls already opened their Christmas Eve jammies. This year we threw in a family gift with the pj's. We got tickets to go see High School Musical: The Ice Tour. YAY! Everyone is looking forward to going. The show is in January. Should be a super fun time!

We will go to the Christmas Eve service at church tonight. Then home to scrub the kiddos clean, stuff them in their jammies, and then send them off to dreamland! I'm sure they'll be up early. I remember hardly being able to sleep Christmas Eve because of the excitement! My brother and I would get up WICKED early - it was still dark outside! My parents never seemed to mind. I think they were excited too. Of course, everything was ripped opened and being played with before the sun came up. And my parents were napping on the couch by mid morning! But Robby and I always had the best Christmases!

Merry Christmas!

This & That

I keep forgetting to post this funny little conversation Allison and I had.
Me: Allison, you need to brush your teeth now.
Allison: But Mom, I just ate a candy can so my bref doesn't stink!

There are no typos in there, that's just what she said. I will be so sad when she starts saying all her words properly! j

The girls are officially wound up due to the excitement of Christmas! I think now that school is out for vacation it all seems really close! We had our cookie party tonight which was a lot of fun. Rebecca invited a new friend from school who seems to be very sweet and she lives pretty close to us so maybe we'll be able to get the girls together for play dates! Anyway, there were parties at school today (junk food) and the party here (junk food) so they are riding on a sugar high at he moment! Better get them in bed before they crash. Crashing is never pretty! We're going to be monitoring the sugar intake carefully this weekend!

Lucy got a bath at Petco today. They used special Christmas shampoo so now my dog smells like a sugar cookie - yes, for real. It's actually more like a sugar cookie covered in dog smell. I guess it's a good smell. She's all shiny and soft. We had to bring one of Becky's friends home tonight and while we were gone Lucy ate Becky's gingerbread house. She must've been eyeing it all afternoon and then as soon as we were out of here she devoured it. Silly animal!

I finished my shopping today. YAY! I want to avoid the mall at all costs this weekend. It will be so crazy there! Ed LOVES to shop with the crazy people! I don't get it! I have to wrap now. As a matter of fact I think I will do some wrapping tonight!

Here's another nice Christmas link. It's the song Mary Did You Know which is one of my very favorite Christmas songs. Check it out.

A New Microwave

Good news...we have purchased a new microwave! We decided to go with an LG. We've had GE appliances forever and haven't had good luck so we're trying something new. LG gets good ratings and they seem to have something in every price bracket. I'm looking forward to having it soon!

I think I included this link last year but I though I'd post it again for anyone interested. It's a website where your kids can e-mail Santa! Check it out!

Today was a good mail day. We got ALL Christmas cards! I love good mail days. They don't happen very often, do they!?

Tomorrow is our cookie party. I want to bake the cookies ahead of time. I wonder when I will do that. Maybe they'll be coming out of the oven when the kiddos arrive. That may be what works!

Christmas time always forces me to get my kids toys organized. I like to donate some old toys to make room for the new ones. I'm planning a Wal*Mart trip later to get some canvas bins and a rolling storage cart for Allison's room. She has the most LITTLE things that need to constantly be sorted out. I have them all sorted and in various types of baskets and little bags but I need something a little different. Most of her toys are in her closet which is deep enough for a book shelf and some floor space where she likes to play. I have a shoe storage thing hanging on the door and another storage thingy for stuffed animals on the wall in there. I have the storage bins on the bookshelf. It's amazing what we've fit in there with room to spare! I think that's the advantage of keeping it organized! It can be time consuming but worth it! She LOVES to play in her room! I did Becky's room a month or so ago and I did the same sort of thing in her room with the canvas storage bins on the bookshelf in her closet. It definitely helps them to put things away in the right spot if the know where to put them!

Can you believe I've posted 11 times in December so far? I'm on some kind of roll! I also wanted to post this link. You've got to check it out. This little boy Logan is an amazing boy. He is wise beyond his years.

FIVE days until Christmas! We woke to a fresh coating of fluffy white snow. Perfect Christmas weather!

More Blah, Blah, Blah

The Biggest Loser season finale is on tonight. Kind of bitter sweet, you know. I can't wait to see how amazing the contestants all look now compared to the beginning of the season. But, I don't want the show to end! Fortunately, a new season is supposed to start in January! If you haven't watched before you MUST check it out!

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by what I must have accomplished by Friday. I say Friday because after that the girls will be home and it will be impossible to shop or wrap with them here. And since we had ANOTHER snow day yesterday, I lost valuable time! Allison is only in school three mornings a week and that's the time I use to get LOTS of stuff done! So, today I feel tired and a bit achy. I will feel better tomorrow after I've been to the mall (again!) and hopefully finished my shopping! I literally only have a couple more things to get. I only have about an hour to finish because Allison's class party is tomorrow and all the parents get to go. Deeeeeep breath.....

My beautiful Christmas tree is DEAD. Crispy dead. Brittle dead. Coming down very soon after Christmas dead!! For some reason it stopped drinking the water. Why does that happen? I guess we won't be putting our tree up so early next year. I think I say that every year.

We will be headed to Maine next week. I'm hoping it will be a bit of a relaxing trip. I want to go to the ocean. I don't think I've ever been to the beach in the winter but I'm sure it's as beautiful as ever. It'll be cold but worth it. Allison has no memory of the ocean. That makes me sad. I want her to love it like I do. To see the amazing beauty and power of the waves. To see that our God is so powerful that He can make wild ocean waves crash onto the shore and also make silent snowflakes float to the ground. I want her to see God's hand in ALL of creation. My girls each have such a unique way of processing the world around them. It blesses my heart when they point things out to me. I don't want them to ever take the beauty around them for granted.

The sun is bright today. There's even a bit of melting going on outside. That's good. We may get over 30 degrees this week. I can't believe how cold and snowy it has been already. This is how winter is SUPPOSED to be!

A quote just came to mind. I heard it on Clash of the Choirs last night. It will be my motto from now on! We're too Blessed to be Stressed!

Our Weekend in Pictures

I promised pictures of the party attire so here you go. I did not do my hair up. I knew it wouldn't stay so I opted for the curling iron instead. You can't really see too well in this picture. One of the girls took the picture of us.

Last night we drove into Albany to do some shopping and check out the Capitol City Holiday Lights. In Washington Park all of these light displays are set up and you drive through. It's all very festive. The snow really added to that Christmasy feel! Here are some of the displays...

Remember, we're in the middle of a major snow storm. So what does Ed decide to do? Head to Home Depot of course! He was going to get a spark plug for the snow blower which, incidentally isn't working any more. The new spark plug didn't work. So we'll just add the snow blower to the list of malfunctioning and not working household items! Anyway, Ed got stuck in the driveway. Our neighbor rescued him.

Then, I looked out the window when I heard the snow plow go by and saw him get stuck. Snow plows NEVER get stuck so it really was interesting. He tried to get himself unstuck but had no success so two of his snow plow buddies came to rescue him!

Now the girls and Ed are playing in the fluffy, blowing snow. We built a snow fort on Friday which is coming in handy today! It is definitely blocking some of the wind! I hope this weather improves drastically before tomorrow - we just CAN'T have another Monday snow day!

One more thing. We had MAJOR computer troubles yesterday! Long story short, we got some virus. Fortunately we caught it in time. Good grief, we don't need to add a computer to our growing list of broken down items!

P.S. It appears that Rebecca isn't wanting the Snuggle-Kins anymore. I'm not sure what changed her mind. We were at Toys R Us last night and she saw the poster for them. I pointed it out and she was totally uninterested. I said, "I thought you wanted one of those for Christmas." She shrugged her shoulders and said, "No, not really." So to all of you who were keeping your eyes peeled for a Snuggle-Kins, I thank you. But it doesn't look like Santa needs to bring one to our house after all.

Pictures and Stuff

Yesterday's winter storm is being labeled an 'appetizer' to the snow storm on the way for this weekend. We ended up with somewhere between 8 and 10 inches yesterday and AT LEAST 8 more coming Saturday night into Sunday. I love snow storms. Unfortunately, this weekend's storm is making our weekend party plans undoable. We're going to reschedule our cookie party. And I am supposed to go to a ladies Christmas party Sunday evening which I'm sure will also be cancelled but hopefully rescheduled. I guess that's the only real draw back to snow storms - they really are hazardous to travel in. I think we will be having a white Christmas! I don't remember the last time we had such a snowy December! YAY!
So here's a picture of the girls on the porch during the snow yesterday. I love how the snowflakes show up as big white spots on the picture.

And below is our little light up snowman. He kept getting buried. I think the pretty Christmas lights on our bushes will be buried in snow very soon!

I'm including a link to the Snuggle-Kins Panda that Becky is wanting from Santa. There are so many stuffed animals out there that they all kind of blur together! These are supposed to be life like little critters who coo and need to be fed. They're very cute! And obviously LOTS of people think so too since I'm not able to find them anywhere!

Here's a video clip from Becky's last b-ball game. I don't know if you'll be able to spot which one is her. I believe she's mostly on the right side of the screen and she's wearing an orange shirt and dark pants. Basketball is not an easy sport to videotape!!
One more thing. You know how I've labored over the right dress to wear tonight? How I spent lots of time shopping and getting prepared for this party? Well, my dear husband is out at the mall as we speak getting himself a new shirt and tie. The party is later tonight and he just now decided to shop. Is this a guy thing you think? I thought he was all set which is why I never even asked him about it. Go figure...

10 shopping days til Christmas! :)

Christmas Stress

I really thought I was doing pretty good this year with my shopping. I was finding what I was looking for. Still have a time to finish up last minute stuff. Well that feeling has come to a complete stop! Becky has asked Santa for a Snuggle Kins. I went to local stores looking for it today but didn't find it. No problem. I figured I'd just order it online. Apparently this little interactive stuffed animal is a pretty popular gift item this year and it is SOLD OUT everywhere on line. Everywhere except Amazon.com who's only charging 4 TIMES the retail price for it! The kicker is that I had one purchased the night Ed and I went out shopping but I wasn't sure Becky really wanted it so I returned it. I need to find out how badly the child is hoping for this thing. Santa never let me down and I don't think he's ever let one of my children down. I don't want this to be the first time!!

I definitely decided on the red dress for the party. I found some very cute black satin peep toe pumps with a little sparkly thingy on them. I'm going to try to do my hair up. Yes, up. It's long enough now, I think. It may be a bit tricky but I'm going to give it a shot. There will be pictures this weekend. Promise.

Today is our 15th wedding anniversary. Wow. 15 years is a long time. I feel so blessed to have married such a wonderful man. So here's a list of reasons why I'm glad Ed is my husband in no particular order.

10. He puts up with me

9. He supports me in whatever I need his support in

8. He's always been glad that I have stayed home with our children -even when the budget was tight!

7. He's a fantastic father!

6. He doesn't sit in front of the TV and watch sports all weekend even though he probably would like to.

5. He likes to shop almost as much as I do.

4. He has a wonderful family that I'm so thankful and blessed to be a part of.

3. He has this goofy little grin he does when he's trying to get away with something.

2. He's generous.

1. He loves me and tells me so, often.

Blah, Blah, Blah.

Here it is Tuesday and I can tell you that I still don't have a working microwave. As a matter of fact, we haven't even been to the store to look at appliances since last week. It's amazing how I am adapting to life without it. It really isn't any trouble. Maybe I can just not have one. Maybe I can just keep a cooler filled with ice and do away with the fridge too! And, hey, we have a grill on the deck. What do we need a stove for?! And while we're at it, Katie and Becky are old enough to do the dishes so I don't really need a dishwasher either! YAY! I just solved the whole appliance issue!!


We had another snow day yesterday. I brought the kids to the movies to see Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. It was EXCELLENT! Squeaky clean, fun, engaging, wholesome, the whole bit! Go see it - TWO THUMBS UP!


On Friday Ed and I are going to his work Christmas party. This time it's at the hotel in town. And the invitation said 'FORMAL' dress. YAY - you all know how I like formal parties! So I've been shopping for two weeks for a dress. I actually now have FOUR dresses upstairs in my closet. I'm trying to decide which one is best. I showed them to the Bible study ladies last night and I've narrowed it down to two. One of the dresses is red satin, sleeveless, just below the knee. It's pretty . The other is black with a little bit of sparkle on the waist. It's also sleeveless but has a full skirt and is a tad bit longer than the red. They are both pretty comfortable but the black one is more comfortable. I'm leaning toward the red. I still have to decide about shoes and my hair! At least this year my friend Betsy will be there. She's a HOOT! I'm sure we'll have fun with her and her husband!

Sunday we are having a cookie decorating party for the girls and their friends. Seems as though we've got a tradition going! Last year's party was FUN and the girls asked if they could do it again. Why not?! I just have to figure out when to bake the cookies for them to decorate!


Becky played her first basketball game of the season on Saturday. She did great!! I was so impressed. She's aggressive and confident! I LOVE watching her play! She seems to have a good grasp of the game concepts and has a real handle on what's going on! Good job Becky!!


I'm having a hard time finding the mint Hershey's Kisses for our favorite Christmas cookies! It seems as though they may not be making them anymore!!! Cookies in very cute tin buckets is what the girls are giving their teachers and I was planning to make the Magical Mint Kiss Cookies! What to do...What to do...


13- count 'em 13! - shopping days until Christmas!! HO! HO! HO!

The Joys of Shopping with Ed

Shopping for a new microwave is apparently going to be harder than I thought. The reasons are a bit complicated. If we are going to get stainless, (and by stainless I mean silver. There are titanium and ultra satin finishes as well as stainless steel) then remember we'll be slowly switching out our white appliances BUT we should pick out ALL the appliance when we buy the microwave so that they'll MATCH! Okay, so that's complicated enough. Then throw my husband into the mix. YIKES - shopping with that man is almost as fun as cleaning the bathroom! I love him to pieces but he's a difficult person to shop with. Let's just say he's VERY picky. He strolls down the aisles and picks the things he likes based solely on their appearance. When I stroll down the aisles I am not even looking at the appliances, I'm looking at PRICE TAGS. If I find a price I like THEN I decide if I like the thing I'm looking at. I'm not a chef extraordinaire, I only use my microwave to heat things up and cook veggies, and I don't drink water or get ice from the fridge door. BASIC appliances that LOOK good, that's all I want! SO, we went to FOUR stores last night when we should've been home getting our children in bed and we came home with NOTHIN' - not even an idea of what we are going to buy. Maybe by Christmas we'll have it figured out.

So enough of my whining. Allison went out to play yesterday and when I was dressing her in her warm woolies she asked if she could wear "ear muffins". So off she went to play in the snow with her fluffy "ear muffins." So cute.

The Joys of Home Ownership!

So. It's three weeks before Christmas. Of course an appliance would break! Fortunately it's just the microwave. Still, an unwanted expense! Our side by side refrigerator has been freezing things in the fridge side ever since we moved in. Nothing worse than going to get a glass of milk only to find it ROCK SOLID! Sometimes it's fine - most of the time it's not. So - another appliance on the brink of complete malfunction. I don't like the fridge. It's ugly, small, and doesn't work right. I like the microwave, at least I used to. It works just fine other than the fact that it is incapable of heating anything up. Minor glitch. So, guess what Ed and I are getting each other for Christmas!? A new space saver, over the stove, microwave oven!!! Woo Hoo! And possibly a new fridge! Woo Hoo Hoo!! The big question is, do we get stainless steel (which we both really want) or just go with the white so that they'll match the dishwasher and stove. We could sell the stove and dishwasher later and replace them but it could be awhile. Ahhh, the big decisions that plague me!

We are also trying to decide on a new vehicle. Our lease is almost due and we need to pick something out to replace it. We're leaning towards a Honda Pilot. It has 8 passenger seating which most SUV's don't offer. I LOVE my Honda Odyssey but we're trying to get something that will pull Ed's boat. More big decisions! So, when is the best time to find a deal on new cars? Some say the end of the year, some say the dead of winter. Hmmm...

About a week ago Ed was walking into the kitchen when he felt a drop of water land on him. He looked up to find the ceiling DRIPPING! Not good. Katie was upstairs in the shower. Apparently she didn't put the liner in the tub so water was pouring onto the floor and seeping through to the ceiling downstairs. Great. So, after mopping things up and making a gaping hole in the ceiling, things dried up. Ed has patched the mess and it is looking okay. Now he'll need to paint it. I'm telling you, the joys of home ownership!

On a lighter note, I'm going in to read a story to Becky's class tomorrow. I'm SO excited! I've decided to read Jan Brett's Twas the Night Before Christmas! You may remember how thrilled I was last year to find this book. The illustrations are GORGEOUS! The class is learning all about Massachusetts so I thought this one would fit nicely since the illustrations are based on scenes in nearby Stockbridge and Jan Brett has spent lots of time in this area. If I have time I'm also planning to read Emily by Michael Bedard with illustrations by Barbara Cooney. I LOVE Barbara Cooney's illustrations. She's also the author of fabulous books like Miss Rumphius and Eleanor. Anyway, Emily is about Emily Dickinson who just happens to be from Amherst, MA. I can't wait.

18 shopping days until Christmas!! YIKES!

Big Day

Today is a big day for me. I've just mailed out my first manuscript - EEEK! I was planning to hold onto it a bit longer because, well, just because. I got a letter from my instructor yesterday asking if I'd mailed it out yet. I want to be able to tell her I did, so, I did. I never knew there was so much involved in getting a manuscript ready to send out! I think I'm just so nervous about the whole thing because I want to do it right. I don't want to mess anything up. But, messing up is how we learn, right? I'll keep reminding myself about that! I'll let you know what happens. It could take several weeks...

Christmas Photo

I know you can't really see the Christmas tree but didn't this picture come out cute?! Lucy was none too happy about posing with her LIGHT up Santa hat on!

Ed and I went out to dinner and a little Christmas shopping last night. We ate at The Cheesecake Factory. Have you heard of it? In a word... YUM! The wait was an hour and 15 minutes but, oh so worth it. We shopped while we waited so the time was well spent. I had Ramano Parmesan Crusted Chicken which was SO good. Ed had a Cajun Chicken dish which he claims is the best meal out he's had in a LONG time. Then we shared a Chocolate Truffle Tower cake for dessert - can you say RICH?! We ended up bringing most of it home - it was HUGE! It was nice to have a kid free dinner, especially at such a yummy place with tons of atmosphere!

Looks like the kiddos may end up with a snow day tomorrow. The forecast is calling for snow and ice in these parts tonight and tomorrow. Fortunately everyone has boots that fit them so we should be all set to play outside!

A Little of This and A Little of That

There are only 24 days (and a wake up) until Christmas. Wow! When we woke up this morning it actually looked like winter. The ground is covered with a crisp layer of new snow. I think I may try for a nice Christmas picture of the girls outside today. The sun is shining so it's a bright and beautiful day. We'll see.

We put up the Christmas tree last weekend. It's GORGEOUS! I think it is probably my favorite real tree we've ever had! It's FAT and FULL. Hmmm...maybe the girls in front of the VERY FAT tree would be an even nicer picture!

Allison is enjoying the Christmas season as if it is the first one for her. Being so young it is brand new to her every year. I love that. Seeing things through the eyes of my sweet girls has been one of my very favorite parts of motherhood. Allison and I put lights on the bushes out front this week. She loved helping me, until she found a stick and some shiny rocks, then she got distracted and I was on my own. She was good company just the same. Today Ed, Becky, and Katie are going to hang icicle lights around the porch.

Last week I hosted the lady's Bible study group at our house. I just loved having this house filled up with people! We had 17 ladies here - what fun! We had been meeting at church but folks were commenting how we should take turns meeting at different houses thinking it would be warmer, cozier, etc. Then the group got kind of large and it didn't seem possible to fit anywhere but the church. We have a nice sized family room and I knew we could fit so I told them we could meet regularly at our house! They all thanked me a million times for being willing to meet here, but they don't seem to understand how much it meant to me to have them all here. I just love the people of our church and I'm so excited about getting to know the ladies in our group even better.

We went to see Enchanted last night. What an adorable movie! Becky is a HOOT to watch during a movie. She laughs, she crys, she grins - it's very cute. I think I missed some good parts because I was watching her reaction! We all thought the movie was fantastic and give it a definite TWO THUMBS UP!

I think I'd better get my vacuuming done. I wanted to post these pictures of the girls with their new cousin Chase from Thanksgiving. What a treat to see and hold him. He's just such a peanut and oh so cute! The girls and I kept fighting over who got to hold him next!!