Oh, the Weather Outside is Frightful...

...But the fire is so delightful! Today was the coldest day we've had all year. It got down into the twenties, but felt as if it were in the teens. It snowed and we, like the good Texans we are, were enthralled by it. We see it so rarely, that you have to get excited about it. It's just the rule. So, we took pictures and bundled Will up to play in it. We made hot potato soup and built a fire. If I hadn't had to go to work today, it would have been the most perfect day ever :)

Here are a few of the photos we snapped on our wintery, blustery day:

The front of our house.

Our backyard.

Will in the backyard in front of the snow-covered lawn mower and leaf blower.

Will walking in the snow on the side of the house.

The beautiful roaring fire that Scott made.

Thankful

Thanksgiving has come and gone. It has always been one of my favorite holidays. I love the food--turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes (or yams), mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce...it's all so yummy. And how could I forget the pumpkin and pecan pie?

We had a great trip...it was much too short, but it was good. We enjoyed seeing family and it was nice to see a few family members that we hadn't seen in a long time. Good news is spreading...my youngest cousin is graduating high school this year and has chosen a university, another cousin is having a baby in the spring, and yet another is getting married in June. What blessings to be thankful for.

I love this time of year when we get to reflect on the blessings God has given us and spend time with those we love most. Somehow, life just seems better.

I have two trees up and one to go at my house. Then I have to put all the boxes away...ugh. That's the worst thing about decorating...finding something to do with the boxes for a month and then packing it all away. But we won't think about that for now. Bring on the season!

November 20th Update

Oh, goodness, I know it's been forever. Sorry! Life has just gotten quite busy. I was really busy at the shop this last week or so because our Christmas Open House was this past Sunday. We were busy getting the finishing touches completed and cleaning really well. We had a great turn-out; I think about 200 people ended up coming through.




We have all been slightly sick the past couple of weeks, too. I had a UTI (if you know what that means, great, if not, I'm not going to explain it here!), then the very next week, an ear infection. Not fun! Scott has tonsilitis and Will has been complaining of an earache (which means he points to his ear and says, "Hurt"). Scott took him to the doctor today and he wasn't really sick enough to give him antibiotics, but if it gets worse, she did give us a perscription.


Other events of note: my in-laws came through almost two weeks ago. We had a good visit. Will had lots of fun with them and quickly started calling them Papa and Granny/Grammy. It was sad when they left, he kept asking for them. Now, if we say anything that remotely sounds like the word "papa," Will begins repeating it and looking around. It's really very cute. They were able to stay with us for about 3 days or so, and it was really good to see them. We will see them again at Christmas-time.



Last Friday, Scott's uncle came through town. He drives a truck and sometimes comes through on I-20. Many times, it's in the middle of the night, but this time was right in time for dinner. It was good to see him again, too. He brought Will a flight jacket that is so adorable. I will have to post a picture of him in it soon.


This week, we'll be spending Thanksgiving with my parents and grandmother in San Antonio. We hope to leave early Wed. morning and make it there by the afternoon. We have tried to come up with lots of things with which to entertain Will, so hopefully it will be a very successful trip!


For, now, that is all the news I have. I leave you with a few pictures of the shop...Happy Thanksgiving!

Santa Claus--isn't he gorgeous? He is so huge!!

Scott and Will dropped me off at work on Sudany, so we got a couple of pictures of him with the trees. This one is my favorite.

The "Western" section. I just love all the stars and such. Aren't those cool cowboy boot stockings?

Mi Vida Loca

Well, I have no idea how November got here so fast. Wasn't it just Labor Day? Ahh! Christmas is almost here and I have yet to buy a single gift. Good grief. The holidays are just coming to fast for me this year. I have been so busy in the last week, yet I can't pinpoint what has made me so busy! It seems like there are never enough hours in the day to accomplish all the things I want to get done. I know you all feel the same way, too!

Actually, I guess you could say that we have bought a gift. For ourselves. Scott decided that this year, he was going to combine our presents to each other and his birthday present into one present and get this: Yes, Friends, it's the U2 special edition iPod. I do have pictures of the actual iPod, but they aren't very good, so we'll settle with the box. It's a neat little gadget. We have already downloaded lots of pictures, music, videos, and backed up our computer hard-drive. It's amazing what these little things can do.

On Thursday, my in-laws will arrive. It will be nice to see them and I know Will will be so excited to have people constantly giving him attention. We are also having a garage sale this weekend. It is long overdue. We should have done it months ago! But here we are, just now getting around to it. It was one of those things where I just said, "Okay, we're doing it this weekend. It's now or never!" I have had a box of garage sale stuff in the corner of my living room for waaaaaaaaayyyy too long. So, be praying for good weather this weekend!

Harmony, Abby and I went to Midland last Friday night. We went out to eat at Fazoli's and then saw The Prestige. Whoa, that movie was stinkin' awesome. It kept us talking the whole way back to Big Spring (about a 40 mile drive). If you like mysteries, somewhat super-natural type stuff, go see this movie!

That's all for now. On a patriotic note, I hope everyone voted today! It's our right and we should take advantage of being able to elect our own government leaders. Do you think Kinky will win?

Sweet Treats for Halloween

The sweetest treat of all~~

Will the Puppy!!

More sweet treats...

Sadie the Snow Princess and Colton as Dracula

Malaki the Cowboy

Raylee the Ladybug

Ryland the Pirate

Pumpkin Carving Fun

For some reason, I couldn't post these with my last post. Oh well! Here they are...

Scott carving his first pumpkin!

Me, doing the finishing touches

Fin...c'est magnifique!

All lit up!

Bunko, etc.

Last night I had Bunko at our house. I had fun planning it and getting my house ready. I didn't really enjoy cleaning it, but I enjoyed it once it was clean. I even took pictures of it today while it is still clean and no one has messed it up yet! I wanted pictures to remind me of what my house looks like when it is all pretty and clean :)

Since it's October, I did a very "fall" themed Bunko party. All the prizes were "fall-ish" and I got out all my Fall/Halloween decor. I also found some pretty paper plates and napkins. It turned out nice. I made baked potatoes and had pumpkin pie for dinner. When I went shopping for my potaotes, condiments, pie, etc. on Tuesday night, I decided it would be fun to get a great big pumpkin and carve it into a jack-o-lantern to sit on the front porch. So, when I got home at 11:30 from the store on Tuesday night, Scott and I carved "him" up. Scott had never carved a pumpkin before (or at least he doesn't remember doing it), so it was a fun experience. I hadn't carved one it a very long time either. I had forgotten how potent and slimy pumpkin guts are. We also separated out the seeds from the pulp and roasted the seeds. I had never done that so I had to look up the instructions on the Internet. It was really easy (I knew it would be) and they taste really good!

Today I subbed at the high school. I am so tired! I am just glad all that big stuff is over and I don't have to worry about my house being really clean anymore :) However, my in-laws are stopping through in a couple of weeks, so if we can keep it clean for a little longer...

As for other news, not much else is happening. So far, working at the shop again has been going well. I have had to refresh on several procedures, but it has come back to me fairly easily. The main concern right now is getting Christmas stuff out and looking beautiful. That is a long process which we will probably be working on until the day before our Christmas Open House on November 19th! Decorating for Christmas in the store gets me in the mood to drag all my Christmas stuff out and decorate my house. I want to turn on the Christmas tunes, drink hot chocolate, and watch Home Alone and It's a Wonderful Life in front of the fire. But, alas, today it is in the high seventies at least and it's not even Halloween! Christmas will be upon us though...soon enough :)

Week's End

Well, it's the end of the week. I am tired, but I survived going back to work! My legs are pretty sore from being on my feet a lot of the day...I guess I should try wearing support hose or something. Man, that makes me sound old :) I crashed when I got home today on the couch for a couple of hours. I fell asleep watching TV and woke up to it being almost dark outside and Scott was gone to a volleyball game. I didn't even hear him leave. I guess it will take me a while to get used to having 2 jobs :)

Anyway, today I subbed at BSHS for the lady who replaced me. So, today was like old times. I got to catch up with the teacher I used to work with, which was nice, and I got two lessons of my Bible study completed and several chapters read in my novel. Quite productive...ha! It was nice though...some "alone" time and I got paid for it.

Today is also my good friend Harmony's birthday. I won't say how old she is, she might not appreciate that. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you, Harmony!!!

This weekend I will be doing A LOT of cleaning for my Bunko party on Tuesday night. Other than that, I don't have much of an agenda. Next week will be a pretty busy week. Other than my Bunko party, I will be subbing on Wednesday and Friday and working at Dakota's in the afternoons every other day of the week. I will also probably have to work on the Ladies Newsletter for November quite a bit. Ahh! Why does everything seem to pile up at once? That's just the way it goes, I guess. I hope you all have an wonderful, blessed weekend...Until next time...

Back in the Saddle

The working world has beckoned me back, folks. That's right, I am going back to work part-time starting Wednesday. I am going back to the flower shop where I worked for two years (2002-2004). My former boss (and current, I guess) and I remained friends since I left and she called me and asked if I would be interested in coming back to work some. She is hiring and wanted to see if I would be interested so she could hire around my schedule if I wanted to come back. I really loved working at the shop and only left in 2004 to get benefits. Scott and I really thought about this a lot and decided the extra money would be nice.

So, I am going to work Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons and Wednesdays from 10:00 til 2:30 while Will is at Children's Day Out. I think I will enjoy it. I like having something to do (not that I don't have enough to do at home!). Christmas is right around the corner and it's time to start decking the shop out in lights, trees, and garland, and that is always fun :) Please pray for my new venture and that it works out for our family.

More from the Fabulous Fifties

Here are some more pictures of our party from Harmony's camera...

The Soda Shop

The Stage

The Doo-Wop Babies

Singing "The Yellow Rose of Texas" while wearing our cowboy hats.

"Elvis"

Me, Abby, and Harmony

Fabulous Fifties

Today was the big Fabulous Fifties party for the ladies at church. It was so nifty and we had a rockin' good time! Here are a few pictures that I got before the batteries in my camera gave out. Hopefully I will get more from friends sometime soon.

The finished product...my "poodle" skirt!

My full outfit

This is an real outfit from the Fifties...look at those shoes! Vickie was one of the few who opted for the "fancy" look of the Fifties. When she entered, you would have thought she was Marilyn Monroe...everyone wanted her picture!

An authentic autographed picture of Elvis Presley

Shirley, Trissa, Me, and Harmony in our poodle skirts. There were about 15 total people that wore poodle skirts.

Weirdest Thing I've Heard All Week

Yesterday I was catching up on some ironing while Will was at Children's Day Out. I set up my ironing board in the den and turned on the TV for background noise. The Rachel Ray Show was on and she was introducing a guest/story about a woman who was about to turn 50. Well, that in itself isn't too fascinating; women turn 50 every day. But this woman was different. She had never been married, nor even engaged in her life. She was very satisfied with who she was as a person, though, and had decided earlier in life that if she wasn't married by the time she turned 50, she was going to marry herself. Excuse me? What?? Yes, you heard me correctly. The woman is going to marry herself in a "personal commitment ceremony." She is having a full blown wedding complete with the white dress, bridesmaids, reception, et al, except one very obvious factor: a groom.

Okay, I understand that this woman is proud of herself and secure in her own femininity and choices for herself, but is this not creepy weird to anyone else? Why not just have a huge 50th birthday party and go all out in that? No, she wants to commit to herself that she is going to take care of herself in sickness and in health, for richer for poorer, in good times and bad, etc.

This is very strange to me. What do y'all think??

What's Going On...

I finally have some time to sit and write an update of what's happened in the past week. As I said last week, I got lots of things accomplished before my mom got here on Friday. Her plane came in at 10:30 on Friday morning and we picked her up from the airport. While in Midland, we went to Home Depot to get some new hardware for our kitchen cabinets and drawers. Since our house is so old, our cabinets are very outdated...I'm thinking at least 70's, so we decided that it is time to update it a little. When we got home, Scott went to pick up a piano from one of our member's homes. They called him a couple of weeks ago and asked if he would like to take it off their hands and of course he said yes. So he and a former youth group member went to pick it up. The piano has taken up residence in our "formal" living room. Yea! That room has always been a big temptation to Will, who loves to go in there and bang around on the glass chess set on the glass coffee table. Now, he has even more reason to want to venture in there...a whole big instrument that makes cool noises when you touch it! Thus said, we keep that room closed off almost all the time.

The rest of the time Mom was in town was mostly spent watching the second season of Lost. My dad got hooked on it last year and got the first season on DVD for Christmas. He got us hooked on it, too. A couple of weeks ago when the second season came out on DVD, they bought it, so I asked her to bring it with her if she could. We ended up watching the entire season in three days! That makes it sound like all we did was watch TV, but we really didn't. I promise. But, it was so good. That show is so crazy. I just can't believe all the questions they keep posing and the lack of answers. My big question is, how are they going to tie all this stuff together/how will it all resolve?? Well, Scott and I are completely caught up now because we watched the first show of this season on the Internet. So, yea, we know everything that the rest of the world knows about what's happened thus far.

On Monday, we ate lunch/dinner at On the Border for Mom's birthday. We shared a chocolate ice cream pie that was very yummy. After we dropped Mom off, we got Will's Halloween costume from Target. He will be going as a puppy this year and he looks so very cute. I also got some face paint because I am going to attempt to paint his face (we'll see how that goes over!). I will definitely post pictures of him on Halloween when he is all done up.

Yesterday I got my hair dyed. Again. But this was a redo, since the last time didn't work. So now my hair really is brown again. Whew. I'm so glad to get past all the dyeing...now when my hair grows out, no one will be the wiser :) Last night, I went to Harmony's and we worked on the appliques for our poodle skirts. After we got them all cut out, we started pinning them on and thinking about how to sew them. I decided to cop out and try fabric glue. I am still waiting for everything to dry to see if it actually worked. I hope it did. That's a lot of hand-sewing if it didn't work! We still have to attach sequins some how, so we'll see...but it seems to be going well so far. The big "Fabulous Fifties" party is this weekend; I will be sure to take pictures of everyone all dressed up. Fun!

That brings us to today...have a great rest of the week!

Busy Mama

I have accomplished so much today. I won't bore you with all the details, because that's what I normally do. So, just know that I have been one busy mama on my "day off" (Wednesdays are the days that Will goes to Children's Day Out). My own mama is coming to visit us in just a little over 24 hours, so I am trying to get my house half-way decent.

Okay, I will tell you of my biggest accomplishment today...I cleaned my closet. I didn't just pick through clothes to throw in the donation pile; I mean I actually cleaned it. Vacuumed, etc. You can actually see the carpet now! It's truly amazing.

My other "fun" adventure of the day was to take both of our dogs to the vet. Yes, at the same time. It was interesting to say the least and we did survive :) Cracker is slightly overweight, but we knew that. So, he is going on a diet. I'm sure he's so thrilled. We are also going to have Frank neutered soon, I think. I am sure he is even more thrilled than Cracker at that prospect!

Yea for productive days. I hope yours was great and that you have a wonderful rest of the week. Now, I'm off to relax and watch Star Trek. Live long and prosper, my friends.

Sew Fun

Here are pictures of Harmony and I sewing our poodle skirts...and their cat attacking me as I am trying to cut the fabric :)

Wow, What A Weekend

It's been full and busy, that's for sure...

On Friday morning, I finally interviewed that sweet little old lady from our church and her daughter for our Ladies' Newsletter. I came home and took over Will duty from Scott for a while and as soon as he went down for his nap, I got started writing the article. I finished it and sent it to my "co-editor" by 12:30. At four, we went to the BSHS homecoming parade (to see pictures click here). As soon as it was over, we went and ate dinner at one of our favorite barbecue places--which is now smoke-free thanks to the new city ordinance (yea!). We went home for a quick rest before the big game. Since Will hadn't been sleeping well at night (or for his naps) we only stayed through half-time. Even though they eventually lost, it was fun.

On Saturday morning we slept as much as possible. I got up with Will from 9:00 to 10:30 and then went back to bed after putting him down for his "nap." He decided to start making noise about 15 minutes into it, so Scott got up and played with him until 12:00 when he woke me up to eat breakfast/lunch :) We spent most of the afternoon trying to get Will to take a nap, which he fervently refused to do. During one of his screaming bouts, I finally saw the two little culprits...two little teeth (pre-molars) were peeking through his poor little gums. We had suspected this, but it was nice to have confirmation and a reason to all the sleepless nights and screaming fits he's been having the past few days.

At 4:15, he finally went down for a nap. We were supposed to go to the Malletts' at 6:30 for supper, but we didn't dare wake him up. Thus, we didn't arrive until a little after 7:00. When we got there, we still had to finish cooking supper and eat it. The main reason for going over was so that Harmony and I could work on our poodle skirts for our the Ladies' Fabulous Fifties party in a couple of weeks. Everyone is supposed to "dress-up," but we figured we'd have a little fun since we are singing in the Doo-Wop group. After a little sewing-machine/brain malfunction, we began the process of actually putting the skirts together. By 10:30, we had the skirts rudimentarily sewn together. Leland got some comical pictures of their cat trying to help me cut the pattern...hopefully they'll send them to me so I can share.

Today, we went to the St. Lawrence Fall Festival after church. St. Lawrence is a little "German" community about 30 minutes south of Big Spring. Every year they have a sausage festival at the Catholic church (really the only thing out there). It was a pretty fun excursion. The sausage and brisket were delicious. There was so much food on my plate that it didn't even really look like I'd eaten anything when I finished. They also had a little petting zoo, so we just stood on the outside and let Will see the pigs, sheep, goats, and llama. Yes, they had a llama.

Before evening service, I had singing practice for our 50's party; then, after church, our preacher and his wife had a bunch of people over for supper and fellowship. It has been a very good weekend, but a long one. I'm looking forward to sleeping (I hope!) tonight and resting tomorrow :)

Weekend Update

What a weekend. That's all I can think to say.

Will was better on Saturday morning, so we went ahead and went to a youth rally in Midland. I must confess that the reason I wanted to go to the youth rally wasn't really to do the youth rally type of thing, but to see one of my best friends, Kara. So, she and I skipped out and took all of our kids (she has two) to the mall and Target. We had a good time and the kids did really well. We wanted to get back to the rally in time to listen to Legacy (4 guys that used to be in Best Friends) perform. They said they would start at 3:00, but they really started at about 2:40. So we missed the first couple of songs. At four, Scott and I decided we needed to head home and put Will to bed since he refused to nap all day (none of our youth group kids were able to come, so it was just us).

When we got home, we tried to get Will to eat some dinner but he refused. He was so tired, we went ahead and put him in his pj's and put him down. We were pretty sure he would sleep all night. Scott and I ate dinner and watched some television and then started getting ready for bed. Scott mentioned that he wasn't feeling too well. In fact, he felt so bad that we decided it would be best if we slept in different beds. Right around midnight, he started puking. He kept it up all night long, poor guy. At 1:30, Will woke up and must have been starving because he wanted milk and just kept chugging it and chugging it. I tried to make him slow down, but he wouldn't. It came back up shortly after. It was a weird sensation...I've never had cold vomit on me before. Anyway, after a long night, we did not go to church yesterday morning. Scott was supposed to lead singing, so he had to find a replacement for that, for his class, and for another class whose substitute wasn't going to be able to make it either. Scott slept pretty much the entire day yesterday and he is feeling much better today. Will is still not eating as much as normal, but he seems to be better as well.

Today was my first time to go to "Right At Home," a Bible study and work-out program for stay at home moms. It was really fun. I think I am really going to enjoy the Bible study. The work-out pretty much kicked my booty today. I am horribly out of shape. All my muscles are mush. So, hopefully that will get better with time. Will's follow-up appointment (from his surgery) is this afternoon, so we'll be anxious to see what the doc has to say. Here's to a healthy and happy rest of the week!

Morning Mayhem

This morning, the phone rang at 6:45. It was the automated substitute-finder people. I pressed the button that you are supposed to press when you don't want to sub. The phone rang again at 7:20. This time, it was actually a real person from the high school calling. I told her no, I couldn't do it and I was sorry, maybe next time. I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. I felt guilty. I probably laid there for over half and hour trying to go back to sleep. Will eventually woke up around 9:50 and I begrudingly got out of bed (you all hate me, I know). He has been ill (I won't go into specifics) so I gave him a quick bath. After the bath he kept saying "tired" and putting his head down. I gave him milk to drink while I got ready to feed him breakfast. He promptly threw up. Everywhere. It was quite disgusting.

So, he got another bath and Scott came home to help me clean up all the puke. It was a very good thing I didn't go to the high school today! I no longer feel guilty for saying no.

So, how was your morning??

Freedom

Ahh...today was my last day to sub for the week. I can safely say that my stress level has gone down considerably. I don't mind subbing, but it is hard keeping tabs on those kids (I've been subbing for journalism and they are quite used to leaving the room anytime they please to take pictures, get interviews, etc...)! So, I am breathing a sigh of relief.

Today I had to go to my "girlie" doctor. Is it weird that I enjoy going to see him? No, I wouldn't say that I enjoy the exams, but I do enjoy seeing my doctor. I have been seeing him for about 4 years, and he is the one who told me I was pregnant with Will and later delivered him. I consider him an old pal. We probably talked for 20 minutes just about our kids (he and his wife had triplets in March), all the while I was sitting there freezing my bo-heinie off in the flimsy paper gown. Anyway, it was a good visit. If we ever move away from here, he has to come with me :)

I am so glad that tomorrow and Friday will be "normal" days. I do not have to plan my clothes out tonight. I do not have to get up at 6:45. I do not have to sit for 6 hours in a freezing cold school building. Yea! Will and I are going to relax. Upcoming events this week are: a youth rally on Saturday in Midland, (hopefully) an interview with one of our ladies for the Ladies' Newsletter (I'm still looking for newsletter name ideas, by the way), a Bible study/work-out program at the First Baptist Church for stay-at-home-moms and a doctor appointment on Monday (Will's surgery follow-up), Bunko on Tuesday night (woo-hoo!), and next weekend, my mom is coming to visit to celebrate her birthday with us. Whew...sounds like a lot.

Well, I am off again...it's almost time for dinner and then church. I don't like begging, but give me some feedback, y'all. What do you think about the newsletter? Bunko? Substitute teaching? "Girlie" doctors? Anything...just let me know you're still there :) I'm still here!

Take Two

I tried to post last night, but our power went out in the middle of my typing. Bummer!

It is going to be a busy week for me. Yesterday kicked it off with me teaching the kindergarten and first grade Bible class at church. I had seven little girls in class, no boys. It was quite a hoot. I also had singing practice with our little Doo-Wop group after evening services. I got someone to sing my part with me (yea!!), so we went over the things we had practiced last week and worked on a new song. It's going pretty well, so far. I love singing and have really missed it since college when I would sing for at least an hour each day. Practicing things over and over can get a little old, but when you get it right and you sound so good, it makes one happy inside.

Today I am subbing at BSHS and I will be for the next two days as well. It's fairly easy and I get a little extra money for my troubles, so it's a good thing. I just didn't realize when I set up these jobs that I would be subbing for three consecutive days. Oh well, Thursday will be welcome when it gets here.

Last week was a good week. I didn't sub at all, so it was a "normal" week for Will and I. He went to CDO on Wednesday and I used the opportunity of his absence for getting some cleaning and laundry done. I also went out to eat with a couple of friends whose kids also go to CDO. I think we'll make it a regular thing. On Friday, Will and I went to Midland and had lots of fun shopping (well, okay, I did). He was so good for me. I am very blessed. Friday night, Scott and I gave Will over to one of his surrogate grandmothers and went out on the town. Woo hoo! We went to a little cafe downtown and after we ordered our after-dinner mochas and chais, we went back to our house to watch a movie we had received from Netflix. Real crazy, I know. But we still enjoyed not having to worry about Will for a while. He had a great time playing at their house, too.

So, what else can I share? Oh, yeah. I almost got killed three times on the way home for lunch today. That was lots of fun. One of my biggest pet peeves is when drivers do not take their proper turn at lights and stop signs! And it is very hard to drive in high heels! Okay, there's my gripe for the day.

I guess I had better go ahead and go back to the school. Class starts at 1:40 pm and it is now 1:05. I hope everyone has a blessed week...I do not know when I'll have an opportunity to post again. Check back soon :)