December 31, 2010

It is New Year's Eve. It is amazing how fast this year has gone by. We are going to Stacey's parents' house tonight. There is a surprise birthday party for Stacey there. I'm not sure how long we'll stay, but I get to see Tamara and Melissa as well as Stacey, so I'm happy about that. I'm sure we'll have fun.

December 30, 2010

Michaela's last swim practice for 2010 was this evening. They do not have practice tomorrow because of the holiday. Caleb and I did not have class so I just sat and watched and Caleb played in the gym with his basket ball. I took my new camera and messed around with it some. I read some of the owner's manual... what little bit of one they gave me with the camera, too.

December 29, 2010

I can't believe that I only have four days left of my winter break. It always goes by way too fast. I enjoy being home with my kids. We went to see Tangled today. It was cute. I would have preferred to see Yogi Bear, but Tangled was fun.

They showed previews for another movie that really looked funny. It's called Gnomeo and Juliet. It's a Romeo and Juliet story about garden gnomes. The kids and I all want to see it.

December 28, 2010

Today is Michael's Dad's birthday. Since we celebrated it on Sunday, I had the kids call him. They love doing that and I'm sure he loves hearing them say Happy Birthday.

The kids and I spent the day cleaning up the house again. It seems we spend a lot of time doing that when we don't have to be at school/work.























































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December 27, 2010

Today was "put away Christmas" day. I spent most of the day putting away Christmas decorations. I started with my Santa Clauses. Then, I started on the other stuff. The kids took the ornaments off the tree. Michael took the tree apart when everything was off of it. I put all the boxes and bins back where they belong in the back room downstairs.

I did not realize it until it was too late, but I filled up the tote that the blow up snowman is supposed to go in with other stuff, so it's still up. We're going to have to buy a new tote for it. I also left out the snowmen on the landing. The wreaths on the front door and the kids' doors are also still hanging up. We'll take the wreaths down at the end of January. The snowmen can be put away when winter is over.

In any case it's put away and I'm glad that is behind me. It is a chore I do not enjoy and it depresses me. However, it is a relief to have it over and it is nice to have my house back to normal.

December 26, 2010

Today we celebrated Lloyd's and Gale's birthdays. We all met at Red Lobster. We gave Lloyd cashews and cologne. We gave Gale an ornament and a candle. We also gave Jeremy Jr. his birthday present (over a month late). We gave him an Xbox card.

Supper was nice. I got to talk to Kelly some. I had crab legs and that's always good. Other than that we didn't do much today.

December 25, 2010

It is Christmas Day. It seems to come faster and faster every year.

We got up around 8:00 a.m. here at home. The kids seemed very happy with how spoiled they got. Both of them got new comforters from Santa. Michaela's is purple, black, white patchwork with animal print on some of the patches. Caleb's is sports themed. They both got a lot of clothes, too. There were DS games and Wii games and some board games.

Michael got a new drill set that has two drills and two batteries. The batteries are the new Lithium Ion batteries. He also got a drill bit set with a bag, two shirts and a Charlie Brown DVD set.

I got a new camera!!!! It's another Fuji. It has 12.1 mega pixels and 18x optical zoom. It's got 14 scene settings. It is amazing. I love it!!! I also got another set of Scottie pajamas which I'll have to take back. And, I got another purple sweater, but a different purple, Season 3 of Big Bang Theory on DVD.

After we were finished here at home, we got dressed and went over to Michael's parents' house. We opened presents there before we had diner.

I got a candle, Bejewled Blitz, a new coat and gloves and a scarf and a new jewelry box. All the "boys" got remote controlled helicopters. We all got spoiled. It was a really good day.

November 26, 2010

I got up at 4:00 a.m. this morning to go shopping. I wasn't sure I would do that this year because I just will NOT go to Wal-mart early in the morning on Black Friday anymore since they are open all night. And, I don't want to do the all night thing. But, I decided to go anyway. I left the house around 4:30 and went to Target.

I actually found several things there. I left Target before 6:00 and headed to the mall. The mall was PACKED. I drove around for about 10 minutes before I found a parking spot. I went into JC Penney first. Then, I headed to Borders. I stopped at a sports kiosk on my way out of Borders. Then, stopped at a kiosk that was selling personalized ornaments. I got a swimming one for Michaela and a football one for Caleb.

I looked around in Macy's for a while and then headed out of the mall. I went to Wal-mart after that. I almost got run over by a manager at Wal-mart moving a rack and saying things very loudly about customers who would not move so he could move things around. It was actually very rude, since I had JUST stepped up into that area.

I had planned on going to Bass Pro Shop, too, but by the time I left Wal-mart it was about 20 minutes to 11 when the morning sales were over. Plus, I was feeling light headed and getting really tired.

I came home and tried to nap some, but of course my children were not at all cooperative with that. I did make us some lunch and then this afternoon the kids and I watched Disney's Christmas Carol.

This evening we all went to Applebee's to have supper. Now, I'm just vegetating and watching the fourth season of The Tudors.

Thanksgiving Day 2010

It is Thanksgiving Day. My mom, Griff, Brandon and Karen came over for Thanksgiving today. We had turkey that turned on pretty good... not my best but still was good. I always get very nervous that my turkey will not turn out one of these years.

We also had stuffing, cranberries, canned cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, corn, rolls, noodles, mashed potatoes and gravy, pickles, olives, raw vegetables, and deviled eggs. Michaela made the deviled eggs. We had pumpkin pie, cheesecake and gingerbread with caramel sauce for dessert.

Everyone was here until around 8:00 or so. I am setting my alarm to get up in the morning, but I'm not sure I'm going to actually go shopping. We'll see.

November 24, 2010

It was a VERY BUSY day for us today. The kids and I both had the day off from work/school. We took the van out to the auto body shop and got an estimate on getting it fixed. The lady who ran in me damaged the bumper enough that the plastic surround on it has to be replaced. The damage to the side of the van will be fixed, too but we'll pay for that. I'm just really glad to have that all taken care of until we take it in to get it fixed. I have to drop it off next Wednesday. The lady's insurance is going to pay for a rental car, too. The place we take the van too arranges all that for us, too.

The kids and I went and got a few things at Wal-mart after we left the auto body shop, then we came home. We ate lunch and got started cleaning. We cleaned the rest of the day and the kids really did a great job and did not complain at all. The did every thing I asked them to do. I am very proud of them.

Michael made two pumpkin pies, a cheesecake and cranberries when he got home tonight. He brought Subway home with him so we wouldn't have to cook anything tonight for supper. Michael also cleaned up the basement tonight. He's such a great husband.

I started working on the turkey at 10:00 p.m. I made the stuffing and cleaned out the dishwasher before stuffing the turkey. Michael helped me get the bird in the oven and I turned the oven on so it could start cooking. I love cooking the turkey that way. Having the house smell like turkey when you wake up is so incredible. That's how Thanksgiving was when I was growing up (when we stayed home for it) and I just love it.