thoughts on 2009

As 2009 ends I've been thinking back

This little family has done so many things

fun things, new things, amazing things, learned new things, accomplished things, loved things, enjoyed things, some painful things but most of all we've done them together!

Christmas 2009

Christmas Morning

Christmas Snow

Christmas with Dad and Betty

Christmas with Mom

This can mean one thing .....

That pile of hat, gloves, scarves, etc

drive hubby crazy

("you can't find anything in this basket, way do we have all of these?")

BUT on days like today.

I just dump it out and everyone

(G, G's friend, W, W 3 friends)

pick through it and attempt to be warm and dry!

They look silly, but they are warm!

I know I have yet to blog Christmas but I promise it's coming!

Julie and Julia

I finally had a little me time today

(not that I didn't have to keep pausing to take care of things)

and I watched Julie and Julia.

I liked it, it was fun, light hearted (no crying) and all girl!

Merry Christmas

Beautiful artwork by Liz Lemon Swindle

Christmas Eve Family fun!

This morning we had our

Traditional Christmas Eve

family fun.

Family Basketball

at the YMCA

Self Portrait of the event

We really aren't even in height.....

or talent.....

but we had fun!

This little attempt to let G

dunk the ball didn't work out so well.

After this picture, W raised G up,

G grabbed the rim

attempted the dunk but the ball missed.

W then tried to leave G hanging there while W got the ball.

G wanted no part of that .... yelling ensued (or should I say screaming).

sorry, I thought I had it turned, I'll work on this later.

The next attempt wasn't as successful in getting height

seems only 2 of the 3 were on board with the plan!

Christmas Eve 2009

No time off ....

Why can't I have at least one season without a thunderstorm?

I have a son that is leery of thunder AND a dog that is more than leery of the thunder.

Just one season, that's all I'm asking.... a 3 or 4 month period, just one season!

You think this sounds like nothing you try to carry in groceries and bags of Christmas gifts while NOT letting the dog shove his way into the house! They should give out a badge for the task!

Don't forget to breath!

Goals for the next couple of days.....

Make cookies for Exchange
Plan activities for exchange
get gifts for exchange
Attend G's Class party
send out the last of the Christmas cards
Gather enough food for W's arrival (might be impossible)
Wrap presents
make breakfast food for exchange (that's what we're serving this year)
attend cookie exchange
attend G's basketball game
work on church budget (that's funny, me making a budget)
find the candy canes I bought but now can't find
clean house
work on church project
laundry
fix supper every night
gather Terracycle things from the school
go through my gift list...check it twice
OH, and sleep!

Just for fun!

Brotherly Love

I had begun to notice the strong aroma of W's cologne as I sat at the computer last weekend.
It was strong enough that I was concerned about Just how strong was the smell downstairs!?!?

When I went down there to ask G (who was playing Wii) if he was OK, he claimed that he couldn't smell anything!?!?! I think his nose must have already been burn out of the smell.

A couple of hours later I hear .....

W yelling ~ "why would you do that?" "you're not suppose to do that, it will hurt you."

a few minutes later W comes up so I ask "what was going on"

Seems that G wanted to have some of W's cologne, so W sprayed some in the air for G to walk through. G had walked through with his eyes open and it had stung his eyes!

Yea, that's Brotherly love ... helping G smell better!

Oh, and the smell from before .. I asked W about that. It seems that W sprays his clean clothes with his cologne so they'll smell good when he wears them. Who knew?

P.E.O Christmas Party

My best buddy Stephanie belongs to a sorority type of group P.E.O.

They don't invite 'outsiders' to their meetings generally but I was invited to tour the Justice Center (our new Jail house) with them in October. That was interesting and hopefully I won't get the opportunity to 'tour' it again or at least not from the 'Sally'.

Then they invited me to their Christmas dinner at the country club and annual Auction on Tuesday. I was still recovering from Strep Throat, but I went to the dinner thinking that if I needed to go home I could before the auction.

Well, I made it through the dinner and then just went with the flow to the auction. They all make things (food, candy, gloves, dish towel, Christmas decorations) or purchase things to auction off. They have a lady with a great sense of humor doing the auctioning. It was fun, even though I was propped up along the wall, and fading fast. I slipped out after a couple of hours to head to my bed.

I must say I can feel that Stephanie is setting me up to be invited to become a member AND I must also say they need youth! Being with this group makes me feel young! Really really young. They are all super sweet and super funny! my kind of ladies!

I'm here and alive ~ I think!

I got my Rx Monday
Tuesday I was still feeling yucky but had a commitment so I was on the go
(I'll tell you about that in another post)
Wednesday around noonish, I came alive!
Thursday I was back feeling good BUT realized that I'd lost an entire week. Which wouldn't be anything to panic about except it's DECEMBER! It's a huge lost this month.
Friday I had a bit of a relapse ... I was chilly so I laid down to get warm and woke up 2 hours later!?!

Brotherly Love

This past weekend I was either on the run or in bed.

Hubby was out town playing basketball, so this left W to take care of G.

Sometimes this is a disaster, but sometimes they both rise to the occasion.

and this time they did.

Even though when I did meet up with the two of them

W gave me a warning that if G said *****(something I didn't hear and didn't want to have repeated)

it wasn't W fault. Evidently W said this ****(questionable statement)

in front of G but told him not to repeat it!

W got a "talkin' to" about his example with G. AND how I was going to ask for a refund from his

babysitting money if he I didn't straigthen up!

W knew before hand that I had somewhere to be on Saturday morning and that he'd be in charge of G. He had planned that they'd go to the Y. G could swim while W worked out.

AND they took a picture to document the day!

12 days of Christmas or maybe the 18 days of Christmas

I had been wanting to build the Christmas excitement for G. I had walked the $1 isles and picked up a few things but I was stuck at how to give them to him.

He answered my dilemma .......

This past Sunday evening (while I was sick) he and his daddy created a mailbox for the purpose of getting mail for his Detective agency (quite another story and it deserves a picture for sure!).

I now have a place to 'deliver' his little gifts.

To see what is being deliver daily go check out G's blog.

Please remind me ....

.....that I don't get a fever when I get strep throat!

Yes, that is what I have and once again I was waiting to see

if I'd get a fever THEN I'd go to the doctor!

I've done this 2x now

I should be able to retain this information for the next time.

I love the Take Care Clinic at Walgreens!

Take 2 asprins and call me in the morning....

Well, I've still got whatever this thing that I've got BUT today I'm staying home all day and going to work on myself.

Amazingly when I decided this I felt worse this morning. My usual symptoms have been feeling somewhat ok in the mornings (having the energy to do things, go places) and then by late afternoon, I start to feel runned down and by almost bedtime I'm just positive that I have strep throat. My glands are swollen and painful ... but no fever. BUT then I wake in to morning feeling better ????!?!?!

I don't know ... I'm just going to stay in today and relax.

have you noticed?

Just a couple of minutes ago I noticed that the

"Christmas Counter"

is off.

According to this counter Christmas

occur about 10 hours early.

Just how can this be?

Adventures in Subbing 09/10 #3

On Monday I subbed for what I thought was Miss Suzy in Preschool, I'd geared myself up for preschool fun (10 kids with 5 adults). When I got the school to sign in they corrected my thought .. .it was Miss Suzy in Science! I missed the preschool fun but I got to teach science to first graders.

When you teach a 'special' you teach for (generally) 30 minutes, switch classes and then teach the lesson all over again. I taught the food chain 4 times. By the end of the day, I was so confused at what I'd already taught and what I still had to teach. ALSO by the end of the day the first graders were catching on that humans aren't really the top of the food chain when I shark could eat a human .... or a "really mean dinosaur with a sharp gray beak thing" could eat a human. I was glad that was the last class because I'm not sure what I would have done if they'd all been that 'smart' or if that class had been the first one!

I got them back ... I informed them that kitties could be eaten by a coyote. This might have been a bit much for the kids that didn't live in the country. Country kids knew it was a way of life those little city girls didn't!!