Back on Friday - And GIVEAWAY Reminder

No, no I have not crawled into a hole to die. Really. I'm taking a holiday break and some time to organize and pack up some of my gifts (and awesome score on holiday dishes for 75% off!) and waiting through what seems like agonizingly long days waiting for Andrew to come home today.

I promise writing will resume on Friday! And then you know, again on Monday after the weekend.

BUT...remember about the contest/giveaway! All you have to do is leave a comment before I reach my 100th post (this is the 90th) and your name will be put into a hat and possibly drawn to win something cool! No, I'm not sure what it'll be yet, but I promise something good and worth your while to leave a comment!

The Day After and Question of the Week

Merry Day After Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and were able to spend it with family and friends. Our Christmas was very nice, a bit hectic in the morning, but overall very nice. I will post more details and photos (with my incredibly awesome Christmas gift) soon.

My quest of always wanting a white Christmas came true this year and I am now ready for it to go far, far away. We have almost two feet and it's just time for it to take a hike.

I know I'm posting late and that for most people it's already Saturday, but alas, here is the Friday question: If you were fortunate to be able to give and receive gifts this year what was your most favorite item you received, and inturn, the most favorite you gave? I know many people, including us, are going through hard times right now and gifts weren't anyone's first priorities this year, but I hope everyone will be able to answer this question in some way.

So, Merry Christmas to all and I will have photos and details posted tomorrow! Hope everyone has a lovely weekend.

Oh, and hey...did you enter the contest?

Did I mention that I'm having a contest over here?



I think I did in this post so check it out.

I'm not exactly sure what the prize will be. Probably a gift card somewhere. Or maybe even a set of 8 handmade cards similar to the ones shown in the last post. Maybe I'll let you chose.

The point is simple here: On the day of my 100th post (this is the 88th, so we're getting there) I'll take any commenters names and draw one. All you have to do is leave a comment on a post asking a question. If you click on the here and scroll to the bottom you'll get the idea.

So, don't forget, you just might win something cool. Oh, and I'm planning on doing this for every 100th post and sometimes inbetween, so stick around for more chances to win! (gosh, I sounded like a radio station there...sorry!)

The Creativeness is Overflowing

Can you see the creativeness overflowing here? I mean, really! I got a wild hair and have always wanted to make my own Christmas cards so thought about it last Wednesday and only ended up with 6. After an hour and a half! And well, that was it. I mailed four of them yestreday and it was so hard to choose which to send to who. Sooo, next year my plan is to you know, start a little earlier and have more than 6 made. Wouldn't that be a nice thought?!

So here are 4 of them. I wasn't too fond of the blue on the middle one, so ended up doing it in gold emboss and it turned out nicely the second time.

These were my two favorites.

I also liked the tree one. You can see the second run through with the gold emboss.

And, not so creative, but I liked it anyways. Andrew had been out shoveling and plowing snow most of the morning, hence the snowsuit, so I figured since he'd already had a long day I'd make him take one of my self portraits. He was thrilled!

Snow, my gosh the snow.

My word we have been blasted with a freaking blizzard. We have over a foot at home and at least 9 inches at work in Seattle. It's nuts. It's stopped for now, but will be coming back for more tonight and through Christmas. Now don't get me wrong, I like the snow as much as the next person, but when it gets to be hard to walk in and accumulates half an inch on the half of the concrete pad in front of both the garage and barn I just got done shoveling while I'm working on the other half it gets to be ENOUGH. I always hope for a white Christmas, but as it stands we're cancelling Christmas Eve that we always have at my aunt's house and they definately won't be able to come to our house on Christmas day because you can't get up our road without four wheel drive. It's just peachy. The horses are over it, too I think. Dusty looked at me like I was crazy when he had to get out of his stall so I could clean it.

Can you see his pleading look? And behind him is Boston. Probably the first time he'd ventured out into the snow all week. Lord knows his stall showed it!

The mounds we have. It's ridiculous. Just walking to the fence the snow was almost up over my boots.
However, when they wandered over to Boston's side, the race was on. He looks pretty good for 24, doesn't he?

By the time they made it to the fence he was in the lead. (I love this picture, I think I'm going to have it printed.) 12 times her age and still has her beat.

And the sight that greeted me when I got to work. The truck on the end was uncovered yesterday. That was just from overnight.
If you can't tell, I'm totally ready for this to be done and over with. Hope you're staying warm and cozy and are ready for a wonderful holiday.

Crazy Busy, Friday Question and Contest

I have been crazy busy the last 32 hours or so. We've had a major snow storm blow across the Pacific Northwest this week. Yesterday it was an incredibly chaotic day. I'm sure I've mentioned before that my parents own a tow company. The dispatchers for both the morning and swing shift couldn't make it in so that meant I was here from 6:30am until 8pm and the phone seriously did not stop with people calling that they were stuck in the snow or wanted to be towed up a hill to their house. We did the best we could with all the trucks chained up, but still had to decline doing many tows. As I look out the window there are flurries coming down again. Swell.

At the moment, my dad and Andrew are downtown with our truck meeting another company's driver to do this: (photo from seattletimes.com)

If you're not familiar with Seattle, we have many steep hills, especially downtown. What you can't see in this particular picture is that on the other side of this bus there is another one that isn't hanging over quite as much. The first one came down the hill, covered in ice of course that they had no business being on in the first place, went through the guard rail followed by the second one who tried to turn to miss it but ended up smacking it anyways. I wish I could have gone with them to be the photographer, but I had to wait for the next dispatcher to get here. Bummer. Luckily everyone on board both buses were alright and only 9 were taken to the hospital for minor injuries.

We're watching the news (they have a helicopter overhead and are going back and forth to it) waiting for the recovering to start. It will be interesting to know where they're going to pull from as they're backed right up to a hill, but I know if anyone can make it happen my dad can. He is incredible with recoveries. And I know Andrew is having a great time watching, learning and just being there. Good thing his usual white collar, pressed shirt office was closed today! Yes, I do give him a hard time about working in a CPA office when I've been with blus collar workers all my life. I'm a bad girlfriend, I know.

*************

Alright, moving on, it's Friday again and Christmas is just 6 (eek, 6!) days away. If money didn't need to be taken into consideration, and let's face it: I think money is being considered by anyone who's out and about buying gifts, what is the first thing you would like. And yes, I'm talking a material item, think of yourself, what's the one thing you'd want but know isn't an option this year?

For me, that would be a Nikon camera. One of the fancy ones with the big lens and all that. No, I'm not the best photographer, but I love to take pictures and would really like to learn some great techniques someday and I think that if I had a good camera (yes, my current camera is good, but I just have it in my mind that a Nikon would make my pictures better...ridiculous, I know) that I would take really great shots. So what about you?

*************

Lastly, I'm closing in on my 100th post here pretty quick, well it'll take a few days, but it is coming, and I'd like to have a contest which will feature a prize. Many of the blogs I read ask readers to ask a question the comments for the blogger to answer and I think that's kind of neat.

So, this is where you all come in. Do you have a question? Even if you don't, just make one up and leave it in the comments. I'll pick a name out of everyone who commented (that is if anyone does...I'm pretty sure I don't have many readers, but I still think it'll be fun and something I'm going to do for every hundredth post) and that person will get a prize. I'm not sure what yet, but don't worry, it'll be something good!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Snowing in Seattle

So it's snowing in Seattle. Pretty hard too. We live about 23 miles south east and usually get much more than at work, but not today. The dispatcher can't make it in until it gets light so that means that I'm here waiting for the phone to ring. We have about 4 inches here at sea level and the same at home. The whole last week has been blizzrd-like conditions, for the Seattle area at least. 20 degrees during the day, about 11 at night. I know for you Canadians or Northeasterners that's not too cold, but to us in the PNW, it's freezing!

I do have some pictures to post from Saturday when Andrew and I got our Christmas tree that I will put up later in the day.

Here are a few that I just took about half an hour ago and it's still coming down.

You can see that the trucks are all covered above, and how deep in my footprints are. I wish I would have pulled my camera out before I walked across it because it looked like this beautiful, fluffy white blanket.

Hope you're staying warm wherever you may be.

Question of the week

Happy Friday!

I know I have been slackinga bit on the question of the week so I'm going to try to keep up on it!

This week's question is pretty simple: Do you have all your decorations and such up for the holidays?

We have our Christmas palm up (picture to come) and the living room and all that decorated. I wasn't really feeling it this year so my mom did most of it. I think I'm just ready for next year when Andrew and I can decorate our own place how we want to. That will be really nice!

We're headed off to Wenatchee in a couple hours so keep your fingers crossed that the passes are clear!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

It's Over!

Hi, All!

So, finals are over for both Andrew and I. I was supposed to have my final one for Econometrics this afternoon, but yesterday I got an email saying that since we'd done well on the midterm, homework assignments and the gigantic project, that she'd decided to cancel the final exam. Works for me! Luckily, I had just printed out the practice exam to work on a few minutes before the email came. Andrew was quite bummed out that he still had his this morning. I helped him study for it, so that hopefully helped. He thinks he did pretty well, and he usually does, so we'll both see in a few days.

Tomorrow my mom, Andrew, his brother Daniel and I are headed over to Wenatchee (my dad isn't a big fan of these get togethers so he stays home to feed the animals) for the TRAW (Towing and Recovery Association of Washington) annual Christmas party. It should be a lot of fun and a bit of hard work as my mom and I are running the silent and live auctions this year, and there will be snow! As long as we get over and back (we have to cross two passes each way and snow is predicted for the low lands tomorrow night) that's all I care about. It's always a lot of fun so hopefully this year won't be any different.

Lastly, could I ask you all for a favor? Could you please leave a comment on this or any other post? Thanks to Miss Haley of the Cheaty Money, I think there may be a way I can reply back to comments which I'd really love to be able to do, so if you wouldn't mind, I'd really appreciate it.

Suggestions?

I need your help, Internets!

I know I'm really just starting out here with this little blog, but I would really like to find a host that is FREE(!) where I can reply to any comments that are left.

I always feel bad when I can't and when I comment on other blogs I like to get a reply. I just think it makes it a little more personal.

So, who do you use for your blog, even if not free? Is it working out for you and easy to use? I'm all about the easiness over here in my little square foot of the Internet!

Thanks in advance for your help!

Weekend Re-Cap

Hi!

How was your weekend?

Mine was kind of a blur. It actually started Thursday evening as there was no school Friday for a study day. Unfortunately, I had to take Molly to the vet Friday. She had gotten another cyst/abcess on her tail and it needed to be taken care of. This had happened a few months ago and the vet just drained it and we went on out way. He said it's common in older dogs (she's 12.5) and that if it happened again just to bring her in and he'd drain it. So, I took her in and this time it's much bigger and he wanted to keep her to do some tests since it wasn't clear liquid like last time. She ended up having an overnight visit and a bath. We'll know what the diagnosis is this afternoon or tomorrow morning when he gets the results back. So that was pretty much Friday.

Saturday Andrew had his financial accounting final and came out afterwords. We went and got Molly and brought her home then hiked down to my uncle's tree farm which is on the property below ours. We walked around for a bit, but I didn't see anything that really "spoke" to me and since it's just for in front of the barn, we weren't too worried about getting one. I think Andrew may have been a little more disappointed than I was because we were looking forward to getting our second tree together, but for one that's not going in the house I like to find one that's a little "off". You know, not perfectly round or straight, one that no one else would want. That's what we had last year and I named it George, weird, I know, but no one else would have taken it. So, no tree. But Andrew's aunt and uncle came down for a little while and we had a fire in the evening. The just got a new french bull dog puppy named Blu. He's really cute! I'll post a couple pictures tomorrow.

Sunday was mostly spend studying. Not much fun there! I have a final everyday this week and Andrew has one Tuesday and his last on Thursday. We're both looking forward to Thursday! So, I'm going to wrap this up and start heading up for my cumulative (eek!) business math final! I'm obviously not looking forward to it, but will be glad to have it over as the rest aren't as difficult.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week and you're all getting in the Christmas spirit if you aren't already!

I am still here....

I promise. Even if it's looked a little sketchy around here for a while.

I've been quite busy with all the Twilight reading and what not. I actually powered through that book quickly and went through withdrawls when I didn't get the second one, New Moon, until 2 days after I'd finished it. New Moon was completed in three days. Yes, it's that good. I'm now working on the third one, at a much slower pace this time. Is it not as good, you may ask? Well, no, it's very good actually. I've refrained myself to only reading one chapter at a time though. I know, crazy.

But, I've actually had other things on my priority list. Just small things like write a paper on Canada's healthcare system, write a paper on the cons of the automakers big 3 producing internationally, write a paper on the regressions between the closing price of the NASDAQ and crude oil prices (yes, there is a correlation) and create and present and presentation (today) on that topic.

Oh, and on top of that, the last math exam of the term Monday. Not the final, oh no, that's this coming Monday. And wait, I also had my global economics final this morning. And still, there's more: Tuesday - take home music quiz due, Wednesday - puclic finance final exam, Thursday - econometrics exam, Friday - breathe.

So that's why you haven't heard much from me, nor has the book that's been mocking the work I've been doing and calling my name, and my not until next Thursday. I'll try though, really I will!

Hope you are all having a terrific week!

Weekend (and some of last week!) Re-Cap...Really a post about food.

Gosh, are you as stuffed as I am? How was your Thanksgiving and hopefully for most, long weekend? Do you still have any leftovers? We actually don't because we didn't cook! We went to my Aunt Judy's house for "dinner". I used quotations because it was at 1:30pm. More like lunch! The food was wonderful, we had the usuals: turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing and of course Andrew's favorite, gravy. In addition to the usuals there were also deviled eggs (my favorite), coleslaw and the picky stuff like pickled asparagus and carrots, green olives and spinich dip as an appetizer.

After our dinner there Andrew and I went to his family's Thanksgiving. We were still quite full by the time we got there so opted out of a second dinner although he did have some cheesecake for dessert. I had never met this side of his family so it was nice to be intorduced to them. He really only sees them once a year so I'm hoping I'll remember some of their names in a year! Afterwords we went back home and by that time, around 9pm we were a little hungry so we made scrambled eggs, doctored with some cheese, hot sauce, bacon bits and chives of course and toast. It was a good filler!

Andrew got up early Friday morning and left for the weekend to spend it with his father. Friday I spend pretty much decorating. We have a very long fence on either side of our driveway that we put lights on every year and I've found that it's usually just easier to do it myself so I put them up. Not easy, not fun. I endured many small shocks (this is Washington, it was raining) and found that many of the strings that were brand new last year only half worked after I layed them all out along the fenceline. By the time I figured that out I was frustrated and fed up so I ended up wrapping the sections that didn't work around the fence then continuing on when I got to where they started to work again. Tacky, but unless you're standing a foot away and it's daylight you can't tell. It's beautiful as always, but also a pain in the butt as always.

Saturday my mom and I put up our Christmas palm tree. She is vowing next year to have her traditional tree again because I'll be gone and she's sending the palm tree to live with me. I didn't take a picture mostly because I was tired of decorating by that point and didn't care too much, but I will over the weekend and post it. It's quite pretty and unusual which I love. Leah and the kids came over and Koleden wanted to watch the Grinch so he was enthralled with that while trying to help decorate the tree.

Sunday was pretty much studying. Then cleaning the stalls and getting the horses' grain set up for the week. Oh, and then more studying. I had a math test this morning and my word there was a lot of material and stuff to know. I'm not too confident with how well I did, but I'm hoping I did well enough. Guess I'll know Wednesday!

Anywhoo, this week is going to be full of getting loose ends tied up as it's the last week of classes for the semester and next week is finals week. At least one of my finals is Thursday of this week so that helps out. One less to worry about next week.

Hope you all had a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Food Wednesday!

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

Since it's Food Wednesday and Thanksgiving Eve, it's a perfect time to talk about Thanksgiving food, right? Right.

So, we all know the traditional stuff: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and all that. But, what if anything do you or your family do that's your own tradition?

The last few years we've been going to my aunt's house for dinner and she does some things differently than I was used to. For instance she smokes the turkey today and serves it cold on Thanksgiving. That was quite different, but it's pretty good really. She also makes the cranberry sauce differently, I can't tell you what's different about it as it's been a year, but still.

When we used to have Thanksgiving at our house, or many years past at my family's business and made dinner for all of the drivers we had all the usual stuff but then always deviled eggs, stuffed celery, sweet potatoes, pickles and olives. Not sure why for the pickles and olives, but they're always there. I really miss the eggs of all...they're so yummy!

What are your plans for tomorrow? What sort of foods are your favorite for the holiday?

Andrew and I will be going to my aunts house to begin with, then to his father's family's dinner afterwords. I'll admit I'm a bit nervous as I haven't met any of his father's family so that will be interesting. Hopefully I won't be in a turkey coma by that point.

Anyways, wishing you all a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving.

Stockings!

I tried to write about this last Thursday and got a little, okay a lot sidetracked talking about the cleanse I attempted to do, but I'm focused now!

I am a stocking lover. I love finding little things to put in them and I especially love the little things that are in mine! The picture is the one I made for Andrew last weekend. I keep finding things to stuff in, so hopefully it'll stretch a bit. And everything is wrapped so he has a lot of things to open!

So, why am I showing you a picture and rambling on? Well, I do have a point. Amazing, I know. I want to know what some of the things you either like to get in yours or like to put in others' are. Do you have any must haves? I think our only tradition with them is that we always put something stuffed on top. I really don't know why...

Here are a few things I like to put in:

-Chapstick

-Nail clippers (seems people can never find theirs)

-Lotions

-Chocolate

-Small trinkets (I like little things that say words on them, like trust, hope, love, etc.)

-Ornaments

-Knives (specialty ones) or somewhat pricey kitchen utensils the recipient wouldn't buy for themselves.

Pretty much anything, just little stuff. What about you?

Weekend Re-Cap

The last few days have been pretty uneventful, which I truly don't mind!

Saturday Andrew and I went to my friends daughter's 2nd birthday party then off to the mall to browse a bit, have dinner then to a movie. We saw Role Models which was pretty funny! There were a lot of hidden jokes that depending on your type of humor kept you laughing through most of it. I also got some of my gifts wrapped that morning which is nice so that I'm not trying to get them all done at one time. Wrapping isn't one of my most favorite things to do.

Yesterday we pretty much both did school related work most of the day. Oh, and my mom and I colored my hair. I usually go dark for fall and it was about that time so I'm now a brunette. It's still kind of a shock to see myself in the mirror, but I always like my hair dark. Let's see, I know there's something else...Oh, I finished Twilight! It is so good, you must read it. It's a bit of a love story, but it's still a very good book. I gave it to Andrew and he's going to start reading it too, when school is over.

That's about it. Like I said, nothing too exciting. The next two weekends will be full of studying for both of us as we have about 2.5 weeks to go and the semester is over! It's gone by so fast and it's crazy to think that I only have one more. I start to get a little nostalgic about it sometimes, that this is my last fall on campus, but at the same time I am excited to move on.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Failed...and Stockings!

I haven't mentioned it here before and was actually going to start talking about it yesterday for Food Wednesday, but I had to stop because I'm sick and broke down to have some chicken noodle soup.

What was it that I failed? Well it was a thing called a cleanse. You may have heard of them, to be honest I had but didn't have a clue as to what they were. Well, Andrew got me this one because at the time he ordered it I was working out everyday and motivated to lose a few pounds. I started what I thought was a 9 day cleanse on Monday, but didn't read well enough so Tuesday when I was looking again to see what I could eat Wednesday I realized that what I'd been doing for two days were just pre-cleanse days! I still had 9 days in front of me so instead of ending Tuesday, the last day would actually be Thanksgiving! I was okay with it, but yesterday my throat was so sore I broke down and had some chicken noodle soup. It tasted so good!

So basically the cleanse goes like this: Pre cleanse days, days 1 and 2 you can have 1 "shake" in the morning, a sensible 4-600 calorie meal, then another "shake" for dinner. I say "shake" because it's basically some supposedly chocolate powder that you mix with water. Nothing like chocolate expect that it's brown! Let's see, the cleanse days, the 3rd and 4th days you are supposed to have liquids only. Now, had it just been lots of water I could have done it, but you're supposed to mix this highly concentrated stuff that's supposed to taste like berry's (ha!) with water 4 times a day. It was so acidic I did two doses and that's all I could get down. It's supposed to go on for 7 more days, but I gave up. I might try again when I'm not sick, but it's going to be hard.

I just feel so bad because Andrew had good intentions when he ordered and gave it to me and he paid a lot of money for it. I already know I failed, but I feel like I let him down as well. We've talked about it and he is totally supportive of my stopping especially when I'm sick and says he's proud of me that I did it for 3 days, but I just still feel like a total failure.

Well, I was going to talk about stocking today, but think I'm going to wait until Tuesday for that. I'm off to take some more cold medicine and hope this goes away by tomorrow.

Buying into The Hype

I was at Target yesterday and was in the entertainment section (books, movies, music, dvds, etc.) and saw this book:

I had only heard of it from other bloggers and many people on Twitter who claim they can't put it down. Then Friday when I saw my neighbor she asked me if I'd read it yet. When I said no she was shocked because I'm always reading the lastest book. She was on chapter 4 at that time and said she didn't want to put it down either. It is set in our home state of Washington so that should make it interesting. So yesterday, I saw it and bought it without having a clue as to the story line or anything. I'm on page 10, so we'll see how it goes.

Have you read Twilight, are you reading it now? Have you even heard of it? I hadn't until I'd read about it from others. I'll be doing a review when I finish it so there will be some vampire stories to share!

Come back tomorrow to hear about the crazy thing I'm doing to myself for 9 days!

Weekend Re-Cap!

Hi Everyone,

I know I haven't been posting too much lately and I may write about why later on, but not right now. This weekend went by pretty quickly as they usually tend to do!

Friday night my neighbor Leah and her kids Koleden and Addison came over and were here for a while. Unfortunately Andrew was at dinner with his mother who was in town and the kids were missing playing with him. I, apparently, am not as much fun anymore! Oh well, we still had fun. Andrew got home late, but we still had time to chat for a little while after not seeing each other all weel before we headed to bed.

Saturday he had to go back to his apartment to study for a big exam in his accounting class Monday morning. Fun times as always! He did change my oil before he left which is always much appreciated. Let's see, that early afternoon my mom and I went and did some Christmas shopping and while we were on our way to the last stop and on an off ramp we were rear ended. Luckily it wasn't too bad and we're just a little sore this morning, but it could have been much worse.

Sunday we ventured out again after I cleaned stalls and got everything ready for the week for the horses. We went to Southcenter, our local mall. My plan was to go to a store there (I would be more specific, but I don't want to give anything away) to get Andrew's Christmas gift, but was very disappointed with their selection and had to go somewhere else to get what I was looking for (again, I can't say what his gift is...! Any guesses? Leave them in the comments and there may be a prize for anyone who guess at least somewhat close since it really could be anything when I'm not able to give any hints!). But that's alright, I got what I was looking for! And stocking stuffers! I love stockings, they're my favorite part with all the little things that can be stuffed in there! After that we pretty much just came back, wrapped some stuff, had dinner and here I am.

Hope you all have had a wonderful weekend!

Lost

I'm feeling many things today. One of those is just plain lost. In addition to that disappointed and incredibly heartbroken. I'm actually at a loss of words for what to say or how to describe things. This is about all I can say now, I truly cannot find the words I need.

Weekend Re-Cap, Late

The weekend re-cap is a little late this week as you can see. Do I have a reason as to why? No, not really. Mostly because I just didn't feel too much like I had anything worth reading to post. Not that I do now, but you know. We didn't do anything to terribly exciting, lots of studying (on Andrew's part). We did manage to fit in a ride which was fun. Sunday was Addison's birthday party and we did have a lot of fun there. Here are some pictures of the events:

After our ride. This was just taken with my little camera that I can stuff in my pocket so the quality isn't that great. Plus the fact that it was dusk, so that didn't help much. I still like the picture though. My old boys did well on the ride, Dusty of course screwed around when I asked him to go past the barn again when we were finished, but I don't expect anything else from him. Boston did well as always and when I got on him afterwords I managed to get him to side step correctly (basically he crosses his front legs and moves directly sideways) which I haven't been able to do for a while.

Andrew on Boston. Again, dusk and little camera. The little blond blob on the right is Molly trotting along.
As I said Sunday was Addison's birthday right across the street. This is Leah Addie's mom and I. We've known each other for almost 20 years now. Her parents bought the house and property across the street from ours so Leah, her sister Courtney and I have grown up together.

The birthday girl!

After everyone left we were playing with the kids downstairs burning off some of their cupcake high! Here's Andrew and Koledon after some pro-wrestling moves!

They really liked this and of course had to do it at the same time. Taking turns, what's that?!

Each of the kids had these rubber balls and we were tossing them back and forth to begin with, then it got a little rougher which was fun too!

That was about it for us. Hope you all had a great weekend too! And hey, it's Wednesday, we're halfway to another one!

I know...

I haven't posted much lately, but I figure it's better to not write junk than to bore you with whatever I can come up with until something finally pops into my head.



I promise there will be something (hopefully) good posted tomorrow!

Election Day Re-Cap (no food Wednesday this week)

So, we have a new preseident elect: Barack Obama.

Are you happy with this outcome? Is it what you wanted? Do you have any thoughts or comments about it?

I for one am happy. I don't think that McCain would have been the right choice at this particulat time. However, I supposed we won't really know until Inagural Day in 76 days. I am hoping that Obama really can bring the change that he has promised. He has a huge task in front of him and I think the American people, as well as the rest of the world, will be looking to see if he can make his promises good. But for now, I think we should be happy about the results.

As for us in Washington, we are still waiting to see who out next governor will be. Four years ago the votrs had to be counted three times resulting in a difference of 147 votes. I am strongly hoping that our current governor will end up out of the office and let some good come in. This election will probably take a week to be resolved with all the mail in ballots to count. Hopefully we'll hear the outcome soon.

Hope your election day went well and all the people you wanted in are in.

Election Day! And a Happy Birthday.

First, it's

Election Day, PLEASE VOTE.

Second, today is my adopted neice's (she's my neighbor of 20 years' daughter) 2nd birthday! So, I'm posting some sort of a timeline in pictures!

Here is little Addison at 5 months old with her big brother Koleden.

Then with me (notice the long hair, gosh I miss that) at 7 months.

And little chubby cheeks at 8 months. This was towards the end of 2007 sometime, I'm going to guess she's about a year or a little more here.
I don't remember when this one was exactly, I think around May putting her about 18 months. Not sure what happened to all my pictures between 1 and 1.5...
Taken in August, driving the tractor.
Same day, now gardening!

This was taken the end of September when Andrew and I had them for the day.

Helping Andrew wash his car.
Happy Birthday, Birthday Girl. I can't believe you're two already.

Again, if you do nothing else today, please make your opinion heard and vote.

Weekend Re-Cap!

So, how was your Halloween? Mine was pretty good. We went to my Aunt Lisa's house like we used to when I was little and had pizza, punch and decorated cookies. They don't get as many trick-or-treaters in the new house, but it was still fun!

Here is Cody in is coustume at work: Mardi-Gras Dog!

Me going for a ride on the blow up cat.

We call these the gay ghosts. Can you see why?

Uncle Monty's mask.

Andrew and I in one of our self portraits.

Aunt Lisa decorating away!

Cody waiting for any crumbs under the table in his other costume, Safety Dog!

Andrew and Cody relaxing afterwords at home.

Saturday: paper writing (with an audience) and a movie!

Saturday, after Andrew was mostly finished with his paper we went to see Zack and Miri Make A Porno (not as good as I thought it was going to be, but still pretty funny) then to dinner at Red Robin afterwords. We both stuffed ourselves with the Royal Red Robin burger, it has a fried egg on it, then headed home and went to bed.

Sunday Andrew finished up his paper then he left to see his father then head to school. Before he left I cut hos hair for him. I've done it a few times and it turns out pretty well.

That afternoon my mom and I went shopping and I got a few things. I love Halloween decorations, but am too cheap to pay full price...I know. But, this super cool Halloween bell wreath was regularly $20 and was 75% off...$5!

And this hat. What do you think? It was originally $25, then marked down to $17 with 30% off and rang up for $8! I really do love a deal!

Sunday night my dad saw this little bunny in the cow stall snacking away on hay. It's just a tiny little thing and isn't afraid of much including the cow moving around.

Anyways, that's about it. Hope you all had a fun Halloween and a great weekend!

Question of the Week!

Happy Halloween!

This week's question is:

Are you going to dress up? Or, if you're not, what are your kids going to be?

I'm not dressing up this year. I do have black nails today though and am going to try to glue on some fake eyelashes so we'll see how that goes. Nothing too exciting really.

Hope you all have a happy and safe Halloween!

Food Wednesday

Gosh, it's Wednesday again. Time certainally flies.
Okay, so here's a recipe that really doesn't have a name. It's really just kind of a chicken and rice casserole, so name it what you'd like!

You will need:
Chicken Breasts
Minute Rice
Can Cream of Mushroom soup
Can Cream of Celery soup
White wine
Baking Pan

-To begin, grill the chicken. The quantity is up to you. When the chicken is finished and has cool a bit, cut it into pieces. Size is up to you.
-Next, prepare the minute rice. How much you make depends on how much chicken you used. We had 9 breasts and I used 5 uncooked cups of rice which was plently for 5 people and leftovers.
-While the rice is cooking, wisk together in a large bowl the soups and wine. The recipe calls to have you fill each soup container with wine. I prefer less of a "wine" taste so only use one soup can full and then add a little milk to get a more fluid consistancy.
-When the rice is done begin to pour it into the pan you will be baking in. Then place the chicken breasts into the rice. Finally, pour the soup and wine mixture over the contents of the pan.
-Place in a 3oo degree oven until ready to serve.
-Enjoy!

Pumpkin Carving!

I mentioned in yesterday's post that today I'd be posting how to carve the purfect pumpkin, so as promised here it is:

First, go to a pumpkin patch or your local grocery store if you're short on time and pick your pumpkin!

Second, figure out which ones you want to carve. Mine on the right, Andrew's on the left. You'll see in a few pictures why you'll want to go with an orange one rather than one with too much green.

Second step, part 2: Pose with your pumpkin!

Third, figure out what you want your carving to look like and get the appropriate utensils. This is the stencil I chose.

Fourth, cut the top off your pumpkin.

Fourth step, Part 2: Let you dog take a chew. Molly likes pumpkin, who knew?

Fifth, take the guts out!

Fifth step, Part 2: Keep a smile on your face while gutting although it's 36 degrees out and you're freezing!

Sixth, carve away. We froze enough Saturday night and ended up only starting the carving process. It was about 25 degrees warmer the next morning, much better! The problem with a green pumpkin is that the walls are so thick it makses it very difficult to get all the way through to pop the pieces out which took a little while.

Sixth step, Part 2: Pose with your half carved pumpkins!

Here they are all done!

Seventh step: Put a candle in them and take pictures!

This is my mom's jack-o-lantern.

Andrew's Happy Halloween.

And my window.

So there you are, our tips to pumpkin carving!

(Oh, my last tip is buy the kit with the knives that look the most industrial. The ones that came with the sencils broke right off the handle after my first window pane. Luckily we'd gotten an extra kit!)