Christmas 2013

Merry Christmas 2013

 her expression was NOT caught on camera for this one, she really DID love it - a LOT of colors for the girl to expand on her painting :)

 Gotta love my IOU for a backscratcher - apparently a ROCKING one was ordered for me :)

 cashews and wine, what more could a woman want?

 Awkward pose when told to hold it in front of her chest instead of out towards me.  Silly girl - nope, she'll never be a model :)  We love her and will keep though!

 It's a supernatural thing :)

 It's a Dr. Who thing (weeping angel I found at Goodwill) I could NOT resist getting it for her... she said, "it really creeps me out"  hahaha - I have done my job this year :)

 What does the Fox say?  Oh, wait, that's a raccoon, disregard!

 It's a Dr. Who thing!

 Angela got the GREAT gift of a computer drawing tablet - it's been the hit of the day for sure!

 It's still a Dr. Who thing... yes, she's a whovian :)

 Note the weeping angel earrings as well as the bracelet :)  Gotta love these girls!

  Car emergency kit because she'll be taking her car back to college with her along with a new parking pass thanks to Mom and Dad.  No to mention a new tire and a gift card for Wal-Mart that can be used at the Murphy Oil there in her town as well.  Lucky girl!

 It's a thermos mug... somehow from the first look, it wasn't what he thought it was :)

 Hers was at the bottom of the pile and she was VERY unsure she was getting one :)  Happy girl!

 Checking out this years Calendar

 Lizzie checking out her book from our trip to Europe and all the photo matching that was done. 

 SCORE one for mom, I made her cry over her book from her trip to Italy!  She loved it!

 she is still teary looking at the NEXT present... awh, tender hearted girl!

 You'll shoot your eye out!!  ha!

 Ornaments with the girls pictures in them  - awh!!

 Thank you Uncle Donald and Aunt Robin!!

Everyone had a wonderful Christmas morning opening presents and eating on the variety of Muddy Buddies we got - yum!  peppermint and snicker doodle are surprisingly good :)  That and a cup of coffee and we were all happy.

 

 

The Turkey and ham and all the fixings for dinner with Mom and Dad!  We had a great long visit with them while they were here, we ate a HUGE meal and sent a lot of left overs home with them to enjoy later and still have a LOT left for us as well.  After a rest period after dinner we had a rousing game of Push the Dummy!

We hope our extended family also had a warm and wonderful holiday season wherever they were.

Christmas Eve

Finn onesie and a Dr Who blanket....





So cute





So snugly





And the begging for just "one more" has begun ;)
And one more was granted

Don't fall over, I baked!

Made a mess!


In progress:


Ready to go into the oven!


Cooked:


And the left overs are peanut butter cookies:

Angela's Christmas concert

She is ... Just to the left of Mr Shaw (teacher/conductor) you can only see the top of her head. Poor Angela. I have to say this is the first Christmas concert I have enjoyed the music as they were all recognizable songs and tie tappers ;)

see the person just to the left of the microphone stand in the front row?  That is my little flutist (yes, wearing a red tie)!


Little brunette head to the immediate left of the microphone stand, with read tie... two tiny heads to the left of Mr. Shaw :)

Great show Angie!!

Tree this year

Simple but cute (yeah, yeah, yeah the ladder is still out)


Cute silver pine cones. Only two if these drat it!


Huge silver stars 12" diameter.


Cute acorn bird houses. I think there are 10 or 12 of these - so cute!


What you can't see:
Christmas threw up in my living room over a week ago and I'm too bah humbug to do a darn thing about it!!


Why yes, that is Carl from walking dead on the screen ;)

Lists

My mother has always worked off of a list.  Lots and lots of lists.  These were for everyday things such as what needed to be done with chores, to grocery lists.  There have always been lists in my life, so, tell me; why have I gone the way of NO lists?  I haven't really had lists for anything in a long while.   This would include packing for trips.  So far there has only been one time where this did not bode well for me and I neglected to pack some skivvies.  The funny thing is that the ones I bought on the fly turned out to be so comfy I switched to those on a permanent basis.  I digress.  Lists...

Do you do lists?

Here is my list as of late:

 

Christmas Cards  

Done - Well, sort of.  I found out delivery of cards would be so expensive that I decided I would just do New Year’s Cards instead.

**project for Christmas

                Done - I would like to do ONE more, however, I have found that among other things I am procrastinating on taking pictures as well!  Bad mom!

Cups for Pam

Done – this was a paid job, so really should have been done over the weekend and was PLANNED for the weekend, however working 4 hours on Sunday sort of negated me getting that one done (likely excuse cause I could have done it Saturday – ya know what I mean?)

Ornaments for Denise

                Done – see lame excuse for the above

Tell someone my Christmas list includes a rain gauge

                Done - Kid have been informed I need a new one as mine bit it when we froze over Thanksgiving and I wasn’t here to empty the thing prior.  Whoops!

 

Check pool when home to check water level

                Sort of Done, sort of ongoing – this is now morphed into call the Hayward Company to check all my settings on the blasted thing.

Purchase Concrete fix from Lowes

Wax (yeah, we’ll not discuss this as my legs look like a yeti)

Paint Liz's room

Paint Desk

Paint Dresser

Paint Butches project

 

This was all that was on there… however, there is another list in the bedroom on the wall that helped me work on projects over the summer… there are a few outstanding ones on it as well.  See, I DID have a list now that I job my poor atrophied brain.  The things on it remain as:

 

Paint Cheese Domes

Well, not the domes, the bases, you get the drift

Paint the coat rack

This should have been done already as it is for WINTER as we’re fully in winter and it’s to be used out by the hot tub

 

I’m thinking here was something else on that list; however, it’s not fresh on my pea brain, so I do know of those things at a minimum.

 

And if we’re completely honest I should also put on there to purchase a bed for Liz’s room to be used as a secondary guest bedroom – however, that is on the very bottom of the list at this point because I still have to paint the room and the desk and …. Oh crap… one more thing on the list, or rather a whole series of things to add to the list.  Taking stuff to the consignment; I need to take the following to consignment:

 

The old dining room table

The old display case from the breakfast area

The pink toddler bed I found on the side of the road (or maybe it needs to go right back out on the side of the road?)

 

Shoot, I could make my life so much better by just taking those three things to the Goodwill but with all the bad press on all of the donation places being crooks; it’s hard to justify doing that.

 

So in the end, my initial list got shorter, but the ongoing long term list is getting longer, and longer and longer:

·         Call the Hayward Company to check all my settings on system

·         Purchase Concrete fix from Lowes

·         Wax (yeah, we’ll not discuss this as my legs look like a yeti)

·         Paint Liz's room

·         Paint Desk

·         Paint Dresser

·         Paint Butches project

·         Paint Cheese Domes

·         Paint the coat rack

·         Take the following to consignment in January:

o   The old dining room table

o   The old display case from the breakfast area

o   The pink toddler bed

·         Sand “new” dining table and refinish (see, I snuck just ONE more thing in there… just one more)

The newest "find"

Ok now don't laugh, I have plans for this bad boy!! And Merry Christmas to me!!

In the door and DIRTY!!


Scrubbed up...





What was I thinking you ask?
THIS



Ok really the one that tempted me was really white with a lightly colored back wall.
More like this one:



Anyway enough dreaming.
For now this one will stay its current color and we will paint it in the spring :) I'm excited for this project!

The find...

Before





Cleaned up





Loaded with all his juices.





Butch taking a picture to show off to a friend. So funny!





I'll add a picture when he gets it on his wall ;)

Angela's Art

Angela's latest art on her ceiling fan blades. It has glow in the dark blades.





More of her art in the walls. This is a personal favorite.





Tree growing.





Love this one too!!





Can you believe this is. Coverup done in a matter of hours.





Looks like a fun start ;)





Good thing I know it's just paint and wondering how I will frame it after she's gone to college? Put a frame at that level and just mount it there? Sounds doable. :)

Love that girls artistic flare!

Color Guard and Angela

 

color guard pictures from school - will scan in without the "proof" after I get them!!

 

Center back row.  Right below the "0"

Same spot!

Center back - right in front of the horn - third from the left in the back ...

 Same spot.  We tried to do some continuous shots as it was cold and rainy this night.  There were no competitions in the sunlight, therefor making it hard to get a good picture!!

Thanksgiving

From a 14 year olds perspective ...

 

 

Sitting down to dinner with our little family.

 

I KNOW we couldn't fit any more food on that table!  And it was sooo good!