Blog Brain Dump

So, yeah...It's another blog brain dump. And as I've mentioned before, this is my very favorite kind of update.

Random.

It's my middle name.

Not really.

But, it has the first four letters of Randy's name. Does that count?

So, let's see...

I got a new pair of running shoes. My old Asics were beginning to create problems for me, so it was time to get a new pair. There is nothing I loathe more than spending a lot of money of running shoes. But, it's a necessary evil and in the grand scheme of workout paraphernalia, it's a relatively cost efficient purchase. And, I do keep them for about a year, so that helps ease my thrifty wallet.

This time, I went with Brooks Trance 10's. I know that means nothing to you, but they were the equivalent to the Asics, as far as style, fit, support, etc. And, I got them on sale... yay me.

I ended up buying a wide because I have bunions. And for whatever reason, they must be getting bigger? Is that possible? I mean, I've never really researched bunions, even though I have them and they seem to be getting in the way of my boot wearing this winter. In other words, I'm starting to notice them.

My SIL had bunion surgery two years ago and was on crutches for 3 months as part of the recovery process. Y'all, I can't do anything for three months, much less be on crutches.

So, WIDE shoes it is.

And, all is right again in my shoe world.

Elisan had three soccer games this weekend. Thank goodness, they only lost one of the three games. I just can't take losing games. And double thank goodness we (her parents) haven't ruined her sports experience for her (yet). I'm sure that day is coming. She just likes to play and have fun with her friends. We just like to see them win. Hence, the ruining it part of the process.

But, speaking of sports, the girls began a 6-week volleyball clinic at one of the local area volleyball clubs. Apparently, to have any decent shot at playing high school volleyball, one must begin their volleyball career as early as possible. This was all news to me. When I was in school, if could serve the ball with a modicum of accuracy, you were in. Not so today.

There were 50 girls in Elisan's age group - 5th and 6th grade. And not to cast stones at any one particular group of people... but, it had an odd feel to it. Like competition cheer or something like that. I've never seen so many side pony-tails in all my life... and I'm a fan of the side pony. But, in small doses.

To break it down, I felt as if I was throwing my girls to the "wild" without warning. Randy even noticed the vibe. And that's saying a lot. (It's a whole lot different from the soccer the girls have been playing since they were five years old. You don't see many side ponies in soccer, that's all I'm sayin'.) And YES, I know Texas is the apex of "competition-fill-in-the-blank-here" so it should have been no surprise that there would be a plethora of side ponies and stage moms.

I'm sure that unless we draw attention to the "vibe" they won't notice and before you know it, this too shall pass. Maybe volleyball will pass too. (Don't tell Randy I said that though... he's the volleyball player in the house.)

And that's all I'm gonna say 'bout that.

Teacher Appreciation Free Printables

This year, I was asked to create a cute design for Teacher Appreciation Week at our school.

I created water bottle labels, candy bar wrappers, fold-over goodie bag tags and circle tags. This was a fun project!  And I'm very pleased with how everything turned out!

So, I'm offering up this Teacher Appreciation Printable as a freebie download!

Click the image below to download the

Teacher Appreciation Printable Pack

The zipped file contains high resolution .pdf files.

Not for the squimish

Elisan played in a soccer tournament this weekend.


It was ugly.


Elisan's team got their butts handed to them in 3 of the 5 games they played.  They finished 5th place out of 9 teams.


If you ever thought you wanted your girl to play soccer... here's what you can look forward to. It can be brutal.


I will say, she did manage to get back up and keep playing. Her comment after the game was, "At least I didn't cry."


That's my girl.

Happy to report

Well, I'm happy to report that our little patient T.J. is 100% recovered from his surgery.

I will say... for the record... that if you have no real reason to get your dog neutered, then don't. I know, that's totally unpolitically correct, but y'all, my heart was breaking for my sweet little dog. He was not himself for 10 days. That's a long hard recovery!

The truth of the matter is, I had no desire to breed him with another malti-mutt.  And, he can't escape our yard to galavant around the neighborhood spreading his "seed". So, why did I do it?

Because someone told me that sterilization promotes better health for dogs.  But does it really? 

Look, I'm not out to begin a debate about pet neutering, etc., but I found research (on ye wise Internets) that contradicts the "better health" reason.  As, I'm sure I can find research that supports sterilization.

All I know is that my pup was miserable for a long time and has just now regained his spunk.

So, my thought of the day is "do your research" ahead of time before making such a big decision.  I wish I had of.

Checking in...

I posted on my blog 5 days in a row last week and this week... well, it's pitiful.  That's why I feel as if I need to at least check in and say hello.

What's been going on?  A lot of stuff around here.  Nothing of major importance, but busy, nonetheless.

Our weekend kicked off with a Saturday a.m. soccer game for Elisan and the rest of the day was spent indoors.  The air was trying to kill me that day.  That or the cedar pollen.  So, I stayed inside in the filtered air.  Which, by the way...if there was ever any question about our redneck status... let me present to you...

Exhibit "A"

Yes, that's right.  It's a box fan with an A/C filter taped to it.  We have two.  One upstairs and one downstairs.

Sure, you can laugh.  I laughed too. But, turns out it works.  And, it's cheaper than a fancy air purifier.  Aesthetically pleasing to the eye?  Notsomuch.

I thought about "pinning" it to Pinterest for grins, but didn't.  But go ahead... feel free to pin it for me.  Pin it to the board "Sheer Redneck Genius".

Getting back to my weekend... Sunday morning, Elisan had another soccer game, however, this game was at 6:55 a.m.  That would be A.M. as in morning.  As in Sunday morning.  Her coach is serious about soccer.  And by default, I guess we are too.

They won their game and finished this session of indoor soccer undefeated.  The second winter indoor session begins in another week.  Here's hoping to fewer 7 a.m. games.

(And yes, mom... we even made it to the first service of church that morning.)

I'm having a love/hate relationship with eBay these days.  It's usually my first stop for obscure hard to find items.  For example, the girls are really loving the animated program "Kim Possible" but because Disney no longer offers it in their lineup, I've had to resort to buying a couple of DVDs online.  No biggie... I've found exactly what I was looking for on eBay.

So, I decided to sell a pair of my boots on eBay last week and the bidding was HOT.  My boots had 250+ hits and 40 bids placed on them.

(Side note: I know, I know... why sell a pair of boots that are in high demand?  Well, the short of it is... they were just to heavy/clunky on my feet and I never wore them!)

Well, the winning bidder emailed me the day after the auction end saying, "My credit card was denied when I tried to pay for the boots.  Sooooo sorry."  Um, what?!

So, I had to be a bully and threaten to report her for an unpaid eBay transaction, yadda, yadda, yadda.  In the end, after several communications with her, she paid.  My hunch was that she just changed her mind.  I suspect she'll try to resell the boots on eBay and recoup her money.  Not my problem.

Moral of the story:  Don't bid on an item you cannot pay for and/or decide you don't want if you buy something from me.  Mama don't play that. 

In the meantime, I think I'll hang up my eBay selling for a while.  That whole ordeal left me tainted.

And finally, I'll soon be wrapping up all 120 episodes of "Lost" on Netflix.  Yes.  I watched every episode of "Lost" while it was on primetime.  Yes. I'm watching it again.  Yes.  I'm completely lost as I was the first time around... only this time, I know they are actually dead!

But, I can usually catch an episode while I'm making dinner and Randy is with the girls at soccer practice.  It's slow going, but it's nice "me time".  So, I wanted some Netflix suggestions of what to watch next.

"Grey's Anatomy"?  (Never watched it!)
"Friday Night Lights"? (ditto)
"Ally McBeal" (watched it when it was on primetime... loved it!)
"24" (watched it... loved it!)

Any suggestions?

Valentine's Day Freebie Printable

I love Valentine's Day!  It's one of my favorite days of the year! Each year, I try to offer up some kind of Valentine Freebie!  This year, I'm offering up a 2-fer printable (sort've).

Click on the image below to download the

Valentine's Day Freebie Printable

Foldover Goodie Bag Tag

The file is in a high resolution .pdf formatted 2x/page.

I've also updated last year's Valentine Freebie Printable set.  I've changed the year to read 2012.  This set was created under the strict supervision of my then 4th grader who wanted to stay away from cutesy cute stuff!

Click on the image below to download the updated

Valentine's Day Freebie Printable Set

This file set contains 3 high resolution .pdfs formatted to a full page of printables.

If you have any trouble with the download, send me a message here.

I'm glad it was me

Over the Christmas break, we watched a lot of recorded movies.  One of those movies was "Fried Green Tomatoes".

"Fried Green Tomatoes" has always been one of my favorite movies and I thought it would be fun to have Elisan watch it with me.  I love the story of two friends and how their lives unfolded from childhood to adulthood.  And you can't help but love the back story about Evelyn Couch and Ninny Threadgoode, another story of friends, clinging to each other in their time of need.

So, we begun watching the movie and the part where Buddy dies on the train track was a little hard, but Elisan seemed to handle it just fine.  (I mean, heck, her favorite movies of ALL TIME are the Star Wars movies - all 1-6... so I figured the death of Buddy would be okay, in terms of her accepting it as part of the story.)

Then we see the part where Idgie goes to rescue Ruth from her abusive husband.  Ruth appears at the door with a huge black eye.  As the events unfold, we then see Ruth being kicked by her husband while on the stairs and falling to the landing floor. Well, let me just say, that took Elisan by surprise.

I had to pause the movie and explain to her that yes, violence against women is a real thing and that most times it does occur within a marriage.  I went on to explain that Idgie coming to rescue Ruth was a brave thing to do, because so many women are afraid of their husbands and what will happen to them and their children, if they do leave.

Y'all... she was truly disturbed.  She had no idea that there are men out there that abuse their wives.  NO IDEA.  But it gave me the perfect opportunity to tell her that her own daddy was a wonderful husband and that he would never hurt me.  And that my daddy was a wonderful man and never hurt my mother.  And that Randy's dad was a wonderful man and he never hurt Randy's mom and so on...  It gave me the chance to explain to her the importance of choosing a husband that not only loves and cares for her, but is also Godly man.

I'm so glad it was me that had the opportunity to discuss this with her, just the two of us... because I would hate to know that my 10 year old girl saw violence against women portrayed on television without someone stepping in and saying... that's wrong and it doesn't have to be that way.

The sad truth is, some little girls are already witnesses to abuse in their homes.  I'm blessed beyond measure that our children do not have to live that life.  That I have a husband who loves and cares for me (and them) and would do anything in this world to protect us... NOT hurt us.

As the movie progressed, I had to have similar conversations about Big George and the KKK, but again, I was glad to have to privilege to share with Elisan the truth about such inhumane acts.  There is so much ugliness in the world and I'm fortunate that it took 10 years for my girl to witness it for the first time... and thank God it was only a television portrayal.

Okay... so the question is... should I have let her see the movie in the first place?  Probably not.  The movie obviously had situations in it that were not appropriate for a ten year old.   Live and learn...

And that's why passing along this little nugget for you. That if you happen to find yourself in a situation that causes your children to pause, take a moment and give them Godly counsel, because the world is so ready and willing to desensitize our children.

One sad girl

Surely by now, y'all know that I write this blog as a memoir of my life as a wife and mother.  And sometimes, I just need to memorialize events in our lives that I don't want to ever forget.  This is one of those moments.

Last night, while Randy was tucking Kyla into bed, she began telling him how some of the kids in her class (I'm  not naming names...) told her that Santa was not real.

This is not the first time the Santa discussion has come up, but I've always steered the subject away from the truth.

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I'm hoping she'll believe in Santa until she's 15 years old... I think I embraced the Santa secret even more because, let's face it... she's my youngest child.  I couldn't bear to tell her the truth and really, I enjoy the whole Santa ruse as much as any parent.

So, when it was my turn to give Kyla a kiss before bedtime, Randy ushered me into the room and told me to close the door. Kyla was lying in her bed with a dumbstruck look on her face, as was Randy.  He had spilled the beans about Santa Claus and was not prepared for Kyla's response.

Y'all, she was upset.  Like, big ol tears welling up in her eyes, face turned into the pillow... the WORKS!

I could barely contain my tears as I saw our carefully constructed Santa Claus lie come tumbling down upon the heart of our little girl.  I was sad that she was sad and felt betrayed by us.

I know there are families out there that don't perpetuate the Santa lie and are straightforward with their kids from the get go.  And that is simply because the true meaning of Christmas is NOT about Santa Claus flying to 8 billion children's homes in one single night to deliver toys while stuffing down a chimney.  No, the true meaning of Christmas is the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  I understand and I don't judge anyone's decision in how they celebrate Christmas.

But, Randy and I decided we'd do the whole Santa thing for our kids from the very first Christmas and have enjoyed it immensely. But, truth be told, it was time she found out the truth about Santa (and the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy...)

Would I change anything?  No.  I loved all 8 Christmas's I shared with Kyla believing that Santa Claus was for real.  Am I hurting?  Sure.  I hate to see my girl upset.

I will say, in the end, she felt a tremendous responsibility in keeping the secret safe from her little kid friends at school and church and is completely tickled that even though Santa is not real, she'll still get "Santa" presents under the Christmas tree this year AND an Easter basket for Easter AND money for lost teeth.

Garlic Salad Dressing

Garlic is by far one of my favorite flavors and because of it, I'm always on the lookout for garlic flavored salad dressings.  But, my searches have come up short and I've had to resort to making my own garlic salad dressing.

Which, by the way, is perfectly fine by me.  Because the beauty of this recipe is that I always have the ingredients on hand and making it is a cinch!

You don't have to get fussy with the ingredients.  Plain ol' mustard works just fine, as does Dijon mustard.  Same goes for the hot sauce.  I keep the chili garlic sauce on hand, so that is what I use.  You could easily use Tabasco or Louisiana Hot Sauce.


Here's my recipe for Garlic Salad Dressing.

Erica's House Garlic Salad Dressing

• 1/4 cup Olive Oil
• 1/4 cup Vegetable Oil
• 1/3 White Wine Vinegar
• 3-4 (or more) fresh peeled garlic cloves
• 1 tsp mustard
• 1 tsp hot sauce
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp coarse (or sea) salt
• 1 tsp cracked pepper

Combine garlic, mustard, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, salt and pepper in a mini food processor.  Chop until garlic is minced.  Add vinegar and give it another spin.

If possible, while processing your mixture, slowly add your oils.  Mix until smooth.  (If not, just shake it up in a jar and call it a day.)

Pour into a mason jar, salad dressing bottle, etc.  I use the recycled white wine vinegar bottle for my dressing because it has a shaker spout which helps in portion control... and little girls who try to put salad dressing on their salads by themselves.

Serve with your favorite garden salad and NEVER buy store bought again!

Blog Brain Dump

Let me be the first to say... I'm kinda wishing we didn't get TJ neutered.

He is the worst patient ever.  He is pitiful.  Now, granted, I realize the poor little boy had surgery which required cutting into his abdominal wall, but OH MY WORD... either he is the worst patient ever, or I'm the most impatient person ever.

Whatever the case may be, he's a mess.  He's removed his cone of shame at least 2x in the last two days.  Goodness knows how.   And because the vet told us to give him wet dog food mixed with his dry food as a way to tempt him into eating... he has the big "D". Not to go into great detail, but waking up at 5am to a dog crate filled with "D" is not fun.  For either us.

I think it's safe to say, I'll be glad when this whole recovery process is OVER. Only 10 more days. Umm... yay?

Ahem.  Moving along...

This weekend, we trucked it down to the local nursery and bought fruit trees for our backyard.  Not sure what has gotten into Randy, but he believes that we need to have some fruit bearing trees.  So, this weekend, we bought 2 apple trees, a nectarine tree, a peach tree and two pomegranate bushes.  I think once those babies begin producing,  I'll open me up a fruit stand by the mailboxes.  Make a little extra spending money.  Heck, 1 pomegranate goes for $2.98/each at HEB. I could really make a go of this.

In other news, a few of y'all have asked if I'm still broken up with Facebook and the answer is yes. It's been over three months now.  I'd say I've begun a new chapter of my life without Facebook and it feels good without the noise and distraction of it all.  I kinda like NOT being in the know of all things mindless, trivial and political. I've even pared down my blog reading list and only view Pinterest when looking for a specific idea or recipe.  Yep... even Pinterest was vying for my attention.

In return, my mind and heart is clutter free and I'm no longer internalizing other people's thoughts, feelings and/or beliefs. I'm now able to devote my mind and heart to my priorities and it feels good.  I know it's not for everyone, but if you are feeling the weight of Facebook on your brain... I challenge you to give it up for a while.  I think you'll be surprise how much you don't miss it.

I'll be around more this week.  I have a recipe to share and a Valentine freebie printable!

Until then, enjoy these few pictures from our weekend.

Man parts

 Guess who's getting their man parts removed today?  Yep, you guessed it.  TJ.

I feel sorry for the little guy.  When we dropped him off at the vet this morning, he was a nervous wreck.

About an hour later, the vet called to tell me that she would have to remove a testic@l that had not descended properly (a birth defect, if you will) and that it would require an additional incision in his abdomen to remove it.

Que lastima.

So, she said "He needs to be quiet for 10-14 days so he can recover properly."  Translated, that means... he needs to stay crated for 10-14 days.  Ugh.  Poor little guy.  My heart breaks for him.

Quick recap before I lose my gap

I just realized that my window gap of recapping our two week Christmas break is quickly closing.  I've been remiss in updating, so I've decided to do a quick recap of all things break related.

A couple of days before Christmas we visited our folks and had Christmas with them.  It was nice spending time with our families.

 We traveled home on Christmas eve... just in time for Santa!  (Yep, we're still doing Santa... for Kyla Mae.  Elisan is in the "know".)

Randy took the week off between Christmas and New Year's Day and we took a ride up to Enchanted Rock in Llano.  Lots of fun!  (Have I mentioned I LOVE my new 55-300mm zoom lens?)

While we were in Llano, we stopped by Cooper's BBQ (a Texas original, I'm told) and while we were there, we ran into a guy  I went to high school with (Joe Bob).  He was there with his family visiting relatives who lived in the neighboring town. 

One of the projects on our to-do list while Randy was off work was to rip the carpet out of the spare bedroom/craft room and put in laminate flooring.  While we had the room cleared out, I BEGGED Randy to let me paint as well.  Y'all, he LOATHES painting.  Truly.  But, because he fears me... we painted

He doesn't really fear me.

He just knows when he can't win.

So, here's some during/after photos.

  

And that's about it.

Well, not really.  There was lots more that we did... .like clean out every nook and cranny in my house.  Apparently, I like to squirrel things away in every available space in our home. But after a big ol haul to Goodwill on Monday, I'm happy to say that my nooks and crannies are awaiting more clutter.


And I leave you with this.  Our nice family portrait of my folks, brother & family and of course, my family.

Hello 2012

Well, it's that time again.  Not time for resolutions, but for a revolution, if you will... a turnaround... a change... for the betterment of myself and for those I love.

I'll be honest... the word I had originally come up with is NOT the word I'm writing about today.  I came up with my nice, neat word while cleaning the house last week and it seemed appropriate at the time.  That word was "renew".

Randy and I were in the midst of cleaning up, cleaning out and doing some minor remodeling to some areas in our home and "renew" just seemed to fit.

Yet, somehow, as the week wore on, I realized that another word was invading my thoughts and after being confirmed two times, on two separate occasions, I knew that my word for 2012 was to be "intentional".

Intentional. 

Let me be the first to admit.  The word intentional scares me.  I'm not sure why, but it's not a nice, neat, pre-packaged word like "renew".  It's DELIBERATE.  It's on PURPOSE.  It's INTENTIONAL.

Yet, that is how I want to live.  Intentional.

I could come up with a list of things I want to be intentional about and tie it up with big beautiful bow... but, honestly, I find it hard to hold myself accountable with a list of items I want to become.

However, if I live intentionally, those items on that "list" seem to fall into place.

For example...  "Be the wife that my husband desires" could easily be on my list of things I want to be intentional about.  However, if I'm living "intentional" and "with purpose", I AM the wife my husband desires.

Does that make sense?


So, the gist of it is this... I pledge to live intentionally in every area of my life.

Because a life with purpose is a life worth living and leading.

Busy

Hello World!

Sorry I've been absent.  Randy's on vacation this week and we're doing home improvement stuff.  (He's currently at Home Depot buying more supplies.)

So, while I'd love to catch up, I can't.

Hopefully when I do return, I'll have a few projects under my belt, a decluttered home and a family back to work and school.

Meanwhile, I'm thinking of my word for 2012.  I think I've got it already, but not giving it away until I can properly write about it.

For now... carry on and Happy New Year!

Wishing You a Very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Blogging Challenge

Wordless Wednesday

Christmas Blogging Challenge

The girls felt the need to "rearrange" the presents under the Christmas tree yesterday.  In other words... they wanted an accurate count of the number of presents they each had.

Just for the record, I was informed that Kyla has 12 and Elisan has 11.  (Ooops!)

Christmas Blogging Challenge

Let's have some fun!

Here's a Christmas "Meme" for you!

Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Wrapping paper. I'm sorry, but there is nothing fun about ripping into a gift bag!

Real tree or artificial?
Artificial

When do you put up the decoration and tree?
Weekend after Thanksgiving, but this year, I'll probably shoot for the first weekend in December.

When do you take the tree down?
The weekend after Christmas (or sooner!)

Do you have a nativity scene?
No, but I'd like to eventually get a really nice one.

Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Hot chocolate, homemade variety is by far the best!

Colored lights on tree or white?
Colored lights

What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
My mother’s gumbo

What is your favorite Holiday Dessert or snack?
I love the homemade Texas trash

Favorite Holiday memory (or gift) as a child?
Santa bringing me a Honda 50 dirtbike when I was 7 years old.

When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
Not sure…

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Never! Well, unless we’re gathering with extended family.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree?
Lots and lots of snowmen!  And stuff that the girls have made.

What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
The true meaning of Christmas – the birth of Jesus Christ

What is your favorite tradition?
Spending Christmas Eve night with my Dad’s family when I was younger.

Which do you prefer, Giving or Receiving?
Both

What is your favorite Christmas Song?
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen by DMB

Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?
I don’t care for them, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say “yuck”

Hardest person to buy for?
Randy, because he never wants anything.

Easiest person to buy for?
The girls

Mail or email Christmas cards?
Mail photo cards

Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
No comment!

Favorite Christmas Movie/Show?
Charlie Brown Christmas - I love the musical score.

When do you start shopping for Christmas?
Christmas shopping? Oh, yeah... I better get started!

Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Not that I know of.

Favorite Christmas song?
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings - by Bare Naked Ladies w/Sarah MacLachlan

Travel at Christmas or stay home?
Travel for a day or two, but arrive back home before Christmas Day.

Can you name all of Santa's reindeers?
Only if I sing the song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"

Angel on the tree top or a star?
Neither. I use a big ol' ribbon bow

Most annoying thing about this time of year?
The crowds and "Happy Holidays"

Does Santa leave the gifts wrapped or unwrapped?
Unwrapped

Do you leave goodies for Santa on Christmas Eve?
Yes, cookies and milk of course.

Okay y'all!  Join in the fun!  Copy and paste this list of questions and answer them on your blog!  Leave a link in my comments section so we can all read about your Christmas traditions!
 

Christmas Blogging Challenge

As I was pulling into the parking lot to
bring Kyla to see Santa... she changed her mind.

Sigh...

Christmas Blogging Challenge

 

Finally!  Some decent pictures of the kids in front of the Christmas tree!

Christmas Blogging Challenge

 Last night, Elisan and I finished up the teacher gifts.  This year, I kept it simple and inexpensive.  I bought each teacher a metal tin (found at Hobby Lobby for 50% off) and filled it with dark chocolate kisses, chocolate mint patties and peppermints.

I also designed a set of four notecards (16 notecards per teacher) with each teacher's name on it.  I printed these up at Kinko's in black and white, using my own cardstock.

Cost breakdown:
Tins $10.00 ($1.00 each x10)
Printing at Kinkos: $8.00 (for 40 pages)
Candy: $7.00 (1 bag kisses, 1 bag of mint patties, 1 bag of peppermints)
Ribbon/Cardstock/Envelopes/Clear Gift Bags: From my personal stash
TOTAL: $25.00 (divided by 10 = $2.50/teacher)

Here are the personalized cards I designed for each teacher.  I used this design two years ago and it was so popular, I decided to update it a bit and use it again.

Custom "Motherisms" Notecards

Christmas Blogging Challenge

Here's a picture of my pup with my new prime lens.  I love the bokeh of the Christmas lights.

The second picture was taken at the indoor soccer game last night with my new telephoto lens.  I still need to read up on the best way to take indoor action shots (without a flash) to minimize blur... but aside from all of that... check out the picture.

The team was lined up for a penalty kick on our team.  The top picture shows the girls "suppossedly" getting ready to block the kick.  The bottom picture shows the girls' reaction to having a ball kicked at them. 

Now, check out  my girl... she's a natural goalie.  She's poised, ready to go and then tries to reach over the other girls to block the ball from going into the net.  I'm telling you... you cannot teach this.  You're born with it. 

You know what they say... even dynamite comes in small packages... I think we have our very own stick of dynamite on our hands! 

Christmas Blogging Challenge

It's the Christmas Blogging Challenge edition of Erica's Blog Brain Dump.

So, I've said it time and time again... I WILL NOT ever be a room mother for either of my children's classes. Never, ever, ever, ever!

Of course now because I used the word NEVER, I'm sure I'll sign up for it next year.  But, as it stands for now, I have no desire to hold the position of room mother.  Honestly, I just can't deal with the 1.) Hover parents; 2.) Parents who never contribute; 3.) Parents who think they can do a better job.

Unfortunately, I tend to fall into the 3rd category.  Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to help, pitch in, donate money, drive the field trip car pool... you name it.  But, it seems as if there is always some event (party or field trip) that goes awry for one reason or another.  I know, it's a thankless job and someone has to do it...yadda, yadda, yadda...  I'm just glad it ain't me.

So, for now, I'm minding my P's & Q's, and doing what is asked of me.  But, it's not without mild grumbling here and there.

Any room mother's out there that want to use my blog as an open forum to vent?  Feel free to comment!

I just ordered another new camera lens for my camera and I'm pretty excited about it.  It's all part of my birthday/anniversary present from Randy.  He basically gave me an allotment to spend however I wanted.  So, I chose camera lenses.  I ordered a AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G Lens (or Prime lens).  Last week, my AF-S NIKKOR 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR Zoom Lens arrived and I love it!

I ordered my camera and both lens from B&H Photo Video and I could not be more happy with them.  They are in New York, so everything I've purchased from them has been tax-free.  Plus, the shipping has been free as well. Their pricing is also very competitive.  If you are in the market for anything camera related and do not mind buying online, try B&H.

Our family doctor recently recommended some books for Elisan to read.  The books are "The Princess and the Goblin" and "The Princess and Curdie" by George MacDonald. Published in 1872, the books are fantasy books with a Christian message on faith for both children and adults alike.  (Think C.S. Lewis.)
I mention this because the books are free to download on Kindle. So far, she really likes it.  I'm so thankful for a Christian doctor!

Each year I have a set budget of what I spend on each girl for Christmas.  So far, I've found some really great deals and I'm happy with my purchases.  However, I still need to pick up a few more things, but I'm having a really hard time finding that perfect gift for them this year.  We are not doing a "big" Santa type present this year, so they are getting a lot of little things.  So ye old wise Internets... any suggestions for 8 & 10 year old girls?

That's all for now.  I need to get up from this computer and work on finishing the teacher gifts.  Hopefully I can upload a picture of the teacher gifts on tomorrow's blog installment.

Christmas Blogging Challenge

I realized I have yet to update my blog with our family vacation to Disney World!

We had an amazing time!  The girls are the perfect age for Disney and I feel blessed that we were able to bring them.  It was also a great time to go, because we were able to see Disney in full Christmas decor mode.

The biggest highlight of the trip was that both Kyla and Elisan were tall enough for ALL of the rides. It was so fun to see Kyla riding the BIG coasters for the first time... and LOVE it.

We stayed at the fabulous Port Orleans Riverside resort which is considered a "moderate" resort.  But, having previously stayed at a "deluxe" resort, I can without a doubt say that the Riverside resort was better than the deluxe resort (and about $1000.00 cheaper!) 

As with our last trip, everything was first class.  The food, the parks, the shows, the transportation, the accommodations.  It's almost a crime to admit it... but I'm ready to plan our next trip!  :)

Here are some of my favorite pictures from our trip.

 

Christmas Blogging Challege

The 4th and 5th graders had their annual Christmas program this month.

Christmas Blogging Challenge

We recently celebrated an anniversary around here.  Over Thanksgiving, we celebrated the 1 year anniversary of the arrival of T.J. into our home.

It's never been truly determined what type of breed T.J. actually is, but I'm pretty sure he's 95% Maltese.  I call him our Malti-Mutt (or dirty Maltese).

• He's a true lap dog . He shows no favoritism.  He just wants a warm body to snuggle up with.
• He is a smart dog.  He rings his bell to go outside to play or take care of business.
• He's a polite dog. He will hang out in his crate when we are eating our meals at the table... which means, there's no begging for food!
• He's our watch dog. At night, he sleeps at the top of the stairs between the master bedroom and the girls' bedroom. 
• He's an athletic dog.  (Here's video to prove it.)
• He's mild-mannered and sweet.  He dosen't bark, yelp, nip or bite. He loves strangers and his biggest crime is licking you to death.
• Randy even loves him.  (Go figure... men CAN love white fluffy dogs!)

Hands down, T.J. is the best dog we could have ever asked for. 

If you are considering a family pet, might I suggest a maltese or even a malti-mutt.  I don't think you'll be disappointed. 

My heart is heavy

Today while making a stop into Kinko's, I learned that Amy passed away.

You may remember Amy in this post, in which I wrote about how I met her for the first time.  Amy worked at Kinko's and she was battling her 3rd round of cancer.

In August, I saw Amy again, and she said her new (non-chemotherapy) cancer treatment was working and that her and her husband were applying to become foster parents.  She was happy and excited about this chapter of life.  She had just celebrated her 30th birthday.

Today, I learned that in October, Amy's doctor detected that the cancer had spread and because the chemotherapy had ravaged her body in years past, they were unable to give her additional chemotherapy to stop the growth of the new cancer.

She died two weeks later.

Amy was a Christian and she loved the Lord.  I'm saddened by this news, but thankful she is no longer in pain and is in the loving arms of our Savior.

Christmas Blogging Challenge

Just in time for school Christmas parties! A freebie goodie bag printable!  For best results, print on cardstock.

Christmas Fold-over Goodie Bag Tag.

Click on this link to download the .pdf version.

You can also right-click to save image and print directly via the web,
but you will have to tweek/adjust the printing size.

Use sandwich size or snack size resealable baggies!

Enjoy!

Christmas Blogging Challenge

For my birthday, Randy bought me a new camera lens!  I wanted a telephoto zoom lens, especially since I take a lot of outdoor action photos of the girls playing soccer.  The 55mm-300mm lens arrived yesterday and I'm already lovin' it!

Here's a picture, taken from across the room with two different focal points.  The top photo, I focused on the snowman.  The bottom picture, I focused on the light.  I love how crisp and clear each photo is!

Christmas Blogging Challenge

If you were to ask me, "Do Elisan and Kyla get along?"  My answer will unequivocally be and without hesitation a resounding, "YES!"  In fact, I often brag about how they consider each other to be their best friend.  That is... until today. 

The proof is in this note left in Elisan's room today.

For those who can't read Kyla's handwriting, the note reads,

 "Elisan smells like dog poop and rotin banana."

I'm impressed she spelled banana correctly!

This is definitely one for posterity. 

Have I mentioned I love my girls?  Even when they are little toots?

Oh MY! I've been remiss!

Okay, so it has come to my attention that I am an official slacker!  I totally forgot about my annual "25 Days of  Christmas Blogging Challenge" that I do Every. Single. Year.

Okay, so yeah, I suck.  Can I say that here?  And still be a family friendly blog?

So, starting TODAY, I'm going to revamp my 25 Days of Christmas Blogging Challenge and officially rename the challenge to the 20 Days of Christmas Blogging Challenge (or the more suitable Christmas Blogging Challenge).  Whatever... 

So, grab my banner and join me for the next 20 days as I attempt to blog everyday until Christmas.  (BTW, this one counts as one.)

And please, I just turned 39 yesterday, so cut me some slack will ya?  I'm getting old.