These Boots were made for walkin'

I went to a white elphant exchange and won these orange boots. I love them and Chris evidently does too. He does not have winter boots and used mine to shovel the drive way during the winter flurries.

Sleepy Pirate

Earlier this month, our family (minus me) went to a birthday party at the Crawmers. They truly went all out. It was a combined birthday party for their sons Morgan and Jack Jack. There was a costume theme. Amanda was Dot from Mad TV, her husband Andy was a mad scientist, complete with sideburns. Dan was a baseball player and Julie was a teacher. Morgan and Jack were decked out in kilts, braveheart style. The Pasmas were all Bombers fans, one of them (we wont say who) wore shorts that should not be worn by men. (yikes!) And my family consisted of a hippie, a pink pirate, Sharpei from HSM, and Garbriella from HSM. They had a blast! I was at my annual (it was only my second year) cookie exchange. It took me years to get into this group. I remember my aunt going to the exchange when I was a little girl and thinking, "oh I hope I get invited to that when I am older." Basically someone has to die or be miss a year for there to be an opening in the group. A few years back I asked my aunt if there were any weak links in the group so that I could get my foot in. Well, no one died, but I got an invite and felt so pleased to go. So I am in until death keeps me from it. I love going. We play six rounds of bunko and eat all afternoon. The hostess of the party makes an amazing cranberry tea each year and I looked forward to it for that long. It was worth the wait. Hope you enjoy!

December Catch Up!

We got a new camera about a month ago and Chris has been really enjoying playing with the different settings on it. here are some of his master pieces. Also, this month has been a whirlwind. We decorated our tree, played in the snow and had a good time. The snow has made for a lot of indoor play and that has caused cabin fever for the girls and I. Dont get me wrong, I still go somewhere everyday, but they have so much energy that most of it is spent fighting with each other. We have been renting several movies and having "sleepovers" for the girls. I am excited for tonight. Chris is supposed to get off at noon and we get the rest of the day together. Yeah!

Motivation

I have been lacking in this area. I have been running three times a week since the day school started. We are just over three months. Last week I took it off becuase I had all the girls with me and I just didnt know how I would work it with two riding in the stroller and Dani potentially riding her bike, so the only day I went was Monday. Consequently I have felt fat all weekend. So I got back into it on Monday and today. It is amazing to me, I look different to myself in the mirror. Here is the frustrating part....the scale has not really changed. I run three times a week, dance for two hours a week, and nothing as far as numbers has changed. I am going to try and be ok with this and just be ok with feeling good about how I look. Thats all I got for now! Peace

A page for Paige

So as I battled the chaos we all know as Walmart yesterday a friend reminded me that I had not blogged for a while, so this is for you Paige. Not much new going on here. Chris has been working a lot extra the past few days so I havent seen him much. The girls are bugging us to get lights on the house and we havent done it yet. Oh and I did battle black friday and we came up with some rules:

1. Do not buy the things that are not on sale. They will be there tomorrow and there is no reason to stand in long lines for stuff like that.

2. Do not get a cart unless your purchase calls for it. They are too big to maneuver and in large crowds you end up with a traffic jam situation.

3. Decide who will be the place holder upon entering the store. Put that person in line and then go get what you need and bring it to them. Warn the other shoppers around you that you are merely a placeholder and others will be bringing their stuff to you. People are usually cool with you doing this.

4. Cut the weak link from the herd. If you give people fair warning about where you are in the line progression and they do not make it back by the time you are at checkout....leave them. They need to just fend for themselves. Brutal I know.

5. For the love, if you have a cart take it with you. Do not leave it in the middle of an aisle. Nothing drives me more crazy then people who detach from the cart for a side conversation thus causing a traffic jam. Costco shoppers are notorious for this.

6. If you are not sure if you want to buy the on sale item, get it anyway and bring it back if you change your mind. At least you will have gotten it at the sale price if you decide to keep it.

I think I had one more, but have since forgotten it. We always end our day with lunch at the OG and a movie. This year we saw 4 Christmases and it was really funny. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, God bless you and your family.

Upmost

This was part of my devotion this morning. I hope it speaks to you as it did to me:

We should be so one with God that we don’t need to ask continually for guidance........If we are born again by the Spirit of God, our devotion to Him is hindered, or even stopped, by continually asking Him to guide us here and there. ". . . the Lord led me . . ." and on looking back we see the presence of an amazing design. If we are born of God we will see His guiding hand and give Him the credit.
~J~

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

Most of us take for granted the ability to pronounce letters. They flow off our tongue naturally without effort and all is well. That said, Allison has always had trouble saying the letter R. I just thought she would grow out of it, so I was not concerned. During one of our summer functions a friend and her mom (I love you Jen) pointed out to me that Alli could not say her R. Something I knew but didnt think anything about. My friends mom is a speech therapist and said that services would be available to her for free in school. I asked if there was something I could practice with her to work on it myself. She said no, in a totally loving and honest way. She said that her tongue has to lay down in the back to pronounce the R. Alli said the word red, like wed. Anyhow, I took this as a challenge.If someone else can get my child to say her R, by golly I was going to try too. Alli was eager to try her letter r. It started out that she would sort of growl to get the letter out. That was cool with me. Well, after about a month of her really trying, she can say her letter R. She is really into emphasizing it too and we notice and are sure to give her praise.