Pictures of Thanks

We hope you all had yourselves fabulous Thanksgivings. Aside from being in Minnesota, ours couldn't have been better. We were invited to the Collard's for dinner. I made pies, rolls, deviled eggs, and Travis made the carrot souffle. Here is a picture of my cherry pie that I thought was very pretty. Here are the girls playing with the Bedazzler. McCall was very excited about it. They had a lot of fun Bedazzling t-shirts, flip flops, and a cast boot.

We were at Collard's until pretty late with one round of "Werewolves." There was a lot of talking and laughing. The kids all watched "The Notebook" and then laughed at the end when they were all crying. Here were are off to Kohl's on Black Friday. I don't really do the Black Friday thing, but we did have a couple of things to get. We did not get up early, I do that every day and I do not need to do that on vacation. I ended up getting more "around the house" things done. Note the Christmas decor on the counter. Yes, my friends, the flooring project has moved out the the main areas so I can decorate. We worked hard and have it all done. I knew that if it was left and we went back to school, it would not get done. Rozzie was a great decorator. I took pictures last year to remind myself where everything goes, so all I had to do was pull up the picture and tell Rozzie to recreate the picture and she was off!! Now we are a festive bunch. Here is Maddie helping Trav with the lights. She has fun doing this.

I have had a great vacation and accomplished much good. I did 7 portfolio items which was my goal. I have 26 more to do. *sigh* School is back in on Monday and there are only 15 more working days until Christmas break!! I think I can handle this! As a matter of fact, November 16 was my 1 year anniversary in my job. That was the day I took over the class and was expecting to work for 6 weeks. Who knew at that point that it would turn into a career! Not that I want a career. I still think of it as a job that can come and go - not permanent. It is how I cope. I hope you all had a great holiday break and got to enjoy family and friends and especially some good food!!

Thanksgiving Bubbly

Our favorite drink for Thanksgiving is the Welch's Sparkling Grape Juice. So I was buying some at Wal-Mart and this was what happened:

Wal-Mart Lady: Can I see some ID?
Jen: It's non-alcoholic.
WML: I know.
Jen: OK. (shows ID)

Most Glorious Thanksgiving Break

So here I am on Thanksgiving Break!! We got the whole week off. I guess they decided that everyone leaves anyway, so why fight it? I'm not complaining. I got right to work enjoying myself on Friday afternoon. We took Rozzie and Maddie shopping at Kohl's. The girls have this problem with their arms. They got really long over the last year and none of their long sleeved shirts fit them. It has been chilly and so they were in need of clothing. They got some nice things and will be appropriately clothed. Of course with Kohl's, everything is on sale and we are grateful for that option close by. Rozzie got the nicest coat!! I LOVE it. Saturday morning she went out to clean the garage and wore her new ivory/black coat out there. "No dear. Cleaning the garage is a "sweatshirt" kind of job." She likes to get dressed to the nines to sit around the house. So, here is a little hint of how we are spending our days off:

Licky is a connoisseur of taking it easy. He loves it when we don't make the bed and there are pillows to lean up against and snuggle in-between. He embodies the attitude of comfort and rest.

Travis took a day off last week and worked on the floors. Some have asked about progress. I thought that showing the bedroom all done was as much as you wanted to see regarding the floors. Travis got through Morgie's hall and into the storage closet. I love how the wood just flows everywhere. Travis took everything out of the closet and put it back. Now he is familiar with what is in the closet and won't have to ask me if we have any more salad dressing. He already knows that yes, it is in the closet.

Travis is very proud of this little joint in the toe board. He is not a detail man, so this was a big deal for him. It turned out great. He will do the caulking all at once for the entire house. At least the boards are in place.
Here is how Maddie is spending movie time. She is knitting wash clothes!! She has become quite the knitter.

As for me, I FINALLY got to the last 12 ornaments. Hip Hip Hooray!! They are done now and I just need to spray varnish them, drill the hole, and put the twine in them. Love this life!! Tonight is "Twilight" night. Very exciting.

One last story (and I know Sara has done this before). Last night, Morgie was in her room playing her guitar and not responding to my calls. So I texted her, knowing she was expecting a friend to text her and she'd pick up her phone immediately. So I texted "come clean the kitchen and wash the dishes" (there was hardly anything to do as I had cleaned up before dinner). I had Travis come and watch what I was doing. Within seconds we heard, "Mo-om!" She laughed really hard and came out and did the dishes with Rozzie's help.

Picture this...

(because there are no pictures of it) The bell rings. 2200 kids are released from their classes. In the midst is Mrs. Smith in her "big books" t-shirt, running and pushing kids aside to get to her car as fast as possible. Yes, my friends, it is Thanksgiving Break! I'm free for 9 days. I might cry, I'm so happy.

And, happy birthday, Mike.

It's been a full moon and the werewolves are out

Look at Maddie being all eleven. She has her new earrings and she loves them. They are very sparkly.

This is Maddie at the Paterson Variety Show doing her tap dancing. She did very good. She did the dance that she performed at the recital this past summer. I was proud of her to go up there all alone!!

This is Maddie's werewolf cake!! We were so excited about it. I didn't have the time for decorating cakes this week, so I hired a friend's mother and she did such a great job. Maddie was so thrilled with it. Morgie asked if she could make her cake, too.

Maddie's crowd. We had 4 more girls arrive, just right for the werewolf game. This was the perfect game for a crowd. It kept all the kids in their seats with their eyes closed and they were all quiet. They loved it. The game is "Werewolves of Miller's Hollow." It is a GREAT game. Here we are playing! That is all for now!

Happy Birthday Missie Pie!

November 10th means that Maddie is eleven. It is hard to believe our littlest is so old and mature. She is moving into her last year of Primary. She has been a precocious little girl. She was such a good baby; able to be left in the playpen for long periods of time so I could get stuff done. When she was born, her most identifiable feature was the dimple in her chin. The hospital staff whisked her away to the NICU before we really got to know her. When I finally got to see her again, I knew she was the right one by that dimple in the chin!! As you can see, she had a head-full of blond hair. What a great little kid.
She grew in stature quickly. I think it was the heavy cream I produce. She was a darling little girl with pretty blue eyes. She was always ready to smile. This is a picture of her at 6 months. She would lay on the floor at church and sing and sing. I'd take her out because she was so distracting, but then the people would say, no, keep her in.
So here she is at 9 months, continuing her "angelic" rouse. She was still delightful and so easy to have around. She didn't start eating solid food until about this time. She didn't care, I didn't really need her to be left for anything. She was pretty patient. She was plenty big. Just a nice baby.

Then at about 18 months, things changed. She got an attitude and started demanding all that she thought was her's and then some. She really gave me a run for the money for a few years. We always say it is a good thing we weren't cussers or Maddie would have cussed a blue streak. We always prayed that she would use her strong will for righteousness. Going to bed was a nightmare for about 3 years. She would make a mess of things and torment Roz. This picture was her 3 year old picture. She was not happy about this set-up. I kept up with the photo shoot because this is an accurate depiction of her at this age. She is saying, "I'm done!" It is actually one of my favorite pictures of the dear girl. This was the phase that earned her the name, "Missie Pie." She would disrobe if she got her clothes wet. She hollered at people. She stomped around. However, often times, she was quite nice and lovable.
Then, she grew out of it and has turned into the nice, quiet, conscientious Maddie we all know. She got long and lean. She is very well behaved. I mentioned precocious before; she once told me, "I like to go see movies at the cinema." She loves cats, as we all know. This is her Jazz costume from this summer's dance recital. The scanner wasn't scanning the whole picture so this is all I have. We are blessed to have Maddie in our home. She is kind and loving. She is witty and creative. Now, she is eleven!! Now it is time for me to meet them all for dinner!!

Since you may not have seen them and I am so very proud...

Here are Morgan's wristlets that I knit her. They are wonderful and snuggly. I wanted to have my latest stuff up so that there was something on my blog.

Things Are A-Changing

Things are changing around here, but I don't know how to do any of it and I keep wrecking stuff. Jessie (of "Bessie" fame) has the cutest blog templates. I tried to change mine and ended up having to delete the whole blog and start over. Now I can't get rid of the original template. If you have any suggestions, I'd love some help. Please.