Me and Staci at Chick-fil-a
Mom was getting tired of me takin her picture, so she did this hehe

My dad, me, my mom, my bestie. Good pic although I look high hehe

Me and my bestie. This is the best pic we have gotten of ourselves.

Trying to get L to smile for the camera. Kinda worked.

L and my dad playing chess

My mom wrapping gifts

An ornament that Ross made for the tree. It's got more color to it, but I couldn't get an angle that would really show it up.

CHRISTmas Day

Mark and his remote control truck

My mom and dad opening gifts

My mom with her new earring holder I made her

Me and my new tool box

Mark sticking out his tougue as he opens his presents :)

I got L his NASCAR monopoly. He has a kooky smile because we weren't supposed to get anything for each other :)

We got the kids a DVD player for their tv set, so they can watch their new DVD's

Ashley and her gel pens

We got Emily a Pirates of the Caribean throw. Can ya tell she was happy?

We had 13 people over for CHRISTmas dinner. VERY crowded in our house, but it went very well. These are my mom and dad and at the table is L with his family.

The Food

The kids playing with Ross' Play-Doh

Hola. Como estan? Sorry. Hi. How are ya'll? hehe

Anyways. Busy busy here as I'm sure everyone else is too. I've been feverishly cleaning my house, although it's not how I wish it was. One year when my parents came to see us, we came home one time finding my mom cleaning the shower, even tho I had just cleaned it. UGG I told my dad today that it's as clean as I'm gonna get it by the time they get here. (I shouldn't have waited til the last minute hehe) He said it'd be OK, that mom's calmed down some. Good :)

I have been debating teaching Mark the whole Santa ordeal. I have had mixed feelings about it. See, my girls are so worried about how many presents Santa would bring or would be upset if they thought Santa didn't bring them enough things. I don't want Mark to do that. I want him to learn the reason for this time of year and want to DO things for people instead of worrying about how much he can get and what Santa will bring. (My parents never did the Santa thing with me. I always knew where my presents came from and didn't believe in him.)

Well Mark made up my mind for me. We went to the mall the other day and Santa's there taking pictures. We were going to Chick-fil-a. We were standing in line and Santa came over to talk to someone in the line beside us. All of a sudden, Mark saw him. He starting screaming bloody murder and wedged himself between the counter and me. The lady at Chick-fil-a asked Santa to leave for a few minutes. After Santa left, Mark was fine. Wellllll, we weren't gone by the time Santa came back. As Santa walked back toward us, Mark notices him again and starts screaming again. He literally DRAGGED me out of the mall. He was soooo spooked. It was the second time this has happened. A day or two before, he went to a CHRISTmas party with his PawPaw and he said that Mark got scared there. I just didn't realized HOW scared! So I guess I don't have to do the Santa thing. I don't think he'll mind either :)

Question for ya~~How old is too old to still be believing in Santa? My daughters are 12 and 10 and I think that's old enough to know the truth. I'm I off base?

Write ya later Hasta luego

Another I pass

I passed my Criminal Justice with a B. Considering how BAD I started the semester out with, I proud of that.

Please pray for Mark. It's the first time he's ever been sick (almost 4 years old, in Jan., and this is the first time he's been sick!), and he is so pitiful :(. He was running a temperature today, had a bad cough, and throat was hurting. I felt so bad for him. He asked me (in a barely audible voice) "Am I sick?" and I said "Yep honey. Sorry." He looked at me and cocked his head and said "Why???" Awww my poor baby. Please pray that his fever will continue to go down and stay down.

Run-down of sicknesses~ Ross~ strep and croup; Emily~sick, high fever; Ashley~ flu; Mark~ don't know what yet. Also pray that L doesn't get any of this!!

I have got soooo many things I need to do before my parents come in town next week. It seems as tho when I get one chore done, three more take it's place! UGGG L finally hung up our fish above the mantle and our aerial photo of our house. I need to take a picture of the fish. Technically, it's not of a real fish, but it looks real :) It's a fish body with an alligator mouth. :) hehe

Hope all is well with everyone in this hectic time of year.

Write ya later.

I passed

I passed my Forensic Psychology class!! YEAH!! I made an A++ :)
Now all I have to do is wait for my Criminal Justice grade. I wish she'd hurry up. I'm going to be starting a Speed Spanish class on Wed. I can't wait.

Tomorrow nite I will be childless. My FIL's fiancee will be taking my 2 boys to a CHRISTmas party, so I will have the house to myself. L said he may be going to Greensboro.

My parents will be here next week. It's funny the little things you miss when you grow up and get out of the house. When I was smaller, I LOVED to help my parents with the CHRISTmas tree. Then as a teen, I did the tree. I wouldn't let them help. As I was decorating the tree this year, I was wishing for my parents to be here to help. That's one reason why our tree isn't completely done. I wanted to have them do some to it too. I can't wait.

I got L a Chris Daughtry CD. I hope it's good. I hid it from myself when I got it and accidentally blamed Mark for doing something with it. I felt bad when I found the CD. I went and apologized to Mark and he hugged me and said "It's OK mommy" AW WWW :)

Ross is better. I forgot to tell ya'll about this. Thurs. I went and picked him up from school. The teacher's assistant told me that Ross had said he wasn't feeling good, but then went out for PE and acted fine. So she didn't want to bother me and call me if he was feeling better. (Yet he had fallen asleep in class) As we get into the Expedition, Ross told me that his teacher said to tell me that if he didn't feel better the next day, to keep him home. I said we'll see. I get him home, help him out of the vehicle, and he was HOTT. I took his temp. and it's 102.1!! I asked if he told the teacher he was feeling hot, and he said yes. He had this big of a temp and they didn't want to BOTHER me? Took him to the doc and he had strep throat! Mon, took him to the doc again and he had the croup. I hope no one else got sick at school since they didn't want to call me! UGGG! School people! They drive me nutz.

Sorry for the rant! At least I put good news in here too :)

Write ya later.

One Word

You can only answer with one word. No explanations.

1. Yourself: amuseable

2. Your spouse: commendable

3. Your hair: growing

4. Your mother: better

5. Your father: talkative

6. Your favorite item: tv

7. Your dream last night: nothing

8. Your favorite drink: tea

9. Your dream car: dream

10. The room you are in: getaway

11. Your ex: son

12. Your fear: losing

13. What you want to be in 10 years: younger

14. Who you hung out with last night: family

15. What you're not: unloyal

16. Muffins: chocolate

17: One of your wish list items: laughter

18: Time: late

19. The last thing you did: kiss

20. What you are wearing: pj's

21. Your favorite weather: warmer

22. Your favorite book: Peretti

23. The last thing you ate: chicken

24. Your life: busy

25. Your mood: tired

26. Your best friend: forever

27. What you're thinking about right now: snoring

28. Your car: heatless

29. What you are doing at the moment (other than the quiz): listening

30. Your summer: hot

31. Your relationship status: working

32. What is on your TV: Courtv

33. What is the weather like: cold!

34. When was the last time you laughed: hour

CHRISTmas tree

We went to a CHRISTmas tree farm and got our tree. It was the first time for everyone, but me. It was great to see the kids so excited in finding a tree.


You take a hay ride thru the farm, they tell ya what's what, and then drop you off at what type of tree you want.

Sawing the tree.

"Hey, can you possibly put down the camera and help me?" hehe
"Cheese, let's go, it's COLD!" (and some people left their coats in the vehicle)

And..... LIFT. hehe

Going back with our new tree :)

Puttin on the ornaments (or if you're Mark, taking them off)

The lights

An ornament that was on my tree for years. My grandma got it for me when I was little (it has my name on the moon)

Our tree (for now)

Our tree won't be done for a while, but I did want to post our trip. My parents are bringing some ornaments from their house to put on it and I'm also going to be putting on some from L's grandma's. I'll post some pics once all that gets done.

Pin reversal

Good Information to have as the holidays are approaching

PIN NUMBER REVERSAL (GOOD TO KNOW)
If you should ever be forced by a robber to withdraw money from an ATM machine, you can notify the police by entering your Pin # in reverse.

For example if your pin number is 1234 then you would put in 4321. The ATM recognizes that your pin number is backwards from the ATM card you placed in the machine.

The machine will still give you the money you requested, but unknown to the robber, the police will be immediately dispatched to help you.

This information was recently broadcasted on TV and it states that it is seldom usedbecause people don't know it exists.

My favorite things ~ in pictures

It's hard to come up with just one thing for some of the items, so some of them have a couple of things :)

Candy

Food

Holiday

State

Games

Drink

Color

Season

Car

Musician/Group

Animation

Hobby

Snack

Book

Actor

Movie

TV Show

Childhood Show