Reflections

1. Easy Bake Ovens. Don't believe the hype. Sarah baked a teeny, tiny birthday cake for Jesus, spread on the chocolate frosting and said, "Ish."

2. Keeping The Littles up until 10pm on Christmas Eve still had them bouncing around Christmas Day by 6am.

3. Sarah has been practicing Hot Cross Buns on her recorder for music class. Every.Single.Day. The notes which emanate from the instrument only slightly resemble the tune Hot Cross Buns.

4. When a wrapped car yells, "I Am Speed!" it is truly anticlimactic to Tims when he opens the thing.

5. A rescheduled Christmas Eve due to a winter storm is a good thing. 3 days of celebrating is just enough.

6. The Bigs headed to their rooms to play all of their new music CD's after present opening. Mommy was sad at this sign of things to come.

7. Christmas is over already??!!

8. Nobody really likes egg nog in this house. They pretend to and then leave their glasses half full on the counter. Fine. More nog for me. Nog. What a great word.

9. My grandma Nora would lecture me good if she saw what a horrid present wrapper I have become. She could wrap a present with only 3 pieces of tape. Sorry, grandma.

10. By early next week I will be singing a part of It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas. You know....the part that goes And mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again!

All Dressed Up

This is Sarah and her sister Jessie. Actually Jessie reminds me so much of Timmers. Weird.

Merry Christmas 2009!

Just for fun

Fooooood

I am home. Home from grocery shopping. It's pretty brutal out there. People grabbing and hitting my cart and getting crabby. I am happy to report that my husband will hunt and kill our Christmas Roast Beast and I just purchased the last can of Who Hash.

PS The proper response to Happy Holidays! is Merry Christmas!

His Idea

The Griswolds

You might want to click on the picture. Get The Clark Effect.

Ring Those Bells

Numbers Game

There is a pager I need to bring with me after I drop Timmers off in the church nursery.(his cwass)The number on the pager said 86. I think. I wrote down 86 on the sign in sheet. While I sat in church I looked again at the pager number and figured it was 98. I am pretty sure is was 98. Or 86. In my mind I wished 86 good luck with one of Tim's melt downs. I needed the break.

Bisquits

Bake time?

I'm Me

I walked into the post office and was greeted with a warm, welcoming smile and an enthusiastic, "Oh, hi!!" I smiled back and returned the greeting. Mrs. PO Greeter then frowned and said, "Oh, I thought you were someone else." She's right you know. I am someone else. And I'll take whatever greeting I can get.

Back to Baking

After making 96 peanut butter cups(96!)for a Christmas Cookie Exchange it is back to the drawing board for me. I had good intentions. I was going to wrap all of the goodies for my neighbors with my Merry Christmas! cards to herald joy on our street. The dozens and dozens of baked goods I brought home are gone. It took 2 days for the 6 Streams to gobble them up like we were treat deprived. I shall be locked away for the weekend baking my fingers to the bone and shall not emerge until cookies overflow my counters yet again.

All I Want For Christmas

Wintry Thoughts

1. When the weatherman says the high for today will be zero, I laugh.

2. When the slush and snow cover up the yellow parking lot lines, we become parking imbeciles.

3. You really can scrape windows with a debit card. I am sure a credit card works too but we don't have any of those.

4. It takes superwoman strength to push a shopping cart through a snow packed parking lot.

5. When your children beg you to please stop singing Walking in a Winter Wonderland, you should probably stop.

6. The van will warm up as soon as we get to where we're going.

Stocks

I am not sure what Tigger did but it must have been pretty bad.

No Sense

Joshua and I were driving around together and he asked me why some boys walked like that. I told him that if they didn't their pants would be down to their ankles.

Sarah Soaring Eagle Stream

When I found out I was pregnant with Sarah I was a middle school LD teacher. Joshua was in daycare. I prayed hard about what I should do. I wanted more than anything to stay home with my children. Even though Joshua's day care provider was an absolute peach, she wasn't me. It has not always been easy to stay home and not have the benefit of two full time incomes but I haven't missed a thing in the lives of my children. Sarah obviously disagrees with me. We were running errands the other day and we drove by her school. She told me the children playing outside were The Soaring Eagles. They get dropped off by working parents at 6am and some stay until 6pm. Sarah asked me, "Why can't I be a Soaring Eagle? How come I never got to go to day care?" She was not satisfied with my answer that I stay home to be with her. I am confident that someday her therapist will help her work through it.

Ok Just One More

Canned Food

Yummy!

KC

I am annoyed that newer kid's movies use the golden oldies for their sound tracks. I lived the 70's and 80's and find it strange that cartoon characters belt out these old tunes. Doesn't seem to fit. Neither does this sound when it comes out of nowhere.
Nathan "That's the way uh huh uh huh I wike it uh huh uh huh. That's the way uh huh uh huh I wike it."
It creeps me out. I no wike it.

A Snow Day

is snow much fun!

MOA

Photo Ops

Interview

You Betcha!

Up at 2:30am because I couldn't sleep anyway. I was ready to go!! Arrived at the Mall of America parking lot at 4:30am. There were quite a few cars there already and we were asked to please wait until 5am and then we could drive(in an orderly fashion, no bumper cars)to the parking ramp. People started RUNNING for the mall. I wanted to stay in the car as long as possible(18 degrees out)so my friend and I got into line at around 5:15am. We took turns going back to the car and heating it up. The line started moving into the mall at 6am. We walked into the blessed warmth at 6:20. Wrist bands at 8ish. Got one!! We took turns for breaks and coffee and sandwiches and wandering about. It is hard to stay in line for hours on end!! I got antsy and took many walk abouts to chit chat on the cell phone. I met so many AWESOME, LIKE MINDED folks. So fun meeting and gabbing and relating over politics. Instant bonds form when you are napping on the floor of a mall together.
Sarah, Todd and Trig Palin came out at 11:40am!! They are such a gorgeous family! The crowd went nuts and the media was EVERYWHERE! In my way, more like. I told one reporter to move his rearend so I could see Mrs. Palin.(I am hoping I told him that in my head)We got to see them as the line moved on and she signed books with lightening speed! Todd handed her a book and she gabbed and smiled and shook hands while she signed. It was almost my turn to head up onto the stage! Trig was not there. :( I shook Sarah's hand as I got to her and asked if she would sign my shirt. She did! She signed my book and I handed her a precious feet pin and told her it was in memory of Tad.(Her baby lost to miscarriage)She got teary eyed and said, "That is just so precious! Thank you! God bless you! Todd, isn't that precious?" He nodded. I told her that I loved her and she said she loved me too. I shook Todd's hand and told him it was so nice to meet him. I was then quickly ushered off stage!! Buh bye, woman.
I was interviewed by Star Tribune and someone else videotaped me yapping about Sarah Palin. Many folks took pictures of my signed shirt. I guess she is not supposed to do that. I submit that she can pretty much do whatever she wants. Her book. Her gig. Her people.

After 7 1/2 hours in a line this nutjob had had enough. Home at 2:30pm. SO WORTH IT!!

Pictures are coming.......but here is one for ya!!

THANK YOU TO MY MIL FOR COMING DOWN TO WATCH TIMS!! LOVE YOU!

The Palin Plan

It is oh three hundred hours. I am leaving at oh three hundred thirty hours. Shhhhh. In an attempt to secure wrist bands to see Sarah Palin, this covert operation hopefully will lead us to the Mall of America before 5am. I said Shhhhh! Not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse. My ride should be here soon. She is a fellow Christian right wing extremist nutjob like myself. Praying I get to meet SP in person, have her sign my book Going Rogue(Not Rouge)and ask her to be my running mate in 2012. Wish me luck.

Maybe a Karate Chop?

This is the glassware that fits into our microwave. Um. Still haven't the slightest idea how it broke in half while Joshua was babysitting. Something about popcorn, popcorn butter, BAM! and well, there you have it.

Decorating

Nathan wanted a Power Rangers cake for his birthday. There ya go, buddy.

Cell

My cell phone is broken. I dropped it on its head the other day. Now it has a concussion. It is concussed. I hear my phone ringing and I see your name and number. I cannot accept your call nor reject it. You leave me a voice message that I cannot hear. I will call you back and I apologize if I am concussing but My.Cell.Phone.Is.Broken!

Snack

This is a crayon wheel. I guess blue didn't appeal to Tims when he took a bite out of every other color.