Happy New Year

I'm just coming off of two "working in high gear" days. (Lots of work at The Silver Hanger for Wednesday and Thursday.) Previous to that I had four "low gear days". (Hanging out in Dallas with family). Now I'm looking at two days off and thinking, hum... should I try to tackle my huge "to do" list. If so, where should I start? If I think about it very much, I'll get overwhelmed and discouraged. If I don't think about it at all, I might proceed in a very unorganized manner, hopping from one activity to another and probably not finishing anything. Or should I just take a couple of days off and not worry about the things I need to get done? Which way to go? What ever is getting done, is not going to happen until tomorrow. For tonight, I'm just thinking "happy new year", (my brain is mush), I'll figure out a plan tomorrow. hehe
Plus no big celebration here- I doubt if I'll even be awake at midnight. :)

Santa...

must have left all of the toys somewhere else!

Pretty low key day here- not even any snow to play in. Breakfast for three, at 8:00. Open a couple of presents. I scrap booked, Ron read a book, mom went to church. Leftover salad for lunch.

We were invited to have dinner with some friends.

Now, I'm just waiting for "little kid pics." to start showing up on the blogs, so I know how every one's Christmas day was :)

Now that Christmas is almost over, we can get on to the important stuff- like going to see some of the kids! :)

Happy Holidays

On Vacation

Ron and I are both officially on vacation. Ron for the rest of the year. Me until next Wednesday. When mom asked Ron tonight what he is going to do "on vacation"- he said, "I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but I know what I'm not going to do. I'm not going to get up at 4:45 am." I said, "Good, that means that I'm not getting up at 5:30 am either." Now if I can just convince myself to do "whatever I want" instead of just "working at home"- life will be great. And if my free time doesn't get all cluttered up with "stuff", life will be even greater. We are not going anywhere (at least not until Saturday) and no one is coming here for Christmas- probably by Saturday, we will be bored to death and ready to do almost anything- like drive to Dallas :) Ron said, "Maybe we should try to borrow some little kids for Christmas morning!" :) :)

All Is Fair...

in love and

pics! :)

Happy Birthday Jesus

I am always trying to think of fun, activities to do with my nursery class. I try to come up with something new each Sunday. Usually just something small, like a new game, or toy, or book, or simple activity. (This is for about a dozen, 3-year-olds) I decided that a good Christmas activity would be a birthday party for Jesus. Nothing real fancy, just simple, in keeping with the sabbath day. I took my wooden, child proof, nativity set. Small white cakes, juice boxes, birthday napkins, and red balloons tied with green ribbon.

Then I made cute "Happy Birthday" cards and a small picture for each child to color. I put those in a plastic bag with a candy cane and a holiday bookmark, with each child's picture on it. (The bookmark was more of a gift for "mom" than for the 3-year-old.)

Let's just say, that in theory, everything was a good idea. In reality, things didn't quite go as planned. Because of some unexpected circumstances, things didn't turn out perfect. But what 3-year-old expects perfection? :)

All I Want for Christmas

I finished decorating the house. (or let's just say, at least I'm not getting any more stuff out) We put a few lights outside. (although Ron needs to try to figure out they keep "shorting out" :) My shopping is mostly done. (Just 1 more gift left and I'll be able to take care of that on Monday) Everything I needed to ship is gone, the last packages left today. I still have a huge "to do" list at the store, but on the top of that list is just 1 black jacket to be ready by next Wednesday. (I am hoping to do that tomorrow) I have two dinner party's to plan (very small- one Sunday evening and one Christmas eve), my Christmas cards to do (no promise on getting those out before Christmas), and a birthday party for Jesus for my nursery kids. Today was one of those days when I could tell my list of things to do was getting smaller and I was on mission to work as fast as possible to keeping checking things off. Looks like I might actually be ready for Christmas soon. (Good thing, huh?!, running out of time :) I'll be ready and all of the kids are off some where else! Good thing, over time, they eased me into this plan of Christmas with just Ron, mom, and I. I don't expect it to be overly exciting :)

I am now to the point, where I can say "all I want for Christmas" is....

three days of nothing but scrap booking!

My plan is for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I'm going to stock up on photo splits, ink for the printer, and paper trimmer blades. I don't want to have to "run to Wal Mart" for anything. I will still plan meals, but nothing else. I hope Ron has some football to watch, or something. I hope he wasn't planning on spending Christmas with me :) :) Besides, he will get to spend some quality time with me in the car on Saturday. (we are driving to Dallas, that day) I'll get back to you on how well my plan works. I've got the last five Christmas' to do in my Christmas scrapbooks. lol

Christmas Decor

I did what Annie suggested, "don't get out the whole sha-bang" on decorations. Here are a few pictures, although the pictures don't turn out very well. As you can see I have "funny taste" in decorations- kind of country, kind of western, kind of whatever :) Ron also helped me put a few lights out side on Monday evening.

One of the new Christmas colors is turquoise-

so I added some of that this year.

Here is my (small) partridge in a (red) pear tree,

along with a funny elf that mom got last year.

Here are some of my glass decorations,

and canned "snow".

I love the "long trunk" trees...

(this tree is decorated with fishing items, mountain animals, and cowboy stuff)

and black bears (on a bandana tree skirt).

One of the things I decided not to put up is the big tree. I'll try to take a few more pictures, now that we have some lights up. Even just having a few lights makes all the difference.(Like Annie's boys looking at their tree)

Christmas Lights and Cookies

I guessed a couple of things wrong for our trip to Bandera. Our first stop was at WhataBurger for dinner, on Friday evening. But instead of brisket at the barbecue restaurant, for lunch on Saturday- we tried out the enchiladas at "The Old Spanish Trail". It was really good. And I didn't have the opportunity for ice cream from Sonic- I could have had ice cream from Dairy Queen. But somehow on a cold, grey, drizzly day, I just wasn't in the mood for ice cream :) This first picture is at "The Old Spanish Trail" restaurant.

Christmas lights on deer antlers!

This is...NOT our property with the cedar all cleared out.

This is our property with the cedar all still there.

This is...

NOT the river behind our property.

This is the river behind our property.
It has been too rainy for them to be able to clear our lot. The first river picture is what the river looks like just downstream from us- so there is still hope that the river will come back. At least there was some water now, rather than none. (Just up stream from us, the water goes underground, so with the drought and the water level so low- no water above ground. Then just downstream from us it comes back up again.) So, should we pray for rain for the river, or pray for a dry spell, so they can clear out the cedar? :) We are going to back about the 1st of January to look at things again. We drove back home on Saturday afternoon.

I did get home in time to make cookies for Sunday.

This Saturday

At home this Saturday, I could be doing Christmas decorations. Or I could be shopping, wrapping, and shipping. Or I could be baking. Or I could be writing Christmas cards. Or I could be printing out pictures to go in those Christmas cards. At my store, this Saturday, I could be sewing. Or I could be doing inventory. Or any of the other endless items on my "to do list" there. This Saturday, Ron could be mowing, edging, weeding, and trimming. Then putting up Christmas lights outside. Or taking care of various chores on the car and the house. But instead of all of these things, we are going to Bandera tonight. (Bandera is just west of SanAntonio- so we will spend 4 hours in the car tonight and another 4 hours in the car tomorrow ) Then in between wander around on a piece of property - hoping to see the cedar trees cleared out and water in the river. I'm guessing that some where along the way, I will get a WhataBurger and fries, a holiday mint blast from Sonic, and brisket at the barbecue restaurant in Bandera. And maybe see a few Christmas lights in cowboy country :) So everything else will have to wait- short trip with my honey instead. All I can say is I hope Ron's love language is "quality time", because I'm making a big sacrifice here. lol

Hey Micah...

we love you and Happy B Day.

You will get a real card in the mail-- soon, but not today :)

Christmas Cheer Needed Here

Over the weekend, Ron and I were both sick, and with all of the Friday night excitement... I am a bit slow on the Christmas decorations. All I got done Saturday and Sunday was put away the Thanksgiving stuff. Mom always tries to tell me, "don't get anything out". This year, she said, "no one is coming here, you don't need to decorate". Should I tell her the decorations are just for me? :) I started getting the boxes out of the attic tonight. I'll do alittle more tomorrow, then I will be busy and things will have to wait until next Monday. I'll be lucky if I finish next week :) Then I'll have to take a few pictures to decorate the blog with :)

Angels Among Us

For any of you that look at Annie's blog, here is the story.

Mom and I were both at work at The Silver Hanger on Friday. It was a pretty slow day there, other than the fact that there is always work to be done. And I did have one bride come from Georgetown to try on her wedding dress, even though the streets were snowy. At one point, mid day, I was thinking that if the snow continued and the streets were bad, mom and I would just go home in her car and I would drive. But by late afternoon, the snow had stopped and the streets were clear. Mom and I were closing up the store at 5:00. As she and I were both doing the tasks of turning off lights, locking doors, turning off computers etc. - the phone rang (probably about 5:10) Mom answered it and it was a call for me. While I was talking on the phone, mom decided to go ahead and leave to go home. (Not an unusual thing- we don't very often actually leave at the same time) It was probably about 5:30- 5:40 when I left the store. Which put me at the intersection of Franz road and highway 99 at the precise moment that another car decided to turn right in front of me.(Normally I would go home on I10. When I left the store I had decided to go home across Franz road rather than on I10 because all afternoon I10 had delays because of the weather and even though the roads were clear I10 was still backed up) I was driving east on Franz road, I had a green light and the other driver had a green light , but the other driver did not have a protected green arrow for turning left. (He was driving west bound on Franz and turning left to southbound 99) When I realized that he was turning in front of me- I hit the brakes and steered to the right, but I knew that I could not avoid a collision. After impact I ended up going over a cement curb and coming to a stop on grass. His car spun back around and came to a stop in the center of Franz, facing east. One possibility is that the first impact hit on my drivers side front corner and then the second impact was on my drivers side rear door. (that is an explanation as to why the front of the burb was all torn up and the rear door on the drivers side smashed in). Although I never really looked at the damage to his car or spoke to the other driver. I did see him get out of his car and he was limping around, but he did not leave in the ambulance- so I assume he was okay. I was busy with the three angels surrounding me. One was a lady that was in a car following me. She watched the entire accident from behind me. She saw my brake lights come on and she was the first person there to help me. Even though the burb stopped after I hit the cement curb, the engine was still running. Her first words were "turn it off". Then she helped me get the driver door open- it was jammed and hard to open. The two other people were in a car that was behind the other driver. So they witnessed the accident from behind him. They were also waiting to turn left onto south bound 99. They had no explanation as to why the driver decided to turn when he did. In fact they were completely surprised and could see that the only outcome was "bam". Those three people stayed by me on the side of the road and told the police man what they saw. I have some bumps and bruises and sore spots, but I was wearing my seat belt and did not hit the steering wheel or the wind shield. (no air bag in a 94 suburban:) I had to call Ron and ask him to come and pick me up. He had been sick all week and was at home taking a nap (because of the snow, he came home early from work) What a call to get when you are sleeping, "come and pick me up, I think the burb is totalled". So the burb is gone, but I am so grateful that I'm not gone :) While I am telling this with my funny sense of humor, I am serious about my gratitude. We take so many things for granted- one of which is how quickly something unusual can happen. We get so busy with the challenges of life, that we rarely ever think, "that in just a quick moment things can change forever". I am so grateful for those three strangers that were there as witnesses and for my aid. They each had other places to be, but choose to stay there with me. In a quick moment, their lives were affected also. So...sorry Karen... but the burb is gone. But it gave a good fight, even refusing to die until I turned it off :) And there really are angels among us- both the ones that are seen and the ones that are unseen.

Global Warming

With all of the evidence recently that the global warming theory is false... here is more evidence of that....

IT IS SNOWING IN HOUSTON, TEXAS!

Big huge flakes, as we listen to "A White Christmas" on the radio :)

Boys are Great...

but here are the Princess' Petes!

Home Sweet Home

The best part of our Thanksgiving trip was coming home to my own bed! (Just kidding!)

Our family Thanksgiving together was perfect! (except we missed Mike and Carrie) :(
But it sure was nice to get home last night. Our only casualty of the trip was Ron came home sick. So he is home in bed and I'm at work. I have tons of work to do this week. Lets see how much I can get done before I get sick!!! I'll try to catch up on my gratitude posts and our family Thanksgiving later.
I go away for just a few days and now I have this huge list of blogs to look at! hehe