Visions of Sugar Plums

This year we made a first attempt at a gingerbread house.

Then my friend Megan and I got adventurous and decided to bake sugar cookies and gingerbread men (to go with our little gingerbread house) with our four toddlers. She has two two-year-old twin boys.

After scrutinizing our photos, I don't think I would share these cookies with anyone who didn't already have some form of rhinitis.

First, pour in the flour and the sugar.

If any sugar falls onto the piece of paper next to you, just lick it off.

Licking is an important part of baking. 

If you can't lick it yourself,

 get Margaret to lick it up.

Crack the eggs.

Mix well.

Drive your toy trains around in the snow.

Eat some batter

Roll out the dough. 

Cut out the shapes.

Throw them on the pan and into the oven.

Frost and sprinkle.

Isabella likes to show Anderson how to do things.

He likes to do it his own way.

Try not to eat them all before dinner.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

Demotivational Posters

It's my boss' fault.

She turned me on to the despair.com site.

Demotivational posters are my favorite.

This week she sent me another one that she had received from her brother.

He wouldn't tell her where he found it though.

It kind of sounds like he is evil like me.

She ended her message with a note to let her know if I found the source.

That remotely sounded like a challenge,
so I began surfing and of course I struck pay dirt.

My boss recently got back from China.  

How do you think she'll like this one?

I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself!

Sister Two and Sister Three --- do you remember how many times we heard the phrase "you made the mess, you clean it up" when we were growing up?

This one's for you mom.

 

And here we thought that Chip was a bad ass guard dog!

  

I really hope that was photoshopped.

This is more like our critters.

For those who have ever pondered exisentialism ---

Was there ever any question?

Our dogs would agree with this one.

I think this photo was taken at our house.

Hmmm .... cats and water.

 

Boy, isn't this the truth?!

How to succeed in everything you do --

Another good one.

Now to showcase my sick sense of humor ---

 

Bet you don't eat kiwi for awhile!

Lucky ducky

There are some days I just feel like I'm spinning my tires,

when it comes to raising the girls.

It seems like I tell the same thing over and over and over.

A conversation that my girls and I had yesterday, left me a little reassured that they are hearing me.

This is kinda how it went:

"You know Mom that cell phones are really expensive. You are so lucky that you were able to find it!"

"Maybe we should just take away your phone and dad's, until you can learn to take care of it a little better! You are so lucky you found your phone."

As you have probably figured out I lost my phone yesterday. I had a sick feeling all afternoon, after I couldn't find it in my humongous size purse.

I just knew I lost it somewhere, and somebody had found it, and was calling China with it. (okay we don't have many Chinese relatives running around our small town).

I picked the girls up from school and went to drop them off at Aunt Sue's house, until I was finished at work. Immediately when I pulled up to her house, I spotted it!

To my horror this is where I found it.

And yes that is exactly where my truck was parked when I dropped it, drove away and went on with my day. Look again at this photo and see that it is a narrow one way street.

How in the world no one drove over it is beyond me!

A Christmas miracle probably.

Now that was pretty minor lost and found story..... Keith's is another.

You see about a month or so ago, we were processing cattle on a Sunday afternoon. So it was Keith, Krista, Dani and myself.

We were covered in mud, but it was a fairly nice day.

Keith realized he had dropped his phone somewhere, but where.

We started looking and looking and looking.

I had given it up for the lost forever.

But Krista is a super sleuth

You wouldn't believe where she found it.

Just minutes before this photo was snapped.

This alley was full of 600 pound calves all squeezed into this little spot.

Not wanting to move anywhere. Keith had hopped in there without the hotshot, because Krista kept dropping it in the ankle deep mud. They don't work so good after that.

His phone must have fallen out of his pocket when he was pushing the cattle.

How she found it in inches of poop and mud is beyond me.

Keith's phone is a LG Scoop phone, and now appropriately named the LG Poop phone.

But it still works! That must have been our Thanksgiving miracle.

I'm In Mourning

I arrived at school this morning and heard the worst news:

Our beloved watering hole burned down!

 

picture courtesy of KNEB NEWS

At least once a week, my teaching partner and I would go the to The Point to do our planning for the upcoming week.  I'm not sure that we'll be able to plan in the future!  

Often we would meet with the curriculum director and shoot the breeze.  We jokingly referred to it as "our office" and we even had our regular table.   It was perfect because you didn't run into parents there and they had the best hamburgers.  They had even better french fries.  They were even better than Scotty's.

They served their bloody marys with pickles.  Mardell always got two in her drink.  She claims pickles are much better than a stalk of celery.   It never bothered them if we only ordered one drink and sat for three hours while we planned.  There aren't many places where we could do that!  The proprietors became friends. 

Fortunately no one was hurt, but the place was a complete loss.  

It was still smoldering yet tonight.  

Life will never be the same.

  

What Gives?

Yesterday I was outside in short sleeves hanging
my Christmas lights and enjoying global warming.

Today I go from the house to my car and in that short distance
I'm freezing and pondering the Ice Age.

-24 degrees wind chill.

It was so cold I had trouble opening
the lock on the gate at school to go work.

I'm thinking that was really an omen that I should have stayed home in bed.

Inverness

Hey, how's it going? I've been meaning to post some pics of our Thanksgiving trip, and I finally have a few minutes to finally get to it.  For the last two years, we have skipped the cooking and gone to the beach instead. It's way better than doing dishes.  

We love this place called Motel Inverness. (Andrew made the reservations the first year and I didn't have high expectations, but it ended up being really great. )

There are a lot of pretty little gardens all around

and places for the kids to run around. (The owners have a little one that's a few months younger than Anderson. )

And it is right in the middle of a bird sanctuary.

Here's the view from our patio:

You can walk out on the pier and watch the egrets and pelicans

There's a little house to sit and meditate and watch the animals.

There was not a great deal of meditating going on, but it was still a nice view. 

We had a little humming bird that visited outside our window.

And there were plenty of leaves to gather and jump in.

And flowers to pick

and this cute fuzzy caterpillar
Someday, we could do a little reunion here! I won't hold my breath, I'm just trying to plant the seed.