Energy

Tonight, I went onto the local power company website to see if they had our current bill listed on there. I am curious since we have been quite bright this holiday season with all of the lights. They don't have the current one on there, however they had this cool, handy-dandy energy calculator to figure out where you spend your energy dollars.
They use the stats from your actual bills and then ask you questions about how many rooms in your house, what appliances you have, what type--gas/electric, square footage, how many levels you have, your heating/cooling system, year built, etc...
After that, it takes you to the next page and shows you a few colored graphs as to where the energy dollars went and how you compare to other homes in your area on usage. We were in the greenest area of the graph for usage on both electric and gas--which means we use about the least possible I guess. I was definitely glad about that! That even factors in my Christmas light season from last year! We use most of our energy dollars in heating our home--no shock there!
I thought we were pretty "green" as far as energy usage in the house, but now I know. That makes me glad. The energy efficient light bulbs do work as do the other things we've implemented. I go "green" to save "green". Anyway, I just thought it was cool and I had fun with it. Check your local power company's website and you just might have the same little charts and such! It's quite informative. I failed to mention that on the bill, it even shows you all of the different reasons the bill went up or down.

Laundromats

Do you ever see something while driving and a thought pops into your head? As I headed home from work today, I passed the laundromat. I pass it every day. I saw a lady lugging her laundry basket out the door and my mind raced back to the days where we lived in an apartment and had to go to the laundromat. It was awful to go and we very much disliked it. The last time I had to go, I was 8 months pregnant with Aliyah and it was summer. We lived on the 3rd floor of the apartment--no elevators. I remembered hauling that stuff up all of those stairs and kind of despising it. It's one thing we do not miss! The other thing I hated about the laundromat was that it was a smokey type-of place unless you went on smoke-free Wednesdays or whatever day that was.
Anyway, as I passed that laundromat, I couldn't help but be thankful for having a washer and dryer and not having to visit laundromats anymore!
Other than my thankful thought of the day, it was Monday. You know what Mondays are...the day to immerse back into work --particularly after a long holiday weekend. I loved the holiday weekend so much that I didn't want it to end. There is still work to be done at home--dishes, thank-you's, Christmas decs to put away, and more. Some things may or may not get finished tonight, it depends. I may just want to sit and chill, or I may feel productive. Either way, I'm looking forward to another holiday this week and spending more time with my sweetie-pies (all 3 of them). We are planning another trip to near-Chicago for New Year's. Apparently, we feel the need to go that way once a month or more as this will make 6 months in a row now! Josh plans to get some extra food from PF Changs so he can have some when he has a craving. He craves that worse than a pregnant lady craves ice cream or pickles--lol!

Winter

The only redeeming quality about winter for me is Christmas. Ours was wonderful. At times, it seemed quite busy, but we were able to do all of those things that we had in mind. Somehow, we managed to clean/straighten the house between each set of guests that arrived to celebrate. Christmas celebrations are definitely kind of messy (a good messy). There are so many new things around in the living room, wrapping paper, dishes, cameras out, extra coats, Christmas clothes, Christmas cards--you get the idea.
Josh worked for part of the day on Christmas Eve. We took a later lunch and then someone stopped by--the girls had lots of fun! We left early for our Christmas Eve service--it fills up very fast. It was beautiful with lots of carols and readings. A great start to celebrating Christmas. The children go up front and one of the pastors reads a children's Christmas book. It was called "The Animals Christmas Eve". This was a wonderful book for Aliyah as the children got to make the sounds of the animals during each part. We came home and the four of us opened gifts. There was much to do to get ready for Christmas day. The gifts we had opened had to be straightened, the house cleaned, the food prepped, table set, table/chairs put upstairs, gifts put out for the girls, and a couple of gifts to wrap. WHEW--we made it to bed at 1:30 am.
Christmas morning was fun as we had breakfast and then proceeded to open gifts and have dinner. We mingled and then Josh's dad & his wife came over. Following that, we visited my aunt & uncle & cousins. Everyone had fun and ate some yummy food. Josh's grandma lives nearby my aunt & uncle so we visited her on the way back. Since she lives in an assisted living facility, it was rather warm inside...by the time we left we were feeling sleepy. The cold air outside fixed that problem rather quickly.
Once we arrived home around 9 pm, the girls went to bed and Josh and I chilled out on the couch--a book for him and the computer for me.
Yesterday, we did some shopping--more returning than shopping. Everything I looked at was cheaper before Christmas and now it is much more picked over.
Today, we had plans of going to a place near Chicago, however the weather forecast of heavy rain made us decide otherwise. After we left and went to lunch, I was very glad we decided to avoid the trip to Chicago. As we were driving along the interstate, we experienced what I called "hurricane rain". This rain was so hard that it was white and visibility was about 0! I was driving and couldn't see anything except for the occasional brake light of the car ahead of me and the signs--only as we were right at them. We couldn't see the lines on the road to even pull over. Josh told me to put on the flashers since we were driving slowly. Everyone was going slowly at that point--maybe 30 at best. It was very scary because when you go from around 70 all the way down to 20-30, you don't know what those behind you are doing/seeing or not seeing for that matter. Thankfully, we got through that safely. I couldn't help but thank God and breathe a huge sigh of relief.
I am very happy to say that we are experiencing a HEAT WAVE! All of the ice and snow has melted, but we are having TONS & TONS of rain. It was 64 at one point. That is at least a 50 degree swing from what we have been experiencing. It has been a cold winter already and it's not even January. I opened a couple of windows for a short time this morning to circulate some fresh air =).
Gotta go--there is work to be done again!

Elf

Here is what happens (and really did happen) when a new Christmas tradition goes over too well...
Last night, Aliyah came to talk to us with a very sad look on her face. Josh was trying to cheer her and told her Christmas is only 2 days away. She looked down even further and replied, "I know, but I don't care about presents and stuff". He asked her what was wrong and she ran off to draw a picture. She's really big into drawing pictures.
She returned with a piece of paper with her first and last name on one side and on the other was a picture of "Taggie" our Elf on the Shelf--Elf. She had gone to where he was sitting and looked at him to draw--oh so cute!! She did mention that she didn't get all of his eye details in the picture--so funny. We knew then that she was going to be sad that Taggie doesn't return after Christmas Eve until next Christmas season.
She went to bed, and later I heard sobbing coming from her bedroom. I had Josh call her upstairs so we could talk to her. Yes, she is sad that Taggie is leaving and will be cold and a myriad of other things. Josh tried to tell her that Christmas is only 1 day away and there would be presents and fun. The one day away thing made it worse because that means Taggie gets closer to leaving and she doesn't need any presents. Then she got really heavy hitting with this..."Christmas isn't about presents anyway, it's about Jesus being born, and spending time together with your family". Josh told her that she would get presents anyway. She continued to sob--you see, Aliyah gains attachment to certain things and they are pretty deep attachments. So much so, that she would in reality give up all of her presents so Taggie would stay at our house.
I told her she could make Taggie a card and draw pictures. She thought of all of the things she thought were cool about Taggie and she will make the card today. She is even going to ask Taggie if he will stay somewhere in our house. This, is what happens when something goes over way better than you ever expected--that's what happened with our new Christmas tradition.

Bustling

There was much to be done today work-wise. It always seems there is before an extended weekend. Add to that the whole Christmas holiday and there were gifts to wrap and things to be purchased. Today, I went to Wal-Mart for the first time in 7 months! It definitely reminded me of all the reasons that I choose not to shop there personally. If others want to shop there--cool by me--I just don't care for it.
We had many laughs along the way at Wal-Mart--mostly at the crabby people. What else do you do when you stand in line at the deli for twice as long as it took you to gather a whole cart-full of stuff? People cut in line, the lady behind the counter was oh-not-so-pleasant. Of course, my mission was to be OH-SO-PLEASANT and find the humor in this crazy time. No reason to get crabby, it just makes it worse on everyone. After she finished huffing/snorting and plopping the meat onto the scale several times, we were on our way. The checkout line girl was "happy" sort of as well. She was so happy that the bag of sugar made a big thud as she threw it in the bag--more laughter from me. The soda was pretty tough as well as she struggled to find the "handle" in the 12 pack rather than just pick it up. The water was dangerous as apparently it was too heavy for her to fully lift and set down once she scanned it--another thud--lol! Mind you, this wasn't an elderly cashier or a little tiny one that couldn't lift--guess she just didn't want to trouble herself. On our way to the parking lot...through the slush/freezing rain we plodded. I forgot to mention that we attained great muscular exercise as the cart was too heavy to turn the corners and it took two of us. We were missing two things--a rolling pin and powdered sugar. WMT ran out!
On to pick up the girls and to Kroger. The slush/rain/sleet had worsened and not a parking space to be found. I was kind of asking myself if I was crazy on the way inside. With little trouble, I found the things needed for Christmas feasting...more summer sausage, cheese, Chex for party mix, juice for Christmas morning, egg nog for my little dark-haired mouse, and a partridge in a pear tree.
We went back to the pretty little brick street with the Christmas-village looking homes to soak in some more Christmas beauty.
I'm glad to be sitting inside with the ambiance of only the Christmas lights typing at my computer after all of that!
Nothing exciting in the mail--not even any Christmas cards =(. I think less people are sending them this year--IDK. Hubby is at work so not much going on here.
Tomorrow is my favorite day of the Christmas season. Christmas Eve feels so magical to me. It seems that the lights shine differently, children's eyes sparkle, and few things can compare to singing those Christmas carols by candlelight at the Christmas Eve service. I absolutely love Christmas music of all kinds and somehow for a few moments...those Christmas carols can take you back for a taste of Bethlehem on that night so long ago!
Merry Christmas!! Go make some memories and soak it all in this Christmas. Love to all!

Chuckles

I thought it would be funny to share some things that made me chuckle on this cold day.
1. apparently, the girl (Janene) on the radio is working 24/7--not really, but she was in the late evening last night...then this morning at 6 am when we were leaving, and then again at 5ish tonight. Poor girl--she must be the only one that's not on vacation. My voice would be tired after all of that talking.
2. the server at Chili's tonight thought that he had to fill our drinks TO THE TOP--literally every time and proceed to walk gingerly with them to the table =).
3. the girl who brought out our food said the following, "when I was making this, I thought of you guys" uh-oh...she didn't even know it was us who ordered it but she somehow did...lol!
4. when we were at McD's for breakfast this morning, an employee (working behind the counter) was putting cookies in her pocket from the cookie display. She did this ever so slightly so that no one else noticed. I pointed it out to Josh and my point was proven when she proceeded to reach in her pocket to mess with the cookies several times. I mean--it's not funny she was stealing the cookies, but you don't really expect to see a grown adult stealing cookies and putting them in their pocket. I did let someone know that she was putting cookies in her pocket.
5. Josh and Aliyah skipped down the aisle in Old Navy today--like some jolly Christmas scene. Yes, he does do silly embarrassing things once in awhile--comedian at heart. We NEVER really go there, but we went there to kill time until another store opened up.

A measure of success has been achieved in finding a few gifts for Josh. I won't mention them here since he does read this from time to time. Yay! I will say, since he knows that I shopped at Banana Republic, I found a great deal there. Something that was regularly $98. for $28!!
Happy winter weather if you are into that sort of thing--not me. I'm dreaming of pool floats, water, and hot sun!

Ice

Ice Baby! As I begin typing, it has started. They are predicting one inch of ice. One thing is for sure, I am glad to have the heat on a regular basis since the electrical issue has been fixed!
The plan for tomorrow (if there is ice) is to clean the house, do some laundry, and finish wrapping gifts. Josh is sanding the soffit and will hopefully be painting tomorrow. He also has big plans of making Party Mix and Puppy Chow. Party Mix is a yearly tradition for us and he has not made any yet this year. Other than that, maybe a little chillin out time.
We have certainly enjoyed having some extra time together as a family before the holidays. It gives us a chance to "soak it all in". Up until this week, we have been running around in a dizzied hurry trying to do stuff that needs done. Josh and I got to go see "Four Christmases" today--cute movie.
Hoping for minimal to no ice!

Sights

Tonight, we visited several/most neighborhoods in our city to look at the Christmas displays. Some areas were surprising with many lights, and some not so much. We had two favorite streets. Both streets happen to have very charming older homes with rooms upon rooms. The kind with a little candle in each window and a rambling porch with greenery, spotlights, and maybe some carolers on the front porch. I think...one of them was a brick road if I remember correctly. The other street has lampposts down each side--so Dickens-villagesque. Is that a word?? They looked like those Dept. 56 villages that people set up. The snow adds the perfect touch of beauty and the Starbucks drink added some warmth.
We spent the earlier part of the day with me finishing school up for the 2008 year/semester with Aliyah--HOORAY!! Josh worked on the soffit that he built (sanding/mudding) or something yucky like that which involved dust.
This afternoon, we ventured out for some more Christmas shopping. We had to buy for my father-in-law, MIL (the nice one--not the MIL), haha if you know you get it.
Although I have found 2 pair of pants for my sweetie-pie, I am still on the hunt for something to get him. I think I could probably list off everything he has gotten the past two Christmases from anyone because he uses the stuff all of the time. There's just not anything that jumps out this year. I guess if my pockets were made of gold then no problemo--but they're not exactly golden =). I told him that I had my Christmas gift--a finished bathroom. It is awesome and something that he spent a lot of precious time on for us. He told me today that he just likes little stuff--whatever that means??
Keirah was so cute tonight in the car. She was singing "Jesus Loves Me" and "Silent Night" by herself. Those are the sweet little things that just warm your heart!
I'm off to enjoy my second candle-lit bath in the new bathroom. YAY!

Good News

The power company came out within less than 2 hours--that's super fast for them!!!! He checked out our meter head and then checked our box downstairs--didn't think the problem was with either one--up in the cherry picker he went. He turned the power off for about 10 minutes and then THERE WAS LIGHT! He came back and told us that on the utility pole outside were these old, old squeeze-type coupling they used back in the day. They were both melted up there (rubber melted on the wire). He put new connections on the wire and we are GOOD!!!
I guess when it comes to half of your power shutting down, they come out pretty quickly being as they don't want your house to burn down (we don't either)!! Thanks to mr. utility man for braving the COLD COLD wind and snow to fix our problem!
Now we are waiting for the house to warm up. Can we say RELIEF!!

Waiting

I'm sitting here typing with my winter coat on and my houseslippers. The house is at a rockin 61 degrees!!! We have taken the girls to grandma's so that they can be warm until the house gets warmer or until we get this fixed.
Josh called the power company and they say they will be out today--crossing our fingers. They will check out what is theirs and see if that is the issue. If not, then it is something of ours--which Josh thinks it is this one portion in the disconnect box. They say we will have to call an electrician. We'll see what happens. For now, the fridge is plugged in through an extension cord into the living room. We are back to that main problem of the furnace not being on when it should be due to the "half-black outs".
We may have a "White Christmas" due to the snow coming down today. I think it's pretty safe to say that it will stay around through Christmas with as cold as it has been. I think it is only in the teens today. It is truly beautiful--just not so fun to drive around. I was driving down a street here in town this afternoon on the way to taking the girls to grandmas going 25 mph (being cautious as it is snowing)--a car came around and passed me. This isn't a "passing" kind of street. The speed limit is only 30 to begin with--and I've never seen anyone "Pass" people on this street. Well, it happened to me today! I'm sure the extra 5 mph got them to their destination so much quicker with all of the snow and the traffic crawling everywhere else--haha!

**Still Shivering

**We haven't had much luck with the power staying on today. Just a bit here and a bit there. Our house is cold!! Our bedroom was 53 this morning. Josh has been looking at various things and thinks he may have it figured out, however is scared to undo this one portion without calling the power company to turn off power. It is snowing a lot at the moment so we don't know that that would be such a great idea. My phone, fridge, computer, and kitchen are also controlled by this portion. Please pray that we get this figured out as "the weather outside is frightful".
Also, my dad found out that he will be involved in some one week shutdowns in Jan, Feb, March without pay =(.

That's what we're doing this morning. The electrical thing did it's magic overnight and turned off after nearly 4 days without problem. Our house temp this morning is a balmy 58 degrees. It must have shut off after we fell asleep last night to go that low. Hopefully, Josh will be able to get it straightened out without much trouble--who knows???
Other than that, we have more things that need to be done today. Oil changes, grocery store, Christmas shopping, soffit that needs painting etc... The laundry went late yesterday, but it is finished and the house has been cleaned. It helps for us to start the day with everything in order so maybe that will help us get the things done for today. The first priority is electric...it's the dead of winter now and we can't have the heat shutting off in the middle of the night for hours on end--ya know!! Unless--somebody is gonna send me some warm weather for Christmas.

Pics

In short, these are pictures from our lives lately...Christmas tree at Oak Brook mall, new bathroom (completed), Aliyah & Keirah at PF Changs, and our Christmas tree at home. Notice that Aliyah is totally enjoying her S'mores dessert.

Holiday Sleepy

The day has been full and now I'm sleepy. Sure, there are some loads of laundry to be done, schoolwork with Aliyah, cleaning to do and more.
I wasn't much in the shopping mode today, and didn't really find/remember everything we set out to do.
This is my review on Snapfish. Keep in mind, I am a Shutterfly girl so maybe that influences my opinion =). I did the free Snapfish book several weeks back (like mid-November). They informed me that it shipped on 12/01. As of Friday 12/12, I still had not received it. I knew it didn't take that long. I called them and it finally showed up today 12/15. The inside of the book is nice, however the front and back cover are blank with a border around where a photo should be. This isn't my first photo-book making experience so I think I know what I'm doing. What I thought would be the cover is the first page. Needless to say, I'm less than impressed and will probably stick with Shutterfly. They are lightning quick on everything.
The chilly weather today makes me want to curl up into hibernation for a winter's nap. It is extremely cold!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So Much

...to say...
It has been a nice family-time weekend. Yesterday, we headed up near Chicago to do some shopping. Fortunately, the weather was mild for December since the mall was an open air mall. We didn't know that before going, although it was still great fun! There were many stores that we really like that we just do not have here...
Anthropologie, Pottery Barn, PBK, Hanna Andersson, Coach, Land of Nod, Crate & Barrel, Williams Sonoma and many many more. They all had some nice sales going on. Hanna had the PJ's that we love for $18.00!! There was also a promo going on at this mall if you used your Discover card. You get free gift cards. I got 3 gift cards as well as a cookbook!!
We had PF Changs for lunch--so great! The S'mores dessert was oh-so-delectable!
Today was church of course and then tonight, our neighbor has invited us to her church for their Christmas musical.
I found out a few minutes ago that one of our neighbors passed away. We met her this summer. She lives in the next block, however we walked past her house almost every day on our walks. She loved for us to stop and talk. Her name was Pam. We last talked to her in October for quite awhile and she asked us to stop often and visit once the weather was nice again. She has been sitting out on her porch on nicer days. I do remember seeing her out on Thanksgiving. She told us she loved to look at our Christmas lights and watch the girls play in the yard. I'm hoping that she got some enjoyment this season from the lights before she passed away. What a nice lady! Her husband died just a little over a year ago. They have one child and he is only 16. I am saddened that he no longer has his parents--that's gotta be rough!! I am also saddened that we won't get to see her and talk to her anymore. I remember her mentioning that her son didn't need to lose another parent. In addition to that, our mayor passed away as well. We saw him at the Extreme Makeover reveal just 3 days before he was hospitalized. My first thought when I saw him was that he just didn't quite look very well. Our city lost a good mayor.
Other than that, we are looking forward to a week of fun and "taking in the season". Josh found out on Wednesday of last week that he has vacation this week. Not much notice, but the break really is welcome!!!!!!!!
Oh yes, I am still at square one when it comes to gifts for my sweetie. Yesterday, we looked for pants for him at so many stores. His size must be rare or he's too skinny or something. He wears a 28X32. I guess he's too tall to have a waist that size. Even the stores I figured would be guaranteed to have them didn't have one pair!! I'm going to have to get my brain working!

Fun,

food, fellowship, laughter, treats, games, gifts...that's what we had tonight! The party was a blast.
YES--the electricity stayed on the entire time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How did that happen since it turned off at different points today??
We had plenty of yummy, yummy food to go around. There were chocolate covered strawberries, stuffed mushrooms, spinach dip, pretzel dip, chocolate covered pretzel rods, fudge, chocolate dipped marshmallows, peanut butter blossoms, summer sausage/cheese, pasta salad, this heavenly dessert, italian beef, and on and on and on!
Josh got a signed Dwight Schrute bobblehead--the dude from the show "The Office". This came from an office convention in Chicago where Dwight himself attended. My gift was the movie "Space Balls".
The guys decided to be witty this year and bring pictures of their wives growing up. One of them brought a whole album. It made for great laughter!
My favorite game was the one where you write down the name of a celebrity, famous person, or actor and put it on the forehead of the person next to you. Each person has to ask yes or no questions to figure out their "identity".
It was great fun & everything worked out great!!
Off to Chicago in the morning!!!!

Houston...

...we have a problem. For some reason, half of my house electricity keeps shutting down. It is the half that is stove, fridge, furnace, kitchen, girl's bedroom, and our bedroom. It wouldn't be such a big deal except for the whole fridge and furnace--mostly the furnace since it is cold outside.
The other thing is...we are having a party tomorrow with food & people. Oh sorry everyone, the food is cold and so is the house. We can function without the non-working part for several hours, however this party is tomorrow. It is having some major issues tonight and I have to finish housework. If I'm tired tomorrow it's cuz we were up trying to get this lovely stuff straightened up. My sweetie pie is working until close this evening and opens tomorrow morning at 6:30 am. That leaves very few hours with which to fix this. Please say a little prayer for us--thanks!!!

Tired

Do you ever get "worn out" by events that take place during a given week or day?? That's where I am at the moment. Most of today's events are family-related.
My parents are worried about the future of my dad's job. He works for a well-known place in the area. The company has started making cuts. He (dad) says that they were going to be doing a re-organization of stuff even before all of the bad news in the economy. If the cuts they are doing now do not do whatever they intend, they move on cutting other people according to how long they have been there as well as their position I guess. Many of his c0-worker friends will have their last day on the 19th of the month. It is saddening to hear and see this happening everywhere--the holidays don't make it easier.
Adding to the job questionability are issues with another family member which I won't discuss, but needs prayer. It doesn't have anything to do with us, but it presents a strain on my parents. I'm going to do the only thing I know...and that is pray.
I need to clean and get ready for the Christmas party, but at this moment, I'd rather take a snooze--to clear my head. Sorry, I usually don't try to focus my blog on being down and BLEH...but this is how I feel right now. Ending on a positive note...I am thankful for God's blessings large and small and His provision.

Peace

This post was meant for a few weeks ago, but as things go I didn't get around to writing about it until today.

A few weeks back on a Saturday Chicago trip, amidst the hustle & bustle we were amazed to enjoy this spot...

As you can see, through the archways, civilization lies just beyond the other side. In fact, you will recognize this that is really just across the street...

On many trips to Chicago, I have admired this building and photgraphed it--from the front. It is beautiful from any angle. Usually, there is a wedding going on that would keep us from getting photos of anything but the front--not on this day.

On this very busy day of shopping, dodging crowds of people and even some things I wouldn't ever wish to see again in life, here it was... footsteps away from Water Tower Square, an address on Michigan Avenue, mere feet away from busy sidewalks, and inches away from most of the people and the noise.

It was only for mere minutes that we visited. Amazement filled me as we stepped in to the courtyard. Here we stood looking around at the grandiose stuctures you have just looked at, and marvelled at the quietness and tranquility of this place. Having left the sidewalk only a few feet away, the new quietness amidst the constant bustle of a large city on a Saturday was unbelievable. One could think and breathe it in here. In a city of millions of people, a place where it was just two people. A few other visitors came into the courtyard--only a couple.
The quietness struck me. It was not an eery quiet, just a peaceful quiet. I was thankful for that moment of the day. After all, in those moments you can stop and recognize that in the midst of our crazy world, God is there. He holds those quiet places and patiently waits for us to come in. So many times, I have seen this structure and enjoyed it from the outside. Never had I gone further and experienced what it offered only to find it better from inside than the outside. The same holds true of my life with God. All too often, I observe rather than being fully invested.

In the midst of this season in particular, it is my goal to be a person who experiences the peace and quiet found in the everyday life. It is then that I can sit and truly listen to what He is saying to me.

Interestingly enough, this photo of the front was not taken on the trip I have mentioned, but on another trip earlier in the year. It is probably obvious since the light of summer is different than that of fall. In case you were wondering, it is the Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago.

ho-ho-ho

I didn't know what to call this mish-mash of a post so ho-ho-ho seemed to work.
We are happy to report that our bathroom is WHAT????? FINISHED!!!! Yes, our party is Friday night. As of this moment, there will be 16. The more the merrier right? I'm starting to get in the do I have enough this & that mode. Josh has been working on building a soffit in our main bath as well as the girl's bedroom. This is to cover the new plumbing stuff that we put in for the new bath. Granted, the soffit will not be painted in time for the party, however the plumbing stuff is dry-walled in at this point.
The realization has come that the main floor bath will now need totally repainted--oh no--more color choices. I always know what I want, but translating that into the correct color of paint doesn't usually happen.
Tonight, after a late dinner, we drove around in a couple of subdivisions by our house to look at Christmas decorations. We do this several times during a holiday season. It was the shorter version tonight and minus the Starbucks drinks. We were surprised at the number of people that put up decorations. It was fun and it is a family tradition for us. Speaking of traditions, Taggie is ever popular these days! Last night, we decided to ring a bell (well I did). Josh was kinda wondering what I was doing. The girls bolted out of their beds and immediately knew that Taggie must have left his spot (he had). It's so cute! We are getting questions regarding: 1. what he looks like when he flies 2. what his voice sounds like etc...
It seems that I may have received a revelation on Christmas gifts or sort of for Josh. He wants a) The Dark Knight b) the new book by Huckabee 3) a remote starter for his car...ok--so granted he didn't say these things exactly, but I've caught them in random conversations of him saying oh--that would be cool etc...
Once again, I'm off to contemplate how many things/what I need to clean & do before Friday arrives. If you have any great ideas for anything involving a Christmas party--please share--games, food, fun, gifts what--I'd love to hear!

Lights

As you can see, Taggie found his spot for today in the light fixture. Where will he go next??

Can I just describe some of my frustration with the outside Christmas lights?! We try to make a nice display for everyone to enjoy including the children. I must preface this with the following information. Our Christmas lights/trees/deer etc...that are outside are either new this year or were used last year for approximately 4 weeks--all one Christmas-year old or less. That said, every day something malfunctions. The girl deer has a head that doesn't light up. The spiral has the top section of lights out. Today, the LED spiral tree has a section of lights out. Two sets of icicle lights have sections out. There is only so much "fixing" & "replacing" we can or will do. I am not going to fork over tons of money to keep replacing things that only work for a 1-4 weeks!!
Last year, we had floodlights on the front. One worked for less than a week, the other about two, and the third made it for the entire time. We kept the third one and of course, it did not work this year. It's pretty pathetic when Christmas decorations don't even last for one entire Christmas season!!!!!!!!

When we lit up the display, everything was working with the exception of one stick tree which we replaced with a new spiral tree. That tree has fallen over in the picture. Maybe by Christmas, it will just be wreaths and greenery! I'm annoyed =).

Yes, it's only a minor very minor irritation and no it's not important at all really.

I guess I will add pics later. Blogger is acting funny--like Christmas lights.

Taggie

Meet Taggie! This is our new Christmas tradition & the girls are mesmerized. I first read about "Elf on a Shelf" on the Bring The Rain blog. I thought it was really cute. Let's just say, I didn't have plans of getting one and wouldn't have known where to do so. Yesterday, when we walked into a store, the lady came over to me and informed me that they had "Elf on a Shelf". Well, I looked at it and here he is living at our home.
Taggie only comes out at Christmas time. Children can't touch him. They can talk to him if they wish and they give it a name. What it does is help them remember to be good and act nice as Taggie reports in to mom & dad or Santa or whomever. He leaves each night, and comes back before the little ones wake up (in a new hiding spot).
The girls have LOVED being able to find him in the morning. Aliyah is always worried that Keirah will touch him. She also reminds Keirah that Taggie is watching. It's funny.

The name was given to him by Keirah. The picture of Taggie today is in our Christmas tree.

Monday

It's a quiet and wintry evening. The girls are playing, nothing is on TV, and my sweetie is in cheese country (a.k.a. Wisconsin). We finished school quickly tonight--yay.

I have to post my great deal from Saturday night. For 52 cents, I purchased a grater, a twin-sized bedskirt, 2 boxes of candy canes, & a pack of Twizzler's Nibs. Here's how: we received a $10 coupon for K-Mart for anything, the bedskirt was on clearance from $20.00 to $3.50, the grater was on sale for $3.99 ( didn't know it when I picked it up) and the candy is self-explanatory. The .52 cents is the total I paid including tax!!! Funny thing is that everything I bought was something I had wanted/needed. The bedskirt on Keirah's bed was ripped. I wanted a flat grater on a stand instead of a box type one. I had been looking for regular old red/white candy canes, and I love Twizzlers. It was fun!

In a bathroom progress report, we are in our final stage. Josh has started the grout, however needs to purchase more. I am guessing it will be done this very week!! It looks awesome. I'm glad to see a completed bathroom that Josh started from scratch. This has been one of his biggest projects to do alone. He plans to tile the kitchen floor in Jan. or Feb. He told me that we are waiting until February to order upper kitchen cabinets since they are coming out with some new stuff that would be good for what we need. It will be nice to have some extra cabinet space since we are limited on that with the current set-up.

In the way of Christmas gifts, I would say I am finished with the exception of Josh. I'm having a hard time thinking of something cool to get for him. We purchased my parent's gifts on Friday. As usual, we went with something they really really need. It's kind of a boring gift, however this is something they really need and really want. They have an old garage door and haven't EVER had an opener. That will be history very soon =). Another item was a new front storm door. Practicality is the way to go with them if you know what I mean.

Well, I have some exciting stuff planned for this winter evening--folding laundry & wrapping a couple of gifts. I'm happy to report that I finished off my lengthy to-do list with the exception of the cleaning the windows part. It's just too cold!