The Holiday Season has officially begun!

Today is known all over the country as Black Friday. The day after Thanksgiving and stores every where slash prices for Christmas. People get up and stand in long lines starting as early as 3am just hoping to get their hands on a deal. Good times. I, however, was not one of those people. I stayed all nice and snug in my bed sleeping soundly. I find deals all the time so no reason to go out with all the crazy people. I am just about done with my shopping anyhow! Yay! Now I just have to wait for everyone to send the girls their gift cards and money so I can go out and shop all over again. We open gifts from family on Christmas Eve so I go and spend most (not all) of their gift cards so they have gifts to open on Christmas Eve. So basically I go Christmas shopping for the girls twice.

We had a nice Thanksgiving yesterday. Very low key hanging out. We had ham and all the fixin's. After we ate I seriously tried to figure out why in the world I even bother because the girls eat nothing I make. But it was yummy so whatever, their loss :) Today we enjoyed visiting with our friends and then listening to Christmas music (92.9 all Christmas all the time) and singing and dancing. Now we are watching the movie Elf. We put up our Christmas tree last weekend and it is beautiful. I love, love, love my tree! I wish a picture could capture how it looks all lit up at night but it just can't. It is a pain in the butt tree that you have to put together branch by branch, it is not pre-lit but I wouldn't trade it in for anything, it is perfect. Travis put up our outside lights yesterday. I love Christmas!! Less than 4 weeks now!

What have we been up to, you ask?

Well Travis ended up canceling his trip to Ohio and stayed home from work on Friday. This meant he got to go with Kaylee and I to Mykenzie's school for her Thanksgiving lunch. The food was, uh school food, but it was fun. It is always fun to see how your kids are at school with their friends.

We have a date for Mykenzie's braces and palate expander. She will be getting them both on January 7th. I hope this is all she will end up needing done so she doesn't have braces from the time she is 8 till she is done with middle school. That would be a long time for that. If all goes well she will be done with everything in 10-12 months and the palate expander will be done in 3. Fingers crossed.

On Thursday Chandra came over and we spent the day crafting Christmas gifts :) It was so much fun. I think I may be addicted. I have been doing it ever since (and some before then) I still have a couple things I want to do but it seems like every time I turn around I am picking up a new idea and making something else.

Today I spent parts of the day doing laundry and parts making vinyl lettering for my house! Another addiction that could be hard to break. I will post pics another time. My camera battery is charging so... Plus one of the things is for Christmas and well, it looks cute all by it's lonesome it will look cuter once the rest of the decorations are in place, which will either be this coming weekend or the Wed. before Thanksgiving. We shall see. Personally I want to go get them NOW and put them up! So some of it could be done before the weekend. I bought a ton (seriously like 20 boxes) of new ornaments with at least 4-8 ornaments per box, after Christmas last year so I CAN'T wait to see what my tree looks like this year with all my new pretty things :) If I remember correctly though I need to purchase some more lights for the tree this year.

I have way too many hobbies these days I don't know what to do with myself. It is funny because the thing that has suffered the most is my online time and I still manage to get online and do what I need to do. Guess I was just wasting time before. I haven't really scrapbooked in about a month either, well 1 LO but I don't know if you can only count 1. But I have managed to read a book (4 Blondes by Candace Bushnell, not that great) get a ton of crafts done, keep my house decent, spend time with friends and kids, have my DVR up to date, make and hang my vinyl lettering, ect... Are there suddenly more hours in the day because I certainly have not gotten better at time management. Oh we watched Kit Kittredge (American girl movie) and Get Smart this weekend too. We enjoyed both of them :)

The rest of the week will involve, getting ALOT of my Christmas shopping done, finishing up my outstanding craft projects, Get my Christmas cards written out (all but adding the pics that will be coming soon since I ordered them this weekend), lunch with friends, Thanksgiving program/lunch at Kaylee's school, oh and a few errands for good measure. And maybe pulling some Christmas decorations out of the attic.

Can you even believe how close the holidays are!! We only have 8 days till Thanksgiving! I guess I better go get my turkey!!! Christmas is now only 5 weeks away!! I am trying so hard to hold off on the Christmas music.... but I am singing "It's the Holiday Season"

Crazy Kids

Super Saturday!

I have had a wonderful day! If you know about my mental state for the past week you will know that it is past due. My eyes popped open at 7:30 and I suddenly remembered there was a church yard sale I wanted to go to this morning that started at 7. I threw on some clothes and a hat and ran out the door. The sale wasn't at all what I was expecting, I was thinking of the old church rummage sales I used to go with my mom to as a kid. This was pretty small but I found a treasure :) I went so I could look for things I could re-purpose for myself as well as Christmas gifts. And I found this beautiful thing....

Yep that would be a square cork board.... just what I have been wanting. Guess how much.... 25 cents!!!
I went to another one but had no luck and finished up my yard sale spree in my neighborhood where I picked up these for $2...


and while I was waiting for the lady to get me a bag, the man said do you need a lamp and I turned around and saw this lamp that I had completely overlooked!



So I spent a total of $11.50 (I got a little glass vase too) and am very happy with my purchases as is Travis.

Then we made breakfast and ate our French Toast and I showed Travis the purchases I made at Hobby Lobby on Thursday and he got busy hanging them up for me.
Since the girls have been in school we have always hung backpacks on the door knob to the kitchen door that goes to the garage. Travis has decided he no longer wanted them their so I found a cute solution, it was not at all what he wanted but I am happy with it :)



I had an idea in my head for what I wanted in the girls bathroom to hang towels ever since we redid it all those months ago. Well I never found it. So walking through Hobby Lobby I passed this cute solution and voila, now they have hooks for their towels instead of door knobs!!!



After that was all done my awesome husband took it upon himself to sand and prime my 8ft 2x6 that I bought to make some Christmas gifts and I threw in a couple of 2x4s and this little diddy too :)
That would be a ceramic trivet surrounded by cork :) The cork is covered with paper as to no get primer on it and the trivet has been primed for the next step! I know you are just dying with anticipation to know what it is that I will possibly be making with all these treasures. I can't wait to see how everything turns out. I never thought I got the crafty gene and I may not have but I am perfectly capable of stealing other people's ideas and making them into something of my own ;)

In about an hour I will be going out to dinner with my girls to celebrate (late) one of their bdays. Then tonight I am going to Bunco with my moms group! Seriously, it was the perfect day!

Hello there Fall

So our temps have been all over the place lately from mid 40's to high 70's, it is nuts. The one thing I have found to be most strange though was the leaves hadn't changed and started to fall. Last year by the beginning of October most of the trees have lost their leaves. But right now they are all beautiful! The trees are perfect and even my tree's leaves are turning RED! They have never changed since we have lived here so it has been quite nice to see them turning red :) This is what makes fall so great for me, it really is beautiful!


To update all the happenings in our lives lately that don't involve politics...

I have lost my calendar which also means I feel as though I lost a limb. Notebooks and calendars keep me sane and now I lost 2008. I have all of my old calendars since HS and now 2008.... GONE. I am so upset.

Mykenzie had her first Orthodontist appt on Wednesday. He basically told me what I already suspected. She will need a palate expander. This will only have to stay in for 3-4 months, which I didn't realize, I thought it would be longer so that is nice to know. She will also have mini braces (yeah, I never heard of them either) on her top teeth for 10-12 months. He thinks that should fix her issues but he is giving it a 50/50 chance that she won't need anything else done. Here's hoping. Waiting for the call to tell me how much cash we will need for all this. I don't really care cause no matter what we are getting it done, but it still sucks.

I have dove into Christmas preparations and have purchased several things for the girls as well as some materials to make some things for people as well. I am addicted to craft blogs these days (if you have a really good one pass it on please) so I am hoping to make some gifts this year. I made the cutest things for my nieces that they will love, if you are around me alot you already know but I can't post it on here cause they read this and they can't know (well my nieces don't read,as they are 2 and 3 but their moms do) I will post pics after Christmas though cause I love them :)

I guess since I am moving on to Christmas prep, I should probably go ahead and put the Halloween decorations away, especially the outside ones! lol I would much rather recover a notebook ;)

The day after.... euphoria

I am a 28 year old white woman. I have never been discriminated against because of my race. I was not alive during the civil rights movement. I still feel the enormity of this election. I have wept for joy and screamed out loud. I woke up this morning feeling like we were in a new world. A world where all people are equal. I woke up with a renewed feeling of hope and joy that our country and our world will change for the better. I don't fully know how to describe how I am feeling but I am truly joyful to have been a part of this historical election. Proud. Proud of our country for the long way its people have come. To watch everything unfold on television last night and see people like Jesse Jackson, who were a part of the civil rights movement with tears streaming down their face knowing all they have been through to finally see a dream realized. A dream that seemed so far out of reach but one they had the hope of for all these years. It was amazing for me, I can not begin to imagine the significance that the moment held for them. This is big.

I spoke with Mykenzie, who has been interested in the election this year, this morning, my eyes filled with tears. I was telling her to remember this day, remember this moment. Savor the fact that she was here during such a historical day. To think about Martin Luther King Jr. and about all she has learned about our world just 45 years ago to where this election put it today. Remember this moment. It is big.

Those people who voted for John McCain and may not be happy that Obama won please take a moment to step back from your views and just fully appreciate the magnitude of what has transpired. To loosely quote Elizabeth Hasselbeck (which I NEVER thought I would do)"No one lost today....today is a victory for this country. To have Barack Obama be our next President, the first black President... I haven't felt this good through out this campaign.... I will get in this long line of supporters. I wasn't the first but I will jump in that line and support our President, because that is what,as an American, I believe we should do."

This is BIG. A man had The Audacity of Hope and I believe our country and our world will be a better place because of him. We dared to hope that change was possible and hope won yesterday. Now the work begins....

History has been made!!!!!

Barack Obama will be our 44th President of the United States of AMERICA!!!! Woo Hoo!!!!!
American's have risen above and proved that we no longer see the color of a person's skin but the person themself. Congratulations President Obama and congratulations America for finally getting it right for the first time in 8 years!!!

In case you have been living under a rock....

TODAY IS ELECTION DAY!!!!!!!!!!!! GO VOTE!!!!

I am seriously giddy with excitement! Only an hour and a half till the polls close in Ohio!!!

You don't have to worry about me... what about you?

This was emailed to me from my friend Riki. Thanks for the giggle girl it is pretty funny! You won't have to worry about me giving the election to McCain, how about all of you out there? Make sure you Barack the VOTE tomorrow

November

Can you believe it is November already? Doesn't it seem like it was just last week that I started my Christmas countdown and we had 20 weeks? Guess what it is now... SEVEN! Whew! I am so ready to get my shopping done. I have 2 people checked off my list but that's it.

Halloween was over and apparently Fall left with it. We have temps in the mid 70's! Seriously, last week our high was 45. What the heck? Next up is Thanksgiving and I imagine we will be staying home and I'll be cooking for the 4 of us. Fine by me, I enjoy our quiet family holidays. There are some aspects of having all your family around during the holidays that I wish we had but in those cases you have to take the good along with the bad soooo, yeah.

Our busy times are slowing down for a couple of weeks, well at least during the week. Travis will be traveling a ton this month, joy. He has several trips to Chicago and one to Ohio planned. He and 2 of his brothers bought some property up there so he will be going up to do some work, I wish we could go with him but I am not going to pull the girls out of school. Oh well.

The girls are both doing great. They both seem to have gotten a worse attitude lately though. Not sure what the deal is there. Mykenzie has been fine with us but super mean to Kaylee. Kaylee has just been behaving horribly for a couple weeks now. She is generally ok when it is just her and I but add anyone else in the mix and watch out. We are working on it. On the plus side with the girls though they are both doing great at school! Kaylee has learned alot and has not gotten anything but a green light all year.
I had Mykenzie's parent teacher conference last week and her teacher had alot of wonderful things to say about her. She said she has the potential to be a great leader if she can gain in a little more confidence in her abilities. She also got her test scores back from the TCAP testing at the end of last year. She scored really well on everything. She is barely below average in Vocabulary and Language everything else she scored in the 70's and in Spelling she scored 81 and in Social Studies she scored a 94! If she can vamp up her vocab and language I see a politician in our future. Let's just hope she is a democrat! In her defense her wonderful (she says sarcastically) teacher last year did not work on vocab and writing with them hardly at all last year. I actually thought it was strange that she never had to do any writing but thought maybe the little bit they did do was normal. I don't think so now, I so dislike that woman. I think this year we will see a big change in those scores because she has a much much better teacher.

November 4th is tomorrow!!! It is FINALLY election day! I am so over the election, I know you would never know it from talking to me or reading this blog! lol I really want my guy to win,for once but I am tired of listening to the back and forth and at this point they are both just saying the same things over and over. So if you haven't voted already (I love early voting and cast my vote for Obama last week) make sure you get out and vote tomorrow!! ESPECIALLY if you live in a battleground state and you are voting for Obama!! Hopefully we will know without a doubt who our new president is by tomorrow at 9!

Happy Halloween

More Fall fun

Our 5th trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Some of our group at the patch

Kenzie touching something icky at her school party... she guessed it was pink brains

Halloween Fun this week

Girl Scouts 1920's/ Juliette Low Party

My "flapper" costume for the girl scouts party (this is on here for you Angie)

Kaylee dressed up for the "Down on the Farm Day" at school

Kaylee's school party.... check out that cute cupcake

Carving Pumpkins :)

We spent a couple of hours hard at work making our pumpkins look pretty for Halloween on Friday :) Kaylee colored hers with a marker. I think they look awesome!

Back in Time

So we are driving around after school running errands today and we were singing Kaylee's Halloween song that she learned at school and Mykenzie piped in and said that is sounded similar to the song she learned. As she was singing it I realized that once upon a time I once sung that same song. Then I got to thinking about things from my childhood and this song popped into my head. My favorite from when I was about 5 years old! And yes I remembered every word.



So I was jamming to Jem and reminicing about the Smurfs and Fraggle Rock and singing songs from my favorite Cabbage Patch Kid record. Then we got home and of course I had to find them all on youtube (what did we ever do with out youtube and google?) Mykenzie and Kaylee got a kick out of seeing them and thought it was pretty cool. They are jealous I think ;)

Mykenzie had to shoot me down though, she asked if we had computers back then! lol Then I had to tell her all about Oregon Trail, the BEST computer game of my youth! Ahh, to go back to those days when everything was so simple. Nice to think back and laugh about it every now and then at least






(Kaylee's Halloween Song...We're stirring and stirring and stirring our brew, oooh oooh, oooh oooh Tip toe, tip toe, BOO)

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The week is over

I feel like I have had an unusually busy week. Well, at least the second half has had alot crammed into it so it feels that way.

Kaylee is sick.... again. Double ear infection. She has a cough at night but isn't really coughing during the day. It sounded croup-like last night but the Dr. didn't think so today I guess. If she is barking again tonight she will be back in the morning. If not she will be back in the morning along with Mykenzie to get their flu shots.

Kaylee had her field trip to the Pumpkin Patch yesterday. Last year it was cancelled and this year it was again crappy weather with occasional rain but we went anyhow. The kids had a great time and Kaylee was so happy to be on her first field trip! Though she was a bit bummed they didn't get to ride a bus there. It was nice to go and do a guided tour instead of running wild I gotta say.

Last night was our Light the Night walk. It was cold and raining and nasty outside but the people were out full force to walk to cure Leukemia and Lymphoma. I dare say there were more people total than last year. Our group was a little smaller but we raised money and walked for Jenna. Hopefully I will be able to add the group photo to share soon. I didn't get it on my camera and I didn't take many pictures this year cause I was too dang cold. We wore shirts with the picture of Jenna with her sticking out her tongue. They turned out really cute and we had several people stop us and tell us they loved them. Another Thank you for the walk too; Rachel thank you so much for sponsoring me!!

Today was Mykenzie's schools fall festival. The kids had a great time and Mykenzie won us a cake at the cake walk, yeah baby. There were so many kids there and the lines were pretty long. In the years we went in the past there were no where near that many people and the lines were not nearly as long. I decided that we were going to walk there since you couldn't park at the school since the stuff was set up in the parking lot. Yeah, the walk there was fine but the walk home it was really cold and dark and the girls were tired and whiny and it felt like it would take forever. Did I mention it was freaking cold? Ahh well, we are home and toasty now.

No big weekend plans other than the pumpkin patch (again) with girl scouts (joy) on Sunday. I may try to talk Travis into going to the zoo tomorrow night for their Halloween thing but I don't know. Stupid me bought flimsy costumes for the girls and it is COLD, especially at night now. We shall see

Thank You!

I have several thank you's to throw out tonight. The first one in to my mom and a woman named Rebecca that I have never met before. Thank you both so much for sponsoring me in the Light the Night walk. I had raised $0 until your contributions and now I have met my goal. I love you both for helping me bring money to such a wonderful cause.


My next thank you is to Senator Barack Obama, thank you for clearing up in a national forum for the whole world to hear the fact that pro choice is NOT pro abortion! It was so wonderful to hear you say tonight during the debate that "no one is pro abortion" Thank you Thank you! If I would have been undecided before tonight you would have gotten my vote from that line. Luckily I already loved you though cause I don't like to vote on a single issue, as I have stated before ;)

This is too funny

Don't get your panties in a bunch I do believe we need bipartisanship but this made me laugh out loud.