New Year's Resolutions

Wow, I can't believe I haven't updated this in 6 months! It's been a struggle even reading my friend's blogs because almost everyone with a blog is also on Facebook. It's taken over as the method for pumping information out to the world. For the sake of my family, I should update so you don't have to hear about things from just my Mom! I suppose it should be a resolution, even...

Things have been going well for us in the last few months. Forest was laid off in October for one day before they came to their senses and realized things would crash and burn without Forest's keen knowledge of the Library's network (at least that's how I see it!). Unfortunately he is doing the job of three people all by himself now. He is down in a room all by himself and it was kind of taking it's toll for a little bit. Thankfully now he has someone helping him a few days a week and they get along really well.

Gracie is doing really well! She seems to love her new class at Lakeview and is still a joy to take care of. In November I found out I was chosen as "Attendant of the Year" from Disability Services of the Southwest (or DSSW, the firm that takes care of Grace's respite care account) The following is the section of the DSSW newsletter that I was featured in! I love the letter the Dendys wrote, it made me feel really appreciated. Working with Grace is the best job I've ever had!

And since the scanned picture didn't come out so great, here is the original!

I've been really busy with my calling at Church the last few months (I'm the Activities Chairperson), we had two dinners in three months! Our Chili Cookoff went very well (and since we live in Texas, Mormons actually know how to make Chili!) in October but what I was really gearing up for was the Ward Christmas Party. We had "Tex-Mex" food with some really fun country Christmas decorations. The food was so fantastic but we had so much left over that I am still even sick of mexican food.

We had a very quiet Christmas! It was just the two of us and our dog. Your dog, you ask? Yes, we actually got a dog! I'm sure everyone already knows about this because he was featured in our Christmas card, but to give you some of the details...a friend of ours, Laney, put a post on FB asking if anyone would like a 2 year old Bichon Frise that her neighbor needed to find a home because her son was having severe asthma. I told her I would love to give him a good home and it all fell into place. We got him on December 14th so he was the perfect Christmas present! His name is Pippin and we just adore this little dog. I've taken him over to Jennie's to play with their puppy and both of the dogs just love having someone to romp around with. Here are a few pictures with our cute little doggie!

One of our Christmas card pictures:

Playing in the snow:



After we got him groomed for the first time:

You may have noticed all of that snow - we finally had a White Christmas! While the rain was pouring in Michigan, we had a good 5 inches of snow fall on Christmas Eve. It was snowing hard enough that it soaked my camera and I only took a few pictures when it was actually still snowing. The first picture is from when it was snowing and the second two are when it started melting. Pippin enjoyed running around in the snow and we bundled up to go play with him in it. The weather has been one big yo-yo, going from the 30's to the 70's, down to the 20's and it's supposed to be in the high 50's early next week. Right now it's in the 20's and we're not liking that too much!

Things are good for us and we hope everyone around the country is having a wonderful New Year so far!

happy easter

I just wanted to wish all of you a very Happy Easter! Forest and I don't have any plans today, other than eat dinner and rest. If you are wondering why we weren't at Church today, there are a few reasons. Our water has been working on and off for the last two days! I also am not feeling too awesome. I think all of this stress has finally starting to affect me. Now that the hard part seems to be over, I think everything is going to be just fine. I can't wait until we close next month, life is going to be so much easier!

Happy Easter!

happy new year!

happy new year! jan 1 1:30 am

Well, it's official! Welcome 2008! It will be interesting to see what this year brings.

We spent most of today at Jennie and Dal's, hanging out with the girls, playing the Wii, making ornaments and eating good food. We went up to Justin to light things on fire and watch them explode. Poor Alexa almost got whacked by a renegade firework and it really shook her up! In the end she ended up having a lot of fun, but from the back of the van. Grace was giggling the entire time, she really enjoyed the lights and sounds.

Grace got the CUTEST haircut on Saturday, she looks so darling. She got a huge bean bag chair for Christmas and she was sitting in it today looking like such a big girl, I took Jennie's camera and snapped a few pictures. You also get to see one of the shirts I got her for Christmas!

don't shoot me santa

One of my favorite bands, The Killers, has an awesome new song and video out for the holidays called Don't Shoot Me Santa. I had to share, because it is far too funny not to. As a bonus, if you use Itunes you can download it there and the proceeds will benefit the RED Campaign. Enjoy!

holiday explosions

We had a very interesting Christmas. Explosive, literally.

On Monday night we had a nice evening with the Wrights. We played a great game of Apples to Apples (the best game on earth) and enjoyed some very good snacks. We're so grateful to have friends that we can share the holidays with, it's made the fact that none of our family was in DFW this year a little more tolerable. We went into Christmas thinking we would have a great day.

We woke up a little later than usual and opened our presents. Forest got me a beautiful jewelry box, something I've been asking for for years. I got Forest a computer game, but unfortunately the power supply on his brand-new computer shorted out. He will have to get a better one, but didn't want to have to worry about that. So, I'm bummed that he can't play it. I decided to make Christmas meatballs, it's kind of become a tradition for us. I placed them into two glass square pans, one Pyrex brand and the other Anchor. I pulled them out of the oven and placed them on the stove. I went to stir the sauce I had in my crock-pot and I heard a huge pop. The Pyrex dish cracked into huge jagged sharp pieces! I cleaned up the mess (and of course cut myself a little bit in the process) and went on to do other things. About an hour later, I was doing dishes and Forest was drying and putting things away when I heard another huge pop and many little items hitting my back and legs. The second dish exploded. There were pieces of glass everywhere in a 5 foot radius. It was shocking, that is all I can say! What are the odds of two dishes doing that within a few hours? Our pumpkin pie was sitting right next to it and was full of huge shards of glass. Thankfully our meal wasn't ruined. I was nervous the rest of the day that my crock-pot was next!

So, after the crazy Christmas we had, mingled with the fact that we are both sick, I just made soup and ate leftover dip for dinner. Forest put the dip on a plate for a minute and about 30 seconds later we heard a huge crack. The plate cracked in half in the microwave. I wish I were making this up. Forest then said "I am going to heat this soup up on the stove and if THAT explodes, I'm not sleeping here tonight!" So far, tonight, no explosions...

so...

I swear that I just updated a few days ago! It's been almost three weeks, really? What have I been doing? Oh, yes, it's the holidays, that part of the year when, for me, time goes flying out the window.

Everything is going well at work, Grace is getting slightly better with her problem behavior, she makes progress on so many things everyday. I have had fun going to all sorts of fun things for the girls, like McKay's choir performance and Thanksgiving dinner at school. I am going to Grace's school party tomorrow, which I am so excited for! For her many teachers and therapists, we made them a picture frame that Grace helped us sponge paint. They turned out really great! We took a picture of her painting and am going to put the picture in with a poem. Out of all of the Christmas parties, this is probably the one I am most looking forward to!

I have had fun Christmas shopping this year! Grace was the hardest to decide what to get for, but once I decided to get her some more clothes it was very easy, because she is very fun to dress. I got her a bunch of shirts from the Children's Place, along with all of the gifts for my nieces and nephew. It's such a fun place to shop and they have the cutest clothes!

Getting ready for Christmas has been interesting this year, because it's going to be just Forest and I! We have plans on Christmas Eve to visit with the Wrights, who live down the street. They aren't doing anything on Christmas Eve and they invited some of the "family-less" folks over to do a white elephant exchange. We don't have presents to open on Christmas Day (unless he and I end up getting little things for each other) so it's going to be spent munching and in the words of Forest "blowing things up with my new computer". The reason we aren't buying each other things for Christmas is because we just dropped a fairly large amount of money between our new computer and my "new" car. The Dendy's are selling me their "Bendy Dendy" car, a 1996 Saturn SL2. So, Merry Christmas to both of us! Forest is dying to try all of the new video games that our "dinosaur" won't run right now. He just needs to put the thing together!

So, if it takes me another three weeks to update, I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

slacker's update

Wow, I can't believe it's been over two weeks since my last real post. Here is a little bit of what's been going on.

Forest's Birthday: Forest turned 26 years old on the 15th. As we both worked on his birthday, we didn't have a ton of time to do anything really fancy, but did have a very good dinner at Saltgrass Steakhouse. We planned a trip over Thanksgiving weekend a few months ago and got to really celebrate his birthday while on our little getaway.

Thanksgiving: We spent Thanksgiving with Forest's sister Laura and her boyfriend Adam. Adam really wanted to make the turkey this year, which was great because it was one less thing I had to deal with! I made an array of side dishes and once our turkey finally got done (after 7 hours) we had a nice dinner. We watched quite a few movies and played an epic game of Phase Ten, in which I horribly lost. My favorite part was when we ate dessert before dinner and then more dessert after. It's fun being an adult when you can decide things like that!

Our Mini-Vacation: In October I decided it would be a great idea to get out of DFW and explore the rest of Texas a little bit. Forest had driven to Corsicana last year to fix something at a Wal-Mart when he was doing field work prior to his move to the Library. On his way he passed a drive-in movie theater and wanted to go. So, we stayed in a city called Waxahachie, which itself is a very fun little place to visit. It's called the "Gingerbread City" because a lot of the architecture resembles Gingerbread Houses. Corsicana is a little more south of Waxahachie and again, has all sorts of fun things to do. We went to the Russel Stover's outlet, right next to one of their factories. It might be dangerous for some people to wander into that place. I got a few Christmas gifts but the only thing I got for Forest and I was ribbon candy and we somehow haven't eaten it all. Corsicana is also known for the Collin's Street Bakery, which has delicious fruitcake. I tried a sample, liked it and I usually cannot stand fruitcake. We didn't buy any but did get a few treats. Trying to watch the sugar intake while standing in a bakery full of donuts and cookies is hard, but I actually did a good job considering the damage I could have caused. After seeing some of the other sights in Corsicana, we went to Ennis where the drive-in theater is located. Ennis has a Czech restaurant/bakery and also a smaller sister bakery. Unfortunately the restaurant was closed by the time we got there, but the small bakery was open. I got to try my first Kolache! It was really good, I'm going to look forward to that treat every time we are there. The drive-in theater was such a fun treat for us! The food from the stand was actually quite delicious, we completely pigged out! We saw Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium and Fred Claus, both very good holiday movies. It was nice to get away for a little bit, even if it was just a little ways down south. We plan on doing this trip every once in a while, when we feel the need to be by ourselves for the weekend. I'll post pictures soon!

25 Days of Christmas: The celebration of Christmas started today! I was with Grace all day while Jennie helped with the Stake Nativity display (which I can't wait to see tomorrow!). Roanoke has a parade downtown every year along with strolling carolers, story time in the newly restored historic Rock Hotel and treats at some of the local shops. Grace had a good day, she was being very good with me, but was being a little bit grouchy once Jennie got home just before we left for the parade. She was rather good for the rest of the night although she was being very squirmy just before the parade started. I put her on my shoulders and she was happy as can be. We were worried the sirens from the fire trucks would bother her, but for the most part she was very happy. She was being cute as a button, squealing and bouncing away. Jennie and Dallas have Dish Network and a DVR, so the girls and I were searching for all of the fun Christmas movies. Apparently Harry Potter is a Christmas movie, because ABC Family is playing the first three as part of their 25 Days of Christmas Celebration. Go figure.

Sunday and Monday we are going to spend most of the day cleaning up and decorating our house. I'm not feeling very good about decorating our house because we aren't going to have anyone to spend it with. Jennie isn't decorating her apartment as all of her things are in storage and she doesn't have a formal living room. Grace would have a tree knocked over in seconds flat. So, I am thinking about having them over to enjoy the tree I am going to spend a few hours decorating! When I get it done I'll take a picture. Now that the leaves are off the trees next to our window you'll be able to see our tree from the road! It'll be nice!

Hope you're all having fun getting ready for the holidays and to Meredith, I hope you start to feel better soon!

a great day

Somehow my great day also included vomit. Let's start from the beginning...

I woke up around 8 feeling pretty good, although my husband was freaking out because he was supposed to be in downtown Dallas by 8 for work today. Apparently I didn't set the alarm clock...although I did, but for me. He has his own alarm clock specifically because we usually wake up at different times. Nice thing about him working on Saturdays is that he could probably not even show up and no one would even notice. At any rate, I got up and ate pancakes for breakfast, along with some apple cider I got the other day. I took a huge swig of the apple cider and immediately noticed that it tasted like alcohol! It was horrible. Shortly thereafter, I got a slight headache, I had a little bit of a tummy ache and I was feeling hungry. I snacked on a few things, but the headache got worst and I started to feel nauseated. I laid around for a few hours trying to calm my headache, but nothing worked. I eventually got sick, which of course is never fun, but within a minute I was feeling totally fine. My headache and stomach aches were both gone. I don't think it was a flu or anything, I am pretty sure I just can't hold my fermented apple cider! It was a very bizarre turn of events, but I am SO glad I got feeling better, because I had a very good day.

Tonight was our Ward's Trunk or Treat. It's become a tradition in our ward, but I've never been before. The families line their cars up in the parking lot and pass out candy to the kids. I went with the Dendys to help with Grace. I went as a witch and she was a spider. It was quite a bit of fun, especially since I got to march around with a cute little spider all night. I also have never seen so many children in my life, it was actually overwhelming!

Jenny the Witch, McKay the Alien, Gracie the Spider,
Alexa the Flower and Dallas:

I got to see Courtney tonight! She was there with her little ones, which was fantastic to see. I can't believe a week ago she was so weak she couldn't do much of anything. She really is such an amazing woman, she isn't letting this get her down. I didn't want to spread too many of my germs on her, so I only got to talk for a minute, but that was more than enough for me considering it's been 7 weeks since I've seen her.

Courtney and her adorable family:

In other great news, my friend Crysta had her baby boy today! I don't know all of the details, but he was born around 7am this morning and his name is Spencer Jaxson. He joins his big sister Grayce. Congratulations Crysta and Chris!

happy new year!

Happy New Year everyone! I am excited for 2007 to start and I figured it was time for an update. If any of you are here because I directed you from my Christmas letter, let me first say welcome! I spent a little bit of time today making this new layout, I was feeling festive and I never got around to making one for Christmas! Also, my apologies if you received your Christmas card late. I was sick with the flu for the week and a half before Christmas and did my best to get them in the mail in a timely manner!