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...

what, do you think we're made of money?

Today was a very very full day!

I was scheduled to be picked up by Jennie at 9:45 this morning (and it would be the last day she'd ever have to pick me up!) but was greeted by Dal and McKay instead. So, we got over to their apartment and we all piled into the car to take a fire truck ride around Roanoke. McKay won a poster contest at school for fire safety so we were all rewarded. Unfortunately they weren't able to do it just then due to some malfunctions in their 2nd truck and we didn't want to be out joyriding in case they needed to leave quickly. They rescheduled at 4, so we headed back to the apartment.

Both the Dendy's and the Grabert's bought a "new" car today. Dal picked up his Honda Accord today while I took his Saturn off of his hands for him. So, while his is actually new, mine is just new to me. Forest had never even been in it until today, so it was really new to him! It's a nice little car, it'll do it's job in getting me around. The best part is, our insurance policy dropped a few hundred dollars due to having multiple policies and caused less than a $25 a month increase. Not bad!

After we were all done spending our wads of cash for the day (or so I thought), we headed back over to the fire station to take our ride. The trucks only seat 6 people, including the driver, and we were 7. We decided Grace was the expendable one and she sat on my lap. Grace was on cloud 9 almost the entire time, she was laughing and squealing away as we hit all sorts of bumps. Alexa was feeling car sick (I don't blame her) but managed to take pictures of random things, something she is very good at. I think it's time to get her a cheap digital camera so she can take all of the pictures she wants without wasting film. It was very fun for me, I am glad I had this after the disappointing day we had yesterday!

Grace woke up yesterday morning with pink eye, so neither of us got to go to her Christmas party! I know Jennie and I were far more bummed than Grace was, of course. I feel so bad the poor thing has to deal with pink eye. She has been so happy the past few days though, so it doesn't seem to be getting her down much.

Anyway, so, after our trip Forest called to tell me he was headed to Fry's to pick up something for Jennie's new phone (new car, new phone, new house, we're all made of money!) and found a headset I wanted. I told Jennie about it and she wanted one too! It's a Bluetooth (for you non-computer nerds out there, that means wireless) hands-free headset that converts into stereo earphones. It is very awesome and I can't wait until they are done charging tomorrow and I can mess with them. I took my new little car to pick up a present for Forest. It goes with his brand-new monster computer. This thing is a beast!! Oh yes, that also took a decent chunk out of our bank account as well, but was mostly paid for by the 3 days of pure overtime he had to work in October. So, while we're certainly not made of money, during the holidays it sure seems like we are.

I start my 4 day weekend today...and I know by Wednesday I'll be missing the laughter!

conversations with kids

I had a very funny conversation with Alexa the other day that I thought I might share. We got on the subject of having babies, and she asked if I wanted to have a baby. When I replied, "I really want to, but I might not be able to have one", the rest went something like this:

Alexa: (In a high pitch "ahhhh" kind of voice) "You can't have kids?"

Me: "I might not be able to have my own, but we don't know yet"

Alexa: "Why not?"

Me: "I have a condition that makes it really hard to have one, but I know someone with it who has 4 kids, so there is hope!"

Alexa: "If you don't have one will you adopt?"

Me: "Yes, if it comes to that I think we will adopt"

Alexa: "I know! You should adopt a little girl who is my age and I can be her best friend!"

Me: "That sounds great, but if I adopt anyone I can't come take care of Grace and hang out with you guys all day."

Alexa: "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Then you shouldn't have a baby for a long long long time!"

Me: "Alright...if you insist"

I can't imagine what Grace would say at the possibility that I will eventually have to leave her. I guess Alexa answered it for me!

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!

ode to my husband

My husband is doing the dishes while I sit here and warm up. We just got done grocery shopping and for some reason I feel frozen to the core! We bought a mega-pack of hot chocolate so I'm all set. We bought some gloves for Forest because his hands are already very dry and dish washing makes them worse. Too bad we didn't know they were pink! I found this very funny, so I snapped a picture.

Oh, Forest, how I love you so, pink gloves and all.

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!