If she had the proper words to say,

I was gathering up my things for tomorrow so that I could scrapbook the Christmas cards from this year tomorrow morning during the scrapbook group... and then I remembered that I have a MaryKay appointment with Veronica instead! I'm glad I remembered now, as I might have been tempted to just toss my unwashed hair back in a scrunchie and go "grunge" tomorrow for the scrapbooking, but now I'll be sure to shower.

(I think we all know how I feel about showers, too.)

I put a bunch of stuff in the mailbox tonight to go out tomorrow, and I'm fixin' to work on the correction form for our tax return right now so that I can - hopefully - get it out there as well. This correction form makes a huge difference in our return, but it won't happen if I don't get it done and mailed in!

And I'm thinking that someone should start the dishwasher tonight, too.

*looks around*

*sees no one else*

Um, I guess that'll be me.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MERI!

I hope your Christmas vacation is as wonderful as you dream it to be, livemockingbird!
(I know that she's traveling today and may very well not see this message... still.)

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We received six more Christmas cards in the mail today, including ones from kataclysmic (adorable, by the way!), flyingwolf, kechara and dottey (I noticed the name of your town has changed?), and also takarakanashi. We also received a package from redwink containing her 2005 Holiday Mix CD, and I ran to stick it in the player and begin listening to it! I was also surprised to receive a card from one of my old pals 'theBasketfairy,' and in her card she included a ribbon bookmark. I've not talked to her in ages, so that was a nice surprise! Thank you all for the lovely mail today! :-)

I'm off to go clean the kitchen now. Janiece is coming over later to scrapbook and watch a movie, and she probably doesn't want to be greeted with dirty dishes! Annie, if you can make it after your final, I'd love for you to come as well, but I also know that you're feeling worse than crap right now. :-/ Philip and his buddies are going out to a club tonight, and he's the designated driver.

Alrightee, off to that kitchen!

CHICAGO! was fantastic yesterday. Absolutely amazing! As I said before, Paige Davis played the part of 'Roxie,' and she was just so phenomenal to watch. Cute as a button, and so good at delivering her lines and songs. Tom Wopat played the male lead of Billy Flynn, and his performance was a far cry from that of his Dukes of Hazzard days - I was very impressed. It was really just an amazing show - start to finish - and it was such a good birthday present. Heather had bought GOOD seats - centered Loge seats - and it was just great! I feel like there just aren't enough good words! :-)

We ate Mexican food at Trini's in downtown Omaha before the show. It's located under the brick streets, in a kinda grotto-like place. It was good food (though my order was messed up), and the beans were fabulous... on the way in, that is. ;-) (We both suffered later.) After the show, we got banana splits at Sonic before picking up the boys.

We went to church this morning, and immediately afterwards, I met Annie, Patrick and Kage at the theater for my third viewing of Goblet of Fire. I took a fluffy blanket this time, as I was freezing during the second watching, and I was so glad to have it. Today was their first time watching the movie, and they all really enjoyed it. :-)

After the movie, I killed about an hour at home before the whole family left to attend Jan's 'Christ Clown College' graduation ceremony. It lasted over three hours, and it consisted of tons of clown skits, a diploma presentation and dinner. It was a good time. The opener for the ceremony was having all of us in the audience blow up balloons and bat them all around the room (which was the sanctuary of Messiah Lutheran Church), saying 'Alleluia!' each time we smacked the balloon. The boys had lots of fun watching the skits, and they either sat up in the front by the stage or stood in the large windows on the side of the church to see. Jan did wonderful, and she had a large crowd from the church there to support her. I was very happy for her, and I took pictures. :-)

We got home after 9pm and put the boys in bed immediately. I posted an editorial on MuggleNet, and now I'm going to start working on our holiday newsletter. The Christmas cards are all addressed, the return address labels have all been printed, but I've got to get this newsletter started and finished. I expect the cards to arrive tomorrow (hopefully!), and then I'll be ready to send them all out this week. Yay!

Tomorrow is the Thanksgiving feast for Jack's preschool class, and I've signed up to bring sweet potato casserole again. I'll go to the scrapbooking group for a little bit tomorrow morning, and then I'll have to come home to cook the casserole so that it will be hot for the feast at 11am.

I guess that's it for tonight...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY!

I hope you are having a wonderful day, angelrose! :-)

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Philip and I watched Star Wars last night. Yes, I began watching it in the summer, but I didn't ever get to finish the one movie, even. So I re-watched Episode IV again last night, and the last 25 minutes or so were new to me. I think I'll wait until Philip's next night off to watch Episode V with him as well, and then we'll continue on in that pattern, finishing up the old movies before beginning with the new. He's seen them all many times over, of course, but these are all "first times" for me.

And Han Solo has quite a witty lip on him, doesn't he? ;-)

I scrapbooked this morning at the church, and I began and completed an entire page! That rarely happens, it seems. In fact, the last several weeks, I've been more sorting my photos than doing any real scrapbooking. I began laying out the stuff for my second page while I was there, but I didn't have time to actually glue any of it to the page. I'm excited about it, though - it will only be my second time to use vellum, and I'm scrapbooking our picnic-and-tulip pictures from last spring.

It rained some, as predicted. I'm very glad that I'd listened to the weather reports and knew that it was a possibility. To avoid the wet and mushy mess, we all raked up the leaves in the backyard yesterday afternoon. I raked piles all over the yard, and Philip and A.J. bagged them. Jack ran around in circles, trying to "help" us all - ha ha. We got eight full bags done, and we finished in about 45 minutes. I had thought it would take much longer actually, but with such great teamwork, it was a snap. And with the rain today, I am extra pleased to not have wet, mushy leaves to get up. :-)

Annie came over last night, and we made Karyn's apple dumplings. It was time-consuming, and we poked fun at each other's dough-rolling methods, but the end result was so good! These dumplings were different than what I'd had before - they cooked in their own gooey, sugary liquid, and the dough was more like a bread when they were done, rather than just a plain crust. We added cinnamon to the recipe as we made it, and they were just so yummy - but so rich and so filling! We were STUFFED afterwards.

We also scrapbooked. Annie got a page done, and I finished sorting the two bags of photos I've had pulled out for a couple of weeks now. I really minimized my photos and what I intend to actually use. I had about 50 pictures or so of building the swingset, for example, but I've narrowed it down to only 12 pictures now, and that's an amount that I can get on a 2-page spread. We watched The Prince & Me while we worked. I'd seen it before, but Annie hadn't, and she really liked it. :-)

Tuck has finally figured out the new litterbox - huzzah! I was beginning to think we'd have to isolate him forever, but this morning I found that he'd finally done three pees in the box. I loved and loved on him, gave him kitty treats and gave him a special pouch of wet food - Tuckster!

I'm off to run a few errands with the boys while Philip sleeps. He's working at Runza this afternoon/tonight to cover for Ryan, his manager. Ryan's wife Sarah was in labor and at the hospital last night, so I'm sure a new little person has or will be gracing this world shortly. Too bad the baby couldn't wait another day - November the 13th is a much better day. ;-D

Today was a fun day. I scrapbooked this morning with Jacqui, if you consider "scrapbooking" a very loose term (we really just talked about organization and how we envision the future of our scrapbooks). Janiece was there for a bit of it, but then she had to leave for a dental appointment.

Speaking of dental appointments, both of the boys have their regular check-ups tomorrow afternoon after school. I scheduled them both for the same time slot again, as that seems to work out well - one boy in each room, and we're outta there quick. :-)

After scrapbooking, I picked up Jack from preschool and we came home and ate lunch with Daddy. Philip and I then hung five coat-and-hat hooks in each of the boys' rooms, and then I organized all of their jackets and hats. We dropped off Philip at Runza at 2pm, and then Jack and I played around until time to pick up A.J. from school.

Once we'd gotten A.J. from school, I brought the boys home and we changed into jeans and long-sleeved t-shirts. Jack grabbed the rake, and we walked a little ways around the neighborhood to a prime leaf-playing spot I'd picked out earlier. Trees with the most gorgeous falling leaves in a nice, sloping area behind a cluster of base housing that is vacant - perfect! I raked up a starter pile of leaves, and then the boys dived right in. They had a blast!


Tumbling together in the leaves.

( A few more... )

Finally, after wearing each other out playing hard in the leaves, we all walked back home. The boys were dying of thirst then and begging for a Coke, but I told them they could only have one if they shared it. Jack grabbed the Coke, and A.J. got the straws. They started drinking, and I grinned at the cuteness. :-)


The boys share their soda.

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(All of the pictures from this afternoon can be seen HERE.)

Ahhh, scrapbooking. Scrapbooking!

Today is Monday, therefore it was time for another meeting of our scrapbook group at church. I finished up the two pages I started last week (which I actually meant to pull out and finish at home all week long last week but never really got around to), so it was a productive morning.

I love Creative Memories. It's really all that I use, and I just prefer it that way. It's hard to believe it's been almost 6 years that I've been scrapbooking now. I was invited to a party at my boss's house the night before Thanksgiving 1999, and I jumped right into CM and have never looked back. I love how everything matches so nicely, and how neat all of my albums look on the shelf together with their spiffy embossing. I really, really love CM. I keep meaning to sign up as a consultant, but it seems there's always something else to get done first. Soon, I'm sure. After buying it for nearly six years, I have I have spent so much money and introduced so many people into it that I should have been doing it all along!

While I was scrapbooking, I had to keep taking a second to lean way back in my chair and stretch. I don't know why, but I am really stiff this morning, and I just feel like I can't quite get the kinks out. I think I just haven't had a chance to relax much since Thursday or so, and it's finally catching up to me. Tomorrow, though, after dropping A.J. off at school, our schedule is blissfully free, so I plan on doing some serious stretching and some serious relaxing. Ahhh.

The alarm went off this morning, and I went into the kitchen first thing to get a drink. Oddly enough, I happened to check the answering machine - something I *never* do in the morning because no one *ever* calls before 7:48am (the time that my alarm goes off). This morning, though, it was already blinking with one message.

I played the message, and it was Sara Zivny. She'd called at 7:25 to tell me that there actually wouldn't be childcare available this morning for the scrapbooking group due to the fact that the Monday morning Bible study didn't start until NEXT week. She asked me to contact the gals that had planned on coming.

*sigh*

I was really looking forward to that, but I can also understand waiting one more week and just starting everything together. I called Janiece as I roused the boys and told her. I had to wait to call Jackie until after taking A.J. to school, as Janiece knew that she would be dropping off her daughter at the same time. And the way it worked out was actually much simpler: as Jack and I entered the house from dropping A.J. off, I heard Jackie in the middle of leaving a message for me. I snatched up the phone and caught her just in time. She was having to cancel herself because she had to take a kitty to the vet, and she was happy to hear that she would, in fact, NOT be missing the first meeting.

So I suppose it worked out okay, anyway. I wasn't able to reach Ann by telephone before school, and she was bummed to hear when I caught her at 9am, but we've all got time to be get more ready for next week now. :-)

Since Janiece and I were still standing around, I asked her if she'd like to have breakfast with me at Panera Bread®. She thought that sounded good, and I agreed to drive us both there in my van. She headed back to get her purse out of her own van, and she returned back to me with a gorgeous bunch of flowers and a card for mine and Philip's anniversary! I was very touched and quite surprised! :-)

We had a nice long breakfast and didn't return back to the preschool until shortly before time to pick our boys up. Afterwards, Jack and I went and paid the deposit for A.J.'s birthday party. We ate a late lunch then, and I talked to my my daddy for a while on the phone. I don't get to talk to him much, but he called last night as well, so I really felt spoiled to talk to him twice in two days!

We picked up A.J. from school, and then headed over to Heather's to check on the kitties again. We've been watching them for the past 2+ days, and we'll continue to do so until her and Shane return home from their vacation in Montana. Tasha Lou has been a bad girl, though: she got out yesterday when Jack left the garage door open (he was heading to the basement to put food in the kitties' bowls, and I was bringing in Saturday's mail [which we forgot to do that day]). Then today, she jetted out the door as soon as I opened it to enter the house, and I had to chase her around the house and then over two backyards to grab her and bring her back in... and oh, she was NOT happy with me! I seriously feared for the survival of my wrists, as she kept trying to bite them while I carried her back.

I fully expect Heather to act as my nurse should I contract "cat scratch fever" now. ;-)

I pulled up the last zucchini plant from the garden today. We only planted two, but we've had an amazing run - 55+ zucchinis (I say 55, but Annie thinks I forgot a few and am understating), and 90% of them were between 14-18" long. Annie, her mom and I gathered the cornstalks on Saturday, and they are now decoratively adorning my carport posts and the little flag stand - cute! Annie also pulled up the bean skeletons that day, so now there are only the pepper plants and the tomato bush left in our big garden space, but both of them are still going strong (the peppers a little too much so, in fact).

I just got out of the bath (yes, marshmelococoa, I took a bath tonight from your suggestion last night) and shower, and I'm going to go finish up A.J.'s party invitations while my hair dries a little bit. I might start a movie, but I doubt that I'll finish one. Oh, and speaking of movies, I borrowed Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights from Heather yesterday, and I watched it while the boys took naps after church. It was AWFUL. I absolutely H.A.T.E.D. it, and I was quite surprised at that. In fact, after I watched it, I sat there and stewed about how awful it was for about 20 minutes, and then I finally decided that the only way to get the awfulness out of my mind would be to watch the original Dirty Dancing movie. So I did just that. I pulled out my old VHS movie and watched it - ahhhh! MUCH better.

Alrightee, I'm off...

This morning was Jack's first day of Preschool. He's in the 4-year old class this year, and he'll be participating in a cap-and-gown graduation ceremony at the end of the year. *sniffle*

He was excited for school. It's been hard for him these past 9 days watching A.J. go off to school each day, knowing that he'd be going to school soon but that it just hadn't started yet.

And of course, we took a 'First Day of School' picture:


Jack's first day of school.

(And another pic, if you are so inclined...)

He walked up to the front door, opened it (with some difficulty - it *is* a heavy door) and went through the entryway and into the classroom. He knew already where to hang his backpack, so he did that and was then off to the tables. The kids were playing with Play-doh® until time to begin, and it was so good to see so many familiar little faces again. The class is made up about half-and-half: half of last year's class, and half 'new' students.

Jack picked a seat next to Janiece's son David (of course!), and the two of them never cared a whit about either of us leaving. I took a few more pictures and then went out of the classroom and back into the entryway to wait for Ann and Jamie to arrive with their kiddos. It felt so good to be completely back into the school year again!

After dropping Jack off, I went up to the T!LC offices to fill out a 'Building Use' form to get this year's scrapbooking group going again. I still have to write up a small notice to appear in the Messenger (church programs on Sundays) and in the monthly newsletter, and I'll just email that to Kerri early next week. I bought a book of devotions two weeks ago to use in our scrapbooking sessions (to be allowed to use the church's daycare facilities, our group needs to have a Christian foundation or fellowship of some sort - scrapbooking alone doesn't quite cut it). I'm excited to get this going again, and it already seems that there is so much new interest for the group!

I'm having leftover chicken soup for lunch, and then I think I'm going to lay down for a short snoozle before picking A.J. up from school. *yawns*

Happy Father's Day!

This wish goes out to all the fathers and fathers-to-be on my friends' list, but most especially to my honey Philip. The boys and I mailed him a box with a few goodies and cards, but it was mailed too late for him to have it by today. Soon though, I'm sure. :-)

I was at work all day yesterday, of course, and when I returned home, Annie and the boys were playing outside. We stayed out there until just after 8pm, and then Annie left for the store as we came in and made dinner. Once dinner was cleaned up and the boys were in bed, I sat down for a minute at the computer. As I did so, it occurred to me that I was a bit warm... not sweating or anything, but I just felt oddly warm. I thought about getting up to adjust the air conditioning to a cooler temperature, but then I heard it running in the background.

I realized about 5 seconds later that although I could hear it running, I couldn't feel even the tinist waft of cool air on my skin -- and I was placed directly in front of the vent. I knew what that meant, so I jumped up out of the desk chair, skidded down the hall, turned off the system and yanked open the doors... to find exactly what I'd been expecting: a thin layer of solid-white ice coating about a foot of the A/C's pipes.

There's nothing left to do in that situation but keep the system off until everything is very thoroughly thawed. As Heather was coming over to scrapbook, I debated calling her to tell her that the A/C would be off for the rest of the night.* Once she arrived though, we opened the windows and the sliding door in the living room, and we scrapbooked in a pleasant breeze with no problems. The girl kitties even enjoyed a few hours of playful midnight romps in the backyard while we worked - something they *never* are allowed to do. I'm thankful that it happened during the night, when the house is naturally cooler anyway. I was able to sleep very comfortably with just a sheet and my fan last night (and that's saying something, since I am almost always burning up in bed with even the A/C going).

Unrelated to any of the above, I've found myself with a very upset tummy today. I haven't the foggiest clue why, but I've finally resorted to taming it with hot tea and milk. I've not had this concoction in more than just a few years, but it purported itself to be the most infallible cure I could come up with using staples already in the house (meaning I don't have any ginger ale here).

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* This had happened to us twice before, and we learned in those instances that the air must remain off for at least 8-10 hours to properly thaw everything; any less time, and the system just refreezes after an hour or two of restarting.