MAX

Max with his kong toy.

Max deciding if Emily would be a tasty snack.

Max working the room.

Max is a good name for my cousins' dog. He is the maximum sized dog before becoming a horse. His head is bigger than Millie. His tail weighs more than Tara. He's that big. But he's sweet. Huge but sweet. A couple of times he stepped on my foot and it felt like a brick was slammed on me.

He has been to doggy obedience school three times. I think that's like behavior rehab for dogs. It worries me that he had to go three times. hmmm. :) But he really is the sweetest moose sized dog you could ever imagine.

Anyway, it was great seeing you Tom and Sheri and of course my doggy cousin Max.

I'm also posting a picture or two. It doesn't do him justice. His cage takes up most of their laundry room. He's the biggest, uh hum-muscleyist, lab I have ever seen.

skating

The girls and Jay just got home from a birthday party held at a skating rink. Jay taught the girls to skate. Tara and Emily were hugging the wall for dear life until right at the end. Jay took these pictures. :)

It works!

I made brownies tonight with carrot puree and milled flaxseed. It tastes really good! I couldn't taste any carrot or flaxseed. Oh boy, this is fun. Now to give my kids some. They are at a birthday party right now.

My new cookbook

I bought that new cookbook everyone is raving about, Deceptively Delicious. I am going to use baby food for some of the purees. Some reviews say the veggies in the food are hardly noticable. Others say it makes the food taste kind of "off". I am going to find out for myself. I'll let you know.
So now I am off to buy some of the ingredients. Breaks are fun. :)

It's fun to be a kid sometimes

Reindeer Bread

Merry Christmas

Emily set out bread for the reindeers. She said if they eat it, it will prove that Santa exists.

Happy Almost Birthday Jesus

I had a fun day with Nancy. We saw Enchanted. It was right up Nancy's alley. I thought parts of it were cute too, I must admit.

Tara is better. She slept much of today.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. I have to remember to have our advent prayer time. We did it once. It was supposed to be each Sunday.

Church tomorrow and family at my mom and dad's. Emily said she likes Christmas Eve better than Christmas day.

Jay and I watched a show about many religions tonight after I got home from Nancy's house. Incidentally, the drive home from Cleveland was full of wrecks and cars sliding about.

Anyway the show was good. It sparked a lot of conversation between us. We are very like minded in many things. That makes our marriage fun.

Merry Christmas. Happy almost Birthday Jesus!

Seven on a sickly Saturday

1. My poor little Tara has the flu or something. She's a mess.
2. Jay found my Ipod and my grandmother's cookbook. Long story..
3. Whoops, Tara's getting sick.....I'm back, after a bath....
4. Not before Christmas!!!! Get well my baby.
5. Jay and I rearranged our living room to get rid of the clutter and to open it up. It looks great!
6. It's 1:09 in the morning. I'm supposed to go see a friend tomorrow. I hope I don't have to cancel because it's the third time, once for snow, once for an MFE meeting and now Tara's being sick. She's gonna come down here and kick me in the shins.
7. On a lighter note, I always know I'm on vacation when the cookbooks come out!

Good Night my blog buddies.

Just dropped by.....

Right now the girls are playing with a neighbor girl. She just showed up and had her pet rat with her. Ewwww. But I managed to look interested.
Then she came back and asked if she could stay and play. Of course I said yes. But inside I was saying, " Oh crap, the house is a bit cluttered. " I don't think she cared but I do. And of course they played hide and seek and got into every dusty corner and closet. I was trying to keep them out of certain areas where Santa left some stuff....

Don't even get me started on their messy rooms.... Ugh..... When the house is perfect, no one shows up. When you have your hair in the proverbial curlers, here comes the company! :)

Anniversary of Millie's arrival

Millie has been with us a year. She is so loved by us. It seems only yesterday that we brought her home, skinny and sickly. Now she is sleeping on our couch after a dinner of mighty dog and spaghetti. What a difference a year makes.

Oooooh I am really loving my break. My mind is so pleasantly empty. hee hee. It allows me to concentrate on silly things. For example, change on the ground is interesting to me. I quite frequently find pennies and sometimes even dimes on the ground. I wonder who allows money to come spilling out of their pocket, and why don't they pick it up? Maybe my eyes are trained to the ground too much. Once I even found five bucks on the ground. Another time I found a gold ring on the restroom floor at school. I gave it to the secretary of the building. The lady dropped it in her desk drawer. Something tells that ring never found its proper owner.

Snowy day

A little bit of cabin fever has set in for the kids. The weather is awful. So the kids have been drawing and playing on the computer.

Tara came in with a sailboat she made saying Columbus sailed the ocean blue.... in 1992.

It's 1492 Tara.

To Tara 1992 might as well be 1492. That just makes me laugh.

The Characters

Jay's one is folded over/Notice Millie in the corner

A few weeks ago Tara wrote out a cast of characters. What a motley crew!

My new camera takes blurry photos. It couldn't possibly be user error. Nah.

Santa is on his way out....

Emily gave me her revised santa's list. It now has a microscope and Nintendo DS. Oh boy. Older kids = expensive stuff. Tara still wants a doll and a Care Bear. Thank goodness one of them is relatively cheap - for Santa. If little eyes are reading this blog. Stop now!!!!

Where the heck, other than ebay, do I find a microscope?

Is Nintendo DS worth the price? Do any of you have it? Do your kids play it a lot? She wants the catz and dogz game on the Nintendo, or however you spell it. How much are the games?

Em asked tonight if she should really believe in Santa. I asked why. She said that Santa had wrapped the presents last year in Hello Kitty Christmas paper and she saw the same paper in the basement. I told her that, it is perfectly normal to both have the same paper.... straight faced I lied. I am trying to have her believe just a little longer so that Tara can believe. Tara is only 6. And if one doesn't believe, you can bet your bottom dollar that the other sibling is going to get the sibling memo. Sigh.

Done

I'm finally done. Now I can sit and watch TV or play ping pong or whatever and not have the nagging feeling that I should be studying.

Now I can play with the girls and Christmas shop. I couldn't be happier!

One more final

..... but it's a doozy. How does one spell doozy? I'm taking a mental health break to see my blog friends' posts and avoid studying. I actually cleaned the kitchen a few minutes ago rather than study.

My Christmas song this year.... sick of school ...fa la la la la, la la la la... Hate the projects and presenting... fa la la la la, la la la la.

One.
One final between me and a break.

The Watchers

Jay and I went out to eat this afternoon during his lunch break. Have you ever had the experience of being stared at? There were these two older men who totally stared at us the whole time. It was like we were the entertainment. I could see them from the corner of my eye. One of them literally sat back, folded his arms and watched us.

Jay and I started laughing. I mean, it was just so bizarre. These guys were done eating when we got there. They weren't even eating at this point. They had wives with them, but found us much more interesting.

Honestly, I wanted to shout, "I'm sipping my pop; get ready!"

Seven on Saturday

1. We got Taco Bell after church tonight. There was a long line. One person waited fifteen minutes to buy one taco. That's patience.
2. Tara and Emily told us about their crushes on the way home. I feel honored that they told us.
3. I worked on my Pharmacology take home final all day; finally it's done.
4. Jay fixed the tractor with parts from e-bay. It's a new world out there.
5. I have big feet and small hands. Just sharing.
6. I wasn't paying enough attention to what the girls were wearing before church. When we walked in, I noticed Tara was sporting a huge chocolate stain on her shirt. We put her nametag over it. Problem solved! :)
7. Want to get every possible cable channel totally free? Trade in your cable box; that party lasts about three days. ;)

kindness

I have seen kindness from family and friends. They have been forgiving when I mess up and cheer for me when I'm doing well. But I've grown to expect little from strangers and acquaintances. It's not that I believe them to be uncaring in general, but just not concerned with my concerns.

On Wednesday as we were finishing up a class, one prof asked in passing how many courses I was taking. She'd seen me in another course she'd subtituted for, for another prof. I said five. I was proud of that. I am working very hard.

Another person in the class who doesn't really know me, said " Well, it's easy for her; she's not working full time." I don't know why she chose to interject herself into a private conversation other than to put me in my place, lest I get too proud. She knows I also have two kids.

I walked out, kind of dejected. The high I had for finishing that tough course was dampened by this lady. I tried not to give her that much power, but I have to admit she got to me.

But then when I got home, there was an email for me from another classmate. She apparently overheard this conversation and said she had thought of me all the way home and had even discussed the happening to another classmate in our class. She praised me for taking so many classes and raising kids. She said she hates the competition some people have for who's busier. She was so kind. She didn't have to do that. But she took the time to make me feel better. I was touched by her kindness. It was also on my birthday, which kept my day fun.

She will never read this but thanks Kathleen for being a really kind person, when you didn't have to.

Fun Fun Fun Fun day so far. Love Love Love my birthday!

Happy almost birthday to me!

How old do you have to get to not want a birthday? I think I'll always look forward to my birthday like no other day. Maybe I'm just not concentrating on the aging stuff.

The day after tomorrow is my BIRTHDAY... and I love it!!!!!!! Every year I cajole Jay into giving me a present early. I got a watch this year. hee hee Of course, if I weren't completely spoiled on my birthday I wouldn't care so much. My poor best friend is 12 days older and when I called her on her b'day this year, she was finishing up making her own cake. Now, I don't know normal protocol for one's birthday, seeing that I'm spoiled and all, but that just does not seem right!

I have school on that day. Blech. But I'll make the best of it. I'm sure I'll tactfully let it slip that it is my birthday in case anyone wants to tell me Happy Birthday, which I just eat up. I sound like an 8 year old but I'm really..... well almost thirty years older than that. That's ok. Just more memories of my wonderful, stupendous, off the hook, stompin good time birthday!

Let the fun begin! Well, except for having to get my car out of the shop for 1,200 bucks, taking it to the e-check, going to the DMV, standing in line, turning in a paper at school and giving a small presentation..... But I'm not gonna concentrate on that. Because it's almost my birthday, almost my b-day.....la la la la!

Shopping

I'm pretty sure they're pumping in some kind of air in the Target that makes us want everything we see. You know what I'm talking about. Ok, we say to ourselves, only get what we need. Bread, milk, a present for Jay's dad, and socks.

We came out with Bella Sara cards for the kids, a small carpet for the living room, wrapping paper, bows, chocolate, Christmas lights, and a partridge in a pear tree.. I'm so weak. And Target is so enticing. It calls to me... Joann, come shop here. We have pretty lights, nice wide aisles, friendly staff , groceries, cccoooooommmmeeee, we're waiting for you. Your life will be better for having come in.. :)

I think I saw an Oprah about people like me. hmmm.