Christmas 2008...it was GREAT! The boys woke up early but had already gotten things to entertain them in their rooms until mom and dad woke up. I woke up at 8am and told Joe I felt we had put them off long enough. HAHA So...as I got the camera ready (yep..my NEW camera), Joe rounded up the bunch and marched them in the living room in an orderly fashion (LOL). Santa had left out their top 2 faves unwrapped (Joseph:Nintendo DS and digital camera (my old one), Jacob:Ripstick and Nintendo DS, and Ben: drum set and Nintendo DS). The boys all ran to their designated spot and checked out their unwrapped goods. Then it was time to get to the wrapped goods. We..um, I mean Santa..had left 2 ping pong paddles on the fireplace and Ben noticed them but I quickly redirected him to the gift unwrapping. ;) Once all the gifts were unwrapped and stockings were emptied, Joe said "Hey look, we got new ping pong paddles". LOL He then said, "why would we need ping pong paddles?" and Joseph yelled "NEW PING PONG TABLE....OUTSIDE!!!!" and immediately they all ran out in the driveway in search of a ping pong table. LOL I ran downstairs to the newly remodeled game room to get set up for the surprise and heard them run back inside yelling "GARAGE...CHECK THE GARAGE". Once they went in the garage and it wasn't there, someone yelled "BASEMENT" and that was when Joe said "LET ME GO FIRST" and insisted they line up after him. He instructed them to go into the main room and as they pulled the curtain back, there were many loud, girlish screams!!!! LOL They were jumping and screaming and so excited! It was SO worth all the work I have done over the last month and a half. :) They basically spent the entire day down there and have been down there A LOT today!!! They told my father in law that this was the best Christmas ever and they are so excited to have "their own space" to go to. It has been really nice to have them down there. It's been alot more quiet in this house. LOL Unfortunately, it's been rainy so there's been little time spent outside.
My dad arrives from Texas tomorrow and will spend about a week with us. We will go to my sister's house tomorrow afternoon as my sister from Texas and her family along with my other sister from Birmingham and her family will be here to celebrate! You gotta like having a week long celebration with family!
Sorry..no pictures yet as I am typing this on the laptop and don't have anything uploaded yet but will get to that as soon as possible!
Friday, December 26, 2008
Twas the week before Christmas....
I know it's been awhile since I have posted so this will probably be all over the place. We have been busy for the past week with Joe's family coming in town last weekend and starting our holiday early. Karen (Joe's sister who lives in Tallahassee) and her husband and 2 girls (ages 4 and 6) arrived last Friday evening to spend the weekend at our house. Angela (another one of Joe's sisters) came over that evening as well as Joe's parents and we all had a great time hanging out, eating pizza, drinking adult beverages (well, the adults were drinking those), and playing games! Everyone left around 10:30ish and we got the kids off to bed. Joe, Karen, James, and I stayed up talking a little bit and really enjoyed each others company as we have never had the opportunity to do this in the past since they usually stay at Joe's parent's house.
We all got up and showered the next day and the rest of Joe's family came back over to hang out and celebrate Christmas. In all, we had Karen's family of 4, my family of 5, Susan's (Joe's sister) family of 3, Angela, and Joe's parents here. It was a house full but lots of fun had by all. :) We opened presents, ate good food, and drank merrily!
Karen's family left Sunday and Joe, the boys, and I just spent the day hanging out at home. Monday, Joe did ALOT of shopping and was gone for 5 hrs! He walked in the door at 4:45pm and I walked out the door to babysit a friend's children while she and her husband went to dinner.
Tuesday Joe and I took the boys to Fernbank. We went last year just before Christmas and decided to buy a family membership thinking for sure we'd go back and of course we hadn't gone back and our membership expires Dec 31st so we figured we better go back. This time we decided to go to the science center and to the Plantetarium. There were 2 shows so we decided to stay and see both shows. We had a great time and decided to go out to dinner afterwards. Mmmm...I love Carlitos in Grayson!!! :)
Wednesday we hung out at home and had some family time. I wrapped some presents and the boys all played together. We really had a great day! We ended our day by tracking Santa on Norad, setting out cookies, milk, and beer for Santa, reading a few Christmas books, and the story of Jesus' birth from the Bible. The boys opened one gift which were pjs (of course) and a new book for each so they read their books in bed and fell asleep. Around 10ish a HUGE storm blew through and woke Joseph and Jacob up and immediately they started stressing about being awake when Santa comes. I don't ever remember telling them but for some reason they thought they HAD to be asleep by midnight and as 11:30pm approach, they were both in tears so Joe gave them Benedryl and they were asleep soon thereafter. Luckily he had already brought up all the presents and I was deep into wrapping by then. We finally got to bed at 1am. VERY LATE for us. LOL I will post another post about Christmas day as it deserves it's own post! :)
We all got up and showered the next day and the rest of Joe's family came back over to hang out and celebrate Christmas. In all, we had Karen's family of 4, my family of 5, Susan's (Joe's sister) family of 3, Angela, and Joe's parents here. It was a house full but lots of fun had by all. :) We opened presents, ate good food, and drank merrily!
Karen's family left Sunday and Joe, the boys, and I just spent the day hanging out at home. Monday, Joe did ALOT of shopping and was gone for 5 hrs! He walked in the door at 4:45pm and I walked out the door to babysit a friend's children while she and her husband went to dinner.
Tuesday Joe and I took the boys to Fernbank. We went last year just before Christmas and decided to buy a family membership thinking for sure we'd go back and of course we hadn't gone back and our membership expires Dec 31st so we figured we better go back. This time we decided to go to the science center and to the Plantetarium. There were 2 shows so we decided to stay and see both shows. We had a great time and decided to go out to dinner afterwards. Mmmm...I love Carlitos in Grayson!!! :)
Wednesday we hung out at home and had some family time. I wrapped some presents and the boys all played together. We really had a great day! We ended our day by tracking Santa on Norad, setting out cookies, milk, and beer for Santa, reading a few Christmas books, and the story of Jesus' birth from the Bible. The boys opened one gift which were pjs (of course) and a new book for each so they read their books in bed and fell asleep. Around 10ish a HUGE storm blew through and woke Joseph and Jacob up and immediately they started stressing about being awake when Santa comes. I don't ever remember telling them but for some reason they thought they HAD to be asleep by midnight and as 11:30pm approach, they were both in tears so Joe gave them Benedryl and they were asleep soon thereafter. Luckily he had already brought up all the presents and I was deep into wrapping by then. We finally got to bed at 1am. VERY LATE for us. LOL I will post another post about Christmas day as it deserves it's own post! :)
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Sweet notes and Pop Tarts..what a way to end a day!
Not sure if you can tell but in the bubble next to my head, I am saying "break it down now"...you know, because I am dancing and that's what I say when I am dancing. LOL Joseph is saying "ok". Now is he saying "ok" in a "Mom, you're kinda weird" way or "ok" in a "Mom, you rock" kind of way?? By the way, that's a disco ball over our heads. Aaahh Freak Out! Le Freak, C'est Chic
I'm sure if you have been reading my blog by now, you are aware that my husband has been out of town for the past 3 days. I have to say it's been a great weekend ..until around 6:30pm this evening when I started losing all my patience with the kids. I had to keep reminding myself that Jacob was sick on Friday so he never left the house which in turn caused Ben to not play outside after school because Joseph went to a friend's house and Ben doesn't like to play outside alone. I guess I can't blame him. Saturday Joseph went to his friends house again and was basically gone all day. Jacob still wasn't feeling up to par so he wanted to stay inside since it was cold and I let him and Ben play video games all day. (BIG MISTAKE). I don't know what it is about this but when my kids play video games for longer than about an hour, they start getting on each others nerves. So although it was a pretty peaceful day, there were definintly times when they needed to be seperated for a bit. Today I had to go to the grocery store. I LOATHE the grocery store..even when I can go alone so taking all 3 kids was not a fun thing for me. The kids were arguing and just getting on each other's (and my) nerves. As the day went on, it just seemed to get worst. I found myself counting down the minutes until bedtime...at 3pm. lol Finally it was bath time (something Joe does..NOT me) and we muddled our way through it and did our "happy thoughts" and off to bed they all went. I went to tuck Joseph in and he had a huge smile on his face and handed me this card he had made. I could tell he had spent quite some time on it and yes, it brought tears to my eyes. Not sure if it was because it was so sweet or because my son seems to think it's appropriate to point out that he must thank me for taking care of them while Daddy is gone (as if I don't take care of them when he's home). lol
Here's what the letter says. "Thank you so much for taking care of us while daddy was gone. You are the best mom ever and I hope you get this letter. Remember, I am so grateful for you taking care of us while daddy was gone. Love, Joseph"
Not sure if you can tell but in the bubble next to my head, I am saying "break it down now"...you know, because I am dancing and that's what I say when I am dancing. LOL Joseph is saying "ok". Now is he saying "ok" in a "Mom, you're kinda weird" way or "ok" in a "Mom, you rock" kind of way?? By the way, that's a disco ball over our heads. Aaahh Freak Out! Le Freak, C'est Chic
So I end this weekend with this wonderfully sweet note from my 10 yr old and a pop tart. Ohh..did I just say that out loud? lol
Traditions
I love traditions..especially at Christmas time.. so I thought I would share a few of the traditions we have around the Blankenship house. (excuse the poor quality images as they were taken on my cell phone).
This is my Bedford Falls Village that my sister gave me for Christmas in either '90 or '91. It came with 9 houses/buildings and the train with tracks however, I have never put the train up because of lack of space. I LOVE my Village and if there were a fire (at Christmas time), I would grab this first! :) I wasn't able to get all the Village in this picture but you get the idea. It's GORGEOUS and takes up the entire fireplace mantel every year.
This is our Lifesaver advent calendars. This is a tradition I have passed on from when I was little. My mom made me and my sisters these and I have very fond memories of pulling the sticky Lifesavers off every night with pieces of the string attached to them and eating them with delight! There are 24 Lifesavers tied to them..one for each night from Dec 1st til Christmas Eve (in case you couldn't figure that one out). I still haven't gotten the complete truth as to where the original ones disappeared to (I think my sister threw them away many years ago..grr) but my sister, Lori, graciously made these for my kids a few years ago and it is as fond of a tradition for my kids as it was for me as a child. Oh..and now Lifesavers come individually wrapped and I have learned how to thread them onto the strings without removing the wrapper so there is no sticky mess. :)
And how could I post an entry about Christmas traditions in my house without including this one! My grandmother made this for me when I was very young. It's the most hideous looking thing I have ever seen but I insist it be hung on the tree and directly dead center! lol Now, you have to understand that I hate clowns. Pennywise completely did me in on this one! So..to hang this thing on my tree shows my total love for my grandmother..God bless her! I wish she were here today to see this. She would laugh that laugh I can still hear. :)
Other traditions in my house include reading "The Night Before Christmas" and the birth of Jesus from the Bible on Christmas Eve. We also get to open 1 gift on Christmas Eve which in the past has been pjs and a book so the boys have nice pjs for Christmas morning and pictures. I think at 6, 8, and 10 yrs old, they are getting tired of pjs as their gift on Christmas Eve. I will have to think of something else. lol Also, we don't put any Christmas presents under the tree until after the kids go to bed on Christmas Eve. EVERYTHING is brought by Santa. Some things are left unwrapped and some things are wrapped (by Rudolph, Mrs. Claus, Santa, and others) but for some reason, I have never made any gifts from mom and dad. Joseph still fully believes in Santa this year and has not questioned it at all so this tradition will continue..at least for now. :)
I love traditions..especially at Christmas time.. so I thought I would share a few of the traditions we have around the Blankenship house. (excuse the poor quality images as they were taken on my cell phone).
This is my Bedford Falls Village that my sister gave me for Christmas in either '90 or '91. It came with 9 houses/buildings and the train with tracks however, I have never put the train up because of lack of space. I LOVE my Village and if there were a fire (at Christmas time), I would grab this first! :) I wasn't able to get all the Village in this picture but you get the idea. It's GORGEOUS and takes up the entire fireplace mantel every year.
This is our Lifesaver advent calendars. This is a tradition I have passed on from when I was little. My mom made me and my sisters these and I have very fond memories of pulling the sticky Lifesavers off every night with pieces of the string attached to them and eating them with delight! There are 24 Lifesavers tied to them..one for each night from Dec 1st til Christmas Eve (in case you couldn't figure that one out). I still haven't gotten the complete truth as to where the original ones disappeared to (I think my sister threw them away many years ago..grr) but my sister, Lori, graciously made these for my kids a few years ago and it is as fond of a tradition for my kids as it was for me as a child. Oh..and now Lifesavers come individually wrapped and I have learned how to thread them onto the strings without removing the wrapper so there is no sticky mess. :)
Here is another tradition in our house that was started just this year. I think this might become my favorite over the village. :) My mom had one of these and of course my sister got it when my mom passed away :( I loved my mom's so much that I decided I would make my own. Well, I didn't exactly "make" my own but I did paint it and paint it..and paint it (for over 5 hrs straight..not even a bathroom break). I had so much fun painting it (with my BFF, Kat) and now I have a tradition that I will eventually pass along to my favorite one of my children. The picture really doesn't do it justice as it's a beautiful green and the lights are just gorgeous. The base is a different story but who's looking, huh Kat? LOL
And how could I post an entry about Christmas traditions in my house without including this one! My grandmother made this for me when I was very young. It's the most hideous looking thing I have ever seen but I insist it be hung on the tree and directly dead center! lol Now, you have to understand that I hate clowns. Pennywise completely did me in on this one! So..to hang this thing on my tree shows my total love for my grandmother..God bless her! I wish she were here today to see this. She would laugh that laugh I can still hear. :)
Other traditions in my house include reading "The Night Before Christmas" and the birth of Jesus from the Bible on Christmas Eve. We also get to open 1 gift on Christmas Eve which in the past has been pjs and a book so the boys have nice pjs for Christmas morning and pictures. I think at 6, 8, and 10 yrs old, they are getting tired of pjs as their gift on Christmas Eve. I will have to think of something else. lol Also, we don't put any Christmas presents under the tree until after the kids go to bed on Christmas Eve. EVERYTHING is brought by Santa. Some things are left unwrapped and some things are wrapped (by Rudolph, Mrs. Claus, Santa, and others) but for some reason, I have never made any gifts from mom and dad. Joseph still fully believes in Santa this year and has not questioned it at all so this tradition will continue..at least for now. :)
Saturday, December 13, 2008
"I sa, I say I got my "sweater" to keep me warm"
So the dog has been shivering for a few weeks now and I thought maybe she needed a sweater to keep her warm. After all, she has no bandages. I went to Petco in search of a sweater for her. We are not a frilly family (all boys..no girls except me) and don't go for dressing our dog up so I didn't want anything pink or anything frilly (which was what most of the selection was). I was shocked to find that most of the sweaters were $19.99! I have to admit that I don't buy my KIDS clothes that cost that much. (BTW: sorry the font is different. I messed it up by changing the color to pink.). OK..back to my story. I found a red one that I thought would fit her perfect. Came home and to my surprise, she let me put it on her with no resisting (see...she IS cold). I wasn't sure if it was too small so I took this picture and asked a few friends and received some comments that I did not repeat to my poor dog as I know her self-esteem would have been stomped to the ground.
So the dog has been shivering for a few weeks now and I thought maybe she needed a sweater to keep her warm. After all, she has no bandages. I went to Petco in search of a sweater for her. We are not a frilly family (all boys..no girls except me) and don't go for dressing our dog up so I didn't want anything pink or anything frilly (which was what most of the selection was). I was shocked to find that most of the sweaters were $19.99! I have to admit that I don't buy my KIDS clothes that cost that much. (BTW: sorry the font is different. I messed it up by changing the color to pink.). OK..back to my story. I found a red one that I thought would fit her perfect. Came home and to my surprise, she let me put it on her with no resisting (see...she IS cold). I wasn't sure if it was too small so I took this picture and asked a few friends and received some comments that I did not repeat to my poor dog as I know her self-esteem would have been stomped to the ground.
Well, after all the "comments", I decided I should go get her a larger sweater so back to Petco I went..in search of the perfect fit. I found what I was looking for and excitedly (is that a word) came home and put her new sweater on her..which I will admit, fit her alot better. She no longer was shivering and looked so cute!
I took her outside to show off her new sweater to that obnoxious black cat next door who prances around in front of Dublin just out of reach of her tether line and when I went outside later to check on her, I found this nice NEW brown sweater in a pile in the dirt...with this HUGE hole in it! I was so mad at her!!!!
Let me try to describe what you are seeing. The very right side of the picture is the neck of the sweater. It rolls down just a bit to offer a nice little neck line for her. Then you see the HUGE hole. The hole ALMOST takes that nice neck line off the sweater. I have no idea how she shimmied out of that thing but she did...and only HOURS after I put it on her! She's just like my kids! ::rolling eyes::
The beginning..
In the beginning....
Well, this is the beginning of my blogging career. We shall see how long it last. I have Sue to thank for getting me started on this. Honestly, I have a very boring life so I have no idea what I will write about on here. Joe is out of town this weekend and I am losingmyfreakingmind, um.. doing ok. Last night the boys and I watch "Open Season" as our family movie night and as an added treat, we had popcorn and Twizzlers (fruity flavors...YUCK).
Let me back up a little here. Joseph has been struggling a little this year in school. He's a great student and is in FOCUS and Challenge Math (advance math) however, 5th grade has rocked his world a bit and he has had to learn how to actually STUDY this year. He had a D in Social Studies at one point (thanks to the genes he inherited from his mommy) and within a few weeks, he brought it up to a B (very impressive to us and his teachers!). Last week, he brought home a pop quiz in Science that he had made a 44 on. DOH...not good and thanks AGAIN to the genes he inherited from his mommy. He and Joe studied for a LONG time that night and he had the test yesterday and got an 86 on it giving him an 88 in the class..YAY! His teacher emailed me and said she was so proud of him and knew he had studied hard for that. So..I decided popcorn and Fruity Twizzlers were definitely in order last night. The movie was so good. Much better than alot of movies we have seen lately (Kangaroo Jack, Madagascar, etc..). The kids were so good last night too. After the movie they all went to bed without any arguing which allowed me to go straight to bed. Today we are hanging out at home. Not sure what's for dinner tonight or even what we will do this evening. Maybe we'll play a few board games. Joe won't be home until Monday after work. He's away on a "Guy's Getaway" and is going to work on Monday straight from the cabin. Next week should go by pretty quickly. Then Joe's sister and her family will be staying with us next weekend to celebrate Christmas! This holiday season seems to be going by so quickly. I am trying to slow down and really enjoy it!
Well, that's it for my first official blog. Hope you weren't bored to tears too much. :)
Well, this is the beginning of my blogging career. We shall see how long it last. I have Sue to thank for getting me started on this. Honestly, I have a very boring life so I have no idea what I will write about on here. Joe is out of town this weekend and I am losingmyfreakingmind, um.. doing ok. Last night the boys and I watch "Open Season" as our family movie night and as an added treat, we had popcorn and Twizzlers (fruity flavors...YUCK).
Let me back up a little here. Joseph has been struggling a little this year in school. He's a great student and is in FOCUS and Challenge Math (advance math) however, 5th grade has rocked his world a bit and he has had to learn how to actually STUDY this year. He had a D in Social Studies at one point (thanks to the genes he inherited from his mommy) and within a few weeks, he brought it up to a B (very impressive to us and his teachers!). Last week, he brought home a pop quiz in Science that he had made a 44 on. DOH...not good and thanks AGAIN to the genes he inherited from his mommy. He and Joe studied for a LONG time that night and he had the test yesterday and got an 86 on it giving him an 88 in the class..YAY! His teacher emailed me and said she was so proud of him and knew he had studied hard for that. So..I decided popcorn and Fruity Twizzlers were definitely in order last night. The movie was so good. Much better than alot of movies we have seen lately (Kangaroo Jack, Madagascar, etc..). The kids were so good last night too. After the movie they all went to bed without any arguing which allowed me to go straight to bed. Today we are hanging out at home. Not sure what's for dinner tonight or even what we will do this evening. Maybe we'll play a few board games. Joe won't be home until Monday after work. He's away on a "Guy's Getaway" and is going to work on Monday straight from the cabin. Next week should go by pretty quickly. Then Joe's sister and her family will be staying with us next weekend to celebrate Christmas! This holiday season seems to be going by so quickly. I am trying to slow down and really enjoy it!
Well, that's it for my first official blog. Hope you weren't bored to tears too much. :)
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