Christmas Wrap Up

Our holiday started on Christmas Eve. Our tradition is that we go to my Mom and Dad's for hors 'doeuvres. After we eat we then play some sort of game or cards- this years choice was dominoes. Lets just say it was not my night. We laughed so hard and had a great night.

After the game we headed to our next tradition- My In Laws. They go to midnight mass and then we open presents. We did not attend church this year. We were happy that it was not snowing this year. Amber got a Gateway Laptop and is totally thrilled. Zachary got a guitar and can't wait to start lessons. Neil got dress shirts and I received money for my Zune or IPod. Oh and I also received a new set of Pearls. Santa was good to us at the J's.
When we got home at 1 am we decided that we would open our presents at home and then we could sleep in. Amber received this:

We told her that it didn't come in and so she was totally surprised!

Zachary opened this:

in case you can't tell its a Zune ( MP3 player).
Christmas day we went over to my parents again for dinner and presents with my family. For the first time,in a very long time we all were together. We had an awesome traditional meal. Then Amber and Troy played Dance Dance Revolution- this was there next match up after Thanksgiving and the Guitar Hero game. Everyone got into the fun and soon we broke out Hillary's Guitar Hero. What a blast that was- we even talked Jim into playing.

I hope you all had as much fun as we had!

Here's to next year and what it may bring (hopefully a new house for us)!

Adventure Update

Took Cara and family to airport yesterday morning to catch their flight. They did finally leave Michigan- an hour later then they were supposed to. Got a text message last night of Cara's smiling face. Glad they made it to warmer weather. Will let you know when they make it home- as weather man is saying snow again on Sunday- the day they are flying home.

Adventure

Today I was supposed to take Cara, Jason and kids to airport for their morning flight to Orlando. Here's a run down of how that went- Jason called at about 8 am- They were on their way but as they were driving here they got a message that their flight was postponed. They found this out after waking up extremely early, getting pushed out of her aunts subdivision and driving the horrific roads. They had already rescheduled for later that afternoon. So what to do with 6 extra people was my task. Thankfully my Mom is great and let me bring all 6 to hang out until flight. They came by here and I jumped in van and off we went to Mom's. We spent the day chatting and watching kid movies. Jason checked new flight statues about 3 hours before new flight time and it said still on time. Jason went out to get car ready and Cara and I started rounding up kiddos when..... phone rang cancelled flight, again. So off to the phone and computer to find new flight. New flight tomorrow mid morning. What to do now? Hillary called her hotel and got them a room for the night. We loaded up and off we went. Neil brought food and then we swam. Neil, the kids and I left them so they could get a good nights sleep and we will try again tomorrow!

Youtube

What did we ever do without it?

I don't browse it very often but Neil does. You can loose hours watching youtube. These are some of my recent favorites- Torn and Thriller. Last week Kate had Zach and I watching this , this and this .

What are your favorites? Tell me and I will post them here for all to view.

Rein-mingo

What?- you are saying.

This is Rein-mingo

Let me start with the story. My Aunt Judy is obsessed with Flamingo's. Not sure that obsessed is a strong enough word! Back to the story- She decided that she would turn lawn flamingo's into Santa's reindeer this year-hence the name Rein-mingo. She even painted the "lead" one with a red nose! The picture doesn't do them justice. They are so cute and a head turner.

Elfed

I have seen this on several posts. I finally got around to doing one of us.

click on the picture

B-ball

Summit has a new Girls Basketball coach. Coach Ron brings great things to our school. He held tryouts and really wanted to make a JV team, unfortunately not enough girls. He had to make cuts at that point. Amber was worried that she would be cut - however to her surprise she made the Varsity team. Coach Ron told her that she was a strong JV player so he didn't want to cut her because he couldn't make a JV team. He plans on working with her and making her a strong Varsity player. We have already seen changes in her.

We have had 3 games so far- First game was in Dundee, who we lost to ( I can't remember the score). Our Second game was at West Village, this game we won 43 to 20. Our Third game was at Britton-Macon and again we lost- score was 32 to 50. We have two more games scheduled this week.

Go Lady Dragons!

Busy weekend

Not sure that it was any busier than our week. Friday my aunt and i went out to Rock Financial Showplace for the Holiday show and Marketplace. Not what I expected but we still had a great time. I purchased Neil and Hillary's gifts. So productive day. Then Amber had a basketball game in Detroit (more about that in another post).

Saturday had to go get items for our annual cookie baking day. I stopped and picked Josh up on my way.

Josh and Zach helped me make these- S'mores ( BIG thanks to Cara for the recipe). They are jumbo marshmallows dipped in chocolate and rolled in crushed graham crackers.
The boys also helped me make the dough and cut out the sugar cookies.

Sunday- I picked up my Aunt Judy and we headed to my moms - way too early. My cousin Tina and Missy were waiting for us. My mom ended up having to work so Josh, Dave and Hillary stood in for her! This year we each had to make one type of cookie at home and then bring all the ingredients for the second. We spent ALL day baking. Baking makes you so tired.

Thanksgiving

went very well. I made a deal with my mom this year that if she supplied all the ingredients for dinner then I would be the chef. I have only cooked the whole meal one other time and it was years ago. I found new recipes for stuffing and cranberry relish. I have to say that they both turned out great- along with the rest of dinner. We had dinner set to start at 2 but we ended starting at about 2:30 - not too bad. I didn't get any pictures of our meal-just too busy. My brother and Erin came along with my grandma wood- Missy and Jim and kids were at the cabin.

After our meal and before dessert we usually play board games or cards-not this year. Neil's brother has a playstation 3 and just bought Rock Band. For those who don't know - its a game disk that also includes, a drum set, guitar and microphone. You need 3 players, one for each instrument and a lead singer. You choose your song and the game directs each player when they need to either play their instrument or sing. You must keep up or you lose your audience and get booed off the stage. I give Troy a lot of credit- most of the songs he didn't know that well and it was funny to see if he could try and keep up. I can say we never laughed so hard! Sorry for the bad color on the video-


I can't wait to see what Christmas brings.
Hope your day was as fun filled as ours!

10th Anniversary

10 years ago today I married my best friend. I can not put into words how much Neil means to me. He is the love of my life and my best friend.
Neil worked a short day today - due to the Holiday so we decided to go to breakfast as our anniversary meal. We went to Bob Evan's and this is what I had:

Cinnamon Chip Stuffed Pancakes. They were stuffed with a creme, had cinnamon chips in the pancakes and topped with whip topping and a cinnamon glaze. They were so good but too sweet so I could only eat about 1/2.

Neil- I love you and look forward to spending the rest of my life with you!

Another great dinner

again it came from the Fix-It and Foget-it cookbook.
Southwestern Flair by Phyllis Attig
4 lb chuck roast
1 envelope dry taco seasoning
1 cup chopped onions
1 TBSP white vinegar
1 1/4 cup green chiles (I used a 1 7oz can)
Place meat in bottom of slow cooker. Then combine the other ingredients and pour over meat. Cover and cook for 9 hrs on slow.
Shred meat with fork. Serve in a flour tortilla topped with lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream and cheese.
If you and your family love mexican then you will love this.

Mothering

I will stand up for my children at any cost! Those of you that know me should know that by now. I have ever right as a parent to do so! Any GOOD mother would do the same thing. I do not let my children give up on things without a very length conversation.
We (Neil and I) have had several conversations with Amber. We don't want what happened this season to detour her from playing again (because Amber's frustration has been building all season). We also don't want her to think that she can quit when things get rough-this is not something that we encourage or let happen.

Hopefully we can get past this and move on!

Dinner Tonight

was a new recipe out of my favorite cookbook - Fix-It and Forget-It. It was super easy - only 8 ingredients, which most people already have in their pantry. It was Tater Tot Casserole- By Shirley Hinh.
32 oz bag frozen Tater Tots
1lb Hamburger, browned
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
2 - 14 1/2 oz cans Green Beans (I only used 1 can and it was enough, Drained
10 3/4 can cream of mushroom soup
1 Tbsp. dried onions
1/4 cup milk
Place Tater Tots in bottom of Crock Pot. Mix all other ingredients together and then pour over Tater Tots. Cook On High for 3 hrs. Can serve with cheese on top- which I did becasue we LOVE cheese!

Yummy:)

Grocery Shopping

I have changed the way I grocery shop. First, we sit down as a family and look through all my cookbooks and recipe cards. Side note- Right now my favorite cookbook is Fix-It and Forget-It, Meals for your crock pot. We decide our meals for 2 weeks. I then go through my cupboards and see what I have for the recipes. Next I make my shopping list. Changing my shopping habits has reduced the amount of money I spend at the store and reduces my time at the store, which I love! The other thing I am liking about this new plan is that we are trying new meals- some we love and some we hate!

Happy eating-

Volleyball Districts

Was extremely frustrating. The same girls got played all 5 games. They kept making the same mistakes and yet they were kept in while we had girls sitting on the bench! Amber got to play for all of 3 rotations in the 2nd game. Which we felt was ok, until she sat there while the same girls made the same mistakes over and over and over again. The reason she was not played was that she was not a junior or a senior! That really sucks! I am not saying that she is the greatest player but she is an average player-most days serves better then a couple of the juniors.
We do not have a jv team so all the girls play on varsity or are supposed to. Telling a player that you are not playing them because they are not the right status is not ok. This is a team, she made the team, kept her grades up, was at practice on time and dressed(unlike most of the team) and was at all games.
If you do not let them play how will they get better?
Needless to say Amber is crushed. She spent the car ride home in tears. Her self esteem is bruised-not understanding why she is the only player that was played so short tonight.
We are scheduled for a tournament on Monday and Amber informed me she will not be going. I am torn-one part of me wants to make her go but the other part is totally fine with her decision. I guess I will wait and see how I am feeling in the morning.

Quality Time

Neil and I spent some quality time together tonight as he combed the LICE out of my hair! Yep you read that right.. I had lice.
Let me start at the begining- Last Monday I started using a different shampoo and conditioner. On about Wednesday my head started itching. I thought it was the shampoo so I stopped using it. Well my head kept itching, so I thought maybe it needed a few days to get the shampoo out of my system. This Monday I had Neil check my head and he said he found nothing. Still itching. Had him check again last night-again nothing he says. Called my mom today, asked if she would come look. Had high hopes that she would find nothing like Neil. Well she was unsure because she said what she was finding was the color of my hair. I decided to treat anyway.
I need to say - I love my husband! He sat and combed my thick, semi long hair. Not an easy task. Anyway as he was combing we realized it was a great idea to be treating me.
I have no idea where I caught lice, but I did have it. I am the only one. So in a week I will do a treatment again. UGH!

Courtney and Jason's Wedding

I was asked by Courtney to take the photos at her wedding, which was Saturday. I enjoy taking photos but was nervous to take such important photos. The wedding was non-traditional- they got married in a hall and the service was only 30 minutes long (if that).
Her dress was simple in the front. In back there was this beautiful teal bow.






Courtney and Jason.








Jordan, Courtney, Jason and Tim- The wedding party.











The five of us. We
aren't all
together very often so it was nice to get a photo.

Working???

This is how Neil and his coworkers spent their day! At least he was getting paid to act like this!




And yes that is Neil in the jester costume!

I knew something was up when I got a phone call this afternoon asking me "How do you get your camera to take movies?"
Boys and Their Toys

Annoyed

at yet another Volleyball game screw up! Several weeks ago our Thursday, October 25th game was changed to today. Well at 3:00 Amber called to say that the game was off. I should tell you that the game was supposed to start at 5:30. We, meaning our school, changed the game without confirming with the other team! Way to do your job, Athletic Director!

Catching Up...

As you can see I started this blog in July. I wasn't happy with the name I choose or the way it was set up. I finally found a name I liked and decided that I was ready to move forward.
Since last post..
Amber has started High School. We are finding that it is more difficult then we imagined. For the first time she has a C. The level of work is very challenging. I am told not to worry yet as she will find her groove. Volleyball is going well and taking up everyday. She enjoys having Hillary for her coach.
Zach is enjoying Middle School and having a laptop to work on. He is excelling in band again this year and is in the advanced band program. His goal is to be first chair for his section. I guess I should tell you that he plays the clarinet. He is also advancing in Boy Scouts. He always has is goal of being an Eagle Scout in the forefront of his mind. We are assured he will reach that goal.
Neil and I are just busy keeping up with the kids activities. We are also house hunting! We can't wait to move.
Off to do some scrapping-

Life...

has been busy. We have been doing some home repairs that we need to finish this weekend. I always love the thought of painting until I actually start! We are trying to get the painting and projects done before my Essential Body Wear Party that is on Monday night.

In June Amber graduated from 8th grade. Wow, hard to believe that we have a high schooler! She is anxiously awaiting her schedule.

Zach is going into 7th grade. He did really well in school this year. He was first chair in band for the clarinet. He loves being a Boy Scout. His goal is to be an Eagle Scout. Right now he is a

First Class Scout. Next week he is attending 2 Merit Badge workshops at Wayne County Community College.

Neil is working. Still likes his job. He is an Assistant Scoutmaster in Zach's troop and is getting ready to go to summer camp with them.

Thats what has been happening around here.

Welcome

I have been thinking about starting a blog for a while. Finally decide to take the plunge. My goals for my blog is to keep family and friends updated on what is happening in our family.
I will post again soon.