I love IKEA

I went to work yesterday and only stayed for two hours. It was really slow so BK decided to let someone go home - I very generously volunteered myself!! When I got home, we decided to go to IKEA! I got a couple of new pots, a couple of new pillows and cases, a couple of cute vases (isn't that weird? I got two of everything) and something for BK, but I can't tell you what it is until I give it to her. We also got some Swedish meatballs and some very yummy cinnamon rolls. Which reminds, I was supposed to have one for breakfast! After we left IKEA, since we were so close to Mercedes of Chandler, we went there to check out the SMART car. They had one there to look at, but they weren't ready to sell it yet. It's one tiny car, but it is roomy inside. Jeff definitely fits in it (I wasn't sure that he would). We can even stuff the children in the "trunk" (not that there is a trunk) if need be. In about two weeks Jeff should be getting a call from them, since he pre-ordered one on line.

Randy pulled out another baby tooth the other day. Now he has the two bottom teeth in the middle and is missing the next ones on both sides.

So far the winter break is going well - I'm not wishing that they'd go back to school yet. Both boys are enjoying their Christmas presents and spending lots of time on their computers.
I want to go to Flagstaff and play in the snow! But Jeff doesn't want to go!!
I want to go to the Flea Market/Swap Meet too, but Jeff doesn't want to go there either. Both boys just want to stay home and compute. Maybe I'll just have to go out by myself!
I want to go to Delaware - yes Delaware and now I'm off to take a virtual tour!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!! May you all be safe, healthy and happy in 2008!

It's Not Christmas Anymore

Christmas is officially over at our house. Ginger let us know this, by knocking the Christmas tree over Christmas night. Instead of righting it and readjusting everything, I decided to put it away - along with the rest of Christmas. Today I took the lights down outside - so it's official - Christmas has come and gone!! So, Happy New Year!! Here is a picture of our "new" living room -(thanks for the tables Beth :-).

Christmas!!!!

It was great! Everyone got some really cool presents. We had a nice day playing with everything and enjoyed being together.

Christmas Eve

Well it's Christmas Eve and Keith woke up at 7am. He came to my room, hopped in bed and excitedly told me "Merry Christmas!". He was a little disappointed when I told him it wasn't quite Christmas yet. He wants to open presents! Me too!! I want to open presents. Actually I want to watch everyone else open theirs'. I love to see the reactions that everyone has when they see what they've gotten. Randy came into my room a few minutes later and we decided to go downstairs. We left Dad in bed and now we're watching Christmas stuff on TV. Hurry Santa - we're waiting for you!!!

DECEMBER 19TH

Randy's birthday!!!!!

He's 8 years old!!!

I baked him a lop-sided cake and he got to open some pretty cool presents!
My parents and grandparents came over for dinner and cake.
Randy got Electronic Battleship - from Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Alissa.
He got an Air Hogs Helicopter from mom and dad.
He got a "Forces of Valor" tank from Keith.
Mama and Papa and Auntie got him a Star Wars playset and money.
They even bought an i-Dog for Keith.
Both Keith and Randy got money from "Old Mama" and "Old Papa".

Yesterday Keith stayed home from school.

He has pink eye!
He was going to miss out on making a gingerbread house in class, so we got the fixins and made one at home.
Today I took him to the doctor's and we got some ointment to put in his eye.
Let me tell you how much fun that is...
Ok, I'll spare you the details. Hopefully it works.
It seems like Ginger kitty really likes our new friend Mr. Wiggles. I spotted her hanging out on top of his cage twice today. I leave his door open quite often - maybe one day I'll find her inside there with him.

A sad day

Sunday we all took a ride to Petsmart. We were all excited because we were going to get a new friend for Mr. Wiggles! We picked out a super cute little piggy... Snickers. We should have noticed that Snickers was probably not the healthiest little guinea pig. Monday the boys woke up and were getting ready for school - I took Snickers out of his cage so we could pet him and love him. Afterwards, I took the boys to school and then went shopping. When I got home, I found that Snickers had died. It was really sad, even though we only had him for a day. He was so cute and sweet. But looking back we realized that Snickers never made any sounds like Mr. Wiggles, he didn't ever flinch when we touched him, he sat with Ginger kitty and didn't have any reactions and his eyes weren't fully opened liked Mr. Wiggles. I don't think he ate anything either - I tried putting food right in front of him and I never saw him take any. Of course the boys were bummed out and felt bad about losing our new little fuzzy friend. I did take him back to Petsmart, where I'm not sure what they did with him. They offered me a new piggy, but I declined. Here are a couple of pictures of the sweet little thing.

New Addition

Yesterday we acquired a new addition to the family. Jeff brought home a guinea pig! His name is Mr. Wiggles! He's very cute. Today he went to Petsmart for a manicure and pedicure! We bought him a nice new "tiki hut". It's an edible natural hideaway - aka "Snak Shak". It's as cute as Mr. Wiggles is!!! I have a lot to learn since I've never had a guinea pig before. And I have to go shopping. We need some celery, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, and some other yummy veggies and fruits. The little guy is a vegetarian and I think he may encourage us to eat better as well. At first the cats were very interested in our new guest, but now they seem to stay away. Far away - they've been upstairs all day. I guess they'll just have to get used to him.

Yesterday (very last minute) Jeff got Suns tickets from work!! I had to call my mom to see if she'd come over to put the boys to bed and she did. The game was a good one - very close, but the Suns pulled it off!! Woooohooooo!!!

Well, I'm tired, but I had to share the news. Later there shall be more.... A sneak peek - tomorrow the boys will be sleeping over a friend's house for the first time because Jeff and I will be going to a Christmas party.

It's Pizza Night!

It's pizza night!

Pizza, I say!

Pizza!!!!

In case you couldn't read the sticker on Randy's forehead. Every second Tuesday of the month is pizza night and the kids are sent home with these stickers on the their shirts (or heads) so we don't forget. They also have a little Papa John's blimp anchored at the school too. I'd say this is the best fund raiser ever!! The school gets some money and I don't have to make dinner! It's win-win!!

I took Randy's lunch bag out of his backpack yesterday... It felt heavier than when I packed his lunch in it. So I opened it up and found about 5 rocks in it!!! Apparently my boy has a new hobby. He collects smooth rocks. I have limited him to one rock per day! I don't really know what he plans to do with all these rocks, but so far they are on the headboard of his bed. Boys.....

What is Keith up to, you ask. Well, what else - guns, shooting, sniping (once in the head, twice in the stomach), referring to Randy as commander and requesting supplies. I hear things like - "I need a medic", "I need repairs", "artillery strike here!"

By the way, if you'd like to order Papa John's Pizza http://papajohns.com/ tonight (from the store on VanBuren in Goodyear) make sure that you mention you're ordering for the Centerra Mirage fundraiser - and the teachers' names Crowe (2nd grade) and McEldowney (kindergarten). Which ever class gets the most orders, wins a pizza party. So far Randy's class has won all the pizza parties, even though I give both teachers' names each time I order.

It's raining (again) and I'm cold!! It's 57 degrees and icky. I don't think I'll ever live here long enough to enjoy it when it rains. This weeks low temps are supposed to be in the 30s. It does make it seem more like Christmas is coming. 14 Days!!!

Ben & Jerry's and the Simpsons

Have you all seen the Simpson's Movie? We haven't, yet. The DVD will be released on December 18th - (the day before Randy's birthday!) At one time our life had to be scheduled around the Simpson's - we always had to be home to make sure we'd see the latest episode being shown. Nowadays, we don't watch it too often and I prefer that the boys don't watch it just yet. I was on Ben & Jerry's website (one of my favorite websites and definitely my favorite ice cream) and I came across this........

Come celebrate the DVD release of the Simpsons Movie and try “Duff and D’oh!Nuts” our one-day, one-time only beer and donut ice cream flavor... (click on the red link) Contact your local Scoop Shop to see if they are participating.

Thought this seemed neat - that is if everyone isn't too busy with all the Christmas and holiday stuff going on .....

Lazy Day

Have you tried a BK Mocha Joe? If not, you should. They're yummy! I stopped at Burger King on my way home from work last night - such a nutritional dinner- but the Mocha Joe makes it all good. In case you were wondering, NO, the boys didn't get to have any Mocha Joes.
Last night the boys hosted their first over-nighter. They celebrated by having a light saber battle, among many other fun, loud and goofy things! It went very well. We'll definitely have to do it again. I made some snowman cookies - yeah, after a hard day's work, I took those little refrigerated cookie dough blobs out of the fridge and placed them in the oven! Then we all enjoyed a few of them for a snack before bedtime. Impressively everyone brushed their teeth and used the facilities, then each one got in bed and we all said good night. Jeff and I went back downstairs, to do what we do best (I watch TV and Jeff of course gets on the computer). Not long after coming down stairs, we started to hear some noise... who might it have been your wondering... Keith of course - starting trouble! He got out of bed and was inviting everyone else to do the same. Do not fear - order was restored in moments and we didn't even need Jeff to get involved.

Work was pretty busy yesterday. Everyone is getting ready for the holidays. Lots of Christmas parties and some pretty fancy ones I guess! Quite a few people getting up-dos for these parties. Last weekend, a girl came in with hair down past her butt - I had to give her an up-do!!! Ahhhhh!! I had no idea what to do with all that hair!! I ended up tying her hair in a couple of knots - it looked nice -- very simple. She liked it and it only took about 15/20 minutes to do it!! I wonder if it lasted through the swing dancing that she was planning on doing!!!

In ten days Randy will be 8 years old!!! Can you believe it? 8!!!! I am having a hard time with it myself. No big party plans - just family, some dinner and cake. Oh yeah, presents too!!! Can't forget those! I wonder if I should take some cupcakes in for Randy's class that day? They're so nice and messy, I'm sure his teacher would appreciate that. I have to see what we're going to do for school, maybe nothing - everything costs too much!

We went to Pei Wei today - teriyaki beef bowl - yum! It's nice that they give you so much food, because we had it for lunch and dinner!

Tomorrow I get to help out in Kindergarten as usual and then lucky me - I'm going to the doctors. I figured it was about time to make an appointment since I don't believe I've seen a doctor in two years (or more?). I don't fear the doctor, just the bill!!!

Last week Randy's class went on a field trip to the see the Polar Express and lots of parents went along to chaperon. Keith's class is going to the Phoenix Theater/Cookie Company to see the Quiltmaker's Gift. I thought the teachers would want as many parents as they could get to go - not so... apparently they had to hold a raffle/lottery because only a limited number of parents could go. And I am one of those lucky parents. I have to wonder though - why does it cost an adult twice as much to go and see the same thing that the kids are seeing? Well, I'm going because Keith wanted me to go and I was lucky enough to be chosen, so I won't complain (too much).

I think I'll stop now before you all fall asleep reading this!! BTW - the Cardinals lost - is anyone surprised? And the Patriots are still undefeated! Go Patriots (even though Jeff wants to see them lose).

I've been slacking!

There hasn't been much going on, so I didn't have anything to write about.

Friday we didn't go to P.F. Changs - we ended up at Manuels. I had a shredded beef taco and it was very good, but now I still need wonton soup and some cream cheese wontons!!!

I put up our Christmas lights outside a while ago - plugged them in and blew some fuses or something. I kept putting off trying to fix them because I thought Jeff would help me (hahaha!). Yesterday I went out there pulled some lights down, threw some lights out and hunted down some extention cords. Now all the lights I put out actually light up!!! Except, looking at the pictures, I see that a part of lights on the garage aren't lit and neither is my ladder!! UGH!!!

Yesterday was Randy's class field trip - we went to the IMAX theater to see The Polar Express in 3D. That was my first 3D movie ever and my first IMAX movie. It was really cool. Randy enjoyed it. It was funny to see the kids reaching out to try to grab the stuff coming towards them.

Randy's class met a goal with their AR reading (don't ask me what that stands for - I'm not sure), today they had game and craft day. Everyone was supposed to bring in a game. So Randy informed me that he would like the Talking Battleship game - he even went so far as to find it on Ebay and left that screen up on my computer!!

Today I took down the tree that we originally put up. My mother gave us the one that we took down (it was her old tree because she got a new one), but we all decided that we liked our "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree better. And the cats can't do as much damage to this one!! Another plus with this tree is that we can fit a lot more presents under it!!

My Christmas cards have been written out and addressed for quite some time now, but I'm not sending them out yet because I keep thinking that someone will write a Christmas letter. I doubt Randy or Keith will write it. I'm trying to get Jeff to write it, but of course he doesn't want to. I guess if I really want a letter to include with the Christmas cards, I better write it. Only problem is that I can't even remember last week, let alone what happened through-out the year. I should just put the cards in the mailbox before it's too late!!!

Of course the boys were up to their usual antics after school - after the homework was finished... plenty of computing, but they also did a lot of running around, acting out scenes from Battlefield. That's always entertaining!

Since today is Wednesday, I met my friends at the Wildflower Bread Co. again. I am hooked on the Feta & Roasted Vegetable Frittata!! YUM! You should try it if you get the chance!!!!

I guess I'm done for now.... oh, just so everyone knows, the Suns won yesterday and today!!!! Wooohooooo!!!!!

It's raining!!!

rain (rān) n. Water condensed from atmospheric vapor and falling in drops.

It's actually raining out. Can you believe it? Ugh... I still haven't lived here long enough to like it when it rains. I have to look for the umbrella so I don't get soaked while I go meet the boys at the bus stop. And yes, we do own umbrellas -- more than one, even.

I ate some yummy bread, with cream cheese and jalapenos in it --- what is wrong with people? Why do they eat jalapenos????? This was me eating it.... AAAAHHHHhhhhhhhhhh!!!! Hot, hot, hot! Pant, pant, pant. Drink, drink, drink. Take another bite... AAAaaahhhhhhh!! Hot, hot, hot! Pant, pant, pant. Drink, drink, drink. Eat some more.....AAAaaaahhhhhh! Tongue burning -- ouch!!! Pant, pant, pant!! Drink, drink, drink!! And I kept eating it until it was all gone!!!!!! They tell you to drink milk --- yuck! who would do that? Oh well, I'm fine now.

Tonight is girls' night out. We are going to P.F. Chang's for Lisa's birthday dinner! I'm going to stay away from anything spicy! I've never eaten there... it should be fun!

Doesn't it just figure? I have plans to go out with my friends and Jeff gets tickets for the Suns game tonight!!!!! He's going with one of his friends. We both get to go out tonight!! In the rain too!!! Mama is coming over (in the rain) to watch the boys and put them to bed. Fun, fun, fun!

It's the day before Friday

Our tree is now decorated and even lights up when it gets dark - but I haven't taken a picture of that yet. It's very sparsely decorated and the cats seem to enjoy knocking ornaments off, so who knows how many will be left by Christmas. I finally took pictures of the boys with their new Christmas headgear on... Funny.

I put up the Christmas lights outside yesterday. I thought they would look nice, but I couldn't really tell because only half of them lit up when I was done. I did such a great job, that I blew out some of the fuses on the strands. Oh well- I need some extension cords and some new fuses. Until then, we'll just have to enjoy half the lights.

Tomorrow is the last day of November - where does the time go? The older I get, the faster it goes. Twenty six days until Christmas. Is your shopping done? I'm almost there. At least I think I am. But wait until three days before Christmas and I'll think of all kinds of other things and people to get gifts for!!!

Things to ponder....

Why do banks charge you a " non sufficient funds" fee on money they already know you don't have?

What is the purpose of that little ball on top of the flagpole?

Do vegetarians eat animal crackers?

Why isn't 11 pronounced onety one?

The boys and I are going to Mosaic Pizza for dinner. The cutest little pizza shop in Litchfield Park! Jeff is coming home late - so he'll get to eat left-overs. Don't worry, he doesn't mind eating left-overs.

Fitness tip of the day:

Breathe deeply and fully. Not only does this help you look and feel better, it also improves your mental functions.

Who knew that not breathing right could make me stupider? I better work my breathing!!!!

Sunday

The TV is on. The announcers are yapping about the game... Arizona is losing - what else is new? No one is watching the game!!! All three boys are in the other room, on their computers. Why must I be subjected to football? I guess I could change the channel, but you know as soon as I do that, Homer will notice and he'll tell me to put it back on!!! Yesterday Mama & Papa took the boys to Firebird Raceway - Santa's theme park is there. They got to go on rides, play some games, see some animals, eat cotton candy & most importantly, they got to talk to Santa! They had a great time and spent plenty of money. Randy came home with a picture of tigers and a camouflage santa hat. Keith got some antlers (he's a reindeer!! LOL) and a picture of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.


We went to the Goodyear Swap Meet today. I needed to get a present for my friend. I knew exactly what I wanted to get, but I can't tell you what it is... because it will ruin her surprise. They had some fuzzy rugs there - we thought about getting a couple for the boys' bathroom, but we left without them --- left without the rugs, not the boys.

We all had some yummy Starbucks today - and yes that is important enough to put on the blog. We don't have Starbucks everyday - who could afford that? Not us! And we are still eating yummy Cracker Barrel turkey leftovers!! I'm off to the couch - maybe I'll attempt changing the channel!

Thanksgiving

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday. We had a very nice day. It was just the four of us. We picked up our Cracker Barrel just before 12 noon. We ate, watched TV, played on the computers and relaxed all day. Ghost Hunters was on all day long! I even put a few scrapbook pages together and went through all of our loose photos. I need to have more pictures printed so I can finish the boys' scrapbooks. We neglected to take any pictures yesterday. That's probably a good thing since we were all wearing sweats and comfy clothes.

So far today, we have put up our Christmas tree. It is not decorated as of yet. That will come later. Tonight we're all going to watch the Suns play the Clippers. This will be the boys first time going to a game. It's going to be great! We're all decked out in our Suns gear!

Yay Suns!

Man that was a close one!

If you didn't watch the game, you missed one heck of a nail biter!!!!

UGH!!! It was difficult to watch, but the Suns won.

They won by two points, when at one point in the game they were up by 19!!!!!

But they WON!!! That's what counts!!!

I'll be able to sleep good tonight. LOL!

Star Wars Legos I

The boys couldn't wait to get home from school - finish homework and get to play Star Wars Legos I. They've had the game for months, but didn't get to install it on their laptops until last night. Keith couldn't wait to do his homework! Randy didn't have any, but he had to read the book for Keith, so Keith could do his book report. They didn't even have a snack - they must be starving - that should mean they'll eat their dinner without complaints!

I think they both know more things about the computer than I do. And that may or may not be a good thing. They need to practice teamwork a bit and I'd love it if they would stop whining at each other, but for the most part, it's really nice to see them interact with each other. Sometimes, they can be so nice to each other!

I helped out in Randy's class today. It looks like they'll be doing some fun stuff after the Thanksgiving break. They'll be learning about the holidays in all different parts of the world and they are even going to have a Christmas tree in their room. It's not a real tree, it's just paper, but I'm glad that they'll be doing it, instead of just ignoring the holiday because of political correctness. I put together almost 60 booklets for them. They'll be learning about what people do for the holidays in the U.S., Holland, England, Sweden, China, Africa, Mexico,Germany, Italy, France and Israel. They'll make a craft/decoration related to each place and they'll be put up on the tree. They are going to end with an international cookie exchange - I'll need to get more info about that because normally we are not allowed to take home baked goods to school, but we'll see.

Yesterday the boys wanted to go out and kick the ball around in the park. It was nice to be outside - the weather is gorgeous and they enjoyed playing in the grass (they ask for grass on a regular basis - poor children - we only have stone front and back). When we went outside, our neighbor (from two houses down) was blowing all the crust and leaves and gunk out of his yard and the yard between ours. I told him that he should do ours next and would you believe it? He did it!! He blew out the whole side by our front door! That's what I call neighborly!!

I should go check the mail and start thinking about dinner and the Suns are playing tonight!!

Go Suns!!

Monday morning in kindergarten

I helped out in Keith's class this morning - the usual Monday morning drill. The kids had to think of something that they were thankful for, draw a picture of it and then write a sentence about it. Keith was pretty grumpy this morning -- he said he didn't know what he was thankful for and couldn't think of anything to be thankful for.... what does that mean to me? I think we need to help that boy realize how darn lucky he is and help him figure out how to appreciate what he has. Any suggestions? Let me know, please.

Randy has tutoring after school today and I'm hoping that he doesn't come home with the usual amount of homework, since this is a short week. They'll be off Thursday and Friday. Randy pulled out a tooth this morning before breakfast - I believe that would be tooth number 5. I'll have to check the time capsule to be sure. I guess this means that the tooth fairy will be visiting our house tonight. That's always exciting!

I worked this past weekend, (I barely got to see my boys- I don't even really know what they did this weekend - I'll have to ask them later) since I'll be off on Thursday and Friday. I thought that we would have been extremely busy, but we weren't. I think they'll be slammed on Wednesday with all those people who want their hair done for Thanksgiving. Last night after we closed up the shop, we had a rep from Clinique come in and we did some skin care techniques and make-up makeovers. It was a little scary, but since the make-up washes right off, it wasn't so bad. Unfortunately they were taking pictures - I'm not sure what they plan on doing with those pictures - probably black mail - LOL!

Our Thanksgiving meal has been ordered! The only thing I will be making is the pumpkin roll and possibly some nut cups. Two more days til turkey day. Friday we'll be putting up our Christmas tree and possibly decorating outside. I can't imagine going shopping on black Friday, but good luck to all who are brave enough to venture out!

35 days until Christmas!!

Thanks for the comments! At least I know a couple of people actually look at the blog! :-)

Windy Thursday

Today was a pretty blah day. Work wasn't busy, but I did get my hair colored! Dark chocolate mocha, with red red hightlights up front and some peek-a-boo blonde on the sides and back. (Seems quite a bit like Michele's hair... hmm...) I got to drive home with all the goop and foils in my head and had the pleasure of rinsing it all out in the kitchen sink. I couldn't help but wonder what the people in the cars around me were thinking. Keith's first comment about my hair was this - "Is that a wig?" - LOL!!! Randy didn't care for it too much, but it'll grow on him. Jeff's only concern was whether or not I'd look skunky. Apparently it was a little dark when he first saw me, so he didn't notice the blonde, but when he saw that, it was definite skunkiness. He did say it looked nice though.

I got a call from Jeff this morning, telling me that we lost the Suns tickets for tonight's game. The guy that we were getting them from forgot to pull them off the ticket exchange on line - and he sold them. Oh well - at least we still get to go next Friday (and we saved a bunch of dinero). I like going to the games, but I will definitely be more comfortable watching the game from the soft, kitty filled couch and having my blankets to keep me warm.

It was so windy today!!! And we even had about five drops of rain. I had to bring the boys' tent and whole set up inside. Now the loft has been taken over by the tent. I think it will stay there for a while. It's kind of a pain the butt to move around without disassembling.

I've been wondering... how old should my child be to be allowed to go the park on his own? Well, we tried it yesterday. Randy will be 8 in December. There are kids younger than him outside on their own, with no parents in sight, but I worry. Yesterday I let Randy ride his bike to the park. He had to come right back and tell me whether or not there were any kids there. He did - he came right back and told me that there were kids there and that he wanted to go back and play. I let him go!! Aaaaahhhhhh!!! Don't worry, nothing happened. Keith and I walked to the park a little later and everything was fine. We didn't get to try it today because of tutoring and homework and wind. I'm sure he'll want to go tomorrow!

I checked our lottery numbers today. Three quick picks - Powerball, Pick and Pick 5 -- surprisingly, we got two matching numbers on two of them and three matching numbers on the Pick -- now why couldn't all those numbers be on one ticket?? At any rate, I won 3 whole dollars -- don't be jealous, I'll only be wasting those three dollars on three more lottery tickets. You never know, some darn people are lucky enough to win twice!!! Maybe it will be me once!

I will be ordering our wonderful, delicious Thanksgiving dinner from Cracker Barrel tomorrow. Can you believe Thanksgiving is only a week away? Where does the time go? It keeps slipping through my fingers! 39 days until Christmas!!!