Movie review

Although we've been off and there's several movies we want to see. This afternoon we finally made it to the first one. Marley and Me. Very sweet movie that you laughed at, related to and cried. I only sneezed a few times too! Now I am feeling very wore out.

Blah

But so far a little better today, I hope anyway. I didn't leave my room for much time yesterday. Mostly just for water and food. I did finish reading the Nicholas Sparks book I got for Christmas (in between naps that is) and I went through an almost entire box of tissues. It's totally not fun being sick when you are on vacation.

Wonderful

Christmas was wonderful although I had to wake everyone up at 9. We read our traditional Christmas story before opening gifts. Left the house a huge mess and headed over to my sister's for brunch. Came home and straighted the house a little, showered then headed out to P's brother's house. The cold I was catching managed to stay away all day yesterday. Today not so lucky, (stuffy head, runny nose and the like). P had to go to work this afternoon, but he managed a little play in before he left. Check out the few pictures I posted of our day on the flickr photos on the left tool bar.

Merry Christmas!

This is us on the way to church this afternoon. Now will be having pizza for dinner and either playing games or watching a movie together. The vote is still out.

No cavities x 2 and cold

The 2 oldest kids and myself had dentist appointments today. 2 out of 3 of us didn't have any cavities the third one has 2. I'm sure it has to do with his lack of brushing. S also had to go to the orthodontist this afternoon. It took all of about 2 seconds for him to adjust her retainer. Unfortunately the office is in Scottsdale so the whole trip took an hour. I am trying not to get a cold, but I think I'm losing. In between dental offices I tried to rest, but couldn't stop coughing. S and I stopped at Walgreen's on the way home and picked up some cold medicine. I think I have everything I wanted to get done before Christmas done, so I can spend a few days relaxing/getting well before the big day.

Success!

Our church "adopts" 30 families from the elementary school I work at and the girls attend. 27 of those families and several from our own church family attended the Christmas party the Angel Tree team (myself and 2 others put together, that was over saw by one of the pastors)this afternoon. While we had a few cliches, everything went according to plan and the families who are really struggling this year were blessed. Yea, God!

For maybe the second time...

In 17 Christmas's P and I have been together, he's off on Christmas Eve (I'm just not sure about the year I was pregnant with R, I know he went to the Christmas Eve church with us, but not sure if he was off the whole day or not.) The first few years of our marriage I would have to work during the day (of Christmas Eve) and he worked at night, and I'd have to work a few hours on Christmas Day, but he would have to work most of the day, when J was a baby, I remember taking him with me to work. (a perk of being a manager I guess) This year will be one to remember, not only is he off on Christmas Eve, and the store is closed on Christmas Day. Yea!!!

Victory!

In the Deer Valley School District grades are given at the end of the semesters instead of quarters. I am so darn proud proud of J for finishing 18 weeks and just barely missing making honor roll by just a couple of points because of his language arts grade (the other classes are honor roll worthy!) It's been so long for J to even come near honor roll. S of course made honor roll and R earned straight A's. Yea! I am so proud of them all!

Almost done

I am so excited I think I'm almost done with my Christmas wrapping. There's a few DVD's I still need to get, but I feel so much better about having the wrapping done. Tomorrow is the last day of school until January 5, 2009. 17 wonderful days off. There's much to do the first 4 days, but the 5th day I'm not getting out of my pajamas all day! Then it will be Christmas Eve, YEAH!!!!!

Transfer

After 27 years of working at the same location, and 16 1/2 years closer to another location, P was transferred to the store by our house. Today is his first day there. I just looked up the phone number there to call him, because I just got home and the house feels so cold. Maybe it just feels cold because it's cold (for Phoenix) and damp outside. It's 71 degrees inside, which in the summer would feel stifling. I went today to have my blood level checked again today after school, and it was at a perfect number! Yeah, hopefully it will stay there for 2 weeks until I have it checked again.

Snow Queen Pics

Family shot minus J :(, S and R with their Grandpa, Cousins, S and R, part of the cast shot.

Creepy

We ended up not buying the correct amount of tickets for the Snow Queen shows. It left us 1 adult short for the 2 PM show today, and 2 extra tickets for tomorrow's shows and J doesn't get to see his sisters and cousins at all. J was gone all day, I've been home alone for about 5 hours now. I had several projects I was working on at first. and then when they were done, I planned on resting/relaxing for a few hours. I know houses make noises, and there are lots of outside noises coming it, and I've always been OK with this by myself. However, today I was jumpy. And a little freaked out. Maybe J was to last night when he was home alone and that explains why the TV was so loud, or maybe not, he is a teenager. I think I wouldn't have been so freaked out if P would not have said not to leave the "big" Christmas gift in the house after it's wrapped, in case we get broken into again. Thanks a lot buddy. Made me much more alert to souds, and not at all relaxing.

Long week

Lots of drama at school this week, nothing I can get into here on the blog, I'm just saying too much drama adds for long stressful days. Monday night I was so thankful I didn't have to go out anywhere (J's driver's ed classes are over!) Tuesday night I spent a few hours at my sister's chatting with her and my oldest niece, and holding my great nephew for a little bit. J had his scout meeting there (the boys had to clean and prepare the mistletoe for sale this weekend) Wednesday after the girls' dance classes, we hosted out bible study Christmas potluck. I needed a few things at Fry's afterwards J drove me, then he springs on my how he needs a new jacket and could we go to Kohl's. They are open till midnight till Christmas. I asked J if we could make this painless as possible for me (like making up his mind quickly) While, he was poking around I decide to look around and ended up finishing my Christmas shopping. It was a pretty painful $$$ shopping trip so late at night. Last night I thought I'd take it easy on myself and just do some laundry and start wrapping some gifts. I am a terrible wrapper, and even then it took my a couple of hours and it feels like I've barely started. UGH. This morning I managed to forget to have S take her medicine, didn't put my camera in the car, and a few other things. P who was in bed when we left for school, heard my whining message I left after arriving to school and brought S her medicine. Today after school the girls and I drove downtown for their rehearsal for this weekend's Snow Queen shows. It was tough getting there by 4, when I work until 3:15. But we did it, but a lot of other girls didn't. R kept moving around and couldn't sit still at all, waiting for her turn to dance. S on the other hand sat still but was whispering to me the whole time she wasn't dancing. Basically they drove me nuts. Then there's the whole drive home nightmare. I hate driving at night, I don't know downtown very well at all, I totally get mixed up and confused. It took awhile before I figured out how to get on a freeway to get home, only that didn't start out very fast because of an accident further up the freeway. We made it safely home but my nerves are shot.

Saw this at Party of Six (Bold what you have done. I also italicized what I’d still like to do.) 1. Started my own blog 2. Slept under the stars 3. Played in a band 4. Visited Hawaii 5. Watched a meteor shower 6. Given more than I can afford to charity 7. Been to Disneyland/world Both 8. Climbed a mountain Hated it 9. Held a praying mantis 10. Sung a solo long time ago 11. Bungee jumped 12. Visited Paris 13. Watched lightning at sea 14. Taught myself an art from scratch 15. Adopted a child 16. Had food poisoning 17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty 18. Grown my own vegetables 19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France. 20. Slept on an overnight train 21. Had a pillow fight 22. Hitchhiked 23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill 24. Built a snow fort 25. Held a lamb 26. Gone skinny dipping 27. Run a Marathon 28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice 29. Seen a total eclipse 30. Watched a sunrise or sunset 31. Hit a home run 32. Been on a cruise 33. Seen Niagara Falls in person 34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors 35. Seen an Amish community 36. Taught myself a new language 37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied 38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person 39. Gone rock climbing 40.Seen Michelangelo’s David 41. Sung karaoke 42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt 43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant 44. Visited Africa 45. Walked on a beach by moonlight 46. Been transported in an ambulance 47. Had my portrait painted 48. Gone deep sea fishing 49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person 50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris 51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling 52. Kissed in the rain 53. Played in the mud 54. Gone to a drive-in theater 55. Been in a movie Just eh home made ones 56. Visited the Great Wall of China 57. Started a business 58. Taken a martial arts class 59. Visited Russia 60. Served at a soup kitchen 61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies for S 62. Gone whale watching 63. Got flowers for no reason 64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma 65. Gone sky diving 66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp 67. Bounced a check 68. Flown in a helicopter 69. Saved a favorite childhood toy 70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial 71. Eaten caviar 72. Pieced a quilt 73. Stood in Times Square 74. Toured the Everglades 75. Been fired from a job 76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London 77. Broken a bone 78. Been on a speeding motorcycle 79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person 80. Published a book 81. Visited the Vatican 82. Bought a brand new car 83. Walked in Jerusalem 84. Had my picture in the newspaper 85. Read the entire Bible 86. Visited the White House not inside 87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating 88. Had chickenpox 89. Saved someone’s life 90. Sat on a jury 91. Met someone famous 92. Joined a book club 93. Lost a loved one 94. Had a baby 95. Seen the Alamo in person 96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake 97. Been involved in a law suit 98. Owned a cell phone 99. Been stung by a bee 100. Ridden an elephant

opps

My memory is not what it used to be. I thought I remembered to set my alarm for this morning, to be at church for the 9 O'clock service because we were supposed to be at a meeting/party for leaders then. I must have dreamt it because it didn't go off. I heard P around 8 and wondered why he didn't wake me. He didn't feel good he decided not to go, but he didn't wake me to tell me this. I decided then to have a relaxing morning and go to church at 11 with the girls (J was at my sister's house), only at 9:15, I get a call from someone at church asking me were am I because I am supposed to be in charge this morning of the nursery to 3 year olds. As the morning progressed I remembered the conversation from last week about me doing this. But to be fair with myself, I was asked to do 3 different things in the next month and just got them mixed up. OK, so obviously I had not gotten this right, but say I'll be there at 10:30 to do the second service and clean up, which is a pain in the butt, packing everything away since we don't have our own building. I was supposed to over see set up, and felt terrible when I got there and heard it didn't go so well. Had I set my alarm to begin with I would have at least been there for the beginning of the 9 o'clock service and made sure everything was OK. I think it might be easier if I worked every week, then I wouldn't have a problem remembering which week I'm serving and which week I'm not.

Our tree, a tired girl, and a good reminder

I felt on hold this week in my preparations of getting the house decorated for our life group party and Christmas. And still the week seemed to fly by. (I was on hold waiting for P to get the decorations out of the attic) I thought he'd work on that on Tuesday when he was off, but I was wrong. Thursday when he got off work, I mentioned to him that J would not be home on Saturday when he would be off next (other than getting the tree, which was an all day affair with his Dad on Friday, I knew it would be, it's always an all day affair when he does anything with his Dad), P figured out for himself if he wanted help getting the stuff down and in the house, he needed to do it then. I was much too tried Friday after school to start anything. And I had to have my blood level checked again. It's now higher now than it was a month ago. The nurse suggested not walking into any walls or getting in a car accident, very comforting. NOT. Now I have to go back in a week for a another check, but it won't be for 10 days, because my schedule and the nurses didn't work out. Today after I got up way to early for a Saturday morning, and dropping J off, I started unpacking boxes, woke the girls up for dance, then while S was at dance R and I got quite a lot accomplished. P has been working on the tree since about 1 and may just be finished now. I didn't help at all I've already been struggling with a headache, I really don't want to get so close to the tree.

Driving

I am liking J having his permit, and him wanted to drive all the time. This afternoon I had errands to do and he drove. He had fun too, he thanksed me for letting him drive me around :) And he filled up the gas tank, which was the cheapest I have bought gas in a long, long, time. Yeah for lower gas prices! J had his last Driver's ED class last night. The DMV could waive him taking the driving test in March, because of this class. My back is no better, I know I need to schedule a doctor's appointment, I think I'll try my regular family doctor and skip the neurologist, that I saw in Oct. Taking Tylenol all day only slightly dulls the pain, and I'm taking 4 tablets at500 mg 3 times a day. So not good for my liver.