Monday, December 28, 2009

Hello! So, I've done up photo calendars again this year. I haven't printed anything up just yet but here's a link to the version I made for my side of the family. LINK And the version for Hubby's side HERE. I've been meaning to print up copies for everyone but I have to buy more printer ink and paper. If you don't want to wait, feel free to let me know and I can email you the files to print on your own. These are the CD case calendar pages so for those of you who want to see what this is, here's what they look like when they're done. LINK So, all you have to do is grab a CD case and a copy of the pages I made and-PRESTO!- you have a calendar!
I also have meant to blog about something else for a couple of weeks but kept forgetting to write it up. Too much going on, I guess. That will be my excuse, not that my brain leaks information like it's a sieve. Anyway, Hubby was watching Little People, Big World one day and I was in the other room on my computer. (I'm working on my addiction, ok?! LOL) Anyhoo, he comes in and tells me that the Roloff family is at the Rockin' R. Now some of you know that the Rockin' R is in Antimony, UT, where my side of the family has ties and we camp there nearly every year. So, I was interested to see what other people see and do there. At one point, they are on an ATV ride (or was it horseback riding?) through Antimony Canyon, which I immediately recognized. But they went to see a particular rock formation that I have never seen, nor even heard about. I can't remember what they called it, exactly, but it was something along the lines of "The Cowboy." When you look at it, the rocks look just like the silhouette of a cowboy, complete with hat! I got the impression that it is located in the canyon. And now I WANT TO SEE IT! Imagine, 30 years of camping there and never seeing The Cowboy! I've tried searching for info on the internet but have come up empty. Soooooo, if anyone knows about The Cowboy Rock, 'fess up 'cuz I'm on a mission now! Next time I go I want to search it out!
Well, ok, I guess that's all for now. I just want to wish everyone a safe and happy New Year! If you have to go out, watch out for the drunks and crazies! Love you!









So, as you can probably tell, we had Christmas at our house. As you can imagine the kids were VERY excited about Christmas and vowed to wait up and see Santa Claus when he came. And they very nearly managed it. They stayed up until well past midnight! As they were in bed (supposed to be going to sleep) I could hear them singing Christmas carols together. It was too cute. Unfortunately, since they were up, Santa had to wait until it was VERY late before he could deliver gifts to our house. Poor Santa.
In the morning after opening gifts, we had our traditional ebleskiver breakfast. Yummy! The rest of the day was mostly spent enjoying some family time together.
Well, I just wanted to share a few photos with everyone. Love you all!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Whew! I've been busy baking cookies today! I made sugar cookies and gingerbread men. I'm taking a bit of a break before we tackle the frosting. We've got plenty of goodies here since I also made brickle blond brownies and rice chex mix a couple days ago. Tomorrow is tamale day. Yum!
The kids are all ready for Christmas. Counting down the days. In the meantime, they are having a great time with all the bubble wrap that is in the boxes that have been arriving. I'm hearing pop after pop right now as they pop every single bubble, one by one. I'm thinking maybe Santa should just bring bubble wrap this year! LOL It's so cute that Big R still really believes in Santa and in Santa's magic. He wrote a letter to Santa asking that Santa make him a real Jedi that can use the force for real and has a light saber that really cuts. And he added on that he'd also like to be able to fly and have a gravity machine. Quite a tall order for Santa to fill! Unfortunately, he will be not be a real Jedi this year, although I heard a rumor that he is getting a new (toy) light saber from Santa this year. And little MoMo is really cute, too. She wrote out a Christmas wishlist for Kaos. Because he can't write one himself and Santa needs to bring him a present, too!
Well, we'll sure miss visiting with family this year. In case I don't talk to you, have a wonderful Christmas! Love you all!

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Hello everyone. I know there's a big holiday coming very soon, but I think it's good to recognize all the smaller ones, too. Like today just happens to be National Chocolate Covered Anything Day. So that gives you the perfect excuse to eat things that are covered in chocolate! Now there's a holiday I can really stand behind. LOL
Anyway, just wanted to let you all know that we are alive and (almost) well. Poor Big R had a really bad case of conjunctivitis. The antibiotic drops have cleared it almost entirely up now. And MoMo has been sick pretty much since before Thanksgiving. It could very well have been she caught something and then just as she was getting over that, she came down with something else. It just seems like she has been sick for weeks solid. But she's just about fully over everything. I hope. Then Hubby came down with something. He spent almost the entire last weekend in bed. Monday he went to the doctor and it turns out he has a sinus infection. So, now that he's got antibiotics and all he's doing a lot better. Me, I've managed to stay well since my post Thanksgiving episode but playing nurse to everyone else has taken its toll. I'm exhausted, mostly mentally because I will admit that I'm not really cut out to be a nurse. It takes every last drop of my patience to sick people. That sounds horrible but unfortunately it's true. I would be like that guy on the movie Happy Gilmore in the nursing home. "What, grandma? Your fingers hurt?" (while the grannies are forced to quilt so he can sell the quilts and make money) "Well, guess what? Now your back's gonna hurt 'cuz you just pulled landscaping duty!" At least I'd be thinking that the whole time. Maybe I'd have enough patience left NOT to actually say or do that but on the inside, that would totally be me.
Um, anyway, now that you are all terrified to get stuck with me as a nurse, I have another pic from our record breaking snowfall last week. Yes, we actually broke records here for amount of snowfall and for low temps. One day the Weather Channel reported our temperature at -9 degrees, 4 degrees colder than Fargo, ND. Yeah, it was COLD here. Fortunately, we're back up to above freezing temps during the day! 37 never felt so good. LOL
This was our street. Notice you can't tell where the road actually is. That was fun. And while this picture was taken on December 7, they didn't clear our street until this morning. They did plow most of the other streets in town but not ours. Of course, our street isn't on any maps, either, so maybe that had something to do with it. Oh, and check out who I saw on one of the neighboring streets.
Ok, well, I guess that's about all I have to say at the moment. I actually wrote more than I intended with that little nurse bit. So, I'll let you get back to your National Chocolate Covered Anything celebrations. What? You're not celebrating? Oh, well, happy Hump Day, then!

Monday, December 7, 2009

We're having a SNOW DAY! It started snowing yesterday evening and stuck right away. It's been so cold here already that I think the ground is frozen. The snow just started piling up and piling up and now we've got quite a layer of the white stuff out there! Here are some pics from last night. I don't know what the official snowfall amount is but when we got up this morning it was about 6 inches deep in our yard. Here's a pic of our patio table this morning.So today school was canceled. We slept in and then went out to play in the snow (which is still coming down). Unfortunately, the snow is very powdery so it's no good for snowballs or snowmen. But the kids did get rides on their sleds. Check out this video.

Yes, our dog is having a ball with all this snow. He even pulled the kids around on their sleds a bit. I think it's hilarious how he was prancing through the snow. So, we're essentially snowed in at home. They haven't cleared the roads, at least not our street. Hubby (who already had today off) drove his truck around the block so I guess if necessary we could drive somewhere but I doubt I could get anywhere in the car. We're just hanging out here at home and we'll see if there's school tomorrow. Hopefully they'll get the roads cleared.
Alright, well, I'm going to go hunt up something to eat for lunch. Maybe some Chipotle Chocolate Chili leftover from last night. Yum! Talk to you later!

Friday, December 4, 2009

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Hello everyone. I hope you are all well. We haven't gotten totally rid of the sickness around here. My little MoMo got it and so did big R. Ack! Hopefully we are all healthy soon. And I really hope I didn't infect anyone else while we were visiting. I apologize if I did. Sincerely. I don't know why I ALWAYS get sick when I go to AZ. It's so bad.
Anyway, I was pretty excited yesterday when the UPS guy brought me a package. It was my FREE photo book from PhotoWorks.com! This one was totally free, didn't even have to pay shipping. And the book is so nice! It's awesome!
The only downside is that the size of the book is different from the size I scrapbook in. I normally make 12"x12" layouts. The book was 7"x9", I believe. So, not square. This meant that I had to choose layouts which if parts were cropped out, wouldn't look too odd. Of course, I had to act quickly to get my free book. I think it was the first 25,000 who got one so I didn't have time to make new layouts or anything. But I still LOVE how it came out, even with the cropping issue. I can definitely recommend the Photoworks photo books. This is the one I got. I guess it's actually 8 1/2"x 11". In addition to it being FREE and great quality, I got it super fast. I think maybe about 1 week from the time I placed my order it was on my doorstep. Very nice!
Ah, well, unfortunately I forgot what else I was going to write about. Besides, I really ought to get a few things done around here. So, until next time...

p.s. If anyone out there knows about iTunes, I'm having a problem that I can't figure out how to fix. Whenever I listen to songs in the iTunes library on my computer (as opposed to on my iPod), it will play the song I select but not the whole album or playlist. So, if the album or playlist contains 9 songs it will play one and then stop. Then I have to tell it to play again for the next song and it stops after the song is over. I must repeat for any remaining songs. It didn't used to do this. It would play the entire album or playlist. I can't figure out what's gone awry and how to fix it. It's VERY annoying!