a staple for anyones personal library

Hayley purchased this handbook for girls with her Barnes and Noble gift card. It has so much useful information in it, I wished it had been on my Christmas wish list. I talks about all sorts of things like how to make a God's eye ( I made many in the summer I stayed with my grandparents), how to double dutch, a section on royalty, and the list goes on and on. It really brought back a lot of childhood memories, and made me reflect on how our children don't really have the opportunity to go out and explore for hours on end, without us checking in on them constantly. My cousins and I spent many hours each day, riding our bikes up and down the gravel road we lived on, or went across the road into the woods to build forts, or dig up treasures. In the winter we would play out for hours clearing our own skating rinks on the lake or sledding. I barely remember having contact with our parents, other than to demand lunch or a snack. Those were some of the best times I ever had! I wonder if the old swing set is still 3/4 buried across the street from my cousins old log house. Old times, not forgotten.

y2k what?

Are we really almost to 2008? This year was so much fun that it literally flew by. Mark started a "new job" , we moved, my TOTALLY RAD friends threw me the best 80's birthday party, we went to Las Vegas to celebrate our 10th anniversary, my brother got engaged, the kids have been having their best school year so far, and today I believe I got the perfect hairdo for me!

I hope everyone has had a lot of fun, and accomplished what you wanted for 2007. There is always more to be done, but I feel pretty satisfied and it is probably the first year I can say that!

We are thankful for all of the good friends and family we have. I hope every year my friends will sing "rock you like a hurricane" instead of happy birthday because that was really the best.

I can't wait to see what 2008 has in store for us, one things for sure ...we aren't having any big worries like that silly y2k thing! All we have to worry about is not making fools of ourselves at Rosies new years bash. Lemon drops, here I come.

Oh and one more thing. You must check out Kelly McCalebs blog at my happy little life. She makes the cutest stuff that she sells in her etsy shop. Plus her blog is so much fun to read and very pleasing to the eye. Check it out!

reincarnation

Dylan over at big red robot mentions cats on his blog (technically I guess it is kittens...) so I thought I would give you our version of what Snoop Dogg would look like if he came back as a cat.

And yes, we have played Rock 'em Sock 'em robots. It was fun. Who knew?

Merry Christmas

This Christmas was really great. Saturday we went to Stanwood to spend time with our "dddogpppound" group. All of us girls made homemade gifts for each other. I must say that T's coconut salt scrub is nothing short of divine! Thanks to all my girls for the awesome gifts. Christmas eve was spent at my parents house. Grandpa and Grandma made the trek over the pass, it is good to spend time with them while they are still able. My brothers wedding is getting close too, so it was nice to spend time with my almost sis-in-law, who I love and is going to go with the other 6 of us on our scrapbook retreat to Plain, Washington.
Mark was able to stay home from work, contrary to popular missconception of what Conductors lives are like, the railroad held trains for about 24 hours so employees could be home with their families. And it must be said that since taking this new job (he is nearing a one year anniversary with the new craft) he has been able to be home a lot more, without sacrificing pay! So as I have said many a time before, he has the BEST job with the BEST company! This year was a "big" gift year for Mark and I both. I decided to purchase him a P.S.P. so he can take it with him on the train. I am not a video game player, other than pac-man, but this thing is soooo crystal clear. I feel like I am on a Nascar track in real life...well other than the fact that I burned up the engine in my car in less than a minute. Like I said, I am not a gamer.
Mark really surprised me with one of these little goodies and I just got done loading my first 50 songs. This is really going to help my productivity at work to have some decent music to listen to! Thanks Mark, I love ya!

We went to Renton today with other family (Mark's grandparents on his Mom's side) and it snowed like mad. The girls were thrilled...me NOT SO MUCH when I have to drive down this super steep hill to get to the freeway. It was good to see everyone again despite the snow. Finally the girls and I went to my girlfriends house for dinner and she made this super delicious rice. You are a cook after all Rosarita! The chicken was good too even though the kids said otherwise. Really you can make this a regular thing.

Now I am off to watch some t.v. and put my Nano to bed before I run the battery down.

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

busy little bees

Taking a break from posting. We have been super busy around here getting ready for Christmas. We have made pretzels dipped in chocolate and sprinkles, went to the Girl Scout Daisy Christmas party, have a couple of last minute gifts to purchase, etc. We even went to downtown Seattle last weekend, and the kids rode the carousel, we saw it snow at Pacific Place, had hot chocolate and cider with friends, and had a good dinner at the Nordies Cafe.
It was a fun surprise to see our friend Kellie there too.
Be back after Christmas.

Friends Phoebe's Christmas Song

We just watched this classic phoebe song. Molly laughed at the Joey part.

TREEmendous

In keeping with last nights craft-a-palooza at my place, I cooked up this lovely tree tonite.

It really looks much better in person!

One more thing

Did I mention that Mark and I are going to Vegas the end of January?
Unless plans drastically change we are Vegas bound with my brother, his future wife, and possibly my Mom and Dad. I don't think I have taken a vacation with my parents since before I was married, and I swore that I would never take a vacation in which we travel by car together again! This time, we will all have our space, and it is going to be fun. Vegas is cheap in January. Cold as you know what too...but I can't imagine that will make one bit of difference when we are plunked down in the Casino!

Metallica + Mountain Dew = crazy project time

It has been said that I look like I live in my car. Let's be honest, when you get home after a days work, picking up the kids from school, etc. I just don't feel like lugging up a bunch of stuff from the car. Tonite we braved the freezing cold, and cleaned out massive stuff. Well, it was a little like Christmas had come early when I found a half-rack of Mountain Dew. Pretty sad when this is exciting news right? But seriously, I have been craving soda for a few days now, and have not purchased a single one. I could not wait to crack one of these open when I got upstairs! Now I am on the caffeine high!

That said, I am getting a few projects done. I really want to post the two homemade gifts that I have completed on here, but I can't because then the lucky LUCKY recipients will see them before they get to unwrap them.

So I will post the gift that we made for Hayley's teacher, and a quick layout I did tonite.

P.S. I almost forgot...music of choice tonite....METALLICA. I can't explain it, other than I love the song Enter Sandman. Let it be known that I like all types of music.

Girl Scout fun

Molly went with her Troop to build gingerbread houses yesterday. She had a blast! Here is a picture of her with her creation. These kits are the best, you can purchase them at Costco. They actually stay together! Plus you get more than enough "stuff" to decorate your house with.

Git 'er done

I am proud to say that I am really close to wrapping up the holiday things we needed to get done!
1.Gifts are wrapped (just those homemade gifts, and our t-shirt exchange gift still need to be done)
2. Baked cookies (want to bake more next week)
3. Holiday cards came in the mail today and I love them! Check out the many designs at Kodak gallery. We chose the Martha Stewart fine stationary option and they turned out awesome!
4. Took the girls to see Santa. One of the many perks working for the Railroad is that they have the BEST Santa. Pictures are very reasonable and you can purchase a disk for only $5.00.
5. Tree is up, Smokey has decided it is a bad idea to climb it, and all decorations are up.
6. Lots of yummy scented candles are burning at this moment.

I love Christmas. The kids are so excited this year. They made some handmade items for certain relatives. I am being vague just in case there are any lurky-loos on here!

Happy Holidays. Now if only I had a hot buttered rum life would be close to perfect. I guess I will settle for some hot apple cider.

"Little girl you have expensive taste"

Hayley told Santa she wants an IPOD for Christmas. He replied with the above quote about her having expensive taste. Like Mother, like daughter.

We had fun, went out together for dinner and had a lovely time.

Snow Day

We woke up to snow today, then it melted off. About 3 it started up again and the girls and I beat it home from Sultan before it got dark and started to get slick. It was pretty easy driving until we turned down our street and I think from there I pretty much slid home. All I could do was pray I wasn't going to slide into someone's car! Thankfully that did not happen.
It snowed non-stop until almost 8:30. Got the girls dressed and out to play in the snow. We met a new neighbor who was out walking their dog, and their 1 year old little girl. The little girl sat in the snow while the dog acted like the world was one giant ice cream dish! We had a blast until our fingers started to hurt.
I really love the snow, but hope the icy roads go away quickly.