ITt's Beggining to Look a Lot Like Christmas

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper for sure. I hate bags at Christmas. Maybe if I get crazy I'll even use some fabric.
2. Real tree or Artificial? I bought our Artificial tree last year. Both kids also have one in their rooms. We do have a live tree that we got our first year here, I've yet to decorate it. Maybe I can do that this weekend.
3. When do you put up the tree? Normally first part of December
4. When do you take the tree down? After the 12 days of Christmas.
5. Do you like eggnog? Nope, not a fan.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? All I can think of is a huge Christmas activity book. I used that thing for years.
7. Hardest person to buy for? My brothers
8. Easiest person to buy for? Juliet
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, we have 3 out.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? I would mail them if I remembered to make them time. I always seem to remember 5 days before Christmas.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? With 5 other brothers and sister money was tight. One year I got socks, underwear and a manicure set. Gota say thou it makes you appreciate the small stuff and as a parent now where money is tight I know how my parents felt, and hey who doesn't need socks and underwear.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Bells of St Mary
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Normally not until December, but Dh always tries and finds good deals on Black Friday. This years find is for Jonathan
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I don't think so- but next month's bunko is a gift we received from Christmas
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Love my stuffing!
16. Lights on the tree? Yes – colorful (they all have to match too ... no half blinking, different sized, etc.) I want white ones outside, but I don't think we have any.
17. Favorite Christmas song? Little Drummer Boy-I've loved this song since I was 2.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay at home? Nope it's at our house this year.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Yes: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and Rudolph
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? PJ's Christmas Eve, the others on Christmas
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Parking lots
23. What theme or color are you using? my tree is mostly gold.
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Mashed potatoes and gravy and my stuffing.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I love homemade with love gifts! Honestly, I already got the camera and printer I wanted on Black Friday-My Great find;)

Yeah I'm back

It's been crazy here. I've been working at the school all week on our Santa's Breakfast. Yep we're not PC. I was in charge of ticket sales. Out of the 800+ kids we have we pre-sold 503 tickets. Yep that was a fun job.

On Sunday the fam. drove up to Vegas so that J and I could see Mama Mia. I had wanted to see it so when S got free tickets he let me take J with me. While he and the other J went to Excalaber and the Luxor. J won lots of games including hitting all the jars off the box. Very cool.

Well of you haven't been watching the weather it's crazy. We woke up Monday to SNOW in VEGAS Crazy I tell ya. It didn't snow that much just a few flakes. Our plan was to go up the Efile Tower for a view of the strip. Well that was shot down due to ice. So the kids and I had a nice relaxing day while S played. Little did we know down by the Rio it was snowing like crazy. We were leaving on Tuesday to news that the highways were all closed the night before and that it snowed like crazy in Vegas. Where were we? We didn't see any of this. All we saw from our room was the Efile Tower, and the water show at the (sp) Balogio. So like I said we were leaving and just saw whilte on the other side of the freeway.



Another reason for my post is well I've been taged by Clare I chose grade school pictures. So here they are me in Kindergarden and 1st grade:

Busy Busy Busy

Well December is in full swing and not slowing down. Both kids had projects to do this week. We're still looking for little green army men for Jt's diaramma. We had both scouts tonight. Jo was late to his, and I had to run to the store to grab a salad for Jt's for their Christmas party. Luckly I already had something for the gift exchange.

Did a couple of LOs this week. Hopefully I can do some more on Sun after Mass. S will be at the church most of the day for Pancake breakfast with the Knights.

Hopefully the tree will go up today. I want to wash the carpets first. fun fun fun.

Here's what I've done this week:

OUr Cristms Countdown

Are you counting down the days before Christmas. We are. I plan on making a little album of our countdown. On Dec 1st the UPS guy came with 2 boxes and Jingle made him run back to the truck so funny. Well of course he was gone by the time I thought he should be the highlight of the Christmas countdown but luckily we saw a UPS truck at Stater Bros. that night and of course I had my camera with me. I also took a picture of Jingle at the front door. Yesterday I had a really good day with J. I picked him up from school, came home then he asked if his Puffy Cheetos were still on sale, I said that it was the last day and did he think we should get some more. So back in the car we went. At the store he thought it would be a good idea if he got 4 bags and then get another 4 bags of for his sister. I said sure then had handed him a gift card and had him get in a line while I got in a different one, hoping we'd get done at the same time. Nope he was done super quick. I used the gift card to buy the other chips and then back to the car. Well my little guy insisted of taking the cart to the right spot and to open the door for me. Driving home he explained how a cell works and the shapes and everything that has to do with them. I told him I was amazed he retained all that information. He later wrote a page on it and made a cell out of candy that's due Friday. My amazing guy will be day 2 for sure.

Vegas Dolphins

I played in my Scrapbook room yesterday instead of facing the stores. I did a whole 2 pages whoo hoo:)

I also bought myself a new camera and printer online at Best Buy. I picked it up today and so far LOVE IT I got to play a little with it today while celebrating my brother's and his son's birthdays. I would have taken a lot more pictures but the battery wasn't fully charged.

Rain Forest Cafe'

Had a little time today during laundry loads to do a LO. Here's my take on Creative Scrappers sketch #25
While digging for green cardstock I found scraps of the 2 patterns so I punched out circles and this is the end result. Jonathan helped with the placement of the journaling circle, he decided he liked it with the lines not matching up.

Need to Read

Okay before you go see the movie Twilight you need to read the book. I know it's a tween book but I loved it. It's very PG. My DS who's 10 is reading it now but DD who's 11 won't have anything to do with it. I think it's because I told her she could read it. She's very happy reading her Dear America books. So glad she's finally reading those. I tried to get her to read those 2 years ago, but she wouldn't touch them, then this year her English teacher tells her to read harder books and now every couple of weeks she's got a new Dear America to read. THANK YOU MRS. ALICE. Did you know that if you read for an hour a day at your reading level you can actually gain 2 reading levels in 1 year. crazy.

Have you ever???

Taken from Clare's blog

OK, the rules are simple. Copy and paste the list, putting the things you've done in bold.
Leave a comment to let me know if you played so I can take a gander at it!

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
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Touched an iceberg
10. Sung a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm 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--I did in Vegas
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
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
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
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox Twice!!
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 Twice!--I don't know hao you can have a baby twice maybe it means having more than 1 baby, is so I've done it
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake--no but I saw it does that count
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone99. Been stung by a bee Many, many times
100. Had sex outside

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

My Girl--Now My Girls

Here is my take on sketch 33 for Triple the Sketch. The background paper is actually 2 sheets of Li'l Davis' Endless Summer line-Sand and Surf paper. The flowers were only on 1 side of the paper, so I cut 1 sheet and pasted it on so it now has a border on the top and bottom. The flower cut outs are also from Li'l Davis' Endless Summer line called Sand Dollar. I've changed the LO since I took it's picture yesterday. I didn't like the title, so I changed it to My Girls and had my DH do the journaling on strips, since he's the one who took the picture.

Here's my take

Nuts about sketches challenge #30. Mine still seems unfinished but I don't know what else to add. I tried a title but none of them looked right. ribbon didn't seem to look right, so it's done for now.

Words to live by

Creative Therapy's Catalyst 35 is "Words to live by".
Here's mine. It's mounted on wood and sits in my office.

Pics from Halloween

Okay like I said before the kids were Darth Vader and a Jedi, Iwas a "pirate" and Shawn was Black Bart.

Yeah I had time 2 play

Well yesterday I added some music a new backround and a Layout ticker. I want to try and do 365 scrapbooking layouts in 2009. I'm so behind I really should do like 1000 but I'd be sad if I didn't reach my goal so 365 it is. Today I'm doing a LO with pictures from the 4th of July from 2003. Yikes, that's more than 5 years behind.

Halloween was fun. the kids were Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. I'll uplode those pics when next time.

Crazy day

AHHH today has been one of those days you know nothing seems to be going right and then while everything is peaceful and clam bam a phone call from people you don't want to talk to or ugg the dryer is done which means I have to fold or now in my case sort piles. I don't fold clothes that aren't mine anymore. I'm tired of spending hour after hour folding making sure it's all perfect when the people who I'm folding for just stuff their clothes in a drawer or better yet put their clothes on the floor because they didn't have time before bed to put it all away. I now just lay out their shirts and and other piles on their beds and they can deal with wrinkles. because I'm tired of it.

Wow I went off on a tangent there --didn't mean to do that I was going to say we have a busy night here. Both kids have scouts at yes the same time, different places of coarse and DH isn't all to happy that he has to take DS. I don't get it, he wonders why the kids aways come to me even if I busy and he's sitting not doing a thing. This is why dude . Alright enough for now off to scouts
WISH ME LUCK ;)

Disney

We had a great time at Disneyland on Sunday. We were lucky to get 4 free tickets. It was such a magical day. Our longest line was almost an hour for only 3 of the rides. Not too shabby. Now I get to scrapbook all the pictures I took. I didn't realize at the time but I took almost 200 pictures. CRAZY. I was wondering why the battery light kept coming on. Here's one of the last ones from our day.

Let's start

Okay I've had this account now for awhile and finally here's a post.

Let's see... Today we had an earthquake. I knew we were due for one, it was just a matter of time. We were at the movie theater when it happened. The lights were going down, the sound was going on and then a little rumble. At first I thought it was the AC because it lasted a long time, but then I got a call from DH asking if we were okay. I guess it was a centered about 25 min from us and was felt in Vegas. But we were perfectly fine so was Kuhn Fu Panda.

Summer vacation is almost over. The kids go back to school in 2 weeks. Yikes. My baby is going to Middle school. Did I say YIKES yet?!?!?! praying everything will go smoothly.

Dh will be on vacation starting this Friday. The kids want to go to the Titanic museum in Vegas so we'll be there for the weekend. So cool that both kids want to go learn something while on Vacation. Dh doesn't mind having to go to Vegas either. I on the other hand hate the heat. Yep HATE it.