Christmas Fun

Christmas is over, and the new year is just a few days away. I can't believe how fast 2008 went. It just flew by.

We had a great time this Christmas, It started Christmas eve, we woke up and it was Christmas at our house, we opened the presents then headed to visit our good friends, Chad and Christine and their son Camden. Then that evening we headed up to visit Eugene's family.

This is the best Christmas we've had in years, not only present wise, but also just with how much fun we had visiting. Everything was so peaceful and relaxing. One of my favorite memories happened Christmas evening. I spend some time hanging out with two of my nieces, we were jumping on the trampoline. First I want to say, Trampolines were not made for women who have had two babies, are a bit over weight and are chickens.

My nieces are 15 and 17, they're young, in shape, and a bit fearless. They were doing all these flips and tricks and trying to get me to do them. I was trying, really I was. The first problem was that every time I jumped... well, let's just say after two kids my bladder isn't as good as it used to be. I had to run inside a couple times to use the bathroom. Then my attempt at tricks was pathetic to say the least. I really wanted to try all those front flips. Anyone that knew me in high school knows I was a dare devil. I wasn't afraid to try too much, but flips have always scared me.

So there I was, jumping, getting height, talking myself into flipping. My mind said "Ok, I can do this,I can do a forward flip, I can." I jump, I go to tuck and flip, and my body says "TWIST!" and it twists. basically I spin my body in a circle, never making my feet go over my head or anything, just jumped in a circle. I think that happened about 6 times.

Then my nieces decided to have me try something else. Jump high, land on my butt, then my knees THEN flip over. Ok, any chicken can do this right? So I try it. I fail a few times, then finally get it. I was so proud of myself.

Then I decided I'd try to do a kartwheel. I've never been able to do them, and I thought maybe it would be easier on a trampoline. So I tried several times (not with jumping, just standing still.) The last time I tried I got over, but didn't land, infact I was a little too close to the side and smacked my foot off the frame and the springs. I hit it so hard one spring went flying off the frame.

As my niece was putting the spring back on, I sat down and noticed the trampoline felt really cold. That was when I realized what happened.

In all my twisting and jumping, I some how ripped my favorit jeans. from the middle seam across the back side of both legs. VERY close to my bottom. Since they were my favorite jeans some spots were worn pretty thin so it didn't take much to rip them. It was hilariously sad.

Las Vegas

A friend of ours from Tennessee has moved to Las Vegas recently. It was a shock to think of him in Vegas, but he's doing The Lord's work, so I'm sure he's doing ok. I'm not sure how far away from the strip, but if we ever go I'm sure we'll need to use this Las Vegas strip map.
Not that we have any plans to go to Vegas, regardless of who lives there.

The other day he posted pictures on his facebook of snow. Yes, Snow in Vegas. How weird is that, I think it's colder there than it is here. Today it was warm enough we had the girls outside in short sleves taking Christmas pictures!

This was our second atempt at taking Christmas pictures, the first time neither girl wanted to cooperate. We finally had a good day, and good attitudes and got some good pictures! They'll be late I'm sure, but better late than never right?!

20.9 Design

My hubs is starting a business. Sort of. He plans on doing some work from home and apparently you need a business license for that. Hopefully he'll make enough to pay the bills! So Today he's running around town applying for state license and getting all the zoning info and all sorts of other stuff done. It's kinda scary!

But yah, he chose the name 20.9 design from his favorite Bible verse. Jeremiah 20:9

If I say, "I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name,"
there is in my heart as it were a burning fire
shut up in my bones,
and I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.

So there you have it. One HUGE prayer request. (That he gets everything taken care of and gets enough work to pay the bills!)

It's Winter.

The cold weather is here! Time to break out the winter coat, beanie and mittens! Cold season is here too. We had just gotten rid of the sickies in the house then Lexi and Caylee started sniffling again. I hate seeing them sick. I can't get Lexi to figure out how to blow her nose either which is so frustrating.

On another note I've been adding a bit of dairy to my diet to test Caylee's allergy. She doesn't seem to be screaming like she was a month ago when I'd eat it. I really hope she's over it because I miss eating Cheese!

Well, Caylee is fussing cuz I put her down! gotta go!

Busy, busy busy!

Well, I just got home from a Christmas party.There was lots of food, and lots of talking! Luckily I managed to stay away from over eating, so I wont have to discover Lipovox side effects
Just kidding, You know I don't use diet pills.

Anyway, Today was a VERY busy day. It started last night. We went to The Upper room, which was a lot of fun. They had a Celtic band there playing Christmas music, it was nice and relaxing, but we didn't get home until 11. Today at 12 Lexi and Eugene had practice for the Christmas program that the kids from church are putting on tomorrow. Eugene is playing the drums and Lexi is part of the choir. I was interested to see how she'd do, but she was so tired that she wouldn't even stand up there and sing. Hopefully she'll do better tomorrow.

From there we went to a Christmas party, we just hung out and ate some food like I said earlier. We left there around 5:30, Eugene dropped the girls and I off at home and headed to the Upper Room. We were all going to go, but since Lexi only slept for an hour in the car we didn't think she'd do well staying up until 11 or later again tonight. So the girls and I are home alone right now. Hopefully they'll go to bed early and I can soak in the tub for a bit then hit the hay! Tomorrow will be another long day!

The job hunt continues

Well, A month has passed since my husband was laid off. I'm realizing it's not a rare thing, many people are out of jobs. He's not having much luck finding a job, he's mostly looking in the area since we just signed a new lease two months ago. With both of our parents in Texas maybe he should look there. Think his resume will compare to Austin resumes?

He's done a few jobs from home for various architects around, but since work is so hard to come by no one wants to hire him full time. We've been able to spend a lot of time together as a family, maybe too much. The stress level here is pretty high which causes some stupid fights at times. In the 6 years we've been married we've never spend this much time together. It's kinda funny, of course we love each other, but times like this really test your patience.

On the plus side he's gotten to work on a few things that he's been wanting to for awhile, like really learning how to do websites. He's also just recently gotten hooked up with The Upper Room, a venue not too far from us that has local Christian bands come play. It's a lot like Straight Gate- a youth club he spent many, many hours volunteering at before we got married and in the first few years of our relationship. I am very excited for him, probably not as excited as he is to get back into the music ministry, since the band broke up years ago he hasn't had much opportunity to minister in this area. And trust me, this is the area God has called him to minister in. Hopefully he'll be able to really help out and get involved.

9 words Women use

NINE WORDS WOMEN USE

(1) Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.

(2) Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.

(3) Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.

(4) Go Ahead: This is a dare, not permission. Don't Do It! Especially if what you want to do involves buying Ferrari parts

(5) Loud Sigh: This is actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to # 3 for the meaning of nothing.)

(6) That's Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.

(7) Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or faint. Just say you're welcome. (I want to add in a clause here - This is true, unless she says 'Thanks a lot' - that is PURE sarcasm and she is not thanking you at all. DO NOT say 'you're welcome' . That will bring on a 'whatever').

(8) Whatever: Is a woman's way of saying Bite Me.

(9) Don't worry about it, I got it: Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking 'What's wrong?' For the woman's response refer to # 3.

Christmas Time!

Can you believe Christmas is 2 weeks away? I don't have all my shopping done yet. We still have to buy for My mother in law and her fiance. I'm not sure what to get them, but we need to hurry up and pick something because they live in Texas and we'll have to mail it.

I know lots of people who have taken Disney Vacations for Christmas. That seems like fun, celebrate the holidays with Mickey Mouse. I tell you one thing though, that's not us this year. Although I do want to take the kids to Disney, I'm planning on doing that when the youngest is old enough that they will remember. Since we plan on having about 4 kids and we only have two, our trip is years away. That's ok, we enjoy spending Christmas with family.

We have some presents under the tree already and Lexi is doing really good about not opening them. She has picked them up a couple times and played with them, but mostly to "build". We thought she'd open them the second she saw them. Although she might be avoiding opening them because we've officially told her that on Christmas (the day we open our presents) we are going to pack up all of her "bobs" (her pacifiers) and mail them to Beth, because the baby is going to need them. Hopefully that will work. I'm desperate to get rid of that thing.

Annoyance

Annoyance is the cat that was left here by the previous renters. It's quite annoying. The neighbors have kind of taken it in, they got a flea collar for it, a food dish and even one of those neat little pet beds, It's like a cube with a little whole for the cat to climb in.

So what makes the cat so annoying? The fact that is sits in front of our door meowing all day long. The fact that when we come home and try to pull into our parking spot it gets in our way. And the fact that when we try to walk outside it is constantly under our feet. That's just a typical cat looking for attention and love you might say. Which I agree and try to pet on occasion. The issue is, it's not our cat. We don't have a cat because A) my husband and at least one of our daughters is allergic and B) we don't have the desire/time to show affection to an animal.

If we had a pet of our own, we WOULD show it attention, we wouldn't leave it outside in the cold and we'd try not to grumble when it got under our feet. Those are just things you plan on when you have a pet. I just hate that this cat is expecting all that stuff from us, but it's not our cat. Maybe I'm just mean. Maybe I just don't want to get attached to it because I know we can't bring it inside. Whatever the case... I'm annoyed with it. I feel really bad for it, because first of all, what kind of person leaves their pet behind?! second of all, you can tell it was an inside/outside cat that got lots of attention and now it's outside getting no attention. Last of all... it's now limping, I don't know what happened to it, but it is holding it's front paw up and wont put any weight on it anymore. Anyone know of a good loving home for a black cat?

Christmas Shopping

I'm doing a lot of online shopping this year, in one way it's fun. It saves the hassle of waiting in lines to check out, it keeps me on my budget because I don't see something else in the store that I like and buy it too. That's what normally happens, I'll have an idea of what I want to buy, go in the store, find it, then look around the store at everything else and find more stuff I want to buy. On the down side, I have to pay shipping and handling, a few times I've been lucky and found some sites with free shipping.

Maybe next year I'll try wholesale. I'll just buy everyone the same gift. That should save a bunch of money! :)

So life has been pretty busy with Christmas shopping, playing with Lexi, and holding Caylee who for the past week has protested every time we put her down. Then add all the house work, cooking, cleaning, laundry on top of it and that explains the lack of posts lately.

It was good to go "home"

Yah, even though we've lived here for a year and a half, Tennessee is still home to us. It was so nice to be able to be there for almost 10 days. We got the chance to see and hang out with everyone, it was great.

The town we lived in is just growing like crazy. new stores are popping up everywhere and there is an abundance of commercial real estate signs covering the side of the roads. It's cool to go back and see what else has showed up since we were last there.

We spent a lot of time with friends, got to go to church two weeks in a row. We even got the stomach bug while we were there. Thanksgiving day Eugene and I were locked away in a bedroom. no turkey for us! Well, we had some the day after Thanksgiving.

But now we're back in North Carolina, getting ready for Christmas with two little girls. Even though this is Lexi's 3rd Christmas, it's the first one that she's really paid attention to the tree. She is amazed by it and wants it on the second she wakes up and comes downstairs. Caylee doesn't care, obviously! :) What a great time.

Christmas is coming fast

Tonight we set up the tree. It is our first year with a fake tree, it looks ok. Lexi was so cute helping me set up the tree, then hanging the ornaments. We took a few pictures, maybe I'll get some posted on here tomorrow. I also just finished buying the first Christmas presents. I ordered the Fisher Price Nativity scene as well as some presents for some nieces and nephews. I'm hoping the nativity scene will help us explain Christmas to Lexi.

I was looking at rings the other day, because, well it's fun. I've been eying up the anniversary rings, I just think the three diamond rings are so pretty. For fun I like to look at engagement rings too. I am very happy with the ring my husband gave to me over 6 years ago when he proposed, It is just what I always wanted. Our wedding bands are my parents old bands so my set is just perfect. :)

Just a few more presents to go then I'll be done shopping. (ok, really a ton more...) I love Christmas shopping!!