Sweetheart Tree RR finish

I finished up my section on Ruth's RR last night. Really quick stitch! One day!

Pictures

Ok...here's a pic of Eva at her Christmas Pageant (she's not standing on anything, she really is that much taller than everyone else!)


Maria and Lauren on Christmas after opening presents



My mom's Biscornu. Pattern is Christmas Jewels from Just Nan



Dani's Sweetheart Tree RR. I finish up my section, at the bottom, last night. Pattern is from Treasured Trio

Christmas

I don't even know where to start. Friday Eva had a little pageant at school. It was cute. They sang songs and rang bells. Saturday we didn't do much, but it was my dad's birthday. We just had a little party with cake and ice cream. Sunday afternoon we went to church and Lauren and Maria were so BAD!! I was so frustrated with them that we left early. We were seated right in front of this water pool/fountain thing and they kept putting their hands in it and then they started throwing stuff in it. We went from there straight to my grandmother's house. We opened presents there. Eva finally got her electric Barbie karaoke guitar. That's been pretty amusing. She's been rocking out with Hannah Montana since then. Monday morning we didn't do much of anything except hang out and play with all the stuff Santa brought. Monday night we went to my parents' house to open more presents. Yesterday I didn't have to work, yay! So, we just bummed around and cleaned house and tried to teach Lauren and Maria how to ride their new bikes. It was exceedingly cold and very windy so that didn't last long!

All in all it was a good Christmas and the kids seemed to really enjoy it and got tons of presents. I got two $50 gift certificates to cross stitch places so I was happy about that!

Foggy Bottom

What a difference! Two weeks ago it was like 40 degrees and super dry. My hands were getting all rough. For the last week, it's been unbelievably foggy and warm. Yesterday the kids were playing outside in shorts and Tshirts. And the damn mosquitos were back. Do those things EVER die??? This morning I had to actually drive with the windshield wipers on and it wasn't even raining! Everything is just so wet. And we get to look forward to heavy thunderstorms this week, a nice weekend, and a rainy Christmas.

I'm sooooo close to finishing my mom's Christmas present. I finished all the stitching on it last night and started the beading. Hopefully I'll be able to finish the beading today and start on the finishing tonight. I think it's going to be so pretty. I'm doing Just Nan's Christmas Jewel with some of the colors changed a little bit.

So I was happy Yul won Survivor, although, Ozzie really deserved to win. And I have to say I think Ozzie looked way better on the island than he did on the finale show.

Saturday we went to a Christmas party and it was really a good time. I was reluctant to go because it was all people my husband knew. We brought the kids and Eva was like the belle of the ball. She'd just walk up to the other kids and say "Hi friend, want to play?" LOL Lauren and Maria were so good. Lauren had a diaper incident and had to go around pantsless for half the evening, but no one seemed to mind, least of all Lauren! There was a lot of eating and dancing.

Annmarie and Kristen, they played Strokin'. That song always makes me think of Mardi Gras. But I have to say, I don't think I ever realized how racy those lyrics are! I mean, I knew they were, but I guess I never listened that closely before LOL

New Jib Jab

I love the JibJab people. Nucking Futs - A Year in Review

Who Dat?!?

How bout them Saints?? Ok, right now, the Saints are the only thing about Louisiana I'm feeling good about. Reelecting William Jefferson?? Blanco putting on an eye patch at the Special Session...oh I was so embarrassed.

Not much else going on. Saturday we hit two birthday parties. Sunday we all went to church...fun! Not! LOL

I was really proud of Eva yesterday. My parents took her to a Christmas parade and they got there late so they were at the end of the route and a lot of the floats were out of stuff by time they got to them. My mom said that it didn't bother Eva and she kept telling everyone Merry Christmas. There was one lady that told Eva she didn't have anything left to give her. She said that was ok, Merry Christmas anyway. So the lady took this huge stuffed Santa off the float and gave it to her. My mom said that Eva had so much fun and shared her stuff with all the other kids around them and she was talking to all the people passing in the parade. I'm glad she behaved so well.

Other than that, I'm just stitching away on my mom's Christmas present! I should have it finished by the end of the week I should think. Maybe not the finishing, but all the rest.

Where to start??

Ok...well the 3rd serial killer in South Louisiana was finally caught last week. I had to laugh on Criminal Minds recently when they said something to the effect that it was really rare to have more than one serial killer operating in any one area. That's 3 caught here in the last 4 years. And there's at least two more operating...one officially the I-10 killer and another that hasn't been officially acknowledged but when Derrick Todd Lee was operating all the profilers identified it as another serial killer, but local officials seem reluctant to declare it as such. Do you see why we have so many?

Thursday was taken up with Eva and an ear infection. I felt so bad for her Wednesday night. She was practically hysterical from pain, but I had given her everything I could think of. Since Katrina, you can't get in an emergency room for hours and it was already 2 am and her doctor's office opened at 7, so I really wanted her to hang on until then. Plus, our ER copay is $300 and the doctor copay is $20, so that was another big thing. So, I had driven her around earlier to help her go to sleep and that worked in the car, but when I brought her inside she woke up again. So at around 2:30 I couldn't take it anymore, I was going to take her to a small hospital that hopefully wasn't quite so busy, but she feel asleep pretty hard on the drive there, so I turned around and parked in the driveway and slept in the car with her. We got her to her regular doctor and got her all medicated and she's doing much better. That was the first ear infection in like 2 years. I'm really pleased she went that long!

Saturday we went to a little party my mom had. It was a ladies social type thing. There were a lot of people there! And so many kids! I saw people I hadn't seen in quite awhile. Ms. Laurel was there with Amanda and her new baby which she named Darren in honor of his uncle that died a year ago this week. His death still really upsets me in way that I would have never thought. Ms. Lauren was there with a herd of daughter in laws and their kids. Amy was there with her new baby. She was brand new, like 2 weeks old. Her name is Jewel. We (as in our family) didn't even know she was pregnant much less just had a baby! Anyway, it was a good time and the girls behaved wonderfully. Lauren just attached herself to "Titi DeeDee", it was cute. Eva couldn't say Auntie when she was little so now all the aunts are Titis and all the uncles are Kikis.

Then I got to watch USC's shameful loss to UCLA. Yay!! Man...I loved it! And those Saints were looking pretty fantastic again today!!

The girls are playing outside as I'm typing this, every now and then one runs past the window and it's so funny bacause they're all bundled up, but they have their fairy wings on over their coats. Oh and are my kids morbid or what?? Last night they were playing Dead Fairies. One would be dead and the others would fuss over her and ask her not to be dead. At least they weren't fighting I guess!

Thanksgiving

#5 That’s where LSU ranks in the BCS standings!! Yay!! That game Friday was fantastic!

So, to catch up…Wednesday we went to Eva’s Thanksgiving Feast at school. It was very cute. They sang songs and said a poem. I was surprised, because normally Eva doesn’t participate too well in front of a crowd, but she was singing loud and proud. I was pretty impressed that most of the kids knew all the words to the songs and the poem. After that they served us a Thanksgiving dinner. That was really amusing. I actually did take some pictures, but of course I haven't taken them off the camera.

Thursday we started off going to my mother in law’s house. That was nice. It was fairly quiet for a change. She has a rather smallish house and when all the men would get together it’d get super loud…even when they were all outside. The weather was very nice so we ate outside. The kids ran around and raked leaves and had a good ole time. Then we went to my grandmother’s house. That was nice too but we were getting tired by then. I have pictures of this too...LOL

Friday my mom and I left at 4:30 am to go shopping. We started with the intention of going to Kohl’s, but when we got there the line to get in the store was across the front of the store and down the side of the building. We decided to go to Wal-Mart next door. It was pretty wild in there, but we were able to get the stuff we wanted without much incident. My grandmother bought Eva a used computer for her Santa and I got her a Lexmark printer/scanner/copier at Wal-Mart for $29. I was pretty excited. We got a few more little things. My mom got like 5 Cabbage Patch dolls for $8 each. Then we went to the mall. It was pretty subdued there. I guess because there was more room for people to stretch out. We went to the Disney Store and there was a line just to get in the store. And the reason for that was you got 20% off your entire purchase if you got in the store before 10 am. Since it was 7 am we decided to go for it. I did so good there. I got a ton of stuff for Lauren and Maria. I waited in line for an hour and a half, but it really wasn’t too bad. I immediately got in the check out line before I even put anything in my basket. Since the line went around the whole store, I figured I’d eventually pass everything I wanted to look at. I found a lot of fun stuff on sale and on the clearance rack and all that was an additional 20% off too!

Saturday we did what seems like our yearly tradition. We went to LSU to see Mike the Tiger, play on the Indian Mounds, and walk around campus. Then we went to lunch at a little pizza place just off campus. Then to Target to get Christmas lights and get the Cars DVD for the girls. We had tried to go to the movies, but nothing was playing when we got there. So that was a consolation prize.

Yesterday I had to work the church nursery. There were 3 adults, 2 teenagers, and 7 children, three of which were mine. It was a pretty easy morning! Then we just hung out at home the rest of the day.

My grandmother is going to buy me a vacuum cleaner for Christmas and I’ve decided which one I want. I’m going with the Dyson DC15 Animal. I can’t wait to order it!

Birthday Party

I'd have to say that the party was a success. There were so many people there, that we couldn't have fit anyone else in the house. It was wild! We rented an inflatable bouncy castle (Spacewalk for us old people) and a Spin Art machine. Both were a big hit. She did very well in the gift department and got her very first prepaid credit card LOL She's so spoiled. I told James we ought to hold on to all the gift cards and use them for Christmas shopping because anything else she got right now would get lost in the midst of all the other stuff.

Oh and I made cherry cordial brownies from the recipe on the back of the box. They were excellent! Kristen, they made me think of Thelma Bars!

Saturday

I was going to post about something yesterday, but I kept getting sidetracked and now I can't even remember what it was.

Nothing much going on. Today I experimented with just taking one of the twins out running errands. It was getting way too overwhelming to take all three kids anywhere. Lauren wasn't feeling well this morning so she stayed home. It made the shopping experience so much nicer. We made it through three stores with no major meltdowns...amazing! We went to Kohl's first and fortunately we were there really early and caught some early bird specials. Then to Sam's for diapers and wipes. Then grocery shopping.

Earlier this week I was really pleased to learn that Bobby Jindal will indeed be running for governor. So it'll be a Jindal Blanco showdown again. I suspect that this time she probably won't come out on top since most of her base is living out of state and just can't bus people to the polls quite so effectively from Houston. She's also been accused of "ethnic cleansing" in New Orleans, which I found to be a riot. I'd say her base in New Orleans has completely turned on her. And her "Road Home" program isn't handing out checks like everyone thought it would. They've had that $6 Billion dollars for how long? And they've only handed out like 24 checks. I sure hope that 6 billion is in some really good interest bearing account. But she announced last night that since there's a 300 million dollar surplus in the budget she's going to hold a special session to give out raises and spend it on a bunch of crap that probably won't affect the regular people.

Tomorrow is Eva's birthday party! I think we'll actually have a decent turnout, I was starting to get a little worried. It's supposed to be cold and clear, no sign of rain!

My Round Robin is Home!

My Teresa Wentzler Round Robin has made it back home! My theme was TW borders. And I have plenty enough fabric for a second round...although that would be contrary to my promise to myself to cut back on RRs for awhile.



I still have 3 slots open for my Pay It Forward challenge

Weekend Update

My parents decided to get Eva her birthday present early. So Saturday morning we set out on the premise that we were taking Eva to pick out her cake. We went to a little bakery that's supposed to be the best in our area. She decided on a Bratz cake. It's a pretty cute design even though I wouldn't have rathered her pick something else.

Then we went to the bike store. Eva was so funny. She ended up picking out a periwinkle colored bike. It's so huge compared to her other bike. Then we went to Hobby Lobby and bought paper mache ornaments to decorate and I was struck with inspiration to get some christmas tree shaped paper mache boxes. We painted them when we got home and the girls can decorate them later and we'll put treats for their teachers in them. After that we hit the do it yourself pest control store and got stuff for ants. I'll just say that stuff worked really good! Then we had lunch and went home.

Sunday, I dragged everyone out to the Rennaissance Fair. That wasn't such a great idea. James hated it, he didn't like all the "weirdos" and I'll admit, there were quite a few. There were too many overly large women wearing way too few clothes. Eva didn't like all the people "looking at her". Maria had to hold on to me even though she was riding in the stroller. And the stroller was a bad idea because all the walkways were gravel and hilly and it was hard to push it. Lauren was pretty cool the whole time so maybe next year I'll just bring her without the stroller.

That's all folks!

Pay it Forward

Ok, I'm going to make the commitment...and do the challenge that everyone else is participating in. The first five people who comment to this blog with receive a handmade gift from me. I don't know what that will be yet, and please give me a few months to get them out. Make sure you leave your email so I can contact you for your mailing address.

H is for

"Comment to this message and I will assign you a letter of the alphabet. Then go to your journal and post a list of 10 words that begin with this letter and what they mean to you."

I volunteered for this on over at the Wonderous World of Whiz and got assigned the letter H

Horcrux-I've been listening to HP and the Half Blood Prince over the last few days
Hey-My most common greeting
Hornbook-What the heck are they for? I've always wondered
Hurt-My stomach is now
Hellacious-The way my kids act when they need a nap
Hoot Owl-I saw one on the way to work this morning sitting on my street sign, think that's a coincidence that it happens when I'm listening to Harry Potter?
Happy-My feelings about my life over all
Hate-Apparently my kids hate everything even if they like it, I don't think they really understand the meaning of the word.
Heaven-Getting to sleep late, in bed, by myself, in absolute silence
House Elf-I desperately need/want one and I promise I'd be really nice to it.

Voting Post Mortem

I'm so severely disappointed in the people of the 2nd District of Louisiana. You gave William "I've got $90,000 stashed in my freezer" Jefferson 30% of the vote?? I'm praying that "Dollar Bill" loses in the run off. However, since the people of this state have a really annoying habit of reelecting incumbants no matter what they do, I'm sure that he'll win.

Once again I voted Libertarian for my state candidates and once again they lost decisively, but I think they're doing a lot better than anyone ever expected.

I've got my eye open for the Governor's election even though it's a long way away. If Bobby Jindal doesn't run, in one way I hope he does, in another, I hope he stays in Washington; then I've got my eye on Walter Boasso (that's BWA-so). He has a new website up, Get It Done Louisiana. He hasn't announced that he's going to run for Governor, but he's definately been doing the dance.

Neato RAK idea

RAK= Random Act of Kindness

Check out Ann's (and Annette's) blogs, they're doing something kinda cool. I'd like to do it, but right now I'm pretty tapped out as far as stitching goes for awhile. Maybe after the first of the year I'll be able to do something like that.

I'm Getting Nervous

I don't do so well having people at my house. It really stresses me out. All the cleaning and cooking and then the hostessing. Eva's birthday party is coming up (the 19th). I scheduled it for 2:00 pm, I figured at that time I wouldn't be required to serve an actual meal. We've done that in the past either gumbo or BBQ. But, everybody and their brother is being invited. So, now I'm stressing over what food to serve. I'm sure I can ask my MIL to make finger sandwiches. She likes to do that. And chips, veggies and dips. That's the easy stuff. But what else?? I'd rather fingery type food so that I don't have to worry about tons of forks floating around. Oh I just thought of something...cherry and jalepeno jelly poured over cream cheese and served with crackers. That would be something good and maybe a little different.

Ok, painters are coming over Wednesday....need to buy paint!

I'm just really praying it doesn't rain on the 19th. If half the people invited show up they really won't fit in the house.

Peace and Quiet

James took the girls to his parents house today and I got some blessed quiet time. Which I spent cleaning the carpet, washing and folding laundry, cleaning the kitchen, and taking everything off the walls in anticipation of the living room and kitchen being painted. I'm hoping the guy will be able to do it next week. Oh man, Eva just brought me a bag of cookies that my MIL made and they ware soo good. Chocolate chip and Pecan and really buttery tasting. The pecans were most likely out of her own yard. That's what the kids always do this time of year when they go over there. Pick pecans. They always come back so dirty. Oh well, it's worth it for the pecans and it's easier for them to pick them up since they're so much closer to the ground.

And a little funny story about me. I was watching the shows I had DVRed during the week. One was The Unit. I was watching it with all the windows open and our next door neighbor's lawn mower backfired. I about had a heart attack. My heart was beating so fast. '

Biscournu Exchange

I'm moderating the Biscournu Exchange over on the Rotation BB if anyone is interested in signing up!

An Interesting Bonus

I noticed something quite nice from my little oil concotion. This morning Eva had no knots in her hair. Normally brushing hair is a screaming fit, but it was done in like 20 seconds this morning and her hair is nice and shiny, but not greasy looking. I think it's definately something I'm going to stick with for the long term. Buying those oils is rather expensive, but a little goes a long way I'm hoping.