It's nice to be...

HOME! We got back into Minnesota at 12:15 pm on Tuesday. What a week! I am not much of traveler. I don't like sleeping in a different bed or using a different bathroom for too long. We arrived 4 days before Morgan's brother and sister and their families. That was nice. We were able to spend some time with just Morgan's parents and they were able to spend some time with just Owen. They have only seen him once and that was in June. After the rest of the family got there it was rather hectic and I get tired of so many people being around. My SIL children are also a bit undisciplined and that is always tiring!

On Thursday we went skiing in West Yellowstone. There is always more snow there than in Bozeman.Morgan pulled Owen in a Chariot that had a ski attachment. He had wanted to get one for our Chariot but now that he's used one he thinks he can do without until Owen learns to ski on his own! I had not skied in a few years and I was rusty. A combination of extra weight (my own!), crusty snow, and poor technique!
Here is a view from Morgan's parents house. They live south of Bozeman just a ways and the view is always beautiful. This is a sunset and the clouds that were rolling in that night. One day we took Owen for a hike while it was snowing. He loved it. I got lots of great pictures. Nature is always the perfect back drop for pictures.We also took him on the tobbogan one day. He loved that too. Just giggled and giggled. He was a very good little traveler. Slept well in the pack and play and didn't fuss on the airplane. He was fussy Christmas Eve though. He got a tooth! And today I discovered another one. So now Owen has his two bottom teeth.

Todays 2P's challenge:
The New Year is almost here.. thinking of any resolutions?? What do u hope to accomplish in this new year of 2007??? Blog about your goals and aspirations.

I like to write resolutions and goals. I also like the beginning of a new year. It's a time for me to start fresh. I always liked that about teaching too. A new week. A new quarter. A fresh start. So I have a little notebook I'm writing my goals in. My first goal is to get rid of my excess weight. I've got a plan. I need to lose it by Owen's birthday. So I have four months. I also want to get our house back in order. I want to get rid of the things we don't need, want or use. This is a challenge for me and Morgan. We are both collectors. Those are my two big goals.

Wishing you...

a Merry Christmas! We are leaving tonight for Montana. I have been remiss in my blogging lately. Just too much to do to get ready for our trip. Here is the picture I sent out in our Christmas letter. Merry Christmas to you all. I'm sure I will have loads to blog about when I return!

Isn't it...

cool! Here is my new vacuum cleaner! I love it. It's a Eureka Altima. Sounds like a car doesn't it?? It does have a headlight. It's a bagless and that's really the part I was happiest about. That way all the dog hair doesn't sit in there and stink. Ludwig is going in for a bath tomorrow so that should help his stinkiness. He's also shedding a ton. The vacuum has a cup that collects all the stuff and when I first used it I couldn't believe all the hair! That just proved what a poor job the other one was doing. So now with a new washer, a new iron and a new vacuum I'm in domestic bliss! Morgan would love it if I learned to cook but I don't think all the cool appliances or gadgets in the world would help me in that department.

I got my hair cut last night. It's a bit shorter with some choppy layers. My stylist straightned it with a flat iron and flipped the ends out. I don't have a flat iron so I just dried it and used my round comb iron to do the ends. Then I pulled it back! She also put a lot of product in it and I don't use "product". It makes me itch!

Last night after my haircut I went to Bonnie's studio party. What fun! Her studio is beautiful. So full of inspiring things. Lots of sparkly things. I love that. I thought I had a lot of supplies. My stash pales in comparision to Bonnie's! She is such a sweet person and her hubby Greg was there helping with all the details.
Now I need to go and work on the book bags for Nikki. I also need to work on some ornaments for my nephews and niece and some other little things. I'll post some pictures of my creations when I'm done.
Oh, one more picture...
This is Baby Evel Knievel. Owen's newest stunt is to roll over on the changing table and then scoots up to the edge and bite down. Then he will just lay there looking over the edge. I don't know what he's contemplating. Today I ran and got the camera. I strapped him down first :) But it's just the funniest thing to see. He just chomps down on the edge (I have a heavy, padded cloth diaper on the edge) and looks down at the floor or the garbage can or whatever toy he's tossed overboard. Such a funny little guy.

Just a quick...

jot! I have not be able to blog in 3 days! I had a crop this weekend. It went well. I did not get enough done though. I need to work on my MIL's album. Two Christmas's ago I did a grandchildren album for her and she wants me to update it for her for Christmas this year. Sure, no problem. I'm not done with my pregnancy album, our family album isn't up to date, and I have one page done in Owen's album, but I'll get right on that!
I decided the nephews and neice aren't getting handmade gifts. I was too stressed out about it. So the little ones are getting an outfit, the big one a Nebraska Huskers T-shirt. That relieved some pressure.
2P's challenge for today...Re the shopping frenzy at this time of year.. what do you do? Do you do the majority of your shopping in stores, make your own handmade items, or shop online??? blog about it!
I like to shop. I just want to know what people would like. Morgan's easy. He usually has a list a mile long. Everyone else in our family isn't easy! I like to make things but I usually get started too late and get stressed out. I would shop online, if I knew what I was buying!
Today I get a haircut! Yippee! And then I'm going to Bonnie's Studio Party!

A few...

holiday questions. These are taken from Bonnie Rose's Blog.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate! With marshmallows and a little Bailey's please!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Santa always wraps our presents.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? White lights. We don't do any exterior lighting but the lights on our tree are always white.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope.

5. When do you put your decorations up? The weekend after Thanksgiving. Or I try to. Last year it was later since I was pregnant.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? I love going to the Cheesecake Factory with The Girls and having Pumpkin Cheesecake!

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: Going to my grandparents house Christmas Day. Most of my best childhood memories are set at their house or with them.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? One year I got a dollhouse for Christmas. My mom assembled the whole thing. She was working on it in a back bedroom that we didn't really use for anything but storage. I was probably 7 or 8. I went in there looking for something, I don't remember what and found the dollhouse. When it showed up under the tree on Christmas day I knew Santa wasn't real. I was so upset. But I didn't tell a soul. I didn't want my mom to know I had found it! So I kept it a secret. For about 10 years!! We still do Santa.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes. With my family we usually open gifts from one another on Christmas Eve and then gifts from Santa on Christmas Day.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? With white lights, green and red bows, and a mish mash of ornaments that have some sentimental value or that I just love. I particularly like old fashioned looking glass ornaments. And a little glitter never hurts!

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? I love the snow. As long as it's not super cold and I don't have to drive in it. In Minnesota it's hard to get enough snow at one time anymore to slow people down too much. It's kind of sad really.

12. Can you ice skate? Yes. I used to skate all the time when I was a child.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? From childhood the above mentioned dollhouse and a quilt that my grandma gave me. Now it would be the handmade gifts my sister gives me.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Spending time with my family. Remembering the gift that we were given in Jesus. The warm fuzzy feeling of the season.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Pumpkin pie. But I love all the cookies too!

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Spending time with my family. I'm looking forward to Morgan and I establishing some of our own traditions with Owen. I also enjoy going to the Christmas Eve service with my mom at the church I grew up in. There is a man who sings Oh Holy Night like you have never heard it before!

17. What tops your tree? A gold wire angel. She's got glitter!

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? I love giving the handmade gifts I've crafted for people. But I like to receive too!

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Oh, that's a tough question! I love Frank Sinatra's Christmas Collection. But I also love so many of the traditional religious Christmas songs. Amy Grant has a wonderful Christmas collection that I play over and over.

20. Candy Canes? They are pretty. I eat about 2 a year. That's enough for me. They are great for stirring hot chocolate!

Here are two more of my favorite ornaments on the tree. Every teacher needs a little school bus right?? And I just love Betty Boop!

Baby...

it's cold outside! That happens to be one of my favorite holiday songs. The Dean Martin version. But it really is COLD outside! My dashboard forecaster says 2˚. Brrrr! Too cold for me! I've been listening to Christmas music almost non-stop. There is a station here that plays holiday music round the clock beginning before Thanksgiving.

I've been busy working on gifts. I'm doing 3 library bags for Nikki to give as gifts so I'm working on those right now. I gave up on the doll for my niece until I can get the right kind of fabric for the heard. Maybe I'll do that tonight. I don't have much to do at the office tonight so maybe I won't go it. I also have to take Ludwig to the vet for his check-up this afternoon. It occurred to me that I don't have Morgan's car today (a wagon) so Miranda and Owen will need to stay here while I take him because we can't all fit in my car. What a scene that would be. 1 baby and 1 very large dog crammed into the back seat of my Galant!

The 2P's challenge for today is to blog about your perfect hairstyle. Ugh! Hair. My hair was so wonderful while I was pregnant. It was full and obedient and didn't fall out hardly at all. Now it begs to be washed every other day and it comes out in clumps! Oh, and it doesn't do a darn thing! So my perfect hairstyle would be one that was easy, easy, easy! I would love to have it short again but Morgan so politely says it makes me look like a little boy! I also can't afford to have it cut once a month. However, it has been 6 months since my last cut. I have an appointment for next Tuesday to have it done. I wear my up most of the time because if I don't Owen will pull it. There was a chunk that had come loose yesterday and he was reaching for it. So it normally looks like this. I did manage to wash it today! That was the other thing about my hair while I was pregnant. It didn't need to be washed as frequently. That was great. I don't mind the washing part. It's the drying part that takes so long. I don't like to use a hair dryer because it makes my hair dry and dull. But I don't like running around with a head full of wet hair until it's dry either. So I clip it up and it dries on the outside and then later I have to let it down so the rest can dry.
I've also been known to let it grow and grow and grow. Until I found my current stylist I would get my hair cut about once a year because I was so afraid of what they would do to it. I had a few bad hair cutting incidents in my life. Now I keep it about shoulder length, sometimes a little shorter, but it has been waist length several times too. That's too much hair when you're only 5 feet tall!

The 2P's challenge for the other day was to blog about quirks in your family or things that drive you nuts about people in your family around the holidays. I decided to just let that one go! I don't need more stress while I'm preparing for our trip to MT!

So much to do...

so little time! I was incorrect in thinking that since I'm not working I would have all kinds of time to make holiday presents and cards. I was mistaken. I started working on a doll for my niece today. I like to sew. Especially since I got a new sewing machine. But this doll thing is a pain in the ass! It's a pattern in the Martha Stewart Holiday magazine. Well, I couldn't find all the right materials for it so I improvised. Most of Martha's recipes or projects don't seem to lend themselves to improvisation. Ugh! So I had to redo part of it and it's just turning out like crap! CRAP! I made a list of all the things I want to accomplish in the next two weeks before we leave for MT and it was long. Too Long! Ugh!
One bright spot in the week though. Morgan cleaned the kitchen floor last night. This is the second time in as many weeks. This is HUGE! That is more than he has cleaned the floor in probably the seven months that we've had Owen! He also bought me a new iron last night. He went to Target alone, which he never does, and came home with a new iron for me! I was so excited to use it today.
And today is Owen's 7 month birthday! I can't believe it's been seven months! I also can't believe I still haven't lost my pregnancy weight! I actually think I've gained a bit since I've had him. Ugh! Just to shake things up he decided to pull his mobile down today! I was hearing weird sounds while I was in the bathtub this morning and thought "OH NO! Someone's in the house!" So I quietly get out, dry off and open the door to listen. The noises are coming from Owen's room. So I go in and there he is with the mobile in his hands! This is not a small mobile either and it's mounted to the crib pretty tightly. He must have used all his strength!
Now I'm off for some cocoa and some thinking on this pain in the ass doll!

It's up!

Our tree is up. We put it up last night. I was able to get 5 strings of lights on it! This year we borrowed a tree from my mom. She has a newer Douglas Fir that is nicer than the really old tree I have that was my grandparents. I feel bad about not putting it up though. I was able to get 5 stings of lights up on the new one though. I'm going to watch after Christmas sales and see if I can get a new one with the lights already on it. Putting the lights on is my least favorite part. But this tree was so much easier to do than our old one. I love the look and smell of real ones but I can't bear to kill a tree just to put it up in our livingroom for a few weeks. And since we are going to MT for a week we wouldn't be able to enjoy it for as long. When Owen is older we will get a real one.
Owen was napping when we started putting the tree up. He was fascinated when he got up and saw it though! We didn't hang any ornaments on the lower limbs because he will be able to reach them. I also left of the white beaded garlands I usually put on. Our tree doesn't have a theme. Just a lot of treasured ornaments. I don't put them all up either. Some I just like to take out and remember where they came from. Here are some photos of Owen and my favorite ornaments.The star ornament I've had for a long time. I got it when I was little. It's my favorite ornament. The pudding cup with the little pipe cleaner santa in it I made in preschool. The ruby slipper is for the Wizard of Oz, my favorite movie, and the mushroom is just dang cute! It reminds me of gnomes. Which I love. I don't have any gnome ornaments though.
Now I need to tend to my wiggly guy and work on some projects today. Time is quickly slipping away from me and I have a lot of projects!

Ah...

Saturday. When I'm not the only parent at home. I also got to sleep a little bit longer. That's always nice.
Today my mom, sister and I are going to the No Coast Craft-o-Rama craft fair at the Midtown Global Market. If you are in the MN metro area check out the website and come on down. It's a great fair. Not your usual crocheted pot holders and frilly doll dresses craft fair.

Then we are going to the Picture Show Studio Sale. Here is that information if you are interested in going to that. They don't have a website so I scanned the post card I got in the mail. It's a great little sale. It's in an old house in St. Paul. My mom and I have been going for about 3 years now. They are the only rubber stamps I still buy. They have mounted and unmounted. I buy all unmounted. I mount them on foam with a cling back so I can use my acrylic blocks with them. And if you use acrylic stamps and don't have CTMH acrylic blocks you need to have a few! They are the best blocks I've seen. Shaped like a wood block but in acrylic. They have funky images. Some vintage like. A bunch of really cool alphabets. I love alphabets. I need to use them more.

My book club party last night was fun. There are 4 of us with babies and two more expecting next May. The babies are all within about 4 months. When we started the book club 2 years ago there was only 1 baby!
It was fun to see Owen playing with the baby girl who is 8 weeks older than he his. She is sitting up now and crawling and Owen isn't. He's doing his scooting but she gets around much more efficiently. He was chewing on her feet and trying to head butt her! She was definitely going to be the winner in that wrestling match though. I think she had a good 5 pounds over Owen! She's a little bruiser! One of the other girls whose baby is 4 months was saying how she was really enjoying the CEFE class that they go to. I think Owen and I may need to do something like that. I was resisting because I didn't want to commit to something that may interfere with his schedule but he would probably be okay. He is probably getting to a point where he should have some contact with his peers. And I can make some friends with women who have children besides all my bloggin' buddies!
Have a great Saturday everyone!

I needed...

a change. So I put up an alterego picture. I didn't really like my profile picture and I can't get Morgan to take any pictures of me so I decided I would find a cartoon one. This one is from a Wheat Thins ad. I scanned it, Photoshoped it a bit, and her she is! I am! She just looks a little more fun than the old picture! My hair used to be a bit like that and the color is similar so I thought I could pull it off.

The 2P's challenge today is List 5 things you enjoyed today. It's only noon but I'll see if I can come up with some!

1. Breakfast. 2 wheat toaster waffles with PBJ, peaches (canned) and milk. Owen was very patient while I ate.
2. A nap.
3. A card from Maggie that came in the mail. (Thank you Maggie! That was very nice!)
4. The sunshine! Even though it's rather cold out the sun decided to shine and that always perks me up.
   
5. A little time in my craft room after my workout. I'm doing a Christmas Journal. Vee posted on her blog that she is taking back Christmas. I thought it was a fabulous idea. So I'm making a little 6x6 journal to do this too! Thanks Vee!
6. Vacuuming. (I like to clean!)
7. A snuggle with my little man.

That wasn't so hard! Speaking of my little man. Have I mentioned that he is in the beginning stages of crawling!? Watch out world here comes Owen! He started scooting the day before Thanksgiving and he'd been spinning around on his tummy before that. So he put that all together. Now he's getting his little legs up under him and up onto his hands! Then he does a little rocking back and forth. This morning Morgan brought him into my craft room so he could get ready for work. I have my workout mat on the floor in there with some toys so he can scoot and play while I work a bit. Well, he was not staying in one place! I had a drawer full of stamps out a ways from where he was but he go to them in no time. Had a stamp clutched in his hand when I got to him! Then he scooted over to a bag that I had emptied from JoAnn's! Needless to say it was time to get have some breakfast!

Here are a few photos I took of him yesterday. He was much to interested in the camera and the loop handle on it to stay still for a photo! He just kept getting closer and closer to me!
Well now that he's down for his afternoon nap I'm going to go and work on my Christmas Journal! And wrap the book I need to take for the book exchange at my book club holiday gathering tonight.

Watch this...

I found this video while I was blog hopping yesterday. It made me cry. First in a sad way and then in a happy way. It's a good little view for when you think our society is going to hell in a handbasket. And one only needs to turn on the daily news to get that impression.

Here's the Video Description

Sometimes, a hug is all what we need. Free hugs is a real life controversial story of Juan Mann, A man whos sole mission was to reach out and hug a stranger to brighten up their lives.

In this age of social disconnectivity and lack of human contact, the effects of the Free Hugs campaign became phenomenal.

As this symbol of human hope spread accross the city, police and officials ordered the Free Hugs campaign BANNED. What we then witness is the true spirit of humanity come together in what can only be described as awe inspiring.

In the Spirit of the free hugs campaign, PASS THIS TO A FRIEND and HUG A STRANGER! After all, If you can reach just one person...

Music by Sick Puppies. (Visit http://sickpuppies.net or http://myspace.com/sickpuppies for the music)
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Thank you Aimeslee for telling me how to post the video!!!

Since today is December 1st I've decided it would be a good day to rededicate myself to losing the rest of my pregnancy weight. I don't want to wait until January 1st because that's too cliche. I think I should get a headstart on the new year. So if anyone else wants to shed a few unwanted pounds I'd be happy to have the company! Now I'm going to go get on my treadmill and then lift a few weights. My goals right now are to exercise everyday and drink 64oz of water everyday. I'll tackle my chocolate obsession next week! But since I ate the rest of the chocolate chips yesterday we don't have any chocolate in the house anymore!!! That makes it a little easier!