Ten on Tuesday

1. Christmas was fantastic. I set up an album on the left (well, I'm currently attempting too, but eventually it will be there.) with the rest of the pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

2. Our annual Christmas morning tree picture. Check out Mackenzie's face. And Emma, wearing her new Snow White dress. Hoping next year's is better.


3. Coming down the stairs Christmas morning and seeing the presents under the tree for the first time.


4. Singing happy birthday to Jesus. I need to get Emma on video singing it because it's the sweetest thing. Emma helped me make the cake. She was also in charge of decorating as you can tell by the abundance of sprinkles and the candle placement.


5. The girls got a tool bench from Santa. They love it. Emma loves building things and Mackenzie just loves to turn on the table saw. It makes this awful sound which she loves, she gets this huge grin on her face then starts yelling. Then Emma starts yelling. So the table saw is running making its awful noise and they're both yelling and running around joyfully. I have to admit that the day after Christmas I turned it around so it faced the wall, that way Mackenzie couldn't turn it on. Mean, I know. It only lasted a day. A nice, quiet day. :)

6. Anyone have a compact point-and-shoot they love? (I have the Panasonic FZ7 and while I like it, it's kind of a pain to take some places. Like the Cavs game we went to. My MIL lent me her's to take since mine would've been a bit obvious siting on the floor behind the players, I was trying to be discreet, ya know?) I picked out an Olympus online and Michael got it for me. But now that I've tried it I don't love it. I'm looking for something cheap (around or under 150 would be great) that takes good indoor pictures and doesn't take too long to save the picture before you take the next one., whatever the technical name for that is. Oh, and burst mode would be great. Thanks.

7. We're celebrating Christmas with Michael's family tomorrow afternoon. Then Christmas will officially be over.

8. New Year's Day the tree and all the trimmings are coming down. As much as I love having the Christmas tree and all the decorations up, it's always nice to get back to normal.

9. So last Friday I took a kickboxing class. Hadn't planned on it. I went to Turbo Kick but our instructor was having Lasik done so she had a sub. And he taught his kickboxing class instead. Hardest thing I've ever done, workout wise. I've never done so many kicks in my life. Frame of reference - we did at least 150 kicks for each leg while down on all fours. Plus forward and backward and sideways kicks on each side, plus lunging kicks and squatting kicks and punches and more punches. My thighs were trembling all morning and by 9 pm I was feeling sore. The next morning, I didn't think I'd make it down the stairs! Pathetic, I know. I finally felt back to normal yesterday. Oh, and this was the mild version of his class. My theory is it'll get easier each time I do it, so I'm taking it again. :)

10. Emma woke up freaking out Sunday night. There was a shadow in her room. (she sleeps with a lamp on) And it had eyes and ears and a nose and she didn't say hi to it. (her words.) A potty break, a little snuggling in bed with Mommy and Daddy and of course some chocolate milk and she was better. But still not liking the shadows.

Ten on Tuesday

1. Look at this little stinker. Cute, isn't she?


2. Emma helped me wrap gifts Sunday night. She was all about the tape. Except she didn't quite get that you put it on the seams, instead there is random tape on all the presents. Eventually, the present wrapping turned into this:



3. Climbing on the boxes.



4. No official menu plan this week. But if you're wondering, yesterday we had homemade noodles and chicken; tonight was baked potato soup; tomorrow we're at my mom's for dinner; Christmas Day is low-key at home, so we're having meatball subs for lunch and a pepperoni roll for dinner (fancy, I know); Friday I'm scrapbooking so not sure what Michael will be doing and that's all I've got.

5. I sent out my Christmas cards today. A little late, I know.

6. Michael's birthday cake last week. DQ Blizzard cake. He picked it out himself, although I insisted on the Happy Birthday Daddy.


7. I really can't remember what I wrote about last Tuesday, so I might have mentioned this already, but Mackenzie is so going to be our temper tantrum child.

8. I'm a tad behind on my December Daily album. As in, only have 3 days complete. Oops.

9. None of my scrappy gifts were completed this year due to the computer crash and me not being motivated enough to start over in a short period of time. So, they will now be Happy New Year gifts.

10. Emma's first monster drawing.


Merry Christmas!

My favorite Christmas song

But first, a conversation in the car after church yesterday:

Me: Emma, did you have a birthday party at Sunday School today?
Emma: Yes.
Me: Who was the birthday party for?
Emma: Jesus. (pause) But he wasn't there.
Me: He wasn't? Where was he?
Emma: With Mary on the farm.


Light of the Stable By Selah

Ten on Tuesday

1. Meet Emma's new friend. The Jingle Bell singing snowman. This was last week, she picked him up and said I'm going to watch cartoons with my new friend and there they sat for a good while, her arm around him the whole time.



2. I truly think this is one of the funniest Santa pictures ever. One second Mackenzie was sitting on his lap, the next she was crying as she trying to jump out of his lap as fast as she possibly could. Poor Santa was trying to hold on and you can see Michael's hand in the shot as he went to catch her. She want nothing to do with Santa!


3. The Santa picture and these were from Breakfast with Santa this past Saturday. Very cool. Pancake breakfast, a craft, Santa was there for picture taking as well as coming around to the tables to talk to the kids, coloring books and there was a craft (making ornaments with beads and pipe cleaners).

Bree and Emma coloring.

4. They could also fill out letters to Santa listing what they'd like for Christmas as well as how they'd been good that year. Then before Christmas, they'll get a letter back from Santa. I'm excited for these to come in the mail.


For Emma, she said she's like a pink doll house and a waterfall train set (something she saw in an ad) and for how she'd been good we wrote down that she helps mommy, is nice to her sister and puts her toys away.

For Mackenzie, we put down a shopping cart, and that she was finally sleeping through the night, was cute and a good eater. :)

For the record, Emma is still afraid of Santa. When he came around to the table, she wouldn't talk to him. Thankfully Bree is not afraid and let Santa know that Emma would like a pink doll house. She did give him the letters but that was as close as she got.

5. After Breakfast with Santa, Emma and I went to the outlets for some Christmas shopping. No stroller and she did pretty well until the end, when she started hiding in clothing racks and giggling uncontrollably. It was time to go. :)



6. Sunday afternoon, Marty, Abby and Claire came over and we made Christmas cookies. Some fine looking cookies we've got, don't ya think?

7. Today's Michael's birthday. Emma's sick. So while we were going to go out to dinner with his parent's, they're instead coming here. Happy Birthday, Michael.

8. Turns out I only lost 9 days worth of pictures when the computer crashed because of what I still had on my memory cards. Plus, there were 11 videos on there, including Mackenzie eating cake and trying to walk. I'm happy about that. I need to order cds of all the pictures I have on Shutterfly this week.

9. I'm soooo behind on Christmas shopping I've got nothing done. And once again, Mackenzie doesn't have a stocking b/c I put off ordering the ones I want from Pottery Barn Kids and now they're sold old. Next year, I'm ordering them in October.

10. Did ya see the new blog banner? That was my attempt at getting a picture for our Christmas cards. Didn't really work out for me.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday - Flaked Baked chicken, au gratin potatoes, corn (didn't get to this last week)
Tuesday - Michael's birthday - we're going out to dinner with his parents
Wednesday - Prok chops, mashed potatoes, green beans
Thursday - not quite sure what I'm doing this day, I've got two days to figure it out. :)
Friday - homemade pizza
Saturday - baked potato soup
Sunday - 40 clove chicken

Seriously.

So, Wednesday night, our kitchen sink clogged again. This happened last month and the plumber had to come out and snake it. Apparently you shouldn't put egg noodles down the disposal. And then it happened again. For the record, the first time I put a good size container of noodles down the disposal, so I suppose I wasn't too surprised to find out that's what caused it. But since then, I've been very careful about what goes down it. Wednesday night I was rinsing a plate and not really paying attention when I put 3, yes only 3, noodles down the disposal. I thought, well, it's only 3, I'm sure it'll be okay. Nope. Wasn't okay. I've got a clogged sink.

Thursday morning, I get on the computer to email Michael about the sink issue when the computer freezes. I turn it off, turn it back on and get a nice blue screen telling me there's an "unmountable boot error." Awesome. Now I've got a clogged sink and a crashed computer.

I call Dell, spend 45 minutes trying to fix it before it's decided that while there's a slight chance some data will be saved, the only way to fix it is to use the recovery CDs and put it back to factory settings. (And please, if someone knows of someway this could've been avoided I don't want to know.) Of course, I can't find the recovery CDs, so he tells me he'll mail them to me and I'll get them Monday or Tuesday.

A little while later, I pick up the phone and discover it's not working. No dial tone. Great. I've got a clogged sink, a crashed computer and no phone.

Thankfully, that was a quick fix and as soon as I called the cable company (we have everything bundled) she was able to fix it immediately.

So, it's late afternoon, and I feel a bit cold. It felt drafty like a door was open, I checked, none were, so I turned on the fireplace. Do you see where this is going? After dinner, I decided to check the thermostat. It's set on 70 yet it was only 65. Yep. The furnace wasn't working. I've now got a clogged sink, crashed computer and broken furnace. Seriously, could the day get any better?

By Friday afternoon things were getting better. The furnace was fixed - needed a new circuit board. The plumber had snaked the sink and it was working. He walked in the door, looked at me and said "Did you put noodles down the sink again?" Um, yes. And the nice Dell tech overnighted the recovery disks.

On Saturday, after 3 45-minute phone calls to different techs throughout afternoon and night, the computer was up and running. Unfortunately, it was wiped clean and it's like having a brand new computer.

Thankfully, I'd backed up pictures from June back, and I'd ordered over 600 pictures from Shutterfly early November so those are all online. I have early November and early December on memory cards, so I only lost about two weeks of photos. That I can deal with. The part that was hard was losing all the video I'd taken with my camera. Mackenzie walking for the first time, rolling over, laughing, eating cake (that's on my blog, whew!), Emma singing in the car, and lots of other memories and events I'd hoped to always have on video. I had a good cry about it. Emma did her best to cheer me up though. She kept hugging me, giving me kisses then telling me I was all better. :) I guess before I put anymore video on the computer I should really learn how to burn it to DVD. I kept saying I'd figure out and never did, hence it's all gone.

I know you've all probably heard it all before, but back-up, back-up, back-up!! I've got some friends this has happened to so I knew better, yet I still didn't have everything completely backed-up. We also lost music, some Word documents, Excel spreadsheets. (Speaking of, lost my Christmas card list, so if you don't get one from me this year, that's why.)

Tonight, I'm reinstalling all the software for the printers, cameras, Photoshop, itunes, etc. Lots of fun.

If anyone knows how to get video off a blog onto your computer or how to get pictures from a Shutterfly album to your computer and could let me know, I'd really appreciate it.

Back to work...

Ten on Whenever-I-Finally-Get-This-Up

1. I didn't post my menu plan Monday, so here it is:


Monday - flank steak, ranch rice (best rice ever), grilled (baked in the oven rather, but if it wasn't freezing out, they'd be grilled) red onion and zuchini.
Tuesday - nothing, went to the Cavs game last night.
Wednesday - swiss steak and noodles
Thursday - baked flaked chicken, au gratin potatoes, green beans
Friday - pizza
Saturday - Michael has a game, so no formal meal, we'll eat whatever I come up with
Sunday - spaghetti and meatsauce, garlic bread

2. We got our tree Saturday, for the first time we cut our own down. It was cold. Really cold. But lots of fun.

3. Sunday we went to the Winter Wonderland fest at the fitness center. Very cool. the gym/field house was full of blow-up jumpy houses and slides, Santa was there for pictures, there was free food and drinks and cotton candy and crafts for the kids. For the record Emma is still afraid of blow-up jumpy houses and slides. She kept standing in line then changing her mind at the last minute.

(Emma and Bree with Miss Nancy making a snowman.)

4. And Santa. Still afraid of Santa. She wouldn't sit with him. Didn't even want to go near him.

5. Our house is finally decorated. Tree is up (still need to take a picture of it), Santas and snowmen are all over the house. We might be skipping the outside lights this year, as I'm not sure Michael on the ladder and roof putting up lights is the best idea, ya know, still recovering from broken leg surgery and all.



6. Mackenzie is nuts. That's all I'm going to say. Well, that, and I wish she wasn't quite so fearless. Her fearlessness causes panic at times.

7. We're potty training! It's been so easy. Seriously. Emma just decided two weeks ago she was going to go and now she goes all. the. time. She still goes sometimes in her pull-up, but she can hold it most nights until morning. Next week we're going to underwear, I'm hoping that once she's wets her underwear once or twice she'll stop going in them and hold it until she goes potty.

8. I'm babysitting for our neighbor's two children this week. Emma is LOVING having Caroline here to play with every day. And Mackenzie is quite fascinated with baby Jack.

9. We went to the Cavs game last night. Most amazing seats - Row 1, on the floor, right behind the Cavs bench. Not necessarily the best seats to watch a game, but definitely the best seats to experience a game.




10. My stupid kitchen sink is clogged. Again. Looks like I'll be seeing the plumber tomorrow. Awesome.

Emma picked,

and the winner is Darcy. We used a very scientific method: I wrote the names on a piece of paper, put them in a pile on the floor and let her pick one. Darcy, email me your address. :)

Thanks for playing, and saying hi - I love reading the comments and seeing who reads this thing. :)

Would you like a copy of Quick and Easy Photo Albums?

Because I have one to give away.


Regular commenters, never-before-commented-ers, friends, lurkers: leave a comment and I'll pick a winner Monday morning. I'll throw in a copy of Simple Scrapbooks November/December issue, too. :)

We're got a weekend full of fun Christmas activities. We're going to cut down our tree, for the first time, on Saturday with some friends. Then Sunday we're going to a fun Winter Wonderland event at the fitness center with some other friends.

I'm doing Ali's December Daily album, I'm going to try to post some pages next week. If nothing else, I'll get an album going over on the left. Mine isn't going to be all Christmas, though. It's going to be more of just an account of everything we do this month, Christmas related or not. I got my album all put together at a crop last month, but I left off the dates and embellishments. For me, I need to put the pictures and journaling down before doing anything else. If you're making one, let me know and leave a link, I'd love to see it.

Have a good weekend!

Ten on Tuesday Wednesday

1. I would've had this up yesterday but I was sick. Nothing like having the stomach flu while attempting to take care of a 1-year-old and 2 1/2-year-old. Fun times.

2. We have digital cable now which means we have DVR and get Boomerang and can watch Scooby Doo and the Snorks.

3. Saturday we went to Kraynak's to see all the Christmas trees. Of course, Emma's favorite part was still playing with the trains.

4. And playing with all the toys, too.



5. My menu planning for this week is shot. We ended up having Breakfast for dinner Monday since I had forgotten that I needed to clean the oven. I made Monkey Bread on Thanksgiving and it spilled and made a giant fill-the-house-with-smoke kind of mess. Of course, I didn't remember this until I started dinner and needed to use the oven. Then yesterday, I wasn't really up to cooking, and tonight we're having pizza that Michael brought home from an FCA even last night. Maybe tomorrow.

6. I still have a Halloween decoration up by the front door. Maybe I'll take it down when we put up the tree and decorate the house this weekend.

7. So, Emma's going to have to stop taking naps. Not because she doesn't want to take them, because of course she doesn't, but because when she naps, she doesn't go to bed until 10:30 or 11 at night! She'll go to her room no problem, but then we'll here a train whistle, or her singing Old MacDonald Had A Farm, or all the books being knocked off the bookshelf. As much as I love nap time, I'd really like her to go to bed before 11 pm.

8. Speaking of her being awake when she should be asleep, about 10:30 last night we're in bed when we hear crazy loud music and crazy loud screaming coming from her room. She'd turned up the volume on her radio, but she'd turned it up as high as possible and was completely freaked out. She was just sitting screaming, her heart was pounding, she was shaking and she was frozen in place, she couldn't move from where she was sitting. I couldn't turn it down fast enough. So we suggested that she not touch the volume controls, that she just let Mommy or Daddy do that. We'll see how long it lasts.

9. And speaking of the radio,a couple days ago I went in to wake her up from her nap, ya know, hoping if I woke her up she'd go to bed at a normal time, and instead of the radio being on The Fish, the Christian music station, it was on the rap/R&B station. Nice. She listens to the radio now because she's ruined all the CDs because she would take them out, put them back in, switch to a new one, put them in upside down. They're all scratched and skipping now.

10. Later this week I'm going to give away a copy of Simple Scrapbooks new special issue,
Quick and Easy Photo Albums, so check back if you're interested.