From Turkey to Goosebumps...

WOW...it's cold! Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, it's Michigan and it's gonna be cold, especially when it's almost December. The only thing that makes the cold air colder is the wind blowing with up to 45 mph gusts. Just not pleasant.

There are officially 7 shopping days until Christen's birthday and 28 shopping days until Christmas. I only have 3 people 'completely' done and a few just started. I'm not too worried though, I'm 27 days ahead of time! Woo hooooo. I just wish that the child-units that I asked for wish lists would get it together and get them to me....not so much for me, but for the family members that keep asking me what they would like. I could tell those family members what "I" think they would like, but then that would take away "my" ideas for what I was planning to get them...nuh-uh, I'm not starting from scratch on that thought process!! Just because I live with them doesn't mean that I know everything that they might want. Heh, this Saturday, while at Wally world, I dropped a big hint bomb to the eldest child-units that I saw a WONDERFUL boxed, 2 disc set of Pride and Prejudice...it was very lovely :) It would be really cool to have an indoor riding arena for Whitney too...I wouldn't have to worry about hunters or her getting spooked by the wind or even have to worry about the weather for that matter....ahhhhh, yes....that would be ideal. Improbable, but ideal.

Today, I pondered hoodies. I, personally love a nice, comfy hooded sweatshirt, but seriously, how often does one actually wear the hood? Is it just a status symbol, an extra accessory or something to keep the back of your neck warm? If one has long hair it turns out to be annoying looking, like a big bulge on your back as if you've turned into a hunchback or something. I usually wait for bad hair days to wear my hoodies that way I know I'll have my hair up in a pony tail so that I won't be mistaken for Quasimoto....he was a redhead in the Disney movie ya know ;) I do have to admit, hoodies look fantastic with leather and/or jackets, I'm not sure why but they just do.

I'm starting to get that ugly feeling in my chest that I had a year ago when I had pneumonia. When I lay down, I start to hear crackling noises in my breathing. I really, REALLY don't want to be that sick again :( I think I may go to the doc and have him take a listen to my lungs. It's weird because last year when I got that sick I had had the flu and bronchitis just before that, but I haven't been sick at all, not even a cold, I just started to cough a bit and then 2 nights ago the crackling started and now, at any given time, I can hear the crackling when I'm up and about. Pray for me!

Well, I must update on the French Horn, it seems now that Christen will be learning both, the trumpet and the French horn. She's doing fantastic with the trumpet and the band teacher thinks she may be ok learning the other too. If she has a problem with doing both, no biggie, she can just wait till she gets into high school to work on the French horn. She's pretty excited about it though, I think she'll do well. She really wants to continue on with her piano lessons too, I think I'm going to try and find her another teacher, we'll see.

Time to go...

Y'all make your lists,
Love Ya :)

Please.....NO MORE TURKEY!!

Honestly, how can two days of family festivities completely turn you off of turkey for another year! I guess it wouldn't be so bad if we hadn't of had two Thanksgiving celebrations this year. I just feel so "turkey'd out" (burp), but I'll have to get over that now won't I...I have a lot of leftover turkey from my ma's. Well kids, I guess it's gonna be turkey casserole for supper tonight! I didn't have to do much of the actual cooking for the meals, I was asked what I wanted to bring and of course, I said 'DESERTS'. I ended up making; 4 loaves of banana bread, 2 pumpkin pies, 1 cherry pie, carrot cake, fruit cocktail salad kind of stuff, and red velvet cake. I think I ate more deserts than turkey! Is that bad? :)

We are now the proud owners of a French Horn, actually, I think Ben thinks HE is the proud owner of a French Horn, heh, well, at least someone will use it. Grandma picked it up quickly from a neighbor lady of hers....the lady didn't even know what it was, she kept calling it a baritone I guess. But hey, a Yamaha French Horn with a nice case for $50...who cares what she calls it, because now, we call it ours!

I think that I'm gonna be going and doing some Christmas shopping today. It'll be a first for me to get some shopping done so early, I mean, it's not even Christmas Eve yet, let alone December! I have a few ideas for family members though that I want to get out of the way before I forget.

I must get going now, I have to take Em to basketball practice....on a Saturday....on a holiday weekend....*sigh*

Y'all start making your shopping lists,
Love Ya :)

Do You Know Brenda?

Another CMU trip is behind us now. Yesterday we went there to see Em in the Honor's Band concert and to bring her and Alex home. The concert was fantastic, it's always amazing to see a group of high school students get together after, probably, never meeting before and with just 7 hours of practice, put on such a wonderful concert! I say 'probably' never meeting before because some of them have actually met before during CMU sumer band camp. The first half of the concert was actually CMU students, they put on 4 different ensembles...a duo, a trio, and 2 quartets. I LOVED the xylephone duo and the trombone trio, the low brass quartet was very good also....but....the saxaphone quartet left me no feeling so happy....they played some contemporary piece called "Four for Tango"...there was a lot of squeaking and squawking by the soprano sax and a lot of tongue/mouthpiece clacking going on with the tenor and altos...*shudder*...it makes me sad to not like it because in general, the music was pretty good until they ruined it with all the extras....sad. The Honor's band played 4 pieces; "Shortcut Home" by Dana Wilson, "The Match of Hope" by Nachman Yariv (highly enjoyable), "March of the Belgian Parachutists" by Pieter Leemans, and "First Suite in Eb" *Chaconne, Intermezzo, March* by Gustav Holst (HIGHLY, highly enjoyable!!) I was very familiar with "March of the Belgian Parachutists" having heard it before, only being Paratroopers instead of Parachutists...our band here has played it a few times. Again, they did incredible!

One thing I forgot to mention was the obsession a section of the CMU band has with "Brenda". As we walked around CMU on Friday, "Do you know Brenda" and "DYKB" was written on the sidewalks EVERYWHERE! (in chalk...no vandelism) It was actually quite amusing and made for a lot of conversation through the day....I guess they even sing Happy Birthday to Brenda. So....Do you know Brenda???

Oh yes....MORE band info....PROUD parental_unit am I! My eldest child_unit informed me that he received the "Rookie of the Year" for the trombone section in the marching band, he told me that it was a very large trophy that he has to hold on to until next year when he passes it on to the next rookie of the year. Yes Ben, I will display it for you proudly for this next year! I was kind of thinking, if it's that big, we could tie it to the roof of the truck and drive around town to show it off, what do ya think, eh? heh.

It snowed here on Saturday night...quite a bit too, which was very surprising! A lot of it has melted now because it's been raining all day, but don't fear, it's going to snow again on Thanksgiving....great...just in time for us to drive up north for dinner with my ma. Never fails!

I must go now, I have a birthday cake to deliver.

Y'all get your cozy boots out, you're gonna need 'em,
Love Ya :)

Whew.......

Ok, so yeah...over 400 cookies later...I DID IT! WHEW...that's a LOT of cookies!! Yes, it is a lot of cookies, but when I was standing there looking at them when I was finished baking, I honestly didn't think it looked like all that many cookies, but then I started to have a panic attack thinking, "is this REALLY enough cookies!?!?!", all in all, I do believe it was more than enough considering that I was told the saxaphone section leader took a tray of them along because they didn't get any. Cool! I shall now tell you what kinds I made, if you don't care...don't read :p.......Monster cookies, peanut butter, snickerdoodles, choc. mint, dark choc. chip w/ white choc. drizzled on top, choc. chip, both kinds of no bakes, and oatmeal butterscotchies. Now I'm sitting here wishing I would have made 'this' kind or 'that' kind..sheesh. I guess I can get to those ones next year. I guess my servitude in life is baking, it makes me happy. :)
***POST NOTE*** In proof reading this, I can't remember if I mentioned in previous blogs that I was making all these cookies for the CMU Marching Band...well, if I didn't, that's why I was baking so much on Thursday...so there you go, now you know...the rest of the story!

I guess Em and Alex are surviving CMU this weekend, we haven't heard anything, so I guess no news is good news? I think Em probably has a good deal of body guards to take care of her there. We'll be leaving to go there after church tomorrow to see her concert at 4 PM. I can't wait, I think she's gonna be in a quartet too!

Speaking of musicality, I do believe that we are now the proud owners of a Yamaha French Horn, I'll give more details on that later on when I know more, but this is incredible!! YAY!

I'm not sure, but I think that I may have finally caught up on sleep. My deprivation started when I got called in to work this past Tuesday when my boss called me at 5:40 AM for the longer shift and then worked it again on Wednesday....Thursday, then, was the incredible day of baking, which meant standing all day and not getting to bed until 12:40 AM or so then waking up at 5:30 AM to drive with the band kids going to the CMU band workshop (I had to take Alex too because he, as I said above, was staying for the weekend too). Yes, I was tired. I went to bed before 10:30 PM last night, didn't wake up until 9:15 AM and then this afternoon I took a 2 hour nap. I actually feel a little refreshed right now. Getting old sucks! It just seems to take so long to refresh after long days. Oh well. *sigh*

The house seems so quiet, I don't think I'm gonna like the empty nest when it comes along. Hopefully by the time Christen and D are graduated, I'll have grandkids...yeah, I know, I just said getting old sucks, and it does, but with age comes blessings too.

Ok, it's not even Thanksgiving yet and they're already playing Christmas songs on the radio!!!!! OYE!!! Unbelieveable...back in the day, it used to be the day after Thanksgiving when you started all the Christmas stuff...sheesh, now before Christmas even gets here, they're probably gonna start hocking Valentine's Day stuff. I wish holidays were more simple like they were when I was a kid, then again, when I was a kid, I probably didn't know just how NOT simple things were. *shrugs* I dunno.

Hmmm, I almost didn't blog today because I didn't think I had anything to say, but it seems that I have rambled on enough to make this a long read...sorry? I think I'm gonna go now and read a book.

Y'all start to make your Christmas lists,
Love Ya :)

Flour...check...Brown Sugar...check...

Everyone loves a good sale, I, personally, love a good sale on baking supplies! I just got back from the grocery store here in town, which I try not to go to for stocking because of how expensive they are! As I was walking around looking for goulash ingrediants, I happened upon the baking isle only to see that just about EVERYTHING was on sale...yes, good thing since I plan to have a baking marathon on Thursday....in other words...WOO HOOOOO!!! When I got home I started to unload the bags and found that the lady put over 2 lbs of bananas ON MY EGGS!!!! Yes, I'm sitting here shaking my head....what kind of idiot would load bananas on top of eggs!?!?! Well, she's lucky, there were no broken eggs in there, I surely would have had to take them back....and anyone that knows me well, knows I would have no problem in complaining to them!!! Again...she's lucky!

I called the medical supply place to find out if Alex's insurance will cover the cost of the face guard that the E.N.T. wants him to wear during basketball season, they still hadn't heard so they, or Sarah the nice receptionist, called to find out what the status was from them, but she called me back and said that "Edna" would be calling her back within the hour to let them know....hmmmm, that was an hour and 20 minutes ago. Keep your fingers crossed! The way it looks now, one of the coaches is urging Alex to wear his father's hockey helmet until we find out and/or get him a face guard of some sort. I think it's a great idea!! I doubt his nose would get hurt with that on :)

Hmmm, I guess my burger is thawed so I guess I'll go and get supper started.

Y'all enjoy the evening,
Love Ya :)

Proud To Be

Today, I've been reflecting on how proud I am as a parental_unit. Last week I went to parent/teacher conferences for the two youngest child_units, their report cards were very, very good. Christen got her first B ever, but, I'm sure she'll bring that back up to her usual A (ummm, yeah, it's in math...sorry Christen, I couldn't pick and choose which genes to pass along, mine were a little dominant there *shrugs* ). D received his first "letter" graded report card (lower elementary usually gives out number grades, blah, blah, blah), he did very well too...5 A's and an A-. Yesterday, Alex and Em's report cards came in the mail...Em has straight A's!!!! (I think she got the math gene from the other parental_unit, not me!)...Alex got 3 A's and 3 A-'s...yes, that is an AWESOME report card too!! (yes, the math gene is a little bit present there too, but has to be worked at). Ahhhh yes, I'm proud! I just wonder what Ben's getting in his classes (he DEFINATELY didn't get the 'good' math gene! Sorry). I guess I'll have to wait to find out what he gets on his after the semester.

I'm so excited to start baking for the holidays and for the pre-holidays. I'll be doing a LOT of baking this week! My plans are Monster cookies, dark chocolate cookies 1/2 dipped in white chocolate, snickerdoodles, choc. chip, sugar, pumpkin whoopie pies, mint choc., no bakes(both choc. and peanut butter) and probably peanut butter cookies. I'll give a report on how that goes sometime after this next weekend.

Speaking of this next weekend, I guess we're going to get a room and stay down by CMU w/ Em for the CMU Honors Band, that'll be cool....BOTH parental_units will be there to see her concert! I'm happy about that and I'm sure she is too. Now, I just have to get ahold of grammy to see if she would like to take the youngest two for a night ( or two ).

Alex's nose still continues to feel well, I just wish he would quit picking at the nose splint. No, I'm sure I wouldn't like having that on my nose either, but hey, I'm not the one who decided to go and play some backyard football!!! He only has to put up with it on there for another 2 weeks, hehehehe. I'm sure he could probably take it off in a week, but, I would also prefer the doc to remove it. We'll see how it goes. He'll probably end up taking it off early and just say that it fell off in the shower...yeah, that's probably how it'll go. Yes, I understand that it's HIS nose, but I'M the one that has to take him to the doc if he messes up!

It's very quiet here right now, D and I are the only 2 home. It usually gets this way once in a while this time of year...basketball and deer season. It just seems funny that Christen is the one that really gets into the whole outdoors hunting/fishing stuff, I guess she'll be easy to shop for for Christmas this year...

I think I may go and bake a cherry pie now.

Y'all start fasting for Thanksgiving!
Love Ya :)

Defeated Once Again

I give up. Being ingnored, laughed at behind my back, and disrespected. I don't like it, it does NOT make me happy. I will, however, continue on as if it were otherwise. Nothing on the subject I say matters anyhow. *sigh* I want to cry, but I refuse.

Alex's nose procedure went very well, post-surgery was the worst time for him with a sore throat from the tube that was inserted so that he could breathe. His nose only bothered him a little and has since then not felt bad at all. Thank God for some blessings! Now let's just hope that insurance will cover the cost of the face guard.

Tonight our youth group is having a fund-raising dinner. It should be yummy, it usually is. This year I have to make 2 different fruit salads. An Apple Waldorf salad and a typical fruit salad. I honestly hate fruit salads this time of the year...#1, the fruit isn't very flavorful this time of year and #2, what fruit there is is horribly expensive! Less than a pound of strawberries was $4.99....rediculous!!! At least they didn't ask me to make the Pea and Peanut salad again....*gag*.... I do like peas....I do like peanuts....HOWEVER....mixed w/ mayo....ummmm, NO! It was my job to make that 2 years ago....yuck...and yes, I tried it!

Our school was closed this past Thursday, there was a case of MRSA...that superbug (staph infection) that's resistant to most antibiotics in later stages. I guess in the cafeteria and kitchen where I work, they cleaned for over 10 hours! I couldn't work because that's the day Alex had his nose job done. whew! I guess there's a lot of schools having the same problem. Some are opting not to close for the cleaning process, I hope it works for them. I wonder why they don't do this for the flu...it's more prevelant and more people die from it each year. 19,000 people die from the MRSA and over 37,000 people die from the flu. Interesting. Makes me want to go and get my flu shot now. I don't really relish in the thought of getting pneumonia ever again in my life, it really sucked enough last year for a lifetime and my case wasn't even as bad as a few of my friends had it.

I guess I need to get going and make those fruit salads.

Y'all put on a smile for me,
Love Ya :

When Darkness Comes Early...

I'm really not enjoying the time change, I rather enjoyed it staying darker a little longer in the morning because it allowed my senses to sleep a little longer and I enjoyed having a little more light during the evening hour. I, personally, think that 5:45 is just too early to be dark out. I don't know, I just feel a little crankier because it feels so much later than it is when it gets dark that early...really bugs me.

So, tomorrow I have to have Alex at the hospital at 8:15 AM so that they can knock him out and straighten his nose. He's not too happy about this concept because he feels his nose is just fine the way it is. The E.N.T. explained to him that it could cause breathing problems later if he doesn't get it taken care of. Either way, he's getting it done. He won't be able to play basketball for a couple of weeks, however, he will be able to condition and shoot baskets and we'll have to get him a face mask to wear during games for a while. Yay :

Well, I just noticed that it's almost time for my parent/teacher conference so I better get off of here and get to the school. I hate to leave right now because the chicken I'm making for supper smells AWESOME!! MMMMMMMMMMM.

Y'all pray for Alex please,
Love Ya :)

Nose Goes....

So yeah, I was baking cookies last night and then realized that I had to stop....the reason....Alex bleeding profusely into his sweatshirt! Earlier in the day he said that he might go and play some football with the guys...dad then told him that it was stupid to play w/out pads and helmets....so he came to his senses and decided to play Madden on his PS2...and then Kyle called.....and Alex went. About an hour later, Alex walked in with his sweatshirt covering his nose...Kyle followed him in...I looked at them from over my cookie baking and said, "Ha, ha, funny joke", he then replied by removing his sweatshirt..."I'm not joking"...yeah....blood...lots of blood. ***Ok, this next little part has a gross out factor...if you don't like to be grossed out...don't keep reading***...he sat down for a minute and I looked at his nose and something was hanging out of it...hmmmmm, paper towel...grip end of hanging thing...start to slowly pull...oh...blood clot...size of a big night crawler...coooooooollllllll.....I think Em actually said she was gonna gag or be sick...hehehehe....so all in all...after being at the emergency room for 2 hrs and 40 minutes...getting his nose flushed out and then getting it pinched closed for a while, we left knowing that his nose is broken. The funny thing is, he's complaining more about the pain that the tetnus shot is causing him...go figure.

It's raining here today, and we're also under a wind advisory until tomorrow at 6 AM. I guess 50 mph wind gusts would be pretty extreme. I just hope that we don't lose electricity like we usually do when it gets that windy. I guess I better pull out some candles just in case.

I worked today...OH MY GOODNESS! I think all those lovely little darlings at school must have eaten EVERY piece of Halloween candy over the weekend that they received and the sugar buzz held on until lunch time today.....WHOAAAAAA....I don't remember it ever being that loud in there...and I have to go back and do it all over again tomorrow...OYE!

I suppose I should stop now and get ready to pick the kids up from school.

Y'all get your ruby slippers out, might need them later,
Love Ya :)

A Good Day for A Whippin'

Wow, the games not even over with yet, but Detroit is giving the Denver Broncos a WHIPPIN'! 44 to NOTHING! Only six minutes left in the 4th quarter...whooo hooo, the Lions are finally getting it together after a run of bad coaching and players. I'm happy. The Tigers did well, too, this year, as well did the Shocks...now let's just hope that the Red Wings can have a fantistic season.

I got to see my eldest child-unit yesterday...that also made me happy! I really don't think he's gonna like coming back home for the summer, he's really enjoying his independance.

Speaking of yesterday, Em had her saxaphone lesson at CMU (hence seeing Ben), she's really enjoying the lessons and thinks that the Professor is great. She did, in fact, make it into CMU honors band, but it was only for Bari. Sax., but that's ok, she's just happy to be going. The director thinks that he's gonna include a quartet for the concert and she'll be in it. He was explaining that they only listen to 25 auditions and choose only 4 Saxaphones (I mean to say that the saxaphone section listens to only 25 auditions, not for the whole band), "Professor N" decided to choose 6 for this year, I do believe it's going to be 4 altos, 1 tenor and Emily on the bari. We don't know yet if Jake made it, I guess we'll have to wait until tomorrow. I really hope he does!

Other band news: Em went to tape her audition for All State Band today in Standish. She said she did ok...not so great on the piece, but her scales went well and her sight reading went well too even though she didn't really know what a couple things were. She said she played it perfectly though and in the right time. *whew*

Well, as I was typing, Denver just made a cheap touchdown...I don't think his toe was really in bounds...but hey, we're good sports, we can give them at least one T.D.

I need to run up to the store...I need to get some pumpkin and make some more pumpkin whoopie pies....I made a batch last night for the carry-in supper after church...brought a few back home and now they're all gone and a child_unit is asking for more, but I guess now I'm really gonna go because Em wants to drive up town...she drove most of the way home from CMU yesterday and did a very good job :) I don't know why she makes her dad so nervous. I think it's just a guy thing about not wanting to give up the steering wheel. Yup, that's got to be it!

Y'all enjoy the time change,
Love Ya :)

Yes, Taxes On Halloween

What a night it was! Not too often is Halloween too nasty for trick-or-treating, it would have been even better if the time change would have happened when it usually takes place (before Halloween that is) so that we would have technically started an hour earlier. We started out around 5:30 pm, at that point it was just starting to drizzle a tiny bit, nothing too uncomfortable. The wind was another story though, we had up to 35 mph wind gusts, so, if it did start to rain, your umbrellas didn't stand a chance! I think we were within 30 min. of being done, and walking at that point, when the wind picked up and brought a nice blanket of rain with it....soggy ghosts running around everywhere. All in all, the kids got enough candy to keep the dentist set on vacations for a while! On the other hand, my Halloween tax was paid in full :) 3 full size snickers bars, 2 full size Take 5 bars, 1 full size Reese's and a lot of other little tidbits that they don't like! Woo Hoooo....shhhhhh, we don't have to mention the diet at this point in time ;)

This weekend is going to be busy! Well, a busy driving weekend anyhow. I have to take Em down to CMU for her saxaphone lesson at noon on Saturday and then on Sunday, I have to take her to Standish to audition for All State Band. We found out yesterday that she did indeed make it to CMU Honors Band, but she'll be playing the baritone sax instead of her alto at the request of her saxaphone professor, not quite sure why, considering she sent her audition in as an alto, but hey, she's happy none the less, we'll find out Saturday exactly why he wants to place her at bari. One of the great things about doing the CMU workshops and Honors band is that they give the kids $50 scholarship to put towards CMU's summer band camp....any money off of that price is AWESOME!

I need to get moving now, we have company coming today and I need to get a few things cleaned up.

Y'all don't forget to brush after all that candy!
Love Ya :)