Sunday, December 28, 2008
December 22 & 23rd
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Christmas Baking & Other Fun
But first.... one of the fun things about living in a community like Friendswood that still thinks and acts like it's a small community, is the Friendswood Fire Department comes around each year with a ladder truck and Santa on top throwing candy. You can usually hear them long before you can see them as they are sounding their sirens throughout their trip around to all the streets in Friendswood! It's fun. They loudly make their way down the street and Santa tosses the kids candy. I will say that this year, I think the driver was thinking he was speed racer (or he really wanted to get home) because they were flying down the street. So fast - I could hardly even take pictures. I managed to get two... but they aren't great pictures!
After the firetruck fun, I pulled out our favorite cookie recipes, got all the ingredients from the store or pantry and we tackled the kitchen! This was probably the first time Stephen really was serious about helping this year. He did very well! He pretty much made the monster cookies all by himself. Rachel made the Sandtarts. The kids were into it for the first couple of recipes, after that... well, let's just say the ADD caught up with them. I think I lost them on the repetitive 8 - 10 minutes between each batch. They moved on to more "fun" things to fill in the time and Mom got to finish much of the baking. But, it was fun while it lasted.
What was on the Baking Agenda you ask? Well, even if you didn't ask, I'm going to tell you because they were so yummy!!
The cookie list was:
SandTarts - little balls of powdered sugar w/nuts goodness. These are my Mom's favorite cookies! We have had them around the house at Christmas time for as long as I can remember.
Toffee Snickerdoodles - one of my favorites cause I love the toffee and I love soft yummy snickerdoodles. The kids like them too.
Monster Cookies - I made this one a couple of years ago and I made a note that it was good. The kids like it. I don't think it's one of my favorites. It has oatmeal, M&M's, Peanut butter, chocolate chips.
The savory treat list was:
Roasted Pecans - another family tradition that Mom made most every year. These are addicting!
Cheese Wafers - LOVE these .... REALLY... make the logs ahead of time and refrigerate or freeze. Then slicke and bake them when you want them because they are really good fresh and warm. You'll be lucky IF THEY EVEN MAKE IT OFF THE COOKIE SHEET!! Which, it turns out, they did not around my family! Literally..... If you weren't standing in the kitchen when they came out of the oven, you were likely not to get ONE... seriously! It was quite humorous!!
Paprika Cheese Roll - When I was a child, my Dad used to make this cheese treat periodically and I loved it. It's really simple but it tastes so good on crackers. We haven't had this in a very long time - probably at least 15 years that I can recall. I decided it was about time to make this to enjoy again. The recipe made two balls or logs and both were gone by the time the family left! It was yummy!
That was our baking extravaganza for the weekend before Christmas..... check out all the fun pictures!
More to come......
Oh - I can't figure out how to post the video so until then, you'll have to wait to hear the 6th grade band concert. I'm sure you were missing that one..... :-)
Friday, December 26, 2008
Leading up to Christmas.....
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Merry Christmas!
It's been a wonderful few days around our house. Various family members have visited and we have many new memories! I hope to get to pictures and journalling about the fun over the next few days!
Merry Christmas to all!
Monday, December 22, 2008
December 22nd!! Only 3 days left!!!
It's Monday --- I don't have to work... YIPPEE!!! John doesn't have to Teach!! YIPPEE! We have a few last minute things to pull together - well, John more than some of us! But, most of our wrapping is done and it's time to just enjoy this season.
We baked over the weekend - the kids and I. I'll post pictures afterwhile. Was fun and now we have lots of yummy treats for the week and our visitors. Monster cookies, Sand Tarts, Toffee Snickerdoodles, Roasted Pecans, Cheese Wafers and my Dad's famous, Paprika Cheese Roll!! Aren't you hungry now?
John and Rene froze their tooshies off up in Dallas Saturday night at the game. John said it was the coldest he's ever been with the wind. Unfortunately, Dallas didn't win the game so the last game at Texas Stadium didn't go out with a win. I'm so glad I wasn't there.
Our visitors begin showing up today and we're ready for them. All of us and the house!! My Mom and Dad are coming in later this afternoon. Laila and Justin are coming in late tonight and we'll see them tomorrow as well as Ariane and her beau, Stephen, tomorrow afternoon/evening. My sister Perry will then join us on Christmas Eve.
We will miss Stacey terribly and are sad she won't be able to join us this year, but she'll be delivering all those Christmas Eve & Christmas Day babies up at the hospital!! Are you wearing a christmas decoration for these deliveries??? Do you all have little Santa Hats to put on this precious little ones? Remember... when Rachel was born on Halloween, they nurse put a little halloween hat on her. It was so cute
More to come..... Merry Christmas!
Friday, December 19, 2008
It's FREEDOM FRIDAY!!
FREE from school work.....
FREE from homework......
FREE from teaching......
FREE from driving downtown .....
FREE from Scouts....
FREE from soccer....
Just FREE ... FREE... FREE....YIPPEE!! YIPPEE!! YIPPEE!!
Ok... perhaps it's for only two weeks, but oh it feels SOOOOO good!! We get to have some fun and relaxation for awhile. We all really need it!! We're pretty tired around here!
John and his friend Renee went up to Dallas today to make sure they are at Texas Stadium bright and early for tailgating activities for the last Dallas Cowboy game at Texas Stadium Saturday night against Baltimore. This was on John's wishlist for Christmas so with the wish fulfilled, he's off on his adventure! He'll really enjoy this and let's all say a prayer that Dallas pulls out a win tomorrow.
That leaves the kiddos and me here this weekend all alone! LOL... We're starting baking projects tomorrow to ensure we have all our favorite cookies and snacks, we have gifts to wrap and a few projects to finish. Plus... cleaning up for our expected guests to begin visiting on Monday!
Have a GREAT FREEDOM FRIDAY!!
MA
Thursday, December 18, 2008
On Dasher, On Donner to the Doctor we go.....
Let's cover Rachel first because it's the most interesting of the bunch. She had a MRI on Monday afternoon (in the middle of the day) on her right scapula and thoracic (sp?) area. It's early and I'm too tired and lazy to look up the spelling of that word. Anyway.... our follow up with her doctor was Weds. morning at 10:30 am which, Thank the Lord, was not a 2 hour ordeal like some of our other appointments with him. He informed us that that MRI showed everything was normal. Hmmm.... she has a healthy rt shoulder, healthy rt shoulder blade. Now... he's thinking that this pain she is suffering on her right lower shoulder blade is probably nerve related and may be stemming from a neck issue or something we haven't quite found yet. So... off we go to another MRI for a CSpine mri and then to the neurologist for an EMG/Nerve Conduction test (like I had) on her neck/back shoulder area to try to pin down the nerve that's causing the problem. He told us he'd like to have this done prior to Christmas! LOL... ok, let's just see if the other doctors/clinics can accommodate that request.
We were VERY lucky that the MRI clinic had a cancellation last night so we got Rachel over there for a 7:00 pm appointment. These people have to make a fortune - they are open every night until 11:00 pm!! AND they are booked solid and even on the weekends. Craziness. Typically takes us a week or so to get in there to the one that our doctor likes to use.
With the MRI done (no.. we don't know the results), the earliest we could get the EMG scheduled for was next Tuesday (12/23) morning. She's going to the same neurologist I see for my neck issues.
Again - a wait and see process. He mentioned nerve blocks at some point in the future when we finally determine what is causing the pain.
He hasn't put her on any restrictions or anything yet, which is good. High School Soccer season is just starting and she's playing goalkeeper and a field position so she's not interested in sitting on the bench. She wants to be crazy and let people kick a ball at her all season long. Hopefully, nothing he finds will prevent her from playing, but I suppose it's a possibility.
As for me... nothing terribly new. PT three times a week and I think maybe this week I'm seeing a little bit of results as my right arm/hand are not quite as numb/tingly as it has been, but it's only marginal really. It seems the traction apparatus at PT office seems to work the best for relief so my insurance has approved a home kit which I'm supposed to see sometime this week. Not sure what this will look like - guess I'll be hanging from a door!! :-) LOL... can't wait for a picture of that one. Geez.......
Have two big proposals at work to present/finish this week and then the Christmas break really begins for me! I CANNOT WAIT!!!!! And chanting it over and over is the only thing getting me through this week. The kids are excited as they get out of school half day tomorrow, John's excited as he gets out half day tomorrow as well AND goes to Dallas for the Cowboy Game on Saturday and I'm excited because the kids and I are going to be doing Christmasy things this weekend!! It's been a stressful couple of months. It'll be nice to have a rest!
Have a great Thursday!
MA
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Things don't always go as planned in our world.....
Aw Darn... Friendswood Lost .....
We made our way to Aggieland yesterday for a very onesided game in which our beloved Friendswood Mustangs were playing against the Lake Travis Cavaliers. A little background on the matchup is in order. First, Friendswood rarely ever gets out of our district for playoffs. We have several other division rivals with larger and faster players normally that typically wipe our white boys out. However, this year, we have a great quarterback and several very good receivers and a good overall team. It appears in High School football, clearly, if you can score more than the opponent (i.e. your offense is better than theirs), then defense is kind of secondary. Anyway... so we had a good offense this year. The other interesting thing is football games, whether a winning season or not, is a community event here in Friendswood. You go to the games whether you have high school students or not. Alumni attend and alumni parents bring their little children from the time they are small so they grow up going to the games on Friday nights. The epitome of Texas High School Football. With this in mind, it was amazing to see the entire side of the Aggie stadium filled with Friendswood supporters all in blue. Literally, from corner to corner was filled. We don't have that many people in the high school and I know for certain there were folks there who have no one in high school as their youngest were in the elementary!! Tailgating and everything..
The Friendswood Quarterback has committed to Texas Tech (there ya go Stacey) to play. He's good.
However...... Lake Travis and their QB were better!! Their Quarterback is just awesome and a big guy!! Lake Travis is considered the #1 - 4A Team in Texas and they won last year's State Championship as well. They have beaten every team they have played this year by typically large margins and high points. The game last week in the playoffs they beat Kileen 71 - 9! So.... beating Friendswood 56 - 22 was nothing!! (Oh and our last touchdown was against their 2nd and 3rd string team in the 4th quarter with our 1st string, so it was worse than it looks). NOW, here is the GOOD NEWS!! The Quarterback at Lake Travis, Garrett Gilbert, is the number one recruit in the country and he committed to .....................wait for it..........................
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS!!!! GO HORNS!!!!
YAY Horns, we should have a really good QB coming in behind Colt McCoy when after his last year.
The other REALLY good news.... we don't have to travel to another football game next week and actually get to experience a little Christmas instead of football!!! hee hee hee!!!
Later... we're still working on decorating the tree around here!!!
MA
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Let it Snow! Let it Snow!
Monday, December 8, 2008
Just livin life....
School is back in the swing after the Thanksgiving break with homework, tests and quizzes. Work is slowing down a little and I'm looking forward to my vacation starting the 19th!
High School Football is still going for us ..... Friendswood is STILL in the playoffs. Friendswood played Beaumont Central on Saturday evening and won again. Next game - Saturday, 12/13 in Bryan/College Station playing on the Aggie Field - Kyle Field at 2:00 pm against Lake Travis which I hear is ranked the #1 4A team in the State. They beat their most recent opponent 71 - 9 or something silly like that and their quarterback is going to UT (Our QBack is going to Tech). We'll see how Friendswood handles this!! Logistically, we're trying to figure out how we're going to swing this. Stephen has a Boy Scout service project this weekend helping distribute 10,000 wreaths on graves as a part of the Wreath's Across America project at the Veteran's Cemetery in Houston on Saturday morning/early afternoon.
Rachel had a follow up appointment with the Orthopedic today and will have to have another MRI next Monday (or earlier if a spot opens). I really hate it when I'm right ... and I was again. When they originally did her MRI, I asked the technician if he was going to be looking at her right scapula as well as the bilateral shoulders. He told me at that time that he wasn't - that the doctor didn't order it. I thought it was strange given that's where her pain was and really felt they should have done it at that time. However, the doctor had mentioned that sometimes an injury in the shoulder might cause the pain to be in the scapula. Who am I to know? I'm not the doctor (although that doesn't stop me from asking all the questions.) Well.... guess what??? Today at the doctor's Rachel explained there hasn't been any improvement since we were there last and when he gave her cortisone shots. So, he started to explain the next step would be to go into her shoulder with a scope to see what they could see. At that point, I felt it necessary to mention to him they did not perform a MRI of her scapula where the pain is and he thought they had. He reviewed the document again and it didn't specifically state they had so .... back we go for specific pictures of the right scapula!! He mentioned they wouldn't scope that area because it could make it worse. If nothing shows up on the MRI, the next step will be to see a pain guy to put in some nerve blocks to try to determine where the pain may be originating. Stay tuned!!
Tonight (after the doctor's appointment) we went and got our Christmas trees! We decided to go for live trees this year after our fake one died last year. I love the smell of real trees but in the past haven't bought them because Rachel was allergic to the one we bought a long time ago. I'm hoping she's grown out of it but I've got some Claritin on hand in case she hasn't!! :-) I'll post pictures at some point.
Did you notice I said "trees"! I bought two beautiful Noble Firs. One a lot taller than the other! A big one for our main tree in the family room and another smaller one for my fun Texas Tree in the study! I'll probably start putting the lights on the trees tomorrow and hopefully, Weds night we'll decorate the trees!
Thursday, Rachel and I are going to see Beth Moore at her Convergence Event with CeCe Winans and Travis Cottrell!! I'm very excited because I LOVE her messages!! I think Rachel will enjoy her as well!
For those of you who know.... John survived yesterday's defeat of the Cowboys! He didn't speak for a couple of hours and basically, went to sleep, but today's a new day and next Sunday is another game! We're praying for a win!
Later,
MA
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Finally getting to Thanksgiving... :-)
This is just a sampling of our experience this fine Thanksgiving Day! At least we got some turkey!! Hee hee hee
We had a fabulous time and I think Perry did as well. The Cowboys won which we were all thankful for on Thanksgiving as it means another day with a Happy Cowboy Fan!!
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Backing Up ...... Weds. 11/26
The Dallas Cowboy Pro Shop!!! (bet you never guessed)
HAPPY THANKSGIVING WEEK!!!
Happy Thanksgiving to all of my family and friends!! My sister Stacey has a really cool blog entry about what she is thankful for this Thanksgiving season!! I'm copying.... sort of. I don't think I could go through my list of what I'm thankful for this year without taking up two days for anyone to read it. So......
The shortened version:
- I'm thankful for God's grace and guidance in our lives.
- I'm thankful for my incredibly handsome, generous, loving, strong, patient, cookin', drivin, cleanin', building gardens, cleaning garages, chauffering children, teaching, praying, Dallas Cowboy loving husband John!
- I'm thankful for my beautiful, smart, sweet, sour cream loving, flute playing, cellphone addicted, cute as a button, driving wannabe, crazy goalie, attitude inflicted, God loving, fifteen year old teenager - Rachel!
- I'm thankful for my handsome, smart, very creative, quite talkative, baseball loving, scout tenderfoot, electronics oriented, Madden playing, Honeybun loving, "How It's Made" addicted, God loving eleven year old - Stephen!
- I'm thankful for Ariane, Laila & Justin for allowing us to become a part of their family and welcoming us so warmly this year!
- I'm thankful for my Mom & Dad, and my sisters - Perry & Stacey for all their love and support in good times and shaky ones.
- I'm thankful for my crazy nieces and nephews - Macie, Holley, Scott and Allie!! They are so stinkin' cute and smart too!!!
- I'm thankful for a wonderful long career at the Bank that provides so well for my family financially, is such a stable place that I never feel the need to worry about the safety of my job, and provides job responsibilities that keep me interested and challenged and allow me to enjoy my work and my colleagues!
- I'm thankful that John has found a school where his teaching skills are valued!
- I'm thankful for our friends that God has blessed us with!! They love and care for our family in so many ways!!
God has blessed us richly!! Thanks be to Him!
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Dallas Cowboys vs. San Francisco 49ers - 11-23-08
Dallas Trip - Saturday!
After receiving last minute tickets to the Dallas game against San Francisco on Sunday, John and I headed up to Dallas on Saturday! We were so lucky that Laila & Justin were available to spend some time with us old folks for dinner that evening. We ate at a restaurant that we all enjoy quite a bit - The Keg. Nice wine list, great prime rib!
We were able to spend some time catching up with Laila & Justin and hearing about all that's going on with them. Married life seems to be treating them well!! Laila's in the final throws of the semester at UTA so we're saying a prayer for her to get through all the papers, studying and finals with a positive outcome and enough sleep!! :-) We'll be back up to see them on Tuesday in Dallas to invade their house!! They've so graciously offered for us to stay with them while we are up there for Thanksgiving. They, however, will be leaving on Weds. to go visit family in Tennessee but we're happy to be able to hang out with them on Tuesday!
See you soon!!
Sunday, November 23, 2008
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Friday, November 21, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
DALLAS WINS!!!
Saturday, November 15, 2008
2008 Nutcracker Market
If you are a sponsor or purchase tickets to the fashion shows, you are lucky and get entry to the market a full hours before the regular public entry which is a lifesaver! You can get in and get what you need (if you have something in mind) and not have to fight the crowds. I'm not much of a crowd person and rarely is there something I want badly enough to fight my way through people and stand in long lines. I tend to have something in mind I want and go straight for it at 9 am! This year I had a mission! I have one wall in my dining room that needed some larger pieces to help fill it up. There is a vendor that is at the market every year - Paul Michael - that typically has neat wall iron pieces that aren't too expensive. They are in the very, very back of the market every year which is where I went first thing! I got the pieces I wanted by 9:15 am and then just got to browse through the rest of it!!!