Thursday, December 10, 2009

A Bird in the House


It's a snow day again! We are on day three of no school and I have to say I think you can have too much of a good thing. I enjoyed the first two days, but today the kids are fighting and I am starting to get cabin fever. I think we will go to McDonald's for lunch, just to break up the day. I am also starting to get nervous about my classroom. We only had fourteen days in December to teach and now I am down to eleven. We have testing and curriculum that needs to be done, not to forget the Christmas gift to the parents that is only half finished. Yikes! Deep breaths!

Okay, on to my story....Last night Andy and I did get out of the house briefly to return some Redbox movies. The main streets were wonderfully cleared off, but the residential streets look terrible, which is probably why we don't have school today. I don't think school buses could make it down the streets to pick up students.

Andy and I walked back into the house around 7:30 last night when Andy grabbed his work boots from the garage and brought them inside. Before we knew what happened a sparrow flew out of the boots flying wildly around our house. Apparently, someone left the garage door open for this poor bird to seek shelter, finding it in Andy's boots. Boy, I now know that birds don't have any sense of smell since it chose those boots!

Now what to do with a bird in the house....quick grab a camera and take pictures! So that's what I did and then went downstairs to download them on the computer while the rest of the family chases the bird out an open door. That was the craziest house guest we've had in a while!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Cookie Making Debacle

These are my favorite Christmas cookies of all times....Spritz cookies. I so love them and they bring back great memories from my childhood. In fact, I have the antique cookie press from my mom and the 1963 Betty Crocker's cooky book that the recipe is found in. I heart these cookies so much that I upgraded to the high tech Pampered Chef cookie press (okay...mine's the ratchet one, not the twist one) to make these little numbers.

But...today was not my day! I could not get the dough the right temperature to come out of the press without it sticking. Ugh! I tried even refrigerating the dough for better success. Finally, after three hours of on again, off again trying, I got one sheet to sit up well. Then I went to bake them and they went from not done to burnt. Oh, I wanted to cry! These cookies are suppose to look light in color and not brown around the edges. Well...I am not in the mood to try anything else. Last year's flop was the regular Christmas sugar cookie. They looked pretty, but tasted terrible. So, I am just going to buy my cookies already made. That will give me 100% success! Sam's Club here I come!

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Days 336-340

Sunday, November 29th - Really....what can I take a picture of today? I try to keep the POTD something different and this one truly is that. Tyler is sucking on a giant lollipop that he bought from Disney World.
Monday, November 30th - Here is Madison's G.S. troop #365. They are a very nice group of girls!
Tuesday, December 1st - We have two advent calendars this year. The one I made, which is posted here and this one that I bought from my daycare provider's daughter who was selling them for German club. Grant wants to eat all the candy now!
Wednesday, December 2nd - We had Souper Santa tonight at church. This is the first year that Grant is willing to approach Santa and isn't scared. Grant said, "I want a red wiggle car for Christmas, please."
Thursday, December 3rd - We did a little Christmas shopping tonight at Target and I purchased these cute winter hand towels both for $3.99. It's the little things that make me happy!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Days 331-335

I have finally made a decision...I will not do 2010 with Project Life, even if it is so darn cute. It's just too demanding to keep up the photo a day challenge and I won't bore you with anymore day by day pictures! :) Thanks for humoring me in '09!
Tuesday, November 24th - I took the boys this year (had the girls last year) to make the traditional pilgrim hats. They looked so sweet with their hats on!
Wednesday, November 25th - This was a teacher work day and my sister, Jill, and her boys did not have school, so they came a day early and spent the night. Jill was nice enough to take my two youngest with her to Schuyler a day ahead, so Tyler, Andy and I could catch a movie. We saw the movie 2012 and I wouldn't recommend it. It would be good enough to rent via Redbox, but that's about all.
Thursday, November 26th - Happy Thanksgiving Day! We went to Schuyler this year for the turkey day festivities. There were ten of us in all for dinner. It was delicious and best of all...I didn't have to cook a thing!
Friday, November 27th - We (Tyler, Andy and I) stood in line at 10 pm for opening Black Friday sales at Toys R Us. They opened the doors at midnight (slightly a little after) due to the police needing to help with crowd control. Tyler did get his iPod Touch he wanted, so I guess it was worth it. What an experience to say the least! Wow! Tyler used his birthday money and we paid for the other half, so this was Tyler's birthday present this year.
Saturday, November 28th - We had incredible weather this weekend! I believe we had record breaking highs, so there's no excuse not to decorate the house this year. Here the guys are getting the lights to hang on the trim of the front of our house.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

My new love...minty and tingly!

Last week while waiting for my inhaler refills, I did some looking around in the health and wellness section of Hy-Vee and found this....
I love lip balm, so for $2.36 I thought it was a steal of a deal and bought some. Doesn't it look festive? I even think the name is clever too. I quickly drove off and applied this new lip gloss and WOW! It was not only a minty smell, but gave my lips a new tingly sensation. I believe this now is my favorite lip balm. It use to be C.O. Bigelow's Mentha Lip Shine from Bath and Body Works, but now that's a close second.

Since I just love the new Bah Hum Zum lip balm so well, I decided to give this a try....
It's has the same Peppermint flavor as the lip balm, but in a soap version. This is not only a very cute soap that doubles as a tree ornament, but it's an all over body wash. I thought the lip balm was good, but this leaves all of your body parts minty and tingly....all of your body parts. I won't go into details about this experience, however, I'd recommend it to anyone. Really...who doesn't want to have an all over minty fresh feeling? If you don't have a Hy-Vee near by, visit their website. It's very cute and they have a great sense of humor too. Go to www.indigowild.com and sign up for their mailing. That gave me a good laugh in itself.

And Santa, if you are reading this, please bring me some more Zum products! I've been very good this year!

Days 326-330

Thursday, November 19th - Madison's Brownie Troop went to an UNL Girls Gymnastics event for a couple hours. It was a free event and a great experience for the girls to watch.
Friday, November 20th - Madison is at Emmie's 9th Birthday party, which is also a sleepover. Bless Emmie's mom, Missy, for hosting a large group of girls for an overnighter! Missy is one incredible mom!
Saturday, November 21st - Our nephew Xander turned one today! Yay! Here he is enjoying his first birthday cake.
Sunday, November 22nd - My co-worker, Sherri, treated me to the New Moon movie at East Park Theatres today. It was great and I am looking forward to seeing it again. I took this photo while sitting in front of my computer. I wasn't quite sure how else to get my POTD.
Monday, November 23rd - We have a teenager at our house! YIKES! We had a surprise birthday party for Tyler and a few of his friends at our home. We ordered Cici's Pizza and served Tyler's favorite...pumpkin pie.