Last day of the year

It's hard to believe this picture was taken only 4-1/2 months ago. It's amazing to me how fast the years are flying by. I am glad the kids are the only ones aging.
We have a New Years Eve party to go to. Everyone is taking their children, but , we are not. It's not a very big house and we were told to bring the kids winter gear so they can play outside. Well, Ryan can't be out in the cold running for hours, or he'll start to wheeze like crazy, plus with a bunch of obnoxious boys like mine, only trouble can happen. So our kids won't get blamed if anything gets broken or anyone gets hurt. and the funny thing, it was their choice to go to Mimi & Papa's house for the night. Smart kids. Although, Ryan was NOT thrilled about staying all night. It is also a BYOB ( mine will be water) and a snack to pass. So I was in a funky snack making mood... so I made , peanut butter brownies, pumpkin mini muffins, pecan bars and no bake choc cookies and at the moment, I have chex mix in the oven oh, and I also made Howlin horseradish dip for pretzels. I know, I made too much, but I cut up everything and put it on a tray for the party, and a tray for Mimi & Papa's. We are also under a winter storm warning from 7pm this evening until 7pm tomorrow evening.

On a sad note, Vicki Hall passed away the day after Christmas, She is Bradley's Principal's sister, Bradley was really upset because she substituted in his computer class every Friday, he said she was so nice, he just loved her! And also Steve Kiss who lives down the road has been battling cancer for a short time, has had his visit from his priest yesterday and slipped into a coma today. He has told his kids he's ready to reunite with Sally his wife who passed away years ago. I feel for all of them, I know what they are going through, it's just a matter of time, Very sad....

It's been an interesting year, lots of challenges came our way , so hopefully this year will be better. Happy New Year to everyone!!

Winter

Ryan's
Bradley's


Wow, can you believe I've blogged more in 2007 than I did in 2006... and I've been doing this for almost 3 years.. time sure does fly!!

Winter has been attempting to show up here, we get some cold and then some snow, nothing really significant for this area, but some. We got some starting Friday afternoon and it snowed pretty good for a few hours, it was the good packing snow, so the kids... and I went out and built snowmen. I went out yesterday morning and took pictures of them. Ryan's seems to have lost an eye and is leaning a little, but he doesn't mind. We had "snow" much fun. It's supposed to snow a little more the next few days and then later in the week be 40 and rain. We need some more snow so we can go play some more. We like to snowmobile out to a really cool sledding hill out in the woods, and the Johnson kids got new sleds for Christmas, so they're ready!! I'd also like to take the kids ice skating in South Haven at their outdoor skating rink. It's $3 for skates and $3 for all day skating. We could go early, then stop to eat lunch at Clementines and then go back out to skate ( they give you a wrist band so you can leave and come back) . I haven't been on ice skates in years!!!

More photos

The boys in front of Aunt Debbies tree
The Arnett party in our basement, left to right, Curt,Aunt Kathy,Linda,Aunt Margaret,Uncle Jerry, Kenny, then in front is Debbie and Bradley

Doug playing with Bradley's Guitar Hero Christmas Day
Bradley putting his BP station together.

pictures

Ryan the day of his Christmas program
Bradley.. the one with the tie and his clarinet at his band concert
Our tree and lack of gifts with Shadow checking it out
The boys opening thier gifts from Santa
Uncle Terry and Izzy (Isabelle)

Merry Christmas

Well, another Christmas has come and gone, According to the kids it was the best Christmas ever, I'd have to agree it was good. Christmas Eve we had the Arnett's over here. It was great, Uncle Jerry looks WONDERFUL!!! We are lucky he's still with us!! Marye my second cousin ( Uncle Jerry's granddaughter) was here with her 2-1/2 month old son named Ben ( My mom would be happy, she loved that name!!) So Uncle Jerry got a four generation picture and then he took pictures of each individual family and then a couple of group photos, We are blessed we could all be together, the only ones that couldn't be with us were my other cousin ( uncle Jerry's son) Allen and my sister. When Uncle Jerry got us all in position for our group picture, he said, "Now that I've got all of you together and a captive audience, I want to thank you ALL for being there for me when I was in the hospital and on my side" That was about all he could get out, he got pretty chocked up, as did most of us. I think it made us all a little closer, We all had a great time.
On to Christmas Day, this was our first Christmas morning ever where we didn't have to be on a schedule, nobody was coming over and we didn't have to go anywhere. The kids went downstairs to see if Santa had been there and sure enough, he had and he ate all his cookies and drank all his milk. They both looked a little bummed, The tree is usually packed with gifts under and around it, and this year there wasn't as much, it was a lean year, but they still got all the things they wanted the most, and like I said before, they said it was the best Christmas ever. We did go to Brighton over the weekend for the Bale Christmas, but it was only Mimi & Papa and Aunt Debbie & Uncle Terry, Andrea, "big" Ryan and Izzy the new baby, We did that Christmas in shifts.... On the way home we left early to get home and get groceries before the big storm was to hit. which was snow and high winds. It did get more nasty as the day went on, but it calmed down on Monday, we did have a white Christmas.
I guess that about sums it up.

Christmas music

This morning I had the joy of going to watch my cute little second grader sing at the Christmas program, it was great!! They all look so cute!! I missed the older kids because I was at work and didn't want to miss too much work. Then after work, we had the Band/Choir concert, they aren't "cute" but those 6th graders have really grown up, almost sad. The concert was in the gym at the high school, not enough room in the Auditorium. I sat there listening to them and I #1 thought, wow, I really liked being in band, it's not something every single person in the world knows how to do, and #2 thought about playing with the band for the last time at my graduation and #3 in 6-1/2 years that will be Bradley playing with the band for the last time at his graduation. Boy time flies. I was VERY proud of my boys today, it was their day to shine, and the did it beautifully!! Way to go boys!!

The weather outside if frieghtful....

Why I'm not sitting downstairs in front of the fireplace I don't know... Well okay, I do know. We got a good 5-7 inches of snow within the last 24 hours, it's still snowing and blowing, but not too bad, most of it occurred over night. Doug had fireman training this morning and it was drivers training. In order to drive the truck, you have to #1 know how to drive the big huge heavy truck.... #2 know how to run the pump aka. get the water running for a fire.. Doug generally drives the truck, which I prefer because that way he's not actually IN the fire. ( He's had some horror stories that upset me, usually months after the fact) Anyway, Doug did donuts in the parking lot at the school today with Engine 17 ( the newest 6 man truck) He was pretty excited. Anyway , he proved he can handle the truck in any weather and how to operate, he was then there to train other firefighters.

Today I have done ( thus far ) 5 loads of laundry and 3 batches of Christmas cookies. I have many more batches to go. The boys have really gotten into helping me. Bradley can help with the more complicated tasks this year, so that's been great!! I want the boys to have a great memory of Christmas this year , and it wont' be from "how much" they got at least in the way of gifts, but " how much" they got from the whole meaning of the season and the bonding family time with me and Doug. Mom never had us help with cookies much , we'd do it wrong.. I decided, my cookies may not look "perfect" but they are perfect because the boys helped. How did I ever pick up this tradition?? Anyway , this is why I haven't' sat in front of the fire, too many things to get done in the next week. I did get the boys room cleaned yesterday, I told them they had to keep them that way for the next week, Ryan then asked if after a week they could make them all messy again.... he's always thinking.. We are having Christmas Eve with the Arnett's at our house this year so that's why the house has to be extra clean and ready. We will also be gone next Saturday and Sunday, we are going to see our new great niece and her parents and grandparents. ;-) We can't get there on Christmas day because 6 hours in the car and ripping your kids away from their new stuff doesn't sound like fun. Doug has to work Monday until 2:30 and then Wednesday all day, his family was very understanding, especially his brother, whom is usually the one to get upset when we don't' follow what everyone else is doing. So it will be a beautiful quiet Christmas at our house, just as I remember. I still have some shopping to get done this week too.

On that note, I need to check my laundry, start supper and start ironing for work. I think I am done with cookies for tonight, I will do another batch or two tomorrow after work.

Christmas Party

I had my work Christmas party yesterday. We went to Clemintines in South Haven. We always have so much fun. We all showerd the Dr. with lots of gifts, he was surprised he got so many things. We all usually go in on something, but this year, we all seemed to give him something extra from each of us. We also got Sally a gift from all of us and she was in on our gift exchange. I had Nancy's name this year, I got her a really nice George Foreman grill. She lost her's in the divorce and she loved to use it, and Lucas knows how to cook chicken on it when he's home on breaks. I found one for 1/2 price at Kohls the day after Thanksgiving, so I spent our $30 price limit ( plus tax) and got her double the gift, she was pretty happy. JoAnn had my name, I got a set of soft cozy jammies and some warm fuzzy socks that match and a bottle of shimmering body lotion in the Love Spell scent from Victoria's Secret that I love so much! She said she wasn't going to get me a gift card because I would spend it on my kids and she also told me not to return the gifts to buy for my kids either. She knows how I am , Funny when I told Kenny about that, he said, "She knows you well" I wore the jammies and socks last night, Ryan kept hugging and cuddling with me because I was so soft he said. Also from the Dr. we all got a $50 gift card to the Boatwerks resturanute in Holland and then we played a game and I won a $15 gift cert. to the Butler. These are also great gifts since Doug and I love to go out to eat , but we never do because we can't afford it. What a great day we had!! I have to say I have the best job with the best people ever!!!

I rolled all my change last night that I've been saving in a jar and my piggy banks for Christmas money. I was pleasantly surprised when I opened on piggy bank and I had stuffed actually bills in it. I had $38 just in paper money. I knew I had put lots of $1 bills in the jar, but I shoved a $10 a couple of $5's and a bunch of $1's in the piggy bank too. When I get change from shopping, I dump it in my purse, eventually I scoop it out of the bottom and then dump it in the jar or piggy banks, I do this for a year and then at Christmas time I roll it and have money. My jar had over $250 in it, and the piggy banks had $130 , which is good, the main thing Ryan wants the most is $130, Bradley's main thing I've had since September. So I will feel a little better about thier lean Christmas.
I've cleaned out and organized my baking cupboard and made my shopping list so I can get my cookies done in the next week. I am really going to have to get some going by tomorrow. I stared wondering how my mom ever got this stuff done when we were kids, but then I remembered she didn't work when we were the age of my kids... Oh well, we'll get it done, maybe not 15 different kinds, but some. Ryan is excited about helping too....

On the weather front, we have a storm warning starting tonight thru tomorrow morning. Bring it on, we haven't had much snow yet.

We've been elfed!!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1372981207

Better

Doug is feeling better, and since I last posted, Bradley is feeling better. Tuesdsay night, I took a vicodin, because my tooth was hurting and we all went to bed by 9 pm. I had a hard time falling asleep, I tossed and turned, Bradley asked for a tums before he went to bed... around 11pm, I saw the bathroom light go on, and heard a wierd noise, so I woke Doug up and said I think one of the boys is sick.... Thankfully Bradley made it just inside the bathroom door so I didn't have clean the carpet. He threw up a couple more times. He stayed home from school yesterday and today. Doug and I argued who was going to stay with Bradley yesterday, Doug gets paid to stay home, I don't .. he was only able to stay until around noon, so then his Mom came over and sat with Bradley the rest of the day. He ate a little and rested. Today he stayed home alone and I went to work in the morning ( I'm usually home on Thursday's but I begged for some extra hours for Christmas money) . Hopefully I can work next Thursday for awhile too.

More on today

The ride to Holland this morning was only a little spooky in spots, overall , not too bad, it is still pouring down rain and 35 degrees....

What Dr. Howard found in my tooth today.... it was full of.... we'll call it "infection" cuz I don't like the actually word for it, to yucky!! He medicated it, and I don't think he's too confident we'll be able to save the tooth due to the recurrent infection, it does okay while I'm on an antibiotic but then when I'm off for a few days it blows up. Hopefully after today draining it and the antibiotic, it'll clear up....

And just on a "mean" note... Doug STILL doesn't feel very good. He told a friend of ours he won't drink that much again, for a looooooooooong time. This is seriously the most he's ever drank since before we got married... Now we know why ;-)

Winter mix

On the news this morning, Terri DeBoer just said it was the most dangerous commute of the year so far. We've gotten a wintery mix. Mady walked over this morning to catch the bus and said it was really slippery out. Yes, we have school. Of course it would be nasty, I have an appointment in Holland this morning with the Root Canal specialist.....

Last night on the news, Craig James said it looked like we may have a green Christmas... I'm a little worried about what January will bring.

Bradley went to school today, he is feeling better. Doug was finally feeling better this morning too, for the most part. Me... well I know my tooth is going to hurt later, so I'm really not looking forward to it. I had the original root canal done about 19 years ago. I tend to clench and grind my teeth really bad and I had some really big fillings put in my teeth when I was a kid, because I didn't know enough to brush and floss really well.... I feel bad for all the dental bills my parents had from me..... My boss still thinks Dr. Howard will find a fracture in the tooth, so we'll see what he finds today while he's in there. I can't get nitrous oxide while I'm there either because it's an extra $50 and I just don't have it.

On that note, I'd better get ready so I can leave early due to the weather.

2 days after

2 days after the birthday bash, and Doug STILL doesn't feel good. I had to laugh, I asked him what hurt... he said his Pride... oh and his head and stomach, I guess once your 40 it takes a lot longer to recover.

On a non self inflicted note, Bradley is home today. He's got a nasty cold and a low fever, so he's home today. I gave him medicine before I left for work and now I am home for lunch and medicated him again, and brought him lunch from subway, he said that sounded good, so that's a good sign.. He can nap this afternoon. Ryan is such a good little brother when they are home and Bradley doens't feel good. He actually takes care of him. He will play quietly so Bradley can rest too. This is the first time he's stayed home alone all day when home from school. He's parked out on the couch. I'm lucky he's such a good kid.....

I also just got a call from the school re: Ryan.. he got hit in the face with a snowball... he didn't throw one though, so that's good, but it's a huge no-no. The kid that did it is one of his good friends, so when it happened and Ryan started to bleed the kid freaked and told on himself. The other kid is a really good kid, I wasn't upset, things happen.

Doug's birthday

Doug had a great birthday, He's not having such a great day after his birthday. He slept in the chair in the basement all night ( this is where I send him if he feels like he's going to throw up, just because he doesn't feel well, doesn't mean the rest of need to listen to him...) It was totally self inflicted, I have NO sympathy!! We got home about 1am, actually Doug and the kids were home just before that, but Denise and I had to take another person home that drank too much.. Denise drove her and her vehicle home and I followed to give Denise a ride back to the party, so she could take her family home. We are trying to figure out why we're always the designated drivers.. but it's an important job. Doug came upstairs and crawled into bed around 9:30am and then slept until noon. Bradley got up about 11:15/30 and Ryan got up just before noon. I was up at 6 am and then forced myself to go back to sleep for awhile, then I got up at 9:15am. I am now doing laundry and putting the Christmas tree up downstairs, so I'd better get back to it.

Happy Birthday Amy!!

I just wanted to sing....

Happy Birthday to you.....
Happy Birthday to you......
Happy Birthday dear Amy......
Happy Birthday to you.....

And yes, it sounds better when I'm not actually singing it!!! I hope you have a very happy birthday. At least your a year and a day younger than Doug!! Big party planned for him tomorrow night!

Brrrrrrr

I have to say I'm a little jealous of my sister.....

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