A Quiet New Year!

We won't be going next door to our neighbors tonight after all - they've just let us know that they have to cancel plans for a get together tonight because their 10 year old has flu. Considering none of us have had flu shots, we'd be wise to stay away for a while! So, looks like a quiet night at home for the three of us. Kristen is pretty bummed because she was looking forward to a 'party' at Connor's house.

It's pretty warm out today and Kristen's out there now playing with Connor and Emily. I told her to make the most of playing out today because a cold front is coming through tomorrow. It will drop to 20 degrees tonight and won't be any higher than 50 tomorrow.

I ran out to Target this morning - I'm having a problem with the new 'mono' lenses I bought. I finally ordered the ones we'd decided on but when I tried a new pair in over the weekend, they didn't work as well as the trial pair I'd been using? I was concerned they had ordered the wrong prescription for me, so I called in to their optical dept today and asked about it. The optometrist wasn't in but the girl made a note of my problem/concern and will ask the Dr about it. I saw the details for the original lenses he'd let me try and they are not the same 'numbers' as the lenses I now have so I'm convinced they ordered the wrong ones! Hopefully I'll get that resolved soon.

While I was there I bought myself some Olay Regenerist eye derma-pods!
And some Crest Teeth Whitening strips. As I said before 2008 is the year I start to really look after ME! I'll start to eat better and exercise more too and will update my 'fit blog' a bit more but that will still be a few days away. I need to declutter the kitchen of all the sweets and stuff from Christmas!

Not much else going on today. I'm gonna sit and do some knitting while Kristen is playing. Jason is working in his home office today.

Here's wishing you all a safe and happy New Year's Eve! See you in 2008!

A Not So Good Night. . . . .

Friday was not a good night at all. Kristen woke up at 12.30am and came in to my room saying her ear hurt :-( I knew straight away that she was probably getting an ear infection, not surprising with all the congestion she has. I gave her some Motrin and sent her back to bed in the hopes she would be able to fall asleep and at least get through the night without too much discomfort. Not gonna happen - three minutes later she was back saying it still hurt, and she wanted to stay with me. Jason hadn't even come to bed yet, he was still downstairs watching tv. So, I put a note on the bedroom door (no need for us all to have a bad night) so that he could go sleep in the spare room and not be disturbed. I just knew it would be a long night. Poor Kristen couldn't sleep at all, which of course meant I couldn't sleep. Thankfully she wasn't crying, but she was pretty miserable. Finally around 5am she dozed off and so did I. We woke around 8am!

At 9am we were in the car headed for 'Rapid Care'. I love this place... if it weren't for the fact that our insurance pushed up the co-pay to $50 per visit, (it was only $25 until I had to go there twice this past year!) I'd go there all the time (it's open 365 days a year) and wouldn't even bother trying to get in at the Dr's office. But of course the Dr's office isn't open on Saturdays, so we had no choice today. We were seen within 10 minutes and half an hour later came out of there and headed to the pharmacy to fill the prescription for an antibiotic. The rest of the day Kristen spent on the sofa or playing on the floor with her toys. She didn't have much appetite and was pretty tired. But last night she slept great and seems much better this morning. She's still very congested but we're over the worst (I hope).

Tomorrow is New Years Eve. We plan on just going next door to our neighbors (Connor's house)
like we did last year. Cheryl sent a flyer around to the neighbors inviting us in and to bring a dish to share and our own drinks. That's a great idea, less stress for her and less booze she needs to buy ;-)

I've got lots of fun knitting to get on with, (and housework, but that can wait!), so I'll jump off here and wish you all a happy Sunday - the last one of 2007!

I Hate Spam....

..... and I'm not talking about this stuff (although I'm not that partial to this either!) I'm talking about the nasty stuff you get in your email - also known as 'junk mail'. I didn't get a chance to check my email much on Christmas Eve, and on Christmas Day, well I didn't check it at all. I have been getting so much junk mail lately that I knew it would be ridiculous the amount I'd have after not checking for two days..... 423!!!!! That's right, 423 messages in 2 days and only 2 of those were from people I knew. Is that crazy or what. I mentioned it to Jason and he thinks I might need to change my email address. And the reason I may be getting so much spam is because of my website deniseschulz.com. I really don't use that any more, now that I don't do real estate and I don't host my blog from there. So in the next few days I shall think about a new email address in the hopes it will stop my inbox from being unindated with 'junk'.

Jason didn't go to work yesterday. His car wouldn't start! I had asked him to move his car out of the garage the night before so we could put all the trash out, he hadn't run the engine very long and it flooded (although we didn't know this until the next morning). Apparently Mazda Rx8's are prone to do this. Thankfully it is still under warranty so it was towed away and fixed pretty quickly. We just had to go pick it up yesterday afternoon. All back to normal today and Jason is at work. Kristen and I will just be pottering around the house, and I shall once again attempt to clear up the kitchen mess! I also feel in the mood to declutter something? I might make a start on my bedroom closet?

OK, here's wishing you a lovely Friday - I'm hopping off here!

Christmas Pics....

Well, that's Christmas 2007 over and gone! I hope you all had a wonderful time with family and friends. We've had a nice couple of days. Our Christmas traditions start on Christmas Eve. A first for us this year though, was we went to church at 4pm. We met mom-in-law there (Papa was at the airport picking up his son and daughter who flew in from CA). The service was really nice. We sang some hymns and carols and the pastor talked in between the singing, reading from the gospel of Luke 2. The last carol was Silent Night and we all lit candles and the lights were turned down low. It was so nice.

Once we got home dinner was waiting in the crock pot for us - Papa and Craig and Kari arrived too and after we ate we exchanged gifts. Here's Kristen opening the "Look Mommy I can Swim" doll from her daddy and me.

Christmas morning.... opening presents from Santa with help from Boo!

The big doll house Santa brought is nearly as tall as Kristen.

This family picture was taken late on Christmas day, hence the reason Kristen is in pj's again and her hair is all over the place :-) (if this was a full length shot you would see that I'm wearing pj bottoms too!)

Christmas dinner turned out well..... here's a pic of my dining room all ready for the big meal. (you can click on the pictures and they should enlarge).


Connor came over a few times yesterday to play with Kristen. We would just let them play a little then I had to send him home while we had dinner, then he came to play again, then his mom shouted for him to come home cos it was his turn for dinner. I thought today they would play alot, but Kristen is developing a very nasty cough (to be honest Connor has the same thing and I suspect she's gotten something from him) it's more than just allergies. Problem is, Kristen has always disliked coughing! She will supress it so much she nearly gags - infact (I hope you aren't eating as you read this), last night she held it back for so long that she finally had no choice and coughed and gagged so much she puked right on my pj's!!!! So today I told her she wasn't playing with anyone, I don't want her gagging or puking around anyone! She seems fine, not really sick but just very congested with a runny nose too, poor thing. I've just been playing Mario Party 8 with her on the Wii. After dinner she can have a bath and play with her swimming doll.

I'll be happy to be able to put my feet up and just watch tv or knit tonight. I do like the holidays but must admit I'm always happy once they are over too.
Hope to make a few visits tonight or tomorrow and see how your Christmas was too.

2007
Merry Christmas from our House to Yours

We finally did it.....

.... For years I've wanted to decorate a gingerbread house with Kristen at Christmas time.... last night we finally did! I don't know why I've never gotten around to it before, but you know how this time of year is, you just get busy doing one thing after another. Before I knew it Christmas Eve is here and once again I hadn't bought a gingerbread house to do.

This year I bought the gb house months ago when they first appeared in the stores. I told Kristen we'd do it once school was over. Last night I told her to go put on some pj's (her red ones) so it would look festive when I took some pictures. She came down wearing the santa hat too :-)

It didn't take too long to do because the house was already assembled. I can't imagine having to try and stick those sides together, I've heard it can be a pain and more often than not they just fall apart before they set!

So today I'm just cleaning up around the house and I think I will bake some cookies later this afternoon. Jason has popped out for some last minute shopping and when he gets back I'm going to venture out to the store so I don't have to go early tomorrow or on Christmas Eve!

Hope you all have a wonderful Saturday.

Another Crazy Day!

It's 8.20pm and I'm only just sitting down after being on the go ALL day again! The nice thing is that I can put my feet up as I type this..... because I'm using my laptop. Not just any laptop (meaning my old, very sloooooow laptop) but my brand spanking (I got a Christmas gift before Christmas) laptop! :-) Yes..... I have the kind of husband that Sadie would love at this time of year. Where she's having to snoop around and not let on to her hubs that she's opened pressies, my hubby actually encourages me to open mine - then he doesn't mind at all that he has to go out and buy something else for me to open at Christmas!

I forgot to mention yesterday (I was so busy telling you all about the events at school) that it was our 11th wedding anniversary. We didn't do anything special last night, just watched tv together, but after Kristen went to bed we exchanged cards and gifts. We usually don't do this because it is so close to Christmas (and I have such a hard time as it is trying to think of things to get Jason) that I told Jason years ago not to bother with gifts anymore! For some reason, this year he wanted to. He bought me my favorite perfume (yay, because I was just about to run out and hadn't even told him) and I had actually bought him some cologne which I was going to put under the tree but I gave to him last night instead.

Jason has actually never worn cologne in the whole time I've known him, but I said after 12 years together I'd like to smell something other than just soap ;-) Having never bought aftershave or cologne in years I didn't even know what scent I liked, or what Jason would like. I did a bit of smelling in Dillards dept store last week and chose 'Armani Code'. I really like it, and Jason..... well let's just say Jason will wear it to keep me happy :-)

After opening our gifts Jason proceeds to ask me if I wanted to open the other gift that was under the tree for me! I tried to say no, I really did... but what's a girl to do when posed with such a dilema. So, here I am with my feet up and typing away on my brand new toy.

I won't bore you with the details of my crazy day, other than to say I was driving back and forth (to the mall, the groomers, school) nearly all day. School is finally out - hopefully I won't have to venture very far tomorrow.

Holidays Around The World!

Phew, what a busy morning... today the first grade classes at school were learning about different holidays around the world. I volunteered to help out (what was I thinking). I took Kristen to school this morning and basically just stayed with her because classes were starting at 8am and the kids would be rotating classes to learn how kids in Sweden, Germany, Scotland and Japan celebrate Christmas.

I was assigned 'Germany' which was actually Kristen's home room. The teacher read to the children about how in Germany they decorate the Tannenbaum (not sure of that spelling) which of course is a christmas tree, and how the children decorated gingerbread houses! So guess what our classroom was doing..... a million candies and graham crackers later, the classroom was a mess! But the kids had a ton of fun. It was my job (and the other mom there) to put out all the candy and frosting and crackers (Sadie, graham crackers are the nearest thing over here to digestive biscuits but they come in rectangles and are what we use to make S'mores too) The kids had to stick the crackers to small milk cartons with the frosting then stick frosting on top to put the candy canes and m&m's etc on. I'll try to take a picture of Kristen's when she brings it home (if it's still in one piece).

I stayed with Kristen for lunch in the cafeteria at 11am because I hadn't really seen her all morning, then I came home at 12 and have just prepped dinner for tonight, emptied the dishwasher and cleared up the kitchen. Kristen will be going to piano lesson at 4pm so we won't be home until 5.30! It's already 1.25pm now and I just have half an hour to relax (jump on here and blog) before heading out to pick Kristen up from school. What a busy day!

Tomorrow I'll be taking Boo to the groomers and it's Kristen's last day at school so I'll be going in an hour early as they have their 'winter party'! And then hopefully the rest of the week will be quiet and uneventful!

Still shopping....

This week will just fly by, and before you know it Christmas Day will be here! I'm pretty much ready for it all, but I couldn't resist popping out to Target again today to get a few odds and ends :-) I only really needed a gift card but I picked another little gift up for Kristen from us, and also a little something from Santa! I bought myself this book - Water for

Elephants by Sara Gruen. It's the first of our Book Club picks for 2008. I've heard good things about it, so I'm looking forward to reading it over the holidays. Our meeting won't be until January 24th so I should have plenty of time to get through it.

I must admit I do start to look forward to January at this time of year. I'm always eager to start a new year and get back in to normal routines after the Christmas break. Kristen's last day of school is this Thursday so from then on my daily routine will be all to pot so to speak. Not that I've had much of a routine these past few weeks or since Thanksgiving for that matter. It will be nice though not to have to get up at 6am every morning. And I'll look forward to the next week of just pottering around the house, waiting for Santa to arrive :-) I'm happy to say that I don't really feel too stressed either. I'm not sure if Jason's cousin and his family are coming for Christmas dinner, and I would like to know sooner rather than later, but even if it's a last minute decision (on their part) I feel like I'm ready and prepared. The turkey will be big enough, we will also have ham. And I can make as much or as little of the sides as we need, I'll have everything in so that we can do that... so, no stress. I just need to keep plodding on with housework and I'll be all ready by the weekend.

Today I tackled our bathroom shower! What a workout! We have very hard water here in Texas which makes for a lot of soap scum and water buildup! If you don't stay on top of it and clean the glass regularly it's hard work getting it off - and of course I don't clean it nearly as regularly as I should. I also cleaned the oven today. I've been spoiled in the past with a self-cleaning oven in most of the homes we've owned - not this one! After trying to clean this one today I think I might be investing in a new cooker next year!

Well, I'll jump off here before I waffle on too much longer about nothing in particular. Don't want to bore you all to death. Have a great day.

A Busy Weekend!

It seemed like a busy weekend but I wasn't really doing much, I just know I didn't get a chance to jump on here and post! And here we are Monday, and just one week until Christmas Eve. The countdown begins... so to speak. Are you all ready for Christmas?

I have started a list of groceries I need for Christmas dinner and lots of other goodies for over Christmas. I don't want to go too crazy on the sweet stuff though because I'm trying not to over-indulge during the holidays so I can keep off the 3 pound I've lost in the past week or so! As well as grocery shopping I need to keep on top of housework and laundry. Christmas gift shopping is just about done, I'm waiting for a couple of deliveries which I hope make it in time for Christmas!

I mentioned in a previous post that Kristen and I were busy reading Charlotte's Web each night at her bedtime. It was a lovely story, one that I'd never read before so I was eager to see how it ended. We finished it last week some time. I won't spoil the end for those who've never read it and might want to. On Friday night I thought Jason would be out late at his office Christmas Party, so I got the new dvd from Blockbuster for me and Kristen to watch. Turned out Jason didn't stay out too late, his Christmas meal was at 1pm and he was home by 5.30pm! He decided he'd watch the movie with us. It was chilly so we built a beautiful roaring fire and just had the Christmas tree lights on. I know I took pictures of the fire but it seems I've deleted them from the camera? It looked so warm and cozy.

The movie starred the little girl 'Dakota Fanning' and was really very good. Kristen sat through the whole lot (which is not easy for her) and really enjoyed it. It was very true to the book other than two added characters in the form of crows which chased the rat who is called Templeton and sat around talking about whether the guy in the cornfield (the scarecrow) was real or not. And ofcourse Wilbur the pig and Charlotte the spider were just so cute. I really liked this movie and the nicest thing was that we all sat as a family and watched it.... something we don't do nearly enough!

Well I must get a move on and get some housework done, then it's off to the grocery store to get a few things on my list (at least the non-perishables, and probably the turkey!).

Have a super day!

Kiki-Lou Who!!

You all know the Grinch story right? And for those of you who've seen the movie with Jim Carey as the Grinch, you'll know this little girl who played Cindylou Who.

Today at Kristen's school the first graders will be watching this movie and learning about 'working together' and 'concern for others' - both good traits that the people from Who-ville practiced (especially at this time of year). Kristen came home the other day with a letter explaining that the kids (girls especially) could dress up their hair like Who-girls and wear mismatched clothing! So without further ado, I give you . . . . . . . . . . . . Kiki-Lou Who :-)

I made the mistake of taking her picture in front of the tree and you can't see her hair that well because it's dark against the dark tree! But you can still make it out a little. The letter had instructions on how to use a plastic cup under the hair to give it height! The rest I just did based on the picture from the Grinch movie.

And here's Crazy Kiki-Lou!

And with that I wish you a great start to your weekend.

Home Alone!

I was trying to upload a mood girl but blogger won't let me?

Actually, I'm not totally alone, I have Boo to keep me company :-) But I am staying home today. I had a home inspection scheduled for today. I can't believe we've been in this house nearly a year already (we moved in on December 23rd!). Our one year warranty will be up on that day so we wanted to get a home inspection done just to make sure there aren't any 'issues' we aren't aware of. I'm sure there isn't but better to be safe than sorry!

The inspector just arrived but we've decided to re-schedule. The rain has started again and it's very cold out there. He's worried about getting up on the roof while it's so wet and slippery, and the possibility of falling off his ladder - I can't say I blame him, I'd be worried too and I don't want him to risk a fall. He'll come by on Monday afternoon instead.

The weather is still crazy here. On Monday it was cold, a high of only 50 I think. Yesterday it was 78 degrees by late afternoon and last night around 9pm we get a thunderstorm! Lightening, torrential rain, wind - the works! Today when I took Kristen to school it was only 45 degrees - freezing, brrrrrr!!!

So, today I'm staying home and catching up with housework. Making lists of things I need to do next week in readiness for Christmas dinner etc. I went out yesterday and did a bit more Christmas shopping - a successful trip I'm happy to say. Nothing else to report so I'll bid you all a good day - stay warm, stay safe.

A Little Reminder....BSE Day!

First of December has been and gone - it's already the 10th! I promised myself that I would post a reminder on my blog every month about taking the time to do a breast self-examination. Early detection CAN save lives.

Won't you take just two minutes right now and do a BSE. I just did mine, it really doesn't take that long. We all get so busy at this time of year, and to be honest even when it's not the Holidays I've often put off doing a BSE for months. It doesn't take long, it's not something we should keep putting off to another day!

2008 is going to be a year I really start taking care of myself. You know, when you're in your 20's and even your 30's really looking after yourself isnt' something you conciously think of, it just seems to naturally happen. I mean, the grey hairs aren't there so you don't have to 'cover' them... the lines around the eyes aren't there, so you don't go out deliberately buying creams to keep the lines from getting worse! You feel fitter (even though you don't exercise regularly) you eat what you like thinking you'll always be the same weight! You don't bother taking vitimins ..... and a BSE? what's that?!! This is how I've been thinking for the past 10 years or so, but now that I'm heading in to my mid 40's, looking nice, staying slim, feeling fit ...... it is all a lot more hard work than it was a decade ago. I'm slowly making healthy changes. You can keep track of what those changes are on my fit blog

Baking and Taking

I've been baking cookies today and taking our picture for Christmas cards (hence the title of this post). A few weeks ago I bought a tripod for my camera so that I could take a nice Christmas picture of us all and add it to some cards I'd bought in Target. I wanted this done last weekend but didn't get around to it. December is flying by so I had no more time to lose. The picture came out really well. I don't want to share it here just yet because it will kind of spoil the anticipation for my family and close friends who will get it in the mail. I will add it to my blog just before Christmas when I know my cards will have been delivered to the recipients. I ordered some prints from Walmart from their hour service, picked up the cards this afternoon and now they're ready to go in the post box tomorrow.

Because I can't share our latest Christmas picture, I thought I'd add a picture of Kristen when she was one year old (it was her second Christmas). Isn't she a cutie :-)

Kristen has been taking piano lessons for about 6 weeks now. Today her teacher had a small recital so the kids could play for their parents. She only has about 6 students and they range from age 5 to about 10 (from the look of them). Kristen didn't want to take part, but we did go along today just to see what it was like, and how the other kids are playing. I think most of them have been playing for about a year now. They were really very good, and I am hoping that next time the teacher puts on a recital, which I think will be in the Spring, Kristen might want to take part. It only lasted about 30 minutes, then we had some refreshments and left. I headed to Walmart to pick up my pictures before coming home.

Once home it was time to bake cookies. Our church is hosting 'Merry Christmas with Love', where they collect lots of food, clothes toys etc and distribute to the multihousing communities as well as teachers in local schools and meals on wheels recipients. They will also be delivering cookies to the local fire and police stations this week, to share Christ's love and the real reason for the season. I put my name down to bake 3 dozen cookies. Here they are.... chocolate chip and pecan cookies, and of course we had a few extras to try at home tonight. I wouldn't send cookies off without first trying them and this was the first time I tried this recipe from my new cookies in a jar book, so I wasn't sure how they'd turned out. Not to worry, they are yummy!

Well, it's time to hop off here. Bedtime for Kristen. We're nearing the end of 'Charlotte's Web' (a story I've never read) and I'm eager to find out what happens in the end. I want to rent the new movie of this from Blockbuster next. I think both Kristen and I will enjoy watching it.

Saturday?!!!

Wow, I thought midweek came around fast enough, but the end of the week came even faster! I haven't blogged since Wednesday and here we are already Saturday night! I haven't really done much to blog about which is why I haven't taken the time to write in here.

Yesterday Jason did take the day off work and we went out shopping. It wasn't that successful. We wanted wire shelving for Kristen's bedroom closet and headed to Home Depot but they didn't have the sizes we needed. Santa will be bringing Kristen a big doll house (you can click HERE to see it) and I wanted Jason to put it together. I did not want to wait a few days before Christmas then find we were missing some parts or something. Thankfully it all went together without a hitch and is safely hidden away in our bedroom closet :-)

Today we went out again for the shelving and this time went to Lowes. We got what we needed and Jason has already installed the shelves in the closet. Now I just need to re-arrange toys and organize in there.

Weather has warmed up again. It was 82 yesterday and is 85 today. Needless to say I have the a/c on because it is just so hot. Opening the windows just lets a warm sticky breeze in which makes me feel even hotter! We actually bought 'real' firewood today, but I don't know when we'll next need to use it. Shame, because I love the sound of a crackling fire when we're watching the tv.

Well, not a very exciting post, but just wanted to update before the week is over.

Half the week gone - already!

It's Wednesday already! Where does the time go? I don't really have much to write about. There's not much I'm doing other than housework each day and popping out to the stores doing a bit of Christmas shopping.

Tonight is the Bunco Christmas Social, and although I decided to quit last month I will still go tonight to see everyone and socialize one more time. Next week is our Book Club Christmas social and that's about all the Christmas parties I'll be going to. I am looking forward to out Book Club gathering, it's always exciting hearing what everyone wants to read next year. I think my pick this year is going to be The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. It was recommended to me from a lady who I was talking to at the church's tea social last month. It sounds rather an interesting read. I also know one of the girls wants to read Water for Elephants and another book mentioned was A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. He also wrote The Kite Runner which we read in book club earlier this year. This was a book I would never have thought to pick up and read but I thoroughly enjoyed it, so I am looking forward to reading his next one with the group.

Well I shall get back to pottering around the house and cleaning. I'm pretty much on top of things, so I'm finding the time to go through cupboards and stuff to clean and declutter!

An Early Start!

I'd say 4.30a.m. was early wouldn't you! I woke up at 3.30am this morning and just couldn't get back to sleep. It didn't help that Jason was tossing and turning in his sleep. By 4.30 I decided I might as well get up. I had gone to bed early at 9.30 so I had probably had nearly 6 hours of good sleep already, which didn't seem too bad.

I sat on the sofa and did a little knitting.... at 5am I heard the noise maker in our bedroom, which meant our bedroom door had been opened! Either Jason was getting up to see where I was, or Kristen had gone in to our room - yeah, you guessed it, a few seconds later I hear the patter of little feet coming down the stairs - Kiki! I had her lay on the sofa and told her it was very early in the morning and she should try to close her eyes for a little while. Thankfully she did and she slept there til 6.30am.

I didn't sleep at all, but I lit a fire log and just sat there warm and cozy. We got off to school as usual, and I even went to the gym. I feel ok now too but I would think I'll be in bed by 9pm tonight.

Today I'm busy decluttering again, packing up 'unused toys' to go to Goodwill, doing laundry and the usual household chores. I've started a 'Fitness Blog'! You can see it HERE, or if you go to my profile it will link to my other blogs there. I now have this one, my knitting blog and my fitness blog! There's nothing like a blog to motivate you to do something ;-) I don't know how often I'll post, and I won't usually mention it on here if I do, but I just wanted somewhere to keep a report on what I'm doing and how I'm doing as I start another phase of wanting to get fit and healthy.

Before I go, here is a quick snapshot of my new jacket.

Bargains Galore!

You know how I love a bargain, and when I find one I just have to tell you about it! Yesterday I decided to go to the mall to do a little shopping. I very rarely go to the mall these days, there's usually nothing I need there. My mission yesterday I decided, was to find myself a new coat!

Now that it's getting colder I find myself once again with only my 'big winter coat' to wear (the kind with the eskimo looking fur hood) or a very thin rain coat! I have nothing in between. I wanted something that would look casual when I needed it, or something that would look dressy when I needed it - I had in mind a leather jacket :-) If not that, then a wool coat (I think the style is called a peacoat?)

My first stop was JC Penney, and the first coat I tried on I bought! That's what I call successful shopping :-) I did ofcourse try a few more coats on, but the first one I tried was the most comfortable and the most flattering on me. It is a short leather jacket with a zip, very simple looking and very smart. Now here's the bargain - it was priced at $200 but you know Penney's always seems to have a sale on, and I was not surprised to see it say 'on sale - $79.99!!! A HUGE bargain, until I got to the checkout...... it rung up as $59.99. Can you see me doing a happy dance :-)

I found another bargain while at the mall, I was needing a new battery for my watch. Been needing it for weeks now, and the only place I knew to get one was in the little repair shop in the mall, or one of the jewelry stores there (which I thought might charge me an arm and a leg for it). So I walked in to the repair shop, asked about a battery and I was given two options? I could have a battery that came with a 3 year warranty - $29.95! Or I could have my battery changed no warranty for $21.95! I thought it would just cost about $10 so I opted for neither and thought I'd look around. A few seconds later I walk past Samuel Jewellers. I asked the lady standing in there if they sold watch batteries without trying to sell me a warranty? " I just want a new battery for my watch" I told her. "Yes, we do that for free" she said!!!

After picking myself off the floor I asked if she was serious - and yes indeed she was. So, one minute later I walk out of there with my watch working and set to the right time, and it didn't cost me a penny!

I'm cooking Santa's Whiskers this morning. Will try to get pictures later and post tomorrow.
Have a happy Saturday. It's a cold and wet one here so we'll just be playing indoors.

Would the real 'Annonymous' please step forward!

LOL, I had to laugh when I saw the comment from 'annonymous' yesterday! I thought that might happen sooner or later. Then Ms. Annonymous came back to post and say that "annonymous was ME", but it was still posted as annonymous, so I don't know who ME is :-) So, if you posted yesterday as 'annonymous' and you're reading this, could you please leave another comment and tell me who you are. You can click on 'other' and type your name in (you don't have to have a website) or you could type your name in the comment box (that would give me a BIG clue).

This morning I met my friend Cindy for coffee. I ate pretty well yesterday and didn't snack last night, but this morning I couldn't resist having a piece of gingerbread (with ginger frosting) along with my cappuccino from Starbucks! I will have a light lunch today, not sure what, and for dinner I'm doing steaks on the grill topped with gorgonzola butter (another of my Dream Dinners from the freezer), I shall just serve green beans with it, no carbs! If I keep on having smaller portions and not snacking much I think I may lose a pound or two, or at the very least maintain my weight throughout the holidays.

I popped in to Target after coffee and took back a dress I had bought Kristen last week. I got her two dresses for Christmas and asked her to chose one. This is the one she chose to keep. The top is velvet and the plaid is a satin-y kind of material. The one I took back was all velvet with no sleeves (I couldn't see it on Target's website so couldn't add a picture).

I want to go to church on Christmas Eve this year, so Kristen will wear this pretty dress then. Not sure what I'll wear. I often forget about getting myself something new and festive to wear, but I would like to try to do that this year.

Well, not much going on today. I'm just busy keeping the housework up to date, laundry is on and I'm about to go empty the dishwasher - so exciting!

Snack Attack!

For the past few nights I've been craving Chex mix! I don't know why, I normally don't buy this stuff, infact I never buy it. But all of a sudden I got it in to my head that I wanted to make some, like you see them do on the tv commercials at this time of year! So yesterday I looked on line for the 'original Chex mix recipe' (which you can find HERE) and I bought what I needed while I was out grocery shopping yesterday.

And voila, here it is - plus a few M&M's cos I like the sweet and salty taste together! This is really easy to make perfect for when you feel like snacking on something crunchy. I had no clue what was in the homemade version of this and was really surprised at the ingredients - worcestershire sauce, butter, onion powder and seasoned salt! But it all tastes super yummy once it's baked. I can't stop eating the stuff (which is not good when I'm trying to cut back and eat a bit more healthy!)

I had to force myself to go to the gym yesterday morning, but I'm glad I did. I hate to admit it but I haven't been in 3 weeks! And I knew if I didn't go first thing Monday morning, I would end up making excuses for every other day of the week too. That's how I got out of the habit in the first place.

I could really do with losing 10 pounds before Christmas (that's about how much I've put on since I was on the South Beach Diet this Summer) but I know it's not gonna happen. Not when I'm making snacks like this, that's for sure - and when I've signed up to make three dozen cookies for church in a couple of weeks! BUT, if I can just be sensible and eat small portions and snack just a teeny tiny bit.... well perhaps there won't be too much damage done (I'm hoping I don't gain any weight) and I will hopefully be more motivated to diet and exercise in January.

I always love the start of a new year - I'm always motivated to do just about anything. I like to start off the year thinking I'll eat healthy and exercise more. The fact that I don't usually get past January before I'm falling off the wagon (so to speak) doesn't put me off in the least ;-)

Always willing... always motivated..... roll on 2008!

Birthday Girl

Happy Birthday to our sweet little Princess. I thought I'd share a picture from her first birthday...

It’s annoying! When you send a party invite and specifically ask if you can RSVP by a certain date and yet you still don’t hear a thing from the person – how rude is that? Don’t people realize how difficult it is to plan things when you don’t know if half your guest will even show up. Am I supposed to just assume they won’t show if they didn’t rsvp?
I sent out 14 invites to Kristen’s friends for her birthday and 4 turned up today (they had rsvp’d I might add). That means 10 mom’s didn’t even bother to tell me their child would not attend! Actually, 2 moms said they would be there and never showed up!
Regardless of rude people – Kristen still had a wonderful day today. Grandma and Papa came over yesterday afternoon to give her her present (they thought they would forego the noisey kids party – can’t say I blame them)

Meet Ben! Kristen’s new puppy from Grandma and Papa. He knows her name and grows too! She loves him.

Boo's not so sure! (urmm, Boo's the one on the right ;-)

As seems the usual these days we didn't get many pictures! But here's just a couple from the party.

We bought Kristen a Nintendo Game that she had asked for and also a Video Camera. She’s been using my old digital camera lately which takes a few minutes of video. She likes to take movies of herself and Boo, and laugh at them as she plays them back. We thought she’d like her very own Video Camera – it’s called Vidster.

The party was at Inflatable Wonderland from 3pm – 5pm. We just served cake and Icecream to the kids after they’d run around for an hour, then we let them run around for another hour to burn off all the sugar energy. Kristen opened presents then we had to pack up and leave the ‘party area’. The two hours went by quickly, but I was glad to get home. I'm sad that not many other kids bothered to come, but glad that Kristen still enjoyed her day.

Rainy Day Saturday

Well as you can see I've moved my diary over to blogger. I think I will keep it here for a while as I like the more simple look to it. The backgrounds are easy to change so that will be fun to quickly add a new look whenever I want. I like that I don't have to add a ton of graphics for each season, and adding pictures is pretty easy too. To be honest I don't know why I didn't change over sooner. I have my knitting blog hosted at blogger.com too which I like posting to, so perhaps I will post more often - who knows. I'm still working on adding a few things to my sidebar but it looks pretty ok in here, don't ya think?

Today is a day for definitely staying home. It is pouring with rain outside and it's pretty cold. The coldest we've had I think. The high is supposed to only be 42, and I don't think it's even that yet. I did have to run out to the grocery store this morning to get Kristen's birthday cake for tomorrow and some individual icecream tubs and some kids juice boxes. I also bought some firewood so we could light a 'real' fire (instead of just a firelog) but it seems the wood is a little damp and isn't burning very well. Oh well, it sure does smell cozy though.

I do hope you can leave me a comment on here if you stop by. I'm hoping the comments work ok for you all, you don't have to register to use it or anything, so hopefully there won't be any problems.