Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Christmas 2007

We spent Monday cooking and watching movies. We watched Elf and Christmas Vacation. We went to a candlelight service at 6:00 p.m. I had a spiral ham warming while we were at the service. Once home, we had a late dinner. We had been tracking Santa all day at norad.com. Loree decided it was getting too close for comfort, so "we'd better head to bed!" Darren and I did some more cooking and wrapped the rest of the presents.

Christmas morning I woke up at about 6:00 a.m. to start cooking the breakfast casserole.(I used some of the ham from last night and it was yummy!) Grandma Carole and Papa Bill were due to arrive around 8:00 a.m., so we let the kids get their Santa "stuff" and then they ate a little breakfast while we waited for the G.P.'s. Here is Grandma Carole and Ashlie...








Breakfast included:

Ham and cheese breakfast casserole(yum!)
deviled eggs
cantelope
orange juice
coffee


Santa brought everyone tennis raquets and balls for our YMCA homeschool P.E. class. (Tennis balls, that is...) They also received new toothbrushes, socks, gloves and other odds and ends in their stockings.



There were lots of ohhs...



And a plethora of ahhhs...


( I learned the word plethora from the 1986 film classic "Three Amigos". )



Although not all my kids express emotional exclamations, you can tell that deep inside, these kids are stoked!



yay.


And these pics were taken from a strictly photo journalistic perspective. No posing was used for these photos. I repeat... no posing was used!









On the lunch menu:



Turkey with gravy

broccoli, cheese and rice casserole

dressing

jellied cranberry sauce

rolls

iced tea


And here we are talking about dinner while we eat lunch. It's a tradition in my family passed down from many Swedish generations. As is beige gravy on just about everything.


If you look closely...you can see the limelight being stolen from Loree... Hello, Chelsey!






Foood...mfbl...lmflbm...klblmfl...pmpherfl




We're just introducing utensils to Aaron...



One of our Christmas traditions is to go see a movie and then have dinner at Ihop. We saw National Treasure 2. I highly recommend it. Great flick!



It was one of the best Christmases yet! I hope yours was, as well!

Monday, December 24, 2007

I hate to toot my own horn...

but someone here is a genius...

cash advance

Actually, horn tooting is my favorite.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Super Skills



We had a visitor on our last day of school for the year. It's always nice when super heroes stop by to brush up on their math skills. Funny, though...Aaron was nowhere to be found. Come to think of it, you never see them together in the same room. Odd.

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Um...Yeah...it's Saturday...I know.

So, I opened my big mouth on Tuesday and announced to the world to check back Friday for "after" pics of my messy school room. Well, the desk is still fairly tidy, but what have I gotten done since? Squat. Nada. Zilch. Diddly-squat. Zip. Zot. Zero. Are you getting the picture here, people? I jinxed myself. And I didn't enjoy it.

Here's the deal. I hurt my back carrying a ginormous load of laundry down the stairs. I felt better until I made the mistake of sleeping funny Tuesday night. No, I didn't sleep with a clown. Clown night is Thursday, silly. So, as you might have gotten from the paragraph above, I failed to meet my deadline. I am complaining and abusing vicodin sticking closely to my treatment plan of drinking whiskey and snorting Tylenol frequent stretching and alternating ice packs and the heating pad on my lower back area.



So bend over correctly




And lift with your knees!
I guess DH and I won't be doing this again for a while.


Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Ahhh...Progress



“I believe the single most significant decision I can make on a day-to-day basis is my choice of attitude. It is more important than my past, my education, my bankroll, my successes or failures, fame or pain, what other people think of me or say about me, my circumstances, or my position. Attitude keeps me going or cripples my progress. It alone fuels my fire or assaults my hope. When my attitudes are right, there is no barrier too high, no valley too deep, no dream too extreme, no challenge too great for me.” -Charles R. Swindoll


Dude, I didn't know the top of my desk was wood...

And the word of the day is...



PROCRASTINATE

OOOOO! AHHHH! **applause** whistle**


Dictionary.com:


pro·cras·ti·nate (prō-krās'tə-nāt', prə-)


–verb (used without object)
1.
to defer action; delay: to procrastinate until an opportunity is lost.


–verb (used with object)
2.
to put off till another day or time; defer; delay.


[Origin: 1580–90; <>pro-1 + -crāstināre, deriv. of crāstinus of tomorrow; crās tomorrow + -tinus suffix forming adjs. from temporal advs.); see -ate1]


—Related forms
pro·cras·ti·nat·ing·ly, pro·cras·ti·na·tive·ly, adverb
pro·cras·ti·na·tion, noun
pro·cras·ti·na·tive, pro·cras·ti·na·to·ry /proʊˈkræstənəˌtɔri, -ˌtoʊri, prə-/ Pronunciation Key - [proh-kras-tuh-nuh-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee, pruh-] adjective
pro·cras·ti·na·tive·ness, noun
pro·cras·ti·na·tor, noun
—Synonyms 2. prolong, postpone.



Procrastinativeness is a cool word. I just can't say it fast. Pro-cras-ti-native-ness. Try it! Statistics is also a hard word for me to say quickly.


American Heritage definition:


pro·cras·ti·nate (prō-krās'tə-nāt', prə-)

v. pro·cras·ti·nat·ed, pro·cras·ti·nat·ing, pro·cras·ti·nates


v. intr. To put off doing something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness.


That's a little critical, don't cha think, A.H.? Don't judge me!


Procrastinate around the world!


Arabic:يُماطِل، يُسَوِّف
Chinese (Simplified):拖延,延迟,耽搁
Chinese (Traditional):拖延,延遲,耽擱
Czech:otálet, odkládat
Danish:udskyde
Dutch:talmen, uitstellen
Estonian:edasi lükkama, viivitama
Finnish:vitkutella
French:remettre à plus tard
German:verzögern
Greek:χρονοτριβώ, αναβάλλω
Hungarian:halogat
Icelandic:fresta
Indonesian:menunda-nunda
Italian:procrastinare
Japanese:ぐずぐずする
Korean:지연시키다
Latvian:atlikt; novilcināt
Lithuanian:atidėlioti, vilkinti
Norwegian:utsette, somle (med)
Polish:odwlekać
Portuguese (Brazil):procrastinar, protelar
Portuguese (Portugal):protelar
Romanian:a amâna; a lăsa pe mai târziu
Russian:медлить; откладывать
Slovak:odkladať
Slovenian:odlašati
Spanish:aplazar una decisión, *tarea
Swedish:skjuta ngt framför sig
Turkish:bugünün işini yarına bırakmak, ertelemek


What? Get off my what? You get off yours!


Monday, December 3, 2007

We'll call these the "before" pictures...

I am posting this so I can be accountable to someone. I am ashamed that I say this is where I expect my kids to learn! I am committing to organizing this room this week! I'll post the "after" pictures Friday.