Mary Engelbreit Monday

Some pursue happiness, others create it.

--Anonymous

17 Years Together

Chad and I celebrated our 17th anniversary on Friday. So here's 17 random tidbits about us.

Christmas, Christmas Time Is Here.........

This was on Christmas Eve. The kids always open one present and it's always pajamas that I've made. This year I made the pants/shorts and bought the shirts to match. Then, I added the penquins/snowmen to the shirts. I thought they turned out really cute. The kids really liked them too. I always love to see them in their Christmas pajamas!
We had a great Christmas. We looked through our stockings and then made breakfast. We had eggs, bacon, sausage, muffins, and juice. I don't remember the last time I ate that big of a breakfast. I also don't remember the last time our whole family ate breakfast together! It was really nice and I'm so glad that we decided to do that. After breakfast we went back to opening presents. It was a nice morning and so fun to watch the kids.

We spent the day playing games (santa brought us a lot of games) and playing with new toys, etc. It was just a great day. We made ham and potatoes, but it wasn't a formal dinner at all. We spent the 26th pretty much the same way. Just laying back, chillin', playing with the kids and enjoying the time we had together. It was so nice and peaceful, whilch is saying something. I would rarely describe my house as peaceful! I loved it, though. It was the perfect Christmas for me! (My Christmas tree is even still up! Amazing!) I hope you all had as great a Christmas as we did!

Christmas Eve Surprise.......

Chad had duty on Sunday (Dec 23) so he had to stay on the base all day and night. It was raining that night, pretty hard really. I woke up at about 1:30AM Monday morning to a crashing sound. I knew it was coming from outside, and looked out my window, but didn't see anything. I went back to bed. There were several other small thuds that continued for awhile. I was getting a little freaked out. I actually wondered to myself whether or not Chad would come home at 2AM to see what was going on. (He told me later he would have, he's so sweet) Anyway, it stopped and I went back to sleep. This is what we woke up to. Huge chunks of ice had fallen off the roof! This is our backyard, and everyone else's back yard looked exactly the same.....blocks of ice in a straight line across the yards. The blocks are about 4-5 inches thick. All the privacy fences were hit. A plank on ours broke off completely, but most were just broken or shattered at the top.
It even killed the BBQ, not that it was that great of a BBQ, but still. It was squished like a soda can! The legs are all bent underneath. (this was also the only place that the blocks weren't in a straight line. kinda funny) We're just grateful that no one was out there or the dog either for that matter, because those blocks of ice could seriously have killed some one if they'd fallen on them. Pretty scary!

Merry Christmas, everyone!
From our house to yours!

So, I had a little heart attack this morning.....................

I was trying to be a good mom. Since we got all this snow Myshel has had to walk around the practice field that she usually cuts across, so I offered to give her a ride this morning to school. Anyway.......we were driving down the road, the snow packed road......there was a snow plow coming the opposite direction. It was a big one, a tractor with a plow on the front really. I moved over a little to give him more room, grateful that they were finally coming to plow our roads in housing. it was fine, because there was plenty of room for the both of us. But, right when he passed me, he started to fish-tail a little and then a little more.........The back of that tractor was coming right at me..........I swerved, swiped the piled snow on the side of the road and I kept saying "please, don't hit me, please, don't hit me...." Myshel looked at me and said, "I don't think he can hear you", but I think it helped anyway, because he didn't hit me. I swear he must have missed by inches, though. Ohhh I hate slick roads! When I dropped Myshel off at school she said, "thanks for the ride mom, next time try not to kill us" and then she laughed. It's a good thing I like her.........

Secret Keepers

My kids exchange names for Christmas. Last week I took Noah and helped him pick out his present for McKaylie. Actually the only thing I helped with was paying for it. I told him on the way home that he couldn't tell McKaylie what it was. It was suppose to be a surprise. I really expected him to tell, but I thought I'd at least try. He surprised me. He didn't tell her.

I took Myshel and McKaylie to get their presents tonight. Myshel has Noah and McKaylie has Vance. I reminded McKaylie on the way home not to tell Vance what she had bought him and then I added not to tell what Noah's present was either. I didn't know if she could keep the secret either.

McKaylie was home for less than 5 minutes and was spilling the beans. Actually, it's worse than that. She told Noah that she'd tell him what his present was if he told her what hers was. Of course, he gave in. So, she gave away Myshel's present! and then told Noah what she got for Vance and he told Vance. I couldn't believe it! Myshel is the only one that doesn't know what her sibling gift is.

I told Chad that next year she doesn't get to come with anyone else when they get their present. He said she'd be lucky if she gets to come at all to pick the present for her sibling gift.

Decorating Cookies

All I've heard for the last week is, "when are we going to decorate cookies?" So, last night we decorated cookies. I love seeing what the kids "create". It's always lots of fun.

Weather Forecast.......

SNOW!!! 4-6 INCHES tonight and tomorrow.

King of the Mountain.......

This is the snow at the end of our driveway. It's getting a little crazy! I was telling Chad that all my posts seem to be about snow lately. His reply, "Snow seems to be what's happening most around here". I agree!

"12-Christmas-Things-About-Me-Hoopla"

1) I tend to be a little bit of a "Bah humbug" until about a week, week and a half before Christmas. After that I really get into the spirit.
2) I love that Chirstmas is a time to celebrate Christ's birth. I love seeing the nativities and how they remind us of that special night. That is my absolutel favorite part of Chirstmas. I really wish that all the chaos of Santa and gift giving could be gone and we could celebrate the true meaning of this holiday in the way that we should.
3) That being said......I love Santa. I love the idea that this jolly man has dedicated his whole life's work to bringing children happiness, just for the sake of making them happy. He doesn't gain anything from his generosity, he just does it because it's a good thing.

4) I love Christmas carols. Another one of my favorite parts of Christmas is the music. I just love all the Chrismas songs. I could listen to them everyday and not get tired of them. I look forward to December when we start singing the Christmas hymns in church and I'm always disappointed if they don't sing them on that first Sunday in December.
5) I really enjoy wrapping presents. I like to make them look pretty or fun. I love it when I get presents that are wrapped all pretty, too.
6) I not only want a white Christmas, (which I don't get very often) I want it to be snowing on Christmas. You know the softly falling snow that looks so pretty and makes you feel all warm and cozy. That's the kind of white Christmas I'd like.
7) I love Christmas lights. I love to watch them. There's certain types of blinking lights that I like, but not all of the blinking ones. I love sitting in the dark and watching the Christmas tree lights light up the room. It gives me that Christmasy feeling and I love it. I like the lights people put outside on their houses, too. We used to drive around on Christmas Even when I was growing up and look at all the lights on the houses. It was just such a wonderful feeling seeing them, especially if there's snow. Maybe that's why I like the lights so much now, because it brings back those happy childhood memories.

8)I enjoy making all the goodies at Christmas time. It's fun to make the candy and cookies and breads. And then share them with friends and neighbors.

9) My Christmas tree usually comes down the day after Christmas. I've had enough of it by then and I'm done with it. (maybe it's the bah-humbug thing coming back.....) All the other Christmas decorations stay up until after New Year's, but the tree comes down.
10)I love, no I mean, I LOVE watching my kids open their presents. There's just such an excitment and innocence and awe there. It doesn't matter what the present is or who it's from, I just love watching them. That's the joy I find on Christmas morning.
11) I have tons and tons of Christmas decorations. My house usually oozes Christmas.
12)This year we're going to try something new Christmas morning. I'm hoping that it will become a tradition. Vance gave me the idea the other day (which surprised me) and I really like it. We're going to have breakfast before we open presents. Vance asked for bacon and eggs this year, so that's what we'll have. I don't think it will be the same every year, but I like the idea of waiting until we have breakfast before opening presents. I was surprised that the kids were completely ok with this new idea. We'll see how it goes.

Ok, I'm suppose to tag specific people, so here goes.....Marie (of course), Katy(if you want to), mom2my6kids, and Life ticks on. Here's the rules........

1. List 12 random things about yourself that has to do with Christmas
2. Please refer to it as a 'hoopla' and not the dreaded 'm'-word
3. You have to specifically tag people when you're done. None of this "if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged" stuff is allowed...then nobody ends up actually doing it. The number of people who you tag is really up to you -- but the more, the merrier to get this 'hoopla' circulating through the blogosphere.
4. Please try and do it as quickly as possible. The Christmas season will be over before we know it and I'd like to get as many people involved as possible.
5. If you want to -- please give me, Andrea, some link-love as the 'Hoopla-Creator'. I love new blog-traffic.

Enough Snow Already!!!!!!

We got about another 10 inches of snow yesterday and then about an inch of ice on top of that! They even canceled church. I can think of only 3 times in my life that they've cancelled church and they've all been because of snow!

I thought we'd have a "breaking in" period to get used to the snow. You know, a little bit here, a little bit there. That way we could get used to it slowly. But, nope! we've been thrown into a Maine winter (and technically it isn't even winter yet) feet first! CRAZY!!!!This was during the storm yesterday. Everything is all icy today. Even the snow is crusted with ice. It's quite a mess and really hard to shovel and get through.

McKaylie was out playing around in it this morning and discovered that is she crawled on it, she would break through the icy layer on top. She thought that was the neatest thing! Chad was trying to stay on top of the snow yesterday. Within an hour you couldn't even tell he'd shoveled.
I am grateful we aren't living in some other places of the countries, though. They're getting completely buried and then getting ice storms. So, it could be worse. I sure feel for them!

Mary Engelbreit Monday

Laugh and your life will be lengthened- for this is the great secret of long life.
--Og Mandino

Sledding..........

The kids and I went sledding behind our house last Saturday. It was so much fun to watch them playing and laughing. I loved it. It even started to snow lightly, which added to the winter fun. It was a good afternoon!

Stupid Housing People........

There are parking bans in Topsham when it snows. I know that. If it snows, you're not suppose to park on the street, so that they can plow. So, last night when it RAINED we didn't think anything of it.......This morning we woke up and found that Chad's blazer had been towed. Complaint #1--The city doesn't plow our streets, housing does. Housing is suppose to give notice before they tow. They didn't!
Complaint #2--The last 3 times it's SNOWED they didn't tow anyone or give any notices. (we weren't parked on the street, but we know people who were....)
Complaint #3--IT DIDN'T SNOW!!! IT RAINED!!!
Complaint #4--It cost $100 to get our blazer back
Complaint #5--They towed over 20 cars last night. So, apparently the entire neighborhood, not just us, didn't realize we couldn't be parking on the street and they still felt justified in doing it.

It's the Christmas season, right? The season of giving....showing brotherly love???? What a great way to treat the people who rent from you! I haven't liked this housing since the day we moved in and my dislike continues to grow!
Merry Christmas to you, too, GMH!

Mary Engelbreit Monday

He deserves paradise who makes his companions laugh.

--The Koran

Snow and all that comes with it.....................

Here are some more pictures from Monday's snow storm. I thought I'd give you a little update on our week. I'm sure some people will think it quite funny that we were not as prepared as we should have been, especially since Chad and I grew up in Wyoming, where there's usually lots of snow and that we have lived in Maine before. We found that we were definitely not as prepared for the snow as we should have been.

On Sunday afternoon, the day before the storm, I realized that we don't have a snow shovel. Oooops, that would have been nice to think of that on Saturday. Chad ran to the base and borrowed one of theirs.

All the kids had new coats and boots, except Myshel. She had boots, but not a new coat. Her old one was, well, old and raggedy. We tried to find one last spring on clearance, but no luck. When they started putting out coats this year, she was just too darn picky about what she was going to wear, so we hadn't bought one yet. They all had gloves, but not heavy, waterproof ones and they all had hats. So we were somewhat prepared, right. Well, gloves that work in Virginia don't work here, not in the snow!.........................McKaylie broke the zipper in her pink coat and I couldn't fix it...............Myshel informs us that she's going to be sooo angry if McKaylie gets amother new coat before she gets one and we are just totaly unfair..............We run the store Monday night-it's still snowing and buy McKaylie a new coat, and Myshel a new coat, gloves for everyone and a shovel. (Myshel wasn't completely happy with her coat, but we told her it was either that or order it online and wait for it to get here. She wasn't happy, I didn't care! I picked up Myshel from seminary and realized that the town of Topsham plows every road in town, except ours apparently............stupid! Then I take Noah to school and they ask if he has his boots and snowpants with him. Uhhhhhh he had the boots..................Mckaylie pulls me aside after school and tells me that she had to play in only one are of the playground that hardly has any snow at all because she didn't have snowpants and if she doesn't bring some, then she'll never get to play in the snow with the other kids. It was as if I'd cut her legs off. The poor girls was dying inside...............Back the store Tuesday for snowpants (Noah actually had an old pair of Vance's to wear) and a hat for Myshel, apparently her old hat didn't match the new jacket and it looked tacky! Heaven forbid...................
Now, I just have to convince Noah that he has to wear the snowpants when they go outside to play at school...........he actually gave in pretty easily. Wednesday after he wore them and realized that they keep his pants dry he was even more ok with them.
Nutmeg loves the snow. She also likes to steal the kids gloves and run off with them.

Wednesday everything started to melt just a tiny bit in the sun (it's only about 20 degrees here) and I realized that I would be making another trip to the storm to buy salt for my sidewalk. Vance has kept it shoveled really well, but there's still spots that are really really slick!

Last night I was waiting for Chad to get home. It was around 10:30PM there was all this noise and couldn't think what it might be until he walked in with a big grin on his face...........note to Chad---our vehicles are NOT toys. We do NOT drive through the piles of snow with them!!!

The kids love the snow and have been out in it everyday this week. I actually had to tell Vance and McKaylie to come inside, it was too early to be outside playing. It was 6:30AM!!!! Vance asked me later if the snow was going to melt that day and I realized why he wanted to be out there so early. He's used to snow in Virginia (not that that happens very often) It doesn't stick around. It usually melts right away. I assured him it wasn't going to melt and that he'd have plenty of time to play in it. He hasn't been out there that early in the morning since! I forget that my kids just don't understand the bitter cold and snow and things like that. Even though Myshel and Vance might remember living in Maine before, all this "winter" stuff is still new territory for my kids. I guess they'll learn. It's suppose to snow again Friday night.....and Sunday......and Monday!

O' Christmas Tree

We put up our tree on Friday night and decorated it Sunday afternoon after church. It's small, but I really like it. We all had fun and it's starting to feel a little more like Christmas. Just getting started.
Noah was really enjoying himself.
Dad's helping from from the couch.....
Our little tree. We even have presents under it already.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

If you haven't guessed yet, it's snowing. It's snowing a lot. We woke up to about 3 inches and it's suppose to snow all day and into tomorrow. They're predicting we'll get 12-18 inches. School was cancelled today and maybe tomorrow.My kids are LOVIN' it! Even the dog seems to like to play in it. It's very dry snow, though, if that makes sense. You can't pack it at all. That means, no snowmen, but still lots of fun!

Mary Engelbreit Monday

In every job, relationship, or life situation, there is inevitably some turbulence. Learn to laugh at it. It is part of what you do and who you are.

**Allen Klein

Christmas Tag......

This tag is from Marie. I actually did this tag last year, too, but it's fun so I thought I'd do it again (maybe my answers have changed, who knows?) If you'd like to answer this tag on your own blog, feel free and leave me a comment so I can go and read yours, too.

1)egg nog or hot chocolate? that would be a big neither. I don't like either one....at all
2)Do you wrap your presents or not? There's ususaly a big present for each kid that isn't wrapped, but all the others are.
3)Colored lights or white? I like both, but I'd probably lean toward colored
4)Do you hang mistletoe? Yes, I think it's fun
5)When do you put up your decorations? Whenever I feel like doing it
6)What is your favorite holiday dish? I love the ham and pumpkin pie
7)Favorite memory as a child? All my sisters and brothers sleeping in the same room on Christmas Eve and having my grandmother there
8)When and how did you learn about Santa? around 8 years old, I don't remember how
9)Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? yes, the kids get to open one present on Christmas eve, it's always pajamas and they usually match
10)How do you decorate your tree? Lots of homemade ornaments, garland, sometimes tinsel
11)Snow...love it or dread it? I do like snow, (I could do without the cold that comes along with it, though) It really makes Christmas, Christmas. I'm the same as Marie, I haven't had a white Christmas for a very long time, but this year it just might be white. I'll keep my fingers crossed.
12)Can you ice skate? I did when I was a kid, but that was a very long time ago
13)Do you remember your favorite gift? there isn't one that sticks out for me
14) What is the most important part of the holidays? Christ, Family, Love
15) Favorite holiday dessert? Divinity
16) Favorite tradition? We always decorate cookies together as a family. Chad and I started doing it before we even had kids. We get really creative and it's lots of fun. The kids pick out there favorite and save them for Santa and we give most of the ones left to friends.