Getting to Know You...

The Christmas Edition.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping for my family. Everybody else gets gift bags.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial
3. When do you put up the tree? I like to around the weekend of Thanksgiving....but it doesn't always get done then. Mike has to initiate it all...because I'm not always the festive one-shocker...I know!
4. When do you take the tree down? The day after Christmas.
5. Do you like eggnog? Not so much.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Styling Doll Head.
7. Hardest person to buy for? My Dad.
8. Easiest person to buy for? Kids
9. Do you have a nativity scene? No....can you believe that?
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail...when I sent them out.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Not sure.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? OMG-National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation....what else!
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I usually do a little beginning in November.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Probably.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Everything!
16. Lights on the tree? Tons of white lights. We at least always get our lights on...there was one year that the tree didn't even get decorated. That had been a rough year. That was also the year that I won Best Mom Ever!
17. Favorite Christmas song? Carol of the Bells and also Mary Did You Know.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Christmas Eve is always at my parents and Christmas morning is always spent at hme. Christmas dinner is either at Mike's mom's or my PawPaw's in Bauxite.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen. Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen. Oh, and of course Rudolph. Did I ever tell you that my paternal grandfather's (Poppa) name was Rudolph? This is a 'getting to know you'!!!
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Growing up it was always Christmas Eve but now that i have kids we always open on Christmas morning.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The expense of it all.
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? No themes. I like a hodge podge of ornaments. Mostly from my kids.
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Refer back to # 15.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I would LOVE LOVE a new big fat camera!

Just a little more useless information that you probably wish you never knew about me.

Arthur Visits

Seems as though Mike has a new friend. His name is Osteoarthritis.

These are the pictures from his surgery. On this first set of pictures (2nd row) the frayed looking rope his Mike's ACL. He had this replaced back in 2004. The doctor trimmed (shaved) this up and the results are the 3rd row of pictures.

Now look closely at this set of pictures on the bottom row on the right. Now look at the bottom set of pictures on the bottom row. This is where the ACL comes out from behind the knee. Do you see that pinkish-reddish color right beside the ACL? This is arthritis. I thought some of these pictures were not so nice looking.

He's waiting on some miracle knee replacement to come along in the next decade or so.

Handmade Gift Giving

It's adds just the right touch to gift giving...handmade.

When you put so much thought, love and effort into your gifts....well, it just gives it the right touch.

Shhhh....it's a secret.

Don't tell all the girls on my Christmas list.

This is what they'll be getting from me.

I think I'll be gifting them in all the available fashionable colors.

On A Wascally Wasp Hunt

Back in the summer Mike took on the task of painting the trim on our house...preparing to later paint the entire house. He took off from work for three days and also worked the entire weekend on it. There was lots of caulking and scraping and such. It was over 100 degrees every day. Out of all of those days that he worked...he only got the front painted. And if you know our house - it's tiny.

He was on a wasp hunt the entire time!

We always have tons of wasp around our house. A few years ago one of our neighbors saw him outside trying to fight wasps and he let him in on a little secret.

To kill a wasp this is what you need.

A powerful water gun!

One of the boys (I don't remember which one) used to call it a sooker soaker (remember the super soaker's?)

You need a sooker soaker and a little dish washing detergent. Ivory liquid, Dawn...whatever you prefer.

Mix a little in the water of your sooker soaker...be sure and get it sudsy.

Now your on the wascally wasp hunt.

(You have to say that in the voice of Porky Pig)

But the key is...

To get them before they get you.
See photo Below.

He got gotten before they got getted.

On the lip.

It was nice, fat and luscious (despite all those gray hairs in that goatee)

Just perfect for kissing.

Those dern wasp tortured him the entire time!

He was up and down that ladder SO many times.

And because he was up and down the ladder so much his knee gave him fits. It was after this little painting vacation that he decided he had to have something done to the jacked up knee.

This is one of my favorite parts to my beloved!

I love me some Mikey legs.

Oh yeah!
This is where most of those varmints live.
Mike's chosen weapon of death.

This is a totally random post isn't it?

Oh well....enjoy.

Favorite Foto(s) Friday 11/21/2008

LOVE-LOVE-LOVE this picture.

That's Carson that Mike is doing the circus trick with.

Mike always loved to show it off and our babies always loved to perform it...especially Carson.

I love that Carson was wearing a gown in this picture, too. I think gowns on itty-bitty ones are so sweet. I do remember that this gown was huge so he wore it for a while otherwise he would have already outgrown the normal newborn gowns.

This is a picture (although not a very good one) of Peepaw (Mike's Daddy) holding Mike the same way!

He is so much like his Daddy in every way possible!

Has Anyone Noticed?

Maybe it's just me. In regards to one of the elementary schools that must be moved because of a compromised roof...this is what I have noticed: in the news and in this recent press release the church that is being referred to (where the school will be moving) is just plain First Assembly Church.

I always thought it was First Assembly of God.

I took a look at their website and sometimes they even refer to themselves simply as First Assembly.

I personally like the God part of it left in there.

Shoot The Turkey

What's with all the shooting games?

I l ike this one a lot better than the last.

I got ALL the turkeys!