Benjamin Button

Went and saw it last night and it's a good movie but I had no idea it was almost 3 hours long! It was pretty surreal watching Brad play the old man. It sounded like him but of course didn't look like him. Finally towards the end you could see the Brad that we are all used to.

I could just eat him up!

Cards

We taught the boys how to play the card game, Phase 10, Christmas night and they can't get enough of it! We've played it every night since, except for Sunday. Whew!

The best part of it is Aidan's attitude. He hasn't won yet but his goal is to just get to a higher phase than before! He's such a cool kid.

Back to normal for a few days at least.

Well, Christmas is over but now New Year's is on the way. So this week will be semi-normal until Thursday, when I'll probably be tackling the job of putting away all of the Christmas decorations. (It feels like I just put them all up!)

Watched the movie, "Seven Pounds" and I won't say much about it except that it really touched me. I mean really touched me, touched me so much that I was bawling. Josh tried to talk to me as we where leaving the theater but I couldn't even talk or I would have really fallen apart. I am a crier at movies but seldom do I really lose it. Although I think anyone with a heartbeat would be affected by this movie. If anything - hopefully it makes you think.

Merry Christmas to all!

From our family to yours!

My heart just sank.

I hadn't checked on my friends in blogland until just now. I'm so sad to say that Emilie passed away last night. Life is too short guys. Please keep her husband and her two little boys in your prayers.

Treats are done

and handed out. I like to give an assortment of Christmas goodies out. They go to our next door neighbors, our milk man, our post man, our trash men, and a few family friends. Here's what they look like:

We have rocky road fudge, white chocolate covered pretzels, an assortment of holiday chocolate, rice krispy treats (Yes, I redid them. I could never have handed out the previous bricks.), and milk chocolate covered pretzels.

A little advice...

If you don't have to go to a store right now - DON'T! I went somewhere to just get a few odds and ends yesterday afternoon and it was a complete madhouse. The store, the parking lot, the roads!

Also, when making rice crispy treats make sure to add enough marshmallows or they will turn into crispy bricks! I tried to tell Aidan it was a rice crispy cracker but that didn't even work. Plus, your arm will be so sore after stirring the crispy mix! (Much respect to you Von!)

It's a Monday all right!

My car did not want to start this morning!!! Finally I got it but geez, that was a bit scary. It must have been the cold weather. I'll be crossing my fingers now every time I go to start it. But that's really a small thing in comparison with what other's in this world are dealing with.

I was really saddened to read the current post on Lemmondrops (her blog link is on the right hand side). I can't even imagine everything that her family and her are going through right now. Please keep them in your prayers.

Gingerbread ?????

Tristan was to make a gingerbread house during his Christmas party at school. You can imagine my shock when he came home with this:

I immediately thought that something had happened on the way home and that his poor little house had toppled over. That wasn't it! He decided to make a car instead of a house!

The gingerbread car!

Ready to go!

It's the first day this week that Opal will be able to stay outside. Finally we are expecting sun and to be above freezing. And she's ready for it!

Cute huh?

This is how cold it is:

This is one of our little ponds along the walkway to the employee entrance at work.

Even the waterfall is frozen! (Back behind Mary)

It's cold!! I did see the sun a bit when I went out for lunch. Funny how a little sunshine seems to warm you right up.

Greaaaat Weekend!

Wow, so much to cover - I'll just jump right in!

Tristan had a basketball and indoor soccer game all within 4 hours on Saturday. He was nervous before each one (could you imagine any different? ha!) but had great games that were out of this world! In basketball he scored quite a bit (I couldn't keep track). He made his jump shots and his free throws. He was a bit aggressive though and ended with 4 fouls. One more and he would have been out of the game. In indoor soccer - he's started with a new team; it's 5 girls and 5 boys. Their name is YingYang and the game was fantastic. Tristan had 3 goals, one which was made from the mid-line of the field. Who would have thought the 10 yr olds would play so well in the 12 yr olds bracket?

Bet you are wondering where Aidan was during all of this? He had a birthday party to go to and was very excited about it. I didn't give it a second thought until we walked into the house. I was almost knocked over by the smell of cigarrette smoke. The mother even had one going in the kitchen when we arrived. (to her credit she did put it out when I walked over) Anyway, I honestly had second thoughts about leaving him but he really wanted to be there. She did ask if he could spend the night but that wasn't happening. I told her we had other plans. Unfortunately, I don't think the party lived up to the expectations that Aidan had - he kept trying to explain to Tristan how their house smelled! (Especially when we walked past someone currently smoking!)

It is so cold here right now. Probably the coldest I've ever known it to be, so cold that when you walk outside the hairs in your nose freeze! This morning it was -3 and about 10 am it was 1! Doesn't look like it will get much warmer until Thursday so guess we will be snuggling quite a bit!

What else? Oh yeah - my Cowboys won and I won our football picks this week!

OCD

Okay, for those of you that know me pretty well you know I have a bit of OCD. There are a few things that I'm pretty obsessive about but Tristan has taken the cake. He can not stand to have a loose tooth in his mouth! It drives him bonkers and he wants it out not soon but NOW!

Last night I thought he had gone to bed to only find him in the bathroom mirror pushing/pulling on this tooth with tears streaming down his face. It was 10:00! He just looked at me and said, "this tooth is coming out." I gave him until I was done washing my face and told him that after that he was going to bed. Of course he didn't get it out. I checked it and it really isn't ready to come out yet. He had his gums so swollen from the pushing/pulling that I gave him a pain reliever to help with that.

This morning I checked on it again and it's tightened back up a bit. I talked with him and explained that he needed to leave it be so that we don't have any damage/infection problems with it but I could just see the pain in his eyes. Wow, this might become a big issue.

On top of all of that I made him wear a pair of pants to school today that he felt were too short. (They are brand new and were picked out and tried on by him. They just didn't hit the floor just right in the back so they are deemed "unwearable.") I could have just screamed!

Wow!

Look what Josh got for me after his week long business/family trip. I was completely shocked but very happy! Aren't they gorgeous?

Snow day today!

School was cancelled today due to the storm we had last night. It really wasn't unbearable but it was pretty cold. Needless to say, I took the day off also. Are you surprised? It doesn't seem like I have much willpower to pass these up nowadays. I find myself praying for them almost as much as the boys do.

I was shoveling the driveway an hour ago and someone from the news station drove up and got out with his camera. He asked to film me shoveling. I really didn't want to but what the hell. Hopefully he didn't get any head shots since I hadn't even washed my face yet! As he left he told me that it was the best footage he had gotten all day. How sad!

Aidan's music program

Before the big show. Looking pretty sharp!

See Aidan in the front row on the end? He did great with the songs and all the movements.

Who would have known this was the same little boy that cried through his music program two years ago?

He actually enjoyed himself which was a complete surprise to us all. (Unlike Tristan who lip sings the entire program and never smiles.)

Look at his ending pose!

The boys (and girl) after the big night.

I can't believe he's almost as tall as me.

Proud mama I am!

Has this happened before?

Anyone else notice that Obama is surrounding himself by the people who were originally running for presidency against him? I'm not sure if this is normal or not, I honestly haven't paid much attention to the other cabinets before. I like it though!

Of course you have Mr. Biden as VP. Josh and I really liked him during the early debates.

Then there's Hillary. You know that I supported her from the very beginning so I'm ecstatic that she may be our Secretary of State.

Now Bill Richardson as Commerce Secretary. He was another one in the early debates that we liked to listen to. Wow, can you tell we are Democrats?

Just imagine - if John Edwards wouldn't have messed up so badly he might have a job also. What a disappointment he's become.

Photo Tag - Late response!

Jen tagged me a long time ago; please forgive me Jen! I still don't feel like myself after entertaining for Thanksgiving and trying to get back into the swing of things now.

The rules say: Players look into their photo files, choose the sixth folder and then the sixth photo in that folder. Post that picture, and tell the story behind it.

The sixth folder is Tristan's 7th Birthday pictures. Aidan is five in this picture and he had just learned to wink! The box is from a birthday gift and we all know that sometimes the box is the best part!