Haiku Wednesday

It's Matthew's birthday (7)

been on the xbox all day

just pausing to puke

(poor kid.  I'm pretty sure it's ecoli- I always tell the kids to wash their hands after touching the turtle, but do they listen?  Well, most of the time, yes, they do)

Out of Towners day 1

Merry Christmas, y'all. I hope everyone had a mahvelous holiday.  We just got home today and I had a blast. 

We went up to UT last week to spend Christmas with my family- it usually should take about 11-12 hours to get there, but we got a late start, were rerouted in Phoenix around some homicide for which they closed off a section of grand ave., took the car to AutoZone in Wickenburg to check a mysterious transmission error(turned out ok) and drove through a snowstorm in the mountains in the middle of the night (could only see the taillights in front of us and sometimes nothing at all), so it took ummmmmm FIFTEEN. yes. one. five.We got there at 5:00 in the morning.  After about 3.5 hours of sleep, we ate breakfast with the family, chit-chatted for a few hours, and then went to the park with all the kids.

random playground in Springville, UT with the cousins- there was snow on the other side of the park which you can't see in this picture..... I swear it.

Me and Matt.  Yes, I know you can't see my hands-they were cold!!

My toes were frozen when we left.  Dang ventilated hiking shoes.  I forgot that they were so breathable. booo.

Since we all had icicles hanging from our noses we came home and watched some movies and messed around (Aaron slept), then went caroling around the neighborhood with REAL candles...oooooooh...  It was so chilly I even had some double hoodie action going on.  alls I gotta say is burrr (obviously this is not REALLY alls I have to say since this post continues, but you get the point.  One should not be able to see their breath while inside a vehicle. savvy?) And then back home jiggedy jig for my brother's Mexican hot chocolate. 

Matt, Eve, Megan, Willam

Older bro Rob, younger sis Katie (8 mos pregnant), me (makeupless-aren't you lucky), mom.

Abuelita's Hot Chocolate- we were being dumb and acting like it was a picture for a commercial......*wink*

After examining the actual Abuelita (spanish for "Grandma") used on the cover of the packaging (seen above in Rob's lovely Vanna hands), supermodels Kate-mo and Demi tried to recreate her pose in their rendition of "still life with hot chocolate" aka "Double Chins never looked so good"

Katie dont kill me!!!  I LOVE this picture :) We are dorks hee hee AND I love that 80s country mug.... reminds me of home.

By the way, did you know that if you leave a candy cane in your hot chocolate it dissolves the inside of the candy cane, making it like a straw???  Not only absolutely interesting, but scrumptious, too. Who knew? 

Unfortunately for you, the pictures of me drawing on Aaron's face with eyeliner while he's napping on the couch are still on my dad's camera so you'll have to wait to see those.... That concludes our picture post for day one.... stay tuned for more soon!

Hasta.

(Although I know hasta is spelled this way I originally put asta so that people would pronounce it correctly.  Aaron scolded me and said "just because people don't say it correctly doesn't mean you should spell it differently.  People say worcestershire wrong all the time, but you don't see people spelling it wrong for their benefit")

I'm a Leaky Faucet

I have cried a lot this week. It's been a good week.  Ha ha- I bet you didn't expect that.  Yes, I have been crying for a lot of good reasons.  Things I've finally overcome through figurative blood sweat and tears.  Things I've accomplished and am proud of (an especially difficult run in a Mozart Aria that I nailed in Vocal Juries today).  Beautiful music. Fruition of some academic dreams(I bet you can guess what that one is).  The Muppet movie. That was the most recent thing ;)  The Muppets were an integral part of my childhood.  Seeing them again in all their glory made me a little misty-eyed tonight.
Some of these reasons seem so silly, but they touched my heart and made me teary-eyed all the same.  Perhaps my lack of sleep has something to do with it.  Well, finals week will be over on Thursday.  I'll be at school all of those last four days, but hopefully I'll be able to sleep this week.  Last week, not so much.
I'm excited to go to my HS friends' christmas sock exchange lunch tomorrow at Crackers and Co in Chandler (...errrr....Gilbert?). I love that place. and I love my hhs girls.  I should have pics to post.  We all bring a cute pair of christmas socks wrapped up and do an exchange.  I might even wear something Christmasy, who knows? ;)
Good Night one and all-  I'm going to go cry myself to sleep. LOL nah, not really... but I just might read the third Fablehaven book....

Twas the month after Christmas...............

Twas the month after Christmas and all through the house

Nothing would fit me, not even a blouse.

The cookies I'd nibbled, eggnog I did taste.

All the holiday parties had gone to my waist.

When I got on the scales there arose such a number!

When I walked to the store (less a walk than a lumber).

I'd remember the marvelous meals I'd prepared;

The gravies and sauces and beef nicely rared,

The wine and the rum balls, the bread and the cheese

And the way I'd never said, "No thank you, please."

As I dressed myself in my husband's old shirt

And prepared once again to do battle with dirt --

I said to myself, as I only can

"You can't spend a winter disguised as a man!"

So--away with the last of the sour cream dip,

Get rid of the fruitcake, every cracker and chip

Every last bit of food that I like must be banished

Till all the additional ounces have vanished.

I won't have a cookie--not even a lick.

I'll want only to chew on a long celery stick.

I won't have hot biscuits, or corn bread, or pie

,I'll munch on a carrot and quietly cry.

I'm hungry, I'm lonesome, and life is a bore --

But isn't that what January is for?

Unable to giggle, no longer a riot.

Happy New Year to all and to all a good diet!

- Anonymous

Christmas a bit delayed

Hey friends and family- I thought February would be a good time to post about our christmas... he he. sorry it's taken so long!

Well, I guess I should take this chronologically......
First, the christmas tree. The poor poor christmas tree....

First of all, I can't complain because we got this twig of a tree for free from someone on freecycle last year, but it's seen better days. When it came to decorating this thing, we couldn't find our christmas box with all of our ornaments (I think maybe it got thrown out on accident- either that or burried too deep in our storage closet to ever make it out). Anywho, we didn't want to go and buy new ornaments since we were a little short on the moolah, so i sat down with a pair of skizzers and cut all these bad boys out---
here are a few that I liked
now you might ask, what is a mallet doing on your tree??? well, if it's got one of these, it got hung by the kids no matter what. I laughed histerically for a few minutes after I found it hanging on here!

On Christmas eve I realized that we had no stockings to hang since they were in the same box as the ornaments, so I real quick (a little too quickly) sewed some stockings for us and the kids. Unfortunately I wasn't very careful when cutting them out with the rotary cutter and sliced a bit of my fingertip off (on the right). not too big a chunk, but it didn't feel too hot....

Christmas Morning- lots of fun presents and we had fun fishing with the santa fishermen stocking stuffers

The aftermath....Later we went to Grandma and Grandpa Shumway's house for presents and then family brunch-

Grandma Shumway made a Dorothy outfit for Megan's American Girl Doll- It matches her halloween costume- in fact it was made out of the left over fabric :o)

Matthew got a fur-real friend puppy dog that barks and wags it's tail. He thought it was for Megan and tried to give it to her when he opened it (she's got 2 other fur-real friend pets so he thought it was a girly toy). Megan ended up crying about it and Matthew was still confused by the whole thing. They've resolved the whole thing. Here they are with their pets:

Aaron's aunt Susie made some cute confections for the brunch. Here is my favorite- it's a christmas mouse which consists of a chocolate covered cherry stuck to a hershey kiss with peanut ears, heart sprinkle eyes and nonpareil nose all held together with chocolate "glue." It was so cute I HAD to take a picture with my NEW CAMERA!

Karen ended up getting the same camera that Aaron got me so we had lots of fun trying out the cool features on our new toys.... here are a few silly "art" pictures I took. Everyone was laughing at us as we posed different center pieaces or salt and pepper shakers to photograph. Now I'm wishing I had taken more group pictures of family. oh well.

I think that my favorite picture of the day was this one of Matthew posing in front of the rainbow as we were leaving.
All in all a good Christmas.....

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!

Elf Yourself!

This is SO funny! My friend, Karen Andersen sent me this (thanks Karen!) and I had to share it with you all..... Follow the link- It might take a couple minutes to load but it's worth it!!!!
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9611140303