Happy Anniversay To Me...

No, not my wedding anniversary. That will be in a few weeks. Today is mine and the girls' one year anniversay in Florida. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was driving down the FL turnpike, talking to my friend Audra on the phone, watching the fireworks from Disney off in the distance. And Audra was on the phone with me when I pulled up into our driveway and saw our house for the very first time. Our house is owned by the church, and prior to that night I had never seen it from the inside or the outside. How crazy is that? Cary had been here for a few weeks getting the house ready for us to move into and he wouldn't even show me pictures of it. That was a bit unnerving. Anyways, we spent New Year's Eve all camped out in the living room floor, mainly because our beds weren't put together. But also because we thought it would be a fun way for the girls to get used to sleeping in their new house without being afraid. The next day, we had our New Year's Day lunch from Taco Bellyache, I mean Taco Hell, I mean Taco Bell. Hmmm...maybe that should be a tradition. Not because I love Taco Bell, but because it beats cooking! And beans are beans. Black eyed peas, refried beans, what's the difference? I'M KIDDING! I got a new slow cooker for Christmas, so I'm defintely going to cook us up some peas tomorrow.

Tonight, Cary and I are going on a date. Our pastor is in school to get his doctorate degree and I'm his personal paper editor for all the assignments he turns in. So as an exchange for my efforts, his family is giving us some free babysitting tonight. We're going to use an Outback gift card given to us by a church member to eat a FREE meal and take advantage of our FREE childcare. WOOHOO!

Everyone have a safe and happy New Year's Eve tonight. I have a feeling it's going to be a LONG NIGHT as a dog owner. The kids across the street have been shooting off fireworks all day, which drives my dog CRAZY. Seriously, where are their parents???

Heartbreaker

I'm going to talk football for a sec, I know...shocking! Any other Aggies out there as heartbroken as I am this morning? I think I'd rather get outscored 42 to zip than to go down the way we went down last night. I can't stop reliving 4th and inches with 5 minutes left in the game. Down my 7, on the 1 yard line. (A 98 yard drive) Seemed like an easy feat. You could have given PennState a heads up..."Hey guys, we're going to send Javorskie Lane up the middle, okay?"...and they couldn't have stopped him. I've seen that kid drag a whole defensive line down field 10 yards before! He could have gotten that ball into the endzone to tie the game. He has that intensity when the game's on the line. I think he would run through FIRE to win the game for us. Instead, some IDIOT calls some other ridiculous play. We'll never know what that play was b/c Stephen McGee tripped and fell without being touched. And I'm not upset at him. God knows he's given his all for this team. I've seen him upchuck on the field and keep on playing. Love that kid!

I saw them play with intensity and heart last night. They were fightin' for that one. And they deserved that win more than Penn State did. In my opinion. Cause I'm biased. And it's my blog and I can state my opinions on my blog.

Another idiot call...2 min left in the game, 4th and 20, yes I know that's a long shot, but why did we not GO FOR IT???? We weren't going to get the ball back. Why not go for it when you're down? I've seen our offense do crazy things like that and actually make it happen when the heat is on and the game is on the line. That's when they seem to step up, so why did we not go for that one?

All I know is, GOOD RIDDENS Les Koenig (or however you spell his name)!

And to THE SHERMINATOR...Welcome to Aggieland. It's going to be a LONG offseason for me.

THANK GOD we have an awesome basketball team these days. #11? I think? And baseball is ranked pretty high too, I believe, which will be starting soon. Something to occupy my one track Aggie brain in the offseason.

Gig'Em Ags and Happy Birthday Honey Bun

Starting with the love of my life, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Well, his birthday was actually Wednesday but today is the day we're celebrating with his family. I love you honey bun!!!!

And it wouldn't be Aggie game day without an Aggie related post. Gig'Em Ags...BTHO Penn State! I had to order tickets to the game for my mom and my cousins and it was very painful knowing I was not ordering a ticket for myself. But I will be there in spirit to support my Ags. (And my butt will be parked on the couch for 4 hours this evening as well!) And we're invading the state of Alabama with our Texas A&M gear today.

When I get home, I will post lots of Christmas pics for all you friends and family afar, including Lexi and Ashton's rendition of "The Christmas Story", the REAL Christmas story from Luke 2. HILLARIOUS!

Santa Was Here

Because I know you're all dying to know...

YES I GOT ALL OF MY REQUESTS FROM SANTA (that were posted on my blog over the last few months)

THINK PINK...
A pink laptop...the Dell 1721, 17 inch monitor, LOVE IT! (Equipped with Adobe Premiere for editing my videos, Adobe Photoshop Elements for editing my pictures and making my digital scrapbook pages, and Microsoft Office (which I wanted so I could have Publisher!!!)
A pink leather carrying case for my pink laptop
A pink digital camera
A pink leather carrying case for my pink digital camera
A video ipod (well, it was in my husband's stocking, but I'm going to let him think it's for him until I snatch it away!)
Lots of granny panties and nighties

And as an added bonus, we also got a Nintindo Wii gaming system with 4 games, a Cuisinart soft serve ice cream maker, and some shopping $$$$.

Santa was good...very very good!

What about you? Was santa good to you? What was your favorite gift (or least favorite?)

Everyone reply! Even all you bloggity friends that I don't even know who are on my blog every day. If you're reading this, you MUST reply! I just may go on strike and not make another post until EVERYONE replies. And don't think I won't know if you don't reply. I have a stat counter...I'm sneaky like that!

Let the replies begin!

Our First Floridian Christmas

Merry Christmas from the sunshine state! Christmas greetings from sunny Orlando! What is more Floridian than DisneyWorld? Last Tuesday, we went out to the Disney resorts with some friends just to see all the Christmas decorations. The girls had a great time! Just as we were walking into the Contemporary, Mickey and Minnie were walking in too so they were kind enough to stop for a quick photo. We also rode the monorail MANY times around the park. Oh and Cinderella's castle in Christmas lights...SPECTACULAR! There are no pictures that would do it justice. My favorite resort that I HIGHLY recommend if you ever come is the Animal Kingdom resort. BEAUTIFUL, very lodgy and rustic and you can see the animals from your balcony. There are zeebras, giraffes, antelope, and some other creatures I'm not familiar with roaming around about 10 feet from the building. AMAZING! I want to spend the night there just for the fun of it.

One of the store clerks at the Contemporary told us to put on these silly hats and she snapped a picture! They're all about customer service at Disney!

In front of the tallest tree I've ever seen...this was at the Grand Floridian.

This gingerbread house was at the Grand Floridian...beautiful, but don't let the pics fool you. It was wood up till the roof line.

DisneyWorld...The Happiest Place On Earth...

Or is it???

Ashton says it's the SCARIEST place on earth! (Note to self...Pirates of the Carribean...too much for 2 year old!)

Oh, but wait, it IS the happiest place on Earth!

These are just a few of our picks from our Disneyworld trip on Friday. A guy at our church got us in for FREE! WOOHOO! And as always, a great time was had by all. Although, I have to wonder if it's lost just a tad bit of its magic with our frequent Disney-going children. On the way there, Lexi was like, yeah, whatever, so we're going to Disneyworld, big deal. Ho hum! Does she not know that kids would DIE to go to Disney as often as she gets to go???

Santa's on HER way!

I say "her" because the Santa I'm referring to is GRANNY! That would be my mom. Her flight arrives at 7:35 E.T. so we will be headed to the airport in just a few. And my house is cleanliness to the max, which makes me VERY happy. Because you know how I feel about cleanliness. Tomorrow, Lexi has her school party, which Granny will attend. Then we're going to DISNEYWORLD for the rest of the day! How cool is that to just spend the afternoon at Disneyworld??? Sometime this weekend, we will make a gingerbread house and do lots of other super fun things I'm sure. I can't wait to give my mom her new camera!!!! She's going to LOVE taking pictures of her girls all weekend. And I can't wait for Cary to see his gift from my mom...it's HUGE and he's gonna LOVE it so much. I can't wait to see his face when he opens it. And of course I'm just a wee bit excited about getting my new computer! Life is good. And the best part is that you could eat dinner on my clean floors, they're so clean. (Of course then they wouldn't be so clean would they?)

I'm off to get Santa now! Ho ho ho!

New Blog I Heart

Love it love it love it! My friend, Keri, has this link on her blog and I just love it so much I had to pass it along.

http://tipjunkie.blogspot.com

I Love My Honey Bun

I am married to THE most awesome husband in the world! I'm so glad that gone are the June Cleaver days where the woman cleans house in high heals and pearls and everything is just perfect when her husband gets home from work. He eats his warm, home-cooked meal, then sits in the lazyboy and reads the paper and goes to bed while she does EVERYTHING! God knew I could NOT have survived in such a day and age. I am so thankful that my husband does not care what the house looks like when he gets home from work. He doesn't care if we have grilled cheese and tomato soup or Taco Bell for dinner. He doesn't care that his underwear drawer gets empty at least once a week and he occassionally has to do the "inside out" trick until I do laundry. He encourages me to get out of the house with a friend or by myself at least once a week in order to de-stress. He offers to do the laundry or clean the toilets when I get over my head in chores. He hires babysitters and plans dates for us. I love it that he calls me at least 5 times a day, not because he HAS to but because he WANTS to. He's totally comfortable taking care of the children, and I sometimes think he's better at it than me! We STILL enjoy each other's company so much and can spend hours just talking and laughing about everything under the sun. This is a man who has held me upright on the toilet while I had it coming out of both ends! And then cleaned up after me! Now that's love! When I think of how unfulfilled "June Cleaver" must have been, I get so sad. Not THE June Cleaver, but what she symbolizes, I mean!

My husband often says to me, "If you ever leave me, I'm coming with you!" Needless to say, he has nothing to worry about!

Lexi and Ashton in Their School Program

Here is a short clip of video from Lexi and Ashton in their school program last week. Lexi is an angel on the top row and Ashton's the one doing whatever she pleases on the bottom row.

Preschool Handbell Choir Performance

Okay, finally! Here is the video of our preschool handbell choir at church, which I lead, with a lot of help from my friend Carrie B. Hi Carrie! (She reads my blog!) Lexi is on the far end in a cute little Christmas dress. Aren't they funny and precious all at the same time????

The Pictures You've All Been Waiting For...

I finally had some time to run up to my husband's office today which means...bloggity pictures! My connection at home is too stinkin slow to post pictures from the house. AND...I'm also working on getting the youtube video. It's still downloading SLOWLY. So hopefully I'll have posted today as well. Fingers crossed. And now...drumroll please...

Lexi was an angel in her school Christmas program. The halo was a little crooked. I'm kidding! She was the PERFECT angel!

Ashton and her teacher, Ms. Kim

This was Asthon's position throughout most of the program. She was doing dare devil stunts off the stage, then rolling up in a ball for the crash landing! Hillarious!

Oops, there she goes. She had just made a jump.

Lexi, Ashton, and Lexi's best bud Caroline. Caroline is in her class and she goes to our church.

Lexi drew this on the road trip to Texas. Not sure why it's blog worthy, but I thought it was pretty impressive artwork for a 4 yr old. Her art has come SO FAR in a few short months. Very impressive.

And now...my neighbor's Christmas lights...

You just don't get the "full" effect in pictures.

This picture was NOT posed. Believe it or not. But funny nonetheless.

Midnight Shopping, Brrrr, High School Musical

So I spent the day yesterday organizing THE TOYS! Daaa...daa...daaaaaah! Oh the dreaded chore. But the toy areas were afright and I knew something had to be done before Santa's big arrival. So that's done and I feel better now.

After a day of organizing, I was ready to go to bed pretty early, but I knew I MUST get to Walmart at midnight for the big camera sale. (Mom, stop reading here please!) My Nanny gave me a mission to find the perfect digital camera for my mom for Christmas. And I just LOVE missions such as these because I'm a natural at spending other people's money. Just ask my mom! Anyhoo, in the Walmart circular last week I noticed a Kodak easy share, 8 MP, 3x optical zoom, for $89. And I used to have a Kodak easy share and knew it would be a good fit for Mom, as she's not the most technically minded person when it comes to personal technological devices such as cell phones and VCR's. (She doesn't even own a DVD player. Nor do I!) SO...I made a trip to Walmart at midnight JUST to get this camera because the sale didn't go into effect until midnight and I knew they'd be sold out by 7 a.m. I drug my friend, Milinda, with me. (But first we went to Sonic at 11 p.m. and waited for TWENTY FOUR MINUTES for a drink!) And then we ran into a church member at Walmart. How embarrassing that was! I had on no makeup and was in my "kickin' about clothes". Gotta love a small town! When I got to Walmart, there was no one in the photo section because after all, it was MIDNIGHT. So I had to have a manager paged and I was fully prepared to make my demands known and get out the boxin' gloves if needed to get my camera dern it! They gave me a little heck, but I think they knew I meant business. I was a momma on a mission AT MIDNIGHT! BUT it was all worth it b/c I was the FIRST one to get one of these jewels and I was so proud of my purchase! And I think Mom's going to LOVE it!

It's COLD here today. Icicles were hanging from my nose this afternoon when I went to Michael's and I just knew it had to be like 40 degrees. Nope. It was 60! WOW! How long have I been in Florida? There are lots of things that I like about Florida, but I have to say the WEATHER IS AWESOME! It fits me like a glove. I have learned over the past year that I really am a warm weather kind of girl. I love sunshine and warmth. It makes me happy. I hate cold! I love flip flops! And beaches! And being in the sunshine outdoors! But tomorrow is supposed to be REALLY cold. A low of 40 and a high of 52! That's really cold for Florida. But fortunately, it's only going to last for a day. The rest of the week, we'll be back in the 70's. Still a little too cool for me. I prefer about 85! But still nice and sunny!

And this is a funny conversation we had with Lexi today:

L: "Daddy, I want to go to a preschool for teenagers."

C: "That's called high school honey."

L: "Yeah. I want to go to high school. High school musical. That's where I want to go to school."

OH LORD! Help us! She hasn't even seen HSM. I guess she's seen the ads on the Disney Channel. Today after church, she insisted on dressing herself from her head to her toes. She had on a pink fruity headband, with the rest of her hair in a silver star pony tail holder. A yellow shirt, jean capris, socks (Ashton's socks I might add), red patten leather shoes, and she wanted to walk around talking to Granny on my PINK cell phone. 4 going on 14! Or 24!

But she's such a cutie pie! I could eat her up!!! Today, she told me that she would sleep on the bottom bunk and her husband could sleep on the top bunk. But then later she said her husband died because he was old. ????

Now pat yourself on the back for getting through this very long post about nothing.

A Cave Man Moment

Visualize...


I walked into the living room and something out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. "No, coulnd't be," I thought to myself. "That couldn't be my husband beating up a rug." I turned to look one more time. "It IS my husband beating up the rug!!!" (in case you're wondering...the rug was rolled up and laying across the couch because it I had just brought it in from outside where it was drying from getting a thorough clean job yesterday.)

"Honey, why...???...are...you...hitting the rug? What did that rug ever do to you???!!!"

"Oh, I'm just having a cave man moment."

"Oh. Carry on then." I walked away with a puzzled, but "whatever" look on my face. "I think we should just let him be, girls."

A few minutes later...

"So, can I ask, what's a cave man moment exactly?"

"Well, I hit my head on the cabinet and that gave me the need to hit something."

"Oh, I get it...like...ME CAVEMAN...ME HAVE PAIN IN HEAD...MUST GIVE SOMETHING ELSE PAIN IN HEAD!!!"

"Yeah, something like that."

"Why are you holding your hand funny? Did you hurt it while you were hitting, I mean beating up the rug?"

"Yeah." Cave man doubles over in pain. "Must go hit something else for my pain in hand."

"Hey, there's another rug that needs to be shaken and beat outside. Will that work?"

Men!!!

I mean Cave men!!!

I'm Official!

Cary and I are OFFICIALLY Florida residents now. A whole year later, we FINALLY have our Florida driver's license. We went to the bureau this morning and took care of that and they printed them while we waited. In Texas, you have to wait a few weeks to get it in the mail. So I was very excited to receive instant gratification! There was just one part of my experience today that just about sent me over the edge. Now, I like people of all races, genders, religions, political parties, blah blah blah. I'm really not a bigot or anything, but I know this statement may cause you to think differently.

The lady handed me a form to fill out...in SPANISH! I was like, ??????? Hello?????? I'm a gringo! Do I scream out SPANISH SPEAKER to anyone? Just checking! Anyways, she then pointed out to me that the English translation to each question was in fine print in parentheses below each Spanish question. Is anyone else bothered by this, or is it just me? Isn't the official language of this country still ENGLISH? I couldn't believe my eyes. Shouldn't it have been the other way around? The form should have been in English, with the Spanish translation in parentheses? And I had to check off "Si" or "No" on each question. Now because I'm no dummy I do know that "Si" means yes. But it's the principle of it all that gets to me. Am I being ridiculous? Because if I am, just tell me to shut up and write about something "blog worthy".

Anyways, so I left kind of puzzled and maybe a tiny bit angered. Not at the lady, but at the idiot that devised this form! So I thought what better way to get out my frustrations than to go eat some Mexican food! So I did. And all is well in the world. Muey Bien!

Daddy Elfed Himself

I don't know about you but I've gotten this "Elf Yourself" email from just about everyone I know this season and it was cute the first few times but now I'm kind of over it. So yesterday, Cary saw one for the first time and was JUST DYING to elf our whole family (and put it on our blog) but I was having no part of it. Cause, you know, I just LOVE the season and all!

So, Daddy elfed himself instead and it really is kind of funny. I really can see him dancing this way. He's kind of goofy like that!

Enjoy!
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1362018937

Break Up???

My friend, Audra, and I have joked in years past about crossing people off the Christmas card list and how that is an indicator that we're "breaking up" with that friend. She used to say, "So I'll know when I don't get a Christmas card from you that you've broken up with us?" Yes, it's sad but true. I mean, let's face it. Doesn't everyone trim down their list each year, crossing off the people you haven't heard from all year to make room for their new friends? Or am I the only one who does this? Thus we call it "breaking up" cause you know I have to maintain my "friend quota" and once I reached that quota, well, too bad for everyone who didn't make the cut!

Okay, I'm only half way kidding.

But all that to say, I'M NOT BREAKING UP WITH ANYONE THIS YEAR! I'm just not sending out cards at all! Because I don't have time for perfection. And I can't seem to settle for anything less than perfection. Therefore, there will be no cards. So you can breathe a sigh of relief. The Texas Aggie in Florida is not breaking up with anyone this year!

Merry Christmas!

There, consider yourselves "Merry Christmased" by our family!

Technology is Humbling...

Amen?

Okay thank you all for your input into streaming video. I think I can figure it out now. A firewire cable huh? Why didn't I think of that! And guess what? When I told my husband that was all I needed, he was like, "Uh, yeah, I could have told you that part. I have one in my office. I use it all the time." He edits videos on a mac, but never puts them on youtube or anywhere online, just burns them to DVD's so when I asked him how to put a video on youtube, he acted like I was speaking a foreign language. Thus my plea for help.

Grrrrrrrrr....MEN!

So how is it possible that a girl who can figure out most anything on the computer still requires assistance changing the ink cartridge on the printer?

Tonight, I'm printing my MOPS newsletters that I need by 8 a.m. which I didn't start on till 2 this afternoon because I forgot about them since I spent all weekend worrying about my little handbell players but I made my newsletters while I was "baking" 3 dozen cookies for a school musical and 3 more dozen for my meeting tomorrow and washing 4 loads of clothes including 2 Christmas dresses which they needed for the musical tonight and trying to figure out what hot dish to make for my meeting in the morning and pondering WHEN in the world I might have time to get around to those darn Christmas cards all while refereeing a dozen or so fights with the tots and mostly with one or both of them in my lap. Deep breath! Sigh! Who says stay at home moms have dull lives? (FYI...when I say "baking" I mean calling my husband frantically to beg him to stop at the store and BUY some cookies!!!!)

Anyways, back to printing. So I ran out of black ink and remembered I had an extra cartidge in my stash. But oh no...Cary was in the bathroom when it was time to put the thing in. What shall I do??? I was in deep thought. If I put it in myself, it could implode...or explode...or...it might just work for once. If I wait for him to come out and do it for me, it could take HOURS! So I went the option of possible implosion.

I trembled with fear as I opened the cartridge door and pulled out the first cartridge and slid in the new one. But done in a flash! Okay, I thought. Not so bad. Hot diggity, I think I just changed a printer cartridge...ALL BY MYSELF!

However, when I began to print...Nothin'...Nada!

"HONEY!!!!!"

He came running out of the bathroom with his pants down. "Wha, what is it?"

"This...dad...gummed...printer...ISN'T...WORKING...GRR...*#$^#%&*#!#*#$"

Sensing my frustrations, he pulled out the printer cartridge just to check and see if I had put it in the correct way and found...

are you ready...

that piece of tape you're supposed to remove from the back side that keeps it from drying out!

Yup! That's right! I'm an idiot! A humble idiot!

Such Helpful Friends You Are

Thank you for all the wonderful emails about posting videos. What great friends I have!!!!

But I guess I should have been more specific...how do I get the video OFF OF THE CAMCORDER and onto the computer screen??? Like a special cable that plugs into the computer or do I have to burn it to a DVD first???

And how do I get JUST the part of the camcorder tape I want on that video rather than the WHOLE tape?

I'm pretty sure I can figure it out once I get it ON blogger or youtube, but it's actually getting it on there that confuses me to pieces!!!

Okay, let the help session resume!

Uncharted Territory

This may seem like a dumb question to some of you technological whipper snappers, but HELP! The one area of uncharted territory I have yet to conquer in the area of technology is with streaming video. And it can't be rocket science because everyone's doing it. Please save me from doing the research b/c quite frankly, I don't have time! I want to put a video from my camcorder onto youtube or blogger video. How would I go about that? I want to put last night's video of my preschool handbell choir (which Lexi was in) on my blog so y'all can see what a hoot it was!

And if it's like most areas of technology, there's probably a gazillion ways to accomplish this one thing, so everyone who does this, please post how you go about it.

Thanks!!!!

Texas Tree/"Mommy, Watch This"/Pray For Me Tomorrow...

My two lil' cowgirls, helping us decorate the tree! That cowboy hat is now our tree topper and YES, we did say the pledge to the Texas flags as we put them on the tree!

A mixture of total goodness...is what describes this post.

1. Hear ye hear ye...my tree is decorated! After standing bare in my living room for the past week, it has finally been adorned with total "Texas-ness". The first year we were married, Cary and I walked into a chick-fil-a one Saturday morning for breakfast and their tree totally spoke to us. Not really. But I thought it heard it scream, "YOU NEED A TREE LIKE ME IN YOUR HOUSE!" It had red bandanas, rafia bows, chili peppers, and a cowboy hat on top. We immediately decided we wanted to have a Texas tree. So we went to Hobby Lobby and it must have been fate because all of the ornaments were 50% off and there were a ton of Texas ornaments. We also bought some Texas bluebonnets, yellow roses of Texas, some small Texas flags, and some red bandanas. And for the past 7 years, we've had a Texas tree, the ornaments growing in number each year. Oh yes, we have armadillos, cowbells, boots, chili pepper stars, lots of Aggie ornaments, rafia bows, and our cowboy hat on top with a pair of cowboy boots underneath on top of the tree skirt. And who knew that one day we would be living outside of Texas, which just makes our tree all the more special! So we decorated the tree while listening to Country Christmas music. You know, had to stick with the theme!

I know you can't tell, but there are red lights on it. I guess my flash made them disappear. This tree sort of has a funny Charlie Brown kind of shape to it. Oh well! It really is cute. The pictures don't do it justice.

I spy a yellow rose of Texas, a cowboy hat, 3 bluebonnets, two raffia bows, a cactus, and armadillo, a chili pepper, and ??? I don't know what else I see.

2. Lexi's latest trick...she says, "Mommy, watch this" as she leaves the room in a huff angry about something. She wants to make sure I SEE HER WITH MY EYES as she shows her attitude about things. Here's an example. Ashton got the last container of yogurt because Lexi was busy chowing down on corn. And when she asked for yogurt and I explained it was all gone she said, "Mommy, watch this" and she stormed off to her room with her bottom lip poked out. Hillarious! Four going on fourteen!

3. PRAY FOR ME TOMORROW as my little 4, 5, and 6 year old hand bell players perform at church tomorrow night. LORD, HELP ME! I'm not asking for perfection. I just kind of want us to all get on the stage without dropping any bells, clanging them around, and I'd kind of like for them to stand with their legs TOGETHER and for no one to stick out their tongues as they play...ALL OF WHICH have happened in our rehearsals! In reality I know that no matter what happens, they're so darn cute that it doesn't really matter! But (near) perfection sure would be nice.

So Did I Tell You About My Neighbor...

God love him! Shortly after moving to town, Cary and I noticed that every Tuesday night, our neighbor's front yard turns into a parking lot and his back yard turns into a Bingo hall! Complete with a Johnny Cash impersonator. Every week. Johnny Cash. I know what you're thinking. I thought he was dead too. But not so. He is alive and well in Central Florida. He even has a TOUR BUS! Which is also parked in the front yard. Yes, it's a LOVELY neighborhood. Oh, I almost forgot the hot tub. So picture this. 20 or so very elderly people, drinking God only knows what, sitting in the hot tub, listening to Johnny Cash and playing Bingo. Sounds like a good time. On Tuesday nights we go to bed listening to "I fell in to a burning ring of fire...B14, I 3...and I go down down down in a ring of fire, a ring of fire...N42...G7...." I'm really not kidding. Because you know, it woulnd't be a set up without a microphone.

I keep waiting for my Tuesday night invitation and after almost a year, I'm starting to feel ...well...a little snubbed. But I shouldn't complain, I mean he did give us our very own copy of "Johnny's" latest CD. Let me clarify, the FAKE Johnny has a CD of himself singing like the REAL Johnny. Is that legal?

So anyways, my neighbor, probably about 70ish, who always wears a button down country boy shirt with the sleeves cut off, you know, to show his muscles, apparently REALLY LOVES CHRISTMAS! He started putting out his Christmas lights the week after Thanksgiving. I guess that would be last week huh? It feels like forever ago. He started on Monday and each day I would think, "Okay surely he's done now." But each day, he would work from sun up to sun down. He promised he'd be done by Saturday. Saturday came and went. He's been putting things on his lawn for almost TWO WEEKS straight! And the results? Very interesting. Dancing polar bears with penguins (complete with "the clapper...clap on...clap off...the clapper" which makes them dance). Lights. Santa with 4 reindeer. Not sure what happened to the other 4. Lights. A nativity in front of a "fire place". Santa on a trailer. Candy canes. Did I mention lights?

So Cary went over today to "talk smack" and let him know that when we finally get around to taking down the scarecrow, he just better watch out, cause you know, we're gonna show him up! (Right!) Okay, are you ready for this....Are you sitting down??? His last house...BURNED TO THE GROUND because of the Christmas lights display! That was 5 years ago and his wife almost DIED with 3rd degree burns! This is the 1st year that they have done the lights again.

I should post pictures huh? All in favor of pictures?

Deep Fried Balls of Heaven

So show of hands, who has had the Sonic cheesecake bites? I like to call them my lil' deep fried balls of Heaven! They have made their 2nd annual appearance at Sonic and I, for one, couldn't be happier! They defy the laws of gravity, you know? How do you FRY A CHEESECAKE??? I don't really know, nor do I care, as long as I can have some occassionally. And here's a tip. Last year, they served them with rasberry dipping sauce (TO DIE FOR) and this year they are serving them with caramel...GAGARONI! SO...I bought my own dipping sauce. Yes, I did! Some would call this an illness. I just like to call it a very wise southern women who loves her some deep fried balls of Heaven!

To steal a line from my favorite TV show, King of Queens, "If eatin' this is bad, I don't wanna be right!"

Speaking of yumminess, has anyone seen that commercial for...um....actually I have no idea what the commercial is advertising, but it says something like, "Tis the season to throw the food pyramid out the window" and it shows this lady sticking her whole face in one of those chocolate fountain fondue pots? HILLARIOUS!

Holiness

Or should I say HOLEYNESS...If you're really excited about the pastor's wife FINALLY posting a spiritually related blog, I'm sorry to disappoint. This has nothing to do with anything spiritual, except for how Heavenly a good pair of granny panties can be!

Back up, YES, I WEAR GRANNY PANTIES! Okay? And I LOVE them! They're SO comfortable. It all started with my first pregnancy and I just never looked back. I never knew such comfort existed. You should try them. Really! (And for the record, my husband thinks they're sexy!) You watch, one day someone will tell Victoria this secret!

Okay, so onto "holeyness". Over the years, usually around, oh, December 25th, Santa makes his annual trip to the good ol' vanity fair outlet in order to add to my granny panty collection and I say "add to" because I can't ever seem to throw any of them away. I just ADD TO the panty drawer. Granted, 3/4 of them are hanging on BY A THREAD, but you see, by having, say, 14 pairs, one does not have to do nearly as much laundry. You catch my drift??? And I bathe twice a day (because cleanliness is next to Godliness), so you do the math!

Well, we now have an "issue" in this household because my dearly beloved has taken it upon himself to DISPOSE of my holey panties. He INSISTED on doing the laundry this weekend, and who am I to argue with such a plea, so I sat on the couch and watched football, all the while he was going through my panties, with alterier motives I have now discovered! And today when I went through the garbage dumpster (LONG STORY, I was in search of something else) I noticed there were over HALF of my panties IN THE DUMPSTER!!!!

Now, this has posed a serious threat to my standard of living, I tell you. Do you know what this means? It's cataclismic in nature! I NOW HAVE TO DO LAUNDRY! Like every day!

So Santa, dear Santa, PLEASE, I beg of you, bring me some new granny panties! And put Cary on your naughty list!

Eat, Sleep, Dream...

Mission accomplished! I have officially succeeded in brainwashing my 4 yr old to eat, sleep, and now dream TEXAS A&M!

This morning when Lexi woke up, she came running into the living room and shouted, "Mommy, Mommy, I had a dream!"

"Oh yeah? What about?" I was secretly hoping this was a prophetic dream that I would get skinny, get a house cleaning robot for Christmas, or even better that the Aggies would win a national championship in my lifetime!

"I was on the Aggies! I played basketball. And I was 4 just like I am now. And I couldn't reach the basket, so this big tall Aggie guy lifted me up on his shoulders so I could make the basket and we won the game!"

"WOW!" (This was even better than being skinny!)

And as I swelled with Aggie pride and wiped the tears from my eyes I said, "You make Momma so proud baby!"

Bah Humbug!

This is my absolute LEAST favorite time of the year for so many reasons. Christmas kind of makes me nautious, I hate it so much! And don't even try to preach to me about the importance of Jesus's birthday. I get that part! And celebrating His birth is the only thing that truly give me joy about this season.


In honor of my 200th post, I shall post 20 things I hate about Christmas...


1. Christmas music! GAG! And it's on every station.

2. Christmas shopping! I hate crowds. I hate the lines. I hate the parking lots. I hate how it's so hot in the stores because of all the extra bodies. I hate Christmas shopping!

3. Undecorating the house so I can decorate for Christmas only to undecorate before Jan 1 and redecorate everything back to normal.

4. Christmas trees! What a mess! And for those that hate the paganistic beliefs of Halloween, I hate to break it to you, but you do know the Christmas tree has its origins as a pagan ritual? Uh huh...they usesd to hang dead bodies on the trees!

5. What does getting everything I want on my wish list have to do with Jesus's birthday? Honestly?

6. It's JESUS'S birthday, yet why do we give gifts to everyone BUT Him?

7. As a kid, I always hated the family gatherings on Christmas. Some members of my family are a little "rough" and it always resulted in yelling, fighting, and people commenting on my extreme shyness which I hated. I just wanted to be invisible in the corner of the living room! Which is why I HATE it when people make comments on my kids being shy...JUST LET THEM BE!

8. The dreaded chore of putting away all those Christmas gifts after opening them on Christmas morning.

9. Nothing is open on Christmas day! So you're stuck in the house all day!

10. All the holiday parties! UGH! Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for those willing to open their homes, but I come home feeling so defeated by my less than perfect decorations!

11. Baking! I'm so NOT a cook!

12. Christmas crafts....I'd rather stick needles in my eyes!

13. STRESS! The stress of spending money, the stress of making all those Christmas cards on time, the stress of getting it all done! Hate it!

14. Pretending to be merry and jolly and "gay" despite the fact that there are still real issues in your life.

15. My father was killed in a car accident 3 days before Christmas in 1983. So I guess I always have that negative association with Christmas. For so many people, this time of the year is about sadness. Sadness because they have loved ones serving in the armed forces overseas, sadness because of the loss of a loved one, sadness because of financial despair. I guess I feel their pain.

16. Eggnog! Who really drinks that stuff except my friend Audra, who makes "special" eggnog with a little added ingredient.

17. All those sentimental, sad, sappy Christmas movies.

19. Snowmen! Everywhere! It's 80 freakin' degrees people!

20. Red and Green...together! I can't think of two more UNCOMPLIMENTARY colors!

And finally a bonus, 'cause I couldn't stop at just 20:
21. People who are offended by the words "Merry Christmas" and want everyone to say "Happy Holidays" instead. PLEASE! CHRISTmas is about CHRIST and if you don't get that then you shouldn't celebrate Christmas! I guarantee you that "Happy Holidays" offends me WAY more than "Merry Christmas" offends them!

22. Hold on to your Santa hats...I'm about to address a controversial subject in the Christian church. And this may seem totally contradictory to #1-21, but for my children's sake I will address it. The whole issue of whether or not to do the "Santa" thing. I know I know...the commericialism and Santa take away from the TRUE meaning of Christmas. But honestly, I think you can do both and still place more emphasis on the birth of Christ, which is what we do in our house and is what our parents did with us. Lexi knows Christmas is about Jesus's birthday and it's about giving. But she also gets so excited about Santa and the reindeer just like I did as a kid. Why take that away from her? It won't take her long before she realizes that Santa's handwriting looks just like Mommy's. I'm all in favor of letting them enjoy it while they can. I' ve had lots of conversations lately with friends here in FL that don't do the Santa thing and personally, I think that's sad for their kids. That's my opinion, for what it's worth. (Not much I'm sure!) Just today I was explaining to Lexi that Santa helps us celebrate Jesus's birthday by giving presents to children all over the world. But still her favorite parts of Christmas are acting out the real Christmas story and the birthday party for Jesus and singing "Away in the Manger" and "Go Tell It On the Mountain". So don't tell me she doesn't get what Christmas is all about (even though we do Santa!)

On the other hand, I'm not really happy about a man in a red suit taking credit for my purchases!