It's a NEW year. It's time for a NEW me.

I have been ruminating the last five minutes about 

New Year resolutions and such. 

I was pondering how I can become 

the BEST ME e.v.e.r. in 2010.

My brooding contemplation was answered almost immediately.

I looked up at the T.V. and KNEW I had the answer right in front of me.

This is how I will become a NEW ME in less than 2 minutes a day:

The Neckline Slimmer

Results are guaranteed.

It is going to FIRM, LIFT AND SMOOTH in only 2 minutes a day!

2010 is going to be my year.

I can feel it---and everyone else

will see it as they see my neck shrink.

I have been told that I push myself too much and have lofty goals.

I really think I'm up to this.

You can STRETCH yourself in 2010.
I am.

Before and After

How we felt BEFORE we took down the Christmas decorations:

How we felt AFTER the Christmas decorations were put away:

My new BFF, Ace.

Today I made a new BFF.

Ace.

Ace Bandage.

This morning we were awakened from our slumber at 7 a.m. by child #5 using our Chinese gong. Being that it was 7 a.m. and not 4 a.m., we jumped out of bed happily. 

I left my room and paused at the top of the stairs as child #3 went in to rouse child #2 from sleep. I saw child #3 start to climb onto the top bunk above child #2. 

I suspected possible semi-torture might take place and so my attention was averted momentarily from the stairs. While waiting for a scream, my feet left the top stair and before I knew it, I was sliding down the stairs while my right knee was twisting unnaturally. Not a pretty sight. Luckily, after the first 6 stairs, there is a landing which prevented me from sliding down the rest of the stairs.

As time passed, it became increasingly aware that any movement of my knee was going to make me miserable. Thus, Ace, Ace Bandage, became my newest BFF.

Before this, I really took my knee bends for granted. Never again.

Come visit us Virtually!

Okay...since no one wants to come visit us at this lovely time of year, I decided to host a virtual visit to my abode so that you can see all you have missed by not being with us. Honest, I have so tried to not take the lack of visitors personally......I'm slowly getting over it...

Any hoo---if you came to our house, you would get your own personal hand-made Snow Seat, foot rest included at no extra charge!

Now, don't let that picture deter you. This morning when we awoke, this is all that was left of the snow in our backyard.

See, it's not so bad.


Next, you could choose your favorite tree by which we would place your presents.


Tree #1: This tree is in our kitchen area and is tall and skinny. This year it was populated by our homey, fun, memory-filled decorations.

Tree #2: This is from our BYU inspired tree. It is in our family room as that is where we spend the most time; thus the BYU indoctrination can take place at all hours of the day and night.

Tree #3:  This tree reminds us of the true meaning of Christmas. It's our scripture tree.

Here are some Santas I collected from the far recesses of the earth in which we have lived.

This is my favorite Christmas picture of all time....

And here we have some carolers...

And last, but not least, a masterpiece created by Kristen and Ryan.

If you come and visit we will even share our Reindeer antlers with you...

 To top off the visit, you just might get a 

SNUGGIE 

to finish things off right!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

One year older and wiser too????

Today I am one year older and I'm supposed to be wiser too....Hmmmm. 

I do know that now I am officially 

closer to 50 than 40. 

Lucky me!!

The day is complete and it's just begun....

This morning before I even arose my weary body from bed, 

Matthew gave me an excellent foot rub.

I say happy feet = day complete.

                                                 This picture may seem a little strange----last year in a photog class I had to take 36 pictures which represented a "self-portrait." When taking 36 pictures of one self, one needs to take artistic license. Thus, I took artistic license.

A Happy Day

It's a happy day.

Elizabeth is home.

Taylor's team won. Big Time.

 Anniversary flowers from my beloved.

My beloved is home early---still working---but home early.

Christmas letters from near and far.

There is room enough in the family room for volleyball, basketball, AND Christmas!

The End.

Basketball Shoes: A Silent Economic Commentary

It has been said that we, as a country, are in the worst economic times

since the depression.

You be the judge.

Basketball during the depression (1931-1932):

Compare that with a few shots from one of Taylor's games last week.

A glimpse of the basketball shoes:

Hmmm....is there a pair less than $75 in the bunch?

(Except for Taylor's, of course!)

As bad as the Depression?

I don't think so.

Just my opinion.

Happy Anniversary to my Honey----one day late!

Here's to another 21 years!

I wonder now....

How in the world did my Mom and Mother-in-law execute such a
nice reception THREE days before Christmas?
(And they seemed to so happy to do it!)

Kudos to them!!!

Concert

In the eight years that we have lived in Chicago, Matthew and I have attended two paid concerts. One was seven years ago. 

The second concert was last night.

Both concerts have three things in common:

1.  I bought the tickets.

2.  They were both held at the Rialto Theater, 
a BEAUTIFUL theater in the heart of Joliet.

3.  Both concerts had a common name:  OSMOND.

Yes, we went to the Osmonds' Brothers Christmas Concert last night. 

Seven years ago, we saw Donny Osmond. 
Matthew was one of the lone men in a sea of 
mostly 40-something screaming ladies.

No, I wasn't 40 yet and I didn't scream.

The concert was GREAT.

We had an enjoyable time together and enjoyed the beautiful music. 

In the fall of 1991, Wayne Osmond stayed with us in our apartment in Taiwan for a month.

He is an extremely NICE person.

He told us lots of really interesting stories and things about their family.

Maybe I will write another post about that later....

Right now I'm off to watch Taylor's basketball team win again!

Wayne Osmond reading to Elizabeth in our apartment.

Elizabeth really happy about things....

Tomorrow.....

SHE GETS HOME!!

A couple of days ago, Ryan was talking to me about Elizabeth being home.

He asked, "Mom, how long will Elizabeth be home for Christmas?"

"Oh, about 2 1/2 weeks."

"Oh, GOOD!"

I have to agree.

Oops!!

(Dec. 15) --- It is an inconvenient time for Al Gore to be fudging numbers on global climate change.

With the specter of the "Climategate" e-mails hanging ominously over the Copenhagen climate change summit, the former vice president told a crowd there on Monday that one scientist had predicted the polar ice cap would have no summer ice in five to seven years.

"These figures are fresh. Some of the models suggest to Dr. Maslowski that there is a 75 percent chance that the entire north polar ice cap, during the summer months, could be completely ice-free within five to seven  years," Gore told the audience.

But the scientist Gore quoted, Dr. Wieslaw Maslowski, of the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, told the Time of London that he never said such a thing.

"It's unclear to me how this figure was arrived at," Maslowski told the Times. "I would never try to estimate likelihood of anything as exact as this."

(Source:  Dana Chivvis, Contributor, AOL)

OOPS!!  Hmmmm.....No wonder he doesn't "have time" to discuss this with John Stossel.....

He'll save the day....HONEST!

Pray for the Duggars and their new 1 lb. 6 oz. baby...

Michelle Duggar delivered baby #19 much earlier than expected.

I'm sure they would appreciate our prayers on their behalf.

More and be read here.

New Strategy for a Clean House during Christmas Vacay

This morning as I was going around picking up everyone's STUFF, I decided on a new strategy to implement during Christmas vacation so everyone will be responsible, in a timely manner, for THEIR OWN JUNK. (I had lots of time to think as I was gathering all the STUFF.)

Starting December 18th at 3:00 p.m.:

1.   I will ask the offender ONCE to put away their stuff. THAT will be their warning.

2.   If said stuff is not put away in a timely manner and I have to tell them again or pick it up myself, the offender will be doing another JOB (they already have daily jobs) around the house.


3.   These jobs will be the kinds of jobs (that no one likes to do) that put a "finishing touch" on making the house REALLY clean---like cleaning baseboards, all the wood, washing the blinds.....


I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Biggest Loser Finale Final Thoughts

I was amazed at the weight loss of the contestants. Rudy losing 234 lbs.????  Danny -- 239 lbs.???? Amazing.

I'm glad Rebecca won the at-home challenge. Tracey was too mean. (Did you notice she didn't clap for any of the other contestants?) I thought the dress Rebecca chose for the on-stage reveal was waaayyyyyyy toooooooo short---like Cindy Brady 6-year old short (but Cindy was 6, not 20-something.) She should have at least worn shorts under it.

I also wish Rebecca would have left her hair it's natural color. She looks so pretty with her naturally dark hair.  Her weight loss has been amazing. Unfortunately, now with her new haircut and unnatural hair color, I think she too closely resembles Lady Elaine Fairchild from Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.....

 Check out her before/after picture here

and compare it to Lady Elaine Fairchild:

P.S. I did NOT eat any ice cream last night!  :)

Where's my ICE CREAM???

I need some ice cream quick---at least a 1/2 gallon.

The Biggest Loser Finale starts in 75 minutes.

There is no time to spare....

Tuesday Trivia: Give everyone a good punch for Christmas!

"Hot cockles" was a popular game at Christmas in medieval times. 

 

It was a game in which the other players took turns striking the blindfolded player, who had to guess the name of the person delivering each blow. "Hot cockles" was still a Christmas pastime until the Victorian era.

 

Sounds fun.

Spreading a little Christmas Cheer

Photoshoot

A friend asked me to take pictures of her kids a few months ago. They are such a cute family and we had a good time, inspite of the rain that came down upon us. Here are a few pictures from that day....

If life could just be about fun stuff like taking pictures, scrapbooking and reading.....

Tuesday Trivia

Did you know.....Kids have 94 more bones than adults?

Fusion, of all things, explains why. In kids, long bones like the femur and tibia consist of three or four parts, separated by cartilage growth plates. Count each of those as a distinct bone, and you end up with about 300 total.

The bones continue to grow from these cartilage areas until adolescence. Then, most of the plates fuse together, though some (like those in the shoulder) remain open into our 20s. When that process ends, we're left with a complete set of 206. Not including the funny bone....

Sunday Musings

A few weeks ago I went visiting teaching and it was my turn to give the lesson. I had been thinking about General Conference and which talk I thought would be good to share. After thumbing through the Ensign and thinking about the sisters that we visit and some things I had been pondering about the last few months, I chose That Your Burdens May Be Light by Elder L. Whitney Clayton.

As I have been struggling with this and this for what seems like and feels like an interminable amount of time, I have thought on this scripture passage and this scripture many times wondering how I could apply them to my situation. I thought that by sharing the talk by Elder Clayton I might be able to get some more insight as to how it applies to my situation while helping those that I visit who struggle with their own burdens as well.

I introduced the talk and summarized the message. I told them that I really believed that Christ can lift our burdens and had faith in that principle. I then posed the question "How does the Savior literally lift our burdens? (Or does He literally lift our burdens?) For example, if someone is having financial difficulties, He generally does not put a sack of money on their doorstep. In my situation, if He could come down and clean my house that would literally lift my burden. But that doesn't happen. So how does it work in our lives?"

After posing the question, I just sat and listened to their answers because I didn't have an answer. I really wanted to know what they thought.

And then for me, an answer came. While the first sister we were visiting was talking about her experiences, a thought came distinctly to my mind. "Your burdens right now are being lifted by Matthew. Your burdens right now are being lifted by Matthew. And, you don't have to worry about things financially." I knew I had an answer for right now.

I thought about that the rest of the day and realized how true that answer was for me at this time. Matthew does truly lift my burdens when I am exhausted (which is most of the time.) If I were in Matthew's shoes, I would be pretty darn tired of  hearing "I'm tired...." again and again and again from me. He has NEVER been frustrated at my exhaustion and only suggests that I go rest some more.

He works extremely hard at everything he does and yet in the almost 21 years we have been married, I can count on less than one hand the number of times he has come home from work or church responsiblities and even sat down. No matter how tired he is, his first concern is always how I am feeling and what he can do to help me. (No, Matthew is not perfect---as noted here. There are things that drive me crazy at times; however, out of all the people I know, I do think his intentions and heart are pretty perfect.)

There are so many things that frustrate me about being so exhausted, especially if it is particularly bad for several days or weeks in a row. During those times, I am lucky to do the wash and get dinner on the table. The kids are pretty good about helping out, but my piles of "to do" things pile up so quickly and seem to multiply like rabbits during those days and weeks. He has NEVER looked around at the piles or un-done jobs (which can be abundent at times) and asks "What did you do all day?" He only asks what I would like him to help with.

That HAS definitely eased my burdens (and guilt about what I don't get done.) He has also taught our children so much about loving and serving not only by his example, but by getting them to help out more.

"And you don't have to worry about things financially." This is very true as well. I have often had the thought (especially during this time of economic meltdown) that I don't know what I would do if I had to work outside the home---how I would cope with the day. With Matthew's consulting work, he only gets paid for the hours he works---there is no vacation, holiday or sick pay. With the stuggling economy, there were times when we thought it might be a little rough being that companies were cutting back in so many areas. Consulting is an easy thing to cut for most companies. However, the Lord has truly blessed us with enough work (and more) for Matthew and financially things have not been a worry. I KNOW that even if things were rocky with the consulting, Matthew would do anything to support our family.

I am blessed to know that.

I'm interested in knowing how this talk/scripture has worked in your life....

Now I know why it doesn't taste good....

Tonight for dinner Matthew BBQed some hamburgers. Ryan was one of the first to fix his burger and quickly sat down at the table to indulge. He always does a nice job of building a burger with mayo, mustard (NO ketchup), lettuce, tomato, and onion.

He was sitting, happily eating his burger when I joined him at the table. He looked at my plate, a bun-less burger (with ketchup) and exclaimed, "NOW I know why mine doesn't taste that good....

I forgot the hamburger patty!"

Thanksgiving Memories

I love Thanksgiving.

I especially love thinking back to those Thanksgivings when my Mom was cooking it all---I miss that!! I would love to go back for one day to those days when my parents were in charge of it all. They did such a good job and seemed to enjoy it.

But alas, now I am the adult (supposedly) and am trying to build nice memories for my children. (Yesterday I only mentioned ONCE how I didn't like being in charge of these holidays. Being that thought only left my mouth once----that, I think, is an improvement....)

Yesterday as I was mired in all the food prep, it made me think about a Thanksgiving a few years ago.....

For several  years now I have been cooking our turkey in a turkey roaster that my parents gave us for Christmas one year. It's really quite handy as it can sit in the corner and cook away without taking up the oven or even really producing much heat. Clean up is not too bad either and then I just store it away in the basement until the next Turkey day.

Well, one year we had several people over for Thanksgiving dinner so it was busy busy in the kitchen. After dinner, many were helping clean things up which made it lovely. Before I knew it, all the dishes were done and everything was put away except for the turkey roaster. I asked Matthew to take it down stairs and it was done in a jiffy.

Fast foward one year later.....cooking preparations were underway. Matthew went downstairs and got the trusty turkey roaster. I got the turkey ready to put in said roaster.

I opened the roaster up......and discovered......it was never washed from the year before. I had been sitting in the basement all year dirty!

Luckily, our basement keeps things nice and cool all year 'round. The roaster, although dirty, didn't look any worse than if we had just cooked the turkey and needed to wash it.

And yes, I DID wash it before we cooked the new turkey.

I also made sure the roaster was washed last night.

Lovely Thanksgiving memories!

Season of Giving

My friend, Karen, recently wrote a "family" proverb on her blog:

Men should not buy their wives clothes for Christmas unless said wives pick the clothes out. 

(Karen---I want to see pictures of the clothes you have gotten in the past.....)

Simple enough, and very understandable.

Being that we are approaching my birthday and Christmas, her proverb got me thinking about gift giving and a present Matthew gave me a couple of years ago.

When it comes to giving me gifts, I think I'm pretty simple. There is nothing I need at this point in my life, at least anything tangible. In fact, I can't really think of anything tangible that I really want right now. It's been this way for several years. I like it this way because Christmas can really be about Christmas for me and not about anything I want. (The only thing I usually request is a reprieve from cooking and being the chore Nazi.)

Well, a couple of years ago, there was something I REALLY wanted and needed:  A TIRE for my minivan.

I kept having to fill up the tire with air in the dead of winter. I started keeping track and it ended up needing air every 2 to 3 days. It was SOOOOO cold outside, sometimes I didn't think I could get out to put air in it somedays.

So, I talked a lot  about the dumb tire and how cold it was every time I had to fill it up with air. I HINTED in a major way that a tire was what I REALLY wanted for my birthday AND Christmas and that it would make me oh so happy to have that tire. I thought I was fairly specific.....

As my birthday approached, the kids all reassured me I would be really happy with my gift. I couldn't wait to get that tire changed.

Birthday day dawned and the kids brought in a fairly big wrapped box. It certainly looked the right size.

I tore the wrapping paper off.......and boy was I ever surprised.  In fact, I was so surprised, I walked right out of the room.....to my bedroom....and locked the door. (A gift has never caused me to leave a room before or since that day.)

So, what was my present............

AN AIR COMPRESSOR!

(It's funny to me now.... ) I LOVE practical gifts, I really do----I wanted a TIRE---that's plenty practical. But an air compressor????

In my mind that represented that lucky me! I could now fill my tire up in the comfort of my garage! Yipee!!

I didn't give Matthew the chance to explain that in his mind, he envisioned HIMSELF and the BOYS filling my tire up with air in the garage.......

Anyway, faster than you can say "Thanks a lot" the air compressor was returned and I did get my tire (and I was really happy about that!)

I guess our family proverb should be:

Husband should double or triple check with wife about gifts before purchasing said gifts. 

Wife should send emails, put signs AND pictures up around the house of wanted gifts, 

and do not hint around or mince words.

What is your family proverb for this time of year?

The Price is Right

Because Illinois does not tax us enough, they are constantly thinking "out of the box" for ways to collect new revenue. They are one creative bunch, I tell you! One of the brilliant ideas they came up with is to collect tolls on freeways every 500 feet.



To make things easier for us commoners, making it possible for us to travel the roads without pocketfuls of coins, for a mere $50.00, we can purchase a little box that looks like this:


After plunking down the 50 big ones for possession, then you have to load up your account with money. After this, you are free to travel the roads without stopping because everytime you pass a toll booth, the magic air waves sense that you have this magic little money box in your car and it deducts the said toll magically from your account. (If you don't have said box, you can wait in line to pay with coinage---but it will cost you DOUBLE what it costs those with the magic boxes.)

Matthew uses the magic box quite a bit with his work excursions. A few weeks ago, he used a rental car for about 10 days because his car had a little crash into the back of a semi truck and had to be repaired.

He forgot to remove his magic box from the car before leaving it for repairs. Not remembering his rental car didn't have the magic box, he drove through many toll booths without paying for the tolls.

There is repentance for those of us that drive through toll booths without paying. We can go on-line and pay our missed tolls. If this is NOT done in a timely manner, instead of only paying the 40 cent toll, you get to pay an additional $20.00 to help you remember better the next time.

However, as with everything in this state, it is easier said than done. When you go on-line to pay the missed tolls, you have to choose the exact name of the toll booth you missed, (they all have names), the amount of the toll (they are all different ranging in increments of 15 cents to $1.00), the freeway you were on, the direction you were heading AND the time of day, within 15 minutes.

Well.....when we turned the rental car in, Matthew confessed to me that he probably went through about 10 tolls without paying for them. (He's busy and thinking about other things and all....) Knowing what I know about car rentals, if you miss a toll and don't pay for it, the rental car company not only charges you the state's fee, but they also have their own little fee of about $50 for each missed toll.

SOOOO, taking all of the above into account, I envisioned paying around $1,000 in Illinois tolls. Total awesomeness!

I decided to call the tollway authorities and try to work something out. I knew the days we rented the car and the make, model and license plate number of the car we rented. I called and was able to futher ponder my situation for about 15 minutes while I was on hold.

Finally, I talked to a pleasant gentleman. He first tried to get out of looking anything up by telling me there was no way to figure it all out. I asked him again to try to look up the tolls by looking up the license plate number. He finally acquisesced and looked it up.

He then asked me how much I wanted to pay. "How much do I want to pay?" I asked confused. "Yes."

Not wanting to underpay, I said, "Ten dollars." after which he replied, "Too much."

"Too much?" I questioned.
"Yup. Too much."
"That's okay," I replied, "I just want to make sure I take care of it all."

"You can't pay that much. Give me another number."
"Another number? Okay. $5.50."

"Another number."

"$9.25."

"Too high."

Now I'm really confused....."Can't you just tell me what I owe?"
"No."
"No???? Why not? I just want to pay the tolls."

"Because you don't own the car I can't tell you how much it is."

"You're kidding me....okay....um...how does $7.85 sound?"

"Too high and it has to be in round numbers."

"7.00."
"Lower."
"5.50."
"Lower ."
"50 cents."
"Higher."

I then told him I felt like I was on the Price is Right. So I went into Price is Right mode.

"$1.00." "Higher." "$1.25." "Higher." "$1.30." "Higher." "$4.50." "Lower." $4.00." Lower.....

Finally, I hit upon the magic number at $2.50. Then I asked him if there might be other tolls that haven't come through yet. "Yep."

Great. I get to play Price is Right with another Toll Authority dude next week. Yeah me!!

What I DID know and DIDN'T know 21 years ago....

21 years ago.....I knew I had met the man of my dreams.

What I hoped for, but DIDN'T know for sure 21 years ago,

was that he would end up being:

---just as good (if not better) a person as I thought he was...

---kinder and more thoughtful than I thought possible....

---more forgiving than most humans will ever be....

---a wonderful father to 5 kids....

---a terrifically good provider...

AND...I definitely had NO idea that after 21 years and 5 kids....

he would still be such a CUTIE PATOOTIE!!!

I could say that I'm a lucky girl, which I think I am.

However, I think it would be more accurate to say that

I'm a blessed person

Lest we forget the other Munchkins....

With all the blogging about the July birthdays,

I would hate to be remiss, and not post pictures of Kristen and Ryan too....

That could cause definite childhood trauma....

(Honest, Ryan---one day you'll be glad I did this!!)

(And you will too, Kristen!!)