Seniors

Landry and I are sitting on the couch watching the OU/Tech game.

More specifically, I'm watching--she's playing her DS.

The announcers mentioned that it's "senior day" for Texas Tech.

Landry said, "It's senior day?"

Me, "yeah, I suppose it is."

Landry, "So, are Grammy and PawPaw and Gigi and PopPop there?"

Things that sound the same....but definitely aren't

I won't say WHO,

but I will say.......

Baxter is being boarded next week while we're out of town for Thanksgiving.

We have to take him in to get his bordatella shot before he can stay at the kennel.

Someone called the vet to make an appt and asked if Baxter could be brought in for his bordello shot.

Kennel cough is okay. But, we don't want Baxter to get a case of the brothel while we're gone.

I'm Thankful....

that my Christmas decorations are out!


Sorry folks.


I'm sure I'll be accused of neglecting Thanksgiving, but I'm okay with that.


We're not going to be here for Thanksgiving. And, last weekend was the only weekend I had until mid-December to put out Christmas decorations. AND, it takes so dadgum long to get everything out that putting it up mid-December is just not worth it.


Plus, my house just feels cozier having the Christmas tree up--and we have more time to enjoy it.


However, I've paid dearly for my decision.


Korley has asked no less than a Korjillion times when Santa is coming. This is going to be a long 40ish days!


We put up the "fancy" tree and the mantle/fireplace stuff. I love the fancy tree. It has green/gold bows, these gold scarf-y things that go around the tree, and all gold ornaments. The fancy tree is uniform and orderly--my kind of tree.


The kids, however, are less impressed with the fancy tree. They much prefer the "fun" tree. Last year we didn't put up the fun tree (because after our move, I had no idea where the fun tree ornaments were), but this year we put up the fun tree in our bedroom. This tree has all of our ornaments on it that aren't gold. :) All of my ornaments from when I was a kid and on.....
As much as I like the fancy tree, the fun tree was fun for all of us to put together this year.


One thing that's always disappointing every year is to see what is not working or has broken from the previous year.


This year, half of the lights on one of my pre-lit porch trees was not working. I bought them two years ago at an after-Christmas sale. This was particularly annoying since this was the first time they had even been out of the box.


Also, my mom bought me these awesome ornaments last year for Christmas from places we had been together (Vegas, New York, Paris, London). The London ornament was a double decker bus and it was shattered. Again, annoying because it had never been out of the box.


And then, this......


This is my Willow Tree nativity scene. I know a lot of people don't like Willow Tree because they don't have faces. I think that's why I love WT. To me, WT figurines are simple and non-fussy.


Faceless is one thing.......But, what can make Willow Tree creepy is a DECAPITATED wiseman.


I unwrapped my carefully wrapped wiseman to find him in two pieces.


And the really unfortunate thing is I think this is the one that was bringing the gold.

European Vacation Memory

A couple of weeks ago, my sister uploaded to my photo account the pics she took from when my mom and I went to visit her in Europe last year.

I was looking through them the other night and ran across a couple that made me laugh that I had forgotten about.

The setting....Buckingham Palace.

Well, kind of. Actually, we were walking away from Buckingham Palace and were passing by some sort of gated service entrance? or parking lot? or something that didn't really look "that" special but was still on BP property.

Anyway, there were two guards guarding this very important parking lot.

Lindsay said, "OHHH!! We can't leave without y'all having your pictures made with the guards!"

So, we timidly walk over to the ARMED guards and my mom and I flank either side of one of the guards.

Lindsay snaps this pic (from several feet away).

Then, she rolls her eyes at me and says, "Can you move in a little closer?"

And I said, "NO! He's got a gun! With a sharp knife at the end!"

And then, through clinched teeth, the guard said, "I won't bite." And then he smiled.

Then he said, "Don't tell anyone I spoke."

So, I moved a few inches closer. See?

Yep! We made a BP guard SMILE and TALK!

Obnoxious Americans 1--BP guard 0

On second thought, maybe that's why he was guarding the spare parking lot and not the Queen Mum.

Out of Touch

I promise my next post will address one of the blog topics you people (okay, more specifically, Ryan) gave me in my last post.

But, for now, I have something else I need to do.

Literally about 5 minutes ago I remembered something from my childhood that I'm quite embarrassed of.

And, I need to apologize to everyone I knew when I was ages 8-10.

For those that don't know, my maiden name is Hall.

And, during the mid-80s I told dozens of people that Daryl Hall was related to me.

No, I didn't just tell. I swore he was related to me.

And, I told stories of us going to his house for Thanksgiving, and attending concerts, and him singing at our family reunions.

I guess I wanted to be cool.....and being related to Daryl Hall was my ticket. (????)

So, sorry to all of you people I lied to.

I'm not related to Daryl Hall.

I've never met him.

And, I accept the fact that I'm not cool.

I've Got Nothin'

Absolutely nada.

Not that my blog has been or ever will be informative or interesting.

But, I have blog block.

And, instead of me sitting around and waiting for the next Edwards picture-worthy event to occur, I turn to you dear readers (reader? Mom?).....

Give me a topic.

Anything.

Leave me a comment and give me something to blog about.

Anything.

(but, you know, within reason)

Halloween Night

I realize that this post is going to look a lot like the last post, only later in the day--but, I'm obliged to chronicle Halloween night.


We ended up trick-or-treating with our neighbors and the girls got to ride in the Texas Tech semi.


The important thing, in my humble opinion, was that the truck matched their costumes.









This was the first year that Korley *got* trick-or-treating. She couldn't get from house-to-house fast enough. If there had been a 3-year-old contest for fastest trick-or-treating, I guarantee you Korley would have been tough to beat!!


Our girls even trick-or-treated at our house!



We had a really fun Halloween--hope you all did, too!

A Texas Tech Halloween

First things first.

Korley wasn't allowed to wear her costume to school yesterday. But, they were allowed to wear Halloween-themed clothes instead of their school uniforms.

I don't think Korley cared what she wore--so long as it wasn't the uniform she has come to hate.

Doesn't she look so cute, though, in her little Halloween outfit that Gigi got her?

She loved wearing it!

Landry has one, too, but unfortunately she didn't get a chance to wear it since she was home yesterday from school with the swine flu. Lovely.

Landry was much better today and had been fever-free for over 24 hours, so we decided to get the girls in their Halloween costumes and go to the stadium for some photos.

Before we left our house, though, we noticed that our neighbors had this kid-sized Texas Tech semi in their front yard. HAD to get a pic with this!

The girls with the Masked Rider--Brianne Hight. We love her around here!

Here's a peek at Landry's costume from behind.

Korley got to meet a few Tech cheerleaders.

And, entertained us with a few cheers!

I heart PW

I'll be honest.....

Since we've been living in Lubbock, I've done an enormous a fair amount of online shopping.

Let's face it, the shopping options here just don't measure up to the www.

It's not unusual for us to get a box or two of something a week.

So, yesterday when I saw a little brown box leaning up against the door, I ignored it for a while.

Finally, when I went to get it and realized what it was, I actually gasped and said "YESSSSSSSS!" {am i a dork? yes or yes?}

The surprise?

My very own pre-ordered copy of The Pioneer Woman Cooks.

I'm a huge PW fan, and would have bought her book anyway--despite the fact that I log only as many minutes a week in the kitchen as it takes to prepare a hamburger helper or two.

But, that's one of the reasons I really love her cookbook. There are step by step pictures of what to do to prepare a recipe--just like the cooking section of her website.

It's like "Cooking for Dummies". And when it comes to cooking, I'm definitely a dummy.

But, I have made several recipes from the website that have ALL been delicious.

Potato Wedges--a kid fave around here and staple in our house.

Penne a la Betsy--seriously one of the best things I've ever put in my mouth that I've made.

Those bacon-wrapped club cracker things--let's just say that I made them for a party once and Jeff, me, and the first two guests that showed up were the only ones that got to even taste them. Vanished.

But, besides the cooking/recipe part, the book itself is beautifully put together. There are tons of stories and pictures. I mean I'm actually reading the cookbook (fyi, I'm on page 140) and it's entertaining!

I'm looking forward to the PW book signing in December in Dallas! It will give me a chance to finally be BFFs with PW.....AND work on setting my sister up with Cowboy Josh! :)

Note to reader--I'm just a fan, not a crazy stalker. I realize PW and I will probably never be BFFs.

UNNNNN-LESS.....I really can set up Lulu with Cowboy Josh....

Slime Time

We are fortunate to attend a church here that truly values families and children, and especially the kids' ministry.


Last night was an event that my kids had been looking forward to all week--Slime Time!!


For a few weeks, our life groups had been planning their booth games and putting a lot of effort into making this a special event for the kids.


There were TONS of people there--way more than what appears in these pictures.





What you definitely can see, though, are the dark clouds overhead.


Big fat boo.


The girls played two games before it started raining and the wind started blowing 1 zazillion miles an hour (I know...wind in Lubbock?....who'd of thunk?).


Team Impact has been in town this week and they were supposed to have performed at the carnival outside, but everyone quickly moved into the church auditorium and Team Impact set up inside.


If you don't know about Team Impact, they are a group of big dudes--athletes, strong men,
etc--who travel around the world, perform their strong man tricks (they break a lot of bricks/ice, bend stuff, pull stuff, etc) , and share the gospel.


Landry has become Team Impact's #1 fan. They were at her school Tuesday, then she went to see them with Jeff at the Civic Center Tuesday night, and then of course last night at Slime Time.


So, she was beyond thrilled when she was plucked from the crowd by one of the big giant dudes to demonstrate that what they were about to bend was indeed steel. She and another little girl held on to the steel bar while big giant dude clean pressed them into the air and spun around. It was real steel, people.




Then, big giant dude bent the steel bar into a twisty shape.


Korley and her BFF, Hayden, were there, too!



They asked the audience who all was at the show on Tuesday night. Korley raised her hand. She wasn't there--but, raising your hand? It's what all the cool kids do.


The other fun thing that happened yesterday was that Landry and Korley had two big boxes of Halloween surprises from their grandparents!


Grammy and PawPaw sent them Halloween bags filled with candy and Halloween jewelry!
And, Gigi and PopPop sent them Halloween boxes filled with t-shirts and candy.


Look at these Halloween boxes (tops) my mom made! Cute, huh?!?