Goldilocks Challenge

A while back, Goldilocks issued a "Fall Decorating Challenge". (Here is her original post)

This was a challenge where I failed miserably. Click here for the sad evidence.

Today, Goldilocks issued a new challenge of sorts. On Dec. 15th, she has requested blogland show off their holiday decorating!

Who wants to play? I am certainly glad she gave me ample time to throw something together.

SO........Next Monday it is....................wish me luck. This is a little intimidating for me.

Christmas Shopping Music

Is it just me, or does the Christmas music in the stores seem to be a little excessive?

I was trying to do a little Christmas shopping yesterday and I honestly had to leave the store because I felt like I was going to rip my eyeballs out from all the Christmas cheer.

I know I tend to lean more toward the "scrooge" side of Christmas since I'm not a big holiday person, but honestly.......how many more recordings of "Winter Wonderland" can a girl hear?

How many artists are going to record this song? I've heard the regular version, the rock and roll version, the Chipmunk version, and (get ready to throw up in your mouth a little bit), even a country and western version! (Yes, Virginia, there IS a way to make Country/Western sound more miserable than it already does.)

Has Snoop Dog ever recorded a version? HEY! Maybe the rappers are onto something. They seem to be the only genre of music not jumping on the "Let's Make A Christmas CD" bandwagon.

I'm going to start looking into enjoying more rap music. I just realized I need to give them more respect simply for the above paragraph alone..................

Maybe it's because I'm from Texas? Maybe these songs mean more to people up north?

I mean, no matter how many HOURS I could spend "dreaming.....of a whiiiiiiiiiiite Christmas"....it AINT gonna happen. I have spent MANY a Christmas day wearing shorts. I have NEVER roasted chestnuts on an open fire.....I don't think I would know a chestnut if it bit me. What is a chestnut? And what is Yuletide?

There is only one way I can think of to make all that Christmas music tolerable.........


Have this woman be in charge of singing every song.........maybe THEN I could tolerate.

Nope.........I lied...........maybe if she just re-recorded Rhiannon with jingle bells in the background, now THAT would be acceptable.

"Rhiannon rings like a bell through the night.......(insert jingles here)".............

So, tell me........am I just being scrooge-y or does it get to you, too?

The End of An ERA

R played his last game ever for Sports Association Fall Football on Wednesday night:-(




(Next year will be school district try-outs.....no more Sports Association. Gone will be the days of nice, clean, fresh, cushy, top of the line mommy and daddy bought pads and helmets.....say hello to cootie city having to use community equipment from the school!)

We have been with this team for what seems like forever and it has been a great ride.

Wednesday night's game was the first playoff game against the Cardinals. The game started off looking good for the boys.

(That's R's hand hiking the ball.....when your kid plays center, it's REALLY hard to get a picture of him in action since he's in the middle getting pummeled...so just revel in the glory that is his right gloved hand and know he is AWESOME!)

So......touchdown numero uno.

Touchdown numero dos.

In the above picture it was a pleasant 73 degress out, no rain, no wind.

Then, THIS happened.

You could just hear Charles Ingalls saying, "Half-Pint.....Hurry! We have to get the horses in the barn...........tell Ma to get those babies in the storm cellar........it's a commin a big one!"

In a little less than 45 minutes time, the coldest crappiest yuckiest front blew in and the temperature dropped to mid 50's and it started pouring down icy cold miserable rain.

All the "prepared" moms had umbrellas, ponchos, tarps, etc. because they

are, well................."prepared".

I am not one of them, unfortunately.

Prepared moms always have what they need. If it starts raining while they are in a store, they have an umbrella in their purse. If it's raining while they are in the parking lot trying to get IN the store, they have one in their car.

My umbrella always seems to be where I'm NOT. I own one, just have never had the chance to use it. I think it's still in it's original packaging.....somewhere........where I'm NOT.

I am fascinated by these moms. They are what I want to be when I grow up.

Okay-----I'm done dwelling on my shortcomings........ON WITH THE STORY!

Prepared Mom Exhibit A: Mrs. W with her orange poncho.

(And I can use these "court" terms like "Exhibit A"........my sister's a lawyer, you know)

Exhibit B: Prepared Mrs. R. (she even had a tarp thingy for the kiddos!)

Thank goodness for prepared friends. Mrs. W. gave me an extra poncho and Papa Bear and Goldilocks let me hang out under their umbrella....ella...ella....ella.....ella...hey...hey....under their umbrella......ella.......

The rain kept coming coming coming.......temperature kept dropping dropping dropping.

We were the "Home" team so here's the scoreboard with a few seconds to go and we are three points ahead.

Almost there............................................. just 36 more seconds until we are one step closer to the SuperBowl....................................

And then, sadly, over the next 4 seconds.................THIS happened.

Which meant that this happened....................

Which meant that THIS had to happen..........

One last coach talk at the end of a game.

One last huddle.

One more "retired" jersey.

Bye #66! You had a great season and we are so proud of you!

Exciting News "FORE" Our Family!

HE MADE THE TEAM! G is now an official member of the Golf Team.

Being a young man of few words, this is how it went:

I pick him up after tryouts. He puts his bag in the back of the car. (Insert mother DYING to scream out, "WELL....DID YOU MAKE IT?"...but I hold back.......trying to be cool and not make a scene in the parking lot.....waiting until the doors were shut and nobody could hear me screaming)

He closes the back, comes around to get in the car, gets in, closes the door, I put the car in drive, he says....."Yes".

THAT'S IT. "Yes"........Does that mean, "Yes, I need to come back next year.....yes, I need to practice more.....yes, I am hungry......WHAT?"

So I said, "Yes, you made the team, yes?"

Guess what he said: You guessed it........"Yes".

(Is there an echo in here? Hello.......hello........hello.........heeelllllooooooo)

Two yes's........that's about the extent of it. I could insert one of those MasterCard commercial moments here and tally up just how much that "yes" has cost us in golf clubs, balls, golf shoes, golf bags, green fees, club memberships, surgeries, etc.............but I won't......mainly because I really don't want to know what that "yes" costs...............because it's PRICELESS!

(I can hardly believe that nearly two months ago to the day.......THIS HAPPENED)

So, of course, we needed to have a "Celebration Dinner"! (My second favorite thing about that afternoon......#1, kid makes golf team.......#2, don't have to make dinner)

R asked his friend, S and G asked his friend, H to come with us.

It wouldn't be a trip to Willie's without G's favorite appetizer.....fried pickles.

(and nothing says, "CELEBRATE" like a plate full of pickles, am I right or am I right?)


Congrats, baby boy! (Just noticed the Corona sign over one shoulder, the Miller one over the other and the Dos Equis salt/pepper/silverware holder on the table.....hahahahaha!)

Golf Try-Outs

Post from blog:

THIS young man will be trying out for the high school golf team today.

If you get a minute sometime around 3ish today, send a Happy Thought his way!

Good Luck, G!

Happy Thoughts

Please think happy thoughts for this precious gal, Maggie. She had to have emergency exploratory surgery last night to try and find out why she was vomiting all day Wednesday.

Good news is that she is feeling a little better. Bad news is that they didn't find a foreign object, which we were kinda hoping was the problem.

She is still in the hospital on IV fluids and pain killers trying to get better so she can get back to what she does best..... play BALL!

Get Well Miss Maggie! You scared us!
We love you!
Mom, Dad, Garrett, Ryan, PeeWee, Ruthie, and Rascal

Hanging of The Greens---Video Edition

FEAST your eyes on the opening band for the Chris Tomlin WORLD tour 2010.

Ladies and Gentlemen..........I give you.........

BEST KOLACHES!

Hanging Of The Greens---Picture Edition

Tonight was the "Hanging Of The Greens" at our church. It is an annual event where everyone comes out for food, fun/crafts, music and chit chatting.

In "theory" it's SUPPOSED to work like this: everyone chips in decorating the church WHILE they are eating, having fun and chit chatting. What REALLY happens, unfortuantely, is that about 10 hard working souls do everything while the rest of us try and look busy.

Here's the food part:

Our Family church strategy lesson #1: Hang out in or around the kitchen at all times.....except for when they start washing dishes.....EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY....FIND SOMETHING ELSE TO DO.

Here's the fun/craft part:

R and S had fun making crafts at the craft table.

Here's the chit chatting part:

Chit Chatting about who has the biggest muscles is still chit chatting.

This year was an extra special one for us because it was the big church 'debut' of the CUMC Youth Band.

**Applause**Applause**Applause**Applause**Massive Amounts of Applause**

(This week their name is "Best Kolaches", last week it was "Irregardless Gnomes", next week...............got any ideas? I'm sure they are open for suggestions.)

T is their FEARLESS sponsor and G jams the heck out of plays guitar.

(I'll do a video post of the band in action once I figure out how to do it....baby steps, people, baby steps)

"Alright.......is everyone plugged in? Check one, Check one, Check, Check"

Here's the band getting ready to ROCK THE HOUSE.

G's two good friends, D and J visited our church this evening to watch their friend play! Wasn't that sweet?

Once again, a great evening with my church family. (See more here.)

I feel truly blessed!

(One last pic of the evening with R and S putting their tackling football moves on S's mom, Mrs. W.)

Selling A House

One of my favorite "Avoid-Housework-Surf-The-Internet" activities is to go online to the listings of homes for sale and look at all the pictures. I started doing this as a way to see exactly "WHAT" to do with a room, however, sometimes I run across rooms that are examples of what "NOT" to do .

Example Numero Uno:
The "Sometimes It's Better Just To Leave A Room Empty" Room


I feel so sorry for this sad, lonely, tiny table.

Example Numero Dos:
The "What In The World Is That Painting" Room
Check out the painting. Look at it for a while and see if you see what I see.


Is it just me or does it look like the older kid is peeing on the younger one?


And finally......my personal favorite:

Example Numero Tres:
"Barbie Dreamhouse Meets Marilyn Manson Goth"


How many coats of paint will it take the new owners to fix that ceiling? This room makes my eyeballs sting.
I bet this chick will grow up to live in a house that looks like THIS:


Doesn't it make you crave THIS?:

It also makes me crave those "Snowball" Hostess Snack cakes that I would con my mother into buying for me by SWEARING I would eat them but then I would bite into them and wig out because they felt all spongy and ooey and weird in my mouth.

Remember those "Snowballs"? Like shown here in this lovely, classy wedding cake?



(I bet that was one interesting wedding.)

Swine Time

It's time for some new pigs! R will be showing in San Antonio again this year and one other major show (we haven't quite settled on which one). We decided to go with these fabulous breeders that we know pretty well ........MommyCee and DaddyBill......ever heard of them? They picked out two beauties for R (and me..haha) to raise. Wanna meet them?


This is "Eight-Ball".

And this is "Bucky".



They are R's Durocs for the Spring shows.


"What are you doing? What's that? Can we play with that shovel? What are you doing with that shovel? Why are you doing that with that shovel?"

Pigs are much like three year olds. It's best to do cleaning jobs when they are busy doing something else or it will never get done.

Uncle M and Aunt L came out to meet our newest family members this weekend and teach R some "barn tricks".


Like the "How to make your wife taller" trick.
Do you see a hidden sparkle in Uncle M's eye?



And the "Squeeze your nephew's head off" trick.

Weekend Recap

This weekend the Snow White gang hosted my sister, Aunt L, her hubby, Uncle M, and my canine-niece, Lily all the way from Cow-Town. (That's Ft. Worth for those of you that don't know, but don't feel bad, I didn't know it either until she moved there!)


The girls went shopping at The Nutcraker Market and the boys went golfing.

Before we headed out to the Nutcracker, we made a short stop at Famous Footwear to get some shoes because being the fashionably-challenged individual that I am, I always need Aunt L's opinion before buying footwear. They felt comfy enough, so I decided to prance around in them amongst all those high society shoppers.

Here I am after my favorite purchase of the day. It is this PRECIOUS little oilcloth "To-Do" list that is going to change the way this family operates.
My first entry on the "To-Do"list? .........."GET BANDAIDS".
Yeah, by this point, the "let's wear a new pair of shoes" to shop a 70 gazillion square foot building was turning out to be a horrible, crippling idea.

We shopped until they kicked us out and we still didn't have time to really look at everything.
Since we had to park in another county, and my feet felt like hamburger meat, we got one of those bicycle taxi's to take us to our car.

Thank you Mr. Bicycle-Taxi driver man. My feet want to marry you.


On the way back home, we stopped at this AWESOME little "place" I know that has the best foot healing remedies.............in a glass............with a straw.........and fancy fruit for decoration.


Aunt L and I both ordered the same thing.....I know, boring.....but we had had enough excitement for the day with the whole "Life Changing To-Do-List" purchase.



YUM! During dinner, we both realized we needed to hurry and get back and show the boys all the one-of-a-kind finds we discovered on our excursion. We were SURE they would be so excited to see the goodie$$$$$$.


SEE? I told you the boys were going to be excited about all our purchases. Just LOOK at them! They can barely STAND themselves. (Looks like golfing might have hurt their feet, they seem to be indulging in some foot healing potions)

Here are some of our favorite finds of the day:


I love this little gem. It is a magnetic chalkboard thingy.
Item #2 on the "To-Do" list: GET CHALK FOR THE MAGNETIC CHALKBOARD THINGY



I think this was Aunt L's favorite purchase. There was this cutesy cartoonish tea-pot that went with this mug and I really wanted to somehow sneak-buy it without her looking and give it to her for her birthday, but couldn't figure out how to sneak off.



All our purchases!
Aunt L, let's go again next year........but not in new shoes.