And the "shew" goes to...

...oh my goodness, it's a tie!! As 'puppy' and 'robot' both scored equally high on the latest poll, I'm hoping you all receive that little robot puppy of your dreams.

Also, a belated congrats to 'sleeping in' as being our previous winner. I would have given you your award earlier, but I was in bed.

Christmas!

Abbie loving our Christmas tree after we put it up a few weeks ago


Our helper elf



Kids being crafty - they made "ice candles" for some family gifts. They actually turned out really cool.

Yep...it's Christmastime! Kids are home from school, ready to enjoy a nice long break. Presents are wrapped and under the tree, packages have been mailed and received, cookies have been baked and eaten, programs and concerts have been attended, parties have been held, now...we wait. For 3............long...........days.......... for it to actually be Christmas morning aka, the big dance, the show, the big enchilada.

Santa had some pretty tall orders to fill, but I'm sure he'll come through. I'm so excited!!

As I don't send Christmas cards, let me take this opportunity to tell all my faithful readers MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Hope we see each other soon!

True

Maggie is the best dog we've ever had.

It's here!

Remember a few years back when our president told us that the best way to fight terrorism was to go about our daily lives? We were told to go out to eat, to go shopping, to boost this economy that they were trying to destroy!

Well, we now have a TV bigger than our son. Take that, Osama!!

Yep, posting again!

Impressed aren't you!

First, congratulations to Miles for being the winner of the first Shew Box poll. I feel you ran a clean campaign, and although I was personally pulling for King Henry IIX, you are a worthy champion. I am a fan of your platform, and look forward to your tenure.

Second, highlights from the holiday break:

We introduced (and, of course, addicted) yet another family to the wonder that is Guitar Hero. Keith is right, Sony owes us a commission check.

We got our outdoor Christmas lights mostly put up. Those of you who have witnessed the progression know that we try to add at least one new element every year. This year's? Two more trees added to the colored line (you kinda gotta see it to understand, maybe I'll post a pic when it's completely finished). That's right neighbors, we love the Baby Jesus more than you!

Lots of cuddle breaks with a 2 and 4 year old. Also, having these same children cry because they didn't want to leave our house. Yes! I'm not just a "great Aunt" in name only...I live it man.

And the biggest highlight...

more days are off the calander, which means we're that much closer to the new TV being delivered!! Tomorrow is supposed to be the day. Yeah, I probably won't be blogging much for awhile. If you want to have contact with anyone in the family, put yourself in an HD signal and broadcast yourself to the family room.

Tootles.

Yum!

A rare occurance happened this evening. Abbie and Keith are both out of town for the night, so Adam and I were on our own. First, we went to Goodies and split a piece of French Silk Pie, then we were going to go to Spenser's for a smoothie and to watch our good friends Bryan and Jaron rock an original song on open-mic night...but, alas...open-mic night was trumped by karaoke night. So, Adam and I headed to Mr. Movies and rented Ratatouille, which we had both seen in the theatres, but was playing on the Mr. Movies screen when we went looking...so, in a nut shell....their marketing worked.

Anyway, the movie started me on my own personal food rant. You see, not unlike our favorite rat chef, people think I can cook. The truth is...I'm not sure about that. I feel like everytime I get the "what's for dinner" question, I have to re-invent the wheel. Remember when you were growing up and you could say "oh, my mom makes the best _________"? Well, I don't think my kids have that, mainly because I don't feel like we eat the same things very often. Now, you might think that's a plus...really, it's a lack of planning. It's 5:00, we need to eat in the next hour-ish, so I throw together what's in the fridge/pantry/cupboard and serve it. I'm trying to remember things we've eaten...and really liked...and I can't think of even one, even when I've made an effort and started with a recipe.

Which is another part of my rant. I google and print recipes...alot. I have recipes and the print date on the bottom is sometime in 1997. Remember 1997? People weren't even sure what the internet was in 1997. You would think with all these recipes, I would have those staple favorites that I make again and again. You would be wrong. Now that's not to say I never repeat dishes, I guess there is a small core. However the closest thing my kids have to the proverbial "my mom's ______________ is my absolute favorite", is the sweet potato in orange cups I make on Thanksgiving...and it's not even my recipe...it's Emeril's. *sigh*

Take it or leave it

I'm sick of every post starting with "well, it's been awhile..." or something to that effect. Here's the thing. I haven't posted regularly for some time because, well...people were reading them. People whom I didn't always know were reading them. This caused much distress.

I finally found some peace with this whole thing by adopting the following philosophy..."yeah, I wrote that...all of it...and sometimes there's mild swearing or opinions you don't like...take it or leave it".

So, I'm trying to live into a new era of blogging where I actually comment on all of your posts that I read - because you all know I read them all anyway - without fear that someone will track me down through said comment and read my blog without my knowing!! AHHH! Wait...it's fine. It's just a blog... To quote Cosmo Kramer, "That's right I'm out there baby, and I'm lovin' it!". Truthfully, I'm not sure I'm lovin' it yet, but I think I will...

In other news:

We recently painted 85% of our house a different color...I like it.

Keith is getting a new TV...possibly 2.

We've also 'tweaked' lots of areas of our house...gives us the feeling of something new without actually having to move.

The book of Daniel is currently blowing my mind.

Abbie has 8 more weeks until she can legally drive, albeit with a permit..help me.

Adam is turning into a stereotypical boy...he loves video games, football, star wars, pokemon and sharp things. I think I need to get that kid some dolls...

Keith had a birthday...so he's older...but that little rascal is still as cute as ever!

Here's some random eye candy before I go...

Handsome devil...

.......and Obama ain't too shabby either.

Yep, we saw Obama in Spencer, IA yesterday. It was a solid alright. I thought he seemed very charismatic (duh), but tired (again, another duh). Most of what he said was tired political rhetoric to me. I felt like....yeah, yeah, yeah, we all know Bush is an idiot and we need out of Iraq...tell me something new. I don't know, maybe I went into it with unrealistically high expectations of him. Don't get me wrong...great public speaker, very confident, and VERY hot.

Still...for me...the search continues. Maybe I'll come back to Obama...I really like him. My problem is, I really like alot of the choices...but don't love any of them...and I want to. If I could put about 3 of them in a blender I could create the uber-candidate...unfortunately, I haven't quite figured out how to do that yet. So, for now, enjoy the nice eye candy.

9:28 PM

...and the kids are both asleep. It is a special night. Why? Because friends, it's the first school night of the 2007-2008 school year. Tomorrow morning hundreds of children from the greater Spirit Lake area will rush to their buildings in eager anticipation of the education that is to come. Their minds like sponges, they will cling to every rich phrase uttered to them by their wise instructors. Their instructors, in turn, will shower them with worthwhile knowlege...and not only knowledge of basic academic skills, we're talking discussions on philsophy, world religions, your role in humanity and the greater good.

At least...I'm pretty sure that's what will happen.

Or...you could walk into a stale building that reaks of Elmer's glue, find your teacher is some guy that was burned out by the mid-80's but still teaches just to get his lousy pension in 2 more years, and you won't learn anything because all the teachers care about is showing the government that "no child was left behind in my school", so they can get their measly paychecks and go home to their pathetic lives.

It's probably somewhere in the middle.

Happy school year everyone.

Beware the ides of March...

...for they bring new posts.

As promised, I didn't post until March. Actually, you can all thank Shannon for the wonderful post which you are now reading. I decided to conduct a small experiment and not create a new post until someone commented on my old one about how old it was, or how I really needed to update, etc. The winner...Shannon.

So, here's some eye candy from our recent Disney trip. I kept the first one green to keep with the 'March theme' - but it's also sweet how my children are mocking the power ranger to his "face" and he doesn't even realize it. Cool.

Disney rocked in every way. My advice to everyone...go there...soon...stay as long as you possibly can....and eat at Boma's. We had an awesome time, and are already thinking about when we can go back! Look at us rocking that roller coaster! Sweet!

In other news, the jury is still out on this whole "early daylight savings time" thing. I live in Iowa. March is still winter here. Making it lighter later in the day only plays with my head and makes me yearn for spring and warm weather more than I already do. In the words of Steven Colbert "It's the fault of all the lazy farmers who won't get out of bed at 4 unless we tell them it's 5."

One last thing, and I hesitate to put this in. I haven't made this public knowlege, but the few people I've told have replied with "oh yeah, Keith told me that like 3 weeks ago" so, I guess it's not really a secret. However, putting it out in such a public forum makes it all too real, when in fact nothing is real...not yet. What am I talking about? Look here to find out. It's happening, I'm doing it, it's true...and so far, it sucks...seriously.

Hugs and Kisses everyone. Happy March.