My Adventures in Life
I’m a horrible, horrible aunt.
Seriously horrible.
My nephew Jon got married Monday.
And where was I?
Not there.
In my defense…The invitation was on the fridge mixed in with the Christmas cards so it all blended together. I missed the phone call from one sister and text from another sister because of my dinner disaster (burned the French bread pizzas, destroyed the brownies, shattered a bottle of pasta sauce on the floor).
Sorry Jonny! But congrats to you and Bekkah!
I’m busily working away in my little cubical. I got up to stretch and look out the window. YIKES! I hate snow!!! But the trees do look pretty.
Over the weekend we had my family Christmas party and Joe’s family Christmas party. I forgot the camera when we went to my family party. I should have taken pictures of just how many people were there! My sister said that there were 45 people! One of my nieces was at a school dance. Her dad instigated all of us texting her. I think she got over a hundred texts in less than 5 minutes from us all. I guess that’s what you get for skipping out on the family party!
I made sure to take the camera to Joe’s family party because we knew there would be a special visitor. All three of my kids sat on Santa’s lap. I was surprised that Jay and Sophie did it. Sophie just wanted Santa’s bells. The funniest part was how Sai reacted. He was slapping his knee and shaking his head. I’m wondering if he had doubts about Santa. And when Santa left he was peeking out the window and reported that Santa drove away in a truck.
Sophie and Santa
Jay and Santa
Sai and Santa
Santa and me
Joe and Santa
Here are some other pictures from the weekend. We found that Sophie really likes Cheetos.
Really, really likes Cheetos.
And cookies. She was sitting on my lap. I had eaten half of my cookie and was talking to someone and Sophie took advantage of my distraction and took my cookie.
Thank goodness for stain spray. I got all the orange and chocolate out without any problem!
(Look at her pink cheeks! She has them all the time. I can’t figure out what is causing it. She gets mad when I lotion her up. Any ideas??)
My team at work has been having an activity each week in December to help us celebrate Christmas. The first week we went to the movies. Last week was a donut eating contest (how quickly you could eat two donuts). This week we picked careers for our team members that they would be doing if not in their current job. There was a lot of laughter when we read the results. Here are the careers my coworkers picked for me:
· She will win the $100 million lottery and won’t need to work
· Should be an author of mystery novels.
· Furniture tester
· Executive Chef
· Victorian era romance novelist
· Elementary school teacher
· Phlebotomist
· National Arbor Day foundation board of directors secretary
· Novel Author
As soon as the first one was read I said “It’s me! I’m lucky!” It seems that a few of them think I should be a writer. I’m not opposed to that. But I don’t think I’m that creative.
In other news… S N O W
I guess I should not live in a cold mountainous state if I don’t like snow. This morning was not good. We live at the base of a mountain and have a super steep driveway that exits onto a highway. It was scary going down the driveway today. There was some sliding. (Babysitter couldn’t get up the driveway and had to park on the side of the road and walk up.) The roads were terrible! It usually takes me less than 10 minutes to take Sai to school. Today it took 40 minutes. Not fun. I take the freeway, and once I was on the freeway I thought, what am I doing? The exit I usually take is a big circle and I could just picture me sliding off the road. So I took the exit before and went back roads to Sai’s school, which is why it took so long. Then Sai was worried. He thought I was mad at him for being late to school. I told him we were late because it was so snowy and we couldn’t drive as fast as we normally do.
I work for an awesomely amazing company. Last night they had their Christmas party. It was the funnest work Christmas party I’ve ever attended (and I worked for this company for over nine years previously).
They always give out amazing prizes to randomly selected employees. This year’s grandprize was a 73″ flat screen tv!!! No, I didn’t win the TV.
They gave out other bonuses and prizes to all employees. Then this morning we all met at Costco. Everyone got $100 gift card to spend. I used mine to buy formula. I know, exciting! But two months worth of formula really is exciting to me!
They also drew names for people to participate in a cash and dash. The cash and dash is where the lucky contestants get five minutes to get anything they want in the store, except gift cards, which equal $250 or less. I was a lucky contestant!!! I didn’t want to go over so I played it safe. I got a Blu-Ray player for $238! It’s what Joe wanted for Christmas. WAHOO!!!
Here are some pictures from the last few weeks.
This is Pilgrim Sai from his Thanksgiving program at school. (Joe volunteers in Sai’s class every Friday and he cut out all of the collars for the kids. Whew! Also, Joe is one of the volunteers of the month at Sai’s school. The other one was my sister-in-law, Rhonda.)
Sophie wanted to play games with the boys. She doesn’t realize that they are playing PS2 and she’s got a GameCube controller.
I think she was watching her brothers trying to figure out what to do.
Here I am with Sophie. We were trying to see how close in color our hair is. The lighting in our kitchen makes our hair look really similar.
And pictures from Temple Square this weekend.
Sai.
Wednesday night, after the new carpet was all in *sigh*, we put up the Christmas tree and decorated. While we did that we watch the classic Rudolph. Later that night, as we were getting the boys to bed I over hear this:
Sai: Jay, now do you believe in Santa?
Jay: Yes!
Which I found quite amusing. Jay is catching on to all of the Christmas things this year.
Friday night we were driving around and saw lots of Christmas lights. My sweet little Jay pipes up from the back seat and says, with great excitement, ”Look at all the Christmas trick-or-treats!” Sai corrected him and told him that they were Christmas decorations.
Saturday night we went to Temple Square to see the lights. I thought it would be a good time to go…no snow or ice and really not thatcold. We left home about the time I wanted to arrive there. Whoops. There was tons of traffic in downtown SLC so it took quite a while to get to Temple Square. And then parking… We ended up parking in the avenues to the east of Temple Square and walking. Joe had Sophie strapped to him in her carrier, which after this weekend we’ve determined she is too big for it. Jay didn’t want to walk so I ended up with him on my shoulders (thank goodness no ice!!!). There were sooo many people there. More than I can remember from my childhood. I guess a lot of people wanted to take advantage of the good weather as well. We walked around for a while and enjoyed the lights. Then we had to walk back up to the truck. I think Sai was jealous that he wasn’t being held and he kept saying his leg hurt. Jay would only walk for short distances, so I carried him on my shoulders most of the way. It was quite the work out, my calves are still sore! Sophie enjoyed the lights and the cold didn’t seem to bother her. But as soon as we put her back in the car seat… Wow! She cried and cried and cried till she fell asleep. She kept looking up at me while she cried and I felt so guilty, but it’s better to listen to her cry in her car seat than to hold her while we drive.
Joe took some awesome pictures which I’ll have to post later.
Check out this give away by Confessions of a Craft Addict. I want to win!!
If you are going to link to the give away on your blog, post your link first because the comment you leave posts you link and you get 5 extra entries. I figured that out AFTER I commented on her blog. Oh well.
After talking to some friends last week (was it only last week? seems so long ago) I realized that I haven’t done very well at updating. Here are some things going on around here.
We moved. Over a month ago. Still living in the same town. We painted last week and are getting new carpet (carpet guy is there at this very moment finishing up). It feels like a whole new place. Ahh… I’m no longer scared to walk barefoot in my own home or to let Sophie crawl around.
We had a good Thanksgiving. We were going to do our own thing. But Thanksgiving Day Joe said he thought we should spend it with our families. So I called my mom (an hour before they ate) to invite ourselves over. She was more than happy to accomodate us. After Thanksgiving lunch (my family eats early!) we played Rock Band with my nieces and nephews. It was so much fun! I was a mic hog–at least on songs I knew well enough to sing with. Joe said that was the most fun he’s ever had at my parents. Ever. In over 12 years of marriage. No pictures because I forgot the camera. What a bad mom! No pictures of Sophie’s first Thanksgiving. But she slept through dinner so I guess no big deal.
Thanksgiving night we went to Joe’s family for dessert. Jay initiated the sleepover game and won. So Sai and Jay slept at Grandma M’s. Joe, sleepy Sophie and I went to the late show and saw Four Christmases. Oh so funny!
Friday we did not do any Black Friday shopping. We did meet up with Joe’s sister and her boyfriend for lunch. And ended up going to the movies with them to see Twilight. I wasn’t as disappointed as I thought I would be. Although I did laugh in parts because it had its cheesy moments.
Saturday morning was the annual gingerbread house event at my parents. Everyone brings candy and decorates houses made out of grahm crackers, not gingerbread. The kids had a blast. Joe took the camera fishing with him so I stole these pictures from my niece’s blog.
Sai with a frosting beard.
He then gave me a big yucky kiss on the cheek!
Jay playing with my niece’s son Owen (Love Owen’s red hair!).
After the house decorating my brother Karl watched my boys so I could go to the fabric store with my mom and sisters. We went to this place called Gracie Lou’s. It was a cute store. I picked out a book for my mom to give me for Christmas and that’s about it. (I hate living on a budget!!)
Saturday night we (mostly Joe) ripped out carpet. We’ve been living in a mess! Yesterday we got new carpet in all the bedrooms and the hall. Today we are getting carpet in the living room and on the stairs.
WHEW!
So that’s us lately.
So behind on all the Christmas projects. I may have to admit defeat because the outlook of the projects getting done is looking dim.
