walk with us

looking back

It's become a tradition for me to create end of the year layouts. I did my first one on this day 2 years ago, probably because someone else did one and I was inspired by their idea.

I've used the same template for each year in review layout, which both comforts and frustrates me. I don't have that "which template should I use" moment, and yet I'm restricted to choosing the 14 photos which I feel capture our year. It was tough this year. Really tough. I included at least one photo that is no photographic marvel, and yet that event shaped the rest of the year for us. It's been a difficult one, and it's only truly in the last six weeks that I've begun to feel hope again.

Here's my layout for 2008:
If you're curious, here's 2006 and 2007, too.
 

what I've been doing

You've seen the photos.

And now... the rest of the story...

We had our family Christmas on Sunday, the 21st. It was a good day. Everything was a hit. The kids didn't get a wide variety of gifts.

Brady got his annual Madden game. This time it was for Wii, and it was the first gift opened, so that when he opened it, he said, "But we don't have a Wii" and then I brought out the console. I thought I had a video of that, but I can't find it. So just imagine it. And imagine the total monotone of Brady's voice, because he's a total sneak and had looked through the apparently too thin wrapping paper and already knew what almost all his gifts were.

He also was given some Kansas City Chiefs tees, a KC jacket, KC pajamas, a few baseball cards, and a couple DS games. Yes, he is a die hard KC fan.

Mykiah also received DS games, including an annoying game called "My Baby Girl." I thought this looked so cute in the store. Wrong. It cries. A lot. She hit the Aeropostale mother load (btw, I pronounce that word Air-rop-o-stale just to irritate her). She also has new jeans and earrings. The Twilight series (which I am reading much faster than her) and a bunch of other books.

Chesney was given similar gifts, except substitute "Boy" for the game, and GapKids for the Aero place. And her books were a little less heavy, although close to the same reading level.

Dan got the BluRay and finally got to watch StepBrothers.

I got a laptop, a pretty laptop bag (that I bought myself) and some new Joe Boxer jammies. If I want Christmas gifts, I pretty much have to buy them myself. I decided I already had a lot.

My vote for most loved and yet ironically the most irritating gift goes to the video camera my parents gave Chesney. She walks around with it all the time. Taping. Then fills her memory card and wants to download. It's like living with myself.

By the time I got to my parents' house on Tuesday (which would be a week ago today), I sounded pretty awful. My voice was a croak, and the coughing was scary. My sister immediately went and got Zicam. I went onto some antibiotics (which made me feel marginally human) and some amazing cough syrup that I am tempted to just drink every minute of every day and sleep my way through life. I was able to sleep, and sleep well, for the first time in almost 10 days. It was bliss. Pure bliss. The first night I went to bed at 6:08 pm and got up at 7:30 am. Miracle syrup.

Honestly, I'm still not 100 percent. I'm still coughing, which I hate. My guts hurt from the coughing. I want to stay in bed all day.

So that's pretty much what I'm doing. Lots of organizing scrap stuff. Done a layout here and there. Probably should do more. I've read the first two books in the Twilight series, and am about 1/3 into the third book. Cannot get interested in it. Kay Hooper's latest book arrived in the mail yesterday, and it's tempting me. A lot. I'm saving it for New Year's Eve.

That's tomorrow. I'll see you then. In the meantime, have a happy Tuesday!

a Christmas recap

This isn't all of it, but it's close.

A Gift to You (Digital Scrapbooking Freebie!)

Yesterday was a wonderful, relaxing, family day. We wore PJs all day, snacked all day, and opened our gifts. Including the laptop I am now using to type this blog post. Very cool, huh?

One of the first things I did was install PSE 7 on my laptop, then spend some time creating this gift for all my digi-scrapping friends.

Download my first alpha "Shiny Glows" here .

If the above download link does not work, you can download direct from 4shared here

Merry Christmas to All!

Due to our busy travel schedule the rest of the week, my family will be celebrating our Christmas tomorrow. Traditionally, on this day I cook our favorite foods (tomorrow I'm trying some new breakfast recipes), we wear our PJs all day, and keep the TV and internet off so that we can focus on spending time together and enjoying our gifts to each other.

I will be around on Monday and Tuesday (hopefully with my new laptop up and running!), but don't plan to blog for the next week or so.

I wanted to take this time to thank everyone for reading about me and my family in 2008. I hope I've given you a few laughs along the way.

Have a blessed Christmas. We will see you again soon.

So....

I had pretty much already decided to take a break from blogging next week, but now it's looking like the break may start earlier than I had expected.

I really have nothing to blog. I'm starting to feel a little better. Six solid hours of sleep last night.

Kids are busy with finals at school, except Chesney, who is mostly just having fun at school.

I've been having fun at work this week. Yesterday, I got to wear PJs to work and we watched Polar Express all day. Made little tickets and punched them, drank hot chocolate, and just smiled as I watched the kids play.

Today is our "Christmas Tea" and we'll be dressing up. In a few minutes here, I'll go shower, put on a long dress, and my light up Santa Hat (I knew that thing would come in handy). It will be a fun day for everyone, and then we're done with students for 2008. Have to go in and work tomorrow, but no class.

I'm going to try to work up a little freebie font as a gift for all my digi-scrapping blog readers. I have the idea, just need to find a commercial use font that will work. So check back early next week for that. And until then, I'm just going to say Happy Holidays and enjoy your weekend!

We've got the sickies.

On Friday, Ches had the stomach flu. And yes, the girls have already had the stomach flu once this year.

Monday, I get to work and before my day even started, Mykiah had the stomach flu and I had to go get her and run her home.

I took Monday afternoon off because Sunday night I had coughed so much that I had gotten very little sleep. We're talking minutes of sleep, not hours. I was not functioning well.

Yesterday, I finally went to the doctor. A virus is causing my cough, which I knew, but the copay was worth getting some cough syrup with codeine so I can actually get some sleep.

So really, that's all the news from our house this week. Been sick. Wish we felt better.

At least we're getting it out of the way before Christmas.

Holiday baking weekend

This weekend, I baked. A lot. Here's what I made:
1. Reese's Chewy Chocolate Cookies
I wasn't feeling the best on Friday when I made these (which is a completely different, and very unappetizing story), so I didn't try them. Dan did and said they were too rich. I think he's just saying that because they are chocolate. My mom used to make these when I was a kid, and I loved them. And there is no such thing as "too rich" when it comes to cookies.

2. Holiday Cranberry Magic Cookie Bars

I made cranberry oatmeal cookies earlier, and thought I'd try them in a bar form. I love the chef that posted this recipe, and knew I couldn't go wrong.

3. M&M Dream Bars

These are Mykiah's favorite bar cookies, and she looks forward to the holidays because she knows I'll be making them. She even asks for them instead of a birthday cake.

4. Large Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are known as "Jenn's cookies" at our house. I used butter flavored Crisco and a baking chip mix with peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips, regular semi-sweet chips, mini semi-sweet chips, white chips and holiday M&Ms. They are incrediby yummy and very festive looking.

5. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies with Oatmeal

My father-in-law loved these the last time I made them, so I made another batch. Used mini chips this time, which worked really well. Not sure what happened, but the last two trays of these spread way too much and I had to throw the last one away completely. I think perhaps the dry ingredients weren't quite mixed in enough.

6. My Favorite Cookies Ever

Couldn't let the holidays pass without making these. I used a chip mix of semisweet, milk and white chocolate chips. Yum.

7. Blonde brownies from a mix. I threw some butterscotch chips and holiday M&Ms on top. I've had the mix forever, and Dan doesn't like blondies apparently, so I thought I'd make them for my holiday cookie trays.

8. Chocolate Crackle Cookies

I wanted to make some chocolate cookies with the powdered sugar, then I thought, no, I have enough cookies. Then I was looking at recipes using Ghiradellis brownie mix (which I happened to have on-hand) and found a  recipe which was exactly what I had been wanting to make, but oh-so-much easier. The recipe only made about 2 dozen, but the girls really liked them. They said they taste like CiCis brownies.

I made well over 30 dozen cookies, which will not only be enough for cookie trays over the holidays, but also be enough to keep my family in cookies until Spring Break. If you're curious, here's my freezer, with most of the cookies on two shelves. There's a second stack of freezer bags behind these:

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Last Thursday night was Chesney's music program for this school year. It wasn't Christmas themed, but at the end they did sing a Christmas song. Chesney's music teacher is serious about exposing children to all types of music, teaching them to read music, sing parts and play instruments. It's always an interesting program. This year the theme was traditional Kansas music, and of course, you can't do that without a song from The Wizard of Oz. So here's a photo of her playing the bells:
And a video of her singing: