O Christmas Tree

i know, i know. i haven't updated recently. i've been busy with christmas stuff and taking funny pictures of the kids. here's emmy as she fell asleep one night.

anyway, some people had expressed an interest in seeing my tree, so here it is.

this year i added some new decorations. i thought that i would try out some glass ornaments. at least one is broken already. they are martha stewart brand, but i paid about 50¢ a box at a yard sale this summer, so it's no big deal. also i found some glittery plastic snowflakes at the dollar store. i got two boxes. i got three beaded garlands from kohl's. they were on sale, so each strand was about $3 and i used my kohl's gift card i'd gotten in the mail, so they were free! yay! we love free stuff!

this year i decided that we needed a new star. the other one weighed too much to be on the top of the tree so i got one that doesn't light up. i like it. very pretty.

okay, so here's all the gifts that are under the tree this year.

i think this is the most we've ever had under our tree at home. maybe i'll snap a picture of my in-laws tree. there's sure to be a lot of presents under that tree.

Christmas, Christmas Time is Near.

well, things have been just going along for us. i still need to get all my Christmas presents together. at least i've given my sibling-whose-name-was-assigned-to-me's gift. she liked it. it was not much, but i'm not in a place to give expensive gifts. anyway, i still need to decide what to give derek's siblings. i don't know why i feel like i need to overanalyze everything.

New Lights

the day after thanksgiving is the day i put up my christmas tree. i started with the lights, then the i did the garland and all the other ornaments. after i was all done i plugged in the lights and they didn't work. i was so upset. i then plugged them into different outlets and still they didn't work. so irritating. i carefully removed them and chucked them out. derek got me twice as many lights. i just finished putting them on the tree. of course i tested them beforehand. i'll never forget to test them first thing from now on.

Thanksgiving

i'm ready for thanksgiving. i've got all the food i need and won't need to go to the store 'til this weekend. after we dropped off andy at school, emmy and i went to my mom's and then the grocery store. i was afraid that they would be out of turkeys. boy, was i wrong. so many turkeys to choose from! and i got a good deal. 14 lbs for $6.50. nice! anyway, i am making thanksgiving lunch here at my house and my parents are coming over. they are bringing pies. yum! i've been guaranteed pumpkin! later we'll be going to derek's parents' house for thanksgiving dinner. yum! two thanksgivings? i must be a hobbitt!

Shopping

Am I the only person who refuses to shop on "Black Friday"? Just the thought of it scares me. I don't want to be a part of that madness.

Happy Veterans Day!

is an active duty serviceman a veteran, or are only survivors of past war considered veterans? my brother, ej, is serving in the army and he's in afghanistan. he's only a year older than me. we were really close growing up. he was kind of a rebel. didn't like to be told what he could and could not do. i was just shocked when i found out that he joined the army. now he's told what to do, where to be, when he can talk to family, and all that. we're not as close as we used to be, but i think that's because he's not as available to me as he used to be. we do talk on facebook. either we'll leave comments to eachother, or we'll chat online for short snippets of time. he's engaged to a girl named jen. i wouldn't be surprised if they get hitched just as soon as he gets back to the states in february. i've never met this girl, but the way that he talks about her makes me want to. he hasn't had the best of luck in the love department, but he says now that he knows what love is. i believe him. he's gonna be coming to california for his next assignment, which means we'll get to see him more often. more than now, for sure. of course, it's been a year since i've seen him. he came to visit at christmas last year.

thanks ej for serving our country and protecting freedom!

All About Andy

yesterday morning, derek and i went to andy's parent teacher conference. he's doing pretty good. his best subject is math. the teacher said that his behavior has improved so much and she was really happy with his progress. we thought that was pretty nice. after the conference andy had class. the rest of the day went pretty normally until the evening. andy and emmy were in his room playing on his bed. they told me that he was trying to jump on emmy, but he hit his head on the bedpost. he got a gash that started bleeding. once i got a good look at it i decided that he might need stitches. we went to the ER. it took forever! actually, three hours. they ended up not doing stitches, they used some kind of glue. the reason it took so long was that they were really busy and andy was lower on the list of priorities. once we were done we went up the third floor to the rehab unit to visit my mom. i knew she'd be working. at first when she saw us she smiled. then she saw the band aid and her look turned to concern. andy told her what happened. we didn't stay too many minutes, since she needed to care for patients. oh, i guess i should explain about emmy. she was with us when we went to the hospital. derek called while we were in the waiting room and thought that he could hear in my voice that emmy was being naughty. he called his mom, and she came and got emmy. i was so glad.

Trunk or Treat

here's the kids right before we left for the party last night. perseus and andromeda. i made andy's tunic and cloak, and my mom and dad make his accessories. derek's mom made emmy's outfit and i made her beaded headband. i thought they looked pretty good.



and now, for some of my favorites at the party. what can i say, i'm a big star wars nerd.
here's my friend with her son dressed as wickett.



and of course i had to snap a picture of yoda and luke. these two are the younger siblings of my friend maura.

there were lots of great costumes, but these were my favorites. once again, i did not dress up.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

we've made it seven years so far. my husband and i got married in reno seven years ago. our wedding was at 1pm, so in the morning i bleached my roots, showered, dried and curled my hair, did my makeup, made sure i had everything i needed, showed my maid of honor my new nightie, and was finally ready to go. what did derek do that morning? he went duck hunting. he took today off and our kids are spending the day with my mom. they spent the night there last night and my mom took andy to school this morning and will pick him up also. we went out for breakfast and we'll just eat at home for lunch, but we'll go out for dinner. so far it's been a good day.

My Latest Project

my hands are so sore. i've been crocheting a scarf for andy, and i'm really slow. it's only a little over six feet long. andy wanted a scarf like harry potter, so i tried to get the gryffindor colors. i think i did okay. he's really happy. he should be able to use it for a few years.

please disregard his tongue. i don't know why he wouldn't take a nice picture. this was the best one.

Don't Worry

i haven't fallen off the edge of the earth. i've been sick. i've also been crocheting. andy wants a "harry potter" scarf. i'm doing my best to make one, but i am very slow. must be my technique. i'll post a picture of the scarf when i'm done with it.

on another note, andy has been doing much better in school. he hasn't been sent to the principal's office in weeks and he been getting really good marks each week. i think it must have just taken him some time to adjust to school. i hope next year emmy is not as hard as andy was at first.

Medusa Beware!

andy went to a birthday party today where he was to wear his halloween costume. he's dressed as Perseus.

we went with the harry hamlin style and not the newer perseus.

I Love

my friend, deborah, had a list on her blog of things that she loves. i really liked the idea, so i took it and made my own list.

I Love...
1. my husband, derek. he is the best.
2. my son, andy. he is so sweet.
3. my daughter, emmy. she is so helpful.
4. my angel, mary. i know she's watching over me.
5. my extended family.
6. making crafts.
7. going for a drive. i don't get to do this anymore because gas is too expensive to waste.
8. lemon anything. i love the smell, taste, look...
9. getting my hair done at a salon
10. watching movies with friends or alone
11. talking through movies we've seen a hundred times
12. going to church
13. reading silly romance novels.
14. eating popcorn.
15. making lists
16. being cool in the eyes of a child.
17. talking to a girl friend for hours
18. playing card games or board games
19. seeing my children grow and become more independent.
20. doodling

The Candy Dance

every year a town near mine holds an event called "the Candy Dance". i went last year for the first time. my sister-in-law and i were looking at all the different bags trying to get some inspiration for ourselves. i don't remember much candy, but i wasn't really looking for it. last year i had my kids with me. they were barely potty trained, and emmy pooped in her pants. this year i am not taking the kids. i'm going with a different sister-in-law and her mother and sister-in-law. it should be really fun.

Dear Readers,

hi,
how are things? stuff here has been fine. nothing too exciting is going on. that's why i haven't written in a week. i just don't have much to say.
sincerely,
ruthie

p.s. derek said i had to post since it had been a week.

Fried Green Tomatoes

i made fried green tomatoes today. i found a really easy recipe online and it had the only ingredient that i knew should be in it: bacon grease. i cooked all my bacon to get enough grease and i coated my tomato slices with the cornmeal and pepper and fried them up. i think they taste okay by themselves, but i like them with ketchup. is it weird to put ketchup on a tomato?

I Love Sewing Projects

you start with fabric and trim.

you pin your pieces here and there.

isn't that pin cushion awesome?! my friend, Dawn, made it for me and gave it as a birthday present!

finally, ready to sew.

andy's bag almost done.

aah, one down, one to go.

emmy's bag almost done.

success!

got them both done in under two hours. not bad at all. and i only broke one needle.

now they have reusable trick-or-treat bags for halloween. no more buying cheapo plastic pumpkins every year.

Congrats, Maura!

i'm going to a wedding today. i absolutely love weddings. the bride is my good friend maura. she's getting married to brian, who i still don't know very well, but would like to. i'm so excited to go and see them commit to each other for as long as they both shall live. i should probably take tissues.

Need a Pick-Me-Up?

now, don't you feel better?

Can I Just Say Something?

i'm a Christian. i believe in Jesus Christ. usually i don't do things like this, but i felt that i was called out today on facebook. actually, i felt attacked by other "so called, but not acting like it" Christians. anyway, that's all i wanted to say. i know, i'm weird.

I Scared My Sister

i'm pretty talkative usually. i like to talk on the phone for hours. i was on the phone the other day with my sister, sasarh (not her real name), and i got a knock on my door. i told her i needed to go. that was on friday. she called sunday and left a message while i was out. i got the message too late in the night to call her back. she called on monday while i was out. sunday and monday are my busiest days. anyway, i guess it worried her that i hadn't called her back. i mean, that just isn't normal. she called one of our other sisters, who lives here in my town, to ask if i was okay. i was at this sister's house last night helping to put bunk beds together and she told me what sasarh had said. i laughed and laughed. i called sasarh first thing this morning. her mind was put at ease.

oh, and by the way, i call her sasarh because that's how her name was put on her driver's license in michigan when she first got it. ha ha! i've been calling her that ever since.

Andy's First Day of School

andy started his day off with a good breakfast.



here he is with his backpack ready to go.

this is his classroom.

hanging his backpack in his locker.

he still had some time to kill, so he played in the playground.

the bell rang, so the kids lined up and went to class. that's his teacher, ms. donaldson, at the door.

emmy and i went back to pick him up later. we were early so emmy wanted to swing.

andy had fun at his first day of school!

he hasn't told me much about what he did, but he did say that he put puzzles together and sat on the mat.

Is It Friday Yet?

it doesn't seem like it's been a whole week since the last time i made a new post, but apparently it has. nothing much is going on here.

derek and i are going to start working with the cub scouts in our area. our first night is tomorrow. i'm nervous because i don't think that i relate to young boys that well. in fact, i don't think that i relate to most males in general. i have to really get to know them before i start to be comfortable around them. i guess it's a prejudice that i have. i will be nice to become familiar with the scouting program before andy joins in just a few years.

speaking of andy, this friday is his kindergarten open house and then he starts school on monday. still can't believe that it's really happening. i know that people say "oh, it's like he was just born yesterday and i turned around and he is all grown up." i really don't feel that way. it will be nice for emmy and me to have some time together, just the two of us, while andy is in school. he'll only be there for almost 3 hours. not too much time without him. i think next year will be even weirder when emmy goes to school. then i won't have either child with me for part of the day. i get that sometimes, but everyday will be really different. i hope that when andy is at school emmy doesn't miss him too much. they are practically inseparable. neither one wants to leave the other usually. well, i'm sure it will pass quickly if that's the case.

Gotta Start Working on Halloween Stuff

so, i want to make candy bags for halloween that my kids can reuse every year. my husband said that they could just use pillow cases like he did as a kid. i told him that emmy wouldn't be able to carry a pillow case very easily and he seemed to agree. the real reason, though, is i just want to be crafty. ease for the kids is just an added bonus. i think i'll just appliqué some pumpkins onto the front of the bags. we'll see how they turn out.

School is Starting Soon.

andrew is gonna start kindergarten this month. i'm still waiting for a letter from the school to tell me what all supplies he needs. he is so excited! i don't know how i'll feel on the first day. andrew will be so ready. i just want him to learn to get along with all kinds of kids, and learn to write letters and numbers. he's still having a hard time writing his name. he recognizes the letters and he can type it, but can't write it very well. he tends to get frustrated when i help him, but maybe somebody who has a degree in children's education can help him better than i can. i hope so.

Just Some Random Thoughts

i hate not knowing things when i know there are things to be known. right? i hate when someone tells me that there will be some kind of surprise, but i have to wait. just don't tell me anything to begin with, please.

so, the other day i went to my friend's house with my sister and we got a lot of rhubarb. i used my recipe for apple crisp and made rhubarb crisp. it was so good. the stalks of rhubarb were so big i only cut up three and they filled my pan. i was afraid i wouldn't have enough room for the topping. i was happy that i got it all in there.

this morning i was hanging out on youtube and i watched all these cool videos of dancers. mostly it was guys doing pop and lock, or liquid dancing. i was trying to find futterwackin', but i didn't have much luck. anyway, some of it reminded me of some dancing my nephew did in a movie he made. i find the video to be kinda cute, but i know the creator. apparently he was helping a friend of his with his homework assignment.

here it is.


anyway, if you don't want to watch the whole video just skip to 3:15 and watch the dancing. i don't know who the white boy is, but my nephew is the dancer wearing the hoodie and the other dancer is his uncle. i thought it was really cool. i didn't know my nephew could dance like that.

Need a Blog Name

i'm going to make my husband start a blog about the funny things that people do when they interact with him at work. he manages a pizza place. i'm taking any suggestions for names. please come up with something good.

Word of the Day: Luthier

so i was at my Dad's house the other day and he happened to mention a luthier (loo-ti-er) and said that it was a violin maker. i couldn't find the word in my dictionary at home, but i did find it at dictionary.com. it's a maker of stringed instruments, like the violin, but the root is from lute. i just found that interesting. it also makes me a little disappointed in my dictionary. a dark day for us all.

Rice Pudding

i want to try to make rice pudding. i think it is just delicious, but i hate having to always buy it. anybody know any good (easy) recipes?

and speaking of rice pudding, have you ever watched the movie "candleshoe"? it's very good.

Cousins

we are having some cousins over for the day. andrew was sad because nobody wanted to sit by him on the wall while they played mario. finally, chelsea sat by him and even started to rub his back. it was so sweet! i just had to get a picture.



they noticed that i was taking pictures.

Weird Dream

earlier tonight i was watching a documentary about UFOs and alien abductions and i fell asleep on the couch. at some point i woke up enough to turn it off, but then i fell back asleep. i had a very vivid dream that there was an alien in my apartment and he was coming to get me. i screamed really loud and woke myself up. i was still on the couch and i was very scared. i asked my husband if he heard me screaming and he said no, but then i woke up for real and i was just fine. i've never had a dream within a dream before. i thought that was something the tv people just made up. it was so real, too. i actually thought that i was awake. anyway, i guess the moral of the story is don't watch scary things before bed. yeah, right. like i'll stop doing that.

At the Movies

okay, so i was on facebook earlier today and a friend was talking about a movie that she went to see. i also saw this movie. it's PG-13, and has some scary images and violence. no swearing, no sex. i don't mind violence, but i hate swearing and nudity. it'll ruin movies for me. anyway, the thing is, she couldn't believe that some people brought their little kids to the movies. when i went, one lady had a baby. it cried sometimes. i didn't mind the baby and i could understand why she brought it. for one thing, it won't be scared by the movie. it probably slept most of the time. however, there was a little 2? yr old girl running around. the running around didn't bother me, but i don't think she should have been there. i think the movie should have been to scary for her. i wouldn't even think about taking my kids to a movie like that. i only take them to kids' movies. i think that the parents should have found a way to not bring their kids. when my son was a newborn one of the star wars movies came out in theaters. my husband and i wanted to go see it, but we didn't want to take andrew. we traded kids with my sister. she kept andrew and we took her two sons to the movie. it worked out great. i don't think anybody is so friendless they can't find a way to leave little kids with someone. i just was surprised. oh, and when we went to star wars that one time there was a little kid behind us that was so loud and kept hitting derek's chair. it was very annoying. and that was PG-13, too. the kid was probably four. anyway, if i can't find a way to not take my kids to the movies, then i don't go. that's all i'm saying. of course that also means that i don't get to go to the movies very often.

Breakfast Time

i'm out of cereal at my house. emmy would eat cereal for every meal if i'd let her. i had to come up with something for breakfast that she would like just as much. yup, quesadillas, breakfast of champions. i got two tortillas out and started covering one with cheese. emmy flipped out. she said she didn't want cheese on it. say what? she said that she was gonna tell daddy on me. i sent her off to tattle and i promised that i would take off all the cheese. then i dumped a bunch of cheese on it, put the other tortilla on top and microwaved it for a minute. silly girl doesn't know she's eating cheese. i don't like lying to her, but sometimes it's the only way.

A Day Out

we went to chuck e. cheese today. is was nice. the kids had fun. i don't think that i'll ever eat there again. the food was good, but way too overpriced. that's probably where they make most of their money. anyway, the kids won a few tickets and got some prizes. we went with some of their cousins and aunts. it was nice to visit with people.

Not So Young Anymore.

my husband is six months older than me. this always makes him feel that i am so young and "so next generation". tomorrow i will turn 30 and no longer be so young. it's not only a mile stone for me, but also for my parents. all of their children will be in their thirties. i like feeling special on my birthdays. i'm glad that i get to spend it with my husband. since my birthday is on his day off it works out really nice. he doesn't get to come to my party tonight, though, but that's okay. there will be plenty of people there.

Life Plans

one of my sisters just did a blog about what she wants to be when she grows up. this got me thinking about my life and where i am right now. when i was a kid i wanted to be a wife and mother. it look longer than i would have liked, but now i'm there. i enjoy my life. i have good family and friends. i have hobbies that i enjoy and responsibilities that i can accomplish. i even went to college, though as a kid i never intended to. sometimes i need to just step back and look at my life so that i can appreciate what i have. i'm not rich, but my family is healthy, and we don't have much debt. i look at other people and hear about their health problems and think that i'm so fortunate. there is a lady that i know who lives in the fanciest house i've ever been in. it was so fancy i felt like an intruder. i used to be jealous of her, but then i heard about her medical problems. i was so glad that i didn't have her life. i try to think of what my hardships might be. the loss of a child. i'm sure there are people that look at me and wonder how in the world i deal with that. i think that we are given the trials that we can handle.
so, anyway, back to my original thought, i surpassed my goals for my life plan. college was a bonus. i even got a degree. i majored in social work and when i had one semester left to earn my associates my coworker, brent, showed me how to look up other majors on the computer and see what was needed for them. turns out that to get an associates in sociology i just needed one more class. i thought "why not?" then we found that to get an associates in psychology i only needed four more classes and one was the same as the first one. and that's how i got three associates degrees. hopefully my husband will live until the kids are grown, but if for some reason i ever need to find a good job i'll have some college degrees to back me up. i guess i'll call that plan c.

Emmy's Party!

emmy's party went well. there is hardly any fighting and the kids seem to enjoy themselves. a few people dressed up.

here's emmy in her new "cinderella" dress.

here's molly. emmy said she's aurora.

i dubbed him sir logan the gallant.

anastasia dressed as an evil step sister.

the kids made castles out of wafer cookies and frosting.

here's logan's.

and rachel's.

emmy's.

caelin's. i don't know why she looks angry. she didn't seem to be in a bad mood.

austin's castle.

andy's cake.

anastasia's.

all the presents.

all the gifts.

here's the cake. we hired my friend maura to make it.

singing happy birthday to emmy.

blowing out the candles.

she did it!

when people left they got to take their cookie castles and a royal scepter. my sister emma made these for us. they are pixie stix with foam stars staples to them. the front of the stars have card stock on them in various styles.

so, that was the party. it went well. we played another game, but i didn't get any pictures. it was a pin the crown on the princess poster game and hannah won.