Late to the Game...(UPDATED)

This contest is closed and I have closed the comments. Winner will be announced sometime tomorrow (Saturday)!


I knew it was coming, and I still didn't get it ready as early as I'd planned! I'm a bit late as there are already well over 500 participants.

What am I talking about?

So what am I giving away this time? This one is two parts.

Part one - this little package of some Scrapbook odds and ends:


"Friends" Magnetic Photo Frame
A Scrapbook Calendar from TLC
6 Laura Ashley Gift Tags
3-D stickers by K&Company
1 set of Studio G Clear Stamps
Birthday Stickers by The Card Connection

And the second part is a set of 5 classy-but-fun, black and white monogrammed cards (with envelopes) and a matching beaded pen by Me!
This is an example picture - they will be monogrammed with letter of the winner's choice.


So what do you need to do to win? It's easy - leave a comment on this post. That's it! I will close the comments at midnight on Friday, February 1st. I will randomly select a winner and announce it sometime on Saturday.

You do not need to have a blog to enter. However, if you do not have a blog, you will need to provide a valid email address so I can contact you. If your comment does not link back to you and you do not provide a way for me to reach you, it will not count.

And as much as I hate to do this, I will not be able to ship internationally, so U.S. addresses only please.

For more giveaways or to play along, go here.

Menu Plan Monday

I can't believe how long it's been since I participated in MPM. I've been a little slack on my diligent meal planning. There's been a basic plan, but I haven't done very well with planning out the entire week lately. So I'm getting back in the game.

Another reason I haven't participated in MPM lately is my computer is giving me problems accessing the host site. It takes forever for the page to load and locks up my entire computer in the process. And I know it's my computer, because I didn't have any trouble with the site from my parents' house. Anyway, because of this, I may or may not link up, but I'm still going to get back to posting my menu.

I'm also trying to get better about actually planning breakfasts and lunches. I will list them, but not on specific days, as the actual days may vary.

Here we go.

Breakfasts:

• Cheese Grits, Sausage
  
• Baked Oatmeal
  
• Cereal
  
• Eggs, Sausage, Toast
  
• Jam Surprise Muffins, Fruit

Lunches:

• Tuna Salad Pita's, Carrots
  
• Cheese Quesadillas w/ homemade tortillas
  
• Ramen Noodles, Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
  
• Dinner Leftovers
  
• Pepperoni Bread, Salad

Dinners:

Monday: Chicken & Rice, Green Beans, Rolls
Tuesday: White Chili
Wednesday: Red Beans & Rice, Fried Cabbage
Thursday: Breakfast for Dinner
Friday: 'Whatever' night - leftovers, sandwiches, cereal - whatever!
Saturday: Vegetable Soup, Cheese Bread
Sunday: Corizo, Bean & Cheese Nachos


For more menus, visit Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Future Songwriter?

For some reason today, CJ began singing "The First Noel". Ruthi wanted to join in, be she was singing, "Oh-Well" instead of Noel.

Then CJ got crazy and started making up a song to the tune, but using oh well. He went to his room, and I could hear him playing the notes over and over on his keyboard, pausing every so often. I knew he was stopping to write the words down.

He is a 13 year old boy. A 13 year old boy who doesn't give too much thought to girls yet.

If a 13 year old boy is not thinking about girls when writing a song, what else is left? Bodily functions of course!

Oh dear.

So, if you don't want to think of bodily functions the next time you hear "The First Noel", you may want to stop reading here.

If however, you want a peek into a 13 year old boy's mind, then continue on.

Here is his "song".

Oh well, oh well
I just farted real loud
My Mother did say to
excuse my poor self.

Oh well, I said oh well
I did not really care
It wasn't real bad
It just stunk everywhere.

Oh well, How I was glad
I was not on a date
I would poison the food
And ruin the new cake.

Excuse me, excuse me
I am sorry I blew
It was so hard not to
And just came right through.


Future in song writing? Not likely.

If you have a son (or sons), you understand. If you don't - you now have a taste of what I deal with daily.

Oh yes. This is the life.

Has Anyone Seen It?

...My motivation, that is.

I seem to have lost it. And I can't find it anywhere!!

UGH! I don't know what my deal is. I have a long to-do list. Things I need to do and even things I want to do. And I just can't seem to find the motivation to get them done!

So if anyone finds it, please return it to me as soon as possible!

_______________________________________

Well, we did get a little bit of snow on Saturday. Not much - the ground wasn't even completely covered, but it was snow. The kids were excited. Ruthi kept looking out the window and saying, "The snow is here!"

Yesterday I took her out and let her play in it for a little bit. What little was left of the little we got! She really just wanted to run around in it more than anything.

And apparantely I'm a bigger wimp than I remember, because I was FREEZING!!! I had to beg her to come back inside!

CJ had taken off to the neighbor's to play when I took Ruthi out. Later, he and one of his friends were using a skim board to slide down the slope in the back yard. They were having a blast even though they kept getting stuck because there wasn't enough snow. Unfortunately, when they were doing this, my camera battery had died, and I didn't get in pictures.

But here are a few of shots of my little Snow Bunny.

I'm Home - and Alive!

I know I haven't been around. But yes, I'm still alive. I was at my parents' house all week. (Well, I came home Thursday.) I had fully intended to blog while I was there, but it just didn't happen.

On Thursday morning, CJ woke up not feeling good. His stomach was bothering him. I figured what he ate had just not agreed with him. My Mom took us to Olive Garden for lunch before we headed home. CJ didn't want anything. My son - turning down food - not a good sign.

He slept most of the home. He never ate anything on Thursday - not one bite! Before I went to bed, I checked on him one more time and he had a little bit of a fever, so I gave him some Tylenol. Thankfully, when he woke up Friday morning, there was no fever.

But he still wasn't feeling good. He slept all day yesterday. He ate a piece of toast, a couple crackers, some applesauce and a bite or two of chicken noodle soup. Poor guy - he was miserable.

This morning he woke up and came and sat in the living room for a few minutes. I knew that was a good sign. He said he was feeling a little better. He told me he was hungry - Yay!! He ate 2 pieces of toast and so far, they are still in him. I hope they stay put! I think this thing has taken a turn for the better.

Now, you want to know what is so NOT FAIR? Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE snow. And I envy everyone who lives in places where there is actual snow you can go out and play in. We haven't had "good" snow like that since 1993 - that year was awesome.

Guess what it did on Wednesday? It snowed. And I WASN'T HOME! I was 2 hours south, and there was only a little bit of sleet there. My husband decided it would be fun to torture me and sent me pictures of our snow-covered back yard. What a turkey! Of course there were absolutely no traces of it when I got home. Oh well.

But right now there is some white stuff falling from the sky again. It is beautiful. Will it stick? I hope so. But I'm not going to hold my breath.

I opened the door to show Ruthi. Then I said, "Let's close the door - it's cold out there."

She said, "Yeah, when it gets warmer, we can play in the snow."

Obviously, she's a bit young to understand that's not how it works. But I told her that if we get enough, we will bundle up good, and go play in it. Hopefully we will get to play. And hopefully, CJ will feel good enough to enjoy it too!

So yes, I'm alive and well, and now that I'm back home, maybe I'll get back to blogging without going a whole week again. But don't hold me to it! I've got lots of catching up to do, and a long to-do list. But I'll try not to neglect all 6 of my readers! I'll be backe with some pictures soon.

If You Believe in Prayer

I was just reading over at Teresa's blog and she linked to a family who really could use all the prayer they can get right now.

Nathan is the husband of beautiful Tricia who has Cystic Fibrosis. She was soon to have a double lung trasplant when they found out she was pregnant. Now they have given birth to a tiny baby girl, Gwyneth Rose. Nathan's faith is amazing and inspiring. Both his girls are in the hospital and he does not know what the future holds for either of them. But God is so amazing and Nathan knows what God can do.

I don't know this family. But their story is very near and dear to me. Their daughter was born at 24 weeks. Our son was born at 24 weeks. Those months in the NICU were not easy. We never knew what each day would hold. But we had the peace God had already given us...the peace the doctors and nurses couldn't understand. I pray they were impacted by our faith. And it's hard to believe it was that long ago God gave us the miracle of a beautiful baby boy who will soon be turning 14!

Those days were hard, and I was healthy and right there beside CJ most days.

Tricia has not yet met her precious little angel. I cannot begin to imagine the emotions Nathan is feeling. But I know that he will be able to handle whatever comes his way because of his incredible faith in God. And I'm praying that Tricia will recover fully and be stronger than ever so she may receive her double lung transplant. I'm praying Gwyneth continues to thrive and grow into a strong and healthy little girl. And I'm praying that this family will soon all be rejoicing together and looking back on these days saying Look what the Lord has done!!!

Please, if you believe in prayer, visit Nathan's blog and pray for this precious family!

Is There a Doctor in the House?

OK, so my new blog stalker friend Christy has pointed out to me that it's been a while since I've posted. And she's right!

And my Dad is out of town, so I haven't received any phone calls from him reminding me that I haven't posted any pictures of his precious grandchildren lately.

So, to make Christy happy, and probably my Dad too, I'm posting today! AND I'm including pictures!

I don't know why I haven't posted really - I guess I've been spending so much time READING blogs that I just haven't actually felt like WRITING on one!

So...about my title of this post. Nope, I'm not in need of a doctor. But I have a really cute one around.

This is Doctor Cutie.



And here is her patient.


All he needs is a shot.


And just in case you are wondering, CJ checked out ok!

Morning Breath

This morning when I woke up, my daughter, who was already awake, came to greet me. Then something upset her (something her brother did, though I'm not really sure what!) and she proceeded to have one of her fits.

She seemed overly agitated this morning. Everything was setting her off. And she was having some serious tantrums.

All of this was within 10 minutes of my waking.

I called her over to me. She climbed on me, and I tried to comfort her.

I asked her if she was feeling ok. She responded with a "No." I asked her what was wrong.

She looked at me, put her hand over her face and said, "You don't smell bery good."

Nothing says, Good morning, I love you" like good ol' morning breath!

And apparently it's not very comforting for a 3 year old either!

By the way - she's had a few more of those fits today. I guess it's because she's 3. Sigh.

But at least the offensive mommy breath is now gone!

Happy New Year!

Hope you all had a wonderful time celebrating last night as the New Year rang in. It was quiet here. I thought Ruthi would hold out, but she finally crashed about 11:45. Considering she had not taken a nap, I'm surprised she lasted that long!

Apparently we are getting old. We used to throw a New Year's Eve party each year with a houseful of friends packed in and having a great time.

Now we enjoy a nice quiet night to bring in the new year.

Today is pretty much business-as-usual. Nothing too exciting going on. I have a pot of black-eyed peas and a pot of collard greens on the stove cooking. And I'll whip up a pan of cornbread in a bit. And really, that's the only thing that is signifying that this is January 1, 2008 today.

2008!!! WHERE did 2007 go? It went by fast!

I'm not making any resolutions. I've never been a big resolution maker anyway. Last year I set some goals. Some I met, some I didn't even come close. This year I think I will just to my best to make it a better year than the last. And I'll leave it at that.

May God pour his blessings on you and your families this year. I pray you have a fantastic year!

The Birthday Girl

Our precious daughter is 3 today! I can hardly believe it. I can't figure out where the time went. It has definitely gone by far too fast!

This sweet little girl brings so much sunshine to our lives. She makes us smile and laugh-sometimes to the point of tears.
She loves to sing, dance and entertain.

I could write all day about this child.

But I won't.

Instead, I thought I'd list a few of her favorite things.

FAVORITE FOODS

• chicken (especially nuggets)
• spaghetti
• popcorn
• marshmallows
• green beans
• tomatoes
• macaroni & cheese
• hot dogs
• yogurt
• sausage & eggs
• cheese
• cucumbers
• oranges
• chocolate

FAVORITE SONGS

• I'm A Little Teapot
• Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
• You Are My Sunshine
• Itsy Bitsy Spider
• ABC's
• Jesus Loves Me
• I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas (and she can sing most of the words!)
• Jingle Bells

FAVORITE TV SHOWS/MOVIES

• Care Bears (Funshine Bear is her absolute favorite)
• Dora the Explorer
• Yo Gabba Gabba
• Curious George
• Calliou
• Toy Story
• Shrek the Halls
• Charlie Brown (Christmas)

FAVORITE TOYS/THINGS TO DO

• Blocks
• Baby Dolls
• Puzzles
• Play Doh
• Color
• Play Games
• Play in the water - pool, lake, tub - any body of water

And today her favorite color is purple. That changes regularly. Most of the time it is pink though.

I was going to write about the things I love about this child. But that would take all day. And at the moment I can't even come up with my favorites. So I'll stop for now.

Our baby is three! How can that be?

We love you baby girl!

HAPPY THIRD BIRTHDAY SUNSHINE!!!!

Hope Yours Was Merry

Ours was! We had a fabulous Christmas. It was very relaxed and so much fun. I will be sharing more next week, but I need to get through Ruthi's birthday and one more Christmas gathering first! Still have lots to do!

But I thought I'd share a couple of pictures. I took these Christmas Eve before we went to my Aunt's house. (Because it would have been dark when we got back.)

Ruthi had been counting the days until she could "feed the reindeer." And she had lots of fun spreading the reindeer food.




I can't believe I forgot to take pictures of Ruthi putting out milk and cookies. And she was SO CUTE doing it! But Chip took this picture Christmas morning when I carried her in to see that Santa had enjoyed them!


This was a lot of fun for me. You see, this is the first year we've ever "allowed" Santa in our home. Yes, we totally deprived CJ of Santa. But at the time he was this age, we made the decision that we weren't going to 'do' Santa. He knew about him, and knew that other kids believed and never spoiled it for anyone. He'd even play along when someone asked him what Santa was bringing.

We had good reasons for not doing the whole Santa thing. But I won't go into them, or this will be a very long post!

I grew up not believing in Santa, and it didn't hurt me. Chip grew up believing and it didn't hurt him. We knew either way it would be fine, but that was our choice at the time.

Now we are a little older, and much more relaxed. It was kind of funny - we never even discussed what we would do about Santa with Ruthi. We didn't sit down and decide to make a change. It just happened. I was still ok either way, it didn't really matter to me.

Ruthi caught wind of Santa through our neighbors. And she was so cute talking about it. I didn't discourage it, but I didn't make a big deal either.

Then one night we were all watching a Christmas movie (I think it was called Prancer) and Ruthi asked where Santa was. Chip answered, "At the north pole making toys for good little girls and boys."

I busted out laughing. It was then I knew we were totally on the same page. And so Santa was now "allowed" in our home!

We then apologized to CJ for "robbing" him of the fun that was believing in Santa. He kind of rolled his eyes and assured us it was ok! (Whew!)

We decided there was no harm in having a little fun with this. We will not go to great lengths to keep her from finding out, but we will have fun with this as long as she wants to.

And we will never let her forget the real meaning of Christmas.

One of my favorite things she did on Christmas? She sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. (And she has been singing it ever since!)


I most likely won't be posting again until next week. I'll be very busy all weekend, so I'm letting myself off the hook with blogging. LOL!

If I'm not back by Monday, then HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Aren't They Cute?

Just sharing a quick picture - so my Dad will know my camera really isn't broken!



Tasha has become a house dog again. She's getting so old and doesn't handle the cold weather as well as she used to. We felt sorry for her. I think she's loving being inside. And Ruthi is even happier. Tasha may want back outside just to escape all the Ruthi hugs!!

Tasty Thursday

Hosted by Trista at the Pumkin Patch.


I can't believe how long it's been since I participated in Tasty Thursday. Shame on me! But today I'm playing along.

I made this last Christmas and it was fabulous.


This is from Kraft food & family magazine, Holiday 2005

CHOCOLATE CANDY CANE CAKE

1 pkg. (2 layer size) chocolate cake mix
1 pkg. (4-serving size) Chocolate Instant Pudding
4 eggs
8 oz. Sour Cream
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
4 squares semi-sweet baking chocolate, chopped
18 small candy canes, coaresely crushed (about 1 cup), divided
1 (8 oz.) tub Cool Whip, thawed

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease 2 (9-inch) round cake pans.
Beat cake mix, dry pudding mix, eggs, sour cream, oil and water in large bowl with electric mixer on low speed just until moistened, scraping side of bowl frequently. Beat on medium speed 2 min. or until well blended.
Stir in chopped chocolate and 2 Tbsp. of the crushed candy canes. Spoon batter evenly into prepared pans.
Bake 50 min. to 1 hour or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 min. on wire rack. Loosen cakes from side of pans with spatula or knife. Invert cakes onto rack; gently remover pans. Cool completely on wire rack.
Place 1 of the cakes layers on serving plate. Spread evenly with 1 cup of the Cool Whip. Top with remaining cake layer. Frost cake with remaining Cool Whip. Garnish with additional crushed candy cane, if desired. Cut cake into 18 slices to serve.

Notes - I used the soft candy canes instead of the traditional ones, I thought the regular ones would be too crunchy. These worked out great.
You really need to use 9 inch pans, as the baked cake filled the pans to the top. 8 inch pans would not be big enough for this batter.
My cakes only took 45 minutes to be completely done, so be sure to check them before the 50 minutes is up!

I've Been Tagged for a Hoopla!

I'm usually pretty terrible and doing these posts where I've been tagged. I have good intentions, I just have a hard time following through with doing them. So I'm doing this one since I was tagged twice.

First, Stacey tagged me, then Trista - so I suppose I should do this one.
tagged by Stacey - http://thetruestthing.blogspot.com/

So, I've been has tagged for this fun idea wherein I have to share 12 random things about myself that are Christmas related. Here are the rules:

1. List 12 random things about yourself that have to do with Christmas
2. Please refer to it as a 'hoopla' and not the dreaded 'm'-word
3. You have to specifically tag people when you're done. None of this "if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged" stuff is allowed...then nobody ends up actually doing it. The number of people who you tag is really up to you -- but the more, the merrier to get this 'hoopla' circulating through the blogosphere.
4. Please try and do it as quickly as possible. The Christmas season will be over before we know it and I'd like to get as many people involved as possible.

Here goes:

12 Random Christmas Things About Jennifer:

1. I love Christmas trees and would have a whole bunch of them if I had the space. And they would be in all different themes. Since I don't have much space, besides our family tree, I usually put small trees in the kids' rooms; a small tree in the kitchen with cookie cutters, mini whisks, wooden spoons, etc; and in the guest bathroom, a small one with seashells. And sometimes we put a tree on the front porch. However, this year I only put up the family and kids' trees. If I had a big house - I would have a tree in every room. I'd love a snowman tree, a firefighter tree and a Santa tree plus a few more! (Wow that was a long #1!)

2. I adore snowmen, and have been collecting them for some time. I love to add to my collection. Although sadly, they aren't out this year.

3. Eggnog is one of my favorite Christmas indulgences.

4. My favorite part about Christmas is the giving. Sure, I like to receive gifts, but I love to give gifts to others.

5. My absolute favorite Christmas song is I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas, and it's just not Christmas without it. I finally got the CD with it on it so I can listen to it as many times as I want. (And now Ruthi loves the song almost as much as I do!)

6. I always buy Reece's Peanut Butter Trees for our stockings.

7. I dream of a white Christmas. However I know that the only way I'll ever have one is to go somewhere it actually snows!

8. I love to make handmade gifts for Christmas. This year is my favorite so far, as I've expanded in to some new things...and I'm very pleased with the results.

9. I love to fall asleep with just the light from the Christmas tree.

10. I used to decorate my tree with red and silver. Since we painted a few years ago, I switched so it would match and now use blue and silver. I love the colors!

11. All the gifts under my tree have to be wrapped in similar colors - and they must all contain blue! This year everything is in the same paper - I had a HUGE roll I bought last year. I've wrapped everything so far (which is almost everything) and still have quite a bit of this paper left. (It's reversible, so some gifts at least have the reverse side used!)

12. I would love to have a Christmas winter wonderland in my front yard with lots of lights and decorations. But it is just too much work. And I love to have my whole house decked out. But this year is the bare minimum - the family tree and kids' trees. Yep...that's it. It's a sad year for decorating. I've just been too busy making gifts to want to put my energy into decorating. Hopefully I'll do better next year.

OK, that was harder than I thought it would be! But there you have it - 12 random, boring facts about Christmas for me.

Who can I tag? How about Jan, Lori and Kirstin.

Happy Birthday

Today is the birthday of two very important people in my life.

My hubby turns 35 today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETHEART!

And my Mom turns a beautiful 57 years young today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMA!!!!

I love you both very much!!

********************************************

I have been very busy and now I'm feeling very tired. I even went to bed around 11 last night (early for me!) and slept until 9 or so this morning. But I'm still tired, and I have a terrible headache today

And I still have a few Christmas gifts to finish up. My goal today is to get the baby blanket made for a new baby in the family. That's the last "big" thing.

I really hope to be completely finished with everything by Thursday. Then I plan to spend Friday cleaning. Then hopefully everything will stay nice and clean until after Christmas!

I think I need a nap! I don't understand why I'm so tired today!

So I'm sorry Daddy, I'm not posting any pictures today. My camera really isn't broken! But I promise I will get some on here soon!