Thanksgiving, the conclusion

Remember last Thanksgiving? We went over to Paul and Anita's and Paul fried a Turkey and madness and mayhem ensued? I just went to my posts to put a link to last year's mayhem and of all things...it never made it to the blog! I had forgotten the camera and I was relying on others to send me pictures and I guess they never did. Well, suffice it to say, Paul fried a turkey and upon taking it out of the fryer, you guessed it, spilled the whole VAT of grease all over the patio. The only other person out there was Anita and, yes, her foot got burned badly. She had to go to the ER and well, that's the story in a nutshell.



Well, this year, we went over to Paul and Anita's and Paul fried TWO turkeys and you know what ensued? How 'bout some overstuffing of tummies! Yummmmmmm! No spilled boiling hot grease, no skimping on turkey so there would be some left for Paul and Anita when they got home from the emergency room, just slap-happy eating and giving thanks and watching the cowboys tromp the NY Jets, oh yeah, can it get better than that? Here's a picture of the conquering heroes.

Just look at that delicious turkey!
Here's (from l. to r.) Richard, Conrad, Margaret, Peggy, Paul and Eden.
What a happy group! Anna riding Eden's rocking horse.
Uncle Paul holding Maddie Rose (he's the only one allowed to call her that).
And, since there's never any pictures of me on here, I decided to include this one of me and my sweet hubby.

During the Cowboy's half-time show, Anna got jiggy with it.

Again, I wish you and yours a happy Thanksgiving.

And, now, let the Christmas holidays officially begin.

Thanksgiving part one

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EVERYONE!

The girls had their "Thanksgiving Feasts" at school on Tuesday. These are the things Madeline is thankful for; my pet rocks, noodle (Isabella, her friend), Sadie, Anna, Dad and Mom, oh, and of course, let's don't forget Hannah Montana!

Blue jello, the staples of pilgrims everywhere.

The turkey at the top of the page was created by Becky Hale, Room Mom extroidinaire. Her cookies are as good as they look. Thank you, Becky, for your generosity of time and talent.

Since this is Thanksgiving and all, I would like to let you know what I am thankful for.

My family, Mom, Aunt Brownie, Uncle Howard, Pamela, Wendy, Greggy, James, Austin, Alysse, Ashlea, Aunt Janis, Taylor and his family.

And, the family that Conrad and I have created, Conrad, Sadie, Madeline and Anna. I am thankful for my sons, Jon Michel and Aaron whom I love dearly.

I am also grateful for a house to keep us warm (when we pay the bills and am grateful that all of them are paid right now), food to put on the table, and health with which to enjoy all that.

I am grateful for Conrad's family, who will surround me today, for accepting me as one of their own and loving me as much as I love them.

I am also grateful for friends, too numerous to name, thank you all for bringing joy to my life in various ways.

And, most of all, grateful for a gracious God who sees fit to give us life, in abundance, with joy, sorrow and all that inbetween stuff that we call day-to-day mundane. Thank you, God, for all my blessings, too many to count.

May you all have a blessed and Happy Thanksgiving, full of love, yummy food, family and friends.

Moments missed

Two doors down from us live a family who have 6 kids. We call them "the kids". When neighbors hear me say "the girls are down playing with 'the kids' they all know who I'm talking about.

Well, today, I was across the street at my neighbor Lisa's house, in the garage, and one of "the kids" comes running over and proceeds to tell us excitedly that the cats (in my house) had a mouse and Sadie got them away from it and was trying to catch it.

Now, I remember once, a mouse in the house and Conrad tried to get it - and when I say "get it", I mean kill it or stop it from being in the house in some manner and ended up chasing it, armed with a broom, into Anna's room, while she was sleeping, and turned on the light, shut the door, flipped over blankets and the mattress and everything else in the room and we never did find that mouse (nor did he wake up Anna).

So, here comes Sadie with ziploc bags on her hands with the mouse. Lisa semi-freaks out and I am dumbfounded that 1) my child was brave enough to pick up a live mouse, 2) the mouse was pick-up-able, 3) I wasn't freaking out in anyway, except that I just didn't want the mouse back in the house and 4) I didn't have my camera to take a picture. I am sure that this is not the mouse that Conrad tried to capture, as it has been a year or so since that episode and that the cats had to have drug? dragged? that mouse in.

Eventually, Madeline ends up with the mouse, freaks a little, drops it and it semi-scurries under Lisa's car. Lisa wants NO part of this mouse, doesn't want it near her house, in her car, nothing. Phillip (Lisa's husband) eventually grabs the mouse and goes and puts it down the new sewer drains. We always knew they'd come in handy for something.

So, Madeline "has to tell Daddy" about this escapade. I had no idea the girls are now worried about the cats having rabies "because mice carry diseases" - they tell me with "duh" slobbering all over their words, until I come in and Sadie tells me that Puss and Rosie won't have to worry about rabies now because she has brushed their teeth.

I ask her what she brushed their teeth with and she says (as if I've only just now come to planet earth) "toothpaste". And before I can even get the next question out of my mouth she says "I used a toothbrush we don't use anymore". These are the children who, when I say "go brush your teeth" say to me, "I can't find my toothbrush". But, they can sure find one to brush a cat's teeth with.

Next time you visit my house, remember to bring your own toothbrush, and keep it well hidden.

The leaves are falling!

Today we got a little respite from the warm weather. With that came lots of wind, which made the leaves all start falling. This brought out the "leaf jumper" in all the kids.

This is Sadie showing her joy of life, leaves and the pursuit of large mounds of jumpable leaves.
My girls.





In other cool news...James and Rica asked us to be godparents to the twins (remember when they were born? Click here if you don't). We were honored and excited to say "yes"!



Also, I've turned in my last mid-term test, just 7 more chapters to go in my school work. Will it ever end?

And, last but certainly not least, Happy Birthday to my sister, Pamela. I love you!

Awards and such

Sadie's team "The Cornhuskers" had their end of season party today. Here Sadie is receiving her trophy. I tried to get the coach in the picture but Sadie wouldn't cooperate. That's his arm handing it to her.

This is Madeline on the field before her soccer game, preparing herself (or her hair) for battle.
"Hmmm, this chair is lumpy".
Apparently, after playing baseball, soccer is B-O-R-I-N-G!
And, how could I not end with this?

Picture day

Ok, it will be an "anna-centric" blog today. She had her first "school pictures" taken today. She was still dressed in her "finery" when I picked her up so I took advantage and took some pictures. She had her binkie in her mouth but obliged when I asked her to take it out.

Notice her new "dress" shoes.

Oh, my, how cute is she? How many times have I asked that on this blog. Sorry, I just think she is. Good thing, she's enough to drive me crazy, 'til I look at her and she gives me a cute little smile, or a kiss, or hugs my neck.

A very cool thing that happened today is...AARON WILL FOR SURE BE HERE FOR CHRISTMAS (thanks, Mom)! We got his flight today and he'll be here for almost 2 weeks. I'm very much looking forward to his visit. The one in the summer was too short and filled with - oh, I don't know - broken legs and all. Sorry, Mom, I couldn't resist!

And another thing, my Mumsey is finally released from Drs. and therapy. She's healed!

Go Mumsey!!!!!

I will have pictures of our Prinicpal with the "color of the year" for his hair. We had the carnival this past weekend - that accounts for the lack of blogging - I'm just now recovering. But I have to hook the other camera up to the computer and it requires a little more stamina than I have at this moment. It will be coming soon.

Halloween!

Anna was a ladybug for Halloween, enjoy these pictures. There were so many cute ones I just decided to put them all on here.

All the girls, dressed and ready to go trick-or-treating. Madeline opted for no make-up this time.
Madeline almost didn't get to go trick-or-treating tonight. For the last day or two she has been looking for two books, one was a library book, the other on loan from a teacher, that she had in her hand the night before she was looking for them. In other words, she had the books, she went to bed, the next day she couldn't find them. So for days we've been searching for these books. Today, she had a paper due (one page copied paper that had questions she had to answer from a whole other book) and couldn't find that. I was FED UP! So this morning when we got in the van, I told her that when we got home she would look for those books until she found them or she would not be able to go trick-or-treating tonight. As soon as it was out of my mouth I was sorry I said it. What pressure - for both of us!

We got home a little before 4pm and she found them at 6:15 - with her Daddy's help. Whew! I didn't want her missing the biggest night for kids but I had to stick to my guns or neither girl would ever take a threat seriously again. Thank goodness she found those books.

We had some friends come over to trick-or-treat with us. Cassie and Tori with their kids, Caitlin and Decklan (hope I spelled that name right!). Very cute costumes on all. Decklan was a mummy and Caitlin was a flower pot. Cassie made the costumes, how creative!

This is the whole gang that went.

Cassie and Tori were costumed as well as "Ghostbusters"!

Their packs even lit up! Man, they are really good!
Anna checking out her loot.

This is Anna trying yet another tasty morsel. She would unwrap something lick it or stick it in her mouth for a second then "feed it to the birds", which is what we do when we drop food on the ground or I find food on the floor of the van. Birds love us. She went through alot of candy but I bet she didn't have but about 20 calories from it, all told.

All in all, it was a lovely halloween. Chiminea out front, friends over, candy...hmmm, how could you beat that?

Halloween Eve

Some of these pictures are from Saturday night. Like this one...Rosie and Puss all snuggled up, loving each other like brothers should. How sweet is that?
And, Kelsey and her date Shane, before going to her formal dance "Carousel". She looked beautiful! At least I didn't cry this time when I saw her all grown up.
Now we get into more recent pictures. Last night was "Mathoween" at ACA. The kids got to wear their costumes with makeup (as long as there was no blood- too scary for the kindergartners). Here is Madeline in full costume, minus shoes. Heaven forbid we put those on too early!
Here's our little "death warmed over Cheerleader". I think it's actually called "School Spirit". But she wanted her face white with blue on her eyes. There will be more, hopefully better, pictures tonight.
And, Anna. She wanted makeup on, too. So she has some red on her cheeks and nose. She'll be all dolled up tonight. Stay tuned for more pictures!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE! BE SAFE AND HERE'S HOPING YOU HAVE KIDS WHO WILL GO TRICK-OR-TREATING AND BRING YOU YOUR FAVORITE CANDY!

Before you watch this video, I want you all to know that normally, Anna would not be drinking Coke or Dr. Pepper. She commandeered my drink (Dr. Pepper) and it was wetting her whistle whilst she kept us entertained by singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, little star". That is what she is singing at the beginning of the video.

And, just so you know, I've heard that Channel 4 replayed my interview yesterday morning.

Patty Cake

Anna loves to play "Patty Cake" and will ask anytime, anywhere. I finally caught it on video!

Cowboys and ducks

This morning, the fog was so thick, I took this picture at the corner of where the new Cowboy Stadium or "The Stadium in Arlington" as we call it, or "Jonesville" or what it truly should be called "Landry Field" but, I digress. As you can see by the picture, or can't see, it was really, really foggy. You couldn't even see the arches or trusses as they are actually called. Pretty wild. Things get wilder!
As I am doing my "homework", dutifully studying with the front door open so I can feel the nice coolness of outside, I hear all sorts of helicopters flying over which means 1) there's a felon on the loose and they're trying to chase him down or 2) someone's been hurt at the construction site or - as I know is the case today - the "keystone" to the arch (or truss) is being set today. I feel the urge to blog it. So, off I go. I'm so easily distracted.

When I got there, there was a News 4 truck there and I was snapping away, see the picture?

Then, Mr. Adrian Arambulo, from News Fox 4, comes to me and asks what I think and I tell him and he asks if he can put me on the noon news. Well, duh, of course! So, he gets the cameraman and back they are for the "interview". He asks about 3 or 4 questions and that's that. So, I go home and wait for the noon news and there I am, lead story. Looking for all the world like one of those people they interview after a tornado and I actually said "My gosh, it's huge!" (or words to those effects) on the local news. I wanted to crawl under a rock. Conrad even says my teeth look horrible, so now I look like a grandma-tornado victim hooked on meth or whatever drug messes with your teeth. Great. Just what I wanted for my TV debut. Well, rather than make y'all go looking all over the place for the clip - which I know you can find because you're all so computer savvy - I'll include a link to it - just click here.

And, just so you know, no - NO I did not know my hair looked like that, had I known, I would have taken it down. I had put it up while on the phone so that when I got finished talking, it would be out of my way for transcribing. Hence the reason it looks like Anna put it up for me.

Then up to the school to see the unveiling of the Griffin Buck Truck in all it's painted glory! Jessica did a fantastic job. See for yourself...
It's got a grill, headlights and a driver! Recognize him? It's Mr. Simon.
This is one of the sides, see the ducks? I may not have told you but each month we're going to have a Griffin Buck Truck Duck. Here you see the Professor duck in the left corner and Rainy Day duck in the upper right corner.
And here's the winter duck. I love that it looks like a penquin. Jessica is in charge of her church's WinterFest and it's theme is penquins. I feel like it will always have a part of Jessica on it. And, how about that license plate? That was my request. I wanted it to have a vanity plate. Really, Jessica, I cannot thank you enough and I cannot even put into words how cute this is. I hope lots of people comment on it. Thank you for all your hard work!

Our Fall Break

The kids had fall break last week and I'm finally getting to post our exciting time.

First, Jon Michel, my oldest, turned 21 on Monday. We celebrated at El Chico's then went to a <gasp> bar and watched the Cowboys game (yep, they won!) and played some pool (I lost, as did Jon) and I got to "hang out" with his friends who are all very nice and I really enjoyed being around them. They even acted like they liked when I played "Dancing Queen" on the jukebox!

Tuesday, we went to my Mom's house in Shreveport. This is what greeted us... (I made her stand back in the door so I could take her picture!) my Mumsey - not on a walker or anything!
How wonderful does that look? Can you believe just 3 short months ago she broke her leg and now look at her!

Wednesday, we went up to her church and she let Sadie play the organ. Here they are hard at work.
And this video is so you can hear Sadie playing the organ.





Anna's expression says it all!
Anna joins in the fun!

Thursday, we went down to the Lousiana Boardwalk and the girls got to go to Build-a-Bear Workshop and make new friends - literally - Sadie made a dog, Sugar, Madeline made a monkey, Curious George, and Anna made a turtle, Tinky.

Then, once Anna was down for a nap, I got to go to <gasp, again> a casino! The man who is in charge of all this God forsaken construction on our street found out I was going to Shreveport and gave me money to play the roulette wheel for him. I think he thinks the only reason people go to Shreveport is to go gamble. Little did he know I have never in my life been to a casino in Shreveport. He asked which one we were going to and I said (thinking ever so quickly) "do you have a preference?" He said "no" so I went to the only one I could find the entrance to - it's on the way to the Boardwalk. I didn't win any money for him, unfortunately. But, it was fun - ish. I think it would have been more fun had I known more of what to do. I just put the money on the numbers that he gave me and hoped for the best. Yes, now I know you can put money on the lines and corners, etc. but I didn't know it then.

And lastly, Sadie and I went letterboxing on the campus of Centenary College. There is a series of 5 boxes and we found 3 of them. The campus is beautiful and we really enjoyed walking around it.

This is Sadie with the contents of the first of our boxes.

We had El Chico's and Mr. Gatti's pizza and my mom actually cooked lasagna the last night we were there. Ok, Stouffer's actually cooked it, she heated it. But, it was still delicious. Thanks, Mom, for letting us come invade your home for 3 1/2 days. You're a great hostess!

Last Night was First Friday Family Fun Night at ACA. We played games. Susan, my Vice-President and friend, did a great job of planning and executing the games for the kids. This picture is Sadie trying to break a balloon. Not long after this, Anna pointed out into the hall as if to say "this is WAY to loud, mama, I want out, NOW!"



One of the games was crab-walking across the floor. Anna played, too. The person to her left is Sadie so it's really a bonus video of them.

This is Elsa Archangel. Isn't that a great name? We see her most every morning at school and she always says to Anna, "there's my little friend, you want to go with me?" I told her that someday Anna would say "yes" and she'd be stuck. Well, last night she did say "yes" when asked and she crawled up into Elsa's car and buckled up. She would NOT get out. Finally, I had to tell her that she could ride with Elsa around to the other side of the school but then, she would have to go with me. She did just that and was most upset with me that she couldn't go home with Mrs. Elsa.

This is Kolton (Madeline's boyfriend - who knows, maybe they're broken up right now, you never can tell with them) participating in the flipper/snorkel relay.

If Anna had gone home with Mrs. Elsa, she'd miss snuggling with her Daddy.

Here are my two atheletes, today, between their two games. Aren't they sweet?

Visitor's Day

Yesterday was Madeline's first "vistor's day" at dance. She was very excited to have her guests which included: Sadie, Anna and me.

I would have posted this last night but my head was killing me by the time the girls went to bed. Worry not, I don't have a tumor or anything, I'm giving up Dr. Pepper. Yes, you read that right. I'm giving up Dr. Pepper. The reason is multi-faceted...I am hoping to lose a few pounds by giving it up, my health can only improve and it should save some money. Although when I think about it, I could have more expensive addictions, say, crack or heroine. In the scheme of things, I really won't save that much money but I can feel like I am. I'll still drink it when I go out to eat or other such occasions, we just won't have it around the house. Can you believe it? Oooo, I just had a thought, I could give up giving up Dr. Pepper for lent! Dang that lent, now I'll have to drink Dr. Pepper! "Don't throw me in that briar patch Brear Bear!"

Back to visitors day: Here's Madeline Chassez-ing around the circle. I'm not sure I spelled that right but you get my drift.

And this video is of Madeline singing "Dancing Tickles My Toes". Very cute.

And, lest you think because you saw these videos you don't have to attend any recital?...forgetaboutit! The recital is May 31 and Madeline has invited everyone she sees. If she hasn't invited you, yet, she just hasn't seen you. Put the date on your calendar!

This video is after Mads got finished and Anna wanted to dance. Mads is such a good big sister!