Christmas blues

Christmas presents bought - check
Christmas presents made - almost check
presents wrapped - look at above, almost check
Attitude adjusted - getting there....

I love Christmas time but I hate the running. It always seems that I end up crying on Christmas day and Matt is having to tell me to calm down and just enjoy it. When we first met we had fours days of Christmas ( no joke ) since he had great grandparents still living. It was hurry hurry hurry and then you are supposed to relax. Over the years he has lost all his great grandparents so it is slowing down but still seems crazy. We go to one side of his family around 6 Christmas eve, then to the other side of the family around 9ish then back to the in-laws to help put gifts together. We are figuring that the kids will be up by 3 am opening gifts (that is B's normal time to get up it seems) and then we can go back to bed, in our own bed with the girls. We have lunch at his Mema's and then (hopefully) to Kansas for dinner with Farris and Kathy. It is just a super busy schedule and it never feels like we can sit and just enjoy everything.

Just remember that all those who are running around WANT to stay longer but the schedule may not allow it. We are running around a couple more years and then when we have kids we are going to slow down a bit.

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I got to see Brandy, Chris and the new little one last night. She is so precious and small. She has these long skinny legs and these active arms are going constantly. I got to hold my precious little niece and she is so precious. We talked about how she is eating like a little pig and how thankful we all are that everything went well. Like I said before though, it makes me think of how much we are wanting to wait but how much I can't wait to have a little one like that!!! It is amazing that one week ago we were wondering when she was going to get here and we are able to hold her today. And then you think about the birthing process to get her here and it is all just so amazing! If there is any advice or just words of encouragement to send to my friend post them here and I will make sure that they get passed on to her!!!!

Baby fever????

We went and visited AJ, Brandy and Chris on Saturday and little AJ is so precious. She has her momma's chin and maybe her dad's nose. Brandy was lucky and her labor lasted all of 10 minutes. I am serious, 10 minutes!!!! I sat and held her for almost a couple of hours and she is just so beautiful. I love the smell of babies and she was no exception.

I have been around lots of babies or women who are pregnant and it is making me have baby fever!!! I have 3 semesters left of school and I want to be teaching for a year so it will be a little bit but it doesn't help the baby fever!!!! Hopefully I can play and take care of AJ and it won't be quite so bad! Can't wait to see her! Any advice for the baby fever from all of you out there?????

Baby AJ is here!

AJ got here this morning at 3:40 am. She weighs 6 lbs 3 oz, 19 1/2 inches long and is beautiful. Everyone is doing good!!!! Happy Birthday AJ!!!!

cranberry salsa, jalapeno jelly, oh my eye!!!!

I have my last night of class for the semester and have been studying and doing last minute stuff like crazy. I am trying to round up enough stuff for a party and decided to take my jalapeno jelly to have with cream cheese, some fudge and was looking for something else. One of the girls at work had a cranberry salsa that was amazing so she called to get the recipe and gave it to us. I figured that that would be enough for me to bring so I was pumped about making it. I ran and got the stuff at Wal-mart and then walked off and forgot the green onions, cilantro and jalapenos so yesterday at 6:30 in the morning I realized that I had forgotten them and ran back in before work to grab them plus enough to make a double batch. We ate dinner with Matt's dad and step-mom so I was doing the finishing touches on homework stuff while they were playing Super Mario on the Wii ( great game) and when we got home I made the cranberry salsa. Put it in the cooler to chill and marinate together.

When I got up this morning I was running around like a crazy woman trying to get stuff together and I had an itch in my eye. Stupid me like the idiot busy woman that I am used my nail to scratch the rim of my eye lid and kept going.... Until I was stopped dead in my tracks by this burning sensation and started yelling "my eye is burning, my eye is burning!!!!" My poor confused husband jumped up trying to figure out what the heck was going on. (Did I mention that when I seeded the 4 jalapenos for the salsa that I was in such a hurry that I didn't wear gloves????? And although I washed my hands like four times apparently there was still some oil on my nails??????) I was jumping around, running for the saline for my contacts in the bathroom and trying to rinse my eyes out. My husband was laughing at me once I could get out what was going on and when he saw that I was okay.

So the end of this story is..... I am going to give you the recipe for the cranberry salsa. I am going to put it over cream cheese but I keep thinking that it would be good over chicken or pork... or turkey.... or anything!!!! Just one thing to keep in mind- be smart not an idiot like myself and wear gloves to do ANYTHING with peppers!!! Okay, now that that is out of the way, here is the recipe!!!

Cranberry Salsa

2 cans of whole cranberries (chopped or blended)
¼ cup green onions chopped (about 2)
2 small jalapenos chopped and seeded
½ cup sugar (or a little less)
¼ cup cilantro leaves chopped
1 tbsp ginger powder
2 tbsp lemon juice

Mix together and chill for 4 hours. Covers 3 blocks of cream cheese.

Enjoy!!!!

Miranda Lambert and a fun weekend

This weekend was very exciting. I found out that the freezer door has been open so I made a BIG pot of chili last night. It was super yummy... I did nine loads of laundry, normal housework stuff, worked on some Christmas gifts and on Saturday we went to the Miranda Lambert concert!!!!

I want to start this off by saying she is just a beautiful in person as she is on stage. And her voice is amazing. I hate going somewhere to watch someone, only to realize that the studio has done some MAJOR touching up on the voice. I was so pleased to see that this didn't happen with her. She started the show at exactly 8 pm and she rocked the house. We were right by the stage so I go within inches of her and was again pleased to realize that she is a normal size woman!!! YAY!!!!

I have always loved that she was very outspoken on certain issues and is just a normal girl. I will try and get a couple of clear blurry pictures up soon. If you are ever able to see her it is well worth the money. She is a small package that explodes when she hits the stage!!!

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We went to the Park of Lights before the concert and got to see The Redneck Diva's light display. If you are anywhere in the area you should really try to get over there and see all the displays. And when you vote you should just put down Number ONE... That way you don't have to try and remember anything and yo will be voting for my favorite rednecks!!!

Speaking of my redneck friends, I had a dream that we went grocery shopping at Wal-mart together last night..... I don't really know what that means but I can only think that it is a good thing!

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I have class tonight to review for a final and then I don't have to drive down until next Monday to take my final and then on Thursday to turn in my final and have a small class party!!!! I am ready for the break that will ensue... I taught my lesson and got a 45/50 and then got the results back on a five page paper that I wrote reviewing a Spanish text book. I have had this instructor in the past and she grades very hard so I was nervous about the results. I got them Thursday afternoon and was so excited about it.... 88% on it!!!!!! I was so excited about it!!!! I guess that is all that is going on for now! I am gonna go and finish another online class!

Writers Workshop - Dream Christmas

Mama Kat has a Writer's Workshop that is always so much fun! Head over there and check it out and join in!!!

The prompt that I choose was describe how you would celebrate the holidays if it was totally up to you and money was not a factor.

If money wasn't a factor I would take us all to Disney World. And I am being serious. I have gone once before and that is the best time of the year if you are from Oklahoma to go. I was wearing shorts and short sleeved shirts while my friends back home were wearing coats and layers of clothes. The other thing is that they have deals for that time of year. They don't want you to stay home and not do anything. Go there and spend your money!!!!

We would have to go to all the different parks but then I would want to also go deep sea fishing. Matt and I have always wanted to do this and it would be the perfect opportunity for us to do that. Killing two birds with one stone basically.

There is no telling what we will see because my wonderful husband doesn't want to fly. He enjoys driving. Let me say that again. He enjoys it when he can sit in the passenger side and no have to do anything when we get into heavy city traffic and not do anything. So there is no telling what else we might see!

What would you do for Christmas if money was no object?????

Head over to Mama Kats and check everything out!!!

Whew......

Today I went to lunch at 1 and felt this stuff coming out of the sky..... but it was harder than rain. Didn't think much of it and ran to eat Charlie's Chicken for Matt's birthday and when we came out it was crazy... It was actually snowing!

Now in Oklahoma it can be called the first official snow as long as there are more than 10 snowflakes. And we had quite a bit more than that. For a few minutes we had quarter size snow flakes falling and they looked so beautiful.

We are running around to all the area casinos for Matt's birthday. So I am hoping that the rain/snow won't be coming down tonight and we can get this done! We always have fun and he always does good.

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I have finished my two week thematic unit, written a five page book review over a Spanish book, am getting ready to teach a 45 minute lesson tomorrow night and am working on finishing an annotated bibliography with 16 sources... WHEW!!!!!!

I have two and a half weeks left of class and you have no idea how excited I am for that. Next semester is going to be even rougher but I have a wonderful husband who is learning to be patient with me. I over heard him saying to someone "it really has been a stressful semester for her but she is handling it really well." It made me feel good to hear him say that. Although he teases me and calls me a *career student* I know that he supports me in what I am doing.

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I haven't gotten to go hunting since I have been spending all of my time doing the assignments above but Matt has been going. He really hasn't seen much. We have one more weekend of rifle season and this may be the first season that neither him or his grandpa get to shoot something down on that land. They have seen a few but are trying to build up the population so it has been hard to decide what to shoot. We have 3 deer in the freezer so that will be enough for us but it could be close still. I am getting ready to make a bunch of deer chili and freeze it so we have easy access when we are wanting some!

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Matt has been swearing that AJ was going to come on his birthday. but I don't think that she will be coming. It will be close to his birthday so that will have to do!

Hope that we do good tonight!!!