I have officially run out of my own ideas (and ideas I've "borrowed" from my Martha Stewart magazine) and I have gone hunting on line for more inspiration.  I can't stop making ornaments yet, I still have more hot glue sticks and felt!  LOL

 

I came across this website.  I could never in a million years make one of these beautiful art works myself, but OH!  they are so pretty.  It's a good thing her waiting list is a mile long, I really can't be spending $20 - $28 per ornament on one of her creations (though I am sorely tempted!).

 

Check out The Ornament Girl.

Did you hear about the spice jar that went to church every Sunday morning?

 

...She was a Tarragon of virtue!

Wesley just prayed his first independent, heart felt prayer all by himself.  It went like this:

"God and Jesus, please you make icecream in our house?  Amen."

 

Other things he says right now that I don't want to forget are:

GotFor (he is trying to say forgot)

We instead of Our (example: I want to go to we house in we choo choo Thomas)

 

 

Last night for lunch / dinner we ordered Pizza Hut.  We got the new "Panormous" pan pizza (which is really more like two medium rectangular pizzas in the same box).  Surprisingly, we ate most of it yesterday.  When Shawn saw this he exclaimed, "We put a hurtin' on that pizza!"  I still laugh uncontrollably every time I think of it.

 

 

I've been trying not to blog about Christmas stuff, I figure you all have heard enough for two or three Christmas holidays already, however...

I've been making more ornaments again.  Ever since Mo mentioned wanting some I've stepped up my game.  They all still look like what your kid might bring home from elementry school art class, but I'm having fun.  I've not posted pictures because I want to give Mo hers first.  I make them in batches, assembly line style.  I usually make 10 or 12 of a kind (although I went crazy and made 18 reindeer).  I will probably give Mo two of each kind, maybe three.  Depends on how many I end up with all together.  I don't want to have to rent a cargo van to bring them to her (just kidding, Mo... I'd rent the van in a heart beat!)

 

I had better get going, the kids are bugging me to go out.  We are going to Top Foods (they love the kid's play area) and I am going to finish up my Thanksgiving shopping and I guess while I am at it I will do my grocery shopping for the week.

 

Today's the 24th... so we are exactly a month away from Christmas Eve!  :D

 

Love, Jen

 

...a poem from my beloved Mrs W's republican friend in Texas:

 

Colleen brought home a flyer last Friday titled "Stone Soup".

 

Here is what it says:

 

We will be having a feast on Thursday, November 20th.

 

We are reading a French folktale in class about a town that has no food to share until a stranger suggests that they make stone soup.  The stranger brings a stone and some secret ingredients and then talks the townspeople into each bringing an ingredient until they have delicious soup to share with the entire town.  The secret ingredient to the soup is the sharing everyone does.

 

We will be making stone soup in class and I am asking each student to bring one ingredient for the soup.

 

 

It goes on to list particulars, the time of the feast, parents are invited, yada yada.  Colleen's ingredient is 2 stalks of celery, diced.

 

I remember this from my own school days, but Shawn doesn't.  I am excited that Colleen gets to do it, I hope she is not too little to remember it when she grows up.

 

Speaking of growing up, Colleen has informed me that "when she is a mommy" she is going to have two little girls, twins.  Then she makes up some unusual names for them, jumbles of letters that may or may not "go together" in the English language. 

 

I don't get to pick her up from school for another hour and a half.  I always miss her the most on Mondays.

 

Love, Jen

 

PS The CD with her school picture on it came today.  Enjoy the cuteness!

 

Just tonight, when not even looking for it (shopping for my sisters to tell you the truth), I found the perfect Christmas present for Shawn.  And it was only $10 (money doesn't = love, honey!).

 

While I was at it, the most awesome gift for my dad popped into my head.  Way better than the generic gift I was planning on getting him.  Only trouble is, it's raised the bar and I really can't get my mom the generic gift I had in mind for her, now it's got to be equally thoughtful and amazing.  But hey, hers is the last present I have to buy so I've got the luxury of taking my time and thinking about it without worrying about everyone else's.

 

What am I going to blog about now that I've said just about all there is to say regarding my Christmas preparations?  Oooh, I've got something:

 

We just had a new roof put on this house a month ago.  Since then we've had two windy days of note and our beautiful (expensive!) new roof was covered in a blanket of yucky wet pine needles.  I imagine that wet pine needles can not be good for asphalt shingles.  The other day I mentioned in passing to Shawn that I wanted to go up on the roof and blow or sweep the pine needles off.  Well, this morning he asked me what it was that I wanted to do around the house and I said that all I could think of was that I had talked about the roof.  I didn't think much else about it, I was puttering around, I think I was wasting time on the computer.  Next thing, I hear the blower humming.  Without so much as saying a word, Shawn got dressed, got the ladder and blower, climbed on to the roof and blew the needles off the roof.  While he was up there he saw how many pine needles and pine cones were in our gutters and he cleaned those out too. 

 

Thank you sweet heart, for taking care of it.  If left to my own devices I would have probably fallen off the roof and broke my leg.

 

Love, Jen

Making something yourself in an attempt to save money over buying retail is almost ALWAYS more expensive. 

 

Save yourself time, frustration, and money and just buy retail!

 

Now, if you happen to enjoy:

hand painting over two dozen salt dough Christmas ornaments, or

cutting little felt clothes from impossibly tiny patterns, or

painting and gluing together 30 (or 60, depending on if I do the second batch) clothespin doll ornaments (Santa, Mrs. Claus, Reindeer, Elves, and Angels)

 

Then by all means, go for it!  Enjoy your hobby!

 

But don't take the approach that you are saving money by hand making them over buying retail.  A complete "Trim a Tree" ornament set from Walmart will run you about $70.00.  I've spent over $100 easily on paint, 5 packages of clothespins, felt, 3 packages of pompoms, 3 packages of clear glass ball ornaments, 4 packages of glitter rub on decals, 2 packages of loose artificial snow (one plain, one irredescent), a large package of Christmas themed buttons, and oh Lord, I don't know what else. 

 

I have had a lot of fun making them, and I suppose that should be good enough, but when the point is To Save Money, the irony does not escape me.

 

Pictures coming soon, because they did, indeed, turn out pretty cute.

 

Love, Jen

I've been struggling internally for a few days now over the house in NC.  It still hasn't sold, we haven't had one legitimate offer, it's been on the market 2 weeks shy of 5 months now and our realtors asked us on Saturday to do a price reduction.  We now have it listed for less than we owe on the mortgage and I'm just sick over it. 

 

Shawn is like a rock, he has faith that it will sell and that everything is happening the way it is meant to and he doesn't let it get to him the way I do.  I wish I could be like that.  Instead I am constantly worrying, stressing myself out, talking to God (but not doing a good job of listening in return), and searching for signs to reassure me or help guide me to what I'm supposed to do.

 

This morning I check my email and my friend Yolanda (I call her Yo-Yo), sent me an email.  Besides the fact that she is one of the most wonderful people I will ever know in this world, I am pretty sure Yo-Yo is in my life to help keep me closer to God.  She has the most faithful soul, but she is not preachy or self-righteous.  I love Yolanda.  Anyways, her email this morning said:

 

Largest Re-enlistment Ceremony - Ever

As everyone knows, according to the electoral votes the 2008 presidential election was a landslide - Obama with 365, McCain with 162, and 11 tied (Missouri).

 

I wanted to go a little bit deeper, just to satisfy my own curiousity on the matter.  Using the Electoral Vote Map and statistics on www.electoral-vote.com, I compliled the data into a spreadsheet.  Columns were: State, Winner, Electoral Votes, For Obama Vote %, For McCain Vote %, and whether that state was Strongly, Weakly, or Barely Democratic, Tied, or Strongly, Weakly, or Barely Republican.

 

If you average the For Candidate Vote %'s across all states, Obama was the winner with 51.56% of the vote.  McCain got 47.42% of the vote.  That's pretty close, a lot closer than I was expecting it to be.  I've not found a source that lists exactly how many popular votes per candidate by state, that would be interesting to see as well.  I suspect I can't find the data because it is still being tallied.  The total from the two party-endorsed candidates is 98.68, meaning that 1.32 of the public vote went to other candidates.  I wonder how many of you readers took my blog a while back seriously and wrote my name in for President.  1.32% isn't too shabby!  LOL

 

If you pretend that the Electoral College doesn't exist and give each state one vote, Obama is the winner with 28 states.  McCain got 21 states.  Again, Missouri wasn't called, so it wasn't counted.  With the difference in Electoral College votes being so large, I expected there to be more than a 7 state difference between the two candidates.

 

No matter how you slice it, Obama is the clear winner of the 2008 Presidential election, but when I looked at factors other than the electoral college votes, the election was closer than I expected it to be.

 

Love, Jen

Last night Shawn and I went on an Honest-To-God date.  I can still count on my fingers how many times that has happened since we've had kids.  LOL

We went to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert.  Mo and Ben watched the rug rats.  I am eternally grateful.  :)

 

Spice, I think you would enjoy seeing the Trans-Siberian Orchestra live.  There were a couple of times during the concert that I thought "Spice would love to see THAT."  Plus Mrs. Spice would love it, the story line tugs at the heart strings.  So if you get the chance - go see it!  :P

 

I've been at loose ends today.  Every time I look at the clock it is significantly later and I've not done a thing.  A few hours ago I decided to start making ornaments for my 3rd Christmas tree.  The Gingerbread men made out of paper lunch sacks didn't go over so well.  Colleen lost interest after the first two, Wes didn't even finish his 1st one.  I had several more cut out and somewhere along the line someone came behind me and cut off legs, heads, etc. and scribbled on most of what I had left to decorate myself.  *grrr*

 

Since I already had my cookie cutters out (for gingerbread men to trace on to the lunch bags), I went ahead and go out the rest of my Christmas cutters.  My original thought was to trace them onto cardstock, but then I thought "Hmmm... there has to be some kind of dough recipe out there to make dough ornaments with."  And guess what?  There is!  I did a search on MSN for "dough christmas ornament" and gazillons of results were returned.  There seem to be lots of sites that make the dough ornaments themselves and personalize them per your specifications.  I found a very easy recipe on this site.  Within minutes I had the dough made, rolled out (it was actually a very easy dough to roll out) and since my cutters are small, I got over two dozen ornaments out of a single batch.  The dough was also easy to cut and readily came out of the small crevices in some of my more intricate cutters.  They bake in the oven for two hours, I've still got about 45 minutes to go before they come out.  I will probably decorate them tomorrow night after the kids go to bed.  If they turn out decent, I'll post pictures here. I've turned the oven light on a time or two to peek in on them and they look just like sugar cookies to me.  Yum!... but without the calories!  :)

 

Love, Jen

 

UPDATE: The salt dough Christmas Ornaments are out of the oven, cooled, and I've started painting them.  If possible, the painted ones look even more like cookies than the unpainted ones.  I'm thinking of taking bets to see how long before Wes eats one.  Or, since hope springs eternal with that boy, perhaps the bet should be how many he eats.  That one not a cookie?  What about... this one!  Eww...  nope.  How about... this one!  Darn!  Oooh this one looks good...   You get my drift.  :)

Anybody out there read the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich?

 

In several of the books Stephanie mentions Jelly Doughnuts and either literally or figuratively, the jelly always seems to squish out of the doughnut.

 

It just occurred to me that the jelly is squishing out of my Christmas Doughnut because I've committed to myself that I am not putting the decorations out until after Thanksgiving.  I want to put the decorations up so badly!  So to occupy myself I'm doing everything else Christmas related until then. 

 

I interrupted Christmas gift making for Shawn's grandmother and mom just now to write this blog (because the Jelly Doughnut concept just popped into my head), but before I was working on their gifts I was on Toys R Us' website getting Coco and Wesley toys with giftcards that Shawn's mom gave the kids when she visited us this past summer.  We never got around to using them before now and I think Shawn's mom will get a kick out of knowing that she helped Santa Claus give them each something extra. 

 

The kids have always loved their Thomas The Tank Engine track sets and we have been playing with them even more than usual lately now that I brought the whole kit-and-caboodle from Wesley's room down to the living room.  I got Colleen Toby's Windmill and I got Wesley the Overhead Track Signal.  Naturally, both kids will play with both toys, but for the sake of simplicity during unwrapping time each toy will only have one name on it.

 

Yay!  Christmas!  I only have 3 more presents to buy, unless I get the kids something else.  I probably will not get the kids anything else personally, we only have about $40 each in the budget left and I know Shawn wants to get them toys (evidently my books, fish tanks, socks and PJs just aren't "Christmas-y enough for him!  LOL).

 

I have even taken the time to think through what I would like for Christmas.  I always get asked and I never have an articulate answer.  I'm always going "Uhhh, ahhh, I have everything I need already... Ummm...."  I guess I had better write my list down before I forget it.  I may just write my very own letter to Santa! 

 

Yay!  Christmas!  Less than 2 months to go!  :)

 

Love, Jen

Colleen has read her first book almost entirely by herself.  It was a bit of a struggle and I'll admit to getting frustrated a couple of times when she acted like she didn't know words that we both know she knew, but the important part is that she did it!  She made it all the way through and she did pretty darn terrific.  Yay!

 

This poet has a deep and profound gift, the ability to use words to create such a vivid and meaningful picture.  I feel exactly this way and I am grateful that she was able to use the written word to express it for me, it feels like she wrote this specifically on my behalf.

 

 

-Maya Angelou: ‘Letter to My Daughter’

I was shocked and saddened to read this:

 

Entertainment Tonight has the latest...

Prolific novelist and "ER" creator Michael Crichton has passed away. He was 66.

Perhaps best known for being the author of Jurassic Park and its sequel The Lost World, which were turned into a hugely successful movie franchise, his numerous books have sold over 150 million copies worldwide.

In what his family calls an unexpected death, it was revealed that he was waging a private battle against cancer.

"While the world knew him as a great storyteller that challenged our preconceived notions about the world around us -- and entertained us all while doing so -- his wife Sherri, daughter Taylor, family and friends knew Michael Crichton as a devoted husband, loving father and generous friend who inspired each of us to strive to see the wonders of our world through new eyes," his family tells ET. "He did this with a wry sense of humor that those who were privileged to know him personally will never forget."

A new president, wow.  It hasn't sunk in yet but I want to record my first thoughts / impressions.

 

#1. Upon seeing those states change to blue on the MSNBC Electorial College Map, I was dissappointed but not surprised, and I resigned myself to higher taxes and a more socialistic government

 

#2. Got annoyed with my mom for gloating over Obama's win  (Hi Mom!)

 

#3. Decided not to be a sore or bitter "loser"

 

#4. Checked in on Spaces to see if any blogging buddies posted anything about the election outcome yet.  Momma did and her post touched me.  Mo commented on Momma's post and her comment inspired me to find the text of McCain's concession speech.  It can be read here.

 

#5. I'm proud of my fellow Americans for choosing the person they felt could best do the job, but I am very dissappointed that Obama's heritage / race is being mentioned so predominantly.  I can't help but feel that all the talk of "First Black President" takes away from his achievement.  In my eyes, his accomplishment wasn't so much that he is now "the first black president", rather that his message of hope and change inspired so many and maybe even more so than that, he should be recognized as a freshman senator who was able to triumph over an established Washington political figure with a long and proven service record that had the starting-gate benefit of "household name" status.

 

#6. I don't agree with several of the decisions made by McCain and his campaign over these past several months and I struggled deeply with the decision of which candidate to vote for, but I firmly believe that everything happened the way it was supposed to and I am very proud of the way that McCain handled himself tonight.

 

#7. There is still a lot about Obama that rubs me the wrong way (mannerisms, cheesy slogans, his campaigning methods during his race against Hilliary and then McCain), but I wish him the best of luck.  I think by virtue of his party affiliation, his lack of experience / limited relationships with the current political leaders and, honestly, the "historical" nature of his achievement (meaning his race) that he will automatically enjoy a longer "honeymoon" with both the American people and the leaders of other countries.  I pray that he uses it wisely.

 

#8.  The honeymoon period will come to an end at some point and I hope by then that he has proven himself a competent leader and earned the respect of his fellow elected officials, the American public, and the leaders and people of the rest of the world.

 

Congratulations, President-elect Obama, Forty-Fourth President of the United States of America.

It's only 2pm and it has already been quite a day!

 

Shawn works from home on Tues mornings because he has back-to-back hour-long meetings starting at 7am, with the last one starting at 11am.  Rough schedule, huh?  That part is relevant because since he was home I had access to the car this morning.

 

I was too keyed up to sleep in, after Shawn got up for his meetings I ended up getting up too and taking a shower.  Nice to get it out of the way first thing.

 

Got Coco ready for school, lunch packed, and got her and Wes breakfast (well, kind of.  They had poptarts... so healthy!).  We had a little time left so I let Wesley pack Shawn's old lunch bag with cars, ponies, and books, in preparation for our wait in line to vote.

 

After walking Colleen to school, Wes and I came home and took the car to the voting place.  We could have walked but there is a very steep hill smack dab in the middle of the 1.5 mile walk and I was grateful to have the car.  I'm sure I would have had to carry Wes up that hill if we were walking and I probably would have keeled over from a heart attack before I ever got to cast my vote.

 

I have NEVER had a voting experience like this one.  I've voted in Ohio and North Carolina before this, and I was a campaign volunteer in Ohio, so I've had a fair amount of experience.  This was the easiest, fastest, most pleasant experience I've ever had.  I got there about 9:10am.  Found a parking spot right away, there was only one person in line ahead of us at check in, voting took less than 5 minutes, all the while Wes happily sat on the floor next to my booth and played with the back up cars I keep in my purse (we forgot the lunch bag!).  There were no candidate signs or campaign volunteers outside.  The poll workers were friendly and efficient, didn't seem hurried or frazzled.  After all the press it has gotten I was on the look out for any evidence of voter intimidation or fraud and I didn't see anything of the sort.  Best voting experience ever.  I'll not list everyone I voted for, but I will say that I didn't vote the straight republican ticket.  I was undecided on my presidential vote even as I went to bed last night and yet today when I was filling out that ballot I was surprised to find that I didn't hesitate, I cast my vote with a sure and confident hand.  I was the youngest person there at the time, most everyone else seemed to be in the 40s to 60's range, I imagine the time of day played a part in the demographics I saw.

 

We came home immediatly afterwards, Shawn couldn't believe how quick it was.  We had enough time for Wes and I go out and finish the errands I didn't get to yesterday (bookstore for Shawn's grandpa's present, Target for Shawn's cousin's present and windshield wipers, return books to library).  Afterwads we came home and Shawn played with Wes for a bit while I changed the windshield wipers and applied Rain X to the windshield.  Maybe we'll be able to see when we are driving again!  LOL

 

Then Shawn was off to work and I brought down all of Wesley's Thomas The Tank Engine things and we built the biggest track ever on the living room floor.  While I'm thinking of it, I ought to go take a picture of it.  He is having a blast playing with it.  He is a neat kid.  He doesn't limit his play to just the things that go together (that is how my brain thinks and Colleen plays the same way).  He has trains, his big "New" Mater tow truck, and these two beanie baby ponies of Colleen's that he's formed an attachment too (He named the purple one Colleen and the blue one Wesley, adorable!).  I'm having a lot of fun listening to him playing.

 

I've been getting a kick out of everyone's comments about me and Christmas, those who have been reading my blog a long time probably remember how I get about Christmas from previous years.  I LIVE for Christmas.  It is my favorite time of the year.  I think about it all year long and usually start bugging to put the decorations out before Halloween.  Shawn's family always put the tree up on Christmas eve, so that is what he is used to.  Our compromise usually is that we decorate the weekend after Thanksgiving, and that is what I am sticking to this year.  As far as the early buying of presents goes, I started a spreadsheet back in 2005.  It was the first year that I wasn't working and we really needed to stick to a budget.  I wrote out everyone we had to buy for along with what I wanted to get them and how much it cost.  I then divided the total budget according to how much we could spend each payday and assigned gifts to the paydays to align with what we could spend.  It took a little time to set up the first year, but every year since then, I just copy the spreadsheet from the year before and edit it as needed.  It works out nicely because I can see what we've already gotten a person in previous years (and I can usually tell if they liked it or not), and it takes the financial stress out of the holidays knowing that we are paying cash and that we can afford the presents.  It also keeps me on the straight and narrow budget-wise, putting it on the spreadsheet holds me accountable and keeps me from expensive impulse buys (well, mostly.  I'm still guilty of splurging on Shawn and the kids).  Shawn only has 3 more pay days before Christmas and I usually try to keep the last payday at $0 on the budget because something always comes up (Santa pictures, eating out, new decorations, etc.). 

 

We got Coco's school pictures yesterday.  They turned out pretty cute, she looks so old and so big!  I'd love to post the picture on line, but Lifetouch forgot the CD.  I called today and they are sending it out to me, but they said it could take 3 to 4 weeks to get here.  Oh well, at least we have the prints, right?  :)

 

Well, I'm off for now.  I'm going to try not to sit in front of the computer all day absorbed in election stuff.  What will be, will be.  It will all work out the way it is supposed to.

 

Love, Jen

 

PS I actually did it!  I took pictures of the train track!