photo p1_zpsc8a7232f.png  photo j2_zpsc3f43514.png  photo p2_zpse73671a0.png  photo j2_zpsc3f43514.png  photo p3_zps456abd62.png  photo j2_zpsc3f43514.png  photo p5_zps95486d0f.png  photo j2_zpsc3f43514.png  photo p4_zps481d5f13.png

Friday, December 21, 2012

7 Quick Takes


--- 1 ---
By the time you read this, I will be on my way to D.C. (with the kids in tow). Dan (who has been home for only 44 hours out of the last 12 days) be meeting us there.  We will spend the night and then drive the rest of the way to Massachusetts on Saturday.
--- 2 ---
Just typing that sentence made me tired.  Why does sitting on my rear-end doing absolutely nothing make me so tired.
--- 3 ---
The only thing that is standing between me and a merry Christmas (other than 782 miles) is wrapping the Christmas presents.  That always hangs over my head until we get to Massachusetts, unpack and Dan takes the kids somewhere for approximately 3-4 hours while I wrap everything that I had ordered and that has hopefully arrived!  Once I get that done, then I can relax.
--- 4 ---
The kids and I absolutely love this version of 12 Days of Christmas.  Nothing says Merry Christmas like a little punk rock diddy!


--- 5 ---
I made sure to pack the kids snow pants and all of our boots, hats, gloves, scarves, etc.  So you can bet it is NOT going to be a white Christmas this year.  Seems like when I am well prepared, no snow anywhere on the entire east coast. But the minute I forget to pack snow pants a nor'easter blows through.  
--- 6 ---
And as much as I don't like snow, the kids really would love to have some.  Not only did we not get snow last year at Christmas in Massachusetts, but it didn't snow any in North Carolina all winter.  The kids want snow so I guess I wouldn't mind a little either.
--- 7 ---
Pretty boring QT this morning, but I've got to finish this coffee and get dressed and get on the road.  Please pray for our safety on this trip.
For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

RIP Grandmom


My grandmother passed away on Friday morning at the age of 91.  She will be buried today and I just couldn't resist posting this picture of her.

This was taken two years ago at my cousin's wedding.  The photographer captured her when she was relaxing and enjoying the breeze and most likely didn't even know she was the subject.

Her hair was always perfectly in place so she probably wouldn't be too fond of this picture.  But I love the peaceful look on her face and I like to think that after months of suffering from congestive heart failure, this is how she is going to look for all of eternity now.

Rest in peace, Grandmommy. We will miss you.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

WIWS - Edition: Old Purple Sweater and some double chins.



Once again I'm playing with the What I Wore Sunday crowd.

And once again, my outfit is less than thrilling.

I tried this long, old purple sweater with a pair of leggings that I bought when I saw so many other cute outfits with boots and leggings being worn on Sunday.  But then I realized that I really needed a different style long sweater and lo and behold I didn't have any black boots to go with my black leggings. So I ended up looking a bit like an ill-clothed hooker. Not the look I typically strive for on Sunday mornings (or any morning for that matter!).

Nothing like scrambling and muttering and not-cussing as one is getting ready to go to church. 

Since I had the shirt and sweater on already and the clock was ticking, I grabbed some black skinnies and voila.  My less than stellar outfit:

Sweater: Kohl's
Shirt: Target
Jeans: Kohl's
Shoebooties: Target

And because my husband is out of town, the photographer this morning was my eight-year-old.  And this is what she did when I told her to stop:

 "Okay, honey, that's good.  Stop taking pictures.  We're late to church! Don't make me go all crazy-eye on you!"
 I said, "Stop taking pictures!"
"I warned you! Give me that camera or my double chins will attack!!"

Head on over to Fine Linen and Purple and see what the other less-harried and double-chinned folks wore to church today.

Friday, December 14, 2012

7 Quick Takes Friday


--- 1 ---
Dan was in Seattle earlier this week but made it back last night just in time for the Christmas pageant at school.I took video of both Peter and Sarah performing musical numbers with their class.

I would post it here except I know that my mom and my sister-in-law would be the only ones even remotely interested in watching and I'm not really sure how to do it anyway.  So just imagine a cute 3rd grader playing the xylophone and signing "Rest Well Little Children" while wearing pajamas and a handsome 4th grader singing "The Little Drummer Boy" while wearing ragged clothing and banging drum sticks.
--- 2 ---
A little boy in Sarah's class has a brain tumor and beginning at noon yesterday he was undergoing an 8-hour surgery to remove the tumor. As you can imagine, the whole school has been praying for him. Everyday at noon the school normally prays the Angelus together, but yesterday, they prayed a decade of the Rosary together.

Last night, as the musical program was concluding (right around 8:00 pm) as his surgery was hopefully concluding, the priest prayed for this little boy and his family and then we all joined hands and prayed the Our Father together. I was sitting near the kids and to hear them all loudly praying the Our Father together gave me goose bumps. 
--- 3 ---
Dan normally flies into and out of a city with very little chance to do any sightseeing.  But this week was different.  His meetings were all day Tuesday and half a day Wednesday and he wasn't flying home until Thursday morning.  So he and one of the guys he works with spent the day visiting some sights in Seattle.

One of the places they visited was Theo Chocolate. He said the tour was a really good one and well worth the price of admission.  And he sent me this picture:


My husband is the one on the left who looks very annoyed that he he wearing a shower cap AND taking his own picture. He hates having his picture taking, but even more, he hates taking his own picture. Throw in a shower cap, and well, I can imagine that this is one of my husband's worst nightmares! 

He's going to hate that I posted his picture, but since he doesn't read my blog regularly, he may never know.  Ssshhhh.  Let's keep this our little secret!
--- 4 ---
He got to sample lots of different chocolates while he was on the tour and was very excited to tell me about the chocolate he tried with chili in it.  He brought a couple of bars home for me because even though he doesn't read my blog, he loves me.

One is made with dark chocolate and the pili pili chili and the other is made with dark choclate and ghost chili.

 
 
--- 5 ---
I sampled the pili pili bar last night and yikes!  According to Dan you are supposed to let the chocolate melt in your mouth as opposed to chewing it.  So as I let the chocolate melt, I got the delicious taste of really good dark chocolate (which I love!) but the finish was hot! hot! hot!   Did I mention hot?  Nose running, mouth burning, throat screaming hot.  



After that, I decided I would try the ghost chili bar later.  Because the ghost chili is the hottest chili in the world.  Looks like I've got a hot Friday night planned! 

 
--- 6 ---
I think I have all of my shopping done.  It's a good feeling to be finished.  Now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that everything makes it to Massachusetts in time.  In ten years of ordering online and shipping, I've had good luck.  And I figure, Santa could always leave a note explaining problems with the elves...maybe?
--- 7 ---
 Even though I'm done shopping, I still have quite a list of to-dos so I guess I better not sit here on the computer all morning.  Those Christmas cards aren't going to stuff themselves!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

A can of soda. And a hug.

Peter had been begging us to take him to see the new movie Lincoln.  We decided to go on Saturday afternoon.  Dan would take Peter to see Lincoln and Sarah and I would see Wreck-It Ralph.

We were at a stop light and I noticed a homeless woman on the corner.  Sadly, it seems that every time I go to town, I see more and more homeless people begging for money. 

This woman was dressed in dark clothes with a red knit cap and at first, I wasn't even really sure if it was a man or a woman.  I was staring at her wondering if I should give her a few dollars, hesitating like I always do, when a teenager in a car several cars ahead of us, hopped out of the passenger side of his car.

He had that shaggy hair that so many of the kids these days are wearing (geez, I sound like a 85-year-old curmudgeon!) and ran over to the woman. 

"Look, kids!  That teenager is giving the homeless lady something!"

The kids stopped playing their video games or reading their books or fighting or whatever it was they were doing in the backseat of the car at the time and watched.

He handed her a Pepsi.

And then he hugged her.

This kid (maybe 17) opened up his arms and hugged this homeless woman.

It was honestly one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.

And  I stopped hesitating about whether or not I should give her some money and I grabbed my wallet. 

I noticed the car in front of us handed her some money.  And then we handed her a couple of ones. "God bless you," she said.  Her eyes looked tired and sad.

And then the car behind us handed her some money.

I believe we all gave because we saw a kid give the lady a can of soda. And a hug.

I wonder if the kid thought to himself, All I've got to give her is a Pepsi.  What good is a Pepsi?

I hope he saw the other cars giving her money after he inspired us with his hug.  I hope he saw that by giving what he had, he gave others the courage to do the same.

And I hope I will always remember that it isn't necessarily the size of the gift, but the love behind it. 

Monday, December 10, 2012

WIWS - Edition: Beef. It's What's For Dinner. Not for chuch.



I got an email last week from someone at Kohl's who apparently spends her work days searching the internet for people who mention Kohl's in their blog posts.  She kindly pointed out that I did not leave links to the jewelry department or to the cami department in my last What I Wore Sunday post and it would benefit my readers if I had done so.  She then supplied the links and asked me to put them in my blog post.

I did because I'm nice that way and because she supplied them to me.  And because I felt sorry that she wasted her time because all 6 of my readers had already read that post and I doubted that anyone else was going to stampede their way to my two-week-old blog post and wish like crazy that they had a link to the necklace department so they could search for the necklace that I had purchased from Kohl's most likely 5 or 6 years ago.

Anywho, I went back and edited that blog post but I hope she doesn't think I'm doing that on my own every week. Now maybe if Kohl's was giving me free merchandise, then maybe I would consider it but they haven't come to me yet with this offer so...no links this week. (And you know, as usual, half my outfit came from Kohl's.)

Although, she did give me a coupon code for 10% off which can be layered on top of other department codes.  Not sure where you would get a department code but department code is not the same as the normal 10%, 20% or 30% codes you can normally get off your total purchase at Kohl's.  I guess a department code is specific to a particular department in Kohl's.  Like maybe they have special 20% off bra codes?  I don't know.

If you are interested, the code is TENBLOG.

Onward and upward to what I wore to church this week.



Poncho - Kohl's (from the clearance rack and after looking at these pictures I'm starting to realize why. Not super flatering.I think it might look better with different pants and a different shirt underneath.)
Shirt - Lands' End
Pants - Kohl's
Shoes - Target

My original plan was to wear this poncho-thingy with some plum-colored pants that I got from (you guessed it!) Kohl's from the Simply Vera collection.  I had been wanting a pair of colored pants (And yes, I'm always very late to a trend if you haven't figured that out yet!).  So I purchased these plum skinnies which looked really good on me in the store.

But when I put them on at home I was aghast.  They were waaaaaaaaay too tight for normal wear and would have been scandolous at church and the color?

Oh the color!  You can't make it out very well in the picture but the plum is mixed with sort of an iridescent blackish color.  So in addition to being way to tight, the color screamed, "I'm going to a club!"

When Dan saw them he shouted, "Everybody dance now! Bomp. Bomp. Bomp. Bomp. Bomp." (And you can thank me later for having that song stuck in your head all day!")

So they are in a bag waiting to be returned the next time I go to Kohl's.

I told Dan I think sometimes dressing rooms are not only equipped with skinny mirrors but also have some sort of hallucinogen piped in that makes you think something looks fabulous and then you get home, the drug wears off, and you are left with shiny, beef-colored pants.

Head on over to Fine Linen and Purple to see what everyone else wore on Sunday!

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

3rd-grade girls. And I hear it's only going to get worse.

Sarah is a drama queen.  And she usually likes pull out the dramatics  right at bedtime.

Tonight she presented me with a letter that her friend Brooke gave to her friend Mia and Mia gave the letter to Sarah to read without Brooke knowing about it.

Uh oh.  3rd-grade-girl drama is not what I like to get involved in right at bedtime.  Especially on a night when my husband is taking customers to dinner and won't be home until later. Much later. And won't be able to rescue me from any crying and moaning and over-the-top-theatrics that I know are coming as soon as she closes her bedroom door.

Sarah wanted me, as her all-knowing mom, to tell her how to handle the trouble she is having.  Her two best friends at school are fighting with each other.  They were all three good friends for most of the year last year but I don't know what happened  this year because as Sarah wailed at me, "You haven't been listening at all!" (Although, in my defense, I had been listening but Sarah was presenting me with the facts in very confusing way.)

I was listening but I didn't know what to tell her.  She wanted to know how to fix it.  I had to explain to her that I can't fix everything but she should pray because God can fix everything. She said she had prayed but God had not told her what to do. So I said prayer with her.  But she moaned and cried some more saying she wanted God to tell her right then and there what to do to fix it...especially if I wasn't going to help her.

15 minutes into the crying and the dramatics, I was fearful that I was never going to get out of her room.  And quite honestly I was over all the drama.  I feel bad for Sarah that her two best friends at school are fighting but what is a mother to do?

I offered to call the teacher.(Rejected.) I offered to call the other parents. (Met with a look that told me she though I am so totally lame) I told her to walk away while they were fighting.(But she couldn't abandon her friends!) I told her to play with the other girls. (Apparently all the girls take sides on the recess and gather around while Brook and Mia are arguing.) I told her to play with the boys.(Eww! Gross! were her exact words.)

I was getting annoyed that idea after idea was rejected and all the while she is continuing to tell me that I'm not helping and that I'm the mom and I'm supposed to fix things. 

So finally in frustration I said, "Just tell them to get over it!"

And with that, she removed the pillow that was covering her head, sat straight up and said with a smile, "That's good!  That's what I'm going to tell them."  She got a notepad and a pencil and said, "Okay. Tell me that one more time so I can write it down."

"Tell them to get over it!  Tell them you are tired of them fighting and they need to get over it!"

"That's good," she said scribbling furiuosly.  "Give me two more lines." 

So I rambled off a few more lines and with that, she thanked me, hugged me, and went happily went to bed.

Bedtime crisis averted. 

Until tomorrow night.

Just a few!

Here a just a few of my favorite photos from our weekend trip to Washington/Alexandria:










Monday, December 3, 2012

I think it was a Capitol idea!

We left Thursday night to spend a long weekend in Alexandria, VA with Dan's sister Cathy.  We took Peter's best friend Colton (whose mom just happens to be my BFF!) with us as part of Peter's birthday present.  (Although really, it was a present for all of us!)

I am pressed for time as I have grocery shopping, laundry and less than 3 weeks until we leave for our Christmas trip to Massachusetts.  Let's just say I'm slightly panicked!

We had a great trip and packed a ton of stuff into our visit.  But like I said, I'm a little busy (aren't we all?) so for now I will leave you with three of the cutest kids to even pose in front of the Capitol Building: