Ho hum.....

Well, it has come to the end of 2011. I did not make my quota of double digit posts. And I don't see me making any more in the next couple of days. There have been so many things happening this year, you would think that I would have posted more. But so many of the things that have happened this year have been not-so-great ones. As I look back at this year, I see all of the health issues, employment issues, and deaths that have affected a lot of my family and friends. Granted, there were some good things too. I can't say it was all bad. I just haven't felt the "blog bug" as a result. Obviously. So my last post for the year 2011 will be this short one. I hope and pray that all of you out there have a good 2012. Let's all ring in a better year ahead. :)

Well then......

So yeah, November came and went and I totally missed posting for the whole month. Yeah, that's just how I roll. I suppose if I want to reach that goal of posting in the double digits by the end of the year, I could just post something small every day. Hmmmm. . . . Not a bad idea. ;) Well, we had a great Thanksgiving. The whole family was over. Huge dinner. Football in the background. Fire in the fireplace. Oh yeah. . . . I would have posted pictures of course if I had taken some. "If" being the operative word there. But instead you'll have to settle for the picture I just created in your head there in the first few sentences. Now that December is here, we (meaning I) am/are starting to decorate for Christmas. Haven't gotten the tree out yet. Just a few sprigs of greenery, a nice bright red tablecloth, a few knick-knacks here and there. I am trying to get into this slowly. Not like all the stores out there who totally ran right through Thanksgiving like it didn't even exist. I hate that. Why make the whole stressful shopping experience last longer than we need to. Can we just stop and enjoy Fall for a moment? I love Fall. It seems that it's the only season that doesn't last long enough. My pumpkin on my porch was finally added to the compost pile yesterday. YESTERDAY! Ya see folks? You CAN make it all the way through the month of November without advertising the next holiday prematurely. It all worked out. Everything is good. It's OK. So I guess that was where I have been. Not posting on my blog. Just enjoying the season of Fall. Yeah . . . . that's it. :)

Punkin' time

We recently made our annual trip to Peace Valley Orchard to get our fresh local apples, a hot apple dumpling, a hay ride, and our pumpkins. When we bring home the pumpkins, I usually just put them out on the porch. Sometimes we carve them and sometimes we don't. It just depends on what the kids feel like doing year by year. This year LB decided he wanted to carve his. So I rolled out the newspapers and we went to it. I tried to let him do most of it and he did well. I had to help him on some of the cutting. But he did the scooping and the drawing for the face. I wondered how the "texture issue" would fare. He did just fine, I am happy to say. Here are the pictures I captured.

EW! YUCK!

TA-DAH!!

He did a great job! :)

Look out world!

BB passed his permit test this past weekend. So yes it's official! He was so excited, he was doing cartwheels in the parking lot. Sorry I didn't get any photos of that moment. After church we decided to take him out to an empty parking lot to get the feel of the car. And the feel is that my brakes work well! heehee We will be having some fun with practice time. He likes it of course, but hasn't gotten into that "hey, mom don't you need something at the store?" every five minutes mode yet. That's just fine with me. We all need to take baby steps in life, right? Or maybe this is that whole "letting go" mode I haven't gotten into yet. Oh well, 6 in one hand . . . . . : )

Ugh

A small example of my life sometimes. Some of you know that I have been trying to follow The FLYlady. Well, I have been kind of like a baby bird trying to stay off the ground. I FLY a little, then I crash, I FLY a little more and then I plummet! I just looked at what is supposed to be my Launch Pad this morning and saw this huge mess. There under all the junk is my Control Journal. Obviously covered by chaos. Then I thought a minute. Is this an example of my life? Good intentions covered in chaos. Hmmmmm............. time to re-evaluate my self. {sigh}: /

Free Stuff!!

Yay! Free samples in the mail!!

Yum, let's open it up and have a BIG bowl.....wait a minute.......

Please let there NOT be another box on the inside!!! ..........

Whew! Guess I'll have myself a small snack. :/

I'm so ashamed!!

So I was looking back at the ol' blog here and scrolling down the page. I went to the archive section of the page and saw that there were 2 posts for THE ENTIRE YEAR OF 2011!!!! WHAT?! THAT CAN'T BE!! I'M SO ASHAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMED!!

How awful am I to be known as a blogger? I don't feel worthy! I need an intervention. So I am going to get moving on this so I can get more posts on here to at least go into the double digits in the archives before the year is up.

(saying this in a struggling super hero voice) MUST......BLOG......GOT TO......BLOG..... MUST......REACH.......CREATIVITY......GOT TO .........ESCAPE......WRITER'S.......BLOCK........

yeah, kinda like this...



Honestly though, things have happened in our lives here and I have had material, just not the 'oomph' to write it down. So I now endeavor to 'oomph' it up a bit.

See you all soon!

:)

Updating :)

Just blurbing a little to let you all know that I really really really really am still here. I'll be creative again someday....

Ketchup!

Ok, not really tomato-related. Really what I need here is some "catch-up" time for you all. :)

Since my last post there were the holidays, and then the long month of January, and then now. Ta-da! All caught up!

It hasn't been a full month yet since our girls' trip to NYC, so I don't feel too horrible for getting these pics on here now. I actually didn't even take any pictures of us! Just buildings and stuff! Don't know how I missed that gene of excessive camera usage. My mom knows what I mean. Right Mom? heehee ;)

We had a great time in NYC. Very tiring though! We did a bus trip for one day in NYC. Of course, from our location it takes a long time to get there. So we (attempted) sleep on the way to and from there, on the bus. I am hoping if we decide to do this again, that it will be a 2-day trip with a hotel involved somewhere in there. You know, so we can actually lie down and sleep. Really sleep.

Anyway, it was really fun seeing all the sights that I watch on GMA every morning. I love being able to say, "Hey, I was there!" I almost feel famous for a moment. I guess that sorta thing happens alot in the big city.

We saw the famous "Big Piano", which was my highlight. Ate lunch at the Hard Rock. And visited Dylan's Candy Bar which was featured on Unwrapped. Cool show, by the way! Alot of other sights were scattered about the day, along with the walking. And walking.

Did I mention the walking? Oh right.....

So here are my pics that I took:












A great time was had by all!

:)