Christmas Break Adventures- part 2

Christmas Break Adventures- part 2 is part 1 of Getting to the Fiesta! Clear as mud, right?

After returning from Texas, I had 3 days to hang with my pup before packing up and heading off to Phoenix, Arizona! The in-laws came over to visit Grandma Ree and also take Tobie home with them for babysitting while we were away. I was quite emotional and sad when they drove off with her in the backseat. It must have been the newly pregnant hormones because I have never been that sad to send her off. The whole trip I blamed Hubby for making me leave her. We saw a lady with her dog on the plane, "Her husband must love her.... she got to bring her dog." or dogs walking around the airport, "They are so lucky!" It was bad.

After I got it together, we headed to Travis and Robin’s New Year’s Pajama Jam! We rang in the New Year and then some before I took the champagne bottle away from Hubby and drug him home. After all, we had a plane to catch the next day! I tried several times to get him not to drink champagne but he just wouldn’t listen. He was feeling a little bubbly on the way to Phoenix. (ha! serves you right for not listening to your wife!)

I was nervous about flying because 1) I am in my first trimester (which equals nauseous and sick) and 2) I am motion sick kid. And, to top it off, I couldn’t take any medicine to ease the motion sickness. Thankfully, I did fine but I sure did check my seat back pocket the second I sat down…. just in case.

Boone and Patti were 'gifted' to us on Christmas. They wanted to hitch a ride to the Fiesta Bowl, so brace yourself for some pictures of Boone having a good time. {Patti ended up staying home. Have YOU ever traveled with 2 gnomes? They are high maintenance so they had to draw straws and Boone won the golden ticket.}

Boone wanted to be first in line for First Class- apparently, he didn't get the memo that we fly at the back of the plane

After we let him down gently about first class, he opted for posing by the Christmas tree

"Does it look right?" -trying to find the perfect gnome size cowboy hat is hard when everything is bigger in Texas

Networking during our layover

This is what I had to deal with the entire trip!

Pa told me to look for Camelback--- Is this it? I can sort of see a camel, can you?

Escalating in Phoenix

We made it! Now to get our luggage and rental car.

 We picked out our snazzy Ford Focus and were off to our hotel. Hubby used his phone as navigation to get (since he said we didn't need to pack Nina, our GPS, after his battery was drained I think he wished he had listened and let me pack her... notice how we are back to listening to your wife?! huh.) His phone led us the long way and straight through the ghetto to get to our hotel.

"Sweet! I can buy a forklift while I am here!"

 Once we finally made it to our hotel, we unloaded our bags and Hubby charged his phone for a bit before we headed to eat. We hoped in the car and drove approximately 100 yards to In-N-Out for a burger.

YUM! [the people in the background on the left were the only nice Stanford fans I remember]

After eating, we headed back to the hotel and hit the hay, you know, we have a big game tomorrow!

Stay tuned for Fiesta Day!

Christmas Break Adventures- part 1

My next adventure led to the Big D, well Plano, Texas. I went to visit my BFF, Missy, who was home from Australia for Christmas. We bunked up together at her parents’ house. It was like spending the night with a friend in high school. It seemed obvious to both of us that we are old now. We hardly did any shopping, which is very unlike us, and the shopping we did… shoe inserts at Target. BORING! We also only took 1 silly picture (at least I only have 1), which is also very unlike us!

It was so nice to see her and just get to chill though.



Boone also went along for the ride. He never left the car though.



Our silly picture

Little Sally was hiding in the closet. She was very glad I was flying solo (ie. left Tobie at home)

Harry was in the closet too. They both came out of the closet by the end of the night. :)

A sign for Missy since I am banned from drinking

On the way, Boone demanded a pit stop at his owner's old stomping grounds, Henryetta, Oklahoma!

He even took his bride out on the town

Henryetta = town for lovers

All Aboard!

Checking out the territory at the Territorial Museum

It was a lovely day for a photo shoot!

On our way out of town

 It was a good, quick trip. Now I am back home for a few days before the next Christmas Break adventure... Fiesta!

Christmas 2011- Part 2

Christmas morning, we opened presents at my Daddy’s house. Tobie loves to help open presents and today was no different.

Get that present open, girlfriend!

Dad with his calendar that clearly and brightly reminds him when my birthday is

After opening presents, we got showered up and put on our matching PJ’s to head over to the in-laws for Christmas. We had to take our regular pictures in front of the tree, hunt for the pickle, and the opening of stockings before opening presents. At Thanksgiving time last year, we decided as a family (us, the in-laws and Hubby’s brother and wife) that we were not doing presents this year and were going to adopt a family from the YWCA. Though the tree looked bare with gifts at their house, we knew some lady and her three (almost all) teenage children were having a lovely morning tearing open gifts. And, even though we ‘weren’t doing gifts,’ we all made out nicely.

The usual picture in front of the tree with the in-laws

Hubby and I with my Dad

I found the pickle and won a gift card!

Tobie, being the good little shopper she is, found an adorable bag with a Westie on it and bought her grandparents a gift wrapped in it. Below is video footage of this gift being opened. {Excuse the poor quality and how it goes all over the place, my phone video camera always turns the picture, no matter how you hold it so it always seems like the footage is crooked. You may have to tilt your head to watch the video.}

It really was as chaotic and crazy as it sounded… and it continued for at least an hour after. There was one stipulation to knowing this news, “You can’t tell ANYONE for another month. If you tell within the month, you won’t see the baby until it is a month old.” You see, in Enid, news travels. My mother-in-law is good friends with one of my high school friend’s mom/family member. If she found out, she would tell her daughter, who would tell her cousin, who would then question me as to why she was the last to find out yet my lifelong friend. You see how this could just keep going?!

Anyways, you would have thought that we just gave them a gazillion dollars... but really we are just having a baby. My sweet Daddy-O was so excited although he was overshadowed by all the other craziness. Even though he is already a Grandpa is still so excited! He even made sure to tell me how proud my Mom would be. :)

Our little family on Christmas Day

Later, we Skyped Ryan and Priscilla to tell them the big news. We ate lunch and then went to share the news with Nandy and Pa. We decided to just let Tobie go in like normal but in her Big Sister shirt. We were just going to wait it out until they noticed. As we pulled into the driveway, Hubby says, “How long do you think it will take them to notice?”

Tobie of course ran right out the doggie door but that gave us all time to get settled into the living room. Then this happened…

Please excuse the shrill sound that seems to be my voice on video.

You will have to view the video here.

For some reason, it would not load the same way the other video did. :( But at least it can be viewed, or it should be able to be viewed.

One might say it was a little calmer than the first, but who’s judging?! My Pa commented that “Our baby granddaughter is going to have a baby!” He was also not too thrilled about having to keep it a secret for another month. But rules are rules. :) This time was going to give us time to tell the people we wanted to tell without them having to hear through facebook or the grapevine.

With Nandy and Pa after telling them the news

My Dad with his granddog, who is sharing the news

We tried to get in touch with my brother and Claire but were unsuccessful. I guess he didn't realize what he was missing out on by not answering my request to Skype. 

Later that night, we headed home so I could pack my bags for my next adventure... Dallas! (which will come in another post.)

And that my friends, is our Christmas. Don't know that we can top it in 2012 but it will be exciting nonetheless. The question is... can they keep it a secret? Stay tuned for the answer!

Christmas 2011- part 1

This year our Christmas adventure to Enid was shorter. Since we went to Ohio for spring break and Australia in August, Hubby didn't have any days left for the holidays. We drove to Enid on Christmas Eve and proceeded to have our traditional Christmas Eve time with Nandy and Pa.

As usual, Pa said, "We want nothing for Christmas." But, as usual, I did not listen. You see two weeks earlier when we were in town Pa gave us both a Christmas card and said, "I'm not shopping. Here's your present." BORING! I took the card with money it, knowing I had a bettero plan.

I instructed Hubby that we were going to buy gifts for us, wrap them, and put a tag on them from Nandy and Pa. Then, we were going to take these presents to Enid and open them on Christmas Eve. And we did just that.

This is Pa's face as Hubby is setting down the laundry basket full of present. He followed it up with "You guys don't know what nothing means, do ya?!"

I made Pa be Santa, since of course he is closest to Santa'a age. He started by handing Nandy one of my presents. Now, I knew exactly which were mine since I had wrapped them and told him that he didn't know how to read. He looked again and said, "To Jennie Marie, From Nandy and Pa??" He was confused but kept going and read carefully, "To Preston, From Nandy and Pa?" "To Nandy, From Connie, Jennie, Preston and Tobie" etc... After the third or fourth gift he passed out that he and Nandy "bought", he looked at her and said, "Did you go shopping?!"

When the present were all passed out, I noticed him watching as we opened our gifts. The first one I opened from them was socks. He said, "Hot dog! Do you like 'em?" Then Hubby opened a shirt, "Did I get the right size?? Is it the right color?" The best was probably when I opened a purse they bought me, "I hope it is the right kind."

This is the dress and purse that Nandy and Pa 'bought' me for Christmas! Cute, HUH?!?

Here is the Hubby modeling a new shirt he got from Nandy and Pa

Nandy and Pa also got gifts too, whether they wanted them or not! One of these days, the old man might learn that I won't let him get away with 'nothing". But I will say it was fun to surprise them with the gifts they so nicely got us and wrapped up. :)

Egg-splosion!

Tobie and I started out our MLK Day off of school to 2 heels, which means no toast for breakfast. :(

Then we watched a little Live with Kelly, like we like to and got showered for the day. Our plan was to go to the vet at 11. It is Tobie's least favorite month to visit the vet because it is when she gets a shot in all four corners. She gets her yearly vacccinations and prodding at plus her monthly Addison's shot.

I put her harness on and we headed out the door... only to find that my car wouldn't start. I called Hubby to ask him how the Jumpstart/Compressor worked and he said to hook it up to the battery, turn it on, then start the car. Easy enough. Except when you turn the switch on and nothing happens. "You might have to charge it first." Hubby says. I said, "What good is it if I have to charge it? I need it now." So, charge we did.

While we waited, we went for a walk, cleaned out the birdbath and put out a new suet block for the birds since they devoured the other one in an hour. Hungry little guys! Then I decided, since I didn't have breakfast, I would eat lunch early and fix Hubby something when he came home. The plan was to have chicken strips, Easy Mac, and what little salad I could dig out of the bag that wasn't slimy or turning red. I like to eat what Hubby calls a suped up salad, which is salad with cheese, bacon bits, sunflower seeds, hard boiled egg, and turkey lunchmeat. I had boiled some eggs the other day so I just had to warm it up a little.

My chicken strips finished cooking so I got my salad ready. And then...... it happened. Apparently, the egg got too warm and exploded when I tried to cut it up!

What's hard to see in this picture is that my recipe box, the little dry erase thing and wall  is covered in egg yolk.

It spewed all over the floor

and all over the stove!

I cleaned it up off of the floor so Tobie wouldn't eat it and then proceeded to eat my lunch. When Hubby got home he said, "Woah!" I guess the pictures in text message didn't do it justice. Other than the huge mess, my lunch was tasty!

After lunch, Hubby was able to get my car started so Tobie and I were off to the vet. Her check up went fine so she is good to go for another year, at least for her yearly stuff, but we will probably look into having her teeth cleaned for Dental Health month in February (and because she needs it).

Friday Night Lights

So we are home Friday night, hurriedly getting ready for our Sunday School class Lazy Santa party. What's Lazy Santa, you ask? Where you give a gift away that you do not care to keep at your house, so basically a re-gifting party.

Anyways, I was checking in on my celebrity friends on people.com when I hear sirens. Then I notice the flashing lights are turning in to our neighborhood. How exciting! A few minutes later, I hear more sirens and see more flashing lights. This time, I decided to venture out to the front yard to check it out.

Thanks to GoogleEarth, Photoshop and Paint, I made this little diagram to help you.

Across the Y intersection in our neighborhood, I see an ambulance with the back opened up. Then I notice a firetruck to the north of our house. While standing out there I also see 2 police cars leave the neighborhood to the west of us, skip our neighborhood, and go to the one on the east of us. About 2 minutes later, those two police cars come zooming into our neighborhood, almost hitting the fireman that had run over on foot to check on the scene going on in our neighborhood.

While standing in our front yard, we heard the sound of handcuffs. Apparently, the driver of the little white car I drew ran into a red truck that, according to Hubby- is always parked there at night. Hubby's speculation is drunk driving or drugs. Who knows if that is accurate.

Part 1 with the ambulance and police cars



Part 2- where the fire was. (almost in the middle of the picture, you can see a tiny red dot... that was the fire coming out of the roof! I promise it was there!)

That was our Friday the 13th in a nutshell! How was yours?!

Comments

My Pa is one of, okay, probably my only, faithful readers. He scopes it out and then gets my Nandy to go back and read too. Although you have read some of the Crazy Stuff my Pa Says, and says, and says... He also has nice things to say. He hasn't learned how to leave a comment but will frequently email me his comments. I think they are very sweet and worth documenting here. Maybe the next time I am at their house I will show him how to comment on his own.

He was so excited when I had updated AND he got pictures from Hubby:
Holy Cow I hit the jacket on the computor today. got a whole bunch of pictures from preston.........LOVE them, I may want to come work for you even if i can just sweep the floors. I am not showing pictures a one time want spread them out to enjoy the beauty. thanks a bunch preston i really do enjoy them. you done good......Boy i'm so proud of you two i popped the buttons off my shirt. you done good on paying off your school loans wippee hot diggy good good , proud of you both. and you share with about your Christmas children, good good good and again i'm proud for the both of you. you two with out a know what makes the world go round. GOD BLESS BOTH AND MAY HE KEEP HIS ARMS AROUND YOU FOR EVER... LOVE PA L.....


After reading about Claire's Angel:
hello jennie marie , i just wanted you to know nandy and i really love the angel, and i'm sure cliare will remember it also.. Love nandy and pa l


After reading about Claire's visit and the making of the glitter pumpkins (at their house):
the subject line read: damn good report
dear jennie and preston, it's 9am and i just read your blog, all i can say is damn good report and i enjoyed very much. keep up the good work. love you'll very much pa l.

All I can say is that I am one lucky girl to have such great grandparents. People should be jealous. ;)