Another B. Day Post

This one also goes under my "what I love about small towns."


The family that owns this little drive in is very familiar with my son.  He has gone to school with the owners daughter for the last few years.  The weather was bad so it didn't go up on his birthday.  She finally put it up last weekend and has been up since.

I did what I do.  I park across the street with my zoom lens on and took pictures.  Jason said I looked like a stalker and I guess people in cars were passing me laughing.  Oh well, it's what I do.

Also, if you are in town, stop by Nell's. 

18

I can hardly believe that it has been 18 years.  Last night I was remembering those first days in the hospital.  Anthony had little pimple like things on his body and the hospital wanted to keep him for a few days until they were sure he would be fine.  After 4 days it was decided that he was fine and we could take him home.  I have to laugh, while in the hospital, the 49ers were in the playoffs.  Steve and I were in our hospital room watching the game.  The couple in the next room would stop in to check the score.  Our room was right across from  NICU were Anthony was.  Every commercial I would hop over and check on him and then back to the game.  The Oakland Raiders were playing as well, that day.  Anthony's doctor was a fan and joined us in the room to watch that game.  It was to funny when one of the nurse's would come in to check what all the noise was about.  It was the next day when the nurse rolled Anthony's crib in.  I looked at her and said, "I get him all to myself."  She hugged me and said "You get to take him home."  It was the first time I got to hold him without any wires or tubes. 

Anyway, 18 years later I am getting ready to watch the 49ers in the playoffs with my oldest baby.  We are so proud of the kind, caring and loving young man he has turned into.

Happy Birthday Sweetie.  Here are a couple of pictures from the last few years.

It's Starting To Look Like Christmas

Yep, it's true.  It's starting to look like Christmas however, it's January.  As I said in an earlier post, we finally got some snow.  Listening to todays weather, we are suppose to get between 7 and 11 inches in the next 24 hours.  On top of that, winds up to around 30 mph. 

Let me make this very clear, I like snow.  I like to watch the snow flakes fall from the sky and gently rest on the ground.  I like to run outside with my camera and take pictures, sometimes in my jammies.  I don't like snow when it comes down sideways and hits you in the face.  That hurts.  I don't like snow drifts on my sidewalk, it's hard to shovel.  I don't like when a wind gust hits your car and it slides on the ice it's sitting on.  Also, wind, cold and living in a 100 plus year old house doesn't always work well.

So, in case anyone is listening up there......SEND THE SNOW, KEEP THE WIND!!!

I hope you are warm and comfy where you are.

Happy January

We woke up to over 4 inches of snow this morning.  Which is great because we really haven't seen any this year.  We just go a little bit that lasted about two days back in November.

Updates on what has been happening.  I seem to have caught every one's cold so far this winter.  I have been feeling healthy for the last two weeks, so keeping my fingers crossed that it lasts.  No strike for Stevie.  They voted to accept the health portion of the contract however they are still in negotiations over the rest of the contract.  Jason is keeping busy with karate and hanging out with friends.  Megan is enjoying soccers off season by playing video games and Anthony is really doing well in wrestling.  He has been go so much we have hardly seen him.

I have been working on getting his senior protraits done.I took a bunch a few weeks back but wasn't really happy with them.  I didn't want to do them during wrestling season because he always looks so pale.  Here is a couple that I finished up last night.  Still have over 100 of them to go through.  I don't think either of these is going in the yearbook.  He picked a different one.



He is wearing his jacket and his hair could stand to be cut, but it's what he wanted.  I don't want a picture of him in a tux on my wall.  I want him looking like him.  And this is him. 

Have a good Martin Luther Kings day.

Christmas Recap

I have to agree with the kids, it never really felt like Christmas this year.  I don't know if it is our unseasonably warm weather, or that the schools got out late for break this year.  Whatever it was, it just never really felt like Christmas.

However, even though it didn't feel like Christmas we still had a great time.  The season usually starts with the Church Christmas play and Maureen did an outstanding job with the kids this year.

 

Jason played both a Shepard and a solider this year.  He even had speaking parts this year.  He did wonderful and said his lines perfectly.  We had a potluck after, it is always a great way to start the Christmas season.



 

I was reminded this year, of why I don't like making and decorating sugar cookies.  Jason took the task very seriously.  Gotta love the kool aid stain on his face and the frosting all over his shirt.  I love this kids face.



Don't let the picture below fool you.   Look how serious she is, I should have stopped her right there.



See how she is standing and pouring the decorations in her hand.  See all the lovely cookies in front of
her.  She decided the fastest way to decorate the most cookies was to stand there and toss the sugar over the top of the cookies.  Some made it on the cookies and some didn't.  She was very pleased with herself and kept laughing as I made her vacuum the floor.



Here is a sample of her finished cookies.  I should have known when I asked her if she wanted to help and she got that smile of hers and said, "suuuuuure."



This year Jason did the Church Children's Christmas Choir again.  Here he is on the retirement home tour.  He is in the back with the green stocking hat on.



Again, but at a different home.
 


Back at the Church Hall for pizza.  He has serious hat hair.



Here are the kids on Christmas Eve.  Jason is getting ready for his solo.  Which he did perfectly and we were so proud of him.



Christmas morning was crazy and I didn't take a lot of pictures.  The kids were happy with their presents.  But Cheddar was extremely happy with his angry birds chew toy.  It lasted about 2 hours.



Poor thing, this is all that was left.



The kids got a PS3 and here is Megan helping Dad hooking it up to the TV.




Besides cooking, here is how I spent my day.  Helping Jason put together his Harry Potter Lego set.  It took us ALL day.




And the back side of it.



This picture is for my Mom.  Megan has the thickest hair and she is not crazy about using a hair dyer.  So after a shower she would walk around the house with wet, drippy hair.  My Mom sent her one of these so she can wrap up her wet hair.  Megan loves it, and it works great.

No pictures of Anthony here, because he got a brand new xbox game and was in his room trying it out.



Even though it didn't feel like Christmas it still was a wonderful day spent with my wonderful family.  This year really reminded us how fast the kids are growing up. It won't be long before our little family Christmas traditions will be changing.  I will keep these memories forever.

I hope every one's Christmas was as great as ours.

Cold Cold Morning

Another installment of what I like and dislike about this small town.

I love that I can get up early and head off for a walk.  I like walking as the sun is coming up, very pretty.  I love that when I walked out my front door and headed down the street I saw a bunch of deer.  They were so pretty walking down the street.

What I don't like about this town:  The sidewalks were really icy this morning.  The dog really wanted to say hello to the deer and pulled me down with him.  I went down on my knee and I am pretty sore today.  Hopefully, I will heal quickly.  Not a good time of year to not be moving around very well.

On another note.  Anthony is off to a wrestling tournament today.  He pulled his shoulder in practice yesterday.  This is an old injury from 2 years ago.  I really think he should have taken this weekend off to heal for next weekend. He, however, believes different.  His response to me was, "I have wrestled with broken fingers before, I will be fine."  I hope so.  He won't even tape it up.  Wrestlers don't tape things.

I will keep you posted on how things play out.  I will hopefully have pictures, but not sure how much I will be on the mats with my knee hurting.  Oh well, have a great day.  Remember Christmas is only 9 days away.

Happy December 14th

I don't really have anything at all to say today.   I just wanted to say that I posted.  HE HE