HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Before the night gets away from me I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year! Today is the last day of the year and a time for memories and some new plans for 2009.

This year was defintely different. My hubby went from working daily to maybe working weekly due to the economy and the downfall in the construction industry. But that is ok because we made it thru the year and that is all that matters. My girls had a good year and that is GREAT. Their grades are up and one is working and paying on her truck so all is good there. I have a good job and I hope to keep it for a while.

We are very blessed. We have clothes to wear, food to eat, a home to give us shelter, dogs and a cat who think we are wonderful, job to help pay for our needs and wants, and friends who make it all worthwhile and our families.

I hope we can continue this in the coming year and remember how much we have to be thankful for. I know its not Thanksgiving but the new year does make you thankful for what you have.

I don't make resolutions anymore because I can never keep them. I make simple plans and ideas that I would like to carry out throughout the year. This plan has served me well in years past. This is going to be the year of cleaning. I am not going to kill myself cleaning my house but I do want to make it a little more presentable and not so dumpy. I work many hours and don't feel like cleaning when the weekends come around. So this year I am going to use the FlyLady techniques I learned years ago. Do something for 15 mins at a time. If you set a timer for 15 mins and just work you can't imagine how much you can do in that time frame. Try it and let me know what you think.

Have a wonderful New Year celebration tonight. My children and I will be staying up and eating and playing games and waiting to ring in the new year. Not sure if my husband will be staying up or not but that is ok. The dogs will since we will have food....LOL

Hugs and happiness to you all!

Marie

Cleaning up (finally LOL)

Today I started cleaning out the house. Now I am not talking steady cleaning until something is really clean....LOL....that isn't my style. I cleaned out the foyer. I had this holder thingy leftover from one of the girls rooms. They used it to store their beanie babies. So I cleaned it out and its in the back of my car. I also got rid of the junk that was on the holder thingy! So now the foyer almost looks normal. I still have some boxes in there but I am getting ready to ship out some quilts and other things so they will be gone in another day or so.

The girls have been cleaning out their rooms for a while and the stuff was piled in the hallway upstairs. So today I started bringing some of the stuff down and putting it in the car. I know you are probably saying to yourself, Why doesn't she have the girls help her? Good question but I like to see what they are getting rid of. Not all the stuff needs to go to the Goodwill store. In their baby clothes for their dolls I found some of their baby clothes that they played with. Those need to get cleaned and kept for their little ones someday. I just kept a few things but I can't get rid of them. It's slowly getting done and all the stuff upstairs won't fit in my car anyway. I think it will take me a while to get it all to Goodwill but that is ok.

My goal for '09 is to also finish the house. I asked Dave to put the motor home in the driveway tomorrow and take off the door to our bathroom closet. That way I can stain it and it will be done. When we moved in 8 years ago the crazy inspector said we had to have the doors on all the closets even if they weren't finished. So now that I am not too busy with school and everything else I am going to start doing a little on the house too. Starting with the 3 doors that need staining. I am hoping to get these done before January is over. That is a reasonable goal to reach.

That is my only resolution for '09. To get the house cleaned up and straightened out and organzied. Plus get some sewing and fun stuff done for me too!! LOL

So what are your plans for '09??

Marie

The Day After...

I hope everyone had a great Christmas yesterday. We slept in and that was a nice feeling. I actually had to wake up the 17 year old so we could unwrap the gifts. LOL That was a first ..I remember when they used to wake us up. The rule in our house is that you have to wait until everyone is up and we have eaten something before we can open presents. Well that was easy to do this year. Hee Hee!!

Carol handed out all the gifts and we opened them. It was fun and the dogs had the best time. They loved their cookies and got to eat them right away....they also open their own presents and if they weren't too busy eating their cookies they would help open ours!

Everyone loved their gifts and I started cooking right away with my new pots and pans. I know that is a strange gift but I really need new ones and was thrilled to get them!

Santa brought us the new Monopoly game without money but with the debit cards! WOW! It is so cool. We stopped playing and then started again a few hours later and the machine remembered how much money we had. We stopped for the night and recorded what properties we had and where we were on the board. If we get home early tonight from dinner we will finish the game. I don't think I have ever finished a monopoly game before. We now have 4 versions of it, the original game that my parents bought me a thousand years ago, the here and now version with the millions of money, the dog version of it, (really cool to play) and the here and now world version with the debit cards....I think we are starting a trend to get all the monopoly games we can find. I am still looking for the peanuts version....LOL

We also played Don't Forget the Lyrics. That is a riot because all the songs are oldies and some are really oldies and my girls don't know that many of them. So they got mad at me because I knew the words to the songs. But they knew some too and it was great watching them try and remember the words. We like playing games but its only the 3 of us, dave doesn't play the games with us.

Tonight we are going to dinner at a friends house from high school. I am looking forward to seeing her and her family. It's been a very long time since we have seen each other.

Hope you all had a great holiday.

Marie

Two days before Christamas!

Well I finally finished my Christmas shopping today. Now I have to make some cookies. I am only making peanut butter and Chocolate Chip cookies. I will do those tomorrow morning while I am wrapping the final gifts.

We are all still sick here. I am going to church tomorrow night but it might just be me that goes. I don't think hubby will go since he is sicker then the rest of us and needs his rest. I might be able to get my daughter Carol to go but not sure. Desirae will be working so she won't be able to go.

We were to see my new nephew today and my sister in law but with us being sick we are just staying home. We did take the dogs out to Petco this morning to get thier gifts. They got to smell everything and got lots of treats from the manager. He has 3 shepards at home so he loved gretchen and then who can't love daisy who gives tonz of kisses to everyone.

We got home and made lunch and couldn't find daisy. We thought she was in the back yard but couldn't find her. Looked upstairs and no luck there either. I went out the front door and there she was in my neighbor's yard sniffing around. Not fun at all. Seems the back gate was blown open by the wind and she took off. I opened the car door and she came running across the street right into the car. Then I grabbed her and we walked into the house together. I then took a clothes line from the motor home and tied the gate door shut. Not a perfect job but it won't blow open again and she won't escape.

If you go see the movie Marley and Me this season that is pretty much my labrador. She wasn't as bad as he was as a puppy but she came awful close. She loves rides in the car and if the window is open and you don't hang on to her she will walk or more likely run faster then the car can go. She is something else.

That is about all our news from here. Of course hubby is sick so he has had work the last two days. I don't think he will work tomorrow but he might for a half day. I hope he stays home and gets the rest he needs.

I hope you all have a great Christmas. We are going to be quiet this year. Nothing going on...just chilling at home and trying to get better faster.


Marie

Sick Days!

Good Evening all!!

I have been sick for the last two days. I hope now that I am on Winter Break I can post more. Last night my temp hit 100 and I took my trusty old Nyquil and went to bed at 8:30pm!! I never go to bed that early but it felt great. I am going to bed early tonight too but not that early.

Today was the last day of school and I didn't want to miss it. I will post more this weekend. I still have to do my Christmas shopping. I haven't started yet!

Hugs,

Marie

Christmas Traditions

Hi Everyone, I didn't realize I haven't posted in a while. It's been a nutty place at school. The kindergarten classes are performing next week and we have been practicing every afternoon for 45 minutes. The kids are singing, Jingle Bell Rock, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Up on the Housetop, Feliz Navidad, and We wish you a Merry Christmas. There are also hand motions that go along with it. Today's practice was great. The kids are really learning the words and the hand motions. In between the songs are poems that some of the kinder kids are reading and they are just too cute for words!

Tonight our 5th grade choir sang the same program and they did a great job. It was at the local Barnes and Noble store so my daughter and I went. We also had dinner at McDonalds as that was a fund raiser for our school. So we had to eat fast and get to the book store. These 5th graders are very special to me because they were the first class I ever taught. They opened our school 4 years ago and were my second graders. I love these kids. They are so grown up and I can't believe they are going to middle school next year. They did a wonderful job. Of course we couldn't leave without buying books. I didn't see anything I liked but Carol was able to find 5. I am sure she would have liked more but I had to keep her on my budget! She is trying to read one now but I am watching Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.

I love watching these old shows. I remember watching them every year on TV as a child in my PJ's. And having to go to bed when they were over. Remember about 10 years ago they even quit showing them on TV for some reason. My kids were little then and I remember telling them about these shows. Then they finally started showing them and I would watch them every year without fail. Then they started coming out on VHS and DVD and I have them all. It's just not Christmas until they show them on TV and even though I have them on DVD it's much more special when they are on TV. I feel the same way about White Christmas. They don't always show that one so I bought it and now have 2 copies of it, (VHS and DVD). I never heard of or watched It's a Wonderful Life until I met my husband. We used to watch it after Thanksgiving each year (with the kids) and then it disappeared from the TV. I finally found it and bought it for my husband. So now when it's not on TV we can watch it whenever we want to.

I know I might offend some folks here and I don't mean to but we can't stand to watch The Christmas Story. I have never understood what was so great about that show. Can someone tell me? I think some really great new shows have come out over the year. I like watching Ebbie with Susan Lucci and A Mom for Christmas with Olivia Newton-John and the movie with Dolly Parton and Lee Majors....I can't remember the name but my daughter has those DVD's....oh yeah the other one I like is with Mimi Rogers, the Christmas List....GREAT!!!!

ok time to get back to sewing. I got some work in and that is another reason for not posting. I will be posting more this weekend. One more week of school and then we are off for two weeks. Can't wait!!!

Marie

Face? Space? Blog?

Ok So what is the difference between facebook? myspace? and blogspot? Isn't the main reason people have these items to keep up with folks? I like this one because it's easy and fun to use and change around...

A friend asked me to join facebook and I did but I have no idea what that is all about...and I can barely remember to add stuff here let alone at another location....HaHa! So I am just going to stick with what I know and here I am.

We have a fire going tonight. I know you are thinking we are nuts to have a fire in Florida but the temps are really going down tonight ....into the 40's and that is cold. I am so sure that one year we are going to get snow again...its just a matter of time...we have had cooler weather since right before Thanksgiving and I know its going to happen soon. The temps will warm up for a few days and then turn cold again.

I have Christmas songs running through my head already. As I have mentioned before I teach kindergarten and we are practicing every day for our Holiday concert. The kids are singing 5 songs and learning the hand motions that go along with them. We practice for about 40 mins a day and also have the music playing in the morning and during the day while they are working on other projects like coloring. They are learning the words to the songs but now we are working on the hand motions....When they get it all together (all 147 of them) they are really cute to see. They are performing this on 17 and 19 December during the day so their parents can come. Should be interesting.

I finished another older cross stitch project last night. It was a birthday bear that I bought someone for a gift but have no idea who it was for. And now I am not sure what I am going to do with it either. But right now it's on the cutting table waiting for a frame.

Well I have some school work to do and maybe some sewing. Not really sure. But at 8pm I am going to be watching Santa Claus is Coming to Town. I have it on DVD but its more special to watch when it comes on TV!! I love those old shows and watch all of them. I have already seen the cartoon version of the Grinch 3 times. I love it...not the movie the original...can't beat it!!

Marie P.S. Here is another part of my village. This was from my mom's village. It's the honeymoon cottage. I just love it. Hope you do to!!

OK I took my camera to work today and got pictures of my bulletin board. I think this is the best idea I have ever had. The kids loved doing it and it came out so cute. My daughter Carol drew the gingerbread house in the upper corner and colored it using construction paper. She is wonderful and a great artist!

The background is covered in tin foil and the kids wrote sentences about the story then colored the gingerbread man. The main hallway in our school is the kindergarten hallway and it's through this hallway that all the visitors pass so it must look good. I try and show the student's best work. This is the first time they wrote sentences and I am so proud of them. When they first came to me some didn't even know if they were left or right handed! Tell me what you think??

The words say "You can't catch us...

We're the gingerbread class!"

This is the great house my daughter made for me!

Till Tomorrow!!!

Marie