Where Did Christmas Go So Fast???

Hi,
I know I know... I have been incommunicado, no postings. I feel like a heel.

Guess what else I did? I got my home phone turned off. No, not a lack of funds, a lack of brain. Knew it was due and it just flew out of my head. I had Dear & not to mention Sweet Hubby run to town today to pay it and they said yes, it doesn't work because (duh) you didn't pay the bill. sigh. I'm a mess. I have a pile 2 feet high of attorney, insurance, medical bills and my own bills to pay. I should get to it, eh? I paid the taxes today, do I get any points for that?

Today LJ had her wisdom teeth removed. All 4 of 'em. She is MY daughter so it is "wise" to get all 4 taken out at once so as not to risk the refusal of said daughter to return to the doc who did the deed if she had only 2 exttracted. sigh She's still zonked on the couch compliments of hydrocodone.

J and C and H and Baby Girl J left early this afternoon. It was Baby J's first Christmas!! (And friend Makenna's too! Hi Beth!) They had returned the day after Christmas and hung out for 2 days. We went to Chuck E Cheese and the mall and WallyWorld and wherever else we could think of. That's a lot of my distraction. I made a snowman sweatshirt for H and one for N too (shhh, she doesn't have hers yet).

And H LOOOOOOOVES to sit at my bedroom window
and look out at the geese! Can you see them too?

Nana and Baby Girl J

H among the presents

J's best bud and his wife and kids came over last night for supper. A thrown together concoction of Holiday leftovers including a chicken pot pie I put together at the last minute. It was YUMMY! And it's gone. So no photos.



We played Boggle until our eyes hurt. Si is shopping grad schools in philosophy of the doctoral kind and not only did his genius whoop us pretty good, but he found the word "roan" in almost every turn!!! Hmmmm. His wife K is just as brainy and gave us a run for our money (even tho' there were no bets in play) This afternoon we made Quiche Lorraine and the kids ate on the run as they were packing their car in readiness to run to C's Dad's 45th B-Day!!! Ha Ha Chief... another year!!!

And playing in to all this falderal has been my mom's continuation as a hospital inpatient since Thanksgiving. She gets better and then lands back in acute care. Not only has she been missing her glasses since a return trip to ER mid December, but she took yet another fall today as she got herself out of her lounge chair, staff found her in a heap on the floor... she cannot walk and forgets that minor detail.

In all of this we've made it to church and focused on the meaning of Christmas: we visited a little bitty country church for Christmas Eve Candlelight Service b/c ours was earlier in the evening (and I was still visiting Mom. ) Hmm, this missive seems a little distracted. Well, that about sums up everything about me lately!

So.. how was your Celebration of Our Savior's Birth, which is the beginning of the Road to Calvary (Easter's Comin') ?

Photos with kids!

On this snowy Saturday, I was going through photos to change the banner (which still isn't how I want it~~anyone wanna help?) I couldn't stop laughing when looking at the progression of photos when taking family photos for my son! Enjoy:

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

I just wanted to let everyone know, I LOVE ELECTRICITY!!!!! After losing power for 6½ days in January and now 2 days, I have a not so secret love affair going with everything electric right now! Don't worry, I'll calm down and start conserving again. Just lemme enjoy the warmth!
The tree branches were falling everywhere.

Look how close this branch came to my Honda! I moved it as soon as I moved the branches out of the way but LJ took it to the Post Office to get the mail and lost my keys for me. Oh Joy. She found them. After she was at work. In HER purse. A day later. I hope she put them back in my purse so I can drive to school this a.m.

STAY WARM!!! Hug your sweetie!

Cute as Pie!

J and C were here last weekend and I got most of my grandgirlee fix (1 is covered in snow in NY and I haven't seen her since August~ sniffle) I was included in a Nana shower at school. My friend Laura became a grandmother for the first time coincidentally on the same day that Baby J was born. Hers was an emergency C-sect. Anyhow, the teacher whose place I took is a Grandma Pro and gifted "me" with a big bucket of sidewalk chalk for H and me to play with. I have been lugging this stuff around since the shower in early November but circumstances (like weather) has not allowed us to participate.

So this Saturday, even tho' the wind could have thrown us in the lake, Nana and her girlee got to

P-L-A-Y!! BTW, she can name every one of those shapes. Yep, she's a genius!

Baby J supervised:

After dark Auntie LJ and H made cookies! YUMMY!Look! I keep telling ya she's PERFECT!

Okay, the pie part!! My students are making pies from scratch this week. A few used pie filling, they had the option. But the crusts are all from scratch.

Arent' they beautiful?

Apple pie from scratch. The "I heart U" cutouts are precious!

German Chocolate Pie!!! An update on this pie. It had wonderful anticipation. It was creamy and beautiful when cut. That first bite... hmmm. Something was amiss. Second bite: SALT! There was too much salt. If you eat anymore you will need an I.V. drip to rehydrate! Apparently in reading the recipe the 1/8 tsp of salt turned into 1/8 CUP, yes CUP. Hubby and I did the math last night and that comes out to 48X the salt called for in the recipe. YIKES!! Like I said before, it was pretty. Students are learning to pay more attention to directions!

Pumpkin!

I think this is Cinnamon apple. Beautiful! They are so creative! It had 1 Tbsp of cinnamon (Red HOTS) candies crushed up and sprinkled in. Very yummy and it was as gorgeous in person as here in the photo. However, when sprinkling sugar on top of the crust the student realized she grabbed the SALT and not the sugar. It was hilarious watching the whole lab group trying to blow that salt OFF the top of the crust. They then did sprinkle sugar and unless you knew about the added salt, you probably would not have noticed in the tasting. Wouldn't this be pretty for Christmas or save it as an idea for Valentine's Day (individual tarts in heart shaped pans?)

Blueberry

...and Blackberry

And finally strawberry rhubarb. I don't think any of them has ever had rhubarb before and you shoulda seen their faces when they sampled the frozen rhubarb before putting in the pie... HA! This was the pie with the most leftovers. The students did not really care for the taste and texture. Tried to pawn it off on other kitchen groups but no takers.


The students were aghast when I told them yesterday that I would need a little teensy 2-inch sample slice of each pie. They don't want to share. I "have" to taste it to grade it! I usually don't but this time... needless to say, I'm not taking any lunch today. I'm eatin' PIE!
The red is the update editing Saturday morning. I did indeed have pie for lunch. The rest of the teachers laughed at me in the lunch room but I enjoyed it. The pie slices from 7th hour Foods class I brought home to share with hubby. He helped me gobble them up. And it did help me score their projects.