Wow were does the time go these days. So, since last post....Pop came in to town last weekend. Him and the kids made a ton of cookies - great memories, not so great for mommy's wasteline, but worth every minute/bite of it! Sunday night I cooked us all a good dinner. You know how I LOVE to cook for people, especially these guys, not a speck goes unlicked. We didn't get to see Pop as much as we would have liked, but I don't know if any amount of time would have been enough this visit. Austin was sitting on the table last night with my phone, and he is just jabbering away with a "Hey Pop, (jibber jabber), Pop, (.....), hey Pop...." It was so cute. Hurry back Pop, we already miss you:(
Monday night I drove down to see my mom graduate from her nursing program. Way to go mom! She got the award for valedictorian of her class...guess it runs in the family! Got to see my grandparents again. It is hard realizing more than ever that our visits are limited. My grandma asked me when we were there on Thanksgiving what I would want out of her house. Usually, I'd be able to handle that ok, but I just can't even go there now. Too much loss lately, I really don't know how I would handle that. Aaron and I left and I completely broke down. I'm just not ready to reopen that wound yet.
This week was another long week at work. I think that I should be haring about myjob in January. Aaron and I are SUPER anxious to move, so I just want to be given some hope that that is going to play out. I don't know why, it just "feels" like it is going to work out. But no matter what happens, we will make it work out for us.
Last night we went over to friends. It is always time. They are just as easy as us, plans are on the fly, we have it down - host does dinner, guest brings dessert. Always something easy, no pressure. Kids play good, guys play good, wives vent good....good for the soul!
Today we had a great day. We went to see Santa - NO line, great Santa, great pick. Then we headed down to see a Christmas train display. Then headed to the outdoor snow rink and Daddy took Mackenzie out for her first time ice-skating. She LOVED it. By that time we were all freezing, so headed to a restaurant to eat. Then got a movie on our way home and had family movie time, then dinner. Mackenzie and Aaron headed out to do Christmas shopping, but they just got home and apparently it wasn't a very productive trip. This Christmas is really creeping up on me, guess tomorrow we'll give it another shot!
BTW - yes I have great pictures of all of this, but not on this computer, so I'll try to get them up on Monday.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Sooooooo PROUD!
I'm gonna brag here, it is my right as a mother!
I received a letter a few weeks ago that Mackenzie was being accepting into the Horizon's program (gifted program) at her school. I was pretty much expecting it, so I saved the paperwork for her records, but didn't think too much of it. Well, I just received a call from the gifted teacher asking if I was OK with her being in the class with 1st graders because she is the ONLY KINDERGARTNER who qualified!!!! I am sooooo proud of her. When asked if there was anything specific I'd like her to know, I told her that being as Mackenzie is SOOOO much my child (it scares me), that one thing I would like to improve from my own faults is being able to do things and have fun at things that she isn't the best in or can't do perfectly. She said that that is a classic issue with gifted children and they work on that particular thing extensively. I'm just so darn proud of her I could scream. Little girl doesn't even know that she could get anything out of me tonight that she wanted!
And keeping on the subject of my little girl, I've been meaning to post about our "date" last weekend. Sunday afternoon Mackenzie and I got all dressed up, did our hair, put on our make-up, and headed to the Fox Theater for The Nutcracker. I had been given tickets from work, so we had the box seats. We were going to go out to eat, but due to money and time, we just grabbed something fast food on the way. But Mackenzie said that in real dates people eat where they are going, so I promised her dessert during the show. We arrived in perfect timing and got shown to our seats. She looked around in awe, sat with her little legs crossed, and said “Oh mommy, this is so fancy.” We read the program about the show, and then it started. About an hour in she looked at me and said she was ready for her dessert. We ordered the “Volcano” – basically a chocolate Sundae on a brownie. When it came out….oh I would have loved to capture the look on her face. I swear the thing was as big as her head! TONS of whipped cream. She looked at me and told me I better eat some to help her! You know it is big when they WANT you to help them and aren’t swatting your hands away. I think for the next 10 minutes I just sat there and watched her eat it, it was priceless. I think it is a night she will remember forever. I know I will.
In other news, we got our lights and tree up last weekend. Love love love having the Christmas stuff up and this time of year. Harold is in town this weekend so tomorrow he is coming over to start the tradition of baking Christmas cookies with the kids. We can’t wait to see him again! Everything is pointing to this being another wonderful weekend!
I received a letter a few weeks ago that Mackenzie was being accepting into the Horizon's program (gifted program) at her school. I was pretty much expecting it, so I saved the paperwork for her records, but didn't think too much of it. Well, I just received a call from the gifted teacher asking if I was OK with her being in the class with 1st graders because she is the ONLY KINDERGARTNER who qualified!!!! I am sooooo proud of her. When asked if there was anything specific I'd like her to know, I told her that being as Mackenzie is SOOOO much my child (it scares me), that one thing I would like to improve from my own faults is being able to do things and have fun at things that she isn't the best in or can't do perfectly. She said that that is a classic issue with gifted children and they work on that particular thing extensively. I'm just so darn proud of her I could scream. Little girl doesn't even know that she could get anything out of me tonight that she wanted!
And keeping on the subject of my little girl, I've been meaning to post about our "date" last weekend. Sunday afternoon Mackenzie and I got all dressed up, did our hair, put on our make-up, and headed to the Fox Theater for The Nutcracker. I had been given tickets from work, so we had the box seats. We were going to go out to eat, but due to money and time, we just grabbed something fast food on the way. But Mackenzie said that in real dates people eat where they are going, so I promised her dessert during the show. We arrived in perfect timing and got shown to our seats. She looked around in awe, sat with her little legs crossed, and said “Oh mommy, this is so fancy.” We read the program about the show, and then it started. About an hour in she looked at me and said she was ready for her dessert. We ordered the “Volcano” – basically a chocolate Sundae on a brownie. When it came out….oh I would have loved to capture the look on her face. I swear the thing was as big as her head! TONS of whipped cream. She looked at me and told me I better eat some to help her! You know it is big when they WANT you to help them and aren’t swatting your hands away. I think for the next 10 minutes I just sat there and watched her eat it, it was priceless. I think it is a night she will remember forever. I know I will.
In other news, we got our lights and tree up last weekend. Love love love having the Christmas stuff up and this time of year. Harold is in town this weekend so tomorrow he is coming over to start the tradition of baking Christmas cookies with the kids. We can’t wait to see him again! Everything is pointing to this being another wonderful weekend!
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Moving Question
I've recieved some questions, so figured I should explain myself some more....
So the deal with us moving.......we are keeping our fingers crossed for a relocation offer from the company. I don't think PBAL as a unit is going to stay around. My suspicions are that the lab will be under PGRD and that the site QA in St. Louis will be the only QA needed. I'm done with the lab QA stuff. I want to get more involved with clinical trials or just at least with something bigger than this. So I think PBAL will be gone after the middle of next year. That is when Aaron and I will both be done with our Masters degrees. We just want to do something new. Go on an adventure. We can always come back if we don't like it, but right now is the time in our lives we can just pick up and go, experience someplace new, live life. We kind of feel like we've "done" Missouri, and there isn't a lot more exploring here. The relocation package here is perfect, so it wouldn't set us behind. We are hoping to get up to the north east: Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts - around there. Yes we've already gotten all the "It costs so much, you will never be able to afford your house there, blah blah blah." Our plan would be to go out and get like even just a two bedroom studio apartment or something - the smallest we can do with for at least a year, and just explore every weekend. There is something so appealing about that we could really go down to the bare basics of what we needed as a family and just make it happen. We'd all still be happy without a basement full of toys, heck, the kids don't even need beds, they mostly sneak in with us or sleep in their "Special bed" of a blanket and pillow at the end of our bed!!! We don't need a big kitchen, or big living room...none of that, we just need each other. "Home" is wherever we are for the kids, so as long as we are happy and flow with the punches, they will feed off of that.
Sooooo, that is our plan. Keep your fingers crossed that I can find a job internally to get us there.
So the deal with us moving.......we are keeping our fingers crossed for a relocation offer from the company. I don't think PBAL as a unit is going to stay around. My suspicions are that the lab will be under PGRD and that the site QA in St. Louis will be the only QA needed. I'm done with the lab QA stuff. I want to get more involved with clinical trials or just at least with something bigger than this. So I think PBAL will be gone after the middle of next year. That is when Aaron and I will both be done with our Masters degrees. We just want to do something new. Go on an adventure. We can always come back if we don't like it, but right now is the time in our lives we can just pick up and go, experience someplace new, live life. We kind of feel like we've "done" Missouri, and there isn't a lot more exploring here. The relocation package here is perfect, so it wouldn't set us behind. We are hoping to get up to the north east: Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts - around there. Yes we've already gotten all the "It costs so much, you will never be able to afford your house there, blah blah blah." Our plan would be to go out and get like even just a two bedroom studio apartment or something - the smallest we can do with for at least a year, and just explore every weekend. There is something so appealing about that we could really go down to the bare basics of what we needed as a family and just make it happen. We'd all still be happy without a basement full of toys, heck, the kids don't even need beds, they mostly sneak in with us or sleep in their "Special bed" of a blanket and pillow at the end of our bed!!! We don't need a big kitchen, or big living room...none of that, we just need each other. "Home" is wherever we are for the kids, so as long as we are happy and flow with the punches, they will feed off of that.
Sooooo, that is our plan. Keep your fingers crossed that I can find a job internally to get us there.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Thanksgiving weekend
Happy Thanksgiving. Yummy, one of my favorite holidays, but I didn’t get near enough food, so hope everyone will do the same stuff for Christmas, or I’m just going to have to make my own Thanksgiving at the house and eat it all myself! Last Tuesday I had a mild (ok, almost severe) panic attack when I realized that I had never gotten Denise’s stuffing recipe from her. Now to a lot of people, this might sound so ridiculous, but I know that for Aaron, it just isn’t Thanksgiving without that stuffing. So I completely panicked, then talked myself down and found what seemed like a similar recipe. I’ve never made it before, the one year they weren’t going to be here to fix it, Aaron had called his mom for the recipe and made it himself. So I kind of remembered what he had written down a few years back. Wednesday when I got off work, I went straight to the store, got all the stuff, and went home with a purpose. This was going to make or break Thanksgiving, ok, maybe not make it – but it would have broken it. I am Thankful to report that it turned out and passed Aaron’s inspection with only a minor change “The celery are usually bigger bites”. So, the recipe lives on.
Aaron’s Thanksgiving Stuffing
2 packages of sausage
Half of a yellow onion, diced (about 1 cup)
3-4 stalks of celery, diced (about 1 cup)
2 boxes of chicken StoveTop
1 box of Cornbread Stovetop
2-3 small cans of chicken broth
½ stick butter (optional)
Salt and pepper
Brown sausage, drain, add onion and celery and cook. When onion and celery are done, remove from heat. Stir in all boxes of stuffing. Put in greased oblong cake dish, pour chicken broth over, melt butter, drizzle over. Salt and pepper a little. Cook at 350 for 30-40 minutes.
Aaron swears it is good. I HATE stuffing, so don’t go near the stuff. But him and the kids eat plenty of it – they all LOVE it.
So know that we had stuffing out of the way, noodles were the next thing on the list. See for me, its just a good meal without noodles. That is what makes or breaks the meal for me. My Nannan used to slave away for hours, but I’ve found a store brand that works for me. I had graciously (selfishly) agreed to bring the noodles to my uncles for lunch on Thanksgiving. They turned out good, even Nannan thought they were homemade and loved them!! At my uncles, all of us kids were there (minus my two step-sisters and their family) and Christopher was at his mom’s. But it was cool to have us all there. Might be a while before it happens again with Allen out of state, Cameron going into the military, and us hopefully moving out of state.
That night we went to my dad’s house. We got to see my “Uncle” Timmy. Love ya Uncle Timmy! Hopefully we will see you all soon down at your place!
The next day we left the kids there and came back home. Friday night had Kevin’s b-day party, got a stomach spasm, Saturday day worked on research paper, went to eat, went Christmas shopping, more on paper, went to neighbors for game night, another stomach spasm, and Sunday went to Rams game. We had great seats, too bad there wasn’t much to watch. At least I enjoyed the company!
Aaron’s Thanksgiving Stuffing
2 packages of sausage
Half of a yellow onion, diced (about 1 cup)
3-4 stalks of celery, diced (about 1 cup)
2 boxes of chicken StoveTop
1 box of Cornbread Stovetop
2-3 small cans of chicken broth
½ stick butter (optional)
Salt and pepper
Brown sausage, drain, add onion and celery and cook. When onion and celery are done, remove from heat. Stir in all boxes of stuffing. Put in greased oblong cake dish, pour chicken broth over, melt butter, drizzle over. Salt and pepper a little. Cook at 350 for 30-40 minutes.
Aaron swears it is good. I HATE stuffing, so don’t go near the stuff. But him and the kids eat plenty of it – they all LOVE it.
So know that we had stuffing out of the way, noodles were the next thing on the list. See for me, its just a good meal without noodles. That is what makes or breaks the meal for me. My Nannan used to slave away for hours, but I’ve found a store brand that works for me. I had graciously (selfishly) agreed to bring the noodles to my uncles for lunch on Thanksgiving. They turned out good, even Nannan thought they were homemade and loved them!! At my uncles, all of us kids were there (minus my two step-sisters and their family) and Christopher was at his mom’s. But it was cool to have us all there. Might be a while before it happens again with Allen out of state, Cameron going into the military, and us hopefully moving out of state.
That night we went to my dad’s house. We got to see my “Uncle” Timmy. Love ya Uncle Timmy! Hopefully we will see you all soon down at your place!
The next day we left the kids there and came back home. Friday night had Kevin’s b-day party, got a stomach spasm, Saturday day worked on research paper, went to eat, went Christmas shopping, more on paper, went to neighbors for game night, another stomach spasm, and Sunday went to Rams game. We had great seats, too bad there wasn’t much to watch. At least I enjoyed the company!
Nanna and her Grandbabies.
4 Generations with Nannan and Granddad
Mom and her kiddos
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
