Houston & Christmas Cards

We are here in Houston and the kids are having a great time playing with cousins while Dave & I are enjoying being in a real city with good food!! I bet I have already gained 10 pounds! :o) Oh well, it is the holidays, right? All the adults went out to a little French restaurant last night and it was REALLY good and then tonight we went to our favorite Mexican food place here. I am stuffed!!! We took the girlies to the Children's Museum today and of course, they LOVED it. I will have to put up pictures when we get home. Along with that, I will be sending out Christmas cards...I worked like a dog before we left so that I would have everything I needed (copies of letter, stamps, etc.) so that as soon as they were delivered to Grandma's house, I could get them in the mail. Guess what? They were shipped (b/c I paid extra $$) to Amarillo. I should have caught that on the confirmation but since I knew I had checked Grandma's address, I didn't even think about it. It was my fault, made in haste, but still VERY frustrating. I hope they are appreciated more when everyone gets them...AFTER Christmas!!

Over the river and thru the woods...

...to Grandmother's house we go! We are off this afternoon - our plane leaves at 5. I have laid our a few things, printed packing lists, and already had a bath this morning so I think I will make it. I haven't gotten a lot done as we have had a lot going on this week (we celebrated Christmas with my mom Wednesday night and had a b-day party to go to last night) but the main thing is that Addi has been sick! Poor girly! I didn't think she looked herself on Sunday - & didn't even go to a basketball clinic - but then I got a call from school Monday to come get her. She has run a fever everyday since - at least it is not as high (it was 104.5 Tuesday! - YIKES!) and we are going for longer periods of time between fevers. I hope my girly gets to feeling better soon - I feel so bad for her. Not only has she missed classwork and tests, but also her Christmas party at school and the birthday party last night! Gotta run - have SSSSSSSOOOOOOOO much to do - I'll try to post later from Houston!

Card or No Card???

Well, I messed around trying to get the "perfect" shot...OK, I would settled for a just OK one...& now who knows when I can get the cards? I finally got a good one yesterday and then worked most of the evening (around watching the Survivor finale) checking it out on different card backgrounds. When I went to order them, I found out that unless I wanted to pay for express delivery - which would cost almost as much as ALL the cards - I might not even get them until Christmas day. DILEMMA!! Shutterfly usually gets stuff out much faster than they say, but I have never run it this close to the holidays before. (Well, except the year I sent out New Year's cards!) Anyway, then I said just scrap the whole thing. However, this morning I decided I would get them & send them out and people would get them when they got them!! I'm having them sent to Houston and I will just take all the stuff so I can mail them out from there ASAP. The girlies are just too cute (my opinion) NOT to share AND I have already received one card that said they love our annual letter and can't wait to get it. I can't let them down now can I?? Here is the preview of the picture and to all my blog friends, wishes of Peace & Blessings to You & Yours!

13 Years!

Today as I was having coffee with some friends, I shared with them that 13 years ago today, I was lying on an operating table...and lying on an operating table...and lying on an operating table while my poor hubby (of just over a year) and our families had to sit in the waiting room for 14 hours! December 12, 1995 was the day I had my surgery for a "very large" acoustic neuroma. I have always said that I had the easy job - I just laid there! My friend reminded me that I would have to change the description of my blog. Even though I don't necessarily "celebrate" this day, it will be forever etched in my mind as a day to remember. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit nostalgic (mainly for my smile) but I am glad of the person I have become because of it and THANKFUL that I am here today & have such wonderful family and friends! I love you all and I know that I would not have been to make it through the last 13 years like I have if it weren't for each of you and how you have helped in my life. Thanks one & all!! Of course, the biggest thanks goes to our incredible Creator who carried us along when we couldn't make on our own!

Card Attempt & Christmas Party

The 2 younger girlies were singing at the annual church Christmas party so I thought what a perfect time to get a shot for our Christmas card...but alas, I didn't get that GREAT picture (AGAIN). How come when I say, "Get together & smile" when they have on dirty clothes and wild hair, I get a GREAT picture, but when they are all dressed and pretty and I say the same thing, it turns into a NIGHTMARE and we all end up frustrated? So, who knows, you might get a New Year's card again this year...it has happened before!! Here is the best one but the quality of the picture is not as good as I would like. There are a couple of shots of the girlies on stage too.

Like the new background? It turned out better than I thought that it was going to!

Shopping & Researching...

I have been spending all my computer time at home lately either doing Internet shopping or researching about a camera that I would like for Christmas. Whether I get it or not remains to be seen because I think what I want is too much money. However, anyone that knows me well, knows that I research the heck out of major purchases because I want to find THE BEST DEAL OUT THERE (yes, Kristen - I know you are laughing to yourself right now!). The latest was a new pair of shoes to workout in - I will say that I returned the 1st pair I got because I went to "one more store" to check prices and they had them for $50 less!! That's a lot of money to save when you don't care about last year's colors - just the performance of the shoe! Anyway, that has been consuming all my time when I am not out running the girlies places.
I changed the background again because they have so many cute Christmas ones and it is so easy to change. I love the colors of this one so I will leave it for a few days, even though some of the text is kind of cut off & hard to read! :o)