merry christmas

One quiet, rainy Sunday afternoon, Jesse and I were wrapping gifts by the Christmas tree, listening to the holiday music channel on our DVR....it was so nice and festive and cozy.

Then this song came on and I loved it instantly and can't believe I've lived 32 years without it on my Christmas playlist!!

dumping continued...

I like taking picture of food, when it's good.  :)


This is a turkey sandwich (that I had to settle for, because they did away with the vegetarian one I used to swoon over), and the best soup ever on earth for all time:








Mariah's baptism day (and why does my face look so wide):






Messing around with the functions on my phone while waiting for Mariah to get some dental work done:













Couldn't WAIT to see the new Winnie the Pooh movie  (took this photo during the credits):










One of the many Padres games we went to over the summer:








Tryin' to squeeze everybody in:








Found this sweet child walking around downtown, picked her up and she came to work with me for a few hours.  And I took this pic on our 12-block walk back to my car:







Worn out shoes that I loved and couldn't give up and wore for probably 18 months past their "expiration date".  Had to hot glue the bottoms shut every morning for several months!  May they RIP.









More messing around @ the Super Dentist's:













More food.  Cobb salad from Nordstrom, mmmmmm:








Agree:







New earrings that make me happy:







How I feel I appear to the world everyday (gargantuan):







Ears pierced....again:







A beach wedding photo shoot that we crashed:






Sandy toesies:







The backpack I wanted Arissa to get for 6th grade....she convinced me it might be a little hard to fit all her books in:









At the museum, talked Nana into buying them some photos:






At SeaWorld, once again:







Movie night @ the Warrens, Jesse matching his shirt with our chairs:








My beverage of choice every day:






What I did with the leftovers from cream-cheese stuffed strawberries that I made:








Nana has an irrational fear of lizards....I don't remember where this ugly thing came from but the girls thought it was hilarious to taunt her with it:









Funny sign, texted to Jesse:







Pianist in training:








Summer bday party.....and there's a gleam in my eye:












Look how my rubber band fell and landed!








Mariah's appetizer, pickles & tomatoes:








Arissa's appetizer, onions:

omg...

...I am so sick of gingerbread men.

I love them, I love making them, I love decorating them, but when there's over 100 to do in a short period of time, when there are 100 million other things going on and needing to be done, they become a little less fun and more of a chore.  I hate chores.

I spent a lot of money on the ingredients, since I had to make so many and because molasses is a whopping $4 a jar.

But only after I had spent the money and killed myself putting it all together did Target decide to put THIS on their shelves, which would have saved me quite a bit of money and (something in much shorter supply:) a heck of a lot of TIME:

I can't repeat the words I said when I saw that mix on the shelf. 

Something along the lines of "son of a...!!!". 

:)

In my fit of rage at seeing it, I bought everything at Target that I needed....EXCEPT m&ms for the buttons, so I had to make-do with chocolate chips I had in the freezer.

Then after they'd been iced and were ready to be packaged, they were being stored in the oven so the cat wouldn't sit on them or eat them. 

But I forgot that and I turned on the oven to get it warm so I could cook garlic bread. 

I noticed the burning smell about 10 minutes later. 

Still didn't register that all my little men were burning and their frosting melting. I just assumed it was something on the stove top where I was cooking pasta.  Jesse finally opened the oven and discovered the atrosity. 

Luckily I did not burn the house down, nor did I even ruin any of the men (except for two)!  That's my 2011 Christmas Miracle, I guess.

This is a funny story now, but it was NOT funny at the time, or for several days afterward.  :(

I'm so glad I'm done with those suckers.  And I'm back to loving them again.

phone pics dump 1

My phone reached over 1054 pictures recently, so I "dumped" them all (onto the computer & deleted them from my phone).  It was fun to go thru them, so here's the first of several (probably too many) that I likey liked:



Walking the streets of LG:





Buddies, @ drill team practice during the summertime:







A super cute & friendly dolphin @ SeaWorld who was actually playing with the lady holding a stuffed dolphin.  Lots of fun to watch:





Driving downtown, pretty lights:







Boyz II Men @ the House of Blues:






Going backstage to meet them:







The title of this episode caught our eye, and we texted it to Sherry right away:







An accidental "promotion" I got at work:





My pretty lil Student of the Month:





Taking my breath away:









Nana sewing a poodle skirt for Arissa, because we had two already but I wanted a blue one to match Arissa's eyes:





Prettiest/cutest cupcakes!  Don't remember what we had stopped at Albertsons for......I know it wasn't for these, but I brought them home for the girls anyways, just for fun:













LOL:  Jesse looked at my hair with horror in his eyes and said "oh my gosh, when was the last time you BRUSHED your hair??  It's one big knot!".  I looked at it in the mirror and said "I did it like that on purpose, it's a braid!!!".







Oh how I miss Vacation Bible School week....and look forward to next year:








Getting my hair done to take pictures that never got taken:









At Macy's, picking out Mariah's baptism dress.  The girls went wild in the dressing room:











A few years back (1998):








Sweet girl:









First library card: