6 Below, $1.40 and 9 Dozen

Here's a recap of my week thus far...

Monday:

Riley woke with growing pains. Mike forgot to apply the Bengay. Negative point for dad. Me, driving to the bus in -6*F weather only to turn around and come back for the Bengay. Point for me cuz I'm a 'good' mom!

Jack Pot at the local Vinny's...14 books, 6 of which are Agatha Christie's. Total: $1.40 plus tax. Cha-ching. I think that deserves, like, 5 points!

I got home in time to whip out 9 dozen Chocolate-Cranberry-Walnut-Oat Cookies. Point for me--I did it ahead of time...no procrastinating! Because of the cookies I left late to get the boys from the after-school program which caused me to be late to my parent meeting. Ugh. What a day! Minus 2 points, mom.

Tuesday:

Got the boys off to school without a hitch. Point for mom! Left an hour late for Marquette due to a blistering headache and an upset tummy. Minus a point for mom. Boo.

Roads were fine. Took mother-in-love shopping and found a Christmas gift for my Secret Sister. Point, mom! MIL took me out to lunch at Coco's. Awesome place. Go try it out!

Didn't leave there until 4pm because of the laundry. Minus one point, mom. I can't wash our whites at home because of the iron in our water....I've tried all the fixes....they don't work for us. So, by the time I left it was snowing and blowing and my windshield washer didn't work. It was frozen. So I was blinded most of way through Marquette, Negaunee and Ishpeming. It was ok the rest of the way and I made good time. Point!

Mike had dinner waiting for me when I got home. Point for dad--ok...I'll give him a few cuz he's the best! He made his special fried chicken with rice. It was so good that I ate too much and went to bed with an upset tummy. Minus a point for mom. Ugh.

Wednesday:

So far, so good. Boys are at school, Mike is taking his last exam of the semester (3 down, only 7 semesters to go! oh, yeah...and one summer. er). Point for dad. The house is quiet....I AM AT HOME! That deserves a point. =) Hallelujah! Hallelujah! If only I could stay here. But no. I have to pick up Riley, pick up the other 3 hooligans, get dinner thrown on the table and be off to get Michael back to the school for the high school concert that he gets to play one song for. Whew! I'm tired already.

Let's see: Mike-3, Samara-6
I guess it's a bit unfair cuz I don't keep track of everything Mike does. Eh...oh well. I'm still winning! hahahahaha

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Hubby did not get his wish to stay home from school today but I got my wish for the boys to be in school. Yeah! Riley took a few moments, as I was getting ready to go out the door, to walk to the end of the driveway and make some tracks in the fresh snow. He's really into tracks lately. It's really endearing, except when I'm running late to the bus or church and he won't go straight to the van. Instead he is out in the yard....making TRACKS. *sigh* He's just too sweet.

We went up to school to have lunch with Mike today (shrimp, clams and some seasoned fries that are to die for! yum-O!) and crash in the library for an hour or so. It was so cold! 8* F before the wind chill! I still have to go out in it tonight. It wouldn't be so bad but it's at least a 45 minute drive. Er--Brrrrr!

Here's another pic of "the tree". I don't like pine trees. I don't know what kind this is....but it's the only one on our property that I do like. So I take lots of pictures of it. So Pretty!

Snow, snow and more snow!

I was thinking earlier today that I probably should have put a counter up on my site for how many days it snows around here. I think we had about 3 days last week that it didn't snow and I actually thought it would all be gone before Kim and the girls could play in it over Thanksgiving weekend.

Well, I needn't worry about a green Christmas anyway. It snowed all day today and yesterday and the day before and...well, you get the drift. Haha. That was punny! Maybe not. =I

So today I almost got stuck at the sportsmen's club after Riley got off the bus. The state has cut back hours for the plow truck drivers so they are only doing what's absolutely necessary. Which means main highways, not parking lots. And not little back roads, even if the principal of the local school IS my neighbor.

Tonight Mikey and I drove into Baraga for the Baraga Schools Christmas Concert. It was slow going as the visibility was pretty near nil and the roads are SLICK! On the way home it was blowing pretty bad and very COLD. Brrrrr. Glad I don't have to bring the kids to the bus tomorrow. Thank you, Lord, for a husband that goes to school! Although--- Mike is hoping for a snow day tomorrow. I think, if we get one, I will have to bug out of here for a few. I just need the quiet....I really don't need for the kids to have a 3-day weekend. Eh. I love 'em but Oh. My. Goodness. They have not been getting along lately. Not. At. All.

So anyway. We have lots of snow. Too much snow. And here's a warning to you all....Don't you dare complain about your snow til you've shoveled mine! hoohoohoo!! I will be whining and waiting for spring right bout mid-February. Just wait and see!

Night all!

Added Pictures

Hi. Did you read about my Thanksgiving Dinner? If not, check it out here . If you did already, you may want to go back and check out Kim's photos from the day--I finally got them up. Thank you, Kim, for cooking and taking pictures!

Handmade Christmas Coaster Giveaway

Are you decorating for Christmas yet? Heh heh. Not me. Soon though...the boys keep asking when the lights are going up. =) I love lights. I also love poinsettias and homemade crafts. If you love them too, check out Nikki's Notes for a beautiful handmade poinsettia Christmas coaster giveaway.

Happy Decorating! I'm gonna go clean my room now. =D

Thanksgiving at Home

This is coming a bit late but after my last blog, I'm sure you can understand. =)

I loved, LOVED, LOVED having my family here for Thanksgiving. It's the first time we've had T-day dinner at home since we married in 1995.

My LILsis,

Kim, came up Wednesday with her daughters from Illinois. We made a late night trip to Walmart Wednesday night and stayed up chatting til 3am.

Thursday morning we brought Michael over to the KC Hall to work the free dinner our church puts on every year. I missed working it this year but Kim said she'd like to come help, so maybe next year???


When we got home we got right to cooking. I was very pleased to find that Kim and I work well in the kitchen together. She just went right to work on anything that had to be done and quickly adapted to the quirks of my oven.

I didn't have time to fold the laundry that had yet to be done but we did have time to set the tables and even made crafty little turkey place cards.

My mom and Jason and his family arrived around 4pm and we sat down to eat just after 5pm. Even with all 8 children sitting around a separate table in the living room it was very calm and we were able to enjoy our dinner.

We partook of a gorgeous turkey stuffed with whole cloves of garlic and rosemary.

(all pictures courtesy of Kimberli Nelson)

Mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes (sorry, I don't put brown sugar or marshmallows on mine...just butter, thank you), sausage stuffing that turned out excellent but we'll cut the amount of sausage next time, a corn casserole that everyone LOVED, bacon green beans that could've been skipped, homemade cranberry sauce that didn't last long at all rounded out the meal and added color.....

or not!

And of course we had to have our relish tray (all the olives were gobbled up, wah!).





























We left a bit of room for our choice of fresh blueberry or pumpkin pie (ty, Kim!), or apple pecan cheesecake.

The older kids did the dishes, leaving the pots and pans for us adults...but we had the kitchen spic and span in no time!

We ended the night with a game of Last Word. No, it wasn't an argument between Michael and me...we actually played the game. Kim won both rounds, if I remember correctly, which didn't surprise any of us. LOL

Overall it was a very exciting and wonderful Thanksgiving. I really have so much to be thankful for!

1/2 Dozen

Wow. It is SO quiet here in my home right now. Not that anything is different from the ordinary this morning. But it was a few short hours ago.
I was a brave, very brave woman this weekend.
After a hectic two weeks trying to get my kitchen painted and the house ready for Thanksgiving with my family, we had 14 people jammed into it all day Thursday--the majority of them children all under 15. My 4 nieces stayed the night Thursday and left Friday afternoon. I enjoyed their stay immensely and hope they all come again REALLY soon. So we had Friday evening to ourselves. My husband and I celebrated our 13th anniversary without the boys. =D
Now comes the brave part.....
Saturday morning I was scheduled to babysit for a family in Houghton. When I got there, I was informed that the dad had got the day off so I wasn't needed. I didn't see any reason to waste the 1/2 hour trip so called over to the Griffins to see if they wanted company for the morning. Turned out that they were a bit busy (that is a supreme understatement) so I instead offered to take their 8yo son, Malachi, off their hands for the weekend. Eli has been wanting him to stay over for some time now but it has not worked out for either of us. But Kelly was more than willing to have him out of her hair for a little while. When I got to the house, her 12 yo son, TJ, asked if he could come along. I figured it would be nice for Michael to have company too so I said sure if it was ok with his mom. She was fine with it and sent him to pack. "I'm already packed," he said. "I started packing as soon as you told Malachi he was going." Woo-eee! Now there is some faith in action! LOL That is how I ended up with a 1/2 dozen boys in my home this weekend. But that's not all. Oh, no....that's not all! Michael's friend, Steven, also called and invited him over but since TJ was here it wasn't going to work so I let Michael invite Steven over for the day instead.
So here we had 7 boys...ranging in age from 4 to 12. Wow.
I think Mike is crabby right now. He was really short with me and the boys all weekend. Luckily it was his weekend on call, he didn't have to put up with it too long.
Well, I'm still sane. I think. And guess what? I want to do it again. Except Mike has put his foot down that it can't be on school nights anymore. Oh well. We'll do Friday to Sunday afternoon next time! hahahahahohoheehee