Outdoor Christmas Decorations

I was hoping to be able to post a picture of our outdoor Christmas lights but they still are not finished.  We have had a rain/snow mess all day today and yesterday.  Hopefully we will be able to finish the lights soon.

This is the last post for today.  I promise not to wait so long between posts:)

Disney

Friday afternoon we were able to see Disney on Ice in Des Moines.  

Through Musco we were able to buy discount tickets.  When the email came that tickets were available to purchase I was terrified that the girls would say that they were too old and didn't want to go.  Luckily they still wanted to go although I'm not sure we are supposed to tell that they went.  We had great seats in row A.  There were two rows in front of us on the ground level so we saw everything up close.  Of course there were plenty of younger children but it was fun to see the few other families that had just teenagers.  Those families are called true Disney fanatics!

This just made us even more excited to go to the 1/2 Marathon in January.  It has been very cold and windy for all of our long runs.  Gabi has been leading the way with Emily right behind her.  I have had my best times ever.  I think it has something to do with wanting to keep up with the girls and not wanting to look as old and slow as I am.

Christmas Picture

For 14 years now I have been taking a Christmas picture for our Christmas cards.  In one of my earlier posts today I stated that I would keep my teenagers the majority of the time.  Today, however would be one of those times that one of the teenagers was acting like a teenager.  In fourteen years it has never taken me this long to take the Christmas picture.  So which one of these angelic teenagers was acting her age today - I will never tell because I still love her.  Now to decide which picture to use - Larry and I prefer one of the pictures and the girls prefer the opposite.

AARP

This past week Larry received his first AARP card.  I couldn't stop laughing.  He may be younger than me but he got his AARP card first!

Susan

So what have I been doing since I haven't been posting?  

1.  Work

2.  Church Bible Study

3.  Neighborhood Bible Study

4.  PAC

5.  Kids Party Committee

6.  Float Committee

7.  Taxi Service for Children

8.  Etc.

I'm starting to fall into a routine at work and am even enjoying my job some days now.  There are many kind people at Musco and that definitely helps.  I am starting to earn the respect of my peers in that I actually do have a clue as to what I am doing even though I haven't lived here for my entire life.

Since I haven't been in any Bible studies I'm trying to make up for lost time and have joined two this year.  One is at church and takes place on Wednesday when Emily is at her girls group and the other is the moms in our neighborhood.

The PAC is the Principals Advisory Committee at the middle school.  Our logic is I can't complain unless I try and fix the errors at the school so somehow I have ended up on this committee to state my opinion and try and improve the middle school.  I know that you are in shock that I would end up on a committee stating my opinion about the school but it is true.  You are probably also shocked to know that I have no problem, whatsoever, stating my opinion.  We'll see how long they keep me.  I did just get one of my biggest pet peeves of the school changed.  If a student forgets their lunch card then they have to sit at a discipline table to eat lunch.  Of course, my children are human and have both forgotten their lunch card except they don't eat lunch because they don't want to sit at the bad kid table.  I have been told that this is to teach responsibility.  Yet, the 40% of our students that are on free and reduced lunch are not required to follow this rule because they get their lunch free anyway so it doesn't matter.  I have struggled to understand how punishing honor roll students that are responsible and have proven they are responsible by maintaining excellent grades at all times, how requiring them to sit at a discipline table for forgetting their lunch card once or twice a year is teaching responsibility.  I have not met any administrator or teacher in this school system that has never made a mistake.   I have stated my opinion of this ridiculous rule and how responsible children are being punished for being human.  The rule has finally been removed and the once or twice a year my child forgets their lunch card they are now allowed to just punch in their number and eat their lunch like responsible, civilized human beings.  OK, I'm getting off my soap box now!

The Kids Party committee was at work.  Each year Musco has a party for all of the Musco children.  This year we had a science experiment party.  There were 200 children in attendance with 2o different science experiment stations.  Larry had his very own station and the girls had their own station.  I was very proud of how well they follow directions.  You would think they were used to me volunteering them for different activities.  I was very pleased with the way the party turned out.  

I was also talked into being on the Christmas Float committee at work.  The Lighted Christmas Parade is a HUGE deal here.  It is two different nights, this Thursday and Friday, and we prefer to win for our float!  I have been spending many hours float building and Larry and the girls have even been helping, also.  We are looking forward to this being complete.

There are days that I am really looking forward to two teenagers having their drivers license. They have become so busy that it is interesting to see how we get everywhere we are supposed to be.  

The etc. would be the cooking, cleaning and shopping to maintain daily life.  The cooking is a pain because we only have a few restaurants.  It's not like we can say, "gosh, I'm tired tonight how about if we go out to eat" - where would we go - McDonalds?  What we wouldn't do for a few restaurants.  Cleaning - it still doesn't get done - never has, never will.  I just wish we could find a cleaning lady. Shopping, oh wait - that is the only thing I can no longer do because we have no stores here!!!!  I need a mall so badly!!!!!

Girls

The girls are doing very well.  Our schools here are on trimesters rather than quarters so they receive grades only 3 times per year.  They ended the 1st trimester 2 weeks ago and both were on honor roll.  Although I don't agree with everything in this school system it could be much worse.

Gabi has joined the swim team again this year.  They do not have a high school swim team so she must still swim for the YMCA.  Since she is only doing swimming this year she is hoping to make it past sectionals.  Her first swim meet is this Saturday.  She swims 4 nights a week and keeps her grades at all As.  Although she has her teenage moments I think we will continue to keep her.

Emily in on the 7th grade girls basketball team.  After some of the parents saw her play in her first game here she was invited to play on the AAU basketball team.  She has her first AAU tournament this Saturday.  Did you catch that they both have their first competition this Saturday.  This is one of the reasons I haven't been posting.  I'm getting used to having busy children again!  Luckily both competitions are here this Saturday and since it is such a small town we will be able to make it to the majority of both competitions.  Emily continues to maintain honor roll, also.  Although she has her teenage moments I think we will keep her, also.

Both girls are involved in youth group at church.  They are really enjoying this group.  Emily is also in a Wednesday evening group that is just for girls at church.  We are grateful that they have been able to continue to get involved in many different activities.

They have also become the babysitters on our street.  It has been nice for the families to have the girls so close and willing to babysit.  The girls are wanting to make sure that our home is decorated for Christmas so that all of the children on the street will enjoy our Christmas decorations.

Larry Cooking

Yes, I know that I am WAY behind on posting!!!!  

Larry had been encouraging me to start getting involved in activities and now I am busy again even though I stated I was never going to get involved in another town.  Famous last words - now I am too busy again.

So I am going to do a marathon session of blog postings today and get caught up except for the one everyone has been waiting on.  No, we still can't tell the TOP SECRET news and this is just annoying.  We have the pictures ready but we still can't tell the news.

So post #1 involves Larry cooking.  Larry decided to help out with dinner and said he would make the french bread.  Our local grocery store makes homemade bread and they put it in paper bags.  You purchase it on your way home from work and heat it up for a few minutes.  

I really didn't think this was a difficult item for Larry to cook.  Granted there are no directions on the paper bag but most human beings with a smidge of common sense could figure out that you take the bread out of the PAPER bag and put it in the oven for a few minutes.   I guess the key words here are "smidge of common sense".  Mr. Engineer put the french bread and the paper bag in the oven to cook.  Can you say FIRE?!?!  Luckily everything was fine but we have had to give him a hard time about this one!