Christmas is over and I am back at work. At least it's a short week since I am taking Friday off.

Christmas was great. Just what I had hoped for. Very relaxing. We had more of an open house type of celebration. I cooked a ham and made some deviled eggs. We ate sandwiches, snacks and lots of sweets. It was an all day event. Started about 1:00 in the afternoon and ended around 10:00. It was great because no one was stressed out. Just lots of conversation, food and laughter. The kids even managed to find time for a nap.

Friday was a day of quiet for me. Reading, knitting and resting. It was perfect. Just what I wanted.

I have pictures but haven't had a chance to download them yet. I will post them soon.

I hope that everyone one had a very blessed Christmas. Guess it's time to start taking down the decorations and preparing for the New Year.

Happy Anniversary Patrick. I miss you.

We had such a wonderful time decorating the Christmas tree on Saturday night. I couldn't have asked for a better time.
Kathy and E came. There was lots of good conversation.
Lots of yummy food.
Serif has gotten so big. She put so many ornamets on the tree. She is at such a great age for Christmas.
She has gotten very good about giving a cheesy grin when you are taking a picture.
She and E worked so hard on the tree.
They worked on the tree so hard that they had to stop and have a tea party. Mommy couldn't stand it and had to come join all the fun. I have no idea why she is using a stool instead of her table.
Here is a picture of the finished product. Isn't it beautiful. They did such a great job. I have always called this my junk tree. It is filled with ornaments that the kids made and those collected through the years. Each one has a special place in my life.

After the decorating we played games and then some other friends stopped by for a quick visit. It was a perfect evening all around. How can you go wrong when you are surrounded by wonderful family and friends. Thank you all for coming.

This is the last of about 6 or so elves that my mother got while my father was in Vietnam. My mother was shopping at Gulf Mart in December of 1968 when she found them. Gulf Mart was the Super Target of the late 60's and early 70's.They were holding a small box of Whitman's Samplers. There were four pieces of candy in each box. She picked up a couple of them and we both enjoyed the candy. We thought they were so cute that she went back on got a few more. They also had a Santa Claus but we fell in love with the elves. Before we knew it, we had a nice little collection. We even sent some with my father's Christmas care package (minus the chocolate) to Vietnam to decorate his place. Every year since then they were been a part of our Christmas decorations. We'll see if this one survivies to see the next Christmas.

My computer is back up so I thought I would share some of the pictures from my Thanksgiving weekend. I don't have any pictures from Thanksgiving Day because I was too busy eating to take pictures. Did I mention that the food was delicious and that I ate too much?

Friday I got to go to my very first "Redneck Wedding". I am not being rude. That is what the bride called it. One of Missy's co-workers was getting married and was kind enough to include me in the invitation.

This is the wedding cake. Get the impression that they are Texans?

Here is the altar. Yes that it hay that we all got to sit on.
Here is a closer look.
The cow bells were on the hay. Everyone shook them when the couple was pronounced man and wife.
The dress was blue jeans and cow boy boots. There was wonderful ribs and sausage with all the trimmings after the ceremony. The whole wedding was great and we all had a ball.
Saturday was the anual baking of the banana nut bread for Christmas. I had a great helper through the process.
She and I had so much fun. We baked while Daddy napped and Mommy and E went out for a girl's afternoon out.
Of course all the baking wears a girl out. Here is my sweet grandbaby taking a bit of a rest before going right back at it. We got 6 loaves of bread baked. Trust me, I couldn't have gotten it done without her.

I know I have been so bad about posting. Things have been crazy at work and then, of course, there was Thanksgiving.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. Wonderful family and food. It was great.

The weekend was filled but, unfortunately, my laptop is down so I could not upload all the pictures in order to share everything with you. Hopefully I will be able to do that soon.

Right now while we are all resting from Thanksgiving and getting ready to get caught up in the Christmas craziness, I would like all of you to stop and say a prayer for a fellow blogger. Deb has been through so much in the last few years. Just before Thanksgiving she discovered that she had relapsed and her leukemia was back. Deb is such a strong person. If you would like, here is the link to her blog http://www.debutaunt.com/. Go and let her know that you are there for her. Also, maybe while you're out doing your running around this December, you could stop and give some blood. Someone would really appreciate it. Trust me.

That's it for now. I need to get back to work. Hopefully I'll have pictures for you soon.

Missy's birthday was a big success. We all had lots of fun and laughter.


This is the t-shirt I gave Missy for her birthday. I just had to get it for her. In case you can't read it, it says "Oh My God My MOTHER Was Right About EVERYTHING". Just too perfect and so true!










After pizza and cake, we all enjoyed playing games. Since it was a work night we had to keep it short.












Can't have a blog without my beautiful granddaughter. Can I?











Missy's best friend E came for the party.












For our family Missy's birthday has always started the holidays. So I guess the season has begun. Monday is Patrick's birthday. It has been Missy and my tradition to do our Christmas shopping on that day. It was a great comfort for us early in our grief and is something we just continued to do. We start out at Starbucks and then hit a few stores. A nice leisurely lunch and then a few more stores. If we're lucky we are able to get the majority of our Christmas shopping done. If not, then we've had a great mother/daughter day out. What more could you ask for?

Thirty-two years ago I was blessed with a beautiful baby girl. Since then we have been on a wonderful journey. I have had the pleasure of watching her grow from that helpless baby with the big lungs into a beautiful woman, wife and mother. There have been a lot of tears and a lot of laughter along the way.

Somewhere along that journey she turned into this awesome woman that I am proud to call both my daughter and friend. She has been my rock and sanity during some of the hardest times of my life and I thank her for that. She is more than I ever dreamed a daughter could be.

So tonight we will be celebrating Missy's birthday. There will be laughter, food and games. There will be cake and candles but most of all there will be love. Lots and lots of love.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY GIRL!

Thank you to all the veterans and their families. We must never forget their sacrifices.

It took a few days for me to get around to downloading the pictures but here they are.

We had a wonderful Saturday evening celebrating the fact that Missy passed the first part of the CMA test. Missy, Terry, Kathy, Serif and I all went to our favorite Chinese restaurant for a delicious dinner. We've been going to this restaurant since it first opened up. The kids were little then and the owner has watched them grow up. It's always a special place to go and eat for our family.


Our girl in all her splender after a filling meal.

We all came home and played a couple of games of clue. It's nice that Serif is big enough that we can play games like this again. She even helped by rolling our dice for us.




Tuesday night we all gathered around the TV to watch the election results. This year we made the elections a family event. We watched all the debates together and went to vote together. So of course we had to watch the results together. I cooked dinner but then Terry went to Dairy Queen for us. Serif does like her DQ.

First of all I want to tell Missy how proud I am of her for passing the first part of the CMA test. I know how hard she studied for that test. I am so very proud of her.


Halloween was a big success. I got to go to Serif's school and visit while they had their Halloween party. I love the pink skull and cross bones on her shirt. All the kids had such a good time. They were all so cute.











This is our sweet pirate. Scary isn't she?















Grandma was all dressed up and waiting for us when we got to Nova's house.












Trick or treating was a huge success.













A hard evening of trick or treating can wear a girl out. She fell asleep right after we left Nova's.







I tried to get pictures of Terry's costume but, since it was all black, I was unable to get a clear picture. I'm sorry because it was awesome. He didn't mean to but he did scare a few of the kids. He was nice and went out of his way to let the little ones know that he wasn't something to be afraid of.

Halloween has always been a big holiday in Terry's family. It was his father's favorite holiday and they always celebrated it in a big way. For years they had a haunted house in their garage for the neighborhood kids. It looks like Nova has stepped into her father's shoes. Her house looked awesome. I have a feeling that there is a haunted house in the future for that neighborhood.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted. It's hard to think of something to write when you have a boring life. Trust me my life is BORING.

The weather here has gotten a little cooler. That helps get everyone in the mood for Halloween. It's going to be fun this year. Serif is at a good age to go trick or treating. This year we will be going over to Terry's sister's neighborhood and all trick or treat together. Of course I will be posting pictures.

Our family is very big on traditions. That's just the way we are. Every Halloween my mother would make a big pot of chili. That way I would have a some food in me before I started on the candy. That is a tradition that I carried over into my family. Patrick loved my chili and always looked forward to having it for Halloween.

Chili is perfect for a night like Halloween. First of all it's filling. I could feed the kids early before they set off trick or treating. Then it could just simmer until the grown ups had time to eat.

So tonight I will start making the chili for the family. It's an easy recipe but it does take time. This way I can simmer it all evening and then finish it up tomorrow when I get home. Right after I come back from seeing all the 3 year olds in Serif's class all dressed up in their Halloween costumes. That is going to be so cool.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween.

Not really much to talk about. Things have been slow at the office. The one advantage of that is that when someone calls and asks for help you can jump in and everyone thinks you are wonderful. They have no idea that I had been spending the last hour reading blogs. Oh well what some people don't know won't hurt me.

I've also been dealing with the dent to my poor little car. On Tuesday I went to get an estimate. This is where the insurance company sent me and it turns out it was right at the front of my subdivision. So very nice and close. I walk in and the first person I see is an old friend from up the street. Turns out she works there. I hadn't seen her in ages. Her son and Tom were friends growing up. So while I waiting for them to look at my car we got a chance to catch up on all the gossip. It turned out be a very pleasant experience.

I have to tell you that everyone that I have dealt with because of this accident (except for the jerk that hit me) have been absolutely great. So nice to know that there are so many kind and helpful people out there when you need them.

Now if I could just figure out a way to get a new sofa out the deal, I would be one happy camper.

My poor car. It just turned a year old the end of August. This is what someone did to it in the Walgreen's parking lot on Thursday afternoon.



The really rotten thing is that they backed up, hit me and then just drove away. Many thanks to the wonderful man who got their license plate number. I sure hope they find them. Can you believe they did that? I was in total shock and mad as could be.





After I recovered from the hit and run, Missy, Terry, Serif and Kathy came over for dinner and to watch the debate. It was fun with lots of debating and visiting. A great evening.

Then I got to get up at 4:00 am to go get Missy and get her to the hospital by 5:30 am for sinus surgery. Wow that was a short night.







Love the hospital look.













Lots of paper work involved.










Here she is after the surgery. Everything worked out great. Hopefully now she will have less sinus infections this year. She was a real trooper.

I brought her home and put her to bed. When she left that evening she was doing great.






Because Missy is still recovering, we are going to postpone my babysitting until next weekend. That means that today is a lazy day. There is a book calling my name so I'm off to relax and read and enjoy my weekend.

She survived her first (and hopefully her last) black eye. Poor baby.



Yesterday was Don and Emily's birthday party. We all met and Dave and Busters and had a great time. Emily was on a roll and won lots of tickets.



Since Don's birthday was yesterday and Emily's today, it was easier to combine the two.



After a yummy dinner we all went to Don's parent's house for cake. It was so great getting to spend time with everyone. Even if it was a Monday night.



Hope they both got their wish.

Patrick was never big about cemeteries or things like that. During our almost 25 years together, we had talked about what to do if one of us dies. So I had a general idea of what Patrick wanted when he died. I decided on his favorite fishing spot. That way when we went to visit him we would be celebrating life not death. So today, the anniversary of his death, we all went to the park for breakfast.

The drought is worse than I thought. I couldn't believe how low the lake was today.
I was sorry that our ducks were not able to come and visit us today. The day we had the funeral at the lake, we had three ducks swim up and watch the whole ceremony. When it was all done they quietly swam away. It was like they knew what we were doing there and had just stopped by to pay their respects. This year we had even remembered the bread for them.

It took a little more of a walk but we did make it to the water.

Serif and her daddy got to look at the tadpoles swimming around.

Missy and Terry got a chance to spend some quiet time alone on the bridge while Serif and I wandered in the woods. I loved our walk. She is such a joy and talked constantly as we walked along.

Then it was time to play a little catch with the whole family before we headed back home. It was a very nice visit.

I still miss Patrick every day. Not the painful deep hurting that you feel when someone that you love first dies. No, it's more the missing of that part of you that made you whole. Missing the person that you shared all those years with. The person that you shared all your dreams and hopes with. The person that you promised to love no matter what and who is not there at your side any more. There will always be a hole in my heart for him.

Maybe because this has been such a hard year for our family that I have felt Patrick closer to me than usual. In times of stress I can feel his presence giving me strength. I have changed so much in the last 11 years. I like to think that he is proud of the woman I grew up to be.

I have no idea where the time has gone since my last blog. Never fear I am well but a little over worked. We had some big wigs at the office last week so things were a bit busy. Now it looks like things are back to normal and I'm getting caught up on my work.

I have gotten to spend a lot of time with my girl. Lately I have been getting off work early on Fridays. So I have been picking Serif up from school and her mommy can pick her up here. That way she and I get a little one on one time. One thing that she loves to do when she is here is to get into my make up. It's become a ritual for her to stand on the chair at my vanity and make herself beautiful.



And then when she was all through I almost cried when she said "I'm beautiful like G". Children are so wonderful.

Just popping in for a quick note to let everyone know that I am alive and well. Hopefully I'll get back to blogging again soon.

Right now we have some big wigs in the office so that has kept me busy. We had a company dinner last night and a lunch meeting today. They should be leaving this evening so hopefully life will get back to normal.

The good news is that I have gotten back to working out. I plan on hitting it again today after work. It really does help to relieve some of the stress after a day at the office. I just have to keep reminding myself of that when I just want to go home and hit the couch and veg.

Okay back to work. Hope everyone has a great day.

This is so awesome. I finally joined the 21st century. This weekend my wonderful son-in-law Terry and J put wireless in my house. So right now I am in my bed relaxing after a wonderful day and writing my blog. How awesome is that. I know most of you already have this but it's all new to me and I'm loving it.

Missy got a new crock pot and decided to practice on the mother's tonight. So her MIL and I got invited to dinner.

She made the best turkey and rice stew. It was so yummy. She also had biscuits.
Here are my beautiful girls working hard in the kitchen.
It was a wonderful evening. Missy's best friend joined us for dinner. She spent the time playing with Serif. Serif just adores her. E has been having a hard time and, even though she's still sad, I felt better getting to at least see her. I do have to tell you that she really does look awesome on her motorcycle.

Later in the evening, as we were sitting around relaxing and letting our wonderful dinner digest, C stopped by. What a wonderful surprise. I hadn't seen her since my birthday. As usual, she is looking fabulous.

Now I am home relaxing in my bed and getting ready for another week. Time for my beauty sleep.