Happy Birthday, Friend!!

I wanted to take a minute to wish my friend, Mandi A., a super, special HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I know you've got a lot going on in your life right now, but be sure and take a few minutes for yourself today....you're a special lady!

Big birthday hugs to you!!

Hugs&Smiles!

Kim

So many things to tell you...

and no time to do it! But I will share a couple of quick things!!!

First...Sammie is Student of the Week this week for her class. She's pretty thrilled with that. Me, well, not so much! LOL Only because normally we would get this info on Friday (there's a form to fill out, and then she gets to take in pictures and stuff), but since Friday was {another} snow day (or freakin' cold day! LOL), she just brought the info home this afternoon....and has to take it back tomorrow! :o( Mind you, we had Syd's first basketball game of the season and didn't get home until 9pm...so I still need to dig everything out before morning! Grrrr! Put on a happy face, I know! LOL

Second, Syd had her first basketball game tonight. I'm tellin' ya...I don't know what got into that girl, but she was an absolute BEAST on the court! I have never seen her play so aggressive in 4 years of basketball!!! She only scored two points....and she fouled out of the game with a minute to go, but WOW...she rocked! She took a charge like nobody's business, too! {Brave if you ask me! LOL}. All of the girls were a nervous wreck since this was their first game..and because they all get nervous before EVERY game...hehehe...but they played quite well. Unfortunately, they lost, but it wasn't for lack of heart, that's for sure. I have a feeling they will be quite a team this year and probably end up with a pretty great record. I think the final score was 47 to 36..or something close to that. The opposing coach even complimented Syd (through Syd's coach) for doing such a great job and keeping their leading scorer below her usual 18 point average! I think Syd's coach was a little shocked to see her be so aggresive...and also a little thrilled with the possiblites for this year!

I have so much more to post about and even a few pictures to show, but I've also got a huge pile of work that is sitting right here waiting to be done...so for now....

Hugs&Smiles!
Kim

Happy Birthday, Sweet Madelyn!!

Gotta give a shout out to my sweet little niece who is turning 7 years old today! Happy, happy birthday, Madelyn!! I'll have to add a cute picture of you a little later, as I don't have the right memory card with me today! In the meantime, I'll put a picture of your favorite celebrity! I hope your birthday is truly special and that all your wishes come true! I love you! Your birthday card just went in the mail today, so hopefully you'll get it tomorrow! Sorry I was late!!!



Hugs&Smiles and lots of birthday kisses!
Aunt Kimmy

Merry Christmas Eve!!!!

Well, for the first time in a LOT of years, I had to work on Christmas Eve. I wasn't too happy about that...just because. It really shouldn't have bothered me and after I really got in the spirit, it didn't bother me at all. After our long drive home the night before (see previous post!), we got ourselves to bed because we knew we needed to get up early. The girls and I were up and out the door by about 6:15am. The roads were still a little slushy and there was still some traffic, but at least we were able to drive near the speed limit! We got to my office about 7:15am and got everything ready for the big Santa breakfast! Sydney was excited to be Mrs. Claus again this year, and Sammie was thrilled to be "Santa's Little Helper"...complete with apron and chef's hat! Our original Santa bailed on us because the pants were a little short for him, but we got a quick fill in! Jim did a GREAT job! The picture above also includes my nephew, Jason! He came by to see how things were going to and grab some treat bags and candy. He claimed it was for his kids, but I'd like to know if they got candy or just coloring books and crayons! LOL



The morning went very well. It was never very crowded and rarely was there a line to see Santa...that was nice!



After we were all finished, we got changed and headed into downtown to get something to eat. We decided The Spaghetti Factory sounded good, but after walking a couple blocks in the rain we were greeted by a sign that said they were closed for the holidays. Dang! It didn't take long for us to decided to go on into Circle Center Mall and have lunch at PF Chang's. Mmmmmm! As we finished up lunch, Roger called and decided to drive down and meet us. It was fun to walk around the mall and just see everyone hustling to finish their shopping. After a while we decided it might be fun to go see a movie, but we weren't sure how late movies would be playing. I called The Rave in Metropolis and found out that, if we hurried, we could make the next showing of Four Christmases. (And last showings were at 8pm, if you can believe that!) We got there just in time and I was shocked to walk into an almost full theatre. Didn't these people have shopping to do???? For once, I was done ahead of time...even almost entirely wrapped. And I thought to myself...'wow, this is how it's supposed to be!' The movie was FANTASTIC and I HIGHLY recommend it. I think it's rated PG-13, and there are a couple of racy parts, but they were pretty much over before we thought to cover the girls' eyes and ears! LOL I laughed all the way through this movie. I can't wait until it comes out on DVD so I can watch it again!

After the movie ended, we walked around Metropolis for just a bit. Went in Aeropostale to see what the "$5 Riot" was all about. I wasn't really impressed! Then went into Claire's where Sammie quickly snagged on to a pair of knitted boot-type slippers! I picked up a few little stocking stuffers for $1 each, too!



Then, of course, we were hungry! I'm not really sure how in the world I was hungry as I'm 99% sure that I ate the whole large bucket of popcorn we bought at the theatre. Man, I love movie theatre popcorn..it's my most favorite part of the movie! LOL Anyway, we went to Applebee's at Syd and Sam's request and, luckily they were closed because Roger and I really wanted Chili's instead! It's nice to get our way once in a while! We just had some appetizers and then headed home. It was a nice, relaxing evening. Santa, as predicted, delivered new jammies to the girls. (I think I got pictures, but I'll have to find them and post later!). I dozed off on the couch around 9pm and napped until about 10:30pm when the girls decided to go to bed. I decided I better get up and get the house in order because I always remember Mom telling me that Santa doesn't come to a messy house! Luckily, by about 3:30am, everything was neat and tidy so I went to bed!



Without fail, the girls were up extra early. I think they came in our room around 5:15am. Once they are up, they're up. So Roger and I crawled out of bed and made our way to the couch to watch the festivities! It was a great day! I'll try and post more about it later! I hope you and yours had a very special Christmas!



Hugs&Smiles!
Kim

An interesting drive.....

As usual, I'm behind on my posts! Thought I'd start to catch up a little by telling you some things about last week.

Monday, December 22nd, the girls and I got up and took off for Terre Haute to do a little Christmas shopping that we needed to finish. Mostly had to pick up some things for Roger and a couple of gift cards. We had a good day! Found some decent deals (although we had to return a pair of pants we got him at Kohl's and a shirt we got him at Aeropostale and have yet to find replacements for him). Syd decided she wanted to take a nap on the way home since she had basketball practice, so as we were leaving Kohl's, she leaned her seat back and got comfortable. Sammie got buckled in and I pulled out of our parking space and was heading towards the exit when all of a sudden a car came bolting across the parking lot and nearly smashed into the passenger side of my Santa Fe. I slammed on the brakes and the guy in the other car never even slowed down a bit. I don't think he even saw us. Of course, Syd woke up instantly! It was pretty scary, but at least a tragedy was averted! Talk about close calls!

Tuesday, December 23rd started out as an ordinary day. Roger left for work and the girls and I got the house in order. We had a plumber coming to replace the faucet in the kitchen sink. After that was done, we headed out to pick up some lunch and for a quick trip to Greencastle. We needed to make a quick run through WalMart and Kroger for a few things we needed for Christmas dinner. When the plumber left he told us to be careful because the roads were supposed to get bad due to an ice storm that was coming. We left home and made it into town without a problem. I did notice it was somewhat slick, but I just took it slow and was careful. As we got into town, there was an area where some semis and large trucks were sliding and couldn't get around this sloped curve area, but cars were passing through just fine. At this point, Sammie told me to just pick up food for lunch and GO BACK HOME! I didn't listen to her, but in hindsight, I certainly should have!!! As a matter of fact, I told her "I'm already out, I'm going to finish before I go back home." Yeah, I've had many ideas better than that! LOL We had to take a detour to Greencastle because of an accident, but it wasn't a big deal...or so we thought! Got to WalMart and got the Santa Fe in for an oil change while we shopped. I think we were out of WalMart in record time! As we were headed to Kroger, I could tell the roads had gotten worse, so we didn't spend too much time in there. When we left there I headed back the same way we came because I figured the accident wasn't cleared up and that there were probably many more. Boy was I ever right! We got to SR 243 and US 40 and discovered we couldn't go east on 40, which didn't surprise me, but we also couldn't continue on 243. Grrrrr. So, we headed west on 40. I figured I'd find a way home since it was my old bus route! We tried a couple of different back roads only to find cars in ditches. Decided it wasn't worth taking a chance of ending up in a ditch and having to walk so we turned around and headed back to 40 to go west. We drove to Brazil and turned on 59 to head back towards I-70. We stopped and filled up with gas and got sodas and headed east on 70. Traffic was crawling, but at least it was moving...or so we thought. A couple of hours later we realized the only reason it was "moving" was because people were turning around and heading back west. Sooooo.....basically, it took us almost 6 hours to get home when we were less than 15 miles away! We were able to entertain ourselves, at least! Sammie just happened to have her DVD player with her in the car so we watched The Barnyard. (Guess this time I'm glad she didn't take all of her stuff out of the car!). We had snacks with us since we had been to the store...and we got into them! LOL The girls each took a nap for about an hour. Wish I could have done the same, but I was afraid traffic would start moving and I wouldn't wake up! We also made quite a few phone calls. We talked to Roger about every 30 minutes...he was stuck in traffic, also! Mom kept calling and updating us when she heard traffic reports or information. We also talked to the Westells...Donna kept us laughing! And my nephew, Jason, and my sister, Debbie! Finally, I remembered that I had several lottery tickets in my purse that were meant for Roger's stocking. Syd and I talked about how it would be fun to tell the story of how we won big $$ while sitting in traffic when we went to the Lottery Office to claim our money! Well, we only won $3, so we won't be taking a trip to the Lottery Office! We pulled in the driveway about 10pm and Roger got home around 10:30pm. We were all exhausted!

I'll share our Christmas Eve adventures tomorrow, as I have a couple of pictures to go with it!

Hugs&Smiles!
Kim

Only 15 days???

Oh my!!!! I can't believe it's only 15 days until Christmas. That means only 14 days to shop...and really less than that since we have Christmas with my family on December 20th. And...it's at our house this year! Lots to do to get ready.

I love all the excitement of the holiday season. I promised myself that I wasn't going to get stressed out about the holidays or get grumpy or frustrated. I wish I could say that I was sticking to that, but so far I've been a huge bundle of stress. I will say, though, that it's not Christmas related, it's work related, and this will pass! I can't even begin to tell you how many hours I've worked over the past few weeks, and I honestly don't even want to think about it!

Hopefully you are enjoying a wonderful holiday season with lots of blessings!

I'll try and post every chance I get!

Hugs&Smiles!
Kim

Any questions?????

I got this in an email, and it really made me laugh! I've had a really bad day, so I guess that's what made it so funny! Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!


A Christmas Story for people having a bad day:

When four of Santa's elves got sick, the trainee elves did not produce toys as fast as the regular ones, and Santa began to feel the Pre-Christmas pressure.

Then, Mrs. Claus told Santa her Mother was coming to visit, which stressed Santa even more.

When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were about to give birth and two others had jumped the fence and were out, Heaven knows where.

Then when he began to load the sleigh, one of the floorboards cracked, the toy bag fell to the ground and all the toys were scattered.

Frustrated, Santa went in the house for a cup of apple cider and a shot of rum. When he went to the cupboard, he discovered the elves had drank all the cider and hidden the liquor. In his frustration, he accidentally dropped the cider jug, and it broke into hundreds of little glass pieces all over the kitchen floor.

He went to get the broom and found the mice had eaten all the straw off the end of the broom.

Just then the doorbell rang. Irritated, Santa marched to the door, yanked it open, and there stood a little angel with a great big Christmas tree.

The angel said very cheerfully, 'Merry Christmas, Santa. Isn't this a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Where would you like me to stick it?'

And so began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas tree!