It's begining to look a lot like Christmas...

Last night Rich and I stayed up till 1am wrapping presents and making our piles. We had to do a wrapping paper coding system- one type for the presents we were letting the kids open early before we go on our trip (because those items will be very nice to have on the trip). One type for presents from Mom and Dad and Grandparents that we will save for the kids to open after the trip, and one type for the Santa presents that will be waiting for the kids when we get home from the trip. I'm done with everything for Christmas, except for the stockings. My mom is going to have something for the kids out in Utah, but I want to have stockings waiting for the kids when we get home from the trip.

Then this morning I got up at 6:15 am to go and find a white turtleneck for Alex to wear for his school play. He has dress rehearsal today and I had completely forgotten about him needing it until late last night.

That probably could be the theme of this week for me. I'm trying to be organized and make lists of the things that need to be done for Christmas, and for the trip, and just the general school work and house work that needs to be done- but I'm forgetting a lot... and find myself running around at the last minute to get things taken care of.

We did have a great weekend though. Friday I thought was the night of our Ward party, so the kids came home from school, we made our dish we were taking for the potluck, and when Rich got home we loaded up and drove up to the Church building. We got up there and it was completely empty... not a single car in the parking lot. So we kept driving on past and headed back home. I called a friend to ask when the party was and she got a good chuckle out of my mistake- it was the next night. So we dropped off the food at the house and went over to our Family Buffet place- Golden Corral and had dinner there.

Saturday we had the usual busy stuff- shopping, birthday party, etc... then we went to the Ward Party. It was a lot of fun. It was a dinner and dance, and Santa showed up to visit with the kids too!

Sunday was church, and then after church was a bit hectic. That night was our ward Christmas fireside, so I had the cubscouts singing a song at it, and I was in a trio and we both had to do a little short practice after church- and then we had Tithing settlement (it's where we meet with the Bishop as a family and tell him whether or not we were full tithe payers for the last year). After that we raced home and had a quick dinner and then turned around and went back up to the church building for the fireside.

The fireside was great- like it always is. There are various musical numbers and then two slide show presentations (with musical numbers in between) set to music of pictures from our ward. It really does such a wonderful job of creating a sense of Ward Family. Everyone that is in the ward is in the slide show and it's great to see the pictures reminding people of all the fun ward activities we've had throughout the year.

I also had a special time because I was asked to sing in a trio for the fireside. I do NOT have an amazing voice. I have a moderate choral voice- I blend well with others and don't stand out. I don't project well, and my breathing is shallow and I'm sure a voice teacher could give a long list of reasons why I am not a great singer. I LOVE to sing though... really really love to sing, so it was touching to me that I was asked to participate in this trio where each of us had our own part and carried our own part. It's not as if our ward is lacking in people with musical talent- so I really did appreciate that opportunity to do that and will treasure that memory.

So the rest of the week is school/work. Pack meeting tonight, tomorrow night is Alex's school play. Then on Friday and Saturday we pack for the trip and we'll leave Sunday after lunch.

Allergies

Well this last fall Angela's allergies were even worse than past years. So I got her an appointment with an allergist. Yesterday was the appointment and we went and they did a basic allergy test with the scratch test on her back. She didn't like it much, but she did pretty good and only teared up for about a minute when they put the allergens on her back. They were great working with her and were quick and gentle.

Turns out she is allergic to two different types of ragweed who are in season in August thru November (when she is at her worst with symptoms) and an outdoor mold that is year round (the reason she still has problems throughout the rest of the year) and dogs. The dog allergy was actually just a slight reaction- so since we don't have a dog it is the least of our worries. We'll just keep her bedding away from the dog when we visit my parents, and make sure she washes up really well after playing with dogs anywhere we come into contact with them.

The dr wants to try her on a different antihistamin than the Zyrtec that she has been on. It seems to be loosing it's affectiveness. The good news is the Zyrtec we were using was costing us about $40 a month, and this new medication will only cost us $10 a month and should work better- it's more targetted for the type of symptoms that she gets with allergies. Hopefully it will work well. If it does we may be able to take her off of the Singular that she is taking daily as well- that's another $40 a month... (not that I would take her off of it if she needs it, but if she doesn't- saving money is great, and also having her on less medications- but still able to breath is even greater!)

Baking bliss...

I had the funnest time this afternoon baking. I made four different flavors of bread/muffins from the friendship bread starter. I made Bannanna chocolate chip bread and muffins; Cranberry Orange Bread; Chocolate bread and muffins; and Cinnamon sugar bread and muffins.

I did learn that the spray pam just isn't enough- I need to use the solid crisco or butter and flour the pans in the future. For the muffins, I just need to buy the cupcake liners and use those and they will be great!

Here's a picture of my "work". Now I need to find people to give it to- there's no way my family will eat it all! :)

Home again, but thawing out

School was closed again today. The roads were still supposed to be slick this morning. The kids woke up and played nicely, and I slept in!! :shock: It's raining today, which means it's above freezing and we should be able to get back to normal tomorrow and have school for the kids- and I can get back down to the YMCA.

In Relief Society they gave us Friendship bread starters. I grabbed one for me and one for a freind who didn't make it to Enrichment night. Mine was ready to bake on Friday, and hers is ready to divide and bake today. Since I still haven't been able to get it to her- I'm going to do some baking today. Instead of seperating out four starters and using the 5th part to bake- I think I'm just going to bake a huge batch of them, and just seperate out one starter to give to her. I just don't have that many friends locally that I can give out that many starters. lol!

I'm going to try and experiment with flavors since I'm doing such a huge batch. I think I'll do regular- cinnamon flavor; cranberry/orange/walnut flavor; and a bannanna/chocolate chip flavor... I'll post pictures when they are done. :) I'm just in a huge baking mood so I decided last night I would just embrace it. lol!

Ice Storm

We are all home again today. Yesterday church was cancelled because of the ice storm. We all stayed home and played games, and made gingerbread houses (the pictures are on my other blog- www.newtonaaaa.blogspot.com ), and played more games and had a yummy taco dinner. Before we went to bed we found out that school was closed today. Rich pulled jury duty for today so he wasn't able to stay home with us.

The kids seem to be getting a little cold so this ice storm comes at the right time for me to just bundle them up in the house and we can fight off these colds and have a relaxing day.

Exercise log

I got a late start this morning so I had to do a shorter workout- I also had to fit in a shower at the Y since I had a list of errands to run before coming back to the house.

I did 47 minutes on the elliptical, then the weight machines, and 50 crunches.

I just put a bunch of fun pictures of the kids on my photo blog. Go and see them. :)

http://newtonaaaa.blogspot.com/

Busy busy busy!

This week has been busy!

Monday I went to the Y, took Alyssa to school, came home and made gingerbread, picked up the kids, and then meet Rich at Golden Corral with the kids for dinner.
Tuesday I had friends over for a playgroup/scrapbooking holiday party, (we missed those of you that didn't make it!!) then we took Alyssa to school. Then Angela and I came home and cleaned up from the party. Then we picked up the kids from school and came home and we raked leaves from the front flowerbeds and put up our outside christmas decorations!

Today I've gone to the Y, ran over to the kids school twice to drop off stuff, took Alyssa to school, and am now playing on the computer for an hour before we go and pick up the kids from school, come home do homework- have dinner, and then the cubscouts are coming to our house tonight for their activity... fun fun!

Here's some pictures of the kids playing out in the leafs and the decorations:

Exercise log

I did 65 minutes on the elliptical; then the weight machines, then 20 minutes on the treadmill, and 100 crunches.

Gingerbread Houses!

I made the gingerbread today for our gingerbread houses. We'll decorate them tomorrow night. Some years we make small individual ones out of graham crackers, and other years I make one big one out of gingerbread that we all decorate together. This year I made six small ones out of gingerbread- so we'll all have a little house to decorate and make a little village. :)

I'll try to post pictures after we decorate them. :)

Exercise log

I did 60 minutes on the elliptical today, a round on the weight machines, and then 100 crunches- owie!