life in the desert

its christmas eve

YES!

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!


(and hoping you aren't learning the true meaning of "some assembly required" like Nate currently is...)

its here!

The magic is back this year. I can feel it buzz around here. Grace is extra helpful and kind these days. Jimmy keeps hugging everyone and saying, "Merry Christmas." (I think they both realize this keeps them from being in trouble!)

There's lots of hustle and bustle, but we've managed to keep things relatively calm at home. Its been Christmas music and movies non-stop. Our tree is up (and still standing, which is surprising seeing how many needles have already fallen off!)

The kids are so excited. So am I. Hope you are too!

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

a holiday song

The following is an excerpt from my version of Christmas Waltz (Carpenter's Style)

Its that time of year when Moms want to scream out loud,
Every child near seems to say,
Mom can you do this, can you bake this for me, can you play?

And this song of mine,
in three-quarter time
Wishes you and yours
Serious Sanity

The end for now.
PS. Jimmy will be more than happy to help you wrap your presents. He does an excellent job of randomly assigning gift tags, knotting up the ribbons, and wrinkling and smooshing the paper. But he's also very, very cute and sincere about it all.

Santa Baby, slip some non-educational reform under the tree for me

Grace informed me this morning what she intended to discuss with Santa the she next time she saw him. She was going to make sure he knew that Mr. Obama's ideas on education reform and plans for implementation just would not work and should be stopped. She's amazingly passionate about this.

As one who never really delves into politics, I was a bit surprised. But it turns out her teacher yesterday told the kids of The President's plan for lengthening the school day and the school week.

Grace's response:
If its longer in the morning, well that just won't work. I mean I don't even get up until 7:00 as it is. If its longer in the afternoon, well then I won't get home until like 6:00 and then I'd have just an hour to do my homework and when will I get to watch all my shows? And if there is school on Saturdays, well I just won't even go. That's when I spend time with you guys [her family]. (Evidently she's not going to miss out on that.)

So that's what she and Mr. C will discuss. Perhaps the years of childlike innocence are up already. Whatever happened to, "Santa, what I really want is a pony"!?!!?

yes, that's my kid

what's black and white and red all over?

We are!!!!

how to live dangerously

Is it a bird?

A plane?

Nope.

Its just my fabulous Father-in-Law celebrating sixty years of good living!

rockin' the holidays

We've been way too busy to even consider blogging. So pardon us as we party on. New fabulous posts will come soon.

flabbergasted

Did you know this gal is a mere 407 days away from being 10? She informed me of this lovely fact this morning. Can time really be moving this fast?!

thankfully

Its officially the weekend here; and not just the weekend, but the first weekend of November! Halloween came and went (I have the candy to prove it, and on that thought I'll share with you that Skittles are highly addictive and I wonder if there are traces of crack in them because I cannot stop).

I've already begun with my Christmasing (I just might convince Nate we need to put lights up outside the house this year, I mean we have a house (and it has outdoor plugs, something my dreams were made of years ago) and we have no chilly weather to contend with, I think its a must!) I've also started my shopping (though I dread the wrapping, maybe I'll stay on top of it this year?)

But what am I missing? Well, we almost missed the notion of Thanksgiving. It just sort of gets washed out in between the great holidays of Black & Orange and Red & Green. A friend of mine mentioned on November 1 she would list things she was grateful for each day.

Lucky for me she mentioned this on our night for Family Home Evening. So we did the Grateful Jar and the Grateful Jar, Jr. The Grateful Jar, Jr. houses strips of paper and markers. And the Grateful Jar is filling up with those strips of paper with what we are grateful for written on them. Some are silly and some are serious (and Jimmy's are really worth listing out for you sometime).

I am looking forward to reading them all together. I'm thinking we'll do it sometime during the week of Thanksgiving. Our T-day meal will be with Nate's whole family (lots of fun yes, but not necessarily the time for our little family to have our Grateful Moment). Maybe we'll do it during breakfast on Thankful Thursday while watching the parade on TV (I love to watch the parade, do you?). We'll see.

I'm trying to remain true to the holiday. I think it will help balance us between the sweet indulgences of the holidays it is sandwiched between.

(And speaking of sandwiches, my pantry is seriously lacking in Nutella).

were you aware?

Did you know its already November?! I'm stunned by this reality.

done

She did it, and did it well! As I'm sure you aren't surprised, she was brave and witty, and most of all quite stylish.

She is now on her surgical sabbatical, making lavish costume plans for the trunk-or-treat (which happens to be tomorrow night) and has been basking in the glow of grandma-love and relishing in the comfort of ice cream, root beer, and hot chocolate.

This is all being washed down with a little Harry Potter.

Happy Friday!!!

the time is now

How she does it, I don't know. The night before, she's so happy, so calm, so content.

I've decided not to think about what the procedure actually involves. Sometimes ignorance is bliss (even if you pretend you don't know). (They are her eyes, for goodness sake!)

Okay,
peace out peeps

words of wisdom

For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others;

For beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness;

And for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.
-Audrey Hepburn

the time has come

Marshall Grace will soon be taking a short hiatus.

During this "restful" time, those beautiful eyes of hers will be undergoing a short "procedure."

She is totally cool with this. (See, the above picture just screams, "Bring it, Anesthesia!")

I am doing my best. (Pretend the above is a picture of me making this face and gesture).

Thursday is the big day. Prayers and positive thoughts on her behalf are always welcome.

famous author

My mom's book was featured on a fun blog. Thought you'd like to know.

high noon

The onlookers watched with great anticipation,

The sheriff and his cronies geared up the noose and the culprit was brought forward,

An epitaph was being etched, "Here hangs Dr. Youknowwho, who seems to forget to pick up his socks."

Suddenly, like a bolt of lightening clad in sandals, Marshall Grace rides into town.

"Unhand that man, he is innocent." A terrific fight ensues (wherein the bad bandits (the sheriff and his cronies) are hogtied and tickled).

Marshall Grace rides off into the sunset with her Doctor in Distress. As they reach the horizon one could hear, "Dad, can I play some games on your phone NOW???"

nana's on the ball

During Fall Break we did something we don't do quite enough of...

We went bowling! It has been decided that Cousin Bowling and Bumper Bowling should always be done together.

Grace tallied up our scores after EVERY SINGLE bowler's turn.

Jimmy and Zac were extremely "helpful" as they would insist on bringing everybody their appropriate ball at the appropriate (and sometimes not appropriate) time.

Tyler would compare Grace's math with the computer.

Nana had a blast.

I learned that it will take a group of 6 (with at least two members of the group not quite yet 5) almost two hours to complete one game.

First Side Note: (By "Attack" (in the above picture) we mean it took a good two minutes each time the ball was "thrown" to make its way to the pins).

Second Side Note: (I think we need someone who throws lefty to help us teach our favorite lefty some easier tips on bowling and the like).

poolside

Can you tell we've been diligent sunscreen users?

its often good to be precise

This is an actual tombstone in Tombstone, AZ. We visited this illustrious place this past weekend. Little did we know we chose to go during Helldorado Days.

I must say though, I do like me some cowboys.

my, what big eyes you have

The prettier to see with, my dear!

Check out G's sweet new specs. They are awesome and were personally selected by none other than G herself.

They are quite versatile (as you can see by the above photo).

They even double as sun glasses when necessary. We're pretty jazzed about them.

friends

A hard thing that happens as one grows older is that one often finds oneself moving away from their friends. And by friends, I mean the kind that really would be your sisters if your family happened to have grown that way. Sometimes (many times) these friends have moved from me, however in the last few years I resumed the position of moving away from them.

Either way, it is never fun. You always hope things will stay the same, but they can't. You can't see them every Saturday morning for a hot chocolate party, you can't go next door for an impromptu Def Leppard dance party, you can't bake with them every Wednesday, go to pilates with them every Tuesday, nor can you daydream together every night about each other's happily ever after while making lesson plans for your student teaching the next morning, etc.

But what does stay the same is your deep-rooted friendship that somehow stands the test of time.

How lucky for me to see one of these gems in Boston. Meredith and her husband were on an weekend-away and took time to meet up with Nate and I. Really Nate and Dave were just nice about it and mostly went about their business, but Mere and I had a little time to connect again. It felt really good. One of these days we will have another hot chocolate party. It might not be for another decade or so, but the chocolate will be good, and the company even better.

what the hail?

We live in the desert. This is important to remember when I tell you the following: ice fell from the sky last Tuesday.

The town was all a'twitter about it.

Our citrus trees (and all trees for that matter) were "naturally" pruned (including our olive tree, any ideas what we should do with all the crazy olives we have?)

And the high temps dropped at least 20 degrees.

Life is much easier to handle when its in the 80s!

(Thankfully we didn't plant outside yet.)

Oh, and what does one wear when its a chilly 84 degrees?

A long-sleeved shirt offset by a popsicle. That combination makes all the difference.