Surgery over for Parker, New Microwave, and Smores...

The surgery is over and he is doing great. This pic was taken right after we got home. Tonight he is doing so much better and though he still has to wear his half headphone through the night he is adjusting well. Dr. says that all went well and we can expect his hearing to fall at the low end of normal. We're thrilled.
The other night it was Smores all around. Its amazing what you can do with a fireplace and a cut up hanger.


A visit from one of the neighbors...

Out with the old... Our microwave decided to quit all together on Thanksgiving and David quickly found another, which we picked up the next day.

Decorations just about done...


I know it doesn't look like much, but it takes quite a bit of time to get this all put up and working.

Happy Thanksgiving...

Happy Thanksgiving!



Elves hard at work decorating the tree....



Still working hard!





Any one for a game of checkers?

Jolie's "Grandparents Day" performance!

The 3rd graders put on a preview performance extraordinaire last night for the parents and siblings. Today they are celebrating "Grandparents Day" with a recorder song and 5 other delightful tunes. I'm just downloading 2 of the songs for you to enjoy. Each year the school celebrates Grandparents Day by inviting all the kiddos Grandparents to come visit the school and be doted on. There is always a production of some sort and I believe each year a new grade level is picked to perform. They are all so cute and picking just two of the video's was quite difficult as they are all just precious. Jolie is on the front row, 5th from the left. She is wearing the tan colored boots with white stockings, pink dress and long sweater. At any rate... Enjoy!

This first video is called, "Happy Grandparent's Day" I had trouble with the camera so your only getting part of the song.

This song is called, "Turkey Hip Hop". The kids are so cute and please notice the Hip Hop Turkeys in the center of the stage dancing. Hilarious!

Keep reading below for my further adventures last night...

Twilight's "New Moon"

Every girls dream!

I can't believe I found myself sitting in a movie theater at midnight last night.

(I'll give you time to get over the fact that I, Suzanne, was in a movie theater for the first time in 10 years.)

(Now I'll give you time to get over the fact that this occurred at Midnight)

(Now I'll give you time to get over the fact that I was sitting in a theater at actually 8 p.m., with Kristina, for a midnight "Premier Showing" of the second in a series of teen heartthrob movies, called the "Twilight" series)

With all that being said. It was an experience.

Jen asked me if I'd be interested in going to see this premier a couple of months ago. I said yes, when Kristina just about jumped out of her skin at the meer mention of it. I honestly didn't figure that I'd ever really end up in a movie theater, especially at 8 p.m. for a midnight showing.

One hour before the showing (11 p.m.) the IMAX staff started making the rounds to the 6 theaters that the movie was being shown in, throwing out "New Moon" stuff and doing trivia games that won the correct answer a "New Moon" T-shirt.

As you'll hear in the video below I was able to get Kristina noticed and she was able to answer one of the questions to win that valuable prize! A "New Moon" T-shirt!, that she wore to school today.

Jen, with Kristina holding up the prized T-shirt!

Done snowing, done cooking, still decorating and knitting!

I just love the snows here in Colorado. You can get 7" and the roads still are drivable. Of course that doesn't include OUR driveway! This picture was taken on Sunday and it was still snowing.

Olivia got her new glasses today. She was so funny. She said, "You can still see my beautiful face". How right she is!

Decorating still going on. Finished this today and still have the entryway to complete.
Next project or maybe I should say, another project started. This one will be a pair of socks.
Pattern is called, "Popped!"
Just began last night and this is going to be slow going on this one. The majority of the stitches are knitting through the back loop (ktbl) which feels very awkward and is moving very slowly for me. Oh well. I'll eventually finish and get to wear these.

Still snowing, decorating, cooking and more

Still snowing...

David heard that the accumulation was to be up to 7" for yesterday and then again for today. We didn't get the possible 7" but we got enough for a good day of playing in the snow for the kids!
The little bit of decorating that I got done yesterday took a good couple of hours worth of work to get it all just right. I'd totally forgotten that last year I'd had the kiddo's help me compress and pack away each and every garland. That equated to a lot of reshaping that had to be done. Now I have to find the clear lights.....
Fiesta Chowder with my own tweaking. Since you can't get the Nacho Cheese soup any longer we had to substitute it for Queso out of the jar. As for flavor, it made for a cheesier chowder and not so much of a kick. Everyone liked/loved it, but I prefer it to be a bit thinner with more of a zing!
Finally got some knitting in. Took little breaks over the last couple of days to work on my mittens that I really could use right now. I just love this pattern and I'm looking forward to doing more intricate patterns in the future.
Fini! I have a pair of very warm and soft mittens. Today I'll wash and block them. Last night was a glorious night. I finally finished this set of mittens. They're just gorgeous!


Next project already started and I'm lovin it!

Snow, decorating, cooking and more

5:30 a.m. I guess our front of snow has finally arrived. Let the pups out and noticed tini, tiny flakes drifting down. Just took a few days longer than anticipated. We've been thankful for the pretty days we've had. Unusually warm temps for this time of year. And believe me.... everybody has enjoyed themselves in whatever fashion of outside activity they usually partake in. From yardwork, to working on the car, to hiking, and exploring the open road we've heard it all. But we're all still prepared for the awful wet winter that's been forecasted for our area.

Parker had his annual ear appt. yesterday afternoon. We are having to do another surgery. He has a rather large hole in his left eardrum which has given him a 55% hear loss. So in about 2 weeks he'll be going in to repair the hole and put in another tube... in the same ear. With luck this will permanantly repair the damage. We have no idea how the "rip/tear" in his ear drum occured. We're (inc. doctor) are all scratching our heads on that one.

Today we start really decorating the house. I can't think of a better day to do this. Its snowing out, its cold and really reminds us of the holidays. I think the kiddo's are going to be surprised when they see just how much work all of this is and how much Mom is doing this year. The tree is already upstairs (still in its box) and ready to be moved into position. Our routine is to decorate the house and then set up the tree right before Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving evening we entertain ourselves by decorating the tree and munching on leftovers. That's always a highlight of the day and one we all look forward to. The hard part is finding the energy to do it all.

I'm going to also be throwing together a chowder to munch on through the day today. A wonderful recipe I found in Southern Living some years ago called, "Fiesta Chowder". It is quite simply delicious. It does have a bit of a zing to it, but nothing terrible. My kids eat it and love it. But if your unable to tolerate spice I'd recommend cutting some of the ingredients in half or out all together.

Olivia had her first Choir Concert for Veteran's Day and also had her very first solo. The song is called, "American Tears". It will give you just that. (have Kleenex ready) The song is about 6 min's long. I hope you enjoy it.

Happy Veteran's Day!

Jolie has had a reaction to something. We're thinking food, probably my green chili, that she just wolfs down. Anyway.... she is covered with hives. She stayed home today and we expect her to be home tomorrow also. If you pull the picture up you can really see how badly she is covered.

Chicken Tikka Masala with Saffron Rice. My first attempt and a rather good one if I do say so myself. Totally Yummy! are the words for this dish. Easy to make, fragrant, and delicious. Jolie had 2 servings as did David and I. Plenty left over for after school snacks and still some for tomorrow. I know what I'm eating for lunch.

Busy, busy and more busy...

I just realized that I've not posted for 10 days! Wow! I think that may be a record for me.

Life as usual around here. I'm up early again. I'm very used to seeing 3 a.m., 4 a.m., or even the occasional 5 a.m. when I wake up as of late. This morning it was 2:55 when I climbed out of bed and situated myself in the family room to contemplate the next few days events.

Getting to be that time of year again. Cooking has already started. Have biscuits made. Cornbread made. Turkey needs to be bought. Other than that I have basically all we need where food is concerned.

Decorations need to be pulled out. Christmas is going to be slim this year so I'm going to really decorate the house up for the kiddos. Last year I just had a down year where decorating was concerned and the kiddos really missed all the fuss. This year I'm going to make up for it by pulling out all the stuff and putting everything up. We're going to have lots of fun decorating for the next few weeks.
Made some Green Chili this afternoon. Good stuff. This batch really turned out very nice. We went and bought the mild chili's a couple of weeks ago after David accidentally bought HOT and though we ate it, I couldn't wait to get the milds. Just our luck we arrived on the last day of the chili selling season for here, we won't see these folks again for 9 months. So we were lucky!

Jen surprised us this evening with Baked Ziti! Wow! Wonderful meal and so welcome after a long day. She tried to make it where I didn't have to cook, but didn't realize that I was cooking a huge pot of green chili for our two families to share. It was going to be MY surprise for them. To funny. Anyway..... the Baked Ziti was just fabulous! Everyone ate their fill and we still have some left over for another meal(s).

Today we finished the eye doctor appointments with the kiddo's. Olivia is getting her first pair of glasses and everyone else is doing well or on the verge of needing a set of new eyes. ;-) Parker will probably be our next wearer of glasses but we have hopefully a year before that happens. He was disappointed, but knows that he doesn't have long to wait. I can remember wishing that I'd get to wear glasses. Now, all these millennia later, I got my wish. uggggg...