Community Service

You do the crime, you do the time? Is that the saying. Oh my little litter bug. I don't know what it is with Benjamin but he feels a need to drop garbage on the ground rather than in a trash can. I told him next he was caught littering I was going to drive him to a park and make him pick up the garbage on the ground. Well after church on Sunday he got busted again. We were invited to Maura's for a family Christmas party ~ which Benjamin had a blast at last year. Dan dropped off the girls at the party and Benjamin had to go to Linda Vista Park and pick up garbage. Boy, he was crying. "I'm going to miss arts & crafts time" ~ last year Maura had them decorate cookies and a frame ornament for the tree and he did not want to miss that. We explained he was in trouble and had to do his time and then could go to the party. Dan asked him what he learned from the experience and he said "that he has garbage to pick up at the park". Well, yes but not that was what he was supposed to learn. We will see if he litters again! By the way he did not miss arts & crafts and was able to decorate cookies & an ornament!

Ho, Ho, Ho

Hard to believe Christmas is almost here. Working on my Christmas cards, trying to find the perfect cookie for my cookie exchange, most of the presents are wrapped, the house is decorated...what else have I forgot? This is kind of going too smoothly this year.

I took the kids to see Santa last week. I was surprised that Emily was okay with going but she was. Benjamin told me he was going to ask Santa for an I-Dog and I reminded him he really wanted a Nintendo DS. "Oh yeah", he said he had forgot. Santa asked Emily what she wanted and all she wanted was a cell phone, the Aeropostle store, an ipod... Santa asked Benjmain if his sisters were good and Benjamin pointed to Emily and said she was but that Hannah wasn't. Emily then agreed. Santa asked Hannah what she wanted but she just kept being goofy and never answered him. Thursday night we had our BUNCO Christmas party ~ again at Kristin's work. As you can see we are a pretty bunch (kidding), as you can see we had lots of fun!

Fred

So I never let everyone know that we did get a new vehicle. Fred! Fred is a red, 1998 Chevrolet Blazer. Dan is now the driver of Fred and Mike is back to being mine. Emily thought I, since I am the mom, should drive the mini van and that Dad would look more professional not in a mini van. Whatever. Iris is sitting in front of our home looking for a new family. I am in cahoots with a local preacher who gives away vehicles to needy people. We are trying to find someone to fix Iris, at hopefully no charge, so we can give her to a needy family this holid, oops, no, I mean, Christmas season. I hate when people take CHRIST out of the season...but that's another gripe for another day.

So Thankful...

I complain a lot but I do have a pretty good life; the love of my family, we are all healthy, we have food in our bellys (is that spelled right?) and we have a roof over our heads. Here are a couple of pics from Thanksgiving ~ Dennis & JoAnn came over from Billings and Dan prepared us a yummy meal. Grandpa and I took Hannah & Benjamin down to the carousel to ride the ponies a few times and we played PIT later that night. The next day we had to get up and get decorating for the Holiday Season. I'll add those pics later. I am also thankful for all of you ~ my trusty readers of our never boring life!

Advent Conspiracy

Many of you may have seen this as I posted it on my facebook page but this is so amazing and so scary to think about. But, is it really? Look at what happened this week as a 34 yr old holiday worker at a NY Wal Mart was trampled to death as shoppers just tried to get to the good deals first. How sad. What has our lives, or this world, turned in to that others safety is not first over us getting more stuff. Stuff! Do we not remember that we can't take it with us? As I purchse the few gifts we are giving this year ~ I will think of people going without food, water, I will think of the worker tht was killed for stuff and I will focus on giving from the heart and if I don't know what to get someone I'm not just going to buy stuff. It has to have meaning or really what is the meaning of giving it?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU&eurl=http://www.adventconspiracy.org/&feature=player_embedded

The Griz win 35-3

It's one of the most wonderful times of the year ~ GRIZ/Cat weekend. (it's really only wonderful if the GRIZ win, but they have for the last 3 years) It is the big state rivalry between the Montana Grizzlies (U of M ~ here in Missoula) and the Montana State Bobcats (Bozeman). The game is always so fun, whether the game is here or in Bozeman and then we get together with Griz and Cat fans alike to watch. This year was pretty cool because the GRIZ came out with Old School Colors ~ Cooper and Gold ~ we haven't worn those colors since Em was born in 1995. It was cool and brought a little tear to some mens eyes (Travis S, probably Dan too, he had sun glasses on though). It was the largest sporting event ever played in Montana (with the new addition to Washington Grizzly stadium this summer) with over 25,000 people there to watch the Griz smoke the kitties! Awesome, awesome day...

By the way, I also attached a weird photo. Check it out ~ during halftime we were walking around the stadium and Dan said look at all the guys looking out at the river. I was like, "huh? they aren't looking out at the river. Ewwww ~ they are peeing". How lazy! See the outhouse in the pic? Instead of peeing in there they (and at one time there was atleast 6-7) were going in the grass/river area. How gross!

All American Girls (With Carrie Underwood)

It was announced in June that Carrie Underwood was coming to Missoula on November 21st. I so wanted to take the girls to their first concert but tickets sold out within a few hours. I held out hope that I could score some tickets the week of the concert. Well, after a lot of phone calls and playing on line it happened ~ the day of the concert no less. I scored us 3 tickets on the arena floor. I had put out the word that I was looking for tickets so then I always have lots of ears and eyes open. Our friends, the Caldwells, called to let me know that more tickets went on sale and I told her I had got mine already the hour before. We decided to go to the concert together with her 3 girls & our 2. It was an awesome concert and lots of fun. Emily & Mackenzie ended up being right in front of the stage and got touched by members of Little Big Town, they weren't excited enough not to wash their hands. They said if Carrie would have touched them they would not have washed their hands, for how long? I don't know. Ewww ~ gross! It was a perfect night - lots of fun and now most of our Christmas shopping is done ~ it was a spendy night