Merry Christmas Everyone

Message From Santa Claus

If it were in my powers,
I would bring peace and love,
To this world of ours,
But I don't have magic enough,
I can cross the sky,
and pass by the stars,
But I can't seem to stop,
Any of hatred's wars,
I see children on the street,
With no hope left,
in the eyes.
So many homeless people
with no where to sleep.
And my heart cries.
I can't give the things they need,
Oh But God I would try.
I'm only a fantasy,
that once took wings to fly,
Some are deceived,
by the gifts that money can buy,
But those who truly believe,
see the gift with the heart,
not with the eye,
I sometime stop and go to my knees,
and pause,
and I too always pray,
That we will find a end to wars,
and live in peace one day.
For all those who believe in me,
I will continue my cause,
Across the stars,
over the wars,
On Christmas Eve,
For the hearts that still believe,
In Santa Claus

©Judy Arline Puckett

Here it is!

Santa Claus!

Well, my scanner is broken so I can't get the picture up here yet, but I am working on it.

We went to the mall to see Santa today. I was anticipating an obnoxious Gavin and trying to get a picture with him and Sophia and Santa that looked like something out of a Vacation movie. I got a little break! Sophia, who for the last 2 Christmas's has screamed bloody murder at the sight of Santa, did very well. She was a little cautious at first, giving him high five and a hug before climbing into his lap. I think Sophia rubbed off on Gavin and before I knew it he was in Santa's lap too. He was tentative and we never did get a picture of him smiling in the pictures, but he did smile. Santa was terrific. He gave them candy and color books. So overall I am a very pleased mommy.

Black Friday

I am finally recovered enough from not going to bed to get my Black Friday deals in. I stayed up (knowing myself, if I went to sleep I would not let a little thing like an alarm force me out of bed) and went to the Mall, which opened at 1AM. I did not really need anything at the mall, but thought it would give me something to do while waiting for the stores I wanted to visit to open. I then went to AC Moore to get in line for a Thomas the Train wooden train set, according to the ad it retails for 179.99 and I got it for 49.99 (thank you Grandma Dee). Then I came home to catch a couple hours of sleep while waiting for the kids to wake up, so I could take them with me for the rest as Shannon had to work. I rounded out the day heading back to the mall to hit the anchor stores that did not open until 5, Michaels and Walmart. I was so excited Walmart advertising they would price match only to get there and be disappointed they did not have the things I was looking for (DVDs). I went to Lowes today to get a few more things, including a poinsettia centerpiece for my table and a live wreath for the front door. I am tired and will be recovering the next couple days, but I am glad to have a decent start to my shopping. I love this season!

Family Night.

Sophia had her first onstage debut. It was GREAT. Except for the video I took, it turned out badly. But it is posted in my dropshots account, the link is to the right.

Election Day

It is that time, GO VOTE!

Holloween

Here are a few pictures of my little boo and penguin.

Minivan confusion

I wish I would have taken a picture. Instead I will try to set the scene. I went to Costco. I went in and went about my shopping. I came out walked up to a van, thinking it was mine and tried to get in. I could not. I tried hitting the unlock button and it wasn't working. I glanced down at the drink holder and noticed this was indeed not my car! I went to the next van and got in, luckily it was mine. I look down the row of cars to see 5 gray Honda Odyssey's in a row! They all looked EXACTLY alike. I really need to get a monogrammed sticker or something for the back to distinguish it from all the others.

I am a horrible blogger!

Why is that I cannot seem to update this blog with any regularity? I keep saying once... happens (the kids go back to school, Sophia starts Bible Study Fellowship, Shannon starts taking Fridays off) I will have more time to blog. Yet, I can't seem to get it done. I wonder how I can fit about 3 more hours in the day, without losing sleep?

Some things I have been doing instead of blogging:

selling the children's old toys and clothes at our church consignment sale. Rumor has it I was the top seller (if not top very, very close). My total was 400.00 (my portion was 280.00). This required two trips for me to haul all of the loot to the church. So I was pleased my effort paid off. I would have made a lot more selling on ebay, but it would have been a LOT more work, so this worked out well.

My Mustard Seed Group is reading:



We did a book on children last time and decided to a book on marriage this time. It is turning out to be a helpful book.

I have been consumed with the election. I make no bones about being a liberal democrat, so I am thrilled and cautiously optimistic that Obama will be our next president. I was not always so gung ho about him. I am still a Hillary Clinton supporter. But, John McCain and Sarah Palin, in my opinion would be disastrous to this country. Go Obama!

Gavin and Sophia have been doing really well in school. Sophia can now spell her name! We are so proud of her. I have been trying to work on helping her memorize our phone number, but that is not working out so well. Gavin is FINALLY starting to talk a bit more. He says no, hello, more, bye, mama, dog and some other words I have not yet figured out.

I went to the learning store and bought a couple books, one called Toddler Theme-a-saurus and the other The Little Hands Art Book, I plan to cut further into my blogging time by doing more at-home art projects with the kids.

I have been trying to get all the clutter in our home dealt with. Too many Triple coupons and not enough storage space! I did manage to go through the toy bin. That was pretty successful. I am at a loss as to what to do. We really don't have the space for a ton of toys, nor do I think the kids need that much stuff. For some reason I can't look at a children's magazine or walk through a toy department without thinking about which toys the kids would like.

Triple coupons were at Lowes Foods last week. I made a few trips there, but I am about tripled out. Shocking I know! I am just sticking to HT triples from now on, I think!

So, despite the fact that blogging has taken a back seat, I am still here.

Updates

Sophia has a bacterial infection (probably either strep or staff) on her behind. How do they get this there? At any rate she is on an antibiotic for 10 days. On Friday she was reprimanded for choking another child out. Saturday she stole a pack of gum from Harris Teeter. I don't know what has gotten into her lately. I am not sure what to do about all of this.

Gavin is doing well for the most part. He is starting to experience some seperation anxiety and drop off at school is a bear. But, today pick-up was better than it has ever been. So, hopefully he will adjust nicely in the next couple of weeks.

I know I have been neglectful about blogging, hopefully now that the kids are in school I will have more time.

New coupon blog

I changed the blog address for my couponing stuff.
HERE is the blog.

Soccer Girl

Sophia started Soccer Friday evening. Let me start by saying: She is sooooo cute in her 'gear'.



We arrived at the field about 40 minuted early. I thought it would be nice for Gavin to get to play a bit before Sophia took center stage.





We were eventually rained out before anything began. Disappointing for the first week! But, I did manage to get a few good action pictures.





and finally Sophia and her friend Dylan walking to the car.

We are back!

We had a great time, but are tired! I will post more later.

Finally!!!

I finally got some pictures downloaded. I am about 1/3 of the way done downloading them to my dropshots account, so you can check that out. I will also be posting a few here, once I get them to dropshots.

Enjoy!
SEATTLE PICTURES

Still no pictures :(

I still have not taken my digital camera in to get the pictures loaded onto a disk so I could post them. Bad Dandy, I know. But, we have been so busy I just have not done it.

Today Sophia and Gavin, well really it was Gavin and Sophia (he was the instigator) learned how to use the doggie door. I am very surprised they both could fit through it, Charlie is so small the door is not very big at all. But, they both crawled through back and forth several times. I did get a few pictures on my cell phone, but I am technologically impaired when it comes to sending the pictures from my cell to my email. It always gives me an error, which leads me to believe I am not allowed to do this while roaming. So, I will try when I get home.

We had a wonderful time at the acorn's party yesterday. Ona announced she is pregnant! Congrats to Ona-Lysa and Andrew, you will be wonderful parents. I believe she is due in early April.

We went to Southcenter Mall today and shopped til we dropped, or until Gavin passed out and then came home to hang out. Tomorrow I will be going in to get my hair done, I really need to! My gray hairs are getting outta control. I am only 32 years old how is it that I have any? At any rate I will take before and after pictures and post them sometime, hopefully before we fly back to Charlotte.


I still have not completed ANY of my to do list! I will start working on that Wednesday, maybe we will try to go to Snoqualmie Falls, I think it will be hot here, and probably a bit cooler there.

I will try to keep the blog updated. We miss you all.

Dandy, Sophia and Gavin

Adventures in Seattle

I don't have any pictures to show, but I know everyone wants to hear how we are doing. Sophia, Gavin and I arrived in Seattle after a very long, but uneventful flight. I almost think having a lay over to get off the plane and stretch their legs is worth the hassle. Luckily Gavin has a killer smile, so the lady in the seat next to us didn't mind getting up for us to 'restroom' a gazillion times.

After landing we went straight to Taco Time, man I miss this place. If I were to return to work, I should think I would want to open up a Taco Time franchise (good thing for Shannon I am allergic to work).

We have been working on establishing some sort of routine since we got here. The sleeping situation is not the best, but we are all coping. Gavin wakes up at 7AM no matter what time I put him to bed. At home this is OK, but I am on vacation and I want to sleep in! Oh well, at least it is 7AM pacific and not eastern time. Sophia has been staying up rather late for her, I hope I am not setting myself up for issues when we return to Charlotte and our 'normal' routine.

Mom had her 50Th Birthday Bash. What a great time had by all. Gavin was so tired he laid down on the dance floor to try to sleep, amidst all the music and dancing. Silly boy. HE finally went to bed about 9:30. Sophia stayed up dancing and playing the night away. I got the best picture of her and her new 'boyfriend' Brendan. I will try to get it downloaded and post it this weekend. Mom is now a half century! AS one of her friends said in a card "how the hell did that happen". I can only imagine how I will feel when I am that age.

We have done several shopping trips, much to the kids' dismay. Gavin was so tired he slept in the stroller, he has never done that (well, maybe when he was an infant). We went to visit my great grandpa, Sophia and Gavin's great-great grandpa! He is 93 and still hanging in there. Shannon teases that he has no hope of out living me. IF he had grandma Pat for a wife he would! She really keeps Grandpa healthy. It was great seeing them and I did get a good picture of the 5 generations that I will post when I can get the pictures downloaded.

I went to a Mariner game with Sarah and Robyn. We won, I was too busy talking to catch most of the game. As I once told Shannon when I was ready to go to bed and he was trying to catch a score: "somebody won, somebody lost; come to bed"

We have plans for dinner on Sunday with the acorns (Ahearn's for those that don't know, they are part of my moms family on her dads side this includes Sarah and Robyn, with whom I went to the Mariner game with). I am really looking forward to that.

To Do:
Snoqualmie Falls
Woodland Park Zoo
Playdate with some of the July05'ers (Stephanie if you see this email me)
Seattle Center
visit Mars Hill Church

We have 2 weeks to do these things, so I think we should be able to get to it all.

I promise to try really hard to get the pictures done this weekend, really!

Love to all,
Dandy, Sophia and Gavin

New Blog

I have a new blog dedicated to my 'couponing'. You can view it HERE .

pictures

Here are the pictures of my many finds at HT during triples.

Sophia's 3 year and Gavin's 18 month check-ups

Sophia and Gavin saw the pediatrician on Friday. Here are the relevant stats:

Sophia
36 pounds, 90th percentile
40.75 inches 97th percentile
blood pressure 88/32


Gavin
25 pounds 50th percentile
34 inches 90th percentile
19.25 head circumfrence 75th percentile.

Both kids are healthy!

Another HT triples round...

I have not posted in a LONG time, so sorry! I have been busy doing a lot of nothing and blogging felt like the last thing I wanted to do.

HT had triples again July 24, 25 and 26th. I will post photos as soon as I can download them off my camera. But, my totals are:

Out of Pocket: $16.17
Total Saved: $722.79

I got countless boxes of cheerios and windex (seriously, more than 20 bottles of windex and probably 15 boxes cheerios). I got so many pouches of tuna, brownie mix and a lot of Mott's apple juice. I will try to get the pics up tomorrow.

Everyone is doing fine. I will try to start blogging more, I promise!

Dandy

Book Tag

I steal tags from other people! I don't think enough people know I have a blog, so I never get tagged. But, I saw this and thought it looked fun.

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

This is from Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller.

"You are confessing to me!" Jake said with a laugh.

"Yeah. We are confessing to you. I mean, I am confessing to you."

"You're serious." His laugh turned to something of a straight face.

I told him I was. He looked at me and told me I didn't have to. I told him I did, and I felt very strongly in that moment that I was supposed to tell Jake I was very sorry about everything.

"What are you confessing?" He asked.

I shook my head and looked at the ground. "Everything," I told him.

"Explain," he said.

"There's a lot. I will keep it short," I started. "Jesus said to feed the poor and to heal the sick. I have never done very much about that. Jesus said to love those who persecute me. I tend to lash out, especially if I feel threatened, you know, if my ego gets threatened. Jesus did not mix His spirituality with politics. I grew up doing that. It got in the way of the central message of Christ. I know that was wrong, and I know that a lot of people will not listen to the words of Christ because people like me, who know him, carry our own agendas into the conversation rather than just relaying the message Christ wanted to get across. There's a lot more, you know."




I know I did more than 5 sentences, but only 5 was not enough. I just finished reading this book and I loved it. It is subtitled Nonreligious Thoughts on Christianity. I am a very liberal person, anyone who knows me knows this about me. And even though I have recently found Christ I am still the same person. I have always associated Christianity with people like Jim Baker who had the TV ministries. It's a shame I didn't realize I could be me and love Christ a lot sooner.

I would really like to blog more about this, but the cleaning lady is coming and I have to go 'clean' for the cleaning lady (read: pick up all our junk, so she can clean).

Tag: Anyone who wants to share part of a book you read recently is it! And please let me know if you do this, I would love to read others posts on this. Thank you Sara for posting yours.

Chuck E. Cheese!

We survived Sophia's 3rd birthday party (read: I survived)! Her party went off without a hitch and was fun for everyone involved. I even think Gavin had a good time. He was tired as the day wore on and got a bit grumpy, but I think he did well considering. Sophia was in 'hog heaven' the whole day. She got to play with all her friends at the same time and eat pizza and cake, while getting to take home all the loot (gifts). She got many really cool gifts I think her favorite was a set of dress up accessories: shoes, necklace, earrings and other costume jewelry. She wanted to waer the dress up heals to the grocery store today. I had to explain they were not appropriate and the funny thing is if she could actually walk in them I would have let her wear them, but I was affraid she would fall in them.





Sophia got flowers from Grandma Dee delivered a couple days ago. Sophia wanted to model with them. Funny backstory on the flowers. When Mother's Day was here last month I received flowers from Grandma Dee. Sophia thought they were for her for her birthday. She was kinda crushed when she found out they were for me. So she got her own, for her birthday.



Sophia STILL has a black eye. This was taken when she was really tired and If I were any good at photoshop I would make this her mug shot!



I have updated many pictures on the dropshots account, click the family pictures link to the right to see more!

I hate having to come up with a title, so I won't.

We have been hanging in here. I have been working on preperations for Sophia's party (read: shopping for party favors). Gavin and Sophia have been workiing on having fun and growing. They are getting so big.

I came into the living room the other day to find Sophia laying on the floor with one of the throw pillows from the couch layed on the floor and her head laying on the pillow. She had taken the area rug and lifted it up to get under it and cover herself with it like a blanket, I ran to get the camera but I was too late. Here is Gavin laying on the floor instead.



For Sophia's birhtday we decided to get her a bike. Shannon went to get it and came home just before Sophia went to bed, she spotted the balloon bouquet in the car and we decided to give her the bike a few days early, here is the first shot of her seeing her birthday present.



Sophia riding her bike! Such a diva, I know!



Some people complained they could not see Sophia's name on the birthday club page, so here is a better picture.



An update on the black eye. It looks worse now. I sure hope it is gone for her party.

my poor baby girl

We went to a birthday party this afternoon for a classmate of Sophia's named Miles. The local fire department came out and let the kids crawl around on the truck. They had a ton of toys and stuff to do in the back yard. One of the things to do was a bouncy house. As we were leaving Sophia ran off to jump one more time. I wish she had listened to me now and avoided her first black eye:

I am more mad at myself. I asked her to get her shoes so we could leave and I saw her jumping into the house and decided to let her play a few more minutes. I have been feeling like all I do is say NO. All. Day. Long. And feeling like in saying no I am robbing her of some fun. So, I let her jump. Next thing I know she is screaming. And one of the moms said we had an accident. Out of the bouncy house comes my baby girl.



To add insult to injury she is bruised basically from head to toe. We went to the pool last week and she got a bruise there and the gnarly bruise on her kneee is from a fall at the movie theatre. When do they outgrow the clumsiness? It seems she cannot walk anywhere and in her haste she falls. Here is a picture of my lovely girl in all her bruisiness.


Here is to hoping we have a better week this week. Hopefully I will say Yes more often and my kids will turn out safe and have had all the fun a summer day can bring.

Summer!

We have really been enjoying our summer. The kids LOVE to go to the pool. I have been trying to take them to different, fun and exciting places. I have not been shopping much (which for those of you that know me, that is amazing!). I have a few pictures to share. Hope you enjoy.


Here is a picture of them this morning being silly!


and a picture of them loving each other.


Gavin Cowboy.


Sophia Cowgirl.


And Sophia's name on TV! We are member of the Kids Club and as such each child's name is on TV during the month of their birthday. Sorry for the shadow, it was the camera, not the TV.

Blowing Rock Pictures

Here are a few of the pictures I took of the kids in Blowing Rock.

Been MIA!

We have been MIA for the last few days. Went to Blowing Rock, NC for some R&R. It was fantastic! The kids loved it! The weather was not scorching hot! They spent a ton of time playing outside and at the park with Steve and Mary and I got a little time to myself. The sleeping arrangement left something to be desired, but Wednesday before we left, Sophia slept until 7AM and Gavin until 730! So we are on the right track!

I did not take many pictures, but did get a few. I will need to download them from my camera, so look for them sometime this weekend.

======================================================


For my coupon buddies, I went to Target on Tuesday night, BEST EVER! I got $210.xx for $43.xx! It was truly exciting watching my total go down, down, down! Needless to say I have about 30 things of Pantene to donate now!

I need to go to Kmart again, maybe tomorrow! The deal there is trial sized temptations cat treats are .20 each and there is a $1 off 2 so you get paid .60 for every two you buy of those and trial sized jumbones are .20 and there is a $1.50 off giving you 1.30 overage on each one of those! Sophia needs some overnight diapers, so I am going to try to make it there tomorrow.

Dandy

Church

I am part of a Sunday school class called Neat Young Christians. We generally study something for a few weeks before moving on. Sometimes between these studies we do a stand-alone study. This week we studied TODAY. I decided to google Rob Bell (the guy who made these videos) I stumbled across his website Mars Hill. You can download his teachings on MP3. I have really enjoyed the few Rob Bell video's we watched. Check it out, you might learn something!

My Big Boy!

Gavin had his first 'salon' haircut. I was shocked at how well he did. I was affraid at first the lady was going to take off an ear because he kept trying to turn around and look at her. Eventually he settled in (with a little help from the movie on the TV) and we were able to avoid losing an ear! The gentleman with his son in the booth next to us was even amazed at how well Gavin did. Here is a picture:

Sleep.

Gavin woke at 4:00 with a very wet diaper. Then again at 4:15. I popped the paci in his mouth and went back to sleep. Then he woke again at about 6:00. I decided to let him cry. Not sure how long he cried, 10 minutes maybe and slept until 7:15! I will be trying to move his nap to a little later, keep him up until about 7:00 PM and then 'make' him sleep until 7:00 AM. I do see a light at the end of this tunnel with Gavin, now I just have to work on Sophia!

TEN!?!

10

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Monday humdrums

We have a cleaning lady. Her name is Bernarda. She comes to our home every 2 weeks. I fear I may be divorced without her (just kidding, I think!). So, we stayed home most of today. Mary and her best friend Vicki came over for a bit, here are a few pictures from today.

Sophia and Vicki:


Sophia doing the 'Hokie Pokie'




Gavin got a hold of my camera and took a picture of himself. Not bad considering...

Curtians

Gavin has been waking earlier and earlier, much to my dismay! So, we went to Bed Bath and Beyond and purchased curtains very similar to these:



I spent about 20 minutes putting them up. I don't know why I did not tackle this sooner. I thought it would take far longer than 20 minutes. I think they need some tie backs and maybe some sort of crown molding looking valance. At any rate they are the blackout kind and his room is very dark! I will let everyone know how this works out.

Before:



After: