Christmas #3

Last Sunday morning we headed to Conifer, Co.  to see our oldest daughter and her family.  The snow was beautiful but I could have used a little more oxygen than you find at 9000+ feet.  SOAP and I had a great time shopping and eating out with the kids and celebrated Chloe's 15th birthday with her on Tuesday.  Chloe got to choose what we did on Tuesday.  Silas got a little tired of hearing "It's not your day".  Wednesday was the boy's day and we ate at the food court in the mall.  They thought the Cheesecake Factory was just too fancy for them.  Conifer is a beautiful little town just a few miles southwest of Denver.  SOAP made me a little nervous driving up the snowy, winding roads but he kept the rental car on the road.  If you get to Conifer visit the Angry Llama Diner and have a hamburger.  The diner is owned by Journey Community Church pastored by our son-in-law.  BTW...no dog sledding this time.  They were all booked up.....really.

Chloe and Amy at the Cheesecake Factory

Silas and Titus

Christmas #2

We spent Christmas with Marlie, Andrew and Logan in Ft. Worth.  Logan understood quite a bit of what was going on, so we really did have fun with him.  He loved looking at the tree and showing us his favorite ornaments.  Christmas morning he was excited about his presents from Santa and more than helpful to the rest of us by opening our presents for us.  After breakfast we bundled up and went to the Gaylord Texan to see their fabulous displays and ICE.  ICE was 9 degrees but the rest of the displays were nice and warm.  Logan was especially thrilled with the trains.   I think a visit to the Gaylord should be on everyone's list of things to do next Christmas season.  It certainly will be on ours.

Inside the Gaylord Texan

Charlie Brown's Christmas all in ICE

Beautiful ICE nativity

Logan would have watched the trains all day

Christmas #1

SOAP and I are doing Christmas in three parts this year.  It just seems easier for us to get to all the kid's houses than for them to all come here.  After all, there are just 2 of us and we travel pretty light.

This weekend we went to McAllen to see Phil, Trish, and the girls.  Lauren and Lenzy opened our presents and Lenz managed to finagle to open another one as well.  She also charmed SOAP into buying her a tiny white dwarf Lions Head bunny.  He is such a pushover where the grandkids are concerned.

At Phil's church this morning we had great home-made tamales and the church was beautifully decorated.  Lauren played and sang during the offering and Lenzy accompanied on bass.  Lauren is all into the performance and the crowd and Lenz is very serious about her playing.  It's hard to believe they are growing up so fast.

Christmas #2 will be with Marlie, Andrew and Logan.  #3 will be with Amy, Michael, Chloe, Titus and Silas in Colorado and may involve some dog sledding. There could be a real story there....

Grandchildren for Dummies

The Dummies books are very accurately titled.  I have read several and not learned much I didn't already know about each subject, except for the one on computers.  Please don't misunderstand. There is a lot to learn from the books, but one usually reads up on subjects they have a real interest in and therefore usually know something about.  I am certain there is some very useful information in the books about Quantum Physics,  Living Vegan, and Raising Chickens, but I really don't give a rat's hairy little behind about any of those subjects.  I do have an interest in grandchildren, and one thing is sure to be found in Grandchildren for Dummies.....although that particular book doesn't actually exist.  That one thing would be found in the first chapter, and that one thing would be that you have to have children before you can get the grandkids.

Well,  SOAP and I have three children.  Chapter one is covered.  Our children are Philip, 40, Amy, 37, and Marlie, 31.  All are married and have my grandchildren.  Phil has two girls, Amy has one girl and two boys, and Marlie has a boy and another boy due in February.  The grandchildren are all pictured in the Halloween blog.  SOAP has pictures of our kids on his blog, but I need to put them in mine as well.  After all, they are the ones that deserve the credit for the grandkids.

Marlie Thomas and Amy Cheshire

                                                  

Philip Corzine

Thanks, kids.

Is E I E I O a Word???????

Hello.  My name is Anne and I'm an addict.  I am officially addicted to Words with Friends.  It's not totally controlling my life.  I still make the bed, sew, cook, run errands and do everything else that has to be done, but the phone is never out of reach.

I have decided to call it continuing education.  Every game ends with a few new words I never dreamed even existed.  Actually, some of them haven't existed for long.  With all new technology comes new words.  The new Urban Dictionary also is full of new 'words'.  And of course there is entomology, zoology, agronomy, astronomy and a bunch of other ologys and onomys that I am not fluent in.  Also, the rules of the English language that we learned when I was in school don't always apply.  It is amazing how many words there are where 'u' doesn't have to follow 'q'.  And there are more 2 letter words than one can even imagine.  Thankfully, you can plug in letters and hit 'play' and if it is a word, off it goes.  If not, you just try till you find one that works.  The education part comes when you look up the weird set of letters that you just scored 38 points for.  Oh, BTW, I got 103 points on a word this week.

Now as Preacher's Wife qua chief cook and bottle washer, I am off to deal with the ort that wasn't shoveled into a maw. Then it will be time to close my eyne and dream of having a groat left over after a trip to Hobby Lobby tomorrow.

Grandchildren at Halloween

Logan as a sweet chicken and Monkey as Himself.

 

Lauren as Herself.  She really wears a mic quite often.

Lenzy as Dark Alice

Chloe the Scarecrow

Titus the Flying Monkey

Silas is obviously not into the Wizard of Oz with the rest of his family.

Lazy weekend

All weekend we have lounged around and watched some sort of ball being thrown, hit, caught, passed, fumbled, shot or dribbled.  SOAP got sick in Albuquerque and even stayed a day longer because he was too miserable to get on the plane and come home.  His appetite is not all the way back yet and his get-up and go has got up and went.  It has been unusually quiet around here.

The TCU game was the highlight of the weekend.  Very late last night we beat UNLV in Las Vegas and remain undefeated.  Two of the previously undefeateds went down earlier in the day and when the BCS polls came out tonight we had been upped to #3.  GO FROGS!!!!

The Rangers looked good yesterday, but tonight was a huge disappointment.  Although baseball games can turn on a dime, I'm not holding my breath.  The Cowboys went down in flames...AGAIN!!!!  The Spurs are doing OK.  Just ask Tony.  He signed a new contract for 50M.  They lost to New Orleans, but we couldn't be too sad because our good friend, Monty Williams, is the new head coach.  Monty is a former Spur and the youngest head coach in the league.  We wish the best for his beautiful family.  Basketball is an extremely long season so it's way too early to worry about the Spurs.

My new favorite game is Words with Friends.  I currently have 5 games going.  Hopefully it will keep my mind sharp.  Certainly it is teaching me new words.  Did you know 'ut' is a word?  I didn't.  Maybe I should look it up and see how I can use it in my next blog.

Lest you think I wasted the entire weekend, there are now three less boxes stacked in the front closet.  What was an enormous pile of  really old family pictures and assorted other memorabilia has now been consolidated into just one box.  Well, one box, a huge trash bag, and a box for each  of the kids.  SURPRISES coming your way soon.....Love, Mom.