New Toy

Last week Todd went to the Comcast office and picked us up a new cable box with the DVR feature. Ok I think I am hooked, so far I think I have 8 shows to catch up and watch. I'm afraid I am going to keep recording things and get to the point where I don't have time to watch them. I will probably be watching Christmas specials that I am recording at Easter time.

Shrek the Halls

Tonight we watched the premiere of Shrek the Halls.
In true Shrek fashion, LOL fun and excitement.
Everyone’s version on The Night Before Christmas story was hilarious.
It is so neat that all the original actors participated in the holiday special.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

A tried and true classic
Jordan and I are sitting here at home watching A Charlie Brown Christmas.
We own it on DVD and can watch it anytime but here we sit watching it with commercial interruptions.
A few of my favorite parts:
Charlie Brown finding out he has Pantophobia
The twins dancing
5 good reasons and Lucy makes a fist.
When Lucy asks Schroeder to play Jingle Bells “That’s It”
Charlie Brown saying he “killed” the tree.
Turning the little tree in to a spectacular tree. Where did all the green branches come from?
The very end where they sing “O’ Christmas tree” the faces of the characters taking breaths when they sing the Oooos is so fun.

White Christmas

Today I watched the movie White Christmas for the 1st time though I thought.

I was about half way through watching it when I was like "Hey I remember watching a movie vaguely familiar to this" I think I saw part of White Christmas before but not the whole thing.
Todd watched it with me and we both thought that Vera-Ellen the women who played Judy was way too thin. We both knew a lot of the songs from the movie and we recognized the dance "The Jive". I guess that's from watching too much Dancing with the Stars.
Very fun movie to watch during the holiday season.

Practicing His Stance

Jordan is practicing his stance so when he is on Iron Chef, his competition will be intimidated.

Here's The Birthday Boy

18!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Ethan

Ok, I am a day late.
Yesterday was my oldest son Ethan's 18th brithday.
It is mind boggling that we have an 18 year old. Where did all the time go.
I'll posts a few pics taken yesterday of the B-day boy later today.

It came visiting again this year

Well this must be the 7th or 8th year now that my laryngitis came to visit again.
I used to get laryngitis every winter when I was in high school, then for awhile it didn't happen. About 7 years ago I started getting laryngitis right as the temperature starts to drop. It starts with a sinus infection and ends up with me getting a "manly" voice for about 8 weeks. The later as the day goes on, the deeper my voice gets. It is kind of fun because other then the voice being gone and my draining sinus', I don't feel ill. The big bummer is I can't belt out the Christmas songs like I love to do. I really think what causes it is a combination of the dry air, sinus infection and allergies from the furnace blowing out all the old dust. A humidifier helps but doesn't stop the lack of voice.

Happy Thanksgiving 2007

Well the turkey has been in the oven now for about 1 1/2 hours. Jordan came down and helped chop the onion and peel potatoes. He was also interested in watching a parade. He started with the Macy's parade in New York but got really frustrated that all they were doing was showing people perform, he wanted the Big Balloons and floats so he switched to the downtown Chicago parade and was still disappointed by the lack of floats and Big balloons.
Now we wait for our company to arrive and we will FEAST around 2:30pm. After we will maybe play some games and then EAT PIE!!!

Seven little facts

Seven little facts about myself you may not know:

1. I love to sing, I mostly do it in the car while driving.

2. I am named after my Grandmother Maryann.

3. I hate touching any kind of raw meat. Chicken, ground beef, ect.

4. I love to be creative. I love to scrapbook and rubber stamp.

5. My favorite snacks are sharp cheddar cheese spread with crackers and Cheezits.

6. I like to do Sudoku puzzles.

7. My favorite movies that I can sit and watch at anytime are Sense and Sensibility, Elf, The Ginch & Young Frankenstein.

Funny Phrase

Today I was in the lunchroom at work having a conversation with one of the ladies I am on the same floor with but our desks are on the opposite side of the building.
When the conversation was finished, she said to me "If I don't see you, have a Happy Thanksgiving"
Does that mean if she does see me again before Thanksgiving she wouldn't want for me to have a nice Thanksgiving?

I just have always found that phrase funny.

It’s a Wonderful Life/Day!

Yesterday was a wonderful day.
We started our day getting up early and grocery shopping for the Thanksgiving holiday. Once we were home Todd and I went in the backyard and tackled all the leaves that fell from our 40+ year old maple tree. We ended up with 10 leaf bags full. Luckily for us our garbage pickup provider is having FREE leaf pick up this month as long as they are bagged.

We decided after lunch we should take a nap to make it through our “Date”. I know a nap? Yes, naps are a great welcome once you hit a certain age. We haven’t been on a married couple date in quite awhile so we were both looking forward to this evening. Earlier in the day I searched the internet for a restaurant that we could go to on our way to the Radio City Music Christmas Spectacular Show. I found a restaurant that had 5 star ratings from customers; the restaurant is called Tapalpa in Elk Grove Village.

This restaurant is now my favorite restaurant that I have ever eaten at.
It is a family authentic Mexican restaurant that is actually in a strip mall. The restaurant doesn’t come across as anything fancy but they have absolutely fabulous food and service. Starting with Margarita’s and ½ combo plate appetizer that we shared; through our main courses; Todd ordered the Tilapia and I got the Mini Combo plate there were no flaws. Toward the end of the meal a mariachi band came and played 2 Mexican songs for us. Both musicians were outstanding guitarists and singers. When our check arrived, we received 2 shots of butterscotch liqueur with whipped cream on top. YUM!!!! This restaurant is definitely worth the trip and tolls we paid to get there.

After dinner we proceeded to go to the 75th Anniversary of the Radio City Music Christmas Spectacular Show.

Due to my bad map reading we got a little lost from the restaurant to the theatre. We sat in our seats literally 2 minutes before the show started. The show was as they advertised Spectacular. My absolute favorite part of the show was when the Rockettes danced to the 12 days of Christmas. The choreographing for that song as well as all the songs throughout the show was very impressive. The Christmas Show is apparently known for their Toy Soldier routine and the Nativity Scene; and in not disappointing was breathtaking. My hopes are to see this show again in the future; taking my children and hopefully my nephew Nikolas. I could see this becoming a show that someday I can take my future grandchildren to.
What a Wonderful Life and Day!!!

52, 52 in 52 weeks

I want to set a goal this year.
I want to complete 1 scrapbook layout a week and 1 handmade card a week.
So that would be 52 cards and 52 scrapbook layouts in 52 weeks.
I have no problem scanning the card to show off here but I think I will have to ask my son or DH to teach me how to thread a 12x12 scrapbook page to post. Either that or just take a picture of it with my camera and post it. That would probably be easier. LOL

A little scary but everything was ok

Last night the high school had the 1st wrestling meet of the season. It was actually a scrimmage meet against each other and a get together for the families of all the wrestlers.
It was Ethan's turn to wrestle, he is wrestling the 189/215 class. During the 1st 1/2of the period he was in the lead by points and close to pinning his opponent. Then about 1/2 way into the 1st period he started holding what we thought was his rib. We figured that he fell on it wrong or something, throughout the rest of the next two periods he really was breathing heavy. We could hear him up in the stand over all the noise. He starting losing points but was still in it, I was getting worried because at some points when the two wrestlers had to go back to the center of the mat, he wasn't moving right away. He made it to the end of 3 period’s unfortunately losing but what really got us, was when he went to take his ankle strap off and shake his opponents hand, he was shaking vigorously. Todd immediately got up and head for the side of the mat. Ethan told his father that he had a bad cramp, couldn't breath and at the end of the match everything was blurry. We had the physical trainer look at him, he checked his pulse and told him to take it easy the rest of the evening and make sure that he eats a big breakfast tomorrow morning. He thinks that with Ethan having a light supper and his adrenaline being high is what caused the incident.
I really commend his effort for making it through 3 periods felling that way and not getting pinned. I also being a mom told him if he ever felt that way again to tell the ref you are injured and need a 2 minute time out. This probably would have helped him catch his breath to resume. I strongly feel that Ethan would have won the match if this didn’t happen!!

2 more days

I am getting so excited. In 2 days Todd and I are going to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. They are celebrating 75 years of putting on a Christmas show, so I am hoping it will be an extra special performance.
I have wanted to see the show for about 5 years now and finally had the opportunity to purchase the tickets at a real good price. I will be able to check this off of my list of things I want to do before I die. LOL

Exhausted

Boy am I tired. No contacts today. I hosted the Christmas Card Stamp Camp last night. I had 18 energetic, creative women here last night. I am hoping they had a good time making their cards. Today we are off for a small gathering with my in-laws and family. My MIL and FIL leave for AZ for the winter this week. MIL organized a get together today to see everyone that could attend before they leave.
Quite an exhausting but fun weekend for me.

Here are the cards the the campers will be making at camp on Saturday.
The Stampers will be making 10 Christmas Cards at this camp
I Stamp-lifted some of these ideas from different websites.

The Waiting Begins

Last night my oldest son Ethan completed his college application and sent it off via the internet to Columbia College Chicago.
The high school promised to send the transcripts and letters of recommendation this week. So now the waiting begins to see if he is accepted. According to the application, it may take 4 to 6 weeks. Hopefully we will have a nice Christmas with an acceptance!

Zuppa Toscana Delizioso!

One of my favorite things to do is go to Olive Garden for lunch and have their soup and salad lunch specails. Todd and I almost always go their when the boys have their yearly review at school or if we happen to be home during a weekday with no kids.
My favorite soup at Olive Garden is Zuppa Toscana.



One day I came accross a copycat website that had this soup listed. Today I went to the grocery store purchased all the ingredients and made the soup. It tasted just like the Olive Gardens version. I will definately make this soup again, often!

Getting Ready for Camp

Me Camp? No Way!!!
No, actually I am getting ready for my annual Christmas Card stamp camp next Saturday. I spent the day making sure every packet had the correct amount of paper and checking my supplies to make sure I have everything. I will have to purchase a few minor items such as tape but I am just about ready to go.
I also worked on little gifts to give the ladies to thank them for such a fun and creative year. All I now have to do is come up with a snack menu to serve during the camp, once I do that I think we will be ready to Stamp!

Jack-o-Lantern pictures

I finally got a chance to go on our main computer and download the pictures from halloween. The 1st picture is my nephew Nikolas trick or treating at our home.


He went trick or treating at a few houses around our neighborhood and ended up with 1/2 a bucket of candy. Not bad for a short time trick or treating.

These next photos are pictures of jack-o-lanterns we carved the day before Halloween.
The 1st one is a character Jordan carved from Homestarrunner


This next one is a space man Ethan carved,

and this last one is a carving both Todd and I worked on. It is a canibel pumpkin.

We have carved pumpkins every year for as long as I can remember. It's nice now that the guys are older, they don't need as much help carving as they used to.