Survived Part 1

Hi! I've been sitting here with Keith Urban (don't tell Mark or Nicole) lol. Hannah got his new CD and we downloaded the new Xmas tunes on the "computer across from Mom's" (that's what the girls call it), the one we use for our music as it is connected to the stereo speakers. So I have been enjoying a moment of quiet with our kiwi pal, Keith. Jess and H went to see "Cheaper By the Dozen 2" with some friends from church. Mark was reading to the little girls. He found his REAL Grimm's Fairy Tale book and they have all been enjoying them. Some of them are very gruesome and gory, not Disney versions at all, and they LOVE it. :)

We had a lovely Xmas day, in spite of Em's hurling and Kat's other stomach ailment. Mark took the other 3 to services, we had brunch then opened presents. I tried so hard this year to make everything come out sort of even and was worried that I shortchanged Abby, but I did ok afterall. Mark got the new bikes out for Kat and Abby after church and Abby's face lit up, and she smiled all through the meal and afterwards. Em LOVED the Dora Dollhouse that she talked about all month. I thought it might be a one day toy, but they all were playing with it. Silly girl, opened all her presents first, like the furniture for the dollhouse, then the big one. She was so TICKLED and giggled like it was a big surprise after getting 5 packages of accessories. So funny. I went back and forth whether or not to give Kat the baby doll that I got for each of the younger 3---she is such a little athlete and acts like a jr teen agree sometimes, but she is 10 and I LOVE dolls at Xmas so I gave her hers. Wouldn't you know, she carried it around all day and slept with it, like a little bitty girl. Made my day to see her still be "little enough to love a babydoll". They are adorable dolls and the little 3 all loved them. So sometimes Mrs. Santa still knows how to score. :) We watched the new Willy Wonka movie---love that Johnny Depp as WW. Then later we stayed up late and watched Star Wars 3. Not nearly as happy as Willy Wonka, but Jess and H hadn't seen it, and they were glad to put it all together. Sort of.

We planned to head to SE MO to see the Stinnett clan today. We had feared that Mark's software problems would keep us here, or the girls' stomach virus, but we didn't see the wrinkle that our 200,000+ mile van might bring. Yesterday on the way to church, M said it really didn't want to shift at 50 mph. We are transmission experts since we have put about 5 or so in cars of our lives. Of course, nothing was open to check it today, nor were there any vans to rent or even all the rental places open, so here we are. Who knows what tomorrow holds, but today our laundry was done and we were ready, even if the van wasn't.

In spite of our change in plans, we had a nice day. It was sunny and about 55 degrees. Kat and Abby both got to ride and ride and ride their new bikes. Kat tried out her new skates, so Ab and Em skated too. Then they got out the old scooters. Nice!! They opened the new Polly Pocket girls and introduced them to all the other PollyWorld friends, all over Abby's formerly clean room. If we would have left today, it would still be clean for company. sigh......The girls got some bead craft deal that you design and then iron, so everyone got to play that today, even Dad. I think all I did was the ironing, how did that happen??

We about finished the leftovers tonight, so if we don't leave, I'll have to cook again. Life is exciting here in StinnWorld. Stay tuned.

The wildness continues

I find that I might be too old to blog, as yesterday, or was it? Yes, it was, I was going to update and I couldn't remember my password and didn't have the energy to "jump thru the hoops" to find it. So today was better luck.

The house is temporarily quiet. The big girls went shopping. I hope Jess doesn't have trouble in all the holiday traffic. The younger girls are all outside. It's a gorgeous day, almost 60 degrees. I was out early with Abby to finish her 2 items. Then went to the grocery store. I don't think I've ever seen it so crowded, except on the "flu shot" day, but then the old people don't all stand in the baking aisle. ARGH! It was nuts. And I forgot nuts and oil. But Jess is brave enough to tackle Wal-Mart, a college learning experience. So she will help me out. She made me go there this week, and broke my record of NOT going there between Thanksgiving and Xmas. Our store is very hard to get to and get in and out. So I send the young, inexperienced driver. Works for me!

Today I'm happy to report that we are vomit-free. Katherine woke up feeling better. She was the 4th to get Abby's Birthday Bug. Abby started throwing up on the night before her birthday, and shared with H and Em then Kat. Mark, Jess and I are planning on being immune. I got enough of my stuff done that I could give directions from the bathroom or bed, if necessary, just hope NOT!!!

We decided to have our Xmas dinner tomorrow for lunch. Jess workds 4-7 tomorrow night and Sunday will be BUSY with church and Santa, so no time to cook and clean up. So I'm off to finish the cookies for the neighbors, dip a few more pretzels and start the wrapping. I drive myself crazy when I leave ALL the wrapping to the end, but it's such a mess to get it all out a bunch of times. Will work on that tonight.

We'll head to SE MO next week. Mark's big problem at work will have to wait until the break is over. He was glad to hear his software rep say "take it easy, we can't help." M is growing a GREY goatee, we'll see who breaks down first, me with a real haircut, (I haven't had a real one since July) or Mark to shave. The contest will continue in 06, to be sure.

Time to move on and finish getting some clean sheets around. Lots of bedding to do this week. Jess had 2 guys drop in earlier this week. They were in the St Loius area and thought she was in the Cape area, so they drove 2 hours farther than they planned, They aren't Geography majors. :) They were very nice, and prob are sharing Abby's Birhtday Bug with their families. We like to share!!! All for now.

Muffin recipe

Here is the new greatest recipe that we are LOVING. (Amie, you might already know this one b/c I got it from Joy via Sherry).

Pumpkin Muffins

1 box Spice cake mix
1 can pumpkin (approx. 16oz)
1/4 can water (pumpkin can)

Mix together and bake in muffin tins or small loaf pans, appropriately greased. Bake @ 350 for about 18 min for big muffins and 15 for small. I made 5 dozen small muffins out of one batch.

You can also use a yellow cake mix, or chocolate. I haven't tried the choc. yet, but I heard that they don't taste pumpkiny, just moist. Will add choc chips when I make them. Mark wants raisins in the next batch of pumpkin.

This a Weight Watchers recipe and a big muffin is only 2 points, not much, and the pumpkin is so full of fiber that you think you've had a really big treat. They are so tasty and so EASY!!! Kudos to Joy and Sherry! Enjoy.

Woo Hoo!

Can't believe it! Danni won!!! We were so surprised and so excited!!! The first time someone that we liked a lot had won and to be from KC, even KCK, is GREAT!!! With all the important things going on in the world, how crazy to be excited about Survivor. Whaddya gonna do? So fun!! Of course Danni was prob bummed before the show that the Chiefs lost to Dallas by a field goal (that was MISSED). Maybe that $1,000,000 check made her feel better. :) Hooray!! If the local media digs up some dirt on her now, I DON'T want to know. :)

Lots to do, Out for now.

K

Survivor Weekend

Talk about Survivor Weekend. We don't just mean the show either. Altho we are BIG fans of the show and are TOTALLY rooting for our KC gal, Danni. We will watch tomorrow night with our fingers crossed, but with fairly low expectations, b/c our fav rarely wins.

On another note, we got 10+ inches of snow on Wed and Thurs. It promptly got COLD, below 0 so we missed 2 days of school. I am wondering how MN moms cope with wet clothes all the time. I think I did 400 loads of laundry in one day, well maybe only 10 but it seemed like more. There must be a trick to it that I don't know. It did make this mom pretty CRANKY. I did play nice mom and let them play in the Xmas stamps and they had fun stamping and stamping. BTW Oxiclean will get out red ink from a 5 yr old's nice shirt if promptly dealt with--argh!! We watched some Xmas tv and they played a ton of games.

I got almost all my Xmas greetings ready to mail with the good help of my main techie, Mark, and a good stamper, Kat. Kat was in from the sledding as Abby ran over her with the sled on Thurs. Abby was going down the hill with her eyes closed--to see how it felt. Kat has been on a heating pad, but did make it to ball practice last night and to her game today.

On the final Survivor note, Hannah, Abby and Emily and I went to the nursing home for the annual Xmas party. This makes 5 years of Xmas at the Alzheimer's Unit. Yikes! Mom was dressed in her Xmas duds and they did a really good job helping everyone get their hair fixed at the salon and a bit of makeup. Mom had lots of smiles for us, and watched Em and smiled. She even tried to sing a few Xmas carols and smiled at my singing. (totally normal reaction. lol) She recognized her fav, White Christmas. I only teared up a couple times, and was glad we went. It's too hard to think about her sitting alone with everyone else having some family there, not that she would know the difference, but I would. I missed Kat's Sat ball game, but will get to see them tomorrow and Mon night. Always another game. :)

Tonight H and Kat and I are going to see The Nutcracker at Ray S High School. Our friends, Haylee and Jillian are dancing. Jilly is Clarissa and we can't wait to see her. :)

The whole month of December is about Surviving. :) My shopping is at about 1/2 way done. Our Xmas travel plans are making us and not them, will have to break the news to M softly. :) Time to stir up some Hamburger Helper, another Survivor food, and wash some heads before we go. Go Danni!!! Hang in there everyone!! Later I will post my new fav recipe that I feel burdened to share!!! So GOOD!!!

SNOW!!

If we believe the weatherman, then tomorrow this time we will have about 7+ inches of snow on the ground. We thought that 8 degrees was too cold for snow, then we remembered our Aunt Pat in MN and they have snow at that temp all the time. Emily and I ran a few errands (Hannah forgot her lunch) and it was fun to be out in the falling snow without bad roads--yet. I really thought it was too cold and too slick for all the senior citizens to be out at the weekly Kohl's sale. I don't mind the oldtimers, it's just they take all the carts and Em has to walk and they don't even have any little ones. That's my whine for today. Where's the cheese to go with that whine? Anyway we got our stuff done. The school isn't letting out early yet, but I'm watching for it. Will begin looking for the boots and ski pants. Know they will want to be out in it asap. If tomorrow is a snow day, maybe we can catch up on some of the Xmas movies that we have been taping or maybe they can help me with the Xmas mailing. Good goals, we'll see how it works. The first big snow is always exciting!!

Tues-12/06/05

Just a quick note. Emily and I are braving the 12 degree cold to go to the grocery store and Costco. I finally got our Xmas picture figured out so I'll head to the Costco for their help. The website wouldn't let me download it last night. So I'll have to talk to a real person. We need milk and gasoline, so I had to go anyway.

Katherine is FULL SWING in her basketball season. Her coach is also the girls varsity bb coach at the local Catholic school and is an excellent trainer. They play in the 4th grade league in town and various tournaments around the metro. ($25 please, oh, yeah, $5 to get in) Last night we played in a Catholic 5th grade tourney in Blue Springs. We played a good close game. After losing by 20 over the weekend to 5th graders, then beating 4th graders by 30, you never know what to expect. We didn't expect to win by 2 in the last 10 seconds. Very FUN!!!Thankfully Kat was on the bench and I didn't have to worry about her play, just enjoy the fun. My Jayette training paid off, I cheered and clapped and cheered and clapped. :) Kat got a couple steals and a couple rebounds and a couple fouls. She took a couple shots but the coach told her to pass the ball off. Guess she can only shoot when we are up by 10 or more. :)

Got to talk to Jess yesterday. She is doing well with the studying, other drama. No wonder everyone pairs off so quickly at HU, it's impossible for girls to get along together. Boys are easier to wrangle than nutsy girls. She is learning and growing. It's all good. :)

Time to check out the laundry before Em and I head out. It's library day and our hour at the elementary school too. Busy, busy.