Another Merry Christmas!

I can hardly believe that Christmas is over already. It always goes by in a such a blur. I feel blessed that there are always wonderful gifts under the tree for my children and tons of family gathered to share in the joy. This is the first year that I did not host my family on Christmas day so I decided to invite Scott's family over for Christmas eve dinner. We had a great time and the kids had a blast. Then Christmas day it was off to my niece's house. Most of my family was there so of course it was LOUD, but fun. Riley is going to have fun with her new keyboard and microphone, thanks Aunt Kelly. She has already been screaming at the top of her lungs preparing for her American Idol debut. LOL! Zachary can hardly tear himself away from his "Legend of Zelda" game and his Robopet and I'm just trying to dig through the mess and find my living room floor again.

Boy do I feel old!

I was driving Zachary and his friend Jeff home today and they were talking about the music they like. Jeff said "I like oldies bands". So I'm thinking The Stones, The Beatles, Doors? And Jeff says you know like Anthrax. OMG, I'M OLD!!!!! Hahaha! I came home and told Scott we are officially old because the bands that were popular when we were in high school are now considered oldies!

Zachary's 11th birthday

Zachary turned 11 yesterday. He had a good birthday. We went Cosmic bowling with some of his friends and then had family over that evening for cake and ice cream. I can harldy believe it's been 11 years since I became a Mom. He's growing so fast and has changed so much in the last year. He is not my "little" boy anymore.

Report card day at our house

I'm a proud parent tonight. The kids got their report cards today and Zachary got straight A's again and Riley has mostly 3's and one 2 (they don't get letter grades until 2nd grade). Zachary is in GATE this year so I was not sure if he would get all A's since they grade the GATE kids on a harder scale so I'm very proud of him. He was actually disappointed in himself that they were not all A+'s. My boy is so serious.
In Riley's parent/teacher conference her teacher said that in the state benchmark testing they want first graders to score 22 by the end of the school year and Riley scored 66 at the end of the first trimester. She also tested her up to the third grade level on her reading comp. and she said that Riley could have managed the 3rd grade section too, but she did not test her on it. She said that the biggest problem with Riley is that she gets the concepts quickly and is impatient to move on while the teacher is still explaining things to the class. I know that Riley is not the most patient girl so I can see that we will have to work on that.

All good things must come to an end

Remember I mentioned that we watched the annual tree lighting at our outdoor shopping mall a couple of weeks ago. Well, today we watched them chop up the tree with chainsaws and haul it away on a flatbed truck. We had a horrible wind storm a couple of days ago, 60+ mile an hour winds and the huge tree came crashing down. Luckily no one was hurt, but it left a huge mess in the courtyard of the mall and so today they were chopping it up and hauling it away and trying to salvage some ornaments. It's ironic because when the windstorm was so bad Zachary actually mentioned that he hoped the tree did not come down and I assured him that they had it anchored and I was "sure" it was fine. Well, I ate my words today. So now they are going to give it another go and put a new tree up on Monday.

What a day!

The day started out with me trudging out in the pouring rain to the courthouse to do my civic duty. It took 30 minutes waiting in the rain just to get into the courthouse through security. Which would not have been so bad except for the fact that 1) It was raining 2) It was 56 degrees out which may not seem that cold to some of you, but when you are born and raised in Southern California that might as well be sub zero temps. 3) There was a man outside the courthouse preaching hellfires and brimstone at the top of his lungs the entire time I was in line. What a way to start the morning and to add insult to injury they won't even let me bring my Starbucks into the jury room. Oh and I had to go back to the car in the rain because you are not allowed to bring a cellphone with a camera into the building, NO exceptions. Ugh! Long story short I sat around until early afternoon and then was excused. I got home just in time to pick up the kids and find the school is on lockdown "code yellow" because the police pursued a bank robber right into our quiet little neigborhood and he was last seen on the same street as the school. Helicopters and police cars are swarming around and parents were locked into the MPR and kids were locked in the rooms. 40 minutes later we get the all clear and can head home with the kids. I don't know for sure if they caught the suspect or not though because the helicopters are still circling the neighborhood. I'm ready for a fire in the fireplace and some warm hot chocolate with some butterscotch schnapps in it.

and the stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

and Riley hopes that St. Nicholas soon will be there. Our tree is up, lights are on the house, and (some)presents are under the tree. Riley can hardly stand the excitement. I'm cherishing this as the (possible) last year with a child who TRULY believes in Santa Clause. Zachary questioned it in first grade and did not believe by second grade. So my days as jolly old St. Nick are numbered. I will miss that joy and wonder on their faces when they come out Christmas morning and see what Santa has brought.

Sickies at our house

Well both Scott and Zachary woke up Thanksgiving morning with colds and they have gotten much worse today. So I am making my homemade chicken noodle soup today. I got the recipe off the internet a few years ago when I wanted to make homemade soup for my best friend who was recovering from surgery and came down with a cold. This recipe is the BEST I have ever tasted and now we make it every winter when anybody in the house is sick. Sometimes I double the batch and freeze some (without the noodles) so if I'm sick I can defrost some easily. Here is the recipe in case anyone is interested in trying it.

1 (2-3 lb) whole chicken
3 stalks celery with leaves
1 pound baby carrots
2 onions chopped
2 cubes beef bouillon
1 packet chicken soup mix
2 (14.5 oz) cans chicken broth
1 pinch dried thyme
1 pinch poultry seasoning
1 pinch dried basil
5 whole black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
1 pinch dried parsley
1 (8 oz) package bow tie pasta

1. Place chicken and celery leaves in a large pot. Cover with water, bring to a boil and simmer until chicken is cooked through, 30-40 minutes. Remove chicken from pot and place in a bowl to cool.
2. Place chopped celery, carrots, onion, boillon, soup mix and chicken broth in pot and let simmer. Season with thyme, poultry seasoning, basil, peppercorns, bay leaves and parsley.
3. When chicken is cool enough to handle bone and cut up meat into bite size pieces. Return meat to the pot. Cook until vegetables are tender and flavors are well blended, about 90 minutes.
4. Stir in pasta and cook 10 to 15 minutes more.

I have tried subsitutions and leaving some things out (when I don't have something), but I really like this recipe just as it is. It's great with fresh baked bread on a cold rainy day.

It "snowed" tonight

We went to our outdoor shopping mall to see the annual lighting of the Christmas Tree. I'm not sure why they have to do it so early, but we went none the less and tried to get into the holiday spirit. They made it "snow" afterwards which I always think is such a big bust since it's basically just suds coming down, but tonight there was a little baby next to us and her Daddy held her up above his head and the look on her face was just magical. She was so enthralled and I wish that I had my camera to capture the moment. Oh if only we could capture that joy and innocence forever.

Renaming my blog

I have renamed my blog and you have to guess where I got the name. It could be considered plagiarism, but I think I will be forgiven. ;-) I just saw the name, loved it, never really liked my original name, hence the change. There is a reason that someone among us is a published author.

The times they are a changin'

It's parent/teacher conference time again and I've been watching for the kids to bring home the schedules so I know when the conferences are. Well, Zachary brought home a paper that just said "a conference is not needed at this time. If you would like to request a conference please return this paper by Nov. 17th." So apparently in 5th grade they stop having conferences unless there is a "need" for the conference. I told Scott that I need more feedback than that. He told me to request a conference then, but since Zachary brought home all A's on his progress report it seems like a silly request. I just feel so disconnected from his schooling this year. This is the first year I have not gotten a weekly newsletter about what is going on in the class, no email contact for the teacher and NOW no conference. Talk about going cold turkey. I'm on withdrawls. The only connection I have is Zachary who quite frankly is closed up like a clam. The conversations go something like this.... "how was your day Zachary?" Fine. "What are you working on this week, what did you learn today, how was your day, etc....... "Fine". ugh!

December birthdays

I have always thought that people with December birthdays get a bum deal. In fact when Scott and I were trying to get pregnant for the first time we intentionally tried to skip the month that would result in our baby being due in December. We tried like bunnies for two months and then avoided getting pg the third month and of course that's the month I got pregnant with Zachary. I should have known it was fate since my Grandmother, Mother, both sisters, and one niece ALL had the same due date with our first child, December 18th. So I always try to make sure that Zachary's birthday is a special day and does not get downsized because of all the hustle and bustle of Christmas approaching. So I realized today his birthday is 3 weeks from Saturday and I had better get on it. The problem is that I have absolutely no idea what to do this year.

Founder's day parade

Riley was in a our City's founder day parade today. She joined the California Youth Spirit Corps. a few months ago and they marched in the parade today. She looked so cute performing her cheerleading routine. I think that she was just as excited about the fact that I let her wear blush and lip gloss as she was about marching in the parade. She thought she looked "beautiful" and I have to agree. LOL!

There's an author in our house

Yesterday I attended the Writer's Tea at Riley's school. The school has a writer's tea every trimester to showcase exceptional stories that the kids have written and their parents are invited to come hear all of the kids K-6 read their stories out loud. Riley was so proud and excited to read her story in front of everyone. She was not a bit nervous, but was in fact happy to be in the spotlight. It was really interesting to see the progression in writing from K-6 and I think I may have heard from some future authors some of the stories were that good. Riley's story was about Bats and was quite informational and well written. All the kids and parents had refreshments afterwards and Riley ate as many cookies as she could before I cut her off.

Ghouls and Goblins

This halloween we had a black cat, Lord Vader and a devil in our house. The "devil" (our two year old Labrador) definitely lived up to her persona. The kids had parties at school and then trick-or-treated through the neighborhood. Zachary felt it was just wrong that they had to go to school on a "holiday", boy is he in for a surprise when he enters the real world. Riley liked giving out candy to the kids at the door and seems to be the Halloween etiquette police. Kids did NOT get candy until they said "trick or treat" and they had better not show up without a costume or she will call them on it. haha!