December Almost Over

Wow, it's been a long December/Christmas season! I'm glad it's almost over and life can get back to normal or at least what we call normal. My whole family came down here for Christmas and it was spent going back and forth between our house and the condo my sisters rented on Clearwater Beach. The condo was enormous so we had Christmas day and dinner down there. We also went to Disney's Hollywood Studios on the Monday before Christmas. It was very cold and windy that day but we all bundled up and had a fun day. Some of us took a little excursion on a boat which took us to a little island that the girls could go shelling. My brother-in-law and nephew went fishing and caught quite a few fish, so we took that fish to Crabby Bill's and they cooked it up for us. Very yummy! We also ate at Post Corner Pizza twice (almost as good as OP pizza back home). ANYWAY, we had a good time, Molly enjoyed having her cousins, and Grandma & Grandpa here. Especially Grandpa, who, when he found out Molly's friend Kerstin got a Razor Powerwing for Christmas and Molly didn't, went to Wal-Mart and bought her one for an early birthday present (her birthday is in April). We also went to the new Japanese Steakhouse for dinner because Molly bet Grandpa earlier in the year that if the Minnesota Gophers won against the Iowa Hawkeyes that he would have to take her to lunch. If the Hawkeyes won against the Gohpers she would let him take her to lunch (love how that works, huh!). So Grandpa suggested the Japanese Steakhouse, good thing a new one had opened up just a few miles from us so it wasn't busy and we got right in. Everyone loved the slippers I knitted, I even have a couple of more to do that I couldn't get done before Christmas. All in all we had a good time that went by too quickly. Everyone's plane arrived and got home safely only a couple of delays that didn't last too long. I'll have to post pictures when I get them downloaded from my camera. Hope you all had a safe and happy Christmas too. Happy New Year!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas to all my friends, family & internet friends!
I hope you are able to share this day with friends & family and those you love the most.
I hope your Christmas is filled with joy, peace & happiness!
Love
Deb

Crazy Dog

What a crazy dog, reminded me of when my dad would have to shovel or snowblow a path for our dachshund who wouldn't go potty in the snow. She would also stay out too long and freeze her little paws and stand there and hold one paw up and whine until you went to get her.

It also reminded me of all the bad weather going on in the midwest and east. Glad I live in Florida and don't have to deal with all the snow, ice and cold that they are right now. Hopefully all my family makes it down here, of course they are trying to fly out today and tomorrow from Iowa and Illinois. Crossing my fingers that they make it out and all in one piece!

Holiday Spectaular and Night Parade

So sorry I haven't updated in a while, been busy trying to get my house ready for company. Last week was so busy with dance that I am now able to get some things done around here. Monday and Tuesday were practice at the auditorium where the show was held, so basically you sit around there while the girls practice all evening. The dress rehearsal was a mess, at least that is what I heard from my husband who took pictures. All other parents weren't allowed to see it so that we could be surprised. Wednesday night for the performance it came off without a hitch. They had to change a few things the night before since some of the dancers weren't getting on stage because of the quick costume change. So all went well, I did however see that Molly came on stage at one point without shoes. Claimed she couldn't find them after she had taken them off earlier to put on tap shoes. Oh well, I went back at intermission and she had found them. Grandma and her sister Pat had come along and they both enjoyed the show. Pat couldn't get over how much Molly smiled and hammed it up on stage. Here are a few pictures from the performance.

How can you tell her you don't want to do this again when you see that smile on stage!

During the dress rehersal they had some issues with the glasses and wigs, was fixed for the show.

Then came the New Port Richey night parade, our dance studio was having a float in the parade and said anyone who wanted to walk along would be welcome. So Bill said Molly could do it, I had said earlier that it would be a "stay at home" week-end, ya right. Anyway, we had to be at the studio by 4:30 Saturday afternoon to get costumes and learn some choreography that they would be doing down the street as they walked. Then get the kids up to the start at 6:00 to line up then the Parade doesn't start until 7:00 pm. We buddied up with another Mom and she took her daughter and ours to the start of the parade. We found a place near the end of the parade since no one that we talked to had actually been to the parade or been in it to know what they do with the kids at the end. At about 7:45 the kids walked pass and Bill followed them to the end so that he could snag Molly and her friend. The girls then came back and watched the parade for another 45 minutes, and it was only half over! They were tired so I called the friend's Mom and let her know we were heading back to the studio (our designated meeting place). She said she was sitting at the beginning of the parade and there were still 4 floats to go. Man that was a long parade. I'm glad we left when we did, Molly was wiped and we hadn't eaten supper yet so we headed over to Buffalo Wild Wings and didn't get home till 10:00. Molly had fun though so she wants to do it again next year. Yea for me! There were several Moms walking along and one of them took pictures, ours didn't turn out so I'm glad she took several. Here are a few of Molly.

Cats in Sinks

Although this looks like Tux, it's not. He does however like to lay in the sink and would LOVE to have the water turned on!

That Darn Dog

So, who else has a dog that destroys things? Hmm...Anyone???
Well, our dog Maggie who is a Chesapeake Bay Retriever, ten years old, diabetic and blind decided to destroy two coolers. Here are a few pictures as evidence.

All that brown stuff all over the coolers is the dried blood
This is the culprit, Maggie. This picture was taken when she was younger, but just as naughty.

It was the Friday when I got my new refrigerator and we had been living out of two huge, heavy duty coolers for a couple of days and she had only sniffed at them a couple of times. She had been alone with them a few times also including 3 or 4 hours on Thanksgiving. So Friday comes and we spent all day home working on Molly's science project. The refrigerator comes in the afternoon and we put all of the food from the coolers into it. It was getting close to dinnertime and we didn't have anything to make so we went to a restaurant close by. We were gone maybe an hour, the dog had been fed so she wasn't hungry but I guess she was pissed off.

We return home to find our two coolers destroyed, blood smeared over both of them and a bag of ice out and melted all over the kitchen floor. The blood was from where she scratched her nose and probably her mouth from all the chewing. It looked like someone died and fought long and hard not to die. The thing that got me was there wasn't any food left in either of the coolers, here they had been sitting out for 3 days and she didn't touch them, go figure!?

Tub Shark

Da Dum, Da dum, da dum...look out, it's the tub shark! (that's supposed to be the jaws theme)
For those of you who don't know what a "Tub Shark" is, I'll give you a hint. It's black and white and purrs.
Our tuxedo cat (appropriately named Tuxedo) thinks that the tub is his personal water dish and bed. When ever we go into our bathroom he runs in there behind us and jumps in the tub hoping that you will turn on the water for him. He sits there with only his eyes and ears peeking over the top of the tub. He is a goofy cat and is obsessed with water, ever since he fell into the pool one evening.

A couple of years ago, I was sitting in the family room with the sliders open to the lanai (a screened in pool enclosure for you northerners). The cats like to go out on the lanai when it's nice weather and lay out there or chase and catch lizards (that's another story). All of a sudden I hear the scrambling of claws and a splash. I think, great...now I have to go into the pool and save the cat. Just as I went over and opened the screen slider, in races this wet mop and dives under the bed. AHHH now I have to pull a wet mad cat out from under my bed. He's growling and hissing the whole time but I get him out and into a towel to dry off. Ever since then he loves to play in the dog's water dish and play with the water out of the faucets. I thought cats were supposed to hate water. Anyway here's a picture of our very own tub shark!

Fun day at the Park

Molly and her Gingerbread House

Just a couple of Gummy Bears enjoying a campfire!

The front of the Gingerbread House

The backside of the Gingerbread House

We, Molly & I had a fun day at the park. My friend Katy gets a bunch a kids together to make gingerbread houses. Just small milk cartons, graham crackers, fondant icing and candy. The kids all had fun, beautiful day (just a tad windy), hot chocolate and snacks. Molly had fun making her house, think it will go to Grandma's as our dog would eat it in one bite. Forgot my camera but there was someone there with a digital going to send me a copy, hope she follows through. The kids then had fun playing on the playground at the park. After that Katy, I and the kids went to McDonald's to eat and they played again for a few minutes. Molly hasn't done that in ages so I was glad we could do that today. Now tonight Molly will go to grandma's to stay overnight, they have something they have been working on for Christmas so they were going to finish it up tonight. Grandma will then bring her to Church tomorrow where we will meet up.
It was nice having the whole week off, even if it meant getting sick and staying home.

Stuffed

Yes, I'm stuffed from Thanksgiving Lunch/Dinner. Everything was delicious! As promised here is the recipe for Scalloped Pineapple, sorry about no picture, we were in a hurry to get out the door and I didn't want to take a picture of a dish half gone so...take my word for it, it's great. Bill says it tastes like the best part of a pineapple upside down cake (with out the cake!)

Scalloped Pineapple
3/4 C Butter (softened)
2 C Sugar
3 Eggs (Beaten)
4 C Bread Crumbs (about 8 slices of bread)
2 Tbs Milk
1 20 oz. Can Crushed Pineapple

1. Cream Sugar and Butter until fluffy
2. Add beaten Eggs
3. Sprinkle Milk over Breadcrumbs
4. Fold in Breadcrumbs and Pineapple
5. Pour into casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.
6. Edges should be brown and center a light golden brown.
   

Refrigerator Madness

Ok, when is it the best time to have your refrigerator break down? NEVER! Anyway, Monday night Bill noticed that the stuff in the freezer section was not as frozen as it should be. WTF? We cleaned out the freezer, luckily we have a large freezer out in the garage. The refrigerator side seemed to be cold, but maybe not as cold as it should be. Bill called the repairman, Wednesday morning was the earliest they could make it. Of course I was planning on doing some errands that day, now I was stuck at home. The repairman didn't make it until 1:45 pm when they said it would be between 8:00 and 12:00, ya that's the story of my life. He didn't spend a lot of time looking at it when he stated that it would be cheaper to buy a new one than fix this one. WHAT? it's only 7 years old!!! "Well", he explained "you really should vacuum under the appliance frequently." Who vacuumes under the refrigerator? HMMM, I guess I should. So we are getting one almost exactly like the one we have except for Bill's favorite feature...THE MILK DOOR. Yes, our fridge had a covering over the milk shelf in the door with a hole connecting it to the freezer. So it would blow extra cold air on the milk. It was an extra $500 just for that feature. Needless to say we didn't get it, I may regret that one since I will hear about it for the rest of my life or until we get a fridge with that feature again.

Guess I'm luckey that my Mother-In-Law is having Thanksgiving this year. The stuff I'm bringing doesn't require the refrigerator so that's good. Bill requested we bring Scalloped Pineapple, an awsome recipe which I will post with a picture after Thanksgiving. Hope you all have a great Holiday!

"The Sickness"

The sickness has invaded our house, we haven't had the "throw-ups" in years. So we've been up since 4:30 when it started. She had just gone into the bathroom to use the toilet when I heard the retching. Luckily I was sleeping in the spare room with her last night since she had a stomach ache. So we only had the mess in the bathroom to clean up. Since then she has been back to her own bed with the bucket beside her. Just was talking to some other Moms at dance about how it had been years since Molly had been that sick. Now look, I jinxed myself. It's been going around at school and at dance. I guess we were due, just hope I don't get it. I've been washing my hands like a maniac since she started "using the bucket". So about 7:00 am I thought Bill could handle it and I laid down and just had drifted off to sleep when Molly came into our bed. Of course she thought she was done being sick and Bill didn't stop her, I told her she couldn't be in there unless she had the bucket with her. No sooner that she put that bucket on the floor and got into bed, she puked again, on my sheets, on the comforter and a little in the bucket. AHHH, I can't stand that smell, it's bad enough to rinse out the bucket but to then have it in my bedroom.
I know she couldn't help it but Bill let her get out of her bed and into mine. Didn't he see what would happen, men... So hopefully we don't give it to too many people, hope we aren't sick next week either. That would be a bummer, I remember being sick during Thanksgiving one year, took forever to even think about eating pumpkin pie again!

Here are a few pictures from the performance that I promised you.

Candy Cane Dance
March of the toy Solders

This picture was taken shortly after I poked Molly in the shoulder with the safety pin
that held up her strap.

Raggedy Dolls

The kids had fun (I think) and I know a lot of people stopped to watch the them dance. We had Toy Solders, Raggedy Ann dolls, Reindeer, Elves, Rocketts, Clowns and the Nutcracker performing. The Christmas Spectacular is on December 10th if you would like to see a great Christmas show.

They had fun but my back hurts, my head hurts and my feet hurt. All from standing at Publix 3 hours and changing costumes!

Christmas Spectacular

My daughter Molly is in dance (as if you didn't know that already) and her dance studio is putting on a Christmas Spectacular on December 10th. They have been practicing and practicing and practicing, every week-end. Tonight they are performing at outside one of the local Publix grocery stores. I guess all the Publix in the area are having some sort of Christmas performance, not sure if it is just to get everyone into the spirit or if they are celebrating something. Have not seen anything about it in the papers or their ads. So they perform tonight from 4-7 doing their dances and singing their songs. They are excited, me not so much since I will be there from 4-7 keeping an eye out for my daughter and her little friend that I will be in charge of.
Will take pictures and post some tomorrow.

Bucs vs. Vikings

Bill & I were lucky enough to go to the Buc's vs. Vikings game yesterday. Bill had a vendor that gave us tickets in a suite, and was it sweet!!! Lots of good food, the weather was coo,l great for an outdoor football game. The suite's glass windows rolled back to give it the feel of outdoors. Too bad the Vikings lost, we were the only Vikings fans in the suite so there was a lot of cheering from our fellow suitemates. It did make for some great people watching (which I love to do). Raymond James was giving out free Bucs visors so we picked one up for Molly and her friend Hailey whom she was with all day while we had fun at the game. I wish I had taken some pictures to upload here but I forgot, this blogging thing is still new to me. I will have to remember next time!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Busy, Busy, Busy, reminds me of the magician in Frosty. The uptight gay magician who wanted his hat back, ya know the one that made Frosty come to life! What a jerk.

Anyway we had a busy week-end with dance on Friday night, dance on Saturday morning and afternoon, Molly going to Grandma's to stay overnight, Church on Sunday morning and dance again after Church. When we finally had a free moment on Sunday afternoon, Molly & Dad had to work on the science fair project. She only had about a half an hour to play with her next door neighbor friend Kerstin. She hardly has time to be a kid anymore. The dance on the week-ends will end soon, it's for the "Christmas Spectacular" show the studio is putting on. Molly originally didn't want to do it, which was fine by me but then she saw the tin solders that they bought for the show. She then got excited about it. I think she is having fun with it and it is just till Dec 10th when they have the show. We then headed out to the spaghetti supper the youth of the church was putting on to raise money for their trip to the National Youth Gathering in New Orleans in 2010. We drove by the church and the parking lot was FULL. Needless to say we drove on past thinking we could just give them some money and not make matters worse by trying to eat some spaghetti in an already full fellowship hall. There is always next Sunday when they do it again at the north campus.

As for this week, Molly has off on Tuesday, ya that's right a day off of school in the middle of the week. Genus! Go to school for 1 day and then off and then go back for 3 days, why didn't they choose a different day to take off? Veterans day??? Don't remember having off that day before. Oh well, we might go shopping or something, we have to get an outfit for one of the scenes for the show, an all white, off-white or cream outfit. You hear me correctly, in the winter. I think I found one at Macy's, an off-white velour sweatsuit, that will have to work. Also a colorful sweater or fleece shirt with a scarf and hat. I found the scarf and hat at Old Navy on Saturday for a $1 each! What a find!!! Granted down in Florida we don't have much use for the hat and scarf, maybe one or two days during December or January. We aren't going to make it up north this year so I'm glad they were only a buck.

Next Sunday Bill and I have tickets to the Bucs vs. Vikings game. A vendor of his gave us the tickets and they are in one of the suites. Origianlly Bill asked if I wanted to go or if he should take Molly. I said Molly could go, she would love it. Then I found out it was in a suite, man that stuff would be wasted on her so I'm going. Besides she has dance practice again anyway. I'm not that big of a fan of either teams, can't stand to watch football on TV, but being at a game is different. It will be fun.

Phantom Was Great

We had an awesome time at Phantom of the Opera. The cast was great (although I have to say no one is as good as Michael Crawford!). Molly & her friend Lexxus enjoyed the show, Molly knew what was going on because she had seen the movie, Lexxus not so much. We didn't get to go backstage because the girl who had done the master class wasn't there that night. The girls were bummed but as we were leaving, the usher told us that some of the cast was doing a Q&A for the kids down in front of the stage. So we went down there and there were about 7 or 8 cast members that came out. Lexxus had one of her questions answered, so she was happy. Both girls got shirts that said Prima Donna on the front and Phantom of the Opera on the back. (That cost a small fortune!) The drive down to Tampa was a little hairy when whe reached 275, bumper to bumper the last 4 miles, I think that took 20 minutes of our 45 minute drive, what do you expect from rush hour. It was worth it though we had a fun girls night out. When we got home Lexxus was staying overnight and they spent an hour winding down before going to sleep. They were troupers getting up in the morning for school though. Since they go to different schools, I took Lexxus and my MIL (who went to the show with us and also stayed overnight) took Molly, since both of their schools started at the same time. I took the camera but wasn't allowed to take any pictures of the stage, forgot about taking one of the girls infront of the theater. Oh well, next time!

Phantom Phever

Yipee, we get to go to Phantom of the Opera tonight! It's playing at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Theater for the next couple of weeks. For some of the shows you can purchase an adult ticket and get a child's ticket for free. So that's what we did for this evening, Molly gets to take along a friend since we had the extra ticket. The girls are very excited since Elaine Matthews (who is currently in the Phantom of the Opera) came to their dance studio last week-end to teach a master class. She said she would take the girls backstage to meet some of the cast to take pictures & get autographs. I am also excited since it was the Phantom that got me "hooked" on musicals and theater. I was a Phantom Phan way back when it first came to Broadway. My roommate at the time and I traveled out to L.A. to see Michael Crawford in Phantom. I have never forgotten the feeling that first moment when the chandelier rises to the ceiling. The music, the drama and the songs. Molly has love of the theater and I hope she "gets that feeling" as well.

CHANGE

Wow, I was overwhelmed by the amount of people who got out to vote, guess that says something about the current condition of our country. I'm proud that our country elected our first African/American as our president. When I talked to my friend Chris, we discussed how we want to believe in him and what he says he will do. DON'T LET US DOWN! I know that it isn't just the president who runs the country but it is the president who sets the pace, I hope with the House and Senate, both now with the Democrat majority, that he can get some things done. I know it will be a rough row to hoe, but we have hope.

Vote!

This cartoon about sums it up, but it is important to vote. Prayerfully consider the candidates and choose the one that feels right for you. BTW, that's a worm who is voting!

Halloween Night

We had a great time Halloween night. We trick or treated and had a bonfire in the yard. It was a chilly night so the fire was greatly appreciated by most of the parents who walked by. Molly dressed as the Genie and trick or treated with her next door neighbor and best friend Kerstin. Then when they had enough candy they went over to Kerstin's house to hand out candy.
Here are a couple of pictures of the girls.Molly doing her I dream of Jennie impression.Should have taken the camera along and gotten snaps of the neighborhood. Many go all out and have the yard all decorated. None were too scary for the girls and they ran from house to house. There were a lot of houses dark that night though. Not sure what the reason, maybe because it was a Friday night and there were more parties. Kerstin's Mom said maybe because it cost a small fortune to buy candy. She's right there, we didn't have as many kids come around this year so I have a lot of candy left. Maybe I'll just stick it in the freezer and use it for Christmas baking!