Good-bye, 2008

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne ?

Chorus
For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld Lang syne,
We'll tak a cup o kindness yet,
For auld lang syne!

And there's a hand my trusty fiere,
And gie's a hand o thine
And we'll tak a right guid-willie waught,
For auld lang sine.
Chorus

Christmas recap

Well, it has been a whirlwind Christmas as usual for us. We've gone to Houston, back to Austin and back to Houston. Seen the Seattle crew, the church crew, one of the Arkansas crew, the Houston crew and the Dallas crew. Wrapped presents, opened presents and played with presents. Eaten fudge, turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, pralines, cookies, stuffing, green bean casserole and many other yummy things. We've thought about Christmas cards, New Years cards and have now resolved ourselves to Valentine's Day cards. Mostly importantly, we've praised, worshipped, prayed, taken communion, sung hymns and celebrated Jesus' birth. Merry late Christmas.

spaghetti intro

Sunday Christmas BBQ w/ good friends

Oberpriller Stevens family Christmas party.

Merry Christmas from the familyyyyyyy . . . .

Jingle All the Way

D's school play was last night. Was composed of pre-K, Kinder & 1st grade. D had big role of Mrs. Claus. We were very proud; she did GREAT!

yummy candy (and we have all consumed WAYYY too much)

Monday night T came home and made all sorts of taffies and brittles. He just wanted some so he made them. He took one batch to work yesterday. Is planning on taking even more to work, some to choir and some to a family party this weekend. We all ate sooo much Monday night that it made me a little sick. But, seeing as Tuesday was a new day, T instructed me before he left:
"This is for work. this is for choir and this is for this weekend."
"In other words, don't eat it today while you are at work?"
"Well, you can have a little. But yes, don't eat it."
I was good. Only ate 2 little bitty pieces. (But it is now Wednesday and he didn't instruct me this morning...)

quick list

• fri night the whole family went out to eat at macaroni grill
• sat night we went out w/ some of t's buddies for good tex-mex and then to wine bar
• walked around neighborhood last night to see the lights
• woke up early morning to RAIN (that's a big deal - we are in an extreme drought)
• spending the day inside b/c is COLD outside
• have made chicken stock for chicken soup and have pork shoulder for tacos in the crock pot.

Avocado milkshakes

My friend, Mandi, is currently living in Brazil and has commented several times about how the locals eat an avocado - in a milkshake! So T and I decided to try that out. There are 2 recipes on www.allrecipes.com. It's actually pretty good that way. I know it doesn't sound good but it is.

D is going to be Mrs. Claus in the school play next week and she has been memorizing her lines. We've slightly modified her Little Miss Muffett costume from Halloween for her outfit.

S is driving me crazy; she has taken to squealing and screaming quite loudly ALL THE TIME she is awake. S is also eating like crazy - 4 jars of baby food, oatmeal, lots of crackers and breastfeeding yesterday alone.

T continues to have conference calls at night. Work, work, work but glad he has it!

I'm getting the house better under control. The kitchen and den are mostly picked up most days. Started working on the master bedroom. It is a constant struggle for me.

Happy weekend!

sitting pretty

faith gift

My talented friend, Kathy, made this beautiful necklace and gave to me as a gift.

Small town Texas wedding

Last night we went to an absolutely lovely, beautiful, elegant and fun wedding. I knew it would be all of those things because we are friends with the groom's mother and she is all of those things. It really was amazing. But you know that you are at a small town Texas wedding when the preacher begins the ceremony with a mini sermon on how the work of a marriage is like cheerleading and gun collecting!

fashionista

Trey's CIL, Denise, shops a lot and has some fantastic taste in clothes. D is fortunate to get some really cute hand-me-downs from that side of the family. Two pair of warm up pants convert to shorts by zippers around the upper thighs. So today D wore the BRIGHT green pair and unzipped them to make her shorts. It is cold today in Austin and D couldn't get them rezipped. Neither could the teacher so she was sent to the nurse's office. One of the ladies in the front office helped her rezip them. It just cracked me up that she was sent to the school nurse for that. Those pants were the talk of the 1st grade today.

Also, tonight our church choir participated in a benefit concert. Trey did wonderful!

Us as elves

click here: The O Elves

new things

S is getting ready to crawl. She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth and back and forth.

Yesterday evening was beautiful so spent some time outside. I noticed that D has learned to climb trees quite well. All thanks to neighbor A for instructions. Earlier this year D got really good at the monkey bars. I remember last year that our God daughter C learned the monkey bars; C got so obsessed that she got big blisters on her hands. But she continued to play on the monkey bars at every recess.

Remember how fun those little accomplishments were? We should all remember to appreciate ourselves more. Why don't you celebrate an accomplishment you've recently made?