A Merry Christmas to all.....

except for the cat!! Knocked the tree over 3 times. Coincided with him getting neutered. It almost felt like revenge!! Isn't that pitiful? Note how the colored lights no longer go all the way to the top. So, this is our once glorious tree. It was such a happy tree. Huge! Tall and big and fat! Perfect tree! I had so much fun decorating it. Heavy sigh here. So, the kids are in bed, the turkey is in the smoker in the garage. It smells soooo good! And Santa is on the way! Merry, Merry Christmas to everyone! We hope you get everything you asked for and feel loved by everyone!

Applause, applause

I am so behind at posting. This little event actually took place at the beginning of the school year. Ethan and Emily received awards for achieving perfect, PERFECT, scores on their SOL tests at school. And, hey, SOL stands for Standards of Learning.....just sayin'. Emily scored her perfect score in history. Ethan made perfect scores on history, reading, and math. He was the only one in the whole student body that scored perfect on 3 tests. Do you think he got credit for that? Nope......he is a terrorist. THAT is a LONG story and I shouldn't even say it here because I'm afraid someone from the school will read it and the whole mess will start all over again. Call or email and I will fill you in. Although, every time I think about it, I think I need a bigger soap box!! So, for now, we just celebrate the smartness of our kids! And just because John did not get perfect scores, do not think that he is not smart. He is a very mature, very smart boy. He does things (managing his money) already that I see some adults (me) have trouble with. So...John, Ethan, Emily....take a bow for all your hard work and effort....we're so proud! (someone hand me a tissue)

The Great Hunter

He doesn't look very excited does he? OH MY!! Everyone who has come near has had to hear the story. John's first deer. He was so proud. He had a hard time getting the cross hairs on the scope to line up because his heart was beating so hard. But he got it! All that sitting and watching and sitting and watching and sitting and watching paid off. And in the cold! I could not sit still that long, much less in the cold.

Catchin up

Now that I am on Christmas break I can blog. Ahhhhh, I feel so relaxed. Got 3 As and 2 Bs. Got an A in Pathophysiology. That's my trophy. That was a hard class. And next semester I start my first practicum in Women's Health. Class starts again on January 19th. Until then I will be sitting on the couch eating bon bons and watching Oprah if I am needed......and DON'T need me!

Isn't that the most spoiled cat you have ever seen. We set that up to take a picture, but the cat never moved. He napped right there just like that for the whole afternoon. He did push the little teddy bear away, but never even took his head off the pillow. He does pay a price, though, for all that spoiling............and the price is.....he has to wear baby doll dresses for the kids. It is a male cat. Poor thing! He takes it like a champ. Emily is sitting here beside me reading this and reminding me how much the cat enjoyed wearing the dress. He also likes the Christmas tree. He has a favorite low branch he loves to sit on. It's going to get him killed. And every so often I catch him sitting in the middle of town square of my Christmas houses. It looks like he is really waiting for someone to come out of one of them so he can pounce on them. Also something that is going to get him killed or maimed.

And now we can talk about Halloween, yaaaa now that it's Christmas, just a little behind. Loved my purple lights. And there are five pumpkins...one for each of us. Halloween was not as much fun for us this year. Our neighborhood changed the way they do our Halloween celebration. We did the trunk or treat this year with a hayride. It was fun; it just wasn't quite the same as going door to door. BUT we still got chocolate and that's all that counts!

Breaking the law.....

....or at least, all of our holiday traditions. We had a really nice Thanksgiving. We thought we wanted to go to Baltimore and have Thanksgiving there because there are some really fun Christmas Tree farms near there and we could just make a weekend of it. We planned to eat at Cracker Barrel for Thanksgiving dinner. It was a great plan. Really. Except that the forecast for Friday was rain, rain, rain, and more rain. I was starting to get sick Tuesday, a simple cold, but nonetheless, I was slightly fatigued, grouchy, ya know....not much different than normal, according to John. So, we went to a movie Thanksgiving day, A Christmas Carol. It was IMAX AND 3D. What more could you ask for? A better movie, actually. The affects/effects (I'm not sure which one) were great, but the movie itself was a little intense. Did not leave ready to go save all the Tiny Tims of the world. It should have been heart warming. Parts of it were a little scary. Anyway, back to the story....we decided to come home Thanksgiving day because of the forecasted rain in Baltimore on Friday. So, we did come home that day. Long trip. We did eat at Cracker Barrel. It was so yummy! Especially since I did not have to cook it myself. Came home. It rained Thanksgiving Day here at our house, so Friday we could not go to a Christmas Tree farm here because it was too muddy. So......did we go Saturday. NO, Heaven's no, this year we are all about breaking traditions and routines. We went to Lowe's on Friday night and got the biggest Christmas tree they had. It is truly, larger than life, exactly what Christmas is supposed to be. I feel like I should keep apologizing to the tree. It really should be somewhere it can be more appreciated and better decorated. But I love it! It makes me happy. I didn't think we were ever going to get it in the house. John had to cut a lot off the bottom and the top. It just didn't look that big at Lowe's. Now it's up and mostly decorated.....just waiting for the cat or the dog to come knock it over. I will have no mercy......

Yaaaaaaa........

one day may never get here. It seems like I am always too busy to post an update, although, I'm sure that's not true. I don't really study on the weekends. I COULD, actually, make a post on the weekends, I'm just too busy catching with the household and running errands. Plus John is home on the weekends, so who wants to sit in front of the computer?? But, let's see...what are the Thompsons up to? John is in Baltimore during the week still. How long do we have left?.......August 2010. Ethan's last football game is tomorrow night. Ethan has had a great season. He has learned so much and gotten a lot less timid. We had his birthday party this weekend. He wouldn't let us take pictures of him right now. He wouldn't even let us sing to him over cake. But he had a really good party. The boys (3 dads and 5 sons) went to Buffalo Wild Wings for wings and football. The girls (3 moms and 2 daughters) went somewhere better. Then we all met back at the house for ice cream cake and good times. Ethan got a Texas hoodie, an Army hoodie, a Dallas Cowboys book bag (which has not arrived yet, so shhhhh!), a Game Stop gift card and lots of money. I want some!!! And if you can't tell.....he is very much into football. He is absolutely a fair weather fan. He loves A&M, but they aren't doing too hot, so he had to jump the fence and cheer for Texas. His Halloween pumpkin reflects this. I'll try to post a picture of that.

I am almost done with my first semester back in school. I will be glad to get a break. I did my last physical assessment demonstration today and this is my last week of lecture. All we have left is finals and I plan on having a little meltdown for each one. Stay tuned......

Emily is doing Irish dance this year and is really enjoying it.

John continues to be a 30 year old man in a 13 year old body. Poor thing. He comes home, does his chores without being asked, does his homework, eh, most of the time without being asked, and doing it well (actually this is a HUGE improvement over last year), he's so grown up. He wants power tools for Christmas. I can't wait until he can drive. I will have my own chauffeur.

OK.....see how boring we are....I don't think I have anything else for ya. I will try to post before another month goes by.