Football and a few other things

Yesterday Leo and I traveled to Storm Lake for the player/parent football banquet at BV. What a nice experience. Of course, the highlight of the trip for me was seeing Michael. Let me tell you though, what a class act Coach Anderson and his staff are. As part of the scout team he was given one of this mini-replica helmets - isn't it cute? Does he look like an offensive lineman (Michael is in the orange shirt, his room mate Jason is in the blue)?

I'm really looking forward to Thursday of this week. The kids come home that day. I get to go get Micah and I can't tell you how happy I am to have that opportunity. We've been talking the last few days about a gift for her room mate for Christmas. We decided on a picture frame, so I've been busy creating the last couple of nights. This is what I came up with. Sure hope Jesse likes it. I thought it came out pretty cute.

I've also been working on an accordian fold album using some of the custom papers from Scrappin' Sports and More. I'm telling you, this paper is awesome - GET SOME!!! You can pick the colors, you can pick the text, it's great. (Here's the link to the custom catalog http://www.scrappinsports.biz/) Truely, this is fun stuff. I've been having a lot of fun with it. So far I've done this little prom album and I've done a graduation layout. Where else could I get something with Micah's name spelling right????

Prom Accordian Album:

Cover for Prom Album:

Graduation layout:

As you can tell, I'm not so great at this adding picture thing to my blog. Still don't know really how to format it all. Maybe that should be my project for 2009?

Thanks for stopping by.

MIA

Have I been missing in action or what? It's been a while since I last updated this baby. So, what's been happening?

• Call Me Grace ... Yeah, my new name. Seems I had a little up close and personal visit with the curb outside the administration building. The one day I get to work early and BAM! I decide to run a quick errand and on the way back to my office I trip on the curb and fall on my face. As I was quickly (or not so quickly in my case) tried to pick myself up off the ground, my shoes flying, the mail I was carrying strewn all over the ground, I realize it wasn't my face I landed on, but my knee - OUCH! It's now been a couple of weeks, a couple of visits to the dr. and a couple of visits with physical therapy and I'm almost back to normal. The knee is still sore, but hey, at least I can walk without a limp.


• The kids came home! ... As you know, I'm not wild about this "empty nest" thing. So, I'm sure you can imagine my joy at having the kids home over the Thanksgiving weekend. Micah came home on Tuesday, Michael on Wednesday. I was in heaven for 5 whole days. We spent Thanksgiving Day at Mom's with G'pa John and Nora and Toad all joining us. Micah and I ventured to Jordan Creek Mall for some Black Friday shopping (leaving home a little after midnight and getting back home around 4:00 AM). Didn't buy much, it was more for the experience. Michael spent a lot of time relaxing and playing Xbox. I learned more about Xbox and his little potty mouth on that thing than I care to know! Leo and I both enjoyed having the kids back under our roof for a few days. Needless to say, Sunday was kind of a rough day around here when they left. The good news is that they will be home a week from today. They both finish up their 1st semester finals on Thursday of next week and will be headed home right after. YEAH!!!


• A new tree ... Auntie called last week asking if I wanted a new Christmas tree. The one we've been using the last few years came from her as well and it's a gorgeous tree, looks absolutely beautiful all decorated up. But, since she offered up a new one, I took her up on the offer. The best thing is the new tree is a pre-lit one! OMG. Talk about a time saver. In less than a half hour that baby was up and shining bright. Heck, if I were still using the other tree, I'd probably still be putting the lights on it. Whoever came up with the pre-lit concept was a genius.

See, isn't it pretty. Now, if only I was motivated enough to get the rest of the Christmas decorations put up.