Christmas Spirit Award

Thanks to Amanda from Bookwormom for nominating me for this award!

The rules are listed below:

"You must be a true Christmas lover to receive this award.The person to whom you give the award must also be in love with Christmas.Link back to the person who gave you the award. List 5 things that you love about Christmas. If you can't limit it to 5 things, then keep going till you run out of space! Pass the award along to as many people as you like. That can be 1 or 50. It's up to you! But keep the Christmas cheer going! Let your recipients know that you have tagged them by leaving them a comment. Also, link back to the person who gave you the award."

Hmmm...

1. The joy on the little boy's face Christmas morning.
2. The Children's Nativity Mass--the church is simply beautiful and the children do such a wonderful job re-enacting the Nativity.
3. Time with family.
4. Buying the tree.
5. The way the house glows with all the Christmas lights and decorations.
6. Wrapping presents--is this one odd?
7. Baking the goodies.
8. That tired feeling all moms and dads have at 5:00 am when the kids simply can't wait for the sun to come up.
9. Christmas Eve dinner--I don't have to cook :)
10. Book store gift cards :)

I'm so out of the loop, I have no idea who to tag... Wendy--the Super Librarian, who is home in Michigan and may not even see this :)

The Christmas Spirit Award

Thanks to Amanda from Bookwormom for nominating me for this award!

I promise I'm working on my list :) but I have to go make breakfast. I'll be back later :)

Loving it... Not

Over the weekend I planned on writing a post about how much I'm enjoying reading again. That I am enjoying just about everything, and even when I'm not loving every book at least nothing has been a wall banger. That I'd blog hopped around, found a list of recommended reads and with Barnes & Noble Gift cards in hand, bought 3 books and planned to settle in and read...

Well, I'm 130 pages into the first book and am about ready to throw it against a wall. I'm not going to mention the book at this point, maybe it gets better, maybe I'm simply missing what makes it a "recommended read".

On to other things--it snowed here this weekend. It snowed and snowed and snowed. We have about a foot of the white powdery stuff. Thanks to the snow the baking and candy making are just about finished, and there's only a tad bit of wrapping left.

All is good, take care and happy reading.

2 hour delay this am

Well, we have a 2 hour delay this morning and Jen did ask for some pictures...


T-Ball last spring, he officially moves up to coach pitch this year. Please note he wears his socks "just like A-Rod."










First day of school, who knew a disruptive little comedian could hide behind such a cute face.





For Veteran's Day this year his teacher asked them to bring in something special from a family member who served in the military. My hubby has Civil War and Spanish American War medals from his family. Junior was rather proud to bring them in for show and tell.






He couldn't decide what to be for Halloween this year. At the last minute he decided to be a hunter, not Mommy's first choice in costumes, but he had great fun.


I have no idea when he took this one.

Last night was the Cub Scout Christmas Party and somehow being the airhead that I am I forgot to bring a camera. Hoping someone got a decent picture of him getting his new patch and beads.

Got to go, the child needs a second breakfast.

What's Happening?

Well, it seems I disappeared for 9 months. Much longer than I had thought. This will hopefully be a quick catch up...

Junior:
Junior is great. He turned 7 in August, had his first Cub Scout Campout Columbus Day weekend, was a hunter for Halloween, made his First Confession last month, received his first report card for 2nd Grade and can not wait for Christmas. Every morning he wakes up and does countdown til Christmas, "10 more days..."

We gave him a Wii for his birthday, loves it, but we obviously had to set limits. He can only use it Friday, Saturday and Sunday when he has school. This has worked out pretty good--he's not addicted to the thing.

The Cub Scout Campout was incredible. Our group is sponsored by our church, so our Pastor came and said Mass on Saturday night by the campfire--it was amazing.

Halloween is interesting at our house. The child doesn't really like candy, but loves to go door to door. Normally, I go with him while my husband gives out candy. This year the hubby took him around. He was amazed--everyone knows Junior.

First Confession was interesting. Junior was terrified, he hasn't seemed to master the "Honor they Father and Mother" thing, and figured he was in big trouble, but all went well.

That first report card got him in a ton of trouble. Not that his grades are bad, he has a 94 average. The problem was the C in conduct. Turns out the little clown we have at home is the same way in school, a regular little cut-up. Unfortunately, his teacher doesn't appreciate his Calvin and Hobbesesque humor the same way we do. "He needs reining in... he should have had a 98 or 99 average...he maybe cute now, but what's funny now may just be obnoxious when he's older..." Blah, Blah, Blah it went on for 20 minutes. I left the school not happy and in tears. My angel isn't such an angel--LOL. Well, we're reining him in, yet after talking to other parents, it seem the teacher is looking for "Stepford Children".

I'm expecting him to be up any minute and announce it's 9 days til Christmas.

The Job:
The job is great. I love working in the rectory. I'm very busy with the bookkeeping and I create the bulletin each week. It's funny and interesting to see all aspects of the priests' lives. In some ways they're different, but honestly men are men.

Books:
So, what have I been reading? Apparently, not much. What sent me blog hopping? Elizabeth Hoyt's To Seduce a Sinner--loved it!! It also sent me looking for her To Taste Temptation. I didn't love that one. In fact was really disappointed with that one, but I will say I loved the fairy tales in both books.

I don't have time to write anything else, hopefully I'll be back later. Take care everyone :)

Reading Hiatus

Soooooooooooooooo, I've been gone a really long, LOONNNGGG time, and it's sad to say I'm completely out of the romance reading blog loop. It's also sad to say I've read less than 10 new books in the last 6 months.

Hope all are well, did a little blog hopping this morning and hope to continue to do so on a more regular basis.

One Flaw in Women

Women have strengths that amaze men.
They bear hardships and they carry burdens,
but they hold happiness, love and joy.
They smile when they want to scream.
They sing when they want to cry.
They cry when they are happy
and laugh when they are nervous.
They fight for what they believe in.
They stand up to injustice.
They don't take "no" for an answer
when they believe there is a better solution.
They go without so their family can have.
They go to the doctor with a frightened friend.
They love unconditionally
They cry when their children excel
and cheer when their friends get awards.
They are happy when they hear about
a birth or a wedding.
Their hearts break when a friend dies.
They grieve at the loss of a family member,
yet they are strong when they
think there is no strength left.
They know that a hug and a kiss
can heal a broken heart.
Women come in all shapes, sizes and colors.
They'll drive, fly, walk, run or e-mail you
to show how much they care about you.
The heart of a woman is what makes the world keep turning.
They bring joy, hope and love.
They have the compassion and ideas.
They give moral support to their
family and friends.
Women have vital things to say
and everything to give.
HOWEVER, IF THERE IS ONE FLAW IN WOMEN,
IT IS THAT THEY FORGET THEIR WORTH.

Snow Day :)

School's closed today. So, Junior and I are both home. His room already looks like a bomb exploded in a toy store and it's only 10:30 in the morning--LOL. It's going to be a long day :)

Good news, the scan of Dad's lungs came back tumor free. The doctor still did a biopsy of the inflamed tissue, but isn't expecting anything negative. Thanks to all for the thoughts and prayers.

This is a week or so late, but how about those Giants!! Best Super Bowl Ever!!

My dad is a die hard Giants fan. I remember sitting on his lap watching games when I was little asking "Who are the good guys?" Dad's very superstitious and always wore his lucky sweater when I was a kid. When he wore it they won, no sweater they lost. Pretty simple. Since Dad was in the hospital and Mom has probably long since gotten ride of the lucky sweater, I decided to wear my lucky pink fluffy bathrobe.

You're probably wondering why it's lucky. Well, taking a page from Dad, I was wearing it for the last game of the season, Giants and Patriots, for the first three quarters I wore the bathrobe, got hot and took it off during the fourth quarter and they lost. Figured if I wore it again and left it on they would pull off the upset and they did :)

Forget the amazing throw by Eli to David Tyree, forget the defense beat the heck out of Brady, the Giants won because I was wearing my lucky, pink, fluffy bathrobe for the entire game this time.

Got to get Junior to clean that room, have a good one :)

What the heck happened?

To me that is :) ?

I didn't realize I was gone for so long. Kept telling myself "I'll get to it tomorrow." Yikes, tomorrow was 2 1/2 months later.

So, the last time I left off here, I was working from home for an outsourcing company, very involved with my son's Catholic school and not finding very much time to read.

Not much has changed, except now you can call me The Church Lady!! Monday I started working at my church's rectory doing bookkeeping and database work. I've cut my hours back at the outsourcing company to basically whenever I want to work.

To be honest Christmas time became a huge chore this year. My job at the outsourcing company is for an incoming call center for a credit card company. Calls were non-stop for 5-6 straight hours a day. Then I had the shopping, wrapping and decorating to get done. By the time my day was finished I didn't have the heart to sit down for one more minute at this computer.

Add to all this I do public relations for the school. Which normally isn't overwhelming, but Catholic School's Week was January 27 - February 1, and all the projects I've been working on came to a head. I ended up spending the entire month of January getting brochures finished, the school website up and running, school newsletters to the parishes that send kids to the school, advertising scheduled and PR finished. I think I need a committee, it was too much work for one person. Throw in Advisory and Parent Organization meetings and Tuesday night Cub Scouts (I hate Cub Scouts) and I'm done in.

The hardest thing we've been dealing with... my dad's been in the hospital twice, he's been diagnosed with COPD along with all of his other problems and the specialist now want to do a biopsy of his lungs to check for cancer. It's scheduled for Friday. This is probably the most stressful part of all our lives.

At this point I'm not even sure I've finished a book in the last couple of months. I've got two books started and a HUGE TBR pile. And at the TOP of the TBR pile are Francine Rivers Biblical series, not that I really want them at the top, but I promised my sister I'd read them. And she may give up her Christian beliefs and beat me up if I don't read them soon :) I've been receiving ARCs that desperately need reading and reviewing.

Junior is still as cute as a button :) And doing very well in school academically. His behavior leaves a little to be desired, but we're working on that too.

That's it for now. Back later :)

Hello out there

Hello, hello, hello, hellooooo!

Is anyone out there??