Balls, balls, and more balls!

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

Ms. Tracey had her annual Ornament exchange party. This is the first year I was able to attend. Fun was had by all. The ornaments were pretty and lots of imaginative ideas. We all had fun with "taking" each others balls (glass ball ornaments).

Of course, when you get a bunch of women, who all know each other, together and add in libations, we were all laughing about lots of things. Mostly the balls that were given. Balls of all different sizes, large, small, dangly, and stinky sticks. Lots of fun men would not understand!!

Fiesta Anyone?

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

My second grader's class is studing Mexico. Instead of having a holiday party, the teachers decided to to have a Fiesta. The kids did the Mexican Hat Dance, ate an assortment of "Mexican" food and broke a pinata. The past couple weeks, they have also made woven placemats, masks, ponchos and a pinata. The kids loved being involved in the festivities. They had such fun.

The Night Before Christmas for Moms

The Night before Christmas for Moms

It was the night before Christmas, when all thru the abode

Only one creature was stirring, and she was cleaning the commode.

The children were finally sleeping, all snug in their beds,

While visions of Wii and Barbie, flipped through their heads.

The dad was snoring in front of the TV,

With a half-constructed bicycle on his knee.

So only the mom heard the reindeer hooves clatter,

Which made her sigh, "Now what's the matter?"

With toilet bowl brush still clutched in her hand,

She descended the stairs, and saw the old man.

He was covered with ashes and soot, which fell with a shrug.

"Oh great," muttered the mom, "Now I have to clean the rug."

"Ho-ho-ho!" cried Santa, "I'm glad you're awake."

"Your gift was especially difficult to make."

"Thanks, Santa, but all I want is some time alone."

"Exactly!" he chuckled, "I've made you a clone."

"A clone?" she asked, "What good is that?

Run along, Santa, I've no time for chit-chat."

There stood the clone, the mother's twin.

Same hair, same eyes, same double chin.

"She'll cook, she'll dust, She'll mop every mess.

You'll relax, take it easy, Watch The Young & the Restless."

"Fantastic!" the mom cheered. "My dream come true!"

"I'll shop. I'll read. I'll sleep a whole night through! "

From the room above, the youngest began to fret.

"Mommy?! I scared... and I am wet."

"The clone replied, "I'm coming, sweetheart."

"Hey," the mom smiled, "She knows her part."

The clone changed the small one, and hummed a tune,

As she bundled the child, in a blanket cocoon.

"You the best mommy ever. I really love you."

The clone smiled and sighed, "I love you, too."

The mom frowned and said, "Sorry, Santa, no deal."

"That's my child's love, she's trying to steal."

Smiling wisely Santa said, "To me it is clear,"

"Only one loving mother, is needed here."

The mom kissed her child, and tucked her into bed.

"Thank you, Santa, for clearing my head.

I sometimes forget, it won't be very long,

When they'll be too old, for my cradle-song."

The clock on the mantle began to chime.

Santa whispered to the clone, "It works every time."

With the clone by his side Santa said, "Goodnight.

Merry Christmas, Mom, You'll be all right."

Donuts Anyone?

While driving home from taking DD to school, I was reminded of the song "Slip Sliding Away" by Simon and Garfunkel that goes:

Slip sliding away, slip sliding away
You know the nearer your destination,
the more you slip sliding away.

As the temperature raises to a heat wave of 36°F, the snow pack on the roads is melting and re-freezing. I turned the corner and almost did a donut in the middle of the street and it reminded me of a conversation the family had a couple days ago.

We had decided that the children needed to get out of the house, so we went out to Sam's Club to look for something, anything. On the drive a conversation started between my husband and myself as the children were finally quiet and not arguing.

Me: (Talking to my husband) "Is there a reason we are taking the Jeep and not your car?"

DH: "Well, no reason in particular, unless you wanted to do some donuts."

DD: (From somewhere in the back of the car, and in her Mickey Mouse voice) "I'll take one with chocolate and sprinkles."

DS: "I want sprinkles on mine too."

Me: (While snickering) "Not THOSE kinds of donuts. We are talking about doing donuts in the car."

DD: "Yeah, well, I want mine with sprinkles."

My husband had to finish the explanation as I was laughing too hard to talk. Which he did a wonderful job of, I might add.
Not

As I've said before, all the funny things are said in the car, when I don't have anything to write on.

Elf Name

Brought to you by Dodie..... My Elf Name Is...

Trixie Twinkle Wink

What's Your Elf Name?

Twas' the Night Before Christmas

While doing a little "surfing" I found some very cute renditions on one of my very favorite poems of the Christmas holiday. This first one is dedicated to my hubby and all those "geeks" out there. You know who you are. :) (Okay maybe it's the illness talking, but I didn't actually know what a sysop was and had to look it up. For those getting over the crud like I am, a sysop is a systems operator. Who knew?!?!)

The Sysop's Night Before Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a peripheral was stirring, not even a mouse.

The modem was plugged to the phone line with care

In hopes that a download soon would be there.

Our pirates were nestled all snug in their beds

While visions of unprotects danced in their heads.

And Mama in her kerchief, and I in my cap

Had just settled down for a long winter's nap.

When up on the hard drive there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the monitor I flew like a flash,

Sat down at the keyboard, gave the spacebar a mash.

The sight on the screen, all a'flicker with snow,

Gave the luster of power surge to the menu below.

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But an autoexec.bat that seemed rather queer.

With a little print driver so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment I had seen a new trick.

More rapid than eagles the cursors they came;

My MIDI whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

"Now Format, now Rename, now Copy, and Enter!

On Num Lock, on Caps Lock, on Scroll Lock, and Printer!

"To the top of the page, to the top of the doc,

Now tab it and bold it and merge it and block!"

As utilities that build up the CPU speed

Clash with just the programs I need,

So up to the screen top the cursors they flew,

With a RAM full of memory and an expansion board too.

And then, in a twinkling I heard on the speaker,

The grinding of the hard drive growing much weaker.

As I tried to reboot and turn it around,

The attributes changed from blue into brown.

I hit the control, the alt, and delete.

The screen message it gave me, I cannot repeat.

It asked me to Ignore, Retry, or Abort.

It told me the parallel had become the comm port.

Its lights how they twinkled; its pixels how merry,

Its prompts were all scrambled, like a bowl full of cherries.

It sounded just like it wanted to blow;

The screen was suddenly white as the snow.

It scrolled its directory before my eyes

With programs I didn't even recognize.

It wouldn't see D:, it wouldn't see E:;

I couldn't get out of B: into C:.

Norton's tried to read it, finally finding the FAT;

But alas! The disk was faulty, and couldn't reformat.

Away flew the DBase; away flew the DOS-es;

Away flew the WordStar; right out with the Windows.

The spreadsheets were spreading; the footers were headings;

What once had been memory was close to forgetting.

When the grinding was over and the smoke had all cleared,

I looked at the hard drive; it was just as I feared.

The 600 meg wonder had crashed in the night;

I'll never be able to block out that sight!

So tell everyone you know to avoid my plight;

Back up your files! Merry Christmas! Good Night!

Whistler, Canada

On this lovely evening in Colorado, being sick with two active children, I long to be in Whistler. It may seem strange since most people hope and pray that they can be in warmer climates during this time of year. It has been unseasonably warm here only to turn cold again. This has happened several times, that is why the entire state is sick.

Club for my husband's company is in Whistler, while I don't ski, there is supposedly an aw some spa. Four days in a spa is what I need right now!! I have several months to get ready for the trip (if my DH comes through for us) and figure out what to do with the kiddos.

Personal DNA

You are an Attentive Analyst.

About you -- You are an Analyst.

-Your attention to detail, confidence, sense of order, and focus on functionality combine to make you an ANALYST.

-You are very curious about how things work, delving into the mechanics behind things.

-Along those lines, how well something works is usually more important to you than what it looks like.

-You find beauty and wonder mainly in concrete, functional, earthly things.

-You are very aware of your own abilities, and you believe that you will find the best way of doing things.

-Accordingly, problems do not intimidate you, as you believe in yourself.

-You trust yourself to find solutions within the boundaries of your knowledge.

-You don't spend a lot of time imagining how things could be different—you're well-grounded in the here-and-now.

-It is important for you to follow a routine, and you prefer the familiar to the unknown.

-You're not one to force your positions on a group, and you tend to be fair in evaluating different options.

-You're not afraid to let your emotions guide you, and you're generally considerate of others' feelings as well.

-You tend to do things on the spur of the moment, not sticking to a set schedule.

-You do your own thing when it comes to clothing, guided more by practical concerns than by other people's notions of style.

-Generally, you believe that you control your life, and that external forces only play a limited role in determining what happens to you.


How you relate to others -- You are Attentive.

-Because you like spending time with others, understand their feelings, and often know what is best for them, you are ATTENTIVE.

-Some people are merely concerned about others, but you take action, helping people when you have the opportunity.

-Although you care about others, you are hesitant to trust them to act in the best way on their own.

-You don't let your concerns with people go unnoticed: if someone has hurt your feelings, that person will hear about it.

-People energize and excite you—you are able to have fun and be yourself when you're around others.

-You also learn a lot about yourself by talking things out with people, even if you don't always share things that are important to you.

-You have a strong sense of right and wrong, and you're not hesitant to express yourself.

-Understanding the dynamics of a situation is an important skill that you have, and you often intervene to clarify things for others.

Thank you Tracey, this was interesting!!!