MIA

I have been MIA this week. Monday my computer crashed. The hard drive died. This is the second time in 6 months. Thank goodness for the extended warranty we purchased when we bought the computer. We called Dell on Tuesday and the new hard drive was delivered on Wednesday. The hard drives are now "self-installable", so Cool installed it Wednesday night. Unfortunately, all was lost on the old hard drive. I told Cool that for Christmas I want an online back up service. He better oblige.


Cool's car is still not heating so we are down to only the van. That means all of us leaving by 6:45 so Cool can get to work on time. We have been hanging out at my parents house during the day. It is close to almost everything and we enjoy taking advantage of that. Cool is used car hunting for us. Thank goodness for Consumer Reports. :-) I informed him that no "new-to-us" car will be brought onto our property until a couple of the other cars vacate the premises. He took that to heart and has found a company who will tow them away and still pay us about $200 each. That takes some of the sting out of having to pay for another vehicle.

I am fighting a cold/sinus infection. It started Tuesday afternoon. We went to my MIL's house for supper and I asked for some sinus medication. She gave me two Benadryl. I was sacked out on the couch by 7:15. She woke me up in time to pick Sweet up from gymnastics. Thankfully Cool was driving because as hard as I tried to stay awake I still fell asleep twice on the way home. By twice I mean from town to halfway home and from a mile past half way home to three miles from home. :-/ I was down and out all day Wednesday and most of the day Thursday fighting the fatigue and icky feelings. Friday I felt somewhat human but today I have drainage and a cough. I am hoping we are well for Christmas Eve and Day. Big plans are in the works.

As for our countdown, not much has been getting done. We couldn't do any of the computer stuff Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. I was sick Thursday and Friday we ran errands and had to pick Cool up from work early. We did watch A Charlie Brown Christmas, Hairspray and Mama Mia. Sweet finished the nativity scene for grandma and grandpa she was coloring and I baked two batches of cookies to send to them. That was it.

This next week we are preparing for the holiday. Friday night we are going to our friends house. It is a tradition to spend Christmas Eve with them and we are so looking forward to it. I am making chili and cornbread to take.

Saturday we are going to Gaga's. I am taking our traditional meatloaf, red cabbage and mashed potatoes to share the tradition with her. She is looking forward to having us visit though is not sure of the food we are bringing. It isn't traditional to her. Oh well.

We are looking forward to a great Christmas week and a great week after because Cool is off. Hopefully good times will be had, much needed rest will be gotten and overdue cleaning will be done.

Happy trails~~~

(c) 2008-2010 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Countdown to Christmas: Day 12

“You don’t stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing.”

Michael Pritchard

I started this ongoing post at 3:50 this morning. I never got back to it so I thought I would just start a new post.

The papers were delivered to me about 7:30. It took us until 11ish to get them all done. That also included us getting stuck and having to call my knights in shining armor out in the blizzard to dig us out.

It was bitterly cold with high winds, whipping snow and banks as tall as the picklets. I don't understand how the banks got that high since we only received about 3 inches. Musta blown down from MN.

When we got home, Cool had hot cocoa for the picklets and coffee waiting for me. He is feeling much better today, though is not totally 100%. But the fact that he felt better than he has in days was all it took to have a great day. He decided we should have "Family Fun Time". That not only included good snacks but fun for all.

For four hours we sat around the diningroom table playing games. Our first was Scrabble. We got down to the last few tiles we had left and decided if the picklets could make a word AND give us a plausible definition we would count it. Hilarious! Here are the words they came up with.

ovix: a mineral found in Ethiopia
qwinwin: an extint animal from Australia
vlkneercater: a rare Jewish species of caterpillar found in rain forests that cures gallstones, used mainly by Amazon people
bamfone: an ancient musical instrument derived from the woodwind family, originally from Egypt
tallygiti: psychic art used in medieval times to weaken ones enemies in time of battle

I honestly didn't know if we would ever stop laughing!

We then had a rousing tennis match on the Wii. Dill was the overall champion.

Then we played Buzzword. Talk about a game that makes you use your mind. The rules are to work in pairs and you try to get your partner to guess the words that have the "Buzz word" in them. Since we are odd numbered we read the clues to everyone and the first person to guess the correct answer got a point. The game ended in a neck to neck battle between Chip and Dill. They are both very witty and very fast thinking.

We then had "Happy Family Movie Time." We watched Cats and Dogs 2 The Revenge of Kitty Galore. The wit in that movie is subtle and really made Cool and I laugh. While we watched that we ate our supper of pork roast, dinner rolls, peas and salad.

The second movie we watched was The Sorcerers Apprentice. This was such a good movie. I could watch it over and over again. It had a touch of Merlin, Fantasia, Star Wars, love, drama and good versus evil all in one. We all loved it.

It has been said that laughing is good for the soul. I think that is right on. It was exactly what our souls needed today.

(c) 2008-2010 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Countdown to Christmas: Day 12

It is 3:59AM. Today's countdown post is going to be ongoing because I should be putting Sunday papers together and getting ready to deliver. Instead I am sitting here. The blizard has hit. Most of the state's roads are either closed or travel not advised. Because I am wide awake, I should be up cleaning and doing laundry. Instead I am drinking a cup of coffee and eating a sugar cookie and watching a cooking show on the horse network. Dutch oven cooking is something that intrigues me. More later....

Countdown to Christmas: Day 11

Cool went to the emergency room last night. He has been getting a pain in his chest that would go all the way up to his nose on and off for a while now. Friday, while working his second job, he got the pain again except it was worse than before. He sat in the emergency room parking lot for a few minutes and when it became unbearable, he went in. He was in a room within 30 seconds, he said. While people worked on him I sat at home, my mind playing different scenarios. Through a series of tests they told him it was not caused by his heart. Yeah! They finally concluded acid reflux. I am not so sure. He had the pain again today three different times that had him on the floor moaning because it hurt him so bad.

To make things worse, I had to get him up and drag him into Sokol today. Sweet had practice at her new gym starting at 8. I had to be at Sokol before 9 to turn furnaces on for Parents Day Out. One of the coaches had the idea that we should offer to watch the gymnasts for 4 hours (for a fee) so parents can go Christmas shopping. Cool didn't want to go but we had made the commitment so he went.

We got to the gym, with Chip in tow since he is also a coach, turned the furnaces on and waited. No one showed up. Not even the coaches who signed up to come. I called the coach who thought the idea up and she said she wasn't going to venture out because she didn't want to get caught up when the weather turned bad. Hmmm. We left Sokol at 11:15, stopped at the grocery store, picked Sweet up and went home.

Cool and I went to bed at 1 and woke up after dark. We ate a nutritious supper of corn dogs and sweet potato fries.

The picklets entertained themselves by watching movies we rented and brought home. And that was Day 11.

Happy Trails~~~

Countdown to Christmas: Day 10

We are due for a winter storm of sorts this weekend. Blowing snow that can make the roads slick as snot. We had a storm like that a couple years back. I had to drive home in it. I pulled over to the side of the road and cried. Twice. Cool, who was driving the car in back of me, called me to find out what was wrong. I cried and cried, telling him I couldn't do it. I just couldn't drive anymore. He talked me into continuing because we were almost to our turn and then there would be no more oncoming traffic. I agreed.

So, we continued driving and turned onto our county road. Headlight upon headlight kept coming at me. I pulled over again, trembling and crying. Cool called. "You can't just stop here! There is no shoulder. You have to keep going!" As I blubbered, "You told me there wouldn't be oncoming traffic! You lied to me!" We made it home but I will never live down the day I pulled over and cried. Twice. When Cool heard the forecast for this weekend he said, "Sounds like another one of those storms where you will have to pull over and cry." I eyed him something fierce but concurred.

No slip again today. I need to fill up the rest of our countdown house. I have just been lazy. But we caught up on everything and baked more cookies.

1. The Cinnamon Bear
2. A Bach Christmas Advent Calendar
3. Silent Night Illustrations
4. Nativity set for Grandma and Grandpa--I printed this and thought it would be a nice way to send a nativity to my parents for the camper. Plus it adds a personal touch because the picklets are coloring them.
5. Listened to The Life and Adventures of Santa Clause We listen to this every year. It was recommended to me from the Santa at the mall years ago. He would hug the kids and say, "I love you more than the brightest star." I don't know, it has just stuck with me and we love the book.

That's about it. Sweet had gymnastics. Dill spent time at my MIL's house. I spent the evening at the coffee shop sipping a chocolate banana smoothie and listening to the Mama Mia Soundtrack.

Countdown to Crhistmas: Day 9

Pretty slow day again. I think we are all tired. There was no slip today because I didn't put one in the door. So we did a little catch up on things. Here is what we did. Don't have pictures because I left my camera at my mom's house.

1. A Bach Christmas Advent Calendar
2. The Cinnamon Bear
3. Baked cookies
4. Signed 100 Christmas cards for our paper customers--writers cramp central
5. caught up on copywork from previous days
6. caught up on Silent Night illustrations
7. Celebrating the last day of Hanukkah we made honey puffs
8. Read a couple of crazy holiday books by Lemony Snicket
9. watched a book signing of Lemony Snicket
10. went to the library

Cool didn't have to work tonight and Chip didn't have CAP so we got to make it an early night. Cool and I stopped at the store to get some ingredients to make church window cookies tomorrow and decided to pick up something easy for supper. Being parents of the year, we got an industrial size can of Chef Boy R D ravioli and a head of lettuce. Probably won't be doing that again. Even the kids, who were as excited as could be over having raviolis from a can, thought they were pretty bad. The popular quote was, "These aren't like I remember them." And that goes to show that all the time I spend making wholesome, homemade food is paying off. Merry Christmas to me!

(c) 2008-2010 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Countdown to Christmas: Day 8

I coulda swore I made this blogpost yesterday. I don't know where it went. So, I will attempt to repost.

We are slowing down a bit this week. The reason is multiple choice. A) It is getting colder. B) I am getting older. C)Sweet is no longer sick and we are gone all the time. D) All the above

Day 8 was really slow. The reason is multiple choice. A) It is getting colder. B) I am getting older. C) Cool was home sick. D) All the above.

1. A Bach Christmas Advent Calendar
2. Cinnamon Bear
3. Learn how the International Space Station was built. This is a really neat animation. Plus there is a timeline on the right that explains what each part is.
4. Read facts about the ISS. Pretty interesting little tidbits.
5. Find out when ISS is going to be in sky. Total bust. Spent way too much time on this. All links are dead and searches produced nothing. Disappointing!

That was about it. Dill went to Tae-Kwon-Do and Hopkido. Chip and Sweet went to Intro to Parkour and open gym at Sokol.

(c) 2008-2010 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Countdown to Christmas: Day 7

Day 7. Time flies. Decided that a reminder of Pearl Harbor was needed today. We read through Remember Pearl Harbor and answered the questions at the end.

The picklets also baked some more cookies while listening to Cinnamon Bear. We bought some sugar cookie mix from Sam's Club from Krusties Brand that is completely awesome. After sharing with Sweet's gymnastics coaches, they are almost gone.

Sweet had gymnastic and Dill visited with his grandma and did chores for her. Cool and I went out for date night to Ruby Tuesday.

Nothing too exciting but I am happy we got history in. I think the rest of the week will be playing catch up. But that is ok

Countdown to Christmas: Day 6

I guess we were tired last night. I fell asleep about 5:30 and woke up this morning at 4:10am. Sweet fell asleep before me and slept until I woke her up to deliver papers. She fell asleep again after we delivered. Worn out!

We have to catch up on A Bach Christmas and The Cinnamon Bear this week because we didn't do it on Sunday. Here is today's list:

1. What day is it? Check your shoes! This one was tricky because I fell asleep early last night. Soooo...St. Nicholas left a note and hung it on the Christmas tree.

2. Lable a map of Germany.

3. Learn about St. Nicholas and take quiz.

4. Copywork

5. This day, in 1964, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer debuted on NBC. Watch Rudolph.


6. Enjoy Rudoph sandwiches. :-)

Cut two peices of bread into 4 triangles. Spread 4 triangles with peanut butter. Place two mini preztles on the flat top of the bread to resemble antlers. Top with the other 4 triangles. Add raisin eyes, cherry nose and thinly sliced apple slices for mouth.

7. A Bach Christmas.

8. Illustrate Silent Night for paper quilt project.

9. The Cinnamon Bear.


(c) 2008-2010 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Countdown to Christmas: Day 5

Papers were late this morning. I hate when that happens. Especially when the papers get delivered a little before 5 and we have to be in town at 6. We split up, took two cars and got it done in about half an hour. We got to town about 6:15.

Sokol's pancake breakfast was this morning. Cool organizes it and we are his reluctant...er eager helpers. We finally got home about 4:00. I am ready for bed. Yep.

Knowing that we had the pancake breakfast today, today's slip was pretty light.

1. Look at Christmas lights.

Well, nobody wants to go look at lights. Everyone is tired. Everyone wants to watch TV or play their game or just do nothing. And they want to eat. Eat something besides pancakes.

We will look at lights some other night. :-)

Happy Trails~~~

Countdown to Christmas: Day 4

Ahhh...the weekend. Too bad we are booked! We got our first snow fall last night, less than an inch, but it is beautiful this morning. I really like being the first person to make tracks in the snow when we deliver papers. Gives me a sense of power or belonging or something like that.

Today's countdown is pretty simple. Our slip read:

"It's National Cookie Day! Let's bake some cookies!"

1. Learn the history of cookies.
2. Copywork :

Animal Crackers
by Christopher Morley

Animal crackers and cocoa to drink,
That is the finest of suppers I think;
When I'm grown up and can have what I please
I think I shall always insist upon these.
What do YOU choose when you're offered a treat?
When Mother says, "What would you like best to eat?"
Is it waffles and syrup, or cinnamon toast?
It's cocoa and animals that I love most!

The kitchen's the coziest place that I know;
The kettle is singing, the stove is aglow,
And there in the twilight, how jolly to see
The cocoa and animals waiting for me.

Daddy and Mother dine later in state,
With Mary to cook for them, Susan to wait;
But they don't have nearly as much fun as I
Who eat in the kitchen with Nurse standing by;
And Daddy once said, he would like to be me
Having cocoa and animals once more for tea!

3. A Bach Christmas Advent Calendar

4. The Cinnamon Bear

5. Bake Cookies!

Snickerdoodles
Chocolate Covered Cherry
Sugar
Animal Crackers


© 2008-2010 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Countdown to Christmas: Day 3

Today was a rather sad day for us. My mom and dad left for Texas for the next four months. They just called and are in Kansas City for the night. I asked Missouri or Kansas and they didn't answer. I presume Missouri since Kansas would be farther west than Texas. Our activity list reflected our mood today. Very layed back.

1. Go to Grandma and Grandpa's. Help Grandma finish loading the camper. Say goodbye.
2. Watch G-dcast Spins Chanukah. This is a informative little animation that, I think, is geared more for the older child. It does not go into detail but gives a general sense of the history.


3. A Bach Christmas advent calendar.
4. The Cinnamon Bear
5 Watch 8 Crazy Nights.

This is not a kids movie but they have watched worse with Cool. I know that isn't an excuse for letting the picklets watch something that isn't necessarily the best BUT, in my defense, the movie has an excellent moral in the end. I actually found the whole movie on youtube in 8 different segments.
6. Illustrate Silent Night for quilt.

That's about it for the day. There was some Wii playing, some vacuming for Grandma and some volunteer work at Sokol while we were in town.

Happy Trails~~

(c) 2008-2010 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Countdown to Christmas: Day 2

Our slip read the following:

Hanukkah started at sundown last night. Let's learn about this 8 day Jewish holiday.

1. Watch Lights: The Miracle Of Chanukah --This was a cute little animated movie narrated by Judd Hircsh explaining how the Greeks came to Jerusalem and took the light away. It says up to12 years old. I would rank it for maybe up to 10 years old.
2. Read aloud for the day: Alexandra's Scroll: The Story of the First Hanukkah --this is a pretty good novel about a little girl named Alexandra who lives in Jerusalem. The king has made it llegal for Jews to be Jewish forcing her and others to sneak. She, through the encouragement of her parents, has decided to preserve what is happening by writing about it.
3. Peanut butter "dreidel" sandwiches for lunch.--these didn't turn out as well as I had hoped they would but the picklets had fun making them. Cut a peanut butter sandwich in half and shape it like a dreidle. Take colored cream cheese and put a symbol on it. A pretzel sticking out of the top finishes it up.

4. A Bach Christmas advent calendar--we listened to a bit about Leipzig (in Bach's time), read 4
poems about Bach and read about Mass in B Minor. The picklets are jotting down notes about what they are learning. We also listened to some Bach music selections that were on the site today.

5. Listen to the next episode of "The Cinnamon Bear" --Judy and Jimmy were taken prisoner and were being lead to the giant ink bottle! Will they escape? We must tune in tomorrow to find out!
6. Learn to play dreidels--I wasn't sure how this was going to pan out but the picklets LOVED it. I bought a pair of dreidles at Target for $2.49. The instructions say to give the kids equal amounts of nuts to use in the pot. I figured since I got them started gambling yesterday they should just continue. So they played with pennies. Soon enough pennies got boring and nickles were used.

The next thing I knew quarters were in the pot!

I don't think we have laughed this hard in some time. I know this will be played quite a bit through the holidays.

7. Make latkes for supper.




8.. Silent Night illustrations--day 2 of illustrations for our "quilt"

Throughout the day the picklets also:

• played Wii Sports Resort
• watched it snow (re: complained that it is snowing because it makes
  delivering papers hard)
• picked up the yard so things wouldn't get buried under the snow
• hung up more decorations
  
  
• played more bingo
• worked on handicrafts

And that was day 2! We action packed it and had a ton of fun!

(c) 2008-2010 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines