Juggling the January Birthdays...

Well, there was one more birthday that we have to celebrate....Morgan, my friend from Church, turned 6 on Saturday. She and her mom and dad let me come out there an juggle for her at her birthday party. I got to use a bunch of the props....

including the bouncy balls.....some fruit...(including a real apple)

and of course....chickens.

I don't understand it, but apparently, 6 year old LOVE plastic and rubber chickens. I'm going to get some pics of the me and the birthday girl to post!.
Happy Birthday Morgan! Thanks for letting me come out!
Marcus the Juggler

Making way for Baby T

This is Katy. Katy is a Goddess, really, she is! I have an amazing set of college girlfriends that live all over Texas. I adore them and love that every now and then we see still get to each other. We humbly proclaim ourselves to be Goddess Girls.

Katy lives in San Antonio is going to have a baby! And, that baby has a wonderful big family just waiting to meet him. Because we know he has so many amazing times ahead of him, Katy and I spent the afternoon pre-making scrapbooks of his first year. Katy is planning to give these to her parents, her husbands parents and her sister and then will mail them pictures as Baby T experiences them. They are both first time grandparents and a brand new Aunt! I've heard it said that everytime a baby is born, so is a grandma. I love the sentiment behind that!

Katy and I had lots of fun making the pages and visiting my favorite scrapbook store. Thanks for having me Katy and I can't wait to meet little Baby T!

The Birthday Train Rolls on!

Happy Birthday wishes to Shaun, our brother-in-law and Kyleigh and Cohen's daddy. To celebrate, Tiffany and Shaun spent the weekend in Louisiana gambling. That meant K&C spent the weekend with my Mom and we got to see them!

After church we went to Pokejo's BBQ for lunch. Kyleigh's bright colored poncho was a Christmas present this year. See the super easy online pattern at http://familycrafts.com.

This Sunday was extra special as it was Cohen's first Sunday to be left in his own classroom.... although he was a little scared to let go of "Nanny" (my Mom), he ended up doing great. He told us all about his snack and toys.

Coco and Kyleigh love the train at Pokejos. Today, Rudolph was the train engineer and his favorite snowman was a passenger!

Happy Birthday Shaun- thanks for sharing the kids with us!

Card Making Party

Last night I hosted a card making party with some of my friends. It was lots of fun!

Meg from Stampin' Up brought us all of the supplies and pre-cut papers to make 10 fun cards- just what we'll need for the coming year!

Check out our fun crafts and look for a cute card in a mailbox near you!

Stormi and Kristi stop to smile for the camera!

Tabriah, Jessica and Natalie are hard at work. Doesn't this look fun?

Stephanie, Kanice and Kelly get a little advice from Meg.

Another Birthday...

Happy Birthday Dad! I hope you have a great day filled with your favorite things- golf, uh, and more golf?

Love,
Anna

(Marcus' Mom is just one day older than my Dad- same year!)

Happy Birthday(s)! Take two...

Right around this time, we have a slew of back to back birthdays...the first one was Georgia, a kiddo of one of Anna's college girlfriends...The next up....my Mom!
....and we want to wish her a happy birthday today!












Now, for my personal safety, I do now want to say which birthday this is...but let's say that she old enough to be my mother! (I'm 32....so you know, at least, this is NOT the big 4-0).

And yes...when she reads this...I drove safe on the wet and icy roads...I buckled up...and I talked much less on the cell phone while driving...

More birthdays to come! Stay tuned!

Happy 1st Birthday Miss Georgia!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday Miss Georgia-

Happy Birthday to you!

Anna

(Georgia's Mom is Alison, one of my very best friends)

Winter storm 2007....day 3

Well, on day three, the tree above my car started getting a little intimidating to my vehicle's well being. While I believe the inch of ice on the Escape may also prove to be shielding, no doubt a tree branch could at least hurt some paint....So for the first time this week, my car moved. 20 feet.










As we go in day three, supplies are running a bit low....we are out of orange juice...scrapbook photo squares and dishwashing soap. We may have to risk the weather in order to get our Starbucks lattes and scones....

Winter Wonderland II

Yea! We got another snow day!

Although I like being home and working in my pajamas is not bad, I'm going a little stir crazy! Why doesn't Starbucks deliver? And, Hobby Lobby? I could be scrapbooking, but I'm out of those little sticky squares..... I need those sticky squares!

The rain turned to ice and the ice has turned to snow! This is the third day we have captured the weather on the back porch. Each day is felt a little colder when I swung open the screen door. Brrr!

The back woods look so cold! I'm not going out there for nothin'!









This is the view (from my scrapbook studio) of my neighbor's roof with snow. This window faces north/west, so it seems to have the most action. I can hear the ice trickling onto the window regularly.








Jean Grey does not seem to notice anything different about the day. Get up mid morning, eat breakfast, go back to sleep, get up mid afternoon, eat, move from bed to couch, sleep. Wait for dinner time.

Winter Wonderland

Yea! The winter day came on a Monday! Snow day! We got a snow day from school!

Wait. We have laptops...and logins. hmph. Homework is still due.

Oh well, at least from the home office, no one knows if you are in the full work attire...or fuzzy slippers and pajama pants!

And in case anyone from our offices read this...we are in full business attire. We work for companies of business. Serious business.

MJ

Football Sunday

Well, The lousy weather conditions continue...and while I had a great day planned of doing tons of yard work, errands, and things of that sort, I was forced instead to a day of napping, and watching football....

Speaking of football, this is about the time when you look back to four months ago and review the things that were heard and said at the beginning of the season...and just see if it turned out like everyone thought...and get your story straight.

Some of the things...

"Steelers won't even miss Randel El, or Bettis. I smell repeat."

"After Drew Brees' injury, and they have that Reggie Bush kid, I give the Saints two wins all season."

"Favre? Heck, he has five more years."

"The Cowboys have Bledsoe, TO, and Vanderjagt as kicker....come on. They'll be at the Super Bowl with that team..."

"Rex Grossman...ha. He'll be on the bench by week 3, and Griese will be the Bears starter."

"Vince Young's style of play will never be successful in the NFL, and Bush is too small to be tough enough....Houston may have been smart to pick Mario Williams in the draft..."

"This is Eli's year to outplay big brother Payton."

"Titan's were smart to get rid of Steve McNair...he is done for..."

"Romo? Who the heck is Romo?"

"The Dolphins finally got a stable QB with Culpepper, and a good coaching staff for the next few years. This should be a great year for the Dolphins."

"and if Bama doesn't work, I'm going to UT in two years.."

Cold and Wet

Yucky! Today was supposed to include a trip to the grocery store, a nice jog in the park and maybe a few errands (aka shopping). That all changed early this morning with some stroung thunder and lightening.... at 4 PM it hasn't stopped. We are in for some more cold rain and possibly ice in the next few days.

Here's hoping for a bad weather day on Monday. I'd like to sleep in and be trapped at home. Bad weather days are not just for public school kids anymore!

Our very wet back patio. I don't think we'll be sitting on the green chair anytime soon!
The woods just past our backyard are flooded from the morning's rain. Let's hope it brings green grass this spring.
Even with our new gutters, the front walkway is flooded.

I am a Spades Champion

Friday night our friends Matt and Tabriah (Tab and I went to junior high, high school and college together) came over for dinner and a hearty round of spades. They live just a few blocks away and we had gone at least 6 months without seeing each other. Marcus and I made a healthy dinner and Tabriah brought a yummy apple and cranberry pie- and it was lowfat!

We had lots of fun, especially since Matt and I won 2 out of 3 games.

F.A.I.T.H.

While Marcus and I were in church this morning, someone broke into Marcus' car.... IN A CHURCH PARKING LOT! Who does that? While we were learning how to incorporate God into stressful situations (HELLO!), they were rummaging through our stuff.

Luckily, our insurance, bank and credit card companies will be covering all of the fraudulent charges placed on our cards. Tires, they bought tires!

Here is the funny part- one of the items they stole was a small leather notepad holder that Marcus uses for work. Inside that notepad was a F.A.I.T.H. summary. F.A.I.T.H. is a program that Marcus went through at church. It is a tool and presentation used to witness to people.

We hope these theives look at the card and learn that:

F- is for forgiveness. Christ came for us so that we may have forgiveness from sin.

A- is for available. He is available to all.

I- is for Impossible. It is impossible for God to allow sin into Heaven.

T- is for Turn. Go away from the path you are on and follow in the path of Jesus.

H- is for Heaven, both in the afterlife and here on Earth.

Luckily, Marcus doesn't need the card and they do!

Anna

Post Xmas decorating

Well, Here it is January 6th, and its time to get the Xmas decorations down. Now, we had to have this for a weekend day so we could have enough time to get it all. Latters we're used, furniture was moved, and the cat suffered minor shock from the rearranging. This is a collection of most of decor....except the tree. ...and the ornaments. And the snowglobes.....

"Hold on...hold on...I had a catnip toy I was storing in here...lemme get it out before you store this!"

Here's what we got the place back to.... the change from Xmas to post Xmas was a great time to reorganize the garage, and tidy up the house. This is also a good Where's Waldo pic....Where's kitty?

Only 312 days until the Xmas decor is back up!

And with a Cinncinati win in the International Bowl, I win the bowl pick em at the office! Grats Cats!

Back to Work is No Fun!

Now that Marcus and I are back at work, the blogging will slow down. We'll be sure to share posts from our weekend adventures, but the mundane Monday - Friday stuff just isn't "blog worthy." We hope everyone has a nice week back at work.

Anna

Like Father Like Daughter

Marcus and I went over to Dad's house this afternoon to enjoy more college football action. The large HDTV is nice! Marcus had to snap this photo of Dad and I both sprawled out on the recliners talking about who will win each game, why and the impact it will have on Marcus and my football picks. We are in a money pool with Marcus' team and hope to take all the money! :)

Not only did we ring in the New Year, but celebrated Jacque's birthday. She did not partake in the football overload and spent the afternoon playing games with Midge, her mother, in the dining room. Happy Birthday Jacque! Enjoy the extra cake and the workouts that follow!

The Best of Both Worlds

We had a wonderful New Year's Eve with some friends. Marcus designed it as the best of both worlds.... a fun evening out and a game night in our comfy clothes.



Here we are at dinner at Cool River. We all enjoyed yummy steaks, seafood and chicken. Luckily we had reservations for an early dinner because the crowd was crazy by the time we left. Pictured left to back and around are: Natalie and Mitch Gumpl, Mo and Jessica Trejo, Jason Walker (Jessica's brother and a fellow Bronco fan!), Me and Marcus, and Carrie and Brian Betzen.





Now, back at the house! We all changed into jeans or pajama pants and played Texas Hold 'Em. Thanks Carrie and Brian for bringing the millions of dollars for us to play with :)







Carrie and Jessica and I ringing in the New Year with our sparkling apple cider and noise makers.