I hope you all had a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

I know that it was here - along with being very hectic and tiring, that is.

On Sat - mom, Jenny, Darryl, Valerie, & Kris came over and we did a bit of baking. I think we made a total of about 35 pounds of Fudge, 8 batches of rice krispie treats, and about 100 cookies. What a busy day that was. That night we went for "Christmas Tacos" with Maryann and Linda. The girls got tons of toys from grandma and Auntie. It was a good night - we were able to sit and relax for a while and just talk.

It was a busy Christmas Eve. We started out by visiting Karen and Craig. The girls had a blast playing with the kids and I enjoyed being able to see Karen again (It has been about 2 months). We were only able to stay for 2-3 hours, but I know that we are going to tea on Thursday so at least I can see her again soon.

After that we went home to clean a bit for Christmas. We were also able to finish up a bit of last minute wrapping and "hiding". Kevin bought the girls a TinkerBell Dresser for the playhouse - we cleaned the playhouse and then put the dresser in so that they could find it in the morning.

Maryann came over for a bit and we did the Tamale thing for dinner on Christmas eve. It was nice spendind time with Grandma a bit. The girls always enjoy the time with her.

On Christmas the house of crowded. We had about 30 people here and boy does my house feel small with all those people in it. I really enjoyed having the new sofa set though. It sure made it nice with all those people. Before everyone got here, we opened our gifts. We got Kevin a 3 days Singles cruise (I made an album for his pictures), I got a cricut from him, and tim some tools. I got tim new tube steps for his truck, as well as a new pair of boots, and he got me a new lens and a new flash for my camera.

Regan was happy - she got a Robosapien and a pair of Heeleys.

Ahnika was perhaps the happiest - this year santa fulfilled her greatest wish - a Roach farm. It has two Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches in it that she absolutely loves. It is the only thing she has asked Santa for for the last two years. She also got a pair of Heeleys.

Kiana was also ecstatic. She finally got the Nintendo DS lite she has wanted. She also got a pair of Heeleys.

Over all - it was a great and exhausting day.

I can't wait to do it again next year.

I know it has been a while

Since I posted anything, but it has been crazy around here.

I will start a few weeks back, to at least catch you up a little.

About 3 weeks ago, I was asked to go to Boston (by Prentice Hall - a publishing company) to help them with their Biology book). I went with a friend and fellow teacher for a3 days and two nights and stayed at the Jury's Hotel (what a fantastic place that is). We arrived on Thursday, after a 5 hour flight and we were both ready to go. We had dinner with our host (and the two other Bio teacher - from Ohio, Kim and Jennifer) that night and then had a chance to walk around a bit. Unfortunately, most things were closed. Although Bostonians said they were having a heat wave (I do not consider high 50's & low 60's to be HEAT) we were dressed to stay warm. On Friday morning we headed off to PH for a meeting with the editors, graphic designers, etc... that work on the Biology books. We had a great meeting and were able to give opinions from the eyes of teachers and students who are using them in the trenches. I am sure they didn't like all of what we said, but we sure did have a great meeting. In fact it spilled over into lunch (about 5 of the 15 people at the meeting chose to go with us). By the end, we were asked to be consulting/contributing teachers for PH - what an honor). After the meeting, we dicided to go to Salem. We took a taxi to the north station and then the train out to Salem. While we were there it started raining pretty hard (good thing these California girls took down parkas). We had fun none the less - we visited the Witch's Museum and then walked around to find the burial site of the "witches" - It is amazing how much I remember about the layout of the city from 5 years ago. By the time we were finished, the shops were pretty much closed and we needed to get to the train station. Once back in Boston we decided to eat at Smith and Wallensky's - what a great steak house. On Saturday we spent the morning on the Freedom Trail - 5.5 hours later we caught a taxi from the U.S.S. Constitution back to the hotel. It was time to get to the airport and a 6.5 hour flight back to our families.

SUNDAY
I thought I could have a nice peaceful day to rest up fromthe trip, but boy was I wrong. Tim went into work (since he took 3 day s off while I was gone). On his way home (about 2pm) I received a call from him telling me that his car was on fire. I expected a small fire - but hte kids and I were on our way. Meanwhile, I get a cll from the stables - something is wrong with my horse - I need to get down there right away - well, as I previously stated I am on my way to get my husband - need less to say the car was totally gone (tires melted and painted turned to ash gone). We decided to head straight down to Longo Toyota and get a car (There is no way that we can survive on 1 car). After we were done (8:30pm) we could finally head home - The girls wanted to ride in the new car of course. Tim didn't even get off the lot before - you guessed it - KIANA THREW UP IN THE TRUCK. Too bad you already signed the contract Tim.

This continued throughout the night - my bed was striped 3 times - Kiana kept climbing in to my bed when I was asleep - I woke up abut 3 times, to her throwing up - what a joy. I went back to work on Monday (as tired as I could have possibly been - totally not rested). On Monday, after work I went to see my horse, and I figured out that he had only had some rocks in his hooves. Thankfully. Of course - a week later - he did have thrush in one of his other feet. What a pain to have to deal with. Cleaning out and applying medicine every day.