Thursday, December 31, 2009

FedEx Baby

From the FedEx tracking site.

Dec 31, 2009 9:47 AMOn FedEx vehicle for deliveryPENDLETON, OR
Dec 31, 2009 9:33 AMAt local FedEx facilityPENDLETON, OR
Dec 31, 2009 6:02 AMAt dest sort facilitySPOKANE, WA
Dec 31, 2009 4:06 AMDeparted FedEx locationMEMPHIS, TN
Dec 31, 2009 1:12 AMArrived at FedEx locationMEMPHIS, TN
Dec 30, 2009 10:38 PMLeft FedEx origin facilityFORT WAYNE, IN
Dec 30, 2009 7:36 PMPicked upFORT WAYNE, IN
Dec 30, 2009 5:10 PMShipment information sent to FedEx

It will be in my hot little hands today by 4:30pm

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Update

Because I know you are sitting at the edge of your seat....

I reordered my book from Walmart yesterday. It was shipped FEDEX today. I should have it tomorrow or Monday at the latest. Yeahhhhhh!!!!!

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

A Christmas Fantasy Destroyed


Ok, that might be a little over dramatic.

Let me start from the beginning. I have been following The Pioneer Woman's blog for the last couple of years. She posts stories about her life as a cattle ranchers wife, homeschooling her children, photography and cooking. This past year she has written and published a cookbook. Like the rest of her fans I have been waiting for this cookbook to be finished. Many of the recipes she post's on her blog have become some of our family favorites.


So back to my Christmas fantasy..... I ordered (as a gift from my family) her new cookbook. I did this on the 16th of December and had it shipped 2-3 days. Paid extra for that. I was going to open that book last on Christmas morning. While the family was playing their new video games I would sit in my rocking chair, feet in my new fluffy slippers (thanks kids, I love them) in front of the fire and read cover to cover my new cookbook.

I think you know how this story is going to play out. I didn't get my cookbook. You know what else, I still don't have it. It is in some post office warehouse in Kentucky. I want to be clear about this, I am in no way slamming our local post office. I have no issues with them. My gripe is with either Walmart how didn't ship 2-3 days and shipped "when hell freezes over" instead. Or the post office who is using my beloved book as a door stop.

Walmart required that I wait until today for them to either reship or get a credit. Now I have to decide what to do. Either way I will get my hands on that cookbook. The joys of living in a small town, they don't have this book anywhere.

I will keep you posted.

Monday, December 28, 2009

Another Christmas has past

This Christmas was a little weird. It just never really felt like Christmas. If you look around my house, you can see the evidence that it was here. Either that or a tornado came through. However, Jason does live here and we do consider him to be a human tornado.

We started Christmas week with a trip to Hood River. We booked a trip on the Polar Express to the North Pole and back. It was a lot of fun and they do a really cute job of acting out the Polar Express book. If you have not seen the movie, you really should.

We have tried to get tickets for the last couple of years, but they always sell out in October. I am just not thinking about Christmas in October. Steve deserves full credit for this one. He booked the trip the first week of October. He also booked it in the observation car, which was really cool. We didn't have to fight for seats.
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We where on the top, but it really didn't matter. We went at night and there wasn't a lot to see. To be like the book, they encourage the passengers to wear their PJ's. Jason was the only one in our family who would wear his PJ's. We all agreed, we would wear ours next year.
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A couple of pictures from inside the train.
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I didn't do any editing of these pictures, so you will have to just ignore the red eye.
They came around and served hot chocolate. I was disappointed that they didn't sing and dance like in the movie. That would have been cool.
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They conductor came and took our tickets. He punched them out, just like in the movie.
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Here is Jason enjoying his hot chocolate.
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The train journed to the North Pole where we picked up Santa and his helpers. While we waited for Santa to visit our section of the train we sang Christmas carols. The kids really got into it when we sang 12 Days Of Christmas. They divided our car in to two halfs and which ever side sang the loudest, won. Our side of course won. A couple of parents (Steve) got really into it and couldn't talk very well after.
Here is Santa.
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He sat and visited with each of the kids on the train and left them with a bell. You need to read the book or see the movie.
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When it came to Anthony's turn, Santa sat in his lap and told him what he wanted for Christmas. Did you know that Santa wants a trip to Hawaii?
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It was really worth the money and we had a blast. The Hood River train does a bunch of different trips. The next one we are going to try is the Great Train Robbery. It's a longer train ride and you stop half way and have a BBQ.

Megan and Jason where also in the Christmas play at our church.

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Megan played the mother of Mary. Our parish priest wrote the play and I think it is one of the better shows we have done.
Here are the 3 Wise Men getting ready to go on stage.
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Believe it or not, I didn't take many pictures Christmas day. It was a great day and the kids are as spoiled as ever. I ordered a cookbook that I have been wanting for some time. This was a gift from my husband. I planned on opening it and then sitting and reading it all Christmas day. Did I mention I ordered this thing 3 weeks before Christmas and paid extra to get it here on time. It is still not here. According to the post office web site, it is still sitting in Kentucky. I have to wait until tomorrow before Walmart will do anything about it. I won't get started on why Steve and I tend to ship UPS or FEDX. I also won't get started on government run post office, Amtrak and Healthcare.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Wrestling

Wrestling is in full swing. This is our 5th tournament 2 weeks. The weekend tournaments take two days so I was glad this one is close enough to home so we didn't have to spend the night. Anthony did really good tonight, he won all 3 of his matches. So he will start at the top of his bracket tomorrow.



I took this video of his last match.


Short post for now, because I am off and running today. Play practice at the church with Megan and Jason. Then off to hopefully watch Anthony wrestle then back because because Megan is serving at mass tonight

Have a good Saturday.


Thanksgiving Pictures, just a little bit on the late side

I know it has taken me a while to post some pictures from Thanksgiving. Here they are.

We made the trip back to Sacramento to spend Thanksgiving with Steves family. We did get a chance to stop in and spend the day with my family too.

Here we are having dinner at my parents. It is always fun watching Andrew's reaction to Anthony getting taller and taller. Mom and Dad made us one of our favorite dinner's. Fish....yummm, it's one of the things I miss about living in California.
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It took about 10 times to get a decent picture. Check out Megan in this one.
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She is such a joy sometimes.
We spent most of the week at Steves parents house. I worked on fixing their computer and Steve, Kelli, Anthony, Jessica helped clean out the garage so Doreen could get the car back in. I would post a picture of that but I think I might get into trouble.
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We tested out the new bbq, and cooked some prime rib. It was wonderful.
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We had so much food.
Getting ready for some black Friday shopping. Kelli ended up running back to Dixon to get all the different newspapers she wanted. We each had our own copies to go by. Jessica went with Dave and they started at midnight. Steve, Anthony and I left at 3:30am and Kelli left about 6:00am. We brought some great stuff (most of it was for us and not Christmas) and I am still amazed that Steve got it all packed in the car.
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Joseph wasn't around to much because he was sick. Poor kid, next time we are in town we will get to see more of him.
Jessica taking pictures of my kids. Gotta love the 2 camera bit.
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And no trip can be complete without a lot of chocolate.
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This is Jason's fudge fountain. It makes me sick just looking at it.