It's a rough life, baby!

It's 10:00 am. Allie and Roy both have full bellies from breakfast. I took Roy for a long walk. He got filthy from the melting snow, requiring a warm bath. Now, they are both snuggled down for the morning, Allie in her favorite chair and Roy on his dog bed. I got Allie before I was married to Chris. She is an old lady. She is spending more and more time in her chair. Often I pause to make sure she is still breathing. They are so sweet when they are sleeping.

Love to read, baby!

There is a really cool bookstore, Rainy Day Books in Fairway that hosts a lot of authors throughout the year. If you buy a book from Rainy Day Books written by the featured author you get 2 free tickets to hear the author speak and sign your book. Last week I went to see Jeannette Walls who wrote The Glass Castle and Half Broke Horses. The Glass Castle is about Jeanette's childhood. She came from an extremely disfunctional family. Her father was an alcoholic and her mother... I can't even describe her mother, you just need to read the book if you haven't already. Jeanette really had it rough as a child but blossemed into a kind and beautiful human being, extremely forgiving, fantastic author and excellent speaker. What she went through is depressing but the way she tells the story, it is more uplifting than depressing. I love books that make you think and The Glass Castle did just that.

She also wrote Half Broke Horses. EXCELLENT BOOK! It is a real life novel about her grandmother who was born on a ranch in Arizona in the early 1900s. She was a character!
She road 500 miles ALL BY HERSELF at the age of 15 to her first job as a school teacher. It made me think of my grandmother, Nina who also was a character and taught in a one room schoolhouse. Got me thinking I definitly need to document our family history and possibly even try to write a real life novel of Nina's life or parts of her life.

Right now I'm reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I get to meet her next Wednesday, thanks to Rainy Day Books. Gretchen researched theories on happiness and applied it to her life for a year. It is a great book to read at the beginning of the year for help with setting New Year resolutions. Lots of good info and a fun read.

I loved Eat, Pray Love so I've started reading Elizabeth Gilbert's newest book, Committed. It's took me 30 pages to get into it but I'm really enjoying it now. She explores the idea of marriage in different cultures. So interesting.

My common theme with these books is they have all really made me think about life in a new way. They have helped me grow a little bit. I do believe you don't always find a book. Sometimes the book finds you. I've been found by all 4 of these books. Love them!

The Great Wolf Lodge, baby!

This year for Christmas I decided rather than buy Grant and Evelyn a toy that would eventually end up in the landfill, I would give them a small trip instead. We spent last night at the Great Wolf Lodge. Mammie went with us too. Great fun was had by all. Grant asked me, "Could this Christmas get any better?" He was loving life. We went out to eat at Famous Dave's Bar B Q, IHOP and the T Rex restaurant. The kids even let Mammie and I do a little shopping at the Legends before we went back home

Our first snowman of the year, baby!

We all did really enjoy the snow. I felt like I was living in Alaska for a while. I don't remember it snowing for 3 days in a row like that for quite some time. Someone told me this is the first white Christmas in KC in over 40 years. The bummer was not all our family could make it for Christmas. We really missed them. It just wasn't the same without them. Maybe we will do Christmas in July to make up for it. I love the Christmas season. I enjoy getting ready for it and going to Church on Christmas Eve, such a holy time. I'm always a little bummed when it's all over.

Real tough men wear pink, baby!

While Evelyn and Chris were at the KU game. Grant and I were outside enjoying the beautiful weather as you can see by his barefeet. Grant's pink shirt came from a fundraiser for breast cancer by his soccer team. He told me, "real tough men wear pink." He is striking his tough man pose.

KU vs MU at Arrowhead, Baby!

Chris and Evelyn had a daughter and daddy date to the KU / Mu game. Here they are all decked out to show their support for their team. They got to watch the game in the
Chiefs suite compliments of AT&T. They saw Clark Hunt. Evelyn's favorite part was all the food, especially the Sprite with cherries.

Things don't always go the way you want them to, baby!

This blog is not for those with a weak stomache.

Here are two photos of the kids making the name plates for our Thanksgiving dinner. The tags were little shopping bags with fall leaf stickers on them and a tootsie roll inside each bag. I was planning on taking a bunch of photos at Thanksgiving throughout the day so I have lots

of pictures to use for this blog. But my body wasn't cooperating. I ended up with a massive migraine. The pain was so bad, I hurled twice before finally deciding I've got to get home. Chris had the pleasure of driving me home while I hurled again in the car. I was able to fall asleep at home and by the time my family made it home at 10:00 pm I was feeling better.

I completely missed Thanksgiving dinner. I did have plenty of time to reflect on what I'm thankful for. I'm thankful for my healthy children and husband. I'm thankful for my chriropractor who had my headaches manageable and who I haven't been to for over a year and must go back to as soon as possible. My bad, I should have been to him sooner. I'll be calling him first thing Monday for an appointment.