January Snow & Goofiness

Because I'm soooooo far behind I'm going to do some MASSIVE blogs!!!! IT SNOWED....alot!

Our "Snow Family Picture"

and yes, Emma is the only one of us that can smile without squinting! :)

Daddy, Emma & Snowman

Daddy & Emma met some friends up on the hill to go sledding...Emma wasn't too impressed.

Mider Shoeshun (Mr. Houston) our neighbor brought Emma her first popsicle...she managed to eat it all! Surprise, Surprise!

She's happy but embarrassed that Mommy is taking her picture.

Daddy got Emma a Frosty...this is what happens...and NO the chocolate did not come out of her shirt! I need heeeeeeeelp! She's very happy...even with stains! :) Emma had an "art show" at school and these are some of the beautiful pieces she brought home. She is SOOOOO proud of them. They are hanging up everywhere around our house. Emma says "Oooooh pitty"

Emma got lost one day and lived with another family...she came back with no teeth! :)

This is her eating a hershey kiss...isn't it lovely?

Finland

So...Diane Sawyer did a show on FINLAND! How exciting! I did not get to watch it on GMA when it appeared but I found it online. I've linked the show segments here. Very informative and interesting...gives me more understanding and appreciation of the Fin's and mom and dad's new home! :) I promise pictures are coming soon! :) Learning About Life From the Finnshttp://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=7074834 The Finnish Sense of Funhttp://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=7074999 Inside the Biggest Snow Castlehttp://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=7074640 Diane Sawyer's Arctic Plungehttp://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=7074766 How to Prepare Salmon ? Finnish Stylehttp://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=7075149 Shout It Outhttp://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=7075188

Burning...

Well...I have not had a good last two days in the case of "the stove". Yesterday there was a fire and today I burned a pot of beans. That is what I get for telling my mom about my friend Angie and her "incident" a while back. I had the beans on the stove cooking, went up to my neighbors to see if they had some cream style corn to put in our Mexican Cornbread...on my way back into our house I slipped on some ice that I thought I was stepping over...I fell down and hurt my back. I thought the beans had plenty of water so I went to the bedroom to lie down. Josh was out in the living room with Emma. All of a sudden he started saying something was burning...I couldn't smell it...yet. Oh boy was it burning...our house smells like a "burnt fire" if that is even possible. We have a nice combination of smells going on. Needless to say...we ended up eating left overs tonight because it was way too late in the day to start another pot of beans. Maybe we'll have beans and cornbread another day this week. It is such great comfort food in this cold, cold weather. On another note, I did make a delicious dessert tonight that I got from one of my favorite blogs ever - http://bakerella.blogspot.com/ - she has the neatest and cutest ideas. I made the Walnut Blondie with Maple Butter Sauce. If I may say so myself it was quite delicious and it looked pretty nice and "professional" all dished up!! :)

Snow and Fire

Well...today we had snow so of course school was canceled. I must say it was nice to have a three day weekend but it is disspointing knowing that we get a day taken away from our spring break. :( Oh well...such is life. We slept in today until around 11 or so. We had a lazy day. I put some chicken on to boil to make White Chicken Chili with. Once it was finished I moved it from the burner and put the skillet on the same burner to make some yummy chocolate chip pancakes. One pancake was in the skillet and then all of a sudden "POOF" a fire started UNDER the skillet. I started screaming, "There's a fire, there's a fire." I cut the burner off, and of course there was still a fire. I just froze. Emma walked into the kitchen and started yelling and pointing "fire, fire". Josh finally came over and moved the skillet and put the fire out. The whole time I was standing there "frozen" watching the fire I kept thinking about the fire that we had in our home in Texas and as well as our apartment burning and our neighbors apartments burning. Thank goodness Josh was home because I kept thinking...what do I put on the fire...flour, baking soda or baking powder...I couldn't quite remember. Now everytime Emma comes into the kitchen she points to the burner and says "no fire, no fire". Hopefully we will have NO MORE FIRE! Thank the Lord our apartment building is STILL standing and everyone is safe! :)

We are well!

We are well! We are well! We are well! So...I had a bad night of "feeling like" strep the next day I wasn't my "best" but was much better by Friday! We had our 2nd Koinonia dinner rotation tonight. It was our turn to host...so we all squeezed into our bitty apartment!!! It was a time of great fun and great fellowship. Emma DEFINITELY warmed up to everyone. Madeline and Mitchell are her new best friends. I'm sure she will warm up to Spencer soon enough. Seth better watch out...there is an older man in the picture now! :)

Not Again!!!!

We are just so lucky this month! My throat is hurting, my head is hurting and I am chilled. Emma's wonderful pediatrician who we lovingly call, Dr. Joe, said that he thinks I have strep again. Can he just be our doctor too??? Not only did he say that I have strep again he said that Josh's "mystery illness" was strep too, even though Josh did not have a sore throat he had all the other symptoms!!! I have called the school and warned them to be on the lookout for a call from me in the morning. We'll see just how the night goes and how I feel...I may be going back to the doctor in the morning so we can run up our bill even more. As long as Emma can stay well I will be THRILLED!

Sick, Sick and More Sick

Our household is really exciting right now. Emma had a fever off and on for a week and a half the day her fever broke (Wednesday) Josh got sick and had to go to the doctor his flu test came back negative but I think it should have come back positive. The following day (Thursday) I went to the doctor and both my flu test and strep test came back negative...but by Friday they were calling to say the strep test was positive. I knew my throat had never hurt so bad. By Friday evening I had hit a wall...a flu like wall and felt "just lovely". SaturDAY we were both feeling well...then the night comes...and Josh gets sick...everywhere. I spent Sunday caring for him, keeping Emma away and once again disinfecting everything. From what I have heard from the teachers I work with is that everyone has the "flu" but the flu test come back negative and everyone has strep that comes back negative the first day and positive the next. Whatever is going around is really strange...I don't want it again! Thankfully...Emma has not gotten what we have...or did she have it to begin with and we got it for her??? No pictures on this post you might be scared of what you see...we look pretty homeless these days! :) I promise there are pictures soon to come...of sweet Emma! :) Hopefully, Hopefully, Hopefully I will get to go back to work tomorrow!!!!!

Math Help

This video is too good to pass up. I'm surprised some of my students haven't tried calling for their math help!

TEXAS

These pictures are posted in a random order...it was taking me too long to get them all organized. :)

Mom was kind enough to take Emma and me to Texas to visit family. I hadn't been in a year and a half. It was a GREAT trip!

GG gave Emma her first Ice Cream cone....I'm in for it now! :)

Look at my sweet little clown. Aunt Tami's house has more fun things for Emma to play with that her little pre-school. Emma would be in hog heaven living there! :) We got to vist Gan alot and Emma enjoyed pushing her in her "stroller". Emma was scared of that "contraption" :) at first but once she saw her cousin Owen pushing Gan and after I kept talking about it being a "stroller" she was okay with it. It was too sweet though! Emma knew exactly how to take Gan down to the dining hall. She enjoyed taking Gan to supper even when it wasn't supper time! Emma smiling...so cute! Reminds me of my little Janey in China...I'll have to find a picture of her putting her fingers up to her cheeks and smiling! Emma FINALLY sat in Gan's lap...not for long though. She was too scared of that "contraption" to sit in Gan's lap. Working hard...Emma is ready for a job! Reading with "O Dave" as Emma calls him. Finally giving Gan a hug....too sweet!!! Showing Gan her "treasures" - an acorn a rock and a bolt she found outside on the sidewalk I LOVE this picture!!!!!!!!!!

Emma kissing and loving on her little cousin Ben...too sweet! Some fun shots of Emma jumping!! "working" on the deer feeder!

Owen and Emma watching the corn fall out of the deer feeder.

"O Dave" and Owen taking us for a drive at the Ranch.

The best and most relaxing place in the world.....prior to kids! :)

No...it is still a great place and so relaxing...there is just something about the ranch that I LOVE! Emma copying her cousin Brooke...or maybe torturing... :) Uncle "Pig" (that's what Emma said), Ma 2 and Emma A picture with the deer...Emma wasn't afraid...surprise, surprise. Uh oh...did "Ducky" fly away? Mommie Dee, Grandaddy & Emma

Tag

I was tagged a couple of weeks ago by my friend Angie and am just now getting around to doing it. This is one of my "preggy pictures" about a month before Emma was born.

Instructions:

Go to the place where you store all of your pictures on your computer and open up the 4th folder.

Open the 4th picture.

Post the picture and give an explanation.

Tag 4 people.

I tag: Kelly, Angela, Mom & anyone else that has a blog and looks at this blog! :)