And so it begins........

and so the quest to get our home in 'sale' able order begins.....DH has stripped the wall paper from he bathroom walls....and I spent a good part of the morning taping it all up....so he can paint it...we are now thinking to buy some land up in Wisconsin and build our own home....this should be fun....NOT......LOL.......I foresee many arguements about exactly how to build and what to build in our future..although...we do seem to be in agreement on the layout of the house we want....

Isn't She Just the Cutest Thing???

Christmas Updates

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Christmas....ours was nice....we went to Mass on Christmas Eve...Our whole family except for Brandon our Oldest is in the Choir...we are lucky to get Brnadon to come to church with us on Special Days........so we all sang except for Nate who just plays flute...we had a little program

before Mass which turned out really well....we got a LOT of compliments..

Then afterwards we went over to our good friends the V's for a Christmas Eve party.....Brad was adamant that we weren't going to stay very long...he didn't want to be there 'all

night" ...well..................they had Karaoke....and I had to DRAG him out of there at 12:30.......I still had a few gifts to wrap and stockings to stuff......needless to say I was up until about 3:00am......

we got up around 7:00am to do gifts.....and then off the Church for Christmas Day Mass....it was just Brad and I and the girls for choir...

and then came home to make my Christmas Dinner...

.I decided not to go overboard this year....it just gets to b e too much....and you can't eat it all anyway....so we had

Ham

Mashed Potatoes

Candied Yams

Corn

and

Tortiere( meat pie)

I had bought two pies for dessert Pumpkin and Pecan...and I made a batch of Peanut Butter Kiss cookies and two loaves of Pumkin Bread

Merry Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve and there is still so much that needs to be done.....I need to finish wrapping gifts....make some pumkin bread to take to a Christmas Eve party after church tonight...we have Mass at 7:00pm and then a nice couple from our church has invited a bunch of us to come over afterwards to celebrate all night....for dinner tonight we'll have Tortiere....it's a traditional French dish that my family used to make every Christmas..it's basically a "meat" pie....I make it with ground hamburg, mixed with mashed potatoes and lots sage, thyme and cloves..and finally trying to get these ornaments finished in time for tonight...I've had the crochet done for a while but they need to be stiffened...I used to be able to use spray starch for that part but I've sprayed and sprayed and sprayed them with EXTRA strength starch even...and they just aren't stiffening....so I've mixed some glue with water and saturated them...hopfully they will dry by this evening....if not I'll have to take a blow dryer to them...sooo how are you spending your day and night?

From Russia with Love....

Got another Surprise package yesterday!!

I'm not sure if I ever blogged about the Young Russian girl we took in a few years ago? Her name was Olga....and she had come over to the states on some kind of Work Exchange program? Basically they are brought over and provided with a job and supposedly a place to stay.... this girl was told she'd be working in Customer Servie for a Major Corporation( aka...cashier at Burger King in a Podunk NC town) her and three other girls were given a room in a supposed 'Bed and Breakfast" but it was more like just renting a bedroom in a house....they were then taken in by a co-worker at the Burger King and offered a room for a small fee( which was a no-no..since the co-worker lived in Military Housing and that is not allowed in Military Housing) Eventually two of the girls decided to go to Atlanta as Southern Chesapeake was not their idea of Hip , Happening American life...then the third girl arranged to go home a month early....the last girl was then told by the co-worker ( on a Wednesday) that she could no longer stay there and needed to be out by Friday! Yikes! ...in the meantime My son Nate had Befriended these girls early on on their stay....and so he came to us and asked if she could come stay with us......it was the best decision we ever made..and I wish I had known of her situation earlier as I'd have invited her to stay then and not ever charged her....having her here for that one Month was a great experience for us all and we grew to love her as one of our own in the short month that she was with us...her excitement at being in America and learning American customs was endearing...we treated her as one fo the family...a valued guest..and she was surprised at that..( I guess the other family didn't treat her well) Most evenings after she came home from work we would make tea and we would sit at the kitchen table and just talk for hours..she would tell me about her life in Russia and ask me tons of questions about American culture...Anyway ...we have kept in touch spordically thru the last few years since she went back home...she even called back in April...when she heard of the Va Tech shootings...as she knew one of my daughters attended there....it was soo good to talk to her...and she was soooo excited to be talking to me...it was cute...LOL......

soooo yesterday a package came out of the blue from Russia....oh how exciting...you had to be here....I nearly did somersaults...LOL....my girls thought I was NUTS...LOL...I think it's the most exciting gift of the year!! so here's is all she sent....

These are small little leather boxes ...they had jewelry in them....necklaces and earings....I kept one set for myself and let the girls each have the other set...one took the earings and the other the necklace...

These are Russian Cigarettes....she sent them for Nate who used to smoke....he recently quit...Halleluia!! I hope this doesn't tempt him to start again...he took a few packages with him last night to 'give' to friends...they are kinda cool looking though....with the Russian packaging and all....

The 'water" bottle as she called it....is for Brad....I think this will go well with all of his Navy memorabilia.....LOL

And Most importantly Authentic Russian Vodka......last time she tried to send us some it didn't quite make it....LOL....I guess it slipped thru customs this time..LOL

also seen in the picture above..are two colorful boxes filled with Russian Chocolates and Candies....a set of Postcards showing Russian landmarks...a package of Russian playing cards...the Jewelry that came in the cute leather boxes...two little adress booklets....and a really pretty Shawl... because although I live in a 'southern state" it is raining sometimes and a shawl is necessary :)

WWCS!!!

I've been so bad about this whole Coffee Swap thing...not updating my blog and participating in the contest posts......I recieved a package though.....from my WWCS Pal.....look at all the loot she sent....WOW ....Thank YOU sooo much to the bestest Pal in the world!!!

Merry Christmas!

Here is Our Christmas Picture for this year....it took a while to get it as Rachel decided to go to SC( boyfriend) for a while before coming home for Winter Break.....

And one of Britt with Josh....Britt did NOT want to take these pics as it was late and she was 'tired' and wanted to go to bed...but it was the first chance I had to get a picture with all four of my kids.....LOL

Gone Missing Again

Sorry......I keep falling behind in my blogging.....there's been so much going on this winter.....and I ahve quite a few updates to make....where to start...well Britt performed as Shulie In her school's production of School House Rock , Jr. It was such an awesome show....and she really did a good job....she was so cute up there....unfortunately we weren't allowed to tape or take pictures during the show...but I have this one picture of her dressed up as Shulie with her boyfriend Josh ( as Tom)

I flew my mom up to attend the performance....we actually flew her in a few weeks earlier so she could spend Thanksgiving with us as well...Thanksgiving was really nice...my Mom was with us..Rachel was home from College....and Josh had dinner with us as well...as his father was Deployed and his mother was in Tennesee with his Grandfather who is very ill...My Mother was here for 3 weeks which is the main reason I've been MIA...I really couldn't get online much with her here.....I will be flying her back in May so that she can see Britt's performance in The Sound of Music.....as MARIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES!!! She got the part of Maria....she is sooooooo excited....although looking at her script it is quite daunting.....pages on pages of songs and dialogue..LOL.....it's going to be AWESOME!! I am soooo proud of her......

In other news...it looks like we've made the decision to move up to Wisonsin! We've already had a realtor in....we plan to put our house on the market in April...Brad is already starting to make it 'sale' worthy....the white paint has been bought...I told him he better be SURE if he's painting my colorful walls white.....because once that white paint goes up I'm moving!! Whether it's to a house in WI or just another house here....we've been looking online and already have found a few homes we LOVE.....it's all so exciting!!! We figure if we sell our home here we could afford to buy a simlar home up there but with way more land....and still have money left over....Brad could retire/ retire....and not have to work again...we should be able to live off his Military Retirement if we don't have a mortgage to pay for....I'm not sure I can handle having him underfoot 24/7...but I really would like him to have the freedom to only 'work' if and when he wants...or just not 'work' if he wants...