Christmas Ornaments

I grew up in a family that always had an artificial tree and Craig grew up in a family that always had a real tree. The very first year we were married Craig insisted on a real tree. He said it wouldn't be Christmas without a real tree. I wasn't crazy about the idea but I went along with it because it was important to him. And I have to say that after all these years it has grown on me and now it wouldn't be Christmas to me without a real tree.

And just as the real tree had to grow on me, the way I decorated our tree had to grow on Craig. Craig's family tree was mostly large shinny glass ornaments and lots of glitzy Christmas colors. My way of decorating the tree more reflected my personality of who I am and who we are as a family. There is no consistency to my ornaments. All my ornaments are different. And they all have meaning to us. I love putting up the tree each year. It really isn't a chore at all. I love to hang each ornament on the tree and think about where that ornament came from. Here are some examples........ Each year I purchase one of these clay personalized ornaments with all our names on it. This one is from 10 years ago. I am not into cat ornaments but this one is special. My brother gave this to me for Christmas back when we were in high school....some 25 years ago. In all reality I'm sure that my mother purchased it and put his name on the package but it doesn't matter. I still think of him every year when I hang it on the tree. And who has an Andy Griffith ornament on their tree? I do! Mom bought this for me because she knows I love the Andy Griffith show.And likewise I'm sure not many people have a Santa Rooster on the tree either. My kitchen is decorated in chickens and roosters so it's only natural that I would have one on my tree too.

I would love to go out and spend a fortune on ornaments each year. I have to control myself but I do splurge on one or two of these Lenox ornaments. They are so beautiful. Each year my Lenox collection grows a little bigger.

This type is my favorite. I love nativity ornaments!! My goal is to someday have enough nativity ornaments to have an all nativity tree separate from my main tree. One of the nurses that I work with gave me this ornament last year. It had a tag on it that said it was made from the wood of an olive tree in Bethlehem. Maybe it's true, maybe it's not but I like to think it is true.
Homemade ornaments are the best. This is one that we made with the girl scouts one year.
These need no explanation. You know why I like these....

This doesn't even look like a Christmas ornament but it always goes on the tree. Jordan made this in first grade. It's a picture of her in her Halloween costume.

Craig and the sunshine state

Craig is in Orlando all week at a trade show for his job. He left Monday morning and will be back Sunday night. We miss him. But it's been a busy week for us which makes the time go fast. It's so different when one of us is missing. The very first morning that Craig was gone Jordan and I woke up late and Jordan was late for school. The first thing out of Jordan's mouth was "Dad's only been gone one day and already we are falling apart". Craig really does help to make things run smooth in the mornings.

When Craig is home the Seadra and Zoe sleep in their crates at night. When I have the bed to myself I start out the night with both of them in bed with me. I always think I can make it through the night with them snuggled up next to me but it never works out that way. Last night it lasted until 2AM before I got tired of them hogging the covers and throwing the pillows around. All I had to say was "go night, night" and they both jumped off the bed and into their crates.

Craig has been reporting mid 70's in Florida and you might think that he was enjoying that but for those of you that know my husband you know that his passion is SNOW and we have gotten 5 or 6 inches of snow since he left with more snow coming tonight. He's hoping that some is still left when he gets home. I got home late from work yesterday and when I pulled in the driveway Jordan and Caleb were riding one of the snowmobile around the back yard. The snow bug has bitten this family.

ReinDog Parade

Jordan, Zoe and I went to the ReinDog parade in St. Joe yesterday. It was so fun. There must have been several hundred dogs all dressed up for Christmas in the parade. This parade has been going on for years but we finally decided to go this year. We'll make sure we go again next year, it was that cute.
Zoe was a good girl. She posted about it on her blog yesterday. You can read all about it from her perspective by clicking here.

The town is decorated with all these statues. We only got to a few of them. Sometime I'd like to walk around town and see all of them. And of course Santa was in the parade. I love this time of year!! I think I'm the biggest kid of them all.

The Classics

It may be a little early but they are already putting some of the classics on TV. Last night it was A Charlie Brown Christmas and tonight it was The Grinch That Stole Christmas. I watched them both. I can remember being a child and being soooooo excited when these shows would come on once a year. It was a real treat and a real part of Christmas for me as a kid. I wanted my kids to have that same experience/tradition as I had but it didn't work out that way. When my kids were little they received the whole set of classics kids Christmas shows on VHS. They watched those shows over and over many times. They watched them so much that it they never experienced that once a year thrill that I got when I was their age. I guess that is one of the down falls of growing up in the technology age.

I'm going to continue to watch them ONCE a year.

I found a small treasure

I was done at work by noon today so I made myself a haircut appointment for on the way home. Problem was I was still an hour early so I decided to walk around this little antique mall to take up the time. I found a book section at the back of the store. Woo Hoo!! I love books. By the time I came across the books I only had about 15 minutes left before my appointment so I didn't get to dig around as long as I wanted. I will be going back soon. The books are even divided into subjects. I found a section on dogs (of course I purchased 2 from that section). They had books on photography, nature, cooking, gardening, history, religion....on and on. The books were all in excellent shape and the best part is that most of the books were only $1 to $3. Some of the books were antiques but most were just out of print books. My Mom loves books too....I'll be picking up some books for Xmas gifts.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Chrismas Tree.....

Getting our tree was an adventure this year. We decided to get our tree from somewhere we had never been before, and it's right here in Hartford. We've seen it for years but never really knew how extensive or nice that it was. It was so awesome!! The place is called "Tall Timbers".

They ask you what kind of tree you want and then they either drive you in a bus or take you on a hayride to a particular field so you can pick out your tree.

There were acres and acres of tree.
Where do we start?This one looks good.
Our "Tree"
Shaking the snow off.
Cutting down our tree.

Loading our tree. They also had the cutest Christmas gift shop with a fireplace and all. It was an adorable place.
Setting our tree up at home.

Celebrating our tree.

Ta Da!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

When Caleb was in Kindergarten someone from the newspaper came to the school and took his picture and asked him a question; "Who were the pilgrims?" I was quite proud of Caleb's answer when I saw it in the paper. He responded "They were those people that wore buckles on their hats".

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours. Today is the day to count your blessing and give thanks to God!!

Mr/Miss Hartford Scholarship Contest

Tonight was the Hartford Scholarship contest. It was so much fun. Caleb had a lot of fun and of course he stole the show with his dancing and stage presence. Caleb got 2nd runner up. 2nd runner up Mr. Hartford Scholarship

Caleb Mullauer

Caleb, Chaz (1st runner up) and Andrew (Mr, Hartford)
The girls that won

Group photo of all that placed
Caleb and Jordan

YUCK

I apologize if this post is going to offend any of my readers out there, and if you are a smoker it may. Some months back the county that we live in passed a law to be smoke free in all public places, with one exception. It didn't apply to restaurants and bars. So why even pass the law in the first place? What is more public than restaurants? This happened some time ago but I am still fuming over it especially after tonight. My daughter had a dance lesson for an hour so my husband and I decided that we would go out to dinner while she had her lesson. We got seated and immediately were overcome by cigarette smoke. Do people not realize how unpleasant this is for non-smokers? We couldn't wait to get out of there. We hurried and finished our meal and quickly left. We still had 1/2 an hour before our daughter was done. It would have been nice to sit and enjoy a glass of ice tea while spending time with my husband but instead we went and sat in the car and waited for Jordan to get out of her lesson. I wish smokers could spend a few days with me in the OR (I am an OR nurse) and see the effects of smoking. 90% of bladder cancers are connected to smoking, not to mention heart disease...my list could go on and on. But that is fine. If they want to pollute their own bodies that is their business and they have that right, but I too should have the right to be in a public place and enjoy a smoke free environment.

The Andy Griffith Show

Worked at the Niles hospital today, got home early (about 3:00), made dinner, went to a meeting at church and just now got home. Caleb is at the golf course for an end of the year employee dinner, Jordan is upstairs on the phone, and Craig is in the garage working on his Jeep. That leaves me all alone and I actually get to dictate what is on the TV. I'm watching "The Andy Griffith Show". It's one of my favorite episodes too. The one where Andy saves Gomer's life by putting out a small fire at the filling station so Gomer feels the need to pay Andy back for "saving" his life. There isn't an episode I haven't seen multiple times and I keep watching them. Our Sunday school class even did a study of a few episodes. We talked about what the moral of the story was. I really enjoyed that. I don't know why I like this show so much. Maybe it's because it shows the simpler side of life.

Sunday is my favorite day of the week

Two of my favorite girls

It was a good day today. After church I asked the family if they would please help me do some cleaning and straightening around the house for 45 minutes or so. I told them if we all pitched in then it wouldn't take that long. Much to my surprise they all jumped right in without much complaining either. And not only did I get 45 minutes out of all of them but I got like 2 hours from all of them. Craig even went through all the kitchen cupboards and organized and trashed a lot of stuff we don't use or need anymore. The house is shinning and I am a happy camper tonight. Amazing what a little help will do to lift your spirits. And I got a ton of laundry done today too. It isn't all done but the majority of it is. It's never ALL done.

We made it to church today after having the last 2 weeks off due to obligations with the kids activities. It was good to get back.

I got all of my fall/Halloween decorations put away today and was half tempted to drag out the Xmas decorations but I talked myself out of it. I'll wait until Thanksgiving weekend.

We had a wonderful dinner tonight. I have discovered these marinated pork tenderloins at Meijer's that we just love. I would have never bought them but they had a special on them one week, buy one get one free, so I bought a few. The are so good!! Craig cooks them on the grill. Our favorite is the bacon peppercorn. We had that with baked potatoes, acorn squash, and corn bread. Yum-O, as Rachael Ray would say.

Sorry to be so boring. I'm not feeling real creative tonight. Have a great week....

Feeling Better

Thanks to my online friends for checking on me. And to my friends and family for calling me. I am better today. I missed work Wednesday and Thursday but managed to get through the day at work today and I even stopped and did some errands and got groceries on the way home too. That was a major accomplishment. And now it's the weekend and I can relax and concentrate on getting well the next few days.

I did go to the Dr. Monday but not for being sick, although I could feel myself coming down with something. I went to get a check up because I have been so tired for weeks maybe even months. Some days I am just dragging and I'm feeling weird things in my chest too. This has happened before but it was attributed to stress and anxiety. Maybe it's the same thing again but my Dr. did an EKG that showed a few funny things so he sent me for an echo cardiogram which I had done this morning. Monday I go back for blood test results and such. If it's anxiety again then I need to get on a treatment plan so I can get back to feeling like myself again.

What do I have to be anxious about? I think it's just having a husband, two teenagers, a job, a home.......my story is no different than anyone else. And I am the typical mother that takes care of everyone but herself until I get run down. It's time for some changes I think.

Tomorrow will be a better day

I'm home sick today. I don't like calling in to work but there's no way I could work today. I barely made it through the day yesterday and by the time I got home last night I had a 102 temp and awful body aches. I'm just hanging out at home today with Seadra and Zoe trying to keep comfortable. It's pretty miserable.

I just sat down with the laptop and Zoe decided to squeeze her fat butt in a small spot next to me and in the process knocked a full glass of ice tea all over the carpeting. GREAT. Just the mess I feel like cleaning up. I just finished cleaning that all up.

Now I'm watching "Notorious" on the bio channel about some serial killer. It's caught my attention.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

State Marching Band Competition

About 11:00 yesterday the band was on their way to state competition. They had a police and fire truck escort leading them out of town while all us parents and supporters waved from the streets. "Jordan Mullauer, your band may take the field"Do It Vanguard!!!HIEV (Hartford Indian Emerald Vanguard)
Drum majors and seniors during the awards ceremony

Award Ceremony

Josh accepting the 7th place award

Posing for award picture

Drum Major's Amanda and Jordan

Jordan and Shane
Caleb and Jordan (he's proud of his sister)
Jordan with proud parents. Congratulations.

To State We Go!!

Wish us luck!! We are headed to the Detroit Ford Field for State Marching Band Competition tomorrow. This is the highlight of our season. To qualify for state you must be in the top 10 of your flight division. Right now Hartford is ranked 7th in the state. Congratulations and Good Luck!!! We'll be home about 3:00 AM Sunday so I will be posting pictures and final competition results Sunday afternoon. See you then.....

I've got something in my pocket

I've had several occasions lately where I found myself in an awful situation. I was in the presence of the perfect photo opportunity without a camera. That is practically a sin in my book. I have an awesome camera that I absolutely love but it is big and I don't carry it with me unless I specifically know that I will use it. So...... I went and bought a pocket camera. I bought this Kodak 8 mp, except mine is pink....it's a girl thing. I haven't had much opportunity to mess with it yet but so far I like it. You know, I think people in this day and age are so lucky to have digital photography technology. I would have given anything to have had it when the kids were young.