Fighting Illini Five

I'm sitting here, eating my salad, staring at the humongous mess that awaits me. We got back late last night from a little weekend road trip, and the evidence of our hurried departure and return is seemingly everywhere. (Probably won't blog again for a few days, as I prepare for Christmas With My Family this coming weekend.) But first, I must talk to you about my salad. It has been my favorite meal the past few weeks. I can't get enough of it. Romaine lettuce with Vegan Caesar Dressing from Post Punk Kitchen. Great recipe. Sissy keeps stealing pieces of lettuce from my bowl, saying, "I like it! I like it!"

So...we packed up Friday and drove about 6 hours, until Ryan found us a hotel around midnight. That was a hard night, as the kids popped up, so excited when we arrived. We hadn't told them where we were going, and they got their second wind...keeping us up until about 1:30 a.m. There were all kinds of awakenings after that, too, between the kids and the dogs. Fortunately, we weren't on a time schedule and could take our time getting ready the next morning.

Finished another 2-3 hours of our drive, ending up in Champaign/Urbana, Illinois. We were planning to meet many members of Ryan's immediate family (parents, brothers, sister-in-law, niece, and uncle) for Shootout at the Hall, several highschool basketball games at U of I. There were apparently several potential Illinois recruits playing, and the guys wanted to check them out.

First, we stopped to eat lunch at Strawberry Fields, a little health food store and cafe. I was happy to find a nice place for "supplies" anytime we are in town. I ordered a hummus and veggie sandwich. We also went overboard with the desserts, as we always do, but practically everything in the bakery case was vegan. We got key lime cheesecake with chocolate crumb crust, strawberry crumb tart (YUM!), a blueberry tart, and 2 huge cupcakes that lasted us - well, Sissy finished up one of hers this morning - 3 days.

Then we checked into our hotel. May I recommend the Comfort Suites next time you are in the area? It seemed new-ish, clean, had a pool (that we enjoyed the next morning), allowed our puppies, included a fridge and microwave, and was in close proximity to everywhere we needed to go.

We met his family at an Illini store on Green Street. I may or may not have went back the next day by myself to get a Christmas present for Ryan.
Oh, so ladylike with her skirt hiked up to her waist...this picture of the boys makes me think of a moment in the car, on the way home, when all three of the kids were laughing and singing together, playing off the words of a Brian Kinder song...they had been so bored and whiny and arguing and tattle-telling...then it that moment of happiness and harmony, Ryan and I looked at each other like, "...weird..."

Cousin K even rocked her Illini apparel.

my little family of Fighting Illini fans

I'm about 12 years late for embracing such an important interest of my husband's. For that, I am sorry. (Especially since my dear husband has enjoyed every episode of Guliana & Bill with me.) Before the past couple of months, all I could have told you is "Coach Weber...blue and orange...was there once a Dee Brown and a Deron Williams?...Champaign..." That's about it. Now I can name all of the players and a ridiculous amount of stuff about them. I surprised Ryan one day by reciting all of their names and what year they were. He's taught me a lot since then. And I've watched about 5 games in a row with him. Honestly, when you take the time to learn a little bit about it, the commentators, the noise isn't so annoying. (And I get lots of head rubs during the games. Consider it, ladies.)

And I am now the proud owner of ORANGE.

Giveaway Winner

I'm drawing early for my giveaway because I'll be out of town tomorrow, and I figured I needed to put a halt to it (those entries were just POURING in, haha). Anyway, the winner was #1: Mama Pea from Peas and Thank You. Visit her blog; it's VERY entertaining!

I'm trying to copy/paste or save and publish the Number Generator Results, but this is all that will paste:
Random Number Generator Min:1 Max:4 Result: 1

That's just so my sister won't think she was robbed.

Getting Organized

Thought I would share what my amazingly talented and hardworking husband made for me recently. I told him I thought it would be great to have shelves and a window seat in the "homeschool room." He set to work and came up with this. We both worked on priming and painting. I love it!

(What you probably can't see in the picture is the sliced screen in the window. No, no one tried to break in. That was the gardening shears handiwork of my middle child. We "thought" about buying a new screen and wrapping it as one of his Christmas presents.)

I'm still rearranging and figuring out how I want everything. We are thinking about putting our computer (which currently sits on the homeschool table) on that desk. Just trying to decide how to work that with the printer. BUT - every box is extremely organized AND labeled.

I am so excited because I have always wanted a window seat, ever since I was little. I was able to get the kids' puzzles out of the closet, which opened up a lot of space in there. Now things aren't jammed in there, and I'm more likely to find things in the closet (which is also beautifully organized, if I may so). Also, the kids don't need to get into "other things" in the closet that are off-limits without my direction. So far, they are doing really well getting one puzzle out at a time and putting it back.

Giveaway reminder: scroll down to next post if you want to enter for the party pack. (Sorry to those not "in the market" for such a thing; I'll try to choose a more universal prize next time.) Your chances are great; there are only 4 entries so far!

Happy Birthday Jesus Party Set Giveaway!

Update: Giveaway has ended. Winner is Mama Pea!

I can't tell you how many blog giveaways I have entered. I sort of became obsessed to win just one. Well, the past two months, I have won TWO! Yay! (More on what I won later.) So, in the spirit of paying it forward, and in the spirit of celebrating Christmas and thanking you for reading my blog, I'm going to have a giveaway of my own.We always have a birthday cake (or cupcakes, pie, something) to help us celebrate the birth of Jesus. I saw this party set at Christian Book Outlet the other night (and kids' stuff was 15% off that night), and I thought it would be a fun addition. Unnecessary, of course, but fun! It includes 8 (paper) plates, 8 napkins, 3 candles, 6 ballons, a banner, 8 noisemakers, and a scripture-based guidebook. There are also a few little Happy Birthday, Jesus! activity books I tossed in to go along with it. There is more information about this program here. There are additional activities that require an access code that comes with the party set. It says: Each family will go through a week-long program that culminates in a birthday party.

If you are not familiar with Really Woolly, here are some more online games (I know my kids are always searching for games to play online.) for your child to play and products to purchase. The company works with Compassion, and "part of the proceeds from any DaySpring Really Woolly purchase will help put Bibles in the hands of children in need."

Anyway, I bought one for me and one for you. If you want to enter, just leave a comment telling me you are a follower of my blog.

(By the way, I was discussing with another blogger how uncomfortable of a term that is; she pointed out she doesn't want anyone to "follow" her but rather follow Christ. Makes sense, huh? Wish it was called something else.)

If you want to enter but aren't a follower, just click on the follow button to the left and leave a comment letting me know you did. If you want to mention the giveaway on your blog, let me know that you did, and that will give you two additional entries. I'll draw a name on Friday night, the 11th and mail it out Saturday. Thanks!

Christmas Trees

We ventured out to the Christmas Tree Farm the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We picked a perfect day that didn't even require coats. The kids, once again, loved the pig races. They are pretty cute.

Yeah...why, oh, why can't all 3 of my children look normal at the same time during a picture. When child #1 is not smiling, child #2 is smiling too much.

Bless Tornado's heart; he was really trying hard. Look at how straight and stiff his hands were. Sissy wouldn't put her arms down. And I don't know why my kids always lean their heads back and stick their chins out when they are trying to smile big. Here are our pics from last year's trip to pick out our tree.

Even though I couldn't really see the kids on the way home, we managed to fit our tree in the car. I was very excited we were able to get a potted one, which is what we usually do. We can plant them in our yard and not feel sad about cutting down a tree and spending so much money on something that is going to be tossed in a few weeks. My dad no longer has a truck we can borrow, and I didn't think we'd be able to put a potted one on top or inside, but we know now it's possible.

our tree!

I was so excited about Christmas, I went out and bought 3 more potted trees that week. This little one the kids were responsible for decorating on their own, any way they wanted. We are also using it for our


Adorenaments from Family Life. Jeff and Kristi got them for us one year. They come with a book that includes devotional type readings to explain each ornament. We are adding one each day.

and this is "my" tree

I decorated this tree with silver bells, paper doves, and the ornaments my wonderful, late Great Aunt Mert crocheted for us long ago.
It's very exciting for me; this is only the 2nd year I've had a mantel to hang my stockings. It was absolutely a requirement when we built our house.

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Two Christmas parties this week...

"Friday Night Mystery" was going to Christian Book Outlet for a birthday party for Jesus. The kids, all three of them, were laughing and excited when we walked in. "It's Bob and Larry!" Sissy really wanted to get close to them, but she needed Momma to help make her feel brave. Dash couldn't get enough of them. Anytime he wasn't standing next to them, shaking their hands, or giving them hugs, he was standing off to the side, smiling at them. For some strange reason, despite his initial joy at seeing them, Tornado wouldn't get his picture taken with them or even say "hi" to him because he was afraid or something. He's usually the first one in line.

The kids' stuff was on sale so I picked out another Christian dinosaur book for Dash and an Answers in Genesis Kids book for Tornado. We also got a Happy Birthday, Jesus! party set. It's so cute I'm going to have a giveaway for one, which I'll post tonight or tomorrow.

One night this week we went to the Christmas Extravaganza at Tornado's school. He was SO super excited to be there in party mode, to show us around and participate in all of the activities.
Both the boys were excited to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. Sissy didn't want near him. I don't think she's ever gotten her picture taken with Santa, come to think of it? Tornado told him he wanted a marshmallow gun and a Tom & Jerry comic book. I think Dash sort of panicked when Santa asked him what he wanted. He had some things he had planned on telling him, but when Santa was looking at him, he got a little shy and flustered and finally just said, "....a car."

making ornaments

Then, the strangest thing happened...my sister Cary showed up! That's her holding the basket with the red ribbon.

Okay, it's not actually Cary. But to those of you who know her, doesn't that look like her?! I was freaking out! Tornado was jumping up and down, laughing, because he thought it looked like her, too. I couldn't stop taking pictures of her. I've actually seen her before outside the school, and even Dash has remarked, "That looks like Aunt Cary."

So I put some of these pictures on facebook and commented something like, "Remember this party, Cary?" and "Doesn't this bring back memories?" She called me to ask me when those pictures were taken, "When was that?" She was trying to figure it out, because SHE thought it was her, too. Mom and Dad, is there something you need to tell us?

The Rest of Our Weekend

Didn't get many pictures from our visit to my brother's house. My parents were there, too, along with all of my siblings and their families. I'll say it for the one thousandth time how much I love my family. I don't know when I've seen Dash in a deeper sleep than after we came home late Friday night. He was on the go with cousin Owen. They were all about playing dinosaurs and riding bikes outside. He was literally speeding away from us full throttle when we were trying to get him into the car to leave. All of the kids played together well, though. My youngest nephews, Pierson and Rush, get cuter and happier by the day, I think. I think they might end up being the sweetest ones yet. I've probably said that about all of them, though.

Cary, Ryan, and I went to watch New Moon Thursday night. Tracy was supposed to wait to see it with us, too. Cary got it out of her one day that she already went without us. But I think maybe she told Cary not to tell me. (The "don't tell her/him I told you this, but" 's get very confusing in my family. It's hard to keep track of what you're supposed to tell and not tell.)

Thursday, I said to Tracy, "It's going to be so fun going to see the movie since we all waited to watch it together!"

Wait for it..."Yeah!" she said.

"I mean, you haven't seen it yet, right?" I pressed.

"Oh, no," she assured, like just the idea of it was absurd. I waited for several seconds before calling her out for the liar and sell-out that she is. I'm just teasin' ya, Trace.
One picture I did get...I came home from the movie to find this peaceful, little scene. This makes my heart very happy looking at it. Six of the loves of my life, all huddled together, having a little sleepover. It won't be long before the other three can join in.

Remember this picture I posted a few months ago? That's my dad and brother, and although they have their differences (Dad is quieter and more introverted like me; Matt is more like Mom in the opposite way.), their similarities are funny and plentiful.

And they just get funnier by the day. This is how we caught them sitting next to each other.

In other news...

The girls got groomed. They came home looking like completely different dogs. We had thought we were feeding them too much, and they were getting fat.

Turns out, it was just all of their hair.