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It's funny, seriously. Visit here for some holiday cheer.

A Week's Worth of Blogs in one Post

In an effort to streamline, I am going to post weekly.



So anyway...here are pictures of me enjoying the produce at the Central Market (aka super H.E.B) in Fort Worth Saturday the 1st. It is liked you have died and gone to foodie heaven. They are only found in Texas.







The produce section is where the store entrance drops you off at. They are 3 huge aisles like the one I am standing in just of fresh produce. It is impossible to think while you are in here. I can remember the first time I was here and spent like 10 minutes looking at all the variety of eggplants you could buy.



They also have a pretty good meat and seafood area, and outstanding bakery and cheese section. They also have tons of pre-prepped foods you can take home and reheat like you are some kind of chef god.





Here is Lilly at Hulen Mall in Fort Worth. She is fascinated by fountains and always wants to stick her hands in them. But then again, who doesn't. The malls in Forth Worth aren't quite as good as they are in Dallas. But that was the trade off for the supermarket.

On Friday, we went to the Burns' Fantasy of Lights display on Midwestern State University's Campus. The first picture is the picture of the entrance to the lights. It was the opening night and Lilly loves to go around and see all of the moving displays. Her particular favorite is the robot (that constantly blows bubbles; yes, that is her jumping around so much that I can't get a picture.) and the Santa that pops out of the chimney.

On Sunday, Lilly had here Christmas concert at school. They sang quite a few short songs about "Jesus' Birthday. Lilly is a born performer. So she belted out her songs like a champ. You can also see that my wonderfully tall child is in the middle on the back. Damn genetics.

Lilly's Baking Brownies

She can because she knows brownies start with "B" and there is a picture of them on the box. There are also pictures on the back to tell her how much egg, water and oil she needs to add. So she matched up the measuring cup numbers with the number on the box and got to mixing.

Job for mommy: greasing the pan, turning on the oven and putting them in the oven and setting the time.

Cookie Number One

Exhibit A:


First cookie baked for the Christmas Season. Into the freezer you go.

This past Sunday

This past Sunday we went to church at Sacred Heart instead of our usual, Christ the King. Here are pictures of Dad playing his postlude and then pictures of him being a ham.

Lilly's Haus

Here is Lilly's sophomore effort on the gingerbread house. Last year's accidentally ended up on the floor. But this year she had a much better time. This year I assembled the house structure and Lilly did ALL of the decorating. I just turned her loose with frosting and all sorts of cookies and candies. I think it turned out pretty good.

Work in progress.

The Gingerbread House is Up.

Well this one was much easier than last year's other than the trauma of buying peppermint sticks that were already broken. The replacement peppermint sticks cost probably about $20.00 when you figure gas and visiting three stores, but that's another story.

Work in progress.

And the Contruction Begins.

Here are a lot of the pieces for my gingerbread house. I should begin constructing later on today. More pictures to come.

How Texas Are You?

I Am 36% Texas and Brian is too.

You're as welcome in Texas as a skunk at a lawn party.

How Texas Are You?

Paul came for a Visit

Here's a picture of Paul. He was visiting his sister-in-law's mother's house in Fort Worth and decided to come home for a little while. Here is a picture of us playing cards with Lilly on the floor.

Thanksgiving Feast

Just because there was just the three of us didn't mean we weren't going to eat. Here is a picture of the spread I put out for the husband and kid. It consisted of a brined and roasted turkey, sauteed green beans with bacon and spätzle, mashed potatoes, homemade rolls, acorn squash bisque and I am sad to say "stove top stuffing" from a box.

Here's a picture of me burning my hands holding a cup of soup so my husband could take a picture of me.

Gathering for the Cornucopia

Here are pictures of Lilly and I going to Lucy park to gather leafs, berries and pine cones for our Thanksgiving cornucopia. It has become a tradition that Lilly looks forward to.

We didn't gather near as much stuff as we did lat year due to all the flooding this past summer. I don't know if you can tell or not from the picture, but the area we were walking in was submerged under about 12 feet of water.

After we collected all of our foliage, we went over to the duck pond and feed them rice Chex. It's like they haven't been fed for ages. They fed like piranhas. It probably was due to the 30° drop from Tuesday until today.

I Cannot Go With you Staci

Well Staci, I won't be going to London with you. But maybe we can meet up in San Francisco sometime.

You Belong in Paris

Stylish and expressive, you were meant for Paris. The art, the fashion, the wine! Whether you're enjoying the cafe life or a beautiful park... You'll love living in the most chic place on earth.

What City Do You Belong In?

My Buddy Amy

This is my friend Amy from work. She teaches science too and is almost as sarcastic as I am. She has a 4 year-old son, Max, who goes to pre-school with Lilly.

Amy is a good friend to go to Sonic with. She is easy to convince that she needs to leave campus.

Shriveled Pumpkin

Last night at Mom and Dad's house we were watching Unwrapped. They had presented segment over those fancy pumpkin carving kits you can get and churn out cool looking pumpkins without having any skill. Anyway, this is not really about the segment. It is about what Marc Summers (the host) said after the segment. He said if we had a problem with our "pumpkin shriveling" that we should "soak it in water." Anyhow, both Dad and I started giggling because it clearly was a euphemism for something else. Bill would have appreciated it.

What Old People Do On Saturday Night.

Well here is what the Old Man, Brian and I do on Saturday night.

Of course Brian took all of the pictures so here you can see dad and I with our game faces on, playing the latest addictive game, Guitar Hero III.

Here we are celebrating the completion of our song with the ultra-cool and time-honored tradition called the "high-five".

Thoughts on Food

I saw this recipe in last month's Martha Stewart Living and I think I am going to try it sometime during Christmas. It is a cranberry, almond, cinnamon tart. It uses fresh cranberries. It sure looks delicious. The recipe can be found here if you want to take a look.

Photo from www.marthastewartliving.com .

Books I am Reading

I needed some new children's lit since I raced through Harry Potter this summer. I didn't particular enjoy the last book because it was like eating a REALLY good large pizza all by yourself in about 5 minutes. It went by so fast I hardly had time to absorb the details.

So any way, I stumbled upon the Charlie Bone series. Like Harry he does possess a magical gift, he can look at photographs and talk to people in side of them. He lives in his evil paternal grandmother house with his mom and maternal grandmother. And once his gift materializes, he finds he must attend a special school that deals with children with these gifts (again like Harry). But that's about all the parallels.

The picture is of book 5 (out of 6) that I am currently reading. It's a pretty good book series and well written. And MUCH short then Harry Potter.

Freaky Weather

Yesterday it got up to 80 F. The day before it got up to 85 F (record high ). Tonight we will get down to 36 F. No wonder everyone gets sick all the time.

Dwight Schrute

O.K. so last year there was a kid in my class who the other kids said looked like Dwight Schrute. He kind of does, except not so middle aged and the glasses are too small (had to borrow them from another classmate) I have him again in class this year, but he looks totally different now.

I took this picture for Staci.

Why Children are Fun...

Care Bear the Betta

Just thought I'd blog about another one of my pets. This is my male Betta, Care Bear. I did not name him, Lilly did. I thought a better name would be Trogdor, but she insisted. Anyway, at the time it really didn't matter to me as I was going to give him away. You see, I had bought him as a present for one my colleagues for letting me borrow their Betta bowl to house some tadpoles. And I thought it would be a nice gesture, since I had used their bowl all summer. Anyway, I became so attracted to the fish I couldn't bear to part with him. So I went to Wal-mart to buy him his own bowl. Also because I love him, I bought him a little plant. He bubble-nests for me regularly and comes wagging for his dinner after work. Netiher of the pictures are very good, the first one is fuzzy, but it shows his color. The other is less fuzzy and shows his tank.

Family Outing to Holliday

Tonight for dinner we drove to the sprawling suburb of Holliday to dine at one its few eating establishments, Dairy Queen. I love Dairy Queen. They have good food and awesome Styrofoam cups and great ice to contain your choice of delightful beverage. Tonight I decided to splurge and get dessert. I got my signature dessert, which is a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and malt powder in vanilla ice cream. Yum!

The picture was borrowed from http://www.hersheys.com .

Gingerbread House Pattern?

I am currently deciding on a patern or this year's ginger bread house. I am choosing betwen St. Andrews House and Charlotte gingerbread house. You can the view the patterns here.

My New Cat

This is our newest cat. His name is Tigger and he is squishy. I love him. He is the first cat that we have ever adopted (for money that is). We have had many cats adopt us.
Tigger likes to give hugs and kisses. He's a good boy.

Why my classroom rocks.

After the AP Chemistry test last school year (June 2007) my students thought it would be a good idea to throw up a periodic table on the ceiling. It turned out better than I thought it would.