Happy New Year!

I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read and all the friends I want to see. ~John Burroughs

Cheers and best wishes to you for your resolutions and a wonderful year doing what you would like to do...

That it will never come again
Is what makes life so sweet.
~Emily Dickinson

Farewell 2008...

One Word for 2009

Over on capture.create [or more specifically the post here about it] there is a challenge to come up with a word for the new year to give focus to one's resolutions and path of journey for the year... I was inspired by many of the comments and wanted to join in...

My word is:



seize   /siz/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [seez] Show IPA Pronunciation
verb, seized, seiz⋅ing.
–verb (used with object)
1. to take hold of suddenly or forcibly; grasp: to seize a weapon.
2. to grasp mentally; understand clearly and completely: to seize an idea.
3. to take possession of by force or at will: to seize enemy ships.
4. to capture; take into custody.
5. to take advantage of promptly: to seize an opportunity.

The following also comes to mind:

Carpe Diem "Seize the Day"

[and a mental review of the movie: Dead Poets Society...]

And being a Newsies' fan, I'll share with you the lyrics of a song that ties in well with my theme for 2009:

Open the gates and seize the day
Don't be afraid and don't delay
Nothing can break us
No one can make us
Give our rights away
Arise and seize the day!

Now is the time to seize the day
(Now is the time to seize the day)
Send out the call and join the fray
(Send out the call and join the fray)

Wrongs will be righted
if we're united
Let us seize the day!

Friends of the friendless seize the day
(Friends of the friendless seize the day)
Raise up the torch and light the way
(Raise up the torch and light the way)

Proud and defiant
We'll slay the giant
Let us seize the day
Neighbor to neighbor
Father to son
One for all and all for one!

Open the gates and seize the day
(Open the gates and seize the day)
Don't be afraid and don't delay
(don't be afraid and don't delay)

Nothing can break us
No one can make us
Give our rights away
Neighbor to neighbor
Father to son!
One for all and all for one!

and one more quote from the band, Avenged Sevenfold:

Seize the day, or die regretting the time you lost
It's empty, and cold without you here, too many people to Ache over

I see my vision burn, I feel my memories fade with time
But I'm too young to worry
These streets we travel on will undergo our same lost past

I'll like to sieze each day- capturing moments with my family, myself, creating, learning, and purposely doing each day instead of just going with the flow...

House update

In very short words- we are not buying the house that I posted a short while ago. We had some concerns about some items that needed fixing and lost our trust in the seller due to lack of communication and we're walking away... We actually feel really good about it although we would love to move into a house soon. So we're back to looking at houses- wish us the best!

December 25th

So we celebrated Christmas. Had a little bit of snow that day then the "Artic Blast" storm was over when the last of the presents were unwrapped...
My darling sugar and carb addict also known as Cyrus did indulge way to much resulting in a sugar high that made things a little exciting that day and then Cyrus threw up at the end of dinner- lovely end to the day right. No worries he felt better after a bath, good night sleep, and was back to normal the next day [he seems to have learned his lesson only asking for ONE piece of chocolate the next day] but I won't hold my breath with him remembering this lesson...

Presents were very well received as you can see in the photos...




Possibly a future West Point cadet? A $8 investment has a huge reward in the happiness of one little boy.


Cyrus is a fan of all things superhero and really enjoyed this Batman cave...

The adults did pretty good too- Dan had already gotten his [our] new big plasma television and man those digital channels come in so much better than before. He also received chocolates in his stocking and lot of pairs of socks. He also gotten the mini series "Band of Brothers" on dvd. I got a hand-held electronic game of Sudoku, macadamia and other assorted nuts in my stocking, and the game Civilizations for Xbox which is very nice break to sit on the coach to play instead of the computer chair. Now I just need the new Colony version of the game for the computer...

Christmas Eve

He puzzled and puzzled till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more!

-Narrator from Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Have yourself a very merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas!

If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain.

- Maya Angelou

When two kids are home bound due to snowy. cold weather- some complainin' happens and well I am looking for changes or an attitude adjuster machine to replace my parenting-hard-work of asking then removing said complainin' kid until attitude is changed- for a little while anyways...

Other negative attributes of the snow while I have this opportunity to do some of my own complainin'
1. Cabin Fever
2. Pushed our closing date on our house further away [from January 6th to January 30th] but we could still close earlier than the 30th.
3. I turned up the thermostat from 55* to 60* [I have wimpy husband and kids when it comes to the cold]
4. It has been harder to get my Christmas shopping done especially when the city stopped clearing the roads
5. I didn't buy snow boots and I really should have [I will every year from now on] so the kids can actually play in the snow for more than 10-15 minutes.
6. We only have one sled and well both boys are at that age "I want my own." "I can do it by myself" so I'll be looking for a deal on another sled.
7. "You're supposed to bake cookies" by my husband and then dealing with kids high on sugar but maybe I am supposed to feed them more sugar in hopes of sugar-induced-comas...

Honestly, I love the snow and would gladly move where it snowed every year consistently. Too bad we love living in Portland...

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten
And children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white.


-Irving Berlin "White Christmas"

Still snowing...

















And when it is 20* outside and the roads are terrible to drive on then the best thing to do is to have a cup of hot chocolate [each marshmellow is worth about a thousand "brownie points" for mom given by the kids so layer them on]:


Portland has been covered by snow for a grand total of 8 days and there is about a foot of snow outside right now so I think we'll be having a White Christmas this year...

Snow Days

Other than snowfights and the other usual fun things to do with snow- Cyrus loves to eat snow...

Counting down....

We're counting down to Christmas with our advent calendar that my Granny D made when I was a little girl [thankfully my brother let me have it]:


And we are really starting to count down until we move into our new house. Looks like we'll be moving January 15-18th! One month to go... It is getting so exciting!

Dentist

Cyrus had a dentist appointment in the first week of December and this is what happens- see that sad little boy about to cry- it is because they cancelled the appointment and I didn't check my messages and found out it was cancelled when we got there. The boys love to go to the Dentist office. Not to worry- his cute, little sad face got happier with ice cream!

It is snowing today- so beautiful but too windy to really play in. Hopefully better playing day tomorrow. It is about 28 degrees out there. Solomon is hoping and probably will get no school tomorrow due to snow...

Christmas Program

Here is a picture of Cyrus singing in the Christmas Program at the church today. He is the cute guy in the red shirt about in the middle of the picture. He had fun...

It is beginning to look like Christmas...

Happy Birthday to Me!

I celebrated my birthday [December 10th] by going to the Art Museum with the boys followed by dinner at Red Robin [exciting right].
Then we had a family dinner out Friday night at the Berlin Inn Restaurant which was quite tasty german food. The downside is that the Friday night traffic in December made a 15 minute trip [normally] to the restaurant took an hour [not joking at all] but thankfully the boys took a quick nap in the car [about an half hour each].

I had received my birthday present early. Dan and the boys picked out a beautiful camera for me- a Nikon P80!!!!

and he got a deal going shopping on the Saturday after Black Friday. Got me some neat accessories too such as a tripod so we could take our "official Christmas family photo":

and that was the reason why I got it early but what would I have to brag about for my "official" birthday blog post?

Raise your tea cup or whatever you drink while you browse online and *cheers* to my 28th year!

Expecting a package?

New House

Very exciting news today- our offer was accepted and we have bought [pending paperwork] our first house!

This "buying-a-house" business takes up a lot of time... I have fallen behind in cooking, cleaning, schoolwork, and everything else. Even Christmas decorations is late for me this year.
First an update- the first and second offer we put out there had sellers [both were foreclosed/bank-owned] responding with a counter-offer of about $20,000 higher than the listing price with the knowledge of the 6-9 other offers so we backed out as we didn't want to get into a bidding war and the cost of the place that needs instant work/repairs shouldn't be that high in our opinion.
So we changed our tactic. We were not going to look at any foreclosed homes- I don't care what the deal is- it simply takes a longer process to move in and there was always work that needed to be done and with Dan's deployment date looming closer and closer, it wasn't work the "deal" we could get. Then a sweet little detail happened- the mortage interest rate dropped from 6% of when we started the house hunting process to the current 5%- whoo hoo- and that allowed us to have a little more money for the house purchase price. Then we discovered a couple of tax abatements in the area- mostly on new houses. This simply means that you pay very little taxes until certain year which works well for us since Dan's income will increase more than enough to pay the higher taxes when it is time and we could put more monthly money into the house cost. So all said and done- we looked at 8 houses Saturday [mind you Dan was almost done being sick but still with a cough, Solomon's cough is still lingering probably due to his asthma, and I had gotten sick] but at least it was sunny outside. Most were 10 years or newer properties.
We narrowed it down to two and wrote out a pro and con list and decided on "the one" which we made an offer yesterday...
Their acceptance would make it a great Birthday gift for me ;) and I would finally get caught up on my chores and to do list- time to celebrate Christmas and then to pack be moved in January!

*** If you live in Portland and interested in buying a house click here. We really enjoy working with him and would recommend him!

Simple Rules for Christmas

Keeper of the Home is hosting a very special Christmas Edition of her Living Simply Saturday Series...

Years past it was easy to keep it simple around Christmas time because we didn't have very much money to go overboard with. Especially after having kids, I did noticed how stressful the holidays can truly be with many mothers working in overdrive to deliver this "have-to-be-perfect-in-every-way" Christmas and I didn't want to get caught up in all that so we (in)formally came up with some rules to keep it simple...

1: Prioritize what is important to you and make a plan without wearing yourself down, loosing sight of what could be a very joyous holiday.

2: Christmas tree is important to us. We tried a new tradition of going to a tree farm and cutting down our own tree this year and loved it. I like to put up the day after Thanksgiving but since we travelled for Thanksgiving, it didn't get put up until yesterday...

3: Food- Two years ago we got a free tree and spent a little more on the dinner, trying out Prime Ribs which was a hit especially with Dan. So this year, we are trying out the Aged Prime Rib from Gartner's and this seasonal favorite usually sells out, I had Dan call today to reserve it for our dinner. It comes in 12-14lb cuts so we'll have them cut it to a 6lb for our dinner and the rest will be cut up into (yummy) steaks. Now I love to cook so planning the menu, trying out recipes, and all that really excites me and doesn't take away from the joy of Christmas for me. Christmas Eve is Chocolate Waffles for breakfast and a very simple lunch consisting of: Polish and Bratwurst sasuages, potato latakes, applesauce, and German Red Cabbage.

4: Shop online- this is a great time-saving tool and usually a great source of deals. I really recommend checking out Etsy- all handmade items and at great prices.

5: Christmas Events- it can get really busy if you try to do 2-3 Christmasy events each week in the month of December so limit it to one a week. Focus on the family and friends around us with a board games and some hot chocolate or cider.

6: A lot of families bake for the holidays. I don't but this is a tradition that Dan's family participated in and since it rates so high on his Christmas memories- I am actually adding this tradition this year. I'll let you know how it goes.

7: Christmas Cards- never did them before but I found a really simple and beautiful way of doing them so I am almost done with them and soon will be on their way...

8: Decorations- It takes me about an hour to decorate the tree and everywhere else so that is keeping it simple.

9: Stop the obession the consumerism of Christmas by giving. Food Banks need food especially this year, help someone with their decorations [elderly], make and give out Christmas cards [soldiers and nursing homes], and think about giving to charity instead of gifts [Kiva is a very fun way to give].

10: Money causes a lot of stress so think about cutting down on the budget, do a couple of the Free events in your area for the holidays, use supplies you already have to make Christmas decorations, and focus on family time...

8 Things

Here are my favorite 8s...

8 Favorite TV shows:

1. Life
2. NCIS
3. So You Think You Can Dance
4. Gilmore Girls
5. Boston Legal
6. Bones
7. Firefly
8. Food & HGTV Channels' shows

8 Things I did yesterday:

1. We put an offer on the house [the actual paperwork part]
2. Walked through the house again before doing paperwork
3. Made lunch
4. Did a homework assignment for class
5. Rearranged the toys in living space [need to make room for Xmas Tree]
6. Did two loads of laundry, ran the dishwasher, vacuumed and dusted.
7. Took the kids out to pizza for dinner- $14 for a extra-large Hawaiian
8. Hung out with the kids...

8 Favorite Restaurants:

1. Sinju Sushi
2. Hoda's
3. McCormicks
4. Elephants Delicatessen
5. Typhoon!
6. Cracked Crab [sadly not in Portland]
7. Pizza Schmizza [where we get our pizza and deserves to be on the list because it would top the kids' list]
8. Chez Loma [Coronado, CA]

8 Favorite Movies:

1. Better Off Dead
2. Die Hard series
3. Little Women
4. Braveheart [and Last of Mohicians]
5. Steel Magnolias
6. October Sky
7. Chocolat
8. Mystic River

[Movies is a hard list to do top 8 or so of- would be better to sort by genre]

8 Things on my Wish List:

1. That the bank accepts our offer on the house
2. That we get enough funds/help to do a couple of needed repairs/updates
3. Completly remodel the kitchen [through Ikea] with new pots, pans, & knives.
4. To be blessed with baby #3 [and better health this pregnancy]
5. For Dan and I to both have laptops [for better communication when he is deployed]
6. To go on a family vacation before Dan is deployed
7. A great dog for the family [also want 3 chickens]
8. Good health and happiness for my family and friends

8 People I Tag to Play Next:

Whoever would like to!

Thanks L for the idea!