Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

I finished the book last night and my best description of it...peculiar. There is a lot of science fiction/paranormal action in it mixed with some historical fiction. I didn't think it was as good as the reviews I had read made it sound, but it was entertaining and a quick, easy read.

Happy Birthday, Chad

Chad's 43rd birthday was on Saturday, December 10th.  We were going to be busy all afternoon and evening with other previously planned commitments, so we celebrated it in the late morning, kind of as a brunch.  He had not given me many gift ideas, so Zak and I spent an evening browsing around at the mall and put together a hodge-podge of gifts.

 

We had done a good job as he was pleased with all of his gifts.  The highlight of the gift opening was the card Zak got for him.

Zak and I then made him breakfast and we ended the celebration with cake.

We ended the night with a nice, relaxing dinner with Todd and Tami Miller at Olive Garden after the boys' hockey game.

Happy birthday, Chad...hope you enjoyed it!

Kicking off the Holiday Season with...

10 Things About Me-Christmas Version

My blogger buddy Tami did this....

I decided to join the fun....

What is your favorite Christmas movie?

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (Gotta love the Griswolds!)

What is your favorite Christmas song?

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Do you have a nativity scene?

No

What is your favorite Christmas animation?

Charlie Brown Christmas (I've always liked all the Peanuts specials.)

What is your favorite childhood Christmas memory?

Our first Christmas together Chad got me a teddy bear that was almost as tall as me, and he was sitting!  That bear was in Zak's nursery room.

What is your most memorable gift?

The Pandora bracelet Chad and Zak got me last year...every charm on it has a special meaning to me.

Do you have any Christmas traditions?

Chad's giant balls in the front yard and our "life-size" Santa (that's actually about 3' tall).  They both have long stories behind them.

Do you have a special Christmas wish this year?

Something sparkly.

If you could have anything for Christmas what would it be?

Enough money to keep me in sparkly stuff for the rest of my life.

If you could spend Christmas anywhere, where would it be?

In a secluded cabin on a snow covered mountain peak with Chad and Zak.

Happy Holidays!!

Taming the Mud Bog

Every time we get a large amount of rain or have a large melt-off, our back yard becomes the mini-Nile during the peak of the event:

After such event, our back yard becomes a mud bog.  Remember, we had a freak snow storm in late October and unusually heavy rainfall in November, so our backyard is currently the muddiest bog we have had yet!

So on to the point of my story...Bella loves to run at full speed back and forth from one end of the yard to the other.  I'm sure you can imagine what she looks like when she comes in after one of these little jaunts during the "mud season."

Well Chad and I had had enough of having to wipe her from belly down every time she came in from outside.  We decided something needed to be done.  After a bit of research on the internet, we went to the local farmer's market and purchased 3 bales of straw and spread it over the muddiest areas of the backyard.

 
Guess what...it really is helping!  She is coming in much less muddy, and even Abby likes it because now she can go down in the yard and not get her little princess feet muddy.  Haha!

The best part is supposedly it breaks down over the winter and the grass should be sprouting right out from underneath. :-)

Car Swap

Chad got a new truck a couple of weeks ago...a 2011 Ford Expedition.

He traded in my Santa Fe for it, so I inherited the 2010 Acura TL...oh darn. :-)

So Sunday I finally officially claimed the Acura as mine by putting my Hockey Mom window sticker on it!

Miss Perigrine's Home for Peculiar Children

I started reading this book last night. It's been a long time since a book sucked me in as soon as I started reading it, to the point I didn't want to put it down...this one has! I'm already 50 pages into it. I'll let you know how it progresses, hopefully it doesn't disappoint.

Son of a ....

At the rink this afternoon I was heading out to the stands from the snack bar. As usual, I was trying to do more than one thing at a time and had my arms full. I pulled on the door handle and tried to then grab the edge of the door, and WHAM!!! smashed my finger in the heavy metal door.

I'm pretty sure I broke it, but I did not want to go to the ER, so we just stopped at CVS and picked up a splint for it.

Hopefully it'll be feeling better soon!

Back in the blog-saddle

So after taking an over 2-year hiatus, I have decided that I am going to get back into blogging.  I have been using Facebook for keeping most of my friends and family up to date on our daily comings and goings, but I think I would like to start using this again...it gives me more room to talk about things (just what you want, right? haha!).  Hope you all keep checking back frequently.

Heather

Back On the Ice

Zak's first game back after his cast was removed was on Saturday, January 24th. It was great to see him out there again!

Off With The Cast!

Zak's cast came off on Monday, January 19th. What a relief that was!

Zak's 12th Birthday

Zak got to celebrate his birthday on 3 days this year!

Saturday, January 10th: Chad was going to be out of town on Zak's birthday so we celebrated his birthday with him on Saturday. He opened his presents after the hockey game.






Then we took him to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. He rode the saddle while the servers sang to him. He was miserable!


Tuesday, January 13th: Officially 12 years old!



I took Zak to Red Lobster for dinner, and he got a few extra presents (spoiled rotten, I know).

(No, it's not a real beer...it's a rootbeer, but he thought he was cool.)

Saturday, January 17th: We took Zak and 3 of his buddies to Jungle Wonder. They played Black Light Mini Golf, video games, and Laser Tag, and we had pizza and cake.

Apologies

I sincerely apologize for the lapse in postings...I've just been lazy. I'm going to try to get all caught up by the end of the coming weekend. And will try to continue to post regularly, rather than letting them build up and take so long to get them on, making it a task I put on the procrastination train. Wish me luck with that!

Applebee's

Our friend, and assistant coach on Zak's hockey team, John Orendorff is the General Manager of the Applebee's in Havertown, PA.

We went to the restaurant with the Orendorffs and Millers after last Saturday's game. The boys are able to turn any event into fun.

Brandon Miller, Jack Orendorff, Zak

First Game Post-Cast

The team's first game since Zak got his cast was on Saturday, January 3rd. He was on the bench to support his team.

About halfway through Sunday's game Zak left the bench, came over to the stands, and says to us, "Can you go home and get my hockey gear and the chainsaw." It was so funny!

Happy New Year!

We had a very nice evening on New Year's Eve. We had the Miller and Evans families over to our house. We had a lot of fun playing the card/board game "Apples to Apples." You should definitely try it if you've never played it!

Todd Miller (The Man) and Chad (King)

Tami and Brandon Miller

Zachary Miller

Jane Evans

Zak


Bradley and Jason Evans

Brandon popping the cork at midnight!