Playing Fetch

Big Daddy taught Annabelle how to play fetch. It's so funny! Here's a quick video.

Ready for a new Year!

I truly love this time of year. The Christmas spirit is a wonderful experience.

I also love this time of year because it brings a New Year! A chance to Restart. Renew my way of thinking. I am one of those people who loves to start anew over and over. I always restart the diet on Monday! So for me, New Year's Day is the Ultimate Restart!

I look forward to have a brand new year in front of me to accomplish all the things I wanted to do this year (but didn't do!) and make new goals to strive toward. I have been thinking about my list a lot this week. I plan to work on many of these items. I also have some other personal goals to work on. Both for myself, my relationship and my family.

New years always bring exciting changes and 2009 seems to be turning out to be no exception. I have some (VERY) exciting news that I hope to share with you all when the time is right!

I'm sure this post seems a little premature, but as I was deciding what to post, this is what was strongest on my mind today. I think I am able to look forward a little considering I am finished with all the Christmas shopping (still have to wrap!) and I have the next week scheduled already! I am a planner by nature and thinking ahead comforts me...

Here's what we have planned for the upcoming week.

Daily activities and dinner plans too!

I hope to post some pics from crafting and maybe even some more goodies, but if not you can see why I don't! So, now I am off to get ready for an evening out with my sister!

And speaking of my sister...she's been asking to see a pic of our new kitten, Annabelle. So, here she is!

Annabelle was a surprise to the family from Big Daddy.
He brought her home to us on the last Family Night we had!

A little bit of this, A little bit of that and still no pictures

This...
Here's the response I got from John Deere about a donation for Coleman...
Thank you for taking the time to contact John Deere. Although it is always difficult to learn about the struggles of a young person with serious illness, we were encouraged by the information available describing the strong spirit of Coleman Larson. Deere provides millions of dollars annually through corporate donations and the John Deere Foundation to non-profit organizations that address world hunger, community betterment and education.

Each year, John Deere is asked by hundreds of worthy organizations and individuals to help their cause. While it is clear that nearly each request is worthy, we must decline many of the opportunities. Our charitable-giving guidelines do not allow donations to individuals or to organizations in honor of an individual. In addition, our guidelines do not provide financial support to health care research. Through our considerable tax contributions annually, we believe we help support significant government-funded medical research that someday might find a cure for cancer and other deadly diseases.

We appreciate the well-intended effort to initiate company support for this family and we hope you understand how our guidelines simply do not allow Deere to assist in this way. We encourage you to help where you can and we will remain hopeful for a positive outcome.

John Deere

So, on to Plan B. We won't stop until Team Larson stops and Team Larson Neva Divs Up (never gives up)!

That...

We had a Family Night last night! The theme was Opposite Day.

The night started with an unplanned Disco dance party. I turned the music on (no TV on family nights) while I was starting to cook and the dancing and singing just broke out! That is always fun!

We had breakfast for dinner and played a (homemade) game called He Said, She Said. We had a lot of fun as always, but family nights on school nights, just don't work out as well. We still wanted to play the game Apples to Apples, but it was already 9:00 and Kitty had to finish her homework. There were also baths to be had and bed times to be met, but fun was had by all and we spent some quality time together and that is the real point of Family Nights!

The other...

Migo went back to training. The plan was for him to be home for about a month and then go back for more advanced training. He needs it! He's a working-class dog and really needs a job to do daily (training is considered a job in the dog world, I guess???) If I don't get out to take him for a walk, he drives us all crazy, so we'll see how things work out.

We rearranged all the furniture in our living room. We put the TV over the fireplace. It is much cozier now and we will be able to enjoy the fireplace this winter. We really did not take advantage of it last year.

There are only 41 days until Christmas!

And the end...

My plan is to get my camera synced to this computer over the weekend. I also need to transfer all my pics from my old computer. So, hopefully new pictures will be coming soon.

My mom is having a simple out patient procedure tomorrow morning, so I will be at the hospital keeping my Dad company. Once I see my Mom is well and on her way home, I'll be on my way around town to run some errands.

And Saturday might hold a chance for a date night! What about you? Any fun plans for the weekend?

MIA, AWOL, whatever...

My loyal readers reader Sister was wondering where I have been this week. Well, just hanging out and being cool!

The kids are on Fall Break this week and we have been enjoying their time off.

Saturday...
CC Meet. No pictures because I took the dog.
He was worn out when we got home!

Red did not run, she wasn't feeling well. T did well and came in first for his team as usual (I wouldn't brag like that!) I did get one pic after the meet. Check out his number from the race...LUCKY?!? His birthday is October 30!


Then Mr. T was off to go camping with my parents.



I spent Saturday afternoon with Sister (my loyal reader!) We went to lunch and did some shopping. It was a fun time!

With no kids in the house, Saturday night was Date Night! We had dinner and drinks and just hung out together. It was so nice!
Having fun...alone!

We even stayed out late! See....


Sunday...
After that late night, Sunday was a very lazy day. We slept in and picked T up in the evening.

Monday...
See Sunday.

Tuesday...
Mr. T and I spent the day at the Pumpkin Patch. Check for a more detailed post on that later!

So, that's been our week! Pretty fun, yet relaxing. Mr. T's birthday party is Saturday, so I need to spend the next few days catching up on chores and getting ready for the party.

Labor Day

Funny that we call this Labor Day, but then we sit around and do absolutely nothing!

I took the day off from the computer yesterday. Kind of had to. T, R and I volunteered at an Aid/Water station for the Ironman Triathalon yesterday. We were there from noon - 5 pm. It was very hot and hard work, but watching all those athletes really humbled us. I felt bad when they would say "thanks for being out here!" We'd just holler back "Great work, Keep it up" and other encouraging things. For those who might not know an Ironman Triathalon is a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 (yes, one hundred and twelve) mile bike ride, followed by a 26.2 mile run!!!! Unbelievable, Amazing.......
We were on the bike route. Miles 51 and 82, so this is what we saw all day.
Here is last year's winner (Check out that time!)

Anyway, after all our hard work, we treated ourselves to a Mexican dinner and then got some ice cream and sundae fixings to bring home to the rest of our crew!

Now, back to doing absolutely nothing. I have spent the morning catching up on blogs that I missed yesterday. And, guess what?!?! I got an award! I can't believe it...my first blogging award! It was from Renee at My Special K's! Now I am going to attempt to follow the rules of my award and be an obedient blogger!


Renee gave me the award as a " Thanks for always bringing awareness!!!" No, Renee. Thank you for letting us into your life with those very Special K's!

The rules that go with this award:
Put the logo on your blog Done!
Link to the person you received your award from Done!
Nominate at least 7 other blogs Below
Put links to those blogs on your site Below
Leave messages on the blogs you've nominated Going to do that now!

I now nominate the following Blogs:
1. Young Adventures by Colleen
*because she was one of my first regular Blog friends! Oh and because Linlee is just so dang adorable!
2. Bring the Rain by Angie
*because Angie is so dang inspirational (check out her story and you'll get it!)
3. Ministry So Fabulous by Amy Beth
*because AB is just so dang cute :)
4. 33 for a Moment by Karen
*because she is just so dang funny!
5. My Charming Kids by MckMama
*because she's so dang honest!
6. Whittaker Woman by Heather
*because she so dang family! (see any of my family night posts)
7. The Life, Faith and Creativity Of Jessica Turner by Jessica
*because she's so dang creative! (really, she's a scrap booking queen!)

Have a happy (non)Labor day everybody!
I'm leaving you with this lesson in relaxation from Dexter and Jack!