Happy Holiday's From US to YOU

I wanted to pop in for a minute to wish everyone a Happy Holiday! It's been a long couple of weeks, these past few ones. I will try and bring everyone up to date and them thrill you all with pictures we had taken that came out great!

First off - Katie! School is going well and she really loves being in the 4 year old class. She was letter expert for the letter S the week before last and had to bring in some things that start with S. She also got to read a book to her class! I went in to listen to her read...what a treat! My baby, reading all by herself to her classmates! She got to talk about S, draw the letter S and teach her friends about the letter S. Last week she was friend of the week and it was all about Katie. She got to talk about her family, and although there were a couple of children who kept saying that Katie has a Daddy in her family, she very proudly told them that she had a MAMA! And I am happy to say that there wasn't anyone who said "You can't have 2 Mommies"! She got to wear a crown all week and we brought a special snack in one day. We being myself and Grandma Schmidt! Grandma got to listen to her read also! It was a very exciting week, ending with Thursday being a PJ party! Katie was thrilled to wear her PJ's to school. Outside of school, it was also busy with our regular activities, but it was also Cheryl's birthday and Cheryl asked her mother for tickets for us all to go see the Nutcracker Ballet. Given that Katie is taking ballet, we thought she would really enjoy it. Instead she played lap bingo between me, Grandma and Cheryl. She was more interested in knowing when it was going to be over, than actually watching the Ballet. But we adults and Gillian liked it a lot! Katie and I also attended a Teddy Bear Tea that same weekend which turned out to be one for the baby book! She got all dressed up and it was soooo fancy. It was just her and I and we were dressed to the nines as were all the other little girls. Mama even tied a fancy bow onto Fairy of the Dust(Katie's favorite bear) and everything. Well, have I ever mentioned that Katie is afraid of big, dressed up characters? Yep, you guessed it! We spent the entire time we were there with her screaming and running away from the bear. I have never seen her so scared in my life. They finally assigned a security guard to us, hid us in a corner so we could eat and then escorted us out "the secret tunnel" and we left ahead of everyone else to have our own Teddy Bear Parade over to the museum where we saw the festival of tree's. All the while I was frantically trying to get ahold of Cheryl to come back and get us because she dropped us off and ran errands. After we got to the museum, we saw the tree's and Cheryl called and I said, "please, please come and get us!". So, she did and we didn't see that bear again I am glad to say!

It was this same day that we had out portraits scheduled. We get to JC*enney and were told that they were running 30 minutes behind! Greeeeeaaaat! I do have to say that both girls were great in waiting and I was so proud of them. That place was a mad house though. I will think twice about getting pics done there again.

Gillian - Is doing great in school. I got a call the other day from her English teacher asking permission to move her up to a higher English class! Hooray! I am so proud of her. She is working so hard to overcome these learning disabilities! Now, if she could put some effort into common sense, we'd be all set. We are having some troubles, that I am not going into here for privacy reasons, but suffice it to say, raising a teen is so hard. The biggest news is that Gillian decided to stop doing karate for now. There are a lot of reasons both that include the Dojo she is at and personal, but she is missing out on so much high school life for karate and is wanting to move in other directions. She is going to be taking sign language classes in January (we think) that will get her ready to take interpreters classes and then work on being a licensed interpreter. Then she can get hired to interpret at different functions and get paid. She also wants to try out for the Spring Musical at school and is looking forward to that. Cycling for her black belt the past 9 months has made it impossible for her to do anything but karate. So, we just keep her moving! She is planning to go to the cotillion this weekend, so be on the lookout for pictures of that!

Cheryl - I wrote a huge post on Monday about Cheryl's birthday that apparantly Blogger ate! I apologize hun! My love turned ** on Monday! It also decided to storm that day so we had a very small party here at home and I made her her favorite dinner - Veal Marsala and her Mom made her her favorite Peanut Butter Pie! Yummy! I am so lucky to have been able to spend the past 8+ years with this woman. I know it hasn't always been easy, especially raising a highly sprited teen, but I do believe that God led us to each other for a reason and I am so very thankful that He did. I love going to bed next to you every night and waking up next to you the next morning makes life so much easier to face! So, thank you for another year love! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY you old lady you!

Finally - ME! I have been in a pretty solid funk lately. I have been reading a lot. Right now, I am reading The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold, but am also in the middle of the now famous, Eat, Pray, Love (can't remember the author and the book is upstairs). I also recently The Wednesday Letters (again, can't remember the author offhand) and I also highly recommend this book. So, as I tend to do, I immerse myself in reading to escape and I have been pretty successful in doing this. Of course that comes with a cost, and that is I haven't been quilting or doing other things that need to get done...AKA SHOPPING! Thankfully Cheryl has picked up the shopping end of this so there will be a Santa Virgina! I am going to quilt tomorrow when Katie is at school. I also have some fabric that I want to make a skirt for Katie out of. I would like to make something for Gillian, but am at a loss as to what to make. For those of you who sew, would you throw me some idea's on what to make a 15 year old who prefers mens/boys clothes? I am thinking of getting some flannel for her and making up a bunch of different pillow cases for her bed. Maybe even make some pillows out of left over fabric that I have from my quilt. We'll see.

So, that brings you all up to date. And without further ado....PICTURES!