It is so ugly only a mother could love it

So we were invited to any ugly Christmas sweater party. It was are first. We were pretty excited. Not much to say but I will leave some pictures. The only thing that sucked (hey I can say that word it is MY BLOG) was that I got the ugliest sweater I could find at Goodwill but he is so good looking it still looked hot on him.

Early Christmas Gift

We apparently have an early Christmas gift. I was not aware of it, but I don't mind because I sure do like it. It completely caught me by surprise. I was in the kitchen and I turned around and there it was. As if it just magically appeared. Here is a picture of it:

So I decided to take a closer look. It was black and red and furry.

Oh wait!!! It is Darla. I am glad that she thinks that my Christmas tree skirt is her new bed. She has not taken up permanent residence there, which I guess is appropriate since she was born on Christmas Eve.

Apparently I am bothering her and her new palace.

Isn't he .....

Handsome?! Doesn't he look smart? I just had to put this up. This is Milton at a recent conference talking about the Ph.D program. I am sure that once he got there their numbers for the Ph.D program went way up!! I love it when he looks all professor like. He is so enthusiastic about life.

B is for Busy

It seems like I apolygize alot for my lack of blgs. I guess that is why I don't have this huge following. That is okay. I just want to make sure that I am blogging something. The Timoteo house has been so busy. Milton is finishing what looks like his last semester of course work for his Ph.D. That does not mean he is done by any means. He still has to take his comps and write his dissertation. But being the good wife that I am, I have been helping him anyway I can.

On top of this I have been finishing all of our paperwork, home study, inspections, and classes for adoption. I know this is news to some of you reading this. We have been keeping it quiet until we were further along in the process. So we are almost done with the process. It should be soon and I will let everyone know when we are license. I will have to tell the story about how we got to this decision in another blog. It is a really cool and long story, but know we know that Heavenly Father had his had in. The first question I get when people find out we are going through the adoption process is "When do you get him/her?" The answer is "we don't know." We don't know even who we are getting. We have to become completely licensed before they even look at us. So it is going to be a while. Don't worry though I will let everyone the second we get a child!!

So I will just update everyone on what has been going on in our household for the past month.

Milton knows how much I get into the holidays. So I came home one day and caught him doing this:

I was so excited!!! He was hanging up Christmas decorations. We did not do as much as we did last year but I actually think it looks better. It is cleaner. It looks really pretty. Don't worry pictures soon!!

I had to work Thanksgiving day. Don't worry though Milton got invited to two Thanksgivings. However we did have our Thanksgiving the next day. I could not not do Thanksgiving. The leftovers are the best. I want to show a few pictures of my table. Ashley ,my sister, decorated it. We had her boyfriend and her over for Thanksgiving. We were really glad to have her. We have a great time with them

The napkins I recently got as a birthday gift from pottery barn. The table cloth is a heirloom from my mother. They are from Italy, where I was born. The plates I got when I was married from my next door neighbor. She was a hoarder. She offered the dishes to me for $50 if I would come and dig them out. By the time I got done there were over 250 peices. They are high quality dishes. She claimed they were Saks Fifth Avenue dishes. I need to research that though. The silver bowl and candle sticks were wedding presents. I loved to look at the stuff and teh memories they hold. It was a very special Thanksgiving to look these things and know how much I am loved. It was great that Ashley pulled out these pieces.

We dog watched this week for one of the sweetest dogs I have ever met. This dog never barks, always listen, and brings such calm and peace in whatever household it comes into. We loved having Lucy at our house and we are so grateful that we have a family here that we can trade dog watching services with. I do want to leave you with soem great pictures. After Thanksgiving we were all tired and laying around. I look over and see this.

It is so cute. However, I do not want to leave a blog without posting a picture of my baby. I got a cheap little tripod for my camera and I have been making her pose for pictures like crazy.

Doesn't she look happy!!! Sorry for the long blog but I knew that if I broke them up into several blogs that I would get tired and probably not finish them

We Blew it Up this Year

Sorry I could not really think of a title and I wanted something more creative than "Our Halloween" We did all kinds of things for Halloween this year. We were very festive. I already showed you that we went to a pumpkin patch and corn maize for Halloween. I would like to show you the rest of the festivities as well as my Halloween decorations.

So this past Monday was family home evening. A night we dedicate to having family time with a little spiritual thought and something fun. So of course with it being Halloween we carved a pumpkin and I made carmel apples for refreshments. Unfortunely I did not get a picture of the apples but I was told by a friend that they were the best carmel apples they had ever tasted. Move over Martha Stewart! Here is the end result of our pumpkin. Sorry the picture is blurry but I wanted to get in glowing and the only way to do that was in the dark with no flash which equals blurry picture.

Then on Friday night Ashley came in for the weekend. We went to dinner and a Haunted House. It was suppose to be the 2nd Scariest Haunted House in America according to MSN. Now I get scared really easily. I get scared just being in line at a Haunted House but I did not get scared once. We were pretty disappointed but it was still fun to go out with Ashley and Ket. Unfortunely no pictures again

Thenext night was Halloween and we all decided to dress up. My mom asked why I did not put up any pictures of my house. I told her the decorations pretty much look the same as last year but at the last minute I decided to run out and take some pictures because I knew they would be put away by the next morning.

After I got home from work I volunteered Ashley and Ket to carve one more pumpkin for me.

Here is their finished result

Then it was time to change into our costumes. Usually I try to get creative with our costumes but this year I did not even think of them until the day for Halloween. I did not think we were going to dress up but we all decided to. Ashley was Rosie the Riveter (sp?) and Ket was Micheal Jordan

And..... At the last minute I got our costumes and they actually had a theme to them. So I found this kit at Wal-Mart that was a punk rocker kit that was like $5. I went to try and get it the night before but they were all gone. Well my husband being the sweet guy he is went to another Wal-Mart while I was at work and found one for me. Then I went to Walgreens and found a Pirate kit of Milton for $3 and as I was walking out I saw a princess kit for Darla. So does anyone see a theme? We all started with the letter P!!!!

YoHo Yo Ho I Pirate's life for me!!

At first Darla was pretty mad that I made her dress up. The princess would not cooperate.

But I finally got a picture of her.

We then sat outside and passed out candy while I blasted Thriller and Monster Mash on the speakers against some objections, but come on...Halloween is the only time you can really listen to those songs.

Laughing

There are things that make me laugh. I think that laughing can cure many things. I consider myself to have a good sense of humor. I have noticed that Milton is starting to pick up my sense of humor. He makes jokes that I never thought they would come out of his mouth (not because they are dirty or anything) just because he can be on the quiet side. However, lately he has been cracking me up!!

So the other night we went to get some Chinese food. We were sitting at the restaurant wrapping up dinner when we each grabbed our fortune cookies. I opened mine... For some reason I am always looking for these fortune cookies to tell me something attainable. However, mine usually says something like. "Your home is warm" or "Trust your smile" Well thanks for that jewel.

So I look over at Milton and he is laughing. I am like "What?" He is like nothing. I am like "No come on tell me!" At this point he hands me his fortune. It says.....







It made me laugh so hard!!!!

corn mazes, pumpkin patches, and candy apples...OH MY!!

So I love the holidays. I love fall. I love pumpkins, Halloween, fall colors, wearing sweaters, and all things associated with the fall season. So I have been looking for pumpkin patches and corn mazes all over the Dallas area. I finally decided to go to one called Hall's Pumpkin Farm. We had a really good time and had fun doing the corn maze. This post is mostly pictures of our time there. I look awful in every picture but they are the pics I got. By the way, I am not vain. I know alot of these pictures are of me but Milton would not let me take too many pictures of him and we do not have children besides our dog but they do not allow dogs there. So what does that equal....Tons of pictures of me.

We all Scream for Ice Cream!!!

This story cracks me up even thinking about it. It makes me laugh so hard. So on Monday I was working in our home office on some things. I was in deep concentration and focused on my task. Milton was in the other room playing his military video game that makes our living room sound like World War III. When Milton plays this game it is so hard to break his concentration. I am sure our neighbors have heard me yell "Milton!!! Milton!!! Hello?" trying to get his attention.

So here I am in the office with modern warfare going on in my living when all of a sudden I hear Milton yell "Is that an Ice Cream truck?" and comes running into the office My husband and Darla are both staring out the window looking for any sign of an ice cream truck.

Now here I am sitting in the actual office and I can not hear a thing. All of a sudden you see a white ice cream truck rolling by playing it's tempting song to lure all the "children" out for some goodies. I just start busting out laughing because only my husband could hear this tiny little melody over his war game. I mean I could not even hear the music until it was right in front of our house.

I am probably not explaining how funny this is but just picture a dog and a grown man running to the window waiting for the ice cream man. I am still laughing!!!!

( I wanted to add a picture but I am on our old computer and it is not letting me. Our newer computer is broken and being repaired)

Nothing like a little romance

I love to read. Unfortunately what I love to read is nothing that is life changing. It is nothing to form a book club around or debate or anything close. I strictly love the mushy dare I say a little bit on the smut side romance novels. I love them and devour them. I am not ashamed to say that. In my line of work, I deal with the life changing, gut wrenching, and hard to comprehend every day. I don't want to read about too. So that is why I read romance novels. A little mystery always with a good ending.

The only thing bad about romance novels is it can create unrealistic expectation of men. If you have read Twilight, you know what I mean! So, yesterday I went to the library to get a few bodice rippers (literary reference meaning romance novels) to start reading. I had not read in some time because I have been busy with other things and was craving a good book.

Last night after a nice long relaxing bath, I settled on the couch in the living room to start reading my book. As I am getting into my book and reading about the handsome leading man, I see out of the corner of my eye, my hubby get up walk over toward me, move the lamp closer to me, and give me a kiss on my mouth. He looks at me and says " I just want to make sure you have enough light to read," and then sits back down.

Talk about romance!!! Now you know why I love this man!

I love Surprises!!!

So Saturday night I am sitting on my throne in the living room, when prince charming ask me if I have checked the mail. Well I had not checked the mail that day because it was pouring down raining. It is very unusually that I have not checked the mail because it is one of my favorite things to do. So since the rain had finally stopped for a while, my hubby ran out to the mail box and got the mail.

As he came through the door I hear him saying "Baby what is this brown box?" That is when I look up and see this.....

Okay it did not exactly look like that. I had started opening it at this point. I get really excited when there is a package for me, especially a surprise one. I then realize it is from my mom. So before I let myself get excited I think "Did I ask her to send me anything...Did I forget something at her house?" Sometimes when I visit my mom's house and I forget something important she will mail it to me.

Since I can not think of anything, I excitedly start ripping through the paper and package....

to find THESE!!!!!

My mom makes these coasters and sells them. They are my favorite coasters that I have ever seen and I have been meaning to ask her to make them because we just got new furniture for our living room. I thought I was going to have to buy coasters that I really did not love as much as these until I went down there to make some.

So imagine my surprise when my loving mother remembered and sent them to me. I love the fact that she did not tell me because the surprise was totally great!! It is things like this that make life wonderful!!

So if ya'll love these coasters as much as I do, my mom sells them for $25 for 4. You can email her at lisa36_99@yahoo.com or visit her blog at http://livinlouisiana.blogspot.com/. They are completely worth it and are beautiful!!!

Thanks mom for being the wonderful and loving mother you have always been. Thanks for taking time out of your busy day to stop and think of me. It makes me feel really special.

A TearJerker

I came across this blog today while blog hopping. I will warn you it is a tear jerker but I feel that this woman's grief and heartache need to be heard.

http://haileyshalo.blogspot.com

don't say I did not warn you. Make sure you get your tissues. Most of you will probably leave mean comments saying why did you make me read that, but her story really spoke to me.

People want to know

I have been asked over and over again "How do you get your Husband to do this......

AND THIS.......

on a regular basis? The Answer...................

I HAVE NO IDEA!!!!!