"Homemade" Present

Here is my present from Scott and the kids. Scott made the frame, isn't it beautiful? Then he and the kids picked out their picture they wanted in it. I love it!

Our Thanksmas Day :o)

So here's the place that Santa visits early. He pops in for some Thanksgiving dinner before he goes back to the North Pole to get ready for the rest of the world! Some of his elves left their pants, tho!
Hee Hee Hee

My elf helpers were very busy all dang day! And yes, that IS a present hanging on the wall! It took me a while to notice, lol.
Yummy munchies before dinner - deviled eggs, peppers/olives/celery/pepperincinis/green olives/carrots/pickled okra/and little peppers, old lady heads and triscuits with Parmesan/spinach/artichoke dip melted on top :o)
Helpers putting the glaze on the ham...
and the small turkey and dressing ready to be browned in the oven.
Ed, the helper, was ready to just jump right in and carve the meat!
And the table was beautiful!
(pictures of us eating and family pictures to come later...)

After we stuffed our tummies with the traditional Thanksgiving feast, we started opening presents...with our festive headpieces, lol.

and opening and opening and opening!

And things were lookin' pretty good!
Then we brought out the big surprise! Scott did a beautiful job making the kids oak headboards! I received a wonderful present homemade from Scott and the kids too, and I'll post that later!
But for now, we'll just watch a little Charlie Brown Thanksgiving!

Tomorrow is ThanksMas/Christgiving...

Either way, we're ready for the giant feast and Santa and everything!

It's been fun spending extra time with my daughters, Megan and Michelle. We planned, prepared etc.
Tomorrow we just need to clean and cook!
But right now, I see there are some pretty dang cute critters hanging out, waiting for Ed and Cathy to get here!

Have a wonderful day tomorrow! I know you all will be having a fine feast. I wished I could be with my sisters Jolene and Rubye but I am eternally grateful for my family.

Peace

19 years ago today...

Beckie Kay, age 34
Jesse, age 13


Willy Lee, age 11


Tyrone, age 5



Tho' many years have passed since my sister and nephews were murdered, it is still painful and I miss them so very much.

Today:

1. write out bills
2. wrap christmas presents
3. finish shopping for christmas presents
4. go grocery shopping for christgiving dinner
5. get out the decorations and decorate the house!

WOOHOO!

New Moon

@ 12:01AM....AWESOME!
home @ 3:00AM and alarm @ 6:30AM...UGH!

Thanksmas is

a week from tomorrow!

Ellen, my dearest friend...

you will be okay...

Dear Bryan,

You are an incredibly special nephew. I have so many memories of you, of us, and most of which I am amazed at your intellect. Today, as a very handsome young man, I love your sense of humor, your candidness, the love you share with your family and most of all I just love YOU and am dang proud to be your AUnt! Have a wonderful day with your family, and I wished I was there too :o)

Love,

Aunt Ellie

I LOVE FRIDAY THE 13TH!

Today, our school

honored the Veterans at our Veteran's program the history teacher and I collaborated on. The Marines marched in the colors, we had 2 guest speakers, one an army Captain and the other from the Navy. A student played TAPS on his trumpet as we paid our respect to those fallen and to those in our audience. There were Vets there from every decade, starting from the 1940s. We sang the Star Spangled Banner, Battle Hymn of the Republic and America the Beautiful. The kids were very attentive, and I was proud to be a part of it all.

The Air Force couldn't do their F15 flyover, neither could the Black Hawks land as they were all snowed in in Great Falls. Hopefully they can come another day.

She Was Born On Veteran's Day,

1974. I was almost 11 years old. Laura (I called her LOLLY and sang ADVERBS to her) was the cutest little thing, she wore those tan earth shoes with the red shoe laces. She had (has) the cutest cheeks and really got sick of all my luvs when she was little dittle. Now she has her own darling kids with beautiful eyes and darling cheeks! And yes, she was really disappointed to find out what adverbs are, lol.

I lived with Lolly, her little brother and mom when I was 17/18...she came and stayed with me one summer while I was going to summer school and she took care of my kids. She also worked in the garden, cleaned house etc. We became close friends at that time.
She took me under her emotional wing when I went through my divorce. I don't now how I would have made it without her friendship.
That was almost 10 years ago. Since then, we've remained close, always in touch via internet.
She's a precious woman, niece, mother, aunt, cousin...
but most of all, she is my friend, my confidant, my lolly popster. Have a good day, lolly, I wished I could be there and make that indian taco for you! I love you VERY much!

Just a Glimpse

into our home circus.

We Caved In...

For years, there was NO Tv. Saturday, we finally broke down.

George wanted to help with vacuuming the dust from the holes Scott had to cut out of the cement walls...
We decided putting the cords behind the wall was a much better idea. So, preparations were made.
The wall mount is on, next is to get the dang TV out of the box!
For whatever reason, this is the part that made Scott cuss the most.

Up and double-checked for proper placement. George likes it.
Up and signals scanned (we still refuse to have cable or satellite).
But most importantly, we love the best entertainment of all!

Wow.

This has to be one of my laziest weekends, ever!

I"M SO GLAD IT IS FRIDAY NIGHT!

I Took Her For Show And Tell

when I was in 2nd grade...little Lynetta...

I was so proud to be an aunt!




Now she is grown and has a wonderful husband (Doug) and two BEAUTIFUL daughters (Mariah and Katie and sorry if that is spelled wrong!) of her own.



She's quite a special part of my family (even though she's so dang short! haha)
Love you, Lynetta! Have a wonderful 38th birthday on the 6th! You deserve it! I'm so glad your life is content!

Still Naughty!

Meaningful Visits

We drove to Casper to visit with my sweet Aunt Goldie. She's 85, and doing very well. For dinner, Scott and I took her to our favorite place to eat...Red Lobster! We ate lots of shrimp and had good laughs!
Later that evening, I handed out the chocolates to the little scary visitors!
We also watched a 1975 re-run of the Lawrence Welk Halloween Show. (RJ, I posted this pic for you!)
Unfortunately, time passed fast, and we headed out around 10 or 11 this morning.

Recently, I found out a dear friend (gramma-like neighbor from Lander) is in the nursing home in Casper, so we stopped in to see 90 year old Kathleen. I haven't seen her for 9 years. How precious our time was!
And of course we stopped to say HI to mom...
Popped in to see Ed and Cathy. They leave for Bali in 6 weeks, so we'll have Thanksgiving/Christmas on 11/26. Aren't they darling?
It's just a little tough getting a portrait of us all when Cathy is 4'10 and Ed is 6'3! lol
Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
(We missed seeing Monte/Mellissa and the girls! Next time!)