Setting It Up

Every year, we wonder why on earth we do it. But, every year we pull out the decorations and decorate/torture ourselves for what will certainly be another wonderful Christmas.

Seriously- it is A LOT of work! And, we didn't even put up half the decorations- the half that scream, "Claire- come break me!" we left in the boxes.

I am glad they are up. I am glad we are done putting them up. I am not looking forward to putting them back away. Or to putting them back up next year.

The girls, however, loved helping us.

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But, Claire eventually got banished (don't worry, as you can see- she had a roll, so she was perfectly happy):

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Both girls are completely enthralled by the train:

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A note on this train: I bought it my freshman year of college- 1997. Every year, we say, "this is the last year for this poor train. Next year we will get a new one." But, every year we push it to it's limits again. The engine can no longer pull any cars except the one with the batteries. It can not go around the entire track even once without falling off. But, it's still chugging along like the Little Engine That Could, so we continue to use it. And, the girls continue to LOVE it.

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Ben is proud of his accomplishments:

The finished product:

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-We have much to be grateful for this Christmas season, and we look forward to all the merriness of the holidays. Merry holiday season to all!!!!

How Can I Not Be Grateful

“So once in every year we throng

Upon a day apart,

To praise the Lord with feast and song

In thankfulness of heart.”

- Arthur Guiterman, The First Thanksgiving

This year I will not attempt to list all of the million things I am grateful for- it would be too long. So I will simply list my top two: My Saviour and my family. The first gave me purpose in life, the second gave me the opportunity to enjoy it.

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Here are some pictures of our fantastic day:

YUMMY Soup

My husband has a deep love affair with soup. I am not such a huge fan. I enjoy an occasional bowl, but it is not something I would ever order at a restaurant- I will go for the salad 100% of the time.
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Being the wonderful wife that I am, however, on occasion I will indulge his cravings and cook up some soup. He happened to order a cheddar cheese potato soup at The Corner Bakery on Saturday night and it looked good. So tonight I decided to give it a try.
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I found a recipe that I had all the ingredients for and whipped up what is sure to become a winter staple! It was DELICIOUS!!! With homemade rolls, it was incredibly filling as well. It's a very healthy, hearty, easy to make soup so I thought I would share:

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Cheddar Potato Soup Recipe
1/3 c chopped onion
1/3 c chopped celery
2 T butter
4 cups diced peeled potatoes
3 cups chicken broth
2 cups shredded cheese
2 c milk
pepper, paprika, salt

Saute onion and celery in butter. Add potatoes and broth; bring to a boil. Simmer covered 10-15 min. Puree in the blender. Return to pan, stir in cheese, milk, and seasonings. Cook over low heat until cheese is melted.

This is from Taste of Home.
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Let me know if you try it and how it turns out!

In The End, I Suppose Kids Are Worth It

There Is a Monster Among Us AKA Claire Update

Things have been rough with Claire AKA Little Monster lately.
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She is definitely our adventurous one! She climbs into, onto, over, and through everything. Perhaps she is just learning her prepositions? I think not.
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At this point, I am a little at my wits ends. I can not keep up! Thankfully we have Audra who will yell, "Claire is on top of the table!" so we can go and resuce Claire.
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Also, she has a favorite activity: when you give her food, she will give you a disdainful look and forcefully throw her food on the floor. Thank goodness for the hardwood is all I can say about that.

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The expression on her face pretty much sums this nightmare time up: "Look mom, I am up here and I LOVE it!"

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-And here she is after she ATE a marker. Yes, the actual marker point was nowhere to be found- except, presumably- her tummy. Can you guess the color?

Hopefully this stage will be over soon, so we can enter the tantrum stage. Oh, kids are sure fun!

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Then, on Wednesday I was thinking to myself how grateful I am that she will at least stay in her exersaucer while I shower-WHEW! What a blessing, because how else am I going to shower if I can't keep her tied down?

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Guess what she learned to do Thursday? Yup, you guessed it. She climbed right on out of that exersaucer.

NOW WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?????

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Claire Update from previous update:

Well, I guess there are some good points about this Little Monster.

Tonight while putting her to bed she dropped her toothbrush. I said, "where's your toothbrush?" As clear as day she said, "Uh-oh, where'd it go?" and kept repeating it. I guess I can't stay too mad at her for long.

Matching Matching Green Squared

Anyone recognize the movie reference? My college roommates should!
The girls were wearing almost matching outfits today so we did an impromptu photo shoot. What can I say- they're cute.
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This is Audra "smiling" for the picture. But look at Claire's face- how can this not be one of my favorites?

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-This is a picture of me and the girls last night. They like to crawl up and tackle me, and admittedly I don't mind so much.

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Then, here's a couple fun things they have both said:

Claire: yesterday she picked up the camera and said, "CHEESE" as clear as day

Audra: On the ride home from Ben's parents house Ben cut across a parking lot. Audra asked us why and he said it was because he wanted to get home faster. Audra said, "Why? Because you have to go potty?"

Life As An Election Judge

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"It is not the votes that count. It is the people that count the votes that count."

On Tuesday, I was an election judge. I thought those of you have never experienced such a "thrill" might be interested to know how the voting process works- behind the scenes.
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This is the second time I was a judge. I also did this in 2008.
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First of all, it is a lot of hours- for me this year it was 3 1/2 hours of training and 16 hours on the actual election day- but I think it is worth it. I think it is part of our civic duty to serve as judges to ensure a fair election. Espcially when you are the minority party in your county- that is when it is most important to volunteer to serve. (Well, maybe it isn't really serving. You get $150- but compared with the hours, it is pretty measly).
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Why is it important to have both parties represented?
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It would be VERY easy to cheat the voting system if both sides were not watching.
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For example, on Tuesday an elderly man came in to vote who could not read the ballot. Both I and a member of the opposing party who was also a judge read the ballot for him and filled it out. If only one party was watching, you could fill in whatever box you wanted for this man and he would never know.
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Also, a member of each party has to count the ballots, check the seals to make sure they are correct, and generally just watch to make sure no shady business is being done.
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It is very interesting being a judge. You see all sorts of interesting people.
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Most people are happy and excited to be doing their civic duty and voting. They love the "I Voted" sticker they receive. They come prepared and are ready to cast their ballot.
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Sometimes, however, you meet idiots.
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Case in point: One man came in and needed to cast what's called a provisional ballot instead of a traditional ballot. He had received a ballot in the mail, in fact he told us that he had his ballot at home. However, he didn't want to fill that one out.
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When you vote at the polls, your ballot is 100% anonymous. Once it is cast, there is no way to know which one was yours. If we allowed this man to vote a traditional ballot, he might have voted twice- we had no way of knowing on that day if he had or had not sent in his mail-in ballot, and if he had and then we let him vote a traditional ballot, he would have voted twice. Does this make sense?
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So, he needed a provisional ballot. This is a ballot where you write on an envelope outside the ballot your name, address, precinct, etc. so the county can make sure you didn't already vote somewhere else before your vote is counted. This process takes up to 10 days. But you can see why you have to do it that way, right?
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Well, this man was livid. Beyond livid. He was furious his ballot wouldn't be voted that night.
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Reason would simply say, "go home and get the ballot that you admit is on your table, fill it out, and bring it back and put it in the ballot box."
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But, this man way beyond reason. It was rediculous.
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So, there are, unfortunately, stupid people who we allow to vote as well.
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Most of the day, however, is spent sitting around waiting for people to come in and vote. A book is necessary when you are a ballot judge. Also necessary is lots of food. You do not have a lunch break. Or a dinner break. Or a breakfast break. So, you pack all your food with you and brown bag it all day.
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There is a rush in the morning and the evening as we set up and take down the equipment. There is a series of overcomplicated procedures we must go through. There are rediculous amounts of forms to be filled in and weird protocals to be carried out. There are a million ways I could think to simplify the voting process. One example: There are three different types of seals for three different bags, and each seal must correspond with the correct bag. Why not use the same type of seal on all bags? A seal is a seal, regardless of the shape. Oh, well.
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Overall, a good but LONG day. Provided we don't switch to all mail-in ballots, I think I will continue to do this. I enjoy it. And I feel very American doing it as well.

Children's Museum

On Thursday our plans for the day fell through, so I decided we should head to the Children's Museum. I quickly realized something: I should not go to the Children's Museum by myself- these girls each need their own companion! Oh, well- we really had a good time anyway. We just stayed downstairs where they were easier to contain.

Audra was VERY proud of herself for being able to climb up the tree:

I just really liked the look on Claire's face in this picture.

The fishing boat was a huge hit, as always.

Just for fun, here are some other pictures taken at home.

Maybe Claire should have been Justin Bieber for Halloween- cool hair!

And Claire's latest trick: folding her arms for prayer. So sweet. Yes, her face is dirty. Her face is always dirty. I can not get it clean- a hazard of being the second child, I suppose.