Monday, December 27, 2010

Christmas in Pictures

CHRISTMAS EVE:
Stockings hung and Santa presents out.
Presents are put out under/around the tree.
One shot with no flash just because...
CHRISTMAS MORNING:
BigBro opening his stocking.
Lil'Bro opening his stocking.
Traditional Christmas breakfast in this house! YUM!
Nerf swords from my brother's family.
I think he was opening Bakugan near the computer so he could upload them onto the website.
Lil'Bro and The Ex work on assembling the Lego Star Wars set Santa left.
My new bracelet from my awesome sis-in-law.
CHRISTMAS AFTERNOON:
My mom's Christmas tree.
BigBro doing some magic from his new Criss Angel magic kit (with Lil'Bro as his assistant).
My nephew Sid enjoys his new rope bone.
BigBro opening something big from my parents.
Mom & Dad with a Katharine Hepburn DVD set from my sister.
Lil'Bro rockin' some killer guitar faces with his new Paper Jamz flying V!
The End.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

The Birthday Lil'Bro - in Pictures

Pre-carnage. Ready for the unwrapping mayhem!
Mario action figure!
Lego Star Wars - General Grievous Starfighter.
Art supplies and table easel from Nana!
Bowling mayhem with his best buds. Complete with cool kung fu moves.
BigBro watching his pals (all the older siblings).
Lil'Bro trying a split. "Ooooooow! This huuuuuuuuurts!"
I love this shot of Lil'Bro riding the ball return.
The 4 Mustketeers. They've been together since preschool. That was almost 3 years ago!
The End

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Happy Birthday, Lil'Bro!

Today is Lil'Bro's 7th birthday! Pix at 11:00.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

One Year Anniversary

This past Tuesday was my one year anniversary at my "new" job. I guess I can't claim being the new kid anymore. Oh well. There goes my out.

I'm on a new team now. God's keeping my back. I started out on a cream-o-the-crop team. In July, I moved to a new project. Another group of stellar people. I'm learning new tools and skills. Ramping up the resume which is always good.

So one year in, still diggin' the job.

Thank you, God!

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Whew! Thank You, God.

I've been walking around for about 45 minutes just thanking God over and over.

It's Saturday night. I usually let the boys stay up to 9:30pm. But It's a Wonderful Life was on TV until 10:00 so I let them stay up. Around the time I would normally be putting them to bed, I was prepping food for church in the kitchen (I usually wait to prep during Saturday Night Live).

I had washed a bunch of grapes and had them drying. I got out a bowl, cutting board and pineapple to chop. As I stood up from getting the bowl, I smelled gas. At first I thought it was some weird smell from the plastic bag the pineapple was in. I moved around and caught it again. What in the world would smell like gas? I wasn't really that close to the stove. I opened the cupboard again and sniffed. Nope. I smelled the bowl, the bag, the cutting board. Nope. But there it was again - stronger this time. Gas.

I turned around to check the stove controls. Of course they were all on the off position. But wait - one wasn't! It was on medium but not lit!!! I honestly have no idea how that happened. It's not the kind of thing you can easily bump into an on position. The kids never touch it. I've been puttering around the kitchen all evening. I must have accidentally turned it on at some point. I honestly can't imagine how. But there it was. I turned off the knob but the kitchen was filled with the smell of gas!

I hurried and opened the back door, back window, garage door, front door, ceiling fan. It all aired out after a while. But man, that is scary!

And let me paint the picture here for you:

I cooked dinner a LONG time ago. I have NO idea how long that gas was going. The kitchen really smelled of it so it had put out quite a bit. It's very dry and cool here - static electricity popping off sparks everywhere. I'm wearing my faux-Crocs around which build up static electricity. I have the dryer running a few feet from the stove - big time static builder. I normally would have been upstairs putting the boys to bed. And might have come back down to watch some TV before going into the kitchen starting to prep the food.

I just keep thinking of how this evening COULD have gone.

Thank you God for that movie that kept us all downstairs. Thank you for putting the food prep into my head early. Thank you for letting me smell the gas and find the control on. Thank you, God. Thank you!!!