Update

I guess I should update. Not sure where that last post came from....It must have been the elves.....

I don't feel like being coherent or uploading photos tonight. So here are some random updates from my life:

Girls & Christmas: No pony! But they survived! Alpha woke us up at 5:30 on Christmas morning with shouts of "Santa came! He brought presents!" Beta had some initial displeasure with her gifts, but good ole Alpha reminded her that they should focus on what they DID get, rather than what they DIDN'T get. Wow. She suggested this all on her own and she's only 7. Thank you, Jesus!

(At Target on the day after Christmas, they had the pony marked down to $140.....Jim wouldn't let me get it. But I was tempted.)

Big Gifts: For Jim, a new motorcycle helmet. He wore it today and says he loves it. For me, a new Digital SLR camera! It's very fancy and I'm still learning how to use it. I'm waiting for the spring when there will be ultra-pretty things to take pictures of. You can only take so many photos of the inside of your house.

CPE: Just tonight, I finished my 10 hour Minister Taxation course. I got 98% on the test so I passed. I've got one more course already purchased on LLCs. I hope to finish it by the end of Janaury. That'll put me even closer to applying for my license next summer.

World of Warcraft: My main character is now level 30. This means I can get a "mount", i.e. a horse to ride around on. It increases your speed 60% over walking alone. Plus, it just looks cool!

Working: NOT! I'm taking this entire week off! Whohooooooo! Today was wonderful. I got my wrapping paper container all organized, along with my closet. I cleaned off a place in the kitchen for the new Easy Bake oven. I also took down some of our Christmas decorations. Oh, and laundry. As usual.

Kids: Alpha did her Easy Bake oven this morning. She loves it. I personally would rather just teach her how to use real utensils with real batter and real ovens. But this one is cute and there's not quite the potential for burns as with a real oven. Beta had us watch "The Wizard of Oz" tonight. She got the movie for Christmas and loves it! She was also Dorothy for Halloween. There are some scary parts, but I kept reminding her that she's seen the movie and knows Dorothy turns out alright.

That's it for now. Don't know if I'll post again before next year or not. (hee hee hee)

Operation Sleigh Drop

Setting: North Pole
Time: night on Dec. 23

Head Elf speaks:

(shrill whistle - TWEEEEEEETT!) Alright, elves! Listen up! The Big Guy's got a Big Night tomorrow so he's not taking any chances.

Keebler, you there, how goes the gifts at the Kane household?

Keebler: All presents present, uh, and accounted for, Sir!

Head Elf: Good. How about accessories?

Keebler: Sir, yes Sir! Well, you see sir, we might have forgotten about two tiiiiiny little items.

Head Elf: And what would that be, newbie?

Keebler: A 100 watt light bulb and 4 AA batteries.

Head Elf: Batteries? Don't we HAVE batteries?

Keebler: Well, we thought we did. But apparently we don't.

Head Elf: Well, then, Keebler, this means only one thing....You must head to Stuff*Mart tomorrow and BUY them!

Keebler: No! No! Anything but that! Not Stuff*Mart on the busiest shopping day of the year!!!!

Head Elf: Tomorrow's not the busiest shopping day of the year! That's Black Friday. Boy, you do have a lot to learn about the toy business.

Keebler: I don't know sir......I've seen some of those last minute shoppers. And with the recession and current econocmic crisis, they will ALL be headed to Stuff*Mart!

Head Elf: And so will you......

A is for Alphabet

Friday night was Beta's preschool Christmas program. We all got dressed up to watch Beta and her friends perform "The Christmas Alphabet". I won't write out what all the letters stood for. But you can guess. (A is for angels, B is for Baby....etc.)

Beta's letter was U. Her line was "U is for Us, Jesus was Given." The teachers told me the original script had an entire paragraph the kids were supposed to recite! So they shortened it. Also, there weren't enough letters to go around, so they paired Beta up with another kid.

Here is the video of her first line ever in a school performance:
(and keep watching after she's done....one of her best friends goes next, and she's quite a character!)

Christmas decorations, Take 2

Today the weather was a lovely 70 (or so) degrees! In the middle of December! So, being the kind-hearted soul that I am, I decided I could finally guilt Jim into putting up some Christmas lights since it wasn't 32 degrees or below outside. :)

Our first attempt at outside Christmas decorations didn't go so hot. Our ice-cube, light-up snowman fell over. The deer that bobs its head up and down, um, fell over. Twice. No, make that three times. Make that......ok. It's kinda broken now. Jim said someone shot it. I told him he was not being very nice.

So under the guise of reduce-reuse-recycle, we found some new LED lights that we'd bought last year on clearance. They are multi-colored. We don't use multi-colored lights on our trees, so we have no idea why we bought them. I'm thinking they were the only ones left. Anyway, the box says INDOOR/OUTDOOR. Yes!

With a bit of planning and some creative-engineering, here is what we came up with:

We used some landscaping stakes to hold the lights in place on our sidewalk. The candy canes are not new. We've had them for several years. One is now broken so that it won't stand up. Jim didn't want to use them, but I didn't want to spend money (before Christmas) on new decorations.




Here is our front door. I hung a red bow behind my jingle bell wreath. Doesn't it look pretty? It sounds like Santa's home every time we open the door!






Finally, here is our faux Christmas tree! The replacement tree really turned out nice. There are no needles to worry with, no watering, and you can bend the branches any which way you want. So the ornaments don't fall off! We have our own red LED lights and old white lights. The tree is supposed to look like a candy cane. Red White Red White....I don't think the lights are on in this picture.

There you have it! Christmas with the Kanes!

2nd Grade Program

Tonight was Alpha's 2nd grade program! It was entitled "Snow Day". This was very appropriate since the weather for tonight and tomorrow up here is predicted to be.....snow.

Alpha had a speaking part. Here is that video:




Here is her class singing "Snow Day". The last line is my favorite. In case you can't understand 2nd grade English, it says "I've been waiting since September, but I really must remember, we'll make it up in June." Haha! You can hear me laugh after they sing it!

More CPE!

Ok. I know this bores all of you. But I just finished my 2-day tax seminar so now I have an additional 16 hours of CPE! This puts my total hours taken at 56. I need 120 so that's 64 left to go. Almost half way there! I've got a 2 hour S Corp and 10 hour clergy tax course that I've purchased but just haven't gotten around to doing yet. (I've got SO much free time now that the holidays are here......yea right.)

So I'm happy! If I can get these other two courses done, I'll have 68 hours taken! Whohoo! Hopefully I can get one more course in before February and then be able to finish up by June or July. That's my goal, anyway.

Ok. I'm done boring you now. I'm just getting closer every day to this stinkin' license! I've been working on it for about 7-8 years now and I am so ready to be able to put those little letters behind my name. :)

Future Business Leader of America

I've got a Future Business Leader of America on my hands.

Beta's preschool has show-n-tell on Wednesdays. She's allowed to bring one thing, AND ONLY ONE THING, to show everyone. This includes little pieces that might accompany the "one thing". She always wants to bring more than one thing, and bring stuff on days besides Wednesday.

So tonight, she was getting her stuffed shih tzu ready for it's big debut tomorrow. She had clothed the dog in her own Barbie princess dress-up dress. (Beta's, not the dog's) On top of the dog's head sat TWO tiaras and her Build-a-Bear leash was around its neck.

Let's count.

Dog. 1.
Leash. 2.
Dress. 3.
Pink tiara. 4.
Blue tiara. 5.

5 things. We've had the "one thing only" rule for several months now. (LONG story) Beta knows it. But that doesn't mean she won't try to get around it.

Here's where the FBLA team member comes in:
I tell her that she can take the dog, and only the dog, to show-n-tell. She counters with "nooooo!" I say "sorry." She counters again with dog and two tiaras. I say no. She says how about dog and one tiara. I'm like, "No! You know the rules!" She would have kept going if I hadn't just walked away to end the possible tantrum.

Then, after I tuck her in, she mentions how much her dog just LOVES to get dressed up!

There is a future here. Lawyer? Shrewd negotiator? Only time will tell....

P.S. I wish I had a picture of this dog. It was hilarious! It was hard not to laugh when I was telling her she couldn't take it all dressed up like that.