Zoo in December

This December has been quit mild for us down south. I wish my friends and family in Michigan could say the same thing, but I think they have had the coldest and lots of snow compared to normal. December 20 was very wet and rainy where we live, but a few miles south of us was sunny and warm. The city we live in was right on the edge of the rain storm. So we decided to use our annual pass and head to the zoo. I can't remember exactly how warm it was but as you can tell from the pictures the kids are not wearing jackets some are even wearing short sleeves. I think Jon even wore shorts. It was in the mid to upper 60s. We basically had the place to our self. Not many people at all probably because up north was raining like crazy. The animals were out and about having a great time since the weather was perfect not too hot and not too cold. I loved watching the baby gorillas and the baby orangutans the best. It did rain twice for a couple minutes. The first time it started to rain we were headed into the indoor reptile place. The second time it rained we were taking a snack break under a covered table. It was a perfect day to be at the zoo.

Hayden and Talmage

Talmage and Hayden in a bird's nest

baby gorillas playing together

baby orangutan

another of our favorites to watch sea otters (but very stinky)

Talmage

Hayden

Panda Bear

Connor Christmas performance

Every year, the North Metro wing (these are the classrooms with autistic children) of the elementary school puts on a Christmas performance for 2 days for the kids in the elementary school. Each class does one song related to the holiday seasons (Christmas (Santa and Jesus), Kwanzaa, Hanuka). They don't sing but do other things like play bells, beat drums to the rhythm, hit sticks to the rhythm simple sign language etc. This year Connor's class did 2 songs (good thing because they went on first and my parents and sister's Christa and Morgan would have missed it because they came just as that song ended). The reason why I haven't posted in 2 weeks is because I have been trying to put the video of his first performance on here and haven't been able to upload it. I did a trial on one of our videos that didn't take a lot of memory. That took about 5 minutes to upload. So I know I am doing it right. Then I tried the video I wanted to post (it was about 3 times for memory) and I couldn't get it to work. So my genius, wonderful, talented husband (yeah he told me to write that) made the video shorter so you get the idea. So you have couple minute performance down to 16 seconds, but you get the idea it is a lot of that same 16 seconds over and over again. He did such a great job with it.

I screwed up with the second video and thought I was recording it but the whole time it was on pause. I hate when I do that. Luckily, that doesn't happen very often and when it does I usually catch it in time but Hayden was right next to me the whole time bugging me while I was trying to record it so I didn't even notice it was paused. Jon did get some pictures. Then at the end all the kids come together and do one last song.

Connor on the left scrubbing in the bathtub

2nd song Connor in the middle

finale song Connor in the back middle

Every year they do a great job and the whole performance really touches my heart. I look forward to this every year. I am sad that this is Connor's last year in elementary school. Maybe they do something special like this in Middle School.

What a Loser I am!!!

O.K. fast forward to today. I know what a shock that I am posting on the day that something happens. If I don't post it today, I will forget about it since this is not going on the calendar and that is how I usually post things by looking back at my calender or photos. Anyway, today is the coldest day they have seen in the Atlanta area in many years. We woke up to 12 F. I know all my Michigander friends reading this will say boo hoo. I have noticed they have had an unusually cold winter. We on the other hand have had a pretty mild winter. The last 2 weeks of December was awesome in the upper 50s - 60s. Anyway back to my story. So after Payton, Kennedy, and Connor were all gone and on the bus. I take Brenton, Talmage, and Hayden first to Brenton's bus stop and then I take Talmage to Pre K. So this morning we get into the garage and I always after going down the garage steps press the garage door opener to open the garage and then buckle Hayden in his car seat and away we go. Not this morning. I walked down the stairs and decided not to open the garage door now and wait until everyone was in the car and then open it since it was so cold out (by now you can probably tell what happens next). I got in my seat and pressed the garage door and went into my bag to find the keys. It took me a little while to find them (seemed longer than it actually was) then I put the keys in and backed up and crash right into the garage door that wasn't opened all the way. I immediately got out and called Jon. Because half of the garage door was off the track and a little bent up. He turned around from where he was going and I pushed Brenton out into the cold and told him he was going to have to walk really fast to the bus stop because he only had a minute or two before the bus was going to come. When Jon came back, he was able to push the garage door down and back into place (not on the tracks or anything since 3 rollers were off the door completely) so the freezing air wouldn't get into the garage and freeze our house up. Anyway, I took Jon's car and took Talmage to school. He was about 2 minutes late. Meanwhile, Jon was at home trying to price out new garage doors. The sad thing is this garage door is less than 2 years old and is 12 feet long so not the standard sizes which means it cost a lot more because you have to special order it. When we remodeled our kitchen less than 2 years ago, Jon added 3 feet onto our kitchen and garage (our garage is under our kitchen) so we used to have a standard 7 or 8 feet garage door with a big mother Yukon to fit into it (not so fun to park into the garage). So he made it wider so now you can whip into the garage no problem. If Home Depot had it in stock in their warehouse, it would take 2 weeks to get it. If they didn't have it in their warehouse, it would take 4 weeks. Basically the same thing with Lowe's. So he called a garage door company and they don't sell just garage doors they have to install it. So they gave us a quote for the garage door and installing it and hauling away the old one and they could do it on Monday. They didn't have the exact same garage door as we have right now in stock so they upgraded for free to one they did have in stock. There price for doing everything was basically the same price as just buying the garage door from Home Depot then Jon would have to install it and we would have to get rid of the old door (and that would all happen within 2-4 weeks and then add another few months before Jon actually installs it). I guess the good thing is that we have the cash to pay for it. Would have been nice to use it for something else but oh well that's the way life is. I can tell you this that will never happen to me again. I will be checking every time I get ready to back up from now on even if I know it is all the way up. So Monday we will have a nice new garage to to replace our nice new garage door that is all bent up.

Church Christmas Party

This years church Christmas party was different from previous years. In previous years (at least all the 4 years we have been in this ward) the gym would be set up for dinner with table and chairs and the table nicely decorated. We would always eat the same thing ham, canned green beans, rolls, and potato casserole. The ward provided all the food except they had sign up sheets for the potato casserole. Then for dessert it was a potluck dessert each family would bring a dessert. Then they would have the primary children sing a song or 2 and they would have a few performers (singing, piano playing, violins etc). Then Santa would come out and the kids would line up to sit on Santa's lap.

This year the gym was divided in half. The kids 3-12 in one half of the gym, the 18 months-3 year olds in the nursery room, and the adults in the other half of the gym. The youth 12-18 year olds were divided up between the adult, kids, and nursery rooms. In the kids room they had lot and lots of pizza hut pizza and some games going on. They also practiced 2 Christmas songs so they could perform it for the adults later. The nursery had pizza and toys. The adult room was dimly lit and decorated nicely. We started out with appetizers. The elders quorum was in charge of that and since Jon was just called in the elders quorum presidency he volunteered to be in charge. He had $100 to purchase all the appetizers for all of the adults and I think they were planning on 150 adults. Jon did a great job and had enough variety that would please anyone. Then we had ham (from honey backed ham there was a little extra $$ left in there budget), rice (not sure what kind it was but it wasn't just plain rice) peas, corn, and rolls. It was all yummy. The high priests were in charge of the desserts and I think they had a sign up sheet for that because there was a wide variety of homemade desserts. It was a very nice dinner and very quiet. You wouldn't think that big heavy divider that splits the cultural hall in half would do much for sound but we couldn't hear thing coming from the kids side. I went down there once and it was very loud and lots of commotion. When we were done with dessert they opened the curtain up and the children sang there songs and we sang a couple songs together and then Santa came out and we waited in a long line to have the kids sit with him. Santa gave them a candy cane a plastic mug and hot chocolate mix. I had a really great evening. I would vote for that every year. The only people who kind of got ripped off was the youth. They were either helping serve the adults or playing and watching the kids. But most of them had fun with it.

Brenton with Santa

Payton with Santa

Kennedy with Santa

Talmage with Santa

Hayden didn't want to see Santa. I don't think he was too scared because he wasn't scared at Disney with Donald a few weeks later. I think he got sick of waiting in a big long line. Connor could care less about Santa.

5th annual goodie plates

For the past 5 years my sister, mom (she skipped out on 2 of the years), and I would get together in early December and put together some goodie plates for our neighbors, visiting teaching sisters, and hubbies home teaching families. This way we only have to make 2 things and voila we get 6 things. I made oreo balls (double stuffed oreos, cream cheese rolled in a ball and dunked in milk chocolate Yummy!!) and peanut butter buckeyes (chocolate and peanut butter candy tastes similar to Reece's). Christa made brownie bites (brownies mix put in the small muffin tins and then when cooked add a Reece's pb cup miniature in the center (she also put mini twix, Hershey bar, kitkat, milky way what ever miniature candy you have or like) I personally like the Reece's the best) and candy cane Jo Jo's (from Trader Joe looks like an oreo with candy cane bits in the cream filling very festive) then she dunked half of the jo jo in milk chocolate. Walmart also sold Candy Cane Oreos but the center didn't have bits of candy cane it was creamy like regular Oreos with peppermint oil but also very tasty. My mom made sweet peanut treats (there is milk chocolate, a creamy center and peanuts). My dad had lots of little fancy boxes of fancy cashews, chocolate covered almonds, and pistachios. So we added a little box of nuts to the plates. We just bought festive paper plates put the goodies on some had more than others depending on the size of the family and then took clear cellophane and wrapped the plate up and tied a nice bow. Of course a picture of the plates would be perfect right about now but I didn't bring my camera. I know I should be like those people who always keep there camera in their purse or car, but am too scared that something bad will happen to it and don't want to spend the $$ replacing it. We realized when we were done all of our goodies had some sort of chocolate in it (except for those who got the fancy cashews or pistachios). I hope they all like chocolate and are not diabetic.

Scary Stuff

The first week in December my sister, Cheri, found out she had melanoma skin cancer. She went to a Dermatologist because she had 2 moles and she finally had health insurance and thought why not. The Dermatologist I guess looks over your entire body and they took a biopsy of 3 suspicious moles on my sister. There was one on her back that she didn't even know about. Then they told her if they called back in 2 weeks or less there was a problem. Well of course they called back the last day of the 2 weeks. The mole on her back the one she didn't go in for was the one that was in stage 3 cancer. I guess stage 4 is the worse kind of cancer that means it has spread to other parts of the body. I of course didn't have really any idea what melanoma skin cancer was so I googled it and found out everything. I guess that kind of skin cancer is the deadliest of all the skin cancers. It is also the most uncommon kind. I also found out that her children, parents, and siblings are 50% more likely to get it. That scared me enough to search my body over for any unusual moles.
She was scheduled a few days later Monday Dec. 8th to go back and get all the cancer removed. It was just in there Dr.s office. I guess they just numb the heck out of the area and dig away and then stitch it up. Anyway, lucky for us Fast Sunday was the day before so all the family had a special fast for her. I am happy to say she is now cancer free. I tell you it really makes you think about everything and start thinking about what ifs. I am happy she went to the Drs when she did and had health insurance at that time because she would have never gone if she didn't.

Happy New Year!
Now let me rewind a month and talk about Jon's business Christmas party. It was held at our house (which it has been every year since we have been doing this 5 years now) on Friday December 5. We do dinner followed by an employee bonus auction. This years menu started off with appetizers. We had Spinach artichoke dip, shrimp, cashews, and some dove chocolates and truffles. For dinner we had prime rib roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, spinach salad, pomegranate salad, and squash casserole. For dessert we had pumpkin pie squares, and chocolate cake. Out of all that food I made the mashed potatoes (although Mike, Jon's partner, peeled them), spinach salad (which has avocado and strawberries in it Yummy!!), pomegranate salad (was a big hit I ended up copying the recipe to 3 people), squash casserole, Paula Deens pumpkin squares, and 2 chocolate cakes (with added pudding, chocolate chips, and sour cream into the cake mix to make it extra rich and yummy). I made all of the food the day before except for the spinach salad and mashed potatoes. That way I could focus on cleaning the house while the kids were in school. I shipped the kids off to my parents house for the evening.
The only thing that went wrong with the dinner is that the butcher shop we got the meat from gave us terrible cooking instructions so the meat wasn't quite done when we wanted it to be. Luckily Thomas, the chef, (Jon's brother) was there to help with ideas on how to cook the meat faster. So dinner was only postponed by less than 30 minutes.
After dinner, we had the annual bonus auction. Jon and Mike go out weeks before the party and buy different things that can be auctioned off. Then on the day of the party the employees get an envelope of paper money. The amount they get depends on how long they have been with the company. Along with the envelope of money they get a list of all the things to be auctioned off. And then the bidding begins starting with the item with the most value. This year the top item was a 32" LCD 1080 pi TV. Below are a list of all the auction items.

5th annual auction items
32" lcd tv 1080p

Blue Ray DVD player w/Iron Man movie and hdmi cord

2 Paid vacation days (16 hours at hourly rate)

iPod touch multimedia handheld device

$200 Cash

GPS navigator (never be lost again)

1 day paid vacation (8 hours at hourly rate)

Cash ($100)

Digital picture Frame

Cash ($75)

Chocolate decadence basket.

Movie night basket (Indiana Jones/Hancock)

Portable Stereo (jobsite music!)

Home Depot ($50)

Cash ($50)

Target card ($50)

Restaurant card (Longhorn $50).

Wal-Mart gift card ($50)

Best Buy gift card. ($50)

REI Gift card ($50)

Massager.

AMC Movie Theater ($25)

McDonalds ($25)

Chronicles of Riddick Trilogy

pizza Hut ($20)

Cash ($20)

Artwork

Wendy's ($15)

Subway ($15)

Burger King ($15)

Since I am an employee I get to participate in all the fun. I don't get as much money as a full time employee since I only work about 1 hour a day (except for tax time). I have been there for 4 years so I still get quite a bit of money.
Here are the items I won Wendy's gift card, Mc Donald's gift card, Pizza Hut gift card, Best Buy gift card, Home Depot gift card, Long Horn Steak gift card, GPS Navigator, and the i Pod Touch. Also with some of the auction items they had a bonus item you could pick from. I won 3 of them (and there were only 6 so I won half) a $25 gift card to Target, popcorn tin, and Hershey kisses in a ceramic Hershey kiss. I wanted the digital picture frame but someone else really wanted it so I made them pay a lot for it. I won a GPS last year and gave it to Jon for Christmas so this year I wanted one to give to my parents for Christmas. I know them and no matter how awesome we say something is they wont go out and buy it for themselves or if they do it will take a long time. It took forever for them to get caller Id, and a DVD player. My sister Christa and I one fathers day paid for my dad to had Tivo for a year (they already had the satellite box with Tivo they just never activated it). Now he is hooked and loves it.
After the auction we all ate dessert and then I headed out to pick up the kiddos (about 9:30 pm). It was a fun evening.