Family Time

I'm just now getting around to posting about the Christmas and New Year's holidays we spent in Tulsa with my family.

Christmas Eve we went to my aunt & uncle's house for dinner and a candlelight service that my dad created years ago (involves Scripture reading while gradually lighting the candles around the circle, singing of Christmas songs and then maybe sharing whatever is on your mind). This year we also looked at lots of old pictures of family gatherings (from the 70's and 80's). There were some hilarious photos of us cousins when we were cute little kids.

Christmas Day my parents had all the family over for dinner, games and the gift exchange. We do the gift exchange game where everyone draws a number from the hat to see what order we go in. #1 opens a present. #2 can take #1's present or open another present. #3 can take #1's or #2's present or open their own present from the pile...and so on. A gift is "safe" and can no longer be taken once it's been taken twice (so the 3rd person to get it, keeps it). It is really fun and quite hilarious at times. We do $20 gifts so you end up with some good stuff.

Here is Aunt Cindy passing out the numbers:



This year we had some guests join us--Tonia and her boyfriend Ken. Tonia is good friends with Craig and I, as well as with my cousin and sister. Craig introduced me to her and she was my roommate the year after college. Ken, Tonia, sister Karen, cousin-in-law Becca, cousin Ben:



On Christmas Day and New Year's Eve & Day we played the usual Around the World Ping Pong. It's a great ping pong game that everyone can participate in at once. When it's your turn, you step up to the table, pick up the paddle, hit the ball over the net, set the paddle down on the table and move around the table to the right, standing behind the person who hits before you. This goes on and on with everyone rotating around the table, hitting from a different side each time, until all but 2 people are out. You are out if you have 3 strikes against you and the way you get a strike is if you don't hit the ball on your turn (if the person hitting the ball to you didn't strike on their turn) or you hit it but it doesn't hit the table on the other side of the net. Since it's impossible for the last 2 people to run around the table hitting in the same manner, they have to hit the ball then place the paddle on the table, spin around in place one time and pick up the paddle for the next hit (they stay on the same side of the table the whole time). The winner is the one who lasts longest without getting 3 strikes. It's very fun and high energy!



You are really racing to get to the other side of the table when there are only 4 people left!



Cousin Christy and sister Karen playing cards on New Year's Eve:



Christy pinching her baby Chloe's cheeks--so cute!



My brother John and his family travelled from Breckenridge, CO to Missouri to spend Christmas at Lindsay's sister's house with her family. Then they came to Tulsa on December 27th and stayed until January 1st.

Nieces & nephews Gracie (5), Isaac (4), Ella (3), Noah (1, but 2 in February!):



The night they arrived, the kids opened their presents from us while wearing their matching pj's:



Lindsay holds up the I Spy quilt my mom made for the kids. It has all sorts of great things on it for them to play the I Spy game with. They loved it!



Fun times playing with homemade playdough and drawing:









We went to Incredible Pizza one day for lunch (all-you-can-eat pizza/pasta/potato/dessert buffet). The kids played arcade games and rode go-karts and the carousel, etc.





Ella turned 3 on December 31st so we had a party for her. The cousins and one aunt were present for the festivities.



Noah was being funny on New Year's Eve. He spent a good deal of time running around the big room naked before getting his pj's on. He loved being the center of attention. He would run around and around and occassionally stop and bend over slightly to pat his little bare bottom. It cracked us up every time! I got it on video...oh yeah.



Minga had to be put outside a lot during our visit because she was so hyper, especially around the kids. She started spending lots of time on the picnic table because she could then see in the kitchen window better.

Visit to Tulsa

HAPPY NEW YEAR! To explain my lack of posting during the past month--something changed where I could no longer post to my blog until today. I finally found a fix online to the "Access Denied" error I was getting. I found the answer in a Google group (another person was getting the same error) and just had to change my FTP path slightly. Now it works! Maybe the change was made because they now offer a new Blogger version through Google. I haven't switched to the new version yet because I've heard that there are some problems. Anyway....

We've been in Tulsa for 3 weeks visiting friends and family for the holidays. We ended up bringing Minga with us because the dog sitter cancelled on us the day before we left. It turned out to be for the best because Minga started going into heat the day we left. We suspected that she would be starting soon because she is 9 months old and was suddenly whining to go outside in the middle of the night (several nights in one week and several times each night) and wasn't eating like normal. Sure enough, she started bleeding the day we left for Tulsa. Luckily, we had bought her a doggie diaper with the padded inserts so we put that on her during the car ride. Even though we had bought the appropriate size for her weight, it seemed too big because it kept slipping off as she moved around in the car. We had the whole back seat covered with an old blanket so we ended up just leaving her diaper off since the blanket would catch any drips. She only bled a handful of drops each day, but it's enough that you want to keep a diaper on her whenever she's inside so you don't have to clean up her mess.

I can't tell you how many times we had to pull up the sagging diaper as Minga excitedly wagged her tail and romped around for each family member and guest that came into my parents' home! We didn't buy another one or add velcro to the one we had so we could pull it tighter because we kept thinking she only needed to wear it for one more day. Well, unfortunately for us she bled at least 10 days longer than most dogs for a total of 17 stinkin' days! Hopefully it was only long because it's her first. We haven't talked to the vet about it yet. All I can say is we had to wash the diaper several times because it was so rank due to the blood that didn't make it onto the padded insert because the diaper kept slipping. What a joke!

We have been staying at my parents' house in the nice guest room. My brother Greg has the room downstairs (he's going to undergrad at ORU but living at home now) and the other extra room was occupied by my sister Karen for a few days around Christmas (she has an apartment in town) and then by my brother John and his wife Lindsay and their 4 kids when they came to visit for 4 days after Christmas. So, it was a full house and full of laughter and fun!

I've worked in the office every day except for holidays (gotta keep those paychecks coming!). The computer at the office is much faster since I don't have to access network documents and spreadsheets through a VPN connection like I have to do when working from home in Florida. It's nice to see my co-workers again (rather than just hear them on the phone or read their emails). Also, it's very nice that my supervisor stressed that I could come and go as I please since I'm now considered an independent contractor (I get paid by the hour now). That allowed me to take long lunches to visit with friends or finish Christmas shopping.

We decided to stay in Tulsa for such a long time so we could see all our friends and family. However, there were a few friends we didn't get to see (mainly because they were out of town for about 12 days during that time). Sorry we missed seeing you! We were busy almost every night, which is a lot for us because we are used to and enjoy just staying home by ourselves almost every night (we are homebodies and need lots of downtime). We had a great visit though and were quite relaxed because we didn't have cooking and cleaning of our house to worry about. A big thanks to my mom for all those wonderful homecooked meals! We visited with many friends, played many board games, saw several movies, went out to eat many times, hung out at a couple of coffee houses, went to a few parties, played with the nieces & nephews and my sister, cousin and mom hosted a baby shower for me. Good times!

The only stressful part of the trip has been the Minga situation. Since she was in heat we had to keep her away from other dogs. We didn't get her fixed because we want to breed her with another pure lab when she's older. Part of the fence in my parents' yard had been taken out some time ago so the lawn guys could drive their large mowers in easily, so Craig went to Lowe's and bought a section of a picket fence and put that there. It didn't quite reach all the way across but it deterred Minga from leaving the yard. I've read about how male dogs will jump fences and do just about anything to get at a female in heat so I knew that section of fence wouldn't deter them. I worried and prayed about that quite a bit. I guess there just weren't any unfixed male dogs roaming about because we didn't see any on the streets or in the yards nearby. Thank God!

Minga is still too hyper when there are other people around so we kept putting her outside during the family gatherings. We just had to keep checking on her to make sure she was still there and that no other dogs were there. She threw up on my parents' new Berber carpet one day after someone fed her some roast beef scraps (I warned them not to give her too much). The puke was very liquidy and soaked right into the carpet. It was so hard to clean! The other carpet in the house was easy to clean, but not the Berber. My mom had an extra section of the carpet by the back door as a floormat and Minga managed to puke inches away from it but not on it. If she would have puked on the mat we could have trimmed off the dirty section or just thrown the whole thing out instead of scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing. Oy!

We drive home tomorrow and go back to our normal lives. It's about a 16 hour drive with food and gas stops. We are going to drive 12 and then stop for the night at a pet friendly hotel. We did that on the way to Tulsa and it worked out well. We were both tired after 12 hours and couldn't have safely made it another 4. I was worried that I'd have a rough ride because of my pregnancy but I didn't have any problems. We stopped more than usual so I could walk around to get my circulation going and avoid getting blood clots in my legs...Minga sure enjoyed the many opportunities to run around. Craig actually had to go to the bathroom more than I did because he was drinking lots of coffee. I urinated at every stop but never really really had to go and we never had to stop just because I had to go. Craig is usually so anxious to get to our destination, but he was so relaxed on this trip that it just made my day. He and didn't rush me at all and actually suggested that we stay at one rest stop for several more minutes because it was nice outside.

Craig's classes begin again on Monday. This semester he only has 3 and they don't start until 4pm.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! May this year be the best one yet!

Christmas

This year Christmas cruised by faster than ever before! I know it's because we went to Breckenridge, Colorado for Thanksgiving and then less than a week later we took a week long vacation in Florida. Then, that vacation had to be extended another week due to a death in the family (we flew to New Jersey from Florida to attend the funeral and to be with Craig's family). So, by the time we got back it was the week before Christmas and we hadn't really done any shopping yet. It all worked out though...just went by too quickly for my liking.

Here are some pics for you to enjoy....

View from my brother's backyard in Breckenridge:



John and Isaac sledding:



Lindsay and Gracie sliding on a snowboard:



Gracie, Lindsay and Ella watching the boys sled:






Our apartment office building:



Craig made these stockings for us last year and I am still very impressed:



I love these sheep!