Wonder years

Today was fun. Today was one of those "Ah-hah!" days. My oldest niece was sick so my bro and his wife and the girls stayed at home today. We decided to head over to their apartment this afternoon to visit and bring them some food (a.k.a. share leftovers they missed out on). It was fun to be hosted by my little bro and his wife. We ended up staying for dinner and hanging out for awhile afterwards. My little bro has been an "adult" for awhile now--he's graduated from college, married, expecting their 3rd child; but they live so close to my parents we just hang out at Mom and Dad's. I can probably count on one hand how many times we've had the opportunity to be hosted by them. It was fun. Their home is comfortable and homey. I always feel at home at my sis' and can pick out how we have similar tastes due to being raised in the same home all the while being very different. It could different for a brother's home,but in our case it's not. Ralph brought the XBOX 360 with us and we all played another new family favorite--Scene It! We are having so much fun with this game! It is a lot more fun than the original DVD version. We, my sister-in-law and I, are planning a dinner party at their house. We're inviting our cousin and her new fiance. I love to throw dinner parties and I'm looking forward to working with Tiff on this! Now I'm off to plan the menu--I love that part! Anybody have any fun ideas for a New Year's dinner? Leave me a comment if you do!

Winter in MN

Family pictures

Have you ever witnessed the wrangling of 7 kids under the age of 5 for a family pic? Well today I had that fun! Thankfully, the moms are pretty experienced at this. We all went to Sears Portrait Studio in the Paul Bunyan Mall. The girls were smart and had the photographer get the pic of all the kids right off the bat. It was chaos and mayhem from then on out! The girls were crying--they don't really like strangers. The boys were wrestling. The girl from Sears was so patient and knew kids well. She told the moms, "If it doesn't matter to you if they're smiling or not, it doesn't matter to me." Obviously, a woman who knows her job. It goes against some law of physics to get 7 children under the age of 5 to all smile at the same time. In fact, it is almost an act of God to get them all looking in the same direction! In the end, we got one good one of all 7 of the kids and a few other cute ones to boot! PTL! While the moms decided on the best pics, Uncle Ralph and Auntie Stacie decided to keep the kids occupied by feeding the change gods (also known as arcade cars). The change machine was, of course, broken. We had already promised the kids rides so off Uncle Ralph heads to scrounge for change. Luckily, he was successful and we were able to keep them amused until it was time to head towards McDonald's for a much needed reward. ;-p Oh, the memories we'll have when we look back at these pics in the future!

Christmas Mayhem

Christmas is a crazy time for everyone. It is particularly crazy here this year. Picture this with me: 7 children ages 5 and under, 11 adults, one sick sister, one injured father, 7+ other cousins, add 3+ other adults, 2 dogs who can't be in the same room together, meal and sleep schedules all out of whack, and all the mayhem that comes with opening presents. Think "LOUD." I wonder if this is what God hears when he tells us to make a joyful noise. It isn't always exactly joyful, but it is noise. The overall feeling is people who love each other and are excited to be together.

Every year it seems that there is one game more than any others that the family seems to rally around. Last year it was a card game, "Big dog, Little dog." This year it is Apples to Apples. If you have never played this game, it is a riot! It doesn't take much thought, in fact, the less thought you put into it the better. It gets a big thumbs up from us.

Take some time to really enjoy your family while you can. Play a game. Share conversation over a cup of coffee. Eat breakfast together. Eat dinner together. Make memories. They may be chaotic and loud memories, but some day you may wish you had enjoyed it all while you had the chance. I'm off too watch my sisters wrangle 7 kids under the age of 5 into some semblance of order for a photo shoot! Should be some kind of memory!

Faces of Christmas . . .

The gang



The diva (not even out of diapers yet!)




The body builder



Glutton for punishment



Christmas elf




The athlete




Mutt and Jeff

Helm Family Christmas

Saturday the 22nd we had Christmas with the Helm side of the family. It was such a nice day. Ralph and I had been going a mile a minute all week long and it felt like that was the first time we had to slow down and breath (and eat). We both had been up till the wee hours of the morning multiple days in a row and forgetting to eat more than one meal a day. Saturday was our opportunity to just relax with the family. It was a nice unhurried day where we all just hung out and laughed and drank coffee (or at least Tom, Ralph and I drank coffee). It was all set to a very nice Christmas sound track playing quietly in the background (except for one CD we all decided should have never been made much less purchased). ;-p We discovered Mom can NOT leave the house if there is a box on her car--especially if it is an empty box! It apparently is worse than being snowed in. ;-D Ralph and I enjoyed talking coffee with Tom, all of us self-proclaimed coffee snobs, dicussing our favorite blends and acceptable coffee shops. Tom found a new one in Englewood we are eager to visit. Ralph's neice is at that delightful age where she is a strange blend of young woman and young girl. You are never sure which you are going to get but both young ladies are delightful. We truly enjoyed our day, any time spent with family is truly precious.

Sweet relief

Brilliant blue skies. Blindingly white snow. Deep green pine trees flocked with snow. The cold frigidity of a bright cloudless day in snow country. The sun even makes the bareness of the deciduous trees deep in hibernation look cheerful. Sarah McLaughlin and Karin Berquist's gorgeous deep voices crooning Christmas songs to us in the background. This is what we woke up to on Christmas Eve. It was the Christmas road trip we had been looking forward too. Everything looks better in the morning. That was especially true that morning. After a night like that night, "God's mercies are new every morning" are that much more poignant. Sometimes we want to do what we want to do, forging ahead despite all the warnings (other people crashing, the fierce tugging we feel, the darkness surrounding us). Then when we finally stop and take the rest God offers us, we wake up and find a clear path before us. The Lord's timing is always better than ours (no matter how much we want something). The trip out here was a good reminder of that for me. I'm praying you find this lesson the "easy way" this Christmas season and not the "hard way" as my husband did 10 years ago this Christmas season. Praise the Lord for redemption and restoration. Merry Christmas!

Winter driving conditions

We are having fun let me tell you. Icy roads. High winds. Fog. Snow. Blowing snow. Winter storm warning. Did I mention icy roads with high winds? Let's not forget that. We were hoping to make it to Eau Claire tonight but barely made it to Madison. However, we almost always stay at Hampton Inn's when we're traveling. Today is no different. We had a reservation in Eau Claire and the cut off to cancel your reservation without penalty was 6 p.m. Well, it wasn't until around 9 p.m. when we realized we weren't going to make it. I called the hotel and explained due to weather we would not be able to make it to Eau Claire tonight. The very nice young man said, "No problem, your reservation is cancelled." Then he assisted me to make a reservation at the one we're staying at now. I called this hotel and they gave me great directions. The price between the 2 hotels was about $30 more here and when Ralph checked in they said, "We're going to honor your rate from your original reservation." This is customer service. This is why we stay here (because the comfy beds, wonderful pillows, cozy duvets, clean rooms, and tasty breakfasts have nothing to do with it)! ;-p So now, I'm snuggled in bed under the cozy duvet, using their free wi-fi, watching the news, and blogging. I can't even hear the wind howling from in here. I think I might stay forever. Did I mention the icy roads with high winds? Hope you are all warm and safe tonight!

Can't Wait to Get to Minnesota!

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The House of the Seven Goebels

Our weekend was a little crazy last weekend. Here was the original plan. Go up to Grandma's in Columbus for Christmas with that whole side of Ralph's family; party to start at 1 p.m. Now, it takes roughly an hour and 15 minutes to get from our house (Dayton) to Columbus. After the afore mentioned party, we were supposed to book it back to our place and change for our concert and leave at 5 p.m. for 6 p.m. dinner reservations in Cincinnati (roughly 1 hour from our house). For those of you who are visually oriented, I suggest you map those out to see the slight insanity of our plan.
Well, we saw the insanity so we decided to get a B&B up in Columbus for Friday night to cut down on the driving on Saturday. We stayed at The House of the Seven Goebels. Pat and Frank (the innkeepers/hosts) were so sweet. We had a great time visiting with them over breakfast. We had a great breakfast of fresh fruit, bacon and beligian waffles and, of course, great coffee and OJ. It was so relaxing. The house was built in the 1970's to replicate an 1800's farm house. It sits on 2 acres surrounded by trees and guarded by a creek in the back yard. It's like a little country oasis in the middle of the city. It has all plank floors and walls and old fashioned door latches. We knew it was our kind of place when we saw all the books! Shelves and shelves full of them. We had a real wood burning fireplace in our room. It was so much fun to come back to after dinner that night!
They also had these great warm and cozy robes. There is just something luxurious about having a robe provided for you! They have these neat brick archways between rooms with firelpaces that I just loved! I have never seen anything like it before. It's definitaley something I want to remember for any future home I might build! There were wreaths in every window. I just love that. I think that might be on my list to do next year. Wreaths just make everything look cheerier (is that a word?). They even had electric "candles" on the walls. It was all very rustic and charming. Then came the threat of weather!
Many of Ralph's family would have been driving up from southeastern Ohio and it was supposed to get very bad out--freezing rain topped with multiple inches of snow (depending on which channel you were on). It did get a little bad that AM/early afternoon, so they postponed Grandma's party. Since were already there, we stopped in to see Grandma anyway. We also met up with Ralph's bro, sis-in-law, and niece. We had such a nice visit. We were glad we had come up. Grandparents are such a privelege to have, so many of our friends have lost theirs. I know we don't see any of ours enough. It's fun to see her so happy at her assisted living with all her friends. Grandma had just won a round of Bingo when we arrived--and in true grandma fashion she gave her "prize" (a Reese's Cup) to Morgan. What is it with grandparents and candy?



I'll leave you with these pics of us with Grandma. Later I'll share about our harrowing ride to Cinci from Columbus! If you are ever in Columbus, though, definitely check out this B&B. We highly recommned it!

Christmas is . . .

Traditions! One of our favorite traditions is heading down to Cincinnati to eat at Campanello's with a group of friends and then head to The Taft Theater to hear one of our favorite artists, Over the Rhine.
It's their annual homecoming Christmas concert. It all starts for us in September/October when the tickets go on sale. There is a flurry of phone calls to find out who wants to go and then we put in our order the first day they go on sale and wait. This year we ended up in the second row! We were so excited. Dinner was great, as usual, they have the best tiramisu! Normally, we walk from the restaraunt up to the theater but it was cold and rainy this year. We were wussy and drove. My car had to $10 but we found a spot right next to the theater--literally feet from the front door. This is VERY hard to find in downtown Cinci! It was worth every penny!

The concert was one of THE BEST they have ever put on! It was Christmas to my soul. Good music, good friends, good food, laughs. The only down side was not getting home until after midnight and having to be up at 4:30 a.m. for work that morning (the first of 3 in a row). Here are some great pics my wonderful husband was able to get from our awesome seats!

My to do list . . .

So we leave for Minnesota in 4 days and I have the mother of all to-do lists to accomplish in 3 of those days. Since I am a born and bred procrastinator, I will blog about it for awhile before I get going on it. ;-p Deep breaths all, here I go!

1. Take my coat to the dry cleaners.
2. Find a dry cleaners
3. Return a curling iron and leggings
4. Buy Christmas present for niece
5. Wrap presents
6. Clean out fridge
7. Clean out litter box
8. Finish Christmas letter and send out cards
9. Put together instructions for 3 separate house sitters--one who has sat in the past, one who has not spent more than 1 hr in my home and one who is a good friend but never house sat for us before.
10. Buy cat and dog food
11. Bake cinnamon bread for neighbors
12. Print out various photos for family
13. Buy present for in-laws
14. Buy niece birthday present
15. Bake cookies for HC to hand out in neighborhood
16. Buy gift and deliver for work Secret Santa
17. Give dog a bath
18. Get hair done
19. Take dog in for surgery
20. Clean house
21. Do laundry
22. Buy Christmas present for cousins
23. Pack

That's all I but can remember for now--pretty sure there's more, but that's a good start! Hope you all accomplish your to-do lists between now and Christmas!

Mom?

Have you ever looked in the mirror and said to yourself, "Mom? When did you decide to live in my face?"and "When did your eyes change color?" I am having one of those days. I decided to do my hair a little different--curl some, leave some straight. As I'm styling it, I see my mom slowly but surely creep into my face. Now, I have a very young attractive mom, so this is not so traumatic for me as it might be for some, but it is a little unnerving. I mean, I am an American and like to think of myself as unique and independent but there is something about seeing your mom looking back at you from the mirror that grounds you and makes you feel and appreciate your heritage. At least that's how it works for me. Who do you see when you look in the mirror? How do you feel about that person? It makes me want to grow closer to the Lord, to let Him mold me the way she has let Him mold her. I want to be more disciplined in my daily life because of her (I can hear you denying that you are, Mom). Seeing her that way drives me to be a better wife and gives me hope that I will be a good mother (should the Lord choose to give us children). I hope the mirror is as kind to you all today as it was to me.

Terror at the Food Court

So I went Christmas shopping with a couple girlfriends a couple weeks ago. I haven't really been in a mall in probably a year. We were looking for two very specific dresses Real Simple promised us Kohl's and Target had.





Well, needless to say, they didn't have them. Well, that drove us to the mall--that and these REALLY cute boots at Elder Beerman. They are the cutest boots ever! They are red with a skinny heel and a little buckle across the top. I am so excited to wear them on Saturday!

Anyway, while at the mall we stopped by the Food Court for some much needed shopping sustenance! Food Courts terrify me!!! There is all this noise and hustling and bustling! I DO NOT like to be rushed when deciding on what to eat. There are people coming at you from all sides-- "Try this!," "Eat here!," and "Orange chicken only $2.99!" There are all these people rushing in line and a confusing mixture of sights, sounds and smells! When you can finally decide what you want or pick the line closest to you, then they want you to hurry, hurry, hurry when you order. Then you have to wait because they didn't quite have what you wanted but there really isn't any room for you to stand and wait. You can't leave because then you'd never get your food so you just stand there awkwardly in the way hoping they hurry now. When you finally have your food you walk through the mass of humanity and try to pick the least nasty sticky table. You are surrounded by screaming, snotty nosed kids who are NOT well-behaved, their are the teenage wannabee preteens in one corner, the gangster kids in another, the druggie kids over there (I do not stereotype either for your information--I just call it as I see it) and on and on it goes. Now I'm a people watcher and love to go places where I can sit and watch people (imagine that) but a food court is far too overwhelming a place for such a passive pastime. It was very traumatic but I had two of my best friends with me who kept me laughing the whole time.

80's Revisted

So while we are all painfully aware that 80's fashion is returning--the bows, oh the bows; not all of us are quite thrilled about it. It wasn't all that cool the first time around and I'm pretty sure it won't be all that cool this time. Well, one of my friends at work has taken a new job on base and we needed a fun way to send her off with our love. She is a child of the 80's and loves all things 80's. We decided to get together and remember why we were glad the 80's are gone! We had some creative people! We had attempts at big hair--seems we've lost some of our big hair skills as well as all of the tools we used to use.
There were layered socks, leg warmers (both the store bought ones and some creative person cut off sweater arms to make them), side pony tails, lots of make-up (blue eye shadow and all) and lots of 80's music. We downloaded this great play list from Rachael Ray Mag--it included Cyndi Lauper, REO Speedwagon, Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine, and more. It brought back all kinds of fun (and not so fun) memories. ;-)
I'm not sure what's more scary--that the 80's are coming back or that we were all willing to dress up in 80's attire for an evening!

First snow!!

We had our first snow last night! By the time I woke up there was no smooth beautiful carpet left in the back yard--the dog had been over every inch of it! She was so excited! It was so cute to see her bounding through the snow. You can tell she was made for the cold weather! We played fetch in the snow and went for a good long walk. I was hoping to play fetch with snow balls but it was a dry powdery snow. Here are some pics from our day in the snow! Then we came in and I had hot apple cider. Yummm!

Christmas tree

On Saturday Ralph and I decided to not let illness stand between us and decorating the tree! We popped in the new Michael W Smith CD "It's a Wonderful Christmas", mades some hot apple cider and commenced with the decorating! It was fun! We pulled box after box after tub after tub out of the basement. I didn't realize how much Christmas stuff we had. When it's all up it doesn't seem like that much but while we were pulling it all out of the basement it seemed never ending. Our house smells divine! Our tree has the most fantastic scent all on its own, then I found all of my scrumpcious Christmas candles and I lit them all. It smells like Christmas on crack here--hot apple cider, fresh pine, and a million scented candles. Mmmmm! Now all I need to do is start the Christmas baking and it will be perfect.

We love the MWS CD! It was not at all what I was expecting. It was like having our own Christmas sound track. It has a little of everything for everyone. Our favorite song is "Christmas Day" with Mandisa. It is just "Christmas" to me. The whole CD is more "majestic" than "homey" (which is what I was expecting) and I love it!

I feel so blessed that my husband will get excited about Christmas with me and help me decorate the house. It makes it so much fun. I am also blessed that he lets me go a little crazy every year and fill our lives with Christmas and all its cheesiness as well as the divine.

Christmas Craziness!

So, for those of you who don't know, I don't really have very many boundaries. By that I mean, I often think that I am superwoman and can do it all. Last night is a perfect example of this. At the beginning of the week, Ralph let me know that he would be videoing the UD Women's Volleyball team last night (Friday). I thought this would be a perfect night to have Amanda over and bake Christmas cookies while watching cheesy Christmas movies. Then Ralph gets the flu--not a cold, the REAL flu. He's stay-home-from-work-for-several-days-go-to-the-doctor-sick. This is HIGHLY unusual--for those of you who know my husband or are self-employed you KNOW he NEVER stays home sick! Also, he NEVER voluntarily goes to the doctor and he informed ME this time around he was going. So, what do I do when one of my favorite docs at work asks if I babysit and needs one for this Friday night? I say, "Sure I do, but I have plans--you can just drop him off, I'll take care of him at my house." Now, in my defense, Ralph never gets this sick and I had NO IDEA he'd still feel under the weather come Friday. So to top it all off, I ask Amanda to bring her new Boston Terrier, Lucy, over to play with Kenya while we bake/watch movies/watch the little guy. Does anybody see where this is going?
Well, Friday rolls around. Ralph is still sick, but getting better. I have a runny nose. Ralph can't find anybody to take the game for him so he heads out. I figure I'm not too sick as I have tackled a mountain of laundry, the dishes and removed the second carpet on my floor (also known as dog hair). Amanda arrives and my first inkling of "maybe I have taken on too much tonight" starts niggling in my brain. Lucy and Kenya do not hit it off so well. Lucy seems defensive and Kenya thinks she's an overgrown cat to chase for fun. Amanda and I try to let them sort this out and start making dinner in my minuscule kitchen (two people and you're crowded). Well, the dogs think they need to help and join us. So now we have two women, a beast and an overgrown cat in my itsy-bitsy kitchen, when the dogs decide to play chase in this infinitesimal small space. Then Ralph calls to say no one left him credentials so he can't get in to video the game and he's coming home. Well, by this time Amanda has managed to throw our dinner in the crock pot and I'm wrangling the dogs into some outdoor playtime, so we say "the more the merrier!" Ralph gets home, decides he can't work with this mayhem and plans to move upstairs. Then the door bell rings. "Little L" is here to play. He's so cute! White blond hair, big blue eyes, waving as his daddy carries him up the stairs. My poor doc friend and his wife have never left him at someone else's house before and this is a little scary for them all. Kenya thinks babies are terrific and that this 18 month old is a new lollipop that must be licked. "Little L" only has cats at his house, no monsters, so we put the beast outside and the little beast in Kenya's kennel inside. This brings momentary peace. The little guy wants to be friends with Ralph, who is afraid to get near him lest he give him the plague, so Ralph high-tails it upstairs to work. Amanda and I settle the little guy in the living room with his toys and books and we start to make the most amazing cookies! They were a PROJECT but WELL worth it. In the midst to this project, Amanda and I kept trying to see if we could interest the dogs in being friends and keep the little man entertained. Around nine or so we got the little guy to sleep with a minor bit of effort--less than one would expect being as the he didn't have a bed here and was in a strange place. We also discovered that babies crying causes Kenya to come unglued. She was NOT pleased with Amanda and I for distressing this little one and not fixing it faster. It was cute. When it was all said and done, we had fun, watched "Mom for Christmas" (one of my all time favs) and "Grandpa for Christmas," baked wonderful cookies, and handed off the "Little Man" back to his parents (sleeping) in one piece. Whew! What a night!