Five Question Friday

Hey there! It's time for five question Friday hosted by Mama M.

So, away we go...

1. Worst trouble you ever got into as a teenager?

Um, I was actually pretty good as a teenager. I know, wow, how surprising. Ha! I was (still am) so awful at lying to my parents. Heck, I'm really bad at lying to anyone. Good thing, I suppose.

2. Are you a morning person or a night person?

I have to say I'm a night person for sure! I stay up way too late...all the time. Just ask my sweet husband. However, I'm a wannabe morning person. I really would like to start waking up earlier. Why, you may ask. Well, it would be just swell to have some quiet time in the morning to make coffee (my husband always makes the coffee in the morning), have a cup of coffee in peace and quiet, spend some time doing my Bible study and saying a prayer to start the day. I've found that the times I've done this (uh, not often by any means) just makes for a better start to the day. Heck, maybe I'll even start exercising in the morning...big goals, I know. I'm thinking if I 'write' them down here, it'll make me more accountable. You know, you family and friends of mine out there can be like, "Hey, Ana. How's that whole waking up earlier thing workin' out for ya?"

3. Are you a one-handed or a two-handed Texter?

Well, if I had a more text friendly phone, I would for sure be a two-handed texter. Right now, I have a razor. I'd like a phone with touch screen and a physical qwerty keyboard...one day. Any recommendations?

4. Democrat, Republican, or Independent..or maybe even Green Party (whatever that is).

If I had to pick, I would say Republican. I definitely have a more conservative/ government only intervene when necessary, please type of outlook. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for loving on and helping out the less fortunate (referring to the Democrats here). However, how about some accountability and responsibility for one's actions. Anyways. The whole politic/ politician thing kinda drives me nuts. Because no matter what a politician says they stand for, it often turn out to be a lot of talk most of the time. Or, they say such and such, but don't truly reflect it in their actions. Whatever! I could go on and on about this. Maybe I'll do a post on this someday. I'd most certainly need to organize my thoughts!

5. Are you a pet person?

Yes, I'm a dog person. I loved growing up with dogs as a kids and want to give the same to our boys. Plus, I love the protection dogs can provide. We have a black standard poodle and her bark sounds pretty fierce. When people come to the door, it takes them aback...even when after they see her. I think that's kind of funny because she doesn't look mean to me. I mean really, how mean can a poodle look? And she really is super sweet! Yep, all you have to do is pet her and she's your best friend for life. Oh, there was this one instance. We had recently bought some new furniture and had to have something on one of our couches repaired. Well, the guy that came to fix it seemed normal enough to me. But, Maisy would not stop growling at him! That is the first and only time she's ever done that. It made me feel good, like she was protecting me. It's nice to have that extra sense of security!

That all, folks! If you like to participate and link up in Five Question Friday, just go here.

Have a great weekend!

randomness

• A long overdue Food Pak update - From Baby P's 1st b-day celebration, we collected about 17 (it's been a while but I know it was 17 or more) Food Pak boxes to donate to the Children's Hunger Fund. Thank you to all those who so kindly donated to feed the hungry!
  
  


• I've started using Google Reader (thanks to this post ) and love it. Thanks, Angie! I now have an organized way to keep up with all my blog reading. Right, just what I needed. But really, I think it does save me time. I just go to Google Reader, and voila, everything is there in one place.
  
  


• Our dishwasher broke last week. Bummer! But, thankfully, we were able to buy a new one. Now, we just went with a pretty basic one. But, did you know that there are $1500 dishwashers out there?! Geez, I mean, does it load, unload and just go right ahead and clean up your kitchen for you?
  
  


• Have you read a good book lately? Well, Same Kind of Different as Me, is excellent! I finished reading it a few weeks ago. But, it's message of giving will just pop into my thinking here and there.
  
  


• Have you seen Paranormal Activity? Pretty creepy!! I know it's just a movie, but I kept thinking, 'People, just get down on your knees and pray for the goodness, love, joy and peace of God to fill your home!' Anyways, good movie...if you like scary.
  
  


• The poor people of Haiti are on my mind. What devastation! It's always so heartbreaking to see people who were already living such poverty stricken lives go through such horrifying loss. I feel like a moron for whining and complaining about some things like I did today. I was able to wake up in a nice warm bed, take a warm shower, put clean clothes on, dress and feed our children, drive our 4-year-old to preschool, run errands to buy essentials...and yes, I'll admit some non-essentials, drive home, give L and Baby P a snack, put Baby P down for a nap, let L watch a cartoon, give the boys lunch, pick up C from preschool, do some laundry, do homework with C, watch the boys play, clean up, make dinner for the boys, eat Chipotle burritos my husband brought home for us, load and run the new dishwasher, clean he kitchen, help get boys pajamas on and teeth brushed (my husband did their bath...as he usually does), read the boys a Bible story, tuck them into their beds and kiss them good night. Now I'm spending some time on the computer. Uh, what's to complain about? Sure, I might have had to break up some brotherly arguing/ fighting/ hitting, clean up garbage off the floor because our dog has gone nuts and has now decided to start digging in the trash can, and do daily chores that become redundant. But really, is there any worry in there about where our next meal will come from, if we have clean water to drink or where we'll sleep. Nope! So, um, not much to whine about here! We are so blessed! I feel so undeserving of such abundant blessing, just as those poor people in Haiti don't deserve what they are going through!

big news

We've got some big new folks.

C comes home from preschool today and has something to say.

C: Guess what, Mommy?!

Me: What?!

C: M (a little girl in his preschool class) is going to marry me.

Me: Oh, really?! (smiling/ laughing) Well, that's funny. But I think you guys are a little young for that.

C: No, not now, when we are grown up.


Oh, okay then. Thanks for clarifying. Let's delay talk of marriage for a while, shall we? Thankyouverymuch!

Christmas

Christmas this year was great fun and exhausting...but a good kind of tired.

On Christmas Eve, we made Reindeer Chow for the neighbors, cookies for us and Santa and a pie for dessert later that evening. Yum! Thank you Bakerella ! Can you tell I like to bake more than I do cook?

My sweet friend gave this to us for Christmas. Isn't it just too adorable. She did such a great job! And the cookies were scrumptious!









C & L did a great job rolling the cookie dough into balls...with no help from Mommy. Yes, I was able to step aside and let them do it.



Christmas Eve evening we went to my parents' house to have dinner, spend time with family and open gifts. It's always been the tradition in my family to do Christmas on Christmas Eve night. We would eat, spend time with family and friends and stay up until midnight to open gifts.
I wish I would have taken a picture of the food. We had turkey (my mom makes the best turkey, so flavorful and juicy), rice dressing, cornbread stuffing, sweet potatoes and green bean casserole. Yum!
My sweet boys:






An attempt to get a picture of all 3 boys:







Oh well...at least it captures the moment in time, which is great.

Then, it was off to open gifts.







Some photos with family:





After family, food and fun, we came home and got ready for Christmas morning. Thankfully, we didn't have to do too much to prepare. We were tired and ready for some sleep!

We set out a snack for Santa. The papers you see here are notes that C & L wrote for the elves. Cute!





Christmas Morning!









So tired...



My parents came over for Christmas dinner. My husband smoked a turkey, which turned out really good. I made some sides...they were okay. I totally forgot to take pictures. I think I was just so tired, by brain wasn't functioning properly. ;)

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!