Hanging Out

Tuesday morning we headed down to visit Grandma Gribble. We enjoyed playing a few rounds of UNO before enjoying lunch and heading back home. The rest of the day and all day Wednesday were spent soaking in the moments of being a family.

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Oh Snow Fun!

After opening presents, we headed outside for some snow fun!!!!

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Christmas with the Ohio Gribbles

The Ohio Gribbles arrived Monday afternoon around 2:30. I believe we were opening presents by 3:30 ,per Sawyer's request, and were outside playing in the snow by 4:45!

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Shoveling Snow

I'm dreaming...

Christmas morning, we were able to skype with the Ohio crew while presents were opened! It was almost like being in the room with them..almost. After dad finished frying the 5 pounds of bacon, we headed over to Grandmother Gen's for breakfast. There were 22(could have been more!) adults and 7 children all under the age of 10! After enjoying a ridiculously wonderful breakfast, we headed back home for presents. As things were winding down at Gen's, the snow began to fall. By the time we got home, the grass had a dusting. By the time we were finished opening presents and settling in, the grass was almost covered. After naps, mom and I watched Pattie show her snow skills! That evening, mom, dad, and I walked Pattie over to David's to carol before walking up to the church and back. We spent Christmas evening snuggled up watching a girlie flick before calling it a night. Although the snow has prevented the Pettys from gathering in Raleigh today, it was quite a sight to see a white Christmas.

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Babies, Babies, and more babies!

Crystal, Danny, and their two boys welcomed Audrey on Monday, December 20th. Tuesday night, Maggie and I went to the hospital to meet Audrey. Before going, I spent some time at Maggie and Justin's with their 3 kids.

Thursday, I headed down the mountain to my parents house. On the way, I stopped in Hickory to meet Dana and her son Greyson for breakfast. With a 14 month old, breakfast was fast as we tried to continue entertaining him. To keep himself busy at one point he started sticking the pegs into his biscuit! It was wonderful to see Dana who had flown in from CO for the holidays. I will take a short visit with them anyday!

Friday Frenzy

Well, we were out of school Monday, had a 2 hour delay Tuesday, went all day Wednesday, had a 2 hour delay Thursday, and went all day Friday. I slid more going to school Friday morning than I did Thursday morning but no delay was called. Since Friday was the last school day of 2010 I couldn't complain too much!
Thursday, the entire school wore pajamas to school for movie day! K-2nd grade students went into the gym at 12:30 to enjoy popcorn, hot chocolate, and a trip to The Polar Express. Most of my kids had not seen the movie and quite enjoyed themselves! Before we went into the gym, Santa made a stop by our classroom. After passing out candy canes to the kids, Santa let me take a little seat upon his lap!
Friday was called survival! We had our "family Christmas" in the gym with the entire school that morning. The upper grades performed their program, each grade level sang a song, then the entire school sang Christmas carols together. The afternoon was spent watching movies, playing outside for the 1st time for the week, and packing up decorations to take home for the holidays. The kids made their reindeer shirts so of course pictures were taken as Santa's little reindeer! That evening, I went to eat sushi (yum!) for Anna's graduation. She really finished classes in August but had to wait until now to actually walk across that stage! I left dinner a bit early and headed to another tacky sweater party. By 11:00 I was in my car heading home...I was pooped from the weeks events. Now it's on to some serious relaxing before Christmas arrives!

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Book Club

We read The Art Of Racing In The Rain and met at my house to discuss. Well, we actually met to socialize, eat, drink, and mention the book! 7 out of the 8 girls that could come own dogs so there was some discussion about our dogs and their habits. Since the snow storm kept me from having a holiday party last year I began to sweat when they were calling for some wintry weather. However, it warmed up enough to only have rain falling and the book club was a success! Next up for January is The Glass Castle.

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And "Snow" It Goes

And so it goes like this: the weather report called for rain last night, rain this morning changing over to a wintry mix later today/tonight then changing over to snow for Monday. The real story is this: I woke to 5 inches of snow this morning! Pattie was pleased of course as she loves to run, eat, and chase snowballs! I however was hoping to finish out these last 5 days of school before break. Looks like we'll be making up some days along the way...bummer. At least the snow is pretty!

Thanksmas

My friends Anna and Blair used to have these parties with their friends in Raleigh. So, they decided this year to introduce us to the new holiday of Thanksmas. It's a gathering of friends between Thanksgiving and Christmas. A time to be thankful for friends, food, and fellowship while wearing ridiculously tacky sweaters! There was a prize for the best dressed, food, drinks, and laughter all around! We even created our own version of the 12 days of Christmas, but think we'll keep our version locked up!

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Staff Party

The sunrise was beautiful Friday morning. I have always heard the saying: red in the morning, sailors take warning. Red at night, sailors delight. Surprise! I just happend to have my camera with me so when I got to school I snapped a shot before walking inside. I believe the saying should change to: Red in the morning, TEACHERS take warning!!! HA!

Friday evening, we gathered at restaurant for our staff party. It was more of a dinner and people started leaving before I could really get around to talk and get my camera warmed up! So, these are pictures of the last crew that was left...the most fun crew I will have to say! :)

Christmas Card Funnies

I thought it would be funny to have us wearing scarfs in our picture. Pattie did not agree. I'm pretty sure if she was an aggressive dog I would have been attacked!

A Few Extra

I forgot about these videos. Caroline was really big into talking to Pattie and treating her like a friend. She would look at Pattie and say, "You wanna play Pattie?". One of the nights, she wanted Pattie and me to play dolls. She gave a doll to me and one for Pattie. After we had our dolls, she wanted to read them books. The other videos are performances by Sawyer and Caroline.

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Caroline's Parade

Friday night, Jammie and Sawyer went to a parade at the shops near the house. Mom couldn't get Caroline's mind off going, so after suggesting at least 50 things they could paint, she said you want to make a parade? Caroline cheered and we all ran downstairs. Here are a few clips of the parades we created:

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Lights Before Christmas

Wednesday night, we all bundled up and heading for the Toledo Zoo. We went to see The Lights Before Christmas. Most animals were in hiding, but the zoo was lit up in beautiful displays. The lights coupled with the freezing temperatures created a warm holiday feeling. We walked around, saw the lights, rode the carousel, and got into the car just before the rain and sleet came. Thanksgiving day was rainy and Friday was bitterly cold so this was the perfect night for being outside...well after you layerd yourself up of course!

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A Northern Thanksgiving

We were mixin it up for Thanksgiving this year. Thankfully the Petty family was able to spend time together at the beach this year so Thanksgiving was spent closer to home...for some. I took the day off Tuesday and left my house at 5:30 in the morning to travel up to Ohio. Pattie and I arrived around 2:30 ready to spend time with the Gribbles! Mom, Dad, and Grandma Gribble also left Tuesday morning. By late afternoon, we were all in Ohio! Tuesday was the "warmest" day, so Sawyer and I played with Pattie outside and played a game of football. Caroline helped me walk Pattie while she rode her tricycle. Wednesday was spent inside preparing for Thanksgiving. That evening, we all bundled up and ventured out to the Zoo for "Lights Before Christmas". We debated all day becauase of the weather but decided to take a chance. By the time we got back to the car and were almost home, rain and sleet started to fall. Thanksgiving was spent inside playing and waiting for guests to arrive. Tom and Kate, their friends and co-workers, arrived early afternoon. We enjoyed appetizers, a Thanksgiving meal, football watching, and Wii tournaments. Friday morning, there was a little shopping done by the ladies. We only went to one store and were home within the hour. There was no waking at 4 am to go shopping for us! We spent most of the day relaxing downstairs watching football and playing with the kids. Saturday morning, Pattie and I loaded up and left at 6:00 for the drive back down south. Thanks to Jammie for ALL the food she prepared while we were there and to the Ohio Gribbles for hosting this event!

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Taz-A-Pawlooza

Jennifer and Eugene live down a windy, gravel road surrounded by woods. Eugene, with the help of their dog Taz, has been creating trails beside their house. A few months ago, Eugene started sharing his idea of getting us together to trail run and mountain bike. He wanted to name it Taz-A-Pawlooza in honor of sweet, 12 year old Taz. We were all game and said bring it on! Little did we know! I showed up yesterday thinking all I had to do was run. Ha! This was a full competition with handmade trophies given to the lucky winners. We competed in the following events: a mile and a half trail run, a bike trail ride, bb gun shooting, axe throwing, an obstacle course, minature golf, and rock em sock em robots! We all began arriving around 10:30 and left the house a little after 9:00. The competition began around 12:00 and all competitions were finally finished around 8:30. We did break for dinner just after dark and competed in the golf and robot competitions before enjoying smores. Bonus points were given throughout the day for tequila shots, various dangerous moves on the trails, and drawing blood. I did earn 5 bonus points for blood, but steered clear of the shots. The obstacle course involved running straight up a hill, running across a 2 x 4, under a sawhorse, rolling a log, taking a shot, then carrying 4 heavy pieces of wood up a hill and stacking them! Whew, it makes me tired just thinking about all we did! It wore me out and I think I won't have to work out for at least a week! Being with old friends and new friends was just what I needed!

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40 years??!!!

On November 8th, these two wonderful people celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary! Can you believe it?! Congratulations to my parents!

Baby Shower #3 and Lunch

I started my morning Saturday attending a baby shower for my neighbor. This is the 3rd baby shower I have attended in the past 3 months! My neighbors are also expecting a baby girl in December! After only getting to stay for a short while, I headed off to meet my team. We tried last December to venture down to Donna's house for lunch. She has a fabulous log cabin down the mountain a bit. Last December, the snow stopped us and we haven't been able to get together since. So, this was the first weekend we could get together since school started! We met around 11 and headed down the mountain. Five hours later, we traveled back up! It was nice to get together with these friends away from school and share in peaceful lunch together! We were missing 3 of our team members for last minute reasons but enjoyed our time with the people that could make it.

Book Club...for real this time!

It came up in conversation there was interest in beginning a book club. Four weeks ago, the book was chosen, the date was set, and it was time to begin reading. We started our club reading Let the Great World Spin. It was not a favorite or the best book we had read, however we finished the book and came ready to discuss. We gathered at 7:00, mentioned the book a few different times and spent the rest of the time enjoying food, wine, and each other's company! It did bring across the point we really do live in a small world and it amazes you at how people are connected. Now on to read Art of Racing in the Rain before gathering at my house in December. I will choose the book for the next time in January so send me your suggestions!

First Snow?!!!

I took the recycling and trash today in 28 degree weather and it was spitting snow. By the time I got home, the snow was falling a bit harder. I let Pattie out to run around and tried to capture the moment since I figured no one would really believe me! It has been too warm lately so of course nothing stuck to the ground...thank goodness! The last time I checked Fall had just recently started right?! No, Pattie does not have dandruff! Those are snowflakes that fell on her!

Halloween Happenings

Saturday afternoon, Pattie and I headed over to Ann's house to get ready! Pattie and Chloe enjoyed running around the nicely fenced in yard while we tried on costumes inside. We settled on our get-ups and headed out to hear some music. Brushfire Stankgrass was putting on a free show at one of the local breweries. So we stopped by for a beer and a few tunes before their mini break. Many people were dressed up and my favorite was a turkey dinner. A guy had a turkey on his head, a silver "platter" around his neck, and a white sheet over his body. Clever I thought! We headed over to our friends Amanda and Jeremiah's house for cocktails and appetizers. A few of us walked up the road to see what was happening. Instead of paying the $5 cover, we walked across the street for more food!
Sunday, I met the Hogg's for lunch! My friends in-laws (well, Ben's parents) were traveling from Michigan to Florida for a wedding and making the most of the roadtrip! We met in downtown for a lovely lunch. It was the next best thing to Ben, Victoria, and their girls! That evening I anxiously awaited the arrival of trick-or-treaters only to be visited by 2 children. Oh well, now I have a bowl full of candy to enjoy right!

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Happy Fall Ya'll!

It was a great Fall morning!