Random Things

This is one of our favorite VeggieTales songs. Katie was singing it a little while ago ;)

Haha! I got this email from a dear friend today and had to post. This should give those of you in South Dakota a little chuckle.

South Dakota Barbies on the shelf for Christmas

Sioux Falls Barbie
This queen Barbie is sold only at Macy's. She comes with an assortment of Chanel Handbags, a Volvo, a French poodle named Charisse, and a Lincoln County McMansion. Plastic surgery available upon request. Hey, she has to look beautiful when she works at KELOland TV. CitiBank Ken sold separately.

Rapid City Barbie
This tough little sport comes with optional hiking boots or mountain bike. When she's not selling magnets at Mount Rushmore, she can be spotted off-roading in her Land Rover or running on the bike path. Inhaler included to give relief during forest fires. Buy her while you can because Ken works at Ellsworth and might be getting transferred!

Spearfish Barbie
This doll is made of actual tofu. She has long straight brown hair, arch-less feet, hairy armpits, no makeup and Birkenstocks with white socks. She prefers that you call her Ocean . She does not want or need a Ken doll, but if you purchase two Spearfish Barbies and the optional Hybrid Toyota, you get a 'Free Tibet' bumper sticker for free.

Aberdeen Barbie
This 'Frost Queen' comes with an entire winter wardrobe! Her parka is reversible and can be used as an emergency igloo whenever needed. Package includes a shrink for seasonal depression.

Vermillion Barbie
This young, hip girl actually comes with her own pepper spray. Her USD sweater is made of real wool and her Cavalier gets great mileage between the Empire Mall and Vermillion. Available keg with purchase of makeup. Ken doll sold separately with broken cell phone... he never seems to calls back.

Mitchell Barbie
This brassy, tobacco-chewing gal comes with camouflage overalls, Cabela's Credit Card, and a rifle. She can be found just north of town shooting pheasants and drinking an ice cold 40. Cabela Ken available with purchase of Chevy Silverado.

Brookings Barbie
This modern day homemaker Barbie is available with Ford Windstar Minivan or Honda Odyssey Minivan with matching Wal*Mart sweats. She gets lost easily while taking Stacy to her soccer games and has no full-time occupation other than the PTA. Ken doll sold with matching Daktronics company car.

Sturgis Barbie
This recently paroled Barbie comes with a 9mm handgun, leather chaps, and a Meth Lab Kit. This model is only available after dark and must be paid for in cash (preferably small, untraceable bills) ...unless you are a cop, then we don't know what you are talking about. Harley sold separately along with deadbeat Ken. Jail uniform available with purchase of Mobile Home.

Belle Fourche Barbie
This model comes dressed in her own Wrangler jeans, a NASCAR t-shirt and Care Bears tattoo on her shoulder. She has a six-pack of Bud light and a Johnny Cash CD set. She can spit over 5 feet and kick mullet-haired Ken's butt when she is drunk. Purchase her Mega Ton Dodge Dually pickup truck separately and get a confederate flag bumper sticker absolutely free.

Deadwood Barbie
She may be a 75 year-old, Brandy drinking, Virginia Slim smoking cuss, but she has more audacity than Calamity Jane. She just got out from Gambler's Anonymous and needs to get rid of some spare change. Deadwood Barbie can be found at the Monday night 'Kevin Costner Fanclub' meeting just down the street from Cadillac Jack's Prime Rib Buffet. Ken comes free, but is usually working two jobs to keep a roof over their head.

Pierre Barbie
She comes with scooter and a state employee ID card, bowling ball, pool stick and dart case. Khakis can be rolled into capris. Ken available with purchase of fishing boat.

We named our new puppy Fergie. I don't know exactly how we came up with the name...it just popped out and stuck. She is so stinkin' cute and is already acting like she owns the place. Dash is not too happy. It took her all of about 1 day to figure out how to master the steps. This took Dash months to figure out. She is so playful and Dash acts like a little scaredy-cat. It is so funny. The kids are of course smothering her with love. Here are a couple of pics. I need to get some of her and Dash playing. He seems so HUGE next to her. Her favorite place to lay is in Kasey's Spidey chair.

We had a nice Christmas. Brian arrived on Saturday about noon. He left at 3:45am ET on Saturday! I guess he was excited to get home :) The kids were so excited to see him and he couldn't really do much without Kasey at his heels (or in his arms). I put Kasey down for a nap Saturday afternoon and he just screamed for his daddy. It was quite pitiful! I think he thought that Brian was going to leave while he was sleeping. Poor thing.

We got up early on Christmas morning and opened gifts. The kids loved everything! Denise, the Strawberry Shortcake dress up outfit was a hit! I need to get a picture. SO CUTE! I love watching them open up their gifts. They were just so excited about everything. It's so easy to please kids at these ages with gifts. I love it! Brian and I exchanged a few gifts - unfortunately 2 of his gifts didn't make it in time, but they should be here when he gets back. I got another beautiful necklace and some Princess perfume by Vera Wang. YAY! Katie kept telling me I smelled like a princess. :-) She's so sweet.

Brian left this morning about 4am CT. He wanted to make sure to leave before the kids got up. Umm...yeah. I hope they wouldn't get up that early. Oh well! He called a bit ago and is just about to South Carolina already. We've got about another 23-24 days before he gets home from his TDY. Can't wait! Only a few more weeks!!!

I had a chance to go through my closet the other day and I managed to create a pretty big pile of clothes to donate. I also broke down and got rid of some shoes...it was time.



Well, you can tell the holidays are approaching. A bunch of my colleagues have started their vacations and there is a bit less work coming in. PHEW! I have been able to catch up on some much needed housework. Did you know that I recently went 17 days without doing laundry?! A friend of mine told me I was brave. Hahaha! I said, "No, I ran out of bras. It was time!"



We received a package in the mail today sent to us from Brian's grandmother. Our last name was spelled wrong. Hahaha! You know, I have found that if even if you spell it out, a lot of times they get it wrong. That's "F" not "Ph"...I never ran into this probably with my maiden name. Oh, wait...."is that Miller with one I or 2?"



Some of you are going to think I am crazy when I say this....but...we're getting a new puppy! We've been thinking about getting Dash a buddy for quite some time now. I have been waiting for a red female dachshund to become available. I thought it would be cute to have our black and tan Dash and a little red girlfriend for him. :) Here are a couple of pictures.





Kasey and I picked her out today and we are going to pick her up on Sunday after Brian gets home. It's a surprise to Katie - if she knew about it, she would be going nuts and asking for her constantly. So we are going to head out to Laurel Hill and pick her up. She is so tiny! And cute!

I've been learning how to play this song on guitar. It's not so good at this point, but with just a little practice...

I'd really like to get a piano and try to learn on that as well. Maybe some day!





Oh what I would do to have
The kind of faith it takes
To climb out of this boat I'm in
Onto the crashing waves

To step out of my comfort zone
Into the realm of the unknown where Jesus is
And He's holding out His hand

But the waves are calling out my name
And they laugh at me
Reminding me of all the times
I've tried before and failed
The waves they keep on telling me
Time and time again. "Boy, you'll never win!"
"You'll never win!"

Chorus:
But the voice of truth tells me a different story
The voice of truth says, "Do not be afraid!"
The voice of truth says, "This is for My glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth

Oh what I would do to have
The kind of strength it takes to stand before a giant
With just a sling and a stone
Surrounded by the sound of a thousand warriors
Shaking in their armor
Wishing they'd have had the strength to stand

But the giant's calling out my name
And he laughs at me
Reminding me of all the times
I've tried before and failed
The giant keeps on telling me
Time and time again. "Boy you'll never win!"
"You'll never win!"

But the stone was just the right size
To put the giant on the ground
And the waves they don't seem so high
From on top of them lookin' down
I will soar with the wings of eagles
When I stop and listen to the sound of Jesus
Singing over me

I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth

This video made me laugh today... :)

Ha! I found this article semi-interesting. The answers to many of these questions was quite generic.

Having lived in UT for several years we met many Mormons. I've got to say that they are some of the nicest folks you'll ever meet, but they still kind of freak me out. We went to the museum down in SLC with my aunt and uncle and it was extremely difficult for me to walk through. I just felt "icky" while I was there.

I also read this book a couple of years ago which freaked me out more....

I still haven't decided if we are going to send Christmas cards this year. Hello?! It's Dec. 17! We received several cards in the mail today :) Time has escaped me big time this fall. If I do get Christmas cards out, they are going to be late. Those of you receiving gifts from us will be getting them late as well. Just to let you know. It's been crazy!

My grandma's apartment building had a fire over the weekend. I guess the apartment next to hers was the one that started the blaze. I found an article here on it from a local TV station. Wow. Scary stuff! I am just glad that no one was injured! My grandma is staying with my aunt and uncle until they figure out what to do next.

My brother graduated on Saturday! Yay! He had already accepted the position of vocal music director at the high school we attended and has been working hard with the kids during his last semester of school. Go Chris!

Brian is coming home for Christmas! Woo!! He is supposed to be home Saturday some time. I know Katie is super excited. Kasey will probably be excited when he gets here. I don't think he quite understands when I tell him daddy is coming home.

I got some great news at work today. I nice big pat on the back if you will. :) It's just nice to hear that I am doing a good job and that others think so as well. My manager told me I was one of the best on the team so that made me feel pretty good!! That was a great start to the day!

Sheesh! All I have really found time to do since getting back from South Carolina is work! One of the accounts I work on had me very busy - I actually put in like 18 hours over the weekend just to finish up some documentation that needed to be complete by end of business today. Whew! Glad to be finished!

Several of the other accounts that I work on faced major challenges due to system failures. That was not pretty. I had to put out a lot of fires last week.

I finally found time this morning to run to the commissary for groceries! I hadn't gotten groceries since we got back! Well, I had gotten milk and a few other staples, but hadn't had a chance to do a complete shopping trip. So that was a good feeling to get that done today. Ok, so I had to go during work hours, but I more than made up for the time over the weekend so I didn't feel bad!

I haven't had a chance to write anything about our trip to South Carolina. So here goes!

We left about 30 minutes earlier than I had planned on Wednesday which was great! The weather was great, the kids did great!!!!!!! I am so glad we have the DVD player in the van...

It was a very pretty drive through northeastern Florida and into Georgia. There were so many trees and all the leaves were falling. It was beautiful! It actually looked like it was raining leaves for a while because it was so windy. Orange, yellow, green, brown and RED. Katie and I liked the red leaves the best. It was so pretty!

And then we got about 25 miles into Georgia and STOPPED. I literally parked my van for 30 minutes. Lots of traffic! 6 lanes of traffic stopped. A guy in a Ford Escape next to me got out and walked his dog. Haha!

It took us an hour to go the next 3 miles. And then another 30 minutes to go the next 9 miles and then it was as if nothing had happened. Weird. There was no accident, no construction. Just lots and lots of traffic.

We ended up getting to Sumter about an hour and a half later than expected thanks to our little "stop" in Georgia.

I had talked to Brian and told him we needed to pick up some vitamins for Katie because we had run out the night before so he suggested we just meet at the Walmart. Ok. Sure. What trip would be complete without a trip to Walmart?! Hehe. So we pull up and I see Brian standing outside waiting for us. And Katie sees him and starts screaming "Daddyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and starts unbuckling. So I parked and let her out. And then I let Kasey out and he ran right over to Brian screaming "Daddy!!". It was so cute!

And then Kasey didn't want to have anything to do with me for the rest of the trip. Haha!

A coworker of Brian's had invited us to his house for Thanksgiving. It was so nice! We really had a good time! We got along with this couple immediately. It was almost as if we had known them for years. Crazy! And of course the first thing Katie wanted to do after she met the girls was play "dress up". She refers to their little girls (ages 4 & 5) as her new friends. All weekend it was "my new friends this and my new friends that...". Cute.

We "braved the stupidity", as Brian likes to say, on Black Friday and went shopping. We got a few good deals and were done shopping by lunch time. We went to the Old Navy (of course) and picked up a few things. They had some good deals on jeans and I decided to get some and so did Brian. This was the largest Old Navy I have ever been to! There were 2 floors and Katie and I got to ride the escalator :) She loves the escalator.

We ended up running over to Target to pick up a few things and to waste some time since we didn't really want to head back to the motel and hang out. Twiddling your thumbs gets old after a while ;)

We had to park very far away from the doors and I noticed there was a Lane Bryant right near where we parked. Funny thing is, it was located right between a Cici's Pizza restaurant and a Marble Slab Creamery ice cream parlor. Who was the marketing genius there? Hahahaha! I laughed so hard when I saw that. It was perfect! I didn't end up stopping in because we were tired after Target and it was time to head back to the motel for a nap for the kiddos.

Friday night was quiet. We ordered pizza and watched Shrek the Third and Ratatouille with the kids. After they went to bed we watched Knocked Up. While it was funny, there was a ton of cursing in the movie. There were some funny parts in there though and if you haven't seen it this might not make a whole lot of sense, but Katie's eye hurt last night and was itchy and I jokingly asked if she had pink eye. Then I remembered from the movie HOW they say you get pink eye and had to laugh.

We didn't do much on Saturday. Brian gave us a tour of the base and surrounding area. We went to the BX to waste more time and just hung out at the motel and napped. We are very exciting people. I actually managed to relax for a few minutes. That was nice :)

After nap time, I packed up most of our stuff and hauled it out to the van.

Then we had some pizza left overs for a very early dinner. We made plans to go out with the family we had Thanksgiving with. We went over to Columbia to the zoo to look at the Christmas lights. It was cute.

So the "snow" at the zoo was actually made from a machine that blew soapy bubbly type stuff. At one point I turned around to look for Katie and there she was...standing there all excited about the "snow", sticking her tongue out...

Umm...yuck.

I did have to laugh though. She really thought it was snow. Bless her heart!

We ended up pulling out of Shaw AFB at about 10:30ET Sunday morning. We got back home at just after 10:00CT. It took us 4 hours to drive the 110-120 mile stretch through Georgia. Eeek!

Again, the kids did great!! Movies are my friend!

It ended up raining during our last few hours, but that was alright. The kids slept through all of that and it wasn't raining when we got home. But geez did it pour the next day. Holy cow! The streets were like tiny rivers for a while there. I thought for sure we were going to have flooding. But the rain let up and no flooding. Woo!

Wow. This was a long one!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!