My Second Home

My second home lately has been Walmart! I've seen the same Salvation Army volunteer sitting in the same wheelchair ringing the same bell for the last three days. And each day she smiles at Elizabeth, tells me how pretty she is, and wishes me a Merry Christmas. And each day I smile at her, tell her thank you, and wish her the same. Well, today I actually dropped a few dollars in her bucket. Anyway, I've been making my Christmas candy (this year it's chocolate truffles coated with various things) and I've forgotten something every day! Yesterday I went to the baking aisle to look for chocolate sprinkles (one of the coatings). Ok, I find them. Then I proceed to debate which size to get, the small bottle or the big tub. For some stupid reason, I grab the small bottle, check out, and head home. When I get home I realize that I need the big tub...I've only got a bizillion of these truffles to make...how far can the stupid little shaker go????!!! GRRRR.... Do I return the shaker, do I want to waste those precious minutes waiting in a customer service line at Walmart...those minutes that end up turning into hours around Christmas...No. I'll keep the shaker and just go buy the tub, too. Good. Decision made. I pick up a few other things that I'm pretty sure I'll need for next week when I do this all over again and get home.

Before I left for town, I put my truffles in the fridge to cool. So when I get home they're waiting for me. No problem, I'll put Elizabeth down for a nap and get to work. NOPE. Elizabeth doesn't want to take a nap. She also doesn't want to play on the floor in the kitchen or sit in her high chair and watch. She wants to cry. A bottle later we try the nap again. Finally, sleep. She should be down for a good couple of hours, right?? It is almost 2 p.m. and she hasn't had a nap today. NOPE. Up in one hour. Great. I'm up to my elbows in truffles and I still have a chocolate cake to make for Christmas in Pearland tomorrow. Again, no floor and screams in the high chair. Well, she finally got over being upset in the high chair after I bribed her with all kinds of good things to play with...like empty baby food containers. Yay! The cake is baked and it only took hours longer than it should have! During this time I had also opened up the carton of eggs which tipped over and 3 of them fell onto the floor, breaking and spilling egg everywhere. Do you know how hard it is to clean up egg off of the floor. I swear it took a quarter roll of paper towels. Gross.

Anyway, I could go on and on about all of the 'fun' things that happened to me today, but what made it all better, ironically, was a Tickle Me Elmo. Gawd, I hate those things! At least I thought I did until Kate sent one for Elizabeth from a friend of hers in New Jersey. Elizabeth loves it. Probably thought it was the best thing since room temperature teething rings. (She's not a fan of refrigerated ones.) She laughed and squealed. It was just the best thing ever. Makes me forgive her for being the most difficult baby ever today! So I did forgive her, she had a wonderful bath time and then went to sleep with no major difficulty!

I also have pictures of our live Christmas tree that I have sitting on the porch. I still don't know if I'm a fan of the bows, but I didn't want to buy any lights and those shatterproof ornaments that I've found are just ugly. You can see the seam in the plastic and also every imperfection. I'm too picky probably, but oh, well. And yes, those are pumpkins from the garden spray painted red. Grandma Schigut always has red pumpkins sitting on her front porch, so I borrowed the idea. Like I said, I don't know about the bows, but I like the look over all.
Alright, I've still got to put the truffles in the tins, finish folding clothes, and get some of Elizabeth's stuff packed for tomorrow. We leave at 8 a.m. Travis is still in Weslaco. The truck driver who is delivering the Jatropha harvester was way delayed up north due to weather and will get there somewhere around 1 a.m. After unloading it, they (Travis's brother Stephen is with him) will drive home....so roughly 3 1/2 hour trip...one o'clock, unloaded by one thirty or two....hopefully he'll be home around 5 or 5:30 a.m. He'll then probably take a shower, bed by maybe 6ish and then have to get up in time to dress and get us all to his parents by 7:45 a.m. At least we don't have far to drive!! Oh, he's going to be a Grumpy Gus tomorrow, but he can sleep in the car!

Cutting Teeth

Sunday, Elizabeth cut her first tooth! It's still pretty much flush with her gums, but when you run your finger in her mouth, you can feel the jagged edge. Exciting!! I don't have any pictures to show, because she hardly ever lets me see it! She's always running her tounge over it. I guess it feels different and wierd in her mouth. ~sniff~ She's growing so fast!! ~sniff~

Catching Up

Whew, I haven't posted in a few days! We've been busy beavers!

Last Thursday, we hauled in mulch from Hallettsville for the garden annex (we expanded the garden) and planted broccoli, cauliflower, kohl rabi, and cabbage transplants. Thursday night, we drove to my mom & dad's to spend the night and leave Elizabeth there so I could go to work with Travis in College Station on Friday.

Friday, Travis & I left at 5:30 a.m. to get to College Station to spray a Jatropha field and pick Chinese Tallow seeds. We ended up picking 12.8 lbs of seed (they're roughly the size of a pea) so that another professor can extract the oil from them. Chevron wants a quart of oil to experiment with, so that's why we had to pick so much.

Saturday, Travis worked with Dad and Elizabeth & I spend the day inside. Saturday night we went to Big Bob's Steakhouse in Cameron with some of mom & dad's friends and their girls. Sunday, we went to our reunion.

Yesterday, Elizabeth & I went out shopping for some necessities and to get stuff for our Christmas cards. I finished all of the cards...finally!

Today, I'm putting the cards in the mail! Yay!! As soon as Elizabeth wakes up from her nap, we have to go back to town to get some things for a Christmas basket Travis has to take to Weslaco tomorrow. He'll be gone until Friday harvesting Jatropha plots. It's pretty chilly today, so we'll have to bundle up!

I had some pictures, but they don't want to load...blah...

Kingsville & Christmas Lights

Travis had to make a trip to Kingsville today to check on the Jatropha trees he's got planted there. Since it was going to be a short trip, Elizabeth & I went with him. They have had a couple of frosts already and a lot of the trees took it pretty bad!! We got home around 2 p.m. so we had a few hours before we had to leave for church. (Holy Day of Obligation) Travis worked and Elizabeth & I played and tried to catch a few winks, too. After church, Elizabeth fell asleep in the car almost right away so Travis drove around town in search of Christmas lights. We drove around for 30 minutes or so and saw some really pretty lit up houses. I think we'll have to go for another drive or two...I like looking at all of the lights!

Travis's dad called this evening and said that he was getting more transplants, so we'll be planting again tomorrow!

Oh, yeah...Elizabeth crawled today! She only took about 8 little steps, but it was crawling! But no matter how much I tried to get her to crawl again, she wouldn't. Then again, she hasn't sat up by herself for awhile now, either. Oh, well...maybe tomorrow!

Christmas Parties & Christmas Trees

Elizabeth & I finally bought our Christmas tree, which turned into trees, today! Yay! Except now I have to put on lights...booo!! This evening we went to the Czech Heritage Society Appreciation Supper. Elizabeth was good the whole time! Other than getting a lot of laundry and dishes finished, that was about all we did. There's a good chance it will frost tonight, so I'm hoping all of the plants in the garden can hang in there! I guess we'll see tomorrow what survived.Elizabeth & I at the supper.

Our live Christmas tree.
I had to get a little "Charlie Brown" tree for Elizabeth! And it'll spruce up the front door. (Get it...spruce...spruce tree... Hehe!! I crack myself up! But it's not really a spruce, it's a Fraser)
Our artificial tree in the living room. I liked the halo the lights made behind the tree.

I hope your decorating is going as well as mine is!!

Playing Outside

This afternoon when I was picking the garden, Elizabeth was getting some sun. I put her on the blanket today instead of in her chair for a change of scenery. After picking the garden, we stayed at my in-laws for some yummy taco salad! There are lots of pictures here! She is just too cute not to keep snaping pictures. There were too many to post, so I'll have to send the rest out in a Kodak Gallery later!

We've been teaching Elizabeth how to pet the dog and cat nicely instead of just grabbing their fur! Elizabeth is being very nice to Boo Radley (Stephen's cat).

She gets so excited when Jenny (the dog) and Boo are around, she just squeals with delight!

Jenny comes over for a sniff, but she's not too confident in Elizabeth's petting ability, so she doesn't come very close!

Baby and Kitty butts!

Eating on a Biter Biscut stripped down to her diaper. I did not want to be cleaning biscut out of all of her pretty clothes! "Mommy, did you want a bite, too?"
After a bath, Elizabeth was hanging out with Grandpa who let her try standing up without support. She's pretty wobbly, but she didn't fall and Grandpa was there as a safety net! Golly, she looks like a big girl standing like that! I'm going to look rediculous carrying around an 8 month old who is already half my size!! :)

Today I also finished decorating our fake Christmas tree that is going in the living room. I only shattered one ornament, a good year so far! We're going out to buy a live tree for in the dining room. Whew, one tree down, one to go! Travis is out of town until Friday, so I may be tree shopping on my own. I'll post tree pictures later!