Happy Birthday Sister.

I sat here for 30 minutes trying to put into words what you mean to me. It’s not that I can’t come up with a thousand things about you that I love. (Okay, a thousand is a LOT to come up with, so I guess yeah, I can’t come up with that many. How about 100? What’s 1 zero?) It’s just that you are so much like me, yet so yourself, that I can’t explain our relationship to the world with just a few words.

So I’ll just say this.

On this special day, 40 years ago you were born. I didn’t come along until 2 years later, but I’ve loved and admired you since I could remember. I still want to be you when I grow up, m’kay?

I love you more than caramello gelato and my black kitten heals.

Love and birthday wishes,

Angeloobie

Guess what? It’s Christmas time. Actually it’s only 1 day and 25 hours away!! I guess that’s technically 2 days and 1 hour away, but who’s counting? Can you believe it?? I can’t. I haven’t done any Christmas shopping either! I think I may just skip presents this year. It wouldn’t be that awful would it? Ok, well maybe just a few presents. Not sure when I’ll go do that though. Maybe tomorrow along with all the other slackers. Just got word that it’s supposed to snow tomorrow. Great. I need to drive around and buy gifts and it’s supposed to snow. Wonderful.

We’ve been so busy lately with home improvements that we poured all our time, money and effort into the endeavor. Don’t get me wrong, it was totally worth it! Our kitchen looks divine!! We were able to fix the lights, paint, and put down new tile on the floor. All we have left is the mouldings and drawer fronts. I may not put any doors back on at all. I like it open.

Here is the finished product.

We really love it. The rest of the house got a good dose of dusting and vacuuming. Lots of things were cleared out over the last 6 months. We still have more purging to do, since 6 people live under one roof. That’s a lot of things if you aren’t careful. And let me tell you, we love stuff. Who doesn’t?

My family is in town for the holidays and I am so excited!! It’s been a lot of fun and laughing so far. Lots of yummy food and hanging out around the kitchen table. We are even going to have a family talent show/pageant! I think I may need to empty my bladder before the festivities start. It’s been brought to my attention that my husbands only talent is to broadcast our festivities on the world wide web. Umm….I don’t think so. We’ll see if that really happens. I think Jon likes being married and sleeping in our bed together.

I’m too busy eating and making lists of fun things to do to blog anymore…and actually I’m tired and ready for bed. So go on…get outta here…skedaddle!

Merry Christmas to each and every one of you. I pray God’s peace on you and your family this Christmas day and may He continue to bless you into the New Year.

Love,
Angie

Seems like it just flew by, blown away by the wind. Or maybe aliens came down and kidnapped it? I know! A black hole opened up and November was sucked in and it messed up the space time continuum? What ever and how ever the reason, it’s gone. I missed a whole month to blog about my life. I guess I should catch you up.

Should I do this in a bullet list and spare you the boring details or describe each event and watch your gray hairs grow??  Gray hairs it is!! Ready??

I forget. The End……just kidding, well maybe only a little. It seems I can’t really remember how November started off. Something about many days running together wherein I got nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing accomplished. I slept a lot. I played a lot of games on Facebook and got really far in FarmVille… here’s a snippit of my status updates from Facebook:

Angie Harms Stueve
ok, it’s 10:00am; time to pick a room and clean it. I think I will pick the kitchen. Seems to be the least messed up one!! Annnnnnd she’s off!!

Valerie Croy                          Angie Stueve

This summer we are at Dad’s house and that means we can’t be at our church, but never fear! Our local Baptist Church is here!! **cue superhero muzak** First Baptist Church of O’Fallon is hosting the same theme VBS  our own PCBC is and I was thrilled to have the resource so MJ could experience it as well.

I pre-registered him online and he was SO excited  to go and make new friends. We hustled over there and grabbed our card, a t-shirt, and a CD. We made our way into the sanctuary where the singing and music was just getting started.  Afterward when it was over, I picked him up and he was giddy with joy at doing the art, having snack, and playing with his new friends. We stopped at the local RED BOX to pick up a movie, which has become a nightly ritual for us since it’s cheap and quick to pick up and drop off.

While we were waiting for our movies to come out, MJ had to go to the bathroom *really bad*. So bad he was squeezing himself the way only little boys can get away with when they really have to go potty and there isn’t one around. Since the house wasn’t more than 2 min. away, we decided he could wait until we got home.

This is the conversation that followed:

Me: Ok Buddy, I’m not going to speed, but I’ll get home as fast as I can. Can you wait?

MJ: Yeah Mom, I’ll just keep thinking dry thoughts.

Me: What kind of dry thoughts are you thinking?

MJ: crackers

Me: *stifling laughter* Really?  What else is dry?

MJ: …pretzels…animal crackers.

Me: Um, yeah…those are all pretty “dry”. You know what I think of when I think of dry? I think of SAND. Like a desert.

MJ: Oh Mommy, yeah! Like when you eat a whole entire tree. Well…not the leaves, cuz they aren’t so dry.

Me: *snort* Yeah, I guess a tree is pretty dry. The leaves, probably don’t tatse very good tho.

MJ: Oh Mommy! A brick is pretty dry! You could eat one of those, huh? Well..maybe not cuz that would break your teeth. Hahaha!

We laughed a little more and I sent him running inside the house to go before he had an accident. While he was opening the door, I could hear his yell, “NO TALKING TO ME…I HAVETA PEE”.

That kid…he’s pretty funny. And dry too.

It’s been 2 weeks since my last post. Forgive me internet for I have sinned. I’ve ignored you. I’ve had hateful thoughts about you. I read other blogs and not left comments. I’ve been cheating on you with my iPhone. Please forgive me. I beg you. I’ll do 3 memes and a IQ survey as penance. Amen.

In the fashion of Amalah, I would like to do some updating for y’all, although I’m thinking I’m a lot wordier than she it. Not by much.
I quit my job. I haven’t mentioned it here, because most of my readers know about my Dad’s cancer already. 2 weeks ago he was diagnosed with stage IV squamous cell carcinoma lung cancer. We are all praying for a miracle that he’ll make a full recovery. In the mean time, Jon and I both agreed that now was the right time to open my schedule and be fully available for him whenever he needs me I need him. The time we can spend together is more precious to me than all the money in the world and nothing can replace our relationship, so the decision was easy. My last day is the 20th.

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Michael Jon and Dan had their open house last Thursday. That happened to be on the same night as Brenna’s Schoolhouse Live concert and Jon’s movie night.  Needless to say, we spent a lot of time planning and re-hashing who would take who where and who was staying home and who would save seats and who would charge the camera and who would tell us sumpin’ a million frillion times like, “Is it time to go yet?!”.

Michael Jon Cowboy Mike did a great job showing us all his artwork. They can be seen on Facebook for those on there and for those who aren’t, sorry. We’ll work on that soon. I promise! Brenna was the star of the show (well in our eyes at least! they all did a great job portraying the schoolhouse rock characters we all know and love- it makes me want to go out and get the DVD’s again and watch every last one, especially during homework challenges!) and although she was nervous, she remembered every line and every note! She did a fabulous job! Way to go Bree!
Dan showed us his desk and his workbooks. We unfortunately had to take a very VERY short tour of the school. So short it took us 25 min total to walk across the park, around the school, back around to the very back of the school where the Kindergarten section was (MJ’s class HAS to be the very last one, huh?) and look around, take pictures, talk to his teacher, gather all his art and papers, walk back to Dan’s class, look at his stuff, talk to his teacher, be reminded Dan needs his glasses because he really can’t see, one last check at the lost and found, and then walk back across the park to the car. I’m tired just typing that! Did I mention we did all that walking in the 38 degree rainy weather? Um..yeah. Brrr. Got my excersise in for the day, that’s for sure! We made it to Brenna’s school on time and found great seats before the concert. From then on, it went really smooth. Until….

We were walking out of the parking lot and I tripped over a parking curb. Did you know they were called parking curbs? I didn’t. Now I DO! It’s not the first time I fallen because I’ve not paid attention to them, by the way. I was holding MJ’s hand so he got pulled down with me. Poor baby.
I tried to catch myself, but I’m sort of top heavy and have big feet, which in this case is a deadly combination. I kept falling forward and the only way to stop it was to just give in and land. Hard. On the ground. With a skid and a thud. You would think with the round belly I have it would cushion the fall like a beach ball bouncing effect, but no. My hands went out to brace the fall but before they got there, my left knee decided to get involved and be the hero. The right knee in a vain attempt to save the day went down too.
So there I lay, on the ground, in the parking lot, in the rain, face down, and stunned.

(Good dramatic image huh?)

My first thought was, “Oh no. Oh no.” My first words were, “Shit. Not again!” (whispered of course) Then my second words were, “Why do I always do this!?!” Jon and the kids were asking me if I was OK and I just sat there, trying to figure out if I could actually get up or not. If this was really time time I broke my knee or injured myself beyond what my body could take. Nope. I was OK. Whew!
I got up, hobbled back to the car, turned on the headlights and surveyed the damage in the rainy light. Bloody left knee; check. Bloody right knee; check. Scraped left and right palms; check. Ego damaged; check.
Pain and swelling; check. Kiss goodbye from Jon as he heads to the movies: check. The only thing left to do was get some dinner. We went to Burber King. I almost drove away without my credit card. Good times.

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The kids have spring break next week. Lord help us all.

—

I spent all of Friday, literally all of Friday in bed watching movies and nursing my knee injuries. My whole body is sore and screaming at me with every move. I guess when you are falling, you tense every muscle in your body preparing for the impact. If it wasn’t so painful, I would fall all the time to work them out.

—

I’m putting off making my grocery list and menu because it’s cold outside and I want to stay in bed again today and watch movies and play on my computer. Is that so wrong? Ok…well it does seem a little depressive, but the lights are on and I’m not ignoring anyone’s needs. I made sure that Jon went and got lunch and delivered it to me in bed. See? Perfectly NOT depressive. Besides, I started on that new medicine and it is supposed to be helping. Except for the blank feeling, the sweating, and dizziness I’m good! Or at least I will be in another couple of weeks or so. Maybe.

—

I’m planning on going to see my Dad the week after next. If I can get my shit together long enough to make the reservations and buy a ticket, or decide if I am going to drive up there by myself. My Aunts and Sister will be there to visit as well, so it should be a good time visiting and catching up. I think I’ll drive. It would be cheaper and I’ll have more room for my stuff, like pillows and laptops and stuff. Yeah….driving. Just me and my tunes. Tunes….I need more muzak.

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<racking brain for more updates I might have forgotten>

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Um….that’s all I can think of for now. Until next week. or the week after. adieu.

I’m not normally the Halloweenie type that really gets into the decorations and such, but this year I found some really cute stuff at my favorite place, the Dollar Tree. Cute plates and serving bowls. Skeletons and Frankensteins, so fun! One wouldn’t think those things fall into the cute category, but these do! They have candy corn that ring the rim of the plate and are black and white. I mean, come on, you can’t go wrong for a buck! I plan on picking up some more plates for next year, one can never have too many ghoulish plates and cups!

So I was looking through a magazine last week and I was inspired to make the kids a Halloween dinner and then carve our pumpkin afterward. Like I said, I don’t normally go all out for them except I gather and purchase their costumes every year. This year I decided it would be fun for us all to have a haunted Halloween feast!

Here is what I picked up at the dollar store:

• a purple table cloth
• 6 spooky plates
• 2 spooky serving bowls
• clear plastic short stemmed glasses
• black plastic utensils

I asked the boys what they would like to eat for dinner; either Boo Burgers and Frankentots or Spooky Spaghetti and Monster Meatballs. Spooky monster won them over. Spaghetti is one of their favorite meals.
I would love to show you how the bloody finger breadsticks turned out, or the oozy alfredo sauce looked, or even the spooky spaghetti and pumpkin juice turned out, but my blog is telling me that those files are too big. Not sure how to make them smaller, but trust me, they were awesome!

Ok, well……I figured it out.
How fun is that??? I drew faces on the cups and made “Pumpkin Juice” out of orange juice, orange pineapple, and sprite. I added a few drops of red and yellow food color to darken it up and the kids loved it! I tinted the alfredo with black food color paste and even though it tasted as good as it always does, the color threw everyone off and dare I say even gave Jon a bit of a stomach ache! LOL!! I love it! The meatballs were a hit as well. Dan loved calling them monster meatball brains and at the end of the night, all but three were gone! The breadsticks with almond sliver nails and bloody marks…tasty!! Brenna joked around and said, “Yummm, I always knew chewing on my nails tasted good!”

All in all, it was a fun night and I enjoyed making a spooky, not so scary dinner for my family. I think next year will be even more frightening…we might actually carve a pumpkin!! Muuuuaahahahahaha!!

I am not sure when the blogging bug will hit again. Maybe tomorrow, mabye next week.

Right now my heart and my mind are focused on the people I love who’s lives I am in constant prayer for. I pray for complete healing for my Dad, who got the word today that his cancer isn’t in remission, but new spots have reared their ugly head. I pray for Matt and Debbi who will be going on the rollercoaster ride of their life when the cancer treatment for him begins. I pray for Valerie who is still fighting for her life with Cystic Fibrosis and the battle that rages on in her lungs that her body is rejecting. I pray for Laura who is awaiting the arthritis confirmation her doctors believe she has. Only God knows what he has planned for each of them, and I trust that He does. I also ask God to help me through each of these relationships, that I can be there to meet their needs what ever they may be and that I remain strong in Him because when I am at my weakest God is at his strongest and will provide me with all things, big or small.

In the mean time, I will be keeping busy with life in general. Keep checking back- you never know when I’ll be moved to write something…and hopefully it’ll be worth reading!

Not me! I scour store after store for something quirky like say super cute striped Halloween hand towels with black ball fringe and happy spiders paired a coordinating black and orange polka dot towel. Then I would take said towels and continue to look for a creative way to give them, like maybe  in a clear glass pumpkin shaped jar with lid and 3 small bags of candy. That really wouldn’t be cute enough on it’s own because hello!, I am creative. (Sometimes it’s a curse really.) So off to the house with  my new purchases to create a masterpiece!! After much trial and error, I decide to incorporate the three components together. I took the black and orange polka dot towel and lined the inside of the pumpkin jar,  then I mixed Hershey miniatures, caramel apple, and candy corn kisses together and poured them inside. I folded the spider towel to fit over the candy but under the lid, so just a peek of the spiders shows through the jar.
A normal person would stop there, but not me! I would rifle through all my scrapbook stuff (p.s. most creative people are kind of unorganized) looking for that cute Halloween paper I bought before my favorite scrapbook store went out of business. While I was at, why not use glitter glue and some ribbon?! Um, yeah. I ended up with a cute little tag with cream and large black polka dots with a black ribbon trim on the bottom and black and copper glitter stickles saying something like, “No trick Just treats”. It ended up on the top of the lid with an orange ribbon. Whew!! And then I made dinner. Ok, well I heated up dinner, but I fed my family and that is what is most important, right?

So how did this gift go over with the gals at KENO?

Let’s just say it was stolen a couple of times and oohed and ahhed over when it was revealed. I felt so proud. And tired. You know,  from all the crafty creativeness. I didn’t even get a picture of it. I did however save myself some caramel apple kisses because have you tried those? They really are very yummy, almost too yummy as they could get a girl in trouble if she eats the whole bag.

Today is not only Michael Jon’s 6th birthday, but his obsessively creative mother would like to make his day special. Usually we do gift opening at home and to green the kids after school, Mom decorates the dining table with a table cloth, balloons, a cake, and plates with napkins.

I’ve been known to use boxes of candy as balloon weights! Awesome idea right?? I know- and cheap too! And speaking of cheap; most of the creative people I know don’t have a lot of money, so we have to find ways to satisfy our need to make things awesomely cute and balance out the price point. I don’t always find what I want, but most of the time I do pretty well. My kiddos love that I do this for them.  I love it too.

Because today is also Wednesday and we have church activities, we are moving the house party and decorations to where we’ll be. I plan on going to the church before I pick up the boys from school and decorate one table. I’ll pick up some balloons and ice cream cups to share with friends. We will open presents at home though and I foresee Michael not wanting to go to his classes because he’ll want to play with his new presents!

As if that wasn’t enough (are you still here? Well if you hung on this long, I’m almost done) I am going to the bank, Target, Party City, Sam’s club, dollar tree, and figure out something to have for dinner that’s portable and cheap. I just love a challenge!!