Christian's Santa Letter

The following is a letter to Santa Claus that Christian wrote in class last week.

Dear Santa

I want a 1. XBOX 360, 2. one thousand dollars, 3. all the games in the world, 4. a cool looking sled, 5. and a big pen. Ps. about number three of all the games in the world I don't want the girly games.

Love Christian Yoder


Well, there it is. I have been bugging Christian for things that he wants for Christmas and I finally have it. Will he get all that he asked for? Definitely not! Maybe I can handle the big pen request.

Happy Birthday Denise!

Denise's Birthday Cake!! Today is one of my best friend's birthday, Denise Vancena. Several years ago, we started a birthday club. We would take each other out on our birthdays. This is the first year in a long time that I have not gotten together with the girls to go out. Here are some pictures of last year's birthday outing with Denise. First we surprised Denise when we showed up at her house in a rented Hummer. We went to Benihanas for dinner than headed downstairs to the Karoake bar for some singing and dancing. I think we all had a blast and it was fun to just let down our hair and go crazy (in front of total strangers!).

My Christmas Decorations

I am finally done with my Christmas decorations. The tree is up and decorated, the train is up and running, and my two villages are completed and displayed. The North Pole village was easy to put up with snow blankets and little sprinkles of snow on top but my Dickens village takes a lot more work. I had to find a way to squeeze 16 building plus accessories into one long skinny countertop. I did this by creating a bi level town with styrofoam, moss, paper, hot glue, and lots of VHS tapes (Can anyone guess where the tapes are at?). But I am very happy to be done with it and it turned out wonderful. I love to sit with the village lights all on, my tree lights on and a fire burning in the fireplace. It is such a wonderful time of the year and those are the times when it is so very peaceful (especially when Christian is in bed and Jackson is in his crate for the night). Now the toughest part of the holidays are upon us and that is keeping Jackson from getting in to all the stuff. He has had a field day with a few of my deers already, has had fights with the animated Mrs. Claus and the caroling kittens, and has had a run in with the train. Having a little puppy around at christmas time is hard work!!!!

Halloween 2008

SPOOKY!!!!!!!!
Do I hear someone calling for help? I must fly to their rescue!

OOOH! The Grim Reaper is here to get me. Watch out!

What did you do to me?

Well, I see that a lot of people have posted their halloween pictures up already. Here is mine. I thought Jackson's costume was adorable. Everyone in our neighborhood loved him. Steve took him out with Christian trick or treating and he was the center of attention. Poor Christian!! Nobody could see his face but he did get lots of comments on how scary he was. Some even gave him extra candy for being soooo scary! I, for the first time in 5 years, was able to stay home and pass out candy. It was great! "One for you, and one for me" was what I found myself saying all night to the kids that came by. I think I ended up eating half of the candy myself!!

Our First Fire

Well it has finally gotten cool enough, in Steve's opinion anyways, to start our first fire. Steve was so excited to start a fire. While I was out of town last weekend, he went online and researched what type of firewood to buy, bought his rack to hold the wood, and bought a rick of wood from some guy on Craigslist. So, all evening we enjoyed the ambience of a nice wood burning fire. It really did smell nice but it got a little warm in the house.

Wonderworks

We went together as a family to the Children's Musuem in Pigeon Forge. It is a really neat place called Wonderworks. Christian and I went with Denise, Julie, and Denise's mom when they came up to visit and we had a really fun time. So, when we asked Christian what he wanted to go do that day, he decided that it would be fun to go back. My favorite activity was the rock climbing, the huge simon says game (which I ended up beating the highest score that day), and the roller coaster simulator. Steve's favorite was playing on the astronaut's simulator. Christian's favorite activity was the huge bubble lab area. He spent most of his time in there and we could not get him to go do or see anything else after this (luckily this was one of the last attractions of the day). I admit it was quite fun blowing the big bubbles, but how much can you take. So, here are some pictures of us there. If anyone ever comes up to visit us or are near this area, this place is definitely worth the time.

Sweetwater Dairy Farm

I just wanted to share some pictures of our field trip to Sweetwater Dairy Farm. It started out with a 45 minute bumpy bus ride to the farm (by the end of the trip I was a bit nausiated) then when we got there we went to the gift shop to watch a short video about the dairy farm. Afterwards, we got to sample some different flavored cheeses. They had all kinds from your basic mild cheddar to the extreme fajita, salsa, etc. flavors. Afterwards, the we waited our turn for the actual tour of the dairy farm. On the tour, we saw some cows, and then some more cows, and then some more cows. We also saw the milking process. The cows just stood in line and they would wait their turn to be milked by these machines. It was quite interested to see them come right up and get in position to be milked. I pictured them like us waiting in line at an amusement park ride and waiting our turn to get on. "Ooh, almost there. Pretty soon, I'm going to be milked. I can't wait. I've been waiting in this line forever. What's taking so long? There are just too many cows today. Why did I choose today to come get milked?" Just some of the thoughts running through my mind as I lazily watched the cows get milked. Anyways, something interesting I wanted to mention. While we were there, there was a guy from the Southern Living magazine taking photographs of the place and decided to take pictures of our kids. So, we might be pictured in the magazine that is supposed to come out in the spring. But until then, here are my pictures of the field trip. Of course, notice all the lovely pictures of my son not smiling. What a brat!
This is a picture of a mom cow and her new calf, just born hours before. I wonder if their milking area hang lower after each birth?

The milking area. Farming has gone high tech!

Mother of the Year

Okay, so nobody laugh, but I am now a PTA mom. Anyways, you would think that I was trying for mother of the year this past week. Well, the PTA was throwing a teacher's luncheon. So, of course I signed up to bring stuff, 4 lbs of sloppy joes, 2 dozen buns, and a dessert. On the very same day, Christian class was going on a field trip and I signed up to go as a chaperone. I also signed up for that evening to go with our church to the Ronald Mcdonald House to do some service work. This is after working a full shift the night before and the night after. Was I crazy or what? Well, I spent a couple of hours before working making homemade sloppy joes and then the next morning after I got off I went to the school, dropped off the food, and then joined the 3rd graders on the bus for a 45 minute drive to Sweetwater Dairy Farm. We were there until about 1 and then headed back to the school. Afterwards, we went home early and then it was time for homework. By this time I was very, very tired and have been up for over 24 hours. So needless to say, I decided not to go to the Ronald Mcdonald House and stay home and sleep. I guess in the end I did not earn my mother of the year award. Oh well, maybe next year.

Yearbook Pictures

Here are my yearbook pictures through the years. It is quite funny. Don't miss out. It might be your only chance on seeing an asian in an afro hairdo. I am kind of glad to say that after reviewing the different looks, I don't think that I look good as a thin person. They just look kind of funny to me. What do you guys think?