I don't get all this hype about all these HD t.v.'s right now.
Isaak finally bought one, finally, after talking about it for forever, he finally got one.
All I've heard is that it's going to be sooo nice, the picture is soooo amazing, you won't believe the difference!
Well, I've seen the difference, and I ain't impressed!
Ever since this big, slightly thinner HD version of a t.v. entered my home this week, all I've noticed is that the picture quality is, well, worse...and it's starting to erk me just a bit!
Every movie I try to watch looks stretched out, blurry, and pixelated to the point that the people's skin doesn't even look real.
I don't care that the movie I'm watching isn't in HD like the t.v, and that's why it looks bad, okay?!....
all I know is that my movies looked just fine and dandy on the old t.v.
Who are these people that get to rule on whether a t.v. is outdated, I mean who are "they", to tell me my t.v. is old?!
And it wasn't even old, it was just thicker!
Thick t.v.'s are still good t.v.'s.
Just because they aren't all super slim like these new show off t.v.'s doesn't mean they aren't good quality.
I liked our old t.v.
Now I'm stuck with mister slim pants that's all new and high def.
My Mamma Mia movie does not look the same!
I miss my non-old fat t.v.
Come on in...
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Organizing itch
Every year after Christmas I get an urge to organize because the house has been somewhat in shambles since Christmas morning. Isaak is always off from work so things are more untidy than usual, due to lack of normal schedule and our "Christmas vacation minded mentality." So putting Christmas away helps remove a lot of the extra clutter, physically and mentally.
So, today we packed up all of our Christmas decorations. Normally we wait until after New Years, but I was ready to see all the holiday stuff gone and put my house back together in its "pre-Christmas" way.
However, whenever I put my decorations away I have this thing where I feel like I'm looking at my house through fresh eyes. Even though its only been three weeks, my house looks bare, and new, with all the decor gone, and I like to do stuff. I'm struck with an urge to rearrange and organize. But, rearranging never ends well no matter how many years after Christmas I try to do it. We live in base housing, small base housing, and our furniture only fits, well, one way. So no matter how hard I try to stuff my couch and entertainment center onto different walls, they always end up right back where they started.
SO, that leaves me with organizing. And tonight, since Isaak is gone, across town, watching a football game...I had an unshakable urge to organize...his electronics. Apart from not being able to rearrange furniture there is only so much that I can organize that hasn't been organized already...with the exception, of his electronics. He got a new tv, and an xbox 360, and things weren't looking so tidy....cords spider webbing up the walls, games and controllers all over the place, ugh, it was a mess. I had no choice, I had to fix it. I mean, when you get an unshakable urge to organize ya just can't fight it! Ya can't fight it I say!
He shouldn't have left me alone the day we took our Christmas decorations down....I can't be held responsible for what I might do....something was going to happen! Something was going to get moved, or organized!
And it totally looks better this way. ; ) I'm betting he won't even notice...
(until, of course, he reads my blog.)
So, today we packed up all of our Christmas decorations. Normally we wait until after New Years, but I was ready to see all the holiday stuff gone and put my house back together in its "pre-Christmas" way.
However, whenever I put my decorations away I have this thing where I feel like I'm looking at my house through fresh eyes. Even though its only been three weeks, my house looks bare, and new, with all the decor gone, and I like to do stuff. I'm struck with an urge to rearrange and organize. But, rearranging never ends well no matter how many years after Christmas I try to do it. We live in base housing, small base housing, and our furniture only fits, well, one way. So no matter how hard I try to stuff my couch and entertainment center onto different walls, they always end up right back where they started.
SO, that leaves me with organizing. And tonight, since Isaak is gone, across town, watching a football game...I had an unshakable urge to organize...his electronics. Apart from not being able to rearrange furniture there is only so much that I can organize that hasn't been organized already...with the exception, of his electronics. He got a new tv, and an xbox 360, and things weren't looking so tidy....cords spider webbing up the walls, games and controllers all over the place, ugh, it was a mess. I had no choice, I had to fix it. I mean, when you get an unshakable urge to organize ya just can't fight it! Ya can't fight it I say!
He shouldn't have left me alone the day we took our Christmas decorations down....I can't be held responsible for what I might do....something was going to happen! Something was going to get moved, or organized!
And it totally looks better this way. ; ) I'm betting he won't even notice...
(until, of course, he reads my blog.)
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Oh joyous day.
wrapping all the gifts...
stowing them under the tree, where they awaited two little girls...
to unwrap them with great delight...
our hearts were full of gratefulness...
and love...
on this blessed Christmas day...
Happy birthday Jesus. We love You.
Christmas Eve into Christmas Day
We were hit with our second blizzard of the season the morning of Christmas Eve. By 10am the snow was falling down by heaps and bounds out of the sky, and at times the snowflakes were so big you could almost see their design from inside the house. It was truly beautiful. By the afternoon the wind picked up to around 35mph and it was hard to tell if it was still snowing, or if the deafening wind was hurtling around what already lay on the ground. Churches all over the city were canceling their Christmas Eve services, because the later in the day it got, the worse the weather became. However, our church, Brookside, was moving forward as planned, and despite the blizzard outside, our family would be there as planned.
Sydaleigh insisted upon wearing her most beautiful Christmas dress, even though I told her she could wear pants it was so cold. But, my daughter would not have it. It was Christmas Eve, and she was going to wear her dress. At times I think she would have been well suited to have been born in the 17 or 1800's, where dresses were all that woman wore...she would have liked that very much.
We made it to church unscathed and enjoyed a wonderful hour worshiping our King. The girls were scwormy, but loved sitting in the "big church" with mommy and daddy. The weather was even worse after church ended, which I didn't think was possible. And as we drove home listening to Christmas carols, I was silently brought to tears thinking of all the men, women, and children in my city who had to sleep in this tonight. I offered up a prayer that they would be found and given shelter from the storm. I hope they were.
After returning home safely, we settled down at the table for supper and let the girls open their Christmas Eve present, which is a new movie every year. This year they got the Veggie Tales Jonah Movie, one of the only ones we didn't have yet. Then we all sat around the Christmas tree and sang songs, and once the girls were in bed me and Isaak settled down in the living room for our Christmas Eve tradition of wrapping gifts and watching a Christmas movie, this year it was Love Actually.
The day before Christmas Eve The Nativity Story was on one of the cable channels so I watched that up in bed, having never seen it before. I'm always hesitant to watch low budget movies with no known actors in them, and I'm especially hesitant to watch movies of Christ's birth because they always consist of some American accented blond haired, blue eye guy and gal portraying every character in the story. So unrealistic. However, The Nativity Story was special. There wasn't a single blond haired blue eyed guy or gal in the whole flick. I loved it. And not just for that reason. :) It was beautifully made, and next year that is what I will be watching on Christmas Eve.
The following morning we actually got to sleep in till darn near 7:30am and were surprised to see snow drifts in our backyard nearly touching our windows. The weather didn't let up at all overnight. We all gathered downstairs and got to eat our own special cereal for Christmas morning. I bought the girls Kix, because lets face it, at $4 a pop for a 12oz. box of cereal, I'm only buying that once a year. :)
Four years old is definitely THE year for Christmas. It only took us 25 minutes to open up gifts because Sydaleigh, at four years old (one week away makes her 4), helped everyone. She tore that paper off in a fierce way! It was awesome, the excitement radiating from her just spilled over to Marvelly and me and Isaak just sat back and let the two of them go to town.
The gifts for Sydaleigh this year consisted only of Princess Polly Pockets. She has been wanting those for well over a year, but we made her wait until Christmas, and she'll get a few more on her birthday...but it was well worth the wait for her. And Marvelly was most overjoyed in receiving this cool homemade puppet from Aunt Abby. This thing brought her to ecstatic giggles every time I would pop it out of it's cone. Isaak got miscellaneous things ranging from a new sweater to a much needed wedding band. And I was graced with such goodies as a new study Bible to the movie Strictly Ballroom, which I've been wanting for forever. :)
Me and Isaak both pitched in to make Christmas dinner, with Isaak making the ham and me doing everything else. I love that I have a husband who knows his way around a kitchen, so that I don't have to cook big honkin' slabs of meat. :) And then after dinner we all decorated Jesus' birthday cake, in the shape of a star, as Isaak retold the story of Jesus' birth and the star in the sky that led so many to Him.
Pure delightfullness.
It was a fantastic Christmas, and I pray that our King, whom we celebrate at Christmas was glorified in our home. After all, He is the only reason for the season.
Sydaleigh insisted upon wearing her most beautiful Christmas dress, even though I told her she could wear pants it was so cold. But, my daughter would not have it. It was Christmas Eve, and she was going to wear her dress. At times I think she would have been well suited to have been born in the 17 or 1800's, where dresses were all that woman wore...she would have liked that very much.
We made it to church unscathed and enjoyed a wonderful hour worshiping our King. The girls were scwormy, but loved sitting in the "big church" with mommy and daddy. The weather was even worse after church ended, which I didn't think was possible. And as we drove home listening to Christmas carols, I was silently brought to tears thinking of all the men, women, and children in my city who had to sleep in this tonight. I offered up a prayer that they would be found and given shelter from the storm. I hope they were.
After returning home safely, we settled down at the table for supper and let the girls open their Christmas Eve present, which is a new movie every year. This year they got the Veggie Tales Jonah Movie, one of the only ones we didn't have yet. Then we all sat around the Christmas tree and sang songs, and once the girls were in bed me and Isaak settled down in the living room for our Christmas Eve tradition of wrapping gifts and watching a Christmas movie, this year it was Love Actually.
The day before Christmas Eve The Nativity Story was on one of the cable channels so I watched that up in bed, having never seen it before. I'm always hesitant to watch low budget movies with no known actors in them, and I'm especially hesitant to watch movies of Christ's birth because they always consist of some American accented blond haired, blue eye guy and gal portraying every character in the story. So unrealistic. However, The Nativity Story was special. There wasn't a single blond haired blue eyed guy or gal in the whole flick. I loved it. And not just for that reason. :) It was beautifully made, and next year that is what I will be watching on Christmas Eve.
The following morning we actually got to sleep in till darn near 7:30am and were surprised to see snow drifts in our backyard nearly touching our windows. The weather didn't let up at all overnight. We all gathered downstairs and got to eat our own special cereal for Christmas morning. I bought the girls Kix, because lets face it, at $4 a pop for a 12oz. box of cereal, I'm only buying that once a year. :)
Four years old is definitely THE year for Christmas. It only took us 25 minutes to open up gifts because Sydaleigh, at four years old (one week away makes her 4), helped everyone. She tore that paper off in a fierce way! It was awesome, the excitement radiating from her just spilled over to Marvelly and me and Isaak just sat back and let the two of them go to town.
The gifts for Sydaleigh this year consisted only of Princess Polly Pockets. She has been wanting those for well over a year, but we made her wait until Christmas, and she'll get a few more on her birthday...but it was well worth the wait for her. And Marvelly was most overjoyed in receiving this cool homemade puppet from Aunt Abby. This thing brought her to ecstatic giggles every time I would pop it out of it's cone. Isaak got miscellaneous things ranging from a new sweater to a much needed wedding band. And I was graced with such goodies as a new study Bible to the movie Strictly Ballroom, which I've been wanting for forever. :)
Me and Isaak both pitched in to make Christmas dinner, with Isaak making the ham and me doing everything else. I love that I have a husband who knows his way around a kitchen, so that I don't have to cook big honkin' slabs of meat. :) And then after dinner we all decorated Jesus' birthday cake, in the shape of a star, as Isaak retold the story of Jesus' birth and the star in the sky that led so many to Him.
Pure delightfullness.
It was a fantastic Christmas, and I pray that our King, whom we celebrate at Christmas was glorified in our home. After all, He is the only reason for the season.
word of the day
Tribow (tree-bowe)
v. 1-to sing louder than Junior
(Sydaleigh has this thing where she likes to make up words and give them meanings, and this is what she came up with today. )
v. 1-to sing louder than Junior
(Sydaleigh has this thing where she likes to make up words and give them meanings, and this is what she came up with today. )
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Leading up to Christmas
This past week and a half leading up to Christmas has been very busy around here....
busy with decorating,
shopping,
wrapping,
our adoption intake interview the day after an ice storm,
playing in the snow,
parties (church, birthday and Christmas),
lots of hot chocolate with friends,
baking,
more shopping,
more baking...
the list goes on.
We are also very full this Christmas season.
Full of blessings,
thankfulness,
love,
appreciation,
family,
friends,
laughter,
the list goes on.
Thank you Lord for the busyness, and thank you Lord for the fullness.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The last week and a half in review in pictures....
braving the cold and the snow
continued lessons in baking, aka, mess making :)
jolly fun with friends
decorating the tree
party hopping...birthday
church,
and kid's Christmas
busy with decorating,
shopping,
wrapping,
our adoption intake interview the day after an ice storm,
playing in the snow,
parties (church, birthday and Christmas),
lots of hot chocolate with friends,
baking,
more shopping,
more baking...
the list goes on.
We are also very full this Christmas season.
Full of blessings,
thankfulness,
love,
appreciation,
family,
friends,
laughter,
the list goes on.
Thank you Lord for the busyness, and thank you Lord for the fullness.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The last week and a half in review in pictures....
braving the cold and the snow
continued lessons in baking, aka, mess making :)
jolly fun with friends
decorating the tree
party hopping...birthday
church,
and kid's Christmas
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Disney in December! Magic Kingdom...
DISNEY WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh my gosh, just looking back on our pictures to write this post I am filled with a giddy sense of childhood delight...
truly, what is better than Disney world?
Not many things in my opinion.
The music, the dancing, the fairy tale world of princesses and dreams come true is absolutely intoxicating.
It makes you come alive. People grin from ear to ear. You can't stop smiling.
You want to sing. You have a little extra dance in your step.
Everything is beautiful. Nothing in this make believe world is overlooked. From the smallest obscurities to the spectacular extremes, everything is thoughtfully tended to.
And it is this devoted attention to detail that makes this a magical place.
Cinderealla's castle was our first stop.
isn't it grand?!
one day before I die I'm going to sleep in there! (they opened a suite inside that is booked years in advance I'm sure and costs an arm and a leg, but one day I will stay in her castle! with my girls of course, and Aunt Lisa, it wouldn't be complete without Aunt Lisa.)
as soon as we got to the park we went to the castle and the 11pm show was about to start, so we scored a spot near the very front and watched in awe as all the characters and then princesses began to show up.
(I am totally going to be one of those dancers someday! I seriously dream about being able to dance and sing next to Mickey and Minnie on stage at Disney World. Someday. I mean, I can totally work a dance floor, breaking it down and busting out all kinds of spasmic moves, but I don't think they want that "Melissa kind of dancing". So, after I take some lessons and learn to dance for real and get really good and can move back there, I am for real gonna be on that stage, or in a parade on stilts, either one is fine.)
Sydaleigh was so amazed and completely and indescribably in awe when the princesses came out I think she stopped breathing. They are 100% REAL to her. I didn't fully understand how real they were to her until this moment. And then again when Maleficent appeared and scared her silly.
she crouched down into my lap and kept asking me if Maleficent was going to hurt the castle or Aurora. I reassured her she was not going to hurt anyone, and then all the characters made her go far far away by saying "wishes come true, wishes come true".
After that we stayed clear of the villains, I didn't want to traumatize the poor girl.
Marvelly on the other hand thought it was all amazing and laugh worthy. She clapped and "wow'd" for everything.
We rode the tea cups, and Isaak made sure that there was absolutely no spinning, that man does not do good with fast motion.
we visited Minnie's house
and then we went to meet the princesses.
The line was long but the wait was worth it.
Sydaleigh was so nervous and excited she could hardly crack a smile.
Isaak on the other hand...well...was smiling from ear to ear. I told you...Disney brings out that childhood goofiness in us all.
We took a break in the afternoon, went back to the condo for a quick rest and then returned as fast as we could to meet up with Aunt Lisa to watch the Mickey and Minnie Christmas Show at Cinderella's castle again. We had to squeeze our way through more people than I've ever seen clustered together in my entire life. But we made it to the front.
Disney in December is truly spectacular.
Syd was a little bit fearful that Maleficent would return so she perched herself on Isaak's lap, and Marvelly on mine (when I could keep her there.) :)
Then, we squeezed our way back through the swarms of people to get to a spot where we could eat some Mickey ice cream while we watched the parade,
and then we forced ourselves yet again through the swarms of people to get to "Lisa's spot" where we could watch the fireworks show.
This trip was filled with a lot of "squeezing" in and out of swarms of people.
The fireworks show was spectacular. Nobody can do fireworks like Disney. So rather than posting a picture I am leaving you with a 3 minute video clip of the finale. Feel free to sing along....
"star light, star bright, first star I see tonight...I wish I may, I wish I might....
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