Happy Christmas is OVER!

All of our decorations are put away and there are almost no traces of Christmas left at our house and I could not be happier! To say that I am not a fan of the holiday would be a complete understatement, because I HATE IT! At dinner tonight I told my family that we are no longer celebrating until one of them can give me a good reason as to why we should. They of course tried the "Jesus' Birthday" thing, but as it is NOT remotely the time of year in which he was born that does not fly with me, especially since they are not REALLY willing to go with that and ditch Santa/gifts. Next they pulled out the "family card", but that one crashed pretty quickly too since I have convinced them all that having to use our vacation time & money to go visit family at their homes in not fun:) They now agree that holidays, if spent with family, should be at a "neutral" location with a beach:) Hint: family, we are saving money for a Christmas Beach Trip next year, you should start saving too because we would love to have you with us:)

With all of that said, I am not willing to end the monsters winter break, that I am LOVING! I would be happy to keep them and the husband home all the time, especially with the weather warming so that we can go out and play. Tomorrow we will play with friends and maybe we will get downtown later in the week! Friday they say the temps will be in the mid 50's!!!! I cannot wait!

Maybe there is something I am missing about Christmas and if so I will hopefully figure it out soon. If not, I will be looking for a way to put an "Emily" Twist on this Christmas thing:)

A New Year is Coming and I Want to Jump In!

I feel a bit like the last year, maybe year and a half have been filled with incredible growth for me. Spiritual growth, relationship growth, educational growth all of which have been positive for me and the people in my life. The thing is that I am now seeing the glaringly lack of growth, maybe even regression in other areas. That said, I have spent sometime really thinking about my "New Year's Resolution" this year. What I have come up with are a few ideas; some that I know I will be able to resolve, a few that will be more difficult, but still manageable and 1 or 2 tough goals that may take more than a year to resolve, they may take a lifetime, but if I never throw them out there I will never try. And really, what fun is failing if you have done so by never trying:)

For my attainable goals I am committing to exercise regularly and parent differently. I would like to make exercise a daily activity. It could be in the form of walking on the treadmill, playing with the kids or a family outing, just something to get me moving. On the parenting front, I would like to yell less and listen more.

My next, and slightly more difficult goals, are to change my family's eating habits and manage my time more efficiently. In January I plan to see a nutritionist to consult on how to change what we have in our house into the healthiest choices that we can live with:) Time management has been on my list of "life changes" and "resolutions" for what seems to be my entire adult life. I think my entire life would Ying&Yang better with some management. Here's to hoping I can do it because getting that down will help with my next goal which is to finish my Masters.

In my "tough to do" area I would like to learn to live in the moment and enjoy life. Don't misunderstand, I think I have a pretty good life and I am happy, but I do let things that I have NO control over consume me and take away from what matters like my husband and monsters, my relatives and friends and myself. So, no matter how many times I fall-off the wagon, I am going to keeping getting up and reminding myself what really matters and focus on that.

I know I will be able to make some of these changes and I know they will improve my life, but boy it would be great to knock them all out in the first quarter and NEVER fall-off the wagon:) Wish me luck, I am gonna need it!

I am becoming one of them!!!!

With the addition of Pepe to our family 3 weeks ago, I have moved into "Crazy Dog Lady" category. You see, we have had Gus, our Newfie and the worlds BEST DOG for about 5 years now. He is BIG about 130lbs and taller than me when he stands. That said, there is only so much dressing up and taking out I can do with Gus. Well, that has changed with Pepe. He is all of about 5 lbs and will top out around 14lbs, so him I can dress-up:)

Now let me be clear, Pepe was a birthday gift for my sweet Killi, but I am home with him all day and the monsters are having alittle trouble switching from GIANT NEWF to tiny havanese. So, of course I have had to make it my duty to be Pepe's protector and master, just until he gets more comfortable around here, then I will certainly turn him back over to Killi;-)

Anyway, Pepe is not thick coated like Gus and therefore needs a sweater or jacket to go out in the cold. He has a few sweaters/shirts he got as gifts and I of course could not resist buying a few more. But, not wanting to leave Gussy out, I found these matches for them:





I know,I a crazy and my pups look insane, but I am having fun dressing them up and they are being VERY good sports about letting me:)

Donovan McNabb

In the interest of full disclosure I will admit that I am not a fan of Mike Shanahan, but WTF is going on with the Redskins??? Not only has Shanahan decided to bench McNabb for the remainder of the season, he has place him as the 3rd/emergency QB for Sunday's Game. Seriously? If you are going to bench this guy why in God's name did you trade for him? I know the argument was often made in Philly that McNabb couldn't close the deal, but he was a consistent and serviceable; then all of the sudden he comes to DC (and a Redskins team that BITES!!!) and he gets benched? It could not possibly be the complete lack of an offensive line that has made him look awful this season. I mean I watched Jason Campbell play in OAK a few times this season and he looked almost decent. Maybe it's not the QB, but the line and/or the coach.

It's good. Daniel Snyder gets smacked in the face AGAIN! Draft picks for a benched QB and millions of dollars blown on Albert Haynesworth, another GREAT SEASON with Daniel Snyder running the show. This guy makes Jerry Jones look like he knows what he is doing!

I cannot wait to watch this weeks game to see the GREAT Rex Grossman show his QB skills. I am not a Redskins fan, but for the past 15 years they have been my home-town-team and while I root against them, I do follow what's going on and since Daniel Snyder bought this Team he has made them a complete laughing stock and this season has been no different.

So, Good Luck behind the WORST OFFENSIVE LINE IN THE NFL Rex Grossman and Daniel Snyder and Mike Shanahan, I wish the two of you could get a few plays behind that line:)

Snow Day!!!!!

The monsters were off from school today as the threat of snow loomed this morning, not a flake had hit the ground at the time:) The snow did start falling not long after the call was made; and then it continued ALL DAY. The kids played outside for awhile, Gus played outside for awhile and Pepe and I baked and cooked. It was a good day.

School is already closed for tomorrow. The neighborhood roads are icy and it is cold so I guess the powers-that-be decided not to wait it out until morning to pull the plug. I can work with that. I am happy to know that I do not need to set my alarm tonight, I can sleep in!

Maybe there will be more snow on Sunday, the weather forecasters cannot commit yet. So, maybe the kids will get back to school before Winter Break, maybe not. I am just hoping that this 3-4 inches of snow we got today is all we will get this year and we do not have to relive our blizzards of last year. I can do 3-4 inches a few times a winter, but I NEVER want to see snow-falls that need to be measured in FEET AGAIN!!!

With our unexpected snow day I baked lots and lots of cookies. It kept me busy and gave the kids an activity when they were not out playing:) And best of all, we have dessert now:)

Below is our Christmas Picture for 2010-



Happy Holidays to All My Blog Friends!

Class Warfare.

I really would like to blog. I have so much on my mind, but I am tired and bitchy and as such I know I should just take some midol & slip into dreamland. So, let me pick just one or two quick thoughts to get out of my head.

The Estate Tax. Class Warfare, I know. Class Warfare against the wealthy. Understand that the likely-hood that I will EVER be in a position that the estate tax will effect me is slim, but I think it is INSANE! How in the world do people think that it is fair that the people with estates over $3.5 million should have to give the United States government 55% of that wealth? Those people have paid taxes on that land, money, business, investment(estate) while they were living, at a rate higher than the majority of us pay, then again in their death the US government(democrats in Congress) feel they deserve more than half of that estate. CRAZY!!!! A 55% TAX RATE???? Which in actuality turns out to be more like 60+% of their estate since they had already paid taxes on it all. I just don't get it.

Overall I am just sick of hearing about "class warfare" and the double standard of that term. It is always "class warfare" when wealthy Americans don't want to pay more in taxes, why is it not "class warfare" when poorer Americans receive an earned-income-tax-credit? It is NOT class warfare, it is capitalism and the American Dream is out there for everyone who wants to try for it. How about people stop crying about all the things the wealthy get and stop looking for a handout. Make your dream! Live It!