four play

I came across this meme over at Terri's, and for lack of anything better to do, I did it.

The rules are as follows:

- Go to the folder in which you keep your digital photos.
- Choose the fourth folder.
- Find the fourth picture in that folder.
- Explain.
- Tag four people.

Unlike Terri, I followed the rules and this is the picture I found.

It's Chaco trying out his "new" bicycle which, at the time, was actually my old bicycle. Yes, the poor boy got a hand-me-down bicycle from his MOTHER!

This was nearly 4 years ago. Meego had officially outgrown the child seat that had adorned my bicycle and was heading off to kindergarten *sniff*. To celebrate.... er.... compensate for my loss, I purchased a spanking new Gary Fisher bicycle for myself, now affectionately known as "Bella".

Chaco inherited the minivan of a bicycle shown above. He was happy with it. Note that I had at least removed the toddler seat, lest Chaco be totally scarred for life.

But really, it was a good bike and suited his needs well at the time. He and that old Raleigh logged many a mile before the front shocks totally blew up one day. We purchased a new and mucho macho bicycle for Chaco last spring, and the old mom bike was donated to the bike store to be reworked and reborn as some other needy teen's bicycle.

That's today's meme. Go tag yourself.
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weekend update

We braved the mall on Saturday. It wasn't that bad, really. The kids had Christmas money burning holes in their pockets and it would've been worse around here had we NOT gone shopping, know what I mean?

Sunday was a beautiful day here weather-wise. Such a treat for this time of year. I was out running in it for a while and sort of got lost in the whole whoopee-do-it's-such-a-nice-day until I thought the family might wonder where I was, so I stopped running and went home.

Later, Magnum, Meego, the dog and I walked over to the nearby park that is home to the BMX track. Meego bought himself a new RC car on Saturday and was eager to test it out on the whoomps of the track.

See, while the track was built and maintained for BMX, it has become a popular hangout for the RC car crowd. And I don't mean little kids like Meego, I mean grown men with their expensive gas-powered toys (really, they are still TOYS if you ask me), often with their female groupies in tow.

Our kids use the track for both bicycle fun and RC fun, but we remind them that the bikes have the right of way. Others don't always see it that way, and small turf wars can start between the bikers and the RCer's, but they usually coexist quite cordially. Sunday's crowd was pretty low-key. Mostly younger kids trying out new Christmas bikes. Meego drove until the batteries gave out.

In the meantime, Chaco and Wolfgang had gone to a friend's house. They arrived home several hours later with worn out voices. There must've been much loud racousness as they both sounded a bit like Oompah Loompah's.

"Thanks for sharing!" the friend's mom said as she dropped them off back home.

No problem. Thanks for taking the hit.
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Silver Lining Saturday part XIX

Quick! What's the Roman Numeral for "50"?! Just thinking ahead here...

Another week down, and another week of good things.

First of all, it was Christmas here, yes, that's the one we celebrate. As I mentioned, it was relatively low-key here with us not travelling anywhere, and no visitors coming this way. It was a good day, and the kids like and appreciate their gifts. Now if they'd just all go back to school so I can play with their stuff!

The weather's been nice here too, making it easy to get out and about for those last minute shopping excursions and just to stave off the cabin fever. It's been cold, but not much new snow and ice to slip and slide around on, and I also appreciate that when I go outside to run.

For those days that are wintry, I'm thankful for our all-wheel drive Subaru. It's an animal!

And I'm thankful for the time off to get caught up on work stuff and around-the-house stuff. Also the family-time stuff. We played "LIFE", the board game, the other night. I ended up a teacher living in a trailer. I had a man, but no kids. That's LIFE.

Now I'm looking forward to the New Year. It's going to be a good one, I KNOW it!
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and then I don't feel so bad

Well, we survived Christmas. It was just the 5 of us this year. No dysfunctional in-laws, and I can't say that I am disappointed about that.

And it was nice. I think the kids liked all of the gifts they got, and there was no overload. The weather was nice, and I got out for a Christmas day run before making the Christmas ham. The microwave seems to have bounced back to it's normal self. Don't know what was going on with it the other day. It probably had a major leak that has since sealed back up. We'll see if the day of leakage made any or all of the kids sterile. Or maybe I'm just paranoid about these things, having flashbacks to my own mother shouting, "DON'T STAND IN FRONT OF THE MICROWAVE!"

So today, I relax and ponder.

I volunteered to play along in a "Ten Things I Like That Begin With the Letter ” “_" game from Terri who got it from More Than an Electrician.

Just list 10 things that begin with the letter assigned. Any readers that want to play can leave a request in the comments, and I'll assign their letter.

Terri gave me the letter “C” and these are ten "C" things I like:

Colorado. I grew up here, then we were living in other states for several years. Now we're back. Nice to be home.

Camping. No electricity, no asphalt, the more feral the better!

Cowboys. They're tough, down-to-earth, and just darn nice to look at.

What's not to like?

Candles. One of my few girlie indulgences.

The Computer. Duh. How else would I do these riveting memes?

Chinese food. Or pretty much anything eaten with Chopsticks.

Commuting on my bicycle. Have fun and get stuff done at the same time!

And I do like a good Challenge now and then. As long as it's not too challenging

China, the dog. My walking companion and fellow resident b*tch.

Cookie, the cat, because he's just plain cool, and if he finds out I included China and not him, he'll hurt me.

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12*25

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Love & Kisses,
Abby
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'twas the day before

Okay. Tree's up, smothered in decorations and on ice. The kids put the finishing touches on last night. One nice thing about these little baby trees is that the time to decorate them is minimal.

Yes, it looks a little more like a houseplant with things hanging off of it, but someday, it'll be the mighty dwarf blue spruce!

This morning, the microwave didn't seem it's normal perky self when I cooked my oatmeal. It heats, but something's different. It reminds me how reliant we are on the microwave. God forbid I should have to go out to some place retail today.

Can we go 2 days without a microwave?
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don't wake the baby

We got our Christmas tree yesterday. I know. It sounds pretty late, but that's just how we do these things. I think I've mentioned here before that we always get a live tree. And no, I don't mean a "real" tree that was once happily alive and then got lopped off at the shins, but a LIVING tree with roots in a pot and all.

It's just a baby. In the spring, we'll find a good spot for it in the yard. We already have three previous Christmas trees gracing the back yard. Should be four, but one didn't quite make it (may it rest in peace).


Here's a pic of last year's tree. It's a wittle Colowado Bwue Spwuce (that's baby tree talk for Colorado Blue Spruce). Those bluer needles are the new ones that sprouted over spring and summer. Just disregard the land of misfit toys there in the background of the photo *Cough*

This year, we got a dwarf blue spruce, so it won't get as big as it's older brother here. The previous ones are also dwarf spruces.

With these ALIVE trees, we have to be careful not to wake it up and make it think that it's spring and time to start growing and stuff. So it spent last night in the garage, then it will come inside for a couple three days, then back outdoors it'll go until plantin' time. The dog will promptly christen it, bet on it.

So, with that, I think I'm actually all set for Christmas. I got the last of the chickens yesterday, and today I actually BAKED! *GASP* I even got all of the kids into the dentist this morning for overdue checkups. Aaaaah, nice to be caught up.

Oh, wait, we're probably going to need food....
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