Dear Santa,

Dear Santa,
ALL that Emma-Rae wants for Christmas is one of the American Girl dolls, Elizabeth Cole to be exact. A few months ago when Emma-Rae started asking for Miss Elizabeth I explained that she was certainly welcome to put Elizabeth on her Christmas list with the understanding that Elizabeth cost quite a bit of money and she may not get as many presents as she was accustomed to if she really wanted her. Here comes a good definition of active thinking- Emma-Rae told me that instead of asking me for Elizabeth she'd ask Santa for her because Santa didn't have to buy her, Santa could make her, oh my... :)

Dear Santa,
John-Robert would like any type of BIG, BAD, Nerf gun that he can shoot at everyone. Don't cha just wanna break your neck rushing to our house Christmas morning!



So... we'll see how these two make out Christmas morning. John-Robert's a tad worried about being on the naughty list, he's even asked if Santa puts him on the naughty list will he still get presents from us!

PHC Christmas

Instead of a "Christmas party" for work this year we went bowling on Saturday, played dirty Santa, & went to Red Robin for dinner. John's little sister Alysia watched the kids ALL day- she's the best! Kaitlyn & Zachary from across the street were at our house with Rae & Rob, their parents were in Vegas for the weekend. They go to Vegas for the first time & it snows in Vegas for the 1st time in 5 years- go figure! I didn't take many pics, hopefully someone will share some soon.

So... this is Andrew & look @ his feet- he has a little helper! Lauren & Cynthia (our 2 IP nurses), they are saying Inpatient Rocks!

Bonnie (outpatient nurse) & Andrew (animal care assistant)- they sort of have the same smile. They were in major competition mode, the loser has to clean the NASTY kennel of the winner's choice.

So... Bonnie lost by ONE pin, Andrew can't wait until Piper comes to stay with us, look out Bonnie. Let me say that if you saw how Bonnie bowled you'd be really impressed she got 116. The girl literally picks up the ball & just chunks it down the lane, it's amazing!

Lauren's schooling us all on how to play dirty Santa, look how good everyone was paying attention- sort of looks like a staff meeting to me! :)

Dr. G's two cute kiddos!

Dirty Santa presents- John ended up being the proud owner of chihuahua S&P shakers and a Christmas tree ornament, I ended up with lotion, a Starbucks gift card, & two scratch off lottery tickets. One of my tickets was a loser & the other one I got a free ticket (haven't turned it in yet). I originally chose one of my own gifts- $5 and a $15 iTunes gift card, BUT Cynthia stole it! I think the HOT gift of the evening was a bottle of Captain Morgan Rum, it was stolen several times & Robin ended up taking it home. Doc came in at the tail end of our game, he was up at the clinic talking about dog beds with Penny (what a surprise!) :)

Dinner @ Red Robin was really YUM! I had a chicken wrap & John had the classic cheeseburger, I was so full you could have rolled me home. Al, Joyce's hubby changed his mind several times before he ordered because he kept looking @ the menu and everything looked good! I think someone took a picture of everyone at the table, there were 17 of us I think- I'll have to add it when someone emails it to me. Thanks for dinner Doc!

Samuel's Graduation

Samuel graduated this past Saturday from the University of Memphis. The ceremony was downtown at the FedEx Forum, they had a morning and afternoon ceremony- Sam's graduation started @ 10 a.m. John and I were able to sit with my Mom, David, Ali, & Ali's parents. My Dad sat in a wheelchair accessible section.


It was so "dark" in the forum that I ended up having to take pictures on the jumbotron. Looking at the picture below Sam is seated in the section closest to the stage on the right.
President of the University and deans sat on the stage, it looked very nice with the holiday decorations. Mom said that when David got his doctorate this past summer there were no decorations of any kind and the lights and she thought the lights & poinsettias really added a nice touch.

Sam & Ali outside after the graduation.

Video of Sam's name being called, shaking hands, etc...

After graduation we all shuffled out of the forum like tightly herded cattle and made our way back to our vehicles. We then met up with everyone at the world famous Gus's Fried Chicken on Front Street. Oddly enough I didn't take any pictures but Gus's is a little hole in the wall with good fried chicken, white bread, & beer. This was Sam's choice for lunch. We really had a good time. Congratulations Sam, we're so proud of you!

Our Tree Decorated

Friday night we got the tree decorated, John put on the lights and sat down, the kids and I did the rest. Not too shabby.

Samuel's Senior Show

My brother Samuel has been working on a bachelors in fine arts from the University of Memphis. Last Thursday the seniors had their graphic design show. All of the pictures below are of Samuel's senior project- the Snake River Revival- enjoy!
This one with the lady riding the giraffe is my favorite, so I put it on here first! :)

Mom & I both thought the snakes were a tad creepy, but I love "The fair where dissonance reigns"

I wish I would have gotten a close up of the label on the bottle, it's a really cool label- talks about mending a broken heart, etc...

I like this one too, especially the part about the light up shoes! :)

Samuel, Sarah (me), & Elizabeth (Mom)

I took a REALLY good picture of Sam & Ali but she hasn't emailed it to me yet- hint, hint! :)

We're so proud of you Sam, great job!!

Our Tree

I met John & the kids at Easy Way in Bartlett this evening to pick out a Christmas tree. This is what we ended up with, as usual I picked one a little on the large side (against John's better judgement), guess we'll be decorating it Friday night. One side of it still needs to fall some more & tomorrow night we're going to be at Sam's senior show. I'm not sure the tree is even going to stay in that place, I wish the piano wasn't so dang heavy and we could roll it into the dining room for the next few weeks- oh well, we always make is work somehow- this tree is rather fat though.

Disney World- Are We There Yet?

We're back, yes we had an awesome, magical, exhausting (yet oddly relaxing), fantastic time. Between my camera, Dave's, & Emma-Rae's we have hundreds of pictures AND hundreds of stories. We haven't gotten all of our pictures yet, we had tons of pictures taken of us by the Disney photographers... we'll share those when we get them. I think what I'll do is post a few pics a day- starting with the beginning....

Stacy & Dave picked us up around 4 a.m. Saturday 11/29. First stop- Hattiesburg, MS to pick up Taryn. Nothing too exciting happened on the first leg of this trip. The kids watched Tom & Jerry and NEVER went back to sleep. Emma-Rae's not sleeping in this first picture, she's watching Tom & Jerry- John-Robert was leaning on her head but the flash of my camera disturbed him- can't you tell? :) I think we stopped at some McDonald's somewhere for breakfast, nothing too exciting yet.

We picked Taryn up in Hattiesburg without a hitch, I think we were slightly ahead of schedule at that point. It had been raining since we left Memphis, not enjoyable for the driver (Dave), especially because the windshield wipers really needed replacing. The picture below of the three kids is when we're in the tunnel in Mobile, AL.

If I'm remembering correctly a little bit before we got to Mobile we were pulled over. The sheriff didn't see the drive-out tag in the back window of the suburban Dave had borrowed so he was wondering where our tags were- THEN, since he had to find something wrong with us crazy criminals heading to Disney- he wanted to see Dave's proof of insurance. Ooops, no such luck- Dave didn't have his insurance card on him. The sheriff gave him a warning ticket & told us we may get pulled over several times before we get to FL but once we were in FL we were SURE to be pulled over & ticketed for not having proof of insurance, he suggested we stop somewhere and get the insurance company to fax him a copy of one...okay, thanks for trying to freak us out & kill our Disney buzz. Dave asked him if he could give us an escort through the remainder of Alabama (OMG- yes he really did) Mr. officer declined. John-Robert of course was watching a movie or doing something in his own little world during all of this and kept talking REALLY loud, so loud we couldn't hear the sheriff a few times- which completely freaked Emma-Rae out because she thought we were all going to jail. John's look pretty much sums up the experience...

Not too long after we got into Florida we saw a car in a ditch and a woman waving her hands out the window- presumably for help. We were the part of the highway divided by a forest & were going about 75 mph so we couldn't turn around or anything but Dave did call Florida highway patrol (*FHP) with the location/mile marker & they dispatched assistance. Thankfully the car didn't look damaged, it was just so rainy- sure hope everything turned out okay for her.

It was a LONG drive, Emma-Rae took a million pictures of her and Taryn in the backseat- I'll only subject you to one. They were doing lots of "posing" notice the identical placement of their hands on their chins-LOL! Also notice they are wearing sunglasses, WHY?? I'm sure it's only to look cute because it RAINED and was cloudy 99.9% of the drive.

One thing that sure made our drive a little nicer were the maps John printed out for each of the kids. It was great to be able to show the kids on a map how much further it was, John-Rob still asked are we there yet a million times. But seriously, as a whole the kids did really great putting up with such a long drive. Poor Stacy was so squished (she has MUCH longer legs than I) she had her legs propped up on the ceiling, John made it through the drive by consuming several Rock Star's and Dave drank several Red Bull's. Dave had Stacy's XM radio transferred to the Suburban so between that and our iPod's we had plenty to entertain us. However- I'm just gonna say it- John is the pits to listen to music with, he HAS to be in control of the music & generally only likes the first two seconds of a song. If he didn't like a song you played he'd just push the little button on the steering wheel and it would be complete silence, I would then rush to find a song he liked but in the meantime just played whatever (I called it filler) he didn't appreciate my filler songs. So not fair- but I love him anyways.

Angel of God Award

Today was a very special day for our family; Emma-Rae received an Angel of God award during mass this morning. The Angel of God award is given to a child that exhibits Christ like behavior (with an emphasis on kindness to others) on a regular and consistent basis. There is only one child chosen per grade a few times a year. I have to say that I have never been more proud of her than I was this morning, yes- I cried. :) The picture below is of Father Coy putting on her pin.

There she is, see the pin on the collar. She was very surprised to see me in mass, I hid pretty well from her until I took communion- she really had no idea she was getting this award. Did I already say how proud of her I am????

Stitch's New Home

This is my beta fish Stitch, yup he's named after the Disney character Stitch. Stitch lives in my office @ work. Stitch is a scraggly looking fella (note the pitiful fin condition) but is happy to see me in the morning because Sarah = breakfast. When I was cleaning out his bowl a few days ago I barely bumped it on the side of the sink & it broke! Stitch lived in his "cleaning cup" for a day or so until I went to PetSmart and got him a new home.

Stitch seems to be liking his new home, although he's not too sure about those plants in there. Stitch pretty much likes to lay on the bottom of the bowl & "sleep" he's not very energetic.

Thought I'd throw this picture in here just for kicks & to make Miss Angela laugh. I was playing with the color accent deal on my camera again, one of the crazy people across the street had some kind of drama & the fire department and ambulance came.

The Boil

This is the boil that raised it's ugly head (literally) on Emma-Rae's leg last weekend. It got MUCH worse than this but is now MUCH better. She's being a bull right now & won't let me take another picture of how much better it looks. In all fairness she's really sick with a nasty cold & just doesn't feel like being bothered. We went to see Dr. Charles, got some antibiotics & it's been getting better ever since.

Emma-Rae & her BFF Kaitlyn, Kaitlyn's giving her moral support- Emma-Rae was stuck in the bed with a heating pad on that boil. John made them some chocolate chip cookies, we popped in a movie for them, and they were good to go!

Chillin'

John-Rob chillin' with K-Dawg last Sunday, watchin' some Scooby Doo!

Playing with my NEW BFF (my camera)

Well... the first pic is of my REAL BFF, I was buggin' him last weekend while he was trying to work. :)
Then I started playing with the color accent feature of the camera, in this pic I chose the blue in John-Rob's coat, it also picked up the blue in the postcard of Cinderella sitting on the piano

Then I chose the red panes of glass in my lamp...

AND the brown color of my Diet Coke...

You can also adjust the setting to pick up colors similar to the main color you've chosen, I opted not to do that in most of these pics.

Baby Panda

Eleanor sent me this email with all of these baby pandas in it... I'm sure everyone has seen the email before but I think this particular panda has to be one of the cutest things ever. Regardless... it sure cheered me up today! Have a good one!

Motley Crue Saints of Los Angeles 2009 Tour

Yeah baby! Motley Crue SOLA tour kicks off in February. It's going to be really tricky but John & I are going to try and see the show in Nashville on 2/21. The tricky part will be that we're supposed to leave the following day for the Cayman Islands to celebrate Stacy's big 40 b-day & Dave & John happen to have a February b-day as well. The Lemas can't join us this time around but I was telling John tonight that I've never seen Motley play an arena show- they usually play a longer setlist & have extra awesome pyro & theming than they do in a festival setting, so... I asked John if he'd be up for going to see the show & driving home afterwards so we could catch a plane the next day. He said he was up for it, have I told anyone lately how MUCH I love this man... he works his butt off & is still up for my crazy ideas. Now... if only I could take advantage of the pre-sale that's going on now... I'm having a hard time getting a passcode & have emailed the appropriate folks for assistance but as for right this minute, no tickets yet... I'm afraid the close seats, the ones with the good view of Nikki Sixx, are going to be gone before we get ours.... ugh!!!

Happy B-day to ME!!!

Happy B-day to me!! Early, b-day present. John & the kids asked me what I wanted for my b-day a few weeks ago. I told them I wanted a new- smaller/better/newer camera to take to Disney, we'll be getting back late the night before my b-day. I finally picked one out night before last, it was hard to decide- it's a Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS & the color is Bohemian Brown! I went on & picked it up from Costco yesterday so I could make friends with it before we left for Disney. It has this REALLY cool feature where you can take a picture in black & white & choose colors from the environment that you want to accent & those colors show up. As soon as I get the software loaded & some pictures taken on it I'll show you an example. It came with two free memory cards & a case. Wish I'd have known it was going to come with a free case seeing as how I'd just ordered a new case. But... the case I ordered is a pelican & it's pretty good quality, waterproof, etc...

I also ordered this bag from ebags to carry while at Disney. Last year I borrowed one similar to this from Lauren, I like the kind that go across your chest, backpacks can be a problem on rides & a big purse tends to slide off my shoulder.

Our vacation is just around the corner, I'm trying to get my ducks in a row. I've been throwing things in a Rubbermaid tote that's in my office as I come across them. Things like... flip flops, goggles, glow sticks (found those in the dollar bins @ Target woo hoo!!) travel size toothpaste, etc... FYI I'm bringing the glow sticks so the kids can be lit up during the parades & fireworks at night- going to be much cheaper than buying $20 light up toys every night! :)

My Fall Wreath

I've been really looking hard for a pretty fall wreath that doesn't have some sort of bird in a nest sticking out of it or cost $39.99. I wasn't having any luck so after Emma-Rae's eye appt. last week I thought I'd stop by Michaels & see about making one myself. I got a grapevine wreath for $3.99 and since all of the fall picks & greenery were 70% off Emma-Rae & I picked a bunch of stuff out. I think I ended up spending around $20 bucks. This is the end result, I'm pretty satisfied, the colors of course look better in person BUT seeing as how this thing took me less than 15 minutes to put together I'm okay that it's not perfect, AND I'm really okay that I have something I like for less than $39.99. Come on by and check it out in person if you get a chance!

Uncle Fudd's Farm- 2nd Time Around

Field trips with a bunch of 4 & 5 year olds are interesting to say the least. John-Robert & I rode with Mary's Mom (Miss Twinkle is what John-Rob calls her) it's really Miss Tina. Miss Tina & I were responsible for the 5 kiddos below. The three boys are pretty much the clowns of the class, we really had our hands full! :) Like John always says- keeping them together & "in line" was like herding cats.
Out at Uncle Fudd's farm we got right to business & played a version of hot potato (with a pumpkin) and tug of war. John-Rob was the anchor for Miss Sellers class, they didn't win BUT Mrs. Fudd told them that they would be the first ones to get off the hayride, guess that's some kind of a consolation prize.




We took off on our hayride, let me tell you about this hayride. Uncle Fudd talks to the kids and tells them he needs them to look for some things they have lost- a yellow fish, a red can, a lazy worker of his named Punkin head, a bull's horn (yes, I really am remembering all of this) AND last but not least a little red headed girl named Lisa. Lisa got lost a day or so ago & her parents really need us to find her. Are you kidding me??? You should have seen those kids faces, they ranged from complete shock to terrified. The little boy sitting across from me says- Oh My God!! So... all of us parents & teachers have to start explaining this is just a game, etc.... way to go Uncle Fudd. We find all of the lost items & hop off to go through the corn maze- but WAIT Uncle Fudd has to tell us another story before we go through the maze- at the end of the maze the kids get to pick a pumpkin so this story can't be too bad, right?? Wrong!! Uncle Fudd starts off by telling the kids to stay on the path because there are spiders & rats hiding in the corn- kids IMMEDIATELY go into panic mode- John-Rob included because he doesn't like bugs at all! In addition to that Uncle Fudd tells us that last weekend his granddaughter had her end of the year softball party & they went in the corn maze after dark. All of a sudden her Coach, Coach Ron supposedly comes runing out screaming- someone cut his arm off!! Uncle Fudd says he needs us to help Coach Ron out & find his arm! John-Rob tells me- you're gonna have to get that one! Kids are asking parents- didn't he die if his arm was cut off, why did someone cut his arm off! These stories would have been better if they were told to an older group of kids- at the end of the maze someone had an arm stuffed with straw, kids were still kind of nervous. John-Rob is still talkin' about that arm.

After picking a pumpkin we went back to the farm, kids rode the train, fed the critters, & played on the playground.

Miss Sellers & Mrs. Sexton roasted some hot dogs for everyone & we had a great lunch. We luckily have awesome room mothers- we had a great lunch AND Miss Tina brought coffee!