So...there's good news and more good news!

First off...our neighbors are moving (well, they say they are AND there is a "For Sale" sign in front of their house yet again.) Basically, as the soap opera goes....they decided to move to a warmer climate and he started applying for jobs in TX. He has job interviews next week and they are prepared to accept an offer, leave their house here and move there and rent until this one is sold. They actually now prefer to leave the house here vacant to showing it until it's sold. The mom told me that they expect to be gone in 3 weeks.

I'm...cautiously optimistic. I'll believe it when I see it.

More craziness has gone on ...but it doesn't involve us. I would love to update the blog and say exactly what has happened...but all I can tell you is that she is in a hurry to get out of MN for a reason ....AND...it involves her children and the school psychologist AND the local hospital. For this reason, I'm pretty convinced that this time they are really trying to get out of here ASAP.

I never did get a chance to show off the Christmas pics. My camera broke and I didn't have a way to transfer the pictures to my laptop. I finally got a replacement camera with our American Express points and so...Here they are!


Our Tree after Santa Came!


Zoe opening up a gift!


Aidan bringing us a gift to help him get out of the box. He had such a blast!


Amanda opening up a Bratz head board game.

Oh...Amanda. Amanda...whose clothes I threw away yesterday! Yes...you read that right. I have no problem with her having a pair of ripped jeans or a few funky shirts...but it defines her now. Her behavior has become so rude, disrespectful and unbearable. Yesterday, after she smarted off to me in an unbelievable way, refused to go to her room and told her father and I that she didn't have to do what we told her to...I went upstairs, removed every stitch of cool clothing she owns, put it in a big black garbage bag and hid it...and replaced it all with a few baby pink, baby purple and baby blue sweaters that I snagged off of the sale rack at the store whose name dare not be spoken for $4/each. She has a wardrobe of clothing now that a girl would wear...not a little punker with a big mouth.

To say that she was startled would be a huge understatement. To say that she was beside herself with rage would also be an understatement. Basically..it stinks to be her, and until she learns to show me some respect and behave appropriately, she will wear what I buy for her.

But...I was showing off happy Christmas pictures...so...



YEAH...the WIIIII Notice the total amazement, joy and surprise. He was so thrilled. He just couldn't believe it.


Alex was pretty happy too...but if you look closely, you'll notice Andrew clutching the Wii laying on the floor pretending to have fainted.

I finally got the wii club picture off of my cell phone (my brother did it for me )

Here I am after waiting all night with the little group:



We had a nice german meal for Christmas: Braten and Spaetzle. Thomas thinks Turkey once a year is more than enough! That's my brother with the...animated...smile.


For New Years, we had some friends over...and we made a new German Punch with Compari, Sekt and some other yummy stuff.



Yes, it's sad. I'm about to post pictures of food. Little hidden secret about me...I'm a bit of a foodie...I just don't get out to each much, and I really do enjoy cooking. I take pics of some of the things we eat for our family recipe book/menu. Every Saturday night, I put out the pages of recipes for the next week and then everyone knows what the meals are each day (including me )

A picture of my mom on New Year's Eve:



Hi Mom!

And some of our food:




My decorations:


I put these up throughout the house...All of the hanging papers have sayings on them....wishes for the new year...frienship, happiness, health etc.

Ummm...we still have them up because I have been too lazy to take them down.



Hmmmm...my new favorite recipe....potato chip schnitzel

with cherry dessert


Obviously...I need to go and have some lunch or something.

I'm getting out of my food pictures now.

Zoe has begun scooching herself. She tried the whole crawling thing but just couldn't get it to work out. I'm not sure if this is a *normal* way that some babies crawl around ... but it sure is interesting. Basically, she can get on all fours, but can't get her legs to do what she wants them to do. Instead, she has adapted to sitting and using her left arm to basically pull her around.

Here's my ending video.....enjoy the dustbunnies on the floor and all of my fabric mess etc under my desk Click on the video and it should play for you.



Oh, OK...one with her smiling a little (she bonked her head being busy moving around and has a little bruise! Poor thing! ) Notice the cute little tummy!





Kris[/quote]