Sorry, again...

The internet was mostly down tonight- it rallied right at the end of the evening but I am headed to bed. I promise to blog-it-up tomorrow.

Night all :)

Straight on to Christmas.....

Putting away Thanksgiving and pulling out Christmas.

It all still seems so wrong with palm trees out my window.....just sayin'.

The girls are loving some kitchen time- Maddie making popcorn balls and Ellie anxious to get started on her gingerbread men. No one is looking forward to going back to work/school tomorrow, especially with Christmas in the air.

Happy day for the Staples. They have chosen their new puppy- and its the red one! The one that Ellie and I were pulling for.....very exciting, can't wait to meet him. Congratulations Alyssa, Matt and Graeme....I hope you gave him a hug from Uncle Sam :)

Thanksgiving- Day Two by Ellie

(first.....just wanted to make sure there was a picture of Aggie because I say that every blog deserves a dog)

This is adding on to Maddie's Thanksgiving list. first of all I would like to say Maddie is not nice because she said to never put a 7 year old girl with flour because she will get messy. This is not true because I was making pie- pumpkin pie to be exact. I did a very good job my mom said.

1.Always put flour under dough when rolling dough.

2. Always and I mean ALWAYS have a good tune on while doing this.

3. Have a stuffed turkey on your table for decoration (we have Turkey Joe- Aunt Julie gave it to us when we were younger and he is a very special tradition for us).

4. Make rolls, they are delicious.

5. Play a good game of "I am thankful". You can pass a coconut to play if you are in Guam- otherwise you could pass an apple around and each say something different of what you are thankful for.

6. Always have corn on the cobb- it is delicious, I had three (tee hee).

7. If there is somebody you know that doesn't have family at their house invite them over to have some fun and eat with you- we had Mr. Thornton over to eat with us......he played Wii with us too.

8. Never forget to make something like our mom does every year- this year it was the green bean casserole.

9. You can have indian corn on the table for decoration and candles lit.

10. You could use gold cuttlery because its fancy and when you put it in the light it shines. Barb likes to be fancy so she gave them to us (but we never use them because momma doesn't like fancy).

11. Always take a good picture of your mom and dad cooking in the kitchen cause I did that.

Happy after Thanksgiving to all!

From Ellie

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ellie is suppose to be blogging today but ran out of time- busy day.... so she will give you the Thanksgiving update tomorrow.....while I am at work and they are home having fun, oy!
Ellie was also the official photographer for today so you are in for a treat with all the pictures she took! (lots of pictures of the place settings and food- Barb you will get to see the gold cuttlery in action, and Julie your turkey was the centerpiece as usual!)
Hope your Thanksgiving day is memorable and that you and yours are blessed with a lot to be thankful for this year.....I know I am thankful for all of you!

The Night Before Thanksgiving By:Mady

On the only day of Thanksgiving my cooking gave to me... One cold turkey, lots of yummy apples, and one messy 7yr old girl.Plus, a stuffed fridge, an almost stuffed freezer,a few pies,lots of shopping,yummy brown sugar :), and sweet patato cassarole topping.All on the night before Thanksgiving.Oh, and here's some tips...

1. If you have a recipe that requires melted butter mixing with flour, put the flour and butter together. It's also fine to forget, like I did.

2. Do not mix 7yr olds and flour!!!!!!

3.Use brown sugar, it has more flavour than white!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4.Use lots of pecans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5.Don't be afraid to experiment, just make sure you have extra supplies.

6.APPLE PIE ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

7. This dosn't have anything to do with Thanksgiving but it's cool.abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzCool rightsjkhgjbsvsdfghk,jhnsdfbgfm

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

One Day More....

One more day until we are all off for Thanksgiving! I have already put in my order for pizza for supper tomorrow night so that I can get some cooking done. The girls are excited for their half day off tomorrow. I just need to get through a day with a bunch of hyper teens who will be wishing they were starting their Thanksgiving break already......my expectations for tomorrow are way low.

Maddie has joined the choir and has stayed late the last two nights for extra practice thus the doing of homework after swim practice instead of before. She is loving all the Christmas songs they are learning- we are hearing them nonstop around the house. Combine that with the musical/play she is in.....there is a lot of singing. The neighbors haven't complained yet.

Ellie is practicing some Christmas songs on the piano....daily. She has decided that for the New Years Eve talent show she will be playing and singing some choice carols. Ellie believes in getting on top of these things early- doesn't want to be caught without a talent I guess. Doing a great job......it is the repetitiveness of it that gets to you eventually.

I don't know if you can see in the background, but its Monday Night Football on the TV.....and yes it is Tuesday. Love that we get everything a day late.... it just drags football further into the week, makes it feel like there is always a game on......always except Thanksgiving Day. There are times when being a day ahead is not beneficial. I won't be me missing it, but there may be some mopey guys here Thursday.

Thanksgiving Week

This is one of those weeks where everything is shortened, flipped around and somewhat confused. The girls will be off a half day Wednesday, Thursday for Thanksgiving and off for a day of recovery on Friday. I only get the Thursday off and frankly am thankful for it. School for me is fine most days, but there are days when I have student issues that are just so emotionally draining that I am thankful for even one day away.

The good news is I did all grocery shopping necessary to cook a Thanksgiving meal. Turkey is thawing in the fridge as we speak right next to the ham. I was even able to find the fresh cranberries that I like to make. I will send you some Ann, and Gene I will package some pumpkin pie in there for you. Barb, don't know if the sweet potato casserole will make it all the way to Canada but I will try.....

Wednesday is Chamorro Day at Southern High. The huts are coming together nicely. Still not sure what it all encompasses, but I do know it means a half day of teaching. Happy Chamorro Day to me! My students were trying to convince me that there would be dog fighting and cock fighting for Chamorro Day (both very popular on Guam) but I am sure the school wouldn't allow it....I hope. Apparently they tie blades to the cock's feet to make them more effective fighters..... ugh, seriously....

Sincerely hope to have happy pictures to post of Chamorro Day- I promise no cock fighting photos......

Open Ocean

The big news of today is Maddie swimming a 1 km ocean swim. I will say she was quite nervous before hand but did great when it was race time. She wasn't even breathing hard when she was done- that could be because she was viewing various fish breeds as she swam.....but I am sure that wouldn't have slowed her down, right? :)

Maddie is the one in the purple cap... the girl who is a bit paler than the rest...

This is Coach Lewis. He stayed right with Maddie and her co-swimmers to "lifeguard" them. I was grateful for it, though you could easily see them from the beach it was nice knowing someone was out there with her.

I am really just so proud of her. So glad Coach Toshi asked Madison to do this swim, otherwise she never would of had the opportunity to do her first open water swim.... not to mention the feeling of accomplishment Madison got by easily completing something she wasn't sure she could do. First the 1 K, next the world....

Good Day.

Parent teacher interviews today went really well. Both girls are doing really well, we have no complaints. Straight A's for both with Ellie needing improvement in story writing and Maddie needs to keep on top of her Math and talk less in class. Hey Dad, who does that sound like?

Two different reactions to this.....Ellie having overheard her teacher pulled out a journal when she got home and started practicing writing stories. Madison after hearing what she needed to improve protested that her talking wasn't that bad and that math is evil anyway so she shouldn't have to do it. Our two girls.... sometimes as different as night to day- but always entertaining.

Some pictures from the school-

Maddie's papoose she made.
The girls in their classes.

On another note:I am so excited for Micki and Greg getting a new puppy come December so I am updating you guys! Here are two comparison photos so you can see how big they are getting. Above photo was when they were 1 week old...here they are at 4 weeks.

Here is a link in case you want to see them in action- real cuties!

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/By9kuTqZlxqZUfPjijVuHA?feat=directlink

Hurray for tomorrow being Friday...I am so ready for it!

Wednesday....

This whole week is going so slowly for me, and I think its because we are so out of routine. Things after school the last two days and the girls had a half day today with two more half days to follow. They are very excited about it because they are going over to a friend's house to play for the afternoon for the first two days of it.....and they are slightly disappointed because Kevin will be picking them up for the third half day- didn't want to overstay the welcome at the friend's home in case we need them again....

Tomorrow after I am done work I will be meeting Kevin and the girls at the school for parent/teacher interviews. I always look forward to hearing how the girls are doing in the classroom. I will try to remember to bring my camera to the school to give you a glimpse.

Have been putting Christmas presents together so I can send things off...did the pictures for the Christmas cards this evening. Here is a sneak peak....

Here's hoping the rest of the week goes smoothly- and quickly!

Playing Catch-up

Taking some time now to catch everyone up on the week thus far. Not much of anything unusual to report.....the girls swam in a meet on Saturday and did well- best times all around. Kevin and I timed for it- gotta say we make a better couple then we do co-workers. I found myself snapping at him when things weren't getting done- I much prefer working with Micki :) sorry Kevin....oh and Micki- Kevin and I didn't even touch the record of 8 perfect times...we only had one.

Sunday was church in the morning and shopping in the afternoon- trying to find Christmas dresses. Found the Christmas dresses and walked out with two extra outfits as well....didn't need them but the price was right and they were cute.

Went to the long awaited book fair after school today.... we were hopeful for some fun book shopping. Had more of a rummage sale feel to it- very glad we went on the first day as there were very few books there and very few copies of what they did have. I guess the key is to be grateful for what was there. Madison managed to pick some books while she was grumbling something that sounded like "you call this a book fair"...... Ellie of course- pleased as punch as she bought their entire stock of fairy books plus one "Catwings". A new record has been set in the house- Maddie has finished two of the books she bought at 4 pm today (its 8:30 pm now).....and she swam for an hour and half of that! Granted one book was fairly short- like 60 pages, but the other was at least 150 pages. Ellie would like it noted here that she too broke a personal record as she read one whole book today....fairly long one- those fairy books are nothing to sneeze at!

I would like to say a thank you to Ellie for being the guest blogger last time. I know its nice for you guys to hear how things are around here from someone other than me. Thanks Ellie!

Oh, and a happy note for me- the temperature reached a chilly 78 degrees this evening! First below 80 I have seen- thinking of breaking out the parka.....

Guest Blogger- Ellie!

If you give a kid a camera.....

Here is an Ellie sized view of our house- she took my camera today all over the house....

Hi Ellie here.....if you give a kid a camera she'll go crazy with it. And she'll also take a lot of pictures, including Daddy playing his computer game. She'll also want to take some pictures of herself, her mom, her sister and also her dog!

This one is a picture I took of myself, you can tell because my arms are out.

Maddie, Maddie, she was being so silly that I couldn't even understand what she was saying. I kept getting pictures of her hand because she did not want her picture taken. She was also wearing her new dress, and that is why I wanted to take a picture of her in the first place. The next picture is her new Christmas dress that she just bought today. I bought my Christmas dress yesterday, we say that Grandma Gillam will like it because it looks Scottish. It is very pretty, it is a shirt and skirt with a scarf. Barb will like the Christmas pin for it because it is very pretty and decorative.
Now I am moving onto Aggie because she is sooooo cute. I took a picture of her next to our American Girl dolls because they are cute too. Anyways, the reason I took a pictures in this room is because a lot of people were in it (except for Mom, she was out here with the computer). I like being in the room with the most of my family because I like spending time with them.

This is a picture I took in the mirror thats why it looks like a huge ball of light in my hands. Daddy is playing Batman on his xbox. It is a new xbox and it looks cool it is black and has the number 2 on it.

This is a girl on the game her name is Ivy because she can control ivy plants. Batman explained to her that she needs to leave there otherwise something will happen to her and the plants. Mama is making me say here (and I don't want to) that I am usually not allowed to watch Daddy's games but it was not violent at that part because they were just talking about some sort of formula that he needed.

This is Mama where I said she was for the whole time. She is playing with her camera right now, she wants to take pictures of us but a lot of times we don't like it.

This picture I took of Mama while she took a picture of me.

Thats all I have for now. Thank you for looking!

Bye from Ellie :) ( I love doing smiley faces) :)