Last night Susan and I went with our friends Wes and Julie to see Simplified play at the Blind Tiger. For those that don’ t know Simplified they are a great band from Charlotte NC. I have been to see them live several times now and the shows have always been great. They were so good last night that we stayed for the whole thing and Susan wasn’t telling me we had to go. That means we didn’t even leave the club until 1:30 and she stayed awake the whole time! It is 11:30 right now and she is still asleep so she is making up for it today.
Us with Clee Laster (vocals, guitar) and Chris Sheridan (guitar) from Simplified
I think this is the best picture I have ever seen of Elli (besides that one of her and our mom at her wedding). And Sydney is the cutest baby ever so that is an easy one:
This post has pictures that represent Christmas Day to New Year’s Day. Just to recap, we had 9 celebrations in 11 days. For some reason I also thought that was a good time to do a home improvement project of painting all the door knobs. Which also means the latches, screws, etc. You probably realized that. Wish I would have…
Christmas w Steph, Roy, BizNKids, and MomMom, Dec 26
Point of interest on this photo–I THOUGHT both eyes were crossed. I did a redo for Paul just now, thinking my eyes were crossed again. No such luck. My sister was like this all the time from birth and had surgery to make her normal. Perhaps I had preemptive surgery to make sure mine did not wander…EVER!
Anna--Dec 26 Christmas; celebration #9
I just love love love this photo of Anna. You get glimpses of what she will look like as a young woman, yet she still has that baby look too.
Tripp gets a robot for Christmas!
Sleepy Becca posing for pictures
The robot Tripp got for Christmas was very cool, it even danced to a Duran Duran knock off song (sounded like the song, but like they changed it to not have to pay royalties). But then it started to somewhat stalk MomMom. Kind of scared us. Rebecca was SO sleepy, but she always wants to get a good picture. And the truth still holds–sometimes the kids like the box the toy comes in rather than the toy itself!
New Year’s Eve 2009. Basic math I should have realized when I bought the sparklers: [(Sleepy kids x bad weather so they didn't get any exercise for days) x (Paul has been w said kids for 80 hours x Susan has been sick for 80 days)] x fire sparks shooting off a stick = probably not a good idea. Not to mention I had accidentally sprayed some grass (and a little driveway) with my door knob project so Tyler of course wanted to prance there w his sparklers. He was drawn like a moth to a flame. (get it–flame??)
Skinned squirrels in the refrigerator. Seriously. Ugh.
Paul took Tyler hunting w some friends and their kids. Tyler was a little loud (lucky for the squirrels), but the others were more successful (unlucky for Susan). We had 6 dead bodies in the fridge. It was like The Soprano’s. Paul made fried squirrel, scrambled eggs, grits, biscuits and squirrel gravy for New Year’s breakfast. They say that how you spend NY Day is how you spend your year. God help me.
We are not converting, we are celebrating Paul, Tyler and Anna’s birthdays and Christmas! We started way back in November (about 10 years ago it seems), we had Thanksgiving and visited w my family. But that last 7 days we have had 7 celebrations. Really 7 in 6 days–tonight is a bye night. Here is the summary:
Day 1, 12/17/09: Anna’s 8th birthday. Paul and I met Robin and Jason, and of course Tyler at Rio Grande for Anna’s birthday dinner. Anna chose the restaurant–Rio G won for the 3rd year in a row. I just LOVE this picture of Anna.
Anna at her Rio Grande birthday dinner, Dec 17
Day 2, 12/18/09: Kids Family Birthday Party. Stephanie and Biz planned a party for Anna and Tyler at their house. Sandie, Brandon, Haley, Hunter and Mom Mom all celebrated with us.
Tyler had a Star Wars cake complete w light up light sabers. Anna had a doll cake complete w Barbie-like doll you lifted out of the cake before cutting.
Day 3, 12/19/09: Tyler’s 6th birthday. Before we could celebrate Tyler’s birthday, we had to play in the snow! That’s right, we had about 7 inches of snow on Friday night/Saturday morning. Then we met Robin, Jason and Lacey (their baby) at Chuck E Cheese to celebrate Tyler’s day.
Anna, Tyler and Frosty. This was after sledding off the ramp Paul built for them!
Ahhhh, my NRA reps.
Day 4, 12/20/09: Extended Sanders Family Christmas/Susan’s half birthday. OK, 1 was celebrated a little more than the other, but still…
Paul and me before starting to open presents at MomMom's.
Day 5, 12/21/09: Susan’s manager Christmas party and Cole’s Annual Christmas party.
(photos unavailable, cameras confiscated by security, paparazzi bounced from property)
Day 6, 12/22/09: Celebrated Paul’s birthday at UNC vs. Marshall basketball game!
My first time in the Dean Dome! I mean... me doing whatever Paul wanted to do for his birthday!
Paul and I are vegging out tonight. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, not sure what the plans are. Then we get the kids on Christmas Day about noon. Then Christmas w Steph and Biz, et. al on Sat afternoon! 9 events in 11 days! Whoooooo hooooooo! Keep in mind this was including 10 loads of laundry, 0 minutes of napping, 3 days of work (which included creating a plan to restructure our cardiac rehab program to make up for $96,000 worth of revenue that we cannot bill for in 2010 and 4 days of 11 state inspectors surveying our hospital), baking 120 cookies and only 30 minutes of physical activity and NO tears shed! Happy Sanders Hanukkah!
This morning we got a automated call from the school saying they were closing 3 hours early because of weather. I went to look outside and there was nothing. I picked the kids up at 11:15 and we are currently sitting at home with me wondering why they are out. It is 12:15 now and it’s 37 degrees and completely dry out! According to the weather channel we could get 6 to 10 inches later this afternoon and tonight, but school gets out at 2:15 anyway so I have no idea what the school board was thinking.
To make it worse the kids went at normal time on Wednesday and I know of at least 5 wrecks that morning because of icy roads. So I guess the take home message is that when the road are icy for sure it’s OK, but when it MIGHT snow they need to close early for safety.
Back in May Susan and I got sick and gave up our spots in the White Lake half iron distance race. Well this weekend we did it again. We were suppose to run in the Victory Junction half marathon on Sunday, but we had both been sick on and off for the previous 3 weeks. Because of that we hadn’t run in almost a month. When we woke up in the morning it was 35 degrees and poring rain so we decided not to go (we had really decided the night before). All and all this hasn’t been our year for races. I had my blister issue in the marathon and we had rain, we were both sick and had to skip White Lake, I was running a fever during the Blues Lake triathlon but did it anyway, blisters again for me at the Mission Man triathlon, and then we got sick and couldn’t do Victory Junction (not to mention the weather). Hopefully next year will turn out better for us as far as races go.
On a brighter note Susan got us tickets to a Carolina game for my birthday so we will be going to that next week. This will be Susan’s first time in the Dean Dome which makes it even more exciting. I went to a exhibition game earlier this year while Susan was at her fall “camp crop a lot” so it will be my second game of the year!
Eric Clapton is coming to Raleigh in March and we got tickets for that this weekend. I had heard a few weeks ago that he is going to be in New York with Jeff Beck in February so I think Susan was relieved when she heard on the radio that he is going to be in Raleigh. She of course made sure to call and let me know right away. Before I heard that I was buying plane tickets and headed to New York. It would be fun to see him with Beck but the cost savings of going to Raleigh instead is too much. So between going to B.B. King, a Carolina game(s), and Clapton we are doing good on the entertainment front…now if our racing would only catch up.
No homework this week because of Thanksgiving! I know I am supposed to be supportive of the public education system and all, but homework in kindergarten seems a bit over the top. Anyhow, we were glad. So we watched Toy Story and played computer before dinner. After dinner we played games, including Candy Land.
We MUST do this more often! The saddest thing ever was getting it set up, Anna choosing a card, then saying, “What do I do? I can’t remember!” I should have known we were in trouble when it turned out to only have 2 game pieces (Mom–is that the game from my childhood?). So Paul got a couple more. I was the green man, Anna was the red man, Tyler was a Transformer from McDonald’s named “S” (no one can remember the real name and it has an S on it). Paul was the Emperor from Star Wars, complete w electricity coming from his finger tips. Awesome. I won once, Anna won the 2nd time. There was also the small side game of Paul running around the board as the Emperor electrocuting people.
Then I read some of A Light in the Attic to them. They now think Wild Strawberries are real (with shark teeth and feet and a tail). Then they borrowed a couple books of mine. [my parents brought me a couple boxes of them last year--VERY cool and a HUGE hit w the kids] Tyler got in bed then called me back wanting to know, in a very distressed voice, who colored in that book. He was shocked into silence when I told him it was me. Could’ve knocked him over w a feather….
I survived my first morning getting the kids on the bus alone. Paul had a conference call for work early for a project he has been asked to take the lead on so it was up to me. Everyone got on the bus just fine after newly pierced ears (Anna) were cleaned, pink eye (Tyler) was treated, and cold symptoms were Alka-selzered (Susan; Paul did his own before he left).
We made several life decisions:
Tyler plans to live in Alaska so he can hunt polar bears and ride a snow mobile.
Anna will live in Boone after she graduates from Carolina.
Tyler asked me to drive him to Alaska when he moves there…since he doesn’t know where it is.
Caveat–he also requests that I drive him back each week after he grocery shops w Anna in the mountains
We will see how these plans hold up. Last night Anna got shampoo in her eye and said she would never shower again.
Yes! That’s right! I am determined to get ahead of the holidays this year! Last year I was a bit deer in the headlights w all the traveling for work, then Paul’s birthday, then Anna and Tyler’s birthdays, then Christmas. Not to mention cards, work parties, gift getting, giving, thank you notes, oh, and we were training for a marathon.
But am I simplifying… NO!!!! Just planning ahead!!! I found this kick ass website, 100DaysTo Christmas.com. It has really given me a lot of great ideas and resources. You should check it out!
Matter of full disclosure: By mentioning the website here, I get entered in a drawing for a Christmas CD. Paul, Anna, Tyler and I had a fire Saturday night and we decided that we were going to sleep under the tree one night as a family. The kids like to have music on when they go to sleep so a Christmas CD would be great. My wish is for the Enya CD. Merry Christmas!
After a week of buildup, Hayes Disc Brakes has finally unveiled their all-new Prime hydraulic disc brakes. Featuring a slew of new technology, they represent the future of Hayes’ disc brake offerings. Chief among the new features are: 10º Tilt Bore - Keeps the Master Cylinder closer to the bar and optimizes lever reach. Top Loading Pads - [...] […]
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“IMG_2490” by Candy Cranks. Check out their shop here. They sell - you guessed it - cranks! (and accessories). To see more Pics of the Day, click here, and to submit your own photo to be shown to the world, go here. […]
