Shelly's Blog

We attended the 50th anniversary celebration mass at St. Ambrose this evening. All I can say is, "Wow!". His Eminence Daniel Cardinal DiNardo (I guess that's his "official" title!) performed the mass. He said some parts in Latin, lots of incense, the Knights of Columbus in their ceremonial uniforms with their swords drawn..................It was a very elaborate ceremony that I don't think I will probably ever get to see again..........if I sound like I'm gushing, I probably am. Afterwards, we had our "Italian" dinner of Spaghetti from Fornos. Poor Alyssa just ate the salad and roll since she doesn't like spaghetti......at least the spaghetti sauce, anyway. The rest of us ate our fill and then headed for home and didn't get home until 9:00 pm. Glenn had to work tonight since it's the Christmas season and very busy for him at the hotel, so he missed the mass. I think he would have really enjoyed it.

I thought for sure that since we had so much time off last week, that this week would have just dragged on forever. I was wrong. This week has flown by. It's been really busy at work and I am working on 21 cases, all at once, that have to be completed before the holidays. Lucky me. Since Jess is in Jr. High now, she is getting ready to start taking her mid-terms next week. Alyssa won't have to worry about that for a few years. All she has to worry about is making a good grade on multiplication tests. She made a 90 on the last one.......much better than the one before. Cardinal DiNardo will be performing mass at St. Ambrose on Saturday evening to celebrate their 50th year. We will be going with Mom, Donna, Brianna, myself and my girls. We're also having dinner at the church later that evening. I have to go back to the church on Sunday to pick up my wreath from the Boy Scouts. We have also pretty much finished our Christmas decorations but I still haven't gotten...

Jess & Maggie Alyssa and Maggie I tried to take some videos of the kids having fun last night and since my memory card in my camera is only 256K I kept having to download the videos into the computer after each one. Someone PLEASE remind me to get a larger memory card before Christmas!!! I just keep forgetting everytime I'm at the Wal-Mart. :0) We're in the process of putting up the Christmas tree and decorations today. I can't believe that Monday will already be December 1st! Hopefully, I can get the Christmas card picture taken by the tree this evening and get them developed and ready for the cards to go out.....or not. I think that might be a little too much positive thinking, even for me!

Today we celebrated Granny Laine's 71st birthday.........Happy Birthday Granny Laine!!!!! Glenn made fajitas, rice and beans and we had cheesecake for dessert. All the kids went in on a new computer for her. Now we just have to figure out how to transfer all of her files to her new computer. I gave her my flash drive so hopefully that will make it a little easier. I pulled out all of our old pictures (28 years of them!) and we laughed at old times and younger bodies! Not sure how this will turn out, but my scanner is broken and so I just took a picture of the picture from my senior prom.......Don't Glenn and I look cute?? Glenn and Shelly at the Scarborough Senior Prom 1984

The carrots were a little limp but the horses didn't care! Jessica feeding Penny a carrot - Penny's expecting a baby in the spring! Alyssa feeding Pecos his grain Alyssa and Jess with Lily I know this is a day late, but I didn't have time to sit down with my computer yesterday..........so as they say, Better Late Than Never! We had a great time out at "Little House". I brought green beans, mashed potatoes, and key lime pie (at my kids resquest) and everyone else brought lots of food, too.......it was all delicious! Jess and Alyssa were a little bummed that Lauren and Brandon weren't going to be here this year but they made the best of it.......they made sure that I remembered to take the apples and carrots to feed Aunt Vicki's horses. I think the horses had as good a time as Jess and Alyssa! When the blue bag was empty, Lily kept trying to take it away from me thinking that there were still some treats in it. Next time, we'll bring more, at least for ...

On Monday, Alyssa got to dress up as the saint of her choice for school. We had a little bit of a rocky start when we got to school and her 3 friends had not dressed up. They were going to wait until later to put on their costumes so Alyssa yanked hers off so fast your head would have spun. As I was leaving, I saw one of her friends coming up dressed in her costume so I asked her and her mom to go in and talk some sense into the girls........which they did.......Thanks Michelle! .......Soooooo, Alyssa dressed up as St. Lucia (St. Lucy). She is the patron saint of people with blindness. She wore a crown of candles and carried a plate of eyes. They had a parade along with the Pre-K who dressed up as indians. On Tuesday, the 3rd grade had a "feast" and dressed up in indian costumes that they made the day before. They had a very fun, very short week. Jessica still had tests this week and so she didn't have such a fun week. :0( But whether or not she had fun, both kids get t...

We just got back from a birthday party for my nephew, Brandon. He celebrated his big "8" today! Guy ordered BBQ from Hickory Hollow and as always, it was wonderful. We LOVE Hickory Hollow! The kids always really enjoy getting together and I don't think I heard a peep from any of them all afternoon. Jess and Lauren played outside and Alyssa and Brandon played with his nerf "laser" tag set and with the Game Cube. I am doing much better emotionally now, than I was when I posted yesterday. I broke down crying again and so we had a family meeting and discussed all the problems that we were all having. I think it helped.......at least it helped me and I feel better for having discussed it. Alyssa is going to make sure that she reads every day for at least 15 minutes because it is required for her reading class. She has to post every day that she reads - the book and how long she read it. Last month she didn't do well and brought home a really low grade. I told her...