Vacations Days Are Great!

Well, Dad and Nan just left this morning and it has been a very relaxing Christmas break for me. I took the week off of work and for several days I did nearly NOTHING! That ROCKS! I am using this weekend before going back to work to do some things I should have found time to do during the week (pay bills, balance checkbook, blog, organize, laundry, blah, blah...)

So While we had guests we ate lots of good food and sweets, and went to a couple of cool places. We first went to George Ranch Historical Park. It is like an indoor/outdoor museum with demonstrations of ranching, blacksmithing and the like. There were a couple of house tours of how the rich people in those days lived. Very interesting and I am grateful for indoor plumbing and central heat/air conditioning! There was a bench with a couple of cute statues ready for picture taking.

It looks like they joined a new family! Logan liked riding on the cart pulled by the tractor. He wasn't too keen on the house tours though.

We had a wonderful Christmas morning with lots of presents. Just outside the window Logan got to see another gift Santa left him.

Santa told us that he found it at a garage sale down the street for only $10 and spent a couple of nights up late painting it! Go Santa!

Logan had fun opening up lots of good stuff from Santa and Grandma and Grandpa.

The day after Christmas we did what half of all other Americans were doing, Shopping! We went to Ikea which is one of my all time favorite stores. If you dont have one in your area then I am really sorry. They have modern furnishings and housewares at really good prices. Several pieces of our furniture are from there and when we get to remodleing the Kitchen we will probably get the Ikea cabinets. They are a great deal and are really pretty. It's a humongous store and you could spend many hours in there (and we have!). They thought of everything. There is a cafeteria and a secured, kids only play area where you can leave the rugrats while you shop! Then we went to Fry's Electronics store and looked at all the great stuff that we may someday be able to buy (when we win the lottery).

Then I spent two days doing almost nothing. I did make a couple meals, emptied the dishwasher a few times and I might have done a load of laundry. I really enjoy my "time off!"

I hope everyone had a faboulus Christmas and we wish all a Wonderful New Year!

Basketball is Here

Logan has played soccer for the past three spring/fall seasons. He finally wanted to try something else. So for the winter season he is trying basketball. I think Charles has waited a long time for him to pick basketball since he has been talking about coaching for a while now. We have a new YMCA in our area and I think membership is still a little slow.There were only 9 kids that showed up from age 3 to 7. Not enough to have a few age related teams. So Charles and two other coaches are having a "basketball clinic" two days a week and the kids can come out to as many as they want. Honestly, I think Charles had more fun than the kids! For a few more pictures check out the link on the right to our photo album.

I Figured It Out!

So now I have this big orange SUBSCRIBE button on the right. You can click it and pick a "reader" of your choice. You will have to register with that reader, but you can use it for all your blogs, news, etcetera that you subscribe to. If your homepage is something like MSN, Yahoo, AOL, or Google then you can register with that one and it will come up on your homepage. If they don't list your current reader you can ask them to add it if you want. Or you can just type in the blogs URL feed to your own reader to subscribe. Thanks for being patient. It took me a really long time to figure it out!! And I think it was more by accident because I sure couldn't do it again!

Subscription Feeds

I'm still trying to figure this all out, but I know you can subscribe through the link at the bottom of the blog and it requires you have a Google account. Google bought Blogger and so they have it set up to automatically do everything through Google. I looked into Feedburner and it turns out Google just bought them too.

I did a little more research and found there are many other RSS feed readers out there for free. You do have to sign up for them though. Here are a few:
Feedburner
Bloglines
Rojo
My Yahoo
- go to personalize this page and then click add RSS feed
Google Reader

Then when it asks for the URL type in this web address.

http://meandtheboys4.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/full

I will hopefully figure out how to add buttons on the sidebar so you can add with one click. There sure is a lot to learn. Now I really need to get some work done!!

Great Holiday Movie

The first day that Charles' sister and her family were here, they wanted to go horseback riding. I knew Logan wouldn't want to go so I offered an alternate activity in case there were any others who didn't want to ride. So when they were riding horses while a thunderstorm was approaching, I took Logan and Spencer, Logan's cousin, to see Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. Wow! it was really a fun movie even for adults. Logan and Spencer loved it and we kept dry! It stars Dustin Hoffman, Natalie Portman (from Star Wars), and Jason Bateman (Silver Spoons). It's about a magical toy store that gets a little grumpy and crazy things happen. Dustin Hoffman plays a crazy old man really well. And Jason Bateman is all grown up! We are the same age and it's hard to believe he looks so mature and adult-like! I wonder if I look adult-like yet! Although it isnt a Christmas movie, it will definitely get you in the spirit. I hope everyone is doing great and getting ready for the holidays! We haven't even got our stuff out of the shed yet because we are still remodleing the front room (where the Christmas tree goes). Hopefully we will get it done before Dad and Nan show up!

Why Start a Blog?

I've actually been wanting to do this for a long time. It's just finding the time to get it going and figure it all out. My main intension is to be able to share family pictures and news with all our friends and family. As most of you know we have been really bad about sending pictures, birthday cards and keeping up with who did we tell what. I'm hoping that this gives you a lot more information and interaction with us. It may turn into more than just that, but that's where I am starting! If you have any ideas or suggestions on how to make what you see better leave me a comment.

It really hit home this Thanksgiving. Charles' sister Carrie and her family visited us for a few days this week. I can't believe how long it has been since we have all been together! The last time I saw Carrie and her family was when Logan was a baby. Her kids have really grown and I am afraid the clothes I bought them for Christmas were all too small! Charles and Logan made two other trips to West Virginia without me in the past couple of years. And I have made trips with Logan to see my family without Charles. It is sometimes just too expensive to fly and take off of work.

I hope to be able to work on the blog at least once a week. My first priority is adding some pictures so everyone can see what we look like now. (Pictures may be too scary for you the first time here! LOL) Logan recently had his 6th birthday and Carrie and family were here for Thanksgiving. I should be able to get those up within a week. You can also sign up for the RSS feed so you can be notified when I actually post something. That way you don't have to check it all the time to see if I am still alive! Some other things I want to do is share information about Celiac Disease and gluten intolerance with links and recipes. There is other stuff I want to share,but I'll save it for later so the hole I am digging myself isn't so deep! This will be a public blog so I can find others who share my interests. Thanks for reading!