Sleeping on the Job...

Yesterday Jon and I brought Sydney Herr home with us after church to take a nap at our house, then hang out with us until the Christmas concert that our church held last night. Brian & Sarah were both either in the concert or running sound, so they needed to be there early. After Sydney woke up from her nap I was still in the kitchen making cookies - you'd think all I do these days is bake cookies - so Jon was helping out by keeping an eye on Sydney and playing with her. After a while I had a break where there was nothing I needed to be in the kitchen for, so I went into the living room to see what they were up to. Here's what I discovered:





Haha!!! I quietly got the camera and snapped the picture and then started laughing. :)Looks like Jon's the one that needed a nap.

Alright, I need to get wrapping gifts and baking MORE cookies!! So far this year I've made White Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Crinkles, Peanutbutter Blossoms, Chocolate-dipped Shortbread and sugar cookies. Tonight I'm making Snickerdoodles and rolling and cutting out the dough that's in the refrigerator to make Christmas cut-out cookies. My favorite are the Chocolate-dipped shortbread cookies. I'm not sure where the recepie originally came from, but I got it from my mom. Here it is incase you want to try them:

Cookies:

2 cups flour
1 cup margarine (soft) - margarine works better than butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients except chocolate chips until well blended. Add chocolate chips and mix into dough. Roll into thin logs 3-4 inches long and bake 10-12 minutes at 350degrees.

Frosting:

3/4 cup chocolate chips
1 Tbsp. Crisco (vegetable oil works well too)

Melt ingredients over very hot water in double broiler. Dip one end of each cookie in the chocolate and lay on wax paper on a flat cookie sheet. Cool cookies in fridge for at least 1 hour to set chocolate before storing.

Enjoy!

The latest...

So, since last time I blogged what all has happened? November 30th was my mom's birthday so I had a little luncheon in her honor. It was just for family so I invited my sisters, Mom-mom, Grandma Bea, Jon's mom, and Shawna and her mom. Everything went well! Here are just a few pictures:




We are still praying and in search of a job for Jon - things are looking up though. In the past week he's been in contact with career services from his school frequently and they're looking for a Job for him. He also posted his resume and information on craigs list and got a call from a staffing agency that has a possible job opportunity for him - he met with a lady from there last Friday. And Wednesday he got a call from an independant company (we're not sure where they saw his info) saying they have a possible opening for him. So we're praying that one of these Job's is what God has planned - but who knows. In the meantime Jon's been working at the Inn again, expoditing for the holiday season. He works Monday - Friday for lunch and Monday & Wednesday for dinner.

With both of us working the schedule is crazy busy again. Not quite as busy as when I was working full time though.

Tuesday night Jon's mom took both Jon and I to this different kind of chiropractor that she goes to occationally. He's one who focuses specifically on your top two vertabre which he believes have an impact on the whole rest of your spine. We went because his mom and I thought that maybe chiropractic work could help with the mini siesure-like things he gets ocationally when he stands up from a sitting position. It basically causes him loose control of the entire right side of his body for a few seconds and his hand and face sorta clench up. This guy we went to thinks that its very possible that a nerve or something is pinched and that could be causing what happens to Jon. So he did some adjustments to Jon's neck the other night. Time will tell if what the chiropractor did helped because Jon doesn't get these siesures every day, but so far he hasn't gotten any. We're praying they are gone.

Last night we had Dwayne and Rachel over for dinner. It was nice catching up with them since we haven't seen them in a while. After dinner the 3 other couples from our "old" couples group came over - Nate & Shawna, Brian & Sarah and Ian & Ashley. We had a great time socializing and then we turned on the Wii and play some Wii sports and Monkeyball - both fun interactive games for groups.

Tonight we have our young marrieds discipleship group at Brian and Sarah's and then afterward we're going to see the movie "I am Legend" with a few other couples from church. I guess it'll be a late night :). At least we have nothing major to do tomorrow so we can sleep in and have a nice relaxing Saturday.

Well, I think that's the catch-up. I really need to get better at posting more regularly.

Update

Now that it's been almost a month since I got laid-off at THP I figured it was about time to update my blog! I haven't posted because nothing much interesting has been happening - up until this past week. Plus, I've been keeping busy and really enjoying all the time I have now to keep my house clean and organized and to make full homemade meals and get all kinds of things done that I didn't use to be able to do.

When I was working the days felt like they went on forever and I was so bored sitting at work with nothing to do. Now the days feel like they fly by. I can't believe how quickly they go by. I thought I would be all caught up with everything on my to-do list in no time but with most of my list still un-done, I was obviously wrong :). There are so many things to be done and so much to organize and making a full meal almost every day takes a lot longer than I was expecting. I started with a stack of recipes I had cut out of all different magazines and now I've almost made all of them. I've been making a new meal almost every night for dinner. If we like it then I write it onto a recipe card with notes about how much we liked it and what I should do differently next time - if anything.

Thanksgiving also came and went since the last time I posted. We went to my parents house for lunch with a big group of my family. Then we came back to Jon's parents for dessert later in the afternoon and stayed there most of the evening. It was a nice relaxing day.

The weekend after Thanksgiving - Friday afternoon to Monday night - Jon was up at the cabin for hunting - which started Monday. Unfortunatly it rained Monday so it wasn't great for hunting. Tuesday he went out again with Nate down near my parents house. He really wants to get a deer this year :).

Tuesday we went out and got a Christmas tree and Wednesday we decorated it. I like how it turned out this year a little better than last years tree. Here are some pictures.




Oh yes, and I now have somewhat of a job again, starting this past Wednesday. I'm coat checking for day-time banquets at the Inn Tuesday - Friday during the month of December (up until the Friday before Christmas). So far this past week I only worked 2 days because I wasn't expecting to start until next week. I worked only Wednesday and Thursday. Those two days there were not many coats so I'm not sure how things are going to continue...or if I will continue. We'll see.

Since I haven't been working I've been able to get out during the days often and I am just about done my christmas shopping and gift wrapping!! It feels good knowing I don't have to rush around at the last minute in all the craziness to get my gifts this year!