Ribbon?

What ribbon? :) Repeat this to yourself... there is no ribbon. Resist the ribbon... This is Truman's Achilles heel... he tries, but he cannot resist the satin ribbon on my robe. He just looses his mind over it. I just thought this was too cute! :)

Surprise Concert

So, yesterday I'm sitting at school working with Jamie (we had an early release day and time to collaborate) and my cell rang, and it was Mom... apparently my aunts and uncles in Illinois grew up with a guy who moved to Nashville to be a country star. Well, he made it (sorta) and he was touring with Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, and Jake Owen because he was writing songs with Jake Owen (he wrote "Yeehaw") and he wanted to know if we wanted to go to the concert!!! So, of course, we said yes, and Mom, Ruth, Josh and I got to go! The seats were amazing, and we got to sit and talk with Kendall. We weren't on the floor, but we were in the first section, straight back from the stage, six rows from the front. So they were AWESOME, and the show was awesome, too! All 3 artists were really good, and we all had a great time. I've never had anything like that happen before... so cool! And, of course, one of the best parts of a concert is the people watching, and there was some prime people-watching at this concert! You saw just about everything... from the girls in short skirts, knee-high cowboy boots and sweaters (it was 4 degrees, literally) to the two girls who were wearing LAMPSHADES ON THEIR HEADS!!! Quite entertaining, all of it. And once the concert actually started, we could really watch all the people who were totally drunk dance like idiots... including the two drunk ladies down the row from us who were... let's just say very into dancing. All in all we had a great evening, and being exhausted all day today was totally worth it! :) Thanks again, Kendall! (Not that he reads my blog, but, you know)

More Snow Pictures

A few more pictures from the snow days... for those of you not in Columbia, there is still snow on the ground up here! And it's still several inches deep, and some roads still have ice on them. It is supposed to finally warm up tomorrow, but it's been a cold, cold week. All week we've been having inside recess, and even though it was only 33 degrees outside today we were OUT!!! Anyway, the top two pictures are from shoveling Grandma's driveway... one is obviously Josh doing a kamikaze in the snow, and the other just shows how deep that snow was! The bottom picture was taken by Ruth out at Mom & Dad's. Anyway, thought you'd enjoy!

Snow Bunnies

Clearly, some people (and dogs) are made for cold weather and snow! :) My husband and his dog had a grand ol' time today frolicking in the snow. Actually, I can't talk because I was generally right with them, except when I was taking the pictures. Nothing like a good snow storm to turn everyone into little kids again! :) 

First Snow

Well, they're saying it's the biggest snowstorm we've had since 1995, and I believe it! 16 inches fell in Columbia, and most of Columbia was shut down for the day. Josh and I took a walk with Isabelle, and here are some of the things we saw! 

Snow Day(s)!!

So, for those of you not in Columbia, it has been snowing for the last couple of days. Well, Wednesday night it rained then froze, so that was more ice. Then yesterday afternoon (a snow day from school) it started icing/sleeting/"wintery mix"-ing, which turned into dumping snow last night! I love snow, and the dog was desperately in need of some exercise, so last night we took the dog for a walk. It was totally deserted outside, and the snow in a lot of places was completely untouched, just perfect and smooth. It was really beautiful. And, of course, begging for a snow angel, which Josh made! :) Anyway, when we came back I noticed that my snow people that are sitting on my front porch looked really cute with a light dusting of snow, so I took a picture. Then we went to bed... this morning, we woke up to the alarm, and it turns out that it just dumped on us, and not only were schools closed, but, really, all of Columbia was closed. Even I-70 and Hwy 63 were closed to civilian traffic. So I went outside to look, and, yep, sure enough. I can see about 3 inches of the middle of my car and the side mirror. Then I looked down and saw my snow people, or, rather, I didn't see my snow people. So here's what they look like today! Isabelle is truly in her element, she loves the snow, and has been bounding through it like a jackrabbit (for those of you who grew up with me, think Icky in tall grass). Anyway, there hasn't been a snow day like this in years, so I'm going to go outside and play with my dog and my husband and enjoy it! I'm sure I will post more pictures later!
 

Black Friday

Well, the newest Thanksgiving tradition is hitting the Black Friday sales on Friday morning! Ruth and I started going a couple of years ago with the aunts in Southern Illinois, and this year we drug Mom (and Josh) into it, too, but we stayed here in Columbia! :) Josh was headed to Best Buy to get a laptop for us, but when he got there at 4:30 (store opened at 5:00) the both of the laptops on sale were already sold out, and the line went from Best Buy all the way to Chuck E Cheese. So, needless to say, he didn't get one of those laptops! But he needed to go to Staples anyway, so he headed over there and they had a laptop on sale as well... he got one of those! :) And that is actually what I'm typing on right now, sitting on my couch watching Tombstone all at the same time (we got a wireless router for our modem)! I love it!!! So those were Josh's adventures on Black Friday... Mom, Ruth, and I started out at Kohls. I got there at about 4:45 (opened at 5:00) because I wanted a pillow-top mattress pad and Ruth wanted a portable dvd player. Mom and Ruth were running late, so I waited in the line and got shoved in with the rest of the crazies when the door opened. I grabbed a dvd player off the rack (they were gone within 2 minutes) and then headed back for the down mattress pad. I got one of those and Mom and Ruth got there. I met up with them and we realized that it was the wrong one! Instead of getting the $50 one, I got the $150 one! Well, most of you know that Prices (Holts) are not morning people, and Ruth hadn't had breakfast, so you can imagine the mood! I was definitely voted off of the island! We finished up our shopping at Kohls, mostly my shopping (a sweater, the mattress pad, and a present) and were headed to Best Buy. Mom and Ruth said they were going to stop at McD's for breakfast, so I thought I'd stick my head in the Nifong Wal-Mart, thinking that they wouldn't be as picked over. And I found... a portable DVD player for $50!! So I called Ruth, and Iwas totally voted back on the island... it's like on America's Sweethearts... "Your sister, I've never seen anything like it. One minute she's off the island, everyone hates her, and then wait! Oh, she's back on the island!" Probably butchered that quote, but you get the point! :) Anyway, so we headed to Best Buy, which was ridiculous, so we just turned right around and left. Then we hit Linens&Things and Macy's, opened Old Navy, and finally headed to Target. We finished at Target around 8:30, and Mom headed to do more shopping while Ruth and I headed to Illinois. We were exhausted, but we really had a good time! And we didn't look too rough in the one picture I took of all 3 of us outside of Target! :) Here's to doing it again next year!!

Thanksgiving! :)

Well, we spent Thanksgiving Day at Grandma Looten's with all of the Looten family (and I mean all). We had a great time! Everyone brought something to share, so we had tons of food (would it be Thanksgiving otherwise?), and it was all good! After lunch, the girls sat around and talked while the boys played some football outside and, in Josh's case anyway, learned they weren't quite as young as they used to be! :) We had a good time eating, visiting, playing, and just sitting around.






When everyone settled down for their afternoon naps, Josh and I headed out to my family's house for Thanksgiving dinner... not that we were too excited to eat again! :) The second time around you only take your absolute favorites 'cause otherwise you'll just lose it all! We headed home early because we were all (Mom, Ruth, Josh, and I) going to hit the Black Friday sales bright and early the next day! :) Wouldn't be Thanksgiving otherwise!

It's CHRISTMAS!!

Or... it's not even Thanksgiving yet! Despite the fact that it is a serious decorating faux pas, Josh and I put our tree up the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. It's just way more convenient, because I have the day off and can get all of the Christmas stuff out of the shed and move furniture and clean underneath furniture (that's where the dust brontosauruses live, we've moved way past dust bunnies). At least that's what we tell ourselves; truth of the matter is we do it before Thanksgiving because after our Branson trip we just can't wait any longer! I do absolutely love our tree... it's all white lights, and we start with gold garland stuff (can't think of what you call that stuff right now) and red bows (because that's how it always was in Josh's family) and then we add our ornaments, which we know I've got LOTS of! :) Last of all we add the icicles, which are probably my favorite part. By the end it just sparkles and sparkles. It makes me happy every time I come down the stairs and turn the corner and see it. So, here it is, in case it makes anyone else happy! :)

Fall Leaves

I love that we live in an older neighborhood and have huge trees in our backyard. It keeps the a/c bill down, keeps the dog cooler during the summer, etc. etc. When it's not as cool to have trees, however, is about mid-November, when all the leaves have fallen and you can't even see the ground! Since I had the day off last Wednesday (before Thanksgiving) I decided to be a good wife and rake the leaves in the backyard for my husband. Growing up in the country, leaf-raking was purely recreational- you raked enough leaves to make a pile to jump in, the rest were left to turn into compost! However, that's apparently not allowed in town! :) Personally, I think that as long as there are leaves on the ground, you can't tell that we have no grass in our backyard... but Josh doesn't like it, so I decided to rake for him. It was sooo hard! My shoulders haven't ached like that since softball 2-a-days! But I got the entire backyard raked, despite some "help" from ol' Isa the Bella. At least she enjoyed the raking! :)