What a week.. and its only Tuesday

So it has been a coupole of weeks... I have been staying busy at work and home. Quick update for all...
Last weekend me, Doug, Alexandra, Grandma Scheible and Grandma Thayer had Breakfast with Santa at Nordstrom. Alex was very good. She even talking to Santa about her Kitty-Cat. She didnt want to get close to him but everytime he was around she would point at him and say "Santa!".
A close friend of ours, Zach, was in a car accident Sunday evening on the southside. Some might have heard about it on the news. Wishtv had a video clip titled "Hit and Run Injures Hoosier Soldier". He was t-boned on the drivers side by another car and pushed off the road. He was knocked unconscience while the driver of the other car ran away on foot, leaving the car. Luckily there were two witnesses and right now investigation is underway to verify the person who was caught in fact was the driver. Zach has a broken jaw, broken pelvis, 3 broken ribs, bruise on his brain, broken clavicle, punctured lung and liver. Surgery was performed to fix the liver and lung, his spleen was taken out. He is in ICU and will stay there till at least Friday. He has a very long hard recovery ahead of him. Luckily he has a wonderful, caring and supportive wife that will be there through it all.
Please keep Zach and Kari in your thoughts and prayers.
Work has been extremely busy with the coworkers on vacation or out for medical reasons. I feel at one point Im all caught up and then someone opens the gates and more work floods in. Every year it seems to be hectic and stressful, but this year seems to be the worse so far. I will just be happy when it starts to slow down around February.
Today, with the ice and snow from the northside to the southside of Indpls, it toook me almost 3 hours to get home. There was more ice than snow on the southside and traffic literally creeped at 10 mph on 35. I didnt get home till 7 and of course my night has literally flown by. But now I get to go to bed and wake up to another rough drive into work tomorrow... from what I have been told, more ice is on the way as we sleep.

SO it tried adding pics and then it goes blank.. so ill try again later

Bla....

So this morning I woke to a very upset stomach. I debated going to work, but went on in. Well the whole time driving from the southside to the northside I thought I was going to puke. The state trooper me and three other vehicles followed the whole way cwouldnt go over 60mph. I even contemplated on turning around at a few exits. I made it to work, started my day trying to get my mind off my upset stomach. Before I had left I had told Doug I wasnt feeling well so didnt give him a good bye kiss. Later in the morning he told me he wasnt feel well either. So now Im thinking we have the flu or ate something bad. We had a great homemade meatloaf with potatoes and carrots. And it tasted even better this time. By 11am I could not focus anymore on work and decided to go home. I met Doug in the warm comfy bed where we both tried to nap. Why is it when your not thinking about sleep, you are so exhausted, have a hard time keeping your eyes open but when you lay down in bed you cant fall asleep? Yea well that was me. So for the rest of the day we laid in bed, watching tv until we had to get Alex from daycare. And of course Miss Alex was doing very well and had normal bowle movements...Sunday night she had diarhea, so we were worried she had caught something as well.
Well Im about to head off the bed, joining Doug. Alex went to bed early tonight only because we made her. Im starting to feel better, have even eaten some dry cereal. I had not eaten anything all day, so this was a good start. Im thinking everything will be better tomorrow. And Ill be back at work...yay!

Getting creative...

I am still practicing with my new camera. So here are a few pictures I took of Alexandra as I "allowed" her to decorate the tree.

Picture from Thanksgiving

A plate full of food for both...they ate maybe three bites each but drank 2 cups wach of milk....

Alex singing while playing in her food.... Lance enjoying my Eclair cake...mmmm....they ate their own bowl each and finished everyone elses bowls

Lance in time out after undecorating a christmas tree (again)

Alex in time out after standing on the desk writing with a permanent marker (luckily she didnt write on anything but paper)

Busy, Busy, Busy

Kitchen..im still waiting to replace the lights on the tree so its not up yet in the top corner of the cabinets

The fireplace...

Our house

Thats how we have been for the last couple of weeks. With the decent weather a couple of weeks ago, we hung up all of the christmas decorations, inside and out. Our living room, bedroom, kitchen, front room and Alexandras room all have a tree. Alex has been pretty good with the trees, only undecorated the tree in our bedroom with the help of Lance my Godson. I cooked, with the help of others, Thanksgiving Dinner. We had a house full of friends and family. I even cooked up three new recipes, including a Chocolate Eclair Cake, Apple Sour Dough Stuffing and Parmesean Puff Patries. Evertything but the pastry puffs went well. I will have to practice on those some more. We also celebrated my birthday as it was the same day. The big 2-8. But of course, just feels like another day for me.

Thanksgiving evening after dinner, Lance and Alex disappeared into our bedroom to watch cartoons, so we thought. It was when they both ranout into the living room with arms full of ornaments, laid them on the table and ran back into the bedroom. I followed to find they had undecorated the tree, laying every piece on the bed or floor. They somehow even got the silver star at the top of the tree down. After asking many questions and hearing a few confessions, we learned Lance shook the tree, knocking the star down from the six foot tree. Luckily all the ornaments are plastic and didnt have too many catastrophies. A few ornaments had to have the tops glued back on, but all is well. All we could do as parents was laugh (when they werent looking of course). Later that evening the kids then disappeared into the front room. When my mom came out to advise "Maybe you and Kari should take care of this one..." I knew immediately what was going on. I found Alex sitting on top of the desk writing with a black permanent marker while Lance was literally knocking the glass bulbs off the tree. This time we were not laughing. They were placed in Time-Out.

Front Room

Our bedroom tree

Alexandra's tree

And the tree in the living room

Happy 2nd Birthday Alexandra

Sunday November 16, 2008 we celebrated Alexandra's 2nd birthday with a "Finding Nemo" themed party at our home. Friends and family joined in the celebration as well. We had a great time. Alex received so many great gifts, including a huge dollhouse from Mommy and Daddy, many outfits from all, an interactive Panda bear from Nana and PawPaw, accessories for the dollhouse from Grandma Scheible, a Disney Princess coloring station from Grandma Thayer and many more presents. Before all the guests had left, Alexandra passed out asleep in her room watching a movie while sitting on her Pooh air mattress.