More travel...

I mentioned in my previous post that we visited with my Mother In Law's sisters family. Each Christmas they come to Corry, PA to visit with their Mom, Naomi (my MIL's sister) and always seem to stop by while we are up for our Christmas with Frank's family, which we love!

Chip and Cheryl live in Connecticut with their son Roddy. Their two daughters are grown and living in New York City (Cassie) and Los Angeles (Tammy). Both girls are well traveled and shared many stories with us about all the places they've been in the past year! Both girls have been in Europe for extended stays this summer, one visiting her boyfriend's family in England for almost a month and the other went on a two week trip with her boyfriend to Spain and France!

Cassie, who went to England, enjoyed her visit and did a lot of traveling throughout the UK. She didn't have to stay in any hotels in London since his family lives there, but she traveled to Birmingham and recommended a couple of hotels in Birmingham if we ever plan to go there. She also told us all about visiting The Lowry and the Manchester Art Gallery in Manchester. She loved it there, so of course she gave recommended hotels in Manchester as well!

Tammie kept us laughing with stories of how her boyfriend had to do a lot of translating for her while they were in Paris because she only took one year of French, but he spoke fluent French. Both trips sounded like they were a lot of fun....

Someday we'll travel to Europe!

Our 3rd Christmas!

We spent the weekend at my inlaws celebrating our 3rd Christmas for the year! We had a great weekend. We headed out on Friday afternoon and after stopping to eat a little dinner, we arrived by 8:00 p.m. We were up bright and early Saturday morning helping Mom S. wrap the final presents, then spent some time visiting with her sister's family who were all visiting for the weekend as well. I'll post more on that later...

We headed over to Frank's brother's house in the afternoon and enjoyed a day of visiting and eating, then eating some more! We Schweigert's do a really good job of eating! lol! We exchanged our gifts and did some more visiting.

I love spending time with Frank's family! His sister and his brother's wife are good friends, besides being my sisters! The kids had a good time too, and Jillian even put on a little performance for us, re-enacting one of her MS Arts monologue's that she had to do. She truly is a great little actress!

Sunday morning was spent at early church, then out to brunch (to eat again!) with the folks. We all had breakfast and it was delicious! We headed home in the afternoon after Frank helped Dad figure out how to add pictures to the Digital Photo Frame we got mom. I think he has it figured out ;)

We'll head back up next month for another visit! As always, I'm looking forward to it....

The Schweigert's

Here we are! We got our family portraits done on Sunday. This is the four of us... Bev, Becca, Jillian and Frank.


And here's the whole Kunkle gang! Becca was so excited because she got to hold Hunter!

Kunkle Christmas...

Yesterday was my family's Christmas at my house. What a great time we had! The highlight of the day of course, was when Hunter finally got there! lol! The girls didn't think he'd ever come! They just love their little cousin!


We ate a great dinner (if I do say so myself! lol!), then opened gifts. The kids were excited to get quite a few gift cards and can't wait to go shopping and spend it! lol! Hunter had more gifts than anyone! Can you see the "tools" that we got him! I couldn't resist the little plush tool box that had his name on it! I have a feeling that little guy is going to be a bit spoiled! lol!

Today is Christmas Eve. Becca and I are both working, but we'll go to church tonight for Christmas Even services, then home to get ready for bed! I'm very anxious for the girls to see what we got them this year... and I have a special surprise for Frank too! It's going to be a great day tomorrow!

Have a very, Merry Christmas everyone! And remember, Jesus is the reason for the season!

A very close call...

Read Caption on 1st photo then look at second photo

Look at the picture above and you can see where this guy broke through the guardrail, right side where the people are standing on the road (pointing). The pick-up was traveling from right to left when it crashed through the guardrail. It flipped end-over-end, across the culvert outlet, and landed right side up on the left side of the culvert, facing the opposite direction from which he was traveling.

Now look at the 2nd picture below....

If this guy didn't believe in God before, do you suppose he believes now?

Party Mice

These would make fantastic party favors! Aren’t they adorable?

I was looking up recipe ideas for peanut butter balls made out of melted chocolate and found these mice. Super easy to make.

Here’s the recipe:

Chocolate Almond Bark Chocolate Flavored Coating
1 Jar pitted Maraschino Cherries with Stems(1 cherry per mouse)
Chocolate Kisses (1 per mouse)
Sliced Almonds (2 per mouse)
1 tube Cake decorating gel (for eyes)

Melt Almond Bark according to package directions. Holding cherry by stem, dip into melted chocolate (stem becomes mouse’s tail), lay sideways on waxed paper so that bottom of cherry is not touching paper. Immediately place flat side of Chocolate kiss to bottom of cherry. Place 2 almond slices as “ears” between chocolate kiss and cherry, hold until set. When dry, use decorating gel to “dot” eyes on top of chocolate kiss. Enjoy!

Doing a little dreaming...

If you could go anywhere in the world that you wanted to, where would you go? An online friend of mine just returned from a trip to Europe that she won courtesy of her home based direct sales business. What a great opportunity!

I honestly am not sure where I could go if money was no option... Jillian was in a phase for a while where she wanted to go to Spain and marry a bull fighter! Okay, seeing a bullfight is not exactly on my list of activities I'd do while in Spain! lol! Check out these hotels in Spain if you're ever planning to go there. If that doesn't interest you, maybe instead you could check out the hotels in Barcelona and take a Cable Car that would run from Barceloneta Beach over to Montjuic. I think that's something we'd all enjoy, however I've been told that if you are afraid of heights, this might not be for you!

When Becca went to Quebec with her French class last summer, they visited several very large cathedrals, so she may be more interested visiting Palma de Mallorca where they have an amazing Gothic Cathedral from the XIII century and lovely gardens. She could take some gorgeous pictures of all the flowers by going there! Or, perhaps she'd rather stay in one of the hotels in Malaga and visit the Picasso Museum where there is a collection of thousands of his works!

Whatever we would visit, I'm sure it would be a vacation of a lifetime.... guess I can always keep dreaming!

Get out of the car!!!

This just cracked me up and I had to share it!!!! lol!

Choosing the right lamp....

We finally got new carpet in the living room!!! I am soooo excited! I was dreading putting up the Christmas decorations because the carpet looked so bad. The new carpet is blue with a little bit of gray and white. We're hoping that will help hide the white dog hairs! lol! Unfortunately, the new carpet makes the rest of the furniture look even worse than before! lol!

So, now I'm on the search for just the right lamp for beside my chair. I found a site called Farrey's.com that has a huge selection of lamps that include floor lamps as well as table lamps, reading lamps and even piano lamps! I'm pretty impressed with their large selection and pricing.

The floor lamp that I like best is brushed nickel and has two lights. That way, I can use the lamp when I'm reading, and the other can be turned toward Frank's chair. If I wanted to go a bit fancier, they have a big selection of Tiffany lamps as well.

I also have been looking at their desk lamps. I have my computer in the Dining Room and the ceiling light sometimes is just not bright enough. I need one that will clip onto the top of my desk and they have several to choose from. I have a birthday coming up in March.... this might be a good birthday present idea! lol!

Now, how about those drapes..... that's another post at a later date! lol!

Dinner Theatre!

Once again, the kids have put on a fantastic show!!! The annual Dinner Theatre production was held both Friday and Saturday evenings by the middle and high school students.

The theme was Disney and they sang a variety of Disney classics and danced through the whole thing! They went from one song to the next, and just kept singing and dancing! What a show!!!!

And, my heart was bursting with pride when Jillian sang one of the preshow solos :) She sang "Once Upon a December" from the movie Anastasia. She did a fantastic job!!!!

Here she is singing! I'm so proud of her!!!!

Neologisms!

Once again, The Washington Post has published the winning submissions to it's yearly neologism contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternative meanings for common words.

The winners are:

1. Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs.

2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.

3 . Abdicate (v..), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

4. Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.

5. Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent.

6. Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightgown.

7. Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.

8. Gargoyle (n.), olive-flavored mouthwash.

9. Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller.

10. Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.

11. Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam.

12. Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.

13. Pokemon (n), a Rastafarian proctologist.

14. Oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.

15. Frisbeetarianism (n.), (back by popular demand): The belief that, when you die, your Soul flies
up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

16. Circumvent (n.), an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.

Secret Sister Swap!

I'm participating in my very first ever online Secret Sister swap! I was a little leery about doing a secret sister with someone I don't know, but since it was with someone from wahm.com, my favorite website, I figured I couldn't go too wrong!

So, my package came yesterday! Woo Hoo! Was I excited! I opened it up and it was filled with stuff! I got a snowman dishtowel and pot holder, some honey almond shower gel and body cream, It's a Mom Thing book, angel notecards, grocery list with magnet on the back, a little bowl with magnets and Christmas decorations, Sudoku book, some warm fuzzy socks, and a bunch more!!! Can you believe it!!!

I had my box almost ready to go, but now I feel like I need to add some more to it... I'm going to stop at Walmart tomorrow after work and see what I can find.... I hope she likes it!

It's here!

Yep, winter has arrived.... I know, we shouldn't complain, it is December after all! But I'm just not ready for it yet.

Yesterday morning when we got up, it was pouring down rain. So much so that Jillian had to take an umbrella to the bus stop! By the time I left for work 45 minutes later, there was snow on the ground. Not a lot, but a covering. All day yesterday it snowed off and on.

Becca wanted to go shopping last night in Greensburg for a dress for the JSP (Junior Senior Party, as we used to call it when I was in school!) which is in less than two weeks. The next two weeks are going to be crazy, so last night was our only chance to go. So off we head to the mall!

The roads were slick, but not too bad as long as we went slowly. We took Becca's friend Andrea with us. The girls found quite a few dresses to try on. Becca found hers, but Andrea didn't have any luck. Becca's is a silver halter top dress. She looks gorgeous in it! She wants either black or silver shoes. I'm trying to talk her into black because the silver ones won't be worn very much. After we were done shopping, we stopped at Denny's for some desert.... yummmm.

This morning when we woke up, we had a couple inches of snow on the ground, and it was a bit slick under the snow. The kids were disappointed that there wasn't a school delay... lol! I guess winter is officially here!