The best Saturday EVER

So yesterday there was no work, no fishing, no drumline. Just the family home. Nothing going on. Jeremy even stayed home from fishing. I am sure he told the boys I said no. But I didnt. He actually chose to stay home and spend the day with us! Yeah!!! It was great! We got the Christmas stuff put away, got the house back to normal, which did include a couple of hours upstairs cleaning the kids rooms. I think the phrase...."you have to many toys" was said about a million times. Then it was time to play! Jeremy, Josh, Amanda, and I spent about 3 hours (on and off) playing Rock Band 2. Oh my how fun. All in all, it was a GREAT Saturday, one that does not happen to often in this busy life of ours!

Church Pictures

We almost were down to 3 kids the night we had family pictures taken at church. Jack decided to be a little crap head. I was steaming mad at him.......however, the guys taking pictures managed to take some pretty amazing pictures.........



Try number one...........


alright Jack, just smile.........Jack, Jack.....stand up!!!

Better give the Mom who is turning bright red a half good shot......

FINE MOM, here's my award winning smile!!!

Where the heck

has the time gone!!!???

I can not believe that the month of December is almost gone. And I wont be sad when it is. Dont get me wrong I love the month of December, but it is so busy that its just hard to enjoy it cause it goes so fast! So what has the Baker family been up to? Well let me tell you,
The weekend of the 6th and 7th...That was the weekend we were sick, so pretty much just sat our butts at home.
On the 14th the Chap girls got together for our annual day of Cookie Madness. Love it! We mad cookies, then we made some more cookies, and then we made some bars, pretzels, rosettes, and more cookies. The little kiddos decorated sugar cookies, lots and lots of sugar cookies, they were.......well......the were interesting. BUT they thought they were aweome, so that is all that really mattered.

This weekend we started our family gatherings. On Saturday we spent the day in Silver Lake with the Pokornowski clan. What a great day. We did it a little different this year in there was no gift exchange. There was a visit by the big man himself, so the kids got a small gift from him. When we got home that night Amanda looked at me and said that was the best Christmas she had been to in a long time. The cousin just got to play. They played games, sat in bothes and chatted and just had an awesome time. Izzy and Jack were so tired from running through the auditorium that they feel asleep on the way home. A very good day.

Today we spend the day with the Chaps. Again so good to see everyone. The kids have so much fun with there cousins!! It is so great to see the generations bound like the generations past have done! It just really warms a heart!

Well two and a half days of work and then its Christmas eve. We head out to Eric and Carissa's. They had the misfourtune of building a big beautiful house that happens to fit the Chap clan in..
so I am not sure if they volunteer, or if one of us "volunteers" for them. Hopefully the kids dont break anything this year! (yes it was one of my kids!!) Good food, some games and just fun hangin out.

Christmas day we just hang out at home. Jeremy has to work, so if anyone has an emergany, dont worry you are in good hands. Amanda and Josh are going to be with their Grandma Mattson. So Izzy, Jack and I will be home playing with our new toys.

Well have a great week! A Merry Christmas. Stay warm, stay safe!

Love to all!

Jess

Down with the Sickness

Yep, that is what we are! Down with the sickness. Today is Thursday. If we keep on, it will be one week with it. It started last Saturday night with Manders getting it. She woke me up to tell me she got sick. And when I checked on her Saturday morning, I found her in her bathroom with the door shut and a little heater running, it had to be 90 degrees in there. But she was cold. She spent the remainder of the day in the bathroom and in bed. Meanwhile me and the rest of the kiddo's went to church......bad idea....we left midway through as I felt as though praying that I wasnt going to throw up wasnt going to be answered! To bed I went. Got up at 6pm, went back to bed at 7, and slept until 7am. Went back to bed at 7:30, and slept till 10. Made it back to work Tuesday, but left early for a nap, couldnt do it anymore. And Jeremy was next......pretty much we have fallen like flies around here. With Jack being our latest one to get it today. He is pretty funny though. He will have his head hangin in the toilet and get done and say Uf Da that was bad, or Uf Da I am really sick.

So we all know what this means to me.......Saturday bright and early........little bit of bleach and water......massive cleaning......here I come.

What a nice day.

Well turkey day is done. It was a very nice day. We went out to Dads house. I felt a little emotional all day. I kept thinking that it could be the last time we ever had Thanksgiving in the house that I grew up in. Now I know I was a little crap head in that house. But it is still the house I grew up in. It was a great day. Eric, Carissa, Mel, Dave and kids, us, Dad, Julie, Joey and Jacob along with Julies family was there. Tina, Nathan and the girls joined us later in the afternoon. We had the traditional lunch, but Julies mom brought this pumpkin pie that was AWESOME! Holy moly it was good. We watched Christmas Vacation, and played cards and Apples to Apples. It was all in all a very nice way to spend the day.

Well I am off. Jeremy and I are meeting some people up town, Martin Zeller is playing at the golf course. So we are going to go see him.

Thanksgiving

I am feeling very thankful this year. With so much crap going on in the world. I look around and see how freakin lucky I am. Yep money is tight, but I am able to go to a movie with my child and still pay my electric bill. I am able to put gas in my car, and still go get some groceries, I do not have to choose between buying medication for my sick child and paying my rent. So while I may not be able to go buy myself a shirt full price right now, I am able to make it. We have had so many blessings in our lives.......

Some of the things I am thankful for

-My family, my rock, my sounding board, my friends.

-My kids, without them, I am just me, with them, I am everything.

-My husband, my friend, my lover, the person I need to see everyday, my partner, I am lucky. I am loved. Loved for me. I dont just love him for who he is, I also love him for who I am when I am with him.

-My job. I may not always like it. But I have it, and thats alot.

-My co-workers, my friends. They are one of the reasons I get out of bed in the morning, right after coffee and my kids!!

-Good music

-My sisters. We are like a circle, complete, never ending.

I thank God. Without him. None of this would be mine to have.

BINGO

So on Wednesday night a couple of girls I work with and I went out for drinks and to play bingo. It was so much fun. Of course after a drink or two, we tend to get funnier and we started to think of different ways we could do our walk in interviews. Here are a couple of ideas
-do the interview in an irish accent.....Karen did that on Thursday, I almost pissed myself. Her name is now Pippy.
-when the client cries....it happens often, just lay your head down on your desk and start to cry your self. (Jackie's idea)
-pretend you fall asleep every couple of minutes, I know the word, just dont know how to spell it, and I am to lazy right now to look it up. (Karen's idea)
-Take out a silver gum wrapper and tell them you need to put it on there finger, that is was a lie detector. (my idea, what do you mean am I married to someone who works for the sheriffs dept)
-Scratch your head the whole time like you have lice.
-Start swearing often.......
the list was endless.
So the super fun part of the evening was when my friend Karen stood up on the last game and yelled BINGO........and she is doing this little dance, cause the cheap ass, who didnt want to spend the 2.50 to take cash out of the cash machine, thinks that she just won 99.00. I am jumping with her trying to get her attention to tell her that NO, in fact she had just won, $1000.00. No kidding she just won 1000.00. I think it took her a while to realize what she just won. What an awesome night!!!!
And let me tell you.......this could NOT have happened to a better person........think about what you would do with 1000.00...............
Heres what she did, gave some to church, gave some to a charity dealing with children, gave some to the humane society, is giving some to her mom who watches her kids 2 days a week for her, and maybe, just maybe.....she is going to go and try to find a shirt for herself that is not on the clearence rack..........I could learn alot from this friend of mine............I HAVE learned alot from this friend of mine..........man am I the lucky one.