This past weekend my sister and her in-laws came in to town for the Cowboys game on Sunday. Anytime, I am with the McNeill clan, I can be sure that by the time they leave my abs will have had a serious workout (you know, from all the laughing). Long story short we had quite a bit of fun.



If you know me at all, you know that I have a small army of nieces and nephews. They make my world go round! I got the pleasure of spending this weekend with two of them. We had such a special time on Saturday morning as they had their grand opening of "cafe coffee". They made a sign and hung it in our kitchen and handed out coffee and muffins to everyone for breakfast. They were such big helpers that the big spenders in the family even tipped them for their good service!

Ethan really wanted to play the part so we found him Daniel's aTm chef hat and apron. What a vision in maroon!!!

Here is Kathryn getting some water out of the fridge. Who drinks water for breakfast? Especially at Cafe Coffee, the best coffee in town!

The biggest news of the weekend was definitely when Ethan hit his first really big milestone.....other than walking, talking, starting kindergarten and eating whole pizzas. He lost his first tooth and got his first visit from the tooth fairy! He was so excited and precious that it brought a little mist to my eyes. I'm such a sucker!

This next weekend we'll be with 3 of my other kids.....well my brothers kids! I am looking soooo forward to having a few days off work and hanging out with family. That might be my favorite thing in the world! I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and is safe traveling!!!

Has it really been a week?

I really do want to blog more than just once a week, but the week seems to go by so fast that I always feel that I just posted something. Oh well, enough with the excuses!

Last night I went to see Coldplay. They are just phenomenal! That's really the only word I can find to describe them. I am really sad that I don't have any pictures to document it. Our tickets said in all caps NO CAMERAS OR RECORDERS. So, since our only camera now is worth more than a pot o gold, we did not risk taking ours. However, I think we were probably the only people in the entire AA Center that did not have a camera. While Coldplay was fantabulous, I certainly had my reservations about one of their opening acts. The first band that went on was actually pretty good. I really enjoyed their pedal steel. Then, this other techno sort of thing came on. The "music" he was making was ok. It kind of reminded me of Enigma. BUT, he did this weird psychadelic video thing with it. Just to let you know how weird it was, Daniel's exact words were "who sits at home and dreams up this crap?" It was just weird.

In other news, we are going to finish our kitchen lighting project tonight. We had 4 total to install and have done one, leaving us 3 to do tonight. It should make the kitchen alot cozier and alot less flourescent. Speaking of cozy, it is supposed to get really cold tonight and I think I'm going to make Daniel make a fire in the fireplace.

Another home project we are going to tackle (after the Holidays) is replacing the floors in a few rooms. I think we will do wood in the kitchen, dining, formal living, and entry. If anyone has done this before and has some great DIY advice, we'd love to hear it!

So my half marathon is about 3 weeks away. I really hope I'm as ready as I think I am. I guess I will find out this Saturday as I have a 12 mile run ahead of me. The weather will be quite different from what I'm used to running in, but probably more along the lines of what the race day weather will be like. I just really need to work on being calm about the race and not getting so nervous to just run. I'll keep you posted.

I apologize for all of the rambling as you probably have not made this far into the post due to boredom. If you have read this though, thank you for your interest!

Ode to Claire!

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

She is receiving an "ode" because I missed her 1st Birthday because I was at an Aerosmith concert! Therefore I'm trying to make up for it 2 years later!!

Claire is the sweetest hearted little thing you will ever meet! She continues to steal my heart everytime I see her! Enjoy the pictures of this sweet little angel.

Claire, I hope you have a wonderful birthday and Uncle Daniel and Aunt Tiff love to pieces and pieces!!!

What a Week

It has been quite a week hasn't it? So much so that I couldn't even figure out what to blog about. Where do I start? Perhaps I could start with how much fun we had last weekend....we were smurfs for Halloween. We won best overall costume at our Halloween Party, but I think it was a pity win because I yelled our names to be nominated to be funny and then everyone was like "well they did paint their faces". I guess a victory is a victory....although I feel that I cheapened it with my nomination. Before our party we went and early voted. We made a lot of new friends as people were eager to talk to us, children wanted our autographs, and some old British man said he wanted to hang me on a wall like a picasso painting....creeeeper

And with my victory on Friday night and all that standing in line to vote, Tuesday night I, and many other Republicans were defeated. It was a sad night for me. I didn't sleep well and boy was a grouchy at work on Wednesday. I feel alot better now after realizing that the fate of our country is not in the hands of me, John McCain, Barak Obama, George W or anyone else. It is in the hands of God and find alot of comfort in that.....no matter the outcome.

On another note I am still training hard for my half marathon on December 14. I am starting to get a little nervous about it. I think it is just nervousness due to the unknown. I've never ran in any sort of race like this so I'm not quite sure what to expect. Speaking of....a quick shout out...Bonnie I hope you read this entry because I know you are running the white rock half and I was going to ask if I can run with you? Unless you have some rediculously awesome time and then, nevermind.....I will not be running that fast.

Lastly, I want to ask everyone to pray for a friend of mine. My friend Taylor called me last Friday with news that her mom had been diagnosed with colon cancer. Since that time, they have gotten a fairly good report that they removed all the cancer, but will still do chemo for several months just to make sure they get it all. Cancer is a scary thing and to be real honest it gives me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I really just want to ask everyone (whether you know Taylor or me at all) to pray for complete healing for her mom.

I hope everyone has a great Friday and wonderful and safe weekend!

New pictures with the new D80!

Daniel here - i think this is my first actual post to this thing. I've been having fun with the new camera - although i still have a LOT to learn about how to use it. here are a few shots i liked...