Happy Birthday to you!

My aunt Shauna posted these two pictures on my Facebook profile. She has a fancy smancy camera like my aunt Leelee and boy does it take awesome pictures. This was Tzipi's favorite past time at Grandma Welter's house. Riding her favorite goatie.


This was a picture that turned out better than any I've ever seen. It captures her essence so beautifully. She's leaning on a tank with a gecko in it at the children's museum in Midland. My beautiful precious little girl is 4 years old today! YAY! Three is over!

I pledge to get down on the floor and play more with you. I promise to yell less and praise more. I promise that your stubborn nature will lead to determination and you will never give up. I love you more than any other little girl in this whole wide world.

Thank you God for giving me this beautiful girl to take care of. You know how long we waited for her and how many times I prayed that my son would have a sibling. She is a blessing and I love her very much. Continue to teach me how to raise her the best way I can.

Happy Birthday Birdie. Eema loves you very much!

A few of my favorite things...

Just thought I'd make a list of my favorite things: Everyone knows that my family is my greatest gift from God, but I'd like to post about things that make me smile

http://smallworldofinchies.blogspot.com/

INCHIES: I just learned about these amazing little marvels. They are one-inch works of art. Small things are wonderful!

https://www.frenchgeneral.com/

ALL THINGS FRENCH: Well, maybe not all things French but it makes me warm and fuzzy to see the rustic warmth in French Country homes. I have a book that I got with Leelee and Kevin (the one that the lady tried to take from me) and it has become my favorite. I'm redecorating my kitchen in French Country and my bathroom has always been so.

http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/grannies.html

GRANNY SQUARES: I don't know exactly why I love granny squares but I do!




Barbie: I want to be a Food Network Chef!

I love Barbie and I've been waiting for Tzipi to turn 5 so she'll be ready to enjoy Barbie. I want to give her something to look forward to. If she doesn't seem quite ready at 5, I may have to wait til 6, but I hope I don't have to wait that long.

Jamie Oliver

I love the way he cooks. I checked out his book, "Jamie's Food Revolution". I'm so excited with this book. He has so many yummy Indian dishes. I'm going to try some new ones this weekend!!!


Boston Bull Terrier


Oh come on! Who can resist this adorable puppy?! I know they grow up, but they are brilliant lovey dogs that are way too smart for their own good. Hence the whole terrier portion of the name.


Red Tea and or Twinings brand:


I love African Rooibos tea. It's never had caffeine and it's so smooth. Twinings tea just has the best flavor. I'm enjoying a Cinnamon Apple Black tea from Twinings. I don't drink tea with sugar or honey, so I really get to enjoy the flavor.

This was fun. Zee's legs are growing and hurting, so I must end this fun reverie.

Till we meet again!

My busy weeks...

I'm going to go through the craziness that has been my December. These are pictures that I took with my phone as my camera has died.



This is Zippy playing with all the fun she got for her birthday and Hanukkah. She has had so much fun playing cooking Mama, that I bought her, her own version of Cooking Mama for the DS.


Last night was the last night of Hanukkah.


Thursday I went to my Son's holiday party at school. It was fun to get to spend special time alone with Zee and his friends.

This is Zee's Latke Rabbi. That's a long story!

Sometime this month I painted our toenails blue.


Wednesday night Zippy helped me make monkey bread for Zee's class party.


Wednesday morning was Zippy's Holiday program. She was not interested in performing. She didn't get the performance gene like Zee did.

The first night of Hanukkah, we were in Lubbock and the boys were having so much fun in their matching pajamas and playing legos.

We each had our very own Hanukkiah. They were so beautiful all together.




I decorated my cubicle in Blue and Silver.

Most likely the only one at work with THESE Holiday bears.

The weekend before that I had my Craft bazaar at Paramount Terrace Elementary School. I had been busy creating cards every free minute I had. Literally every 15 minute break I had, I was making cards.

It was fun, but very messy.

Then the day finally came.

Didn't make a lot of money, but it was fun regardless.

Here are the cards displayed.


I sold 17 cards.



For those of you who know how small our house is, you can appreciate how nice it was to spend 4 days at the large house I grew up in. The kids had plenty of room to run and be free. November 28th we went and surprised my Mom on her birthday. These are the only pictures I have, but perhaps the other people that were there have better pictures.

The kids took a bath every day.

And painted in my mom's activity room.

The living room. Not as it was when I lived here but beautiful still.

This was my room from when I was 15-22.

The dining room.

The kitchen where I filmed many a cooking program.

You want a laugh, watch chickens run. SOOOO hilarious!

Zippy is riding her favorite goat. I don't have any good pictures because it was challenging taking pictures with my phone. My aunt took some amazing pictures so maybe I'll get a copy of hers.

This is my favorite goat. Cuddly and sweet.

My furry sister.

Kiss me goatie!


These fish were at the Children's Museum in Midland.


The fish like Jean Luc Picard had in ST:TNG.

Nemo's home. Anemones are really cool to watch.


My first puffer fish. I loved watching it swim.

At least I still have a job!

OK, so by now most of my family and friends have heard that I did not get the job. That's OK. Really. I knew from the get-go that this was God's decision. I want Him to guide my path, not the other way around. He is not my CO-PILOT. Someone as qualified as the MAKER of the UNIVERSE can fly my plane! The other people that I was worried about did not get the job either. It's a big mystery at work: Who did get the job? I have no idea right now.

All I do know is that I am enjoying Hanukkah very much. I have been so blessed to be able to give gifts to my family this year. This may be the first Hanukkah that I've been able to do so. I love giving.

The holidays have been fun at work too.

And people have been asking about Tzipporah's birthday. OK, if you know Tzipi, she can't handle lots of change, transition and chaos. I handle it, but I don't enjoy it at all. So when it comes to her birthday, I do what she asks. I figure it's not about me. She wants to make strawberry cupcakes. She does NOT want me to come to her class and throw a party. She is adamant about that. So when she gets to the point where she wants a party, then by golly I'm gonna throw a HUGE party. (but only if she wants it.) I've been to too many parties where everyone is having fun except the birthday person. If you have something for her, you can give it to her whenever you want to. This is not my doing. I'm a typical Mom that loves throwing parties. (Ask my friends and family in Wyoming. I had an event every month.) My daughter isn't there yet. She likes private time with small groups of family. Her birthday is in the worst month too. But I'll make it work when she's ready.

Now Zee has been planning his party since his last birthday. Indiana Jones. He's already told his class that I'm bringing cookies to his class. So I'm going to find out if Cakes and More can make whip cookies and fedoras. That's what he wants. We haven't quite figured out the where, since he wants to do many outdoor activities that aren't really possible in January, but I'll figure that out too. If you have a copy of the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, please let me know.

Well, I'm off to another day of work. Thank you again for your support and encouragement during the whole process of trying for a different position at work. Love you all! Miss you.

Oh, and LeeLee... I need to come see your decorations! Hopefully I'll find some time before Christmas! :-)

Wednesday morning...

No news about the job thing. I'm just going to be patient. Thank you for being so encouraging. (My application still says "considering".)

I went to my Mom's to surprise her for her birthday. It worked. If you know my mom, you know how hard it is to surprise her. She knows all. She has eyes in the back of her head. She can hear a pin drop in South America. That's because she doesn't like surprises. Each of my previous trips, she wears herself out cleaning, planning and preparing. I didn't want her to do that. Especially on her birthday. So my Aunt Shauna called to let me know that she was flying down to surprise Mom for her birthday. So months ago, I set aside the weekend and knew we were in for a challenge. I would text Dad and figure Mom was right there. I didn't tell my kids for weeks 'cuz I knew that they would spill the beans for sure. Going to Gramma's is better than Disneyland to my kids. When the kids saw me writing notes to their teachers, they figured it out. They sang different versions of" over the river and to the woods" and "gramma got ran over by a reindeer", and many more holiday renditions of songs with gramma in them. So the last two days, I didn't call Mom for fear that Zippy would say, "Hey, Gramma, we're coming to your house to surprise you on your birthday". I had to work the Friday after Thanksgiving. Not knowing when my work day would end was slightly torturous. I made it, grabbed the kids, kissed my sad hubby and got on the highway.

I dread the 5.5 hour drive to my parents house. Partly because of the two people in the back seat. They hate being confined in their car seats. They hate being bored. They hate being in close proximity to each other. They hate the smell of Hereford. (OK, so do I.) So needless to say, there was plenty of screaming and fighting in the car. I could have pulled the car over, but the part of me that I get from my Dad said, "if I pull over, that just makes this car ride that much longer". Ignore the chaos. I think I did. They did the genetic response to long trips, "are we there yet" four million times. Zippy drew all over herself and her brother with a marker. I even joined in the ice throwing fit. They were not expecting it. They were expecting Mom to freak out when ice went down her blouse. Nope, I just threw my ice right back at them. The car needs some TLC soon but it was worth it.

We got closer to Gramma's house and the kids rewrote a song for her to the tune of "it's a long way to Tipperary".

It's a long way to Gramma's house,
It's a long way to go.
It's a long way to Gramma's house,
To the sweetest girl I know.
Goodbye Amarillo.
Hello Gardendale!
It's a long way to Gramma's house,
But our hearts already there.

So when we got to Gramma's house, we started singing this song at her door. She thought it was some of her friend's children so when she saw us, she totally freaked out. It was great.

I highly recommend freaking your Mom out at the earliest possible time.

I have some pictures of our adventure but alas, I have run out of time. Tune in next time for chapter two of, It's fun to freak out your Mom.

Practice makes perfect?

Let's hope so. I did my presentation with my managers and director and went WAY over time. I did a good job and they enjoyed it, but I was freaked out that I went over time by like 10 minutes.

Then I had a scheduled speech on Thursday for Toastmasters and asked if I could practice my presentation then. I did and nailed it at 13 minutes. I rabbit trailed twice and said "And So" 17 times. YIKES. Thank goodness for good evaluators and solid help.

So Friday came and with it being Jeans Day you could definitely tell the people who were trying out for the training position as we were all dressed in business attire. I got really nervous after seeing my competition. I calmed down and reminded myself that it's up to God. I went in and nailed my presentation. I was much more nervous for the interview portion as this is very important to me and the gravity of it all came to me at that exact moment.

I should hear something this week. I keep reminding myself that it's up to God whether I get this job or not. I learned a lot during the whole process and regardless of the outcome, I really appreciate the second interview. I will let you know what I find out.

It's just around the corner!

What is?
Um let's see...
Hanukkah. Dec 11th
Thanksgiving Nov 26th
My Interview... THIS FRIDAY!!! Nov 20th
My pre-interview presentation (for practice) with my Director, Manager, and Manager from my sister team!!!! THIS Wednesday at 10.

OY!

I am ALMOST finished with my Power Point Presentation. I figured I would go ahead and make it with PowerPoint and print it out. Show that I can do both but just hand them the proof rather than mess with the A/V equipment that never seems to work right for anyone else.

I have to say I'm pretty excited about it. I've never actually made a PP, but it's coming together nicely and I'm thrilled.

I'm tired. I worked from 7-7 today. I came home to work some more on my presentation. In about 30 minutes I'll probably be asleep. Thanks Mom for Sleep Essentials!

Avi and the kids are at Boyscouts. It is weird coming home to a silent house. They'll be home in a few minutes. And then the silence will be over.

Just thought I'd blog about my progress. Thank you LeeLee for offering to help me with PowerPoint. You are the wiz but my schedule just never allows time for much. I figured it out.

Thank you all for your support and prayers. LOVE YOU ALL VERY MUCH! Miss you tons!

Great News!

I got my second interview!!! It will be on November 20th at 10:00. I will be giving a presentation on which computer best fits your needs. Laptop, tower, Mac or PC?

Needless to say, I'm a bit excited. So this weekend will consist of writing, writing and more writing. It's to be 10-15 minutes long with PowerPoint or Handouts. I prefer handouts but I realize that the training department relies heavily on PowerPoint, so it may be best if I do that. I woke up at 3:45 this morning with my mind going a million miles a minute with ideas. Not my favorite thing to do since I have a day full of work ahead of me. Oh well, a little less sleep won't kill me.

I'm almost there. Please keep me in your prayers and feel free to comment on which YOU prefer. PC or MAC: Laptop or Tower and WHY?

YAAYAYAYAAY... On cloud 9!

My own private Vent Line

Avi listens to talk radio. There is a phone line were people in Amarillo can call and vent about anything. I don't have much time to actually call but I really need to vent.

Yesterday was picture day at Lamar. Avi spent a good part of the morning helping Zee get dressed in his freshly pressed suit. Oh! Avi also went to get his hair cut the day before.

I love Western Photo cuz their prices are reasonable, so this year I splurged on the larger package.

So I call Avi yesterday morning and he said he asked the teachers when the pictures would be taken, they said for his grade, AFTER P.E.

Ok, this in't Junior High or High School where kids have locker rooms to change into P.E. clothes. So needless to say, we were a little upset.

Mom says that's what I get for putting him in public school. I think our society has simply lost common sense. It's a rare and precious thing to actually use your brain.

The moral of my rant: Skip/Postpone P.E. for one freakin' day, PICTURE DAY!

OK I feel better. Thanks for listening.

What's new with Nee?

Well, I haven't posted lately. Things have been busy as always. This is a picture of me at work on my birthday. I was pretty blissful that morning as I survived a near head on collision thanks to quick thinking. A car ran a yield sign at about 50 miles an hour. If I hadn't seen him, I wouldn't have made it to work that morning. God is awesome! I swerved and jumped a curb and stepped on the gas. But boy was my heart pounding when I parked my car at work. I stopped and cried for a few minutes realizing how close I was to being with my Creator.

As some of you know, I put in my application for the training department at work. I've had my interview and I feel I did a very good job. Thanks to Toastmasters I wasn't nervous and I felt good at the end. I'm up against 18 people and if they liked my interview, they will call me sometime this week and give me a topic and I'll have some time to prepare a presentation.

We're doing the cubicle shuffle this week and trading places with another team for some strange reason. So that means packing up everything and moving a few rows over. We're going through another system conversion and that means tons of work for my department. With all the hiring that VALIC and WNL are doing here in Amarillo, we're having quite a bit of moving and shaking.

So forgive me for not posting, but things are so amazingly busy.

My beautiful happy children

Here are some random pictures of my wonderful kids.


Zee at the Boyscout Spookeree event. I think he was the only boy to wear his costume.

Zee and Zippy in line at the creepy "stick your hand in the bucket and guess what it is" game.

Our beautiful Snow White in her clippy cloppy high heels.

Here is our princess "cooking" with playdough.

My gorilla and his princess in all their glory.

We make earrings with scrapbook "Zots" and buttons, pom poms and whatever else we can find.