Who will win?

Will it be Baxie, Cowboy or I? How many of you out there used to play a game with your grandfather or grandmother? I used to play chess and checkers! Not to many people know how to play chess, but my boy cowboy does! I have this great marble board that my parents got for me years ago in Mexico and I love it. We started a game and will finish it tomorrow, but who will win?? We shall see! Meanwhile, if you have not taken the time to sit down with someone and do something fun - DO IT TODAY. Forget about the list of things to do! Relax, share stories and create a strategy.

Reindeer Molly has been sighted.....

Don't be the GRINCH....

As Christmas draws near and is only one day away.....May you all enjoy your family and friends. Don't be the grinch and use these next couple of days to have some tasty treats, some good belly laughs and enjoy one another's company. Play reindeer games too and sip a tasty chiller. Happy Christmas Eve everyone and have a Merry Christmas.

4 More Days until Christmas!

Are you going to leave milk and cookies for santa??!! I AM!!!

CR's

In the last year, I have become infatuated with clown snakes. This is coming from a girl who has NEVER really collected anything in her life (other than pictures). My mother gave me a light blue one last year and I couldn't have been more excited. I guess I like them because they look different or maybe it's because it's fun to say CLOWN SNAKE!! Story has it as - when Christopher Radko was 22, he placed his family’s Christmas tree in a new kind of stand. Unfortunately, it was not sturdy enough, and the Radko Christmas tree came crashing to the ground, smashing nearly 2000 vintage ornaments. Some had been in his family for four generations. This sounds like something I would do!!

Devastated, Radko began to search for replacements of the ornaments he had destroyed. He found a glass blower in Poland who agreed to make some from the sketches he had made from memory. Radko ornaments became highly collectible and continue to be popular today, 25 years after Radko ruined his family’s ornament collection. And that is why he became who he is today.

I recently bid on THREE clown snakes on e-bay, but I LOST. It was my first time bidding and everyone laughed at me and said I TOLD YOU SO. What can I say? At the moment that I lost, I learned the game of ebay. They are not found in stores anymore, as they are retired ornaments and only so many were created. BIG BUMMER. Why couldn't I have developed this infatuation sooner before this ornament RETIRED?!! Seriously, people are supposed to retire - right??! Not ornaments!

I just got a package from my sister in Cali. I talked to her that night, and she told me there was something in the box I could open before x-mas. I had strep throat with fever and the last thing I wanted to do was tackle a taped up box. It probably would of kicked my you know what. She kept telling me she didn't want me to get all hyped up only to be let down. We laughed and I told her I would wait to open up the "reindeer christmas towels" or the santa soap dispenser for the bathroom.

I took a shower and put on my jammies, but I couldn't stop thinking - WHAT WAS INSIDE THE BOX?? I called her, and opened it on the phone with her. To my surprise and JOY, it was a PINK CLOWN SNAKE. I was shocked. Speechless. Grateful. Appreciative. Happy. At that moment, I just wanted to reach through the phone and wrap my arms around her and give her the biggest hug I had in me at that possible time. WHY? Because. My mother gave her a clown snake too and here she was, turning it over to me because she knew I would appreciate and cherish it. Thanks piggitz - that is UNCONDITIONAL love right there - it's like throwing your coat over a puddle on a rainy day!

To date, I own three clown snakes (I finally got one on e-bay yesterday! Thanks for the tip soupy.) and if it takes me the rest of my life, I will collect enough to decorate a small tree - with CLOWN SNAKES ONLY............

Baxie's in Business again

Last Saturday morning, I woke up and Bob was not in the bed next to me. I rolled over to the other side to see him standing over me. And do you want to know what I got? I didn't get a GOOD MORNING, happy Saturday Sandy - I got SANDY our computer is DONE for good and all of your pictures are gone. Great, I think, I have not even had my morning coffee yet (which I want to add that before bob, i despised coffee, NEVER even touched it!) and he tells me this news. Anybody who knows me, knows that I love my morning java with a quick check of the weather, my e-mail, sometimes I throw a blog in and on to the shower I go. Everyone has a morning routine. Well, that's mine. So this is my heartbreaking Saturday news. I was depressed all weekend. I drank my coffee Saturday and Sunday morning but I sat there and stared at Bob like - what do I do with myself? I burned through all of my magazines, cleaned, organized, but I still felt empty. Five years of an extensive photo library GONE. And I love pictures - they say pictures are worth a thousand words - I think they are that plus a thousand memories. All this history created between Bob and I, our families, vacations, holidays, our dogs, GONE. Luckily, I am organized and printed all of them out and put in photo albulms.
I'm whining about my pictures because I faithfully used my photo library EVERYDAY and loved it. Now it's gone. I had all of these grand ideas and pictures to post for the blog.
Thankfully, I look at each challenge in life as an opportunity in some way, shape or form and also a NEW beginning. Moving forward, I have a better method of backing up my photo library. Now I'm sitting in bed, in my p.j.'s with Baxie next to me. It took me all of 5 minutes to plug this new laptop into the wall - take a picture of Baxie and load it up! I figured it out without spending half of the night lost in an instruction manual. Things are so user friendly these days..... I'm like a kid in a candy store right now, just minus my photo library.

Reindeer Games - Izzy - Baxie - Princers - & Ellers

Happy Birthday Isabella

Today you are 91 days old!

Bright Shiny Smile

Baxie came home from the vet yesterday with sparklers in his mouth! He got his teeth cleaned and was a little groggy last night, so hopefully today he will be back to his peppy self. He "spooned" by me all night so I had a cuddle bunny to keep me warm!

Who doesn't love a bargain?

A few months back, I was driving to lunch and I see a big sign that reads "GARAGE SALE." I am a sucker for these things. Garage Sale, Thrift Stores, Flea Markets. What do they say....? One man's junk is another man's treasure??

So, I slam on the brakes, whip the car around and head to it. I pull up and do "the scope" - you know, the drive by of garage sales where you scope out the goods before you decide if its worth getting out of the car for? I see that she has a whole driveway of baby toys, cribs, high chairs. Being a new mom, I figure WHY NOT. We don't need anymore clutter, but if there is something good, Izzy would be sure to love it.

I see this big car in the driveway that does everything but drive itself. It has toys, it rattles, the steering wheel moves, the horn honks, it bounces, it's colorful. I have NO IDEA what I would do with this huge thing if I were to get it. I walk past the keeper of the garage sale and she says make a deal on anything if you like it. ALRIGHT....I think....DEAL OR NO DEAL... I walk past the car again and it says $15. I ask her if she will take $10 and she says YES. I fork over the $10 and throw this huge thing in the car. Bob is going to kill me. On to lunch I go. After Bob scarfs down his cheeseburger, I tell him and he laughs at me. Meanwhile, I get on the phone and tell my mom I have bought something and it is in her basement, can I keep it there? She says yes before I tell her its a huge car. DONE DEAL!

Izzy absolutely LOVES it. Everyone is happy. They say that these kinds of toys are for babies 4 months and up - when the baby is able to hold their head up on their own. I put her in it, stuffed a blanket around her for support and she instantly lit up like a Christmas tree.......

Reindeer Games

Every once in a while, I try to sneak in a blog about random things - even though this blog is dedicated to Izzy and Baxie. Do you find that sometimes people say the most random things and you are left going.....what???!!!! What did that person just say???!! Well, today, I would like to note those thoughts. All too recently, my mother is getting ready for breakfast and she says out of the blue..."I think I will go change." I am going to put some clothes on. Now here is the random saying: I don't cook eggs in my housecoat......
I was like, WHAT, did you REALLY just say that you don't cook eggs in your housecoat? I mean, I am not Dr. Seuss here, but I personally, can cook eggs in my jammies or in my bathing suit. So I found this statement to be absolutely hilarious : )

Next up, I was in the kitchen with my sister. She has the job of chopping up everything for the salad. I look over and tell her what a good "chopper" she is. And she SAYS..."I find chopping to be very theraputic." And here I am, a person who HATES to chop things up (I am scared of knives and glass), thinking HOW in the world can you possibly find CHOPPING theraputic?? Now, everytime I am somewhat chopping up items in the kitchen for a salad or homemade soup, I think of Dawn. Perhaps she could chop up all my veggies or items for all of the soups I make!!!

Last up is Elad. He is known for his knack of words.

Betty Jean is too, maybe this is where he gets it from. BUT it is absolutely hilarious and is sure to be a crowd pleaser. For example, Betty Jean says OHARA but she really means O'Hare airport. One day, we had a two hour debate about "crab" grass and "quack" grass. I kept telling Betty Jean - the crab grass is taking over your flower beds and she kept saying NO, it's the quack grass. So I asked her, are you quacking up? ITS CRAB GRASS.....come to find out, we are BOTH right!! You can use either terminolgy! Elad says cow circle when it is really cul de sac. And the random mix up of words between Betty Jean and Elad goes on....and it always makes you laugh.

Finally, there are the REINDEER games.... and it is getting close to that time of the year again. where the reindeer games begin.... Every year, for the past couple of years, the Byrne's and the Vail's have made a christmas deal or no deal where you HAVE TO make a homemade gift for one another. You are not allowed to buy a christmas gift. Last year, I was not on top of my homemade gift/craft. Want to know what I did? I made a homemade concrete stepping stone for their back yard. Exciting, right? Well, if you have never worked with concrete, it's not so exciting. You only have so many minutes to pour it, mold it, shape it. This was my first time working with concrete, so you can only imagine what it turned out to look like. Did I mention that I had to pay to ship a block of conrete to California after I was done trying to mold, shape and make it?? WHO does that?

I believe I made one for Elad and Soupy as well. I think they felt sorry for my lack of homemade crafting skills and put it in their walkway in Florida. Maybe I feel sorry for them now because when they have visitors that walk through their yard, their visitors point to my concrete stepping stone and GO...WHAT is that??!!! One of these days I will get the crafting projects, just like I finally won the pumpkin contest.

This year, I made some awesome homemade crafts. I invested some quality time, creativity and effort. Most importantly, I honed in on my "presentation skills." What is a gift without a nice presentation?

So far, the REINDEER games platter made by the BYRNES is my favorite homemade christmas craft that warms the heart. It displays thought, creativity and fun for the whole family. It features a favorite holiday - St. Patty's Day, Christmas, and a trip to Palm Springs that includes a funny guy that will never be forgotten.

I wouldn't change any of the above, because it is the small things in life that make me crack up laughing : ) So thanks to the jokers above!