How was your Christmas?

Hope you had lots of faces like this one - full of suprises!!

Things to do!

Tabitha's flute concert - CHECK! 

Christmas tree picked out - which one?  Amber's or Rob's?

Amber's won - CHECK

Cookie and sweet treat mayhem - CHECK

Lizzie learning how to write her letters!!  BIG DOUBLE CHECK!  The top one her Mom wrote.  The bottom is all Lizzie except for the first Z.  She's doing pretty good.

And on to a crazy, busy, musical weekend and picking up Amy's brother at the airport for a visit.

Lizzie made our night

Just seeing this little sweet face makes us feel sooooooooooo happy.

We miss her so much :'(

Manners - they say so much about our character

Excuse me while I do this....

Do we teach our children how to treat others? Do we teach them about commitment? Do we teach them about keeping our word? Do we teach them the simple things like saying please and thank you?


Yes, I am a smidge fired up right now for numerous reasons. But the main reason is this - a simple movie night with friends.

And the fact being that this movie night was at the specific request of David's friends makes me all the more tweaked. His friends wanted to have a Harry Potter movie night and this night was picked a good 2 weeks ago. David reminded those that said they would come. We had 5 "yes, I will be there". The "maybe I'll come" never get counted but we all know they don't come. (Why they just can't say no is beyond me).

Well, guess how many people showed up tonight? 2!! Yes, TWO!!! And get this - those specific friends that asked to have there party here (and said they would be here) are the ones that are NOT here. No phone calls from those that said they were coming - nothing, nada, zilch!!! I just don't get it. When you tell someone you will be there and something comes up, have the courtesy to call and say so.

Honestly people, let's be considerate of others.

I think it's going to take me a bit to calm down. Now to go fix pizza for the boys that came.

Thanksgiving and our busy week

It's just crazy how much can happen in our little family in such a short amount of time. Here's what happened just in one week.

• Rob was out of town in Atlanta for the entire week.
• David had an appointment with the oral surgeon to discuss the removal of his wisdom teeth. Yup! Spring Break 2012 those puppies come out!
• Had some scrapbook time with my dear friend, Gracelyn.
• The girls left for a "band tour". The university wind symphony took a charter bus and went to Tri-Cities and Spokane in 2 days. Playing at 3 high schools. They had a fabulous time!!
• It SNOWED!!! Not a lot was sticking to the ground but just enough to make it slushy.
• David had a "it's a good thing you are cute" moment. David has never been one to like getting his hair cut but because it grows so fast (like his Dad's and Robert's) he has to get his hair cute every 4 weeks. So we ran a bunch of errands after school and I came home to a message on the answering machine from our hairstylist "Amy, where are you? David has a haircut this afternoon. Call me." So I looked on the calendar and saw nothing. I apologized profusely for not having it on my calendar and we rescheduled for the next day. In the meantime, I just couldn't shake the "I KNOW I wrote this appointment down" feeling. I kept looking in my calendar but just couldn't find the appointment. That is until I looked a bit closer at the date on the calendar and noticed the appointment had been ERASED!!!! Can you believe it? The little turd thought if he erased the appointment he wouldn't have to have his hair cut. Ask Keri (our hairstylist) said "David, if it wasn't so funny I would be mad at you!!". David quickly got a lesson in business and privacy. Keri's business and the privacy of his Mom's calendar. No major consequences given - just that every time he walked by me would get a kiss ont he cheek or gently whack him on the noggin.
• I had my last church dance being in charge of dinner for the 16-18 group of youth. Man! I didn't expectg it to be this difficult. Having youth come to me being sad I was released from my calling didn't help either. I will so miss being with them on such a constant basis. They are SO great!!
• The girls had an orchestra concert. Soooo fun!!
• David, Tabitha and I went to the Vancouver, BC temple. I thought we were nuts to make that trip on Thanksgiving eve - thinking the border would be nuts. NOPE!! Only a 10 minute wait getting in to Canada and barely 5 returning home.
• THANKSGIVING!!
  We had a great time!! Two of our guest got sick at the last minute and didn't come over. So I put out an open invitation on Facebook. And had our fabulous friend from Church took us up on the offer. We had a BLAST!!! And stayed up way too late.
  
• And a few days busy making chocolate and our brand NEW product - Cocoa Nib Brittle.

It's been a busy week. And we LOVE it!!

So Inspirational!!

A gorgeous (but cold) November morning!

This is just weird!!!

Gone are the days (just last year we had them) of walking into the library or polling place to drop off your election ballot. My kids LOVED getting their "I Voted" sticker. Now we just drive on up and insert here:

I DON'T LIKE IT!!! It's so easy that people still don't take the time to vote!! What's up with that?

It's True!!

We like to have a little fun when we cook! And I tell you, taking cookies off of a cookie sheet with that Mickey Mouse spatula is guaranteed to make you SMILE!

Here's my Heart ...again!

Here we go again. I so love it that Stephanie Howell does this challenge. http://www.stephaniehowell.com/my_weblog/2011/10/blog-your-heart-a-challenge.html

It really gets me to thinking and to get those thoughts down on paper. So here we go!

• Why can exercising be such a challenge? I love how I feel after I workout. I love the way the numbers on the scale go lower when I do. Ugh!! I have to find the perfect balance.

• Fall!! It's here. I'm not excited about the rain. But I LOVE the gorgeous, sunny crisp days. There is no denying that it is just stunning in NW Washington at this time of year. These are just my cell phone pictures. They don't seem to capture it as vibrantly as my eyes.
  
  
  
  Driving up to WWU
  
  Walking on the trail by our house
  
  This leave seriously is the size of a dinner plate!
  
  
  
  
• Robert - yes, you worry about your grown children!! My boy is on my mind and in my prayers often.
• Pulling it together - I've been working on our office/my scrapbook supply room for a good month now. A tad embarrassed to show you the before but here it is.
  BEFORE - there was a large metal paper rack in that empty space.
  
  AFTER:
  
  
  BEFORE - A scrapbooking and crafting mess!
  
  AFTER - I still have some canvas boxes to fill but we're getting there.
  
  
  BEFORE - Utter ciaos!! Never wanting to work in here to even keep up with our financial stuff.
  
  AFTER - Still in progress as we sort out the computer situation. I mean, seriously take a look at that beast of a computer monitor!!
  
  It's been liberating to sort through things, sell things, give them away or just plain old throw them away. LOVE IT! But I have to stop being so hard on myself that I'm not getting it done faster. Thanks to my family for being patient.

• LOTS of other things that I will wait until next Blog my Heart segment. Anyone else on-board with this? Give it a try!!
  

Concerts and Halloween!

David had his very first high school band concert. Would you just look at this handsome guy!!


Here's a piece of Anderson Family trivia - David is wear the exact same jacket that his brother, Robert did when he was a freshman in high school. Yes, the records were still at the school to verify that too. It kind of made David feel like Robert was with him during his concert.


Then on actual Halloween night Amber and Tabitha had an Orchestra concert. It was a fundraiser to support the music library on campus which is constantly threatened to be closed due to budget cuts.

This is one of our favorite concerts! There is nothing like seeing a red crayola play the flute!

Or a bassoon playing unicorn!

And the Phantom conducting the orchestra

And an entire orchestra full of Halloween characters


Even the audience was strongly encouraged to dress up.


And here's our little Southern Belle Lizzie

Too pretty!!

Do you really listen?

When you ask a question do you really listen to the answer?

This situation has been on my mind for a few weeks now. I just can't seem to shake it. And honestly, it has made me more aware of my own behavior. Funny how an experience can make you look inward.

I was at an event a few weeks back, just minding my own business and doing what I was there to do, when a friend came into where I was and we started talking and catching up. Normal pleasantries and all that. Then they asked me a question: "How is your chocolate business going?" "GREAT!" I told them and that was all I said. They asked the name of the company and where they could buy it. I said "Fresco Chocolate and buy it at Chocolate Necessities". Basics - short and sweet! The person then asked me "So tell me - what exactly is it that you do? How do you make the chocolate?" Now I know not to bore people with all the details of our business. Most people just couldn't care less and that's okay. But I was going to answer her question as brief as possible. I started to explain "We import cocoa beans, roast them, blah, blah, blah". When I noticed this person, totally and completely looking around the room and not even interested in what I was saying.



So to test what I was observing I did this

Seriously - mid-sentence I just stopped talking. The person said "That's wonderful!" and proceeded to turn around and walk out of the room I was in. It literally left me

Just WOW! If you don't want to know - don't ask. I really will not be offended. But I have learned a lesson about this particular person and I saw them in a different light and it wasn't good. I could give them the benefit of the doubt and that they have ADHD or something. But it makes me think and make sure that when I ask a person a question, even as simple as "How are you?" that I really mean it and listen to what the person is saying.

What a weekend!

I skipped over our weekend because Lizzie's birthday was yesterday. And of course, she deserves top billing and her own birthday post.

This past weekend was fun, musical and scary.

FRIDAY night:
Lynden High School Homecoming Game
AKA in our house - spirit band game

It got a little crazy

In addition to being cold. On reason why I prefer basketball season - it's inside!

SATURDAY:
What a busy day! I had a youth dance to prepare treats for and Amber had rehearsal for the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra and Tabitha was working. I still needed to head out to get some things to finish the food and Amber needed to be picked up. While I was upstairs getting ready David called my name. You know, the kind where you just KNOW something was wrong. As I opened the door he yells "Dad fell off the ladder"!!!

I honestly have never run down the stairs so fast in my entire life. I was so focused in getting out to the garage that I didn't see that Rob was on the couch. He had made it inside the house on his own. After making sure he didn't have injuries that required a trip to the ER we went out into the garage to show me what happened. And that is exactly what happened - the tri-fold attic ladder broke on him while he was coming down with some Halloween boxes for us. We are so grateful that he didn't hit his head or broke a bone. He's been pretty sore but after a once over from the doctor and an x-ray yesterday he is recovering.

That changed the costume I was going to be at the dance. So this year I went back to being ketchup again and our friend, Katie was mustard.


Here are the treats we had and they were such a hit.

Creepy Truffle Eyeballs


Marshmallow Ghosts


Monster Mash


SUNDAY:
Amber had a wonderful concert with the Whatcom Symphony Orchesta


Are those the BEST bassoons or what?




Now on to take on the week!