Hoffmann Vases are DONE!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Santa Visit

Yesterday, Ian and Maren got to go see Santa. . .This was the real one at Valley West Mall. He is the best santa I have seen. Maren was wee little last year when we visited him. . .but it was the same Santa. . .
Luckily, the line was really short, so I didn;t have to worry about entertaining munchkins for an overly long time. . .Grandma J was here for backup anyway.
Ian asked Santa for Red, the Fire Engine from the movie Cars. Maren just stared at him, she wouldn't smile.
After visiting Santa, Ian and Maren took a ride on the train that the mall has at the Santa place. Maren seemed to enjoy it, and of course Ian was VERY excited. They rode round and round. When the trip was done, Ian decided to hijack the train and go again. . .As everyone exited, he made a uturn and loaded himself into the front car, with a group of kids that were getting on. . .Luckily, that fulfilled his need for train rides and it wasn't necessary to go again. . .whew. . .Maren watched her big brother ride the train the second time. She really liked all of the pretties in the santa scene.

2/3 of the way there.

We had school called out early because of the ice storm that was supposed to hit at 12-1. . . it is now 3:30, I am home, the kids are taking naps, and I just etched 5 of the 21 vases that I am creating for the annual Hoffmann Bash. Eric laughs at me as I sit for hours with my x-acto knife, hovered over a contact paper covered piece of glass. The laugh is the same one that, three years ago, was in reaction to the Christmas ornaments that I decorated for all of the married couples in the Hoffmann clan. As I look onto my dining room table, I see 14 of the 21 vases, and see a light at the end of the tunnel. I honestly thought that I would be etching up to the hour before the Party (Which is NEXT Saturday). It is now time to re-evaluate the names that have been permanently etched into the vases, and make sure I am getting all of the ones I need. There are 8 Hoffmann vases, and a mixture of other married names. I hope the people, that don't have to arm wrestle for the Hoffmann vase, will appreciate the time that I have put into them. I tried to find a design that the families would like, Aimee and Mike were by far the easiest, with their die hard western lifestyle.
My little project has turned into a big project. I didn't realize the actual time that it took to make one until last night, the finishing touches on 3 of them took me an hour. I figure that each one averaged around 2 hrs a piece. I'm having fun doing them, I just hope everyone likes them.

Doggie Spa

Tonight, we decided that with the bitter cold, and no straw bales yet, that we'd keep Toby indoors. I thought that this would be a great opportunity to give him a bath and attempt to get his nails trimmed down a little. . . What an ordeal! Toby has been in the house only one other time, so getting him to cross the slick kitchen floors was not fun. It was even less fun trying to get him to go up the stairs. After nearly strangling him with his choke collar, I resorted to picking my 60+ lb. dog, and carrying him upstairs. After making it to the top landing, I tried dragging him into the bathroom, No luck. So I carried him into the bathroom and plopped him into the tub. . . wheeeew! Toby did an Excellent job with the bath/shower that I gave him. I felt kind of bad, we found a few dead ticks on his back, it appears as though the frontline worked, I feel bad that we didn't see them earlier. . .After a good scrubdown and a tick removal/check, Toby smelled much better! After I toweled him off really well, I attempted to get him out of the tub. . . . no luck!. I had to lift his front end out first, followed by his hind in. . .I then tried to coax him into the hall . . .again, no luck. . . he was just a difficult dog tonight. Toby has not been around stairs, so when I wanted him to come back down, he refused! Go figure!Eric helped our by giving him a friendly shove down the stairs and we got him back on the main level. We moved his kennel into the laundry room, until he gets completely dry. While we were in the mood for grooming, I got out the dremmel tool and made an honest attempt at grinding down his nails. I haven't cut them at all, meaning his nails are quite long. I ground them down a bit, I will work on the more later. I didn't want to traumatize him yet. . .he was very patient with me. I think he liked all of the attention. Eric made sure to reassure me that Toby was an outside dog, so didn't even think about keeping him inside. The kids would love it I'm sure. He was so much calmer when he was in here. The kids gave him lots of love and kisses. Toby is warm, clean, and in doggy heaven!

OK, so I was bored, here's a little insight into my life

what will you be doing for Christmas?
I will be spending time with Eric's side of the family. Christmas eve at Walnut/Church that night, Christmas day over to Bellevue to visit Barb's side, on the 27th we will be back in Walnut for the annual Hoffmann Bash, which we are partly in charge of this year. . .not sure after that, we are having Christmas with My side of the family on Jan 11th.

what did you do last year for Christmas?
almost the same, except for I got to see my family on Christmas Day.

who was your first love?
Eric

do you have a favorite:

type of dog?
Not really. I really don't like little dogs, like those mini pinchers, and little yipee dogs. they are annoying!

scent:
I love the smell of swimming pools ( I guess it's the bleach) Eric wears Abercrombie Fierce, it's yummy!

color?
Green

tv show?
House, ER, Law and Order SVU


favorite season?
Fall

if you could have one super power what would it be?
abilityclean my house in a single day!

funniest thing that happened this week?
I went to school with my shirt on inside out, my second hour students noticed!

if you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?
I would like to be thinner. . . trying to work on it though. . .

do you regret anything from your past?
No regrets.


do you know anyone pregnant?
yes. . . and no it's not me.

what would you rather be doing right now?
Should be sleeping, but I'd love to be catching up on my scrapbooking. Mom just bought me some new quickutz!


what will you do this weekend?
Friday is my Birthday (30) so I am hoping my hubbie has some plans for us.

what kind of car do you drive?
Dodge Grand Caravan. . . QUIT LAUGHING!

do you have a nick name for your significant other?
Not really. . .Babe. . . I guess. . . sometimes.


do you have a nick name from them?
same

where do you want to be in five years?
In a job that I like. . .I'm pretty happy with where we are now. . .My job could be a little less hectic. . . but, whose couldn't?

What's for dinner tonight?
Pizza

ever had surgery?
yes


what color are your eyes?
Hazel/greenish


Have your brothers or sisters ever told you that you were adopted?
no


When is your birthday?
December 19th


What is the last letter of your middle name?
e

what soda do you drink?
diet coke

what color are your underwear?
white

do you have a favorite band?
Not really, I listen to whatever my students drag in.


are you in school?
Yes, as the teacher

do you bite your nails?
only when under stress or nervous



do you wear slippers?
nope. . .don't like wearing shoes either!


hot chocolate or coffee?
hot chocolate

do you like the snow?
when it means snow day!

Girls Day Out

This afternoon my little sis and mom treated me to an afternoon out. . .they contacted Eric, making sure he could watch the kids :) We started with lunch at O'Charley's. It's good food for those who haven't tried it. I figured that we would have a little lunch and maybe hit a store or two and call it a day. This was not what my sis had din mind. Following lunch, we went for pedicures! (so that's why Eric made sure I shaved yesterday. . .) I was completely surprised! This is the first pedicure for any of us. . . I have wanted one for quite a while, but I wasn't going to get one by myself, so Erika took the first step and set us all up for one. . .
We started off with picking out a color for the toes. I chose a dark reddish brown. Erika went with a brownish violet and Mom went for silver iridescent. Next it was time to hike up the floor length skirt and leggings, and step up to the chairs for the foot soak, Ahh. . . so relaxing! (we also had complimentary wine) We had massage chairs that Erika got quite a kick out of. After soaking for about 15 minutes or so they put the callus remover liquid on our feet and let that soak in. . .Over the next hour, we got our toenails sculpted, feet sanded down, feet and legs exfoliated, foot and leg massage, and toenails painted. . .Erika opted for some flowers on her big toes, I went for more festive snowflakes! they are cute, and my little sis wishes she had some snowflakes like mine :( Thank you mom and Erika for a wonderful day out. . . LOVED the pedicure. . .and I do owe a big thanks to Eric for watching the kids while I got out for a much needed and much appreciated R&R.

Oh I almost forgot. . . the reasoning behind the afternoon festivities. . . I turn 30 on Friday (the 19th). . . I have one more week to enjoy the end of my 20's Can you believe that I am 30 ALREADY!?

Cookies!

This weekend Mom and Auntie Erika came over to partake in holiday cookie and candy making. We made, cinnamon Candy, Almond Bark Cookies, Spritz cookies, and the roll out sugar cookies. Ian and Maren helped a little. For the most part, the cookies turned out, Toby only got a few. I have a video of Ian making cookies. I'll get it on here later. . .

Ice Ice Baby!

The water pipe on the exterior of the house broke sometime in the past day or two, we don't know when. The way we found out was that the furnace wasn't turning on, so Eric went to investigate. . .There was water in the furnace. We could also year water running, that shouldn't be. Eric went outside to find this site. . .It's ironic how something bad could look this good! There is ice covering the exterior of the house. Water entered the white pipes on the outside of the house, draining down into our furnace. . .ta da! flooded furnace. . .At least we know why and how the water got in there. . .Miller plumbing will be here in an hour.

Another flood casuality?!

Tuesday night we went to get our tree. After finding one, we strapped it to the mini and took it home. After setting up the tree, the branches fell, and then we realized just how fat our Christmas tree was! Turns out, the tree was more of a bush, with several "trunks" up the middle, that had been shaped into a tree. Oh well, it looks fine. just a little shorter and fatter than last year. . . If we wanted perfection, we'd get a fake tree. This evening, Eric and I wrapped the tree with the colored lights that Ian picked out at Target.
After finishing the lighting, I went to the basement and located the box o'Christmas ornaments. As I picked up the box, I realized that it was full of water. After hauling it upstairs, we realized that the majority of our ornaments were ruined. any glass ones, were stripped of their paint. Ornaments with any sort of absorbency, were covered in mold. We are now down to about 10 ornaments. I was happy to see that Our First Christmas ornament and Ian's First Christmas ornament made it with little damage. The cat in the hat ornaments that we got from Burger King, back when we lived in Mo Valley, are all just fine. The ornaments that were collectibles from Pier 1, are not looking too good. I rinsed them, but they got wet inside, and the paint looks a little thinner. Oh well, what can we do. . .I guess this year, we are going to need to buy some shiny balls to decorate our naked Christmas tree.

Thanksgiving 2008

Once again, this year we went to Kansas City, KS. Mark and Denise threw another Hoffmann Thanksgiving Bash!. . .We left Dexter around 2 pm on Wednesday afternoon, after making sure Toby was set with a slew of food and water. We lucked out, and Ian slept most of the way to KC. Maren, however, didn't! The child does NOT like car rides! We did make it down there only having to stop one time. After arriving to KC we stopped for gas. $1.45 a gallon! For the first time ever, we saw a traffic jam at a gas station. It took us at least 12 min to get out of the parking lot. . It was ridiculous! Needless to say, they need to install a light, that way the semis have a prayer of getting out. . .and so does everyone else.
Wednesday night was movie night. The boys went to James Bond, and I went to "twilight". Read the last blog.
The picture above is of the cousins and their families that attended.
On the left is the original Hoffmann Kids. (Back l to r) John, Karen, Jim, Sharon, Nick. (front l to r)
Denise, Bill and Nancy.

Dinner was great, so was dessert, despite my attempts to sabotage it. I made pies (6 of them actually) without sugar. . .Yeah, bonehead me, I decided to make a few more pies after finding out that no one else was bringing any, or at least hadn't RSVP'd that they were, so I put together pumpkin. Shortly after baking all these pies, I realized that I hadn't but the 1 1/2 cups of sugar in, that the recipe calls for. Crap! We attempted to salvage the pies by using honey and cool whip on them. They weren't horrible, but they also didn't get devoured like I had hoped. Oh well. I learned my lesson, maybe.
Friday night, we started our shopping early and cruised the isles of Kmart. I got a couple of sleepers, and a sweater for Maren, and a couple of throws for snuggles in the car :)
Today, we got up, ate breakfast, and got to shopping. We hit the Walmart in hopes of finding the Mack transporter for Ian's Cars, that Toby hot ahold of. Found It. We also got a few giant coloring books to have around and a pair of little pink lined croc-like shoes for Maren. I can't go into too much detail with what all we got today, without ruining a surprise or two. . .so I'll just leave it at this: we went to Walmart, Sears, and JCPennys before heading back to Iowa. Christmas shopping has a small dent in it, there are a few more ideas that we came up with, but I have a lot left to do! It's nice to be back in Iowa. I am helping Barb with the Christmas Candy that she makes every year. I think we may run into Atlantic tomorrow. . . but mostly I am looking forward to finding some sleep, and relaxing for the last 2 days of my "Thanksgiving Vacation" --Happy Thanksgiving!

"Twilight" was horrible!

Alrighty, I am up writing this INSTEAD of sleeping. . . why is that? The Hoffmann Aunts are downstairs playing dominoes. There is no way to sleep when they are enjoying themselves!
Jenny H, Katie, and I just returned from the Twilight movie. It was horrible! Bad acting! If you have read the books (which I haven't) I guess they don't follow them too well. (according to Jenny) Anyway, in short. . . Twilight=waste of time and money!

Ian is 3!

What a day. . .we should have known it would be chaotic when it started snowing. The roads were not good, which in turn lowered our attendance. It turned out to be an OK deal though. The house was a little less crowded. In attendance were, Grandpa and Grandma Hoffmann, Grandpa and Grandma Jordison, Uncle Hermes and Aunt Erika, Uncle Kevin and Aunt Megan, Cousin Lydia, And Friends Katie, Kylie, and Aubrie Sanders.
Ian and the girls played for a bit before we had dinner. . .On the menu was the stuffing/turkey sandwiches that are oh-so-popular over in eastern Iowa, jello salad & chips. Following supper was birthday cake! I honestly think it has to be the best birthday cake I've ever had! (short of German chocolate, homemade of course) Grandma Hoffmann made Ian's cake this year. . . it was really good. THANK YOU BARB! Ian was SO excited when he was getting sung to. . .it was cute, he knew that he was getting sung to and that he wasn't supposed to sing, but he was still mouthing the words. . .Next was presents! Ian got a lot of cars things. Stickers Books, clothes. . .From Grandma and Grandpa Hoffmann he got a stuffed Curious George, along with a book. Sara and Jason gave him an Indiana Jones Mr. Potato head, and some TY Beanie Babies, Kevin and Megan gave him some cars stickers and a Iowa Hawkeye hoodie. Grandma and Grandpa Jordison gave him several Cars diecasts, and clothes. Erika and Hermes gave him a cool cars book, and green corduroys with a shirt. Katie and the girls gave him a cars drawing book, stickers and a cars wallet.
It was a great day, we have lots food and cake left. . . the best thing is we have a clean house!

Cupcakes!

This is our Birthday Celebration Preparation! Ian helped with the cupcakes.



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This is the debut of our video camera. We shrunk it down ALOT. from 163 MB to 15.2. we'll see how things go:)

Frank

I have been attempting to recreate "Frank" from the movie "Cars", since they don't make him yet. I started with a CaseIH combine.

Added White for the eyes

Must have forgotten a step, eyelids came next, then the irises.
Then we added the nose, nose ring, and teeth.
Last but not least were the smoke stacks, Eric came up with the idea of using allen wrenches for those. . .To be continued! I will get the final product on here a little later :)

Chunkin' Punkin'

The kids are both sick today. Eric has taken the brunt of it. . . way to go Eric. Maren started throwing up this morning. It wasn't good! Eric had her in her room, it got distance, it got in between the floorboards of her room, all the way down the front of Eric. . . needless to say, our upstairs isn't the most pleasant smelling place. She only got sick one more time, shortly after her nap, of course she is now on a diet of pedialite and crackers ( with a tad of ice cream, compliments of daddy)
Ian was fine all day, and as we sat down to unwind from the day (8:30), he started throwing up. . . Luckily most of it was in a towel, on his pillow, or on the blanket, the couch has been saved! Eric moved quickly and got him over the sink! I am hoping that this is the end of it. I stayed up too late last night, and then spent what sleeping time I did have, in Ian's bed. . .it's 9:26, time for me to go to bed. . .

____________________
Where did the title chunkin' punkin' come from? The kids are carrying around their Halloween pumpkins in case they have to throw up. . . fun fun!

Teeth # 9, 10, 11 & 12

Yes that is right. Maren is cutting 4 teeth at the moment. No wonder she's been crabby! she is cutting upper and lower molars on her right side and the two laterals on the bottom. She will have a full mouth of teeth soon!

Where have the relaxing weekends gone?

This weekend was spent doing loads of laundry. . .We have got to get rid of clothes. Our biggest problem, other than the fact that there's just too many clothes that we don't wear, is that we have no closet to put them in. I am so tempted to take the saws all to the HAVE to do something about it. My plan is to take the closet out of the bathroom and bring it to our bedroom side. We have to do something. . .
Yesterday Mom and Jerry came over. . .I started cleaning the house at about 7:30. By the time they got here at 11:30, there was a noticeable dent in the mess. The kitchen was fairly cleaned, counters bleached. The dining room was missing the table from the middle of it and there was only a small pile of stuff on the floor. The couches had been moved from the walls and swept and moped under. The toy room was somewhat cleaned up. . .by the end of the day, you couldn't tell. . .it's very discouraging. What I did make a dent in is the clothes. I hung an 8 foot bar in our unfinished bathroom/laundry room in the back of the house, and started hanging things up. I'm not sure how many loads got done, I know it was at least 6. . .we ran out of laundry detergent halfway through "forcing" me to make a trip to DesMoines. I needed Dog food, a heated dog water dish,6 f cat food, litter, and stuff to make chicken noodle soup. This is the first time in a long time that I went to Sams and didn't buy either formula or diapers. Miss Maren is officially off of formula. I need to start weaning her off the bottle (and Ian off the sippy cup for that matter) Ian was off of the bottle by now. . .
Sunday, I started the day off with eggs for the kids, Maren loves scrambled eggs. After getting them going, I started making Chicken Noodle soup. While that was cooking up, I took a trip to Stuart to fill the van (have to get the free paper for filling up at Kum and Go), vacuumed out the van, and got eggs and crackers at the store.
We will be eating soup all week. I made lots just in case we had company. . . turns out we were the only ones here today. We have had soup for 2 meals today. I did only one more load of laundry, I made soup, I cleaned out Ian's closet and had Eric install a new light socket in there. I am hoping to make his closet usable. It just needs the wallpaper stripped, a few holes patched, and painted. . . then of course, it needs some rods hung. The trick with that one is that his closet has the access to the attic. . .More than likely we will never have to go up there. Eric insulated it last fall. . .there are no immediate plans to add more. I just started another project. I am making a Case combine int Frank from Cars. It will take some time, I want to make sure the paint has time to dry before I add another layer. "Frank" will be making an appearance on top of Ian's birthday cake in 2 weeks.
The kids have done a good job of playing together this weekend ( as you can see here,they can even share the desk.) It is now 8:20. Maren is refusing to go to bed and is standing over by the fish tank screaming. . . Where have the relaxing weekends gone?

What a leader

Obama Video

Go McCain

My little sister sent me this forward, thought I'd share!
__________________________

'Twas the night before elections

And all through the town

Tempers were flaring

Emotions all up and down!

I, in my bathrobe

With a cat in my lap

Had cut off the TV

Tired of political crap.

When all of a sudden

There arose such a noise

I peered out of my window

Saw Obama and his boys

They had come for my wallet

They wanted my pay

To give to the others

Who had not worked a day!

He snatched up my money

And quick as a wink

Jumped back on his bandwagon

As I gagged from the stink

He then rallied his henchmen

Who were pulling his cart

I could tell they were out

To tear my country apart!

' On Fannie, on Freddie,

On Biden and Ayers!

On Acorn, On Pelosi'

He screamed at the pairs!

They took off for his cause

And as he flew out of sight

I heard him laugh at the nation

Who wouldn't stand up and fight!

So I leave you to think

On this one final note-

IF YOU DONT WANT SOCIALISM

GET OUT AND VOTE!!!!

Maren's all about me book

I made this for Maren today. It is very similar to Ian's except for the flap that folds over the cover for a more secure closure. I still need to add the Velcro. The book will contain pictures (when possible) of the people in Maren's life. Ian LOVED his, I'm sure if I'd refill his with current pictures, he'd probably show more interest.

Halloween at ITAGroup

Today was the annual Halloween parade at ITAGroup. The kids did well. We heard alot of Oh cute pooh. . . Oh and it's the Hunny pot, how cute! We also had one person ask Ian where his hunny pot was. . . only to see Maren in her costume and started to laugh. . . there's his hunny pot! They were cute and amusing :) The kids made out like bandits. . . lots of candy.

Later this evening we went over to Walnut, in an attempt to get some trick or treating in. We didn't make it in time for the festivities but we did hit Jim and Mo's. They believe in trick-or-beer. . .so Eric and I sat down and had a beer with Jim and Mo. We had a good visit.

For a more extensive selection (86) visit the shutterfly site.