Sherri's (Never A Dull Moment) World

While I Was Away... December

At the beginning of the month, I had such good intentions to blog my way through Christmas...

I set up my countdown to Christmas calendar on my fridge:

 

I put out my winter dishes:

 
I hung our stockings by the chimney with care (in hopes that St. Nicholas would soon appear):

 
These stockings are from Pottery Barn-- one for each member of the Rodgers family. Only this year, there is a new stocking in the line-up... can you see it? [Hint: It begins with "E".]

 

I finished knitting two scarves, one for Natasha and another for Angela (this one is Natasha's):
 
Angela brought Elijah to Hallmarkland so I could see his new NFL Colts jersey:

 

Elijah really liked those annoying Roffle monkeys:

 
soooo much that he gave one a kiss:

 
My favorite girls in the neighborhood (Janna & Delaney) brought me a sweet surprise:

 
They know that I LOVE homemade sugar cookies with frosting (yum, yum!):

 

I stopped by to see my Mom & Jesse, who were really excited about Christmas:

 
Bill & I went to our secret Christmas shopping destination (LaConner, WA):

 
on the hunt for some special gifts:

 

I prepared packages for Nick and Natasha, who were not going to be home for Christmas:

 
I finally did a little decorating for our upcoming Christmas Eve party...

 
I had a BRILLIANT idea to create this "A Christmas Story"-theme wreathe:

 
This tree is in my kitchen and is an ocean-theme (my favorite):

 
Sierra really didn't feel like participating:

 

We threw a pretty nice Christmas Eve party (and were exhausted afterwards)...

 
And on Christmas Day, we visited with Nick & his girlfriend via the new XBox Kinnect at J's house:

 
WOW! and WHEW! What a CRAZY month!

Have a safe and wonderful New Year's Eve!!

The Meeting

Today was the day that I have been waiting for ... for a LONG time.

Nick didn't make it home for Christmas. But he flew into town today for 10 fabulous days.

We haven't seen Nick since June. But another Rodgers has not seen Nick at all.

That would be Elijah Rodgers.

Our family has been joking about this first meeting and laid bets on what might happen. Would Elijah cry (due to stranger anxiety)? Would he be shy? Would he be serious? Nick said he was going to try to trick Elijah into thinking he was his dad. And this is where the betting gets serious-- because if you see Jeremiah and Nick together, at just the right angle, they could be twins.

Nick has almost fooled Angela before. He flew to Spain while on leave from his year deployment in Iraq. (Jeremiah & Angela were stationed at Rota, Spain.)  He arrived in Spain with only a backpack-- Jeremiah told him not to worry about packing two weeks' worth of clothes because they wear the same size. So Jeremiah picked up Nick from the airport and Nick changed into Jeremiah's clothes while they lounged around.  When Angela got home from work, Nick went to hug her and she almost kissed him -- she thought he was Jeremiah (due to the clothes)!!

This afternoon, we saw them pull into the driveway. We watched them get out of the car. When Nick walked inside, in front of Jeremiah, Elijah did a double-take:

 
It probably didn't help Elijah when Angela pointed and said, "Look! Two Daddies!"

Moments like this = priceless.

The White Stuff

Yesterday, it was doing this when I left for work:

 
If you look close, you can see little white dots (= snowflakes).

This morning, it looked like this when I left for work:

 
That's right. We had four inches of snow outside.

 
My chickens were not very happy. Some of them ventured out, while others stayed inside their chicken house. I found the explorer chicks hanging out here, but clucking as if they were complaining:

 

I went for a little walk...

 
I headed into our backyard...

 
And went down into the woods...

 
Why? I had to get to work! And my car was at...

 
My neighbor's house down the hill.

Because Little Red Hot (that is my car's nickname) drove home last night in 4 inches of snow and ice-- she made it up two hills (hooray!)-- she turned into my neighborhood and made it past the slippery 90 degree corner  going uphill (which was pure determination as there were already  two cars in the ditch)-- and then got stuck uphill on a patch of compacted snow & ice only 1.5 blocks from my house.

So I called Bill to get his advice.  He walked 1.5 blocks to check out my situation. I then carefully backed Little Red Hot into a driveway (without sliding into another ditch) and drove her back downhill to park her at our backyard neighbor's house for a sleepover. Bill & I walked through the woods home last night, and I walked in those same footsteps this morning.

Life is funny sometimes.  Especially when it snows.

"True Grit"-- 2010 Style

December is always stressful for me. Bill worries about me as I have more stress-related headaches, as I come home unhappy from work, as I am soooo tired from trying to juggle all of the last-minute details pertaining to the holidays.

He doubles my vitamins.

He makes me go to bed early.

He calls to see how my day is going.

He tucks chocolate surprises in my purse.

And he takes me to the movies. Because he knows I LOVE going to movies and seeing them unfold on the big screen.

So we went to see "True Grit" last week. It was an escape for me. But this time, Bill was REALLY, REALLY excited to go... because he has been waiting for MONTHS for this movie to debut.

 

 Why? It is one of Bill's all-time FAVORITE movies. He grew up watching the original 1969 version of "True Grit", starring John Wayne.

 
He has watched it so many times that he has the dialogue memorized. And we have this one on DVD:

 

We heard rumor that there would be a 2010 remake of this classic film, starring Jeff Bridges:

 

Bill LOVED the trailers, like this one:

 

What did we think?  Bill is the expert on this one.  BILL LOVED IT! I glanced at him several times in the darkness of the movie theater... and he was grinning from ear to ear. He gives it a Rodgers "9.5" (out of 10).

Bill's favorite lines:

"That's mighty bold talk for a one-eyed fat man..." (Lucky Ned)

"Fill your hands, you son-of-a-bith!" (Rooster Cogburn)

And my favorite line from the 2010 movie:

"I thought you were gonna say the sun was in your eyes... That is to say, your eye" (Texas Ranger LeBuf)

What a kick!

WHAT??!!

I saw this when we were out & about yesterday and thought I would add my own caption:

 
"WHAT??!!"

"There are only SIX shopping days until Christmas?!?!@#%^&$#@@!"

(insert scream here)

"The Fighter" - Movie Review

Me & Marky Mark Wahlberg go waaaaaaaay back.

 
I met him while he was part of this cool '80s band:

I LOVED to dance to this song:

 

The band broke up. And then he started to appear in movies. This was one of my favorites in the '90s:

 
He kept appearing and disappearing. We watched him in "The Italian Job", "Four Brothers", "Three Kings", "The Happening" and "Planet of the Apes". He had a terrific role in this movie:

 
In "The Departed", his character played out the most satisfying ending to a movie EVER.

He reappeared in "We Own The Night" and "Shooter":

 
Then, to make sure that I did not forget about him-- he showed up in "Date Night" and "The Other Guys". 

Now he is the talk of the town in Hollywood. Bill watched his interview on "60 Minutes" and I watched his latest interview on "Ellen":

 
He is promoting his new movie, "The Fighter":

Which I talked Bill into seeing today:

 
What did we think about it??? WE LOVED IT. The acting was SUPERB. The storyline was engaging. This is not "Rocky"-- it is based on the true story of another boxer and his brother. And we were totally satisfied and WOWED by Mark Wahlberg's performance. I give it a  hard-to-get 9.5 on the Rodgers movie rating scale. Right now it is my SECOND favorite movie of 2010, behind "Inception" (which I just bumped up to a total 10). Why? Because even though I hate boxing, I would pay to see it all over again. The Golden Globes have nominated Mark for "Best Actor", his movie for "Best Picture", and his cast for many "Best Supporting Actor/Actress" categories. They deserve it.

You ROCK, Mark Wahlberg!!!

Home Is Where Your Mama Is...

One Christmas, I made each of the kids their own mini-scrapbook with the theme "What I Love About You".  I found a rubber stamp that I used for the last page in each book, along with a family photo, that read "Home Is Where Your Mama Is". I used that rubber stamp again when the boys went off to college and then again, when each of them went off to war in Iraq. I pulled it out again when Natasha left for college. And I reinforced that statement a couple of years ago when I found magnets with the same saying-- and sent them to each, wherever they were.

When Natasha came home for Thanksgiving, she reminded me of that sentiment and told me what it meant to her.  Her boyfriend was at her house keeping her company while she packed her bag for the weekend. He asked her when exactly she was going to be back home. She corrected him and said that her little rental house in Pullman is where she lives--- but HOME IS WHERE HER MAMA IS and that is the best place in the world to be. I loved that.

So I picked her up from the train station on Thanksgiving Day:

 

It made me so happy to see her smiling face:

 
We went home.  In no time at all, she became her father's daughter. I don't know who started it... maybe a poke or a "dead-leg" in the kitchen, but all of a sudden Natasha began to look like she was up to something:

 
And it turned into this:

 
Trust me. Though Bill is built like a grizzly bear, he has trained Natasha how to defend herself (or to start fights) (which she does with Bill) (once again-- I did NOT see who started this!). Though Bill is probably giving Natasha a painful pressure point, it looks like she went in for the nipple-twist:

 
There is usually kicking and screaming involved (Natasha).... sometimes funny faces and groaning (if Natasha gets Bill in 'the family jewels'). They laugh, they cry and then it is over:

 
Another thing that Natasha does when she comes home is.... she sleeps:

 

Jeremiah did not do this. But Nick and Natasha do. When they come home, they just relax and they catch up on sleep. They look happy. I'd like to think it is because they feel safe, they feel loved and they know they have nothing to worry about when they are HOME (where their mama is).

Natasha made sure to re-accquaint herself with Toddler Elijah (and to prove that Aunties are fun):

 
We had a family dinner at our favorite place:

And then *POOF!* it was time to say good-bye to Natasha. And collect hugs from her favorite sister-in-law:

 
And her brother:

 
And drive back to the train station, which was now decorated for Christmas:

 

We waited with her. Then we gave her our hugs good-bye... until January:

 

 
When I was outside of the train station, I texted her "u r beautiful-- I miss u already".  Before I could hit <send>, she sent me a text that read  "I am so glad I came HOME. I miss u mama".

And I shed a few little tears ... as we headed HOME:

 

This song is for you, Sissy [Katy Perry- "Firework"]:

 

"RED" - Movie Review

I convinced Bill to take me to the movies on Sunday. Since he was reluctant to go, I picked a movie that I thought he would enjoy.... we went to see "RED":

 
This movie was smart! It was action-packed! It had GREAT one-liners! And I caught Bill and I chuckling a few times (in between car chases, grenade launchers, and assassination attempts). It was almost joyful to see Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and the ice-cold Helen Mirren play "Retired (and) Extremely Dangerous" (=RED) ex-CIA agents counter the CIA operations to take them out of the game.  Richard Dreyfus made a guest appearance as an egotistical millionaire.  And Mary-Louise Parker was just delightful.

 
I give this movie as solid "8" out of 10 on the Rodgers movie-rating scale. It was pure entertainment.

I told Bill that when we get older, he can be a "RED" (a.k.a. retired & extremely dangerous) person and I would like to be a "REI". No, not like "REI" in Pacific Northwest outdoor recreation sales! I want to be "Retired & Extremely INTELLIGENT". It could happen...

AND we saw another awesome trailer for "The Green Hornet", coming in January 14, 2011:

I CAN"T WAIT!

Isn't She Lovely...

When Natasha came home for Thanksgiving, I asked Bill to do a photo shoot featuring our daughter. She has been living in Pullman since January. She is finishing her degree program at WSU and working full-time. She is soooo busy that we only hear from her every couple of weeks.

Sigh.

I miss her.

So Bill took a bunch of pics to make me happy. This is Natasha at 23.

and

and

and

and

I think she is stunning.

And I LOVE her. :)

 

A Visit With Little E

I stopped by to see Toddler Elijah last week. I held him for a little while, then I put him down so we could play. For the next 1/2 hour, my visit was like Little Billie from the Family Circus cartoon strip when he went on one of his meandering paths:

 
I pulled out my camera and took Elijah's picture (I do that ALL THE TIME):

 
Then he took off walking, all over the house:

 
Every so often, I would sneak ahead of him and say "Boo!":

 
Then he would change direction and walk quickly into another room:

 
Sometimes he looked over his shoulder to see if I was still following him (of course I was!):

 
Just like Billie (from Family Circus), he made little loops and sometimes changed his mind on where he was going:

 
He was so tickled with himself!

 
We walked by Jeremiah, who had his headset on and was gaming in the family room, MANY times. Jeremiah said, "Keep it up, Mom! You'll wear him out for bedtime!"  So we kept on walking:

 
During one of his loops through the kitchen, he stopped at their front door. He is now tall enough to peek outside... to look for Honey, to look for cars driving by, to see if Santa is coming?...

 
That is, when he stands on his tiptoes (isn't that ADORABLE??!!):

 

Silly Elijah! I had to head home for dinner, so I stopped him, hugged him and he gave me a kiss good-bye. I just LOVE that little boy. :)

What NOT To Do Before Christmas...

I saw this cute little pin on Ebay the other day and it brought back a flood of childhood memories:

It is made by Avon, circa early 1970s.  It is not just ANY piece of jewelry-- if you lift up the head flap, you might find some girly perfume underneath:

Here is the story that goes with this pin...

When I was six years old, we lived in Bellevue in a nice, middle-class neighborhood.  Both of my parents worked-- my father worked at Boeing and my mother was a secretary for an insurance firm.  There were three of us kids then-- my older sister was 10, I was 6 and my brother was 5 and we all attended the local elementary school.

Some afternoons we went to a neighbor's house after school. Some afternoons we were on our own until our parents came home from work. We were all REALLY EXCITED about the upcoming holidays. We had already visited Santa and written our Christmas wish lists. To our surprise, we discovered there were wrapped Christmas presents hidden in our hallway coat closet!  And our Christmas stockings were full of wrapped gifts! Although there were two weeks to go, we thought Santa was just being "super organized" and had delivered them early.

So all three of us decided to make a pact and do a little peeking (after school) while our parents were at work. We agreed only to peek at each others' presents--we thought if we peeked at our own we would get in trouble with Santa, for sure. So on our afternoons as "latch-key kids". we took turns sneaking presents out of that closet and from our stockings and CAREFULLY removingthe tape from the wrapped packages. We made secret lists of what our brother/sisters were getting.  It was GLORIOUS! But it was too much information to keep secret.The suspense was KILLING us!

So we made another pact. We agreed to take turns guessing our presents and stocking contents until we could guess no longer. We made up riddles and asked questions, in between watching cartoons. We felt up our stockings and made guesses while one of us stood guard at the living room doorway. We were sooooo sneaky.

Have you guessed the end of my Christmas story??? Yes, that is right. We were HORRIBLE at keeping secrets. We were all so giggly and generous with clues that each of us guessed EVERYTHING that was coming to us on Christmas Eve.

Both my sister & I received Avon girl pins, like the 2 shown below, inside our Christmas stockings:

One by one, we opened up all of our presents and pretended to be joyously surprised. But the Christmas magic was GONE. I think we were all so bored on Christmas Day that we took afternoon naps. At six years old, I made a mental note to myself to NEVER DO THAT AGAIN.

And I told my kids that story, so they could resist the tempation to repeat Christmas history.

And I will tell Elijah my story when he gets a little older. Why? Because Angela told me that he has been caught sneaking open some presents under their Christmas tree.

Silly Elijah. He is just one year old and doesn't know any better. But someday he will.... and Honey (that's me!) will tell him what NOT to do before Christmas!

December Stress Relief

Yes, December is a very stressful month. So many things to do.... so little time. However, I found a little stress relief in one of our favorite things this week-- watching "The Office".

Most of the Rodgers family (Bill, Sherri, Nick & Natasha) LOVE "The Office" on NBC:

 
Bill & I were watching the new "Classy Christmas" episode (Season 7)-- one of the storylines featured yet another confrontation between Dwight K. Schrute and Jim Halpert:

 

Can you believe this??? We were laughing sooooo hard that a) I thought I would pee my pants and b) I almost fell over in my spinning computer chair. And when Bill is laughing about the same thing I am laughing about-- it makes me laugh that much harder.

Poor Jim. Sneaky Dwight.

Cost of this version of stress relief: priceless.

 

 

Speaking of Zombies...

Okay, maybe you were not speaking of zombies. However, we were out to dinner with friends tonight and we did speak of zombies. We told them the following story:

We sent Nick a care package for Thanksgiving since he could not be home with family & friends. Inside the care package was this:

 
That's right. A 2011 calendar featuring zombies and a special bonus! For each month of the year, you get to punch out a paper zombie and fold it to create a little collection of zombies. This was TOTALLY Nick and we knew he would love it.

Yesterday, Nick sent us text messages while we were all 3 at work. His first text read, "I don't think I can wait until January". His next text read, "Oh No! Zombies are all over my desk and attacking my laptop. What should I do?" I knew IMMEDIATELY that he was referring to his zombie calendar kit and he had probably put a few together... So I texted back," Just shoot them in the head so you can get some work done... heh heh heh". Unbeknownst to me, Bill had received the same messages. He texted Nick, "Don't forget to 'double-tap'".  [Note: that is a classic rule in the movie, "Zombieland"] Nick replied, "Thanks for the good advice!".

At the end of the day, when all of pieces of this story came together, I couldn't help but laugh that we were all in sync during our afternoon text conversations. After all, we do LOVE zombies. And we are Rodgers. That is just how we roll.

On another zombie-related topic, I am sad and a little distraught that the last episode of AMC's "The Walking Dead" mini-series aired last week.

 
It was so exciting! The ill-fated group of human survivors finally made it to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta to find only one scientist alive inside. They celebrated their safety with hot showers, food and wine. Unfortunately, their reprieve was short-lived--the Center's generators were running out of fuel and the Center was on a countdown for self-destruction. Of course, this was the perfect cliff-hanger for a mini-series final episode! 

What I know is this: many of the main characters escaped the CDC only to be back in (zombie) danger. What I am dying to know is what the doctor whispered in the state trooper's ear before they all made a run for it. I know I am HOOKED on this new series! But it won't air its second season until October 2011. WHAT!?!?!??! My compliments to this new cast of actors & actresses, to the writers and the make-up artists for pulling off six fantastic episodes.

 
Go ZOMBIES!

 

That #$%#@ $10 Coupon

Coupons are dangerous.

I don't mean those little coupons, the ones that save you 50 cents on a can of tuna or $1 on a mega-8 pack of toilet paper.  I don't really have time for those kind of coupons.

I am talking about the BIG coupons. Like the Bath & Body Works coupons that offer you a free lotion with purchase of one. Or the JoAnn Fabrics get 40% off one item coupon. Sometimes the Victoria's Secret "free panty with any purchase" coupon. Sooo nice.

However, some BIG coupons affect me more than others. They start to burn a hole in my purse if I carry them around...for any length of time. They make me DRIVE to their destination and redeem the coupon. Which usually means that I will look around... and you know where this is going. It means I will, I WILL spend more money.

I confess. I can resist some of those BIG coupons better than others. But the ones that crack all of my resilience to not spend any $$$ are:

1) Macys (I am a sucker for a new outfit or a pair of cute shoes)

2) Michael's Craft Store (come on, I am a scrapbooker and I make all kinds of things out of nothing)

and now this one:

 

Since I have an Eddie Bauer Friends reward card (which is a FREE frequent shopper card program) (most stores have them), I occasionally earn some rewards coupons. I got one last week in the mail for $10. Oh NOOOOOOOOO! A $10 BIG coupon! I tried to play it cool. I put it in my purse and tried to forget about it. I thought I would savor it for awhile. But it started to smolder in my purse. And I felt it when I was reaching for my phone. And I ended up driving over there to just "look around". I thought I would get myself a new pair of work pants. And that would be all. REALLY.

Sorry. I was sadly mistaken. Oh I used that @#$#$@#@!! $10 coupon all right. I left with 2 pairs of pants, 2 tops, a scarf and a new sweater. I will not reveal my total (GASP! Bill might read my blog!)-- but that is the truth of the matter. I both LOVE and HATE those BIG coupons. Don't you?

Sigh.

While I Was Away...

I know, I know... I have been VERY absent from my blog. (insert deep sigh)

As a bit of an explanation, here is what I have been up to since my last post:

1) We finally signed the closing papers on our home refinance (Hooray! We locked in at 4.3%!)

 
2) We had to scramble to buy ingredients for the family Thanksgiving dinner (uh hum, Costco does make the best pumpkin pie in town)

 
3) Why were we scrambling? THIS was happening around here

 

4) Elijah was baptized at the local Catholic church (he did NOT want ANYTHING to do with the priest)

 
5) Natasha (a.k.a. Sissy) came home for three fabulous days

 
6) Thanksgiving dinner was hosted by Jeremiah & Angela, but Bill was in charge of two delicious turkeys

 
7) Which, unfortunately, was followed by the dreaded "Black Friday" at Hallmarkland (UGH)

8) Which was followed by "Black  Saturday" ... and "Black Sunday" too.  I don't exactly know why, but we have been SLAMMED at Hallmark ever since! Which is why I get much comfort from my usual tall peppermint hot chocolate (extra peppermint, extra hot) and a nice morning cinnamon bun

 
9) To relieve my retail stress, Bill and I snuck up to Bellingham for another Nerd Day

 
10) Why am I stressed? Because I find myself leaving Hallmarkland after dark

 
11) And it was time to bring Biology 100 to a sweet end. My last lecture was on "Sharks!" and I gave my final exam this week

 

Will you forgive me?