Does anyone else have Dish in Oregon?  How happy are you about ABC?  Are you calling Dish and complaining?  

We called and complained and got STARZ for 4 months and a $7.00 credit.  If you haven't called you should, it's been too long without a very major, prime channel!  

I'm thinking of calling and complaining again and again!


(update......Pete turned on our ABC channel 12 and lo and behold it was up and running this morning - 12/31/10)

Christmas at the La Pierre's.  My "coquito" (puertorican eggnog), breakfast (bacon/kale strata-Kristi you'll love this one!), stockings (love, love), the tree with gifts from family and Santa (Santa doesn't wrap and they're always in front of the tree so Rocky can see what he got when he gets up in the middle of the night (yes, he still does that!))

Some of my traditions............

There is one thing I know for sure.............life is all about changes.

More to come.

With a new puppy, comes training.  Annie is not a big "chewer" because she has lots of toys around, of course she loves anything with fiberfil!  She was on her bed chewing on something and I thought it was one of her toys, she saw me and started to walk towards me with something in her mouth, she was showing me what she had, I took it from her and told her "no" and she was fine with that.  I put it back on the tree, thinking she would not go back after it, but she did, I found it and it is now going into the "repair box".  I had a feeling she might be doing this and was prepared. After this incident I moved the "soft" ornaments up a little higher. 

(I made this ornament years ago, the top is wrapped with wire to look like a ball/type ornament) 

How could you not love a face like this!

Merry Christmas everyone! 



I have to say my Christmas card holder was pretty empty for a long while.  Pete kept saying that no-one was sending Christmas cards anymore!  I did not want to believe that...........Christmas with no Christmas cards, come on! I told Pete, "no, I just think everyone is late this year", thank godness I was right. They started coming in in piles starting Monday, December 20th, thank godness! 

Tags for Annie's stocking

Annie's stocking all done........

I will still be putting out Shadow's stocking, no matter what with Frosty's, can't find Tedi's.  With a new pet comes a new stocking!  I had this leftover embossed felt from my stocking and decided since Annie is a girl, I had to go "girlie".  I traced Shadow's old stocking and cut a pattern.  I made copies of recent snow photos of Annie and made tags for the stocking.  Sewed the stocking, put it together and it was all done Monday night.  Annie is ready!

I had a couple of spice rubs left over from my "scrapper's Christmas party" and so I decided to make a couple more for my co-workers.  I found a freebie tag download on a blog (sorry, I don't remember which, but with a little research I might come up with it later) and used that to decorate the mason jars.  I also found more of the same mason jars (short squat ones) at Target last Saturday when I went shopping with mom.  

Made breakfast this a.m. and started some holiday baking!

 Also, made a dish to take to Linda's (left) holiday party today at 4pm.

  Thanks so much Linda for having your holiday celebration!  

Tomorrow I have to run to Walmart to get a gift certificate and 1 more thing for Pete and I'm done!!!!  Back home to ice cupcakes and make my sugar cookies.  I don't think I'll get to icing cookies until Tuesday, I'd like to do a little wrapping Monday night.

Oh, by the way I'm off this Monday and next Monday, thought I'd use some vacation days to spend home while mom is here.  

Let the Christmas countdown begin!!!!!

I sometimes wonder if anyone is reading my blog, other than Eileen, Laurie, Audrey, (occasionally) Cindy and Laura (thank you gf's!)  I know there are more of you and I thank you.  For the last couple of years I have mentioned in my Christmas letter that people can keep up with the LaPierre's by reading our blog and since I never heard any feedback I just thought "Oh, well, no-one's that interested" (lol).  I received a Christmas card from old friends Peg and Ken Kelley in Lamar, Colorado and I was surprised and very excited to hear that Peg followed my blog this past year, thanks Peg! Ken and Peg have the set-up with Peg's mom that I wanted with my mom.  Her mom is 93 and living on their property, about 100 yards from their house.  When we bought this property that was the plan and after we moved, mom changed her mind, "too country" for her.  

Congrats on the new year with a new puppy, Peg!  Yes, let the training fun begin!  Pete has been watching some info commercial about a dog training DVD by a guy called "The Dog Father", Don Sullivan, seems interesting, maybe worth looking into.  

So now I know that there are more of you out there!   YEH!!!!   

Here we are at our annual Christmas party hosted at my house this past Sunday.  We had a great time.  I made a spice rub as a little "gifty" for everyone to take home.  

Sorry, I haven't been posting so much but it has been busy around here trying to get ready for the holidays.

Last night I packaged gifts to take to the post office.  Tonight, I had another one to get together, folded laundry, washed a load, and cut out Annie's stocking that I plan on sewing this weekend.  Thank goodness I'm taking Monday off, maybe I can catch up a little.........I still haven't baked anything, I plan on doing a little this weekend and getting my sugar cookie dough done.  

The funny thing is I haven't gotten that many Christmas cards this year, Pete seems to think that we won't be getting too many, that people have cut down, could that be true?  

Either way, my cards were mailed over a week ago.  

I'm still in the middle of finishing up some little felted ornaments I'm making to send to friends in Vegas: those are almost done (I'll post a photo when done).  

For now, I'm drowsy and need to get some shut eye..........until tomorrow.

The wall of Rocky is now complete.........

When we took Rocky's first photo Pete said he wanted a photo for each year until he was 18.  The photo above completes the wall now that he has turned 18. 

It's hard to believe my baby is now 18 :(

Today is my Scrap booking group party at 4pm.  Lots to do, going to run and make my eggnog, first!  Lucky it's a pot luck, but still so much to do!  Spent all day yesterday cleaning - ugh!  Today I'll finish up.

-

He...........continues to surprise me.  

The first time he ran home and said.........."sign this, I'm going into Boy Scouts", "sign this, I'm going to play the violin", Geri, the orchestra teacher telling me at his orchestra retreat he got up in front of all his peers and sang 2 Beatles songs a capella (?) (and he was good), "mom, I'm going to try out for "Grease", "mom, I'm going to major in Music when I go to college".  

Last night at the High School was the AHAA (Ashland High Arts Advocates) Fine Arts Festival.  Rocky's orchestra did one number and I know the Show Choir was doing 2 numbers, but he did not want to tell me which ones, he wanted me to be surprised.

Well, there he was DANCING and singing "Rockin Pneumonia" and doing the James Bond theme!  My size 16 shoe baby, dancing..............priceless!

It's official!  Next Holiday season, I'm not hosting any gatherings!  I want to spend time at home at my own pace, working on some crafty projects.  I've been following a few crafters and all I can say is WOW there are some talented people out there.  I have one project I've been wanting to do, I've collected all the pieces but I just need the time, I'm hoping to work on it later next week.  I'm bound and determined to get it done this year!!!!

Tree Cutting 2010

We did it, it's up but.............I ran out of the new lights I bought last December 26th so off I go to Fred Meyer tonight to buy another box (I know they still have them, I've seen them there - TG!).

Poor Annie has taken a backwards turn and does not want to get into the truck, she has no problem with my car.  She was sooo good for a while but now she will step back and not get near it when we want to take her somewhere.  I still think it's because she was transported so much in the beginning and we did pick her up in the truck.  We got a leash and she tried to get out of her collar, so we pulled her by the collar to get her in.  Of course she had a fabulous time!!!!!  She loved the snow and was one tired puppy when we got home. 

We didn't have to go to far from home, about 20 minutes and we were up in snow country searching for our tree. 

This year we got an 8 footer (yeh, been wanting one under 9/10 feet) but it's a wide-body (hence more lights!)

I have a few errands to run in Medford so it's just one more thing on the list! 

Wreath after I changed the ribbon

Audrey and I with our completed wreaths

In the process......took the pinecones home and added some glitter before attaching to wreath

I'd never seen these before and just had to have them!

First bow

Audrey and I went to North Mountain Park and made our wreaths this past Saturday.  I have been doing this for the past 4 years, I love doing this!  This year I bought my own frame and larger too.  It took a while but I finally got this down!

.

She................got to meet Dr. Alice today.  When we got Annie she was all set as far as shots, micro-chip, spayed, etc.  Buddy Diane suggested she get a heart worm check after 6 months and she was due, also, they can't prescribe "Heartguard" if she hasn't had a check-up.  She had a great check-up and Dr. Alice really thought she was a cutie.  So she's all set.   Of course the one thing I needed to take was all her paperwork and I forgot that!  So I'll be making another trip to drop off a copy.

(isn't this the cutest photo of Annie, and yes, that's snow!)

Lots going on these days............getting ready for Christmas, interviews at work for a new Development Director (my boss), planning 2 parties.  I'm in the midst of Christmas cards as I write this.  Took the short cut and bought some photo cards from Costco.  I had intentions of making my own, I even downloaded templates, etc. but couldn't figure out how to do it on Photoshop Elements.....so New Year's resolution: learn how to do a little digital scrapping.  I found some on-line directions so I'll be checking that out when I get some time, for sure!
This weekend, I'll be making my wreath (Saturday) and we'll be cutting down our tree on Sunday.  Hopefully the snow won't be too bad and we'll be able to get into the roads up on Dead Indian or we'll be doing some hiking!  It's been raining since last night and there's bound to be tons of snow.


A project I've been working on and will continue is organizing my photos!  I'm so behind and have sent a huge order to Shutterfly along with a "book" I made with Rocky's senior portraits for my mom (a Christmas present).  
I still have not gotten my Italy photos together and that is the next project (Audrey).  I hope to start working on those photos at the next retreat in January, so I better get busy!

Look who's turning 18 today, my baby boy.............:(

Seems like it was just yesterday when I had him, I was the only one giving birth at 5:25 am in Women's Hospital in Las Vegas, NV.  Since things were slow even the anesthesiologist stuck around for the birth.  My doctor was pregnant with twins and I was one of the last people she was delivering: she had her twins a week later. 

I was lucky my friend Margret was there with her camera to take photos since my bag was still stuck at home, you see I didn't know I was in labor and went to the hospital because I couldn't stop throwing up!  They never mentioned in the classes that someone in labor could/would be throwing up, so I didn't know what was wrong with me!  After a day of that, my mom had Pete call the hospital and they told them to bring me in, when I got there I was at 5 centimeters..........the rest is history.

We survived the holidays! and the holiday shopping on Friday! Cooking, eating, shopping, Ashland Parade and town lighting, dinner at Omar's, birthday celebrating, wine tasting!   Busy, busy and now on to Christmas.  I have to get the house ready for 2 holiday parties next weekend, omg, is it next weekend?????  Sorry, have to get moving..............

Laurie and I are out early today, but NOT doing "doorbusters", just our yearly tradition of shopping the "day after".  When we return to town we'll meet the guys, go to the Parade and Festival of Lights in Ashland and head home to have some yummy leftovers........gotta love traditions!

Happy Turkey Day everyone!!!!

Marinated my turkey last night with Cristina Ferrare's recipe that I've been using for many years, did lots of prep work and now we're putting together the rest of the meal. 
Thankful for everything we have and for being able to put a great meal on the table and sharing it with loved ones.