Costco Plug

What do you when your glasses break at midnight, the Saturday before Christmas? When you are married to Jon, he pulls out his phone and starts making calls. He found out that Lens Crafters makes glasses in an hour but I had found a cute pair of frames at Costco, where I have gotten the last few pairs of glasses. But glasses in an HOUR!?! Wow! So, today we got to put all the Monday duties (including addressing Christmas cards that Jon finally finished this weekend, so they will be even later!) on hold and drive all over. First to buy the frames at Costco. Then over to the mall. I would rather do just about anything than go to a mall any time of the year, but I avoid it completely from November to February, and I had to go to the MALL today! ARGH! I got my eye exam (thank you Dr. Truong. All 4 foot 9 of you!) then headed over to Lens Crafters and even though I was at the COUNTER, the worker helped all the people behind me get going then came to me. I said I had frames and just need the lenses. She gave me about 10 options and my brain turned to mush. I knew I wanted the thin ones and that limited me to five. The cheapest of which was $325. I said fine and then she said "Oh, well with your prescription we can't make it here, so we have to send it out." That was the whole point of going to LC. I said (loudly) "Fine! I am just going back to Costco!" And I did. Their thin, polycarb. lenses were . . . guess! . . . $100!! I still can't get over the price difference. I will not be tempted to stray again.

Tis the Season: Part Two

Here are a bunch more pictures of what we've been up to lately. We put the Christmas tree up while the dishes were drying from our Thanksgiving dinner. That is one of the good things of having a "fakey". I do miss the pine smell though.

We've also been spending a lot of time at this store for various train items. When you walk in, it's like stepping into the 1950's. The owner is the cutest little man that you want to go get a hug from. And he knows his train lore.

I keep thinking the train set is done so I'll take a picture only to have Jon come home with another bag of tracks to add etc. But this is still my favorite part of the scene. Jon has spent dozens of hours planning, sketching, modeling this area. The only part of this he bought as is are the trees and cabin. The lake, banks and rocks are all mixed, poured, dried and painted. The kids liked doing it for about 15 min. and then it wasn't as much fun watching them dry.

Jon assembled the cabin but then painted the windows and roof and made paths etc. I think he wanted to recreate a Lake Tahoe scene and I think he succeeded. I told him I want to come summer here!!

We did our annual Gingerbread house. We even seem to have a hard time with the pre-cut, come-in-a-box ones!! At least the kids have fun!

We've done 3 advents so far. Okay, the kids and I have done 3 advents and Jon has had 3 Sunday afternoon naps. :)

The kids were in a little skit at our GOCO party. Collin was the narrator. . .

And Grace was one of the sheep. The cutest one of the herd.

It must be the Christmas season because our treat corner is growing bigger every day with the yums of the season. And one of the pictures I found on my camera of a Mother and Baby pickle that were stuck together.

The complete (maybe) train. Collin looks like he gets hypnotized when he drives it.

Tis the Season: Part One

So, as you know, we had snow last Friday. See the flakes? We have too many trees in our yard for the snow to get on much of our lawn and house. (That's a hibiscus plant getting snowed on.)

Grace loved the snow. Collin loved the snow. They went out and played in it. I loved it. Jon loved the snow. Houston doesn't know what to do when snow comes, so it completely shuts down and Jon got to come home for a snow day. I had to take a lady I visit teach to get a mammogram and when I got home, they were all working on the electric train. It had to have a pond, right?

I thought that was a perfect Snow Day activity. Once Jon gets started, it's hard for him to stop!

Grace liked the snow. Collin liked the snow. I liked the snow. Jon liked the snow. The yard did not like the snow. All our tropical plants withered away . . .

My beautiful Plumeria felt betrayed. (I am so sorry I didn't cover you!!) And our banana plant that looking even worse than before! The dying brown color is all over our yard. Both of our dads have huge, lovely yards and huge green thumbs, so they are probably glad they can't see it in person!

On another note, after a couple of months of being without my recycling bin, I finally got not one new one, but TWO! I am so protective of them, they are like our new twins!

One more random: I've been spending a LOT of time lately in the Post Office shipping orders. Good for business, not for my mentality. Collins' either I guess because he said this after standing in line for about 1/2 an hour, "Working at the Post Office has got to be the most BORING job. Ever!" Somehow I don't see him working at a PO!! I'll leave you with a quote a stranger said at the PO as he was leaving, "Y'all have a God filled day". (I love southerners!)

W.O.W. No commentary needed . . .

Houston, We have SNOW!!!

"Rare Snow Flurries Falling Across Houston"

"Snow Flurries A Novelty Downtown"

"The flurries that began Friday morning mark the earliest recorded snowfall in the city's history" (All from Houston Chronicle)

It must be because we moved here. The Bybees welcome your thanks for bringing you snow, a "rare novelty" TWO years in a row. We accept food gifts and large bills.

Knee News

Have any of you ever had your hard drive crash? If not, you are MISSING out!! It's the BEST! Now, to the post at hand:

So there Jon was, flying down the mountain. Wind whipping his hair, snow blowing in his face as he braces for a totally rad jump. He squats down, getting ready for it and as he reaches it and straightens up, he gets a tear in his miniscus! OK, he might have been on the Wii board doing the ski jump, BUT he did get a tear and there was a flap that needed to be removed. What is a miniscus you ask? It's a little "pad" in your knee to keep the bones from hitting each other. Here is a visual anatomy lesson:

He had the surgery on the 19th down town. Here he is waiting at the Surgical Center:

He never stops working! OK, he's really talking to the kids. Doesn't he look cute in the gown?

To give you peace of mind about the upcoming procedure, you get to write "YES" on the right limb. Then for even more comfort, you AND the Dr. get to sign it - just to make sure. Doesn't he have cute knees?

While Jon was under the knife, I was eating a chocolate drizzled cherry croissant from Au Bon Pain and looking at the view. This is looking at the zoo and the Houston Museum of Natural Science and the Butterfly Terrarium:

I wonder if Jon even remembers me taking this picture. He was a little groggy.

The recovery has been great. He went to Physical Therapy (or as he keeps saying Rehab, which makes a better story) and they said he is doing better than they thought he would. He has almost the same range and motion as a normal knee and there's less pain than before, so things are good!

Our Girls Getaway

MWAA HHAA HHAAA!! I love a good surprise, and I've had one for about a month now that I had to keep from my mom because . . . Thursday night I flew up "home" to Utah and my sisters and I kidnapped my mom for her 60th birthday. I had planned on having my camera with me to capture her surprise when she saw me and of course I forgot it, but this is almost as good:

We went to my sisters in-laws Condo in Midway and I got to be there for the first snow of the year. Cold weather isn't too bad if you have the right clothes for it, which I did this time!! This is my mom and me. I hope I look that good at 60!! All my sisters are about 6 inches taller than me, but my mom and I are almost the same, but see mom??? The proof is here, I AM taller than you!!

For her birthday dinner we went to the Blue Boar Inn and even though I wasn't very hungry after having gorged myself on Indian food for lunch, still had a delicious soup and salad here. Doesn't it look so inviting?!?

The sisters. We were always around this fireplace - chatting, eating, chatting, snacking, talking about all our favorite show - The Biggest Loser, chatting some more etc. We needed another night for all our chatting.

The sisters with mom.

We played a LOT of games while we chatted . . . and snacked, and talked about the Biggest Loser . . . right across from the fireplace.

We also went shopping at the Park City outlets and it was about 20 degrees, snowing and blowing, but really pretty.

It was so much fun and my only complaint was that it was too short! I love you guys and Happy Birthday Mom!!

Yay!

I can't wait for this weekend. I'll be posting pictures next week. . .

Pumpkin Streusel Squares

(Photo from Allrecipes)

Crust:

1 c. flour

1/2 c. rolled oats

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. butter

Filling:

2 c. pumpkin

12 oz milk (evaporated)

2 eggs

1/2 c. Turbinado (Raw Sugar)

1/4 c. brown sugar

2 1/4 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice

Topping:

1/2 c. chopped pecans

1/2 c. brown sugar

2 Tbsp. Butter

Handful Rolled Oats

2 - 3 Spoonfuls flour

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x13 pan.

Cut crust ing. together and lightly press into pan. Bake 15 min. until golden brown.

Blend filling ing. and pour over crust. Bake for 30 min. or until firm.

Mix topping ing. and sprinkle on pumpkin and bake 15 more min.

GO MAKE THEM!! So yummy - so easy. Delish.

Halloween

We had a new and unusual Halloween this year. I have been a little "disenchanted" with our Halloweens here. The last 2 years we've gone trick-or-treating, we have had neighborhood crazies attach themselves to our little party for the whole night and I just did not want to deal with that this year. I made a bold plea that we stay home, have our own little Halloween party and watch a movie etc. The kids thought it was a great idea. Jon asked if they realized that meant no trick-or-treating and I said I'm sure they did. I got "the eye" from him so I asked the kids if they realized what I meant and they said yes. I almost wanted to feel their foreheads to make sure they were ok. We started with carving Jack-o-Lanterns. Yes, most people do that at the beginning of October, but things start to rot after about a day outside here, so we did it that night. We had our usual meal of Mummy Dogs and Ghost Potatoes . . .

(Table by Grace. These were the "savory" part of the meal)

Jon got out the dremel tools and the fun began. . .

The kids and I were done in about 1/2 an hour but Jon took about 2. The final result:

The rest of night didn't include many pictures. Who wants to see us sitting and watching King Kong (the 70's version - wouldn't recommend it) and munching. Collin wanted to hand out the candy and dressed in an "80's" outfit. The door rang 5 times. FIVE people!! See my disenchantment? Anyway, we had a fun night and the kids keep saying how fun it was (?) so I guess it was a success. We've been enjoying our pumpkins in Pumpkin Choc. Chip bread too. YUM! I love fall food.