..and the New Year was HAPPY :~)

A few fun, random pics from NYE!!!!!!!!!

Nick busting it up on the drums!!!!!

We celebrated the New Year at Richards Farms in Casey, IL. Our hometown band Union played the night away and brought in the New Year for us! It was super fan-tab!

And yes, in case you're wondering I'm bundled up in my coat. I was the DD for the night (BONUS), and therefore I did not get warmed up dancing! LOL! I still had an absolute blast tho watching everyone else and enjoying all the grand company that was surrounding me!

CHEERS TO 2009!!!!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!

To all my blog-stalkers....... Happy New Year!!! I hope 2009 is everything you've dreamt it to be!

XO

The Post-Workout GT-2140

Told you all I was obsessed with my Asics.... but here are my newbies after their first workout with Sean T:





Granted it was an indoor workout so don't be alarmed at the cleanliness of them still - LOL! Tomorrow we're going for a run, so I'll keep you posted (as I'm sure you can't wait)! WHICH, is why I LOVE blogging b/c I can talk about things random to me and not be concerned with who I'm boring :~) Read if you'd like, skip if you'd like - I'll never know :~)

Signing off with love n dedication to all my blog-stalkers,
JT

Proof is in the Pudding (Pictures)

So last night I finished with just how lucky I am as a daughter, sister, mother, aunt, wife. Well, when you get to spend the Holidays and share your love with beautiful souls just as these - who wouldn't consider themselves lucky....

T "attempting" to pose for a pic!

Emily jammin with her new ipod (8 years old and an olympic swimmer in the making)

And here we have lil' Ms. Moll's (5 yrs) posing with her Hannah Montana wig on! What a beauty queen :~)
Andrew (2 yrs) on the floor playing cars - his fav - with Uncle Nathan. Lucky for him his Aunt Julie purchased him a Dale Jr. trailer and car for Christmas. Poor lil' guy was being influenced at home with #48 "stuff" - ha ha! (funny story there, a.k.a. sibling rivalry)

And here we have Uncle Nathan and Olivia (3 yrs) - lil' Miss Cinderella

And so we are missing pics of Anne and Elliot - however; no doubt they are loved just as deeply as those I'm flaunting pics of. (Side note/question - does it drive anyone else nuts when they knowingly end a sentence with a preposition? This is such a NO-No!!! But when it just flows - well, I'm just sorry - please accept my faults!)

Okay, going to exercise and try out the new GT-2140's I raved on in my previous blog - stay tuned!!!!

My 2nd Love

Introducing the new Asics GT-2140's.... ...........

Love, love, LOVE these shoes! For those of you who know me, or have read my blogs, you all know I've been in-love with the Asics GT-2130's FOREVER! LOVE THEM! I went to Pacesetters today (they love me there), and I was in search of a new pair. However, since the 2130's are the previous model... they are no longer getting new colors in; therefore, I now proudly own every pair of 2130's they had to offer - BUMMER!!!!! The lovely salesman recommended I step up to the 2140's - problem is, they made the "toe box" wider in the 2140's which is a problem for narrow footed folks as myself. Anywho, after a lil' heart-to-heart with my 2130's, and their acceptance of me going "2140" on them - I tried on the 2140's in a NARROW size, a.k.a. 2A for those of you in the shoe world, and I'M IN LOVE ALL OVER AGAIN!!!! I currently have my new tennies displayed on my kitchen table - they are anxiously awaiting a walk in the early morning hours of tomorrow :~)

And to top off my 2140 day.... I had another follow up appt today on my ankle, and after 4 1/2 months I have officially been RELEASED! So no better time than today to get my shoes in order.... time to start putting the new-formed ankle to the test.

So perhaps I'm working backwards here... but how sweet are these 2 boys????

Unfortunately Mel had to take Molly to the dr. today, so I was called upon to watch the others. So T and I went over for a visit. I had some WONDERFUL snuggle time with lil' Miss Anne - she is THEE sweetest thing EVER! And while I was tending to Anne, big cousin T took care of lil' Andrew who was in need of some snuggle time as well! I hate that Moll's was under-the-weather, but I love, love, LOVED the time I got to spend with the others.

Snuggle time with my nieces and nephew, new GT-2140's, and a complete release from the doc - I'll call it a day! Thank you Lord - I am sooooooo fortunate!!!!! I know it, and I thank YOU!

My favorite time of year....

Nothing like a good mix of Christmas spirit and basketball season!!! This weekend the boys played in their first tournament. LOVED IT! Major kudos on the uniforms too --- our boys were the best lookin' group of kids on the court. Check out these AWESOME uniforms....


Here's T playing defense (he's the one with his arms in the air).

We played 3 games at the Wabash Valley Sport Center in Terre Haute. We won our first game and lost games 2 & 3. They were close and exciting games for us tho - no major blowouts. So that was a positive note for us.

And here are a couple of our boys shooting around with Coach Vernon. T's to the left, Brock's in the air and a nice view of Derrick's back side. Nice uniforms tho... have I mentioned that?! LOL! Yes, I'm VERY impressed with the uniforms!!!

A shot of the boys warming up. Not sure if you can notice or not, but the uniforms even have a fantabulous lil' Lion/Cub paw print in the "v" of the tops. STELLAR JOB!!!

Okay - so that was most of our Saturday... well from noon thru evening. GREAT JOB BOYS!!!!

I'll switch gears now to how the rest of our weekend unfolded. Starting with Friday... hhmmmm... that was 2 days ago - like I remember?! Oh yea, I was asleep on the sofa by 7 p.m. I know, I'll be signing up for AARP before long - it's okay, I'm okay with it.

Saturday morning was a lot of GIFT WRAPPING!!!!!!!! Thankfully my mom was wrapping as well, so the 2 of us hung out in her basement wrapping gifts ALL morning long! NOT my favorite Christmas task - but I got along just fine and EVERYTHING is wrapped at this point. And yes, I still only have one-half of a decorated tree and no other decorations up - but as long as the stockings get hung and the lil' elves keep coming - I'M GOOD! Oh, that reminds... I still need to get T's Christmas pj's - shy-zits! KRUDOS!!!

Okay - so gift wrapping, basketball... oh and then we had the big Bennett Christmas gathering Saturday night. That was a basement full of food, fun and fellowship. Those Bennett's - if you think the saying "you've seen one, you've seen 'em all" applies - NOT in this family! Not that none of the look alike - but this is one family gene pool that hit the every personality branch on the way down. I overheard someone saying this family is like something out of a movie - AMEN! LOL! GOOD, GREAT, FUN times!! I'm lucky to be a part of it and get to enjoy and celebrate.... so fun!

SUNDAY.... Sunday, Sunday, Sunday - Sunday began sorting piles and piles of laundry - OMG! Last week I cut laundry short, and man-oh-man have I paid for it today. That's all I've done today is ................... LAUNDRY! That should be a 4 letter word, btw! No, we did make it to church which was an AWESOME sermon! Then the boys (T had Brock spent the night) - we went to Terre Haute and watched the Tale of Despereaux (sp?). Cute movie - a little too young for the boys and I tho. Home and managed to do MORE LAUNDRY! And then... well... I've been doing LAUNDRY! You see a pattern here?!

The bonus to this is that I'm off work until January 5th - YEE-HAW!!!! Our plant shuts down - it's always great to have the time off, but with Christmas one week and NYE the next - the time flies by so quickly. I am very grateful tho...... I thoroughly enjoy the extra time with T. We don't get many "mom and T" days anymore - it's nice just to hang out.

So tomorrow I am on a mission to go visit Anne. Jeff n Mel need to get some things done, so T and I are going to go over tomorrow afternoon and hang out with Anne and the rest of the crew while they do some chores. It'll be a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Okay - so I have lots more to carry on about, but this blog seems to be longer than norm and I'm afraid I'll accidentally hit a delete button somewhere and lose my work to this point. So here goes, and I'll be back later with more.... XO!!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY HOLIDAY WISHES

Since these cards don't seem to be making their way into the envelopes, thru the post office and to your homes.... HAPPY HOLIDAYS from The Bennett's!!!!!