Puerto Vallarta

Our trip to Puerto Vallarta was awesome. It was so hard to come back, especially at 2 AM this morning and to 15 degree weather :(

I took about 400 pictures. I picked out the best of them and will put a few on a day.

This is a picture of the sunset as we were flying over Mexico. 

North Dakota Christmas

Our trip to North Dakota for Christmas was nice. Weather sure cooperated......it was about 40 degrees while we were there. We left Christmas Eve morning and came back the morning of the 27th. Got to do some hot tubbing at our hotel :)

This is Amanda, Mike's mom Irene and Mike and I while we were there.

So........for the rest of this month.....I have to finish up paperwork and start getting tax stuff ready..... and oh yeah.....finish planning and packing for our trip to Puerto Vallarta on the 29th :)

After that I am planning a trip to see my new grandbaby due on Feb 7. Will probably head down to Illinois around the 24th or so of February, sooner if I can find good ticket prices. Also planning a trip to Vegas with my friends Wendy and Debbie to celebrate Deb's and my 50th birthdays in April. That's about all I have planned for now.

Mike has been looking at the racing schedules and getting excited as they add the familiar venues. So I definitely see a few racing trips in my future as spring and summer come along! We're hoping for a few good concerts this year as well, though we saw far too many last year and don't expect the list to be as extensive this year. We are talking about going downtown on Feb 18th to see Colin Mochrie if we can pick up some decent tickets on the street.

Whew.......I think that catches us up.....hope you are all doing well, that you had a super Christmas and that you all have a safe, happy and healthy 2006!!

Love,
Mike and Gail

Merry Christmas!

OK, so I have some catching up to do!

December was fairly busy for us. I finally got hired on permanently at Wells Fargo on the 16th :) After that I had to spend a few days concentrating on employment paperwork (not done yet, and staring taxes in the face now!)

We had a holiday open house for close friends and neighbors on the 17th and had a wonderful time with all of them.

I had finished up Christmas shopping and shipping for my family that week. Then we had to finish shopping and getting ready for our trip to North Dakota on Christmas Eve. So it was pretty much holiday busyness the whole month. 

A timed shot of our Christmas tree. That's about all I've been doing for the last few weeks....all that Christmas stuff!! Cold here....5 out now (-6 at this time yesterday! Woohoo warm spell!! LOL)

xox
Gail 

Fall has arrived :(

It's Sunday, 1 pm and 47 degrees out. Snow forecast for Tuesday. Fall has arrived.

I spent about 6 hours yesterday in the last of the beautiful, 70 degree weather....helping Mike with our marathon "last blast" in the yard. I raked a few leaves out of the gardens, yanked my annuals and cut my peacock orchids and mums back and mulched them over for the winter. Looks awful here - so bare :(

Put away all the rest of my lawn decorations, mostly boxed up in the basement or hung up in the garage......all except this guy that we bought from Stupid.com. His name is Ogod...because that's what everyone says when they see him (we had him perched under our kitchen window...just inside the gate....the first thing you saw was his ass ;). Anyway we brought him inside and he has a place of honor next to the kitchen window on the inside. Quite appetizing. I don't mind as long as he doesn't make any noise. And besides, he expresses my sentiments about fall/winter exactly. First snowfall and his ass is gonna be IN the window conveying his expression to the outdoors.

So now I'm looking at holiday preparations and re-organizing stuff inside. We have no real plans coming up other than North Dakota at Christmas so if anyone wants to come up and go Christmas shopping at the Mall of America with me, I'm game!! Just let us know - room to spare here!

Love to all
Mike and Gail 

Bleghhhh Mondays suck

OK so the weekend just went by too fast. Haven't done much this past week or so except leaves. I broke the electric leaf blower/sucker so Mike's working on getting the gas one running.

I'm also just about done with an afghan I started to crochet about 5 or 6 years ago, so kind of went to town on that this past week.

We did go to Target over the weekend (woohoo) and I found a really cute sweater. Funny 'cuz I really hate Target's clothes. Mike got both of the new Santana CDs. The live one (only can get it at Target) is very good.

The kids seem to be well. Alex got a job (in case I didn't mention it) and Amy and Jared are both working. Their lives seem to be coming back together. Hayley celebrated her FIRST BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!! on the 4th of this month. She's walking (or running???) and into size 5 shoes. Bigfoot like her gramma ;)

Mom is doing good too, I didn't get a chance to talk to her over the weekend so will call her today or tomorrow.

There are a couple of fall craft shows we are hoping to get to this weekend so I will probably have to do all my weekend housework during the week this week :) Hope to get some new pictures up soon.

XOXOX
Love
Gail and Mike

Wednesday Update

The kids are moving out of the motel today! :) :) Jared's parents got a house and they will be staying with them until they find a place of their own. At least that's the plan as of this morning!