November, so far...

Well, it's only been ALMOST two years since I last posted... guess it's about time for another update, ya think (no snide comments, yes, this means YOU!)

This month we:

1. On November 1st, Patty and I picked up lots and lots of bags for Bags 2 School from the Base thrift store (THANKS, JULIE!!) As you can see, Patty wasn't that EXCITED about having to sit with all of those for the drive home!


While browsing at the thrift store, I saw this:and had to smile, because I KNEW that Gramma Eloise was there with us (a thrift store AND a shirt she would've worn... too cool)

2. On November 3rd, Patty's school had a WWII Theme day, she went as a factory worker. It's been very enlightening to learn from the British point of view about WWII. She has certainly enjoyed it. She has asked me numerous times "where did children in America have to evacuate to when they left their homes?" She's still trying to negotiate American vs. British, however, according to her (which she told me on a trip to base) "Mom, I don't like speaking American, I like speaking English" :) Cheeky girl!


3. Patty is taking (and loving) karate, she finally received her Karategi (uniform) and obi (belt) on November 4th. Here she is in them:

and punching her Sensei's assistant (? not sure exactly what they are called, but assistant is the closest thing I can think of...):

4. Celebrated our first Bonfire night with friends (here's a link for those of you who don't know what that is: Gunpowder plot)

The Bonfire - used to burn effigies of Guy Fawkes

FIREWORKS!!! From where we were we could see fireworks from 3 different areas - COOLNESS!!

And SPARKLERS! Patty had a blast when our friends, Becky and Tony, gave her a sparkler to play with!

Earlier in the day, Patty made her own Guy Fawkes effigy:

5. We participated in Remembrance day at Patty's school on November 11th. Yes, it is America's Veteran's day AND it is England's Remembrance Day (we were both on the same side of the war, after all). Patty's school had a nice assembly, complete with retired Royal British Legion members. We observed 2 minutes of silence, and the children put together a beautiful Remembrance display. In England, crosses are laid to remember those who have fallen, and Red Poppies are worn (see here to understand why). This is a picture of a Red Poppy Wreath and the crosses with Red Poppies laid on them in remembrance of those at Patty's school who had passed in the Great War:

6. What Sandy was doing on 11/11/11 at 11:11:7. Anyone wanna guess what Ashley was doing at 11:11 on 11/11/11? No? Come on - it's not even a trick question...


8. That night (November 11th) Patty had a sleepover at a friend's house (thanks, Becky L. - she had fun!!) She got home just after 1pm on Saturday, the 12th. Then, what did she do for two hours? THIS -

Talk about a SHOCKER! (Patty, not Ashley, lol!) After waking her up to go to a baptism, she promptly fell back asleep and THEN even went to bed on time... Must've been some sleepover!!

9. For Family Home Evening on the 14th, I was quite inspired. I wanted to do a lesson on gratitude but wasn't sure how to implement it, so after a quick discussion on what gratitude and being thankful was, we played Candyland... with a twist.... each color we drew we had to think of one thing we were thankful for before we could move. Here are the colors and the corresponding areas of gratitude that they represented. Orange = our individual strengths; Red = people; Yellow=Gospel (church related); Green = food; Purple = something we own/have; Blue = Miscellaneous. Some of the things we were thankful for: the Prophet, Hotels to stay in while traveling, primary, Ellie the mouse (the last present Gramma Eloise bought for Patty), living in the UK, and showers.
It was fun, and as you can tell in the picture Patty was very into it, by the end she was helping Ashley and myself out with our answers.

10. Well, here it is the biggest (best and most fun) thing we've done so far this month:

On Saturday, 19th November we had Patty's sixth birthday party. We had right at 25 kids show up from both church and school. It was a Pinkalicious themed party. We had a bouncy castle -

Read Pinkalicious to them (some of the parents thought I was being clever in calling it a "Pinkalicious" party and that it was going to be all pink. Most all of them had never heard of the Pinkalicious books by Victoria Kann before. Of course, after they found out, I wasn't nearly so clever.... bummer for me!)

and decorated cupcakes....

It appeared that everyone had a good time... and the good news is??? I DON'T HAVE TO PLAN ANOTHER PARTY FOR A WHOLE YEAR!!!!! WOOT WOOT!!!

Our friend, Liane, took Patty to her house while we cleaned up after the party and set up for church the next day. She told me she asked Patty if she had fun at her party. Patty said "Yes, but I don't know why everyone gave me presents. It wasn't my birthday" lol... Silly girl

11. However, the party wasn't the only thing that happened on Saturday the 19th. Before we left Liane's house for home, here's what else happened:


our little girl has lost her FOURTH tooth... (the top two were pulled). Her mouth is too small for her teeth to grow in and she has now lost both of her bottom incisors to make room in her tiny mouth for her teeth.

So, here it is, 11:11 pm on the 20th of November and I need to get to sleep. I am getting over a cold (or flu, who knows....) and Ashley just got it... hopefully we heal soon and Patty doesn't get it...

Oh, and the Raven's won their match up today against the Cincinnati Bengals, which means that the Raven's really are NUMBER ONE!!!! (At least in their division) :D WOOT WOOT!!!

Here's sending our love out to all of you and wishing you the happiest of times in the upcoming American Thanksgiving and Christmas season!

Ashley, Sandy and Patty

Week 2

Well, I find myself sitting here on a Saturday at the computer, realizing I haven't yet posted on my blog this week. So, since Ashley is gone (on a snow camping trip), Patty is watching Dora, and Tricia is at work, so I have the time, I am remembering and I haven't missed a week. :D Go me.

It's amazing what I did in week 2 that seems like it was so much longer ago than that.

- The Skins I designed for my phone, my husband's IPod touch and my sister's phone came in. Mine is the one pictured. Go digital scrapbooking. I really like how the skins came out and they are totally unique.

Ashley's:

Tricia's:- Ashley had another conference to attend in Melbourne, Florida. He left the 11th ( a Monday). This is the second conference he's been to down there. It is right on the Florida coast. He had an enjoyable time, and, get this, actually met someone at the conference who grew up, in ELFRIDA. Very weird. I think (from what he told me) that she is about Karl's age. I don't remember her last name, or I'd tell y'all. Just thought it was totally weird!

- Made a yummy vegetarian taco soup. I only say vegetarian because I didn't have any ground beef to put in it, so I just threw everything else in. Was supposed to go to my friend, Nadine's, house for dinner, but she was sick. So, I just ended up taking some to her. :D Patty was so sad that we didn't get to stay at Nadine's and play like we normally do.

- I pulled out my paper craft supplies and went to town! LOL! I was feeling in a very card making mood and had a blast. All told, I think I made at least 2 dozen cards in 2 days. Of course, I make a more simple card, so it is easier to get that many out. :D Stayed up until probably 3am one morning rubber stamping. (And before you ask, no I couldn't do it while Patty was awake - when she rubber stamps I have to watch her the whole time - she likes to change stamps and stamp pad colors A LOT!)

- Patty and I took Josh and Aaron Garcia to Great Kids Village (an indoor play area of which we are members). It was a LOT of fun. They really enjoyed the fire truck (yes, a real, life-sized one). They played on it or on the tractor (no, not a real one) most of the time. :D Patty, on the other hand, decided that Dress-ups and the grocery store were more her things. I was busy the entire time walking from the boys to Patty. :D Definitely got a work out that day (and had a blast doing it!)

- Woke up one morning (after not having done much of anything the day before in the way of cleaning - of course, if you know me, you know that is par for the course) to an immaculately clean kitchen. Ashley had done the dishes, cleaned the counters AND even mopped the floor! I have the MOST AWESOME husband in the world (sorry all you other gals out there, you'll never know what it's like to have THE BEST HUSBAND in the world!)

Well, that's about it. I hope everyone else is doing good. Feel free to leave a comment or to email me. Would love to know how everyone is doing.

Big shout out to Devin and Sandy Notz - Congratulations on the birth of another beautiful baby boy. Baby Michael was born 3 days ago:

Another day, another adventure!
Thanks for reading!
The Matteson's

Well, I was hoping to have a few more scrapbook pages done before I posted, but guess that is not the case. Hopefully the mini album I am working on for the snow day pictures will be done before I post next week. (My goal this month is 5 scrapbook pages! One a week plus one - the Mini Album is the plus one). GO ME! :D LOL!

I am working on a weekly scrapbook album. Every week in 2010 I will take a picture, put it on a page and then tell about what we have done for that week.


Journaling says (with commentary by me about the journaling):
- Took Patty to see "The Princess and The Frog" (The first movie we've tried to take Patty to in two years. She is not known for sitting still for long, and yet, we risked it. Fortunately our risk paid off - she sat through the entire movie!)
- Took down Christmas decorations (that was a sad day. Patty wasn't happy that it's not Christmas anymore)
- Started a sewing project (first time I've sewn since Middle School, fortunately Trish is living with us right now and she knows how to sew. I told her she had to help me relearn to sew. I have a goal this month of sewing an entire tea party felt set (I bought the instructions off of the internet) for Patty.)
- Patty's first Sunday at church as a CTR4 (Our little girl is moving up in the world of primary :( not quite sure how I feel about that, lol... She did fantastic. I was a little apprehensive, because she absolutely ADORED her Sunbeams teacher!)
- Trish & I called dad and sung happy birthday to him. He turned 79 years young. (It's hard to believe he's really that old - he is still out and about doing everything, it's very hard to catch him at home - EVER!! And that's how he loves it!)
- Made my 2nd ever batch of homemade laundry soap (Love this stuff! For about 7 dollars to start out it works fantastic. And I still have enough leftover Borax and Washing Soda for at least 2 more batches. Very economically and environmentally friendly.)
- Harris Teeter has super doubles this week. Bought $97 worth of groceries for $17. (This was my coup for the week. HT is a grocery story in the east. Super doubles are fantastic. They will double all coupons that are under $1.98. instead of their normal of double under $.99)

Well, that's the week in a nutshell. :)

Until next week,

Well, here is my first installment. :) Hopefully I can keep up with my Goal of writing weekly. Here's a few of our "SnowPocalypse 09" pictures.



The bushes by our apartment, covered in the snow. :)

Patty and our beagle, Ray playing in the dog park. You can't see it in the picture, but the snow is still falling (all be it slowly).

Picture of our car. The little black thing poking out is our windshield wiper. :) It's almost completely covered!

A better picture to give you an idea of just how deep the snow was.

Our beagle could barely see out over all the snow! Poor dog!

Patty, after we had been sledding for about 2 hours. She was just done. I had to distract her from how cold she was all the way to the apartment!

HaHa! Had to show a picture of our "redneck sled". It reminds me of when Trish and I would go with dad to work over Christmas Vacation and take huge black grocery bags and slide down the side of the hill behind dad's work. :D

LOTS OF FUN!!! We made our own (short) makeshift slide.

Snow Angels?!?!?! LOL! :D Actually, I think it's a beached whale.

Ashley's turn!

This was the first of Patty's Snow Angels. She made three. Of course, when we went to film it she was "too cold" and said "I don't wanna!"

Here is a quick video of Patty and myself redneck sledding:

Another day, another adventure!
Thanks for reading!
The Matteson's

Okay, I know I haven't posted anything here since last April (MY TOTALLY BAD!!) However, I am making a commitment to do a weekly post with the things we have done in the past week for everyone to see. :D I will post every Sunday or Monday with an update of our happenings. :D Hopefully, everyone will keep me on target! :D

Another day, another adventure!
The Matteson's

It's been quite a while and sooo much has happened. Let me get you updated.

We adopted a beagle in February from an animal shelter in Virginia. We named him "Ray", which was (in a round about way) the name Patty chose for him. Here is a picture of him:

He is a good dog, and while he doesn't replace my Lexi-pooh, it is nice to have a companion and he fits in very well with our family (As I type this he is laying at my feet sleeping).

Patty started Sunbeams at church this year. The first couple of weeks were crazy and she wouldn't sit still, however, she has calmed down quite a bit. We realized (actually, Ashley did) that when he takes her to Primary, she does a lot better than when I take her, so he now officially has the job of taking her to Primary each Sunday, while mama heads straight for Sunday School.

A couple weeks ago Ashley had a work trip he had to take to Boston. We decided to make a family event out of it. All of us went, Ashley took Friday off, and we explored Boston together (Patty and mama had been out exploring the previous day, but it was wet and rainy so we didn't get to far) Boston is an absolutely BEAUTIFUL city with lots and lots of old architecture in their buildings. The ONLY thing I can say bad about Boston is the parking. It is either ATROCIOUS to find a parking spot or you pay up the wazoo for it. Here are some pictures from our trip:

We stayed at the Westin Hotel in downtown Boston. We were on the top floor (35th story) of the hotel. This was my first view of Boston (we arrived after 10:00 p.m. - we were delayed leaving so that we could wait for the mail and my camera that was in the mail to arrive.)

I didn't realize until morning when I could see what the view was that we actually had. We were overlooking Boston Harbor.

The morning of the tour started off VVEEERRRYYYY COLD!!! Patty had lost her mittens somewhere on the way up so we had to stop at a CVS and buy her some (oversized) mittens!

This is the view from the Trolley as we crossed the Charles River from Boston into Cambridge (where Harvard is located).

I actually took this picture of the Fire Station the day before the trolley tour and found out some neat trivia on it during the tour. It is a historic landmark and cannot be changed, unfortunately, the doors for the fire station are not big enough to fit a fire truck so the fire trucks have to be modified to fit in the doors.

Beautiful Fenway Park. A wonderful gentleman there who was working on some construction project took this picture for us (after he graciously allowed us inside to see Fenway Park). This was Ashley's favorite stop on the tour. Followed (very closely by):

The USS Constitution is actually a commissionable ship (can be called up to go to war). It is the oldest still working ship. It was very interesting seeing the insides where the navy men slept and ate and worked.

And, of course, I had to get a picture of the government taking our money (all told we spent about $70 in tolls):

Love and miss you all!!
The Matteson's

Wow, okay, sorry... I haven't posted in a while... quite a while! Just wanted to give everyone a quick (probably) update on us and what we have going on.

Patty and myself visited Arizona for 3 weeks in October. It was a spur of the moment, fly out there to try and get the house fixed up and hopefully refinanced. Unfortunately, while we were approved, the market has dropped so much that we were going to have to come up with thousands more dollars than we had originally planned on. Anyway, *GASP* I can't believe I'm going to do this (those of you who know me, know why I say that), but I'm going to put up some SOOC (Straight out of the Camera) pictures. I hate doing this. I always know how much more I can do to make them look better before sending them out, but I just don't have the gumption right now to do that.

Here is Patty and a cutie patootie little girl named Alecia (pronounced Uh lee see a). It was sooo fun to watch the two of them color and share crackers back and forth! :)

I swear, on the plane, my daughter's "good twin" came out. She was nice and polite and just enjoyed coloring and eating crackers. I am not sure where it came from... fortunately the good twin returned for the flight home (but has yet to be seen again!)

We visited with Grandma and Patty got to ride on Grandma's scooter with her and go on the "bumpy umps" as Grandma calls them (and Patty now calls them). Here's a picture of the two of them:

Patty is still talking about going on bumpy umps every time we go out. :) (I think she had a little bit of fun, don't you?)

Awesome Auntie Laurie took Patty to the Zoo on the Friday before we left. She even got to ride the camel with Auntie Wowrie. Here are a few pictures from the zoo:

Auntie Wowrie spoiled her favoritest adopted niece, because, as she put it "how often do I get to see her... uhmmm.... like, never!" okay, so maybe that wasn't a perfect quote, but it was darned close! (LOVE YOU LAURIE!!! TOTALLY MISS YOU!!! AND YOU TOO BECKY!!!) (Sorry, just had to put that in!)

Unfortunately, I didn't get all the pictures copied from Auntie Wowrie's computer to mine before we left, so there are a lot of pictures out there that I don't have (but she promised to bring them to me when she comes out in December! YEAH!)

Life since we've been back has been pretty uneventful. Ashley, Patty and I have been passing around some sort of virus since Patty and I returned to Maryland. We are hoping it is almost gone. We had a laid back Thanksgiving. Just the three of us. It was really weird. I am so used to being around bunches of people at someone's house for Thanksgiving. I made my first turkey ever, and Ashley pretty much did everything else! :) I hadn't gotten any sleep the night before because I was determined to make it to CVS for there Thanksgiving Day sales! :) After there many free with store bucks items combined with the coupons I had, they ended up paying me to shop with them! :) How fun was that! (And I got a LOT of good free stuff - Aussie Shampoo and Conditioner's; cool lip glosses; Garnier Cleansing Towelettes; and 5 things of Gilette Clinical Strength Deodorant!). Gotta love a great deal! :)

Oops, before I close (and I almost forgot to post these, lol) here are the family pictures we had taken at Wal-mart (we bought the CD so posting these is totally legal!) -

With love and hope for a wonderful Christmas Season for all -

The Matteson's