Time to Relax

Happy Saturday....I hope this post finds you all well rested after a busy Christmas holiday. We had a great day and are extremely blessed! All the children enjoyed their gifts and were appreciated everything that they received. Russell & I were up until 3:30 AM Christmas morning wrapping presents (every year we intend to have this finished well before Christmas, however that never seems to quite happen). Rachel & Isaac were the first to wake up at 8:00, so we were thankful for a few extra hours of sleep. We enjoyed our Christmas morning (I'll post pictures later). While Russell fixed breakfast, I got ready so we could begin our morning of cooking for the Spencer family Christmas. We love have everyone for holiday and enjoy the time we spend with them all. Russell & I enjoy cooking together, and we each have our specialities. We made waldorf salad, turkey breast, ham, baked corn, mash potatoes, sweet potatoes, pretzel jello salad, macaroni and cheese and pumpkin pies. Brenda (better known as Queenie) made her famous cheeseball by request - we all love her cheeseball! We munched on all the goodies that we made weeks before, cheeseball and chips and salsa. Everyone appeared to have had a great time! We are so thankful for family and being able to spend time together. We missed our family that could not be with us, but am sure they enjoyed their time with family and friends as well.

The house is now quite and it seems a bit odd, as Rachel and Isaac are visiting their Grandma & PaPa Schwarz in Cincinnati and having Christmas with them. I'm glad that we are able to work things out so that they get to spend quality time with them.

With Isaac gone there have been no garbage truck noises (he wanted this garbage truck so bad, and Santa came through), no nerf gun wars going on - both Darryl & Isaac got a nerf longshot for Christmas. Darryl received a voice recorder that he can use to play back how his music sounds when he is practicing. Rachel has not been nearly as social now that she has her new iPod - this year Santa brought her a Nano (so I get the cast off shuffle - yeah for me!) and reading her new books - the Twilight series, she received the first and second one in the series.

Well, I guess it is time to think about making dinner for the troops that are here, as the 15 year old is always hungry.

Hope you enjoy the rest of the day and weekend!

Love,
Tina

Merry Christmas

So much has happened at the Spencer/Schwarz home since my last post. We have been busy preparing for Christmas (as we are sure that everyone else has been too). All the candy has been made; english toffee, bon-bons, chocolate fudge, peanut butter fudge, chocolate peanut butter fudge, toffee bars, peanut butter blossoms, peanut clusters, white chocolate party mix, Chex mix, seasoned oyster crackers, and lastly Russian tea cakes. It was a lot of fun making all the goodies this year.

I am so greatful to God for being so selfless that he sent his son to earth to give us hope. While the holiday comes with mixed emotions and really missing family members who have passed this year, I know that they are having the best Christmas ever as they get to spend it with Jesus!

Just wanted to send you all a Merry Christmas wish as we are getting ready to start the process of getting ready for church. Once we return from church the children will get to unwrap one present. It is the present that Russell purchased and wrapped without my being involved. This is a really neat tradition that we are starting this year. Growing up we always go to unwrap one present too, and it was always from Daddy. Daddy was always on the road (he was a truck driver) and he would purchase something special for my sister and I. Those were always extra special to me, so we are hoping to pass that tradition on to our children.

Tomorrow will be very busy as we prepare for Russell's family to come and spend Christmas afternoon with us and have dinner. Russell and I love having his family are excited about being able to cook together in the kitchen.

We wish all our family could be with us tomorrow, but know that you will be with us in spirit.

So, for now I must leave you and I'll try and post shortly after Christmas.

With much love!
Tina

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM RUSSELL - TINA - DARRYL - RACHEL - ISAAC

Busy Week

Good Evening.....

I hope this finds everyone doing well. We have had a hectic week at the Spencer/Schwarz house. Isaac's had his Christmas program on Tuesday night. I am so thankful that we attend a public school that isn't afraid to remember the reason that we have the season - Jesus Christ. It was awesome to hear them sing music that I remember singing growing up when you could call it a Christmas Concert and not a Holiday concert. We had practice on Wednesday for both the elementary and Jr./Sr. High Christmas program that was today. Friday night Russell and I had a date night and went to Cracker Barrel for dinner (my all time favorite place). We then finished up the majority of our shopping. All I need to pick up are a few odds and ends and stocking stuffers to round everything out. Saturday we spent the day rearranging furniture in the parent family room and cleaning top to bottom. I hadn't really cleaned that well since I've gotten better.

Today we all attended church as a family. I sang a solo this morning that went okay - I always manage to get a cold right before I am suppose to perform. Tonight we had the Children's program. I had about 15 elementary children who performed Majesty and then sang 3 songs. The Jr./Sr. High group did readings, scripture reading, Rachel sand a solo and then did a little skit. It was really simple, but nicely done.

I am soon off to bed, I am fighting this cold and we have a hectic week that will start again on Monday. Darryl's holiday concert is Monday, we have a band board meeting on Tuesday, Wednesday is the Jr./Sr. High for Christmas caroling at the nursing home and then their Christmas party at the Pastor's house. Thursday evening is Rachel's holiday concert, and on Friday we are going to just veg and then I will hit hard again on Saturday to finish up my baking.

Well, I'm off to take my medicine and get snuggled up on the couch.

Love to all of you!
Tina

P.S. I will try and post pictures before I hit the bed tonight, if not I'll post pictures tomorrow with time permitting.

Holiday Baking

Happy Tuesday.......

Well today is a vacation day from work, but has been busy thus far. Russell and I attended the school performance for Isaac today at 9:30 (he was the back-up for the cow) because he was performing (back-ups perform in the morning). He did a great job and we found out today that he had to "try-out"! He is coming into his own. When we returned home, we started on the holiday baking. I try to do this with Laura, but it didn't work out this year...:( On Sunday I went through all the recipes and put together a list of ingredients. For those who don't know this fact, when I was growing up Christmas was a big thing in our family. We could count on Mom and Granny to make all sorts of goodies. Mom would never make sugar cookies, because a friend of hers did them so well, she would pay her to make them (I sure wish I had Krista McWhirter's recipe), but we made all sorts of other goodies. We would play Christmas music and go to town on making things. My favorite as child, was making bon-bons. I actually got to help and would roll the balls and get to dip them in the chocolate.....I'm sure I've bored you with my walk down memory lane!

So we have made chex mix, seasoned oyster crackers, and new recipe this year, cheesy ranch chex mix, up next is good chunk of the fudge and a couple of Swedish Tea Rings (Grandma Barcus used to always make these - one of the few things of hers that I mastered the recipe).

The greatest thing about today, is that Russell and I are getting to do it together. We both enjoy cooking and it is fun to do it with the love of my life....we are of course listening to Christmas music (not his favorite, but for my benefit he is tolerating it). As soon as the chex mix comes out of the oven, we will be running up to little local grocery store to purchase a few things that we forgot, I am not certain how we could have forgotten something with a list that 2 pages long!!

Well, I must sign off for now, the timer is beeping at me and that signals time to stir the chex mix.

Love,
Tina

Pictures from Isaac's Birthday

A Birthday Party for 3...........

Birthday Time - Guess who is 8????

Happy Monday All......

Today is my baby boy's 8th birthday................I cannot believe that this time 8 years ago I was waiting to hear the results of the aminocentisis to see if the little man could be delivered. He was not doing well and Dr. Smith felt it better to bring him into the world than take a chance that something might happen. So as the day went on, the results were in and his lungs were developed enough for him to come into this world. So at 6:33 PM on December 1st, 2000, Isaac John Schwarz was born weighing a whopping 4 1/2 lbs. He looked like a little old man and was so tiny (compared to his sister who was 10 lbs. at birth).

Tonight we will have our birthday celebration for him. He has requested Spaghetti for dinner and a John Deere cake (after much searching, a John Deere shaped cake pan was not found - so it is up to Russell and I to try our hand at shaping a cake to look like a tractor - wish us luck!). I will post some pictures tonight - I can't seem to put my fingers on his new born pictures, which of course will need to be scanned in. So the picture below will have to do for now, I took it this morning of him and his big brother!

Have a wonderful day!

Recent Happenings..................

Hello All............ I hope that this post finds you all well rested after a blessed Thanksgiving and shopping like crazy on Friday. The last few weeks at the Spencer/Schwarz house has been a bit crazed. A week ago Saturday I flew back to Iowa for my maternal grandmother's funeral. While it was a sad occasion to go back, it was refreshing to see family and friends again. It was a beautiful service and the weather cooperated as much as it could for Iowa. I returned to Kentucky on Tuesday. Of course Tuesday there was car drama........while Russell was on his way to pick me up at the airport a wooden post hit our van gas tank (apparently it was laying on the road and when the tractor trailer went over it, it decided to flip and flop and puncture our gas tank. We made a mad dash to a dealer (our normal dealer has closed, we had to seek out a new one) that we didn't know to get it repaired. We rented a car and were certain that we wouldn't see our van for a while. Thankfully this dealer gets customer service and we had our van back late on Wednesday! We were all excited that it was repaired quickly! However, the bank account was not thrilled......:( Now we are waiting to see how much our car insurance will cover, as we didn't have time to get multiple quotes to their dismay. We spent Thanksgiving with Russell's family and had a wonderful time. We even got to spend time with his sister Debbie who is currently living in Colorado (she and Richard normally reside in Arizona). We then left the Spencer family in Northern Kentucky and drove across the Ohio River to land in Finneytown (Cincinnati, OH) to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Horn family. We had a wonderful time there as well! That evening we celebrated an 8th birthday for Master Isaac - whom most of us could not believe that he is going to be 8 on Monday........it just doesn't seem possible that the little 4 1/2 lb. baby boy that was brought home from the hospital could have grown up this fast!!! After the kitchen was cleaned, the party over, Laura and I mapped out our attack for Friday. While neither of us really had anything that we just had to get, we couldn't pass up our tradition of shopping on Black Friday. In fact we didn't need any of the super deals that we had to leave the house at 3:00 AM, instead, Laura, Don, Benjamin and I left the house around 6:15 and were finished for the day by 3:30. Yesterday was another travel day for us, as we celebrated Russell's, Max's (our great-nephew), and Isaac's birthday with the Spencer's, so we took another road trip to Northern Kentucky and spent the afternoon eating (yet again) and having a birthday celebration. We had a great time, however were ready for home! We all vegged last night....the boys played Runescape (thank goodness for 3 computers with internet access), Rachel watched a movie and I read my book....by the fire! Well, I am off to get ready for Russell and I to run out and pick up a few things for Isaac's family celebration with us tomorrow (I still can't believe my baby boy is going to be 8). Until Later.............hopefully I will get some pictures posted this evening (since I don't have to work tomorrow - vacation day for me)! Love, Tina & Russell