Gingher Shears.

In light of the fact that there are only

299 days until CHRISTmas . . .

My little Gingher pinking shears and

I were busy, busy, busy today.

Someone is getting something

mighty fun for the big day.

Coupled with everything else that

is doing on PhDwise this year,

I have to get an early start.

. . . deck the halls . . .

Celebration No. 2

Happy, Happy 93rd!!

Today we celebrated with Grampa's

very favorite Sunday dinner!!!

Thanks to my helper, we were able

to get everything done!!!

Yummy, yummy homemade

FLAT APPLE PIE . . . ala mode, of course!

Homemade orange rolls . . .

Super yummy fried chicken ala Mike.

Mashed potatoes and gravy, of course!

Happy, Happy BIRTHDAY Grampa!!!

Lovin' My Blog Books.

I still cannot believe that my sweet

family had my blog put into two

books for me for CHRISTmas.

We look at the books all of the time and

treasure all of the memories that we

have made together as a family.

We cannot believe how much the

boys have changed and love reliving

all of their accomplishments!

As I look at the books, they remind me

that family and memories are what

it is all about!!

"A life recorded is twice precious, first the experience itself and then
the memory of it full and sweet when we read it again later."

Unknown

Celebration No. 1

In true Tietjen style, we held

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION #1

last night with yummy Hawaiin-style

pizza, Grampa's favorite. Plus there

was tons of talking and laughing.

We also made a to-die-for donut

cake with lots of candles, not 93,

but a lot.

We are holding BIRTHDAY

CELEBRATION #2 on Sunday!!!

Yep, lots more fun to come!

Being 93, that does not happen

very often!!!

Celebrating.birthdays.gotta.love.it.

Happy Birthday Grampa!

Happy, Happy Birthday to one of

my VERY, VERY favorite people.

93 years . . . what an accomplishment!

We are so glad that you are here

with us and thankful that we have

been able to be so very close all

of these years.

We are so thankful for your great

example and so glad that you are

so happy and healthy.

A few facts about 1918, the year Grampa

was born:

*United States population: 103,500,000

*More than half of the country's 48 states

prohibited the sale of alcohol.

*Daylight Savings Time and time zones

were introduced.

*Regular airmail service between New York

City and Washington D.C. is established.

*A flight from Chicago to New York

takes 10 hours 5 minutes.

*The New York Times begins home

delivery.

*The first three-colored traffic

light is introduced in New York City.

*Granulated laundry soap appeared.

*Raggedy Ann dolls became popular.

*GRAMPA IS BORN.

Happy, Happy, Happy Birthday!

Hoops.

Luke had basketball practice tonight!

He has a great coach! He is THE best

teacher! Luke really loves him and

is having a great time with many

of the kids that live in our new

neighborhood!

Gramps went with us tonight so that

he could get the lowdown of the

basketball situation.

Luke is addicted to

basketball and has been

going over to park near

our house to shoot hoops.

Luke has improved so much

since he played last year . . .

The games begin in a couple

of weeks . . . We cannot wait!

PhD to Be . . .

Honestly! Earning a PhD is THE

hardest thing that I have EVER done

in my ENTIRE life.

(I realize that there were multiple

capitals in that sentence, but

mercy!)

My Nevada Teaching Certificate

expires on my birthday and I to

order a set of transcripts to send

in with my $80 smackers to renew

my teaching license.

Anyhow, the transcripts came today

and we all, and I do mean, we all

(as this is such a family effort)

had a moment when we read

the grades for the past 3 years of

hard, hard work.

My only panic came when Sam

realized that I had opened the

envelope. We have had several

times when the boys have had to

order transcripts and the envelope

could not be opened to be considered

official. Nevada Department of Education

considers them official with the

registrar's signature.

I like to keep it real!!

(It is crazy, but if you really want a

great look at these babies, double

click on the image and it will

be bigger than life.)

Praising God for EVERYTHING

during this little journey that we

are on! We are half way done!!!

B-Ball.

Luke started basketball tonight at

the Somersett gym. The head coach from

McQueen High School is the coach of

the team. He is really nice and it is

going to be a really fun season.

My little overachiever wanted to do

great and was apprehensive the

whole entire day over starting

the team with an unknown coach

and new kids.

When we arrived, Luke was not

the oldest boy, but he was certainly

the tallest by at least six or seven

inches. The coach loved him,

he did great, and all is well with

the world!!!

One of the benefits . . .

yummy snacks after practice!

Yep, it is going to be a great season!!

Serious Sledding.

We had to meet some contractors at

Somersett today and the boys took

full advantage of the opportunity to do

some sledding.

Yep, Luke is already a true Renoite.

He loves, loves, loves the snow.

Sam and Luke did some serious hiking

to sled down some awesome hills.

It was pretty darn cold out there, about

23* with the windchill factor.

We met back up with the boys and

they had hiked up and down hills, so we

drove them up to the top of this huge

hill and they sled all the way down . . .

almost a mile!!

Here are some views from our building

site on this cold, cold blustery day.

Luckily the snow plow comes up our

long twisty road for only about

four or five homes.

There was about a foot of snow on the

ground in Somersett. The golf course

was covered with the white stuff.

Sam has his first meeting with the

McQueen High School boys' golf

team on Thursday, better use colorful

golf balls . . .

P.F. Chang's Favorite Customer.

Okay, okay, so we know that we

cannot really take him anywhere,

but we really did have a fun

night!! We used continued our

Valentine celebration at P.F. Chang's.

(Sam went along even though he

really cannot stand Chineseish).

We laughed and laughed until

we could not laugh anymore.

Sam had the great idea to see

"Unknown", so we finished off

our CHIRSTmas gift certificates

with a fun, fun night at the

flicks.

I must say, I have the bestest

family EVER!!

The White Stuff.

As promised, we are day three of

snow, snow, and more snow.

It has been so peaceful to look out

the windows and see the flakes

tumbling down.

We are estimating that there is about

seven to eight inches gathered all

around. Luke could not wait to hop

out and get busy in the snow.

This igloo is so fun and amazing.

Zach said that he actually slept in

one just like it when camping out

in the snow once. Yeah . . . right!

Boys and snow . . . love them.

Merit Badge Fever.

Luke is busily working on the

brand new Scouting Heritage

merit badge. This badge celebrates

the 100th year of Scouting. Sam

and Zach did not have the opportunity

to earn this badge.

This is the first time that I have

been through this merit badge.

Most of them, I can do in my

sleep after working through

them with both Zach and Sam.

The camping merit badge is an

Eagle required badge and is

HUGE. It requires 21 days and

nights of camping, plus a bazillion

other requirements related to

the outdoors and camping.

I just love.love.love merit

badges . . . I will really be sad

when I don't have a boy to work

on them with. Scouting has really

been such a wonderful experience

for the boys and I am so grateful that

we have the opportunity to work with

them in the program.

Boy.Scouts.gotta.love.'em.