Tax return/ Valentine's Day

Well as we all know it's tax time. We needed to do ours early so that Brian could get going on his FASFA and all that jazz- so lucky us got ours early. After paying some bills and sending some to savings Brian and I decided we needed a little break.... Hello Lake Tahoe. We went on Monday afternoon and came back Wednesday morning. It was so much fun. We found a great deal on a hotel, that was close to things. We went and found fun little places for meals- found some of the BEST pumpkin curry EVER and just enjoyed ourselves. We spent tuesday walking around, going into galleries around, snowshoeing and exploring. We found a landscape photographer that we both fell in love with. If only we had money.... But it was so much fun.

Turns out I'm a terrorist

Well folks, for those of you who know me, might think otherwise but the airport has evidence to suggest that I am.....

So it was just another Monday morning. Brian dropped me off at the airport I checked my token one bag, went upstair to security. As I stood waiting for my turn I started taking off my belt, getting my bags ready, taking off my shoes, give the guy my ID and my boarding pass. Go put all my things in the right buckets... laptop in its own bucket, shoes/coat/belt in one, camera bag, lap top bag everything going smoothly.

I go through the metal detector thing just fine, go to wait for my stuff. They always have to scan my camera bag at least twice, because you know how dangerous cameras are... but this time it's not twice it's three times...

"It's camera equipment"

"It's not that bag, it's the one after it" Yell "Supervisor"

"Ma'm is this your bag?"

"Yes"

"Do you own a firearm?"

(In my head... umm yes I do in fact. I bought one for Brian a few years ago so it's in my name, but no I don't carry it, use it, or bring it with me places)

"Uh my husband does"

"We have to take possession of this bag, Grab your things and follow me. (into their little shoulder walkies) "We have a code blah blah blah" (My heart is racing, am I getting arrested? will I make my flight?) "We need blah blah blah to come to the security screening booth"

Meanwhile-

"Can I get my phone out of that bag or can you hand it to me so that I can call my husband to turn around?"... "Brian turn around NOW" "Can I call you back?" "What? NO" click "Sorry what did you need?" "I need you to turn around, one of your handguns is in my bag" "No, it's not, both of my handguns are in the safe." "are you positive- they are saying I have a firearm in my laptop bag?" "It's probably just one of Ty's guns. Call me when you know more" "fine bye"

"Ma'm can I have your ID and boarding pass" takes them puts them on this board thing and starts taking pictures of my ID and boarding pass....

"Can you at least look in my bag to see if it's my son's toy gun so my heart can stop pounding?"

"No, we have to wait for the Deputy Sheriff to arrive"

Twenty minutes later strolling up the walkway..

"So you're trying to bring a gun on the plane"

"Apparently"

"You ever been in trouble" (now you might ask why this is funny to me- I'm wearing jeans, t-shirt, sneakers, and pig- tails, how much more troublesome can I really look?)

"Well I got kicked out of class for talking once"

"That's it? No warrants, probation?"

"No, although I did kill my husband and I'm fleeing the country to UT...NO"

They go through ALL my pockets, "got a lot of food there don't you..." (yeah airport food is expensive!!!) Finally in the last smallest pocket- they pull out T's metal cap gun that Brian's Dad had given him from when he was a child.

"False alarm, but we still have to check everything out" (They call in and make sure I have a clean record, take more pictures of my ID, boarding pass, and now the "Gun")

So, by the time everything was finished I had 5 mins until my plane boarded and 20-30 before it took off. I didn't have enough time to check my lap top bag and keep the toy and go back through security again, it was too big to mail, and they wouldn't hold it until Friday for me.... They had to "dispose" of it, probably for sale on ebay now. Plus, I am sure the sheriff got a kick out of it all, and I am on the "watch" list now.....

You've all been warned.... I'm a toy terrorist

Good Idea????

Add barber to his list.....

Merry Christmas!

I know I know it's the 7th and I'm just catching up on Christmas... it was wonderful, and crazy, and busy all at the same time. We had the whole Butler clan in the house for Christmas- 17 adults, 3 kiddos, 5 dogs, and 1 cat (almost a partridge in a pear tree) Christmas morning was a little chaotic but 3 hours later we were done unwrapping presents. T man loved opening presents and helped everyone open theirs too. Glad everyone was a good sport for that! The winner of the gifts was a $4 Goodwill vacuum. (not his big gift of course... he told me he hated it.... a kids digital camera- he liked it for about 3.2 seconds oh well whatcha going to do) He did gets lots of other toys that he loved! It was fun to play with family and see the cousins interact with each other. I think one of the best purchases we made this year was a $25 kids nativity from Amazon. It's like the Little People ones but I'm not sure that it is. Ty loved playing with it and I hope it helped teach him a little bit more about the real reason we celebrate Christmas. It was fun to see where Baby Jesus was from day to day- brown sugar bucket (he was hungry mommy) the tub, (He was dirty), and the angel did NOT go on top, the shepherd did... I didn't get a Christmas card out this year so I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe Christmas.

Side Buisness

I'm not really sure where the idea came from- I think it was a culmination of different people, but Brian and I decided to put his culinary skills to work for a little extra cash for the holidays. If you remember from my earlier posts we pureed lots of pumpkin and canned lots of apples. So for Thanksgiving and Christmas we offered friends/ neighbors/ and people from church homemade apple pies, pumpkin pies, pecan pies, and rolls. (25 apples, 23 pumpkin, 8 pecan, 118 dozen rolls in total- plus what we made for our family) It was crazy, but we had lots of help and fun. Thank you for everyone who helped us in one way or another!!!!! I think we'll be doing this again!

Put it in the oven for T and me!

This little man will tell you if you ask that he is "16" and he truly believes he is and that he can do ANYTHING! Especially if it involves cooking in the kitchen!!!! It's a good thing he has a very VERY patient daddy!

All the fun a little boy can have while Mom's away

Sometimes it feels like I really am a fun sucker... they always have so much fun while I'm away

at work. (Maybe that's why I resent work somedays)

Ty LOVES to help do concrete. And this time he got to put his feet in.

It seems that no matter what time of year it is- I miss the only day it snows in CA. (I got plenty of it while working so I wasn't too bummed but had just wished it had waited a few weeks so we could have a white California Christmas.

T was so confused... just a few days before we had talked to him about going up to Uncle Dave's house to play in the snow... "Where's Uncle Dave?" Somedays it's a little hard to explain these things to a 2 yr old. But he sure understands a whole lot and keeps me on my toes!