Merry Christmas

Christmas is 2 days away. My mom is in Arizona for Christmas this year to spend it with my sister Cheryl and her family. This is my first Christmas away from mom since I was 14 and spent in Las Vegas with my aunt, pining over some guy 9 years older than me, who probably doesn't remember my name! WOW how times and priorities have changed.

Since Cheryl's oldest is being baptized on the 27th, Diane, Janet and I thought we would send her to Arizona for the baptism. We soon discovered that Cheryl would like to have mom spend Christmas with their family since they have 4 young kids. We found an inexpensive ticket and Mom left on Monday and will be gone until January 6th. What a nice time away for her.

Tyler and I, along with Janet, will be spending Christmas with Diane, Dan, Ty and Blake (aka Mugs). Oh what fun we will have seeing the sparkle in Ty's eyes with each gift he unwraps. He will most likely unwrap for Mugs as he is only 3 months old and would rather be eating or sleeping. What a life - want to trade, Mugs?

May the spirit of Christmas be with you and your families at this wonderful time of year!

Big Foot

Big Foot is real.... he lives in my house. Shoes for my Tyler are hard to come by. Size 15 shoes cannot be found in most stores. You have to look on line and the styles are not stylish, especially for a 15 year boy. A couple of months ago, Tyler and I were in The Gap, one of my favorite stores. I was trying to find some clothes for my fashionista boy and low and behold he called me over. Not for some clothes mind you, but for SHOES! Tyler loves shoes... he has more shoes than I do. Who would have thought my 15 year old BOY would love shoes. He found a pair of Converse All Stars - size 13 that fit him. MOM, he says with delight. May I please have these shoes. I love them. The best thing is they fit and they were on sale for cheap! We got them home and Tyler goes to wear them and they are both right foot shoes... AARRGGH! I took them back to The Gap and lo and behold no more size 13. I explained to the clerk what happened and she called around and found the same shoe in Cherry Creek Mall. HOORAY!

My sister Janet works part time at Target, my other favorite store. She found these shoes on clearance for Big Foot. HAPPY FEET are here again!

For The Love of BOYS!

Ty Salda - 3 years old
Blake Salda and Tyler Asay

Blake Salda and Tyler Asay

Babies....3 year olds....15 year olds.... I love my boys... only 2 of them are my sister Diane's boys. Growing up in a family of five girls, I thought boys were creepy. They were dirty, liked bugs, frogs, snakes and everything a girly girl did not like. Once my sisters and I started having kids, we had boys first. Lynette was first with Justin. Then she had 3 girls. I had Tyler. Cheryl started with Jacob and Jared and 2 girls and Diane has two boys. Boys are great. I would trade all the girls in the world for a boy. There is something about a sweet boy, whether they be 3 months, 3 years or 15 years old. I am grateful to have had a son to teach, raise and love. Tyler has given me the opportunity learn many things, to laugh at him, to cry over him, to fret over, to worry about but mostly to love.


I think about my favorite dessert - white molten lava cake with raspberry sauce, which I discovered at Chili's. I love this dessert... it is delectable. There is something about warm raspberry sauce... I love it. I would love to drizzle warm raspberry sauce over my boy and gobble them up. Is being a cannabal OK... probably not, but loving and oogling over my son is OK. What a delight these boys in my life bring to me.

Blessings

The Family

Terry Packer, Colleen Asay, Lynette Packer, Janet Asay, Melanie Packer, Tyler Asay, Diane & Blake Salda, Justin Packer, Nicole Packer, Dan Salda, Stephanie Packer, Marilyn Asay

Left to Right: Justin Packer, Dan Salda, Tyler Asay, Terry Packer

Front: Brad Packer and Blake Salda

Diane, Blake, Dan and Ty Salda

This past month has been a crazy busy month. Year end is coming at work and there have been several deadlines that have come and gone and are yet to come for get work completed. I have been coming in early and leaving late, hence little time with Tyler. He is a good sport, but there is also a work/life balance that needs to happen. Since I am the sole support of my little family, sometimes I don't have a choice.

Blake was blessed on November 2nd. It was a great day. Here are some pictures I took off Diane's blog (thanks sister!). If you read her blog, these will be a duplicate, but hopefully you will enjoy them anyway.

There are some exciting in the pipeline for 2009 at work. I work for TIAA-CREF in the wealth management area. I support some spectacular financial advisors and they are both gearing up for some large goals in 2009. I will be a part of both of their teams and am excited to ramp up for a year of great work.

I have so many things to be thankful for... a home, a good son, an extended family, a good job and some sweet friends, especially Jean, Bill & Grandma Welch!

Happy Thanksgiving and love to you all!

8 is Great Tag!

I was tagged by my sister Cheryl...

8 TV shows I love to watch:

1. What Not To Wear

2. Dog the Bounty Hunter

3. Ghost Hunters

4. The Suite Life of Zack and Cody

5. 9News

6. Little People, Big World

7. American Idol

8. Mythbusters

8 things that happened to me yesterday:

1. Took Sadee for a walk

2. Played the piano for the Primary Program at Church

3. Fixed dinner for my mom and Tyler

4. Did 5 loads of laundry

5. Crocheted a baby blanket - not complete

6. Thought about what I needed to do at work this week

7. Packed some old clothes to give away

8. Thought about Thanksgiving

8 Favorite places to eat:

1. At home with Tyler

2. Quiznos

3. Qdoba

4. Chick Fil A

5. Old Santa Fe

6. Chili's

7. Trinity Grille

8. Texas Roadhouse

8 things I am looking forward to:

1. The Holidays and time off of work

2. Quiet weeks at work

3. Snow

4. Time with Tyler

5. Tyler learning to drive

6. Losing weight

7. Staying healthy

8. 2009 at work

8 people I tag!

1. Lisa Rich

2. Diane Salda

3. Jean Burns

4. Lisa Crane

5. Kristiina Burns

6. Cassie Weber

7. Karin Mikawa

8. Whoever wants to play!

Unhappy Tyler :(

Tyler is a social butterfly. He loves to hang out with friends and especially girls. He had a girl that he really liked. She is a nice girl, but about Halloween, Tyler found out that this girl had a boyfriend. He was devastated. It was very hard for him to accept, but she is of dating age, and Tyler won't be able to date until July 2009. This was a tough hard knock life lesson for him, but I am confident that he will be able to work through it and feel better about life. It's tough when you're a single mom and you have a 15 year old boy who doesn't always feel like spilling his emotional guts to his mom. I try my best to not impose, but let him know the communication lines need to remain open. I love my Tyler Scott!

Sweet Baby Blake

Wake up sleepy boy!

Don't bother me... I was happy sleeping.

Tyler and Blake

I love my nephew Blake. He reminds me so much of my Tyler when he was a baby. He is sweet natured, healthy (14.5 pounds - 95% percentile and 24" long - 75% percentile). He is so funny because he has a hard time keeping his eyes open. Maybe he thinks he won't have to face the world if he keeps his eyes open! HA HA. We all went shopping on the 15th of November and these pictures were taken when Tyler was holding him.