the sidlingers

Dear Family and Friends,

The day of Thanksgiving, my computer died.  Well, not the whole thing, but the hard drive.  The thing that held everything.

I’ve lost all my stuff.  My address book, my calendar, my pictures of the past couple of months (luckily most of my pictures were backed up, I just hadn’t backed up in the past few months, so I’ve lost those).

We’ve set up one of our old PC’s to be mine until we decide what to do about my laptop.   We’re looking into some data recovery places and if replacing the hard drive will fix it, then we might just do that.

But for now, I’m trying to replace any lost information I had with your help.  I need names and addresses, phone numbers, birthdays, any other important days, email addresses and so on.  Also if you have any pictures that I have emailed you, if you can please email them back to me at thesidlingers@gmail.com .  If you’re checking the site and you can think of someone who might need to send me information, please email them and ask them to email me.

Thank you and stayed tuned for Christmas tree pictures later in the week!

Love,

Maggie

A quick entry just to say we hope that everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! 

We love you all!
The Sidlingers

Today was the Thanksgiving Feast at Daniel’s preschool.  The children helped prepare the meal (Daniel’s class made the dressing) and got to invite their parents to eat with them.  It was a wonderful time and a lot of fun.

Except for the whole Burger King/Star Wars thing a few months back, we don’t let Daniel eat a whole lot of fast food.  We don’t really have too much against it and it’s great for those days when you’re rushing through the grocery store and have a cake to make when you get home and don’t really want to fool with making (and arguing about) lunch, but it’s not the best for you, so we do try to limit it somewhat.

Well, today was one of those days when I was rushing through the grocery store and had to make a cake when I got home and didn’t really want to fool with making (and arguing about) lunch.  So when leaving the grocery store, the golden arches from across the street caught my eye.  I turned to Daniel, knowing I was about to make his day and asked him if he wanted a Happy Meal.  Of course he said yes and we made our way through the drive-thru.  He happily ate his Happy Meal and enjoyed a medium coke.  We got home, I started my cake and thought nothing else of the fast food lunch.

Today also happened to be a karate day.  There are quite a few new children in Daniel’s karate class, so the instructors were having the kids recite their Little Dragon Creeds to help the new ones learn it.  The first creed is "I promise to say ‘I can do it’ and eat healthy foods!".

Still no thoughts of the earlier not-so-nutritious meal.  I just sat there smiling and watched all the little kids in their little karate uniforms try to say his or her creed louder than the person next to him.

But then…the instructor said "Daniel! Did you eat any healthy food today?"  And I sunk as far as you can sink when sitting on a 6 inch wooden bench, trying to hide myself from the shame, thinking ‘Why did they choose today of all days to ask him what he’s had to eat?!?,’  as I could just hear Daniel say "I had McDonald’s for lunch!", but he didn’t!  He stood there thinking about all the things he ate today, trying to figure out the best one to say.  I sat there quietly biting my lip, sending messages telepathically to him, "Say apple!  Say apple!"

Finally he said "I had scrambled eggs and orange juice for breakfast this morning."  And the instructor said that was a very healthy thing to eat, he was doing good at following his Little Dragon Creed.  And I breathed.  And I smiled…or maybe it was a little smirk because they were on to the next kid and he said he had waffles with something like a gallon of syrup on them and I could just see his mom turning red.

My lesson today is one that I will rarely forget….don’t get Happy Meals on karate days.

Football season is officially over in the Sidlinger house.

Here’s to a better season next year.

Picture005.jpg
Originally uploaded by thesidlingers.

I told David last night during the tornadoes and thunderstorms that the cold front moving through better be a good one and make it cold for at least a while.  According to the forecast, it will.  It was cold enough this morning for hat and gloves.  It was funny to see all the kids at the preschool proudly displaying their different hats.  Most of the boys had a superhero themed hat and most of the girls had something pink, but they were all happy to wear them.  Daniel’s is, of course, Darth Vader.

One Wolverine Halloween Costume Purchased at Target for 90% Off…..$2

One Mr. Fantastic Halloween Costume Purchased at Target for 90% Off…..$2

Getting to Play Superhero Dress Up With Your Friend…..Priceless

It’s going to be so much fun this year!  This is Daniel from last night making peanut butter cookies after making meatloaf and mashed potatoes for dinner.  He’s quite the little ham chef.

Sorry for not updating lately, I’m going to blame it on the time change.  I know it’s been two weeks, but this one has really messed me up.  I used to post an entry in the evenings, but now I feel like it’s 9:00, when it’s really only 6:00 so I slow down or speed up our evening routine and then never seem to have enough time to post.

But, you don’t come here for lame excuses, you come here for Daniel stories, pictures and an occasional tidbit about other things.  So…

We are starting to gear up for the holidays (although we are strong believers of Thanksgiving first, then Christmas).  Daniel is super excited about Thanksgiving.  We count down every day how many days are left until the parade and turkey and sweet potatoes and macaroni and cheese and cranberry sauce.  By the way, if you remember last year Daniel thought there were two types of turkey…the bird turkey and the food turkey…he’s in the know now and is OK with everything.  We’ve also learned alot about the turkey (mostly about the wattle) in the past week, so be sure to quiz Daniel next time you talk to him.

Of course, there are jingle bells just around the corner and while our tree won’t go up until the weekend after Thanksgiving, thoughts and ideas are in full force.  Our Christmas Night dinner menu has been thoroughly researched and planned, baking and craft projects are in final planning stages and the fruitcake makings have already been purchased!  We have actually seen a few houses already decorated, but my theory is that they are either in some kind of Christmas tour or they are decorated by interior decorators and were trying to beat the rush. 

Christmas lists have also been updated by all (see upper right corner).  We would like to encourage everyone else to make an amazon.com wishlist too!  Yes, it takes a little of the fun out of endless hours of trying to find the perfect Christmas gift, but some of you are just so hard to shop for! 

Not much else going on…the kitchen is still the same color.

A few pictures from David’s birthday.

And some before/before/before/after photos:

This was before we moved in, just plain off-white walls.

This was Peanut Butter.  It came directly after Butterfly Bush, which didn’t last more than a couple of days, so I don’t have any pictures of it.  It was a light yellow though.  Peanut Butter lasted a few months, but overall it was too orange-y.

The next color was Coffee.  A little deeper than Peanut Butter and more of a red-brown than a yellow-brown.  It served us well for over a year…..

….until this weekend.  Yes, I painted the kitchen again.  This time it’s Moss #6.  It’s just a couple of shades darker than the sunroom green (Guacamole) and I think I really like it, at least enough to keep it for a while.