Living in a Snow Globe

What a Crazy Holiday! We left Cali on Sunday and drove over 88 in the snow - love that 4WD! We arrived in Winnemucca and it began to snow and did not stop for 4 days! No matter - there were lots of family to visit with and cooking and eating to do and my Mom had a handyman-to-do list for Joel.

Amelia's gift from Santa was to be a kitchen. After opening the box and dumping the contents out - it took 7 adults and about 2 hours to asseble the toy. But, Amelia loves it! The back burner makes sizzle noises and the front one boils! Very cute - we've been eating all kinds of fake foods! Alyssa and Ryan kept the girl quite entertained and they played in Nana's "hot pool" every day!

One evening, on my Dad's rounds to check on the cars, Sue and I visited the General Lee for a photo op - nice!

Over a foot of non-formable snow fell beautifully on the landscape and we had to stay an extra day as both 80 and 88 were closed and we could not get home. Good thing my Dad got a wii for Christmas - Guitar Hero is my weakness!






We finally made it home to find that Santa had visited our house as well - Amelia's new golf clubs had arrived! SpongeBob gold balls were in her stocking and she's well n her way to becoming the next Tigris Woods!

We had a wonderful visit with Aunt Kerry and Uncle Don before they left for home thismorning! We missed Momma Gwynne's birthday but the family held off on the first-ever Secret Santa gift exchange until we were able to participate - Thank you! It turned out great and we all chose our names for next year. My family calendars turned out nice and I'll start working on next year's soon so feel free to send new pics throughout the year!

Christmas Plans

It looks like the weather is going to dictate when we'll be able to travel to Nevada and when we leave there to come home. There is a large mountain range between us - The Sierra Nevadas - and they are the reason that we so much of our visiting in the summer months. But, it's Christmas damnit and we have family to see! We hope to leave here on Sunday or Monday and plan to head home on Christmas Day. This will give us lots of time in Winnemucca to visit and be home to celebrate with Joel's family as well. This will be the first time I'll miss MamaGwynne's birthday dinner - Christmas Eve. It's always a fun get-together. I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone, especially my brats, Alyssa and Ryan as they are coming all the way from Tennessee. This may be my last blog before the big holiday so...
Merry Christmas to You and Yours!

Happy Holidays!

On Friday evening, my friend Chelsea and her son, Troy along with myself and Amelia went to Tuolumne City's light parade and to see Santa Claus. As you can see in the picture, Amelia wasn't into sitting on a strange man's lap. She did request "golf clubs and a treat" so we'll see what happens.
We brought home a tree on Saturday and spent the evening decorating it. I moved a few of the ornaments around after Amelia went to bed as she put 3-5 on a single branch in a few places.
Sunday was Joel's brother, Thomas's birthday and we celebrated with family, pizza, cake and a few shots of Jager. "Happy Birthday Worm!"

It started yesterday and by thismorning we had about 4 inches of the white stuff. Amelia and Joel built a little snowman on the deck. We named him Marvin. The snow continued throughout the day and we now have about 7 inches and are looking forward to a White Christmas!

We'll be finishing our baking tonight and will be making deliveries to the neighbors unless Joel eats all the cookies.... again.

Aaaaahhh Chhhhhuuuuu

After 6 weeks of going full speed ahead my body decided that we've had enough and I need a break so, I have a cold that really seems to be kicking my ass. Jager and Alkaseltzer Cold help a bit. I spent the month of Novemebr delivering the mail, helping prepare for Amelia's school's annual Christmas Shop fundraiser, putting the annual SPNS cookbook together, studying for my Real Estate exam and being mother and wife, not to mention hosting Thanksgiving. I guess I deserve this. Now that most of those things are finished, I can concentrate on my Real Estate studies and prepare for Christmas. Here's where the new stress begins. Joel has family arriving here on Christmas day, I have family coming to Winnemucca and now we're trying to figure out how to be in two places, 6 hours away from each other, at the same time. Plans are still in the making on this adventure.

I have already finished my Christmas shopping and have begun the baking! I really do like this part. The other night, I finished making homemade dog cookies for all of Honey's friends and Amelia wanted to try one, I explained to her that they were for dogs but eventually gave in a let her have one. It only took one bite for her to realize that she and Honey do not have the same tastes in cookies and Honey happily chomped down the remainder of Amelia's dog cookie.

Last week, Joel brought home the greatest thing ever.... a giant cardboard box from a hot water heater. He cut a door and some peep-holes and let Amelia go to town on it with some markers. It really is fantstic - she spend minutes in there at a time!

At the moment, Joel and Amelia are curled up on the couch, sleeping through a football game. I would be too but the cold medicine is spinning me out a bit. Maybe I'll go hang up some Christmas light sor something!

Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving ya'll! Ours was very nice - we spent it at home with a few other people. Gwynne, Mae, Emlily, Thomas and Jessica and our neighbors, Ken and Donna joined us for a massive meal. Everyone brought something and we had too much of nearly everything. I think the only thing we actually ran out of was Jager.

Amelia spent her very first night away from us on Tuesday. Grama Gwynne hosted a slumber party for Roxy, Amelia, Breanna and Alyssa. I don't really know what happened there but I do know that on Wednesday night, Amelia was asleep by 7pm and didn't awaken until nearly 8:30 Thursday morning.

So today is Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year - it's also the busiest golfing day of the entire year, hmmmm..... I will be delivering the mail today, no shopping for me. I don't like the crowds anyway. I hope you all recover from your turkey comas and have fun with the holidays that are now completely upon us!

Sunday

What was I thinking? Joel and I just spent the day with not only Amelia and Roxanne but our Great-Nieces, Breanna and Alyssa as well. That's right folks, 4 girls ages 2, 3, 4 and 5 for nearly 4 hours. Yes, I'm tired. I have realized now why I only have one child. Now that the mess from the pink tornado is picked up and Joel and Amelia are taking a snooze, I have a moment of peace. Things around here are picking up, work-wise. This is a good thing and a bad thing. I am working a lot for the post office through Christmas and Joel is busy with our business and that leaves Amelia with whoever can watch her on whatever day. School for her is another thing. The big fundraiser for the year is on December 6th and I am unable to help out. I will be giving up my Friday to help set it up and I have put in way too many hours on this cook book and cannot wait to see its completion. I haven't had a lot of chances to work on my Real Estate schooling, good thing these classes are self-paced.
Thanksgiving is coming right up and it looks like we'll be staying home and grilling a bird. Fine with me! Joel grills great bird. I hope all of your Turkey Days are filled with family, fun and food!

Overwelming Insanity

I'm taking a blog break from my studies. For those that do not already know, I've begun online classes for Real Estate licensing. The first part is Real Estate Law and it reads like a bunch of tongue twisters. Ugh. So far, it's harder than I thought it would be and I'm losing motivation. Must... Keep... Going. Other than that, Amelia's school is gearing up for their annual Christmas fundraiser which requires me to give quite a bit of my time which I don't have a quite a bit of. This is because I am also a substitute rural route carrier for the USPS and tis the season for mail. I am working through much of November which is good 'cause it's money but also makes me feel more overwhelmed. These things on top of the property maintenance business, parenting and holidays and you can see why I drink. Don't get me wrong, I'm a total busy body and can't stand being still but this is getting ridiculous. Thank God that I have Gwynne to help out a bit at School and Joel to help a little at home and basically go to jobs by himself. I guess I need to figure out my schedule and actually stick to it. Enough of my venting.

Amelia is doing great! Aside from the terrible twos and the tantrums I don't understand, she's got a fantastic sense of humor, she eats practically anything you put in front of her and she's so smart. I'm not sure if being so smart is so good but I can't help but be proud. She sings her ABC's and can identify a few of them and counts to 14 consistently, 20 with a little help. Amelia is always singing. I'll be sure to post here when she does something really funny or fabulous.

The weather here has gotten cold and rainy, we had to get the wood stove going and the gutters are full of pine needles again. I guess Joel will have to get up on the roof when it dries out again. This kind of weather makes me start thinking about the holidays and I know they'll be upon us before we know it. I hope I'm ready.

Halloween is upon us!

We got Amelia all dressed up and went to the Family Halloween Party for her school, the kids had a great time and it took us until well after 9pm to get her to come down from the sugar and go to sleep. She was a "Peacock Princess" and loved wearing a huge amount of glitter.

Emily, Patrick and I took the girls (Amelia and Roxanne) to Cover's Apple Ranch on Saturday Morning to pick out pumpkins and go through the hay maze. Neither girl would go through the maze and we ended up only buying some very cute gourds as the pumpkins were already quite picked over but it was still fun to see the animals and take some photos.

We're not expecting any trick-or-treaters on Friday but we are looking forward to some rain. Have a spooktacular holiday!

Tina Turner

Yo Momma Gwynne and I went to Sacramento Wednesday night to see Tina Turner Live at the Arco Arena. For 68 yrs old - that woman ROCKS!!! We shared a ride with some other friends that were going, Kevin and AnnMarie and I was upset to find that they had floor seats and our were at the very top but no matter, the show was spectacular! The photos here was taken after K&A finally found the car (Gwynne & I had no problems). I returned home around 2:30am which is past my normal bedtime by quite a bit and was up again to take Amelia to school and paint with kids - today, I'm doing crafts and we're going to make eyeballs :) I really looking forward to a nap!

First Posting

Hi there and welcome to the FrantzFam blog. After seeing what a few of other friends and family have put together, I decided that this looked like a pretty good way to keep ya'll informed! So, here's what's happening around here lately...
Joel and I keep busy with our business, Sierra Property Maintenance as well as with our two-year-old, Amelia. Amelia recently started attending Summerville Parent Nursery School two days a week and really loves it! Potty training is nearly over and we're looking forward to being diaper free! I am commitee chairman for this year's cookbook fund raiser so, if you'd like to contribute a recipe, email me! Other than that, we're just gearing up for the winter by getting our fire wood supply and cleaning up the yard, putting the tiki torches away, etc. Have a great day!