The Schmidt House

Merry Christmas from our home to yours! This is a little clip from one of my favorite movies, "Meet Me in St. Louis", if anyone ever wants a little rendition of the Trolley Song just give me a shout.

I am loving the iPhone, however am in a bit of a quandary with this whole ringtone thing. I was so in love with my old ringtone and am in denial I cannot have it now that I have switched - iTunes only has one, yes only one Beck tune available for Ringtune -age. Since iPhone/ iTunes lets you create your own tone, I have done just that - The Cure, "Close to Me" as a feeble replacement to my previous favorite. I am so missing my old r ingtone courtesy of Beck - all 11 seconds of it - which I had programmed in my brain. So here it is my long lost ringtone that I knew was mine all mine rather than the one I have now which I give dirty looks to strangers thinking, "Answer your phone already" only to discover that it is I who needs to answer my own phone.

Today little man was an innkeeper at his Christmas program, I don't know if he had to audition for the role, all I know is he probably didn't get the part based on his description of costume or storyline. Here is the innkeeper role in the Nativity as described by JG: AE: So what do you wear? JG: I not know - innkeeper clothes. (He actually wore a sack looking thing which his partner innkeeper #2 told his mother after donning the garb - "Mom, this is so not my look.") AE: So what do you do as an innkeeper? JG: Well, I run the show-tell (inn). Then the lady having the baby and the guy with the same name as me come to the door. I tell them we are full up and they have to go sleep in the barn. I was a little worried, but he did great. Mary and Joseph made it to the barn and had baby Jesus then JG sang "Go Tell the Mountain" with his classmates and all was well with the world. On a side note, we got to laughing last night after caroling when I told my friends...

We neighbors are going door to door in a few nights to spread Christmas cheer by caroling. I asked the non-singing home office if he would like to go along and join the choir. This is the response I received: "I would rather stare into the sun." Guess that's a no. Too bad, I was really looking forward to him leading us in a round of "Silver & Gold".

On Saturday, the Maple Grove Mustangs played the Andover Huskies. At the end of regulation, AE had a chance to seal the deal - but missed two free throws. The game went into overtime, then to sudden death - so someone had to score just one basket to win. AE had a chance for redemption and somehow the basketball Gods were smiling down on her. Maple Grove won 14-12. AE is #41. The video is courtesy of AP's dad Rob (thank you Rob!) - thank goodness someone documented it because I think our daughter was the most surprised person in the gym and needed to see it again to believe it.

Today as we were driving to day two of AE's first basketball tourney, Dan tried to offer some fatherly advice about the amount of time AE was spending in the key - she got called for a couple of three second violations yesterday. Dan: AE do you know what the three second rule is? AE: Yeah. It's when you drop something on the ground you have three seconds to pick it up and it's still safe to eat it. Dan: No, that is a different three second rule. Dan set AE straight, she didn't get called for it today, so it must have stuck. The Maple Grove Mustangs took 2nd. Not too bad for a team in mis-matched uniforms (our new ones didn't make it in time) and two practices under their belt.

Here is a link to little man's team website. There are some really cute pictures in the slide show. http://omgha.pucksystems2.com/page/show/28174

My husband knows four songs - really just four. They are in no particular order: 1) The Gambler - Kenny Rogers He sings this in the style of Bob Dylan. 2) Shook Me All Night Long - AC/DC Once, when I returned from a trip AE and I had the following exchange: Mom: How did things go when Mommy was gone? AE: Fine. Mom: Did daddy sing you goodnight? AE: Yes. Mom: Really? What did he sing to you? She paused and began to sing, "She was a fast machine, she kept her motor clean..." Nice. 3) Oh, Tannebaum Only in German. Go figure. 4) This little tune... All I will say is that it has been a long 17 years, think it is about time to get him some new tunes. I sure hope his song retention does not portend any serious issues which will arise when we are in our 80s.

AE received her 1st "letter grade" report card today - all went really, really well. It seems like our daughter has connected with her teacher and everything has clicked. Like every other year I asked her what her favorite subject was and she answered, "Remember that one time when you asked me in kindergarten?" Yes, AE I remember. AE attended a parochial school here in Maple Grove and wasn't really thrilled with her school, her teacher, the uniform...I could go on and on... After listening to her daily litany of complaints I asked, "Is there anything you like about school?" I got the look that said, "Mom, you CANNOT be serious, there is NOTHING I like." "You have to have a favorite subject right?" I probed. "What is your favorite subject?" She sat there and finally said, "Yeah I like MASS ." The school attended daily mass - it was a Catholic school and that's what they do. "Oh, good. I am so glad you li...

The Holidays bring so many fun little projects that I forgot how hard it was to fit these in when working. One of those tasks is Christmas cards, I have the process down pat, however just haven't got around to it yet. The cards are sitting on top of the fridge, the label spreadsheet has been updated and the letter is in my head. We all know how much the home office loves the Holidays . Kidding, I said if he had some free time he could give the annual letter a shot...well he surprised me and did just that. After reading, I do not think we will be sending it out, but just had to share because it was so funny. I am proud of my non-letter writing husband, here is his version of the Schmidts '07. You are about to read one of those lame Christmas letters so many people feel necessary to include in their Christmas cards. For those of you that find these things offensive, read section A (the short version). If, on the other hand you want the full experience, proceed to section B. SECTI...

Yesterday in the middle of the snow, I finally decided it was time to do something about my sub-par cell phone. I have had a love hate relationship for quite some time now and have been enamoured to say the least with the nice shiny iPhone. I am loving it - other than the fact I had to change my phone number (long story) and email address (another long story). I can't believe how much I can do on it! Know where I am supposed to be when I am supposed to be somewhere Watch movies/videos in the car I can play music (only 8 GB, but I will live), since the other iPod is still MIA I can get my email at work now, since I can't get to Hotmail through the Cargill infrastructure Will cut down on domestic disputes because we will actually know where we are going since we can check a map Get YouTube BLOG Find out if I should take 394 or 169 Take pictures Know what the weather is like in Madrid - why Madrid? I don't know, but somehow I tried to set up Minneapolis and ended up with Ma...