My funny valentine, sweet comic valentine You make me smile with my heart. ~Rodgers and Hart~
It's been crazy around here lately with all the moving plans and packing and emotional goodbyes. I thought Valentine's Day would just float by with barely a notice, but it turned out to be a good, yet irregular, funny kind of day. It started yesterday. Charles brought home flowers and a beautiful red velvet greeting card....did I mention this was yesterday? He always beats me to it lately on slipping in cards or gifts on special days. I had to run to the store today to pick out a card for him from the disarray of Valentine's cards that were left to choose from. I always know when I have just the right card for him and there it was after a little searching. Cupcakes and teddy bear valentines for the girls. I had just enough time to get home and write on all the cards before being rushed off to our busy day.
We stopped by Sears to look at their scratch and dent section for a refrigerator for our new home. We found a very nice dishwasher earlier this year that way. And there it was, meekly standing there with a big bash on on corner of the door, but it was the one for us.....brand new, but they knocked over $400 off the price because it has a bash. It has a Pur water filtration system for the ice maker and for the water dispenser on the front of the fridge door. We paid for it, set a pick up date and ran out the door again.
Today was the pastors' lunch for our association here...the last one that Charles will get to go to. It's once a month and they are a very close knit group of pastors from a wide variety of small towns around northern Arizona. They gave him a nice send off. I hate goodbyes, but I know we'll see these guys again around the state. We had to leave before it was over to zip down to Phoenix (2 hour zip) to sign loan papers on a home we're trying to get. We'll find out within the week if we'll get this one or not....waiting on the appraisal.
Then we went to a memorial service for the son of some dear friends here in town. It was on the other side of Phoenix. (a very wide city) Though we had only met this man once, it was a moving memorial to his life and a celebration of his release from pain and entrance into eternity....very cool.
We jumped back into the car and headed back 'up the hill'....stopping to eat a very unromantic, yet pleasant dinner, at a combination A&W Root Beer and KFC restaurant on the way home. That is so weird....why do they combine these icons of fast food and make it so confusing to order. There is a combo restaurant in Flagstaff of a Taco Bell and Long John Silvers....it is horrendous the smells in there. I can't enjoy tacos while smelling fish and I can't even enjoy the fish and crunchy bits while smelling tacos. Eeew! My appologies to anyone who owns a weird combo franchise, but it's just wrong....
So we are home now, kids in bed, dishwasher running and I am looking at my Valentine's flowers. Well...not really flowers....but there's potential for flowers at some time in the future. My husband knows me well and although cut roses are so beautiful and I absolutley love them, there is something even more wonderful in receiving skinny packages of flowerless rose bushes from Sam's Club. They look like sticks now, but I see the sprouts of new growth on them and have envisioned where I will plant them at our new home in Phoenix. (Where roses grow like mad in January and February.)
I can see the potential and the future in those bare branches and it's exciting! I'll plant them within days of making our move and enjoy watering and nurturing them until next year when I'll have way more than a dozen roses. I'll have dozens of flowers to sink my nose into and smell the wonderful aroma of homegrown roses....and I'll have pretty dried petals to make into pot pourri for Christmas. They have a lot of potential....just like our new church in which to serve and live has that same exciting potential to become to us a place to sink down into and enjoy the aroma of Christ filling the lives of the church and community there.
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 2 Corinthians 2:14-15
That was NIV, but I like how it is said in the Message too:
In the Messiah, in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade. Through us, he brings knowledge of Christ. Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance. Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way of salvation--an aroma redolent with life.
Newsboys for the New Year Topic: Holidays/Vacations
This song kind of represents what I feel the New Year should be about. Fresh starts, new attitudes, laying down the grudges and guilt and get on with it! =)
The video to this song shows the Newsboys group riding in baskets, similar to the ones on hot air balloons, but then you see the hot air balloon is an elephant shape….a beast of burden. They are being held to the ground by people walking on the street like the Thanksgiving Day parade, holding those ropes so the balloons don’t fly away….only these balloons were meant to fly away….to carry your burden away. At the end, the people with the ropes let go and the Newsboys go flying up into the atmosphere in the elephant balloons. Watch a clip here: http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/listenwatch/0,,473158,00.html
Million Pieces (Kissin' Your Cares Goodbye) By the Newsboys
Chorus They all fall Like a million raindrops Falling from a blue sky Kissin' your cares goodbye They all fall Like a million pieces A tickertape parade high And now you're free to fly
Carryin' a millstone malaise It's been pulling down your gaze You pound the pavement It don't give or care This weight ain't yours to bear
Why you holdin' grudges in old jars? Why you wanna show off all your scars? What's it gonna take to lay a few burdens down? It's a beautiful sound (Chorus) When that muffled sigh Says you're barely getting by Cut your burdens loose and just simplify Simplify
This is not your floor You're going higher than before Drop the weight now Wait for the lookout guide Look outside (chorus) You've gotta lay that burden down You've gotta lay that burden down It's time to leave your burdens in a pyre Set a bonfire
'Cause when you lay your burdens down When you lay your burdens down When you drop them burdens What a free-fall What a thrill Bury them all In a landfill (chorus)
Pleased as man with men to dwell.... Topic: Holidays/Vacations Hark, the Herald Angels Sing
The words by Charles Wesley, music by Felix Mendelssohn, this is also a new favorite of mine in the past two years. The phrase that caught my attention anew, “Pleased as man with men to dwell.” We have no idea what wonders await us in Heaven, in His presence. But Jesus knew…and He left it to dwell with us….and was just as pleased as we are to live here (since it is all we know), laying His glory aside.
Go ahead and read through these lyrics and feel the inexpressible greatness of the Incarnation.
1. Hark! The Herald Angels sing, "Glory to the new-born King; Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!" Joyful, all ye nations, rise. Join the triumph of the skies. With th' Angelic Hosts proclaim, "Christ is born in Bethlehem!" Hark! the herald angels sing, "Glory to the new-born King."
2. Christ, by highest heaven adored, Christ, the everlasting lord Late in time behold him come, Off-spring of a Virgin's womb Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, Hail, the incarnate deity Pleased as Man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel. Hark! the herald angels sing, "Glory to the New-born king!"
3. Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace, Hail, the Sun of Righteousness Light and life to all He brings, Risen with healing in His Wings. Now He lays His Glory by, Born that man no more may die Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth. Hark! the herald angels sing, "Glory to the New-born king!"
4. Come, Desire of nations come, Fix in us Thy humble home; Oh, to all Thyself impart, Formed in each believing heart! Hark! the herald angels sing, "Glory to the new-born king; Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!" Hark! the herald angels sing, "Glory to the New-born king!"
5. Adam's likeness, Lord, efface, Stamp Thine image in its place: Second Adam from above, Reinstate us in Thy love. Let us Thee, though lost, regain, Thee, the Life, the inner man: O, to all Thyself impart, Formed in each believing heart. Hark! the herald angels sing, "Glory to the New-born king!"
Holiday blues Topic: Holidays/Vacations Charlie Brown: I just don't understand Christmas, I guess. I like getting presents and sending Christmas cards and decorating trees and all that, but I'm still not happy. I always end up feeling depressed.
Linus Van Pelt: Charlie Brown, you're the only person I know who can take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem. Maybe Lucy's right. Of all the Charlie Browns in the world, you're the Charlie Browniest.
Silly Charlie Brown....he just needs to focus on the meaning of Christmas...
Charlie Brown: [shouting in desperation] Isn't there anyone out there who can tell me what Christmas is all about? Linus Van Pelt: Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you. Lights, please.
[a spotlight shines on Linus] Linus Van Pelt: "And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the lord shone round about them, and they were so afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you this day is born in the City of Bethlehem, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, good will toward men'".
That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie brown.
King and God and Sacrifice Topic: Holidays/Vacations The past few years I’ve been really getting into the deeper lyrics of old Christmas carols. Back in the days when people didn’t have all the modern distractions that we have, they had deep thoughts, and they wrote wonderful, rich lyrics. I’ll post another tomorrow, but today is We Three Kings, written by John H. Hopkins Jr. in 1857 for a Christmas pageant at the General Theological Seminary in New York City.
The words that struck me as I listened to our adult choir sing Christmas songs last Sunday was the phrase, “King and God and Sacrifice…” See, I am not one to really pay attention to detail, so it’s taken me….uh, well, a lot of years….to really hear the meanings of some of these songs. I love how this song includes the forthcoming reason for Christ’s coming….his sacrificial death.
(This picture, by the way, looks exactly like the Judean Wilderness when we saw it on our Israel trip. The guide told us people would travel, just like this picture, in the crevasses between the harsh hills of desert.)
We three kings of Orient are; Bearing gifts we traverse afar, Field and fountain, moor and mountain, Following yonder star.
Refrain O star of wonder, star of light, Star with royal beauty bright, Westward leading, still proceeding, Guide us to thy perfect light.
Born a King on Bethlehem’s plain Gold I bring to crown Him again, King forever, ceasing never, Over us all to reign.
Refrain
Frankincense to offer have I; Incense owns a Deity nigh; Prayer and praising, voices raising, Worshipping God on high.
Refrain
Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume Breathes a life of gathering gloom; Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying, Sealed in the stone cold tomb.
Refrain
Glorious now behold Him arise; King and God and sacrifice; Alleluia, Alleluia, Sounds through the earth and skies.
Christmas with family.... Topic: Holidays/Vacations Oooo, don't we look all 80's? heehee I found this old pic of me and 2 of the sisters on my computer. That is Becky, me and Julie on vacation in 1986.
I mentioned a few entries ago that my inbox was full of my sisters trying to organize an early Christmas weekend get together. One sister came forward and got us organized with wisdom, skill and wit. My sister, Julie, got tired of the 20 emails a day in her inbox, as I did, with sister talk just going round and round without actually planning one thing. LOL So she wrote a very commanding email advising us what we would each bring and do for the weekend fun.
My other 2 sisters and 1 grown niece probably had the same reaction that I did upon receiving ‘orders’. Julie thought we’d feel bossed around and apologized for taking charge. But I just stared in sheer amazement that one of MY sisters could take those dozens of emails, with all the lists and food and entertainment possibilities and come up with orders for each person, gleaning from all of our chaos and turning it into a plan.
We all thanked her and are in awe of her skill. Then we got this email, which I am using with her permission, explaining the whole weekend in hilarious detail. You might have to know some of these relatives to really get giddy laughter going, but I think you’ll see the humor in it without further explanation….after all, you all have relatives I’ll bet!
Without further adieu….heeeeeeeeeeeeeere’s Julie!
After several requests from dazed and confused family members, here is the schedule for Christmas as best as I could guess:
Friday Dec 16
2:00-ish pm - Julie will bring Mom, Dad and Eleanor to Becky's house and hopefully Christie and family will arrive by then as well. At some point, we may heat up some appetizers to snack on (Mom will provide).
4:30 - Jodi leaves work and picks up Steve at home. They drive to Becky's having pleasant conversation and enjoying the carpool lane.
4:30 - Bobbie leaves work and picks up tickets for Bethlehem tour for 12 (including herself) with many cans of food, which she has secured ahead of time. She gets the latest tickets possible and then comes to Becky's house.
6:00 - we eat Becky's food and Christie's salad. We may play a game or so. We will have birthday cake and ice cream. Some may choose to sing "Happy Birthday."
7:30-ish - everyone leaves Becky's house for either home in Glendale or Bethlehem tour. Many will return to Becky's house for the night and may require hot chocolate.
Saturday Dec 17
8 am? - Steve will leave Becky's house for freeway opening party. He will try to talk Eleanor and Maggie into coming along. They may or may not be convinced.
9 am? - The Lords and the Adams' will leave for Glendale, someone will give Julie and maybe Eleanor a ride, since Steve will have the van.
10 am - Lots of people and commotion will descend on a small house in Glendale. We will have activities that are sticky and require frosting and candies. We will divide baked goods and other homemade treats. At some point, Steve will rejoin the crowd.
Noonish - we will eat deli meats on bread, dips and chips. We will feel a little sick from all the sugary treats.
1-ish - we will give and receive gifts with the Lords and the Jimenez'. Paper will fly. Someone will stick a bow on their head. Many thank-you's will be heard.
2:30-ish - the Lords will have to leave to get back to Williams before dark. On the drive, they will regret that Maggie wanted a Rescue Pet...
….uh, it’s me again….We’ll be following orders starting tomorrow…see you all after the weekend!
Scared of Santa Topic: Holidays/Vacations Take a look at The Scared of Santa Gallery ….I knew there was a reason for not taking my kids to sit on Santa’s lap all those years. They will thank me when they see this!
Seriously though, we have some Santa ornaments around, we watch the Miracle on 34th Street and Rudolph, but from day one, I let my children know that Santa was just a make believe game some parents play with their kids, along with telling them why the legend began. I don’t think they suffered at all from it…although I have been chewed out before by Christians who thought I was mean not to let them have a little fun believing in Santa. My kids have never thought it was mean and grew up to be perfectly normal (some may even say above average…ok, well that may just be me) and also to be truth seekers, each with a deep faith in God. I’d rather teach them to have faith about things that are real, rather than possibly confuse them or lose their trust in my truthfulness.
This is not meant to be cynical at all. I respect those who play the game and tell my kids not to ruin the game for other kids. (after all, I grew up slightly normal after believing in Santa) But I did want to let those who might wonder how this approach turned out in case they’re afraid to be mean….er, truthful. ;)
Happy Holiday.....Merry CHRISTmas! Topic: Holidays/Vacations I got this article as an email forward and did a search to find out where it had come from. It is a column written by Debbie Daniel on a GOPUSA sight. But it is not a GOP party article, it is an article for all Christians on the recent negative hype of saying 'Merry CHRISTmas' in public places. I almost posted it here, but it is long. She makes a lot of good points.
Reminder for moms at Christmas Topic: Holidays/Vacations For the sake of time and my family, I will just be posting some fun or devotional types of things I have collected on Christmas or on contentment as I find them. With all the obligations and extra activities of the season, I want to share encouraging things, yet have the time to put more into our family life here.
This is an email from my friend, Sue, at church. It is a dear reminder of how we can get sidetracked, sometimes by good things, and neglect the ones closest to us! I wish the author was listed, but on these email forwards, it usually is not. 1 Corinthians 13 has long been a chapter of the Word that I study and try to use often…..it is so basic…so fundamental in how we treat each other…….so read on this for a few minutes and then meditate on the real thing.
If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another decorator.
If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another cook.
If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home and give all that I have to charity, but do not show love to my family, it profits me nothing.
If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties and sing in the choir's cantata but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.
Love stops the cooking to hug the child. Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the husband. Love is kind, though harried and tired. Love doesn't envy another's home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens. Love doesn't yell at the kids to get out of the way. Love doesn't give only to those who are able to give in return but rejoices in giving to those who can't. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust. But giving the gift of love will endure!
Bustling about Topic: Holidays/Vacations
I just finished voting for my favorite Christian women’s blogs over at Two Talent Living. There is a long list of great blogs written about all kinds of subjects by Christian women there. Take a minute to bookmark it and browse through the blogs when you have some time.
December is a crazy, wonderful month. I love all the festivities and busyness of the season, buying people gifts and celebrating. We are trying to spend most evenings at home and enjoy our family more this year. It has to be a conscious effort for us because there are so many things to do! I hope to have no regrets about how I spent the season of the Incarnation celebration. ;)
Things that I’m spending time on lately:
My inbox: My email box has been FULL almost every day the past couple of weeks…not from lots of people….but from 4 people who are driving me crazy! My 3 sisters and my grown up neice! We write these group emails when we’re planning something (currently our family Christmas weekend the 16-17th) and everyone has to ‘reply all’ to all of them. By the time the day is over, I could have up to 15-20 emails….each one growing longer because no one erases all the other replies! It’s crazy….but then it wouldn’t be us if it wasn’t crazy….at least it wouldn’t be them if it wasn’t crazy! LOL
Cooking: I am hosting my daughters and their teenaged friends for gingerbread guy decorating on Saturday. Click here to see last year's creations. We had pirate guys, island guys, guys in tuxedoes (Nate Sallie), santa guys, a creature from the Black Lagoon guy, Spiderman guy, and lots of other cute cookies including a gingerbread girl in a swimsuit, ankle bracelet and lei from Hawaii. I will post pics when we're done of the surviving gingerbread guys and girls. (Some don't survive until picture time, losing limbs and heads, eventually succumbing to cannibalistic teenaged girls.)
Taxi service: Mom's taxi service is roaring with business lately! I'm glad the girls have so many fun and wholesome activities, but I can't wait til my 15 year old gets her license and can run some errands for me! (January 25 she turns 16!) The big attraction lately? Our town has just finished an outdoor ice skating rink downtown! I hope to have pics of this soon too.
Shopping: can't tell! *wink wink, nudge nudge* =)
Projects: Working on a project for my parents for Christmas….I can tell you because they do not know how to look at a computer screen! My sister has been telling my Mom about my blog for a while now and she was all sad because she ‘can’t’ read it…I will clarify so you don’t think I have an illiterate mother. She thinks it’s too hard to learn to use the internet. Silly people. So I am making a notebook with all my blog posts from this last year. Converting it to Word and adding and resizing all the pictures took hours. It is 178 pages long on Word! It is also taking hours upon hours to print because our main computer, which is connected to the printerrrrrrrrr, keeps crashing….right now, it’s about every 25 pages. It ain’t fun people. I may have a permanent twitch developing.
I also need to finish my youngest daughter’s Christmas stocking. I made each of my 3 older daughters these nice counted cross-stitch stockings that hang proudly each year, displaying intricate counting and stitching abilities and the love of a Mom who had the time to go through all that work for them. I had each of their stockings finished and hanging up by their second Christmases. Maggie’s is still in process…and she is 8 years old. You cannot imagine the guilt I feel when we decorate the house each year and she has a store-bought red fuzzy stocking, while the other sisters all have cute homemade stockings. =(
Homeschooling: We are trying to catch up from the time I was gone to Israel and the time we have goofed off doing Christmas things.
Focus: We are focusing on gratitude in our devotional times. It has been wonderful. I am so unorganized that this November devotional idea came a month late. Good (or God?) timing though! It's a perfect thing to focus on in December. Our main theme is from an article in the November issue of HomeLife magazine. Contentment is acheived from a heart that focuses on gratitude for what we have...instead of focusing on what we do not have. More later on this!
The most wonderful time of the year.... Topic: Holidays/Vacations Thanksgiving is over and it caught me a little off guard. My plan was to put up the Christmas tree today, but the man of the house was ready to do it yesterday. It's a good thing when a husband wants to get decorating done and I'm not about to argue!
We never put up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving before...at least not that I remember. The thing I remember about the day after Thanksgiving is getting up before dawn cracks (which is before God gets up, btw) and standing in long lines in the cold dark morning to go Christmas shopping. Standing in line to shop! Oh, the pain! We always got it mostly done though in one day and that was worth it. Things have changed now. Our oldest daughter is in college, we have 2 teenage girls and an 8 year old girl. These ages are a little hard to buy for, except the 8 year old. She wants roller skates, some Barbie movie and a 'rescue animal'....whatever that is. It turns out, the man of the house took it upon himself to order some mail order Christmas gifts for some of them. HUGE relief! Amazon.com loves him and is always sending him coupons and love notes. lol
I usually use the day after Thanksgiving to shop til noon (that's 7 hours of shopping when you begin at 5am!), then clean house and take down Fall decorations in preparation for Christmas decorations! I love the Christmas season...a whole month dedicated to celebration and awe. I think it is appropriate decadence for the celebration of the Incarnation! As I have studied Jewish holidays for the Messianic meanings hidden there, I am surprised by the lavish way they celebrated and enjoyed. (For some reason I always thought of Jewish folks as solemn and serious...wrong!)
And it is quite wonderful to see our whole country...the country that wants to ban the words Jesus and Christianity from it's vocabulary....actually celebrating with us Christians lavishly! As much as 'they' try to make it a 'winter holiday', the world doesn't easily forget that it is the Savior's birth we celebrate. As you walk through the mall or Walmart or see Christmas specials on TV, listen and hear Jesus being sung about in traditional carols and images of the creche scene out there in the secular world. I don't think 'they' will be able to totally secularize this holiday.
Because of our woodstove, which we love and gather around daily, we cannot have a real tree anymore. The year we got the woodstove, our Christmas tree disintegrated before our eyes as it dried to a crisp. The needles would cascade down every time your walked by it or touched it. By Christmas day we were praying that no one would light a match within a few feet of it and misting it with water each day......my apologies to any hand painted ornaments we had. =(
So instead of hunting for the perfect tree, bundling it up on the roof of the car, sawing off the base and trying to prop it up to balance in the tottering stand so it wouldn't topple (and it did at least one year), we go to the shed and drag the huge box that houses our brand spanking new artificial tree into the house, hoping it's cold enough outside to prevent any spiders from coming in with it. (that was on long sentence baby...maybe a new record!) Once it is up and decorated, I am not so disappointed, but seeing our Christmas tree come out of a box, all in color coded pieces is just not right. So I try to hide while the man of the house and the girls put it up. And it is a pretty one...people always come closer and feel it before asking if it is fake...but it's still not right in my eyes. There is no Christmas smell or the job of watering the base or exploring between the branches for critters or pine cones....no bare spaces to cover or balancing act to entertain us, no comparing how this tree is better than last year's tree.....since it looks exactly the same each year now. Then we look at the fire crackling in the woodstove and settle....it's worth it I guess. *pout*
Today I will be taking down all my Fall decorations amid the already strewn around Christmas fluff all over the place. I will pack away all my tiny colored corns and fake leaves, my pumpkin candy dish (which we actually just found yesterday tucked into a Christmas box! I can't tell you how I searched high and low for that thing in October.), my scarecrow, my corncob basket and cornucopia. I'll more carefully pack away my cornhusk pilgrim and Indians, since the pilgrims were kind of squished and falling over when I got them out this year....had to prop them against a pumpkin. And I'll throw out my tiny gourds and pumpkins, which did NOT mold this year...yay. I will pull down my Fall door hanging and put up a wreath, scrape out the candy corn bits from the candy dish (not the pumpkin one, a Christmas one...since I couldn't find it) and put out Christmas hard candy.
I hope you enjoy the Christmas season this year. No matter what hardships we've been through or where the months have taken us, seeing the twinkle lights, wreaths, and beautiful city streets decorated will inspire you to turn your thoughts to Jesus....to the wonderful, unspeakable joy of the Incarnation. God came to earth, to dwell with us.....celebrate!
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, Hail, the incarnate deity Pleased as Man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel.
Updating and moving on Topic: Holidays/Vacations We are back from vacation. I kept a journal of some sort during our time and you'll find the posts predated, going back to July 9.
None of the pictures are mine, but I hope to add in some of our photos when I've had time to edit them. =)
Glad to be home for a couple of days before going down to Phoenix to help my dad while my mom recuperates from her hip replacement surgery, which was Wednesday. I will update when I can from there.
***I have been finding tons of typos and whole parts of sentences missing as I slowly go back over these posts and edit. I was typing them up at lightning speed on my daughter's laptop. If you've ever typed anything on a laptop, you know that if you run your hand over the track pad while typing, it can highlight sections without your knowledge *if you're looking at your spiral notebook while typing* and then it deletes when you start more typing! It's infuriating and I am used to looking at my words as I type them, so I didn't check the text as often as I should have.....arg!
Hark, the Herald Angels Sing
Oooo, don't we look all 80's? heehee I found this old pic of me and 2 of the sisters on my computer. That is Becky, me and Julie on vacation in 1986. 
Take a look at 
I got this article as an email forward and did a search to find out where it had come from. It is a column written by Debbie Daniel on a GOPUSA sight. But it is not a GOP party article, it is an article for all Christians on 
For the sake of time and my family, I will just be posting some fun or devotional types of things I have collected on Christmas or on contentment as I find them. With all the obligations and extra activities of the season, I want to share encouraging things, yet have the time to put more into our family life here. 
My inbox: My email box has been FULL almost every day the past couple of weeks…not from lots of people….but from 4 people who are driving me crazy! My 3 sisters and my grown up neice! We write these group emails when we’re planning something (currently our family Christmas weekend the 16-17th) and everyone has to ‘reply all’ to all of them. By the time the day is over, I could have up to 15-20 emails….each one growing longer because no one erases all the other replies! It’s crazy….but then it wouldn’t be us if it wasn’t crazy….at least it wouldn’t be them if it wasn’t crazy! LOL 
Taxi service: Mom's taxi service is roaring with business lately! I'm glad the girls have so many fun and wholesome activities, but I can't wait til my 15 year old gets her license and can run some errands for me! (January 25 she turns 16!) The big attraction lately? Our town has just finished an outdoor ice skating rink downtown! I hope to have pics of this soon too. 
Projects: Working on a project for my parents for Christmas….I can tell you because they do not know how to look at a computer screen! My sister has been telling my Mom about my blog for a while now and she was all sad because she ‘can’t’ read it…I will clarify so you don’t think I have an illiterate mother. She thinks it’s too hard to learn to use the internet. Silly people. So I am making a notebook with all my blog posts from this last year. Converting it to Word and adding and resizing all the pictures took hours. It is 178 pages long on Word! It is also taking hours upon hours to print because our main computer, which is connected to the printerrrrrrrrr, keeps crashing….right now, it’s about every 25 pages. It ain’t fun people. I may have a permanent twitch developing.
I was gone to Israel and the time we have goofed off doing Christmas things. 
Thanksgiving is over and it caught me a little off guard. My plan was to put up the Christmas tree today, but the man of the house was ready to do it yesterday. It's a good thing when a husband wants to get decorating done and I'm not about to argue! 
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
We are back from vacation. I kept a journal of some sort during our time and you'll find the posts predated, going back to July 9.
