The Real Reason For Christmas

Where's the Line to See Jesus?

I LOVE THIS!!!

My Happy Birthday . . .

I'm too tired to write about my birthday tonight but I just want to say what a sweet family I have. I'll give details about it all later but I will share the gift I just got tonight . . . all the way from Linden, Guyana, South America!

For My Sister . . .

"You know why!" Love you!!

Simply the Sabbath . . .

"It is good advice to slow down a little, steady the course and focus on the essentials when experiencing adverse conditions . . . resist the temptation to get caught up in the rush of everyday life . . . there's more to life than increasing its speed." ~ President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

I LOVED this talk. Definitely something to work on!!!

Time For A Craft

The Before: (Sorry for the poor quality picture - Leslie is definitely the photographer in our family!!)

Since I've been under the weather and don't have a lot of energy, but pain keeps me moving around, I did a little craft today.

I bought this picture on clearance at Tai Pan for $3.00. I didn't love the print but the frame was awesome, however there was no glass in the frame. I didn't really have a plan for it but knew that sizewise it was a good fit for a spot in my kitchen.

I have always loved a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson which says, "Let us be silent that we may hear the whispers of the gods" so I took a tiny detour to make the quote fit what I wanted and then because lately I've been a little obsessed about fleur de lis, I added one that I liked to the bottom of the quote. I printed it out on my computer using a brownish/sepia color ink on textured, heavy, white paper. I lightly stained the main mat, painted the silver part of the mat a brown, and then glued down the quote (after slightly inking the edges, of course). The frame was spray painted a satin black and I used gold rub & buff (my knew favorite thing!) on the "beads" around the edges.

TA DA!! The After ~ Love It!

Poor, Poor Me . . .

Yes indeed, I am having a Pity Party, all by myself. Don't get me wrong - I have plenty of sympathy from loved ones but I truly have more pity for me than anyone! ha

So, the last few months have been pretty trying. By June I knew that I needed to go to the doctor. So, having only gone to an Internist for years I had to find a new ob-gyn ( and NOT for the ob part-THANKFULLY). I went to Dr. Craig and she is wonderful, I really, really liked her. She had me scheduled for a complete hysterectomy just a few weeks later (I will save you from hearing all of the "details").

I went in for surgery on Monday, July 12 and came home from the hospital on Wednesday afternoon, July 14. By later in the evening I started not feeling well at all. I was up all night with terrible abdominal pain, severe nausea and intense shaking. By Thursday afternoon I was SICK!!! Gary called the doctor who had me come into the office. Now you know that I'm way sick if I went in with no makeup, my glasses on, in sweats in the middle of July! I didn't even care that I looked like the Bride of Frankenstein. I could hardly walk and when Dr. Craig came into the room and touched my hand (which was like an ice cube - IN THE MIDDLE OF JULY!) she pretty much just sent me back to the hospital. Lucky for me, it was just a walk (in a wheelchair for me) down the hall. I did get to go back home on Friday night and felt much better. Apparently I not only had a weird reaction to medication but I had some odd virus on top of the misery of the surgery. Then my tailbone started hurting and didn't let up for weeks.

I was told to take 6-8 weeks off of work but I went back in 3. I was just starting to feel pretty good - except for the exhaustion when I started having a headache and then back pain. Fast forward to this past week, Thursday, the 16th, and the pain got BAD FAST! Gary took me to the ER and we all thought it was kidney stones, but after blood work, urine tests and a CAT scan NOPE! I got pain pills and went home and suffered until Monday morning when I called my own doctor. They saw me right away and I have been diagnosed with . . . the SHINGLES!!! Three new prescriptions, rest, no stress, etc.

Boo Hoo, poor me. Okay, let me just say at least the new pills work better than the ones they gave me in the ER. Yayy!! Now I just need to get better fast and get back to work before they fire me!

disclaimer: These are not "my shingles" just an example



Better luck to me next week :o)

You Know You Need Psychological Help When . . .

Today we went to see a movie, Toy Story 3. It was awesome!! Before the main show began there was a little clip about "Night" and "Day". Night and Day were kind of like people and without telling about the whole thing or giving the end away let's just say that they had their problems with each other. Sometimes they didn't like each other but there was one part in the clip where they smiled and hugged each other. There was a little girl in front of us who at that very time, cried out, "Look, they're happy now!!" Kids really tell it like it is. Let me digress into this for a moment: My brother and his wife have their home on the market right now. They have a darling little boy, East. The other day they had some people who came for a showing on the house. East followed them around and watched them. When they opened the door to the furnace room he put his head inside the door and looked around. Then he said, "No mouse." They walked around the rest of the house and when they looked inside the cellar he looked around the corner to see and said, "No mice." Needless to say, East isn't invited to any more home showings! Lucky Grandma and Pop pop! This is a picture of Mr. Cute:

Isn't he a cutie?! Anyway back to the reason for my involuntary plea for mental help. There is a scene where Andy and his mom hug before leaving for college and I just start bawling!! I'm trying reeeaaally hard to not make any sound but it's bad. I just thought, "Geez, it's a cartoon, for heaven's sake get a grip!!" Lucky for me I was sitting between Gary and Leslie and they were kind enough to not comment unkindly about my little lapse in emotion. Thanks, guys! : D

I Don't Get It . . . Where Does the Time Go?!

When I was a kid it seemed like the days went on forever! Especially in High School - sometimes I thought the day would never end! Older - I mean more mature - people told me that the older you got the faster time went. I never believed them. I thought that I had updated my blog not too long ago. But I found out that my cute niece, Kailee, was looking at the blog last night and was horrified to see that she had missed Alex's birthday on Friday. She told her mom, Toni, that they'd missed his birthday and Toni said, "Uh, uh". So Kailee called and asked Alex if his birthday was last Friday. He told her no and she was confused. She went back to my blog to look at the birthday post and realized that it was back in April!

Hahaha, sorry Kailee! I'll try to keep up a little better : D

INTERESTED IN PUFFINS?

Almost every day we have something hilarious happen at school. The other day, I was walking down the Kindergarten/3rd Grade hallway when "something" caught my eye. The 3rd graders had teamed up with each other and each team did a report/poster of a bird or an animal. The posters were put up on the big bulletin board outside their classroom. They were all pretty good, but the poster about puffins (especially THIS part) made me laugh!!!!

The headline of the poster was: "INTERESTED IN PUFFINS?"

My Baby isn't a Baby Anymore

Alex turned 17 on Friday. It seems like the time sure flew by since he was born. He is like the perfect child. He's not grouchy very often, he usually helps me when I ask, he takes the garbage out to the road (sometimes without even being asked!), and he's always pleasant to be with.

He's pretty funny too! Not to mention cute, kind, nice, and still hugs me : ) Anyway, Happy Birthday, Buddy!! (He didn't want a party or a big deal made of his birthday so I'll just post it on my blog, hahaha).

Lance and his Comps!

In some ways Lance hasn't changed a bit!! hahaha

I miss him!!!!!!

Mouse? Snake? Oh No!! It's . . .

We were sitting in the restaurant at Little America eating the most delicious breakfast, when Les got the most horrified look on her face! We all turned to see . . .


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





Yup! The Easter Bunny, hahaha. Les hates people in costumes to get by her. They totally freak her out!

Help!! I've Been Hatnapped!!!

Andy left his hat at work one night. When he went back to get it, it was gone. Then on his facebook one night he found out that his hat had been hatnapped! The hatnapper would post pictures of “Hat” and make comments like:
“Hi my name is Hat, I'm Andy's hat. I am being held captive by 3 very strong men. The leader is Dreadnok Ripper, 2nd mate is Tom, and the 3rd is CrazyEyes McNewmann. My whereabouts are unknown.”

No ransom was asked for. The only thing Andy could do is post a comment:

I will find you, and when I do, I am going to kill whoever hatnapped you!!! I'm so sorry for leaving you at work. It won't happen again, I promise. Just come home...Please

Andy and his hat have since been reunited! Yay!!!!

Happy Birthday, Ernie!!

I can't believee that you are already 12 years old!  On one hand it seems like yesterday when you came to live with us as a baby.  On the other hand, it seems like you've been into mischief FOREVER!! hahaha  Anyway, I hope you enjoyed your birthday cake and ice cream.  It sure seemed like you did, and it was nice that Ajax could come to your party!  : D

Words To Live By ~

My New Job

With the economy the way that it is, we are having a hard time making it. But thanks to a local business I now have a second job to help with buying bread, milk and such. The picture below is of me in my new
uniform.

JUST KIDDING!!!  hahaha!  Lance wrote home to ask if we would send him an external hard drive to save his pictures on.  Gary wrote back and asked him if it was a necessity and said he didn't know if we could swing it because we just got through sending Alex to a lacrosse tournament in Las Vegas.  So I decided that it would be funny if I played a joke on him and sent him this email:

"Dad forwarded me his letter that he wrote to you. Don't worry about the cost of the hard drive. I just found out that the tax place that's over by Chili's has an opening from 4:30 to 7:30 everyday. I would be the Statue of Liberty holding up their sign."  Then I wrote some other stuff and ended with this: "I'm just kidding about getting a new job at the tax place. I just thought that you would think that was funny thinking of me dressed like that. hahaha."

Then he sent me this email:

"Good Night!   haha I thought for a second, "GEEZ, my mom is going to be the Statue of Liberty - dancing! hahaha  Thank goodness that's a lie.  Kids aren't nice to them, flipping her off and saying bad things to them.  I wouldn't know from first hand experience or anything that's just what I've been told....:)"

Ya, I'm glad it was a lie too!!  : D

Transferred!!

Lance is being transferred to St. Lucia!  He will be in Vieux Fort which is on the southern tip of the island.  He's been in Guyana for almost a year now and is so excited to be moving (not mention having an American companion again).  It looks like a beautiful place to be!!!

St Lucia lies at latitude 13 54’ north of the Equator and 60 50’ west. One of the Windward Islands, it is located in the middle of the Eastern Caribbean chain of islands and is approximately 21 miles south of Martinique and 90 miles northwest of Barbados. Castries (population 50,000) is the island’s capital and is

situated North-west of the island.

The island is 238 sq. miles, 27 miles long, 14 miles wide with a combination of high mountains, forests, low lying lands and beaches. A central mountain range runs the length of the island, with peaks ranging between 1000 and 3145 feet. Forests dominate the mountains, while jasmine, scarlet chenille and wild orchids provide splashes of color to the lush green slopes. The two towering volcanic cones on the southwest coast, Gros Piton (797m) and Petit Piton (750m) are one of the Caribbean’s most famous landmarks. The volcanic origin of the island provides visitors with an opportunity to visit a “drive-in volcano” and take a dip in the reputedly therapeutic Sulphur springs.

The climate on island is tropical with temperatures ranging from 70 – 90 Fahrenheit. The rainy season is from June to November and the drier period between December and May. Average rainfall is between 160-360cm depending on altitude.

Our Gifts For 2009

Simple and easy was the name of the game this year : )