1:00 Again

...and I'm still awake. I'm not worried about it though. I went to bed at 11:00 last night and was every bit as tired when I woke up as I have been on the really late nights! I just finished up the September and October pages of the calendars while watching some Assembly DVD's. I watched the Fields of the Wood service and was so blessed by Brother Dewayne's (or is it spelled Dwayne?!) historical reading, complete with our own personal airshow. It really brings the history that we're so familiar with to LIFE and makes you realize that it really happened, which of course just settles it all the more in your heart that this really is the Church--God's Church! Then I watched the Thursday evening session with Brother Bennett's message on holiness and Brother Byers' CPMA message on the fellowship of the mystery and loving one another. What a blessing! I have a confession to make... I don't get a whole lot out of most sermons in church. ~gasp!~ I know--it's terrible! I'm ashamed of it and I really try to pay attention and put my whole heart into it, but I have such a hard time corralling my mind for an entire message. It helps if I take notes, but I have found that I get the very most out of sermons or classes when I'm listening to them later on, while I'm scrubbing the floor or cross-stitching--or making calendars! Doing something with my hands somehow frees my mind up to really grasp what's being said and I feel like so much more of it sinks in. Brother Bennett's message was so good! I missed so much of it during the Assembly. And, of course, Brother Byers had some real inspiration from God for the Church at this time. Good stuff. You oughta' watch it! :-)

I intended to get back into normal life a little bit today: school, laundry, ironing... that kind of thing. It simply wasn't to be. We loaded up the fam and headed to town to make some necessary exchanges of Christmas gifts that just weren't going to work or fit. It turned out quite successful. It would take way too long to explain how, but by the time we had finished at Christopher & Banks, the average cost of each item purchased there for Christmas was about $8. Wa-Hoo! I love paying Wal-Mart prices for better quality clothes that are so much cuter! :-) Returned things to Sears and Penny's and didn't have the oomph to shop, so we just had it put on gift cards we can use later. That's better anyway. We ought to wait until the kids really NEED pajamas again before we replace the ones we had to return.

We went out to Edgewood so the kids could search for that perfect something to spend their $25 gift cards on. Katie's card is for Barnes and Noble, so she'll have to wait for another day. Sam has a bad habit of picking up the first thing he sees and saying, "This is it!" I made him look for quite a while before he finally settled on a plastic sword, pocket knife and pocket knife-that-shoots-the-blade-out-when-you-mash-a-button set. And a "real" compass. Joe always wants to go look at the "real" stuff instead of toys and Sam nabbed a compass in the camping aisle. He said he bought it so he can help kids who are lost find their Mom and Dad. Ha! What a sweet thought... however, misinformed! It was great watching him hold the thing and walk around in circles tonight in an effort to "follow" it. As for Joe... well, he didn't get anything at Wal-Mart. The kid looked for 30 minutes or more and considered several things, but in the end just couldn't bring himself to part with the dough. I can't imagine where he gets that from. ;-) He was very upset that he left the store with nothing at all, but he just couldn't come to a decision. I told him to come home and make a list over the next few days of all the things that he might like to have or could really use. He got a piece of paper and wrote "LIST" at the top... then couldn't think of a single thing to write down! Ha! I told him that meant he didn't need a thing in this world and he ought to hang on to that card until he thinks of something he does need. We'll see!

We drug out the holiday left-overs tonight and James insisted that we eat it ALL so that we wouldn't have to see any of it again! It's good to know I'm not the only one tired of everything. And yes, Tammy, you had a point. Strange how when I'm painting and wallpapering and refinishing furniture that all I really want in the world is to cook and clean... then I have a month of nothing but that and I'm so tired of it I'm ready to scream! Ha! Maybe what I need is a happy medium. ??? Or maybe I'm just hard to please!

We had a good devotion tonight, then Sam fell asleep while Katie and Joe peppered me with questions galore about God and the Bible. I just love that! Joe sooooo wants to be saved and is just convinced that he's not. He prays and asks God to forgive him and to save him, but he doesn't feel any different--and he knows he's just going to be bad again and "backslide" and he wonders if God is really real and all manner of dilemmas that seem way ahead of schedule for a kid so young! James and I really need wisdom to know how to answer his questions and most of all we really need for God to calm his fears, settle his doubts and really and truly save his soul--and if he's already saved, to assure Joe of it. Katie and Sam, too--I've prayed more for my kids' salvation in recent months than ever before. I want the Lord to begin stirring in their hearts and drawing them and for them to truly respond to him and get saved. Kate says she is saved. It's hard to tell with her--I figure God's the only one who really knows! Sam's NOT saved. Ha! I know they're young, but they're not too young for God to work in their hearts and give them real, true salvation.

Due to our extended talk after devotions I was late getting to the calendars, but I prayed (!) that God would help me to still get two months worth (four pages) done tonight and wa-hoo, He did! I had the first two pages whipped together in an hour. That's a first! Of course, they're no better than any of their predecessors, but I've all but given up on creating anything grand in this project anyway. I'm pretty much settling for framing pictures with cardstock and slapping 'em on some printed papers! Ha!

I have developed a pretty good sore throat over the past few hours and I decided to stay up and blog and sip some hot peach tea with honey before bed. I would have preferred hot lemonade with honey like Grandma Babe always made, but I didn't happen to have any of that on hand. Oh well! I'm going to finish my tea and hit the hay. But first, a picture...


Who needs a shirt when you can wear your pants like that?! HA! Love it! WHAT A DORK!!!

35 Glorious Years!

December 28, 1973 - December 28, 2008
So far! ;-)

To the very best Mom and Dad anybody ever had...

WE LOVE YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH AND ARE SO THANKFUL FOR THE WONDERFUL YEARS GOD HAS BLESSED YOU WITH TOGETHER!
















Okay, everybody... here's where you all wish them a Happy Anniversary and tell which pictures you enjoyed the very best and all that jazz. Ready, go! ;-)

My Goal

...is to be in bed by midnight tonight. That will be much earlier than the past several nights and I'm really needing to pull it off if I can!

SO! Christmas! We had such a nice one. I had little twinges of loneliness, if you can call it that, throughout the day, but only minor ones. (I hate not getting with other family for Christmas!) I would quickly remind myself of how much fellowship I've had with friends and especially my very own family this month and I would instantly feel how BLESSED I am. :-)

The morning started at 6:38, I believe. We had told the kids they couldn't get up before 6:30 and Joe nailed it pretty close. I had slept on the couch, as is my Christmas Eve tradition (I LOVE to sleep on the couch with all the Christmas lights on everywhere--been doing it since I was a teenager), and Joe came bounding out of the room declaring what time it was and saying it was time to GET UP. We made him wait a few minutes so I could wash my face and James could build a fire, then he went to wake up Katie and Sam.

He wasn't entirely successful! Ha! They were soooooo tired (especially Katie after staying up until midnight to watch a movie with us!) and kept asking for just a few more minutes of sleep. Knowing it was Christmas morning they drug themselves from their beds and into the living room, but it was still a few minutes before they were actually "with us," if you know what I mean.



Even Hershey was too tired for Christmas! He's usually a definite morning dog--sooooo happy and excited first thing in the morning. But he was NOT ready to get up yet. James had gotten him some dog treats for Christmas (long story--has to do with tenderhearted Joe) and he was too lazy to even SIT UP to eat them! Can you imagine?! I've never seen a dog laying down and eating! Ha!

I must say... this was a really, really great Christmas. Usually when Christmas is over with I get almost a cruddy feeling inside over all of the STUFF, the MONEY that's been spent (usually by certain relatives) and the TOYS coming out our ears. It's sooooo not what Christmas is about and I always feel terrible about all of the excess and materialism of it all. But this year was so much better! Each kid got two, maybe three toys, and then several other "useful" things that will last much longer and be much more practical. It was still more than anybody needed, but it's hard to stop that when you get Grandparents involved! Ha! Anyway, here we go!

Passing out the presents. I love the view of the sky out the window. This family seldom sees a sunrise, so I really enjoyed it! :-)

After tearing into the stockings...

We had gotten each boy their own tool box, stuffed with "real" tools. They were both sooooo excited!

Sam was actually dancing with excitement over this shoot 'em toy.

And he was gracious enough to act pleased with the clothes he received, too.

Katie got a cooking set from my Mom, complete with measuring spoons and cups--which were promptly put to use later that day!

And here she is getting her first view of her new desk. She LOVES it, as we knew she would. In fact, she spent most of the day in front of it yesterday, working with the sewing kit she had also received. I have a picture of her there... but her hair is a wreck and the room is messy and there's an unmade bed behind her. So I'll have to take another picture when she and her room are looking a little better!

Here's James with the book from Mom & Dad and the hatchet Joe & Sam had helped me buy "from them." Kate helped buy some heavy gloves for working with the wood and I had also gotten him a little firewood rack to keep by the stove. A nice and useful combination! :-)

Joe's been dying to have a pocket knife and he finally got one, in his stocking. He also got his first cut, of course. :-)

And here he is playing with his remote controlled spider. Not just any spider, mind you, but a giant Mexican Red-Kneed Tarantula--one of Joe's personal favorites. (He's been driving us CRAZY with that dumb thing!)

And Sam busting bottles with his new toy. Just so you know, those aren't liquor bottles; one says "tonic" and the other is some sort of milk. ;-)

Here's James reading up on how to finish that garage of ours...

Ha! I loved this! As soon as we'd gotten all of the presents out from under the tree and things had settled down a bit Hershey went and curled up on the tree skirt for his next nap. Come on, everybody--"Aaawwwwww! That's so cute..." ;-)

The boys had received real binoculars and canteens and had to go outside to try them out.

Don't have any pictures of me, but I can tell you--I hit the Christopher & Banks jackpot! Ha! GREAT clothes and even two gift cards. :-) I also got a really, really nice set of pots and pans from James' folks. My folks had gotten me my traditional Christmas puzzle and Catch Phrase, since mine had died at our Ladies' Retreat in October. That was cool, but it was REALLY cool when I found the note inside the wrapper. Mom had bought the game and taken it to Virginia Ladies' Retreat a few months ago and everybody there played with it, then wrote great notes thanking me for sharing my Christmas present with them and telling me how great it was! Ha! Is that cool, or what?! It made it so much more fun than just receiving the game. I love it that it's already broken in and everybody had a blast knowing they were playing with my gift--two months ahead of time! Ha!

Christmas dinner. ~sigh~ I was so not up for it! Ha! It feels like I have been cooking and cleaning my life away this month and I just dreaded doing another giant meal. But it's TRADITION and I'm not very good at breaking with those. Although after seeing that Emilee did it and went Italian for their dinner I was thinking maybe I should have come up with another plan, too! It's just SO MUCH WORK when there are no other women around and I was tired of the same things we've been eating for a month or more. The clean up is the part I dread the most. Takes forever! Anyway, I did it and everything turned out really good. James took this picture of me finishing whipping up the best ham gravy I've ever made. (It turned out GREAT, Mom--you would have been so proud! Ha!)

And here is Miss Rue, working on her Berry Best Pie. She'd found the recipe in Daughterhood By Design (a magazine for girls, teaching them how to be good girls and mostly to have good relationships with their fathers) and had been dying to try it out. The cooking set from my Mom came just in time--she loves the chef hat and apron!

We had a nice, relaxing afternoon and I was able to put together the new puzzle Mom had sent. It's a lot less pieces than we're used to doing, but it was still fun. And I LOVE the picture!!! The longer I worked on it and studied it, the more I liked it. It's just so different from the usual nativity scene. I love that Jospeh is holding the baby and letting Mary sleep. What a guy! :-) Mary needed some rest, you know?! It makes it seem more "real" to me somehow. And the two of them look so different than they're usually portrayed. So... non-Catholic! They just look like real people and the scene is just beautiful. Thanks, Mom!!! :-)

I stayed up last night and watched The Star of Christmas (I love that one and hadn't seen it yet this year) while I worked on calendar pages. I finished up May & June for both calendars. Wa-Hoo! Half way there! I was up, wa-a-a-a-a-ay too late though. I've got to get these done so I can get back to normal life.

At least I've got a truly wonderful husband though! Because of my late night he got up and took care of breakfast and what not with the kids and let me sleep. I think I heard breakfast consisted of sugar cookies and milk, but hey, I was able to sleep! Ha! And it's Christmastime, you know?!

We've played lots of games yesterday and today and have just really made the best of a HOLIDAY. It's been great.

Oh! And today we built Sam's pirate ship. It's what we had gotten him for just a few dollars at Hobby Lobby earlier this week. I oversaw the project and it was great fun. Sam let Joe help him hammer the pieces together. (I only sacrificed one finger to the project and it's feeling much better already! Ha!) Then he let Kate and Joe help him paint it.

It turned out sooooo cool! I love it! I did minimal painting myself, but I did tape off some lines for Sam to follow and it really turned out much better than I ever would have expected. Look!

Is that cool, or what?! He LOVES it and has bee playing with it non-stop since we finished it. He doesn't have any little pirates though, so he uses his cowboys and indians. It's hilarious.

"You indians are in jail and if I hear you talking you're going to stay in jail for 26 more minutes."

*Whispering* "Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk."

"Okay, you're talking--26 more minutes!"

"WHAT?!"

Ha! What a goof!

The boys went outside to play for a while today, so I sat down with Katie and watched White Christmas. She's been dying to do that with me since we can't watch it as a family. Joe won't have anything to do with it. It has girly romance stuff in it and he becomes nearly irate if you suggest he should watch it. ;-) Anyway, I worked on the calendars while we watched and was able to finish up on the July pages. We had breakfast for dinner (bacon, eggs, bisquits), so that was nice for a change. We haven't had that in a while since the Mom around here hasn't been up early enough to make breakfast lately! Ha! Tonight after I put the kids to bed I was able to get the August calendar page done, too. Wa-Hoo! I keep waiting for that page that I'm going to look at and say, "Wow, that is SO CUTE!" Haven't got there yet! Only four more months to go. I may not have any adorable pages this time! Oh well. At least they've all got pictures of the kids on them. That's what matters. I watched the Thursday night session of the Assembly while I worked tonight. It was so great! It was the Mission Program and I was blessed all over again. I actually finished working and got all my mess cleaned up before it was over with, so I sat down with a snack and finished the rest of the session. Is it wrong to get blessed while you're eating pumpkin pie and sipping spiced cider???

Hhmmm. I didn't make it to bed by midnight. Oh well. I'm pretty close, so I'll settle! Later!

Christmas Eve & Glorieta

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYBODY!!!

I trust you're all having a WONDERFUL Christmas and basking in the rich blessings of the Lord. We are! :-)

It's been a great Christmas Eve around here. We got up and started the dough for the hot rolls and cinnamon rolls right away so it could rise, then had devotions, mixed up the dough for the gingerbread men and got it chilling and got the house straightened up a little bit. Sister Galaviz came over sometime just after lunch and stayed most of the day with us. It was GREAT!!! How fun to have company on Christmas Eve! The kids helped me make the cinnamon and hot rolls, then we all took part in the gingerbread men decorating! Here are some pictures of everybody with their handywork...




(I somehow didn't get a picture of Sam holding his gingerbread man, but here he is looking real cute while he's working!) ;-)





Naturally, James had to show the rest of us up. He is so good at stuff like this!

Sister Galaviz played lots of games with the kids throughout the day and they LOVED that. She even sat and watched The Grinch with them. It's just so nice and comfortable with her here. She just rolls with the punches and takes part in whatever happens to be going on at the moment. It's so great!

We had corn chowder for dinner and it was quite good, if I do say so. :-) Afterward we... ~sigh~ I still can't believe we do this... We let the kids open two presents. As for my side of the family, "We 'uz brought up diff'ernt!" My Dad taught me it was a SIN to open gifts before Christmas morning (although anytime after 4:00am is good!) and I never planned on straying from the narrow Christmas way, but for the past two or three years we've done it this way with the kids. We let them each do jobs here and there throughout December and earn a few bucks to take to the dollar store and buy something for their two siblings. Those are the gifts they get to open on Christmas Eve. I try to justify it by saying that they're not "real" gifts, but I still have to fight off a little twinge of guilt over breaking the rules! Ha! Anyway, here are their non-gifts... ;-)

Joe got Katie a bubble kit and Sam got her a stationary set.

A snake from Katie and police garb from Sambo.

A lantern from Joe and yet MORE pirate stuff from Katie.


After the gifts, we put another Christmas show on for the kids and the three of us adults played I Buy. It was so fun teaching Sister Galaviz how to play! Ha! She was pretty confused most of the time, but she did GREAT and was usually the first one to lay down each round. Can you believe it?! I ended up with somebody to play a GAME with me on Christmas Eve!!! Life is so grand!!!

Sister Galaviz left sometime after 7:00, I think, and we had all the kids take their showers, then had a good Christmas Eve devotion. The kids are in bed now and Sam's already asleep!!! Can you imagine?! When I was a kid I remember laying awake in bed all night long, anxiously awaiting 4:00 when we were allowed to get up... and finally drifting off to sleep sometime after 3:00! Ha! ~gasp!~ I just went to check and Joe's a goner, too! Freaks! Not Katie, though. She was sitting straight up in her bed in her Christmas nightgown and Santa hat with great big, wide eyes. That's what a kid is supposed to look like at 9:30 on Christmas Eve. ;-) James just got into the PJ's and I think he's wanting to watch a Christmas movie. I'll see if Kate can come join us. Then I'll be back to post about Glorieta, making this a WAY TOO LONG post. But I'm good at those. Ha! I'll try to make it mostly pictures, since I've got a truckload of them. Be back soon!

Okay! It's now about midnight-thirty and I'm wide awake. James opted to watch It's a Wonderful Life... in color! Whoa!!! I really didn't think I'd like it that way (just seems like a movie that was meant for black and white, you know?!), but they did a really great job with it and I thought it was pretty cool. Of course, we just watched it a few days ago and I wouldn't have been able to just sit through the whole thing again, so I dug out my diary and wrote for a while. For the first time in exactly TWO YEARS! That's so pitiful! It kept me occupied, anyway. I read through some of the earlier entries. WOW. It's amazing how much life has changed in the past few years! Some things I DEFINTELY would not have chosen, and yet God is sooooo good. Anyway...

James let Kate come watch the movie with us, which made for a very happy little girl. She was tired enough when it was over that she dropped right off to sleep. James and I went into the room and readied the stockings and Katie's BIG gift. We've been looking for a little desk for her bedroom and James finally found just the right one online, so we decided to buy it and call it her Christmas present. :-) She's going to LOVE it. And I always love doing the stockings. It's strange... I remember being a kid and feeling so sorry for Mom and Dad. We kids got so many more presents and Mom and Dad got so much less--and they always did stockings for us, but they didn't have any... It seems like I remember talking to Mom about it once and her telling me that it was just as fun being the Mom as it is being the kid. I remember it because I remember thinking she was nuts! But now... well, she was sooooo right! It is sooooo fun getting everything ready so your kids can wake up all excited and have a blast on Christmas!

Okay, so Glorieta... I'm sure I've lost most of my crowd by now (always happens in long posts), so I'll give a brief summary and throw a whole slew of pictures on here. :-)

Mom & Dad's 35th Anniversary is in four days, so in celebration of that they opted for us all to get together and spend a few days at a lodge up in the mountains. Wa-Hoo! What a great idea!!! We took lots of food and lots of games and stayed Wednesday through Saturday at the perfect little lodge up in Glorieta, New Mexico. It was PERFECT! We had sooooo much fun! We ate and played and explored and watched the kids run wild all over tarnation... it was GREAT. :-) So, here are some pictures!!! (At long last--sorry 'bout the delay, Mom!)

Um... before we start, a little disclaimer. These pictures are in no particular order, just however I happened to find them on my computer. Generally that would drive me batty, but after 1:00am on Christmas morning I'm just not going to take the time to try to organize them! They came from four different cameras and I'm just not up to the task. ;-)

I think this first shot came from Dad's camera. He has a certain knack for getting the weird to come out in the kids...

Okay, there are several of these pictures, so let me explain... We headed down to the lake one day with some bread to feed the ducks. That was fun, but only until the boys noticed all of the little minnows swimming around the dock! We made plans to come back later in the day so they could catch some. They spent the afternoon fashioning fishing poles from tree branches and such, but in the end the tool of choice seemed to be plastic cups. Caleb out fished the whole crowd. Here he is showing off his first catch of the day...

Joe was the last to catch a fish, but the most determined!!! His hands were red and throbbing from the cold water, but he just wouldn't give it up! He finally managed to catch this little guy. Scooped him up in a frisbee, I believe.

This was taken AFTER all of the dopey kids about froze their little fingers off trying to catch fish in the icy lake!

Ha! One night Katie was bragging about how long she could hold her breath. For the sake of squashing her pride (for her own good, of course) we had to prove her wrong. ;-) We just happened to have a stop watch on hand, so the kids ended up in a competition to see who could hold their breath the longest. The only way Jon could be sure they weren't cheating was to hold their mouths and noses closed until they slapped the table to signal they were done. Or passed out. Dad insisted that his children were going to "pass out" if any of his grandchildren did! Ha! It was fun and the kids had a blast. Katie did pretty well, but Nathan took the prize. All of the other kids were sure it's only because he has the biggest lungs. :-)

Luke, the mighty puzzler! (He really is good!)


Just loved this picture. :-)
Dad and Jon doing what they think is fun. When they could be playing REAL games with the rest of us! Weird-o's. ;-) They were quite frustrated that they hadn't thought to take a chess set with them, but it wasn't long before the computer geek had come up with a solution...

We wandered around the campground one day and found a playground... that was fun for one and all, apparently. :-)

Here's some of the crowd, "fishing." Can you belive we had 8 children down there leaning over the dock and nobody fell in?! Nothing short of miraculous, I tell you!

The make-shift fishing pole didn't work out too good. It would have, but the bait (corn) was too big for the little guys to be able to swallow. Oh well--it was cute anyway!

Granddad and Nathan patiently assisting Joe in his tireless efforts to catch a fish before going back to the cabin.

All 8 of the kids on the last night while we were singing songs and watching Granddad... well, watching him be Granddad!

The Mother Load! That's what the kids call Granddaddy's candy stash. He whips it out once or twice a day and there is an immediate swarm of grandchildren.

"Zekiel Boy" and Abby with Granddad

Kid games

Everybody piled in the back bedroom to watch some videos that were being projected great big on the wall. Everybody seemed to be enjoying this one...

But, of course! ;-)

Katie and Caleb spend a decent amount of time preparing and presenting lessons to a "class," even if the class was just each other!

Puzzle time again! --And see the great kitchen and all the table and counter space we had? It was PERFECT!


I just loved this picture of all the kids "fishing" from the dock... even if one might mistake what's going on, thinking that perhaps they all got sick at once. Ha!
We got SNOW the last night we were there (how much better could it be?!), so the kids roped Granddad into a snowball fight the next day.

We had a hard time getting the kids to smile for the camera the last day... until Granddad got involved in the effort. That's when we came up with this one. :-)

And that's it from Glorieta! Sorry they're all so jumbled. The only other picture I have is this one of Mom trying to play O Come, O Come Emmanuel at our house that night. It was... entertaining, shall we say?! ;-)

~whew!~ I did it! I'm going to go stuff James' stocking and go to bed.

Merry Christmas!!!