Friday, December 31, 2010

New Year's Eve

For lack of a better title. :-) It seems I've fallen behind again. A whole other week! ~sigh~

We had a nice Sunday, as I recall. We sang some Baptist songs (that's what we call those good old hymns that aren't found in the blue book--ha!) like To God be the Glory and Great is Thy Faithfulness. Some of those songs are soooooo good, but we so seldom sing them in the Church--so I really enjoyed them on Sunday. :-) Then James preached about not losing your spiritual vision, as did Eli.

After service we went to Pizza Hut to redeem our December Book It! coupons. We were almost out of time, you know! I had every intention of coming home and putting the house back together. (It was still trashed from the Christmas madness since I'd been sick most of the day!) By the time we were half way home I knew I was going to take a nap instead! Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. ;-) I had a nice nap, then enjoyed a good CPMA service about the Church being the dove spoken of in Song of Solomon. "My dove, my undefiled, is but one." Sister Galaviz talked about the many characteristics of a dove and how they apply--or should apply--to The Church of God. Very neat.

We got home from church that night and I finally found the motivation I'd been lacking. :-) I got all of the trash collected and thrown out, the clutter sorted through and put away, the kitchen cleaned, and then finally went to try on the new clothes I got for Christmas. Then I went through all of the Christmas cards we received and made a list of them for next year. After the kids were in bed James and I watched “Shop Around the Corner” (an OLD Jimmy Stewart movie) and ran out of steam before I was able to break out a puzzle. As if that would have been too taxing or something.

By Monday morning all of my motivation had snuck away somewhere. I ended up accomplishing very little. A little laundry, I think. I did sit down and help Joe built his robot that day. That was fun. :-) And I did break out my new, incredibly difficult Doug Knutson puzzle. I'm still not finished with it! Ha!

Tuesday contained nothing monumental. I did manage to get the guys off the roof to come in for lunch. Most days they show up at the break of dawn (or before--seriously!) and work until it's too dark to work anymore, without ever taking a break. I feel so much better when I'm able to get them into the house to sit down for a few minutes and eat a good meal. Though I think I just fed them left-overs that day. Whatever. Tuesday was also the day Katie decided to come down sick. We like to share like that around here. ;-)

Wednesday was a different sort of day. Anybody who knows us at all knows that James goes to town all the time. I never, ever, ever, ever go to town--unless it's with the whole family, of course. But alone? Never. But I did on Wednesday. :-) Katie still wasn't feeling well, so we couldn't take the whole family that day. There were a few things that I needed to do in town that James couldn't do for me, so he got to stay home with the kids. :-) I took Charlie in for his appointment (it was time for a haircut--the last one grew out way too fast, so I had them clip him much shorter this time!), dropped James' suit off at the cleaners, then headed to the mall to take care of my business there, returning and exchanging Christmas gifts that didn't fit or work. I went to Penney's then walked to Kohl's, then all the way back to Penney's, then ended up at Kohl's again. I'll spare you the gory details. :-) In the end I was able to accomplish everything that needed accomplished, though it was no easy chore.

Left the mall and headed to Wal-Mart (in Albuquerque--ME?! Who would've thunk it???) to pick up a few things. Went through the drive-through at Wendy's, went to pick up my pitiful, embarrassed puppy who had just received his very first real poodle cut (what a sad thing), then took him to get his last puppy shot. I hate that. I think he'd be better off with no shots at all, but you can't get a license if he doesn't have his shots and most groomers won't clip him if he doesn't have a license. I really ought to just learn to clip him myself. It would save us the money on paying to have it done AND we wouldn't have to give him all of those nasty shots. Anyway, at the clinic Charlie met a 9 week old Saint Bernard. Charlie was almost as big as his head. Ha! He was soooooo cute. :-)

Made it home just after 3:00, I think, and the snow had begun to fall. The roofers had to leave early because it was getting so cold and windy and snowy. Poor guys.

Yesterday Katie finally started feeling a little better, though she's still not 100%. At least she was able to eat something (hadn't done that in a couple of days) and she was able to keep it down--that was a definite improvement. She still slept most of the day away, however, and never went out to talk to Brother Chris. That's the truth teller right there. There is NO WAY that girl would miss a chance to talk to Brother Chris if she were well! The guys had to leave early yesterday, too, because it was snowing more and more and they couldn't keep the roof cleared off enough to continue shingling up there. They've worked through so much bad weather--no normal roofers would have even tried until the weather cleared up. James had gone to Edgewood to get some things from Wal-Mart (we were suddenly out of everything!) and he had a hard time getting home. The roads were horrible, there were several accidents already, and the Interstate was being shut down. He was able to make it here, but could only get the van partially up the drive-way. It kept snowing all throughout the afternoon, making it obvious that we'd be missing church again. Crazy!

When we figured out we wouldn't be going anywhere, I somehow decided that I should start taking down the Christmas decor. That was dumb. But I kept thinking it would be a good time to do it. The house is a total catastrophe for a day or two when I do that and I've been worried--what if Jason called and said somebody wanted to come see the house in the middle of the mess?! When the mini-blizzard hit I figured it would be the best possible time to jump in there and get it done. Not many people are going to put chains on their tires to go look at houses, you know. ;-) So I spent all afternoon and evening tearing down the Christmas stuff, sorting it, and packing it much better than I usually do. Packing it to MOVE this time, not just sit in a shed. Felt good to do something that somehow felt like one tiny, little step on the road to Alabama. :-)

Of course, I ran out of steam at about 10:00 last night. I had all of the Christmas stuff down and packing in boxes and bins... that were still all over the living room and dining room. Ah, yes. Amidst the chaos of de-Christmas-ing the house, Charlie was HORRIBLE yesterday. He's been doing sooooooo good with the house training (4 or 5 days with no accidents at all, then just a couple, then 4 or 5 more perfect days) and had SEVERAL accidents in the house yesterday. I was ready to KILL HIM!!! But I was all caught up in the big, messy project and didn't have the time or attention to give him--except to yell and beat him and throw him outside when it was too late! Ha! Anyway, today we've been treating him like we did the very first week--watching him every waking moment and taking him outside over and over and over again. And he's done much better. I hope to have him entirely back on track by tomorrow. We'll see.

Today James helped me haul the bins and bins and boxes and boxes of Christmas stuff out to the shed in the frigid weather. I think it was 6 degrees at the time. (Perhaps that, coupled with the incredibly messy house, had something to do with Charlie not wanting to do his thing outside?!) Then I spent the rest of the day moving furniture, sweeping, mopping, dusting, and redecorating. I hate that job, but it feels soooooo good when it's all over with. :-) I did take a few breaks to spend some time with Charlie, hoping perhaps that would help with his "issues" as well. James keeps reminding me that I wanted a lap dog. Charlie is the lappiest dog I've ever seen! He loves to play, but when he's ready to sit he seems to think the only sensible place to do that is in my lap! He spent a good deal of time playing with the kids today and had to settle for Katie's lap most of the time. That was no problem, really, since the kids spent ALL DAY today sitting next to the stereo. James had pulled down his old books and records (you know, "turn the page when you hear the bell") and they thought they were just the coolest thing. So they sat there for hour after hour listening to records and flipping through books--Lady and the Tramp, The Fox and the Hound, The Flintstones, Popeye, Davy Crockett, Sinbad the Sailor, and dozens more. I love it that my kids think those old things are so great! Ha!

I made some fantastical ham and beans for dinner tonight. The chicken and noodles from last night turned out great, too. I just love making things like that when it's cold and snowy outside! Makes ya' feel nice and cozy and toasty warm. :-)

We let the kids stay up late tonight since it's New Year's Eve. It's not quite 11:00 right now, but they've all crashed in the past hour. It's just as well. New Year's Eve has never been that big of a deal where I come from. I recall some really great ones when we would pray in the new year at church, or have a party with all the young people... But when nothing like that is going on, what's there to do?! If I'm still up at midnight it won't be because I tried; it'll be because it just happens. Right now I'm not quite tired enough to go to bed. And I have a nice, warm, fuzzy poodle snoring in my lap and I'm rather enjoying it. :-)

In any case, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I resolve to be a better blogger. Not really, but it's a nice thought. :-)

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Christmas 2010

Christmas Day rules around here say the kids aren't allowed to get up until at least 6:00. At 4:30 in the morning I heard a very happy Sam who had just awoken and seen that the stockings were stocked. I told him he was way early, he'd have to go back to bed. I dozed off, only to hear him a minute or two later whispering, "Joe... Joe, there's stuff in the stockings!!!" while he was tapping Joe's forehead trying to wake him up. Ha! I had just dozed off again when I heard little footsteps. Sam was going to the kitchen to get a drink. He was so wired and excited, he never did fall back asleep--and I didn't exactly get much rest either!

At 6:00 on the dot the boys were both buzzing around making sure everybody in the house was awake. I went to the bathroom to brush my hair and wash my face, but didn't have time to finish before Sam was knocking at the door saying, "Mom, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease hurry!" in a desperate, pleading voice. I guess he'd been out in the living room telling James, "Dad I've been looking at my stocking for AN HOUR AND A HALF!!!" Ha!

We finally got everybody in the room, had our Christmas morning prayer, then told Sam he could go get his stocking--at long last. He was a little happy about it. Ha!
The kids got real stuff in their stockings this year instead of just junk. They got junk, too, but it wasn't ALL junk. Katie was so thrilled with all of hers she laid them all out for a picture.
She got some clay and clay tools, Joe got a rubber band gun and a wood burning kit, Sam got a slingshot with foam balls and a remote controlled tank he'd fallen in love with at the dollar store last week. My stocking had great socks and a new hairbrush, white chocolate covered pretzels--great stuff like that. James' stocking had nothing but junk. Ha! I never think about stocking stuffers until it's too late to really figure out what to do aside from a quick trip to the dollar store!

One of his gifts from his parents (that he ordered himself with the $ they'd sent) was a series of Bob Ross videos that came with a free Bob Ross t-shirt. The bottom of the shirt even says, "Happy Little Clouds." HA! I'm dyin' over it! It makes him so happy. :-)

He found this in his stocking and immediately dove into his best Roger Ammons impersonation. :-)
Sam got some drums (the kind that hopefully won't break easily!) and was soooooo excited...
Almost as excited as he was over the remote controlled helicopter that really flies. He had a BLAST with it for 15 or 20 minutes before the power jack broke. He was heartbroken and even shed a few tears over. James is going to see of they'll take it back at the store. Who knows.
Joe was beyond ecstatic to finally get his very own bb gun!
Katie, loving her new art set.
This is James' gift from me. It was a bocce ball (taken from our set) wrapped in a cylinder (to give me something of substance to wrap--it did make for an interesting package to arouse curiosity!)... and underneath the ball was a picture of the suit I bought for him. :-) Actually, it's the suit my folks bought at that fantastic sale they have once a year in Cleveland. Still owe 'em for it, come to think of it. Anyway, the suit is still in Cleveland. We'll have to move to Alabama to get close enough to go retrieve it. :-)
Joe with his solar powered built-it-yourself robot.
Ha! The look on Katie's face was sooooooo great when she opened up this package from her Grandma Wanda and pulled out a nightgown almost identical to the one she was wearing!!!
This box has six different projects to build and paint--right up Sam's alley. James helped him make the tank this afternoon.
Katie got a keyboard of her very own and was soooooooooooo happy. So Sam got drums, Katie got a keyboard, and Joe got a new guitar--a full size guitar this time--all from James' folks. They were all very excited about them and there has been lots and lots and LOTS of music and music-like noise around here today. :-)
This is James' gift from my parents... It's a picture of another suit that he can pick up whenever we move to Alabama! Ha! This one was wrapped up with the kids' shape block cube. :-)
Joe had been hoping for a bb gun for Christmas and we were afraid the shape of the box might give it away, so we didn't want to put it under the tree. Same thing with the guitar (it's hard to wrap a guitar in such a way that you can't tell what it is!), so I wrapped up two gifts that had notes explaining that it wasn't really his gift--he'd have to ask for it. He thought that was the coolest thing! Especially since the first one was just an empty pencil box with the note and the second was a bag of Ramen. Though he was excited about the Ramen, too. Ha!
Here's Joe all bundled up to go outside and try out his new bb gun, Bertha. I think that's what he told me he named it. His old guitar was "Old Johnny" and he named this new one "Jacob." I even heard him introduce the two of them a few hours ago. HA! Anyway, you can see Katie and Sam making music in the background...
Joe spent most of the day outside with that gun. In fact, I never saw for myself, but James said his trigger finger was completely raw and even bleeding at one point! Ha! He's a happy, happy boy. Blasted a 7-Up can, a few targets, and several plastic cups.

I had to laugh when I opened this gift from James--the very same movie I had got for Mom for Christmas! He had ordered it for me before I had decided to order it for Mom. I also got Mom a puzzle--and I received two puzzles today. And I just found it ironing and unfair that we're both sitting there with a great movie to watch and fun puzzles to put together while we watch... but we can't do it together! What a gyp! Ha! Some day. :-)
It was a nice Christmas. I think each of the kids had 5 gifts to open: one of clothes, one of shoes, one really nice instrument, and two toys/crafts that they truly loved. That's nice. :-) I hate it when they have piles and piles of things to open--it just seems to frivolous, you know?! But they had just enough and seem to be truly grateful for it all. That's more like it. :-) I, on the other hand, feel like I got way too much! Ha! I think I had five or six things to open, but James has a way of cramming several gifts into one bag so it ended up being a lot of stuff! He always over shops for me... but he's a great shopper and always gets great stuff. :-) I got some Coca-Cola pj pants and a Coke puzzle from his folks (that he picked out), a beautiful Christopher & Banks sweater and great denim skirt (which he tells me he paid $8 for--wa-hoo!), a turtle-neck, great socks, the Emma movie, shoes, a shirt/jacket, a puzzle--and probably a couple of things I'm forgetting.

We had a really, really nice time opening all of our gifts (even Charlie got a squeaky steak, a rope toy, and a pack of treats--all purchased by JAMES, I'll have you know!), then we cleaned up some of the trash and packaging and headed to the kitchen to make bacon, eggs, and pancakes for breakfast. I finished up the dishes and was soooooooo tired (I hadn't slept well at all--and had been up most of the time since 4:30, remember!) and decided I was going to lay down for a few minutes. I took Charlie, who was also ready for a nap, and laid down thinking how wonderful it was that I had no meal to prepare--just a pot of tasty clam chowder already made and ready for whenever we got hungry, as well as the left-overs from our big meal last night. I woke up after about an hour and a half (!!!) and felt a little sick to my stomach. Within the next 30 minutes I kept feeling worse and worse until I was finally in awful pain with these horrible stomach cramps that would last for 15-30 seconds, then ease up a bit, then hit again. I felt nauseous and just SICK. I crashed on the couch at 11:30 and didn't budge for the next 6 hours! Crazy! That is NOT the way you're supposed to spend Christmas! Ha! Still, I was soooooooo thankful that I had felt well all day yesterday and was able to make a nice dinner for my family and that I felt fine when we were doing presents today. The sickness didn't hit until after all of that and I'm so glad! James and the kids watched some Christmas shows and just sort of vegged out and I pretty much slept most of the day away. At about 5:30 I was feeling a lot better and was able to get up and try to get a few things cleaned up. There's still a whole lot to be done, but I only had enough energy for about 5 minutes at a time before I'd find myself panting and shaking and weak. Weird. Oh well--it'll all get done soon enough! I'm just so thankful that I'm feeling better and I've only had a few of those horrible stomach cramps in the past few hours--they were awful!

So there you have it--our Christmas. :-) Looking forward to church in the morning. We'll miss the Clarkson family (they're in Colorado for Christmas and will be visiting one of the churches up there tomorrow), but James is on to preach--I rarely get to hear him! Do say a prayer for Sam. Getting up at 4:30 wasn't very smart (!) and he's been running on Christmas adrenaline all day, then crashed at about 7:00. I found him asleep on a chair in the living room. I took him to bed and he's been there ever since, but he's woke up crying a few times saying he feels sick again. I'm trusting that he'll sleep well tonight and wake up totally healthy in the morning--and me, too! :-)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Friday, December 24, 2010

Christmas Eve

I had a great big list of things to accomplish yesterday that would make today so much easier. Unfortunately, very few of them actually happened yesterday! I managed to boil the eggs for the pea salad and deviled eggs (quite an accomplishment, I know) and make Christmas cookies. But truthfully, Katie did most of the work on them!

We headed into town early because James had an Olive Garden gift card that he was itchin' to use. Yum. It's been a few months since we've been there, so it tasted extra good. Enjoyed a good church service and some bonus fellowship time with Sister Galaviz. :-) We came home from church and I got busy doing all of the things I had planned on getting done during the day--made an apple pie, clam chowder, pea salad, and deviled eggs. It felt good to finally mark a few things off the list!

This morning we had cookies for breakfast because it's Christmas Eve and it just seemed like the thing to do. :-) I took a shower, then trimmed the boys' hair (just where it was hanging down over their ears--I HATE that!) and Kate's bangs. I ran one last load of laundry, then did the ironing (on Christmas Eve?! What is wrong with me?!?!?) and made a cherry cobbler before we cleared out ALL of the left-overs (wa-hoo!) for lunch. Then it was time to start on dinner. But before I go on...

A great big thank you to the best and wisest sister-in-law of all time, Emilee Smith!!!!

She has just totally revolutionized my holiday and I love her dearly for it! I've always been very staunch about keeping traditions and, for the most part, I still am. I love traditions. :-) But it does tend to make you a little inflexible and you can end up living in a rut without realizing that a new tradition might be much better than an old one. I heard that last year Emilee made their Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day... and the more I thought about it the more I realized what a truly grand and glorious idea it was!!! We always have clam chowder for our Christmas Eve meal, then get up way early on Christmas morning, open presents, help the kids with whatever toy/battery/assembly help they may need, head to the kitchen to start on Christmas dinner, work throughout the morning, have an early afternoon meal, then spend way too much time cleaning it up, then you're desperate for a nap--and sometimes it's too late to take one! It's always been fun, of course, but so exhausting! Why not have your big dinner on Christmas Eve, get it cleaned up and enjoy the rest of the night, get up Christmas morning, open presents, then ENJOY THE REST OF THE DAY without spending 6 hours in the kitchen!!! It's inspired, I tell you. :-) Have clam chowder for lunch and left-overs from the night before for dinner. It's fantastic! THANK YOU, EMILEE!!!!!! :-)

ANYWAY...

On to the pictures. This was actually taken a few days ago. James needed a picture of the kids so he could order a photo mug for his Mom for her birthday next week. ~sigh~ I have such good looking kids. :-) As a side note, we uploaded the photo to Walmart.com, placed our order, and about two hours later we got an e-mail saying it had been SHIPPED!!! Whoa! Talk about efficient! Ah, yes. I'll warn you now. Get ready for more Charlie overload. I just can't help it. We don't have any babies to take pictures of anymore, you know?! He's the little one, the new one, and the one who's always doing something adorable or crazy, so he's the one who gets pictures taken all the time! Here he is playing in the laundry basket. Don't be fooled--he's actually enjoying himself immensely.
Ah, yes. Had to post this picture. I found this note in my pantry when I went to start dinner this afternoon. Can anybody say MICRO-MANAGER!!!!!! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! That man. GET OUT OF MY KITCHEN, JAMES!!! Don't you have a shed or something to tend to?!?!? ;-)
Katie took this picture as we were trying to transfer the ham to the platter. We don't get many pictures of the two of us together, so I thought I should post it. :-)
And here is Christmas Dinner. On Christmas Eve!!!! What an epiphany! :-)
If you're wondering about Sam's blanket, he's still a little under the weather. Hasn't been SICK today, but hasn't been totally well either. Mostly he's just lethargic. He has had the energy, however, to ask about 30 times, "Mom, how long 'til bedtime?" Ha! He's been dying to go to bed so he could get up and open presents. :-)

Charlie was sooooo good and slept right through dinner with no begging at all. Even when he woke up he just laid there and looked cute for a while. He did have a few bites of ham, which made him a very, very happy puppy. :-)
As has become tradition around here (though I still maintain that it's a sin to open presents before Christmas morning, according to my upbringing--ha!), the kids opened their gifts from each other tonight. Sam got some little airplanes from Katie and a little video game thing from Joe. Sorry about the quality. Our camera usually does pretty well, but it's not as dependable as it used to be!
Here's Joe, acting surprised about the baseball that Katie got him. Ha! He saw her with it in the store when she bought it and has been dying to play with it since then.
And a battleship from Sam...
Katie was happy about the word search book from Sam and THRILLED with the little sewing kit from Joe.
James got a picture from Joe (of the two of them together) and some screwdrivers from Sam. Katie wanted her gift to be added to his stocking, so he'll get that in the morning.
Here's Charlie, chewing on my new favorite fuzzy socks. He seems to like them just as much as I do, but for totally different reasons.
So far he is loving Christmas. All sorts of excitement, and papers and boxes galore to chew on. He won't know what to do with himself come morning!

Charlie was in desperate need of a bath, so I did that real quick before we started our traditional Christmas Eve movie, It's a Wonderful Life. Giving him a bath and blow drying him revealed just how desperately he's in need of another haircut! Ha! It's sort of like those little capsules that expand when you put them in water, you know?! When I got him dry and brushed out he was suddenly twice as big as he had been before--a massive fluffball! HA! Anyway, here are the kids watching the movie and Charlie chewing on Katie's braid, one of his favorite pastimes.
We read through the Christmas story and had a good devotion, then got all the kids bedded down in the living room. Fun. :-) It took them quite a while to wind down, of course. Especially with a hyper dog chewing on them.
James likes to hold Charlie like this and say, "Awwwwww, look at the little baby..." I had to share that for a certain someone's benefit. I'm sure he's throwing up now. HA!

Tonight was a big night in Charlie's life. It was his first time ever to get the rips!!! Ha! I LOVE THAT!!! You know, when a dog gets super excited and just starts tearing through the house full speed, back and forth--it's hilarious! Hershey used to include lots of jumping and bounding. I remember him bouncing off the back of the couch on his route! Ha! Anyway, Charlie got all worked up and slipped and slid all over the tile and wood floors, zipping from one end of the house to the other for several minutes tonight, making us all laugh heartily. :-) ~sigh~ It's so nice having a dog again. They add so much to your family! So, so fun. Especially at Christmas. :-)

Well, it looks like all of the kids are finally conked out, so it must be time to fill some stockings. :-) I love Christmas!!! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! :-)

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Nothing to Blog

But am I going to let that stop me??? No! I'm tired of looking and seeing that it's been nearly a week since my last post, so I thought I'd sneak up on it this time. Tricky.

Sam continued to be sick throughout the day on Tuesday with short breaks where he would be up tormenting the dog, but soon enough he'd be laying down again or frantically searching for his sick bowl. He sipped on some 7-Up and ate about half a cracker all day long. He was a little feverish, too, but not for long. I really believe the Lord touched him--and he woke up perfectly well and mischievous yesterday morning.

The only notable happening yesterday is that we got a phone call from a realtor saying he'd like to come "preview" the house. Preview? We've had several showings, but I'd never heard of a preview before! Ha! He said he'd be here in about 45 minutes. "Sure, that will be fine," I said as calmly as I could as I looked around at the mounds of laundry all over the den, the kitchen that was covered in dirty dishes, the boys' room that had a tent built with bins and blankets and stools all over the place, and Katie's room that has been set up as a museum for several days now with displays of all sorts blanketing both beds, the night stands and even part of the floor. HA! I was so very thankful that I had already scrubbed both bathrooms to a shine that morning. It was a bit of a madhouse as we rushed around trying to get everything back into place, but we got it done in the 45 minutes that we had and the realtor arrived just a few minutes later. ~whew~ We're good. ;-)

He introduced himself, stepped in the front door, said he just wanted to take a real quick look-through, and he was off like a flash--zipping from one room to the next in record speed. He made a few statements as he went, all of them favorable, but I was out of breath from trying to keep up with him and probably a little distracted. Ha! No kidding, he was done with the house in just a minute or two (I am not exaggerating!) and was saying his goodbyes. I somehow had the presence of mind to tell him that there is also a finished office out back. I grabbed the keys and led the way, trying to quickly tell him that the hail damage is being taken care of (see the partially finished new roof?) and there's also a shed out back, etc. I did detain him long enough to ask if he had clients who were interested in the house or... why exactly WAS he here?! Ha! He doesn't have anybody looking in this price range right now, he said he just likes to know what's available out there so he's well informed. Weird. When he left after being here a whoppin' five minutes I just stood there sort of stunned. I should have grabbed him by the collar and drug him back into the house and said, "Look, buddy--we just killed ourselves for 45 minutes getting this place put together so you can look at it, so you'd best mosey on through and actually DO that!" HA!

I had thrown together a taco soup sort of thing and had it cooking in the crock-pot all day yesterday. I didn't have a recipe, I just remember making something like it last year and it sounded good so I gave it another try. I browned some burger with onion, salt and pepper and LOTS of taco seasoning, then threw in a can of corn, diced tomatoes, tomato soup... something I'm forgetting... along with the left-over Hormel chili from lunch and some left-over pork loin from several days ago. We served it up on top of chips and covered with cheese and it was soooooo good! In fact, I'm anxious for lunchtime so I can have it again--though I'll have to be the first to get to it because there's not much left! Yum. :-)

I slept on the couch in the living room last night. I've always loved sleeping in the room with all the Christmas lights. :-) Maybe I'll let the kids sleep out there with me tonight. I let Charlie sleep with me last night. That was great. He's so sweet and cuddly. :-) When he FINALLY winds down, that is! He usually gets CRAZY hyper right about the time I'm ready to go to bed each night. Though sometime last week I was up late working on things and I suddenly heard one little "woof." I went looking for him and found him standing next to Katie's bed, looking over his shoulder at me, just waiting for me to come put him to bed. Ha! What a smart puppy. :-) He's completely adapted to that and I'm sooooo glad I didn't continue on trying to make him sleep in that box like we'd started out doing with him--he'd STILL be keeping me up all night! Ha! Now he goes to bed with Katie and will sometimes sleep until 8:00 or better. The house training is going GREAT--I think he went nearly five days without an accident and has only had one or two since then. He's getting really good at letting us know when he wants outside, but I fear we may be in trouble when Christmas is over. We have door hangers on the front and back doors, both of which have bells on them. When Charlie wants to go outside he reaches up and rings the bells, then turns and waits for us to come! Ha! It's GREAT, but what's he going to do when there are no bells anymore?! We'll see, I guess. :-) I must admit that the first week or two we had this dog--as much as I already liked him and enjoyed him--in the back of my mind I kept thinking what have we done?! Ha! He was sooooooooooooooooo much work, totally, completely an all-consuming 24/7 job and there was no light at the end of the tunnel! But in the past two or three weeks things have leveled out and Charlie is learning and picking up on things so quickly. So for anybody who has read about our experiences and resolved that you are NEVER going to get a puppy if that's what you have to go through (Emilee--ha!), it's only completely consuming for two or three weeks, then it gets much, much better and you sort of regain your life again. :-)

We had hoped to have Sister Galaviz up to join us for dinner on Christmas Eve, but she called this morning said that she's having car trouble and not going to be able to make it. We are sooooo disappointed, but we do understand. She'll go spend the evening with her son and his family, so she won't be alone--but still, we'll miss having her. This is the second year in a row she's bailed on us. Some people, I tell ya'. HA! (We love you, Sister Galaviz--I just couldn't resist. I told the kids this morning that you were bailing on us. I think they'll forgive you. Maybe. HA!)

And that's about it from here! Lots of cooking and baking to be done today. It feels and smells very Christmassy around here. :-)

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

~Aaaaaaaaahhhh~ How peaceful it is in the early morning. Everything still and motionless, the mountainside pink from the rising sun on the snow, the long shadows peeking through the limbs of the trees, men stomping around on your roof banging and clanging and hollering to one another, other men walking past the window smiling and yelling "Good Morning!," compressors roaring on and off... So serene. ;-) HA! I got up earlier than usual today because there is a skylight in the bathroom and I needed to take a shower safely before the guys were due to arrive and be up on the roof. Good thing I did, too--I think they showed up at 6:45 this morning! Good, hard workers they are. Today Brother Chris brought Brother Juan and Carlos with him. And to be fair, they really tried to be quiet when they first got here. But roofing a house is a noisy job, you know?! Anyway, back to the beginning...

We did, indeed, miss church last Thursday night. It never had stopped snowing all day long and we just didn't know if we'd be able to make it back home or not. I always have big guilt over that decision (what if we COULD have made it without any trouble and we just stayed home?!), but not this time. When the decision was made to not try it, the kids and I bundled up and started walking down to the mailbox. On our way there we helped push one lady's car to the side of the road. She was stuck in the middle of the road, sliding all over the place but going nowhere. We got to the box and it was completely frozen shut. In fact, if the neighbor man hadn't been there picking up his own mail we probably would have come home empty handed. He scraped with his key and banged and yanked and pulled and finally got our box open for us. On our way home we stopped at the same place the first lady had been stuck to shine our flashlight for a guy who was crawling around under his vehicle trying to put chains on the tires. At that point all of my guilt over staying home from church vanished. Ha! There is NO WAY our van would've had a chance out there.

I dug out my Christmas puzzle that night because it seemed like the thing to do. ~aaaaaahhhhh~ :-)

The next day was a great snow day around here. The kids spent most of the day outside, having a blast. I spent a most of the day proofreading off and on. James cooked all three meals that day! He's The Good One. I can't tell you the last time I cooked three meals in one day! I usually shoot for just one! Ha! He made oatmeal for the kids for breakfast, some of those fantastical turkey tacos of his for dinner, and ziti and homemade stromboli for dinner. Oh wait, the ziti and stromboli were the night before. Either way--it was great! :-)

We had about a foot of snow on the ground. ~Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh~ There is nothing more wonderful in all the world. :-) Look at how deep it is on the deck to the office--and you can barely see where the three steps are that lead up to it.

The van doors were frozen shut and James had a hard time getting in. :-)
Mid-morning we looked out the window and found that some guy was out there shoveling our driveway and was half done already! (That's no small job here, especially when the snow is a foot deep!) It was Brother Chris, of course. He decided to come up and shovel off our entire roof so it would have a chance to dry out and he'd be able to work on it on Monday. How many roofers do you know who would do that?! He got here and did the driveway for us just because that's the kind of guy he is. :-) Then he got to work on the shed roof, then the house. The kids were thrilled that he was here, of course, and kept pelting him with snowballs while he was trying to work. So he began shoveling the snow from the roof down onto the kids. :-)
Apparently Sam joined Brother Chris' team for a little while.
Here's Joe, anticipating the next shovel full...
If you look closely you can see Joe getting slammed. :-)
We ended up with a clean roof and some mighty impressive piles of snow surrounding the house. The kids dug them out and made lots of "igloos" out of them. :-)
This is the view from our front porch the next morning. I do love it here. Soooooo pretty.
On Saturday James wanted to go to town. Ha. HA. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Town! On a SATURDAY. In DECEMBER!!! On the LAST SATURDAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS, IN DECEMBER!!! He has mental issues sometimes. He tried long and hard to talk me into it, but I think he finally became a little concerned for his own safety (ha!) and gave up on the idea. ~whew~ That was a close one. James took Sam and went to Edgewood while Katie and Joe stayed home with me. Another reason I didn't want to go to town (like additional reasons were really necessary) was because I had lots to do to get ready for the pot-luck the following day. I made 9 loaves of Poppy Seed Bread (I give small loaves to the ladies at church, large loaves to the families) along with the pot-luck food: more Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies (though I used red and green M&M's this time to make them more Christmassy), Jamey's Mexican Chicken Casserole, Chicken Pot Pie, and lots and lots of Popcorn Balls. It was about 10:30 that night when I was finally ready to make the popcorn balls. I had (for some unknown reason) decided to make a double batch and it's really too much for one person to handle--the syrup would cool and begin to get stiff before you could get it all mixed up and formed into balls--so I asked James to help me. He said, "Too bad Joe's not still awake--he could help." A moment later we looked up to see Joe standing in the kitchen smiling. Ha! So he came and helped us, too. I can't remember anything specific, but I know we laughed at Joe a lot. That kid cracks us up!

By the time we had finished up the popcorn balls and I had them all individually wrapped, had washed every pot, pan, and giant bowl in the house (popcorn balls are the worst for making lots of sticky dishes!), wrapped three Christmas gifts, got the Clarkson's gift from the church ready, and wrapped up and ribboned all of the Poppy Seed Bread it was 1:30am! CRAZY! And here I thought I had everything well in hand and under control. Thanks for sharing these particular genes with me, Mom, I love 'em. ;-)

We had a good service Sunday morning, Brother Chris completing our Advent messages--this week on "Joy." It was so good. I love teaching and preaching on things like hope and peace and joy. :-) Brother Chris had arranged a scavenger hunt for the kids, so we all headed outside to watch it just before he preached. He used it to illustrate the wise men diligently searching for Jesus and the great JOY they experienced when they finally found Him. The kids also got all dressed up and acted out the Christmas story as Sister Shanda read through it. They did a great job. I filmed all of the above, so that means I don't have any actual pictures of it. But I haven't had a chance to do anything with the videos yet either.

After service we had our pot-luck with lots of great food and fellowship, as always. I love that. As a kid we used to have a pot-luck once a month (every third Sunday, I think it was) and I thought it was fantastic. :-) Sister Yolanda made some super tasty, not-spicy-at-all tamales and some sort of hot punch with lots of chunks of fruit in it--it tasted a lot like hot spiced cider. Yum. :-) All the other food was good too, but that was my favorite. :-)

Here is James in his Christmas garb, doing his best Brother Grimes pose.

And me with Sister Galaviz, looking rather jolly and festive. :-)
After service the Clarksons had some gifts for our family. They got us "Where the Red Fern Grows" due to all of our recent conversations about who bawls like babies watching sad movies and who is cold and heartless and unaffected by them. Ha! They also got us some Jelly Bellies and peanuts to snack on while we watch the movie... and some flavored crickets. That's right, crickets--the real thing. I think they were sour cream and onion flavored. (Like THAT is supposed to help?! Gross!!!) It was HILARIOUS watching the guys try to eat one. Brother Chris took one too and told the boys they'd all do it together on the count of three. This is right after they'd popped them into their mouths...
And about a second later, right after Joe and Cainan had spewed theirs into the trash. Ha!
And Brother Chris laughing and holding the cricket that he had only pretended to put in his mouth. :-)
Of course, he's a strange one and decided to go ahead and eat the cricket anyway, just because. Bleagh! He's the only one who actually swallowed one. NASTY!

Carlos decided he would try too, but he had a much harder time than the little boys did actually getting the nasty little thing into his mouth.
This is just moments before he actually got it in--which was only fractions of a second before his head was in that trash can, spitting it out! Ha!
Boy, I hate it that the last pictures I have are of cricket eating. Gross! I'll do better next time.

We came home from church and had a nice, relaxing evening. Left-over tamales for dinner, then later on a popcorn ball and a hot pumpkin spice cappuccino and a Christmas movie. ~Aaaahhhh~

Yesterday Brother Chris and Carlos showed up to work on the roof bright and early. Our family worked on getting the house all cleaned up, then went into town to shop for some necessary things, most of which we were unable to find. Bummer. We even ended up battling the crazies at the mall, of all things. The only good that came of it was the Hawaiian chicken and rice we got at the foot court. Yum. We did end up buying a few things on our outing, mostly at the dollar store. I got some stocking stuffers for James (all junk this year--it's the best I could do) and James helped Joe search for a present for me. James said Joe picked out a very nice, thoughtful gift for me... after he finally convinced him that a gallon of bleach was not a good gift. HA! I love that kid so much! :-)

We got home at 2:00 or 3:00, I think, and did some school and housework. Had left-overs for dinner, then James took Katie out to Edgewood and Moriarty to return something to Alco. I read a pile of Christmas books to Sam--since they need to go back to the library today and we hadn't gotten to most of them! It was a nice evening.

I got a call last night on an ad I'd listed on Craigslist two or three weeks ago--or more? I'd listed both car seats, the highchair, the baby swing, and the walker. Sam is seven years old, so that tells you how long we've been hauling that stuff around! I had a couple of calls in the beginning, but nobody came to look. I was just telling James the other day that I was going to donate everything to a crisis pregnancy center. Then this lady called last night and said she'd take it all, sight unseen! Wa-Hoo! :-) So James loaded it all up and delivered it to her this morning. Good for her, good for us!

It's now nearly noon. It's hard to keep a line of thought when you type a few lines, then leave, then come back and type a few more! Ha! Brother Chris and the guys just left. He's got to get home so he can head to Colorado with his family for Christmas--I'd hate for them to leave him behind and Sister Shanda just might do it if he doesn't get there soon! Ha! I created what I HOPE is a complete shopping list (though we all know it's not) to send with James so we can have everything we need (ha) for the rest of the week and Christmas dinner, so he's being a wonderful husband and taking care of that for me. Nice. :-)

One more thing... Sam woke up sick early this morning, rushing to the bathroom just in time. He went back to bed, but had to make another run for the bathroom when he woke up a couple of hours later. Brother Chris came in and prayed for him a little while ago and he perked up a lot and seemed to be doing great--making trouble and everything (ha!)--but he's been sacked out on the couch again for about an hour, saying he's feeling sick again. Katie has started on lunch, soup for Sam included, so I'm going to go assist her. I love having such a grown up girl around the house. :-) Anyway, pray for Sam--I know God can heal him totally, with no relapses.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Christmas Activities & Pictures

But first, a few random pictures I found on my camera. We start with Sam. I don't know how a person goes about discovering he has a talent like this...

But he seems happy about it! James wanted to take a picture of Katie and me together because we matched so well in our happy Christmas green. :-) James couldn't help himself and bought Christmas shirts for all three kids this year. They were pretty excited about it. :-) Ah, yes. How could I forget about this?! James was given a true rarity the other day! Sister Grimes keep sorting through every nook and cranny of her house in search of things to donate to our family or the Clarksons. Her most recent donation to the Church history museum is (are you ready for this???) Fields of the Wood olive forks! HA! Could you die?! At least that's what she said they were used for. There are only three left out of the box of twelve, but three is enough to make James a very happy man. A piece of memorabilia he didn't even know existed!!! HA! Here's a picture of Charlie hanging out with Sam. This doesn't happen often. Usually if he's with Sam is a free-for-all with running and jumping and romping and biting and growling and pouncing. And Charlie gets wound up, too. ;-) Okay, here we go! Sunday morning James woke up sick, so the kids and I headed on to church without him. Brother Chris preached a good message on hope, then we hurried home to check on James. We found him still in bed... WITH THE DOG!!!! Yep, you heard right--he was in bed, cuddling with Charlie. The same Charlie who is "not allowed" to sleep with us at night. I love it. :-) The dog still sleeps with Katie at night, of course (and he's doing GREAT with that, by the way--settled right into that routine and sleeps with her all night with no problem), but I love it that James is so schnookered by this dog. He would declare he only did it because he was sick and it was easier than trying to keep an eye on him, but I know that's only a handy excuse for something he really enjoyed anyway. ;-) I worked on Christmas cards again that afternoon, but still didn't get done. Oh, well--I tried! James still wasn't feeling great that afternoon, but was doing well enough to go to church with us. He hadn't eaten all day and after service McAllister's is what sounded good, so we went there to grab a bite before heading home. Monday morning I got up bright and early to get to work cleaning up the house for the showing. That's right, we had a SHOWING!!! Wa-Hoo! We hadn't even heard Jason's voice for a month or more, so it was pretty exciting to have a little action. The lady said she loved it, it was the best house she'd seen in the three days she'd been looking, it was "adorable," etc. I don't know what her situation is, but we haven't heard any more since then. It's strange, really. I don't get my hopes up over anything anymore. But at the same time I don't want to be faithless and expect that this WON'T be "it," you know?! It's in God's hands, right? I'm trying to just leave it there. :-) We loaded up the family, including Charlie, and headed out at 10:30 (we had been told the showing would be between then and noon) to go to the dollar store out in Edgewood, ate lunch at the Chinese restaurant out there, then stopped to pick up a few things at Wal-Mart on the way home. I made some Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies that afternoon (wa-a-a-a-ay too addictive!), then lasagna for dinner. It was a great day for food around here. :-) I stayed up until 1:00 working on Christmas cards that night, but at least I finally got them finished. Wa-Hoo! I slept in a bit on Tuesday after my late night, then we had devotions, school--the usual. That afternoon we all went to the library, then to Hobby Lobby to get Dad's Christmas present (crazy, hu?!), then on to the Route 66 Diner. It's supposed to be pretty popular (been around since the 40's, I think), but in three years of living here we'd never been able to find it. I don't know how we missed it with all those neon lights and all. Ha! It was really neat and the food was fantastic. James, Mr. Adventure, had a vanilla malt. I went with the Pink Cadillac milk shake (strawberry ice cream with Oreos) because it seemed like the right thing to do, considering the setting. The only other option was the Elvis Presley (peanut butter and banana shake, of course), so... :-) We left the diner and headed down town to the River of Lights. Most of the displays were the same, but they did have some new things that were really neat. James especially liked the cactus. That's an owl on top, I just wasn't at the proper angel to be able to see it well. Joe had to have his picture with the lizard. Not very impressive to most minds, but to Joe... It's a lizard, you know?! Katie & Sam liked the t-rex. The lights were fun but better yet, the entertainment was fantastic this year! There was an all trombone band there playing Christmas carols and they were great! I always enjoy live music and it was so cool to have nothing but trombones (who ever heard of such a thing?!) playing a bunch of different parts like that. They did stray from Christmas every now and again and would play an oldies song, my favorite being Duke of Earl. Ha! It sounded fantastic, but since it's Christmas time I'll post this one.


A little farther on we came across a whole slew of cute little old men in Santa hats--an old guy's choir! I think they call themselves the New Mexichords or something like that. When we got there these four guys were singing something very barbershop quartet-ish. I love that stuff! :-) At the end of this corridor is where the trombone guys were playing. It was a great night and we had lots of fun.


Yesterday morning the shingles and roofing supplies were delivered to the house! While the guy was still unloading them Brother Chris and Brother Juan and the three Clarkson kids showed up. The men worked all day hauling the packs of shingles up to the roofs, working on the skylights, and totally re-roofing James' office. It looks great. :-) Here are the fellas hard at work.


James was gone all day long, but there was no such thing as loneliness around here with the six kids running wild all day! Ha! They were all really good for the most part and there were only a couple of times I when it got too chaotic and I had to put the kibosh on them. They had a blast together and I was so glad they had all day to just hang out--they never get to do that.


I decided to make potato soup for lunch, but didn't have all of the ingredients and had to improvise. That made me nervous, so I decided to make a big pot of chicken and noodles as a back up. Good thing I did! The soup turned out okay, but the noodles were scarfed down nearly completely--and there was a pretty good amount of soup gone, too. One wouldn't have been enough. It was great being able to "host" and feed my workers. That makes me so happy! :-)


When the crowd left that night (sometime after 6:00) James hauled in all the stuff he'd bought throughout the day--groceries, Christmas presents... and a little jacket for Charlie. HA! COULD YOU DIE?! James is killing me! With Hershey he was sooooo stingy. I think we bought two dog toys the entire 6 years we had him. We finally paid $1 for a sweater for him that last year. Charlie already has two beds (saw a cute one on sale for $6 last week) and a box, several toys, treats, etc. And then James comes home with a jacket AND another toy and some treats for the dog's stocking!!! HA! I love it. James declares he doesn't love the dog ("he's okay, I guess" is the most he'll admit to), but his actions prove otherwise. Hershey taught him that, like it or not, he's going to end up loving Charlie--so he's already started giving in to it. It makes me very happy. :-) Anyway, Charlie's jacket has a hood and James keeps picking him up and pulling his hood on, then just laughing and laughing. It IS funny. Ha! Here's Charlie trying to behave...


And showing his true feelings about the hood... I took this after he finally settled down and got used to the jacket. It CRACKS ME UP because the jacket fits snug around his little body, squishing his hair in... then he's got this huge poofy rump sticking out the end! Ha! This morning we woke up to SNOW!!! It's our first real snow of the year. We had some flurries and a skift on the ground a couple weeks ago, but this is the first REAL snow. And it's sooooo pretty! James built a fire for us so we could have devotions in there all nice and toasty. Sam's been keeping the fire going for us throughout the rest of the day. He's a good fire boy. The kids finished school so they could head out to play for a while. They had me dig the inner tube out of the shed but it's too flat--they'll have to wait for their Dad to air it up for them. Charlie wasn't quite sure what to think of the snow at first, but it didn't take him long to decide that it's a blast. A dog after my own heart. :-) Come on, now--all together, "Aaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwww!!! That's soooo cute, Charlie!" That's what Joe says at least 50 times a day. :-) It didn't show up well in any of the pictures, but the back of his jacket has a picture of a peppermint and says "sweet."


Okay, so that was a little bit of Charlie overload. Sorry--I've been trying to be better about that. Ha! Right now James is taking a nap, I'm blogging, the kids are playing games, and the dog is snoozing at my feet. ~Aaaahhhhh~ This is the life. I love snow days!!! My only concern is that it had to come on a Thursday. We have church tonight, but last I saw the snow was still coming down heavily--I don't know if we'll be able to make it in or not! I know we could make it to town, I just don't know if we could make it home afterwards once it gets colder and icier, especially if it keeps snowing. Time will tell! I hope we can make it, but if not we'll just have devotions here tonight I guess. And put a puzzle together or something. :-) And because I just can't help myself, here's some more Charlie. ;-)