Here we go!

Time to play catch-up with the blog. I've been a very bad blogger of late, so I'll make up for it with a PLETHORA of pictures. That always works. :-)

I last blogged on Tuesday of last week... Don't remember Wednesday. Don't remember Thursday. Don't remember Friday. But on one of those nights we went into town to check out the River of Lights. We were pretty impressed! It was fun, but a mite chilly. Which makes it all the more fun, of course. :-)

This first picture is of a giant snowman village that was VERY cool. And the picture actually turned out okay through the glass!

This was one of the coolest, I thought. Old trucks are neat anyway, but especially neat lit up.
They had TONS of displays. Since it was located at the botanical gardens, they had a whole bunch of flowery things.




Joe thought the scorpion was COOL.



This isn't from the River of Lights, of course, but... better, Mom & Em???
Okay, although Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are lost forever, I do remember Saturday! It was the day we got the house all cleaned up, packed some clothes, and drove to Alamogordo--stopping at that soda fountain James loves in Carrizozo, of course. We were going to make a church visit there last month, but it didn't work out. This was sort of a spur of the moment trip and when we got there we stumbled into a really, really bad situation and wondered if we were supposed to be there at all! But in the end, we could see how God really worked things out and orchestrated this trip at the exact time (down to the minute, perhaps) that it was needed. We had a really, really good service on Sunday full of prayer and bearing one another's burdens and worshiping and praising God and praying some more. It was exactly what was needed and you could feel the Lord really meeting the needs. He is so good and so faithful and always right on time. We are always so blessed when we go to Alamogordo--the people there are simply AMAZING and so very faithful. I am just sooooooooooooo thankful for The Church of God! I'm always amazed at the kinship we feel with one another and the privilege of truly feeling each other's joys and sorrows, rejoicing in the good times and bearing the burdens in the bad times. Anyway, it was GREAT to be there and we left feeling so convinced that God had planned this trip for us.

We had a nice time of fellowship and enjoyed some pizza with the folks after service, then headed over to Hatch to join them for their Christmas service.

We passed this SO COOL dog on the way there. I just love him!!! Any dog who can practically fill up the back of a truck is just plain cool. :-)

We got to Hatch and stopped by the Soto's house/business to see if we could pick up some salsa. We had run out a few weeks ago and the turkey tacos just aren't the same without them. :-) Anyway, Tayde was gracious enough to sell us some salsa AND invite us to stay until church time. How nice!

The service was GREAT. We sang a few songs, then Tayde took over had the kids come up and recite some verses and sing some songs. So cute!

After that, they put on their Christmas play. It was soooooooooo great!!!!! Unfortunately it was in Spanish and both of our interpreters were IN the play and couldn't help us out. Ha! It really didn't matter--we thoroughly enjoyed it. It was so cute and we got the basic gist of it ("don't forget the TRUE meaning of Christmas")--and I thought the costumes were FANTASTIC!
Jesus was an angel... one who was a wee bit disheveled!
Look at these costumes!!! Abbie (that's right, isn't it?!) was a GREAT sheep--and Adrian was a terrific lion. I was struggling to figure out why there was a lion in the nativity scene, but somebody explained that there were supposed to be two sheep... one of them mysteriously disappeared and the lion was "taking its place." Ha!

Things really perked up when Tayde showed up and pulled her gun on everybody! I really should have had her explain more of it to me afterwards--I still don't "get" that part! Nonetheless, it was funny! And she looked terrific, didn't she?! Ha! I love it! David was a great king, too. :-)
And Belen was one of the very best Santa's I have EVER seen!!! SO FUN! :-)
We made it home on Monday. Don't remember anything else about Monday.

Don't remember Tuesday. Wait... that was just yesterday, right? Surely I can remember something. Hhmmm... Laundry. School. Hmm. Oh, well!

We did get a few packages in the mail this week. Wa-a-a-a-a-a-ay too many presents from Pennsylvania, I assure you. We also got this from the VanDeventers...

Isn't that pretty??? It's so VanDeventer-ish. :-) These boxes were filled with all manner of tasty chocolates from Harry & David. YUM!

Don't know when this was taken, but Sam decided to make some glasses for himself so he could look like his Dad...

Last night we loaded up and headed into town. I had suggested tuna casserole for dinner and within minutes James said, "Hey... how 'bout we go check out the Bugg Lights tonight--it's probably going to be our only chance.......... and we could grab some dinner while we're there." All inspired by the idea of tuna casserole, no doubt. Ha! Anyway, the Bugg Lights are a tradition that's been going on for over 30 years. Apparently an old couple by the name of Bugg (how sad!) really got into decorating their yard for Christmas. They did it for all those years, but finally got too old to be able to do it. So a nearby school volunteered to take it over and now they set it up there at the school.

Sam has a real thing for nutcrackers, so he was thrilled to find this one!
There were a whole bunch of lighted displays--what the Bugg Lights is really all about. It's kind of a pity though. If you saw all this stuff in somebody's yard you would think, "WOW! This is so amazing!" But since it's set up at a school for everybody to walk through it somehow doesn't seem as impressive or something! Anyway, here's a California Raisin riding his board... ironing board, that is. Ha!
ONLY in New Mexico would you find Santa with a flock of aliens.


Oh, I forgot to mention! After the Christmas service in Hatch they had a big Christmas dinner over at the Banueloses restaurant. It was so, so, so good but I ate so, so, so much! The green tamales were HOT, but so very good. We had a great time fellowshipping, then before we left they gave each of the kids (and there were a BUNCH of kids there) a present! I guess they've been having dinners to raise money to buy all the gifts with. Anyway, all three of our kids loved their presents. Joe got a set of army guys and weapons--little miniatures. Sam got a train that looked pretty cheap and lame... but once you put batteries in it it makes a TON of noise and lights up and chug-a-lugs across the room until it runs into something, then redirects itself and keeps going. Sam LOVES it, of course. And Katie got this set of phones that has a really, really long cord connecting them--and you can actually talk through them! All three kids think it's fantastic. Here's a picture Sam in the dining room next to the stereo (Katie was in her closet with the other phone), singing along to the Christmas music for Kate.
After devotions and school this morning the day was spent almost entirely in the kitchen. Here is this year's crop of Christmas cookies...

Here are some of Katie's...
The "Noel, Leon" is sort of a family thing... from one of our "favorite" songs. Ha!
And one of Joe's... This was part of a train and he decided to put a wreath on it. I was pretty impressed!
And, of course, Sam's. Sam gets a little sprinkle happy!!!
Along with dinner tonight (baco's... another family thing!) I also made a peach crisp, a pumpkin roll, and clam chowder for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner tomorrow--soup is always better the second day, you know. :-) We had devotions and put the kids to bed in the living room tonight. We always try to let them sleep in the room with the tree and all the lights one night, so tonight is the night! Sam fell asleep during devotions again (?!), but Katie and Joe were awake with big eyes for a long, long time!
They're all goners now though. James and I went to the den and put on a Christmas movie--and I was able to get all of the ironing done. Wa-Hoo! So much accomplished today! A few more things that must be done in the morning, and then the fun really begins! I will be posting more pictures tomorrow night... and they'll be GREAT ones! :-)

Couldn't Resist

First of all, please forgive my failure to blog -- it's CHRISTMASTIME! Things are crazy!!! In the best possible way. :-) I'm going to REALLY, REALLY try to blog later on tonight, but I just couldn't wait for this one. Ha!

I had a TERRIBLE time wrapping this up last night (you can't imagine!), but HOW FUN IS THAT?! Naturally, the kids discovered it first thing this morning. I had to get a picture of Katie with it... with Joe next to it holding HIS present. HA! Love it!!! (Believe it or not, Joe thought it was a GREAT idea to take the picture and had a hard time making himself stop giggling long enough to scowl at the camera. He appreciates good humor, even if he's the punch line!)

And, of course, afterward we flipped the tag around to reveal that it's not Katie's present, it's for ALL of them! They are DYING and it's soooooooo fun! We won't even tell them who it's from. I'm loving it!!!!!

Be sure to stay tuned for the great unveiling--it will be sooooooo worth it! :-)

Not much to say... but I've got pictures!

That always lures the lookers, even if the pictures are boring. ;-)

Yesterday started off so productive! I had gotten a lot of cleaning done and was well on my way with the laundry, too, all 10 loads of it. Can you imagine?! Why in the world do we have 10 loads of laundry this week??? There was a bedspread to wash and a few extra towels, but still--that's just nuts! Anyway, I don't know what happened to the productivity but I never did finish the laundry. In fact, I'm looking at the last two loads still to be done, piled on the floor in front of me right now! ~sigh~ Sad.

The kids have been doing very well in school lately, making things much easier on me and giving me more time to do other things. It's been GREAT! Yesterday I finally sealed all of the Christmas card envelopes (only two paper cuts on my tongue and one on my lip this year... I think I'm gettin' better) and put return address labels and stamps on them. It's amazing how long projects like that take! And somehow they're not nearly as fun as I used to think they were a few years ago. Strange. It's probably time to pass those jobs off to Katie and convince her that they're fun.

Last night I spent a couple of hours working on some Regional ABM fliers and invitations for each local church. Took quite a while, but it felt so good to finally get it done. Then tonight when I went to make some changes I discovered that they were GONE. I had clicked "save," but apparently because of the file type I had started with it wasn't possible for it to be saved in that format. Ooooooh, I hate it when things like that happen! (You have to say the "Ooooooh" part in your best Yosemite Sam voice to get the full impact of my mood.) So I spent a couple of hours tonight doing the exact thing that I spent a couple of hours on last night. What a waste! But, once again, it feels good to have it done--as far as I've gotten, anyway. Still a few finishing touches to add before we print. And I was sure to start fresh with a file I KNOW I can save this time.

Not much else going on around here. The biggest thing was just the bad news we got today. We've been holding out hope that perhaps we'd be able to go back east for Christmas, but it looks like that's not gonna happen. James told me tonight, then made me tell the kids. Katie, Sanguine that she is, rebounded nearly immediately and thought of 6 or 8 reasons why we'll still have fun and it will still be a good Christmas. Sam jumped in with her and played the, "I don't care if we go to Pennsylvania and Tennessee or not--it doesn't matter to me" card. Joe didn't say a word, just chewed on his lip and tried to hold back the tears. He's the sensitive one, for sure! They'll probably be okay now that they've made it through the news. There really is so much to be thankful for and I know Christmas will be great, as always. Though for some reason I've shed a few tears of my own over not being able to be with the folks! I usually don't take things like that. Weird. Anyway, we'll all make it through and have plenty of good memories when it's all said and done.

That's about it. I thought I'd add a few pictures though. I didn't want to do this because I know I posted pictures of our Christmassy house last year and I'd hate for people to think I'm really all that materialistic! "Here, look at my stuff! AGAIN!!!" Ha! But Mom's been wanting to see the mantle (didn't have the den finished last Christmas) and... well, frankly, I haven't found any good picture taking moments lately and I haven't been posting very many pictures, so...

Here are a few of my favorite things (please don't burst into song over that one) on Grandmother's mantle with the clock that I used to LOVE to listen to all night long on Christmas Eve when I was a kid. :-) I love the bendy snowmen on the left and the sleigh on the right.

And here's one wall in the living room...
I actually hung this little shelf for the sole purpose of displaying these little guys. I love 'em--they're some of my very favorites--but they're so little they just sort of get lost when you set them with bigger things, you know?
Our Christmas tree. Or should I say, JAMES' Christmas tree. Ha! Nobody is allowed to touch it or decorate it--it's his baby all the way. Makes him very happy, so we just stand back and let him have his fun.
And, of course, the top-of-the-piano display with my oh-so-happy train. :-)
I love it best at night when it's dark and we turn the Christmas lights on. :-)
We made these in Sunday School class this week. I printed the verses out ahead of time, then the kids tore the edges, crinkled them up, tea dyed them, rolled them up like scrolls, and attached the twine. I thought they turned out really cute--this is Katie's.
James must have liked it a lot, too, because he actually let her put it on HIS tree!!! Whoa!
And this. HA! This makes me so happy! It was just supposed to be a little stocking stuffer for Joe, but I was wrapping things up one night and had this itty-bitty scrap of wrapping paper left over and I just couldn't help myself. I just HAD to see his face when he saw such a tiny present under the tree. And his reaction was worth it all! Ha! It's continued to be a great source of amusement throughout the past week or two as the kids all tease about it and try to guess what in the world could be in such a tiny package. A quarter??? NOTHING? "It's nothing, hu, Mom??? Just paper all folded up to make me THINK there's something there!" :-)
And last of all... I really thought the kids were enjoying the book we've been reading in family devotions. But tonight we were only about half way through the chapter and I heard snoring coming from my shoulder. Ha! Sam just couldn't make it through.
Okay, that's it! My non-newsy post... but with PICTURES! (That you already saw last year if you are a Becki's Blog Watcher! Ha!)

A Great Weekend!

It actually started on Thursday. Can't remember much about that day except school and housework. It was James' CPMA service that night. He led What Child is This; O, Holy Night; and O Come, O Come Emmanuel... and had ME play the piano for them! WHAT A JERK! Ha! Christmas song are soooooooooooo hard to play. I had practiced ahead of time, but it didn't seem to help much. What Child is This is okay, but the other two are TOUGH. I played poorly enough that he cut them short. So sad! Ha!

At about 10:00 that night our company arrived. The Hays were on their way to Texas to hold a weekend Revival and had made reservations at the Horne Hotel and Party House. :-) I had made lemon bars, chocolate chip cookie bars, and pepperoni pinwheels to help us feel party-ish. And, of course, we have the soda fountain. It had been a few weeks since that had been used, but Brother Dustin got it all warmed up for us. I really think he gets more use out of it than we do. Ha! It makes me very happy to see him bringing creation after creation back to the table for whoever orders them. What a fun thing to have a soda fountain! Anyway, we played a very tragic game of I Buy (I don't recall the exact score, but it was ugly!), and then moved straight into Balderdash, skipping the usual Pictionary game since they Hays had quite a drive ahead of them the next day. Still, Balderdash took forever! We had some real good laughs though, and that's what matters. "The One Year Wonder" lost that game pretty big. :-) Even without Pictionary it was nearly 3:00 before we went to bed! Crazy!!! It was a very short visit, but oh, so fun. We had some half-cooked cinnamon rolls with icing and left-over Krispy Kremes the next morning before they left.

They hit the road and we got our day rolling. Had devotions with the kids and did a few things around the house. I wasn't feeling very well, so I curled up on the couch in the living room for nap. It was a dark and sort of dreary day and we had all the Christmas lights on (lighted greenery around the doorways, lights hidden in the "snow" that my train and snowmen sit on up on the piano, and of course the tree lights. There was Christmas music playing softly in the background and a crackling fire in the fireplace. I curled my hurting self up under one of Grandmother's heavy quilts and just soaked in the glory of a nap when you're soooooo tired--in such a great setting! It was one of those ~aaaaaaaahhhhh~ naps that just felt so, so good. :-) I did feel slightly guilty though, knowing I was enjoying such a luxury while the weary Hays were on the road for the next six hours. Oh well. It was a GREAT nap. :-)

I stayed up that night and worked on my ABM service. That's about all I remember. Yesterday was spent almost entirely in the kitchen. ABM service was to be here at our house today and I had lots of baking to do. I was able to get everything all taken care of and have the house in pretty good shape. Oh, yeah--I also cut the boys' hair yesterday. I hate that job. It takes me FOREVER. But in the end they actually look pretty good this time. Last time it was a terrible hack job! Anyway, I had everything taken care of so I could spend some more time on my service--and Sunday School class--last night.

We had a really, really good service this morning. We had good worship (James led a bunch of CHORUSES, if you can believe that! Nothing from the blue book!!! Can you imagine?!?!?) and then Brother Chris preached a really, really good message. We are so blessed to have him for our pastor. He keeps us constantly challenged.

After service we sent Katie with the Clarksons and brought Cainan home with us. We were only home for about an hour before the crowd showed up for our 2:00 band meeting. Hard as I tried, I just wasn't able to come up with a Christmas themed service! ~sigh~ How sad. Still, I felt good about what the Lord had given me. It focused mainly on that scripture in Hebrews that says, "Wherefore lift up the hands that hang down, and the feeble knees; Make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed." Those verses struck me very ABM-ish this past week and I felt like that's the direction we were supposed to go. We did sing some Christmas songs--which James made me play again. Ggrrr. He's so much better than me, but he simply refuses when it comes to Christmas songs. Sissy. Ha!

After service we fellowshipped and ate. A lot. We had left-over lemon bars from the Hays' visit, some white chocolate pretzels they had left for us (how thoughtful! And can you believe I SHARED them?!), two pumpkin pies, more pepperoni pinwheels 'cuz I still had the ingredients for more, some fresh gingerbread (not the cookies, the read stuff--gingerBREAD)--YUM!--a meat and cheese tray, punch... Hhmmm. Seems like I'm forgetting something. At any rate ;-) it was a lot of food and I think it all turned out well. Oh! The poppy seed bread! I had made a BUNCH of that. Four big loaves and six little ones--to give to the members. We had a good time just talking and visiting with everybody. Though none of these people linger like I would like! Ha! Service was at 2:00 and I think the whole crowd was gone by about 4:00. So our whole family decided to make a night of it. We got the house put back together and the dishes taken care of and I think we were all in our pj's by 4:30! Ha! I used some more left-over ingredients and used them to make homemade pizza tonight. Nothing to write home about, but we ate most of it. And it used up some more stuff we needed to use. :-)

Sat down the the kid-o's and watched The Toy that Saved Christmas. I almost forget the feel that the old Veggie Tales had. Something they seemed to have lost some time ago. I laughed a lot. I didn't remember thinking that show was all that great, but I sure enjoyed it tonight. I LOVE the silly song, particularly the verse about the viking:

"I'm a viking! And I've come to take your land, oh yes! I've come to take your land, and I've come to burn your crops and steal your horses. And I've come to... step on your chickens! And soil your quilts!"

HA! It's so great. And then when he comes back and says, "Though I'd love to soil your quilts, I don't think that I wilt... because it's Christmas!" :-)

The kids are now reading library books and James and I are hanging out on our computers. It's about time for devotions now. Not sure what we'll do after we put the kids down, but I'm sure it won't be anything productive. I'm shot! It's been a great weekend though. Good church, good friends and fun and food, lots of Christmas music and a pretty Christmassy house and nice, cold weather and nice cozy fires... ~sigh~ Life is grand. :-)

It's been a good day today. James started us off right when he got up and fixed biscuits and sausage and eggs and oatmeal. I'm tellin' ya, I don't know what's gotten into him lately (maybe bragging publicly on the blog helps, so I'm gonna keep doing it!), but he's been GREAT! We had a good morning devotion, though one of our readers couldn't find her Bible. Maybe by tomorrow she'll have located it. The kids did well in school and finished decently early, leaving them the rest of the afternoon to play--which they did. Like... instead of fight! It was GREAT!!! The three of them all ended up piling into the boys' room and making "houses" for themselves out of blankets draped over the bunkbeds and various other furniture. They had a blast, they were getting along, and they and their mess were all contained in one room. It was fantastic! And it gave me time to get our Christmas letter all put together and printed out (actually, James did the printing part) and get all of the Christmas cards out and ready to start working on. Then James said he wanted to load the family up and go to town tonight. HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HO! HO! HO! HEE! HEE! HA! HA! HA! HA! You can't possibly understand how funny that really is. You see, I don't GO to town. I go gladly for Church. And... that's about it. I'm NOT a big city person and I am WAY out of my element in the mobs of people--over half a million of 'em there. The times when James DOES drag me into town it's in the middle of the day (preferably morning) when the largest percentage of people are either at school or work. I want to be out of town and back up to my cozy little house by 3:00 before the real madness begins. I don't go in the evenings at ALL and very, very rarely do I go all summer long because it's just way too crazy. I guess I'm a public school fan after all. HA! Anyway, I CERTAINLY don't go to town after 5:00 in the evening. And in DECEMBER when the whole world is out there all over the roads and stores and restaurants?! No way. I prefer to do my shopping ahead of time and then live like a happy little hermit throughout the holidays. ;-) Anyway...

James got me to town tonight.

Wanna know how he did it? It really wasn't fair at all. He threw out the bait knowing full well I'd take it. Here it is:

Ha! I couldn't believe it when I saw on Aunt Kay's blog that they'd been to the new Krispy Kreme in their area--we just had one open up this past weekend, too! People actually CAMPED OUT there the night before the grand opening--tents and all--and it was COLD outside! It had to have gotten down into the thirties that night, maybe twenties. But the first 12 people through the door got a full year's worth of free doughnuts. :-) Anyway, you can get Krispy Kremes sometimes at a gas station or something like that, but it's just not the same. I hadn't had a HOT, FRESH Krispy Kreme straight through the grease and under the sheet of glaze and into my mouth in YEARS. You know, when you go to pick it up and it just squishes between your fingers because it's so soft and warm, then you put it in your mouth and don't even have to chew because the pure deliciousness of it all just melts there all by itself... ~Mmmmmmmmm~ James played that card and it worked like a charm. Ha! So at about 5:00 tonight (I'm struggling to believe I actually went for this now that I'm rehearsing it) we headed into town and then to the FAR end of town where the KK was reported to have opened up. We needed to get a bite to eat and I told James I didn't care where--if he saw a restaurant with a parking space, TAKE IT. It was in the area surrounding the big mall and I knew it would be CRAZY busy. We ended up at Chick-fil-A which, of course, had all the kids singing the song. "Suddenly... I need waffle fries in front of me... And some nuggets and large sweet tea, oh, Chick-fil-A, you set me free!" Ha! I was surprised to find that they knew most of the words to that song. Amazing. I was also surpised to find that I actually enjoyed my meal. I've discovered that a great many things can be made quite enjoyable if slathered in make-shift fry sauce. Just don't count the calories. Especially when you're on your way to Krispy Kreme. Ha!

Ah, yes. Then we were off to find the Krispy Kreme. The girl at Chick-fil-A gave either pointed to the wrong street or James misunderstood which street she was pointing to when she told him how to find it. So I went in and asked a guy at a gas station. We wandered around for a while and finally discovered that the huge swaying spotlights flashing back and forth across the sky were coming from the Krispy Kreme! Trying to light the way the whole time, and we didn't even know it! Ha! You can see the lights in the back of that truck in the picture above, but you can't see how bright and far the beams were shining. It was cool! The line was quite long, of course, but we didn't have to stand outside so what's to complain about?! We bought two dozen and cleared out one box right then and there. Each kid had two and James and I had three! Ha! I feel like such a pig! But a very, very happy pig. :-) The second box was brought home for breakfast tomorrow.

Before we left town we decided to drive a few streets to look for Christmas lights. I don't ever remember doing that when I was a kid, but James LOVES doing that and our family does it several times during the Christmas season. It's fun. But it's a lot harder now that we live here--it was so easy to know where to go in Andrews! We just drove a couple of neighborhoods tonight, but saw some pretty good displays.

We had seen this one in the daylight last week (it's right behind the Pizza Hut where we went for the kids' Book It! stuff) and we knew it would be great at night, so we went to see it. :-)

We got home at just about bedtime, so we shuffled all the kids off to bed and I sat down and started writing out Christmas cards. I think I made it to "C" in my address book. Maybe. Ha! I don't have the motivation to do any more tonight, so I'm hoping I can work on them tomorrow while the kids are doing school. We'll see!

Tomorrow night is sure to be a grand and glorious night even though we're going to town again. ;-) We're going for Church this time (I'm always okay with going for that purpose!) and then sometime tomorrow night the Hays will be coming to stay with us. Wa-Hoo!!! Gotta get the house cleaned up, the snacks prepared, and the games warmed up. :-) They'll be going to Texas to preach a weekend revival and decided they'd stop here on their way. I told James to let them know that it's TRADITION that they come see us because they've come here the past two Decembers--it just wouldn't be right if they didn't come again. ;-) They will only be here the one night, but I'll settle for that. ~sigh~ I'm so excited!!!

After that I've got to get to work on my ABM service for Sunday night. We're going to have it here at the house, which makes me happy. I'm pretty sure I know the direction I'm wanting to go with the service--a scripture from Hebrews just jumped out at my during devotions with the kids the other day--I just need to get it all put together. Next week, who knows! I'm SO enjoying this Christmas season. I was thinking the other day about how very, very blessed I am and how very, very happy I feel. Sometimes life gets hard or you have trials that are tough to deal with. God is good even during those times, of course. But right now I'm not facing any of those hard things. I look around me and see a husband who loves God, loves the Church, and loves me and our kids; three kids who are fun and crazy and talented and (for the most part) very good and happy; a home that is nice and cute and cozy and comfortable--and Christmassy! Besides all of the other reasons to be thankful--salvation and The Church of God and good health and food to eat, clothes to wear, the best friends and extended family in the world, etc. I am just feeling so grateful for all of the blessings He's flooded my life with. Things are so good and I feel so very blessed. :-)

It's a Blizzard!!!!

That's what they've been saying for days and days now. It's going to be a blizzard. "Three to eight inches in the East Mountains (that's where we live) and high winds causing blizzard conditions." (Not that three to eight inches really makes for a blizzard...) Well, they got the wind right, anyway. It blew hard all night long, waking us several times. At about 6:00 this morning it sounded like it might blow the house down, which is always a nice way to start your day. As for the snow, they were way off. BIG SHOCK. I've never had just a whole lot of respect for weathermen. Anybody who can tell that many big, fat lies on public television for all the world to see and hear, well... It wouldn't be so bad if they would just admit they were wrong every now and again. But noooooo, they're always right. Have you ever heard a weatherman say, "Boy, sorry 'bout that, folks. I really thought it was going to be hot and dry this week... Sorry to those of you whose homes were flooded." "Sorry I told you not to water your gardens this week because we'd have plenty of rain... This dearth really took me off guard." Or, in my case, "So sorry to promise a blizzard in which you could have the time of your life with your kids and truly enjoy the glories of the holiday season, only to have not a single flake fly your way. I really blew it this week..." Nope. They just go right on pretending like what they said last time really happened and like what they're telling you now will absolutely come to pass--when everybody knows there's not a chance. The guys around here are the worst I've ever been around in my life. I'm trying to recall a single time they've been right... Nope, can't think of one. Of course, I'm probably just bitter. This is the second time in the past few weeks they've promised and lied about big snow. A couple weeks ago they said we'd get A FOOT of snow where we are. You guessed it... not one flake. That's just dumb. Somebody ought to be shot.

Strange. I didn't know I was cranky this morning. Ha!

Right now Katie is getting some waffles ready and the boys are in their bedroom getting dressed, singing, "I need to tell you somethin'... I don't got a bellybutton!" Not sure where James is. I decided I'd blog in the morning since I never seem to have the gumption to do it in the evenings anymore.

Guess what we had for dinner Friday night??? Smothered elk steaks!!!!! THANK YOU, CHRIS & HALEY, FOR BRINGING ME SOME ELK MEAT!!!!! Oh, they were sooooooooo good. The kids started off by saying, "Wow, Mom, this is really good. Quite tasty." By the end of the meal I heard one of them say, "This is the best meal you've ever made, Mom!" Ha! It was so great. The gravy is just about the best part. You just can't get that same flavor when you make gravy with beef. I made extra and we're still eating on it, though the steaks were gone that first night.

On Saturday I put on a pot of ham and beans and we got to smell it all day long. :-) Love that on a cold day! The ham and beans were sooooooo good. James had made some sort of cherry/cream cheese dessert that day, so we took some of that and some ham and beans and cornbread and the white chocolate pretzels and oatmeal raisin cookies that James had also made (!) over to the horse lady. (She doesn't look like a horse; she's the lady who used to give the kids riding lessons.) If felt good to share some nice, warm food with someone on a cold night. Especially since her pipes had burst and she'd used her grocery money to have them fixed! All day on Saturday I worked on some computer work for the Church that I've been putting off for way too long and finally finished it up that night. That felt good!

I taught kid Sunday School again this week. Seems like I just can't get into the groove of teaching six little people. I always think we'll have plenty of time, but then we're always rushing to try to get finished at the end!

After church we went out to eat at Cracker Barrel so James could shop in the store for his mom for Christmas. He's always SO GOOD with knowing what to get people (always the perfect gift, too), but he just couldn't think of anything for his Mom this year. He didn't find anything at Cracker Barrel either, but we got a good lunch out of the deal anyway! Afterwards we went to K-Mart (where he finally found something for her) and a few other places, then decided we really didn't have time to go home before evening service. So we went to the dollar store and picked up some cleaning supplies for the church--been needing to do that anyway. We had a really good WMB service that night (Sister Shanda's services are always so good), then stayed around and cleaned up the Sunday School room that I've been helping the kids trash for several weeks now.

I worked with the kids on school stuff yesterday while James made tamales. Did you get that? JAMES MADE TAMALES! Ha! Can you believe it?! And they were GOOD! He's good at pretty much anything he puts his mind to, but tamales are tricky and I really didn't have very high expectations. But they were very, very good. I think the boys each ate three for dinner last night!

I was able to get all of the laundry and ironing done yesterday, so that feels good.

Wow. This has got to be the most boring post in the world. All of the hum-drum things of life and no pictures or crazy kid stories or nothin'. Sorry. I'll try to do better next time. (Unlike the creepy weathermen around here, I KNOW when I've blown it...)

Healed!!!

I feel sooooooo much better today! My throat still hurts when I swallow, but it's nothing compared to how it was yesterday. I don't feel lethargic and my body isn't all achy. :-) I truly believe the Lord touched me last night and I'm so, so, so glad!!!

I woke up several times last night, but still felt like I slept well. I woke up this morning and heard James clanging around in the kitchen. In a few minutes he showed up in the bedroom with a cup of his fantastical homemade hot chocolate and a plate with warm muffins on it. Wow!!! Breakfast in bed! This is AFTER he did all sorts of housework yesterday when I was feeling so rough. He had cleaned up the kitchen, loaded the dishwasher, scrubbed the stove top, swiffered the floor--after fixing dinner for all of us. Amazing. Same thing at lunch time today. I walk into the room and he's made sandwiches and ramen for everybody--mine already dished up and sitting on the table waiting for me. He's been drinking Super Juice again. HA! I love that stuff!!!!! :-)

I helped the kids with school today, then worked on the Christmas Memories book. It's a really neat book that I got the first year we were married. It's basically a journal, but only for Christmastime. You write in it each year under certain categories (Holiday Visits, Christmas Eve, Christmas Dinner, Favorite Gifts, etc.) so you can always remember the details you would otherwise forget about your holidays. Great idea. And it covers 20 Christmases! But I've been very, very bad and haven't written in it the past two years!!! So I looked up my blog archives and READ about Christmas in 2007 and 2008, then took notes so I'd have something to write in the book. Which made me wonder... do I really NEED the book since I have a blog record?! Why, YES! Of course I do! There's something so much more special about a real, live book than whatever comes up on a screen. Anyway, I'm almost done filling in the book. I'll just have to be sure and write down all about this year's Christmas as soon as it's over with so I don't have to reference the blog next year to be able to fill in the blanks! Ha!

Then there's the bittersweet news of the day. The sweet part is that it's been snowing ALL DAY LONG. :-) Makes me oh-so-happy!!! It was beautiful when I woke up and it's just kept on coming down all throughout the day. An interesting thing I've learned about New Mexico though... It might snow for a week straight, but it's never going to get more than 3" deep! Ha! It's CRAZY!!! And that's about what we have. Enough to be really, really pretty and enough for the kids to go out and have a lot of fun. Enough to make the Christmas tree even prettier in front of the window with all that winter outside. Enough to make the crackling fire all the more enticing and enough to make your hot chocolate taste that much sweeter. I'M SO HAPPY. That's the sweet part.

The bitter part? We missed church tonight!!! Is that lame, or what?! First of all, people here FREAK OUT over snow. You get and inch and they act like it's a foot and just sooooo dangerous. And I guess it is because they don't get enough of it to really learn how to drive in it or something--there really are a lot of accidents around here when the weather is not what I would consider to be severe at all. You listen to the news and these people take on the same tone about an impending snowstorm that folks in Louisiana take on when they talk about another hurricane about to strike. Weird. ANYWAY... Though there's not a whole lot of snow and it's really not THAT BAD out there... we only have one vehicle and it happens to be a mini-van. A mini-van that is PITIFUL in the snow--we learned that last year. Since the Envoy bit the dust a few months ago we're without a four wheel drive. About 30 minutes before time to leave for church James was going to take the van for a little spin and just see how the roads were. HA! He didn't even make it out of our driveway and he was slippin' and sliding, so he didn't leave the yard for fear he wouldn't make it back in! HA! It's SO PITIFUL!!! We knew that it would be far worse after church when it was darker and colder and more slick, and we'd never be able to get the van up the hill. What a gyp!!! It feels SO DUMB to stay home from church because of three measly inches of snow--how wrong is that?! We called to let our pastor know we wouldn't be there tonight and resigned ourselves anew to finding a 4x4 we can afford--somehow!

When we realized we couldn't make it to church, I threw together some spaghetti real fast (we were planning on just grabbing a bite after service) and we enjoyed a nice, warm dinner together. Then we got out our Body of Christ book and looked up the chapter that they were going through at church tonight and we gathered the fam and went through it together. Afterwards we went ahead into our family devotions and finished up the Mountain Preacher book we've been going through. The kids are so sad that it's over! Every night they would just BEG for us to read "just one more chapter!!!"--at the end of every chapter, even if we'd already read several. I love that! I think we'll pick another book like that to start into--something from an old timer giving testimony of the things God was doing "way back when." It somehow seems more "real" to the kids when it happened right here in the recent past than sometimes the Bible stories do. At this age they seem to relate to something more recent (and American?) a little better.

After devotions we had the kids get their pj's on and brush their teeth, then I MADE THEM watch The Star of Christmas with me. I, personally, think it is hands-down the BEST kid Christmas show ever made. It has soooooooooo many great parts. And great lines!!! "I'm praying to be delivered from the mighty and crushing hand of Moyer the Destroyer!" "The Star hasn't been displayed publicly for years due to the increased security risks during the reigns of King James the Greedy and King Sedgwick the I'll-Eat-Anything-Star-Shaped." HA! My kids HATE it though and I just can't understand why. Okay, well, maybe I do. It could be because James and I walk around the house singing the princess and the plumber song.

Plumber, you have saved me, from the monkey king!

Princess, it was nothing; just a little thing!

How could I not see it, as I took a drink?
Love was right beneath my nose, underneath my sink!

(Together)
Now we'll be so happy, no more grief or pain
Love will flow like water, running down our drain!!!!!

With her crown and with his wrench,
He a Brit and she so French
Nevermore to smell the stench
of clogged up love...!!!!!!

HA! It's sooooooooooooo great! CRACKS ME UP, but drives my kids batty. Which, of course, makes it that much more fun. :-) Some day they'll be parents and they'll understand. And they'll follow their kids around the house singing some song that will make their own children go mad. It's the precious cycle of life, you know?

Well, I'd best be going. I forgot that I've got a bedroom full of presents that I need to wrap now that everybody is in bed. James did some shopping for the kids on behalf of his folks--and his Mom had some other stuff sent out, too--so it might take a while! That's okay. I love wrapping presents. It's fun and makes me very happy. Especially when you're doing it to the proper Christmas music that is sufficiently jolly. :-)

Sick

Not SUPER sick, but sick enough to not want to do anything. I've cleaned the kitchen and done a few left-over loads of laundry from yesterday, but that's it. Laid around on the couch and had the kids bring their school work to me when they needed help. I've got a terrible sore throat--probably the worst I've had in years--but otherwise I'm just super tired and achy. My head pounds for a little while when I first stand up, but it usually subsides pretty quickly. So... I'm sick enough to not want to do anything productive. Isn't that great?! It means that I'm finally going to BLOG after over a week! Wa-Hoo! Yeah, sickness! (Riiiiiiight...)

Let's see... We had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving and SO much fun with the Hatch folks. They came up on Saturday before Thanksgiving and stayed until Monday night. We stayed up late playing games and had lots of good laughs. Sister Erika is especially good at Pictionary. If "good" means the one who enduces the greatest laughter! Ha! You should see her picture of a chicken and an egg. ;-) It was terrific. On Monday we put out our full-fledged Thanksgiving feast and everything turned out perfect. It was not only fun to have everybody here, but it was FANTASTIC to have some other girls to help with the dishes! Ha! I don't mind cooking the big meal (especially on holidays), but it's sooooooo not fun when you're the only woman there to do all the clean up. I put food in Tupperwares and then sat down to de-bone the rest of the turkey. By the time I was done with that the girls had all of the dishes FINISHED! WOW! They're invited to come for EVERY holiday from now on! Ha!

On Thanksgiving Day I cooked a honey glazed ham and fresh potatoes and stuffing and things like that--to go with our left-overs from our early Thanksgiving. We were out of hot rolls and egg salad (those are always the two left-overs I go for in the post Thanksgiving meal days!) and a few other things, but it was still a great meal.

The clean up wasn't even so bad. :-)

That night, as is tradition around here, we hauled in all of the Christmas decorations. Packed up all of the fall stuff and got started pulling out all the red and green. James got the tree up and looking adorable and I got most of the other stuff in place... just didn't have it in me to fight with the greenery around all the doorways. So that was Friday's job. Actually, I think it may have been Saturday before I actually got the last of everything done (I was working in slow motion--I hate days like that!) and the house all cleaned up and looking good.

I taught the kids Sunday School class on Sunday and we had a great time. Made little mangers out of wooden sticks and then made a wooden cross to place in them, signifying that Jesus was born for the purpose of growing up to die for us. I loved the thought, whether the kids got anything out of it or not. :-)

After church we went to the dollar store so James could look for a new Christmas tie. Ha! Only James... This one has snowflakes all over it and it sings Jingle Bells or something when you push the button. Makes him happy. I, on the other hand, was made happy by the four pairs of Christmas socks that I found! Ha! (For only a dollar apiece, why not buy all the cute ones?!) Got some socks for Katie, too, a little snow globe for Sam, and some Christmas sun catchers for Joe. We came home and the kids and I sat down at the table to work on the sun catchers. It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Especially 'cuz I still had time for a nap afterwards. :-)

Sometime that day the kids got to talking about the CPMA and they all decided that they simply must join. They've mentioned it a lot in the past month or two, and they finally just couldn't take it anymore. They wanted to be MEMBERS. So they arranged with their dad to take $10 out of each of their savings accounts so they could be real, live members of the CPMA with their very own cards. They were soooooo excited! They sang Brother Grimes' CPMA song all the way to church that night, but adjusted the lyrics a little bit. "I am a member of the CPMA -- Because I just joined TODAY!" Ha! When we got to church they all went running up to Brother Chris to tell him that they were joining the CPMA and he about gave Joe a heart attack. "Joe, did you pass the test?" Joe asked what he was talking about. "Your granddad called me and said to make sure you took the CPMA test before you got your card. Have you taken the test yet?" You should have SEEN Joe's face! HA! He came to me looking VERY concerned. "Mom, Brother Chris says I have to take a TEST before I'm a member... what if I don't pass it???" Ha! It was great. Brother Chris asked the kids a few questions, helped them out with the answers, and they all received their CPMA cards during our CPMA service that night. And they are the most excited CPMA members I've ever seen! Ha!

Monday was a regular day, I think. School and the usual. Yesterday we went to town to do some running around. Went to Bath & Body works because I was OUT of lotion and in desperate need. We made good on their buy 2, get 1 free deal, then made it back out to the van only to discover that I had a coupon for one free item up to $13 with a purchase of $10 or more. So I left the family in the van and marched back in to see if they'd let me redeem it. They were kind enough to do so and, after a great deal of confusion, I finally walked out with four lotions for the price of two. :-)

We made out pretty good at the thrift store, too, finding some nice long sleeved shirts for the kids. I hate seeing their arms when it's COLD--they ought to wear long sleeves during this glorious time of the year when they're ABLE to. :-)

Uummm... stopped by Hobby Lobby and let each kids pick out their annual ornament since this was the 50% off week.

Ah, yes. We ate at Pizza Hut so the kids could get their free Personal Pans from the Book It! program. Do you remember that program?! I used to love it when I was a kid--my very own pizza! How cool is that?! It's made available for homeschoolers now, so this was their second month. The waitress was SOOOOO excited and just kept congratulating the kids and telling them how great it was that they're reading so much, gave them each a bouncy ball and a free soda along with their pizza. And she let James and me get the $6.99 large pizza that was only supposed to be available for carry-out. So our bill was less than $12 and we had enough left-over to have dinner that night. Gotta love that! Of course, I insisted James leave a generous tip to our way too nice waitress.

I started coming down with a sore throat on Monday night and wasn't feeling the greatest yesterday, but mostly just really tired. I made it through our venture to town okay, but by the time we got home I was shot. So we called another family movie night and enjoyed our left-over pizza and just hung out with the kids. It was nice.

Today I woke up feeling REALLY crummy and my throat is sooooo much worse. I had some hot lemonade with honey earlier and that seemed to help a little bit. It made me think of Grandma Babe anyway, so that always makes me happy. :-) I tried napping today, but it just didn't work out too well. The kids managed to finish up on school and James fixed Frito Pie for supper. Now he's in his office, Katie and Joe are reading library books, and Sam is sitting in a laundry basket with a blanket, a walkie-talkie and a stick, talking to himself--playing SOMETHING, but I can't figure out what yet.

Oh, I do have one great story. When I woke up this morning feeling so bad Joe took it upon himself to try to help. He's generally a pretty kind and thoughtful kid. I didn't know he was doing anything at all, but suddenly he burst into the den where I was sitting, saying, "Oh, Mom! Mom, I'm sooooooo sorry! I'm so sorry, Mom--I didn't mean to! Please forgive me! I'm so, so, so sorry!!!" Not the way you want to start your day, you know?! Ha! I followed him into the kitchen and this is what I found...

My kind, thoughtful son had poured me a glass of juice and was making me a piece of toast. Only for some reason he put the bread ON A PLASTIC PLATE, then put it in the toaster oven!!!! The plate was all melted and oozing down between the wires on the rack and Joe was just freaking out. HA! I laughed so hard!!!

That kid is so sweet... but he's SUCH AN IDIOT!!! Ha! Ha! Ha! He's made toast a hundred times, but for some reason he added a plate today. ~sigh~ I IMMEDIATELY found myself thinking, "He's a good boy... One day he'll be gone and we'll miss him very much!" Ha! Lucky for him it hadn't melted enough to actually drip to the bottom of the toaster. And it all came out easily in one warped piece. :-)

He's not too thrilled about me blogging the story (can you tell?), but I told him that I HAVE to blog it so I don't ever forget the crazy things my kids do. :-)


I also told him that it would NOT be funny the second time; only the first. ;-)