holy night.

I love this time of year. This morning, I really caught the spirit of christmas. I mean, I've always loved christmas, but it takes me a bit to get into things. And today I just did. The music, the pointsettas, the lights, cherubic faces of the child re-inactment of the nativity - it was just all there. Not a moment too late for me either.
This morning's Purpose Driven lesson talked about love and busyness, how busyness keeps us from focusing on our purpose - having loving relationships. Wow. Timely. So today - in and amongst my duties as pastor's wife, sunday school teacher, and drama director - I spent quality time with my kids. We had a wonderful lunch with Nettie and the Nortons (our fun name for Kyndal's crowd) at KFC and came home for naps for the kids - catch up time for mom. When Eli got up we sat at the kitchen table and made snowflakes from paper - he'd never done it before and he was enthralled! I had forgotten how much fun it was!
The drama tonight went awesome. I was so proud of our students - they were phenomenal. Everyone remembered their lines. They all 'acted'. so proud.
Eli and Sarah had special parts too - Sarah was a very reluctant sheep, she was much more interested in holding baby Jesus. Eli was a proud Joseph. I was amazed.
So much love here tonight. Sarah is up in her room - getting ready to sleep - singing "Jesus Loves Me". I turned the monitor up to 6 so I could hear her. Tonight has been one of those nights where you realize how precious and fleeting life is and you just stop and soak up every minute of it that you can. Take a second to love on your little ones, give your husband an extra long hug, and don't take another moment for granted.

doesn't this make you hungry??

This is my freezer, stuffed to the gills with holiday goodness. Hope you were nice this year! :)

a new era.

For the first time since we've had Sarah, Rob and I both slept in. That probably doesn't sound like a big deal to most people, but Sarah wakes up (like an alarm clock) at 7am (or sooner, if she pleases) and has for years now. It's killing me - never getting a day to sleep in. And if we do - we take turns and alternate Saturdays and days off. It works out to about once every two weeks I get an extra 45 minutes of sleep.
This morning, our kids got up at 6:45. They came in, begged for breakfast and I told them 'in a minute'. Eli remembered that it was Saturday and turned on the tv. They sat together in the living room (Sarah furnished apples from the fridge - already the little hostess).
I regained consciousness at 9am. They were fine! Isn't that crazy?? They actually got along better without me, because as soon as I got up they started fighting, but they had been fine without us! Now, don't think I'm a terrible mom, our bedroom is two rooms away from the living room, I could hear anything going on. But I was so excited, our kids are actually almost old enough to let us sleep in!! Woohoo! This will have to become a new Saturday tradition for us!! But I think I need to wait a little longer, after I got up I looked around my house and realized all the crazy things Sarah could have gotten into if she'd thought about it - she's usually really bad about the fridge.
So today I'm thankful for two extra hours of sleep. Not sure what do with the day, might just spend it in my studio. :) Ooh, happy thought.

mmm.... holiday goodness.

It's probably against some internet standard to start a blog post with the word 'mmm'. Is 'mmm' even a word? Not sure, but if it is, it's definitely the word of the day.

If you were to look in my freezer right now you would decide that someone baked their face off. Really. It's crazy. I had to relocate the chicken to the fridge. It's like the inn the night Jesus was born - there's no room!

I say this because I have been baking for days. I started out on Monday - and dedicated this week to my holiday baking. I know that normal people take one day, maybe two, and bake for christmas. Oh no, that's too normal for me. I have to have five full days of holiday kitchen mayhem!

I probably could have finished sooner if Sarah wasn't being such a handful, but she is, so it took all week. I made.... Molasses Sponge Candy, Caramels (the kids favorite), Puppy Chow, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Peanut Butter Kisses, Tuxedo Cookies, Spicy Nut Triangles, Snickerdoodles (Rob's favorite), Pretzel Turtles (too cute!), Iced Sugar Cookies (that was fun!) and last but not least, Raspberry Thumb Print Cookies. I had so much fun doing it!! And my kitchen is clean, I totally kept up with the mess as I went along.

So now I have the next 9 days to catch up on my christmas shopping/gift making and get my house up to par for our christmas guests.

Cool things on the horizon... The HAG pageant is Sunday night - I am super psyched and super nervous. Next Gen's party is Monday night at our house. Sweet! Rob's mom and step-dad and step-brother arrive a week from tomorrow and we leave for Iowa on the 26th. Just today we coordinated a MAG (our home church) reunion with some of our friends from ten years ago. I can't wait - it's going to be a blast. Plus, Kimmie is coming and she's bringing a new gentleman-friend.

Christmas truly is my my favorite time of year - mostly because Rob and I were engaged in December and it was the most magical time in my life. I relive it a tiny bit every year at this time. Makes me wish it would snow though - it would be a whole lot more romantic!!

hanging in there

My sinus infection really set in today. Which is funny, since I got a prescription yesterday. I kind of feel like I've been run over by a truck - at least my head feels that way. details.
We had our MOPs christmas party this morning. I'm posting two pictures of the ornament (I made - lifted and altered from Archiver's) and one of the box. It was too fun. The guest speaker gave examples of how to wrap gifts - fun little touches. Needless to say, it was right up my alley.
Having a rough day with Sarah, she's just been so sick for so long and all my patience was gone about ten days ago.
Oh, and the last picture is of Sarah holding a drawing she did. We watched her do it. It's a drawing of Daddy. See the eyes, mouth?? The girl is 28 months old on Saturday. She kills me - way too capable. Look out world!

blogging in my pj's

I've got a huge to-do list today, but I'm taking it easy right now. The weekend took it out of me. We had Cribs on Friday and the christmas party last night and I'm wiped out. Sarah's cold/pnueomnia is threatening to overtake me. I got to sleep in a bit this morning (thanks Rob) and I'm just trying to chill and not overdo it. Something that doesn't come naturally for me! :)
The christmas party went really well I think. Everyone had a good time. The gift exchange was fun and the kids liked the cds we made them. We had twenty-one students there - our second highest attendance yet. I got home last night and crashed - I hadn't realized how hard I'd been working to pull all that together!
Tonight we have the WM's christmas party, it's a progressive dinner, so that'll be fun.
This will be the week-o-baking at my house. I want to bring some treats to Iowa and I have several parties/cookie exchanges in the next ten days. I love baking, it will be fun.
Getting pretty psyched for christmas and then the trip North. Can't wait to see my family and a bunch of our friends, it's going to be a blast. Excited to do christmas with our kids too - it's too much fun to give them stuff!
Well, off to get productive. thirteen shopping days left people. No time for lazy bones now!

why do I blog when I have nothing to say?

I guess it's just cause I have a moment to say it. te-hee. Pretty productive day, in and around Sarah and her pnuemonia. Which - she may die from because she refuses to take her antibiotic. It seriously takes Rob and I both on top of her to force her to swallow a drop - and then we still manage to wear like 3/4 of her dose. I'm going to have to call the dr in the morning and get a different script - cause this just isn't cutting it. She's no better - probably because she's barely getting any meds. grrr.
But I managed to finish my cute little mintie-dos for Christmas Eve service. This was a fun idea Rob and I had a while back, a little way to thank all the people in our church over the holidays - without buying each of them a gift. We just made little matchbooks with a lifesaver inside. And I say 'we' because Rob did the printing/editing and I did the paper cutting/folding. Such a great team. Anyhoo, if you go to HAG act all surprised when we hand these out in two weeks. :)
I also have a hefty start into the bulletin board at church, which doesn't sound like a big deal, but I'm doing a more intensive project than previous boards. It's pretty artsy, but I think it'll be super cool. And I carefully coordinated it with the church christmas decor, cause I'm a dork like that. I will take pictures this time, just because it's been such an involved project.
We are finishing up our 'gifts' for our student christmas party too, I'm so excited, I think the kids will love them! Oh, and my kids and I made the grammies presents today, and I want to post them SUPER-BAD but I don't want to spoil the surprise on the off chance one of the grammies might read today's entry. I need to remember to post them after we head to Iowa. :) Super inexpensive but meaningful gift - so much that I made one for our house too!
Anyhoo, I know it's 6:30 and I'm off to put the kids to bed. No naps and sickness, it's definitely the needed option this evening. Toodles.

of course it's pnuemonia...

Up for mother-of-the-year again. But it will swiped away by another candidate with this last blazenly brilliant maternal faux paux. I finally returned to the dr. (if you can call them that) with Sarah and she has, you guessed it.... pnuemonia. Not sure how, the girl is on her third round of antibiotics in the past 5 weeks, but whatever.
It kind of kills me, cause I never let my kids play outside unless it's 50 degrees plus. They always wear their coats. The only germy place we ever visit is church. But they still manage to catch the creeping crud. Poor Sarah, she's miserable. Poor us, she's making every one around her miserable!
Oh well, hopefully this is all long behind us by the time we pack up and head for Iowa. Yep, Iowa for Christmas. They don't get much smarter than us! :) I'm just hoping we are done with all this weather by then, but not holding my breath. Very excited to see Mom and Dad. And Lori's new house. And Rob's dad. It will be great to get away for a bit. And we feel so grown up because we are renting a car! :) It's sad when you are 27 and you have to rent a car to feel like a grown up. details.
Anyhoo, I just baked a loaf of bread and it's seriously tempting me. Oh, and did I mention I have little or no willpower? good to know.

Gathering myself to start the day.
I am starting to realize how much stinking time I spend on this computer. It is pathetic. I think I might ask for a new computer chair for Christmas, since I spend so much time in it!! :)
Rob took Eli to school this morning only to find a closed building. I just have to laugh. We had the storm of the decade on FRIDAY people. This is monday, how can we possibly still have a snow day?? There is barely any snow left!! Maybe there is something wrong with the power. Who knows. Well, I'm not complaining. We are going to Panera Bread for breakfast and then Target to return something and price match on an already purchased gift. Then I think we will wander over to the mall and see the big guy. Eli will be excited!
I'm going to try and do a little shopping this afternoon for me, my winter wardrobe is sadly lacking and our Leadership Dinner is tomorrow night at a pretty fancy restaurant. Yay! Still haven't found a babysitter, but details, right?? I'm getting my hair done tomorrow afternoon - it's time for a chop again and I figured might as well schedule it for an event. I'm excited though, I love this hairdresser, she did an amazing job last time. It's pretty grown out though, I'm probably 10 days overdue. Yeah, I'd never survive on LOST. I'd be crying about my hair!! (te-hee)
We have scrapbooking group tonight - yipee! I'm going to bring some goodies and probably work on addressing my christmas cards. grrr. I ran them through the computer last year, but DH somehow managed to lose my mail merge. double grrr. So rather than do them all again I might handwrite them. Still debating.
Lots to do around the house today, it's a mess. Might ignore it till tomorrow, it's usually my rule to avoid housework on Mondays. Kind of sacred. But Rob's at church right now putting the fellowship hall back together because there is a funeral tomorrow. So, I should be equally responsible and clean up. details.
All I've done this weekend is Expo. I finished my 50 videos in the first 12 hours and I've been uploading ever since. Mine are up now, but Rob decide to join the fun and so now I am uploading his. Totally worth it though, this month they are giving away up to $350. Dude, that's a lot of money. I *heart* Expo!!
Well, I'm going to go be responsible now. maybe I could scrap today. Oh, that gives me hope!!

Good Morning Everybody!!

It's Saturday, December 2nd and I am in the mood to get things done. Do you ever just wake up and instantly feel productive? That's me today. I got an email late evening yesterday, that Expotv.com is doing its most awesome promotion as of yet, giving away $350 total in promos this month. Now that's enough to make your holiday bright, isn't it??? So check it out!
So I am working hard on that, almost done with my videos and knee-deep in uploading them. :) So worth it though. And I've been baking up a storm, getting ready to send a couple packages off to my brother and his buddies in Iraq. Made some caramels a couple days ago and chocolate chip cookies yesterday and macadamia nut today. Trying to finish up those cards too. Just had a neat idea for the grandmas for christmas too, so I might force myself to go to Walmart today and get started on that. The christmas clock is ticking!!
I stayed up way too late last night, uploading videos and chatting on the phone with my good friend Kim. Love that.
Off to get stuff done. Leave me a comment and tell me what you are doing to get ready for christmas!!

old man winter arrived last night

and totally kicked our butt. :) Seriously, caught Ameren unprepared I think. Dumped tons of water, ice, sleet, and snow all over the country. Our power went out at quarter to midnight and we awoke to 56 degrees in the house, which isn't that terribly cold, but it's pretty cold after a night of sleeping in it. come to find out they are saying 2 million homes are powerless. Wow.
So we laid in bed as long as the kids would let us - 7:15 or so. Then we got up and did cold cereal (just what you want in 56 degree weather) and we started playing physical games like Simon Says and doing jumping jacks till the kids didn't want to do it anymore. Then Rob had the brilliant idea of running the shower in the bathroom (gas water heater) for a minute or two to heat up the room and just hanging out in there - all four of us in our bathroom. We lasted about two hours without killing each other, singing christmas carols and preschool songs. Then Deanie's daughter called us to let us know that their generator was up and going and they had a warm house, so we went there to wait it out.
We had just made plans to move to my cousins house - about 2:30pm when the power kicked back on and I was so thankful that this adventure was over. We came home and Sarah and I laid down for two hour naps. whew. She's still crabby, but I'm feeling a lot better. long day.
Here are some pictures I took. Oh, and one from yesterday of Sarah in her truely unique outfit for the day. She's so her own person, it rocks.

Mama said there'd be days like this...

Wow, was she ever right. Nothing particularly horrible, I'm just cranky. And NO, it's not that. I just feel very behind and with no hope of ever catching up. My house is about to cave in on itself with garbage and I'm just too tired to drag myself out of this chair to do something about it, which is uncharacteristic of me. I keep wearing myself out in my dreams at night - imagining that I am one of the characters on LOST and trying to problem solve all the weird things that are going on with that island. Oh, and last night I dreamt I was pregnant and I was really upset about it and then upset with myself for being upset. dumb.

I don't know what I am stressing about, we are kind of at a lull in our holiday rush. I'm ahead of schedule for shopping. I guess I really feel like Rob and I haven't connected in a while, just too busy running in different circles, I guess.

Next week we are going to Tanya's house to make chocolates for our secret friends. That will be tons of fun, I'm excited. Anyhoo. g-night.

days later

Sorry, that's just the way it is lately.

Everything is going well, except for me being consistently behind in everything. :) I think that's just a holiday thing, though. It's been a really good week so far, except for the kids, they've been kind of bratty.

Got started on the Christmas shopping, that's always fun. It will be a decent christmas this year, thanks primarily to ExpoTv.com. :)

Trying to get caught up on laundry. And we have MOPs this morning. yay! Going to run by the grocery store and stock up, we are in for our first winter storm tonight. Woohoo, I love a good storm if I don't have to go anywhere - which I don't. So we'll make chocolate chip cookies and hole up in our house and it will be so wonderful!

I'm in the final stretch with the christmas cards. Just have to cut out and glue and stickle the crowns, but other than that they look great. I added a little rhinestone on the top of the frame stamp and it gave it the pizazz I was looking for. Now I need to get my newsletter together, something I dread every year but always turns out fabulous. I just wish I knew more about publishing because it would make it a lot easier.

Ooh, I just realized I should send my pictures to Walgreens so I can pick them up after MOPs for some new inspiration - should we get snowed in. Yipee!

iSurvived

Thanksgiving 2006. Wow. It was crazy and awesome and I so hope to do it again next year. Sorry about the lack of blogging, but we still have company. They just ran to Lowes to get us a replacement pane of glass for a window we broke yesterday. That's the kind of uncle everyone wants - shows up at your house and says "What can I fix?"

We've stayed up excruciatingly late every night and the kids pop up at 6:45am (or earlier) so that is kicking our butts, but we are having a blast. I'm sure at some point Joe and Betsy will have to go home, but in the meantime it's been great.

We are learning a lot. First thing, we are realizing that we are not financial failures, and man, that is good to hear. And then, that there is hope, and maybe even a plan, which would seem impossible, but it's not. We've got a lot of praying and discussing to do here in the near future.

wasting the day

Sometimes, when I don't get enough sleep, I'm so unmotivated the next day.

Rob and I were up way too late talking last night, which would have been fine, but Sarah woke up coughing at 6am so it was just way too short of a night for me. I've suffered from lack of motivation all day.

It's kind of a weird day too, that early lazy start. I tried a new caramel corn recipe, it's alright. I've finished up five more Expotv.com videos. That's pretty cool. We watched another episode of LOST, which we are totally and grossly addicted too! Rob brought me a McDonald's chicken snack wrap for lunch (love that man). He totally supports my addiction now the the McRib is back. I watched Jim and Joyce cut out the offending bushes in my front yard. Sarah and I have done a serious amount of snuggling. I've managed to wash the kids sheets. Took a twenty minute power nap, interrupted by some rude 1 ring telemarketing call, just enough to wake me up. And that's about it, pretty much wasted the day. I figure it's ok, probably the last one I'll waste for quite a while, life increases speed here in the next couple days and should maintain momentum through christmas.

okay, take a seat...

I'd hate to have you fall over when I tell you that I scrapbooked today!!

I know!!

It's so exciting. It was overcast today and Sarah was wiped out by our Walmart exhibition. She slept from 11:30am to 2:45pm. I did four scrapbook pages AND took a couple phone calls AND wrote another part for the christmas pageant. I know, I'm a rock star.

Well, not really, but it felt really good. I hadn't played in over a month, and was starting to wonder if I had it in me anymore. Now to finish those christmas cards, grrr.

gobble gobble.

Yep, I bought our turkey today. I had to laugh because the register said "Tom Turkey $13.14" hee hee.

Got a super deal on it - $.69/lb. The nice lady at Walmart price matched it to Schnuck's for me, a whole 30 cents a pound cheaper than Walmart's low price. I bought a nineteen pound bird, the largest I've ever done, I'm pretty psyched. We are having 12-14 guests on Thursday and I know they say 2lbs per person, but a lot of our persons are little people so I am factoring that in. Plus, no one is staying for leftovers. I plan on freezing a lot of it.

I spent all yesterday cleaning house. Of course, I'm not done. The upstairs still needs tackled and it will all need refreshing long before next Thursday, I'm sure. But I'm not too worried about the house, making sure everyone has a good time is far more important to me.

We are hosting all the teenagers in youth on Sunday for a lunch and practice, I'm excited for that too, making chili and caramel rolls. yum.

This week is it - holiday kick-off at the Thoresons. We are decorating the house (in and out) on Saturday, so it will be all ready for turkey-day. Sunday is hanging of the greens and then it's a holiday flurry from there. Woohoo! I love this time of year.

I'm getting something done.

We moved the gigantic pile of brush, so that's alot better now. The yard still looks a little yucky, I need a rake, I guess. Working on the laundry now. Finished putting up the garland - it looks sweet. Wanted to share my Xmas card photos and Eli's kindergarten picture. He's kind of got a goofy grin, but it's totally him right now, so I don't mind it. Last years was better, but this is kind of symbolic of the place he's at in life right now. Such a good looking kid. :)

Got more work to do. always.

good morning

Hi everybody. It's been pretty wierd here this week. More busy-ness. Yesterday I spent the afternoon tearing up my yard - pulling down 20 feet of Morning Glory (still not able to get it all - too far out of my reach), trimming hedges and whacking off these two monstrous bushes in my front yard. Now I have a gigantic pile of brush in the middle of the yard, waiting for Jim to come with his pickup truck and help me haul it off. I had to laugh, one of our teenagers last night said "I like what you did to the bushes, it opens up the front of the house." and I said "What? You mean how I moved them to the middle of the yard?" hee hee. But Joyce assures me, as sad and pathetic as they look naked this winter, they will come back alot prettier in the spring. So my faith is in her gardening ability, not mine.
As you can see from the photo, I also started putting up our christmas decorations - but I ran out of garland and need to go back this morning. Sarah and I are on our way back to Big Lots here in a few moments.
We had a candy making demo last night at WM's. And I won a sample box. Mmmm. So good. Tan really knows her stuff! I might be inspired to make some candy this year, beyond my usual caramels and sponge candy.
I also (Praise God!) got a good start on my christmas cards last night - which I still need to photograph and post. But I'm probably 1/2 way done with them, so that's cool. All while watching my shows last night, you can't beat that! Anyhoo, I've got errands to run and a house to clean and laundry to deal with. Off to make a dent!

recovery
Not even sure where to start. So much has gone on since my last post. Mom was in a horseback riding accident on Thursday. She was walking next to a horse and it fell on her, breaking her right leg. After a weekend of pain, she is in a mid-thigh to ankle cast and sadly won't be able to make it for thanksgiving. I'm so thankful that she is ok - after having a thousand pound animal use her as an easy chair. I feel terrible that she is in so much pain. And I'm really bummed out that she won't be coming for the holidays - I haven't spent any time with Mom since March and I was really looking forward to it - so were the kids.
So then we fast forward to Friday - lots of insanity there - getting the rental van (we lovingly nicknamed it 'the blue streak') was an issue, but it was resolved and only put us an hour behind schedule. Enough so that our laundry was still all over the dining room table and there were dishes in the sink when it was time to leave and Joyce came to watch the kids. Such is life, I guess. I did the best I could with the time I had last week.
So then we loaded up the van and headed out to Springfield, IL (ie- the 'other' springfield) for Momentum '06. I had to laugh - I had six teenage boys ride in my van. I think they were won over by the better sound system. We listened to christian rock and punk all the way there and back and had some awesome conversations. I think that was my favorite part of the trip. God kept giving my divine appointments with teenagers - we'd be rooming together, or standing in a an hour long line for Starbucks (totally worth it) or whatever and it was just amazing to me how everyone is starting to go deeper. The convention itself was wonderful - a good speaker and two great bands. But I really enjoyed the time with students. We got home about 6 on Saturday night, but had to return the van and mess around with that. Sunday was tough. I was tired, but super cranky - so were the kids. It wasn't much fun. Sunday night we projected a movie up on the side of our house and we had 24 students show up to chill with us. Hot chocolate and popcorn kept us warm and it was super fun. We might have to make it an annual event.
Yesterday we just laid low, wiped out from the weekend. We did a little light shopping in the am - found a used Palm for Rob at the Goodwill for forty dollars. He was extatic. Anyhoo, I have about a half a million things to do this morning. Better get to it.