I stand all amazed . . . .

Yesterday in church the speaker used an analogy that I really liked. He compared a person's worth to a 100 dollar bill. A certain man had a 100 dollar bill. He asked his friends if they would like to have the 100 dollar bill. Everyone of his friends wanted it. He squashed it up, got it dirty, tore it up a bit and asked his friends if they still wanted it. They still did. A 100 dollar bill is worth the same whether it is brand spankin' new or old, torn and stinky. Our goal of course, isn't to have a tough life, but if the tough life comes we have our Savior and His atoning sacrifice to make it all better. I am thankful to Him and what He has done for us. We all are worthy of His kind of bandaid.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve has become a time of traditions for our family. I always have my sister's family and my parents over to our house for Christmas eve dinner. Here is part of the crew lining up for dinner. We always eat youngest to oldest.

We also open up our Christmas PJ's on Christmas Eve . . . . someone was so excited that they lined them up from youngest to oldest so things would go quickly!

Here is McKay . . . . WHAT??? Not PJ's?? My kids were so sure they were getting pajamas that it was a huge surprise that they all got robes this year.

My dad read from Luke 2, to get us into the true Christmas spirit. . . . . Noah is either very enthralled or very patiently waiting for it to be over with!

Christmas Morning

The boys patiently waiting to go downstairs and see what Santa brought . . . Justin's head is chopped off!

Ahhh, Here he is!

Be careful what you blog about . . . . . I've been wanting these . . . . . so maybe I shouldn't be careful what I blog about.

So happy together!

This was a surprise gift for the boys . . . Santa doesn't wrap our presents but decided to wrap this one to the family . . . it was such a big package that they didn't even notice it while they were unwrapping everything else. It's funny how sometimes you can see the small stuff and not notice the big stuff. This was a last minute purchase and a total surprise as it was not on anybody's list.

Here are the boys playing their new "world tour" guitar hero. Justin was playing along on his real guitar. It is hard for him to play the "game" because he has to really "dumb it down." Dumbing it down is a hard thing to do when you are used to playing all the notes in the proper positions.

Overall we had a really nice Christmas. We went and played games with the rest of the family. Halley had an awful time (she's not here, she's in UT) because she just had her tonsils out. It is hard to be away from her knowing she is suffering but I know her husband and his family are taking good care of her. She's having a hard time recovering having had allergic reaction to meds and not being able to keep anything in her stomach . . . . I can't imagine . . . YUCK!

I'll be home for Christmas

Lincoln arrived yesterday afternoon at BWI. I was actually able to convince both boys (without much arm twisting) to come with me to pick him up. I couldn't believe how excited I was . . . . I had kind of snickered at Annie's blog when she was worried about what to wear when she went to pick her husband up from the airport . . . but I found myself doing the same thing. I also realized that I was more down than I thought I was about his almost not being able to make it home because when I found out he was for sure coming home I got up out of bed from my mega movie marathon and got busy getting ready for Christmas, wrapping, shopping, planning, cleaning up etc. etc. My smile muscles were getting a workout!

One cute thing happened at the airport . . . . when McKay saw his dad, the first thing he said was "Did dad get grayer while he was gone?" tee hee . . . . and the first thing Lincoln said to me was "It's not too short . . . . " referring to my hair! That is why I took the opportunity to cut it while he was gone!

Smile muscles are still getting a work out even though he went to work today . . . can you believe it? McKay went with him, so all is well and good.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Whew Hooo!!!!

Lincoln finally caught a red-eye out of Seattle last night . . . . so he should be in Denver right now trying to catch another plane for his last leg!! It looks like he'll be home for Christmas . . . . . . . .

The snow is winning

Lincoln's flight that he THOUGHT he had was cancelled . . . . I'm thinking he won't be home until after Christmas unless he pulls a miracle out of his hat. He is a sweet talker . . . . but you can't talk 20 inches of snow off of the runway!

Lincoln Homecoming - in his own words

This is part of Lincoln's post on his blog . . . .

Now for the trains, planes and automobile story. Our plane home tomorrow has been canceled. Yep we have had so much snow that all of the flights are canceled and the next available out of here to the east coast is the 26th. At least that is what we were told so for the past three hours I have been on the phone and have finally booked the five of us who are from Maryland on an interesting trip. We leave at 10:00 tomorrow and finally reach home Tuesday afternoon. I will have to call Tina as the plane is coming in way out at Dulles Airport as there were no available seats for National or Baltimore. I will just be glad to get to Maryland. So, until you hear form me again I hope that all of you have a wonderful day and a good Christmas.

Lincoln

From Tina: I was worried that he wasn't going to be able to get home from the 10 1/2 inches of snow that our Oregonian relatives have been reporting. I think they even have more than this now! He was suppossed to get home today but I guess it is a blessing that he'll make it before Christmas!!! (thanks for the picture Emma!)

Tagged by Emma

This is an alphabet tag . . . 10 things that begin with an assigned letter of the alphabet. Emma gave me G . . . . I've been thinking. . . . Here goes.

girls (I like boys too, but the letter is G!)
giggles
gospel
guns (they can be fun, believe me)
gymnastics (the watching of)
guests (especially the ones from out-of-town)
grandparents (even the anticipation of grandparenthood)
grapes
gothic novels
gingersnaps

Okay now for the hard part, who will do a tag? Hmmmmm Kiersten are you ready to pull out that new blog you have been dreaming up? I'll assign you "P" for obvious reasons and you can do with it what you want. I'm letting the rest of you off of the hook unless you really want to do it . . . . let me know and I'll assign you a letter.

Out of the mouth of babes

My sister always seems to be apologetic when she drops her kids off at my house so she can run errands. Little does she know, that I love her to drop off her kids and it is really fun for me. It gives me a diversion, my kids a diversion and also gives me a reason to whip up a decent meal. Last night Stevie . . . . cute little Stevie and I played games and talked.

This little 6 year old is one smart cookie (as are all of my sister's children if the truth be told!). She looked at this wall hanging that I've had for years (Lincoln picked it up for me in Bolivia in 1986!) and said "that is the last supper." I told her yes it is . . . . can you tell me about the last supper? My cute little niece then told me the story of the last supper and how Christ washed the feet of his disciples and how it was the last time he saw them before he was crucified. WOW! It was the best version I've ever heard of the event. Her parents are doing a great job raising her! You rock, Stevie!

Flashback Friday

I'm not flashing very far back this week. This is a picture of my kids when we first moved here in 1999 when they were still sweet innocent kids and still enjoyed spending quantity amounts of time with their mother. These were the good old days. This picture was taken on Andrews Air Force Base meaning we hadn't even purchased our home here in Waldorf yet. The kids were 13, 11, 9, and 3! We swam every other day at the Base until we bought our home and then we lived in the community pool that is practically in our back yard. Contrast that to now . . . . only McKay likes to swim and he can go on his own now. I have to beg him to wait for me and I have even been known to go over and swim on my own, by myself :(This is a more recent picture. I think this is two years ago but boy, oh boy have the kids in this picture changed! My older 3 children aren't even in this picture. They were too wrapped up in their own lives to be swimming with us! I'm glad I still have some little nieces and nephews that like to have fun! McKay is still my little buddy, but not for long I'm sure! Maybe these pictures of the summer months will warm you up a little! Oh! and see the fence line behind the cute kids? That is our back yard! How sweet is that?

Name that tune . . . . . .

I guess I've been in a "memories mode" lately. . . . . Some of my most fond memories are of sitting in front of the record player listening to the records my parents had of some of the older musicals and then watching them on TV if we were so lucky. I loved them as a kid and as a teen and as an adult. It is something my mom and dad passed on to me and then I passed it on to my daughter. (not sons, notice!) We can sit and watch them over and over again and can almost sing every word to every song. I found some pictures without titles on them . . . . did you watch these too? Can you name that musical?

Decked in Camo

I really like this picture Lincoln sent. I'll be posting the rest on his blog . . . . .

Let it Snow!

Psyche! As my kids would say! It is 69 degrees here today for all you westerners reporting snow . . . . I just came in from doing yard work! It is a very nice day today, probably just the calm before the storm . . . . . .

Reality hits

Last Thursday a stomach flu hit me and hit me good. I've been spending the better part of my last few days in bed and in the bathroom. YUCK! I hear I'm not alone and a lot of you are suffering from this same complaint.

Reality? Oh my goodness! I got up this morning with new eyes and could see what havoc could be wreaked on a house when its main picker-upper-person stops doing their job! I've got a mountain to cross today . . . . and still Christmas to worry about. YIKES!

Flashback Friday!

Flashback Friday last week was so fun that I decided to do it again this week. I was talking to another friend who had a similar upbringing to mine, with the animals and the large garden, and then she went on to tell me that their family built their own log cabin house to live in. They got to trim the logs and everything. My family was the total opposite of this. My dad was always on the cutting edge of everything (I know he looked into log homes also! nothing against them!) He wanted the newest technology, and always was experimenting with ways to save energy and build more efficiently. I know he looked into a geodesic home also, but this is what we ended up with. It is amazing that with such a unique house, we have very few pictures of it. There is a family who lives in it still today . . . . The picture is so bright, it's hard to see the roundness of the house . . . This house was modular. It was delivered in pieces and then my mom and dad spent their days putting it together. I remember we ate cases of Spaggettios while they were building the house. I couldn't stomach Spaggettios for quite a while after that!

I think all these pictures were taken before we actually moved in because 1. It is so clutterless, and 2. There is no refrigerator in the kitchen pictures! The colors were all the rage in the 70's. Everything was updated, all the appliances were built in. It even was featured in the community's "Parade of Homes."

This is the kitchen, the whole house had a very open floor plan . . . . . I had trouble getting used to walls when I moved away.

Here is the bar, where we ate all our meals. We always sat together as a family to eat. The house resembles a space ship I think. See the windows? In the daytime we could see out of the windows and no one could see in. But in the evening, it was the opposite, you could see in to the house but we couldn't see out!

Another view of the kitchen, you can sort of see the double oven, the trash compactor and the stove top.

This is the living area . . . . no TV yet . . . . after we moved in there was a TV between the couches! Behind this wall, which was freestanding, was an office, a dining room, a storage area, sewing room, bookcases and coat closet. I say "room" very loosely, they were more like cubbies! I used to spend hours behind this wall in the book shelf area reading! All of our lighting for the house was on top of the freestanding wall and on top of the kitchen cupboards on the other side. Changing lightbulbs was pretty interesting.

Here is a view looking up from downstairs at the spiral staircase. The stairs were carpeted later on. Our bedrooms were downstairs and all in the shape of pieces of pie. There were 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom (without tub!), storage room and utility room. All the rooms doors were centralized in the middle of the circular basement. Mom and dad built everything, including the spiral staircase. Have you ever seen anything like this before? It was just normal for me.

Silliness

I have to apologize first to those of you who are coming to my blog for the first time because of my christmas card. . . . . . randomness is my style! Merry Christmas!

Soooooo, do you ever upload your photos to your computer and find surprises????. . . . here are some of the surprises I found this time around.

A food creation . . . . .

Feet? I can tell this is at my sister's house because of the carpet . . . .

Nostrils . . . . I think they were going for nostril hair. . . . click on it and get a better view :) This is what you get when you live with boys.

This looks like McKay's eyeball, the color and those long curly eyelashes!

Ahhhhh here is the more creative side of the boys. . . . Justin is usually the culprit behind the "macro" pictures I find on the camera!

Thank you Lord, for the ride.

I came across this statement while studying for my Sunday School lesson this week. It really spoke to me. I've debated posting it because it almost sounds like a rationalization for mediocrity, but really it is just a reality check and comforts me.

"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he's been robbed.

"Most putts don't drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise.

"Life is like an old-time rail journey--delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed.

"The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride." Jenkins Lloyd Jones

ENJOY THE JOURNEY!

All dressed for the party

Here is a sample of what I'm going to uploading to Lincoln's Blog . . . (I just got some pictures and I'll probably get to it later today) I wanted to let you know that the reason I made his blog private was that I don't want some random person from the other side of the world coming and snooping for military reasons. I'm sure any information Lincoln posts is available anywhere, but I don't want it available through us. It has just given me pause to think . . . . . . I would feel comfortable with anyone that has commented thus far on my blog . . . . . just to let you know!

Lincoln is in the middle of this picture . . . . he says he has to carry around 65 extra pounds when loaded up like this! Only after a week, he feels he is getting into shape.

Quilting Queens

I decided to spend the day with my mom and dad today, and so I announced to mother that I was going to come and help her quilt. She has been working on these Sun-Bonnet Sue quilts for all of her granddaughters for almost 9 years now. Some of the granddaughters have gotten theirs, and some are going to get them this year (sorry if this is too much information mom, but they all know what is coming!) The oldest ones have gotten theirs and the younger ones are waiting patiently. Halley got the privilege of being the oldest and first one to receive her quilt.

I haven't quilted for a long-long time. Mom will probably pick out all my stitches now that I'm gone!!! (she wouldn't do that would she?) I can understand why women would get together for quilting bees. You get to do something productive and sit a talk and gossip and just plain enjoy each other's company. I spent 5 hours today quilting, with a lunch break, most excellent lunch mom! Aren't we a cute pair (and see my new haircut?!) Thanks mom, for the pics!

Flashback Friday

This is our family in front of our bumper crop of squash and pumpkins. The local newspaper actually came out and took pictures of our larger pumpkins and it was published. Kewel, huh? From the left, Sid, Me, Mom, George and Trudy. Notice my cowboy boots! A couple of days ago, as I was talking with a friend I realized how different my growing up years were than hers. You just take for granted how you grew up, because it's your life, and the world kind-of revolves around you when you are little and you are the center of it.

My family was just about as self sufficient as you could be in a modern world. Yes, we had electricity, yes we had indoor plumbing , but I knew people who didn't. WOW! We raised almost everything we ate. Some of the animals we raised (not all for eating!) were: cows, milk cows, chickens, horses, pigs, goats, sheep, ducks, geese, cats, rabbits and dogs (did I leave anything out mom?) They each had a use . . . the cats, to catch mice, the dogs for their watchfulness or herding ability, the others for their food value, I even had a pillow made out of down from our own geese/ducks. Now, my family doesn't own a single animal or pet. Thinking about it, I think only my brothers have a pet, one has a cat, and one has a dog.

My family grew a huge garden. We canned pickles, beets, beans, corn, peas, salsa, peaches, pears and other stuff. We grew all sorts of kinds of squash and root vegetables which kept all winter long if you stored them right. We had an orchard, but it never produced much! We had an over abundance of eggs from the chickens and milk from the milk cow. Did you know that a great producing Holstein cow can produce as much as *20 gallons a day? We had a low producing cow and had 8-10 gallons a day from her, which my mom made butter, cheese, cottage cheese, ice cream and about any other creation she could think of. We sold the rest. My brother and sister each got 50 cents a gallon to milk, and I got 50 cents a gallon to deliver it. This is how I got my gas money for my car. I remember we had a soda machine that we kept our just for the extra milk. Mom and dad were very industrious, and kept us busy most of the time. We always had two full freezers and a storage room full of food. I have a hard time keeping my kids busy, no wonder, life is pretty easy away from the farm.

*Disclaimer - I remember a conversation between a dairy man and my dad, and I thought these were the numbers that I heard. . . google research says I am exaggerating - - "Rowan County is home to the world record setting cow "Lucy". In 365 days, Lucy produced 75,275 lbs of milk. This is equivalent to 24 gallons of milk per day for 365 days. That is a world record in milk production. Lucy's record was made in 1998." Most other references only site 10 gallons a day . . . . hmmmmmmm. Hope I didn't bore you to death! (Alicia, all this talk about lactating must have gotten to me, can I say "udder"! I know you are rolling your eyes!)

Is there a heaven for hair?

Now I'm nervous about this post, my husband just posted his first comment ever on my blog, so I know he may read this!!

Yesterday I got my hair cut. . . . the hairstylist was really cute . . . here was our conversation:

Me: "I'm going to make a drastic style change" I, say, pulling out a picture I've printed from off of the Net. . .

Her: "Have you thought about this?"

Me: (Lying) "Yep, do it!"

Her: "Do you realize you aren't going to be able to pull it up anymore?"

Me: "Yep, do it!"

Her: "You sure?"

Me: "Yep, do it!"

Her: (holding the scissors to my neck) "You realize it's going to be this short?"

Me: "Yep, do it!"

Her: (with a little trepidation) "Okay . . . "

Me: "It grows fast" (I reassure her)

I realized after I had left the shop that I didn't even look down once to see the newly fallen hair on the floor. I feel lighter.

Piano student comes, "you cut your hair." "yep" Later, Brother H comes to the door and says, "you cut your hair." "yep" My sister and her kids come for lessons, "Aunt Tina, you cut your hair." "yep" Trudy . . . . . "you really DID cut your hair." (sorry Trudy, can't remember your exact words!) "yep" I don't remember a single, "It's cute, or it's perky," or anything like that. Well, I'm happy, and that's all that counts . . . . and besides, it does grow fast!

I'm seeing blue

A week after McKay's arm fracture we finally have a cast! The weekend was long because of the holidays, and the base only has "cast clinic" twice a week. Even though he was excited about his fracture, he was disappointed to have to have a cast. He was thinking they'd let him just go without. He had no swelling, no bruising, pain for the first couple of days, and so he thought he was home free. He'll have to wear it 3 to 4 weeks.

Carol of Joy

I could argue with you about whether or not I like the Christmas season. I don't like all the extra work that it entails, getting out the tree, turning my house upsidedown trying to decorate and then undoing it a mere month later, the shopping, the hype and all that goes along with it. The joys of Christmas for me are the goodwill you feel at Christmas time and my number one top favorite is the music (surprise, surprise :)

Last week Halley sent me her choir's CD's for me and some of you who ordered them. I opened it last night as I was driving somewhere, and HOLY COW! they sound awesome. I think this will be my new favorite Christmas CD. Every year I look for something fresh and new to add to my collection and this is really fun. Granted, my car has the best sound system that we own. I'm glad I didn't stick it into my $19.95 Walmart CD player 1st! I had McKay listen to some of it and forgot to tell him that it was Halley's group. I handed him the CD cover and said, "Where in the world is Halley?" He perked up and said, "wow, I thought you bought this at the store!" There you go. . . . . a testimonial from a 12 year old. Here is a picture of Halley's group The University of Utah Singers. She is sitting on the rock on the right hand side. I got the picture off of the CD, it was tiny and isn't great quality . . . . . but you got to do what you got to do!

Christmas Crunch

Today I spent my day getting my Christmas cards ready to send out. Christmas cards are the highlight of the season for me. Every time I go to the mailbox and get cards it is like Christmas morning over and over again. I LOVE Christmas cards. I have Christmas card sending down to an art. I have a data base that I keep my addresses in, I have the labels purchased and ready to go, the stamps, the cards and all the trimmings. It should all go together smooth as butter. Right . . . . . smooth like sandpaper is more like it. So this year, I couldn't find my data base Whaaat???? Where was it? (as I'm having heart palpitations) . . . . after a while I figure out that "Oh! it's on my other computer!" next I had to reacquaint myself with the mail/merge program in Word. Not Easy! Then because I had to have a picture on my return label, I changed label programs and it kept hanging on me and I had to re-install it . . . . arghhh!!! By the time I was finished fine tuning my time saving technics I wonder if I shouldn't have just sat down and written all the addresses out longhand. Anyone relate?