Sunday Thoughts

It was a VERY tough week for me.  I’m not sure what it is…maybe the dreary weather, the cold, the lack of sleep (this NEVER helps the week go well), the kids, the cat?  WHO KNOWS!  I am so glad that I was able to go to church today and to renew my covenants, to partake of the sacrament and feel the healing benefits of the atonement.  There were two talks.  The first was on the atonement. She likened it to the weekend she and her husband removed a huge tree from the backyard of their home.  The tree was HUGE and shaded the yard, and the kids tripped over the exposed roots.  They decided the tree had to go. They cut it down and ground the stump down, they leveled the ground and put down top soil in preparation for laying sod.  Just as they were about to lay the sod a storm rolled in and started washing the valuable top soil away down the driveway and into the gutter.  They rushed and put down the sod.  By this time they were COVERED in MUD!! She talked about how they went in and peeled the wet and muddy clothes off layer by layer and then showered to remove the last bits of dirt.  The atonement is like that.  We can feel THAT clean and fresh.  It feels soooo good to be clean.  We need only partake and reach out and receive the gift.

The second talk was on the healing benefits of the atonement.  It was given by a brother who is what I think of as a diamond in the rough, a steel-coated marshmallow.  He’s a good man, but hides behind this gruff and stoic facade.  He talked about how he is preparing to enter the Temple.  His wife has been waiting a LONG time for this.  He told of how he doesn’t forgive himself for past transgressions…so how on Earth could Heavenly Father forgive him??? I can see that.  I guess the answer is to repent and start again. To just reach out and partake…

This is why I am grateful for the atonement. For Sundays – for new weeks – for new beginnings and starting over.  May this coming week be soooo much better than last.

Awesome Giveaway!

Amanda, at the site I keep going on and on about, www.kevinandamanda.com, is doing a most fantastic giveaway along with Designerblogs.com! 

There are 3 packages they are giving away.  I am sooo excited about winning a package.  I guess maybe I should dream a little dream and try to figure out what I might want on my page…hmmmmm.   You, too, can sign up to win.  Just go on over and leave a comment (or 4) and get an entry. 

Good luck!

A sad, sad day

Today is a sad, sad day. I was in my room mending some of Steven’s pants and Miranda came in crying and holding her Cookeydough. Cookeydough is her hamster that she JUST got a few weeks ago for her 11th birthday. She bought the “2 year supply” of cedar bedding, the cage, the food and the snacks. I got her the animal. What a sweet animal. Tallen has been so excited about “tookeydough” and wanting to hold her all the time.  The hamster has been pretty good about it. She’s mostly gentle and not very fast moving (apparently…)  SO, back to why Miranda was crying. 

Miranda was crying and saying “I think that Cookeydough is dead.” I called Tallen in and asked for the story. I guess he had Cookeydough near the floor, “I show the kitty” and then “I step on her with one boot. ONLY one boot Mama.”  So that’s the story and he’s sticking to it.  He showed the even slower moving Truffle the rodent and somehow Cookeydough accidently got stepped on. Miranda cried and Cookeydough took her time dying, but eventually she passed. 

It was a very emotional time.  We talked about how it’s sad when something we love dies. We talked about letting her die peacefully and quickly and why on earth we don’t let our loved people do the same is beyond me! Hard childhood lessons all around. Miranda assured me that she'll cry for me when I die, too. So Good to know! 

We all got dressed and went out to the pet store to replace Cookeydough with Butterskotch. They are sisters.  The coloring is the same, the markings are a little different and the Butterskotch is crazy fast!!! She has plopped on the floor twice and run off once in the dining room already. What a challenge this is going to be…

So, to TRY to keep Tallen off of the hamster, I got him 2 goldfish.  Nemo and polka-dot.  Well, polka-dot didn’t even make it into the bowl before it died. Miranda flushed it promptly.  Too Funny!!! Tomorrow, we’ll go to the store and replace the fish. 20 cents is my kind of price!!

Wish us luck!!

Thirsty? You will be…

I buy juice for my little man (and let's face it...for my Honey as well) in the nice sturdy NEW plastic bottles. So the bottle is left at the end and I can't seem to get myself to the recycle place.  AND - CAN I JUST SAY...I THINK IT'S WRONG TO CHARGE FOLKS TO RECYCLE!! You want to make the trash dump less full, but when I try to recycle, I have to PAY $5 a trip to do so! Grrrrr!! OK - enough rant and rave. 
My point is, I have these very nice, sturdy, clear bottles and so have decided to store water in them.  As we should ALL have water stored by for emergency use.  Here's a site talking about how much water each person needs. I says a a gallon a day.  Is that JUST for drinking?  Steven and I figured out that it’s more like 3 gallons a day. For drinking, washing and flushing.  I mean if the electricity is off and you have a well, the water’s just not coming, thus…no flushing. 
Anyway, here’s the site.
http://www.fcs.uga.edu/pubs/current/FDNS-E-34-3.html
I found a fantastic site from Clorox giving the formula for how to purify water - for any water purification needs.
  http://www.csgnetwork.com/h2oemergencypurifycalc.html 
It's 2 drops of bleach to a quart of water OR 8 drops for a gallon (in case you wondered...) for mostly clear to start with water. If the water you start with is cloudy, you’ll need more bleach.  There’s a “formula table” (you enter your amount of water, it tells you how much bleach is needed)  I even addresses how to sanitize dishes and silverware. Neat site.
Did you even know that you need to rotate your bleach every 3 months, so that it is fresh?  I had no clue. But I know now. Gotta go get some new bleach. Hmmmm – laundry duty for the old? It IS laundry day...

Wow! Five Amazing Years!!

Today I celebrate my anniversary!!!
It has been five rather fun and eventful years since Steven and I got married.  I will forever be grateful that Lorena encouraged me to ask the Bishop if there were funds in the “Single’s Budget” to help me go to the single’s Conference. (Did you even know that there was such a thing??) If I had not asked, I would not have gone to the conference and it would have been another couple months before I even met Steven and I may not have gotten to know him, because we are both shy.  And I was very unsure about being in any relationship anyway after my pain filled marriage and long drawn out divorce the year before. 
Oh, the baggage that each person brings into any relationship…hmmmmm.  In my "monogrammed luggage" you would find quite a bit of anger at my former husband over the broken bones, broken promises and broken dreams for our marriage. Not to mention the experiences and relationships I had had from my family of origin and the boys I had dated in high school and after…each experience shaping me to be who I am.  Then there was Steven’s “totes” of past experiences. His family of origin, his mission, his wife Kim spending their entire marriage fighting kidney failure, kidney transplant and then succumbing to the effects of the disease. My heart breaks for him each time I think of it.  So we came together and are helping each other open the trunks and clean out the junk and save the precious memories and put them neatly back into the smaller, neater, happier box we call our life.
Here are some pictures to commemorate the day:


 One of our first dates. We went to a fall festival with his parents on a double date!! Fun!  We even danced while no one else was…crazy but fun.  He has added so much fun and adventure to my life!







 


We went down to Findlay to my Mom’s to celebrate her birthday and mine (they are a week apart.)  I think Sariah took this picture…this was back before I used digital.  I thought it was funny, so put it here.








 This photo was taken at my Mother’s down in Cherry Log, GA.  We drove down for Thanksgiving 2004.  Steven is wearing the hat I bought him at Cracker Barrel on the way down.  His “engagement hat”…He proposed the day after Thanksgiving as we were packing to come home.  Very sweet and I of course cried and said yes!! How could I resist such a hunk? I have always had a weakness for blue eyes, great smiles and muscles…he’s a keeper.








We were married January 21, 2005 by Bishop Dickerson in the Howell Relief Society Room.  We had decided to wait to go to the Temple as my sealing needed top be canceled first.
What a wonderful day that was!  We had 2 sweet flower/ring girls.
















Tallen arrived April 20, 2006 to make our family complete. Steven was so excited to have gotten two daughters through marrying me and now he had his very own boy, too! Bliss!





We went to the Detroit Temple in 2007 to seal and link our family for the Eternities.  The pictures are all blurry and there were other “blips” in the day but the ordinances are the same and we are striving daily to live as the Forever Family we long to be.

Thank you Steven for the past five wonderful years.  Have I mentioned how thankful I am that God thought fit to bring us together to share this mortal experience as friends and partners?  I have enjoyed the last five years and look forward to growing with you during the next five years and beyond. (The children will be almost gone by then…then the fun really begins!)

**As a side note, let me tell you what this sweet man got me as an anniversary gift.  I have coveted my friends’ Kitchen Aid “VERY fancy” stand mixers for as long as he has known me. So the other night, as we were walking through the store grabbing milk and eggs (so mundane a task) I saw a Sunbeam mixer on sale.  He grabbed it and put it in the cart for me!!  Woo-Hoo!!

I rushed home and made a space of honor on the counter for her to live!  I woke the next morning and made pancakes with it and then oatmeal-raisin cookies to thank Steven for my goodie. 

I know someone Famous!

Well kinda. There’s a gal at church, in the other ward that shares our building. I know OF her, (I know her mom-in-law at least?) and caught her blog attached to some friends’ blogs…

OK, on with it! I know OF a famous person! It turns out that she had some of her writing turned into a few fonts at that site I talked about the other day.  That is cool!! I had seen them before – when I downloaded them – but didn’t know the connection yet. 

Here they are:

Anna Banana

AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMm

NnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz

1234567890-;’.,/  !@#$%^”?><

Lovey Dovey

AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMm

NnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxY

yZz    1234567890-=[];’.,/  !@#$%^&*()_+{}:”?><

Mee-Mee (I really like this one)

AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMm

NnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz

1234567890-

Quinny (I like this one, too.!)

AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMm

NnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz

1234567890-=[];’.,/  !@#$%^&*()_+{}:”?><

Maybe I should have my writing made into a font.  Then I would be famous, too! At least to

         FONT LOVING GROUPIES!!

It’s something to think about at least.

Mama’s Biggest Helper

Tallen cracks me up!  Here, I’ll show you.  I think the pictures speak volumes…

We are out of papertowels. Tallen was helping me get more?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It turned into a “How high can I stack the rolls” project.   

He cracks me up!!

The Coolest thing EVER…

OK – Hate the ugly plain fonts available here at Blogger, so I found others. I went over to www.KevinandAmanda.com  and grabbed ALL of their very cute and funky fonts.  For FREE!!!!

 But then STILL couldn’t use them for the actual blog only for the title and date. (I’m sure there’s a way, but I am computer less-than-knowledgeable…) So, here’s what I have figured out I can do. 

Here are the components to the issues at hand:

1) I have “Live Writer" on my computer, so when I am away from internet, I can still blog and then upload it later.  LOVE THIS!

2) While in Blogger, I can’t seem to get my photos to go in right. HATE THIS…

3) I upload the pictures from “Live Writer” where I can change the size and position in relation to the writing. 

4) ”Live Writer” has SPELL CHECK…very cool!

While using my Live Writer the other day, I happened to want to enlarge the TITLEs in my Christmas Eve blog. SO, I went into the FORMAT section and changed the size.  And I thought to myself…”Hmmmmm…If I can change the size…MAYBE I can change he font as well…..ah ha!!!”

And, by Golly! It worked!  Yippeeeee!!!!

So VERY VERY COOL!!!!

This font actually looks alot like my own writing so I like it.  But I can really change things up…

AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMm

NnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz

AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMm

NnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz

AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMm

NOnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz

there are even doodles to use.  Neat, Huh???

AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMm

NnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz

Thanks Amanda for my PERFECT font!!

Go – check it out and Find your perfect font!

 

Christmas 2009

Here is the Christmas Tree.  With all of Santa’s goodies beneath it. I was VERY brave this year.  I am usually very choosey about how the tree looks.  Most of the decorations happen to be red/white combo or Santas…totally by chance. But I like the ornaments to be spaced and placed “just so,” well, this year, I just “let go” and let the 3 kids go at it. The tree turned out pretty anyway and I got to relax a bit.

After the Kids went to bed, I blogged and Steven soaked until about 12:45am and then we turned in.  At 4am SHARP, Sariah came and woke me.  “Mama, it’s Christmas!  Wake up!”  So we crawled out of bed and down the hall to open gifts. I CAN tell you, we will NOT be getting up before the sun next year…ughhhh. My stomach is feeling queasy just thinking about it.

The girls are looking for the pickle ornament on the tree…

Miranda is up to her armpit reaching ACROSS the entire tree trying to get it.  Do you think she found it??

 

 

 

Yup! She got it!  The prize was a “3D Where’s the stuff in the picture?” kind of book.  Very cool.  Sariah found the pickle last year.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is Sariah opening the original Cheaper by the Dozen

The kids watched it a few times while Steven and I went back to bed for more sleep!

 

 

 

 

Bubble Gum body wash!  The ONLY bubble gum for a few more years. Poor Randa…

Her braces come off in February, but then she’ll still have retainers…until the second phase of braces go on.

 

 

 

At 3, Tallen is old enough this year to get into the festivities.  Here he is with the GIANT peppermint stick from his stocking. All three got one.  (The favorite stocking goodie of Miranda’s.)

 

 

 

He also got a plane in his stocking. 

(By day 5 he had bitten the tail and one of the wings off! and then asked Mama to “fix it”)

 

 

 

 

New Hoop Earrings. 

So grown up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sariah got a very pretty sweater to wear with her favorite “skinny jeans”

She also got a “cutter to make a purse out of an old or very cool t-shirt.   Neat concept – recycle/upcycle/reuse

 

 

 

Santa brought Miranda a pretty china doll.  This will probably be the last year for dolls.  She may never make it out of the box, she’s so pretty.

Brown gingham dress, long brown braided hair.

Miranda also got a pretty pair of black dressy shoes.  Daddy picked them out and I guess he has pretty good taste in shoes because she adores the shoes. 

Tallen’s dearest wish, told to HO-HO while sitting on his lap, was a race car set with cars that you shake up to gather energy to run.  Very cool indeed.. 

 

 

 

 

Morning came way too early for our Little Man! Note the lack of excitement… 4am is too early for me, too.                 

No excitement at all. Until later, after a nap in the car.  (He played with it at Mimi’s all afternoon.)

 

 

Adam sent a box of goodies for the girls.  They each got an Mp3 player, a little purse to carry a cell phone in and this.  Here they are opening the last (and only one I got wrap) gift from their dad. A Mario game for the Wii.

Each of the girls got an i-Dog from Santa.  The dogs just happen to match the Mp3 player covers from Dad.  That worked out well. (if you squint, you can make them out in the picture of all the gifts under the tree.  The dogs are sitting on 2 packages there in the front the black on the red box & white on the colorful wrapping.) Sariah’s is white and matches her pink Mosaic Mp3 and clear cover. Miranda’s dog is black and matches her black cover for her pink Mosaic. Cool how that worked out.

I got an art set.  I have never had my own before – that I can recall.  Now I shall have no reason to NOT be creative.

I also got the new camera to play with (as mentioned before) and a few knitting things. A new needle or two and some wool yarn from Sariah. Miranda and Tallen got me a new mitten knitting pattern book.  I look forward to using it to make pretty gloves/mittens - for NEXT Christmas maybe?

Steven got a beautiful frame.  I’ll have to get a nice picture of the children taken for him to put in it.

He got a tape – NPR - radio comedy goodies.  He was very surprised to find that in his stocking.  Our sweet Daddy also got a huge sled with which to carry wood from around the other side of the canal we live on.  And a “puffer” for the fireplace. Both VERY useful and practical gifts.

He also got a Lord of the Rings : Two Towers book with behind the scenes stuff from the movie. 

Very Cool.

 

 

 

 

So as the “EYE” is upon us…

So is the eye of Santa. 

So, You’d better be GOOD…

For “He” sees all…

All is Ready…Now to RELAX

The projects are complete…

Hand Warmers for Grandma Gnew.  She is ALWAYS cold, and will grab your warm hand with her icy-cold one to prove it.

A hot water bottle and Cable knit cover.  Again, for the cold Grandma.

Warm socks for Jaden.  I think they turned out beautifully.  The first I made with the 2 socks at a time on 1 circular needle technique. I don’t remember the author, I got the book at JoAnne Fabric in October for my birthday. (from the children…they are so supportive of my habit.) 

The packages are wrapped and ready by the door to load in the van.

The children are a-snooze or at least busy and going to fall asleep.

Piggy pile in Tallen’s car bed!!

Tallen and Miranda decided they wanted to watch All Dogs go to Heaven the Christmas version.

Sariah was asleep on the sofa next to the tree and I had to walk her into the bedroom to go to sleep there.  She is getting so tall…I couldn’t carry her!

 

Truffle was comfy next to the fireplace. (I just left her there.) 

All is ready and beautiful…  RELAXING TIME!!

 

Happy Christmas   to Everyone.