A bit of Ice

This is for the family out of state. Here are a few shots of the ice around. My camera battery was dead, so I snapped a few with my laptop, but they were fuzzy and didn't show much, so I borrowed a few from friends that put some on Facebook. Hope they don't mind, but they take better pics than me!









You can't tell with this laptop photo, but the backyard is about a foot of solid ice.


Kynlee and Ander carefully making their way across our ice skating rink.


I really need to start parking in the garage.


This photo is from a friend who has a cool photo blog- go here: two365.blogspot.com to see more.

Merry Christmas Post

A little late, but non-the-less, Merry Christmas everyone. I really meant to get cards out this year. I love receiving them from all the family and friends. I am not too on top of it these days, but, I got the design good to go for next year- just need to swap in some updated head shots of the kids.

Here is our most recent, decent, family picture:



Looking at the picture made me think back to when Michael and I first married, we married our last semester of undergrad. After we graduated, we borrowed my parents full size van (because we couldn’t afford anything U Haul related) and drove three days to a new city, with $1,500, no jobs waiting, and no place to live. We quickly found a small one bedroom apartment, and moved in a desk, card table, bookshelf, and rocking chair. Not long later we picked up a dresser from the side of the road, and were given an old futon to sleep on. That’s right, 6’5” male 5’9” female sleeping on a futon, which also doubled as our couch when guests came over. It was a humble beginning, but it was ours, and it was fun.

After SEVEN years of married we bought our first home, had our first washer and dryer, AND we had a dishwasher. I was weeping tears of joy for modern conveniences. We will celebrate TEN years this month. Looking back, there has been slow but steady progress in material things, but I can also see progress in ourselves in principles and virtues that we’ve learned and practiced over the years. We do feel blessed to be where we are, and WE ARE HAPPY.

Bethlehem Church Activity

I'm dedicating a blog entry to our church Christmas party because I thought it was so well done. The invitations were scrolls telling us we needed to come to Bethlehem to be taxed and to wear proper attire. The day of the party I pulled out my scrap fabric box and came up with something I didn't have to sew, this:



I was married to a Roman soldier. I wish I had a picture of him standing up, it was a good outfit some clever person came up with. He had a little "Hear ye, hear ye..." part at the beginning of the program.

This is a picture of my brother-in-law, he was the Census taker. I wish I had a picture of their family, they were the first ones I saw as we walked up to the booth to sign in on a scroll and they looked so cute.



We were given a little bag of coins to use at different booths. They had a market with chicken and loaves of bread, grapes and cheese, and desserts:






It was funny seeing everyone in Biblical attire. Hopefully they don't mind me sticking their picture on my blog.



The YW took turns being the water well girl.



They also had tents with games for the kids, making bead bracelets, making little pots (out of magic model clay), writing Hebrew and a spice jar shop. They even had a tailor shop were you could get clothing if you didn't show up with any:


That's Kynlee in the blue. It was a little hard finding your own children, their outfits started blending together.


That guy is actually Jewish, he married a Mormon- what a cool couple.



Then we all sat down and watched a nativity program.





The church was decorated so well, I wish I had taken all of my cul-de-sac with us. They really out did themselves and it really felt like a market we were bustling around in. It cracks me up to watch Ander. He just has to go along with things. OK, you want to put that on my head and we're going here and it's all normal apparently. Behind Ander you can see a little of Michael's soldier outfit, the skirt thing and cape.

I told the activity leader that we should do that activity every couple of months, that probably would make her faint, but well done.

Hair Tales

A few years ago my hair was the shortest I had ever cut it, about here:



Then I started growing it long, and I wondered how long I could get it for a nice donation. I got here:



I don't know how women get it to their waist. It was already getting in the way of things. The kids kept sitting on it, Michael pulled out a chunk when he took Ander from my arms, I found apple stickers hanging out, one day I walked out to get the mail and came back with a spider dangling from the end. It was time to cut...



There it is. A done deal. I was wimpy in the moment and didn't go as short as before, but now that I made the first step, I'm ready for the second.

I may even go to the length Michael sported in college:




That's seriously him,

awesome.

Yes, I'm here to see Dr. Walker...

'Tis the Season to be...

That's right. It is not the season for me to think I'm justified in spending a lot of money like it has been in the past. Frugal is the word on my mind. We have enough of that, we can do without that, I don't NEED any of that...

We've had a lot of out-of-the-ordinary expenses in the last 6 months, and December is a bit bleak. January looks brighter, so I just need to hold on through this month. We'll have to make the magic happen this season on small amounts, which will be good for me to go back to my non spendy ways for a time.

They Felt Awesome...

Parent Teacher Conference

I met with Kynlee's first grade teacher last week. I'm so glad she's doing well. Kynlee's teacher let her assess herself before the meeting. I think she feels good about her school performance:



Walking into the meeting I couldn't help think about how Kynlee traditionally has been the kid to make us pull our hair out. Her energy level, do-it-my-way attitude, night time rebellions, and creative ideas, have done us in many days in the past years. Her kitchen cooking experiments that have included mixing whole flour and sugar containers, creating bread paste from all the loaves in the pantry, and food coloring attempts were enough, add in kicking out window screens, creating "snow" from drilling into sheetrock, frosting the Christmas tree with flour, cutting open a feather pillow, and checking out what a roll of toilet paper added to the bath along with the entire shampoo bottle contents would do. You get the idea.

It turns out Kynlee is a very well behaved student. Her teacher said she can always count on Kynlee to be doing the right thing at the right time. Good girl.

My only concern is what she said here:



"sad" "scared" With "aaaaaa" ???

Her teacher asked her about why she was sad and she said she missed her mom- I must rock. I asked her why she was scared, and she calmly said "Oh, just like...tornadoes."

Well, OK, I guess a natural disaster fear is fine.