Happy New Year

It is new year's eve and I am sitting home, in bed, sick. Everyone else is at church and will be enjoying a party later this evening. I guess it could be worse, so I'm trying not to feel too sorry for myself. I'm looking for good things to happen in 2009!

A Winter Wonderland

It has certainly been a beautiful season. Last week, all week was NO SCHOOL due to snow days. Then this week starts the winter break. My lucky family gets 3 weeks off! It's been incredible. This is the coldest it's been since we've moved here, 3 years ago. Yesterday was a bit scarey with the ice. There was still snow, but on top of it all there was ice, very thick and heavy. Everything had icicles hanging down and trees were falling over with the weight of it. Last night there was some brown outs. The lights would flicker and we'd wonder if the electricity would go out. We woke up this morning to find it snowing again and it looks like a fresh blanket of white. It is soooo pretty. I think today might be a good day for playing outside. It is BRRRRRRRR cold!!!

David made the kids "snow cream". The recipe is as follows:
a bowl of clean snow
cream
vanilla
mix in bowl until creamy
ENJOY!

I've been married 19 years....WOW!!!

Today is our 19th year wedding anniversary. Include the 3 years we dated prior to getting married, and we've been together a LONG time! :) I think I'm now married equally as long or longer, than I was single. Time sure flies when you're having fun. Take a look at our 'young' selves! :)

NO SCHOOL....Yeah!!! SNOW DAY!

Today was an official 'snow day', which meant no school for the kids and no work for David. How excited they were!!! It is wonderful and beautiful. We dream of days like this all year long and here it is. The only scary thing is, you really can't drive because the streets are now a sheet of ice. The kids have been playing outside nearly all day. They found a nice little hill to slide down with the other neighbor kids.

"Happy Birthday Jesus"....beautiful!!!

You probably want to turn off my background music below, before playing this clip.

Gospel Christmas 2008

We woke up to our first snow today. It was absolutely beautiful. And since we can't have the CA sunshine, SNOW is the next best thing!!!


What a FUN night! David and I got to celebrate our 19th wedding anniversary with a wonderful dinner at Claim Jumper and a gospel Christmas concert with friends. A perfect night!

Shopping on a Friday night

David worked late tonight, so after I finished work the kids and I bundled up (because it's been cold!) and headed to the mall. We enjoyed dinner and caught some good sales. The most shocking thing was the traffic through the mall wasn't anything like I had imagined. I expected lots of hustle and bustle and people shopping late, but at 9PM, it was quiet and slow everywhere. The mall was open til 10PM and sadly for JCP, they were open til midnight...with barely a shopper! We never hit any lines in any of the stores. It was a weird feeling. You can definitely feel the recession has hit hard on everyone. It's scary and sad.

Victoria's 7th Birthday party

This is something new I started last year and it worked out perfectly. Victoria's birthday is December 23rd, 2 days before Christmas. In the past, it's been quite overwhelming for her to have a birthday party and then 2 days later, celebrate Christmas. I think she liked the gifts, but it was waaaay two much! So, by celebrating her birthday early, she can enjoy it without the caos of all the other holiday activities in and around Christmas. It's been working out fantastic!

Friday after school we had a little party with about 8 friends; some from school and most from church. We played games, ate dinner, opened presents and then had cake and ice cream. It went from 4-6pm...perfect!

I'm sure we'll still do a little something special on the 23rd.

What are you thankful for?!?!?

What a blessed day we had. We woke up, ate breakfast and prepared a feast for Thanksgiving dinner. The menu included smoked turkey (compliments of Steve Rice), mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoe casserole, green bean casserole, au' gratin corn, and rolls...YUM! And pies! There was waaay too much food. All delicious! Later that evening we invited several families over for fun and games. We hung out and had a really great time. Dips, more desserts, coffee and hot apple cider. It was a wonderful day.

Now, in answer to my question. I am so thankful for my family, our home, our jobs, friends and a wonderful church. Most of all, I'm thankful we still have freedom of religion, where we can still serve God. He has blessed us with far more than we could ever imagined and are worthy of.

Another birthday come and gone...

Any birthday after 40 is not as fun as they used to be. I know birthdays are supposed to be great b/c the alternative would be even worse, but I can't help but to feel a bit depressed as it rolled around on Sunday. I would've much rather forgot about it, but there were plenty of people around to remind me how OLD I am!

The kids and David got me some really special gifts and we went out to a delicious brunch at The European Inn. After church that evening we had some people over and enjoyed a cake Kelda made for me, and coffee. All in all, it was a beautiful day. And for the sun to shine, it was just icing on the cake. Thank you, Lord!

I've been busy today, Thanksgiving Eve, getting some food ready for tomorrow. I am looking forward to some yummy food, relaxing and fun with friends and family.

Brrrr...it's cold!

The fall, almost winter, has set in. We've been getting some beautiful days, but it is cold! Veteran's Day we spent 2 days at the Coast. It was lovely the first day and then rained the next. The shopping trip was great!

These past 2 weeks, we've been trying to catch up and do some things around the house. We had such a busy October, this is really nice. It's time to start cleaning the house, clear out the living area and prepare for Christmas decorating. We're going to attempt to shampoo the carpets, but we'll see if we get that far.

Speaking of Christmas, I am just about done with all my shopping. I have a few stocking stuffers to get and that's about it...yeah!!!

Victoria had her school picture retakes today. Everyone loved her hair. Said she looked like Princess Leia. She loved that!

Dillon is doing very well in school. He's finishing up a few things as the semester ends next week. We are all looking forward to the Thanksgiving holiday!

Field trip to the OR Gardens

Today I was a chaperone for Victoria's class trip to the OR Gardens. We were truly blessed with a beautiful day...NO RAIN!!! It's been rainy and cold, but today, it was absolutely dry and the sun even peeked out a few times. It's always fun to do something with my kids in their school and their friends. I never had that growing up and it's something I wished for. I hope my kids enjoy it as much as I do.

Happy Halloween

My kids were so excited that Halloween was on a Friday night this year, and not a church night. We had such a good time trick o' treating with friends through our neighborhoods. There were parties everywhere. David set up a bounce house at the fire station in Stayton. The weather was great!

CWF Harvest Party

Held Monday night, 10/27. The kids all had a good time and fun with their costumes. Carrie did a great job organizing the activities and food.

Disney HSM on Ice

What a fun night! Dillon, Victoria, Jackie and I headed up to the Rose Quarter after work to see HSM on Ice. We had dinner at Burger King, parked the car and got situated in our seats. Ordering the tickets early paid off because our seats were fantastic. Victoria purchased cotton candy that came with a hat. We got to see acts from HSM 1 and 2. It was a fabulous show and we all enjoyed it. On the way home we stopped at Burgerville for ice cream cones. What a fun, fun night!

Lam Wedding weekend

We stayed in Portland this past weekend. Friday night was David/Teresa's wedding reception at Embassy Suites. It was beautiful and the food was fabulous!

Saturday we got up, had breakfast and headed to the Oregon Zoo. It was sunny and dry, but COLD! The kids really enjoyed it and with our annual passes, we'll be back again! We got to see the new baby elephant, Samudra (Sam)born August 23rd. Afterwards we spent time shopping downtown Portland and Lloyd Center, near our hotel.

Sunday we checked out of the hotel. Did some more shopping at Fubonn, an Asian market/shopping center. That is always interesting b/c you see things you would not normally find in a supermarket :). And still more shopping as we headed to mom's to get changed for that evenings wedding banquet.

The banquet was at Yummy Yummy Restaurant. The food was indeed 'yummy'! Everyone had a great time and it was a fun night visiting with friends and family. Of course the Bride & Groom were beautiful!

We made the switch to digital voice

It was relatively painless; took the technician about 2 hours. We switched all our phone lines from regular lines to digital, through our cable modem. There were several reasons for doing so, but most of all, for the same price we were paying for just local calling service, we now get unlimited local and long distance. Also, the new cable modem will boost our internet speed. So far so good! I'll keep you updated on any problems we may experience. I know some people expressed concern that if the power went out, we would be out of phone service. Apparently the cable modem has a 10 hr battery back-up. Hopefully we'll never have to use it!

Awesome weekend!

I had the best weekend ever. We worked and worked to prepare for company/friends coming in from CA for a wedding in Mcminville. On Friday afternoon Jinta & Sarah came over in the afternoon and had lunch with us. That evening, Sis. Walden, Brittany and Rachael stopped in and stayed the night. They arrived at 11PM and we all stayed up til 3AM chatting. It was so much fun catching up. We had a yummy brunch the next morning and they hit the road, back to CA at 3PM.

Chill-Ride

Dillon's school had a magazine fund raiser last month. Those that sold so many got rewarded the 'chill-ride'. This is a limo ride to Cold Stone and it's TODAY! I hadn't planned to go, but the Boosters e-mailed to say they needed a couple of fill-in chaperones...so I'm IN!!!

My little swimmer!

Victoria advanced to LEVEL 5 at the Swim Academy last night!!! To pass level 4 she had to master the 'side glide kick' (20 feet) and 'crawl stroke' (20 feet no breathing). I'm so proud of her and you gotta love those long swimming legs! Way to go, Victoria!!!

Welcome October

Last week we enjoyed our Indian summer. We had a day that reached 90 degrees. We loved every bit of it, walking to and from school. What a treat! But this week it's evident that autumn is upon us. The rain has started. It's ok, it just means, the fall decorations can come out, pumpkin patches, comfort foods and baked goodies! I love this time of year.

Here's something cute. Victoria made this at VBS in June. She had nurtured it all summer long. Just seeing the green, but no flowers. We really weren't sure what was going to come out of the pot. Last week, we saw the first blooms on it and was sooo excited! I just thought it was so cute. It took over 3 months to finally produce a couple of flowers.


Now that school is back in full swing, we are all busy with activities. For some reason, especially so in the month of October. The weekends are all full already. I think there's a couple of weddings adding to that business.

Dillon is enjoying 7th grade. He likes most of his classes and teachers. He is growing up so fast. Last week, for the first time, we let him ride his bike, quite a ways (out on the main highway), to meet up with his friends. I have a hard time letting go, but David reminds me, he's a growing boy!

Victoria likes her new teacher and is making new friends all the time. She recently became very close to a friend who just lives around the corner. Sadly, we didn't discover this friend til school started, and here they could've played all summer long. Ah well, there's always next year.

I've gotten myself busy with a number of committees and projects, and trying to stay involved with both my kids' schools. I'm just thankful I have this awesome job that allows me to work from home and has some flexibility. For awhile there I thought I was ready to go back into an office job, but honestly, I've got the best of both worlds right here!

George Carlin’s views on aging

A friend sent this to me today. I really liked it and thought I'd share~

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions.

'How old are you?' 'I'm four and a half!' You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key

You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.

'How old are you?' 'I'm gonna be 16!' You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life.... You become 21.
Even the words sound like a ceremony YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone.

But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would!

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!

You get into your 80's and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; 'I Was JUST 92.'

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. 'I'm 100 and a half!'

May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

HOW TO STAY YOUNG

1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay 'them.'

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop.' And the 'devil's name is' Alzheimer's.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,* but *by the moments that take our breath away.

Last summer BBQ

My sister knows how to throw a shin-dig! Her and Steve threw a little BBQ party today and served up some yummy eats! Veggies from their very own garden. They have a lovely place.

Tonight is our neighborhood block party. They are party animals around here. We're starting off with appetizers up the street. Should be an interesting evening. I'm hoping to present the neighborhood watch program.