My Little Men

Lately Hannah's been taking more than her share of bloggy publicity.  So here are my awesome little guys...

Josiah - on the way home from camping Labour Day weekend.

Who needs Wal-Mart?  I decided to do my own portraits of Caleb and Logan this fall.  I was pretty pleased with the results!

Logan - six years old

Caleb - 8 years old

Randomness

*I cleaned out the drawer under my phone.  Yay!  Now that's something worth shouting about!  Dumb thing is, it's not completely done, but it's SO much better that I'm not sure I care.  I even found the lab requisition for my blood sugar test I was supposed to do when Hannah was 6 months old.  Oops.

* Last weekend my friend, Iris, came to for the weekend.  We had fun and stayed up late.  She had shopping and stuff to do and couldn't get everything done.  She was hoping to update her blog while she was here (since their internet doesn't work), but didn't have time. :-(

* Hannah had roseola last week.  I couldn't figure out why she was so cranky when her teeth were already through.  Then she got a fever.  When that went away, the rash appeared.  She's doing much better now.  Whew!

* I just ordered Keith's and Caleb's Christmas presents, and paid for one for Dave.  :-)  I really like shopping on-line!

*  I've been trying to buy a Playmobil gas station on ebay for Logan and they keep slipping away from me.  Either I don't bid high enough or I forget to bid at the end.  I'll keep trying, but I'm ready to pay a wad right now just to Get It Already!  

* A friend told me yesterday that her sister and family don't open presents on Christmas.  They do that several weeks before Christmas day.  Then Christmas is for going to church and doing family things.  Isn't that a good idea??  I wonder if we could really pull it off...

* The other night the boys were messing around in bed (when they were supposed to be sleeping!).  Josiah hit his nose on the bed and got a doozy of a nose-bleed.  Much weeping and wailing followed!

* I damaged and possibly wrecked two good/casual shirts in the last week or so.  :-(  The first one was my beloved black shirt that Rachel gave me.  It was in the dryer with an orange crayon!  Aaarrrggghhh!!!   Tonight I tried just a little bit to get it out by ironing the orange spots onto another cloth.  It looks like it just might work.  Any advice??   The second one - my beloved light blue shirt (that Rachel gave me, notice a pattern here?) - was a victim of the above-mentioned nose-bleed.  Crud.  Blood on a powder blue shirt.  I soaked it in cold water right away and then washed it.  I didn't dry it.  The marks are still there, but not too obvious.  Any advice on that one?  

* This week is the first in a long time that I feel like the school-work and schedule is mostly under control.  Next week doesn't look so promising...

* I'm starting a weekly "lunch bunch" for young (and others like myself) :-) women - mostly from church and some others.  It's been fun.

*  Next Friday we're heading off to the "small city" for an appointment with the pediatrician for Josiah.  We're going to get his "seizures" or whatever it is, checked out.   He did it again the other night, but this time he hit the front of his head, not the back.  I don't know if it's hitting his head that does it, or holding his breath from crying.  Anyway, we'll see what the Dr. says.

* Next week looks a little too busy.  :-(  I need to decorate the church for Christmas, get ready to lead worship on Sunday, go to a home-school lunch/literary performance shin-dig, and leave first thing Friday morning.  Oh, and we're all going and staying overnight with our friend, Debby.  So, we won't be back until Sat.  Yikes!  Why do things always happen all at once like that?

* Tomorrow Keith is taking the afternoon off and he said I can do whatever I want.  Sadly, it doesn't look like it will be a relaxed afternoon of scrap-booking.  But, I want to take the boys to finish shopping for our Compassion shoeboxes and that will be fun.  And I'm helping set up for a baby shower for my nieces which is tomorrow night.  Maybe that won't take too long and I'll have time for a cup of coffee and a muffin.  I'll take a book along just in case!

* And now it's time for bed!!  Toodles!

Thought for Today

My friend, Priscilla sent me this recently:  from Streams in the Desert on November 5th:  "The only thing 'too hard for the LORD' is our deliberate and continual disbelief in His love and power, and our ultimate rejection of His plans for us."

I needed that!

Out With the Old...

Shoes!  Did I ever mention that I hate buying shoes?  So many questions:  What, pray tell, is in style right now?  Are these cute?  Are they for an old lady?  Am I an old lady?  Will they be comfortable?  Should I buy the cheap ones, or the more expensive ones that will last a really long time??  Do I really like these?  And the list goes on and on.  

So.

When I manage to buy some I like, it's a really big deal! (To me, anyway.)  I don't expect everyone else to be as excited as me, but, since I have a blog, I can subject you to my joyful ramblings about my shoes. (It's a free country.   You don't have to read it if you don't want to.)

Anyway, I give you exhibit A.  I bought these shoes on our trip to Jeff and Wendy's wedding. That was in 1999/2000!!  And I've been wearing them ever since.  (When you don't like to buy shoes, you can wear the same ones for a very long time!!)  But, this fall I started to be embarrassed by their scruffy appearance and maybe even their out-dated style (that part bothers me less.)  These shoes, my friends are going in the garbage to make way for...

... these cute little numbers.  (Exhibit B)   Did I do okay?  I'm anything but an authority on the subject, but I think these are kinda stylish.   And cute.  And leather.  And comfortable.  And they were on sale.  Yay!
Now, a couple questions, since I'm style-challenged.  Can I wear these with skirts or pants?  Panty-hose or socks?  I'm thinking yes, but I'd like some confirmation from someone who knows more than me...

Thanks for sharing my happiness.  (I'm assuming something there, eh?)  :-)

Life

It was a wild week!  Last weekend we were at Stormer Lake for a weekend of encouragement, worship, listening to God...  It was a good time.  Then...

We came home and hit the ground running.  Cell group on Sunday night.  When we got home, Sheldon called and said an old family friend had passed away.  Mrs. Hausmann was always special to us.  By Monday morning, I was thinking, I really should go down for that funeral.  Keith agreed and we started to make plans.  Unknown to me, my friend, Karen, was also making plans to go.  We connected sort of at the last minute and found out our plans were almost identical.  So, she and her boys went down with us.  What a blessing.  I took Logan and Hannah with me and left Caleb and Josiah with Keith, Grandma G., and other friends.  

I was really glad I went.  While funerals are never fun  it's always a good thing to say good-bye. And, I got to connect with people I haven't seen (or not very often) in 25 or 30 years.  It leaves you with a really odd feeling.  It was like being in a time warp.  Some things have changed so much and still so many things are the same.

While we were there, we got in on some of the U.S. election madness.  Enough said!  :-)

We got home Thursday evening in a bit of a snow-storm.  People were concerned about us, but the roads really weren't bad until about 40 miles south of here.  Now, winter is here for real, it seems.  The boys are having a blast playing in the snow.

I decided to (hopefully) start a new tradition - making donuts when it snows the first time.  I invited Karen to join me and we had fun doing that yesterday.  They were SO yummy!!

Hannah has been very cranky.  I'm starting to wonder if she's getting sick.  She got her first two teeth this week, so I thought she'd be happier.  Instead it seems like she's fussier.  Hmmm.....

The last month or so, we've been singing with a little inter-church choir.  We "made" Caleb and Logan go with us and sing with the choir at least for part of the practice.  They grumbled sometimes, but went and seemed to enjoy it.  We sang in church this morning, but we didn't make them join the performance.  Now, I'm sitting at the computer and I'm listening to them playing with lego in the basement.  They've been humming/singing parts of two of the songs we sang.  :-) 

Stay tuned for my post about me and shoes...