Is it that time already

Wow, another year has come and gone. I should recap the highlights of 2009, but that will take some time to ponder, so I will just recap the last couple of weeks. Christmas came and went as it always does. The kids were pleased with their loot, and we all enjoyed the extra time away from work and school. We made a quick trip to Texas after the holiday to visit the family and now we are back home. At the moment, John is making donuts and the kids are still snoozing. Tonight we will have a few friends over to ring in the new year.
The new year will bring new opportunities and highlights. A new beginning is always exciting. We will all return to work and school just in time for John and I to take a little vacation to Atlantis Resort on Nassau Island, Bahamas. We are pretty excited about that. My kids will enjoy a week with Grandma, aka, my mom. Once vacation is over we will try to find our new routine. Somehow January always brings a different feel to the daily grind. We are entering the second half of the school year and counting down to summer. Baseball season begins sometime in February or March. Our evenings will no longer be our own. Practice and games will dominate our lives for a few months. Also during the second semester, both the kids will have overnight field trips. John is going on the fourth grade trip to see some war ship, and I am going on the second grade Venture trip to dig for diamonds and visit Indian ruins. As I have said before, we know how to have fun. So here's to a happy and prosperous 2010. Happy New Year!

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

The last several years we have been taking pictures to put in with our Christmas cards, below is the one we picked after several attempts. We started with the dog and cat like last year, but gave up because we were frustrating them and us. We tried several different poses but decided that we liked this one the best. I am obviously not a professional photographer.
Just over a week ago we had our first snow of the season. We were sitting at a restaurant that Friday night with some friends when I said "It's snowing!" to which some said no, until they looked out and saw the huge flakes. They continued to fall all night and below is the result as seen the following morning.


The sun peeking through the treetops.

Our boys trying to be angels.

It's amazing how different everything looks with a blanket of white on top of it and how excited people are to see it coming down. Those people don't have 70+ trucks on the road, but oh well, it still looks nice and this weather didn't bring any bad roads.

We are almost finished with our Christmas shopping, just a couple more small things and waiting for a gift that we ordered to arrive tomorrow. I hope that the next 10 days aren't so crazy that everyone forgets the reason for the season. I hope that we are all bold enough to share it.

Lights, Camera, Christmas!

We tried again with a borrowed camera for an evening shot of the lights. Nothing fancy, just plain white lights. Maybe someday we will get some color and outdoor decorations. Perhaps we will find some good sales after Christmas for next season.

It really is Fall

I am just now adjusting to the change from summer to fall, and winter will be here in less than a month. I need to catch up. It feels like time is rushing by and I have no way to slow it down. In spite of time passing too quickly, this has been a wonderful, restful holiday weekend. We were able to get lots done, while still finding time to rest. Tomorrow it is back to the grind. Somehow it doesn't seem as bad knowing that the Christmas break will be here in a matter of weeks. Speaking of Christmas, John got the tree and the outside lights up this weekend. I know it's hard to see the lights in the daylight, but my camera doesn't work well in the dark. The pictures always come out blurry, so this is what I got. Now I just have to get all the shopping out of the way so I can enjoy the season. The kids are going to a "Parent's day out" event next Saturday, so hopefully we can finish the shopping then. We have to go to a wedding at 2 that afternoon, but that still gives us all morning to shop. I think we can get it all done in a couple of hours. It will be fun. I can hardly wait to join the grumpy crowds. What better way to get in the holiday spirit. Just for the record, the only thing I dislike more than shopping, is shopping close to Christmas. I just have to take lots of deep breaths and say lots of prayers. At least the people watching provides a little comic relief.

Thanksgiving

Today was a perfect day. I love spending time with my family with no schedule or obligations. It was great to just relax and enjoy the day.John made beignets for breakfast. What a guy! Once lunch rolled around we enjoyed a fabulous smoked turkey. We spent the afternoon working on projects such as clearing leaves from the front yard and cleaning the chimney. We finished the day with great friends and a fire in the fireplace. We are blessed, and I am thankful. Happy Thanksgiving!

Another week gone by in a blur

Wow, make that two weeks. This poor blog is not getting much of my attention. I will blame it on Facebook, and life in general. Last weekend we spent time cleaning the house inside and out. John cleaned the roof while I cleaned the gutters. We make a pretty good team. This weekend will most likely be a repeat of the same. Jacob is at a birthday party right now. I will have to go pick him up in a couple of hours. I am sure he is having a blast. How could you not have fun camping with 12 of your closest friends. I just hope my friend Alison is still smiling this morning after a night with all those boys.

I can't believe the holiday season is upon us. The kids are already out of school for Thanksgiving. John and I will work Monday through Wednesday so they will get to enjoy time at daycare. John will work Friday as well, so I plan to stay home and enjoy a day with no obligations. I refuse to shop the day after Thanksgiving. I don't like crowds, and it is way too soon to get ready for Christmas. Shopping the 23rd of December is more my speed.

Since the holiday season is here,we are having a Thanksgiving meal at church Sunday evening. I signed up to bring a vegetable, so I need to decide what vegetable and get to the store. John will most like do the cooking. I will be at an Aloette party tomorrow afternoon. I love Aloette, and getting together with friends. It should be fun.

Okay, speaking of church, I need to update the world on our search for a church home. Back in June, we began attending a church closer to home. We loved it because of all the great friends. However, it soon became obvious that there was a bit of dissension in the church. Fast forward to last month. We joined a group of our 40 closest friends and began the process of planting a new church. We have been meeting for several weeks and things are falling into place. John and I are teaching the nursery age on Sunday mornings. We had 8 0-4 yr olds. How crazy is that. We are currently looking for a volunteer to take the 3-4 yr olds. That would make our class a little easier to manage. We had fun though, and I'm looking forward to seeing all their smiling faces in the morning. We are currently renting space on the college campus here in town. It is great. We have a chapel, a cafeteria, and lots of classrooms at our disposal. We are thankful the Lord led us to this group of friends, and our prayer is that we stay focused on His plan. It is quite an adventure when you decide to go where the Lord leads. We are blessed beyond measure.

It was a long day, but...

we made it. The painting was done and everything was back in order before the party. We should probably go back and do some touch up, but no guarantees it will happen. Luckily my dear friend Kristi got here early to help set up. She did some last minute cleaning while I took a quick shower. It is such a blessing to have great friends. The baby shower/cookout was a success. John, as always, did a great job on the food. Our friends who are expecting were blessed with lots of gifts for baby Landon. All in all a great day.

Down to the wire

With less than 24 hours til our house is filled with friends, we are still painting. I have two coats of red on the kitchen walls, and one coat of green on the dining area walls. I think we are about to call it a night. John has a meeting at work tomorrow, so his morning is taken. I will be up bright and early to finish the painting. Then I have to get busy putting things back in order and cleaning. I hope I'm up for the challenge. All the painting is complete in the front room. I just have to put all the books back on the shelves, clear away all the clutter, and clean. Nothing to it. I already need another weekend to recoup from this one and its only Friday.

Saturday is getting close

As John has mentioned we tend to start our home improvement projects when we really don't have enough time to do them. Since we are having a little shin dig here on Saturday this seemed like the perfect week to strip and stain the dining room floor. John did a great job. The floor looks amazing. If we're staining the floor we should paint the trim and the walls. That is why there is paper all over the newly stained floor. I got the first coat of paint on all the trim today. Hopefully, John can get a second coat on it tonight. The plan is to have paint on the walls by tomorrow night. We are also painting all the trim and walls in the front room. We didn't want to make it too easy to meet the deadline. While we're at it lets finish the fence around the back and run new wiring to the gazebo. The pictures don't do it justice. The fence looks great. It is so nice to have things so open back there. Once Spring rolls around we hope to get the drainage, sod, and flowerbeds completed. I can hardly wait. The back yard is the whole reason we bought this house. I'll post updated pictures of the dining room as it comes together. I am so ready to see some green paint on the walls.

Tamiflu for everyone

Friday night we were not able to get the floor completely sanded. We made the decision to call it a night and get up early Saturday to go get more sand paper. Saturday I got up before six and started getting everyone ready so we could head to Home Depot. Joshua dutifully got up and dressed. As soon as he walked in the kitchen, I knew he wasn't alright. He was in tears telling me his head hurt. As soon as I touched his face, it was obvious he and I would be staying home. His temp was 103.1. John and Jacob went to run errands. I gave Joshua some Tylenol and put him back in bed. As soon as the doctors office opened, we were there. His flu test came back positive for Type A flu, which is the H1N1. So now the whole family is on Tamiflu. Joshua can't go back to school until Thursday, so John and I are working out plans to shuffle our work schedules. To make things more exciting, Jacob got up this morning saying his stomach hurt. Once he threw up he felt better, so I am hoping it was just a little bug, or too much Halloween.
In addition to the sickness invading our house, we have quite the remodel mess going. John did get the dining floor sanded and stained yesterday. This morning he put the first coat of sealer on it. It is going to have three coats and there has to be a six hour dry time between each coat. While he waits for the first coat to dry he is working on the back fence. The above pictures show where we left things in July. We had to wait until we had a few extra dollars to finish the fence. Those balusters are not cheap. We found an online retailer that sold them for $1.35 each with free shipping, so we ordered enough to complete the project. They run about $21.00 for a box of 10 when purchased at Lowes or Home Depot. We were pretty excited about finding such a bargain. It is going to look really nice once the fence in complete. I guess being stuck at home with sick kids isn't all bad. It is giving us time to knock out some of the projects.

Friday night fun

I am not sure what normal people do on Friday nights, but it can't be more fun than what we do. Our evening began with John blowing up our last pumpkin. See video in previous post. Once he was done playing with explosives we made dinner. We had left over mashed potatoes, so we decided to make them into patties and fry them. Sounds easy enough. When I was growing up, or as they say in Mississippi, when I was coming up, my grandpa used to make potato pancakes with leftovers. I think he (or more likely my grandma) cooked them like pancakes, without oil. John said his mom used to fry potato patties in oil. We tried it with oil, but I think it was too much oil. It sort of turned into a skillet full of mush. John drained most of the oil off and let is cook some without the oil. In the end they were edible, but definitely not a culinary masterpiece.

Once dinner was over, John began sanding the dining room floor. It didn't take long for him to determine we needed a more aggressive sand paper. Off to Home Depot we went. Now that we are home again, John is sanding the floor. I just took some triple strength Sudafed and once I get some coffee in me I should be up for the long haul. The current plan is to get the floors stained tonight. The stain has to set for at least 8 hours before you seal it, so we want to knock that out tonight. We would like to seal it pretty early in the day tomorrow.

The floor is one of many projects we want to complete this weekend. We still need to paint the trim and walls in the kitchen/dining area and the front living room. Completing the fence around the pool is also on the schedule. No rest for the weary. I am going to need a nap come Monday.

The Pumpkin Is No More

Everyone needs deadlines

So we were sitting around and said to ourselves, "hey, we haven't done any projects in a while." We have been wanting to remove the last of the paneling (dining room) from the house and refinish those walls, prime and paint all of the wood trim and built in cabinets in the dining room, living room, and entry way, paint the kitchen, and paint the exterior doors from the dining room and living room. So then we said, "you know, we have 30+ people that will be here in two weeks for a shower we are hosting, what better time than now to start all of these at once? Oh, and while we're at it why don't we completely refinish the hardwood parquet floors in the dining room? How hard can it be?" And then, "and we still have about 200 feet of fence to do in the back yard, that sure would look nice if it was done before everyone is here."

So this is our life. We have less than 1 1/2 weeks to finish. We have barely gotten started. No guarantees this time. Pictures will be added as time allows.

The pumpkin that won't die

You can't leave him alone

What happens when my dear husband has a night at home without me? Apparently, panelling is removed from walls. This is a momentous day. Our house is now panelling free. Obviously, it isn't free of ugly wall paper, but we will get there. We need to get busy if we are going to have the dining area back together in the next two weeks. Sounds easy enough. All we have to do is get the walls textured and painted and paint all the trim. In addition, we plan to sand and refinish the floors. Wish us luck. We were starting to miss the excitement of having our house in chaos.

The party never ends

John and I were sitting in the front room checking out the facebook. He looks up and says "Are those wet spots?" What? Apparently our roof has a leak. It is supposed to rain until Thursday, so who knows what we will find once it dries out enough to get up there and check it out. I would be fine with just ripping out the tray ceiling. Yes I realize that won't fix the roof leak, but I wanted to make sure I got that idea out there. At one time it had a vaulted ceiling. According to the man we bought the house from the tray ceiling was put in because he was losing too much heat and air with the vaulted ceiling. According to one of the neighbors they had problems with moisture (condensation) on the vaulted ceiling and just covered it up. Who knows what we will discover. It should be fun, or maybe the opposite of fun. An adventure to say the least. To make this more interesting, we are hosting a baby shower/bar-b-que (remember where we live) in a couple of weeks. I need the house to be somewhat in order since the guest list includes about 30 adults, plus the children that come along with 15 couples. Nothing like a little pressure. This weekend is already pretty full with the Akela Campout. Hopefully everyone stays well and we get to enjoy the fun. Joshua is running a fever today, but the doctor diagnosed it as a viral infection that needs to run its course. Hopefully, he doesn't share the bug.

Sunday Night

Here is is, another weekend over. It has been over a week since our last post. We have been caught up in the weekly activities that we haven't had a chance to blog, and nothing particularly picture worthy to post and as I've said before, not everyone reads it for the articles. I am referring to this blog of course.

Here we are dressed and ready for the annual sales banquet for my work that we went to last night. My thanks to Joshua for his photography skills. It isn't often that we get to go out without the kids, and we very rarely get to go out dressed up so it was a treat. Thanks again to Thomas and Sharon for watching the boys last night. We are ready to repay the favor at any time.

After church we went out to lunch with our friends and upon leaving Jacob informed me that his friend Kameron wanted to come over for the afternoon (I think it was mutual). Kameron came over and the three of them played the Rock Band and jacob and Kameron played outside doing very well to avoid the mud. Jacob got to push her as you see, but then had to come get me to push him high. He likes to show off his dare devil skills to impress the ladies (or anyone that will slow down to watch).

While they were playing I started raking out our flowerbeds. Kameron asked if she could do it so I didn't deny her. You see Jacob was too busy playing with his light saber to help. Tu and Brooke, you are doing a wonderful job, she is very polite and a joy to be around.

We all went to get ice cream cones on the way to church tonight, but Joshua was not feeling well and he and Kristina came home while Jacob and I stayed at church. it looks like Joshua will be missing school tomorrow. Hopefully it is just a little bug that will pass quickly.

Time to get ready for bed. I hope that everyone has a great week.

It's Friday, wanna climb a tree?

This has been a busy week, so I am ready to slow down for a day or two. I'm starting my slow down by catching up on laundry. Tomorrow I will continue relaxing while enjoying Toy Story in 3D. Sunday after church the air show is where you'll find us. Sometime during the weekend, I need to work in some rest and grocery shopping. The kids are working in some play time right now. They have not gotten much home time this week. I have worked later than usual, so we haven't been getting home until close to six. By the time homework and dinner are over, it is time to get showers and go to bed. I don't like it when things are so rushed. I'm ready for a break. On the way home Jacob asked if he could climb a tree when we got home. Joshua asked if I wanted to climb too, but I refrained. I am not sure this poor little tree will survive my boys.

Monday Again

This weekend has flown by (much like all of them lately). It has been a busy week. This week Jacob was the Student of the Week for his class and he got a nice certificate and a letter from the principal in the mail. The scouting has started back up with both of the boys now in their second year. They seem to really enjoy it and since we meet at our church it is really convenient. We have the fall camp out in just a few weeks.

Most of the time the weekend routine is for me to make breakfast. I typically do waffles, pancakes, or something along these lines. Yesterday was the day and I chose pancakes. I always make everything from scratch, but my recipe is for a very small batch so I end up having to double it. Yesterday I was not paying attention when doing so and going too fast so we could get ready for church and missed on the salt. I didn't miss putting the salt in, I missed on the amount. you wouldn't think that just that little of salt would be so obvious in the finished product, but it was. Good to know.

Yesterday was a special day also. It was the first day that the boys have taken communion since they were baptized. This is much different than the tradition of the church I grew up in as we took it weekly, but I am understanding that our church partakes once a quarter. I also learned that you are supposed to hold the bread until everyone has been served at which time everyone eats at the same time. This is not the way we did it growing up, and would have been helpful to know prior to last night. Maybe we should have sat further back so I could follow by example. Oh well, I am pretty sure that it is what is in the heart and not so much what moment you take it. All the same now I know for next time. I need to see if there are Cliff Notes for church or maybe Baptist for Dummies so I can brush up for the other things before they come up.

Now I am about to go wake the boys up so that we can start another week. Kristina is already gone to work and will probably have a busy day as they have some visitors and new people coming in today. I am hoping that mine is pretty boring. We are already looking forward to next weekend. We are making plans to go to the air show and maybe to the Toy Story 3D double feature. We'll see.

I'm Taking what they giving, cause I'm Working for a livin

That is the mantra of life right now. It is Saturday morning and I am preparing to go to work. What's up with that? Basically, we have had lots of special projects this week. That means my regular duties have been neglected. I am hoping not to be there all day. I just need to catch up so I don't feel like I am drowning on Monday morning. It is amazing how quickly my job went from working about 20 hours a week to going in on Saturday. It's all good though. I really enjoy what I do. I hope everyone has a great Saturday.

What day is it

When I woke up I had to really think about what day it was. I was pleasantly surprised when I realized it was Friday. I am going to work early this week and working late, so my clock is off. Things will level off but for now there is lots going on. I am looking forward to the weekend. Tonight I am playing bunco at a friends, and tomorrow morning I have to clean house. After that I am free to relax. We'll see how that works out. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to the greatest guy I know. I am so blessed to be your wife. Thanks for sharing this adventure with me. I love you.

Glad to be home

We left New Orleans a few minutes after 5 this morning. When we planned this trip we didn't expect to come home so early, but something important came up. Our friends, Reggie and Kristi's son Gunter was being baptized this morning. We knew we couldn't miss it, but we also wanted to have a little get away. It was worth it. John and I enjoyed our time away. As you can tell from our pictures, we are wild and crazy. Sitting by the river enjoying the breeze, strolling through Jackson square while marveling at the majestic cathedral, and hanging out with the crowd at Cafe du Monde enjoying beignets. We really should take some time away more often.

Learning to enjoy

My sweet husband planned a little get away for this weekend. All is set for us to enjoy two nights in New Orleans. Our friend Jenny will be staying with our dog, oh and the kids. She is an awesome friend. I am trying to prepare. I planned to take the day off work Friday, but as the week progressed it just became more obvious that I have too much on my plate to take a day off. I asked my boss today if I could escape after our 11:00 meeting on Friday. He was okay with it, so hopefully I won't get sidetracked before I can get out of the building. I hope it is a short meeting this week. You never know. Sometimes it goes for half an hour, and other times it's more like 2 hours. John wants to be on the road by noon. I am shooting for 1. We'll see how it goes. I know we need to take more time to get away together, but it is hard for me to do. I feel like I am abandoning my responsibilities. I always worry too much about how things will go at home. I worry about how my kids are behaving. We have lived in Mississippi for two years and we have only left our kids overnight twice. That seems really bad when you write it out. Two times in two years. Wow, my kids are probably needing a break from me. This weekend they will finally get that break. I am sure they are going to have a blast. Aunt Jenny is a lot of fun. They'll probably get by with all kinds of boy stuff. I know, it's good for them, it's good for John and I, so I need to just get over my worry and have fun. Easier said than done.

Routine, what routine

We have a pretty set routine around this place. In the mornings I leave for work around 6 and John gets the kids ready for the bus. Today, John went to a men's breakfast at 5:30, so I am trying to maneuver this morning thing. This will become our regular Tuesday schedule so I need to adjust. The kids are eating and I am not stressing about getting my report ready for the 8am meeting. Deep breaths. Have I mentioned I need routine?

Experiment gone Right

John decided to experiment with food this weekend. We have plenty of smoked brisket in our freezer so he wanted to try something new. I now present brisket filled yeast rolls. Add the cheesy potatoes, cheese covered broccoli and spice cake with ice cream and well, I need to not eat for a few days. Everything was delicious.

My Random Morning Thoughts

Nothing big today, so I thought I would try just random thoughts that have nothing to do with each other.

Fell asleep last night after watching Pink Ployd's "The Wall" movie. The movie is odd, but I get pulled in by the music.

Our dog is very pathetic looking. I think maybe he practices it in the mirror while we are gone.

I wish we could get our dog to sit still so we could vaccuum him, probably a lot less hair would need to be swept up constantly. That or we would have a bald bulldog.

The boys brought home their progress reports yesterday and both have all A's. I am glad that they see the importance of working hard and that they are both enjoying school.

Jacob is being baptized Sunday and we are extremely excited and proud of him. If adults had the spirit that youth have instead of being jaded by life it would be a totally different world.

I need to mow the yard, but I keep hoping it will rain first. The way things are going it won't rain until I am ready to mow.

There are several sites that I glance at daily for quick visual humor. thereifixedit.com is classic and peopleofwalmart.com is also. The first shows ingenuity (maybe a little off the mark though) and the second shows the trophys of people watching.

We are going out of town for two whole nights next weekend. We don't know what we are going to do exactly, but we have a hotel and need the time away together. Thanks to our friend Jenny for agreeing to watch the boys.

We need to do that more often.

We are still loving our new church home. We are making friends and the boys like it there.

We are about two months into our facebook experience. I have learned that some people don't post, but some people post everything.

I also learned that it is mostly the male side that post song quotes and funny movie lines. I am starting to think that the other side isn't as impressed with this as we are. It doesn't stop me.

The boys are brushing their teeth and about ready so it is time to post my Pink Floyd Friday quote and get to the end of the driveway for the bus.

Labor Day

So far this is a pretty good day. It would be better is John were home, but he had to work today. I got up with him a little after five this morning, but I just couldn't wake up so I went back to bed around seven. I enjoyed a lovely nap until about nine. That makes for a great morning. Now I am trying to motivate myself to complete some projects. I have a couple of things in my sewing chest that need mended. It would be great to mark those little jobs off my list. I should probably sweep all my floors, but that doesn't sound fun at all. So far I have managed to wash all my bedding and clean a couple of ceiling fans. Jacob's bedding is in the dryer right now, so his bed will be made shortly. Joshua already made his bed, so his bedding may or may not get washed today. I have dreams of cleaning some windows today, we will see if that happens. I am hoping for a burst of energy that lasts the whole day long. I guess I should ban myself from the computer for now. My little jobs are much more likely to be completed if I quit sitting around. Have a great holiday.

Mark your Calenders

Jacob's baptism will be on September 13. Church starts at 10:00a.m. We can hardly wait.

Great end to the weekend

As mentioned before, we went to church to see Team Impact last night.

Tonight was more special than we ever imagined because tonight Jacob said that he was giving his life to Christ and prayed for Jesus to come into his life. This is our son that put on his Christmas list at school last year that all he wanted was to give his life to Christ. He always has a way of showing Jesus to everyone he meets.

They did the easy stuff like breaking wooden bats and twisting steel rods, then moved onto breaking an aluminum bat.

The boys bought souvenier bats for Team Impact to autograpgh and when Jacob went to have them sign his they gave him the aluminum bat they broke. They autographed it and wrote John 8:32 on it for him.

Finished the night having pizza with our friends from church. A great way to end the day.