Christmas Awakenings

I woke up this morning with yet another "epiphany" (one of several this season) so I thought wow, I better get up and blog about these awakenings.
1) It must have been very dirty and smelly where Jesus was born, Joseph must have helped deliver him, and what was Mary able to pack and bring along on the back of a donkey to meet her and Jesus' personal needs? (just getting down to the details! and it must have been crude)
2)How is it that our 3 anchor pieces went together so quickly, smoothly, and look so darn wonderful??? Well, there have been people praying for us, that's how. No other explanation!
3)This family is going to save a black baby's life by adopting it into our clan. Not sure who. I am wondering how I got to be so old so fast, and I know it can't be me, but I could definitely "grandmother it". Don asked if I was prophesizing and I told him I don't know what to call it, but anyway, I feel God laying it on me.
4)The girl who plays the Griswald daughter in Christmas Vacation is the same person who plays the pregnant gal in Mixed Nuts. I put that together all by myself!!! Maybe it's not as deep as my other awakenings, but exciting all the same.
Merry Christmas Eve - hopefully off to have a special time with my kids and grandkids, slip sliding all the way, no doubt!

How Great is our God

I would be very surprised if anyone visits my blog anymore, since I have neglected to post anything for 2 months! geesh. I am up in the middle of the night - once again - so here I am. Dangerous, vulnerable, very irrational and blogging. Bad combination. I am still on a high from yesterday. What a day God blessed me with! From sleeping in to a sweet time with my hubby to spending time with my mom and listening to Emily and choir sing. Wrapping up the evening with dinner with the family. Oh, yes, and IM'ing with a dear friend Billie. I can hardly take it all in. The best was my mom sitting alongside me singing a Chris Tomlin song with me and crying with me and holding my hand. Never in a million years would I dream something so wonderful. How great is our God?! The lost years have been redeemed and now it's just overflowing.

This post is for Emily

These photos are for you, Emily. By the time you come to Iowa, it won't be like this anymore. I didn't know if everything stays green in Austin. The big maple tree in our yard is so pretty. So yellow. It's so warm and pretty out today - I wish it would last longer.
Our tree looks so yellow, but on the ground I am finding varigated colored leaves with orange and red in them. hmmmm. Proof that they blow in from all over this court and we get to rake them up!!! I love it now, but once they dry up, they're a nuisance!

Lily on Share Day

Wednesday was Lily's sharing day. Here she is showing Mrs. Fink her new puppy that she got for being brave and getting her flu shot. She is pinching the ear to make the dog bark. So darn cute!
Here she is doing the "Freeze Dance" with a scarf. The music really rocks and when it stops, the kids have to freeze in position. It's so fun to watch. (more fun to join in, believe me!)

This is the felt board where she got to dress the girl for the day. Notice she has a bandaid on her arm - probably just got her flu shot!!!

Lily's Story

Yesterday Lily told me that she went to a "FIESTA" and that candy fell down from the sky! I love it!

I had FUN today!

I think these photos speak for themselves!

Some recent photos

Love this photo so much - here it is again! She's one of our "lily"s - get it?


Here is Big Daddy Weave (well, one of the weavers) warming up and doing sound checks before the concert.

And here are some Big Daddy fans hanging out - looking good - taking in the action and sounds. Of course it's me, and my two nieces Carrie and Gretchen.

WARNING!!!

What we have here is a bruised, rugburned, swollen knee. What happened is I fell out of bed last night. Although the new memory foam mattress sleeps well, it can also be dangerous!!!

Isn't She lovely?!

Today Lily traveled down the path through our flower garden. She was searching for the striped catepillar, but we could not find it. Instead a lovely monach butterfly flitted all around her as she sat on the little bench and watched in wonder. Oh my heart. It was a very nice moment. I could not get the butterfly in the picture, but he was there, wasn't he, Lily?

Isn't she lovely?!

"God's not finished with me yet!"

Quint Reunion

We had our Quint reunion Saturday and here is my dad and his sister - my aunt Mutz. They were reminiscing about things they did as kids, so we moved them up to the head table and gave them microphones! We all wanted to hear stories of what their childhood was like. What a special time. Mutz is over 90 and dad is 84. They look alike - they talk alike - they're 2 of a kind. Dad had not been doing too great physically, but had started a new drug the day before and he made it through the reunion, staying much longer than expected and I think he had a good time. Thank you, Lord, for the blessing it was for all of us.
Left to right is my sister Cindy, me, my cousin Deanna, and a cousin's wife Marcia. I am apparently telling some appalling tale - just look at my face - and they're all looking at me with various expressions that are hard to interpret. Who knows?! Cracks me up now, that's for sure!

Was this after the "Deanna/Judy talent" game??? Maybe I was retelling about my lap in the relay race!!!!!!!!!! It must have been dreadful, whatever it was. ha But all in all the reunion was a good time.

It's a mini-ME!!!!

Isn't she a "doll"!? It's ME!!!! They say that's when you know you've made it, is when there is a doll of you. So . . . . I made a doll of me! How come I don't feel like I'm "there"??? hmmm....... the face is from the past of course - I was 18 and skinny - this body looks more like today's body. Someday my girls will fight over it, I'm sure!

TALK ABOUT LAME!!!

I'm right there with Emily on this one. My blog has been boring and posts have been few and far between. I remember (barely) saying how I was going to share my profound thoughts with you daily. ya, right. If only I had thoughts of any kind on a daily basis!!! hmmmm, surely I DO! Lots of them just shouldn't be put down. But I was thinking colorful thoughts yesterday when we were working on a big project for the preschool. We are using lots of colors and I got to thinking that we need more different colors - like what, I don't know - and then wondering if there are colors in heaven that we haven't even seen yet and what would those look like? warm or cool? or some temperature we don't even know about yet?! maybe hues we did not know could exist. If some of you out there think I have alot of paints now, just wait til then, I'm maybe going to need another carousel caddy thingy, Don!!!

IN OUR FRONT YARD

Wildflowers.

These guys smell wonderful and there are so many!

My July Birthday girls

Happy Birthday to my sister-in-law KATHY! She is walking through life with an unshakeable faith in God and a love for her Savior that speaks out loud to all who know her. I love you, Kathy.

And Happy Birthday to my niece LACEY yesterday. She is currently in Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State, a smart fun bubbly beautiful young lady. Love you, girl.

Vacations

It's raining like crazy. Jill and family are busily packing up to catch a plane to Austin tomorrow. It feels strange to think she's going again and I'm not. I am missing Emily a lot. Laura and her family are out in Colorado vacationing. I feel like we're being deserted! I am so thankful that I got to go visit Em in May. That was a huge deal for me to fly down there and back (and boy, my arms are STILL tired!) so I am blessed. I am praying for safe travels for everyone and wishing them lots of fun and good good times!

MY DAD

Here is my sweet sweet dad. For Father's Day I gave him some wood items that he can paint (and play with). He use to build things, gadgets, thingamabops, doohickies, creating them from his head. He can no longer get into the sawdust, but thought maybe he could keep busy painting some small things just for fun. He is so limited activity-wise and his days get long and boring. It does not take much to cause him difficulty breathing. It also does not take much to please him and amuse him. He has such a big heart. I love him so much and treasure every minute I am with him. This girl loves her dad!

I CAN'T WAIT!!!

I am so excited I can't hardly stand it. I am so proud of Emily. She is singing with Aaron Ivey on his new CD that is coming out June 23. It won't be long now and I will have one in my hot little hands. When we were at his place in Austin, we went back into his studio and he let us hear a couple songs and they were awesome!!! This is big, folks! REALLY BIG! I can't say enough about it. So I'll just stop for now. You gotta get a copy. It's really good stuff. Go to Emily's blog now and link over to "Aaron" under her "Austin Friends" list and you can hear something really really superb! I just can't say enough, can I?!

FROM OUR YARD

LILIES!

Bushes between the driveway and house. They're crazy this year.

Our hostas are going nuts, too!

kinda funny?

I don't even have words to go with this picture. I don't. So that's it.

I miss him!

I miss him.

I wish I could say it doesn't hurt anymore, because I want to be able to say that to my sister in law Kathy. I want to reassure her that it goes away, but I'd be lying. " grieving" is suppose to "be over" and I have moved on. Instead it became a part of who I am wherever I go and whatever Ido.

I am homesick.

12 years. . . unreal.

I yearn for heaven.

I can feel Jesus holding me up.

I can feel the love of my family.

but. . . I miss him.

BLEAH!!!

I can't believe I haven't posted since around mothers day. What a slacker! Austin was awesome, we had so much fun with Emily and her friends. This is really bad since I haven't been blogging, I thought I would write today and say that I feel like crap. Don was sick over the weekend and maybe I now have what he had, I don't know, but I was sick all night and today. Feverish, achy, want to puke. Right now I feel like I could pass out. I'm getting a cold rag and lay down. Don suspected food poisoning was his problem, but I'm not so sure. How does one know, anyway?????? whatever. I got something and I don't like it! Just wanted you all to know! ha!

Mothers Day

These shoes will be walking the streets of Austin very soon - with my feet (as pictured) in them. Comfort and style rolled into one. (or two, depending on how you think) Thanks for the McCarraghers Mothers day gift to me.
I scored a Paper Prayers pin from the Brown's. It is very funky and I love it. I tried the macro setting on my camera, but as you can see, it makes little difference for me.

I also got this cute little tin bird from the Brown's. He loves our flower garden. As our lilies get larger, I will probably move him to a more obvious spot, but for now he is right where I see him as I come out the door.

These gifts are nice, but the best part of Mothers Day is seeing your children happy, healthy, loving the Lord and being good mothers to your grandkids. Happy Mothers Day, girls.

Getting clothed for Austin

Austin, we are getting ready for lift-off. Oh, that's Houston, well, Austin, we are getting ready to keep you weird!!! I found this top today that I believe will work well for me while in Austin. Can you tell I am getting excited? (yikes) So that we 3 don't show up in the same 3 outfits, I trucked over to K-Mart, knowing the other 2 never shop there, except around Christmas. Well, everything was on sale! And they have lots of cute styles, too. So now that you've seen this, don't you go over to the big K and copy me, you 2. I mean it!!!

Friday and the VA

I'm beat. There were lots of extra little things to do at school this morning, it seemed like. As soon as I got home, Don announced that he had forgotten about his appointments at the VA that morning and had gone to CR instead!!! swell. It's just that he had successfully scheduled 3 different departments all back to back on his day off! That won't happen again for a long time. Anyway, we went on up there to reschedule and get his meds ordered and ended up getting in for one of his appts. after all. That was the afternoon!!! Sit and wait. Then move to another room and sit and wait. So tiring. But thanking God that he was able to get his blood pressure medicine adjusted. And his blood sugars were great. It wasn't all bad. Don was getting a little crazy/bored so he wanted to play doctor . . . . brat. Anyway, we got out of there before we got into any real trouble.

My busy Thurs.

Does anyone out there in blogland check in on me anymore? Probably not, and I wouldn't blame you. I haven't posted since Easter. geesh, what a dead beat! yeah, right. Or maybe I'm just the opposite - busy living out my life instead!!!! I will try to do better about stopping to let you know just what it is that I am doing in my busy days. Today I got my hair cut. I worked on some art projects. Preschool was crazy. Lots of glue, paint, and mod podge to clean up as well as water and dirt. Funky smells in the room - just now getting over the headache it gave me. The kids practiced for their spring program, coming up this Sunday. Some extra busy bodies need reminding to stay on the risers and pay attention. Tues/Thurs kids are high maintenance, but so much fun. The M/W/F group are getting bored and are ready to move on to Kindergarten. Ok, Don is out of the shower and ready to head out for supper. bye for now.

Happy Easter

It is no secret what God can do: Jesus was born, died, and was raised to life! He's alive!!!

My New Friend

Let me introduce you to my new friend "Wal-zyr D". Met him at Walgreens and he has made me feel like a real woman again. YES!

More good stuff

Sorry these are blurry, I don't know what's wrong with my camera!!! Anyway, here is another item in the package from Em. . . a luggage tag....just in time for my trip to Austin! I absolutely love it! She could see no good reason to act her age. hmmmm. That's me, I guess!
This is the front of the card she sent. It is what I am trying to live by in my old age, but sadly lacking some days.

Cute little Birdie!

I got a package in the mail today from Emily and inside was this cute little birdie. I thought hmmmmmm, cute. Then I read her note and she said to see if I knew what it does. I looked really close at those "beady" eyes, they're sewn on, not electronic! Maybe you stick pins in it. Although it's fuzzy, it is not soft and cushiony. hmmmm.........
My finger found something inside the bottom of the bird that kind of pushed. I pushed and pushed - nothing. Maybe it's broken or dead.

Oh well, I thought, it's still cute with that little green tail!!! So I pulled on it slightly and surprise!

It's a tape measure!!! Sneaky! and very very cute. That was fun. Although I think it will continue to provide fun for many days to come. Thank you, Emily!

My Husband

My husband - I think I'll keep him after all - He worked a 10 hour day and came in the door yelling "supper's ready!" You can see we had a rotisserie chicken and salad and a couple other things, but my point is, I have had an awful week with my allergies acting up and have tried to fix dinner every night even though I didn't feel like it and look what he did tonight! YES!!! I have had a sinus headache, plugged up nose, and sneezing, and why? WHY ? did they have to stop making 12hr. Drixoral Cold and Allergy????? It was the only thing that worked for me. I can feel the 4-Way calling me back into addiction again. HELP! OK, back to my husband. Isn't he sweet and kind of cute? Thanks for supper, honey. (what's for dessert?) sniff, snort

Silly Brown Brothers

Silly Sam found a new friend out in front of Pancheros. Here they are hanging out together.
Will and his buddy have their arms around each other. BFF!

Crazy Things with wings

One day last week I was driving to work and I looked off to my right to see probably the last heap of piled up snow - you know, the ugly dirty muddy left over heaps, anyway perched on the very top was a robin. He was looking around as if to say "What the _____?" After that it got below zero windchill again, so I hope he did not return too soon for his own good. I wished I would have stopped the car and took his picture, but of course, I didn't.

Then yesterday on my way to work once again, and I stopped at the traffic light at the intersection of Hwy 6 and 965 by the mall and Lowes and there was a flock of about 8 HUGE seagulls hovering just slightly above the roofs of cars. Everybody was gawking in amazement. The light turned and I went. No picture once again. What were they doing there???

CRAZY BIRDS!!!!!!!!!!

Teddy Bear Picnic Day

We recently had a teddy bear picnic at preschool. Here is my bear picnicing with baby puppy.
See who baby puppy belongs to. . . just in case you didn't know!

Here comes a bear out of the cave now! grrrrrr Oh, wait, he looks friendly! It's one of those Sam Brown Bears!

And I love her

This is how we know what love is, that someone lay down his (or in this case Her) fears and get on a plane, enduring whatever awful or humiliating thing that might happen - so that she can go see her baby. Ticket's bought . . . going. . . . ok, then. I love you, Emily.

Sam's Share Day and a real Lulu

Today was Sam's share day. . . which means he had several jobs throughout his dayat school. Here he is dropping in the "gumballs" while everyone counts (the number was 15 and when he got to 10, he dropped in two at a time so the class had to say 11,12 quickly, then he grabbed the last three for a very fast 13, 14, 15!!!) tricky!
He got to "dress the boy" on the good ol' felt board - looks like he lost one sock and one mitten, but that happens. He points at things while the kids in the group raise their hands to say what color it is.

Here he is sharing his catapult he brought from home. It shoots marshmallows. It was a big hit with everyone. He told how his dad made it and Will has one too and they shoot marshmallows at each other with them. The kids then raise their hands and he calls on them and they ask questions for him to answer. Ellie raised her hand at the very end and said "You should come over to my house sometime . . . and bring that along!" You can see that Mrs. Fink was enjoying the whole thing.

Younger brother Max came at the end to watch the happenings. I got him to do the Skinamarinky dinky doo song with the kids. He is getting very interested in what goes on in that place but has a while to wait yet before he joins up!!!

Little Lulu:

A couple nights ago Lily was over and requested Little Lulu. Well, between cartoons they sing the theme song and I noticed she was trying to sing along "Little Lulu, I love you-lu just the same..." So I tried to sing along to teach her the words and to my horror I realized one part of the song goes something like this: "You're wilder than a Zulu and much harder to tame" I thought WOW, is that a very good thing to teach my grandchild?! Well, it was from the 50's and for the sake of making it rhyme . . . . but really, I was stunned. I don't know. Is that right?! I only wanted her to love Little Lulu like I did as a child.