Work Christmas Dinner

I sure have been doing a lot of partying lately haven't I??

Monday night was our Ladies Christmas Dinner. I'm calling it that because we specifically decided not to invite the men that we work with! HA! It was just going to get too complicated. It's OK... no one got their feelings hurt and we are going to do something special at work (during the day) in January. I work with a GREAT group of women! We drew names back in August when Addi started humming Christmas carols and started demanding our Christmas wish lists. Oh my. We kept it a secret on whose name we had... just to add to the suspense. It was so funny because just an hour before the party Cheryl was printing something out on her printer at work that had to do with her gift (to Addi) and Addi accidentally intercepted it! ...She had kept it a secret for so long! Apparently there was some physical pushing/shoving to try and get to the printing paper (which I'm sure printed in slow motion for Cheryl) and eventually there was rolling on the floor in laughter over this. (I missed it...of course). Anyway, there is NEVER a dull moment with this group. We went to Dandinos and the food was delicious!


L to R: Cheryl, Addi, Randa and Laura

I was Randa's secret angel (I guess I can call it that). She liked her Willow Tree Angel. Aren't those so neat?


Addi was surprised by a few things from Cheryl at least...

Laura had my name and even made 2 trips to The Refinery to get some blueberry coffee and snickerdoodle coffee for me. I love their coffee! Thanks Laura!

I don't care for lobster but some of the ladies got the special... steak and lobster. Doesn't that look good??? And yes, I actually took a picture of food. It's OK.... really.

Small Group Christmas Party

We were snowed in today and apparently we were in a "level 2 emergency" which means travel on the roads only if absolutely necessary. Well, we decided that our small group Christmas party would surely fit into that category. Afterall we had a difficult time scheduling it around 7 busy family schedules! The kids sure change each year for their picture. It's hard to remember when there were no kids... now there is a gaggle of them! The party was at Terry & Karla's new house this year. It's so awesome. It was perfect for a large group of us. The picture of the girls above is of them messing around with their Chat Now phones. After supper we played charades with Christmas subjects. The pictures in the collage below with the kids making funny motions is them acting out a word. Madison got the word "Blitzen" and Quinn had "Frosty the snowman"... they both did really good and our team got them right. I personally hate charades. Thankfully I didn't have to act anything out. : )

There is a two hour delay tomorrow for school already. Madison and Quinn went to spend the night at B&P's house. Archie and Michelle came over at 9:30 to pick them up. Thanks guys! They have plans to go sledding in the morning and apparently there is a huge snowman that Archie has started that needs finishing...and then on to school at 11am.

Here is a better picture of the group of kids. My mom asked in the comments why Angie snuck in the picture. Her little Hope didn't want to be in the picture so Angie is her moral support so we could include her too! : ) The Picasa version of the collage cut Hope, Dylan and Mariah off. : (

Winter

This morning we woke up to 8 1/2 inches of snow. We have more in some of the drifted areas (like the deck). For the 2nd time in 17 years our church was cancelled today. ...Just not enough time for the plows to dig everyone out. We're supposed to have our small group Christmas party at Terry & Karla's tonight. Hopefully everyone will be plowed out by then. Stay warm!

Merry Christmas!

Tonight we celebrated Christmas with Beppe, Pakka, Uncle Archie, Aunt Michelle and Jade. We missed not having Uncle AJ and Aunt Bonnie with us this year. We traditionally celebrate together on Christmas eve. We'll be in Iowa this year and Archie and Michelle will have moved to Fort Riley, Kansas by then. Only a few more days with them... : ( We had a great time with the traditional fondue. We fondued meat in oil and also bread in Alfredo sauce. Yum! We loved watching the kids open up their presents... especially Jade. She would unwrap and box and get all excited say..."A Square!!!" (the shape of the box) ...or "A triangle!!!" (for the rectangles). We wouldn't have needed to put anything inside of them. Quinn was thrilled with a Monopoly game and Nerf gun. Madison got a Webkinz cat and jewelry and the Nintendo-DS game of "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" Fitting since she's in 5th grade! We got Jade a Dora scooter and it was so cute to watch her help her daddy put it together and then figure out how to work it. She really liked Madison's help for her "motor power". She is 2 1/2 and at such a fun age. We took Madison, Quinn and Jade to Olan Mills to get their pictures taken this afternoon and they all did so great! The pictures are due to be back on Christmas eve but we'll be in Iowa already so I guess we'll get these Christmas pictures when we get back. Oh well.

We got 4-5 inches of snow today... it's starting to look like a winter wonderland!

Silent Night,

Leah

Jade and her new Dora scooter!

Special Ornaments

I know, I know, I know... some of you are just plain sick of checking my blog and seeing that same Christmas program picture. I'm sorry! It's been a busy week and I just haven't had the motivation to blog.... because the week hasn't been filled with anything too exciting. Madison had soccer practice on Tuesday at a gym that was 1/2 hour away so I had no choice but to hang around and wait for it to be over... I was the car pool person that night. I did go and get some groceries though during that time (although I have to go again today). Wednesday night I had a board meeting at church which lasted from 6:30-10 and before that started I spent 45 minutes driving as the car pool person to deliver Madison and a friend to a Sunday School class party. That evening was pretty much gone the second I stepped into the house. On Monday and Thursday the kids spent part of the evenings with Aunt Michelle, Uncle Archie and Jade. Last night Archie had them out in the back yard teaching them how to use a BB gun. The fun never ends when he's in town.

Since I didn't have any pictures to post for you, I took some pictures of some of my favorite ornaments that are on our tree. The collage actually kind of looks like one big picture but they are really nine different snapshots. Location described as you would find them on a clock...

Center: This is a ceramic baby Jesus that I painted as a kid. It hangs on our tree every.single.year.

Noon: A picture ornament of Quinn that he made in preschool.

1pm: Tony was an "airplane junky" as a kid too. This is one of his ornaments from his childhood. You would be surprised (or may be not) at how many airplane ornaments we actually have... that's for another post).

3pm: Madison's bell ornament with loads of glitter, made as a preschooler.

5pm: A backpack and picture to remember Madison' first year as a kindergartner.

6pm: A cookie cutter that we had as kids of Santa. We used it every single year. My mom was ready to retire some of her cutters so I made this into an ornament for our tree.

7pm: This one will shock all but about 3 of you! A group of 4 of us actually went to Oprah's Christmas show one year!!...You know... the one where she usually gives out the big refrigerators, electronics, linens, kitchen items... all of her favorite things?? WELL... this particular year that we went... this one and only Christmas show was on how to emphasize less of the getting... and focus more on the giving. SO, in order to get into the show, we actually had to BRING a gift for a Salvation Army kid that her producers had assigned to us over the phone in order to get into the building. We were given these Christopher Radko (sp?) ornaments under our chairs though. Doesn't that just sound so like our luck...? ha!! Tonya, Lisa, Angie and I have never forgotten the memories behind this ornament! I think Oprah "owes us" another Christmas show don't you??? ha.

9pm: A ornament with glued-on pasta shapes and Madison's picture from preschool.

11pm: This shepherd boy reminds me of Quinn who played a shepherd in his kindergarten play of the Christmas story. He was so cute.

Now let me just say that these are just SOME of my favorite ornaments. I have many, many more but surely I would bore you to tears to put them all up here. Last year I actually took pictures of most of them and then wrote about them, their year, and why they are special and have it saved in my good ol computer. (I know... you can be impressed). I assure you that if you have given us an ornament in the past... it is also one of my very favorites too! If you'll come over and look at my tree, I'll tell you more stories behind each one of our ornaments. How much time do you have?

That's all for now folks.... I would love to see what Christmas is looking like at your house. Send me some pictures or if you have a blog, post them!

Joy to the World,
Leah

Christmas Programs

Christmas All Around


The Christmas Present


Sunday night was the children's Christmas program at church. They did such a good job! They actually presented two small plays. The first one was Christmas All Around... and was the traditional Christmas stories complete with the costumes. The second one was The Christmas Present which was a musical and story telling. Madison sang in a quartet and had a few lines. Quinn had two lines and was all stressed out about them...."I wish I could just go back to being a sheep this year!" (a job reserved for the little-little ones!).


Not too big for Uncle Archie's lap.

We knew Uncle Archie would be coming this weekend but he surprised us by showing up at Quinn's basketball game on Saturday morning. Quinn stopped his play during the game and stood there with his mouth open when he saw him. It was so cute. I wish I would have had my camera!

Snowflakes

Tonight is a cold Friday night. Nate is staying overnight tonight so the boys are busy playing a game downstairs. Madison is staying overnight with B&P and Michelle & Jade. Tony is working. I found these pictures of snowflakes and thought may be you would enjoy them too. Have a good weekend!

These pictures are photos of actual snowflakes that a man by the name of Kenneth Libbrecht took with a photomicroscope and can be viewed at Snow Crystals. Aren't they amazing? It's beyond comprehension to me how no 2 snowflakes are the same. Isn't snow itself a miracle that we overlook every single winter? I guess it is a lesson in the need to just look around ourselves... God's handiwork is everywhere and examples of miracles are regularly occuring incidences...even in the snow!

And Now...

Look below at MAN's attempt at reproducing snow... this is artifical snow. Like the kind they use at ski resorts in times of warmer weather. HA-HA!

Ox Bow Champs

The 5th graders finished their season with an 8-0 record after the tournament championship this afternoon. They won 16-4 after playing East Side. They were pretty excited afterwards! They have a traveling plaque that will have the school's name and year on it and get to keep it at their school for the year.

The top picture is of an excited Madison and Holyn saying good-bye to each other. Madison has a group of really nice friends!

I'm working on the video editing... I just figured out how to get the video into my computer. The editing is slow-going. I might need some more RAM or an external drive or something to speed the process up. Some day you'll get to see the hightlights!

A mother/son picture

We took this of ourselves on the field trip!

"White Christmas" at Amish Acres

This was quite a different Wednesday for us, and a great one at that! School started off with a 2 hour delay due to snow. My guess is that we got 3-4 inches last night. I took a vacation day today because Quinn and I were planning on going to Amish Acres to see the play White Christmas with his class so the 2 hour delay worked OK for us. The kids were outside playing in it and shoveling off the driveway first thing this morning.

The field trip got off to a late start but it still was a great time. We saw an abbreviated version of White Christmas... about an hour long. I would love to see the whole thing. Quinn and I enjoyed it very much. We have really been looking forward to going for several weeks now. He told me on the bus ride there that he really didn't care about the field trip... what he was most happy about was that I got to go with him and that he was looking forward to wrapping our arms together during the play and that he could lay his head down on my shoulder during it. I told him some day he would be bringing a girlfriend to the play and they would be holding hands. He gave me a grossed out look and said "Ewwww!" For now, Mom works. : )

After the play the actors/actresses introduced themselves, said where they were from and entertained questions. Of course nearly every child had his hand raised for a question. Quinn didn't get called on but he wanted to ask the actor from Davenport, IA if he was a hawkeye fan... that would have fit right in there with some of the other questions we heard such as "What is your favorite food?" and "How do you do all of this any way?" We'll just have to assume any good Iowan is a hawkeye fan. ha!

After that we enjoyed a family style dinner of chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, homemade bread with apple butter and cookies for dessert. Yum! The place was a buzz with multiple schools there for a sold-out show.

Leading up to the field trip were lessons about etiquette for fine arts performances as well as eating out. The boys were instructed to pull out chairs for the girls/ladies. The picture in the bottom right hand corner in the collage is of Quinn trying to scoot my chair in for me. I had to explain that the ladies actually do the scooting part themselves. The picture at the 6 o'clock position is of Quinn, Nate, their teacher Mrs. Heyse, and good friend Benjamin. The boys looked quite sharp!

So after surviving the ride back in the very last seat on the bus, the field trip was all too quickly over. It was well organized and went smoothly. Days at work go fast... but not this fast!

PS... my Christmas sweater is a bit "loud" for me but Quinn gave it to me for Christmas last year. He remembered it this morning and said it "looks really nice on you!" : )

Ox Bow 24, West Side 5

Tonight was the first game of the 5th grade tournament. It wasn't too hard. : ) I just LOVE not going to games feeling anxious... or even really competitive! ha! Madison scored 6 points and had some good tie-up's for jump balls and a couple of steals. After the game we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for supper with B&P, Michelle & Jade. Uncle Archie is coming some time this weekend. He is done with his AZ assignment tomorrow I believe. Excitement is beginning to fill the air! : )

Over the weekend Madison was asked "What is the best thing that has happened to you in the last month?" Her answer was that soccer was going to be starting up again after being off for a month. She's a pure soccer girl at heart.

Gingerbread House

Tonight Madison, Quinn and Jade put together the annual gingerbread house. This is a Christmas tradition that they have done with Aunt Michelle for many years now. I'm not even sure how many. I should go back and look through my pictures to see. They had a good time decorating Beppe & Pakka's Christmas tree too. It's really nice to be able to spread some of these traditions out through out the Christmas season. I think the house turned out really good. They keep looking better every year! : )

PS... Blogger is working on the "enlarge picture" problem for all users. When you dbl click on the photo most of us are not able to get pictures to enlarge right now. They are trying to solve it. : )

CDBL Kick-Off

Tonight was the kick-off for the Concord Developmental Basketball League (CDBL) at the high school game. This program is for 3rd-6th graders so this is Quinn's first year to participate. They shot baskets at the half-time of the JV Boys game as a way to introduce them to the community. : ) They start practices/games on Saturday mornings now. From 8-9am they have practice and from 9-10am they play a game. I'm not sure about that 8am start time for me. Hmmmmm. Quinn's team are the "Wolverines" and his friend Tate from school is on it. That's Tate in the picture above with Quinn. He is already stressed that Nate isn't on his team and that means he'll have to play against him. He doesn't like to do that! Anyway, you'll be hearing more about this league.

Aunt Leah's Towel Drawer

I think these pictures of Jade are so cute! I got to watch her for a few hours a couple of Saturdays ago so Aunt Michelle could take Madison out for her pedicure and lunch (for her birthday). I wanted to make some chili for the crock pot and Jade found the towel drawer while we were in the kitchen. It brought back many memories as my kids used to do the same thing over and over and over. She unloaded the drawer and then we practiced folding for a bit. She finally just laid down amidst the pile, covered up and pretended to go to sleep. Now her mama doesn't like her in the kitchen drawers but at Aunt Leah's house they aren't off limits so she can just unload away! : )

Ox Bow 24, Westside 6

We finished our season 6-0. It's on to the tournament next week. I'm not too worried....

Hanging of the greens

Amy, Jeff and the girls left this morning for Iowa. I'm glad they got an early start. It's sleeting tonight and I know A LOT of people traveling tonight. I've been praying for safe travels for all of you! I told Tony I am so incredibly happy that we aren't out there too.

We decorated the tree today and "hung the stockings by the fire" ... it feels so good to have all of these Christmas traditions started and under way. I did something very brave today. I got out my Precious Moments nativity set. I haven't gotten it out for several years because of all of the balls that have been flying around my house (and really still do). I gave strict instructions to Quinn about no ball throwing.... we'll see!

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and I'm sad that it's over so fast. I hope you feel as blessed as we are and that your weekend was a celebration of these blessings.

I count each of you dear family and friends among my richest blessings!

Love to all, Leah

Visit to Santa

On Saturday we went to cut down our Christmas tree
and also to see Santa. We've seen Santa Claus at the tree
farm for years now. Quinn asked for a new football (like he needs one more!) and Madison asked for an iAlarm (an alarm clock that she can dock her iPod into).

The Great Tree Hunt

One of our family traditions is to go to a Christmas Tree Farm and cut down our own tree. This year it was fun to take Amy's family with us. (Mom and Dad left this morning for Iowa) Nate came along too. We've been out there in all sorts of weather. This year it was pretty cold (30's) but dry. The picture in the lower right corner is Tony as he gets the tree measured. It was 7 feet tall. Madison, Quinn and Nate actually worked and worked at it and this was the first year that they actually got it cut down all by themselves. All 3 of them were under the tree at the end, trying to get a good push/pull action on the saw. TIMBER!

Christmas Cookies

And as if the adults hadn't had enough commotion for one day, we decided to make Christmas cut-out cookies Saturday night. The cousins (+Nate) had great fun rolling, cutting, frosting and eating. Amy and I use the sugar cookie recipe that my mom used with us when we were growing up.

Jenna and her snowman. She collects penguins and so was disappointed we didn't have a penguin cookie cutter... do they even make a penguin cookie cutter???


Mikayla shows off a creation. The more frosting and sprinkles the better. She took it easy on this cookie for us.


Haley and her masterpieces. She enjoyed layering the frosting on her cookies with different colors. There was a lot of finger-licking going on in that corner... in spite of Mikayla's reprimands to stop licking! It's just about impossible for a 4 year old isn't it??

Black Friday

We woke to a dusting of snow on Friday morning. Amy took these pictures of our house because she thought the yellow leaves mixed with the snow looked so pretty. The pictures don't show how pretty it really was. Our trees have been holding onto their leaves for a long time this fall.

Mom, Amy and I took the 4 girls shopping for a few hours today. We aren't the 6am type to save a buck. We are the sleep-in-on-the-one-day-you-can type and left around 10:30. Ha! Tony worked but Grandpa, Jeff and Quinn went shopping to Menards. We brought the girls home in the afternoon and then Mom, Amy and I went back out for a few more hours. It was a lot of fun. Amy got almost all her Christmas shopping done and mine is started.

We went out for pizza to Milanos in the evening and then we went home and watched Christmas with the Kranks.

Silly Haley

Silly Haley got into her Mom's lipstick in Meijer's.

Too bad you can't hear the giggles to go along with these pictures!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! It was great to have Mom, Dad, Amy, Jeff, Jenna, Mikayla and Haley here this year! We missed you Doug, Jen, Amanda and Jay... but thanks for calling! A few explanations about the pictures...Madison made the place cards. That's her little tradition. We played games with the kids such as Family Feud (a lot of Family Feud). Grandma is the endless game player and the kids take advantage of her graciousness to play game after game of their choice with them. Jenna & Madison combed the store ads to make out their Christmas lists.

Our menu:

turkey

mashed potatoes

sweet potato casserole

dressing

green bean casserole

cranberry/apple salad

broccoli salad

relish tray

butterhorn rolls

pumpkin pie

peach pie

blueberry pie

strawberry/rhubarb pie

It was all delicious! We ate about 1:30. We went to the evening showing of Fred Claus which is a cute Christmas movie. When we came out of the theatre it started snowing. It was the perfect transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas. : )

Give Thanks in All Circumstances

1 Thessalonians 5: 17- 18 says "Pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances." This can be pretty hard at times can't it? What about when we are going through hard times? Do we have to feel thankful during these times? I have a dear friend who has a broken heart from a broken relationship this Thanksgiving weekend. Is it really possible to feel thankful??? The Bible doesn't say, be thankful when things are going well and life is good. It is pretty clear isn't it?... give thanks in All Circumstances. Now I don't think that this means we have to be thankful for the hard things we go through...I really don't think that feeling is part of being a human. BUT through the hard times, perhaps we can find things to be thankful for. Cheering our own souls up as we give thanks to God for He really is good.

During this Thanksgiving holiday weekend we often find ourselves making a list and checking it twice of things we are thankful for. I've been trying to live in an attitude of thankfulness to God. Besides all of the "obvious" thankful stuff... here are some of the things I've been able to look back on today and recall that I gave thanks during my "attitude of thankfulness."

• I'm thankful for my co-workers who make my life so much easier at work by working together. I'm thankful I can ask Randa if I'm being mean (about a difficult pain decision) and she gives me her honest opinion.
• I'm thankful for an Internet site that helps me make difficult math calculations when working with high doses of pain medications (oh so thankful!)
• I'm thankful that my family isn't traveling this holiday weekend, and that family is coming to us.
• I'm thankful that I'm not at the grocery store today with the mad rush for last minute things (I've been there 3 times this week already!).
• I'm thankful for a washing machine and dryer that work and are dependable when I keep them oh so busy.
• I'm thankful we are "rich enough" to serve turkey tomorrow...one of my patients told me she wasn't.... (I really didn't know that was part of the definition of being rich).

Those are just a few examples. I hope and pray that you all will be able to find special things... little things... to feel thankful for this holiday.

Pictures from Splash Universe party

Here are a few pictures from the birthday party. If you dbl click on the collage it will make it larger for you. The party was a huge success. There were may be only 10 people in the whole place when we got there and it never even felt busy by the time we left. They had a great time on the slides, lazy river and climging jungle-gym type of thing. We brought home some tired kids around 7:15 Friday night. It was one of the easiest partiest I've ever planned and Madison gave it an A+ so I would recommend it to others for sure!

Front row, L to R: Nathan, Nate, Quinn, Peyton, Heather
Back row, L to R: Alexa, Katie, Maddi, Madison, Holyn, Kiley

Madison gives a sly look to her friends while they sing happy birthday to her. Jade is happy to help blow out the candles.

Splash Universe

In less than 2 hours we are headed to Splash Universe for Madison's 11th birthday party.... and taking 11 kids!! They get out of school early today (1:05) so we are hoping it won't be too busy. Here is a picture of the newly completed cake... a triple layered Fun-Fetti Cake.

Indigo on 17

Tonight I had the opportunity to eat at the new restaurant, Indigo on 17, with my colleagues from work. I would describe it as a fancy restaurant with a really neat modern atmosphere. I did not see one child or even a teenager there in the 2 hours we were there. The food was gourmet and delicious. I had shrimp with pesto and these red and white stripped ravioli's with butternut squash inside. There was no sauce on the outside but they were really good! If you go with an open mind to try new things you'll do well. The highlight was the apple crisp for dessert. Wow... was that ever good. Jeremiah is bussing tables there but I didn't get a glimpse of him... he must not have been working tonight.

Well, that's what I did... what did you do???

Ox Bow 28, East Side 12

Madison's basketball team won this afternoon. She played very well and scored 14 points and was 7 for 7. Tony didn't get to go to the game but I've got her points on my new video cam. Some day I'll learn how to edit and combine my scenes and then put the short clips on blogger... then watch out! ha!

Quinn had his CDBL (Concord Developmental Basketball League) evaluation tonight. Basically they put you through different stations to measure some of your basketball skills as a way to fairly divide up the BB teams. Upward BB does the same thing. This is Concord's version and it starts in 3rd grade. He looked so nervous out there! This was the make-up night and I thought there might be 10 kids there and it would be in/out in 30 minutes. Boy was I wrong. There were about 40 kids there and it took almost 1 1/2 hours.

Aunt Michelle helped Madison with her homework tonight at home while Q and I were gone. Here is a good one for you. Madison is writing a report on a state. Peyton "stole" the state of Iowa so she chose Minnesota to learn about instead. In her report she stated that there were Mayo brothers who started the Mayo Clinics. Now... under the section where she was asked what kind of souvenir she would bring back if she were to visit Minnesota... she drew a nice big jar of mayonnaise. Hmmmm... where did that come from? She thought that the Mayo brothers started a mayonnaise factory and called it the Mayo Clinic. Made us laugh!


Here is a Quinn's quip for you...
As we were driving to the BB evaluation he said out of the blue, "I just can't wait to go to heaven!... but I want to live a lot of years on earth with you and Dad... but I don't know about Madison... she's pretty outrage(ous) at times."

My computer is really slow tonight for some reason. It must be telling me to go to bed so... good-night!

Hawkeye Fun

We had a great time during our fast trip to Iowa this weekend. The Iowa vs Minnesota game was great and Quinn was especially thrilled that Iowa won and got "Floyd" the pig back. Madison decided not to go to the game so Grandma Jo went with us instead! That was quite a treat to have my mom go with us. It was a crisp fall day but not uncomfortable. We took the the Hawkeye Train in to the game... my mom hasn't ever done that before and of course Quinn is always up for a train ride. After the game Tony and Quinn poured down onto the field with another 20,000 people or so. Quinn picked about 4 blades of grass as a souvenir.

Last night we were at Amy & Jeff's house for pizza and today after church we left to come home. Short but sweet.

Off to Iowa...

We're heading off to Iowa for the Iowa vs Minnesota football game. Help us cheer on the hawks tomorrow at 12pm (est)!

Becky Tirabassi

Several years ago I had the wonderful opportunity to hear Becky Tirabassi in Chicago. She was recently at my alma mater, Olivet Nazarene University, and spoke at their chapel service. She gave her testimony. I just wanted to point you to her podcast that you can click on and listen to on-line or download to your iPod. She has a wonderful testimony that will surely be inspiring to all of you. Just scroll to October 11 and click on Play or Download. If you know someone who might be less-than-perfect, point them to this podcast!

What I've been up to...

Ok, Ok, Ok... I've been reprimanded... by email... "why aren't you blogging?" and I was met with the hands on the hips this morning at work..."why haven't you been blogging?" (which totally cracks me up since I see them the most regularly out of everyone in my whole world I think!!).

Over the weekend I was gone to our annual scrapbooking weekend. It was great fun and I got 30 pages done! (except journaling yet to do). Blogs are more fun to read if there are pictures so scroll down for a few pages that I completed of our Smoky Mountain vacation this last Spring Break. I'm sure you'll have to dbl click on them to even see them. I sure wish I had more time to scrapbook more often!

The last few evenings I've been using my free hour of the day to read through the instruction manual of our new video camera. (So SORRY, I haven't been blogging!) I learn so much better with a demonstration so I have to read everything so carefully because there isn't anyone to show me the ropes on it. This camera has way more bells and whistles than our old one. It will take some practicing...

So, really, that's about all the excitement around here. This is the month-end week for Tony so he just walked in the door now. The staff accountant that works with him is leaving as of this Friday. We've been praying for a fast replacement but so far they haven't even had applicants they are interested in interviewing. If you all could say a prayer about this, we would appreciate it.