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Sunday, January 29, 2012


We had a short visit over the Christmas holiday
with my sweet Grandpa Louie.

We spent a couple of hours in his living room
listening to him reminisce.

It was precious, precious time.

I learn something new each time we do this, and this time I learned that 
these two...the ones pictured below, have a couple of things in common.
Yes, yes they do.

They both have hearts of gold with just enough spunk
woven in to make life interesting,
and.....

They both played "tight end" in football!!!

(For some reason that name makes me laugh.)

Yes, you heard it here first!

Grandpa, it appears, "walked on" the college football team and played tight end,
the same position Zach plays now!

"Tight Ends are #1!"

So there you have it folks...
the family tight ends.

(I have a cousin who played in high school...maybe he was a tight end too... I'll have to let ya know.)

Go team!

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Photos and Fire

Since the holidays, I've been going through pictures.

Which means I've been trying to process and print out a decade's worth of pictures.

It's not easy being me.

So by the time I process all the pictures,

I have no patience left to blog
or time....

But nevertheless, interesting things have been happening in our house
on a regular basis...


a fact which, I am reminded of as I go through all these photos.
I've learned a lot of things.
Like:

I really need a second pair of cotton yoga pants because I wear
the one pair I have in every picture.

And, iphoto's retouch tool works incredibly on blemishes
and crows feet
 and even under eye shadows....

But if you try to erase the "turkey" lines on  your neck,
you wind up looking like a bobble head.

You've been warned.


And I take a hugely disproportionate number of pictures of my fifth child Lily 
compared to ...anybody who's ever had their picture taken on the face of the planet.

I am hoping that this will offset the fact that I have had her picture taken 
in a studio...
twice...
yep...
Once when she was 18 months and then when she was six.

I'm TERRIBLE!
It's just the HEADACHE of it all...getting the outfit ready, getting the child
CLEAN, fixing the squirrelly hair, getting the appointment...
I could go on.




Pretty much the only time I take pictures of the other kids is when they are doing silly things like 
climbing on branches that are much too small for them to be climbing on.

What you don't see here is that he is about to light that toilet paper on fire.
Cause somebody told him that was a good way
to get rid of the t.p. in the tree.

Important note...this works but is not recommended if you care about your trees...
and is not advisable under any circumstances for BIRCH trees.
BAD.

So if you don't hear from me here for awhile, 
I've drowned in my pictures and need to be dragged out, or I've gone up in a wall of flames from kids trying to burn toilet paper out of my trees.

Either way...not good!



Thursday, December 22, 2011

Ready!


Hair in bun...check!

 "Rev" coffee on board...check!


Dark Chocolate...the breakfast of champions! Check!
Ready to Wrap! Those! Gifts!
Let's do this thing!

Wait...do we have any tape?
Where are the scissors?
I forgot to buy tags.

Sigh.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Stolen Briefcase Found

Wow!  God has been gracious to us.  Your prayers (see previous post) were answered quickly!  Tim just received a call from the owner of a gas station about a mile away.  His briefcase, MINUS the computer sadly, was found dumped there!  We are so thankful that all our personal papers are (supposedly) still there.  THANK for the prayers.  It's barely nine in the morning, and I'm ready for a nap (with the doors locked! with my purse under my pillow! with my dog....oh never mind.)


Merry Christmas.

Fierce Defender Fails

Here is our fierce and ferocious watchdog.
She will bite  your hand right off! (if you're holding bacon....)
She slept soundly last night while someone broke into our garage, into my husband's car and stole his work briefcase.

They left my purse in the suburban undisturbed.

Clearly a professional hit job.

Please pray that the briefcase with his computer and a lot of personal papers would be returned.

(For those who need more details,
I went out to the garage this morning at 6:45 to 
take out recycling and noticed that the garage
door was open and that my husband's
back car door was ajar.
I knew we were in trouble.
Tim was the last one home last night and always closes the garage door, so we have no explanation.)

We are thankful that nothing else is missing.

As for Molly...she is well rested and without concern this morning
except for being in trouble for eating the garbage while
we were having a heart attack about the briefcase.






Monday, December 19, 2011

Guess Who! Ho Ho HO



Guess who came to our house tonight to make an early delivery?
Surprise!
 At first she didn't know what to think!
Santa....right there in her living room!
 Of course the wheels were turning!
It's not Papa......
 Santa was kind and thoughtful and asked her many  questions...
 She didn't always know the answer..
Meanwhile, Zach was standing behind Santa,
waving his arms and mouthing
"WHO IS IT?"

"It's SANTA!" I kept saying.

Pretty soon he ran and got Andrew.

And Timmy got home from basketball
in the "Nick" of time!
 Zach is still not sure.
Andrew knows.
Katie knows.
Timmy...who knows....

 The whole family.
Thanks Santa!
(Look at Zach's face...he's still thinking...)
 "Can you believe it!?"

They watched out the BACK to try to see
the sled but...
Wait!  What's that glowing light in the window?
My flash....or.....

Moms of the World...This One's for YOU

This is for all the harried, stressed, TIRED moms (or dads) out there
this busy Monday before Christmas....take my advice.  
Stop what you are doing (well, after you are done reading this of course....)


Stop what you are going to do NEXT before you do it, 
before  you start in on that laundry mountain,
before you begin the frenzied list of errands that is clearly going to stretch
into next Thursday, 
before you lose your mind in this Christ-mas season.


Do this.


Go somewhere private.  This CAN be done in front of others,
but if it's your first time or you're really stressed or 
not particularly "out there," it's best to be alone.


Stand with your feet shoulder width apart.


Raise your hands up to the heavens.  You can do the straight up 
style or the menorrah style, but get those hands up.


Focus on the God who loves you, 
who gives us this season to remember His Gift of His Son
who came to bring us forgiveness and mercy through 
His birth in a manger and His death on a cross.


Then, feel your own emptiness and tiredness and sing this
simple children's song.


(Although not a traditional Christmas song, it is
a traditional "week before Christmas song" for me!)


Give me oil in my lamp; keep me burning.
Give me oil in my lamp I pray. (Hallelulia)
Give me oil in my lamp; keep me burning.
Keep me burning 'til the break of day.
(now praise:)
Sing Hosanna, Sing Hosanna,
Sing Hosanna to the King of Kings
Sing Hosanna, Sing Hosanna
Sing Hosanna to the King.


Repeat as needed.  Your lamp and the whole holiday are empty without Him.  Admit that and everything falls into perspective. 


I just did this, and it has made all the difference.