It's cold in the ol' office.


Here's a pic I took of my Sadie in the snow yesterday..or maybe the day before. Yeah, that one. Hmm..actually I think it was on Saturday. Time is slipping away..

Isn't she precious :) She loves to pounce on, dig in and eat the snow. In this pic she had just gotten done digging and eating with her snout. The snow was up to her belly in certain areas of the yard this day. It was fun to see her galloping through it.

I can't remember when I last wrote but it was probably well before Christmas. Well, we had 6 Christmas' in all. Each lovely in their own way. Having every celebration separate was tiring but so much more enjoyable. Then we had Chris' birthday with his buds on Saturday night. The kiddos and I spent that night at Walmart so they could spend all their cash that they got from Christmas. They had a blast. Then we came back home, I made cakes for the next day. Sunday was Chris' family birthday party. The house was full, and we're good with that. Nice to have people over. Even though I usually find myself shoved into a corner somewhere b/c the noise starts to push me inward. But, I did pretty well and really enjoyed the time. Oh, and Chris did too :) Then after everyone left we went out and did some more shopping..came home, ate and collapsed.

Then Monday it was back to work for me and back to sleeping in for Chris and the kids. ;) My day was SOOOOOOOO busy. But, it went by fast. Today was pretty busy, too. I find myself very worn out. In the mornings I'm so tired I find the tears coming quickly to my eyes. But, I'm thankful for my job and for the home and food it provides. A few days of solid sleep would be swell :) Funny, whenever I get the chance to sleep in I can't. Danged inner clock never goes on snooze until the work days return.

Tomorrow is New Years Eve. I can hardly believe it. I'm just barely feeling that it's time for Thanksgiving! Wow am I behind. Anyway, after I get home from work we are goin over to some church friends' house who also happen to live a block down from us (my fellow jbq coach). Gonna play games and eat our hearts out and just enjoy a nice evening. Our kiddos all get along great and we don't have to worry about what they're hearing/seeing, etc. I'm just hoping I can stay up till midnight. I will do my best, scouts honor.

New Years Day will be our ONE day out of the entire Christmas vacation and Chris' vacation of which will belong solely to Chris, Sarah, Ashley and Jaden. It will be freaking marvelous. I am SO anticipating this special day. Then Friday I go back to work. Saturday we have my bro Jon's birthday and Sunday is always busy.

Oh, did I show you the awesome picture of my niece Monet with Santa? DeAnna took it and then I made it all fuzzy and glowy..

I gotta tell you, I am not a Santa fan in the least. But, this picture is priceless. He's the Santa that Terry & Lana (our friends who let my fam board their horses at their house, etc..) hire every year. He shows up towards the end of the Christmas get together and gives all the kiddos presents.

Yesterday was my Grandpa's birthday, as you know he's passed away. It's always strange to have that day without him. But, I'm sure he was up playing a round of golf in heaven ;)

Well, I guess I'll let you all get back to your lives now. Love you and thank you so much for the cards and gifts and time given over the Christmas holiday. Your presence blesses us. We are working on thank you cards, but until then remember we love you and appreciate you.

Nighty night

The blog is still showing up strangely to me. I thought maybe I just had too much stuff on there so I went and took almost all of my graphics down, etc. Still looks weird but less exciting :( I hope you folk can see what we're writing about. Cuz when I open the page I see pretty much nothing on the left hand side.

Anyway, it was a long week. I'm glad it's the weekend, not that it's brought any rest. But, it's the weekend regardless and that's nice. In the very near future I would really like a day where from the time I wake up until the time I go to sleep there is not one place we have to go or one thing we have to do. Where all 4 of us are home. I NEED IT & I WANT IT. And, I'm fighting off throwing an infantile fit most of the time b/c I can't seem to have it. But, I'll try to put my big girl panties on and get over it.

Yesterday I had to work for a few hours, it was nice and quiet. Not even one phone call! The kids went with me and Chris went out to exchange a few gifts we had bought for the kids. He came back and helped by labeling things. Aww what a sweetie :) Then we went to Mom n Dad's to put our Christmas ornaments up and ate lots of yummy lunch. Then we laid around and chatted for awhile by the fire. Then it was time to go to my Gramma's house to get all the info from Uncle Don about the CAR HE JUST GAVE ME!!! Can you believe that? He said that families with children need 2 cars and that he was giving me his. WOW. Thank you Jesus was all I could think. We don't need 2 cars 90% of the time but there are those times when only having one car creates problems. Also, not having to come all the way out and pick the rest of the family up b4 we go somewhere will be nice. Now we can just meet if need be. Will also save me lots of gas once winter's over b/c then I can drive it to work and get great gas mileage. It was a total blessing, we are just so very thankful. Anyhoo, then we came home, I squeezed in a 30 min nap (which as u know only makes a person MORE tired) and then got up and ready and went to Terry & Lana's for the annual Christmas party. It was fun. Loud. But fun. By that time I was soo overstimulated, I just wanted to go home. Everything inside of me was begging to go home. I looked at Chris and he said, "Are you ready?" YES. I told him I just wanted to go home, to be at my home. And, of course, my eyes start flooding. He tells me to turn off the waterworks, he'll go round up the kids. haha About 30 min later we got to go home. I can't tell you how much I LOVE BEING AT HOME. You probably know this already. As soon as I get here it's like all the weight comes off and I can just "be".

This morning we got up to snowy conditions. Nothing too bad. An inch or two. Went off to church and had a nice time. It started snowing while we were there and is still snowing now. But, the roads are good, and even I have to admit that it's pretty. Chris will take Ash back over later for her TBQ practice and then join her this evening for his/her drama practice. J and I will just hang out at home and relax. :) I have a project to work on for one of Chris' Christmas presents so this will be a good time to do that.

Tomorrow starts another week, it's supposed to snow all week long. But with it staying so cold it's really made my drives great. No slipping or slush or filthy streets. Everyone seems to be doing well, at least on our end of town. I pray it stays that way.

Christmas is in just a few short days and then Chris' birthday is in just a few short(ER) days after that! Then we'll have Jon's, Ashley's, DeAnna's and Dave's Birthdays in January as well, oh and Barbara's birthday is on Chris' birthday (or vice versa). I'm probably forgetting someone elses, forgive me. Ash has a big 2 days planned for her 13th birthday. Chris is planning a night with his buddies and then cake n ice cream with family the next day. Not sure what anyone else has planned. But, rest assured, we will be happy to show up for cake! :) We like cake.

Well, I'm gonna cut this "short" (haha). Have a wonderful rest of your weekend. Find time to rest and time to smile and time to enjoy. Love you :)

Happy Saturday :)

We just got home from the TBQ match. WOW, LONG DAY. Didn't make it to Gabe's party. Considering it ended at 4, we would have only been able to get to the last 10 minutes of it, if we were lucky! Oh well, I'm sure he had a fabulous time.

The meet was great, Ash got THREE, count 'em, THREE quiz outs!!! We were all so excited. I was working the buzzer machine (the thing that counts all the time and such) so I couldn't be outwardly excited. Had to bite my lip to keep from smiling. She's still there now. Meridian invited our team (and I think the other ones, too) to stay after and have root beer floats and play board games. What a fun way to end the day!

I got my "wish" and my fam IS coming over for lunch after church tomorrow!!! Makes my heart happy. Well, actually, I haven't heard back from Matt & Laura yet. But Mom n Dad and Jon n DeAnna & Monet are coming! I'm making chicken enchiladas. Mom's bringin over some homemade guac and chips n salsa. Can hardly wait to eat! I guess I better get the chicken in the pot tonight so all I have to do tomorrow is assemble and put it in the oven. I'd assemble tonight but then the tortillas get soggy and that's just gross.

I've been grinding my teeth at night, which is why my jaw is in such pain. I had suspected as much, but it was confirmed the other night when Chris woke me up and said, "Honey, I think you're starting to grind your teeth!" It was an exciting moment. We've got an answer!! LOL Anyhoo, I think maybe in grinding I've knocked part of my filling loose or that there was a little extra filling "stuff" on the side of my tooth b/c there's an edge to it. Feels like there's a popcorn kernel there, but there isn't! I took a nail file to it today on the way home. It didn't do anything but rub my poor lip raw. LOL Chris knocked the file out of my hand and told me to quit it. Sheesh. Pushy, pushy. We swung by to see if Dr. Haws was still at the office but he was gone already. I'm not in any pain so I can't see calling him for an "emergency". Will just go in on Monday. In the mean time I've got to stop grinding my teeth! And in order to do that, life needs to slow down. haha, right.

I was asked today what we are doing on Christmas day. I didn't realize anyone cares, but you must! heehee And now I see on quite a few other blogs that folk are sharing their Christmas plans. So, I'll follow suit! Christmas Eve I have to work until at least 3 (unless I don't..which, I do) and then we'll go out to Caldwell for the annual tamale feed and time with Chris' Dads side of the family. Then we'll, after shoving our bellies full of goodness and laughter, drive home bleary eyed and cozy up in our beds. Then Thursday morning we will wake up and have our little family Christmas time together here at home, maybe have some toast n coffee/tea/hot chocolate..then get ready (which means put slippers on and brush teeth) and drive down to Mom n Dads. I say around 10 or 11..but if things happen as they usually do, we'll probably be up and opening gifts by 8 and out the door by 9. And, considering we have, I think, 8 gifts to open (which I'm NOT complaining about in the least, mind you!)..leaving at 9am is being generous! Anyhoo, then we get to spend the whole day/evening down there with them and my Gramma. Chris' Gramma Edens decided to celebrate with family on the day after Christmas so we won't be driving around everywhere on the 25th! We are excited to be able to have our own separate time with each part of the family..no rushing. Mendiolas...Mundys...Edens. ahhhh peace. So anyhoo, the day after Christmas I have to again work all day (till 5 unless I don't..which, I do) and then the Edens Grandparents are having a Christmas "Open House dinner" from 5-7. So we'll go over there and visit and exchange gifts. Chris' Aunt Teresa will be there, too, so we'll get to chat with her. I'm so excited! This will be the first year we aren't trying to cram everything into one day. We'll just get to relax. Then I think for the weekend we will just stay home and do nothing. I don't get any vacation time like Chris and the kids do, so it will really be our only family time during their break. Ok, so that's our day(s)! If you haven't already blogged about your festivities, please do! Now I'm all into knowing your business! HAHA

It's absolutely freezing here today and windy, too. If you walk outside you are instantly a popsicle and then when you get inside it takes a long time to warm back up again, even if you were only outside for 20 seconds! (which we did a lot of today, that's how I know!) It's snowing now, and has been for awhile but the flakes are soooo teensy weensy tiny winy that you can hardly see them!

Tomorrow is the kids' Christmas performances at church. YAY!! I know I've mentioned it probably one too many times so I won't mention it again..today.

Wow, I better get that chicken in the crockpot for tomorrow. Time is slipping away!!

Ok my brain just left my body. I was gonna tell you about something else and have no clue what it was. hmm Well, anyway, my buddy Kim's birthday was yesterday. She's livin in Texas now. Sure miss you Kim!! Hope you had a great day. Love you!

Thanks to all of you who have sent us Christmas cards. They are lovely, and so are you! I promise to get ours out soon. Maybe even this coming week!

Take care :)

Not sure why some of my blogs are shortened in the viewing area. Are they showing short for you, too? For instance, my last blog is only showin me a picture of Chris and J..nothing else. If I refresh the page then more of the blog shows up. Sometimes I have to refresh it 3 times!!


Oh well. It was another long busy week. Glad it's over. Realllly glad. I love my job but I love my home, too. We've got A's TBQ meet tomorrow and then have to go out to Nampa for Gabe's birthday party. Then on Sunday, we have the big drama performance on Sunday during church. I'm hoping to have my family over for lunch after church on Sunday but Mom's been sick so I don't know if she'll be up to it. I hope they can, I sure miss our "Mundy Family Dinners". We used to have them once a week but now with everyone's schedules (and how far away we live) we mostly just see eachother together on holidays. Lame. Anyhoo, we'll see how it goes. If they can't come over, fine. I'll just go take a nap instead! :)


J had his Christmas play on Wednesday. It was great. I couldn't help but think about Presley during the performance. How cute she would have been, and wondering what lines she would have had. Ash said she saw her Mom there (she has another daughter who goes to Crimson). Must be such a sad time for them. Anyway, J was a total ham and loved every second of the play. Here are a few pics for your viewing pleeeeeaaaasure.





And here are some pics from A's drama performance last week in Wilder! They are SO AMAZING!!!!! In case you can't tell, in the second picture the kids have created a human throne (the 3 girls on the bottom are not part of the throne) and Keeton is sitting in it. They do things like this all the time. In another part of one of their performances they create a human boat, barn, beds, chairs, cross, etc...





I finally finished the Christmas newsletter last night and am almost done addressing envelopes. I kept forgetting folk who I wanted to send cards to until I was done with the ones I had! HAd to have Chis get another package of cards the other night.


Well, I'm gonna go relax and enjoy the evening with my family. Hope you do the same! Love you :)

J just had his JBQ meet, we took 2nd place!!  Ash has her meet this Saturday, I'll be sure to take lots of pics for ya. Also, tomorrow Jaden has his Christmas play at school, did I mention he's gonna be Santa? We're gonna video tape it. I don't have an external microphone so the sound most likely will leave a lot to be desired but hopefully not too horrible!

This last Sunday we travelled with the Drama team to Wilder to perform for the Crossroads Assembly church there. They did all 3 of their dramas and did an amazing job. I have a few pics from it, will post them later. Had the church in tears at points and up on their feet jumping & clapping at others! Sign of a good show if you ask me.

My right shift key isn't working when I try to use it in order to make an exclamation point. How annoying to try to retrain myself to use the left shift key!!! >:(

My jaw has been really hurtin for about 2 weeks now. Been awhile since this has happened. I think it was this summer the last time. Anyway it's painful, gets worse at night. I must be grinding my teeth again while I sleep. Told Chris to punch me if he hears me doing it. It's mostly annoying b/c it's interfering with my eating. ;)

Well, I'm sleepy and don't want to be on the computer anymore. So I'm gonna go for now. Have a great night. Love to you all.

((hugs))

FIRST BLOG OF DECEMBER! WOOHOO!!!!

I really thought that Sarah would have blogged by now but I guess we've both just been so gosh darn busy lately. Anyway, I haven't blogged in a while so I thought I'd toss one out there. Some of you may remember me from blogs back in the day. For those that don't know me I am that wonderful man that Sarah is always gushing about. :D

So I cannot believe its December already. Almost one week down. We are so completely busy this month its unreal. The holidays are always a bustling time for us but this year we've got the added joys of the kids' drama and bible quiz. They have a blast and its so fun to watch them practice and perform/compete. It definately adds to the schedule but we're happy to do it. I'm glad they both found some activities they enjoy that let them get more involved at church and help them meet some great new people.

This weekend (Saturday) is the JBQ match for Jaden and his goal is a quiz out. He is determined after coming so close last time and narrowly missing it due to an equipment malfunction. He's gonna do great. On Sunday we'll be heading out to Wilder for Ashley's drama team performance. This is an advance performance of the one they'll be putting on for our church on the 14th. They've all been working hard and I can tell you its looking really good. If you can make it out to Kuna on the 14th you definately should. If not there should be a video coming out with all the performances on it, but nothing beats seeing it live.

Sarah and I have both been completely busy with work lately. Sarah's job is in the middle of moving to a new building so there's been lots of transition lately. She worked super late on Monday to help them finish getting everything over but most of it should be done now. The new building is closer to us which is good and cuts down on her driving time. I've been working hard getting everything done before we shut down for the holidays. Lots of projects to wrap up and whatnot. Still going through yet another re-org as well which probably won't be finalized until sometime after the first of the year, but for the time being we all still have jobs and we're told there are no changes (aka layoffs) being planned for anytime in the near future so that's good. So far we've weathered everything pretty well and even managed to post the best earnings in years. Our organization in particular did very well and we're actually looking at getting some bonuses/raises for the first time in 8 years! Praise the Lord!!!

In the midst of all this busyness, Sarah and I managed to get all of our Christmas shopping done! We actually finished it last weekend so we were done BEFORE December! Feels good to have that finished and not have to fight crowds at the stores and rush to finish. We've even got all our decorations up and the tree out. Just need to wrap everything and get x-mas cards out and then we can relax the rest of the month....well, one less thing to worry about anyway.

Jaden and I got our haircuts yesterday, FINALLY! We were some seriously shaggy beasts. Our good friend Kristi jazzed us up real good though and now we're back to our dapper, well-groomed selves. Thanks again Kristi, you're the best!

Well, that's about it for now. Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the season. We look forward to seeing as many of you as we can during the holidays and for those we don't see, know that you're always in our hearts and thoughts. Until next time, adios amigos!

Just sittin here enjoying the happy silence. Well except for the music playing. But it's my music so it is still classified as happy silence :)

It's been cold here but I'm realizing that it must be a milder climate than normal b/c Bogus isn't even TRYING to open by Thanksgiving! Do they even have a flake of snow up there yet? I guess I haven't looked at the mountain lately. Ok I just checked their website..yup, no snow folks.

Talked with one of my church buddies about homeschool tonight. We had 2 hours of info and chatting n fighting back mommy tears with each other. I've been wanting to start doing that for forever now. More seriously looking into it as of late. Ash will start first and then J will probably do it in 3rd grade. Maybe sooner depending on how things go. Anyway it's super exciting, and Chris is supporting it too so that's a big thing. The kids have so many activities and friends that they won't be "hermits" by any means. Plus, they'll get to learn about our views on creation instead of only the other views. Why every view except for ours gets to be discussed in school is beyond me. I'm not asking for it to only be taught according to our belief, I'm just asking for our belief to be discussed as well as the others. If you have a chance to watch Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, we highly recommend it. Chris and I watched it last week and were just appalled at how far (or how backwards) things have gone.

Anyhoo..We move offices starting this weekend. So don't want to move. But it will be good once it's done. Other than that stock is low b/c we're getting it down to where we don't have to move as much. By we I mean the movers. ;) We have to do stuff too but no heavy lifting.

I love Jason Upton. Worship at it's best. Listening to Wait Upon The Wind right now. Barbara, if you have time u might wanna listen to it. I think u'd like it right now :) It kinda goes along with what u were writing about. (in my playlist towards the top of the list)

Getting excited-ish about Thanksgiving. I always have a hard time around holidays. Why, not sure. Thanksgiving and Christmas both in particular seem to be so centered around self and not on what they are supposed to be centered on and that always really REALLY bothers me. I guess I just don't understand why it is so hard for "us" to take our eyes off of ourselves. But, that's human nature I suppose. I am determined to enjoy Thanksgiving and be thankful for another year with my family, and my beautiful Grandma. Thank you, Jesus, for my Grandma. Thank you for not making me say "goodbye" just yet. I know, I always say, "Just one more holiday with her Lord." But I realize that it won't always be. And, that's ok. I'll just be thankful for today and "let" You worry about the rest.

The kiddos are so ready to put the Christmas decorations up. Have I mentioned this already? Feeling very de ja vu-ish. ANyway, at this point I'm thinking it will be late next week if at all b4 we get stuff out. There's just never enough time. Every time I think we have time, something else comes up and our time is taken away. Yes, we could say "no"..but it's just never that simple if u catch my drift. And, we do say "NO" to more things than you might think. At any rate, the decorations will be put up and I so look forward to a quiet day with my lil family to get that done. It's always so much fun. And, I love watching the kids put their decorations up.

Chris made a wonderful dinner both last night and tonight. Last night was shredded beef tacos. Then tonight he used the left over beef for nachos. My man is amazing. Truly blessed. He makes my heart leap for joy and warms my spirit with his embrace. I love you honey. I love you, I love you, I love you.

I dreamed of Fiji again today. Daydreamed that is. One day..one day. I'm pretty sure that my lil corner of Heaven will have a Fijian beach. :) And there I will sit in my Father's lap in complete peace with tears of joy streaming down my face..napping in His arms. Listening to stories and feeling His love like never before.

Well, I suppose I'll go now :) Here's a video for u to watch! Love you

Have you ever wanted to read the Bible in chronological order? I HAVE! And I’m finding more and more people who do, too. They sell Bibles in this format, but you I've found that you can also get a chart online for FREE!

Here is the link to a chart that shows you what to read for 61 days in order to cover all of the "key" stories of the Bible.

http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/readingplans/chronological.php

And then this link (below) takes you to a page where you can read the entire Bible in chronological order:

http://70030.netministry.com/articles_view.asp?articleid=31608&columnid=3801


We are joining with our buddies to read the key stories in 61 days (FIRST link) and then will go back and read the entire Bible in chron. order (second link) after that. Wanna join with us? We are starting today.

It is said that our relationship with our spouses and those around us reflect our relationship with the Lord. So, let's understand and love The Word more so that we can then in turn understand and love those around us better. Especially in this day and age, we really really need to be at a place in our walk with the Lord where we can reach out and touch and understand others as He would have us understand them. The world likes to confuse and water down the Truth, so let's get back to the MEAT of The Word and the TRUTH that it holds! Everyone is lovable, so let's learn how to love them better, together. Also, we expect that in the end we will learn to love ourselves more..it's impossible to truly love yourself (or anyone else) until you know your true identity in HIM.

We hope you will all join us on this great adventure of walking through the Bible as it happened! We plan on keeping in touch with everyone by email who is doing this, so feel free to "reply to all" when you want to share something or ask a question to the group. We're all "brothers & sisters" here, no question is stupid! We look forward to learning with you and growing closer together with you in the coming weeks. Sometimes it's confusing to understand how and why things happened in the Bible, but reading it this way will most likely help put the puzzle pieces together.

Please email and let us know if you are joining us so we can put together an address book for the emails. We are starting today, Sunday November 23rd. If you get this email late, no worries! You can catch up without too much extra reading if you start "now".


~Chris & Sarah


SOME PEOPLE ARE HAVING TROUBLE WITH THE LINK TO THE 61 DAY READING PLAN. IF YOU ARE ALSO HAVING TROUBLE, FOLLOW THESE STEPS:

Go to:

www.biblegateway.com

On the left hand side, click on:

Additional Resources

At the bottom of the page, click on:

Reading Plans

At the bottom of the page, click on:

Chronological Reading Plan (61 Days)

Please follow this link. It will tell you all about how to print off and send a Christmas card to our Service men and women. It is free and well worth your time!

Cards must be postmarked by December 1oth, so don't delay!


http://www.redcross.org/email/saf/

Thank goodness the weekend is here. I need a BREAK! Worked 6 days last week, had Sunday "off" although Sundays are never really relaxing! Then back to work I went! It was a very long and draining week. And, we are now packing to move to a new warehouse, started doing that this afternoon. I'm so tired. Chris said I looked like I was going to fall asleep at any second when I got home. A full day of sleep would be MARVELOUS! Speaking of sleep, I had a horrible week of sleep..I fall asleep just fine but then start waking up around 4 off and on till it's time to get up. ANNOYING. But, at least I have a cozy bed to sleep in and a wonderful man to sleep next to! I just keep thinking my house is so messy. I haven't vacuumed in nearly 3 weeks which makes me want to hurl. The dog hair is filthy. The bathrooms have been quick cleaned but need a deep clean, in my opinion. Laundry needs to be done, floors mopped, everything else dusted..ugh..save me.

I made a huge pot of chili last night for Chris & the kids. It was yummy. While they were enjoying that, I went out to dinner with Kristi & Kim. Actually, I think they finished before I went out. It's blurry, but no matter. The girls and I went to El Gallo Giro so they could experience the magnificence of the Gallo. They LOVED IT!! Please be prayin for Kim, though, she's having a lot of serious medical issues right now and they can't seem to figure out what's wrong with her. She's had 2 MRI's in a week. A new born baby at home and a toddler. EEK!

Tomorrow we are goin out with Matt & Laura to hang out and also to go to a farm and pick out our Thanksgiving turkey! We might pick out a pig, too. See how much they are. But we're gonna try to split one.

Jess is gonna meet me on Wednesday on our way to Mom n Dads to give me the new Jason Upton CD..I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am. Makes my whole being leap for joy!! Ecstatic to listen to it while I bake with my Momma. Well, I guess really it will be me baking with Chris since Momma will still be at work. Maybe I'll be napping by the time she gets home. I just love thanksgiving and being with my family. We have so much to be thankful for.

Well, we've gotta get Ash to her Drama meeting so I'll chat with yall later. I LOVE YOU!!!!!! Have a beautiful weekend. The SON is shining!!

So last weekend my Mom n Dad (lovely people that they are) took the kiddos for the weekend. AHH YESS!! NO BICKERING!! It was great. Truth be told, I think they needed a break from us, too. ;) Anyway, we had a super fun time. Got some Christmas shopping done (and groceries), went out to lunch one day and also went to see the new James Bond movie. The first night (Friday) we were in bed and snoring by 8:30. TIRED!! OK I was snoring, I think Chris made it till closer to 10 before he passed out.

Then it was back to work on Monday, it was a very busy day. Today wasn't so bad, I got caught up on a lot of work that had been piling up with us being so busy. So that was nice. Even one day without being able to tend to my emails creates a lot of havoc! I still have over 100 emails to check for on time deliveries.

Well, I guess that's all I have to share for now! Love ya

Got this from Jenn tonight. Thought I would pass it on to you all so you could hear it from her mouth! They are so very thankful for each and every one of you.

"Hey everyone, just wanted to spread the good news about Joshua. We got the test results back on his bone marrow and biopsy and he is definitely in remission. It has been a long week here in Savannah, but we should be going home tomorrow. Thank you to everyone for all your phone calls, emails, texts, and especially all the prayers. They are very uplifting to us all. We can now close the book on chapter one ( having the Leukemia in his body) and start on "chapter two" (keeping it from coming back)!!! We still have a lot of treatments ahead, but I know GOD will have a hand in it and knows what we have in store! Please know that we have truly been blessed with the news of his remission but there will still be times when he struggles and has his down days. I hope you know what a blessing each and every one of you are in Joshua's life.

Be blessed,
Jennifer"

I've got awesome news to share with you tonight :) Joshua got his preliminary test results back today and they show him being leukemia free! He's had a really hard week with treatments and his port so this was such needed and welcomed news. Please continue to pray for him as he keeps walking out this journey. They've got 4 years total of different treatments and things that they will need to do, but for today we all got WONDERFUL news. Praise the Lord, He is ever faithful. Thank you for all of your continued prayers!

In other news, it's Veteran's Day! Thank you to all of our Vets and their families..without you there would be no us. Love you, love you

Smitty does it again..another awesome worship song!! It's amazing what God can and will do with a willing heart. Enjoy :)

Well it was a great day! JBQ went awesome, J took 7th place individually and the team took 2nd! We were only 5 points behind the 1st place team. There was an issue with a girls buzzer in our last round so we had to start the round over and then lost that round. If we would have been able to finish out the round that the girls' buzzer wasn't working on we would have taken 1st place by a landslide! *sigh* Oh well. The kids had a great time and that's what matters. :) Mom and Gran (Barbara) both got to go to the match today and so did baby Monet (our niece)! Thanks for joining us guys! And, thanks for buying us grub, Gran!

Then we came home and brought Barbara with us. We hung out and watched the BSU game and then had a delicious pork roast dinner. Sat n chatted, played a game. It was a great night! She just left. It's so dark it feels like it must be 10, but no, it's only 6:41!!

Now I'm needing something for dessert, pumpkin pie sounds good but I'm not gonna go back out to Paul's to get it. Just not gonna do it!!!

J made a cool little project tonight all on his own. It turned out really great. It's called Charlie the Unicorn. I guess it's from an online video the kids watched with Chris. Anyway, I'll post a pic of it when he finishes it. He's gonna paint it white this coming weekend at Grammies house when they're there to spend the night. Grammie always has paints and stuff. Mommy doesn't! I should change that. We need a better craft closet. I'll just add that to the list of to-do's. Fab. Or, maybe I'll surprise J and get him the paint tomorrow so he doesn't have to wait so long to finish it. That would be fun. Yeah, I think I'll do that.

Well, I guess I'll go up and eat a ton of peanut butter M&M's to try to quench my Pumpkin Pie craving.

Have a great night!

Lovies

Hi! :)

We're very excited to announce that we are now VERIZON customers!! We can now talk/text our Verizon buddies for free, thank you Jesus! Should save us all some cash.

I'm so excited (yeah, it's an exciting kind of day) that tomorrow is FRIDAY!! Has this been the longest week ever or WHAT!

We're gonna have breakfast for dinner tonight. I wasn't sure it sounded good at first but as my hubby started describing everything we'd make I got a little more into it. Now I'm so hungry I don't much care what we eat! We've been playing with our phones since 3:30 :) How time flies when you're wasting it! Well, it's not really a waste, but..

Well, that's really all I have to share for now. :) Have a wonderful evening. Love you!

Well, we're another day closer to Heaven. :) I think Dr. King is rolling over in his grave today. And the videos indicating he's not infuriate me. Race alone doesn't bring similarity between him & Obama. I'm sorry, it just doesn't. Not even close. I know some of you support Obama and I'm thankful to live in a country where we are allowed to have different views and still be family and friends w/o strife (and just for the record, McCain wasn't my fave, either). But, today my heart breaks for many different reasons but in large it breaks at this moment for the unborn babies who will never get the chance to live once he takes office. And, it breaks b/c I see how many people agree with him in that. But, I take great comfort in knowing that above all, God is in control. He is working everything for the good. He can move mountains. And according to the Bible, in the end, He wins..we win And that alone soothes my soul. But this isn't the time to be complacent. This is the time to put our big girl and big boy panties on and STAND UP. Let your voices be heard, and FIGHT. The outcome of the election wasn't a surprise..and I will pray for Obama and his family and his staff everyday, that the Lord will guide him and that he will change his outlook on many things..that he will do what is truly best for this country. He said in his speech (in essence) that he sympathizes with those of us who did not vote for him and that he will work with us and that he will be our president, too. Well, thank you. You don't have a choice. But, in being "our president too", I expect that you will listen to what we have to say, even if we are the ever growing minority. Anyway, that's all I have to say. I will not badmouth him. He is in this office for a reason and I accept that. I pray he does great things. I serve a mighty mighty God and I have no problem putting my life in HIS hands. It is the Lord who protects and fights for me, and I wouldn't want it any other way. Feel free to NOT comment on my opinions. We all have our own and that's fine, I absolutely support that. But, I don't want to debate with you. On another subject (sort of), I am so excited that this country has come this far in regard to racial acceptance. It's certainly been a horribly long road but in the "end", part of Dr. Kings dream was acheived last night. And for that I am thankful.

Anyway, Chris is on the mend. Which means we get to go to church tonight! Also means I have a ton of reading to do before church!

Got the email today that Barbara (Chris' Mom) is back from Cancun safe n sound. I'll be looking forward to pictures!!

Work has been very busy this week and today was full of cranky post election customers, as was to be expected. But, sales are up..apparently anger fuels spending! LOL Anyway, Gail has been really sick. I think she has the same thing my Mom's had for a week. Hopefully she will be better soon and come back to help us!

It's freezing in the office F A R EE ZING. My teeth are clinched together. But, heat is expensive and I need to save my pennies!

Have a wonderful day, know that I'm thinkin of you & lovin you!

((hugs))

Oh yeah, one more thing..you gotta watch this video from Steve Harvey. It's goosebump worthy :)

 We had lots of fun at the corn maze! Ash was with her TBQ team shopping so she didn't join us. Anyhoo, we got to watch pig races (SO CUTE!!) and play in the corn and run over Obama's face (the maze was in the shape of his and McCain's faces)..u know, all the fun stuff ;)

After the maze adventure we went on home, I made a carrot cake and then relaxed for a few minutes before Matt n Laura came over to watch the game! Matt also brought over his deer meat so he could grind it into ground meat with my Kitchenaid. How fun! And you know we busted out some Rockband while they were here, too..cuz that's just what we do. After that they went on home and I, as usual, went straight to bed and passed out probably mid sentence.

Oh, this is all disjointed now, but I got to go out with Kristi and baby Berkley to breakfast yesterday! We went to this super cute little restaurant in the old section of Nampa called Little Kitchen. Yummy! It was kinda spendy but we got a big meal and good service so it was worth it! The atmosphere was super cute, too. Anyhoo, then we went to Costco on our joint venture where we buy stuff and then split it up as to save money! Got lots of good stuff and spent less than 50 bucks! Then we went back to her house, split the stuff up and I left..off to Winco to finish my shopping. It was there that I nearly went friggen postal. I had forgotten that it was the 1st. Which means all the checks and welfare cards were filled. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Every aisle was like a line at Disneyland. At one point the lines to the checkout were backing into the aisles. I almost just left my full cart and walked out so many times, it was SO claustrophobic in that place. And it was muggy in there b/c it had been raining all morning. Had to talk myself down from panic attack..also envisioned grabbing cans off of the shelves and just chucking them at people telling them to get the HELL OUT OF MY WAY!!!! It's green beans, you don't need to analyze it, just grab the effing can and GO!

Anyway, today was nice and quiet, even for a Sunday :) Got up n went to church then came home, ate some pizza and took a nap. Chris took Ash to TBQ practice, I continued to lay in bed with the heating pad. I forgot to mention that this morning b4 church I was sneezing (about 40 times..or 7) and threw my back out. My upper back and neck are all sorts of painful now. So after awhile I got sick of laying in bed (WHAT!) and came downstairs to roll on the exercise ball for relief (no) and do the 2 yoga poses I know to help (no). I think I'll just take a Zyflamend tonight and call it good. Will be better by mornin! Then Chris took us out to run some errands and get a bite to eat. J didn't have play practice tonight b/c Brenda is super sick, so he went with Chris and I. Then we went and sat in on the end of A's drama practice, chatted with some buddies and came home. I'm gonna start a new paragraph, just for fun.

Then we all sat here in the office and played with editing stuff on my Picasa program..adding eyeballs to our noses and my teeth to J's mouth..fun stuff like that. We got a pretty good laugh out of it. Hope the kids (I) don't have nightmares from it!!

Now I'm just sittin here chatting with you and listening to my Upton music. Ahhh, perfect.

Did I tell you that the MRI came back showing NO internal vascularity? I call that a miracle :) Doc Rogers said when he got the ultrasound results back showing internal vascularity that he was like "Oh crap. This isn't good." But then the MRI came back and showed zero internal vascularity which is specifically what Judy prayed against at church that night. Even more cool is that I never told her that there was internal vascularity. Amazing, eh? Anyhoo..I don't think I ever shared that with you..forgive me if I already did! :) Good news deserves to be repeated. Other than that I'm looking at a surgery date of Thurs. Jan 15th. And should be able to go back to work on that following Monday as long as I don't lift anything heavier than a phonebook. SWEET!!!!

Well, I better get goin. Have a wonderful night my loves!

((HUGS))

Chris is sick. Again. Grr. Chris usually gets sick once a year and it lasts no more than 24 hours. He's been sick twice now in less than a month. My poor hubby. I hope none of the rest of us get it. J and I are fighting off serious allergies but other than that are fine. And, Ash (of course) is well!

A & J are outside playing with Sadie & Rachel. You know your kids are creative when they can play outside for hours with nothing but their imaginations. We don't have a play set or anything. Just grass and dog crap, and weeds. Some of you will recall earlier in the summer when I bribed the children to pull weeds for popsicles. See!?! They really do have a warped idea of fun. But I will nurture that warped-ness for as long as they'll let me!

By the time I got to work this morning I felt like I had already been there for 12 hours. I slept horribly and finally got up a little before 6. Was sick of tossing and turning and thinking and trying not to think and staring and wondering..ugh..just forget it!

Chris says he's making chicken verde, beans and rice for dinner tonight. YUM! However, I'm thinking it might be me making it b/c he's still upstairs sniffing and probably wanting to die. But, when he's got a goal, he achieves it. So, I'm sure he'll pull it off this time, too. He's a great lil cook. And super cute to boot!

J's parent teacher conference is at 5:15..I'll let you know how it goes! Jess' son, Gabe, had his today too..we're going to compare notes on our sons later this evening. LOL Gabes in kindergarten at Cole Valley Christian where my kiddos used to go before my money tree not only died but left a big gaping cavernous hole that I'm just starting to possibly be climbing out of.

Ashley just came in, asked for a snack and then fell down the bottom part of the stairs. Dork. She's laughing at herself. I guess that's what happens with long legs! They get all tangled up!

We're moving to a new warehouse with work..one that is closer to me, thank Heavens!!!! Will shave off about 8 minutes from my driving time, each way. I can't tell you how happy that makes my lil heart. I told them to move the warehouse to my garage but I guess it's not quite big enough. Picky, picky.

I see lots of projects that I want to do but just have no energy or time for. Kind of sad. I have a chest I want to sand down and paint..a table bottom that I want to sand down and stain and find a new top for, a quilt waiting to be sewn up, a blanket waiting to finish being screwed up err I mean crocheted up. Blinds that all need to be dusted, cabinets that need rearranging as does the garage, the office that needs to be repainted, paint touch ups in other rooms, finish painting the kitchen, fully painting other rooms..the list just goes on and on and on and on..but then I think of my "Big Bopper" and everything else fades away. It's possibly my most favorite ice cream sandwich in the known universe (if they could put Fat Boy ice cream in the middle of it, it WOULD be the best). Have you ever had one? Do it. Here's a pic. And, don't even THINK of looking at the calories before you buy it. Just eat and enjoy and be thankful you have a wonderful man who enjoys your ever growing fat ass. Oh wait, that's me..well, hopefully you have one of those men too.

Anyway, my hubby bought me TWO of these the other day. One for right then and one for a "rainy day"..well, my friends, I feel like today is rainy. It's not..but it could be. And tonight I will shove it into my mouth, and probably try to talk while I chew. And look at my hubby with loving eyes of adoration for how generous and sweet and caring he is. Awww honey thank you for my ice cream sammys!!!

The Chevron guy knows me..not my name, no. Just as the lady who buys the Big Boppers. They were out for forever. I was angry. I kept going in and trying subpar (at best) imitations of the Big Bopper only to be disappointed. When Chris brought them home the other day I almost cried. I couldn't believe that they were back in stock! I saw the blue wrapper through the bag and started screaming. SO EXCITED!!!!!

Ok, I'm sure you don't care about that. I'm gonna go now. Have a great night! Love you :)

Welcome to the blogging world Kristi Nipp!! Excited to have you in our "family"!! :)

It was a long day today but went by quickly..sort of. I still had piles of stuff to do when I left, which doesn't please me. But, oh well, there's always tomorrow. Or, if you listen to the man I talked to today, there may not be tomorrow and since we live close to the airforce base (sort of), we should sell our house and move east of the mountains to survive the upcoming bombings. MMkay, thank you sir. I feel better now, any other cheerful news you'd like to share before I complete your vitamin order?

My bro Jon fell off of a roof yesterday at work and broke his wrist. WHAT! WHY? Weird. He will be just fine. Thankfully. Please keep him and DeAnna and lil baby Monet in your prayers. The lady DeAnna was working for up n decided to shut down the business so DeAnna is having to look for work. Which we all know isn't an easy thing to do right now, especially if you don't wanna put your baby in daycare. ANyhoo..it can be pretty scary when you have a baby to feed, wondering if a job will pop up. Thankfully they have faith, and serve a mighty God, but we welcome prayers on their behalf!

My bro Matt got his deer this weekend. He'll be comin over soon to smoke some jerky and use our meat grinder to make some ground deer meat. Congrats my bro!

I get to go to breakfast with Kristi on Saturday morning and then we're goin to Costco to get some food we can share (the only good way to do Costco) and then I'll go finish up my shopping at Winco. Should be a super fun day! Then, we're invited to go to some church friends' house (along with the rest of the church) to watch the game that night..sounds like fun. Maybe we'll just have to attend! Then again, maybe we'll just stay home and relax.

We have the parent teacher conference for J on Thursday night. I can hear it now.."He's such a sweet and respectful boy. Always helpful, but is there a way you can get him to stop talking?" To which I answer, "No, he gets it from his father." LOL!!!!!!!!!

Well, we're trying to talk ourselves into making dinner so I better go. Have a great day!! Yep, you guessed it, I love you. No, really, I do. :)

P.S. I forgot to mention (I think) that the new book selection is up. www.ourvirtualbookclub.blogspot.com This month's selection is one of my fave books of all time, The Penny By Joyce Meyer. I keep recommending it to everyone, Mom just finally read it and loved it. You should read it, too! It's a book you won't want to put down, you'll hide in your closet with a Bic lighter if you have to..yelling for the outside world to leave you alone till you finish! Read it..go get it right now..I dare you :) It's ok to do something just for you, I promise. Take some time for yourself, it's worth it and so are you!

Got the MRI results back today, Doc says it revealed that it is a lypoma just as we'd all thought. So, that's good. I'll meet with him on Wednesday to discuss the surgery further and schedule it, too. So, that's out of the way. My friend told me (when I told her it was still a cyst) "Oh good, I was worried it was cancer." Jee, thanks friend. Suck a toe.

Anyhoo, Chris is out makin dinner by himself, I'm sure he'd like some company so I better get goin. Have a great night! Love ya :)

P.S. Captcha has been removed for Val's precious sake..comment away my dear! ;) heehee

Hello!

Just got done scheduling my MRI..finally! It's on the 23rd at 4:30, for those that care :) In other cool news our insurance re enrollment period is in just a few days (before the scheduled MRI) and it is then that I will be able to put all of my copays and deductibles back down. We had them raised up high b/c we never go to the doc, but now I need them low baby, low!! So, it will be nice to have the surgery applied to the new low deductible. Last time I had to do this was when I was prego with Jaden, so that's good. Proves we are healthy folk! ..or just that we don't go to the doctor.

I'm on the 3rd day of taking iodine in hopes it shrinks the cyst, we'll see! The girls at church prayed over me last night, that was great :) I always welcome that & the body tingles that come with it! I'm not against miracles, that's for sure!

J's been drawing Robo-Cop pictures. Why I'm not sure b/c he's never seen the movie (except for umm hello, who's his Daddy?). Probably the same reason he continually talks to people about Family Guy even though no one in this house watches or condones watching it..But anyway, here is the picture. As usual, double click on it if you want to see it in full size.

J's up in the shower, probably dancing and singing to himself while dumping almost the entire bottle of shampoo out and then filling it back up with water. Of course I can't confirm he is doing this..it's just a guess..well, I can confirm the shower part.

Ash is out workin on homework, she's got some projects due this coming week.

Sadie's layin around somewhere, probably exposing her crotch and enjoying the cool air. haha

Chris ordered some Chinese for he and I for dinner. Should be yummy. I think I'll make the kiddos pancakes. They love breakfast for dinner but we hardly ever do that.

We're getting close to the end of my first full time week at work and boy am I ready!!! This girls plum worn out. Although, I do have to say that the long days seem to go by faster than the short days did. Hmm. But I miss my mornings with Chris..making him coffee and having breakfast together and nice quiet mornings. BUT BUT I will enjoy being able to pay bills..not that that outweighs the missing..

Well, yall have a wonderful night. Love you!

Here's a pic from Saturday's TBQ meet.

You need to double click on the picture because it's cut off & warped in the smaller size. If you double click on it you will be able to see all of the girls. Anyway, Our girls like to dress up crazy for the meets. None of the other churches do it..whatever, I know they want to! Anyway, we got 1st place, and Ash got 8th place in the individual awards! On Sunday when Georgiann was up in front of church telling the congregation how the teams did, she got to Ash & started to cry and said how very proud she was of her. It was pretty special.

Anyway, back to Saturday.. Mom n I left the meet before they began the scramble phase of it (which Ash does not enjoy) and we went out to lunch and then shopping around town and just caught up on stuff. It was great! I miss my Mom n Dad n brothers n Gramma. Wish life wasn't so busy for all of us. But, oh well, the time we do get together is great! Anyhoo, after that I came home and slept for I think 3 hours. I'm so worn out. It was sooo nice.

Sunday we got up for Church and Chris was deathly ill and had been all night so he stayed home. The kids and I went, did our TBQ/JBQ practices, then church (which was GREAT by the way)..then after that I thought I'd ignore the never ending gas struggle and drive down to Boise to see my family. I think I've only seen Monet (my niece) maybe 4 times since she was born in July. Wow, not how I had envisioned things! But, it was soo nice to see her sweet lil face. She's so cute and smiley. Got to meet Jon n DeAnna's new baby puppy, Scout, too. She's cute. Didn't get to see Matt n Laura, she has family in town. But got to go see Gramma. She was really excited. She gets so lonely since Grampa passed last year.

J and Ash are currently sliding down the stairs at full force on their butts. J just told Ash that he hurt his "gluteus bone". LOL Dorks

Work is going well. It's much calmer and laid back now that Angie is gone, although I do miss her & Kenadee. They are nice people.

Well, I'm gonna go upstairs and watch the season premiere of Little People Big World now..we recorded it the other night and haven't had a chance to watch it yet! I'm excited :)

Hope you're all doin well :) Love you!

OH and P.S. This months book selection is finally up, http://www.ourvirtualbookclub.blogspot.com/

Well here we are .. another Friday. Sweet Jesus, I love Friday's.

I'm not feeling well, again. Ash is not feeling well, again. The crap seems to be making it's second round through the house. J has a headache still off and on but seems to get past it quickly, so that's good.

The week at work was interesting, full of drama and came to a close with Angie quitting after work last night. Called in at 5:10 to let Corinne know she wouldn't be back. Perfect. Anyway, it's great for me because now I get more hours, and hours that work much better for my family. I now work Monday's 8-4, Tues-Friday 8-3. And then on the days I clean the grandparents, I go into work at 11:45/12 until 5. At this point I will need to work 3 hours one Saturday a month, but it is probably going to phase out. Not a big deal though I'll probably just bring the fam with me on those days, and then we'll just run our errands afterwards.

We're (by we I mean mostly Chris, as he's ordered me to do nothing but go to bed and rest) making our famous creamy tomato soup & grilled cheese sammy's for dinner tonight(tonight I got Gouda and smoked jalapeno white cheddar with jalepeno cheese bread and then a regular sourdough type bread). And pumpkin pie for dessert. My bro is coming over I think. So that will be fun. Haven't seen him in a long time, we've all been so busy.

Tomorrow, as you probably know, is Ashley's first TBQ meet. I feel bad that she's feeling so horrible. Hopefully tomorrow she will wake up feeling awesome and ready to take on the day.

Then after the meet my Mom n I finally get to go have some Mommy Daughter time. I haven't seen her for more than 5 minutes outside of church since before they left for Hawaii. CRAZY!! We're gonna go probably have some lunch and then do some shopping. So, I'm looking forward to that.

Then I'm hoping to come home and just relax with my lil fam and enjoy each other. AND I hope to go to church on Sunday..we've missed two Sunday's and a Wednesday due to this stinkin bug we have. Or wait, maybe we missed one Sunday and 2 Wednesday's. Hmm. Yeah, I think that's right. Anyway, the kids are upset about it.

OK, well I'm feelin crappier by the second so I'm gonna go lay down for a bit. Have a great night guys..and a wonderful weekend!

Love you

((HUGS))

Mornin :)

Joni inspired me to go back to my old blog style..I had used that site before but had problems with the margins b/c it wouldn't show my side bar properly. I didn't feel like fighting with it, so I moved on with life. But, today I had some time to play with it and got it pretty darn close! The other problem I had with this blog layout site is that sometimes the layout wouldn't show up and instead it would just come up with a plain white background..so if that starts happening, let me know! Until then, we'll just enjoy this purrty layout!

Saturday mornin we all got up and got ready to go to J's first JBQ match in Nyssa. It was a long day, but fun. We carpooled over there with my co-coach and her daughter..so that was fun for all of us..and easier on the gas! When we got back to Kuna we went to their house and visited for awhile (they live a block away) and then came on home. Shortly after we got home, Jaden got a headache. I told him to go try laying in his bed in the dark for awhile and if it didn't help then I'd give him some medicine. I went in to check on him awhile later and his head was a little better but not much..so I went ahead and gave him some medicine (I try not to give him any because it never works.) As I was doin that I noticed that he was burnin up with a fever! He was just as surprised as I was! Anyway, I texted a few friends n fam and they prayed. Within 10 minutes he was up singing and had no headache and no fever. Awesome! Praise God. I asked him if he had a miracle b/c Grammie and Grampie had just prayed for him..his eyes got all big and he was super excited. For those of you who don't know, when J gets his headaches and fevers they are horrendous and last usually for 3 to 4 days. Eyes totally bloodshot and glassy looking, etc. So this was great! So, then we're all good to go, except that I'm still fighting my headache, but whatever, that's nothing unusual!

Next morning J comes in and says he has a little bit of a headache but is ok. So we start thinking maybe we should keep him home, and Chris will just take Ash down to church for her TBQ practice and then come home. And, I will just call Sherry to let her know she has to coach on her own. Sounds good, I'm getting ready to pick up the phone to call her when Ash comes in and says she just puked. AWESOME! *sigh* OK, that seals the deal, NO ONE's goin to church! We tell Ash to go back to bed and rest. I text everyone and tell them we ain't comin to church/practices today. J comes in and watches the Heffalump (Pooh Bear movie) movie with me. Chris snoozes. I get up after that and make breakfast, then Chris and J go out for dog food and batteries and, chocolate for me :). Ash never pukes again (which is normal, she never holds onto sickness). I fight a headache off and on, but I really think it's just sinus related. Chris feels fine, as usual. J's doin great.

This mornin both kids got up happy as larks and hopped off to school happy as could be. Sweet!

Oh, back to the JBQ match, we got 1st place! Fun :)

Well, that's our weekend. How was yours?

Love you!

guess what my grades are!!!! F's!!! JK! ;) actually they are all pretty good. I have all A's andB's. my math grade was just about an F and i got it up to a B in that period. (thats an hour.) isnt that AMAZING!!!!????? i think so. my heart was jumping with joy when i saw my grade go up that stinking fast! :) :0 :) :0
uhhhhh...... doo doo doo doo...... lets see here.... even though my grades are really good, i have quite a few of missing assignments. in life science, we went on a field trip to the sego prarie pond and took water samples for our microscopes. i found a water bear, some bacteria, sand crystals, water mites, and best of all, A FLY LARVAE! it looked sooooo cool and it seemed to just glare at me. (he looked reeeeeaaaallllly mad when i put the cover slip on him cuz he coudn't move. so i named him angry.) then we had to pour him down the sink and i was sad.... :(
( he was also digesting, and i could see his stomach was all wavy and was moving.)
you could really see the detail on that thing! thats all for now!

peace and chow, (lots and lots of it! yum.)

ashley

P.S. B S U ROCKS!!

Holy crap just realized that I failed to approve ur comments from the other day..sorry! They're there now. I had read them in my email, just apparently never came over here to approve them.

Anyhoo..to finish my story from earlier this morning (if you missed it, start reading the blog before this one and you'll be all caught up!) So after she got all that junk cleaned up I continued to mess up shipments all day..messed up orders all day. Had a horrible headache..but she got me a big delish Scotch & Soda from Sonic's Drive Thru that was delish. David (her Dad and co-owner) said that I should leave out the soda cuz it ruins the scotch. LOL It was kinda funny b/c none of them had ever heard of a non alcoholic scotch & soda..they thought I just wanted to drink. And, well, it might have been a good idea. Anyway, if you don't know what it is either, it's a sprite with lemon and vanilla.

Then after work I came home, got the sweet fam and went to get groceries. We got home around 8:30, put the groceries away. Heated up the homemade Lava Cakes that Corinne had given me earlier in the day and gorged on those. Oh DELISH. What a perfect way to end a horrible day. Then Chris and the kiddos watched Iron Man and I went to bed and watched my story and Project Runway and then passed out..but it was so hot for some reason last night I kept waking up. Oh well. The kids don't have school today or tomorrow so I got to sleep in this morning. Well, I still woke up around 7:30 but just laid in bed till 8 in the darkness and then turned on the tv and watched some Tim Gunn's Style Rescue or whatever it's called. I love Tim Gunn.

Today at work was good. I had a lot to catch up on with having been so busy while Corinne was gone and got quite a bit done. Corinne was having a hard day. Not feeling well (Gail & I think she's catching our crud) and finally decompressing from last month or so with the illness & death of her Gramma and the funeral and everything else. She just looks worn out. And she is like the energizer bunny, the girl never stops. So, when she looks like she did today I worry. But, I'm sure she'll be ok. She has nothing to do this weekend so I told her, "SLEEP!!!"

Came home to my hubby making me a wonderful dinner tonight, as always. A nice pork roast with the veggies and gravy and then I made some mashed potatoes. It's so nice to come home.

It's an overcast stormy sort of evening and my plans for tonight got canceled so I'm gonna go get in my jammies and relax in my lazyboy that Gramma gave me. I love my Gramma.

Have a wonderful night. I've missed you guys and love you like crazy. Be blessed as you've blessed me :)

((HUGS))

I've been punishing my blogger b/c I have been angry with it. Juvenile, yes. Really, I should punish photobucket. But, whatever. See I was one step away from a sweet new layout for this bugger and then the photobucket thing froze up and the blogger wouldn't let me save my changes. So, I just haven't been back. Maybe tonight I will have a chance to change the layout. I just can't stand it. It's so...fugly.

Anyway, the ultrasound was fine. Wonderful in fact. I asked if I could just stay all day. The ultrasound thingamajig felt GREAT on my back, the bed was ultra comfy, room was nice n quiet and at the perfect temp..ahhhh. I'll try to remember how great it was when I get the bill. heehee Anyway, she sent the stuff over to the radiologist who will then send it over to my doc who will then look them over. blah blah..I'll call him tomorrow, I think, and see what's what.

Week has been long. SO glad tomorrow is Friday. I messed up everything I touched at work yesterday. I got to work at 8, and by 8:15 had my head in my hands, choking back tears. Luckily I'm alone at work till usually around 10 so I had time to compose myself . Corinne came in around 9 actually..to help fix the mess I had made. Well, I should explain..they had updated the system the night before and not left a note to tell me..AND had not changed back the settings. So when I went to upload all the new orders I instead uploaded them into some weird file. Then I called Corinne to ask her what the crap was goin on and why the current orders didn't come in..she said no worries, just go delete the ones I imported and she'd be down to fix the settings in a bit. Fine. Sounds great. I begin to think..sweet! Not such a bad morning after all. I go and start deleting the invoices I imported (have never done this before.) You do this by opening the invoice and hitting Control D. Super easy. Nothing rocket science-ey. I start to notice, hey I guess I don't need to close down the window when I hit control D b/c it just brings up the next one..SWEET! One less step for me. After awhile I think..hmm..I wonder why my list isn't getting any shorter. OH CARAPP..and my whole body goes numb, the blood leaves my body, silent hush fills the air..I'm deleting VALID INVOICES instead of the duplicate invoices. HOLY CANOLI. AND this is when my head entered my hands. (I should say that I've also been fighting a horrendous and I do mean HORRENDOUS headache now for the better part of a week and possibly a cold that my kids keep trying to give me. AND yesterday morning I started my period, a day early, out of the blue. Emotions are running high!!) I decide, I'm not calling Corinne to tell her that I've been deleting important files by accident. I think it better to wait to share such news. She comes in awhile later, after I've also realized that every customer that calls that I have to take an order from is being printed on an invoice which shows the date of the day before. Weird. I start to think..do I even know what today is? Where am I? What the hell is goin on? I just want to go home. Anyhoo..as I was saying, she came in..smiled and asked how it was goin. I said, "It's only gotten worse. Much worse." She says, "Why? What's goin on?" I tell her everything..she says, "Oh man. OK, let me sit down and see what's goin on." Mind you she is not angry..which is what I love about working there. But, I still feel like a moron. She says, "Don't worry about it, this is all part of learning." I say, "OH, is THAT what this is? Learning?" LOL She takes 20 min or so and fixes it all..brings back the stuff I deleted, etc...

Crap..gotta go to work, will finish this later. Stay tuned!!!

HI HI HI!!!

Chris is working on re installing my computer, or whatever it's called. Blasted virus has taken away so much of my computer time! ;) How annoying. I feel so behind on everything. Hopefully everything will run smoothly after he's done.

Mom came and got the kiddos this morning to take them downtown to some History thing where people dress up in "old time" clothes and tell stories about history. I'd rather saw my arm off with a sharp tooth pic than endure that crap. But, the kids will enjoy it I'm sure! ANyhoo, then Chris & I got ready to go down the street to a new subdivision being built b/c they were offering free lunch, live country music (not contemporary country but REAL country), games, etc. Well, anytime I can get a free lunch and get to walk through houses, it's a great day. So off we went. We ate our little hearts out and toured the 2 houses they had open. We aren't ready to sell/buy, but it's just fun to get ideas. Then we came home and here we are..sittin around. Me, I'm tryin to stay awake.

While Chris was down making our yummy Saturday family breakfast, I got a lot done in the house. Then shortly after Mom left with the kiddos my energy went bye-bye and the headache rolled in for a visit. Fun! But, not unusual. I'll vacuum later. I told Sadie she's not allowed to move anymore b/c she just sheds everywhere. I tell her this a lot but she doesn't listen.

Switched out the summer bedspread for the winter comforter today. Can't believe it's already that time. Well, to be honest, I don't think it is. But, my hubby mightily disagrees with me. And so on it went. It looks so pretty, whether I'll be sweating my butt off, or not.

Corinne's Gramma passed away on Monday night after a short battle with leukemia, it's been a rough month, as I've shared with you all. I put in a lot of extra hours last week and will work a few extra this coming week, too. No problem, extra cash is good when surgery is on the horizon!

Speaking of surgery, I will have my ultrasound on Tuesday..hmm.

Well, I'm gonna wrap this up. It's a great day outside, perfect weather. It was nice to get out and enjoy it a bit. It's even nicer to have this house all to ourselves. We have no one to entertain or take care of. It's just the two of us!!!! Sometimes it seems like these days will never come. But Gramma Edens assures me that one day it will just be me & my hubby and that there will actually be moments of boredom! WHAT! No way..well, we'll see! :)

Love you guys. Take care of you :) Oh, and pls pray for Chris' Dad, he's having some medical problems..they're running tests so see what's goin on. But He and Aldo are stressed and worn out from so much going on over the last few years.

My computer is still hosed. I'm stealing Chris' for the moment but don't have long! Just wanted you to know that I'm still alive and will write probably tomorrow evening.

Love you!!

I hate this layout..gonna have to go play later and find a new one. It was supposed to be a fall theme but I'm just not diggin it.

Anyway, here's a few pics of my new word vinyl thing. I just put it up today with the help of my loverly husband! He had to help me pull the backing off..was just too hard while balancing on a ladder. I really love the saying and I think it looks beautifficus! If you double click on them, they should enlarge..or usually at least one will.

I'll write more tomorrow. Headed upstairs for now. Oh, and I can't use my computer at the moment b/c I somehow managed to get a virus or something on it..so I have to wait to use Chris' pc in order to post anything. ugh..the woes of life! haha

Love you

Mornin'

You will be happy to know that I made the ultrasound appointment for my cyst yesterday.


This morning, I got to school to volunteer (headache in tow) and found out that they had already finished the task. How they finished it only 8 minutes after school started I don't know..and to be honest I don't really care. I went in to our PTA closet area and cleaned and organized it and went home. When I got home, I cleaned the cobwebs off of the front porch, played with the dog, straightened up the upstairs, threw a load of laundry in, cleaned the closet and came down here with my hubby. My hubby who just got up to make me a loverly breakfast. I sure do love that man.

I'm feeling like I need a nap already..when did this day start again? 40 bazillion hours ago?

Bible study is goin great. We're both having fun with our classes and the books that go with them.

Mom n Dad got back (FINALLY) from Maui last night. We got to visit with them for awhile and then they took their pups and went home. But, they came bearing gifts! Chris and I got 2 super sweet shirts (each!) and I got some neato bandito earrings. The kiddos got backpacks shirts and then ankle/wrist bracelets for A and a cool turtle necklace type thing for J. He loves it. He was very sad he couldn't wear it to school this morning. I told him he can wear it anywhere he wants, EXCEPT for school. I just know with the way those dudes play it will either hit someone in the face (it's big and bulky and wooden with a stone type thing on it..I can just see him using it to "kill Goliath"). So he was happy with being able to wear it everywhere else. Good compromise.

Soon I will go down and pick up my new vinyl lettering thing from my lady in Kuna. This one is HUGE. It will take up a 20"x24" area. It will say:

I believe in the sun even if it doesn't shine.
I believe in love even if I do not feel it.
I believe in God even when He is silent.

It's beautiful. I'm going to put it up in the nook of my stairs where the flower arrangement hangs now. I'll take a pic of it when it's up. I'm so excited!! It was fun to work with the lady to figure out the font of the letters and size of what I wanted, the color of the vinyl..I'm addicted. I just love living out here in tiny ol' Kuna USA. Small towns can be so much fun, if you let them be.

OH did I mention that I made salsa the other day? It's good.

Well, I'm gonna cut this short. But, I love you more than you think I do. I think of you more often than you might imagine. And, I smile & send up a prayer when your name crosses my thoughts. You're important, and you're never alone. Remember that!

((HUGS))