Thanksgiving Meal

Here is our feast (minus 3 people): Family and Air Force family.

Pictures of my house in progress.

Kitchen - we haven't figured out what to do about the floor yet (thus no baseboards) - replace just the floor if possible or redo the entire kitchen. The trim on the window needs painted white and the window treatment needs rehung. Normally the table sits perpendicular to the window with the chairs around it for mealtimes, but this was before Thanksgiving and we used it as a buffet table. You can't see it, but the light fixture in the kitchen needs switched out, too. Entryway - now all painted, just need the white trim done and a decision to be made on the stairs. The entry light needs switched out, too. But it is functional now! Yahhh!

Our lovely living room from the stairs. Again we need to finish trim in white and hang the blinds on the windows.

Dining table set for Thanksgiving. Thanks, Mom for the beautiful tablecloth!!! I LOVE it!

We have so many projects to finish that I feel very overwhelmed, but the baseboards being done goes a long, long way! Thanks, Dad, for helping with that!

Family

We had a full house this weekend, and it was lovely to have everyone here. This picture just happened - I looked over and all I had to do was ask Andrew to move over a little and a couple kids sit on laps. This was Thanksgiving morning - Andrew and Greg had just gotten home from playing football, and it was before my meltdown about the toy mess in the family room that happened while I was too busy cooking in the kitchen to keep it from happening (it was not my finest moment!) Mostly I just spent time with people this weekend and didn't take too many pictures.

Guess who is calling?

Seth handing me the play phone: It's for you, Mom! It's the Queen of England.
(Can you tell we have been watching too much PBS?)

I have floorboards!!!!

Here is Pookie maching the color scheme in my living room: Andrew and Papa Buzz have been working hard. The main floor has new baseboards - just in time for Thanksgiving! THANK YOU!!!

Music Night

Seth learns how to play some guitar with Papa Buzz: He is learning about frets and how they change the pitch:

Gavin joins in on the fun...till his pick falls into the guitar! :o)!

Gavin was also playing with the "potato" rock - a rock I have had since I was about 6 or 7 living in Wyoming. We had been talking to him about not throwing the rock. Instead he took it over to share with Pookie and accidentally dropped it. It hit her foot, rolled across the floor, under the desk, and down the vent that has no cover on it yet, and rattled under the floor! All the adults in the room started laughing - I tried really hard not to, but couldn't help it. When Gavin saw us laughing he started crying. Then Andrew comes running in because of hearing the rock in the ductwork. I insist that I need it back and move the desk, reach in, and pull out a matchbox car! I could feel the edge of the rock, so Seth with his smaller arms reached in and rescued it! He wins the 'hero of the day' award!

Guess who came to visit!

I looked him up on davesgarden.com in their bug files. This is what I found:
I had one of these in the apartment I was living in located in Paxtonville, PA. I treated it as a pet and named it Herman. Herman was quite large, 5-6 inches long and over 2 inches wide from leg tip to leg tip. One big plus was that Herman was the only bug in that apartment, he ate everything else. I used to bring insects inside so he would have something to eat. Herman was never very popular with the ladies. A bunch of us were watching videos one night and Herman ran across one of the girl's bare leg in the dark. Can you say pandemonium? I was very busy trying to get the lights turned on and yelling at everybody not to step on him. Herman managed to escape unharmed. For the rest of the night nobody sat on the floor and all the girls kept their legs curled up on the chairs. And they insisted that the lights stay on.When I moved I caught Herman and took him to a friends house who was having trouble with earwigs. A few months later his house was bug free. They make a great natural pest control in the home if you can stand to have them around. Give it a try. I double dog dare you.

The boys and I took a good look at him, and took his picture... and left him alone. (Mostly because I am too scared of him and he disappeared. But Pookies says she saw him around today.) Maybe we have a new pet we need to name! Any suggestions?

Saturday

We went to friend Luke's birthday party. Took a few pics of the boys. (note: Seth doesn't have a ballhat of his own, so he has confiscated Daddy's. I am amazed that he can wear it with his big ol noggin!)

We also painted our entryway and did blue trim work on Saturday night after the boys went to bed. We are trying to finish painting before all the baseboards go in on Tues/Wed. Pictures of our home will be coming soon...

What the boys wanted to do this week...

...get dressed up warm and go outside and blow bubbles. Here is Gavin having fun: Here is Seth immediately trying to go back inside because he is cold:

Here is his sad little face:

And happy again once inside the glass door:

What are my poor boys gonna do when it hits 70 below w/ the windchill factor?

Snacktime.

Gavin eating his snack.

Seth eating his snack.

The birds at our feeder eating their snack. Yes, we have a parakeet at our feeder! I have been seeing him and hearing him in the neighborhood for a while now. I am worried about him not making it through the winter. This is the first we have seen him up close, though. It made for a fun snacktime this morning!

Saturday!

Snow! The first little flurries - here are the boys checking it out! I gave away some of my plants on Craigs List to Nancy and she told me where we could get some free firewood. Here our our efforts:

Here are my cute boys all bundled up for winter - they are not liking all this cold weather much, but boy are they cute!

Seth, can you put your hat on for me?

My adorable Gavin with the pink pacifier (thanks, Nana!) :o)!

Books on my Desk Part 2

I forgot a book that isn't on my desk - Andrew and I are reading Grace Based Parenting by Dr. Tim Kimmel together. We started it in a class in TX before we left. I have definately become a high control parent from all the stress lately, and reread parts of it again this morning after reading I John 2:6 "Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did." Been thinking about how DID Jesus walk? My sphere of influence is primarily my family right now, and you know it is not good when you are threatening your children with consequences in the same breath that you tell them about God's love for them. I am thankful for lots of chances with kids to get it right. :o)! Anyhow, so far it is very helpful.

To answer the question: So how do I keep all the books straight. Well, the Dr. Farmer book I read straight through. I started it on my trip to Seattle after reading a couple of books of quotes my aunt had from Mr. Rogers and Mother Theresa and a biography of Sidney Poitier while I was there. The history book I go back to and work at from time to time (been at it more than a year I think) and am learning a ton. The Bible Study I do during my quiet times sometimes as I am learing about grace. And the parenting book, Discipline book, and Psalm 23 book are all supplemental to what God is teaching me about myself and grace right now, and about discipline -which I have been lacking and am trying to regain ground. My weird brain assimilates stuff instead of going in a progressive logical thought pattern that most people have (I found this out in college in one of my learning development classes) and it used to drive a lot of my college friends nuts. I put things together in my brain and somehow it works itself out. Sometimes my brain likes a vacation and then I read mysteries for junk reading, but when I get started on those I don't get stuff done that I need to sometimes - so I am avoiding them because I have too much to do right now getting our house put together and getting ready for the holidays. :o)! I guess that pretty much makes me a nerd (no matter how hard I try to hide it!)

Water For Christmas

Americans spend 450 billion dollars on Christmas every year.

It would cost 10 billion dollars to give the whole world clean water.

Ok - this just blows my mind. A group of moms in Iowa put together this idea that if we make sacrifices and ask for Water for Christmas we can make a dent in the need for clean water around the world. I don't have 10 billion dollars, but I can do something! Every little bit helps. I know if I was a mom that didn't have clean water or healthcare, especially for my kids, I would desperately long for someone that had resources to help me. Clean water is the first step in stoping global epidemics like TB and AIDS. I couldn't figure out how to import the logo and links, so I am putting the links where I found the information. Please partner with me in getting someone WATER FOR CHRISTMAS.

http://jodyrlanders.com/?p=3017 (the water project introduction)
http://jodyrlanders.com/ Jody Lander's (a mom in Iowa who adopted 2 kids from Africa and has a huge burden for all the kids still there with great needs) blog page with links and updates on the project - scroll through her past posts to find some great ideas that you can use to make a difference.

Overheard Yesterday

"I can color on your face, Gavin."

Books on my Desk

I have a great collection of books on my desk right now:
Through Gates of Splendor and Discipline by Elisabeth Elliot
The Advent Jesse Tree (getting close to Advent season!)
Becoming a Woman of Grace bible study by Cynthia Heald
The Mommy Diaries by Flint (a free book I got from MOPS)
A Shepherd looks at Psalm 23 by Keller (a book I have wanted to read for a long time, and holding up to the excellent reviews I had been given about it)
Trading Places by Parrott and Parrott
A Distant Mirror by Barbara W. Tuchman (a history of the middle ages, been at this one a LONG time - but so worth the reading to understand a perspective of modern western culture and church history and culture)
Mountains beyond Mountains about Dr. Farmer by Tracy Kidder (book from Aunt Ruth that I just finished. Well worth reading. About dealing with modern TB and HIV epidemics and poverty. We need to be DOING more about this kind of stuff. Look for my post about Water for Christmas.)

This week.

We went to the zoo with our friend Emily and looked for elephants and turtles.
I rearranged the living room furniture and I love it.
We had preschool.
I clogged the kitchen sink, got it cleared, and then discovered that I clogged the pipes and flooded out the laundry room.
We are thankful for Roto-rooter and the Hogan family for loaning us their shopvac.
Today I got to sleep in and finally get all my posts on my blog.
Andrew and the boys are headed out to rake leaves.
I have bathrooms, laundry, grocery shopping to do.
We are going to make a Home Depot/Lowes run to get baseboards.
That is our life this week.
Love to everyone.

Gum!

Gavin has been asking for gum for a long time. Last week we were playing outside and I let both boys have a piece of gum. It has been just recently that I have been able to trust Seth to chew the gum and not swallow it. Gavin chewed that gum forever. He lost it at one point and we first thought he swallowed it, then we discovered it on his pants - he just reached down and popped it back into his mouth. I think he chewed that piece of gum for about 3 hours. Who knew?

Playing in the leaves!

Throwing leaves at Mommy is fun!

Gavin lost his camoflage colored shoe in the leaves. That was fun to find!

Andrea Visit Day 1

For those of you who don't know who Andrea is - she started out as one of our high school students in Dayton, then she lived with us for a year before we moved to Florida (when Seth was a baby), and now she is one of my best friends. I had the privilege of being in her wedding last March and then she moved to Ellensbers, WA with her new husband Jonathan. I got to pop in and see her while I was visiting my Gramma last week. Ellensberg is on the other side of the mountains from Seattle. The drive was beautiful. Suddenly you realize that you are past the crest of the mountains because everything turns brown suddenly. We decided to go shopping and drove through a canyon. We stopped and took some pictures. There were a couple of people there with big cameras shooting stock footage for the Washington State Tourism Bureau, and we asked one of them to take our picture together. The guy took a picture of her taking our picture, so who knows, we might end up in a brochure somewhere! Here is my beautiful, amazing friend Andrea Betz:

We found these atrocious clothes at Target and made each other try them on. 80's leggings should NOT come back in style again. Here is proof:

We found a great little shopping center made out of an old train. Plastic sausages in an antique store:

Andrea made me a fabulous dinner of homemade creamy pesto w/ grilled chicken and artichokes. We got to visit all the animals and greenhouse at Jonathan's work (he cares for the greenhouse and animals in the science building at the University.) The fall colors were spectacular on my whole trip to WA. Here are some fall leaves:

A cool leaf from the greenhouse:

Andrea Visit Day 2

We had such a great day watching chick flicks in our pj's during the day, visiting and encouraging each other, drinking hot cider... Then we went hiking up in the mountains in the afternoon. We drove most of the way up to Lion Rock and then hiked the last mile and a half up.

Fabulous view from the top! You could see Mt. Olympus and Mt. Ranier (I think those were the ones we could see.) It was so great to be back in the mountains.

This was Andrea's first time driving in the mountains. She took her time coming back down and it was getting to be evening. We came around the corner to see this (and the photo doesn't do it justice because I don't know what I am doing with my camera yet!):

I ended up driving home to Seattle through the mountain pass in pitch blackness - a strange experience to know the mountains are there but not be able to see them. I had a great visit with Andrea and Jonathan and hope to get to see them again soon.