My daughter, the blogger!!

Yay! My daughter started a blog! She is so adorable and it will be fun to read about life from the teenage perspective! Fun! Be sure to stop by and post a welcome comment if you can. We all know how fun it is when someone posts a comment!!

http://www.adriennestafford.blogspot.com/

Merry Christmas to All!

Today is Christmas Eve! We have been baking and playing trains and we even watched the Muppets Christmas Movie. Did you know there was a recent Muppet Christmas Movie? I thought I was checking out the old Scrooge story, but no, this was made in 2002. Its been a very relaxing day. Due to the weather the older kids are with us for Christmas Eve, and this has not happened in years. The deal has always been he can have them on Christmas Eve, but I have to have them Christmas day. Having younger siblings, its very important for them to be here with us! Its been fun to have them here today. Adrienne made a wonderful dessert for the big family gathering tomorrow and she has wrapped all the gift exchange gifts.

Its been a sad week in some ways. A friend from church lost her brother to cardiac arrest on Tuesday. He was such a happy guy, a friend to all and he will be missed so much. I ache for Donal, losing her brother, I ache for Brenda, who has lost her husband too early in their life. I ache for Ron and Janeal for losing their son. I ache for his two daughters who will surely miss him so much. And for all the rest of us who knew and loved him. I know there is a greater plan and I am grateful for the knowledge of eternal life that I have and that his family is comforted by this knowledge too. But I cannot help but reflect on how hard it must be to be left behind to finish this life without one so loved. It scares me, could I ever be so strong?

I am listening to Christmas music as I type this, I love the song by Bare Naked Ladies with Sara McLachlan-God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. An awesome song! We had a special Christmas Family Home Evening tonight. We read the story of Christ's birth in Luke and made sure all the kids could answer the question of why we celebrate Christmas. Even Joseph got it! We sang some Christmas songs, then Annalina loaded up a plate with cookies for Santa. We got the kids to bed around 7:30 and they were ready to get this night over with! They promised to come get us when they woke up, and honestly they always do. I don't think either would have the courage to come down snooping around, but you never know! It will be interesting to see how early they are up. I am imagining about 7am. We got room darkening shades in their room and that was a very smart investment! Keeps it nice and dark in there. We also have a air purifier that we run at night. It helps with allergies and is a great source of white noise. Sure, my kids will probably have sleeping issues later in life, perhaps even needing therapy to learn how to sleep through the light and with background noises. But hey, I am getting my beauty sleep now, and I desparately need it. I'll pay for their therapy later in life, really I will!

So it has warmed up a bit today and the trees are have been shaking off their snowy coats with the breeze. It snowed this morning, adding a couple more inches to the pile, then rain fell for a while, although we still have quite a bit of snow. This has made me a bit sad. I love the snow and am thrilled to be having a white Christmas, even if it is a slushy messy white! I am so grateful for the beauty snow brings our area, a beauty we rarely get to see. I have been happy being inside with my family(though they may or may not feel the same about being stuck home with me!). I have enjoyed our outings back in Camp Ireland and just playing in the snow out front with the little kids. I honestly could do with another week of this! Its just so beautiful! I will not complain about this storm, which our area has not seen anything like in 40 years. But I will also try not to complain about the meltdown, the constant drip, drip, drip as the snow slowly disappears. At least now everyone will be able to make it over tomorrow for our family Christmas party!

I hope you have all been good this year and that Santa will be making a stop at your place later this evening. We checked Norad before bedtime, Santa was in Canada, looks like he is in Michigan now, so I better head off to bed. I'd hate to cost my kids their gifts by being up and around when Santa gets here!

Four Hours, Three Stitches & $100 later

Church was canceled today. Richard took Rover out to help someone get to a homeless shelter in Hillsboro to help out during the cold. He got home and we all ventured out to tithing settlement. It was good to see the Bishop and very few others made it over, it was fun. On the way there we passed a station wagon stuck in the snow. The husband was out trying to push it back, the snow was just too deep for it to get through. Richard drove Rover over the snow again and again until it was good and packed down. Then Jake, Richard and I got out and pushed. Off they went. The little kids thought this was the greatest thing ever and Richard's vehicle is now affectionately called Rescue Rover!

Shortly after getting home Joseph and Jake had a mishap while playing too rough and Jake's tooth ended up creating a large gash in Joseph's forehead. It bled profusely, as head wounds tend to, but it was so deep and oozy that we decided to take him into the ER and have it looked at. We got checked in and paid the $100 copay, YIKES it has gone up!!! We waited and waited and finally were taken back. They numbed it up with a topical ointment and Joseph was so brave. He did not cry at all when they cleaned it, or when he got a shot to make sure it was numb enough or when he got three stitches. He was patient and good and I was very proud of him. The hardest part was that it was close to four by this time and neither Richard or I had eaten yet and Joseph hadn't had lunch. Eventually he needed to use the bathroom, but his fear of public potties sent me to the nurses station where I explained we needed to go or there would be a cleanup in room 6. They finally gave us our discharge orders and we were on our way, just four hours after we got there!!! It had snowed a few inches during the four hour ordeal, so Richard had to clear off Rescue Rover once again. Joseph is on an antibiotic just to be safe, since it was a tooth that caused the damage. But he will be fine, and they let him keep the water syringe they irrigated the wound with. So he is happy and somewhat proud of his bandaged head.

Jake feels really bad about it, but it honestly was an accident. One that will hopefully be prevented by less roughhousing in the future...who am I kidding, they are boys!! But of all the kids Joseph, who is youngest, only three, probably handled it better than the others would have! I was thinking about it and I have had children for almost 17 years now(I am feeling old), and this is the first child requiring stitches! I mentioned this to Richard and we were both a bit shocked to realize that. Until now, no broken bones, stitches, surgery. We are blessed, that is for sure.

The kids are all sleeping under the tree tonight. A couple nights ago we put Joseph to bed and the older three slept under the tree. I heard Joseph get up in the morning and he went straight downstairs. I didn't want him to wake up the other kids who were up pretty late so I went down to get him. He was curled up under his blanket by the tree. I asked him if he wanted to come upstairs and he said no, he was sleeping under the tree with the big kids. Ahhhh, poor little guy got left out. So I told him he could sleep down there with them next time. Just one movie I told them, then they need to get to sleep. Who knows if that will really happen, cause I am going to bed! It was quite an adventurous day and I am glad it is over!

Day 7 "Deep Freeze Storm Seige 2008"

We are into day seven of the ever dramatic "Deep Freeze 08". Apparently the biggest part of this storm has not yet hit. It is snowing at the moment and we've gotten an inch or two more since this started, but the REAL snow should be starting in a couple of hours. Overnight the lovely fluffy stuff will become a hardened shell as freezing rain falls to the ground, making our winter wonderland a crunchy, hard to walk through mess. But it will still be beautiful, especially if you don't HAVE to walk through it! The warnings are possibly power outages due to ice accumulation, so Richard lit the pilot in the fireplace, so we can have a heat source and we gathered all the candles, lanterns and flashlights into one place for easy access. I think we are ready! The freeze should last into Monday where hopefully we will begin to thaw out some for Christmas.

Richard and Jake are venturing out this morning. They are delivering fliers for the Christmas Tree pick up next weekend. Every year the scouts go out the two weekends after Christmas to pick up Christmas Trees as a fund raiser for scout camp in the summer. Richard will be in Rover, so I am sure they will be fine, but I would really rather have them safe and warm indoors. Hopefully they will only be out a couple of hours.

Yesterday afternoon there was a big break in the weather so we headed out to do some shopping with the kids. We went to Fred Meyer, its a big store so splitting up is easier to do. Richard took the girls shopping and I took the boys. Joseph was buying for Adrienne and he got her a make up kit and something else, I will not mention at this time. The reason I am not worried about Adrienne learning about the make up is a pretty funny story. At the checkout I explained to Joseph that he needed to keep his gift to Adrienne a secret. He said ok but when we met up with Richard and the girls, he blabbed. Well Jake was very upset by this so we reminded Joseph not to tell Adrienne her gift or she would not be surprised on Christmas morning. In the car he started chanting, "Adrienne, you got makeup, Adrienne, you got makeup...." over and over again in a very sing song voice. Richard told Joseph to zip it and Joseph replied, "I can't zip it!" and the chant started again. Adrienne tells us that when Richard told him to zip it, he tried with all his might to zip up his coat, but could not. It was pretty funny timing!

We then did the grocery shopping, but apparently the break in weather had everyone thinking the same thing! The lines for every register(and they were ALL open, all 18 of them) had at least 6 people standing in them. And the ailes were jammed full of people, but we finally managed to finish the shopping and get out. Huge flakes were starting to fall so we turned on Christmas music for the ride home. A crazy yet fun way to spend a Saturday evening with the family!

The Rise and Fall of the House of Gingerbread

A beautiful masterpiece is complete....
See the attention to detail, the pride of workmanship...

Less than 24 hours later....

Yes, those a tooth mark scrapings down the roof...

All that is left of the House of Gingerbread...

I think it is obvious that Annalina would have been fine playing the part of Gretel, she'd have just eaten her way to freedom!

Its been...one week

My Snow Angels!

A full week of snow days!!! Yesterday I took an outing with the kids to the Library and the store. The streets were messy, but it was all slush. They could have gone to school, but it was very icy in the morning, so I suppose erring on the side of safety is a good thing. It was looking like they could go to school today but the temperature dropped and it snowed some more and there is a slick layer of ice under that lovely white stuff. Very deceiving!

Yesterday Jake had his friend Adam over. They wanted to go back to Camp Ireland, and I was in the middle of something and said sure(the busy mother in me)! After they left I started thinking about it and got worried(again, the mother in me), there is a creek that runs through the camp and a big suspension bridge and my imagination ran away with all the things they could get into trouble with in the snow. So I put on my warm gear and went for a walk on my own. It is really beautiful back there right now, snow everywhere and mostly untouched. I had to cross the bridge and go pretty far before I found them, and even then I had to yell Jake's name to get a response. They were doing fine, so after warning them not to go near the water and to be very very careful, they walked me back across the bridge. I came home on my own while they went exploring a bit more. Adam was able to stay and have dinner with us which was fun. He and Jake are a lot alike and they get along really well.

We have less than a week until Christmas and our shopping is NOT done. I am usually done shopping for Christmas by the first of December, so this is freaking me out some!! The forecast shows a heatwave next week that will keep us in the 40's so hopefully Richard and I can get out and find a few more gifts.

We started a tradition many years ago where we buy the kids each three gifts, and they get one from Santa. I have always loved Christmas and when Adrienne and Jake were small I went WAY overboard and bought them each tons of gifts, whether I could afford it or not(and mostly I could NOT). The kids got so many gifts that some items would stay in their boxes for days, even weeks after Christmas. It seemed like the kids did not play with what I got them and it was frustrating! Then shortly after Richard and I were married I was visiting teaching with my sweet companion Maury Ennis and she told me how they only buy three gifts for each child and that it represents the gifts the wise men brought Christ when he was born. I remember thinking how hard that would be to buy only three gifts. But after telling Richard about it, we decided it was a good idea. We have done that since, and we truly have to ponder our gifts and get them practical things they need as well as fun things we know they really want. It is far more meaningful and it helps us focus more on what Christmas is really all about. To share the fun of giving, the kids each draw someone's name from the Santa hat and get a gift for one of their siblings. We still have to take them out to get each other gifts!! We are going to be busy next week!!

I blogged about Annalina never wanting to play in the snow again, but that has changed. It is amazing what the difference between 14 degrees and 30 degrees will do as far as playing outside goes. She saw other kids out there and decided to give it another try. We bundled her up and she and Joseph stayed out for quite a while. The snow on Wednesday was nice and powdery and packed together just right for the perfect snowballs!

Wednesday the older kids walked over the Glencoe High School to meet some friends for a snowball fight. It sounds like they had a lot of fun! I am glad they had some warm snow gear from all the youth trips up to Mt Hood.

The Birthday Celebration Continues...

Gifts arrived today from Grandma and Grandpa and Grandma Great! She had a hard time waiting for Dad to get home so she could open them, but he finally made it! She received some wonderful bad weather gifts. We will spend today filling the house with pipe cleaner animals!

Your Story, Annalina!

Seven years ago today Annalina joined our family. Due to her size we went in on the 15th of December to be induced, though she was not due until the 28th. I have big babies, and while they are always big and healthy too, I did not want to give birth to a 4 month old sized infant. It was a long pregnancy, I was on bed rest for the last 20, YES 20 weeks due to some health issues. I read a LOT during that time, and watched a lot of movies thanks to my sister who manages a Hollywood Video Store. Anyway, we went in that morning expecting a baby with a birthday of December 15th. It took the nurses quite a while to get things ready, and labor did not really take off well as it had when I had Jacob. Finally by late evening I was starting to really feel it. Yikes! You forget how bad it really is and there were some very panicky moments of doubt, could I really do this again? I had Adrienne with no pain relief whatsoever, there, I did it, not doing it again!! Jake I really tried to get some relief, but the epidural failed and he came quickly after that. I was assured that the best anesthesiologist was on call that night, so about 1 in the morning, he came in and he was fantastic! I remember looking at the monitor in awe, it was registering a HUGE contraction, but I was NOT feeling a thing! That was way too cool, so I decided to get some rest, they assured me she wasn't coming anytime soon. It felt so good to be able to sleep while my body was still working so hard. I wish other things in life could be like that, you know, like working out...

I woke up at about 5 am and my vision was weird, I could not see around the edges and I felt like I was floating away. The blood pressure alarm went off and I remember wondering if I was dying. Richard was laying nearby on the sofa bed and he woke up when the nurse rushed in. Apparently I was flat on my back and Annalina's sweet little baby body was flattening some key blood vessels. My BP was something like 55/30. My nurse Heather, who was so great, propped one side up with a pillow and I began to feel much better. A very surreal experience though.

I was checked at about 6am and I was only at a 5, which I had been stuck at all night long. Annalina was an obstinate little thing. She had her head tipped in such a way as to stop her progress. By 6:30 I asked Heather to check me again, everything had changed. She said it was too soon, but I told her she really needed to check and sure enough I was at 10cm and ready to have that baby! We figure Annalina turned her head back into a normal birthing position and that pressure caused me to finish dilating. Dr Brown was paged and got there shortly after that. I only pushed a couple of times and out she came. It was a very relaxed birth. On the video we are chatting and joking with the doctor in between pushes. It was so different than the chaos that accompanied my two previous births. Annalina was born at 7:10am. Adrienne was there with my mother and my dad got stuck in the room during the birth as well. Poor guy, but I loved having him there, he took over the video camera while Annalina was wisked over to the incubator to be cleaned up. Richard was a wonderful labor coach and made sure I had everything I needed. After Annalina was born, Richard stayed with her almost constantly. If they had to take her out for a test, he tagged along. Her guardian!
Annalina was 8 pounds 14 ounces, just like her older brother Jake had been. And she was almost two weeks early. My Dr tells me I could easily birth a ten pound baby, but YIKES, the 9 pounds ones really hurt, why would I want to delivery a 10+ pound baby!! She was 21 inches long and had lovely soft brown hair. This was VERY unexpected as my first two had been so blond as to look bald at birth. I remember asking the doctor during delivery, "Can you see her hair?, Can you see her hair?" and the Dr said, yes, lots of dark hair and I couldn't believe it.

I was not thrilled to learn Annalina was due right at Christmastime. I have heard all the stories and have since experienced people forgetting all about her birthday due to the holidays. Kids with December birthdays really do get a bit gypped. My job is to make it all the more special. But back to my story...having Annalina in December was really special for me. It was an emotional time and thinking of the birth of Christ, I think I related to Mary in a way I had never done before. I was so grateful to have a safe place to have her with the comforts of home so nearby! And everyone is always so happy at Christmastime! The festive spirit in the hospital was impossible to ignore. Beautifully decorated trees and tinsel hanging everywhere!

We had Annalina on a Sunday morning. Thursday Richard's parents and his sister were able to come to Oregon for a visit. They were with us over Christmas and it was special to be able to spend that time with them. I have lots of fun pictures of them with little Annalina. She was so tiny!!

Annalina was such a happy baby. She slept in our room for the first year of her life. As she got older and wasn't so frantic for food when she woke, she would wake up happy and cooing in her bed. We often brought her into bed between us to play with her in the morning. She has grown into such a loving sweet girl. She has a wonderful amount of compassion for someone so young. She genuinely cares for everyone. I am so grateful that the lord entrusted me to raise this sweet little spirit. I am looking forward to seeing what she will do with this life she has been given and am so glad that I get to be part of her life! Happy Birthday Annalina! I love you so much!

Snow Day

Yesterday was Sunday and before church I just didn't feel right about sending the kids out to play in the snow. Often I miss the mark, but I do try to keep the Sabbath Day holy. We decided when we got home we'd let them go out for a bit, but it was so cold and it got dark so quick that it just didn't happen. So the kids woke up and immediately wanted to go out. So after breakfast we bundled them up good, several layers of pants, tops, and socks, topped of with their warmest jackets, in Joseph's case, TWO and a pair of those stretchy gloves. I too bundled up to take them outside, the blogger in me just HAD to have photos of our winter wonderland. I decided I would stay out perhaps 5 minutes to click away and then come in where it is warm. We went out front and found that most of the snow was crunchy and not very moldable as far as snowballs go. We found some powdery areas, but it did not pack into snowballs very easily and usually disintegrated into a pea size ball by the time it hit its target. So we headed to the untouched(except by the dogs) snow in the backyard. The kids had fun for about 5 minutes. Annalina layed down to make a snow angel and when she got up she declared she was freezing and wanted to go in. I steered her for the door and asked Joseph if he wanted to stay out, he said no too. The back slider was frozen shut, and I thought it was locked, so we knocked and knocked until Richard came. He finally got it open, but by this time the kids were actually wimpering. So we lasted about 10 minutes. I would say it was probably those stretchy gloves that did them in. Those really are not meant for snow packing, snowball throwing, or snow angel making.

I find this very amuzing, and I am sure any of you living in areas of snow will laugh at us too. You can see from the photos we don't have much snow. In fact many of you probably get this much snow in May! But here in Oregon we don't see a lot of the white fluffy stuff and at some point it was decided that tons of snow plows would not be cost effective to the taxpayers. I must agree with that, but it does leave our area helpless in times of snow. I love that the newschannels decided they must name the "storm" each year. "Deep Freeze 08", or "Winter Storm Watch 07". Anyway, when I was between the ages of 7 and 13, we lived in Holladay Utah. And it snowed a lot there. Walking home from school in 2 feet of fresh powder was normal for us. We spent HOURS outside, coming in only for quick bathroom breaks or perhaps to watch Little House. But just as the city of Salt Lake was prepared and sent out the brigade of snow plows early every morning, we were prepared with our big insulated snow suits, warm hats, nice gloves, etc. So I cannot say my kids are really wimps when it comes to the weather. We just aren't prepared. At this time I cannot justify buying them all expensive snow gear for three COLD days a year, when they will outgrow them come next winter!

The forecast says it will not get up above freezing this week at all. And come Wednesday the next round of snow will be falling. The streets are all glazed over and the wind is howling. It makes me wonder if we will be getting an entire SNOW WEEK off from school, an extension of Christmas break. The ice won't go anywhere without a little warmth to melt it. I am feeling a bit bummed out though, since Tuesday night is Annalina's Christmas singing program at school, and Wednesday night is Joseph's. Will they get to make them up later? A Christmas program in January? I don't know. For now I am going to bake something, try to stay warm and help Annalina make the Gingerbread house kit she got from Leila and Nate at her birthday party. She has been begging to do it all weekend. In my yelling phase yesterday I think I finally got to the point where I told her if she asked again, she wasn't going to get to do it at all, and that when I was ready, I would let HER know. I know, mean mom!! So instead she would stand at the counter top looking at it longingly! I so remember doing stuff like that as a child! This morning she said to me "There is something we need to do that we didn't do yesterday, but I can't say what it is Mom". Hint taken, I will help her make it so we can all peacefully move on with our lives! It is a really cute kit, thanks Conser kids for giving it to Annalina for her Birthday, as you can tell she is SUPER excited about it!

Yes, that is bare sidewalk you see there! Funny how such a small amount of something can cripple an entire community. Good thing it is so pretty huh?
The wind is brutal, see how it knocked her hood off and is flinging her hair all around?! Brrrr, makes me cold!
The dreaded snow angel that sent her wimpering to the back door!
It might also have been eating the snow that made her so cold. They say not to eat the first snowfall, but when you only get one or two a year and they are weeks if not months apart...what the heck!! Look at that powder sticking to his gloves. No wonder they got cold so fast! Well it was fun while it lasted. It will be interesting to see if they want to go out on Wednesday after the next expected snowfall!

Odds and Ends

In follow up to my earlier post....

Church was not canceled, but Richard had to stay home to work today, another big project they decided to do on Sunday. Being the chivalrous husband and wanting to assure we made it there in one piece, he drove us over and dropped us off. The church was very warm and inviting today. During the second hour temperatures outside dropped and the previously slushy roads became slick streets of ice, great if your car has blades to skate on. Not so good for the army of minivans that can be found in the church parking lot on any given Sunday. So it was decided to end church early and send us all home. Richard came and picked us up and we changed into warm and comfy clothes and watched movies most of the afternoon, Unaccompanied Minors, Deck the Halls, and finally Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. A nice evening home with the family, oh and I have stopped yelling and settled into a happy state, and no pharmaceuticals were involved. And it has already been announced that since the temperatures will not be rising above freezing for tomorrow at least, tomorrow is a SNOW DAY! YIPPEE!


We have been trying to talk Joseph into a haricut for weeks now and he always runs away crying. His reaction is almost comical, since he gets to sit on my lap while Richard runs the clippers over his head, what could be better? So tell me, do YOU think he needs a haircut??
And last but not least, I forgot to take the camera to Build A Bear, but here is Annalina with her latest stuffed critter, Jake who I have been informed is already married to one of her other dogs.
The wind is REALLY blowing tonite and its 23 degrees out, though the windchill is bringing it down to a chilly 8 degrees. I am going to snuggle even deeper under the blankets and rejoice in the fact that I do not have to get up EARLY tomorrow and make lunches!

The Grinch That Stole Sunday....

We all slept in, well it was a big day yesterday. My bladder does not allow sleeping in like the rest of my body craves, so I crawled out of bed at 5 minutes to 8 and stopped at the window on the way. A quick peek and I felt somewhat deflated by the browns and greens greeting my eyes. Bummer, no snow! Why do they always do this to us? All the hype of snow and winter storm warnings and then nada! I crawled back into bed as the two little ones came prancing in, ready for the day! We finally got them both in bed between us to warm their frozen little toes(why can't I get them to wear socks in the house?). After a half hour of tickling, giggling(the kids, not us) and groaning(us, not the kids) Richard opened the blinds and what do you know....SNOW!!

And it was already sticking. Really cool and oh so pretty! The streets are covered, the rooftops are white as snow, the snow is falling down, up and sideways, at times it almost seems to hang in the air motionless, all Matrix-like! Now the big question looming in all our minds, will they cancel church today, I mean we don't go until 1:30 this afternoon and it could snow a whole lot more before then. I love church, I truly do, but a snow day is fun no matter the day and I find it to be a bonding experience to have everyone stuck in the house together with nowhere to go. So what is my problem then??

I can't seem to stop yelling. The kids are just bickering, its nothing major, yet I cannot control my urge to yell at them. "Joseph, that is Annalina's doggie house, not yours, give it back to her now, or you are going to take a nap!" "I asked you both to pick up balloons, so stop fighting over who has more" "Joseph, stop running into the Christmas Tree, you are going to knock it over!" Richard is sitting in his office shaking his head, and I think its more about MY behavior than the kids. I mean, they are kids. I am the MOM, I am supposed to show some self control and kindly correct my children in a loving and positive manner. Richard even turned on some lovely Christmas music, probably hoping to tame the wild beast(s). Remember my thoughts above about being stuck in the house together and the whole bonding thing? That will only happen if I can pull it together and stop ranting. I feel much better now, thanks for listening!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let it SNOW!!

Our forecast is looking pretty good right now. If all things line up as the weathermen are saying they will, we will have a white Sunday, and perhaps Monday! It is cold right now, very cold. I say we should turn up the heat, but Richard in his infinite wisdom pointed out, why would that make a difference? Its colder outside but if the heat setting stays the same, the inside will be as warm(or cold) as it always is. Hmmmm....my thinking is simply that if its THAT cold outside, we should have it be a bit warmer inside to compensate. Yeah, not so logical, but I do believe I feel colder just sitting watching the snow fall, it may be psychological, but hey, if I am cold, I am cold, right? So perhaps we will just bundle up really warm, or maybe I can talk Richard into a degree or two warmer, just while it snows! Either way, tomorrow will be hot cocoa weather! Yippee! There is nothing like the first snowfall, especially when it is the ONLY snowfall of the year, and especially when it is around Christmastime. Everything is so beautiful and we get to stay home together. It has a very nice feel to it.

Our day started with a frenzy to get ready for Annalina's Birthday party. I had some last minute things to get from the store and then the party started at 10am. We had about 15 kids here total. They got to decorate their loot bags, then we played some fun games. I am so grateful for the internet, I found lots of great games for this age group, and I never could have been creative enough to have figured these out on my own! First we played hit the target with the balloon. Each child got a deflated balloon. We placed a giant pillow in the middle of the living room floor and the kids went up to the landing on the stairs, blew up their balloons one at a time and let them go! They flew everywhere, but a few managed to hit the target. One try was not enough, they'd run downstairs, get their balloon and run back up to try again. It was fun to watch the
balloons flying all over!

After a while, Annalina found it fun to sit in the living room and be a target for balloon launchers!

Next each kid got a ball of yarn and tied the end around their waist. Then one at a time thy would throw it to someone else in the circle, over and over and over until they were a giant spider web of yarn. Very fun, though this would probably be a better game for kids a bit older, who are better at catching and throwing, but it was still really fun to watch!
Next Annalina opened gifts and then the kids decorated their cupcakes and ate them. Back to the games, I had blown up about 60 balloons the night before, small balloons and stuffed them in garbage sacks. So we had the kids lay down in the living room and Richard proceeded to dump the bags of balloons down on the from the landing. They had to use their feet to keep the balloons up in the air. When that was over we divided into 3 teams and one person put on a large sweatshirt of Richards. When we said go, the rest of the teammates had to stuff as many balloons as possible into that sweatshirt, the kids looked like little hunchback balloon creatures! I love the photos Adrienne was able to get. The best score was 12 balloons. This game was so fun, we played it again until it was time to go, this time one team got 17 balloons in there. The kids left in droves and we were left with ballooons everywhere!

We alternate birthday parties one year and a nice family dinner the next, this keeps us from partying every other month! But Annalina really wanted a birthday party again this year. Part of the deal for haing a birthday party this year was that Annalina's only other gift from us would be a trip to the Build a Bear store. So after the party Richard and I took her to Washington Square(big mistake on a Saturday at Christmastime-parking was insane!)and she picked out a big husky dog whom she named Jake. We stopped at the asian food market on the way home and for dinner Richard prepared a wonderful Sushi meal for us. Jake went to a movie with a friend and Adrienne was off babysitting, so it was just the four of us. Richard and I are very blessed with adventurous eaters. Annalina and Joseph both LOVE sushi and can really put it away. Taking them out can be VERY expensive since they will not just eat the cheap California rolls and edamame anymore. They have exotic tastes and love to try new things. So to save money we got our own stuff and had a wonderful meal of home made sushi! Yum!! It looks like there will be enough to fix more tomorrow! Awesome! Can you think of anything better than sitting watching the snow fall with a plate full of sushi? Perhaps a mug of hot cocoa, but there will be time for that too!!

Happy Holidays from the Loomis Elves!

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Thanksgiving Festivities

Well we had a lovely Thanksgiving this year. Everyone came to our house! We had a HUGE turkey, thanks to dad teaching Richard how its done. Everyone pitched in and brought things. I did mashed potatoes and green bean casserole and an orange jello salad. Megan made awesome homemade rolls and a delectable chocolate pecan pie, Beth made her quick disappearing deviled eggs and Grandma Frederick's yummy layered desert, Marella brought veggies and ham rollups, they went fast too. Mom brought stuffing, yams, jello salad and made the gravy(hers is so yummy). It was a ton of food! We had lots of leftovers and usually the tradition is everyone comes back the next day for seconds. But alas, no one came back, so we ate some Friday and Saturday and froze the rest of the turkey. I will make a soup this weekend probably.

After dinner Jeremy brought in his XBOX 360 and we played Rock Band. Everyone took turns on the instruments and with the singing, I am pretty sure everyone got a chance to sing, including Mom and Dad. It was very fun! The younger kids spent most of their time playing upstairs, or in the front room. But Joseph was desperate for the chance to play the drums. He kept failing, so we finally unplugged the drums from the game and let him do a song that way, and the other kids gave that a try too. Then he was satisfied and enjoyed watching everyone else, for the most part. Jake is a natural at the Rock Band guitar and Adrienne is a great drummer! Megan's belly did not keep her from playing those guitars! Richard even got really good at the drums, they are really hard and no one but he, Adrienne and Jeremy would play them! Anyway, we played for hours and it was wild and crazy fun!

I am thankful for my family and grateful we got to spend Thanksgiving with everyone!! As well as being a holiday, this was a special day for my parent's. They celebrated their 40th anniversary! Way to go Mom and Dad! Glad we could spend your special day with you!!

Dad gives singing a shot. Wait, is Dan plugging his ears in the backgroung? :-)

Adrienne and Dan getting ready to rock out!

My adorable pregnant sister Megan holding nephew Zachary

Joseph had some fun hanging out with Grandpa Frederick!

Jake's crazy schedule

First I want to start off by congratulating Jake for his awesome Cross Country season. Last night we went to a Banquet in honor of the entire team. Jake lettered as a freshman and we are all so proud of him! His coach explained that at his first time trial Jake did the 5K in just under 29 minutes. By the end of the season, he was bettering his time just about every meet and ended with 19 minutes. Pretty impressive shaving off 10 minutes over just a couple months time. I cannot wait to see how he does as the years go on. By the time he is a senior, I imagine he will be even faster! A couple of weeks ago he tried out for the Glencoe freshman basketball team. He has been looking forward to this for a long time now and has been practicing and staying in shape. Well, sadly he was cut from the team and was devastated for a day or two. My heart broke for him and the mom in me wanted to rush over to the school and explain that he was nervous at tryouts, but he is so skilled, they simply cannot pass him up this year! But the mom in me also knows when to back off and simply offer him my support. So I signed him up with the Hillsboro Youth League and he is now on a team and starting practice next week. As if that is not enough, he also volunteered to be the manager of the Varsity Basketball team for Glencoe. This should be good for him since he will be at all the practices and games and will get to see what goes on at the Varsity level. He will be staying very busy between the two, but Jake seems to thrive when he is busy! I love the Hillsboro Youth Basketball league. Last year was such a great experience for Jake. He had a wonderful coach, Mr Brauer. He is the welding teacher at Glencoe and Jake is in his class this year and loves him. Anyway, he is a wonderful coach and worked very hard with Jake who had only started playing basketball on his team. He was new to the sport, but as is typical of Jake, he took it on and gave it all he could. He had a great team of boys. I went to just about every game and watching him play is really better than being front row at a Blazers game. Towards the end of the season Jake got especially good at rebounds, due to his height and newly developed skills. He would get the ball and keep shooting till he got it in there. Early in the season it might take three of four rebounds to get it in, but that improved as the season went on. He also got fowled a lot and got pretty good at the free throw line. The coach was really good about giving everyone fair play time. He rotated them out on a regular basis. His team did not win a lot of games early on. Towards the end of the season he started asking the boys if they wanted a good shot at winning. Halfway through the game he asked the boys if they wanted to leave Jake in to rebound, or if they wanted to rotate regularly. Every single boy wanted to leave Jake in. So the rest of the boys rotated around Jake and he played the majority of those last games. His coach would pull him out for about 30 seconds to get a drink and then put him right back in, when they huddled for a time out, he told Jake to sit on the bench and catch his breath. He played exceptionally well, making up to half the points for his team during the games. One game they were down by a basket, Jake made the basket, but got fowled. He made the free throw, winning the game for his team. For a mother of a boy who was so challenged early in life, this was especially incredible and moving for me. Jake became a star in the eyes of many people. My eyes tear up just remembering, so I am very much looking forward to this season and hope it can be as positive an experience as last year. I know it will be great for Jacob! My dad has been taking Jake to practice in the church gym. He was a star player on his high school team and it is a neat bond between the two of them. Dad helps Jake with things I wouldn't know a thing about! He also came to a lot of Jake's games last year. Megan and Jeremy and kids even got to come to some. Though he may not show it, this support really means a lot to Jake. Thanks guys!!

Last Years Game Pictures, compliments of Richard the photographer

He shoots, he scores!!

Look at the height Jake can get when he jumps!!

I was wrong....

I only have THREE(not six) more classes until I am officially on Christmas break for a month. That is the good news, the bad is that all three are huge exams. I have my section three lecture exam next Tuesday, my section three lab exam on Thursday of next week and then the following Tuesday is the comprehensive final.

I have found a distinct pattern to my attitude of learning. At the beginning of each new section I feel overwhelmed and I tend to mentally freak out a bit. I start to question whether I have what it takes to be a nurse, or even if I have what it takes to get through the prerequisite's. As the classes go by, I start to understand theory and how things work, and although the details aren't always clear in my mind, the fog starts to lift. By the time the exams come along, I feel fairly confident, but I study like crazy for a few days before. This has worked well for me thus far, but I do wish I could skip the panicked questioning phase. I also wish I had a bit more time between upcoming exams to study for the next. I am grateful for the Thanksgiving break and will be using a lot of that to study!

Milk, glorious milk...

Joseph has been off milk products for a couple of months and it has been really hard on him. He loves yogurt and he loves cheese and he loves just plain milk! The Dr office advised me to keep him off of milk, since it seemed to help with his hive breakouts. I decided I wanted to know for sure so this last week I took Joseph in to see the Allergist. He was tested for milk as well as milk proteins and it came up negative. He does NOT have an allergy to milk! Yippee! Apparently the hives coming and going away in relation to milk product consumption was just coincidental and not related to what he was eating. I am so relieved. So we came right home and he at a cup of yogurt, his favorite!! No more breakouts! I am so glad I did not listen to my Dr and just assume it was milk. I cannot imagine keeping him from eating dairy for an extended period of time when there was really no problem!

Veteran's Day Fun!

Ok, so Veteran's day was a couple weeks back, but I enjoyed it immensely this year. When I was in school as a child, it always meant a day off from school, yippee. Now as an adult, I understand that this day is so much more. With all the soldiers serving our country, many in other countries, and with a husband who served in the Army, I have come to respect this day far more. But this year it was special for both reasons, I also got a day off from school! Yippee! And the kids were home, as well as Richard.

Well Annalina spent the day celebrating her daddy. She made her own American flags and colored them, complete with the right amount of stripes and we made him Caramel Corn, and she made up songs about him because she truly wanted to celebrate his military service. She is very grateful that he survived being a solider. Let me explain her sweet thoughts on this subject. Last year in Kindergaren she told the kids in her class that her daddy was in the army. They asked if he was dead, and she said no. Several of them refused to beleive her because if he was really a soldier in the army he would not be alive right now. Could it be a misconception of many kids these days that to serve in the army means to give your life for your counry...ALWAYS? So it would seem. Luckily Richard went to school twice during "transportation" week, sharing both his motorcycle and Rover, so the kids could see that he really was alive!

While discussing Veteran's Day with her friends this year, she brought up her dad's service in the army, and again many kids would not beleive her. So Veteran's Day was a great reason for celebrating this year. It was sweet how Annalina made it such a special day for Richard. And we are all very grateful that he survived his military experience and we love to hear his stories!

It's been a while...

Remember my post about my bad luck? Well the T on my keyboard keeps sticking, making posting updates on our lives a little more time consuming! I keep going back and finding words with missing T's, sorry about that. Oh well. It has also been a very busy couple of weeks for us. There has been much going on, but I have had little time to write about it all. I just hope I can remember the important things now!

School is challenging, but I am still enjoying it very much. I only have six more classes, the last three of which are huge exams. Luckily I have Thanksgiving off and will have extra time to study. We are working on the muscular system. It is all very complicated and amazing! I still have an A in this class, and hope I can keep it through the last three exams. Early on I tried to tell myself that a B would be ok, but have since learned that the program is so competitive that it is really hard to get into without straight A's. So I spend a lot of time studying and so far it is working!

Tekronix has gone through another round of layoffs. Sadly Richard's group has shrunk again and the three of them that are left and now responsible for 24 hour monitoring of the data center, which lost ALL of its employees. Richard figures he has about six months of job security, which really is not very long at all. It is stressful for him at work now, and the worries do not end when he comes home at night. Big change is coming for us, but I know that whatever happens, we will be led to where we need to be. It is so comforting to have the gospel in our lives and to be able to turn to the Lord for comfort when things become so insecure. I recently read a book which said that life is full of challenges. It is how we respond to those challenges that is important. We are truly learning to see things in a better light. Rather than lamenting over the challenges sent our way, we can view them as a learning and a growing experience.

My sister Megan recently recommended the book "Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey. I read it in one evening, staying up until 2am to finish it. I highly recommend this book to everyone, no matter the stage of life you are in. It is all about getting out of debt, budgeting, and being prepared for college funds, financial emergencies and retirement. I was impressed by the steps he sets forth to become financially fit. I told Richard about it and he read it too, only taking a few days to finish. Due to our current predicament, the ideas in this book have come along at a great time. Aside from our house, we are not hugely in debt, our cars are paid for, but we do not have an overabundance of savings right now, that is for sure. We have set a monthly budget, and are sticking to it. We have started making weekly menus and buying only exactly what we need for those meals. We do not go out to eat or spend money on things we don't absolutely need. We dress in layers and have not turned the heat on except for a couple of times so far this fall. Gas prices have fallen, and this has saved us a LOT on our gas budget. To build up our emergency fund, we have been selling things we don't use or need anymore on Craig's list. Richard and I are working together towards something we truly believe in and it is working. It is not always easy, but it is very rewarding to see the results even after just a few weeks.

Now that I have talked about being responsible with our money, I have to admit we splurged, Richard took me to see Twilight, the movie. I read the series last year and really enjoyed it and was very excited to see the movie. We hit the matinee and skipped the popcorn, so it was somewhat affordable. We went to Cornelius theaters, and even though it was the first Saturday after release, there were only about a dozen of us there. It was nice not to be sitting elbow to elbow with strangers! It was fun and Richard even liked the movie! He probably won't read the books, and that is just fine. I am happy to be able to share the movies with him! I have heard from a few people that they were disappointed by the movie, but I really loved it! It was worth the wait, and I am looking forward to the next few movies!

I am looking foward to Thanksgiving, which is just around the corner. We are having it here at our house this year for the first time ever. We will have 9 adults and ten kids here. We have been working hard to get the play areas cleaned up and ready for major activity! I am looking foward to the long weekend with family! Richard will be on call this week, at least we won't have to leave him home alone for the big feast!

Grandma Frederick's Microwave Caramel Corn

When I was younger my Grandma Frederick used to make us caramel corn when we came to visit. It was so yummy! I suppose since grandma was so traditional in her cooking, I was always shocked to see she made it in the microwave! She gave us the recipe and we tried making it at home. It worked for us too and I LOVED that recipe. Well its been years since I have had Grandma's microwave caramel corn and I don't even know what has become of the recipe. On a whim I googled it and what do you know...you really can find just about anything on the web. We will be making this soon with the kids and hopefully they will like it as much as I did when I was little. The only difference in this recipe is that we made the caramel coating in a pot on the stove, but I suppose you can do it this way too. It will be fun to try out!

Next time you go to the grocery store, ask for your groceries in paper bags. You'll need one bag per batch.
3-4 quarts popped corn
1 stick of butter (no substitutes!)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup Karo Syrup
1 tsp baking soda - add last
Pop the corn and discard the unpopped kernels. Put the popped corn in the paper sack. While the corn is popping, put the butter, sugar, salt and syrup in a glass bowl and bring it to a boil in your microwave. Stir after one minute, and let it boil for an additional minute. Add one tsp of baking soda and stir well, until thickened. It will turn light in color and look like taffy. Pour this mixture over the popped corn in the paper bag and shake well. Put the paper bag back in the microwave and cook an additional 1-1/2 minutes (90 seconds). Remove and shake well again. Return to the microwave and cook another 1-1/2 minutes. Shake again. Open the bag and let it cool. You can even tear the bag down the side and speed up the process.

Me and my bad luck...

So I wrote about my laptop crashing early in October. Well lucky for me it was under warranty and Dell sent out a new hard drive asap, Richard installed it and that was that. Great, except now they want the old one back! I have about 1100 photos on the old broken hard drive, many of them from our long family vacation this summer. I also did a lot of digital scrapbook pages on that computer, and no, I had not had a chance to print them up yet. We can have a professional recover the data for us, but it will not be cheap. How do you put a price on something like that? I may have to save up for a while and eventually have it done, I just hope Dell will be patient with the return of the drive! I adore my husband. When I asked him his opinion on the subject he mentioned how many potential scrapbook opportunities would be lost if we do not try to get the date back! And he was being serious! Awwww....what a guy!

My computer drama does not end there. A couple weeks ago my nice big flat screen monitor on my work computer stopped working. It just went blank and Richard checked it out and confirmed that its time had come! So sad! Luckily we had a spare small monitor sitting around unused and so I plugged it in and was back in business. Its much smaller, but at that point I was just grateful to be able to use my computer again! You might think that would be the end of it. But alas, I have a new found unluckiness with technology. This weekend while using my computer the small monitor also just flicked off. Now what are the chances? Is it really true that bad things happen in threes? If so, am I done with computer issues? Well we still do not have it in our budget for a new monitor, so I am accessing my computer with the laptop with a nifty connection my husband set up for me. It is not easy doing all my work on a laptop, but again, I am feeling very grateful that this is an option! What would I do without my computer! Perhaps that is not even a question I should be posing!

Anyway, I have been posting photos on the blog like crazy lately, you may have noticed the sheer volume of them! More than usual. Well this is because the only photos I have from May on are the ones I posted here to share with all of you, the rest are trapped on a broken hard drive awaiting rescue! I am so happy to have these at least, and while this is not the solution for data backup, its nice to know they are here, just in case! If anyone has trouble getting the pages to load due to the many photos on them, please let me know!

Halloween Happenings

It was a busy week here at the Loomis house. Lot's of fun things going on! I already posted about the Pumpkin patch on Monday, well on Tuesday evening we carved our pumpkins. Wednesday night was the annual church Trunk or Treating event with a fair in the church afterwards. Megan and Jeremy brought their kids over to join us. There were lots of games, facepainting, hot dogs and home made root beer. There was also a spook alley which Jake had a large part in. We waiting in line for about 20 minutes, and when they opened the door to let us in, poor little Nate saw the strobe light and would not go in. So Jeremy and I took the girls and Joseph through. They sent word to set the scare factor to low and so it was not too bad. In the last section Jake was sitting under black plastic bags with his head sticking out. It looked like a floating head. He really scared Annalina, but he wasn't trying to. She was just expecting the worst. She cried when we got out and I said jokingly that I was going to ground Jake for scaring her. She said, "no mommy, don't ground Jake, its ok!" So it was a fun filled evening for the most part. Sadly Richard was training at his new second job and was not able to attend with us. Next year!!

Thursday was preschool day for Joseph, he got to wear his costume and they made cookies, then went trick or treating around Glencoe to the classrooms. He had a great time and got to play at Alec's house for an hour after preschool. This was nice since I had my second HUGE test in A&P that night. I studied and studied all week long and once again I got a 92%. This was a good boos for me since on Tuesday we had a quiz and I did NOT do well at all. We get to drop the worst quiz score and that will be the dropped score for me!

It rained most of the day on Friday. I dropped Joseph off with Megan in the morning and went to open lab to study for the practical lab test on Tuesday. It felt good to have a couple solid hours to study on my own. Richard had the day off from Tek and went to Best Buy for more training. With the change in day light savings time, it stayed light much later than usual on Halloween night. It is usually dark by 5:15 or so and that is when we go out trick or treating. Luckily it stopped raining late in the afternoon and was dry by evening. But by 5:30 n0 one was out yet, so we waited until 6PM and off we went. We went to the neighbors houses and then saw daddy come home on his motorcycle and went back to get him. We went through the rest of the neighborhood with him. We went to a house that always goes ALL out with decor, a bit scarier than I prefer with a horror scene and lots of fog. Anyway, the kids were fine with that, but one of their older kids was dressed as a skeleton and as we were leaving he started chasing Joseph, and Joseph really ran, he was terrified and the boy didn't stop. So I had to grab Joseph and say, "that's enough". The rest of the night Joseph was watching for the Skeleton. He was pretty scared until Richard reminded him he was a Viking and had a battle ax. He told Joseph that if he saw that skeleton coming he could wack him with the ax. OK, I don't advocate violence and Joseph could not do any damage with that plastic ax, but it made him feel much better to know he could "protect" himself. After a while, he was asking to go back to look for the skeleton. ::sigh:: Annalina dressed up as Snow White, for which she got many comments. Her hair is dark and short right now, she looked a LOT like Snow White, especially with her pink rosy cheeks!

After a while we caught up with some of my friends from our playgroup. Joseph had fun with Jake and Abe, but shortly thereafter Annalina declared she was done, so we headed home. I asked if she wanted to stop at any houses along the way, but no, she was done and that was that. She has always been like that though. Once she gets tired she is done! When we got home Jake was watching the Blazers game and was glad to be relieved from passing out candy. Joseph decided he would take over and he sat in a chair at the front window with the bowl of candy in his lap. When kids came to the door, he would give them their candy, with me supervising of course. When we turned off the lights at 8pm, he was sad, until we told him it was time to play with his candy! The kids got to bed late that night, but it was a very Happy Halloween!

Every year after carving the pumpkins we sort the seeds and roast them. Richard gets very creative with the seasonings. We always do a batch of garlic flavored, Lawry's seasoning salt, and a lemon pepper flavor. In the past we have also tried wasabi(it turned out really good) and teriyaki flavored. Anyway, at church we have an email group for the women where we can let each other know about good deals, or request something we might be needing, or give away things we don't use anymore. Its a great way to stay connected. So I posted that if anyone had pumpkin seeds they weren't using, to let me know! Well Thursday, Jannamarie stopped by with a huge bag of sorted pumpkin seeds. She had just been to the school and the entire 3rd grade had carved pumpkins that day, so she kept the seeds for me. WOW! There were a ton so Friday and Saturday I roasted seeds! Such fun!