tick...tick...tick

Still no puppies. Maybe she's not pregnant after all. heehee

I'm heading out of town today. A friend and I are heading off to the Lang Company for their annual Christmas sale. Neither of has ever been, but it should be a good time. I've heard great things.

Christmas is coming...the goose is getting fat

The Christmas season for us is almost starting. I have gotten shopping done, there are a couple cookie exchanges to go to, music is playing in the stores. But it truly hasn't started for us. Not yet.

I am always looking for a way to take the emphasis off of gifts and back onto the real reason for the season. This year we are dong the Jesse Tree. We are finishing up making the ornaments and the tree, we have our schedule figured out, and on Dec 1 we will start. The kids are excited.

We are also going to do the secret person thing this year. I am excited to see how the kids figure out how to bless there secret friend.

It's coming fast.

Paradise update

How bad is this. It's been nearly a week from my last post. It's not that I haven't been in Blogittyville. I have. It's just that I haven't brought myself to the point of posting.

So, Allie still has not had her puppies. Ok, I don't know if I posted that she was pregnant when we took her in. We knew she was pregnant. Yes, we are that stupid. Anyhoo, we have been on puppy watch since Saturday. That is when the signs appeared that it could be anytime. She REALLY bagged up, there is discharge (yuck), her energy level has dropped, and her food consumption has decreased. And yet no puppies. They are kicking up a storm inside, but apparently they are not done with their little womb party yet.

In other news I spent the weekend after thanksgiving trying to get most of my Christmas shopping done. I did finish the extended family on both sides, and most of the kid gifts. I had a little extra shopping to do this year and nearly got that finished up too. I have some more shopping to do, but not much. At least that part is done.

The kids put up the tree already. I had told them that we were not going to put up the tree this year since I couldn't figure out where to put it. With the new pellet stove, there is really not that much room on the main floor, and I am too lazy to take the time to put it up so no one will see it. So, Knight told the kids if they really wanted it, they could do it themselves in the basement. And they did. The tree looks great. They put it in the middle of the room so they can dance around it, something they have wanted to do for years.

That's all the news in our corner of the world. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. We sure did.

Please Pray

As we are getting ready to spend the day concentrating on what we are thankful for others are hurting. There is a family in particular. This will explain. I'll just let you know that this is not the first time these parents have to bury a son. Good guy or not, these people are hurting. I know because he was a friend of my sisters family. As you remember your blessings, if you could please pray for this family. I don't know them, but I just can't imagine.

Blessings to all

This time of Year...

Here in Northern Wisconsin, it is really not Thanksgiving week, but gun season. This is when all you see is blaze orange, guns, and deer carcasses at every gas station. It's hunting time.

In this house, we don't hunt. Not that we are against it, just don't want to take the time and money to go sit and freeze in the woods hoping to get something. Everyone seems to hunt though. We had our pellet stove hooked up today and the contractor came at 10am since he was in the woods this morning.

I was making dinner tonight and listening to the radio. THE song came on. So in honor of the real reason for the season I bring to you hunting in Wisconsin.
Turdy Point Buck
Turdy Point Buck II (Da Sequel)

Monday Update

Readers Digest have all been taken. I've spent the day working at my desk. I have the first draft of the Christmas letter done. It's been a productive day. Since I have little to say I will leave you with a few laughs. As I was reading Toni's blog, she reminded me of some recordings that make me laugh each time I listen to them. Enjoy--

1--A witness

2--Messing with Telemarketer (you may want to censor this one a little)

3--Great prank.

Readers Digest....

3 subscriptions gone, 2 left. If you want it, hurry!

Readers Digest Anyone????

I am re-subscribing to Readers Digest at a really great price and for doing so, I have 5 gift subscriptions to give away. If you want one, PLEASE let me know by leaving a comment or an email. My email is on my sidebar. I will be sending it out by Wednesday or earlier if the subscriptions are filled. The first 5 to respond gets the subscriptions. Speak up people!!!

The sweetest man

The other night Knight and I were talking about blogging. He had mentioned that he wouldn't mind having his own blog, but he wouldn't post as much. I then told him about the different types of blogs. We were talking about what would suit him better, what he would enjoy writing, what he has to say, etc.

He then informed me that he would be happy to set up a blog.

As long as he could sit on the couch and I would bring him the laptop.

Excuse me?!?!

And then he let me know he was only thinking of me.

He is trying to help me get rewards in heaven and therefore giving me an opportunity to serve.

AWWW! What a sweet man. He is always thinking of others.

*for those who don't know us, this was said in a joking manner. He really isn't a j*rk.*

Undeserved Awards

Toni over at In the Midst of This Season has chosen to award me the Mathetes Award.

This award originated with Dan King over at Management
by God, who states, "Mathetes is the Greek word for disciple, and the role
of the disciple (per the Great Commission) is to make more disciples. The role
of a disciple of Christ is to carry His message to the ends of the earth. It is
with this heart that I have created the Mathetes Award."Those who receive it are
to pass it on to other disciples who are sharing the good news in their own
bloggity ways.

Here are the rules: Winners of this award to pass this on to five other
"disciples". As you pass it on, I just ask that you mention and provide links
for(1)the originator of the award (Dan King of management
by God), (2) the person that awarded it to you, and then (3) name the sites
of those you believe are fulfilling the role of a disciple of Christ.

I will be honest, I struggled whether or not to even accept this award for a couple of reasons. First, this blog was not intended to create disciples or specifically to point people to Christ. I know I talk about my faith at times but not for the purpose of creating disciples. I am just sharing my life.

The other reason is because I am only generally sharing the more positive side of my life. I am not sharing my deepest hurts, burdens, struggles. When I hijacked this blog (the original intent was just to keep family updated on our lives) I made a decision that it was going to be a more upbeat blog. I had gone to some blogs and they had humor, but it was more whiny humor. I wanted to have something that was the positive side of life, even with humor. But I have not been transparent. I have only really shared one side of the picture.

So, when she gave me this award I knew this is not something I really deserve. I contemplated what to do. Then I realized something. It is not really me she is awarding it to anyway. If I have shared His truth, it was because of Him. If He is shining through me, then people are seeing Him. I am nothing. I struggle to have the faith of a mustard seed. If there has been any good shared, it is not me, it's Him.

So with that being said, I will pass this award on. Toni would have been one that I would have automatically thought of as deserving this award, but these others have each encouraged me in their own way and for that I will recognize their part sharing His truth with me and others.

Melody at Slurping Life

Karen at For Such a time as Now

Amy at Laughing Through the Tears

**Announcement**

I need to apologize for the lack of posts lately. Things again have become crazy busy and this time there is a valid reason for it. Yeah, I know, school, church functions, awana, visiting, and all of the normal things can be valid excuses but this time is for real.

I received a phone call from someone looking for help. She had knowledge of and had a burden for this precious, sweet little girl that was currently without a home. This friend is not in the position to bring her into her family at this time, even though she and her whole family would love to be a huge part of her life, they just couldn't. And since she knew that I can never say no to those who actually need help she called me.

That was on Friday.

I said that I really didn't think that adding to my family would be best at this time.

Then on Saturday I went just to meet her. The kids instantly fell in love. She really IS the sweetest thing. I called Knight. He told me to go ahead and bring her home.

So now we have added to our family. At least for now.

We don't know if it is a temporary placement or if she will become a permanent part of our family but for now we are a family of 7.

Her name is Allie. For those who know our real names....say her name along with our last name. It will make you smile.

Where am I?

I got a call the other day from a friend asking how I'm doing. I told her what has been going on in my life (that doesn't make it to the blog) and she updated me on her life. We talked about how schooling is going for both of us (she's a homeschooler too), her recent trip, and just the general shooting the breeze. We also tried to figure out a time to get together.

We live 10 minutes from each other and go to the same church.

How sad is that? She made the commment that it seems that as soon as the school year starts we homeschoolers become antisocial. I agree.

In the summer I do see a variety of people often. Ok, generally it's whoever shows up to the pool but I do see other people. During the school year it's a completely new set of people.

I don't mean it that way, and others have made the comment in the past that I drop off the face of the earth when the school year starts, but I guess that is the way it turns out every year.

So, if you are wondering where I have gone...it's school time again. Next summer we can get reaquainted.

Wordless Wednesday

Product Review

I had mentioned a few weeks ago that we were using a new product in our house. I have decided I am going to openly discuss it. We bought a bed wetting alarm. I had thought about buying it off and on but decided that the kid was old enough to give it a try.

We had tried waking him up in the middle of the night to go, limiting drinks in the evening, but we were still dealing with GoodNights sleep pants. This child had 3 dry nights in 7 years. To be honest, I didn't hold a lot of hope out for this alarm thing either but thought it was worth a shot.

The first couple nights the alarm went off and he didn't wake up. The alarm beeps, vibrates, has a little light and yet he didn't hear or feel it. He did stop peeing but that was a natural reaction to all the alarm thing. I would pull him to his feet, shut the alarm off, have him go, then tell him to change, hook it back up and he'd go to bed. In the morning he wouldn't remember anything.

The third night he was dry. And the fourth. And the fifth.

On the sixth night the alarm went off again.

It has gone off once since then and this time he heard it himself and got up.

We are still using it. They recommend you use it for a good month of dry nights with no accidents at all.

This morning he came down complaining he was tired. He let me know he woke up 3 times in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.

Miracles do happen. WooHoo!!!

Wrapped Emotions Extended Version...

So, I quickly finished the table good enough to post about it and actually had another layer of polyurethane stuff (the really thick stuff) to put on it but I figured it was close enough to being done. I had put the first layer of poly on it but the next layer I wanted to get right to the edges but unsure on how to do it, I put it off. I finally figured out a way that I thought it would work.

Well...it didn't work the way I had hoped. I had found an edging that wrapped around the corners well and I tightly put it on the table and poured the poly on. Not only did it not stay in the edging, but it started pouring onto the floor. P-O-U-R-I-N-G. Me, not being so prepared for this did not have something on my floors. So quickly I grabbed some old newspaper, lay it on the floor all around the table and kept working. Yeah, so it all poured onto the newspaper, but the edging did hold it long enough for it to get a decent layer around the edge of the table. I walked away for a while just so it could have a chance to set a little. When I came back, I realized that it was coming off of the newspaper.

Not that I really care about the carpet. We plan on redoing it eventually anyway, but I don't really need a whole lot of poly all over my kitchen floor. Yeah, you read that right. The previous owners carpeted the kitchen. Grrr!

So, after the table stopped dripping, I cleared the newspaper while keeping the table in place so it could completely dry. I waited, and waited, and waited. I realize now I must not have mixed the poly well enough since it is still sticky almost 2 weeks later.

The adventure doesn't end there. Oh, no it doesn't.

I put this table near a door we rarely use. But because my kids cooked bacon on a pizza stone (one with no sides) I had bacon grease in the bottom of my stove. So now it's time to clean the stove.

No, not with stove cleaner. Are you crazy? Just my automatic oven cleaning thing. You know, the one that just starts the whole thing on fire until everything becomes ash? Yeah, I'm that lazy.

Well, you have never seen a stove smoke like when there is a layer of bacon grease in the bottom of it. Smoke everywhere. Choking, eyes burning, everything. So I opened the kitchen windows, the front door, and then went to open the door in the kitchen just to help get the air moving. That means moving the table.

The table is now heavy. But this extra layer of poly seemed to make it extra heavy. Or I'm becoming a wimp. Then I realize I have polyed the table to the carpet. And it aint coming up. No siree. I try a couple times. Nope. Nothing.

Last night, Knight and the kids moved the table. The pulled, ripped, and cut. Finally the table is free. It has a couple battle scars. There is carpet attached to the bottom of one leg, and a hole in my carpet where my table had been.

Halloween

Ok, bad blogger that I have been, there has been reason. And I will tell you since I need every excuse for why I haven't dragged my fingers to the keyboard and got to posting. First, since the kids are technically public school students via virtual school we are subject to the state standardized testing. Four days of testing, a couple hours each day, and limited time to get it done has taken some of the days. Being a moron who decides to sew costumes a week before Halloween means being busier than normal at home. Add to that our normal schedule of AWANA, church, band, having company over, and school it makes for busy weeks.

Halloween was fun. We had some other kids over to help hand out treats and for Korean food. The kids were SO excited. I can't tell you how many times we heard "trick or treaters coming!" screamed in excited kid voices. It was so fun to try to guess what all the costumes were. It's funny, so many people act like they think we are so mean for not letting our kids trick or treat, but they don't see how much fun our kids still have without it. I made all the kids Indian costumes since they can wear them on Halloween, Thanksgiving, and "Pilgrim and Indian night" at church. (yes, I make my kids wear the same ones more than once!) Rara was given a feather boa by Knight so she can be a high society Indian. As the quiet one in our family he felt that she is sometimes not given as much attention as due her, so he thought he'd treat her by making her costume different. Such a sweet thought!

Off to get some stuff done. It is office day, school, and a class on watercolor painting.

No rest for the weary!!!