Winter's a comin'

Are you ready? They're predicting a good size storm starting tonight into tomorrow. At first, I was a bit skeptical because they do this to us all the time but now I'm starting to believe that we might actually have a good old fashioned storm. Mentally, I'm ready for this. We need some snow to get into the Christmas spirit. (Also, some good cold weather to kill off all the germs hanging around) But physically, we don't have a snow blower!!!! Dave checked on one Monday from LOVE but it has to finish getting fixed. Ahhh - and he will be working this weekend. So who does that leave to clean the driveway? Maybe, this will just turn into an ice storm and not as much snow. We'll know by tomorrow. So get out those scrapers, boots and gloves along with your hot chocolate and logs for the fireplace. Enjoy the season!

Time with Dad

Shaelyn loves it when Dave is home during the day. All we hear is, "want to play a game, Dad?"
We were playing a game called "10" Sunday night with Grandpa. She wanted to play too. We tried to explain that she was too little yet to play this game. She insisted on helping Dave. She started to catch on to this game. He had to leave during one of the hands and so she played it for him. Now, she's playing it by herself against him. They usually only start with 7 cards but she knows what she's doing. And she's quite lucky at it too because she beat him yesterday and today. He still was on 5 today when he lost.

Birthday fun

Here are some pictures of Shaelyn celebrating birthday fun. First, she is with her Cinderella birthday cake. Yes, I know, she looks quite tan but that was the only flesh color I had. Next is her birthday cookies that we made to take to school for her birthday treats. You bake cookies with a stick in them and then decorate with frosting and m&m's. I thought they turned out pretty cute. I know these pictures are a little dated but you know the problems I've been having with this blog. So better late than never, I figure.

Christmas decorations

Wow, it's Christmas time again. We finished decorating the house and tree today. Dave still has to finish doing the outside lights but should be able to finish tomorrow when the weather's nice. The girls are still working on their rooms. They also like to put lights and who knows what else up in their rooms. It is fun to see all the Christmas decorations. We went out for supper tonight and drove around afterwards. There were a lot of decorations out there already. We wanted to drive around "peanut", "almond" "walnut" and "beechnut" drives to look for blue lights but ran out of time. Hopefully, later we'll be able to spot out those areas. I just LOVE those blue lights. We also had a great Thanksgiving Day. Hope you all did too.

Thanksgiving is a Comin'

Tomorrow will be Thanksgiving Day - I emphasize Thanksgiving, not turkey day. That's a pet peeve of mine. I hate it when people say it's turkey day. I realize that Americans have much to be thankful for and I know that we all take it for granted. It's always good to stop and remember all that we have. Some things I'm thankful for are my family, both immediate and extended, Dave having a job right now and not being laid off, my church, good health for my family and myself (although I'm ready to get rid of this cold) but really, we have no serious sicknesses, my country - even when I don't always like the way things are done here, I believe we live in the best country in the world, and my faith in Jesus. There's no easier (and of course, no other) way to get to heaven except through faith in Him.
As a family, we're heading to church in the morning. I do love Thanksgiving service. Chelsea and I will both be playing in the full orchestra tomorrow. I love it when we have a full group - the singing is awesome. Then we're heading over to my Dad's to celebrate with the whole family. Friday will start the Christmas season for us - with the setting up of the Christmas tree.
PS - by the way, I've officially become a "Grandma" today. Katelyn came home with her "baby" from school. I'm babysitting now. I think the teacher set this baby on crabby mode because it's cried 3 times already for me today and I thought it was only supposed to cry every 3 hours. You have to put a key in and hold it until it coos. Earlier, I held it for about 10 minutes. Just now, Chelsea and I took turns and it took about 15 minutes! You'll all get to see your new niece and cousin tomorrow. Shayanna is just adorable. Katelyn will have fun taking care of her in church tomorrow too. I think she'll be sitting in the back row!

Happy Birthday, Shaelyn

It was Shaelyn's birthday on Saturday. She turned 4 years old! Can you believe it? I can't. I still remember waiting to get the referral and being in China 3 years ago. It hardly seems possible that now you are going to school and learning so much. How boring our family would be without this extra little addition. (Actually, it would probably be a little quieter too) Hope you had a fun day turning 4. We love you lots!

Hopefully, now

Alright people, I just got an email about switching my blog to beta. I'm trying it. I've tried posting like 3 different times this week and it didn't work so I'm trying now and hopefully will be able to put stuff up about Shaelyn's birthday. Later!!!

Alert - Chelsea's on the Road!

Chelsea passed her drivers training class on Thursday so we are headed to the Secretary of State office tonight. She's very excited to get her permit and show me her driving skills. I'm not sure if I feel the same way?!! I can hardly believe that she is old enough to be driving yet. It seems as though I have just finished this with Katelyn (and still am nervous about her sometimes). I know it's a big step for these kids. So be prepared - she's on the go! Congrats, Chelsea!

Exhaustion

We've returned home from our day of shopping. What a lot of fun we had. We managed to hit a lot of stores. It was already busy. I think people are starting to shop earlier every year. (How dare they invade our time & space!) We had a nice extra guest share lunch with us. Later, we hit the Olive Garden for supper. Yummy! Then it started to rain. What a pain! Then there were the looks when we checked into the hotel. We loaded all of our packages onto the cart to make the two trips necessary to get them all in. It does get somewhat embarrassing. There was a lot of laughter when we were trying to get to sleep. And speaking of sleep - I didn't get much of it. Cheri was continually waking me up and harassing me all night long. I may have to take a nap this afternoon. In spite of all these problems, I'll be willing to go again next year with them!

Shopping

Tomorrow's the day I go Christmas shopping with both of my sisters. We start off in the morning and hit all the big stores, then on to the mall. We get to stop for lunch and then continue on. It is so much fun plus it makes it so much easier. We draw names for our kids. This way when we're shopping, we have their Mom's there to help pick out what they want. We get to go out to suppper at a place where our husbands don't usually want to go. After this long, exhausting, laughter-filled day, we end up at a hotel for the night. We carry all our packages in with everyone watching and wondering about what we've been doing all day. We get to hang out at the hotel together for the night. It is so much fun. I really don't know how long we've been doing this for, but we love it. I totally recommend this for any sisters!

Do your duty

I'm sure that you all know that today is election day. This is just a friendly reminder to do your patriotic duty and get out there and vote! I didn't really have to wait long this morning but would have been willing to. I'm worried that my candidate won't get in (go DDV) but at least I did what I could to help the moral (and economic) factors of this state. Our freedom to vote is what many countries are striving for so I don't think that we should take it for granted.

Congratulations Katelyn!

All right, I'm trying this for the 3rd time! Arrrrgh!!!
Katelyn received a letter yesterday from Kuyper. It was an acceptance letter. She was pretty happy. We kind of figured she would get accepted but it's nice to have it in your hands. Now we'll start working on more forms - registration and scholarships. Hopefully she'll be able to get a few to cut down the costs. Way to go Katelyn, - Get ready for a lot of fun next year! 

Canning Applesauce

Cheri and I decided to can applesauce today. We did it at her house so I don't have pictures but you can check out her blog to see our accomplishments. We were a little bummed that the apples cooked down so far - out of 2 bushels we only got 24 quarts. That narrows it down to 12 quarts a piece for the whole day's work. :( But at least we have something. Doing your own tastes so much better than store boughten. I don't know if it's because we grew up with our own or not but I remember the first time I tasted store boughten. I took a big scoop onto my plate and took a taste and was utterly disgusted. We said we couldn't remember ever doing any canning while it was snowing outside. Then we decided to put some Christmas music on to put us in a wonderful state of mind. Don't worry - the music didn't last long. Although we heard that Thanksgiving is 3 weeks away and Christmas is only 7. I know - I'm not at all ready for that yet!
Chelsea had to do her 3rd drive today - on the highway. She was a little concerned because of the snow but it wasn't a problem. She said it was fun driving fast on the highway - is that scary or what?

Halloween - The Search for Candy

The night Shaelyn was waiting for finally came last night. As you can see, she was a duck. (And awfully cute if I say so myself) You should have seen that tail waddle when she walked. Cheri got here around 5:00 to eat supper. We were ready to go by 6:00. It was a little cold but I had put a sweatshirt under the duck costume to stay warm. It made the costume a little tight but I figured it was worth it to stop any complaints of the cold. We made it through the development but Cheri quit before doing the side streets. Chelsea wasn't with so Shaelyn was going to share with her and Dad. I think every year gets a little easier with her getting older - you don't have to carry or put her in and out of the stroller! We did manage to get quite a haul at the last house we hit. Thank goodness we got there when we did because we were told that they were almost out of candy!

She fell asleep on the way home. I tried to get her into bed and take off the costume but as you can see, she woke up, telling me, "oh we're home now. I wasn't asleep. Can I have my candy now?" Then she proceeded to divide it all into piles to split up. At least she's willing to share. 

The Shack

Here's some of my pictures of The Shack. We really had a good time - despite the weather. Sunday we were able to get a few more pictures. Here's the girls - loving picture time. I wish we could have had more time on Saturday to walk around on the trails but it was just too windy and rainy out.

I love seeing these two together. Shaelyn sure does love her Uncle Duane. During this time, he had become her personal chauffeur. Every time they walked, she had to be on his shoulders.







What a beautiful place. I had never been there before. Everything was done in in the rustic look. Our rooms were beautiful and the food was delicious. I can't believe how much they feed you there. It was rough on the poor treadmill this morning. This will be a weekend that everyone will remember. 

Vacation

Although I'm sure we're all posting the same thing, I'm writing about our leaving for the Shack. Cheri and I have already chosen the toys for Shaelyn and Halle. You know, they have to have the same things and amounts so everything is equal. We are very excited to go even thought the weather will probably not be so good. I also know that I have not posted much, I'm still trying to get over this stupid cold. I'm feeling better but still am congested, so hopefully, I'll be doing better by tomorrow! Can't wait to see you all there! Thanks, Grandpa.

The Great Escape!

Last week, I come home from dropping Katelyn off to find Chelsea downstairs with a flashlight. I come in the door and they say, Nope, just Mom not a mouse. I'm somewhat confused and Chelsea tells me that Graham Cracker - her hamster - has escaped. Not a good thing with 3 cats in the house. Apparently, Katelyn broke a latch on the cage. They put a scrapbook on top to hold it down. Well, they didn't tell me that. I saw the book on top the next day and returned it to its rightful place because I didn't want to take the chance of the hamster chewing on it. Because there was nothing heavy on top, he could just push it open and run out - which is what he did. Chelsea and Kristie searched through the room and moved all of her stuffed animals away and didn't find him. So I searched throughout the night too. When we went to bed, I decided to shut her door with Nerman inside. Nerman is notorious for killing rodents. She will kill mice and deposit them at the foot of Chelsea's bed for approval. Since, we had searched the room, I thought it safe to lock Nerman in there. Around 7 in the morning, Kristie heard some scratching and saw Nerman and Sammie sitting still and staring by the wall. She woke Chelsea up to tell her that she thought the hamster was over there. He wasn't moving so Chelsea thought he was dead. After she picked him up, he moved. So back in his cage he went. Now the book is on top and I hope he learned a lesson. We keep him in there to keep him safe. Oh, the joys of having pets!

Katelyn's college visit

Katelyn went to a college visit today. I know, my little girl is growing up. I can't believe we have to think about college. She went to Kuyper last night for an overnight stay. She wasn't really too sure about this but I kind of pushed for her to try it. She really seemed to have a good time. She thought the dorms were nice. Then this morning I met her there. We met with a social work professor - that's what she wants to do. They gave us a bunch of information about it - her class course and what not. We went to the chapel service which was nice. Later, we split into groups and they toured us around. We got lunch at the cafeteria and later had an important meeting about financial aid. They are really willing to help fill out all the scholorships and financial aid paperwork which I appreciate greatly! The students all seemed very friendly and it's such a small campus - around 300 students. Every class room is in 1 building which has a covered hallway to the cafeteria and student centers. She really loved it there. She thought maybe she should check out at least 1 more college just to see if there is a big difference but we'll see. We'll see how much in scholorships she gets as this could determine if she stays on campus or not. I'm sure that this will all happen quicker than I want to think about.

Faith

Wanted to let you all know about an event that happened in my life this week. As you know, Dave has been laid off of his work the past couple weeks. Well, there has been no money come in either. I scrounged up what I had to make the house payment. After that, there really was nothing left in the checking account. Saturday night, I was getting stuff out for church the next day. I saw the budget envelopes on my dresser. I thought to myself, "well, I can't write a check this week because we don't have any" And then I was reminded that we will be taken care of and we need to have faith. So I wrote out my check. It was rather scary putting it into the collection plate on Sunday, but as I watched it go down the aisle, I prayed, "Lord, You promised you would take care of this and what we give will come back to us." Dave called his foreman at work Sunday night to see if there was anything yet and he said nothing was there. I took Shaelyn to swimming Monday morning and stopped at the bank because I had to transfer $ to my checking. I come home to find a message for Dave to call into work. I called him and told him to call me back. He didn't call right away and I must say, my faith was still wavering. Eventually he called and said he had to go into work and later told me that he had a fairly large job and could spend as many hours as he wanted on it. I literally started crying. I knew that this was an answer to prayer. Now I know that I will probably always struggle with this faith issue - especially when finances are involved but I do know that we were taken care of and this was an answer.

The hotel

Well, I've given up trying to post any pictures of our night at the hotel. This is now my 4th time trying. I'll just give you an update. When, we got there, we hung out until Katelyn could make it. We headed out to pick up some Chinese for supper. It was delicious! Then we thought the pool would be a great place to excercise it off. We swam till 7:00 after which Katelyn had to leave and go to the dance. I called Dave to find out when he would be there. He was out of town and things were not going well. So he finally made it to the hotel at 10:00. Chuck and Sue were late too and made it around 8:30. We decided that we should go for a swim that night together so the girls had a good time running from pool to hot tub. We enjoyed a great game of Catch Phrase when Dave arrived. And of course, the females pretty much took every game. We managed to make it into the pool once more in the morning after breakfast. We would have preferred to go camping but since the weather was going our way, it was nice to spend a night away from home.