SCROLL DOWN FOR CHRISTMAS POST TOO!

A WORD OF CAUTION

when chopping vegetables that are quite thick and difficult to chop...like, say, a parsnip...with a big, sharp knife, pay attention and keep your thumb out of the way.....

or else you'll end up at Urgent Care on a Sunday morning. :)

I felt like a weenie having John race home from church (the kids and I are coming down with a cold so we were home) to take me to Urgent Care for a cut, but after 45 minutes of holding my thumb over my head with an ice pack and pressure, the bleeding just wouldn't stop.

They got the suture kit all ready for the doc to stitch up my thumb, but by the time he was able to get to me, the bleeding had mostly stopped (about 2 hours after I had cut it) and as he examined it, he thought it would probably heal up OK with steri-strips (like stitches but more of a band-aid). I was quite excited to not have needles in my thumb!!!

and praise God -the knife missed my tendon and nerves!

CHRISTMAS

Our first Christmas celebration was last weekend in the LA area with John's family. We drove out there Saturday morning, had Christmas on Sunday, and were back in the van driving home on Monday. whew! quite the whirlwind trip, especially since we had just arrived home from my Grandmother's funeral the prior weekend...but it was so good to see John's family again. The kids LOVE their California aunties, cousins and Nana. :)

we all slept in my sister-in-law's office/guest room. They have an "L" shaped sofa that John and I slept on (see the burgundy sheets?) and then they graciously set up a queen air mattress for the kids to sleep on -sausage style! :)

Here are a few pics I took of the kids during the Christmas party.

John's mom got Andrew a camping set. He slept with the canteen and wore that headlamp EVERYWHERE the entire day. He had a big ole red mark on his forehead from it! :)

Becca got a "Sleeping Beauty" dress up outfit-the pic is missing the high heeled pink plastic pumps that goes with the outfit. :)


Miss Elizabeth came down with a really bad cold Sunday afternoon (why we ended up leaving CA earlier than expected), so we skipped church on Christmas Eve and just went over to my parent's for dinner.

Here is Miss E on her 2nd Christmas Eve with us.

Becca was in NO mood to be taking pictures (she had skipped nap that day and was rather unpleasant by 7pm!) -thus the stone face on her. :)

the stockings were hung by the pool table with care. :)

(can you see the outline of the one on the right?)

Christmas morning the kids got their stockings, unwrapped their couple toys here, and then we headed over to my parents' where my sister's gang was awaiting us.

getting cooking utensils

hmmmm...more cooking utensils

it's hard to see in this pic, but Becca's face is one of pure joy as she realizes she is opening her "My Little Mommy" baby doll and accessories. :)

Andrew with his monster truck

at my parents', my sister is trying to get a good pic of the boys..notice Rebecca in on the action.

She was SO excited all week to get to see her new cousins on Christmas!

Jeremiah

you talkin' to me?!

baby in a box!

my parents gave our kids a play kitchen for Christmas (thus, all the kitchen gadgets the kids got from us!)

AND, my sister's kids got one too!

the kitchen comes with a phone..notice Becca and my niece Jackie "talking" to each other. :)

the "littles" playing

Andrew riding his new bike at grandma and grandpa's house.

We had a wonderful Christmas week, minus Elizabeth being sick AND back to having 4-5 nightmares a night. :(

God has done SO much for and with us this year ~ we are eager to see what He will do in 2009. :)

MORE RANDOM STUFF

we signed Andrew up for a sports class thru our local city program. in 8 weeks he'll learn a little about soccer, basketball, and baseball. his first week was 2 weeks ago (we missed last week due to the funeral) and he learned some soccer skills. :)

he's SO excited about taking his "sports class"!

the girls are signed up for gymnastics...but that doesn't start 'till February. :)

John wanted to see if our fireplace outside really worked...it does!

it was only about 4pm-but the 2 older ones wanted their pj's on to enjoy the fire.

admiring the tree

2 going on 16!

she was supposed to be putting her jammies on, but we found her sitting in the living room, sitting on a box, talking on her cell phone. :)

swimming on December 8th.

don't worry -this is about as far as Andrew got. The water was 50 degrees. :)

as soon as John walked in the door that day, Andrew and Becca asked to go swimming -why, I don't know. So John and I looked at each other and said "sure, but you're going on your own!"

all 3 kids got their suits on, John pulled the cover back and grabbed the camera. :)

Elizabeth was smart enough to stand back and watch the other 2 -and consequently never got in!

Becca got in on one step and then got out. Andrew actually got in to his waist before he freaked out that he was too cold!

a beautiful desert sunset.

God loves to delight His people in even the small things~such as painting something so beautiful for us to admire~and give glory to Him.

PLAYING CATCH UP

over the next day or so, I'm going to try to play catch up. I actually have posts sitting here in blogger, just waiting for me to publish them. problem is, I was able to upload pics..but haven't had the time to write in them!

this was a post from a few weeks ago. I had eluded to the fact we had made a "big purchase"..well, John did. Here it is.

a pool table! He had a VERY nice one when we got engaged, but due to losing his job back then, and us moving, he had to sell it. He has ALWAYS wanted another one, and when we moved into this house and it had a huge front room, he REALLY REALLY wanted to get another one.

for weeks he looked on Cra*igslist for a used one. he would inquire of a few here and there, but all seemed to pricey. Then, one weekend, he went out garage sale-ing with me. He found the pool table light pictured below..for $20. it's brand new! so we got it and just figured sooner or later we'd have the table to go underneath it.

that was a Saturday. on Sunday, we came home from church and lo and behold, on Cra*iglist, our table was posted..for a screaming deal. John bought it that very night and it was delivered the following Wednesday. :)

now we just have to get the light hung and it will look great in there!




the day before Thanksgiving it rained just enough to give us a full rainbow. it was beautiful. the pics don't do it justice. you can kinda see the "full" part in the pic above.

stay tuned for more "catch up" posts. :)

1918-2008

This past Saturday our family laid my grandmother to rest.

It was a cold, dreary, drizzly day -my grandmother would have HATED it! :) she hated clouds and loved the sunshine.

The service was very small and very private-just the way my grandmother would have wanted it. Family was everything to her.

My dad "officiated" it and did a wonderful job. He spoke for a few minutes, and then opened it up to the rest of us to share our memories. They had the funeral home set the chairs up into a semi-circle, to make it a more comfortable setting for us to share -rather than having to get up and stand at a podium.

It was great to remember and celebrate Grandmother. Of course there were some tears and sadness, but it was fun to hear how everyone else remembered her..and to hear a few of the stories my dad and aunt had to share about her from when they were little.

in the small room the service was held in, up in the corner was a painting of a hummingbird. My grandmother and grandad loved hummingbirds and have several feeders all over their yard. it was so fitting a hummingbird was in "her" room that day.

at my grand-dad's funeral 6 years ago, my sister had my 2 nieces and my nephew lay a flag on his casket before burial. I decided to do the same with my 3 kids for grandmother. She was fiercely loyal to our country and even as frail as she was, put up the flag at their house until she became too ill to do so.

I had to choke back tears when lifting Elizabeth up to lay her flag. Just a bit over a year ago, she wasn't even an American..she was just a little girl in China without a mommy or daddy....or grandmother...and now, she was laying her new country's flag on the casket of a grandmother she only had the privilege to meet twice.



Grandmother, we miss you so much. so much it hurts sometimes. We promise to keep your memory (and grand-dad's) alive with our children. You will not be forgotten.

We love you a bushel and a peck and hug around the neck.

I WON!

I cannot believe I actually won something! :)

It was a tough weekend...we flew out to San Diego on Friday, buried my grandmother on Saturday, and flew home Sunday evening. We hit quite a few snags travleling home Sunday..finally walking into our house around 9pm. After getting the kids tucked into bed I checked email.

Lo and behold....there was an email from my friend Sheri letting me know I won week 2 of her C.H.A.R.M. Addiction GiveAway.

A small bright spot in a rather difficult weekend.

since she lives close by-she even dropped it off tonight...so I have it in my hot little hands!~and it's so wonderful!

it's perfect and I can't wait to wear it!!

this is the last week to enter -so hop over to her blog and sign up!

QUICK REMINDER

just a quick reminder that my friend, Sheri, is hosting week 2 of her C.H.A.R.M Addiction give-away. check out the link and enter to win! :)

THE ADVENT CONSPIRACY

this video was shown at our church the past 2 weeks, as we celebrate advent.

it has a powerful message-whether you're a church-goer or not.

we are participating

please spend the 2 1/2 minutes it takes to watch this and decide if you want to participate too. :)

SAYING GOOD-BYE

Earlier today my sweet Grandmother passed away -with my dad right by her side.

A couple days ago, when we knew her passing would be imminent, I pulled some of my favorite pics of her-partly to reminisce, and partly so I could celebrate her life here on my blog.

The pic above is from this summer. Grandmother has always been frail, but in these last few years, she's been especially sickly...she really couldn't get in and out of chairs easily. We were at my aunt's house visiting and Becca stopped her playing, crawled up into Grandmother's chair, and gave her a snuggle. how it must have warmed my grandmother's heart -because it certainly did mine.

If there was one word that would characterize my grandmother-it would be FAMILY. Her family was the most important thing to her. She loved us dearly. She would have done anything for us. I know us grandkids, but even more so, her great-grandkids, brought her so much joy.

me, Andrew, and Grandmother at my cousin's wedding in Feb. '04.

this must be one of my all-time favorite photos of my grandmother. Rebecca is about 2 months old-you can see in her face just how much my grandmother adored holding her great-grandkids

Because Grandmother was frail, she really couldn't get down on the floor and play with the kids -but she LOVED to have them crawl up in her lap and she could read to them. The kids instinctively knew that was Grandmother's "job" and so they would sit and snuggle with her for what seemed like hours.

Grandmother would always snuggle the kids and give them kisses and say "now remember, Grandmother loves you".

This is the last photo we have of our whole family with her. We hadn't had Elizabeth very long and at that time, she was still pretty wary of new people...but I remember she wasn't hesitant with Grandmother at all....almost like she just knew this woman was OK and loved her.


I remember being little and sleeping at her house when we'd visit. I remember, if I was having trouble sleeping, she'd come in and sit by me, and rub my back until I fell asleep.

I remember her always scolding my grandad with "now Floyd!" :)

I remember her making the most fabulous food -from scratch...my grandad had an incredible garden -so she would can much of the bounty and then use it in her cooking. Fresh green beans (my all-time favorite!), boysenberries...mmmmyum! she would make boysenberry pie -homemade pie crust -fresh boysenberries. oh goodness!

I remember her doing crossword puzzles up until just a few years ago-to keep her mind sharp (she had to stop when she couldn't see as well).

I remember she really would only watch news shows. She always knew what was going on in the world!

She was a STAUNCH Republican. I mean -to the core! :) Luckily, we are all Republicans too (don't hate me if you're not!) so we never feared discussing politics with her. :)

She was a worrier. I remember, as a kid, when we'd drive home, my dad would have to call her soon after walking in the door to let her know we were home safe and sound. :)

I remember her making up Treasure Hunts for my cousins and I to keep us busy!

Whenever we'd leave her house, she'd not only walk us to the door, or even to the car, she'd stand in her driveway and wave to us until we were out of sight.

When she'd tell us she loved us, she'd say:
I love you a bushel and a peck, and a hug around the neck.~I'll never forget that saying.

She was such a strong woman. My grand-dad was a "lifer" in the US Navy. Back when he was deployed on the ships, he'd be gone for months, years at a time. She'd get mail every once in awhile from him, but it's not like now where the guys get to call home or email regularly. She was a single mom alot of the time. In fact, my grand-dad was there for my aunt's birth, and either shipped out that night or the next day -and wasn't able to get home for 2 years I think it was.

She was an amazing woman, wife, mom, grandmother, and great-grandmother...and she will be missed more than she'll ever know.

Grandmother-I love you a bushel and a peck, and a hug around the neck.