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Friday, October 31, 2008

Happy Halloween

 


No, this decoration is not found in my yard. I don't decorate for Halloween. It was in the yard of a house in our little town. We kept seeing it on the ground during the day, but tonight we remembered to drive by so Ian could see Snoopy. Actually, we were on our way home from a fun night of dinner out and bowling. Ian was whining that he needed to go to the bathroom right NOW, when I remembered about the inflatable Snoopy. I gave him a choice, go home now and use the bathroom or go see Snoopy. As you can see from the photo, he chose Snoopy. I'll try to post a picture of Ian in his costume soon!
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Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Happy Anniversary

Today (well almost..30 min. to go)is my anniversary! October 30th. So nine years ago today I was full of butterflies and fairly humming with excitement and stress! I was also doing a lot of packing (with a lot of help from my family). I was getting ready to wear the dress my mom had made (she did a great job)and walk down the aisle.
We got married in Coffeyville, KS, where I was living at the time. Colin had flown out a week before the wedding and his family flew out about two days before. We had our rehearsal dinner at Better-n-Nothin' in South Coffeyville (I know, not a great name for a restaurant, but I promise they had great food).
Our wedding was in the afternoon and the reception was in the church. Just cake and punch, nothing super fancy.
The funniest thing that happened at our wedding was our unity candle. It would not stay lit! The church had a ceiling fan going right over the candles. So Colin and I were lighting the unity candle during the song Doubly Good (I love that song). Anyway, we lit the candle and we're gazing into each others eyes, when we noticed the candle had gone out. So we tried again. Nope, same thing. Colin's brother handed Colin a match or lighter and Colin tried that to no avail, it would not stay lit. So we stood there quietly laughing at the silly candle until the song was over and then my pastor said a prayer. We didn't realize until later that Colin's dad (who was our co-pastor for the wedding) tried to light the candle while we were listening to the prayer. His dad stepped back before anyone opened their eyes. We never would have known if it hadn't been for the videotape of the wedding!
After the reception, we headed for Springfield, Missouri. Well, after we got in the car. My brother had parked the car so Colin would get lots of birdseed on him. He parked the driver's side closest to the building, knowing that Colin would have to go open the door for me and then come back. It was a good plan, only Colin forgot to open the door for me, so I got the most birdseed on me!
We had a nice dinner at Cracker Barrel in Joplin on our way to Springfield. In Springfield, we stayed at the Walnut Street Inn. It was a great bed and breakfast. I wish we could have stayed more than one night. I'd love to go back sometime and stay longer.
The next day (Halloween) we went back to my parents house and finished loading up the Rider truck and we headed out on a week long journey to Washington state with a Rider truck full of stuff and a miniature schnauzer in tow.
It was a crazy beginning to a new life as a married couple and it's stayed pretty crazy for the past nine years. Life is full of surprises and I'm happy to face them with Colin by my side.
Happy Anniversary, Colin! I love you!

The Kindness of Strangers

Today started out pretty uneventful. Ian came down with the stomach flu Monday afternoon (of course, we were on a field trip that I had planned). Poor kid, he started feeling yucky right before we left to go to the pumpkin patch and since I had arranged the trip and there wasn't time to call anyone to cover, we had to go. You know your child doesn't feel well when he keeps his head between his knees on a hayrack ride! We made it through, barely and a few short hours later, Ian was sicker than a dog. He started feeling better late Tuesday, but I didn't want him to over do it, so I kept him home from Awana tonight.
We did have to go into town to pick up Pepper, the miniature schnauzer we are dog sitting for a week. I know, we're nuts, having three dogs in our house. So far so good. I was worried about how Buster would get along with Pepper, but they're fine. The biggest problem is the big baby, Dilly. She has too much energy! I tell you, I think Pepper and Buster look at her, shake their heads and mutter something about "kids!"
Since I was in the big city and I needed my allergy shot, we headed over to Group Health, where Ian was having a cow about his shoe being untied. Yes, Ian is 7 and still hasn't mastered shoe tying! I blame it on rain boots! Ian's only had one or two pairs of velcro shoes because I think they slow down the process of learning to tie shoes. However, living in the rainy state of Washington pretty much requires rain boots, which Ian is happy to wear year round (or at least until he can wear sandals). Which is why he can't tie shoes. I have tried to get him going with the shoe tying for 2 years. I got him a cute book to practice with that showed all the steps...not interested. I tried showing him myself and getting him to practice so he could learn...not interested. In fact, that led to hissy fits because 'it was too hard'. He wanted to instantly be good at it without any practice. Finally, I told him he had a deadline. 3 weeks and then he had to be tying his shoes by himself. I was trying to get him to see the need to practice!
Anyway, there we are sitting in Group Health after I had gotten my shot and was waiting my 30 minutes and Ian starts having a cow because his shoe is untied and he wants me to tie it for him, but I want him to at least try to tie it himself before I help him. He's whining and fussing when an older lady in a wheelchair comes up and asks if Ian is a good boy (she sort of states it...like she just knows he's a good boy), to which Ian replies he's no good. He meant no good at tying shoes so I explain that. That leads to a mom and her young teenage son commenting. The son says his sister taught him how to tie shoes and the mom tells a little of the story. In the meantime, the son comes over and starts showing Ian how to tie shoes. He shows him a couple of times and before I knew what had happened, Ian tied his shoes!!! Amazing! He'll still need to practice a bit, but he's pretty much got it as long as he keeps at it.
So I'm saying thanks to God for sending this young man into our life for 20 minutes. It sure helped Ian and it saved us both a lot of frustration! Isn't God cool to do that for us?

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Merry Christmas

I'm really not delirious! I know that Christmas is 2 months from today. However, Christmas has come a little early at my house thanks to my mom and dad. I have lamented to my mom over the last couple of years (or longer...probably longer) of the lack of freezer space in my fridge. We're on our third fridge (one was in the apartment) and still don't have enough freezer space. I always have to be careful how much frozen food I get because there's always a chance that when I get home, it won't fit.
After listening to me for years, my mom saw a great deal on a freezer at Sears and decided it was in her price range for Christmas. Of course, when we tried to look at it online, it was sold out! There was a bigger one for $40 dollars more, so I talked to Colin and we decided that we liked the bigger one and would be willing to pay the difference. Since the sale ended today, we ordered the freezer to be picked up at our local Sears store. So we are getting a freezer for Christmas (and I'm excited about that, so I know I'm getting old...old people like practical gifts).
Actually, speaking of practical gifts and knowing you're getting old, one of the people in my homeschool group emailed that she was getting a half a beef for Christmas from her in-laws (she was looking for advice on a freezer). I thought that sounded like a good gift, perhaps not the most exciting gift, but still, a pretty good gift. I know as a younger me, that gift would have horrified me..meat for Christmas?? Maybe it's perspective after paying these high prices. Although it does remind me a little bit of the movie Scrooged, the part where he's seeing a Christmas when he was a child and his dad was a butcher and came home and gave him some steak for Christmas!
Anyway, we will be able to pick up the freezer this week. I am very excited and very thankful. Colin is excited because now we should finally have room for him to have some ice cream!

Grocery Money

If someone offered you $20 to help with your groceries, would you take it? Maybe $30? How about $50?? Would you take that? Well guess what?! That's how much I saved just with coupons on my grocery trip this week. Actually, I saved right about $56.50 with coupons only.
By shopping the sales and using my store cards for discounts and using coupons, I saved about $175 on our groceries. Colin did all the math for me. He kept track of the prices and what amount of coupon I was using for each product.
My best deal of the day was getting a bottle of Herbal Essence Shampoo and a matching bottle of conditioner on sale at Safeway 2/$5 minus my coupons $3/1 and $2/1 = free shampoo and conditioner. Sweet! I love free!
I guess I proved that for our little family, using coupons and checking out the sales, really does save us quite a bit of money!

Saturday, October 18, 2008

The Frosting on Top of a Great Day

I forgot to mention the end of my great day. This disappointed my sweet husband because he worked very hard to surprise me and then I didn't mention anything about about it!
When I got home last night I walked into a house full of candlelight and soft romantic music. Ian was already in bed. I even got a great foot rub!
What a sweet hubby!! What a nice surprise!

A Day of Blessings

Yesterday was such a great day! Colin was home and I got to sleep in, which is always nice. I made Spanish rice to take to my Bunco game for our dinner and that turned out very well.
I had talked to a friend from our old church who is homeschooling and had extra curriculum leftover from last year when one of her boys was in 2nd grade. So we had set up a time for yesterday for me to come over and take a look at the curriculum. I wasn't sure if she just wanted to get rid of it or sell it. She gave me a ton of curriculum!! That is a huge blessing!! With the price of everything so high right now, we couldn't get all the curriculum I had wanted to get. We had pretty much the most important things, but for the rest, I just had to wing it. I would use books or the internet, which is fine and it's awesome that the material is out there, available, but it's a whole lot more work to keep hunting for what you need rather than having it at your fingertips. I had prayed about the need for more curriculum and I have to say that this was an answer to prayer. Thank you, Janice!!
After I left with lots of great books, I headed toward somewhere to sit and wait until it was closer to the time for my Bunco game. I saw that gas at Albertson's was $2.93 a gallon. I'm sorry that wasn't excited enough. $2.93 A GALLON!!!!! Do you hear me?? I haven't seen a 2 at the beginning of a gas price for a LONG time!! In fact, just yesterday in the small city prices were still around $3.40. Since we're a little picky about where we get gas, I ended up at Costco where I paid $2.95 a gallon. That was a blessing!!
Then I had Bunco and we had all 12 people! No empty spots. We ate yummy enchiladas and appetizers and played and had great conversation and so much fun. I did not win a cool prize this time, but that's okay. I won a huge Hershey Bar and some dish towels. The dish towels are very nice, but I recently decluttered and have realized, I have too many towels for the drawers I keep them in!! Maybe someone would like a few very nice kitchen towels as a little bonus Christmas gift. Maybe my mom, she has to do all her dishes by hand!!
I feel very blessed by such a day!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

I'm a Winner, Baby!

I won something very cool! This summer I found a contest that was giving away two American Girl dolls. It was from Borders Books in honor of the American Girl movie that was released this summer (I still want to see that, it looked really good). So I signed up and didn't think much more about it until September, when I received a notice in the mail telling me that I had won and had 2 weeks from when I got the notice to fill out the forms and have an affidavit notarized and get it back to them or I would miss out on my prize. So I took care of it the very next day and even sent the paperwork priority mail, so it would get there quickly.
I didn't mention much about winning because, well, you just never know. What if the post office lost my letter? Or something in my paperwork wasn't quite right. I'm telling you now because they were in a box on my front step when I got back from homeschool sports today. They are pretty cute. Ian even likes them. He asked me if they had any American Boy dolls, which as far as I know, they don't. He also informed me that when he watches the movie, he's going to need those dolls. I told him those dolls won't be here by the time we watch the movie. They're going to Kansas to hopefully make two little girls very happy this Christmas. They're for my two nieces, Emily and Hannah. I sure hope they like them!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

A New Town?

Don't you just love kids and the way they sometimes are so close to getting something right, but not quite? Ian pulled one of those today. We were in the van and he decided he needed to ask me a question. He said, "Hey, mom?!" and I said something brilliant, "Yes?" And then he asked me his question which totally made me giggle. "Dodge Ball City is in Kansas, right?"
"I think you mean Dodge City and yes, Dodge City is in Kansas."
"Oh yeah, right. Dodge City. Thanks."
So there you go. He was so close and yet so far away. Dodge Ball City. Go ahead, giggle, I did. It's pretty silly.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Photo Challenges

Well, just for you, I photographed the two dogs. Let me tell you, it wasn't easy. Have you ever tried to photograph two dogs who have been playing, are miles apart in the height department and refuse to hold still even for a second? I can now say that I have and it wasn't easy! I'm sure if you look at the pictures to the right you might notice that they're a little blurry. Those were the good pictures. Some of the bad pictures resembled modern art, with streaks of color, mostly black, brown and white!
On top of their constant movement, I also kept getting shots of one dogs face and the other dogs heinie. I'm pretty sure no one wants to look at doggy heinies, at least, I don't! I did get one really good shot, but Dilly ruined it by sniffing Buster somewhere inappropriate! Crazy dogs!
I must say that there seems to be some progress with the dogs. Dilly has started to stick up for herself a little bit and is putting up with less from Buster. She's still pretty laid back with him, but now when he takes her toy or tries to grab her tennis ball, she tries to get it back. They actually played together tonight, which was really cool to watch. Buster wasn't growling and snapping at Dilly! He grabbed her tug of war toy (blue tennis ball with three short ropes coming off of it) and for a couple of seconds, they were playing tug of war. Pretty cool.
Also, Buster is keeping Dilly busy and that girl is actually getting tired. Yay! She can wear out our entire family and still be ready to play some more. But following a little dog around all day, well that's hard work!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Pumpkin Bars

I am procrastinating. I admit it! I need to be making pumpkin bars for Colin to take to work for a retirement party tomorrow, but I don't wanna. I feel completely unmotivated, even though the recipe is very simple and easy.
I feel more like taking a nap. Although I don't suppose a nap at 7:40 pm is a wise idea. Should have taken one earlier. Drat!
Right now I'm listening to the new Christmas CD from Travis Cottrell (he's the worship leader for Beth Moore). Yes, I said Christmas CD. Don't tell Colin, he'd cringe! He thinks I'm nuts to listen to Christmas music at any other time than December (and he probably thinks I should only listen during the latter half of the month).
I figure Christmas was the best present we ever got, Jesus coming to be a sacrifice for the sins of every person, who wouldn't want to sing about that any time of the year??!
By the way, I do not have the new CD, it's playing on a website. I think I'm going to need this CD. It's great. I really like the song on here called: Jesus Saves, it's awesome! Check it out for yourself here:
www.labmediaonline.com/traviscottrell/index.php
Hopefully, the link will work, otherwise, copy and paste so you can go to the site, it's worth a listen.
All right, enough procrastinating, time to make pumpkin bars. If you would like me to post the recipe, leave me a comment and I'll do it (no need to post it if no one wants the recipe). Night!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Well, Maybe Not Buddy...

So for two days we've called the dog formerly known as Bummer, Buddy. Until today. He was growling at Dilly and I said "You'd better stop it, Buster.". Hmmm, Buster. That could be a good name. Sounds similar to Bummer, it's cute and he answers to almost any name that starts with the Bu sound.
Colin wasn't so sure. He liked the name Buddy. I said we didn't have to decide right away, just think about it.
Then I was sitting in the living room when it occurred to me....Buster, Dilly...uh, I think we have a theme here. That's right...Dairy Queen has a Dilly bar and a Buster bar!!! Of course, Dilly is just her nickname, but still, I thought it was pretty funny!
Plus, Buster kind of looks like the little dog on Buster Brown shoe ads. So maybe we did find a clever little name for him after all!

Friday, October 10, 2008

Buddy

Well, the new dog is here...on a trial basis. He came yesterday afternoon. Dilly's personality really shined! She was happy to see him, didn't bark or growl at him and she just wanted to play with him.
He, however is not so sure about all this. He has growled at Dilly, nipped at her a couple of times, tried to assert his dominance (yes, by the "traditional" doggy method..humping). Of course, asserting his dominance over Dilly doesn't really work since she's about 5 times taller than he is and easily knocks him off when he tries!
He growls at her over food and people. Dilly on the other hand just wants to play.
We call him "Buddy". His name was Bummer, which is just a sad name for a little doggy. We were going to try to think of some fabulous name for him, but Buddy seems to work, so Buddy it is.
We figure we'll know if he's a good fit for Dilly and our whole family by the time he's been here two weeks. That should give him a week to get acquainted and a week to get settled. If it doesn't seem like a good fit for all of us at that point, then he'll go back to where he was and they'll keep looking for a home for him.
Hopefully, he'll get used to Dilly. We've already noticed that she's moving around more with him here because he's very nosy and keeps moving around to investigate things! I'll try to get a picture of the two dogs over the weekend and post it.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

A New Dog or Not?

So yesterday at Ian's soccer game, one of the moms had a dog. He was pretty cute, a jackapoo (jack russel, poodle cross). Turns out it's her grandmother's dog and he's getting to be too much for her to take care of. He's fairly young (3).
So I said we would be interested. We've been thinking of getting another dog so Dilly can have a buddy. He would be on a trial basis in case he didn't work out with our family.
However, we'll see if any of this transpires. The mom was supposed to call last night and she didn't. She's supposed to bring the dog over tomorrow, but right now I have no idea if that will happen either. If all else fails, I will see her at the soccer game on Sat.
So there you have it...a new dog...or not. Right now, we wait.

Monday, October 6, 2008

A New Look and Getting Caught Up

Well, obviously my blog has a new look. And yes, this is all Missy's fault! I'm so excited to find so many new options for my blog. I can't wait to try out the Christmas background! Thanks, Missy!
So on to updates. What's new around here?? Well, I just had a really bad cold and actually am getting over it without an antibiotic! Yes! I think it's all thanks to vitamin c and prayer. I'm really glad I'm getting over it. Ian got a little "vacation" from school last week thanks to me being sick. Well, not a complete vacation, but he got off pretty lightly most days. Which means we have to work extra hard this week to get caught up.
Last night we started watching the "Made in America with John Ratzenberger" DVD's that I checked out from the library. Ian loves them! He especially loves when they talk about helicopters. He made a helicopter out of Legos and he's starting to put together a wooden helicopter kit that my dad gave us as part of his art for school. Today he was sanding the wood getting it ready to paint.
Tomorrow Ian has a soccer game (only 3 more left). Ian really likes playing soccer (even though sometimes he denies it).
Wednesday we have Awana and we're bringing three cousins for Friend's night. That should be fun and somewhat chaotic!!
Thursday we have homeschool sports...hhhmmmm, I'm starting to see why it was so easy for me to get sick.
Believe it or not, this fall's schedule is about half of what we did last year. I think I had a lapse in my sanity at the end of summer last year. I signed up for so many great things to do, only to realize later that they're all great, but not all at the same time. I did learn from that, but sometimes we still get a bit too busy when things overlap!
Well, we're supposed to have another storm blow through tonight and tomorrow. Guess it really is fall now!