They Won!

Prophet's basketball team played their last game of the season tonight, and they won it! I was so glad for them. It was a rough season, so I'm glad they won the last one! Way to go Prophet!

Total Concentration

No matter what it is, if it's something that involves deep concentration on his part, Prophet always sticks his tongue out.... basketball, soccer, writing, guitar playing, remote control cars, video games, etc. We keep telling him that someday he's gonna bite it off, ouch!

D.K. Is Delusional

Once again, forgetting his size, D.K. picked a fight with someone slightly larger than himself. This time it was his Granny. As you can see from the picture, she took him down without a problem. Yeah, Granny!

The Infamous Miss Bee

Upon being told to do something she did not exactly feel like complying to, she placed her small hands on her sweet, little hips, looked her tired and frazzled mother in the eyes and without backing down after a very stern look from that tired and frazzled mother, she said "You are not the boss of my brain." To which her tired and frazzled mother replied, "You wanna bet... 1, 2, 3,....". This was all the further the tired and frazzled mother got in her counting, for the sweet, little child knew that her moments were numbered once her tired and frazzled mother pulled out her numbers and so she complied afterall.

"Ah, ultimate power", sighed the tired and frazzled mother.

What On Earth Is That?

I found these in one of the yards that we delivered Meals on Wheels to this morning. I had to take a picture of it. It looked like a strange alien mushroom of some kind. Does anyone know what it actually is?

Redeeming Moments

One day last week, I walked into our bedroom and saw this...





I knew I had made our bed so I was a little confused at the obvious rumpling of blankets and scattering of pillows on the floor.


After a few seconds of mulling this around in my head and seriously wondering if I was losing my mind,



I pulled the covers back and saw this...







Then I remembered that about 15 minutes prior to this sight, she had informed me that she was going to go hide and I was supposed to come and find her. Oops, I forgot! Hey, she got a good nap out of it!

Our Christmas Tree Decorating

Before decorating.



Getting started.






Bee decorating the tree.




D.K. decorating the tree.




Prophet taking his decorating job very seriously.




Prophet and D.K decorating the tree.




Bee and I decorating the tree.




That's me putting the star on top.




D.K. decorating the branches.




Can anyone say "crooked tree"?




The finished tree.

When You Find Your 4-year-old Under The Thomas Table...

...you really need to start looking for the reason why she's under the Thomas table.

I looked. I never found it. I know it's here somewhere.

Our Christmas Stinker

Prophet's Foot Skills Class

Prophet shoots a goal!


Prophet showing his footskills! (He's the one with the red sleeves.)

Bee's Preschool Christmas Program Today

Jingle Bells!

She's the one on the right bottom corner with the cute dress, cute bows, and tacky beads that I obviously didn't notice as she left for school!



We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

The Sticks

I took these yesterday while we were doing our Meals On Wheels route. We drive thru some beautiful country way out there in "the sticks". Much of it is thru the Amish Countryside. I wished I'd remembered my camera last Friday during the snow when you could barely tell where the road actually was in places. The views were breathtaking.




Beautiful country!





A common scene in our area. I didn't want a close-up picture because I didn't want their faces, as they don't like their pictures to be taken. I also didn't want to look like a tourist! That's a horse and buggy closely followed by several vehicles.




Laundry blowing in the cold breeze.





Harvested cornstalks tied together and standing in the fields!

Snow Day

My red-cheeked family just stomped thru the backdoor after playing in the backyard in the dark for awhile. Smart Guy decided to clear-off the snow from my van windows before the ice coated it and became hard as a rock before he came in. Bee is sitting on D.K. gleefully proclaiming "I'm kissing you. I'm kissing you." as her rather unhappy brother is trying to get away from her. I have buckwheat, pumpkin-pecan pancakes and sausage cooking on the stove with the time set for every three minutes to go in and flip 'em. We were supposed to have these for breakfast this morning with Smart Guy's little brother and his wife, but they called last night and said they weren't coming because of the snowstorm coming in, so we had our usual Saturday morning donuts this morning and now the pancakes on this cold, snowy, and icy evening!

I have to tell you guys, when you're upset (ticked) about something, life can have a way of turning around, looking you straight in the face, and saying, "You think this is bad? Someone else really has something to be upset about, so just move on." It's all about perspective people. The person I called today to cry to about my "issue" was kind and didn't say anything about it until I brought it up to her that I probably should have chosen another friend to cry about this issue with. You see, I'm very disappointed that my family didn't get to come in this weekend for our Christmas dinner together because of the snow. So, who did I call? Well, yesterday I talked to Ruby. Today, I called Inkling! Duh! Stupid move huh! Yah, the very person who is spending another Christmas 40 hours from her family! I do feel for her. There have been times when we've lived hours away from family that long periods of time passed between visits, but I've never lived that far away and it was never such long periods of time between visits! I'm sorry Inkling!

I talked to an old friend today. It's probably been two or three years since I've talked to her and it was fun to catch up a little. She's the mother of the two little boys whom I've always referred to as "my first children". Back in 1994, Smart Guy and I took our first ministry in Lexington, KY, and I looked in the ads for a job babysitting or in daycare. There in the Sunday ads was a family looking for someone to "care for two small boys". I called, had an interview, and was hired. It was the end of July that summer, I was twenty, the boys were five months old and newly three and barely potty trained. I fell in love immediately. I became a part of their family. They helped me thru much of my homesickness being a newly married, young woman living away from her family for the first time in her life. They gave me a family away from my family and a great job all rolled into one. I can remember watching them and thinking if I loved these two little guys who weren't mine, so much, how much I would actually love little people of my own! I left them in the summer of '96 after almost two years. I went on to start a new nanny position in Atlanta when we moved the next month. I quit after two months. After working for my Lexington family and being part of their family, I just couldn't get used to working for a family that treated me like the hired help as they did. When I mentioned to her why I was quiting, her response was, "well, you are the hired help." I've wondered many times if she ever did catch on to treating the caregiver of your child with love and respect as my Lexington family did with me! I cherish all of them! They aren't small anymore though! The oldest one, who was three when I started with them, is now 16 years old, 6' 4" tall, and weighs in at 200 pounds. So, he's now 14 inches taller and 70 pounds heavier than his Miss Grace. That makes me feel so old! He's looking at med school to follow in the footsteps of several generations of his family. Wow, the pride, I mean, I know he's not mine, but I do hold some claim on him, very small, but some.


Well, we've now finished dinner, the snow has turned to freezing rain, and D.K. is complaining of the shivers and a sore throat! NOOOOO! We do not have time for a sick child this week! I'm still not totally over my nasty cold yet. It's been over three weeks since I got sick. I'm ready to be done with it already! I've been working on getting all of the goodies packaged up to give out tomorrow and Monday to friends and teachers! My dining room table is covered with little, red goodie boxes full of sugary goodness ready to be closed up and handed-off. I tried to take a picture of the yummy stuff, but apparently my camera has decided that the new batteries I put in aren't strong enough to power it, so you'll just have to imagine it. So far today I have made gooey-butter bars, 7-layer bars, and scotcheroos. I have the filling for dirt balls chillin' in the fridge awaiting their bath in melted milk chocolate just before their dive into a pot of "dirt"!! My children have been drooling all day just smelling it all! We've had to keep a close eye on the beast today as he's been walking around with his nose pointed straight up in the air and occasionally puts his chin on the table to try to snatch what he considers to be his rations of the Christmas goodies! He actually ate a loaf and a half of banana bread right off the counter where it was cooling a couple evenings ago, while we were at swim and basketball practice. The basement door didn't get shut when we left and he decided that he'd just waltz upstairs and help himself. I was furious with him of course and he knew it. The next morning, he still wouldn't look me in the eyes, and everytime I asked him if he was "bad", he'd get up and walk to the other room! He truly is a pain in the bahooney, but we love him. So goes life with a dog the size of a moose!

I'm gonna post a few pics of our Meals on Wheels route so you can see just how far out in the sticks we go. BTW, thanks for the prayers last week while we did the route in the snow, sorry I never got back to you guys about how that went. The snow was deep and it was slick in many places. We got slightly stuck a couple times and really, super stuck one time. I thought for awhile that we were gonna have to spend the night at the house we were at, but Smart Guy finally got it out after about 10 minutes of trying and we got thru the route safe and sound. Most of the people were surprised to see us, assuming that with the bad weather we wouldn't be able to get to them way out there, but we made it to them all. I don't like the idea of these sweet, older people out there in the cold with possibly nothing to eat. If it's possible to get there, we will get there! One of the ladies had hot, anise seed pizzels (sp?) waiting for us just in case we got there! Another one said, "Kid you need some boots on your feet," and jokingly gave me a hard time about my feet being cold and cute instead of warm. (I do not own boots. I think I need to go get some now that I live in northern OH) I'm amazed at how I've come to love many of the people whose homes I walk into each week. They fill me up with their smiles and their compliments. One of them calls me a "Pretty, young thing." They love it when one of our kids walks in with me. Of course, Bee talks their legs off when she goes in with me. The boys are a little more reserved. One of them reminds me of one of my great-aunts. I told her so the other day.

Well, anyway, I must go finish my goody-boxes! Later!


BTW... the room below is in our basement, which was totally full of boxes as of last week. After much work between Smart Guy and myself we finally got done what we've been intending to get done since we moved in over the summer! Unless, you had seen it beforehand, you have no idea exactly how much of an accomplishment this actually is. Eventually we're planning to paint the nasty paneling white and put in some type of carpeting, but for now this will do the job!!

These Are For Mom, Mountain Mom, and Inkling

....because they are the only ones that saw it before we cleaned it up and turned it into our playroom!

Some Decos

My favorite Christmas decorations in the house! The houses on top are always there, but I've been switching out the decoration in the middle of the window with the season. I found the Merry Christmas tags at a local craft store!

Oh The Weather Outside Is Frightful!

We woke-up to more snow this morning, and much to the chagrin of my boys, they are currently walking to school in it. When they came downstairs and looked out the family room window, they both did a little jig-of-joy, only to have their mother burst their little joy-bubbles and inform them they did indeed have to go to school! Last night Smart Guy and Bee made plans for her to walk to school with them all and then to walk over to the church with him and spend the morning there until I pick them both up to do Meals on Wheels! So, we bundled her up and sent her on her way too! She was a tad bit ticked with me when they left because the only gloves we could find for her were her water-proof ones. She despises those gloves because she says they squish her fingers. Oh well, at least they'll be warm, squished fingers!!
Here's some pics of the roads this morning!


Road? What road?



Smart Guy cleared my windshield off about 10 minutes before I took this picture.



Right in front of our house. Yes, that's a street!



Oh yah, for those of you that may read this before 10:30-12:30 Eastern time, please pray for us as we do our Meals on Wheels route this morning. Our particular route goes way out in the country where some of the roads won't be plowed. We pass about 25 Amish farms and generally pass somewhere around 30 horse and buggies, so we are definitely in the sticks! Here's hoping the roads get cleared mostly cleared!

More Snow

It started snowing around 1 am Wednesday morning, and it didn't stop for more than about 30 minutes until it was dark last night! They even canceled school yesterday! Fun!


Before the fun!



After the fun!

Upwards Basketball

For anyone not familiar with the Upwards sports organization, I'll tell you a little about it. It's an organization that is sponsored by local churches for young kids to play in. They pray at each practice and game. They give out devotional cards with each game. Each child recieves a star to attach to their jersey for each game they play. Each child is encouraged in their own way. They make the kids feel so important. During the opening of each game they turn off the lights, turn on the disco ball, the spot light and the music, and announce each child's name over the speakers as their picture is shown on the huge screen. It's really fun! The only sport we've ever participated in is basketball, but they also have soccer, flag football, and cheerleading.




The dude on the left in the gold coaches shirt is my Smart Guy coaching Prophet's team!



Prophet's the one on the very right.




Prophet's the only one in a blue shirt in the group on the right.



Prophet's the one with his arms up and his legs spread right in the middle of the group on the left.



I felt so bad for the boys. After all their work each week, they have yet to win a game. This weeks score was especially sad!

A Welcome Treat

Each Sunday evening many of us come together to help cook a meal for the "downtowners" in our town. Tonight we had a very awesome and very welcome treat from the Panera's restaurant that opened in the north part of town sometime last week...about 40 dozen bagels and enough uncut loaves of bread to feed our entire crew and then some for the evening. We bagged up the bagels in bags of 6 and put them into the bags of groceries that are given out and then put the rest of the bags out for the taking after the meal was over. What we didn't use is being taken to The Salvation Army in the morning. Panera's doesn't use this donation as a write-off, it's just a straight-up donation. They plan to continue giving us their "extra" each week for our meal. We normally try to frequent local places in town, but I will definitely be giving Panera's some business. Thank-you Panera's for your help!



This is the bread we served with the meal.



These are just some of the many bags of bagels we bagged up!

Just In Case You've Ever Wondered

Have any of you ever wondered what would happen if you put dishwashing liquid into your dishwasher instead of dishwasher soap? I wish I could say that I have, but I had a friend in high school who actually did it, so I already knew. But in case you were wondering, this is what happens. I won't tell you who did this. Just suffice it to say, that it wasn't me!


I walked into the kitchen and saw this!



This is what it looked like on the inside!!

The Candle of Prophecy Urges Us To Listen

Well, everyone came to the table and calmed down just enough to listen but have fun while we celebrated the very first Sunday of Advent 2007. The first candle to be lit is the Prophecy Candle. The Prophecy candle urges us to listen. Usually the word "prophecy" is used to mean the foretelling of something, but commonly in the Bible is used to simply mean the proclaiming of God's word. Now. He still has alot to say to us. God has so much to say to us that His "Word became flesh and dwelt among us" so that he could say in person. After we read our devotion and scripture, we sang a few songs... "The Johnny Appleseed Prayer", "Jesus Loves the Little Children", "Away in a Manger", "Joy To the World", and "Jingle Bell Rock", Amy Grant style of course. We crunched our popcorn, we drank our hot chocolate, we prayed, and now everyone is in bed. Life is good.






The prepared table before we started.











As the oldest child, Prophet lit the first Advent candle and read the devotion for the first week.











D.K. reading the scripture.











Bee sharing her popcorn with the rest of us!














If you were God and wanted to tell mankind something and had only one sentence to do so - what would it be?