Girly

I am so stinking excited, I just had to blog about it. Thomas bought me a new hat today. I have been trying to find myself a camo hunting cap. I found one at wal-mart this evening. It is the traditional mossy oak pattern, but it has Pink stitching and Pink buttons on the top. Plus the underside of the bill is Pink too! Now I can go hunting with my husband and boys and still maintain just a little of my girly-ness! Yeah! I now have a camo shirt, camo coat, camo hat, and my gun. Next on my wish list is some camo boots.

Random?

well, I'm just sitting here trying to decide whether or not i should post something. I'm not sure if what I might have to say is worth a blog or not, but I felt like writing, or typing, I guess. Today, I made some stew/soup that I call Stoup. It's super easy to make. I have it in the crock pot so we can eat some for supper. It smells really good.

Nathan heard on the news that it snowed somewhere. He got really excited, thinking there was going to be some snow for him to have a snowball fight with his daddy. I explained to him that they were talking about some where that was not Lubbock. He was completely heart broken. So, "Lord, Please let there be at least one time that it snows enough for Nathan to have a snowball fight with his daddy."

I have been feeling very blessed the last couple of days. I am being constantly reminded about how blessed I truly am. I know of families right now that will have nothing to give their kids for Christmas. I have a friend who is going through a very serious pregnancy. She is a very private person, so I don't want to share her name, so I'll just call her "Sarah". Sarah has a very rare complication with the baby's placenta. It also looks like the baby (a girl) will need to be delivered as early as 27 weeks. She needs God's divine intervention and for Him to work a miracle in her body and in the life of her baby. Sarah's life and the life of her baby are in the hands of God. It's the only place they are truly safe. If she crosses your mind please, please, say a prayer for Sarah. God knows who she is and what she needs. Pray also for her many doctors, that they would make the best possible choices for her and her baby. The best scenario would be that God heals her, and that when she gets her next ultrasound, there is no evidence of a problem. And, no explanation other then God's miraculous healing. Then, Sarah could continue to carry her sweet little blessing to full term and deliver a healthy baby girl with no threat to her own personal health.

Anyone out there in blogging world have any ideas on how I can get my children to pick up their room. They have been in their room for hours now. I've told them they can not come out until there room is picked up. Except of course to go to the bathroom. I'm really not cruel. My children would beg to differ with you though. I'm just kinda clueless. This year for Christmas Thomas and I will not be buying our boys any toys. They are getting some other things, but not toys that have to be cleaned up and put away.

I guess I will close with this last idea and thought. I have heard a couple of times over the last week about women who are wanting to have a baby. Some are having struggles while others are not struggling necessarily, but wanting to become pregnant none the less. Myself included.
Lord, I come to you now, right here on the computer. As we celebrate Christmas, I thank you for Your Son, Jesus, that came to this earth as a baby. I pray for all women who read my blog today that are desiring their own precious baby. I pray for the medical issues to be resolved and the timing to be right. Most importantly, I pray that there be a peace upon the hearts of all the ladies. We know that you grant the desires of the heart and that the desire of a baby comes from You. I ask that we all find ourselves resting in this truth. Lord, I also pray that the time for fulfillment would be soon. Thank you for all the blessings You have bestowed upon all women, those who are mothers already and those who desire to become mothers.
I pray all these things in faith with expectation of receiving from You. In Your name I pray, Amen.

Long Time No Post

well, its been a pretty long time since i posted last, so i figured i'd fill in a few gaps over the last couple of the months.

Halloween flew by in a flurry of very crazy activity. Our bathroom wall completely feel down into the tub. I guess it was time to remodel. the water faucet was leaking and so we had to cut a hole in the wall to repair it. when i pulled 2 tiles off the wall the whole thing came crashing down. tiles and sheet rock and everything. we had been planning to redo some stuff after Christmas. so, we are in the middle of a giant mess everywhere.

just after Halloween we headed to San Antonio to go to a good friend's wedding. Luke and Jana's wedding was so sweet and adorable. they deserve so much happiness. i wish them and their 2 sweet girls many blessing.

Thomas went hunting on opening weekend. He shot a 6pt buck and a doe. i was so proud of him! thanks to my parents we now have a deep freeze and its packed full of deer meat. (Kristi, i promise i will not send you any, or hide it any food, haha!)

lets see... what else? oh yeah, we went out to dinner with some awesome friends. Nick and Tiffany. Had dinner at applebee's then headed to daybreak for some coffee. the guys couldn't handle the coffee so they had tea. it was good to get out for some adult conversation. never once did we hear the words "don't pick your nose" or "sit down and stop fighting." soooo relaxing.

Thanksgiving was really good. did a lot of relaxing and hanging out with family and course a bunch of eating. it was all so very yummy. i did the deviled eggs for both family dinners, boiled and made 3 dozen eggs. YUMMY!

Got my Christmas tree up just before thanksgiving. Thomas let me put it up a week early this year. i was having a little bit of peer pressure from all of you in blog world who put their trees up early. however, i have only put up the tree. for some reason, i just can't seem to get in the mood to put out the nativities. (i have 8) My Christmas animated dolls, Christmas pillows, snowmen, and Christmas dishes are all still sitting in their box. i am looking forward to doing lots of baking. Ummmm, fudge, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate peppermint sticks and so much more.
i can't wait! I'm sure I'll pack on extra pounds and have to pay for later, but i don't care. Christmas goodies only come once a year.

I've already watched White Christmas a couple of times. I still need to watch Elf, The Christmas Story, and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

i guess that's all for now. I'm really sorry that i can't post any pictures. i just don't know how to use Thomas's camera.

About the Election

I was to say the least, very dissappointed and saddened by the results of the election last night. Somewhere in my gut, I knew it was going to be this way, but I was still hopeful that McCain could pull out a victory.

My husband posted an amazing blog about the state of our country. Nathan said something to him last night that was very profound. I REALLY, REALLY, suggest you go read it. I believe that if you do, that you feel better about our future president-elect.

this is Thomas's blog:
www.theoriginalthomashead.blogspot.com

It All Started with a Drip

I will say first that the house we have is an older home. We knew when we bought it we would eventually have to redo the tub surround in the front bathroom and the shower surround in the back bathroom. The back bathroom shower has been, well, let's say, non-functioning for about 5 years now. Why? I'll not go into that here because I really do love my husband and all the things that he DOES do around the house. (love you, honey!) Anyway, the tub does have a shower on it, so we shower there.

Wednesday evening: It all started with a drip. When you turned off the water, there was a little bit of a drip, like the water wasn't turned off all the way.

Thursday Morning: The drip is now really more like a small trickle. I called Thomas at work. He said he was aware that the valve on the faucet was broken and that when he was off later in the afternoon he would stop by Lowe's (shudder) and pick up a part.

Thursday Mid-Morning: The small trickle has now become a large trickle or a nice sized stream. I am a little freaked out about all the water just running down the drain. I am sorta trying to be a little more "green." At least, I'm trying to be better aware of what I'm doing to the environment. Not to mention, the water bill. So, i plugged the tub, and figured, when there was eventually enough water, I would give the dog a bath.

I called Thomas back, and he said that I should go turn off the water in the alley. I filled several pitchers of water, so we'd have something to drink or wash our hands with.

Bravely, i headed out to the alley to that hole in the ground where the valve is at. "I am NOT afraid of spiders, I am NOT afraid of spiders." I couldn't get the silly heavy cover off. I couldn't even lift it. Thankfully, because, I really am afraid of spiders. haha!

I called my brother, Adam, and he came to my rescue. He came over and got it turned off for me.

Thursday Noon: I headed to the mall for a very fun play date with Tiffany and her kids Trevor and Allison. We had lots of fun eating some Chik-fil-A and watching the kids play at the playground. We got a chance to catch up on things and talk about cake. ;)

Thursday Afternoon: I left the mall and headed to pick Thomas up from work. I noticed that the car hesitated a little when i accelerated. Hmmm, wonder why that could be? I am the car repair person in our family. Since I was the oldest in my family, when I was young I was always the one who got to help my dad when he worked on our cars. I am really grateful for that now because I do know how to do quite a few things under the hood. This is all significant, because, on Saturday, morning we are supposed to be leaving for San Antonio to go to Jana and Luke's wedding. We're not really having car trouble are we?

Early Thursday Evening: I find out that in order to repair the broken valve on the shower, we must remove some tiles and cut a hole in the wall. Therefore, our bathroom remodel will beginning a little sooner than we had planned. I mean, we were supposed to do the back bathroom first, so that we have a place to shower while the front one gets redone. I begin the whole thing by pulling on two loose tiles next to the knob. When, i pulled these off, all of the wall and the sheet rock behind the tiles, collapsed into the tub. Ahhhhh! Let me remind you, we are supposed to be going out of town. This was going to be a large mess!!

Late Thursday Evening: Thomas really was having some trouble figuring out what to do to all the pipes in order to get the water turned back on in the house. Mind you we still have NO water in the house. We have all taken to peeing in the backyard, like we do when we're camping. The boys thought this was great fun. I, however, was none too thrilled. Sometime around 10:30 the water got turned back on. At least now we can use the toilet and wash our hands. I also really need the washing machine so I get laundry done for our trip.

Friday Morning: Thomas is very, very sad. He was off today, but he had planned to go hunting. It is, by the way, opening weekend. But, instead, he is tearing apart our bathroom walls. Remember, we still have NO place to take a shower.

Friday Afternoon: We went to Bolton's to get the oil changed in our car. Maybe this would solve the hesitation issue. I think everyone in Lubbock was trying to get their oil changed because we waited in line forever. After getting it done, the station guy comes over and tells us that we have a large nail in one of the tires. GREAT! Just what we needed! Praise God, though, because when the guy pulls it out, turns out it's a screw and it's short and only in the tread. No need for a repair, so we weren't charged for anything.

Friday Evening: The boys are getting very excited about Halloween. Nana bought them Bob and Larry costumes. They were repeatedly asking me when it was going to be time to go. So, I told Nathan. "We are going to Nana and Pop's house to take a shower, since ours is broken. Mama really needs a shower cuz she kinda stinks." Nathan answered, "yeah, mom, you kinda do." How sad is that? Your own 5 year old son tells you that you stink.

Well, this is getting kinda long, so I guess I will post some more about Friday evening and the rest of our weekend later. Plus, I need to download a few pictures to go along with the post. I promise you the drama has only begun!

Why you're special!

Okay, so i just had to blog about this. It was way too cute and way too funny.

Here's the back story: Nathan and I were doing school. We were studying math, looking at different shapes, then counting their sides and angles. Nathan is very precise and particular when it comes to most things. The Rectangle was the new shape of the day. So, here's how the conversation went.

Mommy holding up rectangle.

"What shape is this?"
"Rectangle"
"How many sides?"
"4"
"How many angles?"
"4"
"Good Job!"

Continuing on through several more shapes......

Mommy again holding up a different rectangle.

"What shape is this?"
"Rectangle"
"How do you know?"
"Because it has 4 sides and 4 angles"

Mommy holds up the square.

"What shape is this?"
"Square"
"How do you know?"
"Because it has 4 sides and 4 angles"
"Then it is a rectangle, right?"
"NO, its a square"
"Did you know that a square is a special kind of rectangle?"
"Oooooowww, cool. Yeah, because it has 4 sides and 4 angles just like a rectangle."

(mommy moment of aha! he's getting it)

"What about the square makes it a special rectangle?

Nathan says nothing. Index finger on chin thinking.

"Why is the square special?"
"Because God made it. He made the square that way, and that makes it special."

I couldn't help but laugh. He was embarrassed, but later became very excited when i explained the mathematical reasons on why a square is special.

Later, when i told Thomas all about it, he said, "well, at least, we've gotten him to understand, that God made everything in creation, and all things are special."
Then we had argued over who was going to post it on their blog. Which by the way, Thomas now has his own blog. check it out in my blog list. I got to post though, because it actually happened with me, though i told him he could post it too.

Hope everyone has a refreshing weekend. We plan to do Nathan's soccer game this afternoon. Then, Thomas and i may try to catch a movie by ourselves. yeah, date night!

Away from Home School

Thomas was heading out to the hunting lease at around 6:30 this morning. For some reason, I thought, lets go with him. I grabbed the boys some jeans, boots, and jackets. Quickly loaded a backpack with our homeschool lessons for the day, and grabbed a jug of water and some fruit bars for the boys for breakfast. We loaded the boys in the car in their pj's and were on the road to dickens by 7:00.

The boys had so much fun. I bet Nathan learned more today then he has all week put together. He climbed up on the deer blind and Thomas taught him how to roof and lay shingles. We learned how to tell the difference between a turkey vulture and a hawk by looking at the markings on the underside of its wings. We saw all kinds of bugs: a dung beetle, katydid, trantula wasp (these are very scary looking), caterpillars, grasshoppers, and the coolest walking sticks. Thomas found the walking sticks and put them on the boys' hats. They crawled down and hung upside down from the bills of their hats, right in front of their faces. Then we put them in the tree and talked about how they protect themselves from predators by disguising themselves as sticks on the tree. We also got to see a white owl. This led to a discussion about why a noctural animal would be flying around during the day.

There was also a whole lot of rock throwing going on as well.

We did manage to get a lot of reading done in the truck. Nathan scored a 100 on his spelling test. But, I promise you, if you ask Nathan what he learned today, his first answer would not be something that came from a book. I am so blessed to be able to teach my children at home.

I have some pictures, but they are on my phone, and I'm not sure how to get them onto my computer.