I see that the special is still on...go to this site and get your 8x10 canvas of one of your pictures!

I got one of my Precious Moments in the mail today...and I'm still shopping for more! Ebay is alot of fun!
Not sure what our big plans are for the evening...maybe just finding a movie on demand and popping some popcorn.
K got home an hour earlier than we thought he would but I haven't seen much of him...he's been trying to get the laptop to connect to the wireless router. No luck so far.
Yup pretty boring around here....hope 2010 is a great year for you all filled with many blessings!

I almost forgot!!! I believe this offer runs through Thursday, but if you go to this site you can get a free 8x10 canvas made from one of your pictures! I sent for mine tonight! I have heard from a few people that it's really good quality and I can't wait to see mine!

Today was a good day. I finally caught up with the laundry and went out to lunch and ran some errands with a friend. I haven't gotten as many pictures edited as I would like, but I still have tomorrow and Friday and the weekend.
I also won three of the Precious Moments figurines that I was bidding on...most people gave me money/gift certificates for Christmas so I have had some fun shopping.
Hopefully I will have some more pictures of Christmas to share with you tomorrow. I've almost finished editing the pictures of the play that we had at church.
Well, I think the electric blanket is calling my name upstairs...time to curl up with a good book :)

I know I know you've heard it before, but I'm here to say it again, I know I've been terrible at posting....but here I am again.
Christmas was kind of hard this year, and I don't mean this to be a woe is me kind of post because I know that I have a very blessed life...but I was in a sort of a funk and the visit from the inlaws sure didn't help. I have no idea what I did, but I just have to say that I am so tired of feeling like I don't matter and I'm really not important.....
I have this week off work. I've been doing some laundry and catching up on some emails and cards that need to be made and of course editing pictures!
I've been thinking alot of what I want to change in the new year and I've come up with a few things. 1. Take a picture everyday...I joined a Project 365 group on flickr. 2. Read my Bible every day. I'm not going to say a chapter, or so many verses, just to be reading and in God's Word every day. 3. To post more regularly here. I have gotten to know a few of you better this year and I have enjoyed keeping up with you on your blogs...and it really does help for me to come here and just write things out sometimes. I don't think I should say that these are New Year's Resolutions...I never seem to follow through with them....but New Year's Goals maybe. Anyway....hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and that the New Year brings you many blessings!

Can I go back to bed yet?! Please!

Ugh I really want to go to bed and pull the covers over my head! Yesterday I got a call from the bank asking if we had spent 700 dollars at the Microsoft Store. Ummm NO! Then there were four charges from ITunes which I did not make. I have in the past, but not for at least six months or so. I asked them if the charges were going through, no because they had put a block on our card. Great no problem, they would issue us new debit cards and numbers. Then about twenty minutes or so later I get a call saying umm yes it is going through you need to call this number and ask them how they got your information and tell them they need to stop the transaction today. So K calls the Microsoft Store and they tell him no we can't stop that transaction it's already in progress. Joy. So he has to go to the bank this afternoon and fill out papers and all sorts of "fun" things. The Microsoft Store did give him the name and address of the joker that used our information and what he bought. So evidetnly we just bought a 32 inch plasma tv for some joker in New York. Yay. As if Christmas wasn't tight enough money wise.
And we had to deal with all this a half hour before the bank closed and we had to pick up PM and C to go to a basketball game in CC. Sooo hopefully K can get it all sorted out at the bank and Mr Joker can't get anymore money out of our account.
Awana Christmas store is tonight!! We're actually trying to fit two nights into one sort of. We will have Christmas store and backwards night as well as our birthday party for Jesus and hand out the clubbers Christmas gifts. The only thing we won't be doing is going caroling to the nursing homes/some of the elderly of our congregation. A group of us from church thought about doing that since the Awana kids aren't able to go. We'll see time wise and weather wise!
I have been busy making up the clubbers gifts...we filled 80 Christmas cups with candy and small flaslights with our Awana logo on them, put them in bags, tied them with ribbon, printed 80 star gift tags with "Merry Christmas from your Awana Leader" on them, cut them out, punched a hole, and tied them with more ribbon and curled the ribbon. It was like an assembly line in our dining room! It really helped to have yesterday off so I could just focus on those. I also got some typing done for our Pastor and now I just have to catch up on some card making, laundry, and a few emails for church.
Well...I better get to it or I won't get it done since I have to be at church a bit early to finish up some things for the Christmas store tonight yet too. Hope you all have a better day than I've had haha!

Pictures!!!

A few more pictures to share with you today. The first is the measurement K got after our big snowstorm on Wednesday. We got 14 inches of snow in 24 hours! We also had 40 mph winds creating blizzard conditions. The kids didn't have school on Thursday but were back to a regular schedule on Friday. I kept thinking it was Friday on Thursday and Friday felt like a Monday...I've been so confused!!

I have had alot of time to take and edit pictures though!! The second picture is of our Christmas tree. I had alot of fun pulling out the star filter for my camera and snapping away Tuesday night during the worst of the storm! The third is of one of the Christmas trees at church I took Wednesday night. It was really beautiful how the snow had piled in the windows but the original pictures I took just didn't look right. I started playing in Photoshop and I liked the black and white look and K asked me if I could leave the ornament in color. I didn't like the original color so I played a bit and found the red. I have another burgundy color as well, but I still don't like it as much as this one. I put alot more on my flickr page if you want to go and check them out...there is a badge over on the side of my blog for you to go and see them if you like.

Thursday even though there was no school there was a basketball game. After the kiddos left we went and picked up PM and C and headed off on the hour drive. We agreed to drive in case the roads weren't so good and we have 4 wheel drive. The boys lost both games but we had fun.

Last night we just hung around the house and I was editing pictures again. We took a quick trip to church to work on a song I had to type into the computer for communion on Sunday. We went to bed around midnight and I was up about 7:30 working on PowerPoint this morning.

Madrigal is tonight...time for more pictures yay! Usually C and I go by ourselves...but since J is a senior this year K and PM are going with. PM's brother was supposed to come in from Milwaukee to go along with us, but he went to the hospital yesterday with chest pains. Drs said it was not a heart attack, but they are still doing some testing. Praying that he is ok. I have just recently been getting to know him and he has been my mentor in photography.

I'm excited but nervous about the next few weeks...C and I are planning our baking and I really enjoy that but I have not finished my shopping and of course Christmas brings K's family up from Missouri and more stress for me. I'm really trying and praying hard but I do internalize things and I will apologize in advance if I come here and complain about it all while they are here.

Hope you all have a great weekend!!

Snow!!!

We now have about 14 inches of snow. Joy. Sense any sarcasm there??? It wouldn't be so bad, but it came all at once. The kids got out of school early on Tuesday. They announced a 12:30 dismissal right at 8am. No school today due to more snow and blizzard conditions and at 4 this afternoon they announced no school for tomorrow. No travel is advised through most of the state.
I only had one daycare family today. Mom works at a hospital an hour away and Dad works for the cable company. They had him driving his route for part of the day today...people desperate for cable???!!! He came home about three hours early because they were told that the snowplows were being pulled from the roads in our county and the neighboring county.
We had to make a stop at the post office and checked our church's parking lot (no Awana tonight but we may do some recording for our Pastor's radio messages and we were checking it out to see if we needed to bring our snow blower to make a path to the front door) and I got a few pictures. I've been working on editing a bunch since I've been snowed in the last couple days and hopefully I will get to those as well as some of our indoor Christmas lights and playing with my star filters and share those soon!
The basketball game that was supposed to be last night was rescheduled for tomorrow night...we'll see if that happens. There is another ball game Friday night and Madrigal is Saturday night. I still have my normal typing to do for the week too, a slow start to the week could mean a busy busy end!
Hope you all are having a great day and are dry and warm!

Ok so I did something really stupid yesterday....or should I say today. I stayed up working until 2:30 this morning!! Then I had to get up about seven to get my shower and head out to church to decorate for Christmas! I was SO tired!! I thought we were going to go over PowerPoint then too, but PM had a change of plans so I got to go out for lunch with a great group of ladies and then I came home and slept for two hours while K was finishing up with the Christmas lights!! I rarely take naps, and especially not for two hours! He came up and checked on me a couple of times, I think he was a bit worried haha!
After the nap and some supper I finally got rid of the nagging headache that I had as well.
We finished putting some lights up in the house and put some laundry away and we've just been listening to some Christmas music and watching the fireplace dvd K bought on one of our Wal Mart trips with the lights out. It's been a good day.
Oh, I almost forgot, if you like Mercy Me go check out their blog for a little Christmas gift!

Excitement!

I sat down and started to write this about five times now and something always happens and I don't even get three words typed!!!
It's been a busy couple of days. Wednesday night was crazy hair night at Awana and the kids did GREAT!! We even had one who shaved parts of his head...he said he was going to shave it all off anyway so this was the perfect opportunity to do something fun!
Last night we went to M's Holiday Music Concert at the High School. We were all very happy with the songs that the choir director had chosen, not a single mention of Santa Claus...it was all about the real meaning of Christmas! K and I graduated with the choir director and I recently found her on facebook so I left her a little note complimenting her on her music choices.
Tonight was the second basketball game of the season....the JV boys lost. They started out great, ahead by ten or so, but they just couldn't hold it. They are a young team and the team we played is really agressive and to be honest, I know everyone complains about them, but the refs really didn't help either side...they were a little odd. We called one the happy friendly ref...he seemed to like to pull players aside and chat with them and smack them on the bum when they were done talking. One really didn't make too many calls at all, he just seemed to like to stand in front of us making it a bit difficult to see the game. The other one was really picky about some stupid little fouls while some of the bigger more obvious things like one of their players shoving one of ours down to the floor went unnoticed.....they were ahead by 10 or 15 and the Varsity pulled even with them and with a last second buzzer beater basket WE WON!!!!! What a game!!! Unfortunately J was hurt during the game, sounds like he may have rolled the ankle that he sprained earlier. I believe that they were going to take him in for x-rays just to be safe.
In other news I have found two new things that have made me happy lately....one is Christmas music. I wrote in an earlier post about how much I LOVE Christmas music...music in general really and that I love finding new music. Well, Amazon has a special, 25 free Christmas songs, one each day from the 1st of December up until the 25th. Check it out! I say this with the disclaimer that I don't know what they will choose I have already deleted one that I refuse to have on a cd of Christmas music (Slower Than Christmas- by The Boxmasters) but hopefully they will make some better choices.
The other is Swaptree. A friend emailed me the site and I have already initiated my first trade. I can get rid of a dvd that K and I really didn't like so much and get a cd that I will love! It's a win/win situation!
Hopefully this has all made sense...it's almost one am and I should be in bed because I have to get up fairly early tomorrow, make that this morning. The men are meeting to have a men's breakfast at church and while they are doing that the ladies are getting together to decorate the auditorium for Christmas and after that we are going to go over PowerPoint, but I just can't seem to relax and get ready to head to bed!! That game has me all energized and ready to go haha! I have a little typing to do for the radio message PM did for this week and hopefully after I get that done I will be ready for dreamland.
Hope you have a great day!

Basketball, movies, and Awana

The boys basketball season started last night. It was a bit of a process but we finally got to the game (it was about an hour drive to get there). We rode with L, Mr. T, Tater, and their Dad...Tater had no nap yesterday and he stayed awake for the whole drive, the whole game, and the whole drive back! The only time he got mad is when we got into town and Dad turned his movie off!
The boys won both the JV and Varsity games, although neither were the prettiest of games. We have a young varsity team, only one senior and he is the only one who has seen any varsity play. They just need to get used to playing as a team and get used to the plays.
Today the movie theater is playing a free movie for the kids. It's Polar Express. It works out nicely since the kids get out of school three hours early. Mom just picked up Mr. T and Tater, R should be picked up by his aunt soon, and that leaves me with Miss A. I think I may take her, especially after hearing that her two brothers are going with her big sister.
Tonight is crazy hair night at Awana...the kids will be learning about Samson. K is giving the lesson for the 3-6th graders. K and I both have wigs we bought around Halloween to wear and we are taking one for our Commander to wear. Should be lots of fun looks from the kids too!

Edited....R's Aunt came to get him and take him to the movie and by that time Miss A had already fallen asleep. Soooo no movie for us, maybe I'll get a nap with her instead. Haha!

December 1st!

Here I am again!! How is the first of December treating everyone? Tater and Mr T are here this morning and they are contentedly watching Diego. Just tried to turn it off and Tater got upset telling me that Iego not ova! I love those boys!
I entered a GREAT Christmas giveaway on We Are THAT Family's blog...go check it out!!! I know you will love it as much as I do!!!
Speaking of Christmas, Little C, Slow Mo, and Miss A got soooo excited when K plugged the outside Christmas lights in last night! They watched them blink and change colors for the longest time! I love watching the excitement of Christmas in the kiddos eyes! Too bad they will be moving about Christmas time. Miss A thinks it's so cool that they even get to take the Christmas tree with them!!!
Well, Tater is upset with me because I'm not getting him juice fast enough so I guess that's my cue to close for now.
Hope you all have a great day!

So close, but not giving up!

Well, it's the end of the month. So close to posting the whole month, just missed one day. I hope to keep it up maybe not every day but at least every other. I have enjoyed getting back to blogging again.
The basketball season starts tomorrow and I found out I'm not working as late as I thought I was so we should have no problem getting to the game on time!
K went back to work today after having all of last week off, and I got caught up on my mountain of laundry! I also got caught up with cards I needed to make and get mailed out. Now if I could just get the maid to come and finish the laundry for me things would be great haha! Since that's not likely to happen at all I guess I'll have to finish it tomorrow.
Goodnight all! Talk to you tomorrow!!! Happy December!

Tired!

Well, it's back to work again tomorrow. I just wish it wasn't at six fifteen! We didn't do a whole lot today, I had some typing to do for a handout for the evening service tonight and I almost got a nap...until the phone rang anyway. It was PM with a question but I just couldn't go back to sleep after that.
Still no resolution to my computer picture problem, K told me that we have a thirty day warantee with the store we bought it from, maybe they can help us get it going again.
Hope you all enjoyed your Sunday and that you have a good day tomorrow!!

Basketball scrimmage picture fun

We still haven't solved the computer issue, K has been doing lots of reading, he says it may be something to do with how they cleaned the registry at the store we bought the computer from. Hopefully we can get it resolved soon!
We went to the boys basketball scrimmage with two other schools this morning. We weren't sure what time it started, neither of the boys seemed to know, but we only missed one game. Not so bad. I got lots of pictures...none of J, he sprained his ankle in the first game, but I got pics of him during meet the team night and hopefully I can get some more at his game next week. I got alot of Big C, some of S from one of the other teams who also goes to our church, and D, whose younger brother is in Minneapolis in treatment for lukemia (he's 11). Sounds like he is doing very well, their Mom was there to watch D play. Hopefully I can get the pics edited and sent off to her early next week!
K is out golfing with PM now, I have gotten the evening service PowerPoint done and am getting ready to start typing the radio message from Friday. PM has to get the morning service notes to me yet so I can get the PowerPoint typed up for that and then we'll have to meet to go over them. Hopefully I can get to bed early tonight...the last few nights it's been pretty late with K on vacation and me finally having a couple days off!
I'm kind of sad to see the month coming to an end...I have enjoyed writing more. Hopefully I can continue...as long as I don't bore you all to death haha! If I slack off again you have permission to email and scold me haha!
Hope you all have a great weekend!

Computer frustration!

We had a pretty good day today...K got up early to go to Radio Shack to find the cds we wanted only to find that they didn't open for another half hour early! He came back home and this time I got up with him and we found the cds...but there was a hassle because the girl didn't know what the sale was supposed to be and it didn't ring up right in the computer. She wasn't too happy.
We got to Ace at 7 and there was a crowd around the door but K found everything he wanted. He got AAA batteries instead of the AA's that they had on sale and he had to take them back but it wasn't too bad. Everyone was lined up at the front of the store and just a few of us went to the register in the back so we were in and out and in and out again before some of the people were in and out the first time.
We worked on some Christmas lights outside and went to the local Christmas parade. We met C, Mrs. A, L, T, and Tater there and laughed as Tater stuffed the candy that was thrown into his pockets until they wouldn't hold anymore!
Then tonight I went to download some pictures to my computer from one of my memory cards and found that the Scanner and Camera wizard isn't working...my card reader shows up but it won't put the pictures into a folder on my computer. Grr. I did some reading trying to figure it out but just got frustrated. K's looking now, hopefully he can find something. If he can I will have some pictures of the lights on the front of the house and maybe a few others to share.

Happy Thanksgiving...Black Friday shopping!

Happy Thanksgiving!! We had a GREAT day with lots of food and friends!! Getting ready to head to bed now to get ready to find some good deals in the morning at some of the local stores. This is the first time in quite a few years that we won't be making the drive to a neighboring town to Wal Mart...but they just didn't wow us with any good deals that we just couldn't live without. Sounds like K has quite a list for the local Ace Hardware store though! I'm not complaining...I'll get to sleep in a bit longer!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I really shouldn't leave writing here until the last thing at night. I get so tired I just want to hurry and get it done and don't know what to say.
Nothing too exciting going on around here. Miss A came and she was bright eyed at very chatty all day and she left around 2. After that K and I have just lounged around and complained about how bored we are! We ordered a pizza for supper and had some of the peanut butter pie Miss A's Mom dropped off for us.
I tried to do some online Christmas shopping for K's Mom, but haven't found anything I'm real crazy about. She is just so hard to shop for.
Well, it's time I head off and make my salad for tomorrow and head to bed!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Pretty good day!

Today ended up being a short day of work...I got to sleep in a bit and found out I get to sleep in tomorrow too! Gotta love that!
I went for piano lessons after running some errands and that turned into more of working on the song I am going to sing for special music. B, who is my piano teacher is also playing the piano for me for this song.
When I got home we went out to Teluwut...a newer restaurant in town. K had what they call the Big Mouth Vinnie Burger and I had their Chicken Parmesean. It was so good! I have half of it left, which I will have for lunch tomorrow!
I think I'm going to call it a night and do a little reading in bed and maybe get up a bit earlier and do some house cleaning....maybe not haha!

So close!

I was doing so good, and then I forgot to post yesterday!! So close! I did have two posts one day...does that count lol!
I didn't get to go to the soy candle shop...K didn't get home until 4/4:15 and then we went to meet PM to go over his PowerPoint. We got to talking and then we all headed out to Wal Mart to do a little shopping. I remembered to get my pie for the Pie Fellowship at church and picked up a few more as long as we're here....items. Had alot of fun and laughs with PM and K. It was a great night!
We stopped at my Mom and Dad's and visited with them for a bit after we got back into town and I worked on a couple projects after we got home and I didn't go to bed until 1 am! Choir sang for special music in the morning and evening Praise and Thanksgiving services...we (the soprano group) liked this song especially because we didn't end on a really high note! The last few times we sang we seem to end on a high note that alot of us really seem to have to streatch to reach! Next week we start practicing for Christmas!
We went to have lunch with my Mom and went to the new consignment shop on main street that was having an open house. I picked up a few tops and K found a shirt. Mom looked but didn't find anything she couldn't live with out.
We had to be back at church at 4:30 for K to be at the Christmas program practice...he plays the Dad :) and I have to admit that we are really praying that this goes well!
K is home for the week and this morning was my one early early morning...6:15...and the kiddos are playing nicely together watching Little Einsteins.
Sounds like I will be done early this afternoon and then we are headed to a basketball game in the evening! Sounds like a good day to me!!! Hope you all have a great day as well!

Have I bored you yet?

Are you tired of me posting about my boring life every day yet???

K is off helping change the oil and put new front brakes in C's car. C is sick so K won't be able to show him how to do it like he hoped, but with cars there will always be a next time.

While he's been gone I've been sitting here playing on facebook and editing some pictures. I really need to order PM and C's Christmas gifts online today just to make sure we have plenty of time for shipping and everything.

If K gets back with enough time before we have to go over PowerPoint with PM I would love to go to the soy candle factory/outlet store in a neighboring town. I have all my must have done items finished, except for buying a pie for tomorrow night and I have been wanting to go there for a long time now and I need another candle for the house and thinking about some for Christmas gifts. Don't know if that will happen though, we'll see what time he gets home and what he wants to do with the rest of the afternoon.