K's hat for Crazy Hat Night at Awana...it's a Christmas tree made out of tinsel he found at Wal Mart! We think he looks like something out of Dr. Seuss!

Now he's added a Santa hat that another clubber brought

I added this one because it showed a little more detail of the tree. That "hat" was definately a hit with the clubbers!

One job done! Today I FINALLY finished the senior pictures for our friend! I am so happy to have that done! I found a few fun extras online to play with in Elements so I made up a couple of extras for her.

Now I have to get the Veteran's Banquet pictures edited and burned to cd and my brother's wedding reception pictures edited and posted to facebook for him and I think I'm done with my big projects!

Speaking of my brother, you probably already saw that I am going to be an aunt again! I am so excited! This will be the first grandchild for my parents and for my sister in laws parents...and I am the only aunt...so of course you know this baby will have lots of I love my aunt onesies and things haha! I will have so much fun being the favorite aunt! Now we just have to get them to move back to Iowa from the Seattle area!

This week sounds a little slower, we aren't going to make Tuesday's ballgame :(, but we do have a benefit for a friend to go to. He was diagnosed with a rare type of stomach cancer and went to Houston for treatment. They recently returned home, and we all look forward to the opportunity to help them! Wednesday is our second Talent Night at Awana and also flashlight night for gametime. Thursday's schedule is still up in the air a bit, but we hope to be able to catch at least part of the basket ball game, it will be here in town.

I haven't forgotten about posting the picture of K's hat for Crazy Hat Night at Awana either...I need to get to work putting some basketball pictures on facebook for a friend, but I will post that either later tonight or tomorrow!

Ahh I can't believe it's been so long since I wrote last! I know I keep saying it, but I really need to get better at this! I hate that there is such a long span of time between posts! I just have trouble fitting it all in somedays!

Little Miss is teething again, which makes her my little cling on. I don't get much of anything done when she is like this. It makes both of us a bit cranky.

I've been busy with typing, going to basketball games, Awana, and helping get music together for our new leaders for our youth group. It's been alot of fun, but takes alot of time!

I found out yesterday that I'm going to be an aunt again in September! My brother and his wife are expecting their first child! So exciting! I'm going to be the "favorite aunt"....ok so the only aunt but it works for me lol!

I'm working on pictures; the last of our friend's senior pictures, my brother's wedding reception (they renewed their vows here in Iowa over the summer so the her family and our family could be there), Awana, and the Veteran's Banquet...and some samples of save the date cards for another friend's son who just got engaged! I am loving Elements 9!

Anyway...the lack of posts isn't for not wanting to blog...and I have lots of pictures I want to share!

But now it's time to change the Little Miss' diaper so I'd better be off and running agian.

I have sat here many times now with this screen up ready to start writing another blog post when the phone rings, or Little Miss wakes up from her nap (naptimes have not been our best friend around here lately unfortunately), or something happens...but today I'm determined to get a post up!

Basketball is in full swing and I'm sure those of you who are reading have seen my pictures up on facebook by now. I wasn't so sure about posting the pics on facebook but C and his mom asked that I would...he has a friend in Brazil (who is also on my facebook now) and wants them to be able to see them.

My typing work went crazy there for a bit...I think we are back into a more "normal" schedule again...what ever normal is!

Worship Team rehearsal after Awana last night...we got one of our teens to sing with us this time too! We (K, PM, and I) ended up talking with another friend/Worship Team member about some things going on after the practice and the time flew and before we knew it we were leaving the church at 11:30! Little Miss comes at 7:15, which means I'm trying to drag myself out of bed between 6 and 6:20 and she was VERY active yesterday (but mostly in a good mood thankfully!) so it was one LONG day and I was exhausted! I took a nap just after Little Miss first fell asleep and no basketball game tonight so we can go to bed early tonight to try and catch up. I feel bad for K, he was up at about 5:40 to go to work and no nap for him until about 4 if Little Miss lets him after he gets home!

Have to run now, but I will try and get pictures posted later tonight of K's hat for crazy hat night at Awana and maybe a few others. Hope you all have a great day!

So yesterday was nothing exciting to write about. Worked all day and mostly wrote thank you notes in the evening. I did do a little reading and posted a few pictures of Christmas on facebook but didn't do much at all.

Tonight it's back to our "normal" schedule with Awana...our Counsel time is on Solomon and it's Crazy Hat night! K bought one of those Christmas trees that's made out of tinsel and cone shaped, hollow on the inside and he may throw a few little ornaments on it and that will be his hat! I still have to put mine together.

Little Miss' mood has been up and down, she seems to be working on some top teeth. They really seemed to bother her yesterday, but she still kept us laughing! Her baby brother is due in March and she's really been talking about him lately. Yesterday she was looking for him in the cupboards with the pots and pans! We told her that he had to go to work with Mommy and that seemed to keep her happy for a bit anyway! I love the way their little minds work!

Well, I don't have much else so I guess that's it for now. Hope you all have a great day!

It was a pretty quiet day back to work for me yesterday, just me and the Little Miss, and she took a three hour nap! And nothing planned in the evening gave me plenty of time to catch up on some things! I did my billing through the end of December, totalled my days worked, meals served, and income for the year 2010, caught up with the laundry pile that has been staring at me in the laundry room each time we came in and out of the back door, got a couple thank you notes written, and did some reading!

I'm feeling much more organized and finally ready for the new year!

I even took advantage of a sale on Snapfish and ordered 99 prints for 99cents! I believe it goes through the 9th if anyone else wants to do it, when you check out type in the coupon code of 2011PENNY. I found a scrapbook and some Christmas scrapbook stickers I liked on sale a couple days after Christmas so I thought I would play around a little with some of my pictures. It's definately not going to be up to the caliber of scrapbooking that my sister in law does, but just something a little fun to try with my pictures. I'll put some in a "regular" photo album, but play around a bit with some others.

Not much else going on now that Christmas is over...the inlaws have gone back home, it's back to work again...although still a bit of a different schedule for the next couple weeks. This week I have Little Miss Monday through Friday and next week I will have Monday and Friday (my normal day off) with her. Can't beat a couple extra three day weekends!

Otherwise I'm still taking pictures/editing, and typing away on some things to be kept on file. Nothing too exciting!

Hope you all are having a great day!

Happy New Year! We didn't do alot...I had some typing work to do and I redid my nails....this is what I had done for Christmas...

and this is what I did yesterday...not the greatest picture, it was taken with my phone...but they are snowflakes. Yeah I'm a big kid.
We stayed home last night and watched movies...we started watching the Tooth Fairy but neighter one of us liked it much and we switched to Alice in Wonderland...again not big fans...so we watched a bit of tv for a while and then watched Fireproof. I LOVE that movie! We saw Fireproof in 60 in the extras and the Firegoofs and pranks too! Too funny!

So far today is starting out just like yesterday...I should be working on my Sunday School lesson and looking up the hymns for church tomorrow, but I'm procrastinating! K wants to take a drive to get some pictures too...and who am I to argue with that haha!

I'm hoping to do some picture editing today too...K bought me some backgrounds, textures, and frames for Elements and I can't wait to play some more with them! Maybe I'll get to sit down and watch The Blind Side too!

I hope you all had a safe and Happy New Year's Eve and New Year's Day today and that 2011 brings you much happiness and many blessings!

Christmas Eve...we measured the snow on the deck table to see how much we've gotten

about 17 inches. Fun fun fun. It sounds like we are in for our fourth winter storm this weekend, but it may bring more rain with some higher temps. Not such a good thing when it freezes again.

This is yesterday, December 27, we had a fog, which brought what they call hoarfrost. The Rochester, MN news station asked for pictures, so I submitted the next three. This was the first one that showed up on their newscast at 5 pm.

This one didn't show on the newscast, but I still like it!

This one was quite popular and showed up on the 5 pm and 6 pm newscasts! I received lots of phone calls, emails, and texts about this one. One person even told me that they have used this for their desktop wallpaper. Someone told me I should enter this in the county fair next summer too.
Christmas was good, busy, but lots of fun, I will share more about that later, nothing planned tonight and I have LOTS of pictures to play with! Having fun with my trial version of Elements 9 and waiting for my copy to come in, but it's backordered and won't be in until the end of the month! Ahhhh!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a wonderful day today!

So I finally got my photo prints made yesterday! C loved it so it made all that worthwhile! We did get some cookie baking in too, now I'm waiting for a phone call to go back and finish up what we didn't get done.

It's snowing....again. They say we could end up with another 5-7 inches. It's getting depressing! We are running out of places to put it all...and I have heard of towns, some bigger cities even that have already used up their snow removal budget for the season. This is crazy! My Dad said that we are in for another big storm next week too. Joy.

I finished my house cleaning today and I've gotten a bunch of laundry done. Feeling pretty productive! And I got the official phone call that I don't have to do the church's newsletter for January! Soooo much less stress on me now! Feeling like I can get alot more done now too! I have alot of past things to type just to keep on file and hopefully this will enable me to get most or all of that done....that is until I get the new copy of Elements and then I know I will be all about the pictures!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Christmas vacation!

K and I ran to Wal Mart last night (about a 20 min drive) because I wanted to get one of my pictures printed for a friend and the boys Mom told me that one of the local stores that do photo prints aren't able to do 8 x 10s now so we thought we could get a couple 8 x 10s printed and do some other last minute shopping. We got there, headed back to the photo machines only to find that they were closed. We missed them by about five or ten minutes! We did need a few other things so the whole trip wasn't a wash, but I was sure frustrated! Oh well, if that's the only thing that goes wrong this Christmas!

I take that back, C called and said that she has to work the whole day today not just the morning like she had planned and it sounds like she is watching the boys tonight so their Mom and Dad can go out to celebrate one of Mom's brother's birthdays. But still...if that's all that goes wrong!

Anyway....we slept in this morning and I cleaned the house. After lunch I did some online shopping with the gift certificates from the boys and their parents. Rebecca Jo...I did order Elements 9!!! I'm playing with the trial download version now and I LOVE the updates! The copy I ordered is on backorder, along with my copy of The Blind Side, but my copy of Fireproof and Veggie Tales A Silly Little Thing Called Love should be here soon!

We need to run into town and put a couple checks in the bank and try to get those pictures printed. They may be 5 x 7s instead of the 8 x 10s we'll have to see. Otherwise we're just hanging around and enjoying the day off together.

Hope you are all having a great day and a very Merry Christmas!

First of all...I owe Rebecca Jo a HUGE apology! I received a wonderful package from her a few days ago and I thanked her privately but I HAVE to show you all the BEAUTIFUL hand knit lovelies she sent me! Thank you thank you thank you Rebecca Jo! I was so surprised, excited, and thrilled to get your package and the lovely note you sent along with them! I still haven't been able to use them...they are decorating my kitchen for Christmas right now! Thank you so much Rebecca Jo!

This is the sidewalk leading up to our front door. The piles on the end by the road are a bit taller after I threw the snow that the plow blocked the end of the sidewalk in with while I was shoveling, but you can tell we have alot of snow! It is the snowiest December on record in Rochester, MN, about an hour from us, and I wonder if it isn't a record for us as well. I'll have to get K out there and get a picture of him standing on the sidewalk to give you a better perspective.

These are the bushes I took pictures of when it first started snowing right out in the front of the house. Now just piles of snow.
I am SO behind with Christmas coming so quickly! We haven't even put up the tree! C and I have done just enough baking for the cookies for the Christmas program Sunday night and we just finished shopping and wrapping the gifts!

Thankfully our church secretary is home from helping her Dad in Texas and she will be taking back her jobs so that means alot less work for me next week with the church's newsletter and hopefully I'm able to catch up on some other things around the house and be better at blogging more often!

Today is my last day of work before Christmas, and it's only my Bug and I. Nice quiet easy day! He's watching some Tom and Jerry while I get a bit of work and blogging done! We exchanged gifts with the daycare families and I received a wonderful gift from Bug, T man, and Mr. L and I am thinking about upgrading to Photoshop Elements 9. I downloaded the trial version to see the differences between 7 (that I have now) and 9 and so far I am loving it! I didn't want to upgrade just to upgrade and have the newest thing you know what I mean, but there seem to be some nice new features!

The cough is getting better, but I still have coughing fits if I laugh too hard....which of course seems to mean that K has to be in quite a mood and making me laugh even more than normal....to which he aplolgizes when it does happen but makes us both laugh even harder. Lovely cycle lol!

Well Bug is finished and wants to build with some blocks so must run for now! Big hugs to you all, hope you have a wonderful day!

Blah more snow! They let out of school three hours early today and have already cancelled school for tomorrow! I am so SICK OF SNOW!

We had our church Christmas program last night. Each family was invited to participcate with a song, poem, reading, etc. I was so busy I wasn't going to do anything but PM asked me to do a reading that he had recently done at a nursing home service. I was so nervous, but I think it turned out well.

The "lovely" cold is still hanging in there. Now I only have coughing fits when I laugh....which tends to be quite often. Blah!

Hope you all had a great weekend and I'll take some more pictures tomorrow to show you the new "fun" stuff outside.

This one is actually a couple weeks old but it's one of my favorites...a bald eagle in a tree just outside of town in our first light snow

Snowing on Saturday

It's piling up on our steps and railing

and on the bushes out front

Later on Saturday

and on the mailbox

another view of the bushes out front a little later with more snow

the neighbor's suburban late Saturday afternoon

snow, snow, snow

the neighbor is snowblowing his balcony! He did this at least two or three times on Saturday

looking out to the neighbor's house across the street

plowing out Sunday morning - looking out the front door towards the street

the table on the deck out back - they say we got 9.5 inches!

icicles on the side of the house

looking from the garage to the deck as we were leaving to take some pictures

piles next to a driveway at a house just down the road

such a pretty Christmasy scene

there is supposed to be a road here...it hadn't been plowed as of noon on Sunday

looking down our road

blowing snow on a road near us

a field on the edge of town

oved the icicles hanging there and their all kind of bowed

the main highway through town heading towards our church

the church parking lot...that's our Pastor's office

the main highway heading home

the main highway again

someone hit the street sign in their snow removal

more snow

love this snowman!

beautiful

a road near a local park

blowing snow at the backside of the park