Christmas Tree

I did it.

Please tell me I won't regret it.

I bought an artificial Christmas tree today.

From Costco.

9 feet. Pre-lit.

I've been threatening to do this for several years now, and get talked out of it each time.

But this year, Duff and I discussed it, and I picked it up yesterday.

John Drasso helped me load it in the car.

My kids are going to mutiny.

BUT. I'm tired of falling needles. Having to check the water all the time. Watching it wilt and die, and hoping it will make it to Christmas Eve and still be able to turn on the lights. Oh. And did I mention putting on the lights? It's the thing I don't like to do the most. I'm so grateful Christine took on that job the last few years. (And did a really good job of it.)

I have plenty of pine candles and Scentsy for the smell.

I have to admit: I will miss going on that first Saturday morning of December and picking out our pre-paid for tree from the Tesoro parking lot. Fund raiser for the baseball team. It is exciting and you can feel it in the 'air'.

Please tell me I won't regret it, and my family will come around..... (In their thinking)

Birthdays!

Happy Birthday little JOSH and PATTI!

Have a 'scrum-diddly-umptious' day doing the things you love.

Sunday Bullet Points

• Pick up from the party.


• Church. It was the Primary Program. Super! A part of my heart will always be there. I loved seeing how the children are growing up. I remembered one boy who would not ever give a talk, prayer, scripture. Ever. And here he gave a beautiful part standing straight and tall and clear as a bell. Awesome.


• Visiting teaching interviews with the Laurels. Nicely done. Love this program of having them visit teach one sister with their mothers. It is bearing good fruits.


• Home teacher came over and gave a great lesson and had a good visit.


• Homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner with biscuits. Yum!


• Amanda J. went to church with us and spent the day/evening.


• Christine and Amanda did homework and made brownies. Her mom picked her up around 9:30pm.


• Finally finished my visiting teaching computer work. WooHoo!


• Talked to all of the kids today.


• Duff's asthma/bronchitis not really improving. He'll be going to the doctor again in the morning.


• Night, night!

Party 2

We hurried home from the sealing celebration for Eric and Mayra, because Christine was hosting a Mia Maid party for Addy's birrthday. Chris baked the cake herself too. The original plan was to all get ready and go to the stake dance together, but when the dance was cancelled, they decided to watch movies, play games, and then go toilet papering.

The Birthday Girl.
Those in the group who could come.

They took off to TP the YW president's house down the street, but it was so late and soooo dark, so I got a call and was recruited as the driver. Gosh, those are fun days. I remember TP-ing in 'my day'. What a 'blast'! And this is the 'good' kind of TP-ing, where it is a compliment. They would have kept going, but at 11:45pm, I told them it was time to call it quits.

Just Keep Going

Pretty lights in the party tent at the beach!

Today was an awesome day. Very busy, though. I was up early and out the door to go to the church to use the MLS program on the computer. I can only generate visiting teaching documents from that computer. It is a 'pain' to have to do it that way, BUT I understand why it is necessary. It just makes it more time consuming to have to go to the building, enter all the 'codes', keys, and information, do the printing, and then close and lock everything back up. Plus, I don't like to be down there alone. It can be a little scary all by your lonesome in there! Sometimes I talk Duff into going with me and he'll sit in the foyer and read a book.

We went to San Diego today. It was a long day. We had to leave at noonish and got home around 8pm, just in time for the Mia Maid party at our house. Duff's cousin was sealed to his wife in the temple there. Then there was a small reception in Laguna Beach at a really cool place right on the water for them. This has been a long time in coming. YEARS. The atonement has been in my thoughts. This situation has been a long one with probably more valleys than peaks. And today, we were all in the temple with them!

I felt deep gratitude for Christ and the atonement. Really, what would we do without it? I felt profound thanks for Father in Heaven who knew and structured the plan of salvation and happiness for us to succeed. I felt humbled at His patience with us here on earth. I felt happy when I thought of the Heavenly Grandstands full of our families and fellow saints cheering us on when we choose the right and when we stumble. I thought a lot about how the Lord can make good things come from tragedies.

A Great Celebration!

We just keep going until we get it right! Thank goodness for the opportunity.

Typing, Typing

I have been on the computer most of the day today. Next week is a RS Board Meeting and I have the Visiting Teaching Department for the breakout portion. I'm trying to get it all done now because I don't know if I'll be here or not depending on when Natalie's baby is born. We have a lot of changes since our interviews a few weeks ago, so there is a letter with all the new assignments, supervisors, districts, etc. that I've put together for the individual supervisors to give to the teachers/routes in their districts. I sure hope that I got them all accurate, because there were 100 of them! My neck and arm is sore from all the repetition. I started them last night and will have a few more to finish tomorrow morning.

Basically, that's all I've done today except for a few household things to break up the computer work.

I'm glad it's all in my computer now. It will make assignment changes easier and hopefully more effective.

Piece-Meal

To say that not much is going on wouldn't be accurate, but it's all little piece-meal things adding up to busy days.

Today, I finally packed all the Halloween decorations into their boxes and got them put away in the garage. Thanksgiving decor is/has been out and we are loving it. When Mike was over a few weeks ago, he sat down in the family room and said, "Mom. I always love that you do the mantle and decorate." No one is too old for or has outgrown holiday decorating. No matter what stage of life you are in, I think it is 'nurturing' for the soul.

All the chocolate has been picked up except for one order. The intoxicating fumes have dissapated, but not before some serious cravings had to be satisfied. Yesterday, I helped a gal carry her order out and she had to open one of the boxes and pass out semi-sweet chips to all her kiddos in the car before they could leave! Even some husbands get into this. I've had several tell me that their hubbies are the ones who make sure they order and don't care how much they buy or what the cost is! 'Chocolate time' is always a fun time for me. Yes, it is also stressful, but I LOVE seeing how happy it makes people and families when they leave with their stash planning all the fun family bonding they will do with it.

Laundry. That living, breathing, thing.

Visiting teaching items. Always evolving.

Lots of phone calls today. The phone didn't stop ringing. Good news: I got to talk to all of my children today! And Mike came over for a while too!

Cooler weather. A nice pot of soup on the stove and hot biscuits with honey and jam. No sourdough bread today, and I heard about it from Christine. I've been duly informed that soup=sourdough bread. Noted!

And I did change out my blog music to Christmas tunes. Just couldn't help it!

Choc-O-lah-tay Time

C.H.O.C.O.L.A.T.E.

Those velvety, smooth wonderful concoction of heavenly, head-rushing, endorphin inducing morsels have arrived.

Our house is on a chocolate rush with the aroma.

It was delivered yesterday. My portion was 700lbs. this year. Down from 2000 due to our new 'method' of sales.

A years supply for the orderees.

Who says food storage can't be fun???

(Nancy and I have changed how we do it, and the process is so much simpler. Instead of offering it in 5 pound increments, it has to be bought in the 25 pound boxes it comes in. When we were working with 3000 lbs. of chocolate every year, weighing and bagging it into 5 lb. bags just got to be too much. If you don't want/need 25 lbs., then you need to find someone to split it with. Oh, why didn't we think of this a few years ago? Anyway--it's still great chocolate and a great bulk price and now it's easier too!)

http://duffydoings.blogspot.com/2007/10/chocolate.html

for the 'big' picture!

I need to clarify: I don't personally have 700 lbs. of chocolate for myself! Goodness! That was the total poundage of my neighbors and friends from church.

It Really Is This Simple!

If I've already posted this at some other time, please indulge me.

I get so excited when I make brownies these days. Someone told me to cut them with a plastic knife. What? Yes, a simple plastic knife. And you know what? It works perfectly. Nice straight simple lines with no rough edges and tearing. Even when they are still warm!

Who knew? and who ever figured it out:

THANK YOU!

Pass it on......

Still Waiting...

for this cute baby to come!

Natalie before the baby shower her ward gave her on Saturday morning.

She finally left her job last week, but still has a full grad school schedule. I don't know how she does it all. AND, she found time to put up her Thanksgiving decorations.

Girl, give me some of that energy!

Christmas List

We are trying something new this year. Instead of drawing names among the siblings, we are going to rotate for a few years and see how this works. This gives you a whole year to know who you have, plan, save, make/buy for, and this way everyone has an opportunity to give to everyone since some keep drawing the same person! We will run into a problem 4 and 5 years out with one of those years spouses giving to spouses, and the next year everyone giving to themselves, so we will have to figure out what to do at that point.

SO, without further ado, here is the 'list' for 2009:

• M-->R
• A-->Ch
• J-->S
• Me-->M
• N-->A
• R-->J
• S-->Me
• Ch-->N
• All can give to the new baby, and we will figure out drawing for 'cousins' when more babies arrive!
  

It's Been 20 Years!

Twenty years ago today, the Berlin Wall came down! I remember when it went up, I remember the events and separation of our family, on my mom's side, and I remember rejoicing when it came down! While it was up, it was a very ugly time in world history, and a very sad time in our family history.

See the area between both 'walls'? This area was called the Death Strip.

On Christmas Eve, when I was a little girl, we would put in a telephone call to East Germany to our relatives to wish them a happy holiday and send our love. I would sing German songs to them over the phone. It was very expensive to call and the tone was mixed with joy--at the connection--and sadness--for the separation and their captivity.

The Berlin Wall was a concrete barrier put up by the East Germans that completely encircled the city of West Berlin separating it from all of east Germany and also East Berlin. The wall had guard towers on it to keep people in and to keep people out. It started out slowly after WWII, and eventually evolved to a system of 'passes' in order to cross over into the borders. Isn't that the way with all things diabolical and Lucifer-ish? Suck 'em in slowly, until you've got 'em! By 1961 they finally erected a permanent wall with another wall several yards beyond it circling around the first one. The area in the middle became know as the 'death strip' because if you were caught trying to escape you were killed, or wounded and left to die however long it took, because those who might have been waiting on the west side didn't dare to cross over to rescue you for fear of being killed themselves. This area had beds of nails, anti-vehicle trenches, and many other deterrants. Can you even imagine?


Cousin Manfred has many stories of being blessed by God in helping with escapes with people in his car trunk where a sudden and fierce rain storm came up and they just waved him through the border crossing. This era was a dark and terrible time.

President Reagan demanded for Gorbachev to 'tear down this wall!' Finally, on November 9, 1989, it began!

Oh, the long awaited freedom, happiness, and families being reunited!

I got these pictures off the internet so you can get the feel of what this must have been like. We have several family members who kept the church going in East Germany during this time. You can read about them in a book titled, Behind The Iron Curtain. They are my grandfather's sister's sons, Joachim, Burkhardt, and Bodo. I met them a few years ago when they came to America and we had a reunion in Utah. They are my mother's first cousins.

In 1973, I went to Germany with my grandmother who was looking to be reunited with her family after 43 years of being apart. My grandfather had just passed away and she wanted a traveling companion. This is a whole other story that I need to post, but for now, we met up with my grandfather's sister, Hilla, who had worked for quite a while to get a 'pass' to come to Frankfurt to see us. We met up at Otto Domnig's butcher shop and home (which was above the butcher shop) and it was quite a reunion. So many hugs, kisses, and tears.

So. Happy Day today, for the Lord's hand in the destruction of this wretched wall. It truly was a miracle!

Celebrating!