TGIF

The kids joined me at Page Turners (PWOC's Book Club) this morning. We went to a new to us diner in Wheatland.  The owner was very friendly - even though we took two of her tables. We did order meals - which we usually don't.....and I was happy to give her business. I always feel a bit "guilty" keeping a table for drinks.

ANYWAY - four ladies met to discuss A Christmas Carol and five children ate and listened in from time to time.  I enjoyed the discussion. I enjoy any time I can spend with friends and it was fun to make a new friend today too.  I must say that these ladies are sharper than I...but that's o.k. they love me anyway. LOL

Cynthia and I left the book club to go by base and pick up Jerry and Desiree's children and Pat (Desiree's Mom). We had a fun afternoon. We went to see  "Night at the Museum 3" and then we stopped by Brock's Ice Cream Parlor.  The movie was good. I hear the ice cream was good.  I enjoyed meeting and visiting with Pat.

Please continue to pray for Desiree. Remember, she is my local friend who is pregnant and had to have a double mastectomy. Yesterday, they received some of the pathology reports back. It is good that it is not in her lymph nodes. However, she does have Stage 2 cancer. She will not be able to avoid radiation during this pregnancy. She'll see an oncologist in January. She will have radiation after the baby is born. Please continue to pray for this dear family - for Desiree and Baby O especially.

After dropping of the kids, Pat and Cynthia....I checked my phone. Michael had been trying to reach me.

Michael's eldest brother, Mike, has had brain cancer. Yesterday morning he passed away. He is pain free and at peace...we are sad. Please pray for his wife Paula and their daughters.  And since I'm updating on prayer requests - please continue to pray for our grand-nephew Dom, Michael and his brother Earl.

Several have asked about a Mike the Elder and Mike the Younger. They use to be Big Mike and Little Mike until Little Mike grew to be taller than Big Mike.  Michael is the  last child of  his father's second marriage. They had not run out of names by the time he was born...they decided to name him with the names of Earl's other two sons to let them know they are still connected and loved by Earl. So, my Michael carries the names of his brothers.

Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

School Pictures

Of course we take school pictures. LOL

This is a pretty good one.

PJ's, on the stairs...reading....Little House on the Prairie.....


Yep - this will do for 2014 School picture.


Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Chocolate Spoons

Shew.  Stacia and I ran all day. We TRIED to find little mangers to give to the women at tomorrow's tea.....but I couldn't find enough. I tried to find an electric hot water pot-but couldn't find anything except electric tea kettles. I can't remember what else we tried to do but nothing worked easily. LOL

Finally, Stacia and I came home to cook for the tea. I had seen some chocolate covered spoons at the store and Stacia and I decided this would be perfect for little take home gifts.....so we dipped spoons in chocolate and coated them in peppermint. We got 67 from one lb of the chocolate.....

 

I'll blog about the tea when I get some photos. 

Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

2014 Chapel Staff Christmas Party

Yes, Monday was an awesome day.  However, the day was capped off with the 2014 Chapel Staff Christmas Party.  Ed, a friend of Father L's, always has a huge spread of food out....and Father's home is  the most festive I've seen in a long time. 

More than the food and the decorations, however, it's the warm and welcoming spirits which gathered and made this evening one of my all-time favorite staff parties.  I've posted lots of photos on the chapel's facebook page....here are a few of the more family oriented ones.

Nolan and Zander think about getting into the spirit

Stephanie and her "ugly" sweater - which I'm not convinced is ugly....and Elise (I believe)

 Serving with these ladies is a special blessing indeed

Me, Jaimie (Cath RE), Cynthia (Prot RE/Parish Coordinator) Paulette (Cath Coordinator)

Stacia said, "Father L needs to gain some weight before being Santa next year."  LOL  Here is Father Santa with Elf 1 - Ch. T and Elf 2 - Ch. C

 

They even talked Zander into grabbing a gift

 

Why hello Sweetie (Clara, I believe) we are going to miss these two!

 

I exchanged some bubbles for the tea set with Megan

 

Nolan and Daniel

 One of the fun points of the night was the "mystery gift"  exchange - complete with steals and such.

Nolan traded this salmon with Joe for an equally impressive box of Belgian chocolates (which  no one has seen since we entered our home.)

 

Stacia was able to keep this ceramic nutcracker. This makes her happy.

 

Michael had some wifi headphones but Zander stole them (3rd steal - Score they came home - but again he's the only one benefitting from them) and Michael eventually ended up with a new air popper.

 

This gal stole some binoculars - which I stole on the third time and brought home.

 

The funniest gift of the night may have been this one. Paulette eats very healthy works at a health food store.....she was happy when one of the kids stole these from her, I think. 

 

Daniel and his Almond Rocca

Arielle refused to play in the dirty santa shenanigans. She brought home nothing.

Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Awesome Day

Stacia has composed, and loudly sings, a song about this day. "This has been an awesome, awesome, AWESOME day....."

Just what has brought out her latent "Disney Musical" gene?

The day began like any other....until Stacia came screaming into my bedroom, with a blood-soaked paper towel in her mouth and blood streaming out around the corners. She HATES blood. She tends to panic and we've been working on it.....What in the WORLD?

"Mom, I need you to pull my tooth. It won't come out."

I checked. Yep, over half of it was loose. It wouldn't come out and needed to be pulled.

Here's my deep, dark mommy secret.  I've had nine children and I have NEVER been able to bring myself to pull one of the kids' teeth.

I called for Arielle. She seems to have inherited my squeamishness. Nolan was still in bed. I was entertaining the idea of driving to base and getting Michael or one of the Chapel staff to help...... Then I had a brilliant idea.

"Zander, can YOU pull Stacia's tooth?"

"I've never thought about it. I suppose I could."  He seems a bit too happy about this situation.

This is staged. Are you kidding me? I was out in the hall way plugging my ears and cringing - with Arielle.  Zander's the hero. See the empty spot.....

It rained all day. I'm learning it's best to stay home when it is raining heavy in CA. It's not that I can't drive in the rain, I AM from Oregon after all.....it's that you can't trust the other drivers.  BUT Arielle had a driving test today, I needed to buy some things for the Christmas Tea......

The driving instructor was to show up at 0900, do a brush up hour with Arielle, and then take her to the DMV where she would take the test in HIS car at 1000. At 0915 he wasn't here. I called. They'd forgotten. He finally arrived at 0956. They went to the DMV and he wrangled a new appointment time - which kept changing. Arielle ended up driving around with the instructor for 2 1/2 hours.

Stacia and I went to Target and bought stocking stuffers and pretty plates and napkins for "the Tea." We arrived at the DMV just as Arielle was leaving for her test. It's key to know that the driving examiner was new to her job. Scott, owner of the car Arielle was testing in, sat and talked with me as they drove. He told her not to take out her anger at the missed appointment on his student.  Scott there at the back in, Arielle in the car.....

The first thing she did was fail to stop or signal as she left the parking lane. Um....Scott freaked out.

"That's an automatic fail. I warned her about that. She's a great driver. WHY is she doing this?"

"She's rattled, her appointment was scheduled for 3 1/2 hours ago."

"She doesn't SEEM rattled."

Yes, she DID pass!

I could tell she was when we saw her. We gave her a thumbs up before she left and prayed. It seems Scott had told her just before she got in the car that if she failed, she'd have to wait until April before there was another open appointment. Um....way to rile her up. ::snort::  There is a new state law here that will allow illegal aliens in CA to apply for driver's licenses. It goes into affect 1 Jan and the DMV appointments are full....there are also many new computers so one can take the test in Spanish.

They didn't turn back and so we hoped for the best. She only missed 4 points. She did great once she got out of the DMV parking lot and settled in to driving.

I was thinking this a.m. that I got my license and got into an accident the same day.....it was raining....she was tired....she suggested I drive. I did. This is rear bumper of my van....after being smashed into while at a stop sign.....just a bit of damage.

 

This is the front of her car after smashing into me....she said she was going 15 mph.  

I felt so sorry for her. The police came and we exchanged info. We shall see what happens. I was glad I was driving. It was deja vu.

We finally made it home at 3:30 p.m. and I had 2 hours to make some Lentil/Mushroom/spinach hot pockets and a salad before we headed for the 2014 Chapel Staff Christmas Party - that's another post.
Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Travel Day

Yep  - two beds - and still....I don't try to figure it out.

 

 

Up bright and early and on our way to church. It's always great to participate in worship at "home."

 

We said goodbye to BreAnne. Sunday is a work day for Pastor Bre. 

 

A funny incident was a woman from church telling me that she could tell I was the Pastor's sister. Um - the pastor is not my brother....she went on that we looked alike. I was puzzled. Finally, she mentioned the Pastor as "she" and I realized she meant Bre.

 

We met my parents, Lorri (cousin) and Rebecca (Michael's sister) for breakfast.

 

WE HEADED FOR CA..... and got home around 9:00 p.m. by the time we picked up Yuuki. 

Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

More Celebrating

After the graduation, Kent, Dakota, BreZaak and the rest of our family went to lunch to celebrate!

...because some of us celebrate with our mouth wide open and my kids love it when I get caught. 

BreZaak took  Dakota home. They and my parents  had a wedding to attend. The rest of us went to see Krista's new home. We  spent a few hours at a park near her place....

No zip lines, but Stacia loved to spin in circles.

 

The webs aren't as amazing as they are in Japan, but the kids enjoyed

 

I got in a 50 min walk while the others played soccer

 

This teeter totter thing was fun....

 

We finally left the park and went for some frozen yogurt.

 

BreZaak joined us.

 

We went to pick up Harmony (grand-niece) and stopped by New Hope Eugene to see the lights....this is a great show. They give you free popcorn, cookies, and hot chocolate....you sit in your car and can listen to the music and the Christmas story. Very cool.  The lights blink and change...the music is pretty....very fun.

After the lights BreZaak went home. Krista and the rest of the kids went to the place we were staying. We picked up Will (my brother) and Sherri and the four of us went out to dinner. It was the first and only time this trip we snatched to just visit. It was good.

Michael and I took advantage of the drive across to Eugene with Krista to connect. Always fun.

We head to bed with the knowledge that we need to be up, packed and at church by 0830 tomorrow morning.

Choosing Joy!
©2014 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...