Operation Christmas Child or That Shoebox Thing

{I don't think I've ever done this; Mike brought me home from church. ::snort:: I have that underlying migraine, and symptoms of a bladder infection, he found out right before we taught Sunday School that he has to preach in the 2:00 service.....During the 1100 service Mike would have been teaching Children's Church (usually only our children) and I would have been in the cry room with Stacia. So the older boys stayed for service and the littles and I are home. Mike is preparing for the next service. SO.....I'll update on THIS!}

We have been putting off shopping for our shoeboxes because I was DETERMINED that I would do this with the family.

We made it happen yesterday afternoon. We had planned one shoebox per person - 9 boxes (maybe 11 as we'd count the girls too).

We went shopping - some to Walmart and some to Dollar Tree.

These balls only work well in BIG size 13 New Balance boxes. ::snort::

These dolls worked great.

Believe it or not THIS is organized!


Mike bought 4 soccer balls and 4 pumps to put in boxes for older boys. We had heard that they got more boxes for younger children than older children so we did 4 boxes for 10-14 yo boys and 4 for 10-14 yo girls. They were fun to put together.

We met our goal. We had to call Mr. & Mrs. K and ask them to bring us more shoe boxes - which they were happy to do. We had 16 boxes when we were done.

The girls taking boxes into chapel. Arielle is wearing a OCC t-shirt; she's not just being sloppy at church - you NEED to know that. ::snort::

Jared manned the inventory table, the older boys helped pack them into big crates after service. Here are the boxes that were up front when we had to leave.

The older boys came home with more boxes. THEY hadn't filled any as they were at work...this saga continues. This is a really fun Christmas service project. You fill a shoe box, put a check for postage ($7) in the top of the box, and attach a tag telling what gender/age the box is for. All the forms can be printed here . I decided I was NOT writing 20 checks for $7 so I'll simply donate online and I wrote "doanted online" on the form. We were told to fill a box even if you can't pay the shipping for each box because others give year round to help with the postage of the boxes.

I'm going to go drink a gallon of water, some apple cider vinegar and cream of tartar and lay down....

PARADE!!!!

This weekend is full of events celebrating Veteran's Day. Mike took Arielle and Nolan to watch the parade. Jared marched in it with CAP. I put a movie on for Zander and Staica (Ugh) and went to bed with a heating pad and 2 Excederin Migraine. Not to be psycho, but I think these meds are doing bad things to my stomach. LOL

Here are some photos in no particular order. I think Mike knew most everyone in the parade. LOL

Staging area and CAP float

Our wing commander and sweet wife

Our favorite participant

These TX Longhorns are HUGE


No W TX parade would be complete without a representative from the bug world ::snort::

Balloons


There were clowns, highschool marching bands, political floats, some princess of some sort, and lots of military representatives...but this is enough for a taste.

CAP UPDATE

Last Saturday was a day long search and rescue training day for Jared and his squadron.

Thursday Jared tested for a new rank. He is now an A1C. He'll officially promote in the near future, but was given the new rank to wear.

Thursday they also made a float of an airplane for today's parade. Somehow Jared cut his finger and had to fill out a CAP 78 - so he'll soon be famous as the cadet who cut his finger. LOL

NEWS ALERT

We are OUT of Prairie Gold Hard White Wheat. OUT. We are making waffles now with soft white (Pastry flour).....This is funny. I think I planned our yearly grain order fairly close. New grain has been ordered. I guess I'll not do a BIG bread baking day this weekend. I'll make a few loaves to get us by.....

Yesterday, dawned with great promise.

I went to Curves. It felt like a holiday since we didn't have Produce Co-op. I came home and did a mile with my girl Leslie, while the guys went running. Zander and Arielle joined me for the walk.

The plan was a date with Mike and then shopping for the rest of our Christmas boxes.

I saw the aura at 11:30. I immediately took 2 Tylenol Arthritis. By the time lunch was through with Mike it was apparent I needed to go to bed. I slept the afternoon away.

I got up and headed to the Chapel for our PWOC Project night. Melody is making gorgeous SCA costumes for her family. Mandy is crocheting. Debbie and I worked on photos. I also sketched in our Christmas letter. Jill cut out a darling, soft quilt for her son from his baby blankes - I may do this another month. Sherri priced her items for sale at a local holiday open house today. I have now transferred 4 albums to one CM album. I also have a new plan to get Mom's writing scanned into the computer so I can do the rest of the albums with HER WRITING.

My head went from dull roar to full fledged. I was so blessed that Debbie had Excederin migraine. I've tried this before without a lot of help - but it worked last night. I thought I had some at home but only have Excederin extra strength. I've seen the spots again this a.m. and took 2. Yes, I'm calling the doc on Tuesday. They won't be open on Monday. All have convinced me, Mike included, that I need to ask for a blood test to rule out pregnancy if need be, and then take care of these headaches. Frankly, I used to get one a month....only time they've been bad was with one of the pregnancies and then you can't take anything....but this doesn't bode well for life. Now that I'm journaling them I am seeing that I'm dealing with constant pain at some level or the other. I HATE taking meds - really...and I'm taking a lot of combinations of self-medicating drugs. I'd rather have a doc give me one or two than take such a cocktail...but I think I've now tried all the over the counter things I can. I still praying that God would just make them go away again.....and I'm trying to get at least 6 hours of sleep a night. I'm also learning anew how to choose joy. LOL

We didn't work all the way until midnight last night. We all quit at about 10:00 p.m. I was able to be home early. The little ones were in bed. Mike and the young men were watching some Lord of the Ring thing that looked fairly disgusting and gruesome to me. I went to bed and slept well with my heating pad.

Today will be busy. We have a Veteran's Day parade to attend. Jared will be in the parade with the CAP float somehow. Hopefully we'll get more shopping done for our OCC boxes...pick up for these are this next week. The chapel's goal was 300 boxes....quite ambitious for our small group - but we are giving it a good try.

D'S SURE-FIRE WAY TO TEACH CHILDREN TO READ WITH CALVIN & HOBBES

We laugh at how much Zander's journey through life is mirroring Jamin's. He shocked us all yesterday. I've been working on Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. He wants to READ and I decided he didn't need all the names and such - I'd teach him sounds so he could read. I'm trying to work with the excitement.

He loves his reading lessons, but told me Friday he was ready for "real books" and wanted to READ stories not just words - we're on lesson 10. I explained that we would read real books but that he needed to read these lessons first.

Later in the day, he had scanned our library and found vol. 1 of the complete works of Calvin and Hobbes.


We all cracked up. 10 years ago Jamin decided to quit phonics and somehow taught himself to read with the very same reading material. Who knows? Maybe I'm on to something.

Seriously, Jamin taught himself to read with Calivin and Hobbes and then went on to read Lord of the Rings. I have no clue HOW but he reads well. LOL

EXCITING TX FITNESS

Jared and Mike went out for a run yesterday. At one point they noted this hanging from Mike.

And a bit later they found a little guy and removed this from him (the rattle or a rattlesnake).

I'll stick to my Leslie Sansone walks INSIDE, thank you very much. ::snort:: Yes, I finally tested out the Walk At Home Fast Walk dvd that Debbie, the nutritionist, loaned me. I really like it. I've been doing 1 mile on the days that I do Curves and 3 miles on the other days. Wow - she has a LOT of DVD's. Which ones have you all used and liked or disliked? I notice there is one titled "Getting Fit with Faith", has anyone used that? I really am not sure WHAT to buy there are so many. I like the one I'm borrowing. I still like my Becky Tirabassi Step Video but I'm seriously BORED with it and so found I wasn't doing anything but Curves and that is not enough for my sluggish hypothyroid body. LOL