Matt and Ryan went back to Bloomington today to return the guitar we got at Toys R’ Us for Ryan and get a real one at a guitar shop. They went yesterday, but all the stores were closed… We never go out of town on Sunday, so we didn’t think about that… But since Matt is on vacation they snuck out on Sunday, but didn’t have any luck. Such is life..

Anyway, can you tell I am loving my new Flip Video camera? Not necessary extroidinary quality, but it is so fun and easy to use. Here is the video of Christian and Dane making their cake for New Year’s Eve. Sue, Royal, Ben & Katie sent us the fun pan and yummy treats to decorate with.

I finally got the pictures uploaded for Sept – Dec. You can find them here: http://www.pastorsfamily.com/Sept-Dec2007/Sept-Dec2007/ A few extras snuck in there, but considering there were over 1500 pictures (mostly of the church construction) I feel like I got it narrowed down pretty good.
ENJOY!

Here are the boys at Chuck E. Cheese and on the carousel at the mall.

Well, we had a nice big snow storm Sat. night. I think we got about 6-7 inches, but it was blowing so hard there were drifts everywhere, so it was pretty hard to tell. At 7:30 a.m. Saturday morning we got the call from the church president that they were calling off church. Apparently even after the snowplow went by the drifts would quickly reoccur due to the wind. I don’t think we have ever gone to a church that cancelled a service. Last week a lot of churches in the area were closed from the ice storm, so they had two weeks off in a row. It was really strange (and wonderful) to lay in bed Sunday morning with no where to go. We actually all have colds so it was probably a good thing to just have a day to relax. I think Ryan and Christian are almost over it, Dane and I are finally on the mend and Matt is still in the middle of it.

I think this is the year I have tatooed acorss my forehead – “Need a Volunteer? Ask Me!” LOL Actually I think it is the fact that we have lived here for over a year and people are getting to know me and are comfortable asking – which is good… I guess… So I started out last spring as being on the PTL ballot and didn’t win thankfully. So for school I ended up being room moms for both classes which is essentially just helping organize all the parties and driving on field trips when available. I teach the Kindergartners computers for an hour a week and I serve hot lunch about every six weeks. Not too bad. Enough to get my foot in the door but not overwhelming. Then today I was asked to head up the book fair at school in March… still thinking on that one. I’m thinking maybe I will ask another mom if she would do it with me. Anyway, so that is school. Then there is church.. I am on the new building kitchen committee (which really isn’t too much work), I was asked to teach Sunday School (which I gracefully declined), I was elected vice-president of the WMF (women’s groups) – which means president next year, I am up for a 3 year term on the education board which will start in January, we co-lead a marriage bible study every other week at our house, I belong to one school Bible Study Group that meets every other week and one church Bible Study Group that meets once a month, I will probably lead up VBS again this year, Matt and I are starting spiritual gift assessment counseling for the next couple months.. (oh and did I mention that I have 3 kids, a husband and a business?) So while I don’t feel overwhelmed at the moment… I think I have enough on my plate. What do you think?

Well, the boys are back at school today – last week until 2 weeks of vacation (one of which Matt has off too). I think we are driving for a field trip to the nursing home on Thursday and then helping for the class parties which are both on Friday at the same time.. (UGH – I know they will both want me in THEIR class…) I don’t think we have any major Christmas break plans, but I’m sure we’ll find plenty to keep us busy.

As far as Christmas Cards…. well I decided not to do them… I figure everyone who wants to keep up with our life reads this blog and so I wasn’t going to do a letter anyway – just a card and signature. But I decided I didn’t want to stress out about it so I’m just not sending them… If you were hoping for one -sorry! I will try to re-install the program that uploads pictures onto my new computer here so I can update those for you on the blog. Maybe I can get to that this week.

C-

I feel accomplished… I spent ALL day wrapping all the gifts that we need to ship, then boxing them up, adding postage from online and setting them by the side door. My carrier pick-up is scheduled for tomorrow. You know what that means? I successfully did ALL of my Christmas shopping online and I didn’t even have to leave the house to ship my packages. Pretty nifty. My mail carrier is going to love me tomorrow. Thankfully she is a friend (or was..) LOL Hopefully she’ll have room in her litte rural route jeep to fit them all. So after $139.42 in postage later (Thank goodness for flat rate boxes or it would have been much worse)… I am done… – with that anyway. We won’t talk about Christmas cards yet.

The boys have been fighting a cold and I think I finally started succombing to it this evening as well. It’s a weird one… Sore Throats, a little runny nose & cough, but TONS of eye discharge. Blech. I thought perhaps it was pink eye, but their eyes never really got red, and Ryan and Christian seem to be almost over it. They said their eyes didn’t hurt or itch at all, but they sure had yucky stuff coming out of them – especially in the morning and evening. Dane is still fighting it a bit and he does say his eyes hurt periodically… so we’ll see what I’m in for. I might have to haul Dane and I off to the Dr. tomorrow – we’ll see. I hate getting sick right before the weekend – there aren’t walk-in clinics around here… Hopefully we can keep Matt healthy with Christmas just around the corner.

Tomorrow night is Ryan & Christian’s big school Christmas Musical, so we can’t miss that for anything. They have been practicing soooo hard and are extremely excited!

Matt is off at dartball, and I think I am soon off for bed.

C-

Matt and I were just discussing how last year we didn’t really have any yucky weather until January. Not so lucky this year I guess considering my post last time was snow and this time ice. LOL

We did get about an inch and a half of snow – actually a perfect amount for the kids to have fun, but not too much to make a huge mess. Then… came the freezing rain. Let’s just say our communte across the yard to church was even treacherous. The numbers in church were very low. Most of the other area churches cancelled completely. Today school is cancelled, but it is currently melting out there. However, tonight we are in for round 2… we seem to be right on the line, so we’ll see if we get the freezing rain or just plain rain. If it is freezing, they say up to 1/2″ of ice. Our poor trees are already hanging down touching the ground with all the ice on them… I’m not sure they will handle any more.

Tonight I am hosting our Bible Study Christmas Party, so hopefully the weather will hold up for that. Should be a fun time.

We are all doing well. The boys are of course excited for Christmas. I think I am pretty much done shopping. Matt has to finish up that tree house.

Well, I’m off to finish cleaning before my company arrives this evening. It will be a bit more challenging with three hyper boys home, but I’ll just enlist their help. One of the church ladies groups blessed us with tons of cookies yesterday, so they have been chomping down ever since…

C-

We’re getting our first “big” snow… We had a bit a couple weeks ago, but now the ground is actually covered. They say 2-5″. Nothing like the first snow – it is beautiful! The kittens are pretty funny to watch it in as well. Matt went out to the backyard and cut us down a Christmas tree tonight. The property guys wanted to get rid of some of the trees back there so Matt said he would help them out. Now if we can just get rid of those three big pumpkins in the front – it might actually look like Christmas. Right now we have Christmas lights and pumpkins out there. LOL Someone from church said he wanted to pick them up to feed them to his pigs, but that hasn’t happened yet.

The church addition is up! It went up in pretty much 4 days. Amazing! The men of the church have been working really hard. I think they are plannig to roof on Thursday. Matt has been dividing his time between them and the treehouse project. He also has his third surgery of church members in a week… so he will go sit with the wife of the one having surgery tomorrow morning. Hopefully the roads aren’t too bad – it is an hour drive to the hospital they will be at.

I am ALMOST done Christmas shopping. I did pretty much all of it online. I have to finish up the boys gifts, & Matt’s stocking, but I think that is about it. Monday I am hosting a big Christmas Party for my Bible Study group, so I need to get organized for that. I need to do things like shampoo the carpets… Yuck! With all the mud with the construction – they need it BAD…

I went to a nutritionist last week. I asked my gynocologist at my annual exam if she knew of one and she said there was one at the hospital. I thought I would give it a try since I seem to be stuck in the weight loss department. However, we just didn’t quite jive. She was about 300 pounds, not professional, and generally only coaches diabetics… She basically said the only way she could help me is if I went on her diabetic diet.. which I’m just not all that excited about. So…. I came home and one of my friends stopped by and I told her about it. She said she is trying to lose a bit of weight as well (she doesn’t have as much to lose as I do), but we decided to do weight watchers together and be accountable to each other. We just started this week, but so far it has really been good for me to know I am accountable to someone (besides my hubby). Hopefully this will work – I think I just needed some motivation, and so far the week has been going well.

Well, the lights outside on the timer just went out – which signals bed time.

C-