Finding the perfect Christmas tree

Today was such a beautiful day. Lots of sunshine, but it was very cold. We decided that today would be a good day to go get a Christmas tree. We all hopped in the truck and went to a local tree farm.

Here is Jeff and Evie starting the search for the perfect tree...

Here it is right after Jeff cut it!

Here is Sierra waiting patiently in the truck. Last year when we got our tree, there wasn't very many people out at all, so she just stayed out with us as we walked to find our tree. This year the place was really busy, so she had to stay in the truck.















Here is Jeff getting ready to put the tree in the back of the pickup truck. We got a 7 foot tree, and it is really full.














I figured I should take a picture of me, just to show that I was really there too :). It was a fun day! Now we have to decorate the tree!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The turkey is stuffed and in the oven, so I thought I would sit down for a few minutes and blog :). I have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. I am so thankful that I have a nice warm house to be in, with lots of good food, and that I have my family with me. I am thankful to live in this wonderful country. Most of all I am so thankful that I have Christ as my Savior. I am so thankful for what Jesus did for me on the cross. He died so that I might have eternal life. There is no greater gift than that! I just wanted to wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving! I hope your day is a great one, and that you all have a wonderful time visiting with family and friends. I am very thankful to have you all as friends!

Getting ready for Thanksgiving

I can't believe it is almost Thanksgiving! I have been trying to get ready for it so that I am not scrambling around on Thanksgiving morning. This will be the first time I have had Thanksgiving in my house, so I am excited about that. My parents are coming. It will be a small group of us, but the food should be wonderful. I made a bunch of homemade bread and cut it up into cubes and toasted it for the homemade stuffing. I am going to stuff the bird with that, and then I am going to make a gluten-free crock pot stuffing recipe I found online for Evie and I. That way we both can enjoy stuffing :). I made a bunch of gluten-free bread, and cut it up and toasted it. So that part is all done. Jeff is going to hopefully have the day off tomorrow, so it will be nice to have him home for the next 5 days! I am going to be busy tomorrow with cleaning, cutting up veggies for the stuffing, making a gluten-free pumpkin pie for Evie and I, and getting all ready for Thanksgiving. Jeff bought a 25 pound turkey, so we will have lots of yummy leftovers!

Technology

I really am thankful for technology, but do you ever get technology overload?? The other day I was at my in-laws house. Evie and I were on the couch watching the movie "Alice In Wonderland" on the Disney channel. The commercials were a bit shocking to me. Literally every commercial had the kids hooked up to something. Hand held games, ipods, computer games. You name it, they were connected to it. Even the bicycles the kids had were doing something. One commercial kept showing a family all playing Wii together. Okay, I'm not against technology by any means, but all I could think of was this...don't kids ever just play anymore? Like with real toys that don't make noise, don't have moving pictures, and don't require plugging in? Do any of them even step foot outside anymore? When I saw the family playing the Wii together, all I could think of was what ever happened to playing a board game together?? You know, where you actually have to communicate with each other without some kind of mechanical device. Am I just really old?? I wanted to disconnect from technology after watching tv with Evie. Evie recently started getting into Webkinz stuffed animals. For those of you who don't have kids, Webkinz are adorable, fluffy stuffed animals that have little tags on them with codes. You go online and register them, name them and then take care of them on the Webkinz website. Evie started waking up every morning asking me if she could play on the computer, and then asking me all day if she could play on Webkinz. This is a new thing for me. I'm not used to her being such a computer addict, and I have really started to put my foot down. My parents used to limit both me and my sister to 2 hours of tv a day. This was before computers, hand held games, ipods, etc. Now I am starting to see that I need to limit Evie in the same way. Not only Evie, but myself too! I find that I get sucked into the computer, and waste hours just surfing. I know that God wants me to be productive with my time. Part of me just wants to unplug all the devices and go back to life without all these things. Life almost seemed simpler without all this technology.

One of those days

I had one of those days today, so I was in serious need of a laugh tonight. I found these online tonight. I hope they give you a good laugh too.


Sometimes the spelling, grammar, arrangement or typing of words in church bulletins produces some unintended yet humorous readings. The following are authentic announcements gleaned from actual church bulletins. These sentences actually appeared in church bulletins:

Bertha Belch, a missionary from Africa, will be speaking tonight at Calvary Methodist. Come hear Bertha Belch all the way from Africa.

Announcement in a church bulletin for a national PRAYER & FASTING Conference: "The cost for attending the Fasting and Prayer conference includes meals."

The sermon this morning: "Jesus Walks on the Water." The sermon tonight: "Searching for Jesus."

Our youth basketball team is back in action Wednesday at 8 PM in the recreation hall. Come out and watch us kill Christ the King.

"Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Don't forget your husbands."

The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been cancelled due to a conflict.

Remember in prayer the many that are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say "hell" to someone who doesn't care much about you.

Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.

Miss Charlene Mason sang "I will not pass this way again", giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.

For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.

Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.

Barbara remains in the hospital and needs blood donors for more transfusions. She is also having trouble sleeping and requests tapes of Pastor Jack's sermons.

During the absence of our Pastor, we enjoyed the rare privilege of hearing a good sermon when J.F. Stubbs supplied our pulpit.

The Rector will preach his farewell message after which the choir will sing "Break Forth into Joy."

Thursday at 5:00PM there will be a meeting of the Little Mothers Club. All wishing to become Little Mothers, please see the minister in his study.

Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.

A bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall. Music will follow.

At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What is Hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.

Eight new choir robes are currently needed, due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.

Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles, and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.

The Lutheran men's group will meet at 6 pm. Steak, mashed potatoes, green beans, bread and dessert will be served for a nominal feel.

Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.

Attend and you will hear an excellent speaker and heave a healthy lunch.

The church will host an evening of fine dining, superb entertainment, and gracious hostility.

Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 pm - prayer and medication to follow.

The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.

This evening at 7 pm there will be a hymn sing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.

Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B.S. is done.

The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday.

Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use back door.

The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7 PM. The Congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.

Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance.

Mrs. Johnson will be entering the hospital this week for testes.

When parking on the north side of the church, please remember to park on an angel.

This being Easter Sunday, we will ask Mrs. Jones to come forward and lay an egg on the altar.

It's Drug Awareness Week: Get involved in drugs before your children do.

The lady at the Bible Study was tearful and crying constantly. She also appeared to be depressed.

This afternoon there will be a meeting in the South and North ends of the Church. Children will be Baptized at both ends.

Illiterate? Write to the church office for help.

At the Ladies Liturgy Society this Thursday, Mrs. Smith will sing “Put Me In My Little Bed” accompanied by the pastor.

Janet Smith has volunteered to strip and refinish the communion table in the sanctuary.

The concert held in Fellowship Hall was a great success. Special thanks are due to the minister's daughter, who labored the whole evening at the piano, which as usual fell upon her.

The Associate Minister unveiled the church's new tithing campaign slogan last Sunday "I Upped My Pledge - Up Yours."

Our next song is "Angels We Have Heard Get High."

The sermon this morning: WOMEN IN THE CHURCH
The closing song: RISE UP, O MEN OF GOD

The sermon this morning: GOSSIP ... THE SPEAKING OF EVIL
The closing song: I LOVE TO TELL THE STORY

The sermon this morning: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES #3 ... EUTHANASIA
The closing song: TAKE MY LIFE

Snowy wonderland!

We woke up this morning to quite a bit of snow! This much snow in November is a bit unusual, as it normally doesn't come this early. My hubby had to travel this morning, which was not fun for him in all the snow. Thankfully he was able to drive out of it. Right now Evie is outside playing. When she woke up and saw all the snow, she almost ran outside in her jammies to play! It sure is beautiful. If you click on the first picture to enlarge it, you can see steam coming off the channel.

This picture is taken of our backyard. You can really see how

deep the snow is.

Hunting update: Jeff shot an 8 point buck yesterday morning, and his dad shot a doe on Sunday afternoon right after church. We butchered both deer last night. We will probably get one more deer, and then we will have enough meat to last for the entire year. I am always so thankful for how God provides a freezer full of meat for us each year!

Hunting season

I couldn't resist posting this picture :). This must be how my husband felt this morning! Today is opening day of hunting season. Jeff sat in a tree stand all morning in the freezing cold and didn't see anything. Last year both he and his dad got deer on opening evening. I'm praying that happens again this year!


We have been busy the past few days. Yesterday we blew insulation into our attic. Jeff bought 24 of these huge cubes of insulation that are environmentally friendly and don't make you cough or itch. Then we rented this blower with a long hose. I stayed in the garage and filled the blower with the cubes while Jeff was in the attic with the hose blowing it all in. It went quick! 24 cubes in 1 hour. How I wish I would have taken a picture of us afterwards though! We were covered from head to toe with gray insulation powder. Both of us had completely gray hair, and we looked hilarious!



I decided to try something different with my hair this morning...I highlighted it. At first I totally hated it and thought that it looked way too drastic, but Jeff loves it! I only did about 10 small strands, but for some reason it looks like way more. Now the top matches my length more. My hair gets really light in the summer because of the sun, and then in the winter gets dark near the top, so this does help it to blend better. Jeff said it is subtle, unless you are under the glaring lights of my bathroom. It is way more highlights than I wanted, but it is a change. Jeff thinks I look more hip, which I guess is a good thing.

Family pics--vote!

We had our family pictures taken for our Christmas pictures. They turned out really well, but now we can't decide which one we like the best! So I need you all to vote and tell me what you think! We had several that turned out great, but two were our favorites. Here are the two that we are trying to choose from.

I thought this one of just Evie and Sierra was so good. We are going to have copies made of that for family and for us.














This last one I threw in because it was so funny! Normally it is the people who have their eyes shut in pictures, not the animals! This picture just cracked me up :). You can click on the picture to make it larger, and you will see what I mean.

So it begins!

Jeff and I got up early today so we could go vote. We voted in our small town library, and the parking lot was completely full. On our way home, we went to a nearby city to go to the bank. We went past one of the voting places, and it was completely packed out, so voter turnout seems to be pretty good. It is all in God's hands now. All we can do is pray.

Yesterday, Evie decided that she didn't need training wheels on her bike anymore. She didn't tell us this! She has training wheels on her bike that flip up, so she went out to play yesterday, and flipped up her training wheels and taught herself to ride her bike without them! She did this within about 1/2 hours time, while I was inside making dinner. I didn't even know until she told us at dinner, and Jeff and I both thought she was just making up a story. This morning, after we got home from voting, she had us come outside and she showed us. She wasn't kidding! I was completely amazed that she taught herself that, and in such a short time. Here is a video of it from this morning. I took 4 videos total because I was so proud of what she had accomplished :).

It's that time of year

I just wanted to thank all of you for the get well wishes! I am feeling much better now, which I am so thankful for! I really hate throwing up.

It is the time of year when my hubby starts thinking about hunting. So far he hasn't grown a beard, which he usually does every year. I'm not usually a huge fan of the beard (it is so scratchy for kissing!), but it keeps him warm :). Bow hunting season actually started already, but Jeff doesn't bow hunt. This afternoon, he got his gear out, and Evie was playing with his hunter hat and deer call. Every time she blew into the deer call, Sierra cocked her head and her ears shot up. It was pretty funny. I am always so thankful that Jeff hunts. We always have a full freezer of meat through the year because God provides through hunting, and it is such a blessing to us.

It was a beautiful day today. A warmer fall day. The colors right now are gorgeous. I should take more pictures of the trees.