Five Words No Wife Wants to Hear

That would be: "Oh my God! Get down!"
Early this morning, Travis and I had been up for about 10 minutes and were tooling around the kitchen. I was getting the coffee pot started up, and he was looking outside the kitchen door asking me why all the animals were sitting there looking up at him like they wanted to come in. There was a thunderstorm outside, and we had seen flashing from lightening and heard the thunder roll, but suddenly the sound and the lighting outside changed. Travis yelled for me to get Kullen in the hallway rightnow!
The girls were sleeping over at a friend's house in another town after the co-op's high school Christmas party.
We got in the hallway, where I wrapped both arms and legs around Kullen and held on for dear life. The whole house rattled, and you could hear things snapping outside. I kept begging Travis to let the animals in but he said it was too dangerous to open the door.
After about five minutes, it quieted down. It was unbelievable. Our trampoline was bent up, our neighbor's light pole was snapped in half like a twig, there were branches and limbs down everywhere, and our power had gone out. A quick survey of the neighborhood showed a roof ripped off of a garage apartment, a fence down, but generally speaking, everything was okay. Nobody appeared to be hurt, and the damage was minor. All day long we heard more reports about horse trailers flipping over on cars, and all kinds of property damage. My super hubby spend the day re-installing a light pole for our handicapped neighbor. It took all day long to get our power back on.
I know tornadoes happen all the time, but it is a little scary when it touches your little corner of the world. Our house is fine. The only damage we suffered were a lot of downed limbs (some too big for me to carry), a hole through our trampoline netting, and a piece of tree bark which got plunged into the grill of Travis' truck!
In a strange way - I feel like I earned some sort of a "Texas badge" that reads, I survived a tornado!

I have some especially good stuff to share too - I've been reunited - due in large part to this blog with some family members that are really precious to me. I can't wait to share the whole story with you.

Get Yours First

I was listening to Christian radio while riding with Kullen in the car tonight and I heard a curious thing..... the announcer was talking about some upcoming concert, and how there will be a special release of tickets. They went on to say, get yours first before they are released to the general public.
Am I missing something?
What about Jesus' teaching that the last shall be first, and the first shall be last.
Even on the Christian radio station, the message seems to be "hurry up and get yours before the next guy".
Any thoughts?

I'd Like to Fry Some SPAM!

What is up with SPAM??? I get a lot of emails between personal stuff (one of which was a very exciting email from my "step"-sister that I haven't heard from in way too many years this morning!!! Hi Alisha!!), homeschool groups, and a heavy work load. That stuff in itself is enough to sort through - but it seems that in the last few months the amount of SPAM I am getting has taken a surge.
It wasn't all that bad - I can press the delete button like nobody's business
If you needed Viagra or Cialis, I could definitely hook you up....
But...
These freaky little spammers have started to add pictures to their ads.
The other day I saw something that I can't unsee.
It.freaked.me.out.
So Dear Mr. Spam-man,
Don't send me any more nightmares. It's hard to use the computer wearing a blindfold!

Out of the Mouth of Babes

This was on the Houston Christian radio station - and there has been a lot of hub-bub about the wisdom of this little man. I didn't know until my friend Carol sent me a link that they had it on YouTube.

PJ Pants

My neighbor Debra drug me out to Joann Fabrics on Black Friday and we took advantage of 99 cents a yard flannel. It was the only shopping we did. She likes to sew, and I had the optimistic idea of making pj pants for my kids for their Christmas Eve pajamas. With all the stuff going on at work, and the hustle bustle of activities during the holiday season, I was starting to wonder if I had bitten off more than I could chew. The high schoolers from co-op are having a Christmas party this Friday night, and the girls are having a sleepover afterwards, and one of my girls hinted that it might be nice if they had some holeless new pajamas to wear. I had bought two different fabrics for each of them, so I could make them a pair for now and another for Christmas. I worked all afternoon on an "easy" pattern. They turned out pretty cute. They're pretty happy with them, which I think is all that really matters. Kendra's pants (R) have a "New York" theme - city scape and Statue of Liberty. Kaitlyn's pants (L) have skulls and grungy prints on a pink back ground - Kendra says they are the perfect blend of "fancy"and "evil" just like Kaitlyn !! The flannel is a really nice quality and very soft. I hope they are made well to last them for a long time.

That Says it All

Well it is starting to feel like winter in east Texas! Just to be sure you don't think I've suddenly stopped complaining, let me clarify that it went straight from sticky, humid 80 degree weather to damp and freezing, skipping every single phase of potentially enjoyable weather in between. Ick. I had to run an errand this afternoon. Since I never know how to dress, I went out wearing capri pants, and froze my little (work with me here it is one of my smaller features) hiney off. I looked down at the cart - the contents of which were frozen pizzas, ice cream (with plenty of chocolate of course!) and Kotex. Does this not say it all???

Blog Rating and a Story

I saw this on my friend Jenny's blog. I too was a bit surprised to get this rating - although I'm not sure why - I have never considered myself a "G" rated person.

At any rate, this story is very likely to change my rating. My youngest daughter can be a bit snarky at times. She has a dry, sarcastic way about her. She is negative and pessimistic and to be honest it is a huge contrast with the rest of our family, although her dad has a bit of this streak as well. We went to this amazing Christmas event the other night called "An Evening in Old Bethlehem" where the entire expo center was set up like Bethlehem at the birth of Christ. There were artisans, beggars, tax collectors, three wise men, a wedding party walking the streets, musicians, and the innkeeper walking up to you shouting that there was "no room at the inn". We even had a girl walk up to us about 50 times asking if we wanted to buy "fresh, 2 week old fish" from the sea of Galilee. It was so elaborate, and very lovely. They even had a few donkeys here and there. At one point, after seeing the manger with Joseph, Mary and the Christ-child, I was pretty excited, and turned to my kids, forgetting the older two are 14 and 16, and said in my "mommy voice" - " do y'all wanna go pet the animals?" My 14 yo. turned to her sister and said, in her perfectedly snarky way, "I don't know. Kendra, do you want to pet the (insert biblical word for donkey)?" My husband was no help at all, trying to muffle his laughter.
Some drops of hot pepper sauce will be administered later, when I stop thinking it is funny.

Walking in a Ginger Wonderland

One of the things I love the most about this time of year is making a gingerbread house. My friend Helen always made a ton for our homeschool group - and it was so much fun to get together, pool our resources and bring a ton of candy, and decorate our little houses. I was so excited when a group of ladies wanted to do it with me!
Tonight, my friends Taffy and Beverly came over and we baked the walls of gingerbread houses till it was coming out of our ears! We also made some royal icing green and covered sugar cones to make Christmas trees, and glued some large marshmallows together for giant size (scaled next to our small houses) snowmen!
We decided to make smaller individual houses - and think the kids will enjoy them. We did have some minor wall collapses, and had to cut some walls because the roofs were short. Other than that, we did fine, although I don't see having our own construction company in our future! Stay tuned till Thursday, and I'll post pictures of the houses once they're decorated.
Man my house smells good!

Christmas Spirit

There is something indeed magical about the snow - the hush as it falls to the ground, muffling the world around as if putting it to bed. But the next day, reality - the shoveling, the snow-blowing, the rocking motion of your car back and forth, back and forth as you try desperately to dislodge it from the frozen driveway, the extra layers of clothing. I am keeping day #2 of snow in mind as I grapple with my winter/Christmas sensory deprivation.
I have decided to embrace the differences in the Texas Christmas season. A big shift in my attitude came today at co-op. We went there early this morning, leaving around 7 am. It was hot and muggy. The humidity was so heavy that the papers I was carrying were damp when I got inside. Ugh. But by this afternoon, after the 4th & 5th grade Christmas party, I took the kids out to the playground while some other suckers moms cleaned up. It was beautiful. Everybody was wearing short sleeves. The temperatures were perfect. All day long I had received gifts from different kids. It was a nice day. Even though it didn't feel like "winter", I definitely felt the Christmas spirit warming my heart.

My Grinch Name

My friend Stephanie did this and it looked so fun!!!

Your Grinch name is:

Dismalgrinch Crankynoggin

Yep - mine is fitting too!
What is your Grinch name?