If the crown fits...: December 2007

One of my New Year's Resolutions will be to try and choose "the better part..." whichever that may be!

Edited: "Those of us with more of a Martha than of a Mary in us have long felt that this rebuke is unjust. While we do not doubt the overriding importance of listening to the Lord, does the listening have to be done during dinner preparations? Would it have hurt Mary to have joined us in serving, then we all could have sat down to hear the Lord together? And furthermore, what about the value of work in the world? If it weren't for us Marthas cleaning whatever we see and fussing over meals, there would be a lot of dirty, hungry people in the world...Why, oh why couldn't the Lord have said, 'You're absolutely right, Martha. What are we thinking of to let you do all this work alone? We'll all help, and by the way, that centerpiece looks lovely'? What he did say is difficult to bear, but perhaps somewhat less difficult if we examine its content...the Lord acknowledges Martha's care: "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things." Then he delivers the gentle but clear rebuke. But the rebuke would not have come had Martha not prompted it. The Lord did not go into the kitchen and tell Martha to stop cooking and come listen. Apparently he was content to let her serve him however she cared to, until she judged another person's service." (Mary, Martha and Me; Camille Fronk Olsen)

The thing us Martha's need to do is to make sure that in all we do that we put God first, and whatever is second will be good.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: “Jesus taught about priorities when He said, ‘Seek not the things of this world but seek ye first to build up the kingdom of God, and to establish his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you’ (JST, Matt. 6:38, in Matt. 6:33, footnote a). ‘Seek … first to build up the kingdom of God’ means to assign first priority to God and to His work. The work of God is to bring to pass the eternal life of His children (see Moses 1:39), and all that this entails in the birth, nurturing, teaching, and sealing of our Heavenly Father’s children. Everything else is lower in priority.”

READ MORE...

Congratulations...

READ MORE...

Journaling Christmas...

If what you were hoping for was just a picture slide show of our Christmas, scroll down and get that version...this post is for those few of you who want to know all about our day from top to bottom...(hi mom!)

On Christmas Eve, the kids wanted to open a gift really bad. When I was a kid we always opened a gift on Christmas Eve, but that was because, by some mystery, the gift we opened contained pajamas to sleep in. I started this tradition with my kids, but we abandoned it before Aliza was even born since Sinterklaas started bringing pj's for Dutch Christmas on the 5th, and it seemed redundant and anti-climatic. So, we just usually make them wait until Christmas morning to open any presents. Parker was insistent. (Really? Parker? hard to believe...) So we struck a deal with them. We had originally told them that they could call us from T's cell phone at 6:30 am to wake us up. This was to prevent them from trying to get up at 4 am like Brandy and Dave do. So we told them they could either open a present that night and wait until 8 am to get up or they could go to bed, wait until morning and get up at 6 (1/2 hour earlier...!!!) Of course, they chose the 6 am start time, so they were off to bed. Amazingly, they were all out cold prior to 10 pm. Woo Hoo! We had tracked Santa on line and found out he was getting close, and they know he only passes by once. Ty and Parker are cute to play along for Aliza... :)

So Maris and I had just settled down for a long winter's nap (or so it seemed) when the phone rang. What? 6:00 already? Maris looked at the clock and said, no, it was actually 4:55 am. But in Turkey, it was 1 pm. And Rick could not believe that it was almost 5 here and my kids were not up!! So after chatting with my bro for a few minutes, Maris and I decided that instead of trying to go back to sleep for all of 25 minutes, we might as well get up...so we ended up waking the kids up!

I got the Breakfast Casserole going...

...while the kids checked out what Santa had brought, and then we opened up our family gift. Maris and I wrapped (who am I kidding, Maris didn't wrap anything) all of the individual Wii things separately so that there would be more to open. Because otherwise, there just would have been one box...I believe in spreading the love! So they opened num chucks and remotes and games and then we told them that we had preordered a Wii at Game Stop and we could pick it up in January...wahahahahaha! Aren't we funny. Seriously, the Wii was the best (or maybe worst) present ever and it has not been turned off for 48 hours. And sadly, my arm is sore today from bowling and baseball and javelin throwing, not to mention swimming and running...and I threw my lower back out. Where is a good chiropractor when you need one? For a video game, it keeps you moving! But I won't go so far as to say that it replaces sunshine and exercise!

Speaking of, it was 65 degrees and perfect weather for the boys to try out their new Rip Stiks.

I think that the Rip Stik is Parker's favorite gift...he has spent tons of time outside practicing, and several of his friends got them too, so there are plenty of kids to practice with!

They are kinda like skateboards, but only have 2 wheels and they twist in the middle and you have to wiggle to make them go...

But T has spent most of his free time with his nose in the 7th Harry Potter book. He started reading the series the week before Thanksgiving and took the week of Thanksgiving off while he was in Utah, but has finished all of them, except the last 1/2 of the 7th one. I suspect it won't be long before that one is history, too.

And Liza's favorite gift is this Baby Born doll that eats and drinks and subsequently pees and poops. We had to take an early morning trip to CVS to buy some diapers for it so it would stop leaking all over the carpet. When she peed through the 2 diapers that came with it, Liza decided to "potty train" her and fed her the bottle while she sat on the potty. But if she is sitting up, the water fills the tear cavity instead of the pee cavity and then she cries (real tears, nonetheless).

So after soaking through a couple of beach towels, we got the diapers. I haven't let her feed it the food, because after you feed her, you have to clean her out or the food rots inside of her (who bought this doll???) and I am just not ready to deal with that yet! I remember when I was little I had a Baby Alive and my mom wouldn't let me feed her the food for that same reason, and I was not scarred for life.

In the meantime, we put the tree (I hesitate to even call it that, as it has become nothing more than a dry needle crispy fire hazard) on the curb last night, and I am so glad to just be done with it. Maris wants a fake tree for next year. I still am not convinced, we'll see.

And just on a freaky side note...I woke this morning to the sound of lawn mowers. What? It is winter and the although it is sometimes warm, the grass has gone dormant. It was also cold today, so the lawn guys were out freezing while they mowed the lawn next door. (The house just sold, and the builder was just sprucing it up a little!) Hey, mow mine too, will ya??

Anyway, we had a great Christmas and hope all yous guys (Rick said that that sounds better than y'all) had a great day too! We are especially grateful at this time of year for the greatest gift ever given, the Atonement of Christ. It seems hard sometimes to remember with all that goes on that Christmas started with the birth of a sweet baby. May we all try a little harder to remember Him in our daily lives.

READ MORE...

Christmas Slide Show...

READ MORE...

Christmas Eve

I was totally determined this year to be home at Christmas time, but since Maris didn't have much time off, it became an impossibility. Well, unless we wanted to travel the day after Christmas without him and pay the overpriced airline ticket charge for traveling between Christmas and New Year's or drive the 2 days up and 2 days back over the (Red) River and through the (Rocky Mountain) woods and deal with the drifted snow that all y'all up north are getting, again without Maris...none of that sounded very attractive to us, so Texas it is! And we are OK with it, except on Christmas Eve, when I love to be at my mom's house, eating her food and dipping in her dips and laughing with my brothers (and maybe arguing a little) and holding my cute little niece and playing with my sisters-in-law and visiting with my mom and reading Luke II while my kids (who mostly now think they are too big) dress up to look (vaguely) like Mary, Joseph and one of the wise guys and then putting carrots and glitter out on the back deck for the reindeer to find and eat and running off to bed while visions and dreams of Santa run through their heads...ahhhhhh. I'm OK except for then. So a couple of families from our ward had to endure my interpretation of Christmas Eve, which centers around food made like my mom using her recipes and hoping it tastes vaguely the same so that it feels like Christmas...(rolls, turkey, stuffing, potatoes and gravy, pumpkin pie, Texas sheet cake...mmmmmm). We are so grateful for the many friends we have made here...

Aliza and Rhegan ...

RaeLynn and Clara...

The boys table featuring Anthony Tyler, Tristan, Bridger and Parker...

And a friendly game of Scum (thanks for bringing it, Jason!!) around the adults table...

Laurie didn't know I was really taking pictures of her cards and secretly sharing them with Maris in an attempt to move him into the power position of President...JK! However, they all accused Maris of cheating...I don't know if he really was or if he just always has that game look that you cannot trust!

The girls played with the ironing beads...

...and the boys played Lego's in T's room.

The boys and RaeLynn. They were very good to let the little boys play with them too...

And Parker liked getting down on the ground and playing with the little ones...

Tormenting Sweetie.

Bridger loved playing with the old horse that T used to love...

And isn't Elijah a cutie? Look at those eyes!

And we had some awesome friends drop by with goodies...(thanks Lisa and Eric and family)!

We are so so so grateful for all of you who shared your holiday with us in one way or another. We truly feel loved and blessed.

READ MORE...

Class "Holiday" Parties

This blog is going to go into Christmas overload if I try to post the last 4 days in one sitting, so I won't. I'll start tonight with Friday's class parties and maybe do Christmas Eve and Christmas Day tomorrow...The kids had "Holiday" parties at school because they are not allowed to say they are having a Christmas party. (Whatever.) I was lucky that I got to spend a little bit of time in each of the kids' parties, but spent the most time in Tyler's. After all, this will be his last year of class parties...next year he is on to bigger and (better?) or at least Middle School. In Aliza's class, I read "Olive, the Other Reindeer" to the kids. Then they made door hangers that looked like reindeer out of the outline of their hands and feet...cute. Lucy was excited that I was there. I absolutely love her teacher, she has been so positive and good with Aliza.

Here they are after I read the story getting instructions on what they are doing next.

On to Parker's class, where I got there just in time to watch the tail end of the ornament exchange. They played the game where you pull out a number and then can take one from someone else or can choose a new one. Parker pulled # 15 out of 20, so he had a pretty good number. I had to laugh at Kashard because he pulled a Dallas Mavericks ornament and then hid it under his desk so that no one would take it from him!

Parker stole this pretty pink snowflake from Christian because Christian did not want it and begged him to take it, but after I left, Parker ended up trading it for a snowman made out of "real wood!!!" Park thought that was so cool. BTW his teacher made the whole class these fleece scarves. How cute!

Here is T with Mrs. Patton, his homeroom teacher, as well as his Science teacher, and his friends Nicholas and Dru. Nicholas is also playing basketball for Prosper, but they didn't get put on the same team. His mom and I think it is because they are the two tallest boys playing and they were trying to make the teams pretty even. His friends Tanner (from church) and Klein (from school) are both on his team, though.

For T's ornament exchange, they played the left,left, right game while they read a holiday story. He ended up with a pretty cool ornament...it is a "kissing ball." :) It was a styrofoam ball covered with kisses and a candy cane for the hook. He scored big.

This little girl ended up with the 1/2 ton gumdrop ornament that we made. I hadn't put a hook in it before we put all the gumdrops on it, so we compromised and tied a ribbon around it for the hanging up part...like a tree wouldn't tip over if you put it on it!

T and Nicholas as the bell rang and they ran out looking forward to 2 whole weeks away from homework! They both take AP classes, which involves sometimes 2 or more hours of homework a night! They have made some plans to get together over the break, we don't have to be back to school until January 7th!!!

When we got home, Liza Lu made more of our star ornaments...she loves to glitter, and I am learning from my mom to let the kids be more creative and not worry so much about glitter all over the floor...you all would have been so proud of my letting her do this...I didn't even hover. And look how proud and happy she is!

Well, that was about it...I can't even remember now what we did after the kids got out of school at NOON on Friday...it all became a blur!If anyone wants a star ornament, just let us know!! :)

READ MORE...

My tree will be on the curb at this time tomorrow night...

READ MORE...

I'm Comet! (Whatever that means?)

READ MORE...

It's amazing...

...what a difference a little insulation makes! Our home is two stories, and the second story is over all the parts of our 1st floor except for our Master bedroom. It is in the back of the house and has it's own attic area. So when the nights started to cool down you could walk into our room and the temperature dropped dramatically. We guessed that there was some kind of an insulation problem, so I had the warranty guy come out and look. After walking around my room looking at the ceiling, he came up with this: when the dry wall-ers dry walled they did not leave access to the attic area over the bedroom, so, when the insulators came to insulate, there was no access, so of course they just did not spray any insulation in the bedroom attic. Of course. Why didn't I think of that?? It is quite the process to get things fixed. First the guys who cut holes came out. These are not dry wall guys, because when they cut the first hole:

in the back of the closet and realized that there was floor above it, not attic, they cut a second hole int he front of the closet:

and said that they couldn't fix the first hole, they are not drywallers. That was Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday morning the insulator guys came and laid plastic down from the front door to the bedroom closet and blew in insulation. I told him to make sure that he got it in thick, and he didn't speak English, but he said yes. Come to think of it, all of the guys who came to work on the holes in my closet just smiled at me, laughed a little and said yes when I said something to them. Then, Wednesday afternoon, the drywall guy came and fixed the hole in the ceiling. All we need now is for the paint guy to come and paint over the fixed hole and the attic door and the wood trim. Now my room is warm! Which is great, because I think I got sick from camping in my cold room. I actually slept in this morning until after 10:00. That felt good!!!

Tyler and Parker had to make ornaments to take to school for their holiday parties, because they are having an ornament exchange. For Tyler's, we used toothpicks and stuck gumdrops into a Styrofoam ball. The tree that thing goes on had better be made of metal, because that ball was very heavy when we got done with it! I forgot to take a picture of it, but here is what remains of the 2 bags of gumdrops, that I keep eating.

For Parker's ornament, we glued colored craft sticks into the shape of stars and then he glued glitter and gems on to it. Aliza did one too and took it to her teacher. Her teacher is so cute to gush all over the many things that Aliza makes to take to her...

Tyler has a basketball "tryout" tonight. It is just a little scrimmage to see how well each kid plays so that they can divide the teams evenly. Tanner's dad is coaching and they told him he could have Tyler for sure. He is very excited to get going on it! I'll take pic's and post for you!! :) Better run! I'm still waiting for some pictures to get to me of baby Kennedy (they have sent some twice, for some reason I am not getting them...) and I'll post them then!

READ MORE...