If the crown fits...: January 2009

"God doesn't care so much about where you have been as where you are, and with His help, where you are willing to go." Elder Jeffrey Holland

On New Year's Day, Creating Keepsakes put their newest KOTM (Kit of the Month) up for sale on their website. On a whim, I logged on and ordered it with relatively little problem and drama. (I had to refresh the page a couple of times because of high volume). Soon after I got a confirmation on my e-mail, and I logged on to Becky Higgin's Blog to read the newest info on how to use this kit. Wow. Talk about hate mail (or in this case, hate-comments.) People were livid. The website had apparently crashed and people were getting confirmations with $0 balances and some people were getting confirmations with 10 kits on them, but most people were getting nothing or being notified that it was sold out. Worse, international customers were told to call a long distance # in the States where they sat for hours, waiting. And, ummmmm, there was no one there on New Year's Day answering the phones...Furthermore, the kits were on back order and it may be weeks, maybe months before it actually shipped.

Then it turns out that in crashing, the site lost a bunch of orders, so even if you got a confirmation there was no guarantee that you were actually ever going to get it. And then, I started getting weird emails from them that had cryptic messages about what I had ordered, and none of it looked like it was a Project 365 kit. Then I got a tracking number and learned that something was headed my way, but who knows what it was...

Then, miraculously, on the 8th, only 1 week after I had ordered it, it showed up on my porch.
A beautiful 3-ring binder with enough page protectors to document every day for an entire year.
And enough little cute cards to journal about each and every day.

It even came with this stamp to do something with, but I don't know what.

It has made me think over the last year and look to this one and wonder what it has in store. There are sure to be some laughs and some trips and some fun times, but there will also be tears and heartache, there always is. It will be fun to document, and fun to look at.

A blog-friend of mine posted a link to a BYU devotional that Elder Holland spoke at a few days ago. In it, he spoke of Lot's wife and how she turned and looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt. He said that her sin was not in looking at the past but in longing for what that past represented and not trusting that the Lord had something better in store for them. She wanted to hold on to all the junk. He talked about forgiving others for their mistakes and not always bringing it up and also of only remembering enough of our own mistakes to prevent us from making them again. He said that in looking back, we should claim the embers and not the ashes.

I hope this will be a book full of embers...

If you want one you can buy a book on E-bay for anywhere from $70 to $185.

In the meantime, I am having a hard time remembering to take a picture EVERY SINGLE DAY.

And, I don't even know how to print an actual picture these days. I haven't actually printed pictures for years. I used to run to Sam's to develop my 35 mm film because I was so excited to see how the pictures turned out. Now I can see in my view finder how they turned out and erase the ones I hate. And I have storage bins full of these previously printed pictures sitting there waiting to be put in books.

I am excited to put pictures in the book...I'll post it when I do.

READ MORE...

After School Snack

READ MORE...

It keeps going, and going, and going...

** I finally got Liza's video to post, it is right after this post!

Wanna know what else we did in December?

It was a very busy month...one of the ironies of blogging is that when you are doing a lot that is worthy of blogging, you don't have time to blog, and when you have time to blog, it is because there is really nothing to blog about...

In December, we went to Gainesville to the UIL competition.

Parker competed in two areas this year:

Dictionary Skills and

Oral Reading.

He did such a great job. He is such an outgoing, sweet boy. He is friends with everyone.

I managed to drive up there all on my own...well kinda. I followed the bus. But I talked on the phone to my mom almost the whole way up and didn't really pay attention to how we got there, and I did drive back by myself without getting lost. And Gainesville is almost to Oklahoma!

Here is Parker and Max:

Some of the other kids from Baker:

The 3rd grade did a cute program for the parents in December, all about some reindeer and some penguins at the South Pole, and Santa crashes his sleigh and has amnesia..the reindeer and penguins help him remember who he is. They sang darling songs and had cute dialogue. Liza got a speaking part and had to memorize her parts. She did a great job! I am trying to upload a video and it isn't working, so there may or may not be a video in this post. I hope there is 'cuz it was very cute.

I came to a rude realization this Christmas season that Aliza is getting older and my baby is really not a baby anymore. I also realized to my disappointment that she has really missed out and not gotten to do the "little kid" stuff that my boys got to do when they were little because we are getting out of that phase witht he older kids, like visiting Santa. Thank goodness for my friend Jenn who invited us to her sister's home on Christmas Eve to see him or we would've gone the whole season without sitting on Santa's lap.

I love that the kids are growing up, but it is also quite bittersweet at the same time.

Here is Aliza with her Music teacher (Mrs. Gatlin) on the left and her teacher Ms. Garich (who I love) on the right.

And this picture is so real of Aliza and her fun, animated personality. She is so independent and fun to be with, and funny. (Maris and I went to 4 stores looking for those antlers, by the way!)