Long weekend

Wow! Why do these long weekends, holiday weekends, never feel so relaxing as you imagine they are going to be?

DH had the week 'off'--which is nice but admit it...it makes everything else feel 'off' too, right? lol

Already posted pix of Tuesday.

Wednesday began a bit of Christmas decorating. The ktbunch hung the lights on the outside, half of which are not lighting up & 2 strings have fallen down across the porch threatening to choke us! Is this an indication of a Charlie Brown Christmas to come? ;-)

Thursday Thanksgiving--we celebrate @ both parents home, easy for me, I only had to bring 'rolls'. DH cooked his first, very own turkey, which tastes a little 'off' to me--not his, everyones, blame the 'baby'! I couldn't even enjoy my sil's annual Thanksgiving veggie lasagna!

Friday was my mom's birthday. I did not go to the cemetery, although I would have liked too. Spent a late night gabbing w/ a friend, teaching her to crochet while dh stayed home feeling flu-ish.

Saturday sil, aunt, dad & I cleaned out my parents storage unit. This was an unplanned, last minute, on teh spot "must do"!Mission accomplished & you would not believe the amazing treasures sil & I scored! I will post pix as soon as I can...but let me tell you---gobs of yarn, bag of vintage buttons & 2 vintage girls dress patterns, lots of love letters from grandpa to grandma AND a letter of proposal from gr. gr uncle to father of gr. gr aunt!!! to name a *few*. To do this I had to miss the funeral of my good friend's mother, I felt bad about that.

Today started w/ a migraine & back-ache, then church, baked a cherry pie, short rest, off to our regular evening service for an after-Thanksgiving meal & sharing words of thanks, plus members meeting.

And here I am. Up way too late....feeling my back twingy & head threatening to explode which actually sounds tempting & anxious for my day ahead tomorrow.

I had planned to be ready for tomorrow all weekend, & it never materialized...so doing last minute preparations for our every-20-school-days-teachers-meeting tonight. I still have to gather & assemble work samples....I'll have a bit of time for that in the morning. I'll print out the Learning Record right before I head to bed, which should be any minute now.

Maybe I can relax Tuesday? Oh no, oldest has a team meeting & Middle-not-so-little & I are finally starting those guitar lessons! Yay! yay?

Arbor Day? Definitely Arbor Day!!! lolololollol

Disney Holidays

What a lovely day! DH has this week *off*. Today we went to Disneyland. It is festively decorated for Christmas already & it is *so* wonderful. I love *everything* about it. We attempted to take our 'Christmas Pic'. Not sure if we accomplished it but we'll see. Oldest ds hung around just long enough to take a few pix then he was off w/ a friend.

We spent most of our day walking around checking out sites like the new 'Pixie Hollow', which is a line you wait in to take a pic w/ Tinkerbell! Lame! But now we know. lol We also stood in a short line to take a pic w/ Santa. That's always fun & cool to check out the reindeer.




We also watched the Christmas Fantasy Parade, or whatever it's called. Then we went on Pirates of the Caribbean. That's always a favorite & there was a very short line. All the lights in New Orleans Square are beautiful. We tried to end our day w/ a train ride around the park to the entrance but the 'battery' went dead on the 'steam engine train'? So we had to disembark. lol

Since we had to get off, right next to It's a Small World, we were able to watch the Holiday light show. Small World is decorated w/ what seems like a gazillion lights. You can never have too many lights, I say! ;-)


The weather started out very warm, but when we arrived @ Disneyland it seemed much cooler. Eventually it became very breezy & even more cooler. We barely beat the rain home. Good thing we left when we did.



Later I went w/ DH for his late night improv show he has every Tuesday. Since we didn't have youth groups I was able to reserve some energy. It started raining on the way there too. We park a bit of a ways away so we got a little wet on our way...& more so on our way back. It was actually cold. Funny for CA....you know the land of perpetual sunshine & never rain. lol

It was quite cozy to wear a coat & scarf...if only I'd had a hat or thought to bring the umbrella. Good thing I'm *not* a wicked witch or I might've risked melting away. heehee.

Fusion Family Night

Our youth group is called 'Fusion' & we've recently incorporated 'family nights', @ least once a month, into our weekly meetings. Last night was another one & we had a Thanksgiving FEAST!

MMmmmm. Everything was so good & delicious. A few parents showed up but plenty of youth, of course. The ktbunch & I made & brought cranberry muffins & cranberry-white chocolate oatmeal cookies. I thought cranberry was a good choice. ;-)

There was ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, pumpkin pie, rice, an asian (phillipino?) noodle dish w/ shrimp, carrot cake, cookies, delicious gravy, stuffing...mmmm...mmmm...good!

Everyone filled out a slip of paper stating what they were thankful for & we read some of them. A few youth briefly spoke on how God had changed their lives since Thanksgiving last year & a few leaders (myself included) shared how Fusion had affected our lives. Plus we sang a few worship songs. It turned out really nice, I thought.

Our pastor Deb pointed out how nice it was that so many of the Thanksgiving slips said they were thankful for the *food*, especially given the current state of the global economy & so many are going hungry these days. She said the number of people receiving food from foodbanks has risen %40 recently!!!! Can you believe that?

I read today that while core prices on products are dropping due to decreased consumer spending, food prices have *not* dropped but *risen*!

As times get tighter, I feel like I have so much *more* to be thankful for.

Recent CA events

CA has earthquakes & wildfires as part of our claim to fame. We aren't immediately affected by wild fires but they are a regular part of news & life here. We do get affected indirectly. Mainly w/ air quality. It's actually amazing how much we get affected.


Here are some pictures taken @ 3:00 in the afternoon, yesterday. The sky is murky & grey, ash is floating in the air & free falling from the sky. The sun is a hazy red & you can see an ugly, dirty layer of something in the horizon.

The pictures appear to look like fog but it is not....it is ash filling the sky, our lungs & covering our cars. The ground looks like someone has emptied their ashtray over everything. All I can think is these are pieces of people's livelihoods raining down on us, turning to dust.

My dd & I were out running a few errands. We were in air conditioned stores, I thought we were better off & safer. My boys were @ home, in a too warm house w/ all the windows shut tight. It was stuffy. Turns out they were better off as dd & I started to have respiratory issues just from the few moments we were out going from store to car.

DD awoke w/ a fever, sinus issues & a cough that seems to be getting worse. :-(

It was a very eerie feeling in the air. I saw a few people walking around w/ masks on, but mostly streets were empty.

A miracle?

Got a call early this morning. (from sil re: mil test results)
Doctor said there's virtually no cancer, a microscopic spot that will be easily removed by surgery, in the rectum.

It's not even a 'stage' of cancer....he said it's not even 'enough' to be thought of like that.

I can see/comprehend no logical explanation for this. ;-)

When will *I* learn to trust & believe God?

Plans are changing....

And it's NOT *all* about *me*!

We were planning on going camping for Thanksgiving this year. I was SO looking forward to it. Really. Seriously!

But w/ mil's diagnosis..(still no fine details yet)..well, I think it goes w/o saying that it's best to stay closer to home this year. I'm bummed, honestly, but so what? *see first line of this post* kwim?

I spent all last week getting up @ 4:30 AM....& if you know anything about me personally, 4:30 only exists ONE time a day on my clock..so this was ugh BIG time. lol I worked the telethon again & was I grateful. Phones were s.l.o.w. Between the economy & the election...I guess people were NOT feeling much like giving. It was pretty bad, they were sending people home by the room full.

I've also started some Christmas gift planning. I hope things work out for our *big* family plan, which is to treat the family to a musical, like last year, but in lieu of lots of extraneous gifts, starting a new tradition & making a family night out on the town the gift instead. I'm not sure if it will happen, but we'll see.

I'm also encouraging the ktbunch to make homemade gifts for each other & the people they love. I've already started a few funky hats & matching scarves & blessedly, Fall finally decided to join us this year so it's quite appropriate. I like what I'm accomplishing so far...if only I can keep them put away until Christmas...it's my downfall...I make it, then promptly give it to the receiver to use right away! lol

I'll post pix later on my Krafty Blog. ;-)

God is so Amazing!

Economy is tight, sales are down...ugh! right?

Barely able to pay the rent this month...but NO worries. I'm learning, more & more each day to trust God & allow His will to work in my life.

I keep praying & living in peace, which includes petitioning God for some random financial provision, I know he can provide it, not like he needs *my* $$$ right?

You betcha!

Got a letter in the mail...advising Dh to cash a check that is over 90 days old, 9 MONTHS old to be exact! A payroll check from his previous employer. Of course we know nothing about this so we call the business office as instructed.

Hey God works in mysterious ways....what a boring cliche'! But look @ this!!! I mean seriously, LOOK @ this!!! Only God provides for His people in such crazy random ways like this!!! IRL, $$$ doesn't just show up in your mailbox, right? & yet....the check is in the mail!

The time is long over due.

I have heard completely DIFFERENT things about Barack Obama today when I actually got to have an intelligent conversation w/ someone who is a Christian & did vote for him....up till now, I haven't been able to find anyone willing to converse on the matter.

I am beginning to think I totally misjudged him.
I also must admit that I do NOT know his heart & that was judgemental of me. I was wrong to do that....to assume he was not a Christian, when I really don't know, only God does.

I'm mad @ myself & feel deceived. I'm mad @ myself for not doing my own personal research & just going by opinions I was hearing about the two presidential candidates. (I realize they were opinions now, thinking they were reliable facts) And trusting the media anyway, biased in both directions, both candidates lieing about each other.

And I do think his race is very important. I do think it matters greatly, especially TO black people. And I don't think I can really truly know how much it means to any minority group, especially African-Americans.

People are in serious FEAR. & worse......
People are getting worked up over 'what ifs' & worse case scenarios.

Christ did tell us to give to the poor---he never indicated strings attached...& Obama does seem to care about the poor.

The bottom line is: (*i* think) WE, the CHRISTIANS dropped the real ball & not just in voting. Many Christians voted for Obama.

WE dropped the ball on morality & values. The laws, the president's stance or political party affiliation would NOT matter if WE were evangelising & BEING the church. It IS our responsibility to be a LIGHT to our neighbors, to share the TRUTH of the Gospel. If WE were doing that....abortion rates would DROP, regardless of if it was legal or not. Public Assistance rates would DROP regardless of availability. Imagine how empty courts of law would be if WE were ministering to ALL our neighbors, even the gangbangers. kwim?

Consider myself just as, if not MORE guilty.

Health insurance would NOT be an issue, or lack of, if we were actually lending a hand, helping our neighbors regardless of their needs, pitching in to pay their medical bills, offering our first aid knowledge, or other skills. kwim?

No we are not responsible for others households but what if we were ALL reaching out in the Name of Christ, OUR Lord & savior from whom we believe ALL our blessings flow? Maybe if we were sharing MORE of what God had blessed us w/....there would be LESS NEED out there. More kindness, more love, more peace, less strife, less greed.

Why do we strive to hold so tight to what we think belongs to us: our rights, our voice, our opinion, our $$$$, if we truly believe ALL we have is a GIFT from God, or that ALL we have & are BELONGS to GOD anyway? SO why not give it away freely? kwim?

If we truly disagree, wholeheartedly w/ Obama's political platform--then it's time to put our FAITH where our mouth is & fight harder than ever to BE the light, BE the church...perhaps if McCain HAD been elected, we Christians would have continued to sit back complacently...as *I* believe we have been.

I know many women believe they are bringing up their children in the fear & love of God our Father...but maybe God is challenging us to step further OUT. Out of our comfort, out of our homes, out of the familiar, out of our OWN preconceived notions of what WE think God wants us to do & be...maybe it's time we DO & Be what GOD wants, not what WE *THINK* He wants. kwim?

I don't know but these are my immediate thoughts for now.....

Here we go w/ the questions, again.

Is nana going to die?, my 8yo ds asked non-chalantly yesterday, on the way home from in laws house.

Well son, everyone dies eventually. Only God knows exactly when. Sometimes people get sick & die sooner then we expected & we have more of an idea when, like w/ Grandma Gale, but only God knows for sure.

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YES! I voted today. Took the youngers, a mini-field trip.
I LOVE voting! I do NOt take it for granted.

Deja Vu.

A million thoughts & memories flood & crowd my mind.

We were told today that MIL has cancer. The Big 'C' word, right?

Colon or rectal, not sure.
No fine details yet.
In a state of limbo.

Waiting for more tests to be run, a cat scan to see if the cancer has spread.
The results will determine the actual course of action.

It's not *my* mother.
It's not *pancreatic* cancer.

That alone is such a dramatic positive ... if you must find one.

Chocolate milk anyone?

Oldest ds asked younger ds: What kind of milk do brown cows have?

Thinking he would say chocolate, being a kid & all.

Younger ds answered: mexican milk?

We thought that was hilarious!