Christmas and Cole

Well, more on Christmas update will come later. We had a great day. Having a child who has a birthday the day after Christmas makes one very conscious of trying to make sure that their birthday is not forgotten because of the busy ness of the season. So on to Cole's birthday blog.


Cole being our first baby we decided not to find out the gender, but there were some tell tale signs. These are balloons a week after my shower they were used for, we thought it was kind of odd that only a blue survived and stayed even longer than a week.




We did not have a very good camera back in the day and quite honnestly we were finding our way with having a new baby and didn't take as many pictures those first few weeks, but here's one and of his blessing, and thru the years....

Cole is one of the kindest, smartest people I know. He started laughing heartily and easily at four months old and hasn't stopped. His memory is crazy good and he is a very dynamic thinker. He gives the most thoughtful prayers and loves to learn from the scriptures...the stories anyways. He seems to relish in the Gospel, but he's still glad for Sacrament meeting to be over :). He more than adores his dad (and who can blame him?). He loves legos, Star Wars, reading Narnia and other good books, has found a passion for soccer, still loves to laugh, play jokes and be tickled. It does not matter what's on the tv, he will be glued to it. He loves board games and video games. He loves to snuggle more often than not and I love that. He's more than I could have ever asked for in a child. I more than adore him (and who can blame me?). I love you Cole, Happy Birthday!

A shout out

to those who serve...
this is kind of cheesy, but I like the guys voice and the music behind it and of course the premise. Thanks to all of those serving our country, particularly if they're away from their families during Christmas. God speed! Our prayers and love are with you and yours.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-JMePMCRhc

Learning moments

Due to something, I can't recall right now what, we had FHE tonight. It was Laura's turn for the lesson. She likes to pick a story from the friend and have Brandon or I tell her the words and she tells everyone else what we just said. The story she picked tonight was this one...

Laniel Backus, “The Overall Girl,” Friend, Dec 2005, 42

(Based on a true story)

Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart (1 Sam. 16:7).

She wore overalls to school. This was unheard of in 1936 when I was eight years old. And that wasn’t her only crime.

“Look at what ‘Overalls’ brought for lunch,” one of my friends whispered. I watched the girl pull out two slices of bread—no meat, no cheese, no peanut butter, no sandwich spread. Strange.

No one sat by her or talked to her, so I didn’t either.

That changed one cold, blustery, winter day when the snow was four feet deep with twelve-foot drifts. Because I lived in a small mining town 10 miles away from school, I usually left class early to catch the bus that the high school students also rode. But on this day my teacher made an announcement: “None of you will leave this room until you have handed in your projects and cleaned up after yourselves.” I watched the clock, hurrying as fast as I could. As soon as I finished, I grabbed my coat and raced after the bus. But it was no use. Groaning, I watched it drive off without me. My family had no telephone, and I could think of nothing to do but start walking.

I wrapped my hand-me-down brown coat tightly around me, lowered my head, and set off up the icy road. I had no hat, no gloves, and no boots. Then, as now, a few drivers thought it great sport to splash people, so I was soon soaked.

At the time there was an epidemic of scarlet fever, and nearly every house along the road had a quarantine sign on it, meaning that no one could enter or leave. Families without the disease did not welcome strangers for fear of catching it, so I had no chance of going inside to get warm. One very nice lady came out and gave me a warm hat, though, and said she was sorry that I couldn’t come in.

Five miles into my trek, I was so stiff and cold that I was beginning to doubt I could make it. Just then, two young ladies came running out from a farmhouse. “Would you like to come in?”

I nodded, and they helped me through the door. Inside, they hung my wet clothes by the fire to dry and wrapped me in a warm blanket. They asked me where I lived and then disappeared. Their mother spoke to me gently to calm my fears as she prepared supper. Before long, who should come through the door but the last person on earth I expected—the overall girl!

“I was in the barn doing chores and I saw you walking,” she said. “I told my sisters that you go to my school and that you don’t have scarlet fever.”

“Thanks.” I couldn’t believe how relieved I felt to see someone I knew. We talked until suppertime, and then her mother invited us into the kitchen. I especially liked the large slices of fresh homemade bread and homemade butter. Mmmmmmmm, good!

I learned later that her sisters had gone out and stood in the cold, waiting and watching for someone to come looking for me. When my parents drove slowly past, they were waved down and brought inside. Was I ever glad to see them!

I learned a lot about the overall girl that day and decided that she was better than all the snobs at school put together (including me). From then on I made it a point to sit with my new friend at lunch. Sometimes she would even trade her delicious bread-and-butter sandwiches with me.


She automatically and very sincerely went into "what I learned from this story was a testimony...(I was so proud of her telling us what she learned) that you should hurry up and get your work done so you won't be late!" Something's better than nothing I suppose??? It's a good thing we a have a few more opportunities to go over this principle before she's a teen.

Stress reliever

So I was a little stressed out today, not for any huge reason, my life is not stressful. Even though I wasn't looking forward to it, tonight was Prism. I love the Marching Chiefs, to me they're the reason to go to the games. LIke a good burger; the burger is there to compliment the condiments, not the other way around...not that I don't enjoy good football every now and then, but not as much as watching the band work magic. Well this is a concert with the chiefs and concert band (I have no idea if I'm explaining this right). Anyway the wind and percussion groups put together different musical pieces. It's wonderful. The stress melted right off of me. I love love love music and really who doesn't? People have different preferences, but all respond to music. It is one of my very favorite gifts from God.

The Ruby Diamond is being renovated which is where the Prism concert is usually held. So this year and next it's relocated to Godby High School, wherein I was able to get close up seats due to the fact that maybe not as many people were intrigued with the idea and it was general seating. I was able to watch the conductors. This job has always intrigued me. I was in elementary and "middle school" (we didn't have a middle school, but it was middle school grades in a high school) bands and played clarinet so I know a tidbit about music. I just really don't get that the person waving their arms around is really leading all the peeps. I love to watch it though and they seem so very passionate about what it is they're doing, especially a couple of them tonight. The same could not be said for some of the students playing. The looks on some of their faces would have made you think they didn't sign up for this, but were drafted at gun point. Ah kids :)! It was fun as always though. A guy in our ward produces the show and kudos to him (although whenever I ask him what he does he always says ah nothing, so I've decided he's the guy who turns the lights on in the right spots at the right times thus producing the prism:) )!!! Thanks Matt for the tickets, it was great! Go Chiefs! and concert band and the noles will be back eventually...right?

Fun stuff

A couple of weeks ago we went camping at Torreya State Park even though rain was coming. We were able to set up camp, eat dinner before the rain started. Mom and Frank came to visit us and brought us marshmallows. It rained all that night and we got a little damp. The next morning it wasn't raining. We ate breakfast and went for a great hike. Uncle Michael came to visit us on the hike and help keep us on the right path. We then played hide and seek with the walkie talkies, soccer, played on the playground, played sequence (we had never played this before and now have one to put under the Christmas tree). At some point we were driving by where we had earlier walked and Brandon said stop I see a snake and I didn't want to hurt the snake so I carefully backed up and it turned out to be a rattler. I tried to downplay it for the kids, "oh, if one of us got bit we would just need to get to a hospital, the chances of us dying would be minimal, la dee dah, I was freaked!, but we weren't leaving. A lot of work goes into camping and it has to be serious to leave after one day. Well, later on the second night mom and Frank had visited with us again and taken Hannah home with them. We were ready to have a great night. The kids were so exhausted from our hike and activities that day Cole was begging to go to sleep so we got the kids down and we were enjoying the campfire. Mom calls to tell us our weatherwoman Carmen said there was a tornado watch out for our area. We were like well we'll wait and see, there had been rain all around the area and it hadn't hit us hard yet. A little bit later mom calls back and says there's 100% chance of rain, there's going to 1-2 inches and having been through less rain the night before and mom's only 10 minutes away we decided to head in. So we pile up and go sleep in civility. The next morning Brandon and I went to break camp and there was all of two drops in our tent and all seemed well. Better safe than sorry I suppose. We enjoyed ourselves and loved the time w/o other distractions, we played with each other...it was fun! We're looking forward to going again as long as we don't think about the rattlesnakes too much!








Recently Scott, Julie and Scotty came to visit and it was so good to see them, we went down to St. George Island for family pics and we got some good shots. The beach was wonderful, the kids were dying to play in the water and of course it was my Laura who ended up soaking wet before long, at least it was after pics.

'Tis the season

to fret, to budget, to worry that the kids will like what they get - will they feel like they got enough? I don't want to be a debbie downer, but it would be so nice if so much commercialism and materialism weren't wrapped up in Christmas. I love the Spirit of Christmas, everyone's excited, more kind, more thoughtful, more giving. It seems that it would be more enjoyable if our customs leaned more toward tangible but not touchable acts of service. Instead of giving a gift from from one hand to another, we could create bonds through lending ourselves to one another.

I realize it's a pipe dream. I'm the world's worst of wanting to get one more present for the kids. But how would it be to live in a world where the homemade gift truly was enough? For the giver and receiver. That we were aware of the richness of having one another and the simple things in life. I believe that that Christmas is out there waiting for us, maybe not as a nation or culture, but maybe for a moment as a family. I hope that I can give my kids a piece of what I think that feels like; peaceful, grateful, loving, safe. So adored that a Father would give His Son that we might live this life to become more and then return home to be greater, even beyond our imaginations. A homemade gift that's tangible but not touchable, so real, but can't be wrapped. It's how Christmas started out to be and will be once again.

In the mean time I'll wake up early the day after Thanksgiving and help the economy, hoping to get some good finds for the kids. I'm already excited about decorating, the music, not sleeping on Christmas eve, all the fun parties, eating too many sweets. But! I do hope to reserve a few moments to slow down and experience the Christmas of my dreams and be extra grateful, peaceful, and sit in awe with the knowledge that I was adored enough for a Son to be born, His life to be lived in service and His death in suffering....what a gift to us all.

Tag

10 years ago I . . .
1. was loving my new hubby of a couple of months
2. getting used to being in a family ward
3. fretting over my Valiant 11s, Lori B., Heather R., Sarah M., all grown up now
4. working at Homes & Land
5. wanting so badly to have babies

5 things on my "to do list" today . . . (probably won't get to it all)
1. exercise
2. decide on dinner
3. play with my kids
4. go to Sears end of season sale
5. lipo

5 snacks I like . . .
1. twizzlers
2. chips & dip
3. cheese
4. pretzels
5. popcorn (from publix)

6 things I would do if I were a millionaire . . . (the first two Kim had and it's true for me too so I let it be)
1. Invest most of it
2. Use it to make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate (cliché, you may say, but true)
3. vacation home in Idaho, near Orlando and Manhattan
4. some cash to my family
5. travel to new york every other month and other great places on the month's in between
6. a baby grand for my sweet baby (and space to put it in :) )

3 places I have lived . . .
1. Potter Road, Sycamore, FL aka "the sticks"
2. Port Orange, FL
3. Tallahassee, FL

5 jobs that I have had . . .
1. Babysitter
2. Grocery Cashier
3. Drycleaner assistant
4. Executive Assistant
5. Mom

8 favorite TV shows I love to watch . . . love is probably a bit too strong of a word
1. The Office
2. Ace of Cakes
3. Scrubs
4. ER
5. 17 kids and counting
6. Oprah (the good ones)
7. American Idol ( I caught the bug the season before last)
8. Sesame Street, might as well

8 things I did yesterday
1. woke up and went to church
2. played with kids
3. ate lunch.....mmmmm
4. napped
5. calendared
6. went for a walk with the fam
7. watched Savannah Smiles and ate popcorn with the family
8. played on computadora

8 favorite places to eat (in no particular order)
1. Los Amigo's
2. Macaroni Grill
3. Firehouse
4. Riccardo's
5. Osaka
6. Tastee Treet
7. Miami Sub's I miss it (great burgers)
8. Melting Pot

8 things I am looking forward to (again, in no particular order)
1. Camping trip
2. Christmas
3. Cole's Baptism
4. being fit again...it will happen!
5. watching my kids grow
6. living through it all with Brandon
7. the kids playing soccer
8. time to myself (not too much, just enough)

8 things on my wish list (n.p.o.)
1. Happy grown kids
2. to be able to lose weight/eat better
3. Nikon D40 or similar item
4. automatically clean home
5. NYC
6. a 65th wedding anniversary full of bliss
7. new dish washer
8. ice maker


3 people I tag . . .
1. Tricia P.
2. Rachel C.
3. Melody S.