Where Did it All Come From?

Over the last two days the girls and I have been cleaning their bedrooms. I cannot believe how much stuff was in those rooms and how much we are getting rid of. Yesterday A and I filled 4 trash bags (kitchen size bags), plus a pile of stuff for Goodwill, and another pile of clothes and things for friends whose kids will fit in those clothes. Today she finished up cleaning and organizing her desk and dresser and generated even more trash. We hung up some accent items in her room and rearranged the furniture. It looks so nice in there!

Today B and I have worked in her room. Again, mountains of trash. I can't believe how much! Another pile of things for Goodwill and for friends, and a stack of games for our nephew N. It feels good to be able to give things to people who will use them. I enjoy doing that. We have so much stuff and it makes me feel good when other people are able to benefit from it.

My friend Jamie made a good suggestion at lunch today -- if the girls spend 10 minutes each night picking up their bedrooms, the rooms will stay looking nice. I want to try to implement a bedtime routine that includes that and family scripture study, as well as picking up the living room quickly. It's amazing how fast the house falls apart when it isn't attended to on a regular basis. I've never been good at things like that, but I find that lately I don't like being in the house when it's messy, but it feels comfortable and good when it's picked up and neat. We haven't been really good about giving the girls regular chores and responsibilities around the house and they are most definitely old enough to help out more than they do. They won't like it, but if we are going to have any chance at conquering the clutter, the girls will have to help.

We'll see how it goes....

Happy New Year!

I had such big plans for blogging over the holidays...I was going to capture our daily activities, complete with pictures. And it didn't happen. Oh well...I have some pictures...but was too busy having fun with my family and managing daily life to blog.

I hope you all had a fun and safe New Year's Eve. When spent it with a few friends/families from church, having a game night. It was fun. I love playing board games. I made sweet and sour meatballs and 7-layer Mexican dip, both of which were well-received. Both girls managed to stay awake until midnight, although by 11 p.m. B was definitely wearing out. She fell asleep in the car on the way home and slept in a bit this morning.

And now it's 2008. I thought about posting something eloquent, philosophical, and poetic for you...but that's not gonna happen! LOL

So let me just say that I am looking forward to 2008 being a wonderful year. 2007 was a "growth year" for me and I'd really rather not have another one of those any time soon. Lots of growing pains in my life last year (sounds so strange to call yesterday "last year")...I probably just jinxed myself, didn't I? I should know better.

2008 promises to be busy, but every year is like that. Hopefully the chaos will be manageable.

I hope 2008 is a wonderful year for all of you!

Merry Christmas!

I've had every intention of blogging every day for the last week...things just seem to get in the way! But today is Christmas and I really wanted to wish everyone (that would be all 5 people who read this blog, LOL!) a Merry Christmas!

My sister M and her DH are here visiting and we've had so much fun together. I'm sad that her visit is so short, but it has been wonderful to have her here. I'm enjoying some time off work and sleeping in (except this morning) has been great.

The ward choir sang on Sunday, despite 90% of the choir members being sick with various colds, sinus problems, etc. It was truly a Christmas miracle that most of the choir members were able to sing...one brother in particular was hardly able to speak before we started singing, but he sang beautifully and perfectly...right after Sacrament Meeting was over his voice started to go away again. I love music, and especially Christmas music. I enjoy being part of it.

We celebrated our traditional Christmas Eve last night...A and B put on a fun show filled with piano performances, two dances they choreographed themselves ("Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" will now be a perennial favorite), a story reading (story written by B and her uncle B), and of course the reading of the Christmas Story from the Bible. We were able to engage in some service activities that we enjoyed and had a huge Christmas dinner. Last minute errands and shopping throughout the day, of course, but it was really fabulous. Got to bed too late and got up too early...

The girls woke up bright and early to see what Santa brought. My parents and sister M and her DH came over for the opening of the gifts. Santa was very good to all of us, as usual. I'm looking forward to trying out my new Cricut and my new car stereo. We've spent the day with family, playing new games and watching new movies.

But it wouldn't be Christmas without an adventure of some sort...for us, it was locking ourselves out of our house this morning! ROTFLOL Yes, we really did. After we finished opening gifts at our house we decided to go to my parents' house for them to open gifts. Went out the front door and I didn't take my keys. DH doesn't have a house key right now (it got lost) and all of the doors were locked. DH had to break into our house. It really wasn't funny at the time, but it is now.

All in all, a completely wonderful Christmas. I'm excited to see what the new year holds for all of us.

I hope you have all enjoyed a merry Christmas, filled with fun and love and surrounded by family and friends!

All I Want for Christmas...

I'm a simple girl, really, with simple desires. For example, allow me to share my Christmas wish list:

1. Stockings (nylons, pantyhose, etc.) that don't run the first time I wear them, and that come in colors that at least somewhat resemble my actual skin tone. I really don't want my legs to scream, "Why, yes, I did use an exorbitant amount of cheap, expired self-tanning lotion last night!", nor do I want people to have to cover their eyes because of the glare coming off of my alabaster white legs. Surely the same scientists who invented that paper thin heat covering on the space shuttle could come up with something?

2. A self-cleaning house. If the house gets dirty by itself (because we all know that "not me" never makes a mess, so it must be the house messing up itself), then it should be able to clean itself. It's only logical.

3. Full-service gas stations that don't charge more than self-service. Oh wait, I haven't ever even seen a full-service gas station where I live! We had them in Anchorage, and it was wonderful in the winter or when you had your kids in the car. But, if we can't have full-service gas stations at the same price as self-service, could we at least have gas that doesn't stain everything and doesn't smell? That really isn't asking much.

4. Uniform clothing sizes for women and children. Men have it so easy!

See, that's not much, really! It's not like I asked for world peace (or is that whirled peas?)!

Another Public Service Announcement...

a/k/a Customer Warning.

I ordered an item for DH for Christmas on Thanksgiving Day online at Sears.com...the item was on a fabulous special (more than $100 off the usual price) as a one-day special. I ordered it, paid by e-check, and received e-mail confirmation that same day that the item would be delivered by November 27.

Fast foward to November 26...I receive another email from Sears.com stating as follows:

"Thank you for shopping at Sears.com. We are experiencing a delay in sending order confirmations due to the volume of orders received during the Thanksgiving holiday. please be assured we have received and are processing your order." (Duh -- I had already received my order confirmation!)

I called Sears.com again on December 4 when I still hadn't heard anything. I was told that they apologized for the delay but that the item was being shipped that very day and I would receive a shipping confirmation e-mail within 24 hours.

I never got that e-mail.

So I called again today and spoke with a very sweet customer service representative. She's actually from this general area. She was helpful and checked the records and saw that, indeed, I had called and checked on the status of my order and that, yes, I had been told it was shipping on December 4. However, she told me that the item was no longer in stock and was a one-day special, and was not going to be restocked -- at all, ever. (This particular item was not even available in the stores, just online.) She was quite apologetic and said she had handled several calls in the last couple of days about this particular item. She then confirmed that yes, indeed, the money for the item had already been taken out of my bank account (paid by e-check) -- in fact, the money was taken out of my account the day after Thanksgiving (which I knew, but I was glad she confirmed that they did indeed have my money for an item that I was never going to receive, and which they had led me to believe was going to be shipping any day now.)

She recommended that I go to my local Sears store tonight and demand an instant refund, otherwise it will take 5-7 days to get my money back. She cancelled my online order and gave me the information I will need when I talk to the manager of the Sears store tonight.

I am so ticked off. I finally found the item online somewhere else this afternoon and ordered it, but there is a price difference. It will be interesting to see if Sears will do anything to right the situation with me...

I'm so glad I called today -- otherwise I doubt they would have contacted me about this.

So, my customer service warning and PSA for today is this: DO NOT SHOP AT SEARS.COM

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

at our house! Would you like to take a tour (of the part of the house that's decorated)? Please, come in!

This is our front door. Terribly exciting, isn't it? Maybe not...but it's really beautiful at night when the lights on the trees and the garland are turned on. I do need to replace the wreath on the front door but haven't found the right one yet.

I should mention that there is, obviously, no snow on the ground. That's because it was 80 degrees outside when I took these pictures this weekend. Insane, isn't it? Definitely not typical Christmas weather...

I found this wall hanging at a fun Christmas shop several years ago. I love its beautiful, muted colors. I prefer to decorate with burgundy, deep green and blue, and silver. I guess the rebel in me generally avoids traditional Christmas colors.

The exception to my Christmas color scheme is found hanging above our fireplace, in these beautiful Christmas stockings my MIL made for us. They are so pretty and festive and we love them. A commented the other day that she hoped Oma (German for Grandma) would be able to make stockings for her family when she gets married and has children. That's how much we love them!

It really wouldn't be Christmas without an advent

calendar of some sort so the kiddos can count down the days. B and I made this a few weeks ago with a Making Memories kit I found at Target. It was quick and easy...a fun project for the two of us to do together. It came with everything we needed, and then some. Each of the numbers is on the front of a little drawer. We put some candy (chocolate, of course) in each little drawer for a treat. I need to add a scripture verse and Christmas song to each drawer, also.

This is a wide view of our entertainment center. I don't know if you can see them or not, but the words "Love" and "Joy" and "Hope" are on top. I found those at Wal-Mart last year and I leave them up year round. The garland and poinsettias were aded for the holidays. The shelves look a little bare because I can't find some of the decorations I usually put out on the shelves. Guess that means I have to buy new ones!

This is the lovely nativity set I wrote about a few days ago. I love the soft, muted colors and the classic elegance of this set. It is set on a top shelf in the entertainment center, underneath a light that we like to turn on at night to illuminate the scene.

This is half of our glass tree "forest." Note the fake snow...since we don't have the real thing this will just have to do. It doesn't make as much of a mess as the flaky snow (confetti-type stuff) and isn't as hard to handle as that silky angel hair stuff. I have two shelves of these trees, one on each side of the entertainment center. I really would love to get more of these trees but haven't seen any anywhere in a few years. If you know where I can find some, please let me know!!

And of course, the Christmas tree. I'm still trying to achieve the look I want, but I'm happy

with the tree, generally speaking. We want to get a much taller, prelit tree...maybe next year. We definitely have enough room for a taller tree. I try to keep a theme of stars, hearts, dated silver bells (one for every year we've been married), with words (love, hope, joy, peace). I try to keep the color scheme to mostly burgundy, blue, green, silver, and white, but the girls love to add their special ornaments so the theme doesn't exactly stick every year. That's o.k., because someday they will be out on their own and will take their ornaments with them...and I will miss seeing them on our tree.

OK, so it's not Christmas-y, but I had to show you this fabulous vinyl lettering quote that my friend Sheila did for me. I love it! I'm going to frame some black and white pictures to hang with the quote. It takes up quite a large space on one of our walls (a few feet high and wide) and I love it! Check out her work... http://www.asimpleimpression.blogspot.com -- you'll be glad you did!




And finally, as you look up at this beautiful quote on the wall, the following message is spelled out atop our bookshelves....

I have a wall plaque that Sheila made for me, that says "Wise Men Still Seek Him" (you can see it on her blog, use the above link) and I really love it...just didn't get a picture of it. And I received one other wall plaque in the mail today but haven't had a chance to hang it up yet. It was made another friend of mine and it says "Believe."

Those are my closing thoughts for today's blog entry...."Wise Men Still Seek Him," "Believe," and "Merry Christmas!"

Interesting Conversation...

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday...just routine stuff. But it was interesting. I knew what to expect...blood draw, check. Weight, check. Review of medications, check. Any change in medical history, check. Exam, check. Getting hit upside my head with a 2x4 when the doctor reminded me that now that I've reached the age of XX, additional exams and tests are required, check. (Except that I'm really not as old as my birth certificate says I am. Really. It's not possible. Somehow, somewhere there is a mistake. I'm NOT this age!)

What I didn't expect was to end up having a conversation about faith, hope, and really trusting Heavenly Father and giving up the "control freak" in us, truly believing that He has a plan and knows what is best for us and trusting Him.

Not exactly the kind of exchange I expected at this appointment. My doctor is not LDS, but that doesn't matter. I really appreciated that he opened the door to that conversation and shared his thoughts with me. It was a difficult appointment for me, emotionally. I had been dreading it for a few months and thought I had finally gotten a hold of myself and pulled myself together. Apparently not, as I cried while the prescreening stuff was being done...and then proceeded to cry for a good bit while the doctor and I talked. He listened to me and set aside all of the medical stuff and just talked with me and shared his thoughts. I needed that. He made an interesting comment about being on the roller coaster (using my analogy) and telling me that sometimes we just have to hang on and enjoy the ride.

It didn't change the fact that I have no idea what Heavenly Father's plan is for me in this particular aspect of my life. It didn't change the fact that I desperately WANT to know what the plan is, or the fact that I just haven't been getting answers on this subject. It didn't change what it is that *I* want out of this particular situation, or the other tangle of issues surrounding this particular situation. And it didn't change the fact that I felt like an idiot for sitting in his office crying about this (except that he said his wife has very similar feelings on this particular situation and so he's been through this with her a few times!).

I appreciated his openness about needing to have faith and hope, and needing to trust Heavenly Father. I appreciated him sharing that with me.

I still don't know what I'm going to do...but it felt good to talk about it.

But the getting smacked in the head with a 2x4 over the fact that my birth certificate says I'm an age that I really, truly, honestly can't possible really be because I certainly don't feel that old? That, I didn't need.