West Texas Christmas

Weekend before last we headed out to west Texas for a family Christmas. We rented a rec center on the local college's campus. Here are some shots of that event:

Socializing:



Carrying on with Thomas family traditions:



The next generation begins their own traditions (involving pickles):



Relatives exceed the "feed limit":

Only 3 more "Christmases" and an anniversary to go. I haven't even begun to think about New Year's Eve. Yikes.

Speaking of the new year: Todd took the job in Ft. Worth at the University Christian Church, DOC. He'll be something like, "Interim Youth Ministry Consultant" or something. It's temporary, until June. Keep on prayin'.

Some things you should know...

First and foremost, Christmas is a crazy, crazy season. I always think it won't be, but it always is. Family parties, church parties, school parties, recitals, concerts, programs, shopping, anniversary......all of it.

And then there's job hunting thrown in. Here's the second thing you should know: Todd has been offered a job at a church in Ft. Worth and we're going to Bowie this weekend to see if the church there is interested in us as well. It is an interesting time for us. I'll try to tell you more about the details later......like next year or something when things settle down.

Thirdly you should know that my kids are adorable. Every program, concert or party is an absolute hoot. I wouldn't trade it for the world!

Fourthly, the weather is no longer cold. In fact, it is STOOPID warm (to coin a phrase). In the 70's all week. I adore it. Todd would prefer colder weather. I, myself, am perfectly content. It's not too, too hot for sweaters but not so cold that you can't visit outside in the parking lot after a get-together. Good stuff.

And lastly, you should know that there really are tumble weeds in West Texas. They don't usually leave an oil spot like this one but they do roll around out there on the praries, highways and parking lots. WalMart really does have everything. Even in Snyder.






I'll try to do better with blogs after school gets out for break next week. No promises though.

Love ya'll!!!

Warm?....not so much.

Yesterday at about this time it was almost 80 degrees out. Today....not so much. Our house holds it's heat really, really well. it's 28 out right now and our heater isn't running. It hasn't most of the day. It's still warm from yesterday. In the summer, this is a problem, this time of year it's great.
We have frozen rain accumulated everywhere and it looks like snow. It's about as close as we get around here. My kids are still in school. We are one of the few districts that didn't close early. Nuts, man. Todd's going now to get the kids. Soon we'll all be home and warm and here we will stay.

Currently in Keller, TX (76248)
Severe Weather Alert
Cloudy and Windy
28°F Feels Like14°F
Dew Point:
21°F
Humidity:
67%
Pressure:
30.16 inches
Wind:
From the Northwest at 24 gusting to 33 mph

Wishing we had a fireplace.....

Entertainment

So, here's that former sweater I was talking about. This is just a sleeve. I had started winding it into a ball when I realized that I was going to take a photo of it on the niddy noddy for ya. Yes, I did make that niddy noddy all by myself!
The thing it's on top of is my "spinning apron" (also homemade), which brings up a whole other discussion about necessity vs. nerdiness. ;-)




This is some of what the boys have been doing. What!?!?!!?? Playing nicely????? I know, I know....too weird for words. It's like living in the Twilight Zone.

Thankful

Happy day-after-the-day-after Thanksgiving. I intended to write this on Friday but it's after midnight now so it'll come up as Saturday. Oh well. I was staying up waiting for Todd to come home (from his shift at Starbucks) and unraveling a sweater, which I must say is one of the funnest things I've done this year. 25 cents for a soft, fuzzy, pink sweater at the Thrift Store, a few snips, a lot of yanking and voila!, a whole lot of fuzzy pink yarn! LOVE IT!

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. Mine was......well, parts of it were pretty good and others not so much. Todd had to work until lunch time so he drove down to his mom's after us. My day included such fun adventures as broken pickle jar, spilled pie filling, dumped pies, barfing kid and biting dog. I intended to tell you all about it but it's so late now that everything is a bit hazy. Just know that it was a good day, with lots of stories to tell afterward.

Today was a good and proper day-after. Wait, I mean yesterday was. Whatever. Friday we cleaned up, Todd hit the day-after sales and got most of what we want for the kids and we put up the tree. We even managed some "playing with friends" and thrift shopping. Life is good. I'm goin' ta bed.

'night ya'll.

The Book

And when I say "the book", I mean "THE book". It's the book that haunted us through most of this year. The book. The one we read and re-read and re-re-read and edited and re-edited and re-re-edited.

They arrived today, two copies in a tight little box. It's weird to see it whole. Todd doesn't like the way the font on the back looks but the pictures at the beginning of each chapter are cool. I started thumbing through it and Todd said, "Don't read it!!!.....you'll find a typo." So true, so true. Just let it go.

If for some strange, inexplicable reason you ever read it.....and find a typo...please don't tell me. That includes you Becky and Gailyn!



 

...in a galaxy far, far away....

Our screensaver on the home machine goes through every photo we have on the hard drive as a slide show. It comes up with some doozies but every now and again, I'm reminded of how completely adorable my kids were when they were tiny. They're still cute, but you know what I mean. This one isn't even one of the best. It was just fun to think of Isaac now as he writes me notes that say, "Is was her it".




The boys are all staying at Mom's tonight while we head to the Fort Worth Symphony. It'll be my culture for the year.
8-) 

Bowie

Well, today we went to Bowie, Texas. Todd preached for a small Disciples of Christ church there which is looking for a pulpit minister. It was pretty fun and Bowie is a cute little town. It reminded me alot of Fairfield (where we used to live, once upon another lifetime).
The church there is seriously small. Our family of 5 raised the attendence by 25% today. It is also definitely aging. Nonetheless, it was a very nice church and we had a really nice day.

There's a good-sized park in town that we promised the boys to stop by on our way out of town so after lunch we headed over for some fun. It was an educational experience....for Hunter anyway.

He learned that doing tricks on the horsey-merry-go-round can be......



.....tricky.


Fun day. Fun trip.

Chi-esta!

We recently attended Keller's 6th Annual Chiesta at a local park. It was a hoot! There were little Chihuahuas everywhere, some in costume, some in carriers, some in pouches on people's chests like babies. We had a blast! There were all sorts of vendors of doggy paraphanelia and dog trainer demonstrations and even a photo booth.

This photo is of our Jose attempting a "maze" in which treats are hidden. It cost a dollar to let him try the different "games" for dogs but all the money was going to a local dog rescue so we didn't mind. Jose minded, but he got a treat so he got over it.

The crazy things we find to do around here! 

Meet the Family

We spent our day in Ennis today meeting our "new" nephew.
This week Todd's brother-in-law met his son for the first time. He's 13. It's a long story with it's beginnings in the far distant past. I don't know how the story will end, but I can tell you that the middle of the story seems to be unfolding quite nicely. He's a great kid and we all enjoyed meeting him. So......



We went to the park for family day and.....

Played some games and......



Todd had WAY more fun than should probably be allowed and.....




he'll probably need some ibuprophen tomorrow.




But it'll be worth it! I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. 

Happy Halloween

From Josiah, Isaac, Hunter, Todd and Teresa!

Halloween Cometh

Boo at the Zoo




Library 'Harvest Stew Festival'...


...and hayride


A few weeks ago we were asking, "What will we do with the kids for Halloween?" Now we're asking, "What can we not go to so we don't run ourselves ragged?"
So much fun. So little time.

Thank God!

I received this in an e-mail from Geraldine this morning:

Here's the latest from the doc...After the 2nd MRI the lesions he thought were from past MS flares were gone as in NO longer there!! He ordered another MRI the next day to just be sure. There are only 2 places left, both on the spine and they are smaller. What started out looking like a classic case of MS is not classic at all. We now are looking at something called acute demyelating encephalomyelitis (cut some slack on the spelling....I have no idea) or ADEM. It is rare, but hey, rare works! Statistically, Katie could develop MS down the line, but for now, she should be fine and may never have this again. She still doesn't have feeling in her arms and hands, but it should return. I had no idea how this could be such a handicap. Try finding something in your purse with no feeling in your hands...or washing your hair & checking for soap!! 8^) She is on oral steroids now for a while. Her poor arms are just nasty looking from all the sticks for drawing blood and starting IVs. And Dr. Duckworth wants to see her again in 6 months just for follow-up.

And this was a tidbit from Katie's sister's roommate's medical dictionary (did you catch all that?):
"survival through the acute phase of the illness is often followed by a remarkably complete recovery."

So. God is good and Katie is better and will continue to get better and better. She plans to be at work Monday morning. Thank you all for praying for her. I know God is a mighty God who answers prayer but sometimes it's more fun to watch than others, know what I mean?

Western Day last week at the Preschool...

 

A Candle for Katie

Todd and I have lit a couple of candles for Katie Kiser, oldest daughter of our friends Bob and Geraldine, and we'd like to invite you to light one too and say a prayer for Katie and the rest of the Kisers, especially if you know them.

Katie has been working for the US Foreign Service in Osaka, Japan this past year. She recently started having some unexplained numbness in her fingers that has since spread quite a bit. She has been given an initial diagnosis of MS (multiple sclerosis), not to be confused with MD (muscular dystrophy) which Bob has.

MS is defined at dictionary.com as:
A chronic autoimmune disease of the central nervous system in which gradual destruction of myelin occurs in patches throughout the brain or spinal cord or both, interfering with the nerve pathways and causing muscular weakness, loss of coordination, and speech and visual disturbances.

Not nice, though treatable. Geraldine is flying to Japan right away and Bob will go as soon as he can. He actually has to be in Tokyo next week for work but he's trying to get there sooner. They all, including Katie's 3 sisters, need your prayers.

If you'd like to light a candle with us as part of your prayers for the Kisers just go to:
http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/enter.cfm?l=eng

From there you will be walked step-by-step through lighting the candle. When you put in your message and such there will be a spot for "group" at the bottom. Just type in "Katie" and your candle will be included as part of the group.

Thanks!

Ummm......ew?

O.K. Some parts of our vacation were more traumatic than others.

Again with the photos

Hunter on the four-wheeler.

This is almost half of the kids who were at Aunt Alicia's birthday party. All inside. They were remarkably well behaved. All of them.

.

.

.

I decided not to post photos of the lake house as it is really just a double-wide in the woods. O.K., it's a double-wide with a front deck and screened back porch, 2 out buildings, a giant dog run and a covered slab that I guess counts as a gazebo or something....All with a nice view of the lake. But my pictures of it are boring and blogger will only upload 2 photos at a time.

More trip photos

Aren't PawPaws the coolest? This is a van bench bolted to a platform attached to a front end loader that's part of a tractor.


I also have photos of my mother on this with my boys and me.....also in the air with the boys. I told you it was a fun trip!

At the Beach

Notice the oil derricks? You can't see them all but I think I counted 25 on the horizon. Yikes. Think that's why the water's brown?

Fall Break

The boys, my Mom and I went on safari (it just means "travel" in kiSwahili) for Fall break this year down to Lousiana to see my grandparents. It was a really fun trip with marvelous weather and just enough mishaps to make it interesting (like the frog mysteriously appearing in the sink while I was washing my face and jumping out on my arm and making me scream and then my grandfather laughing at my kids while they huddled in the bathroom door refusing to catch it for me).

I'm trying to upload pictures but I foolishly signed up for this new beta version of Blogger and, of course, can't get them uploaded very easily....or at all for now. In fact, a post from yesterday is nowhere to be found. sigh. I did manage, however, to turn my blog pink. Like it? There is a definite lack of pink in my life. I'm trying to compensate.

When I do manage to get some shots up they will show scenes of going to the beach in south Louisiana, which was decimated by Hurricane Rita one year ago last week. You will also see shots of the boys hanging out with my grandfather on his tractor and his four-wheeler and my aunt and uncle's lake house in south Texas followed by a birthday party in Ennis that we stopped in for on our way home. It was a really great week. Wish you could'a been there.

At a Loss for Words

Ever have those days (or weeks) where you just don't have words. I don't have those days very often but I'm having some now. I just don't have any words. Or they just don't want to come out.

Maybe I'm just afraid to get started, lest the resulting flow overwhelm me.

All that to say, "Sorry I haven't blogged." I sit and stare at the computer every day and just can't seem to get words out. It's not because I don't love you. Really.
My words will come back one of these days, of this I'm sure.

'Til then, I'll do my best to post photos for you.

Random Photo

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

To Josiah!!!




 

OMG!

A GIRL?????

So, I walk back to my bedroom to put on my jammie pants and hear as I walk by my son's open bedroom, "Hi. Can I talk to (insert girl's name here)?"

I stand in the doorway of my bedroom, mouth open, staring in disbelief at his open doorway. He appears in said doorway with his phone on his ear, glimpses the look on my face, raises his eyebrows and slowly closes his door.

Not happening. N-O-T, do you hear me?

O.K. Here's some context:

It was a Wednesday night "Jesus Rocks" event put on by the children's worship team for church and those who attend our preschool to see some of what they do on Sunday mornings.









Shortly after the trash can band played, Todd rode his scooter through the auditorium. The kids went ape. It was a really great night. 

Sometimes it's better not to ask.

 

Quote of the Day

If there is anything the nonconformist hates worse than a conformist, it's another nonconformist who doesn't conform to the prevailing standard of nonconformity.
Bill Vaughan


....which pales in comparison to what I heard in my class today:

"Mrs. Aweesa. I wuv you."
- Nicholas B.


It almost makes the hell of naptime with 12 squirming, screaming and/or snoring 2 year olds worth it, doesn't it?

Random Photo

What Hunter wishes he was doing right now.
And what he will be doing this time tomorrow, I'm sure.