i don't know where to start!!

Its been so long since I have blogged… so many things I have wanted to share… church stuff, thigns God is doing in my life, kid funnies, family oddities… you know, all the good stuff!! 🙂

So I'll start with the fact that I wish we had never gotten the puppy… the puppy who thinks the sun rises and sets on me, and no matter how bad he has to go potty has to have 5 minutes of loving from ME first… its the weirdest thing.  How do they choose their favorite?  Probably because I have to do all the work!

I have noticed that training a dog is much like training a child.  Consistency… and if its going to be a rule in the future… don't let them do it now.  EVER.

For example… if you don't plan on having cookies and cake for breakfast, don't unwittingly surprise everyone with pound cake, hot chocolate and marshmallows for breakfast.  You will SURELY be listening to the begging and whining for cake and cookies from one little three year old EVERY morning for the next THREE MONTHS!!

Bryan has a slow day at work… 6 patients instead of 12 – that is a RECORD!! they were going to let him go home on an “overstaff” – BUT then they decided they needed him for some transport escorting… so we are going to go meet Daddy for lunch and then go to the Tea store at the other end of town to use my birthday gift certificate!!

Hopefully I'll be back and chatting regularly … for a while at least! 🙂 Until I get distracted, yet again!

OH and ONE MORE THING!!! we are doing the The Glorious Coming advent devotional thing written by Ann Voskamp, and will be setting up a little Jesse Tree today… I am very excited to start!! even if it ends up being a little old for the kiddos, I think they will get lots out of it… and I know Bryan and I will.

pics of Halloween and mom and dad.

First off, the cute pics of the kids with their pumpkin… Keenan's very own design!!

  

And in their Halloween costumes!! – ok, and me too. This was after having the fireman costume on, and Thad deciding he too wanted to be a pirate (yes, we own all these costumes… we had the pirates on today in fact!! )

And then, yet again, another costume change for the little one… back to the fireman costume – I think he got tired of the eye patch… the only thing we are missing in the pic is the very cute washing machine hose we rolled up for him… He looked very professional!!  SO handy his rainboots just happened to be yellow!! 🙂

And here is my Dad… he is having surgery on November 20th to remove his left eye.  It is a complicated surgery, that isn't done very often.  His skin cancer type has migrated into the eye socket.  SO if you could be praying, that would be awesome.  I have mixed feelings about it, as I was absolutely sure, without a doubt, God had healed him… apparently I need to reevaluate my… communication with Father God, because I misunderstood something… timing maybe?  Still praying, wondering and questioning that one.

And since I showed you my Dad, here is my mom too.  (these were taken last winter while they were here in Alaska visiting… they are in Perth, Australia now, where Dad will have the surgery)

And since I think this is ALSO a cute pic… here is one of the both of them.

That is all for now… 2 more days and Bryan will be home, with lots of yummy deer meat to fill my freezer!! (I'm assuming its yummy anyway, I like caribou and moose, so I guess I'll like deer too!)

I've been kind of scarce lately!!

Well… the news is out, so I'll share it here too…

I am fourteen weeks pregnant!!

I can't say how my husband shared it with my family, since it was rather crass… using  some slang words that mean different things in America than in Australia… he used that same phrase when we were engaged chatting to my family, and my brother in law guffawed, made a few sly remarks, and then educated Bryan on what words NOT to use while gardening!!

so, now that the morning sickness and utter exhaustion is over, I have nothing to whine about.  I DID tell one friend close by, so that I had someone to moan to when I felt nasty and was trying to fake it in front of everyone else!!

Bryan left Friday night… with me panicking mildly at the thought of me alone with the puppy!!  Saturday…I spotted. I freaked. I cried. I denied. I called my spiritual prayer warrior woman mentor Julie.  And she prayed for me, spoke God's truth over me… and reminded me of my responsibility to say NO to the thoughts that love to overwhelm, now that we had taken care of the spiritual warfare aspect of things.

Pslam 34 is my new favorite Psalm… I sleep with the Bible in my bed, read it before I go to sleep and when I wake up…

SO, after a dr appointment today, all is FINE!! – no panicking family… if it was something to worry about I WOULD have called!!  Apparently, Bryan and I were too… active. SO there you go. much more than any of you really cared to know, I am sure!!

Meanwhile, for home church, we ordering pizza… kids are loving my lowkey cooking though… mac-n-cheese, pesto and noodles, pizza breads, quessadillas, PBJ's, dino chicken nuggets… tomorrow we'll have to get serious about some nutrition, besides some slices of red pepper and carrot thrown in on top of the preservatives!!

SO I am back from the Above Rubies Retreat…

All joking aside, it was a lovely retreat.  I led worship, but that did not stop me from talking to all hours of the night with Molly from Adventures in Mercy, and some ladies from Choosing Home… getting to know other ladies I have met via cyber space… NOW we have potty stops in Soldotna, Nikiski AND Kasilof!! God is good!!  (And I do intend to use them, potty needed or not! 🙂 )

I was so blessed as we focused on on our role as mothers, and the honor and privilege it is… I have SO far to go!!  My greatest challenge, and most lofty aspiring goal, will be to make my home “on earth as it is in heaven” – how precious would THAT be!?!?!

We bought… a… PUPPY!!!!

cute. miniature beagle.  not potty trained.  I have found that I am much more patient with my 3 yr old than a … puppy. 🙂  I am hoping for a much better night tonight!!! – I gave in and let him sleep on a towel in our bed, between Bryan and I, though he kept disappearing to our FEET (underneath our covers) – cute as that might be… I do NOT want accidents at my feet in the middle of the night!  Ever actually!

TONIGHT, I will not, repeat, will not, please no!! give in… and the dog will sleep in the kennell… or at least it will stay whining in the kennell… sigh.  Could be a long night. 

I am slightly panicky in the whole dog training thing, as Bryan is very inconveniently going hunting for a week starting Friday!! yikes!

Anyway, I'm back, even if not regularly blogging!!  it proves to be a busy week, and just not slowing down a whole lot.   I have this weird urge to organize my home and actually get through my list of things each day.  Which isn't actually very long, it just takes ME a long time!! 🙂

November posts

Nov. 30, 2006: i don’t know where to start!!
Nov. 16, 2006: pics of Halloween and mom and dad.
Nov. 13, 2006: I’ve been kind of scarce lately!!
Nov. 7, 2006: SO I am back from the Above Rubies Retreat…