By Nicole

Well, it's that time of year.  And I guess I will do a post about it.  I am a little sad to see 2011 go, although I'm not sure why since I haven't really taken the time out yet to reflect on it yet.  I am also a little excited for 2012.  My sister-in-law and I are running a 5k in January, which is the start of quite a few runs this year, including at least two half-marathons. So I guess that could be considered a resolution... I try not to make those, since I usually don't keep them.  In the last part of winter, my husband and I always participate in the Daniel Fast with our church's leadership, in preparation and prayer for the men's conference.  It has been so exciting over the years to see the increase in male leadership in our church.  That also kicks me and Jason into a higher gear aimed at eating healthier, which usually results in some pounds shed, which takes care of another resolution that I am not going to make. Right now, I am sitt...

Perfect timing!  We drove into town and got new tires today.  I really needed them.  We had been holding off.  We ate yummy, salty, greasy popcorn at Les Schwab.  Leilee napped in my lap while the boys designed vehicles on the computer. Now we are on our way home and it is snowing and freezing outside.  But my tires are siped and rolling along wonderfully! And no, I am not doing an advertisement for Les Schwab.  Smiley face.

"It's the most wonderful time of the yearrrrrr..."  Has anyone seen that commercial for The Bachelor?  Normally, I wouldn't have, but we were visiting Jason's grandparents after Christmas and I saw it on TV.  I immediately started laughing.  A snarky type of laughter.  Not about those poor, beautiful girls crying over a situation that they, themselves , went through a rigorous auditioning process to be placed in.  No, instead, I was snickering about how the twisted humor to be found in sobbing hysterically at the most wonderful time of the year applies to this poor woman.  Aqui, estoy. Flashback, Christmas Eve. Okay... just before Christmas Eve... This year, I felt like I was pretty much on top of the whole holiday thing.  I wanted my family to be focused more on how important the birth of Christ is and not on how important the presents were.  I had persevered through the entire Christmas card stamp...

We have spent the last three days driving, driving, driving.  Freezing or raining or hydroplaning, and God has kept us safe.  We have sat to wait because of accidents that happened just ahead of us, and we have frantically pulled over for a puker.  Sad, I know.  The kids have exhausted all their forms of vehicle entertainment, and we are all exhausted.  But we have spent valuable time with grandma and grandpa and uncles and aunts and cousins.  Jason's brother and his wife are safely, mostly moved into their new home.  And we are thankful for the gift of traveling mercies. 

Super low river... Can you see the dock?

I have to pass tonight.  I know there isn't technically a "pass" in blogging, but it's just not working out for me.  I have two posts in draft form, both of which I was thinking would be great for tonight, but I can't get the links I want because the internet keeps freezing on me.  And my kids are up ridiculously late and having a hard time falling asleep.  Jason is visiting with his grandparents, as he should be, so I am downstairs trying to whip this pass post out before it all freezes again and get the kids a snoozing. Anyway.  Sorry.  Pass. Haha - a funny by the way.  I didn't even know that Disney had a made a So Random show out of the So Random that they did on Sonny with a Chance.  Yes, I am a grown woman who watches these kids' shows with her kids from time to time... and enjoys them usually.  Sad, I know. Back to my first aside.  This morning, they had a So Random skit about Magical Teenage Literary Character Wheel of Fort...

Waiting in anticipation for my kids to wake up.  It's not all about the presents, but we spent a long time choosing exactly what they would love!  And it is so fun to give!

Another blessed day!  Fabulous breakfast... frittata, crepes, orange bowknots.  All things I rarely (or never) make.  Lots more good visiting and great coffee (always a necessity). And we went to the Christmas Eve candlelight service.  I almost had myself talked into not going... Jason worked, so it was me responsible for making sure they were clean and presentable.  The kids would have rather played.  I would have rather curled up on the couch or caught up on laundry.  The candle wax burns me every year...   you know, valid reasons. But we went just the same.  I got out the rest of our cards in the church "mailboxes", picked up ours and let the kids play Legos in the pew (yes, I am that mom), nudging them to listen at the good parts and making them sing with everyone.  I am so glad we went.  One of my favorite elders spoke about the significance of Christmas.  We get so distracted by the "feel good" stuff of the hol...

I have been soaking up my family.  I love having my brother and his wife and my sister and her husband and little boy here.  My dad actually drove up for an afternoon visit the other day, which is very rare.  We spent the majority of the day together. and we get to hang out with more cousins and aunts and uncles tomorrow. It is so fun seeing my mom so happy and giddy over the gifts she picked out for her grandchildren.  It is so fun seeing all of our little kids interact and reminiscing about the good old days when we were little and causing trouble and gray hairs. I've laughed until I've cried.  And I've cried just because.  Being so overwhelmed with the self-imposed pressure of the holidays and the unspoken fear and apprehension of future holidays to come, which is normal whenever my brother is up for deployment.  I hate the nagging 'what if's' and the fact that I am even worrying when I should just be enjoying all we have right now. So my prayer ...

My brother is here! He has been in Mississippi, preparing to be deployed to Afghanistan.  He and his wife tricked us all.  They didn' tell us he was able to come home for Christmas!  What a wonderful surprise!

"Mah-wage.... Mah-wage is what bwings us togevah today.  Wuv, twue wuv... that bwessed awangement, that dweam wiff-in a dweam."  You gotta love the priest from the Princess Bride.  (Hey, you've gotta love the Princess Bride!) A month or so back, I posted a teaser post .  I knew I wanted to write about the past couple of weeks that I had been going through, but it all just kept piling higher and I couldn't formulate the words.  I'm not sure that I have entirely found the words even at this point, but I wanted to remember that I needed to get this out.  And at this point it has been long enough that I can joke about it.  I haven't made it to the Scripture references yet, so bear with me there. During that time, I Googled "eight years of marriage" and "the seven year itch" and came up with a bunch of hits on wedding anniversary presents and divorce rates, which I guess only makes sense because you are either having an a...

I recently received a copy of the marriage book by Gary Chapman, entitled Happily Ever After: Six Secrets to a Successful Marriage .  I haven't read any of his other books, although The Five Love Languages has been highly recommended by more than one of my friends.  That concept intrigues me and I requested this book because I hoped that it was full of solid, Christian advice for my marriage. My first impression was that the cover was very pretty, and each chapter is divided by the same flowery fleur de lis (yes, I know what I just did) style decoration.  Almost like fancy wedding wallpaper.  Before I digress too far, I will continue.  The book consists of six sections, each divided into more detailed chapters, and some additional tools and resources found in the very back.  The sections cover how to solve conflicts, negotiating change, finances, marriage after children, love and sex, and in-law relationships.  Off to a good start and certainly...

Whew, it has been a whirlwind couple of days.  And I have no expectation that things will slow down. One of the most annoying things for me this month of NaBloPoMo is that my blog has felt more like Facebook status updates than any real writing.  Not only have I not had time for it, I just haven't had a writer's mind lately.  My mind is filled with nothing but to do lists and checkmarks.  In fact, I am so sidetracked these days that I spent most of yesterday reversing my words. Whatever I meant to say, I said backwards.  Instead of wash your face and brush your teeth, it was brush your face and wash your teeth. Most of date night was spent with me reversing everything or taking long pauses between sentences so I could make sure that my mouth actually said what my mind was thinking and that whatever my mind was thinking made sense. I married a patient man, thank goodness.  Thankfully, today was a laid back, do a lot of random things type of ...

Date night with my hubby... Shopping, Wendy's, and Sherlock Holmes 2. 

Enough said.

Cookie exchange at bible study tonight.  One word... Yum.

Tonight we took our girls caroling at the long term care facility.  My Missionettes girls are in 4th grade, and at the spur of the moment, we joined the middle school and high school girls to drive across town (a whole two minute drive) and do two laps around the really tiny wing of the hospital.   Please don't imagine well dressed girls with caps and coordinating song books.  We were a rag tag bunch singing the choruses from memory.  Please don't imagine beautiful rounds and well practiced carols. We sang off key renditions of Jingle Bells, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Silent Night and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.  We busted up on our attempt at Away in a Manger and moved on.  This has been a pretty standard activity for my group of girls for the last, wow, eight years.  Usually I am just a tag-a-long.  Rarely am I the one that organizes any of it.  Some years we practice.  Most years we don't.  S...

Even when your morning is filled with paper... Here's a way to add some Christmas cheer.

Well, we made it halfway through last week before it all went to pot.  And not literally.  More like, we made it halfway through last week before we decided to eat out...and just once turned to twice, followed by chili sent home by Grandma with quesadillas on Saturday night.  Last night, we finally had the breakfast for dinner, sans quiche (again!).  I whipped up super fast pancakes instead because we were in a little bit of a hurry.  Now you know the truth... just because I write it on the calendar AND blog about it, doesn't mean it will actually happen that way. But - this week... I plan. Monday - Top Rahhhhmennnnnnn.  YUM!  The kids think I am fabulous.  I grated carrots, threw frozen peas in there and served orange slices on the side.  Win-win tonight.  Jason is at work and could care less. Tuesday - Off the cuff, from scratch, not sure I know how to make it... Cheeseburger Macaroni in the crockpot. Green beans on t...

Saturday night, after about 3 hours of online shopping and listmaking and checking off and checking out, Jason and I called it a night.  Before the shopping marathon, we also decorated the tree with the kids and set out the rest of the Christmas stuff.  Our house has lights and a tree and Christmas decorations. We drank coffee and hot chocolate from Christmas coffee cups!  As I write this, I feel like I should be filled with joy and cinnamon and a happy "light"ness that comes with the Christmas season. There should be peace and a bubbling anticipation of Christmas Day and time with family and celebrating the birth of Christ. Yet, instead, I have knots in my stomach and a little bit of dread mixed with guilt churning into anxiety.  Saturday night, I stayed awake in bed for what felt like hours with my heart pounding and my mind swirling... all the things I need to get done and haven't.  The traditions we have started and expectations we have set and...

Well - after several unsuccessful attempts and a much longer rant about the holidays partially completed and abandoned... I have come to the realization that this year may be the year of the "why did they choose that picture?" Christmas card.  I am behind on cards (as usual), and I am trying not to stress out about it.  My kids are feeling the pressure too.  As I was telling a friend after the Christmas program tonight to beware of my "out-take" Christmas card this year... she (who has four kids under 6) reminded me of Photoshop. So if my kids' heads are on crooked... you all know why.  I have chopped off the heads from funny, spontaneous, happy photos and stuck them to nicely dressed, stiffly posed, perfectly festive bodies. Here are some of the gems that I have to choose from... And that is all I can handle for tonight. 

We are Christmas shopping online tonight.  First time ever that we are going through a list and Google-ing it all!  I am thankful for sites that offer free shipping.

It will be "lousy" if there are lice in my house.  First break out in daycare EVER (I'm on the 3rd kid at this home daycare) about a month ago.  Two notes home from school, and a scare at my sister's today. I am freaking out and shining a flashlight in Leilee's hair every 3 minutes while she sleeps.  I am confusing nits and dandruff.  It's not like I can wake her up and slather her head with mayonnaise right now!  I am washing everything anyway.  Errghhh....   Someone please console me and tell me I am overreacting.  I picked my share of nits and sent my share of head lice notes home at my last job.  But I've never been the mom that has had to deal with it all at home before.  This is not how I would have chosen a lesson in humility. 

There's another great "pay-it-forward" award going around... only this time the rules are different.  Taylor  flatters me so much and always (okay only twice... but to me that's a lot!) lists me in her bunch of favorites!  Check her blog out.  I am supposed to share seven random things about myself and then list 15 blogs I love and let them know.  But Taylor said it wouldn't hurt her feelings if the buck stopped with me.  So, what I am going to do is complete an amended version (like I have seen others do).  I don't want them to feel obligated to pay forward, so I am just going to make a list of all blogs I think to be pretty great and if they read about themselves on here, then they have a choice to pay forward or click away really fast and pretend they never saw! At a minimum, I hope they are flattered.  No pressure. Whew!  I just did a post of 100 things about me , because I am totally ...

Ahhh, just the words "financial freedom" have this exciting ring to them!  I recently received The 60 Minute Money Workout by Ellie Kay from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing Groups Blogging for Books Program.  The book advertises financial transformation in just one hour a week.  Hard to believe.  And I haven't tried it yet, so I don't know if it is true or not.  I was hoping that Kay would give me a solution that would help me only spend one hour a week on EVERYTHING finance related.  Bills, checkbook, planning, etc.  It doesn't quite work that way, and this book certainly doesn't offer a solution to laziness (which I have).  What she does offer is a very rigorous and structured approach to every facet of finances.  There are 14 chapters that cover topics ranging from creating a spending plan to travel and fun to college planning to retirement planning.  Each workout on the different topics is designed to be completed (by one ha...

Because I can't express how thankful I am for the gift of my husband and kids... here are some pictures.    Summer 2009 - They were so small!     The boys' first day of school this year.  Leilee wanted to go too!   The man partly responsible for those adorable children above.  With last year's Novembeard .   So, my first Nearly Wordless Wednesday.  Done and done. Note*  It is almost impossible for me to read or think the words "nearly wordless" without thinking of the part in the first Harry Potter movie when Hermione Granger says (to Nearly Headless Nick), 'Nearly headless?  How can someone be nearly headless?"  In the cutest little British accent ever.

Since the theme is gift, and I am barely dragging today, I am going to do one of my favorite, sketchy things (which I might blog about separately later) and that is "re-gift".  This is a re-gift of a blog post from August 2009 about a gift I was given by one of my best friends.  She came up here to visit during the Summer of 2009 and was appalled that I hadn't even tried to read Twilight yet.  So she bought me a copy at one of the Twilights stores in town.  Please don't tell her what I am about to share with you... So, it might be of note to admit to everyone that I am from Forks. A town that, until recently, was entirely unknown to everyone but loggers and hippies. A town now made famous by a woman who had never set foot on the Olympic Peninsula, but who wanted to write a book about vampires and werewolves traipsing around the darkest, rainiest and gloomiest corner of the United States. And now here we are. Twilight is everywhere. Twilight has entire...

I have been meal planning mostly regularly for quite a while.  It's almost a necessity at this house.  We are constantly on the go, and we live out of town.  Not planning ahead crushes the checkbook sometimes.  I liked the Meal Plan Monday blogs I have been seeing.  Since I write it on the calendar on the fridge anyway, I might as well share.  So - this week... I plan. Monday - Teriyaki venison, garlic broccoli and rice.  We haven't had stir fry in a really long time, so I might stir fry it all together.  Jason is just happy I'm not stir frying tofu these days. Tuesday - Lipton Onion Crockpot - Deer steak, potatoes and carrots.  Salad if Jason remembers to grab it out of the fridge. (We eat at the church tonight.) Wednesday - Leftover Love (see above).  Dinner at church. Thursday - Steak Sandwiches with Horseradish Mayo (deer steak, sauteed red peppers, mushrooms and onions piled on a chewy sourdough bun slathered in speci...

Tonight is a night where I have to exercise discretion.  Discretion is not a gift I always use.  Lately I have chosen blogging over other things. In fact, I have totally been ignoring the unwelcome family members growing in the bathtub and breeding on the leftovers in the fridge.  We have allowed the laundry to remain unfolded, a growing mass on the couch...until all the essentials from our dresser drawers have joined in.  Tonight, instead of late night blogging, it is late night shopping and lots of cleaning to do instead.  Using my gift of discretion to give my family the gift of a somewhat clean(er) house.

Ever since I can remember, I have loved to read.  My mom started teaching me when I was about 3 or 4, and I just took off.  I remember as a kid spending a rainy Saturday curled up in a chair reading from a whole stack of Babysitter's Club books.  It was not unusual that I would read two or three in a sitting.  I was kind of a freak.  We had this huge, ridiculous bookshelf at home that my dad had built.  He basically took two logs, stood them up, cut board sized grooves, and slid unfinished lumber in for each shelf.  They were huge and heavy and filled with books.  A set of encyclopedias, all the how-to books, a set of the "classics" (you know, the ones with the dark colored binding and gold letters) and all you could read Nancy Drew and Grace Livingston Hill books.  There were more, but those I remember right now.  Next door, at my uncle's house, it was the same way.  Loads of books.  Louis L'Amore, Tom Clancy, Joh Grisham, Da...

Here is an update on the skillet below from this .  Isn't it beautiful?  This is after two rounds of seasoning in the oven with Crisco.  I got a little crazy trying to clean this thing off.  Blowtorches (REALLY) and screwdrivers entered the picture.  I could have blown myself up or gotten a serious puncture wound.  But it was worth the risk.  As a side note... I think I may have mentioned that Jason is feigning interest in this whole drawn out process... Today, we were on the phone and I asked him if he had looked at the newest layer of seasoning on the pots in the oven.  A brief discussion followed... you know, statements like, "They're not finished YET?" and "Are you serious?"  And then he said, "I hope by the time this pan is done, it's so non-stick that it just slips out of our hands when we set it on the burner."  I love my husband.  He will receive his dose of sarcasm in return.  When he least expects it. ...

1. I numbered this list first, and I messed up twice. 2.  I put on pajama pants or sweats almost as soon as I get home every night. 3. I like the taste of the coating on Advil. 4. I love my chiropractor. 5. I'm addicted to coffee. 6. I like to Google people, but I am not a stalker. 7. The snooze button is my friend. 8. One of my favorite verses is 1 Corinthians 1:25 - "For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength." 9. My Amazon wish list is five pages...of shoes. 10. My notebooks are covered in doodles. 11. The older I get, the braver my fashion choices. 12. My nose has been pierced for over 10 years. 13. I don't forward forwards, no matter what doom will befall me. 14. I am the oldest of four. 15.  Chocolate is my favorite food.  When I was pregnant with Leilee, I couldn't even stand to smell it, let alone think of eating it. 16.  I love a good, dark beer. 17...