Good Bye, Ranger and a Christmas Blessing

I feel especially blessed this Christmas because the morning of

 Dec. 22nd could have turned out very different.  

He's pretty sore and banged up, 

but he'll be OK.

The same thing can't be said for the Ranger.  

 

It held together well enough to protect Doug (with a lot of help)

 and we're very grateful for that.

Rest in peace pieces, Ranger...

Happy Birthday!

   There isn't anyone I would have rather spent the last 32+ years with, and I'm looking forward to many more!  Happy Birthday, Honey!

GET IT OUT!!

I HATE rodents (other than Guinea Pigs)! I don't like them inside or outside. They are NOT cute, no matter what some people, who will remain nameless, think.

So you can imagine how thrilled I was to find this note when I opened the bedroom door this morning!

 And then there were numerous copies of this note in strategic 

locations throughout the house.

Apparently, after Doug and I had gone to bed, and Mandy had gone down to Grandma's to dog sit,  David had a mouse run into his room and back out.  So David enlisted the help of Alex, Tyler, Evonne and Alanna.

They gathered their mouse catching arsenal
 (aka, weapons of mouse destruction),

 and they spent the next three hours overturning, looking under, and behind every item of furniture downstairs.  At 1:00am they called Mandy to come and help.  Eventually they gave up, wrote the notes and went to bed.



 This morning Doug and Alanna did another thorough search and after reportedly finding no evidence, decided that the vermin little visitor, "has left the building".

How the mouse got into the house remains a mystery. We do have a suspect but he will remain nameless until we have enough evidence to charge him with the crime.

UPDATE 11/5/12: The rodent actually had NOT, "left the building"!  The noises I heard in the Christmas boxes in the den were NOT my imagination, as some people led me to believe. At my request, Alex and Tyler completely tore apart the den, and with Rickey's help, they found the box the pest was in and took it outside to open it. He immediately scurried out of the Christmas mug he was hiding in and hasn't been seen since. Now, he really has, "LEFT THE BUILDING"! Now all I have to do is clean up the MESS!
The perpetrator has still not fessed up, but since he helped find the rodent we'll give him a break.

We Finally Did It!

 

 Yes, we finally used our Christmas coupon and went out to dinner!

 Alone. Just the two of us.

No dogs begging under the table.  No dishes to wash.

It only took us 8 months, but it was well worth the wait!

Happy Father's Day!

I know 7 people who are very very blessed to call this man DAD!

            And they know it too!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOUG

Happy Birthday to my BFF!

That means Best Friends Forever in Texting. That, and LOL, is my entire texting vocabulary.

I love you honey! Have fun with your new Kindle but no playing Angry Birds in church!

Home(bedroom)Makeover

Our bedroom has always been the least painted, decorated, and cleaned, room in the house. It just seems that it's never at the top of the list when it comes to any of those things.

Well, we waited and waited, but nobody ever came knocking at our door offering to send us on vacation while a Design Team,  swarmed in and did a magnificent bedroom makeover. We would then arrive home to see a large bus parked in front of our bedroom. After we asked them to "move that bus", we would gasp in awe as our beautiful boudoir was revealed! (We can dream can't we?)

We decided we'd better take matters into our own hands and 

Do It Ourselves.

So all weekend we hauled stuff, cleaned, washed, painted, etc.

By Sunday night we had this to show for our efforts,

and we think it looks pretty darn good!

Even without the vacation, bus, and design team.

Rickey, the cat, has graciously given his stamp of approval.

 (which, of course, is quite important)

I think we make a pretty good Design Team!

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Well, for people who don't like to travel, we've been doin' a lot of it lately!

Friday, not only did we go across the water, ...

we went over the mountains!

Mandy had to attend a conference for her graduate program that was held at a college on the other side of the state.  Unfortunately Mandy, like her mother, is directionally challenged, so Doug and I got to escort her to her destination.

I was not a lot of help, in getting us there and back.  I couldn't even program the GPS properly.  It kept telling us, "Turn left!", "Turn left!", and Doug kept saying that left isn't right (I knew that!).

 I was, however, able to act as photographer while Doug and I entertained ourselves all day, Saturday.

So after a night in a noisy hotel with the worst excuse for pillows I've ever seen, we dropped Mandy off at her conference, and went off to tour a wind farm.

It was fascinating even though it was very very windy, but I guess that just means they chose a good spot to put 149 windmills!

 This is the diameter of the bolts used.

 We even got to go inside, but we didn't get to climb the ladder.

Here is one of the blades.  They don't look quite as big when they're up in the sky!

 Doug and "Dexter" in the interpretive center.

So, Mandy got another graduation requirement out of the way, we got some alone time with our firstborn, and Doug and I had a good day doing something different.  

Now, since we have some traveling experience under our belts we feel qualified in giving some traveling advice......."Always bring your own pillow!"

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

 7plus kids + 8 different homes + 4 different cities + about 15 different vehicles + way too many pets to count + many losses + many many joys + many changes + putting each other 1st = 31 years that I wouldn't have missed for the world!  How did I get so blessed to be married to the best friend, husband, and father on the planet!

Happy anniversary, Honey!  Want to try for another 31?

Who Says We Don't Travel?

When friends and family tell us about trips and cruises they have planned, our unspoken reaction is probably the same as their spoken reaction each time we have announced the addition of another child to our family, " We're very happy for you, but we're glad it's not us"!


For the most part, Doug and I just aren't travelers, and we aren't afraid to admit it. Maybe that's not normal, and we should be in a support group or something, but we we really don't feel that it affects our quality of life.  At.  All.

We have had some very nice short trips that have been just what we needed. Our 30th anniversary get away last year was perfect.

And, not to brag, but just today Doug and I ventured across the water and visited IKEA!

IKEA is almost like visiting another country because all their product names are in Swedish, and we had Swedish Meatballs for lunch. Really!

We had a great time being together and still got home in time to sleep in our own bed.  The best of both worlds. Who could ask for more!

 We love our home, but we know there is a new, perfect, and permanent home waiting for us. Our lives are really one long journey on the road to our home in Heaven (we just prefer to travel it without public transportation and strange beds) In the meantime we feel like we are very blessed on this side of Heaven.



2 Corinthians 5:9
So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.