Gift card time!

Keri Lynn went shopping for clothes with her gift card money . . .
Isn't she beautiful!
Kathleen loves a luxurious bath. She had a Wal-mart gift card and about fainted at the sight of all kinds of gift baskets full of lotions, bath salts and perfumes. She finally picked out this gorgeous lavender set!
Here she is in an outfit she picked out . . .
. . . with size SEVEN-AND-A-HALF shoes. Yes, ma-am, women's seven-and-a-half. She looks like Keri Lynn did at that age, like a colt, with those big long feet and long legs.

A new way to make jello

I got home from work one day to find this in the freezer.

Kathleen asked me, "Don't you freeze jello?"

The concert

Kathleen, Kylie and their friend Erin all put together their own Christmas concert over Christmas break. They wrote many of their own songs and made their own arrangments to other Christmas songs. They each sang, Erin played her keyboard and Kathleen played her recorder. It was a lot of fun!

Christmas Day

Here we are on Christmas morning. I was hoping to sleep until 11:00, but Keith thought maybe 7:00, and the kids liked 6:00, so we compromised for 8:00 am.
Christmas loot
"These are a few of my favorite things . . . "
Kristofer couldn't wait to install a computer game.
Keri Lynn with a warm sweater and a ceramic bowl that Konner made for her.
Kathleen -- a gift card to Wal-mart! She loves to shop!
A doll with dangly hair!
Must. Shoot. Something.
I bought milk and Hershey's syrup as a Christmas morning treat. Some of us had chocolate milk and some of us had hot cocoa. Kathleen is the hot chocolate connoisseur of the family.
Spaceship
Littlest Pet Shop (of course!)
Here are Scot Klusendorf and his daughter Emily who dropped by with Christmas gifts. The Klusendorfs go to our church and moved from California about a year before we did. Scot went to UCLA, so for our benefit he wore his UCLA sweatshirt and a Dodger cap! I'll be blogging more about the Klusendorfs soon.
Keith tends the fire and Keva looks on. She loves to sit by the fire and watch it burn. Keith, the biggest firebug in all history, enjoyed firing up boxes and Christmas paper.
It's cold in our neck of the woods so . . .
. . . Keva sits with her Daddy next to the fire!

Here's Miss Carol who came to have dinner with us Christmas evening. She's a USC graduate and huge football fan, but we won't hold the USC bit against her.
Merry Christmas, everyone!

Huh?!?

The birthday bash

About a week before Christmas, we had a big surprise birthday bash for the kids that didn't get their own birthday party for 2007 -- Kristofer, Keva, Kylie, Kade and Konner. Keri Lynn and Kathleen made the invitations and passed them out. Keith took the birthday people out on some errands while the rest of us decorated. Jonathan, Chase and Tucker arrive for the party.
Keri Lynn with Briana (the youth pastor's daughter) and Levi (Briana's brother) with Stape (the senior pastor's oldest son.)
The whole group -- that's a pack of kids, huh!
The obligatory silly shot -- a reward for standing patiently for the first picture.
We played several games. Here they are lined up "neatly" in two lines.
"Are we having fun yet?"
The cake with 14 + 12 + 9 + 7 + 6 candles on it! Keri Lynn baked the cakes and I put it together and decorated it.
All the birthday people blew out the candles together
And the fire department came a few minutes later because of the smoke bellowing from our house . . . just kidding!
Kathleen and a friend nearly singlehandedly blew up a ton of balloons that were cheerfully popped toward the end of the party.
Here's Kristofer with his friend Stape.
The party's over . . . but there's leftover cake!

I begin substituting

Got my first substitute teaching gig today.

God is good. He knew I needed an easy simple class. English I (Advanced) -- 9th grade -- at the kids' high school. YES!!!! Only one block in the afternoon. Time to get dressed, get my hair washed and dried, time to breath and make a little intro speech in my mind. Time to find a place to park. Very happy.

I got called by the automated system at 7:15 this morning at the exact same time that Keva's bus came roaring up. So quickly, I accepted the assignment and put Keva on the bus, and then went back in to review the assignment over the phone again. Usually subbing is for a half or full day, but mine was just for the one class, so it was just two hours (after all was said and done) of pay. That part wasn't great, but it at least gave me a feel for subbing without being thrown to the wolves right off the bat.

The kids were great. Typical ninth grade fairly high achievers, so they all behaved relatively well. I did not mention anything about it being my first time as a substitute and I tried to be pretty strict, at least at first, not letting anyone go to the bathroom or get a drink of water, until they were in their discussion groups.

I did have one "issue" when it came to dismissal time. I had had about five minutes to go over the lesson plan the teacher had left before students started filing in, and I spent a few more minutes getting it organized in my little brain, so that when it came time to figure out how to space out the projects the teacher had assigned them, I had decided that the school would be out at 3:00 even though the schedule did in fact say 3:30. The students (bless their hearts) informed me that they didn't get out until 3:30, and then quickly shushed themselves, "No, no! We get out at 3:00! You're right!" I ended up having a whole extra half hour to kill in my schedule. This was where my experience as a homeschool teacher came in handy. I went over work they had not had time to finish (Gee, I wonder why!) and then I read through the assigned story with them. It worked out fine. I was actually thankful for the extra time to help them get their work done. And then, before I knew it, the bell had rung. First class OVER!

When I got home a while later, Kathleen, the oldest one home, was in the bathroom with Konner who had hurt himself. He had scraped off a good portion of skin from a place right above his ankle. All the rest of the little kids were looking in on the mess of blood and bandages. Poor Kathleen was looking a little peaked and was glad to see me home. I'm still not sure if Konner actually needs stitches. I'm going to have Keith look at it when he gets home and help me decide. I think he may have just skinned a good portion off, but not enough to get stitches. We shall see. When I called the pediatrician, he reminded me that I've got about a six hour window before needed to get the stitches. I do not want to take Konner to urgent care again. Sigh.

Time to go make dinner.

The armor of God

Konner got a package from my Mom and Rich LAST year, but we were waiting for his birthday party to have him open it. Well, the months went by, and we FINALLY had a party for him and the others, and he FINALLY got to open it. Keith was the only one who remembered that it was still in the closet! Now is that not just pathetic parenting? We'll do better in 2008!

Nevertheless, despite that, Konner really enjoyed his birthday present. Here he is coming down the stairs with his armor on . . .
Fighting stance
At ease, soldier!

A birthday package from Grandma Waynel

Kade opens his birthday package from Grandma. "This is my FAVORITE, Mom!" he tells me.
He investigates all of his other goodies and his brothers and sisters help him figure out what is what.
And then he goes back to the car again.
Kathleen eyes a creature that was in the box.

Konner's toy soldier

Konner stands next to his toy soldier that he made in school. He was so proud of it and I liked it so much that I asked him to tape it on my door. So he did! And here he is proudly next to it, wearing something only he could pick in the dead of winter -- unbuttoned Hawaiin shirt and swim trunks.

Another thing that cracks me up about this picture is the wall on the left, where we like to throw Kody's ball. The soggy ball is thrown down the hallway, hits that wall and leaves a really disgusting soggy mess behind. Isn't that just precious.

Goals and hormones

I didn't even go NEAR Target for those six whole days of no work. I took full advantage of being at home, and Target even called once to see if I could come in, but I wasn't home when they called and when I did get home, I did not call back! It's been nice to be back home.

Laundry, after being at work since the beginning of November? Scary. I worked for a solid day and a half, sorting, washing, drying, folding, going out to buy more laundry detergent . . . and I'm about 2/3 done. Very very scary.

So this morning, I did wake up relatively early to go for a four hour shift at Target, only to find out that I should have gone in YESTERDAY. Oops. They were kind enough to let me work, but because I wasn't needed as a cashier, they had me off stocking shelves. Talk about blind ignorance. I worked with a girl who hadn't done any stocking before either, so we kind of stumbled around together and helped each other out. Then, as the time progressed, I walked by the registers to drop off something at Guest Services, and my team leader told me to go ahead and hop on a register. YESSSSS! So glad I didn't have to stock shelves during Christmas. That's hard work! I much prefer the register.

Anyway, I got called in by a manager after my shift today and told that my seasonal stint is now over. I have until my last scheduled day, which is Saturday, January 12, and should I want another seasonal job, they'd be happy to have me back, but I'd need to be available for more than just weekends to continue working there. That's just fine, because I'm very excited about the substitute teaching. I'm going to try to go to the kids' high school tomorrow and see if I can shadow a few subs and get the lay of the land. Then, I'll probably put my name officially on the list for Monday. Please be praying, my dear praying readers, that the Lord would pave the way in this endeavor. I am so very thankful for the job at Target and now this opportunity at school.

Now, on to my resolutions.

First resolution . . . no sodas. I have not had ONE soda in my home even after Keith came home with a bunch on New Year's Eve . . . But I have been out with Keith for hamburgers yesterday and had a soda and then out for a little birthday lunch with Konner at El Charro's . . . and I'm hoping I won't have a wild headache tomorrow when I have so excuse for drinking a soda!

Second resolution . . . eat like less of a glutton. Um, doing REAL well with that one, too. Does it count that I ate my chips and salsa slower than usual?

Third resolution . . . read through the Bible in a year. I've read the first half of the first chapter of Genesis. This is very sad, but I have to say that this being my most important resolution, I intend to carry it out, even though I'm off to a bad start. I've had "issues", hormonal, monthly-type issues that have been following their usual pattern. . . Three days ago I felt like I could take over the world. I decided that I WILL organize every square inch of my house. I got most of the laundry done, and all of the neglected pots and pans and tupperware cleaned out. The house was starting to smell decent again. I figured if I could get organized enough, I could crochet every gift for next Christmas throughout the year. Then, two days ago, it all fell apart. I was the Mother from Hell, yelling at kids, deciding that we will never get caught up with our money woes, and pretty much down in the dumps. One day ago, I was achy, tired and whiny. Which brings me to today when I'm getting back into a more balanced frame of mind again. Or, shall I say, normal frame of mind? Balanced might be too much. : )