Little Bits

Overheard in the back of the car on the way to York yesterday:

Brittany: Kassie you look so much like Mommy!

Kassie: Thank you Brittany!!

Sometimes they make me feel so good!

We went bowling tonight, four kids and four grown ups.  Kassie beat us all...we suck I won't tell you what I bowled, but I will tell you that I only beat Bela and she bowled a 66.

Gabby got bricks for Christmas.  They are little tiny bricks and some packs of mortar to go with them.  She is building a miniature house.  Here is what it is looking like now.  Isn't it cute.  I will put up a picture when it is fully done.

Bela drew a picture of the sun shining through the rain.  I just had to share it because it is so creative.

It has been cold and dark and rainy here, but no snow.  We will be at our neighbor's house tomorrow night for New Year's eve.  Hope you all stay safe and have fun!

Joyous Christmas

I have been trying to figure out what I wanted to blog about Christmas.  My Christmas was such a blessing.  Being the last Christmas here in England, it could have been a sad time, thinking about all the wonderful things we have done here, all of our great friends that we will be leaving behind, and the country where our youngest daughter was born.  Instead it was a wonderful time.  Amidst the hustle and bustle, the video now players, bikes, and toys, and the wonderful mess of packaging hastily thrown all over the floor as children eargerly tried to get to what was inside, I realized that my greatest gift this Christmas was family.  I enjoyed every single moment from watching Danijela open a package with a baby doll that was bigger than she was and laughing after the baby was open because we couldn't get her to open any other presents since that was all she wanted to enjoying puppet shows that the girls made up with their new professional puppets.  It was a joyous time. 

The Box is Always More Fun Than the Presents

Merry Christmas

We spent the whole day yesterday without electricity.  David's parents got in safely and we were out and about doing Christmasy things when the wind whipped a tree branch down on the power lines doing apparently extensive damage.  We were actually without power for about 4 1/2 hours and they got us on a generator.  Then after that about every half hour someone stopped by to tell us to only use the minimum of power because all of base was on the generator and they didn't want us to blow the generator too.  We had several things that we had left to do, but everything was closed due to minimum electricity so we just stayed home, played games, napped and read. 

Today we finished stocking stuffers and Christmas treats, made Santa's cookies, and we also let the girls open two gifts this evening.

We are about to head to church where the girls will sing and Brittany will play her flute.  Then home to do all the Santa things.

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas from us to you!!  Remember the reason for the season and don't get all caught up in the political correctness.  Hugs to you all!

Christmas Preparations

I still haven't done my Christmas cards.  I guess they are going to be AFTER Christmas cards now.  I usually do 120-130 cards, every one of them with a nice newsletter and a handwritten note.  This year I can't find the time to sit down and do them.  I guess I will send out New Year's letters. 

The girls and I have been cleaning away getting ready for Christmas.  All the Christmas shopping is done now, but I still have to shop for all the food.  David's parents will be joining us (as a surprise for the girls) on Thursday and be here through New Year's Day.  I am excited about that and I keep slipping up in front of the girls.  I guess it is a good thing they never listen to anything I say because if they did they would know already. 

Since it is our last Christmas in England we will be having British food for Christmas dinner.  Roast beef, Yorkshire puddings, trifle, mince pie (that is for David), steamed vegetables and new potatoes and sticky toffee pudding and custard for dessert.  I will post some recipes next week if the food turns out good. 

The Army Postal Service has lived up to it's wonderful reputation and lost one of my packages.  It is completely missing and the company that sent it isn't answering my emails now.  I am going to link the company here if I don't hear from them soon so that people will know not to use them.  That is one bad thing about being here.  It is too expensive with the exchange rate to buy most of Christmas here so we order it and inevitably something doesn't show up.  I bought an extra gift for Danijela just in case this one doesn't show up.

Tomorrow I am taking the girls hiking because we have had a couple days of sunshine.  Crossing my fingers that it will stay that way for us.  We will pack a picnic and some hot cocoa in thermoses and head out.  I will take lots of pictures since we haven't had much outdoor time lately and my picture quota hasn't been met for a few months (LOL). 

Solved Mystery

Well I guess we made it.  The trip to York was actually rather fun.  We only had a few things to pick up, but the bells were ringing on the York Minster the whole time and it was beautiful.  The weather was pretty today we actually had a few hours of sunshine.  We got everything we wanted in York and now all we have left is the stocking stuffers and the food. 

Mysteries

We are plunging ourselves into a fantastic feat today.  We are taking all five kids to York shopping on the last weekend before Christmas.  Will we ever get home again?  Tune in to find out...

Tidbits of Wisdom

If you drive by the gas station and you know you need gas, and there are no lines and you say to yourself, "Oh I will just come back in five minutes after I check the mail."  Smack yourself in the head and hurry to the nearest pump instead of waiting the five minutes and coming back when there are ten people at every pump and the credit card machines are down so they are doing them all manually.

My Artist

Drawn by Gabby in pastels:

My Lovely Presents

Santa left me a present under the tree tonight.

And that wasn't the only gift I received today.  There is a beautiful masterpiece on the wall as well.

Isn't she a blessing??? 

(By the way, the tree used to look gorgeous until the cats decided it was their place to play.  I hardly have any ornaments left and the ribbon keeps getting torn off.)

OUCH!

And just for your information...the dollars to pounds exchange rate today is 2 dollars to 1 pound.  Talk about cutting your paycheck in half.  If you live in this would be a great time to go skiing in Colorado or go to Disney World.  Or if you are American living in England like I am...now is a good time to head home!

What fills Danijela's Days?

Danijela has decided that the cats need wet food and several times a day has poured their food into their water.

Being the independent soul that she is, she now pushes the step ladder around the kitchen to whatever place she wants to go and climbs up.  She makes lots of messes this way. 

She likes to climb under the Christmas tree and lay with the cats.

When she is ready to cuddle she grabs a little piece of my hair with one hand and places the other one on my arm softly.

She likes to eat her "Cocot" (Cholcolate) from her Advent Calendar every night.

While the other girls are working on their schoolwork she likes to go from one to the other and torture them by climbing on them and pulling their hair.

She throws fits and screeches when she doesn't get her way, but is very sweet if she thinks it will help her cause.

If someone is in her way she takes her little hand and pats them on the back until they move.

Every Day Has Rainbow of Smiles

The past few days have been filled with Christmasy things.  Crafts, wrapping, shopping, singing, and cocoa.  The kids put together a few crafts for gifts for friends and family and they are very proud of their work.  I can't post the pictures of what they made yet because some of you may be getting them and that wouldn't be nice.

The other day the girls brought me their whole savings and a folded up sheet of page from the JCPenney catalog to give to their Dad to order my Christmas gift.  I am very proud of them for wanting to spend all of their money on someone else.  They have been very generous this year.  We made a package for some friends of ours who are down on their luck and the girls agreed to have one less gift so they could pick out something for their friends who might not have a Christmas otherwise.  They are such good girls and I am proud of them!

Today we went for a drive.  Every so often we go out driving and get lost on purpose.  As we were out on our drive in the countryside we saw a full rainbow down in the valley.  I wish I had my camera because it was an absolutely perfect rainbow.  As we marveled at it's beauty I heard Kassie explaining what a rainbow was to Bela.  "It's when the sun shines through the raindrops and it sees its reflection and smiles!"  I couldn't have said it better myself! 

Beautiful Words!

This morning I had an email from Rachael Ann over at Willow Tree.  The comment about my Photo Friday picture of Danijela was beautiful and I just had to post it!  She writes:

"The whole picture is stunning; you clicked it at the perfect time. The
green on either side, the distance in front and back, the way she is
moving, is perfect, quite evocative. It makes me think of how all of
us are in some ways on our own path through the world and how it seems
that we are so small and vulnerable; but Someone is there snapping the
picture, Someone is watching over us at all times. We seem alone, but
aren't really."

Those words just touched me and I looked at the picture again after reading those words.  I thought about God watching over us and how it compares to Danijela's walk.  Sometimes we want to try and walk on our own and that is when He is just there watching over us ready to pick us up when we fall or when we get too tired to go it on our own.  Thanks for the lovely words Rachael!

On a lighter note I have been over to the Bob Awards today and found that my blog has acutally been nominated in a couple of categories!  Woo hoo, what a surprise!  I have gone and nominated few of my favorite blogs.  If you get a chance go on over and nominate a few of your own.

New posts

I have been busy this morning.  I have update my other two weblogs which I haven't done anything to in months.  I added pictures to Photos from the Heart and posted a couple of My Favorite Recipes.

Theme Thursday: Light

I figured as long as I was at it I would post for Theme Thursday as well.

Photo Friday: Abandoned

I know I am a little late from last week's Photo Friday, in fact I haven't done this in awhile, but I missed it so am posting now.  In this picture, I was the one who was abandoned because she wanted to be independent.

Will the Newness wear off???

My friend is going back to the states for a month for Christmas and asked us to keep her cats at our house for that time.  She leaves today and so brought the cats over yesterday.  The kids have been so excited about having the cats that they have been driving me nuts.  Bela and Kassie chased the cats around for hours last night after they were supposed to be in bed, until I finally let the cats into my room to hide.  When we went to bed everyone was finally settled in and one of the cats was all curled up in bed with Bela.  About 2 a.m. I heard a bunch of thumping coming from outside our bedroom.  I got up to investigate and Bela wasn't in her bed.  In fact I heard rustling under her bed (it's not so clean under there) and saw her feet sticking out from there so I asked her what she was doing.  "The cat keeps running away from me when I try to get it in bed with me," was her matter of fact reply. 

Hmm, maybe that should be a hint, honey. 

I hope they get used to having the cats here soon or none of us will get any sleep, cats included.

Slow Day

We all stayed home from church today.  Dani was up for most of the night fussing and with a low grade fever.  I also had a low grade fever so I called and got someone to teach my Sunday School class and I stayed home and went back to sleep.  Everyone in the house slept in.  It was great!  Then we had a leisurly day of watching movies.  It makes you feel lazy when you look out the window and it is almost dark at 2:30 in the afternoon. 

On Friday we had a few ladies over for tea and Dani got to play with her little friend Tom.  Aren't they cute together??

Notice the tattoos on Dani's legs.  Everytime she gets ahold of a marker she has to write on her legs.  Of course that one was permanent.

After everyone left on Friday the girls and a couple of friends and I went to the auction.  I found a German made violin with a solid back piece for 29 pounds.  I am really excited.  It hasn't been treated very well and will need a little work, but I will have fun refinishing it.  (If I can figure out how to do it without altering the sound.)

 

Priorities

Bela and Danijela are home tonight without the big kids.  Brittany, Gabby and Kassie are at a sleepover.  Bela and Dani got pampered.  First Bela got to pick her OWN movie without fighting with her sisters, then she and Daddy played playstation for awhile till Bela got bored.  After that the girls had a tea party with Mom and got Bela's choice of hot dogs, grape soda, and asparagus for dinner.  I asked Bela what was her favorite part of not having her sisters here.  Was it being alone with Mom and Dad?

"No, I get to pick my own TV shows and I get more asparagus than I ever got before!" 

LOL I guess we know where her priorities lie!

She may be a bully, but she looks like an Angel

Bully Baby

Danijela has learned to tattle.  It's not just any tattling though.  Remember how she was so mean to Kassie by screeching at her?  Well now whenever Dani gets hurt or just feels like crying she comes running to me and says "KaKa Owa" Translation: "Kassie hurt me".  She does this even if Kassie is not in the room with her.  I can't believe what a bully my baby is!

For all the Riches

Sometimes it takes something little to help you wake up and realize that you are being ungrateful.  I have spent several days worrying about what is going to happen when we get out of the military, how are we going to make it till he gets a job, etc.  Worrying about the stress of the holidays, how can we afford Christmas, etc.  Worrying about the car, it needs repairs to pass the MOT (annual inspection).  I have spent so much time focusing on what we don't have that I forgot to be thankful for all the wonderful things we do have. 

My wakening call was last night when I was talking to one of the little girls after the Christmas play.  She was the only one in the play that I didn't know very well so we were having a little chat.

Little girl: My Mommy has two children, me and my little brother.

Me: Oh your Mommy is very lucky to have you.  I bet she likes being a Mommy!

Little girl: How many children do you have?

Me: I have FIVE daughters

Little girl (after some thought): Wow you are so rich!!

I looked at my five daughters scattered about the room, and I realized that little girl had more wisdom than I could have imagined.  My eyes welled up with tears and I thanked God for all the riches he had given me!

Pictures from the Christmas Play

The choir singing "Joy to the World"

Brittany singing her solo "No Room"

"Away in a Manger" Brittany and her friend sing a duet.

 

"Noche de Paz"

Mary and Joseph

The beautiful stable was built in two days and just showed up on the night of the play.

Kassie and three friends sing "Stille Nacht" which is "Silent Night" in German.

Our three kings follow the star (Bela)

One more of the choir

The shepherds had a little trouble finding their sheep since they were moved right before the play started to make a little more room. (The sheep are actually behind them)

Me accepting my beautiful roses! The blurry lady standing next to me is my friend Petra, who did all the costumes.

Christmas Play

The Christmas play was wonderful.  Everything fell together at the last minute (with a little help from all the wonderful people who helped me with the play).  We all showed up an hour and a half early so that we could have the kids run through the play again.  And it's a good thing we did because the program wasn't put together like it was supposed to be, so we had to retype it (like I had already done) and copy it.

Two days before the play, someone had voluteered to make our stable and it was lovely, but huge.  The only place we could fit it was up on the stage, where the choir was supposed to stand, so at an hour before the show we had to rearrange people and change the way we did things.  The children adapted so well and it went off without a hitch.  They sang beautifully.  Brittany had two solos and a duet (only because the two solos were songs that I didn't have time to teach anyone else and she knew them), she is a beautiful singer and did very well.  We had a little latin singing with an "Adeste Fideles" solo, four of the kids sang "Stille Nacht" and then we had a duet of "Noche De Paz".  I was so proud of the kids.  They did just what they were suppose to do.

After the play they presented me with flowers and I had to keep from crying.  Then we had food and fellowship. 

Wild Weekend Fun

Yesterday was a wild mad rush all day long.  I spent most of the morning trying to get the program for the Christmas play typed up.  I typed it in Word Perfect format, but for some reason when I emailed it to the pastor, it would open up in Microsoft Word, but only the title showed.  I finally had to retype the whole thing on David's computer, all the while cleaning up Danijela's juice, helping the girls with their school, and doing odds and ends around the house.  In the afternoon we had the memorial service, which was absolutely beautiful.  David had some wonderful news about work that we had been praying for, for six months, and then I had extra children all night long. 

They were good boys, but I think all kids get a little wild when you take them to a different house with lots of other kids. 

Today is as wild as yesterday.  Play practice from 2-4:30, this will be our dress rehearsal.  Then I have extra kids tonight.  I teach Sunday school in the morning, sing in the worship service, and our play is tomorrow evening.  Some time in between those two things I have to make lunch, make something for potluck after church tomorrow night, and get Gabby to a birthday party.

My medicine appears to be starting to work.  It's only been five days, but my headaches seem to be getting better.  I have only had one headache in that short amount of time and it wasn't nearly as bad.  Fingers crossed that this works!

Who is guilty?

When I walked into the kitchen this morning I stepped in juice.  Someone had spilled a whole bottle of Tropicana Grape Twister juice all over the kitchen floor.  I was wondering who the culprit was, when I noticed a pacifier lying in the middle of the juice.  Then I saw the baby, who was soaked all down the front.  She was holding a cup full of the juice.  Apparently she was thirsty and since nobody bothered getting her a drink, she thought she would help herself!

More Tidbits

We finally finished all our decorating.  The house looks great, I will try to get some pictures on here tomorrow. 

Yesterday I went to the doctor for my migraines and he put me on daily medicine for chronic pain.  He said I should notice a difference within a few weeks and if not they will change the dosage.

Today the girls and I went on a cleaning spree and cleaned the whole upstairs.  When their rooms were all cleaned, I put up Christmas lights in their windows and they made decorations and hung them from the ceiling.  Their rooms look really good. 

Later, some friends came over and we made a Christmas package for some kids who we thought might not have a very good Christmas.  I think we went a little overboard.  The box is huge and is going to be very expensive to ship.

We got someone to do our props for our Christmas play and everything is all set now.  Our dress rehearsal is Saturday.  I am really excited about it because the kids have worked hard!

I am off to bed now.  My medicine tends to make me a bit sleepy. 

Puppeteers

I ordered the girls some professional puppets for Christmas.  Then I started to worry that it might not be something that they would like.  Yesterday they came down with a puppet theater that they made themselves, along with their own home made little puppets.  How creative is that?

They made up a whole puppet play with this.  I think the puppets were a good choice.