whatever..

I say it all the time. I hear others say it all the time.

Madie said it tonight.

Dave told her to do something and she answered, "whatever." All of a sudden I'm remembering a song I learned in Sunday school many many moons ago..

Oh be careful little mouth what you say
Oh be careful little mouth what you say
For the Father up above is looking down in love
So be careful little mouth what you say

let it out.

While figuring out how to best put this into words, the images of the Kleenex commercials (Let it Out) came to mind.. my little comedic break for this morning. I should be at church, I would like to be at church, but our poor little Adrienne has quite the croupy cold.

I find myself still mulling over this last Christmas season. This last holiday, I really struggled with all the commercialism and hype vs. Christ's birth. Part of it being that we weren't able to financially give gifts as we had in the past. Part of it was humbly accepting help from those we had helped in the past. Part of it had to do with missing family members which haven't been present at any holiday celebration for many years.. it just doesn't seem to get easier with time. Time, in this case, just seems to make these seasons more difficult. Part of it was just clinging for dear life to my faith in Christ and daily reminding myself that He will provide what we NEED (Philippians 4:19).

Anyway, a friend of mine from highschool recently got in touch with me.. we exchanged blogs, and I found this on hers.. I love this post. I don't know what else to say about it. This is an amazing poem and tradition that will be part of our Christmas next year, and the years to come.

Here's the link: The Christmas Nail

A few of you may be getting these with your Christmas packages next year, so hopefully I am posting this far enough in advance for you to forget and be surprised when you receive it!

catching up..

The new year has come, and has brought along some faces of the past with it. I've been bad about posting, but now that there are people out there who are actually interested in the happenings here in our corner of the northwest, I'll (we'll) do my (our) best to get you all caught up:

Dave: working at Blueprint Design Consultants, Inc. It's been a challenging year, but things are looking up for 2008. He also volunteers in the video/media room at our church. Other than these things, family and projects around the house and condo keep him busy!

Deanna: working at BDC (i'm too lazy to type it all out and link again, yet not too lazy to tell you this - go figure) one day a week. Just enough to keep my computer and bookkeeping/administrative skills up to date.

I just recently became a Watkins products associate. My "Gram B." sold Watkins products for many, many years and retired from it this last year. I've been running out of all my favorite Watkins items, thus deciding to start selling the products myself. My shameless plug :) If you are interested in a catalog, or want to know how to purchase online, let me know. I'll hook you up! ;)

The rest of the week I am busy being a mom to Madie and Adrie, attending a bible study, and attempting to keep up on house work.

Bunny trail:


Madie's first Christmas program - I feel the need to tell you that they are singing "Away in a Manger." It is hard to tell when you have that many 3 and 4 year olds all singing the same song, but not at the same tempo or in the same key. Enjoy!

Madalen: Madie is busy with many things. She has preschool 2 days a week, Sunday school one day a week, and in between these things she is mama to boo puppy (her "security" stuffed dog), big sister to adrienne, and helper to mommy.

Adrienne: She's busy. All the time.