Monday, November 30, 2009

Mondays


This is what Monday looks like around here. We try not to leave the house except to take Anna Clare to school. Pretty much anything goes...especially in the fashion department. (This "dress" is actually a blanket tied around this princess. She had already changed out of pajamas, a mix matched shirt and pants, and a Cinderella dress-up gown). Going from a child who has never cared about what she wore and would not balk at anything I dressed her in to one who is obsessed with her clothes at all times has been quite an adjustment. I will never again laugh to myself when I hear a mom say that their 2-year-old is determined to pick out their own clothes. I am choosing my battles!





Today it is all about Guess Who (don't tell Sissy) and beating her own record for how-many-outfits-can-I-get-by-with-today-before-Mommy-loses-it. I am catching up on a little cleaning and laundry from our many Thanksgiving travels. (We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. All those hours in the car were so worth seeing all of our family and especially my grandparents who are 88 and 89 and will be celebrating 68 years of marriage in June).

Hoping to get lights and ornaments on the tree tonight! Happy Monday!

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Daddy's Little Hunter


That was the caption that Steve sent with this picture from his cell phone. Looks a bit more like "Daddy's Little Bookworm" to me. Her report from the woods was "It was boring." Good thing she had a book to keep her company. She gets it honest. I spent much of my childhood with my nose in a book. I remember going to the beach with a friend and her family and my friend telling me I was no fun at the beach because all I wanted to do was read! What can I say? I have always had a love for reading, and it thrills me that AC shares that love.

In other news, this is my 100th post. And it only took me a little over 21 months to get here. I am a blogging machine:) Happy Happy Thanksgiving! We have much to be thankful for!

Monday, November 16, 2009

More than a beach trip

Saturday evening, just a few minutes before five, I stood on the beach with some very dear women looking at this...



Isn't it beautiful? This past weekend I had the real treat of getting to spend a weekend at the beach with some women from my Bible Study. We had the best time. We shared together all weekend. As in shared Bible Study, small group time, prayer, personal stories, delicious food, a few tears, and lots and lots and lots of laughter. I have not laughed so hard in a long time! And we played games...I LOVE board games and am just a wee bit competitive. In fact, I called Steve to tell my family goodnight and mentioned that we were about to break open the games. He said, "Do they know you are over-the-top when it comes to games?" "They are about to find out," I replied. However I am pretty sure I met my match in the competition department. Who knew Whoonu? could be so fun? (Or that you could squeeze in 3 to 5 stories between each round of Apples to Apples?)

The weather was gorgeous, the house was amazing, but best of all, God met us there. I love these women, and He is teaching me so many things through them. It was truly a weekend of wonderful fellowship...and sometimes that's just what we need.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

A Word to the Wise


A China doll and American Girl Kit Kittredge (compliments of my cell phone)

Well, not really. Because if you are wise, you don't need to hear this. BACK UP EVERYTHING ON YOUR COMPUTER! Trust me...I learned the hard way. A few weeks ago I was checking my email and my computer locked up. I left it, came back later, and tried to figure out what was wrong. Pretty soon, I realized this was beyond my ability (pretty much anything to do with computers is beyond my ability). I called Justin, who helps us when we have computer problems and deserves a medal for dealing with such a computer idiot as myself, to come take a look. He took it with him and called me in a few hours with some not-so-good news. This is pretty much how the conversation went...

J (very nicely): Hey Kristen, um, have you been backing up on your computer like I mentioned to you when I set it up for you (in January)?

Me: um, no. Is it bad?

J (very slowly): yeah, kind of. Looks like your hard drive crashed. I'm pretty sure everything's gone.

Me: Everything??? Really??? Well, I do have my pictures on CD's.

J (very relieved): Whew, that was my biggest concern. (He knows how many pictures I have because he transferred them from my desktop to my laptop when he set it up).

Soooooo....I am pretty sure I have all (if not all, then most) of my pictures on CDs in our little fire-proof safe (Praise the Lord!). I always get a CD when I clear my camera card. What I no longer have is my Word documents,(nothing Word period...I had just bought and downloaded it online a while back. The good news there is that I didn't have many documents), my email addresses (so shoot me an email so you will be back in my contacts), my pictures ON my computer (can't just grab one here or there for a post or to email), my digital software, my iTunes library (I am clueless here. The songs are, obviously, still on my ipod, but I have no idea how this affects my library. Anyone?), and so on.

Thankfully, my computer was still under warranty so they replaced the hard drive for free. Yay! I shipped it off, and just got it back this weekend. So I have been missing all your blogs (and also missing email and online bill pay...thanks to my friends Ellen and Emily who loaned me their laptops so I could pay bills and sort through emails periodically). I have been very tempted to sit down and play "catch up" on all the posts I missed, but I am afraid neither my husband nor my children would appreciate that too much:)

Yes, it was extremely inconvenient to be without a computer for a few weeks.I definitely think God was teaching me a little lesson about what a spoiled brat I can be. It is, after all, just a computer. My friend, Angela, referenced a quote in Bible study last week that I loved. I do not remember the source and I am paraphrasing, but it was something like, "The only two things that are eternal are the word of God and the souls of man. If your focus is not on the eternal, then it is of this world." Don't you just love when someone says a word that puts things right into perspective? And doesn't that make you want to go out and tell everyone about Jesus so they will know they have an eternal spot in Heaven?

OK...I am off to find out what a jump drive is and what in the world I do with it. (At one time, I thought it was called a "junk" drive. No joke. See what I mean about computers being beyond me?)