You Know You Came From a Small Town When...

...you land at the "international" airport and recognize 8 kids from your graduating high school class...when you run into your boyfriend from sophomore year at the mall...AND you can't go anywhere without recognizing someone!
I adore my anonymity in Colorado...those people have no history with me and that's the way I like it. They know me as an adult only and I don't have any weird vibes from them. It's not like I have bad memories from this place or dislike any of these people, they're great, but I just hate all the interaction that happens with it. I want to hang out with a small handful of people and that's it.

Does anyone else feel this way when they go to their hometown?!

Handy Mommy

I'm feeling very cool right now.

I spent 3 hours yesterday disassembling our garbage disposal. I accidently mangled my tea ball in it the day before and the chain got wedged in the small crack where all the waste goes. Two hours of my time was spent using a fondue fork as a...uh...er...stabbing tool...trying to move the stupid chain up or down and free.
I'm not sure how many colorful words were muttered by me, but I'm sure I could rival any plumber or sailor. The hardest part was actually getting the stinking device hooked back in. Thank God for a mop bucket and multiple cutting boards (great wedges they are).

In lesser news, I decalcifyed the shower head as well, but I feel much cooler about the garbage disposal.

Have you ever done manly house chores? Did you enjoy it as much as I did?

Bah-Humbug?

I'm a very low-stress person...very low stress. This means I have a really hard time when things get hectic. Enter the holidays! No matter how nice everyone is during the holidays, I just get completely wiped out by the busyness of it all. This year has been much the same.
We had my daughter's birthday SLEEPOVER (yes, I am crazy) last night with four giggly girls, they all had much fun (Twister, cupcake decoration, pillow fight), but I'm lasting on about as much sleep as a momma with a newborn.
The economic turmoil hasn't affected us (yet) and so our Christmas is much the same as it is every year, except for two positive developments:

1. I normally suck at gift-giving...I lack creativity and fall back on gift cards a lot. This year I got my hubby lots of little things (think nuts, root beer, a tarp) that he is going to love.

2. Jason grew up with a dad who had a very Godly outlook on money and Christmas was a time of wonder and loving abundance for my hubby growing up. So, we were able to lavish our kids this year and I can't wait for them to feel it!

Our kids really didn't ask for much this year and they were able to buy gifts for less fortunate kids, which I think is great for them to experience. All in all, I think we feel very blessed to be us this year and are glad to spread that to those around us.

This post was written for the Blog Blast over at the Parent Bloggers Network http://blog.parentbloggers.com which is sponsored this week by FFDA, Families For Depressed Awareness, which helps families cope with stress (so needed for many right now).

Merry Christmas!

Around & Around I'll Go No More

Can I just say, I'm a little happy about this recession. I have high hopes that it will cause us to reorder our priorities and look at what matters. I know that living like we have for so long has kept us from being very busy because we just don't have the means.

Our kids are on the cusp of both being in "real" school (2nd & kindergarten next year) and I've seen how busy that can make a family if both kids get super involved in a large amount of activities. I've made it a point, so far in their lives, to make sure they understand the value of playing with friends after school. I'm planning on continuing to make sure that they make enough time for each other and relaxing with friends after the busy school day.

I'm also a low stress person and keep my schedule fairly free. The last couple of weeks have been so nutty though that I've barely had time to breath (or blog for that matter). With both of the kids in school next year, I've considered taking on a job, but I'd have to pray about it ALOT before I take that step. I'll keep those things that matter to Him and consider everything else carefully.

How about you? Are you too busy? Just right?

This post was written for The Parent Bloggers Network http://blog.parentbloggers.com/ . This week, they've teamed up with BigTent (an online group organizer) this week to ask moms how they're going to make their "circus" easier in 2009. There is a great prize involved this week! Check out the contest here: http://blog.parentbloggers.com/2008/12/12/your-life-is-a-circus-join-our-final-2008-blog-blast/

Nothing Like A Bum Fight

The hubby's currently away...not in some foreign land, but a wedding, on the east coast...which sort've counts as a foreign land to this Montana girl.
K, so all the big attractions around Denver have free days, one such entity being the Denver Art Museum. The first Saturday of EVERY month is a free day...for Colorado residents. So, I ventured down there with my kids, my pals (Crazy Uncle Connor & his wife Michelle) and his grandniece Orianna (Oreo). I was a little nervous about how they would take it all. It's all pretty comtemporary and some of it is pretty graphic. I shouldn't have worried though, my daughter loved it! She wants to be an artist, so she was fascinated. I could tell Caedmon thought it was mostly weird (some definately was) and would've been happier at a car museum. They lasted three hours before we adults gave up and decided to walk them to a McDonald's.

We're walking through a park in the heart of Denver and lo and behold we come upon a bum fight. Apparently a couple of bums had approached the stuff of some other bums. Those bums had to defend their shtuff. How do you do that? Beat the other bums away with a broken broom handle. Then get a couple more involved and start punching each other in the head.
I never know what to do when I come upon something like that...do you call the cops? Intervene? Pretend like nothing's going on? Connor considered intervening, but they had driven off the other bums by the time we got parallel to it.

As we crossed the street, I looked down at Caedmon and said, "Let that be a lesson to you son, never get in a bum fight."

A Sign Your Kid Is (Too?) Comfortable at the Neighbor's House

We finally were blessed with snow this week and the kids were psyched. On Sunday they spent 3 hours sledding down the neighbor's hill.
I called my neighbor and told her how excited I was that they were having so much fun out there. She laughed and said, "Well, Caedmon actually came in a half hour ago. I was folding laundry in my room. He came in, said hi, climbed under the blankets on my bed and said, "Hey Steph, could you hand me the remote please?" So, I said sure and now my son is in here snuggling with him".
Wow, talk about owning your space! I'm so incredibly blessed that we've built a relationship like this with our neighbors and their kids. I adore Steph and her kids! It's exactly what I've been desiring in a neighborhood because it's what I had growing up.
Are your kids comfortable with the 'hood?

Winner of Gift Card Draw!

The winner of the GC I was offering was Claire!! Woo hoo, go claire. Unfortunately, I didn't win a Zune. Oh well.

188,000 is All You Have In You?

I love our mid-90s, high mileage cars...until they stop working. Sure enough, our gorgeous green LeSabre started smoking on the hubby's way home from work. Can I just say, getting Roadside Assistance through our phone service was a stroke of genius! We've used the service three times this year.

Oh, and I had to go meet them in the first snowstorm of the season! Very pretty, but untimely. We're not exactly sure what's wrong with the car, but I assume the antifreeze pouring out of the bottom of the car is not a good sign.

In other news, normally I go out on Black Friday and shop, but we are a little strapped and the hubby had to work. I've had a bad week of feeling whiney about finances...could be because rent is due at the end of next week. Ironically, I know He'll provide, but I just allow my emotions to run amok. Darn you emotions!

Vote for Me (and Giveaway)

The Present Professor had a contest about the worst gift received and I could use your votes for my story!
As extra incentive, I'm giving away a $5 GC to CVS and $5 GC to Starbucks to one lucky voter. Head over here ( http://presentprofessor.com/2008/11/win-a-zune/ ) and vote for my story (The Cheese Wheel That Came Too Late). Then come back here and leave a comment that you voted. Contest ends Nov. 30th, so I'll draw a name on Dec 1st. (I can only ship to Canada & the US)
Happy voting!

Give Me Your Liver Sandwich, Prune Tajine, Hammam!

Well, we're back home...hard to believe that we left only a week ago on our whirlwind trip.

I realized that in my last post about Morocco, I failed to mention the lovely country Moroccans that we sat next to on our 4 hour train ride. These studly folks (after what I'm sure was a long day) decided that taking off their shoes and propping said funky feet on the seats was the right way to end their day. Then they decided to talk to each other loudly and close the window and doors (Allah forbid they get cold). The smell in our little cab was...ripe to say the least.

One of my favorite parts of traveling is the new foods I get to try, by the second day I was itching to attempt something unusual. We hit the street market (medina) and walked around looking at jalabas and the donkey's that lumbered past with their wares. Jalabas are the native dress and (I kid you not) they are exactly like every Jedi robe you've ever seen. I couldn't help but look for light sabers or KKK members. We finally sat down for a meal in a sandwich shop. They all ordered beef kabob sandwiches (boring!) and I resolutely ordered the liver sandwich. I've never had liver and I thought the safest place for my first try of organ meat would be an unsanitary shop in Morocco. Our friends, and my hubby, were completely grossed out. I was actually disappointed when I bit into my sandwich. It was delicious...and didn't taste weird at all. They put green olives and cooked onions in it with some horseradishy mustard. It was good.

That night, our friend Mark cooked the traditional Moroccan meal of a tajine...it's what passes for their casserole/stew dish. You toss whatever you have on hand in a pot and simmer for a couple of hours. Mark made a beef prune tajine. I admit, the thought of prunes in my meal sounds, erg, yucky, but when we sat down to eat it I dug in. It was delicious! The beef and prunes sat in a mild tomato based sauce with toasted almonds over the top. We pick up the meal in yummy fresh bread.

On the last day of our trip, Amy and I went to her neighborhood hammam. For those who don't know what that is...is the bath house. Middle eastern cultures love being clean, and since hot water (and home plumbing) hasn't been common, then they go once a week (or month) to the hammam to get clean. We walk into a big tiled room and promptly stripped down to our undies. We walked deeper through three tiled rooms to a room filled with steam. You fill three buckets w/ hot, cold & warm water, sit on a bath mat, and start scrubbing the dead skin off. They say there that you aren't clean until the worms of skin come off your body. We didn't scrub that hard. Also, it's normal there to scrub the skin off your friends body. Erm, we enjoy each other at all but we weren't about to scrub each other down. It was a lot of fun sitting there, chatting it up, having everyone stare at the foreigners. All in all, a great end to the trip.

The kids did an amazing job with the grandparents...why wouldn't they when they get to eat junk food, play video games and skip school?! I'm incredibly blessed with having the parents that we do; who are willing to take our kids at the last minute.

The Cheese Wheel That Came Too Late

For the most part, my Christmas presents have been wonderful things and as I've gotten older I've realized that there's more to it than the gift received. But there were two gift snafu's that stick out to this day. There was the infamous 4th grade Christmas when I got nothing but CLOTHES. I remember crying that day.

My favorite awful gift that we like to recall in my family is the cheese gift pack. As a kid, whenever I went out with my mom around the holidays I would see these brightly colored, orderly, delicious-looking packages that held summer sausage, a multitude of cheese, mustard and crackers. I would ooh and ahh and tell my mom that I really would love one of them. Then a year passed and I forgot about the glorious cheese.
On Christmas morning my grandparents were there and they handed me a large square box. I was excited because it felt too heavy to be clothes and I was hoping for Legos or books. I ripped of the paper...
there was the cheese gift pack in all it's late (and now unwanted) glory.
"Oh...thank you?" I said to my grandparents as I screwed up my face.
They all laughed as they realized that the cheese wheel I pleaded for last year was an awful gift.

I wrote this post for a great contest going on over at The Present Professor http://presentprofessor.com/2008/11/win-a-zune/ . Happy gifting!

Hey, Your Cow's in that Roundabout

Here we are in nutty, exotic, quasi-sunny Fes, Morocco! After roughly 30 hours of travel we made it here. Here's the flights:

Denver-Memphis

Memphis-Nashville (drop off kids)

Nashville-Atlanta

Atlanta-Madrid

Madrid-Casablanca

And THEN, you hop on a train for fours hours to get to Fes...easy, right.

It's really good to be here and see our friends, to love on them and (hopefully) bring a little familiar love and encouragement to them. Being here makes me wish I were in Turkey...it's been 2 years since I've gone there.

Wondering about the title. While on the train I kept watching the scenery go by and I noticed that people graze their sheep and cows wherever there's something to graze. This includes the middle of a busy roundabout. I also noticed what appeared to be rows of cactus that they were growing for some unknown purpose. We saw a shoving match while waiting for the train to Fes and drank a can of lychee juice. In my opinion, that's the hardest part of travel. When you're going quickly from place to place, it's hard to pick up anything close to a meal. Thank God for granola bars and gum!

We leave Thursday, so I'll post again if anything interesting occurs.

Stay Tuned...

...as I will be next blogging from the foreign and fun shores of Fes, Morrocco!!

Ta Da, Last Minute Man!

As if our week's haven't been crazy enough, it looks like He might be sending us to Morocco next week...as in leaving this Saturday.

Did I mention the hubby is currently out hunting?

So, yeah, kinda crazy.

I was in the bathroom yesterday and I asked/whined God why He was asking us to go to Morocco. Why couldn't He send someone else?

Then He said, "You doink, who else can fly at the last minute like you all can?!"

Oh yeah.

Also, I was reading James 2:15-17 which says, " If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself."

Why wouldn't He send us and how awful of me to not want to give our missionaries some loving!

I should say we're not 100% sure we're supposed to go, so stay tuned!

Non-Scrapbooking Scrapbooking Weekend

Yes, my friends, it's that glorious time of year when I head into the mountains and hang in a scrapbooking cabin with 10 loverly ladies. Ironically enough, I don't scrapbook and I've spent the last 3 years of this weekend to do NOTHING. And by nothing I meaning bathing, reading, watching movies, contesting and whatever other chicanery requires me to relax.

I love this weekend too because the majority of these ladies are people who I don't know well, and I love seeing into who they are more. It causes me to see outside of my usual people bubble and appreciate the broader spectrum of ladies.

If you've read my previous posts you know this is very timely for me...I needed to destress. Oh yeah, NO ELK meat! Argh!

The Answer

God came through today!! I got a call early in the day that someone wanted to meet with me. When I met with this person she told me that she and her hubby and been lifting us up and had felt that they were to give us money for rent. It was exactly what we needed! It covered the day late fee and everything!



Also, another praise, what that this scenario gave my mom and I the opportunity to connect and really talk through some things. I now know that I can call her to pray over situations like this.



Thank you to all of you who prayed for peace for me...I felt much stronger faith-wise this week than I've felt in a long time.

When Is It a Need?

Here it is, the end of D-day for rent...and we don't have it.
Does that mean He doesn't care? No
Now my question is: When is it necessary for rent to be paid? Is He going to wait until we get eviction notice to provide it?
What about the electric bill? When do those need to be paid?
Is eviction something that He'll allow us to go through?
These are something of the questions I'm pondering tonight...I'm still at peace (miraculously) with our current situation...I'd love to have an answer though.

We Love to Move it, Move it

The Mom Salon and Mcdonald's are trying to find out what families would do with one minute to move it!
It's hard to think of doing this for just one minute, but we like to crank up the music (Imagination Movers, Newsboys, Night At the Roxbury) and groove ourselves silly in our living room. I love dancing with them because they think every move they do is cool and don't know enough yet to think I'm a dork (wonder how long that will last).
Now, if we could only talk the hubby into showing us his cool moves.

Livin On the Edge

Just a quick update on my prayer request from a couple of days ago:

Highs: I was given an anonymous gift of $100 on Sunday! praise God!
My son's tuition is covered for this month!

That leaves us with much still needed to cover rent tomorrow, but I had an amazing day of peace and sweet time with God. We've made Tuesdays unofficial No Electronics Day and I'm a lot calmer and God focused when I'm not flipping on all the distractions (yet here I am on the computer after the kids are asleep). Cheater.

Stay tuned to see how He provides!

How Many Giveaway Wins?

So here are the stats for me from the Bloggy Giveaways:

1,268 giveaways entered
5 wins

That means that my odds of winning are 1 in every 254 contests...not the odds I was hoping for.

BUT let's take the number of wins that I've had in the last year.

221 wins / 12 months = 18 wins per month

Not too shabby, but I do shudder to think how much time I've spent sitting at this computer!

How about you, what's your average? How many Bloggy wins did you have??

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Update: I now have 6 wins so the new average is 1 win in every 211 contests entered