Christmas ~ New Year's ~ Changes

Well I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!  Unfortunately I haven't been able to get down to Pella to see Dad - yet.  I had planned to go down the Saturday before Christmas - then yesterday.

 

We had a Christmas Eve service at church and then a couple invited me over to their house for food and fellowship and to stay over night.  It worked out that Jim's brother Greg used to be our Assistant Pastor at LWF and is now "planting" a church in Altoona.  Well, Greg and his crew crashed the party which included his awesome wife and five kids :)  We started to watch "It's A Wonderful Life" - got to the scene after George and Mary walk home after taking their swim in the gym swimming pool and switched to "Narnia".  Not sure how far we got in that movie.

 

Christmas I was invited to another friend's family meal and back to her parent's house for opening of presents (I was even included which was a surprise) and then playing a game before I headed home.  I truly have an awesome church family!

 

I hope everyone has a very safe New Year's Eve and New Year's.  I'll probably be staying home tomorrow night and that's ok.  Mike and I started a tradition we learned from Kenneth and Gloria Copeland or Jesse Duplantis - we take communion at midnight to welcome the new year in.  I've done this by myself the past two New Year's Eves and will do it again tomorrow night.  So it's orange juice and a cracker - it's the intent that counts :)

 

And I can't believe it will be 2013!  I remember Mike working for the City of WDM when it was Y2K (2000) and how they had to prepare to have backup generators for things in case dispatch for police/fire/ems went down because of the computers not knowing how to "communicate" a year that wasn't 19XX.  People stock piling food, generators, etc., and nothing came of it.  That was 13 years ago - holy cow!

 

We've had two snows so far this winter - the first one the "big one" so far with a foot of snow?  I can't remember now but it was a lot.  The other snow was a light dusting that with today's temps above freezing the sun melted quite a bit before I got home from church.  I had to run an errand, fill the gas tank of the car (I like to only let it get to half a tank in the winter when I'm driving around town and then fill it up) and the gas nozzle stopped at $19.00 even.  Couldn't have done that if I tried - stopping on an even number.  And since it was above freezing I ran the car through the auto car wash with the dryer option to get some of the crud off the car.  When I got home I pushed the shovel around on the driveway, sidewalk and steps to get the rest of the snow and ice taken care of.  As I've blogged before, snow is a four-letter word in my vocabulary but if the rest of the snows are like this last one, I think I could handle winter :)

 

Well, I haven't put this on Facebook yet but will after finishing this post - I gave Cruz back to the rescue group I adopted her from a few weeks ago.  She was a good dog but there were different things that weren't working out.  A big one is that she was such a young dog and I don't like going out in the cold that I wouldn't walk her like she needed, so to be fair to her she needed a family that would run off her energy.  Plus she was starting to chew the wood on the windowsill next to her crate in the living room - and while that wouldn't be the reason to give her back to the rescue group - I was concerned at the amount of wood that was gone vs the amount of wood scraps I found on the back stairway.  That meant most of that wood went in her tummy.  And then there was the back stairway issue - she would open my kitchen door within seconds of me walking into the basement and sometimes the kitchen door would shut behind her trapping her on the steps.  Those steps are COLD in the winter and I didn't want her stuck in that cold area for hours on end. 

 

While I do miss her and the night she was picked up by her new foster mom was the first night since moving into this house in 1985 that there was not a pet in it (cat or dog) - God worked it out how Cruz was able to get into a foster home so quickly.  The house is pretty quiet but it's ok.

 

Last night I didn't sleep very well and I "wrestled with God" about maybe getting another dog.  A smaller and older dog that if I let it out in the backyard to do it's business that would be enough exercise for it during the winter.  I had it all planned to head to the Animal Rescue League (ARL) to find my dog after church.  I'd put my other large collapsable (sp?) crate in the living room where Cruz' had been.  I'd bring my dog home, put up the crate and then head to WalMart for supplies (leash, collar, toys, food, etc.).  Then.....I thought about how a dog ties me down.  While Mike and I loved having Lucy (the dog before the greyhounds) and then Butler and Milly - they really tied us down.  Now that I'm on my own - it's just that much more to deal with by myself.  If I wanted to be gone on my annual Girls Weekend in October - could someone come and stay with the dog in the house or would I have to kennel it for two nights - let alone going away for a week's vacation.

 

So I thought, "a cat, that's what I'll get, cats are low maintenance" but I didn't want it to be a real long-hair, sheddy cat and it had to have a good personality aka wanting to be around me and not aloof.  So I thought it through about God having the right cat for me at the ARL.  You can leave a cat for a long weekend, if I would be gone a week all I'd need to do is find someone or someones that would be willing to check on it maybe three times during the week.  I had a cat growing up, Mike and I had four cats at one time before Lucy, so I like cats....but they just aren't the same as a dog.

 

So I was back to getting a dog - but then really thinking about being tied down.  How I wouldn't have been able to spend the night Christmas Eve at my friend's house.  I don't mind kenneling a dog but with Mike he'd get off work early sometimes and get the dog taken care of before I even got home - with it just being me I'd have to take the dog to the kennel and then pick it up.  If I kenneled at my vet, the only time I could pick the dog up on Sunday would be when the person would be at the office checking on all the animals that were being boarded and who knows when that would be.

 

So then I was back to a cat but not 100% sold on it and that's when I realized that "poop, I need to think about this some more before running off and just getting a cat". 

 

That said - enjoy the two pix.  Cruz had been gone at least two weeks before I looked up and saw Wubba sitting on the window in the back stairway.  How she got Wubba up there is beyond me but it made me laugh.  The first picture shows Wubba on the window.  The second picture is a shot of the stairway so you can see how high up this window really is..............she was a Goober.



 

Christmas Program and Christmas Goodies

I've been wondering the past couple of weeks if I should continue doing a weekly blog - it doesn't seem like there is much to post.  Or maybe I should blog occasionally.  I may opt for occasionally, so if you aren't one of my 10 that automatically receives each blog update in an email - you may want to subscribe to receive a notice each time I blog.  You can subscribe at the top of the right side column which says "Follow By Email".  Enter your email and click on the Submit button.

We had a fun Christmas gathering for our church small group Wednesday night by eating, doing a White Elephant gift exchange and then playing "Four on a Couch".  My lovely white elephant gift was a fluorescent orange farmer's ballcap (the kind with the stiff, foamy front panel) with get this - face netting that went down over your face to protect your face when you were detasseling corn.  And the kicker was it was a used cap.  Man I tried to get everyone after me to steal my cap but for some reason no one wanted it....hmmmmm don't know why :)

Then we played "Four on a Couch" where everyone's names went on a piece of paper and then we all drew a name.  If we got our own name we had to put it back.  We put two men and two women on the couch and the object was to get four men or four women (four on a couch) and then the game was over.  We had an empty chair and the person to the left of the empty chair called someone's name.  The person with that someone's name then sat on the empty chair - and switched names with the person that called that name.  Then the person to the left of the newly vacated seat called a name.  It took like an hour and a half for the WOMEN to finally win.  I got to the point that I couldn't even remember the name I had in my hand - but it was a fun time.

I'm sure everyone is still thinking about the elementary shooting in Newtown, CT this past Friday.  I know a couple of my friends that have children in kindergarten or first grade took it really hard thinking, "what if that happened at my child's school?"  My heart goes out to that community for comfort during this tragedy.  There would never be a "good time" for this to happen, but during the Christmas season makes it that much worse.  The Christmas season is supposed to be a happy and joyful time gathering with family and friends - along with celebrating our Savior's birth.

We did have a prayer service at The Well on Saturday morning from 6-8 a.m. for anyone wanting to stop by and pray for the people in CT.  We also invited the neighborhood - since we meet in an elementary school - to stop by if they wanted for prayer or to talk about how they were feeling about this tragedy.  I asked my small group leader this morning how the prayer service went and he said it was pretty good - unfortunately no one from the community stopped by but that's ok.

This morning was our Christmas program at church where the 2 year olds through 5th grade (I think it's 5th grade) sang songs.  I didn't think to get my phone out to take pix of the kidlets.  It was amazing the number of kids we have in this age group - I think there were around 55 total.

I was invited to my friend's parent's house for lunch.  I think I blogged about being invited to Thanksgiving lunch and Thanksgiving dinner by two different friends/familys at church.  Where I went today was one of those homes.

Then we headed back to Heather's house to make cookies and candy for her cookie exchange tomorrow night.  It's been forever since I've done that.  I was telling how one time when Casey hadn't been in the Army very long he told Mike and me that if we ever sent food, candy, etc., to him it had to be enough for his whole squad or platoon - can't remember which.  So one Christmas Mike and I got in the baking mood and had NO idea how much we were baking and making until we really looked at all the goodies laying on every available space in the kitchen and eating area.  It was a ton of stuff.  I think we filled a large copy paper box full......  I don't have a clue how much it cost to mail that package but Casey said everything was enjoyed by all :)

It looks like we're finally going to get some snow on Thursday - blick, blick.  I'm just not looking forward to shoveling or blowing snow but if I must, I must.............

Snow - Is A Four Letter Word

Yesterday was a busy day and by the time I was done with everything - I forgot to blog - again.....

The weather here for the first part of last week was awesome!  Then it started to turn colder - blick, blick, blick.

I had hoped the weather forecasters would be wrong for what we would wake up to Sunday morning - the last I had heard was rain early and then some snow but not a lot of snow.  Like the title of this blog - snow is a four letter word and one I don't care that much for.  I'm more of a warm-weather person.

So when I woke up yesterday and looked out the window from my bed, I saw white stuff coming down - but it wasn't very heavy.  The ground was warm enough that the snow didn't accumulate on the street, sidewalk or driveway - thank goodness :)

And I'll admit - my drive to church yesterday morning was very pretty in the wooded area on Hartford which is the street I take before turning onto SE 22nd to get to the school my church meets in.  I even said a prayer to God thanking Him for the pretty scene and the moisture which we really need.

Yesterday was the day the food baskets for our Bread On The Waters grocery collection at church were distributed to the people that would deliver to the families that would be blessed by this outreach.  My small group leader and I were deciding what to do with the frozen turkeys and hams that were sitting right outside the door of the school so they could stay frozen during church.  Me - the little nerd that I am was slightly concerned that someone may find the turkeys and ham during our church service and take them.  But I told him that if they were gone when we got out of church - that meant someone really needed them.  We then put them in the van that we use to move things between the school and The Well :) 

When we went to open the door to the school we found out it had locked behind us - lovely.  We knocked on the door - on the other side in that room is our nursery.  No one opened the door to let us in.  Another church member drove up as we were standing outside and peeked in the window to get someone's attention in the nursery to let us in - it was a little nippy standing outside.

Late yesterday afternoon we had a baptismal service at the southside Y where one adult, three children and a teenager were baptised - it was a great time.  Then after that the church had the pool for about an hour of open swim time for our kids to go crazy in the water.

One of the families at church picked me up to go to the Y and then when they dropped me off - they came inside with their two kids and we had a fun time of visiting - watching the finale of the "Amazing Race" and doing a little cooking in the kitchen. 

Saturday afternoon I did something I'd never done before - I was able to go to a kid's cartoon at the movies.  My small group leader happened to get four tickets to the new "Ice Age" movie and asked if I'd want to go with him, his wife and son.  They live in Indianola so it was at Indianola's "little movie theater" as Rob called it.  He gave me directions where to meet them but of course I took some time Friday night to google to see if I could find the address of the "little movie theater" to get an idea of how long it would take to get there from my house.  When I googled "movie theater in Indianola Iowa" it came up with the theater and it had seven movie screens/theaters so I thought to myself, "that wasn't a little movie theater" :)  I was expecting something like The Holland which was the movie theater in Pella when I was growing up and it only had one big screen..... 

Anyway - a fun time was had by all. 

Rejoice!

I saw this picture on Facebook and it just cracked me up.  When I reposted it someone asked where Rudolph was.  I'm thinking getting the greys to wear the hoodie antlers was a big enough challenge - I don't think they could get a red nose on one of them.

This past week two of the guys from church came over to replace the "inards" of my toilet on the main level - thank you so much!  I did a water meter read two different nights right before going to bed and then right after waking up - and no water went through my meter.  I think the guilty water culprint has been nabbed - and I am blessed to have such awesome guys at my church that are willing to help me out.

Yesterday was Rejoice!, our women's Christmas event at church.  Many people helped volunteer setting up at the Southside Y and the gym looked awesome.  Last year we had a meal but this year the planning committee decided to have hor d' oeuvres instead.  It was amazing all the food we had - and it was all excellent.

We sang Christmas carols, heard testimonies of how God has and is working in different ladies' lives in the church and my pastor ended with a good message.  There were over 100 ladies in attendance!

I'll admit last night when it came to deciding which way to drive to the Southside Y from my house, I gave it a thought or two.  Normally I would drive the "back way" which is around McKinley to end up at Fleur Drive at the corner of the airport - but driving the "back way" could have me seeing deer.  I spent a little time talking to myself and also in prayer reminding me that God is with me and that I also need to get "over it" and just drive the back way.  I'm so thankful God is patient with us :)

I heard on the radio on my way home last night that we would have some fog this morning - they weren't kidding when I woke up.  I couldn't believe how dense it was - I could barely see out my upstairs window into the park across the street.  Thankfully by the time church was out the fog was gone and it was just a very low "ceiling day" as airline pilots might have called today.

We had our annual church membership meeting following our service at The Well.  The Well is a building a block or so down the street from the school we meet at.  I think it was two years ago this time of year when I blogged that we were raising money to remodel The Well from a restaurant into our church offices and outreach ministry for that neighborhood - and we called it the Blue Building since it was blue on the outside.  We still have a little ways to go - but we're almost there.  The outside of the building looks great and they were mudding and taping the walls yesterday.  We hope to have The Well open this spring.

It looks like another decent week weatherwise in Iowa - I'm ok with almost no snow like last winter :)