Christmas Break ♥

Today was the last day of school until Jan. 6th of next year. I do an International Feast for my class, because it is such a diverse class. We do a potluck, where different families sign up for the dishes. They usually bring a traditional food from their culture that they use to celebrate the Christmas season with. We get a very wide variety of foods, and they are all so good. It would have been so easy to indulge, but I was very good today.

The children came into class this morning very excited about today. I think when "Santa" came in (real beard and hair) the children were in heaven, or so they thought. He was one of the grandfathers of one of my boys, who goes to the schools and visits the special needs children. He was just great with the children. They sat on his lap and he asked them questions, answered them and gave each child a candy cane. I liked the way he handled their "requests" by telling each one that there are somethings that they need to tell their mom and dad and that he hopes each one will get what they want, but that doesn't always happen. He spoke to them very gently and they accepted his answers. After Santa left we did show and tell. His grandson brought a creche to share and said it was his grandma's and she said he could share it. He also mentioned that it was the "baby Jesus". I thought that was special.
Working in the public school system we are not suppose to talk about Jesus. However, when a child brings something in to share about Jesus, I go for it. I am impressed with how many children in my class know who Jesus is. Once the subject comes up they like to share about their Sunday school class. I just sit there and let them talk, - ah, I do make them take turns talking and sharing about their SS class.

Break used to be called Christmas vacation, now they call it winter break. I don't, to me it is still Christmas break. It is like going into the stores to shop. My son's birthday was 2 days ago. When I went shopping for his gift I had a sales lady ask me if I was holiday shopping. I told her "No,it is for my son's birthday. I don't holiday shop anyway." she said "You don't" my turn, "No, I don't celebrate many holidays, but I do celebrate Christmas and I do Christmas shop." After that the look she gave me tempted me to reach out and lift her chin up to close her mouth. She then said "Oh" and walked away, no other comment. That statement usually gets me more comments, she just seemed a little dumbfounded. I think I may have missed an opportunity to share Christ with her, but I know I left her with something to think about. Really, it was almost comical.


Now I need to finish decorating and finish my Christmas shopping! My feet hurt just thinking about it. Tonight I will finish my cards.

God Bless

Life moves on and God gives blessings.

I feel like I have been in a fog lately. With the wedding behind us, and our daughter now a married lady, I have been trying to catch up and focus on what needs to be done now. My dental surgery set me back just a little. I had nothing but soup and cottage cheese for a week and do look forward to solid foods now. I lost 4 pounds and hope to keep them off when real eating resumes. The bruise on my face is just about gone now, it was a very deep purple, approximately 1 inch across and 2 inches long and looked hideous, yet it never hurt.

Last Tuesday was a real joy for my class. Through the generous contributions of - hospital and their Angle Tree program, to give to the community, Santa was able to come and give to the families I serve. To see the looks of anticipation and excitement on those little faces was nothing less then pure joy. The children sang 3 songs for them, gave them a (giant) card which my staff had them make (when I was off for the wedding) and necklaces I prepared with their names and pictures; this was the children's way of saying Thank You. There was a short segment on the late news that night, but that doesn't matter. The generosity of this hospital is beyond bounds. This was truly an event that these families will remember for a very long time. What I have to say is "God truly works in mysterious ways."

_________

We turned the heater on when our other daughter was here for the wedding. The weather had still been warm until that week.. It seemed to work alright, even when we helped up the temperature some. Little did we know. Even though it had been going on it wasn't sufficently heating. To make a long story short, there was part of the unit that we had to have replaced, and I dread the bill. However, it works nicely now. Which is really nice as the central valley is known for it's hideous dreay, foggy days. The sun has been seen in the afternoons, so there is still hope.

I love to decorate for the Christmas season. The colors, the lights, the music, the reason for the season just make it all so special. I am sitting here looking at a tree with just lights on it and the box of decorations on the floor. After I finish here I need to finish some other work. I am hoping to finish decorating this weekend.

I am hoping to get my brain out of a fog and get on with what needs to be done here.
God Bless

This week

Going back to class after being off for 2 weeks, I felt like I was in a fog. But it was good to be back and see all the children. I do like what I do.

I had my 6 month dental exam in late October, he found an infected molar and sent me to a specialist for that. To spare the gory details, I needed some dental surgery, no fun. He wanted to do it before the wedding and I said no. I am so glad I did. I had the surgery on Monday, and I look like I have been kicked in the face. My left side has been swollen (doesn't hurt) and I have had a bruise around the side of my mouth and chin the size of a baby's open hand. Looks, well you can imagine. Yesterday I went back in and all is healing well. I go back next week and the week after he will remove the stitches. I ger courious looks from some of my parents as they bring their children into class. So as a few have asked what happened I make sure I say it in a voice that others can over hear. However, I have been on a 'soft or liquid' diet since Monday and look forward to eating real food again, next week.

I have an unspoke prayer request. Thanks

God Bless

After

After all was said and done, and the happy couple were on their honeymoon, we were able to relax and enjoy our visit with our oldest daughter. Since we wouldn't see them again until the day after Christmas, the little one's and I did a gingerbread house.

Brandon had very specific ideas about how the decorations were to go on and decorated most of it. When sis was helping he told her where the decorations went and how they were to stand. They had quite a conversation going. He, being in kindergarten, was more focused on the house then she was. After all she isn't 3 yet, so that's alright.

We did Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday, as they left Thanksgiving day for their home. It was a good visit and I enjoyed them all.

Wedding pictures.

I have been trying to get the pictures in order for a post and slide show, but don't think I am doing it right. Soooooo, I am going to post some without the slide show. I need to do a little research because I did it before with no problem.
The pictures are a little out of order. Here is Uncle Keith and Brandon (ring bearer) Relaxing before the ceremony, or shall I say being a little goofy. Because his uncle was a groomsman Brandon did very well during the ceremony, standing next to his uncle.

After the ceremony and some photo's, Brandon and Caitlin decided they wanted to climb to the 'top' of the world.

Brandon is standing there looking like a 'cool dude'

Sitting in the front of the chapel, before the ceremony.

The photographer was talking to the happy couple, arranging them for cake cutting.

Fresh flowers decorated the cake, which is a very light gold.

The wedding party.

Cutting the cake.

Wedding ♥

Caitlin and Aunt Elizabeth, before the wedding.

The wedding was Saturday, and it all worked out. The reception was very nice. After we cleaned up and went home, we were up for a while, but I was super tired as I think I only had about 30 minutes of sleep in 2 days. I will put a slide show together and post more later. Right now I am enjoy the grandchildren who were both in the wedding. Real cute.

Have a great day and God bless ♥

Little break.

Right now I am taking a little break from sewing and shopping. I should be doing other stuff around the house, I do that too. It is unusually warm for this time of the year. On the news last night they mentioned that the 81 degrees yesterday was an 85 year old record, meaning that's how long it has been since. It is 13 degrees above normal, or was that 18? Right now I don't mind because of the wedding on Saturday and the reception being an indoor outdoor event. It is suppose to be 69 day and 44 night on Saturday. It is 79 currently. We will put up tents for outside and have the use of a propane outside heater. Again God is granting little miracles and the weather may just be one of them! ♥ ♥
I have taken the entire week off, and will have all of Thanksgiving week off also. Kinda nice.
Hopefully the fires in So. Cal. will be contained by Saturday. It's California, we burn up every years it seems, not good.

The doves are still coming to the bird feeders and the cats sit and drool at the window. I am not sure they'd even know what to do if they caught one. A few hummingbirds still show up now and again, but not as many in the summer.
Have a great day! ♥

Shopping blahs

Nobody every told me that I would spend around 10 hours in 3 days shopping for an outfit to wear to my daughters wedding. It wasn't this hard when my 1st got married. What I found out: Most of the stores have very small dress sections, or selections. Most mother-of-the-bride outfits in the bridal stores look like formals, the color selections for anything decent has been black or red. To make a long story short, I did finally find something. It is a skirt and jacket combination in (yep) red & black, but it does look nice. Penney's was the only store I could find that had any decent dress section. There are many other nice stores in the world, just not where I live. I could have made something in the time I spent shopping, little time saved there.
I will finish up the flower girls dresses tomorrow. Then will focus on getting the favors done. After Sat. I will know what appetizers are being made elsewhere and can focus on what I need to do. Monday I get my hair done. In between all this I will finish what I need to for my class (I am taking all of next week off) by Friday and prepare my house for guests. Do miscellaneous stuff.
The weather is suppose to be in the middle 60's, and the reception is at his parents house. We will supply the tents for outside, and a small miracle is another friend has loaned us their outside heaters. It will come together, but it is close, 10 more days from today. God has provided us with many small miracles, each one very special.
Our Christ
Our Creator
Our Saviour
God Bless

God's everlasting love.

If anyone had told me when I was younger that parenting or being a parent got easier as your children grew, I would have embraced them with a big YES!. As I have learned, and many others have also, being a parent doesn't get easier. In some ways it gets harder. Oh, you're not always tagging around with little ones, or sometimes you are. Working with low income families as I do, I encounter many grandparents taking care of or raising the little ones for a variety of reasons. That crosses all income levels.

When our children are small we always strive to do the best we can and give them the best of what we have (that doesn't mean material things). Somewhere along the way we are going to make mistakes, it happens. Hopefully they are obvious mistakes that we can correct. But often there are mistakes we will never be able to put our fingers on, we will only have hindsight to know that something didn't work the way it was suppose to. There comes a point in our child's life as they graduate from high school that we are no longer parenting them. We stand back and bite our tongues and see if we have done enough so they can fly from the nest. It is hard to know when to not give advice, etc. and that we learn also through trial and error. {{Of course still living at home certain behavior is expected ~ but not always received.}} I always strived for what I believed was best for my child (and I have 4) but have found out that was not always the case, according to things said to me. I have, and always will believe in the power of prayer and God's loving and forgiving capabilities. I know as I have prayed for His forgiveness that it comes, I only hope my kids are as forgiving as our heavenly father is.

As my youngest approaches her wedding day (less then 2 weeks), she is looking at life differently. I pray (as I did with my 1st) that she will embrace her new life and her priorities with God's love and blessings. She (they both do) has our blessings.


Matthew 19:4-6

4"Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' 5and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh' 6So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."

This verse is reflective for both husband and wife.

God is good

"In quietness and confidence shall be your strength" (Isaiah 30:15, KJV).

Psalm 46:10 (NIV)
"Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."

Heavy heart

I went to bed last night with a heavy heart. I feel our country will be in dark times with this new president. I have never felt the burden I do for our country. I cannot rejoice in the policies of this person of his beliefs and his disregard for human life. If you have done your research you know what I mean. I pray for him and his family that they will see the light.

Soon our country will have elected a new president. I am not sure which way it will go, but will be glad when all the political ads are done and no more wasted pieces of paper in the form of political junk mail. I hope that before people voted they did their homework and researched for themselves what the candidates believe, not what the (one sided) media wants you to hear, not what is just being said but really looked at the candidates. With computers is isn't so hard to look up a candidates past in their political career. I hope people really paid attention to what and how things have been presented instead of just joining in and becoming followers.Many things were said months ago that have been denied or I have heard "That's not what I meant" or "That's not what I said." Lots of bull going around. I am what some would call a "conservative Christian". I believe in the word of God, and have hopefully passed this on to my family, (they all believe in God and are Christians) because this is how they were raised. What society dictates is not necessarily or morally what is right or what is in the Bible or how we should believe. It is easy to join the popular crowd and become a follower. An alcoholic or drug addict prefers to hang out with like, so they can justify and feel OK about what they do.. So it is the same in politics. I cannot be politically correct because then I cannot be morally correct and I choose morals over popularity. I choose the side of God. I am tolerant and love a great many people who are living a life away from God. I believe that we are in the world but not of the world, I believe that as Christians we should love the unsaved and we should be tolerant. I hope people choose wisely as they voted.

As a bonus to get people out Starbucks gave a free cup of coffee if you showed you "I voted" sticker. Chick fila (spelling ???) which is new here I heard would give you a free sandwich. We went for the coffee as the other was about 8 miles out of our way.

Busy weekend.

Thursday Oct. 30, I took my class to the pumpkin patch, and I let those who wanted to wear their costumes. We had a lot of fun, the children really enjoyed themselves. I can't post all the pictures but I did put a few in a slide show. We had many parents and some grandparents that went also. They heard the pumpkin story, went through a walk in the woods through spooky buildings a sway bridge, little castles, had breakfast/snack went on a hay ride, through the corn maze and finally got to chose a pumpkin to take home. They were just as excited to ride a "big yellow school bus". What a day. Elizabeth went with me, which was good because one of the little girls in my class is really scared of unfamiliar situations and she held Elizabeth's hand the entire time and I really believe she was able to enjoy herself.

Friday there was no school as it was parent conference day. I did 16 families on Friday and will finish up this coming week. Doing 2 a day after school. After I got home Elizabeth and I packed the car and headed to Eric's for the weekend.

Saturday, Elizabeth and I headed to the Gilroy Outlet stores to do some trusso shopping. I can honestly say that we walked the entire outlet. We got there around 10:00 in the morning and were there until around 4:00. We did manage to find most everything we were looking for, without going into every store there. We signed up and picked up a coupon book before starting our rounds, so there were some good bargains out there. After we were done we headed back to Eric's where we spent the night again. This morning while I was getting ready brother and sister did a little sight seeing around his place. It is a drive off of 101 to get there, but when you are there it is as if you are sitting on top of the world.
The view is magnigicant and breathtaking. Of course Friday we got there after sundown and then it rained quit a bit. Sat. night it was extremely windy and rainy so I didn't get much sleep. But This morning, even with the clouds and fog the view was fantastic. I do think that after I finish getting ready for tomorrow I will hit the sack earlier then usual.

Living Well Wednesdays

I finally lost the 2 pounds I found 3 weeks ago. I find that it takes longer to lose the 2nd time then to refind the lose, once gone ............ (sigh) Still keeping the head up, still trying to focus...On top of wedding plans, I am in the middle of assessments and have parent conferences on the 31st. Also, I have a scheduled field trip to the pumpkin patch next week also and getting those permission slips back is like pulling teeth with some parents. Only once have I had to deny a field trip to a child because I didn't have a permission slip and that truly was a sad experience for me as well as for him. I did get him a pumpkin though. ..The bracket that holds the bar on my husbands side of the closet broke. I have a new bracket, but alas, part of the old one is stuck in the wall. Dan won't be home until tomorrow so he can fix it then, in the meantime half my bed has his shirts laying on it, neatly but still a rather big pile.Life goes on. I start my day with a devotional, it is as if I don't I really can't function as well~ I feel something is missing. I have read some good ones by Elisabeth Elliot, besides what I read on CWO...I am not looking forward to the weather this coming weekend, they are saying 90's. It is October already not July! I enjoy the cooler mornings, I like fall. I miss the colors we saw in the mountains, the foggy mornings when we lived on the coast. Such is life, God had other plans for us so I move on.God Bless

To Cute ♥

more animals

It's not even close to Valentine's day, but this was just to cute to pass on.

Living Well Wednesdays

Refocusing, and I see results

♥ God is good! ♥

Living Well Wednesdays

Time to refocus.

Family Reunion

Some notes of interest as we headed north, Sat., on 152~ how incredibly low San Luis Reservoir is. I don't ever remember seeing it that low, even as a young child.

The overpass and interchange on 152 is almost complete, which will greatly reduce the bottleneck and traffic hang ups when heading towards Monterey or Gilroy ~ or the reverse.

Shortly after arriving at Vasona it poured for several minutes. After that (and more family arrived) the rest of the day was fairly nice and a great time was had by all visiting and catching up on 'family.' This is an annual event that has been going on all my life and this is a first, rain.
Of course I had to take pictures of the little ones climbing trees, and remembering when mine (their mom & siblings) were little ones climbing the trees.

All my kids! To make a long story short it was a lot of fun and so what if we got a little wet, it was well worth it.

I pray for small miracles as loose ends need to be tied up for the wedding. I ran into a friend of mine, whom I hadn't seen for quite sometime, yesterday at the teacher center. Just talking about things (you know) and the wedding. She asked if we had outdoor heaters, so I did mention that Elizabeth had been looking at some. She offered to let us borrow their 2 for the wedding. We went over today for some other business and while there we looked at them. They will be great for the reception. I will call tomorrow and firm the deal, we'll pick them up a few days before, when we set up the tents outside. I told her I had been praying for small miracles and she was an answer to prayer.

My cake

I finished the fondant and gum paste class. This is the first flower, right after I put shimmer dust on it. In total, I made 7 of the carnations.
The cake we chose to decorate has 7 carnations on it, but it was OK to just put on 4 and save the rest (for the bridal shower cake). Here are the 4 on top of the cake, 3 with the pink shimmer dust and 1 with the gold. I will make more for the other cake for a total of 4 pink and 3 gold.

A long shot of the cake, not to bad for a novice. However, it is a little lopsided. The little blue box is a favor box made out of fondant. I may glue one of the daisies I made on top of it and use it as added decor for the shower.
The cake I decorated is going with us on Saturday to a family reunion. The cake is a cinnamon vanilla wedding cake recipe with butter cream frosting (under the fondant). I did enjoy the class and learned how to use fondant and made some flowers and other decorations, not shown. I got a certificate of completion also.

When it is time to eat I will peel the fondant off, it really isn't very tasty mainly just sugar. It makes for great decorations and great looks on cakes. The gum paste is used for the flowers and finer decorations. It doesn't stretch as much and dries hard.

It is suppose to rain this weekend, and we really need the rain. I am hoping is will just be a few showers here and where we are going Sat. as to not spoil the family reunion to much. I am hoping that the rain will stay towards the mountains/sierras and that it will put out the fire in Kings Canyon, which is not aggressively being fought at this time as no people, dwellings, etc. are being threatened. It is being treated as a control burn, I think that is what I heard. However the smoke does blow this way into the valley, and for those with asthma it is bad. For those who don't know the San Joaquin valley is one of the top 3 areas in the U.S. for bad air quality and has an extremely high populous with asthma and other respiratory problems, nothing to brag about. The rain does clear the air and makes life a little easier when you can breath better.

Living Well Wednesdays

I totally forgot to check in last week. I was busy doing something everyday and it didn't hit me until late in the afternoon that it was LWW . That was probably the day I was at the resource center doing stuff for my class. I will say that my weight loss is ok. I haven't focused to much on it as a whole, but do think about it as I eat and I haven't lost or gained for 2 weeks. I have found that thing's I have craved just aren't as appealing lately. I think part of that is how I fix food, and I find as I change that so does my taste (somewhat).

So much to do, so little time.

It's been a busy week

I have had very little time to blog this week. It has been an interesting week. On Monday we had a Mary Kay rep here. Seems Elizabeth won a facial for her and her bridesmaids at the last Bridal show we went to and a supposed gift certificate. To say the least, it was an interesting event. The facial went OK, but when the rep quoted prices for the packages she was trying to sell you could hear everyone gasp $199.00 and $299.00 ~ yes you read those numbers correctly, the decimal point is not misplaced. She offered a make up holder, a bag you hang up and can use to travel and a make up compact that were under $100. I was a little interested in the foundation, I liked the color, but she really didn't seem interested in a small purchase so I told her I'd wait. When no one wanted to buy she packed up in a whirl wind manner and she left. She wants Elizabeth to set up an appointment for her 'color match' for her wedding day make up. She also said she'll hold on to the gift certificate until E. comes to her office. That isn't likely to happen. No one here really cared for her mannerism. Besides I know several people who sell Mary Kay if we want to buy. It is hard for me to believe that she is as successful as she is, but I guess that is part of her being pushy. I have been to several Mary Kay facial parties, and have purchased some of the products so I am not new to MK products.

Tuesday we had an appointment with a florist, and we did order the wedding flowers. With that done we headed to Michael's to pick up some flowers for Ryans mom, who is doing the decorations for the church and reception.

Thursday was my fondant and gum paste class. (after having a staff meeting) This week we made flowers out of gum paste, here are some snapshots.

Leaves, daisies, and a carnation.

The pink flower is a fantasy flower made out of 4 large heart cut outs, and 4 small heart cut out, with the edges thinned.

The white one is a carnation, that is a total of seven ruffled circles put together. The ones I will make for my final project will have some gold and pink dusting powder on them. Not really hard, now that I know what I am doing. And no, I am not making the wedding cake, that is already ordered. I am making the cake for the Bridal shower, and she is choosing the one she wants me to do.

Friday we went back to the florist to order a couple more things, then the bakery to give them the flavors of the cake and the ribbon for the cake. We then went back to Michael's and found some more flowers on sale (then E. returned the more expensive ones). We then picked out the pattern for the flower girls dresses. I'd start them next week but I need to finish some pj's for the grandbabies. So I will start the dresses the following week.

So the saying goes that summer is over? So I hear, but it has been in the high 90's all week. Nice cool mornings, but not days.

Keith is holding the ski flag up in what looks like an "I surrender". He is positioning the ski rope.
We took the boat out for on last go around to day.
Elizabeth singled and knee boarded.
Here she is turning around, she did it about 7 times.
This is Keith, he didn't ski, just knee boarded......completely out of the water.

It was a fun day and it started out with Keith and Dan leaving early for some fishing, or should I say some practice, the fish weren't going for it. Then Elizabeth and I took out lunch and met them.

Prayer request.

Please pray for Sherry and her husband and her girls (both young women now). I am not at liberty to say here why, but prayers are desperatly needed for her.

Living Well Wednesdays

I found this hymn and it relates to some of my struggles to lose weight. It is like a blessing.

God bless and have a great day~ I will post more later.

Day by day, and with each passing moment,Strength I find to meet my trials here;Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment,I’ve no cause for worry or for fear.
He, whose heart is kind beyond all measure,Gives unto each day what He deems best,Lovingly is part of pain and pleasure,Mingling toil with peace and rest.



--Lina Sandell, Swedish

Photo shoot

There has been a fire burning in Kings Canyon since July, due to lightening strikes. Tonight the moon is red because of the smoke. We are approximately 80 miles away. Saturdays yard sale was very good. A couple stopped by to browse, and bought so much it was incredible. They were both truckers, and they lived in their semi, which was parked in front of the house. Elizabeth had cleaned out her closet, cloths she has had for years and some that were newer and hardly worn. At .50 cents a piece she bought $21.00 worth, that is 42 pieces of clothing. He bought one Play Station game. Wednesday the Rescue Mission will stop by and pick up what is left (I already called), so I will be going through some more closets. They will put the items in their thrift store and the proceeds will go to the homeless shelters.

I was sitting outside playing with the cat and my camera. I heard a humming bird and looked up in time to capture some pictures. If you look close, or click on the picture you can see it in motion.

We went to another Bridal show this afternoon. It wasn't as impressive as the one we went to last month. However, I will say the fashion show was better.