In trouble

Good morning, world!!

I just got *blasted* from a friend for not posting in over a week! Ack!! Well, maybe that was a bit melodramatic, but I do feel badly that my blog has been neglected as of late.

Yes, life has been busy. After the pharmacy card project was finished, I then had to proceed to try and tackle Christmas!! Our personal Christmas cards will be late this year - sorry to all my faithful recipients. Oh, speaking of the pharmacy cards, I realized that even though I gave you all the stats on them, I neglected to tell you the grand total of actual cards all that hard work created...it came to 476 cards! So now you all know why your own card will be late. Joshua has been helping me make cards this year. He loves sitting next to me and stamping or playing with my punches and such.

Besides that, I have had some time away from the kids to do some much-needed errands. The other day, Graeme's parents took both boys for the entire afternoon while I ran to Ikea and other places around the city to do some shopping as well as some regular household errands. I didn't quite get done in the 4 hours I had, but that's OK. Yesterday, I had to drop off Graeme's mom's sewing machine back to her, and Charis (Joshua's cousin) was visiting there as well, so Gramma offered to keep Joshua for me as well so they could play together. Dustin was sleeping at home and Daddy was working from home yesterday, so it worked out so that I could run about 1 1/2 hours of errands and do my grocery shopping as well.

When I got back to pick up Joshua, Gramma was just about to take the kids out for a walk. So the 4 of us packed the sled and two small children to Bigfoot and proceeded to sled! The funniest thing happened - just as Graeme's mom was about to "lead" the kids gently down the hill, the knot came out of the rope holding the sled and the kids went careening down the hill while Gramma was left holding the rope!! It was hilarious - the kids almost ran into me (I was waiting at the bottom of the hill to take a picture). The snow was quite deep and I couldn't move out of the way fast enough. It was so much fun and the kids had such a blast that we let them go down another 3 or so times solo!! Such fun! I tell you, though, I was exhausted and my lungs were burning!!

Then last night Graeme and I started installing our new office furniture. There is some space in Graeme's building that was being leased out, but the old tenants' furniture was still in there and for sale. So, we got used desks that wrap around the wall (L-shaped) for a laughably cheap price. And we installed one of them last night! We had to redo the flooring in the office (long story!) before we could install these desks, so we've had our garage taken up with this stuff for a week but last night we got one set up and I have to say it looks amazing...it's going to my new craft area. And there is "under-desk" space for more than one set of legs, so now I can have a few friends over and we can all work in one space instead of me having to haul everything out to the family room. We are also installing part of the other one for our computer and "office" space, in the same room. Basically this is our Christmas gift to ourselves. We'll likely install desk #2 tonight. We want our garage back!

I've attached a picture that we had taken on Dustin's dedication day (oh yeah, we had Dustin dedicated last weekend!) - it's been a long time since we've had a family picture done (like, never before), so we figured we'd have an impromptu photo shoot when we got back from church that day. Hmm....maybe we'll have to wait on that picture. Something's not working, so you'll all have to wait a while longer!

This is long enough - and I have some more Christmas cards to finish!! Have a super day!

All Done!!

The pharmacy Christmas Card project is done!!!

It took:

• 1190 cuts with the paper cutter
• 238 scoring (fold) lines made
• 4284" of cord (or 357 feet)
• 952 brads (paper fasteners)
• 7140 stars embossed in batches of 15
• 21, 896 non-embossed stars stamped
• 1428 non-embossed images stamped in black
• 952 places colored in brown
• 2380 places colored in beige
• 952 holes punched (thanks, Sharon & Graeme!)
• 2 sore hands
• 1 blister (thanks, Sharon!)
• 38 man & woman hours

But the project is DONE!! What a relief!!

Wasted time!

Okay, so the day went OK until around, oh, 5:45 p.m.

This morning we went to our old church to witness baptisms. I sang in the service, and also spoke to one of the baptismal candidates, my friend Sharon. Well, yeah, all went well, Joshua loved watching Sharon get dunked (he's still talking about it!), and on our merry way we went.

Came home, made chili melts on buns we got earlier in the day. Yum. Put the kids down for their naps. Spent some time on the internet, etc.

When the kids woke up, we decided to go to the pharmacy to print off some cardstock for a HUGE project I'm doing, where we're pre-printing the inside greeting "From......_________". Hey, there are something like 400 cards to do, so I gotta cut corners somewhere!! So that went off without a hitch.

BUT THEN...this is where it all goes south.

We decided to use a free coupon we got for 2 for 1 family pizza. Free dinner? Who can resist? Well, we called. They're closed on Sundays now.

Decided to call Panago. Cell phone died.

Had to find 35 cents for the pay phone. Hey, when you've got your mind set on pizza, there's no changing it. Finally scrounged 35 cents. Good grief. Got the pizza ordered.

Gassed up. Bought a car wash. Car wash lineup was 8 deep...would take us longer than it would take for the pizza to be ready. So we decided to forego the car wash and use it before the expiry date. Also discovered that you can't use the car washes at other Esso locations!!

Staples is right by Panago. Decided to swing in quickly to buy 2 boxes of envelopes and 5 rolls of stamps for the pharmacy card project. Staples was closed already. Didn't matter, I didn't have my credit card anyway.

Picked up the pizza. Got home, ate pizza. Enjoyed it immensely. Almost made the stupidness of all that transpired the previous 35 minutes worth it!!

We were laughing through it all....

My mom and Allen came to church today as well, and she hogged, I mean held, Dustin the entire time. Gave me the evil eye when I had to go feed him! But she got him back soon enough. She was pretty much beside herself.

So this is what Dustin is up to right now...these aren't tonight's shots, but they are quite recent. I love sleeping babies. I mean, I love them when they're awake, too, but the sight of a sleeping baby pretty much melts me.

Well, that's all for now - I'm going to go to bed, and hopefully tomorrow isn't quite as ridiculous as tonight's escapades!!

Baby dedication

Next Sunday, December 17th, at 10:30 a.m, we will be taking part in a baby dedication service at The Park Pentecostal Church, to have Dustin dedicated to the Lord. We're pretty excited about this! We had Joshua dedicated at 3 months old at our old church, Living Hope Christian Centre. Soon after Dustin was born, though, we had an inkling that we'd be leaving that church, and so we wanted to wait until we were firmly planted elsewhere before doing a baby dedication, since part of the dedication service is having the congregation stand and say they'll support you in raising your little one!

Last night we went to a couples' banquet at The Park, where the food was excellent, and the speaker was very very entertaining. :) The speaker was Phil Callaway, who hails from Three Hills, Alberta, and was HILARIOUS!! If you ever get a chance to hear him speak, I'd highly recommend it. We picked up a couple of his books last night - very light reading but also very insightful. So if you ever come over, you'll likely find them on a table somewhere, or maybe in the bathroom....

Which leads me to ask, why do some people like to spend ages and ages in the bathroom? I mean, let's face it, there are a lot more relaxing places I can think of to sit and read!! I like to get the job done and just get outta there - let's be realistic here!!

Have a great day!

Inside out

So I'm sitting here embossing a whole schwackload of vellum covers for the pharmacy Christmas card project, and also listening to a CD at the same time. I picked up Brian Doerksen's new project, Holy God, which is, I believe, his first studio recording (his previous have all been live recordings, I think).

Anyway, this one song started playing, and it just hit me - POW! I'm always looking to change something - whether it be circumstances, appearance, time management, etc...but when it really comes down to it, it's all about what is going on on the inside of me that God's going to use to make it all come together. Brain writes in part of his explanation of how the song came about, "I realized that this prayer is one of our key responses to a fresh revelation of the holiness of God..."

So, here's my POW for the night! (Needless to say, I stopped embossing for a few minutes to listen to this song...I've heard it dozens of times before, but this time God reached me...) Here are the words:

I long for freedom to live in the Truth
I want to be more like You.
But every time I try to bring about change
I only touch the visible me.
There's only one way I'm really gonna change:

Change me on the inside,
Change me on the inside,
Change me on the inside.
Change me on the inside,
Change me on the inside,
Change me on the inside.

Just like King David, I cry out to You,
Create in me a clean heart.
I've grieved You again, I need Your release
From patterns that keep me in sin.
There's only one way I can finally break free:

Change me on the inside,
Change me on the inside,
Change me on the inside.
Change me on the inside,
Change me on the inside,
Change me on the inside.

Going Postal

I got this in the mail today (it explains why I haven't received any mail in an entire week!):

NOTICE TO POSTAL CUSTOMERS:
As you may be aware, some postal delivery routes in Edmonton and Sherwood Park are experiencing unusual delivery delays due to staff shortages. Regrettably, your delivery area is one of those affected.

Please be assured that we are making every effort to have your mail delivered to you a minimum of once a week. We are using supervisors and delivery personnel from other routes to deliver mail, during and after regular hours, including weekends.

We apologize for this inconvenience and ask for your patience as we strive to staff these routes as quickly as possible.

All I can say is....GOOD GRIEF!! What next?

A new international icon

I came across this today - I have to say I'm pretty impressed that nursing in public is becoming a much more acceptable activity! I mean, of course I think women should try to be discreet when nursing in public. But as a Mama who understands the difficulties of having a hungry baby and nowhere to nurse him, I certainly appreciate the efforts that society is going to with providing family-friendly facilities to nurse babies!

Back in action!

I can post pictures again! I think it had something to do with clearing my browser's cache...at least that's what I found might be a problem, so I did it, and now I have my ability to post pictures again!

So, here is a picture of the Christmas tree. I took one with a flash, but of course then you can't really see all the twinkly lights and decorations very well. So I played with my camera settings a bit and got rid of the flash and this picture is what I came up with.

It's not the best picture in the world....but I like the tree!! Hmmm....maybe I will post the one with the flash!! Here is the "flashed" picture as well.

Now you can see the best of both worlds!!

Nothing else is new today. I'm still cleaning my office and filing. Graeme is working late today so I'm on my own with the munchies. And then I might take some time to make my Christmas cards.

Ummmmm.....

Yeah. Really nothing new and exciting today.

Have a super fantabulously blessed day!

Chanter bien!

Today was our first choir performance of the year for Festival Singers! It was fun, fun, fun!! I tell you, though, as a stay-at-home Mom who never stays in one place or position for very long, I found it very hard to stand in one spot for 2 1/2 hours last night, 1 1/2 hours early this afternoon, and then another 1 1/2 hours for our performance later this afternoon!! My feet are killing me...I'm SO glad I didn't wear heels!

We did quite the variety of songs - from traditional carol-type arrangements, to old OLD compositions in Latin and German, to spirituals...it was all really amazing music and I loved the challenge of being in a choir after not being stretched like that for many years.

I wonder how many people were touched by the content of the music? It was all very "religious", as some would call it, but all of it was also very evangelical in nature - talking about the Babe who came to be Savior to all, and in songs later in the program, actually praising the Lord and singing of His worthiness to be praised! WOO HOO! Yeah, it inspired me and lifted me, that's for sure!

Our very last song was a spiritual accompanied by nothing but a bongo drum (is that what it was...it was a drum held by a young lady and she drummed it with her hands. MAN!! It was such fun - groovin' music, and just really really unlike anything I've ever sung before. I loved it.

On another note...
My ability to post pictures or do any sort of html stuff seems to have disappeared. Hmm. Not sure why.....maybe it'll come back sometime soon and I can post that picture of our Christmas tree I keep promising! I really DO have a picture now!

Well, I need to get back to "it", whatever "it" might be...in this case, I believe it will be attempting to clean the office and reorganize the closet.

'Night!

My big grown-up boy

This is an e-mail I sent to family this morning:

Hello, family!

I forgot to tell you about this little incident we had yesterday morning.

Graeme got up around 8:30. When he got out of our room, he found that Joshua's door was open and Joshua was, well, gone.

So Graeme proceeded to travel the house looking for his little buddy, and found him at the bottom of the stairs in the family room. He said, "Joshua, what are you doing down here?"

Joshua answered, "I'm just waking up, Daddy. I'm ready to start my day!" ....then, "I want to play!"

We had quite the chuckle over that one. Last night I closed the baby gate at the top of the upstairs. We figured he can't get too far that way!

Then yesterday afternoon Graeme was doing some building in the crawl space - we want to turn part of it into a fort for the kids. You know, little hiding places and such. So anyway, Dustin was sleeping and I really wanted to take Joshua for a toboggan ride. He said, "Not right now, Mommy. I'm busy. I'm helping Daddy build a fort!"

Sigh. Cuteness. Eventually we convinced J that he needed to go for a toboggan ride - but he insisted that Daddy take him. So at least he got out for some fresh air.

'Later!
Mel.

Running late!

Ha! I forgot all about my comment about posting pictures of the coasters and the Christmas tree the day after my last post! (By the way, I edited my previous post about Bob the Builder to make the pictures bigger. The way I originally did it, somehow they ended up really grainy and small...but I uploaded them again with a different format and they worked better. I was just experimenting the first time. So, if you saw poor quality pictures before, look back again and they'll be better.)

Okay, so as promised, here are some pictures. The coasters - I created one set as a gift for a friend who is babysitting for us the next two days. Click on the picture to see the enlarged version, and you should be able to read what's on the coasters. And the other set, the sunset & trees one, I re-created for another friend who wanted me to make some for her sister as a Christmas gift. I basically tweaked my original design that I posted a few days ago, and added some Night of Navy into the sky as well as a bit onto the grass to darken it up. I think it's better - but that's just my humble opinion!

I will post a picture of my Chrismas tree, but I want to wait till it's darker outside and we can turn the lights on, etc. So...I can't promise that'll happen tomorrow...but it will happen soon! :)

Tomorrow, I have a dress rehearsal for choir - our Festival Singers is putting on a concert this coming Sunday December 3rd at 2pm at Festival Place - tickets should be available at the door, I believe! So yeah, I have a big concert on Sunday, which I'm really looking forward to. I love the music - it's really great stuff! And this year they're adding strings and brass...it's gonna be GOOD!

We had a meeting last night over coffee with the lead pastor and his wife from the church we are considering attending. Who'da thunk that li'l ole us, who aren't officially attending The Park, would be significant enough that the senior pastor of a "big-ish" church would actually take time to meet with us? We had a really blessed conversation with them - talking about everything from spiritual gifts to staff accessibility to the church's history to baby dedications and everything in between. So yeah, we're fairly certain that we will be calling "The Park Pentecostal Church" our home church. And...Joshua has actually been excited about going to church there, so that's always a good sign - he hasn't been much excited about church for the last year or so, so this is a nice change. And he is such a sensitive little guy that we know that his opinion of things (in how he acts) is valuable!

That's enough for today! Have a good one!