Round and round

Well, we're finished with 4 weeks of BTC this quarter and Richard is finishing up his 2nd week at Liberty and I'm already ready for a break! Fortunately, Richard's semester is divided into 2, 6 week terms, and he gets a week for spring break in just 6 weeks. I love that! Too bad our breaks don't fall on the same week:/ (I have 7 weeks until my Spring break).

Today is a day of laundry, cleaning, and catching up with Calvary work. Although, I was doing a pretty good job of keeping up with the house until I got sick last weekend. Boo. Thankfully, we had our children close together and they entertain each other. I feel bad neglecting them. Sigh.

The good news is that I figured we'll be getting a hefty tax return this year (still waiting on my W-2 from Calvary) and we'll have the van paid off by the end February and have $$$ left over to get us well on our way to our 3-6 months living expenses in the bank. Woohoo! I really can't wait to start tripling and quadrupling our mortgage payments! I was hoping to have the mortgage paid off by the end of 2010, but it'll looking like it won't be until next years tax return. Either way, the end of our insanity is in our sight!
Sent from my BlackBerry Smartphone provided by Alltel

Sick Day

So Thursday night the girls got sick - I mean, fine one minute and then puking the next. Yesterday Evelyn laid on the couch all day and slept or watched movies. So just as the girls were perking up last night it hit Richard and I. Thankfully, between the Taylor's and my parents were not going to have to take care of the girls all day. So guess what we've been doing? Sleeping on the couch and watching movies.

I've become accustomed to always being busy, so I'm actually rather annoyed that I don't have the energy to move. My head is throbbing right now! I took some Tylenol and hopefully, I'll hold it down and this headache will cease!
Sent from my BlackBerry Smartphone provided by Alltel

Church Talk

I was sitting in church this morning and Richard leaned over and asked, "What are you thinking?" I guess I was wearing the look. We sit in the cry-room in the back of the church where we have a view of the entire congregation. I leaned over and replied, "I think there's one person out there who is under 60." I wish I could say I was exaggerating, but I wasn't. There literally was one person, a 6th grader sitting with her grandmother, who was under 60 (maybe a few are still in their late 50's). There were 5 "families" in church today, they were in the cry-room with us. As I relayed these thoughts to one of my supportive-former session members after church, I asked her if she thought it would help if they could sit back there and see it. Her response, "They know it Kendra. We're providing hospice care to a dying congregation."

Anyone know of any church successful at creating a sub-church within an exisiting church? I really see it as our only hope.
Sent from my BlackBerry Smartphone provided by Alltel

Christmas Part V

I'm ending it here!

On the 26th, we woke up and enjoyed some of our new toys: Richard's iTouch and of course the Wii and WiiFit! We just love it. The girls' are playing it as I write, so I say if the novelty hasn't worn off in two weeks for a 2 and 4 year old, it's a good gift!

However, enjoying our gifts was short lived, as I had to finish my gift-exchange gift for the Badia family party (my mom's side of the family). I had been working on that stinking sweater for months - "the project" - and I was so relieved to have it over! Nothing like going down to the wire. We loaded up the cookies, and games, and gifts, and supplies, and girls and hit the road once again (hehe - my aunt and uncle live about 2 miles away). My mom's side of the family's meal is fantastic; it's why I claim to be Italian when really I'm a lot more German :). We had wedding soup, stuffed shells (with pork, not just plain old ricotta), meatballs w/ peas (yes, that's the third meat!) and HAM! Lol, tradition has it that the reason that Italian's have the feast of the 7 fishes is because fish is plentiful in Italy, and better meats were saved for the Christmas Meal!We also have salad and homemade rolls and sweet potatoes; I'm salivating writing this.

Moving on: last year we started a white elephant gift exchange with a twist: you have to make your own gift! We had been doing gift exchanges in the past, but they got pretty expensive, so we decided to do this, so we would still have the fun of exchanging gifts but it wouldn't be as expensive. So I got this bright idea to crochette a sweater. I'm pretty good at crochetting and made it pattern-free. I really loved it (except the sleeves weren't the best, but I ran out of time so had to make them shorter than I planned). And guess who won it: Eric! The one person who could not use it. LOL. And Kayla (his fiancee) would not be able to wear it either. So, anyway, oh well. Richard won a set of dried herbs from my mom and I won a painting that Eric did that Evelyn really wanted. It's hanging in her room. :D [It was so funny as we were leaving Tracy told Evelyn, you know I really wanted that painting, and Evelyn replied, "Well, you can come look at it in my room." Oh, too funny!]

After the gift exchange we all enjoyed each other's company by playing games: Settlers' of Catan, Wii, and more. Good times. Good times. :)

Christmas Part IV

I hope I can remember everything, it's been so long. After we left Richard's parents we headed over to Eric (Richard's Uncle) and Leslie's house for Christmas dinner. Richard's mom's family has 5 siblings and his grandparents are still kicking - and learning to play the organ! They're so cute! Uncle Kirk came in from Nashville with his wife and daughter. And all the others were there as well (except Chad and his 2 boys). All said, there were 2 grandparents, 10 children and spouses, 15 grandchildren and spouse (Richard is the only one married), and 3 great-grandchildren! Whew! It was awesome tho.

The girls got even more toys there compliments of great-grandma and great-grandpap. Evelyn really enjoyed playing with her cousins! She doesn't see them often, but loves it when she does! (Richard is the oldest grandchild so many of his cousins are still in grade-school). We also had a dinner similar to a Thanksgiving meal, but with not a single green! Lol. Someone must have forgot. I, of course, provided a few dozen cookies from my supply.

Unfortunately, it was around this time that Riley started running a fever :/. Poor Riley. To be sick on Christmas stinks! She fell asleep snuggled up to PapPap Rick and he loved every minute of it tho.

From there (yes, there's more) we took off to my parent's where Seth and Liz had arrived shortly before and Tyler was anxiously awaiting some Christmas company. It was after 8 by this point.

Seth and Liz, Richard and I, and Tyler buy for each other still and for our Mom and Dad, so we did those gifts first. Seth and Liz loved the "Used Beer" sign we got them to hang on their bathroom door and Tyler was very excited about his iTunes gift card! It's fun buying for people outside of our immediate family. Seth and Liz got the girls new pajamas and Tyler got them new boots, *relief!*

After that exchange, Mom and Dad gave the girls their gifts to open. Evelyn was super-excited to receive a karaoke machine, with a REAL microphone, from my mom and Gigi loved her rocking chair. Riley liked her gifts too, but she was feeling pretty crappy and didn't get too excited. My mom did a nice job of getting them one or two toys each and the rest were nice clothes, snow gear, and DVD's. Whew! Again.

It was still overwhelming tho the mass loads of gifts that we carted away! My mom loves Christmas shopping and got us all very nice gifts! Highlights: Weed whacker and guitar case for Richard, Cutco Steak Knives, new earrings, and some rain boots for me and a new surround sound system for us both! And gotta mention the Longhorn gift card!

After eating some lasagna and doing to karaoke, we managed to get home by 1 a.m., and Evelyn fell asleep on the bathroom floor! :)

Part V to follow!
Sent from my BlackBerry Smartphone provided by Alltel