COUNTING MY BLESSINGS

This has been a rough week.

Everything has been up in the air, so it has been hard to know just what to do. It was comforting to have Dave and Neti come for a visit. After dinner (unfortunately Miles had to return to work), we sat and read through all of the letters I have received from Gramma over the years. They are a poignant collection of her thoughts. Smatterings of wisdom along with some very sweet, funny ideas - life through her eyes in rural Princeton. She managed to make whatever was around her at the time something to be explored and pondered. We are still waiting to see what any arrangements might be as for a formal rememberance of any kind.

Miles has a full-blown cold. I'm immersed in the tail end of our Church Book. This is a book I volunteered to help with. Some days I don't feel particularly 'Christian' about it, but I must admit, creating it through this difficult time, I think, has kept my mind where it should be. Because we don't have the opportunity to attend any chruch services through the holidays, the words and thoughts in the book have spoken to my heart about what Christmas truly should be. We make a choice to spend the time with our family, rather than attend services at Christmas because our parents, so for us it would be going for ourselves only. We only end up with a few quality days with them in the end so we feel that we should BE JESUS to the family - rather than not be with them to satisfy a desire we have to be around the church family. Though we really miss the church, especially at this most special time, we never regret investing the time into our family. They are wonderful, interesting people and we love them with all our hearts. Mom and Dad make a great effort to build traditions around our tiny family. They are a gift from God to us.

These next few weeks will be filled with all sorts of distractions. Pot-lucks, visits and events but I intend to work very hard in keeping the true meaning in focus. I hope all of you out there have a peace through the next few weeks. Remember, You will never get EVERYTHING done, but if you give it to the Lord, He will enable you to accomplish the things that NEED to get done.

e

REMEMBERING GRAMMA

Gramma passed away yesterday.

She was 98 years old, and she had a full and long life. I will miss her very much.

Gramma often took me to church when I was a child. I can still remember the stained glass windows, the hard wooden pews, the benches for kneeling on to pray. I can remember the cadence of the prayers, the crackling of a candy being unwrapped (why does all candy eaten in church come in crackly paper?), of tissues whispering softly from pockets, of coughs echoing coarsely within the cool walls of the chruch.

There was never a doubt that Gramma believed and honoured God. Now that I have found a new life in Christ it brings me an indescribable peace for me to know that Gramma is now at the feet of Jesus.

OUR 2006 CHRISTMAS CARD

This year's card is out.

Other than a few 'stragglers', I've mailed out my Christmas Cards. I was 'beat to the punch' by Aunt Betty, but I think I would have to send at the end of summer vacation to get a head start on her! I've designed our own card again this year, using Corel Painter IX. I used the conte crayons and airbrushes. The cards printed off very nicely on our little printer - surprisingly nicely in fact. I trimmed them to the circle shape and applied glitter along the snowy branch and finished the card off with a loop of gold thread to make it hang like an ornament.

Because I have been so caught up with all this, I lavished my dearest yesterday with a flower and sliver of decadent mousse cake made at our sweet Odelights bakery. We have a tradition started of sharing Dim Sum for breakfast on Saturdays when we can, at the bakery. It is prepared 'squeeky' fresh and is the best way to start ones day.

The weather is cold, and snow dusts the area off and on, but so far, nothing like what everyone else seems to be suffering.

Have a Wonderful Day out there!

OUR FIRST SNOWFALL

We had our first snowfall yesterday. It was snowing hard when we awoke, and it came down all day long. Our phones were out too. The phones are still out. We've contacted the phone company, but there is no word on when the lines will be back up again. Miles saw a pole being replaced or repaired a block up from our house, so perhaps thats the reason we have no service. Along with this of course, is the lack of internet...can it get any worse? Thankfully we have an alternate place to connect!

All in all, its not so bad being without phones and internet for a day. With the weather being 'inclement' and no calls, I was able to accomplish miricles within our storage area in the house. I was utterly ruthless, reducing our 'stuff' to 1/2 of its former bulk. I can now find the vacuum and ironing board with relative ease. Really, it was not THAT bad.

Another thing I want to share is the adventure of Mom's vegetables. We visited last weekend, and as Mom does, she made us a huge dinner. We had a great laugh over her vegetables though. She is a fan of the boil in a bag variety and she cooks them in the microwave. We got a kick out of the corn as the bag it's contained in swelled up into a huge bubble of plastic skin. I managed to snap this picture to share with you-all!

WALMART OFFERS FREE MUSHROOMS 

STEAMBOAT ROCK

Miles chose to go to Steamboat Rock this past weekend as the place he would like to spend his birthday. We decided to head down on Thursday evening and spend the night camped at Walmart in Omak. Now, of course this is not our idea of high romance, but just getting away with our busy - ness of late was the key here. We could have been in Antartica in our van, the point was being alone and being away.

We had dinner at our favorite place there - Ranchos Chico's, a wonderful authentic Mexican restaurant. The service and food are second to none.

When we finally pulled into "our spot" at Walmart, it was getting dark. Lo and behold, we could see some unusual white growths in the tiny soil area in front of our van. (We always try to get a tree and some foliage for that 'camping' feel) We immediately recognized the growths to be Shaggy Mane Mushrooms, and fine specimens at that! We picked them and took them camping with us. The first fire we had we sauteed them in butter and garlic and had a feast. Nice of Walmart to provide us with food "to go"!

IRON WHILE THE STRIKE IS HOT

Miles is on strike.

We are not overjoyed by this fact. Its a rude and harsh disruption - but neccesary at times. So we make the best of things. He's working 3 hours a day to earn the $50 dollars a day that will have to feed and clothe us. At least we are able to catch up on other things that have been on the back burner for a bit. The downside is the weather is lousy, the upside that students and supporters and fellow staff bring hot coffee and donut offerings. Hopefully this will not last for long, but we are not holding our breath.

SYNC OR SWIM

I finally learned to 'sync' with the computer. I had to upload over 1100 photos to a nifty little toy called a Zen by Creative. I set an entire morning aside for the challenge and pushed on ahead, resolving not to leave my chair till the job was done. It turned out to be not so hard, after a few glitches and hidden hurdles I managed to figure it all out. Who writes these instructions, anyways? There always seems to be bits of key information you have to 'dig' for...But after its all said and done there is something very powerful and rewarding about learning a new skill. It amazes me how quickly it becomes familiar. So, I even ended up downloading and syncing The Italian Movie to the machine so our friend might enjoy it in an airport waiting for a flight. Then I ventured furthere and added some of their favorite music. Of course I would love to have one of these little things...

OUR BROTHER IS GETTING MARRIED!

We received a call the night before last....duh, it took me long enough to post it here....DAVE AND NETI ARE GETTING MARRIED! They will tie the knot at an undisclosed place on an undisclosed day, but look here at an undisclosed date in the future to find out how it all went. We feel so blessed to welcome Neti to our family (brave girl!). We love you both so much and wish you all the happiness on your special day.

ADDICTED TO GRAPHICS!

Ok, it's severe. Yesterday Miles offered to go out and get a video for me. I opted instead to watch the video "Photoshop Down and Dirty Tricks 2" When I said this, MIles gave me a sly little grin and a playful elbow in the ribs. I can remember when I used to watch him on the computer and it was all greek to me. Now, its a good thing we both have our own computers or it might cause some marital issues....well, never that, but it would challenge us.

Today my friend came over. She arrived the same moment the courier showed up with the parcel that contained her new Zen! We sorted through her 800+ photographs. I've got them all scanned and adjusted, now we need to resize them before uploading them into her nifty little machine. She's pretty excited about it.