Monthly Archives: January 2010

Castle Bunk Bed

For Hannah’s birthday last summer Zale and I thought it would be a good idea to give the girls more space in their room by getting them bunk beds. But funds were pretty tight, so we asked the grandparents if they would consider going in together to help cover the cost. I probably should have done my homework first, because bunk beds aren’t cheap. Even the “cheap” ones aren’t cheap. I shopped thrift stores, Craigslist, E Bay, you name it. But never found anything that could withstand the beating our girls were sure to put it through for less than $500.00, not including mattresses.

The more Zale thought about it and researched it himself, he figured he could build them something bigger and better for much less than anything we could find in the stores. And he did! It got put on hold for a bit, but he was able to get started in November, and last weekend he put it in the girl’s room.

It's so big I can't even fit the whole thing in the picture

Hannah and Reagan posing on the bottom bunk

So for approx $350 – $400.00, Zale created not only bunk beds that the girls can sleep in for years, but also a wonderful play house. Anthony will probably paint the detail work to make it look even more like a castle, and I’ll post more pictures then. But I couldn’t help showing off what’s been done so far.

why is he sleeping?

Conversation between Anthony (16) and Hannah (4) while he was playing a Sims computer game.

Hannah – “why is he sleeping?”

Anthony – “Because he’s tired’”

Hannah – “Why?”

Anthony – “Don’t you sleep because you’re tired?”

Hannah – “No.”

Anthony – “Then why do you sleep?”

Hannah- “So the sun can come up.”

5 minute challenge

The series at church for the next few weeks is about Margin in our lives. Margin in our finances, extra time with our families, even more importantly, extra time with God. So our pastor challenged us to find five minutes a day to be completely quiet before God. No TV, no music, no talking, just quiet. Do you know how hard that is to do? My only shot for that is at night, before I go to sleep, after the girls are down. Otherwise, it’s just not happening.

Why? Because I can’t even go to the bathroom alone without one or both of the girls coming in to see what I’m doing. And if I try to get clever and lock the door (because even Reagan has figured out how to open the doors around here), they stand on the other side of the door knocking, or stick their toes and fingers under the door asking if I can see them. On the bad days they stand on the other side of the door screaming as if I’m never coming out again!

It’s like they have radar. If they’ve actually been playing nicely together and I think I have a few minutes, they sense it and come to make sure my time is only for them. Not that these are bad things, just things that make it hard to be truly quiet. Our Pastor pointed out that if Satan can’t make us bad, he’ll do his best to make us busy. What a good point! The busier we are the more we tend to just fit God into our lives instead of making Him our first priority.

Last night I completely forgot about that 5 minutes, which means today I’m going to try for 10. Probably won’t happen, but I’m going to give it a shot.

Puppy update

Even though Christmas comes in December, along with many birthdays of friends and family members, it’s still a bittersweet month for us. We’ve lost people very close to us in December, so along with celebrating the birthdays and holiday festivities, we’re also reminded of the loved ones that aren’t with us to share in those moments.

Unfortunately, last December it happened again. On December 1st, 2009, we lost our boxer Gracie to heart failure. She’d not ever been a really healthy dog, but always bounced back from whatever was ailing her and cheated death at least two other times during the 5 1/2 years we had her. But this wasn’t something she could bounce back from. As sad as it was to lose her, it was comfort for me to still have Griffin. I don’t know that the rest of the family shares this sentiment with me, because he can be a bit of an idiot, but he’s still a sweet dog.

When we got Griffin (a Brazilian Bull Mastiff) in August, he was about 4 months old and weighed about 40 pounds. I took him to the vet with me a week or so ago to get more Frontline and they let me weigh him. The scales bounced between 96 pounds and 103, so we’ll just call it 100 pounds. And he’s not done yet!!! He’s only 9 months old. He’s still such a big baby and his favorite place to be is still on my lap in our recliner.

Griffin and his bone

Griffin's action shot

Technical issues

Within the last two weeks, the two technical items we have that I use most went out. First my laptop died. Just quit. I had been using it earlier that day, went back later to check my e mail and it wouldn’t turn on. Frustrating, but not the end of the world. Thankfully Zale was able to take the hard drive out and back up everything. I’ve been using his laptop on occasion when he doesn’t need it. But that’s mainly in the evenings and I prefer to check my e mail, do the checkbook, follow up with friends and family on Facebook, and pay bills during the day. Still not really a huge deal.

My other option for getting on line is actually in our living room. Zale hooked up a computer my Dad gave us to the TV so we can watch things on line easier. The idea came when we downsized our Dish Network package to save money, he figured we could find things on line to watch. It has been a nice perk, but I never thought I’d be using it the way I have these last couple of weeks.

Even though it’s really neat to have such a big monitor, it’s not the most ideal situation. A good example comes from earlier tonight. I’m sitting in the middle of our living room floor (also thanks to Dad we have a wireless keyboard and mouse, but they don’t quite reach the couch) getting run over by Griffin (who is now 8 1/2 months old and 100 pounds) and the girls. Griffin was working hard on his bone, and for some reason that requires walking all over the living room with it. I’ve been bumped from all sides during his process of getting to the meat of the bone. Earlier he even sat on the keyboard while I was sending an e mail. The girls take it as an opportunity to use me as a jungle gym. Reagan is either climbing me like a tree to try and sit on my shoulders, or trying to force the keyboard further away so she can sit on my lap and punch the keys too. Which makes it lots of fun to try to do anything on line. Hannah is a bit more polite about it, but is usually still circling trying to find the best place to land that Reagan hasn’t already taken up. It’s a bit easier now that they’ve gone to bed. But Griffin is still circling the living room working on his bone.

Several days after my laptop went out, our DVR stopped working. I have to admit, this might have affected me more than the laptop. We’ve become quite spoiled by our DVR. It’s very rare for us to watch live TV anymore. We record what we want, watch it later and fast forward through the commercials. But what was even worse than having to watch real TV, was all the things we had recorded were just gone. Of course, every cloud has a silver lining, and I’m actually okay with not having to watch some of the things we had recorded for the girls anymore. We saved Shrek the Halls when it came out before Christmas, it became the girls favorite show. Even after Christmas. They took the news better than I thought they would, but I’m sure it helps that they can still watch it at their Gran Gran’s house.

Dish Network sent us a replacement DVR pretty quickly and we just had to pay shipping, so that was taken care of within a few days for very little cost. The lap top was going to be a bit more of a problem. Zale began researching for my next lap top and we had settled on one of the new mini netbooks. Even better was that since my Dad works for Toshiba we are blessed to have access to their B stock inventory for good prices. So we found what we needed for less than $250.00. Great price, but we don’t usually have an extra $250.00 laying around. We were hoping to be able to get it in a couple of weeks, but Dad called a couple of days ago with even better news.

He remembered that a couple of years ago he and his girlfriend, Karen, had gone in together to get a laptop for her daughter, Leeanna. But she didn’t really used it much, and when she graduated nursing school last May she got a Macbook. So it really hasn’t been used since then, and even though it’s a couple years old, it’s still like new. So here’s the really good part. They’re being so generous and giving it to me. For free. Cause they are just that awesome!

Even though these material things aren’t what life is all about, it sure is nice to have them! I’m so blessed and so very thankful! Not to mention excited that after tomorrow evening I’ll be able to e mail, pay bills, and blog from the comfort of a chair instead of the floor! Thanks again Dad and Karen!! Love you both!

Shoes

So I know that for most women out there, shoes are very important. Their closets are filled from floor to ceiling with shoes and it’s never enough. I’ve not ever been one of those women, never understood it, never really thought about shoes. It probably has something to do with having these huge size 9 1/2 feet, so shoe shopping hasn’t always been my favorite thing to do.  If it wasn’t for my wonderful Father all my shoes would probably come from WalMart or Payless. But with many thanks to him, I have a pair of black sandles, brown sandles, and dressy gold sandles for the summer. For the winter I have a pair of brown slip on shoes, I guess you would call them clogs, but they’re so much nicer looking than they sound. I still have a pair of lace up black boots that I purchased from a real shoe store probably 9 or 10 years ago, and a couple of pairs of dress shoes just in case I need them.

Admittedly I also have some of my dressy shoes from when I worked in an office and had to wear nice clothes all the time. They are tucked away in the corner of my closet collecting dust. I should probaby bite the bullet and send them to Good Will, but I keep thinking I just might need them again some day. Which is crazy because I think I’ve given away most of the outfits that they matched.

Anyway, all this to say that my perspective on shoes has changed just a little bit. For the last couple of years Zale has “hinted” about me having a pair of nice looking boots with a bit of a heal. I’ve always shied away from that because he and I are the same height and I thought I might feel weird towering over him. But, I finally relented and with coupons, store credits, and a half off sale, he and I fould me a pair of black boots with about a three inch heal while we were Christmas shopping.

After learning how to walk in heals again, without falling on my face, I began to like them. I’ve gotten many compliments and I have to admit, I feel pretty good when I wear them. But what’s even more surprising is that it’s made me notice shoes more. Something I never really paid attention to before. For example, I was just reading another blog where I noticed some cute snow boots in a picture they posted. I never would have noticed that before, and I sure wouldn’t have ever stopped at the picture long enough to decide that I thought they were cute!

So maybe I will donate those old shoes to Good Will or our local Hope Center. I’m sure someone out there could get better use of them than my closet does! And who knows, I might just  find another pair or two to go in their place. But just one or two, I refuse to get carried away!

God Promises

These were in our talk notes at church this weekend…I wanted to share. Hope it blesses you as much or more than it did me. (All verses are NIV)

*To meet every need you have from His riches. (Phil 4:19)

*You won’t be tempted beyond what you can handle. (1 Cor 10:13)

*To forgive all your sins (Eph 1:7; 1 John 1:9)

*To make everything work for your good. (Rom 8:28)

*He’d never leave you or forsake you. (Heb 13:5)

*To be your ever present help in trouble. (Ps 46:1)

*To give strength to the weary and power to the weak. (Isa 40:29)

*To guide you and give you direction (Ps 32:8)

*To give you power to defeat Satan (James 4:7)

*To give you a peace that goes beyond your understanding. (Phil 4:7)

*Nothing would separate you from God’s love. (Rom 8:39)

*You are more than conquerors. (Rom 8:37)

*Eternal life through Christ. (John 10:27-28)

I pray that you will hold on to these promises from God as your do life in 2010. Happy New Year!