While I Was Shoveling....

Braden and Dallas were watching Jackson 5 videos on YouTube.

7.5 inches

The partially finished product. This is about 1/3 of the drive, maybe less.

My car is in desperate need of a bath. Will it ever get above freezing?

If you squint your eyes, tilt your head, and imagine, maybe you can see the driveway under all of that snow.

My scientific measuring system.

Zoomed out a little you can see where I'd started to shovel. I pushed the snow off to the side. You can see how smooth the top of the untouched snow is.

The Many Emotions of Shoveling

Angry when you realize just how long this is going to take and just how ridiculously heavy this much snow is! (Sorry I'm not very good at pretending to be angry!)

Pouting, but too cold to really stick out your bottom lip, because Jon is working and doesn't want to here about all the snow in the driveway.

Shocked at how little progress you've made in relation to the driveway as a whole. You were feeling pretty good about yourself until you looked up.

Pooped because you are old and out of shape. You're starting to get warm, but it's 20 degrees. The coat is staying on!

Happy you've been blessed with eyes to appreciate the snow's beauty, strength and health to go out and shovel some of the driveway, warm clothes and boots to keep out the cold, and a husband, son, and friend that helped you finish the driveway later.

The Birthday Boy

Here are the long awaited pictures from Braden's birthday....... well, the end of it. This is after basketball practice and his shower, hence the pj's.

Braden blowing out his candles. He got a homemade cake this year that the boys have been inhaling! I think there are 1-2 pieces left.

This was just before he blew his candles out. (don't ask me why these load out of order!) The face he's making is because Jon was dragging out the "Youuuuuuuuuuu!" at the end of singing to him.

After the song ended, the wish was made, and the candles were blown out.

And the birthday boy. Who needs a haircut. Maybe one night while he's asleep. Because baseball season is just so far away. And can you tell by his eyes that he's a little congested and sneezing like crazy? Black and white was really the best way to go with this picture!

So Sorry Amanda!

Happy Day After Braden's 10th Birthday!

(I took pictures, but haven't uploaded them yet.)

He Looked Older

Boy, 14, dupes police, patrols Chicago for 5 hours
Sunday, January 25, 2009 9:20 PM EST The Associated Press By MICHAEL TARM Associated Press Writer

CHICAGO (AP) — A 14-year-old aspiring police officer donned a uniform, walked into a Chicago police station and managed to get an assignment — patroling in a squad car for five hours before he was detected, police said Sunday.
The boy did not have a gun, never issued any tickets and didn't drive the squad car, Deputy Superintendent Daniel Dugan said.
Assistant Superintendent James Jackson said the ruse was discovered only after the boy's patrol with an actual officer ended Saturday. Officers noticed his uniform lacked a star that is part of the regulation uniform.
Police said they were investigating how the deception went undetected for so long in what they described as a serious security breach.
Police didn't identify the boy because of his age. He has been charged as a juvenile with impersonating an officer.
Dugan said the boy looks older than 14 and was motivated by a desire to be an officer, not malice or "ill intent."
The boy once took part in a Chicago program for youth interested in policing, so he would have been familiar with some procedures, perhaps helping him blend in, police spokeswoman Monique Bond said.

All Alone

Last night, Jon left with the sr. high and headed to Michigan for the Winter Retreat. I stayed behind with the kids (Braden and Dallas). But I miss them all and am looking forward to going to camp with my fave girls this summer!

Out of order, but photos none the less.....
Here are the girls right before we closed the doors and they drove away. You can't see the 3 boys in the back row or Jon and Mandy up front. Sorry!


First row: Audrey, Brittany, and Danielle (left to right) and part of Jon's head hidden behind Audrey's feet.

Middle row: Kayla, Christina, & Ali.

Audrey, looking a bit like a dork, and her guitar. She's leading worship this weekend.

And can you believe they let this guy, who looks ready for bed, drive 9 high schoolers to Michigan? Me neither! But PTL, they made it safely and are having a great time!

Braden and I left the church and headed to Ft. Wayne. We got there later than planned but still managed to have dinner at Chili's and then shop at Circuit City, Dick's, and Kohls. Couldn't make it to the mall. Braden bought 2 Michael Jackson CDs. (I may go crazy listening to them over and over and over and.....) At Dick's, he picked out some new shoes as part of his birthday present. Hopefully these will last longer than 6 months!

CAN YOU BELIEVE HE WILL BE 10 YRS OLD ON MONDAY!?!?!?!?!?!

A Must Read

http://txaggievet.blogspot.com/2009/01/corornation-of-king-obama.html

I'd Probably Wet My Pants

When I was doing my devotions this afternoon, I came upon this verse, and the imagery overwhlemed me.

"David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand extended over Jerusalem."
1 Chronicles 21:16

Perhaps it's more powerful when read in context, knowing David's actions were what caused the angel's appearance, and the fear that my own actions may have or could cause God to bring me to such a place as David, but...........

We Are Blessed

Today, thanks to the freezing cold temperatures that froze the kitchen pipes, I washed all the dishes in the BATHTUB this afternoon!!!!

We are all so blessed to have homes with heat, warm beds, washers and dryers, and indoor plumbing. How humbling (and painful) to kneel and hunch over to clean the dishes. Thankfully we have lots of "fixins" for sandwiches and I found some plastic cups and paper plates. Both of which can be recycled!

Only downside is that it's not supposed to get above freezing anytime soon.
Any guesses about when our pipes will thaw?

Almost Frozen

Yup! It's that cold here. I haven't left the house since Wednesday afternoon. They closed the schools at 1:00pm on Wed. After I picked Braden up, I shoveled the driveway and sidewalks. (Jon got home at 5:00 and said he couldn't tell that I had shoveled!) Aside from letting Dallas out and taking the trash to the garage, I haven't been anywhere since. Schools were closed yesterday and today.
The weather today said it was -13 in Ft. Wayne, -34 with the wind!!!
Guess who opened the cabinets under the sink last night but didn't drip the faucet? And guess whose water line is now frozen? And guess who had a massive headache last night and decided to leave the dinner dishes until this morning? ME! ME! I have a sink full of dishes and no water! Thankfully, the bathroom and laundry room pipes are fine. The kitchen is the farthest down on the water line and is also the western-most part of the house. The temp is supposed to be in the 20s tomorrow. I hope that is enough to start thawing the line.

Brrrrrrr!!!!!

Have you seen The Shining? Maybe it's because Jon was watching it the other night, but as I was getting a little short tempered this morning, I thought of that movie. Don't worry! I'm not thinking about slaughtering my family or anything like that. I was merely referring to the cabin fever :)

In other news, we've been eating healthy this past week. (Except for tonight. With no way to wash dishes, Jon drove thru Taco Bell for our dinner.) Anyway, Jon has finely gotten serious about eating better and getting in shape. So we've been eating grilled chicken and fish, which I love, and more veggies, which I'm only doing because I love him. I had peppers on my salad one night and steamed broccoli another night. Blah! And we had raw spinach, which I enjoy. We're also eating more fruit, which has been Jon's big challenge. He's not a fruit eater.
Monday and Tuesday I had pretty bad headaches (and of course I've been out of Aleve for at least 2 mo.) that I attributed to sugar shock! So Wednesday I went to the store and bought a bag of Swedish Fish. In the Eat This, Not That book, this candy is listed as a healthier choice if you need a sweet fix. I also made some sweet tea!

I had some other thoughts I was going to blog about, but Braden is watching a WWII movie. It's hard to be eloquent with some much gunfire! So until next time, STAY WARM!!

We're Praying For You

Hope you have a great first day in the real world! You'll knock Boston dead! WE LOVE YOU!

Food for Thought

A man sat at a Metro station in Washington, D.C. and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning.
He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes.
During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried on to meet his schedule.
A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping, continued to walk.
A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32.
When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it.

No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats averaged $100.
This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the Metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people.

The outlines were, in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour:
Do we perceive beauty?
Do we stop to appreciate it?
Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?

Guess What I Got

Out of order so read in reverse :)

Sunday morning I found Santa dead in the front room next to the Rock Band drums. After a closer inspection, it appears that he is only in need of back surgery. He's now awaiting surgery in the laundry room with Dallas' cow who also has some minor flesh wounds. And this is what I got for Christmas from the Hambergs. I just love it!

The wall, minus the one I moved that Jon just rehung yesterday.

In other news, Jon is driving my car today. His van wouldn't start this morning. Not sure why, other than that it's old! So I drove my grandpa's truck to take Braden to school. Not the start to my morning that I had hoped for. But what can you do?

There's a Special Place in Hell

For this individual:

Cops: Dad ordered to pay child support kills son
Saturday, January 3, 2009 8:23 PM EST The Associated Press By JANET McCONNAUGHEY Associated Press Writer
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A man who initially told police gunmen kidnapped his 2 1/2-year-old son was arrested Saturday, accused of committing an "extremely hideous" murder because he was ordered to pay child support, Police Superintendent Warren Riley said.

Danny Platt confessed, told police where to find the child's body and will be booked on a charge of first-degree murder in the death of Ja' Shawn Powell, Riley said at a news conference.

"He had said he would kill either his wife or his child before he paid child support," which he recently had been ordered to do, Riley said.

Riley said he did not know the amount of child support and would not describe how the boy was killed, saying the coroner would do that after the autopsy was complete. The coroner's spokesman did not immediately return a call.

"The mother is in a safe place," Riley said.

Although he had visiting rights, Platt, 22, of New Orleans, had never visited the boy until he picked him up Friday, Riley said.

Police put out a notice Saturday asking people to look for the boy and saying his father had told them three men with dreadlocks and AK-47 rifles had piled out of an SUV and kidnapped Ja' Shawn shortly before midnight Friday.

"His story never really added up," Riley said. "He was a suspect from the very beginning."
Riley said Platt eventually confessed and told officers where to find the body.

Police spokesman officer Janssen Valencia said he did not know if Platt has an attorney.

Platt had only a couple of "very minor" previous arrests, Riley said.

"How does an individual — because he's ordered to pay child support to take care of a kid ... believe that this is so much pressure that he would face — he would do this hideous act to his own child, or to any child, and think that is a remedy to paying child support?" Riley said. "I mean there are some sick individuals in this society, and this gentleman is clearly one."

Ped-Egg

Jon's parents were sweet enough to put a Ped-Egg (as seen on TV) in his stocking this year. While Jon was a little less than thrilled, Braden has been itching to try it out. Last night, he finally got his chance!

Not sure why he was making this face. And I know it's a little out of focus. But I'm posting it anyway.

Hope you all had a happy new year! And a safe one! Jon's parents were kind enough to hang out with Braden Wednesday night while Jon and I went to Ft. Wayne. They fixed dinner, made ice cream sundaes, watched a movie, and played some board games. We had dinner and then planned to go shopping. Given that it was a holiday though, almost everything closed at 6:00 that night. So we went to Kohl's and to Target and were home again by 10pm!

We got some great buys at Kohl's but I'm itching to go back and go to the mall.

New Year's Day

Dallas thought my back side looked like a good place to take a nap last night. (To the left, you can see one of the new throw pillows we bought.)

Jon made breakfast New Year's morning for everyone. (Check out our new under-the-cabinet CD player/radio we got for Christmas from Jon's parents! But ignore the rest of the mess. I found the rest of the counter this afternoon.)

The boys wrestling around on the couch.

Lessons in Rock

Jon's parents have been visiting this week from Texas. In addition to lunch and a small shopping trip, the five of us were able to go see Bedtime Stories on New Year's Day, with snacks for $29.50!! You just can't do that in the city! -- The movie was GREAT by the way. I LOVED IT! -- Also, Braden was able to get some private guitar lessons from Grandma Kathy.

Here are the big boys watching football while Bray and G'ma rocked out. A close-up of Braden's fingers.

All rockers are able to make frightening faces while covering up with a pink blanket. (And with smoothie seeds all over his lips and chin!)

Hopefully, this is Braden listening to Grandma.

Working on proper finger placement.

Working on chords.

Grandma's turn!