review of 2008 - january & february

due to major procrastination, it's now less than 2 hrs. til the new year. guess if i'm gonna do a stroll down memory lane, i better get my shoes on & start walkin-

three things about last january stand out in my mind.





- the most exciting thing was the birth of angela & justin's beautiful son, eston.
he was born on the 9th & it's hard to believe he's turning 1 next week. he is so much fun, so full of energy & really, really clever & smart. just don't try to feed him any green vegetables. his whole upper body shudders & shakes when he tastes anything green.

- i found out that i'm diabetic last january, too. for someone who loves pasta & mashed potatoes & white cake, it was really difficult
to accept that i would need to change my diet in a major way. but i have & though i still have to take 2 pills a day, i'm controlling it pretty well, especially when you consider the fact that i have severe food allergies & can't tolerate a lot of fiber in my diet. i've managed to lose & keep off 16 pounds, but still need to lose another 16+++. i'll get to work on that right away (ha!)

- the other thing that happened last january was announcing my decision to no longer be the coordinator of the columbus class of community bible study. it was what i knew the Lord wanted me to do, i just didn't know why. sometimes we are called to just be obedient & not know the reasons. this was definitely one of those times. i miss the servants team, the leaders council & even the busyness of it all, but the Lord has other plans for me. life is good.


in february i came up with a brilliant idea. basically: if i cook it, they will come. we wanted to provide a means for spending time with our grown children (a social session, shelly would call it.) so we created "SUNDAYS AT THE OLD FOLKS HOME". we issued a standing invitation (via email) that we would have provide lunch on the 1st sunday of each month & dinner on the 3rd sunday of each month. i guess i need some feedback from the kids as to whether they think it's been a good thing, but as for shelly & me, we have absolutely loved it. it's become hard to find times that work for all (due to children's schedules) but i hope we can continue it. yes, we love sundays at the old folks home! you'll see a photo in later posts of a typical "sunday at the old folks home"

another thing we do every year is an "all in one birthday party". carrie's birthday is in december, corrie's in january, dan, angela & lee in february & justin keller in march. so it made a lot of sense to celebrate them all at once! so, we do. we always have a theme (a fantabulous theme every year, i might add!) 2008 - brot the "BIRTHDAY RODEO AT THE STRATSHIRE FAIRGROUNDS". as you can see, it was a night to remember. unfortunately, the keller household had the flu & missed it! but a good time was had by the rest of us!




tune in soon for a couple more months!

preamble to looking back on the good, the bad & the ugly (a review of 2008)

for the longest time (like over 30 yrs) i've been saving my calendars & yearly planners. the ones that i make notes on, even the calendar desk pads that i scribble all over. i can tell you exactly which one i've written joe schmoe's number on in 1999. if i've written it down, i can remember it. that is, i can remember that i've written it down. make sense? i can remember which tiny scrap of paper i've written the number on or which calendar or yearly planner or desk pad. all i have to do is find that particular thing i've written it on & i'm all set.
ha, ha, ha. i've spent entire days looking for those calendars, planners, etc. and because i'm so ocd (or cdo as it's known in my mind) i.will.find.it!

and for as long as i've been emailing, i've been saving my emails. last year when we moved, we switched our internet provider from earthlink to insight. that meant that unless i found an easy way to save all my emails, they would be gone forever.
we even kept our earthlink address, in addition to our insight, for like 3 months because i didn't want to lose my OLD emails. finally, i bit the bullet & let them die, knowing i couldn't live without them. guess what? i did. life went on.
does that mean i've stopped saving my emails. of course not. i now have 500 in my inbox & 500 in my sent box. it's a sickness, you know. if you have sent me an email discussing something, i have it. (i do not & will not save all those beautiful, funny, encouraging, etc. attachments that people send me)

continuing with my preamble -

i take lots of photos. i used to have this amazing sony camera that recorded on little cds. ask me how many little cds i have? go on, ask me. well, i'll tell you. too many to count! what a terrific, permanent way to save your photos. instead of getting all those rolls of film made into double prints & then not putting them into albums, i could just keep them on cds. and you can look at them anytime you want. just sort through all those cds, and, say-five hours later, you'll get to see your photos. just like sorting through boxes of photos, now it's boxes of cds.

but now i have a sony camera that puts the photos on little tiny cards & you have to then transfer them to a file on the computer & then transfer them to a cd. actually, you can transfer them to a cd & bypass the computer file but i like to have everything at my fingertips so i can pull up a photo at a moment's notice. so you can imagine how big my "my pictures" folder is. pretty darn big. (2 1/2 yrs. ago, i had the biggest computer crash of my life & lost all the photos in "my pictures" folder. it was devastating.)

i have rambled on & on in this preamble to say this:

i have the dates & notes on my calendar, i have the emails & i have the pictures. and over the next couple of days, i'm planning on doing a little stroll down the memory lane of 2008.

come along if you'd like to. if not - well, maybe you'll be missed!
and if you leave comments, you'll definitely be remembered. i'll never remove these comments, they'll be here forever & as long as i can find my blog, i'll keep looking at them.

it just keeps getting better & better

shelly is now speaking my language (apparently)

he's been downgraded to:

TV Reviews

this is tooo weird. i think his blog has become a whole harder to read & navigate since he made all the changes to it.

what is going on?

i guess i'm getting harder to understand

just checked my "readability".

Movie Reviews

grade schoolers cannot no longer read this blog. if you are in grade school & you are reading this, you must be exceptionally bright.

some junior high is now required in order to comprehend what i'm talking about.

if any middle-schoolers are reading this, could you try to explain to me just what it is i'm trying to say. i could use a little help here. i'd write more often if i could figure what to say.

i haven't a clue!

honest - i don't.

a merry, little christmas

christmas started at 5 pm on christmas eve for us.

that's when the "old folks home" came to life.

the tree had been up for days, the decorating & wrapping completed & christmas music had filled the house on several occasions. we had been up & busy since early morning, but it wasn't until everyone arrived that it became christmas.

and it just got better & better after that.

everyone brought something to add to our "indoor-outdoor fingerfood/barbeque buffet" that has become a tradition for us on christmas eve. there are a few "must haves": meatballs (beef & turkey) in sweet/sour & swedish sauce & brie on the "brie plate" & carrie & jean always bring cookies & corrie always brings a yummy dessert. having angela & justin in town for the 2nd year in a row means so much to us & her fabulous roasted asparagus did, too!

we ate, we laughed & we kissed babies and opened a mountain of gifts!

we also heard the christmas story told in 6 new ways: (well-done with only a few words omitted, slooooooow & with only a few words omitted, quick, short & tag-teamed, very short (1 verse) & from the mouths of babes (with a little help from maymee). isaiah 55:11 says "so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it" God blesses everyone who memorizes His Word by hiding it deep in their hearts. it's my prayer that all of us (including me) will be able to share next year and that those who worked so hard this year will have those words come to mind throughout the days ahead.

it was a sweet evening that i'll always remember: the Christmas the Lord blessed us with not 1, not 2, but 3 beautiful babies. and henry seemed to relish every moment of being the big cousin and #1 grandson.

on christmas morning, we went to ruth & fred's for their annual christmas breakfast. oh my! sausage gravy & biscuits, bacon, sausage, eggs, potatoes, grits casserole, french toast casserole & lots & lots of good coffee. we always enjoy this so much.

around noon, we went home & i started feeling the effects of an unwanted present: a nasty cold & sore throat! we’ve been laying low ever since! we were planning to leave yesterday for lizards thicket but we just couldn’t work up the enthusiasm for the 12 hour drive & i couldn’t find any fares that were low enough or routes short enough for us to fly. the weather was supposed to be fantastic there for a few days & we really need some sunshine.

anyway, here’s a few thousand look-sees from christmas –



Luke 2 - the Christmas story

1In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)3And everyone went to his own town to register. 4So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. 8And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ[a] the Lord. 12This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." 13Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." 15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about." 16So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.




hope yours was merry & bright & blessed -