Traveling We hit the road Christmas day and drove to Arkansas, stopping for one night. We had a great time spending "Christmas" with all of Bill's family for the first time in four years. Bill's parents rented a Christian camp on top of a mountain in the middle of Nowhere, Arkansas and we all piled in for four days of fun! The kids all bunked upstairs. The adults all had rooms downstairs. We shared a common living room and had an indoor gym. We even hired the camp to cook a couple of meals for us, so we could just hang out. It was a lot of fun, and it was so good to see everyone. Plus, there is nothing like eight days on the road for four days of visiting. :D We stopped by my granparents on the way home and visited with them. The drive home wasn't as fast as we hit blizzards in Wyoming, etc. Here are a couple of pics from the trip:
Grandpa and Granny
Nephew Nathan and his girlfriend, Breanne, who I love because she is a fellow northerner and there is finally someone else at the Gifford gatherings who understands my language - and food choices! LOL!
Ian and Cousin Libby's Traditional Crazy Picture
Brothers
Cousins
When we got home, Bill headed off to Phoenix for almost a month to golf. He needed to practice and take his PAT's down there. Our hope was to have some things totally taken care of before the golf season opened here. He stayed with some old friends from the BSU at ASU, visited some of my family down there, saw some old friends from our days and West Greenway, and took a quick trip up to Cottonwood to see the Scott's. Our friends, Pat and Janet, (our former pastor in AZ), loaned Bill a vehicle. He was able to practice with Branden Styer, a good friend who is trying the Gateway Tour this year, and some of the other local pros. He passed half of the playing test, and can start his coursework as soon as he is re-hired at the club (hopefully this spring....fingers crossed). He came home very tanned and constantly cold!
Scrambling ....is what I was doing while he was gone. I had the audacity to do what we women do sometimes, and tell myself thatit wouldn't be that bad because He doesn't do much anyway. I know. Low. Well, trust me. The Lord did some humbling. I would get up at six, get everyone ready for school, lunches packed, breakfast fed, and rides done. Then go home and work. Then clock out and do carpool for Clayton's school, pick up the other kids, run errands, back to get Clayton from basketball. Then home for dinner, homework, baths, etc. Get the kids to bed, then go back to work. Crash about midnight and start all over again. Ugh! At least that was on the weekdays. My home group was fantastic, though. They brought meals several times a week, so I would have one less thing to do. I don't think I ever cooked on a work night. Someone also anonymously paid for me to have my house cleaned. I've never had that done before. So I felt very blessed. On the weekends I would rest some and did some...
Decorating I just got plum fed up with some things around here. Before Bill left he had to replace the toilet upstairs, so of course, why not do the tile. So after he left, I decided it finally needed paint -and a new shower rod and a new shower head and a new window treatment, and a towel loop, and a few other things....you know how it goes. So it now looks like a main bathroom (with a few leftover vintage fixtures), rather than the room in the house you try to avoid the most. I also painted the kitchen, made curtains for the boys' rooms, and made a curtain for our bathroom.
Performing Yes, my boys go to a circus school! That is what Jonathan says anyway. LOL! Riley and Ian had professional juggler Jen Slaw at their school this month, and they were in heaven with all they were learning. Here is some treasures from that:
Ian spinning plates
Riley's performance
Riley and Jen Slaw
Celebrating After almost eleven years of marriage, my brother Jonathan and his wife Michelle have decided they were ready to enter the realm of parenthood! There is finally going to be a cousin on the Brandel side! We were all extremely surprised and very ecstatic, and I must admit I'm having to restrain myself from spending my whole paychecks on merchandise from work! Bill is praying for a little girl, so he can spoil her and send her home, and we are looking for giant stuff animals that we can give to them to return the favors of the last several years - so if you see any, let me know. LOL!
Play-ing ...in the sense of the dramatic. Because stomach flu caused Clayton to miss his drama/choir perfomance, he has to see several concerts and plays and do critiques before the end of the month. We went and saw "Little Shop of Horrors" together at our local Playhouse and are heading to the college for "The Doctor In-Spite of Himself" next week. We are also hunting down concerts, etc to complete the assignments. Let me know if you hear of anything local - especially if it is free!
Mobilizing I finally have a laptop!...and with our road trip to Arkansas, I learned quite a bit about Wi-Fi. I also found out that Mc Donald's is about your best bet for a connection in Arkansas. I worked one day between the kid's video game machines, with the laptop propped on a high chair. The manager was very kind to set me up there when I explained that I really needed an outlet, and there was no other choice. It wasn't the most comfortable option, but I managed. The next day, I rolled my window down by the light pole in Ozark and plugged in and sat in the van to work, while tapping into McDonald's Wi-Fi. Good times!
Basketball-ing Riley finished his season just before Christmas. Clayton started as soon as we got back from Christmas. He is doing pretty well on the Middle School Boys B team at Charter and feels fortunate to play most of the game as a sixth grader.
Recovering I got very sick while Bill was gone. Great timing! After five days of determination, vitamin C, juice, and Activate, I surrendered and went to urgent care for anti-biotics. The week before, Ian and Hayden both had sore throats and missed school. This week, Hayden and Clayton have been running fevers and having chest coughs. Clayton has missed a whole week of school!
Studying Bill gave me a very special gift for Christmas, and I've been enjoying it very much. It is the 90 Day Journal version of Beth Moore's Beloved Disciple - a great, daily reminder to dive deeper into my love relationship with Jesus.
Struggling I'd be lying if I said we were doing "GREAT!" Times are tough all over the nation and we are no exception. It is difficult to go into this kind of economy when you are already tapped. Bill hasn't worked since November, and the course is making huge cuts. We aren't convinced he'll have a job in the spring. To add to that, we found a lump in Bill's leg this week in the same place the last one was removed. It started causing pain the next day. He will see the surgeon again on Tuesday to see what is next. We seem to be in one of those "when it rains, it poors" stages, and if allowed, we'd come up with plenty to gripe and worry about. But instead, we're committed to continue....
Growing as always. Every experience and every hardship leads to a new depth of understanding for God and His ways....and a new invitation to go deeper with Him!
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