The 100th Day of School

We had our 100th day of school earlier this week. You are required to do a certain amount of days, so that is why I keep track. Anyway, we did a few out-of-the-ordinary things. Below is a picture of 100 pennies we counted out. Some are real, some are play pennies. We also had a contest to see who could write their name the most times in 100 seconds. I came in first at 17 times. I think Colby wrote his 12, and Dalayna wrote hers 5.5, which I thought was pretty good for a 5 year old. It was your first and last name, and of course hers is the longest of all!!

$100.00 in play money.

We popped a bag of microwave popcorn and Dalayna counted out 100 pieces of popcorn. The picture below shows the amount, and it's not much. Once she was done counting, she dumped the whole bag in the bowl, because 100 just wasn't enough to eat. I had to agree!!

We took 100 pattern blocks and made a picture together. Colby counted to make sure we had exactly 100.

We made a crown for Dalayna and we(yes, I helped because 100 is a LOT of stamping) stamped it 100 times. It is a rather large crown, but it had to be to fit 100 stamps on. You can get a better picture of all the stamps in the picture below.

I told Dalayna to think of what she would buy with $100.00. This is her list. Notice candy is on there twice. It would have been more fun to actually spend $100.00 at the store, but since we were unable to do that we will look ahead to next year. Maybe we can save $100.00 in pennies and take a field trip to spend it:)!!

Fish Fry

Here are the fish Terry caught and fried. The ones not fileted were already in our freezer, caught some other time. They had the bones in them and didn't taste as good either. Terry dipped all the fish in egg, then cornmeal mixed with Creole seasoning and they were delicious.

The finished product. Some Northern Pike, bluegill and crappie all fried to perfection. Can't wait for the next fish fry!!

Potpourri of Christmas Pics

Before you look at this picture, it is NOT the one I was going to post. It was supposed to be another picture of Dalayna adding candy canes to the Christmas tree. I am a little late in posting the rest of our Christmas pics, but I figured as long as I got it done before next Christmas I was doing good!! That is about the time frame I need sometimes to accomplish things!! Dalayna adding candy canes to the tree. Her main concern was how many candy canes each person gets to eat. She is my candyholic. I asked her the other night if she could not worry about or eat candy for a whole day. Her reply was,"Mom, I don't think that's possible!!"

This was supposed to be on our Christmas card this year, but we forgot to add ourselves. I am not sure how we forgot, but we did!! We walked away from the counter, and I said, "Hey Garris,(that is my name for Terry), we forgot to put ourselves on here!!" I was not going to spend more money to fix it, though.

The mantel in the family room. The garland was a little crooked, but who's paying attention?

Our Christmas tree. I felt so rotten that I put just enough ornaments on to make it look decent.

Colby and Grandma. A picture to be treasured for sure!!

Mavery holding the Christmas star during the play. She was so cute!! In the background is my Aunt Debbie and cousins Brett and Shane. Brett is another one of my cousins who is serving the Lord away from home. He just moved to central Illinois to help be a church planter. He, like our family, has found that other believers in Christ will make you feel so welcome and at home when you are far from family.

Our family Christmas took place on New Year's Eve this year. It was a little different, especially making the kids wait that long, but they were patient. We went out to eat, then came home and opened gifts.

Colby is opening a different kind of gift in this picture. This year, instead of spending a lot of money, we decided to give gifts of service or time to one another. Each person made a set of coupons for everyone else. We all enjoyed figuring out what we could do for one another, and seeing the look of surprise on everyone's face as they read their book of coupons. For example, each of my children received one coupon each to spend the night in our bedroom. Dalayna received coupons for having books read to her, etc. Colby received coupons for spending time alone, no mom, no sister, or chores. Terry gave him a coupon for shooting b.b. guns together. One of mine from Terry was for him to cook dinner, clean it up, put the kids and dogs to bed. Another coupon was good for a weekend trip to St. Louis. Dalayna gave Terry and Colby coupons for her to make sandwiches for them for lunch one day. She loves to make sandwiches!! I think this idea went over so well we may use it for other occasions too!!

Dalayna's loot.

I thought a make-up kit for Dalayna and me would be fun, so that was one of the things I picked out for myself. W can polish nails, try out different colors, just do girly things!!

Colby is a Chicago Bears fan. It seems like everyone around here is, so he fits right in. This is one of the gifts he picked out for himself. He requested picking out his own gifts this year. I thought that was a great idea. I think I was about his age when I made that same request, and I still like picking out my gifts. Anyway, that meant there wouldn't be any gifts he DIDN'T like. I think he was afraid I would buy him a bunch of sweater vests:)!!

Pics From the Weekend

This past weekend we went back to check on our house. We had several reasons for going, but the main one was to check on our house and make sure it was in good shape for the open house. I also needed my vaccuum. There is one that stays at this house, but it is old, and by the time I am done vaccuuming, I feel like my arm is about to fall off. The final reason was because Terry was going ice fishing. They caught lots of fish, and our friend Larry was kind enough to send it all home with Terry. We are going to fry it up this weekend. I will let you know how Northern Pike tastes! He had a great time, though I have to admit I was worried about the ice giving way even at 4 inches thick!! Thankfully, that didn't happen!! We were also blessed to be able to spend time with some of our church family and neighbors while we were there. They were so kind to invite us to their homes for dinner. A special thank you to Norm and Gloria, Paul and Amy, and Dale and Julie for inviting us over and feeding us. It was hard to leave. I thought I had learned to be content where I am, but it was more like opening up a fresh wound. We miss our house, our friends, our church, but for whatever reason, God has plans for us here. I didn't cry, but Dalayna cried as we pulled away from Dale and Julie's house on Sunday afternoon. She said, "Mommy, I don't want to leave my friends." I felt the same way. We are thankful for so many people there and the good news is, we really aren't that far away!! Here is Dalayna with her friends Abby, Lauren and Lindsay. They are extremely sweet young ladies. Dalayna is in her new coat. One of the purchases she made that day. . I told her she looked like a polar bear in that thing, so that is why she is making that face. We also got hair cuts. Colby spent the weekend with his friend Jonathan.

Sunday afternoon, before we headed back, we went to our neighbor's house, Dale and Julie, for lunch. Dalayna was very excited to see "Little Dale." It was all she worried about after we made our plans. She and Dale are about the same age, and they are good buddies. They decided to play a game of football. Dalayna is a girly-girl in every way, but she will never shy away from wrestling and rough play either!!

Terry and Dalayna team up against Dale and Colby.

Terry helping Jacob to make a basket. Jacob is about 14 months old. We had not seen him since November, so I was amazed by all the things he can do now!!

I decided to do something different with my hair. I decided to add a touch of red. I have seen it on other people and it looks so nice. It is very subtle, but I like it. Terry would like to see more of the red, but I don't know if I can do that after all these years of being blondish!! A special thank you to Kim, our hairdresser, to take time out of her Saturday for us.

This is one of the things Dalayna bought with her money. I bought a blue one with sparkly sequins on it, so we thought we might get purses that match in that way. Isn't it cute? She is quite the shopper. She knows exactly what she wants and she makes sure she gets the most for her money. I am teaching her well aren't I? We had lots of fun shopping, though I wish I had found more for myself!!

Update on Selling Our House

We went back to check on our house this weekend. I took a few pictures, but I will try to post those tomorrow. Many of you may be praying for us as we try to sell our home, so I wanted to update where we are at. Our friend Ron, who is also our realtor, held an open house today. We had several people come to look at it. There has been a constant flow of people looking at our house since October, just no offers. As of today, we have 2 different couples that want to make an offer on our house, but they have to sell their homes first. Please pray that one of these couples will be able to sell their home, so they will be free to make an offer on ours. We are constantly keeping in mind that God will bring the right buyer in His time, but I guess human nature wants it to be in my own time frame, like before our lease is up here;)!!

Mailbox "Tickets" and other snow issues

We are learning new terms here these days. You will see icicles in the pictures below. They are everywhere around this town, on every house, building,etc. It is all the snow trying to melt, then refreezing. We decided the other day we should start knocking them down, because it can't be good for your roof. Colby is holding his "trophy" in the picture below. One icicle we knocked down must have weighed about 80 pounds. The 80 pounder fell on Colby's knee and left a bruise. I knocked one off and it hit me in the face. Maybe we are amused too easily, but it is a challenge to see if we are strong enough to knock them off. Our new term for the week is "ice damming". This occurs when the ice accumulates, clogs your gutters, and freezes. The water then begins to accumulate under your shingles and your roof will start to leak. This happened to us this past Sunday morning as we were getting ready to walk out the door to church. Colby said, "Uh, mom, there's water dropping down from the ceiling in the family room." I wasn't sure I quite believed he knew what he was talking about, but he did. Unfortunately we were unable to make it to church because there was cleanup to be done. We called the owners, who are so unbelievably kind, and they came over and their son knocked a good majority of the ice off the roof and taught us our new term. The leak has dried up, but they will have to do some work to the ceiling later on. We have decided that you get the best of both worlds living here:snow in winter and the beach in the summer!!

See the 3rd window? Terry was hanging out of it the other day knocking icicles down with a hammer. I was holding his belt loop and Colby had his feet. I don't think he would have fallen, but I am not willing to take any chances either. I was also worried about his head as these pieces fell down!!

Here is the driveway that has provided all the exercise as I shoveled it. My pants were a bit looser today, so it must be doing me some good!!

This is the pile we have accrued from our driveway as well as the plows clearing the road out front. You can see off to the side how it almost covered up our mailbox and newspaper boxes. This pile would come up to my chest if I were right in the middle, though it doesn't take much to do that!:)

I am finally able to see some of the bushes in the yard again!! January thaw is here!!

This is the first time in my adult life I have ever received one of these lovely pieces of paper. It comes with no fines, thankfully, but could mean my mail service will be put on hold until further notice, which means I have to stand in line at the one post office I have actually found in order to get my mail. No thank you. I have already stood in line way too much at that post office already. Terry said it is like a ticket. So, Colby and I were out there this morning before school started clearing a path for the postal service to deliver the mail. No notes in my box today!!

Snow, Snow and More Snow!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe next year I won't be so shocked by all the snow, but for now all I can do is laugh and think to myself "Unbelievable". I am from a place where if you got a little snow, it made you happy because you didn't see that much. Here it seems there is an invisible snow machine, and like the Energizer bunny, it keeps "going, and going, and going!!" The local weather service estimates that we recieved between 19 and 21 inches last weekend. This Wednesday we had no snow, but that was the first day of this year with no snow. The break didn't last long. It started in yesterday morning, again, and we probably received 3-4 inches. Then, last night we received another 1-2 inches. Needless to say, in some places the snow is up to Terry's knees. I was thinking I would actually get to go spend some of my Christmas money this weekend, but it is snowing again, and they are calling for 10-20 inches between now and tomorrow evening. So, I think I will be sitting by the fire reading a book instead of walking the mall. I just have to laugh because it just surprises me that this much snow falls to the ground!! It may be up to my hips by the time it's over!! The good news is that Terry, Colby and I are getting plenty of exercise shoveling snow. I have spent approximately 4.5 hours shoveling snow in the past week. One of my goals was to get back to exercising somehow, until it is warm enough to ride my bike again. I think I have burned enough calories I deserve a big piece of cheesecake from somewhere the next time I can actually leave my house!!

Christmas Day

This year I didn't miss the picture on Christmas morning, but my camera was already giving out, so the picture is a bit blurry. I think this picture is such a good representation of how close my children have become lately. It is something Terry and I have prayed for and God has used this latest move to grow them closer. They enjoy spending time together, serving one another in various ways, and making each other laugh a lot!! They still have days where they pick at each other and get upset with each other, but not as much. They are such a precious gift to Terry and me!! They opened up gifts from Grandma Judy and PaPa Ray on Christmas morning. Terry and I gave them each 1 surprise gift. We decided ahead of time to do our own family Christmas on New Year's Eve. It is just too much to pack their gifts and take it with us, then bring it right back home. The way I pack we don't have much room for extras!! :)

Dalayna with ballerina pajamas from Grandma Judy and PaPa Ray.

Opening the gifts, what fun!! Christmas afternoon we gather at my grandparents house to open gifts. This is my mom's side of the family. We look forward to Grandpa's fudge, Grandma's Christmas tree cookies, and pickled eggs, well, I look forward to the eggs anyway!! We are in close quarters as you can see, but I wouldn't change it for the world. It just wouldn't be the same if we were spread out everywhere. Isn't baby Leighton too cute?

Dalayna and her cousin Jaylyn received pretty dolls for Christmas. If you wonder why Jaylyn is at this gathering too, I will try to explain. Let me just say it is all legal!! Here goes: There are 2 sisters, Debbie and Diana. Debbie is married to my mom's brother(Jaylyn's grandparents). Diana married my dad's brother. So, you see, it is kind of like a big circle.:) Jaylyn and Dalayna had a good time playing on Christmas Day.

Unfortunately, this is the last picture I was able to took of Christmas. My battery gave out because I forgot to charge it before we left for St.L. Colby and Dalayna were playing with Aunt Angie and Uncle Marty's dog. We finished our Christmas day at their house.

Lake-Effect Snow

Terry came home from work on Thursday evening and said there were lake-effect snow warnings out. I guess I had been in my own little world and paid little attention to the TV, not checked the forecast on the internet or anything, so I was very surprised. So, much later that evening the snow began. It has continued into this afternoon. It has been very heavy at times, then stops for a little while, and starts in again. We decided late last night that we would not be able to go to church because, as you can see, we had a little over 8 inches on the ground and they were calling for more today. So when we got moving this morning, I measured the snow. You can see what it amounted to on the ruler.

Here is what we measured around 6 hours later!! It is still snowing, so it may reach over the top of that ruler!! I have never seen this much snow, but we are having fun with it!! By the way, I left the ruler in the snow, so it wasn't moved or anything in that 6 hours.

This picture is similar to ones I took on another post, but you can see much more snow this time, and less bushes and greenery. Notice the lovely cap on top of the bird bath.

Ranger is tenacious, determined, ornery, loveable and can track scents of other animals quickly. He found a scent under a bunch of logs and branches,dug his face in until all you could see were his floppy ears. I just had to get a picture of it. His nose was working overtime today.

Colby and Remington love to go wandering through the property looking for deer tracks. There were 7 deer in the backyard one morning last week. Since the snow started last Thursday evening we haven't seen the tracks of any animal.

This picture was taken in the woods. We have decided to venture into the woods the past couple days since we haven't been able to go anywhere. It is like a winter wonderland. This picture doesn't capture the beauty of the snowfall like I hoped it would. It was snowing heavily at the time.

Dalayna decided to take a seat in the snow and asked Colby to join her. The cold hit her then and her fun was over.

In some spots in the yard, it looks like Ranger is "swimming" in the snow!! Here you can see it is up to his chest. It doesn't seem to bother him, though!! In fact, he didn't want to go back into the garage today; he just wanted to play in the snow. Yesterday Colby put Ranger on his lap and took him down the front hill on the sled. He didn't enjoy that!