This is as good as it's going to get.  The fusible webbing is gumming up the machine so I can't stitch every piece of Bonnie's blanket but I was able to stitch on the letters for her name and I put the backing on the blanket.  She said she would hand stitch the rest.  Good Luck!

Bonnie's Project Just Might Kill Me

Bonnie had an idea.  She wanted to make her own personalized blanket for camp.  She drew out the design and then purchased the materials to make a unique, one-of-a-kind blanket.  The multi-colored fish represents the letter "O" and then next to it she is going to spell out the rest of her camp name "Ohara."  She used fusible webbing to adhere all of the scraps to the fleece blanket and my job is to zigzag stitch around all of the pieces.  In theory it sounded doable. that is only because I don't have enough experience in these things.  If I did, I would have told her she is nuts!  She completed laying out her blanket yesterday and I have started the process of stitching around the design.  Let's just say, my sewing machine and I have decided that this is NOT as simple as it sounds.  After about a half hour last night, I gave up and made some winter gear for the boys.  Today, however, I have to try it again.  I am little fresher and have a bit more patience. Maneuvering a large piece a fleece around a sewing machine and trying to follow all of Bonnie's curls is a challenge, but if I can do it, it will be one really cool blanket.

It is still snowing here and I am loving it.  I am not loving driving in it.  I try to avoid going into town but I have had to drive into Wenatchee (25 miles away) every day this week. If it is not Christmas shopping, then it is music lessons and dentist appointments.  Today I had to take Brian into town to get him new ski boots.  It seems his feet have grown in the last few weeks.  Fortunately my brother in law works at warehouse that sells used sports equipment.  He was able to trade Brian's boots for a bigger size.  Of course, when we have to drive in to Wenatchee I try to think of everything we need so we did a little grocery shopping and got some more winter gear.

Brian is going with the boys scouts on a two day ski trip tomorrow so I wanted to make sure he was sufficiently equipped.  Next week, Bonnie will be going to winter camp which means she needed some warmer clothes.  Our little winter break is feeling so busy.  I think I am done going to town for a few weeks or at least until music lessons start again.

Now I just have to make the final preparations for Christmas.

Serving Others

Todd wanted the kids to understand that it is better to give than to receive especially during this time of year, so he suggested that our whole family spend the day working at our local Community Cupboard.

We spent the day running presents from the store house to the front desk as families came in to pick them up.

 Most of the people had requested help with presents and had a claim number to pick up a bag of toys that had already been bagged for them.  We would wait in the store house for a worker to call us over the walkie-talkie with the bag number and we would run the bag down to the store.  If someone showed up without a claim number, then we would grab an empty bag and fill it with the extra toys.

Things Husbands Do

Imagine my state of mind when I received this post....

 

"I don't know what's worse a broken leg or that he lost my car keys"

 

followed by this picture

 

Bryce being towed down the ski hill by ski patrol

 



My first thought was how serious of a break and are they going to the hosptial.  My second thought was how are they going to get to the hospital without car keys, and my van won't make it up the mountain road to the ski resort so who can I get with 4 wheel drive to get me there. My final thought was, "why did Bryce have Todd's car keys."

 

After several texts later, I found out there were no broken bones and no lost keys.  Bad husband, Bad!

 

Bonnie knocked off Bryce's ski when they were on the chair lift.  Bryce was then stranded at the top of the hill while ski patrol went up and down the run looking for it.  After a long time they decided to bring him down on the toboggan, that is when Todd showed up after coming off his run and saw Bryce being towed down.  Todd then went up to find the missing ski and spotted it during his first trip up.  Thank goodness. 

 

After a couple more hours of skiing, everyone called it quits and came home thoroughly exhausted, cold  and happy.

My favorite childhood Christmas song

A foot of snow fell last night.  We woke up to a Winter Wonderland outside.  At least it looked that way until you went out to shovel the stuff, then it was a heavy mess that had to be dealt with.  Todd woke the boys up so that they could help shovel out my mother-in-law and then shovel us out.  They weren't too happy since this was the first day of their Christmas break and they were really looking forward to sleeping in.

On a different note, my mother told me that she was going to make some chocolate reindeer for my uncle.  I hadn't made any for our family because I can't find the sugar eyes, so my mom bought me some eyes and mailed them to me.  I then made reindeer to add to our Christmas goodies

The reindeer are Nutter Butter cookies dipped in chocolate Almond bark, with pretzel antlers, sugar eyes, and a red hot nose. 

On a final note, a friend from church brought me some size 8 jeans and I can wear them!  Yeah!  I am still being good and sticking to the Prism program.  It has been challenging in that several people have given us all kinds of Christmas treats to enjoy.  I keep putting those things out for our friends to eat when they come over so that I don't have to look at it.  I admit that on Sunday I was in a bad mood and I am sure that part of the reason was because I couldn't eat the treats we were given. 

One last thought,  Bonnie and a friend from school sang a duet at the Lighting festival last night. I am proud of my girl.

Some Real Characters

Tonight a few kids from our youth group volunteered to work as Christmas Characters for our town's Lighting Festival.  Everyone met at our house and then we all walked downtown to get our costumes and work the crowd.

 Lexi was a little bummed that all the good characters were taken.  She ended up in the elf-girl costume.  Not as fun as being Frosty.  She lasted about an hour outside before coming back in to warm up.  Fortunately, one of the girls decided to change costumes so Lexi got to dress up as Frosty for the second half. 

 Bonnie and MacKenzie got to be Rudolf and Timothy the Christmas Mouse. 

Hunter rocked it as Frosty.  He had a blast entertaining the crowd.  Frosty is one of the most popular character at the festival.  Everyone wants their picture with him.  Fortunately, the city has three Frosty costumes so several of the kids got to be Frosty.

The kids had a lot of fun and the crowd enjoyed their presence. 

This was the last weekend for the lighting.  Tons of people showed up.  And...it SNOWED!

When we were all done, everyone walked back to our house for tacos and a movie - Tangled.  More kids showed up and we had a fun, enjoyable evening.

Christmas Concert

Last night the boys and I attended the all-school choir Christmas concert.  Bonnie did a good job singing.  There was a lot of talent showcased last night, but an hour and a half is too long for these old bones to sit in bleacher seats. 

Ladies Christms Luncheon

It is time for the annual ladies' Christmas luncheon.

 Every December the ladies all gather at Karen's for great food, fellowship, and a time to reflect on the coming of Christ's birth.

Impromptu Date

Todd and I took a stroll downtown last Sunday.  Our intent was to pick up Brian who had been working all afternoon picking up trash during the festival with the Boy Scouts, but since he was sent home early, we decided to walk downtown just for the fun of it.  We made it just in time to see the Living Nativity put on by some of the local churches.  What a blessing to watch it and think of Jesus the Christ being born in a lowly stable.  What a treat it was to go walking hand in hand with my husband. 

Did you ever have one of those days that you were looking forward to and just as everything was about to start, you suddenly felt deathly ill and it put a damper on the whole, anticipated day?  Well, today was one of those days.  I have been looking forward to this day for a couple of weeks.  Mainly because today is the day that I get to weigh myself and get measured again at my Prism group.  This morning I stepped on the scale with much anticipation and fear.  I was excited to see how much I lost but afraid it wasn't enough to make me feel happy.  Sure enough, I saw that I hadn't lost the twenty pounds I was hoping for, but I did lose fourteen pounds.  I am five pounds from my initial goal weight, however, I have decided that I want to lose another ten pounds to be satisfied.  I have gone down two sizes since I started the program, which makes me more happy than the number on the scale. 

After working in the church office this morning, I headed over to an old friend's house for a ladies luncheon.  The female teachers from Todd's school and a few other ladies who are involved with the school were having lunch together and they invited me to join them.  I was excited to be included but a little nervous as well.  I know several of the ladies and wouldn't mind to get to know them even more, others I don't know as well and feel a bit on edge with them.  Unfortunately, shortly after eating my salad I started to feel sick - flu-like sick.  You know where you head begins to swim, you feel all clammy, and think you are going to hurl.  Yeah....not good.  I had been there long enough, (another had already left) that I felt like I could excuse myself from the luncheon and not appear rude.  I got home as fast as I could and crashed in my room.  Here's the thing, I had less than an hour before I had to leave again.  Again...not good.  I tried to take a thirty minute power nap to see if that would settle my stomach.  I finally got up and then willed myself to head to my next appointment.

Todd's mom gave us her van earlier this year.  The issue is that last Christmas my sister-in-law gave my in-laws a remote starter for the van.  When my MIL gave us the van she asked that we have the remote starter taken off and put on her Subaru.  We decided that it would probably cost the same or more to take it off one car and placed on another, so instead we set it up for me to take my MIL's Subaru into Wenatchee to have a new starter installed.  After exchanging vehicles with my in-laws I headed into Wenatchee and dropped off their car.  I then had three hours to kill.  Fortunately, there are several stores within walking distance so I did some more Christmas shopping. 

It was then a mad dash in the snow and rain to get back home, exchange cars again, grab my food journals and head to my Prism class that I was already late for. Fortunately, my flu-like symptoms had died down.  I found out I had the second highest weight-loss in the class and I had lost 1 to 3 inches all over.  Yeah!  So even though the day was long, hectic, and not exactly how I had hoped it to turn out, it was still a good day.  My tummy is still a little off, but it may have been the food.  At least I hope so.  I really don't want the flu.

Another Musician

Today we met Bryce's guitar teacher.  Todd and I decided in October that we would sign Bryce up to learn how to play guitar.  We debated about whether or not we should buy him his own guitar, but decided that he should use his father's  for the first year. How he does will determine if we will invest the money in his own guitar.  I managed to find a teacher who taught guitar at the same store and during the same hour as Brian's drum lessons, so now both boys will be taking lessons at the same time.  I learned that I can't just drop the boys off anymore either.  It turns out that Bryce's teacher requires an adult to be in the room with him and his student so that if that if they forget what to practice on they have someone who was paying attention to remind them. 

Bryce's teacher is a sixty year old man who has been playing since he was ten.  He began playing for money when he was fifteen and has played in California with major bands and grammy award winner artists.  He has quite an impressive resume.  I like him already and I am hopeful for Bryce. Now the ball is in Bryce's court to see how serious he is about learning. 

Snow

Snow...finally...snow!
There is just something about snow that makes you feel young again.  I hope it is here for keeps or at least until next March.  : )
This weekend marks the first lighting weekend for our town.  Thousands of tourists will visit us to see our town all lit up with thousands of LED lights hear Christmas carols sung up and down Front Street, witness the living nativity, and sled down the sledding hill.  Bonnie will be dressing up again as a Christmas character.  She will also be singing downtown at the gazebo with some other kids from her choir.  Her teacher specifically asked if she would sing with them, which is such an honor.  Brian will also be working downtown with the Boys Scouts selling something ( I don't actually know what they are doing downtown, except that he has to work for three hours the next couple of Sundays.) 

So with the snow falling outside, the fire crackling in the wood stove, Bonnie playing Christmas tunes on the piano, I say....Welcome Winter.


P.S.  I went out and bought a pair of size 10 jeans and they FIT!  One more week until I weigh in and get measured.  I am excited to see how much I have lost so far.  What an exciting journey this is!

ski season is here

With the decorations up, the house cleaned, and the shopping done, it was time for Todd and the kids to head up the mountain to go skiing.

We were fortunate to get passes to Mission Ridge this year.  In January, the boys will tag along with Todd's school every Friday for ski lessons and then an afternoon of free skiing.  Since the Christian school counts these ski dates as PE so do we.  Sadly, Bonnie will miss out on the Friday skiing but we hope to get her on the slopes every Saturday possible. 

 The kids had a blast and I have to say, I enjoyed the time alone at home. 

 I have to say I feel so blessed living here in Leavenworth.  I look back at our time in NC and remember feeling so sorry for ourselves that we couldn't do anything for our kids.  Since God brought us here, our children have had a wealth of experiences.  For that, I am truly thankful!

Friday

I wasn't planning on it, but Bonnie wanted to go Black Friday shopping, so at 4 am we got up and headed off for Wenatchee.  We got everything on our list and had a lot of fun. I even treated her to breakfast at Denny's.  We were home by 9:30 am and greeted by the boys who were eager to start Christmas decorating.

They didn't give me much of break but immediately started pulling out all of the boxes and decorations.  While they set up the nativity scene, I got busy putting up the tree and fluffing it up.

I had to finally buy some new lights for the tree. About nine years ago, I bought a box of Christmas lights at a yard sale for a dollar.  A pretty good deal I must say since I am just now buying some new ones.  I should have bought more but what I have will do for now. 

 Brian thought the container that held the new ornaments in would make a great hat.  Gotta love that boy!

 The boys had a lot of fun helping me out, unfortunately, they didn't stick around to help clean up.

 "You gonna stand there and take pictures or stay and help us decorate?"

The finished product.  I really like our tree this year. Of course, it could use some more lights. 

Thanksgiving

 Thanksgiving at Don and Susan's

Melting Away

I haven't talked about it much, but I am still on my weight loss program.  Thursday I will have completed my fifth week of counting calories and not eating sugar, bread, pasta, and potatoes.  I don't know how much weight I have lost because we aren't supposed to weigh ourselves until we have completed the six weeks of phase one.  I do know this...I HAVE LOST ONE PANT'S SIZE!!!  Not only that, but the size I am in now is getting loose, so I put on the next size down and THEY FIT!  I haven't totally moved into the next size down because they were a little snug but I could pull them up, zip them up, and button with no problem.   : )   Can you imagine that??? Two pant's sizes in 6 weeks! 

In the next phase, we add back in whole grains and potatoes.  Funny thing is I almost don't want to add them back in.  I think I am scared that my weight loss journey might stagnate if I do.  I know I will still have to count calories, weigh and measure my food so I should do fine.  It is great going through my closet and finding clothes that I haven't been able to wear since moving from Michigan which was seven years ago.  The one thing I need to do now is get back into the gym.

So here I am, a gal who a year and a half ago was wearing size 16 and now wears a size 12 comfortably and is flirting with a size 10.

Having Bonnie in high school has been quite a ride.  She is really enjoying her time there.  Her two favorite classes are Living Skills (because they cook in it.) and Geometry (because her teacher actually teaches). 

One of the things that I enjoy about high school is that Bonnie gets to pursue some of her passions like singing and acting.  This semester Bonnie is in the school choir.  She hopes to get into the select choir next semester.  She is currently working with another student on a duet to try to get in. 

Last night concluded Bonnie's final performance in the Curious Savage.  She portrayed a nurse who takes care of a group of patients that are socially challenged.  A new patient, Mrs. Savage, has been admitted by her step-children who are afraid that she is going to give away all of their money with her crazy charities.  It was a great comedy and Bonnie did an awesome job.

The Day the Children Cried

Yesterday, while the majority of school aged children celebrated a day off of school, slept in, laid around in their jammies til noon, or vegged in front of the tv, our children were cruelly subjected to taking a hike in the snow covered Cascade Mountains. 

Oh, it was fun at first.  They threw snow balls and eagerly hiked along the trail.  We stopped a short way up to look at the animal tracks in the snow that reminded us that we were not alone.

We never did see the bear that left these tracks, but continued to trudge along.  After about 30 minutes the trail became steeper.  Before long the moaning began.  Cries to turn back rang out.  Pleas for pity.

Don't let the smiles on their faces fool you. The minute the snap shot was taken the begging and pleading began again.  But the cruel, insensitive parents said "No"  and we continued to climb.  Their dad even set his phone to his "whip" setting and began to "crack the whip".

Finally after an hour of hiking, the cruel, sadistic parents looked into the sad, forlorn faces of their children...

...

....and gave in to their pleads allowing them to slip and slide all the way back down the mountain.

But not before they celebrated for being cruel, mean, sadistic, crazy,.....parents!