Stephen's Tux Try On

Stephen went today to try on  his tuxedo for the wedding.  Everything fit great except teh neck, but that was no big deal as they have this nifty, little neck extenders they just popped in and wahlah!

We need to find him some white dress socks now, I've never seen them before and couldn't find them in the mall, guess I'll look on-line.  He definately has to have those, he had a terrible time getting his feet in the shoes, they felt fine and he had room, but getting a tube sock in them was quite the task!  So hopefully some nice, silky dress socks will make that much easier.

Now I wish Ruby could have tried her dress on and been in the picture with him, but that'll come soon enough.  Ruby needs some alterations done to her lovely liittle dress before we can take some pictures to post, that'll be coming up in a month.

Kara's dress was picked up last week so she has that end all complete. Everyone in our household has their wedding clothes now, just a few alterations and we'll all be good to go!  WEC starts on Friday and that means 11 weeks till the wedding! Wow, I can't believe it!!

The Three Month Mark!

Well things are moving along for the wedding.  Kara selected all the items she needed to make her wedding invitations yesterday.  It'll be quite a bit of work, but oh so nice when she is finished.  Will certainly keep her busy the next few weeks. We are now at the 3 mos. mark till the wedding, the time is flying for me!

We visited Covenant Hall where the shower and wedding rehearsal dinner and wedding will be on Saturday and now have some tasks ahead with regards to decorating.  I think she wants to keep it simple from what I can tell and so she just has to line up a few things for there.

Below are a few photos of Kara and Derrick that they had taken by one of Kara's bridesmaids, Tiffany.  She did an awesome job and these pics. are going to be incorporated into the reception.  I've just selected a few to share and the rest will be saved for the wedding.

cleaning, organizing...

I've been motivated by some of the great blogs I read to tackle some spots in the house that are unorganized, actually that's most of the house, but ones that I haven't looked in, in a very long time is where I've started.

I went through this bench we've had in our foyer for 7 years or so now and I couldn't believe the things I found in there! lots of Christmas lights (why in the world they are in there???) magazines galore, (haven't missed them, so I pitched them), towels for Deep Creek (bagged them up), a drill (Steve didn't even know he had?), a bag with a boys pullup (I think this is Aunt Dawns!!), and misc. craft and asundry items!  I cleaned it all out as I had seen the idea to use that to keep backpacks in, so know we have a nice clean and empty space for those.  With WEC starting up in 2 weeks we could use the space to keep these, most of the children have two backpacks, one for TOG Co-Op and one for WEC.  I saw the idea on a blog and thought, gee I have a bench with storage, I should use it like that! so one small task made me feel like I accomplished something!!!

Next on the list is this giant shelf I have above my scrapbooking closet/work area.  Ughh, there are oodles of boxes in there with misc. stuff and there is a ton of usable space that right now is no where near usable.  I know if I can just take all the items off the shelf, I'll have to go through them, so maybe this week before WEC starts back up I'll work on that space. 

We did organize all our schoolbooks on Friday too and went through the oodles of pencils/pens we have.  So little by little, I hope I can hit all these often overlooked spots.

Bet you have some too, do you feel motivated now?  tackel some little space first, then you'll feel good and can move on to bigger projects!

I think this is my new favorite song (well this week !)

Stand for you by Jonny Diaz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuGUcbseX4g

So long politics it’s time to start being me
Take the chains off my lips it’s time to set my tongue free
Some might just turn their heads but some will raise a fist
And You told me to stand so I won’t back down from this
They say there are no absolutes but are they absolutely sure

In a world that tries to water You down
Where beliefs cannot be spoken to loud
I’ll stand for truth
Where they claim Your way isn’t wide enough
And they do their best just to cover You up
I’ll stand for You

Hello reality it’s time we embrace honesty
Teach me to speak with truth and love and with humility
You made a promise that You’re coming back to earth
So how selfish am I if I don’t go tell the world
They say just be sincere
but could they all just be sincerely wrong

They might remove Your name from money
But You own it all the same
They kicked You out of school that’s funny
Cause how could You go away
In a land that’s built upon Your word
It’s amazing You’ve been banned
To think that we control You is absurd
So for truth I’m here to stand

The effort to think like a Christian is . . . an effort to take seriously
the sovereignty of God over the world he created,
the lordship of Christ over the world he died to redeem,
and the power of the Holy Spirit over the world he sustains each and every moment.
From this perspective the search for a mind that truly thinks like a Christian takes on ultimate significance,
because the search for a Christian mind is not, in the end, a search for the mind but a search for God.” —Mark Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind

(taken from Justin Taylor's blog, italics are his emphasis)

One more wedding detail done....

Well after being snowed in all last week (I don't like to drive on the slick, snowy roads if I don't have to!) We all went out on Sat. for Steve's birthday (7th) and an early birthday for Amy (15th) for lunch, then we headed over to Burlilngton Coat Factory to look for a dress for Ruby for the wedding. We've always seen such beautiful dresses in there we were pretty sure we could find one there for a fraction of a bridal store price. They had quite a few to choose from and so off to the dressing room we went, Ellen had her camera but we didn't take any pictures!!??? I guess we were too busy oohhing and awwing over how sweet she looked that we didn't even think about it! But anyhow, we were successful at selecting one we thought Kara would like.  It is a long dress as we thought since everyone else in the bridal party was wearing long, it would be nice for Ruby to also. Most all of dresses have spaghetti straps and are sleeveless and so we picked one like that as well.  It does have a little wrap to wear over and I did buy her a beaded long sleeve sweater as it will be April and I suspect she may want a sweater at some point in the day.  Hoping that day is as warm and beautiful with sunshine like Steve and my day 23 yrs. ago almost to the day (April 25th). 

The other girls all need shoes yet, before we can get their dresses altered, so we started that search.  This is no easy task as Ellen and Amy both wear larger sizes that you can't always find! Emma is now into a ladies shoe as well so finding something that is appropriate for her is a bit of a task as well.  Ellen ended up selecting a pair and I found a pair on the clearance at the mall for Ruby that are a bit big. I'm not worried since they were under $5 she'll wear them by summer.  Kara said for the girls to wear either white or silver, so Ellen and Ruby's both are silver and Amy just wasn't comfortable walking in any of the heels we found.  There just weren't any smaller heels in the places we went.  None for Emma at all yet.

So we came home with at least 3 more purchases made and I hit ebay scouring for anything that might be out there for Amy or Emma.  We bid on and won a flat pair and a small heel in silver for Amy and are just praying they fit, both came in at under $17 so if they don't fit I'll be taking them to Plato's Closet or consignment shop I guess.  But hopefully they'll be good.  So that just leaves Emma now. 

I so want to get my own camera so I can post pics. here, waiting on the girls to do it just ain't happening and my camera is just too old. It is a battery eater at that and seems that you can take like 1 photo and the batteries are dead.  So maybe next Christmas I'll get a new one and can post some photos when I blog. That'd be fun.

Well off to week 2 of  school for the new year.  I'm anticipating less fussing tomorrow as we hit the books! at least I hope ! We've reminded everyone to set their alarms and wake up on their own, get their devotions in, and arrive on time for school to start by 9, we'll see how that goes.  Oh how spoiled they are, remember when you were a kid? getting up at 6 a.m. to catch the bus, maybe we should take a walk around the yard first thing to get everyones blood pumping!  We begin our study of the civil war tomorrow, Emma and Stephen are already fighting over the little Abe Lincoln figurine Stephen got for Christmas, so maybe it'll be a different kind of fussing tomorrow!  We started to read our read aloud "Across Five Aprils" and got a bit of history in tonight, so we've got a jump start for the week.  It's always nice to have that cushion.

Night to all, stay warm and cozy these next few days, it's going to warm up the end of the week, so they say? but maybe not before another round of snow.

Link for free printable index cards

All you need is cardstock and a paper cutter (scissors) and you'll have index cards instantly. 

http://www.paperprintout.com/templates/index-cards/pdf/index_card_1.pdf

Hope you aren't too tired of Christmas music yet,

I've got to figure out how to add new music to my blog! may take some help from Ellen so it'll be delayed a bit, bask in the memories of Christmas Past! lol

This post was too good not to share, do you donate to Goodwill? Salv Army? then you need this

sted: 06 Jan 2010 09:01 PM PST

I think many of us have the “urge to purge” come January. The arrival of the New Year leaves us wanting a fresh start. What better way than to clean the excess out of all those closets, cupboards, basements and attics?
However, be SURE and track your donations. I was shocked at how quickly the savings added up , once I started. I use the Turbo Tax program, ItsDeductible Online! Believe it or not, it’s totally free to use and each donation can be printed out and saved for use with your taxes (or imported to TurboTax, if you use it). There is no sense in paying for software to do what ItsDeductible Online does for free!
This program is great because you find the item you have to donate and the program shows you the allowable deduction.  For instance, if I donated a women’s sundress, I can choose either high quality for a $9 deduction or medium quality for a $6 deduction (no credit for low quality items). These prices are acceptable to the IRS and more than I would have priced them at. You also get a nice, itemized list to print out for each deduction.
Another neat feature, is that the program estimates how much each donation saves you in taxes. For instance, my last donation for 2009 was valued at $393.50. It consisted mainly of books, videos and clothing. Estimated tax savings for this donation is $59.33. Well worth the time it took me to log the items as I bagged and boxed them up and possibly more than I would have received for them had I held a yard sale.
If you’re not interested in  using a computer program, you can check out these resources. Bankrate.com has valuation worksheets. Oddly, they only have “high” and “low” values, with no “medium” valuation. Still, it should give you a good idea. Salvation Army provides their valuation listing HERE.
It really is worth taking the time to record your donations. I cut $119 off my 2009 tax bill simply by recording two large donations that I made. Now you have triple the motivation for purging; you can help others, de-clutter AND save money, all at the same time!

Busy, busy days for Steve

Steve's round of being on call began New Year's Eve and runs till Wed. night this week; and what a week it's been! When these cold temps. hit for the first time (and this is the coldest it's been ) the phone rings non-stop.  New Year's Eve he didn't get in until after 8pm and had to leave again at 11:40 missing being home to ring in the official start to the New Year. New Year's day was busy, but not too, too bad, Sat. made up for that though, from before 8 a.m. till 5 p.m. he ran from place to place, but thankfully was able to get out to a party our family was invited to where he could make up for all those missed meals of the day. He left in the morning with the idea he'd be back shortly to eat pancakes, but breakfast, then lunch, both came and went.   Then Sun. started the same way as Sat. and he had to miss S. School and church getting 6 homes to go to, a 7th phone call, then a break till about 4:30 and it's started up again. We better plan something special for him as Thurs. is his birthday and first day off evening calls, an early bedtime will most likely be in order!  lol   So thankful this is not like in the days of old, when we were first married and he'd work like this all winter long! We are thankful for capable employees who can rotate with Steve and Paul so that no one gets totally worn out.  Thank you Lord for that blessing!