Happy New Year!

Wow-time to start a new year huh? I know that alot of folks make New Year's Resolutions. The ONLY resolution that I make every year is to make NO resolutions. Half the time I can't remember what I resolved to do, and the other half of the time I fail. So it's just easier to say that I hope this is a better year than last year was, and I will strive to be the best Penny I can be.

Happy New Year everyone. God Bless and prosper each of you in 2009 and always.

P.S.....PLEASE don't drink & drive!

Back To Reality

Yep, the holidays are over. Time to get back to reality.

Reality reared it's ugly head awhile back, and gave me yet another reason to worry, although I try hard not to. I keep reminding myself to give everything to God, that He will take care of us....but for some reason, I keep taking everything I give Him back! Grrr!!

Our illustrious Governor, 'Uncle Arnie'-I call him that because I can't spell his last name-has said that if the federal government doesn't bail California out by February, state employees won't have a paycheck. Now, I don't know if this means ALL state employees, or just some. Jim is a state employee, once removed. His paycheck comes from the school district, who is funded, of course, by the state. I can't fathom how all state employees wouldn't receive a check, it just doesn't make sense, which means it probably won't happen.

And, of course, if Jim doesn't get a paycheck, well....well, I don't want to 'go there', because basically we'll be S.O.L....

So, I guess it's time for me to dig deeper for faith, because faith is the ONLY thing that will carry us ('us' meaning everyone) through these hard times. Time to quit freaking out about where the money is coming from to pay the bills, and time to quit losing sleep over things I have no control over. Time to lay EVERYTHING at the feet of Jesus. After all, He cares for me. He has plans to prosper me and not harm me. Plans for hope and a future.

Now THAT'S a reality check!

Blessings!

Holiday Fun

Wow, hard to believe the holidays are over! We had our Christmas on Friday, and I wanted to share some pictures with you. A wonderful time was had by all, and the holiday was made more special because we were all together, and, of course, it was Peyton's first Christmas.

By the end of gift-unwrapping, she was going into meltdown mode, but after a nap, she was once again her wonderfully cheerful self. Alissa and Justen were thrilled with their gifts. We all made it a point to get them at least one thing on their lists, and the look of joy on their faces were priceless.

Once again, we feel so blessed, and we look forward to a Happy New Year~I hope your New Year is happy, healthy, and prosperous.

God Bless~

What I Forgot To Tell You....

Is that winning 2nd place last night was nothing short of a miracle....

Jim has the light display on a timer. It goes on around 5-ish, and goes off around 9 or so. Well, last night they didn't go on at 5....or 5:15, so Jim went out to check. Remember a couple of blogs ago I told you that we've been having 'issues' with cords and lights and such....well, last night, of ALL nights, was no exception. No matter what he did, something kept tripping the breaker, and POOF-gone! Now, I am married to a man with a Type A personality. A Type A personality man who's been fighting a cold for several days, and in fact came home from work early yesterday because he felt like crap. Need I say more? After about 15 min. of fighting with the lights, he popped his cork, said some things that I cannot repeat, and stormed into the house, hands in the air, bellowing 'I'm DONE!'....

So I figured, 'Ok, that's that. We've had this display up & running every single night with no problems, and now, on the night of judging, we have nothing. Oh well.' I called the park manager & explained to her what we were battling, and she said if we couldn't get the lights to work she'd see if they could postpone the judging till Tue night. Then I saw Gary outside, and told him what was going on, and bless his heart, he offered to help Jim figure out what was going wrong, so the two of them worked steady for a good 20 minutes.

Voila! We found the problem! 1 stinkin' cord was tripping the whole thing-so we just left it unplugged (it belongs to a snowman). We got up & running at 6:25, and judging started at 6:30....by 6:45 we'd won 2nd place, and a $75 gift card to Stater Bros. (works for me!)....but it doesn't end there......

The light display took it's final bow at 7:02pm. Jim said 'It's out for the night.'

We think what happened is that something got too damp with all the rain we've been having. Jim had wrapped the cords tightly in plastic to protect them, and will check all cords today. The snowman has a brand new strand of lights on it, and yet that particular cord was the culprit.

Hopefully we'll be up & running tonight.....

2nd Place!

We took 2nd in our park's Christmas decorating! We decorate because we want to, but hey, if someone wants to reward us, that's just the icing on the cake! Pics posed of our house, and of Peyton 'helping' Grandpa put the train together last week.

Our neighbor, Gary, affectionately known as 'the competition' took 1st-and he earned it. His display is beautiful as well!

Whoo-hoo! We're stoked! Stay dry!

Busy Weekend!

Is it over already??

Seems like just yesterday it was Friday, and I was SO looking forward to the weekend. The hours have just flown by, but I did get so much accomplished. I am 100% DONE with Christmas shopping, and since we're not having our family Christmas till Friday, that gives me an extra couple of days to get everything wrapped....whew!

I spent most of today cleaning house, so at least it's 'presentable' now. Just a couple more 'touch-ups' and it'll be sparkly clean, just the way I like it. Okay, maybe not 'sparkly', but clean nonetheless. Enough to satisfy ME, and that's what counts, right? My motto is: 'Clean enough to be healthy, and dirty enough to be happy'. Another cute little ditty in closing:

Although you'll find my house a mess;
Come in, sit down, converse.

It doesn't always look like this;
Some days it's even worse!

Have a good week everyone, and be careful in the rain!

Blessings~

In....Out....DONE!

That was the story of my Christmas shopping this year. I just started yesterday...took about an hour. Then I set out for points 'down the hill' to finish up. Left home just before 9am and was home at noon-I am SO proud of myself. I cannot get over how quick all the shopping was for me-I'm amazed!

With the exception of 1 more Christmas gift that I can get up here, and 1 more birthday present, my holiday shopping is complete. We drew names this year, and in light of the fact that I didn't have alot of people to buy for, I decided that instead of the traditional gift cards, I'd buy actual presents.

It was fun shopping for the grandkids yesterday. I went armed with their lists, and pretty much went right to what they wanted. And the clincher was that everything is massively on sale, so I saved a bundle!

Today was pretty much the same story. I was gone about 3 hours, but roughly half the time was spent on the road. Traffic? No problem. Parking? No problem. Large crowds? No problem. Costco was pretty busy, but even at that I wasn't in there more than about 20 minutes, so I really can't complain.

I am SO done-at least for today. Still one more gift to get (a gift card to Denny's for Mary Kay & Lee) and a birthday present for Princess Peyton, but those things can wait for now.

Time to relax!

A Bittersweet Christmas

Bittersweet......that's what Christmas is for me this year. I've been avoiding the term. But I can't anymore. It's too real. Bear with me through the 'bitter'. The 'sweet' is way better.

The bitter part is that this is the first Christmas without my beloved sister-in-law Julie. She was married to my oldest brother, and she was one of my closest and dearest friends. Julie died this past March of an extremely rare, and obviously fatal disease. She went into the hospital on Nov 1st 2007, and never came home. Julie was the epitome of a Christian wife, mother, grandmother....the list goes on. There's a definition of a Godly woman in Proverbs Chapter 31. That was Julie. She was 10 years older than me. I was a little girl of 8 years old when Julie came into my life. I've never known life without her, until now. I remember so much, and most especially the past 10 years, when we grew closer than ever before. She was my friend, my confidante, my giggle buddy, and most of all, my sister. I miss her SO much, but I rest in the knowledge that she is safe in the arms of our Lord.

Dear Lord, please help me get past this hurt. It hurts so bad. I know, time will heal, it always does. I guess God needed Julie more than I did. Julie has been reunited with loved ones that have gone on before her, and I know she's happy sitting at the feet of Jesus.

Julie, you'll never know how much I love you. Save me a place at the table. I'll join you someday. Then we can do an eternal lunch!

Now for the 'sweet'...Two new family members to celebrate Christmas with this year! Our granddaughter Peyton, and our beautiful new daughter-in-law Jessica! What joy! Jessica has been with us for about 3 years now, but THIS year she's officially a King, and of course, it's Pey-Pey's first Christmas, and from what I've seen so far, she is TOTALLY into it! We're babysitting her tomorrow so Mommy & Daddy can finish up their Christmas shopping, and this week our tree is up, so it'll be fun to see how she responds to it.

This weekend promises to be busy. Friday is our 3rd annual King Cookie/Candy Baking Party....then Saturday is Christmas shopping (I haven't started yet) a Costco run (one of my favorite places), and my plan for Sunday is to finally get to church!

So, while there is pain this Christmas, there is also joy. Amazing how God works...in the midst of pain, He gives us joy.

Thank You Lord, for the joy in our lives this year.

The Benefits Of Rain

Well, in the past 20 hours or so, Ramona alone has gotten 1.59" of rain. Now, those of you who know me, know that I am NOT a 'rain' person. I don't like it. Period. I get wet. It makes for a bad hair day. It's inconvenient. I can't 'run' in & out of stores for fear of falling. There are ALOT of accidents....and the list goes on.....

BUT, as I sit here, God reminds me of all the GOOD benefits of rain. Here are a few:

1. The earth is parched. It (like us) needs water to survive and to help us thrive.
2. Our lawns/shrubs/flowers/trees get watered...for FREE.
3. Fields grow, so that cattle can graze.
4. If our cars are parked out in the open, they get washed....for FREE.
5. Rain clears the air of pollutants and airborne allergens-a BIG plus for us allergy-sufferers!
6. It causes fire-prone vegetation to 'green up', thus reducing fire potential-for now anyway.

I could go on, but I think you get my drift. So, even though it's a little inconvenient, there ARE things to do when it rains.

Grab your kitty, or your kid, or your doggy, and curl up in a chair, cover up in a nice, warm blankie, and grab a good book. Read to the baby, or simply enjoy your book of choice. Oh, and while you're at it, a nice cup of hot cocoa or coffee hits the spot too!

Pop a movie in the DVD player-sentimental love stories are GREAT for times like these! Don't forget the Kleenex! :)

Or do like I did yesterday. Take the time and go through cupboards, drawers, and closets. You'll be amazed at how fast the time flies when you're going through these things! And at the end of the day, you'll be SO thankful for the rain that 'slows' us down.

Thank You, Lord, for giving us and our parched land a nice shower!

I know I am! Now, if you'll excuse me, I believe I hear a cup of hot cocoa calling my name.....

Brrrr!!

Before I begin on 'Brrr', I just wanted to let you know that Rudolph is a little shy. Ok, Ok, so he's not shy...he's half hidden!! I downloaded this template because it's just so darling, and, as with the last template I downloaded, only half the picture is there. Being rather computer illiterate, I'm not quite savvy enough on how to move things around so the FULL picture shows....oh well, you get the gist...

It's just freaking COLD outside! 37 right now, and our high today was 44....ok, yes, I know. It's ALOT colder in other parts of the country. But we're talking SoCal standards. This is COLD for us 'weather wimps'! Could be worse, right? Like Oregon, where my cousin Kathy lives. I just signed off of IM with her about 30 min. ago, and it was a whopping 8 degrees. Or in the Northeastern part of the U.S....well.....let's just say 'bitterly cold' is a huge understatement!

It was a perfect day to stay INdoors and get some things done. And get things done I did! I have a china cabinet built into a wall in my living room. It has 4 drawers down the middle, and 2 cupboards on the bottom, one on each side. Now, I've always prided myself on the fact that I am NOT a pack rat. But during this time of getting ready to decorate for Christmas, I discovered, via the drawers and cupboards in the china cabinet, that I could very well be on my way to becoming a pack rat. Oh nooooo!!

So, I worked like a banshee, and boy did I get rid of alot of 'stuff'....it's amazing how easy it is to just stuff something in a cupboard or drawer and forget it. LOL...believe it or not, I found stuff in there from 1994, which in itself is sad, but we've only been in this place not quite 11 years! How sad is THAT? Never mind that I am married to a pack rat, and the stuff from 1994 was old union papers of HIS, the fact remains that we brought it HERE! Aarrgghh!! I am proud to say that it is now in the recycle bin outside, awaiting Wednesday's trash pick-up. And my drawers and cupboards are now nice and clean, and organized!

I even managed to go through the latest stack of pictures, and get them into proper 'piles'. I did this about 3 years ago-went through every picture and put them into albums. Then after Jim's parents died, we inherited twice as many pictures to go through. So I now have 3 neat 'piles'. One for us to keep (and put into yet another album), one for Jim's sister, and one for my kids to go through the next time they're here. It was actually pretty neat, sitting here going through family history by the way of old pictures. Once my trip down memory lane was done, I felt good about what I've accomplished today. One less thing to do tomorrow.....

The weather here is supposed to be wicked this week: everyone around here, please be careful while out & about & driving. Have a good and safe week...God Bless!

Christmas Decorating

Decorating this year for Christmas has proven to be a real challenge so far. Jim started putting up our outdoor Christmas display the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It generally takes about 3 weeks for us to get everything set up. Mainly because time is limited. Jim works on it for a couple of hours after work during the week, then has the church grounds to take care of Saturday mornings, so time is fairly limited.

This year we've had issues with lights going out and cords blowing fuses. Lights that worked when tested are now being difficult. Same with cords. I can't tell you how many trips we've made to Kmart, Rite Aid and Walmart :)

We finally got everything working on Monday, and the display looks beautiful. THEN.....up comes the santa ana winds. Monday night everything fared well with the exception of the nativity display. Wind knocked it over. Last night about 6pm I checked on everything again-no problems. Jim gets home an hour later and both snowmen that he hand crafted and strung with lights have been blown over. One isn't working at all, and only half a strand of lights is working on the other....sheesh.

On the UP side, we've added 'The Lights And Sounds Of Christmas' to our display. It is absolutely fantastic! You plug your lights into it, and the system plays dozens of Christmas songs while the lights keep beat to the music. The faster the tempo, the faster the lights...it's SO cool!

All that's needed now is the batting, and since we spent so much on lights and cords, the batting will have to wait till payday next week, but for all intense purposes, the display is finished. And it's beautiful.

This weekend we'll work on the inside...

So strap the kids in their seatbelts/carseats, and c'mon by and enjoy the show!