Psalms 91

1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress,
My God, in whom I trust!”
3 For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper
And from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with His pinions,
And under His wings you may seek refuge;
His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.
5 You will not be afraid of the terror by night,
Or of the arrow that flies by day;
6 Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
Or of the destruction that lays waste at noon.
7 A thousand may fall at your side
And ten thousand at your right hand,
But it shall not approach you.
8 You will only look on with your eyes
And see the recompense of the wicked.
9 For you have made the LORD, my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place.
10 No evil will befall you,
Nor will any plague come near your tent.
11 For He will give His angels charge concerning you,
To guard you in all your ways.
12 They will bear you up in their hands,
That you do not strike your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread upon the lion and cobra,
The young lion and the serpent you will trample down.
14 “Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name.
15 “He will call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.
16 “With a long life I will satisfy him
And let him see My salvation.”

Please check your protected if your one of the few on my list.

Thanks.

This is the week of insanity.  Its worse then Misoula week by a ton!

If I survive and all of my kids are still breathing we will deserve a medal.

Today was my bi-monthly grocery shopping, and baton practice.  Which meant I had to shop with all the kids.  I hate shopping with all of them.  Its just so hard to concentrate on making the right financial choices, and being mom.

Too hard.  LOL

But we survived.

Even if I am still dreaming of duct tape for Samuel's mouth.  He wasn't bad.  He stuck with me, and he didn't touch.  But he never and I do mean NEVER stopped making noise.  Not talking.  Noise.  Whistling, Snorting, Fake spitting, Fake Farting, donald Duck sounds, just never ending NOISE.  And he didn't stop when we got to baton.  He whistled and snorted and spitted all the way through baton too.

A "new" mom to the squad--her daughter transferred was NOT impressed.  She point blank asked me if I was "forcing" him to twirl.  *gah*!  Umm no!  He begged.  I talked to him again after that.  He WANTS to do it.  But todays behavior was NOT a good case in point.  NOT!

*sigh*

He will be moving to a different squad in January.  The squads are rearranging some.  The last month and a half has proven the squad he's currently in is too easy and he's BORED with a capital B. 

anyhow lots of stuff running through my head at the spead of light.  I would sure like to know what Sam was on today, cause oh my word I wanted to ring his neck.  As apparently did others.  *sigh*

So I guess we'll talk some more tomorrow, and tomorrow he gets to be in his "new" squad as a guest.  Hopefully that will improve things.  One can hope right?  *please God*

If he doesn't...then I will pull him out of the squad its not fair for the other kids for him to be that disruptive.  Of course I'm totally over reacting as he's never behaved like this before.  HE's been spacey, but not rude and noisey.  Today was just awful.

Anyhow....back to my week.

Tomorrow is standard baton and Awana with us leaving the house at 1 and not returning until 9:15 at night.  Its a long terrible day, but its only once a week. 

Ha!

Thursday is a break.

And Friday I get to go decorate my Awana Christmas tree.  And do a dress rehearsal for baton.  And possibly a Awana rehearsal.  (Man I hope not).  And then Saturday we have Awana Christmas tree festival, and the second to last baton performance of the year. 

And then the baton party.

And then we pass out.

No then we get to do our standard 1 hour fifteen minute drive home.

This too shall pass, and I shall laugh and wonder how I managed.

But if my blogs are short...you'll know I'm snoring with my head on the computer desk. 

We have had unusually clear weather this month, and last night we headed out on our date night.  As we were sitting in the restauraunt which over looks the strait I saw something funny coming up over the ocean.  I looked a couple times before I realized it was a spectacular moon rise.  And me without my tripod.  Darn it.

I ran out and attempted some pictures, but those ones didn't work.  After dinner we drove along the coast just cherishing the moon light reflecting on the water.  I asked Rob to stop and we turned the car off and listened to the waves.  I rested the camera on the window of the van and snagged these.

I took llots and lots of pictures, but only had a few that turned out.  A few is enough. 

That's the joy of digital, you don't pay for your learning experiences. 

Its funny though I think I like the black and whites better cause they catch the "true" color almost better.  Any how it was a wonderful evening, and absolutely needed.

Today we are scurrying around doing laundry, etc.  And tomorrow we're back to Baton.  Snickers at the inuendo to the John Wayne movie.  Tis a good movie too. 

My "baby" is three today--well yesterday, but we're mostly celebrating today.   Yesterday we let him pick the beach to play on, and gave him his birthday coat, and his bday pressie from his grandparents.  We've had it since September when they came up to visit. 

Rob spotted the gray whale yesterday, but none of the rest of us managed to see it.  I instead played the illusive game trying to get a good picture of a crow.  For as many as I see of them, they are very hard to get a good clear detail picture of them--mostly cause of them all being black. 

When we did get to the ivy beach (Jeremiah's choice) we quickly realized he wanted there because it has the best climbing toys.  LOL

The problem in his parents eyes is that they were a bit slippery and wet, and dangerous.  In Jeremiah's eyes they were the perfect toy.  So we carefully supervised him climbing up each of the three monsters.  Watching him like a hawk. 

Rob went up one, and I even went up one just so he could get up them as safely and as carefully as possible.  All the while Jeremiah is protesting "I can do it myself."   If you could hear my tone in this story you would be laughing.  He was sooooo determined.

It was the first time I'd gone up this particular piece of driftwood, and when we got to the top trust me I was dealing with vertigo it was a good 12 feet to the ground with nothing but slippery log to hold onto.  Jeremiah found this awesome little hole to bury himself in, and show off his new bithday coat.

I believe if his parents hadn't been such ninny's he would have played there all day--that and it was FREEZING cold.  And we had to wade across a creek to get to it, so our feet were wet.  Jer's weren't he got carried (of course).  LOL

So we dutifully hovered over the baby making sure he didn't hurt himself, took some cute pictures enjoyed the enhanced view, discussed why it was so scarey, etc.  Normally I'm not a ninny like that, but it really was slippery. 

Rob took that picture isn't it cute?  If you look at the right hand corner you can see the edge of the sand.  We were as I said up a good 12 feet off the ground.  HIGH.

So after that picture I carefully walked Jeremiah back to the sand.  And in my mind we were done.  Rob helped him jump onto the sand the two feet to the ground at the base, and we were headed to look around at other (safer things)

I turned my back to the big log.   We'd done our duty.  In about 3.5 seconds flat Jeremiah was back up on the log and all the way up to his "hole"  He was quite safe, didn't slip once, and did just fine.

Silly parents thinking that he was in danger.

Ahh well I taught my children to be independant, and I got a good view.  He told us off in his own 3 year old way, and we're all good.  *snicker*

I guess I should resign myself to NOT being the mother of a baby and move on huh?   What a delightful family I have.  And just for the heck of it last night I dreamed I adopted two more, and it felt so right.

I won't tell Rob.  He'll wig out.  I'll save it for an appropriate moment just to watch his face, its always amusing to scare the crap out of him.

Have a good day.

I'm gonna go stuff myself on a second Thanksgiving dinner!

And there's my pretty Thanksgiving Dinner.  China Dishes, Center piece and all.  I thought it turned out quite nicely.  It looked so good I had to place to beautiful turkey on it and take a picture before I carved.  I know I'm goofy!  LOL

But you know I've been married almost 9 years, and this is my first Thanksgiving that I've done all by myself, and done it up right.

And there's my nutty family ready to eat.

Dinner went well, and was quite relaxing.  After we ate we walked down to the river, and then my dad played his guitar while the girls danced around like nuts.

It was much better then I was anticipating, so one Thanksgiving dinner, down another to go on Saturday, but at least that one isn't my soul responsibility LOL  I just have to bring b-day cake for Jeremiah.

Turkey's out on the counter defrosting.

Green bean salad is made marinating in the fridge.

Eggs are boiling for a second salad.  I'm making progress.

This is a year of firsts.

We will be having Thanksgiving with my dad tomorrow, and my mom and most of my family on Saturday.  My dad didn't get priority on days, it just happens to be Saturday is easier for most of my extended family (Rob included).

Thanksgiving tomorrow will just be my family plus my dad.  Its going to be...awkward, hard, and I've been grieving all week quite frankly.  Its the new version of normal, and the holidays just are a extra reminder of how hard it is.

I want to make cookies tonight, but not sure if I have the molasses, also want to do a blackberry crumble.  That's fast and easy, and I may even have Zeria make it.

Tomorrow its just turkey into the oven, stuffing, and gravy making.  I *might* make a lemon meringue pie as well as I'm rather craving one.  We shall see.  Its optional.  LOL 

I'm totally stuffed up with the cold Zeria shared, but not in the totally icky stage any more, so this too shall pass. 

Prayer for my sisters still at home tomorrow would be greatly appreciated, its not going to be an easy day for them.  And then Friday its Jeremiah's birthday.   Funny cause the year he was born was two days before Thanksgiving, and this year its after--go figure. 

 4Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

 8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

 10I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. 11I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

The answer to everything.  Points up.

I have nothing that I "need" to do today, and as a result that's exactly what I'm doing.   I'm babying my sore throat, and doing nothing.  I will take Rob to work in about five minutes, and hit the rummage store while I'm at it--as its only open Tuesdays and Fridays, and I haven't been in awhile.

But nothing sounds good.  

The lights of Seattle from the Seattle-Bainbridge Ferry

Zeria & Jdai on the bus.  A good experience for my country bumpkins to have.

Standing under the lighted Space Needle

The lighted water fountain in the Seattle Center

The water fountain and Space Needle together

Good morning.

It was a very busy weekend.  And I still have one more drama to go.  The Princesses on Ice was awesome.  Extremely well done, and all of us enjoyed it.  As I mentioned no pictures allowed, although I was naughty and snuck one small video for Samuel of the Sleeping Beauty Dragon that blew fire.  LOL 

There was drama the next day as my moms girls were cranky, rude, obnoxious, and cussing.  My mom removed my sisters door, and then my sister really lost it.  It kinda ruined the whole weekend actually, as my mom was just...emotionally messy.   I've been desperately trying to sort through that ever since.  Its a long story, that I'd rather blog about privately--or protected.

I can't sort it out, and don't even know how.   Its just all so ick.

So that being said, we rushed from that with my mom having dropped a load of garbage on my lap to do our baton performance.  The girls and I prayed on the way to baton for my mom, and I talked to my friend S a bit as we were costuming the kids.  She is the one who has dealt with molestation in the family, so she was a sympathetic ear.  All I really wanted to do is hug and cry on my husband, instead I had to do baton.  So I did. 

The kids did quite well.  Zeria had one little oops, as she was in a routine she hadn't done in performance before, and the area they were performing in was TINY.  She was very mad about it, but life goes on. 

There's no baton or Awana this week, so I get a week to get caught up in all the things that are behind, and maybe regroup a bit. 

There's all of my munchies in their team uniforms.  Aren't they cute? 

Its so hard to take good pictures at these, with everything going on, so I have to take what I can get.

Rainee doing the pinwheel. 

The whole team doing command down.  This would be everybody "At Ease"

And this everybody "At attention"

And its time to go to church.  I will share Seattle pictures later...maybe.