Christmas Time

As Christmas is a week away... I think I am ready. I keep asking myself and all my friends where did the month of December go?

But Christopher and I have been reading the Advent Calendar that my parents got us for Christmas almost every day- sometimes we accidentally miss one day, then we read 2 days. But I keep asking him to find the baby.. and he points to the baby in the manger, Jesus. He finds the baby and he likes to point to the train- he loves trains.

Speaking of trains, Christopher likes trains so much he likes to ride on the one his grandpa made him, made solidly out of wood. Of course the back wheel broke this week- between him sitting on it- that's 30 pounds of solid Christopher! Plus the hook on the back of the train engine, which lets the engine hook up to the other cars that Grandpa also made doesn't have a whole lot of room to screw into the wood- so when it was all the way in it didn't let the back wheel turn- and when the wheel did turn it weakened the axle. So along comes my son... and he likes to ride on all of his toys- whether they are meant to be rode on or not! So needless to say the train is up- out of reach until we can get the back wheel axle fixed.

Santa already came to our house- in form of a Netbook, sort of like a notebook, but smaller and no cd/dvd drive. It's super fast and has a web cam installed above the screen. We've been told it's not as good as the other webcam we have, but that's okay, because we can use the webcam with the netbook to make it super! Our notebook computer was getting slower and slower and since we got Herbie (that's what we named the Netbook) the laptop has sat on the table where it sits and hasn't been used.

We got a good deal on a Netbook that usually runs $330 + and we only paid $299. It isnt' a great savings, but it's a lot faster than our other computer! So this item is my Christmas present for this year- I'm not complaing because last year I got an ipod nano- orange that Roy had engraved with "To my only love..... Sarah" on the back.

The tree is up, the stockings are hung.... and a few of Christopher's presents are wrapped- but not under the tree- mind you. Mommy is to smart to let that happen this year- this boy knows how to open presents lickety- split!

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, as we will have Christmas at the farm Christmas Eve with family and open our stockings Christmas Day!

May God Bless you this Holiday season, and remember the true reason and meaning of Christmas! See this video, it's very well put together and the meaning of it is even better!

Sarah

Thanksgiving

I'm thankful for a good trip with an almost 2 year old.

Christopher, Thanksgiving 2009

We stopped in a hotel overnight just West of St. Louis on the way down, that broke up the trip a little. My son got to swim in the pool, although the pool water was freezing cold! The first thing he did when we entered the hotel room was turn on the TV! Imagine that!

We were on the road by 7:15 the next morning- that would be yes, waking up at 5:30am, packing, loading it all up and eating a sit down breakfast in the hotel. We needed to be in Kentucky by 1pm for the family meal. Last year they moved up the time on us, and we didn't know it- so we kind of missed it! Partly due to miscommunication, partly due to us sleeping in, taking our time in the hotel, watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Not this year. It was so good to see everybody, and I don't think everyone had even met my son yet, so that was good for them to see him!

Christopher had fun playing with his cousin, Aidan, who is just 6 months older than him, and we met his 6 months old cousin Keegan!Keegan, Thanksgiving 2009

Good think Keegan has an older brother, Christopher treated him the same- the usual boy stuff of sitting on the baby, hugging the baby to tight, straddling the baby, you know! Keegan took it all in stride and by the end of the weekend, Christopher gave Keegan a nice hug- not the choke hold.

My son got to spend some time with his other grandparents, the ones who live in South Carolina, he didn't remember my mom; but I don't blame him, it had been a year since he saw her! He even sat on Grandpa's lap for a bedtime story- that was precious! Me, Christopher, Aidan, my brother Ed, Grandmother, Keegan, and my mom Thanksgiving 2009.

He also sat on his 95 year old Great Grandmother's lap and they were watching TV together! She's stronger than she's been in a long time, and is eating all her food on her plate, and seems more mobile than she was last time I saw her. That's pretty good for being 95 years old! She'd fallen and broken her arm recently and then was held overnight in the hospital because she was sick- so she's doing much better, praise the Lord!

Being that the boys are basically in their terrible twos, they didn't play together, so much as share toys. Although the sharing part was hard for Aidan- we kept reminding him that Christopher was letting him play with the train so could he please let Christopher play with one of his toys? Grandpa and Aidan took a walk at the park.

I saw glimpses of what's to come for me in the next 6 months- Christopher taking more to us verbally, but also throwing more fits. It's scary, but exciting at the same time.

Sarah Howk

Yesterday Was A Wacky Wednesday!

So... some milk went sour in the fridge and my hubby decided to give it to the cat. Sure, why not? So then he goes to work- while he is driving across town the cat is literally puking all over the carpet- I should have seen this coming- she has a very sensitive stomach and can't even handle dry food changes very well! Needless to say I called my husband and reminded him to NEVER DO THAT AGAIN! in a nice tone, really, I did. In his defense he grew up on a farm and he said they could feed those farm cats anything and they'd be fine. Our cat, Josie, however is no farm cat, she might have been found in a cow pasture, but that's about as far as it goes! Some of this was hard for my stomach to allow me to clean up- but I really didn't have a choice because I didn't want my son stepping in it, which he did, on accident and someone was coming over in an hour!Later in the day, my son Christopher decides he needs to 'feed' the vacuum some of his milk. So yeah, there was milk all over the head of the vacuum- had to drain that out. He's go this whole 'Sharing food' thing down, I just wish he wouldn't share his food with inanimate objects (i.e. Rocking horse)!

Here my son is sharing his shades with his rocking horse!

So sometime between the first even and lunch time my son decided to get into my Arbonne products. This is a big NO NO in my house- he must have been looking for lotion or something, because I look over and one minute he's got the zippered pouch opened, and the next minute he's rubbing his hands together like he's got something on his hands! I go over there and sure

enough, he's untwisted (this is something I didn't think he could do yet) the RE9 Body Serum

and has it all over his hands, shirt and pants- even on his feet, where it is supposed to go

anyway, but he doesn't know that! I scream! I literally screamed! Keep in mind, when I scream, it scares my child. So I stopped screaming, and realized it is just "stuff" expensive "stuff" but still "stuff" and he's not hurt, and that's the most important thing. He was just ready for a nap. I took him upstairs to his bedroom and he laid down right away!

Oh yeah, needless to say the day ended with my husband almost overflowing our 50 gallon fish tank that's in our dining room. Good idea to get a hose for the fish tank that reaches the sink, but he wasn't ready for how fast the last 1/3 of the fish tank filled up!

Here is my son trying to convince my husband he needs to go swimming in the fish tank!

That was my Wacky Wednesday... here's a photo of my son just being cute!

The video of Christopher dancing to the music on last.fm from our XBOX360

Winter can stay away... Fall is here!

We raked some of the leaves in our backyard last week- the weather was nice and Christopher had a blast running through the leaves, and jumping in them! Last spring he wasn't so sure about jumping in them or any of that- but I knew it'd just be a matter of months and he would be running and enjoying leaf jumping like every kid in every neighborhood in America before him! This is even funnier if you knew where we lived- we don't have any trees in our yard, they all like to hoover above our yard and then drop all their leaves in our yard! Plus for some reason our front yard is raised up higher than everyone else s- so if the wind is blowing, where do the leaves stop? On our front yard! Aren't we lucky? The bonus is that our basement has never leaked in the 6 years we've lived here- the negative is that every year we have to rake a ton of leaves that aren't ours! Oh well, Christopher doesn't mind helping!


Halloween came and went really fast. I made the Yoda costume for Christopher- and he loved it! The green headpiece was a pair of green shorts from the Goodwill Store- I used strewn out cotton balls for the hair. The fabric I got from Wal-Mart to sew his robe, and the light saber we have had since this summer. The ears were a little bit tricky, but I think they turned out okay, because when anyone saw him they knew he was Yoda!
Here he is showing his mighty light saber skills off to some other trick-or-treaters! We stopped at a few houses around our neighborhood- just the people we knew, mostly- then went and found Trunk-or-Treat at one of the churches in town. Then we also went to another church in town, they were doing trunk or treat also, but they did something pretty unique- they had a theme going and you walked inside the basement of their building. It started with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and moved on to Noah and the Ark in another room, and then it was the parting of the Red Sea where they had some puppets singing songs for the kids to watch, and then the gym was the Promised Land. It was pretty cool, but by the time we got to the Promised Land, Christopher was getting really tired, so we had to skip a few activities. But oh well, I hope he had fun and I know we did- it's pretty neat when you watch a kid on their first Halloween see all the different costumes people come up with.
Next year I'm going to have to work on Luigi for my husband, Princess Peach for me and Mario for Christopher! That's an pretty tall order for someone who doesn't really enjoy sewing! I think sometimes I think the sewing machine is a male, because I end up yelling at it so much, because it doesn't do it's job!
I'm just enjoying the fall weather and the fall colors! I was wearing flip flops last Friday- in November- it can stay like this for the rest of the year and I won't complain one bit!

Back to Work

Well, it's been two weeks since my husband got called back to work. So... our financial situation has improved drastically. We've also made some major financial decisions..... our first one was to join the Financial Peace University class our credit union was offering.

The class was a gift from my parents last Christmas- but we hadn't had the opportunity to use it until recently!

Today we finished Baby Step #1- so we are excited about that!!! We had almost finished baby step #1 around the time he was laid off full time- that helped us get through in that emergency situation!

Health Insurance doesn't kick in for us until November 1st, even if we are going to have to pick up a majority of the costs, but at least we'll have health insurance again! So life is returning to somewhat normalcy. No more worrying if one of us gets hurt or sick "how will we pay for it?"

FPU is probably the best thing that we could have done for ourselves! We are now on a budget- sticking to it- and we feel richer already! We are going to pay off our credit cards with Gazelle Intensity! We can be debt free in 2 years or less if we put our minds to it (besides our house)!!

My problem is I like to shop! I've used most of my 'blow' money for the month (over half of it went to someone who needed the money more than I do!).

We've made financial mistakes in the past- but we are going to turn that around, and stop spending like we had been, and be debt free in no time!

Most of Americans are dragging a $450/month car payment behind the car they are driving. We are blessed we don't have that problem.... that's $450/month we don't have to worry about. Plus our car loan will be paid off in January- which means that money can go toward a credit card and we'll pay them off one by one!!!

As Dave Ramsey says:

Today I choose to....

Live like no one else so later I can Live like no one else!

God is good. All the time. All the time. God is good.

Is Capitol Hill ignoring 71% of Americans?

Coming home from the farm tonight, I was listening to American Family Radio AFR and heard about this.Is Capitol Hill ignoring 71% of Americans? (OneNewsNow.com)
It's hard to believe that a president, who was just awarded the Peace Prize doesn't even listen to 71% of the people of his country. I saw a editorial cartoon of Obama receiving the Peace Prize and someone handing it to him and saying "For NOT being George Bush."

Please remind me what Obama has done for this country..... um... given me $25 more money for my Unemployment. Most of the people around me think it's funny that Obama is going to recieve this award, because he really hasn't done anything yet!

I heard about this on the radio, and I thought I'd share the link:
I am 71%

So send in a photo with your hand written or printed text that says "I am 71" or "I am 71%" Hopefully, Obama will get the idea and take out the abortion part in the Health Care "reform" package. I will make a sign and post it my photo on here tomorrow and then upload it to their site as well!
Shared via AddThis

I even got my 21 month old son to do it- despite the sign is upside down!!!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/iam71percent/Iam71#5392262109716954882

Swiming Ducks

So we finally got a project we've been wanting to do for years finished. I think we were motivated because we were having some of our neighbors come over! But it turned out really cute, I think.

But it's a project we've been wanting to do since we moved in our house about 6 1/2 years ago! We have a shower in our downstairs bathroom, but we also have a bathtub that's separate from our shower, we think the shower was added in at a later time, because our house was built in 1900.But we don't use this bathtub- maybe like once in the 7 years we've lived here- we have a claw foot tub upstairs that I actually use all the time and LOVE!!!

So my husband, used some simple insulation foam panels you get at any large hardware box store, and cut the pink insulation to fit in the tub to the height that he wanted and added supports, left a notch out just in case the bathtub faucet would ever get accidentally turned on by our 20 month old. The best part about the pink insulation is that water doesn't bother it!

He painted the top pink insulation foam panel a light blue.

He then ran to a local dollar store and got a whole bunch of shower poofs that are light blue and some white ones. He ended up ripping and tearing them apart- but for only $1 they get the look that we wanted. Arranging the blue and white poof like material we made a bathtub full of swimming ducks. Since our theme for our bathroom has been 'yellow ducks' since we got married over 7 years ago... we've collected quite a plethora of yellow rubber ducks and yellow stuffed ducks.

We think it turned out really cute, without a whole lot of money (which is scarce these days)!

If you stand facing the bathroom from the hallway it looks like the bathtub is really full of water- blue and white bubbles and ducks! It's really welcoming and all of our guests that came over enjoyed it. Christopher's even been really good about not bothering the ducks- he's done it only a couple of times and gotten scolded for it!

Weddings and Photography

So on September 5, 2009- this past weekend- my mother-in-law got married, again.

It's not every day that your mother-in-law gets married, and being that I have known her for 9 years, I have never known her to be married! She's been in and out of many relationships, but never engaged- until recently- and never married until this weekend.

She's not Shirley Howk anymore... she's Shirley Waite. I know it's weird, and it'll take some getting used to- but she and John have been seeing each other for almost 2 years! I guess when you know it's right- you just know! Don't they look happy? This photo was taken of them in the horse drawn carriage after a long ride from the farm to the reception at the church! So they are truly man and wife in this photo.

It's her story, but her husband, my husband's dad, died 10 years ago of a heart attack when he was just 50. It's been a rough road for her and her 3 kids, but they've all survived, and so will she- even happily ever after!

It was a beautiful day- as opposed to my wedding which was cold, cloudy and windy, or my sister-in-laws, which was pouring down rain! She said the only way that you can tell it's raining in her pictures from the wedding, which my husband took, is the ducks that are swimming in the puddles just feet from the picnic shelter!

My husband and I took the photos for my mother-in-laws wedding as well, I took the snapshots with our digital camera, and ran the video camera and the company that he's laid off from was nice enough to lend them their professional digital camera for the event! So out of those three options my mother-in-law will have gotten a pretty good mixture of photos of her second wedding!

The wedding was held at the family farm, where the two newlyweds will live when they return from their honeymoon. It was a good location with a corn field as a backdrop and people sitting on wooden benches made from concrete blocks and wooden boards.

Being out at the farm for a week prompts me to take advantage of the beautiful creation God has provided us. So I took some time to take some photos of what you might see if you were to visit the farm yourself sometime. We took a lot of flower photos... but I like this one. It just says to me, though there may be rough times we all have to go through- like death of a loved one, there will be new life at the end of all of that. John 10:10 tells us this "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." And so a new life is started- with a new marriage in this family!

See more photos I've taken here.

Website Success!!

So I figured something out for the website I'm making! I'm excited about it- it's simple, really. I just didn't know it.

I consider myself pretty computer savvy, but I guess I didn't know much about the internet. We own a certain domain name- but don't have access to the server. In fact there are two companies that I'm in contact with, and neither of them claim the server that the current (poorly designed) website is on.

Here's what I learned this week:

Each website not only has a domain name, but also an IP address. This address is a series of numbers, and it tells people and computers where the website server is located. If you have this IP address you can get to any website, even if it's not 'launched' to the public. For me this is going to be great, because I'm designing this website, but many of the people who have to approve it are in other cities around the state. I can even get someone on the other side of the country to look at it and see if it makes sense to them.

So we don't have access to the server- even to take the old website down, but we do own the domain name- so we just call the company who hosts the domain name and have them point the dns server to the new server company. I've already decided on the company, now I just have to pick the plan. This website could be launched next week, if I wanted it to be up and running.

But I have some final additions to make to the website to really make it 'pop!'

I've done one website before- but it was pretty basic, now from all that I've learned on this website I'm doing now- I can go back and make the other website a little more desirable. But I have a lot on my plate right now, and one website at a time is confusion enough for me.

I'm glad I took on this project- It's been an adventure and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I've learned how to embed items (from Google, or Flickr) into a website and learned a little CSS using Dreamweaver! I've also learned more about Dreamweaver and what the program can do!

Crazy Days

So my husband says I'm more grouchy and irratable lately. Could it be that he got laid off from his job less than a week ago? Could it be that it seems to me that he gets nothing done he wants to do around the house? Could it be my monthly cycle is all out of wack? Could it be my 19 month old seems to get into everything he's not supposed to these days?

Yes.

I love it how people from the church, family members, and other assorted people automatically think my husband is available now for their beck and call. Don't get me wrong- I love the people at our church, and I love his family (most of the time). But do they ever think that things need to be done around here? Nope, nor do they ask.

We've had a kitchen faucet that can be replaced for 2 years we've had a new one in the box on the kitchen counter- but since the one we have now is not broken- it's not a priority.

We've had our son in his room for a good 6 months now- which is not completely finished- just a few blue circles need to be painted on the wall.

We painted the ceiling of our front porch earlier this summer and took off the loose paint on the railings around the porch as well. They need painted- I did one short railing and then he said it needed another coat of paint. Good thing it's white and nothing special!

Oh well... the list is long, but I need to go.... that's all for my ranting for today!

Another loss.....

So Thursday we found out the company my husband works for laid off 29 more people. Not good news. My husband is in that handful of 29 people. Until further notice. No more getting up at 7:15 to be at work by 8am. I guess that could be a good thing. He really likes it there, they have treated him with so much respect for family and they've been good to him in the past 13 months he's worked with the company.

We are blessed that he was not laid off on the first or second round of lay-offs- especially because he was the "newbie" in his department. But God has been good to us in that laying off those two other people (both of whom had worked there for 10 years) gave us a little more financial cushioning for where we stand now.

Now he'll have lots of time to spend with our happy-go-lucky 18 month old (almost 19)! He'll also have plenty of projects to do around the house that he's been wanting to do, but hasn't had the time. It wasn't bad these past few months of him being laid off every 2 weeks- just keeping track of when he worked and when he didn't was sort of annoying.

I've encouraged him, already, to apply at other companies, to which he's said "Yes, dear."

This means he wants to see how things go for the first couple of weeks. He's also said that any job he would accept, would have to hire him on the knowledge of whenever he gets "called back" to his old job, he would go back, full time. His heart is there, and that's a good, very loyal thing.

The President of the company sees that we are right on the edge of the recession- people are on the fence about to buy large ticket items.

He'll be one of the first people called back when things get better, hopefully- and somehow we'll make it. God will make sure of that, even if things look pretty tough right now! Life goes on and God has a reason for this layoff- even if we have no idea why!!

Website frustrations

I am designing this website for an organization I'm volunteering for... but the server company won't give up the old site. I figured this out quickly, but it doesn't even seem like they are willing to work with me on this. I have to have 3 specific things to take the site down. (User email, user password, and last 4 digits of credit card used)

They won't even tell me how much time is left on the contract. I understand that they don't want just any old person calling and telling them they are with the company/organization and we need to take down our website- so someones website doesn't get accidentally taken down.

But the three things they are asking for I do not have access to. I do not know the person who was webmaster before, so I'm not even sure if this person has received my emails requesting this information that I need to proceed.

Alas, the website is not done, but for some reason I know that this server thing will take a while.

My husband has encouraged me to take different routes, contact different people to help get it done- while I'm all for that, it's frustrating, because I want to get the old site down and at least part of the new site up!

I will not, however go with that server company, I have learned much from the little that I have had to work with them.... it's not called 24/7 customer service.... I believe it's really called customer no service. Oh well. How is it a 24/7 1-800 number if you have to leave a message twice in one day and they still don't call you back- I got technically cut off- I was not happy. The other day I called this company, who shall remain nameless, and the lady sounded like she was 1. in India, and 2. half asleep. I guess I was calling in the middle of the day my time, so it would have been night time in India.

I'll figure something out, or just keep on working on the design part and ask for help later on the server later....... maybe closer to the launch date.

RAGBRI

In case you don't live in Iowa, RAGBRI stands for (The Des Moines) Register's Annual Great Bike Ride accross Iowa. The route this year was announced back in April, or something like that, but it didn't actually come through town until this past week.

Nine people stayed at our house, in our backyard when they were here. They were all polite, and all nice people- I'd host that team from Ames again if RAGBRI ever comes through my city again.

They were all very appreciative of whatever we offered them- a hot shower- a place to pitch their tents, welcome gifts from the town welcoming committee with gifts inside each one, and water.

Good conversation surrounded the table- and the kids got to go swimming in the pool.

Directions were always needed to one thing or another in town and not being originally from here, it gave me a challenge I think I lived up to - at least I hope I got them to where they needed to go!

I understood being away from home for a week, butI can't imagine riding my bike for 75 miles each day, sometimes more, sometimes less. But was happy to supply them with needed electricity to plug in cell phones that needed charged, a computer that needed power, and even ketchup and mustard for their burgers! Not a problem at all.

Closer to the heart of where the rest of the campers were staying was a whole lot of hubbub, my husband was busy setting up the fencing for the beer garden all week- with a little help, but when it came to clean up and take down of the fencing- little help was to be found. What happened? Friday people had to go to work, and then it turned into Friday night, I guess.... Luckily we called on some friends and they were able to help him. Even if for just a little bit- it's done now and he didn't kill himself in order to get it done. The heat didn't help, neither did the sun, but with plenty of sunscreen on he headed out by 10am, and didn't get home until 8pm that night. Gratefull for the extra help that I had called on... between the two of us we easily called 10 people, all of whom were busy or working.

But, all in all, I think RAGBRI coming through town was sucessful- even with the rain shower that hit in the early evening.... I guess that's part of living in Iowa!

I didn't ride on the trail, but the next day I was sore all over.... guess that's part of getting older!