Finally some cold weather!

I composed this post on January 25, but I guess I failed to actually publish it:

We've had very cold temperatures here lately, at least they are cold to us anyway! Some days it doesn't get above freezing, and we have been hoping for some wintry precipitation. Today we saw just a few tiny flakes, but all the action has missed us and gone further south through Mississippi and Alabama. Oh well, maybe we'll get some snow yet this year.

As some of you have heard, we lost a member of our family about three weeks ago. Our old green van died. I stopped to get some gas, and had just finished filling up the tank (of course), when I noticed smoke coming from under the hood. Now, I wasn't really sure what to do, so I stood there trying to gather my thoughts and come up with some plan of action. By this time, the bit of gray smoke had turned to a bunch of black smoke. I went into the gas station to tell them, and one girl was already on the phone calling the fire department. The other girl employee suddenly had the thought that we should push it away from the pump, so we went out and pushed it against the curb, and I noticed small bits of burning matter that were left on the ground. By this time, several people were coming to help, including a couple of men who grabbed fire extinguishers and sprayed them under the edge of the hood. An off-duty fire fighter had some heavy gloves and reached under the edge of the hood to pull the lever to open it. By this time, everything under the hood was all burned and melted. The fire department came and doused it really good, being sure that the fire was all out. I called Lee and he came and picked me up, and then we went to the school to pick up the kids. A tow truck towed it to our house, but we knew it had to be totaled, since it was a 1998 and had some 180,000 miles on it.

As we looked back at what happened, we realize just how much God had his hand in it. We were just getting ready to put a new transmission in it, and it had several other irritating problems. I was in the ideal place for it to happen. At home, I would not have been able to put the fire out, but would have waited for the fire department to get there to do it, and who knows what would have happened in the meantime. I could have been out in the middle of the road, in heavy traffic, or in the middle of nowhere. The gas station had fire extinguishers, lots of people to help, and a phone. (My cell phone was dead--not an unusual occurrence.)

So the next day, we went car shopping--something that has never been a pleasant experience for either of us. We went to the Dodge place to see about perhaps getting a basic new Caravan with a warranty and everything, and they happened to have a 2005 Chrysler Town and Country that was loaded for a good price. We drove it to Adam's basketball game and back, and decided that this was the van for us. I love it! It has push-button power doors and seats that fold down into the floor. I haven't taken a picture of it, but it looks just like this one:

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Well, here we are at the start of 2008--I can hardly believe it. So many things have happened in this year, and we are looking forward to great things in the next.

We had a great Christmas holiday! The kids got out of school on Wednesday, the 19th, and don't return until this Thursday, Jan. 3. We have enjoyed the time away from the daily grind. It's nice to be able to sleep in, not have homework to make the kids do, and no other obligations or running around like we usually have in our normal day-to-day lives.

On Christmas Eve, my family came to our house for dinner and gifts. We had some of Donna's yummy turkey and dressing and all the fixings. Then on Christmas Day, we opened gifts with the kids after reading the Christmas story from the Bible. Adam got a game for his new Nintendo DS, two funny t-shirts, a devotional book, a ceramic box that looks like a baseball that I made, and a small fold-up speaker for his mp3 player. Molly got a small sewing machine, a play make-up kit, a new devotional book, a small ceramic box with her name on it that I made, and the same fold-up speaker for her CD player. We also got a family gift for everyone to enjoy--a new Wii game--Mario Olympics.

Wednesday night was a short praise service at church, and Friday night we went to our friends' house (the Hales) to play games and have fun. Sunday was church as normal, and I have been fighting a cold and laryngitis, so I had to sit out of the choir. Last night, on New Year's Eve, we went to the Hale's house again to eat, play Wii and other games. Rachel and Kim, two teachers from our school, came too. We had a ball and got home around 2 a.m! Molly was amazed that she was up so late. She kept saying, "It's two o'clock!" in amazement. As I'm typing this, at 11:15 a.m., she is still in bed. Adam, typically, got up around 7:45. Guess who is going to bed early tonight!

An update from my last post: the leaking drain pipe we found out was actually a ruptured pipe--it had a huge hole rusted in it. So the insurance company sent out a guy to do an estimate of the repairs, and they sent us a check for that estimate minus our deductible. Lee found someone to fix it for just a little less than what the insurance company sent us! We were thrilled to not have any out-of-pocket expense on that one. God provides! And I can finally use my kitchen sink like a normal person. Yay!

We are looking forward to our spring break cruise in March. Of course, I always am ready for spring once the holidays are over. I need to do my annual cleaning of the attic before it gets too warm, and the garage needs some work too--right now, it looks like a fabric store threw up out there. Then I plan to start making some summer clothes. I need to sew up a bunch of simple things for a clothing consignment sale that I participate in every spring. I am down to cleaning only 3 houses every 2 weeks, so every little bit of extra income helps. Gotta pay for that cruise somehow!


As I am typing, our cat Kasey is having a stare-off with a tailless squirrel on the fence just outside the window. I don't know if it is sitting so still hoping that Kasey won't see it, or if it is just taunting her because it knows that she can't get to it. As I went to snap a picture, the squirrel finally started down the fence.

Well, it's nearly noon now, and it sounds like everyone is finally up and moving around. Gotta go start our new year! I hope you all have a happy one!

Getting ready for Christmas and challenges

Well, Christmas time is upon us! I can't believe 2007 is nearly over. The school had a Christmas program back in the middle of November (don't ask me why), and I'll post those pics as soon as I get them. We have our tree up, and Molly has put lots of ornaments on it. I just don't have the heart to take them down to put the lights on the tree! I guess I'll just have to string the lights on around the ornaments.

We had our school's holiday bazaar last Friday and, again, like last year, I sold tons of bottlecap necklaces and keychains. (I am putting the extras on my website.) The Lord knew that we needed the extra money! One of my cleaning customers has cut back some, Lee's car needed about $800 of work, and we now have discovered a leaking drain pipe that runs from the kitchen sink down to the laundry room. It will need to be fixed, and a bunch of rotten wood will need to be replaced. God is teaching us to rely on him! Until it's fixed, I am washing dishes by hand in a pot of water and pouring the water out the window. Ugh! We are using lots of disposable dishes!

We have a Sunday school class party tomorrow night at the Spaghetti Warehouse, and I am really looking forward to it. Then we have a party with the kids on Saturday. I am only cleaning one house this week, so I have enjoyed the extra time to get caught up on housework. (and blogging!) Adam is playing basketball now, and he used his long-saved-up money to buy the Nintendo DS Lite he has been wanting for a year now. He still only is allowed one hour of video games a day, and he spends most of it playing Wii. But he manages to squeeze in some DS time too.

An update on Lee: his last report at the doctor showed that his creatnine level (indicative of kidney function) has taken a jump since his last visit some 6 or 8 months ago. But the doctor is confident that he can go straight into a transplant and never have to undergo dialysis. When his kidney function drops to a certain point, probably in a few years (I'm guessing less than 5), he will go on the transplant list. He has to be within 30% of his ideal body weight to undergo transplant, so he is working on that now. Pray for him, pray that he will be able to get a kidney when he needs one, and pray for his doctor to have wisdom. For more info, go to www.kidney.org.

Have a great holiday season!

Thanksgiving

We drove to Atlanta to visit Lee's sister Davida and her family, and Lee's parents and his other sister Talitha drove down and spent Thanksgiving Day.

We went to Ryan's for Thanksgiving dinner, as is the tradition, and thoroughly stuffed ourselves.

(You can click on the pictures for a larger view)

Left to right: Lee, dad Dave, mom Vera, and sister Talitha.













Right to left: Lee's sister Davida, her husband Mark, Mark's parents Don and Nancy, Mark and Davida's daughter Kayla, and Mark's sister Faith.











The kid's table, left to right: Molly, Davida's Sylvan, Faith's daughter Hope, Davida's Hollyn, and Adam.

The Grants have a total of 11 dogs! Molly enjoyed playing with the cute beagle puppies.















































Adam would much rather spend his time playing video games with his cousin Hollyn:
We truly thank God for all he has blessed us with:

family, friends, health, happiness and, most importantly, our salvation.

"That fall holiday" week

What a week! Right now, my house-cleaning schedule is situated so that one week I clean four houses, and the next week only one. On these busy weeks, I barely get anything else done, and by Friday, I'm exhausted! I really, really intended to go to the ladies' hobby fellowship at church tonight, but I'm just too tired to do any hobby. When they have it again in two weeks, I'll just have to come home and take a nap on Friday afternoon!

The kids were out of school on Tuesday, so we decided to go to the zoo since everyone gets in free at 2 p.m. We took three of the Warren kids with us--Tim, Seth and Laura. Adam didn't want to go to the zoo until he heard that his buddy Seth was coming along. The weather was beautiful, and we had a good time. We saw the whole zoo in about 2 hours--I think that's a record! Seth and Tim had never been to the Memphis Zoo, so they were excited to go.


We had parent-teacher conferences on Tuesday morning, and everything seems to be going relatively smoothly at school. They both made mostly B's on their report cards, and their numerical average was exactly the same--90.29--weird, huh?

I picked the kids up from school on Wednesday, and they changed into costumes in the car for trick-or-treating at FedEx. Lee and the people he works with had decorated for the holiday and were handing out candy to employees kids who came. It was fun! It's always interesting to meet the people Lee works with and spends his days with. I haven't been up there since he started working in this new department. Molly wore her Cinderella dress that I made, and Adam posed as a FedEx employee. He wore Lee's badge and my PDA cell phone on his belt. They racked up the goodies!


Then on Wednesday night at church, they had a fall carnival. They both came home with huge bags of candy and a whole plate of cupcakes each that they had won at a cake walk. Needless to say, we have had our sugar limit for the year around here!

Here we are!

Well, here we are with our own family blog! I'm hoping we will find the time to keep it updated, at least periodically. So, let's see--what's been happening around here lately?

Adam is finding the sixth grade to be harder than fifth (big surprise there), especially in keeping up with his homework assignments and such. He is playing soccer at Faith Baptist and taking saxophone at school. He just finished playing flag football for the school's elementary team. He is planning to play basketball at Faith this winter too.

Molly is struggling with certain areas of the third grade, specifically in taking tests. She seems to know the material, but doesn't do well on a written test. We are scheduled for parent-teacher conferences on Tuesday, so we will discuss our options then. She wants to cheer for basketball season, so we are looking for a good program for that.

We went on the Royal Caribbean Majesty of the Seas the last week in September. The kids were out of school Wednesday through Friday, so we took them out on Monday and Tuesday too. We flew to Miami where we spent a couple of days with our friends the Fullertons, and then boarded the ship on Monday. We visited Nassau, Coco Cay, and Key West, and arrived back in Miami on Friday. You can view our photo album at the link on this page.

Lee's schooling is on hold right now. FedEx will only reimburse him a certain amount for education for each year, and he reached his limit a while back. So he can't take any more classes until the first of the year.

I entered a bunch of things in the Mid-South Fair and won several ribbons (and a little money!). Molly and Adam each entered something too and won ribbons. How come the kids get more money for second place than the adults? You can view pictures of our entries in the links section too.

Right now, I'm gearing up for the annual craft fair at school and thinking ahead to Christmas. Busy, busy, busy! Have a great day, and check back often!