Wait...this house takes the cake!

Kooky Christmas Decorations

There is a street that I love in Appleton and it is Oneida St. It is the street that I need to take to get downtown, to church and to the library and there are some really creative people who live on this street and they enjoy the holidays. I've watched one house in particular transform from 4th of July, Labor Day, Halloween and Thanksgiving with mannequins dressed as Pilgrims and Indians...CHRISTMAS is here and I'm adding a picture of their holiday expression. We have a boring string of lights and a wreath. This is a lot more fun to look at.

Matthew 11

This verse is awesome and it is like Jesus is speaking to me:

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

Matthew 11:28-30 (Message Bible)

THE TREE!

One thing for sure, you get your money's worth for a Christmas Tree here. Mike and the kids went out yesterday and chopped down a tree with Grandma and Grampa, they came home with a 12' tree for $32.00. We have had a lot of fun decorating it, whenever we pull out all the ornaments it is a gush of memories. Anyone remember the American Flag heart?

Such good memories.

Sam's Arm

We took Sam to the Ortho Doctor on Friday and come to find out Sam has an interesting thing going on with his elbow, it's called Panner's disease. You can find this in boys mostly 5-10 years old, it effects the normal growth in the outer edge of the elbow. It's actually called Avascular necrosis of the capitellum. The blood supply is cut off. All this to say that it is a long recovery, 1-2 years. His growth plates need to grow and mature. So he won't be playing baseball anytime soon, probably just the passing of time will make it better.

Setting the Record Straight

I get a lot of comments back about my blog which are so encouraging! But I have realized that I may have not been giving an accurate representation of our life here in WI. I tend to put on the best pictures and the funniest stories. So I'm going to tell you a few things that have happened lately.

The flu went through our house a week or so ago, Sam, Isabel and I got it. Sam was home with the flu and I got a call, Isabel was at school and was on the risers in the music room practicing for her Christmas program and she fainted, hit her head and shoulder on a stone wall and woke up in the nurse's office. I brought her home and she got the flu within an hour. Sam's elbow has been sore lately and we haven't been able to figure out what happened and we thought it might just be like tennis elbow. Last night I took him to get x-rays and he has a broken arm. Poor guy has had a broken arm for probably 10 days!

Please pray for my extended family also, my mother took an ambulance ride from her small town in Argentina to a small town called Tandil nearer Buenos Aires to be closer to relatives and nicer home as well, the first night there she fell and broke her femur. She had surgery yesterday, that is a whole other story.

Have I mentioned that it is pretty cold here, when I got outside I hold my breath thinking that it may help me keep warm, I think I'm going to give myself a heart attack! Today it is 12 degree with the wind chill it is -8.

We all really miss California! That's all I'm going to say about that.

I'm going to quit complaining now, 'cause we are fine. I just wanted to give you a better view. All of our families have stuff and issues and God is still good.

Ok, now for some more interesting facts about Appleton, WI. They only have one Santa Claus and he goes to all the parades and is at the mall. He comes here every year from out of state. The kids love him. You can watch this video and get to know him, cut and paste it into your Internet Explorer. He is pretty cute!


http://www.postcrescent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200
61206/VIDEO0101/61206098


Merry Christmas

Christmas Parade

This is a picture of us at this year's Christmas Parade, it was so much fun! The best float was the hot air balloon baskets that they fire up and flame them all the way down the street (without the balloons) they blast and blast the flames, it was awesome!

Yesterday I drove downtown to take pictures of the street, it was so strange - people go early and put their chairs out and blankets then they go home and make dinner and come back afterwards, nobody has touched their stuff and it was just so much fun.

Deer Hunting Season

Part of life here is deer hunting season.

The women go shopping and the men hunt deer.

Amazingly more people don't get killed doing this. I'm including some pictures that Isabel and I took of Deer Hunt/Deer Widow Season.

Hey, Honey could you unload the groceries!!

Snow

Wisconsin First Snow

First Snow - what a difference a day makes!

The Art of Leaf Gathering

Today is the last day in Appleton to rake your leaves into the street and a big truck comes along and grabs them and puts them in a dump truck. Thought you might want to see this.

Time to catch up on the last few weeks

Carol and Bill Fessenden blessed us with a visit, we had fun showing them our sleepy little Appleton, WI.

Last week we drove to Madison which is the capitol and the largest college town. The University of Madison has 57,000 students! I love Madison, it is a fun town and they just opened a TRADER JOE's. We took our cooler and filled it up to the top. Sam got to tour the capitol building for his Cub Scout badge and we went to the zoo there. The zoo was interesting, first of all it is free and second there were animals and no employees, we only saw one person and she was about to lock us into the zoo at closing. You just roam free it was pretty cool (neat) and cool (cold).

Halloween was really fun for the kids, our neighbor Mickey is a costume designer and she made Isabel's beautiful dress and Tiara, and Sam was a Ninja Turtle. They did have to wear snow suits underneath because it was bitterly cold. I think they were only out for 45 minutes before they had had enough.

Mike is the reluctant Cub Scout leader, he feels like he is so bad with kids but he really does a good job.

Today we are preparing for snow, the last few days the weather has been beautiful almost 65 degrees or more. So this is the last day to get all your leaves from your yard onto the street where a big truck comes and picks them up for you. The snow is suppose to start tomorrow night and then for the next week or so it will be rain or snow.

One of my new pasttimes is mosaic, I've done a couple of pieces. Hey Ornament party girls....I'm readdddyyyy!!

The election and current news from Colorado has kept everyone busy chatting about the future. This would be a good time to get better at praying. I think I'll take my own advice. Hope wherever this reaches, it finds you close to our Creator.



My California memories this week are: (things I daydream about)
* San Clemente Pier
* Starbucks San Juan
* El Pollo Loco
* Newport Center Christmas Tree
* Decorating the Church at Christmas
* Ornament Party
* Women's Bible Study
* Hole in the Fence
* Staff Meetings

Tuesday's Pictures

Birthday Girl
NYC Skyline
Roxie
Theresa and Alison
WICKED
Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir
St. Peter's

Tuesday

The strange thing about not having a job is you lose track of time. I forget what day it is, and if I don't keep track of my calendar I forget appointments, etc. Today is pretty clear...CLEAN THE HOUSE...this is something I do everyday...when I worked I cleaned house too but not as much. I'm excited because we have California company coming this Thursday. I'm preparing the guest room in the basement and it's kind of difficult, one side of the basement is finished with carpet and drywall and the one that the company stays in is all concrete so I have to 'pretty it up'. Flowers always make a place feel homey so I'll try that.











I'm still living as if I'm in NYC, I think about it and how fun it was. Today I'm going to post some pictures from NYC, Pumpkin picking in the snow, and fall leaves.






I'm having a good time filming segments for the documentary, it's funny, once you tell someone you are making a movie they tell you stories that are doozies. I'm going to become the Huell Howser of WI. For those of you who don't know who Huell Howser is go to this link:

http://www.calgold.com/

The kids are finding friends, it was a long and painful process but I think they are starting to click with a few people at school. Speaking of school, we went to a school dance the other night, what a hoot! It was Kindergarten through 6th graders dancing. I've got to put some of that on the web too!.

I think I have aquired enough gloves, scarves, hats, jackets, snowpants, long underwear for the winter. I'm sure there is more to get but having all that stuff everwhere is a whole new category of organization. I think I should buy stock in Rubbermaid because of all the plastic containers I buy.














I heard there was a Rump Roast Run in Minoqua, WI a week ago! I have to plan filming that next year. People do a race to win a Rump Roast.

Notice the light shining down on Sam, God's blessing him 'cause he was the only one willing to rake the leaves.

Man, it's chilly outside!

Today I'm supposed to take 20 girl scouts to a pumpkin patch here in WI, it is windy and cold (30 degrees and 30 mile and hour winds so actually 18 degrees) and it's suppose to start snowing right when school gets out. I am not looking forward to this, in fact I'm truly scared. I haven't driven in the snow for a long time and I don't know where we are going...yikes!! I AM IN CHARGE!!! Is that hilarious?

Two days ago I got back from NEW YORK CITY (78 degrees) with 5 good friends and we had the time of our life. If I survive this afternoon I'm going to spend some time uploading pictures and video. The audioblogger web organization that I was using decided they didn't want to do it anymore so I'll have to keep typing.

Just the beginning....

The greatest thing happened

The van has been making this strange noise for a long time and it kept getting louder, so we had it looked at by 3 mechanics and the concensus was it needs a new transmission. So, we had the choice of 1900.00 for a rebuilt or 3500.00 for a new one. Well after just getting a new house we didn't want to have to spend that money. So, a friend of Mike's from work told him to check the safety bulletins put out by Toyota, there was one for the transmissions on the 2000 Siennas. BUT, we were over the milage to be accepted, well I knew of course God would handle it but the guy from the Toyota dealership called the other day after they looked at it and told us that they would cover the labor if we just paid for parts!! It's going to be less than 700.00!!!! YAHOOOOOO!

The kids are doing a lot better with school, the friends are coming, and Isabel said the other night "you know Mom, I have an opportunity to have a lot of good friends here" and that was a great moment for a mom. Sam will always have friends 'cause he is like a comedian and he makes everyone laugh.

Last weekend we went to this annual community event called "Quarry Quest", this is a fundraiser that makes money for all the children's charities in our area. Ok, they open up a Quary that they have been preparing for months with Dump Truck Rides, Hummer Rides, Fishing, Rock wall climbing, gigantic slingshots, the kids can drive the earth movers...oh I'll just have to put on some pictures because it it so strange you just have to see it..but the kids had a GREAT TIME! They try to help children understand the mining industry.

Here is a link if you want to check it out.

http://www.quarryquest.com/index.htm