happy new year

Happy New Year !!

Tom, Lisa & Grant

May you be blessed by the LORD,

the Maker of heaven and earth.

Ps 115:15

on the verge

Earlier this month I showed you a few of the many, many holes that were in my walls due to all our pipes being replaced. Well unfortunately things have been going wrong ever since. One day the washing machine doesn't work, another day Grant's bathroom sink, another day the pipe under the kitchen sink was leaking and everything under the sink was soaking wet. Our phone books were soaked all the way through. Luckily phone books aren't important. Well the latest thing happened in the room we use as our office. I went in one morning and the carpet was soaking wet in spots. I checked with Tom and Grant and neither of them had been in the room, so I knew nobody had spilled water in there. Later that day I showed the foreman and he seemed puzzled and said to "keep an eye on it." I was upset because I knew it had something to do with the pipes but I couldn't prove it. So I began to pray and God showed me what the problem was. The day after Christmas as I was pulling the car into the garage I saw that the garage wall (which is behind our office) was all wet. So the plumbing guys came and it turns out that one of the fittings in our water softener had malfunctioned and water was leaking. So now half of the wall has been cut out of our office and garage and half of my carpet has been pulled up etc. There is plastic sheeting taped up and a fan has to run 24 hours a day. Tomorrow the inspectors will come to test for mold and such. My gut feeling is that the test will come out fine and they will be able to put the room back together soon.

I tell you there are times when I get tired of putting on a smiley face! I want to cry or yell...I'm on the verge, people!!! But, I'm holding it together and reminding myself constantly of the blessings. Every problem that has come up, this company has rushed to take care of as soon as possible. Always with a good attitude, always apologizing. Our foreman is a very sweet, young man. I was telling Tom how God is teaching me what a huge difference you can make in someones life when you have a positive attitude and a smile.

I just pray that this is all over soon. It has not been a great way to spend the Christmas holiday.

workmanship

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:10

We learned today that the Greek word for workmanship used in this verse is poema. This Greek word is where our English word poem comes from. We are God's poem, His work of art. It makes me think, am I living up to such a lovely name-God's poem? With the new year rapidly approaching I also wonder.... am I doing the work that God has prepared for me?

christmas activities

When the kiddo is out of school, you've got to figure out what to do with him all day. One night Grant and I made snowflakes and then taped them to one of our family room windows. It was fun and I think they turned out pretty. This is an activity that kept a 9 year old boy still and quiet...remarkable! I highly recommend it.

Another day we made a candy house from a kit that we got at Michael's. They only problem is explaining to a disappointed kid that he needs to wait for the frosting that is holding the walls and roof together to dry, BEFORE decorating the house.

Finally an activity that made Mommy happy. After Christmas sales! I love shopping for marked down Christmas stuff to use for next year. My friend Sarah told me about this really cute blog www.joysofhome.blogspot.com on this blog the woman hung little wreaths on her kitchen cabinet doors and china cabinet doors. I really liked the way it looked, so I found these little wreaths and ribbon marked down and I will be hanging them up next year. I put one up so you can see how it looks. Cute, right!

expressive

My boy is VERY expressive! Which makes present giving a very gratifying, fun experience. My husband, (love you honey!) you could give him the most fantastic present in the world and he will say"that's nice." Grant will fall to the the ground in happiness, gasp, smile a joy filled, eyes shining smile. Like I said, it's a very gratifying experience.

close up

How funny is this face!
Click on this picture to get more detail.

I talked about these two pictures in my last post, but then realized with the slide show you wouldn't be able to see what I was talking about.

christmas scenes

These pictures were taken at the Springs Preserve festival of lights and at the Lied Children's Museum. The large Rudolph the red nose reindeer is a recycling project. The antlers are make of soda cans, the eyes are water bottles and the nose is a large soda bottle. There's one picture where Grant is standing in front of a Christmas tree and he is grimacing instead of grinning, it cracks me up. It was dark so I didn't realize it at the time.

gloves

I found these gloves at the 99 cents only store. The wine colored stripe in the gloves matches my jacket perfectly. Score! Don't you just love it when you find a bargain.

I have nothing else to say about this, just wanted to share!

baking with grant

Did I ever mention that I'm not good at baking...

these are the non-bakers best friends.
Rolling...rolling...rolling out the cookie dough

Decorating is the FUN part!

Santa's checking out Grant's handiwork

Grant's finished product (Santa approved)

Look at all those cookies!

YUMMY!

Our "masterpieces"

We gave our prettiest cookies to the neighbors and ate the ugly ones.

Believe me they taste just as good.

tragedy

Hello my beloved, I'm back. I braved the busy Las Vegas roads, filled

with holiday travelers, so that you and I could be reunited once again!

What's this?? NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
tragedy

more snow!

MORE SNOW!!!!!
Our wee little snowman

The snowman's scarf is made out of an old pair of underwear

...shhh don't tell anyone!

Wow, my butt is cold!!!!

Snow angels totally ROCK!

Cute boy with falling snow

All cozy now.

We are so blessed that Grant had no school today due to parent/teacher conferences, so he was home to enjoy the snow. I don't mean to brag, but Grant's reading at a 6th grade level, way to go Grant!....o.k. maybe I am bragging a little.

christmas p.j.'s

I bought Grant new pajamas today. I wanted him to be wearing cute p.j.'s when we are opening our presents on Christmas morning. Grant also needed to have some decent pajamas to wear to school on Friday. Each day this week has been a different theme at Grant's school and this Friday is...you guessed it, pajama day. Grant normally wears a pair of pajama shorts to bed and no shirt (he's hot blooded). That would not do for school! I love the red robe, Grant has never had a bathrobe before. I know he will probably only wear it once (to school on Friday), but I couldn't resist, it was so cute. I liked the red pajamas best, but Grant loves penguins so I couldn't decide which pair to get soooo I got them both!

I wasn't happy with my Christmas tree and each time I looked at it I felt gloomy instead of happy. I figured out it was the new ribbon I put on the tree this year. So I started searching the stores for different ribbon and couldn't find what I was looking for. Today I found cute enough ribbon at Michael's that was 70% off. So I got it and if I find better ribbon next year I won't feel bad replacing this years bargain ribbon.

So what do you think? The original ribbon is in the picture where Grant is standing next to the tree. The new ribbon is in the bottom picture. I think the red and green plaid is festive.

I hope all your Christmas shopping is going well!!

snow in vegas

Grant this is for you since you were stuck in lame-o school while it was snowing.

snow

IT'S SNOWING, IT'S SNOWING, IT'S SNOWING,
IT'S SNOWING, IT'S SNOWING, IT'S SNOWING,
IT'S SNOWING. IT'S SNOWING IN LAS VEGAS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bring the love

With the hectic week (plumbing issues) I haven't gotten a chance to tell you about something very special that our family was involved in last week-end. Our church had an event called "Bring the Love". It was all about bringing the love of Jesus to the city of Las Vegas by serving them. Over 1,000!!! people showed up to serve our community and reach out to people with acts of service and kindness. It was so exciting. There were many ways in which you could serve our community, such as: paint over graffiti, visit the elderly, fix fences, clean parks etc. At first our family was interested in making cards for our service men and women over seas (which is a great thing to do), but we were encouraged to go out of our comfort zones and decided to go to a local park and clean up garbage and approach people and give them free bottled water and microwave popcorn. We had a card we would pass out that said"We hope this simple gesture brightens your day. It's our way of saying God loves you. let us know if we can be of more assistance". The card had information (address, phone # and service times) about our church on the back. We were nervous at first but it ended up being a GREAT experience. Tom, Grant and I all took turns approaching people. Everyone we spoke to were really nice and one man told Tom that he had been thinking about going to church and that God must be looking for him. Our intent was not to push ourselves on people it really was just to "bring the love" to this city of ours, that needs it. (what city doesn't?) Bear with me because I know this is a long post but there's some verses I've just got to share. Jn 13:34,35...love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.By this men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. Gal 6:10a... as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people. Acts 20:35 In everything that I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: "It is more blessed to give than to receive." Matt 25:31-46 tells us when we serve others we are serving Jesus. When I read these verses it makes me question the things I fill my time with and wonder what can I change.

stethoscope

gift idea

Here's a great Christmas gift idea. A magazine subscription to Life:Beautiful magazine. It is a Christian magazine that covers all kinds of topics like parenting, cooking, decorating, traveling, hospitality etc. It has contributors you may have heard of like: Dr. James Dobson, Joyce Meyer, Dr. Gary Smalley. It is a really lovely magazine, with beautiful photography and uplifting articles. I think it would be a fun gift to receive. Instead of giving the magazine, you may want to put it on your list! www.lifebeautifulmagazine.com
No, I don't get anything if you subscribe! I just thought you'd like to know about this great magazine that is difficult to find on the newsstands.

cares

Cast your cares on the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fall." Psalms 55:22

bowling

Who is that cutie peeking over my shoulder?
Cutie the II

The Amazing Bowling Man

"Nice Form"

Bumper Boy

Wow! I've never been this close to Tom's score before.

....and she broke 100...incredible!!!!

We went bowling recently and had a lot of fun. I actually bowled better my second game than my first. This is unusual for me because I usually suffer from wrist fatigue after my first game.

Bowling balls are heavy! and I am very delicate.

holes

Just a few pictures of the many holes that are now in my house. I'm going for that industrial look. ha,ha

Can you feel my pain?!!

pity party

No those aren't presents under the tree!! We have to get all the pipes for all the plumbing in our house re-done this week. Pipes in our neighborhood were exploding, so the good news is that the company that built our houses is re- doing all the plumbing at no charge to us. I know that this is a blessing. But if you will allow me to have a pity party for a moment, please. We had to take everything out of every bathroom, laundry room and part of the kitchen and that is what is sitting under (near) my Christmas tree right now. We also had to move a bunch of stuff around in our garage. I had just recently cleaned out the garage and had it nice and organized. I also had put up the Christmas stuff in the house and had it sparkling clean and now THIS...waaaah. Tomorrow they will be banging a bunch of holes in the walls of my house. So even though my head knows that this is a blessing, my heart is crying at the MESS!!!

swish, eh

baking bad...cooking good

Lisa with her Haystacks


I don't like to bake. The reason I don't like it is...I'm not good at it. I was recently asked to participate in a cookie exchange. They asked you to bring 3 dozen cookies. I baked 11 dozen cookies. I get carried away sometimes. I decided to make one kind that I've made before and can't screw up. Then I decided to make two other kinds because it was an opportunity to try new recipes, something I like to do.
The problem with baking is you have to be so precise. You have to measure things just right. You have to mix things well, but don't over mix! If you don't bake the cookies long enough they are doughie in the center. If you bake them to long they are too crisp or worse, burnt.
I like to cook because you can put in a little of this, a little of that. You can change things up. For me it's more interesting.
The moral of this story...don't invite me to your cookie exchange!
p.s. two out of the three types of cookies turned out