Good morning bloggy blog friends!

I realized that I negected to post a picture of our wonderful apple pie from Thanksgiving.

It's fun to bake but it gets eaten so quickly! At least Tyler and I each got a piece.

Yesterday I had my office Christmas party. We had it at a restaurant called Opal in Santa Barbara. The food was amazing and the place itself was so beautifully decorated. After we ate we were given our Christmas bonuses. I count myself very blessed to work for a company that can give out bonuses because there are lots of places that are struggling right now.

Today we are going to chop down our Christmas tree. The kids are very excited, probably more than any previous year! I will be sure to post pictures later.

As soon as Tyler wakes up I'm probably going to go do some Christmas shopping. I know the mall is madness but I want to go to Old Navy. Wait, there's one in the Esplanade. Anyway, I'm going shopping.

I didn't want to do a ten on tuesday. So I didn't.

We just finished week six of our Bible study and I am so blown away by what I'm learning. Growing up in church I have pretty much heard it all. But this time it's going deeper; it's going to my heart. It's like a cold drink when I'm really thirsty. It quenches my spirit so deep within I just cannot describe it.

I love this passage below by AW Tozer.

"The Spirit-filled life is not, as many suppose, a life of peace and quiet pleasure. It is likely to be something quite the opposite. My point here is that if we want to escape the struggle we have but to draw back and accept the currently accepted low-keyed Christian life as the normal one. That is all Satan wants. That will ground our power, stunt our growth and render us harmless to the kingdom of darkness. Compromise will take the pressure off. Satan will not bother a man who has quit fighting. But the cost of quitting will be a life of peaceful stagnation. We sons of eternity just cannot afford such a thing."

I'm encouraged to keep fighting. I never want a life of peaceful stagnation. I want to move forward...Jesus is coming soon and I want to be ready!

The Holidays Are Here!

Tyler created a Pandora station called Swingin' Crappy Christmas Crap. Oh, he pretends to be bah humbug but we all know that he's just pretending. Ha.

Four day weekends are great for me. I've been a lazy bum every single day, plus Tyler has been getting up in the morning with Cole-I-Don't-Sleep-Later-Than-7-Cuz-My-Belly-Rumbles. I did make it to the gym twice and clean the house so I guess that counts for something!

Today we made lists for Santa. Kayley still isn't sure he's real and Cole is very worried that Santa won't be able to read his writing. Here's what they came up with:

(Cole, in his own writing)

To Santa

Lightening Mqueen lego set

ship

nutcracker

BB gun

optimus prime

guitar

astro boy

Cole

_______________________________

(Kayley)

To Santa

Christmas List!

Big lego set toy story

dog

Big puzzle

USMC nutcracker

your autograph

big wig

BB gun

a movie no star wars

small guitar

scarf

Happy Thanksgiving!

Turkey day has come and is now almost over. The moment I walked into my mom's house I smelled Thanksgiving in the air. The family, dinner, dessert (including my first ever apple pie) and decorations made me a happy lady today.

I have many other reasons to be happy, too!

I'm thankful for my very good looking husband, my wonderful offspring, great family, lots of good friends, a fairly priced rental home, two great cars, a great job, and a life filled with many, many other blessings!

Above all these things I am the most thankful to have a relationship with a God who loves me and will never let me go. He's helped me through lots of junk the past years and sometimes I only hung on by a thread but I still hung on to Him. He is my savior, my God, my one true friend. He sees every tear and hears me every time I call to Him. I'm thankful that God can change hearts and lives and brings lost hearts back to Him. I'm thankful that He uses situations that the enemy meant for harm, for good. He has always provided, always made a way. What a sovereign God I have the privilege of knowing personally!

God, may I never forget that you are the only one I really need.

Amen.

Ten On Tuesday

1. This is my favorite thing Cole says lately: "This is the first, that's the twoth one and that's the threeth one."

2. Joanna is now in the Dominican Republic. I'm a little sad she won't be here for Thanksgiving. A lot sad actually. But it'll be great! I'm making the beloved green bean casserole. Mmm.

3. I started listening to Chris Tomlin's Glory in the Highest on my way to work today. Christmas is just around the river bend.

4. Tyler and I began watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy last night. I love it but I have to honestly say that hearing Gollum say "my precious" freaks me out. I've seen the movies before but for some reason it all seems new to me.

5. I haven't been to the gym in two weeks and I'm not proud of it.

6. I took this on my way out the door today. I sure love these guys.

I also love that Kayley's head looks like it's twice the size of Cole's.

7. Just one and a half more days of work and then a four day weekend!

8. I'm just real hungry right now. I have a bean, chicken and rice burrito made with a whole wheat tortilla waiting in the fridge for me to heat up. Come on lunch time!

9. I ordered a box of food from Treasure Box and I'm really pleased with it. You get like $60-$100 worth of food for $30 and you can pick which type of box you want (I picked the kids box). We got things like burritos, apple pies, corn dogs, pizza and cereal. Some things aren't what we usually would buy from the store because they are fattening and expensive. But I thought I would give it a try. Next time I think I'll go for the healthy box.

I've really been working on getting us on a budget for the food we buy. There is no need to pay full price for food (or anything else really), even when you're shopping healthy. Between shopping at the commissary, using coupons and buying a box a month from the website we're only spending $190 per month on food. That's less than $50 per week which is pretty good for a family of four.

10. I'm excited for the next couple of months. December brings Christmas, then comes the new year and Kayley and Cole's birthday, then tax season! There is also the possibility of deployment for Tyler. We're waiting on the details and if it works out it will be a great opportunity for him!

Sharpie smell, bacon, snails and banana chips

I'm going just a wee bit crazy in the head at work today. It could be because my space heater is circulating the smell from the giant sharpie one of my co-workers used to mark a box. Or I just really have nothing to do.

One accomplishment for the day: I learned how to set the date and time on my fancy shmancy calculator by using the manual. Did I need the date and time on my calculator? No.

Why am I here?

Oh yes, to bring home some of the bacon. Perhaps if I actually sliced bacon for a living my day would be more exciting. Wait. I saw Food, Inc. That would be gross. Ok, so I'm happy with my desk job that pays well, even when it's slower than the little snails who cross my patio in the morning.

Speaking of snails, my kids do love to murder them on a daily basis. I quite enjoy picking them up by their shell and hurling them great distances. Oh, my kids. I do miss them. I'm very much looking forward to hugging them real tight when I get home!

As a side note, I sampled banana chips for the first time today and I must say, they are delightful indeed.

Kayley, a first grade genious child

It's time for another bragging moment.

Kayley is doing so well in school that her teacher called her a "model student." There's nothing that makes a parent more proud! Kayley had all average and above average scores in every subject. She reads at 84 words per minute (that's a lot for her age) so she'll be one of four kids in her class to join a speedy readers club. They will read chapter books in addition to the reading books they are using now and discuss them as a small group. Kayley is not only great at reading and spelling, she's also really fast and accurate at doing addition and subtraction. She has some things to work on, of course, but she's pretty much sailing through first grade, easy peezy lemon squeezy.

Needless to say Tyler and I are so proud of her hard work and she definitely earned her ice cream!