First Frosty

Today marks the first official Winter Frosty that has been built in our backyard.

It snowed pretty heavily last night, much to the delight of the boys and they raced outside when we got home from school and built this Frosty.

Then Frosty found a friend.

Happy Winter to us!

Happy Birthday Warren

Warren is on his way downhill - he's officially on the wrong side of 40, having turned 41 today. We were in Pagosa Springs over Thanksgiving so I had to get his gift before we left on our 4-day weekend away.

I threatened Warren with his life if he looked at our bank statement because he'd know exactly what I'd bought for his birthday. I think Bonsai Nursery would have given it away, don't you?

Warren always wanted a bonsai tree, ever since he watched the first Karate Kid movie and saw the trees Mr. Miyagi had collected. When I went to the nursery, one of the owners showed me a wide variety of bonsai trees, from fruit trees, to tropical trees to Japanese trees. I guess you can take the shoot of any old tree and dwarf it with constant cutting and pruning.

Warren's always liked the Japanese looking bonsai trees so I got him one of those. Its a Japanese Juniper, its cute and hopefully he won't kill it!

I made a list of things I love or enjoy about Warren as a tribute to his 41st birthday! Happy Birthday Wals!

50 Things I Love or Enjoy About Warren

1. He loves God

2. He makes me laugh

3. He has a nice butt

4. He has great calves

5. He has strong hands

6. He will go clothes shopping with me

7. He can sew (and very well too)

8. He cares about the church body

9. He has a passion for biblical truth

10. He gets fat when I get fat

11. He likes most things I like

12. He will watch a chick-flick with me

13. He knows where my ticklish spots are

14. He puts up with my moods

15. He still likes me after I fart in bed

16. He rarely fights/argues with me

17. He works hard to make a living

18. He loves watching movies with me

19. He adores the boys

20. He loves wildlife

21. He loves his friends

22. He loves his family

23. He uses big, fancy words when he talks

24. He's artistic

25. He makes me feel warm and fuzzy when he holds my hand

26. He has my back

27. He always encourages the boys

28. He is intrigued by science

29. He wouldn't have voted for Obama

30. He stands for truth

31. He is interesting to listen to

32. He's protective of his family

33. He doesn't waiver in his beliefs

34. He'll admit when he's wrong

35. He's always trying to improve

36. He can skate backwards

37. He's really good on a trampoline

38. He's a good skier

39. He's a strong leader

40. He's a good listener

41. He misses South Africa too

42. He's a good debater (and I've only been able to beat him once in 16 years in a debate)

43. He endures my cooking even when its bad

44. He's my best critic

45. He's honest with me

46. He's faithful to me

47. He's a great dad

48. This one is confidential :)

49. He allows me to be me

50. I feel safe with him

Turkey Day in Pagosa

This is the 2nd year we've made our way down to Pagosa Springs for Thanksgiving. Todd & Leana are our American family and they've adopted us into theirs. Their extended family embrace us too and its always wonderful going to Pagosa to see Todd & Leana and also to attend their church.

When we go, we stay in the FROG (Finished Room Over Garage) - a phrase Todd & Leana came up with when they built their garage and built an open planned room above the garage which Leana also uses as her office. The FROG is also our home-away-from-home complete with Murphy bed, kitchenette, bathroom and sitting area with sofa bed for the kids. The view out the back over the canyon is lovely and I envy my friend being able to work from home overlooking forest and mountains.

Todd & Leana are the friends we have longed for since moving to the States. Unfortunately they moved to Pagosa Springs about 1.5 years after they joined our church but our friendship has grown since they've moved. Todd challenges Warren with spiritual matters and personal issues all the time and Warren thrives on that. Todd 'calls it like it is' and will tell Warren when he's out of line over an issue or opinion and Warren really respects that about Todd. Their friendship has grown closer because of it. Leana is like a sister to both Warren & I - she is so good at seeing things from another perspective and makes me think things through when I have judgements or concerns. What can I say...we love them!

Thanksgiving weekend started with us traveling on Wednesday to Pagosa, arriving at 10 pm. We always chat until midnight (or later) and that happened a lot during the 4-day weekend.

Thanksgiving Day was spent at Leana's brother's house. She has 3 brothers and both her parents & Todd's parents were there also.

It was a sweet time (in more ways than one - the desserts were great!!). And then 'someone' started spraying spray cream from the can into his (or her) mouth. Others had to follow!

Guess who started with the spray-cream!!

Brisa

Ashlyn

Jordyn

The rest of the weekend was spent lazying around. The men watched (dozed through) football while the women played Farkel and the boys watched movies and played in the snow.

We are used to having a 4-day weekend over Thanksgiving that we've decided if we aren't able to go to Pagosa Springs one year, we're going to go away as a family. I can't imagine Thanksgiving any other way!

Turkey Day at School

His first performance at school and I got to miss work to go & see it! The Kindergarten Thanksgiving Program was all of 10 mins. Cullen was picked to be an Indian, much to his and my relief. He wouldn't have taken to being a pilgrim for his 10 mins of fame. He was a very good little indian with homemade top and indian feather 'hat'.

I arrived at the school with 10 min to spare before the program started. I raced to 2nd grade to grab Jordan out of his classroom and we ran to the gym to get a good seat. Unfortunately, most of the parents must have arrived an hour ahead of time to secure their spot on the gym floor in order watch their darling babies sing in their first program/ They were all seated with cameras poised and ready. Jordan and I sat down behind a group of mothers who were checking their cameras, testing the lighting and chatting excitedly to each other.

Then the group of Kindergartners walked single-file into the gym and cameras started snapping and whirling. Cullen was one of the last to come through the gym doors and kept looking for me in the crowd. Both Jordan and I became one of the crazies and stood up, waving like frantic aircraft controllers for him to notice us...and he finally did. The kids went up on stage and behind the large red curtain for a while and then it peeled back and revealed the 75+ Kindergartners on risers. Cameras snapped and whirled as each precious song was sung.

I had to move to the back of the frenzied crowd because most of the seated moms went up on their knees and I couldn't see a thing. Then of course Cullen didn't know where Jordan and I were so we did our aircraft controller act and he finally saw us and smiled. As soon as the program was over, Jordan dashed off to his classroom and the Kindergartners were stuck on stage for another 5 min while the Parent Paparazzi clicked away at their little Kindergarten celebrity.

I managed to push through the crowd to get close enough to the stage to get a single photo of Cullen before the large red curtain swallowed up the children.

Then the parents lined up in the gym to get one final shot of their Kindergartner celebrity walking out. I must admit that I was one of those parents, knowing that Cullen would be worried if he didn't see me.

Once the group of celebrities had left the building, I found my Kindergartner celebrity in the cafeteria munching down chicken legs, rolls, corn and apple sauce - a sweet attempt at a Thanksgiving meal.

The day before I had helped the kids make applesauce - I had cored and peeled apples with a small army of moms before we called each kid out of their class to cut the apples. The apples were put into crock pots and cooked for a few hours with sugar and cinnamon.

One of the moms had made a fun turkey out of Oreo cookies, a malt ball & candy corn.

The kids had also made turkeys using a pine cone and feathers. It was a fun time for the kids and I am glad I didn't miss it.