I

Have

No

Words

with which to describe the cold I have encountered in the last 4 days.

No

Words

Will

Do

Justice.

I thought those of us who could handle the scorching Texas heat were tough.

No.

Tough are the people who live north of the Mason Dixon Line.

Tough are those who can handle -8 degree weather.
Tough are those who have to have TWO wood burning stoves to keep from freezing.

Tough are those who can survive without power for over a week -in New Hampshire, -in December.

I tip my hat to "yous guys".

I am shaking my head right now. I have so many stories. I don't even know where to start. I'll try the beginning....

"It was a dark and cold night. Mike and I head up to Maine. 5 hours later we arrived at his grandparents house in -2 degree weather. Yes, it was cold. Before this trip I thought that anything under 45 degrees was cold, no matter how much colder than that. 32 degrees was a milestone because that meant the birdbath water would be frozen soon. I didn't even see much point of putting numbers below 32 on the thermometer. Why? Cold is cold?

Why? Because cold is not just cold. There is cold and there is -2.

-2 is when you can not go outside even to start the car without a coat and hat on.

It's when being outside without gloves on for more than 45 seconds results in burning fingers so cold that they ache. I had no idea.

We get to the mountain and strap on our gear. After a couple of runs with our "Cheapo" goggles, I told Mike I was done because I was so cold and my goggles were fogging up. (Can't see and skiing down a mountain -not a good combination).

$145 later we were back on the trail. Much warmer this time. Mike had new goggles, I had his and this mask thingy that made me look like a ninja. Did I mention it started to snow about this time?

Yes, snow, but not JUST snow. It was a Blizzard. This is not me talking, this is what the locals called it. A Blizzard.

It snowed from noon till early morning hours. Total snowfall? 42"

You should see the video of Mike uncovering our car. I'll see if I can load it on here.

Our condo/cabin was nice. It had a hot tub. We used it.

It was an amazingly cold vacation. Next time we are going to South America.

New Years Eve

Well,

I know it is a little early to be thinking about New Year's Eve. But if you don't plan before Christmas, then you have 4 days or so to decided what to do and that is not long enough to get people onto base w/o hassle.

So we need to make plans.

Is anyone in Abilene having a NYE party that the Ellis's are invited to? We have a babysitter already reserved. If not. Does anyone in Abilene want to come over to our house for a party? I hate to say this, but we probably want to keep it to adults and babies. (You know, the kind of kids that don't run around. -not like mine)

What say you?

I'll be waiting for your replies.

Christmas is coming!

"I am no longer dreaming of a white Christmas!"

It is here.

Today it snowed about 6 inches and it is supposed to continue tonight.

Jack and I played outside all bundled up in snow pants, jackets, coats, boots, gloves and hats.

I wish I had taken my camera out there!

I'm not a fan of the bitter cold or even the slightly bitter cold, so I can never justify living in the North because of the COLD. But today, seeing Jack out there with his mouth open looking up into the sky with a bed of white beautiful virgin snow out there... I couldn't help think, "this is nice."

I think scenes like that influence people to move up to the cold states. Not me, I won't be fooled. I'll take my Texas hot and dry any day of the year.

Don't get me wrong, I'm having a blast up here, but man. It's cold. Today I looked at the thermometer and it said 23 degrees.

Thats 9 unnecisary degrees -not required in keeping the snow frozen.

Shudder.

No worries tonight though. Ty is all snuggled in his bed, I'm sure with the visions of sugarplums or whatever.

Jack is being put down by Mema. He probably got her to read a few books to him before going to sleep.

Mike, Dad, Chelsey, Laura (Chelsey's friend who is staying here cause she has no power at her house due to an ice storm that came through a week -yes a week ago), Mom and I are about to play THE GAME OF LIFE.

Then we will roast marshmallows in the fireplace before watching the new batman.

I'm excited!

I hope all of you are having a terrific time with friends or family and really getting to love on your peeps this Christmas.

-Becca

Hot Cockles

Hey Guys!

I just figured out how to play this game:

Hot Cockles.

Check it out sometime. Apparently it is pretty popular.

Christmas Auction

Christmas Auction

by Julie (Wichita Falls, TX)

Instead of getting gifts for each other, all of the adults in my family participate in our Christmas Auction. Each person brings a few small gifts or handmade items. We lay all of the items out and number them. Everyone gets the same amount of "Santa Bucks" - usually 20 or 30 depending on how many items there are to bid on. We take about 30 minutes to check out all of the items and write down what we want to bid on each one. When everyone has their bids ready, my mom "auctions" off each item. It is so much fun to see what item will be "hot" every year. We usually have a mystery gift (wrapped) to bid on. Some years it is a gift certificate and some years it is a gag gift. Christmas wouldn't be the same without the auction!

This just sounded like a fun idea. I thought I'd share. Merry Christmas!

doctor visit

This morning started off at 2 am. Jack woke up, don't know why and came crying down the hall toward our room. An hour later we had his coughing under control and he was back asleep-this time on our floor.

I woke again at 7 ish and couldn't speak. My voice was gone. I made some hot tea, which helped, but come 8:30 when I was about to call Jack's pediatrician I realized that I still couldn't speak above a whisper. I had to warm up my voice in order to be able call the Dr. about my son's red swollen eye. Ha.

Before going to the appointment Jack and I had talked about how nice doctors are and how they help make us feel better. Jack would say things like, "Yeah, the monkeys."

(Mamma called the Doctor and the Doctor said, "No more monkeys jumping on the bed)

We go to the base clinic for shots so apparently this was the only thing on his register about doctors. And he was expecting monkeys to be there.

We pulled up to the doctors office at 2:30 for a 3:00 appointment. I wanted to be sure Jack had enough time to touch everything in the waiting room before going back for his appointment. Oddly enough, there was only one other child in the whole place. Wierd, for December -right after a cold front blew in. You would think every child with the sniffles would be there. Not so. I kindof felt like I was in one of those action movies where some epidemic has swept over the whole town and you are one of very few people alive. -Maybe I was exagerating, but the thought did flow though my mind.

Jack kept looking around for the monkeys.

He was not comfortable AT ALL with the doctor looking in his eye or his ears. Then things calmed down when she got done with his exam. As we were leaving I told him how nice that doctor was and that they were now friends. He says, "the monkeys my friends."

What?

I don't know.

We pulled into the house and Mike saw Jack. He said, "Hey Jack, what did the Dr. say?"

Jack's response:

"No more monkeys... [ jumpin on the bed.]"

On another note. Today was the day that we had planned to go Christmas caroling with the AWANA girls. 28 degrees.

No, that's not a music group, its the temperature, in Fahrenheit.

I was calling these old ladies today, asking them if we could come and sing. -Did I mention I had next to no voice all day. I can only imagine what they are thinking.

1. How the heck is SHE going to sing.

2. What? I ain't letting her in my house, she's sick!

Either way, I assured them that we would stay OUTSIDE and that I would be bringing young girls to sing. I attempted, but not much came out.

The girls were a blessing to the old folks and the old folks were a blessing to my girls, and I was blessed by all of them and my increadible staff of AWANA leaders. Man, God is good.

What a day.

What I like about you!

Emily Poulter

Well, I could be quite honest here since Emily (to my knowledge) doesn't read my blog. So here I go.

Emily is besides my Mom, probably my top choice for "Mom of the year". She is pretty much always on top of things and never seems to get overwhelmed or lose control. If I hadn't grown up with her -I'd think she was superhuman.

For the record, she's always been pretty much steady and amazingly strong. She is by far THE toughest person I've ever met. Emily? Yeah, that's right. You probably wouldn't automatically assume that, but get her to tell you her birthing story with Claire. It will go something like this:

"Well, I went into labor one day, went to the hospital that evening, but they said the contractions weren't close enough together so they told me to come back later. So we went home and came back the next day and had a baby. " -then she would smile and start talking about something else.

But.

Here is what really happened.

41 excrucating hours of labor with NO DRUGS and NO SLEEP. -did you catch the almost two complete days with no sleep part?

Ok. Are you convinced? I can go on, but I'll stop here for the sake of keeping this post short enough to read in one sitting.

Emily is someone I'll call when the boys are cranky and I'm cranky and no one is getting anything done. After I whine for 3 or 4 minutes. I will stop and ask her what she has going on. She will say that she's just had exercise time with the girls, and that they are coloring a picture now, later she will teach Ava her alphabet -in Spanish and Claire will work on writing in cursive. She will have the floor picked up and have a wonderful healthy supper on the table for Tommy when he gets home.

Good grief. Sometimes I think I would feel better about myself if I had a less "superhero type" big sis. But here are some of the things I like about Emily.

She laughs when I try to make a joke -funny or not.

She can always come up with a good meal when I call her asking "What should I make for supper"

Emily is the calm in the midst of my stormy up and down crazy life.

She calls me when she is frustrated (twice) and makes me feel like I have something to offer her.

She is always coming up with creative things for her children to do, and I steal her ideas.

She knows her neighbors and often organizes events to be around them.

She teaches Sunday School.

She has worked herself ragged trying to figure out Ava's food alergys and is now an expert on the subject. -which makes my life easier cause Jack is alergic to the milk protein. (without Emily we wouldn't know that Jack can still eat cheddar cheese)

She always opens her home to me and my two sleep psycho boys.

No amount of chaos can cause Emily to yell at anyone.

She respects her husband.

I feel like I'm listing off Proverbs 31.

But you get the idea. I guess you could say she's one of my heros. I didn't intend for this to get so long, but I guess there's just a lot to say about this stay-at-home mom.

Ty's crying again so I got to go.

TY is walking!

Tonight our youngest took his first steps into manhood. Ok, that was a little bit of an overshoot. But, he really did takes steps toward me. Unfortunately, Mike was out of the room when it happened. I immediatly called him up and tried hard to reenact the moment. He took a few steps but nothing close to the two or three that he had already demonstrated.



I am going to try to upload a video here. See if this works. Looks like it is going to.

The video should be pretty self-explanitory, Ty trying to walk, Jack trying to steal the show, the dogs... in the way as always.

What Is Christmas all About?

Today Jack and I went out on a mission. To buy a book about Baby Jesus.

First stop: Hastings. No Baby Jesus book. Hastings had about 20-25 other books about various minor characters in the Christmas scene, but none about our Savior's birth. Odd.

Family Christian Book Store had several to chose from and we picked out two, used a coupon and still probably paid wait too much.

We also were looking for a kid-friendly nativity set. Couldn't find one. When I was growing up Mom and Dad had a plastic set that we played with all Christmas season -for years. Can't find anything like it. Apparently there is a "Little People" Nativity -made by Fischer Price. The girl at FCBS said that they sold out of that instantly.

Why can't we find sets for our children to play with?

How else (besides reading books) am I going to teach him and let him become familiar with the story of Jesus? I supposed I could get a DVD, but then that's more time spent watching TV.

What's the deal people?

If anyone knows where I can get an indistructable nativity set, let me know.

-Mom, the set you got us is good, but it doesn't have tons of characters and I've already had to rewing and angel.

What I like about you!

Susan Pride.


Do you know her? You should. She's awesome.

She's my aunt. Mom's younger sister.

Aunt Susan makes me beautiful. Any time I need it, I can call her up and say, "Aunt Susan, I need a haircut, can you do it?" Know what she'll say, and she'll say it every time. "Sure! When do you want to come?"

Now just saying something like this, anyone could do it. But Aunt Susan really means it (I think). She never acts too busy or put out that I (and all my sisters and some cousins) take advantage of her. The other part of this is that Aunt Susan is the best beautician ever. She does what you ask and then improves on it.

She always gives of herself. Know the verse about God loving a cheerful giver? I love a cheerful giver too. It makes you feel good.

Thank you Aunt Susan for always making me feel important and for allowing me to sit down and visit with you every couple of months. Thank you for serving me.

Abilene Community Band

presents

A Christmas concert

at the Paramount Theatre

7:30 PM

Thursday.

Look for the Ellis's

It's FREE

Leno

What's the difference in Plexico Burress and toys made in China?




Drum roll please....




Toys made in China have less lead in them. bada-boom-ching!

The parade

Ok, so I just thought these pictures were too funny. Check em out.

Notice Ty's focus.

Mission accomplished. Good job Agent Ty.

This is us at the Abilene Christmas parade tonight. FYI.