Merry Christmas!

What a wonderful Christmas! It was so great to be all together. Don't Mom & Dad just rock! They make everything so fun - besides all the nonstop cooking and cleaning. Thanks! Our gift exchange was the best. It is my favorite part. I am always amazed at the creativity of everyone. Here are the pictures.

Happy Birthday Dad!

You are a wonderful father. I love you!!

Christmas time

Greetings
It is that wonderful time of year that we get to share with each other. You are the best family in the world. In case you are wondering, the bell is still ringing for me!!!! This is the magic of Christmas, the feeling, the music, the FAMILY!!!
We will be gathering together on Christmas Eve around 6:15 We will have dinner together and celebrate the big "65" birthday. Judy's family will not be here until in the morning. Teri's family and Joni will not be here until around 10:00 p.m. Teri is so good to wait until Joni gets off work before coming. We are all praying that the weather will stay good.
Christmas Breakfast will begin at 9:30 and continue until everyone has a chance to eat.
The Soup Supper will be at 5:00 so bring your appetite.
This is a wonderful year to share with you. I am looking forward to lots of laughter, food, music, fun. We will have our musical program before the grand gift exchange

Jury Duty

I was summoned to Jury Duty today.

I've never been a potential juror before. It was kinda exciting. I had the choosing up teams feeling: "Pick me! Pick me!" for some of it. Though mostly I was hoping they wouldn't actually pick me. I had things to do.

The process moved at the usual government pace: Hurry up and wait. Good thing I brought a book. I was reading the latest John Grisham novel, The Appeal, which I thought was pretty funny to be reading during jury duty.

One of the questions the judge asked the whole group was if we had any family members who were police officers. I raised my hand. So later, in the judge's chambers for the more private interview, I was asked about it. (When I said my brother's name, everyone was noticably impressed, so hey - way to have a great reputaion bro!) Then the judge asked me if I would be more in favor of believing the police officers' testimony because of the family relationship. I thought about it and then said yes. So that was the last question for me and I was escorted out. Yay! I'm outta here!

But seriously folks, relatives aside, if you had to choose between a total stranger and two police officers, who would you believe?

Midnight Snow

Last night I got a call that school was cancelled because of the snow. Only the second time that has happened in my life - the first was when Megs was in elementary school. Anyway, to celebrate, we stayed up late watching a movie, so I was on my way to bed just after midnight when I looked outside at the snow falling. Having grown up in the desert, I had never watched a snow storm at night. It was so beautiful. What amazed me was how light it was outside. The snow reflected the streetlights and the Christmas lights so much that it looked like it was about 7pm instead of midnight. I couldn't believe it. Then we decided to go play in the snow.

Here's Megs aka The Snow Angel. I love it when she is a little girl again instead of a 19-year-old adult. See how huge the snowflakes are!

Here's the finished product. Pretty dadgum good snow angel. Awww, so cute!

She's thinking of throwing that snowball at me. "C'mon Mom, get out here!" I, of course, am huddled in a blanket on the porch saying, "OK, l-l-l-l-let's g-g-g-g-g-o in n-n-n-n-n-n-now!"

Just wanted you all to know how much I appreciate your prayers and thoughts of Kierra. Surgery is always awful and stressful, but this was definitely the best we've been through. Kiki was very alert in recovery and was asking for a drink. She usually goes to the ICU, but this time she didn't. She went up to normal peds and was soon asking the nurse for some real foods (which she usually wouldn't have until the next day). She had surgery at 7:30 am and by 1:30 pm she had eaten a full lunch of real food. As you probably know she went home that same day. We feel really blessed.

She did go home with 2 tubes in her but one came out that Friday. Taking out that tube made Kierra feel real good and it was hard to keep her down. By Monday she was asking to jump on the trampoline. Wednesday we went back in and they took out her other tube, but put the one back in that makes her hurt. The next day it was really sore and bleeding so the nurse told us to go ahead and take it out to. The second it was out, Kiki was just fine and ready for life.

Thank you all so much. We love you! Prayer really works.

Deer Camp

Here are some more pics from Deer Camp