New Years Party

We have rescheduled New Years for Labor day weekend. Yes, indeed!! The annual Maurer New Years Party will be the Saturday of Labor day weekend. Out of town guests will be welcome to stay for the entire weekend. Please mark your calendar. And yes, of course we still plan to ring in the New Year. On GMT.

The party's over...

... and we're alive to tell the tale.

My sister Lea was Confirmed Sunday. Mark graduates High School tomorrow night. Mom decided the best course of action was to have the family over on Sunday after the Confirmation in honor of them both (I most heartily agree).

So that meant cleaning the house, buying food and cooking food. While the bakery is almost gone now, the rest of the food will take a few days to finish off. Thankfully the weather co-operated and most of the people spent their time outside. Note on buying plastic outdoor furniture -- avoid white, it gets stained and then perpetually looks dirty too easily. (yay for beach towels to try to hide this fact.)

By the time the extended family left, I was tired and stuffed. I found out one of my uncles used to work in the building I currently work in (back when it was owned by another company).

Saturday and Monday I got to go out running while mom rode the bike. Saturday we managed to juggle errands and running to avoid the rain.

The Confirmation was nice. The auxiliary bishop has a homily comprised of several stories. My mother is convinced that there is one story that he includes in every single homily (my youngest sister is in the children's choir which has sang at the confirmations for several years now). Between the Masses I've been to celebrated by this bishop (for a variety of occasions) I'd have to agree with her. For the "Come Lord Jesus, send us Your Spirit, renew the face of the earth" song, the choir did the harmony. This reminded me of Rose White Chapel Mass, the music group... and Siberia, which is a long story Loree might remember.

Now after the graduation tomorrow, the insanity will end. Or maybe return to its normal levels?

First Steps

Isaac is walking now. He has been so close for so long. I am really excited.

Now for some a complete change of subject:

The other day I decided (there might have been a poky stick involved) to start a Bible study for young women. I am going to invite about eight women to come to my home once a week for eight weeks. I think we will study Colossians.

Since several of the women involved have small children, I need to make some kind of childcare arrangements. I am hoping that maybe I can get some of the older ladies in the church to volunteer to come over and watch children. If not we can always hire a couple of teenagers.

I feel woefully inadequate to lead a study. And that is okay. I am inadequate. That just means that I will have to rely on the power of Christ. And trust me, we're all a lot better off that way.

In other notes. Last week was really difficult because Paul was out of town for several days. Paul's mom came to help with the kids, which was really great. But it still wore on all of us to have Paul gone. He had a reasonably good time in Florida. The day he got back he bought me some very pretty flowers to plant in my flower garden.

And the gift he brought me? A chocolate cell phone. It was yummy. Paul also brought seashells for Abigail, a puzzle for Sam and a bear for Isaac.

My good friend Jess came to visit on Saturday. We had a good time catching up and reminiscing. We even went to Fazoli's for old-time's sake. Fortunately, there were enough breadsticks so we did not have to call the restaurant (from the dining room) to complain.

Vulcanized and Mufflered

Yes, yes... I am so TIREd I am EXHAUSTed.

Sorry... That's really all I have to say. I am really, really tired. And cold too. I step outside and think I'm going to melt. Then I come in and start shivering. The thermostat says it's 77 in here. And no one else is complaining.

I've got lots to talk about if I can ever come up with the energy.

Baby Pics

December 17

I had my OB visit and first ultrasound today. Dr. Wheeler, pegged the baby's due date as Dec. 17. I'm guessing the correct date is Dec. 19 or 20. But I know something. NEVER EVER adjust your due date to make it later. Besides, since when do baby's come on their due date. (I am of course the exception---but this is only because my parents did not want me to come that day).

My pregnancy weigh in is 153 lbs. Only 3 lbs less than I was at full term with Abigail. Obviously I am going to have to watch what I eat (Hey look at this, I'll eat it too!!) if I don't want to be as humongous as I was with Isaac. So I keep repeating to myself, "self-control, self-control, self-control"

first longies!

first longies!
Originally uploaded by roerte.

Back in March, I mentioned having finished knitting a haphazard sort of pair of longies for Rachel, and said something about posting it sometime. Lazy as I am, I found no motivation to actually upload the picture and blog about it, but recently I gots m'self a flickr account.

So, um, this makes things much easier. ^^;;

Now, if only my camera could beam my pictures straight to the computer and printer immediately after I take them...

/back to being lazy.