Black Friday

I must admit, I am one of those crazy people who set their alarm for the wee hours of the morning to catch a good deal or two.  I just love the "trill of the hunt".  Deb, Brandi, and I started the day at 5:00 am and didn't stop until 2:30 pm.  Our sprits were high, our carts were over loaded, and we can add yet another story or two to our "shopping memoirs".   

Sew Thankful

It turned out that Thanksgiving was Breckyn's lucky holiday this year.  As she sat at my mom's and rattled off her Christmas list, items kept appearing.  She has been wanting a sewing machine for a couple of years so she was in a state of shock when Grandma Mary brought a used sewing machine upstairs for her after dinner.  The next item on her x-mas list happened to be cloth to sew with and what to her wondering eyes did appear but a box of material.  This girl was on a roll.  She tried a third and final wish of $50.00 but her luck had run out.  When Bryan, Connor and I left, Breckyn and Rachel were busy creating an apron.  I can't wait to see how it turned out.  I wonder if Grandma Mary got any sleep last night?

Thanksgiving

Isn't it sad that it takes so long to prepare Thanksgiving dinner and in a matter of minutes it's over?  We spent the holiday at Bryan's brother and sister in law's house.  Jan prepared a wonderful meal and the kids had a great time together.  We got to meet a lot of Jan's family as they let the Dunlap's crash their Thanksgiving this year.  On Friday, we headed to my mom's house for a traditional Kramer feast with all fixings.  I don't know what I'll do when it is my turn to take over the cooking!  yikes

Friday Night "HIGH"lights

Who said shopping for a new mattress and hanging out with your parents on a Friday night wasn't fun?  Connor and Bryan found a lot to laugh about at Sams Club.  I am sure the other customers where looking at us wondering what was going on but we sure had good time!  And who knew there were so many decisions to make when buying mattress?  

Cactus Love

Warning:  Not For "Normal" Human Consumption

My husband has a unique ability to find the most unusual foods when we go to the grocery store.  For instance, last year he decided that he needed to try Vegemite, you know from "The land down under".  It looked like tar in a jar.  I am not sure why the Aussie's indulge in that!  His newest discovery was cactus in a jar .  Last night happened to be cactus tasting night. The directions said to drain and serve in salads, soups or side dishes.  So, of course we decided to drain and eat it plain.. it had onions chunks in it and it looked like green beans.  Needless to say after Bryan's reaction to the first bite only Renae and Mark were brave enough to give cactus a try.  Oh, what will the man bring home next?  Stay tuned!

And It's Complete

It is hard to believe that in just 7 days the lot has gone from weeds and dirt to a completely brand new house and yard.  Today marked the completion of the Extreme Home Makeover Chapman Edition.  Tune in on Sunday, January 25th to watch the show.  I am excited to see how many familiar faces we will see and I know my box of Kleenexes will be close at hand.  I hope they caught that handsome police officer that was securing the site Friday on film or the fabulous church youth (Breckyn) that participated in the Brave Heart March on Saturday.  Breckyn was excited that she got to see at least 1 star, Paige on Friday.

Blue Shirts & Tarps

I must admit, I have tried very hard to get my hands on one of those fabulous "Blue Shirts".   My friends, Brandi, Deb, Renae and I all signed up to be volunteers for the Extreme Makeover Chapman Edition but somehow we all came up short in the drawing pool because not one of us got "the call" to volunteer.  Boy, did they miss out!  Well, it is a good thing for them that we all know the definition of PERSEVERANCE because we found a way to help ... note the blue tarp.  Yes, we came to the rescue one rainy night when the K-State engineering students were hard at work in the park working on the stone path that represents the path of the June 11th tornado.  Work was going to have to be stalled because they did not have any tarps to cover up the sand and stone work.  Thanks to Deb and Brandi's K-State jackets we happened to make a new friend, Will, who mentioned this slight problem.  Brandi had just volunteered to drive back to Abilene to get her tarps when Deb noticed the lights on in the house across the street from the park.  She knew the family and said that they probably had some tarps due to the roof damage their house received.  So away we went on our pursuit of Extreme Home Makeover history.  As with any superhero tale, the heros came through and saved the day!  We didn't get our blue shirts out of the deal but we can say we helped out in a small way.

Extreme Home Makeover

Wow! Words can not express the amount of emotion and awe that I have felt over the past few days watching the Extreme Home Makeover crew and volunteers work their magic in Chapman.  The city of Chapman has truly been blessed by the great people of Kansas and their generous hearts to make this project a reality.  As I sat in church yesterday and listened to Doug Thompson, Chapman city attorney and member of Emmanuel Church, explain that our church has been the point church from the beginning of this project and how things have progressed in such a short amount of time, my favorite bible verse kept popping into my mind:  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.  Philippians 4:13  The people of Chapman have and will continue to prevail through His strength.  

It's Beginning to Look ...

A Lot Like Christmas!  Breckyn and I have been busy little elves the past couple of nights decorating Christmas trees.  At last count we were up to 5 trees in the house.  The purple tree is the newest addition this year thanks to our neighbors, The Dales.  One afternoon last Christmas, we came home to find this purple beauty on our porch.

Family Pictures

Thanks to our good friend Renae we finally got around to getting our family pictures updated. So last Tuesday, we braved the mighty wind and headed out to Brown's Park to take advantage of the fall foliage. 

A Whole New World

After the KSU football game the guys headed off to the golf course for a round of golf.  We gals had no problem finding something.  Renae helped  Tisha get a blog site started while Deb began a facebook account.  Tisha soon followed suit.  It was quite funny to see 4 women with 4 laptops chatting away online!  The guys should be pleased that this is one hobby that won't cost them any money.

Happy B-day Boys!

Bryan and David Walters celebrated their November 1st birthdays with good friends and family.  Too bad the Wildcats couldn't pull off a victory to make the day complete.