movin' on up

funny feather grass at the station

Michael was quite humbled to tears Wednesday morning when he received Warren's email of our missions bank account break down for November.  There were $1,200 worth of first time monthly [?] donations added to the already existing monthly funds.  The question mark is inserted because we'll know better next month what of those are  monthly and what are one time gifts.

Dave and Virginia Rayner, Mike, Barb, Kim, Jim, Kelly and Scott Blackwell.  [Everyone from the station that made it and spouses]

Yesterday we participated in a celebration for some friends' 50th wedding anniversary at a church just down the street.  Clearly Jesus is in the marriage.  Despite all their trials and tribulations  [one of them having lost a son due to a fatal car accident at the age of 19], they still love as if they were still in their pre-"I do" dating months hardly standing to be apart. [Jim only gave her ONE month of engagement.  Personally, I'm no fan of long engagements.  They were smart]. It was a beautiful ceremony followed by an incredible lunch of lasagna, salad and french bread.  That bread had me going bananas for more bread and butter.  DeLISH!!!  Barbara has been a long time volunteer [now part time staff secretary] of the station.  Jim is quite the ham.  He was also long winded....but after 50 years of wedded bliss, who could really blame him?  He even had us in stitches...a lot.

The big fortunate was the timing of the celebration.  It was all over, by 2pm, just before the snow fall got insanely challenging for driving.  On my way back from having drivin' Mike to the station to pick up the station van, the heart beat heavier as the visibility decreased and the roads got slicker.  The poor '82 Toyota Starlet took me for a good spinning in the Costco parking lot.   However, this heart was all the more thankful that our address is not in Prescott where the snow fall is heavier  and the roads are trickier yet amidst such nerve wrecking weather.  Ponderosa Park [old neighborhood on other side of Prescott] already had six inches.

juniper tree by the house

it's finally here

Bone shivering temperatures.  Hair waving winds.  Coloring leaves falling.   Turkey sales.  Thanksgiving ingredients in their specific culinary isle.  Fall parties. Hot apple cider warming the hands. Pumpkin pies topped with whip cream. Families chattering up plans of where to enjoy the big feast together.  Babies cuddled and displayed in the latest wintry get up. Toddlers trailing mom and dad in boots.  Pumpkin spice lattes.  Apple pies. The spirit of Christmas trumping Thanksgiving before it even gets here.  

Seasonal changes break up the everyday [or is it every year] mundane.  This one seams to be the one that creates the most excitement without the stress [that Christmas brings].  It's that time of year when we can all cuddle up with our favorite people and share piping hot drinks and hip widening desserts with friends. Yah, it's finally here.  This is the one year in my whole entire life, lived so far, that I actually looked forward to it.  Less dreading of the muscle tensing cold and more appreciation for the good things we're all intended to enjoy together.

Our first week of living in the rental has been nice.  The kids are just steps away from the park and friends who they've been spending more time with.  On my most loathed holiday evening [Halloween] they were roaming the neighborhoods with their teen cronies and came home stocked with cavity creating treasures...enough to make a dentist groan or smile [depending on the dentist].  Victoria and Sierra are young enough still to anticipate a church party of elementary games.  I went for the free burgers and hotdogs, the hot apple cider and socializing with other parents.

Waking up to cold winds this morning made the season official.  How could I possibly resist playing some Christmas music and starting some chicken chili in the crock pot for supper.  I already had my hand at some pumpkin cheesecake.  Because there was none left by the time I got to it, it was a puzzler trying to decide if sharing it at a Bible Study was really that good of an idea.     Oh, but it serves a perfect reason to make another.  

At last, that yummy colorful season has settled in and there are favorite people too far away to share dessert and coffee with.  You are in my thoughts and in my heart, none the less. 

final Arizona move?

What a day.  Wait, back up.  What a night.  Friday night the kids were exhausted after hours of packing.  They were quite ready to stuff some good tasting cardboard, from Little Ceaser's Pizza, into their hungry maws.  Who could blame them?  The only unfortunate was that Mike had an invitation to speak and share at a men's Bible Study in town straight from work.  With one vehicle and time constraints, that cardboard delight would have to wait until the end of the night.  Late into the night.  A long day turned into a long night all the way around for everyone.  Poor Mike.  Poor kids.  But, we could not forget....good things come to those that wait.  Even though the cardboard joint was closed by the time he got there, Mike was still able to salvage the night's promised satisfaction with Subway.  Tori fell asleep before he got home with her meatball sub.  Mav had also fallen asleep before he could enjoy his chicken nuggets.  But the rest of us....welp, we were in heaven filling ourselves with subs and chips.  For the past several years, my favorite has been the tuna loaded with peppers.  Some with no heat, and some with LOTS of heat.  Yah, spicey baby!  The lettuce and the tomatoes keep it somewhat cool and refreshing.....mmmmmm!

Last weekend we had taken over the first U-haul load to the double wide two bedroom rental.  We couldn't pass up this good deal which promises to save a good chunk on housing costs.  Financially, this should help further catapult us towards the islands next year.  Thank Jesus for incredible connections.  

This week Mike gathered some hands, feet and muscles in hopes to relieve his continually healing knee and our two teen boys that can only handle so much.  If we hadn't invested in so much solid heavy furniture, it may not have been an issue.  But such as it is having become the typically materialistic Americans.  And now....we have much to get rid of and sell as we keep moving towards the missionary lifestyle.

Sierra emptied her and Tori's room with two of the Scott kids

This morning it was incredibly challenging to be ready by 8am.  Not just for us, but also for all our helpers.  However, by 9am we were all gathered and ready to go.  Mike had brought home more boxes last night.  Had we not run out of boxes, the kids and I would've kept going further into the night.  So, there was plenty of last minute boxing up in the pantry and a few closets.  Larraine was an incredible help.  I was surprised by the boost of energy that could've only come from God Almighty.  Charlie Koons put his truck packing skills to work.  With several pickups, two trailers and the mammoth U-haul, Charlie got all but 15% of our junk loaded by 2pm.  

Wonder what Tyler was lookin' at.  Dylan, Charlie and Mike

After a bee sting on the neck [while walking down the driveway], these two short brown chunky sticks hopped into the U-haul and the girls and I made our way into Prescott Valley towards the rental.  But first we would stop at Ceaser's to pick up some pizza for everyone. Too bad there wasn't anybody to take a picture of my shortness behind the big wheel.  It just would've been fun to have in our photo record.

The electricity has been turned on but not the gas.  So, no hot water and no heater.  It's going to be a bone shivering weekend.  Hopefully, that will all change Monday morning...which is when the gas guy is scheduled to put us back in business.  We're hungry.  We're exhausted. Yet, we're SO thankful.

Nine kids waiting to help unload

Having forgotten that Vickie was bringing over dinner and desert, I invested in the Chinese food craving.  So, in the fridge that all went for tomorrow after Mike's reminder.  Remembering that good things come to those that wait, I'm salivating just thinking about that incredible processed Chinese culinary delight.  Tomorrow can't come soon enough.  Vickie brought over one of Dylan's favorites: LASAGNA.  Oh, was he in heaven.  So much so he put away not three but FOUR servings with the heavenly garlic bread.  That delightful funny boy of ours always eats more than his lion's share.  Yet, he's so lean and .....hu, reminds me of how I used to be able to eat like that. 

It's going to be SO nice to be just five minutes away from several food market choices, delicious fast foods, the kids' schools and great friends.  No more isolation and high gas fill ups with long driving distances.  We definitely look forward to enjoying this temporary change.

Vickie also brought this amazing red velvet cake.  What a delectable desert!

holiday frolic

On the Eve of Christmas Eve we galavanted over to the Heights church where we've been attending for a year and a half.  It's the second year that Justin Unger has taken on the feet of creating a winter wonderland with lights, decor...and arranging all other festive muses.  Last year it was only on Christmas Eve.  So, we had the family fun of my mom and Andrea's family here.  However, this year it was for two nights which was brilliant considering the crowds.  Twenty minute candle light services in 30 minute increments from 6pm-9pm, I must say, is another brilliant set up.  I would've liked to catch the light show coriographed with music on video....However, I'm not sure it would've done it's spectacular-ness justice.  The line for the hayride was surprisingly long, but worth the hour+ wait.  It was beautifully put together with the narration of the Christmas story.  Had I been more timely in getting out there it wouldn't have been so difficult to partake of it all.  In order to soak it all in, families really do need to plan on attending both nights and get there at least an hour earlier before the "open".  Will there be the opportunity next year?  It all depends on what the Lord has planned.

the chocolate factory tent

I had the hardest time trying to figure out the best camera setting for this night shot.  In any case, it was nice to have carolers singing out there amongst the crowd as we all socialized with coffee, hot cocoa and cookies.  Incredible ambience.

This is how one can know the limitations of their camera even if it is 12 megapixel....it's still not yet quite as clear as you hope it'd turn out to be in the dark.....

the arch leading to the path towards the cross

Looking back from the cross

What fun when much to our surprise the entire Moffit family was there!  We were hoping to see some of the girls, but we didn't know their parents would be there as well.  Poor Mav was too miserable to indulge us with a smile.  I couldn't quite figure out what he was trying to ask me.....

It was so beautifully lit all the way up to the cross with music playing......

love this gorgeously monstrous metal cross...

keeping the hot beverages going

in the Kid's ministry building were ornament crafting tables set up ......

Tori was so patiently meticulous

Mav wanted Michael to make his

Sierra's

Michael took it a bit too religiously......

the day after

12/16/3010
It's the day after the Christmas one day sharathon "celebrate the gift".  I'm sitting at Laurie's "old" work desk and computer with a bowl of  left over chips and sandwiches.  Being a big fan of leftovers, it all tastes just as good this morning. 

chicken salad

Chiffon cakes tend to be dry.  However, these mini beauties from Sam's club with the cream cheese frosting were amazing

perfectly moist.......

Sally's been an incredible asset this year.....

Mike came up with the theme and put together the schedule.  However, Steve changed it at least three times, according to Mike.  While the station was abuzz with incoming donation calls, donation drop offs, winners picking up their prizes, food going in and out, volunteers...etc. I had an incredible amount of fun going shutter crazy and posting the photos up on the station fan page.   One cute family of five kids dropped in.  The baby's pudgy cheeks were irresistibly yummy.  Oh, how I long for another [baby]. Breakfast was provided by Cracker Barrel and lunch by the Wild Flower Bread Company.  Both great food caterers, but I declare....it's a sure good thing they don't always cater to the radio station or I'd be in much bigger blossoming trouble!

Roger Camping came to add to the radio voice for several hours.  He's very good with his words in making people feel good about what they do.  Kevin didn't fly into town to join so the on air staff was getting really stretched.  However, it was very doable.  They all did well.  For the first time ever I spent the day taking pictures and posting them to the station FB fan page.  Mike handed me the camera and I basically went to town.  What fun.

Sue Szot came in  with a CPC partner to pick up the Christmas Cradle drop offs.  The project was conducted differently this year so the results weren't as good as they have been in the past. To further contribute to the different results, the time in which Laurie left [the previous Christmas Cradle chief] andmoved to Oregon was long before Tricia was hired by the board and then given the project by Steve.  So, the grand plan will have to be revamped for next year so that families will continue to be blessed through CPC.  They brought over a plate of celebratory cookies. 

While such contributions don't help my blossomed body I've made the decision to assuredly enjoy before going on the second round of the Hcg starting Christmas Eve Day.  [I'll most likely be doing a third round too! (^_^)  The Spring incentives will be described in a later post].  I've timed it all so that the first two days in which I would be pigging out will land on the two most indulgenous days of the year.  The plan is to also double dip into the Christmas Eve services.  The Height's Christmas Fest is on the evenings of Dec 23rd and Dec 24th.  Services start at 6pm in 30 min. increments and loads of festive stuff outside.  My favorite double dipping will be into the chocolate factory coming back this year.  Me oh my!  I will have to post some pics and/or video footage.

vital Christmas ambience

It was the last Vital Moms for the year and our social muster of great mothers was abuzz with table decorating and catered food displaying.  My earlier morning fluster of having forgotten the coffee/tea mug for the gift  exchange was quickly remedied with a quick trip to Wal-mart for a more colorful replacement.  It had not deterred my punctual arrival so as to be able to assist with the children's check ins.  Phew.  It is truly delightful to be one of the first to see moms proudly toting their beautiful children into the building.  Some were well dressed for the celebratory season with the appropriate colors: boys itty-bittedly well representing mom's taste for quality seasonal masculine attire and little girls primly staged with their silky smooth curly ribboned tails adorning their pates.  And then there was my more casually groomed Maverick who was timidly comfortable with yet another "class room" social gathering amogst his mini peers. 

The sanctuary was completely decked with seasonal embellishments which included thousands of stringed miniature low lightings.  The celebratory ambience was fabulously YUM to say the very least.  Heart and eye candy to every in-house reveler.

Joyous applause to Michelle Smith [our greeter] for doing and stupendous job of keeping the jibber jabbering crowd gently nudged along within the the morning's buzzing agenda of used toy exchanging, gift exchanging, crafts display, maw stuffing, new mom/baby recognitions[s]....etc.  Her genuinely positive and gentle spirit is an incredible asset in helping all busy social-hungry moms feeling loved, appreciated and safe.  This is an environment that can easily propagate cliques [which conflicts with the purpose of VM].  However, her God-guided warm spirit appears to have a way of keeping that snuffed.

Thanksgiving-a-la-turkey

It was the first time I used the roaster
for a turkey since we would be using
the oven for several other dishes.
Works awesome!

For some reason, this year [as Thanksgiving approached], I was becoming more and more fond of Thanksgiving and less of  Christmas as we know it in America.

Thom Duarte posted, on Facebook, posted the Thanksgiving Proclamation from the Florida Library website (and I'm SO GLAD he did).....

Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Day Proclamation :

WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:" 

NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;-- for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish Constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;-- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;-- and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleased to confer upon us. 

There's nothing like cooking that turkey everybody's been
anxiously waiting all morning [and into the afternoon] for...and
there's nothing like waiting for that turkey feast either.
Even Mav got into the excitement.

And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;-- to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us); and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best. 

GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine. 

(signed) G. Washington 

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Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing our great Redeemer's praise!  This is one day I would enjoy to have lasting more than one day in all it's delectable celebratory glory.  Oh, to sit [days longer] in appreciative silence...being still and knowing God as He truly is.  For He is why were are here with a purpose.

It was not until 1941 that Congress sanctified Thanksgiving....

Congress Establishes Thanksgiving

On September 28, 1789, just before leaving for recess, the first Federal Congress passed a resolution asking that the President of the United States recommend to the nation a day of thanksgiving. A few days later, President George Washington issued a proclamation naming Thursday, November 26, 1789 as a "Day of Publick Thanksgivin" - the first time Thanksgiving was celebrated under the new Constitution. Subsequent presidents issued Thanksgiving Proclamations, but the dates and even months of the celebrations varied. It wasn't until President Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Proclamation that Thanksgiving was regularly commemorated each year on the last Thursday of November.

In 1939, however, the last Thursday in November fell on the last day of the month. Concerned that the shortened Christmas shopping season might dampen the economic recovery, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a Presidential Proclamation moving Thanksgiving to the second to last Thursday of November. As a result of the proclamation, 32 states issued similar proclamations while 16 states refused to accept the change and proclaimed Thanksgiving to be the last Thursday in November. For two years two days were celebrated as Thanksgiving - the President and part of the nation celebrated it on the second to last Thursday in November, while the rest of the country celebrated it the following week.

To end the confusion, Congress decided to set a fixed-date for the holiday. On October 6, 1941, the House passed a joint resolution declaring the last Thursday in November to be the legal Thanksgiving Day. The Senate, however, amended the resolution establishing the holiday as the fourth Thursday, which would take into account those years when November has five Thursdays. The House agreed to the amendment, and President Roosevelt signed the resolution on December 26, 1941, thus establishing the fourth Thursday in November as the Federal Thanksgiving Day holiday.

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I used apple cider to marinate the turkey this year.  Sweet and savory is definitely deletable!

It is with great sadness that historical revisionism has been such a common practice for decades.  Thus, less and less American elementary students are being taught the true Thanksgiving story and how it is perfectly tightly connected to our Christian roots.  Therefore....less and less Americans celebrate this beautifully historical day, in their hearts, as it was originally intended while feasting on that fattened turkey and all the fixings.  

The original Mayflower Compact is additional "evidence" of the Christian roots from which Thanksgiving was eventually brought about.  

In modern english: 

IN THE name of God, Amen.  We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign Lord, King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland king, defender of the faith, etc., having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.

In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape-Cod the 11 of November, in the year of the reign of our sovereign lord, King James, of England, France, and Ireland the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domine 1620.

*******

So, it is with great American Thanksgiving pride [humbly originated by William Bradford] Christian families should recite the original Mayflower Compact in humble remembrance and gratitude to the God of our fathers.

....and let it not be overshadowed by the tsunami of greed by the following day of "black friday" which is quickly becoming a holiday in itself [and at this point is covered by 24,000 news stories with Thanksgiving news stories at 31,000].   May we not forget the tens of millions of fellow Americans that will be deeply suffering this winter due to the continuing decline of our economy.


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Black Friday: A Festival Of Greed In The Midst Of A Sea Of Pain And Suffering