Yesterday . . .

Left the beach only to arrive home to snow falling. Not a fun transition. Wouldn't recommend it.

We set foot in 5 different states.

Visited 4 airports.

Flew for 4 1/2 hours.

Waited for baggage for an hour.

Drove 7 hours.

I was awake for 20 hours.

(which is the closest I've come to experiencing torture).

Poor Jack choked back tears for most of the day.

Now desperately trying to recover before hitting the ground running tomorrow.

More on our vacation . . . and 200 pictures . . . as soon as I get my wits about me!

(hint: it was great!)

A Heavy Heart

A little over a week ago, I came upon another blog that has rocked my world. I was reading Beth Moore's blog, and one of her daughters put an urgent prayer request up for Joanne Heim, the author of a blog entitled "The Simple Wife." She woke up last Tuesday morning like most of us did, healthy and probably expecting a fairly normal day - hit the treadmill for a run, and her life was then changed forever - mere minutes thereafter, she was fighting for her life. She had a stroke while on the treadmill, was found by her daughter, and thankfully got to the hospital within 15 minutes - which evidently makes a difference in survival chances.

I have anxiously read every blog and twitter update her husband has posted, and this family is never far from my mind. Never in my life have I ever prayed so fervently and persistently for people I do not even know. Never has my heart broken like this for complete strangers. I don't know why some stories affect some people and others do not, but this one just tears me up. She's a mom. She has two young daughters. Ages 12 and 9. Can you imagine??

I posted a button over on the right that will take you to their blog where you can read their story and get their prayer requests. This story has affected so many - her husband mentioned yesterday he's received messages from everyone from Beth Moore to Joni Eareckson Tada to Tiger Woods (of all people!). It's amazing to me how God uses technology to bring thousands together in prayer. Awesome.

Please Pray . . .

Tomorrow our dear friend Tim (the B1 pilot) deploys to the Middle East for six months. Please join us in praying:

• For his safety and a quick adjustment to his schedule;
• For Christi's peace of mind;
• That they both would feel God's arms in a tangible way over the next 6 months;
• That the time would go quickly for both of them.

We all often pray for our armed forces in a general way, but I thought this was a great opportunity to attach real faces and names to those prayers. It can be too easy to forget there are real lives and real families invovled in the protection of this country. The sacrifice is huge.

Take care, Tim! We will miss you and we will pray for you every day, and know that we will be here for whatever Christi needs. Godspeed.

Psalm 91

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust."
Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare,
and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
You will only observe with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.
If you make the Most High your dwelling -
even the Lord, who is my refuge -
then no harm will befall you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread upon the lian and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
"Because he loves me," says the Lord,
"I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
He will call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation."

Amen.

Christmas . .

Whoa, it's been a LONG time since I updated this. And I have no idea how that much time went by so quickly. During the last half of December, we were consumed with Christmas programs, parties and preparations, and then after Christmas, the massive clean-up and recovery. :) It really struck us this year the amount of time (WEEKS) and effort goes into the celebration of one singular day. By December 27th, we found ourselves completely bone-weary exhausted and resolved to do a major overhaul of Christmas in 2011. It will be interesting to see what we come up with . . .

In the meantime, here are some of our memories from Christmas 2010:

(I love this pic of my dad. Shortly before Christmas, we were at my brother's and he fixed my very masculine, hunting/fishing/outdoors loving dad a PINK cosmo. And he drank it. :) )

Noah's piano recital. He's come so far this year. One day I heard him playing Christmas songs, went and asked him where he found Christmas music, and found he didn't have any - he was able to re-create them from his head.

This is his amazing instructor.

Our tree. We all LOVED it. It's real, and it's "flocked" - meaning sprayed with a white foam material to look like snow. It was a trick to decorate, however.

My new favorite ornament. Found it this year - was over the moon.

Noah's school program - he's in the top row, in the red.

Jack's school program - he's basically in the center of the picture, in red.

A fun night we had with our friends at Storybook Island - they decorate the whole park with millions of lights - it's just beautiful.

(That's a plaster Santa - not the real deal).

Christmas Eve was a great day for us. The four of us went to our favorite place for lunch (Qdoba), spent an hour at Border's spending gift certificates, had coffee at Starbucks and then headed home for a game of Battleship before church.

The boys vs. mom and dad. They won.

All ready for church -

Had a few moments of goofiness . . . .

I love this picture.

Christmas morning, the boys found enormous stockings left by Santa. (which they don't buy into anymore).

Opening gifts . . . .

Is that a look of happiness, or what?

I created "scrapbooks" for each of the kids on Snapfish - each book contained approx. 300 photos from 2010, and they LOVED them. Jack said it was his favorite gift. It was #2 on Noah's list. So many of these pictures they never see, because they don't sit down at the computer and look at them. So it was fun to re-live the year with them.

Later on, we headed up to my mom and dad's in Spearfish. Jack and Noah read the Christmas story from my dad's giant antique bible.

The 26th, the whole family went bowling. I didn't even bowl because I wanted to capture all the fun (and I had a neck injury). It was the first time all the Horak cousins had bowled together. And it was my nephew Aaron's first time EVER, and oh the cuteness!!!

Does he look PROUD or what?

And his older brother Colby nailed it!

Sometimes it was a group effort . . . . (Cayel, Colby, Aaron).

Noah, who looked so huge compared to these little guys -

See what I mean? The biggest cousin and the littlest cousin. Makes my heart hurt to think Noah was once that little . . . .

Again. The cuteness. Can you stand it?

Jack's form. He wanted to bowl on the big guys lane (Dad, Grandpa and his two uncles)

The happy bowlers.

Happy New Year!

The closest I'll get to baking this year . . .

So two weeks have gone by (how the HECK did that happen??) . . . and all I can really tell you is that it's been total insanity. I'll update more later, but in the meantime I wanted to share my very favorite Christmas recipe with you . . . might want to READ it before you attempt to make it. Perfect for when your Christmas season is a little crazy and you need a good laugh. :O) Enjoy.

Christmas Tequila Cookies

1 cup of dark brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 cup of granulated sugar
4 large eggs
2 cups of dried fruit, such as dried cranberries or raisins
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 bottle Jose Cuervo Tequila (silver or gold, as desired)

Sample the Cuervo to check quality. Take a large bowl, check the Cuervo again, to be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup, and drink. Turn on the electric mixer...Beat one cup of butter in a large, fluffy bowl. Add one teaspoon of sugar. Beat again. At this point it's best to make sure the Cuervo is still OK, so try another shot . . . just in case. Turn off the mixerer thingy. Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit, pick the frigging fruit off floor . . . . Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers, just pry it loose with a drewscriver. Sample the Cuervo to check for tonsisticity. Next, sift two cups of salt, or something. Check the Cose Juervo. Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add one table. Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink. Whatever you can find. Greash the oven. Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over. Don't forget to beat off the turner. Finally, throw the bowl through the window, finish the Cose Juervo and make sure to put the stove in the dishwasher.
CHERRY MISTMAS :)

It's no wonder mornings are stressful around here

This morning I took an inventory of everything the boys needed to take to school with them:

homework folders with all necessary worksheets and forms
homework planners
textbooks
reading (chapter) books
library books
Math game binder (Noah)
Christmas book for Jack to read to the kindergarten class
midmorning snacks for both
lunches for both
lunch money (Jack)
art project money (Jack)
water bottles for both
gloves
hats
snow boots
snow pants (yes, they even need those)
coats
shoes
2 cups of cornmeal (Jack - class making a recipe)
props for Christmas program (Jack)
gym shorts and shirt (Jack - has uniform for gym)

Seriously.

This is for a 7-hour day.

It's a wonder we ever make it out the door by 7:55 am, and that the kids don't need a Uhaul to go to school.

When did school get so complicated?!?

And then to get myself ready AND take care of Murphy . . .

Oh yeah, and the kids need breakfast. Imagine that. So demanding.

Anyway, there's no point to this post. (Other than to garner some sympathy for my insane mornings.)

I know I'm no different than anyone else who has kids in school, but when I realized EVERYTHING that needed to be inventoried every morning before we walk out the door, I was amazed. And thought I'd share. Happy Tuesday.

Mario and Luigi

Happy Thanksgiving!

And since it's Thanksgiving it seems totally logical to discuss Halloween. Makes perfect sense, does it not? ??

Unfortunately it makes sense in my crazy world where I can't keep up. Today, Thanksgiving, is the first day in a long time where I've had time to just sit, lounge, think, and get a few things read and updated. Thus, we'll go over Halloween since that's where I last left off . . .

This year the kids COULD. NOT. DECIDE. what they wanted to be. Oh my word the drama and indecision that ensued in our household for the 2 months leading up to it. You would have thought we had 2 teenage girls trying to decide what to wear to the prom. Which sort of tells me they are outgrowing Halloween. :( Which sort of makes me sad.

We finally settled on Mario and Luigi - their two favorite video game characters (basically no video game is worth having unless Mario and Luigi are in it). We "settled" on them because I bought them as a back-up plan - knowing full well the kids would not have chosen a costume by 4:00 p.m. on Oct. 31st. But, they ended up liking the back-up plan. Mom always knows best.

And I guess I can now understand why dentists hate Halloween. All the candy really does make your teeth fall out.

Upon arriving home from treat and treating, Noah took a shower and then dove into his bag of goodies. While chewing on a tootsie roll, his tooth fell out. See it in there? :)

Maybe it's not an entirely bad thing if they decide they are done with Halloween . . . .