Yay almost time to close up shop. I have Jury Duty tomorrow! :D It might be weird but I have always wanted Jury Duty. The last time I got picked I totally spaced it and forgot to go. Lucky for me the lady who works at the circuit court office goes to church with us so I didn't get into trouble. She just signed me up for next time. So I'll be going in for questioning tomorrow to see if I'm eligible. As long as I don't have to look at gross or scary pictures I'm in! Cheers! Wish me luck!

We are so proud of Emily! She got a special certificate from her teacher today for doing something good. It says "Emily was honest about doing something she was not supposed to do even when she was sure she would be in trouble. I am proud of her. Keep up the good work Emily. Miss Lenz" For a while we've been having trouble getting Emily to always tell us the truth. It seemed no matter what we told her we still kept catching her in little lies. I am so happy that she is seeing the good in telling the truth. Chris was so happy he got down and decided it was time to play horsie as you can see. You have to give Chris a lot of credit for letting the kids ruff him up as much as he does. He is always down on the floor rolling around with the munchkins. I'm so blessed to have such a great family.

Christmas

My daughter Emily is five years old. Chris (my husband) and I have always done our very best never to lie to her. Even when it comes to such things as the tooth fairy and Santa Clause. We have always told her Santa Clause is a fun story but that he is not real. I have always wanted my kids to know I tell them the truth no matter what. Some people really think we're harsh with the no Santa Clause thing, but that's what we believe. We believe in honesty.

My Mom got me this book called The Bible Answer Book for my birthday. It had a topic on Christmas and "Should Christians Celebrate Christmas?" There had been some controversy the last few years in our church over having a Christmas tree and such but I never really looked into it. Now I have.

Santa Clause actually is based on a real person. A real CHRISTIAN person. I had seen the little cartoon about Santa Clause but I thought it was made up. As with most cartoons a lot of it is made up but there is some truth to it. Santa Clause is based on Saint Nicholas. To make a long story short Saint Nicholas was a Christian who was very generous to people in need. He was known for his love for children. He obeyed the words of Jesus Christ "sell what you have and give to the poor." He used his conviction and sold all his inheritance to take care of those in need. It makes me think of all the good things I pass up by not listening to my convictions from God.

I found a lot of this information at this website. There's a lot of other stuff I won't mention, if you're interested google it. I'm so happy to be able to tell my kids there really was a Santa Clause. Not only that but he was Christian and he did so many things to help people. The true meaning of Christmas is buried under materialism and greed. If you dig you can find it and hopefully share it with someone else.

My poor little Logan. He's such a special kiddo. He's the middle child so as always I think he gets overlooked a lot. He was the youngest until Brett came along December 04'. Logan has done a great job at adjusting. He didn't really go through the jealous sibling thing. He likes to help out with Brett even if it is only taking things away and telling him "No No Brett." Logan is sick and he's so sweet and lovable when he's not feeling well. Normally he likes to give hugs and kisses but he's really busy with all the playing he has to do so he doesn't always have time. When he's not feeling well though the playing isn't so much a priority and he is always available for a little loving. I feel bad I tried to give him a haircut and now his hair looks horrible. I'm going to have to buzz him and just let it grow out again. I'm not a hairstylist but he was to the point where he couldn't see and I had to do something. He won't sit still for a hairstylist so I was the only one to do it. He'll forgive me someday. You can tell just by looking at him that he doesn't feel well. If you can see past the dirty face :p. Poor wittle boy.

Anyone who knows me will know that I operate my husbands gun & pawnshop. You also probably know how much they like to CHANGE things. So now they are in the process of remodeling AGAIN. They are expanding the store by like 12 feet and adding a small playroom for the kids. I took some before pictures and when they get done I'll take some after pictures.
The first three pictures here are of what the store looks like now. Yes that hole with plastic over it is supposed to have a door, but they never finish anything completely. They better this time though!

Now these next couple pictures are Chris and his Dad putting up the walls and getting ready to move the other wall into place. I'm thinking it's gonna take a lot longer than one day :p

We decorated our Christmas tree! It was so stinkin' cold outside, it's snowing a little bit. Chris helped me to put up the outside lights. Emily and I had to go get a few more because it seems a little mouse chewed most of our lights and there were a lot of bare wires. We are going to finish putting up the outside lights tomorrow. Logan didn't want to help put decorations on the tree. He is not feeling well so he's being super good and lovable. When Emily and I went to the store to get more lights Brett gave Chris a bad scare. He went into the bathroom and when he came back out Brett had broken one of the bulbs off the tree. His fingers were cut up a bit and he was chewing on the glass! Never turn your back on a one year old! Emily did a good job putting up decorations though. I got her a new Barbie ornament, we usually get a new one every year. Chris took some pictures of me with my face all frozen after coming back in from hanging outside lights, and of Emily decorating the tree. So now our tree is up. It looks great. Hopefully Brett doesn't pull it down.

I am so discouraged! I thought I would pick up a few Christmas gifts for the kids while I was getting some cold medicine at Wal-Mart. So I strolled around for a little while. I found the cutest Barbie nightgown for Emily and it was on clearance. She just loves nightgowns and the fact that it is Barbie is even better. Then I found some cute hat and glove sets for Brett and Logan, Spiderman for Logan and Bretts are so cute they have open fingers and a little flap that folds over them for closed fingers. Then I picked up a few other necessities, toothpaste, hair conditioner and two rolls of wrapping paper. All of this came up to $57 and some change! So there we have it. Things just cost too much these days. I don't want a lot but it breaks my heart that I can't go buy my kids some gifts without feeling guilty for spending money. Guess I'm gonna have to do some serious praying and Bible reading. I need some encouragement.

Why is it so hard to think of something to write about? I keep a diary, I
never have trouble thinking of something to write about. Maybe it's because people will read this, gotta make myself look good. I can't just whine and complain like I do when I write in my diary.

Okay so Thanksgiving weekend! Chris made the most awesome deep fried turkey, it was so yummy. Can't compliment him too much though or he might start cooking more often. We can't have that, our house isn't insured. I didn't take any pictures though... I was lazy this year.

Emily was sick yesterday with the flu. She's feeling better today thankfully. So far she hasn't missed a single day of school and she's pretty proud of that. Luckily she got sick during a long weekend so she should be better by Monday. They post the names in the hallway, of all the students with perfect attendance. Her class had a Thanksgiving Feast last Tuesday. They dressed up in their Indian hats and necklaces that they made in art class. An hour of being in a kindergarten class was plenty enough for me though. I'm glad I'm not a grade school teacher.

So this is my blog! Yay! I am really new to this so I'm just going to talk about my day. I think I can delete this if I decide it's super dumb. Today is supposed to be the "biggest shopping day of the year," the day after Thanksgiving. Lucky me, I'm stuck working in the gunshop! It's okay though, I can handle it. Poor Chris had a migraine today. Hugs for Chris! Emily has been gone the entire day with Grandpa Horn. She was over at his house playing Playstation games with Devin. Logan is finally potty trained so no poopy stories about him today. Praise God for that one! Brett is his same, usual happy self. He's such a good little boy. I hope he is easier to potty train than Logan was.

So I spent most of my day trying to take pictures to put on my new blog here, and talking on MSN to Vetrik. Not a whole lot going on, so not a whole lot to write about. I'll get better at this as I go along.