Yes, I am alive...not sure if I'm kicking or not! :-)

I can't believe it's been over a week since I've posted. I even missed Thankful Thursday yesterday! All day I kept thinking about it, but never got it done. I did sit down during nap time to get my post put together, but our Internet was down, so I worked on the children's Christmas program instead.

So...what have I been doing since I haven't been blogging? Here's what we've been up to....

Last Sunday we left right after church and headed to Topeka for the yearly church workers conference (I mentioned it last week in my TT post). It was good to get away for a few days and see old friends. I even drove to Lawrence (about 30 miles from Topeka) to visit my aunt and see her beautiful new home! It was a good time, but a LONG drive for two short days. It is about 6-7 hours each way. We decided to leave a bit early on Tuesday to avoid getting the kids home at 11:00. Well, about an hour into our trip our cell phones (yes...PHONES) started ringing. A woman in our congregation had been hit by a truck and killed. Every few minutes for the next hour either Warren or my phone would ring with someone else calling to tell us...we're thankful that people wanted to make sure we knew. That made the next 6 hours stressful as we tried to drive fast, but not too fast. Traveling with three little ones is never quick...we had to stop for potty breaks about once an hour!!! We finally made it home around 8:00, and Warren headed over to the family's farm to offer his support and begin planning the funeral.

Wednesday I had no extra children, but I was TIRED! I did laundry, but that is about it for my accomplishments of the day. Thursday I had extra kiddos, and worked on the Christmas program...I'm excited about it this year! I ended up looking through all the files of "old" programs to find one because I didn't care for any of the new ones I found this year. I found one that I think will be fun. Along with the usual Christmas songs and recitations by the kids, this program involves slides (ok, it's an OLD program, I'm going to make power point slides!) to illustrate the point. We are going to get together prior to the program and record the kids dressed as the different parts (shepherds, wise men, etc) saying their parts, and also photograph them in different poses (bowing to the manger, around a Christmas tree, etc). Then, the night of the program we will show these parts and the kids will say their different parts. It's different, but sounds like fun to me! Also, the kids can wear their "Christmas outfits" for the program, which I think is always a lot of fun. The name of this program is "Who Will This Baby Be?" and it's all about what Jesus will be/is. He is a shepherd, teacher, God Himself, One of Us...etc.

So that you don't think I've completely skipped fall and gone strait to winter...we're also planning a Fall Carnival for the children of our church/community. We're going to have a lot of games and prizes. I need to get my order into Oriental Tr*ding Co. TODAY! Gotta get those little prizes! We also ordered a bunch of stuff from Old Lutheran.com...fun stuff like "Lutheran Chick" and "Luther Rocks" temporary tattoos. One disappointing thing though is that there is a farmer that grows a TON of pumpkins and then just lets people come in and pick as many as they want for FREE...I was going to go get a bunch for the carnival so kids could stick foam pieces on them and use markers to decorate...well the farmer had some sort of virus attack his pumpkin vines, and has ZERO pumpkins. :-( So now I'm not sure where I can get a bunch of pumpkins cheap. Still looking into options.

Dad continues to improve. They have had him standing on the tilt board, and this week they added something new. Some sort of chair that goes from a flat bed-type surface into a chair that he can sit up in for meals and such. He's spending more and more time in there each day, so that means he is getting stronger and tolerating the sitting more. Both good things. Mom sounds like she's doing alright, tired...but what do you expect?

The heating/ac guys came yesterday and installed a bunch of new vents and air returns to get ready for our new ac/heater coming in the next week or so. We're putting most of the money Warren will earn the next year for the vacancy work into this. This should help a lot with our energy bills, and add value to our home. Plus...we won't get used to the extra income...because it is temporary and would be very bad to get used to having "extra" and then have it gone! :-) The rest is going into savings...for future stuff...

Other than that I haven't been up to much, just trying to keep up!

So...what have YOU been up to?? :o)