Christmas is almost here!

Since Thanksgiving things have been so incredibly busy at work getting prepared for Christmas, one of our busiest times of year. Pacific Office Automation has been integral in saving my sanity with the very timely delivery of a new copier/printer that can print in b&w and/or color, create booklets, fold and staple. I'm thrilled!



To get in the Christmas spirit, Em and I visited the Bellevue Botanical Gardens special light show that they put on every year. It is so beautiful and a lot of fun. Next year we are hoping to have several friends come up specificially to go to the Gardens and then on to Bellevue Square for their Holiday Lane festivities.

We spent last weekend down at Fox Island with my brother, sister-in-law, and their little boy enjoying an early family Christmas. We enjoyed spending some time in their family cabin right on the water. Emily and I got out for a bit to take some photos, in between rainshowers, and we all were thrilled to see a parade of Christmas boats make its way along the shoreline.

Tomorrow, Christmas Eve, I'll work most of the day and then have a pretty quiet evening at home for Christmas Eve. Traditionally, we have gone to the movies on Christmas Eve, but chose to go last night to see National Treasure 2. We definitely thought it was good and enjoyed the gift of the tickets from family.

Christmas Day we'll open gifts and relax at home before Emily takes off on the 26th to fly to San Diego for a week with family friends. Whatever will I do while she is gone? New Year's Eve is going to be pretty quiet.

We hope you all are enjoying your holiday season! I had hoped to make a trip down to Oregon in February, but won't be able to take time off when I wanted, so I am still working on dates when Em and I can get back "home" and see everyone.

Merry Christmas to all!

Merry Christmas!

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Send this free eCard ! Get more free ecards

Believing in God

It is so easy to get caught up in the drama and busy-ness of everyday life that by the end of the day taking a few minutes to reflect on life, God, and faith in general often gets shoved aside as our mind busily ticks off our list of "to do's" and fast forwards to the worries and concerns of tomorrow.... next week.... typically stopping short of examining eternity and our place there.

Even though I work in a church and have a multitude of opportunities to examine the role that God plays in my life and experience His role in the lives of my co-workers, the congregation and community at large, I have to admit that many nights I find myself asking God, "Where are you? Do you really care?"

On many levels I know the answer to that question, after all isn't that what I was raised to believe and profess to believe?

Being a single parent, trying to keep afloat financially, emotionally, spiritually, etc. is not easy and there are days (and nights) when I wonder how everything will all play out, but even in the midst of everything I can honestly say YES, I do believe in God and I know that no matter what He loves me and He will never let me fall.

Lately, I've found myself repeating over and over to myself that God is indeed there and that He loves all of His children and that He will not let us fall. HE LOVES US! No matter what we do, He still loves you and me!

I often picture myself sitting side by side with Jesus, looking out over a golden sunlit afternoon valley. Simply sitting. He is close by covering my hand with His-- patient as ever-- just waiting for me to draw closer to Him. I want to draw closer, I want that relationship. How do I let go? How do I trust and draw closer?

A Better Use of My Time

For the days when we all need a break, try this:

And you all thought I was crazy.

Happy Halloween!

From a Sponge Bob Square Pants pumpkin carving to Emily's spooky costume, we hope you all had a spooktacular day.

Happy Halloween.

A Day for Photos

We had great weather today so we headed a few miles down the road to a nice park and went hiking. With the sun shining and the colors changing we managed to get some really great photos.

Maybe we'll get out again tomorrow. Em seems to have caught the photography "bug" and it is fun to each capture our own perspectives on different things.

Tonight we'll be watching some scary movies for Halloween and tomorrow, we have a pumpkin to carve.

More photos of our outing can be found on our Flickr sites:

Emily's: http://flickr.com/photos/mika10045/

Kim's: http://flickr.com/photos/kpeng/

It is Friday!

We made it through another week! So what do we girls have planned for the weekend?

Em's coughing a bit tonight (we're hoping she is not getting the cold I've had for a week). If it doesn't develop into anything over night, we plan to go out and take some photos of the fall colors before the weather changes again.

Maybe we'll watch some movies or Gilmore Girls and then of course, we'll be raking some leaves. (I knew there was a reason -ok many reasons- that renting a condo really would have been a better option than renting a house!)

That said, we're trying to keep up with the lawn too. Anyone care to share the intricacies of changing the oil in the lawnmower? I've been putting it off- and I'm not as mechanically inclined as I used to be. Where or where are all of my male cousins now?

I need a time out!

OK, I will admit it, I can't do everything... at least not all of the time... not perfectly or gracefully or even maintain a poker face while I am trying.

This week has been extremely trying--- maybe even overwhelmingly trying.

It's been hard helping Em adjust to her new braces. She got them on last week only to have a bracket pop off the very first day, plus she's been stubbornly and bravely dealing with the pain.

So, we thought we got the bracket issue taken care of, only to have it pop off AGAIN! Fracture number one in my carefully crafted veneer of "I can do it all!"

Last Friday I started coming down with a cold. It's what happens when you work in an office with tons of people going in and out (I don't mind the people - really! - ok, most of the time). Since things are so busy at work, I have been working through the stupid cold... Fracture number two.....

As I said, this week has been incredibly busy. Staffing has changed somewhat at the office-- one person has gone to part-time, another left for a job far-far-away (and I am not talking about the land of Shrek- hmmm..... I wonder how one gets there?....). And another co-worker has been seriously ill for more than a month. Did I say that work has been BUSY? Fracture number three.....

Juggling: I used to think that juggling was something that I do very well. And then again, maybe not. Fracture number four.....

A poker face: Nope, definitely NOT good at that. I tried, I really tried, but today I guess I really couldn't pull it off. I seemed to have frightened/shocked/surprised/worried my boss today. As I realized he was leaving for the office today I asked a question and he remarked, "I don't think I have seen that look on your face before. Just breathe." And then, remarkably, my poker face didn't exactly improve. I stopped at the store on the way home and noticed that people were either trying to go way out of their way to be helpful or they were steering out of my path. OK, do I look that dreadful? Once home my family noted that I looked a little "off-center". At this point, fractures one through four collided and split into dozens more and I am left sitting here tonight realizing that I need a serious TIME OUT!

Yes, I am tired, and stressed and staring a million deadlines in the face this week. Next week ought to be interesting as most of the staff will either be a) on vacation b) at training c) out sick or d) stuck with me-- don't you wish you could be so lucky? I can promise you that for those of us in the "d" category-- next week will certainly NOT be boring. But I do promise to keep breathing. One breath at a time, one moment at a time, one project at a time. But really, can someone please put me in time out and soon?

To end on a positive note, Em's braces are hurting her less, despite some canker sores, and there's a full moon tonight surrounding by an endless sea of stars. I am thankful for God's creation. It's just one thing that gets me through-- and yes, I do realize that despite everything that's broken, melted, blown up, etc. this week that I am blessed.

Happy Fall!

Make your own slide shows and scrapbooks

Hanging out at home this weekend

Not a lot going on this weekend. I've gotten a cold and hope that Em doesn't get it. She's already missed a fair amount of school between being sick in September, getting teeth pulled and braces.

Em's adjusting to having braces. She's still not thrilled, but the pain seems to be lessening. One of her brackets came off on Thursday night, so we will be going in on Monday or Tuesday to get that re-set.

Friday I have another court date to try to move along the whole sorry saga of getting Bo out of our lives. Hopefully the judge can just convince him to sign the papers and be done. We'll see.

The braces are on!

Today was the big day for Em. Finally, she had her braces put on. She did very well with the process, but admits to being in quite a bit of pain tonight-- more so than when she had 4 teeth pulled a few weeks ago.

We know it will get better, but tonight that bit of knowledge is lost on her as she adjusts to new sensations, tension and discomfort.

Growing up is still hard to do.

LifeHouse has a new album

If you haven't yet checked out alterna-rock band LifeHouse, head to their website today and do so. They've had hits on both the pop and Christian rock charts and are amazing. Their lyrics are poignant, honest and reflect on some tough issues. Em and I are both fans. Pretty cool when both mom and teenage daughter can have something positive in common in music-- and hey, their song "First Time" is being featured in the new Dodge commercial.

Prayer request for a friend

For the past year and a half I have had the great pleasure of working with the most wonderful youth director at the church. Brelin has always been full of energy, excited, happy and in love with life and her husband too (as it should be). At the same time, Brelin has also suffered with some chronic health issues that she has always tried her best to hold inside and keep trudging on.

More than a month ago Brelin has begun to slow down just a bit and has been in and out of the hospital while perplexed medical professionals have scratched their heads in astonishment over an as-to-yet diagnosible condition (She is also on the waiting list for getting in to the Mayo Clinic for help).

Brelin is not able to keep down food or even liquids and had a cathether put into her artery yesterday (finally) to get her body the nourishment it so sorely needs.

Needless to say, she is tired, miserable, scared and fed up -- just as is her entire family. We are all worried for her and wanting to do anything we can for her and her wonderful family. At this point, I would gladly take her place for awhile to let her get some much deserved rest, but as that doesn't seem to be an option I would like to ask you all to pray.

Please pray for Brelin and her family. Please pray that the next medical test will reveal something. Pray for guidance, strength, rest and above all faith and patience. It is hard to watch someone who is as wonderful as Brelin (and her family) go through such a frustrating and painful process.

Blessings to you all.

Photos

Hey! Where's the Bird Seed?

For the past few days, we haven't been able to figure out how the local wild birds could possibly be eating so much bird seed and why a couple of the bird feeders had not only been knocked down, but completely disassembled.

There was a cougar siting two blocks from our house yesterday and multiple bear sitings in the vicinity this week, but we decided that cougars probably aren't all that interested in bird seed and the bears.... well, I suppose they might be, but really didn't care to think about it too much.

Tonight while checking my email, I noticed that our resident crows (thank you Emily for feeding them!) started making a real racket. I looked at the window and thought I saw a very large squirrel hanging off the bird feeder.

Well, not exactly a squirrel, but a very crafty raccoon. Not only had it managed to make off our suiet feeder, but scrambled up onto a tree branch and grabbed our cylindrical feeder and promptly pulled it off its hook and emptied the bird seed all over himself.

So.... I think that will be enough bird feeding for awhile. We really don't need "masked bandits" hanging out in our backyard-- cute as they are.

Mother's Day Greetings and a Prayer Request

Hello all—Happy Mother’s Day!

It’s not often that a Mother’s Day greeting is combined with a prayer request, but today I wanted to take just a moment and send Mother’s Day greetings and also ask for prayer for a very special family.

While I did not have the pleasure of meeting Mr. Ralph Sappington (an amazing musician and man of faith from what I hear), it is every day that I am blessed to work with, assist, and support in work and friendship his son and my brother in Christ, Pastor Will Sappington. And occasionally I am doubly blessed to be able to watch over Will and his wife, Kaia’s, absolutely gorgeous and delightful daughter Evangeline (affectionately known as Evie Lu) for a few minutes while Pastor Will dashes off to oversee something for just a moment.

Early last week, Pastor Will’s father suffered a massive stroke and was finally called home to the Lord yesterday morning with his family at his side. Mr. Sappington has joined Heaven’s band and I cannot wait to someday finally meet him and know him. So today, while we are all celebrating Mother’s Day, I hope that you will all just take a moment and say a quick prayer of love and support for Ralph’s wife, his children, his granddaughters, extended family and friends. Today, we are so blessed to have each other.

Hold your dear one’s close!

Mother’s Day blessings and love to you all!

The Howarth Girls - Kim & Emily