Taking the Scenic Route

A friend of mine sent me this quote and I wanted to share it.  It has held so true in my life.

In the face of all difficulties, doubts and objections,

Trust in Him, He will not let you down.

If God does not grant the means,  that shows He does not want you to do that particular work.

If He wants it done, He will give you the means.

Therefore do not worry.

~Mother Teresa

I am so insanely tired today I feel like I am going to fall asleep walking.  I tried knitting for a while but I kept dropping stitches and my hand started aching, and it was just making me even sleepier.  I don’t want to frog everything I did, so I just put it down for today.  I also wanted to go to Michaels today and I just didn’t feel like it was even safe for me to drive across town.  I am lethargic beyond reason.  Maybe I am getting sick.  I sure hope not.

I found this cool site on how to make Thomas the Tank engine type train tracks & trains.  I don’t have the tools to do this right now, but I wanted to keep track of this in the hopes that I can do it later.  http://www.bscandm.com/trains/track.htm

I can’t wait for Christmas.  I am so excited.   Zach is out getting some train cars right now.  Zane is going to be so happy!  For those who know Thomas, he is getting Gordon & James.  He might get a few non-engine cars too, depends on price.

Aaaaahhhhh.  All of my Christmas Cards are sent (except one…waiting on an address), and we mailed out the only package that is going out this year.  Thank goodness!  That was weighing so heavy on my mind.   I haven’t done Christmas Cards for years due to cost.  This is the first year in a long time we could afford to get  the cards, a picture printed for most of them, and postage.  We couldn’t afford the super pretty cards, but I like the ones we picked. 

One of these years I will try to go back to designing the Christmas Cards again…I really need to get out my art supplies.  I can’t really paint until Zane gets old enough, but I could pull my pencils and maybe my pastels out.  I feel so much better when I am able to do my artsy fartsy stuff.  Knitting has sort of filled that void for the time being, but there is nothing quite as magical or fullfilling as transforming a blank canvas into something thought provoking or beautiful. 

Charlie Brown Christmas Special was on tonight.  Zane was just a tad excited.  It was adorable.  When he saw Linus, he ran and got his white bath towel and carried it around for a while, dancing with it during the dancing scenes and whenever he saw Linus.  It was just really sweet to see him enjoying it since I can remember how excited I was to watch Charlie Brown every year.  He didn’t quite grasp the concept of commercials though…he got a little weepy and pointed to the tv saying “Char-ree Broon” over and over until it came back on.  And yeah, I still get goosebumps when Linus describes the real meaning of Christmas. 

Charlie Brown Christmas

Nerds, Mark your Calendars!

May 6, 2005

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

May 19, 2005

Star Wars III:  Revenge of the Sith

I am looking forward to May.  lol.

Oh, while we are doing a geeky post….anyone want to knit a uterus?

One of our public channels shows videos from 7pm to 7am of orchestra, instrumental, opera, ballet, modern dance…things along those lines every night.  Last night was a video called “pretty big dig” that showed these 3 hydraulic  excavators (sort of like the one in the picture) dancing and moving to music.  It was pretty amazing, but all Zach and I could think was that my dad would be one of the few people around that could handle one of those that well.  Those were some seriously good operators.  Was sort of funny that we were both so riveted to the screen when they came on…at first we were laughing at the absurdity of it, then mesmerized by the sheer skill of how those machines were moved around.  Amazing!  Wish I could get ahold of the video because it was just so cool.

Cute Zane thing today:  My Mom & Dad stopped by for a few minutes to pick up the turkey roaster pan they loaned us since they were in town to get Zane’s present.  (which I am SO excited about….it was exactly what we wanted for him…but I’m not telling yet.   hee hee).  When they came in he excitedly showed them the tree and then ran back to his room to get the ball they played with him last time they were here so they could play with that again.  Upon leaving, he was fairly happy as he was waving bye-bye to them, even helping me move my hand in the “bye-bye” motion.  Once they left he ran to find his sippy cup, put it in my hand, grabbed Zach’s hand and pulled us both to the door.   (the sippy cup is always the last thing I am running around trying to find before we leave to go someplace).  When he realized we weren’t going to go with Grandma & Grandpa, he crumpled on the floor crying and kept trying to drag us to the door.  He was not happy.  The last few times they have come over, it was to meet us before we went out to do something.  I felt so bad for my little guy.

My guys are so funny.  I needed to take a quick shower to get some stuff off my back (my bra left a residue…eeewwww).  Zane heard the shower and quickly came to crawl into the tub. Zach removed him, saying “your not naked…you can’t get in the shower with clothes on”.  So, he runs away.  We thought he was just ticked because we thwarted him.  no … he ran to our room, gets undressed, runs back and stands there naked, looking at us.  lol. Well, we have to let him in then.   

I was pretty much done and Zach came in to watch him while I got dressed.  I figured they would just be in there a few minutes.  For the last 10 minutes or so I have heard a LOT of belly laughs and giggles.  I gotta say, that is the best sound in the world!  I don’t even care if the toilet paper is all soggy…hearing them have fun like that is so worth it.

Zach’s First Graduation Day!

What a spectacular day!  We had a lot of fun, cried some happy tears, and screamed like crazy people when Zach walked across the stage.  Zach has never participated in a graduation ceremony before (got his GED when he moved in high school instead of attending his 14th or 15th school)  He has persisted through a lot of obstacles and today was HIS DAY!  WooHoo!

The Arena

Showing Zane where Daddy is.  (he is on the far side, on the center isle, third row from the back…first row without the dark brown floor)

Waiting to walk across the stage (that is him with the medalion)

The “close up” of him going across the stage on the big screen over the arena

Meeting up with my favorite college grad!

“the guys”  Robert (Zach’s best friend), Steve (my brother), Zach, Zane & my Dad

People mingling at the Graduation Reception Party.

The fabulous cake

Zane was more interested in the bowl of nuts next to the cake.  lol.

My best friend and her husband came down from KC. 

Zane trying the cap and gown on when we got home.

We had a really nice evening tonight.  We put up the Christmas Tree and decorated it, then Dawn & Zyg arrived into town and we hung out for a while and went to grab some supper.

The tree decorating was fun.  It is the tree that my parents got when I was a child, so it is fairly old, but in pretty good shape.  Zane helped put the ‘branches’ into the pole and was pretty facinated with the top of the tree which looks like a small tree.  While we were putting the lights on, he found the garland and was trying to start that.  I was pretty amazed that he seemed to remember what to do from last year.  We had some problems with the ornaments because some of the threads were snagged and stringing everywhere, which lead to some humourous moments and confused looks on Zane’s face.  He also really liked the santa hat and at one point put the stockings on his hands like oven hot mitts and attempted to grab ornaments and decorate while wearing his “gloves”.  It was so sweet!

After the tree was decorated, we got out the little people nativity scene and told the Christmas story as we showed him the characters.  He sat on the ground, playing with the characters for quite a while.

This evening Dawn & Zyg arrived in town.  It was so good to see them again.  We realized that the last time we saw them was for their wedding two years ago.  wow.   We spent some time sharing pictures and then went to Outback Steakhouse because Dawn wanted beef and Zyg wanted cheesecake and beer.  lol.  Zane snuggled into Dawn and put together a puzzle while waiting for our food.  Those two really hit it off!  We are going to see if it works out to see eachother again tomorrow before the graduation since they are probably going to have to drive back right after the ceremony to get back in time since they both work early Monday morning.

Zane and the tree top

the Garland

I am not sure why he decided to lift up his shirt and pooch out his tummy, but it sure looked funny.  lol.

Decorating challenge:  can you decorate with Christmas stockings on your arms?

Ahhh…Father and son playing with the nativity set.

Wait a minute…what are you doing with those wiseman?