Thursday Ramp Up!

When did the weekends start including Thursday's?  In our house it seems like it's the first day in the long 4 day event filled section of the week.  We don't typically have things going on on a Thursday and yet I realized I include it, do you do that?

Here's how my Thursday went (yesterday)...
three hours spent at work (my day off, but fine as I was getting stuff done that couldn't get my attention otherwise).  45 minutes devoted to computer crap (25 min alone for Facebook because it's slower than the jar of molasses I bought 3 years ago). 1 hour to righting my kitchen (which also included the junk mail pile up).  Low and behold it was time for the kids to be home!!!  I knew I was heading to the gym with Kirsten, no open swim meant Luke was uninterested, and the library had emailed to remind me my books would be late if I waited one more day....so off we went.

I parked in the 5 min drop off zone at the library, because I only needed to drop off 4 and pick up 3 books ( I knew where they were) super quick 10 minuets tops!  Kirsten spent a couple extra minutes picking out a book and we were back in the car in what I would swear was only 10 minutes only to find that my car wouldn't start-urghhhhh!!!

I feel it's necessary to explain the special relationship I have with my car right now.  It's been in the family for six years and I've worked it considerably to an end.  Several years ago I had that glamorous lifestyle of a newspaper delivery driver.  It included approx 88 stops a day.  To some it wouldn't seem so bad but to car door it's the death.  At one point we had replaced the drivers side door and it was good to go until another 8 months on the job and the same drivers side door took a hiatus from life again.  It won't open from the inside and I should mention that in the same process of opening and closing your door 90 times a day also can cause the window to no longer work properly so it won't go all the way down and you need muscles of iron to get it back up, on a good day, so not a good idea to put it down.  It will open with the handle from the outside but its the boot scoot boogie over the passenger side to get out (especially great in a skirt of a dress, very lady like)

So here I am downtown at 4:45 pm turning the key in the ignition.  It's the dreaded sound "click, click, click....stop. turn. click, click, click"  So...as I've already shut my door, Kirsten slides out so I can crawl over (don't worry...remember I'm on the way to the gym so no dress today).  I also have escaped the power of the costly phone bill and head into the library.  Did you know they still have pay phones around? It's .50cents to use one these days, which I happened to have.  As luck would have it my husband was just about to leave work and he'd be down promptly.

On my way back to the car I noticed that the break lights were on...mmmmm...I've had this problem in the past as well.  Something to do with the dangling car starter boxes hanging just by the break pedal (should probably have that looked at).  So the lights left on for 10 minutes was enough to drain the power.  A little jiggling of the boxes, get out check the lights, more jiggling, more checking and after 3 rounds we were good. Now to wait for Scott. Since I had just picked up the next book in the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich and Kirsten had a book, we let the waiting commence. 

My next dilemma however occurred to me that Scott wouldn't be able to park next me unless I could save the spot to my left.  No problem I would wait for the driver to come out and stand in the spot flagging people to move on or start my car for me.  Totally not weird and I'm sure my twelve year old daughter will not be mortified.  However time is ticking and the owner is not out. It's a five minute zone, the car was there before we got in it's been about fifteen, twenty minutes what's the deal?.  My pulse is starting to pick up, how will I hook up the cables with Scott's car? My hands are sweaty, what will I do? I'll be stuck down here all night! Where's the owner of this car it's a five minute zone!!! Just as it seemed that Scott would have to park on the sidewalk (which I'm sure he wouldn't want to do, but choice would there be?) The lady came out and got into her car just as Scott was coming around the corner.  There would be no standing in the empty spot looking like a crazy person (never mind the fact that I've shown off my clown car several times already)

We started the car, I argued with Kirsten about my lack of enthusiasm for working out at this point, in which she won.  I kissed my Knight goodbye with promises to let the car run and charge for awhile (lets face it I still needed to find a spot to park downtown by the gym) and off we went. 

The rest of the night was mostly uneventful with the exception of the two girls complaining about running an eight minute mile while I'm laboriously slugging through my twelve minute mile...but at least I made it into the building, right? Seriously.

Out of the Norm

So I had spent the weekend away with a group of ladies for crafting and much needed rest and relaxation. I thought for sure I would come home to a house that had been at least tidied up. Why would I think this? Call it the fairytale thinking, no actually Scott my DH has been so much better about cleaning up and getting the kids to help but I came home instead to a son not feeling so great and a daughter that was hanging out with friends and my DH was just trying to get through the weekend-lol, apparently mom does make a difference. So last night after getting home around 11 I decided that was the best time to clean the kitchen, and let me tell you how nice it was to wake up this morning to a clean kitchen. Now the rest of the house will be a breeze to clean. It's not normal after working all night to feel like cleaning at all but I did drink a diet coke at closing, that might have had something to do with it.

I wanted to leave you with a few more blocks. This is a 6x6 block I just found and I love how it turned out. My MIL reminded me of the little ice cube blocks I had stored away. So I added 3 to the top, and it was so cute!

This one is made with a paper flower technique that believe it or not my older sister told me about. FYI sister is not the crafty one, but she's learning. This one's drilled for lights too.

This was the first one I made with the painting. I wish I had drilled for lights in this one but I did photograph it with a t-light behind and it pulls the look off just the same.

Introducing "Glassy Art"

Here's my new adventure in life. After a scrapbooking weekend where I did almost no actual scrapbooking, I'm ready to release pictures of my new art. Thanks to my friend Teresa for the idea and visuals to begin with, and my scrapbook friends for more inspirational ideas.

This first one is a hand stamped snowman image with glitter around the edge and framing the snowman. There is a 3/4 inch hole in the back for a string of white lights. The pics show it with and without lights:

This next one does't have a hole in the back for lights but I've shown a picture with a light behind it. You could use a t-light or a battery operated light:

That's all for now, I'll put more up this week.

This one's for you Sarah

This was the first day of summer, I took pics from my newspaper route-beautiful!

Kirstens Bedroom


These are early pictures of my garden (pay no attention to the chipped paint on the house, I'm hoping we'll be painting this summer)

I need to take new pics, these don't do it justice

My crab apple tree has only bloomed twice since we've lived here, It's so pretty!
My favorite daisy

I took the kids up the north shore to Gooseberry falls on the 4th of July. It was a perfect day!

Kirsten's slumber party, it was a great time (we went rolling skating first)
That's all I have time for right now, but I thought it would be better than nothing :) Enjoy!

Gretch

I realize...

I realize that Duluth is not dealing with as cold of temps as they are further up north on the Iron Range or in Alaska, but most of those people don't have a newspaper route that causes them to be outside for 2 hours in the middle of the night. I get out of my car about 80-90 times a day. There isn't much time for a warm up when your opening the door every minute. Now, I've learned how to keep somewhat warm-it's called 4 pairs of pants and running. However the problem with running while wearing 4 pairs of pants and 3 shirts plus a winter jacket and all the accessories (hat, mittens, scarf, ear headband) is that you sweat! And sweating in 35 degree's below zero weather is none to pleasant. I'm anxiously awaiting spring when sweating in 40 degree's above 0 doesn't cause me to go into hypothermia when I change.

Things on the home front have been good. Luke just got his report card and it was good-no major problem area's. His language arts slipped a little so we struck a reading deal. He has to read for half an hour everyday to earn his computer time. If you can log an extra hour he gets another half hour and so on and so forth. He thought it was a great idea, we'll see. Kirsten's report card hasn't come home yet (don't worry she's not hiding it, the teacher had an emergency with her own son over the weekend).

I'm anxiously awaiting next weekend (Feb 1-3). I'll be going on another scrapbooking retreat with some of the same girls from last time plus a few that I've not met yet. I'm really excited as I feel that I need this weekend off more than ever. I can't wait to lounge around and not have any obligations to anything or anyone.

This weekend I will be serving at our church's food shelf called Fruit of the Vine. It's the 3rd largest food shelf in Duluth, serving around 400-500 families a month. Last weekend we had a free medical clinic with a doctor, nurses to check blood pressure, glucose, prescription medication lists, people were on hand to pray with those that wanted it, a chiropractor, also a message therapist, and several other things going on. I loved being able to help out. It never fails to amaze me to watch God work as you reach out to his people. Our church is dedicated to the Kingdom work. We do all sorts of things to reach out to the needy, the poor, the unchurched, the spiritually hungry.

I've learned so much about the person that God created me to be. I love being vulnerable in the presence of the Holy Spirit. God has dissected things in my past and put healing on issue's that I had been harboring all the way back to my youngest years. I've come full circle in the past year. I continue to find more passion for God's work and I'm filled with compassion for God's people, regardless of where they've come from or there present circumstances. I'm able to see people the way that God does and I've even experienced some heartbreak in a way that showed me the way God's heart breaks for his people. I really feel that God is leading me to take on a small group leader roll of some sort. I can't yet see what kind of small group he wants for me, but I do know it's down the road quit a ways. I would like to start a scrapbooking group of some sort but I'm not sure how God would want it used for his purpose, so I continue to pray for direction for that. I also believe that I will lead a small group in a home setting as well but again through prayer I know God will reveal that in time. I'm able to hear God speak to me. It's an amazing feeling to know that your not making choices blindly but that God is guiding you through every bit of life. I continue to pray for more understanding, knowledge, more compassion, gifts of healing, discernment, and anything else he wants to pour into me.

On another note, Scott and I are joining a new fitness facility today called Snap Fitness. Were really looking forward to it. I'm excited to see Scott really take a step towards wanting to be healthier before it becomes a big issue. I'm also just excited to have something else to do with him. We've grown so much in our relationship over the past year. It seems that we have more understanding for each other's needs and were generally just more in tune with one another. I love him more deeply than ever before. God- 1,387,456/ me- 0 :)

I've put in a few random pictures for you to look at.

This is Luke making his invention. In fourth grade all the students have to come up with and make an invention to be judged. It can be something completely new or a better version of something already available that improves on the design. Luke made a "Food Carrier" He put a screw with a hook in the bottom of a basket for hanging bananas and the basket hold apples and oranges. There is 4 other hooks on the outside rim for holding bags of onions, garlic, peppers etc... All the classes in the school get to vote and the top 20 go to the area judging show. Luke's was chosen! I was floored since we only put it together the day before it was due (talk about last minute! 8) Anyways, the judging event is on Feb 1rst.

Don't worry I'm still here!

I haven't stopped blogging, I was just missing in action from the Internet for a short time-what a busy month December is for us! I have lots to share so here goes...

Last I left you we were going to go to Bentleyville. However something big and huge happened the next day on Dec. 13th that I'll remember forever. I had been listening to a radio station that would normally play all oldies rock/pop stuff bat Christmas time they play 24/7 Christmas music. For the 12 days of Christmas (or in this case, the first 12 days in Dec.) they played games to get you qualified for a grand prize drawing. Now, as some of you may know, I like to play games and I can get a little competitive. So on Mon. the 11th one of their games was a trivia question. In order to win you first needed the answer and to be caller 5. The question was: "What is the name of the magician in the movie Frosty the Snowman". Now I knew, that I knew the answer but couldn't quit remember, but a quick yahoo search confirmed that it is of course Professor Hinckle. I dialed figuring there was no way I'd get through, but the phone rang and I had won because caller 5 didn't have the right answer. At the time I was just excited that I had won because it was fun to play. I didn't even know what I had won other than the qualifying for the drawing, which I quickly dismissed and went on with my day. So 4:06pm on Wed. the 13th I turned on the radio, because I wanted to hear the person win. The drawing wasn't until 5:00 but I didn't want to miss listening. About 10 seconds after switching on the radio the phone rang. The conversation went something like this:

"Is Gretchen there?"

"This is"

"Please hold..."

I got switched to hold with the same music that was currently playing on the radio-The Little Drummer Boy. It took me a few seconds to realize that I was on hold with the radio station. My hands started to sweat, there was instant shaking in my body and my mind was going about 20,000 miles an hour-"why would the radio station be calling me?" "there's no way I could have won, the drawing isn't for another hour" (by this time I'm pacing and feeling some butterflies) "maybe there calling because I didn't pick up my other prize yet" "that's dumb, why would they do that" (I hate having conversation's with myself) "(I was doing the math in my head, 3 qualifiers on air for 12 days plus any number of qualifiers in the local sponsoring stores= any body's guess as to the number of entries)"why would they put me on hold on air?" (if you've ever called a radio station you would know the difference between the office putting you on hold and the on air putting you on hold) I could tell that the "someone" was waiting for the song to end, I waited with lots of anticipation. The rest went something like this:

"Hi, who's this?"

"Gretchen...?"

"Gretchen, guess what?"

"what? (somewhat hesitantly)"

"Santa Claus has chosen you to be our grand prize double cash shopping spree winner!"

by the time the word "chosen" was spoken: "OH, MY GOSH! THAT'S INCREDIBLE! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU"

"We hope this helps make your Christmas an extra good one."

"Oh my gosh, you have no idea..." (lots of crying, shaking thank yous-you get the picture)

I couldn't believe that I had won this amazing prize. God had been looking out for us, because at the time it looked like buying anymore presents was out, as our finances were on the rocks (all ok now).

The prize was $2000! 4 $250 gift cards to spend at the 4 local stores that sponsored the contest and $1000 cash! WOW!!!!!!

So about a week later after calming down and receiving the gift cards (the cash was to come later) Scott and I went shopping. We both got new winter jackets. We got a beautiful pine coffee table. I got arch supports for my feet. I also got an alpaca fleece pullover, and a sweatshirt. We spent 3 certificates in an hour. It was really fun picking things out without batting an eye, $200 dollars for a jacket? ok-get it. 75$ for a sweater-sure! 250$ for a table-no problem-great idea! We had to spend the money in the stores so it was really fun. The stores were Duluth Pack, which sells all things outdoor related plus The North Face brand (which is what my jacket is). Columbia clothing downtown, which sells mostly men's Ralph Lauren, Polo, Columbia (that's where Scott got his jacket and my alpaca fleece-boy did we feel out of our league in that store). Unpainted Sawmill Furniture, which of course sells all natural wood furniture (obviously where the coffee table came from). And The Good Feet store, which sells arch supports to correct your arch's and to help with problem pain issues, such as your back, neck, knees, feet etc... (I got a pair of supports and found out that one of my arch's is flatter than the other and is the reason for many of my pains). I'll take pic's of some of our fun stuff when my batteries recharge. With the cash, we were able to get new cell phones, and finish our Christmas shopping. It was a lot of fun and I'm extremely grateful!

Here are a few pictures from Bentleyville. More topics to come in the week.

Waiting in line for the bus from the parking lot (the other girl is Jocelyn, our friend-in case your wondering, she's one month YOUNGER than Luke who is 10)

Oh' yeah this one's gonna get us the best picture of the year award (or get us qualified for makeovers :)
This is the entrance

Downtown

Inside the cookie house

What's better than smore's in the summer? Smore's in the winter!

Look, this is how to be a seal

Holding the world in their hands

Well, that's all I have for now (really I'm just tired of blogging for today) but I'll be back soon. Thanks, and goody bye :)

Hello everyone!

Life with the Kelley's is nothing short of crazy, chaotic, stressful, fun, etc... I'm sure it's much the same in every other house, as we "prepare" for the all important celebration.

I've decided to not do all the baking I was hoping to get too-yes I had to face the fact that the supermom award would once again NOT go too me, maybe next year:) (I won't hold my breath) LOL

I think this Friday night were going to go to Bentleyville. For those that don't know, it's the coolest light display in our area. They offer cookies, hot cider, s'mores that you make over the open burning bins, popcorn, Santa, free knit hat, music and lights galore. Everything is in cute little huts built specifically for the event. I'll try to take some good pictures.

Here are pictures of the album I made for my mother-in-law, Judy. Not to worry, she's computer illiterate, so she won't see this. :)

This is Judy's niece that is living with them now, she's from Virginia, and her name is Samantha.

I love these two pages. I used my fun swirly stamps, I think it turned out great!

The kids in the picture below are some of Judy's cousin's grand kids. (what that makes them to Judy is some generation of cousins, but don't ask me to figure it out-I don't do math:)

The four people in the large group of people are Gordy, Randy, Diane, and Judy (the short one). This is the first time that all 4 had been together in 13 years. And than of course the other picture is with Grandpa :)

I'm now working on a calendar to complete her gift this year. (If your my family and wondering why I'm not making a calendar for you, the answer is simple, give me pictures and I could work with it-no pictures, no fun album's) lol :)

I hope that all your holiday "things" are going well. Have a great rest of the week!