Samantha's 8th birthday

My little girl turned 8 yesterday.  We started the day with pancakes, per Sam's request.  Then we measured her hight.  She is exactly the same hight Zach was when he was 7!  Wow!
This year I did not make a cake.  That hasn't happened in years.  I normally always make a cake but Sam saw one at the grocery store and wanted it.  We at least put "Happy Birthday Sam" on our selves.

I forgot how freeing it was to not have to make a cake.  I do like making them.  It's always fun and exciting to see how they turn out and I've made some extravagant ones!
Sam's friend, Cassie, came over and we went sledding.

Wish more of her friends could have joined us for sledding but they were all busy.
We came back home and did gift opening time.

Sam's BFF Lily came over after school and we had cake.

The cake was alright.  My home made ones are always better, he he.  It had too much frosting.  But it was a fun day and we had the added bonus of getting rid of the booster seat!!!!

Home School Group's water park trip

The home School group I belong to has for years collected annual dues.  These dues pay for our website, and this year we had a surplus so we went to an indoor water park.  What a blast!  Was awesome to walk around in swim suits, play in warm water and look at the snow outside...take that winter!!

Embarrassing moment in interpreting.

I love interpreting for my church.  It is never dull.  Like today, for example, where I turned beet red due to embarrassment.  It started out like any normal service.  The day before I get info, like what song we will sing, scriptures that will be read, and if there are difficult words in Greek or Hebrew that will be referanced, Pastor sends that information to me so I can know how to finger spell them and the tech team so they can put it up on the board that I can see.  I am very thankful to all the church staff who do all this stuff for me to make my interpreting job easier!  I couldn't ask for better.  So how did I end up red faced?  The Pastor, on a whim, starts listing different greek words, and then realized that I had to attempt to finger spell them.  So he decides to say, "Sorry Brenda."  His wife is also names Brenda.  Realizing this, he starts explaining that he didn't mean his wife but me.  He continues to explain that if they hear him apologize to a "Brenda" it usually mean me or the Tech Team leader who is also named Brenda.  Then, he starts explaining that he didn't get me the info on the greek words a head of time like he normally does.  By this point he has completely lost his train of thought and just kept digging a deeper hole!  Mean while I'm interpreting this mess and I started to feel sorry for the guy, but when he said "Where was I?"  I couldn't resist, I piped up and said "Embarrassing me!"  I was so red that Lesetta made note of it.  Thank God Gaylord (deaf friend who would have had a field day with the situation.) slept through the whole thing, HA! 
I know most would be thinking he should be the one who is embarrassed and maybe he was, but it was him calling attention to me that got me.  I like to pretend that only the deaf are paying attention to me.  It helps me get though the service if I don't think about all the eyes that might be on me.  But I knew at that point everyone was looking at me and I blushed hard.  Hopefully next week I can go back to believing most of the church doesn't see me.

What do you do when your kid become smarter than you?

I'm reaching the point where my son, Zach who is 10, is starting to challenge me intellectually.  He and I had a conversation on the Theory of Relativity this morning (prompted by Dr Who) and he kept up with no problem.  I still have a hard time wrapping my brain around the concept, but I do get the basic concept of the theory.  Zach then proceeded to give me an example of, in a sense, how it works.  Can we go back to yellow and blue make green and clap with glee?!  What's going to happen in a few years time?  Thank God for teacher's manuals!
I couldn't help, but look at my son and remember him as a toddler when he first entered childrens' church.  He grabbed a chair and sat in the corner so he could see the whole class.  He barely said a word, he just observed the class proceedings.  The teacher asked me if he was autistic.  I was a little freaked by this question! She told me Zach just sat there and didn't interact with the class at all.  I have an autistic cousin so I know the warning signs and I knew Zach wasn't.  I had to laugh because I could just imagine Zach watching the people and forming an opinion whether or not he wanted to be involved in this class.  Slowly, Zach decided to join in the activities and has now blossomed into a social chatter box that usually involve aliens or science, and occasionally politics. Yes, his political junky of a mother has rubbed off on him a little.
I know he will one day grow up in to an intelligent man, but I certainly didn't think it would start at the age of ten.

Ringing in 2010

Several churches in our area along with the Athletic Club hosted a free New Years Eve bash.  Matt volunteered to work the Cake Walk game for 2 hours.  Turned out to be a favorite since kids won cookies, and cupcakes instead of cheap prizes.  Then we went swimming.  Not a very big pool either.  There were a lot of people in that tiny pool.  I end up getting smacked in the face with a one of those small footballs while I was trying to put on Zach's goggle.  It protected most of my face but slamming into my lip.  thankfully my lip just swelled a little and didn't produce a cold sore like I feared.
By the time we were done with the pool, showers and getting dressed it was almost 10pm so, we went out to eat at Taco Bell.  Except for Zach; he wanted scrambled eggs.  After we were all done eating we had a Dr Who marathon of season one of the new series until midnight.  We had a very anticlimactic end to 2009.
I'm so glad this year is over.  Can't wait to be able to vote some these yahoos out of office!  Hopefully I'm not alone, otherwise I might just pull my hair out.  Doyle isn't running for reelection YAY!  So, the Wisconsin gubernatorial race should be instresting.  I'm praying someone who believes in smaller government will step up to the plate.  Thanks to Doyle everyones car insurence premiums went up.  He just had to pass a law that everyone has to have car insurence.  Government should never force the public to buy anything; it's unconstitutional.
So good bye 2009, thanks for the laughs and lessons.  Hello 2010, don't hurt me.

Christmas 2009

The night before Christmas Eve, the kids had a sleep over at John and Jenny's.  Matt and I got a evening to ourselves.  I cooked him a special dinner, which was his Christmas present from me.  Lame I know, but we really enjoyed it.
Christmas Eve day we went to John and Jenny's house to join our kids and Kiki for a lovely lunch.   The weather was kind of icky.  It was rainy all day.  But at least the roads weren't bad.  We left their house around 5 pm becauswe I thought I had to interpret for services for my church.  Turns out none of the deaf people came, so I was just another audience member.
After church we came home and did our annual one gift opening.  The kids always open the gift they got from the other.

This year they wanted to let me open the gift they got me.  I was thrilled to see I got Doctor Who season 4 which has my favorite assistant, Donna Noble.

I'm currently loaning it out to Kiki so she can see the rest of season 4.  We are such Sci-fi geeks around here!
Christmas day started late.  Yes, we slept until 9 AM and after some waffles the kids opened their gifts.  After a while I didn't have a living room floor anymore.

It was a very layed back fun day.  we didn't have to stress about running around to other peoples houses or cook extravagent meals.  We got to simply enjoy one anothers company and stay in our pajama's most of the day.  Except for Sam who had to put on the sweater Grandma Rose gave her.

Christmas from my persective.

Since I don't know old Christmas songs very well, I find it difficult to interpret them.  I find myself a little frustrated with the older songs.  I have to admit they are my least favorite part of Christmas.  I didn't grow up with these songs so they don't carry that nostalgic feeling for me as they do for most Christians.  So, I find myself fumbling along like a blind person in a maze.  Don't misread me here, I do love Christmas.  I love what it is all about.  I really enjoy the traditions our family is in the process of making.  I wouldn't give them up for the world.  I also wouldn't give up the childhood I had either.  Learning about all the Old Testament Hebrew holidays and getting to experience them. I feel this was an invaluable part of who I am.  I am able to see full circle of how those Old Testament celebrations and traditions related to and foreshadowed the coming Messiah.  I feel blessed to have had that background.  I almost feel sorry for those who have never celebrated Feast of Booths.  Which Jesus himself celebrated and is where he declared himself the Messiah!  Or never got to have some Days of Unleavened Bread treats.  I learned how to fast by the age of 13.  I mean really fast.  No food or any liquid besides water from sun up to sundown.  First few times was torture!  But I look back on it now as a valuable learning experience and I like that I can connect these things with how Jesus grew up.  He celebrated these same holidays!  Its like I got a glimpse of Him and what his life was like.

Strangely, I knew a lot about a holiday I didn't celebrate growing up.  I remember learning about how Jesus was actually born closer to fall than December.  And I learned the reason Christmas is celebrated in December is because Christians didn't know exactly when Jesus was born so they decided to celebrate Christ's birth on a pagan holiday.  That is the reason we didn't participate.  I don't see it that way anymore.  My persective is this; yes, it is on the same day as the old pagan holiday, but it was to done, so that the Christians could be lights to the world around them.  It was a way to use their own pagan celebration and turn it into a day of worship to the Son of God.  And that is worth celebrating.  Merry Christmas everyone!