CHAOS abounds

I love Christmas.
I love the Christmas season.
I love having family around during the Christmas season.
I love my family.
I love my call.

This week we have a ridiculously large funeral, read a beloved pastor from the synod, today, tomorrow we have three worship services and I get to (although on Christmas eve it sometimes feels like have to) lead worship at two different nursing homes in the morning, and Wednesday we have one service at the church. On top of it all my dear friend was here Thursday through Saturday, my mom arrive on Friday (thank God, because our new house needs some serious decorating help and my mom rocks at that), my mother in law arrived on Saturday, my father is set to arrive today as well as my brother and his spastic dog. Thank God my mother is here because she loves (or at least volunteers) to cook and help around the house. Thank God for a second bathroom - while yes there is still some waiting for the bathroom it has been greatly reduced.

I am will be more than ready for the 25th in the afternoon, then I can finally relax.
Fingers crossed this week we will get above 0 degrees so we can get outside a little bit.


What do your holiday plans look like?
Are you able to be outside where you live?

Stories of 1603

Moving is bittersweet.



1603 was the first house I have ever bought and quickly became my home.



It was the house in which I spent my first years as a pastor



    the space in which I rejoiced and cried in my first years as a pastor



It was the house in which Dakota grew to full size



    it is the house in which she hid many a shoe, played in the bath tub, and took many a nap



It is this kitchen where my husband asked my parents to marry me (with my father in his boxers)



It is the kitchen where my brother and husband learned to tile a back splash



It is in this yard where I learned how to keep a dog from digging



       to make the earth produce fruits and veggies



       to tend the grass



       to grow beautiful flowers



       to take naps in the shade



       to dig up overgrown bushes



It is in the master bedroom where my brother, mother, and I learned about texturing walls (uffdah)



It is in the front room where I was lost in many a good book



It is in the bathroom where I dared to put color on my walls after years of institutional living



It is in the kitchen where we learned about replacing counter tops and painting cupboards



It is in the living room where I learned about hosting family and friends



It is in the kitchen where I learned new recipes



       broke bread with many a person



It is in the loft space that I sewed my first quilt by myself



It is the front threshold I crossed for many a long run



It is this small hole in the fence that my now 60lb dog used to be able to squeeze through



It is in this bedroom where I found my rest at night



It is in these bedrooms where I was able to offer rest to the weary



It is in this house that I learned the joys (and woes) of home ownership



It is in this house where my husband and I spent our first six months of married life (almost to the day)



Moving is bittersweet











My prayer is for its new owners, may their days be filled with beautiful memories, may the house be good to them and not have many problems. May the house be warm in the winter and cool in the summer. May they always find it to be a sanctuary and a safe place to be. May they welcome many a guest to their table and extend hospitality to all that they meet. May they have many a good year in 1603 and may she be as good to them as she was to me.

Christmas Decorations

Confession: I would LOVE to have my house all decorated for Christmas.

Reality: With moving last week, I am happy to have a bed to sleep on, so long fair well beloved thermarest may we not meet again until we are camping for real, not in my mostly empty house. I am elated to have my pots and pans back, I am beyond excited to have a couch to sit on. Boxes are all over my house, particularly in the basement (Mom and Dad when you visit - it will be like sleeping in a box fort, perhaps we'll make some progress before you arrive).

Really, I am more worried about unpacking my things, finding the extra toilet paper, finding my pants for work, and getting things put away. This year's Christmas decorations are going to be pitiful - I think I know where the Christmas stockings are. Goal: Find the Christmas Stockings before Santa comes on Christmas Eve (I believe they are in one of three boxes I have set aside in hopes the stockings are in there).

Next year, I shall really decorate my house for Christmas. I am doubtful that this year we will even get a Christmas tree up. We are now mid-month and it is sort of beginning to seem like a waste to go get one and put it up. Rather, I will find bedding and towels for our guests who are coming, I will find drinking glasses and plates.


Are you big into decorating for Christmas?
Real or fake tree?

Creepy and why

This post is weird and the photo quality is horrible but I had to post this. Here: Is a house that we drove by in Sioux Falls. It was creepy and weird. Their yard is filled will all sorts of  holiday bears (note the Valentine's day bear) and it fills their front yard. We drove by several times because we were in fact creeped out by it. We did drive by in order to confirm their commitment to these bears, they have lights on them at night.




While I appreciate their spirit we had several questions including:

• Do you think the bears are shellacked or how do they keep them from molding?
• What do the neighbors think?
• Why?!
• What do they do with these bears in the off season?
• Seriously?
• How long have they been decorating this way?
• Do they mold? (we asked this question about 12,001 times - reminder it snows here and the bears would get wet)
• Do they have them anchored down somehow? 
• Did they empty out the stuffing and fill them with sand?
• WHY?!

View from afar

Do you have any weird holiday decorating in your neighborhood? What do you think of "nontraditional decorating? Do you decorate your house for the holidays?

Six Months as a Mrs.

The Wonderful Things:

• WE ARE IN OUR NEW HOUSE




• so I totally thought the 3 stall attached garage was excessive and totally unnecessary until we put in it: 2 kayaks, 5 bikes (3 are Marcs, 2 are mine), camping gear on these built in shelves, the hopes of building a dog kennel, snow shoes, skies, sleds, and a snowboard


• attached garage = brilliant - love love love having it attached - I was clueless on how wonderful this really is


• yes, I hope to get pictures of our house up soon


• so thankful to have my stuff back - I was getting annoyed at only having one pan, minimal clothes, no couch or sewing machine - first world problems indeed 




• really the major thing I missed was my winter coat






• WE GET TO HOST CHRISTMAS WITH 2 BATHROOMS




• we were fine with one bathroom when it was just Marc and I at my house but it always was LESS than idea when there was guests (my parents, brother, brother's girlfriend, and Marc's mom) - seriously someone was always waiting to pee


• here comes testing the water heater




• I love that my neighbors are not able to see in my windows while sitting on their couch (note previous house was this way)


• I found a chicken coop plan that I love and we have all the materials we need to build it and so we are totally planning to build a chicken coop this winter




• Yes, I realize this project could totally flop


• No, we aren't getting the chickens until spring


• Yes, I know it is weird to want chickens


• No, we aren't getting 12,000 chickens, I plan on ordering 5 (assuming 1 will die in route)


• Yes, I am excited


• No, you can't crush my dreams on this one


• Yes, I know someday I will have to kill them and eat them




• seriously doesn't bother me


• yes, I seriously still plan on naming the chickens


• no, I don't want your advise unless it is actually helpful - I don't care that you think chickens are dumb

The Things No One Warns You About:

• blending holiday traditions can be hard sometimes and takes way more communication than you anticipate - who knew we both really cared about what went on the Christmas tree and how many decorations go on the Christmas tree




• my advise: over communicate




• Potlucks that require you to sign up for what you are bringing royally suck 




• Marc's work has some strange deal that turns potlucks into everything but the "pots luck" - they have a sign up sheet to note what others are bringing - sometimes there is even a theme and things that "must" be brought - and according to the "rules" once some one signs up for something you "can't" - I sign up for things as soon as I can so that I can do what I plan - Marc doesn't see the same importance - so twice in the last month we got caught "bringing the same thing" as someone else - blah blah blah - it's annoying


• yes, we've talked about it and we have come to an agreement on this whole potluck deal


• potlucks the day before you move really blow




• laundry isn't my favorite chore and it is now doubled




• yes, Marc does help with laundry both the washing and the folding, which I appreciate and tell him that I appreciate

The Miscellaneous Things:

• Unpacking has been great because I have actually been going through things as we unpack and have gotten rid of a ton of stuff


• the lack of a fenced in yard for Dakota currently sort of sucks because we can't just send her out the back door and have her run lake a crazy pup, rather we have to tie her to something - who knows what she'd do if she wasn't tied down - definitely on the spring to - do list


• If you haven't seen the movie "The Internship" - we watched it the other day and thought it was a wonderful movie for a rental (we redboxed it)


• I am LOVING being a little bit out in the country - Marc is loving being a little bit out in the country - Dakota is fairly certain she has died and gone to heaven

Chickens

Alright, I realize most of you think we are nuts. HOWEVER, we just ordered 5 chicks! They won't be delivered until the second week of April (due to the lovely Minnesota winters they don't ship small numbers of chickens in the cold....so we selected the first week that we could given our location and weather). We have ordered 3 Black Australorp and 2 Golden Buffs. Both chickens are known for being ridiculously hardy and known to withstand both the extreme cold and the heat (which for northern Minnesota is AWESOME!).

We have lots to learn about raising chickens. I am jazzed, Marc is excited, Dakota is going to go nuts - now to somehow train her to like chicks. I have already begun reading about everything that I need to know about chicks and eventually chickens. This gives us a few months to get settled into the new house and to build the coop. I am certain y'all will have to deal with copious amounts of posts about chickens in the future. It is happening & it will be AWESOME!

Go ahead and google image search for: Black Australorp and Golden Buff - to see an image of them. Fear not, I will post 12,001 pictures of them when they arrive. I AM EXCITED.



Have you ever raised chickens?
Any advise for raising chickens?
Do you think we are nuts?

MOVING DAY

It. Is. Finally. Here!

REJOICE.
   no more camping in the living room of our house
   no more lack of our stuff (yes, this is indeed a first world problem)
   a new house to fill with memories (and hopefully not too much stuff)
   new walls to paint, carpets to spill on, and neighbors to meet
   thankful for the ability to have a new house and the opportunity to move

We close this morning at 11:00 am. Both Marc and I have the day off (because we can) and so this morning we are going to load our stuff into our moving truck (seriously jazzed we got a free moving truck from our Realtor, we only have to pay the gas).

The sucky part is we won't close on our current house for another week due to their loan being stupid slow in coming through, however they are 99% certain it will still close next week. We are fairly confident of that and ready to be done living like we are camping and just want to get on with the process. The nice part is this does give us a little bit more time to move and get everything cleaned out. I have it mostly cleaned, however I would like to run the vacuum through the front room one more time, double check that all the poop is picked up in the yard, and wipe down the bathroom one more time and run a mop over the wood floors. So while in one sense it raises the stress level and on the other it lowers the stress level. Praying that everything goes through next week with the house to close and we only own two houses for a week.

We probably won't move a ton into our new house until Saturday, we have friends who have graciously volunteered to help us haul stuff. So until then we will probably just make small loads to the house and start to think through what we need to do and where stuff will go. The things on the to-do list for right away is: hang a shower curtain, put toilet paper in the bathrooms (yes, bathrooms with an 's' we have multiple), plug the deep freeze back in, we emptied it and put things in coolers but it needs to be plugged in asap), and put our refrigerator stuff in there so it doesn't get warm. Ridiculously exciting.

I am sure there will be a ton of photos to be coming at some point. Watch for them.
I am VERY thankful to be in the new house by Christmas!
I am not very excited to have to switch my address on everything again.


How do you feel about moving?
Do you like where you currently live?

Jingle Jungle Parade - Animal Kingdom

While at Walt Disney World I always love the rides and attractions, but I also love all of the live performances from the stage shows, to the performances of different kinds, to the parades (which really are a production in and of themselves). One of the parades we got to see while we were down at WDW (and potentially one of my favorite parades) is Mickey's Jungle Parade, which during the holiday season is transformed into "Mickey's Jingle Jungle Parade". It is much of the same as the Jungle Parade just with a holiday twist, all the floats are decked out in holiday paraphernalia, characters are in their holiday wear, Christmas music booms from the floats, and everything is covered in red and green.

One of the reasons I love this parade is, as you will note in several of the floats that come through, mostly the over sized animals are powered by people. The animals are hooked up to the people and they walk or bike them throughout the parade route. There are of course also the motor powered floats as well. Take a glimpse through some of my pictures from the parade (I am almost embarrassed to confess that this isn't even a fraction of my photos from the parade... ooops). ENJOY!

Do you like parades?

Do you have a favorite parade?

          I do always love the Macy's Day Parade and the Rose Bowl Parade

What are some of your favorite things at WDW?

Do you take a ton of pictures on vacation?

What do you do with all of your pictures?

Winter 2013-2014 bucket list

What is on your winter to do list?

Do you love winter or hate it?

How do you feel about snow?

What am I missing on my to do list?