Christmas Cards We are Not Sending

Remember back in September when i was so on top of my christmas cards...

Well Pride Cometh before a fall. I am still missing tons of Cousin addresses. I have exactly 7 cards addressed and two written. Besides which the design and ordering of the card turned into a regular comedy of errors and online promotions.

Initially, I designed a photo card of a beautiful shot I took a few years ago of the Heeter House (our current abode) in the snow. Lovely. I saved the file and waited for a good Photo Card deal to get them printed. My sister said she did not want a picture of my house, she wanted a picture of us.

THEN I got 75 free prints from Shutterfly. Running out of time before my code expired and not having a plan in place and having taken NO cannon photos in Williamsburg this summer (FAIL!)  and my inability to bring myself to place a holiday message over the tractor photo resulted in ordering 75 4x6's of Us on a Tractor with "Merry Christmas from Micah and Stasi 2011" stamped on the back. The plan being to purchase cards from Dollar General, insert photo and call it a day.

Turns out that cards from Dollar General Cards are still kind of pricey and still kind of ugly. But I had 75 copies of the tractor photo and a plan that was turning out to be not such a good idea.

THEN Vista print offered me 100 free postcards. What to do, what to do?  I designed another card from a photo taken at Elizabeth's wedding and ordered the Postcards which those of you whose addresses I have will be receiving in the mail (if I ever get them addressed and written out. But I bought all the postcard stamps the Kossuth post office had today so I'm committed.) 


THEN our recent trip to Boston resulted in a plethora of good shots of us with Cannons and random explosive devices and battleships. So I designed one more 2011 Christmas Card. Just for the heck of it.


And I still have no IDEA what I'm going to do with all those photos of us on a tractor. (let me know if you want one.) I'm thinking of wallpapering a room.

Anyway, here is the card we're not sending this year.



This is getting to be a trend. (Here's the card we didn't send in 2010)

Thanksgiving!

Just getting this out there so I can start the Christmas/Advent posts I have bouncing around my head...

Micah and I along with Judah & Meghan traveled to visit Micah's Brother Jeremiah in Boston. It seemed fitting to spend Thanksgiving in Bostin where the whole thing started. First thing on the agenda, was a trip to Plymouth Rock.... not quite as impressive as I imagined it. But it is, as Micah said, "an important rock"

After seeing the "very important rock" We returned to Jeremiah's to take the beautiful turkey out of the oven. Meghan helped cook the side dishes, Micah and Judah napped (that bean bag may have been the awesomest thing of the whole weekend) and I took pictures.

Friday we visited profile rock. do you see it?

And Battleship Harbor or bay not sure which but it had many ships multiple explosive things and a Submarine. We drove past on our way in and Micah almost drove off the overpass trying to look so of course we had to go. We also visited the Lizzie Borden Museum (I didn't take any pictures it was just a bit macabre for photography) where a certain husband of mine locked the keys in the trunk of the rental car and we walked to a Portuguese restaurant for lunch while we waited for AAA to send a locksmith.

Saturday we Headed into Boston and walked part of the freedom Trail....

Down to The USS Constitution "Old Ironsides" the oldest commissioned BattleShip in the world.

We saw all sorts of sights in Boston. Rode the MTA beneath the streets of Boston where none of the boys would sing so we eventually got off.


We also rode in a taxi, bought cannoli and Boston CreamPuffs at Mike's Pastry on the north side of town (Where I did not take any pictures because by the time I figured out Where we were and what we were doing, we were in the middle of a mob of people seeking pastry with no room to turn around) We got Gelato and saw Paul Revere's Church and the rest of Boston.

I declared that we could not leave until we saw that place where they dumped the tea. This is it:

Fun was had by all. Even (we think) by Jeremiah who refuses to smile in Photos.

For Each other

56-Judah for driving 4 hours today and 6.5 hours tomorrow so we can spend Thanksgiving in Boston
57-Meghan for making me be nice to myself and for sharing interesting facts (did you know your nose never stops growing?)
58-Jeremiah for inviting us to his house for Thanksgiving
59-Angie for making me an aunt again (Welcome Kaitlyn Faith)
60-Nathaniel for Helping
61-Micah for sharing his family (and life) with me
62-Marcus Elise Charissa Claire Noah Nick Tristan and Zoe for being there to spoil and then give back to their parents.... :)
63-Keith & Karen for making me feel at home
64-Grandma Henry for great stories...
65-Abi for keeping me connected
66-My mom for understanding when I'm going nuts and always giving me the recipes i call for.
67-my Dad for loving me unconditionally and making it really easy to understand God as Father.
68-Ami Dawn for having the same sense of humor
69-The very nice desk agent for being very nice late at night.
70-That I could EASILY finish out my Hundred with the people i have been blessed to have in my life.....and that i Have so many blessings that I don't have to pad my list

Thanks and Praise

42-Cell Phones
43-My homegroup (an awesome group of people doing life together and eating really good food on Monday nights.)
44-The internet
45-A New baby Niece and her safe delivery
46-Chatting with my mom
47-That God does not give me what I deserve
48-Air compressors (to fill that leaky tire, no fruitflys on my dresser!)
49-that I know how to crochet
50-Brother in Laws to visit in Boston in the fall
51-Brothers and sisters in law to drive to Boston with
52-That I have enough to give some of it away
53-leftovers for dinner
54-more than one pair of shoes
55 a&b-that I have a laptop and it still runs.

Always always always thankful

28-Unexpectedly free mornings

29-E-mail reminders of appointments (going to give blood this AM, totally forgot)

30-Public libraries with printers

31-that 2% of 0 is 0 (accidentally evaded borough taxes from 2009- rectifying the situation today by printing a w-2 and mailing the forms)

32-Freedom to spur of the moment decide to spend a few extra days playing with precious nieces and a handsome nephew and helping their mama and papa move

33-spell check....I before E in nieces.

34-sunshine even though it's cold out

35-A good Job for Micah

36-a good church - Ladies Tea this afternoon

37-a modern dryer (to go with #12) for when you need to wash 3 loads of clothes and don't have time to air dry

38- that we discovered we were going the wrong way before we reached West Virginia

39-Houses that are not trashed....

40-Small towns

41- 29 years of being loved. (dudes, 29 is so old.)

Thanks be....

13-apple butter on whole wheat bread
14-the "pop" sound that signals a proper seal
15-sunrises
16-morning naps
17-shop-vacs
18-long phone calls with my mom
19-sitting and visiting with my husband
20-clean rooms
21-laughter
22-memory
23-traditions
24-sweaters
25-Pizza
26-pianos (OK so its a keyboard, i'm still thankful to have it)
27-favicons!!! (check it out in the address bar on your browser, i'm so cool)

Thank-full.

I had already typed my first 10 things as well as a few nice words about my mother who started this tradition and then the internet ate it. :(

here we go again (in no particular order) i am thankful for:

1-a dry warm place to live

2-Really pretty great inlaws

3-Even better parents

4-my husband

5-my sisters (of course i'd be thankfuller if they lived closer.....)

6-an end of daylight savings time (light before 8AM totally makes up for dark by dinnertime)

7-excellent reception for NFL games
(even though the steelers lost and my husband is defecting to the browns {who would certainly NOT have beaten the ravens, he's just mad, he'll come back...but will i have him? *Evil grin*} it is nice not to spend all sunday afternoon searching for ways to jerry-rig an antenna in a black hole of reception)

8-new friends

9-old friends (KT i swear i will call this week)

10-lovely weekend weather

11-a puppy who rides well in the car

12-a modern washer

What are you thankful for? Join the Haveners as we list 100 things we're thankful for in November.

Me On A Tractor

This may be one of the best photos of the two of us. Maybe we'll send a Christmas card with a tractor since we missed our chance at a cannon photo this summer in Williamsburg.

I helped Micah rake the hay on Saturday. By "helped" I mean I rode one lap around the field on the fender and posed for this photo. In Ohio this summer I "helped with the hay" by plugging in the hay elevator that one time.

Mostly my real contribution is that I loan my husband, carry water to the hay field  and cook dinner for the hay makers (My mother in law prefers to make hay than cook. It works out well for everyone).

Off to grocery shop with Grandma and give blood.

Oh What a Beautiful Morning

I refrained from singing songs from Oklahoma! at the top of my lungs this morning since other people were still in bed at 7 AM. I took a photo of the sun rising over the field instead.

All the sounds of the earth are like music
All the sounds of the earth are like music
The breeze is so busy it don't miss a tree
And a old weeping willer is laughing at me

Oh, what a beautiful MORning
Oh, what a beautiful day.
I've got a beautiful FEELing
EVerything's GOin' my way.

It continued on from there.   OK LA HOMA! where the winds go whippin' down the plains.... OOOH the Farmer and the cowman should be friends..... People will say we're in love..... Poor Jud is Dead a candle lights his head...... Ev'rything's up  to date in Kansas City..... I'm just a girl who Caint say no....

I am still humming about a little surrey with a fringe on top :) - and now you will be too hahaha!

In my mind all these songs come with a bouncing ball. Weird things happen when all your childhood musicals were on VHS recorded from TV singalongs....

Haircut.

I got my hair cut a week ago. Nothing ground breaking, but worth noting. Plus besides grocery shopping and cleaning at grandma's nothing more blog-worthy happened to me that day.

I was thinking of doing something a little drastic, modern and hip and trendy. Sadly, I didn't have a picture of anything hip and trendy to take with me(and without a printer I had no way to produce one).  I decided not to experiment with my ability to describe hip or trendy since I am  not those things. Besides, drastic scares hairdressers.

So, I defaulted to a safe all one length bob with bangs (which I have pinned back here).

I just figured a (short) hair disaster a few days before a family wedding is a bad idea.

things I found in the drafts folder.

~

I just started watching my mom's new favorite show. Parenthood. new favorite quote.

"Do you guys have some stupid agreement about not acknowledging each others flaws?"
"Yeah, it's called marriage"

 ~

This entire (unfinished) never before seen post  about choosing a theme song for our zoo visit. I posted it chronologically for posterity.

~
6/4/09
guess who spilled orange juie on my keyboard last night. not me. an you tell what key stopped working?

~
8/27/08
When do you hide?

~
8/26/08
If you had a totally open day, every day, what 4 or 5 things would you fill it with?

~
8/18/08
i have problems figuring out what to let go of. For instance, Micah doesn't understand why it bothers me that the pieces of a bunk bed moved into our room.

~
6/30/08
This weekend, I left the ranch on wednesday evening drove two hoursI worked till 3AM between saturday and sunday and then got up at 6 AM (3 hours later) on sunday and worked until 2PM

~
3/10/08

 

~

2/12/08

yes, i know it is no longer 2007. i haven't even messed up writing the date once! but i wanted to reflect on 2007 some. it was a big year for me. I am actually processing parts of it still. things that happened and things that didn't.

~

10/10/07

Micah and I drove from PA to Colorado 2.5 weeks ago. On Friday we are about to do it again. we are contemplating a different route. Possibly a route with more curves...did you know that the road curves exactly TWICE in the entire state of Kansas.
Someone thought it might be a good idea to camp in Kansas. Someone should be shot.

~
8/23/07
i had a post typed yesterday. and then beatrice ate it. and the internet from the barbershop across the street stopped working. so he'res the latest thing we sent out.

~
5/25/07

Trying to get back in the blogging swing of things

35 days till my wedding (i think, everyone knows i dont count so good. i talk much gooder ;))
i am cutting ribbon, trying to convince my Micah to get me the last of the addresses for invitations, searching for a place to live post June 30th, there's still a load of things on my wedding to do list.

i'm trying to get back into living as part of a family. my family is not making this particularly easy.

~


My draft folder is now purged. thank you for your attention as we walked down memory lane.

Addresses and Dates

87 Days to Christmas and I have my card address list mostly updated. Today was gather all the addresses day.

I deeply regret that I did not have my act together enough to get this card in the mail last year

I have a kind of convoluted address keeping system.

ON PAPER - I look here first
-For immediate family I tore a page out of an old planner and wrote out (in pencil) all the parents, grandparents, and sibling addresses, birthdays, anniversaries, Phone numbers and e-mails. I keep this in my Control Binder (Micah hates that I call it that).
-Also in the Control Binder are addresses (and some additional contact info) for (most) of our Aunts, Uncles & Cousins (I lack all of the Mottin, Blough, and Smith cousins). I don't have any birthdays or anniversaries.

DIGITAL
-Addresses for Henry and Lane Aunts, Uncles & Cousins also exist in word files on my computer. (Uncle Skip sent me his Havener address list via snail mail and I have not taken time to type them in.)
-Also on the computer is a Henry Important dates file with full names, birthdays and anniversaries back to Micah's grandma.
-I started a Havener Important Dates file, but it only goes back to my parents.

Dear Haveners and Lanes, if you send me your birthdays and anniversaries, I will send you a copy of my file. Or, you know, if you HAVE such a file maybe you would share?

When something happens (new baby, wedding, new address) I usually make a note of it somewhere (usually the paper copy for addresses and immediate family dates). Once or twice a year I go thorough and sync them all. And every now and then rather than looking I am lazy and just call and ask someone.

But anyway. That's all. This year maybe we will send a card or even a letter. I hope to have someone take a good photo this weekend at E's Wedding. Or maybe we'll be those people and include our cats and puppy. I promise no matching santa hats.

Bucket List

Budgets are Sexy will give you a chance to win $500 All you have to do is post YOUR bucket list.  (you can see Abi's List here.)

I love lists so i figured i'd enter. Turns out I'm pretty dull, I don't have a lot of big dreams. My lists are all more along the lines of what I have to do to get through today.

And I'm not even very good at that. There are still some things on THIS list from January 13th that remain undone. Let's not even talk about my List of 2011 Goals (I still have like 95 days left).

But there are some longer term things, I want to do
- Take my hypothetical children to Slovakia.
- Actually HAVE those hypothetical children (and be a good mom)
- Short term mission trip to Africa.
- Find my purpose
- Learn to Play the Piano
- Memorize entire books of the Bible.

In 50 years we'll see how I did.

This is an entry for the $500 Budgets are Sexy giveaway, sponsored by Life Insurance Finder.

Home.

How do you know you're home?

Here is the list that inspired my thoughts. The smell of baking. laying in my own bed. the first cup of tea.

I wanted to think and come up with my own list. I wanted my list to be meaningful and beautiful. exclusively mine. but then it got hard. I went another direction. I know i've posted about this before but i keep coming back to it. to know that you're home, don't you need to know where home is.

For me now home is not just one place. How do you know when you are home. So, I googled it (hence the random links below), and i thought some more about it.

here's what i came up with:
Home is where Micah is. Home is nowhere without you. Home is in Wyoming? Home is where the heart is. Home is anywhere I get together with my sisters. Home is where the tent is. Home is my grandma's front porch swing or railing eating apple peels. Home is where your story begins. Home is where the healthy meal is. Home is where you hang your hat. Home is Grove City. Home is Knox. Home happens over the phone with my mom. Home is baking. Home is honeymoon enough. Home is Ohio. Home is Slovakia. Home is PA Home is where the wind blows. Home is the Heeter House. Home is where you start from. home home home.

pigeon.

90 Days to Christmas

You know how I love a good to-do list? I have found the ultimate list. It is 100 things long, but I'm 10% done with it and you only have to do one thing a day. My kind of list.


100daystochristmas.com

The past few years I feel like Christmas has lost a lot of the specialness it had when I was growing up. It has turned into one more thing to get through. A lot of that is moving away from home and getting busy, losing sight of the thing we're really celebrating, trying to find the balance between Micah's family traditions and mine.

So I'm starting early this year in hopes that I will not be scrambling around for gifts and decorations and peace at the last minute.

It's not Like I'll be all Christmas all the time though, It's really about moving through fall and the holiday season with purpose - which i could always use more of.

"This is a good day to experience the beating heart of fall."

Now if you'll excuse me, today's thing is enjoying fall apples and making a crisp. but first i have to clean my kitchen entire house. (and then see if the apples on our backyard tree are any good.) It's nice to have something to look forward to.

Also, Here is a random and totally unrelated photo of some stuff I got for my mom at a yard sale.

Yes, I CAN!

So on Wednesday I canned tomatoes. I was a little scared but I pressed on. With a little help from the internet and what Elizabeth had told me and some handouts gathered at Penn State's Ag Progress Days.

I'll Just say that Peeling and coring tomatoes is not my new favorite thing to do. (Is there a better way than dunking them on boiling water ONE AT A TIME?) The rude noises they made when mashed with a potato masher may have made up for it!

I was grateful to have this really neat lid picker upper tool. I have no clue how I would have retrieved metal lids from boiling water otherwise. I also have some awesome hot can tongs and a tool that not only tells me exactly how much headspace is 1/2 inch it is also useful for releasing air pockets...(why is it important to release air pockets?)

Here are my first 4 quarts of tomatoes processing like champs!!! I did 4 because i thought I only had 4 quart jars. (After I was finished i found 3 more..... :/ ) So I decided to put the rest in pint jars of which I had 12 but only needed 6.

I thought I could use the 45 minutes that the quarts were boiling to prep the pints. That was when i heard an odd sound in the basement. Something like water running. Since I had previously decided not to attempt to do laundry while canning tomatoes I knew there was no reason for water to be running in the basement.

So I went (frantically panicked-ly ran) down stairs and discovered water dripping from the ceiling onto the floor and washing machine.

As it turned out, part of the sink drain pipe came apart. (This may or may not have been related to the few quarts of boiling water I poured down the drain after sterilizing the jars....) So water was filling the cupboard pouring through the hole in the cupboard onto the floor under the sink and running through the hole in the floor into the basement.

After a quick panicked call to Micah at work, I emptied the cupboard, and got lots of towels to dry up the mess. (Yes, the dead plants were in the cupboard. The basket just happened to be sitting there.) I pushed the pipes back together and when Micah got home he tightened and screwed whatever it was that had come loose.

In the end I have four beautiful quarts and six lovely (un-photographed) pints of canned tomatoes.

Time marches on

Well Fall is here, the leaves are changing colors and we have to run the furnace some evenings. We've added another blanket to the bed, but before we get any further i wanted to share some pictures from the Summer of 2011.

If you click on the collage you can view it bigger. *edited:or not. no clue why. **edited:haha! fixed it.

Dog Blogging

Grandma Henry bought us a puppy. We did not ask for a puppy. In fact just that Sunday we discussed getting a puppy and decided to wait. But then we went and looked at him. He's 50% German Shepherd and 50% Mostly Lab/Mutt

He is cute and remains nameless. I was calling him Hezky, Slovak for "handsome" but Micah did not like it. So we're in negotiations. It has to be two syllables (something about that being easier for dogs to hear). Sabre has been vetoed. Micah likes Harvey, but I am not convinced. I am pulling for Havoc, Micah is not convinced.

Yesterday morning he put a hole in my jeans that was after he flattened the kid's ball and chewed on my bible. The bible was up on that card table. In the morning it looked like this. Really all he did was chew up some old bulletins, those maps in the back that I never look at and my bible reading schedule. I may or may not have suggested Heathen as a possible name.

He tires me out.

borring accidental video

Last blogged May 16th. oh well. I'm out of practice at this.

I feel like I should return but have little to nothing to say.

So I'm just going to post this borring video i accidentally made.

Wood fired Hot tub.

I know I have been missing for awhile. Plenty of old stories, and I'll share Mother's day picnic photos some time, but just look what we did tonight...


Really I did nothing. Micah and Ben started this on Saturday evening, but the problem with a wood fired hot tub is that if it rains, your tub never gets hot.
Today Micah put the finishing touches on and yes, I did get in.

Look who came to visit!!!

At the start of March My nephew Nick came to visit. He has the bluest eyes EVER. My sister forbids retouching them. They are SOOC (except for a little sharpening).

One thing about Nick, he's a climber. It's amazing really. There is a stool below him that got cropped out but still, the kid stood on the cabinet knobs to reach the sink so he could play in the water. I took pictures, his mom made him get down....I win.
Is my nephew not the cutest thing EVER!
Oh yeah, Abi & Claire came too. ;)

Hubby blogger?

I am thinking of starting a new genre of blogging: the Hubby blogger.
Forget you, mommy bloggers, my Husband does way cooler (and often more entertaining) things than your kids ever will!

Look at this cabinet he refinished (sad, there is no picture with the drawers he built)

And the Compost bin he built us

and the chicken coop he is tearing down...With his bare hands (well, he was wearing gloves, and he did hit things with a sledgehammer a few times...)

and the Boat he's building.

and the counter he made for our bathroom.

Plus he's downright handsome in a fire hat don't you agree
I love him so much, he might not feel the same after he sees that firehat picture on the internet though.... :)