Hannah's Story

Some of you may remember about Hannah gettin 2nd place in the WOUB Reading Rainbow Contest. The video has been finished and here it is.

Sledding 2009

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Here is a montage of pictures I took while the family was sledding in our backyard.

Hubby's Christmas Present

Many of you know my husband is hard to shop for. So, this year I gave my hubby a beautiful painting of the girls for Christmas. A friend of mine is a local artist and can paint about anything. She was able to use a picture I had taken and created this for me. She can do any size. This is a little bigger than 20x30.

Here is the photo

The Painting. (and no this will not be hanging in his office even though he wants to)

If you are interested in seeing her work or have her paint something for you. Here is her contact info:

Amy Nelson

Pataskala, OH

amynelson1@live.com

(740) 927-3152

What's for dinner?

UPDATE: Family enjoyed the dished but not overjoyed. I just need to find a way to improve it a little more.

If every one's house is like mine, my family is always asking what's for dinner. I ran across this book a few months ago, but never did anything with it. So this week I dusted it off. It has recipes in it that you can put in crockpot, freezer, or fridge. Another neat thing in the book is that it has the calculations if you want to double and quadruple the recipes. It gives tips on freezing, and how to do things ahead. The recipes use common ingredients that most people have and seems fairly kid friendly.

With this new year we have a few schedule changes, and I was trying to be better about the meals we are having. Two days a week I do not get thru with teaching piano till 7 pm, and I can't wait till then to decide on dinner. I have dusted off the crockpot and have been looking for new ideas. We have been having pot roast for the past several weeks and the girls have dubbed it Pot Roast Monday, but I am afraid they will get tired of it.

So this week we are trying a new recipe this week - Shredded Salsa Beef. I haven't told the girls about the salsa part (even though E loves it). Hopefully this will be a successful recipe, and we will be able to add it to our rotation. If any of my readers have any good kid friendly crockpot recipes please send them my way.


One of my goals this year is to hopefully do a monthly menu for the family. A friend of ours told us that she had done one and was surprised how it provided entertainment for her children. Here's hoping.

Merry Christmas

Our Dear Family would like to wish all of our family and friends Merry Christmas. May you serve Christ more in thid coming new year than in the past.

THANKS HUBBY!

This weekend my wonderful hubby whisked me away for my birthday to a nice city near us. We had a great time eating some local food, did a little shopping, and tried our best to stay warm. We got to see a fabulous Broadway play - Wicked. All in all we had fun. I scored some great bargains - $4 Christmas ornament at Saks, who can beat that. I can now say I have shopped at Saks 5th Ave, because I have the bag to prove it.



Thanks hubby for a wonderful birthday present - I LOVE YOU!!


Can you tell it is 18 degrees and we are freezing?

Christmas Survey

This was sent as an email forward, but I decided to do it as a blogpost. Stay tuned to see if I memed you.

Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends.

1.Wrapping paper or gift bags? paper
2. Real tree or Artificial? BOTH, you can never have enough trees
3. When do you put up the tree? as soon as I can get hubby to help bring everything up from basement
4. When do you take the tree down? around first of the year
5. Do you like eggnog? Yes, especially with ice cream
6. Favorite gift received as a child? a walking doll(i still have that doll) and stereo
7. Hardest person to buy for? parents and hubby
8. Easiest person to buy for? the girls
9. Do you have a nativity scene? many, but my favorite is my willow tree one
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? mostly mail but I do hand out some
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? ask my husband
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Christmas Vacation
13. When do you start shopping? never stop
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? no comment
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? fudge and pecan pie
16. Lights on the tree? all white but color ones on the girl's tree
17. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? I'll be home for Christmas
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Yes
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? angel on the family tree but big bows on the others
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? morning
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? traffic
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? the ornaments I have collected from different places around the country we have visited. i have ornaments from CA to NY to Mexico to Canada
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? HoneyBaked ham (unless hubby cooks a turkey or prime rib) and sweet potato casserole
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? fun time with family and friends plus my hubby has already given me my present (more on that later)
26. Who is most likely to respond to this? women
27. Who is least likely to respond to this? my husband

If your name is Susanne, Ashley, or Amanda you have been memed, and it is your turn.

Kids...say funny things.

This morning I told the girls who our next president is going to be. They didn't watch the returns one because it is somewhat boring, two they wanted to watch "Kitt Kittredge". When we decided to watch it my oldest said that it may be appropriate to watch that movie because if Obama wins we will be in a great depression. Then this morning when I told the younger one, her quote - "he's a potato head". I think there may be a little truth in that - you don't know what face he will put on.

All I know is the gov't will take care of everything. Who do you want gov't bailout or Jesus Christ the leader of all taking care of you?

John 16:33 - "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

This was not the seen at our house last night.

Later Peeps!

Video from Columbus Rally.

We are in this video. We are about the 22 sec left mark. It is a good video of McCain and Arnold.

Must Read

You must read my husband's blog this morning before you vote.

pastordear.blogspot.com

He won by a landslide!

We just held our mock election at our school today. The McCain/Palin ticket won by a landslide. Myself, the girls, and all animals and dolls voted. The dolls and animals were able to vote thanks to ACORN's ability to register them as voters Little did ACORN know that they were going to vote republican. It was a good clean election - not a long wait, no hanging chads, proper id's, and everyone had a verifiable address. It was a good clean election and was able to call it when the voting was done. The lawyers were sad that we didn't need them to go and prepare anything.

Here's hoping this will truly happen tomorrow.

Be an Informed Voter!!!

Road to Victory!!!

Tonight we have the privilege to sing in the choir for the John McCain rally tonight. It was a lot of fun getting in before other people and being around other people of like political persuasion. We took the girls (no hubby did not sing in choir) as part of a civics/government/history class. They are very excited about this election. The girls told us at dinner tonight that they would possible be mad if McCain doesn't win. I think they are more excited for Sarah Palin. Here are a couple of pics from the night, and I may post more later.

As you can see we have pretty good seats.

This is my favorite sign of the night.

Truly Left (lost) Coast

I was perusing my normal blogs this morning and ran across this post in one of them. It makes me thankful that I homeschool my children and are not subjected to a field trip like this one. I also wonder where the parents were to say no to this type of field trip. And you wonder why other countries are passing us in education. This little trip was not educational. It was to serve their own liberal agenda. Please read her post and then click on the article she linked in her post. Be careful if you don't want to raise your blood pressure or lose your lunch.

My Dear Photography Blog

Many of you know I am trying to start a little photography business. So, I have started a new blog to showcase some of my pictures. You can find the link to it over on the side. If you are interested in having your me take pictures of your wedding, baby, kids, or family, please give me a call.

More Wedding Photos

Today I was able to assist in shooting another wedding. Here are some early pics in. Enjoy.

Nice Getaway!

This past weekend hubby and I were able to getaway for a few days to a pastor's conference. This was not your typical minister's conference to learn more about how to do church, but a time for a pastors and their wives to come and recharge and gain encouragement. It is called the Timothy/Barnabas Conference which is done by Johnny and Janet Hunt from FBC Woodstock. He is the senior pastor there as well as the current SBC President. He has a heart for ministers and wanting them to be the best they can be and to help them not to burn out.

Many pastor's today are under alot of pressure and are subject to the same moral failures as everyone in the world. Satan is working overtime to attack pastors and their families. He is wanting to attack the integrity of minister's and discredit everything minister's say and do. I amazed to learn about the amount of minister's who have a moral failures. It just shows that we are not immune to this, and how much you should pray for ministers everywhere.

Noel and I are praying and trying to everything we can do with God's help to protect his ministry, our marriage, and our girls. So if it may seem like an inconvenience to some - we are protecting our family.

Thank you church for letting us be gone for a few days, and thanks Beth for watching our girls! Also another bonus was getting to each lunch with some of our friends in AL and eating Mata's pizza.

Later Peeps!

Interesting Weekend

With the coverage of Ike, football, church members in hospitals it was a busy weekend. I was suppose to host a baby shower at my home Saturday, but the baby has other plans and came early so the shower has been postponed. Congrats Brian and Minna!

This weekend was also the big rivalry game in the Dear Family - MSU vs Auburn. True Dear family style and by an agreement we watch the game in separate rooms and now separate floors. There was nailbitting, heart racing, and frustration. It was not a pretty game if anyone saw it as can be attested to by the score AU 3 - MSU 2. As Boomama commented "the game has aged me". All I can saw about the game as it was ugly!

My favorite thing that made me laugh and still does every time I see it is Geraldo getting knocked over by a wave on national TV. In case you missed it. Here it is.



The aftermath of Hurricane Ike reached us last night. It was VERY windy with gusts up to 60 mph. We only had power in part of our church last night and had our service "unplugged". It was a pretty cool service. We had the Lord's Supper service and it took me back to what it may have been like if Jesus was doing it Himself. We did loose a tree at the church and as I write this post electricity is still out there and to much our county. Thankfully we have power, but I think it is due to the fact that our power it run underground. I am also thankful we had no damage to our home or family. Most of the schools are out today because of downed trees and do not know when power will be back on.

Everyone have a good week! LATER PEEPS!

Guess Who is Hitting the Trail?

Sen. McCain has asked us to join him on the "Straight Talk Express" to help him campaign. His bus was at church today to pick us up. We are very excited to work with him and Gov. Palin.

Sorry just kidding. His bus was at our church this morning and his bus driver was in our service, and we did get on the bus. It was quite the buzz around the church this morning.

ProLife and Proud of IT!!!

In light of the upcoming election my hubby preached a sermon on homesexuality and abortion. He is very passionately against these, and for electing officials who are against them as well. Here is the link to that sermon part 1 and part 2.