Stuff.

 

I just love this picture. 

Little Misses first day of Kindergarten 5 1/2 yrs ago.  Such a tiny little thing.

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Last Friday was Big Misters birthday.  He worked.  I shopped.

I made his favorite meal from his youth, stacked enchiladas and apple dumplings for dessert.  He also got two new books.    Happy Birthday Big Mister!

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I got my hair cut…about 5 inches taken off.  So much better!

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We woke up to snow today, finally…and it’s still snowing.  It’s beautiful.  I had to drive in it to get Little Mister to choir at 7 a.m. 

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I found a new chiropractor in Utah.  He is wonderful and I have a diagnosis.  In simple terms, the top of my spine is straight rather than a nice pretty curve in my neck.  Yikes!  It’s bad.  My problems are all in my neck, which affects everything else.  I am going in for daily exercises, traction (scary) and adjustments.  I hope to be feeling better real soon.  And really, I am just hoping this condition can be fixed.

My 2 cents from dealing with this…pay attention to your posture when you are on the computer, etc.   Don’t hunch, keep your shoulders back and get up and move, rotate your arms and shoulders around a bit.  Your ears should be over your shoulders.  If they are not, go see your chiropractor before it gets worse.

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The kids are praying to find a home to buy in our current neighborhood.  They love their school and have made lots of friends that they don’t want to leave.   Problem is, people stay here for a long time, not too many of these houses come up for sale.  

We’ll try.

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My niece and nephew and their families are coming over Saturday morning for a fun family get-together.  So glad we have some family here.

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I have lots to post, but little time.  I may not get caught up until January.

We can’t wait to be in AZ with our family for Christmas.

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Every night we read a new Christmas story.  Here’s one of my favorites for ya!

Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes and having fun.

- Mary Lou Cook

It’s said that you can never have too many friends, but Christmas was just a week away and I had five people left to shop for on my Christmas list and only three dollars to my name.  How do you tell your mother, brother and three friends that you can only spend sixty cents on each of them?

“Let’s set a price limit on our gifts this year, “ I suggested to my best friend, Joanie.

“That’s a good idea,” Joanie agreed.  “How about nothing over five dollars?”

“How about nothing over sixty cents?”  I felt like the biggest cheapskate in the world.

“I guess this is where I’m supposed to say it’s not the gift, it’s the thought that counts,” Joanie smiled. “But don’t blame me if all you get is a stick of gum!”

It is almost impossible to buy anything for under sixty cents, so it was really going to have to be very small gifts with very big thoughts.  I’d never spent so much time or effort trying to come up with the right gift for the right person.

Finally, Christmas day arrived, and I was worried how people would feel about my “cheap” gifts.

I gave my mother a scented candle with a note that said, “You are the brightest light in my life.”  She almost cried when she read the note.

I gave my brother a wooden ruler.  On the back of it I’d painted, “No brother in the world could measure up to you.”  He gave me a bag of sugar and had written on it, “You’re sweet.”  He’d never said anything like that to me before.

For Joanie, I painted an old pair of shoes gold and stuck dried flowers in them with a note that said, “No one could ever fill your shoes.”    She gave me a feather and a Band-Aid.  She said I always tickled her funny bone and made her laugh until her sides ached.

To my other two friends, I gave one a paper fan and wrote on it, “I’m your biggest fan,”  To the other, I gave a calculator that cost one dollar and I painted a message on the back, “You can always count on me,”  They gave me a rusty horseshoe for luck and a bundle of sticks tied with a red ribbon because “friends stick together.”

I don’t remember all the other gifts that I got from people last Christmas, but I remember every one of the “cheap” gifts.

My brother thinks I’m sweet.  My mother knows she is the most important person in my life.  Joanie thinks I’m funny and I make her laugh, which is important because her dad moved away last year and she misses him and is sad sometimes.

I was worried I wouldn’t have enough money for Christmas gifts, but I gave gifts to five people and still had twenty cents left over.  We all still talk about our “cheap” gifts and how much fun it was to come up with a gift that cost pennies but told someone how we really felt about them.  On my bookshelf, I still have a bag of sugar, a feather, a horseshoe and a bundle of sticks…and they are priceless.

- Storm Stafford