The Gift

A special Gift, a starry night,
a chill is in the air,
friends new and old come gather 'round,
a joyful time to share.
Melodies dance on open hearts
as we celebrate the Life,
remembering the promised One
born in a manger that night.
Our Saviour, Messiah,
the Prince of Peace,
took on human flesh
to wrap 'round Diety.
This little Child,
He gave me hope,
and now I want the world to know...

For Him we sing,
To Him we pray,
Remembering the Gift this Christmas Day.

A Picture's Worth... Felony Charges?

Note: This is not a paid advertisement. :-)

I found this great new photographer in town, a gal I've actually known for several years now. Her name is Dawn Shields. Write that down. A few years ago she got into photography and now it's pretty much her thing. So this past October we actually organized a real sitting at the Veteran's Memorial Cemetary out near Springfield Lake. We showed up right at 6pm to get the perfect light and she went right to work. We had to trespass onto private property in order to get to this really cool bridge, but getting this awesome shot is worth being a perp. Ahh, but trespassing on private property isn't the only trouble we got into that evening. Read on...

We finished all the pictures at about 6:40pm, we stood around and chatted for a few minutes, then we all piled in our cars to leave the park. The sun is now setting, and we pull up to the gate only to find it LOCKED. Yes, we are now LOCKED inside a cemetary during the last week before Halloween. Not good. The kids thought it was really fun at first, till Daddy had to call 911 to come get us. Fortuantely, the 911 people called the Sherriff, who called somebody, who called somebody, who finally came to unlock the gate and gave us all a good talkin' to. I thought our photographer would die of embarrassment, but it all turned out fine.

Back to that photographer, I think she did a great job and I wanted to tell you all about her. Go to Dawnshields.com and check her out. She's traveled all over the place now and learned from some incredible teachers. Thanks Dawn, and I hope you don't get me in trouble for scanning this image in order to brag on you! :-)

The Roy Rap sheet now includes:
Trespassing onto private property
Being in a Public Park after it's closed and locked up like Fort Knox
Not stopping to pray for the soldiers who have passed on to Heaven
Copyright infringement

A great portrait IS worth it, unless this blog gets me into trouble now. 

The Falling Ice Story

Many, many thanks to these guys for literally bailing us out of a tough situation.

May I explain? Greg's Mom (who will remain nameless for privacy sake) has had a few bad turn of events lately. First she took a faceplant on some concrete a day before Thanksgiving. Now that she's all healed up from that nasty fall, we thought we'd keep things interesting for her.
This past Sunday, Greg got up early to go to the office and try to shovel the melting ice off the roof. The workspaces below were quickly turning into a scene from the Titanic with a steady stream of water filling trashcans and ceiling tiles falling down with the water. OK, so it wasn't quite like the Titanic, but it was bad and needed some immediate attention. So, Greg loaded up the ladder and a shovel and went to work. Later that morning, his Mom stopped by to make a few calls to see if we could get someone there ASAP. Ice was melting fast, computers below, not a good thing. They talked inside the office first, then Greg said, "I'm getting back to work." He goes up to the roof to keep shoveling, and his Mom continues to work the phone. Or so he thought. For only moments later, he sends a shovel full of ice over the side of the building, right on top of her head! She had stepped out at just the right(wrong) time, at just the right(wrong) spot to be on the recieving end of a hunk of ice. She yelled and ran in the office, blood all over, and began to worry about her suede coat. Greg called 911 who came and took her to the ER, and 7 STAPLES and a CT scan later, she was released to go home.
During all this, I'm taking the kids to their band and piano recitals, Lulu, the other Mom, is coming into town, and the office is STILL CAVING IN. That's when these guys showed up. They brought their shovels and a willingness to give up their Sunday afternoon at the busiest time of the year. I'm sure they all had somewhere else they'd rather be, but instead chose to shovel ice off the nasty, flat roof of an office building. It was hard work, but they got it done, and seriously came to our rescue that day.
The office is drying out and Betty (oops) is healing up nicely. She is amazing, by the way. Took those staples in the scalp without painkiller or even tears. She has not complained or even accused my husband of attempted murder. :-) For that I am grateful. For EVERYTHING we are grateful!

Guys, I publicly say THANK YOU:
HILLENBLOG ( no suprise, headed it all up and made the calls)
HILLENBLOG JR
MATT B. (Do you have a code name??)
NICK BURNS
JEFF B. (I know you have a code name, but I forgot it)

And to my husband... You are such a hard worker, diligent, and dependable. When something is wrong you fix it right away. Thank you for sticking with your job all these years and placing your family first in your life. Our family is reaping the rewards of having you be the one in charge of our home. Thanks for never letting your kids win at the board games because you want to teach them that life is not fair, putting the real score up in the basketball game even when we're losing by 35 pnts, driving faster on the curvy roads when I'm nauseated, and basically just putting up with me. I love you more today than yesterday, and just wanted to let everyone know it. :-) 

Bambie...

Here we are, our whole family gathered around the kitchen having lunch, when out of nowhere Lauren starts screaming unintelligible words that eventually sounded something like... "Deer, deer!!!" We all ran to the front windows and stood in speechless awe at the little herd of 6 deer making their way across our front field.

That night Nick Burns came over with Venison chili and even though it was quite yummy, I could barely choke it down.