Pictures of December

From December 2006

You don't hear from me (Kristi) much because every time I sit down to write a new posting I get distracted with trying to put a picture in it. I usually just give up after I have used up my 30 minutes of kids nap time trying to get a picture to configure and post it on the site (it must be done before anything can be written). I thought that I must be very inept since I know others who fill their blogs with multiple pictures and it never seems to give them a problem. I feel a bit better to know that the pictures give David trouble too, in fact, posting pictures gives trouble to most everyone who uses beta blogger instead of just plain blogger. Unfortunately we didn't know that there was difference between the two and to change from one to the other now would be a royal pain - so I guess I will keep trying to post pictures with minimal success, althuogh I do hear that beta blogger is working on fixing the problem since no one is happy about it!. [I added the above picture after the fact, DC]

If I could have put pictures in I would have put in Kaytra Copper and Sarah Coder playing with my kids. They came out to Ohio for a week and made cookies and bread and freezer meals, took care of my children, cleaned bathrooms, mopped floors, folded laundry, wrapped Christmas presents, and took about 500 pictures on our digital camera. We sure miss them. They were also here for 3 of the days this month that David worked 30 hour shifts and were great company for me.

The one picture that we almost took but didn't was of Jan, early this last Sunday morning. She had gotten up before anyone else because she needed to use the bathroom. While sitting on the toilet, in the dark with no one to talk to she noticed that there was no toilet paper on the roll. The most natural thing to do was to take off the rod that usually holds toilet paper, take it apart and pretend that it was jewelry. When she finally hollered for me to come and help her one of the ends of the toilet paper roll was good and stuck on her pinky. Of course, David had left several hours earlier and would not be home until the next afternoon. I tried greasing it up with several things, then cutting with tin snips and wire cutters. Nothing worked. It was off to the emergency room. I was so grateful that I didn't have to haul the other two kids out of bed and take them with us too. Kaytra and Sarah stayed with them while Jan and I headed to Akron Children's Hospital. The doctors and nurses down there couldn't figure out how to get it off either. They finally called up a big brawny janitor from maitenance to bring a large pair of tin/wire cutters. About an hour and fifteen minutes after she first put it on it finally came off. Her finger was swollen, cut and gray but she could feel it. (And they gave her a pretty white bear for being so good...she was so pleased with it that I worried a little about a repeat performance.)

It has been snowing for most of this week and it is beautiful outside. We have a few pictures of kids with red cheeks making snowangels. Anne Pilar is so bundled that she can hardly walk, looking like a cross between a boy and a girl in Alec's hand-me-down blue snowsuit and a powder pink hat. Pretty cold, but we make it out a couple of times a day to pull the sled around and try to make snowballs. The first day Jan rolled snowballs around for twenty minutes trying to make a snowman. She kept saying "I think it is getting bigger Mom!" But it wasn't and she finally gave up. I guess wet Oregon snow is just better for snowpeople. David even made it out to pull kids around the house in the sled a few times before he had to go to bed. (His overall schelule this month is pretty awful and he goes alot of nights with no sleep at all..I guess that it will make having a newborn look easy!)

The house is half decorated for Christmas - we hope to make it out to get a tree next week (along with some new PLASTIC toilet paper holders). We don't have pictures of doing advent, but it would be fun to post a few since it really is the best time of day. It is most fun when David gets to be home for it. The kids are relearning some of Luke 2 and are starting to be able to sing the real words to "O Come O Come Emmanuel" (which is good since David and I can't help getting the giggles when they are singing along earnestly, but don't really know the tune or the words.).

I started this month fretting about the upcoming birth, about David's schedule, about lack of childcare options during the birth. Several people have mentioned that they are praying for for all of that. This week I have had peace about God's control over all of those things. I am interested to see how He works it all out...and I can't help wishing that it were over!

Maybe our next post will have real pictures - of a new baby!

Hope you all have a good December.
Kristi for the Carnes