Christmas In Heaven

I see the countless Christmas trees around the world below,

With tiny lights, like heaven's stars, reflecting on the snow,

The sight is so spectacular, please wipe away the tears,

For I am spending Christmas with Jesus Christ this year.

I hear the many Christmas songs that people hold so dear,

The sound of music can't compare with the Christmas choir here.

I have no words to tell you, the joy their voices bring,

For it is beyond description, to hear the angels sing.

I know how much you miss me, I see the pain inside your heart,

But I am noe so far away. We really aren't apart.

So be happy for me dear ones. You know I hold you dear,

And be glad I'm spending Christmas with Jesus Christ this year.

I send you each a special gift from my heavenly home above.

I send you each a memory of my undying love.

After all, Love is a Gift more precious than pure gold.

It was always most important in the stories Jesus told.

Please love and keep each other, as my Father said to do,

For I can't count the blessings of love He has for each of you,

So have a Merry Christmas and wipe away your tears.

Remember, I'm spending Christmas with Jesus Christ this year.

-Author Unknown

What a weekend. It actually started on Thursday with me having a 24 hour stomach virus, I won't describe what that means, I think we all know. On Friday I felt a lot better with Earl suprising me with saying we could go to the mall and other stores to do shopping that Dad had asked me to do for the girls. We hadn't been to the mall since last April. However Earl's Christmas giving spirit LEFT when we hit the second store and had 3 more to go to. However to defend his scruge attitude he had got up at 3:00am that morning and after supper was in his belly he became tired. In a couple of stores he had to have the girls all to himself while for the next 20 minutes they would ask over and over "Where's Mommy""Is she done yet". This also could contributed to the mental breakdown.
Then on Saturday was our Sunday school Christmas party. We went on the back of a wagon caroling for different people around town. Sammi fell asleep and had Earl not caught her as she fell asleep she could have rolledbackwards off the wagon. She wanted to sit by herself and the area she sat in was the only place that an adult wasn't sitting behind her. I then took her held her the rest of the way. (5 mores houses). We then went back and had a ham dinner. I thought of Sunday dinners at Gana's and Gladys's, no good homemade rolls.
On Sunday was the children's play at church. Except that morning all 4 of us woke up at 4:00am and stayed awake. It was horrible. The kids have never done this before, but after we got to church we found out that a handful of other people had done the same thing. Sammi fell asleep during the play
Beth did a great job with her play and you couldn't even tell if she was nervous or not. At one point she was putting her left fingers around her right fingers and looking at the size of the hole it made. When I asked her about it she said "I just wondered how big of a hole my different fingers would make" She did this during her solo.
Over all it was a good weekend. Last nights church service was to be each family coming to church and the head of the family would talk about Christmas and our memories of Christmas, then we would receive communion. Dad had signed up our family for 5:00 and when Beth and I got there the preacher told me that no one else was coming, not even Dad. We were going to leave but Beth had never received communion before and wanted to very badly. She asked Jesus into her heart last Christmas season, so I saw no problem with it. I thought that it would have been very special for Dad to have done it but I tried to fill in the gap. My preachers wife Debbie and our assistant Pastor Ann came in and joined us. It was special even though it wasn't exactly what I had envisioned. We got to learn a little bit more about Debbie and Ann and maybe grow a little closer as friends and I got to serve Beth her first communion. Special.
So now we are getting ready for Christmas, going to stay all night at Dad's on Christmas Eve with my brother and wife and all of us. We will also have a candle lit service at church Wed. Then spend some of Christmas day with Dad opening packages and eating. Then going back to our house to recover and let the girls play. I am letting Beth have this week off from school though the original plans was to make her keep working I have found that I need the week off just like she does.
Today we are going to a friends house to make cookies and let the kids play. The great thing about the season is that it is making March come all the sooner. Then Suzy will be here and things can be completely chaotic hahaha

Yeah!!! Our cantata at church was done yesterday and we wound up doing it last night also. The songs weren't too bad to learn but there were some songs that had notes up in the high F section. I had a 3 or 4 line solo. Our pastor put the cantata on our church's website www.rutlandnaz.org if anyone is interested. Now, next Sunday is Beth's play "Bethlehem Gulch" She is a sheep and had to sing 2 songs, one with the group of sheep and one with another girl. I think that I am more nervous than she is but we have not talked about it because I don't want to give her any ideas about FEAR. Sammi is very content not to be involved, in fact usually on Sunday nights she stays home with Earl. So last night I asked her why she didn't want to go to church with me, her reply " I don't like it", I was speechless. In fact I still don't know what to say, except maybe giving her the option of staying home will have to end. Yesterday she had to go to the bathroom during church, but as she and I approached the door she informed me that she wanted to do it herself. So I stood outside of the bathroom and waited, out she came with toilet paper and her pants down saying "I done you finish up". Needless to say the women that had been in the bathroom thought it was quite funny as I am shoving her back into a stall to "finish up" I want her to be independent but not a streaker.

We are not done with our shopping yet and the girls have failed to see Santa of get their picture taken, it might be because he is at the mall an hour away and with only one vehicle it is important for Earl to go to work. But Santa usuallly comes to our fire house, except I have a great fear I might have missed it so I am calling the Chief today to find out.

We finally got rid of 2 of the bunnies and have 2 males to go. But the great news is that they are OUTSIDE yeahhhh!!!. Now we have to get the Dad outside. You should see our rabbit hutch. We used what we had and it is too funny. Its like a redneck home for rabbits. All that's missing is the tire in the front yard and a car up on blocks. I even burned my finger. Earl had tried to put a screw in and he had trouble so I wanted to see how far it stuck out and didn't realize that the electric drill had made the screw hot and burned a smiley face into my middle finger.

And that is life in the fast lane at the Bickfords Cave

Yesterday I went to my diabetes Dr., nice young man, Dr Stout. I am now on insulin 4x's a day and checking my blood sugars as often. No problem, this is just like when I was expecting Sammi. This time I am on 2 different insulins, a fast acting one with meals and a slower one at night for bedtime.

I had trouble with my insurance trying to tell the pharmacy that I have two insurances, but I don't. Every time we go to the pharmacy with a new script/prescription this happens. I tried to fill it at Walmart but they wouldn't even try to fight the insurance company, so I took it to a local pharmacy Fruiths and they were able to figure it out. The only problem being that my insurance doesn't want to cover my strips for my glucose machine that the Dr gave me, they cover a different kind. So Fruiths was going to call and try to see if he would write me a subscrition for the new machine and the new strips. I will find out today if it will be done. If not my strips cost $93.00 to use on my new machine ayayayay!! But I don't see Dr Stout giving them any hassel about the different machine.

We are all doing OK. Earl went back to work yesterday on his line. He seems to think that he will be getting very long hours and for the first day he was right. He went to work at 7am and got done at 8pm. Our churchs cantata is Dec 14, Beth's play is the 21st,she is not nervous at all.

The girls made their list of what they wanted for Christmas and I had to tell you what Sammi is wanting. There is a show on Disney that is about a man that does repairs to things and he has 7 tools that talk. Handy Manny, and Sammi loves them. They have his tools at Walmart and the toolbox sings and you can take the toos out, that is what Sammi wants. She also wants "girl" toys but the only thing that she will say when she goes to the store or if you ask her is Handy Manny tools.

Do any of you love the electric holders that you place a small candel down in and it heats the candel up so that you can smell it but you don't have to light the candle. A store down here has them for $3. They have strawberries, apples, blueberries, fish, animals(deer,moose) all kind, I want to go back and get some for my bathroom and bedroom. The had larger ones that were beautiful with snowmen and angels on them with quilt patterns in their clothes. I'll pick you one up if you'd like just let me know.