Goober the Donkey

Our pastor preached a really good sermon this Sunday on Hebrews 13. One of the illustrations he used was that of a donkey named Goober. Goober is a real live donkey the church used in their Christmas performance. True to his kind, Goober was very stubborn and to make a long story short, they ended up having to use a back hoe to get Goober into the truck to take him to the church. Pastor David was using the story of Goober to illustrate the point that sometimes we move of our own accord when God tells us and sometimes He has to bring out the back hoe :-).

I feel like Goober tonight, bottom in the back hoe, feet flailing in the air. Funny image I know, and honestly, as worn out and utterly beat up as I feel after this week, I do see the humor in it, because I know that God loves me, even when I end up with my butt in a tractor. God has been working on both Jason and me on many levels. One of the resulting outcomes has been that I have decided to turn down the job as Wilton Instructor for Michael's. Without going into all of it, it's not where I need to be right now.

Please pray for us, as God continues to work. Pray that we would stay open to His will, that we would work together as a team, that God would strengthen our marriage and that in everything we do, we would bring honor to Him. It is my prayer for 2009 that everyone who comes in contact with us will see Christ in us and long to have what we have, to experience the love and peace that a true walk with God brings.

Anyone want to visit?

Just had to pop in and let you guys know that Southwest is running a $49 special through March 11th on airfare.  So if any of you have been dying to visit us ;), you can now do it at a discount :D. You just have to book it at least 14 days before your trip. Anyone? Anyone?

Wait a minute! Who says I'm lonely?...

Decorating the gingerbread house

About a week before Christmas, the kids and I decided to decorate a gingerbread house. I had bought a kit a couple weeks before and Gabby was DYING to put it together. So we sat down and went to work.

James mostly ate the candies and begged (and begged and begged) for more. Gabby on the other hand really got into the actual decorating. Now while they were decorating and James was begging for candies, I told them that they could have whatever candies were left over, but that the gingerbread house needed to be completely decorated first. James, being the smart 5 year old that he is, realized that the fewer candies they used, the more they would have when it was over. So he talked Gabby into using the candies sparingly...

They both enjoyed the leftovers...

And the house was beautiful...

Until you looked at the naked sides...

And the nearly naked back.

Gabby was ok with the idea when it was explained to her, but once the candies were eaten and I turned the house around and she saw the back and sides, she lost it. She cried and cried and cried. Poor thing! I couldn't stop laughing and still find it humorous. I'll have to put a few thousand extra therapy dollars into her therapy account I guess. I did scrounge around the house and found some m+ms, sprinkles and other miscellaneous candies that she got to use to finish it off. When she was done, it had ALOT of candies EVERYWHERE and she was very pleased, as was sweet-toothed James :-). Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a picture of the finished product so you will have to use your imagination. Just take the pictures above and add m+ms and pastel colored candied hearts and green tic-tacs.

A little behind

I sat down at the computer tonight to upload a video of the kids opening their Christmas presents from Nana, since we didn't get to do that in person due to the nasty incoming weather that cut our trip short :(. I found, however, that the battery in my camera is dead and will be unable to upload anything until I charge it. Sorry, Nana! I did decide, however, to post some Christmas tree decorating pictures. I know it happened almost a month ago, but better late than never, right?

James playing with a snow globe

Our little lady

Where did he go?

Working as a team

HELP!!!!!

Lost another one to the hat!

Daddy's "favorite" part (hehehe)

Our tree

We're home!

Just wanted to pop in really quickly to say we made it home safe and sound. Other than a little slush and some torrential downpours when we reached CA, our trip was uneventful and we are glad to be home. It was ironic though because when we reached CA, the rain was coming down in sheets and I had a really hard time seeing while I was driving (Jason had driven through the snow and ice, so it was my turn. Poor guy!). James pops up from the back seat: "Why is it raining? Aren't we in CA?" My thoughts exactly, little man :-). I did explain to him, however, that even CA plants need watered every now and then.

Once I find my house under the mounds of gifts (thanks, everyone!) and piles of laundry, I will download some pictures and share those with you. In the mean time, have a great week and for those of you in Oregon, please stay home! No more totaled cars please.

P.S. Jenn, if you are trying to avoid crumbs in your frosting, put on a "crumb coat", which is a light layer of frosting, then put your cake in the freezer for 10 to 15mns, then pull it out and finish frosting it. The crumb coat will hold the crumbs in and you won't have them all over the top of your cake :-).

What I've been doing with all my free time this week.

I delivered these this morning and boy do these people have money, or at least a massive mansion of a house. I'm hoping they will really like the cakes and become regular customers :-). And yes, Wilton's barbie heads need their bangs cut!

What a ride!

Two hours and 17 minutes ago, I joined the world of the unemployed. YES!!!! It's not as ominous for me as it is for many because Jason makes a good income and I was told I could (PLEASE) have my job back ANYTIME I wanted (can you hear the desperation/begging in the tone? :-).). What a couple weeks it has been! I found out Friday that Adrienne, Freda's boss, the one who told me that I would have to resign if I wanted to come up to Oregon, is no longer employed by WDS. Apparently, she made a very rapid decision, with some encouragement from her superiors, to retire. I won't go into the details of the last few days, but to sum it up, I made the right decision. WDS is a mess and I don't need that stress right now. I'm really sad to leave most of my co-workers though. I got to work with some really neat people the last few months.
I am excitedly looking forward to our trip in a week and a half. I can't wait!
Although unemployed, I am still looking at a fairly busy week. I am making two princess cakes for one year old twin girls' first birthday party on Saturday. That will take awhile. I also need to budget, clean and prepare for our trip, not to mention some Christmas shopping. I'm really looking forward to having the time to breathe, think, do the laundry and hug my kids. I will also be following up with a woman at Wilton about a cake decorating instructor position at the Michaels in Turlock. They have an opening there and the head lady (I don't know her official title) was impressed by the pictures of my cakes. She sent me the information about what the position entails and said we would talk after the holiday (Thanksgiving), so I will call her tomorrow. The nice thing about this position is that it's VERY part-time, I get to chose my hours (within reason), and it's doing something that I love. The down side is that it's 20 miles from my house and it doesn't pay too terribly well, although if you add in the benefits of 40% off all cake decorating supplies and 25% off anything at Michaels, it just might turn out to be a high-paying job :-).

Re-Post - covered bridge and related pix

I could have sworn I posted these months ago but both Rebecca and I looked and didn't find them. So here they are again, just more California for you.... These were taken in August at the Knights Ferry Covered Bridge and Power Plant... it was a mill, and then a hydroelectric plant from the 1890's on to about 1940 or so... The town of Knights Ferry currently has about 50 people living there...

Here is a plant fighting for life next to an early 20th century powerhouse wall... I like the colors...
Here is a covered bridge reflecting in the waters of the Merced River, it is the Knights Ferry Bridge

Yosemite During Fall

I know I don't post much, Becca tends to hog the blog... but here are a couple of images I created during a recent trip to Yosemite. It sure does change with the seasons and I am still scouting out locations and trying to understand weather patterns before I can put out any quality work... but here are a few images, I'll put up more as I go through them and pick the better ones.... jason

href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVvJ6A21sofNFVkWhWFBxeF6EeENrUzZA1KlM1EicMENa1YeoE-GcTGlVh8aU7MPTCWBNJsDyP5jj3fnpg_Nc_ppt6uAQEukny5IVjG9RobF69RrFe4umziEMaZtwYBSv7WZNNyc_krq4/s1600-h/clouds+at+tunnel+view++038.jpg"> Here is tunnel view from Inspiration Point. I kind of liked the clouds on this one but the sun is all wrong... still, just learning the weather patterns and how fall/winter sun hits the Yosemite Valley. You can see Bridalviel falls on the right, but it's just a trickle...
I love the mixture of the colors of the stones on the bridge with the fall colors of the trees and grass on the bank...
Kind of a strange tree, they were everywhere as I hiked up to inspiration point. The red bark was really that red, it was kind of cool

The decision has been made...

I'm resigning today, with my last day being Monday, December 8th. The whole trip issue was the catalyst, but honestly, there were a whole set of problems with my job that I wasn't even aware of until the possible trip cancellation brought them all to the surface. I finally realized what a tole this job was really taking on me, my family and my marriage. I will REALLY miss parts of the job. I was good at what I did and it's always nice to do something you're good at, but the sacrifice was too great. So today I am faxing my resignation in and finishing up my time there. And then we'll see all you Oregonians in 3 weeks!!! Yay! I can't wait!

More prayers needed

My boss' boss informed me this morning that the only way she will allow me to go to Oregon in December is if I resign. I am angry and frustrated. This was the final straw for me and I'm ready to quit my job, but I don't want to do something just because I'm angry. We definitely need to change something. I'm exhausted. Jason is exhausted and Gabby complains on a regular basis when I have to work. Please pray for guidance and peace for us in this.
Thanks!

Oh, GREAT!

*note the sarcasm*
Update on Jason's co-worker: Not a heart attack. Pancreatitis. Jason said he's pretty drugged up and they finally had to take his phone away from him because he was trying to make work calls and wasn't making any sense hehe.
Update on my boss: She was finally discharged from the hospital this evening (Tuesday) and came straight to work to return my cake taker and tell me everything I did wrong (only partially kidding). She's out for at least two weeks. She's been given meds to regulate her blood pressure and has to check back with the doctor in two weeks, so I guess no pacemaker for now.
As for me, I have a nice case of shingles. GREAT! Just what I needed! If I'm going to be in pain, I wish it were with something that would make me miss work so I could stay home and relax, but NOOOO! :-). I'm going to the doctor tomorrow so we'll see what he says.
As for Christmas, I'm going to talk to Adrienne (Freda's boss) tomorrow and see what she says about our trip up to Oregon. I'm not holding my breath though :-(. With Freda out for at least 2 weeks and the other lead not very strong, I don't know. I'll keep you posted.

In need of some prayers today

What a weekend! On Friday, my boss went to work with a sore toe. She had kicked her bedpost while making her bed and was quite sore. She hobbled around throughout the day (crazy day, too!), but when a Costco member hit her in the same foot with a shopping cart, the pain became more than she could handle. She called in sick for the next day and set off for the emergency room to have her toe looked at. While there, they took her blood pressure and it was through the roof. They told her that she was a walking heart attack and admitted her! Thank goodness for the broken toe!
I worked her shift Saturday, then went to see her at the hospital after work. Yesterday, the other lead was one, but I still put in 4 hrs as a breaker and 4 as "help" time (basically doing lead stuff without getting lead pay, since we can only have one lead on at a time. The pay difference is only $1 an hour, so that part doesn't really bother me). My boss had tests done on her heart yesterday morning and it looks like she is going to need a pacemaker, which her father and brother already have. She's very scared and doesn't want to talk about it. My heart breaks for her. She already had so much on her plate (rocky marriage, housing situation, work pressure, etc) and now this. As of right now, we're planning on her being out for a week, but the doctor told her she has to wear the walking cast for 4 to 5 weeks and she can't work with an open-toed shoe, so she would have to find a way to cover up the huge cast, not to mention the whole "heart" situation.
She's planning on coming into work tomorrow (yes. It honestly is no surprise that she has heart problems, with the crazy life she lives) to show me how to do all the paperwork, since Tuesdays are the days when everything gets set up for the week, as well as payday, and I've never done any of that. However, I couldn't get ahold of her yesterday and I'm not sure when her pacemaker will be put in, or even if the doctor will let her go. She may be walking me through it from her hospital bed, crazy woman!
Now for the prayer requests:
1. Please pray that God will use this time in Freda's life to bring her to Him. There is so much pain in that little heart of hers and she desperately needs His healing, both physically and spiritually.
2. Pray for peace for me as my schedule is being completely messed up. I don't adapt well to change and struggling with childcare and the like is also frustrating. I'm also feeling very overwhelmed by the responsibilities that have been thrown on me. We just hired 13 new people who have been trained, but have yet to work a shift on the floor. I know how to run the show for 2 to 3 days at a time, but not an entire week or more. Adrienne (Freda's boss) may very well assign another supervisor to us, which brings up a whole other set of issues.
3. Please pray that we will still be able to make it up to Oregon. We already reserved the hotel rooms and I don't think we can get refunded should the trip fall through. The only reason we were able to come up in the first place is because Freda was willing to work with me. If we end up with another supervisor, or if Adrienne wants me to take over while Freda is out, I may not be able to get the time off work :-(.

One last thing to pray about for now. Jason's co-worker Dari, the man who graciously invited us to spend Thanksgiving with him and his wife, is in the hospital with "chest pain and over 12 hrs of vomiting" which Jason said is indicative of a heart attack. YIKES!

WARNING! TOO MUCH CUTENESS!!!

Check out Gabby's latest skill! Sorry the video is sideways, but it's cute nonetheless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjxFWqQ8Gro

Halloween pictures

Halloween party at preschool. The tall cinderella is Miss Becky, Miss Shirley's attendant (Miss Shirley is the angel, in case you were wondering ;-).) James is QUITE fond of Miss Becky :D.

Getting ready for Trick or Treating

All dress and ready to go

Ding Dong

Starting at the neighbor's house

Mmmm! Good start!!

The Clawson Aliens :-).

All tuckered out (ok. So the date is different. But the pictures were cute and I wanted to post them, so deal with it!)

 :-).

Pumpkin carving

Daddy, James and Gabby carving pumpkins before bed.

Having a blast!

Well, maybe not. This is awfully gooey (notice Mommy is NOT involved in the actual carving of the pumpkin because Mommy wholeheartedly agrees with the look on Jp's face!)

Ok. Not so bad after all.

The finished product

Interesting day today

I spent the day interviewing people today to fill some demonstrator spots at work. I have to say it was an interesting experience. People are . . . interesting. Like the man who, in the answer to his very first question, tells me he has had problems with sexual harassment, perpetrated by him!!! YIKES! And then he goes on to tell me that he's not sure how he feels about being on his feet for 6 hrs at a time because he's been a couch potato for the last couple years. Um, ok. And the person who walks in, says she used to work for WDS and starts to argue with us when we say we have to verify with her former place of employment to make sure she is hirable. It was an exhausting day and my brain was fried by the end, but it looks like we will be getting some pretty good demonstrators this time around.

My boss asked me how I would feel about taking over the management of the store because she wants to retire. Haha! She was serious, but I told her I wouldn't even think about it for two more years, at least not until the kids are in school :-). I was flattered though ;-).

GREAT NEWS!

The other lead at work "unresigned" so now she can work the weekend I need to be in Oregon. YAY!!!!

GOOD NEWS!

I spoke to my boss this morning and she is willing to let me take a weekend off during the month of December so that we can stay in Oregon a bit longer and actually attend the extended Armstrong family Christmas party. Please pray, though, that nothing will change that because she is known to say things and then her boss steps in and changes them. Officially, I am not allowed to request any time off during November and December. As of right now, I am the only trained lead. The other one stepped down and a new one has yet to be trained. If the new lead doesn't work out, it will cause a major problem with me leaving over a weekend because Freda (my boss) will have no one to work on her days off. So please pray that it will all work out. I miss you all fiercely and would love to be able to come up for a bit longer of a trip.

Our son

This morning, James was dressed in his Darth Vader costume and we were leaving for preschool, where he was to have a Halloween party. As we headed out, we noticed the neighbor had the exact same tote that mysteriously went missing from our driveway yesterday after we put it out with our recycling in it. James wanted to go over there and ask them to give it back, but I told him that it was possible they just bought the same kind somewhere. James wasn't convinced, but I walked to the other side of the van and put Gabby in her car seat. When I came back around, James was standing with his arm stretched out, like he was reaching for the tote. Then he turned around and with a completely serious look on his face said: "I tried to use the force, but it didn't work!"

Tougher than I expected

I am into my fourth weekend as a lead, with one day left to go and I am WORN OUT! My body aches from head to toe and my mind doesn't want to slow down. I know it will get easier, but there are parts of the job that have taken me by surprise. Mainly the human element. I didn't expect to feel the pain and heaviness I feel when it comes to my co-workers.

Take last week for example. One of my co-workers tried to take a few cans of soup home, which is against the rules. These cans were going into the garbage because they were part of an open pack, but nonetheless, policy says no taking of food of any kind from the warehouse. This employee was suspended as a result. Here's the kicker: he's homeless. I found out since this happened that he lives in a trailer in a junkyard with no water or electricity and all he has to live off of is the money he earns (or should I say earned) during his 12 to 18 hrs a week at work. My heart aches for him and even though I know that the choice was his and he knew better, I can't help but feel that some things in life just aren't fair.

Or this afternoon. I set up all the paperwork for tomorrow and had two extra people, due to a couple demos being cancelled and such. I had to call off two people, one of whom I know is in dire financial straights. I wanted to cry when I picked up the phone because I knew that this shift I was canceling for her could be the difference between whether or not she eats.

Another employee's wife came in this weekend and asked me to please give her husband more hours. The thing is, I can't. He's not a very good seller so he doesn't get scheduled very many shifts and last minute shifts, where many people pick up the majority of hours, are out for him because his phone has been disconnected and he has no car. My hands are tied.

One of my crew came in this morning and the first thing she said was that she was so embarrassed because she lost her bottom plate. I had no idea what she was talking about until she opened her mouth and showed me that most of her bottom teeth were missing. I had no idea she wore dentures. She's can't be older than 50. Now mind you this is the woman who I had to call off Saturday because her demo was canceled (not the one I called off for tomorrow :(.) and she too is strapped for cash. I don't know if she has any type of dental insurance through a spouse or what not, but I would be surprised. She did her entire demo today with her head hung low in shame, barely speaking. I didn't have the heart to tell her she had to talk. For one day, I let it slide, poor woman.

I mentioned once when I first started that I was working to pay for preschool and gymnastics and have since decided that this is a fact I will keep to myself. I don't need to advertise the fact that my world is so vastly different from that of the people I work with every day. I pray and I cry and I hope that somehow, in some way, I can touch the lives of those I work with in a positive way, to somehow bring a little hope and happiness into some pretty tough situations. And when I want to complain that my body hurts or that I'm out of spending money, I remind myself that it could be much, much worse.

Does God heal cars?

A couple months ago, Jason informed me that the tires on our van were starting to look warn and that we would need to set some $$ aside to get new tires. We have not bought new tires since we bought the van in 2006 and have made a couple long trips in it, so we figured we were due. We set aside $400, then I made an appointment with Les Schwab in Manteca, near my work. I took the van in and was told that the tires looked fine but the van needed to be aligned. I didn't have time to do it that day, so I left. Life happened. I got busy and finally asked Jason to call while I was at work and schedule an alignment for this week. He did, but at a different Les Schwab, about the same distance from our house. I went in this morning with the kids, ready to hand over a couple hundred dollars, only to find out that they only charge $80 for an alignment. SWEET!! I thought to myself. We waited for about 15 minutes or so and get the royal treatment: candy for the kids, popcorn (of course!), coloring books, crayons, etc and then the guy comes back and asked me why I thought the van needed to be aligned. Um, because the guy in Manteca told me it needed to. He asked me if the car has been acting any differently and I said no. He told me he test drove it and it drove fine and the tires have no wear on them (WHAT?! Ok. Sounds good to me. And yes, he did have the right van :-).) They checked it over just in case, but didn't need to align it and didn't charge us a thing. Off I went down the road for an oil change at a place Schwabs recommended and ended up paying 1/2 of what the dealership charges and didn't get pressured into anything or slimmed. Great morning, and we will be customers of Riverbank Les Schwab for life! Or at least until we move again :-).

Pix from last week

Mary came to visit last week. As you can tell, she loves having her picture taken :-). The day after she got here, Gabby started throwing up and ended up having the stomach flu for 5 days. James followed suit 2 days later with a milder case. As soon as the kids were better, Mary and I got really bad head colds and then I drove Mary back to the airport to go home :-(. I was really disappointed because we didn't get to do much of anything except try to keep each other from strangling Gabby after 5 days of whining. It was nice to see Mary though and watch her little belly grow, even over the course of just 8 days.

This is a cake I made at James' request. I had made the fondant pumpkins one night and he wanted some. I told him I would do my best to make the actual cake by the next night, but then didn't feel well and decided not to do it. Come dinner time, James of course remembers what I said. Mary was a great sport and said she didn't mind having leftovers, so we had leftovers and I made a cake instead of dinner. The leaves should have dried for a couple days, but I only had about an hour, so they are all floppy, but the kids didn't care :-).

Nana sent a surprise package last week and of course the stomach flu couldn't keep the kids from it.

See poor Gabby's pale face. Poor thing! Not a fun week for her. I had to work for the first couple days of her flu and she informed me Monday night that "sometimes we just feel sicky and yucky and we need our mommies." *sniff*

Legos are Jp's new-found passion, but candy legos!?!? No way to beat that!

Gabby got a Barbie storybook with stickers. She LOVES it!

Gabby is reading James' dinosaur book. She's quite the reader actually. She won't go to bed unless she has a huge stack of books to "read".

Well, I have to get ready to take the van to be aligned, a yearly occurrence here in CA since the roads are so bad. The kids are excited about the free popcorn :-), and I think I can scrounge up some quarters for the pop machine. It should be an exciting morning!!

The pix that would have been

A couple things happened yesterday where I reached for the camera only to realize that the batteries in both of our cameras were dead :(. So you will have to use your imagination :).

The first incident occurred in our main bathroom. Gabby was sitting on the stool with her legs covered in shaving cream from the travel size can Jason gave the kids when he got back from Vegas. Jp was next to her with a bladeless razor, shaving her legs :-).

The second one was in the evening when the kids got their mail. Grandma Betty sent them some stickers and they were busy sticking them everywhere, except, as James said, "not on the furniture because Daddy wouldn't be happy about that" :-).

More "REAL" pictures later...

LOTS of pictures!

Pumpkin patch time!

First stop: the tractors of course!

There's nothing better than a huge bin of corn to play in :-).

Searching (and searching and searching) for the perfect pumpkin.

Greetings from California

We finally found those perfect pumkins!

Who knew corn could be used as a gymnastics mat.

Even for the splits :-)

And summersaults of course!