Kenneth Cope

...made this 'O Holy Night' video in conjunction with Liz Lemon Swindle's art work. i found it to be wonderfully done and so i wanted to share!

blogger won't let me make it into a link- so just copy, paste, and enjoy!

http://www.foundationarts.com/christmas_2008_ecard_high_def.htm

Christmas Naughties

this is what i am not so lovingly referring to the abundant amount of goodies that are passed around at this time of year.

at my house there is a rule: "enjoy it for a day (12-18 hours)then throw it away."

yesterday was the last day of preschool and it was fun, as always! and as always, there was left over pizza and cookies and plenty of gifts that included treats.

some of those left over cookies made it to our home, and today em decided to make up one for me:



do you see the i (heart) u? so cute! so caloric? so NAUGHTY. and actually, she knows that i don't care for lots of frosting but she did it anyway. just so you can see how thick it is:



i told her i loved her and then i put on my walking shoes, grabbed up a gift i needed to deliver, along with some mail- and walked to the post office and on for another hour. i feel much better! just looking at that cookie made my blood sugar go up... :)

okay- so tay finally sent another letter and i'm going to write and paraphrase it a bit on his blog because there were things in there that he wanted kept private. all i can say is that it choked me up good. i've held myself together, well, until i read this last one.

thank you, again and again for loving and supporting him. :)

and, i'm sending my best vibes your way that the remaining time you have to spend preparing for Christmas and to be with your family doing fun things... that time will be splendid!!!

love ya!

tay's mission president letter arrived

with a pic and map and... i've posted it to his blog. ( a small map on the sidebar and a larger one you'll find by scrolling to the bottom of his page) check it out!

to catch up a bit!

the biggest and saddest news i have to share is- miley is no longer our dog.

when tay left- and the care for her planted itself on this working mom's shoulders- well, i thought i was doing okay. but i guess miley didn't.

she started showing defiance for the new schedule by messing in her kennel- even with me getting up throughout the night to let her out- i'd wake and she'd have done it again.

it didn't help that the temps were in the 20's and 30's while i'm out trying to clean it out and start again.

so... i went out and bought a better collar and toys and a dog coat- and took her for long walks and she still tortured me with the messing.

i mentioned my problem to a friend who knows dogs and i was told that when i was ready to say goodbye to miley, that a new home would be arranged for her, by people that love dogs more than they love people.

this reassured me... but still i tried.

and it got me no where.

so, now miley is in another home- we know nothing more.

and we will miss her.

on a brighter note: i received the letter and picture from the mission president and his wife. i plan on posting that tomorrow, k? it's good stuff! (something to look forward to, right?)

and today i had an opportunity that was fun, and hopefully works out, too. Scott (from elm fork) asked me to shoot some head shots for a poster that his tv show is needing. this show is going to be on the outdoors channel and will be called, Beretta's Raw and Wild. if they can work with the photos that we took then i'll have something of a TV CREDIT.

add that to Wal Mart insisting that one of my families get my approval for copyright on their family portraits photos... :)

packages are sent out and cards are almost done. shopping is done! and now the organizing and cleaning begin!

i spent 10 hours of my life today at elm fork and i'm whipped. goodnight y'all!

letter 4 arrived

check it out by following the link 'Elder Barron'. AND want you to know that i had two pages of comments to send him this week in my first letter to california. THANK YOU for taking the time to write a comment! BIG hugs :)

Look Out...

rhonda's (yes that's me) bought and decorated a tree! and i love it! (as much as i can love doing something that i'm not really into.) it's a nine foot, pre-lit beautiful tree and replaced a tree that barely made it through the last season. honest to goodness- if it hadn't have been tay's last Christmas at home, i would've kicked that tree to the curb the day we put it up. in humor and some disdain, we called it the leaning tree...

aside: if you could help me figure out why i'm so loath to get into decorating anymore... how i got to be this way... i'd be forever grateful. :)

Christmas is a wonderful season and i remember days gone by where i made the most of every carol or Christmas CD. not only did i decorate- but i worked on decorations months in advance. a couple of those decorations i use and love, still. such as our stockings and the tree garland.


the stockings i made...


the garland to match...


we each have a new ornament to add to the tree, this is em's.


i've always collected nativities...


taylor was not here to choose an ornament this year... so when i came across this indian and eagle one, and it brought to mind tay's eagle scout ceremony, i felt it was a wonderful find. head's up friends and family- next year i want to find a missionary ornament. if i can't find one i guess i'll make him one :)

the other tradition that we have is to collect (and this will make you wonder even more about me-) ornaments from our vacations. yes, even though i don't like to decorate for Christmas, i go out of my way to collect ornaments in every town we travel to. but, it is a fun collection! here are two we have from hawaii:



i want to pass on a trick i have- i keep all of my ornaments throughout the year in the christmas gift boxes that can be bought in stores- it takes a couple of boxes for each of us- and yes i separate them out when we bring the tree down, so that the following year we can easily see who's belong to each of us. after we decorate the tree i place the boxes under the tree. it looks like we have presents under the tree- and as funny as this sounds- everyone who comes over is impressed with that! let's just keep that amongst ourselves!

as i was working on this post i listened to The First Presidency's Christmas Devotional. i love the stories, the music, the Spirit. it helps and it heals.

i heard to reach out and serve- and that will be my goal the rest of this season, at least!

for all of you, from me- i hope that you are loving this time with your family, that you are enjoying the festivities, too- and that you feel the Savior's love! xoxo

tay wrote again...

and he's officially in CA as of yesterday morning! (For those of you who missed this- Tay has a link on my sidebar where i am posting his letters!) leave a comment and i'll be sure he hears from you when i send my letters. :)