Gratitudes

As I have been following Joanna's lead in posting gratitudes this month, I have also been experimenting with changing the way I pray. I have been trying to follow my Grandma's example and learn to pray for specific things instead of just asking for "blanket" blessings. So twice this month, I prayed for very specific things that we needed and both times, our prayers were answered out of the blue. Plus after spending a day fasting, I was very blessed with such a feeling of comfort and hope, and the next morning, we received the answer we had been praying for.

So that is my gratitude posting for today - the Lord blesses us with such tender mercies and we need to be so aware of them.

I have started a gratitude journal as President Eyring talked about in conference - just so we can always remember the times when we have had our prayers so completely answered.
Gratefully, Charlotte

Tuesday Gratitudes

1. Finally a nice person to talk to at the Division of Seniors
2. Alicia and Justin home safe
3. chili peppers from New Mexico
4. A new company training to do assessments for next year - HOPE FOR THE FUTURE
5. Comfort from the Holy Ghost after a day of fasting
6. A hard working, diligent husband
7. chocolate chips
8. aspirin
9. good doctors
10. new medicare RX program - YAY

Hooray for Mondays

1.Mondays are a good day at our house - it is Brian's day off.
2. Pinesol cleaner
3. A sweet husband who cleaned up my kitchen for me
4. bamboo knitting needles
5. a competent and nice assistant at the pharmacy who goes out of her way to get it right
6. Old friends who still remember you
7. Ensign and New Era Magazines
8. Have I mentioned that I'm thankful for DVR (TIVO to some of you)
9. Alicia and Justin come home tomorrow
10. short hair

Charlotte

Gratitudes for Sunday

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. ~Marcel Proust

1. The gift of musical talent.
2. A loving, caring bishop
3. A smart, funny husband who looks really snazzy in his new suit
4. A husband who is loved by all the kids at church and at school
5. Chinook winds
6. Rain instead of snow
7. cordless phones
8. Loving sisters
9. Colorful yarn to knit and crochet
10. The teaching of having Attitudes of Gratitude

Bitten by Spaghetti

Mya is just learning to eat people food - we were just going to feed her dog food when we first got her, but soon realized that she wasn't getting enough fats (thank you Justin for sacrificing your freshly oiled shoes for us to figure out she needed more oil in her diet). So now, we feed her our leftovers and the grease from bacon and stuff and she hasn't been noshing on any shoes lately.

Anyway, usually the leftovers are off someone's plate or when we clean out the fridge, but with the kids gone, we had some spaghetti left over on the stove which was apparently still quite hot. Mya went over eagerly to eat it, because she loves spaghetti -- but each time she got close, the heat burned her nose. So she took it personally as an attack and she would back off about a foot away and bark bark bark at the spaghetti, trying to subdue it. Then she would go back for another try and it would hurt her nose again, and she would back off and bark bark bark --then try from the other side. got her nose again, back off and bark bark bark.

Brian and I got to laughing so hard we could hardly stand it. I have to say everyday, one of my gratitudes is funny, loveable, loving pets. I am so glad they are a part of my life.... and thank you to Alicia and Justin for putting up with the new dog. I know it wasn't your first choice, but she adds so much to our lives. I really appreciate you guys accepting her and helping out.

somewhere in the snow, she lost her pretty pink collar. We won't be able to find it until spring. Fortunately, she is so well behaved, we hardly ever need a collar anyway. Charlotte

It wouldn't be November If .......

Ducks disaster
Posted by The Oregonian November 15, 2007 21:53PM
Categories: Sports, Top Stories
The Oregon Ducks' hopes of a berth in the BCS Championship Game disappeared on Thursday night as they first lost their star quarterback to an injury and then lost the game.
Quarterback Dennis Dixon, the Heisman Trophy front-runner going into the Ducks' game at Arizona, got his left foot stuck in the turf as he planted it for a cut upfield midway through the first quarter.
Dixon re-injured his left knee on the play -- he first hurt it against Arizona State -- and sat out the rest of the game. Without their leader, nicknamed "the Magician," the Oregon offense never recovered, and Arizona went on to win 34-24.
The severity of his injury was not immediately known, but by the second quarter Dixon was icing his knee in the locker room. Coming out of the locker room after halftime, Oregon coach Mike Bellotti said "It's not good," saying there was instability in the knee.
Before his injury, Dixon looked like a Heisman contender. On Oregon's opening possession, he faked a handoff to Jonathan Stewart, then sprinted 39 yards for a score.
But Oregon looked like a different team after Dixon went down. Defensive back Antoine Cason scored on an interception return and on a punt return in the first half as the Wildcats built a 31-11 lead.
Backup quarterback Brady Leaf led Oregon on a fourth-quarter touchdown drive, but the Ducks never got closer than 31-24.
On the Wildcats' ensuing possession, they picked up a key first down on fourth and one, and then an apparent fumble that the Ducks recovered was overturned after an official review determined that quarterback Willie Tuitama was down before handing off to Nicholas Grigsby, who fumbled. That drive led to a field goal that put the game out of reach.
Even seemingly good plays turned sour for the Ducks. Early in the fourth quarter, Kwame Agyeman ran for 40 yards on a fake punt but fumbled it away as he was tackled at the Arizona 22-yard line.
Oregon became the fifth team this season to lose while ranked No. 2. With two losses, the Ducks are almost certainly out of contention to play in the Jan. 7 national championship, and Dixon's status in the Heisman Trophy race is in doubt.

newspaper story

The story about the kids losing having their money stolen from their bank account is in the Homer news... http://www.homernews.com/ The story is under "local news" and is titled
"newlywed account sucked dry in suspected fraud." We were not impressed by the bank manager's hinting that is was some how the kids fault that the account was hacked into. IT WASN"T anything they did - the scam came probably from inside Wells Fargo's system somewhere back East.

Anyway, they made the news. As most of you know, they are in Utah now for a few days and then will head to New Mexico to visit Rhiens and Justin's family.

My second pre-hearing for my medicaid personal care hours (Alicia's job) is Friday at 1:00 our time, so if you could include us in your prayers, we would appreciate it. They cut our hours in half this fall, and we would really like to have those hours back, both for my physical and mental sake and for Alicia's financial welfare. Thanks in advance for your prayers.... as a family we are unbeatable when we stick together.

Love, Charlotte

The Wind Farm

I don't have any pictures yet, but we are working on a project with the Voc Rehab people to get a grant to set ourselves up to make and sell wind power systems. We have excellent wind here in the Homer area and Justin and Brian have the equipment and the know-how to make the turbines. Alicia and Justin are going to study electricity so they will be capable of installing and maintaining the wind systems.

The design so far is to make them in pieces that will fit in a super-cub airplane so that we can fly them to remote locations in Alaska. Our biggest 2 challenges will be making systems that can handle the high winds we get here and getting the batteries and generators shipped up here economically. Brian and Justin both have CDL's so it is possible they could drive them up, but most likely, we will order a huge order and have them sent up by boat.

We are all anxious to get the plans finalized and get the grant. We are writing our business plan and searching for sources of batteries and generators at this time.

It keeps us all busy and excited - when we get our system up, we plan to put up lots and lots of Christmas lights (which is something we can't afford to do while buying power from our local utility). Keep us in your prayers. Charlotte

Money Back

Well, as of this morning it looks like our money is back. I'm not sure what happens now, if they keep looking, or what happens, but anyway our money is back. YAY!!!!!! Thanks for the prayers and support. Love you all. Alicia

Poor Kids

Alicia and Justin had the worst thing happen to them today. All summer long, Alicia had held on to her wedding gift checks - even though I kept nagging her to get them cashed so people could balance their checkbooks, but she wanted to use them for their honeymoon. So she was determined and stubborn and did not cash them until last Saturday.

they went to the bank and put her name on Justin's accounts and they put their well-loved and hoarded wedding money into their savings account for their honeymoon next Wednesday.

this morning they checked their bank account, and some crooks had somehow charged some fraudulent check card activities (there were several - totalling with the bank charges and such, close to $2,000). Completely wiped out everything in their savings account, their overdraft account and their checking account. They had the money in their for a total of 4 days before it was all stolen.

They are both completely crushed. The troopers said some other people in Anchor Point have been targeted as well. We don't know yet if they are doing it thru the bank, or thru the mail or thru the internet, so we don't know how to proceed to pay our bills or anything, and of course, they now have no spending money for their honeymoon and their first Christmas.

Please say a special prayer for them and pray that they will get the money back in time to go on their trip. (they have their tickets paid for and the car paid for, so that isn't in doubt that they will come, it just won't be as fun with this hanging over their heads. ) Thanks, Charlotte

Bumble bee baby wins

It turns out our bumble bee baby won the costume contest at the church and at the community party at the high school. Autumn made both costumes without patterns or anything.

Brian got to carry the kids around at the high school event while he was at work. They had a great time.