His Name is "I AM"

I couldn't let 2009 end with only 179 posts...that would have driven me nuts!!! So here it is 11:30 pm, and I am panicking wondering what I could blog about to end the year. *Sigh* Blogging can be such a chore sometimes! :) However, it didn't take me long and the lyrics to this particular song came to mind, so I thought I would post them. Happy New Year!!!! Don't let the mistakes of 2009 keep you from moving on for the Lord in 2010!!!

Regretting the past, dreading the future,
Ashamed of my failures, bound by my fear,
But the sweet God of comfort settled my heart,
When He spoke these words in my ear.

My name is I AM,
My name's not I was,
My name's not I'll be,
My name is I AM,
And today you can trust Me.
You can forget your past, I already have
And tomorrow I hold in My hands.
Unashamed, unafraid you can stand,
My name is I AM.

Now I live each day in peaceful assurance
Knowing through Christ what it means to be free.
Worry and fear are no more my companions
Since the day He said to me.

My name is I AM,
My name's not I was,
My name's not I'll be.
My name is I AM.
And today you can trust Me,
You can forget your past, I already have,
And tomorrow I hold in My hands.
Unashamed, unafraid you can stand,
My name is I AM.

Sleigh Ride

Almost every Christmas, my Dad and Aunt Kathy play "Sleigh Ride" as a piano duet for the rest of the family to enjoy. I am not sure how many times I have heard that duet over the years, but I love hearing it each and every time! :)

It actually had been about 2 or 3 years since they were able to play it together, and I was beginning to really miss it. When I saw that the good ole' song was being pulled out of the "archives" this past weekend, I was delighted!! I whipped out my camera to catch the moment because who knows when I might hear it again!! :) Considering that they haven't played it together in a couple of years, they did remarkably well!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4DEUBVvtYY

The Wonder of Wonders

The wonder of wonders as she looked on His face,
that this little boy spoke the world into place.
The stars and the moon shining brightly on them,
the earth and the sun were created by Him.

The wonder of wonders, how could it be,
that God became flesh and was given for me.
The Almighty came down and walked among men,
And the wonder of wonders, He died for my sins!

The wonder of wonders as she looked down and smiled,
that He was her maker as well as her child.
He created the womb that had given Him birth.
He was God Incarnate came down to earth.

The wonder of wonders as she heard His small cry,
that this voice had thundered on Mt. Sinai.
The small hand she held so tenderly
had made a dry path through the mighty Red Sea.

The wonder of wonders, how could it be,
that God became flesh and was given for me.
The Almighty came down and walked among men,
And the wonder of wonders, He died for my sins!!!

Elementary Christmas Chaos....errrrr...Party :)

Today was the elementary Christmas party! It was definitely a lot of exhausting fun. :) We started the day by watching a short Christmas movie, so the students who needed to finish up some tests could get them done without missing out on any of the games.

After the movie was over, everyone got assigned either to the "Green" team or the "Red" team for game time. (How original, right? :P) The first game we played was Christmas Memory. I had a box of 20 different items such as a jingly bell, ribbon, Christmas bow, glitter, candy, mug, candle, stickers, sock etc. I laid them all out on the desk so everyone could see them. After each team viewed them, the items were then put back in the box. The teams then went into separate areas to try to list as many of the items they could remember.

The Red team working hard to list all the items they could remember

The Green team working hard to list all the items they could remember

I was pretty impressed with the outcome! One team remembered ALL 20 items and the other team only missed one. Hmmmmmmm....it's interesting to see how good their memories are when there is a game involved, isn't it? :D

The next game we played was "Who Wants to be a Merit Millionaire?" However, the highest number to reach was only 1,000, not 1,000,000!!! The two guy captains of each team got to sit in the "hot seat" and answer 10 questions to get points for their team. Each team reached all the way to 1,000 points! Both guys used up their "50/50" and one used up their "phone a friend", but besides that they did great answering questions about Christmas. I enjoyed asking them, "Is that your final answer??!!" and see them squirm until I revealed whether or not they answered correctly. Oh, yes...fun, fun :D

Taylor representing the Red team

Matthew representing the Green team

Next we played a game called "Christmas Anagrams". Each team was given 20 clue cards, and a bunch of letter tiles. They had to try to figure out the answer to each of the clues by spelling the words out with the letter tiles. (What a sneaky way to get a spelling lesson in, right?? :))

Both teams figured out all 20 clues!! There were clues such as "O Little Town of...." or "What are put on many front doors during Christmas time?"

Don't you just love how they are all putting their heads together and working as a team to accomplish their goal?! I wish that happened ALL the time!!

The last game I had planned was a Christmas poster scavenger hunt. Each team was given a bunch of glue sticks and a blank poster board. I then gave them a piece of paper that I designed with either "Merry Christmas" or "Joy to the World" on it along with some Christmas pictures to go around the words. While they were upstairs in the lunchroom forming their "plan of attack", I hid all the letters and pictures they needed all around the downstairs hallway and in the two classrooms. Once I gave them the go-ahead, a couple of children from each team would go downstairs and try to find the letters and pictures they needed to complete their poster. It was going well at first, but unfortunately this game brought out the "competitive streak" in each of the children, and so we had to address the issue of having a "team spirit" and "good attitude" towards the end when it seemed like we were about to start the Green & Red Civil War! *Sigh* Oh well! Such is life!!! In the end, though, both posters turned out cute.

Because we had some extra time to kill before lunch was ready, I decided to make the gift exchange a rather long drawn-out process!! I turned it into a "hot potato" game of sorts, but we used a stuffed snowman instead :D. I played some Christmas music and whenever I stopped the song, whoever had the snowman would get to give their gift to the friend whose name they had drawn for the gift exchange. Once everyone had a gift, they were then allowed to open their presents and see what they got.

After a game of Christmas musical chairs which helped me to determine the winner, everyone was so happy to discover that lunch was ready! We had all worked up a good appetite!!! Mrs. Lytle outdid herself by making a scrumptious Christmas dinner for us - ziti, garlic bread, and fruit salad. For dessert we had cookies that were left-over from The Journey (the Christmas program our church did last week). I think we will be seeing those cookies for quite awhile!!! :)

All the kiddos anxiously waiting for lunch to start :)

Oh my, was it a fun, yet exhausting morning!! This was my second year planning the elementary Christmas party, and I had a blast! I love trying to think up creative games to play. However, I can't take full credit for many of the games we played this year. I got lots of ideas from the Internet....I just "tweaked" them a bit!!

Sooooo until next year!!

Every year Mrs. Lytle and I figure out what things work best and what things don't work best for elementary Christmas parties. By Christmas of 2020, I think we will have it down perfect!!!! :D

Christmas Crayons

I wanted to make something special for my Sunday School kiddos for Christmas. I was wracking my brain trying to come up with a special craft we could do or a yummy treat I could make, but nothing was "clicking" with me.

Finally, I got to thinking about all the extra crayons I had lying around in bags - leftover crayons that were either broken or just not being used anymore by my kiddos. Then it hit me....I could make something for my kiddos with the leftover crayons!!

I debated back and forth about how I should do all this, and finally I settled on melting crayons into Christmas molds (i.e. cookie cutters). I had a Christmas tree, a bell, and gingerbread man to try out. At first I chopped up a bunch of green crayon and some brown crayon and put them in a Christmas tree cookie cutter. I then transported them to the microwave, and tried melting them directly in the cookie cutter. Bad idea!! It just melted and leaked all over the place.

I did some research on the internet, and found some crayon shapes that had the layered look. People would melt one color, put it in the mold, let it dry, and then put another layer on top. I put each of my crayon colors in separate little cups, and decided to give it a try.

Here's my little working station in my room....

As you can probably tell, this was towards the beginning of my project when everything was still pretty neat and tidy. :) Towards the end...well, let's just say I never wanted to see another crayon for as long as I lived. Especially a green crayon!!!

My poor microwave was overworked for this lil' Christmas project. In fact, a couple of times it just gave out on me because it just got too overheated with how many times I was melting crayon inside of it!!

As a "reward" for all its hard work, my microwave got a "make-over". The container I had in the microwave decided to crack while I had a bunch of green melted crayon inside. Let's just say, there was melted crayon EVERYWHERE!! All the crayon was wiped up eventually and I scrubbed with every type of soap and cleaner I could think of, but I think my microwave has the permanent "green look" for the rest of its life. Oh well...it was for a good cause!!!

So here is a picture of the end result.... Each of my kiddos got a Christmas tree and either a bell or a gingerbread man. Although they are not perfect, I think they turned out pretty cute! :)

My kiddos were excited to see these little goody bags in their boxes today in Sunday School! When I showed one of the boys what they were, and I told him that he could take the crayons home to color with, he was like, "Okay, Miss Follett, I will color with them and then I will bring them back to you!" I tried explaining to him that they were his to keep. :) See, I could have let them color with them in Sunday School, but I was too chicken. After all the time I spent on them, I just couldn't bear the thought of watching them get used and perhaps abused :). It's okay if that happens at home, but I just didn't want to personally see it happen!!!

Another child was slightly disappointed that they weren't something to eat, but I reassured her that she would have plenty of other things to eat, and that these crayons probably wouldn't taste that good!!

Oh yes, gotta love kiddos!!

Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad!

Today my parent's celebrated their 28th wedding anniversary. Twenty-eight years ago, on their wedding day there was a raging ice storm outside. Today there was a snowstorm! What is with December 19th always having such wintery weather??!!! :)

Mom and Dad

The story of our family
is made up of many things -
from silly jokes
to good-night kisses,
from nicknames
to summer vacations,
from hard good-byes
to the most joyous homecomings.

The story of our family
is made up of love
and time
and memory...
All the things that really matter.

And at the heart of our story will always be
the two of you.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!

Christmas at Kalmbach

Our family has discovered a new Christmas tradition since Andy started working at Kalmbach Park. For the past two years we have gone to their annual gingerbread house competition and display they have at Christmas time. Last year I was amazed by how creative they all were! They are not just houses...everything you can imagine is made out of gingerbread!

This year's display was pretty neat too! Here are some of my favorites...

A farm...



A birdhouse...

Now this was neat! A replica of the Candy Land game...



A cozy looking farmhouse...



Thomas the Tank Engine...

A tree house...

This was BY FAR my favorite! It is an old-fashioned desk with all sorts of Christmasy things on it. It was under the category "What Christmas Means to Me".

Just look at all the intricate details! Keep in mind that everything is made out of gingerbread and/or something edible...

That took someone A LOT of time and patience for sure!

Graduating into the Computer World

Last night my brother, Andy, graduated from Lincoln Technical Institute with a degree in PC Systems & Networking Technology (that's computer stuff, in case you didn't know! :)).

See his name on the graduating list? It may have just be one name out of many, but it's a pretty special name to me! :)

Standing up front after he got his diploma...

Officially being "let loose" into the world to fix all our problems...well, at least in the "computer world"!

Even before he got his official degree, Andy was already super smart with computers. Now - LOOK OUT, COMPUTER WORLD!!! So if you ever have any computer issues, I would just like to put my brother's name out there and let you know that he is available for service. :P

Snow, Christmas Caroling, and Ice Cream

Today was a fun-filled day with the elementary students. First of all, there was recess. Oh, it brought back soooo many memories! The good ole' days of playing in the snow and making forts with the plowed snow from the parking lot.

There was a competition between the girls and boys about who would have the best snow fort ever. *Sigh* Why must there always be a competition??!! :)

The boy's fort... (notice they have the side with all the gravel :-))

The girl's side...



Here is our little mascot before he was taken apart to be used in the girls' fort...

I know the children have BIG plans for their forts for the next couple of days. There is even a girl "fort captain" and a boy "fort captain" now to make sure that no one steals snow from each others' fort (that would be traumatic, you see, seeing how there is simply not enough snow to go around, right?!) Well, we shall see if the weather cooperates for them!


After lunch, the elementary then went to do a short Christmas program for two shut-ins who are members at our church. Some of the students read parts of the Christmas story, and the whole group sang a couple of Christmas carols for them. I know it meant a lot to both of them!

The children with Mr. Stuber

The children with Mr. & Mrs. Woodring

As a special treat, we stopped at McDonald's on our way back to school for ice cream. Such a cold treat for a cold day, but of course, they enjoyed it immensely! :)

Bedroom "Remodeling" - My Transformed Room

So where did I leave off? Oh, yeah! I had just walked down the basement steps, wondering why both my Mom and Alayna were coming down as well. Little did I know that they were waiting to see my reaction! After seeing that more stuff had been added to the garbage heap outside my room, I realized that Andy must have put my bed together!!!

With baited breath, I entered my room....

My eyes about popped right out of their sockets. "Wow!!" is literally all I could say for the next 10 minutes or so. The online pictures I had looked at before purchasing my bed had not done it justice (let me warn you...neither will the following pictures!) My new bed is HUGE!! I literally have to jump up to get on my bed. What a transformation!!! I went from a little girl/teenager bed to a grown-up lady bed. :)

Here are some before and after pictures!!

Before....

After...

Before...

After...

Bedroom "Remodeling" Part 4

Last night we went to the store to pick up my bedroom set. Let's just say, it was a tight squeeze, but between my brother's car and our van, they were able to get everything to fit!!

When we got home, then came the fun task of transporting everything down our basement steps. My Dad and brother are my heroes once again because with much determination and perseverance everything was able to get down there in record time!!

My room was then overcome by boxes!

The box with my dresser inside was the hardest to transport because it was so huge. Once they got it down in my room, my Dad was able to rip apart the box on the one side so we could slide it on out. I spent the rest of the night organizing my NEW dresser!! It's pretty amazing, let me tell you!!

It was getting late, so they decided to leave putting together my bed for another time. I didn't mind. I was just trying to get used to all the new things in my room!

This is what our basement looked like last night after getting some of the boxes, my one chair, and my old dresser & nightstand out of my room.

However, this is what I saw when I came down the steps after work today. Hmmmmmm....definitely something was added to the heap. Then it hit me...Andy must have put together my bed this morning!!!!

I walked in my room, and my eyes about popped right out of their sockets. The only thing I could say for the next 10 minutes or so was "wow....wow...Wow....WOW!!

However, you are going to have to wait until a later time to see how it looks. :) I want to wait till they set up my dresser mirror before I post pictures.

Let me just assure you of one thing...it looks pretty awesome!! I will feel like a princess tonight...hmmmm....not a princess....a QUEEN!!