NO more work!

If this isn't a sign that I've been at the computer too much the last week, then I don't know what is. My darling daughter drew this today and delivered it to me, carefully folded inside an envelope. With a scowl on her face she stood by waiting for me to open it and said, "No more working, Mommy!" She usually writes lots of words on her drawings and even makes them extremely detailed, but this time she just wrote, "No" and an arrow pointing toward what I'm working on.

You KNOW it's my desk because it's messy. Very. And there appears to be some sort of, uh, disaster on the floor next to me. The disaster is probably a spilled drink or very possibly a pile of unfolded laundry. My family has begun dressing out my laundry baskets this week (I hope those were CLEAN clothes). Yep, that's me alright. She captured it perfectly! I was pretty much glued to my computer for the final two weeks. After enduring a collapse of my computer for 2 weeks, I just barely finished the last of three semester-long projects and can finally breathe a huge sigh of relief.


In case some of you were thinking Brayla drew this second picture, she didn't. It's real, I promise. Hi Brighton! :waves:

By the way, this is our ancient desktop computer that's been having such terrible troubles the last few months. So when my laptop died, it wasn't much help. But as you can see in the picture, Google chat still works. Thank goodness, right?!

Remind me NOT to complain

...about 26 degrees again! Look at our lovely highs and lows for the coming week!

A high of TWO degrees tomorrow!! And a low of NEGATIVE twenty-one.

SERIOUSLY?!

Chadron Mourns

Every time I think about publishing this post, the tears fill my eyes, yet again, and I find myself looking for a distraction. But today Chadron desperately needs your support and prayers. Our tiny community faced two terrifying events this week. These tragedies included students of Lee's (and mine) who are loved by many in the community and beyond (I'll include links to several news articles throughout this post):

The first event happened Wednesday, December 3rd, when a group of four Chadron State College wrestlers and one assistant coach were injured in a car wreck. They were on the way to the airport to catch a plane to the Las Vegas Invite meet.

The four were taken to the Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland, the school said. Other members of the team were traveling in another vehicle, the school stated.

As of today, at least two of the wrestlers are still listed in serious condition. I know that at least one of these young men was a student of Lee's.

The second event was far more devastating. Twenty-two year old Chadron State College student Kenneth (Kenny) Pfeiffer was stabbed to death on Friday, December 5th. According to the autopsy report, he was stabbed more than 50 times! The only suspect at present is 25 year old Joseph (Joey) Hotz, who was Kenny's roommate and another student at Chadron State College.

At 6 p.m. Friday evening officers from the Chadron Police Department responded to reports of a disturbance on the 800 block of King Street. Residents from that area reported that a man armed with a knife attempted to break into one home, then successfully broke into another, where he made contact with the occupants and eventually fled.

Chadron Police officers made visual contact with a suspect matching the reported description, than gave chase on foot. The suspect was apprehended at gun-point by Officer Mike Loutzenhiser, Lt. Rick Hickstein and Sgt. Shawn Banzhaf (bon-zoff).

Dawes County Attorney Vance Haug said that investigation led officers to a home on the 900 block of Shelton Street, which is located off campus. The body of the suspect’s roommate was found at that location.

There are really no other details at this time, but there are other news articles I haven't quoted from yet HERE, HERE and HERE.

Many of you know we live on King Street (just two blocks from where all this took place) and yet we had no idea it was happening. We never saw flashing lights or the police tape--we didn't know anything about the event until the following morning while standing in the checkout line at Walmart. However, Kenny was Lee's student last spring and mine for just one month of information literacy. He's not just some faceless victim to many here in Chadron. And neither is Joey Hotz. From a CSC news article we also know that "Pfeiffer, 22, was a CSC sophomore studying to be a physical education teacher and Hotz a senior studying natural sciences with an option in biology." Both boys appear to have had bright futures ahead.

I don't even want to think about how the parents of all these boys are coping with their losses--one child was lost horrifically, one may spend the rest of his life behind bars, and others are severely injured with unknown outcomes at present. It's a lot to digest in such a short time.

President of Chadron State College, Janie Park, says in a recent statement, "We will have counselors available for students and employees who are distressed and trying to cope with these two events." I hope everyone who is deeply affected will take advantage of these services immediately.

Please pray for everyone involved and for the healing of our community as we mourn.

All I Want for Christmas

I came across this video on a shared Google reader entry. WOW! Moving (turn your sound on).

What do we REALLY want for Christmas?

Aurora's Birth

I've waited five months for this story. Five LOOOONG months. If you remember, I gave you a very short glimpse into the tidbits of this birth back in June. Today I am delighted to share my friend's full birth story with you.

I usually include quotes of the links I give in my blog, but this story really speaks for itself. Laureen was instrumental in helping me find the courage to demand the birth we wanted this year (despite what our care providers told us about my previous cesareans). There's power and authority in her every word. She's such a gifted writer across several fields of study. She convicts, ignites, and summons truth hiding in small, dark places. I just knew her own story would be well worth the wait.

The link:

http://www.theexcellentadventure.com/birth/Aurora/BirthofAMH2.html

Happy 8 Months Brighton Lee

These are all shots of Brighton during his 7th month. You can click on the collage to see it much larger. I try to do this every month, but this year his monthly birthday fell on Thanksgiving Day (which happened to be a bit busy). So I'm a little late.

Let's see...this month Brighton really began moving. Pretty much the day he turned 7 months he grabbed the coffee table, pulled his almost 21 lb. self up unassisted, and began cruising. This was surprising only because we had never seen him even attempt to do this before. He also began climbing on the stairs, talking even more, puckering up and actually KISSING, hitting his bottom when he's wet (I'm not kidding), and sleeping LESS at night (I don't get that, do you?). He now has THREE teeth and his hair is just long enough in the back to see that he will have the little curly lockets like big brother and sister. He's still eating only breast milk, but I caught big sister giving him a taste of her candy cane last week. Oh no!

Brighton still loves to be held. We've moved from the Maya sling to the Ergo back carrier which makes it much easier to work around the house with him in tow. He loves it--I just have to keep my hair in a bun (or else I'll have none). As you can see, he has a gorgeous grin on his face about 90% of the time and he often twists and turns his tongue around since he can't seem to help but show it to us all day long.

Brighton will entertain anyone I pass him off to. Still such a joyful babe.

We are blessed.