Wonder of Wonder, Miracle of Miracles

Tonight we were driving home from celebrating Christmas with the Aldrich side of the family. We were traveling at 55 mph when we saw four deer standing in the road two car lengths in front of us. Wayne slammed on the brakes and headed for a six foot opening between two of the deer. At 40 mph our mirror connected with one of the deer (which I hope is ok), but we sustained no damage to the car. The cupcakes that were on my lap became casualties, and I jammed my hands into the glove box trying to stop their flying departure from my lap. I jammed about 3 fingers on one hand and bent back 1/2 of one fingernail.

We feel that this is a Christmas miracle of which we are still in awe. Heavenly Father totally blessed us. I have no idea how we fit between the deer. So many things could have happened differently and this story could have had an unhappy ending.

So here is a list in no particular order of some of the ways we were blessed:

1. No damage to the car.
2. No repair bills.
3. No physical damage to us.
4. We're alive (as Wayne says, there was river close by and if we had hit them at 55 and the airbags deployed with a lot of force...)
5. We feel more gratitude for our Father in Heaven.

The Recent Past and the Near Future

Well, since school has started we have gone through 2 rounds of sickness. In between those times I have been traveling to my sister's home to quilt. I do have a sewing machine, but it was pulling the batting through. K. has one and that was scrunching the material. So I made the trip as often as I could (about 2 times per week - it's about 1/2 hour drive one way).

I am in the final stages of finishing J.'s quilt! Finally! This project has taken several years, but it is just gorgeous and I am very well pleased with it. I am so excited for him to see it! He knows nothing about it and will be very surprised...I hope!

Previously I had done tie quilts. I still like them, but WOW I have totally discovered that quilting can make such a huge impact to the overall appearance of the quilt afterwards.

I will post pics of the completed project when I am done. I'm very excited to share the pics with all of you!

My next quilt (for me) will probably be a jean rag quilt. Wendy made K. one and it is deliciously heavy. Wendy will have to walk me through the process of that one as it is very different than what I am used to doing!

I do believe that K. and I will be doing some sewing though this week as she is working on her quilt, which looks totally awesome.

On the days when I'm not at Wendy's, and the children are healthy, I am usually taking the cello into school (it's not allowed on the bus), doing laundry, going VT, running errands, cleaning etc. The days go by so quickly!

Pretty soon I hope to work on addressing Christmas cards (which I haven't done in several years). I have been procrastinating as I recently lost many of my addresses. They're probably somewhere in the house, but where?

I also need to work on Christmas shopping. I have barely scratched the surface of this one!

Now you know what I've been doing and what I will be doing in the near future.

Summer Fun

In the summer there were so many things to blog about. Taking K. to the temple for the first time, spending time with family, going to pageant, birthdays, swimming, haircuts and then school started.

These pics don't even begin to show the many things we did. It's just a tiny sampling. :)

Roasting Marshmallows

At the Visitor's Center in Palmyra.

The Cousins.

Lori, K, S, J and Grandma

A very large puzzle of Australia that we put together.

K. on haircut day

S. on haircut day.

J. on the first day of school this year.

Sick kiddos

I wanted my first post to be a sum up of the summer months. However, that's not happening now. It is late, I am tired and I want to post without having to worry about writing something long (which it almost certainly would be if I covered the summer months).

Since school began all three kids have been sick. S. missed a lot in September and all of last week. J. missed a bunch in September and K. has missed last Wednesday and all of this week so far. I do believe she will be going to school tomorrow though.

I feel really bad for them when they are sick. It is certainly no fun. I am glad that they are all doing better and are healthy again.

I would end with something witty, but that would take too much thinking on my part. (Can I say tired?)

Night.

Ch-ch-ch-changes are coming!

Well the layout has changed and soon I will be updating my posts.

I believe that blogging is similar to journaling and the further I get behind, the harder it is to start up again because there is just so much to say and so little time. (At least that's the way it feels!)

So hopefully soon I will have posts and pictures on-line.

Thanks!

Just as an FYI...I love hearing from all of you and I love comments! So thanks to all of you who have commented. I would have sent emails thanking you, but I don't have all of your addresses.

So, thanks!

Ouch!

*****Disclaimer - Gross Pictures *****

When I am in a hurry, I go on fast mode.

Yesterday I was running late leaving for teaching piano. I was hurrying down the driveway (more than a walk, less than a run) when I took a tumble.

Mom, this is where my Judo must have kicked in (even though I didn't take it very long, I learned to always roll when falling).

I fell forward, hitting my right knee and then both my hands. I ended up rolling, catching my elbow and my hip area. (At some point I must have hit a part of my right foot, but I don't know when that was and that is very minor.) I ended up on my back looking up at the sky.

Unbeknownst to me, J. was watching and told Wayne that I tripped. Wayne looked out the window to see me lying on the driveway looking up.

I went inside, changed my jeans, (I ripped up my only pair of blue jeans. I was sad because they don't make that kind any more and I will have to look for something else that I can like.) and cleaned myself off. I went and taught piano.

I called home after lessons. Wayne had dinner going. He had vacuumed. After dinner he did the dishes, cleaned the counters and even - gasp - wiped off the stove and table. Later when I mentioned that I had to switch the laundry, he did it for me. I am such a lucky woman.

I wasn't going to post this, but when I told Wen, she told me to email them to her. So I was going to, but then I thought, should I send them to the rest of the family as well? But who wants gross pictures of a scrapped up knee? So, I am posting 4 pictures. One of my sadly, major-ly ripped pants that will soon become shorts and one of my knee and one of each hand.

Left HandRight Hand

Right Knee

Lori's Many Hairstyles

Well, my hair was driving me nuts. It was getting long and bushy. I was doing so much construction work that my hair was up in a pony tail almost daily and I was getting headaches.

So...I decided to have it cut.

I realized that when I went looking for before pictures, that I really don't have very many pictures of me, and some of the ones I have aren't very flattering. Anyway, this is me on a good hair day with it longer.

Before

Before I got it cut, I had every intention of posting how cute it was. Needless to say that I didn't really like the cut, nor do I think it was flattering.

Blech...

My friend, Michelle, came over and styled it. It looked much better, but was more labor intensive. Also, she realized that they didn't cut my hair straight. The back was different lengths on each side.

Cute, but still crooked.

So, I decided to save up and get it cut again - and even this time! Keep in mind that I normally only get my hair cut about once per year, if I'm lucky.

This is after it was re-cut and Michelle styled it.


The next 2 are with the same cut, but I played with styling it.


Now I am ok with it. I think it is cute (on the days I style it!), I am not getting headaches, and I don't have to put it into a ponytail anytime I want to do anything!

The end of the hair drama. (And you probably won't see so many pictures of me all on one post again!)

Achievement Days Fashion Show

Our Achievement Day's leader is Awesome! She works so hard to do great activities.

They spent a bunch of time on not only modesty, but how to make current fashions modest.

Each girl wrote a synopsis for each outfit and they sounded so well written. In addition, they wrote a brief talk about different topics and then read them to the parents and family that was in attendance. They did a great job with those as well.

Here are a few pictures.

J. waiting before it started.

K. in her casual outfit.

S. in her casual outfit.


K. in her dressy outfit.


S. in her dressy outfit.

S. and J. Decorating Cupcakes

On April 19th after church, S. and J. wanted to decorate cupcakes with lots of different colored frosting. I made some cupcakes and they picked the color of the frosting.

They had such a good time.

Trip to Boston (Last Month!)

In April, Sandy, Chris and Claire came to visit. They were going to head to Boston for a one day trip one of the days they were here. They invited us to go along. Wayne had to work, so the kids and I joined them for the day.

In the van, on the way.

Chris was trying out some horns. At first he said he'd only be an hour. I knew better than that! Get any musician with many instruments of their choice and they will be there a while. :) It's also like that with most of my family....computer people can stay awhile amongst computers, book lovers (including my mom, the librarian!) can stay in book stores for a L O N G time etc.

So the kids and I went looking for parks with the handy dandy GPS. As an aside, we got one last year when we were living in VA and I really love them! Anyway, the first place it directed us to was a baseball field, the second was for kids way younger than my own.

We decided to go back to where Chris, Sandy and Claire were and wait.

Chris stayed a bit longer while the rest of us went for some grub. :)

He joined us a little bit later.

After that we drove into the heart of Boston, got information about the Freedom Trail and walked to the USS Constitution for a tour. It is the oldest commissioned naval vessel afloat in the world.

S., Lori, J., K. on our long walk to the Constitution. The kids did great and didn't complain at all.

Claire (in the stroller), Chris and Sandy


On the way, we saw these two markers. The first one is where Paul Revere landed to begin his midnight ride.

The second is the point where the British reinforcements landed - Battle of Bunker Hill.


The USS Constitution


Chris, Claire and Sandy waiting in line for a tour.


I love this one of Chris and Claire.


My kids inside and next to the cannons.
FYI the cannons each had their own names . Some were Jumping Billy and United Tars.

This is where the non-officers slept. On the backside was a sheet and on the other side of the sheet was sick bay. I would not want to sleep near that sheet on a daily basis!

The officers' rooms looked generally like this. Very tiny, but way better than non-officers!

After we finished touring the USS Constitution, my kids and I went to check out the USS Cassin Young. Unfortunately, it was closed for the day. Bummer.


Because the USS Constitution was a long walk from where we parked, we thought it wise to take the ferry back to downtown Boston. It was so cheap (I didn't have to pay for the kids either!) and totally worth it.

Although J. didn't want to go to the top originally, he did go up and liked it.

On the top level of the ferry.

J., Sandy, Lori, S. and Kaylea


S.


Chris and Sandy


I enjoy looking at bridges and architecturally cool buildings. This first picture is taken from the ferry.


This was taken on the way back. I just liked the cool buildings, the many different sizes of buildings and the coloring of the sky in the background.

We went to a restaurant on the way home. It was yummy.
Chris, I have another pic with you in it(I didn't want to leave you out), but I think you would prefer if I kept it on my hard drive and not put here! :)

S.

We got home really late, but it was totally worth it! Thanks Chris and Sandy!

K. - National Jr. Honor Society

In April, K. was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society. She was nominated for it and had much to do to make it happen (paperwork, getting endorsements, etc.). We are really proud of her.

We didn't take many pictures because our camera batteries died. :( We took this before we left.

K.'s Pillow

K. has enjoyed sewing for years and even bought her own machine a few years ago.

K. is taking Home and Careers in school. They had a sewing section and they made pillows. This is the one K. did. I think she did a beautiful job.


FYI the picture in the middle was taken using our digital camera. It was a flower in the Botanical Gardens in Va.

An Unusual Rainbow

On April 2nd (the same day as the kitchen fire, but earlier in the day), my kids called for me saying there was a rainbow outside.

I dutifully followed them outside and I am so glad that I did. This is what I saw:



I have never seen an upside down rainbow before. It reminds me of a smile.

I felt awed by the beauty of God's masterpiece and felt loved.

Bees vs. Hornets

Yesterday afternoon after I got home from the busstop, K. tells me that daddy called and that he was stung by a hornet, he's ok and they put ice on it.

I was worried because Wayne is allergic to bee stings. I did some quick research via the web and found out that just because you're allergic to bees, that doesn't mean you're allergic to hornets or wasps. Luckily, it turns out that Wayne didn't have a bad reaction to the sting.

What a thing to happen on his birthday, however, I am very grateful that it was a hornet and not a bee sting, and that he is ok. Blessings!

J. and His Teeth

J. lost his first tooth on March 27th! He was so excited!

Wayne pulled it right out.

Since then another tooth has fallen out.

He's growing up so fast!

In the days preceding the event, his teeth began to shift. The first picture is of him after his teeth shifted, but before his teeth came out.



After 2 teeth came out:
They grow up so fast!