Hamsters...

Please if I ever go to get another Hamster, STOP ME! The saga continues. QM decided it would be funny to let Bitsy go under the bathroom door to see Nana while she was using the restroom. Well Bitsy decided to take a detour, down the vent...

Yep, the vent... Do you know how hard it is to catch a hamster that has been released into a maze of vents? No? Well if I knew I would tell you, but we haven't caught her yet. We are praying. We bought a "humane" box trap, and baited it and we are waiting.

That was just the Icing on the cake of my day...

It began with rain. Don't get me wrong, I like rain, I consider it liquid sunshine, but today, it wasn't a nice thing. It was messing with my head. No, literally, I had a splitting headache, sinus pressure. Then on the way to College, I sorta turned a corner on a wet road too quick, and almost met myself on the way in... It was interesting.

When I did finally get to class, I realized I had homework due, that I hadn't done yet... and, I had no paper to print it out, and no jump drive to get it from my computer to the printer... When I finally got it all fixed and printed, I had to borrow paper and a jump drive...I realized I had my jump drive in my pocket... Lovely huh? Then as I was getting ready to leave school, I had left my jacket in my first class... Yeash....

So, I went home, and laid down, took some medicine, and was starting to feel better, when Nana came in and woke me up with "Mommy, one of the hamsters went down the vent..."

I need a bubble bath and a good book... see ya.

DaNella

Life Goes On...

Our darling Nana lost her little pet Hamster Kati yesterday... It was sad, Kati got stuck in her ball on the hot air vent. Today, we went and bought two more. Itsy and Bitsy... I named them, but Nana thinks it was her idea... lol

Later tonight, she got to thinking about it, and realized, I have pretty much named all the pets. Misty, Trixie, Angel, Kati the dog... they were all my idea....

Well, Nana decided to return the favor.Anny got a new stuffed rabbit this weekend, Anny calls it Bun Bun, Nana named it Bunny Stew... Lol Guess which name stuck? You got it, Bunny Stew!

DaNella

What a week.

I know, I know, I am slow to post. If anyone actually reads this on a regular basis, I apologise. No I am not sorry that you have to read it, I personally think it is fascinating :) I am sorry I am not more regular.

OK so lets do a week in review... there are some pictures that are in my head, that I have to find... What on earth am I talking about?

I Love hearts. When we were first married my dear hubby swore up and down I had a heart shape spinning in my head and it tried to make a heart out of anything I saw...Hey blast from the past... (singing) "Whatever it is I think I see, becomes a Tootsie Roll to me..." LOL Anyways, I have some pictures in my head, things I have to capture on digital film, but I don't really know what they are, until I see them in real life... Here is almost one.

However that was the start to a wonderful, horrible, wonderful day... It was a beautiful day. See the sun-rays bursting thru the trees, OK, also notice that I am stuck behind a school bus. However, that is OK... I can be patient. I was on my way to take my two youngest to school, and as I stopped behind this bus, probably at the same moment as I took this pic... (yes I am a photo geek OK I take pictures while driving... my husband has threatened to take my camera away... that wouldn't be a pretty site.) OK so anyway, as I stopped behind the school bus, the breaks sounded like they scrubbed... not good. Then, as I started to go again, my breaks were kinda stuck. I pushed on the gas harder, and it went. However, I knew in my heart that something was terribly wrong, and if I went to fast I wouldn't be able to stop, but the best place to pull over was still a quarter of a mile away... So not wanting to scare the kids, I turned my Christmas music up louder... No Room by Evie... and sang... as I prayed and drove very slowly to a church parking lot I knew I could pull over in. Sure enough, I made it, but as I pulled into the church parking lot, when I barely tapped on the breaks, they clamped down tight on the front passenger, and I had to drag it like a lame leg just to get the car into the parking lot, and totally out of the road.

So... then I had a new problem. We are in a financial crunch right now, so I can't afford what many people consider an essential, cable...OK so we don't have cable, I can live without that, the truth is I don't have a cell phone. OK so I do have one, a nice blue razor like phone... but I don't have a service... and for some reason they want me to pay to have one... go figure. Oh well. This would have been not a real big deal, but my youngest son had a field trip that day, and we weren't at the school yet. So, I flagged down someone and... Humbly... asked someone to let me use their phone. I called my mom and asked her to call my hubby at work.

Then I waited... and prayed. I needed an angel to come and get my kids to school... Sure enough, God sent one, she came and offered to take me and the kids to the school, and take me back to my stranded car, even though it was out of her way to come back to the car... Thank you angel!!!

So, then I waited some more. My mom was passing near my stranded spot, and decided to see if I was still there, and sure enough, I was. I explained to her that I somehow had to get to Montevallo, 11 miles away, to turn in my homework that was due that day... She graciously offered to go out of her way to take me.

As kind as it was of her to take me, there was a catch... I had to wait on her to finish some business in Birmingham, before she could come back by and get me... Long story short, I spent 3HOURS in a McDonald's with NOTHING to entertain me... When you start thinking you have met that fly somewhere before, perhaps you have been in McD's tooooooooo long...

However, the upside, is that it was just simply a bolt on the caliper that had come loose. All we had to do is put it back, and it was fixed... Praise God.

Yeash and that was just Monday... the rest of the week didn't even really make the charts... Praise God. I am glad for a little mundane. I am working on an excel file, to give to my children. It is called the Auten Family Thanksgiving Master List. It is a list of my usual Thanksgiving Menu, along with an ingredients list for each, (for a shopping list) along with all of the recipes. I will have a link to each recipe individually. Pretty cool.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, on Monday, my mom was on her way to a pre-op work over, because she had to have foot surgery on Wednesday, so on Thursday, Que and I went over, and cooked everything, served lunch, and cleaned up... It was fun we enjoyed doing it. Here is a picture of the lovely clove oranges my kids made for Grammy...

Also we got the Christmas decorations out. Every year, I put away all of my Nick-knacks, and put out Nativities. I have 18 I'll have to put up pics one day... OK so my point is I get a new one every year... This year, my new one is a Rubber Ducky nativity. My mom gave me one of my favorite one's 2 years ago, it is a huge statue, of just Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus. My kids kinda combined the two, and this is the result...

Merry Christmas!!!! A little early.

Love,

DaNella

Christmas times a comming!

My Sister and I have started every year taking pictures for my mom's Christmas card. Here are some from this year, the blue kids are mine... since I am a blue supremist...

I said Ok everyone, Pretend you love each other!!!

I love this one!! She is so cute! She wasn't really pitching a fit, she was just being silly!

This is my sister's oldest girl, the oldest of the grandchildren, and my youngest child, the youngest of the grand children. I love the symbolism here...


Happy Holidays... Well actually, to not be politically correct, Merry Christmas! (a little early)

Good Friends

I love being creative!I have a really good friend, Andriea, she inspires my creative side. I am a camera fanatic! I take it with me everywhere I go, and take pictures of anything that will stand still and some things that won't be still.

Andriea sells puppets, and needed some pictures, so she asked me to take them, and this is what we came up with. She suggested taking them outside, and I thought of the camp fire. It was a little tricky editing my 11 yr old out of the pic. (she was holding their heads up).

I can't not do it though, to see all the beauty God creates, it is almost like God is begging me to take the pictures, like he is showing off.

Look at this, a leaf almost perfectly split in half with fall colors, against a georgous blue sky...

See the sun beam shine down on the roof of this abandoned shack, almost as if God is saying to it, I haven't forgotten you. See the steam rising off of the roof.Wow, what a sunrise! Who could paint it better?Awesome, sun beam, mist, trees and sky... All of nature reflects the nature of God. How amazing My God is! Yet, he cares for me. wow.

My Partner in Crime...

My husband is my life partner. We are more than just married, we are friends. We love to be together. We have the most fun playing tricks on our kids… Poor little Children, had to be born to us… Our oldest son is … well gullible… and we take advantage of that fact. He happens to be afraid of spiders. Well I tell him not to worry, I’ll take him to the hospital if he gets bit. Somehow he doesn’t find the comfort in that. We got him twice yesterday, Anny had a plastic spider… and well you can guess. He thought it was real for a second or two. It was long enough to make him panic. The best one was when he was helping Daddy tear down the front porch ( it broke, so we had to tear it down and rebuild it), Que put the spider up on a board up above Matt’s head, and was able to make it fall down right on top of him… while Matt was looking up. The jig he danced was classic. Perfect timing and everything. Matt is a good sport about it.
Did you know that you can take the shower head off and put kool aid (just the powder) in the head, then screw it back on, and the water will come out what ever color the powder was… Yeah well Matt got a red shower the other day.
No, we don’t just pick on Matt, as a matter of fact, just today we had them all convinced that we were an hour late for church… and that we didn’t care. (A big thank you to daylight savings for helping us pull that one off.) My point is we enjoy life… We have fun, and we do it together. We spend time enjoying each other. Life is fun. I hope you have someone to enjoy it with.

Focusing on the Furthest Daisy.

Pastor Mark spoke yesterday on God’s will, how there are really three layers of God’s will; God’s sovereign will, God’s moral will, and God’s individual will. The three are basically layered. God’s sovereign will, is basically God wants everyone to be saved. God’s moral will is a little different; it is dealing with more specific areas, like should you have premarital sex, should you steal, should you go to church, things the bible teaches us. God’s individual will is more specific still; God has a specific plan for you, and me.
It made me think of a picture I took recently, a picture of a daisy. There were several fall daisies growing in a cluster. When I stopped to take a picture of them, I realized way back in the back was a small daisy. I specifically focused on the one that was furthest away. I wanted to look beyond the obvious to see the unnoticed. Sometimes that is what we have to do, look beyond our comfort into His plan. Don't settle for comfortable, when wonderful is just over the next horizon.

Then, as if to show me that He has a plan, and He knows where I am… Mark asked his Mom and Dad to come forward and be available to pray with people, they are retired Missionaries… Very much respected and loved, spiritual giants, (although Sara will laugh at me when she reads this, she is humble, as she should be). THEN… this is the amazing God part…Then, Mark asked me and Que to go up and stand beside Vernon and Sara… Wow! What an honor… I felt like a spiritual ant standing beside a spiritual giant. You Go God… Thank you God.

A beautiful sunrise peaking out from behind the clouds as an unknowing horse grazes in a lush meadow. The horse has no idea how blessed he is. After three long days of rain, finally the sun comes out again victoriously. Reminds me of God, when we are in the middle of storms in our lives that seam to last for days, finally God shows up, and breaks through our clouds and teaches us to trust Him more...

Funny, I haven't even seen the light yet in my current trial, but I am sure he is there, waiting for the proper time to step in and set things right. I know he will.

Ok I am not always that serious, the picture inspired it in me. I just got a Nikon D80. Awesome camera!! Takes some totally awesome pictures, so expect to see alot of them.

The other day, Friday 26th, I just had a feeling, so I grabbed my camera as I headed out the door. I am currently a student at the University of Montevallo, in Montevallo Al. Just up the hill from the college is this beautiful view. So tranquil. Horses grazing on a lovely horse farm... hills, trees, and on some days, clouds! I love clouds! I am certian they are merely a fluffy stepladder to heaven.

God and I, we are tight we hang togeather all the time. If you don't want to know Him, don't bother getting to know me, or I might get on your nerves. But if you are willing to chance it, so am I.