And Now For My Last Post Here...

This is my 550th post on blogger!

As you may have read below, I decided to start two new blogs for 2008. Here are the links, so you'll have to add them to Google Reader and change the link to me on your blog (if you have one). It'll take me awhile to add all the links from this blog to the new one, but I will!

My personal family blog continues the adventure here: www.6starrs.blogspot.com

My photography blog is here: www.rosestarrphotos.blogspot.com

See you there!
~Rose
p.s. If you'd like to join me in starting a photo blog, please do! The plan (which could change if a better idea pops into my head) is to post every Tuesday two of my favorite photos from the past week. 52 posts for 2008. One in B&W and one in color. Let me know if you do and I'll add your link to that blog.

Pet Surgery

A few of the kid's stuffed animals had tears or open gaping wounds that needed sewing up. After much pleading, I finally got out the needle and thread and fixed those little guys right up. All is well for the stuffed animals in the Starr household again.
~Rose

Yep, I'm Starting New Blogs

This morning I signed up for an AOL email. With that I signed up for a new Google account and am creating two new blogs. One will continue this blog...the family story. The other will be a photography blog like I mentioned below. I'll post the links tomorrow...gotta add a few finishing touches and pic my photos for the photo blog.

~Rose

Out of Photo Storage!

So I am just about out of photo storage for this blogger account. I would have to purchase storage via Picasa to get more storage. I am thinking about setting up a new account with a new email. Has anyone else come across this?

I am also thinking of setting up a photography blog (thanks to Melissa for the idea) where I post my favorite image or two once a week for all of 2008. Maybe one black and white and one color. Would anyone like to join me in this? I will add your photography blog as a link. Otherwise I am going to keep that blog real clean and simple.

Well, we got the Christmas stuff put away and the house seems bigger! Love that :) All the bedrooms and closets have been cleaned out and all the new toys have a place to be put away. Today Hope and I dive back into school. I am glad to get back into a normal routine. Thank you notes are almost all written and sent off. Later this week I'll dive into creating our family I Photo Album for 2007. Gotta use that 20% off coupon through apple.com!

Happy Monday!
~Rose

A Photo From Hope

Hope took this a few days ago. I think it's so sweet!Emma (4 in March) is holding a photo of herself as a 1 year old. She still has those wonderfully kissable cheeks!

~Rose

Party On!

We have truly been blessed with wonderful friends that have become our family. The Friday after Christmas we had a BUNCH of people over for dinner (thanks Courtney, Jeanne, Heather -it was so tasty!) games and lots of laughter. At the end of the night we said our goodbyes and I glanced at the clock thinking, "wow, almost 10...gotta get these kids in bed!" Once upstairs I realized it was really almost 11pm! We had a wonderful time and look forward to our next party. A big shout out to Ryan who played sword/gun fight with Owen and Ezra for hours! I don't think the boys have ever had so much fun fighting anyone! Thanks to everyone else who took the time to play with all the kiddos that night.

The slide show includes photos from the previous night (Thursday). Hope and I got to go see the "White Christmas" musical with everyone because Ryan's folks couldn't make it. They all hired a limo so everyone could go together and not worry about the crazy amounts of snow that kept dumping. Desi and the kids got to jump in to ride along to drop the group off downtown. Needless to say the kids were super excited (so were we) to ride in it! Hope and I had a wonderful time at the show.
~Rose

Spite and Malice

I was talking to my friend Sharee recently and we got on the subject of card games. She talked about how she grew up playing different games and then mentioned Spite and Malice which triggered an "Oh my gosh!" from me. I used to play that game with my Grandma Nina a lot. It was one of my favorites. I told Sharee I'd Google it to see if I could find the rules. I found them easily and taught Desi last night. We played 4 games! If you like card games, this is a really fun one for two people. Check out the rules here.

I am amazed at how fast the week has gone and how sore I am again from water aerobics. I'm still working on a few projects:

• Clean out Desi's clothes
  
• Thank You Notes
• APC accounting
• Blog about Schaffner visit (slide show)
  
• Salvation army load dropped off
• New glasses (got a coupon though!)
  

I did get quite a bit done though:

• Sledding :)
• Thank you notes painted by kids
  
• Christmas Away (including outdoor lights)
• Exercise 3 times this week (4 if you count sledding)
• Clean & organized girl's room and closet
• Clean & organized boy's room and closet and hide out
• Organized and re-arranged basement
• Blogging ;D
  
• Personal accounting
• Clean & Organized my closet

The basement has a large donate pile and our upstairs hallway is FILLED with stuff to donate. It's awful how much unneeded stuff we have just filling in spaces. I am glad to be able to purge and get rid of things we are not using or have grown out of. Speaking of grown out of, I found a box of 18-24 month boy clothes and wouldn't you know it...there were snow pants and a nice winter coat in Levi's size! No more Tigger costume to stay warm in the snow. I got rid of a TON of clothes that I won't wear anymore, but found a cute pair of jeans that were previously too small that I fit into now! Hooray!

Now for a game of Uno Spin before the kids are off to bed.

~Rose

Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing up is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing. ~Phyllis Diller

Children are unpredictable. You never know what inconsistency they're going to catch you in next. ~Franklin P. Jones

You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing. What! Is it nothing to be happy? Nothing to skip, play, and run around all day long? Never in his life will he be so busy again. ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, 1762

A Recommended Recipe

We got two packages from Desi's Uncle for Christmas. They were filled with wonderful gifts for all of us from Neil and Peggy. The books are wonderful...there's one that is the Polar Express where you shine a flash light through it in a dark room and it shines a picture on the wall. Very unique books that we are all enjoying. Thanks so much for your thoughtfulness Neil and Peggy!

One book was a cook book and Neil recommended a recipe on page 27. Here's a scan of it.

If you cannot read it it says:
ELEPHANT STEW ALA ELLIE DORR

1 elephant (medium)
salt and pepper
brown gravy
2 rabbits (optional)

Cut the elephant into bite-size pieces. This should only take about 2 months. Add enough brown gravy to cover. Cook over kerosene fire about 4 weeks at 465 degrees. Makes 3,800 servings. (To extend it, add the rabbits, but do this only if necessary, as most persons do not like to find hare in their stew.)

Ha ha ha!
~Rose

And Then It Was 2008

I have to say my first day this year has been lovely. Desi and I slept in a bit and awoke to the sounds of laughter and pitter-pattering of Owen and Emma’s little feet. They were playing some jolly game downstairs and while I was annoyed at how loud they were (two other kids were still asleep), I was filled with joy at the sound of their happy playing.

We enjoyed our traditional cinnamon rolls and quiche for breakfast and then dove into our new games. We played Zingo (Emma’s favorite), SpongeBob Uno (Owen’s favorite) and Kings in the Corner (a new one for our family). Grandma Kate came over for lunch, puzzle putting together and more games. Desi was new to Kings in the Corner, which he really liked. I grew up playing this game (among many others) with my grandmother. Emma and I made Lemon Pudding Cake from scratch and we all enjoyed it while it was still warm. Before we ate, we took out a sheet of paper and wrote out all the blessings from last year that we could think of. Both sides of the page were full!

While our family was blessed with 6 birthdays, an 8th anniversary, vacations, a kitchen remodel, generous gifts from friends and family and new house churches in our network, I think the biggest blessing in our lives has been the gift of friendship and fellowship that we have with the people God has brought into our lives. I have grown closer to my brother than we’ve ever been, I have a couple of close girlfriends that I feel I could confide anything to and they would love, accept and support me. Our kids have numerous people in their lives who love them, interact with them and are great examples to them. Best of all one of our family members is now walking with God!

Our day ended with Micah stopping by to have dinner with us and play a few rounds of Uno Spin before the kids went to bed. They were excited to show off the newly decorated “Starr Kids Club Hideout” which is an extra space behind a wall in Owen’s room. I put up new lights (thanks to Grandma Kate) and cleaned it all up. One side is brick and the other is plywood that goes up to the underside of the roof. I told the kids let’s draw on the wood! We enjoyed creating art all over the wall. I jotted down the date and the kids ages for posterity. Who knows how long we’ll be in this house!

Last night my parents and Mark came over for games and fellowship. I made chicken pot pie, warm spinach salad and monkey bread thinking we’d have more people over. We found a You Tube video of last year’s New York ball drop/countdown to watch with the kids. We joined in the count down and cheered Happy New Year around 8:15. Next year I’d like to have it a bit better planned out (maybe have some poppers or something and let the kids stay up a bit later). As it ended up, everyone left around 8:30 so Desi and I had a quiet evening together. We ended up watching Seinfeld and totally missed the passing of midnight because we were caught up in an episode. Sad, I know.

I decided this past weekend that Hope and I would take another week off school. I have a lot that I’d love to accomplish and skipping school this week will really help. We already have began working on the first thing on the list: Organize toys (throw out broken toys, donate unwanted old toys and clean up the rest). We have a small selection in the living room, more in the basement and even more up in the kid’s two rooms. I am trying to make their rooms appealing to play in. They are used to playing down stairs because I’ve had babies sleeping up there the past few years.

The rest of our week will include:

• Putting away the Christmas stuff.
• Sledding.
• Going through all the kid’s clothes (toss, donate or store for the next kid).
• Thank you notes written and mailed off.
• APC accounting (my volunteer job for our church).
• Library trip to pick up my books on hold and pay my $2 late fee.
• Blogging (duh).
• More game playing with the kids. All of the sudden we love playing games together…how fun! Think of the possibilities as they get older: Rummy games, Risk, Hearts, Texas Hold ‘Em, Monopoly, Catch Phrase, Cranium, Dominos, Majahong, and more.
• Exercise and water aerobics on Friday.
• Work on Photo books for Owen and Hope’s last birthdays and our family album for 2007 (Apple’s photo books are 20% off till February)
• Costco trip (we need kitty litter, paper towels, salad stuff and fruit).
• Possible Lens Crafters trip (not counting on this one though). My glasses are over two years old and fall off my face periodically. No good. I need a new prescription!
• And the usual laundry, dishes, diapers, cleaning and cooking ;D
  

Well, here I go rambling on and on…forgive my lengthy post!

May this new year bring us closer to God and those around us. I pray that we are filled with joy and peace that passes all understanding as we put our hope in Him alone. May we bring God’s kingdom here on earth where ever we go and may we find fellowship in the least expected places. May we enjoy God to the fullest each day that He graciously gives us.

~Rose