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

Hope's First Job

Tomorrow will be the last day of Hope's first job. Our friends have been on holiday and asked Hope to come over to feed, love and play with their two dogs. Toby and Rudy are so sweet and cute and Hope adores them (of course). She was overjoyed at the prospect of "getting a job". One of our families favorite Arthur (PBS cartoon) books is called Pet Business where Arthur gets a job watching people's pets. Desi has been taking Hope over once or twice a day. He reads and she does her job. Tonight I took Hope and Levi over to love on the dogs before a shopping trip to Target (I will love not buying diapers someday). I wanted to snap a few shots to send to our friends and here they are!

~Rose

Starr Christmas 2007

Disclaimer: This post is long and mostly re-caps our Christmas for our long distance family (but you are welcome to read!) and the slide show is LONG as well.


Create Your Own

We have been wonderfully blessed this Christmas with the love and presence of family and friends. Thank you to all who gave and sent wonderful gifts for all of us. Andy (mentioned in the slide show) is Micah and Mark's room mate who moved here in Nov and stayed in our house with the guys while we were in Cali. He is a sweet guy and gave our family really fun gifts. Thanks Andy! Our youngest turned 18 months old on the 26th and the other kiddos are at such a wonderful age for Christmas morning excitement. They were very good about taking turns and waiting patiently for others to open their gifts. We played all day with new toys and games. What fun!

Christmas Eve ended up being just our family, which was unexpected. We had planned on my brother, his friend (we'll call him Jay-more on him later) and Mark. Mark ended up cooking at the guy's house (where Jason and Jay were staying) and invited neighbors over to watch football. Our family had a simple candle light dinner, listened to the Christmas passage from the Bible, and took funny Baby Jesus pictures. We put the kids to bed early, finished wrapping gifts and enjoyed a movie.

My parents arrived Christmas morning around nine with quiche and cinnamon rolls in hand. Mark had to work (RTD never sleeps) and Jason and Jay arrived about an hour later. The day was filled with opening toys packaged like Fort Knox. Thankfully we had all the batteries we needed and there were plenty of people for various games. The trash we created was pretty amazing...but with four kids all getting gifts from an aunt, an uncle, a great uncle, 4 grandparents and 6 great grandparents (as well as a few friends) what else would you expect?!

Mark worked a split shift and came over for a late lunch before returning to work. He said it wasn't busy, but he had some homeless folks get on his bus just to get out of the cold. My parents left around 2. We had a simple spaghetti with meatballs, garlic bread and ceasar salad dinner. Jason and Jay stayed late so they could pick Mark up after his shift was over and go back to the guy's house. All in all it was a wonderful day despite being cooped up inside all day and we were very blessed.

Back to Jay. Jason met him in Boulder (where he goes to CU Boulder) a few months ago. Jay has been homeless for about 8 years. He has an abandoned truck with a covered bed that he sleeps in. Jason has been spending a lot of time with Jay, inviting him to hang out at the frat house and has brought him down here on Saturdays and Sundays for the past few weeks (they stay at the guy's house). Jay's father left when he was young, his mother has joined the Mormon church and says that Jay is unfit for heaven and pretty much ignores him. He has a typical history with drug abuse, ect... He has lots of issues and is on meds for a few things. Currently he is waiting for disability to start and says that because of his metal issues that it's really hard to hold down a job for any length of time. He talks about his future with some hope though. He wants to go to college to be a lawyer ("to fight for the little guy" and "then my mom will be proud of me" as he told my mom). He wants to have a place to live and a normal life.

Overall, I see him as a lost and hurt soul who really needs love. He's been wounded and has a very high and thick wall up so he won't get hurt again. But, I am finding it difficult to show him love. He smells of cigarette smoke mixed with bo, he's pretty grizzly looking and doesn't have the best manners/people skills. I am being totally honest here which is a bit hard. I didn't want to spend my Christmas with him in our house all day! I don't like how he makes everything about him, how he complains about everything and is negative most of the time. I battled my thoughts all day and sort of steered clear of him. My mom was amazing toward him though. She brought him a gift, included him in a game and was just really sweet and kind. The kids have gotten to know him a little over the past month or so and have been totally unbiased to him as well. Emma even climbed up on his lap with a book and asked him to read to her! Upon leaving he thanked us and said it was the best Christmas he's had in a really long time and he doesn't remember when he's had so many home cooked meals. Later that evening he told Jason that being around all of us (including our APC family) has improved his morale. You know as I look back on our day I do not feel like we were robbed of "family time" at all. I am thankful (sort of) for this opportunity to grow!

So, pray for "Jay" that God will reach his lost soul. Pray for my brother as he finds a balance in his friendship with Jay. Jay is the type of person that suffocates a friendship till the other person is done. Jason is feeling this now. Jason just really wants to learn from this and already has grown and learned a lot. It's amazing to see his maturity and love (that is totally from God) towards Jay. Jason wants to help Jay without enabling him to continue down the path he's on. I am praying that Jay will learn and grow from my brother and be open to God who sent Jesus to call sinners to repentance.

I think we all have people who come into our lives who at first glance seem easy to judge. May we be quick to show kindness, love and generosity and very slow to make assumptions or judgments. The world is FULL to the brim of hurting souls in need of a touch, kind word or deed done as unto Jesus by those who love Him. The Bible says we love Him because He first loved us and I think a lot of that love we experience from Him comes through other people here on earth. What are your thoughts?

~Rose

Luke 5:30-32 "And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

Our Little Artist

Our friend Andy (one of Micah's room mates) brought some gifts over for the kids and Desi and I before Christmas. Hope's was an artist's easel set complete with canvas and paints. Hope got right to work the next morning and I snapped a few shots. This was my favorite. Notice the tongue. It moves around while she's really concentrating. I love it! Thanks for the gifts Andy :)We loved the show last night. It wasn't Bing Crosby (I LOVE Bing), but the actors were wonderful and Hope and I really enjoyed our time together. After the show we all went to eat at the Denver Diner open 7 days/24 hours. Hope asked me "What is a diner?" I had a hard time answering her..."Well, they are open all the time, they always have coffee, pie, burgers, fries and breakfast food."

While we were eating the waitress brought over a chocolate milk for one gal at our table. She said it was from the gentleman over at such and such a table. We all looked over, he smiled, made a friendly motion with his hands and was off. It was so surreal. When does that ever happen, except for in movies? A perfect stranger buying another person some treat without expecting anything in return!

And one more pic...my total favorite Christmas pic of Levi.
Man, he is really cute!

~Rose

The Christmas Photos Will Have To Wait

Hope and I just got invited to go to a musical downtown tonight! Our long time friends the Schaffner Family are in Colorado visiting their oldest daughter and husband. I guess they had two people who are not able to go tonight and they though of us!!!! Desi will stay home with the younger kidlets and Hope and I get to go. We are so excited. The musical is Irving Berlin's White Christmas (my all time favorite musical/Christmas movie) at the Denver Center for Performing Arts. Time to get gussied up and be ready for our limo pick up...can you believe it?!
~Rose
p.s. It's still snowing and I found the cutest little bird foot prints in the snow on our porch. We hung a soda bottle bird feeder near by so we can watch the birds from the window.

Zingo, Walking in the Snow and Gingerbread

Christmas Morning Smiles!

Well, it's snowing (dumping) again. Yesterday was sunny and warm (sort of). My brother spent Tue night with us. We all slept in a bit and enjoyed coffee and quiche for breakfast. We then played quite a few rounds of Zingo (a new game Emma got for Christmas). We all took turns being the dealer and had a jolly time. Jason wanted to get back to Boulder, so he packed up and slid around a bit on his motorcycle till he got to clear streets.

Once Levi was down for his nap I got the shovel out and finished shoveling our half of the block (the house next door is empty and the other one's owners are on holiday). After that I took the kids on a walk to Safeway so we could rent a movie. We saw they had a gingerbread house kit on sale for $3.75 so we bought it and rented The 12 Dogs Of Christmas. By the time we were home our noses and chins were freezing! We snuggled up in blankets and enjoyed the movie. After dinner we decorated our gingerbread house and then ate some of it. Dec. 26th is Levi's half b-day so he's officially 18 months old! He loved picking the jelly beans off the house but was not into the gingerbread at all. Desi and I watched a movie after the kids went to bed and a few episodes of Seinfeld (The Gum, The Rye and The Caddy) before hitting the sack.

The day was so full that I never sat down to the computer (that hardly ever happens!). So, today I get to catch up on bills, the checkbook, edit and post photos from Christmas, shovel the sidewalk again and enjoy being snuggled up inside on a cold snowy day.
~Rose

I'm Dreaming Of A White Christmas!

Good Morning and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

This is what we woke up to:
This is only the 14th Christmas with snowfall in Denver in the last 100 years! In 2005 we had a high in the 60's on Christmas.
I like little facts like that.

"And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins."
Matthew 1:21

Merry Christmas from the Starr Family to you!!!

~Rose

What to do on Christmas Eve?

Surprise your kids with a trip to the movie theater! Our kids see a movie in the theater only a few times a year, so it's very special. Little do they know daddy is taking them to the discount cinemas ;) Desi took them to a 2pm showing of Bee Movie which I'm sure they'll love.

I think Desi and I both would have liked to take them, but I opted to stay home while Levi naps and enjoy the peace and quiet. I'll blog a bit, read a few chapters out of my current book (A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren) with a cup of tea, listen to some classical music and start on food prep for tonight and tomorrow's meals. Sounds divine. The only thing missing is a roaring fire...but I'll settle for the dish heater.

Hope your day is lovely.

~Rose