New week

Well, I have SO much to do this week. But I figure I'll sit here and type out a quick blabber or it will never get done, because heaven knows I'll barely have time to breathe for the next 5 days!

Thank you so much for your prayers on the fire. I appreciate them so much, as I'm sure so many others in Malibu do as well, even if they don't know. ;) Wow, what a weekend! As of this morning, the fire is 90% contained, praise God!!! 53 homes were destroyed and another 34 were damaged, it's so heartbreaking. Thankfully our apartment complex was perfectly fine, but it is so horrible to look at the addresses of destroyed structures, and just see this HUGE list of homes. BH heard on the news that there was one family that just moved to Malibu from Italy the day before the fires, and at that time they didn't even know if their home made it. :( But of course, the biggest blessing was that they were okay, and homes can be rebuilt.

A couple weeks ago when we visited Malibu for the first time since the previous fires, it floored me how different everything looked. We drove past Pepperdine University and couldn't believe how incredibly close the fire had come (right up on the lawn of this beautiful school!). There were several homes and a beautiful church that had been destroyed at that time, and it was so weird to drive through the canyon and see nothing but black, burnt trees and hillside. I took a few photos, so I really should post them (seriously- why do I take pictures? I never do a thing with them! lol). Now it will be so sad to drive through there once again (except a different part of the hills were affected this time) and see so much more destruction. In reality, the fire from last month was just as large (that fire burnt 4500 acres, whereas this was about 4700), but that one had only burnt 6 homes (and 2 businesses and a church) because it was mostly hillside. It's so sad. Even worse, the fire was caused by human activity. It just hasn't been determined yet if it was intentional or not.

So please, continue to keep these families in your prayers. I cannot even imagine losing everything I own in a split second, and being forced to start completely fresh.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and things went really smoothly. We had dinner over at my house with my parents, my sister-in-law and my nephew, and everything came out really good. I couldn't have asked for a better dinner! It seemed like we had tons of food, but really we didn't hardly have any leftovers! :) God provided the perfect amount, as He always does. My sister-in-law brought over a ham, green bean casserole and veggie tray so that helped me out a great deal, as well as tons of appetizers that my mom brought. So I was in charge of the turkey (my husband couldn't stop raving about it!), yummy sweet potatoes, rolls, corn, stuffing (homemade for the first time ever), and I think that's it. I actually had started garlic mashed potatoes, but they were taking too long so I just called it quits on that until after dinner. Now I have a TON of them in the fridge and they're sooo good. All in all it was a great day because I was really organized with it all, and I'm finding in my old age that I just have to allow tons of time to do things and I don't get overwhelmed. This all even included my dad breaking a glass in the middle of my turkey cooking, and causing me to slash my foot.

The rest of the weekend we just relaxed and did NOTHING. For a couple hours on Friday (you know, that black one) Big Hunk & I went to a couple stores while my SIL watched the kids, but nothing major other than that. It was a great weekend! I loved just having nothing planned and being able to enjoy our family. I think the only other time I left the house was yesterday- for church and to go shopping with my mom.

So today marks our new week and I'm looking forward to all the things planned. It will be a lot. Today I am moving the office back downstairs and the kids' playroom upstairs. When my grandma came to live with us last year we moved our office upstairs (when BH was still working from home) and what used to be my grandma's room is now the kids' playroom. But, the kids always have it SUCH a mess (not to mention every time we have guests their kids help mess it up but never help clean- augh) and I'm sick of seeing it down here. And, with my desk upstairs I am totally unable to organize or do anything because it is impossible to spend any time up there without the kids needing my attention and/or trying to kill one another. I am so looking forward to having order. :)

Well this has turned into a huge post, so I'm out.