barnson.org Half-baked opinions, served lukewarm.

YIKES! In Oct. I decided it was time to go back to school. I've chosen Walden University which has online programs. My Master's will be in Mental Health Counseling.

I figured Oct. was a good time to apply. Get the application process over with, enjoy the holidays, and start school in Jan. That would seem normal, right? RIGHT?

So I got accepted and class started on Dec. 4th. Yeah, before the holidays. --heavy sigh. So as if I wasn't busy before with home improvements and holiday preparations, I'm a full fledged student now! I'm finding it's a lot like last time I was a college student...I'm not getting much sleep these days.

I graduated from college 10 years ago this May. While it doesn't seem all that long ago, we have been paying on that student loan for the duration of our marriage...

Until yesterday. It's finally paid off. Hurray!

Santa Claus just paid us a visit. I don't know how he fit those huge bean bag sacks into his sleigh. They've suddenly taken over our basement! For lack of furniture not destroyed by little children, that's the best option we could come up with.

We've spent two days with family and friends celebrating the birth of Christ as well as the love that we share with each other, exchanging gifts and eating about a ton of food. Despite all the commercialization of the holiday, today we celebrate "the reason for the season." I'm not sure who coined that phrase. Anyway, for those believers who are barnson.org readers, Merry Christmas!!! For those who don't believe, I'm pretty sure you're exchanging gifts anyway. Be sure to share your love one with another, as that is the meaning of giving the gifts!

Emil, welcome to Barnson.org. It's exciting that we know you personally and that you're so interested in reading past blogs and joining in discussions. Unfortunately, you don't know the unspoken rules around here, most of which are in place because of me.

I enjoy the discussions on this blog, including the religious ones. However I have asked Matt to make sure that nothing goes too far, that nothing is truly offensive or down right rude. This is a family website. Someday my children will read it. Many of my personal friends and family read it on a regular basis. I believe that is why Matt suggested creating another blog site, one that would not be so limited by me. Though that saddens me, I can understand. But my family name is on this site.

Ours is real fake. For safety reasons (I prefer not to risk burning the house down during the holidays) and I don't have to buy a tree every year at $70 or more a pop for a nice one, we prefer the fake tree.

For the first half of our marriage, our yearly fight was about who got to put the lights on the tree. Matt hated doing it so he would throw them on as fast as he could (well, almost) and I hated doing it because I would spend hours putting them on very nicely. So once the cat destroyed the first ($5 after Christmas sale) tree, we bought a really nice big one with lights already on it.

Matt came home from work this morning (he works nights) quite wound up. He couldn't sleep for anything. After much frustration, he figured out what was bugging him...a million and a half homeless flood victims sitting around tent cities and in stadiums with little food and nowhere comfortable to sleep. And here we sit comfortably in our homes grateful it didn't happen here.

Then the dilemma once he figured that out was what can he do about it? He stewed over that for hours and finally called our dear friend Paul with an idea. Paul had been stewing over the same thing and decided to do something about it. So here's the scoop: www.homeflood.org. Help Flood Victims.

In case your child has not been immunized and gets rubella, there are a couple options. You pretty much do have to treat the symptoms, but there is a marvelous working option that I will tell you about shortly.

The symptoms start two days before the rash: crankiness, fever, not too interested in food. Then the rash comes. I noticed it first on the face and legs, but it soon covers the whole body, in the mouth, etc. As it gets worse, it gets blotchy. The rash typically lasts three days.

We've been in drought here in Utah for about seven years, the entire time we've lived in our house. Greatfully the weather patterns have changed this year. We've had lots of precipitation. It's so wonderful.

But the storms coming through have kept the weather rather cool. Please understand, I'm not complaining, I love it! Yesterday was a high of 63 degrees. Normally this time of year we're in the 90's and too hot with more dry heat on its way. The one drawback is I'm nervous about camping because it rains all the time now.

The aliens are back in full force. You know how I know? Not because I have seen them. As a matter of fact I would just like to catch one of them in the act.

In my front yard, I have several flower beds. One of them has survived the grubs and has thrived. The beautiful gray/green ground cover has spread and flowers a beautiful little white flower by the hundreds!!!! For my lack of a green thumb, this is completely awesome.

(Read like a WVA hick!)
"I bought it special for you babe!"
"Oh, thank you I love it!"

This is how our conversation went as Matt finished cutting some plyboard to mount my mother's day present. (refer to previous blog concerning plywood furniture and know our conversation was sarcastic!)