Losing loved ones

Dying is a part of life, but it really, really stinks. My dad is losing his fight for life since having a stroke Monday night. He's had a good and long life (he's 75) and he's worked so hard and done so much for his family. I already miss being able to call him and hear his voice. He's not much of a talker, especially on the phone. When I call, if he answers, he says hi and not much else before calling for my mom. But I've never doubted his love for me. His job as a truck driver kept him on the road 6+ days a week during my childhood, including nights. It was hard on everyone to have him be gone so much but I guess we learned to get along without him. But we always knew he was there and knew he'd come home. He has driven at least 4 million safe miles....and that's a conservative number--and only while working, that doesn't count personal driving.

His is Polish and thinks Polack jokes are pretty funny...although he thinks almost everything is funny. This apple didn't fall far from that tree! All I can think about is that my sister Linda is going to be there for him and he's been waiting an awfully long time to see her again!!

Ok, I'm bumming myself out here...

Christmas Miracle

The Sunday before Christmas we went to church and found out that our neighbors (a family in our ward) lost their home the previous night to a house fire. We felt so bad for them, especially a few days before Christmas, an already stressful time for many parents. They do have insurance (thankfully) and hopefully the insurance company treats them right, but almost everything was lost. I can't imagine. We drove past the house and took a look at it on the way home from church and couldn't help but cry, the sight was overwhelming. While nobody was physically hurt, I just can't imagine what rebuilding will be like with so much instant loss.

But what happened next warmed my heart tremendously. A neighbor, who has a very large property, recently built a new home behind their original one and offered up their empty, older home to this family. With a home to work with, family, friends and church members went to work. By 9 pm Sunday evening, the family had a home to stay in. The home was freshly cleaned, the fridge, cupboards, and pantry stocked with basic food items, and there were beds and blankets in every bedroom. Bathrooms were stocked with toothbrushes, shampoo, razors, shaving cream, soap, towels, and even "Bath and Body Works" hand soaps. (Women know what matters~!) Somebody brought crayons and Christmas coloring books for the kids (2 boys). The house smelled of homemade bread from the oven. There was not a lot of furniture in each room, but enough to welcome the family into their temporary home when they were ready, including a dining room table and chairs, complete with a holiday tablecloth and centerpiece! There was even a huge entertainment center--complete with a big-screen tv--in the family room and a tv and dvd player (with remotes!) in the master bedroom. Clothing that could be saved from their home had been washed, pressed, and hung in the closets. Burned-out light bulbs were replaced with fresh ones. I think this family now has a year's supply of toilet paper, almost every family that came to help brought some! The house was even decorated for Christmas. This was just 24 hours after the fire.


There is so much need in the world that at times it's easy to feel helpless~ or like our little bit of help we could offer won't even start to make a difference. But when an opportunity is right in front of you and you know and see the good that can be done it's a different story. To me, this was a real Christmas miracle.

I hope that everyone is having a great Christmas and will have a fun and happy New Year's Eve celebration. I hope that 2009 is one of your best years yet!! Many of you are just plain due a great year according to the law of averages!

Christmas concert

We may start decorating for Christmas and begin having get-togethers and parties and recitals and concerts after Thanksgiving....but it's just not Christmas for me until I've been to Jon Schmidt's annual Christmas concert. This year was his best by far...what a night! The concert was supposed to go from 7-9 pm but it went until 10 and it was still too short. Jon's music is hard to describe, he's a prodigy. I've never heard anyone play like him and he makes it look so easy...Jon is also pretty funny, there are plenty of laughs through the evening. If you remember Victor Borge, he's the closest thing I can think of...but while I'm sure Jon can play classical music, too, his style is really unique and all his own. Teens love his piano music, if that helps you understand. His guest this evening was a cellist who played several songs with him...it was breathtaking music. They did a "Bring A Torch, Jeanette Isabella" from around the world thing where they played the song in different styles, like a polka version, a version with a Russian flair, one with a Jamaican feel (Jon even made the piano sound like steel drums), and one with an Indian feel. Whether you're 5 or 105, this show is for you and if you get a chance to see Jon in concert, GO. Take everyone you know. It'll be the best $12-$15 you ever spend-especially if you're lucky enough to catch a Christmas concert.

The highlight of the evening was when Jon pulled a family up on stage; the father of the family has been in Iraq for the past 6 months and gets to come home on Christmas Eve. There were 3 girls and 2 little boys in the family and Jon was willing to share the stage with one of the boys and let him sing a song about peace that he sings to his daddy on the phone. It was hard not to tear up with that sweet little voice calling for peace in this world. It was even harder not to tear up when Jon announced that their daddy had come home early--and he appeared from backstage. While it may sound a bit contrived or showy, it wasn't. There wasn't a dry eye in the house as the children ran to their daddy who had apparently missed every birthday this year, the youngest child's first steps, and even a wedding anniversary while serving in Iraq.

You can find Jon's music, videos, mp3s, and more at www.jonschmidt.com.

Christmas Decorations

My favorite part of decorating for Christmas is that we hang a wreath with a dark red, velvet ribbon on every inside door. We hang a large wreath with a long ribbon on the front door. My second favorite is the holly and white lights we usually hang on the stair railing. We haven't done that yet this year, we don't know where all our white lights went! Then we hang our stockings on it, too. That railing really comes in handy! I don't know where we'd hang them if we didn't have stairs because we don't have a fireplace. (Somehow Santa gets in anyway.)



Outdoor decorating is Ken's area...he loves his new toy; he got a box that plays music and flashes the lights to the beat of the music. I am personally quite embarrassed by it, but oh well. I'd love it if we could hang icicle lights on the roofline of the second story but I'm sure not climbing up there and nobody else is volunteering.



Having grown up in Pennsylvania, we are ashamed to say that we have a fake tree. We miss the smell of a real tree but don't want to spend $150 for a 5' tree with barely any branches or needles left. Besides, with 10' ceilings, a short tree would look pretty funny. Maybe next year we'll get a smaller one just for the smell, I really miss that!




The other day, Dr. Phil had a show on Christmas extremes. One guest was a lady who fills her house so full of Christmas decorations she can barely move around from Halloween to Easter...she hangs trees from the ceiling in corners where the floor doesn't have room. She has a full-sized tree in every bathroom. She has talking snowmen and talking Santas and talking ornaments that wish you a Merry Christmas every time someone walks into the room. We're not that bad, we think less is more! But I'm always sad to take down the decorations because they make the house look pretty.

Next year I'm going for candles in the windows on the front of the house. That may be a thing for back East, I haven't seen many people do that here in Arizona but I LOVE that look. I plan on raiding Michael's (craft and decorating store) after Christmas when everything is 75% off and they have coupons, too...

I'd love to see your decorations....besides, I need ideas!

P.S. We still haven't gone Christmas shopping. I'm starting to panic...

So many things

It's been a very busy couple of weeks, we've had so many things going on! These things may not really be in order, but they've all taken place since my last post.

Adam, Austin, and Jeremy all had projects to do for their school science fairs. Those are usually all scheduled around the same time of year so tri-fold display boards can be hard to come by. Ken had a great idea a few months ago to grab several; so a few weeks ago while many parents and kids were running around trying to find some display boards, we were cozy at home with our secret stash.

Here are their projects:

Adam's



Austin's



Jeremy had to build an animal cell: (this looked pretty cool!)



Josh has been working as a sushi prep chef at a restaurant called Kona Grill. They have really good food!! It's sort of an "east meets west" type of place. He looks pretty scary with that knife!



Adam had a winter choir concert. Adam is in the front row, second boy from the right wearing a yellowish tie...



This is an example of my terrible photography skills; I don't know why a camera gets put into my hands! I was trying to take a picture of Adam's choir concert and when the flash went off, I started to put down the camera. The flash went off again and this is what I wound up taking a picture of. It was pretty funny!



Ken volunteered to work at the finish line in November for the Ironman. He ran one in April and was so excited to go back and hand out medals the finishers!



Last Saturday (Dec. 4), our ward had their annual "Night in Bethlehem". It's held outside in our Bishop's pasture. Several years ago we built faces to buildings that would have been seen in Bethlehem, so we put those up and put on a program full of songs and kids in costumes, etc. There's even a real donkey and some sheep. That takes place after dinner, which is usually pretty good. Because they hold it outside and it takes place after dark, it's usually pretty cold. It took me hours to thaw out (and it was only in the 50s!). I'm such a Phoenician now, my blood is thin or something! I was too busy with the Primary kids to take any pictures.

Last night I held my annual piano recital. The kids play Christmas songs or they can also play regular songs; but it's a fun evening that I look forward to every year. The kids did a good job!! It's so fun to see how much they've progressed each year. I always give the kids a card, an ornament, and a Hershey's Symphony candy bar. After the recital we have goodies and visit and it's just a fun evening. Ken is my "Ace of Cakes" and made this piano cake. One of my younger students was reading the writing on the cake and said "holiday...rectal 2008". Pretty funny, it did say recital!



Other than that, I've had choir practices, Josh got his mission physical, and Austin was sick so I took him to the Dr. and he has strep. He didn't get very sick but really needed the medicine! This morning Josh had oral surgery. A few years ago when he had his wisdom teeth removed, the Dr. accidentally removed a molar instead; so Josh had to have an implant. About 5 months ago he had a bone graft done and then this morning the implant post was put in. He'll heal from that and when he gets home from his mission he'll get a crown put on it.

Whew! It may not sound like much but we've been extremely busy!! I have at least 8 loads of laundry upstairs to fold and several that need to be washed, I can't believe the laundry around here.

I've spent several hours over the past few days creating a poster in Photoshop and trying to figure out how to get Costco to print it out in 20" x 30"...but now I know how to do it and it won't take so much time next time. It's for the Primary's Jr. and Sr. classes of the month and we take the class's picture and put the picture on the poster and also give the kids their own little copy to take home.



So it's been such a busy time--we haven't even started our Christmas shopping!!

Christmas flashback

The year was 1999. Austin was only 3 years old, Adam was almost 5, Jeremy was 7 and Josh was about to turn 9. Josh and Jeremy had a school program so they were dressed in their dark pants and white shirts. The other boys had theirs on, too, and I was dressed fairly nice, so Ken decided to take a picture. It has turned out to be one of my favorite pictures of the boys. I don't know what Austin was doing. Adam has his cheesey, big smile, and Jeremy is trying to be patient with everything going on...you know, the things that go on when someone is trying to get 5 people to pose at the same time. Josh was always really cooperative and patient but unfortunately didn't keep his eyes open for the picture.



The boys crack me up in this picture; again, I don't know what Austin is doing...Adam is wearing his cheesey, big smile, too. And Josh and Jeremy are cooperating really well so we're not late for their program!!

Ken always said that one day we'll be happy we have these pictures, and he was right.

Wimp of the year

It's official, my sweet Zoe has been chosen as the official wimp of the year. The other day she wanted to go outside so she did her usual; she came up to me, stood at my feet, and started to sort of snort to get my attention. If you ignore her snorting, she will quietly bark. If you ignore that, she will hit your leg with her front paw, which is pretty funny so we ignore her until she does that-just for giggles. Yesterday, instead of hitting me with her paw she growled at me. My sweet little dog who would acquiese to a mouse actually growled! I was so proud of her!! So I thought it might be funny to growl back. She didn't think so! As soon as I growled at her, she put her head and tail down and laid on the floor, apparently forgetting that she needed to go outside. Oh poor Zoe, you need a bit of a backbone!

I can't imagine a sweeter, more gentle animal anywhere, but I'm not sure it always serves her well. But I sure love her. When you pick her up, she actually melts into you and hugs you back. The boys wish she'd be more playful, but I think she's not because she is intimidated by the toys. Seriously.

I can't imagine paying someone to cut her hair and bathe her, etc. when all the hair cutting in this house gets done in this house. If we don't pay for humans to get their hair done, why would we pay for a dog's haircut? So a few weeks ago I tortured Zoe with a very long grooming session. I plucked her ears clean, gave her a hair cut, brushed her teeth, trimmed her nails, the works. Then I bathed her and blew her hair dry. She is always so patient that she stays right with me until I say "ok" and she runs off, knowing she's done. When I said "ok" after that long session I was sitting on the floor. Instead of running off she stood on her hind legs and hugged me!

I don't know if it's just her breed or if she was mistreated at some point? But I wouldn't change her for anything.

Thanksgiving memories

So I had high expectations for Thanksgiving. Not anything in particular, just that it would be a great holiday and weekend. (Everything with Rachel is fun.) It was! It was! It stopped raining long enough for everyone to enjoy the Turkey Bowl annual flag football game down at the park. The food was yummy and didn't disappoint, although I could probably try some new recipes next year. The kids got along great. The dogs got along great (definetely!!) except when Zoe dared sniff Rio's water and food bowls! She learned quickly that Rio is an alpha male! Haha, anyway, for 2 dogs that didn't know each other they did great. There were lots of video games for the kids and even adults (Wii boxing is very theraputic, I'm told.) We played Air Hockey, too. We watched some fun movies like Jingle All the Way, Christmas with the Kranks, and Money Pit.

Rachel's oldest son, Chandler, turned 15 while they were here, so we celebrated his birthday with pool, bowling, and a football cake. We found his birth announcement so we measured him to see how much he's grown since he was born. When I find our measuring tape I'll see how high the mark was on the wall and let ya know! They decided to stay Saturday and go home Sunday, which was awesome for us, although this morning they're probably dreading their week ahead without a day of rest.



We saw how many Tom Hanks (my FAVORITE actor) and Tom Cruise movies we could name and then Googled their movies to see what we missed. It's harder than it seems, try it! I want to try it with some other actors (maybe Harrison Ford or Tim Allen), but those two are the ones that we thought we could do best at, and still missed several obvious movies. (I forgot Money Pit, one of my all-time favorite Tom Hanks movies!) Mark, Rachel's husband, acted out movie titles we didn't have. His performance of the Risky Business scene where Tom Cruise slides across the floor with wearing only a dress shirt and socks was pretty funny! He was not in costume, in case you were wondering...

I've never seen so much junk food--even for a Hosch household it was a lot. Ice cream, apple pie, cherry pie, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, doughnuts, sodas, hamburgers and fries complete with milkshakes, chocolate fudge, peanut butter fudge, birthday cake, pancakes, and pizza...WOW. There's still a sugary smell in the air. The funny thing is that Rachel and her family really don't eat much junk.

Time goes by too quickly when we get together. The minute Rachel and her family left we were all sad and missed them. Ken, who barely sat down the whole week, took a very long and well-deserved nap. He's sure a worker.

Thanksgiving 2008 is now a memory; I hope all of you have your own great memories and I'm already looking forward to next year!