Is it just me or do blogs seem useless and unneccessary now?  With Twitter, I feel no need to blog anymore.  I didn’t love blogging before, but now with Twitter, I really don’t feel a need to blog.  Oh well.  I’ll try.

Some exciting news in our family this past week!  The embassy date for my sister’s adoption of my new niece and two new nephews was set for less than a month from today!  I can’t believe they are going to be here in a month!  I’m so excited!  Although I think it’s clear at this point that her kids are never going to get presents again.  Or maybe we should buy stock in The Dollar Tree because if they get anything it’s coming from there.  So, keep an eye out for pictures to be posted next month of our new niece and nephews!

In other news, my summer vacation starts in 4 days and I am beyond excited about it!  If I wasn’t so committed to first grade, I would want to loop up with my class next year.  This has been such an amazing school year.  I gotta say, there are few first grade classes as awesome as mine.  I’ve heard the kindergarten class coming up is kind of rough…Egad.

It’s sad really, but that’s about all I can come up with to write on here for now.  At least I tried…

This weekend may have been the manliest weekend I’ve had since Man Day ‘05.  While there wasn’t any red meat or firearms, I played with some dangerous tools and built some cool junk.  I’ve been wanting to build myself a workbench since I’ve moved in.  I even had some of the supplies for the project for the last 6 months and for some reason, I decided that this was the weekend and I loaded up the GTI with a bunch of 2×4s.  It’s a multi-purpose vehicle.  I also scored a free fluorescent light that my parents were going to throw away, so I hung it to give light to my new creation.  Here’s what I ended up with:

Additionally, I’ve made some progress with my guitar project.  The body and neck have been rough cut and I’m still in the process of routing everything else out.  Here’s a little teaser.

Ok Ok… I’ll admit, sans political propaganda, the Westerfields weren’t much for blogging in 2008. Now I’m not going to go nuts with New Year’s resolutions like promising to blog more or anything.  That’s not realistic.  I do have one New Year’s resolution that I’m particularly excited about though.  In 2009, I want to build a guitar complety from scratch.  I’m confident that I can accomplish this.  I have an experienced friend that’s willing to help too.  I’ve been doing tons of “research” if you can call browsing the internet for hours looking at guitars that.  I made the leap though. I ordered my raw materials.  Here’s a tease of what’s hopefully to come:

For those who care, I’m going to go for a super strat here, something along the lines of an Anderson with a HSS pickup configuration.  In the pic is an ebony fretboard, some medium fretwire, a Stew Mac hotrod truss rod, a flame maple neck blank, various knobs and gold hardware, and finally a flame maple top.  I’m still waiting on a few things like the mahogany body blank.  Here’s kinda what I have in mind:

So we needed a place to put our pics online that is easily accessible, thus the link to our Picasa account above. For now I’ve posted my pics from Lithuania and our Honeymoon. Look for more in the future. Enjoy…

This is my new sister-in-law, Valerija.  She is hilarious and awesomely fun to be around.  I’m so excited about getting to know her more and more as she learns English and grows up!  As you can tell from the picture, she has a great personality.  That much is clear already!

Email from my sister-in-law / Larissa’s sister Heidi:

We are finishing up our home study and dossier and getting geared up to send it to our agency and then off to Ethiopia. It has been three months since we accepted the referral for our next sibling set of three, and we are reaching the deadline to have everything turned in and ready.

BUT, we still need over $19,000 within 3 weeks to be able to do this. Our three kids in Ethiopia can’t wait much longer, so we are desperate to get the funds in ASAP. Not only will this mean that our three will have a family THAT MUCH SOONER, but it will also allow for three more children to move into the orphanage and begin their own journey to a family. Three lives are hanging in the balance here.

We are asking everyone who reads this to prayerfully consider giving to this adoption journey. Your gift of even $25 goes a long way in the end. Or perhaps you might be able to give a great deal more. Maybe you own a business that could make a substantial tax-deductible donation. Or perhaps your church would consider contributing to this cause.

Please forward this email your friends and family and refer them to our blog site at www.blessingsfromethiopia.blogspot.com.

We are trusting God to provide, but He does it through people, so we earnestly need the village to come together for this one…one more time!

If you feel led to be part of this journey, either again or for the first time ever, we (and all of our children) would be eternally grateful. We know that in this crazy economic era, giving is more difficult. Trust us, though, that this is an investment that will lend you eternal rewards.

If you feel led, you can donate in one of the following ways:

First, you can donate directly to us via the link on our blog site. It will take you directly to our paypal account where you can donate securely. Every penny will go straight to our adoption fund.

Or, you can donate directly to our agency and receive a tax-deductible receipt for your gift. To do so, follow these instructions:

To send a check, make it payable to CWF and put Kirk and Heidi Weimer in the memo line.

Mail checks to:
CWF (christian world fund)
Attn: Tracy Froidcoeur
777 South Allen Road
Flat Rock, NC 28731

OR

o give an instant, secure donation online, go to the Christian World Foundation website.

IMPORTANT: Select CWA/CWF General Fund. Then click next to CWA Family and fill in the information for us: Kirk and Heidi Weimer.

EVERY PENNY OF YOUR GIFT WILL GO DIRECTLY INTO AN ACCOUNT SPECIFICALLY FOR OUR ADOPTION EXPENSES.

Thanks so much to all of you who are coming alongside us in this miraculous endeavor. We are eternally grateful for every single cent that comes our way to bring these three precious ones home to their family. We are awaiting miraculous provision and praying for every penny of this process.

Many blessings to you forever,
the weimers

Mine:

Larissa’s:

Yes We Carve!!!

I realize that this is unoriginal.  I’ve  even done it before.  Regardless, this is always funny.

Before:

The ‘Stache

and now for the most offensive…