Merry Christmas, my bloggy friends!

Have you ever wondered...

...what would happen if you had to get something out of your vehicle that was parked in the street and it had been snowing, sleeting and raining that day and then someone drives by, through the slush, just a little too close to you?

You would probably look something like this:

I could only laugh...because really, what else could I do? I think I am wiping the slush off of my face in this shot. :) Fun times.

Merry Christmas!













ee

It'll be here and gone before we know it

*I'm not sure what's up with blogger, but the pictures didn't line up right at all.
Sorry... just pretend that everything looks like I knew what I was doing! *

I am going to write this post in reverse. I am going to start with today and work back to Friday.

Why?

Well, I'll tell you.

I don't want to rearrange my pictures, that's why. :)

Anyway, today has been a fun day. Tonight we had some friends over for pizza and games. I didn't take any pictures though. Which brings me to this: I FOUND MY CAMERA!! Yea!!
But still, no pictures from tonight...

This afternoon we gave O her Christmas gifts. She had fun trying to eat the wrapping paper and my kids had fun unwrapping her presents for her! We are going to miss that little booger.

Ethan still had school today and he was supposed to go tomorrow too, but due to a little plumbing issue at the church, he is officially done until January. The kids were terribly upset....yeah, right!

Yesterday was a big day at church. Last night we had Family Night and all three of the kids played the piano. Sarah and I sang a duet. I originally said I would sing with her so she wouldn't get scared. Um, she was SO not scared. Actually, I was probably more nervous than she was. No, I was definitely more nervous, especially when I figured out that we forgot our music. We made it through without it though. Whew!

I thought that I had all three kids' pictures on here, but I didn't get Ethan's. It looks just like the other two... but with Ethan at the piano. :)

In the morning service, the choir and a cast performed "The Richest Family in Town", a cantata by Garlock & Hamilton. Ethan played the part of Sammy in the play. We were very proud of him, as he had to memorize many lines. I sang in the choir, and Ben and Sarah sang in the children's choir. We have a very active church and we love being a part of it.

We also got to spend the afternoon and evening with some very dear friends. It was so fun to be able to just be together, go back to church, and then join together again for a few more hours. What a blessing to have such times to make fun memories.

Again.... no pictures from that. Sorry. I am giving my friends a break from the flash. It's tough to be friends with a Blogger/Facebooker!

On Saturday, we had a super long, wonderful practice at church for the cantata. We had a good time of singing, and fellowship with one another. I love my church family.

After practice, I went to some friends' house to help them paint. They have accepted a pastorate about 40 minutes from here and will be moving here for good in a few short weeks. Right now, they are driving 4 hours one way every weekend to be here on Sundays. I pray for their safety as they travel. We have grown to love them and are excited that they will be closer.

On Friday, we woke up to no power. That continued for about 6 hours and everything was covered in ice. We made it until about 9 without coffee and then we decided that we were going on a coffee hunt. Eric found one gas station with power, but it's coffee maker was broken...ouch.

He stopped by and picked us up and we head off to the other side of town in a desperate search for some caffeine. We found one more station with power...

...and COFFEE!! Score!!

We got four cups (large ones) of coffee and headed off to our pastor's house. We knew they would be needing the coffee! We ended up spending a good part of the day there. Eric, Pastor, and the two older boys spent most of that time cutting up a tree that fell on their garage roof. Michelle and I found that the best place to be was right next to the fireplace, amen?

No electricity equals no furnace...

How beautiful are those pictures?

The Lord's work IS amazing.

I hope you all have a merry Christmas!

Tis The Season

Well, I've lost my camera once again and I can't post pictures of my ornament that I received from Brittany for the Siesta Ornament Exchange. I have been looking everywhere for it. Sigh.

I feel like I have failed terribly at this blogging thing lately. Honestly, I have been spending any extra time on Facebook and I have been updating things there.

I will be back as soon as I can find my camera, wrap presents....well, in some cases I actually still need to BUY the presents, help with a few class parties, make a few goodies, go to a couple of concerts, sing in a Cantata and help my oldest get his lines down for the play that is included in that. Somewhere in there I am taking care of children, cleaning my house, and doing laundry. :)

I have been blessed with much. I am busy, but I am thankful for it. Have a great Wednesday!

Have I ever mentioned...

that I can play a mean E# and F on the tone chimes? (at least I think that's what I played!)

No?

I don't know how I let that slip by. ;)

Anyway, I have really enjoyed getting to play in the tone chime choir at church. I would try to explain it to you, but I think you might get more from just watching it. All of the red sweaters blend together, but I am the 4th one in from the left. :)

"Lead Me To Calvary"

Please Pray

**Update**
Prayers have been answered! Please keep praying, as there is much to figure out for them.
God is good, all the time.

This is an urgent prayer request for a missionary family that our church supports. Please pray for the Judd family as they are facing a very, very difficult trial right now. I am not able to give any details, please just pray for them.

Thank you.

Sweetness Under The Tree...

I came home the other day and found the cutest little baby girl under my tree, batting at Jiminy. She was just giggling and smiling, so I thought I would share the cuteness with you!

Friday was a hard day for me, as I had to tell baby girl's mommy that I would not be able to watch her after December.
I have been blessed with a new job at the school at our church that I am very excited about. I have been volunteering there all year and will be an official staff member starting in January. Although I feel that this is the right move for us, I will miss baby girl very much.

It's an award....and some other stuff

One of my real-life friends gave me an award, but I didn't know it! She is fairly new to blogging, so hop on over and give her a "Hey, what's up?" :) Thank you, Michelle!

As part of this award, I guess I am supposed to answer a few questions:

Answer the following questions with single word responses. (or, if you're like me, answer them with as many words as you want!)

1. Where is your cell phone? pocket
2. Where is your significant other? recliner
3. Your hair color? blond
4. Your mother? -home
5. Your father? home
6. Your favorite thing? laptop (surprised? Didn't think so!)
7. Your dream last night? none
8. Your dream/goal? debtless (is that a word?)
9. The room you’re in? living room
10. Your hobby? blogging (hello??) Facebook is up there, too. (Please refrain from telling me how completely sad that is...)
11. Your fear? Hmmm.... writing my fear on the www?? :)
12. Where do you want to be in six years? You know what I just thought of? I will have a 17 year old in six years. SCARY.
13. Where were you last night? parents
14. What you’re not? confident (shocking, isn't it?)
15. One of your wish list items? Life Application Bible
16. Where you grew up? Indiana
17. The last thing you did? read to the kids (Boxcar Children)
18. What are you wearing? pj's
19. Your T.V.? football
20. Your pet? sleeping
21. Your computer? on (duh)
22. Your mood? good
23. Missing someone? yep
24. Your car? Villager
25. Something you’re not wearing? necklace
26. Favorite store? Cato
27. Your Summer? great
28. Love someone? yep
29. Your favorite color? purple (dark, not light)
30. When is the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? today (and no, not because hunting season is over! ;))


I love every single blog that I read...um, that's why I read it! I think I am going to pass this award along to my San Antonio roomies; Fran, Jenny, Steph and Teri. I miss you all. I think of every single one of you daily...and I finally got my "pray" ring! Can you believe it was discontinued? My friend that I ordered them from searched high and low to find one for me. Bless her heart, she's a great friend!

I got to see a friend of mine last night that I have not seen in (gulp) 20 YEARS! Did you hear that? 20 Y-E-A-R-S!! Seriously, am I old enough to not see somebody for 20 years?

Just in case you didn't catch that....20 years. sigh. double sigh.

Anyway, I will post about that after I snag the picture from my mom's camera. We took the picture around midnight, so I'm sure it's wonderful.

Have a beautiful Tuesday.

Christmas Photo Shoot 2008

We, and by we I mean I, decided to take our Christmas card picture last night.

Can I tell you all something?

I live with a bunch of goofballs. For example, as we were walking into the store Friday, I noticed Ben's baseball hat was on crooked. I took it off of his head to fix it and his harmonica fell out....out from under his hat. He had on jeans...with pockets....but his hat seemed a much more logical location to store it.

Anyway, we did finally get a good picture, but it took several takes! I didn't include the good one because it will be on our card.

We're singing....we're reading a book and we're sssiiinnngggiiinnnggg!!

I can't believe I'm posting this, so I am going to do this quick, before I change my mind!

Thanksgiving 2008 - Pass the Turkey, Please

Gobble, Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving!

I pray that you will all have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with your family and friends this year. We are going to go to my parents house tomorrow and then to Eric's parents on Sunday for lunch. We always look forward to the day with family. In the busy-ness of our lives, we don't get to spend a whole lot of time together.

Ben had a feast at school today. His class dressed up as Indians. I thought he was a pretty cute one. :)

On Monday, I did make it through the trip to the deer processing plant. I actually had fun...and they let me use a knife...a sharp one! ha!

I was going to post some pictures, but decided against it.

Your Welcome.

Here is the group picture that we took at the end. These kids did a great job and never complained one time about the job that they were doing. I have really grown to love these kids.
Here we are sportin' our new hats that the plant gave us!

By the way, I will not be posting Turkey Trot pictures this year... I'M SLEEPING IN!!

Fun Times With Friends

We love spending time with friends. The Lord has blessed us with some great ones. One of the things that brings us together is the fact that our kids are all around the same ages. They all seem to get along pretty well, too. Another bonus is that we all go to church together and because of that, we are pretty much family.

Last night, we were able to get together with some friends to play hand & foot. (Gretchen and I beat up on the guys pretty badly! heehee)
While we played cards, the kids played a game called "Bible Baseball" and Clay said something that was so cute. He's in 4th grade and is just one of the cutest kids. It was his turn to answer the question and he said, "Oh man, I just can't put my tongue on it!" It was so funny! He meant to say that it was right on the tip on his tongue and he got it mixed up with I can't put my finger on it! Cute, cute, cute!

Anyway, I decided that I have been a little lax on picture taking lately, so I took the camera along with me.

Here are a few snapshots from the night:

This is a silly one...a perfect fit for this crew. We were missing a couple of boys from another family that couldn't join us. We almost went over a kidnapped them for the evening! We missed having them all there with us.

Ethan and Clay, playing some football!!

Clint was begging me not to take his picture... I won though.

Wyatt and Ben are in the same class at school. They love their teacher and she thinks they are pretty okay. She is a Christian, but can't really teach anything to the kids about it in the public school, so she lets these two goofballs teach the kids a new song every week from church. There's nothing in the rulebook about that!

Well, that is pretty much how our Saturday went. I hope you all had a good one, too!

Ok, I'm finally gonna break out the Christmas music

It's a cold day in Indiana. Actually, it has been a cold WEEK here. Have I mentioned that I don't much care for the cold?

Well, I don't.

Anyway, we have decided to break out the Christmas music and DVD's today. Our kids have been begging for awhile now, so we have finally given in to them. One of the things we did this year to save some money was to get rid of our big cable package and go to the very, very basic. I don't really watch it much, so it hasn't bothered me at all. So, I am sure that because of the lack of stuff to watch on TV, I will be hearing these Christmas DVD's over and over this season!

As far as Christmas music goes, I have been listening to our Cantata that the choir is doing for a month or so now. It never hurts to listen to that as much as possible! Ethan has a speaking part in it this year also, so he has been listening, too. I am anxious to listen to some of my favorites that I dug out today...

Up in the attic, down on my knees, lifetimes of boxes, timeless to me...
(sing along now)
Letters and photographs, yellowed with years....

Not to mention Sleigh Ride and The Chipmunk Song, Away in a Manger, Silent Night, What Child is This, there are so many that I love. What about you?

In other news, Ben did get his cast off on Wednesday. His foot is still not totally healed, so he has to wear his new boots all the time for the next three weeks.

Oh, and he can't run or jump for three weeks either....yeah, that won't be hard to handle! He's a six year old little boy! I almost wish that they would have put another cast on! That would have been easier. :)

On Monday, I get to go to the deer processing plant with the high school kids from Ethan's school.

This could be interesting.

I make it a point to not look at the meat in the grocery store a whole lot, so I think I am in for a interesting morning.

How do I get myself into these predicaments? Maybe I will post a video or some pictures next week.... :)Kidding.

Just because I'm going to be grossed out doesn't mean you all have to be, too...I guess.

I will leave you with this...

I'm singing, I'm in the store and I'm ssssiiinnngggiiinnggg.....:)

A Day In My Life

I have seen several people do this on their blog, so I decided to bore you with the mundaneness (is that a word) of a day in my life...in this season.



Do enjoy. :)



I will start with saying that we typically start our day at 7am. Some days it's 7:20~ those would be considered the "others" days in my blog heading, "Some days are better than others." Sometimes I wake up before everyone else~ those days would be the "better" days in my heading. :) They are few and far between! Like I also say in my heading... every day is a blessing. I truly do believe that.

This morning I:
Feed the kids breakfast
Cassidy came in the door
Loaded my three kids in the van that had a light dusting of snow. Snow...I'll save that for another day.
Picked up 3 boys
Dropped off 2 of the boys and my 2 youngest at school
Took the other boy and my oldest to school at our church

GOT COFFEE :)

Eric brought the baby to me at the church
Worked 4 hours at the school in our church
Gleaned some bits of wisdom from our pastor for about thirty minutes
Came home so that Eric could get back to work after his lunch break.
Cassidy and Olivia were sleeping
Washed dishes
Did 2 loads of laundry
Got the kids up and went to pick up my kids from school.
Cassidy went home
Cleaned out the pantry
Did 2 more loads of laundry. Olivia spit up on Ethan ten minutes after the LAST load went in. Perfect.
Made brownies for Bible study tonight
Made supper (tacos)
Olivia went home
Did dishes
Apparently, we have installed new cabinets in the bathroom.
Actually, they have always been there, but you wouldn't know by the way that I smacked my head on them when I stood up from picking something up off of the floor.
Take Ibuprofen
Cut out Bo.x Top.s.
~~~Now I am writing on my blog and...
going to Bible study
Next I will ...
do my quiet time (I spent most of my day looking for my book! Found it!)
have some down time
Finally...

bedtime :)


So, there you go. That was my Monday. It is Monday, right? ;)

This Boot Was Made For Walkin'

Whoever came up with the clever boot that fits over a cast so that someone can walk and not have to use crutches must not have had a six year old little boy in mind when developing the idea. I can safely say this after a month of watching Ben get around in this thing.

It took him approximately one half of a day to figure out that yes, you can indeed run in a cast and boot... and I don't mean a slow jog. I'm talking full-out, first grade, little boy running!

Here is Ben's cast now, almost four weeks after being put on...(notice the chunks of blue cast that are missing)
This was four weeks ago... look at those sweet, little, clean toes.

Oh and the boot. This poor thing has been through it! Can you see where my husband had to sew it together? One month of wear and tear.

One. month.

We go back to the doctor on Wednesday. I am really hoping that the cast will be gone after that. I have to go find a good pair of hard-soled hiking boots to take with us. Doctor's orders.

Any suggestions?

Do You See the Smoke? Yep, I've Been Thinkin'

This was going to be a Wordless Wednesday post because I have been a little short on words lately. Those of you who are around me daily probably don't believe that, but it's true. Unfortunately, I don't even have a picture that is worthy of a Wordless Wednesday. I have allowed myself to be way too busy and now I am paying the price. My creativity is shot, my humor is shot.

I have done lots of thinking. I read a blog this afternoon and it really got me thinking about whether or not I am allowing God to use me to my fullest potential. Does the Holy Spirit have TOTAL control of me? Am I fulfilling my purpose in this life?

I have a small frame on a shelf above my kitchen sink. In it is this:

In case you can't read it, this is what it says: I am here, at this moment, by Divine design, on temporary assignment, to accomplish God's sovereign purpose, by God's redemptive/sustaining grace, for God's eternal glory.

(To Glorify God by Dr. Nell Collins)

It's just consumed my thoughts lately. What's your take on this statement? You can just think on it or you can leave me a comment about it, whatever you prefer! :)

I decided that since I had the camera out, I would show you what is on the other shelves above my sink.

So fun!

Here are two of my favorite pictures of my boys. Ben is in the Tig.ger frame and Ethan in the Po.oh frame. I think Ben was 6 weeks old and Ethan was 2 in these pictures. I love my boys!

On this shelf is a picture of us with some of our best friends. I have been blessed with some of the best "best friends" in my life that a girl could ask for. They all hold a very special place in my heart.

This one is Sarah at 6 weeks old. This girl would not wake up for these pictures! At the time, I was not too happy, but now I love it. It is one of the most precious pictures of her that I have. I love you, my girly-girl! (Actually, girly-girl is pushing it a little. She ripped a huge hole in a brand new pair of capri's this summer while climbing a tree!)
Finally, is the picture of me with Cassidy at her first birthday party. Even though this is about 65 lbs. ago, it will always be one of my favorite pictures with her. This shelf is actually not above my sink, but it's close. Don't mind the baggie behind the picture. Those are just our Box.Tops.

Oh yeah, we're one of those families that saves labels, box.tops and plastic bags for school. Every cent helps! :)
I am so thankful for all of you, my bloggy friends. This extension of my life means a lot to me, which is why it bothers me when I don't make the time to post. I will try to do better with it. Thanks for hanging in there with me!

(This is where my fancy little signature goes, but it's gone AWOL)