On The Move

It has been one busy week, and it's not looking like I'm going to slow down any time soon.

I had the privilege of dropping 10 people from our church off at the airport this morning for a 12 day trip to Israel. Among those going are my parents and three of the people that I consider near and dear to my heart. I will miss them all while they are gone. If you think about it over the next couple of weeks, please pray for their safety.

Two of the people going are our pastor and his wife. She is the teacher at our academy at church and for the next two week, I am going to be filling in for her.

Can you say gray hair? I will have it by next Friday. :)

Seriously though, I am so happy to be able to help out in this way. I enjoy doing what I do there. I have a feeling that I will experience a happiness when she returns that I have never known before!

Ben is flying around here in a blue cast that he got last Wednesday. It has not slowed him down at all. We will be dealing with this for at least four weeks. The break was rather close to the growth plate, so the doctor is slightly concerned about that. He feels like it will all be fine though. Whew!

Have I mentioned that our church has a bowling league? Have I mentioned that Eric and I bowl on a team? Did I mention that we BEAT my pastor's team last weekend?

Well, we did.

That makes me very happy because we are now ahead of them in the overall standings. For now anyway. :) We are not really good bowlers, but the fellowship with other people from church is so much fun!

Well, except for when Ben broke his foot last time we were there. That wasn't too fun.

So, that's where I've been. I hope to get back to blogging on a regular basis again very soon. I am going to spend some time catching up on my blog reading now. :)

Chex Mix Basket of Indulgence Giveaway!

Welcome to the newest Bloggy Giveaways Carnival! I am so happy to be participating once again in this bloggy event!

I have such a fun basket to give away this time, or maybe I should say "baskets" because I have 3 of them to give away. Yep, you read that right. Three of my readers will receive a fun gift basket.

Do you want to know what's included?



You do? Great!




A Chex Mix Bars Basket of Indulgence includes a box of tasty Turtle Chex Mix Bars, chocolate candles, caramel lotion and spa essentials like a loofah, hand massager, nail brush and spa towel.

New Chex Mix Bars combine crunchy Chex pieces, pretzels and peanuts with chewy and indulgent ingredients like caramel and chocolate. And if that’s not enough, they have less than 150 calories per bar and provide at least 8 grams of whole grain per serving (48 grams recommended daily)!

Who can pass up a chance to win something that involves chocolate? All you have to do is leave me a comment from Monday, Oct. 27th - Friday, Oct. 31st and you will be entered to win. (Sorry, this giveaway is for US residents only) One comment per reader please. :) I will draw 3 winners on Saturday, Nov 1st.

After you're done here, hop on over to Bloggy Giveaways and see what else is being offered for free! You can't beat free!

It's 12:40 A.M. Make this title whatever you want!

A trip to the ER is never a great way to start a Saturday. Nonetheless, that is where I found myself this morning with Ben, my youngest.

Last night, during a game of Tag with his friends, he broke his little six year old foot. We decided to wait until this morning just to make sure it wasn't just a sprain...it wasn't.

So, we will be visiting the Orthopedic doctor sometime next week. In the meantime, he can't put any weight on it which means my back is going to be sore for a few days.

By the way, I am giving a shout-out to any parent out there that has tried to bathe their child while simultaneously holding the child's casted appendage up so that it doesn't get wet in the bathwater.

That. is. NOT. fun.

We got crutches for him, but seriously, it's so much faster to just carry him.

These are the smallest crutches I have ever seen.

My husband tried to get him to say, "God bless us, every one" in this picture.

He was basically not amused with his father.

This was right after THE bath. He wasn't too thrilled with that either. I'm telling you, it was work for both of us!

We did get to go to our church's big hayride tonight. We had so much fun. A couple at our church has a farm and every fall we gather there for a cookout, hayride, sing-a-long and fellowship. The following pictures are of some of the VIP's in my life. Enjoy!

My mom, being silly

My daddy, in the blue.

Two of my three young'uns. Ethan was floating around somewhere with his friends. I don't think I got one picture of him.
My hubs, in the red sweatshirt. The men played the teen boys in a game of football.
The men totally won.

Pastor Brian and Rebekah. He is the youth pastor at our church and his wife gives our kids piano lessons. Yep, they're pretty special to us. (He's a bit of a goofball, but he DOES work with teens!)

Mr. Anderson. I think he has known me my whole life.
Michelle, our pastor's wife (bless her heart), is one of my closest friends. She's not a hugger...I make her hug me, which may or may not help the friendship! :)
The one in the middle is our pastor...and well... my mom always said if I couldn't say anything nice, then I shouldn't say anything at all. :p Oh, I kid. He's the best.

And if he's reading this post then he is probably thinking, "Wow, she used simultaneously and appendage in the same sentence."

This is what I put up with people.

Have a happy Sunday!

Contentment

I wanted to start off with this picture because, well, I like it and this is my blog! We had a beautiful afternoon here and we enjoyed playing outside. This was the first time for this little one to be on the trampoline and he loved it!

This is going to be a post full of all kinds of randomness... I'm just warning you now. :) Also, I have a little triangle thing staring me in the face, telling me that I basically have 35 minutes before there is a scheduled outage on Blogger.

I guess that means I better get to what I'm sayin' tonight!

Some of you that have been around this blog for awhile may remember... Seriously, who am I kidding, nobody is going to remember this.

Anyway, at the beginning of this year I wrote a post about what the year was like for me last year and where I would like to be heading in the future. (Don't try to find it now though, because I deleted it... sorry, I had reasons)

The verse that I had picked out to be my verse for 2008 was as follows:

Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. Philippians 4:11

I need to come clean right now. At the time that I posted this verse, it was probably not what was truly happening in my heart. In my mind, yes. In my heart, no. I know that now, because at this point I CAN say that this verse has come to life for me. I will not go into all the details of what has transpired, but I am content.

And I honestly feel that it is the first time in my life that I can say it and truly believe it. It's a great place to be. :) I am thankful for a loving God, who gives us ALL that we need, but not all the we THINK we want.

Now, I promised a picture of the apple pie that my wonderful cook of a husband made for me. I got to share it with a few friends and I think that the general thought was: YUM!

So, I think I just might be one of the luckiest ladies in.the.world to call this guy my hubby! (He will be celebrating a birthday next Tuesday. How am I going to top this pie?) This was taken in our pastor's office. Yes, those books are all labeled and shelved in a specific order and yes, I would LOVE to mix them up...just a little! ;) Remember, he deserves it! :)

Ok, I am running out of time, so I am going to make the rest of this short and sweet. Here are my most recent cakes. We had a baby shower at church with a specific theme. Hmmm, I wonder what it was?
And finally, I would like to give this child a break and show you that yes, there are times when I could just eat her up! She's a doll.
I hope that everyone has a happy Wednesday! Whew, I'm done...and with 10 minutes to spare!

Find contentment, Be happy!

Love,

Stop With All the Beeping!

With the fallish weather that we have been having, I have had our windows open during the day.
I kid you not, there is a bush right outside the window where my computer is and there is something in there that keeps beeping.

And it's driving me nuts!

It's been there for two days. I am assuming it's some sort of bug or creepy crawler. It doesn't really sound like a cricket though.

If you turn your volume way up and put your ear against the speaker...you just might be able to hear it!

A-N-N-O-Y-I-N-G!

I say this in the video, but I'll write it anyway. Yesterday, Eric and I went out to investigate and when we walked up to the bush...the beeping stopped. I am not lying. We walked away...beeping.
We walked back up to it.... no beeping.

It sounds kind of like an alarm...or a bomb. :) Yeah, that's probably a long shot.

We are off to a cookout at our friend's house. Hope you have a happy weekend!

5 Reasons Why I Blog

This has to be the worst blogging block that I have ever had and quite frankly... IT'S DRIVING ME CRAZY!

A few weeks ago, Heather tagged me to do this meme about how blogging has affected me. I am going to try to tackle it and see if it leads to any type of "bloggy breakthrough". I can't really say that these are five ways blogging has affected me, but they are five reasons why I blog... Close enough!


Here are the rules:
1. Write about 5 specific ways blogging has affected you, either positively or negatively
2. link back to the person who tagged you
3. link back to this parent post (UM. not sure about this rule..)
4. tag a few friends or five, or none at all
5. post these rules— or just have fun breaking them.

Ok, so here I go:

#1 - The first thing that comes to mind when I think about blogging is how many wonderful people I have come in contact with and how many friendships that have developed. Back in August, I was so blessed to be able to meet some of these friends face to face in San Antonio. To be able to actually see and talk to and hug the necks of these ladies was something that I will always remember. And of course I can't forget the one "miesta"!

#2 - I have really enjoyed being able to record some of the funny things that my kids have said or done. As my regular readers know, I LOVE to share pictures, too!

#3 - The hardest thing that has come from blogging is finding the words to write a post that others can learn something from. I don't do well writing serious posts, so most of mine are fun and family-centered. I love my bloggy friends that can write amazing posts that make me think. You all are so much more wise than I will EVER be!

#4 - I got into blogging after stumbling upon Beth Moore's blog. I started mine and then went about 6 months before I actually took the time to figure it all out. Now I can't imagine my life without this crazy bloggy world. It has become a part of who I am.

#5 - This is going to sound so strange, but my typing has improved tremendously over the last year and a half! That is one big positive!

I guess I am supposed to tag some friends to do this, but I have noticed that many of you have already done it. If you haven't and you want to than you have been officially tagged. :)

I guess I need to get my camera out and start snapping some pictures. Those everyday random shots are the ones that usually make for good posts! If I can nab the picture that my pastor took of Eric and me the other day, I will tell you all about the apple pie that my husband made.

YUM-MY!

I have some activities coming up in the next few weeks that will probably be bloggable. The most interesting will be when I go with the high school kids from the academy at our church to the meat processing plant.

Um, have I mentioned that I don't like to touch, smell or even look at raw chicken? How am I supposed to watch them process meat?

WHAT I've gotten myself into this time? :o

Could Life GET Any Better...

...than a Banana Cream O.reo followed by a bottle of milk?

This child I watch

If you are interested in how most of my days have been going lately, feel free to watch the following video. There is no rhyme or reason to the crying, it just happens. Full belly, empty belly.... clean diaper, dirty diaper.... burp or no burp. We just cry MOST of the time.

And when I say "we" that is just what I mean.

Oh, I'm kidding. Sometimes, just I cry. (hahaha)

Oh well, I love her anyway!

If any of you have a suggestion or two, I would love to hear them. My kids were not criers, so I am kind of at a loss with this one.

A Block

Boy, have I ever hit a writing block. I have not had anything really exciting to write about lately. I have been keeping busy, very busy, but I am loving every minute of it. I have had a disconnected feeling when it comes to the blogging world, but I don't really know why because this is a part of my life that I love very much. I have always wanted it to be something that I enjoy and not something that I feel like I have to do. There are things in this life o' mine that have take priority and that's okay.



SOOOO... the short of it is that I am still here and I am still blogging. :) I hope to be doing a video blog soon. I need to make the time to do it! I just want you all to know that we are good, the best we've been in a long time, and I will be back to writing soon!

I know, you are all on the edge of your seats! :)