Sarah's Birthday

I don't have much to write tonight, but I wanted to share some pictures of Sarah's birthday. She was 9 on September 11th. We celebrated on Friday with banana splits at home and then at Piz.za Hut on Saturday with family.

I can't believe how big my girl is getting!

Oh, these pictures are in reverse order because I forgot that Blogger does that for some reason. So you can start at the bottom and work your way up if you want! :)

The Last First Tooth

Ben lost the last first tooth of our little family on Sunday. He tried so hard to keep them all in because, well, he's my baby.

I was a little sad for me and very happy for him. He' s growing up on me.

I tried my hand at sourdough cinnamon rolls tonight.

Guess what? They turned out great! I even let the kids get up and try one. It was 10:30pm, but we don't do things like that on a normal basis, so they were thrilled to be able to come down and eat a half of a cinnamon roll with us. I mean, how could I make them smell that wonderful smell and then not let them have a little? I'm not that mean. :)

(this is a before picture)

Well, this one is short and sweet and to the point, but I have had a busy few days and I am going to bed! Good night :)

A Few Changes...

Change.
There are so many different views of that word. Some people love it, some people hate it. It's your choice.
It can be good, it can be bad. It's your choice.
No matter how you choose to view it, it will always be there. So why not choose to embrace it, go with it, be thankful for it?

The first change that we have experienced over the last two weeks is the change we made in the kids' schooling. We have decided that it would be a great change in our family's life to put our kids in the Academy at our church. We are very thankful for the option to do that. I work there so it has given me the opportunity to be very involved in their education, acedemically and spiritually.

Obviously, this was a welcome change...one that we have looked forward to for over a year now. The Lord is good.

The next big change in our lives is that our youth pastor and his wife have felt the call to move on from our church after 5 years of service. They are nothing but a huge blessing and the whole church will miss them terribly. How thankful we are that they are willing to go where the Lord wants them. What a privilege to be able to help them, as a church, through this exciting yet emotional time. Many tears were shed when they read their resignation letter and many more will be when they do leave. We are so blessed to belong to a church that bears one anothers burdens, prays faithfully for each other, and loves one another in Christ. We are losing 4, well almost 5, beautiful "family" members soon. How thankful we are for the friendship that we have been able to develop with them. We won't be saying "goodbye", but "see ya later".

We wanted to have them over one more time for pizza and games, so we made that happen on Sunday. We had so much fun laughing with (or maybe it was at) each other! :)

Our teens love Pastor Brian, I think you can understand why....

We had fun teaching them how to play Garbage.

I love this kid! I had so much fun watching him while his mommy gave piano lessons every Tuesday. He's a hoot and a half!

We are going to miss Rebekah's piano playing on Sunday mornings. To say she is a wonderful player would be an understatement.

We are so thankful for the memories that we have been able to make with this family. They will always be precious to us. I mean, how could you not love that? :D

The Best Deal in My 34 Years!

School will be starting for us on Monday, so this has been one busy week for us, er, me. My husband ALWAYS has busy weeks. I am fortunate enough to not have to have busy weeks all the time. What a blessing! :)

Anyway, I have been putting off getting my shoes for work (school) all summer. I knew that I needed some, but I just put it off. Mostly because I am too cheap to spend too much money on, well, ANYTHING!

Well, I decided last night was the night to go and accomplish this task. After all, I did have a $10.00 coupon from Pen.ney's, so I HAD to use it and thought I might as well use it on my shoes. I made my way to the clearance rack (of course) and found some cute, black, somewhat flat shoes. They had just enough heel to not be totally flat, but not so much that my toes are going to hate me by the end of the day. :) I looked at the price and they had been marked down from $50 to $9.97...great deal!
I looked around some more, and they had another pair in brown. I decided that I would get those, too. My total for both pairs would be about $10, after my coupon. I could handle that. :)
So I went to check out and the sales clerk rang up the first pair....$5.88! I asked, "Is that right?" To which she replied, "Um, yep. Great deal, huh?" My total was $12.10!
So after my coupon, I paid.....drum roll please......$2.10 for two pairs of shoes!!! That's 2 dollars and 10 cents!! Can you believe that?
I was so thankful for that because, truthfully, with school tuition and a possible India trip in my future (oh yeah, have I told you about that yet?), any amount of money that we don't have to spend is a blessing! :)

Hope everyone's back-to-school days are going well!

Fun Stuff for Today

I thought that I would start with a view of my house at a quarter til ten this morning....

Ah, the quiet....so nice :)

Now on to bigger and much more important business! ;)

Who reading this blog thinks that my husband needs to PITCH these nasty socks?

I mean, really, can we not buy the man some new ones? We DID just pay the first months tuition for our kids to go to the Christian school, but seriously...I'm thinking we could swing a new pair.

And do you know what else? I actually found these in the dirty clothes this morning! When I took this picture last night, I said that these needed to be trashed...he said "why?"

Funny man.

They have gone to a much better place. Which could be considered a very true statement by the way his feet smell sometimes! :) I love you, honey :)

Just for fun, we took a picture of the massive hamburger bun that we found on Sunday. That made for one yummy double cheeseburger....of which my husband ate before I could take a picture of it!

Actually, we forgot to take a picture of it. :)

I hope to get pictures from our camping trip up this afternoon. We had a ball, even though we were minus a couple of guys.

We're off to ride bikes and enjoy the great outdoors. It's a beautiful day!

Have a wonderful afternoon!

Wordless Wednesday - Well... Just Fun!

Scents

What scents make you remember days gone by? Certain people in your life? Places you've been?

For example, I used to love Sun-Ripened Raspberry lotion from Bath & Body...until I became pregnant with Ethan. Now, every time I smell it, it reminds me of morning sickness. Blah.

Whenever I get on our church bus, the smell reminds me of going to camp.

Whenever I walk into my oldest sister's house, I can still smell the same scent that it had when our "adopted" grandparents lived there. (It a good one, by the way) :)

As I was looking through my dresser tonight to find a t-shirt to sleep in, I came across the shirt that my Aunt gave me while we were in Alabama a few weeks ago. I had mentioned to her that I ran in her honor at The Relay for Life this year, so she went and got me one of her survivor shirts to bring home with me. I pulled it out and instantly smelled the detergent that she uses and it took me right back to Alabama. I love that smell because it reminds me of her.

Thankfully, she is a breast cancer/leukemia survivor. The Lord isn't through with her yet! We love her so much and always look forward to seeing her and Uncle Frank each year.

We just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on July 11th. We all drove down and surprised her and my uncle with a big party.

They had no clue we were coming. It was great! I have a video, but I don't have it uploaded. I need to do that.

Anyway, for the occasion, we all went together and got them a laptop so that they could keep up with all of us up north. So if you're reading this Aunt Mary, I am going to start blogging more, so that you can watch our day to day lives from your kitchen table! Be ready, because I have a lot of cantching up to do!

technology...it can be a blessing. :)

My Aunt Mary

Most of the family

My mom and her sister
Happy 50th!