Happy December 29 Birthdays!!!

WORLEY

"The Coolest Unknown Husband of Marilyn Monroe"

TAYLOR

"Fonzie's Most Difficult Pool Opponent"

AMY

"Nicest Prettiest Catch in All of Hollywood"


Happy Birthday to my family's CELEBS!
I love you for being you!

Remembering - Part 2

November 2006 entry in my fire journal by my sister and friend.

Thank you so much for taking the time to write down these words Danina.

"When I pulled up to see your house you were picking up the mail out of your mailbox by the road and the front of your house, apart from a broken and blackened window upstairs, looked normal. Your porch was nicely decorated for Fall and the beauty of Fall's leaves and landscaping was everywhere . Then I went through the front door and inside and felt overwhelmed by the smell, destruction and black darkness left by the fire and smoke. This reminded me of when Jesus talked to the pharisees in Matthew 23:25 - 27. Jesus said, "For you are like white washed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and uncleanness". And then another illustration; "For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside are full of extortion and self-indulgence."



I've read back over that many times and thought Wow! What a great lesson to be learned from a real life experience.



How often do we wake up and our day is not going the way it should. We've had ugly thoughts, used harsh words toward our spouse or children, gossiped behind someones back, participating in something sinful..unethical but yet we were able to pull ourselves together outwardly. Adorn ourselves with our cute clothes, our make-up or favorite jewelry and go out into the world as if everything inside our heart is full of joy, beauty, peace......love. I know that I have sat near those I'm very close to at a dinner date, at a church service or in a home with a very broken heart, an angry mind or a shameful burden weighing on me and yet I've looked like I have it all together and that my world is beautiful, happy, sinless.



May we all challenge ourselves to be authentic this holiday as we see our family and our friends. May we pray that God will cleanse our minds and our hearts so that we are as beautiful on the inside as we work to be on the outside.

Remembering - Part 1

When you walk through fire you will not be burned,
nor shall the flame scorch you.

Fear not, I have redeemed you.
You are Mine.

Isaiah 43

This month always reminds me of how incredibly blessed I am. I am blessed with life, with more "stuff" than I need, with two cars, with a home, with amazing friends and family and with a mighty God who cares about ME and all the intricate details of my life. This experience taught me so much that I would like to share parts of the story with you over the next couple weeks. My hope is that you and your families reflect on your own personal experiences and blessings as well.

November 4th marked the 3rd anniversary since our family home was destroyed by fire. The sadness about our losses and the the "what could have been" scenarios are gone now, but the lessons learned are far from forgotten.

We so easily take for granted that we wake up to the morning sun and find that our families are all safe and all is as it should be in our small world. The morning of Nov 4, 2006 my family woke up with nothing to call our own. Nothing of material value anyway. What we did have was each other and I remember laying next to Billy thanking God for him and for what he means to me. I remember thanking God for my children and promising that I would not take for granted their lives that were saved so that I might enjoy them and get to be their mommy for many more years. I made a promise to God that day that I would raise my children to serve His kindgdom. I continue to pray that I will be able to show my kids who God is by my example through every day living. That they would have a real relationship with Him so that they would know when they are called to serve Him and that they would have the courage to follow through.

We thank God often for our home, our food in the pantry, our clothing and our cars. It seems like this is the norm for a working family, but when we had none of it to call our own I realized that this is God's provision for us and it should not be taken for granted. It can be stripped away at any time, but the GOOD NEWS is that we don't need it. There are amazing people out there that will step up and love on those in need in a way that is indescribable. I cannot even express how deeply people witnessed to me through this experience with their written sentiments, their sacrifices to help us financially and emotionally.

When we moved into our 2300 sq foot rental house with four boxes of personal belongings you can imagine how the world felt different. And now we've made it through the torturous paperwork and decisions to buy two cars, a home, all new belongings, etc and it just makes me smile at the way God works.

Naked I came from my mother's womb,

Naked I shall depart.

The Lord gave and the Lord taketh away,

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Job 1:21

*If you click on the picture at the top it should take you to view all photos and descriptions of our home after the fire.

I think you'll need a snapfish sign-in though.

The Love of Boomer

My sweet girl just loves animals, especially doggies. She likes to give them lots of affection with hugs, squeezes, kisses and petting. Most of them don't mind like these two. Here she is with my friend Melissa's dogs, Boomer (white) and Princess (black).

Halloween Fun!

Just a little project to get us into the season!

YUM!

I Hugged a Homeless Lady!

The challenge was put before us by our church to find a way that we can serve in our community. Serve in the way that God told us to so that we would be known by what? By our love. Our love for those we see every day, for those we see occasionally, for those we only see once in our life. We are called to love and we are called to serve.

John 13: 34 - 35 "Love one another, just as I have love you."

To be LIKE Christ, we must DO like Jesus.

Where would Jesus have been on a Friday night on a Saturday afternoon? I've heard this comment before, but it didn't stick out to me in the same way it has recently. We think of Jesus in Heaven watching us and hearing our prayers, but Jesus was a human and he walked the earth as we do. What did he do with his spare time? He taught, he healed, he prayed, he was a friend, a son, a traveler. How did he interact with people who he knew or those he didn't know? He performed acts of kindness so that he would be known not only by his miracles and teachings, but by his love.

"For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many." Mark 10:45

The Lord of creation came to earth to be a servant performing acts as lowly as washing his disciples feet. The feet of those He knew would betray Him even!

Our community group spent a Friday night and a Saturday volunteering at a homeless shelter. Not the most comfortable place to be, but we were able to clean everything, paint, hang new blinds and visit with some of the people staying there. This is a place where people can come and find food and shelter on-going. Some are there for long periods of time and some are in and out after one night.

Friday night we were washing down the walls and doors in the hallway and a woman about 30 came through with her 5 year old daughter. They were headed to the end of the hall where they would spend the night surrounded by painted cinder-block walls and cafeteria-style flooring. Later we would find out there is a younger daughter as well, age 3.

All these feelings came over me thinking about that woman and her two little girls. What was her story? How did they end up here? I thought about the Will Smith movie where he sleeps with is son on the floor in a public bathroom. I thought about how we felt the first couple days after our house fire when we had nothing to call our own and slept in borrowed clothes, with borrowed blankets and ate from someone elses pantry. The movie, was just a movie. Our loss after the fire is past history and was so short-lived. This woman faces this every day. This is her "normal".

I had the opportunity to go back on Saturday and gift two pink Leapsters and several games to those two little girls and as I heard their sweet thank you I wondered why I would want to do anything else with my day. The woman was so thankful and yet was hesitant in showing her gratitude not knowing how it would be received.

She finally asked me, "Can I hug you?"

I said, "Of course", and hugged her tightly without reserve.

I hugged a homeless lady; someone I may never meet again. An experience not on my "life's list of to-do's", but definitley one I wouldn't want to have missed. I hope that I remember the experience and that her family reminds me of the many ways that I can serve. The many people who have needs much larger than mine. May I live a life so that I am recognized by family, friends and strangers by my love. Jesus' love.

Treasure Hunting

My husband, the treasure hunter, talked us into an afternoon at the lake metal detecting. We did find some amazing treasure and we even gained some audience as you can see by the little "unnamed" girl in the picture below. The unfortunate thing was that we only had one metal detector for the entire beach front.

Finding our amazing treasure.....bottle caps, weird broken things and about $0.48!!!


Whew! Worked up a thirst and an appetite! Snack time!

Now, onto our chores.
Isaiah is throwing some limbs in the water to create a better habitat
for the fish they hope to catch this fall or next Spring.


Alyssa goes wading to get a better view of the the chores being done.


Alyssa finds a pet caterpillar while on our nature hike.


Even Uncle Josh enjoys playing with her new pet!


We had to have a rock skipping contest and I'm pretty sure that Uncle Josh beat us all!

Turned out to be a fun adventure on a day when a few of us just wanted to be lazy at home.

Thanks Husband! : )

Happy Birthay Dad!

To My Dad - The Life of the Party!

Showing off his new "cool" shirt!!!

Impressing us by how big and tall he is!!

Celebrating 60 years of Mom's life!

Showing those sexy legs to the sun for a change!

All for the fun of floating a very shallow river!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

I HOPE TODAY YOU ARE PARTYING EVEN MORE THAN USUAL!!!!

Happy 33rd Birthday Kristi

Isaiah, Alyssa, Kacey & Breck helped make me a beautiful "snare drum" cake in honor of my 33rd birthday and the 7 years I played the drums in school!

Whew! That was A LOT of candles to blow out! I got all but one!

Thank you to everyone who sent and brought such sweet gifts! It was so much fun to open all the treasures people had thought of. Here I'm holding a book called "Love and Respect". On the front it says "Give him the respect he deserves". Billy put this lovely treasure, which I already owned, in my gift bag to throw me off that I was actually getting a new IPOD Touch. You should note that I owned this book because the front cover also says, "Give her the love she so wants"!

I am loving my new things and have had lots of fun playing Papaya Farm on my IPOD.

I need friends though, so someone else come and play with Josh and I please!

But, you may not come and steal my corn!

I've worked hard on it and spent hours watching it grow!

The kids all asked me one question that I had to answer. They were things like...

"What was the funniest date you had?"

"What was your most embarrassing moment playing the drums?"

It was fun to tell my stories, though some of the answers mom knew better than I did!

And here's my birthday party group! So glad that my mom and dad got to celebrate with me!
I cannot remember the last time that happened!

Here's to another great year! Cheers!

Alyssa's Big Girl Bedroom

When Alyssa turned three we promised her a big girl bedroom because she was still in her crib and we had done very little with her room since we moved in. She was super excited to get a new room with a big girl bed and I had a lot of fun putting it together. I'm finally getting some pics posted for those of you that haven't seen it yet. : )

Here are two before shots. Her room was a pretty shade of light purple when we moved so we stuck with that, and we were fortunate to have all the furniture given to us after the fire. She had so many toys it was overwhelming me.

So, we painted the room, bought some decorations, a new bed and sorted and organized (and donated) the toys. Here's how it turned out!

Her bed with soft fluffy blankets and pillows and polka dot sheets.

The decal I found at 50% off for the wall. Love sales!

Her closet with lots of racks and hooks to hang her dress up clothes
and jewelry and cooking supplies

Under her bed where her babies sleep and she has a reading chair for her and her baby.

That one pearly wall was a bear to paint. Thanks Billy!

And the new dollhouse bed that she loves.

Even Isaiah loves the new bed! This was taken before I found her some bedding.

They slept together in there for almost three weeks!

Isaiah starts football

Isaiah finally got to start football. It is flag football, which is perfectly fine with his mom. Its been so fun to watch and he's doing really good. He's really good playing quarterback and at defense. He likes to rush the other teams quarterback the most he says. Here we are waiting for his first practice to begin so he can meet the other members of his team, the Jaguars.

They always start out with some good stretches led by Coach Matt.Coach Matt teaches him how to do his belt so it stays on.

Alyssa starts to get bored until she find some chocolate teddy grahams and then she's ready to watch some more. Food keeps her quite content.

Go Jaguars!!!!

2nd Grade Now

Bumps and scrapes and scratches too

Daddy will you take me to the zoo?
All the day he sits a wishing
Come on now daddy, let's go fishing!
Three, four, shut the door
How about some candy from the store?
Oh how time keeps slipping by
It's ok daddy, please don't cry...
You're growing up so big and tall
Come on now Dad, let's pass some ball
Soon enough you'll be on your own
Goodbye my Dad, the years have flown...

(By Megan Miles)

Where has the time gone? Isaiah is almost 4 weeks into his 2nd grade year.

Suddenly he's into plaid shorts, wearing polo shirts,
growing his hair out longer and shaggier and wearing skater shoes.
Oh, I think he's growing up!

Isaiah was lucky enough to have his mom, dad and uncle Josh
take him to his first day of school. We watched as he walked in to his new classroom with Ms. Holeman (a teacher hired just 10 days before school began) and as he put his things in his cubby I noticed he is suddenly taller than the cubbies. He took a seat in the desk he was assigned and his chest came up above the desktop and I could see the desks were a little bigger this year. Oh my, he is growing up!

His dad, mom and uncle Josh waited forever in the pick-up line to get him from school. Usually he has lots of stories and things to tell us and we couldn't wait to hear them.
He ran to the car when his name was called over the megaphone and we all asked "How was your 1st day? Did you like your teacher? Did you like the kids sitting by you? What did you do? Who did you play with at recess? What did you eat for lunch? All were answered with simple words like "Yeah", "I don't know", "I don't remember", "Ethan & William", "stuff", "chicken and other stuff". Another moment of sadness overwhelmed me as I realized I will know less and less about his days now. He's just growing up....

My hands were busy through the day I didn't have much time to play
The little games you asked me to I didn't have much time for you.
I'd wash your clothes, I'd sew and cook, but when you'd bring your picture book
And ask me please to share your fun, I'd say: "A little later, son".
I'd tuck you in all safe at night and hear your prayers, turn out the light,
Then tiptoe softly to the door... I wish I'd stayed a minute more.
For life is short, the years rush past...a little boy grows up so fast.
No longer is he at your side, his precious secrets to confide.
The picture books are put away, there are no longer games to play,
No good-night kiss, no prayers to hear...that all belongs to yesteryear.
My hands, once busy, now are still, the days are long and hard to fill.
I wish I could go back and do the little things you asked me to.

(By Alice E Chase)

May we all take advantage of the "little moments".