The Last Day of 2008

Today is the last day of the year! Where has the time gone? You know you are getting older when you no longer make plans for New Year's Eve, but instead opt to stay home and keep the grandkids so your kids can go have some fun. Anyway, I'm all for a quiet evening at home with Justin and my two favorite girls. We might just do something fun like bake some cookies or something. We had a great Christmas, but it seemed like it went on forever. We had Christmas with someone, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Needless to say by Sunday I woke up and had a bad case of the grouchies and I lead worship at church that day. That is never a good thing when I wake up in the mood I was in and try to lead worship. I told Pastor Brad I just wanted to go home and puke! Satan was on my case in a big way. Then after church Glenna called since she could tell (even though I tried my hardest not to let it show) something was going on with me (It's hard to fool a good friend) and cheered me up. I decided I couldn't waste the day feeling sorry for myself and got out the supplies to make the bracelets that Lisa and I are going to make to take with us to Uganda, called her to come help me and we ended up making about 60 of them. We got red, yellow, black and white beads to make the bracelets to hand out at the orphange and the school. They turned out really cute. We are also making a few for people here to wear while we are gone as a reminder to pray for us each day. It is now a count down. Only 6 more weeks until we leave. I am getting so excited and nervous at the same time. It is an awful long ways from home and the people I love, but I know we will be blessed.

Early Christmas Gifts That Brought aTear To My Eye!

This morning when Marshalene brought Hunter to stay, they had the perfect Christmas gift for me. I absolutely love gifts like this. It means more to me than they will ever know. He is so adorable! At the bottom it reads: A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove... but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child. This is something I will cherish.


Then before lunch Lisa called to see if I was going to be home. When she got here, she had a little sack with this necklace in it. This is really meaningful to me because the whole time we were growing up, I was so mean to her. I just wanted her to stay away from me and I made it quite plain to her. We are actually quite close now and I love her dearly, but in years past, my mom was sure this would never happen.

I think it has become a tradition to take pictures at the front of the church on Christmas Sunday. This year we didn't have Tyler and Daniel in our picture. They weren't able to be here this weekend, but I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities through out this next week.

Our little Christmas Angels!
Emma and Ella in their pretty Christmas dresses.

Last week when I was keeping Ella and Hunter I found them playing underneath my dining room table. Ella has a hard time keeping her hands off of him. She wants to love him way to hard sometimes as you can probably tell by the gritting of teeth.

Sometime, Hunter just doesn't know what to think about Ella! They are so much fun!

A Tour of My Home

After reading Marybeth Whalen and Lysa TerKuerst's blogs, I decided I would do what they were doing: A tour of my home decorated for Christmas. They come up with such good ideas. It's really fun to see everyone's blogs that have participated and see the different ways people love to decorate. Here is my most favorite decorations, my granddaughters, Emma and Ella.

Our Christmas tree with some ornaments my kids made through the years!

The cookie jar lid my mom painted and I have had these reindeer since Justin and I got married.

My nativity scenes. My mother-in-law gave both of them to me.

My mom painted this in her painting class a few years ago.

Here is the new center piece I got after reading Marybeth Whalen's book A Recipe for Joy at Christmas. Amy and I used this for Bible study as the presentation for keeping Jesus as the center piece of your Christmas. I read the story of the candy cane and then found these candles and decided it would be a nice touch to my new center piece.

This glass block with lights was made by my friend Shari. Isn't it beautiful? She is so crafty!

These are just a few of my decorations that I love to use each year. Amy and I were going to host a Peppermint Tea at my house tonight for our Bible Study group and I thought I was going to get to show them off, but the weather has turned off bad and too many scheduling conflicts made us decide to try to have it after Christmas sometime. We were so excited and was really looking forward to it. We had come up with so many recipes we wanted to try. We'll just have to keep them handy for later.

Another new job for Daniel

Last Thursday Daniel called and said "Mom, I got a new job!" I was confused because he had just started a new job a week before that, but with Daniel everyday is a brand new day and you never know what to expect. He informed me he was going to be a Deputy Sheriff for Butler County in Kansas, which was what he was wanting to do all along, but was having trouble getting his foot in the door. I have to admit it really makes me nervous, but I know that he is in God's hands and I had to realize I was not in control of his decisions anymore. Once a mom, always a mom! I will have to hit my knees and pray for his protection everyday. I know he is happy being in Wichita and having this chance, so I am happy for him. Anyway today is his first day on the job and I am anxiously awaiting his call to hear how things went. I am sure he will have some interesting stories to tell in the coming months.

Austin and Sara are basking in the sun in Cancun. I'm so jealous since we are covered up with snow. Our driveway is a solid sheet of ice. Emma and Ella stayed with us Tuesday night and they will be with Sara's parents for the next two days and then back with us for the rest of the week. Ella decided she was going to check out my nativity seen Tuesday, which is made of porcelain. Somehow, one of the wise men lost his head. She had climbed up in the rocking chair and gotten it down and I'm not sure whether she dropped it or stomped it, but it was broken in three pieces. She ran in the kitchen saying "Sowwy, Gwammy, Sowwy!!" How could I get mad at her, she is so stinkin cute! I tried not to be upset, but it was a nativity scene my mother-in-law had given me early in our marriage and I really liked it. I loved on her and told her it was alright, but that she cannot be playing with Grammy's decorations. I think I will be able to glue it back together. We are just creating memories!! In a few years when I put out the nativity scene, we can laugh and say "remember when Ella stomped the wise man?" I have to remind myself, pick your battles, it will still be Christmas even with a broken wise man.

Kylee the Dental Assistant

My niece Kylee has been working at a Dentist's office for the last year and a half and needed to take a class on polishing. So since I have perfect teeth (HA HA) she asked me to be her patient for the test she had to take this weekend. I had to go Thursday so the Dentist she works for could check me out to make sure I was a good candidate for the job and I passed with flying colors. So we left Friday morning since of course you can't go to OKC without doing some shopping and she had to be at her class at 8:00 on Saturday morning, so we couldn't get up that early to drive on the same day! We shopped all afternoon and when Tyler got off of work he met us at the Cheesecake Factory for Supper. It was sooo... good. We had Cajun chicken littles (Chicken strips), garlic mashed potatoes and corn succotash and of course a piece of cheesecake. However, we were so full we had to take our dessert home for later. We decided we would go to the movie at the new Warren Theatre in Moore since we were going to stay with Tyler Friday night and we went to see Australia. A very good movie. We all three enjoyed it very much.

Saturday I dropped Kylee off at her class in downtown OKC and went back and got Tyler and we spent the day shopping again. I got most of my Christmas finished up that day. Picked up Kylee at 5:00 and dropped Tyler off at his apartment, since he didn't want to go with us because of the game, checked into our motel and Kylee and I went to Ted's for Mexican food. Kylee needed to study a bit for her test on Sunday, so we went back to the motel and we had lights out at 9:00. We were so tired. Sunday was D-Day! She had to take the test in the morning and then polish my teeth after lunch. She passed her written and did a great job on me. It was so neat getting to see her at work and realizing she is all grown up and is not a little girl running around anymore. We had a wonderful weekend and I was so glad I got to spend one on one time with her. That was a first for me! Thank you Kylee for thinking of me!

I Said YES!!

In the last two or three years, I have read different things on mentoring and have really been interested in it, but didn't really have an opportunity to do anything about it. We just got through with the Bible study "What Happens When Women Say Yes to God" by Lysa TerKeurst which has really challenged me in a lot of areas. One Wednesday night, Amy asked for someone to call her each morning for a week to keep her accountable for getting up at 7:30 and spending time reading the Bible. I volunteered for the job and we did this for a week. It was an amazing time for me. We would talk and email back and forth about what we had read each day. I have been excited for each day to see what I would read and learn. Not that I wasn't reading, it just wasn't consistently. That week in our reading we read Titus 2. The thought of mentoring again began rolling around in my head, but still I didn't have an idea about who, how or when.

My foot notes said (: Young women who were new Christians were to learn how to have harmony in the home by watching older women who had been Christians for some time. If you are of an age or position where people look up to you, make sure that your example is motivating younger believers to live in a way that honors God. Wow! What a challenge. I again put it aside. I began reading the book "The Love Dare" from the movie Fireproof and about the fifth day it hit me. I know the Lord said to me "Give this book to Holly", (the daughter of a friend of mine at church), and do this together. You are going to be her mentor. I thought this cannot be right. This book is for marriages. But as I read it more I realized that it doesn't have to be just for marriages. Change the word spouse to others and it would apply to anyone. So, I nervously approached Holly with the idea, thinking she was going to think I am out of my mind. To my surprise, she was so excited about it. We will be meeting with each other once a week and discussing what we have read for the week. We had our first meeting Tuesday and it was so cool to see how much we have in common, even given the age difference. I think we concluded it must be a first born thing. She is an amazing young lady and I am excited to get to know her better.

This has really taken me out of my comfort zone, but I am looking forward to being used by God in any way He sees fit. I have a prayer from this book posted on my bathroom mirror that says, God, I want to see You. God, I want to hear You. God, I want to know You. God, I want to follow hard after You. And even before I know what I will face today, I say yes to You. The last line of the book by Lysa TerKeurst says: What happens when women say yes to God? The world is changed. This is What Happens When I Said Yes to God!!!! It may not change the world, but maybe it will help a young lady and it will definitely change me.

Black Friday!!

Yesterday was a wonderful day with Justin's family. Everyone was there and as usual there was food galore! Every year I tell myself I am not going to overdue it on the food. I think I did better this year, but I still think I ate more than I needed to. Justin's fried and smoked turkey was a big hit. After we ate, all the women, girls and Taylor (my nephew) went for a walk to try to burn some of the calories we had just taken in. I thought I would be a really cool aunt and race my niece Kenzie across the parking lot of Chisholm High School and as soon as I took off running I pulled a ham string in my right leg. OUCH!!(I guess I need to realize I'm not as young as I used to be!) YOU WIN, YOU WIN was the only thing that would come out of my mouth. After the walk we sat around the table and played games. It was a really good day and we enjoyed being together.

This year I decided I would venture out on Black Friday! I have NEVER done this before, because I have a real patience and irritability issue about crowds. However, I had spotted a really good deal in a circular for something I had been pricing for my boys and would be able to save a substantial amount on this item. So, Mom, Sara and I decided we would give it a try. Sara was to pick us up at 5:15 which was a real stretch for all of us. We are not morning glories. When we were coming into Enid and saw the Wal-Mart parking lot I said "keep driving, I'm thinking I don't need anything that bad." So we went on to the mall and Old Navy, got what we needed and then decided we would give it a try again. We had seen some people we new at the mall and they said everything was already gone, so I wasn't having a lot of hope about the items I was after. We got back there about 7:30 and to our amazement it was any more crowded than it would be on a normal day. I just new what I was looking for would already be gone, but it wasn't. They had a whole stack of this particular thing. Mission accomplished!!! We ended our shopping excursion with breakfast at IHOP and was home by 10:30. From now on, I see no reason to get up that early and fight the crowds. Let them fight amongst themselves and I'll wait until 8:00 and have the store almost to myself! The only issue was the above mentioned ham string pull. I was so stiff I could hardly walk! Live and learn.

Twas the night before Thanksgiving!

Twas the night before Thanksgiving and Chef Justin is choking us out of the house. His mother asked us to fry a turkey for the dinner tomorrow, so he likes to marinate them over night. The smell of the spices he put together started getting in our nose and then settling in our throat and we all started coughing. It took awhile before it settled down, but I think we are starting to get back to normal. I'm really looking forward to tasting the bird. He is trying a different recipe this year that he picked up off the Food Network. I realize frying a turkey is not the healthiest way to eat it, but boy, is it ever delicious! We are deep frying two turkeys and smoking a turkey breast. In addition to that, Justin never got his favorite birthday cake this year. It is also Tyler's favorite, and since his birthday was last Friday, I decided to make it to take and hopefully there won't be any left to bring home. It is really yummy, home made, scratch German Chocolate Cake. This is their requirements: It has to be round and 3 layers, with homemade frosting. My family is spoiled. I can't imagine who started that!

We had a good day today. Emma and Ella stayed with Tyler and I and we spent the day watching Kung Fu Panda, coloring ( I found some really cool coloring pages of a turkey on the internet. I got the site from Marybeth Whalens blog.) and just general wrestling. They were begging to watch Frosty the Snowman, but we've already seen it several times and I'm already a little tired of it. Hunter is still not feeling well so he stayed home with his daddy today.

Hope everyone has a really good Thanksgiving day tomorrow with family and friends!
God Bess You All!!

Day 1: Starting from Scratch!

Well, here goes. I've been reading other blogs and have really enjoyed it, so I decided to give it a try. I've never been much on journaling or writing, but I started in August after I found out I would be going on the Mission trip to Uganda. I decided it might be faster and easier to blog instead of writing everything out by hand. I was really wanting to keep track of everything that happened between now and then, so I could look back and see how God put everything together. It's only been a short time and already I am amazed at the way God is working. Not only about the mission trip, but also through Women's Bible studies and it seems every area of my life.

Tyler will be coming home today for Thanksgiving. It will be good to have him home. He hasn't been home for a month. Daniel will be here Thursday morning and will meet us at Justin's folks house. It's been almost two months since he has been home. I really have missed them both and I'm looking forward to spending time together as a family and catch up on what's been going on.

Today Ella and I have been hanging out. She is so much fun! Hunter didn't get to come today, since he was running a fever when he got up today. Ella has been missing him terribly. She keeps asking "Where's Hunter?" I hope he feels better by tomorrow. Emma will be here after school in just a few minutes, so I better wrap this up for now. We will need to spend some one on one time since Ella is taking a nap right now.