Fourth of July

We had a great Fourth.  We spent the afternoon with family at the park. 

These cousins look an awful lot alike. 

Then we drove over to Kingston and enjoyed fireworks with friends.

We are very blessed to live in our nation.  It's nice to take a day to reflect upon these blessings.

Show us your wedding

I decided to participate with Kelly this week with pictures of my wedding. This is a subject I could talk about all day! It was a wonderful day. I tell Michael all the time that I want to get married again...to him of course.

The Day before the wedding my bridesmaids and I all wore matching shirts to have our nails done...fun, fun.

My Bridesmaids (left to right): Kiah (sister), Rachel (cousin), Jec (long time friend), Jen (long time friend), Punky (sister), Megan (flower girl)

Groomsmen: Back row: Mark (friend of Michaels), Josh (my brother),
Front row: Joshua (friend), Michael, Steve (michael's brother), Nate(Michael's newphew).


The Whole clan....The goofy grooms man holding the flowers would be my brother!

Heres a picture of the flowers. Trying to be frugal I made all the floral arrangements. Guess you can tell that.

It was such a fun day!

Bible School Decor

The girls came over yesterday and we worked on decorations for Vacation Bible School. We had a great time and finished a lot. I'm really excited. And if I do say so myself....the decorations look great! (more about those later)... Allison
Angela

A glimpse of Kiah

Lindsay

Fourth of July

We had a great fourth holiday! We started off with a cookout/swimming at the Reids and ended with fireworks.

Waiting on the fireworks. (and Yes, I am so sporting the Aunt Jemima hair-do)

Long-time friends.


Sweet hearts

I love our lil foot picture. Can you tell which ones are mine and which ones are Michael's?

I have to apologize for the bad firework picture. It's as good as it gets.

We even saw Joshu-way, Heather, and Shayla

The Gift of friends

I’ve been meaning to blog about my “precious gift” for a long time. (My holdup has been that I forgot to take a picture. What’s a post without a picture? This story would be so much better if I had a picture. I’ll try my best to paint a great mental picture.)

I have always felt like God put me into my teaching position. I had prayed (and prayed and prayed). And had almost given up hope when it came around. A few well-meaning people have suggested teaching at one of the local Christian schools in our area. While my life is totally arranged around my faith and it is who I am and teaching in a school of like-faith would be encouraging and pleasant…I can’t get away from the fact that God has put me where he wants me. There is a peace about it that I treasure. I’ve heard my pastor say many times that you are better off in God’s will in a wild jungle then out of his will sitting in your home in the great US of A (that’s paraphrasing).

The biggest benefit from my job has been the friends I’ve made that I otherwise would have never known. God has given me some life-long Christian teacher friends at my school. I want them to know I much I appreciate them and their friendship. On the last day of school they called me into my room. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. There was a big gift bag on the table. It was packed full of all kinds of goodies. (This is the part where I wished I took a picture). They had bought these for me to take with me when mom had her surgery. There were several packs of muffins, gum, candy, snack mix, candy bars (they know my love of chocolate), chapstick, magazines, books, paper tablets, pens, and much much more that I’m sure I’m forgetting.

There was also a card with money to help with traveling expenses and a hotel while in Nashville. This is the part that humbles me the most. All three of these ladies are at stages in their life where they need this money for them and their families. Their sacrifices touched me deeper than they will ever know.

More than these material items is the simple concern they show. Whenever I talk to any of them, the first thing that they ask about is mom. They know this is a huge burden on my heart right now. They always offer to do anything they can and express their prayers.

Friends, Thank you doesn’t seem like enough. I don’t deserve friends like you. I hope one day the Lord allows me to repay you. But for now…Thanks

P.S.The chocolate muffins were especially yummy!

Coupons and Old Friends

I have decided to give coupon cutting a try. The funny thing…I’m really excited about it. Kim said my life reminds her of a Lucy episode. If she had seen me gleefully cutting out coupons this afternoon she’d really thought that. The thoughts of saving $ makes me giddy.


In my research of couponing (yes I researched it because I’m goofy like that) I’ve found some interesting stuff.


Here’s a great blog some of you might be interested in: http://www.littlehouseinthefoothills.blogspot.com/ I am finding it very helpful. I was acquainted with Mrs. Lori (the author) in years gone back. We had lost contact but have been talking recently through emails. She is a sweet Christian lady that’s been an encouragement to me. Her blog has lots of recipes, tips, and other homemaking ideas. So skip right over there, and enjoy!

Thank You

Your life can change in just a moment. Burdens change. Priorities change. Everything. It's only been 3 days since I found out about mom. It's hard to even say the word 'cancer' now. I guess I share mom's wacky sense of humor. We've made jokes and have acted silly but the heart of the matter is serious. My heart breaks for her. I wish I could change everything. It's in God's hands....but at times like these its hard to trust.

What has amazed me most at this time is the outpouring of love and concern from friends. It's times like these you realize how many true friends you have. Right now in my yahoo inbox I have 9 emails expressing concern and prayers for mom (I have great intentions to write each of you back). I've had comments left on my blog, comments on mom's blog, text messages, phone calls, notes, and other comments. I know of 5 churches already praying for mom and I'm sure there are more we do not know about. I appreciate it with all my heart and I know mom does also. God is good, and there will grace. For now all we can tell you is Thank You! One day we hope to repay the kindness you have shown. We love you all!

Christmas Party

Saturday we had our Sunday School class over for a Christmas Party. It was a hoot! We got to see a side of some that they usually don't show! We are definitely gonna make this an annual tradition!

Here's a group picture:









We played a game where each team was competing to make the best reindeer antlers. It was super funny.

I'm still in shock that Jen had pantyhose on her head. She's a real trooper!

Billy wore the antlers for his group.

Rudolph (aka: Jeremy)

I've already spotted the best buck in this picture...

We also had a $5.00 gift exchange with a few interesting gifts....

I'm tickled with how the party went. The Lord has blessed us with an awesome group of friends. Thanks for coming, guys!