Thursday, June 26, 2008

Speech therapy

Here is a short video of Joel not learning how to say PLEASE correctly. I knew that my parents would enjoy it, so here it is!!


Yes, I have seen the video. I have NO IDEA why the thing messed up like it did, but at least it didn't mess up his voice!!!

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

I am BUSY!!!!

I have spent many hours this week, researching and buying curriculum for this next school year. I am just about done with it. Soon I can relax again.

Monday, June 23, 2008

My keyless remote



This keyless remote has quite a history.
It has brought me such joy through the years. I love it on rainy days when I do not have to stand in the rain to unlock the doors. When my hands are full, I do not have to juggle things to unlock the door. All I have to do is push that wonderful button and it unlocks my van for me!!! I love this thing.
It has brought me intrigue and mystery. One Christmas I lost this remote and I couldn't find it for TWO years. I searched high and low for it. I really missed it for those two long years! I thought about it often and wondered where could it be? I found it one summer, as I was getting things ready for a garage sale. I was taking winter coats out of the closet and cleaning out the pockets....you know, getting them ready to sell!! I reached into a pocket and there was my beloved keyless remote. I was SO excited!!
Today my keyless remote has another memory added to its history. In one word it can be described as EMBARRASSING!!! Joel and I went to the bank today. I have two sets of keys, just in case I lose one which happens all the time ( I even lost both sets a couple of weeks ago). Oops...back to my story. Joel requested to hold the set with the remote while we were going to the bank. I said, "Sure, but don't push any buttons." All was well at the bank. I pulled up to the drive through and turned off my van. Which is a good thing I did, because we were there 10 MINUTES depositing some checks. I have never had so much trouble before. The teller took care of me and said,"Goodbye, have a nice day" THREE times. She kept getting things messed up and I would have to send her back stuff. It was unbelievable. Joel was doing great with the keys. He asked me several times, if he could "push the buttons", but I kept telling him not right now Buddy. He obeyed very nicely. 9 minutes into this bank visit from The Twilight Zone, Joel got a little "touchy" and pushed the PANIC button!! The van alarm is very loud under the bank "roofs". I whipped around and got the keys from Joel. Turned the alarm off and busted up laughing!! I was so embarrassed!! That bank teller is probably home now telling all her friends about it!

Friday, June 20, 2008

OOOPS!!!

Joel brought home a peanut butter and jelly sandwich from lunch today. He placed it on the floor and then he laid down to get his diaper changed. I guess he really didn't want that sandwich, because when his diaper was changed he ran off to play. The sandwich was forgotten.........but not for too long! Jeff found it and cracked up laughing. I went running to see what was so funny.


See for yourself.......






Apparently Joel had laid down on the sandwich and it was scooped up into his diaper during the change!!! None of us remembered it even existed until Jeff found it!! It somehow puts a whole new meaning to "playing with your food" doesn't it?

Oh, by the way......I am not telling WHO changed the diaper, but I am sure that he will NEVER do this again!!!

Thursday, June 19, 2008

More sleepover pictures

Another sleepover, but a different group of gals. Tonight we have Anna Carol, Sharon, and Mary Weeks over for the night. It was a short night together, but it was still fun!!!






Wednesday, June 18, 2008

My night

My alarm was set to go off at 5:00 this morning. Last night I was determined to get to bed EARLY!!! Well, by the time I laid my head on the pillow, it was 11:40 (not early). It took a little while to fall asleep, but I finally did (YIPPEE). Only to be woken up at 12:05, by a child that "needed" me. I got up and took care of the need. Headed back to bed and was asleep again by 12:30. I did not sleep real well, but I slept until the next child woke me up at 4:20. I took care of his needs and headed back to bed. I laid there for about 10 minutes and realized that my alarm was going to go off soon. I might as well get up now and go down to the lodge to bake 8 loaves of bread for breakfast!

At 4:40 it is still dark out here. While I was heading on down to the lodge, I saw the most BEAUTIFUL moon in the sky and it was shining on the lake. I wish that I could have gotten a picture of it. All I could think of was how awesome my God is. He created that moon!!!

What will I remember about this night. I may not have rested well, but I saw my God's handiwork!!!! Thank you Lord for creation!!

Sunday, June 15, 2008

I am happy!!

I was TOLD to post again, because my last post was SO depressing! I am one to obey when given a command, so here you go!
I am going to tell you some good news today. Are you ready? I lost three pounds this week!! My grand total is now 17 pounds!!! I only HAVE to lose 3 more pounds, but I have decided to not stop there. I am not sure how far I will go, but I think I will know when I get there!
My older girls are having a sleep over tonight. Morgan and Abby are the friends of choice this evening. They are supposed to be watching a movie here in the living room right now, but they are laughing and talking while the movie is playing. Girls are so much fun!!!

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Ups and downs

Today has been a day of many ups and downs. The morning started out wonderful. I did some chores and took a nap. I was super happy this afternoon. The children and I went down to the beach for a couple of hours. It was very relaxing for me. I enjoyed just sitting and talking to some of my friends. Later I was no longer happy, I was very disappointed. I found out that a family that is coming this week will not be getting their usual cabin. The cabin they are getting doesn't even have enough beds for them all. Someone will have to sleep on a mattress on the floor. They will probably handle it just fine, but I was a basket case for them. I had to take sometime with the Lord and settle myself down. I hate it when I get myself all up in a tizzy over something. I also had to watch a friend and her family leave today. I was very down by this time in my day. I just wanted to go to bed, because I felt so yucky!! Instead I went to check and see, if I had any emails. I DID!!! I got one from a friend that I haven't seen or heard from in YEARS!!! It was wonderful to catch up with her. So all this to say....I am going to bed a happy person tonight!!!

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

For the sake of documentation

I am taking a risk that this will not be funny to anyone, except Karen and me, but being the dedicated blogger that I am.....I just had to document it anyway. Joel has been seen here at camp recently wearing his life jacket everywhere he goes. He eats in it, plays in it, swims in it, goes for bike rides in it, and the list goes on. He honestly wears it so often that people make jokes about it! He has, for some unknown reason, attached himself to this thing. I have chosen to not make a big deal about it. I allow him to wear it everywhere except........



TO BED! I draw the line there! He wanted to wear it for his nap, but I wouldn't let him. I made him take it off. I laid it at the end of the bed and told him he could have it back after his nap. I left the room and this is what I found when I came to wake him up 2 hours later.






Next time I will take it out of the room, but for this time I am glad that I didn't! It sure made for a cute picture and a funny story!!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

FOOD!!

I don't know how much I have truly explained to you, so I will do some explaining now. We live at Life Action Camp. We have SO many wonderful amenities for serving here!!! Here are a few...we have a beautiful lake right behind our house, ALL my neighbors love the Lord, we have a huge water slide that we can use anytime (I will get a picture sometime this week), my husband walks to work EVERYDAY, there are MANY other amenities, but for security sake I don't want to broadcast them on the Internet. There is one more that I can tell you about, and it is the topic of this post! We get to eat, all three meals a day, down at the lodge during the summer months. It is buffet style. I love this SO much, but it makes trying to lose weight more of a challenge. Every summer we eat ourselves silly. We have our absolute favorite meals that we look forward to all year. When one of my favorites is served, I usually take leftovers home and then eat it for lunch the next day. With this method I always gain at least 5 pounds every summer. This summer I can't afford to gain 5 pounds, so I have had to change my thinking and my actions. I now don't look at food in the same way. I have chosen for this summer, to forget about my favorite meals. I can still have a little bit for one of the meals each day, but not twice a day. I eat my BRAN flakes for EVERY breakfast, this is the easiest part of my day. The other meals aren't real hard, because I eat a huge salad. The hard part for me is the snacks that are served each night. Last night was ice cream sundaes....I LOVE ICE CREAM!!! Tonight is homemade pretzels.....I LOVE THESE TOO!!! Thursday night is homemade cookies.....I LOVE THOSE TOO!!! Friday night is Sm ores.....I LOVE CHOCOLATE!!!! I am writing this post to tell you how excited I am. Last week I skipped all the snacks, but the homemade cookies (not necessarily my favorite, but I CAVED by that point in the week, I JUST HAD TO HAVE ONE..then two...then three). I failed with one snack last week, but I realized that that one snack really didn't do much for me. I felt awful after I ate those cookies. This week it is much easier for me to skip those snacks. I keep telling myself that I can have them again next year and hopefully by next year I won't feel like I need them then either!!! It really is amazing to me how much I view food as RIGHT of mine. Hey! I deserve a pretzel, sundae, or cookie. I only get them during the summer or on this date or on special occasions. I have fed myself that lie for years. I don't need those snacks, I just want them!! I am so praying that the Lord will bless my obedience and help my get rid of this last 6 pounds during this summer!! I would be SO thrilled, if I could lose weight in the midst of eating at a buffet everyday!!!

Monday, June 9, 2008

Here is the excerpt

We can learn a very valuable lesson from Edith Schaeffer. Hear her thoughts about a life of serving others from a chapter entitled "The Lost Art of Serving..." reflecting the essence of Matthew 25:40 on serving unto Jesus.

How do I regard my having to run upstairs with tea, or having served breakfast in bed, or having continued for years to do this kind of thing for a diversity of people, as well as for my husband and children? How do I look at it? Do I feel like a martyr? Let me tell you exactly how I see it.
First, I say silently to the Lord....: "Thank You that there is a practical way to serve You tea [or breakfast in bed, or whatever it is I am doing for someone]. There would be no other way of bringing You food, or doing some special thing for You. Thank You for making it so clear that as we do things that are truly in the realm of giving of ourselves in service to others, we are really doing it for You."
It's sobering to realize that all you and I do is not done only for people, but for our Savior. Serving people is a primary way for us to serve our Lord. Our ultimate motivation, as Colossians 3:23 reminds us, is "Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men".
This entire post was found on page 157 of the book A Women's Walk With God by Elizabeth George.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

The night at the beach

Here are some pictures of the beach tonight. I tried to get some pictures this afternoon, but we were not there very long at all. Within a half hour of being there, we were put under another tornado warning. We fled from the beach and went into one of the basements. Yippee!!
Since we were not at the beach very long today, I felt obligated to take the children tonight. We went while Jeff was playing soccer with all the dads. It ended up that I was not alone at the beach. There were lots of moms and kids there. It was quite a blast!!



No, I did not forget to type the part from that book. I was just to lazy to do it!! I will really try to get to it tomorrow.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Something funny

I baby sat for 5 children tonight. It was an absolute blast!!! I just fell in love with those children. They were so helpful, obedient, and down right funny!! Here is one of the many conversations that I had with three year Addison.

Addison- Do you have a little man living here?
Me- A little man?
Addison- Yes.
Me- (playing along, because in my mind I was picturing a five inch little man living at our house) Where would I put this little man?
Addison- I don't know, but there are his shoes.
I looked toward where she was pointing, and she was right. There was a little man's pair of shoes on the floor next to me.
Me- Yes Addison, I do have a little man living here, his name is Joel!

Addison constantly made me laugh tonight! I will have to get a picture of her to share with you or better yet maybe I can get a video of her. You would so enjoy it I am totally certain!!!

Whats up?

Thanks for asking. I would be glad to tell you.
This week started our summer of Family Camps. We had 17 families here for the week and it was awesome!! The families just didn't want to leave this morning. I d to see them go too, but we do have 21 more families arriving Monday afternoon.
Here are some highlights of the week....

  • 8 absolutely wonderful messages preached
  • 215 homemade cinnamon rolls
  • homemade pretzels
  • lots of outside activities
  • two very long hayrides
  • fun crafts for the kids, but most importantly.....easy for the workers
  • date night for the parents
  • not getting the kids to bed before 10 o'clock any night this week
  • a tornado warning (which required all 200 people on this camp to get into four different basements! Lots of excitement, but no real reason for it! Nothing happened.)
  • LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of salad for me
  • visiting with friends that I haven't seen since last year
  • a camp fire with SMORES

God has been doing some neat things in my life this week. I am learning about how faithful my God is to me and how truly unfaithful I am to my God. Tomorrow I will TRY to type out an excerpt from a book that I am reading. It really convicted me and yet challenged me to serve God in everything I do!!

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

My life....in a nut shell

  • muddy clothes
  • no cooking
  • stinky feet (the children's feet, not mine)
  • staying up WAY past our bedtimes
  • hearing God's Word preached twice a day!!!
  • talking with friends
  • busy
  • not home much
  • a clean house
  • LOVING EVERY MINUTE OF IT!!!!