JOY in the journey

love this wall vinyl from Denise. Thank you, sweet girl! It's right by my scrapbook desk.

sweet scrapbook paper that reminds me of my son. wish he was here. I wonder if his hair would've laid down eventually. I want to sniff his baby head so badly.

Jamie got this beautiful picture for us. shedding fresh tears of gratefulness. As she pointed out, if Sully and Jack had lived, we wouldn't know each other. yes, we want our boys here but we thank the Lord for putting us together.  Thank you, Jamie, for this touching picture. seeing his name makes him seem "legitimate". He was here, he was prayed for, he was wanted and we love him.

Well, Happy Monday to YOU! If your Monday was as rainy and dreary as ours, then Happy may not be the most fitting word. Choosing JOY is a bit harder when the weather bites.

As you know, our van was broken into on Thanksgiving (grrrr!). I called our credit card people and the very nice rep asked me if I wanted to change the look of my card, that they have over 1,000 styles available to choose from...I told her to pick one for me, "surprise me" i told her.

I got my card today.

it has a butterfly on it.

coincidence?

I don't think so.

I think the Lord cares about me enough to send me little reminders that He loves me and that HE alone is in control of things. yeah, bad things happen to reasonably good people...and He uses these situations and seemingly bad things to draw us to Him. I'm being drawn. I don't want to live outside of His plan.

In other van breaking into news...David discovered on Saturday night that the thieves/creepers/jerks did in fact pop our lock. It's not noticeable, especially since we use a remote to open and close the Ol' Grey Mare. Doesn't that just make your skin crawl? yeah, mine too.

Christmas decos are going up slowly...I can't seem to move very quickly, as I stained the entire pool deck on Saturday (bent in half, mind you) and I can hardly move my limbs. Sorry about skipping out on you for an early morning rainy Monday walk, Tashena. I may be able to walk by week's end. but it's doubtful. ha ha.

Thank you, Mom and Dad, for taking #1, #3, #4 and #5 home for me tonight....I love you.

Levi stepped on a sewing needle tonight. It was gruesome. He doesn't cope well with stabbing.

Ok, I'm going to take my scattered brain and go put more lights on ye old tree. Hope this finds you warm and snuggly...maybe listening to some Nat King Cole singing about chestnuts and JACK frost...like I am.

Good night and God bless you!

This post is all over the place

Classic Levi and one of our all-time favorites around here. 2005 baby

This is David's "Garth" look (see "Wayne's World" or our 2001 appearance on Fox 59 morning newscast with Cody Stark. Yes, we are local celebs. and yes, you can have our autographs.) "Dude, if you're gonna spew, spew into this!"

I'm just a young momma here (nice hair but THIS is my natural color)...with my one easy, cheerful, perfect boy, Will. May 1995. I had no clue and my outfit proves this. (rag skirts and crochet vests WERE in.)

The 3 Amigos. This was E's 6th birthday and he wanted to have blue hair for it. it's all spikey and blue but the gel/glue was killer. they. were. so. little. and. cute.

April 2002 ~ groovy pants, Mel. nice skin-colored shirt.

June 2004...this one makes me weepy. Will making his Dick Van Dyke face. E. and Mel w/ those killer peepers.

Reader's Digest is always good for some laughs....thought I'd share some with ya!

Forgot to change my picture positiony thingy...so sorry about the clumpy pics. The 3 above are pretty self-explanatory. This was Molly yesterday...when she had just hurled for the first time in her sweet life.

The porch beams are pretty nifty, if I do say so. Here are my men working hard and still smiling and choosing JOY. I can't wait to see how massive this porch will seem when the rafters are up and we are sitting out there, sipping our coffee....ok, well that may be next fall but this girl can dream.

Good Work on the porch, David, Will, and Ethan...You guys are so manly and hard-working. Good work, Mel, keeping the house straightened, piano practice, baby entertained, math completed, etc. etc. etc. she is such a good momma already. Levi, thanks for making such a mess with whatever food you are carrying around the house (against our wishes), drinking all of my coffee, and making matchbox trails for all of us to trip on...Good job, Molly, getting better, eating some and not hurling or pooing on everything this evening.

I will end this now...I'm driving myself crazy so I know I must be doing the same to you. you know you love it...that's why u keep coming back. my insanity reassures you. I'm ok with that. :)

~O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. Psalm 34:8

~My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works. Psalm 73: 26, 28

~Just a few rich morsels from God's Word for you tonight...don't let my so-called "insanity" fool you. I trust in something so much bigger than any politician, gas price hike, stock market plunge, HDTV conversion can promise...And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3) The same yesterday, today and forever!

Good night! God Bless you tonight, in whatever situation you find yourself. If I know you, and I know what it is, I'm praying for you! Hug, hug, hug, hug, hug (that's for you Andy...remember those? U too Heather and baby Luke)

Christmas Past

David and Will, relaxing after some gift opening!!
Superman a.k.a. Charlie J.
Mel and Pipes in their matching outfits from Uncle Andy's family. Andrew

Levi lookin' cute by our tree...
A December walk down at the Canal...lovely
Christmas morning...Mel, Will and Levi E. and his stash

Duncan and E. - weapon geeks

Well, Beck is in need of a post...so I will take time out of my scrappin'/shopping frenzy to put a little blast from the past up on here for your viewing "pleasure". ha ha.

These pix are sadly out of order...but they are all from Christmastime of 2006. Andy and his boys will be flying in on Christmas Eve to be with us for 5 days. My mom has been out in Cali. with him since last Friday and is flying home today...we have missed you Momma!! Can't wait to see you!

I am looking forward to some down time this weekend before Christmas...i have so many gifts I need to finish up..calendars, coasters, wrapping, purchasing...Bah Humbug!! no, it's really fun and we need to embrace the holiday. That mantra belongs to Beck and I. I think moms feel the pressure and sting of the frenzy a bit more and I guess as moms, that's ok. Shield the blow. Takin' one for the team. yup. ok...movin' on.

I'm officially 35 now. My sister got me a really cool sister necklace, a heart and a key...I LOVE it, Beck...thank you so much, to your family!! and to you. I have yet to use my Starbucky's card...maybe we could do coffee (you could do hot choco, of course)...Thank you for the delish dinner...it helped stifle the blow of Mom and Tom being out of town on my b-day and David working to keep us caught up thru the holiday week. I am so stinkin' blessed to be your sister. I love you more than you will ever, ever know! I LOVE YOU!!

Yesterday, I got together with my BFF's and they made me a really neat bracelet for my b-day...I will have to take a pic and post it but it has all of our birthstone jewels on it, and a CROSS right in the middle...the way it should be. Jesus Christ at the center!! a good, daily reminder!! Thank you, girls!! I am loving each one of you so much!! I am blessed with a good circle of chicklets...what would a girl do without her "girls"???

Ok, well, I gotta shower because Mel has her Piano teacher's Christmas party today...I will try to get pix of that, though she will be flying solo at this event. Pal Charmaine lives across the street from said piano teacher so I may go visit over there..though I have so much shopping yet to do...ahhhhhhh. Hope you all are embracing this Christmas season!! Choose JOY. CHOOSE JOY!! God Bless You today!! Adios!!

Yet another Levi party...& a book burning!

We are so caked out....the group of friends we get together with weekly wanted to (and was so nice to do so) celebrate Levi's 5th birthday together. They got him the movie "Meet the Robinson's" (thanks BFF's and families)...We love our group of homeschool pals...Well, this pic is obviously Levi surrounded by a few of the kids while he blows out his candle... Here he is showing you his birthday movie...He also got Ratatouille from his Uncle Tom today...thanks, Tom!! We've already watched it and even destroyed the case (but I fixed it...ugh)
Then after the lunch, party and cake, we insisted that all of our kids do some Math and English...and it was so cool to see them all working on the school work together. They were all chattering and just having a good time with each other. This is Mel with Holly and Sophia. Good work, girls!
Another shot of the gang doing their work with Mrs. W. helping (she will be mad that I've posted this picture...and that's ok...)
This was one of our favorite memories from today. We burned the book "The Golden Compass". And I will tell you why. the author is atheist (Phillip Pullman) and in his series of books (reminiscent of the C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia books, though he has said in interviews that he does not like Lewis etc) the main characters "kill God" and can then do as they please. In this pic, inside the black burner thingy, you can see the book just a-burning.

It's very sad to me that this movie is going to be out this holiday season and millions of folks will go to see it with their kids. And while it will be watered down for kids of course, the message will still get out there. If you are an atheist and you are reading this, and I'm making you mad, sorry. I serve the Creator of the Universe JESUS CHRIST, in whose name is power and strength and it's more important to me what He thinks than what you think. I know we live in a country where we are allowed our religious freedoms. But don't forget what our forefathers endured to get us the freedoms we enjoy and to deny the existence of God is just sad. He is in everything...look at the beautiful blue skies as the back drop to all of the awesome fall colors? tell me that just "exploded" into existence!! bang.
Ok, man, I'm the soap box queen this week. I'm not sorry though. This is my blog. My little piece of "freedom of speech"...don't deny God, because eternity is a long time. But here's my last blip, boycott the Golden Compass...and Thanks, crew, for such a nice party/hang out session today! We love you families! (don't tell the kids that we were arranging their marriages today...hee hee)
Nuff of that...I ordered a Bumbo seat for Molly and Nora (check them out at http://www.bumboseat.com/ ...so those should be here on Monday. I can't wait to blog those pix! that's our big fun! In the meantime, hope you all are well...but I'm outta here. no more sap. no more soap. for tonight. love and peace to you all.