Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Summer Time

Summer is in official HIGH swing around here. The kids are almost finished with summer school (yes finished! can you believe that, they don't waste time around here) and we will be in high gear for summer activities. Its been nice to sit around in the afternoons and enjoy the air conditioning, because let me tell you it may be June on the calendar but here in the Midwest it feels like August already! Can't imagine what August is gonna feel like when we get there.

Next weekend starts our son's Scout troops annual Fireworks tent here in town. That adds up to about 8 days of working that tent 24/7. My hubby even takes to staying nights up there rotating with the other adults in the troop. It is a long, tiring, hot week let me tell ya. Then the good stuff happens in the middle of all that. No not the fireworks themselves, but our youngest son (our baby, at least at this point ;) ) will turn 16 on the 4th of July! He has loads of ideas he wants to do for his birthday but its always hard because of the holiday so we have to do one of those "mom maneuvers" and plan around the actual holiday when it comes to friends. We have not nailed it down quite yet because he has given me too many options this year. AND since it is his 16th  it needs to be special!

 I am sure the permit/driving thing will play in there soon, he has one thing he has to do before he gets to actually go take the test. See when our boys joined scouts they were gung ho about the whole thing, well they always have been. So a goal they set and we are encouraging them to finish what they start, is to get their Eagle Scout before they get their drivers license, because once the license comes into play then they get distracted and do not finish this wonderful achievement. He is ALMOST there, just needs some paperwork finished up. The hard stuff is done, the project the rank advancements all that stuff he has worked on since he was 11 well actually since 1st grade, is done!! So he is really close! We are really proud of him and admire him sticking in there, Now the ceremony it self does not have to be done to get his license, just the requirements met and the council approval. He is just waiting on a couple letters from some adults that are recommending him for this award and then he'll have to go to the council and the Eagle Board of review and present the whole thing to them and he should be great!! So the license will wait just a bit longer, not to terrible long though.

In the coming weeks is camps galore! Youth camp for church starts July 9th and then they will have guard camp (for sis) and then band camp hits and that takes most of the whole summer and then Scout camp for the guys. Sis and I get 10 days to ourselves together!! :) We may go visit a certain nephew of mine! :) that is if she is not exhausted from band camp. Then before you know it school starts back up right after that. We'll have to get the college boy back down to school and get school shopping done. It just never ends. We were hoping to get a family weekend mini vacation amongst all that but just not sure if everyone schedules will work together. I am sure I will find time somewhere to actually take the kids swimming, we hope anyway. Maybe this week before the crazy month of July starts.

In the midst of all this my mind wanders to the final weeks of summer and the beginning of our daughters Senior year. How will my heart handle another one leaving "the nest"? It is bitter sweet. I am sure I will blog about that later but I can't help but wonder. We already had to do the traditional Senior yearbook picture with the black velour wrap around the shoulders. I just popped over to the website that has the proofs on them (wish I could share with you but am unable to) and she looks BEAUTIFUL!! I don't know if you know my girl, but her smile can light up the room. OK now I just MIGHT cry. Where does the time go??? I still remember kindergarten, with her long hair and missing tooth and how she smiled at me, told me she loved me and headed off to hug her teacher and had a wonderful day! WOW! Pretty soon she'll be donning that cap and gown and my heart will sink once more. I am done with that subject for now otherwise I will melt into a puddle. My sweet Princess (we call her that because when she was little she found a t-shirt that said "I am a princess, because My Father is the King of Kings and it just stuck! :) ) will be headed off to culinary college before I know it.

Please keep us in your prayers as all these transitions take place. When change happens it can be good, but it can also be painful. But in the midst of change, one thing is true. God never changes and He always walks along beside us, sometimes even carries us, through the changes. He is faithful and will never leave us. Thank you Lord for your love and faithfulness. Watch over all our kids, including our Ladybug!!

Blessings

Thursday, June 10, 2010

My Birthday Wishes

Today was my birthday. And I have to say I was floored today. Not by presents or cake or anything like that. You see I was floored by the out pouring of love I received. Let me explain...

When I was young my birthday was never made a big deal. I always wanted some fancy parties or just some attention from my family that I was special. There were only two times I can ever remember even having a party or cake. Once when I was 7, I got a sleepover with my soccer team. Unfortunately we were throwing pillows in the house and I broke something very important of my mom's so the night did not end well for me. The other time was my 16th birthday. My Mom made a cake and put a white seal with a balloon tied around its neck. I also had family over for that. The best part of that one is a memory I will NEVER forget, My husband (well he was not my hubby then lol) asked me to date him that day. So as of today we have been together 21 years! Other than that we as kids were not made a big deal over for anything. Not birthdays, maybe one Christmas, not Graduation, not really even our weddings. We planned those and took care of everything ourselves. So I got use to not having birthdays be a big deal.

When we had kids I made a point to make sure they had something important on their birthday or right around it. They have had tons of different things and party themes. Probably a lot of waste of money but it didn't matter, THEY did!! I never wanted them to ever feel they were not important to us, or to this world or to anyone else for that matter. I remind them daily how special they are and how important they are to everyone and to God and how much they are loved. So that is one thing I have changed for the better for my kids. Now I have never really went overboard with it, there are lessons to be learned as well as knowing your loved unconditionally at the same time. :)

Sorry way off  track but wanted you to know that about our kids. I don't normally talk about me on here but this was something God did today. You see I am the party planner and event, calendar coordinator in the family. If something needs done in that manner I am normally the one to do it. Nothing against the hubby, he is just not wired that way. Although he does get coaxing from our daughter. Now don't get me wrong, he LOVES me with all his heart and unconditionally. But birthday parties are not really his thing to plan. He has pulled one over on me once but I am SURE he had help with that one, ;) So today was no different, no party, no presents, no big deal. But I did get to spend most of the day with him so that always makes my heart full. However the blessing I received today was not from him so much. It was from my facebook friends....

You see apparently my birthday showed up on the side of their home page this morning and maybe yesterday as well. Now when those things pop up you don't HAVE to tell the person Happy Birthday (although I find myself not being able to resist wishing someone sweet wishes on the day God sent them to be here for His glory) so its the individuals choice to say Happy birthday or not. Let me tell you I never realized how many people really care about me. I am very humble 95% of the time so I really had no idea. The birthday wishes just kept pouring in throughout the day and I found myself at the end of the day just praising God for every wish that came across. My heart was SO SO full that I just began to cry. Yes those who know me know I cry at anything that gives me a warm fuzzy but this was different, this was like God had each of you pour your sweet words into the wounded parts of my heart that I forgot were wounded. Like He was saying, all those b-days you didn't feel important, I saw, and I was there and I just want you to know I was loving on you through all of them.

So I just need to say Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the wishes. I have never felt SO very loved before! Thank you for being Jesus to me today! As my sweet Southern Paw Paw (who I lost way to early) use to say.....My Cup runneth over! I can never say thank you enough. I know that some of you have been with me for a long time, and some of you are newer friends to me, but each of you holds a very special place in my heart. Even if you didn't get a chance to say Happy Birthday to me, I still appreciate your friendship, for that's the stuff that unconditional Love is made of. I pray you will continue to walk with me through this journey of life, and our journey of adoption. Thank you and I love you very very VERY much!!



My Cup runneth over!
Blessings and Ladybugs (yes I DID see one today!) God is good!!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

My Daughters Blog

Just a quick blog, Go check out my daughters blog here and see what a sweet young lady she is. She has lots to share about her walk with God and the last update was about her best friend who is really like another daughter to me. I love them both so very much! Comment on it for her and let her know you stopped by. Thanks for doing this. Hugs to you all!!

Blessings and Ladybugs :)

Some Fun!


OK So I have always been the type of mom that wanted my kids neat and clean for the most part. Yes they were allowed to play and get dirty when they were younger, but no mud pie parties or anything like that. If you ask my friends, they will agree with me when I say, I am a neat freak. SO this should come to a HUGE surprise to most of you!
 See how neat and clean they are??

Last Wednesday night at church the youth group decided to have a planned food fight. Told the kids to wear their old clothes. Now I thought that meant you know some food thrown around like cream pies and things and I was OK with that. It would wipe down no problem and I thought they would have fun with that. I did cringe a bit but they are older and can handle this right???This is what I got when I arrived back at the church

That would be Ernie covered in Ketchup and flour and not sure what else!

Vickie with vanilla pudding, flour, ketchup and I think cake! She looks sad but she was having a ball don't let her fool ya! She posed for this!

Now Tommy has EVERYTHING on him! Eggs, pickle juice plus what the other two had on them and mustard and maple syrup. Let me tell ya he was a MESS!!

This was the very end of the night! Look behind them at the parking lot!

So being the weird Mom I am I laughed like crazy and then thought, oh goodness they have to ride home with me!!!! They smelled horrible and were covered in this gunk! Not so funny anymore..OK maybe still a little funny. They had a ball! Look at sis in this pic she is giving the thumbs up, and Ernie is smiling like crazy! Someone rigged a water gun up with a pop bottle and squirted everyone with that!. However much fun they were having I HAD to figure a way to get them home. This was one of those days I thought to when I was a kid how we'd just hop in the back of a truck and ride home, to bad they can't do that now. So I had to come up with a compromise. They were to be hosed down and get the big gunk off. I was smart enough to bring towels and stuff to clean them up with and have them sit on in the van. So the boys ditched the shoes shirt and hats and hosed off the shorts not to bad huh? (I had a giant trash bag for them to put all their stuff in) BUT Sis could not ditch her shirt (obviously!) so she got two towels. One to wrap in one to sit on. I did not want that stuff on my seat belts either. Oh how they smelled! So when I got her home I hosed her off with our high pressure hose and managed to clean her up pretty well. They all headed to the shower. Waiting one at a time in the garage till the shower was open for the next. Did they have fun? YOU bet!! And I maintained my calm demeanor through the whole thing! Those who know how I use to flip out at these things, You would have been proud of me!! Normally this stuff is not fun for me but I do believe they made a memory. In the end nobody was hurt and everyone washed up fine and no harm was done. I remained relaxed for the most part just seeing my kids smiling faces, after all they ARE kids. See God is teaching me patience and I am learning quick! Maybe when our little Ladybug comes home she can play in mud pies and I will be fine with it, then again.....maybe not! :)

Blessings and Ladybugs!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

End of the Year and God's Faithfulness

Ever had one of those days when God just shows up BIG?! Well we had one of those today! It is the end of the school year around here and there are points of time that I go into "let's make sure we have everything in order" mode, other wise know as panic mode! There are tuxes and choir robes to be cleaned and turned in, last minute assignments due, last day "food days" (which seems to happen more than just on the last day recently) and tons of other things to worry about and get taken care of. I tend to run around like a chicken with my head cut off making sure everything is done. Today however was not a run around day, but a "Thank you Lord for all your blessings!" day.

My youngest son earlier in the year applied to go to the Career and Technology Center (CTC) for some hands on education in the Auto Mechanics field. So what he would do is go half a day at his regular High School and the other half at CTC to study auto mechanics. After this two year program he would go to college and get his degree in this field. The program prepares him for this particular field gets his basic stuff out of the way and some other things as well. (FYI Our daughter already is in this program doing Culinary Arts, she wants to go to Culinary school to be a pastry chef after she graduates next spring) Well the school takes kids from five different High Schools so there are only so many slots open. We got a notification a few weeks after the enrollment and interview that he did not make it in the program but was on the waiting list. So we have been praying. He is really good with his hands and LOVES working on cars.

About mid April his counselor called him into the office and said that he was third on the list to get in and she would keep him posted. A week or so later she called him in and said he was at the top of the list, so just to hang on and wait some. Early May she called him in and said congratulations you have made it into the morning session (they have a morning and afternoon session). He was bummed, he had to tell her I cannot take that session because his band class is only offered 1st hour and this is something he has committed to till he graduates. She understood but wasn't sure what more she could do. She said if there was any change she would let him know. Tommy was upset. I told him just because he didn't get in the program did not mean he couldn't be a mechanic, we would just have to pray to see if this is what God really wants for him. He agreed and has been quiet ever since. The thing is if you do not get into the program your Junior year, most likely they will not take you your Senior year because you would be a year behind. Tomorrow is the last day of school and they are doing finals this week. So CTC is closed now for the summer. I know this because our daughter only has half days this week (for the classes she has at her own High School) So we just figured that God did not want Tommy to do this right now. I already had picked Vickie up earlier in the day and so I had to make two trips to the H.S. this afternoon. When I got there Tommy's face was kind of sad and hanging low. I asked what was wrong and he said (remember he is our practical joker) "Your never gonna guess what happened today" with the saddest look on his face. I was like "oh goodness what happened???" He looked up at me with the biggest grin on his face and said, almost yelling, "I got into CTC afternoon session!!" Needless to say we were pretty dog gone happy!! I said "How, what happened?" He said there was a lady at CTC (the counselor over there) that happened to be in the office and was reviewing files and realized they had an opening for him. She called quickly this morning over to Tommy's counselor to let her know the good news. Both my kiddo's will be at CTC next year doing what God has called them both to do. I just love how He keeps them together accomplishing His will. God had already taken care of him, he just wanted to teach him some patience. God showed up! He is so faithful, but that is not all......

Sis had been fretting over a class for the last two weeks. She had struggled in it most of the semester and just didn't know how well she would do in it. We even took her to a local museum downtown about 30 minutes from here for extra credit. That helped, some. But it all relied on her final that she took today. She has been praying about this class, well so was I. I was just as worried as she was, because she normally does NOT worry about her grades. So when I picked her up mid morning, she was smiling, with great news! She had done well in that class!!! God showed up! Still not done.......

Late last week our oldest son had an issue with something at college. I won't go into that detail because that is his story. This was something that needed heavy heavy prayer. I was worrying and fretting what to do. I hadn't told my hubby what was going on because our son had asked me not to. He wanted to be the one to tell him. He had called on Friday to try to work it out but with no luck. The one gentleman he had talked to didn't give him much hope, except for one tiny word he had said to him. He also told him he needed to talk to his advisor about it. He got a hold of his advisor but he had went on vacation for the next two weeks. This was not something that could wait two weeks. Later that night I was reading my bible and I just felt God asking me to turn to Isaiah. I went there and He gave me the perfect word I needed and somehow I knew that everything was going to be alright. I had talked to Ernie about it and showed him the verse and he said that he had the same feeling. We know not to completely trust our feelings because they are not always accurate but we had a peace about all this. I told him if he did not find out something by today that I had to tell his dad because I do not keep things from him. He understood. So he called the school today and talked to the registrar and he informed him that everything had been taken care of last Tuesday and it just hadn't been updated on the computer yet! The two of us had prayed all weekend and just trusted that God had this all under control, and you know what? He did! He had it taken care of before we ever began to pray. He knew what he needed before he needed it. It was a lesson in faith. I have to tell you as soon as Ernie got off the phone with the registrar and told me the news. I just hugged him and cried and thanked God right there with tears running down my cheeks, for His faithfulness! Believe me friends, when God calls you to something, nothing will detract Him from getting His will done. He has called Ernie to be a pastor and just keeps moving the mountains out of his way to accomplishing that. God showed up HUGE today in our family!!! But guess what? STILL not done.


 Forgive me for the length of this post but when He shows up, He does it BIG! I have a confession to make. I have had a hard time with something the last few months and I shouldn't have. I tried to let it go but sometimes Satan like us to hold on to our anger. There were times I was fine and it would subside, but then it would rear its ugly head again. But this evening, Our God so lovingly did something so beautiful through just a conversation that it healed my anger and frustration before I even heard him whisper to me to work it out. He kept nudging me to just go love on someone, and it took a few minutes but I did it, and my heart was healed instantly!! Thank you Lord for healing something that I should have never had in my heart to start with. There is more room in there for YOU now!! I just know you are making me complete one little tiny thing at a time. Friends, just know when your going through the Storms of life, God has not left you there alone. He is right there with you guiding the boat through the rough waters. He will never ever leave you! Thank you Lord from the bottom of my heart and soul, for showing up in all our lives today!!! Once more, Jeremiah 29:11! "I know the plans I have for you," declares The Lord, "Plans to prosper and not to harm you, to give you HOPE, and a future!"  Amen Father, Amen!!


Blessings and Ladybugs!