More pictures of Christalin and her friends...

 

Christalin's new friends. Well, Christmas has come and gone, and I never did get the new nativity set out into the yard! One day, Christalin was playing Jumping Monkeys with them. Another day, she put together a puzzle, another day she played Uno, just too cute! She was sad when her friends had to go into storage, but I really needed to have my living room back!

New Friends...

 

Well, I got a great deal on this Nativity set. Unfortunately, it has been pouring down rain here, so we haven't put them out in the yard yet. Now I'm not sure we'll be able to! Christalin has been having so much fun playing with her new friends. Right now they are playing Jumping Monkeys. Yesterday they were having a tea party. This morning they were playing Uno. How can I take her friends and make them stay in the rain and cold outside?

Christmas tour of our home

 
 
 
 


I love Christmas time. Our tradition is to decorate the day after Thanksgiving. We may not get everything done that day, but that's when we start. It is so nice to be home for Christmas this year. We get to enjoy being home and also enjoying all the Christmas parties as well. I wished the kids felt better, but it is good to be home and not in the hospital. I don't know if I have a favorite decoration. The basket of cones and ornaments with the angel is new this year. We bought some of those yummy cinnamon cones. It smells sooo good. We actually have a new tree. This one has the lights already on it. It is taller and skinnier than our old one, but looks more realistic. I like it. I hosted our bunco ladies group at our house last Friday, so I really pushed to get all the decorations up this year. I think it looks beautiful. So from our house to yours, Merry Christmas!

More Christmas tour pictures

 
 
 
 

The Christmas basket...

 


Can you smell the cinnamon? Yummmm... I love the smell of cinnamon. The cute little rag angel was given to me by my sister a few years back. She makes me smile.

Arrow of Light Ceremony

 


I can't believe my last boy has reached the highest honor of Cub Scouts. He has just earned his Arrow of Light. I'm so proud of him. The Cub Scout experience has been overall a good experience. We're running towards the end of this season. Joseph has earned the Arrow of Light, then one more Pine Wood Derby then the Blue and Gold Bridging to Boy Scouts. It has gone so fast. It seems like yesterday that he was just a tag a long with all of his brother's activities. Congratulations Joseph. We're so proud of you!

Happy 11th birthday Joseph!!!

 
I can't believe Joseph is 11 already! He is growing in to such a great young man. I'm so proud of the person he has become. We were able to go to the Pacific Science center with our best friends. It was a great day. The coldest picnic I've ever been on! Happy Birthday Joseph! We love you!

I love Christmas!

Christmas time is officially here. I have the house all decorated. I have the Christmas music playing... AAAhhhhhh....

Happy 52nd Anniversary Mom & Dad!!

Fifty two years is a long time! I'm so blessed to have such great parents. There have been some tough times over the years, but God has kept them together. It is such a blessing to have my parents living close by and part of our lives. My kids are blessed to know their grandparents. Thank you Lord for a Christian Heritage. It is such an incredible blessing in my life. We love you mom and dad!

Recall Notice

A friend sent this to me. I'm not sure who wrote it originally.
=========
RECALL NOTICE



The Maker of all human beings (GOD) is recalling all units manufactured,

regardless of make or year, due to a serious defect in the primary and

central component of the heart. This is due to a malfunction of the

original prototype units, code named Adam and

Eve. resulting in the reproduction of the same defect in all subsequent

units. This defect has been technically termed "Sub-sequential Internal

Non-morality", or more commonly known as S.I.N. as it is primarily

expressed.



Some of the symptoms include:



1 Loss of direction



2 Foul vocal emmissions



3 Amnesia of origin



4 Lack of Peace and Joy



5 Selfish or violent behavior



6 Depression or confusion in the mental component.



7 Fearfulness



8 Idolatry



9 Rebellion



The Manufacturer is providing factory authorized repair and service free

of charge to correct this defect. The Repair Technician, JESUS, has

most generously offered to bear the entire burden of the staggering cost

of these repairs. There is no additional fee required.



The number to call for repair in all areas is P-R-A-Y-E-R. Once

connected, please upload your burden of SIN through the REPENTANCE

procedure. Next, download ATONEMENT from the Repair Technician, Jesus,

into the heart component. No matter how big or small the SIN defect

is, Jesus will replace it with:



1 Love 2 Joy 3 Peace 4 Patience 5 Kindness 6 Goodness 7

Faithfulness 8 Gentleness 9 Self Control



Please see the operating manual, the B.I.B.L.E. (Believer's Instructions

Before Leaving Earth) for further details on the use of these fixes.



WARNING: Continuing to operate the human being unit without correction

voids any manufacturer warranties, exposing the unit to dangers and

problems too numerous to list and will result in the human unit being

permanently impounded . For free emergency service, call on Jesus.



DANGER: The human being units not responding to this recall action will

have to be scrapped in the furnace. The SIN defect will not be

permitted to enter Heaven so as to prevent contamination of that

facility. Thank you for your attention!



P.S. Please assist where possible by notifying others of this important

'recall notice'. You may contact the Father any time by "knee mail".

Perfectionism and blogging...

I think this entire year has passed so fast, I am still spinning. I thought I would blog a little, but it took me 6 times to remember my username and password! I really need to blog more often! I think I got swept up in the easiness of Facebook, a sentence here and there and I'm done. Whenever I blog, I want to have a nice picture and a paragraph or two explaining the picture. Since I haven't had time to do that, my poor blog sits here abandoned. That is really a bad habit of mine. I tend to be such a perfectionist. If I can't make something like the way I see it in my head, I don't really want to start, and then never really get it done. I'm trying to take baby steps and let things happen even if they are not as perfect as I imagine they should be. I see the problem in my blogging, but I also see it in my home. In my minds eye I see my home just so, when it doesn't make the cut, I'm left discouraged. So here is a step in the right direction - a blog entry with no pictures or event to correspond with it. Now will I have the guts to actually post it to my blog? ;-)

Struggle is an opportunity

A friend posted this on her facebook page. I'm not sure who wrote it originally, but it had a timely message.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The emperor moth is the most majestic species among all the moths. It has wide wings spanning out majestically when it flies. Before it can become a full grown moth, it has to be a pupa in a cocoon. Now, the interesting fact about the moth’s cocoon is that the neck of the cocoon is very narrow.

In order that it become a moth, the pupa of the moth must squeeze its way out of the narrow neck.

One day a man found a cocoon of an emperor moth. He took it home so that he could watch the moth come out of the cocoon. He sat and watched the moth struggling to force the body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther. It just seemed to be stuck.

Then the man being kind decided to help the moth. So he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The moth then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. He expected that the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the little moth spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly. A few days later, it died.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the moth to get through the tiny opening was the way of forcing fluid from the body of the moth into its wings so that it would be ready for flight. Once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Freedom and flight would only come after the struggle. By depriving the moth of a struggle, he deprived the emperor moth of health.

You see, the struggles of life, heartaches and pains are necessary if you want to be great. Instead of cursing them, understand them while you are experiencing them. They are part of the making of a man.

"Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."

Romans 5:3-5

Double Hospital Rooms!

 
Children's is such a great place! Even though the boys were in such pain, they had distraction therapy in place. The boys had Rosalie, the Art lady, come in to see them and work them. They were also able to have a gaming system thanks to Starlight foundation. The hours went faster with all the distractions!
Josiah and Joseph had surgery to take out some extra bones. Josiah had three taken out of his shoulder blades, and Joseph had one taken out of each of his legs. We have a bone disease called Multiple Heredity Exostosis. There are extra bone tumors all over, sometimes they are bothersome and have to be taken out. The bone tumors are usually benign, however, my brother's bone tumors just came back cancerous. That kind of ups the stakes as to whether the boy's tumors will be as well. They have been sent to pathology. I have one in my hip that I have been thinking about having removed, as it is very painful, but I don't want to lose the "lift" of my leg. They said they would have to unattach the muscle in order to get to the bone tumor, but they would not be able to reattach it. So I have to decide what would be worse, the pain or no lift to my leg...

Congratulations Kaili~

 

She did it! Kaili has graduated! I'm so proud of you, girl! Congratulations and good job!

Happy Father's Day!

The kids decorated this cake for Mike for Father's day. We ended the day by going to the theater to see Star Trek. It was a great movie! Mike really enjoyed his day. Happy Father's day!

A friend sent this link to me. It is pretty funny. We spent waaaay too much time this morning watching the videos! Enjoy!
http://theguysmanual.msn.com

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

 

For Dad's birthday this year, we went to their house for a bbq. We are so blessed to have my parents living close by. Happy Birthday dad! We love you!

Happy Birthday Patrick!

 

We had a great treat! Patrick came home from Afghanistan for a visit! We were abe to go to the park and have a bbq and play horseshoes and just hang out and enjoy having Patrick home for a bit. We love you Patrick!

Catch up....

Once again I'm behind in my blogging! I'm trying to get things caught up. So, just because the top post hasn't changed, doesn't mean that there are no new posts. I'm still catching up from February!! ugh. I hate being behind!

Happy Easter!!!

 


Happy resurrection Day!! We had a quiet Easter this year. Christalin and I were very busy memorizing lines for the Easter sketch. Christalin and I did a sketch where the little girl finds out that the Easter bunny is not real. It was a good one. It had a lot of lines and Christalin did such a great job. The sketch was kind of serious, but she played the crowd and had them laughing. It was pretty funny. She really loves acting! I enjoyed being able to do it with her. I just wished that I had her knack for memorizing lines! She picked them up so quickly. I had to work like anything to memorize my lines! I hope we can do more plays together. We probably reached about 2,500 people over Easter weekend. It was really neat.

Surprise Picture - Watch it until the end!

One of the ladies in my FIAR group shared this with me. I was amazed and wanted to share it with all of you!






AMAZING Art!Christ Painting! - video powered by Metacafe

Science Fair

The kids decided to do animals for the Science fair this year. They did a great job. Christalin did horses, Joseph did frogs, Joshua did tamarins and Josiah did chameleons.

Quote to Ponder...

Boy! Time is flying and I am getting behind in my blogging! We're working hard on the Science fair for tomorrow, so I don't have time to catch up on my blog, but I will try to in the next couple of weeks. For now, my dear friend sent me a quote that really touched me. So instead of having a whole bunch of quotes, I'm only going to have the one. It is really a good one that I'll be pondering and hoping to live up to! Enjoy!

"Do all the good you can by all the means you can in all the ways you can in all the places you can at all the times you can to all the people you can as long as you ever can."

John Wesley

We finished it!!!

 
I am not a puzzle person. I, embarrassing enough, have a hard time doing children's puzzles! While we were up in Canada visiting My mom and dad, we worked on this puzzle together. The kids and I did it all by ourselves! We were so excited! Yay!

Happy Valentines Day!

I hope everyone is having a great Valentines Day. We're eating waaay too much chocolate, but it has been fun!! I took the kids out to Lowes and had them make their own treasure boxes. We were supposed to meet a friend there, but somehow that didn't work out. It was still great for the kids to make their boxes. It is a great place to put all their Valentine Candy!

The Sacrifice of Nyammah...

 

Josiah and Joshua were in the teen's dessert theatre this year. The play was called "The Sacrifice of Nyammah. Here is Josiah's synopsis of the play: It is about this girl who lost her families’ corn doll. The evil druids wanted to kill her for it. N’yahmah and her friends go looking for the corn doll. They find out from an old woman named fawn that the leprechaun had stolen it. They go to Mount Knashega to find it. I play a leprechaun named Lord Seamus. In the end, we give her back the corn doll, the druids turn into bread and we all live happily ever after.

They did a great job and had a lot of fun doing it. The proceeds from the play went to their youth accounts. They earned money for summer camp this summer.

International fair

 


The kids did a great job at the International Fair. They did Ancient Egypt. They had fun making mummies, pyramids and hyroglyphics. (how do you spell that word?!) I love having a venue where the kids can display what they have been working on. It is fun for them to tell others, as well as look at the other displays that other home schooled kids have done. Usually there is a taste of each country as well. We had dates with an almond honey paste rolled inside. They were very good!