Sho's Space

We're Debt Free!

2012-01-19T13:44:00.001-05:00

This actually happened in April of 2011. I'm not sure why it got saved as a draft in my blog instead of a post. I know it was a post before. For those who have not read our story before, here it is.

I remember when my parents got out of debt. I was about six or seven years old, and they never looked back. They used only the money they had from that day on. Fast forward many years, and I was debt free too. I even graduated from college with money in my pocket to help me get started in life. For some reason though, I took a credit card just in case of emergencies.

A couple of years later I got married and stayed at home. Staying home took a lot of sacrifice on our part that most people would not even consider taking on, but we thought that our kids were worth the sacrifice. The only problem was that we burned through our savings and began using the credit card to make ends meet. (If only we had known then what we later learned...like not having so much taken out of my husband's check for taxes so we could make ends meet every month.) Every year with our huge tax refund we would pay off our debts and start the whole cycle again. A couple of years ago, I got really tired of this cycle and began praying that God would change things. I was really irritated with my husband for what I thought was irresponsible spending. The funny thing was that when God answered my prayer, I realized that I was just as much a contributor to our financial tightness as my husband was.

One day my husband came home talking about a new guy named Dave Ramsey coming on the local talk radio station. After a couple of months of listening to him, we began working on our baby steps, and my husband decided to order Financial Peace University. Because of the price, I was hesitant about ordering the class, but didn't voice my concerns because I was excited about my husband being excited about learning how to manage our finances. I'm so glad I didn't say anything in opposition to him. The class helped clarify questions that we had about the baby steps. Twenty-two months after we began the class, we have paid off $30,ooo--mostly vehicle loan debt. (During this time, the Lord gave my husband a pay raise, and provided a couple of at home jobs for me.)

I didn't realize how much it meant to our kids until we went to make our last payment on our vehicle. As the payment was going up in tube of the drive through line, my husband and I heard a spontaneous chant from the back. "We're debt free. We're debt free."

Not only are we debt free, but we plan to stay that way this time. Financial Peace University taught us how to do that. We learned how to start off with a baby emergency fund to keep us from having to crack out a credit card for emergencies. We also now know to save up for a 3-6 month emergency fund now that we are debt free. Not only that, but we have also learned how to prepare for the future and have a plan for our money instead of our money having a plan for us. Oh, let's not forget the budget and learning how to work together as a team was also something else we learned. We are now on baby step three and looking forward to getting a larger house for our family of six.

As a side note, the first baby step is $500 for people who have an income of $25,000 or less. Also, much of the same information used in Financial Peace University can be found in the book, The Total Money Makeover (also available at most public libraries.)

Our New Year

2012-01-02T15:29:00.004-05:00

They say how you start the new year is how you will spend the year. I surely hope not! We went to bed early New Year's Eve and couldn't go to sleep....not good. We woke up running late for church the New Year's Day...not good. Our son put on a pair of pants two sizes too small on him, and one of our daughters could not find shoes that fit her...not good.
We finally made it to church about five minutes before it was supposed to start....not bad unless you are the pianist and song leader. We stepped in the church building only to realize that our son's pants that he had changed into were one size too small...not as bad as the first pair. They had looked better in incandescent lighting than they did in fluorescent lighting. I got up to the piano and was playing away before the official start of services when our two youngest daughters came up to me. The very youngest had tears right under her eyes, and the next to youngest informed me that we had locked them in the vehicle....not good. Evidently my husband, oldest two children, and I had jumped out of our vehicle and hastily headed for the church building. My husband locked the doors with the remote without ever looking back. The two younger girls said that they unlocked the doors, and the alarm went off, but they locked the door back after they got out. Poor babies. Good thing our church is small, and the parking lot is too.

On the bright side, we all stayed up late that night, having a great time watching Roy Rogers movies.

Pictures Taken Recently

2012-01-02T15:21:00.000-05:00

Trial Run

Cinnamon and Cumin

2011-12-20T10:28:00.000-05:00

My children love to have toast with sugar and cinnamon for breakfast. The best and worst part is that they make it themselves. One day they informed me that we were out of cinnamon, and I told them to remind me to get some the next time we went to the store. Sure enough the next time we took a trip to Aldi, my son grabbed some cinnamon and threw it in the cart. The kids were happy to have their cinnamon back on their toast.
Fast forward about a week. Imagine my surprise when my husband asked where the cinnamon was. I told him it was right there in the spice cabinet. "All I see is cumin," was his reply. I got up to check, and sure enough that brand new bottle of cinnamon was cumin. What I want to know is why didn't the kids taste the difference?

A Child Converted from Her Crush.

2011-09-20T12:57:00.003-05:00

The other night our six year old got embarrassed about a crush that she had on a waiter at a local Mexican restaurant. Today we found this video she made of herself and her new take on boyfriends.

Broken Connections

2011-08-21T12:57:00.003-05:00

This week's theme for MCP 52 is "Connections." We have a portable dishwasher that hooks up to the faucet. The night before the photo theme was announced, the washer was going, but then I heard a WHOOSH and the sound of water splattering everywhere. The hot water handle had flown off and water was shooting out of its hole like a geyser. I got brave enough to take a picture the next morning although it is quite a tamed down version.

About 7:15am near my house

2011-08-18T09:56:00.000-05:00

Hill Billys

2011-08-12T09:41:00.002-05:00

Last month my husband took a day off work and decided it would be fun to take the kids somewhere. The weather was in the hundreds so we decided to take them to some unique stores in Raleigh where the heat would not be so bad. The first shopping center we stopped at is one that had really become run down until a few years ago when they revamped the whole structure. Evidently it is now the richy rich area of town complete with upscale living spaces above the shops and a two story grocery store connected to them. (Here's a link.)When we got there, I noticed that just about every shopper was dressed up and their children were too. That was the first time I've ever felt out of my league at a regular shopping mall. We took the kids to a really neat toy store and candy shop. As we were looking at all the neat items, Zach added to my discomfort by saying over and over quite loudly, "MAN! I wish I lived in Raleigh. Man, I wish I lived in Raleigh! Don't you, Mom?" My response was, "Don't be so loud, Zach."

After shopping, we enjoyed a wonderful lunch a the Q shack, a place I would highly recommend. It has delicious food and if you buy the child sized plate, it has wonderful prices. Don't worry the child plate has more than enough to eat. As we left the restaurant to head back to our vehicle in the parking deck we got on the escalators where my humiliation was made complete. I had my two youngest daughters with me and my husband had the two older children. The two younger ones were scared to death to get on the first step, so I took both of their hands and took the plunge. When I stepped on, they jerked their hands out of mine and stayed at the top yelling, "Mamma! Mamma!" I then had to turn around and run up the down escalator to rescue them. Just one more little thing to keep me humble. I was relieved to note that the next shopping center we went to was full of non dressed up children. Lesson learned. Put church clothes and a hair bow on my kids the next time we go to North Hills Mall.

Practicing

2011-08-12T09:37:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday

2011-07-06T07:54:00.001-05:00

This past Sunday was our oldest daughter's birthday. We asked the grandparents to come over for lunch after church. She was thrilled with all her gifts of money, shoes (she's a shoe connoisseur), items from Bath and Body Works, and even a pink 22 gun. Here are some pictures of her day.

Another Answered Prayer

2011-06-29T22:42:00.002-05:00

At the beginning of the summer season, we had some really warm weather. At the beginning of the summer season, our air conditioner decided that it didn't want to work. My husband and father in law identified the problem and fixed it. Well, there was this tiny glitch. The air would come on for fifteen seconds, turn off for thirty and come right back on for another fifteen seconds. As a last resort, we called the air company to come out and take a look. In the back of our minds we were pretty sure the motor was going bad. We took enough money out of our emergency fund to cover the new motor, and my husband was pretty disheartened about the whole deal. Every time we seem to get a little step ahead, something comes along to push us back. So, I prayed, "Lord, if it be your will, please help it not be the motor and help it not to cost much." The repair man came out and tested the air out for an hour. It ran perfectly the whole time, and has ever since. We only had to pay the cost of the service call instead of the cost of a whole new motor.

Hidden Objects

2011-06-29T22:37:00.003-05:00

The theme for photography this week was Hidden Objects. I took pictures of several things, but finally decided on the china hidden in the china cabinet. One of my dear daughters took the key outside one day, and it has never seen the inside of the house since. We actually did eat off that china too. What are we going to do when we move?

Need for Speed

2011-05-28T16:15:00.000-05:00

Silly Answer to Prayer

2011-05-15T12:44:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was soccer Saturday. During our oldest daughter's game, I had received a phone call on the cell phone and stepped away from the crowd to talk. While I was talking on the phone, our six year old daughter took my camera (with permission) and took MANY pictures of the game. During one portion of the game our oldest daughter got tripped and flipped in the air. I wished that I had had my camera and had been able to capture the moment. Much to my delight, as I was going through the pictures that my six year old took, I came across one she captured of my older daughter as she was in the air when she got tripped. I went ahead and deleted all the unneeded pictures off my SD card. As I was in the process of deleting pictures, I somehow deleted the one picture that I was so excited about. I was sick. I prayed, "Lord, is there some way you can get that picture back for me?" Then I thought, there's no way that you can recover a deleted picture on a SD card; almost at the same instant I felt regret that I couldn't trust the Lord to do a "little" impossible thing but then thought I was just thinking silly and went on to practice piano for a church offertory the next morning. As I was practicing, the thought popped into my head, "Why don't I look up on the internet and see if I can some how recover a deleted picture?" I told my husband what I was going to do. Since he's more computer savy than I am, he did all the work for me, and I'm happy to report that I have my picture back after he got the free download from this website. Thank you, Lord, for answering my prayer in spite of my unbelief.

Here's the picture

Window light

2011-05-11T08:01:00.000-05:00

The theme this week was to use only light from windows to light a picture. Here's my little poser girl lit by the light coming from our sliding glass door.

First Thing in the Morning

2011-05-04T15:37:00.001-05:00

The little boy that I babysit and I water my flowers every morning before my own children get up.

Princess for a Day

2011-04-29T15:48:00.000-05:00

The theme this week was Princess for a day. My daughter loves the princess Rapunzel. If you've seen the movie Tangled, you'll understand the frying pan.

Amazing Grace

2011-04-06T09:10:00.004-05:00

I used to think that the song "Amazing Grace" wasn't so applicable to me as it was to the "down and out" person who had accepted Christ as their personal Savior. The more I travel down the road of life, I realize how applicable the song really is to me. It's only by God's Amazing Grace that I've never been down and out. It's by His grace that I was reared in a Christian home. It's by His grace that I had parents that loved me. It's by His grace that I am where I am today. One of my favorite sayings is "But for the grace of God go I."

MCP Actions

2011-03-31T20:33:00.002-05:00

Photography is something that I have always been interested in. I guess that's because my dad took a lot of interesting pictures and turned them into slides that we would sometimes watch as a family. About a year or two ago, I was given a camera that would allow me to expand my knowledge and interest in photography. I really did not know that there was so much to learn. One day, one of my sisters and I were talking about my new hobby and she suggested a good site for me to look at. She even sent me the link on Facebook. The only problem was that I got busy and forgot to look at the link.

About a month or two ago, a college friend told me about some sites giving away cute templates for Valentine's. I had never heard of the sites, and didn't know their web addresses. I Googled their names hoping for some sort of result so I wouldn't have to look stupid and ask my friend exactly what she was talking about. Yea for Google and success!! One of the sites was MCP Actions...the same site my sister had told me about but I had not looked at. This time though I was hooked. I love looking at what their different actions can do for photos. I love reading all the different helpful articles on the blog (especially this one on photographing at midday). The video tutorials have been a big help with my Photoshop non experience, and taking a picture a week according to a theme has definitely helped stretch my photographic thinking.

Photography this Week

2011-03-23T13:38:00.005-05:00

The theme for this week was "Out of the Jewelry Box." I rescued a poor, dilapidated frog that I had thrown in the back of my husband's truck to go to the dump, and dressed her up in jewelry. I think the pictures turned out pretty cute. Maybe I think that because I put a lot of time into it. Now the question is, should I put the armless, eyeless, jump ropeless frog back in the truck to go to the dump?

2011-03-16T11:47:00.001-05:00

The theme for this week's photo was darks and lights. I thought these coffee cups were appropriate.

Childhood Toys

2011-03-09T14:03:00.001-05:00

Who doesn't remember these? The one on the right was given to me by my grandmother and aunt when I was ten.

Banana Bread Gluten Free and Regular

2011-03-09T13:59:00.003-05:00

I had a few banana's that were too brown to eat but would be great to make banana bread with. My son had been begging me for a Gluten Free snack, so I gave in and baked him some banana bread. It really turned out to be a snack for the whole family. It went so quickly I didn't even have time to take a picture!

Here is the original recipe:
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg (optional)
1/4 cup milk
2 medium bananas mashed
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Combine all ingredients in one bowl.
Put into greased 9x5 pan.
Bake at 350 for 50- 60 minutes.

Here is the DAIRY FREE, NUT FREE, GLUTEN FREE recipe

1/4 cup oil
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup Hodgson Mill Multi Purpose Baking Mix pictured above (I found it at Wal-Mart)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg ( I did not use)
1/4 cup water
2 medium bananas mashed

Combine all ingredients in one bowl.
Put into greased 9x5 loaf pan.
Bake at 350 for 50- 60 minutes.

Look What my Mom Made Me.

2011-03-02T23:35:00.002-05:00

We live in a house where our washer and dryer are out in the utility room under the carport. I don't always have time to immediately get to the clean clothes; and most of the time, they pile up on my couch. I usually can keep up with the folding, but the clothes that need ironing sit on the couch for quite a while before I get to them. My mom found this plan and altered it to my wishes. I LOVE IT. She put rollers on the bottom, and the door is painted with chalkboard paint both inside and out. My clothes are still in the living room along with our homeschooling stuff, but now we can sit on the couch! Thanks, Mom.

3D snowflake

2011-02-25T09:15:00.002-05:00

Our kids made 3D snowflakes at their homeschool group meeting yesterday. Here's a link on how you can make them too.

My View from Here.

2011-02-23T08:06:00.000-05:00

I joined a flickr group that committed to take one new picture a week. The theme for this week is "My View From Here."
This was my view as I looked out the front door window yesterday.

Carrot Cake

2011-02-22T10:41:00.001-05:00

When I was growing up, my mom was truly a health food
person before it was so popular to be a part of the health food world. We did not have junk food. We did not have bleached flour or white rice, nor did we have refined sugar. Our peanut butter was the kind that was made purely of peanuts and needed the oil stirred in before you could use it. On occasion, we even had our peanut butter freshly ground from peanuts at GNC. When there was a potluck dinner at church, she still cooked healthfully. From time to time, she would try something that was to our childish eyes and tastebuds, completely outlandish and disgusting. And, yes, we would get embarrassed when our classmates looked at our lunch and say, "Ewww! What is that?!"
Imagine my chagrin and embarrassment when my mom decided to do a kind deed for an older batchlor in our church and make him a carrot cake. WHO had ever heard of CARROTS in a CAKE? I sure hadn't, and I thought surely she was going overboard trying to push her healthly living lifestyle off on this poor guy. It was not til many years later that I discovered that there really is such a thing as carrot cake, and it really is delicious! In fact my husband's grandmother could make the most wonderful carrot cake in the world for our birthdays. She has passed away, but we are still able to enjoy the recipe.

Here it is:
2 c sugar
1.5 c oil
4 eggs
2 c flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon
.5 tsp salt
1 c chopped pecans (opt)
3 c shredded carrots
(I've heard that you should not use the pre-shredded carrots)

Mix dry ingredients. Add vanilla and eggs. Add carrots. Add oil, and mix well. Pour into 3 greased and floured 8 inch round pans. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Frosting:
8 oz cream cheese (softened)
16 oz box powdered sugar
1 stick butter (softened)
1 tsp vanilla
1 c chopped pecans

Blend cream cheese, butter, and vanilla. Add powdered sugar and blend well. Mix in pecans. Frost the cakes after they are cooled.
Sometimes I double the frosting recipe so I'll have plenty of frosting.

My husband just had his birthday, and I of all people made a cake with CARROTS in it! Here is a picture looking at him through the cloud of smoke from his candles that he blew out.

2011-02-21T14:10:00.000-05:00

It all started with a "quick" run to the grocery store. I was doing really good getting all the kids in the vehicle while I was loading groceries. I had to be home very quickly and have supper on the table right away in order for my husband and son to get to their Cub scout meeting on time. As I was throwing groceries in the back, I was planning what I would throw on the table.

In the mean time, one of my daughters decided to climb in the driver's seat and start messing with all the controls. At the advice of my oldest daughter, the one in the driver's seat decided to turn on the GPS that my husband had received for Christmas.
I finally got the groceries loaded, and put the cart away, and jumped into the driver's seat. After I thought I had fixed all the driver's controls, I dialed my husband to tell him I would be home shortly. At the same time I was talking to my husband, I was pulling out of the grocery store parking lot. All of the sudden a larger than life voice spoke up. "TURN RIGHT!" said the man on the GPS. Whoa! That scared me, and I could not hear my husband. I started grabbing for wires to unplug the GPS only to realize it was not plugged in. Meanwhile the thing was still barking out directions to my house. I did NOT need to know how to get home. I started yelling at the kids, "How do you turn this thing off?!"
"It's the button on top, Mom" they all said.
Holding the phone with my shoulder, and the steering wheel with one hand, I started pounding the top of the GPS with my other hand to turn the stupid thing off. No success there. At the same time I was pounding, I looked up to see a telephone pole right at the corner of the passenger side windsheild. I swerved. Too late. I was scraping a mailbox that was right next to the telephone pole. Off came the mirror. Sccrraaape it went across the door. Thud it hit the ground.
Let's just say that when it was all over, there was a crying mom and four crying children in the back seats.
Today, our vehicle is in the body shop for a week. If we keep this kind of thing up, we'll have a whole new body for our vehicle. We have already had a new windshield and a new bumper. Never in my life have I had a vehicle in the body shop until this one. Oh, and lesson number two. Don't cancel your car rental insurance to save $3.00 a month. You just might need it one day. :D

She's Unique

2011-02-17T11:05:00.002-05:00

We wanted four children so we would not have a middle child. What we didn't count on was having three of the four children being girls. The picture above is of our middle daughter. She is so different from our other children that one of our friends often says about her, "Which one of these is not like the others?" She loves to pose, she loves to dress up, and she is much smarter than she appears. :)

She also comes up with some of the funniest ways to say things. The other day when I became concerned about a spot where a tick bite had been, she asked me, "Mom, are you going to Google 'How ticks get on you and cause an infection and make you die.com?'"

In the above photo, I was taking 10 year pictures of her brother. His props were a camo outfit and his new gun for one set of pictures, and a cowboy outfit and gun for another set of pictures. She decided she needed in on the action, grabbed a broken gun, sat on a stump, and put on this pose with no prompting from me. In fact, she demanded that I take the picture. I'm glad I did because it turned out pretty well.

Pottery

2010-11-22T21:31:00.004-05:00

We have a friend who makes the beautiful pottery pictured above. If you are interested in any of his products, his price list is shown below. Here is a link to his personal website. He does have a contact link so you can get in touch with him personally.

I would post a picture of my chicken cooker, but it's locked in my china cabinet, and the key has been lost by my daughter.

Chicken Cooker (11in x 5in)

30.00

Pie plates (9 in rd)

20.00

Cornbread baker (9in rd)

20.00

Single Stem Apple Baker (5in rd)

12.00

Two Stem Apple Baker

16.00

Brie baker (8in round)

18.00

Chip & Dip Platter (12in)

33.00

Spoon rest (3in round)

4.00

Colander (10in x 5in)

28.00

Berry colanders (5 in x 5in

14.00

Utensil holder (5in x 8in)

18.00

Lg. Pedestal bowl

48.00

Sm. Pedestal bowl

24.00

Lg. Pedestal cake platter

48.00

Sm. Pedestal cake platter

24.00

Platters (18in)

100.00

(24in)

185.00

Large display bowl

30.00

Small display bowl

20.00

Dinner plate (10in round)

26.00

Dessert plate (5 inch round)

14.00

Pasta plate (10in round)

26.00

Salad bowl (5in with ½ rim)

14.00

Cereal bowl (5in round)

12.00

Drinking cup (8oz)

8.00

(12oz)

12.00

Sm. Flower pot with tray

18.00

Lg. Flower pot with tray

36.00

Flower bucket (5in x 6in)

24.00

Small Flower vase

16.00

Lg. Flower vases

32.00

Taxes: 7.75%

Walgreens Photo Special

2010-11-15T07:37:00.003-05:00

Until November 20th, you can get 30 4x6 prints from Walgreens ONLINE for $3.00 if you use the coupon code PASSALONG.

Internet Nanny

2010-09-01T22:36:00.003-05:00

I may be the only parent out there whose children get on the internet without my knowing it, but somehow I think I'm not. Well, just this past Sunday I was thinking about how we really need to get an internet filter to keep the kids from getting on to sites that wouldn't be good for them. I'm cheap and was thinking that I really didn't want to spend the extra money for a filtering system, but that it really probably would be a good idea to when, lo and behold, I came across a blog called Spoiled but not Rotten that happened to mention that Internet Nanny was giving away free filtering software. Yep, I took them up on that offer. It was a little tricky (it looked like at first it was just a 14 day free trial) for me to figure out, but I did get the stuff downloaded on my computer for a year for free. I'm excited.

The link above for Spoiled but not Rotten will take you to her post about the free filtering software.

Picture Deals

2010-08-16T07:42:00.006-05:00

This week (August 15-August 21) Walgreens is running a photo special called 7 Days of Deals. Each day they are offering a different special. For instance, yesterday you could get a free 8X10. Today, you get 75% off of a photo easel. A photo easel is a picture that they have already put a backing and stand to. The orginal cost is $14.99.

They also have 50 prints for $5.00 available through August 21 if you use the coupon code STOCKUP. This may also be available as a walk-in customer.

I also came across a deal on Snapfish that is offered until August 17. Get free shipping on any order plus a free 8x10 collage print by putting GRANDSHIP in the coupon section when you check out. I was able to order just the 8x10 collage print, so I paid absolutely nothing for my new collage of my kids. I'm excited to be hanging that one up soon.

I just saw that CVS is also offering 50 prints for 6 dollars until August 16. You must use the coupon code 50FOR6 when you check out. Also if you're a new online customer with them, your prints are FREE!!

Birthday Party!

2010-07-15T07:09:00.011-05:00

One of my sisters had a combined birthday party for three of her children. She held it at a place that was full of fun inflatables such as a slide, and obstacle course, and a couple of jumpy houses. I think everyone had a super time. I know my kids did. They want to have their parties there. The only problem is that the place is an hour and a half away from us. Sorry kids, don't think that'll be happening.

Our son enjoying the slide

The whole party

This is just family at the party

My sister's father-in-law as "King David" ha ha

One of my nephews after he enjoyed the ice cream.

One of my nieces after some drink.

This is birthday boy

These are the birthday girls

One of my neices enjoying the slide

Spokeo.com

2010-05-25T22:08:00.000-05:00

There's a site called
Spokeo.com. It's a new online phone book w/personal information: pics
you've posted on FB or web, your approx credit score, home value,
income, age, etc. You can remove yourself by first searching for
yourself on their site, copy the URL of your page, then scroll to the
very bottom of their home page, and click on privacy
to remove yourself.

Subbing for Sunday School

2010-05-10T09:16:00.004-05:00

RRRRING! RRRRRRRRRRING! It was that dreaded 8:30 Sunday morning phone call that tells us we have something to adjust at church. "No, no, not this morning. Please, not me this morning I groaned to myself." Then Spencer was handing the phone to me. I knew my wishes were not going to be granted this morning.
"Shoshannah, can you teach my Sunday school class? I wanted to say that I didn't feel very well that day either and just send the kids to someone else's class, but I didn't. I wanted to say, I teach my kids all week, and teach Wednesday night. I NEED a BREAK from kids!" But I didn't. What kept going through my mind was what a preacher said in revival at our church last week. "When other people won't do things, don't complain. Praise the Lord that you get the blessing of serving Him."
As I got the materials for the class, I thought "How boring for 5-6 year olds." "The First Church?" ....and the lesson was boring until about half way through. There was only one drab picture provided, the lesson didn't really have any relevance to the kid's lives until I mentioned that 3,000 people got saved and were baptized. "Why were the people baptized?" I asked. Why does God want us to be baptized?
"To get saved?" was the questioning response. "No, the people were already saved, and baptism does not save you, but it is something that God wants us to do."
"So we can eat that little cracker and drink that little juice!" came another excited answer. I had to laugh at that answer. My little girl has been dying to take communion.
"I'm saved," said one in the normal random way of little children. "I'm saved,"said another. "I'm saved too," said a third. "Really?" I questioned the third. "No, I'm just joking,"said the third.
Of course this led back to the discussion of salvation that we had last week when I subbed in this class.
"Why do we need to be saved?"
"Because we sin."
"What is sin?"
"All the bad things we do."
"Do you do bad things?"
"No." Then a big grin came across the little boy's face. "I'm just joking."
I thought, "Well, at least I got one point across last week. Last week, he didn't think that he ever sinned."
As the conversation continued, he said that he wanted be with his mom when he asked Jesus to save him. I'm so glad that he has a sensitive heart.
Our conversation headed back to baptism. I explained that the first thing God tells us to do after we get saved is to get baptized. "Why would he want us to get baptized?"I asked. The kids had no clue, so I explained that baptism show the world that we have been saved and want to follow Jesus. I then showed them how that going down under the water shows Jesus dying and being buried, and coming up out of the water represents Jesus rising from the dead.
"Some people call sprinkling with water "baptism", but it doesn't mean anything. But we go under the water and come up again because of what it means," I told the class. I then showed them what the preacher does when he baptizes you. Each one of them thought that had to be demonstrated on. So the class ended up being fun instead of irrelevant and boring as it had started out.

That night one of the saved children went forward for baptism, and I think the other one would have too except they fell asleep in church. :D I'm also thinking that the other little child will get saved soon.
...and to think I would have missed all that if I would not have subbed. That was my blessing for the day.

2010-04-30T22:00:00.003-05:00

So the verse that says we are to give the gospel to every creature seemed to hit me in a new way recently. The "every creature" portion just really stood out to me. We are surrounded by people every day, and don't attempt to tell them a thing about the Lord or their eternal soul. I've tried to become more aware of people as I'm out shopping ect. As this verse of scripture has begun to become more real to me, the Lord has sent more people to my door also. Seeing that I really don't get out all that much during the week, I think this is a pretty good arrangement. If I can't get out and tell people about the Lord, He can just send them to my house. My latest encounters have been with Jehovah's Witnesses.

The first pair came to my door a few months ago. Of course, you can tell what they are up to as soon as you open the door, so instead of letting them talk to me, I talk to them first. I quickly let them know that I know they don't believe Jesus is God. I also let them know why I believe that Jesus is God. After I quoted Scripture to them, they tried to tell me that not all versions read the same way. I quickly let them know that was why I only used the King James Version. I knew it had not been tampered with and I could depend on it. They then wanted to know how could Jesus be God and still have a Father. So, I showed them how there are three parts of an eye, yet there is just one eye...the cornea, pupil, and iris. There are also three parts to a finger. When you bend it, you can see clearly the three parts. Let's just say that the lady's eyes were pretty big when I was showing them that illustration.
We didn't get much farther than that with the first pair that came to the door. But I began thinking of how much bigger the picture is for these people. If they do not believe that Jesus is God, they can never believe that He can save them from their sins.
A couple of months later the next and much more educated pair of Witnesses came by. It was with them that I found out that they don't believe in a hell. They gave an obscure verse in Ecclesiastes that says that the dead know nothing as their proof text that there is not a literal hell. Of course that Scripture reference is referring to the dead body of bones in the grave and not the spirit of a person. They also asked why would Jesus go to hell after He died on the cross if it were a place of torment. My answer was so that when they stood before Him at the judgment they would have no excuse for Him sending THEM there. He would be able to tell them that He has been through absolutely everything that they have ever been or would be through, and they do not have an excuse for rejecting Him. They weren't quite sure how to answer that one. They did tell me that they believe in heaven though. Now why would there be a heaven to believe in if the dead know nothing?
I don't really feel like I got very far with these people, but I pray that maybe the little bit that I was able to give them would somehow later on bring them to truly know the Lord.

Today is our 10th Anniversary

2010-04-14T23:21:00.004-05:00

It does not seem like that much time has passed, but Spencer and I have reached the double digits as far as anniversaries go. I don't imagine we'll ever get out of the double digits either. We will be heading to the Biltmore Estate and the Blue Ridge Parkway for our big day. Both are places I've wanted to explore for some time. Hopefully, I'll have some interesting pictures to post when we get back.

2010-04-13T13:46:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I had a former coworker and friend who now lives in Boston show up at my door. I say show up at my door, because I was expecting her on the 21st instead of the 12th. What's with me reading dates backwards? We had a good time catching up on several years.

Also yesterday, Sierra had a long awaited date with her daddy. She was thrilled. He said, he hadn't had a girl so giddy over him in 12 years. (That's how long ago we met. :-D )

Soccer

2010-04-09T21:21:00.005-05:00

Soccer games start tomorrow for our girls, so I thought I'd get a jump on their pictures. Here are my two favorite.

Music

2010-03-31T22:44:00.002-05:00

I was able to download an album of different types of music from Bible Truth Music today. The cost was $2.00 along with the request that you repost this special offer on your blog, Facebook page, Twitter, etc. Here is the link.

2010-03-16T20:31:00.002-05:00

I receive a bi-monthly magazine that I enjoy reading. The latest issue had a convicting article that I am going to try to keep at the forefront of my mind.http://www.nogreaterjoy.org/articles/general-view/archive/2009/december/03/cheerful-authoritative-consistent/

Family Fun

2010-03-05T07:41:00.003-05:00

One of our daughters is shall we say, a cheese lover. So one night for family fun a couple of weeks ago we took her to a local grocery store that has a great variety of cheeses. They had big cheese blocks there for decoration, one of which cost $400 dollars for half the block. (I do think that they eventually cut these "decorations" up and sell them in smaller pieces and prices.) Well, our little girl had the time of her life walking around and around the case admiring the different kinds of cheese. She and all the other kids even got to sample a piece of Swiss cheese. (Do you see my evil grin?) No, not a soul liked it, not even our cheese lover. We finally were able to leave the store with a LITTLE container of gourmet cheese containing six slices. That was just enough for one piece per person. Evidentally we picked the right cheese called Sonoma Jack because everyone loved it. Our daughter has now decided that she wants cheese for her next birthday party rather than a cake. Hmmm. I wonder if cheesecake would be an option she would consider.

H I S

2010-02-25T12:38:00.005-05:00

This is a picture of mostly kids that are in our little home school group. Some of the kids in this pic are extra kids that were visiting that day, and some of the "regular" kids were missing for this picture. This is our first year as a group, and we have chosen the name, Homeschoolers in Service, or HIS for short. We get together about once a month and have chapel, music, crafts, games, and on occasion a geography bee, historical dress up, or a cake decorating class.

Historical characters "Osama Bin Ladan"(remember to pray for our country's safety) and "Queen Esther" (from the Bible)

Pharoah's daughter that drew Moses out of the water.

Betsy Ross and someone I can't remember.

Wild Bill Hickok and a Texas Ranger

When our church was holding Missions Conference we had the privilege of having some of the missionary children joining us, and some of the missionaries were able to tell us on a more personal basis about the field that the Lord has called them to.

We also go on occasional field trips. The newest field trip we are headed to is a Civil War reenactment. It will be held in March, and is said to be very good. The only problem was the money. When most of the families have several children, paying for the tickets is not as minor a thing as it is for a smaller family. Well, our coordinator came up with the bright idea of a yard sale. Oh, ugh! After a few technical difficulties and a lot of prayer as well as work, we were all set up to sell STUFF! The kids even made things to sale. They had made magnets, bird gourds, cookies, rice krispy treats, and hot chocolate and apple cider. Thankfully, we got enough money to more than cover the tickets as well as pay for the newpaper advertisement, and pay the kids for their contributions. So let the battle begin!

I wonder how many little ones will be holding their ears as the guns begin firing.

2010-02-15T22:49:00.002-05:00

So I don't have a whole lot to say at the moment, but here is a link to a website some of you may find useful.
I also am considering getting some glasses from here. The pair I'm looking at will $12 including shipping, and since I only wear my glasses around the house, I don't think there will be a big loss if I don't like them. I have gone to an optical store and tried on different frames to give me an idea of what would look decent on me though.

Men and Department Stores

2010-02-05T08:41:00.002-05:00

The other day when we were out shopping for the ingredients for the Cherpumple Dessert, I noticed that all these older men out with their wives were being really nice to Spencer. They would just say hello to him as they passed in the aisles in the store. What really made me laugh was when I asked him if we could stop at Belk really quick. I badly needed a black top, and they were having their extra good red dot sale. "I know what I'm looking for, and it won't take long." I promised him. Well, it took longer than I expected, but I did find a black sweater for $10. After I paid for the sweater, I still had a little bit of $ burning a hole in my pocket and asked Spencer if he minded if I looked at the jewelry. He graciously said that was fine. It didn't take me long to find something I wanted, and as we were heading to the cash register to pay, an older gentleman once again stopped my husband. But this time what he said was different. "I bet your wife said, that she was just coming in for a minute, and she wouldn't take long." My husband laughed and agreed. The gentleman said, "That's what my wife said too, and I'm just barely getting out of here." Let's just say that I paid for my $4.50 necklace and earring set with a grin on my face.

Snow Day 2

2010-01-31T22:20:00.004-05:00

Meeting Mr. Snowman

He just wanted to do "cool" poses until I made him stop.

The girls loved him.

The end result after Spencer got ahold of him.

Sledding on the hood of an old car

We were snowed in from church today, but we got to watch live church services elsewhere thanks to the internet. Later this afternoon we got to make a snowman, and the kids got to be pulled behind a four wheeler on the hood of an old car.

Snow!

2010-01-30T11:18:00.005-05:00

I don't know why she didn't complain about her poor ear being bent.

Today the cold weather and the wet weather finally coincided and have resulted in snow and sleet. The kids are absolutely thrilled, and we are loving our wood heater. Thanks for the wood Papa and Mema.

The Cherpumple

2010-01-27T23:05:00.005-05:00

So people have been mentioning that I haven't written anything on this blog for a while. Now that I look at the date, I guess they're right. It's not that I haven't thought about it, but I just feel like my blog has lost focus. However, I have had some ideas on things to write about. We'll see how it all pans out.

For now, I'm going to post some pictures of a dessert that my husband made. We won't mention the long car ride we went on when the dessert started falling apart as he was making it.... That's ok though. We got to see some nice houses and land, and the dessert turned out ok after all.

The dessert is called a Cherpumple. It is an already baked cherry pie then baked into a white cake, an apple pie in a spice cake, and a pumpkin pie in a yellow cake. They are then stacked onto each other and held together with cream cheese frosting. Yum and very rich.

One more thing about the blog. As I'm sitting here trying to load pictures of the Cherpumple, I suddenly remember what a pain it is to upload pictures here on Blogger, and if things are like they were the last time I wrote anything, it has suddenly become difficult to arrange pictures once they are loaded up here. That may be one more reason I haven't blogged in a while.

Another birthday

2009-11-16T15:54:00.004-05:00

Our third daughter was thrilled to celebrate her fifth birthday. This is her last big one for a while, and she has been looking forward to it for months. Celebrations were complete with a bouncy house (thanks to my in-laws), games, a craft, and great presents.

My parents and the birthday girl.

All the kids after a dress up relay race.

Paint!

I made the cake out of miniature cupcakes.

2009-11-11T21:53:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was the last nice weather day for a while. I decided that I'd clean up the yard some and burn a few leaves. I easily started a fire in the yard clippings from the whole year/leaf pile.
I quickly realized that this was going to be quite a time consuming endeavor, so I put out the fire and headed in the house. I later went back outside and noticed that the pile was still smoldering in spots, so I carefully "watered" the hot spots, and once again made sure that everything was okay. I sure didn't want to be the next person to almost burn the neighborhood down.
Rain left over from tropical storm Ida began pouring down and has been pouring ever since. So, imagine my surprise when I looked out our bedroom window this morning and saw this sight through the rain.

The pile has smoldered all day even though we've received around 6 inches of rain. My husband (as far as he and I know) put the fire out again before we headed to church tonight. Hopefully it'll still be out when we get up in the morning.

2009-10-29T21:13:00.002-05:00

I had been told that Wal-Mart now sells caskets and urns online. When I looked it up, there is was. Here's a link. WoW! Shocking!
My husband found it humorous that there was a "Be the first to review this product" button for each funeral item.

State Fair

2009-10-23T21:04:00.005-05:00

Pumpkins grown by little kids

Zach reading the sign

Here's what the sign said, but where's the sod?

Family

Today was a fun day. Spencer had mentioned that he'd be taking the day off, so yesterday we did a little extra school work. Late last night, we decided that the State Fair would be a fun family trip. On the way to the fair, we were able to complete the school work for the day that we had not been able to get done the day before. Here are some pictures of our day.

This and That

2009-10-20T20:20:00.005-05:00

This has been an eventful week. Zach's Cub Scout group went on a camping trip this past weekend. It was abnormally cool for this time of year, but Zach had a great time running around and experiencing different activities.

Tie Dye

Putting up targets.

Shooting BB guns. A favorite past time.

Well, Brittany has finally reached her mile stone. Her hair grew long enough to donate to Locks of Love. She was so excited to cut her hair, and I was too. No more stringy hair that gets messed up two seconds after it's been brushed.

School is Now in Session

2009-10-05T20:24:00.002-05:00

We finally started back to school. This year three of the kids are in the school routine. The baby is making things easier on me by thinking she's in the school routine too. She thinks that I must let her count and sound out letters. I must say that she can count to ten pretty well, and she has learned what the letter A says.
Zach and Brittany are especially loving science. They can tell you the parts of the ear and eye. (Well, at least they could when they took their first test.) I think they've taken the love for science a little too far. Their new pursuit is slugs. They all think it's neat to push their eyes in. Ewww! Brittany is especially in love with the slugs. She collected 12 of them the other day and put them all over her desk. After I demanded that she remove them, I found her sitting on our den floor with them on her legs. So disgusting!!!! I did take a picture which will be good blackmail when she gets older, and I would put it up here, but I can't download any pictures to my computer at the moment. Why, you say?? That's because I have 10,000 pictures on my computer and I don't know how many videos which have taken up all my computer's memory. When I get all of it transfered to CD's like I should have long ago, I'll be able to entertain you with pictures again.

Outing

2009-09-15T21:28:00.004-05:00

We got to go to a nature center, science museum. Here are some pics of the kids playing doctor in the miniature hospital, as well as a pic of the my mom with the kids.

School

2009-09-15T21:24:00.002-05:00

School has officially started. It was not a pretty day. The way the kids were acting, you would have thought that we were at the end of the school year instead of the beginning. Well, our third child was the exception. She got upset because I didn't do enough school with her. Today went much more smoothly. We got done around 1:30. I had enough time in the day to mow the grass. Woo hoo.

2009-09-05T13:12:00.001-05:00

Question of the week, "Mom, when you die, can I have that teddy bear that dad gave you when you first started dating?"

A Little Answer to Prayer

2009-08-28T19:19:00.002-05:00

My husband has been sick and has not wanted any food that was on hand at the house. On Wednesday, we were about out of groceries anyway, and I wanted to buy a 10 pound bag of chicken. Typically I go to Wal-Mart for this which is about 5 miles away. Time was close for my husband to get off work which meant it was also getting close to time to leave for church. I was in a quandary as to go to Wal-Mart before church without the kids and not make it home in time to get Spencer something to eat, or to go after church with the kids. As I was trying to decide what to do, the Lord nudged me to go to Food Lion which is only a mile down the road. Typically, their prices are higher, but I thought I might try it out. When I got there, they had the chicken on sale cheaper than what Wal-Mart carries it for, I also got some little pizzas for Spencer to eat, AND I made it home before Spencer did. That would have never happened if I would have gone to Wal-Mart.

Catching Up

2009-08-18T13:51:00.004-05:00

I don't know why I always think that summer time will be a break. In one sense it is. There is no school work to do, so I catch up on a whole lot of house work. There are so many church activities though, that we keep hopping almost all summer long. These last few weeks have been especially busy. We had our well pump go bad on us. A week after it was replaced, the new pump went bad as well. Needless to say, I'm very thankful to have water again even though there are all kinds of leaks coming from the pipes in the utility room under our carport. Those can get fixed another day. :) In between water problems, we had our annual church camp meeting with preaching in the morning from 9-12:30 am and again in the evening from 7:00 until we got done. During that week, lunch and supper are also prepared and served by people from our church. It is such a hectic week, but so good as well.

As part of some last minute fun before school starts back up, a friend and I took our kids to a nature center. The kids had a blast, and best of all it was free. We just might have to do it again sometime as a field trip. Here are some pictures of the kids having fun there.

A miniture version of a local hospital

Sierra, the miniture version of a local doctor.

Going down in the heart....crawling in a tube under the building.

...and coming up on the other side of the room

A large version of Operation

The beginning of the intestinal tract. The kids could crawl in and around in there.

Addison Singing

2009-07-20T12:18:00.003-05:00

Addison's Mema taught her to sing "You Are My Sunshine." She was a little preoccupied with me and her chewing gum, but I still think it's a pretty cute video of her.

Savings

2009-07-14T10:42:00.004-05:00

As of late, it is popular to find ways to save money. While it should always be popular to save money, I guess it's better late than never. That said, some people are really good at finding deals. There are many web-sites devoted to this, but here are three that have been created by people that I personally know, or are friends of people I know. Take a look at these.
The fist one is at First Lady of Free.
Another good blog is Spend Freely.
The last blog is at My Sweet Savings.

At It Again

2009-07-13T14:12:00.003-05:00

Zach needs some batteries, and I told him he'd have to wait until next month. He decided that he could draw a picture and sell it for enough to get himself some batteries. Well, he did, and now he's inspired to make some more money. Here's the next picture he's drawn and is hitting the neighborhood with. We'll see if he comes back with the picture or the money. :D

Weekend Get Away

2009-07-07T19:13:00.002-05:00

My in-laws invited us and my husband's brother and wife to an amusement park with them this last weekend. We all had a great time. Brittany thought it was especially for her since her birthday was the day we went up there. The kids favorite was the bumper cars.

Zach

2009-06-12T12:35:00.007-05:00

Zach once again got to play baseball this year. At the very last game, his team got the privilege of taking the flag down from the flagpole and learning how to fold it up. When they got done with the flag, their coach got a kick out of telling them to roll in the dirt. Zach was the only one who didn't. He said it was because he didn't want to mess up the inside of our vehicle. (He's been trained well.) Whatever the reason, he reminded me of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednigo. When you see the last two pictures, you'll understand why.

Their coach showing then how to fold the flag.

Everyone except Zach rolling in the dirt.

Zach telling his coach "No thanks" to rolling in the dirt.

Zachary, Brittany, and Sierra went with us to Washington DC when we took the teenagers. This is a little video of him showing his redneck roots. I mean do you really act like this in a motel that has doorbells at every room? Haha! We got a kick out of his excitement, his torn shirt, and his love of racing.

DC

2009-06-08T14:29:00.003-05:00

We took the teens from our church to Washington DC. Here's a few pictures of our trip.

About half way across the Potomic. We had to take a break. We walked from Arlington National Cemetary to the White House that day, with quite a few stops in between.

Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Waiting for the Metro

Sitting at the WWII Memorial with the George Washington Memorial in the distance

WWII memorial...beautiful

The guy's nice motel suite.

This is the hallway to the guy's 3 bedroom suite. They had plenty of room.

The girl's room wasn't bad either.

2009-06-05T07:39:00.000-05:00

While doing school the other day, this guy thought he'd join us. Eww!

Ladies' Banquet at our Church

2009-06-02T11:41:00.003-05:00

Our theme this year was the bride of Christ. The thoughts that were brought out reminded us that we are to love our Lord and anticipate his return just as we loved our spouse and anticipated our wedding day.

The doll in the pictures was one that had been rescued from the trash and was quite filthy. She was cleaned up and a wedding dress was cut down to the doll's size. She turned out quite beautiful. As someone said, she is a wonderful illustration of a person who is filthy in sin and is found by Christ and cleaned up by Him.

My mom with some of the grandaughters.

My mother-in-law with the grandaughters.

This is me and my munchkins.

2009-05-28T22:15:00.003-05:00

For family fun, we went to a Tob's baseball game. Zach was asked to race against the mascot "Slugger." If he won, he would win a free t-shirt. Let's just say that there was a little boy proudly wearing a t-shirt saying something about winning a race.

Sorry the video is a bit unfocused. My camera was trying to focus on the safety netting rather than the event taking place. Also, the ladies yelling, we some ladies next to us that the kids had befriended....just making that clear. :)

Family Fun a Couple of Weeks Ago

2009-05-25T09:58:00.002-05:00

We had a bonfire and roasted marshmallows and hotdogs. The kids thought it was awesome.

2009-05-25T09:57:00.000-05:00

Sierra's prayer last night: "Dear Lord, Thank you for me." Hmmmm

Church Picnic

2009-05-23T16:51:00.001-05:00

The whole gang

Sack races!

Bounce House..the kids loved it.

Rag Curls

2009-05-17T21:49:00.005-05:00

When we were little girls, our mother would curl our hair in rag strips. It was much easier to sleep on than rollers. I thought that I would do that with Brittany's hair. People then started asking me how I did it, so here's a demonstration video.

She wasn't really happy about having her picture taken like this.

2009-05-11T21:01:00.003-05:00

We live in a neighborhood just outside the city limits. Sometimes we have unique experiences in our neighborhood such as foxes and deer in our yard, or the privilege to hear policemen practice at their shooting range at 2:00 in the morning. One particular uniqueness about our neighborhood is this farm pasture smell that sometimes permeates the air.

We finally received an explanation from a sweet potato plant nearby when we received this bag underneath our mailbox earlier in April shortly after Easter.

"Please enjoy an Easter holiday meal on us.

We appreciate your patience while we expand our plant and perfect our odor reduction system"

Well, thank you, people. We hope the "odor reduction system" works well. We haven't tried the "Easter meal" yet.

Anniversary Adventures in Food

2009-04-29T21:11:00.004-05:00

For our special meal, we ate at the Melting Pot...a fondue restaurant. It was expensive, but I had found a $25.oo gift certificate online which helped out a lot. One day we're going to go back for dessert.
Some of our appetizers to be dipped in cheese sauce.

We chose a spinach cheese sauce

Ghirardelli's ice cream we split. Very rich, but good.

To die for pizza from Giordano's. We ate there twice and almost ordered a pizza to take home with us.

Free appetizer due to a coupon we found in a tourist book. It was good, but the pizza was the best.

Anniversary Adventures part 2

2009-04-27T21:35:00.007-05:00

Spencer and I visited downtown Disney one day while we were in Orlando. We had always wanted to visit, but never had the time while we were at Disney World. We had a relaxing time wandering through stores and tasting some great ice cream from Ghirardelli's. After a time we decided to go rest on a bench near the water. While we were sitting there, we got the bright idea to take pictures of ourselves holding the hot air balloon. It was difficult to pose correctly, and I'm sure people were wondering what in the world we were doing.

An older couple walked past while we were doing our artful photography, and the man commented, "Oh, I see what y'all are doing. Do you want me to take a picture of both of you holding the ball?" Sure! We were happy to comply. I had to show him how to work the camera and change the display setting so he could look through the eye piece instead of the display screen of my camera. After he took the picture, he said, " I think that is really good. Y'all should like that." As you can see in the last picture, we aren't holding a thing.

That picture actually made our day. It may be our wacky sense of humor, but we got a kick out of it.

\ Picture of us taken by the gentleman.

Spencer with our rich, but yummy ice cream.

Anniversary Adventures part 1

2009-04-24T13:32:00.010-05:00

Spencer and I went to Orlando for our anniversary this year. It seemed like something "interesting" or funny happened every day. I think I'll start with the biggest and most interesting one first although it happened last.

We were happily heading back to NC when we realized that the Daytona Speedway was right off of I-95. Spencer thought it would be a great place to see, so we took the little detour.

There is a $24 charge for an Imax show, a guided tour of the place, plus a few other things, but we were ready to get home. All Spencer wanted to do was see the track. A lady employee there kindly told us that we could go up into the grandstand for free, so we happily headed out there. We climbed all the way to the top, and looked out over the horizon. It's a huge track. As we were gazing over the horizon, Spencer noticed that a big gate (in the middle of the grandstands) was open. It looked like it would take us to the infield. Thinking that would be pretty neat, we we decided to head over that way. After discussing whether the route under or on the bleachers would be best we took the cooler route, the one down under. We climbed back out onto the grandstand right next to where the gate was when a golf cart came flying around the corner, and screeched to a halt. It sure made me jump. When the security guard jumped out, Spencer said, "I guess we're not supposed to be here, huh?"

"You're right about that, and I'm going to throw you out!" replied the security guard.

"We didn't know that we are not allowed to be here. No one told us that we couldn't be," was our reply. (Let me mention that we were always respectful although we were definitely spoken to otherwise.)

The security guard pointed to a group in the first section that we had been in originally. "Do you see those people over there? Do you see them over here? NO! They are where they are supposed to be! You don't see THEM trying to come over here, do you? Didn't you see that sign that said no spectators beyond this point?"

"No sir, I didn't." I replied respectfully.

"YOU didn't see that sign?

"No, sir."

Spencer said, "I saw it, but I thought it was for when the races were going on because it said spectators."

"NO! Spectator means you. We have that sign to keep you safe. YOU are a spectator, and I'm going to throw you out."

(I'm not exactly sure what we were spectating since there was absolutely nothing going on. I guess if we were waiting for the track to melt from the heat, that would have made us spectators.)

"OK, I guess we'll leave then," I replied.

"NO! I'm going to throw you out!" was the retort. "You can come back tomorrow," He said as he let us through the unlocked gate. Spencer all the while was taking pictures. I guess we made his day. It must have been boring around there, or something.

My recommendation to Daytona would be to look up the definition of spectator and change their sign to say, "Authorized personnel only beyond this point." Oh, and maybe they could let their employees inside tell people that they are only allowed in the very first section of the grandstands. That would have been nice to know.

That was definitely a first for me, and hopefully a last. Spencer kept teasing me about stopping at all the race tracks that we passed on the way home. I've never really had the desire to go to one, and now that this happened, I don't have the desire to go to another one.

These were evidently the original bleachers from the first section that was built. I got a kick out them.

I guess this is what getting thrown out of somewhere looks like.

"You can come back tomorrow."

2009-04-15T13:02:00.003-05:00

Today, Spencer and I are celebrating our 9th anniversary. It's been a strange day as far as anniversarys go because we both had to participate in a funeral service of a man who was special to us. We are planning to get away next week to celebrate though.

2009-04-15T13:01:00.001-05:00

For those of you in the Rio Grande Valley, and a few other places through out the United States,...there's a special to fly to and from LA for $15 each way. You have to book today (April 15) by 6:00 pm. Service to LA starts in May, and there are various dates available at this rate. http://airfare.travelzoo.com/north-american-airfare/569410?utm_source=top20_us&utm_medium=email_top20

Announcement

2009-04-13T12:44:00.002-05:00

I've been thinking about this for a while, and some of you have been complaining that I don't put things up here often enough. Therefore, I am going to try to copy my status changes that I put on Facebook onto here. It should at least keep you with a new sentence to read every day.
Here is my status from yesterday along with a little updated information:

Mourning the loss of Duane Duran this morning, but what a day for him to get to see Jesus.
His viewing will be at Shingleton Funeral Home Tuesday night from 7-9, and the funeral will be at Trinity Baptist Church at 11:00 on Wednesday morning followed by his burial in New Bern.

We will greatly miss him.

Cousins

2009-04-10T11:22:00.002-05:00

This is for my sister, Revka. Her girls came to Brittany's soccer practice the other night and enjoyed playing with my kids that weren't practicing.

Spring

2009-04-05T13:41:00.001-05:00

Chicken Brittany

2009-03-24T12:54:00.003-05:00

Brittany thought that all the pinestraw we raked up in our yard looked like a chicken nest. She's the chicken in the nest.

Joe and Sarah's Wedding Celebration Party

2009-03-22T21:56:00.005-05:00

Sarah and Joe finally were able to have a wedding shower/reception. Here's some pics.

Beach Theme

Guests put messages of wisdom in a bottle

They also signed the picture frame. This was before all the guests finished signing it.

Of course there was food.

Joe's sister signing the picture.

A honey-do whistle.

It didn't take long for Sarah to start wearing that one!

A classic. How many mother-in-laws do you see LITTERALLY pointing a knife at their son-in-law? My husband said that she needs to quit talking with her hands.

Joe's dad talking.

Joe's mom and sister

Joe's cousin. She and Joe's mom were a tremendous help getting things ready.

Half Way to Nowhere

2009-03-07T18:16:00.010-05:00

Yesterday my husband decided that today would be a good day to take the kids on a trip down to Wilmington to see the battleship. Around 9:30 we were on our way, and you couldn't have asked for more beautimous weather. Our children were quite excited and traveled the two hours quite well. Before we got on the ship, we ate a Burger King lunch complete with Kids Meals (a treat for them.) The kids were quite impressed with the ship, and the deeper inside we got the more excited the baby got. They had a great time, and the only mishap was that Addison messed her diaper when there were no bathrooms around.

Trying out the bunks. I would have felt clausterphobic.

Mixing up the baby.

For some reason Addison would not look at the camera.

Our trip on the way back home however, began with my husband's super sensitive nose smelling something amiss. "Does Addison have a stinky diaper?" was his question. My reply: "She shouldn't. I just changed her." Only, I turn around to see that those Huggies weren't hugging too well. There was this mustard colored stuff coming out the side. I got my things together to change her, thinking that Spencer wass going to pull off to the side of the highway, but he just kept driving. The next time I turned around there was a bigger blob of mustard colored stuff coming out the side of Addison's leg and it was still expanding. My husband decided to stop.

After we got that little problem taken care of, Spencer started worrying about the possibilities of a gas station being nearby. For anyone that knows him very well, this is not an uncommon situation. He doesn't worry because he might run out of gas in the next 50 miles, it's more like the next 50 feet. I told him that I did not remember seeing a gas station on that stretch of road, and thankfully, I did not know how low that needle was. I was already praying as it was. We did spot a gas station that was so out of date that there were still individual pumps for each type of gasoline and when Spencer paid for the gas with his debit card he had to wait for the woman inside to get off the phone so they could use the dial up connection to put his card number through. FINALLY, we were headed on our way home. After 30 minutes we realized that we had once again followed our usual tradition of taking the scenic way home. We didn't recognize the road...nor the highway signs....nor anything else for that matter. We were once again in middle of nowhere. I looked at Spencer and said, "I don't have a clue where we are. He said, "I know. We're half way to nowhere. That sounds like a country song doesn't it?" I had to agree with him.
We decided to take the highways that were marked North and pray we didn't end up too far off our target. We finally saw the name of a familiar town nearby and were happily speeding our way home (hoping we were really going the right way), when a car in front of us pulled off to the side of the road. As we passed him by, we noticed that there were lights on top of that car. They promptly began to flash their luminous blue color and followed us down the road. To make a long story short, the Highway patrol man told us how to get home, but in April,Spencer has to figure out how to get back to where we were lost......if you get my drift.
In spite of the way it ended, we had quite a bit of fun, and it definitely was a day we won't forget anytime soon.

Brittany Killed Biscuit

2009-03-03T20:54:00.003-05:00

At Christmas Brittany fell in love with Biscuit. Biscuit is a life size "Fur Real" dog. She will obey commands, and does pretty much everything except eat and poop. Tonight unbeknownst to us Brittany decided that Biscuit needed to take a bath with her. I went to help Sierra get her bath after Brittany was done and noticed that the floor was pretty wet and the dog pretty bedraggled. At first, I thought Brittany had wiped the dog down, but then realized that the very wet floor was actually the result of the water running out of the dog that had been submerged. Unless a miracle happens, Biscuit is pretty dead.

Birthday Month

2009-02-22T21:56:00.005-05:00

Even though February is known for Valentines Day, it seems that the boys have designated February as their month for birthdays. We've had a party every Saturday this month exept for the last Saturday. No it's not going to disappoint me not to have a party to go to this coming up week.

Zach turned 8 this year. Even though there's a six on the cake there are two little candles added beside it. He knows how to add. He had a great birthday week. We first took him and two friends to Chuck E Cheese and then had a sleep over for them. Somehow he ended up having brownies made in his honor at Papa and Mema's house, a Transformer cake another night at our house, and it seems like something else too. I think he definitely felt like he had a birthday.

The little Batman boy here had a birthday the next weekend. My husband and father in law were asked to dress up as Batman and Robin. I think they had a little too much fun with that.

What did I say about too much fun dressing up?

This is my very cute nephew's 2nd bithday. Almost all of his cousins made it there.

My husband turned 31 this year. I made my first carrot cake (pictured below) for the occasion. Evidently our baby thought the frosting on the cake was so good that she bit through the candles trying to get all the frosting off of them.

This last weekend our kids went skating for a birthday party. They liked it so much that it will probably end up as a Family Fun Night activity one Thursday.

2009-01-27T21:45:00.003-05:00

My grandma, my husband's grandmother and grandfather, my husband and our two oldest kids

This last year has been an interesting year with a whole lot of death. We've lost neighbors that our children loved dearly, church family, my husband's former youth pastor, and hopefully lastly my husband and I both lost our living grandparents this year. My grandma died in Feb of 2008. Spencer's grandparents both died in the past 6 weeks.
I never used to know what to say to people who had lost a loved one and always dreaded the day when I would lose someone close. Those days have come, and I've found that you still don't know what to say to someone who has lost that special person in their life. The only real consolation is if the person who died knew Jesus as their Saviour. Then you know that they are in heaven enjoying a much better existance than they have ever experienced before. This brings to mind an interesting quote:
For and unsaved person, living on earth is the best heaven they'll ever know.
For a saved person, living on earth is the worst hell they'll ever know.

I'm glad I'm saved.

Texture

2009-01-15T14:23:00.002-05:00

This is something that a girl I knew at college wrote. I thought it made good reading. I also thought that this picture I took today was appropriate with the theme.

Sunday, January 11, 2009 at 9:16pm
Lately, maybe because of the Christmas-toy-overload, I have been growing more and more concerned with the plastic-ky world that is beginning to surround my children...and therefore myself. Please don't misunderstand me. Plastic is good and necessary for certain things. When raising children especially, certain plastic is necessary. But I have been on a concerted effort to see what plastic items I can replace with a well-made, long-life product. It has been quite challenging so far! I am not on an environmental kick. My philosophy on this started to take root when I was old enough to understand the textures of my childhood and how they play a role in my life today. Unfortunately, I was totally unprepared for the primary-color, shiny-plastic underworld that quickly sucks in the mother of small children.Plato said, "The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things." The beautiful. The simple. The well-made. My memory of my childhood is filled with texture. My father, God bless him, raised six children on thirteen thousand dollars a year. I did not know I was poor. I knew we couldn't afford things, but I did not realize the extent of it. The inability to buy things "off the shelf" forced my mother to be creative. To look for multiple uses for an item. A discarded tire and scratchy piece of rope became a tire swing. We would dump out the water onto the dirt patch underneath the tire swing. The mud would splash against my legs and barefeet as I swang. That old rope dug into my skin as I gripped tightly. Texture.Our pans were thrifted items and they lasted forever. They were cast iron and weighed a ton. When they got used to the necessary point, my mother would rub oil in them and put them in the oven to cure. Texture. Sheets were...gasp...also thrifted. My mother would find sheets, usually very old and very well made, that were discarded because they didn't have the most recent print on them. They were never in a package so she would go by the feel of them. They always felt so comforting and snuggly. Texture.One year my parents stayed up half the night on Christmas Eve cutting and sanding handmade blocks for my brother and me. They were natural, knotty and solid wood. They were large, sturdy and easy to build with. Texture. My toybox was an older steamer trunk. It was covered with all sorts of brass buckles and notches. My mother lined it in burlap and screwed dowel rods inside to hold up the lid so it wouldn't suddenly shut and pinch our fingers. I loved that big toy box. I would crawl inside and be covered in toys. We would also stand behind it and use it as a puppet theater. The textures of playtime with that old trunk are burned into my memory. I could go on and on with memories of the textures of my life. Now, as a mom, I strive to seek out texture for my children's lives. I want to set up my home so it is warm and liveable. I have a special love for old things because of fond memories that were born from living among them. In my home, no place is too special to sit, there are no scratchy or polyfilled duvets. I allow my one year old to eat from pottery style plates and use real utensils. Texture.Thanks to a good idea from a book I'm reading, I decided to start drawing and painting journals with my daughter (my four month old is a bit young yet). The author suggests to purchase some "good" materials for your child to work with. Acrylic paints. Charcoal pencils. A book of canvas-style paper. Even old burlap or a bag of good thick paper scraps can be used for painting and drawing. The bottom line is to look at an item and think of an alternative use before pitching it. Things can often be given a second life on a child's craft table. It is very difficult for a child to feel creative when the tools he or she is using are frustrating to work with. I personally can't do anything with a dulled, waxy crayon! I am new at this and have some undoing to do. Right now I am staring at a collection of toys that since Christmas already need new batteries or are missing all of the pieces that made it fun for ten minutes. I certainly hope this doesn't sound pretentious or unappreciative of all of the goodness bestowed upon my children. I am simply challenged this New Year to seek ways to create a haven for imagination, experience, and wonder that will follow them throughout their lives. I personally feel that "toy overload" inhibits those creative expressions and the appreciation for the simple. The everyday. The truly beautiful.
By: ABK

Our New Year's Day Family Get together

2009-01-03T12:13:00.003-05:00

It's really hard for all of us to get together for Christmas, so we started a tradition of getting together sometime in January. This year we were able to get together New Year's Day. We only had finger food, but I think everyone still got really full. We just messed around on the piano, the Wii, and with the kids' Christmas toys.

All of us that were there.

Sarah

Revka virtually bowling

Peter and his little boy Cavin

Spencer being himself

My parents. Don't they look happy LOL You know, smile there's a camera in your face!

Peter's wife cleaning up a mess. Poor thing.

Robert, Revka's husband. You can smile too. I know, never come between a man and his food.

Bowling Sierra

2008-12-26T22:11:00.002-05:00

We got the kids a Wii for Christmas. This is how Sierra bowls. If I tried to do it that way, I wouldn't even hit one pin.

Baby doll by Fisher Price

2008-12-17T16:07:00.002-05:00

We bought this baby doll for Addison for Christmas because she fell in love with it. Now we're going to have to take it back. Can you hear it saying, "Islam is the light"?

This is what a homeschooled baby learns

2008-11-21T10:50:00.003-05:00

This is what our schooling was competing against the other day. She's discovered the pencil sharpener.................and loves it.

Happy Birthday, Sierra

2008-11-21T10:37:00.004-05:00

Sierra's other cake decorated according to her instructions.

Zach said that it looked like Dora was doing splits in the mud.

Cake and presents. I bought five presents from the dollar section at Target and put one in each bag so she felt like she got a lot.

Sierra with her opened presents...
an erasable board, a wallet, sock slippers, paint by number set, and a cup.

Yesterday was Sierra's actual birthday. We had a small celebration at our house for her complete with another cake and $1 presents from the Target dollar section. She was thrilled.

2008-11-19T13:28:00.002-05:00

It's Wednesday, so it must mean it's time to update. I'm sorry about not being able to write as often, but school and housework are keeping me pretty busy lately.

Tomorrow will be my third child's birthday, so we celebrated it this past Saturday. That day turned out to be quite eventful. The night before a tornado had passed through the area, and my husband's cousin's house was damaged. Though quite traumatized, everyone is ok. We went over there after the party and helped move things out. Later that evening we went to my parents' house and visited with my aunt and uncles who were up here from Texas for a couple of days. As I said, it was quite an eventful day but also good.

Right after blowing out the candles

PRESENTS!

The tornado stricken house. You can't really see it from this side, but the far end pillar is completely missing, and the far side of the roof was gone. It also took out part of an upstairs wall inside the house.

Cracks like this are all through the house

The girls playing snakes and ladders with my uncles. Dumb me forgot to take a picture of my aunt.

Another Typical Day

2008-11-11T18:34:00.002-05:00

One of the kids left the water running in our slowly draining sink. Of course I didn't know about it until I heard the baby splashing and having fun.

Around Town........Well, a Town Close By

2008-11-11T18:30:00.002-05:00

No comment.

Bad advertising. I took this at the Wal-Mart fishtank.

2008-11-06T15:52:00.005-05:00

Fall has officially arrived in our neighborhood making a beautiful backdrop for some pictures I took of the kids. More pictures will probably be taken because of the absolutely beautiful weather today and tomorrow.

Not only does the weather bring a chance for beautiful pictures, but it also brings a lot of festivals to the little towns in our area. We had the opportunity to go to the festival held in our town last weekend. There was a whole lot of good looking food, art, and other items of interest, but we ended up spending most of our day in the Kidz Zone. I think everyone had a lot of fun.

I was taking this picture more for the fall colors than of the kids.

This ride lasted WAY too long, but the kids loved it.

This was a pirate show the kids loved watching. He used a horse whip to break these spaghetti noodles.

Sometimes I Wish I Would Say More

2008-10-29T20:48:00.002-05:00

The other day some Jehovah's Witnesses came to my house. At first I wasn't going to answer the door, but you know how it is with kids. "Mama! There's someone here!!!!!!!!!!!!" So, I reluctantly opened the door. The men at the door were more than happy to give me their literature, but when I tried to give them mine, they acted like it was poison. Finally, one of the men took it. Now, why would it not be okay for them to read what I have to say??? It would at least help them know where I'm coming from and be better able to argue against my beliefs if they wanted to.
Anyway, this group of people does not believe that Jesus is God. Since Jesus is the whole means for our salvation, this creates a problem. I quoted John 1:1 to them. It says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." I told them that the Word is Jesus, and that Jesus is God; but I failed to connect the dots from the Bible where it says in John 1:14, "And the Word was made flesh (Jesus here on earth) and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." If those verses don't say that Jesus is God, I don't know what does.

2008-10-27T15:42:00.002-05:00

This is too good to not stop everything I'm doing to blog this little blurp.

Our son is ALWAYS wanting to sell something. He inherited that trait from some place other than his mother or father. His latest greatest scheme is to draw pictures and color them in order to sell them so he can buy an expensive toy for himself one day. Today I was outside cleaning out my husband's truck, and Zach comes out to me exactly as pictured above. After getting permission he went around to four of the neighbor's houses selling his merchandise and made three dollars. Considering that's how much he charged for one picture, I didn't think he did too bad. I told him to lower his price, he might sell more. The toybox held his pictures, and the bucket was for his money. The string holding the toybox around his neck came from a pretty basket holding our baby's items. I thought that was pretty creative of him.