Psalm 68:3 
But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

A new look

I have a new look. I have the best hair dresser. She does wonders with my hair. I wish I could go to her house every morning and have her make me look like this everyday because I sure can't seem to ever make it look this good. 
 Back view.
 Rear view. Ha Ha. This is what happens when I ask my husband to take a picture of the back of my head. I'm so happy he is still attracted to me after 16 years of marriage, silly boy. Moving on...really, just move on. Next picture please. I wonder if I leave this picture small if it will make my butt look smaller?
 Little miss got her hair cut too but was too hyper to stand still for a picture so instead she did this.
 and this.
 and this.

Science fair

We had our first annual science fair on Halloween. It was the bomb! The kids had a blast! I really can't wait until next year when we get to do it again. So here's a quick recap.

Camden did his project about an air cannon. He actually found plans and made it. It shoots paint balls really far! It's awesome.


 Here is Anna with her "all about colors" science project.
 We pulled off a huge surprise for Jadon. He did his project on a vinegarroon. He had been wishing for one for months and we kept telling him no. But with his birthday less than a month away we decided to surprise him by getting him one for the day of the science fair. I found one for sale at a local pet shop and we put it on hold and picked it up that morning. And if your wondering why he is on crutches, I have no idea. It was Halloween so consider part of his costume?
 Jadon was the first up to explain his project to the rest of the kids.
 We learned how to make lava lamps.
 And rockets.
 And learned all about comets.
 How to blow up a baloon using sugar and yeast.
 Anna shared her project.
 with some help from daddy.
 We learned how to make glow slime!
 Camden closed the show telling about his air cannon and then....
 demonstrating its power.
 And they all went racing to find the paint ball.
it was such a blast!

Saturday, October 29, 2011

last swim of the season

This is how the conversation went:
Jadon: do you dare me to go jump in the pool?
Me: Sure, you do know it's very cold right?
Jadon: I know, I'll just go out there and jump right in without even thinking about it.
Anna: Can I do it too?
Jadon: It's really cold Anna!
Me: I dare both of you, go for it.

And guess what happened?
Do you see who is wet and who is dry? Anna was in the water so fast I didn't even have time to get my camera ready. Jadon had doubts after seeing his sister's face when she jumped in and came back up.
And then Anna went back in for a second dip while her brother was still contemplating if he would follow through with his dare.
 And then he did it.

 He said it wasn't that cold, yeah right!
Crazy kids! The pool is now officially closed for winter, it will be another 6 months before they start swimming again. I'm thankful because our pool budget goes way down, phew!

Friday, October 28, 2011

What if?

What if I had spent more time with her?
What if we had reached out to their family more?
What if I prayed for her more?
What if I had been a better mentor?
What if I served her better?
What if I loved her deeper?
What if I invited her to more things?
What if I made more time to just sit and talk?

These are all questions I have asked myself over the past several months. I'm talking about a girlfriend of mine (who doesn't read my blog) who I had the pleasure of sharing my faith with. For 8 years I shared Christ with her, I took her to Bible study, we sat on my living room floor studying God's word, I became a mentor to her, she looked up to me and I taught her about being a daughter of Christ, about being a mom, a wife, a friend. We gave her a ride to church, I loved her son as if he was one of mine, and I even had the honor of praying with her as she made her decision to ask Jesus to be her Savior. And then the most special moment, where I got to baptize her on a Sunday morning in front of our friends and family. Even after that day our talks continued, our time in Bible study was a weekly event, but then she started drifting. It was a slow drift, not really noticeable at first. She started talking about a couple who she met at the Asian market, they spoke her language and she loved that. She was drawn to them. She hadn't been able to speak her native tongue with anyone and she was excited to finally have someone to communicate with who could understand her every word. She was introduced to a community of people who spoke her language. She started attending church with them, I began to hear the term Jehovah Witness. Before long her husband started going to church with her, something he had never done with her before. It wasn't long before she spent less time at our church and more time with them. I noticed this couple's van (the same couple who introduced her to the JW church) at her house almost on a daily basis. I'm sure this made them feel special, feel wanted, feel needed, feel like they had community. I can't tell you how hard it was to restrain myself from walking up to her house (she lives two doors down) and fight for her faith, to come back to what she had learned for those 8 years I had spent with her. She assures me she studies the same Bible, she believes the same things. I know better. It makes me very sad. I have conversations with her son. He tells me they will no longer be celebrating Christmas because he is now not sure that Jesus was even born. My heart broke, I assure Him that Jesus was born, that Jesus died on the cross, that Jesus will be returning and that Heaven waits for us, for him. I remind him, I practically beg him to never forget that Jesus loves Him so much, regardless of what church he goes to. And then I'm left with so many questions like I mentioned above. All those what ifs?
What do they have that we didn't have? Could it be that they finally found a community that they had never experienced before? I'm at a loss. All I can do is pray, pray that God will reveal Himself like He never has. That they will discover the truth and that the truth will set them free. My conversations are so limited now, she has placed a distance between us which makes it nearly impossible to dive into a deep conversation. There is a darkness in her eyes, as if something has a hold of her. The light that was once there is gone, I haven't seen it in a long time. I miss that. I miss her. Her husband won't make eye contact with me, not even a glance to allow for a friendly wave. For once in his life he is diving into the church thing, he wants to tell others about his new found faith yet he won't even look my direction? It confuses me. Why did he never come to church with her, with us. What do they have that we don't? Her son comes down less frequently, he now has to ask if he can come down and play and most of the time he is told no. What can I do? I know I can't live out her faith for her, I can't make decisions for her, she has to be the one to do that. I guess I have to let her go down this path and pray like the persistent widow that she return to her faith in Jesus. I just can't help but feel a little responsible.


What if I had spent more time with her?
What if we had reached out to their family more?
What if I prayed for her more?
What if I had been a better mentor?
What if I served better?
What if I loved deeper?
What if I invited her to more things?
What if I made the time to just sit and talk?

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

the rest of the story & more fun!

My last post was about Camden injuring his foot at the Go Daddy family picnic. I wanted to share more pictures from the day and update on Camden's foot. We took Camden to the foot doctor yesterday because he still would not put any weight on it. We found out that he most likely has damage to the ligament that runs across the top of the foot (called the lisfranc ligament) so he is now in a walking boot that he has to wear day and night for six weeks. So far he's doing great with it but I have to remind myself that this is only day 2 and we have 40 days left. I'll have to add a picture of his boot, I just haven't gotten around to taking a picture yet. But here are some other pictures from our fun time at Michael's work picnic. My parents joined us for the fun too!






















Sunday, October 23, 2011

Ouch!

Today we went to a family picnic that Michael's work put on. It was so much fun! We had a great time. I will blog more about it this week but wanted to share a few pictures tonight. This is a picture of Camden going down a super fast slide, I took this picture seconds before he crashed at the bottom and hurt his foot. It got twisted at impact and boy did it hurt!
He was in so much pain at first that he actually got nauseated and had to sit down for a while. He has such a high pain tolerance so when he complains, we know it's bad. We managed to get his high top shoe back on his foot for support and he was able to limp around the picnic the rest of the day. He wasn't his normal bubbly self and a few hours later, he was doing this.
 We took the shoe off to get a better look and discovered he was brusing near the bottom of his foot and it was probably a good idea to take him in for X-rays. You can kind of see the bruising on this picture on the side of his right foot.
After a visit to the urgent care, they didn't find any fractures on the x-rays but the radiologist will have the official read in the morning. They sent him home with it wrapped and gave him crutches. The crutches were fun for about the first hour and as the day went on, not so much. And out of all our kids, Camden is the one who has the hardest time just being still and doing nothing. So needless to say this afternoon has been very frustrating for him, which means it has been frustrating for us dealing with him and this is only day 1 of the ouchie foot. I sure hope he wakes up doing much better in the morning and that all we are dealing with is a sprain. Whatever it is, I have a feeling it's going to be a hard week for him!