Slice!!

 

This really doesn't do it justice, the ice cream was still pretty soft from all my hurried hot torture!! Tomorrow it will be easier to slice :P But still super yummy!!

A Grand Week

This last week was amazing. It began last Sunday with our evening kick off for VBS which went extremely well. Our biggest turn out yet, I think! Monday began with 18 kids in my First and Second grade VBS class. We had a great first day; they had so many great questions and genuine concerns. We created a canyon which we threw all our concerns into, come kids were dealing with divorce in their families, hurt knees and hearts, heart attacks in their families, and sadness that you wish kids would never have to face. But the truth is that there are so many families out there hurting, trying to run away from pain and illness. These kids had a real understanding for how hard life could be.... We learned that God cares about everything, even the little things like scraped knees and hurt feelings. And that we can always talk to Him about our feelings and concerns, and that he is always there to give us big hugs and peace in our hearts. I know that God was working on so many hearts this past week, including mine. The days that followed we gained 2 more kids, for a total of 20, and they all made it EVERY Single DAY!! No absences! What an amazing thing God accomplished. Last year I had 16 signed up but always had at least 1-2 absent! Nope, not this time, 20 every single day!! God kept us all fresh and ready and healthy and eager. Each day was better than the day before, and on our last day we prayed as a group and most of them showed such sincere interest, they admitted that they were sinners and had done things wrong in their lives, they raised their cute hands to admit the sin that was in their lives, believe in Christ as God's son who died and rose again on the Third Day, and to confess to E.D. and I that they wanted Jesus to be their Lord and Savior. It was amazing to watch their little hands go up, with their eyes closed and heads tucked to their chests. Our evening performance went great, they sung their little hearts out, and the kids that were in the Drama (Cayleb, Noah, Madison Wheeler and Tayah Tryon) as well as Mr. Jay did a fabulous job!! We all celebrated a great week with ice cream and smore bars.  Thursday, which was our last day as well as the evening of ouf final performance was also my Birthday. I couldn't have had a better day. Spending it with the kids and around all my church family and with my family was perfect :D

Charity Ann's Birthday was on Friday and it was perfect as well. What a great group of kids we had over for the day. They had such a great time, and even talked me into putting soap on the trampoline with water! What??!!  Lots of fun, and Charity Ann was glowing. 

Monday was also our Rank Test for Karate. We all tested, Cayleb and Charity Ann went for their Purple belts and passed, Noah went for first degree Green and I went for my Second degree of Green we both did great as well. It feels so good to be back into a martial art.... I missed it a lot. The kids seem to be enjoying it still, which is good because they are signed up for another year of it :P The best thing about our gym is it is so family friendly. We have amazing teachers, it's a Christian based Goju Kai  Freestyle Karate and they really love what they do.

Well, better go, gotta finish up dinner!!

Birthdays.... and other days....

 

First, this cake is AWESOME!!Now.....

In my "old" age I feel that God is giving me more and more wisdom in regards to attacks from the enemy. Let me begin with this... God please help me to have a wonderful Birthday, to help me understand that forgiveness is one thing, but forgetting is entirely different and hardest to do, and that Satan will always be looking for times in my life that he feels I am the most vulnerable for his gain. Help me to see those times approaching, so that I can be strong in you Lord, and full of your peace and grace so that I can respond to his attacks with love, compassion and grace, no matter how I am feeling as a human. I am who you say I am and no matter what anyone else may say, they can't ever change who you made me to be. I can be strong in you Lord, I don't need to cast doubt on any day that that you let me be a part of, and you can use me for your works no matter what!! 

I am not going to go into much about last year, other than it was a very lovely day minus one particular thing.... a mail box full of attacks by a person being used by the enemy. That day allowed me to have doubt as a person, and as a friend but not long after, God restored to me my hope and grace. That He made me who I am, and that no matter how others on this world respond to me as a person, as long as I am trying my best to walk in his path for me, I am protected. No one has the right to judge me, and though I usually cave and let doubt creep in when someone demonstrates judgment towards me, I am learning a life long lesson in endurance in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I look back on my life so far, and the choices that I have made, even the ones that last year were highly questioned and condemned, and know that my peace is in my Lord and that only he can judge me. Fellow friends and family here on earth can cast doubt, judge, and hate me for who I am, but I know the truth, deep in side of me, that as long as I follow His lead I can never be wrong. I also know that when I look ahead to the place where I want to be, and see my own faults and lack of faith, I find myself casting self judgment and falling into the trap of guilt and self condemnation. If that happens in my mind, I know it must happen elsewhere, I am not that unique!! So, perhaps that is what happened on my last Birthday. Someone actually looked at my life and saw what they wanted to see, right or wrong, and allowed guilt to creep into their heart. Whether that was from God or Satan, I am not going to attempt to call that one! I remain humbly in Christ here.... safe.... and hope that God continues to use me to bless others. And if others are able to use those blessings in a negative way, I can only pray that their hearts are filled with Christ completely. That only God's judgment is on their hearts; as the parent, he has the right to place those on our hearts.....

That being said, my memorial to the worst Birthday I will ever have (I'm an optimist,) today is going to be great! I am going to have 20 1st and 2nd graders give me a Birthday Hug!! Jason gave me a big hug this morning and told me Happy Birthday, my Church family already made me a cake and sang to me, and God is going to be working on lots of hearts today as we finish up our annual VBS program. What better day to get to celebrate being born and being used by GOD!! I feel so loved and God Rocks!!

Our God is an AWESOME GOD,
who REIGNS from Heaven on Earth,
With Wisdom, Power and LOVE,
Our God is an AWESOME GOD!!!

May God Bless this Day with Love, Grace and Peace in the hearts of the Children we are sharing with. May he shelter the seeds that he has been planting from harms way, may He bless the water and sunshine that we are sprinkling on those precious seeds. May he allow those seeds to have fallen on good soil and not on a rocky path to be trampled. Please Lord, let these precious children feel your love and peace in their hearts. And help them to seek refuge in your grace and to always remember to fall into your lap when they are knocked down by life. I pray that you will keep working in their hearts and the hearts of others around them, that you will ultimately win their hearts for your kingdom. That these seeds will someday be aloud to come to a full bloom in you!! My God, you are an Awesome God and I know that nothing is beyond your grasp. That your will is always done, on Earth as it is in heaven. Bless this day, and your children, Father.... Amen.

Noah's Birthday

Noah is official 8 years old now!!! Here are a few pictures.....

We had a great day and I think he did too :)

Jason's real Birthday!

So, Monday was the birthday date but Wednesday was his actual Birthday....

The kids picked out Pizza for Daddy's Birthday Dinner, so we made fresh pizza with Salami and Black Olives just for Daddy!! I also had been working on his cake since Monday....

Here's my secret cake design!!

Brownie crust, homemade double chocolate ice cream, homemade caramel sauce and a home made fudge topping!! A Diabetic Coma in one slice!! But, boy was it yummy!! :) He loved it!!

The Dark Knight!

So I planned out this whole charade for Jason's Birthday this year... it got more and more complicated as the day wore on but ended up like this.....

A Short Recap-

I left him 4 notes around the house with information about where he could find me (The kids and I were not home!) and what to do etc..... Eventually he made it over to my friend Kristy's house where I had dropped off the kids so that we could actually have a real DATE!! And then we headed off..... I took him to Bob's Burgers and Brews (Superb Hamburgers and JoJo's) for a nice relaxing but informal dinner. Then we headed off to get our tickets for the movie that we had both been waiting forever to go see!! Batman has always been his favorite.... that was my first Christmas Present to him a LONG LONG LONG time ago..... 4 VHS tapes of the 4 Batman movies that were out at the time (Michael Keaton will always hold a special place as Batman in my heart, Val Kilmer Sucked and Clooney didn't do much better, this new guy is good though!!) So we went and got our tickets, but because we were taking our time, we missed the 7:30 showing and had to wait til 9:50!!! OMGoodness I was trying to hard to stay awake!! But I made it and the movie was great and we got to walk around the mall together for a few hours just talking and dreaming. We got popcorn and a soda to share and had stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few theater boxes of sweets to *sneak in* Come on, I'm not going to pay $4.00 for a box of candy that is $1 in the store!! Hehe!! The evening turned out perfect and he had a great time and so did I!!

To my two 8-8-08 babies!!

Congratulations to Cheryl Ann Clark who delivered Jacob Daniel Clark this morning at 7:20 a.m. or so!!! And To Maria McDowell who had a C-Section this morning and delivered Taryn Avery McDowell at 8:08 a.m. Congratulations again and good job girls!!

Charity Ann's second 6th Birthday :)

Here are a few pictures from her party on Saturday.
The kids spent the entire afternoon playing outside on the trampoline, the slides (which were a HUGE hit) and in the spa :) I think that she had fun, Hehe!!

On Wednesday, her actual Birthday, she got a Disney Princess Sleeping Beauty Pony that's the perfect size for barbie's to ride on from Cayleb, Noah and Sarah Rose. Mommy and Daddy got her a Mariposa Barbie and a "Barbie: The Magic of Pegasus" DVD. She also can't forget that Nana and Pop's got her and her siblings the super cool Airplane Teeter Totter from Costco!! She also got some fun money from Grandma Eques and her buddy Dylan.

On Saturday she got the Disney Princess Cinderella Pony from her friend Lily; a "Topple" game from her friend Maggie; and Barbie Camera and a beach Barbie from her friends Thomas, Marcus, and Cyrus; and a Barbie Mustang Car from her friends Kourtney and Brittney!! She had such a great time playing with everyone and it was a blast for the rest of us as well. I LOVE ENTERTAINING!! I made her another cake, an experiment of brownie crust, strawberry ice cream filling and a fudge topping. IT'S DELICIOUS!!! I still have a few pieces in the freezer that I am hoarding!! Hehe :)

Is Summer Half Full or Half Empty ??

That is the Question! I know that some people out there DREAD the summer home with their kids. I know that some people have to deal with Childcare issues all summer long, and can't wait for school to begin again. But I, on the other hand, don't have either of those problems. I've been spending the summer enjoying my kiddos for the most part. There are always going to be those times that they infuriate me, but for the most part, we have been having a lovely summer :) We had lots of visits from family fairly early on, all around the 4th of July. And then I had a Surprise Baby Shower that I planned for a good friend of mine, which turned out phenomenal

After that adventure ends I am hoping to be able to help my friend Kristy move her and her family across town (closer to us!). Not that our town is huge or anything (pop is less than 3,000 year rounders I would guess.) Our town isn't really set up like a typical town, with a general downtown area, though the area down by the water is generally the most populated, it's more like little islands of sub divisions divided by farms, people with acreage like us, and wetland areas that can not be developed. It's really nice, because even though we are all clustered around the beautiful bay, we all have our own space, some more than others, but really, even the subdivisions have only a short brisk walk to some sort of open space or water. Sorry, I know that I have digressed. Part of the "move" is a smallish yard sale that we are going to have here, because they are moving into a substantially smaller home so they need to purge a little extra stuff and I always have a collection going on of things I would usually just donate to the local "A.R.C." That is planned for this Saturday, so hopefully we will get good yard sale weather and will sell all of our crap stuff. Hehee :)

We also got the second installment of our "swingset" built. And, yeah, I talked myself and Jason and the kids out of the Costco one, even though is it a great playset. But, here's the cool part, we have a 20 foot double slide (for racing) going down the side of one of our hills, right off to the side of where the actual swing set is going to be built!! I am going to go take a picture and post it on here in a few minutes, but I have to go move laundry around :) Okay, here you go :)

So here is the grass almost full grown, I am so excited it looks so BEAUTIFUL out my back windows now, no more garbage, piles of blackberry brambles, fallen trees etc. Look back to May's posts to find some in progress pictures and see the change!!

Another back yard shot. You might be able to find a blog in May with Progress shots where these two trees can be located. It is really an amazing difference!

The Slide!!

Who Hoo!!

You can see how big it is compared to Cayleb! and Sarah Rose!!


Cayleb :)


Cayleb and Sarah Rose getting ready to race :)


Cayleb ready to race :)


Sarah Rose still getting ready to race :) I had to catch her, so I don't have a slide shot, sorry!

Cayleb going down the slide! Usually he's got his arms above his head in roller coaster stance!

So, either way, the answer to the question for me is the summer is still half full, though I see it disappearing ever hour of every day, which only gets us closer to the new school year that I am anticipating greatly!! I think that I need to start making some lists of materials and library books that we are going to need for the first several weeks, so that I feel "prepared." I know that for the most part, however, I am not going to be able to prepare myself for the adventure beyond that :)

Happy Birthday Charity Ann!!

Happy Birthday Charity Ann!!

She had a wonderful Birthday with us this year, and we have planned a small party for her on Saturday with some of her friends :)

Ahhhhh!!! A Barbie?? You got me a Barbie!!!!

Mmmmm, if it wasn't for that barbie, this would be my favorite part!!

Daddy and Sissy watching Charity Ann open her Pony :)

Ponies are my FAVORITE!!!

Happy Birthday to Me :)

Happy Birthday Tify!!
My wonderful neighbor surprised me with a Chocolate Cake for my Birthday!! Yummy!!! She's so sweet :)