And then....

So, the funnest part about my birthday, is knowing that my daughter's birthday is just around the corner!!!

Today, my oldest baby girl is a whopping 23 years old.

I wish her a wonderful, happy, crazy, good birthday.  

But ask my youngest son, and he will tell you she acts like a 45 year old.  Which odd since that is older then I am.  :P

But he probably feels that way because she is his older sister, and she practice mothering on him.  Both the good and the *bad*.

And she always felt like if he needed a good smack in the back of the head, well, she  will rise up to the occasion and provide it like a good sister should.

They have a special bond.  :D

Anyway, she is not here.  Again.  So the gifts were sent, the card mailed, the phone call made, the FB wishes posted.

If only I could hug her, and kiss her forehead.

But I can't.

And I can't do that to her beautiful baby boy either.

The one who, the minute she blinks, will be 23, too.  And she will wonder where the time went.

And why, oh, why did she blink.

Happy birthday beautiful girl.  You continue to make me proud.

Summer time and the living is BUSY.

Whoa.

We start school this week.  And I am NOT ready.

So what else is new?

Anyway, I had a birthday.  I know, I know...when you are my age...big whoop.

But this year it was so great.  Because see...my husband bought me this:

How much do I love it??!!??!  Let me count the ways.  Now, as excited as I am abouthis wonderful bicycle, I have yet to ride it.  It is either raining, or we are out for the day.  :P  TOMORROW is the day. Irene is gone, no big plans for the week, I have to do it.

A few of the things we did this past week:

We went to my friend's parent's lake house.  You could fit my house in their great room.  

Yeah.

Anyway, the kids loved it.

Elena is canoeing.  Now it looks like it is just her & her pal, but one of the older kids is in the back holding on.  Yes, I tend to be a responsible parent more often then not.

The older kids coming back from water skiing and tubing.  It was Samuel's first time. He fell and 'rode' his face.  He thought it was cool until his bathing suit was coming off.  

Then there is this girl, who happens to be my daughter, who has more facial expressions then her brother.  I KNOW!!!  Who woulda thunk?  We went shopping for Christmas in August.  My mission girls put on a sit down dinner for the church and they did a great job!!!

And we went to the city on Friday.  Yes, the Friday before Irene was going to come to town.  And can we remember that people from the city left the city that day, and the traffic was a nightmare.  I mean more so then the normal nightmare city traffic.  It was on a monumental scale of bad traffic.  But it was the only day we could go see The Pompeii exhibit.  We had tickets for weeks. And it was worth it. 

The boys at Times Square.

And, yes, Irene showed up as she said she would.  We lost power for over 15 hours.  But since it is summer and I had over planned, it was ok.  I even did all the laundry and ironed everything so we would not have wrinkled clothes.  Because who wants to have wrinkled clothes like we just came back from the woods?  When really, it was just a storm...

Our neighbor's tree.  On our garage.   Great.

But we are all safe.  And my daughter and her family are safe.  And my parents are safe.  And my son, though his place flooded, is also safe.

So, life is good, and GOD is great.

Today, as we started to clean up the yard, I kind of got excited about the fall decorations, buying mums, pulling out the sweaters.

My favorite season.

Yup, GOD is great.

Back from vacation

We are back...from vacation.  

 The house we were able to rent this year was pretty cool.  It had that cabin feel to it, Seeing as how it was all wood inside.

Someone loved exploring all the rooms that first day.

And...hey, life is just so much more interesting when you put your glasses on.

Those glasses made their rounds on EVERYONE.

I will post more pictures and adventures later.  But my son in law thought it would be a cool idea to buy this puzzle of the island and spend the whole week doing it together.

We did it in less then 24 hours.  Puzzles are terribly addicting.  And when the whole family gets involved...forget it.  

It was cool though, we used it for directions and ideas.

I was really not looking forward to the end of this vacation.  Not because I didn't want to come home... I missed my puppies and routine of home in general.

But this year, the end of vacation meant that that beautiful baby boy and his parents, also known as my grandson, daughter & son in law, were leaving for VA Beach for his last year of law school.  It is hard, having that baby boy for 3 months, and now he is gone.  :(

And now it is time to open those boxes.  You know...the ones that have your school year.  The ones that used to be fun to open, back when the older kids were little.  Now it is exhausting to think of planning the next school year.  

But no.  

Ok, it may be exhausting, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

SO, off to open the boxes, even though they have been sitting here for over a month.  :P  Off to plan lessons, trips, extra credit, look forward to teaching one peanut to read, and the other one to tackle algebra 1/2.  

Its' good to be home.

Kind of.

Hurry Up and Say Something.

I found this somewhere.  

It hit me hard.

And truly, Mom could be substituted quite easily.

I have seen this be the case WAY TO MANY times.

And can someone explain to me how this happens?  When did we become so self righteous as Christians, that we can deem who is worthy of our love??  And the moment we start this thinking, we truly become grumpy.  Mean.  Hateful.

Useless to the kingdon.  

Dear readers, I pray this never happens to any of us.

On another note...

Who needs to buy a gun, when your own garden can provide weapons.

REALLY??!!??!  Who grows a gun-shaped zuccinni??!!??!

Me.  :P

Anyway...

We had a garage sale this past Saturday.  I am truly fascinated by people.  The vast array of people who stopped and bought, or didn't buy... WOW!!!

Thinking about it...it still cracks me up.  My daughter & I were very amused.  Like the British lady, who is from Manchester, but doesn't watch soccer.  Or the guys who jumped out the car before it had a chance to stop.  And how about them Egyptians??  Or the Indian couple who were so delightful, and in whom the husband was wanting to buy this crystal horse, and his wife said no.   Only he came back and got it anyway.  Who can say no to a dollar?  I mean, if you regret the decision...it was a dollar for crying out loud!!!

And hey, how about the Haitian lady who almost bought us out.  Thankfully.  

And yes, how could we forget my nieces stopping by, and Alexis wrestling with the Ab-Master, and never really figuring out how to use it.  

It almost eat her.  

For lunch.

And to end this long enough post, that beautiful boy who calls himself my grandson...(did I mention he is beautiful?  He is.)

Well he & my mom have this long standing relationship.  She talks and he cracks up.  Everytime.  Not smile, not make funny noises.  C.r.a.c.k.s-u.p.

It works for both of them.

We are off on vacation back to MV on Saturday.  Oh the drama. lol.  

There shouldn't be drama for vacation.

Should there??

Faith

I was talking to this young man I know, and he asked if he gave something up, would GOD give it back to him.

Of course, I couldn't believe that the only way he was willing to give something up was hoping/having some kind of guarantee that he would get it back.  I mean...come on.

He told me that GOD gave Abraham his son back, it was just a test.

To which I replied, " Abraham walked up that mountain fully knowing in his mind, heart and soul that he was going to come down by himself. There was no doubt in him, for he was grieved, yet fully obedient."

Someone pat me on the back.

But then I got to thinking about me.

Oh.my.word.

How many times have I walked up the mountain, and have already figured out all the possible ways GOD could change His mind for my will?

How many times have I walked up a mountain, and looked for my goat?

How many times have a walked past the mountain, making believe it was not there, even though it was as big as....a mountain?  I thought maybe if I went around it, I could avoid it.

WAY too many times.

Even though I know the Sunday School answer, I need to start walking the everyday walk of what I believe.

Will it be easy?

No.

Will it be painful?

Probably.

Will it be good?

Totally.

So, GOD has put my favorite people in the whole wide world, the youth of our lives, to remind me, I am but a babe, trying to make believe I am a giant.

HE is so good to me.

August 1

This is my son. Well, one of them.   :D

He is 12.

A few weeks ago, I felt compelled to encourage my son to do a fast.

And as I was praying about it, before I went to him with it, I thought maybe, that if agrees to do this, then I would do it along side him.

He agreed and we decided that August 1 was going to be our starting date.

We are both pretty excited about it, and at the same time, we know it will be hard.

What is the fast, you ask?

We are going to not listen to ANY secular music for ONE year.

I KNOW!!!!

I love my country music, my U2, The Killers, well I could make a list that is way too long.  He has just discovered his music likes, and is willing to put it on hold for a year.

I just discovered a new favorite song.  ( If I Ever Leave This World Alive)

Oh well.  

OH!

He did request one day off.  And I agree.  I told him I would take the same day off.  

The day he runs his first 8K, and I do yet another 1/2 marathon.

Our day off.  It is next Spring.

On other news, have I mentioned that our gand-baby-boy is just so beautiful in so many ways.  He just doesn't stop being beautiful.

He can't help it.

The kids and I wne to Cape Cod for a few days to visit my sister.  She lives right near what they call a 'pond' which is bigger then a few lakes.

And here is my son,  I don't know why he is so whacky, but he is.  I will keep him anyway.  

OK, the family is jumping around like maniacs, I should go watch the Mets win.