Sunday, October 31, 2004

Two Sides Of The Coin

Thanks to Willena for posting this on her blog....

Two Sides to the Coin
As Christians, for all of the negative things we have to say to ourselves, God has a positive answer for it:

We say: "It's impossible."
God's Word says: The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. (Luke 18:27)

We say: "I'm too tired."God's Word says: Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)

We say: "Nobody really loves me."God's Word says: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

We say: "I can't go on."God's Word says: My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. (ll Corinthians 12:9)

We say: "I can't do it."God's Word says: I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. (Philippians 4:13)

We say: "I can't figure things out."God's Word says: Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine ow understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

We say: "I'm not able."God's Word says: And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. (ll Corinthians 9:8)

We say: "It's not worth it."God's Word says: And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

We say: "I can't manage."God's Word says: My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)

We say: "I'm afraid."God's Word says: For God hath not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (II Timothy 1:7)

We say: "I'm always worried and frustrated."God's Word says: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. (l Peter 5:7)

We say: "I'm not smart enough."God's Word says: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. (Prov. 1:7)

We say: "I can't forgive myself."God's Word says: There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

Before The Poof


Andy with his new 'do'. He is a Bichon Frise but before we could do the Bichon style, we had to just shave him and start from scratch. This is one really awesome dog! We love him! Posted by Hello

Meet The Prince


Prince Andrew von Avondale the way he looked when we brought him home. Posted by Hello

Our Very Own??


The girls were SO excited to meet their "very own pet". Posted by Hello

Getting To Know You!


Andy playing with He-Man on his first night HOME :) Posted by Hello

Monday, October 25, 2004

Jen's Pool


Summer 2002 by Jen. She has been so awesome to include my kids in her photo collections. Her pics always turn out really great! Just wanted to share a few here. Posted by Hello

Spring 2002 by Jen Posted by Hello

Jen Took This Last Year


December 2003 by Jen Posted by Hello

He-Man Flexes His Muscle


He-Man finding the one he wanted to take home. He ended up with a hand-held pumpkin from the gift shop. It's really a shame I can't share the sound effects from this picture. Posted by Hello

Fall Field Trip


GJo went with us on Indie's field trip to the Pumpkin Patch. It was fun but let me just say that the owners of that thing are making a KILLING! $15.50 per kid for a couple of hayride things and pony rides and petting zoo and bouncey toys. Not to mention concessions.....wow. Posted by Hello

Sunday, October 17, 2004

Louie the Lizard

Louie was fun but now he's gone. No, he's not dead (that we know of) but he is gone. I told Ray she could keep him to take to school but she's not going back until Tuesday. I told her he might die before then if she kept him cooped up in his little aquarium. She was almost OK with that.

Bless her heart. She really wanted him to stay alive for school but the possibility of him dying really made her very sad. So sad, in fact, that she cried about it. She said, "I'm so worried about him. I know he's not our pet but can you please pray for him?"

As she climbed into bed she asked, "Will you check on him one more time?"

Of course. So when I went out to see him, I thought I had found a dead lizard clinging to the top edge of the plastic cage. I opened the top and asked Henry to come inspect. Turns out he WAS breathing but very slowly. It was a chilly night and the bottom of his domicile had gotten pretty damp from the water the kids put in his little non-spill-proof dish. I think he climbed to the top to get as far away from the water as possible. I know he had to be freezing.

Then I wondered....does this lizard have the ability to slow down his breathing and heart rate to stay warm? Was he really fine after all?

We left the lid off his cage and when Ray checked on him this morning, he was still hanging on the edge where I had left him. Surely he wasn't well.

Ray was excited but I wanted her to understand that he might not be doing so good. She left the cage open and when she checked on him right before leaving for church, he had crawled his way to the bricks.

Was he moving more because he was warming up a little bit?

He was gone when we came home.

Poor Ray. She REALLY wanted him to be OK.

She cried again. "I'm afraid I'll never know what it feels like to have my own pet."

Good grief!! Talk about tugging at my heart strings. And I'm not easily swayed in these matters. I want to be a "too bad, so sad" kind of parent when it comes to wanting something that just isn't practical. Or at the very least I will explain something-to-death about why we can't have another pet.

But would you believe what we did today? We took the kids to the pet store and began looking for pet options. Ray is to do a little bit of research about what pet would be best for our family. She will report the pros and cons of 3 different pets. Well, at least that's what we've asked her to do but even Henry and I are swaying away from the idea of gerbils, hermit crabs, and ferrets. Believe it or not, Henry and I have actually had the idea of a small dog pop into our crazy heads. I even looked online to see what kind of animals were at the shelter.

Are we insane or what?

Of course, the kids have begun to get their hopes up for a dog. We're so dumb.

I don't know what we'll end up doing. I'm sure this is either the beginning of a big lesson for all of us (kids for realizing that parents can be cruel and us for being so stupid as to act like this was a remote possibility when it wasn't) or it's the prelude to a new adventure with a puppy. We'll keep you posted.

Gosh, we're nuts.

Saturday, October 16, 2004

They Never Cease

My children amaze me all the time.

Rocky came running inside, "Daddy, Momma! We need a bowl for Ray to put the lizard in!"

Yes, my darling, sweet little Ray is a lizard-wrangler.

The big kids are on the porch right now building an ecosystem for their new creature. Poor fella. Hope he's had a good life because it's likely to end today.

And speaking of kids....

Teething has become a nuisance again. He-Man had a really nice stretch of just enjoying his mouthful of biters but now he's growing 2 more. This causes him to want to nurse alllll the time. He wakes crying if he's detatched but if he's latched on, he's fine for the course of the evening.

And during the day, all he wants to do is sit in my lap and nurse. He'll have stretches of wanting to get down and play but many times he wants to nurse for just a little bit. The precious thing is that he is very appreciative. Yesterday evening we were outside enjoying this gorgeous weather and he needed to stop playing to nurse a little while. When he was done he covered me up and said, "Done. Thank you, Momma" and then gave a wonderful little grin over his shoulder as he walked away.

Lord, please help me remember THAT instead of the seemingly constant nagging. Lord, also help me remember that these days are so short and that it won't be long before he's running away from me to catch lizards and chase girls.

Lord, I also pray for a really great sale on digital cameras the weekend of October 29 so Henry can finally go get his birthday gift for us all to enjoy :)

Thursday, October 14, 2004

Row, Row, Row


A few more pictures from the beach. Posted by Hello

Messy But Makes A Point


Not the greatest 'do' but shows how short Indie's hair is now. We love it :) You can also see she's missing a few teeth! Posted by Hello

With Lou-Lou


He-Man with Aunt Lou Lou. Posted by Hello

Where's Your License?


The girls go for their first drive! It was no surprise to us that Indie zipped around pretty fast and Ray kept one foot on the brakes at all time. Posted by Hello

Beach Silliness


I LOL on this one :) Posted by Hello

Bubbles On The Balcony


Rocky enjoyed playing bubbles on the walkway of the condo. It was VERY windy through there. You can see the large amounts of construction in the background. We were in a really new area of PC with lots of new buildings going up all around. We were actually the very first guests in the condo we used. It was so nice and new! Posted by Hello

Posted by Hello

Vroom!


Vroom! Posted by Hello

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

He-Man's Sentences

"Umm. Yummy milk." (Momma's milk)

"Cook the eggs." (Loves cheese eggs for breakfast)

"Thank you welcome."

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

Fun Things

Going through Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey when there's actually enough money to spread out into our envelopes.

Tapping on stage for the first time in many years.

Not hurting myself while doing above-said dance.

Not having to rent a meeting room at Red Cross tonight.

Know It All, Strike A Match, and Mindstein

Getting free movie passes from the mall because we turn in our Food Court receipts and because the little old ladies who work at the Customer Service booth like us and our cute kids.

Counting down to a cruise. 38 days to go!

Friday, October 01, 2004

All Together Now...


Anyone want to sing, "God Bless America" with me? Posted by Hello

Let's Go Fly A Kite


PERFECT weekend for kite-flying. Posted by Hello

Thunder Beach


Brosnan, Rocky, and He-Man at the beach. Yes, we found a place at the beach that wasn't damaged. It WAS, however, "Thunder Beach" meaning 60,000 Harleys and other Chopper-types all weekend. But hey, obviously, we were OK with it! :) Look at He-Man's GREEN EYES :) Posted by Hello