The new thrift store

Thrift stores are awesome! I really like the new one in our neighborhood. Today I got 2 new Halloween outfits for the kids and they were each only 95 cents. TJ will be a tiger that kinda looks like Hobbes and Katie will be a pink bunny. I got a dress that will work for Ren Fest or a Witch. My crazy sister wants everyone to know she will be a WP cheerleader for Halloween. Apparently, Janie will be a 70's person. I also got Christmas toys for the kids and a Buffs outfit for TJ and and snow bibs for Katie. Almost forgot I also got a great skirt for church. As you can tell I don't have anything inordinate to talk about today. I will have a busy weekend putting in the gate and moving the Lilacs. Oh, boy! Have a great weekend.

TJ's Baptism

Pictures from the baptism as promised. On top: Our pastor is in the striped shirt and the kids are with their respected god parents. Below: Our parents and my sisters with us. With some exceptions with the food not being the way I ordered it. Everything went great. There were a lot of people that cancelled in the last 48 hours, up to minitues before even. I refuse to let it get me down. The way I see it God has big plans for our little TJ for the devil to have been giving us so many problems just with a littte baby's baptism. As I was driving to church at 9:00 it was cold, overcast, and drizzling, but when I went out to the car at noon to get his outfit the sun had come out and it was beautiful. He was baptized with water from Clear Creek, if you don't know that is the same water that makes Coors. We had a few other kids there. Katie's little friend came up to get a closer look while we were baptizing him, it was very cute, and her other little friend (whose dad was taping for me) was more interested in the goose poop. It makes for a great home video.

So true....

Did you see Baby Blues this weekend? Oh, it is sad, but true. Network TV these days is simply atrocious. There are somethings I can not believe they can say on TV! There are so many times I have to stop and go... did they really just say that? And there are times it is artistic or necessary for they story line, but most of the time I think it is there for shock value. Now, I am not saying we have to go back to to extreme of the 50's where husband and wife had twin beds and you couldn't show belly buttons, but come on people. At the very least watch the language. Baby Blues makes the comment about this being a night time phenomenon, but I could care less what they play after the kids go to be. South Park comes on at 10:30, my kids better not be up then. What makes me mad is when these things happen at prime time. Now I know what you are thinking... stop your belly aching and just turn it off. Well, believe me I do! There are great shows out there that I can not watch, because the content is not suitable for kids (or the weak at heart.) It just erks me off!

Wild at Heart thoughts

We are currently studying Wild at Heart by John Eldridge. This is something I wrote up based on a study from the book. I highly recomend this book for men. I personally would rather read something else, but hey, the guys like it.

Useful Things I Can Do
Read Music
Fix Plumbing
Cook
Change Diapers
Catch and Clean Fish
Take excellent Rads
Change my oil/spark plugs/ tires

Useful Things I cannot Do
Defend Myself
Drive a Nail
Fix a car
Keep plants alive
Properly restrain an animal
Say "no"

Long Awaited Zephaniah Notes

Ok, this 3 chapter book took me a long time to go through. Lets hope I never tackle Psalms :-)

So, anyway, this book was SCARY. A ton of doom and destruction. Probably why it took me so long to get through.The first two chapters and a lot of the third was just that. A very scary picture of distruction, some that is still yet to come. Like the reverse order of creation for all creatures. But it was not all gloom and doom it was also a sorse of hope. Seek the Lord, righteousness, and huimility to perhaps be sheltered from rath. This book shows us how to avoid rath, shows we have total love from the Lord and we can celebrte in that love, and finally justice will be given to our enemy. This is something I need to come back to as I have problems with forgiveness, justice wil be done. Hopefully my next book won't take as long.

My Manifesto...

A while back my awsome friend Nutmeg did this on here blog and I have been working on it here and there since. It is a list (not conclusive mind you) of thing you believe in.

My manifesto…
I believe Jesus came to wash us clean of our sins. I believe this does NOT give us an excuse to keep living in sin. I believe I am going to get mad at someone today. I believe I can change that attitude. I believe it is not worth adding 0.8 years to my life by not eating cheeseburgers. I believe I have the best kids in the world. I believe I have the cutest kids in the world. I believe my husband is a genius. I believe the moon landing is real. I believe fish is gross, but healthy. I believe broccoli is the best vegetable. I believe you can not have a good relationship with your mother-in-law. I believe your mother is nicer to you once you move out and she doesn’t have to wash your underwear anymore. I believe by 22 you should not be doing laundry at your mother’s. I believe God heals. I believe stubbing your toe hurts more than getting a shot. I believe “can not” should be written as two words. I believe “fishes” is a sure sign of ignorance. I believe you shouldn’t listen to people who make you feel stupid. I believe wool itches. I believe I can be anything I want to be. I believe I will be a friend to my friends, even when they are not being friends to me. I believe some friendships last a lifetime. I believe having children after 50 is insane. I believe being an only child is lonely. I believe in anti-psychotic drugs. I believe exercise gives me more energy. I believe no matter how much I practice, I will never be a good dancer. I believe I will keep dancing anyway. I believe no one sin is worse than another. I believe jet skies are way fun. I believe steam cleaners are awesome. I believe junior high is the most difficult time in life. I believe the terrible 3s are much worse than the terrible 2s. I believe a baby with a full tummy is the key to sleeping through the night. I believe in PDF parenting. I believe I have the best job in the world. I believe in PMS. I believe some friends are forever. I believe opposites attract. I believe children should only speak when spoken to. I believe in spanking. I believe my children need to stay in my site while in public. I believe Cold Stone has the best ice-cream. I believe sometimes you love someone more than they love you. I believe CD cases multiply. I believe I will never finish this list.

Edited November 30, 2012
Wordle of this post

Jackson Lake

We spent this weekend at Jackson Lake with our small group. We had a great time. It was TJ's first camping trip. He did great. Katie liked sleeping in her new Princesses sleeping bag. They both played in the sand during the day while we were out on the jet skies. The 2 dots in the picture above are our jet skies. Not sure who is on them though. I LOVE the new jet skies. I was worried that we spent too much on them, but wow, I was wrong. They are so awesome. I got mine almost up to 60 mph. Scott was learning all sorts of tricks. Plus we borrowed a tube to pull behind. The boys enjoyed that. The weather was just perfect on Saturday. It was so relaxing just sitting on the beach and taking turns on the jet skies. Katie learned that when you are picking things up that are under water you have to reach below the top of the water. She had this toy she was plying with that she kept throwing in the water, but then she would pinch at the top of the water to pick it up. Daddy showed her that it was below the water. TJ loved moving the sand with his hands (and eating it.) We made a monster marshmallow that I think made 4 smores. You can see it in the photo on the left. It as hilarious. It tasted great though. All in all it was a perfect weekend.

Ode to Comics

Oh comics, where would we be without them? Well, would you believe I sat down to read the Sunday funnies last night (yes, Tues night) when I saw none other than my husband's favorite Calvin and Hobbes. After some research I have discovered the comics strip has returned to the papers for a couple months to promote the Complete Collection of Calvin and Hobbes coming out sometime this fall. I am pretty sure Scott was Calvin in another life.
And who can forget Blondie. One of my personal favorites I was delighted to see this comic celebrating 75 years, but how is this possible. Scott and I were discussing this and came up with either this guy strarted this comic very young or it has been taken over by his son. It is the ladder. After researching this too today, I found that the comic originally by Chic Young has been taken over by his son Dean.

Happy Birthday

Hey Fer, Happy Birthday!
Enjoy your "Birthday Flowers!"

Patriot's Day

GOD BLESS THE USA BY LEE GREENWOOD

If tomorrow all the things were gone
I’d worked for all my life,
And I had to start again with just my children and my wife.
I’d thank my lucky stars to be living here today,
‘Cause the flag still stands for freedom
and they can’t take that away.

And I’m proud to be an American
where at least I know I’m free.
And I won’t forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.
And I’d gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land
God bless the U.S.A.

From the lakes of Minnesota, to the hills of Tennessee,
across the plains of Texas, from sea to shining sea,
From Detroit down to Houston and New York to LA,
Well, there’s pride in every American heart,and it’s time to stand and say:

I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free.
And I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.
And I’d gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land
God bless the U.S.A.

My Nemesis Has Fallen

Yes, it is true I too had a nemesis, but after a year long ruthless battle full of blood and gore I HAVE OVERCOME VICTORIOUS!! Who could this masked avenger have been you ask? None other than the project from ... well you get the idea. A little over a year ago we bought this super fast computer with a DVD burner, because our VCR broke. (No seriously.) We decided there was nothing so important that we had to have a VCR to record except... the home movies! Here is where the new computer comes in. I wasn't going to lose our home videos. Our old computer was to slow to burn DVD's. But alas this program wouldn't burn to DVD, the other wouldn't edit, and of course, they wouldn't talk to each other. Well, today I changed all that and made them kiss and make up. Now with the help of a third party program I have conquered this nemesis.

Great Speakers

Ok, so everyone knows I love Joyce Meyer I have read a lot of her books and watch her show on Daystar when ever I can. I really wanted to go to a woman's confrence in St Louis that she is speaking at at the end of the month, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen. Anyway, I have caught someone new on Daystar a couple times. I think he is really great too. His name is Pastor Bob Coy . I don't know much about him yet, but I have really enjoyed the couple sermons I caught. I am going to add both of their links to my great links column. I used to wonder who in their right mind would watch a sermon on tv. Guess I am not in my right mind. Not only do I watch them on tv, I download them to my MP3 player and listen to them while I am at the gym. Anyway, they are both great speaker, check them out.

Helping Daddy

Scott has been working very hard on gtting his shop in order. So, a couple weeks ago he put up a big shelf for tile, shop vac, paint, ect. Katie was "helping" by throwing nails at daddy when he needed them an checking his measurements as you can see in this picture. it looks really great now and you should see how proud he is when he shows it to everyone.

Weekend

Scott and I spent the morning preparing for putting in the new fence tomarrow. We set the 2 posts in the front and pulled out one that we are going to replace in the back and poured concrete back there too. The kids had a lot of fun watching. Tonight we are going to pick up the pickets with the neighbor and then they will start in the morning. I am going to a sort of prayer service in the morning, so he will be working and watching kids at the same time. But I am sure they will have no problem getting it all in by tomarrow. It will only be about 8 sections worth of pickets. Then Sunday is the first day of Sunday School. I can not wait! It seems like it has been so long since we have had Sunday school. I guess that is what happens when you stop half way through the year.

Discipleship

As disciples of Jesus we are given a mission from God that we hopefully have accepted, to go and make disciples of all nations. To me this means speeding and sharing the love of Jesus everyday to everyone. Although, I am a big fan of missions work and have in the past and plan to do so again in the future more missions work (what a grammatical nightmare, sorry), what about your friends, neighbors, coworkers. Where is your faith then? I am so not talking about putting a fish on your car either, I hate those things. Unless you are an excellent driver avoid the whole fish/car thing, because you are bound to piss someone off (most likely me) and when you do cut them off, forget to use your blinker ect, is that really the message you want to be sending? By the way if you think you are an excellent driver, your probably not. Anyway, back on track. To fill the great commandment we must have confidence and courage, but great news it is not confidence in ourselves or courage from ourselves... It is all God. Which is great, because I have a TON more confidence in God than myself. If it weren't for courage from God, I am not sure I would have any courage at all (sad, but true). Phillipians 3:12-14 12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. What I take from this verse is to be good disciples we must have grace for ourselves, we are not perfect even as followers and from verse 14 strive to live the truth. Living the truth is the best form of discipleship. If you are living the truth everyone around you will not be able to help, but see the light of Jesus.

He Sits!

It has finally happened. He is learning to sit. He sat unsupported today for about 2 minitues. I am so proud. He had dinner last night with his girlfriend and she has been sitting for about a month now so, I guess he felt he had to catch up. He is growing up so fast! I was so excited I had to get his picture down here for everyone to see.

Labor Day

It is a nice day here. Things are going better now. My knee is healing from the fall at Pam's. I still haven't gotten my latest FNA results. Scott was digging a post hole for our new fence yesterday and hit the gas line, it is fine though. We went out to dinner with our friends at a great Chinese/Japanese buffet yesterday. I have never had sushi before, but it wasn't bad. We could have eaten there all night. We always have fun when we go out with them. So do the kids, their kids are the same age as ours. Today we are just sitting around playing video games. Scott's brother is up today. We might go to the corn maze later. That will be fun. I am making pizza for dinner. Scott loves my pizza. Katie isupstairs playing with the boys and TJ is napping, but he should be up soon. There is a woman's confrenceat the end of the month in St Louis that I really want to go to. The problem is just getting to St Louis. It is quite a long walk! Oh well, I am going to start planning for it next year though. The boy is up!

Baptism is a go!

Ah, a big relief of my shoulders this morning. Peter called and we were able to schedule TJ's baptism. Now I just have to rent the shelter at the park and order food and cake. I am thinking about getting that Chicago style hot dog place to cater. I think that would be fun. I am printing out the invites as we speak so I can hand them out at church tomarrow. I was starting to think it was going to have to wait until next summer. There is a lot to do, but that's ok. I am sure I will get a lot of questions about why we are doing it at the park instead of at the church. One, Scott and I both have a heart for missions and that means going out of the four walls of the church, two when I think of baptism I think of:

Acts 8:36-39 Philip and the Ethiopian
36As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?" 38And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 39When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.

There is a little pond at the park kind of what I think of as the water in this story. Then, there is the fact that Scott, the kids, and I just like to be outside!

So, anyway, my invites are done printing, time to get them in envelopes.

August Poll

Can you believe summer is over already? Well, there was a hot dog tie. Apparenty, the greatest hot dogs are Ball Park and "Other." Speaking of hot dogs, Scott and I found this great Chicago stlye hot dog place by us YUM!!! September's poll is very important. Two of my friends and I are planning a "girl trip," but we don't know where we want to go yet. Help us out will you?

Getting Better

Well, although Katie spent much of the morning in time out and it seems the kids are catching a cold, things are getting better. This has so far been the best day of the week. Not that it has been a good day. Keep us in your prayers as we try to get TJ's baptism in order. I pray that the Lord takes ahold of this situation so, we can get it taken care of.