Our weekend

Our weekend was bursting with good things.

It began with a concert by our favorite vocalist: John's sister, Jayme.  She gave an amazing performance and shared so much of herself and her story with the audience.  The hour went by much too quickly.

Saturday brought along a birthday pool party for M and C to attend.  They had a blast playing games in an indoor pool with friends. (Birthday girl's mom took this one with her cell phone.)

On Saturday night John and I had the annual Bowling and Bruno's outing with our church's worship team.  This is basically a night of bowling terribly (at least for me) followed by eating delicious pizza with a great group of people.  No pictures, though.

And Sunday night...  Daddy/Daughter date night put together for C's age group at church.  John took M to this when she was in 4th and 5th grade.  I can't believe C is already here.

While they were out M made the two of us crepes.... she's so old!  :)  And I'm so proud of both of our girls!

Psalm 144:12
 May our sons flourish in their youth
      like well-nurtured plants.
   May our daughters be like graceful pillars,
      carved to beautify a palace.

I miss blogging

I can't believe I haven't posted anything since November.

There are reasons, of course, but nothing big and terrible.  It's just a combination of busyness, a terribly old and slow computer, a frustrating focusing issue with my camera (that I just can't seem to send in and get fixed already! If only it was free! Ha!), and blogger-block.

But good news!  One of the issues has been resolved.  I have a brand-new computer (thanks to my wonderful job) and I am now able to handle sitting at the computer for longer than my job requires of me.

As for the other issues... hopefully in time.  Meanwhile, here are a few photos from the last 3 months.

Our annual Princess Pack Christmas Tea and homemade ornament exchange.

Baking Christmas cookies with Grandma.


Christmas Eve at Grandpa and Grandma's.


The blanket we crocheted together for a friend's baby girl.  And we finished!!!


We haven't had very much snow this year, but we had enough one weekend to make a snowman.


And to make up for the lack of snow, we made lots of paper snowflakes to hang in our windows.


And we also made baskets! Which was quite challenging!  I'm thankful we have a good friend that gave us instruction and help. Without her, I'm almost certain we never would have finished that project!  Honestly, we probably wouldn't have even begun.


I guess I only take pictures around here when we make stuff!  :)

I wouldn't call this an exciting post, but it's good to spend some time remembering these last few months.  God is good and His love endures all things and all of my shortcomings.  Amen!

13

It's hard to believe, but it really is true -- our baby girl is 13.

We love you like crazy, girl.  You are sweeter than I can explain!  Your generous heart and your humility bless me everyday.  God uses you daily to remind me to slow down and enjoy the moments of life.  I know without a doubt that you will continue to grow in grace and beauty, because your heart truly belongs to Jesus.  His light and love shine through you and it is evident to all who are blessed to know you.

I love you, sweetheart.  Happy happy birthday!! xoxo

.........

I've done a terrible job at blogging this 13th year of her life, so I thought I'd post some of my favorite shots of M from the last 12 months.  As you'll see, it's been a transforming year.

   

I love this one.  It was a shock to all of us in mid-August when God provided a ipod touch for M. (He undeniably gave this to M!  It's a great story!)  We were so excited that we couldn't wait until her birthday.  I love the look on both their faces!

 

Twelve

Her name means magnificent.

I think that's just what she is... an exceptional beauty. She's a rare person of grace and peace. A gift from the Giver of good gifts.

And today she turns twelve. It seems like such a big number to me and her daddy. But I think she's ready for it.

Happy Birthday, Magnificence. I love you more than you know.

Random thoughts and pictures

-We went to a house show over the weekend and heard the band Rue Royale. It was such a special evening. Imagine sitting in a living room with a bunch of friends while these great musicians share their music with you. It was unique and wonderful. We've been listening to their CD over and over the last 4 days.



-We made applesauce at Princess Pack thanks to my incredible friend, Elizabeth. I fear it's the only homemade applesauce I may get around to making this season.

-I've been sick with a nasty cold the last 5 to 7 days. It's hard to say when it finally took hold of me... it crept in so slowly. I've been washing my hands so much to prevent passing my germs. We've been drinking lots of water and taking extra vitamins. No one else is sick. And I hope it stays that way.



-I've been extremely blessed and challenged this week while reading through Hebrews.

"Be careful then, dear friends. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. You must warn each other every day, as long as it is called "today," so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God." Hebrews 3:12-13

I need that warning some days, friends. I need to be reminded to love God and others more than myself.





-We've had some crazy weather here this fall. We've been loving the warm days and even the extra breeze. Although the last 2 days have been a bit too windy. The news reported that 9 tornadoes touched down in our state yesterday morning. yikes.



-I haven't taken many pictures the last few weeks because my camera's autofocus has decided to stop working. I can still take manually focused images and I have been -- but it is not easy to get things focused when people don't hold still! ;) I'll probably be shipping it off to be fixed next week. It might take 4 weeks to get it back.



-Giggles set in this afternoon during a dictation exercise I was doing with C. I was dictating several related phrases, but the phrase "if Beth sat" opened up so many possibilities and we found ourselves saying crazy things like -- If Beth sat.... the chair would brake. If Beth sat.... the sky might fall. If Beth sat... the man's nose would turn green. If Beth sat... the glory of Rome would fall. :) That was M's. We decided that Beth better not sit.

-That last comment probably came to M because she has been reading a series of books she discovered at the library called The Roman Mysteries. She can't get enough and is currently reading the 5th in the series after reading the first one just last week. My or my. I wish I could keep up.



-We've picked up our crocheting once again... a sure sign that the cooler weather is setting in.

-We're preparing for a whirlwind trip to Boston. It's a long drive from here. As much as we want to be there, we are not looking forward to the drive. Do you have any audio book suggestions for us?

Well, friends, that's all the random thoughts I have for now. Love to you and yours!

Middle School is different.

M had her first middle school event last weekend. Interesting. It was even messier than it looks, folks. They are playing with Jell-o.

You better believe John and I were there to watch out for our girl.

Let me go through the pictures above for you and explain a little bit of the craziness of this event!

Top left: the kids' leaders had to give an answer quickly to our middle school pastor's quiz or they got a face full of exploding 7-Up.

Top right: This was one of the stations. 2 people take a tube full of jell-o and blow into each end. The person with the weaker set of lungs gets a exploding face full of jell-o. In the case above, the loser decided to turn the tube on her opponent! Smart girl.

Bottom left: John ran the Bobbing for Gummy Worms station. You can see him in the green shirt. The kids were to stick their faces into the kiddie pool full of red jell-o and pull out the gummy worms. Kind of gross, right? REALLY gross when you think about how each of the teams got a shot at this one. Once the worms were pulled out, they were put right back in for the next team and mixed up with several pairs of hands. By the end of the night, nearly 100 faces, mouths, tongues had been all over that jell-o and the worms in it. :) Germ-fest.

Bottom right: Taken at the end of the Jell-o War. This picture give you a good idea of how much jell-o many of the kids had on them by the end of the night. I hope their parents remembered to bring plastic to cover their seats for the ride home.

Here's one during the war:


So how did M come out, you might be wondering?

She just about came home spotless until a friend decided she was way too clean.

How she feels about this is written all over her face. She had fun, but getting covered in jell-o is just not her thing.

They did it again!

It had been almost exactly 2 years since they donated their hair to Locks of Love. Finally, the time had come to do it again.

C was a little nervous.


M wasn't nervous at all.


In the end, they were both very happy with the results.

I love that they each have their own cut. M's hair is a bit shorter and C's has more layers.

If you remember recently only M was planning on getting her hair cut. C was really unsure about it. Giving 10 inches would have made her hair shorter than she was comfortable with.

Then we found out that Locks of Love now takes 7 inches. Upon learning this, she decided she'd go for it. I'm glad she did. I think they both look beautiful. Not to mention it's a great summer cut and just in time for camping!

Nice 'do!

If you've been around this blog enough, or if you know me on the other side of this screen, you might remember that M and C donated their hair to Locks of Love two years ago. It has been their goal to do it again and M is feeling very ready. She is not a fussy girl and maintaining long hair is not her thing. And it seems like it might be long enough to donate, so we'll probably be seeing some big changes on her soon.

C on the other hand, likes to have braids and ponytails. I am not very good at styling hair, however. I'm not creative or patient enough to spend a lot of time on it. (I guess I'm more like M.) If you need proof, just look at my hair. It takes 3 minutes. Well, maybe 4.

Well! I found this great blog this week and had to share. If you have a girl you might find it inspiring. Or not, but that's ok too. The video tutorials are the most helpful I think! Happy hairstylin'!

And Happy Mother's Day to all of you beautiful and inspiring women! I hope you know how special and important you are -- today, tomorrow, and always! xo

Dangly Earrings

It's been 6 weeks since their ears were pierced. To celebrate the occasion I promised to buy them new earrings of their choosing.

I was not surprised that they wanted them to dangle. I was surprised by how difficult it was to find just the right ones.

C had the most difficult time. She actually went for ones that I felt were much too large for her tender age of 8. She was not very happy with me, but I stood firm. (And honestly, I don't always stand firm with this little one. Let me just say--she knows how to get to me.)

But I wouldn't budge this time and after many complaints, she finally decided on a pair she liked enough and that I approved. It's tough being 8 going on 12.

And as much as I love the above images, my 50mm 1.4 lens makes the earrings far too blurry to actually see, so here's a closer look. (and this one is still a bit blurry, unfortunately)

Here are M's. I might just have to borrow these someday. But I'll wait a little while.

to remember always

A week before her birthday (actually less than a week), C started thinking that she might want to get her ears pierced. I'm not sure why she thought of it. We were in the van on the way to Princess Pack when I mentioned that I'd been so busy all day that I hadn't remembered to put my earrings in.
"I'm thinking that maybe I might want to get my ears pierced..." is what I heard from behind me.
"Really?" I had never heard either of them mention such an idea before.
"Maybe. Do you M.?"
"I don't know. Maybe."
It went on from there and they eventually determined "I'll do it, if you'll do it."

I LOVE their relationship. Sisterhood is amazing. A best friend for life. (that is what I pray and hope for)

All that was left was to convince daddy and me. But mostly daddy. It was a hard sell. The fact that C decided she wanted to get them pierced on her "golden birthday so she'd remember it always" helped push us a bit. And we gave in.

We went to the mall and after inquiring in 2 separate stores about what they charged, we had nearly given up the idea. They wanted $26-$42 depending on the earrings. There was no way we were going to pay it. But we kept walking the mall. M spotted a sign at one of the kiosks, the Piercing Pagoda, that said Free Ear Piercing. I asked the lady behind the counter about it and she said, " It's free with the purchase of the earrings on this rack." I thought for sure they'd range from $26-$42. But no. The smallest and cheapest was $10. Now this was something to consider. We walked away and all sat on a bench to talk it over one more time. Daddy finally gave the final OK and we asked who would go first.

M said sweetly, "C, it's your birthday. You decide."

C quickly responded with, "You go first."

And she did. She was so brave. They were both very brave.

And I'm so very proud of them. And I think they'll both remember C's golden birthday.