Who writes this stuff?

My photo
I try to keep my priorities in order: Jesus, my Andy, our children, everything else. I homeschool our boys, love to read almost all written words and have been challenged by the military life for 18 years. Right now my faulty human body is demanding a lot of attention. One day at a time, learning as much as possible every day and remembering to look for JOY when other things threaten to overwhelm.

My Blog Title Verse

"For the Lord gives wisdom. From His mouth come knowledge and understanding." Proverbs 2:6 NKJV
The Message translation puts it this way "God gives out Wisdom free, is plainspoken in Knowledge and Understanding."


Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Kelsey and Travis: Wedding pics

Here are a few pictures from the wedding. It was beautiful, without too much drama at the last minute. We worked our butts off, but I actually had a lot of fun too! These are the "official" pictures, just a few of them. I will go through the ones I took too, and get some that are a little more "gritty". Please please comment!! I will pass it along to Kelsey.


Tuesday, May 20, 2008

A birthday party

I have missed my blog sooooo much!
We have been non-stop wedding plans this last week. It has been so much fun though, and it is all starting to pull together. Unfortunately, there is so much about a wedding that you cannot do until the last minute. That makes for rough times for the bridesmaids! Thankfully, we are a close crew, and can work well together even when we are exhausted to the point of silliness. Of course, the reason we are exhausted is because we have also been having lots of fun too!
The last two days have been devoted to the wedding programs. Since each one takes about 2 full minutes to make.... times 25o of them.... it has been a big job. We have recruited lots of help- not only bridesmaids, but their significant others also, and a friend from out of state who drove in early just to be helpful. Life is good.
Tonight we took a break from wedding stuff and had a birthday party for Canaan. We went to Chuck E Cheese. I think it was lots of fun, and not too stressful, so I guess it was a success. There were about 15 adults, and only 5 children, and that is a really good ratio for the CEC! The adults really need to outnumber the kids, or it is crazy. I will say that a Tuesday night while school is still in session is a great time to go. It was not crowded at all. I will post pictures next week. I left my cord at my house, and we are staying at my parents until Sun. so my pictures are trapped on my camera for now.
Just a quick story to close now. On the way home from the party tonight Canaan was riding in the car with my parents and they were talking about rhyming. After rhyming frog and log, Canaan said he wanted to sing "that song about frogs and logs". My Mom started some song, which I think she was making up as she went along, and Canaan stopped her. "That is not right Noni. My mom and dad remember that song, but they are not as old as you, so maybe that's why you don't remember it". Luckily, she loves him, even though he called her old!!
Oh, one more thing... Naomi, Happy Birthday, really really late. I have been thinking about you all week, and I am sorry I haven't called you, or E-mailed or anything. I keep thinking about you at 1pm, when I am pretty sure you are a work. Sorry!

Monday, May 12, 2008

First Corinthians 13

This was part of my Bible reading this morning, and I wanted to share it. Use it, or not, as you see fit. (This is taken from "The Message" translation", 1 Cor 6:3-13)

"Our work as God's servants gets validated - or not- in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly... in hard times, tough times, bad times; when we're beaten up, jailed and mobbed, working hard, working late, working without eating; with pure heart, clear head, steady hand; in gentleness, holiness and honest love; when we're telling the truth, and when God's showing his power; when we're doing our best setting things right; when we're praised, and when we're blamed; slandered and honored; true to our word, though distrusted; ignored by the world, but recognized by God; terrifically alive, though rumored to be dead; beaten within an inch of our lives, but refusing to die; immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy; living on handouts, yet enriching many, having nothing, having it all. ... I can't tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. ... Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!"

Living in DEEP JOY is my life goal. I believe that Christians have the responsibility to live with joy. Regular old happiness is for anyone, anytime. But JOY is so much deeper, so much steadier, and is ALWAYS there, if we remember it. Live with joy my friends. Even when sadness wins, (and it will sometimes, and that is just the way it is) remember that joy is bigger and stronger and totally different. Share it, shine it, live it. JOY!

A slideshow update

Here are some fairly recent pictures. Some are from the weekend before last, and some are a little older then that! I am a little behind in posting pictures!

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Small town life

I got my latest cell phone bill and..... I did not go over my minutes this month!!! It is a miracle! I just had to share my excitement. I know that no one else cares, but it is nearly midnight, and Andy is asleep, so I had to tell someone!
I still love my tiny little town. I have walked to the park twice this week, shopped at my little organic market, met the people who live on the road behind me (while we were at the park), saw a snake in the grass, then found out it was dead (but not before scaring my friend Amy half to death, so that she jumped, pulled her baby stroller away with one arm, and managed to totally injure her rotator cuff and now may need surgery!) and I got sunburned. While walking. From the park.
As I said previously, it is nearly midnight. I should got to bed. I think I quit making sense about 20 minutes ago. Sorry!

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Travis & Kelsey: Karibu Sana!

Travis and Kelsey have a page now! Hopefully they will be better at updating it together... since Kelsey has not updated her page in almost a year! Check them out, and keep them in your prayers. I believe there are 17 days left until the wedding. Fun times!!!

Travis & Kelsey: Karibu Sana!

Another really bad day...

If you read my blog, you may remember the post about my really bad day. Soon after I had written that, my friend Naomi sent me an E-mail with the story of one of her worst days ever. I finally remembered to ask her if it was okay for me to post it on here, and she said sure, so here it is:
I was thinking about your blog post about the day everything went wrong, and I wondered if I've ever told you about our "day". :) Gideon was 3 1/2, Elijah 2, Isaiah was 9mo, and it was Easter Sunday 2002. I had been up the night before until 2am making homemade cinnamon rolls to take to sunrise service breakfast, and then up at 4am to start getting everybody out the door. We had to leave by 5:30 b/c it was a 1/2 hr drive to church. It had been raining hard for days and we were under a floodwatch. I gave the two big boys some Ovaltine to help them wait until after the service for breakfast, got them dressed in their cute little matching white shirts and green corderoy overalls, put on my brand new Easter outfit, and we were ready to go. We were also teaching children's church that day and Jeremiah had completely lost his voice at a lock-in Friday night, so I was going to have to teach that too.

We managed to get everyone and everything outside and in the van and only slightly soaked. It was raining cats and dogs and still pitch black. We got about a mile from home, and Elijah threw up chocolate milk all over the back of the van. All over. Everywhere. Chunks. So we turned around and went back home, and transferred Gideon and his car seat, the cinnamon rolls, and the children's church material to our other vehicle, and Jeremiah and Gideon left for church, because Jeremiah was the youth minister, and now they were going to be late, and no excuse short of your own death was sufficient for that with our minister.

So I made about 10 trips out to the van, getting Isaiah in and in his crib where he would stay put, and bringing in Elijah's carseat and Elijah, then trying to scrub the worst of the vomit out of the car. When I finally got inside, I looked like I had climbed into the shower in my Sunday dress. Then I had to clean up poor Elijah. I was so grossed out by this time that I took the filthy car seat and stuffed it in our second bathroom and shut the door. I would clean it later. Bad choice. I gave Elijah his bath, and then we snuggled down in the living room to watch veggie tales. Over the next few hours he threw up several times, all without warning, all over the living room floor, hallway, etc. I tried desperately to stay awake on my 2 hrs from the night before.

And then, about 10am, it happened. We had a toy Sesame Street saxophone, battery powered and heavy, and Elijah was playing with it and managed to swing it around and hit himself in the head, just above his right eyebrow, and blood went everywhere! Even I could see that this would need stitches, and there I was at home by myself with two babies and a car and carseat covered in vomit! I tried and tried to call Jeremiah's cell phone while putting pressure on the cut, but he had turned it off for the service. I called the church number over and over, because there was a phone in the nursery. Finally I got Jeremiah, and he said he would head home right away. So I ran and got the carseat and scrubbed the cover out in the bathtub and tossed it in the dryer, then washed the frame, and the whole time Elijah was holding a bloody washcloth on his forehead! Poor baby! Rushing through the kitchen, I managed to whack my foot on a cabinet, and thought I had broken my toe! (It turned out to be just fine.) It hurt so badly, and I had just been wondering what else could go wrong, that I began laughing hysterically. I was still in this state 10 minutes later when Jeremiah got home. Thank goodness he can remain calm in a crisis! It had finally stopped raining, and we got the carseat frame and lined it with towels, since the cover was still soaking wet, piled everyone into Jeremiah's van, and headed for the hospital. Five hours and several stitches later, we finally had our Easter dinner--at the Burger King drive-thru! :) And Elijah has a distinguished-looking scar on his forehead as a momento of that day! :)

I hope you got a good laugh from that--I sure do! I look forward to telling this story to his wife and then to my grandchildren someday! :-) Thank goodness every day isn't this "exciting"!


I think it might be fun to hear about other people's "worst day"... or at least one of them, if you can't narrow it down to one. Feel free to E-mail me, and I will post them, or you can just leave it as a comment.
Laughing about it later really makes it easier, so let's share the laughter!