Monday, April 30, 2007

God Rocks: a weekly miracle story



Here is a wonderful answer to prayer that we witnessed this weekend. We attended a wedding this weekend where my hubby sang. The song was written by a friend of ours who wrote the song about the way the couple got together. Its an incredible story.....The groom was married, had a child and then his wife got cancer and passed away. The groom was so devastated that when he finally did start dating again he dated the girl for 10 years before he finally asked her to marry him. The very week they returned from the honeymoon, this second wife was diagnosed with cancer and within 6 months she also passed away. The groom was beside himself with grief. A friend at work said she would pray for him. She prayed that he would find someone to love him. Now for the miracle...the groom and the girl praying for him fell in love and just got married! The song was all about "How could I have known I was the answer to your prayers". Click on the link below to hear the song.

Braden 16 year birthday letter

I noticed that I never published this. It is now 6 yesrs later but I read it and its worth publishing. 


Braden,

Today you will go and take the test to get your driving license. I cant believe how fast the years have gone by. You have worked very hard towards the goal of getting your license. You have studied hard, persisted in driving even when we freaked out every time you drove,and did drivers ed in a car that you didn't like driving. . I am still not ready for you to grow up and be so independent, but that is the job of a mother, to work hard at putting yourself out of business. I have tried hard to think of every possible situation you might find yourself in and give you tips on how to stay safe. Now my job is almost over and I will have to trust God to keep you safe. Your father and I are very proud of you. We are happy that you work hard at keeping up your grades, you are helpful (once we get through the whining phase), you play sports after school, you were part of the drama team this year, you made us wonderful and useful things in shop class this year. We are really enjoying the entryway coat rack, the organizer box, the shelf with housecoat hooks in our bedroom, the frame, the step stool and the bird/plant hanger.

This year I realized why the last year we had no apples on the apple tree. The neighbor told us it produces the best apples ever, so I started thinking about it and a thought about boys and missiles came to mind. Sure enough, I asked you and you had some fun with a sling shot and almost every single apple.

The last 3 Sundays your father and I have been cleaning up the side yard. We dismantled the fort that no matter how creative was rather messy looking since it was made out of old bunny fence and prunings. We also cleaned up the remains of "Bradentopia" and in the process we found 2 bucket fulls of things you have set on fire. It appears you tried to be safe by putting things inside of cement blocks, but due to the fact we don't want the house to burn down, you have a 100 dollar fine per item burned from this point on. Why a money fine for a boy with just a lawn mowing job? Well you have been motivated by money since we found the only way to potty train you at age 2 was to offer money. I will say when you do get a fine, you ALWAYS pay us. You are very good with your money management and we are proud of you for that.

You love schedules. You like to know exactly when we are leaving. If you know the time, like when we are leaving for school you will give us a countdown so we will be ready on time. You like to plan out your day, it drives you crazy if we want to just go with the flow. Sometimes you want to plan out a weekend several weeks in advance which is really hard with a impromptu guy like `your Dad, but we do our best. You love it when I cook meals for you. It is so nice that you are so appreciative, even when you don't care for what is made.

Your girlfriend is Andrea. You have been dating for 11 months. She is a very pretty, sweet girl and you seemed to be good friends. She lives quite a long ways a way, so when she needs to stay the night you willing go to Grandma and Grandpa's so I can get some sleep:)

The sports you love this year are swimming, and roller hockey. You are very good at all sports but you prefer those two. You swam with a local high school swim team for the second year because your school doesn't have a team. You are one of their best swimmers and we are very proud of you!

We are also proud of how you help out at church. You run the power point for praise and if anybody has a presentation. You also help with the kids when we have meetings. It is obvious that the kids really look up to you. You are a positive role model for them. They are watching you to see what they want to be like when they get older.

Another thing you like to do is to wrestle with your Dad. I am always afraid someone will get hurt, but no one has yet so I guess its okay. You also like to tease me till I am chasing you down or running away screaming. Its all fun, no matter how much I scream. Your Dad and I like to hold you down and tickle you, but you are so strong it is very hard.

We love you very much, we are very proud of you and we pray that you will always keep Jesus as your best friend.

Love,
Mom

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Fri Chick update

I contacted the company that makes Fri Chick. They told me that the recipe changed a year ago and if the can was exposed to heat the sauce would separate and congeal. It was totally safe to eat. EWWWWW!!!!!!! But they were concerned that the top 2 inches of the can was empty so would send me a coupon to replace the can. I AM NOT eating that. YUCK!

However I imagine that when we make Fri Chick gravy out of the sauce we will not need to add a thickner anymore. Just heat it up. I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing

Fri Chick: The other white vegetarian meat




What is up with my fri chick? It came out of the can with this gelatinous goo all over it. Needless to say we did not eat it, and beings it was a large can and rather expensive I am contacting the company today.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Calling all Garlic lovers



What is up with Garlic presses? We have broken every brand made including Pampered Chef. I searched my whole town to find this heavy duty one. It lasted longer than the rest, about 9 months. Anybody know a good heavy duty garlic press that withstand repeated use?

God Rocks: a weekly Miracle story



Braden and his girlfriend Andrea

My son has had a reading problem from Kindergarten on up. In Kindergarten the teacher was concerned because usually by the end of the year the students are getting some of the letters of a word right. He got the first letter and sometimes the last letter. The rest made no since at all. I LOVE to read so I read up on what makes a good reader and I had been reading to him and his sister since they were babies. He was put in phonics classes, we were giving copious amounts of reading homework, every summer I would go through a reading program with him. I spend many hours reading assignments to him because nothing worked. The teachers said he knew the phonics so well he would teach the rest of slow readers, yet he couldn't read. This of course affected his grades. Finally in 6th grade I said "Braden, it is going to get harder and harder for you if you cant read, we have tried everything, (He was tested and the results showed he was reading at a 2 nd grade/month 4 level) lets pray about it. So right there in his room, we prayed that God would heal his reading problem so he could get good grades and persue his dream of being an annesthesiologist. At the end of the first semester of 6th grade we had a parent teacher conference. She was slightly concerned because his reading was tested and he was reading at a beginning 6th grade level!!!!!! We thanked the Lord and he improved steadily over the next two years. In 8th grade he got straight A's and now in Highschool the majority of his grades are A's!

Monday, April 16, 2007

Lord of the Dance

This little guy caught my eye on You tube because he has the same name as my son. Then when I saw his Riverdance I was hooked.

God Rocks: A Weekly Miracle Story

When My hubby told me one day that he needed me to be his nurse at the Dementia Faciltiy, I was excited. Then I found they had just had a State survey and I had to fix the problems for the Resurvey. Couple that with it being a "Residential Care Facility" with very different rules than the other places I have worked. I prayed daily that God would show me what we needed to work on to give the best care possible and to be able to show that to the surveyors. When the State resurveyed they sent one guy. We showed him all the changes we had made and about a half hour into the session he said "They told me I was crazy to come back myself, that I would need at least 2 surveyors and 2 days" "I am done, but I will spend a little longer because they will never believe me that it was that easy" Within 2 hours he was gone and had cleared us of all the deficiencies that were present when we arrived. Praise God for showing us how to give good care and good documentation!

My American Idol: Praisedude

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Sundays Festivus


This week my grievances are teens and hard boiled eggs.

There is a funny story that happened a long time ago when Darryl and I were first married. We had been at my parents house for Easter and we had our Black Lab Duchess with us. Home was 9 hours away. As we got to the pass through the mountains it got really cold there was still a lot of snow on the ground. Suddenly the worst smell imaginable. There was no choice but to open the windows and freeze till the smell went away. As soon as we got the car aired out and closed the windows we were assaulted again. Pretty much the whole rest of the way home. We couldn't figure out what happened till we found out later that my sister and her husband fed Duchess a whole buch of hard boiled eggs just before we left.

So naturally my teens thought it would be funny to repeat this trick. Problem is Labradors stomachs are not as sensitive as Chihuahua's so we have had all sorts of messes, hurling etc this week. Our Chocolate Lab did okay except one hurl but our 2 Chihuahua's are all messed up.

What are your grievances this week? Put them on your site and leave a link here.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Saturdays Hope

Todays verse is my Dad's favorite and it kept me out of a lot of trouble.

Numbers 32:23

"But if you fail to do this, you will be sinning against the Lord; and you may be sure that your sin will find you out.


So if you find yourself doing something that you know is wrong, remember that sins have a way of revealing themselves. Pray for forgiveness and do the right thing!

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Photo Friday




Tulip Festival 2007



Hubby and I



Hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil



Hubby and Kiara hiding in the tulips

For more great tulips pics visit my sister's blog Laughing Mommy

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Thursday Thirteen ED 21


My beautiful mother

Thirteen Things about my mother


1 She is loves all her children and grandchildren like a mother bear.

Mom, Dad, Kiara, Braden and myself at the Christmas Tree Farm


2. She is very giving when she finds out you need something
3. She is a great worker. She stayed at home and babysat till I was twelve then went to school to become a medical assistant. She has worked in doctors offices ever since.
4. She loves beautiful things in nature
5. She loves taking pictures and video's and helps me find the pictures I need on many occasions, even staying up late past her bedtime to help me.
6. She loves the ocean and will even go to the ocean to take pictures of it all by herself

My Mom as a baby


7. She taught us to respect others mail and purses. I still cant even peek at the insides of another persons purse or mail.
8. She taught us to try as much as possible to be fair. She always counted the presents at Christmas time to make sure we all got the same amount. I still do that for my kids.
9. She hates having her picture taken

At the Pumpkin Patch they have this little cabin we get pics at.

10. She loves her country. 4th of July is a special holiday for her, and we wont even be here to celebrate as we will be on a mission trip this year :(
11. She will come and sit with you in the emergency room or hospital room to keep you company

My Mom with my daughter when she was small


12. Even though she didn't care for cooking she found several dishes we all liked and those have become our favorite dishes. I really admire her for that as I know a lot of women who won't even try. She even makes strawberry jam for my dad and used to make pies. Pretty good when thats not her thing.
13. She worries about us. She worries that she worries too much, but isn't nice when you have someone to worry about you? I think so....Love you MOM!




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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!



Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Works for me Wednesday: Car Edition



A week late but as Shannon of Rocks in my Dryer said. "take a break" What works for me in the car.....hmmmmmm. The teens trash the car almost as much as when they were toddlers. I take several bags with me. Toys, books, hair care items and clothing in one bag and trash in the other. We would sort the "junk" when we had to wait for a family member or were parked somewhere. then at home would put all the "junk" away in the appropriate spot. Also helps to have a trash bag ready and ask for the trash as they get done eating. Otherwise you may find cups and wrappers stuffed in places you never knew were in a car. I also made (you can buy them too) seat back organizers. They were the size of the back of the seat and various sizes of pockets to put things in. When the kids started really bugging each other we would pile blankets and pillows between them and that is where the DVD player would sit.

That is what has worked for me. GO to Rocks in my Dryer for more great car idea's. You will be glad you did.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Transformation Tuesday

A weekly journey into the transformation of our yard and garden. I have delusions of having a yard that looks like Heathers, so don't pop my bubble. I don't have a lot of resources so I will have to be creative. Besides the thought of taking a pic to blog will keep me motivated.

Here is the first mess we made this spring doing a heavy pruning of our apple tree.


And here is what it looks like now....



Here is my progress on the garden. Nothing has come up yet on day 9. I have carrots, radishes, herbs, broccoli......




Here is a picture of my side yard called "no mans land". Last year when my hubby was building the shed/deck thing





All the scrap building materials were thrown into "no mans land" This by the way is after 2 Sundays of working on it. Imagine how it looked before!



Here is the shed/deck that is like a blank slate for flowers, grape vines etc. This shed is used to house the riding lawn mower and just last week hubby build shelves by the windows so I could grow starts for the garden! I am so excited. I LOVE LOVE LOVE growing things.

God Rocks: A Weekly Miracle Story


Bills. This week I am thankful for how God provides. I was thinking I would have to fit my part time hours into 4 days during the week, so I could go get another part time job to help pay for the months bills. I had prayed about this for months. However I was talking seriously about the second job this last week. It would be very hard as my current part time job takes full time hours to do it properly. The very day after I mentioned it to a friend, my husband had his yearly review and a raise and they spoke of a raise for myself as well. It might seem to you as if this is just a yearly occurrence, but the bible says "all good things come from God" It is exactly the amount we need so I do not have to get another job. Isn't God great!

Sunday's Festivus ED 14


This week has been SO much better! Very few ants, plunging but no overflow, bookcases stayed in upright positions. So what to have a grievance about?........

Pain, grumpiness, and sleepiness.

I injured my piraformis muscle last Fall, and it is acting up again. It is a muscle deep in your hip that sits next to the sciatic nerve. When it gets irritated it rubs on that sciatic nerve. That causes pain down into the leg. My pain is going down into my calf. I am now on muscle relaxers, anti inflammatory's, and pain meds. This makes me tired and I do not like being tired. I have little energy as it is. However these medicines are important because of grumpiness.

Grumpiness. I can handle pain for a while then I get extremely grumpy and downright mean. I said some very mean things this week. Such as "I believe that makes you look as if your IQ just dropped 100 points" That is really MEAN for me as I am usually sweet. I was grumpy with my children. Thats when I decided to go get the meds.....But now I am sleepy.

Sleepiness. I fell asleep at my parents today in the middle of Easter festivities. Then I went home and slept for 7 hours. I am now ready for bed again. TOO MUCH SLEEP!

What are your grievances? Post a message on your blog and link here. Also leave a message in comments! Have a super day!

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Bloggity mistakes and Busy as a bee

My bloggity mistake is not remembering to take pictures! I had the nicest boys ring my door bell the other day. They wanted to pull weeds. So I asked them how much they charged, to which they responded 3 dollars. So I showed them the plants I definitely wanted to keep and let them go at it. They worked for an hour straight. And although it doesn't look like an adult did it, it does look 100 percent better. I paid them more than 3 dollars too. After they left I realized I should have gotten a picture. If they come back again (I hope they do) I will get a pic of them and before and after pics of the yard. I am learning!

I have been so busy! I haven't even had time to get on here! It seems like every time I go to sit down there is something else I need to do. I have a feeling this busyness will last through the summer as gardens, yards and fund raising for a mission trip takes up a lot of my time!

Any one have any short cuts that will leave me with more computer time?

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Happy Birthday Jordan!





Hope your birthday is one of the best yet!


Love Aunt Pam, Uncle Darryl, Braden and Kiara

Monday, April 02, 2007

Straight A's!!!!!!!!


Kiara has straight A's this quarter. She says that was her goal, and she did it!!!! I am so proud of you Kiara!!!!!!

Sunday, April 01, 2007

God Rocks: A weekly miracle story.


This Christmas we did the 12 days of Christmas for a single mom in our church and during that time we found out her car was broken down a lot, and she even had to push it to get it started. So I told a few other ladies in the church to pray that this mother would be able to get her car fixed or get a new one. We even stepped out in faith and told her we wanted to get her car fixed. At church the next sabbath, my hubby told the church members that there ws a single mom who needed her car fixed and would everyone please give money for the repair on their way out. The total raised was 750.00 and the cost?........740.00. Isn't God Great!

Sunday's Festivus ED 13


A day to air your grievances about the situations you find yourself in during the week....

I have a few so sit down and grab a hot drink. (or if you live where its hot, an iced drink)

This week my grievances include: single girls on a mission, broken washers, ants, overflows and cheap bookcases.

Single girls on a mission: This is not the kind of mission that your church goes on! Girls who are fully aware that a guy is married and relentlessly flirt, send private messages and try to plan meetings are on my list as TOP OFFENDERS. Here's a tip. Once you find out a guy is married....hmmmm.....FIND YOUR OWN GUY. Even if he is good looking, nice, and funny. It is commandment number 10 "do not covet your neighbors spouse" (neighbor meaning anyone, not just someone who lives next to you. In bible times there was no way to know someone who hadn't actually come close enough to be your neighbor) Now there are tons of girls who flirt with my hubby. Most of it you can tell is innocent, however every few months there is one who goes over the top with hugs, batting eyes, inching me out of the way, calling on the pretense of business, or if they live far away like the current one does just leaving flirty messages and hinting about meeting.

Broken washers: If you find yourself depressed about your piles of laundry then think about your washer smelling liked burned rubber and not able to finish a cycle. A whole week of no laundry being washed. All of a sudden instead of a chore, the washing machine felt like "my best friend" had left. So what to do.......Since we are going on a mission trip to Ecudaor and needed to save the tax return to help pay for it, I read up on the symptoms, got a part from the appliance store, downloaded instructions, and put hubby to work. Once we got inside and saw how complicated it was, we decided it was beyond us. We went back to the appliance store and low and behold they had a used set that was almost exactly like mine. It was a fairly good price so we had it delivered that very day. I was so happy! I had my laundry all ready. But when I dried my first load it came out sort of damp after 60 minutes. Each subsequent load I had to dry for 90 minutes, and some clothes were still damp. SO back to the appliance store. We bought new this time. However when the technition installed the dryer it was making this weird thump thump sound. It was my lucky day as he was a dryer repair man as well. He took the entire thing apart, adjusted a rubber wheeel thing, and put it back together. It has worked great ever since. The washer is wonderful as well. I have two new best friends "Mrs washer and Mr dryer" (and no I am not flirting with Shannon Dryers husband over at Rocks in my Dryer LOL)

Thank you to my mom and Dad who have been washing towels continuously since THursday, except for during the "Sabbath", to help me catch up on laundry.

Being Seventh Day Adventists we try to get our houses fully clean by Friday at sunset time for our weekly "Friday sunset to Saturday sunset" vacation. During this time we do No work. I look forward to it each and every week. But the preparation for this day, I do not look forward to as much. Funny thing is, it seems all the disasters happen on Friday's when I have most of the house clean. Here's what happened this week.

Ants: for the past 6 weeks I see a stray ant here and there during the week and I put out the "Revenge" treat. However on Friday, I wake up to a counter full of ants. And lately they are not interested in the Revenge. This time they were hiding under the kitchen towel. This was a clean towel that might have been a little damp. The only thing I can think of is that they were looking for water. This is especially annoying because we have guests a lot on Saturday's, and have limited counter space. You cant really serve food on a counter with ants!


A single ant that was left. Notice he is not interested in the poison cocktail I left for him. I freak when I see small moving things so I forget to get a picture of the "swarm" earlier.

Another weekly event at our house that seems to only be happening on Friday or Saturday Morning's is the OVERFLOW. Toilet overflow that is. This week was especially bad. I was holding the insides of the toilet to stop the water flow, plunging, and yelling for help. no one could hear me as the rather loud fan in the other bathroom was on. The flood was inching toward the carpet in the hallway as my hubby came by and ran to get the carpet cleaner that sucks up liquid. Thanks hubby for saving me from the Flood!



This was a fully cleaned company ready bathroom before the "flood"


Bookcases: We recently got two bookcases for my books which seem to be everywhere. I LOVE books and refer back to them frequently. A few years ago I gave a whole trunk loadful to the church, but the remaining books seem to multiply when we aren't looking. The bookcases were inexpensive basic ones and when we put them up they leaned forward a bit. There was a strap to attach them to the wall, but that hasn't happened yet. We are also storing computer monitors in our living room to sell and make money for our mission trip (no they aren't stolen-they were purchased to help make money for the trip) I assumed everything would be okay. No kids bouncing around to knock them over. Well as you guessed it we heard a loud crash early Friday morning and found the bookcase laying on top of the monitors, and books, plants, dirt everywhere.


What are your grievances this week? Leave a Mr Linky to link to your site and don't forget to leave a comment. It will help me feel better....I promise. You can also leave a comment if you are not participating in Sunday Festivus.