Big new; sad story.

So Big Prairie made national headlines. My aunt all the way in Florida called me over it. But it is truly a tragic story. :( Please keep this family in your prayers, especially the little boy. He is troubled now, but he will grow up. He will have to live with this forever. So unbelievably sad. http://www.the-daily-record.com/news/article/4958347?page=2

A great Christmas and New Year's

We had a fantastic Christmas! Every year we rush from one house to the next on Christmas day. Well, not this year.....er uh, last year.....2010! You know what I mean! ;) We stayed at home on Christmas. It was so great. We did 3 on the 24th and 1 on the 26th. This is how we will be doing it from here on out. My girls just kept thanking us over and over. They stayed in their jammies all day. They loved everything they got. I am so glad I decided to do it this way. Not all of our family was as happy (mainly our moms) but they will just have to deal!


2011 we brought in with some friends. Autumn and Rod and kids came and Marc and Mindy and kids came. We played scattergories and euchre. I had a great time. I loved when Autumn and Mindy started to loose their skill at scattergories (it may or may not have to do with alcohol!) ;) I kicked butt! We all watched the ball drop, drank to the new year (the kids had sparkling grape juice), then kissed our hubbies!


School starts back up tomorrow. I am starting back up my diet. I hate the damn thing but it works. I lost 14 pounds last time. Hope to lose at least that much this time as well. I will be walking on the treadmill this time. I want to be fit again. So here's to a new year and a new body!

Merry Christmas and
Happy New Year!!!

Family Tradition

So, every year on Thanksgiving eve, my family gathers at my sisters house and we make preparations for the big day. We make stuffing, pumpkin pies, put the turkey on, and most importantly we talk. We get to goof off with each other. Tonight, I was picking on my 13 year old niece. I was chasing her with a 2 liter pop bottle. Sounds dumb but it was fun! My girls got to help cut up veggies for the stuffing. This year I made an apple pie from scratch. I even made the crust! I love having family traditions! Next year we will talk about this year and the years past. Two years ago my sisters water line broke under her dish washer! We were talking about it earlier. You can still see where it happened on the basement ceiling! It was not funny then, but it is now. I think it's awesome that we have these memories to look back on. Evey year we will add more. What is your family tradition? What will you pass on to your kids?
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

Life's Healing Choices.

Today at church we had an amazing message, so much so that I want to capture it. :) So, I am blogging the message.
The Sharing choice: I choose to yield myself to God to be used to bring the good news to others, by both my example and by my words.
What can I share to help others?
1) How pain got my attention.
Sometimes it takes a painful situation to make us change our ways. Prov 20:30
I am glad.....not because it hurt you but because it turned you to God. 2 Cor 7:9
We don't change when we "see the light" we change when we "feel the heat".
We don't help people by our strengths, no one wants to hear how good you are with money and how awful they are with it. We help people by our weaknesses. Who better to help you through a bankruptcy than someone who has gone through it? Insert your own area of weakness. What do you need help with? Find someone who has gone through it!
To help others I must be honest about....
• My feelings
• My faults
• My failures
• My frustrations
• My fears
2) What I learned in the process.
I learned to depend on God's love
I learned to follow God's word
I learned that I need other people
3) How can God bring good out of bad?
We know that God causes everything to work for the good of those who love Him. Rom 8:28
He brings good from the bad. Not Brings what we want!
Life is like making a cake. Eating the ingredients separately would be bitter and bad tasting. (Most of them not so much on the sugar and vanilla!) Imagine eating a teaspoon of baking soda? Or 2 and a half cups of flour? Sounds good right? ;) No! Now put all the ingredients together and you have a sweet tasting cake. :) That is what God does in our lives. We can not understand what or why a God is allowing this awful thing in our lives to happen. Think about Joesph. His brothers sold him into slavery, he was wrongfully accused of assaulting his employers wife, sat in prison for years and yet out of his first 40 years of life, he never doubted God's love for him. Due to those series of events Joesph then became the 2nd most powerful man in Egypt! He saved Egypt from famine and through that, his brothers found him again. They were so sorry for what they did. But Joesph was not angry, he was filled with joy to see them. God took bitter elements (ingredients) put them together and made a "cake" out of his life! It was not all sunshine and lollipops, but it did turn out for the best. God causes everything to work for the good of those who love him! Rom 8:28
They intent to harm me, but God intended it for good. Gen 50:20
4) How Jesus gives me hope.
Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you ro give him a reason for the hope that you have. 1 Peter 3:15a
We need to be a hope dispenser. God called us to be a witness. Not an attorney! ;) A witness tell what he sees, what he knows. An attorney questions and questions. We are just called to give our testament (our statement.)
God doesn't use perfect people, He uses broken people, that's all He has to work with. ;)
Who will you tell?

I did add a bit more to the message. It is not word for word. I took what Jeff preached and added a bit of my own to it. I really loved this message today. It was and is very deep for me. What is the one thing that you are so embarrassed about? Your worst deep dark secret? Use it to help someone in the same situation. I don't know about you, but for me that is hard. I do not want anyone to know those awful things I did. I want to keep them hidden and buried. But guess what no matter how hard we try to hide them God knows, and he wants us to help others.

I am super excited!

I can not wait for October 9th to get here. We are going to have so much freaking fun! I just don't even know where to go first. Spa? Shopping? Sushi? Kim's house? There are so many choices! All of them sound just great to me!! I am so glad that Jenny decided to do this! Watch out Columbus! Here we come!!!

Had an awesome long weekend. I had a bonfire 2 nights in a row (HOLLA) and we had s'mores, hot dogs, and brats. Mmmmmm. I know those are all things that are packed to the gills with nutrition! LOL ;) I star gazed, which was awesome. I love looking at the stars, I love seeing falling ones. I did get to see one. It was great. I had my cousin and her family up. I love getting to see my cousins, they live in Gahanna (just on the outside of downtown C-bus). So it was a real treat that they came up on Monday to spend the day with us.
The girls are doing great in school. There of course are the bullies, I am really trying to help my girls understand that not all people are nice and warm and fuzzy and loving people. :( There are mean and nasty and rude people out there just looking for a place to spew their hatred. My girls think that everyone they meet is their new friend. I really wish they could keep that innocence but, that just can't happen. Alexis came home and wanted a new lunch box because the one girl picked in her because it is Tinker Bell. Sigh...... :( Brook told me a boy on the bus called her evil. She does not even know what that means. :( Other than the bullies, life at school is great. Alexis comes home so excited everyday to tell me about her jam packed, fun filled day! Brook runs off the bus and right into the house jabbering the whole time about what her and her bestest friend Laci talked about. I think it is so cute.
Tonight I signed up to be a primary parent. They are kinda like the PTO only not. ;) I get to help in the book fair! Yea for me. :D I LOVE BOOKS!!! So do my girls. :) And I will help with decorating the school and fun stuff like that. I get to go in and volunteer at the end of the month in Brook's class. I think she will love it. I know I will. I hope that I get to help in Lexi's class too! It is a lot of fun. :)

I got a goat!!

Here's Molly!!! She is just adorable, not at all psycho like Emmy!! :D

Here's Molly!!! She is just adorable, not at all psycho like Emmy!! :D