Random Thoughts Vol.18

My poor blog. So neglected. I can't blame Facebook this time, however. Life has just been busy. Alas, I have some free time on this early Sunday evening, so I'll take some time to share some thoughts.

Today was our first Sunday in our new church building. Yippee! It's very exciting, and even though we've only been at Vineyard 2 years, it is an important milestone for us. We found out about this church because of the sign marking the future site, so now to be in the building on that site is very fulfilling.

I recently went to a conference for church called "Naturally Supernatural", and all I can say is that it was life-changing for me. I left there a different person, and I'm so grateful. It's amazing to me to realize that not only does Jesus forgive us of our sin, but he also doesn't want us to harbor any shame for it. He truly is AMAZING!

The picture at the beginning of this post is of a book I read last weekend. I HIGHLY recommend it. It is called Chasing The Dragon and it is the story of a woman named Jackie Pullinger and her life as a missionary in Hong Kong. It will stretch you!

Two weeks ago my cousin's 24 year old son shot himself. So sad. The funeral was packed full of young people...I've never seen anything like it. So many who seemed so lost and so shaken. I spent most of the funeral praying for those around us, for God to speak to them, and to reach out to them in their time of need. Come, Lord Jesus!

On the adoption front, there is no new news. I recently read an evaluation on how things are a year later in Guatemala. The corruption is improved, but, because there is no new adoption process working, children and babies are being abandoned by birth mothers. In Guatemala City alone, over 70 children were found, and 14 of them had already died. The thought makes me sick of children dying for lack of a process when many families, including ours, are simply waiting here for there to be a way to adopt them. There isn't much more I can say than to plea with the God of Justice to act on behalf of not only the Guatemalan children, but also orphans around the world.

Whew, that was heavy! On to much lighter thoughts! I'm looking forward to watching The Amazing Race tonight. It's my favorite reality show, and it has proved stellar this season. All I can say is giant cheese wheels! I'm also watching Survivor, and cracking up at the guy who kind of looks like Qui Gon Jin from Star Wars. All I have to say about American Idol is that I miss David Cook. Heroes is quickly losing my interest, partially because 24 and Lost are SOOOOO good right now. I wish that this TV potpourri was dispersed better - there's too much to watch now and the summer will be empty.

I realized I never posted about my scrapbooking weekend. It was AWESOME and I had a wonderful time with my friends. I don't remember exactly, but I did about 32 sides, I think. I've scrapped a couple of times since then. In fact, I might work on it tonight. I have to say, in case you haven't heard this, I LOVE my Cricut machine! That thing is the best! I'll include some pictures of pages in the kids' albums (which is what I worked on at the crop), as well as a calendar page I did in my family album.

Here are the pages I did for Michael's birthday. His theme was patriotic, with different monuments decorating the kitchen. I was so pleased with my catchy title (always a challenge for me!)


I just like these pages in Madison's book. Very girly!


These pages in Max's book show how I can use one cricut cartridge and get different looks, which is cool.


The last couple of years I have done a December calendar page and then wrote a long journal entry about how we spent the holiday. I really like how this works out and would suggest giving it a try.


Coming to this blog a week from today: Max's 5th birthday. Stay tuned!

Recent MVPs (Most Valuable Pages)

Here are some pages I've recently completed. These first two are from the "waiting album" I've started for our baby girl. They have blog posts on them, since that has been how I've been "journaling" things.




These pages are from Max's album. We recently had the kids' pictures taken at JC Penney, and I bought extra poses of Max since there are no 3 year old portraits of him.







Here are Michael's basketball pages:

Random Thoughts Vol. 7

It's Monday again, and it's been gloomy and rainy here. But, the temperature was warmer. So, if we can get the sun to come out on a warmer temp day, we might actually have Spring arrive. We had an enjoyable weekend of not having much to do, which was refreshing after being so busy the last few weeks. I went to the crop on Friday night and got a respectable amount done. I started a new album for Max and it is current now. I did a couple of pages in Michael's album as well. I just ordered some supplies online, since I am out of tape runner and page protectors. When I'm not so lazy, I'll post a couple of pictures of pages. I also started an album to put things in to document our adoption wait. I'll post some pictures from that as well.

This weekend also gave me time to get a lot of homeschool stuff accomplished. I planned the rest of the school year, organized the homeschool table, and caught up on some record keeping. Only 38 more days of school for the Morehouse Academy, which has us finishing up during the week prior to Memorial Day. We've planned a family vacation the week of Memorial Day, so that is perfect. Making the vacation arrangements was something else we accomplished this weekend. We're going to King's Island, The Creation Museum, and Spring Mill State Park in southern Indiana.

Yesterday was the official groundbreaking for our church's new building. We stood in the wind and rain while the leaders took the ceremonial shovels of dirt from the ground. It's exciting to think about that building and that property and all that God has in store. We're blessed to be a part of it.

I'm pumped up for Dolly Parton night on American Idol tomorrow, even though it won't include Chikezie singing "9 to 5" (a CLASSIC film, by the way). I was sad to see Chikezie go, since he was way more interesting than Ramiele, Kristy, or Syeshia. I'm hoping Jason steps up his game, Little David's game continues to drop, Carly stops being so desperate to win (have fun for pete's sake), and for David Cook to continue to be interesting (regardless of whose cover of songs he chooses). All I have to say is if one of those non-interesting girls sings "I will always love you", I might throw up. Here's hoping it can be avoided!

One Wild Weekend

I'm finally recovered from my scrapbooking weekend. I would have posted yesterday, but I was needing all of my brain power just to function due to lack of sleep over the weekend. I was feeling my full 35 1/2 years yesterday (although this woman at prayer group last night was surprised when I told her I was 35, she thought I was like 26 or 27. She's my new best friend, by the way.) We had such an awesome weekend! It was perfect. My old friends, Tee & Ed, clicked so well with my new friend, Kimmie K., and we had so much great soul-cleansing laughter. We had some great food at the Essenhaus, although Ed and I consumed a few Rolaids afterward. I got 43 sides done throughout 4 different albums. My kids albums are now current, and my family album is ready for December. Kim and I stayed up until 8:00 AM Saturday morning, and got up around 11:00 AM. (Tee and Ed stayed up almost as long). The next night, Tee, Ed, and I stayed up until 3:00 AM, then we got up at 8:00 AM, so Kim and I could come back to go to church. Kim and I stayed at the crop until 6:00 Sunday night. There were also lots of fun free goodies that we received throughout the weekend. We can't wait until next year! If anyone is interested, the Winterfest crop will be the last weekend of January next year, so if you want to join the loudest and most obnoxious table there (as well as the most fun table), let us know! I'm posting some pictures of layouts from each album, as well as a picture that has a 12X12 album I bought for Max, and 2 albums I got for free during the weekend.

Crop Til I Drop!

In a about 5 hours I leave for the big weekend crop. I'm excited for a chance to get away, to work on albums, and to hang out with friends. Oh, and for a chance to laugh, which I expect to have happen a lot over the next few days. I'm cropping with my old friends, Debbie "Ed" DeBoer & Tina "Tee" Green, as well as my new friend from church, Kim "Kimmie K." Carpenter. We'll also be spending time with my friend, and Creative Memories Consultant, Jodi "Artistic Hair" Oldfather, and her friends - Mindy "Can't Remember Her Last Name", and Rosanna "I Never Knew Her Last Name". I giggle just to think about! So, on Monday I'll be back online to brag about how much more I got done than Ed, I MEAN, to blog about how the weekend went. (I'm posting pictures of the cover of the new family album that I got for Christmas, and the calendar page I did to start off that album)

Countdown to the Crop

In three more days, I'll be headed to Winterfest, that January tradition of spending the weekend scrapbooking with friends. I've been cropping pictures, organizing paper, and trying to get everything I might possibly need altogether in my bag. I'm looking forward to getting caught up with all my albums. I'm also looking forward to lots of fun with friends. Winterfest is a great time to talk, laugh, and just get away for a break. Last year we also learned many valuable lessons, such as do not opt for the gas station hot dog at 2:00 in the morning, just say no to too much carmelized puffy snack, and perhaps most important, not everyone appreciates the pie already being on the table at dinner. So, let the countdown begin, and I'll let you know what we learn this year!