Extrememly cool state park

Now, this is a state park I'd love to visit - but I'd have to get SCUBA certified first....and get a passport (?).

HT: Ten Digit Lumber

sweet "goodnight"

All three of our children have had a touch of the stomach virus this weekend. It's run its course but, due to a decreased amount of sleep over the past several days, they have been waking during the night crying out and wanting to be assured of our presence. I never wish my children to be sick but I am really enjoying these night time interruptions since all three of our children usually sleep solid through the night (love you, Becky). It's rare for any one of them to request a middle-of-the-night cuddle since they sleep so good. They like their back rubbed and for me to run my fingers through their hair but never has it been asked of me to regularly do these things at 2:00 a.m....that is until this weekend.

Abigail just woke up a few minutes ago and, in her sleepy state, asked, "Mommy, rock rock, please?". Oh, how I treasured those few moments with her in my arms, rocking her back to sleep. After a while, I stood and approached her bed, gently squeezing all my love into her little body. I laid her down and she rolled over, looked up at me and said, "I wuv you, Mommy. Night-night".

I think I want her to be this little forever!

Darth Vader in D.C.

I love learning and finding out new things; especially when that information is weird and intriguing. Who knew that Darth Vader called Washington D.C. his home?

Ready for.....

This kid makes me laugh. He would truly wear this around the house all afternoon if I'd let him. I wouldn't mind him wearing it to school if that's what made this sweet youngin' happy...it's just that he complains how hard it is to remove all of it as he goes to the restroom.

Love you, Drew Drew!

Which one is it: cold or flu?

The cold weather has arrived and that brings sniffles, snot, and sneezing. When Andrew rises in the morning, I'm gonna use this chart to make sure I'm clear of what he might be suffering from. So, keep warm! I know I will....the $25 Starbucks gift card I recently won arrived in the mail today!

Wanna go get a White Chocolate Mocha with me this week? My treat!

It's a giveaway, "The Blue Hutch" style

Yes, I've mentioned it again and again. Guess what....I'm doing it one more time! It's worth it no matter how tired you may be of reading about it. *hee-hee*

My good friend, Becky at THE BLUE HUTCH, has three beautiful children. Her youngest is turning two years old next weekend and Becky wants to celebrate by having a giveaway! You see, Becky won a case of the new deluxe edition audio book I so desperately am hoping to win. I was delighted to read on her blog today that she is going to give two of these deluxe audio/books away randomly. My children would be so excited if my entry numbers were chosen!

We read this book every night but my boys especially like laying in bed listening to a CD as they drift off to sleep. How awesome to know they could close their eyes and have their ears hear the name of Jesus uttered in every story spoken on the CD.

I'll keep you updated. In the meantime, go on over and wish KB a happy birthday!

Happy 2nd Birthday, KB!

Our anniversary trip in "pictures"

What a wonderful ten years of marriage we have just celebrated! I'm more in love today with that man than we've ever been before....each passing year it gets sweeter and sweeter. With ten being a special number, we were blessed to be given some time to get away to the north Georgia mountains, in the hills of the Chattahoochee National Forest, not far from the Appalachian Trail.

You won't believe what I did, though. I forgot to bring my camera along on this trip! It never even crossed my mind to pack it. I think God might have wanted me to simply leave it behind so I wouldn't think about pictures and could instead give all my energy to enjoying every minute with Mitch. It was an amazing three day adventure! And we are so thankful for my mother who was able to take a few days off work to drive up and spend some time with her grandchildren, too!

So, since I had no camera to capture ANY of the sights, I leave you with a pictorial listing of what we did, via Google Images.

These pictures weren't taken by my snappy finger but they are the REAL pictures of the places and people we visited.

We stayed in Helen, Georgia....

...in a beautiful cabin....

...down by the river.

We surprised one of my college friends
by stopping by her workplace for a visit.

...and then we proceeded to hike and hike and hike some more.

We did a bit of mountain shopping,

...bought some fudge...

...and, on the way home, we drooled while shopping at IKEA Atlanta!

We only left having bought one thing - a new duvet cover. We've been using the same cover for ten years and figured it was due time for an update, considering it a gift to ourselves.


We were so happy to get home and see our little ones, though. They were missed tremendously!

Love you, Mitch...and I can't wait for another ten years to come. You are my best friend, lover boy.

Another favorite preacher: Matt Chandler

My husband knows that he is my favorite preacher. You know that right, Babe? But, since I get to listen to him every week as well as getting to watch him lead our family in grace, I like to branch out and listen to other sermons, too.

Another preacher/teacher that keeps me busy downloading a sermon every week is Matt Chandler. God is using this man to preach the gospel in all of its offensiveness and glory.





Matt's sermons are available for free download (audio and video) at both Monergism and Desiring God for those of you that might be interested. Believe me, you WANT to be interested.

Stuart, I've already burned copies of three of my favorite sermons preached by Matt for you to get your collection started.

High school football: Crazy game finish

I'm not sure what colors I'd rather be wearing leaving this stadium.

Small group is valuable

Small group 2009

We love our group of friends. We get together often and never miss a Sunday night to study or play. In the above picture, there have already been a few changes that have taken place in the past week since it was taken. K.W. (in the red) has just left for a one year tour in the middle east: and M and KA (couple in center front with black and green shirts) have just gotten a new assignment at a different post in our state. Also, three other families are missing: Cowans, McLeods, and Permans. All of the kids were outside playing, except for Abigail who loves the camera.

Wow, our small group seems to stay at the same number but changes faces quite often!

The magic of Disney underground

I'm not a huge Disney fan (don't get me wrong, I don't hate Disney - it's just that I don't go out and purchase every movie, plush, or sticker with the Disney logo on it), but I absolutely love, love, love visiting the park. There really is something "magical" about Disney World and being able to enjoy it with my family is the true reason I enjoy it as much as I do.

But, Lots of Scotts describes a little bit of the Disney wonder best:

One of the reasons Disney is considered so magical is because things seem to 'just happen.' It is exceptionally clean. When a random piece of trash is dropped someone appears within seconds to clean it up. Security is not visible, but you know it is there. No off-duty employees are seen smoking on a break. Characters just pop up, seemingly out of nowhere. Everything seems perfectly effortless. It is the happiest place on Earth because 'work' is not evident.

So, this explains why I find the underground tunnels at Disney World so fascinating. I want to go back and simply take a tour of the tunnels! WOW!

OCD: This cracks me up!

(Click on comic for a larger view)

I love this show!

Self control is hard

Andrew has made a clear decision on how he would like to spend his allowance: on an albino water frog. Every five minutes he has been asking, "When can we go to WalMart and get that frog, Mom?" (no, I'm not exaggerating). I tell him the same thing each time: "When you save enough money then you can purchase a frog." What he didn't realize was that he had more than half of the money saved in his fire-station bank already.

Andrew came home from school today and asked what extra/other chores he could do to earn some more money. For a solid hour, Andrew washed the windows, disinfected the bathrooms (yes, I'll double check), cleaned out from under his bed (ugh!), organized his bookshelf, put away the clean silverware, and picked up some peas. It was fun to award him with a few extra quarters and see his face light up when he realized he even had enough money now to pay over the sales tax on the frog!

Oh, but sin ALWAYS abounds! Soon after his celebration, he got in trouble for hitting his brother. His punishment resulted in waiting an extra day to get the frog. After a long talk, lots of tears, a lesson in self-control, a few prayers, many hugs, and an apology, he seemed determined to guard his heart and be kind. Guess what?!?!!? An hour or so later he "lost" it again by trying to trip his brother because he was mad that Luke got to run an evening errand alone with Daddy.

So, the frog puchase has been taken away indefinitely for the moment. Andrew was very upset at first but he truly hates that he has hurt his brother and has offended God. The first thing he wanted to do after the second occurrence was to go to Luke and give him a hug. The next thing he did was ask, "If I get better at this self-control thing, then can I go to Walmart and get my frog?".

What are they up to?

Treats on a stick

Apples (or a banana) plus caramel plus sprinkles equals BLISS! After dinner tonight, we went outside to eat some of these yummy treats that I made. Super easy to make, too! Just peel and slice an apple the way you prefer and then poke a skewer stick through them. Next, dip in caramel, Nutella, or peanut butter and roll in sprinkles or coconut. Freeze for about 10 minutes before eating.

Yummy!

SNAKE!

This is what we saw in our neighborhood on our way home from school today, just two blocks from our house. We were all intrigued and decided to take a long look.....but I DIDN'T roll down the window! Are you kidding?

Free YoCrunch

Wow, all you have to do is mail in your candy wrappers to YoCrunch from your Halloween/October festivals and they will send you a coupon for a free yogurt (one per household). Take note of the time frame to mail your wrappers.

Sounds yummy to me!

Thanks, Heather at Freebies 4 Mom

Pea Pea

Nothing keeps them busier than a tray full of dried peas, a few small toys to bury, and each other to joke around with. This is how we spent last Wednesday afternoon!

What happened to all my joy?

My bloggy friend, Megan, has written another article for worldmag.com. I love reading her heart.

She writes, ".....tears. What happened to all my joy? What makes me want to live a life with passion? If I can’t sincerely answer those questions with Jesus, then I’ve seriously lost touch of who I really am and was made to be."

Gosh, I need a gospel reminder everyday.

Powerful adoption video

HT: Take Your Vitamin Z

Juice cap game

What else do you do with over 300 juice caps?

Don't ask why I have them.....my only explanation is that I'm an art teacher and I tend to save things I deem worthy of being reused for a crafty project.

Until I get inspired, we'll be in the driveway playing a game or two.

Wordless Wednesday

Free pizza at Stevie B's tomorrow

If you're willing to stand in line, you can get a free take-out pizza at Stevie B's tomorrow starting at 6:00 p.m. (first 100 people only).

Indonesia earthquakes in pictures

The Big Picture has posted 40 pictures of the aftermath of the earthquakes in Indonesia:

About 5:00 pm on September 30th, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck just offshore of the town of Padang in Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake toppled buildings and started many landslides, smashing homes and swallowing up entire villages. The following day, As rescue workers arrived and residents tried their best to dig out and help the survivors, another unrelated quake with a magnitude of 6.6 struck less than 1,000 km south of the original epicenter. Each of the two quakes had at least one aftershock greater than 5.0 as well. Over 1,000 people are known to have died, an additional 3,000 still missing. Today, October 5th, officials called off the search for survivors in Padang, and are focusing now on caring for the living and coordinating with international relief agencies.

Redbox code today

Redbox code good today until midnight.

QNGJ7KD

Order of business this past Saturday:

1. Visit Home Depot Kids Workshop to make a fire station money bank.

2. Take oldest son to his pottery class to create a self sculpture.

3. Travel north to celebrate husband's 20th year high school reunion.

I want to win a set!

Again, I love The Jesus Storybook Bible and will do whatever it takes to enter to win a set. My children's children's children will thank me one day.

Random video

Random video, thanks to BooMama. Enjoy!

(Mom, I know you often skip watching some of the videos I post but you MUST watch this one. I know you'll appreciate it.)

For my friends who are NFL fans

That would be Tera, Loran, Jim, Mitch, and Chad.

Pizza Bruschetta

Any snack that is yummy and easy/fun to make is a snack worth having around this house! Andrew decided he wanted a few bites of bruschetta, pizza style! Since I don't normally have real bruschetta bread around the house, I just toasted a few pieces of bread and cut them in fourths. Next, he slapped a small amount of olive oil on each piece, smoothed on some traditional basil pesto, laid down slices of pepperoni, and then topped 'em off each with a slice of mozzarella cheese. He and Abigail were begging for more after they gulped them all down!