I Found It!

This is a picture from the Murder Mystery Dinner we did at my church in NY. The Bethany that you all know and love has a lovely look ;) on her face and is all the way to the left and my daughter, Ashleigh is right next to her. They looked so cute with these elephant ears. I don't remember why they were elephants, except that the theme was "circus". The whole concept of this mystery dinner was great. It was based on a Bible character and you tried to figure out who is was. However, in reality it was very confusing and probably the best thing about the night was the costumes and food we ate. It still made for nice memories!

Bethany, while I was looking for this picture, I found MANY more pictures of you, so I will be sharing some of those later!!

Boring Blogger

As much as I love going on my blog and catching up with all of my blogger friends, I am usually at a loss of what to write. That comes as a surprise to me since creative writing was one of my favorite things to do in school. I will have to get a bit more creative!!

Tonight we will go to youth group. Now that Awana is over for the school year, we head back into Wed. nights with the youth group. Boy is it a tough transition for me. Last week went a bit better, but the week before, I was really struggling. Although I enjoy both ages, younger kids is probably more of my comfort zone. The bigger kids can overwhelm me when there are large groups of them. Plus, I am not a "large group" person, so that increases my anxiety of it all. Last week did go better, though, and I am thankful for that.

In the meantime, Alan and I have been praying and praying about some decisions, but the Lord has said WAIT. That is a difficult thing. It seems that we have been waiting for quite a few years now, but God knows. He knows what our needs are and He knows what is best for us. So, we will keep praying and waiting upon Him and His perfect timing. It sure is hard when His timing is so different from mine;) Another lesson...

Busy, Busy Weekend

This holiday weekend was filled with tons of business, and definitely lots of cooking. One of Ashleigh's friends was turning 21 on Saturday, so Ashleigh and her other friend had planned a surprise murder mystery dinner. Alan and I and our siblings and their spouses had done a murder mystery dinner when Ashleigh was little and I think she has very fond memories from that, so it seemed like a great idea to celebrate Rachael's 21 birthday! And it was. We spent much of the day on Saturday cooking lots and lots of lasagna and chicken alfredo. We also made this awesome garlic bread that all of my kids love. We also got out the chocolate fountain that I had bought for Ashleigh's bridal shower and cut up fruit and stuff to dip in it. That is always so yummy!!! The dinner was so much fun, but I am afraid we mostly forgot to eat. There was so much to think about and remember and there were questions that we needed to ask other characters! It was a blast and Ashleigh and Kendra did such a good job thinking of everything. This picture shows me threatening to reveal some secrets that the maid had been keeping...

On Monday we had some of our family over and had a cookout. Memorial Day is such a great time to stop and think about the huge sacrifice made by so many. I am proud that my grandfather, my father-in-law and husband have all served their country in the armed forces.

It was a great weekend, although the Chapmans are on my mind so often. I keep thinking of their huge loss and also how they are ministering to their son. I think having teenage drivers in the house has connected me to that part of the situation. It happens in the blink of an eye. Keep praying for this family.

I hope you all had a great weekend!!

Basement Cleaning is Yucky

My big job for the last couple of weeks has been to get the basement clean and organized. So, today since I am home for the whole day, I am hopeful to get the majority of it done. Bethany has organized all of her part and so I am encouraged that I can do the same. However, I really HATE basements. As a general rule, when we look for a new house, which we have done countless times over the last 23 years, I don't even go into the basement. I just don't like them. I don't want to be in them and I really hate to clean them. But, we live in a pretty small house and need the space in our basement for storage, etc. So, I am off to clean some more after I feed Davin some lunch. That will be a nice break.

Moms

I was riding home from church yesterday and thinking about my Mom since it was Mother's Day. I was thinking of some of the ways that she has inspired my life. I was truly blessed with a great mother. She never made mothering look hard and she always seemed on top of things. I always knew she was a good mom and I have always appreciated the example she set before me.

Five years ago, that was taken to a much different level. Five years ago, last month, my Dad suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and nearly lost his life. By God's grace, his life was spared, but he had to learn EVERYTHING over again. He could not walk by himself, shave, eat, and many of his words got very confused. My Mom became less of a wife and more of a caretaker. I have watched her for five years be exactly what my Dad has needed her to be. Sometimes that was different things and she always rose to the challenge. Did she have discouraging days? Yes, but she continued on. Could she have made different choices that would have made her life easier? Yes, but she didn't. She chose to do what Christ would do and I am so thankful for the example she has been to me.

Things are so much better for my parents now and we rejoice continuously over what God has done for our family. Even five years later, we still see improvements and it is so fun to watch. My Mom has been an incredible example of patience.

Thanks Mom.

What a Week, What a Week

I knew right off the bat that this week would be busy and it has been! On Sunday night, we had our Awards Night for AWANA and I was able to hand out many awards to my adorable Sparkies! They did such a great job and it is always amazing to me how much scripture they can memorize. It was a fun year. On Wednesday, we had our Awana Fun Fair! It was so exciting, but there are many, many details required to get that together and when we finally left the church around 10:30 pm, I was very ready to go home! We did have so much fun, though. Yesterday Davin had an EEG to see if he still has seizure activity since he has not had a seizure for over four years. Praise God! Today I will drop Cheney off, go to PBU and help Bethany pack up her room and move back home from the summer. It is so hard to believe she will finish up her third year of college. Yeah Bethany! We will rush back, unload the car and get Cheney ready for his junior/senior formal (prom) tonight. Whew! (Oh, I almost forgot that in the meantime, Ashleigh will come and get Davin off the bus and pick Cheney up. I am very thankful for helpful kids.) I am a little bit tired from it all, but it has been an exciting week with lots of good things in it.

I have missed all of my blogger friends while I have been absent. I think my busy season is about to end, so I should be back much more often! Martha, Kristina, and Tracy, thank you for visiting me in Facebook land:)