Count Your Blessings Sunday

Okay so I know it's gonna say Saturday night but it's close enough to Sunday that I can get a jump on this!

1. Yohn, the love of my life. Thank you for all you do to provide for us. You work so hard and I appreciate you.

2. Elisha, my son. You are a joy to watch as you learn and grow. I pray you will be a man after God's heart.

3. Bethany, my daughter. You bring me so much joy. We are so alike yet so very different. It's the differences that I truly appreciate as you really stretch me and change my way of thinking.

4. My home

5. My job

6. The school my children attend. I do not need to worry about the things they learn in class each day, as Christianity is a core part of their lessons.

7. Scrapbooking Saturdays. I'm looking forward to the next one.

8. And last but certainly not least, for Jesus, my Savior, because without Him in my life, my life wouldn't be what it is.

Care to join in? Just post your own Count Your Blessings Sunday on your blog and then come back here and link up so we can all see how you've been blessed this week!

One More

Elisha was looking at the last post and saw his name and asked me to read to him what I wrote. At the end of the story he was cracking up at himself and then asked me to read it to Bethany too. She laughed at the end and then said completely serious, "No Mommy, there's only aliens in Africa."

Okay then. Guess we really need to have a talk about aliens.

A-Musings

Elisha has been having trouble sleeping and even woke up a few nights ago crying. When Daddy asked Bethany the next morning if Elisha had woke her up she said with much frustration, "He almost woke me up two times with his whining." Yohn replied, "If you knew he was whining then you must have woke up." She responded, "No Daddy, he didn't wake me up because my eyes were still closed, so he almost woke me up but not all the way."

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A little girl at church - remember we deal with 3 to 5 year olds here - came up to Yohn and said, "Hey, HEY! My mommy has boobies." To which he responded with, "WHAT?!" And she said again, "My mommy has boobies."

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When we were driving home from setting up for kids camp Bethany exclaimed to the three other children sitting in the van with her, "Look I see a wedding ring! That’s where people go to get married!" We never did figure out what she saw, but we still thought it was pretty funny.

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A few years ago when Elisha started kindergarten Yohn was explaining to him about stranger danger and what to do if he saw a stranger or if they tried to talk to him. At the end of the conversation he asked Elisha if he understood and he said yes and then added, "What if there's aliens in the bathroom, Daddy?"

Back in Action

We weren't going to do it. We said no and we meant it. When we explained to the kids we said no they understood and had no problems with not being allowed to. And then we got a phone call and it all changed.

You probably already saw the picture of Bethany and her softball glove (well, not really hers because she left hers at home and had to borrow one) and her Angels hat in the previous post. You may (or may not have because you may not have even noticed or cared) have wondered, "Huh? I wonder if Bethany is playing softball again?" If you were wondering the answer is yes. And if you weren't well now you know anyway.

Like I said before we were not going to do Fall Ball (JOBL's instuctional league played in - you guessed it - the fall). The kids had asked about it and really wanted to play but we had decided they had enough going on that they did not need one more thing on top of it. For one they are in this year's Christmas play at the church. That's a big deal because it is a huge commitment for two children so young but they really wanted to do it. Practices started in July and won't end (obviously) until December. Then in December there are four, count them, one... two... three... four performances. To top it all off they also have music lessons once a week. So we decided that they had enough to be involved in without sports on top of it. When we told them, they didn't even act disappointed, just went on like they understood. Then we got the phone call on Thursday evening.


"Hi, this is (somebody) from JOBL and I just wanted you to know that we were doing teams for the little girls out at JOBL for the fall so they won't have to play with the boys. It'll be kind of like a clinic and only on Saturdays, so if you are interested please call me back. Thanks! I look forward to hearing from you." Okay so that's not exactly word for word but you get the point. Now we were interested for two reasons. 1) Bethany wants so badly to learn how to catch but just doesn't want to heed my instruction or Daddy's and instead runs from or dodges out of the way of the ball. We thought she just might get her heart's desire if someone else was able to take the time to teach her. 2) This particular coach did not loose a single game all last season and went on to be undefeated in the playoffs as well. Obviously something she did worked and we were eager to see what she had to offer.


So now Bethany is back to playing softball and Elisha is just fine with not playing as long as we can play catch and do baseball practice at home.


And as you can tell we drug Jewell along too. She went kicking and screaming and had a great time. Her smile was huge. Even though she's never played before she certainly tried her best to learn what the coaches were asking from her. Yep, it was a good decision. Even though we said no.

Bethany was elated.

Contemplative - I Heart Faces Photo Entry

Hello everyone! This week's theme at I Heart Faces is Contemplative. I wasn't going to do an entry this week until I took this picture of my daughter on Saturday:

I took the picture through the fence so when I first saw it I was sooo disappointed because I thought I had wasted the shot. The reason being is I caught part of the chain link fence and it really washed out the picture. So I decided to try some editing and thought this picture actually looked pretty good in black and white. Yohn really liked it this way too and that was before he saw the colored version. He absolutely hates black and white pictures (althought I think that's starting to change) so I was really happy with the end result after he said he liked it.

If you have a picture you think would be perfect for a contemplative entry simply click on the I heart faces logo above and follow the directions. Have a great day!

Count Your Blessings Sunday

It's that time of the week again. Time to focus on what you've been given instead of what you don't have. 1) Yohn, I am blessed by the friend and father that he is. 2) My children who bring me much joy and smiles every day. 3) The fact that I have a home. It may be small and does not really belong to us, but we have somewhere where we can all be together with a roof over our heads. I was reminded of that today when someone else was saying that if they didn't find a job they were going to be evicted. 4) I have a job! 5) We have many friends with which to spend our lives with. 6) For 10 years of living in California. I said I would never move here but when God directs you to go somewhere you can only obey or be unhappy with where you are. This is one decision we have not regretted. 7) For chocolate milk! Seriously, I'm drinking it right now and it's just hits the spot! Now what have you been blessed with this week. Feel free to join this blog carnival by posting your blessing on your blog. Then just add your name and blog link to MckLinky below. Or if you prefer simply leave me comment sharing how you have been blessed this week.

100th Post Celebration!

Okay so call me crazy... But it's my 100th post so I thought I'd have a little fun. Hmmm... how do you celebrate a 100th post anyways? Here's some of my ideas...

A picture of a completed 100 piece puzzle! Not impressed okay....

How about a video of me reciting 100 Bible verses? Yes! Well I'm sorry but I probably only know about 20, maybe 30. So that one's out.

100 cents stacked up all neat? No? Okay...

100 pictures of my family. No Way! That would take 100 years to post! And you might think I went just a wee bit over the top.

100 ways to say hello:

hello, hi, hej, hola, mambo, Tansi, 你好, oi, olá, mingalarba, salam, tungjatjeta, tél nìdõ, hafa adai, moni bambo, Muribwanji, bok, dobré ráno, shorah, Grüßgot, saluton, hyvää päivää, salut, dia duit, gamardjoba, hallo, kem che, yia sou, Ina uni, aloha, shalom, नमस्ते, jó napot, góðan dag, nde-ewo, halo, ciào, おはよう, huthegellutheg, Yow Wah gwaan, kwe kwe, namaskara, Salem, ahn nyeong ha se yo, roj bahsh, sabaidee, labdien, salve, mbote, laba diena , coi, moïen, Здраво, namaskkaram, kihineth, merħba, kia ora, sain baina uunamaskar, niltze, hao, ya'at'eeh, faka lofa lahi atu, cia, cha, Jwajalapa, ज्वजलपा, namaskar, namaste, k cha, moin moin, dumelang, hei, heisann, asham, eyhay, dzień dobry, witaj, cześć, oi, boas, olá, alô, sat sri akal, Ram Ram, salut, buna dimineata, talofa, haja, malo, (90) hallå, go'da, salamaleikum, zdravo, ćao, dobro jutro, a`yubowan, dobrý deň, and....živjo!

What? You're still not impressed? Ahhh com'on! I had to look that one up on wikipedia. Okay, okay I got it this time, you want me to stand on my head for 100 seconds. Yeah? Well that's just too bad because I can't stand on my head for 10 seconds let alone 100. So you'll just have to be satisfied with this:

100 ways to describe me:

silly, sweet, simple, mommy, wife, white (ha!), sour, living, moody, passionate, messy, disorganized, blonde, spunky (so says Yohn), friendly, energetic, lazy, rude, sarcastic, loving, beautiful (so says Yohn again), stubborn, encouraging, bizarre, caring, capable, self sufficient, cheery, rosy, sexy (again that is Yohn not me!) hyper, obnoxious, photographer (wanna be), scrapbooker (sometimes), hazel eyed, cheerleader (for my husband and kids), writer (again wanna be), reader, learner, secretary, multi tasker, long haired, big footed, gum chewer, sugar lover, hair cutter, dinner prepper, 5' 5", quirky, blogger, blessed, teacher, shy, head strong, lunch packer,Christian, friend, fantasy football champ (in a league of all guys!),coupon clipper, internet addict, truthful, sincere, bookstore manager, modest, reserved, fun-loving, level-headed, positive, smart, sly, healthy, God fearing, competent, plant killer, night owl, real, active, American, sensitive, feminine, always right (hack, cough, wheese! excuse me, I was choking), slide show creator, cartoon watcher, baseball fan (especially if my children are playing), picture lover, casual, content, inspired, patient, (but also) impatient, creative, commited, different, selfish, competitive, procrastinator, responsible, compassionate, grouchy, and... grateful.

Okay that was not so easy. There it is my 100th post celebration! I know, there really wasn't much to celebrate... or maybe there was. But either way I had fun!