Power Lab Vacation Bible Adventure!!!

Busy, Busy, Busy with Power Lab Vacation Bible Adventure! Just stopping by to say Hi. I don't know when I'll be able to actually post anything worth reading. :-) I am directing our Power Lab VBA this week and then next Thursday we're off to Mexico for 10 days on our Missions Trip! I check in soon........hopefully!

My beautiful girl!

Flag Cake

I finally made a flag cake! I've always wanted to but never wanted to spend the money on blueberries. Blueberries were on sale this week for 2.49 a pound so I got some for the first time ever. 

So yesterday Reagan and I made a flag cake. Check....one more all American mom thing done! :-)

WHAT! NO NIGHT SERVICE!!!

I am beside myself right now....My jaw about hit the floor....My "are you serious" reflex is still going over and over in my head! Above you see some pics from Jr. High Camp just a week and a half ago. Well, this was a NIGHT service where God was moving, kids were giving their hearts and lives over the the Lord to serve in ministry, etc. 

So here's my rant....we did not go to kids' camp this year which makes me really sad because I absolutely love camps and know that God does amazing things in kids' lives. But we just didn't have kids this year that were able to go either financially or because their parents just don't understand the value of it spiritually. Anyways, camp has always been a couple of hours away but this year they changed it to a camp which is 9 miles from our house. So tonight I decided to go out and check out the night service at the new location. I arrived...saw 20 or so kids walking around about 6:45 PM...made my way to the chapel where they were having what I thought was pre-service activities. I asked what time service started thinking maybe it was 7:30 PM and then all of a sudden everyone got up and left. I was confused. I followed an adult out and asked what time evening service started and he said there was no evening service. What? Can you say that again please? Surely I had misunderstood...so I asked again. No, I heard right. After picking my jaw up off the ground I asked when service was. He said from 10-11:30 AM. Well, yeah, that's morning service. That's what time it's always been. But he said that was the only service this year. Really?! I have been to a LOT of camp meetings in my life and I know that there is something completely different about morning service and evening service. Not that God can't move in the morning as well, but the kids are simply not as receptive and lunch doesn't wait so you HAVE to end at a specific time. What about lingering around the alter as God works on these kids' hearts? I am still in complete shock! 

As I was processing this new found "system" I asked the gentleman what they did from 7 PM on. He said they had free time until 9:30 PM and then came in for some worship and late night activities for an hour. Really....2 1/2 hours of free time when they could be in service hearing the Word of God and worshipping Him. Hhhmmmm. That doesn't sound like a very good trade off to me?! I am seriously going to look into other kids' camps for us to attend next year besides our districts. I know that the leadership I'm sure has their reasons, but I simply cannot believe that the tradeoff is worth whatever they feel they are gaining. There are two large churches in the area that both put on their own camps and I will be checking into them for next year. Wow, I'm seriously in shock!

Wow, what a wonderfully busy summer! It has been non-stop action, but well worth it. Here is a few pics of us at Jr. High Camp. I have a ton more that I'll get up over time, but here were a few highlights. The weekend before Jr. High Camp was spend at Kent Cornucopia Days advertising for our Vacation Bible Adventure and the youth made cross necklaces to raise money for our Mexico Missions Trip. That was the same weekend that Josh rode in the Seattle to Portland Bike Ride. Yeah, CRAZY busy weekend. I got home about 11 PM from the street fair and some guys from church picked Josh up in Portland and drove him home late that night. The next morning we were off to Jr. High Camp. It was honestly one of the best camp experiences I've had with the kids. They are all great kids and we had a really good time together. The services were wonderful and the kids entered into worship and ate up the sermons and alter times. I was very proud of their maturity level for Jr. Highers. There is nothing better than watching kids worship the Lord and pray with a heart that you know is open to the Holy Spirit and what He wants for their life. The girls had a chance to pray with a girl that gave her heart to the Lord for the first time and they were very excited to share in that process with her. Camps are such a special, important time in these kids' lives and I'm so thankful that I was able to share this week with them!

Well, we got home from camp right before it was time for my friends wedding rehearsal. So by the time I got home I was pooped, but excited about the wedding the next day. It turned out beautiful. I don't have any pics because I was running around and forgot to take any, but it was very nice. They had worship music in the service and it turned out very nice. I was honored to be a part of this important day. Congrats Mellisa and Marty!

Then as soon as that was all over it was full steam ahead getting ready for Power Lab Vacation Bible Adventure. 15 hours and a lot of paint later....we look ready! :-)

Reagan's theory on armpit hair!

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As we were getting ready for bed last night, Reagan reached over and began to rub my armpit stubble. Yes, I know... weird. She asked what it was and I said that God made hair under people's armpits and that someday she would get it to. She said she didn't want it. :-) I said that I didn't either but God made it for a reason. She asked, "Why?" I said, "Why do you think?" She said, "Because God got MAD at us one day and made armpit hair." I started laughing and said I didn't think that was it but she insisted. She said that we were being goofy and silly and making mean faces and so God got mad and gave people armpit hair. So there you go folks! Now you all know why we have armpit hair!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Auburn Day!

We had a really fun family day at Auburn Days on the 4th of July. Everyone went to the park and had a really fun time. We played mini-golf, rode the ponies (Javon was immediately sneezing and rubbing his eyes!), went to the petting zoo, played on bouncies, looked at the old cars, and Jack went with us so he had to meet every dog that passed by! It was a very good day. Then we went to Nana and Pappa's for fireworks. I hope you had a great day as well!

Puppies, puppies, puppies!

My life is consumed with puppies right now. I feel like I have 5 kids! I don't know how those of you with 5 kids do it! :-) All I do all day long is feed kids, feed dogs, bathe kids, bathe dogs, clean up the kids' messes, clean up the dogs' messes, and then it's time to start all over again!

They are sooooo cute though. J.J. (Jack Junior) is the salt and pepper little boy. Cherry is the all black little girl, and Paint is the little girl that Reagan is holding with white on her toes. They are getting super playful and have individual personalities. We get to see them playing and fighting and cuddling because they are in a swimming pool in our family room! The kids play with them and love on them all the time. We've been taking them outside for potty breaks and they LOVE the grass. It's cute. Every night we lay them on our tummies while we watch TV and cuddle with them. It's going to be weird when they go to their new homes, but nice at the same time because they do require a lot of time. Someone will get really great pups!

If any of you out there in cyber space are looking for an adorable Mini-Schnauzer leave me a post. They are AKC and vet checked. There due claws have been removed and tails docked by a vet. Plus you will receive a free vet check with AKC registration. They will receive their first puppy shots and worming before purchase and can go to their new homes in two weeks. 

If you have kids Mini-Schnauzers are a wonderful breed. We have had no problems at all with Jack and Sophie with our kids. They are non-shedding which is wonderful! They will be between 11-14 pounds. 

$575 - Leave a post if you or anyone you know would be interested. 

What really maters?

Thank you so much to lovesschool.blogspot.com for sharing this amazing poem....

I Have Not Been Educated
by Carolyn Caines

If I learn my ABCs, can read 600 words per minute, and can write with perfect penmanship, but have not been shown how to communicate with the Designer of all language .... I HAVE NOT BEEN EDUCATED.

If I can deliver an eloquent speech and persuade you with my stunning logic, but have not been instructed in God's wisdom.... I HAVE NOT BEEN EDUCATED.

If I read Shakespeare and John Locke and can discuss their writings with keen insight, but have not read the greatest of all books -- the Bible -- and have no knowledge of its personal importance... I HAVE NOT BEEN EDUCATED.

If I have memorized addition facts, multiplication tables, and chemical formulas, but have never been disciplined to hide God's Word in my heart .... I HAVE NOT BEEN EDUCATED.

If I can explain the law of gravity and Einstein's theory of relativity, but have never been instructed in the unchangeable laws of the One Who orders our universe .... I HAVE NOT BEEN EDUCATED.

If I can classify animals by their family, genus and species, and can write a lengthy scientific paper that wins an award, but have not been introduced to the Maker's purpose for all creation, .... I HAVE NOT BEEN EDUCATED.

If I can recite the Gettyburg Address and the Preamble to the Constitution, but have not been informed of the hand of God in the history of our country .... I HAVE NOT BEEN EDUCATED.

If I can play the piano, the violin, six other instruments, and can write music that moves men to tears, but have not been taught to listen to the Director of the universe and worship Him, ... I HAVE NOT BEEN EDUCATED.

If I can run cross-country races, star in basketball and do 100 push-ups without stopping, but have never been shown how to bend my spirit to do God's will, .... I HAVE NOT BEEN EDUCATED.

If I can identify a Picasso, describe the style of da Vinci, and even paint a portrait that earns an A+, but have not learned that all harmony and beauty comes from a relationship with God, .... I HAVE NOT BEEN EDUCATED.

If I were to graduate with a perfect 4.0 and am accepted at the best university with a full scholarship, but have not been guided into a career of God's choosing for me, .... I HAVE NOT BEEN EDUCATED.

If I become a good citizen, voting at each election and fighting for what is moral and right, but have not been told of (or believe) the sinfulness of man and his hopelessness without Christ,... I HAVE NOT BEEN EDUCATED.

However, if one day I see the world as God sees it, and come to know Him, Whom to know is life eternal, and glorify God by fulfilling His purpose for me, THEN I HAVE BEEN EDUCATED!

Garden Time!

"Why aren't there any tomatoes yet Mommy?" That is the question that I hear 10 times a day right now. "Well, it takes time for them to grow." "But we planted them last week!"

Patience is a tough thing when gardening. :-) Sunday afternoon we planted our small garden. 4 tomato plants, 2 yellow squash, and 2 zucchini plants. We had fun planting them. Javon helped dig the holes. Reagan helped pull weeds, and they both helped water. Oh, and we planted basil as well! 

Are you a gardener? I'm not, but I enjoy having fresh tomatoes soooooo much. I wish I could have them year 'round. They are so much better than store bought. Store bought tomatoes are ridiculously expensive and have no flavor. I really hope that ours do well. 

It's also a fun thing for the kids to watch things grow and get to pick them. 

Have a happy 4th!

I'm back!

Well, I 'm back....but I can't post any pics right now of our trip to CA. We had a great time and really enjoyed spending time with my grandparents. The best thing of the trip was watching the kids enjoy it so much. Javon had more freedom there to ride his bike back and forth between houses (less than a block apart). Reagan had a room full of Barbie dolls to play with. We all went 4wheeling almost every day and had a blast. And the swimming pool was so nice. Living in Seattle area we only have an indoor swimming pool, but I love outdoor pools. It's just different. 

As far as school goes, we're done for the summer except a Summer Bridge Book that Javon is doing 2 pages a day in. I got his curriculum for next year in the mail while I was gone and had fun going through it all. He has several more subjects next year but he's getting faster at his work. I'm the most excited about his Lit and Creative Writing. It looks really good. 

Well, I'm going to go for now, but just wanted to check in and say HI.

Blogger Failer!

I have failed as a blogger! Not only have I failed myself, but my fellow blogging world! :-) To all those who look at my blog on a daily, weekly, bimonthly, or annual schedule....I apologize.:-( When you click on "blessed mommy" and see the same picture day after day after day I know that you get angry, upset, frustrated, but most difficult for me to stomach - disappointed. Yes, disappointment that I seem to have nothing going on in my life worth writing about. Disappointement that I have not taken pictures of my beautiful children in the past week. Disappointment that I have not cared enough about my friends and strangers to bring joy into their life when they look at my blog which has absolutely no valitity to anything pertaining to their life. For all of that, I am deeply sorry! :-)

Well, here are a few of the things that have been going on in my life over the past week that I have failed to report mostly because I didn't have any pictures to back up my stories!!!

June 5th - 9 year anniversary....great night with my hubby. Probably the best anniversary ever. We were both being sentimental and just talked about some of the stuff that the years have held over dinner. Then we went to see Chronicles of Narnia and then home. My sis' watched the kids. Thanks

June 6-8th - Ladies Retreat....all I can say is "What happened at Sambica - stays at Sambica!" There were some funny times, but there were also some great times spent iwth the Lord. I also really enjoyed hanging out with the ladies. My age and older alike. It was fun.

Cars - Our car broke down and we have spent the past 2 weeks figuring out what to do. Thanks to lots of support and help from friends and family we have 1 car up and running and another on it's way! Thanks everyone!

Puppies - Taking care of the puppies has been a family project. Reagan has renamed the dogs. The boy now has 3 names. Josh calls him Maleak, Reagan calls him Jack and I call him J.J. for "Jack Junior". It's a good thing that his new family will give him a real name. :-) Then the girls' names have changed to Paint (because it looks like her toes were dipped in white paint) and Cherry (because Reagan saw my bag with cherries on it and thought it would make a good name). They are getting sooooo chubby and cute. Their eyes and ears opened this week.

Homeschool Convention - Saturday we had so much to do but I couldn't give up going to the Homeschool Convention. I use A.C.E. Curriculum and am very happy with it, but I love to look around at all the other stuff. Some of my finds outside of my curriculum for next year is a calendar book for Javon which I love. It has 2 years worth of daily calendar projects. You chart "something" for an entire month....life the shape of the moon-the tempurature-what kind of clothes you wore-snowfall amounts-all kinds of stuff. Javon did a weather cart for a month and loved it. I think we'll have a lot of fun with this. Both the kids got a recorder (flute) and I've had fun playing all kinds of songs on it, Reagan loves playing it while Javon plays piano, and Daddy is about to through them both out the window! :-) I also found a really cool penmanship and drawing book in one. Anyways, it was a good day just looking around.

Father's Day - We had a good day at church. Kids' church was busy but fun. Then we went to Longhorn BBQ for our annual "beef day" for daddy.

Now I'm busy getting ready to go to California to visit my grandparents for a week. Neither set of grandparents have a computer let alone the internet, so once again you will see this same post for a week. I told you I am a blogger failer. If I were a hard core blogger I'd drive the 60 miles to Reno and find an internet cafe or something. Oh yeah, I don't have a laptop! Well, it looks like I'll just have to say goodbye for now! Have a wonderful week!

Wrestling is great for Javon!!!

"I love you Couch!" is what Javon wrote on his card that he gave his wrestling couch during Teacher Appreciation Week. It was really cute. He really does love going now. At first it was tough and he wasn't sure about the whole thing, but now he is doing great. 

Here's some things that Javon says he's learned in wrestling:

1-How to "push-throw"

2-How to "knock someone down"

3-How to "run around"

4-How to "stand on my hands"

5-How to be "tough"

From my point of view he has learned:

1-Focus

2-Patience

3-Better listening skills

4-How to work with others in a team environment

5-That you can't give up even when it gets tough

6-Respect for his couch

There are other things as well, but those are some of the things that wrestling has helped him with this past 8 months. 

Crazy Busy Week!

So Wednesday was spent in the vet and mechanic's waiting rooms!

I took the pups first thing in the morning to get their tales docked, but there was an emergency CSection on a cat which took 2 hours. Anyways 3 hours later we had three crying pups and headed home. Javon and Reagan did really good though. We went and got Javon a haircut since he was getting "shaggy" as his Nana likes to say. 

Then I had to take our car to the mechanics since it was smelling of gas really bad. We knew that it was dying, but it seems as if it is now dead. Yeah, another two 1/2 hours waiting, but this time we walked to Dairy Queen and had lunch and ice cream. That made the time pass much quicker. Then it was home for a quick nap, clean up, and off to church. 

I won't be blogging over the weekend because I'm off to a Women's Retreat with church. I told Reagan that I would be going and she started to cry. Then I told her that Daddy was going to take her and Brother to see Kung Fu Panda on Saturday and if she went with Mommy then she couldn't see Kung Fu Panda. She stopped crying and very seriously asked if Daddy had enough money to buy her popcorn. :-) I said that I would talk to Daddy about buying her popcorn and she said then it was okay if I went. :-) Last night she informed her Dad that they would be buying popcorn at the theater! Reagan has a great memory so I'm sure he will hear about the popcorn a dozen or so times before Saturday!

Coupons are worth the time!

I just saved $52.50 in hand-in coupons alone! That does not include the $47.00 I saved on Buy 1 Get 1 Free items!!! It does take some planning, but it's so worth it. 

I've been coupon clipping for a long time but never was really "into" it like I am now. I was a casual couponer. But now I'm "hard core" baby!!! :-) 

Tonight at Safeway I got 16 bottles of Ken's Salad Dressing for......Drum roll please! FREEEEEEEEEEEEE plus I actually made almost $4!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been hanging on to the $2 coupons that I got in the paper and my mailbox for some time now because I knew a great deal would come along. The coupons were for $2 off of Ken's Salad Dressing and $2 off of Ken's Spray Spritzer Dressing. I had more than normal because I got 2 Sunday papers that week, my mom gave me her Sunday paper, and then I got the coupon insert in the mail that week. So all together I had 7/$2 coupons each. Not on sale, Ken's Salad dressing was $3.69. I was waiting for it to go to a 2/$5 deal so I would only have to pay .50 per bottle, but when I saw that it was Buy One Get One Free I was over the moon! :-) Because you can use 2 coupons even though one was free since they are manufactures coupons and the BOGOF deal is from Safeway. I had several other great coupons, but once again I scored on cereal. 

I got 3 boxes of cereal for $.48! 2 boxes of Kashi cereal that was on sale for$2.24 each (originally $4.69 each!) with 2/$2 coupons so I paid $.48 cents for two boxes of Kashi cereal. They were the big boxes too, not little ones. Then I got a FREE box of Live Active cereal with a                                                                                                 $3 coupon from the internet and it was on sale for $3. 

Yeah, it was a good shopping night. I'm always amazed when I walk away with such great deals. One of my things is that I don't obsess about it. I'm sure some do, but I don't want to spend so much TIME that it takes away from the frugality of it all. I always shop at Safeway so I know the store and the layout. I take advantage of their store coupons and then try to match it up with a manufactures coupon. That is an easy way to get a GREAT deal! I shop once a week, but every other week is simply little items like special store deals for that week. So I only have to do SERIOUS grocery shopping about twice a month. It has worked great for me. Another thing that has been really helpful in saving is going to a cash envelope system. I have $35 per week for groceries and $20 per week for milk, bread, fruit, water, dog food, and anything else from Sams club. When it's gone it's gone. This helps to make me use my coupons to stretch it. Remember though that we haven't had to buy any meat for months now. That is a huge help! 

Enough about my "shopping high"! :-) I just had to share and say give it a try - you might just get 16 bottles of free salad dressing. Looks like we'll be eating salad with dinner! God is good though and takes great care of us. We are trying really hard to not spend any extra money on "things" since we have 2 cars that need fixed and a bathroom that is gutted to the studs! Thanks President Bush for that tax break! Thanks Sophie for 3 puppies! :-) And mostly, thank you Lord for always providing!