Here's Freddy!!!

Well, not yet, but he's coming!!! He asked if we would get him a ticket home for Christmas and I jumped on it. He will be home on Dec. 12th and will stay till the 16th. So we are going to celebrate Christmas a week early. I am also going to put the family through the ordeal of the annual Family Picture. The way the family has spread out, I never know from year to year if we are going to be all together for the holidays, so I am not going to pass out any opportunity that may come.
I am thinking of going to the beach this year. I have been looking at family portrait samples online and have gotten a few ideas. I don't want to do the typical "everyone sits with their hands on their laps and fakes a smile" pose. I want to be more relaxed, natural looking.... Steph is all for it, it's the guys that fight it. So we'll see how it turns out.

The picture will be our Christmas card, so expect it in the mail right before Christmas!

Andy's wheels, no more

Monday nights is when Andy goes and hangs out with the 'guys' for football watching... Well, 2 nights ago, the roads were a little slick. He turned left going out of our neighborhood when he lost control of the car and slid into a tree. It's crazy, he hit a small oak tree no more than 1ft in diameter, banged up the passenger front end....


triggered the air bags,

which shattered the windshield,

and the axle, cv joint (?) tore up, fell off, something... it would not go into gear, so we had to drag it home.

The car is completely totaled. And the weirdest thing of all is that the tree doesn't have a single scratch on it. Andy never felt the air bag because he never lunched forward. I don't know how the car can have such damage at such a small impact.

Well, I actually do. God works in strange and wonderful ways (as Johnette put it). He allowed Andy to not even leave the neighborhood that night. See, I know for a fact that the last Monday night he was with his friends, he and another guy raced their cars. I haven't confronted him about it, but I am sure they were planning on doing it again that night. And like I said, it had been raining and the roads were slick. When I mentioned it to Fred, he said, ' it would be stupid to race in wet roads'. Hello!! We are talking about stupid teenagers.... no offense to other teenagers!

So, I believe God protected Andy from himself. This is one of those 'laying my Isaac down' moments.....

Now, the stressful event of finding him another car. We had already told Andy we would match any money he saved (up to $1000) so he could get another car because the Cavalier really was in sad shape. He has saved about $350 so far, so we will have to front him some of the money and he will pay us back. Until then, he will need to drive my car to school and I will have to catch rides to work. Yeah, he needs to find a car soon....

Laying My Issac Down

Ok, our church had a Christmas breakfast last week, but last month there was the "Fall Extravaganza". It was a dinner. Very lovely, lots of ladies, but the best part was the guest speaker.
Her name is Carol Kent and she wrote a book called "When I lay my Isaac down". It was very inspiring. Without going into great details of her life, she talks about times in your life when you have to 'lay your Isaac down'. When you have to take whatever burden you are carrying: depression, marriage problems, financial stress, wayward children, illnesses.... WHATEVER, and lay them at Jesus' feet. Give it to HIM.
But one of the key things that stayed with me was that you don't just do that once. You start with giving it up for 5 minutes, then maybe next time, you can do it for 15 minutes, then maybe 1 hour... it is a constant thing. And that made me feel better. I have been feeling like I haven't been a 'good' Christian because I have struggled letting go of my problems with Andy, with mom, and with life in general.
But I realized it's ok to struggle, just don't give up.

I checked out her book to read. I have loved it. It is now on my Christmas wish list. There were so many things I wanted to highlight so I would be able to go back to it when needed.
I recommend it to anyone who is going through any kind of struggle in their life. This book gives you hope.

http://www.carolkent.org/

Simply Christmas

Last Saturday, the women's ministry at church put on a breakfast. The theme was "Simply Christmas". Ladies were encouraged to adopt a table and decorate it 'Christmasy'. Since I had never been to one of these events at our church, I figured I would just be a spectator this time. There was a buffet with 3 different kinds of breakfast casseroles, including a french toast one. They were all delicious! And we were given the recipes, so now I know what I will be fixing for Christmas morning!
Here are some of the beautiful tables:

Snowmen seemed to be a popular theme....

This was a 2-table theme... 1st one was 'Unto us a child was born'...

2nd one was 'And died to save us from sin'

I liked this one the best because the book 'A tale of 3 trees' is very special to me...

I almost didn't go.... you know how it is, there are a million other things you can do on a Saturday morning. Laundry, cleaning, shopping.... but my dear friend Debbie Hofrichter kicked me in the butt and told I WAS GOING. She, too, had a busy schedule but decided she (and I) never do something just for ourselves and it is good to be with other sisters in Christ. And she was right. I am very glad I went.

Oh! I forgot to mention, we had a guest speaker. Her name was Sharon Jaynes. She spoke from one of her books, 'Celebrating a Christ-Centered Christmas'. She had some neat ideas, some of which I think I will take up!

PS

Sorry about the blurry pictures. My camera does that when the battery gets a little low....

Multi Tasking

He is sound asleep, his thumb on the phone. I just had to take this picture....

It's either really funny or really sad, haven't figured out which one yet....

Fab Vocab

Our school did a "Fab Vocab" parade. Classes had to pick vocabulary words and dress up like them... Our class was shapes. It was neat to see how creative some parents (and teachers!) got.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The Sweetest Day

I don't know how many people know, but the 3rd Saturday in October is national "Sweetest Day". A co-worker told me that in Ohio, it's the time when women shower men with gifts, since typically on Valentine's Day, the ladies get the gifts. And in her town, they have a dance and the ladies invite the guys. That sounds nice.
Well, that got me thinking about what are some of my sweetest days I've had.

*First and foremost, it has to be Dec. 31st, 1981. Our church was having a 'Midnight Watch' for New Years. They showed a film about the rapture, and it brought me to tears because I knew deep in my heart that if I didn't do something, I was going to be left behind. So that is the night I gave my life to Christ. I can still remember the feeling of this giant boulder being lifted from me.

*Another 'sweetest day' is Oct. 21 1981. That is the day that Fred asked me to be his girlfriend and even gave me his class ring to wear. I think how the story really goes is that I wrote him a note asking him if were 'going out' or what.... He decided to make it official that night, on a Wednesday before church. Still remember it like it was yesterday.

*I don't remember the exact date, but I know it was in July of 1984. We had been married just 3 months and I woke up and realized that there was a good chance that I was pregnant. When I told Fred, he said " I knew it!" ( Though I will refrain from saying HOW he knew) So we went to a clinic and had a test to confirm it. I was really nervous, thought it was too early to get pregnant, but I will always remember how excited Fred was about it.

*The birth of my 3 kids. Every one of them was as different as they are. Interesting things happened at each one, though I will spare you. Those were 3 magical days.

*March 1 2003. The first night we spent at our new house. It was such a blessing and only through God's grace, were we able to have such a lovely home. I still walk around the house sometimes and thank God for every corner.

*April 2009, we went to Pigeon Forge to celebrate our 25th wedding Anniversary. The weather was cool and I prayed that God would allow me to see snow for the 1st time. I remember waking up and looking above through the giant glass windows in the cabin and asking Fred 'is it snowing or is it foggy outside?'. But when I looked out front, it was snowing! I jumped into some clothes and just stood outside looking up. God had granted my request and I felt very blessed!

I know that there are many other 'sweetest days' in my life, but these are the ones that quickly came to mind.
I also know that God has many more in store for me. My life has truly been blessed. Not without pain, but even through that, God is with me, so that is sweet!