II Chronicles 7:14

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Friday, January 29, 2010

What Snow?

Well....we're all ready for this big winter weather storm...but where is it? :o)
It figures, the ONE TIME I actually listened to their warnings and bought candles and batteries and got out all my flashlights , rented movies and got lots of foods and cooked up several meals (spaghetti, roast & chili)...and nothing happens. Well, I don't mean NOTHING...we certainly got a layer of ice...but I was thinking (and they were saying) power outages for days...roads thick and icy/snowy with no chance of getting out of the house for 3-4 days.
Not that I'm complaining...I definitly don't want the power to go out. Talk about going stir-crazy super-quick! 2 kids and NO lights, heat or tv. Agh!
Anyway, now that the kids are out of school today (needlessly?) I am wondering what in the world we are going to do with ourselves? hmmmm...do we bake? Do we do an art project? Do we watch movies? Play games? I guess the choices are endless...
I just checked the online forcast. It says we should be getting 2-5 inches of snow by this afternoon. We shall see....

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Bear with me here

Okay, this batch of pictures I put on here are all in a jumbled up mess. Sorry! Here are the last few pics from the ball....until I get the ones that the photographer took there.

This one is of me and my dear friend Rachel, who actually invited us to the ball!Here is one I snapped on my first day of babysitting. After playing outside for a couple of hours, the kids were exhausted, so they cozied up on the couch for a movie! Cute...

Lastly, one of me without all that makeup (ACK!!!) I'm sorry...I guess I'm more of a natural girl. I mean...I LOOOOOOVE getting all cutsied up and going out. Give me high-heels and bling ANY day...but you can keep your 2-inch thick make up, thank you very much!

Subway Mom

Here I am delivering Brooklyn's birthday lunch from Subway. I look like a B.U.M.!!!
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My little Rock Star!

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The party at CiCi's Pizza

Payton, Grant, Madison, Brooklyn, Karsyn, Taylor
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Our pretty snow"girl"

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Our little snow"man"

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Blizzard 2009

Having "fun" shoveling snow over the Christmas "blizzard".
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Ticked Off

Well, folks, here you have it. Me in a BAAAAAD mood. I was frustrated with how I looked (hated the make up, wasn't loving the hair and the dress didn't look nearly as good as it seemed to in the dressing room). The bottom line was: I was being a big baby.
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Pre-Ball

Brooklyn used my camera to take pictures of Matt and I. Here we are 'reviewing' them while my mom snaps a pic with her camera.
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Saturday, January 23, 2010

Brooklyn's Birthday, Bikes!, Ball!

I am getting worse and worse about keeping up with posting pictures on here! But, finally, here they are...our month of January. A picture is worth a thousand words right? :o)
This first one is a "date night" Matt and I took. Brooklyn grabbed the camera and snapped a pic of us.
This is a random one of Grant that I snapped just because I think it's funny that he loves to sit on TOP of the counter top and do writing/coloring. Looks horribly uncomfortable to me, but I guess for him, the bar just above makes the perfect "table".

January 11th was Brooklyn's 9th birthday. We ended up having quite a few "parties" for her. On the 8th, I took her and 4 of her girlfriends out for pizza and cake and then we spent the night at a hotel where they have a little indoor water park. They had tons of fun and only stayed up till about 2 am.
On her "actual" birthday on the 11th, I picked her up from school for lunch and took her out to Subway. I made a tiny little cake.
Then, after school, we took her out to Applebees for her birthday dinner. I made my first-ever chocolate chip cookie cake (using a springform pan). It worked out really well and tasted FABULOUS!When we got home that night, she got her big present, which was a new bike!! Grant had gotten his new bike about a week earlier with his Christmas money, so I took pictures of them both with their new bikes!Grant has amazing balance and can stand on the seat of his bike! He climbs up walls and doorframes like a monkey! I've got to get him back in gymnastics!
As most of you know, Matt and I attended our first BALL on Saturday, Jan. 16th. Most of the pictures are on my mom's camera, which means I'll have to upload them using Picasa. Here's one though that my friend Rachel took.
Okay, more pics to come....I just gotta find the time!

Monday, January 04, 2010

Looking for good news?

Okay, if you're on my blog today, it may be because you're checking to see what the good news is that I was talking about on Facebook.
Well, I got a job!
Here are the details:
*I will be babysitting for 2 children in my home M-F. 9 a.m. till 4 p.m. Ages 2 and 5.
*The parents are friends of ours and we have a wonderful relationship and very open communication with them.
*They live in the same little town as us--so very convenient.
*I will be making just a little less than I have been making from the doctors office.
*This is a temporary situation (3-6 months). Their mother is quitting her job sometime in the next 6 months, but I will watch them until either she decides to quit, or another job opportunity arises for me.
*The 5 year old child is in kindergarten and will be at school the same hours as Grant is, so I will actually only have the toddler in the afternoons.
*They are very sweet, quiet natured kids that I am anxious to love on!
*I will still be able to do everything I normally do around the house while they're here (including workouts and cleaning, etc.)
*And...I had thought that this would mean I would have to quit going to the gym for my morning classes, which would have been REALLY REALLY SAD for me...but...my mom offered to watch them for me during those hours. I will pay her so that it will be fair, but she only wants $40 a month (which comes out to $5 everytime I go to the gym). Awesome!

At first I was a little unsure of this....seeing as how I've been thinking that my "big break" was about to come through as far as fitness instructing/ministry. But, the truth is, my classes are about to end and so far, they haven't asked me to teach any other classes as of yet...which means it's time to find something else. The more I think about this whole situation (the babysitting) the more I see that it is the perfect solution for both of us (me and the other family). This will "buy" me more time to figure out what I'm doing/where I'm going...and in exchange, they get to leave their kids with someone who they already know and trust. (what an honor for me!)

I'm not exactly sure when this will be starting, sometime in the next 2 weeks. Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know so if you see me after school with 4 little kiddos in the car, you'll know whats up! :o)

Also, in other news:
*The doctor I work for has decided to postpone my layoff---until Feb.1st. YAY! One more month of working for him means more money to get out of debt with! Hooray! (Ps. I work from home.)

*I'm starting a new Beth Moore Bible Study called "Breaking Free" tomorrow night with the women's ministry at our church. I'm looking forward to digging deeper into God's word this year and I can't think of any better way to get off to a great jump start!

*I'm looking forward to the new season of The Biggest Loser which is starting tomorrow night. Since I will be at Bible Study during that time, I will be dvr'ing it and watching on either Wednesday or Thursday so PLEASE DON'T TELL ME ANYTHING!!!!! :o)

*Beginning today, Jan. 4th, I am back on my clean eating. I will be preparing weekly meal plans every Sunday afternoon and will be e-mailing it along with all the needed recipes to people who are interested. I'd be more than happy to add you to my e-mail list if you want. I guarantee you, if you'll stick to only eating the foods on this meal plan AND get at least 30 minutes of exercise a day, you WILL lose weight. I have already prepared this weeks meal plan and posted on my other blog. Feel free to check it out. Going to get to my 120 goal weight this year...no question about it.

*My little girl is turning 9 in exactly one week! AUGH! That is just crazy. I've never been so unprepared for her birthday as I am this year. It just seems like Christmas was yesterday and now it's birthday party time. Usually, it seems like, there is more time between those 2 events!?! It will be a small party this year.....because

*WE ARE GETTING OUT OF DEBT! Most of you remember that we had to borrow $1800 from my parents last year to get the transmission replaced in our van. Well, the "deal" was that we would start paying them back $100/paycheck as soon as Christmas was over. I gave my mom the first $100 today and it felt AWESOME! I can't WAIT to get our tax return back and pay off some more stuff. For a while there I was really focused on getting a new wedding ring and us taking a vacation in 2010...but....I really think those things can wait a little longer. As soon as we get rid of this mountain of debt that we're in, the next purchase will be a new vehicle to replace the van. It may take a year or two...but I think we're starting to see a small glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel now! (Thanks Rene!)

*PRAISE REPORT: While I was at my wonderful friend Rene's house last week working out with her, her handy hubby took it upon himself to look at my van and see why the heat wasn't working. Turned out the thermostat was cracked. He offered to let me use their (fabulous) SUV to run my errands while he went to the parts store, bought the part and installed it in my van. WHAT A BLESSING! And I can't believe how terrific it is to have heat in our vehicle again! My guess is that it hasn't been working right for a looooong time. Because seriously, I don't remember ever being so warm in my car before! THANK YOU SO MUCH DAN and RENE!!!

Okay, that's about all I can think of for right now. I need to get off here and go get prepared for my last Monday night of teaching classes at the gym. After this, it'll just be Thursdays! Hope you're having a good first week of 2010. Remember, it's up to YOU how good and happy it is!