I pray...

I have this friend...I've never met her or talked to her on the phone. How can she be my friend then you ask?

Let me tell you...5 years ago, when I first moved to Nebraska I was pretty lonely. I was searching for connection anywhere and wasn't finding it in church in Lincoln, so I went online. I found an online Christian mom's group and connected. About 2 years later, there was a split in that group. About 30 of us went to another private board and that is where friendships really blossomed. I've met a few of the women here and there. They are a wonderful group of Christian women...they are pastors wives, teachers, preschool directors, pastors themselves, stay-at-home moms, and business owners. Some home school their kids, some volunteer in their kids classrooms, some have kids in college. They live in California, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, and Ohio (I know I forgot a few!). We even have a Canadian!

Let me tell you what they do the best though...

they pray.

They pray when kids are sick and when dogs die. They pray when nieces get in accidents and suffer traumatic brain injury or when nephews get into accidents and break their back. They pray when father's-in-law die and when husbands are shipped to Iraq. They pray when someone is suffering financially. They pray when someone is venting and when husbands are being morons..

they pray.

And those were just MY issues!

They are my sisters in Christ.

It made national news on Saturday when my sister, whom I have never "met" or "talked to" lost her brother-in-law in a most senseless act of violence. Her sister is a widow. Her nieces don't have their daddy anymore. Her kids don't have their uncle anymore..

and so we pray. Because it is all we can do and all we know how to do.

He is her hero.

He is my hero.

Stephen Mayhle
April 3, 1980-April 4, 2009

A Part of America Died"

Somebody killed a policeman today,
and a part of America died.
A piece of our country he swore to protect,
will be buried with him at his side.

The suspect that shot him will stand up in court,
with counsel demanding his rights.
While a young widowed mother must work for her kids,
and spend many long, lonely nights.

The beat that he walked was a battle field too,
just as if he'd gone off to war.
Though the flag of our nation won't fly at half mast,
to his name they will add a gold star.

Yes, somebody killed a policeman today,
in your town or mine.
While we slept in comfort behind our locked doors,
a cop put his life on the line.

Now his ghost walks a beat on a dark city street,
and he stands at each new rookie's side.
He answered the call, of himself gave his all,
and a part of America died.


©1984 America Police Hall of Fame
North Port, Florida

May God be with Shandra and Jennifer, and Brooklyn..

and Julie and Byron, and Kenton, and Vincent, and Kendra and Alyssa..

and all of their families...

and the families of the other two officers who gave their lives that day.

I love you Julie...my "sister"..

and most of all...I pray.

Hellllooooo!!!

Blog Update…


I’ve had good intentions..really! This is some insight into my perfectionism. I tend to think that if I cannot do it all correctly and right, then I won’t do it at all. Hence the reason I have not updated in so long!

I’ll begin with last summer:

June was fairly uneventful. At the end of June, Chris, Amy, Kaityn, Sarah and myself headed south on a girls road trip. We spent a little over a week traveling to California and back for my nephew Anthony’s wedding on July 4th. We had fun in California, but the gas prices were awful! Twice the gas pumps clicked off at $99.00 on the Suburban! I think the most we paid was about $4.50 a gallon in Bishop, California…it was awful! The wedding itself was lovely and we had a good time.

Coming back from that, the next day as a matter of fact, was the day we had Lady put to sleep. Paul had called me while in California to tell me that he had brushed her and that her hair had been masking a significant weight loss. I prayed that she would make it until we got back, but she was just not herself at all. I still miss her and it’s been almost 9 months.

July 19th Paul and I headed south again to my 20th high school reunion. Amy kept the girls for the weekend and we had a wonderful time away. The reunion was in Palm Springs (yes, in July!) and other than the 113-degree heat, we had a blast. It was just fun to get away as a couple!

August began uneventful, but by the end of it I had a new job! In September I began teaching pre school 3 days a week and have found a new love! I love it so much that I’m headed back to school in the fall to begin work (again!) on my teaching degree. I will keep working though as I only work 3 half days a week. Also in August, Kaitlyn began 8th grade and Sarah began 5th grade. Each of them will be at new schools next year and I’m blown away by the fact that I will have a high schooler!

In September came the great flood! Well, it wasn’t great, but it was a flood. One day I came home and heard, what I thought was the refrigerator running. A couple hours later I went to get a drink of water from said fridge and the rug in front of it was soaked! I pulled it out and the hose to the fridge had a pinhole leak that had been spraying for hours. Although there wasn’t a ton of water on the floor it had soaked into the wood badly. It took nearly 3 months to get the problem taken care of! We finally got new floors in December!

The rest of the fall was good. I turned 38 in October..yipee (note the sarcasm!). For Halloween, Kaitlyn was a vampire (yes, we love Twilight!) and Sarah was Tracy Turnblad from Hairspray…so cute! Thanksgiving was spent at Chris and Curts. Amy moved out in early December. Christmas was pretty nice. For our annual Christmas trip to the movies we saw “Bedtime Stories”. Fun movie.

Now January…whole different story! Paul was set to leave in January for about 2 ½ months. They waited until the last minute to give him orders. On New Years, I still didn’t believe he was going! He did leave on January 11th ( I think! ) . Kaitlyn turned 14 on the 13th. Gotta love Idaho where they can drive at 15! I’ve been hearing about that for MONTHS! Paul made it safely to Germany....and then promptly turned around and came back to the states 2 weeks later…

Paul’s dad died on January 30th. He was in the hospital for 4 days before he died, so thankfully Paul was able to get to Minnesota before it happened. The girls and I flew out 2 days later and spent a week there. The funeral was lovely and we met many family members that we had not met before. The girls and I flew back to Idaho and Paul drove his dad’s car back that week.

Since then, much of our time has been spent dealing with his dad’s estate. We are headed back to Minnesota in June to clean out the house and put it on the market.

I’m thinking that just about catches us up on the highlights! I’m hoping to post more often and get back into a routine.

It is after all IDOL time.. and I love me some American Idol! =)

Lady...

Yesterday we faced a decision we had been dreading...we put down our yellow lab mix, Lady. We got her from the pound in February 1999. She was a trooper who made all the moves with us to Nebraska and back. She was great with the girls and loved them. Things we thought we would never miss now stand out...her bark every time the door bell rang, her smelly (clear the room type) farts, and her chewbaca "talking". Bullet misses his friend. Even the cat seems a little out of sorts.

We'll miss you Lady girl. Have fun chasing the squirels and bunnies in heaven...

Tackle it Tuesday..Will

Yep, this weeks tackle is not so fun and there are no pictures (sorry!).

Paul and I have an appointment this afternoon to have a will done. We've only been parents for 13 years, it's probably long past time to get it done. Why the sudden urge? Well, we took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and it's one of the things he stresses, but the real reason is, for the first time since having children we are taking a trip together...for more than overnight! In July we are headed to Palm Springs for my 20th (gasp!) High School Reunion (Yeah San G!). It's a quick trip, but we are flying, so we (really I) pushed to get this done before we go.

Not fun, but a necessity!

Walgreens Deals 6/13

Okay, I think I may have done something right this time.



**Missing from the photo are 2 more bags of PB M & M's and another Snickers bar...we couldn't resist!

I don't have time to go into a lot of detail, but all of this cost me $10.09 OOP and I earned $5.00 RR.

Not too shabby right?

I had $11.87 in Walgreens coupons
$8.25 in MFG coupons

I used $17.58 off of a gift card from previous rebates.

Not too bad!

My top 10

Daily Mish Mash is having a movie carnival. In honor, here are my top 10 favorite movies (not really in any particular order-I just like them all)!

1) Steel Magnolias-Can watch it 100 times and never get tired of "I want to know WHHHHYYYY, WHHHYYY!" Great actresses, great lines. Laughter through tears, it's fabulous.

2) The Sixth Sense-Best "edge-of-your-seat" movie I've ever seen. We saw this in a packed theater and I still remember the audible gasp at the end. It's not one I can watch again and again though.

3) Forrest Gump-Funny, touching and hands down, the best soundtrack ever!

4) The Passion of the Christ-no words...

5) The Patriot -I fought seeing this movie. Don't like war movies..yada, yada, yada. LOVED it. Heath Ledger is great, Mel Gibson is amazing..it made me understand a period in history that I really knew nothing about.

6) Chicago-Knocked my socks off! Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renee Zelweiger, Richard Gere, John C. Riley. My favorite song from it is the "Cell-Block Tango".

7) A Beautiful Mind- If I didn't know better I would think that Russell Crowe WAS mentally ill! I thought Paul Bentley was REAL until I realized that the little girl never grew up!

8) Finding Nemo-Disney at it's finest. LOVE the story.

9) My Big Fat Greek Wedding- Change GREEK to ITALIAN and you have our wedding!

10) The Notebook- I was inconsolable at the end of this movie. Best love story ever!

Works for Me Wednesday...

Today's edition of WFMW is that which tames bordom with kids!

Get thee to Office Depot and order a chalkboard!

I'm not kidding, this thing has been great! My youngest has learning disabilities and receives therapy through NILD (National Institute of Learning Development). One of the requirements for the therapy was to have a large chalkboard. She does what is called rhythmic writing on the board. We found one wall in our house it would work on (in the hallway), ordered the chalkboard( I think it was around $130, but it is large, they have smaller ones), and hubby hung it on the wall. I bought colored and regular chalk-I recommend Prang, the Crayola stuff didn't erase very well.

The thing gets used all the time. They draw on it, write notes on it, we have done improptu movie trivia, stupid-silly saying, birthday greetings, and on and on. Oh, we did school on it too. Currently it says "Happy Anniversary Tio Pablo and Kimmy (from Amy) because yesterday was our anniversary.

Here are a few pics.





Hey..it works for me!

For more WFMW fun go to rocksinmydryer.com

and yet more closets...

For this weeks Tackle it Tuesday, I'm tackling yet, another closet.

In our hallway is a very deep closet that, when we moved into the house I made a school closet for Sarah. I also had the kids craft stuff, Sunday School stuff, VBS stuff, and my Pampered Chef Bag. It became a catch-all over the year. Once Sarah went back to school I slowly started to empty it out. I resigned as VBS co-director (long story). I'm not teaching Sunday School next year, so I went though all of that stuff and put it all out to either be sold on ebay or at my yard sale (Yes, I am having a yard sale..if I keep saying it it will happen, right?!). The school stuff is either in the yard sale, gone to garbage or in a box waiting to be shipped back to IDVA. Here are the before pics...




There really is a floor there you just can't see it!

I have a lot (understatement) of scrapbooking supplies. They were stored...





Yes, I was twice a Creative Memories Consultant!

I decided to store the scrapbooking supplies in the former school closet. You can decide if the results were good or not. I have WAY too much scrapbooking stuff and will be a scrapbooker until I die!

Here is the after...






I did keep the kids craft stuff in there as well. Mostly for a lack of anyplace else to put it!

For more Tackle it Tuesday fun, head on over to 5minutesformom.com

Carrie Underwood/Josh Turner Concert!!!

Sunday night was girls night out! Two months ago I left an entire day of scrapbooking for about an hour to stand in line for these tickets-okay, well I was #4 out of 6 but you get the idea! Anyway, we headed out Sunday night and went to dinner at Applebee's then to the Idaho Center for the concert. Tiffany and Ashley got tickets at the last minute and came along. We didn't get to sit with them, but we got to spend a lot of the evening with them, which was great fun! Josh Turner's voice is like BUTTER! SMOOTH, SMOOTH, SMOOTH! Carrie Underwood put on a great show. She doesn't have a huge catalog of songs to pick from but she can SING! Oh and we saw her on May 25, 3 years to the day after she won American Idol..isn't that cool?!

The most excited Kaitlyn was the whole night though is when she realized that Ian Johnson from Boise State was standing right in front of us. It was a crack up! She started texting her friends. I told her her myspace bulletin would probably read "I SAW IAN JOHNSON...oh and the concert was good too".

Heres some pics of our night...

Ladies night...Angie, Kaitlyn, Me, Amy, Chris, Tiffany, & Ashley


At Applebees




At the Idaho Center

Katilyn & I


Chris & Amy


Kaitlyn & Amy


Amy & myself


Oh and the star of the night..Ian Johnson (he is in the white shirt, his wife is in the yellow shirt with the black vest)

Tackle it Tuesday..."Coat" Closet..redesigned!

This weekend we tackled our "coat" closet. Last week I moved all of our coats to bedroom closets because our coat closet it too small. So I had this space. My pantry is on the opposite side of this coat closet, and eventually I want to wall both sides off and open it in the middle and make one large pantry...but we are years from that happening. We are a movie loving family and have TONS of DVDs. They were out on racks, stacked on bookcases and in general, driving me crazy. I HATE visual clutter and this to me was terrible visual clutter. I want to get a Entertainment Center that holds them all, but don't have the $1000+ dollars to do that either, so this was our $50 solution to the problem. Friday night we went out and bought the supplies and dh worked on it this weekend (with only 3 more trips to the store-because EVERY home improvement project we do takes at least 3-4 trips to Home Depot, WalMart or D & B to get it done). I don't have before pics, but here are the after pics. I told the kids if we get any more DVD's, we have to get rid of some. Sadly, this isn't all of them. The girls each have a rack in their room with "their" movies and shows (Kaitlyn owns all 6 seasons of Smallville and 2 seasons of One Tree Hill...all in her room!).

Here's the "after"! Thanks Honey!



For more Tackle it Tuesday fun, head on over to 5minutesformom.com