Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Alyssa Sings, "I Love You Lord"

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Someone is happy!

I heard someone happily hollering (oh the joys of living in the country) and when I looked out the front window here is what I saw.....

Please excuse the blurry pic but our zoom isn't quite THAT good!!

LOL

The UPS man delivered the long awaited graduation gown today!! YEA!!!!

And, since I am NOT superwoman... never have professed to be... never plan to be.... and even if I DID plan to be, I'd never succeed.... but this frazzled mom didn't have all the battery's charged so after snapping one pic, the camera died and so I couldn't get closer to take a clear pic. Tune back in after April 25th and you will see plenty clear pics then.

Friday, March 20, 2009

A Time to Reconnect

This past week, thanks to the generosity of Byron's parents, we were able to take three days and get away from life (as we know it) and spend time away from kids, from our church, from our responsibilities and from phones. Being in the pastorate has a way of monopolizing the "Rev's" time and add on top of that all my "teacher duties" and just everything else, Byron and I just needed to re-connect and get back on the same page. Byron started it all out by surprising me with a wedding vow renewing ceremony complete with a bouquet (arranged by Marilyn Muir) that was almost like my original wedding bouquet. It was beautiful and meant allot to me. He did a wonderful job suprising me with all his plans. After the renewing of our vows we headed out for our little mini honeymoon. We started it out by eating at our favorite - Chef Peng's in Niles, OH. Mmmmm.... good. We then headed for Holmes County, Ohio. We spent til Thursday reading, driving through the country side, relaxing and talking, talking, talking. I don't think either of us realized how long it had been since we really talked. Not "in passing" talk or "necessary" talk but just talking. It was wonderful to not have to set the alarm..... clean up the house...... wash dishes...... do laundry........ share my husband..... answer the phone.......... It ended all too soon. Thanks Mom & Dad Gurnee for such a wonderful gift!!

The renewing ceremony with the honorable Rev. Daryl Muir officiating. (BTW... Daryl & Marilyn thanks for being such faithful friends!)

My dear husband being crazy about reciting his vows. He was trying to decide which parts to leave in and which ones to add.


The chef cooking our meal.


Breakfast at the Carlisle Inn

On the deck outside of our room.



Sunday, March 15, 2009

My testimony today

Saturday, March 14, 2009

People are waking up. Too late but its happening.

I truly love seeing people who were so excited and happy to see McCain lose and Obama win change their mind. And its happening quicker than even I dreamed possible. Headlines like this one just makes me thrilled.

Obama's Poll Numbers Are Falling to Earth

(click to read the article)

Ya know.... next election time, maybe people will listen to people like me who TRIED so HARD to help you see the light. LOL

Breakfast With Friends

This morning 2 couples from our church and our family had breakfast together at Old Country Buffet. What a huge and delicious selection! I'm quite certain that there has to be a verse somewhere in the Bible forbidding getting up before the sun rises to drive 35 miles to eat breakfast but apparently my husband and our dear parishioners haven't run across those verses in their daily devotions yet. Anyways... After our delightful breakfast that included some yummy cinnamon rolls we headed over to Lowe's (my husbands second home) where the kids participated in one of their Saturday kids workshops. Very very neat experience. Here's some pictures of our day so far. The kids have had a blast. It's been a very pleasant end to a very stressful week!












Tuesday, March 10, 2009

I told you So


Even with the lapdog media carrying his water for him Barack Obama continues to slide in the polls after serving less than two months in office.
Rasmussen reported:

Thirty-two percent (32%) now Strongly Disapprove of the President’s performance, the highest level of disapproval measured to date. The rising negative is driven by Republicans, 58% of who Strongly Disapprove of Obama’s performance. Since Inauguration Day, Republican opposition has doubled.

Obama's approval index is now down to six points.

To be fair, the fact that Obama still has a 6 point advantage is significant considering the Dow has dropped faster under Obama than any other new president in 90 years.

He hasn't exactly had a stellar start.

(hat tip to: http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/)

Monday, March 9, 2009

Need a Special Singer Idea?

The Calhoun Family. They are your answer for your next rally day, friend day, etc. I believe that Byron is going to be downloading a song or two onto his blog soon but really and truly, this family is fantastic. Their spirit, their quality, their music, etc was just tops. Not to mention they are really just allot of fun to be around. Anyways, they have a CD as well and its been playing almost non stop all day today and it has just been encouraging me so much!!! If you want to contact them about coming to your church just look on my "Favorites" list and towards the bottom you will see "Tim Calhoun". Click on that and you can contact him from there.


Here are a couple pictures. Byron has several on his blog.



Friday, March 6, 2009

Ultimate Irony

Check out this picture. Don't ya think if you are too poor to keep food on your table - so poor that you need to go to a soup kitchen to stay alive...... don't ya think you'd probably be unable to afford a cell phone? Apparently not. Here's a pic from the Washington post. There's a picture of Michelle Obama at a homeless shelter in Washington. She's on the other side of the glass, serving food to the homeless, and the homeless and the poor are showing up taking pictures of her with their cell phones! Unbelievable.


Thursday, March 5, 2009

Daddy's Comin Home!!


Our family is very rarely separated for more than a few hours. This week Byron went to Bus & Outreach convention in Indianapolis, Indiana and we are really missing him!! He is currently on his way home though and the kids just can hardly wait to see him!!! We've all decided that next year, we are all going with him!! :-)


Welcome Home, Daddy!! We missed you SO much!!!!

Love, Kenton, Vincent, Kendra, Alyssa

Give and it shall be given

Today I got very brave and took my kids (yes, all four of them) to the mall. We walked around for awhile and actually had a very lovely time. Anyways, today was the big St. Jude charity drive in the mall so they had a huge stand set up andthe main Erie radio station was there. The excitement was running high. The first time past the stand I didn't even look at the people collecting money. Then as I kept walking I felt more and more guilty. St. Jude's is one of the few charity's that I feel is truly worthy and manage their donations well. Many of you will probably remember that Vincent participated in the "Math-a-thon" for St. Jude's in school last year and raised quite a bit of money (click here to read about it). So, on the way back through I gave the kids each money to put in the basket. Well, when they did, the lady offered them each a fruit slushy thing and a Frisbee and a t shirt. Well, I have to say that I was so proud of my kids. I was waiting for them to grab all three - which was really what she was offering to them but instead 2 of them chose the fruit slush and Vincent chose the Frisbee. Kendra said that she'd just share Alyssa's fruit slush. It's nice to have kids who are not grabby or feel a sense of entitlement!! Anyways, here's the pic of them enjoying their treat.


Is it already time?

On Tuesday, I took my little girl who was just born last week to her Kindergarten orientation. Honestly, I am completely blown away at how fast time has gone by. This fall I will have THREE kids in school!!! Where in the world has time gone????? Anyways, even though I am CERTAIN Kendra was just born last week, the state is telling me that she is 5 and that it is time to go to school.

Being the wonderful June Cleaver mom that I am not, I completely forgot to take our camera to this milestone event in her life so I had to resort to using my trusty cell phone camera that really leaves much to be desired in the area of photo quality. But, it beats nothing all to pieces. So.... Here are a few pics of her big day.

They had vision screening, hearing screening and speech screening. I, being such an organized mom, completely forgot to take pics of the speech and hearing screenings.


Coloring while the parents were being lectured.


On the bus for the test ride. Oh the excitement!! She could hardly contain herself.


In the one classroom where they got to see what it would be like when they come in the fall.

They Must Really Think We are Dumb

Today I saw this sign in Walmart......



How dumb do they think we are anyways?????

Monday, March 2, 2009

Let them be little

I should probably preface this whole entry with the warning to anyone reading this who has strong opinions about educating their newborns with Baby Mozart, etc. This may not be an blog you want to read today and furthermore, please don't try to change my mind. LOL

I am admittedly one of "those moms" who unashamedly talks "baby talk" to my infants. I also happen to love the little words they come up with whenever they cannot say certain letters. One of my children didn't pronounce their "f's" right away. Another didn't pronounce their "B's" right away. The resulting words were sometimes adorable - sometimes not (try saying the word "buck" with a f - not a b. Very embarrassing.)I know that allot people think that I should correct my child everytime and help them learn those particular sounds. However, I am of the belief that children all learn at their own pace - each one different and unless a glaring mental problem is evident, I should not rush them. I am hearing more and more parents who are being forced to rush their child if they are not conforming to what some stuffy board has come up with as the "norm" for 5 yr olds, 6 yr olds, etc. No one knows my child as well as I do and I know whether my child has a huge developmental delay or if he/she is simply not ready to do microbiology at 7 yrs old. Boys learn slower than girls. Some studys are even currently suggesting that boys are not mentally developed enough to start school until age 8 at the EARLIEST. This has become a huge soap box of mine, I will readily admit. And, truly, I better just stop right now. LOL

Anyways... the following song is a gentle reminder to all you parents out there.