It's been a long time!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

It's been so long since I have written anything but I think I might start up again. It's been a little over 2 years since I started my Kids Consignment business and it's going great. I now have over 200 consignors and a great location at the Doubltree Hotel, Lloyd Center.

I have grandkids now, 3 of them and a 4th to be born any day. Chelsie and Bella will be 3 in Febuary and Chase is 17 months. What a joy they are. They come to my house no less than 3 times a week so I get to really be a part in their growing up! I love it.

My oldest is still welding, my 2nd will be 17 on the 28th! He is really doing well. My 3rd, Eyore is 15 1/2 now and driving. My youngest is 12. My how time flyes.

I am still homeschooling but I have hired out someone to tutor my youngest. She needed more than I could give her. She loves it and is just loving being out of the house a bit more. I was relying on her to help with the grandkids cause she was here so this is helping her soar! She is such a social butterfly these days.

We are just about to celebrate the birth of our Lord and I can't wait for Saturday. It's my favorite holiday. I love that he gave so much to us and now we have a chance to give to others. Merry Christmas!

Kanga

Is There A Reason For A Saint To Swear?

It has been pointed out to me that there may be reason a saint might swear. What can those reason really be? I have begun to explore this in great detail (in my head). I, as a Christian, can't really think of a reason. I find it a tad unheard of because I myself don't believe we should swear. I was raised in a home where there was no swearing allowed. My parents didn't exactly hold to this and I have known to slip up before but try hard not to. However, we are not saints so that doesn't really count. Why do people swear and not Saints you ask? Well, we just aren't that good! Saints have been taught differently. They are held to a higher standard. That's not to say we shouldn't hold ourselves to a higher standard but we do tend to slip up sometimes. It is still not right of course. We must strive to do what Christ asks of us at all times. I'm not sure this really has anything to do with Saints swearing but it sounded good. I just don't think there is a reason for a Saint to swear since I don't believe we have a reason to swear. We are clearly sinning when we do this in my opinion. So, there you have it. There is no reason for a Saint to swear.

Now that I am here I might as well write an update. Most of you know I am the owner of Pass It On of Portland. We are having our sale at Oaks Park on March 28th and 29th. I am expecting it to be larger than a normal first time sale. We have 12,000 square feet and I intend to fill it!

I am so busy with that that I hardly have time to turn around. I am working daily on it, especially the advertising. I need more consigners because I am expecting close to 2,000 shoppers. I want to make sure that there is enough product to go around. If anyone wants to consign, this is a great place to do it. You price and tag it from our online system. Bring it to us and we do the rest. With so many shoppers, your items will sell, sell, sell! You get your check within 2 weeks! This is more than any other regular consignment shop will give you and better than a garage sale. You don't have to sit and wait for customers. Your items will sell for a slightly higher price and everything sells here. Toys, furniture, outdoor toys, bottles, bibs, bathtubs, bedding, strollers, carseats, and much more!

Check out my website at http://www.passitonsales.com/ and click on the Portland site!

I am also very busy with my grandchildren. I have them about 6 days a week. Not all day always but definitely most days. I do love it. I am finding it hard to balance my work with my grandchildren and homeschooling but we are a family and we stick together. The kids help me more and more and have such tender hearts. God is truly working in their hearts.

We just finished up a formal dinner for our youth and it was fabulous. We served a 7 course meal and provided entertainment from the 50's. It was a black tie affair with the New York, New York theme. It was amazing to watch the kids grow up for a night!

We love our church and couldn't be happier. We love Fired Up and can't imagine having our kids doing anything else. They memorise more scripture than I ever have!

We are going on a 2 week missions trip this June to Gleenings for the Hungry. Rick wants to do maintenance for them. We are looking forward to that. We ask you to pray for financial blessings as we seek to do what God asks us to do. We need to raise about 2,000.00 dollars. That is relatively cheap for a missions trip.

The baby girls turn one on the 19th of this month. Wow, how time flies! They are both ready to walk and one is about to run.

Our newest grandson will be born in Early July, Lord willing. Mom is having some complications but we think she is getting better now.

The young married couple might be moving into their own place if they get approved. They are looking forward to it. I am praying it will be a wise move for them.

God is blessing us and we still have our house, kids, jobs, ect.

My favorite saying from the Bible is "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!"

Kanga and family

Blessing from the Lord

How can one say enough about how great our God is? He is bigger than this universe and who am I to doubt Him, but doubt him I do. My oldest son is causing me great disstress and I'm not sure how to handle it. I must say that the ladies at church have surrounded me in prayer and are continually praying for him and his new wife.

He just doesn't get it. If he is "stressed out" he goes and hangs with his buddies instead of his wife. What? What is he doing? He is crazy!!!!!! He needs to be concentrating on taking care of his wife and children, spending time with his wife, learning what it means to be married and helping encourage her.

She is struggling in school so she talked to the school and they have put her in a slow down program so she can still become a Medical Assistant but not until next year. I think it's a great plan. My husband thinks it's a great plan. Her parents think it's a great plan. Not so much for Dick Bob. Oh no, Daisey Mae is much smarter than that so this is rediculous. He is so unrealistic that it makes me angry. She is trying to carry a full school load while raising a baby. He doesn't want to help because he's "stressed out" and leaves. AAAAAHHHHHH.

Dick Bob got laid off his job tonight and I am just praying that God gives him a job where he is surrounded by other christians. He so needs a relationship with God. How will anything he does ever be good enough? He can be a good worker but if your soul is lost it won't do you anygood.

I pray daily for him and Daisey Mae. I am so blessed to have a church so behind me and my family. They encourage me every time I see them.

I shall try and live a life filled with God's love this week. I am thankful that Jesus was born so He could die for us and save us. I put up the lights so we can be the light of this world. I put up the star so we can be reminded of the star that guided the shepherds. I put up the snowmen because I love them.

God bless you all
Kanga

The Basement is as finished as it's going to get!

We worked hard to finish by the time they got married, but we managed to finish by this morning. We were frantically cleaning and grouting last night and I scrubbed the floor this morning. They are home and ready to start their lives in their brand new apartment. The only thing not knew is the kitchen cabinets. We are glad to be finished. We do not have any trim up but they can wait awhile for that. Enjoy the pics. It helps to go back and look at what it looked like before this.

Kanga

The Wedding Is Over!

Here are a few pics from the wedding. The cake turned out beautiful and the bride and groom looked great. The girls were cute in their dresses and full of spunk. Christopher looked good as the best man too. Pooh had a blast being the flower girl and Eyore carried honey bee down the isle. It turned out so much better than we ever dreamed of for such a short notice. We did all this in two weeks. My wonderful church ladies, whom are my friends did the decorating. They put in so much time and effort and were awesome. I think we pulled it all off for about 700.00. HoneyBee is with the brides mom and of course the dad walking the bride down the isle was precious. All was good but were glad it's over.

Can A Person Be Too Tired?

I feel bone weary now. We have been working on our basement remodel for 2 weeks now, nonstop. We work every evening and then on the week-ends. It feels like we should have been done but there just seems to be more to do. We have finally sheetrocked the bathroom, sheetrocked the kitchen and hallway, put up mud and tape, finished the mud and taping in the bathroom, textured the bathroom and put in one new countertop in the kitchen. We have painted the girls room, painted part of the kitchen, put in new lights in the kitchen, added new plug ins in the kitchen, new wiring and plumbing in the bathroom. Doesn't that seem like we should be done? No way.

We still have the tiling to do. If I wasn't so tired I would take a picture so you could see where I am at with it. About half of the bathroom floor is done and the shower still needs done. Then we must grout. We also need to finish mudding in the kitchen, sand, then texture. After that we can begin painting. We have to put down primer because it's new sheetrock, then the actual paint. We can then put back the cabinets (mismatching of course). The second countertop still needs installed and the kitchen sink. After that we need to put up one door, finish painting a couple of spots of sheetrock in the bedroom, and touch up the ceiling in the kitchen. Oh, and we need to paint the bathroom too.

Then begins the tedious work of taking all the tools out of the basement, vacuuming, cleaning, setting up, ect. This all needs to be done by Sunday at the latest. So, maybe a little prayer for us?

I can hardly move by 11:00 o'clock because I'm stiff. I feel better in the morning, but then I must do wedding stuff. In the afternoon is when we start working on the basement.

I think the wedding is going to be beautiful but there are so many last minute preperations.
Oh, the rush of things!!!

Kanga

Wonderful Church!

Pics of our ladies retreat.

There doesn't seem to be enough words to express our thankfulness for our new church. We
started going there a couple of months ago and I can't believe the realness of the people there. We went to a ladies retreat at the beach last week-end and I was blown away by the closeness of these ladies and how real they are with their faith. We were really able to retreat but we did have times at night that we talked and learned a little more about our faith and each other. We were all challenged with "what fills our our cup" and "how can we be more accountable to each other". Are we being real about our relationship with Christ? Are we being real about our personal relationships? Are we willing to let others be real? It was so inspiring. We have all decided to keep a journal and bring it with us on Sunday mornings so we can share what we are learning. We can share our hurts and dissapointments. We can share our struggless. We can share our lives, the ones we don't generally show other people. I can't wait for Sunday morning.

On another note, the ladies have taken my new dauther-in-law to be under their wings. She is new to our church and she comes from a very different background. With a wedding in a hurry we didn't have any decorations and they have went to town on decorating with what they have. Now, they have a lot. WE are ending up with 3 pillars on each side, Tuling around them all with twinkiling lights and rose pedals. Then the reception will be wonderfully decorated with ladies doing glass, candles, roses, and such. They have enough for the chairs and the stage. It is going to be wonderful and we are so bleesed to have people show her how Christ's love can be. My daughter-in-law has never seen so many people willing to help her and it makes her more determined to come to church. I can't say enough about how wonderful our church and the people in it are. I love my church.

Kanga

Our New Granddaughter

Here is a picture of our beautiful granddaughter that is being added to our family on November 23rd, 2008 at 4:00 p.m. She was born one hour before my other granddaughter so we can just say it's twins!!!! We will call her piglet. She is so different from honeybee but they are both adorable. They absolutely love each other. We take both of them to church and they play in the playpen together. It's quite comical to have both of them together but we wouldn't trade it for a moment. I'll post more of the babies when I get them up on the computer.

Kanga

The Pumkin Olympics

The cool thing about our fired up youth is that we still have lots of fun. We don't worry about having a party on October 31st, we just worry about having a fun party. We had the olympic games as our theme and what fun we had! The younger kids got to play some games too. Here you see Roo in the darker picture and her friends in the other. We were able to have it at someones very nice, large, and roomy barn. We must have had over a hundred of us there. What a great time. The food was abundant and the company great. Two of my good friends were there plus many other friends. We had a great time watching the kids enjoy the games and each other. They even made a pumkin piniata. The kids had so much fun and it took a little longer for them to get it open so all the kids got a chance.

I couldn't help but write about our fired up youth. This is one of the most awesome things we have ever encountered. If anyone was looking for a way to grow your teen, then this would be it. We are pretty conservative yet all the youth there want to be there. We now have over a hundred youth and parents come and sit on the outside too. You don't have to but we do have a mom's group and a dad's group too. Almost all of these teens are making their mark for Christ. They are reading their Bible faithfully, memorizing verses weekly, and getting out in the community witnessing. We have something called the Bible Bus that goes around to different apartment complexes and does a Bible Club. We have several teens going on missions trips monthly. We also have small group leaders that are led by the young adults that have "graduated" from the youth group. These kids are on fire for God. Anyone looking for Christ should come and see this group!