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!

Remodel Nightmare!

We begin again to remodel our basement, which we have started over and over again. Usually we run out of mone, time, or expertise. Sometimes we run out of patience. This project has been dear to my heart though because it involves a bathroom downstairs. I used to sleep down there and you have to go from one end of our basement, up the stairs, around the corner, and across the house to get to a bathroom. Having a bathroom down there will be wonderful. The problem is, it has been expensive and difficult. The plumbing in this house is terrible and has been done wrong.

Rick has been working hard on the basement all week and week-end though, repairing and replacing. I am amazed at how hard he has worked even through misshaps. He has had to take out our main line to the sewer and replace it. Apparently there was some pressure build up in one of the pipes. They had a bucket under it but the pipe exploded and WOW! I could not believe that Peter did not get really upset. That was the most amazing and sick smelling stuff I had ever encountered. It was all over the room and hubby and Christopher. We were airing out the basement all day and night. Then I had to go and scrub it with disinfectant to make sure it was all out of there. We were able to hose it down since it isn't finished but I don't ever want to repeat that again!

Even with our bad experience Wise Owl rose above it and has most of the plumbing and electrical done, with our last framing wall done. We are ready for sheetrock, then mudding and taping, sanding, then skimcoating the floor, then tiling.

I will post a few pics in progress. It really is getting better. I'll post cleaner pictures next time. The first plumbing picture is before most of the new stuff is done. The second one is of the new plumbing against the wall and behind our new existing frame work.

The reason we are working hard is because my son is getting married on the 23rd of this month and is renting our apartment down there. So, we must work ourselves hard to accomplish the remainding things that need done.

Kanga

The Days Are Changing Fast

Ummm, the pictures came up first so.... I can't figure out how to change it.

It's fall and I haven't even had time to plan things for winter yet. We are onto other projects inside and it seems overwhelming to look outside. The leaves are so many and they are covering over half the yard. It's beautiful right now but I don't relish cleaning it up, and clean it up we must. We are having an appraisel done on Monday Morning!!!!!!

We desperately need a new roof, siding, and paint but we need the appraiser not to notice that all that needs done. Please pray that all will go through and we can refinance our house and fix a few things.

We are in the process of remodeling the downstairs into an apartment. We are in a hurry because our son is getting married and they are going to rent the apartment from us. It will be pretty comfortable but the kitchen will be small.

I'll post a few pics for you all to see.

Kanga

Times are Changing

I have finally started my own business. It has been a dream of mine for many years and now that the kids are older it doesn't seem impossible anymore. Once again, that is one of the things I love about homeschooling. Here they will get to be intimetly involved in helping run the business. They are already learing and planning on what they will be doing.

I am the official owner of a semi annual resale event. Pass It On will happen in March and again in September for the most part. Dates are flexible but are not nailed down until closer to the time.

What is Pass it On you say. It is a large event that sells baby, kids, and maternity items. We have over 100 consigners (and you could be one of them). You get to price your items, tag them, and then we sell them for you. We have over 1000 shoppers come through so TONS of items sell. It is not uncommon for a consigner to make 200 to 400 dollars at one sale. The consigner gets 70 to 80 percent depending on if you volunteer for shifts.

If you work 2 four hour shifts, you get 75% of your sales and if you work 3 or more shifts you get 80% of your sales. It's pretty cool.

The other great incentive is that there are pre-sales for workers and consigners meaning you get in earlier than the public. We value our workers so they get to shop first. Consigners second, new moms and foster parents after that and then on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we are open to the public. It has been a huge success. I will post some pictures later, right now I don't have them on this computer.

You can look up our sale at www.passitonsales.com to see what it is like. We are redesigning the site so I am not on it yet, just Kim. Soon we will add that there is going to be an east side location and in the next couple of months you will be able to click on the site and then choose my location.

The cool thing is is that you enter all your sale items online and then it prints it out for you to put on your items. It is barcoded so you can see what you sold over the course of the sale dates.

Feel free to sign up under Kim's emailing list and she will pass it on to me for now. It's good to be on her email list because then we will email you when we get it up and running.

This is a huge event so don't miss out on it. Come and shop for your kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews or friends. This event will take place in Oregon.

Kanga

How About Some Pics

O.K. So we added a new member to our family. Now, don't let the cuteness fool you. He is the most loving puppy but has the worst problem with potty training and chewing up binkies. He chewed up 3 binkies in the last day!!! He has begun to search them out on the excersaucer, the baby or the car seat. It's so annoying. I have often wondered WHY in the world I got him a puppy. I was so sure that it would be great considering our kids were all older but I was so WRONG. It's worse because I have a grandbaby now.

Speaking of our granddaughter, here is a pick of her and Pooh. I know it's not a front shot but I just loved this pic. She is in her little Indian outfit. She is such a joy and we love watching Pooh learn about being a mom and the love she shares with Honey Bee is wonderful. That's one of the wonderful things about homeschooling. We have time to learn a lot of things that she would not be able to do in a traditional school setting.

Homeschooling has given us so many open doors and we are developing many relationships that are deep and meaningful. Several of these relationships encourage and challenge our walk with the Lord. Christopher has been playing on a homeschool soccer team and they stop and do devotions half way through. I love that! Where else could you see and find that.

Ta Ta For Now

Long Lost Mom Is Now Back

It's been so long since I posted and so much has changed in my life. The one thing that hasn't changed much is my house. We are still trying to remodel the downstairs and put a bathroom in. I believe we will be done in about 3 more years! I finally put my new vanity in the upstairs bathroom.

The best news of all is we now are the proud grandparents of honeybee! She was born February 19th, 2008 and we love being grandparents. She is so adorable!!! She just turned 8 months and is crawling everywhere and learning to stand up. I think she might be an early walker. She is spoiled rotten because all her parents and grandparents only live 10 houses apart so she is constantly with family. She has 2 uncles and 1 aunt in our house and 1 uncle in her house. She hasn't got a chance to not be spoiled.

I never thought there was a greater joy than being a parent, but oooohhhh, being a grandparent is the best. I can't wait to have more, although it would be nice if my son got married first!!!!

My oldes, Dick Bob, is now working right here in our town and he is a welder. He makes good money for an 18 year old. I believe he's up to 14.00 an hour. He is however, finding out that paying child support and lawyer fees is expensive. He wants to live on his own but can't afford it. We just keep hoping that our influence will impact him and he will realize how much he needs Christ.

Christopher is growing up so fast. He worked all summer and made about 1400.00. Wow! He has muscles and looks so much like our oldest that I can not always tell them apart. He stuggles with our relationship but genuinly wants it to work out. He is so tender hearted! He spends as much time with honeybee as I do.

Pooh is loving being a Aunt. She feeds her every chance she gets. Frankly, we all fight for our "special" time with honeybee. Pooh is learing so much now that she is home and we love it. She is learning to cook. She wants to make all this yummy food that is fattening for us but she loves it. She is waiting for me to help her make a pie next.

Eyore is coming along and does a paper route or two every week. He wishes he could make more money but doesn't have the stamina he needs yet. His health is better but still impeeds him a bit. He is so tall and big now and eats me out of house and home. We litteraly do not have leftovers in our house. All the dinner is gone at each meal.

Hey, watch for more posts. I want to put picks up of our granddaughter but don't have time tonight.