the back door

as most of you know, God has really been doing a work in my heart. i told my hubby a few weeks ago that God is stirring in me and somethings gotta change, but i just don't know what yet. that thought then took me a step further into thinking - i don't need to be looking for the BIG change - just the daily obedience to Him. i got excited wondering how that simple obedience might change my world. you must read crazy love - just a side note so as i looked in the mirror, or had others hold a mirror up to me, i started to see the reflection of some things we like to call issues or problems. but the reality is they are SIN. that nasty word we try to never say. my first thought was in how i treat strangers. am i truly willing to see them as Jesus does? am i truly willing to bless and give without expectations? so here is where i will choose to start...because God tells us love our neighbors like ourselves and treat others like we would treat Jesus. and then my mom made a comm...

this is one of my wonderful friends ...and she is moving in just a few short days. we have had very little time to get used to the idea, but enough time to throw together a good-bye party with our thursday night craft gang! this is her really cute girl pumpkin, peanut was left home with daddy...and oh, friend thought she was only hanging out with one of us at the local starbucks! it was oh so fun to be there to surprise her. and this cake....well it is a whole other blog post!!! but it was oh so yummy! i'll give you the story another day... and here we all are...while we all look so calm and reserved, we are actually a bit loud and silly. while we giggled about needing to hold some interventions some of us could also be found doing old cheerleading jumps. of course we loved on the baby and giggled like crazy and enjoyed celebrating friendship. we will miss you mama flick!!!

11:40 am hubby: i want to go buy a tv. me: okay, i think they(the store of our preference) close at noon. hubby walked to cabinet, grabbed his keys, and left. 25 minutes later, he returned, tv and dvd player in tow! woo hoo!!! we get pbs!

okay, so i had typed in some posts and saved them to publish later...however, they published according to date..so scroll down past mapboy and blueberries to enjoy some vacation pics and 4h fun!

... having a baby!!!! yes, 9 years ago yesterday i picked 20 pounds of blueberries and came home to a phone message to check in to the hospital to have our first baby! ummmm....my mom took my blueberries and i spent the next 16 hours in labor mapboy arrived on july 6, 2000 at about 3:40pm....he was tiny and perfect and adorable and amazing and so, so good!!! then he got chunky and adorable and good and perfect... ...then he got skinny again and anwry and stinky and perfect and even stinkier and anwrier and perfect and complex and funny... and today, mapboy is still perfect and amazing and anwry and funny and witty and smart and drives us crazy at times while filling us with the most incredible love... happy birthday!!!

...9 years ago today??? i was picking blueberries with my sister-in-law!!!!!

last week we headed south for a fun filled vacation. we ventured into a few state parks to take in some hiking! usually, mapboy and princess both complain the whole time - and this time, mapboy couldn't get enough of the hiking and swimming. princess, well, there was marked improvement and when i watched her take 3 steps to her daddies 1 i gave her a lot more credit! here we are at mc cormicks creek...this was our first time there and i'd definitely go back! our first hike took us to a waterfall...there was rather interesting and large lady that had plopped herself smack at the bottom of it. i guess she was hot, but she looked like she was sitting on a throne. several families were playing in the water and i even stopped to watch a very long snake join them! here is my brood in wolf cave...it was technically closed, but we could go in a little ways. this was cool and the kids purchased special hats for this adventure. i thought the hats were unecessary, but daddy always gives...

crossing the trail... this girl strikes a pose all the time one of the many ladders mapboy led us up! isn't he strong....he's protecting his sister. by the way, it was during this hike that mapboy decided to offer his hand and help his sister. she so did not want to be on this trail and it was nice to see some kindness pass between them! our canoeing adventure...let's see, with princess i managed to get us from one rock to another and never going straight. finally we switched partners and only once did mapboy and i get stuck. that was enough to make him mad and bitter for about 10 minutes before realizing he was in this boat with me until the end...then we had a great time!

as a kid i was in 4h....just a few years, but enough to learn how to bake and sew. i think i did a brief latch hook stint, but really - who does latch hook anymore? oh, there was the beginning of microwave foods and consumer clothing. i had some good memories of 4h....even if my dad never did buy me a pig! ..looking to keep mapboy entertained this summer we enrolled in mini 4h. he signed up for forestry and gardening. pretty simple and easy. we got our books and i took a brief look and thought to my self, "this is going to not be good!" the information was way too basic for my son's current skill level in these subjects and he is not going to enjoy this. then we head to the first meeting where the lady talked about stickers of dogs and food and mostly to the parents. so one fine afternoon we sat down to work through the books. he was bored which turns to frustration which turns to anger which turned to horrible record sheets. i gave up and just let him grump through it. n...

so a few weeks ago, hubby headed off to the dunes with a group of high school kids. this left me with a free friday night!! woo hoo!!! so i call up dear friend and tell her to come on over. after a rather long undecisive conversation it was finally decided we would get crafty. she'd be bringing her sewing machine and a few patterns for hand made bags! the kids were playing at grandma's so i stopped by joanne's before i went to pick them up. i was in a bit of a rush which was good because there are some really fun fabrics out there right now. i debated over a few and just grabbed one and left. friend told me one yard....so i got one yard. you'll need to remember that in a few. i got the kids home and shortly after, dear friend arrived with arctic rush floats from dq. if you haven't had one, you must, seriously! super yummy and well, fat free - just not sugar free! it took me awhile to get the kids settled and the machine out, but friend started cutting ...