Zip

Kamrie read me her very first book last night. She's been able to read lots of words for awhile now, but we sat down with "Zip" & she read the whole thing. I love how kids sound out each letter! She's doing a great job.

I'm so proud of you Princess!

Well Done on the Window Well

Well done on the window well honey! It's good to have that project a little further along...It's been covered with snow since they installed the window in December. The mud mound was frozen & well packed, but Brad managed to scoop quite a bit of it back into the hole. Not quite done, but it's looking good.

Outside

Cooper loves to play outside. I'm looking forward to warmer days that make it easier to go play. We went to the park on Saturday--it was a beautiful day. But, it was extremely MUDDY.

Parker & Cooper on the teeter-totter.

Parker giving Cooper an underdog.

No Way Satan!

Chloe & Cooper playing with their shields we made at Sunday school.



We learned about Jesus telling Satan "No Way!" in the wilderness. We learned that we can use our Bibles as a weapon (like a shield) to tell Satan "No Way, I'm not gonna do what you want me to do!"

I could hear them playing in Cooper's room yelling at each other "No Way Satan!" It was one of those moments when it made me realize all that time spent teaching children's ministries is SO worth it.

Quad-level Engineering-Feat

I practically needed an engineering degree to put together the girls' new barbie house (thank you grandpa pete & grandma paulette) this afternoon. It took over 3 1/2 hours, and I consider myself somewhat handy with things like this.

The next 1/2 hour we spent cleaning up the styrofoam packing bits that Cooper had shredded the entire time we attempted to put this thing together.

The boys have been banned from playing with the house, since they were talking about catapulting things from the roof & using their rescue heroes to scale the walls. I can't convince them that boys just play differently than girls. They PROMISED me they would be careful with it.

I still said NO.

I said, "What would Grandpa Pete say if I told him you wish you had gotten a dollhouse for Christmas?" :) Parker thought it would still be OK if it was in BOY colors instead of pink.

It's the Hair

Nikki & RJ in September

RJ in January

RJ at state wrestling

RJ's hair keeps getting shorter & shorter...

Powerful God

A comment on the previous post has me thinking. I don't know who left it & I even thought about deleting it. But, on the chance that person may read this, I'm going to respond. If you read the post it told how I'm convinced that God numbed Kamrie's forehead before she got the shot for her stitches. The comment someone made was "why didn't your powerful god prevent the accident from happening?"

God didn't make the accident happen, but He did allow it to happen. You can read in the following article that God allows suffering & will always use it in a way that He is glorified. (http://www.crosswalk.com/11556880/) He showed His power by numbing her forehead. He is also showing His power by healing it so quickly.

He allows us to go through trials to strengthen us & to teach us to trust Him.

James 1:2-3 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

If we had a "perfect" life with no suffering we would either still be in the Garden of Eden or already be in heaven. Here on earth there will be suffering, but God will help us through it. He'll give us perfect peace, since He alone sees the big picture & how this trial fits into His perfect plan.

As a Christian, I can look forward to a day where there will be no more tears or suffering. But for now I will trust Him to guide us through life here on earth.

Divine Numbing

The more I think about Kamrie's stitches, I believe that God numbed her forehead so we would not have a traumatic event at the doctor's office. On the way there she said, "Mommy I can't even feel it anymore." Hmmm. It was a God thing. She didn't feel a thing, even when Doctor Doug gave her the shot. She didn't even flinch. Anyone whose had stitches before knows that the shot hurts!

Praise the Lord for divine numbing! I can give Kamrie credit for being brave, but the real credit goes to Him for making sure she (and mommy) could handle getting stitches.

stitches day 2

Kamrie went back to school yesterday afternoon & did fine. She has complained it is a little sore, but nothing major. She has been adamant about covering it with a band-aid, though. She doesn't want the other kids at school to see it.

Spilled Milk & Stitches

Ok, we're not supposed to cry over spilled milk. But, when it results in stitches it's ok...








Kamrie was hurrying to the kitchen this morning to help Chloe clean up her spilled milk & tripped over Hunter's foot. She hit the doorway & ended up with this.

This was all about 10 minutes before school started. I ended up taking the boys to school, Chloe & Cooper to Angie & Kamrie to the Doctor.

Four stitches later & two Hello Kitty Band-Aids. Kamrie did GREAT at the doctor's. Didn't cry a bit during the entire stitching-process. I was a bit worried about how she'd do, too, because she's very dramatic & can cry huge crocodile tears the instant she feels hurt or sad. Being friends with the Doctor (thanks Doug!) helped keep Kamrie & I calm also. I knew Kamrie would be in good hands either way, with Doctor Doug or Doctor Grow. :)

What I don't quite understand is how Brad misses out on things like this. Angie said I was very calm on the phone telling her what I needed. I told her I had practice calling my friends Sonja & Julie to come to my rescue in Imperial when someone needed stitched up or casted. I'm so thankful for friends like all of you I can count on in a crisis!

Ecclesiastes 4:10
If one falls down,
his friend can help him up.
But pity the man who falls
and has no one to help him up!

Dillan Dog Pound

We had a stray dog here for the weekend. The police were going to take him to the pound but he would have been boarded outside. I let him stay in the garage & his happy owner came & picked him up Sunday evening. The kids loved him, they named him Spike--I even tried to talk Chris into keeping him because Chace loved that pup so much. Now I'm glad I didn't give him away otherwise I don't know what I would've told the owner...

Party!

What a great time at my Dad's 60th Birthday party. Almost everyone we invited was able to attend. Even Dad's high school buddy drove from Lincoln for the evening. Happy Birthday Dad!

"You been shot at today?"

Brad is enjoying his new job. One of his favorite things is to go out to the "country" to call on customers. He's been driving to different farms & meeting the clients. Earlier this week he went to a man's house who hasn't farmed for a few years but Brad went in & enjoyed visiting, a tour of their home and viewed the man's gun collection. Ahh! Guns. Right up Brad's alley.

Well, the man pulls out a handgun from on top of the gun cabinet & ended up shooting a hole through the wall! Come to find out it was some sort of pellet gun but it could've hurt. And at the time Brad didn't know it was a pellet gun. After that happened the man took ANOTHER handgun off the top of the cabinet & was holding it. Brad said, "Is THAT one loaded?" and then could see there were bullets (not just a pellet gun) in it. He & the man's wife ended up kind of wrestling it out of his hands after he had pulled the hammer back! They finally got it out of his hands safely.

Brad didn't tell me about it until the next day. I'm not sure why...WHY???

Now the joke at work is "Brad you been shot at today?"

Goals

It's great for me to have a goal. I got a lot of much-needed cleaning done this week to get ready for...Dad's 60th Birthday Party!! Dad, seriously, we're so happy you're coming here to celebrate! I needed a good reason to clean & finish my unpacking.

Can't wait to see you on Saturday! Wish me luck baking my first blueberry pie (think mine'll look like this???)

Good Luck RJ!

Good luck to our favorite 112 pound wrestler at districts tomorrow!

RJ-2nd row, 2nd from the right

Ring Around the Rosie

Chloe & Cooper playing Ring Around the Rosie this morning:
"Ring around the rosie, pocket full of posey, Ashley, Ashley, we all fall down!"

Get out of the boat

Many of you know Brad changed jobs this last week. Some of you know more details than others about why. Long story short, we're getting out of the boat...
























When we were thinking about moving here we felt God's peace. He quickly put all the pieces into place for this move to be an easy transition (other than leaving our precious loved ones).

Even though right now things are a bit stressful with this new turn of events, we don't doubt that this is where God wants us. Visiting last week at CWC with our CWC church family made me stop & think: "Wow, I could just move right back here so easily." But, that's not always what God wants for us--for it to be easy.

Brad is now a salesman at a nearby CaseIH dealership. He's learning the ropes & enjoying the new challenge.

God ordained this move & we don't question that. We are trusting that God has a good plan for us & a reason for moving us here. There have been times of wondering "how did we get here?" like the man in the cartoon. Though we wonder, we trust that God isn't. He knows the plan & sees the big picture.

Do Not Judge

This morning our church started a DVD series by Andy Stanley called "Judgement Call." He spoke this morning about

Matthew 7:1-5,
"Do not judge lest you be judged.
For in the way you judge, you will be judged;
and by your standard of measure,
it will be measured to you.
And why do you look at the speck
that is in your brother's eye,
but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
Or how can you say to your brother,
'Let me take the speck out of your eye,'
and behold, the log is in your own eye?
You hypocrite,
first take the log out of your own eye,
and then you will speak clearly
to take the speck out of your brother's eye."

Andy Stanley pointed out that whatever is bothering us about other people may very well bother Jesus too; but why does it bother me? Does it bother me because I have the same problem? Is there a trace of any of that sin in me? Until I get the log out of my own eye I will push the other person deeper into their sin, but if I have the log out of my eye then I may be in the perfect position to confront them because I've been there.

Aaah. Wake up call.

We're Set

We got a new computer. After a week of torturing ourselves trying to figure out what was wrong with our laptop we decided it was inevitable that we needed a new computer.

Whenever we'd plug anything into the USB ports the computer would freeze. It wouldn't let us do anything, we'd finally have to hold down the power button to shut it off. Then it would boot up with errors for not shutting down properly. I used the recovery disks 2 times & didn't fix the error.

After several "computer people" (including Acer people) told me it was probably the motherboard I let a big SIGH. Ugh. Another computer bites the dust. I have gone through 4 computers in the last 5 years. And I thought I was doing better by buying a "better" one than the last one that failed. This computer was one of the cheapest that Walmart had. I told the salesman that I wanted a cheap one because I replace them about every year-15 months.

Got any ideas as to why? As I said in a prior post I have at least gotten smart about saving data on an external hard drive. But do I need a backup external hard drive to back up all my backed up data on my main external hard drive??? What if the main backup fails?

I am very much dealing with lack of trust issues with computers.