Tagged by Colleen:

Describe your life in 6 words....

An Amazing Blessing Beyond Anything Imaginable…

I am going to break the rules, and not tag anyone else. I cannot help those who came before me, but I can stop the madness here. J

My sweet friend Laine received her LID today for her ADORABLE daughter, Candace. 6/23 is the date. Can I get a WOO and a HOO? Just wanted to give a shout-out here so that you all can celebrate along with them. BIG DAY!!! And I also wanted you prayer warriors to send up prayers on her behalf for a speedy LOA. Her little sweetie pie needs to get home to her family! They are so eager to put a smile on that little ones face!!

And I have another friend Margie who is on day 72 of her wait for LOA for her SWEET little Ragean. Feel free to pray for LOA to appear any day now. I am pretty sure Margie has her bags loaded in the car and is ready to go at a moments notice as soon as she gets wind that LOA is on its way.

Thanks prayer warriors!!

:)

The other day Matthew shouted out of nowhere as we were getting into the car to go somewhere....

"I call being the first one to sit next to Johnathan when he comes home."

Then of course this was followed up by others claiming their turn to sit next to him...

"I call second."

"Then I am DEFINITELY third...

"Me forf"

and so on..and so on...

Praising God BIG TIME for that heart-smile!

:)

Today, the world is just a little sweeter.

Today, my heart smiles a little brighter.

Today, a little boy was united with his Forever Family.

Today, a mama holds the son she has worried over and prayed for and dreamed of holding in her arms, and telling him she loves him.

Today, prayers were answered.

Today, God was Glorified!!!!

Praise God!

(Stop by here to follow along on their journey to bring Shepherd home. And leave them a word of encouragement. It will bless them!)

Because of YOU…

I have learned to be a leader and to feel confident standing firm on my beliefs even when those around me choose differently.

Because of YOU…

I know to Put God first in all that I do and I am not afraid to LIVE OUT LOUD and be a warrior for GOD.

Because of YOU…

I know the value of showing sensitivity, fairness and kindness to all of those around me, and that you should always be a man of your word.

Because of YOU…

I have learned that Love is in the little things, like in a bed time story, a snuggle on the couch, a dance around the family room, a walk to the park, or time together chatting over pizza.

Because of YOU...

I know that I am precious, and beautiful-inside and out, and funny, and …that I can make a heart smile.

Because of YOU...

I know that I am LOVED, ...to Heaven and Back.

Because of YOU…

I will know how to be a leader and a warrior for God. I will learn the value of being sensitive to others and fair and kind and a man of my word. I will come to know love through the little things, and that I am precious . I will know that I make hearts smile. And that I too am loved, to HEAVEN AND BACK!

Thank You Dad for LOVING US the way you do.

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!

WE LOVE YOU!

David, Katie, Matthew, Allie, Grace, Hannah & Johnathan

I have been tagged…. By Colleen… again. I thought we were friends girl? Did I mis-read signs? LOL. Love you. Though I shouldn’t, I do.

5 Things I was doing 10 years ago…

1. I was pregnant with our 2nd child, our first daughter Katie. I was consuming a BIG M*AC combo meal followed by a bag of Peanut M*&M’s almost daily. It was “fun” dealing with the consequences of that craving.

2. I was dreaming about being 10 years from then exactly where I am right now in life. Still Happily Married to my best friend, living back home, surrounded by friends and family and raising our BIG BEAUTIFUL family alongside my brothers and sisters kids.

3. Serving dinner to my family of three at the time at our 4 person table we had inherited from Jeff’s parents. Back then it was only a dream that a 10 person table might one day be a little snug for our family.

4. Still driving a semi cool car. I had a J*eep Cherokee at the time. Do they still make those? Now, I had to get a special license for the vehicle I drive. Not really, but probably should have to. Curb check anyone?

5. Spending a good amount of time taking my 20 something, ahem, body for granted. Not that it was fabulous, but if I had only known where some of my parts would have ended up today, I would have spent more time appreciating them in their original locations.


5 Things to Do on My list today:

1. Stay away from poop as much as possible.

2. Find some quiet time amongst the craziness to hang with God.

3. Don’t forget to pee. You’d be surprised….

4. G*oogle snails and mating. David once had two snails, and during a tank cleaning yesterday, we noticed he has about 10. Huh? I can see maybe a little baby snail pooping out or whatever, but where does it get the shell? Does it come out with the shell? I am disturbed and do not want to lose sleep over this tonight.

5. Remind myself to Love as I am Loved… On a couple of hours of sleep (thoughts of snails), and a low tank of patience, that is not always top of mind. And it needs to be.

5 of My favorite Snacks: Is this on a Very Bad eating Day or a Healthful eating Day?... because they are different. I will put Bad first then Good. But really, the Bad list tastes Good and the Good list, tastes Bad. Please don’t let it confuse you..

1. Caramel Popcorn / Homemade popcorn with salt

2. Peanut Butter Fudge/ Nuts

3. Shakes with B*ryers Vanilla ice-cream and H*orizon Choc Milk/ 40 cal Fudge Pops w/ no sugar

4. Anything with Sugar, Sugar, & more Sugar/ Fruit

5. Anything Chocolate/ Anything Chocolate (my good days have to have some bad. Hence the 15lbs extra baggage)


5 Things I would do if I were a Billionaire:

1. Buy myself some decisiveness because most of that money is going to charity and I won’t be able to decide who gets left out.

2. Once I receive my decisiveness in the mail, or however it comes, giving tons of praise to God for using us as a vehicle to be able to hopefully make a difference. Then some time realizing that I just wasted money buying decisiveness that could have been spent elsewhere because all I needed to do was spend lots of time praying and then discerning where He wants the money to go. Once I am over that, we would just have a ball giving it away. There will be lots of family and friends and music and dancing… I think I will make a playlist, just in case. :)

3. Set our families up with accounts so that they would never have to worry about essentials and can focus solely on being warriors for God and changing the world.

4. Invent a pill that allows you to eat sugar and not gain weight. Or even better, eat sugar, lose weight. I am going to be a world changer…that’s me.

5. As much as I do not like to travel, Missionary trips as a family. Would love to spend time in Africa, China, Haiti, etc. If that is what God wants, we would go wherever he sent us. Either that or Boobs. Keeping it real.

5 Places I have lived:

1. Our family house that burnt down because a pig caught it on fire. Another story for another TAG.

2. Our last family house together as a family before my parents got divorced. Don’t be sad, they are better off. Also the house where I had my first date with my husband to be. Good times.

3. My future husbands house for the summer while he was away at College, because I loved sitting down for meals with his family and because they were cool like that. My family’s house was less than 5 miles away. Nice. Narcissistic much?

4. My dorm room at College for a brief period of time before my roommate decided she might like living alone better and locked me out indefinitely.

5. In my husband to be’s single dorm room which was the size of a small walk in closet during college. Illegally. How you doin’?

I think I am going to pass on tagging anyone this time. People are busy, traveling to bring babies home, spending time with their kiddos with school out. But if you want to be tagged, leave a comment, I won’t post it, and consider yourself tagged!

So I usually do not acknowledge my birthday,EVAH, but in order to tell this story and share my smile, I need to.


So I will not give away when it was, or how "young" I am , but in recent history, I might have celebrated a birthday. Jeff has had to travel ALOT recently and consequently had to be away on my birthday. No Big deal to me at all, but BIG DEAL to him and to the kids. So He and the kids surprised me with a little birthday celebration a few days before my big day while he was still in town.

Well the night before my birthday, I headed to bed right after I put the kids down. I was toast and was in much need of some serious sleep lest I be grouchy and comatose for the parade, the bash at our local high school, my appointment for my "I still got it" tattoo, and karoake night with the local celebreties all planned for the next day in honor of me and the day of my blessed birth... yes, I am laughing out loud while I type this. If you can't laugh at yourself ...


Anyways, I couldn't get to sleep, per usual, and for the next couple of hours I tossed and turned and I had my eyes glued to the tv while it cycled through various reality tv shows and infomercials. The nights is a blur, but I think I might have bought an A*qua G*lobe. Anyways, our 12yo, David peeked into my room a few times and when I would see him, He would say, "Just wanted to tell you I loved you one more time", or " Happy Birthday tomorrow." or he would ask some really random question. But he was quick with the questions and the love, so I had no reason to suspect anything.


Turns out, he had stayed up well into the night cleaning up the first floor for me. I had left all the dinner dishes out, etc. as I was going to tackle the monstrosity in the morning. So He worked hard into the night to surprise me when I woke up. Also, we have a tradition in our family where the night before someone's birthday we blow up balloons and put them all over the floor of their bedroom and we put signs up all over the house for when they wake up. This is usually reserved for the kiddos. Well David stayed up after cleaning and made signs and blew up a ton of balloons for my room. Turns out he was peeking in the room to see if I had fallen asleep yet. I had insomnia, so I ended up staying up pretty late, so that meant he ended up staying up pretty late to outlast me. Oops. :)


The next day, I was awoken in the morning to my little buddies singing happy birthday to me while they brought me breakfast they had made me up into bed. And to the balloons all over my floor and signs all over the house. And an immaculate 1st floor cleaned out of love. Tons of handmade cards. Oh and tons and tons of "Happy Birthday mommy"s, and lots and lots of Hugs and Kisses.







As much as I don't usually care to celebrate birthday's, this was THE BEST Birthday ever...

Thanks Kiddos!
I LOVE YOU!


Love~
Mom

So I had a few moments to myself today, and I went and visited a blog of a dear dear friend. I have had this friend since back to the days when I was still wetting the bed. I might have been a bed wetter longer than I should have, but that really is my secret and you really shouldn't be nosey about such things. A.n.y.w.a.y.s..... This is the kind of friend that just makes you smile thinking about her. Such a sweet soul, and such a vibrant spirit. I just love the girl. But I noticed that it had been a while since her last post, and I was missing "hearing" from her, so I called her out on it. And the girl JUMPED and got right on updating her blog with pics of her adorable adorable adorable family within hours. As I am reading her posts, I realize I have not been to my own blog to update in a while. And she DID NOT even call me out on it... Now that is a Good friend.

Point is.... I have been a slacker and I am on it.

Off to post...