Colton's birthday party

This is my nephew Colton on Sunday at his house, having a picnic with his dog. It was soo precious! We celebrated his ninth birthday on the same day (top picture). God blessed us with such a beatiful weekend to celebrate our anniversary, Colton's birthday and mom's retirement. We went to the City Market in Kansas City with friends on Saturday. Still prayerfully waiting on the estimate for the addition to the house.

Picture of us at Galvin's

Dinner was delicious! I will need extra exercise to work that meal off but it was well worth it!

An exciiting possibility...

We have tossed around the idea of adding on to the house for some time (since we gave up selling/buying). Last night we got to meet with the guy that did our roof last summer. We want to either expand our bedroom out the front or build a room out back to be our bedroom and make our current room the office and the current office a guest room. Our bedroom is so small that we have to walk around the bed to get to the dresser and no other arrangement will work. We also have no room for overnight guests and they sleep on a roll-away in the living room (my mom or dad). There would also be a direct entry from the car into the door on the new addition (not sure how that would all work yet). We are waiting on J.R. to get the figures together and let us know and then pray fully decide if we can afford it and if it is in God's will to proceed. Please join us in prayer about this. We are eating at Galvin 's dinner house tonight for our anniversary. we could not have eaten there until 8:30 tomorrow night and that was too late so we are celebrating a night early. They serve awesome food, family style. We have already ordered fried chicken and I know that is not on my diet and neither is the cake my sister is making for Colton's birthday and mom's retirement. Mark wants to have pictures taken of us at Galvin's tonight and I will try to post them.

clearing out closets

Mark and I took the day to clean out our clothes closets and when we got through, we took several draw sting trash bags full of clothes to a local consignment shop. If not sold after 90 days, they will be donated. We were so glad to have that much done. We were also exhausted. We grabbed dinner at Arby's and pretty much called it a day. We will have our 17th anniversary next Saturday and then a birthday party/retirement party for my mom and nephew next Sunday. My nephew will turn 9 on Tuesday and Mom will retire a week from tomorrow. Today was church and this evening I have play practice. Hope we avoid bad weather as we are under a tornado watch until 9pm. Lacie has this new thing of wanting to be outside a lot (can't say I blame her). So we are never sure when she wants to potty or play. Last week, I went outside and read more of my Bad Girls of The Bible and let her enjoy the sunshine. We have several neighbors with dogs and she likes to bark at them. We are working on that.

A trip to the circus

Saturday was my friend Jenifer's birthday and we had already planned to go to dinner with her and her husband. We also were blessed to get to go to the circus and take their two middle boys with us (Mark and I took them). I had fun watching their reaction to the various circus feats and that night we enjoyed a great dinner with Brain and Jenifer and then we went back to their home to visit. It was a busy and fun day. Sunday School and church were follwed by a Wal-Mart trip and a nap. Today, I am watching the tragic news from Virginia Tech and praying for all involved. The sun is so nice to see today (and was yesterday).

A short break in the rain

I had lunch with Mark and went to Aldi's and paid a couple of bills at drive trough's. By the time I was paying the bills, the sun was not out at all and it felt cold (glad they were drive through). We are to get more rain tomorrow and perhaps snow on Saturday. Mom had ordered me some shorts and tops for Easter some of the order came in today and they fit but I might not be wearing them for a little while. I saw a postman in shorts today and I wondered if he regreted wearing them. Josh seems to be okay, Praise God!. He came home the same day and wore a heart monitor over night and then they sent it via mail to Children's Mercy. While they were there, nothing was found wrong and that is the last we have heard. I have a new volunteer job of programming the message for the new TV monitors at church. Paul (from church) came over to set it up to be done from here, via remote. This is the first week for me to do it and he is in California. I can call his cell if I have to but hope to do it independently. The steps are all written down. As soon as Vicki (our church secretary) has the information for me, I will get started.

Great Easter/Heavy hearted Monday

Easter was great! We were treated to dinner at some friends who used to be our next door neighbors and then moved up north by Savannah. They are Christians and so Easter is a very special occasion to them (as it is to us). We ate and played a dice game until well into the evening. There was his sister who we know well and then his nephew, his daughter and her daughter (only 9 months old). We had not been able to fellowship with the Darr's much at all in recent times becuse of hectric lives and it was great to spend time with them.

Today, my heart is heavy. Josh is at Children's Mercy having the tests on his heart. We do not know if he has to stay all night or not and it depends on the results of the initial tests. Also I have been following a blogsopt of a 1 year old that had a brain tumor and she passed away Saturday night. Her family is obviously Christian and I know God will get them through but please pray for them as they bury their only child. Here is the blogspot for online comments http://www.kyriethome.blogspot.com/

Also, Mark Bond ministered at our church as the Creative Arts Minister until he and his beautiful wife and children moved for him to take a job at a church near Joplin. Mark's dad had cancer a couple of years ago and they thought it was all removed by surgery but it has speread and he recently had surgery for it and was starting to recover but he developed an infection and now is not expected to recover. They are a family that is soo in love with the Lord but still need our prayers. I am especially praying for Mark's mom (I don't know her first name) but I am sure they have been married a great number of years. The blogspot for Mr. Bond http://raymondbond.blogspot.com/

Galatians 6:2 Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Have a blessed Easter

We have having a fairly quiet weekend. I am starting to read the book "Bad Girls of the Bible" by Lizz Curtis Higgs that I purchased used at Hastings today. So far, it is very good! Our female cockatiel laid a couple of eggs this week but since she has had a cage to herself for almost two years (since she did have eggs that were babies), we were certain they were not fertile. She set on them just like when they were fertile and was very protective. I felt bad for her because she did not know the difference. We have her son teil and his daddy in their own cage and we found homes for the others. We don't plan on more teils! The cleaning of the cages (which Mark has to do) gets cumbersome. Heading to bed so we can be fresh for in the morning. Since we are in an 11:00 Sunday School, we won't be going to sunrise service or breakfast, just 9:30 church and then Sunday School. Happy Easter, Celebrate Jesus!!!

Tulips

Mark decided not to cover the flowers last night, despite the freeze warning but he did take more pictures of them. As I write, it is 34 degrees. My car needed brakes and we will pick it up tonight but for now I have started working on a scrap/cook book with pages for mom to put family recipes in with pictures of the family member she got the recipe from. I was going to buy one for her but found a free trial version of software that I think I will use to make it with. She retires in four weeks and this is a retirement gift so I have lots of work to do!!

A Fun family weekend

On Friday, dad made it to town after dinner. On Saturday, Mark and I assisted with the UCP carnival at church, after we had lunch with mom and dad. In the evening we had mom's home made vegetable soup and went to the Bull-Ridding at Civic arena. On Sunday, we all attended church and went to Wal-Mart so dad could coach mom buy fishing equipment for her retirement. We then went to lunch and then came back to the house where dad gave mom a refresher course on preparing the pole for fishing and they got her tackle box all ready. My parents both love to fish but I did not inherit that trait. The picture of my parents' is one of my dad showing mom how to tie knots in her fishing line. The one of Mark and Dad and I is with the Easter gift he gave us. The bear has wings that move and the Bear sings Jesus Loves Me. They left Sunday afternoon and despite being exhausted, we went over to see Mark's mom and Ike for a little while. Mark's 15 year old nephew, Josh, will be seen at Children's Mercy on Monday of next week to investigate the reason for his passing out last Friday. There could be a link to a heart problem. Please join us in praying for him.