Hi guys, North Point is hosting its first Couple's Night on Friday November 14th at 7pm. That is a week from this Friday! Tickets are only $15 per couple and it includes a delicious meal prepared by the one and only Phillip Jones! Please get your tickets soon so we know how many to plan for. If you are familiar with the Farrel's you know what a fun and entertaining night this will be! So come and hang out with us for a fun and relaxing night! You will be able to get tickets this Sunday or they are available through the church office. Hope you all can come, oh - and why not bring a couple with you, invite someone to come along!

Here we go!

Well, this is it! This Sunday North Point Church will officially launch our Warren Campus! Please be in prayer if you would, as so many people have put time and energy into this. We pray that those seeking God will have a desire to come, as well as those who do not have a church home. From the beginning it has been abundantly obvious that God is in control of this and that makes it worth it.

Emma's 7th Birthday

My baby turned 7 this year, my how the time flies! We had 2 parties, one the day 'of' and one a few days later with friends. High School Musical 3 'Senior Year' was the theme of the year. I believe all in all she had a great birthday. How can you go wrong?

Grocery Game?

My new friend, Debbie who I met last week at Cedarly (more on that later) told me about this 'Grocery Game' website that she is doing. She said she cut her grocery bill from $150 a week to around $56-$60. Just wondering if anybody else out there has done it and if it was worth it to you?

Grocery Game

Bye Bye Now...

Well, tomorrow we are off for a week! Our friend is coming to stay with the kids (she has my cell phone so feel free to check in if you can!) and we are headed to Delafield, WI to Cedarly Pastors Retreat - best part about it - its free!

Pray for us, this week is supposed to bring 'reset and refreshment' that is much needed. And something else? No internet! We won't know how to act! I'm sure I'll have pics and stories when we return. Have a great week everyone!

Check It Out

Hey, check out my friends new website! She creates,designs or redesigns just about anything you'd want! She is fast, efficient and able to give you just what you are looking for, I love my blog she created for me! http://inspireddesignbyanne.com/

SYATP

Have you ever thought it was a great idea to sing karaoke and once you pick the song and go on stage you get a crazy feeling in your stomach like "What was I thinking?" Well, we had a little of that this morning. Last night our Student Pastor, Matt and area youth pastors put on a rally called Ignite, to get the kids excited about the annual See You At The Pole. I have to admit I had heard about SYATP but never thought much about it since my kids were too young. This is the first year that anyone has really talked to the kids about it at all and they came home last night really excited about doing it and wanted to go this morning. You are supposed to go 30 minutes before school and gather with other students, faculty and parents to pray around the flagpole. The problem is that there was no flagpole at school. Lindsey was certain there was a flagpole behind the school in the parking lot and sure enough, on the side of a different building, was an extremely ragged, very small flag sticking out of the building. It was the building next to the school (the school is actually in a church building so I think its connected) that seems to be some kind of half-way house for men. There was a man outside taking out trash and I asked if we could use his flag. I could tell he had no idea what I was talking about but was receptive. He went inside and got the gal in charge. We explained again what we were looking for and they graciously agreed.

All the while, many of the other students were arriving in this parking lot to go into school, teachers too, the principal. It seemed as if everyone was looking over towards us to see what was going on but nobody seemed to be looking for a SYATP group. It became more and more clear that it was just us, and I could tell that the kids were disappointed and possibly ready to run. Maybe just becasue I was there with them and that is so not cool! But we hung around for awhile and finally decided to go ahead with just us.

I had asked them to each pray and I would finish up. I figured I would need to say the prayers that needed to be said in light of the circumstances that we were supposed to be there and that was fine, I figured the fact that they still wanted to do it was good enough for today. But Lindsey started and said just a perfect, beautiful, to the point, prayer to our Heavenly Father. And Kurt followed up much the same. I stood there with my teen/pre-teen children and was thrilled to hear how much the get it. They prayed for their friends, teachers, families... everybody else but themselves! It was awesome. I did wrap up, only to reword some of the things they had already said and thats it, we were done.

I am so grateful for the people in their lives that stirred this event for today. God is at work through the people in His church and I appreciate all of the efforts that were put in to last night. It was crazy, I think I heard there were about 150 students there and many adults who are involved. Very, very cool.

Update

Well, we have started the school year off with a bang. Kurt and Lindsey are getting settled in their new school and really seem to be enjoying it. It is so much more relaxed for them and more our speed! They each have only 20-25 students in their grade instead of 200! Emma is slowly, very slowly adjusting to 1st grade. I think she's doing fine with school, more having a hard time adjusting at home to being so tired from her day! Poor kid goes to bed at 7pm and is asleep by 7:02! But all in all everybody is doing well.

With the recent staff changes (Nicole quitting and Pam replacing her) my work ours are a bit different. Pam and I are each working full days at a time so we can also be home for full days. When I am there, Tuesdays and Thursdays, I answer the phones in the front office and try to answer the many random questions that come in! But my main job is still working with Ramona, our Children's Director, which I really enjoy. I am coping so much better this way than last year, working 4 hours 5 days a week. I have a new found appreciation for all of the working moms out there, that's for sure! After being a stay-at-home mom for over 12 years it was a really tough year for all of us.

Tim is busy as usual, nothing new about that. Just in new and different ways than I think he ever imagined. God (thru North Point) is launching a new campus in November and it has brought about a brand new kind of busy for Tim. He just loves it. I cannot imagine God using him in any better way. It does however come with lots of new responsibility that again, he never imagined. The 'stress' is a good kind, the kind that stretches and grows a person. It has been an interesting process that I hope and pray will continue. Please be praying for this adventure! He continues to preach every other week with Dennis until next year when the final stages of the transition take place. More on that when the time comes!

Summer is over, sniff sniff

We took the kids downtown yesterday to Chicago on the Metra. Its always an interesting place. We boarded around 9am and were surprised at how many people were drinking! Many were on their way to the Cubs game and a couple - well, weren't. But we had fun anyway. Its a change from driving at least.

Another new experience was the Chicago city bus. Cheaper than a taxi but not free! We usually take the free trolley when we're there but it didn't go to the zoo so we had to take the bus. It was pretty nice, very clean. The nice thing is that most schools have already started so there weren't a lot of people out. It was mostly people with really small kids there. Boy was it nice to have walking children! And kids that keep up and didn't throw fits, very cool. We're moving up in the world! Our only issue is having kids too 'cool' to be seen with us now. But as long as we're spending money on them we're ok.

The zoo was fun, it was a perfect day. We ate lunch there since it would have been difficult to pack a picnic. A little expensive but it balances out I guess since it is free to get into the zoo. All in all a great day for our last hoo-ha before school starts.

On that note, we have news about Kurt. He got into the same school Lindsey is going to. Last year we submitted an application to a charter school here in town called Paideia Academy for Lindsey. Basically, its a private school that is still KUSD funded. And instead of around 600 kids in the school (6th, 7th and 8th graders) there are 75. The teaching style is different too but in ways that we think will really benefit both kids. They are excited. Mostly because they think it will be easier for some reason. We have told them if they make (and keep up with) honor roll they they can get a cell phone. Something I am certain both are capable of. It was really easy to make it a God thing, you have to apply and it is lottery for the students to get in or not. So thats how we looked at it, if they get in - it must be exactly where God wants them. If not, there was nothing wrong with the other middle school that Kurt went to last year. In fact he had great teachers that he really liked and he did quite well. We just feel like we need to give this a shot.

Check out Kurt, he looks me square in the eye!

Kurt not wanting his pic taken

Lindsey almost too cool to sit by me - almost!

What a ham!

Beautiful Little Girl

Well, my girl turned 12 today. I would post a picture but it seems as if she has snuck my good camera in her bag and taken it for the day... Aaaarrrrrggggg!

I've been trying and trying to figure out how to post the song I want on here but I am too technically challenged to get it done I guess. I have done it before but it apparently was an accident. So, I'll at least post the lyrics. You'll have to make up your own tune! If someone would be willing to walk me through doing it I would greatly appreciate it!

Beautiful Little Girl
Cheri Keaggy

Beautiful little girl, discovering all the world
I wonder what she'll be
Will she take after her daddy or me?
Careful to hold her hand and help her understand
How much we love her so
And how much we'd like to help her to grow...

Chorus:
Into a woman who loves her Maker
And who knows what she's living for
So that nothing can harm or take her from You
For a woman who loves her Maker
Has a quality you can see
That will certainly mold and shape her
Into the woman she's meant to be

Beautiful little child, adorning a lovely smile
Eager to learn to fly
There's almost nothing she wouldn't try
Lord, help us do our part to give her a Godly start
Teach her what she must learn
And guide her until she's ready to turn...

Into a woman who loves her Maker
And who knows what she's living for
So that nothing can harm or take her from You
For a woman who loves her Maker
Has a quality you can see
That will certainly mold and shape her
Into the woman she's meant to be...

Been Awhile...

I'm alive, really! I just can't believe how fast the summer has gone and how much we have managed to cram into it. We're not any more "busy" than anyone else but we are still all adjusting to me working outside the home. Its a struggle for me. I'm not the most organized person so it takes a lot for me to spin the many plates of a working mom. Not sure how you all do it who work full time, 20 hours a week is a stretch for me. Luckily, I absolutely love the work I am doing. I couldn't ask for a better work situation. Hope everyone else has had a great summer too. I guess for some its over, some schools have already resumed and we have a good 3 weeks left.

Its been a great summer for the kids as well. They all have had a turn going "home" to spend time with family by themselves, something they all love. Who wouldn't love getting all of the attention??!! Kind of curious when its my turn! But in turn, it has also worked out for them to each have some time here at home alone with the other 2 gone, thats been kind of cool too. Even if it has meant everyone all spread out over the last month or so. I know I have really enjoyed the one on one time though. I grew up with just 2 of us, me and my sister. So, the dynamics of 3 children are really different.

One of the more interesting things coming up is a new small group I am excited to be a part of. Last year Edna, our Senior pastors wife (65+) finally caved in and agreed to lead the rest of us (wives of the men on the Leadership team and staff at North Point) in a monthly study. This year she is extending it to another night in the month to all of the women who are wives of the men on the Leadership Development team, very cool. We basically covered a lot of what it means to be married to a leader of the church. What does that really mean for me anyway? What are God's expectations of me? We pretty much have been begging her to do this for a couple of years and finally God has opened up the door for her. As she and Dennis get closer to retirement I think we would regret not taking this opportunity to "suck the life out of her" :-)) I say in jest but really, if she can save us time,energy, hassle, heart ache, or any other such misfortune that would be awesome! They have lived fascinating lives and just have a wealth of knowledge. We all have learned so much this last year and I am looking forward to what God has in store for everyone involved this coming year. I would love to see this "Mentoring Mondays" group eventually grow and grow so that every woman in the church has an opportunity to learn what Edna has started with us here, married or not. Pretty cool.

A Camping we will go...

Well, we made it - our first trip to Teddy Bear camp at Rock River Christian Camp. We had just a wonderful time, especially since we got to spend some time with old friends. Brian and Christine Beck were here at North Point when we first moved here, Brian was the Children's Pastor at the time. He has since moved to be camp manager, something he is really good at! But their daughter, Elizabeth, is only 1 month older than Emma and was her first real "friend". While we were there, Christine brought our baby pics of the girls one day at their house - boy have they both changed! But they seem to pick up right where they left off, they both talk about the other often and miss each other. Elizabeth even wrote Emma a letter last week and Emma was so excited that I think she had a letter written back to her in about 5 minutes! So we had a great time, just me and Emma - I'm not sure thats ever happened but I like the idea of having the one on one time with her. Took a few pics, the best one didn't turn out, I think Brian has it though so I hope to post it soon!

On our way!

Fast friends!

Gotta love the swimming!

At campfire

A little left over for later

Monkey in the tree!

The egg demonstration

After we decorated them

After the egg toss!

Couldn't leave it alone!

End of our time together - boo!


On the way home...

And we're off!

Wow, what a crazy couple of weeks here since school got out. We have been in full form this summer with mission trips, summer school, swimming lessons, work... which includes BlastZones! This is our summer VBS program where instead of having 1 big event week at the church building we are hosting 13 different Blast"Zones" around the area. This is our 3rd year with it and its really taking off. Last week between 2 different sites we ran 53 kids - 70% of them Non-north pointers. And thats what we're looking for, we really want (and need) our kids at these zones but we want to reach more un-churched kids for Christ. This week, again with 2 sites, we have had 67 kids!!! Not sure on the percentages yet but we are so excited about this! With 9 more to go this is gearing up to be a great summer. Watching the kids, you can see on their faces that they get it, something that is harder to see with the bigger event. Not that one is better than the other - just something that North Point is trying out to see if we can reach more kids. Thats what its all about (are you singing the tune in your head?)

Tomorrow Emma and I take off for Teddy Bear Camp at Rock River Christian Camp. We are both looking forward to our little get away, just one night but fun none the less! Although I heard something about an early morning hike on Saturday - 2 bad words there, early and hike! Not sure I signed up for that!

Sniff, Sniff!

Today Lindsey will be promoted to middle school. She's so excited and I am for her. I see so many exciting and positive changes happening with her. Their class gets to go to Golden Corral for lunch (hopefully none of the kids will get sick this year, last year Kurt said 3 kids ate so much and were so hyper that they puked, I bet the restaurant loves this day!) and then at 1pm a ceremony at school. Our school doesn't do these at night... not sure why but luckily Tim has a job flexible enough that he gets to attend these things. She talked me into buying her a dress, painting her nails, curling her hair - and talked her dad into the makeup! She also made her own jewelery and jewelery for 3 friends to wear. Its fun to see her excited about this, its been a good day so far.

In the upper right corner is a pic of her at 6months old. I didn't realize it when we took it this morning! My babies are growing up...

The New Look

Hey! Is this cool or what! My friend called and said, "I love the new look on your blog!" and I said, "I know!" which you can only say when you didn't do it yourself :-) My friend Anne has started a new business creating blogs, banners, logos and more. Visit her site and see for yourself what all she is offering and utilize this opportunity before she realizes what a steal she's doing it for! I know many of you - I won't mention names - have been contemplating creating a blog but don't know where to start... have Anne do it. I gave her a color scheme and my thought process and this is the first thing she sent me and I absolutely love it, its exactly what I wanted.

The Final Product

Here is the final creation. About half of the beads are different than the one before. They are all glass 6mm round beads. Stacey is still taking orders and should have about 15 on hand by tomorrow. You can contact her at jandsdutton@frontiernet.net or stacey.dutton@cancer.org if you'd like to purchase one. They are $20 and are all 7-1/2 inches on stretchy string. We still have the charm that was shown below as well. If you would like one bigger or smaller let Stacey know and we would be happy to take orders. All profits go to The Relay For Life!

I'm sorry... what?

Every day the kids get up about 30-45 minutes before me. They have a list of "getting ready" chores and they are supposed to start their list when they get up and be well into them by the time I'm up. This year, the older kids also have the added chore of helping Emma with something. Lindsey is supposed to fix her breakfast and Kurt is to fix her lunch, then she packs it. It works out well and we've had a really good year with it. Friday was a bit different though, Kurt knocked at our door and said Lindsey wasn't up yet, something he is supposed to do - let me know this so I can take care of it, not him. I walked into her bedroom to find her "still sleeping" and this note taped to her bunk bed.

In case its too hard to read the bottom, it says:

Dear Mom,

I didnt finnish
my homework.
So I'm not
going to school
until it's done all
the way.

Love,
<3 Lindsey <3

P.S. Depending
on when your
reading this
goodnight or
goodmorning

Ya, what? I can't decide if I'm more shocked that she did it or that she thought it would work. Did she actually think this would work? Who knows what is really going through an 11 year old girls mind! However, you have to give her credit, she knows that she has to bring home progress reports on Fridays and if it isn't what we think it should be, she's grounded. So, she said that since she knew she would be grounded when she came home, she had decided to just not go. Hmmm, genius or crazy? Any ideas?

Another Bug In The House

Luckily, not what you are thinking! So far, all signs of lice are gone, Wahoo!!! But Kurt is sick. Its weird because we still think maybe the Lice treatment made him sick somehow, he has some strange allergies and a touch of asthma. Last Monday after the initial "treatment" he was home sick on Tuesday feeling miserable and it crossed my mind that it was the lice stuff. Then this past Monday we treated again and sure enough on Tuesday he was pretty sick as well. He had been complaining on Monday but had been to a sleepover (loose on the "sleep") and was really tired, so when he was sick Tuesday I still wasn't sure what was up. Finally, yesterday when he was still down I thought I should take him to the doctor and the poor kid has strep! Can anyone say Mother of the Year?!!

Just hoping nobody else gets this bug - but... at least it doesn't crawl!

Recipe of Love

1 huge box of garbage bags
1 gallon of vinegar
2 jars of mayo
5 shower caps
4 large bottles of Nix shampoo - Nit combs included
4 cans of Nix upholstery spray
1 gallon of bleach
1 very brave, loving friend
1, maybe 2 chill pills! - more or less depending on your stress level

We have started new office hours at church, 10am-2pm - the awesome thing with that is that I am no longer responsible for answering the phones every day so I can get my hours in when its good for me. Instead of 5 days a week partial days, I can do 2-1/2 days in the office and 2-1/2 at home. I have decided to go in on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and then pick up my 1/2 day on Fridays at some point through the day when it works out. I'm pretty excited about this because the every day was hard for me. If you know me at all, you know that the daily housework thing is just not my cup of tea, so I'm happy about the new arrangement.

Last Monday I was so excited to get the kids out the door - and Tim! I'm relaxing around here getting laundry going, picking up, making my plan for the week when I get it - the call from school saying I need to go pick up Emma . They tell me that over the weekend that had received a call from a parent saying their child had head lice so they had to check the whole class and Emma had them! I said, "Oh, thats just great, I've been itching for 3 days now!" The school nurse was kind enough to check me too and sure as anything - I had them too!!! They pulled Lindsey out of class and she had them as well. So, after some choice words and many words of wisdom from everyone in the office we left to go pick up Kurt - had to assume he and Tim had them too. We never did find any on the boys but we treated them anyway.

We pick up Kurt and much to my surprise, he's happy - excited even. He says, "This is so cool, I never got to have headlice before!" As we drive home I hear the girls telling Kurt all of the home remedies we have been told so far. Emma tells him we are all going to put mayonnaise on our heads and he just gets more and more happy about the whole thing - they all are! The more excited they get, the more mad I am. Then it happened, that small still voice that speaks to you when you sometimes don't want to hear it, tells me to chill out. There is nothing we can do now but press on and get the situation taken care of as efficiently as we can, and if they are in a good mood about it - whats it hurting??

So we plug away at bagging everything up, and start in with the treatments for the humans - luckily animals can't get it! Our steps so far have been to bag everything stuffed or made of material that I can't wash. We turned the water heater to high and I began washing. We got the Nix stuff at Walmart, actually the Walmart brand, its the same and it included the spray and comb. We sprayed beds and furniture, vacuumed beds and furniture and sprayed them again. We soaked our heads with the special shampoo, rinsed it and rinsed again with the vinegar and applied the mayo and a shower cap before combing through with the Nit comb. Not sure it was all necessary but it was everything I heard and read so we did it. Now 7 days later we have all shampooed again and I have washed sheets and sprayed beds and pillows one last time.

I gotta say the kids were awesome about the whole thing. Helped with everything and were very patient with me going through their hair. Not sure it was as much fun as they were thinking - at least they now know they don't want to have to do it all over again! I hope and pray we got them all. The girls were allowed back to school the next day after the nurse went through their hair, I wasn't so lucky - Tim sucks at Nit-picking. The shampoo kills everything but you still have to get them out. By the time I left school I had to let Tim know he had to come home and do it again, something he wasn't too happy with. I was not surprised, he had gone through Emma's the day before and I found more after him. He gladly came home... but I could not stop itching - to the point that I ended up shampooing again, something you apparently shouldn't do. Pretty much destroyed my scalp and - you guessed it, made it itchy!! I did not sleep at all that night and finally came to the conclusion (aka GOD!) that I would call my friend Amanda. She works at a Preschool and I didn't think she'd be too creeped out by helping me. She came over the next day and sure enough found a bunch more to come out. But I was so glad she did! Mentally I was loosing it. The good news is that she checked again yesterday and it looked good so now that we've all shampooed again today we should be out of the woods, right???

Ok, I'm done - you can stop itching now!

Relay For Life

Stacey, one of my best friends back home, works for the American Cancer Society and has always been passionate about the Relay For Life. She actually lost her dad to cancer this last year and that has not stopped her desire to help search for a cure for this crazy disease. She contacted me last week and asked if I'd be interested in making bracelets for her team to sell as a fund raiser. Each bead represents a different kind of cancer. I love the idea and went to town on it so I thought I'd share what we came up with and offer you a chance to pre-order one! They will be $20 and will come with a business card size list of what each color represents. They are 7 1/2 inches and on stretchy string, we can easily make them bigger or smaller if you want. You can contact her by email at stacey.dutton@cancer.org to place your order (you'll have to cut and paste it because I don't know how to link it). All of the proceeds go directly to the American Cancer Society/Relay For Life. This is just a test run so they may change somewhat from this design but you get the picture. If you'd like to pay by PayPal, let her know that too and we will set that up. Thanks everybody!

Purple – General, Thyroid, Pancreatic
Black – Melanoma
Teal – Ovarian
Orange – Leukemia
Gray – Brain
Periwinkle – Esophageal, Stomach
Green – Kidney
Brown – Colon
Pink – Breast
Light Blue – Prostate
Lime Green – Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
Peach – Endometrial
Orchid – Testicular, Gynecological
White – Bone, Lung
Gold – Childhood
Yellow – Bladder, Liver, Sarcoma

Happy Mother's Day

A few years ago I heard a speaker say that the average age of children when they move out of the house for good is 25... are you kidding me? She said that what we need to do as parents is start to train our kids with our language so they understand that, at some point, they need to leave. Like, "Today you are going to learn to cook a pizza... so when you graduate from high school - and move out - you'll know how to cook something." or, "Today you are going to learn to do laundry...so when you graduate from high school - and move out - you'll know how to do laundry!" and so on, and so on. So, I have started slowly incorporating some of these things into our daily routine. A few years ago when I broke my leg, all of the kids learned a lot of things like running the microwave, unloading the dishwasher, etc. But a couple of years ago for Christmas we decided it was time for Kurt to learn to do his laundry. It was awesome, I bought him a huge basket and filled it with laundry soap and laminated directions on what to do. He gloated for weeks with it being the biggest gift under the tree. Not exactly happy when he opened it up!

A couple of weeks go by and I go downstairs to put a load of clothes in the dryer only to find it screaming at me! And guess who had just done his laundry??? Days go by and Tim has no opportunity to check it out and finally caves and lets me call the repair guy. He walks in, takes the back off of the dryer only to find a pencil stuck in the back = $80. Poor kid did feel terrible and after threatening his life, has done pretty well all in all with the whole laundry thing. Until this week. I had hair day (another post for another day) on Tuesday and had asked Kurt to get some laundry going. Not sure what exactly happened after that but Tim came home and told me that apparently Kurt had tried to cram every piece of clothing he owns into the machine - hey, gotta commend him for trying to get it all done, right!? Well, it busted the piece in the machine that makes it spin and left all of the clothes dripping wet and the machine not working.

I guess the good news is that we needed to call the repair guy anyway as my oven crapped out last weekend too - in the middle of baking brownies no less! Good thing they were in a glass dish and I could zap them in the microwave! Needless to say, over $200 later we have our washing machine and oven working again. Lucky me. Did someone say "Happy Mother's Day"?

I'm Gonna What?

Last fall Tim and I stumbled across, "The Celebrity Apprentice" and ended up watching it almost all season off and on. We had our favorite actors, (mine had a normal tongue!) and I totally fell for Trace Adkins. I've been an on again, off again country music listener, more so since we've moved away; my mom is a huge fan and listening makes me feel closer to her sometimes and Lindsey likes it too now. Anyway, since we got to know Mr. Adkins I have started listening more again and on one of the last shows Trace sang his new song, "You're Gonna Miss This" and the first time I heard it I was all nostalgic and everything but since then I have had many days where I think, "Really? Are you Sure??" Everybody says to be careful or you'll blink and miss it all and sometimes I just want to sit in a dark corner and blink, blink blink!! Please let me miss just a little! And then the moments come, when you can almost see the light switch come on, when they do actually act like they know you in public, when they are actually all getting along, if even for a moment... Last weekend I had a great moment like that, I looked outside and saw my oldest 2 shooting baskets together - it was really awesome, until Kurt accidentally hit Emma in the head with the ball so Lindsey slapped him in the head and then he of course had to hit her back... and poof! it was gone. I'm Gonna Miss This? Whatever you say... I have a t-shirt that my friend gave me with funny sayings on the back of it that you never thought you would hear or say like, 'Dinosaurs don't belong in the toilet", "Please don't leave worms in your packet" or "Who took a bite out of my lipstick!" and my all time favorite, "You take care of you and we'll take care of them". Lately its been at my house things like, "Who put Tupperware down the laundry shoot?", "Why is there Grilled Cheese in your bed?" or the most expensive question of the week, "How much laundry did you put in the washing machine anyway?"

I know life is so busy for everybody and we are no exception to that. Sometimes too busy. And its the times when I see them playing outside together (even for a minute) or catch them talking to each other with a tone that does not sound like they hate each other, or receive a fistful of dandelions that I realize I will miss this time. And I'm glad that a simple song can make me stop and realize that for a minute. So, I want to "miss it" later when its all gone instead of wishing it away to fast by blinking too much!

Fun Times

A lot going on right now, but its all great stuff! As I type, Mike, Eskai, and Sarai Foster are driving here from Charlotte, NC to be our new Campus Pastor family. We are so excited about this process and thrilled that they are coming - God is good, even when the drive shaft falls out of the UHall on the way! They should be arriving by bedtime to start this new journey, please pray for all. You can read more about this on Tim's blog if you like. ** Added note, they have arrived and are settling in, its just taking me a long time to actually get this post up!

Yesterday Emma got bifocals - poor thing. We got a 3rd opinion on her eyes once Shopko said we were done with the patch. The Pediatric Ophthalmologist prescribed the bifocals because her eye crosses when she is reading. Apparently Shopko has a different philosophy on it because they weren't very optimistic about the bifocals. But I think she'll be fine once she gets used to them, it will just take some time. We are pretty happy with the new doctor too so we'll just keep plugging away with it. Bless her heart, she's been through a lot with it but she's been a trooper. **Update, she is doing great with them, we still see her trying to figure out which to use but she is doing well. And she has survived skating week at school!

This weekend marks the first Meant for More Conference being held at North Point. I have been a small part of the behind the scenes happenings with this and it is amazing to sit back and watch God move through the hearts of those who have been praying and planning for this event for so long. Their goal is to encourage and equip young women (6th grade thru 12th grade) to be set apart for God and to give tools to be more for God than can be imagined. How cool is that? I know as a mom of girls how I look forward to them being a part of something like this. I know that I personally was praying for them to break 100 girls and I believe the last count I heard was 138 plus adult women mentors. I am especially excited for the prayer walk; it sounds incredible and my friend who is putting it together has done this several times before and again, has a huge heart for these girls, coupled with her gift of prayer = something very awesome. **Keep in mind they are still allowing registrations and walk-ins on Friday evening are more than welcome!
** The final count was 175 girls - wahoo!

My boy is turning 13 on Sunday - ug! What an awesome kid he is. We celebrated some while we were back home for Spring Break and this weekend Tim's folks will be up to help us celebrate, everybody is excited about that! He walked in after school today and met me eye to eye, never thought that day would come but it is here. There is a song by Cheri Keaggy that I was introduced to when I first attended Hearts at Home many years ago when Kurt was really little. Its called, "Little Boy on His Knees" and when I heard it I fell in love with it, probably because it talks about his 'little sister' - that hit me! But mostly because Tim and I pray very hard that our kids will become followers of Christ, and that they would want to be close to Him. Hope you enjoy the song; it took me long enough to figure out how to link it (like 3 days!)! It should be playing for you now and here are the lyrics.


He see's me in the morning,
Lifting him out of bed.
The sun comes with little warning,
A brand new day's ahead.
To the kitchen for some breakfast,
A plate of toasted bread,
A cup of milk just as expected,
Close your eyes and bow your head.

You can thank him for anything you want to,
For the flower's and the trees
And pray,Lord Jesus, make me,
A little boy on my knees.

He's Mommy's little helper.
Learning to comb his hair.
And loves his baby sister,
Though he doesn't always share.
A quarter in the bucket,
A memory verse or two,
Although he may not know it,
He's beginning to follow you.

You can thank him for anything you want to,
For your Daddy and for me.
And pray, Lord Jesus, make me,
A little boy on my knees.

As we teach our Son to serve the Lord, in every way,
Lord the most important thing is this that we now pray,
Lord, we thank you everything you give us, but most importantly,
We pray Lord Jesus, make our Son a little boy on his knees.

Lord we thank you for everything you give us, but most importantly
We pray, Lord Jesus, make our Son,
A little boy on his knees.
We pray that someday he'll become,
A young man on his knees.

Finally!!

Emma finally lost her first tooth. Her friend Elizabeth, only 1 month older has lost 8! Awhile back we noticed that the new teeth were coming in but she hadn't lost any yet, weird. So, we were all pretty excited - so excited I didn't have her wash her face before we took the pics, oh well!

Holiday Ro-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-oad...

So, it started out with a bang, with Tim and Kurt puking.. and the rest? Well, lets just say our last name was "Griswold" for the week! We took off Wednesday morning, not really knowing what we were getting into - if anyone else would get sick or not, and the good news is that we girls were just fine. God Bless Clorox! Poor Tim, I made him scrub himself and clean every time he puked, and that was a lot! I offered to clean but after the first 3 times, he just did it himself. Anyway, we take off to the Dells and find out along the way that Tim's Uncle Tom (Harry's sisters husband, they live in Lincoln) had passed away the day before suddenly. So sad for us, he was an awesome guy! We find out that the funeral isn't until Saturday so we stayed in the Dells.

We go to check in and are asked if we went to the "Welcome Center"???? You see, we had booked this trip under the obligation of going through, what we thought was going to be, a 90 minute sales pitch tour for Christmas Mountain. Nobody told us we needed to go to the welcome center but off we went, across town to get our information. After our tour we are supposed to get 2 $25 Visa cards and that will take our fee to $50 for our stay, good deal - right? It was almost 3pm at the time and we were told our room wouldn't be ready til 4pm anyway. By the time we get back, we figure out that they had told 500 other families to come at 4pm as well! We were in line out the door! Luckily, (aka - God!) someone walked by and whispered that there were 3 open lines to the right that nobody could see so about a dozen of us hussled over there! Here I find out we owe another $66 for our stay! I knew it! I knew we couldn't get away with $50 for 2 nights! But I pay, because what else can I do? 45 minutes later we trudge up to our room to find families lined up all down the hallway - all waiting for the cleaning crew to clean the rooms. You have bouncing children saying, "Hurry up, hurry up!!" and the parents all trying to hush them because we really don't want them rushing to clean!

So, by 6pm we are headed to the theme park/water park and really did have a fun time. The kids played and enjoyed themselves. I sit next to a lady who tells me she paid $720 for 3 nights here and was not happy at all with the service - I can imagine! I was already irritated with $116 for 2 nights! We hang out for a couple of hours and go back and order Domino's and watch the result show for Idol and finally all fall asleep, whew!

We awake at 5:30am hearing what appears to be a circus out in the hallway. I got up to - address the situation - to find that its our neighbors next door, in their room with at least 50 kids in there (ok, probably only 2 or 3 but it was loud! and it was so early) and they weren't doing anything wrong other than being alive at that hour, but still. So we get up and get ready for our tour, oh, everybody is so excited! Tim is feeling ill still - probably form Domino's the night before on a tender tummy, but we go because if you don't go they charge you for the rooms and we're not paying that kind of money!

We arrive to meet our tour guide, Ty Pennington Jr. - only hyper! He had to have been on something, the poor kid could not sit or stand still for 2 seconds. He takes us out to the table to talk and he's on the chair sitting on his feet! Our 90 minute tour turns into 2 hours and we're thankful because everybody else we walked in with was still in their "meeting". Tim made it pretty clear we weren't buying! I go to the desk and ask for our gift cards and she tells me they gave them to us yesterday at the Welcome Center... no they didn't. She says yes, here's the numbers from the cards they say they gave you yesterday. I say, no they didn't... and end up having to go back across town to the Welcome Center again! The only good thing about it was right behind us was a family saying they didn't get theirs either! I guess when I got out of the car Lindsey said, "I bet she comes out with bloody knuckles!" After they tell me that their inventory came out fine, and everything says we got them... I insist we didn't so they did give me - Bass Pro gift cards! And it just made me mad because they made me feel like we were stealing or something. But if we want to go back to the tour center they can exchange them for Visa cards... whatever. So, Tim's excited he gets to buy something for his boundary waters trip in August, and our vacation just cost us another $50.

That was it for the Dells, the rest was a really good time with the kids - and they really weren't subject to any of the drama, stuff we should have realized would happen. Nothing is free! But they had fun at the theme park and water park before we left to travel back home, and that is the goal we were shooting for.

We landed first at my sister's house for an early birthday party for Kurt. She had made lasagna and went to a lot of trouble, as always, to make a cool party for him with a hunting theme! It was a short evening but welcome none the less. Its always good to be with family, and Kurt got a lot of money to put towards his 2 mission trips this summer.

We head to Roseville and get in around 9:30-10pm to find everyone still up there! A relief kind of because the kids were bummed we weren't going to get to see much of the cousins. But the plan was to leave at 7am for Uncle Tom's funeral so we were off to bed. Had a beautiful day really. Sad of course for us, but just a joy to get to see extended family even for a short time. Wish I had thought to take some pics, I know Aunt Penny was - maybe you could send some? The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxing, went to church at Tim's home church. Again, fun to see people you haven't seen in awhile and catch up.

And we're back... back to life at its grandest form. Busy as always but not any worse than everybody else! Thanks everybody that was a part of our '08 spring break, love you all! Here are some pics from the trip.

Kurt not having so much fun on the spinning teacups! Totally saving this one for his wedding!


Emma was so excited that she was big enough to drive herself!
*
*


*






The highlight of Emma's trip, driving with dad and learning to blow a bubble!






Last but not least, 10 minutes before we get home... I believe Lindsey sums it up!