Saturday, March 28, 2009

Update and Cute Ellie

Well, life is getting a little more interesting here. Effors to fight the flood have stepped up quite a bit so there's a couple of extra hundred people that we're housing, feeding, etc. that are here to help out. Josh missed school the other day on an excused absence to go help sandbag. Brian's working long hours and will be working through the weekend. All activities have been cancelled/postponed until further notice. The gym that we normally go to every day is closed because it's one of the locations that's housing folks. And with the snow/cold there aren't a lot of options of getting out and getting the kids out. I'm considering going into town today just to get out of the house for a little bit and mix it up! Needless to say, please continue to pray for our communities here - people have already evacuated houses and there are houses in Fargo that have already been ruined. So, families are going to be in great need.

All of that said, I thought I'd share a couple of pictures of Ellie from the last couple of days that I thought were pretty cute. This first one she was just being cute sitting in her rocking chair and "reading" the little book.
This next one is a picture of her with her very first lollipop. The only reason we let her have it is Ian was having one for dessert and had gotten it from a bag in my bathroom (not normally there just happened to have a couple there). A few minutes later, Ellie showed up at the table and had gotten the other one that had been there. So, we decided to reward her efforts! She enjoyed it but I don't plan to make it a habit for her!
This last one was taken the other day when we were having a blizzard. She can be found like this pretty frequently.
Yes, that's the cat's bed but for some reason, Ellie thinks it's hers. She'll sit in it, put her toys in it, put her doll in it for bed, etc. It's pretty cute.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Update on our weather

Well, we got a brief look at what spring in ND might look like and were lulled into believing it was really here, only to be back into winter weather that continues to come down!!! Having a bit of forethought, I took a couple of pictures yesterday to show you what it looked like...
This is the backyard yesterday - as you can see, the only snow really left was the big snow drift that had accumulated at our bird feeder.

This is our front porch - all of the snow was GONE!!! Amazing but true - also a reason the locals are concerned about flooding - it's all melting quickly!

So, after seeing what it looked like yesterday... here's what it looked like this morning!!!


As you can see, this is the backyard and all the snowdrifts are back where they were as if they never left! I just couldn't believe it!!


And, the front porch - the elephants are almost gone again!! CRAZY!!

All of that said, please be praying for our area. The president has issued a National State of Emergency for the Fargo area and now it's being moved up our way as well. Although we are pretty safe where we are, everyone who lives in town is uncertain what the next few days will hold and there's a lot of sandbagging happening to try and keep the flood from impacting everyone. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers!!

Monday, March 23, 2009

What I did Today

You're never going to guess what I did today!! I was really looking forward to my aerobics class today (I try to go Monday - Friday for the 9am class and I really like the Monday, Friday class: Body Sculpt) because I felt like all we did over the weekend was eat so I was really looking forward to working out. Well, we were about 10 minutes into the class and were doing an excersize with dumbells where you bend over at the waist (with knees slightly bent) and then back up. On the very last one, on my way up my back had SHARP, Shooting pains go through it and I even saw a few stars. Well, I was really hoping to just stretch it out and keep going but the instructor and a friend in the class both said I should probably stop and go get a warm pack to put on it. I went to the front desk to get one but all they had was cold so I was contemplating what to do while my back is still hurting pretty bad. I saw my friend Holly and she thought I should go to the clinic. We finally ended up calling Brian and he came to help me. We rounded up the kids from the fit 'n' fun area and drove to the clinic. I hate this! As I told Brian, I'd almost prefer I'd broken something so I'd feel justified at being in pain. I feel like I have a pretty high thresh-hold for pain so I really hate feeling like a wimp. We weren't sure they would be able to see me or not but after about 2 hours I was finally seen. And, of course, all they recommend is stretching and some muscle relaxers and pain medication. I also hate feeling like I've wasted mine and Brian's time! So, here I am at home laying on the couch doing some reading/blogging and email and probably, although I haven't yet, facebooking. Ellie's napping and Ian's doing some writing work. I had a nice warm bath and took some Motrin so I'm sure I'll be feeling good soon. So much for a good workout today!

Wanna know something a little bit ironic about all of this? Just this morning during my quiet time I was praying that I would be more compassionate. As I stated earlier, I have a high tolerance for pain so I expect others to have the same and I'm not always as sympathetic as I probably should be. Well, what's the best way to learn compassion/sympathy? To go through it yourself, of course!! Don't tell me God doesn't have a sense of humor or that he doesn't hear us when we pray! WOW! I almost felt like the passage in Daniel when it says AS Daniel was praying, the Lord sent out His angel (Daniel 9:20-23). How awesome is that!! When we moved to Alabama, Brian hurt his back and was unable to help with the unloading and all with the packers and I must be honest in saying I wasn't very sympathetic. So, now I know. It HURTS and you feel helpless because you feel like it SHOULDN'T hurt. Thank you, Lord, for giving me a lesson in compassion that I won't soon forget!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Huge Party Going On Tonight!!!

You are probably wondering what the party is/was all about... of course I'm going to tell you because that's what blogging is all about!! Well, I don't know if I've mentioned it on here before or not but back in January I started teaching 3rd and 4th grade girls on Wednesday nights at our church. They're a good group of girls - albeit a little energetic!! Well, about a month or more ago one of them started bringing a friend and tonight right as we were about to get started the two of them came and asked if they could talk to me in private. I said, "Sure!" So, we went away from where the other girls were and the "regular" said, "Something I've been praying about is happening - "visitor" wants to become a Christian!!" Of course I was excited but also wanted to make sure she knew exactly what it meant so I went to our Children's director and told her and thought it would be good to sit with her and counsel her some. So, the three of us went into a separate room and we went through the plan of salvation and read some verses in Romans - "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (3:23), "For the wages of sin is death, but the GIFT of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (6:23), "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (5:8), and another verse in Ephesians "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the GIFT of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." (2:8&9) Each time we read a verse we would talk with her about it and make sure she truly understood what this free GIFT was and she was really excited to have God with her in her life. I led her through a sinner's prayer and afterward she was happy and said, "Does this mean I'm a Christian now?" I think too many people think it's more complicated than that but it really does come down to a simple prayer of confession that you're a sinner and that you need Christ. I ask you to be praying for her, though, she comes from a broken home and lives with her mom who doesn't attend church. Now we need to be praying she'll be able to share her new found faith with her family! So, the huge party going on tonight is in Heaven! The angels are celebrating this new believer! It has really been a renewal for me as well - to really remember it is a gift and I can't earn it. Which means as a human I'm going to fail at things but His love is still there. Praise the Lord!!

Happy St Patty's Day (a little late)!

We don't normally make a "big" deal about St Patrick's Day other than wearing something green but this year I was inspired when I found a package of "corned beef" at the commissary. It was ready to go, all you had to do was cook it. I've never made corned beef before and, to be honest, I haven't really been that fond of it but I knew Brian liked corned beef so I thought I'd give it a go! Although Brian likes corned beef he doesn't like the cabbage that most folks put with it so I came up with some other stuff. One thing I decided to make was somewhat of an homage to my friend, Amy, (who we used to celebrate St Patty's Day with when we lived near each other) and that was to make pierogies to go with it. Now, I'm one to know a good thing when I see it so I opted for the easier already made kind by Mrs T instead of making them from scratch (but maybe one day). The rest of the menu included green beans and salad plus I just had to try and make my own green beer. I couldn't decide if you add green or blue food coloring to make it green. Since it's "sort of" yellow I went with blue remembering of course that blue and yellow make green. Well, it turns out that's not the case for beer! It made it BLUE!! So, I had to use green food coloring. So, note to self for any of you who might want to do it in the future - use green food coloring! For dessert Ian and I made some cups of lime jello to top of our green meal. We had Irish music playing in the background and the only plates I have that have green in them are our fine china ones so when Brian and Ian got home from Ian's hockey practice, I had the table nicely set with our fine china AND our newely acquired silver (Ellie's inheritance from Brian's parents - it was theirs but they never use it so decided to give us her inheritance early!). When Brian got home and saw all that I had done he asked me, "So, when did we turn Irish?" Like I said, I was inspired and I went with it and we had a fun time making memories as a family. Now, the question is do you know the REAL reason we celebrate St Patrick's Day? As a Christian it's great to know that he was a real person who spent his life trying to convert the Irish to Christianity and the Lord used him mightily. IF you'd like to do some reading up on the history of Patrick and the Irish please go here.
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Thursday, March 12, 2009

Brian's Birthday



Well, I'm only a week or so behind but I did want to post a little about Brian's birthday. I feel as if it came up so quickly this year and I wasn't at all prepared! Well, I knew what his present was but I didn't have it for him and I'd been out of town the weekend before his birthday and our commissary is closed on Mondays so I didn't even have a cake ordered for him! Thankfully, though, we'd thought a little in advance and did have plans for his birthday. It just so happened that Brian's birthday was parent's night for Josh's school musical "Man of La Mancha" and we had dinner plans beforehand with some friends whose daughters were also in the show. We ended up going to a place called Sanders that I've been wanting to go to for some time now and it was a very nice dinner and we enjoyed the company very much. The show was also very well done and we had a great time. On the way home since he didn't have cake, we stopped in at Coldstone and picked up a pint to take home. YUM!!




I will say it was kind of funny, though, because at lunch on his birthday Brian and I were talking and he says, "Oh, you went to the commissary so I have cake!" and although I did go to the commissary and had intended to buy him a cake, they didn't have any that I wanted to buy. If you know my husband you know he LOVES store bought cake with buttercream frosting. He prefers it over me baking a cake for him!! I felt SO bad that I didn't have a cake for him but he told me I could still get him one! So, I went in and ordered him a cake. I wasn't actually pleased with the way it came out (I told the lady he loved frosting - especially the flowers and apparently I didn't specify the big roses with lots of frosting so I was a bit disappointed with their version of flowers!) but here it is:




Just in case you can't read it, it says "Here's your cake" "Love you". What's funny is the lady taking the order added the quotation marks I think so the people decorating the cake would know what to put but the person decorating also put the quotation marks!!! LOL!! It's about the saddest looking cake I've ever seen but it satisfied his need for cake!

Our Blizzard

Well, I'm sure most of you have heard but on Tuesday of this week, we experienced a bit of a blizzard! Although I am very much ready for spring, the blizzard proved to be an unexpected gift from God!! Our schedules have all been pretty crazy/busy and we just haven't had a lot of time together as a family...so the Lord provided a way for us to have just that! Although Brian went in to work for a couple of hours, he was home by 1pm and then we had the rest of the day together in our jammies!! We read together, played Uno together and just hung out. It was great!! Here is a picture of the blizzard happening outside:
Please note that this isn't as bad as it was at times - you couldn't even see the trees at times!!


Here's a picture of the blizzard in the house:

Cute story about this one. At one point I wasn't sure where Ellie was and she was being quiet (which usually means she's in her room getting her blankie and paci) so I was looking for her. And Ian said, "Aww, she's just looking outside the back door watching the snow." So, I went to see her and it turns out she wasn't just WATCHING the snow, she was playing with some that had made it inside our door!! She also enjoyed eating some of it. Pretty handy if you ask me, didn't have to get out in the cold to enjoy the snow!

Here's a picture of our front stoop the day after the storm. It took Brian quite a while to get it dug out and he had some help from a friend with a snow plow! Oh, and don't let the sun fool you - although it's BEAUTIFUL, we only got up to about -20 degrees!! You can see one of my elephants, but can you see the other?!

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Still Trying to Catch Up!!

I would like to share a few videos we took at the end of January of Ellie so you can see how she's growing! The first one is at Ian's hockey game (he's the one in the white helmet and he's #8) and Ellie is cheering for him.

While at the same game, Ellie went down the slide all by herself on the playset in the hockey arena.

The last one is the same day but later that night at home and Ellie gets a book and is "reading" to Ian's clone toys.