Meme

OK...I didn't get tagged, but I felt the urge to do this anyway...I've had a 'quirks' discussion recently, so it's the irony that got to me :)

Rules for this meme are as follows:

1) Link to the person who tagged you. I got this off Angie's blog, and her blog is linked over there -------->
2) Mention the rules.
3) Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacular details about myself.
4) Tag six other bloggers by linking to them.
5) Go to each person’s blog and leave a comment that lets them know they’ve been tagged.


~My Six Quirks~

1.) I love Dorito's! Now that's not so much the quirk...what IS, is that I have to eat them in a certain order. "Order???", you say...yes, I cannot eat the WHOLE dorito's in my handful first..I have to eat the broken pieces, and THEN I can safely eat the whole ones.


2.) When sleeping/laying on my stomach...I CANNOT have both feet under the blanket. One foot must rest on the outside of the blankets!

3.) I have a shower 'routine', If I stray from said routine, I forget to do things. My shower has to go: body wash, hair, face. Wanna know the quirkiest part of this? It's my reasoning! With the body wash, comes the cleansing of the nether regions...the hair washing gives my hands an extra scrub, thereby making my hands clean enough to wash my face.

4.) I cannot STAND the texture of onions!!!! I like the flavor, and cook with onion powder frequently! It is next to impossible to slip a stray piece of onion past me...I will find it, and it will skeeve me out like nobody's business!

5.) I eat my M&M's in a certain order too....it varies every time, but always starts with eating the brown ones first, because brown's just not pretty!

6.) OK, Mary Kay ladies have been trying to convince me for years that you put mascara on LAST, because it keeps you from smudging your mascara while it's still wet. I still don't do it though...it's always eyeliner, mascara, eyeshadow. I WILL NOT BE BROKEN!!!! HAHA!

~My Blog 'Tags'~

Laura C.
Tami (hey...this could be your first blog :D )
Tammie
Stacey
Abby
Kathy
Shannon
And anyone else who wants to take a stab!

Please Pray

If you would, say a prayer for my dad's family. His Father, my grandfather, has been suffering from Progressive Dementia (the psychological form of Altzheimer's) for several years now, and apparently took a turn for the worse in the past few days. He has deteriorated rather rapidly over the past few days and doctors are saying he may not live through the week. This is something we've all had to prepare for for some time, but still doesn't lessen the pain, however no one wants him to suffer. He'll be in such a better place when his time comes! We rejoice in that even in our sadness. We'll be traveling to Central PA when the time comes, so there is much to prepare.

Say an extra prayer if you will for my mom, and also my brother Neil and I, as we just lost her Daddy, our other Granddad, back in November.

***Celebrating Independence***

Well, I should be in the shower preparing my cute lil ole self for a cookout, but here I sit! I've been peeling eggs and cooking baked beans, I felt I deserved a couple minutes of slackedness :D We are off to our friends' home later on for some fun, food and fireworks! Should prove to be a fun day, typically is with this bunch. We'll get the kids good and worn out and then maybe they'll sleep in tomorrow.....yeah, because that's worked so far this week!

Yesterday was too much fun! We managed to get our hike in the Smokies in. We found our way to Laurel Falls. The kids were such troopers! I was concerned we'd get a lot of complaining about tired feet and whatnot. Abbie wanted one of us to pick her up and carry her a couple of times, there wasn't any way I could manage that! I was doing good to keep up! This trip taught me that I am WAY behind on my exercising...I should have been able to do an easy trail with a lot less panting! But I digress! The falls were beautiful, we all had fun, and we were away from the TV for a good long spell! The kids said they want to go again sometime, so we have a map now that shows the easy trails, so I do believe we will attempt some more trails on weekends.

I really should go get showered now...so, where ever you are today, may you have a fabulous 4th!!!

Toys, toys and more toys!!!

I have put off for way longer than I care to admit organizing the mess that is my kids' 'STUFF'! I'll chip away at a little here and there, but never really finish...I've had friends hang out and help, get it in a good order, and then the kids destroy the progress, and I give up. There are things in the mess that we haven't seen in months or longer, toys the kids have forgotten, toys that aren't played with anymore. I got to a point last week where I knew I couldn't avoid it anymore. We've put in to the powers that be here at the college for either an addition to the house, or a larger house. I'm good either way, I would just really love to increase our space and allow our kids to have their own rooms. Just in case this should come to pass, I don't want to save the steps for a mad rush when it comes to moving rooms, or worse...homes! Start now, enjoy life a little more later...makes sense, no?? We've made good progress, I'm becoming happier as my pile of "to get rid of's" keeps growing! We needed that!!!

The potty progress is increasing, there have been no accidents in a couple of days...and today we have poo!!!! She's even braved going to the potty all by herself and yelling through the house "I peed!!!!". We are so proud!

Tomorrow our plan is to go hike...either Cade's Cove, or one of the easy trails up around Gatlinburg. If we aren't totally exhausted, we may camp out in the backyard tomorrow night. We've made promises, let's hope we can keep them all! :D

Here are some photo updates from the past week:

The Party~


Club Libby Lu~
Fun With Friends~

A Few Brief Highlights...

* This week was Fine Arts Camp at our church....very exhausting, but as per usual, VERY rewarding! This was Caleb's first participation in the 'program'. He did well, cracked everyone up during the program...all I can say is, YES, we really do make him sleep!!! And YES, the boy is a free spirit! He enjoyed it though!

* I'm starting up my Pampered Chef business again! I'm excited...got several bookings within my first 24 hours 'back on the job'! Things seem promising...

* We're getting all trendy and are 'stacationing' in 2 weeks! We are really excited! Might sound crazy, but we have plans to do some fun things around our hometown. June 28th won't get here fast enough!

* Keep praying for Power Ministries!!! There's some really tough stuff going on there...Mom and Dad are stressed, I'm stressed...lots of things are uncertain! I know God is in control...and we just need to relinquish the control we have/want to have/wish we had...Jer. 29:11

* I'm seriously looking forward to this weekend! Now if the kiddies of the house would let us sleep in in the morning...ahhhh, what bliss!!! I believe we will be celebrating Father's Day tomorrow, allowing Jeff to choose his favorite dining establishment, and he decided that we should take the kids to see 'Kung Fu Panda'. All this I'm SURE will be topped with a stop in McKay's as well as dessert at Starbucks. I think that sounds like a well rounded holiday, don't you?

May all of my readers have a Blessed Weekend, and a Happy Father's Day!

I Love Ya Dad!!!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig!

The kids and I have returned! We had a good time, with a dash of stressful situations...but we have survived and made it home! I can't say that the weather is any different...hot and muggy!!! I helped Jeff mow after we got back, and I only did a little bit, but I was drippy when we were done! NICE!!!!!

My mother in law and sister in law are coming tomorrow, so my Friday is going to be a bit chaotic! I don't mind them coming...that frees up next weekend to devote to our "Dad of the Year"! Next week is Music Camp at the church, and it will be Caleb's first year to participate. He's been there for about four years when I have helped and been a bit curious. So, I'm anxious to see how he likes it...I hope Angie is ready for his enthusiasm!!!

Well...this is going to be a short blog...got some stuff to get done, kids to shoo off to bed and a back rub to beg!!! I'll tell more about our journey...tomorrow hopefully!

Glad to be home!!!!!!!!

Busy Bee

I'll warn you now, my brain has been pretty full for the past 5 days! I'm still up in Indiana and much has been going on! Some good, some frustrating...

First, surprising my dad was a BLAST!!!! Just getting into town without his knowing was monumental and so much fun to see him so giddy about it! And then the party on Friday...lots of longtime friends were able to be there, he seemed to really enjoy himself. I feel like it was successful! Now, to get this party off the ground, I had to 'hack' into my dad's emails so I knew who to contact. Many of the people I didn't even really know, but seemed to somehow be a part of his life. So, in the process of getting all of our ducks in a row, he was also flooded with birthday cards from all over, and we probably had a good 40 people come and go during the party. It was just so cool to see who came, and the things they had to say to him and the rest of the family. My dad has directly and indirectly impacted so many lives throughout his life, and I don't think he always knows how much those people appreciate him. So, I hope that in the next few grueling weeks he will reflect back on this past weekend and be encouraged that the people he has touched value him and all that he's done and is doing...I know I sure do!!!

Saturday was a 'Bike Run' fund-raiser for Power Ministries. Everyone met up pretty early, and let me just say I was so tired from the goings on on Friday...I did NOT want to get out of bed for this thing! Gotta say though, I am EVER so glad that I did!!! The way this event was set up, the bikers started out at a bike shop in New Albany, they paid like $15 to participate...leaving there they had a couple of stop points, and ended at a bike dealership about 20 minutes away, only they take a pretty scenic route to get there...the whole 'run' taking about 3 hours. It was stunning, yet very cool when I arrived...first thing I saw was the 30 or so bikes parked in the lot getting ready to ride for Power Ministries! The stunning part was probably 3/4 of the group were these big tough looking guys decked out in either leather or denim! Pretty much all of these guys are in this club called the Seed of Abraham, a Christian biker group. I guess in one's mind you have a certain vision of the type of people that 'work' with people with disabilities.
However, this group has done this particular event, as well as made appearances at our HIS Time ministry and been hands on with our participants! They are WONDERFUL!!! Anyway...it was supposed to have rained some on Saturday, but several of the bikers said they'd prayed the night before for a pretty day, and what do you know? The inclement weather took a last minute sweep north and missed us altogether! Dunno about your thoughts, but our God ROCKS!!!!

The service at my parents' church on Sunday is going to take a whole 'nother blog, because it was just amazing!!! I had to get a CD to hang on to that one! The visiting pastor for the day had everyone giggling, and had everyone on their knees, literal and figurative, by the end of the service.

So, now I've covered the good portions of the week thus far! Now on to some exciting topics...