Monday, December 15, 2008

More Elf Fun

Send your own ElfYourself eCards
It was the day after Christmas at a church in San Francisco. The pastor
of the church was looking over the lawn when he noticed that the baby
Jesus was missing from among the figures.

He hurried outside and saw a little boy with a red wagon, and in the
wagon was the figure of the little infant Jesus.

So he walked up to the boy and said, "Well, where did you get your
passenger, my fine friend?"

The little boy replied, "I got Him at church."

"And why did you take Him?"

The boy explained, "Well, about a week before Christmas I prayed to the
little Lord Jesus and I told Him if He would bring me a red wagon for Christmas I would give Him a ride around the block in it."

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

I want to be thankful.....

The Sunday before Thanksgiving was family day at Revolution. The children sat with us during the service and Darrenn gave a great message on being thankful. The children also got to sing a song for all of us. Enjoy:

I want to be thankful....

Thanksgiving 2008

We spent Thanksgiving with my side of the family this year. Michelle and Tony created a yummy feast. Thank you for hosting a fun day! Here are some pictures of our fun day:


The older kids jammed.

The younger kids made Christmas crafts.

The kids table....that's a lot of boys!


Burning off all those calories with a game of soccer.


Checking out the quads

Disclaimer: I let the boys pick out their own outfits.

I've been allowing Matthew and Justin to pick out their own outfits. They don't have a sense of style; they just like to pick out their favorite shirt and favorite bottom. So, if you see us out and about and they look like this please remember that they picked out what they are wearing. Here are a few examples:

When I look at Matthew I think I'm raising the next Dave Sloan. He loves to wear orange and red.....together. His red shorts were dirty so this was the next best thing.

Family Getaway

Thanks to our friends the Bambricks, we were able to take a wonderful vacation up in Acton. We had a great time hiking, playing miniature golf, goofing off (see the video from a previous post for proof), and just being together. It's just what our family needed. Matthew and Justin had fun climbing trees, jumping around and just being boys. Thank you Rick and Dawn for taking the time to drive up there to sign us in. We feel blessed to call you our friends.







Thursday, December 11, 2008

Monday, December 1, 2008

The boys are at it again


Matthew and Justin decided to make a tent in their room. They have a lot of fun sleeping in it. I just have two problems with it:

1) We no longer have chairs in our dining room
2) We no longer have any extra blankets and it's getting really cold at night

Sunday, November 30, 2008

India

Earlier this year I started to share my India journal. I got to a point where I needed to stop and pray about what I would share next. I had to decide how open I was willing to be. This post has been written more than once and I think I'm finally ready to share. I have left a few things out.

February 17, 2008
Last night I was under spiritual attack. I went into a deep sleep and started to see faces coming at me. I had to force myself to wake up. I heard snorting noises at the end of the bed and the faces kept coming at me. I tried to call out to Rene but nothing came out. I tried to reach out to him and it felt like there was a wall between us. I was so scared Lord. Psalm 91 came to me and I called out for you. And you were there. I commanded in your name for the spirits to leave. My voice was quiet. I said it again and this time I was able to speak. I said it once again and they left.

I led the morning devotion this today and shared what had happened. I was not the only one attacked last night. I prayed for the armor of God to protect us as we seperated into three groups and headed out to different churches.

I was told before we left that they are seperating the married couples and I don't agree with the decision. I feel like this decision does not honor marriages. I'm not going to fight it, but I do not agree with it.

When our group got to the church we were a little disapointed because there were not a lot of people there. We sat and waited and they started to show up. Mike and I gave our testimonies, Christopher gave a message, and Bridget closed in prayer. Rene and Larry led worship.

We took a bus out to an elderly home. Another team pulled up behind us and we could tell something was wrong.

We went into the home and prayed for the elders. Keith and Scott gave encouraging messages. Suresh had a few of the elderly people share their stories. There was one little girl there that was adorable. I will never forget her face.



A few of the guys went and hung out with some kids there and taught them the banana song.


We were escorted into a banana tree jungle where they had set up tables for us. Banana leaves were laid on top of the table. We were served dinner on them. I could of never imagined that I would be in India, walking through a jungle, and eating dinner in the jungle on banana leaves!!!!




I know something happened with the other group but they are not sharing it with the rest of the team and I'm struggling with it.

Why do I struggle? I love India so much but will I want to come back? I feel like I am being broken down. This trip has been such a roller coaster ride for me Lord and I don't know what the next turn is. I know after today that the rest of this trip will not be the same. Get me through this God. I miss Rene. Please make me strong.

You did answer one prayer for me Lord. I was wondering why you had me pray for love for John and not healing and now I know. Harvest India sent a doctor to John. They think they need to amputate his leg but he will be able to move again.

Update:
The doctor can't amputate his leg and the gangreen has spread to his stomach. The doctors can't heal him but he is at peace.

Chuck E. Cheese

Lynnae invited us to join her and the girls for a fun afternoon at Chuck E. Cheese. Check out Justin's greasy shirt.


Soccer





Matthew and Justin are playing soccer this season. Their teams aren't winning very many games but they are having a blast.

Bug A Boo 2008

This year Revolution did something different. Instead of holding one big bash, we brought Bug A Boo into four different neighborhoods. Our group joined the Stout Life Group and held a country fair. We had carnival games, facing painting, and food.

The boys had so much fun. They got to do Bug A Boo and go trick or treating. Justin said this was the best Halloween ever!

Mutt Williams and Indiana Jones


Some time during the evening these two bumped into eachother.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Awesome video

Go to Rene's blog and check out the amazing video he made of India. Thank you Rene for reminding me of the awesome adventure God took us on!

www.livingthegodlife.blogspot.com

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Crock Pot Chili


I posted on Facebook that we were enjoying some homemade chili and I've had three requests for the recipe.....so here you go! I hope you enjoy it!

1 pound ground beef
1 (16 oz) can kidney beans, drained
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tbs. chili powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
* I also added a dash of cumin*

In a skillet, cook beef until no longer pink, drain. Add to crock pot and add the rest of the ingredients. Cook on low for 8-10 hours or high for 4 hours.

Serves: 4-6

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Praying for your enemy

Rene and I started a new Life Group last week. Christopher and Leanne are our leaders. Last week we talked about being "safe" and this week we talked about being dangerous. Our homework, or challenge, for the week is to pray for our enemy.

Huh? How do you pray for your enemy? Or, for me, someone I don't like. Can I do that?

I started last night. At first it was hard because I just wanted to pray for this person to go away. But is that what God wants? No. So I paused and first prayed for my heart. And than I prayed for this person. An amazing thing happened, I stopped being angry at this person.

You have to admit, it's kind of hard to be angry at someone when you are praying for them. I remember before we got married we had to go to a marriage seminar. They had four couples up on a stage telling us about how to make our marriage work. I only remember one thing from that day and it came from one of the leaders. She was an older lady and she said something that I will never forget:

"When you start to fight with your husband, get naked. It's hard to be angry at your husband when they are naked". And it's true!

It's kind of the same thing (just don't imagine the person naked please). When you are praying for someone you don't like, in a way that God wants you to pray for them, they seem more vulnerable, they are being exposed. You get to look at them in a different way, maybe the way God wants you to look at them.

Spiders, spiders everywhere!





Two weeks ago I took the boys to the Spider Pavilion at the Natural History Museum. It was kind of creepy at first, walking into a large "tent" knowing there were spiders everywhere. At times I would forget where I was while looking down at a spider, and than than I would turn around and come face to face with an eight legged creature!

The boys loved it....of course.

Oh, and in case you were wondering: none of the spiders in the tent were poisonous. Thank you Ann for the pictures!

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Building R2D2

Thanks to a hot tip from Garhett and Jenny, I took the boys over to the Lego Store in Downtown Disney to help build a life size model of R2D2. First they received instrustions on how to build a brick.


Our finished product.


Next we showed our creation to a brick master who OK'd what we built.

Matthew and Justin took the bricks into the store and over to where the brick masters were builing the model. We got to watch them place the bricks they made onto the model. After they were placed on the model the boys received posters and certificates of completion.

We can't wait to go back and see what the finished R2D2 looks like.

We walked down to Disneyland and California Adventure to take a sneak peek at the Halloween decorations (our passes don't allow us to go in on Saturdays). I think I am just as excited as the boys are to go this week.



Justin wanted to eat the candy corn!

As we were walking out we were stopped by some cast members and were given the "Year of a Million Dreams" Mouse Ears. Yeah!!