Community Garage Sale

Whew! Have you ever tried to put on a garage sale? It is hard work. First you need to clean your garage, which in it self is quite a task. Then its the accumulating of the goods. Not to hard sometimes, not to easy others. It all depends if you are trying to sell things that you don't want any more or if you are just trying to get rid of your junk. Then comes the gathering of the tables. Then the hard part and you wouldn't think its the hard part but it is. The placing of the goods. How do you make "junk" look like someone else really needs it! Three of us are trying to sell our "junk" tomorrow at the Sherman Community garage sale. Its gonna be fun we are praying for no rain, but it doesn't look so good. I have been working hard to get the garage in shape and hopefully tomorrow things will sell, sell, sell! I am going to hold to the old saying, "one mans junk is another mans treasure."

A Day at Midway Park

Derek and I went on May 29th to Midway Park with his Pre-K Class. It was such a fun trip! Midway is an amusement park for elementary kids. They had a bunch of fun little rides and bumper cars and a tilt-a-whirl, which I have not been on for years. The highlight for Derek though was the roller coasters, two little kids coasters and one little boys who just wanted to keep riding them again and again. The first time he went I rode with him but he is no mama's boy he just want to ride. Thanks mom for taking me now let me go have fun! I did let him steer the bumper cars and he had such a blast on the other rides I can hardly tell you all the excitement and fun he had. Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy.

Here are Derek and I on the tilt-a-whirl.

Derek driving his own car.

The only place to ride a roller coaster is in the front car! We have no idea who that little girl is that jumped in the front car with Derek and his friend Henry, but the boys didn't care!

Leaving us in stitches

Well we had quite a week last week. Sarah especially had quite a week. On Monday Sarah and Derek were playing around with my exercise ball in the living room. Sarah came running in the room from the playroom and hit the exercise ball it sent her flying, she is only 32 pounds, right into the couch. We have a couch bed and instead of hitting the soft cushions she hit her mouth off the couch and blood began flowing. This happened at 11:45 a.m. I called my father in law who in the past has been an EMT but he was in Jamestown half an hour away. He said he would be there in 45 minutes. So I held a washcloth and ice to Sarah's lip, as long as she would let me, not very long and we waited for Grandpa to come. When he finally got her 45 minutes later he decided that we should go to see if we could find other EMT friends of his and see what they thought. I do love living in a small town because we were able to walk into the school find an EMT buddy who told us go for stitches. We went down to the local Dr.'s office and stitches she got. So on Monday my princess had two stitches in her mouth by 2:00 p.m.

Just when you think its bad enough and the story stops here let me take you to Thursday and tell you about Sarah's experience at Aunt Lori's. We went to Illinois on Thursday morning at 4:00 a.m. which got us to our destination around noon and had lunch all went well with the kids and their cousins. With my 3 and Lori's 4 you can only imagine the kind of chaos that was ensuing. The adults finally sat down and had dinner after the kids were done and right as dinner was over Derek came running into the house with bone chilling cries for his Daddy. (Tim says he hopes never to hear that kind of call for him again.) Sarah had fallen on a brick patio and scraped her face and then smashed her head of the unfinished front of a cement step and put a huge gash in her forehead. There was lots of blood and we knew a trip to the hospital was in order. I scooped up Nathan my brother in law keep Derek and his four and Lori drove us to the hospital a blood soaked Tim hold a bleeding Sarah. The emergency room was wonderful they took us right in and took great care of Sarah. She ended up with four stitched in her head and was told to keep her out of the sun and watch and take great pains so that she doesn't scar.

What I haven't told you up to this point is the trooper that my girl is. She is so strong she hardly cried at all when they put the stitches in her lip and they gave her local anesthetic shot so it had to be a bit painful. Only silent tears rolled down her cheeks and she never complained it hurt at all. Thursday's head injury hurt more she there was more crying but after about 30 minutes she had stopped and then even while putting the stitches in we talked about her upcoming fourth birthday. She was a wonderful little thing and I am so proud of my little peanut. She is shy about her head and doesn't want to talk about it, not even with mom and Dad. The only people she will tell is Grandma and Grandpa. So she is getting better and had her stitches out today and made no noise. My little Sarah is a beautiful girl with a wonderful personality who had a week that left us in stitches, literally!

Camp

This weekend on Saturday we went to the camp that I used to work at for Saturday. Seneca Hills Bible Camp in Franklin, PA is my holy ground. You remember when Moses was in front of the burning bush and the Lord told him to remove his shoes because he was standing on holy ground. That is Seneca to me. I meet God there in so many real ways. I started camping at Seneca when I was 6, then at the age of 13 I started working there and worked for 10 years. Every summer I would drive the hour away from my parents house and end up at Seneca which was my haven. Others stayed at home and got well paying summer jobs or just hung out with friends for the summer. I went off to cam p and wouldn't change that for the world. I have parents who blessed me by saying it was good for me to go to camp and to not worry about monetary jobs but go to camp which is missionary work and God's work. I do look back at certain things and say why didn't I do a better job here or there, but you could look at all of like and say that. I loved camp and Saturday taking my family back to camp, even if only for a day was a real blessing.

We love Pre-K

Derek is in Pre-K this year. NY state kindly offers Pre-K in the public school to those who will turn 4 before the 1st of December. He has been going to school everyday for half a day. He attends from 12:30-3:00 and gets off the bus at 3:15. I want to tell you about some of the fun things that have come out of Pre-K this year. The bus has changed Derek's life. He now wants to be a bus driver when he grows up. He loves to ride the bus and loves that he gets to ride the bus, the only problem is that we live within walking distance from school and this is the only year he will get to ride the bus. I think he knows that and that he will only get to ride the bus for a few more weeks but what a life change this has been for him. Something else he can read and write and spell. Now does he do these things perfectly, no of course not, but he is much more interested in them than ever. I am not sure if its an age or if its my son but he sure does love to spell. For instance right now he is talking about making a cat for his Dad, who he says will hate it because he knows Dad doesn't like cats. But instead of just saying Dad, he spells out d-a-d. More often than not he will go through the house yelling M-O-M, M-O-M instead of just calling Mom to get my attention. His numbers and math have really improved too. I have loved Pre-K for Derek. My son is a very social person, we have raised him to be this way with so much activities at the church and so on, so he loves to go every day and have lunch with his friends, sin songs and learn new things. Derek will be in Pre-K until June 20th, NY State goes very late into the summer months, the Senior class will not be graduating until the 27th of June. We had our trip to the farm, and the trip to the candle shop for Christmas. Still to come we have a Zoo trip and a trip to Midway Park, a mini-amusement park, and an all class sing before the end of our year. Stay tuned for updates which will be coming shortly!

Owning a home

For those of you who don't know Tim and I have now owned our a little over a year. We purchased our home on April 26, 2007. Previously we were living in a single wide trailer out in the country. My neighbors were horses and Amish and bears and deer. Really! If you want to hear the bear story or a deer leg one let me know their pretty awesome!! But now we live in town with neighbors who are people! That creates its own set of unexpected outcomes but so far living in our home and having people for neighbors has been awesome. We did a lot of work on our house in the last year and I am really proud to call this house my home. My heart and soul are in this place and we have put our stamp on it making it ours. Do you feel like that, for those of you who have homes? I love my house. Are there things I would change, of course, does anyone have a big enough kitchen I always feel the kitchen could be bigger. In reality though I am blessed. I have a wonderful husband who bought a bigger place for his wife and family. One because we were growing out of it, with three kids it would have become really crowded in the trailer. Two so that his wife wouldn't get cabin fever and feel she needed to leave the house with three kids in a blizzard with 3' feet of snow on the ground. I did it with two but think maybe it would have been a lot harder with three. I love my home did I say that yet! Now that the cosmetic work is done its down to the foundation fixing and the electrical and the insulation. All the unglamorous jobs that are required and no one knows is there but you. But even those for me are a blessing. That I have a husband who worked in the electrical field long enough to know how to rewire our house from the old knob and tube to who code requires now, think of the money he is saving us! Also I live in a community where I will be able to walk up to a man at church and tell his my foundation troubles and he will come with his backhoe in a few days and fix it for me. That is cool, no contractors just personal friends coming over to get things done. When we run into plumbing troubles I call my father in law to come and fix it, which he can! Its the little things right. The chipped paint in the living room where when I tried to hang a picture I took a piece of the wall down, gotta love plaster and lath. The bathroom and living room yellow just what I have always wanted! My bedroom with its chocolate walls, and brick red bed spread and curtains, I have real curtains! Sarah's pink room that my friends helped me rag and it just looks exquisite. Derek's dinosaur room. The laundry room upstairs instead of in the kitchen. The fact that I have the hand me down furniture that I grew up with. I love it all! Thank you Lord for the blessing of having a house and a home. You know the difference right, the house is the four walls I live in, the home is the people I live inside the house with who make my life the blessing it is.

Falling Down the Stairs

I know that some of you will read the title and think, "Oh no which one of Cindy's kids fell down the stairs?" Well as awful as that would have been it wasn't my kids it was me. How long has it been since you have fallen down the stairs? Try to avoid it at all costs. It hurts. Yesterday morning I was holding Nathan (my 7 month old son, who weights 20 pounds, lovingly refer ed to as my medicine ball by his Uncle Jon) who was a bit squirmy. Because of his squirmyness I luckily didn't carry down the glass cup and plastic bowl I was debating taking to the kitchen. When whoosh my feet came right out from under me and down I went. I live in an older house and the stairs are very steep I was about 6 from the bottom, out of 18, and landed right on my back. I believe I was very blessed to land where I did, up on my shoulder blades, so I didn't break anything. If I had landed lower on my ribs I would have cracked a rib or two I really believe. It knocked the wind right out of me and I was in a lot of pain. I slid down the rest of the stairs and checked to make sure that I hadn't hurt my baby. My daughter Sarah was awake with me at the time, by the way this all happened before 8:30 a.m. and I had to mouth to her to get me the phone. I couldn't breathe yet so it wasn't easy trying to ask her for the phone. She looked all over me for it not realizing I didn't mean a cell phone and that I just needed a phone to call someone. Sarah did bring me the phone and I called my husband Tim. He works in Jamestown and that is 30 miles away. I knew though that I couldn't pick up Nathan and I would really need some help through out the day. My in-laws who live in Sherman with me are on vacation in Michigan and Wisconsin this week, of all the weeks to fall, because she could have easily come over and helped me for the day but my loving husband got right in the car and was home before 9. I am not sure how fast he went I just know that he was really concerned for us. So Tim stayed home the rest of the day with me and took care of things. I am so thankful to the Lord for not having me land where I was seriously injured, although it hurts today still. And also I thank God for a loving husband who would drop everything and come home and rescue me. So take my advice and don't fall down the stairs it hurts!

It's A Beautiful Day

Well much has happened since my last blog and I suppose I should sum up a bit.

First there was Easter! What a blessed and glorious day. The day that celebrates what my God and his son did for the salvation of the world. For those sinners who accept the free gift offered to them by God. What a humble servant I am to bow before my Lord and thank him for the great thing that he has done and given.

And on the earthly side of Easter we all had new outfits. Don't we look cute!

A few weeks after Easter I had my 31 birthday. I was asked if I felt older this year and in truth I do but not because its my birthday. I now have three children, three precious children who are helping me to lose my mind! I have birthdays but not much goes into the age thing 30= a milestone year, 31-39 not to many milestones 40= over the hill. So do I feel older yes but because I am trying to keep up with the Sears Family not because I am now 31. My family really did a bang up job for my day we spent most of it with the kids and that is a good time, with a little reprieve in the evening for a dinner as just husband and wife which was incredible. The birthday presents even stretched until tonight I am off for my Aromatherapy treatment this evening. My husband is wonderful.

The next two weeks Sherman Central School is on Spring Break. Yes they get two full weeks of in April for spring break. It does mean that we do not graduate from High School until the 26 of June. Crazy huh! So I am hoping and praying that for the next two weeks the weather stays gorgeous and my children can go outside and play. We have a few things scheduled to do in the next two weeks, cousins coming and Tim's birthday is coming up so we have a few things to look forward too.

The day is gorgeous and my children are either inside sleeping, Nathan or outside playing, Derek and Sarah. So I have a free moment to share some thoughts mostly with myself but I have a few friends who know I occasionally blog. The weekend was so gorgeous also. We got all the raking around our house finished and it looks so much better. The Sunday school teacher at church yesterday about forgetting what was under the layer of snow and how nasty that can sometimes look and wishing for another layer of snow. No thanks I say snow stay away. We can clean up what appears after the fall and winter I would much rather have the snow be done for the year. Tim doesn't think the snow is done for the year. I really hope he is wrong.

No matter what happens though life in the Sears household is good. We are healthy and strong and blessed by the creator God.

It's always winter...

I live in the snow belt so I know I should not complain but I really don't think spring or summer will come to my neck of the woods this year. In truth we only get three months of nice weather anyway. It begins snowing in October and doesn't stop until April so there you have it folks love snow move to Sherman, NY! I am not a huge fan of snow in fact I don't really enjoy any outside snow activities isn't that pathetic. I mean I can sled and build a snowman but no skiing and no snowmobiling and so on. Although I could get into snowmobiling but hello expensive! So its snowing again and here I sit watching it come down hard wondering if it will ever stop. Guaranteed we will have a foot or more of snow for Easter. I understand that Easter is in March and not even that late in March but still it will snow. No bright happy Easter Sunday morn, but my soul will sing for the greatness that my Savior has given me. Here is where the Lord grips my heart and my complaining and tells me, "Oh Cindy, I made the snow too!" Thank you Lord for the many blessings in life you give, including the snow.

Heartbreak

I need to update on my Sherman Lady Wildcats. I am sorry to say they lost the Section 6 Class D finals. They played a hard fought game and only lost by 4. They were down the entire game and came back and tied it up and then in the end just couldn't get it done. Have you been there have you felt that kind of heartbreak? Did you play sports competitively or at least cheer for a team enough to feel that kind of pain in loss? My heart breaks for the girls. You can tell them to keep their heads up and there is always next year but it sounds like hollow words. I just tell them I love them and that will never change. Next year girls, good luck!

Congratulations!

On Wednesday night the Sherman Lady Wildcats beat the Clymer Lady Pirates. I am excited to say they played really well and it felt good to watch them win. They play again on Saturday afternoon against another rival team the Ripley Lady Eagles. They beat them twice this season already and so this time will be harder. Didn't you find that when you played a team for the third time in the season that it was the hardest game ever. Also being a part of playoffs with a single elimination its important for both the teams. I think I kind of live vicariously through these girls because I miss competitive sports. I am not sure how many people out there played sports in High School or college but I did in both and I miss it. So its fun to go to these games and root for the girls and boys I know and hope they do well and wish I was out there playing with them. Besides I wish I had my high school body back instead of a body after three kids, you girls out there know what I mean! Anyway I am going to the game this weekend with my Sherman gear on and my kids dressed in the sweatshirts with the basketball teams picture on it. Sherman's got game so...let's go wilscats!

What is it about Basketball?

I didn't play basketball to much while growing up. You have to put a lot of commitment into the sport to be any good at it. I didn't truly understand how the game was played until I was in college either. Then after Tim and I were married and moved back to Sherman I realized something there are towns that live for basketball season. Sherman and towns areound are that kind of town. The whole town shows up at games regular season and playoffs, it doesn't mattter. I got into basketball big time with the town. It helps that I know all the kids that play. Its one thing to cheer for your favorit NFL team, which don't get me wrong I am a huge Steeler fan, but these kids I know personally. You should see what the gym is like after the games most people wait until after teh kids shake hands and then go over and talk to the players its a big event a basketball game. The game could be over by 8 but you are still at the gym at 9 because you have so many poeple to talk to. Tonight the Sherman Wildcat High School girls are playing in a playoff game verses one of their arch rivals the Clymer Pirates. (Just for you to know its not just a high school rivalry but a town rivalry. Those in Sherman think those in Clymer are crazy and the same goes for those in Clymer thinking those in Sherman are crazy. Its like that Dr. Seuss book I can't think of the title now but the butter side up vs. the butter side down book, if you know the name let me know.) This will be the third time these two teams have faced this year. Now they have played a ton over the last few years and will face many more times but this playoff game is important. Sherman won the first game and then Clymer won the second. Its payback time its time for Sherman to shine. We are the better team by far we let them get in our head when we played at their home court and they should not have won but we never came out ready. So tonight is our time to shine this group of girls has been playing together since they were in elementary school. They are predicted to go to States and play for the Class D Championship but do you put that on them when they are only in the semi-finals of their division? Any way Sarah and Derek are wearing their Sherman sweatshirts and Nathan has on his blue and gold. I have not decided what I am going to wear beyond the fact that I have gold and blue beads and gold tassels that I have to wear. I told one of the girls that I would always wear the tassels and so I will not break that promise. I love these girls and I really hope they do well tonight so that they can continue on this weekend and go to States. GO WILDCATS!!

Where do you shop?

Okay so for months I couldn't go shopping, I was pregnant and was just happy wearing maternity clothes. Than there is the after baby weight and until you lost that you can't really go shopping and enjoy it because you just feel fat. After baby weight is a good excuse but its still not fun! Now I am ready to shopping and I can't find anything. I look and look but am in a really weird place. Where do those of us who are 30 go shopping? I don't want to look like I am still trying to be a teenager or even a college student. I am a mom of three who works with teenagers I like to be in style but again I want to look my age. So where do you shop? Christopher and Banks is too old, Aeropostale is too young. Gap is expensive and there are so many places to go in the department store I don't even know where to begin. So any advice out there just let me know where do you shop?

What a relief

N is doing so much better now. The Dr. I go to is a very good Dr. he is on the most cautious side of life so he tested N for RSV and then treated him for it anyway. We have a nebulizer with albuterol also he is on amoxicillin for the next ten days which I am so relieved about. I had a real emotional day on Wednesday finding out that N potentially had RSV. I guess it was a mix of dealing with the cold and flu season you know. Up nights when you aren't used to that. Taking care of your baby and other two children through the day. N is such a great baby but he was only happy while he was being held over the weekend, due to how sick he was. Also Derek got sick on Wednesday night so couldn't go to school on Thursday or Friday, the nurse from school had sent home a note to please keep your kids home 48 if they throw up, then we had the weekend where N got sick. To top off the fun the school was closed both Monday and Tuesday for Presidents Holiday. Wow what a lot of time to spend with sick kids. So although I was a bit dramatic and stressed on Wednesday life has gotten much better in the last days. I had to give N a nebulizer treatment at the Dr.'s office and it was truly awful he screamed bloody murder the entire time. Well I was really nervous that all treatments would be like that, but praise the Lord N happens to enjoy his treatments now. He feels much better after them also, so the medicine is working. We got good news today too that N did not have RSV it was just that the virus had turned bacterial and that was what was causing his discomfort and the medicine he is on right now helps with him to not be contagious and also getting healthy. Like I have heard so much its the worst year for the cold and flu season but you can beat it with rest, and fluids, and medicine. Thank you to all of you who prayer for N and I in these last days we really appreciated it.

How do you know?

You know when your child gets a cold how do you know its serious or not? Right now I am dealing with indecision. I think most days I am a pretty good mom, not perfect by any means but I really do try to do right by my kids. Today I am taking Nathan my four month old baby boy to the Dr. He has had a cold since I took him to his four month check up on the 5th of Feb. but the Dr. said it was nothing them but now I am afraid. What if its more than just the cold should I have caught it sooner. Who knows? My whole family has had the flu Derek last Thursday, Tim and I over the weekend but Nathan's is serious. Someone said the word pnemonia too me and that frightens me. I know I should not worry and its almost 2 when we go to the Dr. I admit though I am a product of an over active imagination. I have always had real fear about having one of my children die. I know God has a will a plan and a purpose praise him that he does. I pray he takes away my fears and helps me be the best mom to my kids. I just need to remember a mom's intuition is usually right and that until now I didn't need to take him to the Dr.

Jon and Jessica and their decisions

This post is a compilation of some of Jon and Jessica's emails to family and friends so you can catch up here and then check out their blog which is really cool!

As some of you might have known, Jon and I have been trying to buy a new house for about 9 months now. Each time we think we've found "the one", for one reason or another, we come to find out otherwise. In the midst of these times we've been anxious and feeling that there's something coming we're supposed to be doing - so we kept trying to do it - buy a house, start a family, make some career moves, etc. But none of our plans were working. Every so often one of us would throw out the "let's just sell and move to Guatemala" line. So to make a very long story short - we're "selling and going to Guatemala".

Not just Guatemala - but that is part of the plan. Jon and I are working to set up a couple different "internships" as he's calling it to spend some time with various missionaries and organizations to see what's out there and where we fit in. While we are firm believers in meeting human physical needs, we believe that good works are just that without the Gospel. So we go with the goal of sharing the Gospel - how, when and where - I don't really know.

We resigned our positions at Hefren-Tillotson this past Wendesday to be effective August 31st. Leading up to that date, we will be moving our stuff to Jon's parents' basement in Ohio and then setting off on our adventure.

Since we resigned our positions, we have had many confirmations from God that it was the right step - not the easy one - but right. At the same time, we are struggling because we don't have many more answers than two months ago.

We spent most of September traveling and spending time with Drew and Lindsay Hall, friends from our church who are in French language school in preparation of moving to Guinea, Africa to be medical missionaries. We were planning to go to Guatemala on October 13th with a short-term team from our church, and we had applied with the missionaries there to stay an extra two months after the team came back to the US. In the end, our first expected "internship" ended up being just one week. We arrived back in the US this past Sunday. It was very hard at first when the answer was "no" because I thought that was pretty much a shoe-in for our first project. But as we spent time there last week, it became clearer that God was right (duh) and that the answer was supposed to be "no". But as for what's next, that's still to be determined.

We've heard from Costa Rica. We had applied to work for two months at an orphanage there. A few days earlier, we finally came to the point of saying "Ok, nothing is working. We're going to have to get a job again". The answer came about five weeks later than we were expecting, but then Costa Rica said "yes - please come." So we're pretty excited to be going. We will be leaving January 9th and returning March 5th.

So as usual - it's really one step at a time. The future is unknown but God is faithful.

That was a compliation of their emails and thoughts and now they are in Costa Rica and you will see that they still have no idea of what God has in mind for their family. Pray for them that God will show them exactly what he has in mind for them.

LOST, The Election, and The Super Bowl

Waiting in anticipation... I am excited for the new season of Lost premiering tonight. Tim hadn't finifshed the last eason so this past week we watched the last three hours that we had DVRed. It does make you wonder and think, what happened I want to know?! So tonight more of the mystery will be revealed while more mystery will come in ahhhh don't you just love Lost!

The election- what in the world is going on in politics today? I spend a lot of my day watching Fox News I can't help myself. I am a stay at home mom and I want to be informed. I am a fan of background noise so I have the News on right now even. Its just noise its just information its just mindless chatter sometimes. The election in November 2008 is going to be something to behold we are going to have a new president it will either be a woman, an African Aamerican, or a retired military man hopefully there will be an independant third party who will give me someone better to vote for.

The Super Bowl- The Giants vs. The Patriots- I was really pulling for Brett Favre and The Green Bay Packers (if the Steelers couldn't go why not the loveable quarterback) but they were not able to beat the Giants. On the road winners the G-men are pulling it off. I can't believe it I am actually going to have to root for the Giants, I do not want the Patriots to continue this undefeated season. I am not a fan of the NY Giants but they are a better choice, for me, than the Patriots. So I hope that Giants do the unthinkable and beat the Patriots.

Well thats my very limited two cents on LOST, The Election, and The Super Bowl!

My brother is in Costa Rica

For those of you that know the story of my brother and his wife quitting their jobs and thinking about where God would have them serve him here is a little update. They are at an orphanage in Costa Rica right now. They have created a blog so you can keep up with them their blog is located with the other links on the left it's called Jon and Jessica. Enjoy and pray for them they need it.

Derek turns five

Yesterday Derek turned five. I can hardly believe he is five. What a fun day we had! We attended normal church in the morning and then had Derek's birthday party. Now we have never had a real party for Derek, the kind with a whole bunch of kids screaming and running around playing games. We had family though. 11 People had dinner, that's what we call Sunday lunch here in our house, in my dining room and with only living in this house since June that's kind of fun. The food was hamburgers, french fries, corn, and strawberry jello with cool whip and cream cheese! Cake and ice cream were served later and Derek got to open his presents, which in his mind is the best part of the day. We got him a set of over 300 dinosaur stickers for him to put on the wall of his room. His Grandma and Grandpa Sears got him a tractor toy with a disc plow and a hydrogen tank to pull behind the tractor. He also got a few cows and a farmer and fence for corral from the Olson family. I should tell you about Derek's cake, I made a sheet cake and free hand drew a picture of a deer on it. Derek has asked for a deer cake for the last two years and so this year I just did it. It turned out nice except I make my own homemade icing and I couldn't figure out how to make brown icing, every time I put more food coloring it no matter what color it just came out green. (I was informed later that you need to use cocoa powder to make brown, basically chocolate is the only way to get brown unless you have true icing coloring pigments.) So Derek had an albino deer, white deer would be pretty right. Over all it was a great day!

Facing the changes

Derek turns five on Sunday. I can hardly believe that my son is going to be five. I never, in my mind when he was born, pictured him beyond the age of four. Now he's five. I didn't ever think about how discipline would have to change. I never considered how life would change. He is in his first year of school, Pre-K, he goes five days a week half a day from 12:30-3:00. He loves it! My life has changed though. I can't believe how much went on in the five years since I had Derek, we have also had Sarah and Nathan. My goodness how time flies and how life changes. Its the adding on of children that changes who you are and who you turn out to be. I can't say I miss the Cindy who had no children and who had no responsibilities. If she was here there would be no kids. My life would be void if there were no kids. Thank you Heavenly Father for the gift of change you have given me.

Getting back on...

Its been a long time since I have shared anything on this blog and I think that I am ready again. I have had quite a year. Since I last wrote I have moved into a new home and had my third child, a little boy. Life comes at you fast, quoted from the commercial, is a very true statement. I am feeling that I can't quite keep up with it sometimes. I think back to last year at this time and if I knew then all I know now I am not sure that I would have had the strength to do all that needed to be done. That is the good and encouraging thing about God actually He knows whats coming and if we rely on him he will give us the strength needed to make it. Now sometimes he does this in obscure ways, humbling us to bring us to his feet to remember that we need him and only him to get us through the day. I hear in church on Sunday that the reason there is so much stress in life is because of the preconceived ideas we place on situations. For example I want my kids to behave just so when we go to church and so I place a high amount of stress on the situation thinking there is only one way they should behave. What if instead of being stresses about the situation I trust that God will lead me and show me how to deal with the situation when it arises. Am I lacking a certain trust factor? Well its good to be back and I will do better this year at writing my thoughts.