We overslept this morning. Not too late to make it for class and church. I look forward to the class I teach now on Sunday mornings, those girls have me. Anyway, I have been sort of picking and choosing what to teach each week… not following the schedule set. Today I pulled out a lesson not really knowing what it was about but it seemed right for the day. One of the girls mentioned she is “dating” an 18 year old guy. She is 14. I talked to them about making good choices as long as I thought they were hearing me and then moved on. I hope she heard me. I’ve been noticing the last several Sunday’s that our class lesson flows into church perfectly. Usually the same message is preached. It’s actually pretty cool! Anyway, today when we started going over our lesson I realized how perfect it was for the day. It was about choosing your friends, and about how people influence you. Our memory verse was Joshua 24:15… “As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.” I took card stock in different sizes and magnet tape, lots of markers and we made magnets with our memory verse. The material suggested writing things down on a piece of paper that seem to interfere with your relationship with God. The girls all wrote their lists, mostly including television and music. (The 14 year old girl wrote the initials of the older boyfriend)… Then we all silently prayed to God that we would not let these things influence us. The next step was to tear the pages up and throw them away.

When church services started the message was identical to our class lesson. All about choosing the people we are around, and influences. The scripture brought up on the screen was Joshua 24:15. The girls turned around and smiled at me. It’s neat how God helps us out. Really neat.

After church I made a pot of chili and decided to lie down for 15 minutes. Just a cat nap. Three hours later, time for night church… I woke up! yikes! So much for the trip to Lowes, Sams, and the grocery store. I guess no pool maintenance or laundry. I didn’t need to finish up in the kitchen and brush the dog. As much as I love to sleep, I couldn’t help feeling like I wasted a lot of valuable time.

We went to church and watched the kids perform their songs from vbs. We took Izzy. She was a little cranky… We left church and hurried to Mom and Dad’s house for my SIL Terri’s birthday party. Mike cooked a delicious ham and dad grilled fresh corn. They had chocolate lush and watermelon, cherry lime aid sherbet and baked beans. It was all really good!

After I came home and got Izzy to bed, Matt ran with me to my gangsta Wal-mart. After all the craziness there it was nice to have a partner … We got the fruit and healthy stuff he had on his list and of course a lot of stuff we didn’t have on any list… like those crazy high priced lightbulbs he insists on buying now and a flea collar for pup-wup (I shaved him yesterday )… lotion and ibuprophen. You know, the fun stuff?

Hopefully this week will be productive, more productive than my Sunday spent sleeping… I have big plans for this week, including a major redo of Emelia’s room that I have put off and put off. Oh I dread it. Anyway, that’s all. Goodnight.

Let’s talk relationships! Pick a relationship. Either your current one, or a significant past one (You needn’t be specific…) . I’ll be specific… and pick MATT

Saturday 9: Tell Us About It

1. How did you meet? We met by accident. I went to Camp Rock Creek for a 4th of July picnic. Mom was helping with the picnic and insisted I go along. Matt lived in the same small town that my aunt lived in at the time. It was about an hour away from where I lived. He came with my cousin to the picnic and we met.

2. Was it lust at first sight? Lust? Nah. I was 15. I thought he was really cute though.

3. Were they currently available? He was available. Turns out he had just broken up with a girlfriend the day before.

4. How important is physical attraction? It can’t hurt

5. How important is intellectual attraction? It helps too…

6. How long until you kissed? About an hour or maybe two. It was staged though to keep my cousin from making him leave.

7. Is this/was this the love of your life? Yep. Til death do us part.

8. Were they faithful? yes.

9. Were you faithful? yes.

Want to play along? Visit Saturday Special

~Questions, Silly Questions~

1. Who is the last person you talked to? Matt.

2. What is your weather like right now? Very Warm!

3. Where will you be this weekend? Home, furniture shopping, church…

4. What’s for dinner tonight? Not sure, maybe gyros.

I have to say, this week my faith lift has been going to vbs. Helping in the craft room, enjoying the friends at church. It really is a family and a family of faith. Last night was the second night. I was in the craft room again. There were about double the kids and it was a little more chaotic. Instead of spending a lot of time crafting and taking pictures, I spent a lot of time doing what I was probably intended to do in the first place, assist with crafts and help the kids. There was a lot of laughing and silliness too which is always good.

The previous night I sat in the bible lesson at the end of the night. Kasey was talking to the kids about making choices about what music they listen to. She gave examples of different instrumental music, asking them what feelings they created. She asked them if given the choice between music that have questionable lyrics and songs that have good messages which would they choose? The girls side immediately said, “Jesus.” The boy side said, “Rock music.” and then said, “okay. Jesus.” Matt and I had to laugh at their honesty and reluctance to give up their “music.” You know, that really applies to adults too, more specifically to me. I pretty much listen to klove, which is contemporary Christian music, but what about what’s on television? etc.? I think paying close attention to the things going in is worth some consideration. What we listen to becomes part of us somehow. The message that night resonated with me, to be more aware of what goes into my heart. It’s important.

I almost didn’t go to vbs last night. I spent the afternoon tromping around oil sites. I have mentioned I’m doing CAD’s and they thought it would be beneficial to see what I am CADing. It was hot and I ended up being out longer than I had expected. I also hadn’t eaten anything. I got the kids lunch, fed Iz and headed to Edmond. I assumed the meeting would be quick and I’d grab a chicfila or something on the way home. I ended up racing home at five to get dinner finished and everything going to be out the door at 6:15. The pool was reserved for the church from 8:30-10:30. I brought Iz home and put her to bed. Matt stayed home with her and we went to the pool. I almost didn’t swim, the water was cool and the air seemed cooler than normal. But, I saw my friends swimming so I jumped in too. I ended up going down the big slide many times with Miki and Ronna, and Bailey insisted I go down different ways… “go head first this time.” “Now go upside down backwards, head first.” Okay Bailey! It was fun and I even got my hair wet .

I thought this picture of me and Miki was kinda funny, that is her son Preston wrestling with my Bailey in the background…

Here’s one of me checking out the oil site (trying to look a)interested and b)like I know what I’m looking at?)… (sidenote: don’t wear wedge/heel sandals when you plan to explore oil sites, not good)

Have a great Friday! To share something (anything) that has lifted your faith, visit Sheryl at Taking the Challenge!

1. If a five dollar bill magically appeared on your door step at the beginning of the day, every day, what would you do with it? I would consider it lunch money for the kids… they have their little hands out daily (during the school year).

2. Tell us about your favorite teacher from elementary/middle/high school. Mrs. Weidenmeier was probably my favorite teacher. She taught English/Drama in junior high. From journaling daily to watching the royal wedding while having tea and crumpets. She was a great teacher.

3. If you could make one person disappear for good, who would it be? Hmm… I don’t know, maybe someone who is really evil and hurts people.

4. Do you believe in fairies? nah. well, not unless that means very feminine men?

5. What era is your favorite for music? 70’s – 80’s for pop/rock… current music in contemporary Christian.

6. Have you ever, or would you ever, have cosmetic surgery? I haven’t yet. I can’t say I wouldn’t ever…

7. If you had to change your name, what would you change it to? Probably back to my maiden name. It was much easier to spell. People didn’t ask me to spell it repeatedly. Matt would have to make it his name too, which may not go over very well .

You know the drill… visit Heather & Reese to play along!

Friday Fill In #78

Questions courtesy of Jennifer this week; thanks, Jennifer!

1. Birthdays are more fun when you’re young.

2. Spring is my favorite season because everything seems new and fresh.

3. I feel my best when I get enough sleep.

4. schnitzel is my favorite food!

5. First impressions are often wrong.

6. The best piece of advice I ever received was always take your gum out before going to sleep.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to another night of vbs, tomorrow my plans include shopping and Sunday, I want to go to church and take a nap!

Do fat burners really work? I mean, can you take a pill and expect it to burn the fat you have accumulated over years by eating fat? I’m not sure if I think it can work or not, and not really interested in trying it out. I personally believe burning fat is done with proper diet and exercise. But, if you are looking for a way to burn fat without those things, ThermoLean is the top seller.

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Have you ever heard about Phentermine? It was part of the phen-fen fad several years back that caused all the lawsuits. It wasn’t actually the drug that caused the heart problems, just part of the combination of drugs that offered great weight loss results with a big price tag for many – their life! I have taken phentermine in years past. It definitely makes your hunger go away! I’m not sure it’s the BEST choice for losing weight, but for a quick fix it does work. It ranked #35 out of the Top 200 Diet Pills we reviewed. PHENTERMINE is probably the most sought after prescription diet pill on the market today. In fact it is so popular that diet pill manufactures have used just about every similiar name they could think of to market their pills. The problem is that prescription diet pills tend to not only be expensive but also very hard to get.

Appetizer

What is the weather like today where you live?… Really warm.  High’s in the 90’s.  Windy.  Sunny.

Soup

On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how career-minded are you?… 3 right now.  More mommy minded.

Salad

What type of window coverings do you have in your home? Blinds, curtains, shutters, etc.?… all the above .

Main Course

Name something that instantly cheers you up. … Being around fun upbeat friends.

Dessert

How many times do you hit the snooze button on a typical morning? None.  I get out of bed when matt is getting in the shower.

Tonight was the first night of vacation bible schoolsical. It was so much fun! The night started with some karaoke. Here’s Emelia along with a few others singing…

Then we went to our classrooms… I was in ART. (We did crafts)

The craft for tonight was a tambourine. I had to make one! So I made a girl tambourine… or maybe an “annie” tambourine. I was sitting by my friend Ronna’s little girl Olivia (she’s four) and asked her to help me. I said, “What should I put on mine?” and she said, “first put eyes. then a nose. then ears.” So I did! (notice my yellow feather hair!)

So, then Alfred walked in and asked me to make a tambourine of him. I did.

I later added his mustache. It looked just like him!

Here we are… making music!

And finally… a pic of the craft team!

The lunchroom was serving apple wedges with caramel (ick)… so I skipped lunch .

It was a fun first night at VBS!