Happy Father's Day

I wanted to wish all the Father's a very happy Father's Day - especially my father, husband and father-in-law. We have had a wonderful and very full weekend!

The weekend started with a visit from my parents since we weren't able to make it to Cincinnati for Father's Day. We didn't do much as far as touring Louisville, but it was so nice to visit with them and take it easy. And of course Maddie loved her new dresses that MamaMia brought.

Saturday was Asa's first baseball game. He played well although he's going to need some batting practice. Also very exciting was this being Logan's first time coaching baseball. He's doing a great job with the kids and having a good time, too.

Coach, Asa, and Caroline

Running for Home!

Saturday night was Asa's good friend Brandon's birthday party. He had fun playing with boys his age, and he especially liked watching the (old) Transformers movie. I don't see the appeal myself, but to each his own!! We got home really late that night, but we had had a great day.

Sunday was, of course, Father's Day, and we had a quiet and relaxing day. I finished a book I'd been working on, everyone played in the pool, and we had a good dinner. Logan got a theology book he's been wanting, so he was very happy!
Sunday was also the day of my most stupid moment! Logan was singing the song "Old Man River" from a movie called Show Boat. Anyway, in a moment of arrogance, I said "Asa, I will buy you any Playmobil you want if you can tell me what river they are singing about in this song." Of course, I wouldn't have said that if I thought he had any idea what river it was. He knows nothing about geography at this point. So he says, "HMMM, I think it's the Mississippi River!!" AAAAAHHHH. . . . . Logan looks at me like "Way to go, slick" and I stared at Asa in utter confusion and amazement! Where did he learn about the Mississippi River?? Whoever taught him that owes me $30. Anyway, we went out this morning and he is thrilled with his new Playmobil knight set. Anyway, the postcard project is trucking along. We've gotten a lot more. Thanks especially to Heather for getting so many of her friends to send them (because it's all about you!) and to Michele for the great pictures of Montana! We are loving seeing them all.

Here are some random pictures:





These above are all pictures from April. Some good friends came into town so our husbands could go to a big conference. We all had fun "playing" with old friends!

Postcards

Not much is happening here. We just got back from the pool where I'm gradually getting the kids used to being in the sun again. I know I look like a reject out there with my timer, but I don't want them burning. We went up to 40 minutes today. We'll see how they do. Logan is teaching the youth tonight, so that's fun.

Okay - It's true! I'm having more fun with the postcards than Asa. But, it's very exciting to get mail from all over the country - even if it's not for me!! The last few days we've gotten MD, VA, LA, NV, and TN. Check out the list to the right of all the missing states!

Postcards

We are well on our way...well, almost. We now have 3 postcards with lots of promises of more to come. We have Georgia, Oregon and Washington State. It's fun for Asa to get these because he hasn't heard of many of the states yet. He likes to look at the map and see where these far off places are. I hope we're able to collect them all.

I wanted to share a funny thing that Asa said. Caroline has started biting people when she's frustrated with them, which is such a charming, lady-like thing for her to do. Anyway, Maddie was also a biter, and we were all discussing this in the car the other day. Asa says, "Well, back here (meaning in the back seat) there is one faithful and two biters." I said "What?" and he explained that since he is a believer in Christ that he is faithful and his sisters are biters! Apparently you can't be both!!

Update

We are still alive.

Just wanted to update everyone on the latest! We are not going to Boone, NC, so now we would covet everyone's prayers concerning where to go from here. We have said often that Louisville is a great place to settle down and raise a family, so maybe we'll just try that!

Also, Asa is doing a project for school and is collecting postcards from the 50 states. If you know anyone that lives anywhere, have them send him a postcard. We're getting off to a slow start, but it should be picking up soon! Thanks!

I'm feeling pretty blah right now, so I'll write more later!

New Love

I have a New Love! He doesn't rank as high as my husband, children or my Lord, but he's pretty high up there. He is the creator of Ikea. He is a genius, and I love his contribution to society!

I just spent this past week at my parents in Cincinnati where they have a new Ikea built. We got our exercise as we foraged through 36,000 square feet of shopping joy (this coming from a definite non-shopper!) They even have a place where you can deposit your children to play for an hour while you shop in distraction free nirvana! I got a lamp for the kids room (6.99), 2 cutting boards (1.99), 6 food storage containers (1.99), a plant pot (.99) and so much more. My mom sent me a catalog from Ikea yesterday, and I love her for that! LOL!! I can't wait until I have a home that needs decorating! Just watch out! For those of us not fortunate enough to live close to one, follow the link above to discover for yourself the wonder of Ikea!

While at my parents we also celebrated my birthday (May 8 for anyone wanting to send an Ikea gift card as a present!) and Mother's Day! Asa, Maddie and I made a cute present for my mom. We got the idea from Family Fun Magazine, and it was really cute. Of course, I forgot to take pictures. It's a button decoration for a button fern. Very Cute! For anyone with a subscription, it's in the April 2008 issue, pg 17.

When we got home, I was too pooped to make dinner, so we ordered pizza, and Asa remembered another craft made out of a pizza box. He and Logan made the Solar S'mores oven from the same issue of the magazine. I'll post pictures of it soon. I really works!

Homeschooling is still going well even though Mom's discipline goes down in direct proportion to the amount of sun! Well, ta-ta for now. Let me know what you think about Ikea!

What a Week!

What an intense couple of weeks we've had! I can't believe that we could pack so much into one weeks time. The week started on Saturday (3/22) with an Easter egg hunt at the church and an Easter parade on "historic Frankfort Avenue"! We had such a fun time although the weather never got out of the 40s. The kids made their own Easter baskets out of milk jugs, and by the end of the parade they had both gallons full of candy! I make sure we sit in a very strategic place to maximize candy collection!

These pictures are at the Easter egg hunt that our church sponsors. We were FREEZING and tired. They had mistakenly printed that it started at 9:00, so we rushed everyone to get there. We ended up driving around Louisville for an hour looking at the flooding we had just had.

Next was the Easter parade where we were double freezing from the walk up to the parade, plus sitting in the freezing cold! It's basically a lot of antique cars, local politicians, local churches, and clubs like dancers, martial arts, Shriners, etc. Good times!

Easter Sunday was a wonderful day spent worshipping our Lord and visiting with our friends. We ended the day with a great ham dinner spent with our neighbors. The kids had an in-home Easter egg hunt which is always fun, and on Monday we dyed Easter eggs.



Tuesday was our 8th anniversary. Logan had taken the entire week off to relax and have a vacation. 2 dozens roses arrived for me and they were beautiful. That night our friends watched the kids and we were able to go the dinner theater together. We had a wonderful night with great food and wonderful entertainment. The play was a comedy and about some couples trying to find missing romance from a karoake machine. Very funny.


My sister came into town on Wednesday night, and 6 am Thursday found Becky, Asa and I on the long road to Pensacola, Florida. This was such a great chance for Becky and I to spend some good time together as adults. I don't think I've laughed that hard in a long time. To sum up the trip, we cleaned, visited our grandmother, cleaned, visited our brother, cleaned, ate seafood (YUM), cleaned, went to the beach, and left. We were exhausted when we got home.


The Alabama welcome center has a giant rocket, so we had to stop. They gave us free poster and we took lots of pictures.

Joe Patti's Seafood is a really fun place that I remember from being a kid. Asa got to see pelicans, fishing boats, fresh fish, a giant yellowfin tuna being filleted and giant shrimp. It's a great place when you're little.

Asa went fishing for the first time with Uncle David. He called me ecstatic that he had caught a fish. I asked him how big it was and he said, "It's as big as a shrimp!!" He had to throw it back because it was so small, but he went on to catch 2 more slightly larger. He brought them home and proceeded to kiss them (which was a charming thing that my brother taught him) simply to gross me out. It worked! He wanted to bring them both home to show Logan, but there were some hungry stray cats at my grandmother's house, so he generously shared his fish with them.


We made a stop at the fountain in memory to my grandfather. We were able to be in Pensacola on the 5th anniversary of his death. We put flowers on his grave, and had great memories of him.


My brother and sister at the beach on the chilly overcast day we decided to go. We still had fun spending time together, though. Asa definitely loved playing in the waves . . . I think he was numb from the 60 degree water. He was shivering and almost blue by the time we got back to the car. He loved collecting seashells most of all!



I can't believe that all this happened in one week time. It has taken me a good 3-4 days to recover!!

Palm Sunday

I LOVE Easter. What a joyous time to remember who we are and what we have been given. Our kids came home from church yesterday swinging their palms that they got during the worship service, and I was singing "Hosanna" right along with them!

Picture it. . . Christ is riding into Jerusalem to take his place and proclaim his kingdom. Everyone is yelling, singing and praising him, and only Jesus knows why he is truly there. In the middle of all this rejoicing, he knows what he is about the face. Amid all the love and celebration, he knows that these people will ultimately betray him. How often I do the same thing. I celebrate Christ, I sing his praises, I adore him and love him - as long as I think he is on my side. As long as I think he's going to defeat my proverbial Romans. But when his plans turn out to be something a little different than I had imagined, I start to wonder if he's for real. But then I remember Easter. The reason for hope. Because Christ is who he said he is. He is God, our creator, who came to earth to become like us so that he could take the punishment for OUR sins - not his own. And when he came into Jerusalem that Passover, he knew all this - even though the people didn't! They were praising who they thought Christ was.

For a really great discussion on Christ's words on "Palm Sunday", check out Logan's blog. And take the time this week to think about who Christ really is. He is God, who made himself into the likeness of a man, so that he could take the guilt and judgment of God the Father onto himself to pay the impossible penalty for man. The penalty for sin that we are completely unable to pay for ourselves, because only something perfect can pay it. Only something as spotless and pure as God Himself is perfect enough to satisfy the anger and wrath that the Father feels for our sin. And Christ took this anger and wrath onto himself. Anyone who calls out to Him, admits that they are a sinner who cannot work hard enough to get rid of their guilt, and trusts that the Father will accept the sacrifice that Christ made for them - they can have hope. A hope that can only come from knowing that they are forgiven completely and made into a child of God. Accepted by Him as if they had never sinned. Hallelujah! I LOVE Easter!