Thankful Thursday

Every Thursday for the month of November is what I'm calling Thankful Thursday. I started off the month last week, by letting you know how thankful I am for work. And I'd like to continue today by sharing how thankful I am for Love.

First of all for the Love of God. A God who loved me enough to send His only Son to die on a cross for my Forgiveness and Salvation. (John 3:16) A God who knew me before I was born, and has a plan for my life. (Psalm 139) A God who knows my name. (Psalm 147:4) A God who is Love. (I John 4:7-11)

And second, for the Love of a good man. My husband John. We've been married for over 22 years now. Many of them have been wonderful years. Not all of them have been easy, but we've gotten through the rough times together. And came out stronger for having gone through them.

This is a song that sums it up:

City of Love
By Martina McBride

This is no yellow brick road
we've been travelin' on
A river of tears washed us here
We're right where we belong

We rode it out, no we didn't drown
And look at what we've found

Every street we take is paved with Truth
If a mountain's in our way that's a mountain we move
Baby there ain't nothin' we can't do
Since me and you built this city of Love

Through shiftin' sand with our own hands
We dug to solid ground
Where we found out what loves about
Yeah, there's no stoppin' us now

Yeah, on our own stone by stone
We built a fortress strong

Where every street we take is paved with Truth
If a mountain's in our way that's a mountain we move
Baby there ain't nothin' we can't do
Since me and you built this city of Love
This City of Love

I Love you John, and Thank you for loving me. And God, there is no Love like Your Love. Thank you is not enough. Yes, this Thanksgiving, and all year long, I am thankful to have Love in my life. Please share with me what you are thankful for . . .

The Game of Life

This month at our Church, we're doing a series called The Game of Life! You remember playing that game don't you? You can get married, have kids, go to school, get a career, earn & spend money, etc., etc., etc.

(Pastor Jeff, taking a spin!)

The first week we talked about marriage. How besides your relationship with God, it is the most important relationship you have. And how we need to nourish that relationship.

(You can kind of see the stage set-up,
That's my man rocking out!)

This week we talked about parenting. How it's the most important job we have. Pastor Jeff asked, for fun, Which of these T.V. shows displays the best example of parenting? My first thought was The Cosby Show! Until he gave us our choices. (We had to text in our answer and then later in the service we'd see the results) The choices were:

A. Leave it to Beaver


B. The Brady Bunch


C. The Cosby Show


D. Seventh Heaven

As I said, my first thought was The Cosby Show. Look at the title of my Blog. I love parenting with humor! That was until he said, Seventh Heaven. I loved that show! It was about a Pastor & his family. And yes, it was a little cheesy, and they could always solve any problem, no matter how big in an hour episode. But, I loved that they always talked about everything & anything. And I'm a talker! But, I came in second. The Cosby Show got the most votes. (I can live with that) Then Seventh Heaven, Then Leave it to Beaver, and last, but not least, The Brady Bunch. (which I've always loved too!) Which would have voted for?

(John leading Worship; they did an acoustic set this week.

I know it's not real clear, but that's Kyle on the drums behind his dad,
and Zach on the guitar to the right.
Like Father, like sons!)

Babysitting 101

More proof that my girls are growing up. . . tonight they "practiced" Babysitting. Yes, they are 12 years old now, that magical age that we've always told them they could start Babysitting at. (They've been asking for a couple of years now.) They went over to a friends house, who will be turning 12 this next year, and then another friend left their two little girls there with the three Pre-teens. John & I were home all night if they had needed to get a hold of us. We don't live too far from where they were at.

They had so much fun. And, according to them, they did a great job! "See Mom, we told you we're old enough to Babysit!" I heard from them more than once. (But, I guess with Twins, I hear everything twice anyway!)

When they got home I told them I was gonna call the house & say in a whisper "Have you checked the children?" Lexi said, "and I would have said, 'Mom, I know it's you!'" After all that's what my friends did to me when I was a teenager & Babysat! At least after the movie When A Stranger Calls came out. If you like scary movies, it's a good one! (And of course my girls have not seen that movie!) Zach likes suspenseful movies, so he & I had a Mother/Son bonding time watching the new remake of it! He loved hearing how scary the first one was to me as a teenage girl babysitting! I haven't been able to find the original yet, for him to see. But I digress.

So, now I have two 12 year old girls, who really want to start Babysitting for real. They may be ready for this, but I don't know if I am. They are supposed to be babysat, not doing the sitting! I guess I better gear up for our own Adventures In Babysitting! (another movie from back in the day!) I'm really aging myself with this Blog post, aren't I?! Any advice for the Mother of girls who babysit?

Thankful Thursday

I'm starting something new on the Blog, in honor of Thanksgiving. For the month of November, every Thursday will be "Thankful Thursday!" Where I'll just talk about something I'm thankful for. And I hope you will share with me some of the things you are thankful for as well. Because we all have so much to be thankful for.

I am thankful for work. My job, and yes, my paycheck! In this economy it is such a blessing to be able to work and to have a job. There are so many people out of work & struggling right now. And, though we are not well off by any means, when I was in New York City last summer on that Missions Trip, I met many homeless people, who had lost their jobs, and couldn't find another one. I realized it can really happen to anyone. Good people down on their luck. Or, who's bad choices, or circumstances beyond their control, left there mark on their lives. I'm so happy to be able to work.

And it is such a blessing to love what you do. And to really like your job. There is a saying that goes "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." I really do love my job. It's fun and challenging. Not to mention the clothes! :) I work for a good company. And the mall is less than 5 minuets from my house now. That makes it so nice. I may not get rich doing it, just like being in the ministry and working for a Church, but it helps. I'm so thankful to have a job that I really enjoy. Thank you God, for my job.

Playing Dress Up!

I thought, just for fun, I'd share with you our families costumes for Halloween:

I was a Hawaiian girl, and John was a Baseball Player!

I needed to be something I could work in, that was comfortable & cute!
We dressed up for work that day! It was fun.

Kyle was a "Surfer Dude" with Olivia as his Life Guard!

I think he liked that long blond wig a little too much!


Then, my girls, being on the Twilight bandwagon, would only go as Vampires!

Lexi

Erica

That evening some friends had us over to eat, play games,
hand out candy & Trick or Treat.


And Zach went as a Rubik's Cube!

He can actually do a Rubik's Cube!
His record is 59 seconds,
from when you hand him one, all messed up,
for him to have it all put together right!
(I can not even come close to solving it!)

This is what we did with his costume at the end of the night,
put it on the fire pit!
And watched it go up in flames!
Talk about ending the night with a big bang!


I hope you & yours had a fun and safe weekend too!

Happy Halloween!

Today I will be going to work wearing a costume. Fun!
Then we're going to a family party at a friends house.

As a kid, I always loved dressing up.
And so did my kids. . . I hope they always do!
One of my favorite costumes I wore was Tinkerbell!

I remember running around the neighborhood
with my brothers & friends,
getting lots of candy!

I don't feel Halloween has to be used for evil.
It can be a great way to encourage imagination in our kids!

What are your favorite childhood Halloween memories?
Whatever your doing today,
Have a Happy & Safe Halloween!

Teens And Tattoos (And Husbands Too)

My most read Blog post of everything I've written, every single month is, hands down, Teens And Tattoos. Where I talk about getting my tattoo, and my oldest son Kyle turning 18 and getting his first tattoo. So, I thought I would update, since there is so much interest out there, and it's been well over a year.

Since that time, my Husband John got his first tattoo. He got it for Father's day last year. It is a Star made out of Music notes, on his right forearm. He says it's his two favorite things in the world, Me & music! :) (I asked him "if I die before you do, do you think your next wife will mind you having my name on you?" He said he'd just cover it up, & turn it into something else. haha)

And he knew right away he wanted more of them. As did Kyle. (He turned 19 this past July) I had made Kyle wait at least a year, because as I've said in that first post, too many teenagers, after making that difficult decision to permanently mark their body, see how fun & easy it is & then go crazy getting a bunch more tattoos, that in a year or two realize mean nothing to them, and they regret getting them. I didn't want that for him.

Well, this week John & Kyle got their second tattoos together. Some friends of ours from Church, have a family friend who is a tattoo artist from Hawaii who is in town. John got the word Music spelled out in musical notes on his other arm. You can read about his unique experience on his Blog here.

And as you know Kyle was very close to my Dad. (who passed away 6 years ago) My mom had given Kyle my dads wedding ring. My dad is 1/4 native American. (Of the Cherokee Nation) And his wedding band had Indian markings on it that were waves. So, Kyle has had this idea in his head that he wanted a tattoo using the waves from the ring with my dads actual signature. My mom happened to still have something with his signature on it, (Which Kyle now carries in his wallet)

He was thinking of doing it on his forearm, opposite his other tattoo as well, but I told him it might be cool to have the waves wrap around his upper arm. He sent his ideas to this tattoo artist who came up with the art work & shading idea. He said it was very tender getting the inside of the arm tattooed. But, he absolutely loves the finished product! It looks pretty cool! (even though it's a little bigger than I thought it was going to be!)

People always ask me if I will ever get another tattoo. Probably not. I love having a tattoo & I love my little star on my ankle. But that's enough for me. Or they ask me about coloring it in. I don't think so, maybe someday I might add little swirls around it or something. Well see.

Here are some pictures of Kyle with my dad: