We had a wonderful weekend adventure. Mark and I were able to take Erin to Houghton for the recruit weekend. The picture is her "official" signing photo. She was able to choose her number. Unfortunately, the number she REALLY wants is in limbo right now. A player currently has it, but is considering transfering. If she does not play, Erin will get the number. If not, she will be number 13. We will wait and see. She had so much fun with the team. I think it only affirms that she made the right choice. It was the first time that Mark was able to see the campus and meet the coach. He was very impressed by the coach. He seems to be a very godly man. After we dropped Erin off, we were able to spend the evening alone, That was VERY enjoyable. Our hotel experience was one of those memorable ones....we couldn't help but giggle at it. We spent a little more then we normally would have; only to have a VERY SMALL room and a very loud snorer in the next room. At 1:00am, we ended up needing to call and switch rooms because of the snorer. They were very accomadating... we got moved on the other side of the snorer. AT least the bed were not on the same wall this time... so we were able to eventually fall asleep. In the morning, we were able to go early adn watch Erin play. It was fun to see.

Another week has gone by. Time seems to disappear around here. Someday, I hope I can find it! Erin visits Houghton this weekend for a recruit weekend. Mark and I get to take her. I am really looking forward to it. Please pray for her to be strong. SHe was the final one in the family to get the flu. She ended up sick MOnday night and yesterday. She went to school today, but didn't eat very much before she left. It takes a good 2-3 days to come back from this. Playing hard Friday and Saturday might be difficult after being sick.

Emily is doing well. SHe is loving being back to school. She is facing a few academic challenges this semester. She has a full load (17 credits) and is working 6 days a week. Prayer would be wonderful! She is also in the process of applying for a position as a counselor at a summer camp. SHe would be absolutely incredible! I would have LOVED for my kids to have had a counselor like her. It would have changed their opinion of camp. Jacob, Erin and Sam had difficult experiences with their counselors. For Jacob, it ruined his experiences all together. Sam was pretty miserable one year as well. She has had a phone interview already. THe really neat thing is that the interview was on Friday. Emily had no idea that the camp director was going to be on campus Monday - Wednesday recruiting students to interview for camp. I told Em that she should stop by and say hello. She did and ended up having a great conversation with the director. She REALLY liked him! He was very excited to hear that she had already interviewed and then to find out that she had attended the camp 6 or 7 years! He told her that when he gets home on Thursday, he would pull her file and give her a call that night. I am praying that she is able to work there. It would be an incredible experience!

Jacob took a midterm with the 9th grade science class on Thursday. He is homeschooled, but we want him to be able to get the actual credit for the course. If he is able to pass the final, he will get the credit for it. It was a difficult thing to ask him to do simply because he had not study guide, has never heard the teacher teach, has never sat in on a class, nor had any idea how he would test. On top of that, he found out that they had studied 3 chapters that he had not (they went out of order) and he had studied 4 chapters that they had not done yet. So... it was a very intense few days leading up to the test. I was so proud of how he handled the pressure. He studied hard and took the test. We should get the results this week; until then.. he feels confident that he passed.

Tomorrow is Elizabeth's birthday. When we made Marks' cake, RI announced in a very sad voice, that his cake was not cool. It wasn't! I knew it when I did it. I had ran out of time, so I just through together cupcakes, slapped on colored icing and stuck some candles in it. I promised him that when I made Elizabeth's cake, I would make him a cook cake too. We found pictures of some cakes on the internet and he chose a dinosaur cake. Elizabeth chose a princess cake. And I chose cupcakes to take to their awana class. here are the results:

We have been battling the stomach flu this week. It started with Jacob on Sunday night. By Tuesday, Sam and I were down for the count; and I do mean down! It hit us both very hard. I can't remember being so sick. I've had the flu shot the past few years, but for some reason I just never got around to taking it this year. Sam ended up missing a day of exams. That was hard on him. Erin made it through exams without getting sick. Ri spent a good 2-3 hours laying against me because his stomach hurt so badly. He ended up with diarrhea, but never had any of the vomiting. I was very thankful for that. Mark and Elizabeth seems to have made it through without signs of much. I am so thankful!

Yesterday was a very special day around here. Daddy had a birthday. Ri and Elizabeth were so excited about it. When you get to be our age, birthdays' aren't such a big deal anymore.... but for a 4 and 5 year old... they are something to look forward to. So the little ones and I went to the store. They each picked out a helium balloon and a present for Daddy. I was smart and went to the dollar tree. I told them they could pick out any gift they wanted for him. Elizabeth saw puzzles and just knew Daddy would love a puzzle to put together (he actually does enjoy puzzles). So she proudly bought him a puzzle that had all the Disney characters on it (since he loves watching movies with them). Ri found a very cool tic tac toe game with tires and trophies used for the X and O's. He loved the tires and the trophies and really had little clue it was a tic tac toe game. He was convinced that Daddy would love it. Then they chose the best balloons they could. We bought Crete paper and balloons to blow up. We also bought cake mix and sprinkles to put on it as well as candles. They had great fun blowing the balloons up. We stuck packages of gum and candy in the balloons. They thougth that was the coolest idea. Sam and Jacob pitched in with the decorating. We baked the cake and instead of making a basic sheet cake, I made 2 round cakes and stacked them on top. The little ones thought that was so cool. I iced it and they went to town decorating. Then Sam put all the candles in (only 24... but they were amazed). Erin sat watch for Daddy to pull up and then she had everyone run and hide. As soon as he walked in; they jumped out and yell led surprise. Elizabeth and Ri thought that was great fun! Sam lit all the candles, we called Emily and all of us sang to him. Ri and Elizabeth insisted he open up his gifts right then. So... he had only been home 10 minutes and all the festivities were over! That GREATLY disappointed Jacob. He felt it was horrible. We all laughed. Jacob likes to make birthdays and holidays last AS LONG AS they possibly can. He wants the full 24 hours to be a celebration. He is sweet. At the end of the day, Ri was sad because he didn't have a cool cake for his birthday (and he really didn't... I just didn't have the energy to make a big production over his cake. I threw together some cupcakes. It was very sad. I had promised him then that I would make him a cool cake for Elizabeth's birthday. One for each of them. So last night I had to promise him again that I would make him a cool cake when I made Elizabeth her cake. That seemed to make him feel a little better). Oh the pressures of cake making! :(

Well, I need to go for now. Elizabeth wants me to snuggle with her. I need to remember to relish and cherish these moments.

We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. I John 2:3-6
It is funny how God speaks sometimes. Often, at least for me, there tends to be a series of verses that stand out to me when He is speaking to me about something in particular in my life. I guess right now it must have to do with witnessing. After the loss of my Aunt, I have really been thinking a lot about how so many people assume they will be going to heaven when they die. Before I trusted in the blood of Jesus Christ, I was the same. In my mind, I was a good person. I was nice to everyone, I listened to my parents, I didn't drink, smoke, do drugs, sex, or steal. I was one of those good kids; you know, the kind that parents can be proud of.. the kind that does what they are told without mouthing off, always trying to please people. I helped everyone. And... by all means... I loved God.... who wouldn't? That is what good girls did. God was a good guy who would only harm the bad guys. I didn't have to go to church to know who He was or to pray. I could pray anywhere. There really wasn't a reason to go. In fact.. it was an inconvenience on my life. The God I knew didn't care if I was in church or not. He just wanted me to be a good person. And as far as Jesus Christ. Sure.. I believe he died on the cross for my sins. That was simple. I saw a picture of him on the cross and I believed it because someone told me that. But... had someone told me of Buddha or Mohammed or someone else.. I would have believed that as well. My belief was really not in the saving grace of Jesus Christ; it was in something someone told me that sounded really good. It meant that I would go to Heaven. Heaven was something I always heard was a good place and where I wanted to go.. certainly not Hell. THat was a place for bad people and it was a place of fire. So,I confidently knew I was going to go to Heaven if I died.

Well, I had believed in something that was not the truth. I believed in a picture, a fairy tale, a lie. I believed in something that simply made me feel good about myself. I believed in Heaven because I didn't want to go to Hell.

But as someone began sharing with me what the Bible said and by the grace of God, He showed me the truth and I finally trusted in the true, saving grace, of the blood of Jesus Christ. Not in a picture of a man on a cross, not in the hope of being saved from Hell... but in the honest truth of knowing that I was a sinner, separated from God, in need of a savior. And trusting in the truth that the blood of Jesus Christ, that was shed on the cross for MY sins, was the final and complete payment REQUIRED by God to save my soul.

And that, my friends, is what changed my life. That is what made me a new creature. It was that trust in Christ that changed the way I lived. And it is that faith that works within me to cause me to desire to obey Him and to desire to walk as Jesus did. Do I succeed? Oh NO! Far too often I fail. But the difference now is that I HATE failing and I long to walk like Christ. I long to obey His word and I long to be the woman that Christ desires me to be.

It is not up to me to judge the heart of someone. I can certainly look at someone's life and be concerned if someone's life does not reflect Jesus Christ; especially someone who says "I'm a Christian". The tricky and dangerous part is assuming that someone is or is not saved. You see, as a Christian, we stumble and fall and stray from the path. We can certainly be struggling with our walk and appear to not know Him. I have told the kids far too often that if someone were to walk in to my home there would be ample cause for them to wonder if I knew Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. When I am exhausted, hormonal, not feeling well, stressed, or some other physical state of mind... my actions are from from reflecting Christ. So it gets dangerous when I look at someone and immediately say to myself "I doubt if they know Christ" simply because of how they are behaving. But.. when someone I know and love has a walk that never reflects Jesus Christ... when they have no desire to obey His word or open up the bible or hear anything about Jesus and yet they claim to be a Christian.... I think it is ok for me to doubt. There is a difference between someone who is a believer and struggles with their walk and someone who claims to be a believer and simply could care a less if their actions match up or not. THe bible says it very clearly....
"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'Matthew 7:15-22

So.. that is what I struggle with right now. I don't want to judge someone on the basis of their actions. I know I fail and many could wonder if I am saved or not. But I don't want to dismiss their actions simply for fear that I am judging them. What happens if I hold back and they die having confidence that they will go to heaven of a feeling rather then basing their salvation on the truth? It will be then that they find out that their belief was false. It is then that it is too late.

There is so much that I have failed to post; little by little I will try to put it up. Today, I wanted to highlight Ri. He turned 5 on Sunday. I can hardly believe it. My scared, weak, scrawny little boy that we brought home over 2 and a half years ago, turned 5. And by no means is he scared or weak any longer! Scrawny? Well... maybe a little on the skinny side... but certainly not scrawny! Wow.. God is so good.

Ri is FULL of life. He is ALL boy... did I say ALL? I wish there was a better word to describe him because he is certainly more then full of life and all boy :)

He grabs ahold of life and runs with it. He is as sweet as they come and ornerier then any little guy I know. He can wrap himself around your little finger and in the next breath send you spinning with frustration. He has a zest for life. He sparkles, he creative, he's smart as a whip and curious as a cat. He is still an incredible mimic, though he has learned how to think on his own now. He explores, creates, and destroys with the best of them! He gravitates towards the rowdy kids and picks up (and joins in) on intensity very quickly. He is very quick to apologize (and often melts your heart when he does). His favorite things are books and drawing. He LOVES, LOVES, LOVES drawing. He counts everything he can. I often see him sitting down reading books out loud to himself.

His absolute favorite toy is Sam. Jacob is his buddy. Emily is the one he loves to go places with. Erin is the one he likes to make things with. Daddy is his hero. And Elizabeth is his very, very best friend! We are so blessed that God has brought our little boy to us. We praise God for saving his life and for choosing us to be his family. Happy Birthday Ri-B Roo!



On a side note... my intense, loud, wild, 15 year old boy sometimes needs his mom to show him that she still has control!

The chaos of the holidays have come and gone. It was precious to have my niece and nephew with us for nearly a week. I thoroughly enjoyed them, though I must admit that the house is much quieter without an extra 2 kids to stir up the excitement around here! My 6 absolutely love their cousins, so the excitement was high every day they were here. The holiday was mixed with some sad news, though. My aunt passed away. It was a shock to all of us. She lived in South Dakota; both my parents are from there. We use to make a vacation out of it and visit all my relatives every year while I was growing up. Aunt Virginia and Uncle Arnie had children our age. When we went back, we use to hang out at their house all the time. They have 3 children, but their 2 boys were the ones we spent all of our time with. The memories of our trips to South Dakota are priceless and FILLED with the love of my Aunt. I have really only seen my Aunt once in the past 20 years (3 years ago), but it still is as if she is a big part of my life. I just wish that I could have seen her one more time. My heart aches deeply, but mostly because I am not sure of her salvation; though you can never be sure of any one's salvation. When someone you love dies, it is painful. Heaven and Hell become very real at that moment. The truth of the matter is that Hell is a very REAL place. It is not some fictional thing that you read about. It is so easy to place those 2 places right alongside of Narnia, Never-never-land, or some other "mystical and magical" place. TOO often we tend to ignore the reality and the truth. I have thought of that a lot lately. Have you ever stopped and listened to people when someone dies.. especially if they died after being in pain? The response (nearly ALL Of the time) is... "they are in a better place" or "at least they don't have to suffer any longer"... or something along those lines. The truth of the matter is that unless they have personally accepted Jesus Christ as their savior (believing that they are a sinner in need of a savior and that the blood that Christ shed on the cross is the only sufficient acceptance of payment for those sins) then they are by NO means in a better place and their suffering has only begun (not ended).

I struggle with my timidness to share the truth of Hell to those around me. Mostly, I don't want to come across as some lunatic and religious woman who gets in the face of everyone shoving the message of "Hell is real" down some one's throat. I don't want to accuse any one of not going to Heaven because I would be coming across as some judging person.. and who am I to make that judgement? BUT.... in my fear of offending people, my question would be.... who have I avoided telling the truth to? If Hell is as real to me as I KNOW it is.. then I should be seeking every avenue I can to share the truth with those I love so dearly AND for those I don't!

All that to say, the death of my Aunt has hit me and made me question how real I believe Hell is. I have much more fun things to talk about, but I am being pulled once again by my kids. I will hopefully write more later.

My husband lovingly reminded me last night that I have not updated the blog is some time. Well, he's right. I have thought about it often, but I have done little about it. My draw towards the computer has been slowly falling away. I realized a long time ago that I have made the internet/computer my "idol" and have put it far above devotions with God and far above my children's needs. I am working hard on only spending a few moments on the computer rather then hours. But today, I am planning to update. If you are checking it right now, I will (hopefully) have a post sometime this morning. The kids have another 2 hour delay and Elizabeth has not yet woke up. Ri is quietly reading a book.

Oh to be 4 years old again! The magic and wonder of life is incredible and some moments are just priceless. My niece and nephew are still with us; they fly home this morning. A few days ago, we had each of the kids draw a name and then gave them all $10.00. With the $10.00, they were instructed to buy a gift. It was a great deal of fun. We went to the mall and a few other stores and had fun searching for the "perfect" gift. Oh, there was a bit of frustration along the way. Some of the kids had dreams of buying the "perfect" gift but when they discovered that it over their $10.00 limit, they realized they couldn't and had to keep searching. I had fun watching them try to figure it out. All of them wanted to be able to give something special. My nephew, Eli, drew Elizabeth's name. Immediately, he decided that a fish would be a good idea. We tried hard to steer him towards a small stuffed animal (something she plays with for HOURS on end), but he had it in his mind that a fish would be better. It took a little convincing, but he finally decided that he would get her the stuffed animal instead. As the day went on, I began to have a nagging feeling in my gut. I started thinking that, though this was a fun game for the kids and meant to bless the other, it wasn't about the gift at all. Eli had an opportunity to buy something he thought would be special. By us steering him the other direction, it would be our gift to Elizabeth, not his gift to her. So I started to sway him back to the fish idea. The next day, we went to a pet store and he spent a LONG time looking at fish; but still didn't find the right ones to buy. The next day, we went back. He picked out the fish and asked the lady to get them. But... believe it or not, she convinced him NOT to buy the fish. So... we turned his focus onto a hamster or gerbil. He chose a black gerbil. He was very excited. And last night, the kids were able to exchange their gifts. It was so much fun to watch them. We saved Elizabeth's until last. When she opened it up, she was silent. She sat down and watched it for a few seconds until Ri quickly sat down and put his face nearly against the cage. Ri proudly announced how cute it was to everyone. For the next few hours, the gerbil and her cage never left the sight of those 2 four year olds. They insisted on taking her to their room. Once they had her in their room, they sat and watched it. Mark listened to them while they were enjoying her. They were sitting by the bed telling the gerbil a bedtime story. Elizabeth named her Squeaky. They LOVE it! At one point, Elizabeth came running down the hallway screaming "Mom, you have to come see this". She told me "Squeaky is not a baby anymore, she is a big girl". "She got in her wheel and made it go around all by herself. She is a big girl. I am so proud of her!". Then she and I were watching Squeaky when Elizabeth looked at me and said "I love her, mom." She walked over to me and hugged me real hard and said "She's not mine, she's ours. I'll share her with my whole family because I love my family." Oh how precious is that!

We successfully surprised my daughter... again. I am beginning to think she is pretty gullible :). We shocked Jacob as well. Erin and Sam were fooled, but they seem to take it all in stride. My parents left for Florida a few weeks before Thanksgiving. They always spend Thanksgiving with my brother and sister and then come home for Christmas. For my kids, the only Christmas they have ever known is one with my parents. They love the excitement that goes along with it. For them, it is a very special time with my Mom and Dad. It means a lot to both my kids and my parents. BUt this year, my oldest neice is graduating from college today! My parents decided to stay in Florida so that they could see her graduate. Before they went, they had a talk with us and shared with us that they would not be coming back until April. It was quite a shock to my kids; but mostly to Emily. She LOVES everything about Christmas with my parents. I think it is such a precious time for my kids to really get to enjoy my mom. Mom becomes a totally different person around Christmas and it is A LOT of fun for them. But for the first time ever, they would not be here. That meant that the kids would not have Christmas. Jacob and Emily were devastated. They love all the decorations and the excitement and the fun of the season. Mark and I came up with lots of different ideas, but all were rejected. To them, it just wasn't Christmas unless it was with Grandma and Grandpa. On top of all that, they realized that if Grandma and Grandpa weren't here, then their cousins wouldn't be either. For as long as I can remember, my brother and his family have traveled to Ohio to be with us during the Christmas holiday. It has been one of the ways that we have been able to keep a close relationship with the kids. They come here at Christmas and we go there during the summer. So it was a double whammy. And for Emily, that meant that she would not see her grandparents for nearly 9 months. She was very, very sad... and spending a lot of time pouting about Christmas. She refused to even think about it. What noone knew was that Grandma and Grandpa had decided before they left for Florida, that they would come home for CHristmas and surprise the kids. We decided to keep it a secret and have a lot of fun with it. As the weeks went by, my brother and his wife begin seeing if their kids could come back with Grandma and Grandpa and surprise the kids too. They arranged a plane trip home for them on Christmas Eve. So... I have been keeping it a secret for a very long time. They were suppose to arrive on MOnday and would fly out Thursday. But... mom starting getting sick and Dad started thinking about the holiday traffic and there were some initial problems with getting tickets to see my neice graduate; before we knew it, the plans began changing and my parents headed back Thursday morning. We are thankful because they would have hit the horrible snow storm on their way home had they waited to leave today.

Despite not having my parents home for Christmas, Jacob was determined to somehow enjoy the holiday anyway. It took me quite a bit, but I convinced him to decorate my parents house (to surprise my mom; though Jacob had no clue that was what I was doing). Emily was mad we did it. She refused to consider doing anything at all that would be Christmas related. She pouted and then Jacob pouted because Emily was being so difficult. I just giggled to myself because I knew that by the evening they would completely forget their saddness. Emily even gave my brother a horrible time for not coming to Ohio this Christmas. I just laughed at her.

Oh - I almost forgot. Wednesday night, Sam was on facebook and I hear "Mom..... can you come here?". I got up and walked in to see Sam with a smile on his face. He says "come here and read this". I figured a friend wrote something he wanted me to read. So I walk over to the computer and Sam points to my nephew's status which says "leaving for ohio tomorrow!". Then he smiles and says "Am I suppose to know this?". I stared at the screen and thought a few moments and then responded with "if you tell any of your siblings, your dead"... of course, I was smiling when I said it! I laughed. I realized that my nephew was so excited about coming that he completely forgot that Sam and Emily are his friends on facebook! Needless to say, Sam was thrilled and couldn't wait to see his cousins!

When my parents arrived, Emily had just walked into a concert. SHe had about 1/2 hour before the concert began so I tried to get her to come pick Sam up at my parents house (so she would discover her grandparents and her cousins). But NO!! She wouldn't come and had a good excuse. I tried everything I could think of, but with little success. I finally gave up and told her to just hurry up when the concert ended. I had told her that Elizabeth really wanted her, but she still didn't come. When my parents arrived, I took my neice and nephew to the concert. We texted Em and told her to come out because Elizabeth really wanted her. She came out and was blown away to discover her cousins standing there! We then convinced her that i had gone to the airport to get them. She was a little baffled because she had seen me just 2 hours earlier, but she never put 2 and 2 together. I told her I had left Jacob with the kids at Grandmas and I would just meet her there. She kept my neice with her (who never gave the surprise away). When she FINALLY pulled into the drive, we hid Grandma and Grandpa in the bedroom. I told Em that I was ready to leave. So I called for Jacob. He never responded (intentionally). I finally sent Emily into the room to get him. She walked into the room and called for Jacob. Then Emily saw Grandpa and screamed and jumped backwards. It was hilarious! She was so EXCITED to see them!

As for Jacob, I had successfully shocked him as well. He was at the house when they all came in. I yelled for him to come out of the bedroom because I had a surprise for him. He walked in and saw Grandpa and about fell over. He was so surprised! After hugs and many shocked comments, he grabbed me and dragged me outside. HE then proceeded to tell me that I had done this to him twice in one year. I wasn't allowed to do it again!

Too funny!!

Since the great surprise, we have been enjoying every minute of having my neice and nephew! We were so blessed to have snow when we woke up today. They long to have snow when they are here at Christmas. God provided the perfect day!!! The snow was great packing snow and the temperature couldn't have been better. We spent nearly the entire day playing outside. What fun we had. Jacob and Eli built the largest snowman we have ever built before! IT was incredible! FAith and Erin joined in at the end for the dressing of him. Then Sam joined us later and built the most incredible deer ever. My dad arrived at the end of the sculpting of the deer and decided to run back into town for paint. He came out and we finished the deer. It was incredible!!! Sam did an amazing job. Then we added the Santa and bag in honor of our cousins. Santa does not EVER visit our home; but it was fun to create him for Eli and Faith. Grandpa had so much fun. HE stayed and helped for all of it. It was fun!!