I'm still here!

I just looked at the date of my last post and the calendar and realized that on sunday it would have been 2 months since my last post. I've been struggling with what to post. So today while Charlie is sleeping I decided that I would work on some of my posts on here, I've also been on facebook alot.

Talk to ya later this morning!
Hopefully to bring some wonderful info
Have a blessed day

Many Blessings

This morning I was listening to Klove and a lady was giving glory to God,yesturday she was coming home and got a flat tire on the highway, she kept praying for God to send her someone to help her and a man showed up to offer her assistance, then a police officer showed up to direct traffic around her vehicle, when the man finished with changing her tire she went to give him a 10.00 bill and the gentleman handed her a 100.00 bill to help get a new tire! How awesome is God???

Ya know I have a family who love me very much and my children are my greatest gift from God!

God is good!

Yesturday I posted about a argument that I had with my dad. I've really been struggling with the honor your mother and father commandment for awhile now (it's actually been a few years) and I'm really trying to live a life that is pleasing to God, and with that arugment I'm not sure God would have been pleased.



I've come to realize that when I get angry I lose control of my emotions. Anger is something that I express more freely than anything else. This is what I was reading this morning and that's the reason for this post http://proverbs31devotions.blogspot.com/. Please click on repent, restart and repeat to get the message.My kids are a weakness for me but Satan doesn't get the chance to use them too much against me I think it's mostly because they are prayed over constantly, my relationship with my parents is a complete weakness cuz I've always seemed to struggle for acceptance from them which I've never really been able to obtain so satan uses them against me alot.



I will depend on God until he changes my heart toward forgivness with my parents and others that have hurt me deeply, it's all have I to stand on, nothing else can fix what God can fix and I'm secure with that. He is the voice of truth and love.

I need to understand that many have been abused, some worse than me, some not as much but at the same time we as humans with our human emotions have a hard time looking past the nose on our face to see others, I have a hard time with sometimes. But God says to be a servant to others partly because it allows thoughs that we are helping to have things that they might not be able to have by themselves and then I believe it's partly because when we are helping others it's keeps our minds off of ourselves and we focus on others.

I feel more like a fool cuz the words that my dad spoke I never would have thought that he would say things like that. I guess I grew up with the blinders on and only seen what I wanted to see. My parents were both abused growing up--mom was both physical and verbal and dad's was emotional abuse. Charlies was emotional and mine was both physical and verbal ummm looks like there's some similarities here. I very proud that I don't do these things to my children but I'm very emotionally and verbally abusive to Charlie. I'm not by no means an affectionate person toward him at all, my kids see this and hear some of the things I say about him and to him. Some of which I have to apologize for cuz the kids don't need to hear it.

As I sit here this morning the sunshine is just streaming in through my windows and showing signs that God has created a glorious day for us, but even with all the sunshine outside my heart is dark and heavy, full of confusion. Did I do the right thing? Was there a different way to handle the situation?

Yesturday I went to pick up my kids at my parents house and dad had hemmed up Leesha's pants for her, when we went to leave my dad decided to tell Leesha that he wasn't going to fix her biscuits and gravy anymore cuz she's getting a belly on her and she needed to lose weight. I spoke up and told him he doesn't need to be saying things like that to her, his response was "you need to be saying these things to her". WHAT??? Then this huge argument errupted and he threatened to smack my face and so I told him that my kids were not coming there anymore, he replied with "good". WHAT???? so we left

I'm not sure I handled that right, I know some people will say that I shouldn't have spoke up in front of Leesha but dang it he don't need to be talking about his grandchildren that way!

Please pray for guidance here

Have a blessed day

Leesha's crafty side

Here's a scrapbook page my daughter made at my mil's stampin up party on Wednesday

This card she made for sis Sharon at church who had surgery to remove some cancer cells.

These two cards she made for nannie and papa's preacher who lost their daughter last week (the top one) and the other is for daddies buddy at work who lost one of his friends.

She's such a talented little girl!

Little crafty things!

I

I obviously uploaded my images wrong but anyways here's what we got. The top two are sympathy cards, the first one is for a gentleman that Charlie works with who lost a friend last week (all paper came from hobby lobby, the stamped image is a callie lily that I embossed, then I punched out ribbon holes to run the ribbon through which came from joann fabrics off the $1 rack), the next one is for my mom and dad's preacher and his wife who lost their daughter on sunday to cancer (the paper is from a paper pack from joann fabrics, I'm not sure what the name of the stampin up punch is I love this thing, I stamped the trees with versa mark and then embossed them with white embossing powder, then I stamped the tree trunk just under the one that I raised up with glue dots) the next one is a scrapbook page that we put together at my mil's stampin up party on wednesday, then next one is a "belated" anniversary card for a couple at church.

Hope you enjoy! I'll be posting crafty items that my daughter made later today so come back and see what my little crafter did!

This card I made for my pastor and his wife. Their anniversary was 2 weeks ago so I'm a little late. The paper came from hobby lobby and I used my doodlecharms cricut cart to cut the flowers and used the home accents one for the stems and the word love. I hope they enjoy it!

Sorry I haven't been posting but this past week as been a busy one. Robby had lifting and football camp til 9 pm and Leesha had vacation bible school this week at church from 6-8 so I've done alot of driving this week. I'm ready for a break! This week I'll hopefully get alot done.

Yesturday we were extremely busy cleaning out the back porch, it's a room that was added to the house years ago when they put the cistern back there so that's where my washer and dryer are, it gets extremely cold in the winter cuz there's no insulation out there, so I've had the water to the washer freeze on me a couple of times since we moved here in 2001, but hey I'm just thankful it's not every winter that it happens :)

Hope you have a wonderful Sunday and I'll be back soon

God Bless you!

Good morning!!!

Well it is 7 a.m. and I'm feeling bright eyed and bushy tailed :) Yesturday we had a beautiful service at church, of course there was not actual preaching but the music that we had done all the preaching for Pastor Doug. Check out this website and listen to some of the music http://www.tackettmusic.com/ Jeff,Sarah and Jason are amazing together and I love when they come to our church to sing. Jeff is my Pastor's son so when they are not busy and are in town our church gets the wonderful oppertunity to hear them sing. This trio is just amazing together!

I'll be back soon with some updates and some crafty things also!
God Bless you!!!!

Homemade laundry soap

http://frugalhomeliving.blogspot.com/2009/04/homemade-liquid-gel-laundry-detergent.html
just a little change that I have is use Ivory soap instead. This stuff is amazing! Hope you experiment with making your own, honestly you do save money!

Am I the problem?

Raising children is hard! Leesha is such a wonderful child and I enjoy raising her, but she has a definate way of challenging me to really step out of the box and get out of regular disicpline routines. Let me explain, rules are rules right? Well not with her, her character has a " I don't care" attitude. She is a mixture of Charlie and I both (she looks like me but acts like dad, so I thought). Today I called my mil and was asking for help in teaching Leesha that it's not ok to lie. Here are some of the details--yesturday she had to clean her room, so she comes downstairs and tells me she's done, I didn't give it much thought nor did I go check it. So last night she stays all night with my mom and when I go upstairs I see that she had done nothing to her room, my mil was telling me that there's time Leesha will put wrappers of something she had in places where they are not suppose to go and then tell mamaw that she didn't do it. So I was doing some reading today and found that sometimes lying is associated with adhd. Is this the problem or am I? I look back at the many conversations that I 've had with her and there is alot of times that I don't believe what she says, I was raised that trust and respect is something that's earned not giving. Quickly finding out that children don't have the resources "built" into their character to earn respect that's something that needs to be taught. So does telling the truth so trust is something that they don't have the built in resources to gain unless their taught. Now this has been going on the Leesha for along time, especially since she started school. I know she struggles at school alot and they have tested her for adhd but I'm not sure that this is the problem. I don't believe she has adhd,alot of her problem is not being able to focus because I've never forced the issue. She perfers to act as though she doesn't stuggle in school. How did my 9 year old learn to not face the truth? What exactly have I taught her? There is a difference between imagination and not being able to deal with what is really going on. I know she doesn't want to do the extra work this summer that she has to do to get ready for this coming school year, but I struggled in school too and my mom and dad done nothing to get me some extra help, sure I had to take speech class (in shool) sure I had a summer tutor before enterin into my junior year in math ( the tutoring was done by my math teacher and was free cuz I would babysit for her). That was all the help I had and according to my kindergarten report card that I looked at a couple of weeks ago I was struggling then, just like Leesha. So this is what I mean by "so I thought she was like her daddy". I'm finding that when it comes to school Leesha is just like me but we are getting that corrected by this website that I found for her where it allows her to go back through second grade cirriculum and she also started on the third grade to stay ahead. I think that if she already knows how to do the work it'll give her more confidence in the classroom. Where did that go, her confidence? I'll tell ya where, something as simple as a sticker on a paper she was promised in kindergarten one day for doing a paper, well she never got that sticker. It started then of her just putting things down to finish the paper, right or wrong. I was reading an article on christian mommies website (http://www.christian-mommies.com/ageless/handle-emotions/dealing-with-lying-the-dos-and-donts/) that stated that lying is a call for help. Oh my gosh my child needs my help, I feel as though I've left her standing by herself with me no where in sight! So this morning I called my mom and told her to get Leesha up that I was coming over to pick up sooner than I was suppose too and guess what, I get there and my mom starts telling me how wrong I am for correcting her about lying to me about her room. WHAT????? Are you kidding me? So of course this is said within ear shot of Leesha and so she thinks it's wrong that she had to come home. Why oh Why???? But then again I never got support growing up so why would I think I would get it as an adult? Silly me! Well Leesha just went upstairs to clean her room and we'll have to see what happens. I told her on the way home that I love her, but there are consequences for not doing what we are asked to do, so I took her tv away for 2 days (for lying) and a week if she doesn't get her room cleaned up the right way. I set the timer for 1 1/2 hours (she's like her mommy, she'll lollygag all day on it if she has the oppertunity) and if it's not done right she looses the tv for a week also. There I'm trying to teach her time framing like she has in school for her school work. There were alot of papers that she brought home where the problems she did was correct but she was unable to finish the paper within a certain time so the ones she wasn't able to get done is what brought her grade down. Please pray that God gives me and her both strength to get this corrected.

Have a blessed day!

I can't sleep!!!

I'm worried about the finances as usual. Why can't things just go right? I'm going to be really honest, Charlie and I have hit another financial heartache it's called cash advances and we are not able to pay on time. They call anywhere from 6-10 times a day and I'am really worried they are going to start calling Charlie's work. We have tried to set up payments but they said that it has to be paid in full. I tried to get a loan yesturday to get them paid off and was denied, what lesson am I suppose to learn here? Up until now we've not had a hard time paying them, why now? I don't like getting these things, it's so hard to pay them and your bills at the same time. I just want off of them for good. Oh boy I'm getting sleepy now. I'll post tomorrow after I do some bible study. I'm studying the book of Proverbs now and from what I've heard there's alot of verses in there that really teach you how God wants us to live so we can be blessed. Please say a prayer for us that we get through this little heartache safely!

Have a wonderful night :)

I'm so excited!!!

I wasn't sure if I was going to post today cuz once again I have so many thoughts going through my mind, but I was on this blog http://reneeswope.blogspot.com/2009/06/future-and-hope.html and was looking around and noticed at the top of the page "what's D6", well that's interesting so I clicked on it and here's what I got http://www.d6conference.com/. I started reading and found out it's about raising our kids up to be Godly people. Holy Moly I've been on how to approach my kids with the way God want's us to live but I've been a little stumped since I'm really just finding out myself. I was worried that I would be overbearing but in reading deuteronomy I realized that it is my responsibility to teach them ( I already knew that but I didn't know how, I was raised not to be too overbearing). So if you are stumped on how to teach your children God's ways then please head on over with me and we'll learn together. I want my children to know what God says not what humans tell them.

Thanks for stopping by for a little chat and I'm sure I'll talk more on this later
Have a blessed day

HAPPY BELATED FOURTH OF JULY!

We didn't do anything to celebrate yesturday cuz our town has a festival called bicycle days the weekend after the fourth so that's when we do our fireworks. But we did have an exciting evening though, see little guys? well we found them up by our house and they were crying which scared me, when Robby found em this one in my hand was bleeding across his back, but as you can see from the pics above he's recovering just fine! today we are going to rebuild their burrow for their momma to come back and see what happens, I might end up taking them to a wildlife rehab somewhere. I was going to try to raise them myself til I read on the computer it's illegal to raise wild rabbits! Darn it, I'm a little attached to them now....

Mother-Daughter relationships

I hate you

whore

$itch

if you date him it'll make you popular

these people are lower than you

the "evil" eye when you go out in public

the list of actions you are to follow when attending events

boy crazy

They don't care about you



As anyone else heard these comments from their mom? Well I don't know about anyone else but these comments, the list of actions, the "evil" eye cuz you laughed are just down right hateful!



My first post is going to be about mother-daughter relationships just how important are they?

My answer is VERY! I grew up without any real positive upbringing. I've missed out on alot of things because of this. I started doing some research on this today so I knew what I wanted to post, some is from personal experience and some is professional. I don't want this post to sound like it's a slander toward my mom, I know I could have had worse.

My mom and I have also had a tense relationship, I'm not sure why though and I don't think I'm ever going to know. the tension between us has always been there since I can remember. I started reading an article today from the discovery health channel and the second paragraph starts out with when you're five, she's a goddess. You smear your face with her lipstick and model her earrings and high heels, wanting to be just like mommy. I don't remember feeling that way. I'm not sure Leesha ever put my earrings on and I know she didn't wear my high heels cuz I've never owned any. In the article it stats how through the different ages of the daughter the relationship with mom becomes different, it goes on to say that between your twenties and thirties if your lucky your mom becomes your best friend again. Well I'm not lucky. My mom is not my best friend and I don't think I've ever considered her a friend. She was very hard on me with her words and her "looks". All of this makes me glad that I'm now an adult. It's taken me along time to realize that my mom didn't want memories of me and her doing things together or she would have helped make them, but I've made the decision that I will not make the same mistake with my own children (babies as I call them). This is where I can see God's work in my life, he has opened my eyes at a young age to realize the ways that I don't want to be and I've tried to always be the way that God has put upon my heart to be. According to Laura Tracy ph.d. a family therapist who specializies in counseling mothers and daughters and has written books on the relationships between women. "Will the mother accept the daughter as an adult? That means, when she's visiting you, does she let you run your house? Does she trust you to be independent on small issues as well as large-who are you with, what's your sexuality (this is another subject I would like to discuss), where do you work, how do you spend your money? Letting the daughter be her own woman is a universal issue," she explains. My mom and I have a very anger filled relationship and Dr. Tracy put it best when she said "They can't hear each other. the daughter will hear the mother say something and she'll think, 'She wants to control me'. An the mother is saying something that is absolutely controlling, but is not meant to be." Meanwhile, when the daughter speaks the mother hears nothing but anger - in a comment that does indeed convey anger but also "Ilove you, and can't we do this differently?" Boy I do I know these feelings. My mom always says that she don't know how to say things and sometimes I think she's right but other times she just says what she wants and dares me ( at 37) to talk back to her. there have been many suggestions from people to talk it out with her but when I tried I was told that I was either lieing, making false assumptions or to just "get over it" according to my mom this is the famous Joyce Meyer comment. I'm sorry but I don't think Joyce Meyer meant for that to be said to our children! I've watched my mom's face light up when certain things have happened to me, when Charlie and I seperated 11 years ago my mom did nothing to contact me, anytime their phone number came up on caller id and I would answer it, it was always dad calling to see how we were not my mom. I'll have another post on father daughter realationships too. During this time I was told that I was dumb for trying to save my marriage, he doesn't want me anymore, I look back and am so thankful that I listened to God instead. When Charlie and I first got married I had a real hard time making decisions cuz they were always made for me, ya know I always made the wrong the choice. One thing that makes me the angriest is that when I was going through something she always acted as though she never had "those feelings". I remember her asking me several times if I was gay because I would get so involved in my friends. What kinda question is that? Juanita Johnson a New York -based therapist and storyteller says that the best give a mother and daughter can give eachother is the permission to be themselves, the daughter can be who she wants to be because the mother is who she wants to be---did ya get that?, the daughter CAN be because the mother IS! There is an example in the story about a mother giving her young daughters the chance to make decisions, this is exactly what I try to do with Leesha, I don't want her to be so insecure with herself that she's afraid to make decisions on her own, I feel she needs to know that the decisions she makes, right or wrong I'm always here for her, there's times when I'll be angry with her but that doesn't change the way I feel about her and her choices that she's made. I just got done reading about about being a Titus 2 woman, here's the verse in the bible that explains what it is(it explains the qualities of a sound church) 3: the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things-4: that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5: to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, the the word of God may not e blasphemed.
According to Donna Otto, author of Between women of God, this is what the older women are supposed to do for the younger women. Now I know that God don't make mistakes and that I was created to be my mother's daughter, that don't mean that I understand why sometimes. I was raised up being told that children are a gift from God, why then did she not want a good relationship with me? I know that God didn't make a mistake when he gave me to my mom and I know that I don't have to answer for her. Not all mother daughter relationships are going to be perfect, mine isn't with Leesha and she's only 9 so I'm sure it will get even more difficult but I pray that we still value eachother and our relationship as she grows into a woman and a Godly woman is what I would like to see the most from her. She is MY gift and I pray that I raise her the way God wants me too, that I teach her that things that she needs to know in order to have a successful life full of enjoyment and love. When she's a mother I hope she looks back and can see how important our relationship was and is to me! I love you Leesha and you are my best friend! Go and live your life according to God!

What's on my mind

I've had these thoughts running through my mind now for quit some time, I guess I've been nervous about posting them here because I'm not sure who is reading my blog. It was put upon my heart this morning that the last couple of months I've been givin certain ideas and been tugged at my heart to start them, well I've wasted time and the other day I was looking at my church bulletin and realized that a lovely young lady was starting a youth outreach at our church. Please don't get me wrong by no means am I jealous or anything (ok maybe a little disappointed in myself for not moving when I was told to move) but nothing toward the young lady at church, I would love to get involved in it with her. But let me tell ya a little history about this post---
Idea #1
back before christmas I had this idea come upon me to teach young mother's and young wives how to cook on a budget, when I told some people of my idea (the critics) I was it was a dumb idea, so I didn't go any further with it, well guess what, after christmas there was an article in the newspaper where a local hospital was starting cooking on a budget class!!! What? That was my idea! Idea #1 gone to someone else.
Idea #2
I love listening to Klove and the songs are so inspiritional. Leesha (my dd) loves it too! Robby on the other hand likes his secular music (ok I can't change everything :))anyhow I had this idea that we needed to do something to reach our children, in my opinion they are in serious trouble in this world and to say the least I'm ashamed that it's my generation that is raising this generation. Our children are left to themselves alot and many grandparents are raising their grand babies! I thought to myself "this is just wrong". So I thought something needed to be done to help our children get a better education about Jesus, what it meant to "help others" things that my generation was raised with ( I think). I know Charlie and I were raised very different but we still watched our parents help other people. I've watched young kids walk past an elderly person and just about knock them down. This is ridiculous! My thought was that I needed to talk to my pastor and see if we couldn't set something up the kids during our annual camp meeting in the spring, well guess what I was too afraid to approach him with it so this young lady had the courage that I didn't have and that's why there is now a youth outreach at our church. Don't get me wrong I'm very excited that there's something for the youngins, I just regret being afraid!
So that leads me up to now idea #3
I told Charlie a couple of months ago that I feel a tugging at my heart to let our life be a story for those who want to read it, at first he was sceptical and wasn't sure he wanted people to know the intimate details of our marriage (the good, the bad and the ugly). Well this morning I've made a decision that I'm not going to be afraid of who's reading this blog, who might get offended (even Jesus offended people without meaning too), what people might think about our family and so on. I feel that I'm being told that there's someone or some people who can learn from us. I believe that Charlie and I have gone through things in our marriage that are worth telling others about and the lessons that we've learned through them.
So I hope that you are up for some good conversations here! I love communicating with people and learning some of life's most valuable lessons from those whose already walked the path that I'm on or not on. True life stories are the best.
Now I just need to give it some thought as to where I want to begin! Please pray that God leads me in His direction!
I'm going to apologize first hand to anyone who might get offended by what is posted here! These are just my experiences and other things that I've learned.

Have a blessed day everyone and I'll post as soon as God shows me what to post first.
I got too many things going through my head right now.

THANKFUL!

I'm soooo thankful this morning for a God who loves us! I'm thankful that he listens to all my ramblings late at night when I can't sleep. I'm thankful that He has given me the sunshine and beautiful weather. I'm thankful for a loving and understanding husband who has the strongest arms when I need to be held tight when life gets rough. I'm thankful for my children that He has given me that has taught me alot about love. I'm thankful that He has made it possible that we have not felt the effects of the economy. I'm thankful that He keeps us safe. I'm thankful that I can see Him in everything!

What are you thankful for? Let's spend some time reflecting the blessings that He has given us!

Have a blessed day!

THE KNAT

Yesturday I was working in the garden and a bug flew in my ear! I almost got it out but it went further inside so I decided to pour peroxide in my ear to try to flush it out, of course that didn't work so when I went over to my parents for my dad's birthday he told me to hold a flashlight to my ear to draw it to the surface. Well he would come to the surface but we still couldn't get him, I came home and my honey held the flashlight and a qtip and got that stinkin bug out! I wish I would have taken a picture but my little ear was sore so I was just not up to it.

The field

Here's the Toledo Rockets football field, Robby spent the whole time on this field (the lineman did) while others worked on the practice field.
I couldn't get this pic upload on the other posts so I had to make a new one. Man I've got so much scrapbooking to do!

University of Toledo

Here's the dorm that Robby stayed at for football camp. It was really neat, when you first look at it it almost looks like a church.

This is the dorm room, it really surprised me how small they are. There are two beds, two desks, small "closets", but the cool thing was that you walked in the door and there was a huge room that had some couches and the "community" bathroom and past that was 3 little doors where the actual rooms were.

The huge weight room, Robby didn't get to work out on the weights though.

All the hand weights. I couldn't believe the size of those things.

Here's Robby along with the two other boys that rode up with us (Dalton and Charlie). Robby really enjoyed himself but he called Sunday night wanting to come home cuz he was hurting so bad. After a good nights rest though he was fine! Today we went up to pick him up and of course the coach done a little bit of braggin on him, they gave out awards to some of the boys and then they started saying things about "a young man that worked hard, is a good football player, and never complains unless he does it in the dorm "Ruby would you please stand up" at this time they are pointing at Robby! They had nicknames for some of the boys (I heard one guy call him ruby on sunday) so funny :). I'am such a PROUD momma!

Here's the card I made for my honey! I used paper from hobby lobby,ribbon from stampin up, and then I used my cricut with the markers to write the happy father's day, the silver brads are from creating keepsakes from QVC.

Here's the card I made for my dad. He loves his garden and spends all day in there so he has the "pretties garden". The dark brown and tan paper is from hollow's (the tan paper I got went then wrinkled it up and dried it out with the iron, I did this a few years ago and had a piece of scrap left which I used to make the "dirt") the stamps are from on the farm stampin up.

Father's day was really busy for us. Robby had to go to Toledo for football camp so we spent most of the traveling. We got him settled in though, he called 2 times last night he said he was very sore. They did alot of running and his legs hurt (good think I sent him activeon to rub on his calves he gets charlie horsed easy in his legs). We finally made it home about 4 and then Charlie had to go to work. Me and sis really just relaxed. I had a toothache in which I need to call the dentist to have my tooth pulled.

Hope every one is doing great!

Hopefully I'll be back later with a scrapbook page or two I'd like to get some pages done of the kids.

Have a blessed day!

Blog hopping again

http://www.donnadowney.com/index.php/campaign-for-creativity She is one of my favs! I love her work. Take a look at it and come and join us I know I sure could use some inspiration

RAIN RAIN GO AWAY

It has rained and then sunshined here all day. Our garden really needed a good drink and so did the grass that just got planted, but I do hope it's just about done. I don't have anything crafty to share tonight now that Charlie's back to work I don't have alot of time :( I do have 3 anniversaries coming up at the end of the month (oh my that's like next week!!! uhggg!) that I have to get cards made for and I still need to do Charlie and my dad's father's day cards. We'll see if I can get crafty in the morning after bible study. There's not been a whole lot going on just back to the regular routine of the running the kids,grocery shopping,paying bills same ol' same ol'

I just wanted to touch base and hope that everybody is doing wonderful!

Oh by the way here's the recipe I promised

Gelatin Trifle

1 pkg. jell-o brand strawberry flavor gelatin

3/4 c. boiling water

1/2 c cold water

ice cubes

1 c. sliced strawberries

1 c. bananas sliced

2 c. 1/2 inch pound cake cubed

1/4 c. orange juice

1 1/2 c. cold milk

1 pkg. jell-o banilla flavor instant pudding and pie filling

1/2 c. thawed cool whip

completely dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Combine cold water and ice cubes to make 1 1/4 cups. Add to gelatin, stirring until slightly thickened. Remove any unmelted ice. Stir in strawberries and bananas. Place cake cubes in large serving bowl; sprinkle with orange juice. Spoon gelatin mixture over cake in bowl. Chill 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile pour cold milk into mixing bowl. Add pudding mix. With electric mixer at low speed, beat until well blended. 1 to 2 minutes. Let stand a few minutes to thicken. Fold in whipped topping. Spoon over gelatin in bowl. Chill Garnish with additional whipped toppin, strawberry slices, and banana slices brushed with lemon juice, if desired.

Enjoy!

Hello!!!

Everything is back to normal I think. Charlie went back to work today, but man do I miss him being around. It's so much fun having him at home even though he thinks it drives me nuts but it don't I really do enjoy it. For the last couple of days we haven't done much, I froze the stawberries that I picked ( I got 5 quart size bags which isn't too good but not bad either, they'll be nice this winter we want a good taste of summer :)), saturday we rented some movies, we got bedtime stories, marley and me, mall cop, 300, and some other war movie that Robby got, we also got fireproof OMGsh that movie is so good if ya haven't seen it yet please do so, it's such an inspiritational movie (don't tell Charlie but it had him in tears also). Here's the website if ya want to read about it before getting it http://www.fireproofmymarriage.com/. I don't want to return it :( It really hits home with me and Charlie cuz 9 years ago we seperated and I just wouldn't give up on him, he made the comment the other night that this movie was somewhat based on us it is a funny thing though at the time I was just doing what God told me to do, I had no idea what kinda outcome we would have but I plugged along anyway, 9 years later we are getting very serious about our faith and really working together. THANK YOU GOD FOR KEEPING ME ON THAT PATH!!!! I have a wonderful husband and someday with the good Lord's help he'll have a trusting wife again.

Have a blessed day!

Robby,Leesha and me picked about 2 1/2 gallons of strawberries at my dad's today. I'm going to freeze them so we have some really good strawberries this winter. I have this awesome recipe for a dessert that has pound cake,banana's,stawberries,cool whip and vanilla pudding all mixed together. If I remember I'll post it.

Here's 1 of the cards I made today for the women's group at church,we had some "sickers" that needed to get some get well cards so I made them. The cardstock is from stampin up (I know it was the "in colors" a few years ago so I'm not exactly sure the name) the white cardstock is from hobby lobby,stamp is from my mother-in-law (actually it's stampin up) I used my colored pencils for the coloring and I also used my blending pen so I didn't have such dark colors.

This is another get well card- I used a oval stamp I got from hobby lobby and shaded it with lovely lavandar stampin up ink, the stamp is from my mother-in-law (I think she just bought it by itself so it's not from a set) then I colored it using my new toy's I bought oil crayons last night from hobby lobby I LOVE I LOVE I LOVE EM' these things are awesome! The pink ribbon I got from JoAnn fabrics off the $1 rack. Hey I do actually shop at other stores not just hobby lobby (wait a minute when you read my past post it seems like my supplies are bought at hobby lobby) ok ok mayb I do love hobby lobby. Well it is the closest craft store to me so that's where I go!

This one is for a family who lost 2 of it's members last year, they died from a motorcycle accident so the ladies wanted a "thinking of you" card. The black cardstock is from hollow's (not hobby lobby??),flowers and stems is from doodle this (stampin up) I used my white craft ink, I made the red glitter brads from natalie's website again ( I love those things) I experimented with cutting grass (how hard is it to cut grass out of paper?) I didn't really care for the way it turned out but hey it was my first time.

Last night we took the kids to eat and was going down park avenue to go to hobby lobby (I needed more cardstock to finish the father's day cards) and low and behold we lost our brakes!!! You talk about 1 scared woman! We went right through a red light. Thank God Charlie is a professional driver. He got us home safely. THANK YOU HONEY!!!

Sorry I forgot to add the links DUH!!! here ya go http://www.angielucas.typepad.com/
and http://jenniferwozab.blogspot.com/ ENJOY!!!

This card I made for the gentlemen at my church. I was nominated the other night at the womens meeting to make all the cards for the guys for fathers day. The brown cardstock is from hollows, the orange cardstock is from stampin up, the blue is from hobby lobby, the stamps is from my mother-in-law (thanks maw for saving me :)) I used some brown chalk on cream cardstock to give the background a little worn out look. The sentiment read May happiness touch your life today as you have so often touched the lives of others. On the inside I'm going to print "happy dad's day from your father-God". Oh by the way I was blog hopping again today and came across these 2 blogs. Check em out! They are quit informative and humorous :)
Have a blessed day!

What we've been doing

Well as you know it's the first week of summer vacation for the kids and Charlie also took a week of vacation. We've really not been doing awhole lot this week, yesturday was a beautiful day so Charlie started cleaning out the garage, he sold his old lawnmower so the guy came to pick it up, Leesha and I took the dog for a walk around the resevoir while Robby was lifting weights for football at the school, I had a women's meeting at my church and I got nominated to make all the father's day cards (40-50 cards in a week!?!?!?!) I can handle it. Today it's suppose to rain so it looks like it's another day inside so I'll work on some of them today. Hopefully I'll be able to upload a pic tonight.

Have a blessed day!

Here's another card I made last night for a gentleman at our church. Again the base is just white cardstock and everything is from hobby lobby except the balloon they came from my mother-in-law a few years back which I do believe came from somewhere on the internet. I made both of these cards just simple ones since I run out of ideas for a man's card.

Charlie is on vacation this week and we really are just being lazy. Yesturday it was raining til the evening so we did a little shopping, me and Leesha went into Joann fabrics to get zig's 2 way glue so I could restick my cricut mat and I was looking around and found the cropper hopper paper storgage containers for 3.59 how cheap is that? I'll post a pic of my new holders once I get them filled. I also bought a new trimmer for 10.00 (from cricut) since my other one broke. Then we were off to walmart, Charlie was on a mission to find a gadget that would allow us to be on the internet and xbox live at the same time, we found one but it locks up the compute when both are running. :( Today we are taking junk to millirons and he's working in the garage. I might do some scrapbooking since I developed pics the other day of course these pics are about 1 year old from when robby went to washington dc with his 8th grade class. He got some really good pics.

I'm off to study my bible now, I was a little crouchy yesturday since I didn't take the time to study

Have a blessed day

Here's a card I made for my dad who's birthday is coming up on the 25th. The base is just plain white cardstock I bought at hobby lobby,the dot paper is from there also,the tab embellishment and brad I got from QVC,the "happy birthday" card came from a lss,the stamp is from stampinup (again I'm not sure which stamp set),I'm not sure where the ribbon came from either :(

http://www.providentplan.com/86/personal-finance-bible-study-contentment-free-e-book/
I found this and printed off the book, what a wonderful e-book and study guide for learning how to be content financilly. If you are struggling please download this book and study it along with the bible. It's really made me understand why this world is so "commerical". I don't believe that any of us were put here to be "consumers of stuff". Maybe that's why we are still in the economic downflow, those stimulua packages and such for creating "more" jobs, "more" money, "more,more,more".

Just Wanted to share thought this was pretty cool

ACTS - Adoration. Contrition. Thanksgiving. Supplication.
APE - Always Pray Everyday
ASAP - Always Say A Prayer
BASIC - Becoming A Soldier In Christ
BIBLE - Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth
BIG - Bold In God
BIG FISH - Believers in God, Faithful in serving Him
CEO - Christians Encouraging Others
CHRIST - Certainly His Resurrection Is Supreme Truth
CIA - Christ Is Alive
CIA - Christians In Action
COPS - Christian Operated Prayer Support
Added 6/03/08 DJWW (WWJD BACKWARDS) - Devil Just Won't Win
DOG - Depend On God
EGO - Edging God Out
EGR - Extra Grace Required
FAITH - For All I Trust Him
FEAR - false Expectations Appearing Real
FRETS - Focus Returned Exclusively To Satan
FRIEND - Fully Reliable In Each New Difficulty
FROG - Fully Rely On God
GAP - Gossiping About People
GIRAFFE - God Inspires Reverence Affection Forgiveness For Ever
GOD - God Our Defender
GOD - Great. Omnipotent. Deity
GRACE - God Really Covers Everything
GRACE - God's Riches At Christ's Expense
GUM - God Use Me
HOPE - He Offers Peace Everyday
IHL - In His Love, =Salutation
JAGUAR - Jesus Always Guides Us And Redeems
JCLU - Jesus Christ Loves You
JIM - Jesus In Me!
JOY - Jesus first. Others second. Yourself last.
JOY - Jesus Overshadows You
JUICE - Justified by GodUnder the BloodIn Christ ForeverChanged by the Holy SpiritEmpowered by His Love
LEOPARD - Love Everyone Offer Prays And Repent Daily
LICE - life In Christ Eternal
LOVE - Love Others Very Eagerly
POWER - Pray, Obey, Witness, Encourage, Remain (faithful)
PRAY - Praise. Repent. Ask. Yield.
PUSH - Pray Until Something Happens
SOAP - (Guide for preparing devotions)ScriptureObservationApplicationPrayer
SPAM - Serving People Aids Me
TED - Treasure Each Day
TGIF - Thank God I'm Forgiven
TGIF - Thank God I'm Free
THINK - (Regarding our speech. Is it…). Truthful? Helpful? Inspirational? Necessary? Kind?
TIGER - Trust In God & Everything's Right
WAIT - Wisdom and Answers come In God's Timing
WASTE - Worry. Anger. Self-Pity. Tattling. Envy
WWJD - What Would Jesus Do?
WWJD - Walking With Jesus Daily
WWYD - What Would You Do? (We know what Jesus would do)
YET - Yes! Emmanuel Triumphs

I have to share :)

Lately I've been feeling down about myself, I look at my house it's just a mess ( Imean I haven't dusted in ages) there are things on the table that need to be put away that's probably laid there for weeks and then I start to get this not so good opinion of myself. Growing up my mom would spend hours on the phone (that used to be my problem too) and then when the afternoon would hit and my dad would be coming home in about 2 hours she (and me and my brother) would rush around the house cleaning it up to make it look like we had cleaned all day (I wonder if my dad ever really knew?) The last couple of months I started studying my bible really hard (this is the website I use when studying http://bible.cc/ ) I found myself spending 2-3 hours studying then I would shut the comuter off and look at the clock by this time it's 10 or 11 o'clock sometimes it would be later if I would answer phone calls during bible study (on those days it is usually noon). I would eat some lunch and then get started on cleaning and laundry. When I would come home from picking up the kids and take a look at the house I'll tell myself "you didn't get anything done today your house is a wreck" on the weekends I find myself frustrated and talking not so nice to Charlie and the kids. Today I was looking on the net and googled how to be content, I'm really wondering how this is suppose to happen when I feel so low about not getting much done. Does the way us women keep our house reflect who we are? Does a clean house really mean we are contented with our life? My mom always says things about my "dirty" house and these comments hurt, it makes me feel like I'm not living up to her standards. Charlie and I rent our house and my parents make comments about us never owning our own home, Charlie and I tried to purchase a home a few months back and we were just not able too, does God have a reason? I always feel it's because I'm not doing something right, it has to be "ME" , I drive myself crazy over our finances (always have, I bet the amount of paper that I've went through in 15 years could replace a couple trees just from me alone) budget after budget after budget. Charlie makes good money now (we've not always had steady paychecks he used to get paid by the load or mileage this is the first driving job he gets paid by the hour) I mean steady income. It seems to never be enough for the amount of bills going out, why? Charlie works long hours and I feel like I've let him down when I can't get all the bills paid and the house is a mess. I start to evaluate what kinda of wife he has. I pray the God will show me his will for our life and help to be content in what he has given us. Maybe I shouldn't feel so bad that I spend so much time learning God's word. Isn't that what he wants us to do?

Here's a card I made last night for a couple at our church. The green cardstock is stampin up certainly celery I do believe, the flower paper came from hobby lobby, I used my decorative siccors to make the scalloped edges,the brads are from creating keepsakes that I added glitter to by using my versa mark ink,heat and stick powder,gold glitter and heat gun here's the link if ya would like to see complete instructionshttp://nataliesimmons.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html scroll down til ya come to custom made brads. Natalie is very talented and I love seeing her creations :)

This one is made for a gentlemans birthday at church I'm not to happy with it but I come to a creative block everytime I make a "man's" card :( anyway all paper is from stampin up I know the green is certainly celery but I'm not sure the name of the blue one, I used a cake stamp from one of my "early" stamp sets so there's no name on the box, I used my red and silver stickles to outline the flame and the inside of the cake, I made the holes using a hole punch ( didn't do to well with those I definalty can't do straight lines it's just not in my gene's hehehe).

I woke up this morning to beautiful God givin sunlight and birds chirping, is there really any other way to wake up? Um maybe breakfast in bed!

Have a blessed day :)

Good Day

Good late morning! I hope your day has had a great start. The kids are now officially out of school and both are moving on to the next grade. YAY!!! I was really stressing over Leesha but her teacher and I decided not to hold her back (this would have been the second retention for her). We started the "process" of getting her tested for a learning disability but that might take awhile to get her actually tested. She's just going to have to work harder next year and keep up with her website that I have her on.

Thanks again for looking and I'm sure that I'll have some crafting goodies for ya later today!

blog candy

http://nutcrafters-nutshells.blogspot.com/ I just thought I'd share this! I love looking around on blogs :)

Here's the card I made for Andi, Robby and Leesha's bus driver. She's such a wonderful person and the kids just adore her :) Yellow paper is from hobby lobby, black cardstock is from hollow's, the school buses are cut from a bus paper my mother-in-law gave me from Pat Catan's a few years ago, star driver is cut from the cricut using my doodletype cart, I added the white polka dots to the black cardstock with my white gel pen, glitter (hang on I have to go clean up cat upchuck YUCK!) ok and the star ( I was horrible at putting the name on the boxes so I have no idea what set it's from) are both from stampin up, I stamped the star using versa mark, added heat and stick powder then added the glitter.
Enjoy looking!!!

A Proverbs 31 woman

I love this http://www.thechristianwoman.com/christian-women-topics/things-not-in-proverbs-31.html Please check it out. Some really good insight on what kinda qualities us women are to have.

get well

I've been having a lousy mood today so I finished up the get well cards that I needed to make.

The top one is for our friend Anita, she's having gallbladder surgery on Wednesday. Please say a prayer for her. I made it from stampin up card stock (not sure what name), the stamp is from hobby lobby and the ribbon is from joann fabric.

The middle card is made for the gentleman Charlie works with. Paper is from hobby lobby and the stamp is from stampin up (loads of love I think is the name). I drew the stitching with black gel pen.

The last card is for my aunt who had gallbladder surgery on Saturday. Paper from hobby lobby, stamp is stampin up doodle this,buttons and ribbon are stampin up also. I used my cotton candy stickle in the center of the petals. ENJOY!

Wanted to share

This is a card that I made for my friend Denise who is graduating from college June 12. CONGRATULATIONS NISE!!! She loves purple and I thought spongebob went well with it. I hard time finding a graduation cap so I just punched out a square and added some thread. I've had these papers for awhile so I'm not sure where they came from SORRY! Oh by the way I was looking through my collection of stamps last night trying to find something that would work as a get well card for a man and I found a cap stamp DUH!! N C S stands for north central state college. She majored in paralegal.

UGHH! and other things

Well this morning I sat down to fiqure out the finances, man do I hate bills. It's going to be tight this month but we'll manage, God will make sure of that! :) Everytime I pay a bill that I just didn't see any possibility paying that week I praise God cuz I know if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have been able to pay it. Charlie's job is such a God send that I feel horrible and ungrateful when I mess up the finances. I just feel like I'm telling God that I don't appreciate what he's givin' us but I do, I know that we could be having it alot worse and the He is keeping that devil at bay. I also know that since we are trying very hard that he will try to knock us down even more. Please pray that we don't give into his snares! This has been laying on me since yesturday and I need to say something. I know last weekend was memorial day but we didn't go to church, yesturday at church they showed the pictures of the veterans and current military men and women, our pastor was saying that memorial day is about show all military respect, my thought was "how are we showing respect when this country that our military has fought for and still protecting today is in the shape that it's in? They did not and do not fight wars for us to treat our country the way we have." Our lost soldiers fought for freedom for us but to misuse what we have and it's sad to know that we all have put this country and ourselves in danger.

On another note, there are some prayer requests: 3 gentlman that Charlie works with have some health issues, 1 is in the hospital now and we don't know what's wrong with him so pray that everything is ok there, 1 just got out of the hospital last week (I requested prayer for him a week or so ago)he had a blood vessel burst in his head which caused his nose to keep bleeding he's suppose to return to work on thursday so pray that he's recovering correctly, the other one I also asked for a prayer, he had quite abit of infection drained from his groin area a couple of weeks ago but he's still not feeling good, he goes for a ultra sound tomorrow so please pray that it turns out to be something simple. These are really good fellas who care alot about people and they need some protection. Thank you.

Have a blessed day!

BUSY BUSY BUSY!

Our poor kitty just gets to sit at the window while we are all outside :(. "this stinks" says O'malley

Rojo had a blast outside like he always does. He loves to roll in the grass. No wonder I fights with fleas every summer.

Leesha had a little friend come over for awhile and they played ball. She loves having "company".

Robby got the job of cleaning out the car. Well as of november it's going to be his car so he better learn how to take care of it. hehehehe!

Before Charlie could do the weekly mowing he had to sharpen the blades. I'm so glad he loves his new toy. He bought a john deere a couple of weeks ago.

This is my only flower that I got this year but that's ok they are a little expensive.

Robby and I decided to do some herbs this year. The two in pots are chives and thyme. I hope they do ok.

Sorry I deleted my pic :(

These are 2 cucumbers hills. One is just regular cucumbers and the other one is my pickling cucumbers.

This is what we got done on saturday afternoon. Here's the pic of our garden that we put out, it has lots of tomato plants, we put out some eggplant, green peppers, green onions, and Robby and I found purple sweet peppers, oh yeah and there's fennel in there too. Over on the other side we planted a row of potatoes.

Hope everyone has a blessed and enjoyable weekend.

Busy evening last night and my daughter

Man I was wiped last night! Robby had a weight lifting max out last night at the high school. The family members got go watch the boys and girls lift weights and then we sponsored them, so much per pound lifted. It was hot in there and then it started raining :(. Oh well he ended up getting 35.00 in donations for the football team and weight room so it was worth it. There were alot of white fuzzies floating in the air which set off my sinus', my nose was killing me when I left.
My babies only have 4 days left of school, YEAH!! I love when they are home, but then they get bored and think that they need to go somewhere everyday, boy that's kids for ya uh? Leesha had some difficulty in school this year but we are sending her to third grade anyways, I got her on this website http://www.time4learning.com/ to get her some help this summer ( I think I'm going to have go through the second grade lessons again) then next year she'll work on this to go with what she's learning in school. Extra help! We have a rule that if they don't keep their grades up then they don't get to play sports so she can't play softball this summer, she really doesn't mind though which kinda worries me she has her daddy's attitude "OH WELL". I hope she don't keep it though, I'm trying to get her to setup goals for herself but she's not that interested. It aggravates me though, we study spelling words everyday (tuesday through friday morning) and she knows them when she gets on the bus and most of the time she'll bring home her test with 1 or 2 wrong, I got to the point where I told her that if she missed any she would lose her tv that's in her room. Boy she still trys to push her luck though. Silly kid :) I'm sure she'll get together though. She's definatly my little angel.
This weekend we are putting out the rest of our garden (in this economy we are putting out everything we can) then it's church tomorrow and a graduation party in the afternoon.
Have a blessed weekend and I'll catch monday morning

Good afternoon

Man have I been busy, I didn't get to study my bible the way I like to but I have a friend in need so I think I needed to be there for her. Prayer request: I have a very good friend that is going through a really rough time financially and emotionally right now and needs some prayers. She's thinking about divorcing her husband and really needs some clarification on what to do. So please send up a prayer for Jesus to show her how He wants her to handle this.
I did manage to get some cleaning done today and finished up my laundry. I'm hearing that alot of people have gotten water in their house. Not good. Our basement has been dry but I've not noticed any real heavy down pours either.

I need to go and pick up the kids
Have a blessed evening!

Music list

Good morning world. I just added a new gadget to my blog, please check out the music at the bottom. I'm off to study my bible and I'll be back later today to add some more stuff

God bless and have a great day!

Just a few thoughts

I've been reading a book (yes I can read books and a computer what a mulittasker I'am :)). It's called Between Women of God by Donna Otto. It's a book about mentoring to other women. I've not had alot of positive influence in my life as far as women speaking openly to me about marriage and hardships just general things us women feel and go through. This book is about taking the time to be open and honest with other women about the things that you have gone through and the feelings that you've had and sharing them with other women as encouragment that they are not alone. I wish that I would have been able to have more positive influence in my life with the things that I have gone through. So to all you out there, find someone who needs to hear that they are not alone in this female world, that someone else has gone through things just as them and have had the same feelings as they are. Alot of times we are to embarrassed to admit the things we have gone through or the feelings that we have had. Please know that every feeling and everything that we have gone through can be used in positive ways to help someone else.
God bless you

What a weekend

These are photos of Robby and his buddies paintballing on Sunday. We celebrated his birthday which was back in November, we wanted to go then but it got so cold so quick we didn't make it so we done this weekend. They had a ball! Charlie and one of the other boys' dad went with them and Leesha and I cooked and then walked around taking photos. These photos were taken in the end pow fort, these boys had a blast. Robby and one of the other boys cornered Mr. Adkins and made him surrendor. Then one photo of the satilite was what they called "the radio tower" pretty cool uh? This park that we went to is battlezone. It's a christian park for paintball. Beautiful place and it's not that far from us. Here's the website if ya would like to go.http://www.battlezonepaintballpark.com/ you would definatly enjoy this.

Have a blessed day everyone and I'll see again soon :)

These photos are in the wrong order but hey what do ya expect from a newbie!?! We'll start from the bottom, this is my son Robby with his drivers permit (happy little man isn't he?), the next one is of him taking his test at the BMV, the third is him right after he got his permit we made him drive, the fourth one is dad acting like Robby just scared him. I'll have to admit there were a few scary moments while he was driving. :) kinda surprised me though cuz he used to race alcohol carts (high powered go-carts) at 50+ mph. But he was really nervous driving on the road. He done a good job though once he got the hang of it.