a little bit of this and that...

here is my aj getting ready for his basketball game (i think it's jeremy camp "i'm alive" getting him pumped up!)



and here is my ry playing with his legos. oh how he loves his legos!!




and tonight my amazing husband took me out to dinner at the olive garden. i insist on getting 5-cheese ziti every single time i go. i just hate the thought of trying something else that i might not like because i KNOW i love the ziti!! and it was delish.

my parents watched the boys and we got to have some time alone. then we went to the mall and i got some jeans (aeropostale is having a sale on their jeans - 9.99 a pair! you all know how much i love me a bargain!)

and now i am doing some laundry and getting ready for a crazy day tomorrow. ry has basketball at 9. aj has basketball at 1:30. we have youth group from 3-5, then ry has soccer from 6-8. and as of right now, my poor baby ry is sick. so we'll see what tomorrow brings! i am just thankful. grateful that God has blessed me so much. oh and for all my homeschooling friends. go out and buy this book for your husband. no seriously. do it now. (thank you erika!!) adam read it in one day, and he has been amazingly understanding about everything to do with homeschooling. not that he wasn't before, don't get me wrong. but he said he learned so much.

ok. i guess i'm done for tonight. ry just came into my room, so i guess it's snuggle buggle time.

what are you doing?

click on the picture that says help for haiti to donate to an awesome ministry that my family had the privilege of staying with 2 summers ago.

ps. these are aj's hands :)

creation

aj made this great poster of all the days of creation. it was so awesome how hard he worked on it, and i LOVED the picture he drew of day 7. God resting in a big chair!

i am learning so much about creation vs. evolution in FBI. one thing that was talked about last night in class was this.

The argument from man's conscience and moral nature. *the existence of man's conscience and moral nature demands a self-conscious and moral maker.

1.though man's conscience is often weak or ignored, it nonetheless exists in all men and tell us what we ought to do right. This implies a moral God who planted a moral nature within us.

2.Why would accidental arrangements of molecules have a conscience? why would highly developed animals ever feel guilty when they do wrong?

3.yet the universal presence of guilt evidences the universal moral conscience in the human race. there is a universal fear of judgment and a knowledge that we will one day answer to our God.

(taken from Faith Bible Institute notes Volume I)

i could go on all night, but i won't. just look around you! it would be foolishness to assume that everything in this amazing, intricate, detailed world happened by chance. the existence of this design indicates a...drumroll please...you might not guess this... A DESIGNER!!!! and how amazing that a God with the power to design it all wants to be our friend. amazing thought. how GREAT IS OUR GOD!!

sweet boys

i was just thinking today how blessed i am to have 2 healthy boys. i don't want to ever take that for granted. my boys are so sweet and fun to be around, i just love every second that we get to spend together.

the other night aj had a question for me. he said "if my coach tells me to do something but my dad has already said that it's wrong, what should i do? because i know that the Bible says to obey them that have the rule over you, but it also says to obey your father and mother". you know why i loved the question so much? because he was quoting scripture to me! he realized that it was important to obey God, and he wanted to make sure that he was doing the right thing. i am so thankful for AWANA and sunday school and family members who demonstrate the need to know God's Word! he sees his grampops preaching on sunday, he sees his dad reading his Bible every day (who saw HIS dad read his Bible every day!) and he is already reaping the benefits of hiding God's word in his heart. that is knowledge, and that is something that is lacking so much in today's kids!






remember - OBEDIENCE BRINGS BLESSING!!!

on being humble

i don't think that we think enough about pride. i like the idea of calling sin sin.
here are some examples:

*your husband says something that annoys you
*someone cuts you off in traffic
*someone starts looking at the same rack of clothes when you are shopping (seriously, this always happens to me!!)
*someone says something that hurts your feelings

whenever i start to feel those nasty feelings come up inside of me and make me want to say something i shouldn't, it all boils down to the fact that i don't feel like i deserve being treated that way, right? as if i am so special that my husband should only talk to me in sweet loving tones, asking what he can do for me. i should be able to own the whole road. that i was at this rack first. how could someone ever be so mean as to put ME down and hurt MY feelings?? aren't these just 11-year-old-girlish sounding feelings when you see them written down??

only by pride comes contention. if i am living to think of others as better than myself, and really living that way, none of these things would bother me. i love how andrew murray puts it, and i want to print it out and put it up as wallpaper all over my house to remind myself. i'm not, but i should :)


Humility is perfect quietness of heart. It is for me
to have no trouble; never to be fretted or vexed or
irritated or sore or disappointed. It is to expect
nothing, to wonder at nothing that is done to me,
to feel nothing done against me. It is to be at rest
when nobody praises me and when I am blamed
or despised. It is to have a blessed home in the
Lord where I can go in and shut the door and
kneel to my Father in secret and be at peace as in
a deep sea of calmness when all around is
trouble. It is the fruit of the Lord Jesus Christ’s
redemptive work on Calvary’s cross, manifested
in those of His own who are definitely subject to
the Holy Spirit. - Andrew Murray

let's try it. don't you like the sound of PERFECT QUITNESS OF HEART? i do!

a first...

yay me!! i got my first really nasty ANONYMOUS (of course) comment!! i feel so special. it's strange, because when i blog, i really assume that just my family and a few other people read it. and i assume that those people are on the same page as me. i have "met" some really great people here who have the same loves and passions that i do. but obviously it is a public blog so anyone is allowed to comment. my goal is still the same. i make it my goal to please Him (Jesus). and if that bothers people, it's ok. it's not really me they are mad at. it's funny too, because the blog they were upset about is one that i got the most positive comments from! not only on the comment page but also in my personal email. i am opinionated, but i am 100% convinced that the Word of God is alive and active. i am also convinced that God's Word won't return void. so i will still share and hopefully encourage more people than i offend.

belated christmas

we got to spend some time with adam's sister and brother-in-law and their 2 girls. we haven't seen them since thanksgiving, and they only live a half an hour away!! our schedules are crazy and it's hard to work things out.
anyways, here are a few pictures from our time together.
(including aj talking to nanna on the phone while we were there :) )





ps don't you love his shirt, bridge? he has matching socks too!! oh, and a toothbrush and toothpaste that is all gators!! (thanks nanna!)

saturday craziness

saturday was another busy day. here's a little of riley's basketball game which was at 10



then we had aj's game at 1:30


the final score was...

aj had 12 points. he played great and always has such a great attitude. i always say "let your light shine" before the boys go out to play, and they always do! i am so proud of them and the godly little men they are becoming.

and then here is a little of the boys sledding down the back stairs. hmmm...does that make me a redneck? oh well :)

Faith Bible Insititute

i know i've said it before, but i just love faith bible institute (aka fbi)

adam and i have already graduated from the 3-year college level Bible course and we are going through it again because we love it so much. it is an incredible program that takes you through the entire Bible. It is challenging, it is life-changing and i absolutely love it! i would encourage anyone who lives near me to come and check it out next monday night at 6:30 - just to try it...can't hurt. and if you don't live near me, check out the website and see where you can find one near you. it will change you forever!

praying for haiti

who isn't? it's hard to think about anything else right now.
after spending over a week in haiti i feel so much more attached to everything going on. i remember getting up early the morning we were leaving and looking out the window of the hotel (that has now collapsed)

i prayed that God would protect those people. that God would show me how He could use me in the lives of the people in Haiti.
i can still see the faces of the people in the streets and can't help but wonder if they are ok.


i still pray for tony and nadia, although i do not know anything about them. i just "met" them when they were frantically trying to sell me their goods! my heart literally broke for them. i rolled up the window of my car and just cried. the song amazing love was playing and i couldn't help but wonder how they could ever feel that love!





it seems so hopeless, yet we know that we serve a God of HOPE! hope that is not seen is not hope, of course!! so this is a time when we have to hold on to hope. as Hebrews 6:19 says, "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure".
With God NOTHING is impossible...or hopeless!!
pray for haiti.

so many thoughts...what else is new

i have so many thoughts. i will try and save all my rants for a separate blog.
so for a brief update on the holidays...
we left the tuesday after christmas to go to pennsylvania to stay with my brother and his wife. my parents, and the four of us took my amazing trailblazer down, and it was a good trip. we got there at about 2:30. my older sister erika got there at about the same time, and my little sister melanie flew in about the same time too! there were a lot of us there, and ron and bobbi did a great job of hosting! it was a fast but really great time. we enjoyed some philly cheese steaks (wit whiz)...my dad treated. we sure do love eating :)
there is too much to say so i will just post some pictures.
there was a lot of video games being played...





there were some dance lessons by the most famous arthur murray dance instructor


my mom made her famous molasses cookies...oh they are sooo good! and i've got hips to prove that!


ron made me an amazing drink and some fancy pancakes




then we opened presents





then the tree came down




some christmas carols were sung





and that was that.

inside the mind of a 6-year-old

the conversation went like this

ry: what day is tomorrow?
me: thursday
ry: aahhh..i do NOT like thursdays!!
me: what? why not? (shocked because thursday is one of his video game days!)
ry: i don't like the way it sounds.
me: (trying to keep a straight face) what do you mean?
ry: thu...thurrrr...thursday. (looking at me like...duh!!) it does not sound good.
me: (again, trying so hard to be serious) hmmm... guess it does sound weird
ry: now sunday. that is a good day. ya know. SUN...SUNNNNday. that day is cool. it's awesome.
me: yep. sunday is a great day.

this makes me giggle just remembering back. plus because my little man, who is the sweetest most adorable little blue-eyed boy, was all in his fuzzy penguin pajamas sitting at the table with me and it seemed like a normal conversation. oh i just had to grab him and squeeze him.

behind

i am beind in everything. seriously. i don't know what my deal is. i am behind on my 90 days through the Bible reading, i am behind on the kids assignments, and i am behind on blogging.

still don't have time to blog. and to be honest, my whole entire body is ACHING and THROBBING from snowboarding all day today. so i will just put a couple videos on here for now, and then check on riley again who just started having a sore throat :(

saturday was a busy crazy day. my mel was here - and her and chad and my parents came to join our craziness. ry had his first basketball game at 11.


aj had his first travel basketball game at 1:30 (which i couldn't get video of because of lighting, but i will try to next saturday)
he played AMAZING, and his team did so great. adam did an awesome job of coaching and they started out the season with a huge win.

(aj asked me to take a picture of the scoreboard for my blog!)



ry had his indoor soccer game at 5.


we then had youth group at 7. oh and did i mention that adam coached all three of those aforementioned games?

i could go on and on with everything else that had to get done that night, then of course our sunday's are full (topped off with a PAINFUL loss by the patriots!!) but now it's borderline complaining.
so i'll stop.
God is incredibly good...always. faithful...always. loving...always. nothing else matters. all my hope is in HIM.

have a great night!

aj's game

tried out my new video camera at aj's game last night. i should bring my tripod next time, but it at least gives my family something to watch! the first one is a minute and a half long. the second one is 4 minutes long, and at the very end aj falls and slams his face on the floor! it was awful. he was wearing a head band, and that is exactly where his head hit! isn't God good?? he has a swollen chin this morning, but other than that he is ok.
ps his team won by a lot. :)

christmas 2009

this year's christmas was...white, quiet and peaceful. i have a lot of make-up bloging to do but i will just share a little bit about what happened in our family on christmas morning.

the boys woke up at 7 and brought their stockings into our bed.


they were a bit stuffed, so we couldn't hang them!


then we went downstairs with my parents and made blueberry muffins. we had aj read the passage about Jesus' birth


while riley acted it out with the nativity


then we prayed and started opening gifts. we bought the boys 3 gifts each this year, and i really enjoyed doing that. our kids are really grateful and i love that about them. they have great reactions to what they open and it is so fun to watch them!

this is the first year that adam wasn't able to see any of his family for christmas. it was hard for him. God has blessed us both with godly parents (and grand parents!) and we are so thankful for the relationship that we have with adam's parents who now live in florida. adam's mom made all the boys patriots scarves and they loved them!!



how could i possible end without saying what adam got me?? after everything was opened, adam and the boys said they had one more gift for me. they went to the basement and came up with this!



i have quite the man!!