And this is me, pretending to be a photographer

Here are some more pictures I took last Monday while Chloe was in ballet.

Window Shopping

Pouty Face

Deep in thought

I like this one.

Going for a walk.

Peek-a-boo

Getting ready to play




Zachary likes to go behind these bars and ask, "Mommy, why you put me in jail?"

I don't know why like this one wo much, but I think it's neat.

This is me, Trying to be artistic

Every time I take chloe to ballet, I let the boys play in a little courtyard area. Every time we go, I think, "this would be the perfect plact to take pictures." The background is simple, & the lighting is great. Anyway... I brought my camera w/me last Monday, & took these pictures:

I love this one. A little boy playing soccer (in a bit of a ballerina pose) in front of the fancy ballerina posters.

Again, I like the contrast of the ballet clothes & the soccer ball.

I mentioned the other day, that I read a book about photography. In it, there was a really cool portrait of some children: 3 or 4 boys dressed in their sports uniforms, standing around their little sister who was dressed in her prissy ballerina outfit. It was VERY cute. this is my attempt to do something similar. it's not near as good as his. that's why he's writing the book and I'm reading it. :)

They're here!

Our caterpillars arrived! Everyone is so excited!

We're naming one of them Bob in honor of Dad for his birthday. Chloe's naming her's Crystal. Gideon's is Madame. And Zachary's is Caterpillar. There's a fifth one, but he's pretty tiny and hasn't moved yet. Not sure if he's going to make it. I guess he deserves a name even if he dies. We'll let Chris name him.

Waiting....

we're all very excited today, because today is the day that our caterpillars will be arriving in the mail. I just checked the status of the delivery on the FedEx webpage. Our package is on the truck to be delivered to our house! I hope it comes early instead of late in the day...

I have to say that it's so fun to track packages with UPS and FedEx...watching them get closer and closer. It's like counting the days down until Christmas. It's fun, too, when you send a package, and you're excited about the person getting it. You can track it on the internet, and then you know exactly when it's arrived. :)

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Today is my dad's birthday. He's 69!!!

Hope you have a great day, Dad. I love you!

FYI

I just started a flickr account for my pictures. I'll put all my "good" wannabe photographer photos here. I'd love to have you come see &let me know what you think. :)

Later, I'll try to put a link to that page on the side. --anyone wanna tell me how to do one of those cool little flickr boxes w/the rotating photos?

Me an the kids

Here are some pictures i took w/me & the kids.

I like this one... It feels poetic. --I just read a book on photography. The man who wrote it said that some of his favorite pictures of children are when they're not smiling....I can see why.

Gideon took this one. Great job, huh?

The Boys

Happy 7th Birthday

~*~*~To Anika!!! ~*~*~

I hope you have a super special day. :) :)

Evy Sleeps

Evelyn's First Word

When Chloe was born, I had all sorts of ideas of what kind of parent I wanted to be, and what my kids would be like. One thing I swore was that the word "mine" wouldn't even be in my kids' vocabulary. I just hate it when kids fight over toys and scream, "MIIINNE!!!". Not my kids...No Way. My kids will be be generous, kind, loving, selfless...


Evelyn just said her very first word the other day. Clear as day. And she hasn't stopped using it since. Can you geuss what it was?? *sigh*

Favorite Biographies

Here are some of my favorite biographies. Even though I read most of these many years ago, I still talk about and refer back them time & time again. They are a part of my life. Thank you Mom, for introducing me to almost all of these books, and making my life that much richer.

Of course, I'll add more as I read more.

The Autobiography of George Muller
Really any biography of him is good. This is just the one I happened to pull off my shelf. I think George Muller is my all-time favorite Christian hero.

Stepping Heavenward by Mrs. E. Prentiss
"One Woman's journey to Godliness" These are journal entries from a young woman's life. Very inspiring.

Tortured For Christ by Richard Wurmbrand
from the back of the book: "Richard Wurmbrand, whose body bears the scars of fourteen years of torture and suffering in a Communist prison, witnessed the indomitable courage and continuing faith of hundreds upon hundreds of Christian believers." Small & easy to read.

Foxe's Christian Martyrs of the World by John Foxe
A must read for every believer. --Really makes you appreciate your faith.

First We Have Coffee and Then We Talk by Margaret Jensen
Great stories about Mrs. Jensen's mother. A lot of it has been inspiring for me as a mother.

Bruchko by Bruce E. Olsen
The story of man who left home at 19 to be a missionary in the jungles of South America.

Chasing the Dragon by Jackie Pullinger
The story of a young woman who ministered to the drug lords of Hong Kong

Prison to Praise Merlin Carothers
The name says it all. Mom gave this to me when I was going through a hard time in my life. --it was very inspiring. :)

My Favorite "Christian Living" Books

okay...here's my new book list with some of my favorite "inspirational books." I have lots of those so I'll probably keep adding as I think of more. :) I did a different section for biographies, but all of them could easily be on this list also. :)

The Shack by William P. Young
A fiction novel about a man who "meets God" after suffering a great loss. There are no words to describe this book, but to say that it brings God & His love to life.

The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee
This book is a must-read for every believer. Mr. Nee is full of wisdom and insight. He explains the basics of Christianity in a very simple, easy-to-understand way.

Practicing His Presence Brother Lawrence & Fank Laubach
Another must-read. About experiencing the life of Christ in a day-to-day, moment-by-moment

Naturally Supernatural Letting Jesus Live Through You by Mark & Patti Virkler
Another must-read. Explains a lot of things from The Normal Christian Life in a simpler, more practical way. A good compliment to that book.

By John Eldredge:
Waking the Dead "The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive"

Wild at Heart "Discovering the secret of a man's soul"
Women should read this book, too, to help them better understand men/boys.

Epic The true story about our lives

Captivating by John & Staci Edredge
A compliment to Wild at Heart. About the beauty of a woman. I think every woman (and every man who loves a woman or has a daughter) should read this book.

Finishing Strong by Steve Farrar
About living a strong life, to the end. Don't begin your life passionately following the Lord, and then become complacent in your later years, like so many people.

The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning
"Embracing the unconditional love of God"

Why Grace Changes Everything by Chuck Smith
The title says it all.

Romans

Our church has started a "school of ministry." (kind of like a Bible college) Chris & I just finished the class on Romans on Tuesday. We learned a lot from the class & really enjoyed it. I think the best part was one of the books our pastor assigned: The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee. It was truly a life changing book. I think I'll have to start a new book list for grown-up books. when I do, that one will be one of the first ones I add.

Anyway...I'm sad the class is over. I really enjoyed getting out of the house once a week, & doing something that was mentally stimulating. On the other hand, I'm excited that it's over, because now I have time to read all the other books on my list. :)

Too young to start tracking cycles

As most of you know, Chloe has precocious puberty which means that she's started going through puberty at too young of an age. The doctor prescribed a shot of 3.5 mg of Lupron to be given every four weeks. --Those shots have been a huge ordeal. But Chloe has gone from needing four people to hold her down, to being excited about it (thanks to some very good bribery on Chris' part).

When we last met with Chloe's doctor, we told him that Chloe was getting a little acne and body odor. So he sent her in for some more blood tests, and told me to mark my calendar when these things happen. His thinking was that they occur right before he next shot, because the medication wears off too early. After the blood test, he said that her hormone levels were still too high, so he's upped her dosage to 7.5 mg per shot.

Here's the interesting thing: The box that holds the shot has a sticker saying that the medication may cause drowsiness. I've never noticed anything, but I've not paid much attention, either. But Thursday morning, the day after she got her shot, I noticed that Chloe did exceptionally well with her reading. She's a good reader, and can read well when she wants to, but it's often a struggle. she whines about how hard it is, and gets distracted after reading just one sentence. But that morning she read right through a whole story with hardly any problem. I've never been able to tell why sometimes her reading is so easy, and other times, it's like pulling teeth. Anyway...after a very easy day of school, her friends came over. And she played with them for awhile, but spent a large part of the time sitting around in the living room w/me and my mommy-friend. My friend commented on how this wasn't like her & asked if she was tired that morning. And then it occurred to me that it might be from her medication. All day long, Chloe was really cuddly & touchy with me. When Chris got home, she preferred me (which *never* happens).

Anyway... I had never related those thing to the timing of her shot, but I think I'm going to start noting her moods in relation to her medication.

What am I doing Wrong?

Okay...I made cookies for Chris yesterday, in honor of our anniversary. But they came out all flat. Before I met Chris, I just threw all the ingredients together and my cookies were always perfect. Now, they're always flat. Someone mentioned that the butter needs to be softened, so i tried that. Then Chris said I make my butter too soft. Then someone else suggested to me that I refrigerate them before cooking. So I made my dough on Wed., and softened the butter just so, & cooked them on Thrs., and they were nice & puffy when I got them out of the oven. And by the time they were cool, they were all flat.

Maybe it's this recipe. Chris likes the Toll House cookies. When I made my perfect cookies before, I used a different recipe. But they turn out fine when Chris makes them. It's become a thing w/us, now, that if we want good cookies made, Chris has to make them. --he even says things like, "well, since I make better cookies, I should do it." It's kind of embarrassing. --especially because we fell in love over *my* cookies. :(

Who needs work when you've got your looks?

When I was running errands today, I saw a homeless man walking around holding up a cardboard sign. It said:

Please Help

I AM UGLY

Animals

I found this great site awhile back, & shared it w/some of you, but now it's up & running again. They've got live cameras all over the world, showing different animals, etc. Right now, I've got 5 up, at a time. If you look on the left-hand side, where it says "cameras," you can click on the different places. I think the best ones are Elephant , Leopard, Tau, Bald Eagle, and Osprey. they take a picture every time there's movement, I think. Elephant & Leopard have all sorts of animals come visit. It's so fun! Today, on the elephant page, we've seen zebras, giraffes, and some other weird things. And the last time we looked, the bald eagle had 2 eggs. Today, there were two chicks!!!

When you watch these cameras, you can click on a button & submit a picture to the highlights page. Every time someone highlights a picture, they show it on the cam tracker.

The one that says Nkorho Stream takes you to a live video in Africa. It's hard to see things there, because it's usually night during our day. If you hit the timing just right, you can see all sorts of things. Plus, it has sound, so you can hear the different animals, etc. Once it rained, so every time i walked into my room I was hearing storms in Africa. Very fun. :)

Cute

A few more pics from the party: Evelyn was feeding bread to Julie, but she kept dropping it down Julie's shirt. So she'd reach in & feed it to her again. :)

Party Pics

Well, I finally got all the pictures from Saturday together. Here they are. :)

Me & Chloe

The Girls

Amanda eats a sausage

Chris & Micah


Jacob


I love this picture of Linda & Evy


Linda, Evy & Zachy

Les & Zachy play catch

"I caught it!"

Zachy throws the ball back

Les

Daniel takes my picture

Amanda & Evy

Gideon

It took awhile for us to light all those candles. I love the look on Chloe's face. :)

Jessica

Chloe got a princess hat for her b-day. :)

Evy wears the princess hat.

Linda w/all her grand babies. We took about 30 pictures of this , and only got this one with everyone looking pretty nice. :)

A new book for the favorites list:

I just started reading In Grandma's Attic by Arleta Richardson. We've only read 2 chapters so far, but I'm loving it! The author wrote down stories of her grandmother's life that she heard as a little child. so fun! Many of the stories also have life lessons in them, which is an added bonus. :)

It makes me wish I were a writer so I could do the same thing w/my grandma --she has so many fascinating stories to tell! Maybe one of my writing relatives like Heidi or Michael would do that... I think one of the greatest gifts that older generations can give to younger ones is in the stories of the lives they've lived. An old person's mind is like a treasure chest, and the treasures are their memories and wisdom. The chest is always open, and you're welcome to take all the riches you want. But when they're gone, the chest is burried. And you'll never have access to those treasures again.

I've also been inspired by the book to make a quilt out of fabrics from special clothes, etc. (what are those called? heirloom quilts? --I think you were making one, Jody?) It's so neat to hear all the special stories that the Grandma tells & remembers w/all the different fabrics. --plus, then it would give me something to do w/all those special baby clothes that I just couldn't part with. :)

Who Are All You People????

I've got this little deal-y that tells me where all of my visitors are from. (if you look at the very bottom of this page, you can see a map). As you can see, I have visitors from all over the world --China, Austria, Hawaii, Spain... So I'm just curious to know who all is visiting, and how you got here. Care to share?? :)

Please add a comment & say hello. :)

Hammock Time

Here are some cute pics of Granny Janny w/the kids. It's so nice to go out there & sit in the hammock & enjoy the outside. :)--Notice the jasmine in the first picture? It smells Sooooo good right now!

Wanna hear a funny story? See how that top bar of the hammock is broken? Well, Chris was sitting in the hammock w/all the kids, just like in that picture. And then he asked me to join him. And I said, "I don't know.... I wouldn't want to break it." But he assured me it would be fine. So I got in...and It was fine. A few minutes later, a friend came over. And Chris invited *her* in. And even though we were both concerned that it could break, Chris was confident. And besides, "Even if it does break. It won't be that bad. We're not that far off the ground." So our friend got one foot into the hammock, & the whole tihng came crashing down. And all the kids were screaming and crying. And all of us had bruises on our butt that lasted several days.

Ten Years Ago

today, on March 22, 1997, I was visiting my grandma on spring break. My school didn't give us access to a kitchen, and I had been craving chocolate chip cookies. So one of the first things I did when I got to her house was make myself a big batch. That evening, as I was sitting in the living room, talking with her, one of her tennants walked in. Grandma intruduced me to him, and he walked back toward the kitchen where he spotted my tasty cookies, and asked if he could have one. So Grandma and I walked into the kitchen and talked to him awhile while he ate my love-cookies. And Grandma slipped out of the kitchen while we talked more. And we talked again in the morning... and the next evening...and the next morning.... and we played cards in the evenings... and we went to the movies...and we went to the beach... and to the mountains....and we fell in love.

:) *sigh* :)