Blog Comments:
** is kinda time consuming to do 2 blogs. But I figured only interested parties really wanted to read what I eat and exercise every day LOL...I do copy all recipes to both blogs :)
Kelly - then I'm NOT even attempting two blogs at the time. Those who don't want to read about the mundane issues of my life can simply skip ahead.....{vbg}
**if you ever want some help figuring out layouts and graphics and stuff with your blog I'd be happy to help as much as I can.Jen in az **
Jen in AZ - I'm going to take you up on your offer. I love the "look" you have created. I wish I could just transport it to blog spot. {G} Maybe I'll have more time to learn how to really build a site this summer. {It COULD happen - though I've been saying that for years!}
*You can also try google Image for your book covers. I do that when I want to copy a pic of a book without that extra stuff that amazon throws on.**
Jen in MO - I'm going to give this a try. I'm not sure how but I should be able to figure it out. Thanks for the tip.
Monday, May 29, 2006
*When Heaven Weeps* by Ted Dekker
Where have I been for the past six years? I can’t believe I missed this author, loving suspense and mystery the way I do. I guess I was busy homeschooling and then the three years in Alaska are a blur…but here I am now. {bg}
It took me a bit but I finally caught on to the underlying themes in *Heaven’s Wager*. At first I read simply for pleasure. As Josiah began reading it, I continued to ponder the plot. {G} I figured out the Biblical story that had been placed in a modern setting. I began this book LOOKING for the Biblical story. What a treat. I refuse to give any of this plot away. You simply NEED to read it. For those who’ve read *Heaven’s Wager*, this is the story of Helen’s early years with her soldier. Now I want to go back and reread HW with Helen’s past firmly in mind. {G}I’ve decided NOT to give this book away. It has to stay with my other “keepers”….right beside my Frank Peretti, Rex Stott and Tamar Myers series. In truth, I want to be sure the kids have the time to read this. I’ll probably begin looking for another copy of *Heaven’s Wager* so that Krista and Bre can read it when they are home. Krista has reading tastes very similar to mine. Bre’s tends to gravitate to the older authors…Jane Austen etc. THIS book was a page turner. It’s the first book in a long while that I couldn’t set down. I’m thrilled to have *Thunder of Heaven* here waiting to read. I also was sent *Blessed Child* from Paperback Swap (hmmm…guess the goal there is to SWAP the books LOL). I think I could recommend this book to just about everyone. Do you love suspense/mystery? You’ll like this book. Do you like romance? It’s in here. Are you a Christian? This will touch your heart. Are you a pre-believer? You’ll be intrigued by this book.
From the back cover: “In a small Balkan village near the end of WW II, a band of soldiers play a cruel game of ultimate stakes with a priest and his flock. Jan Jovic reluctantly participates. But he’s prepare for neither the incredible demonstration of love nor the terrible events that follow.
Now, many years later, that same game will spring to life in Jan’s own heart. He will fall madly in love with the wrong woman. Her name is Helen. Now it’s Jan’s turn to play the game. But there is a price.
Dive into a romantic thriller like none you’ve ever read. Drink deeply of a love that will bring a tremor to your bones. Go ahead, it’’s your turn to play the game. But remember…there is a price. And no one could possibly prepare you for that price.”
*Heaven's Wager* is going to my sister-friend Beth in ID.
I did a bit of research on Ted Dekker. I find it ironic that Tamar Myers (a favorite author of mine) and Ted Dekker (a new favorite of mine) are both missionary kids. Ted grew up in the jungles of Indonesia. His parents John and Helen Dekker were missionaries to a canibalistic tribe. In fact their story can be read in *Torches of Joy* by John Dekker. What fun to make the connections. It's mentioned that he graduated from a "multi-cultural" high school....I bet that means "missionary boarding school" or "international school". I've been wracking my aging mind and I don't believe it means Faith Academy because he would have graduated the year before me and I bet even as busy as I've been I would have noticed a new author with a name of a peer from school days. {G}
I did a bit of research on Ted Dekker. I find it ironic that Tamar Myers (a favorite author of mine) and Ted Dekker (a new favorite of mine) are both missionary kids. Ted grew up in the jungles of Indonesia. His parents John and Helen Dekker were missionaries to a canibalistic tribe. In fact their story can be read in *Torches of Joy* by John Dekker. What fun to make the connections. It's mentioned that he graduated from a "multi-cultural" high school....I bet that means "missionary boarding school" or "international school". I've been wracking my aging mind and I don't believe it means Faith Academy because he would have graduated the year before me and I bet even as busy as I've been I would have noticed a new author with a name of a peer from school days. {G}
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Saturday, May 27, 2006
SATURDAY
The day began with Mike helping John and Melody with their move. I made some waffles for the kids and then took Josiah to work. Jamin was out doing a lawn. When he returned home I drove him over to Mike and Charly’s to weed their flower bed. He made $100 in the last two days. Yippee…he’s almost earned ½ of his trip. I’m so very proud of the way the boys have tackled this. We really thought we’d end up paying for their missions trip since we don’t have a “church” backing us. Back at home, we tackled a few jobs around here. Jared had been mowing the yard – his first time solo. Mike and he then trimmed some tree branches that were scratching on the roof.
Another mystery book showed up in my mailbox.
I had a host of goals for the kitchen today…didn’t reach them all but did keep busy. I got 4 more “waffle mixes” made for next week. I froze another tray of grapes. Frozen Grapes are an awesome summer treat. They are 100% natural popsicles. I also throw them into smoothies. We got a load of apples drying and threw some kiwis in too. I made 3 kinds of salad dressing and a double batch of granola. Jamin ended up watching over this as I ran to the store. Mike came in and suggested a trip to the pool.
You got it – we bought our family pass and spent a couple of hours at the pool. I thought it would be very crowded but it wasn’t bad at all. In fact during the last hour it was just us and one other family in the pool. {G} We chuckled when one of the female lifeguards said, “Alex, I remember you!” Another pool funny… a little girl who looked to be about 9 years old was fascinated with Stacia. She asked, “Can I touch her?” I figured that would be o.k. Then she said, “Is she real?” after touching her. THEN she asked, “Are you her grandmother?” THIS is why I dye my hair and don’t care if it is blonde. :::snort::: BTW contrary to Adrienne’s dire predictions my hair has not turned green yet…but I’m just waiting for it to do so. LOL
Alex (Zander) had a great day today. He’s been “clean” for 6 days now and has been steadily getting more and more “fun, loving and disciplined”. He began it by climbing into our bed for cuddling. He told us he loved us. When we drove Cy to work he told Cy he loved him. He didn’t have meltdowns. He worked the apple peeler/corer/slicer and was proud of the trays of apples. He patiently waited at the pool for me to show up with the passes. He listened and obeyed well at the pool. He PLAYED WITH a new friend, Lilly, in the kiddie pool. I wish I could capture the day.
We rounded out the evening by watching “March of the Penguins” which we got from Netflix. We tried to watch it last night but it kept stopping. Mike discovered it worked fine on our $30 player and so he brought that out and hooked it up to the projector so we could watch the movie. We are really enjoying being able to order movies from Netflix. Last week we watched “Newsies” – a wonderful movie. We have quite few movies in our que.
The day began with Mike helping John and Melody with their move. I made some waffles for the kids and then took Josiah to work. Jamin was out doing a lawn. When he returned home I drove him over to Mike and Charly’s to weed their flower bed. He made $100 in the last two days. Yippee…he’s almost earned ½ of his trip. I’m so very proud of the way the boys have tackled this. We really thought we’d end up paying for their missions trip since we don’t have a “church” backing us. Back at home, we tackled a few jobs around here. Jared had been mowing the yard – his first time solo. Mike and he then trimmed some tree branches that were scratching on the roof.
Another mystery book showed up in my mailbox.
I had a host of goals for the kitchen today…didn’t reach them all but did keep busy. I got 4 more “waffle mixes” made for next week. I froze another tray of grapes. Frozen Grapes are an awesome summer treat. They are 100% natural popsicles. I also throw them into smoothies. We got a load of apples drying and threw some kiwis in too. I made 3 kinds of salad dressing and a double batch of granola. Jamin ended up watching over this as I ran to the store. Mike came in and suggested a trip to the pool.
You got it – we bought our family pass and spent a couple of hours at the pool. I thought it would be very crowded but it wasn’t bad at all. In fact during the last hour it was just us and one other family in the pool. {G} We chuckled when one of the female lifeguards said, “Alex, I remember you!” Another pool funny… a little girl who looked to be about 9 years old was fascinated with Stacia. She asked, “Can I touch her?” I figured that would be o.k. Then she said, “Is she real?” after touching her. THEN she asked, “Are you her grandmother?” THIS is why I dye my hair and don’t care if it is blonde. :::snort::: BTW contrary to Adrienne’s dire predictions my hair has not turned green yet…but I’m just waiting for it to do so. LOL
Alex (Zander) had a great day today. He’s been “clean” for 6 days now and has been steadily getting more and more “fun, loving and disciplined”. He began it by climbing into our bed for cuddling. He told us he loved us. When we drove Cy to work he told Cy he loved him. He didn’t have meltdowns. He worked the apple peeler/corer/slicer and was proud of the trays of apples. He patiently waited at the pool for me to show up with the passes. He listened and obeyed well at the pool. He PLAYED WITH a new friend, Lilly, in the kiddie pool. I wish I could capture the day.
We rounded out the evening by watching “March of the Penguins” which we got from Netflix. We tried to watch it last night but it kept stopping. Mike discovered it worked fine on our $30 player and so he brought that out and hooked it up to the projector so we could watch the movie. We are really enjoying being able to order movies from Netflix. Last week we watched “Newsies” – a wonderful movie. We have quite few movies in our que.
The Pool is Open!
Base pools opened yesterday! This signals the true beginning of summer. There are two pools on base and one out at the rec camp on the lake. We chose the lake. This pool has a small kiddie pool that is 1 ½ feet deep…..then it has a big pool that starts at 3 feet and goes to 8 or 10 feet. There are two slides in the big pool for the kids to play on. The best part is that the seating area and the kiddie pool is under a car-port type shade. Yesterday was also the last day of school so the pool was fairly quiet. It was a good day to go and let the lifeguards get reacquainted with us. I’m praying we can make it through the year without getting kicked out. Of course, that only happened once last year and I suspect that that female will no longer be working….we’ll see.
The a.m. was produce co-op. For some reason we ate less fruit and veggies the last couple of weeks. I’m not sure why. I’ve had several days of eating nothing but fruits and veggies’; I would think our consumption would be up. I ordered a bit less this week. As soon as we were done with co-op I raced to Academy to find suits for Zander, Jared and myself. Charly, a local friend, had called Thursday while I was online ordering from Lands End. She told me that Academy had sports tank top things and tennis skorts that worked well for a suit…and cheaper too. We had about 3o minutes to find the suits we needed. Some of you will remember my swim suit lament from a few months back so I won’t repeat it…..I’ll just say that when I did the Land’s End measurements I needed a size 6 top and a size 12 bottom and frankly I couldn’t quite figure out which size to order…either size could cause problems. :::snort::: The size 14 I bought a few months ago still has TAGS but it is NOT going to work. Mike told me yesterday that it was far too big and saggy (not his words) on top. If anyone wants a modest, 2 -piece, size 14…black with pink piping, swim suit…let me know. OH – the same day that Charly called, Adrienne & Porshe (her daughter) dropped by. Porshe had some racing suits for me to try that no longer fit her. I was sure they wouldn’t fit…but they did. They are a bit “sleeker” in the tush area than I wanted so I needed to either find the suit that Charly was talking about at Academy or a pair of shorts. With 30 minutes ticking down the pressure was on. I wasn’t sure I was finding the tops that Charly was talking about…not sure that anything I was seeing would work. Jared found a suit. Jamin found a suit for Zander and we were down to 10 minutes. I took the tennis skort that I had found in and decided if it worked I’d buy it to wear over the racing suits and I’d try to find another 2-piece type thing later. The shorts I took in to try on were too big. The skort looked cute…until I twirled and bent and realized it was NOT a skort and did not have built in shorts with it….oops. I grabbed a smaller size of shorts on the way to the checkstand and we were out of there, home and on the way to the pool in no time.
It was a fun day at the pool. Kelly, Heather and Adrienne were there with their children. Mike was helping John and Melody move. Yippee – they are getting a 4 bedroom home. I realized I’m going to need much more in the way of pool snacks this summer. We almost downed a 5 lb bag of peanuts in the shells. I have the shelled – no salted kind but at that price I don’t plan to go through 5 lbs of them at the pool. I tried to find more in the shell at Sam’s last night and they were out. Carrots work well for the pool too – they stay crisp. We also had cheddar bunnies and banana chips…..anyway it was a fun day. I was able to get in the water and make some memories with the little ones. We were able to visit and the children played. While I was in the pool I noticed and always pad in the filter. I wasn’t sure of what I’d seen so called Heather over to look. She went and told the lifeguard and the poor young man had to clear the pool and remove said trash. Then we all had to sit for 30 minutes…I think next time I see something like that I’ll wait for the scheduled pool break to say anything. {G} The summer season is off and running.
Jamin has earned $50 mowing yards this a.m. I need to get going and take him to another friends house. He’s going to weed a flower bed for her. Jared is going to help him. Josiah is at work – until 10:30 tonight – another 10 hour work day. Mike is helping out with the move some more today…..
That’s our day so far.
Base pools opened yesterday! This signals the true beginning of summer. There are two pools on base and one out at the rec camp on the lake. We chose the lake. This pool has a small kiddie pool that is 1 ½ feet deep…..then it has a big pool that starts at 3 feet and goes to 8 or 10 feet. There are two slides in the big pool for the kids to play on. The best part is that the seating area and the kiddie pool is under a car-port type shade. Yesterday was also the last day of school so the pool was fairly quiet. It was a good day to go and let the lifeguards get reacquainted with us. I’m praying we can make it through the year without getting kicked out. Of course, that only happened once last year and I suspect that that female will no longer be working….we’ll see.
The a.m. was produce co-op. For some reason we ate less fruit and veggies the last couple of weeks. I’m not sure why. I’ve had several days of eating nothing but fruits and veggies’; I would think our consumption would be up. I ordered a bit less this week. As soon as we were done with co-op I raced to Academy to find suits for Zander, Jared and myself. Charly, a local friend, had called Thursday while I was online ordering from Lands End. She told me that Academy had sports tank top things and tennis skorts that worked well for a suit…and cheaper too. We had about 3o minutes to find the suits we needed. Some of you will remember my swim suit lament from a few months back so I won’t repeat it…..I’ll just say that when I did the Land’s End measurements I needed a size 6 top and a size 12 bottom and frankly I couldn’t quite figure out which size to order…either size could cause problems. :::snort::: The size 14 I bought a few months ago still has TAGS but it is NOT going to work. Mike told me yesterday that it was far too big and saggy (not his words) on top. If anyone wants a modest, 2 -piece, size 14…black with pink piping, swim suit…let me know. OH – the same day that Charly called, Adrienne & Porshe (her daughter) dropped by. Porshe had some racing suits for me to try that no longer fit her. I was sure they wouldn’t fit…but they did. They are a bit “sleeker” in the tush area than I wanted so I needed to either find the suit that Charly was talking about at Academy or a pair of shorts. With 30 minutes ticking down the pressure was on. I wasn’t sure I was finding the tops that Charly was talking about…not sure that anything I was seeing would work. Jared found a suit. Jamin found a suit for Zander and we were down to 10 minutes. I took the tennis skort that I had found in and decided if it worked I’d buy it to wear over the racing suits and I’d try to find another 2-piece type thing later. The shorts I took in to try on were too big. The skort looked cute…until I twirled and bent and realized it was NOT a skort and did not have built in shorts with it….oops. I grabbed a smaller size of shorts on the way to the checkstand and we were out of there, home and on the way to the pool in no time.
It was a fun day at the pool. Kelly, Heather and Adrienne were there with their children. Mike was helping John and Melody move. Yippee – they are getting a 4 bedroom home. I realized I’m going to need much more in the way of pool snacks this summer. We almost downed a 5 lb bag of peanuts in the shells. I have the shelled – no salted kind but at that price I don’t plan to go through 5 lbs of them at the pool. I tried to find more in the shell at Sam’s last night and they were out. Carrots work well for the pool too – they stay crisp. We also had cheddar bunnies and banana chips…..anyway it was a fun day. I was able to get in the water and make some memories with the little ones. We were able to visit and the children played. While I was in the pool I noticed and always pad in the filter. I wasn’t sure of what I’d seen so called Heather over to look. She went and told the lifeguard and the poor young man had to clear the pool and remove said trash. Then we all had to sit for 30 minutes…I think next time I see something like that I’ll wait for the scheduled pool break to say anything. {G} The summer season is off and running.
Jamin has earned $50 mowing yards this a.m. I need to get going and take him to another friends house. He’s going to weed a flower bed for her. Jared is going to help him. Josiah is at work – until 10:30 tonight – another 10 hour work day. Mike is helping out with the move some more today…..
That’s our day so far.
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