Depth of insight
September 25, 2007 
I don’t know about you, but when I was younger I had a major crush on the cutest boy in school. I would look at him from afar and think of how dreamy he looked and so, of course, must be. From what I saw, he looked good in a pair of Levi’s, and that was about the depth of my 15 year old mind as far as “love” was concerned. My best friend, Laura, and I had a name for him. “The butt”, yeah, we were deep like that. I imagined him as a Carey Grant type, so suave and debonair.
As my high school years went on I actually got to know this guy a bit more through classes. We started conversing and suddenly I realized, this guy was not the brightest crayon in the box. In fact, talking to him was rather like talking to a writing object. Yeah, that bad.
See, I had been deceived by looks. I was looking at the outside instead of his heart and mind and being concerned if he even cared about Christ.
How unimaginably different does Paul exhort us in Phillipians 1: 9, “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight.” He wants us to know Christ and so love Him more and more. And, it’s so true, the more I know Him, the more I fall in love with Him. How could I not fall more in love with this God who is faithful, kind, overflowing in wisdom and most of all, desiring to be in relationship with me?!?!
Now, it’s just the doing it that I have to work on…
Saturday Photo Hunt – Paper
September 22, 2007 
Not my favorite scrapbook page ever but it’s my most recent thing I could think of for paper. Just a bunch of concert tickets as a reminder from all the concerts I went to in the summer of 2000.
I’m looking forward to seeing all of your paper ideas!
To join the hunt, go to http://tnchick.com
Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat…
September 20, 2007 
OK all, do you realize that we are now only just over 3 months shy of Christmas? Where in the world does the time go? I feel like it was just yesterday that the peanut was having her first Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Birthday, Easter…and now we are starting the season over.
I love the holidays and the gift giving that it brings. I love that look on my friends and families faces as they open a well thought out gift that they will enjoy either short term (i.e. chocolate) or long term (say, hmmm, my iPod!). It’s just such a fun time!
In my family we also like to give gag gifts to everyone. Something the person did over the last year that can be easily said with just that silly something found at a flea market, CVS or often these days, online. Particularly now that I live in the boonies, I do all kinds of shopping online. You can get anything on here folks, I’ve even bought a car online before…yeah, I’ll have to share that tale sometime. Funny story by the way! Leave it to me…
The only problem with buying online, particularly if you are buying direct, is that you have to pay full price for things unless you have a coupon code. I’ve found there are places you can go and find them, but never in one place…well, today that has changed! Yeah, I found the place!!
It’s called the Coupon Chief!! Click on that link to go there.
I could totally get my sister this gourmet coffee basket from Target Deals with the $5 off $50 coupon. How cool is that?
Or wouldn’t Michael be so suprised to find the PDA he wants in his stocking Christmas morning? There’s a code from Best Buy Deals for 10% off of them people! Very cool.
And tell me Ellie Mae would not look adorable in this for Halloween? We don’t have a Petco, or any other pet store anywhere near us so I’d have to order it online anyway.
Petco Coupons has free shipping code for orders of $50 or more. I don’t know about you but free is my favorite price.
Anyway, at the risk of sounding too commercially, I’m going to stop now…and start shopping! Woo hoo!
Later taters.
The dog days of summer
When you put pictures on wordpress, it takes up crazy amounts of space so I thought I would put a slideshow in instead. That barely takes up any memory at all.
They are pictures of the last few days at our house. It’s been really great weather, a little chilly on Saturday but actually quite nice. We went to a little country type wedding reception. They had gotten married at the justice of the peace and had a limited amount of friends and family over to celebrate. Everyone brought some food and it was just a nice day altogether. I thought it was quite sweet and felt honored to be invited.
On our way back home we stopped to get the peanut some Chik-Fil-A and there was a pet store right by. Michael wanted to go look at the dogs, just in case. He feels like Ellie has been lonely since the other dog ran away and my dad’s dog (who we had been watching the week before) left. So, I got suckered into taking this dog. He is actually a sweet dog, between one and two years old, loves the peanut like crazy! Unfortunately he’s kind of gangly and knocks her on her tooshy all the time. He also enjoys snacking on her toys. The real issue comes though with the fact that he won’t leave our chickens alone. I mean this guy is obsessed with them. And, he’s teaching Ellie to do the same. So, he may be going back from whence he came…we’ll see.
Yesterday we had a church picnic, which was really nice. I love those times of fellowship where everyone is relaxed and just hanging out. I made one delicious apple pie too. I always do that for the fall picnic. So, so good!
Today the peanut and I went to the library for storytime. That’s always a nice time for us to get to know other kids and get some good reading in.
Tonight I’ve got steering committee meeting for MOPS. I’ll be glad to jump right into it and get to know some of the girls better. It should be fun!
I hope you are all doing good as well!
God bless you today.
Ain’t No Cure For the Summertime Blues
I know I haven’t been posting much lately, besides some pictures and memes. Life just seems to get away from me at times. I get so busy with just the day to day and suddenly it’s the next day.
Thank you to everyone who left messages about the peanut and her foot issue. I really do appreciate your support and concern. It is such a beautiful thing that you can find people from all over the place to support and, albeit it virtually, hug you when you are down.
We have been enjoying lovely weather this week. It has been hovering 
around the high 70’s, low 80’s and I am loving every last minute of it! Just fabulous I tell you! It was so hot here in the summer, even up to last week and then suddenly the temperature dropped. Our windows have been perpetually open and we’ve been outside constantly. It’s been great!! The only downside is suddenly flies and mosquitoes have appeared out of nowhere. It’s like they’ve come from hibernation. For some reason those mosquitoes love the peanut’s face and the flies love my bedroom. So, she’s got red dots all over and I’ve got little black carcasses all over. Yeah, good times!
Two days ago we thought we had another beagle. Someone had found one, couldn’t take care of it that night, left it at our house and no one was claiming him. We named him Riley, after James Whitcomb Riley, the poet. I took him to the vet the next day to see if he had a chip, which he didn’t, and the vet checked him over. Very thin beagle and he thought he probably had worms. Also, he was barking a lot during Lilla’s nap times and digging holes by the gate. We live on a very busy state road so that is really dangerous. So, we were going to take him to animal control this am when I let him out to do his business and he took off. What the heck? Maybe he knew… Oh well, we were glad we didn’t have to do that to him and maybe he found his way home.
I’ve also been getting my scrapbook stuff all organized and in it’s own space. I am so excited to actually have a place just for me! It’s so fun to have it all organized and not just dumped in a drawer. It has taken me awhile to get it even as good as it is, I can’t imagine if I really go on an organizing binge!
So, that’s what has been up with us. We’ve just been keeping busy doing…stuff. 
Thanks for stopping by, God bless you!
Saturday Photo Hunters
Theme: Plastic
The peanut seriously loves this plastic ball that is nearly the size of her! We have so much fun just tossing it back and forth, bouncing on it or kicking it around our yard. Thank you Wal-Mart!
To join the hunt, go to http://tnchick.com!
Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes
So as I said 2 posts ago, the peanut finally got her orthotic shoes. I found out the root cause of all the problems is that she has flat feet. No arches. Now, most babies/kids aren’t developed yet, but hers are a more drastic, she will never have arches kind of thing. So, what does that mean? Well, it means she walks with a bit of a slant inward, so on the inside of her feet. This causes balances problems and will eventually hurt the cartilage inside her knees. So, she is probably going to be wearing the little braces (you can see them beneath her shoes in the above picture, they have bumblebees on them) under her shoes for the next five years or so. After that she will probably always have to wear arch support in her shoes.
I cried when I came home from the doctor. I hate that my baby has to go through the pain of being “different” than the other kids. I mean I know relatively speaking this is seriously nothing to be concerned about, but kids are cruel. She will surely be made fun of at some point for it. They are pretty noticeable, after all. Her cousins were asking about it yesterday when they saw her.
The other really stinky part of it is that she will never be able to have the cute little girly shoes. She is stuck wearing big fat tennis shoes that are a size too big for her anyway just to fit those things inside. They really don’t even fit as it’s totally stretched out and the velcro barely reaches from one side to the other. I know this is totally vain of me, but I love that the peanut is a girl. I love dressing her up and having her be all pretty. It’s hard to look pretty in big fat tennis shoes that don’t match the size of your body. Ugh! I really do know this is stupid, but it’s hard for me. She has to wear the orthotics for 6-8 hours a day, the busy hours, so to church I’m still going to have her wear pretty shoes. She’s a girl, what can I say, I want her to live like one.
I think I really need to remember the passage, 1 Samuel 16:7 – “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
Amen to that!!
Saturday Photo Hunt – Music
Theme: Music
I’ve been meaning to post this so I’m glad the theme gave me a chance this week. I just got this last week, and can I just tell you how much I LOVE it!! I know love is a strong word, but I’m telling you, the iHome is such a great invention. I use my iPod even more now and can listen to Christian radio whenever I’m in the kitchen or elsewhere in the house or on the deck. We found it on sale for 1/3 of the price it usually sells at, which is why we finally broke down and bought it. Up to now we just couldn’t afford it. I can tell you, it’s worth every dollar. If you have an iPod and spend any amount of time at home, you should really no consider one of these!
Now, I think Apple should pay me for that PSA!!
Happy hunting everybody!
For other entries go to www.tnchick.com!
