10 Smile Tuesday
March 26, 2008
Filed under Ten Smile Tuesday
Tags: Amy, Holiday, Life, Ten Smile Tuesday
So here we are again. I can’t believe it’s been a week already since I’ve blogged. We have been pretty busy around here lately though, so lots can explain it though. Some of my smiles can to so here goes…
1. Lunch. On Thursday after storytime at the library my best friend took the peanut and I out for lunch to celebrate my birthday. That was a nice suprise and always such fun to spend time with her and her daughter, who is the same age as the peanut.
2. Coloring Easter eggs. Yes, it was messy with two 2 year olds, but still a sweet time and a walk down memory lane. It had been years and years since I had done that and it was fun to watch the girls do it for the first time.
3. Time with Maddie. The peanut’s cousin is 6 months older than her and they just love, love, love each other. On Saturday we took her to my parent’s house with us and the girl’s just played and laughed, well, and fought some too. But it’s just so neat to see them growing into little girl’s that love each other.
4. Sunday’s sermon. Wow! Wow! Wow! My parent’s preacher really preached the gospel and the need for evangalism in his sermon. I was bowled over by how good it was. I know it touched my heart, I hope it touched many others too!
5. Easter bonnets. I got the girl’s Easter bonnets from the dollar spot at Target and they were so adorable in them! Very few people where them anymore so it was so cute to see everyone’s reactions when they walked into church. And, how proud the girl’s were of those $1 hats!
6. Easter egg hunt. The peanut has never had one before and it was so fun to watch her in a bit of confusion but still thinking it fun, to go on the hunt! Maddie searched like a pro though and had a blast too!
7. Easter dresses. How fun to dress up the girl’s in their prettiest dresses of the year. They looked so fancy and fun! The peanut’s dress is one of those you’d only wear for Easter or a wedding so this was probably it for the dress. 
It was so cute!!
8. Dancing. After getting ready for church I came out to find my stepdad dancing with the girl’s. It was so adorable to see the laugh’s and giggles on their faces!
9. Biscuits. It was just the easy way with bisquick, but the peanut and I made them for the first time and she loved it. She is becoming quite the cook lately and independent to boot. There was a lot of, “I do it!” going on!
10. Water softner. We have well water, for which you really do need a water softner and we haven’t had one since moving in this house. Well, this past week we found out we have to get one, and it was going to be over $1000 for it. We had it ordered when Michael talked to a guy at work and he said he had an almost new one that he bought and then decided he didn’t like soft water and we could have it if we wanted it. I’m still in disbelief over that!! I’m so thankful for God’s provisions!!
What are you thankful for this week?
March 25, 2008 
Ten Smile Tuesday
March 19, 2008 
Here we are, another Tuesday already. I thought I would start early before I forget. Here are my smiles for the week:
1. On Sunday night, as we were driving from church to Wal-Mart in the back seat we hear a little voice singing the entire words to There’s Just something about that name. Without prompting, nothing, the entire song! Pretty cool for a child that just turned 2 last month! More than that though is just the warming of my heart. It was the loveliest rendition I ever heard!
2. Last night we had a ladie’s tea for St. Patty’s day with the women at my church. It was nice to get to know people better and spend some time with a 93 year old woman! Oh, the stories she has to share!
3. Corned beef and cabbage yesterday. Michael doesn’t eat cabbage and I love it so it was so nice to enjoy it yesterday!
4. Spring. It starts in 2 days people! It doesn’t completely feel like it here yet but the grass is really starting to grow again so it’s on it’s way, I know it!!
5. On Friday night the peanut and I turned on our Laurie Berkner DVD
and just danced around our living room laughing and chasing each other. It was just so much fun and exactly how I want her to remember her childhood!
6. Easter decorations. I love the lighter colors and the bunnies all over the house, it just lightens up my world and makes me smile!
7. Girl scout cookies. I got mine finally on Sunday and I’m telling you, oh my goodness, so worth the wait. I’m glad I only ordered 3 boxes though, they are so addictive!!
8. Telling the peanut about the real Easter story. Although she can’t completely get it, she’s on her way and it’s thrilling!! The bible says that a knowledge of God is placed in all of our hearts, even the rocks cry out to him, isn’t that wonderful to know?
9. The baby bunnies, rabbits and ducks we visit at our local feed store. I mean really, what is not to love about new life? It’s beautiful!!
10. This week in church we sang a song that I just love. Humble King. If you don’t know it, you should. It just really touched my heart. There’s a line that says, “You are the God of the broken, the friend of the weak, you wash the feet of the weary, embrace the ones in need.” I mean really, what is not to love about such a God?
Have a good week all!
Amy
Wrapped Around My Finger
Ugh, ugh, ugh….I’m just saying. So as if the loss of three months of pictures was not bad enough, oh do I have something that could top that by about ten BILLION (and yes, I mean BILLION) miles. On Thursday the peanut and I were running around town all day, you know, the library, the feed store to see the baby animals, groceries, Goodwill, all that good stuff, and then back home again to play outside while the weather was still warm. I was out taking pictures and having fun, came inside to put the peanut down for a nap, starting vegging to Reba when I suddenly noticed something missing. And when I say something, I only mean THE most important piece of jewelry I’ve ever owned. Yeah, my wedding/engagement set. It’s gone. And I mean gone. I did not take it off. I am sure of that. It wasn’t loose. How did it get off my finger? Not a clue I say. Not a clue. The only guess I even have is that since the peanut is always falling, maybe at one point I reached down to pull her up and her little hand pulled it off my hand. That’s all I got. I have called all around, put an ad in the paper, searched the VERY LARGE yard a million times. It’s gone. And, I’m just devestated over it. Clearly, I mean who would ever wish their wedding ring gone. I really wanted it to be the peanut’s one day. It’s just crushing. I just keep praying it will turn up. If you want to join me in prayer, why that would be super swell of you!! I think we are going to try to get a metal detector (they are like $200!!!) to try searching the yard. It’s still just unbelievable to me that this could happen. So, that’s the bad news for this week.
The good news, is that I won at the blog party again this year! Woo hoo! Last year I won a $15 gift card to Starbucks. I was number 100 out of nearly 1500 and I got an even better prize than last year. How this happened I have no idea. People must not have understood how super swell the prize is. You can go to Who Can Ask For Anything More, check out her page and see how terrific it is. A super cute bag, 3 cookbooks, and a totally terrific part, a $25 gift card to Target. Woo hoo! Mama needs a new pair of shoes! So, there is good news in an otherwise not so great week.
How was yours?
My Party Post
For my party post from 5 Minutes for Mom go to http://amysblahblahblogging.blogspot.com
There’s Something about that name
Every day at naptime and bedtime, the peanut has a real struggle going to sleep. She fights it and, to say the least, is not happy about it. So, we’ve created a routine that we turn the lights off, grab her baby and bankie (blanket) and cuddle up with her in the chair and sing praise and worship songs to her. It’s always just been a sweet time of worshipping God and thanking Him for the good things in our lives.
One of the songs I sing to her is There’s Just Something About That Name. An old song I learned many many moons ago when I was a little girl. For those who don’t know it, it goes, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, There’s just something about that name. Master, Saviour, Jesus, like the fragrance after the rain. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, let all heaven and earth proclaim, Kings and kingdoms will all pass away, but there’s something about that name.”
Well the other day as I sat singing to her, she sweetly looked up at me and said, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.” So, I started singing the song to her and you can not imagine how my heart melted when as I sang to her the words, “Master, Saviour, Jesus.” came out of that child’s mouth. I cry even now as I think of it.
Thank you Jesus, that you are already placing a love for you in my child’s heart. Thank you for answering and hearing our prayers. My own heart sings out to you, my wonderful Jesus!
Ten Smile Tuesday
My friend, Amanda, over at http://theyakfamilyblog.blogspot.com, does this thing called Ten Smile Tuesday. I’m pretty sure she made it up herself. It’s just a great way to remember your blessings, at least once a week. After my last post, I thought maybe I should do that to show I really do have much to be thankful for. So, here goes…
1. Although we had a serious problem getting the peanut to smile and take pictures both times at the studios, there were a couple of cute ones that I’m excited to receive next week. I’ll post them once I get them, but they are adorable, ecspecially when put together! She’s playing peek a boo!
2. Saturday we had dinner with some of my husband’s co-workers, a Turkish meal of Gyros and other yummy stuff. It was nice to get to spend some time with people from another country and the other couple who was there, which are Christian friends of ours.
3. I don’t normally go to my in-laws, just because there are always tons of people there and it makes me a little anxious, but after the pictures on Friday, we were in the neighborhood so I decided to stop by. I didn’t call first so everyone was so happily suprised to see me, it was a really nice feeling for everyone to call out, “AMY!!” when I walked in.
4. Being healthy again. After our family being sick for so long it has been wonderful for us all to feel just normal again.
5. Lemon cake. I made it for Saturday’s get together. A yummy bundt with a lemony frosting that was just fabulous. My husband said the ladies from work went on and on about it so he’s insisting I make another one this week. That’s a nice thing to hear!!
6. Shopping alone. On Sunday I dropped Michael and the peanut off at his parent’s and just ran around shopping for nothing really. It was just so nice to spend some much needed time alone where I could just look and veg out. I love days like that as they are just so few and far between.
7. New sheets. I know it seems small but I really love clean, white sheets. We buy ones that are like soft t-shirts from Target and we love them. The dogs are always jumping on the bed so there were a lot of marks on the old ones that bleach wouldn’t even take out so when they went on sale this week I was all over that action. Good stuff!
8. Carrie. I have a friend named Carrie that I can just call to say hi and we can talk forever about everything and nothing. That happened yesterday and it just made me really happy. I love having a friend like that.
9. Spring. Sunday it was so incredibly warm out, it really felt like Spring. It was so nice to have the sun on my face and the window rolled down. It was really fabulous!
10. Tax return. We found out ours would be enough to pay for the siding we need to replace on our new house so we’ll be getting it fixed soon. Between what is left over and my husband’s bonus, we will be able to pay off the car too! Yahoo! We just bought it a few months ago and had not had a car payment for quite some time before that so it’s nice to not have one again. It’s just really a load off of us. There really is something to be said for buying older cars!!
So, thanks Amanda for this idea, it was nice looking back and having things to smile about today!
For the rest of you, what can I smile with you about?
Bye, Bye, Bye
I actually do have a good excuse for not blogging in so long this time. Last Wednesday, I was rushing and I turned off my laptop with the button instead of the start menu and I found out, you should never, ever, ever do this. A file got corrupted and I lost EVERYTHING. Included in that everything were over 3 months of pictures. Pictures that can never be replaced. Christmas, New Years, Thanksgiving, Birthday…it’s just heartbreaking to me. I am thankful that I have this blog as I’ve put some pictures out there but the last few months I’ve been pretty bad at blogging so it doesn’t even touch the amount of pictures I lost. And, I have been so good at taking pictures of Lilla every week since she’s been alive and all those photos are just gone. I wonder in some way if the Lord was teaching me to be humble because I was really proud of that. And, I defintiely believe that pride comes before a fall. It certainly did in this case.
It kills me to think about it. Fortunately I figured out I had videorecorded Christmas morning here when Lilla first came down the stairs and opening some presents. That was the part that really killed me to lose because I put no Christmas pictures on my blog and it was our first christmas in our house. I was just devestated so figuring out about the camcorder really gave me some peace.
For those who are wondering about recovery, we tried. It didn’t work. We could have paid Best Buy $500 to try a different way but it wasn’t a guarentee and we honestly couldn’t have afforded it even if it was a guarentee. So, we had to wipe the drives clean. It took Michael a couple of days to wipe it and then put the stuff I needed back on it but here I am again, blogging. With a heavy heart though, with a very heavy heart.
Here’s more of an update on everything else:
Sickies: It’s finally over for our family. Everyone is healthy again and it is beyond wonderful to say that. It’s hard to want to leave the house now knowing how many other people are still sick. I can just feel the germs a crawling.
Photos: Friday I went to get the peanut’s two year picture taken. It didn’t go well. So unwell that I refused to even look at them. Today we went to try again. It was about the same. We did get a couple of good ones in this time. Unfortunately they were in her play outfit, not the lovely dress that I couldn’t wait to get her picture taken in. I will post them once I get a hold of them next week.
Time Away: Michael and I did get to have a one night getaway last week. Full paid for at a really nice hotel and restraunt downtown and breakfast in our room in the morning. It was really a lovely time and a good time of refreshing. Besides, of course, being the night I lost all my info, it was really perfect.
Spreading the Word: We are starting a new Sunday night evangalism course at our church and it is really good. We are so excited about it and how it is already lighting a fire under our tooshes. I’m not sure why but I sure get energized when I let God work through me.
So that’s the news from this end, I will be trying to visit sometime soon. Drop me a line and let me know how you are doing too!
