The Loudest Cat In The World

My cat Dolly is such a loud cat. I'm not sure if this is typical for a cat, but she is so loud sometimes! It is pretty funny at times, but not in the middle of the night! She is quite the quirky cat, but she is such a sweet thing. She drinks water by dipping her paw in her water and licking it off her paw. I should video tape that sometimes! She just turned 9 years old on Saturday. I have had her since she was a kitten, so we have had a lot of years together. Anyways, here is a video of my sweet cat "talking" to me...

Anniversary

Jeff and I got married 14 years ago today. That seems unreal! Today's weather was very much like it was on the day we got married. Sunny and in the 70's. I look at our wedding picture, and we look so young! We were so young!








We had a wonderful anniversary. Jeff took the day off of work, so that made it even better. When we got up this morning, he made us breakfast. He bought me a beautiful azalea for our anniversary, and I can't wait to plant it in the yard. Later in the morning, we went to Lowes and bought a bunch of perennial flowers, bushes and shrubs. We bought them to landscape the area in our backyard around the new window Jeff put in the basement. We also bought a fountain today for that area. Jeff put landscape fabric in the flower bed when we got back to the house, and got the plants ready to plant. Evie helped me weed the front flower bed.






Tonight Jeff's Mom watched Evie, and Jeff and I went out to dinner. We went to a new Italian place, and the food was wonderful. Afterwards we went to a nursery and looked at more plants, and sat and talked while we enjoyed the beautiful weather. Mom took a picture of us today, for our anniversary. I am so thankful for these past 14 years. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful husband. He is so good to me. I couldn't ask for a better husband. He is truly one of the best gifts God ever gave me.

Weekend Fun

It was a beautiful weekend here. My sister Julie is visiting from Nevada, and we got to see her Friday night. Jeff, Julie and I went to see the Ben Stein movie "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" on Friday night. It was a very eye opening movie. Some of it was so sad, especially when the movie showed such a strong link between evolution and atheism. So sad. For any of you who haven't seen the movie, I would highly recommend it.

Saturday was warm and nice. Jeff and I worked in the yard. I weeded my flower bed and got my garden area ready. I want to do a bigger garden this year. Last year was our first year in this house, and I wasn't really ready for a big garden. I just did tomatoes, green peppers, lettuce, and a few herbs. I would like to do more this year like carrots, squash, and more herbs. I had a few really stange weeds in my garden. One crazy weed was absolutely the strangest weed I have ever seen. I have no idea what it was, but it took me about 1/2 hour to get out (it was huge and I needed it out). It's roots were so deep! I dug down almost 2 feet, and it was still rooted. Finally Jeff came and pulled it out. It was over 3 feet long! For those of you with kids who watch Veggie Tales, you will appreciate this. We named it the Rumor Weed :). This is what it looked like while it was still in the ground...

Serious Homeschooling

Yep, it's reeeeeeeeaaaallly serious business at our house when it comes to homeschooling. Can you tell from the picture? I would say we could count this as maybe a science lesson, don't you think? Evie figured out that if she had erasers at the end of the pencils, they would stay in her ears better. Wow, my little Einstein (hey, isn't that a kid's tv show?). She is actually supposed to be writing her letters. Let's just say she was having way too much fun sticking the pencils in her ears :).

We went to Lowe's over the weekend, and they had a kid's workshop where kids could make an ant house. It was really cool actually, and Evie had a blast. She was looking everywhere for ants the past few days, and found about 1000 of them out near one of our small trees this morning. We filled her ant house with sand and ants, and she was fascinated all morning. She put an apple in the ant house, and a leaf. She said the leaf was so they would be comfy when they sleep. Here is a picture of her with her ant house....

She had homeschool gym class at the YMCA today, and after that she decided to free the ants. Maybe she felt bad making them stay inside on such a nice day :). Jeff took Evie out for a date tonight, so I have had some time alone. For Evie's first 4 years of life, I was always with her and never left her. Jeff kept trying to get me to have some alone time, but I didn't take him up on it. I realize now that alone time is very healthy, and I am starting to really enjoy it again. It took me awhile though! I hated it at first because it felt so foreign. Jeff is trying to take her out or completely take care of her at least once a week because he knows I need some breaks. He is so thoughtful :).

Healing School

Our church has something called Healing School every week, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. It is basically a Bible study that teaches you what the Bible says about healing, and it is so encouraging. The healing testimonies I have heard about from our church and Healing School have been amazing. I have seen a few of them first hand. One thing I have found is that churches that believe that scripture teaches that God wants us healed, and that it is God's will to heal see lots of miracles. And I'm not talking about the miracles like a person takes a pill and the pain goes away. I'm talking ones where doctors can do no more for the person, and they have no other hope, and people pray over them and they receive healing. I have talked to many from churches that believe God wants us healed, and they see miracles, huge miracles, on a regular basis. Healing miracles from cancer, heart disease, incurable diseases, diabetes, and more. My pastor's wife was healed of a terminal illness almost 30 years ago. Doctor's gave her no hope at all, and sent her home to die. She started meditating on the scriptures that talked about healing, and she spoke them out loud every day. She was at a women's conference in Oklahoma, and they prayed for healing there. The conference was recorded on tape, and we have actually heard the recording of when she received her healing. She was crying so loud she was wailing, and she was shouting praises over and over to God. There are so many testimonies like this from my church that I have heard in the 4 months we have been there. One guy at my church had a tumor that stuck out of his chest 4 inches, and the doctors gave him no hope because they had diagnosed it as cancerous and inoperable. In 4 months, after having the church pray over him, it completely went away. My friend Sue goes to a church like mine, and she tells amazing stories of healing miracles she has seen. One of her friends had a blood clot the size of a carrot go through her heart. As the woman laid in her hospital bed, the doctors told her beyond a shadow of a doubt she was going to die. The church prayed for her, and within a day she received complete and total healing in her heart. She basically has a brand new heart! She has so many other stories she has shared. It is awesome. My church doesn't just teach on healing. My pastor teaches so much more than that. But they do believe that God is a healing God, and that He blesses! I have learned so much about the Bible since going there. More than ever before.

I go once a week to Healing School with my Mother-in-law, and it is such a blessed time. There is usually a small group of us, most of the time just ladies (probably because it is in the morning when men have to work). I had actually starting going to the Healing School before I started to go to church there, and it was such an awesome study that Jeff and I decided to try the church. We are so glad we did! We have all grown so much at our church. It has helped me to have a hunger for the Bible like I have never had before. At Healing School, I met a wonderful lady named Ida. She is in her 80's and just the sweetest thing ever. She is from Alabama, and has this soft, southern voice. Evie calls her Miss Ida, and she loves her to pieces. Ida received healing from diabetes after going to Healing School. She had had the diabetes most of her life, and had to take insulin every day. Now she doesn't have to take any at all! She is such a dear woman, and loves the Lord so much. Here is a picture I took of us today...








And here is a picture of the group of ladies today. Evie got in on the picture too, even though she wasn't in the room for the study :). My Mother-in-law is the blonde with the blue sweater. She has been such a blessing to me. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful Mother-in-law! We had an awesome study today. One of the ladies shared a healing testimony that happened to her recently that was amazing. We had a wonderful time sharing about the Lord, and learned so much.

Hair toys and updos

I went to Claires over the weekend and got some cool hair toys. I had a gift certificate from Jeff that he gave me at Christmas, and I went to the mall about a month ago and used it at Claires. I ended up not liking anything I got, so I took it all back this weekend at a different mall. I ended up getting more stuff because they had a sale, so it worked out great. The picture at the left is all the stuff I was able to get.

Evie thought it would be fun to do some long hair pictures today. She told me yesterday that she wants to grow her hair as long as mine. I'm not sure she would like it that long, but I guess we will just let it grow and see. She has so much hair! It amazes me because most blondes don't have that thick of hair, especially when they are this young. She has a ton of it, and it is gorgeous. I keep telling her that she is going to be the envy of all her friends when she gets older. I wish pictures would show how thick it is, but here is a picture from today...

It is supposed to be warm and windy today, so I am wearing my hair up today in a rope braided bun. It is supposed to be in the high 60's today, which is so great! It is supposed to be like that the rest of the week. I am wearing one of my favorite hairsticks today. I have a lot of hairsticks that my online friend Fox made me. She makes such beautiful hairsticks, and I am a bit of a hairstick addict :). Here is a picture of how I am wearing my hair today. Evie actually took the picture. I thought she did a great job!

Crazy weather

I'm thinking I am going to become a weatherman. I think I can predict the weather better than they can! Boy have they been WAY off lately. It hasn't helped that this has been the weirdest winter and spring I can ever remember. Today was supposed to be cold and rainy. I woke up, and it was sunny and 60 degrees. Evie and I took a super long walk today with Sierra. We walked twice around our subdivision, which is a mile. For little Evie, that is a long way! I was so proud of her. I am going to try and do that every day (unless the weather is bad). It is so good for all of us. We came back to the house and cleaned. Evie was my helper today. She helped me clean the bathrooms, dust, vacuum (she ran the swivel sweeper over the tile floors), and she helped me with the laundry. I got so much done today, and it felt great! After we got all that done, it was only noon, so we ate lunch and then went back outside. We threw frisbee to Sierra, and I tried to get a picture of her catching it. She actually gets airborn and gets all her legs off the ground trying to catch it. I wasn't able to get a good picture of her in the air. She is too fast! Here is one of her just catching it and coming back down from the air..









I got a few pictures of Evie playing outside. She loves the trampoline, and goes on that a lot. She is also my little tomboy. She loves worms, and the whole time we went for our walk today she kept trying to save the worms that were on our road :). They were everywhere because it had rained last night. I took a picture of her with her worm (which she named "Wormy"). She finally buried it in my flower bed so it wouldn't die. I have been typing this post for about 15 minutes, and during this time it went from super sunny, to pouring down rain, to super sunny. Very weird weather we are having!

Jeff and I are going out on a date tonight. Yippee!!! It has been way too long since we went out just the two of us. We finally found a babysitter here, and we would like to start going out once a week. We really need that. We are going to go out to eat, and then we are going to go to Lowes and look at fun stuff for the house. We are wanting to landscape the back yard, and so we are going to look at plants and fountains. It should be super fun :). I am really excited that we get to go out. I kinda feel like this....

Identity

I haven't posted in a week. I've had trouble putting my thoughts into words lately. I have been in a bit of a rut I guess. I keep trying to get into a schedule, and then I end up not following it. Jeff was talking to me yesterday about it, and he said that I am so task oriented that I am not allowing myself time to have fun. He does have a good point. Our pastor spoke Sunday about joy, and how we tap into that joy with the help of the Holy Spirit. I know that I don't seem joyful a lot of times, and I have so many reasons to be joyful! Just the fact that Christ is my Savior should bring me joy! I know that the more time I spend with God, the more I will find joy. He is the joy giver!


I think that moms can sortof lose their identity sometimes, and that can be a joy stealer. Before Evie was born, I was so adventurous. When I was 19, I took a job as a nanny and moved to Wyoming. I loved being outdoors, and actually wanted to be a park ranger for Yellowstone. When Jeff and I got married, he also was very adventurous, and we ended up moving to South Dakota after being married for a year. We lived in a camper about 9 miles from Mount Rushmore in the middle of winter. Boy do we have stories to tell! It seems that I have lost a lot of my adventurous spirit, and I want to get it back. I want Evie to know me as being someone who is fun loving and exciting. Not someone who is boring and dull. I can say that I have grown up a lot, and that part is good. I don't want to be the immature person I used to be. But I do want to be adventurous again. I'm not sure how to get that back. Skydiving maybe? Just kidding. I guess I have this person that I want to be in my mind, and I don't know how to make that happen. Maybe it is too high of an expectation. I think I want to be this mega spiritual, super fun homeschooling soccer mom that is a creative genius and is 100% fun and excitement. I guess you could say that is high expectations. I look at some other homeschool moms who seem to have it all together, and I so want to be like that. Can you hear me sighing? I have retyped this post about 50 times, trying to put my thoughts into words. I must be having writers block. Maybe I will be able to put things into better words tomorrow.

Random pictures

Evie looked so cute today, so I wanted to take some pictures of her. Of course, she didn't want to have her picture taken without the pets :). Sierra is doing well with her training so far. She hasn't been barking nearly as much, which is great! It has been beautiful that last few days, but very cold. I am looking forward to warm weather!

Evie decided she wanted to try to take a few pictures too. She loves when I lay my hair over Dolly so she looks like she has long hair :). I thought Evie did a good job of taking pictures.