Happy 22nd Birthday Christianna Joy!

Christianna and Joshua, Dec. 20, 2012

Our oldest and youngest!

22 years old!

It was our joy to welcome little Christianna Joy into this world on December 20, 1990, five days before Christmas.  What a gift she was!  She was not expected until mid-January, but God decided to send her a little sooner; a month earlier, in fact!  Only weighing in at 6 pounds and 7 ounces, she was just a tiny bundle of joy, but oh, such a sweet one!  Our home became full of fun and happiness as we watched her grow and develop.  One thing that stands out from all others was Christianna's attraction to books.  At a very early age, she would pick up books and pretend she was reading them.  It would only be gibberish, but she seemed to be having the time of her life "reading" the books.  Later, she would make up her own stories while "reading" the books.  It was no longer gibberish, but words.  Finally, the day came in Kindergarten, when she could actually read the words.  She then would write her own little books with pictures and words.  I still treasure these to this day!  She has a very creative mind and is quite artistic.  She continues to enjoy reading and drawing, but has become a great writer as well.  I am often amazed with her ability to make a simple paragraph sound so professional!  God has given her many gifts!  I pray she will continue to use these for Him!  

More Answers to Prayer!!

I cannot believe Christmas is almost here!  I have not done any Christmas shopping since Thanksgiving weekend.  My days have been filled with other busy tasks ... finishing up a class (I'm done - yay!), organizing a church Christmas program, hosting a Christmas open house in our home, accompanying our oldest son on his doctor visits, and so on.  

Not only will Christmas be here in a week, but Christianna's birthday is creeping upon me and will be here before I know it.  She will be 22 years old on Thursday!  Wow!  That is a hard one for me to swallow.  Where has time gone?  Anyway, she has requested an oatmeal pie (yum!).  I still need to inquire as to what else she would prefer to have on the menu of her special day.  I am just hoping it is not brats and broccoli (as she has requested before - ugh!)!  But, if that is what she wants, it is HER special day, so I will sacrifice ...  haha!

Christianna - 1 day old - Dec. 21, 1990

Christianna with Joshua a couple years ago

A couple weeks ago, I put some eggs on the stove to boil.  After turning the burner on, I set about doing other things in another room.  When I walked out of the room, it smelled horribly strange in our house.  I walked to the kitchen only to discover gray smoke billowing from our stove.  I immediately realized I had turned on the wrong burner; one with a cover on it (electric stove).  Oh no!  What should I do?  Of course, turn off the burner might be smart!  haha!  Nothing was destroyed except the burner cover, thank the Lord!  I have been praising Him for answering prayer and not allowing our entire house to burn down due to this incident.  I already have shared about our answer to prayer for Nathan's cyst area in his mouth.  Then, most of this weekend and today, I have had a horrible, almost unbearable migraine headache.  I have taken pills time and again which would relieve it a little, but not take it away.  When the pills would wear off, the headache was back with a vengeance.  Tonight, I didn't know what I was going to do.  I felt like my head was being cut in half!  The pills were not relieving the pain at all!  We had family devotions and James told Joshua to pray for Mommy to get better, which he did.  Later, James was having private devotions with Joshua before he went to bed.  On his own, Joshua once again prayed for me to get better (I had been praying too, not knowing what to do).  Not long after this, I realized, my headache was suddenly gone!!!!  I believe God answered my little boy's prayer!!  God is so good!  Joshua and I talked about Jesus answering his prayer before I tucked him into bed.  He doesn't quite understand it all yet, and had a lot of questions, such as, "How did Jesus answer the prayer, cuz' he is not here?"  "I cannot see Him."  Awww .... he is so cute, even if he is a livewire!  haha!  Well, I just had to share those specific answers to prayer.  We have experienced others recently as well.  I must say it again; God is soooo good!  I love Him so much!  

Hope you all are having a joyous Christmas season, and are remembering the reason of the season.  Please feel free to share some of your answers to prayer in the comments.  I would love to hear about them!

God Answers Prayer!

Yesterday found Nathan and I traveling to the oral surgeon's office for another appointment to check on the area where the large cyst was removed six months ago.  The surgeon has been hoping that the area will fill in so no further procedures would have to be done.  The first three month appointment following the surgery did not show improvement.  The area had barely filled in, and we were very concerned!  However, yesterday's appointment proved to be so much different!  I was praying and asking God to please let that area be filled in, so nothing else would have to be done.  Yep, you guessed it!  God ANSWERED prayer once again!!!  He is sooo good to us.  I heard the doctor talking to the nurses before he ever entered our room about what a drastic change there was, not knowing he was talking about the comparison of Nathan's x-rays.  I made a comment to Nate that I was hoping he was talking about him.  Sure enough!  The doctor walked in a couple minutes later to show us the x-rays with the HUGE improvement!  Most of the area is completely filled in now!!!  Praise.the.LORD!!!  Nate will need to have an x-ray of that area done once a year for the next five or six years to make sure a new cyst is not forming again.  There is a 40 to 50 percent chance of him getting another one due to the type of cyst it was.  Hopefully this does not happen. I am trusting in God for another answer to prayer.  Thank you to those who have been praying for him. 

On another note, Nate and I will be going to another doctor's appointment on Friday.  He will be seeing a Cardiologist this time to be sure his heart is working normally.  Since he had the episode with Pericarditis a few months ago, I felt it would be important to have his heart checked again to make sure there is nothing wrong with it, and he truly only had a virus.  Please continue to pray for him.  We know God is in control.

Pictures

The promised pictures!  (Yes, the order is mixed up.)

Monica Whitaker and I (We were college roommates!)

My little construction man ...

With his favorite dinosaur shirt

Dinosaur birthday cake

So excited on his fifth birthday!

So cute!  (See his shirt!)

He is growing up too fast!

Trying to hide while we sing "Happy Birthday."  He had begged me for days not to let anybody sing to him.  He gets sooo embarrassed.

Thanksgiving Day at Dad and Mom's ~ Cousins enjoyed a table to themselves

Playing games

Opening gifts after a tiring Thanksgiving Birthday at Grandpa and Grandma's house

 "Reading" his new dino book

It's time to decorate for Christmas

I love the traditional red and green colors.  Can you tell?

"Digging" into his piece of birthday cake

A serious game of Balderdash going on

Eating

A new wreath I created this year above the fireplace

One of our Christmas trees

Another view of the wreath

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!

It is That Time of Year Again!

Okay.  Sometimes it helps me to simply sit down and write during times of extreme busyness and stress.  Somehow or other it satisfies my emotions when I express my feelings on paper/blog.  There are too many things going on in my life right now and too many responsibilities to feel like I have everything under control.  This is not the way I choose to live!  My ENTIRE house is a HUGE disaster!  P.l.e.a.s.e don't come and visit today!  ;o) Christmas decor is "decorating" the floor, the couches, and everywhere besides where it should be.  Toys are spread all throughout the mess! Then I walk into my youngest son's bedroom, only to find him sitting in the midst of a PILE of books!  Did I only say "PILE"?  I should say "MOUNTAIN!"  I hope no one trips and falls over the mess; we will have more stress!  ha! There are mounds of laundry to fold and yes, the important pieces of clothing are getting slim in our private drawers.  :0)  I have the washer going with more laundry ready for folding in an hour or so.  I have a HUGE project for school to complete in the next week; I need to work on the church Christmas program; our basement ~oh my!~ I won't even talk about that DUMP!  I want to have an open house for our church family in about two weeks with food ..........  Yep, it is Christmas time and the pressure is on!  I'm trying to stay focused on one.thing.at.a.time!  This is hard for me, since I see so many things that need to be done.  There are people to visit and phone calls to be made; church invitations to pass out and so much more.  In the middle of all this, we would like to sneak in a few fun family things to do during this Christmas season.  Oh, by the way, we need to purchase a new storm door for one of our front doors before real winter weather sets in.  Our doors desperately need painting.  My hubby started to clean up the backyard a couple weeks ago.  He made it as far as cutting down a tree that seemed to be taking over our yard.  The remnants of the tree have been lying on the ground surrounding the tree stump since that day.  Our cedar bushes/trees are getting quite overgrown.  They must be trimmed before real winter weather sets in.  The responsibilities are mounting, but I must remember to take one day at a time and make it useful for God!  Devotions and time with Him are priority!  If nothing else gets accomplished, I know the time I spend with Him is more important than everything else going on in my life.  I know He will help me through the busyness!  What would I do without my Savior?  I love Him so much!

Pictures Coming Soon

I have some new pictures to post, but lack the time and energy to upload them now.  We had an enjoyable Thanksgiving Day at my parent's house where we ate a delicious meal and played games with relatives.  Thanksgiving Day was also Joshua's fifth birthday this year.  He had a grand time celebrating with his two favorite cousins, McKenna and Dawson.  I will try to post pictures soon.

A Beautiful Day for Some Fun!

This week I have pushed myself to finish up my school tasks in order to enjoy at least one of the beautiful days God is giving us before cooler weather officially sets in.  Most of my work being complete, I grabbed Joshua for a fun few hours at a nearby park.  He enjoyed the playground area for a time, and then wanted to go on a walk through the forest.  I took my camera along to grab some photos while enjoying our day together.  

Following our time at the park, we were going to get some food from a nearby restaurant, and take it back to the park for a picnic.  I asked him which food place sounded better:  McDonalds or Burger King.  (There is more restaurants in that area, but I didn't think he would be interested in the others.)  He said, "Wait, Mom, wait until we get up to the place then I'll tell you which one I want to go to."  I told him I couldn't just stop in the middle of the road, but he was going to have to let me know.  Well, he begged to go to Dairy Queen for ice cream, but that was out of the choices since he would only want ice cream, and that is not too wholesome for a lunch menu.  So, as we came upon the fast food joints, he immediately said he wanted to go to "that place with the red around it."  ha!  Arbys!!??  He has never wanted to go there!  He said there is steps in there and fish.  True!  So ... we wound up at Arby's for lunch.  By that time, he didn't want to go back to the park to eat, but settled on eating while watching the fish.  This was fine with me since both he and I were hot from our venture at the park.  

 

 

Trying sooo hard to smile nice!  ha!

Ha!  So Typical!!

He LOVES his walking stick!  (Daddy taught him that!)

He didn't want to lay his beloved stick down for a good picture!

I LOVE those big brown eyes!  :-)

We had a nice time together away from home.  This does not happen very often, therefore, it seemed extra fun!  

Fall Furnishings

Joshua Daniel

Mom's little dinosaur

He is in love with dinosaurs!

Fall is fleeting fast and I have failed to furnish our home with the normal fashionable Fall decor. As I sit and study day after day, I become so frustrated with all that I am not accomplishing. Before I know it, the day has drifted into evening, and night has arrived with still nothing done except for school assignments!  Does this make me feel good?  Yes and no!!!  Of course, I'm getting my school work done, but I have so many other things to tend that is often put on a back burner way. too. long!!  

However, I have made up my mind; I'm heading out to the breezeway in the morning where my bins have been neatly stacked for a few days now!  I'm going to make a HUGE mess, and dig into those bins with a big smile on my face!  I LOVE FALL; the cool crisp air, the beautiful colors, the food, and did I mention cooler weather?  Ah, yes, my school assignments will be in the back of my mind for a few hours while I shape my home into leaves, candles, and pumpkins.  I'm sad it is only going to be donning it's autumn attire for about a month; but it certainly is better than not at all!  Although I don't exactly enjoy decorating my house for different seasons; I completely enjoy looking at it after it is up and the MESS is cleaned up and put away.  The house gets cleaned in the process which is a double blessing (it definitely could use it)!

My little helper tomorrow!  (Joshua a couple yrs. ago)

My helper about three years ago!

Go and enjoy your day tomorrow!  After all, it will be Friday!  I have a project ahead that has been invading my mind for weeks!  I'll be wildly dashing about the house trying to get it done before the man of the house arrives home from work!  :o)