OOOOPPPSSSS........

Can I just say ooops.....  sorry I've been MIA lately!  Sometimes life just takes control and we get caught up in a whirlwind.  Stop the merry-go-round I want to get off for a while!!

Between owning a business and tax time coming and going (that's my biggest headache, because anyone that knows me knows I'm the world's worst bookkeeper!), then Easter came and went, we had two separate revivals we were involved with (one of which was our home church and I was busy like a beaver!), track season hit at school and I'm in charge of getting the concession stand ready at all the home track meets (which I had 4 in less than a week!), a daughter who is a senior that decided at the last minute maybe she'd go to prom after all, so we spent three days dress shopping (when I say shopping it's not a hop in the car drive a few miles to the mall type of thing..... we live 2 hours from any major stores in any direction..... it's a day long event, most of which is spent driving), two graduations to plan and announcements to finish and mail, and oh yeah.....  we just hosted a Soles 4 Souls Shoe Drive!!!!!!

I've been a tad bit busy!  ;)  (I think we can all agree that's an understatement.)

So, I'll share prom pictures and graduation as they come.  I already shared pics of my church (that should cover Easter).  I'm not a fan of track (just volunteer my time for the kiddos) so there's no pics of runners.

Best thing I can do, is show you just how much stinkin' fun we had at our Shoe Drive this weekend!  My girlfriends that co-founded Joint Heirs Adoption Ministry (JHAM) and I sat at our local shoe store on the main street in our little podunk town this weekend (in the pouring rain!) and collected over 650 pairs of shoes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  AWESOME is the only word I can think of to describe our day.

We partnered with Soles4Souls who provided collection boxes and flyers to distribute for our 'cause'.  They are awesome to work with!  The Girl Scouts in your community can become involved to earn merit badges.  (we only had one girl scout show up but it was encouraging and fun to remind her she will be the ONLY girl scout in our area with one of the S4S's badges!  :)  The local shoe store, Brown's Shoe Fit, is a participating business with S4S, and gave each person that donated shoes on Saturday a coupon for $20 off a new pair of shoes!  Pretty awesome!

We got our schools involved and the kids at my son's school started collected two weeks prior to the drive.  They donated two full boxes of shoes!

Then we also had the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) collect shoes at the middle school and high school in our local town (my kids go to a country school so the pics you see above is the entire 8th grade class my son is in! lol)

It was so much fun to work with the girls all day and we banded shoes together from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m.  Yes, every single pair of those 650+ shoes had to be rubber banded together.  But it was interesting to see just what kind of shoes we got!

Yes, shoes of all kinds!!!  These had never been worn!!!!  (I'm thinkin' that's a good thing!) lol  We figured they might have been bowling shoes.  It was hard to think of how many hundreds of dollars people spend on shoes......  that they never wear.  We had so many people bring shoes that still had tags on them, new soles or were still in boxes.  We as American's are so very spoiled (some are blessed....that's a better word huh?) and don't even know it.  As we banded all those shoes together we thought of where they might end up.  China, Africa, Haiti, Chile, even our own inner city hospitals in Kansas City.  I wonder where they will walk next.  Knowing my shoes have seen the sandy beaches of Hawaii and now they may walk on the rocky ground of Haiti.  One day seeing the sun and having fun, the next day comforting and protecting the feet of a mother who walks miles to bring her child fresh water.

Now that's humbling.

Joy and some of the shoes that people had in boxes.  yep, some people actually save the boxes their shoes come in!  lol  (not me)

Now THOSE are some LOUD shoes! ;)

So....  we made a decision yesterday.  We are responsible for shipping ALL those shoes to a S4S's warehouse where they will be distributed.  Can you imagine the shipping cost of over 650 pairs of shoes?!  Staggering!  We are going on a road trip!  The girls and I decided we are driving the shoes to the main warehouse in Tennessee!  Now, that's going to make for some awesome bloggin' and pictures!  Stay tuned, in the next couple of weeks we're heading out with all those shoes!  Who knows.... we may stop in to say hi to some of you bloggy friends!

That's little Miss Jia (Joy's daughter from China that she brought home forever last summer), the kids were all a big help actually and it was fun to have them around to 'encourage people to stop and share their shoes with us!

Two of Melinda's cuties!  Acel & Meah.  Meah came home forever from China last year too!  I can't tell you how great it feels to work with these girls and do what we do.  Advocating for the orphan and the least of these.  And seeing our kids get involved with us is even more of a blessing!

Me, Melinda & Joy

Joy's mom is always our little angel in disguise too and she was kind enough to buy us all lunch.  Pizza in the trailer (you didn't expect us to sit in the rain all day did you?  ;)  Joy's hubby has a racing trailer that we were able to conduct our shoe drive out of.... nice and dry).  Thanks for the Pizza Mellanie!  But thanks even more for the shoes! :)

Hopefully, we have prevented a lot less of this...

and a lot more of this....

Maybe someday the girls and I can go on one of their distribution trips ourselves and help put all those new shoes on people's feet....

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” 

Hebrews 10:24

AND...........  the one BIG surprise that I was so anxious to share!  Yes, here it comes.....  a new little boy in our house.  (I only wish he was human! lol) ;)  But GUS has become a very big part of our family and he's worse than all of my kids put together.  A friend couldn't keep him any longer and just gave him to us.  Along with his bed, toys and food.

Now, at first I'm thinking this was a SWEET deal!  A registered mini dachshund, just like we've been looking for FOR MONTHS!  How awesome that one just is given to us!?!

Then we discovered just how SPOILED ROTTEN he is.....

Yes, completely and totally ROTTEN I tell ya!  When he wouldn't eat after two days I called my friend and ask what his 'routine' was so he would eat.  "Ummm.... I forgot to tell you....  I sit in the floor and feed him twice a day....."  Silence on my end of the phone...  HELLO?!  Excuse me?!  You hand fed the dog?!

Needless to say, we nipped that in the bud VERY quickly!  When he got hungry, he ate.  But of course he didn't want us to see that he was capable of doing it on his own so he would grab a bite and hide in the other room to eat it.  Ho hovering over the dog dish to feed himself.

She also put gravy or drippings on his food.  Did I mention I had to buy a special 'no slip with the rubber grip' food bowl for him because it just upset him when his bowl slid across the floor while he was trying to eat.

Are you getting the idea here?  The dog is ROTTEN!  And thinks he rules the house.  My husband always had dachshunds growing up as his mother loved them so he has a HUGE soft spot for these dogs.  Gus is our third ever dachshund now.  I don't know if I could handle another one if we ever lose him.  Because my husband has never talked baby talk more in the last 26 years than he has in the last few weeks since Gus came to live with us.  I'm hoping they both outgrow the 'baby stage' very soon.

Gus believes his place to sleep is in the recliner with my husband or in our bed.  Both of which he struggles to jump into at times.  But Eric is always more than willing to help him out.  Heaven forbid he 'strain' his ugly ears trying to get into the bed.....

Yes, I think he's part rabbit.  He looks like the flying nun if any of you are old enough to remember Sally Fields as a teenager.  ;o)

Don't get me wrong....  I do love him.  But I'm not about to let on like I do!  ;o)  He's been attached to my hip ever since he came home.  If you don't pay close enough attention to him, he'll root his way INTO your lap, no matter what you may be doing, just to get the attention he feels he deserves.

I'm just hoping I can convince him he needs to stay at home when I take that road trip to TN with the girls to deliver shoes!  (He's not stayed home alone except while we're gone to church....)

He Has Risen!

Just as He promised!  The last week has been a busy and AWEsome week.  We've had so many opportunities to worship Him and reflect on just what he has done for us.  What a glorious gift and sacrifice that was given for little 'ole me, and you.  Someone so unworthy of such a gift, yet it is given so freely and selflessly.

We missed Wednesday evening services, but made it to Good Friday services and received communion.  On our way to church I thought of my online friends.  Some of you I've e-mailed and chit chatted with and some seem surprised and even doubting of the place we call home.  How RURAL we really live.  So I thought what better way to show you and share than letting you know where we go to church.  it takes us about 10-15 minutes to get there from our house, and our church isn't in town.  Nope, we live in the country and we worship in the country.  ;o)  Our church is so far back in the middle of nowhere I teased my mother the first time she visited by telling her 'they don't make you handle the snakes on your first visit'.  LOL  :)  Surprisingly....she took me seriously!  lol  (somewhat)  I've actually had people share with me that the 'original' church was a log cabin in the woods.  And then they built this:

And yes, it's still in the woods.  We have to turn on 4 different gravel roads to get there.  It's a beautiful place in the country that is filled with beautiful, loving people we have come to know as our church family.  Every Sunday we gather in the original church for greetings, a quick hymn and then we're off to Sunday school.  In the original church there are about 20 pews.  Yes, 20.  My family of 5 fills one pew.  There's room for a small piano in the front of the church, a pulpit that you can actually reach out and touch from the front pew and this beautiful cross hangs on the stone chimney at the front of the room.  Sanctuary seems like such a grand a LARGE word.  This is a small room.  Our family room in my house is larger.

The original hymnals are used every Sunday morning.  They are so old it's like books in an antique store.  The pages are yellowed and the covers on the books are showing the threads that make up the binding and covers.

And as wonderful of an atmosphere as this presents..... I'm sure thankful we worship in this building:

Where there's plenty of elbow room and bathrooms with stalls and pews big enough to seat all my family in one row with friends and relatives to sit with us when they visit.  :)  But, notice the background?  Yep....middle of nowhere.  Our little country church in the woods, with our gravel parking lot and play yard on the hill.

Good Friday services had me thinking about the bread and the wine.  In more ways than one.  So it gave me an idea.

I made these little cards and spent all day Saturday making homemade loaves of mini bread to give as gifts for Easter Sunday.  I love making homemade bread and I made so much Saturday that I went through almost 15 to 20 pounds of flour!  Yep, you read that right!  Good thing I buy in bulk!  lol  :) 

I bought gallon size plastic bags with twist ties to put them in, .99 at Wal Mart, bought a roll of ribbon (hind sight I should have gotten purple, but I doubt anyone really noticed), and used my scrapbook supplies and my printer to make little cards like the image above (I made in photoshop) to attach to the loaves.  

We shared the bread with our pastor and his wife, associate pastor's family, Sunday school teachers, a few special friends and family that we shared Easter dinner with.  :)  My husband was thrilled that I saved a few loaves for us.  I usually make homemade bread so he's used to it, but the thought of giving it all away and having to smell it ALL day long was killing him!  LOL

Wanna know something else that's kinda cool?  I made that big huge wicker basket too (a few years ago), and I can say with all certainty and honesty, I WILL NEVER MAKE ANOTHER ONE.  Basket weaving is not my craft of choice.  It's the size of a laundry basket and I think the blisters lasted six months from making it.  ;)  If you're going to weave....start SMALL!  lol  During my bread making day, I also made my skirt for Easter sunday, a new purse and gave both my boys those haircuts they should have had a week ago.  I was feeling a bit domestic!   Then Sunday afternoon we spent at my grandma's house having Easter dinner with our extended family and the kids had an Easter Egg Hunt.

When we arrived home Dad decided to take his Sunday afternoon nap and I snuck off to get a surprise!  Oh.... wait till you see what it was!  You'll have to check back tomorrow for that BIG surprise!  You're gonna love it!

I hope you all had a very blessed Easter weekend and maybe things can get back to a regular routine this week.  Whatever regular means....

Blacktops & Flipflops

Aaaaahhhhh....  Old Man Winter has croaked!  LOL  78 Degrees today!  Yeah baby!  Are you ready for this?  Wanna see how I spent my afternoon, OUTSIDE!  My hubby was home today and helped me work in the backyard with the 'girls'.  They needed some sunshine and dirt to dig in.

Some of the girls are getting pretty BIG!

So we made a new chicken run.  We liked to never got them all in there.  I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to corral them all back to the coop tonight.  And right now, not really too worried about it!  :)  The sun is shining and the world is turning, I reckon I might as well grin.  (Old girl scout songs stuck in my head.)

You know the "Chicken Whisperer" learned his techniques from his father, right?

Our favorite cat enjoyed being his lazy self today.  Chickens don't phase him a bit.  He totally lost interest long ago when they became bigger than he is and had to defend his food dish one night to a mob of curious hens.  Does the term 'henpecked' ring any bells?  So he was content just to rub and get under foot while we were trying to work today.

Ahhhh.... do you see that?  FLIPFLOPS!  Today was the first day I dug the trusty flipflops from the closet in the mud room.  Between trying to cat slap my lens cap and getting a good massage Louie was content just to lounge around in the shade.  Yes, I said shade.  It actually got rather warm today if you were doing anything outside.  (Please excuse the pasty white feet.  I don't think my skin has seen daylight in six months!)  lol  :)

Then, just when we were trying to find an excuse to stay outside after our work was done..... we decided to go for a long ride on the 4-wheeler.  The kids were still not home from school and people weren't off work yet so there couldn't be too much traffic.  TRAFFIC!  LOL  Now, that's a funny word (at least where I live).

So, we headed down the road from our house...

I bet you wish this was in your backyard.  ;)  

And we just kept going..... We passed the neighbor's house. 

(which by the way, I have THE best neighbors ever!)

And then we decided we hadn't been gone long enough, so we decided to turn around and go the opposite direction from our house..... we passed our backyard again.  And just kept going....

Yep, that's home.  But why would I want to stop riding when the sun is shining so beautifully and the weather is OH SO PERFECT?!

And we just kept going..... And I thought it would be cool to take our picture together while we were riding.  Yeah, not so great.  It's hard when your hubby is driving and not paying attention because he's gawking every which direction and sometimes you just have to hang on and lean with the curves.  Yes, I know that's what you do on motorcycles, but it works great for 4-wheelers too.  ;o)  

We decided we better head home again.  The kids would be back from school soon.

And then dad would have to take them for rides if we were caught!  Oops.... ;o)

(and yeah.... the boys are getting haircuts tonight)

Surprisingly enough, little britches was stuck inside.  It was his first opportunity in a long time to have first dibs at the play station while his brother was out goofing and his sister wasn't there to torment him.

My favorite photo from the day:

If you're a country girl you've heard this song before!  And yes, this is actually where the blacktop ends.

So, that's how I spent my afternoon.  What do you do to enjoy this fine day?!  I think the only thing that could have made it any better was having the kids home with us to play outside.  (And a few more kids at that....*hint*HINT* If my hubby would ever read my blog.  The adoption application is still sitting on your desk just waiting for your signature.  *wink*) 

Hoping you all had a happy hump day!

Have you lost your Marbles?

Well, the good news is:  here's a chance to get them back!  LOL  This is an awesome little reward system if you have toddlers or young children.  And you can get them for FREE by entering the giveaway on Jody's blog by clicking HERE.  You'll also want to bookmark her site and keep visiting and checking back because she is the giveaway Queen!  Something new all the time!  

Don't ask me how I stumbled upon her blog.  It's the Adult ADD in me that just keeps clicking and clicking and clicking....  ;o)  I'm sure some of you can understand.  

Please remember you must click through and go to Jody's Blogsite to enter and win!  I'd love your comments but they aren't going to work for you here!  Hop on over to Jody's BLOG to enter!  Good luck!  Details below were taken from Jody's blog.  Thanks for the chance to win this awesome Giveaway Jody!!!

Parents with children who have ADHD and also parents with autistic children say they respond very well to the marbles in the jar reward system. - Use your Marbles


If you would like to WIN Use Your Marbles here is what you have to do...

FIRST:  Go to Jody's BLOG! Then follow the instructions as posted below.


Visit Use your Marbles! Tell me what *color* (please do not just put "red" but use the name that they call red) you would choose if you won!

Make sure you leave your e-mail in the post!

Yup, that's it! We are called Mommy Moment for a reason! We know you only have a moment to enter giveaways...not all day!

Of course you are still welcome to follow us, Fan us, Vote for us on Top Mommy Blogs by clicking HERE, tweet this, grab our button etc... but we want our giveaways to be easy and quick to enter and fair to everyone! These other things are just a bonus for us and let us know that you appreciate us!

 
This giveaway is open to US residents ! You have until April 5, 2010 to enter the giveaway. Winner will be chosen byrandom.org  The winner will then have 48 hours to claim their giveaway item by e-mailing mommymomentblog@gmail.com. If the winner does not claim their prize within their 48 hour period, a new winner will be chosen. *All entries received after the cutoff time will be deleted prior to choosing a winner. Disclosure: Mommy Moment was provided with the use your marble kit at no cost in order to test the products’ abilities and give our own personal opinions on it. The opinions we have given are our own and may differ from others but were not influenced by the company or the free product provided..

FREE Coffee!

Yumminess!  Who doesn't love coffee?  And who doesn't love FREE stuff?!!!  That's just crazy!  Combine the two and what'dya got?!  AMY's giveaway!  My bloggy friend Amy at Filled With Praise is giving away all this:

And all you have to do is click on over to her BLOG to see how you can win!  No strings attached, just FREE stuff!!!  I love when my bloggy friends do this!  :)  While you're at her blog, roam around and check out the adventure of her family's adoption journey!  She's still in the waiting game but would love to have your support and prayers!!!  I can't wait to see the Gotcha Video when she travels to pick up her precious baby from Ethiopia!!!

Sending you much ♥ Amy!  Thanks for the opportunity to get some freebies!