Lock In

 A week ago we had our lock in at church.

Todd had the kids do some "Minute to Win It" games for fun.

We had the cup stacking and collapsing game.

Then there was the sorting the playing cards games.

He had a lot more planned but the kids were not into it.

 After a late night and a lite sleep on a hard floor, the girls were a little groggy and moody.

 Brian and MacKenzie, however, were up early and ready to play some more.

They had fun playing cards with dad and Steve.

Steve was a real trouper.  

 By noon, our friends from Shoreline and Port Orchard arrived.

Pizza

Games

Tubing on Ski Hill

 Even though we were tired, no one was ready to throw in the towel.

 The tubing hill was really slick.

The temperatures have been really cold and with little snow, everything was like ice.

The ski club trucked in some extra snow.

The made a few changes on the tubing hill.

They added a carpet to help slow you down at the end.

Last year, they had people fly out of the tubing run.

To prevent that this year they not only added the carpet but also built an extra high wall on the final curve at the end.

I think the kids were a bit disappointed but as a mom I was glad that the possibility of broken bones was greatly reduced.

Teenagers

There is no telling what is going to happen when there are teenagers in the house.

 Bonnie and her friends disappeared into her room. 

When they came out....

THEY HAD TURNED INTO ZOMBIES!!!!

 Bonnie has decided she wants to learn how to do stage makeup.  

Freaky, huh?!

Teenagers!

Christmas

 It is Christmas time again.

This Christmas was a lot of fun.

Our big gift was a drum set for Brian.

He has been ra-ta-tatting on everything and we figured it was time to put that tapping to use.

We figure in a couple of years we might have a decent praise band at church.  

 It was hard keeping such a big thing a secret.  

We had to enlist a few people to help us hide it until last night.

Then I thought we would ruin the surprise making all the noise we did when putting it together.

I found the set on craigslist and Todd had to drive over to Seattle to get it.

Now we have to figure out where to put it.

 Bryce wanted one thing.

The Spyro Adventure Set.

You get the game Spyro and a disc that allows you to play different characters when you place them on the disc.

He has been playing it non-stop since he opened his present. 

Bonnie got a few girly things like a crimping curling iron, a make-up brush set, and jewelry.  

However, she was  most excited about getting her own DS.  

She had an old DS that we picked up at a garage sale a few years ago, but it finally died.

I was able to get her an updated one and now she can play all of her games that have been gathering dust.

Todd and I did well as well.  Bonnie and Todd bought me a new knife set and Todd got me a digital picture frame that I can have on my desk at church.  Todd got some new clothes, a head lamp for all of his night hikes and an ipod shuffle to put his audio books on so that he can listen to them while he hikes.

Yes, it was a good Christmas.

Now time to head off to Grandma's house for the family Christmas gathering.

Merry Christmas Everyone.

Lock-In

Next time, remind me to think through my hair-brained ideas.

In hopes to motivate our youth to work on their handbook sections in Awana, I challenged them to pass a section a week and they could have a lock-in at church.  In case you don't know, a lock-in is where you lock the kids in the church all night long, i.e. an overnighter at church.  Five young people met the challenge and joined us last night at church to be "locked in." 

We started off the night with dinner - Tacos...yum!  Todd led the kids in some Minute to Win It games and a few card games.  He then led the kids in a devotional, a game of hockey, and then off to town to go sledding.  Sledding is not exactly what you might think.  Sledding implies snow and we haven't had snow for weeks.  The city has been trucking in snow for the tourist to sled on during the weekend lighting festivals.  By now, the snow has been packed down and turned into a nice sheet of white ice.  The kids flew ...and I mean flew...down the hill.  They had a blast.  After an hour of gliding down the ice hill, we headed back to church for hot cocoa and a movie.  We watched the End of the Spear and then heading off to "bed."  The girls and I crashed in the church library while the boys crashed in their Sunday school classroom.  By three the girls were asleep and I did my best to sleep on the rock-hard floor.  By eight we were back up, fixing breakfast, playing more games, and finally cleaning up the church. 

The fun wasn't over yet.  Our sister churches from Shoreline (Seattle) and Port Orchard came over to join us for lunch and to go tubing down our ski hill.  Wow!  I can't believe I am still functioning, but not for long.  Shortly I am kicking everyone out of the living room and sending them to bed.  Tomorrow is another day filled with lots to do.  It is sad to say but I am looking forward  to Monday more than I am Christmas day.

We're Going to Make It

We may be on Break, but the list of things to do is quite long.  Slowly, things are getting done.  I FINALLY got my parent's gift in the mail.  (I hope it makes it in time. cross fingers!)

Monday was to be my sewing day.  I am making most of my gifts for my in-laws, etc and haven't had the time or energy to put everything together.  When I sat down to sew, my machine kept acting up.  Not Good!  I finally concluded it needed to be oiled but I didn't have any machine oil.  In all reality, I really needed to fix my own machine since I have been working off of my daughters.  Todd offered to go to Wenatchee for me to pick up the things I needed to get back in operation.  I knew, however, that would put me in a state of panic.  It would take him an hour or two to do the errand, and I couldn't stand that "dead time."  I decided instead to switch my days around and do my Tuesday Christmas shopping on Monday, pick up the parts for my machines, and sew on Tuesday instead of Monday. 

So Monday, I ended up buying all of the rest of our Christmas gifts and found the solutions to both of my sewing machines.  Yesterday, was a marathon sewing day.  I have almost completed four of my seven sewing projects.  The remaining three will be easy and I know that I will be able to complete them on Friday.  I have yet to do any more Christmas goodies.  I think that will be Saturday's activity. 

Yep, I think we are going to make it.  The presents will get made, goodies will get fixed, and everyone will have a great Christmas.  We will rest AFTER Christmas.

Christmas Goodies

I promised Bryce that once we were on Christmas Break, we would start making Christmas Goodies.  

 Today we made sugar cookies and M&M/chocolate chip cookies. 

 Autumn is spending the day with us and was a big help with decorating.

We will save the rest of the goodies til next weekend,or else they will be all gone before Christmas gets here.

Ready for a Break

We are on Christmas Break but it doesn't feel like it yet.  There are cookies to be made for tomorrow night's Christmas program, the stage to set up and decorate, and finally, the program to perform.  I am so looking forward to Monday.  I have taken the week off from going to the gym but I might take just one more day off just so I can sleep in.   I can still go to the gym after I wake up, right?

I still have kids coming over while their parent's work and I still have to go work at the church, but I am thankful for a break from school pressures and Awana. 

House News....Here we go again.  We are expecting another contract to be faxed out today.  This will be the fourth contract we have signed on the house.  The first two were from a bidding war that was going on between two buyers.  The second offer won out but got into a fight over how to put their names on the deed.  That offer fell through.  Then the male figure from the first offer renewed his offer but by that time another offer was on the table,  We let them dicker it out and we signed contract #3 with the winner of that war.  He backed out after the inspections.  Now we have another offer and after countering back and forth have come to an agreement on price.  We expect to sign the papers today with inspections to be completed next week.  Let's just say I am nervous about the whole proceedings and won't feel comfortable until I know they still want the house after the inspections.  It is an old house.  Todd and I knew the issues with it but felt that we had a lifetime to slowly bring it back up to speed.  Who could have guessed that four years later we would be in Washington?  Obviously, not us.

Weight Loss News....Except for this week, I have been faithfully going to the gym each morning to work out.  I am nearing the 20 pound weight loss marker.  If I could control my eating I could lose more but that is hard right now with all the goodies flowing through the kitchen.   Like I said earlier, I have cookies to make for the Christmas program today.  Todd brought home boxes of chocolates, homemade fudge, and more from his students and fellow teachers.  It is hard. I figure I slowly put all this weight on and I am slowly taking it off.  I am ok with that.

The Rebelution

I got myself (and the church) an early Christmas present.  I purchased the book, Do Hard Things.

I heard about this book several years ago when it came out.  Alex and Brett Harris (teenagers) co-wrote  a book challenging teenagers to rebel against a society that says teens are to run free, play hard, and enjoy life before becoming adults.  They encourage our teens to seize this time to make a positive impact on their world.

I have to admit that I haven't had a chance to read the book yet.  I showed the book to Bonnie who started reading it herself and is just about done with it.  She is enthralled with the book which thrills me.  They have Rebelution conferences for teens that I really want to attend.  The closest one is in Portland, Oregon.  I hope to take our family and as many other families with us as we can.

Nutcrackers

 The Nutcrackers are done!

It took us about three days and several trips to various stores to find all the different candy pieces, but we did it!

 We made a few variations.

We couldn't find gumballs which were needed for the hands and cheeks, so we used marshmallows and red M&Ms instead.  I also couldn't find chocolate wafer cookies so we made some from scratch and used them for the hat, hat brim, and belt.

 We used three different cake mixes - yellow, white, and chocolate.  The hat and head are yellow, the chest is chocolate, and the bottom two are white.

 All the Nutcrackers have been delivered.  I kind of wish we had one or two extra to enjoy here at home, but we didn't have enough of all the extra pieces.  oh well...

The Blessing of the Lighting

 It is another weekend of lighting the town in Leavenworth.  On Friday's St. Nicholas comes to town to tell the story about the man who inspired the story of Santa Claus.  Unfortunately, he didn't pass out gold or oranges for that matter, but true to Washington form passed out apples. 

 Following St. Nick, Todd was asked to pray the blessing for the Lighting.  He has been praying over this prayer ever since he was invited to give it.  He wanted to make sure that he used every second of his three minutes to give the Gospel.  I think he did a  fine job emphasizing the reason for this season which is Jesus Christ.  I am very proud of him.

It is time again to come up with some gifts to give to all the faculty at Todd's school.  I was thinking about doing a cookie sampler plate for all of them.  You know, where you get a paper plate and fill it with one or two different cookies/treats that you make.

However, Bonnie pulled out my cupcake cookbook yesterday and pointed to a cupcake that she thought I should make.  I think we are going to try it.

 Don't you think these Nutcrackers would be a great Christmas treat?  My one concern is cost.  They have all kinds of different candy pieces on them - mini m&ms, gumballs, nesco wafers, chocolate wafers, almonds, etc.  They could turn out to be quite expensive.  I am going to head down to the Alps Candy store in town and price everything to see if we can do them.  I could just make frosting and use it for buttons, eyes, feet, etc.  If it turns out they will be too expensive, plan B is to make ornament cupcakes.

These are pretty cute too.  I could give each teacher three ornaments and use only one box of mix.  (The Nutcrackers will take 3 boxes.)  I will let you know what we end up making.  I kinda of want to make them now, but I think the gift exchange is next Friday.  So we will hold off baking until next week.

We're In the Movies

We just got back from watching the Ira Finkelstein movie and the kids made it in the movie.  Bonnie made it in three times and the boys twice.  Pretty cool.  I am even mentioned in the credits.  How cool is that!

The kids waiting with all of the other extras for their turn on set.

Christmas Shopping

Yesterday, Bonnie and I went Christmas shopping.

Mind you, I have bought most of my gifts on line this year, but I got an extra coupon for JC Penney and wanted to take advantage of it.   Todd really needs some new dress shirts and pants and I thought Bonnie might like to see if she could find something new to wear as well.  I had to laugh when I got home.  Bryce was all bugged eyed when I walked in the door carrying groceries that I picked up on the way back home.  He thought for sure I was carrying in his Christmas presents.  In fact, he promptly went upstairs and brought down all the wrapping paper.  Imagine his dismay when I announced that I brought in only food and even if I did have presents in any of those bags, I wasn't about to wrap them in front of everyone. 

This morning when he came down for breakfast, Bryce was disappointed that there weren't any presents under the tree.  Poor Boy.!  He can't wait for Christmas.  I ordered his present on line and it should arrive later this week.  I will have to be vigilant about watching for the postman and intercept the present before  he sees it.  ha ha

I would love to share with you what we got Brian , but I will keep it a secret for now.  I do know he will be one happy young man, but we might need to get ear plugs.  Bonnie is the only one to shop for now. I could have gotten her presents if I hadn't taken her with me but I enjoyed shopping with her.  She did find a nice sweater that we will wrap up and put under the tree.

On a different note...the kids and I are going to see Ira Finkelstein's Christmas tonight.  They haven't released the movie yet, but they are having a special screening for Leavenworth tonight.  They only have room for 200 people so we are heading over an hour early to get a seat.  I hope we get in. 

I will let you know how it turned out.  The movie is to be released next year.  Evidently they have been showing it at different film festivals and earning different awards for it.  We will put that on next year's Christmas list.

Christmas Lighting Time Again

It's that time of year again.  Time for the Leavenworth Christmas Lighting and time for the James family to volunteer to be Christmas characters so that we can entertain and mingle with the town visitors.

  

Bonnie really gets into the whole event.  People are always asking to have their picture taken with Frosty.  She is one busy gal on Front Street.

 I didn't have to do any coaching to get her to walk around the crowd and mingle.

 

At one point Frosty met up with the Christmas Mouse and the Grinch.

 The boys weren't into the whole crowd-pleaser thing.  I had to encourage them to smile, wave, and wish the little kids Merry Christmas. I did catch them singing Christmas carols with the live band.  Oh, And they really liked the hot cocoa that the chamber was serving.

 The boys' friend, Dante, was hanging out with us for the night.  He would have dressed up too, but he fractured his elbow earlier this week and was in a sling.

 Aww!....the whole family together.

Nope, that 's not me as Mrs. Claus.  I was signed up to be her, but someone else beat me to the costume, so I got to be the elf escort for the night.

 Some of the other characters were Mr. Scrooge and St. Nicholas.

 My favorite part about the Christmas lighting is the live music.  There is something awesome about walking around town singing your favorite Christmas carols with the people on the street.

   The ladies from the chamber kept everyone warm with hot cocoa and cider.  Yum!

Overall, it was a fun night and one to add to our memory books.

My Own da Vinci

We are in the 1400s now in our studies.  That means we are reading about men like Gutenberg, John Hus, Christopher Columbus, Michelangelo, and, of course, Leonardo da Vinci.

Last week I picked up a really cool book about da Vinci from the library...

This book has several of Leonardo's inventions in there and how you can make them. When Bonnie went through the book she was immediately drawn to the section of making your own paint.

  To make your own paint you first need dirt and two flat rocks.  Instead of dirt, Bonnie gathered together pieces of broken brick and some charcoal.  She also had two perfect flat rocks in her room.  Once you have these supplies then you need to grind the dirt, brick, charcoal  into a fine powder using your rocks.

 This can get pretty messy and I didn't want the counter to get scratched so we found that on old plastic ice cream lid worked great to grind the brick on.  

 Once you get a nice powder then you need to add a bonding agent.  Da Vinci used egg yolks to bind it all together. 

It really makes a nice paint.  For yellow paint they recommend using the pistils and stamens of daylilies or even crumbled saffron.  Snail shells should give you a blue or purple powder (Remember the Phoenicians?)

      

Bonnie has had a lot of fun, although I've told her she has to start buying her own eggs.  She has already gone through a dozen of mine.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving

We have so many things to be thankful for.  

First and most importantly is my salvation.  I am a child of God, and praise the Lord that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for my sins and I am eternally His.

Second is my family.  I am blessed to have a husband who is not only a child of God but desires to share the Gospel message to those around him.  As I sit in the pews each week and listen to him share the Word of God, I am so thankful at how God has worked in my husband's life and renewed the passion in him to serve as a minister of God.  My children are also pretty  awesome.  They are still a work in progress, but they all know and love God.  I continue to see them make wise choices when it comes to choosing right from wrong, God's ways verses the world's.


Third is my heritage.  I am grateful to have Godly parents who laid the foundation of choosing to follow God no matter what.  I know that their families could not comprehend why my parents left their hometown to go to a Bible school to study God's word in depth.  My parents demonstrated to us kids the importance of choosing God and living out His word in their daily lives.


Finally, I am thankful for my spiritual family here in Leavenworth.  I feel so blessed to be here in Leavenworth.  Our church family has loved on us in so many ways.  What a blessing it is to be serving with them.  


This day of Thanksgiving is just about over but the feeling of thanksgiving never ends.  Each day we are reminded of God's goodness to us and of the things we can be thankful for.

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In case you are curious, our day today was pretty casual.  I had planned to go to the gym this morning -  you know, to get a good workout in before consuming mass quantities of food.  Todd, however, wanted me to take him up to Lake Wenatchee so that  he could go kayaking.  His need to get out on the water was more important than mine so I gave up my gym time to drop him off at the lake.  By the time I got home it was after 9am.  I made the kids breakfast, got the newspaper to look through all the ads and then made green bean casserole and sweet potato casserole for the Ells Thanksgiving feast.  At one we went over to Todd's parent's house for Thanksgiving.

The rest of the day was spent vegging in front of the tube, playing cards, and then a trip downtown to go sledding .

It was a nice relaxing day at home with the family.

The kids and Todd digging tunnels in the snow bank down by the gazebo.

One more day til Thanksgiving Break!  Woo Hoo!!
I always felt guilty as a teacher when I looked forward to the days off of school instead of being excited about teaching.  Things haven't changed much. : )

Our studies have taken us to the Italian Renaissance.  Today we spent about an hour and a half watching a documentary on Leonardo Da Vinci.  What an amazing man!!  The kids have all been given an assignment to write about a Renaissance artist. I figure the boys will write about Leonardo. 

Here is a look at our day today:

We started today, as we do every day, with prayer.  Then as a group we reviewed what the Renaissance period was about.  After our review we watched the History Channel's documentary on Leonardo da Vinci.  Good ole YouTube comes through again.  I am so glad the kids had me set up the tv/wii so we can now watch these documentaries on the tv screen.  Once we had watched the documentary everyone got out their math.  Bonnie likes to sit at the counter, Bryce settled in at the table, and Brian likes to sneak off to his cubbie in his room.  I stay busy in the kitchen ready to answer questions and to see who needs help.  Once math is done I let the kids pick their next subject to work on.  Today since the documentary went long, the kids took their lunch break after finishing their math.  Once lunch and some outside time, the kids came in to work on the rest of their work.  Bonnie and Brian went to their language while Bryce picked out his favorite subject - science.  Today Bryce was learning about minerals.  After science, Bryce worked on his language - capitlization.  Bonnie wrote a paper on John Wycliffe and Brian read his literature book Men of Iron..  Then it was time for Bryce to take a little break, while I quizzed Bonnie and Brian on their science.  They have completed Module 3 in their Physical Science and I needed to make sure they understood the content of the module and are ready for a test.  Once they had been thoroughly drilled on the atmosphere and CFCs they were dismissed and Bryce read to me out of an ABEKA 3rd Grade reader.  Boy, has Bryce's reading improved.  It was after four when we officially closed school today.  Bonnie will read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight  on her own time.  We didn't get to spelling this week but we will pick back up with it next week.  We were hoping to go sledding, but the snow has turned to rain so it looks like we will stay inside.  Fortunately, the snow has all been shoveled, the wood has been brought in, and there is a batch of cookies in the oven.

I think I will serve some leftover rice and chicken for dinner.

Another day down.  One more before the break.

Breathe

I don't know about you, but Todd and I are exhausted.  If he hadn't gotten sick a week ago and taken a day off I would insist that he call in sick tomorrow.  What a long week, month...it has been.  That is one thing about being in the pastorate, there are not any days off.  I know most pastors take Monday or Friday as their day off, but since Todd is teaching school he can't do that.  There is so much work to be done for school and church that he works seven days a week with many night time activities thrown in there.

This week was especially tough because a member of our church suddenly and unexpectedly died.  Don was 78 years old and still work in the logging business running the skidder.  He had just gotten off his lunch break and went back to the machinery when his coworkers found him.  He died on the job from a massive heart attack.  When I go, that is how I want it to happen.  I want to be plugging away at my normal day and the next second being in Heaven.  Yesterday was the funeral at church and now we just need to take a breath and rest, at least for a few hours.

I still can't comprehend that this is Thanksgiving Week.  I am missing my family and their traditions.  Of course, even they aren't having a normal Thanksgiving.  My parents, along with my brother and his family, are heading to Indiana to have Thanksgiving with my aunts and uncles.  They are mainly going to Indiana so that my brother can purchase a house.  He is moving to Indiana in January to start a church in West Carmel.  You can check out his new blog at  www.jimwright.me.  Jim is now officially a North American Missionary.  Indianapolis, Indiana has been declared an area that needs Christ.  Over 82% of the population do not attend church.  Folks....We need to be sharing the Gospel with our neighbors or our own towns are going to become godless as well.  

So here we begin our Thanksgiving Week.  Just three days of school, then a four day weekend.  I plan on sleeping in as much as possible.  I may not even work out much this week.

SOLD!

Remember that ridiculously low offer that we didn't even give the time of day to??  Well, they came back and offered to purchase our house at list price!!!  They still want us to paying closing costs, but it is the best offer we have had.  We signed the contract and faxed it back last night.  Closing is set for December 19th. 
I am not planning the celebration party yet.  Still crossing my fingers, my arms, and my legs that everything will work out and be officially sold in December.

Leaves, Swap, and Snow

How's that for a title?

Yesterday was the day to pick up the leaves - 20 bags of leaves - all from one tree!  Todd told the kids they had to get picked up by noon, but I changed it to 9am.  Why?  The Big Ski Swap!!

Yesterday, was the big ski swap in town.  Whenever I have asked about ski equipment, everyone has told me to wait for the ski swap.  Now that it was here, I was not going to miss it.  So shortly after nine we heading over to the high school gym.  Talk about crowded.  The bleachers were lined with ski and snowboard boots, the floor was covered with skis, and the walls were lined with snowboards.  The ski swap was worse than Black Friday shopping at Walmart.  I got the job of climbing up and down the bleachers looking for the right size boots.  We finally found a pair for Brian, Bonnie, and me.  Bryce is a tough one to find boots for.  His calves are so thick (Thanks Todd!) that we can't latch the top of the boot.  Fortunately, my brother in law works for Sports Outlet (The majority of the stuff there was from his warehouse.), and he told us that he has boots that will fit Bryce back at the shop.  He also helped us find the right skis for our boots.  We managed to get three sets of skis and three sets of boots for the cost of one new pair of boots.  Todd was given a set last season and our neighbor has told us we can have his wife's set.  So we are ready!!  Now I just need to sign the kids up to go with Todd's school this winter up to Mission Ridge.    I am excited!

Lastly, I woke up Saturday morning to the mountains covered in snow.  It's almost here.  It has been raining all weekend so snow is covering the mountains.  It hasn't made it to the valley, but it will be here soon.

That about sums up our Saturday.  Oh...we had another showing and they liked our house.  We haven't heard back from guy who renewed his offer on our house, so if someone jumps in with a better offer, we're taking it.

11-11-11

Well, I don't know about you, but nothing amazing has happened today.  Predictions from the internet shutting down, to natural disasters, to it being a very lucky day have abounded, but for me it was a standard day.

Of course, there is the bad news that it is raining outside and the boys have left all the leaves to bag up until tomorrow.  Now they have wet, soggy leaves to deal with, and they are getting bagged up tomorrow - rain or shine. 

We also got a final offer on our house.  Remember the couple that won the bidding war for our house, but got into an argument, split and dropped the offer?  Well, the gentleman involved came back and reinstated his offer.  We accepted his offer, but he has been out of town so we couldn't sign any paperwork yet.  We got word today, that he lowered his price on his offer this time around.  So we are back to negotiating trying to get him to come back up to his original offer price.  The other couple who made an offer want us to pay the closing costs and that is not going to happen.  Why not stick the knife in deeper while you are at it!

Arrgh!!!

Did you have school today?  We didn't.  We don't always follow the public school schedule, but I needed a break today and since the schools were shut down, I don't feel guilty closing our school down today.  I still went into work, and we still had co-op today with our friends, but I didn't have to worry about monitoring school work.

I did today purchase the rest of my Tapestry of Grace curriculum.  I had decided this year to purchase my curric.  one unit at a time, but I saw that TOG was selling all of their discontinued material at a discount with an extra discount for being 11-11-11.  So I was able to purchase the rest of my curric.  Better yet, TOG has gone all digital which is ok but I really like to have the papers in front of me to go over, The computer is not always convenient and, of course, I don't have my curric. on the church computer.  The materials I bought today are discontinued because it is the printed curric, not the digital, and therefore, has not been updated to the latest books as of this year.  (It was current last year.) This will work perfect for me.

So here the day is coming to a close, and nothing strange or catastrophic has happened.

Multiple Offers

So we got word tonight that there are two new offers to purchase our house.  Our agent is working with the other agents to see who will bring in the best offer.  Please be in prayer.  I saw that one offer wants to close by December 19. 



Quote of the week - "I wish I could like this so that I could eat it all and not starve." - Bryce

The Numbers Game

Here go again!

Playing the numbers game.

As you know, we had two offers on our house.  We let them dicker it out, and the first offer outbid the second offer.  We thought we had the house sold, but it wasn't.  The couple who made the first offer had a fight and separated.  There went that offer.  We contacted the second potential buyers, who stated they were still interested; but, wouldn't you know, while we were waiting for the details to get worked out with them, they went and put an offer on another house.  Argghhh!!!

So we are back to showing our house.  Fortunately, there continues to be a lot of activity with it.  We got another offer in over the weekend, but it was again very low.  Don't you love it when they say, "Don't get offended by our offer; it's just a starting point."  Get Real!  I admit I was offended, angry, disgusted, and hurt.  Todd and I went to counter back but our agent, who was also disgusted, told us to hold our ground and not lower our price.  Evidently, he is showing it more than we realized, about once a day.  He feels confident that there is a decent offer around the corner. 

I haven't heard back from those with the latest offer.  I don't know if they really want this house or just really want a steal of a deal.   Times like this make it hard for me to trust that God's plan is better than mine.  But since He knows more than I do, I will trust in Him.

Proverbs 3:5,6  "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths."

Cascade Mountain Biblel Church Ladies' Retreat 2011

Set Apart for God's Purpose
Ladies' Retreat at Natapoc Lodge
Guest speaker - Christa Warren

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Halloween

 It is that time of year again.  

Time to dress up and gather as much candy as you can.

Bonnie made her costume this year.  She gathered together material she found in the house and sewed together a medieval style dress and cape.  Some was hand sown, some machine.  She was pretty proud of her creation.  

This year Bonnie went around town with her friend, Alyssa, and some other girls.  

GULP!...it is hard to let those apron strings go, thank goodness for cell phones to keep taps of our kids.

Bryce decided to be a scarecrow.  

At one point he told our friend, Lisa, that he was a scarecrow/ghost/bandit. lol

He ended up loosing the face covering and stuck with the scarecrow/bandit concept.  

I didn't get a picture of Brian.  He decided to be a robber.  He dressed all in black and wore his ski mask.  Interesting side note,  the young gal he has a crush on showed up at the church carnival down the road in the exact same costume.  I think they planned it out.  I gotta keep my eye on those two.