The Ranch

This post is long overdue!

Some friends of ours are full time "house parents" in the boy's house at a local children's home. It's actually not just a wonderful home, but also an amazing ranch and hands-on school for children from crisis families.

"Seamark Ranch, a non-denominational, Christ-centered children’s home and school is committed to sharing the Gospel, hope, healing, and a brighter future with children from families in crisis"

Seamark's Website

A while back, they invited our whole small group out for dinner and a fabulous night at the ranch. The kids enjoyed meeting and feeding chickens, donkeys, and horses, all of which are raised and cared for by the children who live on the ranch. For dinner we ate giant fresh carrots and potatoes that had been grown there - delicious! It was a really cool enlightening night. What a huge and amazing work is being done there!

What they do there is incredible. Our friends, the house parents, are not only raising 2 girls of their own, but also 8 (? - it was 8 last time I checked) boys! I find myself struggling all the time to raise my own children faithfully - God's way. What an awesome calling it is to bring other's children into your family, to raise them, and to introduce them to the faith. HUGE!

Speaking of raising children, we have been hit hard by the terrible two's (also known simply as sin) in the last week. It has sort of blown me away because Anabelle has always been an easy and sweet girl, but oh my the tides have turned. Just tonight alone (not counting the many offenses from earlier today) she bit Evie on the shoulder breaking a blood vessel, and then presented me with a clean plate - proof of a fully consumed dinner - only for me to find her entire meal scattered about the floor after she had been given dessert and put to bed. How did she get away with that you're probably asking? I guess because I was being a spacey mess and forgot that I CANNOT TRUST HER. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me - right? Now is the time when I need all of you to give me the "CONSISTENCY" speech. Trust me, the child gets PLENTY of grace, I need to work on the consistency! Help!

One more thing... I received very sad news that a young man ,who my brothers and I knew as children, passed away unexpectedly last week. Please keep the family of Ben Speer in your prayers, he was 22.

Easter Sunday

We have had our picture taken under this tree at our church every year since Evie was born. This year the tree was a little bare (ok, totally naked) but tradition is tradition!This is a bit of a "don't touch me moment". Annie spilled milk ALL over her dress in the car on the way to my parent's and was pretty much "over it" by this point, but I wanted to get a picture of them in their dresses!They are very sweet girlsWe had a really nice lunch outside at my mom and dad's house with a couple of other families from our church. It was yummy and relaxing - the weather was just so nice all weekend! After lunch, the girls had a little egg hunt in my mom's pretty garden.Annie was content after finding just one egg

I honestly started off Easter Sunday as a bit of a grouch - I noticed on the way to church that my husband forgot to shave, the kiddos in SS were totally sugared out and over the top (the lesson did go well by the way, thanks for your prayers), I felt like I was having a bad hair day, our special tree looked ugly, and then of course Annie spilled milk! I am a person who majors in minors, ok scratch all that and let's be for real and say that I am a sinner (a sheep) in need of God's grace! How precious is the cross when God reveals our deep DEEP need for salvation!

"I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
John 10:14-15

P.S. Please visit my cousin's blog and read her very sweet post about Baby Henry and her Easter

Easter Saturday

Every year our church hosts an Easter Celebration on Easter Saturday. I think I've been to every single one of them since Junior High!!! It's so special now to go with my own little family! The girls had so much fun and the weather was fantastic - so much fun to play outdoors with friends!

Ok, Easter Sunday post coming up next - in like 30 minutes ;)

Back Up and Rewind

I want to take the opportunity to rewind back to my last post and fill in the details that I've only touched on so far. My last week and a half has been BUSY! With parenting, puppy training, and some big family celebrations all mixed together - I've been nothing short of exhausted! It's all great life stuff, just a lot at once!

The Puppy: Two Fridays ago, I was birthday shopping for Ben (all by myself) when I passed a sign for Shih Zu puppies. We'd been toying with the idea of getting a puppy for a while... visiting pet shops, researching breeds, etc. Shih Zu's were actually recommended to us when I described my criteria for a dog - hair not fur, small, not clingy, not shaky, does not dig - you get the picture. I wasn't sure I was crazy about the recommendation at first because I was not sure that I thought Shih Zu's were cute, it turns out that they really are cute as long as you don't buy them a ridiculous hair cut. Trust me when I say this, "I will never buy this dog a ridiculous hair cut!" So anyway, I called the number on the sign and arranged for Ben and I to visit the puppy later that night. My parents agreed to keep Evie because I wanted to have an easy "out" if we decided the dog wasn't a good fit for us, even though I was nearly certain I would get sucked in immediately. Needless to say, I did get sucked in immediately and that is how we came to buy a puppy the night before Ben's birthday - happy birthday Sweet Heart ;) Ever since, I've immersed myself in puppy training - reading tons of articles, watching The Dog Whisperer, doing everything I can to give off the impression that I'm a "pack leader"... you know. I can honestly say that it's going well, I'm confident he's going to be a good companion for our family. As I mentioned before, we named the puppy Mr. Bingley, after one of my favorite characters in Pride in Prejudice. I think it fits him well and I hope he'll live up to his sophisticated name! Here is a little Shih Zu history for you... Shih Zu's were bred to be palace companions to the ancient Chinese royals, that's why they have a reputation for being subdued and polite. They were first brought to Europe in the 1930's (surprising I think - I would have imagined some explorer bringing them back in the 1400's or something!) and they were first brought to the States in 1945 by soldiers who adopted them prior to returning home from war torn Europe. I love that last fact! Training a dog (correctly) is totally new for me, but I'm honestly enjoying it as a new hobby (not that I'll continue to adopt puppies after this - I won't - this is it - honestly!)

Ben's Birthday: My sweet husband celebrated his 27th birthday two Saturdays ago. Ben loves Japanese steak houses and sushi, so we met both sides of our family for lunch at our local Sushi Rock, it was really great because they could fit all 12 of us at one hibachi station (where they cook in front of you). After lunch, my mother-in-law baby sat our girls so that Ben and I could go to the movies alone... three words - it was great! We then ended Ben's birthday night with a double date to our church's annual Daddy Daughter Dance, Ben took Evie as his date and I went with my own daddy. It's a really sweet and special event that we always enjoy. We're looking forward to the day Anabelle is old enough to stay awake late enough to come! Here are a few pictures from the dance...A lot of other stuff has also happened in the last week and a half including... meeting my friend Erika's new baby, and attending Brittany & Rob's wedding in St. Augustine. In other words, I'm so behind on blogging... stay tuned!!!

Fall Festival Day

Today was one of those good ole fun days! We spent the morning and afternoon playing with Aunt Alina and Karis at our house. Alina and I worked on projects all day (ranging from kitchen curtains to hair bows) while all three little girlies played, napped, and played some more! Momma K. stopped by to surprise the girls with a fabulous assortment of Halloween cupcakes - purple and orange oh my!!! It was a very popular surprise! I realized today just how enjoyable it is going to be for the girls to grow up with so much of our family either in town or very near by. I so enjoyed having my house open for family to spend the day and drop in and out. It just felt right - not to mention fun!At the end of the afternoon, I dressed up my girls and took them to our church's Fall Festival. Before we left though, we dressed Karis too for a little "trick or treat dress rehearsal". I snapped a few quick pictures of our cute little critters. Did you know it's impossible to get two toddlers/pre-k-ers to look at the camera at the same time? It is. They were just so excited, and so "in character"! There was a lot of meow-ing, hopping, and tail wriggling going on - so cute! It will be fun when Anabelle is old enough to enjoy Halloween, this year she's just tolerating all of this "fun". I'm going to reveal her costume tomorrow after trick-or-treating, can you guess what she is going to be? It's too stinkin' cute! My friend Tiffany and her family met us at the Fall Festival. She brought along her two little sock-hop cuties, McKenna and Jack. The weather was really pleasant, not so much cool, but pleasant. The kids really loved playing the games and collecting candy - I mean, who doesn't? Evie spent a good bit of the night obsessing over the bouncy castle, McKenna twirled, and Jack was his normal cool self. It was really everything you'd expect from a fall festival, that is until we decided to get in the face painting line. Brace yourself for the next picture... "What the heck?" you ask? Well... Evie asked to be a bird, and so that sweet high school girl made her into a bird. Really, bless her heart for devoting her night to fulfilling the bazaar requests of three year olds, that takes impeccable sweetness. Evie could not have been happier, Tiffany and I could not have laughed harder, and McKenna could not have been more confused! This was a classic moment! Evie ran around for the next 5 minutes proclaiming "I'm a bird, I'm a bird", never mind she was wearing a bunny costume. What is in that creature's drinking water - really? If you've seen Cloudy With a Chance of Meet Balls (funny movie by the way) here is a one liner you're sure to get... "Rat Birds". Evie's "Rat Bird" look was all good and fun until I announced it was time to go home. I then had to haul little "Rat Bird" out of the bouncy castle with tears streaming through the face paint. Needless to say, I've spent most of the night washing "Rat Bird" out of her costume and my clothes. Hilariously worth it though!

I love little kids, I LOVE my kids, I love holidays, and I love to laugh! Today was just one of those good ole fun days!

Pete Update

Pete is still in ICU. His neurology tests yesterday showed an absence of any brain activity, but today he responded several times to voices and touch. He continues to struggle, so please continue to pray. The doctors have said that he experienced some sort of "cardiac event" but there is no official diagnosis. Ben and I were able to visit our friends at the hospital today on our way back from our Savannah trip. Pete and Suzanne's family are here now, and the hospital was filled with church family too. God has provided such a wonderful support system, I know because these same people (including Pete and Suzanne) have cared for me before too. We've been told to pray for a miracle, please keep praying!

A Celebration

Today we celebrated the life of our sweet friend, Ben McCollum, who passed away Monday after a lifelong fight with Cystic Fibrosis. We praise God for Ben's life, for the end of his pain on Earth, and for the full breaths he is breathing in heaven! We will miss him dearly.

"But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue

righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness."

1 Timothy 6:11

mightytosave

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! We had a great weekend of festivities, family, and friends. Evie and I greatly enjoyed the Easter celebration and egg hunt at church Saturday morning. She is getting to the age where she recognizes her friends and enjoys spending time with them. It's really fun to watch her social life blossom. On Sunday, we went to church in the morning and then spent the afternoon with some of my family's closest friends, the Proulx's (who I've known since birth). It was a really nice to relax and spend time with grown-ups (which is good for mine and Ben's social lives). We couldn't think of a better way to celebrate this most precious holiday!