Blessings

I haven't been on here for a while and so when I logged on I saw all the new changes and it took me a minute to find how to do a new post. I do need to blog more often because a lot happens here in our house! :) So my title is "Blessings" b/c I wanted to share two new ones the Lord gave us. The first one started months ago when Jeff and I were talking about him teaching CPR classes for some extra money. The thing holding us back was buying the dummies. Earlier this week we found out his work is buying new ones and so Jeff mentioned that he would like the old ones. The next day he brought home six of the dummies, for free! We are hoping he can start teaching two classes a month now. :) Our second blessing happened Wednesday morning. Tuesday night our family went door to door selling candy for the boys to raise money for church camp. Jeff ran into one of our neighbors who owns a pawn shop. He told Jeff to come buy Wednesday and he'd give a donation. So Wednesday morning I took the kids into his shop. He asked how much they had left, they both had about 1/2 a box left. Then he asked how much it cost for them to go to camp. I asked him if he really wanted to know, ya know I didn't want to give him a guilt trip. He said yes so I told him 140 and the box of candy makes them 20 bucks. (Each of my boys had already sold one box). So he said, ok, so you've made 40 dollars each and you still owe 200 for camp, I said yes. So he pulls out his wallet and gives me $200! I was shocked. He told Josiah he was proud of him for doing the talking the previous night and not having his dad do it for him. So, he took both boxes of our candy and we left $200! :) So I had enough to hand in our money for the boxes and an extra 152 dollars for camp for the boys. God is good. :)

Birthdays, Motorcylces, Laundry Soap, and a Raised Garden.

Last month, March, was Josiah's 10th birthday and Jeff's 30th. We asked Josiah where he would like to eat for his birthday and he told us Taco Bell. Easy. He had a few friends over, played some games and had Taco Bell. :) I also made him a lemonade cake with sour skittles on top, another request of his. He is such an easy kid and usually so happy. These two requests of his made him the happiest 10 year old that day! :) Jeff is much more difficult...just kidding. :) I planned a surprise birthday party for him this year, and did it a week late so that one, he would be surprised, and two so that some friends of ours from Florida could make it. On his actual birthday we went out to dinner with the kids, which bombed b/c we left to late and so all the restaurants were too full. So we ended up eating at Hibachi Express. Yeah. I didn't even make him a cake b/c he usually shares with Josiah and plus I was planning oh getting him one for his surprise party in a week, so that added to Hibachi Express made for a lousy 30th. I.Felt.Awful. *shaking head* I so wanted to tell him that I'm actually a good wife and I have a wonderful party planned for you, you just have to wait one week! But I couldn't. So poor Jeff was in a very sad mood all week. A few days before his surprise party he finally admitted to me that he was hoping for more of a celebration for his party, it is a mile stone. I just had to tell him sorry and I would do better in the future. So, finally the day of his party rolls around, thank God, and the cooking and decorating begin while he is at work. A friend of ours has Jeff come over right after work to help "work on his truck". At 7 pm I call Jeff with a plumbing emergency and so he comes home to 40 people standing in his garage! :) Then he gets a second surprise when he walks into our kitchen and sees his two friends from Florida standing there. It was great! :) Oh, and he got a cake! :) Baskin Robbins, chocolate chip cake just in case you are wondering. Jeff had a great 30th and he now knows that I'm not an awful wife! ;)
So this month we (Jeff really), bought a motorcycle. Somehow I thought it would save us money, but so far I was completely wrong. *shaking head again* But he loves it and hopefully down the road we will start to see savings from gas. It is a Dukati if any of you out there care to know that. :)
Today I made laundry soap (I know you are wondering why that was in my title). I got the recipe from the Duggar book I read. It was super easy to make and I hope it does well cleaning our clothes b/c it will be a real saver on money. Right now the 5 gallons of it is sitting in my kitchen sink b/c its to heavy for me to lift out. Silly me. But I have a strong husband who can lift it out soon and put it in the laundry room where it belongs. :) I will let you know how much we like it and if its worth it.
Jeff built me a raised garden this month. I cannot wait to plant my veggies! It is 12x3, if you are wondering. I plan on planting tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, strawberries, and carrots. I was also thinking about garlic. We shall see. I will get pictures and post 'em!
So that's what we've been up to, basically. :) Happy Wednesday!

Valentine Cookies!

The kids and I made cookies yesterday to celebrate the day and b/c I had a craving for some sugar cookies! :) I think they had a lot of fun cutting them out and decorating them, and I had a big mess to clean up in the end. :) Here are some pics!












Gaber took this picture of Tara putting sprinkles on her cookies, I thought it was a neat shot. :)


Gaber also took this picture of their cookies when they were done. I don't think they used enough sprinkles. ;)

Heaven or Walmart

Jeff was talking to the boys about getting baptized a few nights ago while we were eating supper. Both boys this past year got saved and so now the next step is baptism! As Jeff was explaining what it is and why we do this, Tara started saying, "Me too daddy! I want to!" Jeff looked over to Tara and asked, jokingly, "Tara, do you know where you would go if God were to take your life?" Tara responded, "Yeah. Walmart!" :)

A Quick Sum Up

I've been surrounded by family for the past 3 months and now here I find myself back to normal, just the kids and I. We moved into our house in November and had family visiting two weeks later. December we drove up north to Missouri and Wisconsin for Christmas and we were surrounded by many family members and old friends. In January Jeff and I had his parents visiting for 3 weeks. They left Monday and Jeff left today. The house is so quiet! The kids and I decided to get out of here for a bit and so we went to BK for lunch and to play in their playland since it is such a beautiful day! We had a yummy but not so healthy lunch and the kids had a fun time playing. Tara made a friend, another little 3 year old girl. After only a hello they took of running together holding hands. That always gets me how little children can be so friendly so fast! Well after a few minutes the other little girl started chasing Gabe so Tara ran behind her yelling, "HOLD MY HAND! HOLD MY HAND! HOLD MY HAND!" I finally got Tara's attention and explained to her that she doesn't need to hold her hand the whole time, then I got her mind off of the disappointment by showing her the little birds bouncing around the tables eating up the food off the ground. Tara loved this! She quickly grabbed a french fry, tore it into pieces and then threw it at the birds. Well, the birds flew off so she yelled, "Come back birds! I have food for you!!!" :)
I've not blogged in a while, so I've skipped some important dates, like Gabe and Tara's birthday, Christmas, New Years and I'm sure I've missed blogging about some funny stories, but to sum it all up I will just add some pictures from the past few months. :)



boys doing some raking for us



Gabe's 7th Birthday party



Tara sitting with her Great Grandpa Rybold



The kids on our trip to MO. I love this picture b/c of Chloe sleeping on Siah.



Tara and Clifford at the Children's Museum in Wisconsin



The Boys at the Children's Museum in Wisconsin



Josiah at the museum (Did you know that Josiah is also Art? Just saw that above his head):)



Tara getting her first professional haircut, she had so much fun!



First time getting hair blow dried. (or blown dry?) :)



Christmas day



Jeff and I with our youth group at the teen winter retreat here in GA



Tara using her almost new princess umbrella on a rainy day in January.

Renovations

Well here are a few pictures from our kitchen renovation. I'm missing some before shots, I think they are still on my camera. The cabinets were brown. We also had butcher block counter tops. We still need to paint the walls and put up back splash but I think its looking awesome! My hubby and Mark did a great job! We also had help from our brother in law, Nick, with putting in our appliances and Gabe and Tara helped paint the cabinets a little too. :)

In Our House

We are in our new home! We've been in here for about 2 weeks now. We really love it and the kids are loving our driveway and back yard. They probably spend about 2-3 hours a day riding up down our driveway and running around the yard, jumping in the leave piles and chasing Chloe. Oh and even our dog is loving it here! She has always been such a lazy, non-playful dog, but since we've moved here she actually play with the kids! I think everyone is enjoying our space.
We are pretty much unpacked now. We have some stuff in the office still in boxes and a few items in the garage that need put away but for the most part we are settled in. This coming Wednesday we will be getting our new counter tops in and Jeff is planning on staining our cabinets soon. We also got our pool covered and hopefully this next week we will get the fence put up around it. Last week we had some of the teens over from our church who helped us with yard work and cleaning windows, ceiling fans, blinds, and cabinets. They are such a helpful bunch! I love 'em! :) I'm so thankful for the help we get from our church family. If it wasn't for them we wouldn't have been moved to our new house for free! We had about eight people show up that day to help us move and they brought their trucks and trailers for us. No moving truck for us, we moved Georgia style! :)
Maybe on my next post I will have some pictures of the house. Maybe I can do some before and afters of our kitchen. :)