God's Not Finished With Us Yet....

Reruns

2012-01-13T14:40:00.001-06:00

*Please note to overlook any grammer errors as I tried to type this up fast to get it out. It has been

A LONG time since I have posted anything on our family blog....

rerun

vb [riːˈrʌn] -runs, -running, -ran (tr)

1. (Performing Arts) to broadcast or put on (a film, play, series, etc.) again

2. (General Sporting Terms) to run (a race, etc.) again

n [ˈriːˌrʌn]

1. (Performing Arts) a film, play, series, etc., that is broadcast or put on again; repeat

2. (General Sporting Terms) a race that is run again

3. (Electronics & Computer Science / Computer Science) Computing the repeat of a part of a computer program

Hence the title of this post; Rerun. What do you do when you find yourself fighting a battle you thought you've already conquered? What do you do when you see you are running the same race you thought you had already won???

It's no mystery to those friends who have followed me in my walk with Jesus that I am quite the stumbler. lol. I, for whatever reason, seem to trip over the same shoes over and over and over, red rover....

So WHAT DOES ONE DO? Well I can't speak for others but for me, I went to His Word, but not immediately. At first it took me a moment to even recognize the repeated offender entered into my camp, yet again. But when I did recognize it I kind of danced around with it, not intentionally, but almost as if to accept it without surprise that I am 'here yet again' in the spot I felt so confident I had pressed through to the other side. But here. I. am. BUT WHY? Why am I back in the same stupid, freakin' spot I had punched from existence. I can only guess that it is because maybe I never conquered it in the first round? IDK (I don't know), but what I do know is that I am tired of the cycle. I am tired of the repitition. I am tired of not winning!!

Wondering what the rerun in my life is? Not that it's all that fascinating or anything and it's certaintly not exciting. But I feel it will do me some good to confess one of the many reruns I encounter. And for me it is a big one. Have you ever heard the phrase 'church hopping'? Yup. Told you it wasn't exciting. BUT I will tell you this, IT HINDERS YOUR WALK WITH CHRIST when you 'church hop'. For those of you who don't quite understand this phrase I will break it down for you as best I can. Church hopping is when the one who is seeking to find a Church to 'bond' with never actually does. It may appear that person does when they attend multiple services, Bible studies, and whatnot, but soon you might notice that person's absence. Later the absences are running closer and closer together and before you know it they have vanished only to be seen attending another Church elsewhere. 'Church hopping' is when an adult choses not to settle down somewhere and just stick with it. This could be for various reasons of course, like not feeling that you are in a like-minded Church, you don't feel like you fit in (this can be in all kinds of ways), you don't like the music style; too rock-n-roll, too traditional, ect., you don't like the version of the Bible the Church is using, you feel like you are not challenged enough Spiritually (too much baby food), or the opposite; everything being discussed in Sermons or otherwise is way over your head but you're afraid to seek help with any of it, ect, ect, ect....

In my single life I church hopped fairly often but not necessarily on purpose. I felt my reasons were good, solid ones. One Church that I very much loved; it was BOLD, DIRECT, encouraging, loving, but I felt like an outsider. I was struggling with my own demons of lonliness and belonging, or rather not belonging. It was ME, not the Church, as I find most 'church hopping' reasons usually are.

So here I am again, feeling the sting beneath me to run, but I can plainly, clearly SEE this cycle more than I ever have before and I can plainly and clearly SEE that it is ME. I absolutely LOVE the Church I attend right now. It is not the prettiest Church I have been too. It is not the biggest Church I've attended. It is not the fanciest, or richest Church I've been part of. It is not the best, most organized Church I have belonged to. It is certaintly not the largest Church as far as attendees and members are concerned either. In fact in my last two years of time spent at this Church I have witnessed many vanishing acts. I have watched, without judgement, people come and go, some coming back and others to never return (at least not yet), and I am grateful that the Lord unveiled my eyes to taking note of this pattern because it is the same pattern I see in me. Which is why I never judged those people I watched do this act. The Church I attend may not be 'all that' but I will tell you what I do see in my Church. I see REALNESS! (Is that even a word?- lol) I see people hurting! I see people searching, a whole lot of searching! I see people broken, both Spiritually and emotionally. I look in my mirror and see ME in all of them. The Church I am part of is beyond any big, fancy, rich, over populated Church I have attended. I feel like I see them in the 'raw'. I don't feel judged, though I don't doubt I have been a time or three, but I don't 'feel' it. I don't feel like anybody acts better than me, even if I happen to wear the same black outfit I've repeated many times to Church. You can not see me as I type this but I am tearing up as I share. Mainly because I adore my Church to a point that I have NEVER done with any other building or organization striving to teach from the Holy Bible. I WANT to go to a Church where people are hurting, where people come for divine healing. I want to go to a Church where healthy or unhealthy people can come to get Spiritual exercise. I love that my Church does not appear to have it all together, I LOVE THAT. Because it tells, rather shows me that even though they may or may not see cracks in the walls, or paint peeling off, or repairs from Hurricane Ike still needing repairs, the focus for them (at least how I see it) is that they are STRIVING towards Christ. My Church is not perfect, but we DESIRE to draw closer to Jesus Christ and I believe whole heartedly that He meets us at this point!! Whole heartedly!! I know, that I know, that I KNOW, I am supposed to stay planted at Bayshore. I have gone around the mountain (repeated and stayed in the same run to many times) and it's time I stop. I heard my husband say something profound recently that his mother taught him. 'If you do not like something about the Church you are attending, if you find yourself complaining about something in the Church you frequent, if you count faults in your Church then help to CHANGE it!'. That spoke volumes to me!

"You have been wandering around in this hill country long enough..." Deuteronomy 2:3, which is the Scripture the Lord has place in me when He had revealed to me my pattern of 'church hopping'. And 'Peace! Be Still!' Mark 4:39-40. The Lord WANTS to grow me. I am not an infant Christian (meaning that I am not new to His words). How in the world can I grow in Him if every time I am challenged I sprint off? He will bring me back to the same mountain (in my case anyhow) until I conquer those insecurities, those failures, those weaknesses, ect. He loves me TOO MUCH not to.

Anyhoot, I want to challenge you. If you find that you can relate to myself in this area of me that I have shared, then will you join me in fighting the fight to leave where the Lord has planted you? I promise you it will be worth your while and then some.

Anyway, I'd like to close with this; I am not perfect. I have SO many stumbling blocks in front of me that I simply get overwhelmed sometimes and just want to throw my hands up in the air saying 'I'm done!', but I can't, I won't do that. I am so far from even being 'okay' that I can't even see the shadow of a finish line, but I ask myself (and you maybe?) what are my options, quiting or pushing through, willing to be taught and learn from those God has placed around me or rebel and run, defeating the bondage OR repeating it???? I honestly can't even say I'll conquer this but I vow to work at it, pursuring after Him. Defeat or repeat? That's something only you can answer but I know for myself that I desire to defeat it, to draw closer to Christ. I am a student of the Lord's, still learning. Aren't we all? To rise up in my walk I must FINISH the task He has put before me. That is IF I desire to draw closer to Jesus Christ....do you?

2010 Jesse Christmas Program 026.AVI

2010-12-20T18:50:00.002-06:00

Be sure to pause the Video Pod on the right hand sidebar further down the screen to hear this Christmas video. :D

Turkey singing I Will Survive

2010-11-25T10:55:00.002-06:00

"I Heart my Country!"

2010-07-13T09:57:00.001-05:00

Here is my photo from this weeks 'I Heart Faces' 'I heart my Country'. I love this photo for multiple reasons, but two of the biggest is 1) This was one of my very first photo shoots I ever took while I was still taking Photography learnings and 2) This Army Soldier came home for a period of 'leave' to spend with his new wife, but most importantly to meet his son for the very first time.

I absolutely love how the newborn and father are gazing into one another's eyes; it's like 'love at first sight'.

Go check out 'I Heart Faces' to see many other photo entries as well and join in on all of the fun at this awesome site; just click on the button below to learn more!!

"Alaska"

2010-06-28T15:05:00.003-05:00

Here is the photo I chose to use for week 26 Pet Photo Challenge with I ♥ Faces. Alaska is the newest member of our family, pure breed German Sheperd little girl. She has a very fun and loving personality and yet does her job well with barking at the doorbell and doorknocks wondering who is behind the tall frame of wood.

This photo is one I took when she wasn't even 8 weeks old quite yet. She was exploring our backyard, which is normal sized but I'm sure looked huge to her. She happened to come across this pinecone and was carrying it in her mouth for such a long time, as if it were her new claimed 'blankie'. I quickly grabbed my camera and took a few shots, some with the lens cap still on, and this one with the cap off....LOL. I'm such a dork sometimes!!!

Please go and enjoy checking out some other great pet photo's at I Heart Faces TODAY. You'll really enjoy what you see and even get a nice chuckle over some of them. Click the link above of the image below to visit their site; and why not join why being there?

"Dear God..." by Xtc

2010-06-22T10:06:00.000-05:00

I heard this songs years and years ago when I was a little girl still in Elementary School. I don't remember where I was or who I was with when I listened to the words but even at that young age I was troubled by the lyrics; troubled and saddened. I too as a young lady had experienced a lot of what this song has to say, but that was brought on through following in my mothers footsteps of beliefs and what she taught my older sister and I. Funny though because now both my sisters and myself are fully sold out for the Lord in spite of our upbringing. I suppose a lot of this was due to the seeds the Lord planted along the way that got me asking a bizillion questions about 'life', 'death', 'Heaven', God.

After hearing this song for the first time I decided to get a copy of it for myself and memorized a lot of it. Not because I wanted to sing and shout it out with a joyful noise, but because one day, years in my future I planned on writing a song 'back' to this song; kinda like a response letter if you will. Well I'm getting close to my finish of the song I 'wrote back' to the words in this song but I continue to erase and re-write over and over again. Soon, when it is complete and when the Lord wills I will share it with all of you.

Dear God by Xtc

♫ "Dear God,

I hope you got the letter, and...

I pray you can make it better down here.

I don't mean a big reduction in the price of beer

But all the people that you made in your image, see

Them starving on their feet 'cause they don't get

Enough to eat from God, I can't believe in you♫♪

♫Dear God, sorry to disturb you, but... I feel that I should be heard

Loud and clear. We all need a big reduction in amount of tears

And all the people that you made in your image, see them fighting

In the street 'cause they can't make opinions meet about God,

I can't believe in you♫♪

♫Did you make disease, and the diamond blue? Did you make

Mankind after we made you? And the devil too!♫♪

♫I don't know if you noticed, but... your name is on

A lot of quotes in this book, and us crazy humans wrote it, you

Should take a look, and all the people that you made in your

Image still believing that junk is true. Well I know it ain't, and

So do you, dear God, I can't believe in I don't believe in...♫♪

♫I won't believe in heaven and hell. No saints, no sinners, no

Devil as well. No pearly gates, no thorny crown. You're always

Letting us humans down. The wars you bring, the babes you

Drown. Those lost at sea and never found, and it's the same the

Whole world 'round. The hurt I see helps to compound that

Father, Son and Holy Ghost is just somebody's unholy hoax,

And if you're up there you'd perceive that my heart's here upon

My sleeve. If there's one thing I don't believe in...♫ ♪

It's you...." ♫♪

Fix It Friday #58

2010-06-12T23:46:00.004-05:00

BEFORE

AFTER

I really didn't do much to this portrait; It's already quite adorable as is. All I did was whiten the child's teeth up a bit, brightened both of their eyes up and added more color to the clothes just to make the image appear more vibrant and less dull. I also darkened the hill in the background to look more 'rich', along with adding some more green tones to the very dry looking grass. If I had more time I would have opened the photo in a different program and worked on using the 'straightening tool' to have them both 'upright' and added some white clouds to the blue sky. Even though the angle is still fun, I was just curious about how the photo would look straightened. Still is a great photo though; they both look so happy and like they are having a lot of fun! Kinda also makes ya wonder what they were so full of smiles over too, huh? : D

Head on over to I Heart Faces by clicking on the image button below and join in with other Photograper Passionates to learn, meet others, and challenge yourself to take on many of the weekly themes they put out for every photographer, from beginners to experts; all are invited to join.

To all the women out there; I think this is one of the neatest things I've read....

2010-06-12T18:51:00.001-05:00

I was sent this message in an email this morning and thought I'd share it with all of you other woman out there. I think this is one of the neatest things I have ever read. To the women reading this: Thank you for being YOU!

The Clock

God doesn't give you the people you want; He gives you the people you NEED... to help you, to hurt you, to leave you, to love you and to make you into the person you were meant to be on his TIME LINE, not always ours, so to realize this means we must TRUST in Him. One thing about God is that He is NEVER to late; He is never to EARLY; His arrival is always RIGHT ON TIME!!!

One Flaw In Women; Women have strengths that amaze men..... They bear hardships and they carry burdens, but they hold happiness, love and joy.
They smile when they want to scream.
They sing when they want to cry.
They cry when they are happy and laugh when they are nervous.
They fight for what they believe in.
They stand up to injustice.
They don't take "no" for an answer when they believe there is a better solution.
They go without so their family can have.
They go to the doctor with a frightened friend.
They love unconditionally.
They cry when their children excel and cheer when their friends get awards.
They are happy when they hear about a birth or a wedding.
Their hearts break when a friend dies.
They grieve at the loss of a family member, yet they are strong when they think there is no strength left.
They know that a hug and a kiss can heal a broken heart.
Women come in all shapes, sizes and colors.
They'll drive, fly, walk, run or e-mail you to show how much they care about you.
The heart of a woman is what makes the world keep turning.
They bring joy, hope and love.
They have compassion and ideas.
They give moral support to their family and friends.
Women have vital things to say and everything to give.

`
HOWEVER, IF THERE IS ONE FLAW IN WOMEN, IT IS THAT THEY FORGET THEIR WORTH.

Play Photo Challenge "Singing"

2010-06-07T18:05:00.006-05:00

This is my photo take for this weeks 'Play Photo Challenge' at I Heart Faces Photography: My 4 year old LOVES SINGING!!! It's been a short while that I've entered myself into any of these contests because life has been; well....you know....life gets busy! : D This is a photo I took of my son who loves to sing just like his daddy does and well loves to copy anything his daddy does. It was a hard choice for me to pick which photo to include in this weeks theme, so I picked this one. Our, now 4 year old son LOVES to sing and when he does he 'belts it out' as you can see from his facial expression. He was playing with one of his favorite toys, which used to be a toy I loved as a child myself, his toy microphone attached by wire to his tape/voice recorder, yes I said 'tape recorder'; LOL! Anywho, I adore this photo I captured of him singing in action. He still loves to sing but does so now in a different

Blog on over to I ♥ Faces to check out other participants and include your own photograph for all kinds of categories they have every week to enter into. You'll also love all the new friends, great Photography advice and get to watch some free camera and Photoshop tutorials that this social network offers to members for free; alls ya gotta do is just join, which is absolutely free. Whatcha got to loose?? =)

The new guest sign in book I'm been working HARD on for a client!

2010-06-01T15:03:00.013-05:00

I'd love to hear what you have to think if/when you have the time!

I handmade 'dressing up' her guestbook and guestbook pen to match her dress colors and theme.

The fire is sometimes just TOO hot to withstand, but withstand I WILL!!

2010-05-28T11:06:00.003-05:00

At first I had NO idea what it was; no idea what I was feelings or why. I am a saved through the Blood of The Lamb and had no idea something so dark and deep rooted could have hit me out of left field. It wasn't until after reading a dear friends of mine blog, Christian Depression Help by Peter Stone, sharing of his own journey of depression in hopes to help others that I began to recognize the signs.

So for any of my family and friends who I've met through 'blog-land' please allow me to apologize for not keeping up to date on my blog posts. I literally had a hard time just stumbling out of bed, but I knew I had to; my driving force was my two kids ages 4 and 6. Even if all I did was the absolute minimal by bathing them, making sure they brushed their teeth, were feed nutritious meals and were kept safe, even if that meant the television (I am still a definite monitoring mother of what they view on TV still) than that's what I had to do. It wasn't until a few months back, and I can't really remember what exactly it was this moment, but when I do I'll share, that I realized that I needed 'real help', outside help because the Enemy was messin' with my mind at such a hard way that I alone couldn't fight it. During these times Satan has put images and imaginations in my head telling me that I wasn't saved by His Blood, that I was nothing, no good, a bad mother, wife, person, Christian. Two weekends in a row, for the first time ever in my life I was actually frightened to be at home by myself with my two kids. No, not that I felt suicidal or that I would hurt my children but more like I felt I might have a nervous breakdown and begin breaking every material item in our nice, content home; the dishes, punch the TV screen, throw our laptop, bust my Nikon....there was no telling what I was actually afraid of I just knew I didn't want to be alone on those days and I couldn't figure out why. All I knew is that I was afraid.

The funny thing is that I have absolutely no 'real' reason for my deep, dark, depression, which in a way is the reason I finally learned that what I was dealing with was and is indeed depression. I have a content home; I have never been one of those wives that feel the need to have a two story, granit kitchen counter tops, game room upstairs, and all those extra's. I am very content in our 1414 SQ FT. home and we have everything we need. I have a wonderful husband, and I want to stress WONDERFUL, two great kids; a daughter and son, a very sweet loving German Shepherd (still puppy, but turning 'tween', hope the attitudes don't come with that...LOL), and I am one of the lucky mothers whose dreams of being able to be a SAHM eventually came true when income earning became better for my husband. The unfortunate things is that my depression all became a reality when I was finally a Stay at Home Mother. I always knew I wanted to raise my own kids in our faith to believe in Jesus Christ without confusion from other caregivers watching them up to 10 hours each day/5 days a week. Plus it simply broke my heart to drop my two toddler age babies off at a daycare as they watched me leave from their classroom window sobbing out to me! It broke my heart.

So anywho, this is where I am at today. I am sorry for not posting to my blog like I once did, but I appreciate any prayers that any of you might offer; not just for me, but for my entire family as they are struggling with my involunteery severe depression. I don't know if any of you have suffered through a dark depression but it's a 'well' that I long desperately to climb out of, and not a 'wishing well', except for the wishing prayer that my God helps heal my mind and free's me from this illness. I am seeing a Christian Therapist once a week and their services also offer every Thursday night a 'Depression/Bi-Polar Group' for free if I'd like to attend but I'm not quite ready for a social gathering just yet, but am gradually considering 'testing' the waters in this group.

Lotsaluv to you all dear friends!!

"... when He Has Tried me, I shall come forth as gold!" (Job 23:10) and I will see His reflection in the precious metal and less of myself.

Pet Safe Micro I.D. Rescue Collar - too cool! (not to be confused with Pet Implanted MicroChips)

2010-03-14T14:23:00.010-05:00

Jesse and I found the coolest thing next to sliced bread for our new puppy, Alaska....well actually I've never cared or thought too much about anything with sliced bread being even remotely the coolest thing so I'm not even sure where or why that phrase came about, more or less, why I choose to use that same phrase...

Anywho, back to subject at hand. Jesse and I both don't really like the idea or agree with implanting any type of Microchip into an animal because we just don't like the 'idea' or where it may one day lead, or may already be in place; microchipping your children, mentally challenged people, or the like. So we accidentally and fortunately ran across this PetSafe I.D. Rescue Collar. The only downsize about this collar is 1) that we only found it in the large dog size which even with it's adjustable size straps to make it smaller, even the smallest size for now is too large for our puppy, so we'll have to just wait until she is a bit bigger, which I'm sure won't take long with the way she is growing now....

Here is a couple of photo's I took of my actual laptop screen showing the Easy Set Up Wizard screen for this PetSafe I.D. Rescue Collar (As you can see there are additional tabs at the top that you fill in with information about your pet as well.):

Hidden inside each lightweight collar is a simple USB flash drive that stores all of your pet’s personalized data. If a pet wearing the PetSafe Micro I.D. Rescue Collar is ever lost, the memory stick can be plugged right into any computer to identify the pet in the rescuer’s home—no need for an inconvenient vet visit to scan anything like the inplanted Micro Chips! While contact is made with the owner, a rescuer can access pet care instructions to follow in the mean time.

Oh, and BTW, here is a picture of our newest family member; Pure Breed German Shepherd Pup, Alaska.

Sure we want to keep our children and new pet safe and recover them quickly if discovered to be lost of missing, but irregardless we simply don't like the idea of implanting something underneath their skin for I.D. purposes, which is why we will act responsibly as most parents should be keeping a constant watch on our children intensely, teaching them repeatedly about the dangers and affects of responding or approaching one and some of the lies a potentially threatening stranger might say to them to get their attention just to get them in arms length to 'grab them'. We also have our two kids watch the 'Stranger Saftey DVD, Staying on The Safety', by Julie Clark and the famous John Walsh who hosts the all knowing show of 'Americas Most Wanted'

Naturally my husband and I don't want to instill a spirit of fear into our kids, but as it is facts are facts and in 2009 approx. over 700,000 children went missing between the ages of 12-18 in the US (and those are just the ones counted, NOT including those children who may be neglected and left going unreported as MIA), according to the Missing Childrens Department and The U.S. Department of Justice.

Here are a few facts to give you an idea for the incredible 'epidemic' this serious parents nightmare has turned into. *

The U.S. Department of Justice reportsOffice of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) .
797,500 children (younger than 18) were reported missing in a one-year period of time studied resulting in an average of 2,185 children being reported missing each day.

203,900 children were the victims of family abductions.

5115 children were the victims of “stereotypical” kidnapping. (These crimes involve someone the child does not know or someone of slight acquaintance, who holds the child overnight, transports the child 50 miles or more, kills the child, demands ransom, or intends to keep the child permanently.)

8,200 children were the victims of non-family abductions.

Other Missing Children Statistics Included:

“…A child goes missing every 40 seconds in the U.S, over 2,100 per day

In excess of 800,000 children are reported missing each year

Another 500,000 go missing without ever being reported…” Since 1997, the AMBER Alert program has been credited with the safe recovery of 495 children. To date there is a network of 120 AMBER Plans across the country. PRAISE THE LORD FOR THESE CHILDREN FOUND THROUGH ORGINAZATIONS LIKE AMBER ALERTS and THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN'S HOTLINE AT (1-800-THE-LOST®)

*According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)

So from the time our children were of walking age we began using by first adding little 'bells' tied to the shoelaces. This way anytime we ran a short, quick errand into a store and one of them 'toddled' off a bit we could quickly and easily locate them just by listening for 'their' bells tied to their laces. This was just a simple prevention method we used at the time because we didn't have much money. You can find these little bells or similar bells at any craft, Walmart, Target or other retail store for just about $2.00 for a bag of about 10-20 bells. I must warn you however that with walking aged babies and toddlers that should the bells come off they can cause a chocking hazard so if you are low on funds and still want to use this cheap but starting tip to keep a track of your kids should they toddler away a few feet, make certain you tied the laces super tight to prevent it coming off and even then and always keep a VERY close eye on your baby/toddler (always) but when wearing these bells on the shoe. If your baby/toddler is able to understand just a few words then try to always repeat to him/her when adding the bells that they are not for putting in the mouth or playing with, as surely, especially the first initial times you add them to the shoe, your child will naturally want to grab and pull on them, which is why I stated earlier to make sure you make a good, solid, TIGHT, double tied shoelace bow or knot even.

Now that our kids are older (4 & 6) we no longer use the bells but have ordered sets of Shoe ID Tags, which comes in a pack of two, one for each foot. The special permanent and waterpoof pen is available for purchase for $2.00 extra. for you to use to print vital information on the inside of the Tag regarding your child's information.

The Shoe ID tag is made of high-quality Velcro® and a water resistant information label. Shoe ID Tags (ID bands) fits over laces, Velcro®, boot loops, and sandals. This information is critical in an emergency to both identify the child if lost or injured and then to quickly contact the parents to be reunited with the child. Fill in the information with a permanent ink marker for best results. One parent wrote: "I have taught my 3 year old daughter that 'If mommy is ever lost, go to another mommy, take off your shoe, give it to her and have her call mommy's phone'.

We also bought about 2 years ago and use The Teddy Bear Child Locator, which comes in various colors.

We mainly use these when traveling out of town or when planning a visit to any crowded public events like The Rodeo, The Strawberry Festival, Mall, and usually anytime we go shopping during high traffic times such as during Christmas, School Supply Shopping before school season begins, or a crowded park. The teddy bear child personal safety alarm receiver (water resistant) delivers a 88db intermittent chirp/beeping sound that functions up to 150 feet away from the keychain transmitter. Lets you "hear" where your child is. Requires 2 "CR2032" batteries and 1 "mini 12 V" extended life battery (all included). Perfect safety device for children ages 1-7. Product Dimension: 3" x 2.25" plus clip. NEW ALERT FEATURE causes the transmitter to chirp loudly every time your child wanders beyond 20-30 foot range.

You can find all of the mentioned features I listed in this post at these links listed below. They are all fairly affordable and easy to use:

PetSafe Mircro ID Rescue Collar

Child Safety Products at

My Precious Kid

If you have any other ideas of suggestions you've heard of that are affordable (or not but GREAT and VALIDATED to share I'm sure we'd all love to hear about these from you! Thanks!

PLEASE HELP!...me in picking the best 3 photo images for the cause of "Mothers Against Hunger".

2010-03-10T11:18:00.014-06:00

Hi, I was invited to show some of my Photography at an upcoming Spring Event where proceeds go to "Mothers Against Hunger". The Organization Leader who invited me suggested I 'blow up' 2 or 3 images to be set on easels that they would provide for me and would be set behind my 'booth' for potential interested onlookers to take notice of. The event is scheduled for next Saturday on the 20th and it's more or less an all day thing from 9AM-4:30PM.

So since being asked just yesterday I've spent hours the last several nights and today trying to decide which 2 or 3 'Fantasy Themes' to blow up to almost poster size but I am simply at a loss. I am having the hardest of hard times deciding! So then I decided to recruit some help. I asked some friends on Facebook, some of my friends on I ♥ Faces and now wanted to ask thoughts/opinions from my blogger friends. Can you help share your input by please letting me know which top 2/3 images you like the most and would choose to be the 'blown up' ones? This is SUPER important to me also because it will be my VERY FIRST major means of advertising for my Small Photography Business. All I've done so far is just 'freebies' for family, friends, and a few friends of my friends, but I really would like to make some income if possible. I also do take traditional portraits, which I asked if I can blow up or at least put some of these printed out in a frame to display at my 'booth' which they said was fine. For those portraits my husband helped me pick these and we both agree with them so I don't feel I need the help in choosing. But with these fantasy images I'm very 'on the fence' about it.

I realize a lot of people, especially some people of different faiths at church (where the event is being held at as well; a nearby church), may not be 'into' Fantasy type themes which is why I did take the liberty of adding some scripture verses to some of the scenes as long as it matched well to show that with the Biblical Scripture included the 'fantasy scene' ccan still be a lovely one, however I will never plan on working with fantasy scenes that include dragons, magic balls, tarot cards or the such. However, I will inform anybody who asks me or approaches my booth that I can add anything; a Biblical Scripture verse, a quote, poem, whatever that customer/client would like so they are aware it's not limited to just a specific wording.

Okay, so here are the 12 images I am trying my hardest to pick just 2, maybe 3 from. Now FYI, the poll above may only allow to pick one option so if it does than I ask that you please use the poll to select your absolute favorite over all of them, and then if you wouldn't mind commenting about the other 2 images you would pick. This is for a good cause going towards 'Mothers Against Hunger' and I also agreed for the cause to do either a free photo shoot for the raffle they will be having or creating a 'Fantasy/FairyTale' image with which ever scene the winner desires and adding their selected photo to it free of charge to them, and obviously once completed giving them the print out at no cost to them as well. (The other booth supporters are also being asked to give something of their services, talents, crafts, or whatnot as part of the 'silent auction' give-away for raffle winners, which too will go to "Mothers Against Hunger". Again, thanks for participating and for all your support. It means A HUGE deal to me!

Blessings and Kind Regards,

Sarah Cecilia

casino POLL
** I just realized that this poll generator will only allow up to 9 votes, which left out photo #8 below of the girl laying on the moon holding a rose with the heart frame around the image, #6 of the 'Simple Girl' holding the rose in her pretty gown sitting on the grass in front of the pond, showing her reflection in the water and the newest one I just added tonight #12, of the little girl on the hill overlooking the village below holding up her latern 'letting her light shine'. If you would like to include either of those in your choice of one of the 3 you'd suggest to blow up, than simply just include that in any comments you'd like to share. If you prefer not to use the voting pole above just leave a comment below on which top 3 you would pick to blow up at a church event for "Mothers Against Hunger" and you can also use the comment area to suggest any Bible Verse that might go well with any of the images that don't currently have one.

Also, just as a side note, please feel free to leave any other constructive suggestions, thoughts, or ideas to offer me. This will be greatly loved by me to hear from you! So thanks for whatever you'd like to share. =)

Website plagiarism warning! Images shown are fully owned by Christian Creations Photography, and are protected through Copyright Law! DO NOT COPY!

I ♥ Faces ~ Fix It Friday #43

2010-02-12T20:50:00.004-06:00

It's been awhile since I've done a 'Fix It Friday' challenge on the awesome Photography network of I ♥ Faces, so today since I had just a few minutes to 'kill' I felt in the mood to give it a whirl once again.

Here, this top photo is the original picture presented on the 'Fix It Friday' post for today's photo challenge and below are a couple of the changes I made to it. Though I stated I had just a few minutes to 'kill', this actually took me approx. 1 hour and then some simply because I am still learning a lot from my PhotoShop CS4 and other tutorials. Thankfully my wonderful husband purchased the book 'PhotoShop CS4; The Missing Manual'...'that should have been in the box.' LOL. He probably did this because he got tired of listening to my constant threats of tossing the laptop over the moon.....ha, ha, ha!!!

As always, go easy on me, as I just recently became a New Photographer, but as I'm doing photo shoots only periodically, I have noticed that I really do enjoy taking photo's of children the most and then 'playing' with artwork around them with themes and whatnot. I know there's a 'name' for this type of Photographer but I don't remember what it is for now. You are welcome to check out some of my other 'fantasy' themed photo's that I've added some clients children into on my Photography Website by clicking on my business name and then clicking on the image that reads: 'New! Fantasy 'Heavenly' themed Images' at: Christian Creations Photography. (The site is also still a work in progress so bare with me if you will.)

ORIGINAL PHOTO

Unfortunately my biggest downfall in getting this precious girl to look like an even more gorgeous Princess than she already does is that I wasn't able to get the resolution quite right enough when I shrunk her down to size. I tried my best though and I'm still in the process of learning through Photoshop CS4, so I'm at least pleased with what I was able to do though I'm not completely satisfied with the end result overall of her sweet face.

I used a variety of programs when working on this beauty, some online aids and tutorials as well as my own software such as Photoshop CS4 and Portrait Professional Studio 9. I obviously enhanced her eye color, used the dodging tool to lighten up some of the shadows on the right side of her face and then added a very slight touch of peach(ish) blush to her cheeks to brighten her up just a bit more. After that I used some help from a long time back previous tutorial on I ♥ Faces, 'Adding Fantasy To Your Photo' by Amanda Johnston, which has been a GREAT inspiration to me, not to mention loads of fun in this top castle Princess theme!!! (I know the little girl isn't quite as focused in this castle window, but like I mentioned when I shrunk her down to size, the resolution didn't quite work out for me, not sure why though since when I downloaded the photo I did so in the best and highest resolution possible.) If you do decide to check out my Photography website mentioned above in blue, than you'll be able to view a different image of this same castle where I was able to input the little girl to look more 'realistic' looking out of the castle window.

My 1st 'Fix It' Princess looking out of Castle Theme

2nd Photo 'Fix It'

Below is just another photo I changed the image to Sepia to give her a vintage look but I still kept some of the color with the simple bow I added to the cutest tiny pony tail on top of her hair, as well as kept the color in her eyes sharp and bold, added a flower earring, which I was skeptical on doing, and then just for Valentine fun added a 'kiss' mark 'from Mom' to her little cheek!

3rd 'Fix It'.

Just a simple black and white change to the portrait but still keeping the key colors for 'POP' with her beautiful blue eyes, the highlight teeny rubberband around her 'pony tail'....(so cute it cracks me up!), a touch of color to her lips (though personally I was going for just a wet lip gloss look, but somehow screwed that one up! **blush**) and added a Matte frame border around her.

Go take a peek and check out other 'Fix It Friday' photo's on their website and while you're there might as well join in on the photo challenges, contests, fun, and great Photography tutorials and free tips!! Hope to see ya there!

The BIG PICTURE Story Bible-Crossway Book Review

2010-01-29T11:50:00.007-06:00

I'm grateful and blessed to be a part of Crossway Book Review program, which is a Christ focused program where Crossways sends me awesome books for free to look over and read and then simply share my input about what I've read. It's great because I never know what books will be coming in the mail, so when I got this new book, The BIG PICTURE Story Bible, geared towards children both my kids (ages 4 and 6) saw it and immediately asked if I can read it to them. So we started this week reading 3 chapters at a time each night at bedtime, taking turns cuddling up in one of their beds. So far I've loved this book. It's not only accurate but the chapters are super small and easy to read, the illustrations are bright and encourage my kids (especially my 4 yr. old son) to ask non stop questions about everything that's going on in the picture, which sometimes takes longer than actually just reading the page, lol.

I truly love this book because it not only teaches my kids in a way they can understand it EASILY, but it's putting the Living Word of God in their hearts, soul and mind, especially when I read it to them before they go to sleep at night. I try to imagine their little minds in their beds reflecting back on what we had just read from this Bible and it brings a smile not only on my face but in my soul knowing that they'll fall asleep with the knowledge from what we just read in God's Word.

The BIG PICTURE Story Bible is written by David Helm and Illustrated by Gail Schoonmaker, which both of them appear to have been a great team in the making of this Bible. It's a thick hardback book of 451 pages, however from my understand the paperback cover is available for purchase as well. Which brings me to another point I love about the design of this hardcover book; though it has the typical paper lining over the hardcover, when this bookcover lining comes off the hardcover title, (and at times hypothetically get torn or lost) the hardcover title page itself has the exact illustration images that the cover lining did as well. I don't know about any of you parent's but this is a nice and blessed treat for me, as often times when I've purchased a children hardback book when the paper cover comes off of the hardback front the actual hardback is bare and plain and most of the time just reads the title of the book on the Spine on the outside. So I personally love that this team of two took that extra step in creating the physical part of the hardback front and back to be just as illustrated as the paper book cover itself.

Oh and I also forgot to remember to add another feature I love about this book. Instead of your young ones, or maybe even older one's who would benefit from learning about The Word of God through this Bible as they first begin their journey in serving and obeying The Lord, is that this book also asks questions to get your child to think such as when Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden being approached by Satan the snake, the book asks 'What would you do if you were in this situation? Would you obey God's command to NOT eat this fruit from the Tree of Life or would you be tempted to believe in the words of Satan? This alone brings up a time to stop reading and allow your kids to dig deep, explaining the full meaning of temptation from their every day life and perspective so they'll understand and applying these facts to this story in The Bible. I can tell you from experience in reading this Bible to my 4 and 6 year old that some of these questions really helps me as their mother to fully get an idea of how they understand and perceive things so that I can guide and teach them in any areas that I notice they don't quite get.

I've taken a few photo's of the book that Crossways mailed to me, which on the back of it says it retails in US for $24.99 for this hardcover edition, but I don't doubt you can order the paperback for a whole lot less. I just like to get the hardbacks, even though I didn't request it from Crossways, because it last lots longer and when I store it on our living room bookshelf it doesn't get easily crumpled from fitting in with all the other tons of Christian rescourse books we hold for our family, friends to borrow from, and even our kids. If you have little ones I strongly recommend this easy to read and understanding of 'The BIG PICTURE Story Bible' If you're interested in owning this Bible for your youngsters, you can visit Crossway's website @ http://www.crossway.org/, Or if you simply click on this top image of The Big Picture Story Bible book below it will directly take you to the exact page for ordering this Bible at Crossway's official website.

If you already own this book or have read it somewhere than I'd love to get your input on this book as well. It would be great to hear from you so please don't hesitate in sharing! ♥ ♥ ♥

New Photo Enhancements I worked on today.

2010-01-28T22:24:00.002-06:00

I try my best to work on keeping my photo enhancements geared towards Christ either by having a Scripture verse put on it or having the background be a 'heavenly' one. I'm still not completely satisfied with the one's I'm done all the way. It's really hard when you've never been very familar with Photoshop and then when you finally get one (mine is the CS4 version) you have no clue as to what all the tools are, what they do, and how powerful this entire program truly is; I mean afterall when you purchase Photoshop either online or in computer stores, it doesn't come with any type of manuals. However, thankfully, there have been some kind enough folks out there that have made video tutorials online and on YouTube for free to view and learn from. I have viewed some of these and they have helped a bit but overall most of the work I do is self-taught which can sometimes take hours upon hours. Of course I can purchase a video tutorial for my version of Photoshop from Lynda.com which offers a few free tutorials just to get you to 'bite', but then to continue with the tutorials you have to pay up to $37.50/mo or a whopping $375/year, which I personally am going to try to stick with as many freebie video and YouTube clips as I can find before opting to even consider this. So here are just a few that I've been working on to promote my Photography Business. Of course the main focus of my Photography website is taking still photographs and portraits of people, pets, scenery, and anything random, and then trying to keep a competitive price on anything I offer to potential clients. So anywho, if you're interested I am sharing first views of the 'fantasy and Heavenly themed' images I used a few of my clients photo's to insert them into these images. No, I'll warn you right now, most, uh I mean all of them are not anywhere near complete, but it's been a work in progress so please go easy on me would ya?? And of course any constructive feedback or suggestions with my images or with Photoshop CS4 I would be ever so grateful to learn about! So thank you in advance for whatever knowledge or helpful tips you can offer. Blessings dear ones. Just thought I would like to share some of these with ya'll and please let me know which one's you like the most and why, if you have the time. This way I can work on the reasons you give, whether positive, negative or neutral, so that I can better my work. Oh, and PS, some of the photo's I didn't place my copywrite watermark to so please respect these photo images by not copying any of them. Thanks. If you do see a watermark on all of them than that just means I decided to get back up after tending to my sick daughter and added the mark real quick. Thanks!!! :D

Nudge Your World

2010-01-17T13:02:00.016-06:00

Nudge

Noun

1. A slight push or shake.

Verb

1. To push against gently.

2. Push into action.

This morning at church Jesse and I sat listening to Paster Redd's message on ways to change the world by 'nudging' it; nudging it to be a better place; nudging it in an effort for as many followers of Christ to 'nudge' their world toward Jesus by doing simple acts of kindness to people through the week.

Each week there is a different suggestion or activity that is designed to help and encourage the people around us.

You can follow the Nudge the World Project on Facebook by joining the group: 2010 - Nudging the World - One Act at a Time or by clicking the image below to link you to their blog. This weeks message on our assignment for nudging our world is to recognize a need in someone, anyone and fill that need of theirs, whether it be emotional (being a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on, ect.), spiritual (offering to pray for that persons needs or sitting with them at church for possibly their first time), physical (helping a fallen man, woman, or child get up, mowing a yard of a widow you recently learned of, ect.), financially (volunteering to pay for the groceries of a person/family struggling with their bugdet, wondering how they're going to make ends meet...), ect...

There are a lot of 'needs' surrounding us every day and the Bible teaches us that as we give to the needs of those around us we are also giving unto God.

You can also click on this verse in red to read it here, which I also have written below.

Matthew 25:37-40

37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40"The King replied, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for Me.'

Click on the 'world button image' below to read more about Pastor Redd's message on 'Nudging Your World', then come back and then come back to my blog to grab (copy/paste) the code underneath the 'Nudge Your World' to add to your own site or blog as a button to encourage others that you are committment in Nudging your World and invite them to join you in doing the same. Together we can make a difference in our neighborhoods, community, the world.. Let's 'nudge' the World together for Him!!

I will be blessed and overjoyed to see this button on your blog for others to join in on. Simply Copy/paste the code in the box above to add this to your blog to spread the word to 'Nudge Our World'. When a reader clicks on it, it will take them to the 'Nudge Your World' blogspot at

http://nudgetheworld.blogspot.com/.

I've already created the button with the code to direct readers to this site, so that once they were to click on it it would take them to it.

I invite you to follow along through Facebook by joining the group here: Nudge Your World (however if you do not already have a Facebook account you can open one by clicking here, and don't worry it is absolutely free), and I also encourage you to share this post with others through the 'share' widget underneath my signature, plus please let Pastor Mark Redd or myself know about a way, whether big or small, that you yourself have nudged your own world for HIM. Be blessed and together we CAN nudge this world to make a positive impact on our community through a simple act of kindness, which, I can speak from my own personal experience makes a world of difference and is so appreciated.

And so here I am talking with you. I want you to find the needy here, right in your own home first. And begin love there. For we must bring that presence of God into your family, for the family that prays together, stays together. Be that good news to your own people first. Then find out about your next-door neighbors; find out what their needs are; a need for a friend, some company? A need for someone to pick up some groceries they don't have the transportation to get on their own? Do you even know who your neighbors are? If not I challenge and ask you to pray, asking God for guidance and strength, especially if this is new to you, to find out who these (your) neighbors around you are. If you need additional questions or support in this, please click the globe image above to take you to the 'Nudge Your World' blog which should answer some questions on ways to serve the world around you.

I absolutely love this video clip 'God of Gods'.

2010-01-07T10:47:00.007-06:00

Please pause the music player when watching this so you can hear it better. It's the 'tall' burgandy 'video pod' a little bit down on the right side bar.

Happy Birthday Jesus, Jesus I love YOU!

2009-12-18T18:55:00.003-06:00

'Twas the Night BEFORE Jesus Came

2009-12-12T13:02:00.003-06:00

This is a repost from last year during the Christmas season. Thought it was worth the repeat! :D Merry CHRISTmas family and friends!!!

'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE JESUS CAME

'Twas the night before Jesus came and all through the house

Not a creature was praying, not one in the house.

Their Bibles were lain on the shelf without care

In hopes that Jesus would not come there.

The children were dressing to crawl into bed.

Not once ever kneeling or bowing a head.

And Mom in her rocker with baby on her lap

Was watching the Late Show while I took a nap.

When out of the East there arose such a clatter.

I sprang to my feet to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash!

When what to my wondering eyes should appear

But angels proclaiming that Jesus was here.

With a light like the sun sending forth a bright ray

I knew in a moment this must be THE DAY!

The light of His face made me cover my head

It was Jesus! returning just like He had said.

And though I possessed worldly wisdom and wealth,

I cried when I saw Him in spite of myself.

In the Book of Life which He held in His hand

Was written the name of every saved man.

He spoke not a word as He searched for my name;

When He said "it's not here" my head hung in shame.

The people whose names had been written with love

He gathered to take to His Father above.

With those who were ready He rose without a sound.

While all the rest were left standing around.

I fell to my knees, but it was too late;

I had waited too long and thus sealed my fate.

I stood and I cried as they rose out of sight;

Oh, if only I had been ready tonight.

In the words of this poem the meaning is clear;

The coming of Jesus is drawing near.

There's only one life and when comes the last call

We'll find that the Bible was true after all!

I bought this poem (written by Dianne Frances Donenfeld in 1947) over a decade ago and bring it out every Christmas. It's beautifully framed and has a background image (different from the one above) of a huge angel blowing a horn announcing the arrival of Christ. So the question that comes to mind is; are you ready for His return if Christ arrived tonight?

Gold * Frankincense * Myrrh

2009-12-06T23:31:00.003-06:00

My husband is the pickiest husband to shop for; I mean seriously picky. One year he mentioned he wanted a tool box that would be easy to lift atop of a ladder (but not a tool belt mind you), so I bought him what I thought was a nice, but simple hard plastic toolbox. Upon opening the gift he said (of course a 'safe' save on his part) that he liked the gift only to ask me later if he could exchange if for a Craftsman metal toolbox. This threw me for a loop because I thought being metal would be more difficult for him to carry, especially with the added weight of metal tools, measuring tapes, screws, etc. A little saddened by his desire to exchange the gift I had put a lot of thought into (not to mention got on sale), I slightly and relunctantly gave into his desire to exchange the item, though it meant it would no longer be something 'I' got for him. We decided that year that because he is so very hard to shop for that from then on out we would emplement something similar that a friend of ours does for hard to shop family folk; they take a magazine or two to their liking and circle several items that they would purchase themselves if they were doing the ordering. Then they leave that magazine 'out' for anyone (in my case my husband left it out for me), and this made it easy and secured that I would be giving my husband a Christmas present I knew, that I knew he would enjoy. It also allowed for a small sense of surprise since he had circled several items he would have no clue as to which one I picked out to gift him with.

So last year the twist came when we had walked into a local Christian book store and my husband had seen a beautiful display of 'gifts' the Three Wise Men had presented to Christ upon hearing about His birth. My husband showed a very obvious love for the way the replocated gift was displayed in the store and thought it would be a tremendous tool to use in teaching our children about the fine presents Christ had received. Even though, yes, he really wanted to use this display for a teaching method for our two young ones, he also was very impressed with the overall look, weight, and craftiness of the entire display. So needless to say, I kept my 'eye' on that item in that local store and when I had heard they were selling out of the few boxes they had I decided it was a must have, not just my husband, but for the whole family. It was a pretty penny I won't lie, but worth every 1/2 cent.

So even though this is a gift given from myself to my husband I am happy to say it has never once been asked for an exchange, regift, or other item in it's place. Though this item was on the pricey side (as I leaned to mentioning above) both hubby and I feel it's already been a tremendous blessing in our household. Our 6 and 4 year seem to finally be understanding the true meaning of Christmas and we have seen in their eyes this year the precious joy they are finding in the salvation of knowing what Christ has done as a genuine sacrificial love for them both (though our 4 year old is still trying to grasp the concept of this all).

Such a simple gift but in all actuality it is the only 'real' gift that is of importance in teaching our children the intense, incredible, love that so many others including Kings had adorned Him with even before his first birthday. This teaching of 'Christ's Gifts' is a new tradition in our family, one that follows an older tradition that we've done since both our children were infants and that is the eve before Chirstmas we go to our local grocery store and buy 2 metalic birthday balloons that read 'Happy Birthday' and we pray, dedicating them to Christ and both 'Jewel' and 'Mr. Happy' joyfully release the balloons up to Heaven for Christ to 'receive'.

Just recently I had learned that Oriental Trading actually sells entire party packages for 'Happy Birthday Jesus' supplies to celebrate His special day. I had never known this before and when I did a Google search for 'Jesus Birthday Balloon' their site popped right up; they have party hats, party plates, balloons, even banners that read 'Happy Birthday Jesus!'. (You can view them by click on the link above if you're curious or interested yourself). This really, really touched me and I think I might just order a few of the balloons and party hats for the kids, and my husband and I. If there's one thing I pray above everything else is that my kids know the TRUE meaning of Christmas and not allow it to be sugar coated with 'eating supper with Santa' at church or various other confusing and misleading (in mine and my husbands opinions at least) messages, especially for such young and impressionable minds at the ages of 4 and 6. Of course we do not judge how others choose to celebrate their holidays, especially Christmas, but for us and our household Christmas is to Holy to sugarcoat it with anything other than the truth; Jesus.

In this we also read our kids the kids storybook (for their age of understanding) "My Merry Christmas and The Real Reason For Christmas Joy" by Linda Clearwater. This age appropriate book gives insight to all the clues as to a lot of traditions like stringing lights, decorating the tree, opening Christmas gifts, and ultimately the real purpose for Christmas Joy; Jesus Christ, a gift to all who are willing and open to receive Him.

If you have young children yourself and would like for them to understand the meaning behing the Christmas tree 'topper' or other traditions this is a great book that we personally have found our own children to understand very easily. I hope that the small photo's of this book that I am sharing gives you a clear understanding as to the meaning behind this book in case it is something that may appeal to you as well.

Merry Christmas and may the Good Lord be with all of you the season, guiding and leading us all into His perfect plan of Salvation for all the World to know.

I ♥ Faces Week 46 'Sun Flare'

2009-11-23T10:51:00.004-06:00

Here is my pick for a photo I recently took while visiting Moody Gardens in the Houston Area. I was actually pleasantly surprised when I viewed this photo at home on full screen on my laptop seeing the sun ray glistening down as our daughter sat relaxing to sniff this flower. She said it didn't have a very pleasant odor so I'm glad we snapped this photo quick before the one after this because it shows her 'stinky' look face, which actually gave hubby and I quite the chuckle.

Every since I've been taking one on one Professional Photography classes with an awesome Professional Photographer I've been snapping away like a mad woman. A click, click here, and a click, click there....here a click, there a click, everywhere a click, click. LOL...sorry just couldn't resist. :D

Hope ya'll enjoy it. This one was actually taken prior to my Photography classes beginning so knowing what I know now I probably would have had the ISO set differently to prevent some of the 'noise' you can slightly see on her face, but none-the-less, we still think we captured a nice, rare and unexpected shot.

Visit I ♥ Faces yourself to see more awesome photo's and you can join along with all the fun too!!!

A new friend.

2009-11-18T21:05:00.000-06:00

Simple and quick post. One sentence long. A new friend of mine told me an awesome quote and since I love quotes I decided to share it:

'Begin to weave and God will give you a thread.'
- Christian German

Love it! Thanks Laura for sharing this!!!

Couldn't be more proud of our little girl!

2009-11-17T01:29:00.000-06:00

As most of my family and friends know, my husband sometimes works odd hours which makes it difficult for me to sleep some nights. Well Saturday night was one of those nights; he had to work late which made it super difficult for me to sleep that night. So I did what I do best (being a night owl and all) by staying up multitasking with watching bits and pieces of whatever was on TV and working on photo's with my laptop. (In case you didn't know I am taking Professional Photography classes one on one with a Photography Instructor who is every so patient with me, but also tells me like it is as well as practicing and learning other Photography techniques and Photoshop CS4). So with both of these task that interchange well with one another I can stay pretty busy most nights that my hubby is called to work.

Now, where was I? Okay so my hubby worked Saturday night and knowing that he'd be too exhausted to attend Sunday School and Service I was determined to make it to Church with just myself, daughter, and son. Problem was I didn't fall asleep until approx. 3-4 AM, which made it extremely difficult for me to wake up Sunday morning for church. Everything in me wanted to just stay home but I knew if I didn't go for myself that I at least needed to be a good example for my children and attend. I lay there in bed while drifting back to sleep but praying in my mind asking the Lord to please help me find the energy and strength to get the day started RIGHT. Of course and as always, The Holy Spirit gives me that strength but in a rather unusual way. Our just turned 6 year old daughter entered our bedroom fully dressed with pink sock in hand filled with coins from her piggy bank. She said 'Mom, we're ready to go to church and I put money from my piggy bank into my sock and my brothers sock to give to God. Are you ready to go mom?' Of course I slurped up ~~my drool~~ a drink of water and tried to get my eyelids open, but it did do the 'trick'. I knew that I knew I had to get up and fast. Since my kids were basically dressed all I mainly had to do was make their breakfast, remind them to brush their teeth and do both of their hairs; well and also rush to get my own self dressed and ready.

So with kids and coins stuffed down thier socks in tow we made it to church just 10 min. late for Sunday School. My daughter's Children's Church wasn't scheduled that day so she sat with me in 'big' Church while my son stayed in his designated room.

My daughter was restless during Sunday School, which was an awesome lesson by the way, but as soon as it was over she was ecstatic and eager to give her offering to God. She walked up to our Pastor before church began and said 'Here, this is my money for God.' He looked down at her and basically told her nicely that when the 'plate' passes to put it in there and it will be used for God's glory.

Little did we know that during the service, right before the time to collect the tithes and offerings, our Pastor, Mark Redd, was sharing how a little girl had just made the decision to accept Christ into her heart, and then he proceeded to say he wanted to share something else with the congregation. His exact words aren't memorized by me but it was something like 'This morning a little girl came up to me and gave me something from her heart...." 'Ms. Jewel', 'Ms. Jewel', where are you at?" It dawned on me that he was talking about my Jewel. Well wouldn't you know it that 'Ms. Jewel' wanted to be on the upstairs portion of the Church so I allowed that, so when Pastor called her he was searching for her where my husband and I typically sit; always on the ground level. Finally I stood up and quickly walked 'Ms. Jewel' over to the stairs and told her to quickly walk/run down them and go up to our Pastor while he was still calling her. She was a little apprehensive walking so far away from me, but brave at the same time. I stayed standing at the top of the stairs and she made certain to turn around and make sure I was still there more than once. I was. :D

Pastor Redd got down to her level in front of the congregation and talked to the church saying 'This morning 'Ms. Jewel' walked up to me and told me that she had something to give....', then he looked at her and asked her in the microphone 'Ms. Jewel, remember when you walked up to me this morning with this, this, uh envelope (I think he was perplexed because at first it was in a pink sock but later 'Ms. Jewel' decided she didn't want to give God a semi dirty sock so we quickly tried to lay out all the coins totalling $1.54, on the pew and shove them in an offering enveloped; hoping that the thing wouldn't burst open.) So I believe (not sure) that's why Pastor Redd stumbled a bit when he didn't see the sock. Personally I think the sock affect would have been a bigger presentation to represent a childs mindset and thinking to store her money and present it to God, but I also think Pastor Redd probably knew that mommy made the decision that it was better kept if placed in a proper envelope (though truth be told we really were planning on just putting the whole coin with sock in the plate, but it was 'Ms. Jewel' who suddenly decided that she didn't want God to have a semi-dirty sock! lol Too cute and so sensitive to Him! I was a little more than impressed!). Pastor Redd asked 'Ms. Jewel', as he balanced around the heavy envelope of coins "Did you come up to me this morning to give this to me for God?", 'Ms. Jewel', "Yes!". "And what's in here?" 'Ms. Jewel' "Money!", "And where did you get this money from?" 'Ms. Jewel' "My Piggy Bank!". "And who do you want to give it to?" 'Ms. Jewel' "God!!", to which Pastor Redd began a small discussion to the congregation about how if a little child wants to give to the Lord, how much more should we be joyfull about it, and then of course he proceeded to joke by saying "So if you want to pour in your IRA, 401K, Savings Account...." lol.

It was a good last 7 days for 'Ms. Jewel' because not only was I proud of her for offering to God on her very own but also her Kindergarten teacher called me direct to tell me that she is doing super well and her and 2 other students are actually the higher readers in the class, she's responding better in class, and getting assignments done in a timely manner, when before she had a very hard time with this.

It just feels good when your kids are doing well and loving it. Everything seems to be going smoothly and big Jesse and I couldn't be happier! There's more to share that's happened within the past 2 weeks that have made us proud of our kids but I'll save that for another day. To God be ALL the Glory!

Will you be the one to brave 'Black Friday' Christmas shopping this season? Poll included.

2009-11-13T21:36:00.003-06:00

Online bingo polls

I swore I would never do it, but last year I couldn't resist when my two young children had their leapster handhelds and the original price of the games are $24.99. Well last year 'Black Friday' (Don't know why they call it that.) they had all the leapster hand held games at Target for just $10 each!!! There were a few other items I took advantage of as well and truly in the end it really was a big savings. And personally I didn't run in to any chaos or crazy shoppers like I feared. So I for one, am going to ATTEMPT to stand in the long lines outside again only if there are great super savings on items wanted/needed. Our family is planning a budget this year since last year we went WAAAAY overboard and overspent, yes, even with the savings from 'black Friday'. If anybody asks us what our kids want we will kindly tell them we would really appreciate educational toys/gadgets/whatnot. Of course we'll get them at least one nice toy that is non educational that they really long for, but other than that we really want to limit their gifts to just education, but fun education.

Here is a very disturbing picture; at least for us anyhow (actually I had to take the photo in sections to get the full affect, and this wasn't even the ALL OF IT!) ; we took of our kids and ALL the abundance of toys that just our two kids got all in one day!!!! My husband and I looked at this photo recently and realized that all these toys were WAY too much for just two kids ages 3 and 5 last year. Not to mention all of those toys are a HUGE reason why

both our kids bedrooms are often a big mess. AND, the toys, in our personal family opinions, isn't even the reason behind Christmas anyhow!!!

So whatever you decide I completely respect it, as I have been on both sides of the fence with this. Of course we've already asked my husbands parents if our kids can stay overnight at their home and they are okay with this. So my biggest struggle now isn't anything except going to bed early (I'm a night owl) and making sure I really wake up to get in the lines early, like at 4 AM.

Now mind you, my husband and I did not get all of these gifts for our two kids. It was a combination of us, and a ton of kind loving family and friends. Now I don't know if this seems like a lot to you but even for us as adults we felt incredibly overwelmed!

'Twas The Month Before Christmas (not the 'holidays')

2009-11-09T20:19:00.003-06:00

"MERRY CHRISTMAS!"

Twas the month before Christmas*
When all through our land,*
Not a Christian was praying*
Nor taking a stand.*
See the PC Police had taken away,*
The reason for Christmas - no one could say.*
The children were told by their schools not to sing,*
About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.*
It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say*
December 25th is just a ' Holiday '.*
Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit*
Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!*
CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod*
Something was changing, something quite odd! *
Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa*
In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.*
As Targets were hanging their trees upside down*
At Lowe's the word Christmas - was no where to be found.*
At K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears*
You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.*
Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty*
Are words that were used to intimidate me.*
Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen*
On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton !*
At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter*
To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter*
And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith*
Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace*
The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded*
The reason for the season, stopped before it started.*
So as you celebrate 'Winter Break' under your 'Dream Tree'*
Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.*
Choose your words carefully, choose what you say*
Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS ,
not Happy Holiday !*

Please, all Christians join together and

wish everyone you meet during the

holidays a MERRY CHRISTMAS

Every year, as it nears Christmas, I repost this awesome MUST SEE video clip, but this year I feel on my heart to do it a bit earlier than I normally do; which is closer to Thanksgiving.

2009-10-28T21:13:00.002-05:00

This is a truly powerful video that I posted this same time last year as Christmas approached. It is a skit that was performed at a church by Lighthouse and it is a constant reminder of how life's distractions, interruptions, and influences can pull us further and further from our King, Jesus Christ and yet He still remains faithful to seek and save us. If you've seen it before, as I have many times, it doesn't make it any less worth replaying over and over. I know that for me, every time I do, I end up sobbing as if I were a child again. This clip will bring you to your knees and draw you closer and deeper in desiring to surrender every thing about who you are to Him, the One who loves you more than anyone or anything else possibly ever can. The music and drama are perfect together so make sure you turn the volume up and get ready to have an intimate moment with God.

CRUCIAL: If you know someone that has been tugging on your heart to minister to than be brave, strong, and confident in Him that He placed that person on your heart for a reason so please pray for them and consider offering to show this clip to them as well. Blessings!

**NOTE Please pause the music on my right hand side bar so that you can watch this clip more affectively.

Blog-Cation (Vacation from blogging)

2009-10-18T01:43:00.002-05:00

This is my 303rd Blog entry and though I've never done one of those blogversaries thingy's (just because it's not something I do) I've decided I'd like to take a break from blogging and follow in suite with what a dear from of mine did, Lauryn over at Seed Thoughts, when she did this very thing by taking a much needed break from blogging to regroup with her family, the Lord, and other priorities she set out for herself.

If you don't see me keeping up on my posts you'll know the reason why. However I will still stop in from time to time to visit Facebook, Twitter, and even do some photo editing posts on my blogs, but I won't be planning on doing anything in depth like I used to awhile back. There is so much on my plate right now and momma needs a break from it all, so if anything I would love to have some of you dear one's pray that I get that at least. I love my kiddo's and though my 6 yr. old is in Kindergarten I'm still at home with my 4 year old who wants ALL of mommies attention, which is impossible when I have housework, my Photography business, and other errands to run, as most mom's know. I do spend time with him when it comes to academics and preparing him for school, but he also wants me to me his main playmate while his sister is at school which I can do for a bit, but I'm simply just not very good at that.

I ask humbly that you pray that God gives me the desire to meet my son's needs and affections as well as Him giving me the strength and energy to do the motherly and wifely (sp) things that NEEDS to get done, as well as spending time in the Word. I don't know how long my 'blog-cation' will last but I imagine it will be for at least a month of so, except for my photo editing with I ♥ Faces which I love to take part in to make me a better Photographer.
Thanks my wonderful friends for understanding. Love you all and hugs from the heart!

I ♥ Faces fix-it Friday

2009-10-16T13:22:00.004-05:00

ORIGINAL

First Edit

Second Edit in Black & White

Third edit I did with keeping the body of her photo in black and white but punching out the red ribbon in her headband and keeping her blue eyes to POP! So whatcha think?

I do have another edit that I worked on but for some reason I can't locate it. (I love editing and working on photo's and will get better as soon as I get my Photoshop CS4, hopefully sooner than later.) For now I can't fine my other edit probably due to the hundreds of thousands of photo's that I have saved on my laptop....gotta get rid of a lot of those so my computer with work faster....my bad. But these are good for now; I think at least.

Visit I ♥ Faces to check out more of the awesome edits other members created to this little princess. You'll be glad you did. I checked many other entries out and they were awesome, and that is an understatement! This little girl certainly is a doll, isn't she?

I ♥ Faces Week 40 "Excited!" Photo Challenge

2009-10-13T13:20:00.002-05:00

This is an about 6 or so months ago photo of my youngest son. Someone had purchased the famous game 'Don't Spill the Beans', which he absolutely got a 'kick' out of. He got the concept right away and when he won the 'non-spilling' of the beans I had to take out my camera to capture his look. He was ecstatic to win the game over big sister, mommy and daddy combined. Seriously I don't know how he did it because I remember playing this game as a kid and I rocked at it! It's not the most flattering photo of him with his belly showing but it clearly shows the excitment on his face from being the champaign of this preschool game! I personally love it!

Visit I ♥ Faces by clicking this link in red or clicking on their blogspot button below. Check out some of the other awesome entries in this weeks challenge as well as other previous weeks challenges and join in on the fun!! I love it!

I ♥ Faces Fix-It Friday Week 31

2009-10-09T10:36:00.010-05:00

Original

First Edit

My Second Edit

Third Edit

Fourth Edit

I didn't do very much editing to this young handsome prince because I am limited on the kind of software I can work with. I was however able to make some subtle changes like smoothing and cleaning up his skin some and removing the little smudge that was on his nose. I also added a reflection glare to his eyes, and brightened his teeth up a bit as well as opened his eyes up some more. On the second image I applied the Sephia look to make the image look like an older photo; just for fun. And my third editing job looks similar to my first edit but I didn't do as well with removing some of the hair shadows at the top of his hair line, but I do like how I was able to make his eyes stand out even a bit more by making them a brighter blue and even the coloring of his shirt is more blue, but I'm still learning about how to edit photo's better so I won't lie to you because I still have a ways to go in my learning. And in my fourth and final edit I just changed his eye color to a more greenish tint, again just for the fun of it. I know the last two photo's have too much orange/red in his hair line which again I'm working on but will have to wait to get the right editing software for such things as this. So again, please go easy on me! :) Even with or without my editing you can see what a fine little boy this guy truly is!

Click on the I Heart Faces link or button below to check out some of the other participants and what an amazing job they did with some of their awesome editing jobs and don't be afraid to join in on all the fun!

I'm not the mother that I had always hoped I would be...

2009-10-02T00:08:00.022-05:00

When I was a little girl it was always a vision of mine, put there by God, to be a mom; that's it, that's all I've always wanted to be, except for a short season when I desperately wanted to be an actress from watching that series 'Fame' every week. And then of course there was the show 'CHiPs' and I thought I was instantly 'in love' with Larry Wilcox, Eric Estrada's partner. Okay so I know this really ages me by bringing up a show from the 1970's but so be it...lol....the point of this post is to vent out my own frustrations on everything I wish I was but am not. I know it seems like such a 'downer' to read on such negativity but trust me the end will bring the glory to where it's supposed to be....

As many of my friends know by reading my testimony and how I was raised it wasn't a very pretty picture but even through the very rough times I still recall always playing with my dolls, especially my famous Baby Alive, and couldn't WAIT for the day I became a real mom in true life. As a young child I was seeing through rose colored glasses imagining that being a mom would be the most perfect job in all the world to have; I would love my kids to the deepest parts of my heart and would cuddle with them constantly, play with the daily, would never raise my voice at them or make them do homework if they didn't feel up to it. I envisioned the role of being 'mom' would be the best thing ever and could not imagine anything better than doing this....that is until I grew up a little more and my sister had her two kids. I instantly fell in love with both of them as they were perfect in my eyes and so super precious. She was the first of me and 3 older siblings to have kids so it was a lovely welcoming addition to the family when she did. She was a good mom and loved her little boys tenderly but as a new mom she had the typical challenges that all moms face but they were tripled since she was just a teenager. When her first son was an infant/baby things went fairly smoothly but as he turned into a toddler things became more complicated, as we all know that those years are very 'trying' in themselves, even for my own mother who helped my sister by trying to offer advice and support.

I witnessed my sister do a lot of very 'right', loving, nurturing and 'motherly' things but I also watched her struggle quite a bit as well, but I will give it to her that she did try as best as she knew how at her age and with our upbringing.

I think it was during those years of trial and error with raising her two sons that I began to question my own mothering career, even though it was far into the future. A couple of years later my very best friend at the time, also as a teenager, gave birth to her beautiful daughter who I ended up helping her raise from her baby/toddler years up until she was 13 years old. Now her daughter is a thriving 19 yr. old serving in the Army and I couldn't be more proud of her strength and confidence to tackle on such a demanding and critical a job such as this. Even while helping my friend to raise her was not how I ever imagined things would be, so why is it that I somehow got this 'fairy tale' type of mothering role play into my head to begin with??

I've been pondering this a lot lately because I know one thing is for sure and this is that I did not get this 'fairy tale' image from my own family morals, values, and practices so I can only assume that this might be the rare time I actually credit the television for doing something super good; engraving my thought process to understand and hope that being a mother was so very, very grand. But the true facts are that although being a mother is extremely grand, amazing, rewarding, educational, filled with intense love and protection, and all the other yummy stuff that goes with it, being a mom is also over-glamorized, exhausting, over worked, and under paid. I know many of moms, including myself that survive off of less than 5-6 hours of sleep most nights, are getting pooped on, peed on, thrown up on, slipping on toys in nearly every room in the home, trying to keep every square foot of the home cleaned and sanitized, works like a maid to do the dishes that pile up at least 3 times a day, stay on top of the laundry piles that magically grow on their own, attempt to make at least 3 decent meals in a 24 hour day, run errands like going to the grocery store, picking up odds and ends here and there, help their kids with homework assignments, (and throw in the mix one of her kids suddenly get ill), put effort into making sure her husband has his work or church clothes pressed, getting their own children dressed....and in the mist of all of these things (and tons more that I've failed to mention) a mother still desires to do the most important role modeling of spending quality time with her kids by holding them, playing with them, reading to them, nurturing them when needed, and most importantly in my eyes being an example of a Proverbs woman; a mom who fears the Lord and works diligently at trying to obey and please God.

On that note I am not that mom, though I wish I were. Some days I fail; sometimes I leave the house wondering if I even brushed my teeth! Other times I don't spend the kind of quality time with my two kids like I should and I feel every so guilty about this. And even worse when my young ones want to watch SpongeBob, I cuddle up right there with them and watch it too. LOL! I hardly cook the way I wish I could as I am horrible in the kitchen. When it comes to picking up my Kindergartner I dread it because coming home with the homework that my daughter has is more than a migraine since it takes a super long time for her to do even a coloring page. I, shamefully, am not as nurturing as a mother that I wish I was. Now sharing this isn't to say that I think I'm a bad mom because I don't believe I am; just rather that I'd like to be a much better mom than I currently am. Some of this I know the answers to why I'm not, such as the huge factor of not having a very stable mother myself trying to raise me, but other things I'm not so sure of.

There are many things that I don't know the 'why's' about when mothering my two kids, but for the record I do love both my daughter and son immensely and would do anything for them. Though I've learned this scripture below many of times, TODAY is the day I am going to take it more serious on being the kind of mother and wife I long and hope for, for the sake of my family. To God be ALL the glory!

"She girds herself with strength, and strengthens herself daily. She perceives that her provision for her family is good: she does not retire early but works diligently to see to the needs of her husband and children, she is not an idle woman." Proverbs 31:17, 18, 27

I also found this site 'For The Love Of Children' which I'll be working my way through as well as printing out. It gives a ton, and when I say ton I mean TON, of scriptures on being a better mom to your kids when you feel at your wits end.

Is all of this good to admit publicly? Yes. Will it make me a better mother? I think so. Does it cost a dollar to admit when we recognize we need a change in our lives? It might. Having my kids look back and say 'My mom was great and there for me so, so much when I needed her.' Priceless!

*Note: None of this is to say that a husband doesn't have his role as father cut out for him as well as I know many dads who have to juggle quite a plateful too so I give them tons of credit for this!

Scared?...not yet, but a little uncertain. Reliant on God? 100%!

2009-09-29T00:16:00.001-05:00

Lately our 6 year old daughter, 'Jewel', has been awaking during the night and also complaining randomly throughout the last few weeks about leg pain, especially in her right foot. It's been a very unusual thing as she has been saying her foot is very cold and hurts to walk on. Obviously my first thoughts were of poor circulation and that she is sleeping on it in a wrong fashion, but after about two weeks of this going on I've begun to grow a bit concerned. Sometimes she acts perfectly normal and walks, hops, and runs on it as if it's totally fine only for 2 hours later her to mention again that she has some reoccuring pain.When my husband and I have asked her about describing the pain; Is it tingling? Can she 'feel' her foot/leg and is it numb? How badly is the pain?, Jewel's only answer is always the same 'It just hurts and feels cold. Can you please put some blankets on it?'

To me this is rather unusual for a 6 year old but for the past two weeks I've tossed it off to the side refusing to think negatively that it could be something overly concerning. I mean she did have quite a bit of activities going on recently that could have caused her to slightly twist her ankle causing her some discomfort or whatnot. She's in cheerleading, she had her birthday party at an indoor bounce house, and she has a ton of cousins, not to mention daddy (my husband) who loves to 'rough play' with both our kids so any number of these things could have jolted her leg in the wrong manner. The only problem with this theory is that myself nor my husband recall her ever approaching either one of us on any specific time frame about her hurting her foot, ankle, or leg EVER. Her onset of sudden complaints came out of nowhere so we are a bit perplexed. At her age she should not be complaining of cold feet or consistant, yet random leg pain so I've decided to call our family doctor. The nurse put me on hold to speak with our doctor who told me to schedule an appointment to bring her in for some testing. The appointment is for tomorrow at 2PM so I'll have to get her out of school an hour early, which she is looking forward too. What she won't be looking forward to is the blood work that the nurse already warned me that they would be 'drawing' from 'Jewel' to run some tests. I haven't shared this part with Jewel as I know how she'll get; more scared than the average 6 year old, and so full of anxiety that she'll more than likely 'wet' herself. I'm waiting to tell her tomorrow before the appointment, probably on the drive there or in the waiting room but definitely not before school starts or who knows what will happen. I can only imagine if I did tell her in the morning that she would more than likely focus on this throughout her entire Kindergarten day, preventing her from concentrating on learning, eating lunch, or even playing at recess. Yes, this truly is how 'worked up' she gets over some things. So I'm waiting and I'll be praying about the right time to tell her but I'll also bring her favorite 'blankie' that she's had since she turned 1 years old and still sleeps with to this day. (I'd better slyly get this from her grip right now in her sleep before I forget it tomorrow.)

Please would you keep Jewel in your prayers? Not only for the needle injection she'll get for having her blood 'drawn' but also for some safe answers as to reasons her foot/leg is suddenly and unexpectantly giving her some problems. I'm simply clueless and don't know what to think....

Thank you kindly,

Precious Baby

2009-09-28T18:14:00.005-05:00

I ♥ Faces - Kids Category

This weeks #38 I ♥ Faces Photo Challenge theme is 'Blue', which means any photo's entered into the contest must have the color blue in it. 'Fair enough.' I thought since I just took some photo's of an adorable little baby boy and just happened to use an awesome blue ribbon in parts of my photo taking. I had tons of fun working on this photo and this precious little one was a perfect little angel to work with! The hardest part I have when entering any I ♥ Faces photo challenges is that there are so many photo's I want to pick and choosing the best one is SUPER difficult for me. There was one I took of a gorgeous little girl and her bright blue eyes were just popping right off of the screen, and then another one that I had taken of a little boy who was playing to himself with such imagination using awesome blue colors in the home made tent/fort he had perched up around his living room furniture. But in the end I went with this photo; partially because my husband likes it over the others, and partially because I just adore newborns. So there you have it; a precious and most peaceful baby!

If you haven't visiting I ♥ Faces give it a try. It's load of fun and make sure to check out all the awesome other photo entries that you'll find there. Best of luck to you!

Image Converter and Watermark Software Give-Away hosted by BatchPhoto

2009-09-25T23:00:00.007-05:00

First of all let me begin this post by sharing with you that I am not queen of blog 'Give Aways'; in fact I get easily tire of visiting other blogs that constantly and forever use Give Aways to promote their own site, that is unless it is a blog or website that is solely geared towards product reviews or they are a site that is there to benefit others such as Toddler Craft. All other family or personal style blogs just bug me when all I do is visit their site to read about yet another 'Give Away', which to me only seems to be used to promote their site and nothing other than that. Some may beg to differ, but this is my post so I can say as I please. There are, on occassion personal family blogs, such as myself will host a blog 'Give Away' and to me I find this perfectly fine; again if on occasion, but when you go to the same family blog and all they seem to do is sucker you into playing along to win a free gift every other week or two, than to me it just feels overkill, like all they really want is your attention as if they are 'buying you' to visit their site. Well let me reassure you I am not in the habit of doing such Give Aways and my blog speaks for itself as I have only done 3 TOTAL in the over 3 solid years I have been blogging! With this being said, I simply could not pass up on this rare and awesome opportunity to offer this Photography Watermark (and so much more) Program as a free Give-Away to one very special blogger. Please read onward if you are interested...

For all fellow photography lovers. I have been blessed and honored by a special person, the creator of BatchPhoto, to offer a special blogger friend of mine the opportunity to have a free Pro License Code Key so that you may have full reign and access of this very unique, super user friendly program that I have also been blessed with through BatchPhoto. In case you are not familiar with BatchPhoto please read my posting that I did below this one after you finish reading this here.

As many of my friends and family know I am very attached to my Nikon and love to carry it practically anywhere that I go to. This being said I have been wanting to discover a simple way to begin placing watermarks on all of the photo's I take and post online, whether it be my personal blog or emails I send to others, but especially for my photography website which should be opening fairly shortly. None of us want theives to come in and steal the images that we snapped away at only to see them used by strangers. As many of you recall this happened in real life to a young family who had their family portrait on their blog only to discover that someone had copied it without permission and used it for advertising purposes in CZECH REPUBLIC on a full size bulletine board. I fully recall learning about this story on the news awhile back. Just imagine their surprise when this was brought to their attention!! Well I don't know about you but I never want to be left in the dark about this possibly happening with any of my family photo's, especially when it comes to my kids. If you have never heard of the story you can read about this on her blog by clicking here.

The point is we all want to protect the photo's and images we take and what easier and better way to do this than to use a super friendly program like BatchPhoto Picture Watermark. BatchPhoto is revolutionary and powerful photo manipulation program that makes it SUPER easy to convert, resize, watermark, annotate, touch-up, apply effects, and rename hundreds of photos in a single operation. What I was initially searching for was a simple way to watermark all of my photo's by asking other photographers ways to do this and most of the replies I received were to use Photoshop. Well from the get go with my experience with Photoshop I have been constantly overwhelmed, frustrated and mentally drained trying to figure out the ropes with their high profile software program. So I decided to attempt viewing the Photoshop tutorial just one last time for a simple watermark application and when I went to this tutorial site I noticed off to the side there was an advertisement by BatchPhoto for their product on creating watermarks on photographs in less than 5 minutes time. Naturally this grabbed my attention so I clicked on the link which had a free 30 day trial without supplying any phone number, credit card or personal information whatsoever...extra bonus.

After downloading the 30 day trial I began to follow the simple instructions for watermarking my photo's and in no time at all....I couldn't believe it....I had a clear and visible watermark on my photo!! I was in complete shock that the whole process was super simple, easy, and for the first time in a long I completed a program task such as this without ever getting the slightest headache!!

Now I, along with the creator of BatchPhoto am offering this Pro license Image Converter and Watermark Software hosted by BatchPhoto Watermark Software as a 'give away' to you, my wonderful blogger family and friends. All I ask is that you follow my blog, add a blog posting on your site linking it back to mine regarding this Give Away and leave a comment here about why you would love to have full access free of charge to Batchphoto for your own use. When you leave your comment also let me know that you've done all of the above that I've mentioned.

If you would like to read more about this Image Converter & Watermarker Software and what it offers please click on their link here: Image Converter and Watermark Software. And remember there is SOOO much more this program can do besides adding a watermark to protect your photo's that I have't even touched on. I'm very excited and anxious to check out all of their amazing features which I'll probably spend all day playing with tomorrow sometime!!

Here are just a few of BatchPhoto's main features which I copied off of the website:

BatchPhoto's main features:

Graphic Filters (see the complete list by clicking their site above)

Annotate: Add Date/Time, Comments, and Watermarks

Touch-Up: Adjust Brightness, Sharpness, Contrast, Colors, Reduce Noise, and more

Transform: Resize Pictures, Rotate, Crop, and more
Add Effects: Apply Sepia, Black & White, Frames, Charcoal Sketch, Oil Paint, Shade, Swirl, and more

Functionality

New: RAW Development. Batch Convert RAW Photos from Digital Camera Makers like: Canon, Sony, Nikon, Olympus, Fuji, Kodak, Pentax and more!

Take Advantage of Multi-Core Processors for Editing Batches of Photos!

Convert Pictures from one Image Format to Another (More Than 100 Image Formats Supported)

Rename Photos with Meaningful Names

Apply Profiles on Multiple Pictures with the Right Mouse Click Directly from Windows® Explorer

Use Projects and Profiles to Improve Your Productivity

Take advantage of accurate previews for both the original and the enhanced photos.

And it goes without saying, a HUGE SHOUT OUT TO BatchPhoto, for hosting and sponsoring this 'Give Away'. I am most certainly positive that this product will not let you down. You simply can't go wrong with something this simple and easy to use. Period! Now who wouldn't want a free version of this program after hearing all of these awesome features???? I too was blessed by the creator of Batch Photo to give me a free key code for the Studio 9 Version at no cost to me simply for sharing this information. Again, thank you BatchPhoto. If your interested and would like to get this free version for yourself than just do what I mentioned above and let me know that you did this so I can check it out.

My first photo watermark, the super easy way! I'll reveal my easy secret soon.

2009-09-25T02:02:00.007-05:00

Well as many of my wonderful family and friends know, I'm a fanatic when it comes to photography with snapping away like a fool behind the camera lens. Well soon I hope to be going Pro with my photography, which means a lot; having a photo editing program that is user friendly as well as having all of my work protected. Most of you awesome friends know that I own the full version of Photoshop but have had the most difficult time utilizing all the many features it has. For a mom like myself who loves to click away behind the camera lens but also has responsibilities of taking care of the kids, keeping the house in order, paying bills online, running errands upon errands, making sure the kids are at cheerleading practice and Tee-Ball practice and games as well as now trying to work at building my own photography business it goes without saying that the more convenient something is for me (as long as quality isn't compromised) the more apt I'm going to use that item.

Such is the case with the recent Product Review I did with Portrait Professional Studio 9, which you can read and view here and here. I absolutely loved their program and have used it many times over. Some of my friends have also told me that they purchased this program after reading what I wrote and giving the link for them to visit and download a trial version for themselves. So far I haven't heard any complaints about the product yet; they all seem very satisfied and happy to have discovered something so easy to apply. Yay!!

So now onto this photo below. I will tell you that I did play around with two different photo watermark programs but I'm not going to tell you which program I used just yet. I want you to tell me what you think first before I do. The before and after of each of the photo's I took of my son are pretty obvious but I still titled them 'Before', 'After'. LOL. I'll tell you more about the features of this product once I read up on it some more.

BEFORE

AFTER

Below is another watermark I added to a photo I took of my young little cheerleader as she was sitting on the sidelines waiting to cheer the footballers on. She's the one in the hair ribbon screaming with her viens about to pop out!

So what'd ya think? You like? But wait, there's so much more you can do with this program like instead of adding a text watermark you can upload a photo of any logo or image trademark you use for your business and it will transfer easily to a watermark just the same and you can position it anywhere on the photo that you wish to. I'll use my business card for example but I'll enlarge it (yup it allows you to enlarge watermarks too so that you can cover the major parts of the image preventing someone to use it and simply crop out your marking. Allow me....)

Now that makes it rather difficult for a theif to try to steal my photo, unless of course they wanted to just use the lips or nose, which would be rather odd I would think. I know, I know...I should have made my business card watermark a lot more transparent, but you get the idea.

So there you have it. There's also an option to delete your watermark should you decide to allow someone the privelge (upon them paying for your photography services and photo's) to own all copyrights of that image, which is just as simple of a process to remove the watermark as it was to place it. Now we all remember what happened to Daniele with her stolen picture; it was all over the news. You can check out her blog where she discusses that by clicking here. (Pretty freaky and amazing story huh?) I don't know about you but I certainly don't want any of the photo's I put up on my blog to be stolen the way her family portrait was without permission. I plan on adding this watermark to all of the photo's I add on my blog ASAP. And just to note, that even if an individual should decide to print the image without your permission, rest assured the watermarking would come out in the print just as you see it here. But there's so much more you can do with this program like adding shadows and glows. You can even apply a set of watermarks, resize, rename and convert hundreds of pictures all at the same time! Let me know what you think, would ya? How much would you pay for a simple, easy to use program such as this? Share this with me as well if you would.

God is leading me to the Passion He placed inside of me...

2009-09-24T11:17:00.002-05:00

Well I already received my DBA (Doing Business As 'Christian Creations Photography' down at the County Clerks Office and recently just received my business cards, return address labels, car magnets (to promote my photography) and little extra's like pens and whatnot to use and give away. I also typed up my full contract for clients to sign stating that I have their full permission to take their photographs. I'm still working on my website which will take awhile to get organized, which will not be open until it is completed....God has been truly good to me. And as we all know in order to begin a small business it's good practice to give some freebies away. So with this being said I am offering to take photo's of families or inidividuals (kids and babies included) for free in exhange that you allow me to use these images to my discrection; meaning on display on my webiste for all the world to see. This means I will more than likely use the best photo's that I take on my website gallery to show other clients my work. And the photo's I take will be my property, however I will give print out the images for you for free or if I have it available, I will give you the CD of the photographs I take without my watermark (which I'm still trying to perfect through Photoshop), along with a signed consent from myself which would give you permission to copy and print as many of the photo's as you wish.

By all means, my photography passion is a work in progress but practice makes perfect so I shoot away at most everything I can and then 'edit' and play with it from there. If you reside near the Houston (preferrably the subards of Houson like Clear Lake, Pasadena, La Porte, or surrounding locations) I will gladly travel to your place during day light hours and use some of my practice skills to take some great photo's of your family, together or even separately. If I am busy and can not meet with you at a specific time than we can work something out. If it is during the evening hours that you would be available I would ask that you please wait until my husband can accompany me so that I am not traveling alone to an unknown location.

I already have approximately 5 families who are gracious enough to allow me to take photo's of their family and children, which will be a huge blessing to me. These dates have not been set up yet but I am very excited to get them going here shortly. I will only have two more spots to take freebie photo's of your family in exchange for you signing a release form to allow me to use as I wish. Please note that when I say 'As I wish' that I do not mean in any distasteful manner, corrupt, or falsified ways. I would simply use the photo's as is the way I snapped them and if you would prefer to help me pick the images to display than I also be more than happy to allow you to help me pick those images out as well. But you will have to email me in advance so I can know this. You can email me at my Photography email which is: Christiancreationsphotography@yahoo.com. Remember the photography business website is still under construction and still not available right now, but as soon as it is I will email everyone. *

Business Card Front Side

Business Card Back Side

Business Car magnet

* Please note that website is still currently under construction and is not available to view at this time.

'The Snake Man'

2009-09-15T14:51:00.000-05:00

2009-09-15T13:06:00.015-05:00

"Contemplative" Photo Theme Contest at

I ♥ Faces.com.

Mesmerize Me.....

Well here it is; the look I was longing for all week and just happened to capture last night during an event my 4 year old son was very much looking forward to attending; a visit with the 'Snake Man'. As soon as our church shared with us that they'd be having 'Snake Man' as a visitor for whomever would love to attend we knew that once we shared this with our little boy he would be enamored to partake in this exciting event. And sure enough; we couldn't have been more right! Once we shared this with our kids they both, even our daughter was anxious and eager to go, looking forward to church all throughout the entire day yesterday. "Okay, I'm ready Mom and Dad; let's GO!", we'd hear from our son about every 10 minutes starting at least 6 hours before Snake Man would even be present at our church.

Snake Man was quite interesting and though I truly didn't know what I could possibly 'get out of it', I actually learned some extremely valuable educational tools to look for if ever in the company of any snakes. So for this I was quite glad that I decided to go. Though my true reasons for going were hidden beneath my camera lens to capture either my son or daughter in a 'stand still' look in totally love and aweness at the snakes that they had never seen, and craved so deeply to touch, pet, and possibly hold, and this was the look I finally captured as I looked down (at first without my camera up to my face) and noticed the look my 4 year old son held on his face. When I realized he was in this trance locked look for what seemed to be well over a full minute (which is quite a long time for a just turned 4 year old), I knew I'd better grab the shot! And I did.

I don't know about you but I can totally tell and see in his look how dazed and mesmerized he was by being so close to this snake and then being told he could actually hold it if he wanted to. He just stood there without moving for quite the timeframe. It was the perfect shot; the look on his face with the slight smile of aweness, and his eyes glued to the subject at hand was all there. I wondered if he felt as if he were in dreamland. I think he did, especially later when a snake was actually placed around his neck for him to hold. I'll post the rest of these photo's taken from last nights event later today. But for now I wanted to get our name entered into this Photo Contest held with I ♥ Faces. If you have never checked out their site before and have a love for photography the way that I do than I would urge you to check out their blog. They give tons and tons of Photography tips and lessons, and loads of links for you to click on to read even more awesome Photography sites. So go check out I ♥ Faces for yourself; today! Either click on the link in red that I just gave or click on their blog button below to take you to their site. I'm actually heading that way myself right now so if you'd like I'd love to escort you over to introduce you to their team!

Product Review

2009-09-08T20:16:00.022-05:00

Portrait Professional Studio 9
Product Review

I heard about Portrait Professional from a great blogger friend, Leanne, who first shared her experience of this awesome product after she was first introduced to it. After she trialed it I also decided to test out the product myself especially since I love taking photo's for a living. Not to mention I currently own several different photo editing software programs including the most famous Photoshop, so I was very curious in testing Portrait Professional Studio 9 with my full version of Photoshop to see how they compared 'face to face'.

Well I was soooo blessed to obtain the Studio 9 Version for free which has different options to test on the people you take portraits of and was instantly captivated with the results. My overall reaction to Portrait Professional Studio 9 was that I was impressed with the user friendly ease of this program and how quickly I was able to restore and enhance photos within just minutes compared to how long it's taken me to figure out Photoshop. I still love Photoshop and will never 'ditch' this full software program that costs quite a pretty penny, but will simply use Portrait Professional Studio 9 as a 'plug in' to supplement images that I can't seem to quite figure out with Photoshop.

There are a few things with Portrait Professional Studio 9 that my husband said he felt made the enhancement to my own image appear too 'fake' looking, but after applying some of his input we both settled on 'sliders' that still looked like 'me', just a 'better' me. Here is the one photo (below) that I used as a 'tester' for Portrait Professional Studio 9. The first image is without any touch ups made and the second image is only applying Portrait Professional Studio 9's program. It's still not quite 'perfect' but you can see how the second image my skin is clearer, my hair is smoother and the overall look of myself is more pleasing, at least to me anyhow. Now let me know what you have to think if you will. You can download a free trial version of Portrait Professional Studio 9 by clicking here or by clicking on the Portrait Studio 9 link listed below in red and use one of your own images to test the results out for yourself if you'd like. It's definitely fun to play with and if you don't like something you did too much of or not enough of it's also an easy fix, the tools are right there guiding you the whole way through.

So a big SHOUT OUT to Portrait Professional who gave me this opportunity to test their product (and keep) and compare it to my full version of Photoshop that I own. I am still working on figuring out all the ins and outs with Photoshop otherwise I would add this same photo of myself to show you the comparison between the two, but for now all I can do is reveal the before and after of my 'untouched' photo of myself shown side by side after applying the tools using Portrait Professional. This ought to say something in itself as, like I stated earlier, it only took me minutes to take this photo of myself and make it look 'cleaner', 'sharper', 'smoother', 'clearer', using Portrait Professional Studio 9. Go ahead and give it a whirl and see how you like it as well and comment back to me about what your impression/thoughts were. I'd love to know. Also please share your do's and dont's likes about my image here, but go easy on me as this is only the second image I've played with using this program so even though it's still very user friendly I still have to work on 'tweaking' some things. And now for my before and after of my own photo:

BEFORE AFTER

Now before some of you critics begin with the negative remarks on my 'AFTER' enhancements I want you to focus in on the betterment of my picture, the hair being smoother and more tidy (not so scraggly looking), as well as my eyes showing more opened and bright, I removed some of the fine wrinkles that were above my forehead and my skin texture appears smoother also, but just maybe a little too much, which I'll have to play with some more. I must admit I did have a difficult time with my mouth area as I couldn't seem to get it set at a 'slider number' I felt didn't look too fake but yet not lose any of the color I had, but in fact I made the color too red so I already know this, so no need to mention it. My mouth area was my hardest area to work with probably because my upper lip is so small. Overall though as a plug in with my other software programs like Photoshop I believe Portrait Professional Studio 9 will greatly do wonders for all my photo subjects. I'm very excited to work with this program some more and see what else this bad boy can do.

To see my other post and photo I used Portrait Professional with click here. So that's why I say 'go easy on me' as I'm still getting myself acquainted with this program, but so far I do enjoy it so.

"I hate/love my cell phone!"

2009-09-07T17:53:00.003-05:00

This is what the title was to an article I read in a magazine the other day, but I don't remember which magazine it was in, wish I did though so I can re-read it again. Basically this is how I feel about my laptop. I hate/love my laptop! I hate it because I love to type down all my thoughts on my blog and my two kids blog/diary of their lives so I don't miss a thing. I enjoy writing, though I'm no expert, but like to record the things that happen during the day with either myself, my husband, my kids, extended family, ect. Another reason I love my laptop is that it's the outside to my world of being a stay at home mom. I can connect with friends on Facebook, Twitter, email anyone I'd like to and stay in complete (well almost complete) touch with those that I'm not in close contact with. I feel connected which is important to me.

I hate my laptop because when I check my email there are a ton of messages and I feel obligated to reply out of being polite, which ties up a lot of my time pulling me away from the household duties that I should be doing and more importantly limits my time with my two young kids which should be my priority above all, with the exception of my husband. I love to read the replies that I get on my blog and get a little 'tickle' out of them (unless of course their bad or sad). I love my laptop/computer because it gives me something to do that I want to do, something I enjoy; self teaching myself many Internet things like creating blog buttons, working on my photography editing programs, and doing favors for friends.

So, even though I've said this before, after reading this magazine article I plan to once again, try to discipline myself and prioritize the things that need to be done and downsize the others.

The same goes for my Nikon. I love/hate my Nikon. I am a photoholic and snap away at everything which I love because it captures memories I long to keep, yet I hate my addiction to my camera because I miss out on the beauty from my actual eyes, not to mention all the fun. For instance my kids birthday party this past Saturday; I had my Nikon in fast mode to take pictures super fast to never miss a 'shot', but behind the lens I missed out on playing with my kids because I was too worried about getting 'the moment'.

Please pray for me so that I can conquer these addictions, because addictions are so very hard to break. I don't mind being on my laptop or using my Nikon at all but I just need to limit the use of both of these.

I'm going to be praying that God helps me in these two areas and that through that He will provide the right time frames for me to accomplish the things I need to as a wife and mother. Will you please pray for me too? Thanks if you do!

"Before and After" - My first portrait photo editing....go easy on me!

2009-09-02T00:38:00.020-05:00

Well here it is; my first ~~successful~~ semi-successful (trial and error) edited photo. I'm hoping that I can use this entry into Mr. Linky's iHeartFaces.com (on their Before and After challenge) since it's not a contest but just for fun. Hopefully I can. I had to ask because I'm using an old photo that I just edited, instead of the instructions stating to take one older picture and a new one from August. But as all my friends know our A/C has been a nightmare and then the whole bathtub overflow thing....I'm just thankful we are now entering a new month! Maybe it'll be a new beginning for brighter things to come. Well even if I can't enter their challenge you should still check out their site if you have any hint of passion with photography as it's an awesome place to get tips, tricks, tutorials, meet friends, and ask question with getting great answers too.

When I first heard about I ♥ Faces it was through visiting my blogger friend Mimi at her blog He & Me + 3 and I am so glad that I did because in doing so I ♥ Faces has taught me so darn much and has kicked my photography love level up about 10 notches on my belt buckle....I don't even wear belts!!! But reading through their blog, being a member of some of the photo groups, and going through old archives has gained me a world of knowledge in the photography world. Yeah, and I you thought I knew it all....PUH!!

Okay so here goes: I'll tell you the things I do and don't like in this paragraph. But first the story behind the photo; the top image is of when Jewel had recently awoke a nap after a lovely time at Libby Lu (a place for little girls to get all 'dolled' up) and she had a big red line/dent across her left cheek from a book she fell asleep on which I edited out but not completely because I couldn't figure it out all the way. And as you can see in the top image from just waking up she also had a lot of 'fly away' hairs. Oh and by the way, the make-up she's wearing isn't anything I added with editing, this was from the Libby Lu Boutique she was at for a few hours during the day (by the way this photo is approx. 2-3 years old). I tried my best (wanting to cry though) by smoothing out her skin so it brought back her natural complexion and color but now it just looks like she's wearing foundation! (Which I don't like) I also widened her eyes a bit and whitened the whites in them (I like). I also whitened her teeth just a tad (very little), nothing major because her teeth already are a good shade of white for still being young. I smoothed and tidied up her hair (which I liked a LOT and removed a lot of the bangy hair fly aways) which is probably one of the most obvious features from the top and bottom photo. LOL. I did mess up on her nose (right side) because I tried to hard to erase her boogars but erased to much so it looks odd. I used Portrait Professional but not the Studio newer one like I did here. Anywho, so here it is anyway.....I can only get better from practice I suppose. So tell me....can you tell? Oh, and I also did a subtle reshaping of her eyebrows, which could have gone either way with just leaving it as it was, but I'm okay that I did this anyhow.

Constructive criticism is very important and wanted/needed so I can work on things more; it's the only way I'll learn.... What I probably should have done as well and will work on some more is lightening up the background; it's too dark. Although I did lighten it a tad, I probably should have done so more. I'll work on that on my own at home during some extra free time.

I haven't entered into the 'Before and After' Challenge yet but I'm hoping Amy and Angie might make an exception. If not that's okay, because I would love your opinion just the same!!! And as always constructive critism is great and very desired so I can only make myself a better photo taker and editor. Lotsaluv ya'll!

**Just read my email from Angie saying that it'd be fine to enter in Mr. Linky's "Before and After" challenge. Thank you Angie and Amy!

BEFORE

AAAANND....TA DA......

AFTER

Hey, it's no Pablo Picasso or Ansel Adams, but it's not that bad and even they had to learn a few things 'eh?

I am not as strong as I hoped I was; I sobbed like a baby! Great blessings to share however even in the mist!

2009-08-29T22:47:00.018-05:00

My first share: Our 'Ms. Jewel' turned 6 yesterday and though it really ages me in my eyes, I am so very, very proud for her. We won't be celebrating her birthday until next Saturday, where she will be sharing it like she has the past 3 years with her younger brother, 'Mr. Happy'. Why? My husband and I chose to do it this way for two reasons 1) 'Jewel's' birthday is Aug. 28TH and 'Mr. Happy's' birthday is just two weeks behind her on Sept. 12Th. Since there is only a 2 week time gap it makes thing cheaper on our budget to throw one big party rather than 2 separate ones and 2) Family and friends, when asked, prefer to attend one party instead of 'Jewel's' one weekend and then 'Mr. Happy's' just two weekends later. So all around for everyone it's works out great. Now of course when our kids are older and decide they'd prefer to have their own separate party we will honor this, especially when it comes time for our daughter to have sleep over parties and whatnot. Another thing is when we do share their parties, like this coming Saturday on Sept. 5Th, we still allow them to pick their own birthday cakes, and we sing to them as a family/friend group individually to make it special just for them. Plus for 'Jewel's' birthday for her Kindergarten class on this last Friday I dropped off cupcakes for her entire classroom including her teacher, a birthday card, and a bright red rose, which she just loves flowers, so we was super thrilled about that. Now if only The Weather Channel will show that there aren't any Tropical Storms or Hurricanes headed our way for this next Saturday we'll be all set for their party as it's a swimming pool party. We hired 3 lifeguards to be present and even if it does rain on the 2 hours during the party we will have to pay the $150 regardless for the simple fact that the lifeguards were scheduled in for that time frame. So please pray for us a simple prayer that nothing 'rains on our parade' this next Saturday; we have over 40 guests attending and I don't know where we'd put everyone if we got rained out!! ;(

My second share: Today I got my DBA (Doing Business As) certificate from the Country Clerks Office showing I'm doing business as 'Christian Creations Photography'!! This certificate lasts for 10 years.

This means that this name was and has never been taken or used which is good because I didn't have another name picked out. It also secures my business name so that if another one tries to apply this name it will show in their database that it is taken so they won't be able to utilize it.

I kept it open with the name 'creations' in it because in time I hope to learn how to use image and photo's I take for key chains or mugs; the possibilities are endless. I am so ecstatic!! I still have to get my business license which shouldn't be too much longer either. I've learned so much in the past few weeks about photography and even that someone can't copy any images I take from Cd's or anything else unless I give them written permission as they are my sole copyright. I'm learning how to add a watermark to any Cd's I give out unless a person wants to buy them in which I can opt to remove the watermark. I also am currently working on building a website, which is still not complete, and considering paying a professional to build it for me depending on the costs. As anyone know who reads our blog that the previous blog post shows that our A/C went out and has cost us out of pocket the unexpected expense of $3,000 (originally it was only supposed to be $2,000). Can anyone say 'OUCH!'?? Still we are trying to keep our chins up and even though I'm hot natured as it is and my weight is right where it should be I'm still very irritable, though I am working on this. So it's not an overweight thing; it's just my nature of being very hot naturally; my daughter is the same way. So hopefully by having my own business to take photo's and learn more along the way, will help me earn some income for our little family. I'm required now to get release forms from anyone who I take photo's of though, which is a little tricky, but so far everyone has been very good about except just a few. But I have enough offers without the few to still put together a good portfolio. And everyone knows that with any new business you sometimes have to give in order to receive. So I offered some friend that if they allow me to use their photo's on my site portfolio than in return I would give them a free CD or printed photo's of the images I took of them in high resolution. They were all very grateful and though some haven't been it's just been a learning lesson and I will no longer waste my time taking free photo's and giving out free Cd's or Photo's for nothing when they aren't willing to return the favor.

Third News: Tonight is the first night we just got our A/C back up and running in full swing though it will take several hours for it to cool the house down since it's starting off brand new! We still might have a hot night but at least tomorrow the house will be cooled down for certain we are hoping. Praise God literally. Thank you Lord. The repair man, who also works with my husband stated that we also need to get our room air vents replaced which would run around $1500, this is so that all the rooms stay in the same temperature, because as of now my husband and my room and our daughters room gets the coldest whereas our sons room seems to stay on the hotter side. We told him we can't fix this now, but in time will work on saving for it. We are just so super happy to have our central A/C on. And a BIG thank you to Tabitha who loaned us her window A/c unit and Carline for allowing us to bum at her home for a few hours last week, and Mary for offering her home to us and Mr. and Mrs. Lopez as well for times of need. This has really meant a lot to us as it's been 2 whole weeks without A/C that we've gone.

Fourth News: August has been a horrible month to say the least. First our A/C goes out entirely. Then today of all days as I was walking the A/C repair man out to his truck when either my 3 or 5 6 year old kids turned the bath water on and closed the bathroom door. I didn't even notice until all of a sudden I glanced up from reading some info. on a business license and saw what looked like a flood of water coming through the hallway. As I looked closely that was exactly what it was! I flew as fast as I could slipping' and a falling' through the mess to the bathroom where the water was gushing out over the bathtub.

I quickly turned the water off, then pulled the drain, and as fast as I could grabbed as many towels that I could to 'catch' the water from going onto the carpet. Unfortunately I wasn't fast enough since the water was already about 2 inches high and heading into the living room onto the floor rug, but I was able, with the help of my kids, to do some damage control by rolling up the rug before it got more water logged. We spent about 2 good hours cleaning and slipping on the hard tile this huge water mess, but when it was all said and done I praised God that it wasn't worse, except for the fact that my 3 yr. old son thought it was funny to pee in the already puddled hallway! Boys will be boys! And later I did notice the furniture TV stand that holds our 52" HD LCD TV legs was a little warped. I prayed hard that my husband would not be terribly angry when I shared the news once he got home tonight, and he wasn't, so another praise to God!!!

Well so far I believe this is it that I have to share. Wish me luck as I continue to work out my business deals. Like I said I have a lot of offers and when I make my photo site public I will share in the exciting news. I have about 5 different families that are fine with me using them and their kids photo's to add to my website which I'm so thrilled about and in return I will be hoping to give them free of charge great photo's, which shows that when God closes one door He open others. God is good!

The only battle I'm beginning to deal with now is that after all the stress and headache over so many things I began to feel ill tonight. I don't know if it's due to the heat or the stress over so much more than I mentioned here, or what, but I'm praying it goes quickly. Right when things are beginning to get back to normal after a very long time, the last thing I need is to not be well enough to take care of the family. I still praise God in the mist of the storm!

How many hidden blessings do you see??

2009-08-25T02:43:00.017-05:00

How many wonderful blessings can you count in the picture below?

When our A/C went out after it was struck by lightning last week by a fast moving, but strong thunderstorm we all felt the tension thickening throughout each and every loooong hour in our small family. Living in Houston, it's a well known must that you have an air conditioner as the temperatures often reach up over the 100's, and add that with the humidity and the heat index can sometimes score as high or maybe higher than 110 degrees. And as most Houstonians know the end of July and August are the hottest months for the entire year, so to say that our little munchkins (and us bigger munchkins too) were on the grumpy side would probably be an understatement! The kids fought, my husband and I tiptoed around one another so we wouldn't say the 'wrong things' to prevent defenses from going up. All forms of affection and comfort such as touching, cuddling, 60% of hugs, and small pecks for kisses were all put to a full halt because just the thought of someone's body coming in contact with another was unbearable! Even though we've suffered living without A/C a few summers back for awhile, we were quickly reminded again this past week about how blessed we truly are even when this precious commodity isn't functioning properly, if at all.

So to make 'light' of the mood I snapped a photograph of what our living room looks like during the bed time hours this past week and then the next day I showed it to the kids to help me point out all of the blessings from this picture. How many did you count from the image above? Well here below is what my 3 and 5 year old took notice of, which I was very proud of them for because they exceeding my expectations.

Now in case you aren't able to read the things I typed out that they pointed out I've listed them for you here:

The little bubble over 'Ms. Jewels' head reads "Sweet Dreams" so they slept well enough.
Circulating floor fan.
Air Mattress for kids.
Fresh Water.
Ice pack (shown above little Jesse's head), which means fridge and freezer are still operating.
Hanging Tarp, to keep the cold air in the living room and the hot air out from the kitchen.
Couch for mommy to sleep on.
Roof over every one's head.
Portable A/C Unit to get some cool air in the house.
Dinosaur toy that kids were playing with earlier.
Purse which might mean there's some cash in it....maybe....

Now these are just the things my kids took notice to, but as an adult I know so many other blessings we should give thanks to God for even w/o looking at the photo.

We aren't living in the hottest parts of the world; nor the coldest, most freezing parts either.
We have our health, just look at 'Mr. Happy's' chunky thighs. :D
We have clothes on our backs.
We had the money in our savings to buy that portable A/C unit, which was a pretty penny actually.
The thunderstorm and lightning did not shut off everything in our home; we still have full use of the kitchen, bathrooms, lights, fans, and luxuries like the Internet, television, stereo, and water for the kids to play with in the backyard for a bit.
Wonderful family and friends who have generously allowed us to bum over at their houses for a few hours here and there just to get some much needed relief from the heat,
A dear friend, who we were just blessed about this today, offered to allow us to borrow her window A/C unit until we get our house central A/C fixed. This will help us out tremendously to have two temporary A/C units indoors!
This photo does not show how messy the house was a lot early in the day. Praise God!
And if all these wonderful blessings weren't enough I showed the kids another photo I took from the opposite side of the living room showing that we are most blessed to have each other; our family.

Tonight when we got the air mattress out again to sleep on and set up the living quarters to be our temporary cooled off bedroom we all prayed together thanking God for reminding us of our hidden blessings. In all honesty taking a photo like this has truly helped myself and my kids realize just by looking at it how very much we do have and are blessed with. Quite sincerely we aren't suffering at all; the fact of the matter is we are just a little uncomfortable, it's as simple as that. And we all know that a little uncomfortableness is good for the soul from time to time just to keep us all in 'check' of how much we've really got it 'made', so why worry? (a little poem I stumbled across online)

Worry never climbed a hill, Worry never paid a bill, Worry never dried a tear, Worry never calmed a fear. Worry never fixed a heel, Worry never cooked a meal, Worry never composed a song to sing, Actually, worry never did a worthwhile thing. To God be the glory, forever!

1 Thessalonians 5:18, Matthew 6:34

KIDS SAY THE FUNNIEST, DARNDEST THINGS YOU CAN'T EVEN IMAGINE!!!!!

2009-08-21T22:06:00.009-05:00

I just HAD to share this; it was soo, soo, funny and at the same time very intelligent on his part. Talk about the Lord giving me new laughter! Here's what happened: My 3, soon to be 4 year old son, just got out from taking his bedtime bath and I took him out with a towel around him and told him to stand on the bathroom rug while I grabbed some of his underwear from our laundry room. It took me a second because I had to go through the clothes in the dryer and when I finally found some I came back to the bathroom and he wasn't there. I checked his bedroom, my daughters bedroom, (all the while calling his name out loud for him). Then I asked Hannah 'Hannah, have you seen your brother?' She said he went that way and pointed towards the hallway where I just was. So then I decide to look in mine and my husbands bedroom, still yelling out his name. It was then that I noticed our bed blankets move a tad so I lifted them and there he was playing with his pee-pee's. I asked him 'Sweetie, what are you doing in here? Mommy told you to wait in the bathroom.' He looked very upset while 'holding himself' and said 'Mommy I'm trying to get the ball.' I was confused and said 'What ball? Where?' He held his 'nuts' in his hand and said 'See, there's a ball stuck in it and I'm trying to get it out. Will you help me get the ball out mommy???' with a very upset and pouty, troubled face. I chuckled lightly but not too much to make him feel bad and said 'Honey, that's not a ball in there, it's part of your penis, your pee pee. It's supposed to stay there because that's how that part of your body is made; that part of your privates is called your Testicles and they are very important to keep. (The whole time I was thinking 'I wish my husband were here to give this talk.') Jesse still stuck on 'But mommy there's a ball stuck in it! Are you going to help me get it OUT?!' I tried my best to explain to him what I could but than told him that if he wants to Daddy can talk with him about this later when he comes home, to which he quickly said 'Yes, I'll tell Dadddy to get the ball, he'll know how. You're a girl Mommy so you don't know!' Anyway, I just had to share this, it was so funny and unexpected at the time. Well really, when is there a time someone expects their son to help them get the ball out of their nuts??? Once when our Hannah was 2 years old and we just brought little Jesse home from the NICU she said her own funny thing too. I was changing his diaper and she looked at his privates and said shocked as could be 'Mommy, baby Jesse has a VERY BIG Gina (Vagina)!' Oh, the things kids say! So what's your funny story???? I'd love to hear!

Prepackaged school supplies VS paying separately????

2009-08-21T16:25:00.007-05:00

I just wanted to share an experiment my two friends did on this subject. They both have kids in the same grade (Elementary 3rd grade), and they both attend the same school so they each had the exact same school supply list for what they needed. So what they did was one of them paid for all of the listed supplies individually at Walmart, and what they couldn't find from Walmart they bought from Target. The other friend simply purchased the prepackaged school supply list from the school their kids will be attending. The end result??? The friend who paid for all the items separately by going down the school supply list and spending over an hour searching and scanning up and down the isle and through the crowds of other moms trying to dig through all the mess only ended up saving a mere $3 when it was all said and done. But here's the thing this may not be the case for every grade level and school, but for the elementary age grades it was pretty much a very similar lists that the stores had out for the parents to shop off of. Another thing to keep in mind is that a lot of stores like Walgreens and some Targets will sale the prepackaged school supplies but they were more expensive than going to the school and buying it there. I'm not sure about your Walmart but ours where we live said they aren't making prepackaged supplies any longer. When we went to Walgreens they had a lot but started at $39 all the way up to $54, but they were out of the Kindergarten pack which is what I needed. It turns out it's a good thing they were out because I called Hannah's elementary school and they said they sale them as well but were almost out. They only had about 4 more left yesterday when I went and they only carged $33, no tax, even though our tax free weekend didn't start until just today. I had no idea the schools even sold them....duh at me!! So anywho just though I'd give everyone a heads up in case you are panicing the way I was about everything (since Hannah's school starts on Tuesday). If you're pressed for time than just call your childs school to see if they still have some available to purchase and you might actually be saving a few bucks. I never would have even believed this if my two friends didn't test this out, but I wanted to share this with all you mom because if you're like me I felt for sure the prepackaged packs were going to be too expensive but if I'm only paying an average of $3 more and beating the mad crowds and messy isles it's worth it to me. And we bought ours yesterday and it is such a relief to know Hannah has everything she needs and at a cheaper price by going through the school than Walgreens, which is what I was about to do until I learned they ran out of her grade. Again, I'm not saying this will be the case for all States, schools, or grade levels, but for my friends who did this 'test' it proved to be worth it (for me at least) to just buy prepackaged from the schools if your school sales them. However, if you have left over supplies from last year than you may be able to reuse a lot of supplies and not need to buy the whole pacakage after all, which would save you money all the more. . Also, just thought I'd also let everyone know that if you can't find either the prepackaged anywhere but you want to go that route, here is a site called 'School Pack' . You email them your entire school supply list and they send you a free quote on what the cost would be. I've never tried them but I'm going to send my list (even though I already have our supplies) just to see how they compare. I don't have a 'good' feeling they'd be any cheaper, but actually more pricey but you never know....they state that their 'generic' supply kit for Kindergarten is $15.84, which is actually $7 cheaper than what I paid through the school. I'll let you know what they quote me when I hear back from them. :D ~Cecilia So what's your experience in this? Have you saved more going one way or the other and if so by how much and was it worth it for you?

Anxious!

2009-08-19T02:01:00.005-05:00

I'm so excited. It's 2:00 AM and I'm going to try to go to bed now and STAY there no matter what without (at least I'm gonna try) taking any Tylenol PM. And then tomorrow I'm excited to share more pics I took of our newest member of the family, Gabriel David!!!

Confessions from a supposedly 'got it together' wife and mother.

2009-08-18T01:47:00.013-05:00

Yes, I have a problem; one that is big that I can't seem to pull the reigns in on. Some may think it's not a problem in the least but in all seriousness it really is; for me at least anyhow.

My problem? I can never seem to sleep! Except when I finally do become over exhausted, usually around 3-4Am and then I can't seem to muster up the energy to wake up! Doesn't make much sense hearing it like that; I mean I can't seem to sleep but when I do I can't seem to wake up.

This has been going on for probably most of my life, eve as a pre-teen I would stay up for hours on the telephone with friends and during sleep overs I was always the last one to fall asleep, leaving me alone and afraid as a young girl.

As far back as I can recall I know my own mother used to give my sister and I some small amounts of Adult NyQuil (at least that's what we thought it was) and some other OTC med because she wanted us to fall asleep faster so she could have time to herself. I don't recall how long this went on but I know it was for a good while at least.

When I first began to live on my own I noticed I wasn't able to fall asleep naturally and would begin using OTC med like NyQuil, Unisome Sleep Gels, an occasionally drink of alcohol (which I don't like to drink but I've used it solely to get some sleep), prescribed Ambien, prescribed Soma-which is a common muscle relaxer but has a street name of 'coma Soma' because if taken too much of it this drug will seriously put you to sleep for 24 hours straight almost (some have even died from overdoses of this med.), prescribed Trazodone, and other medications which I can't seem to think of the names right now. My worse experience with any of these medications was the Soma. I did not know at the time that it had been known to be an addictive medication but for me that's what it became. It worked every time to get me into a nice, deep slumber especially on the nights when my husband wasn't home and I was afraid to sleep alone in the house. The problem was that it was sooo very strong that waking up in the morning are nearly impossible, the drug has to wear off you can't just 'shake' it off.

I've stopped taking the prescribed medications but I still tend to take about 4-5 Tylenol PM's every night just to get my body to rest and sleep and even then sometimes this doesn't work. My personal opinion is that my body has been on so many sleep aids every since my childhood, that it simply doesn't respond to them any longer for the most part. I'm not sure exactly, this is just a guess. I just know that not getting to sleep at a decent hour is NOT healthy or wise, especially when you're a mother and wife with a lot of responsibilities.

I have talked about this with my doctor who ran blood work and other kinds of tests, then put me on a depression medication which made me feel almost (but not quite) suicidal so I immediately flushed the entire bottle down the toilet. Since then I've been seeing a psychiatrist, which I've never in my life seen before (I've only seen counselors/therapists for the way I was raised by my parents; it's on my testimony tab.) Well this woman has me now on 5 different medications, 2 'uppers' for the day, and 2 'downers' for bedtime. One of the 'downers' is Trazodone, which literally knocks me off my feet because it's more of a sedative than just as sleep aid. I would even go so far to say it acts as a tranquilizer (though I've never had one, I've just seen them used on animals and people) because it nearly makes me want to literally fall to the ground after having taken it after just about 15 or 20 minutes and if I haven't hit the ground I wobble horribly, knocking and running into furniture and other things, and know I need to get to the bed fast or I'll be knocked out on my butt cold in the middle of the floor.

The thing is that when I've seen this psychiatrist woman I have suspicions that she is abusing some type of medications since she certainly has easy access to them. She has been late to appointments on two separate time by at least 45 minutes and comes in appearing sluggish and drunk like. I have another appointment to see my regular doctor next week to discuss everything with her but I'm horribly afraid she'll put me on something like last time when she gave the drug that made me feel suicidal, which was years ago. I'm also afraid because I don't like feeling like a experimental drug rat, taking this, that, and every other pill to see how I'll react to it. Yet I know this is part of the mystery with such things as depression, insomnia, loss of energy or lack of interest in things, etc. that what works for one patient won't always work for another, which is why the doctors and psychiatrists prescribe many various and multiple drugs hoping it will work, but for me thus far it has not.

My biggest issue now is that I feel upset with God. My God is a BIG GOD and I know He is the Ultimate Healer but I don't understand when I've called out to him numerous times why He does not give me the answers for what I need to cure my insomnia/other symptoms. Or maybe He is but I'm not clearly hearing Him.

And now here it is 3:36AM and I'm still typing away because I can't sleep. I've already taken 4 Tylenol PM's tonight and really don't want to take another because it's simply not good for my liver, which already has high levels of liver enzymes to begin with. I don't know what my problem is as to why I can never sleep even after taking so many medication, both prescribed and OTC. I used to believe it was because it was the quiet time of the day when the house was settled and the family was in bed so I can do whatever it is I needed or wanted to get done, but I know this must not be the case. Sometimes I wonder if it's my mind; that it simply will not shut off and just over thinks about everything to the point it won't allow me to rest!

What started me to confess this publicly? Two things. 1) I God-incidentally came across a website today titled 'Confessions of a sleeping-pill Junkie' and 2) I know that one of the biggest ways to begin helping one self is to come clean and admit your short comings, whether big or small. Just admitting and owning up to them holds me accountable to myself and many other friends, including and most importantly God, who I've already cried out to regarding all of this many of times. I know He hears me and I trust that He will help me as I still try to work through this. But who would ever have thought someone could have a problem with falling asleep and trying all different kinds of means just to get that? I certainly did not; that is until recently. And when I researched it online there are a ton more of other folks who share in this same unhealthy sleep (or lack of) pattern.

So, that is my confession; I can't sleep of all things, but it's not healthy and I know this first hand because even if I don't take anything to help me sleep, if I don't get any sleep than how am I going to take care of my kids the following day?

So I have a new confession page on my site now. Just click on the 'Confession' Image on the sidebar (It's the image of a coffee cup), and share whatever confession you've been holding onto but haven't known how to share yet. There will not be any judgement against you, just like I know my dear friend who read this will not hold judgement against me. We all have our shortcomings and what's great about them is that we can learn from these and change our ways to be a better person. I'm going to copy and paste this posting confession over to that page as well to help get the ball rolling and you can leave your comments there if you'd like...or not.

Thank you all for listening to me without criticism. It is now 5:47 AM and I am going to try to get at least 3 hours of sleep in hopes the kids won't wake until a little after 9AM this morning.

God Bless and good night!

I heart faces "Bubbles" photo challenge!

2009-08-17T09:58:00.002-05:00

This weeks I ♥ Faces challenge theme is "Bubbles". It was a hard pick for me to choose as I had several photo's since my kids LOVE bubbles so much. But I went with this one of my 3 year old son playing with them in our backyard. This was how we spent our 4th of July this year; you can't tell but his shirt has an American flag that reads 'Celebrate'. Normally he has a hard time blowing bubbles but with this new bigger wand type of thing that we found it was fairly easy for him and I love how he caught this one on the tip of his wand! He had so much fun and laughter! If you haven't visited I ♥ Faces to join in on their weekly contest they are a lot of fun and you get to view many other's entries and make new friends. I hope you decide to visit and join in on some of this fun soon. Just click on either of the links above of the image button below to check out their site! And by all means, have FUN!!!

Honored with a blog award!

2009-08-12T19:42:00.005-05:00

Vicki, blog author of Frugal Mom Knows Best, has honored me with the 'Uplifting Blog Award' today.

The Uplifting Blogger Award is given to person who uplift the being of the readers of thier blogs. There's no specific instructions for this award. You can give this to anyone you think is a real uplifting blogger.

There are so many sites to choose from but I decided on these liste below. So I am blessing the following bloggers with this award, who have been an encouragement and help when I've (and others) been in time of need.

Lauryn Abbot blog author of Seed Thoughts

Angela Parsley at Refresh My Soul Jennifer Lee at Getting Down With Jesus Jill at Forever 'n Ever 'n Always Alice author of From The Heart

Sarah Dawn at Splashin' Glory

Jill at Blog Tips by Sneaky Momma

Jennifer at More Than Just Adam's Rib

And a new blog I discovered today: Lauren blog author of Walking By Faith

Please ladies accept this award and use it to encourage other blogs or websites that inspire and life up your world!

It's been awhile but I've been 'tagged' again.

2009-08-11T20:50:00.005-05:00

A new friend of mine, Vicki blog author of Frugal Mom Knows Best left me a comment on my blog today that she tagged with with a meme. Vicki is a nice woman from what I read about her she enjoy childrens writing, being a mom, and sharing money saving tips. Okay, so the rules are really very simple: copy the questions and write your answer. Then, send this Meme to four others, but don't forget to let them know by leaving them a comment or an email message so they can play along. (I actually love that the rules don't state to send this out to 10 or 15 bloggers because that is verrrry time consuming, so for it just being four friends, this makes it more enjoyable for me. Thank you Vicki for that and also thank you for choosing me for this tag/meme. I am honored to play along.) Here are my famous answers: 1. Who, to you, is the hottest Movie Star? Personally I've always had a bad crush on Brad Pitt. 2. Apart from your house and car, what is the most expensive item you have ever bought?: Well, I didn't actually buy the expensive item, but my husband did for me and it was my Nikon D90 with 2 lenses, a 16 GB SDHC Memory Card, Camera packpack to keep everything safe and in snug slots and a 3 (or was it 4) year extended warranty on the sucker. It cost him close to 2 grand for all of it, but not quite that amount. 3. What is your most treasured memory? Have my first child. I know that sounds like I should say having both my kids, but having the first was....'a first', so I treasure it so much, also because she was a preemie weighing at 1 lb. 9 oz. so this made it an even more wonderful treasured miracle of God which I thank Him for to this day. 4. What was the best gift you ever received as a child?: Hmmmm, have to think about this a bit...tick, tock....(I'll come back to this one.) Okay, now I know clearly....I was into dolls BIG TIME, so when I got Baby Alive I was so thrilled I could hardly contain myself! 5. What is the biggest mistake you have ever made? When I've allowed others who don't share my same faith (trying to be polite to them) try to convert me to their beliefs, even after I was firm, yet nice about how I wouldn't change my faith in God, Jesus, or The Holy Spirit for anything. 6. Give four words to describe yourself: Silly, spontaneous, polite, caring Christian (does that last one count as five words I wonder?). 7. What was your highlight or low light of 2008? Honestly for me I'd have to admit that for 2008 I had more of a low light; some death in the family, other bad news within the family, got hit with some depression, my mother rejecting me yet for the (lost count) time again. However, I have overcome a lot of these and always praise God for seeing me through the bad times, which have only made me a stronger person. 8. Favorite Film? Oh, there's so many to choose from, so for now I'm going to have to go with just what first popped in my brain: "Angels and Demons", the sequel to "The Da Vinci Code". 9. Tell me one thing I don’t know about you. There's a lot to this question, but in case you didn't read my last 'tag' I had lasik eye surgery several years back. Best thing I did at the time, but now I'm paying the price since I have severe chronic dry eye and those Restasis eye drops are very pricey even with insurance, especially since the optometrist said I'd need to take them either very long term or for life. UGH! But again, things can be worse, so I still feel I am very blessed. 10. If you were a comic book/strip or cartoon character, who would you be? The Classic version of Winnie the Pooh. I loved him as a child and still do as an adult for his sweet, often wise bear, yet also very silly in his ways who is stuffed with fluff. The four bloggers I tag this Meme to are those that I think (hope) will play along: My new friend Bridgette at A girl and her dog! McMamma at her awesome site McMama's Musings My dear friend Marci at Life Refrained And last but certaintly not least Edie, the wonderful woman who created my blog site which I get so many compliments on. She is at Rich Gifts Graphics and Blog Designs. (Again, sorry Edie about my 3 year old using my cell today and accidentally calling you! :D ) SO NOW WON'T YOU ALL COME ON DOWN BECAUSE YOU FOUR ARE THE NEXT CONTESTANTS ON ~~"THE PRICE IS RIGHT!"~~ this tag meme. Can't wait to read your answers!!!

Urgent Prayer Request

2009-08-07T18:46:00.005-05:00

Our dear friend Dan called our family today sharing the sudden news that his brothers wife who is 5 months pregnant has very high blood pressure 150/110. From what we understand his brothers wife may be induced and it's just way too early for being 5 months along. Please pray and start a pray chain for their family concerns. The father's name is Charles and his pregnant wife is named Terra. Pray that the doctors keep a constant monitor on Terra and her little baby girl and that God's protection keeps her safe and in her womb longer so that she has a fighting chance. Of course it touches a special place in my heart since my first baby was 3 months early and I was on hospital bed rest for what seemed like forever! My heart goest out to Charles and Terra, Dan, and the entire family. When things like this happen it really makes you realize what is important in life and what's not so important. Please pray with me if you will: "Precious Lord, Please calm the fears and concerns from Charles, Dan, and Terra and do what only You can do more than any other doctor around; heal this baby girl by bringing Terra's blood pressure down quickly so that she is not delivered at such an early date; way to early. Jesus, I plead your blood over this little baby in Terra's womb, that your hands of protection are surrounding every being of her tiny body. I believe you are the Almighty and can do such a thing. Help Charles and Terra stay calm, even though I know it's not easy, so that her blood pressure and anxiety doesn't increase. I ask that you give Terra peace so that her stress level is low to reduce her blood pressure and that the Doctors provide the best medications to help bring it back down. I also pray for Charles, his close brother Dan, their parents, and entire family so that they are a strong support for the circumstances they are currently faced with. We trust you Lord and know you above all else can do what nobody else can! In Jesus Name I pray. Amen."

Any suggestions on helping my daughter overcome her shyness???

2009-08-06T12:30:00.003-05:00

My almost 6 year old goes in-and-out of being shy and I'm sure she may get some of this from me as I am also timid at times and not very aggressive. So I've been forcing my own self not to be shy when she is around by striking up conversations with other moms at church or at cheer practice, but it doesn't seem to be helping. She started Upward Cheerleading three weeks ago and there are just 6, maybe 7, kindergarten cheerleaders in the squad. They are simple cheers from my stand point but from hers I can see they are a little difficult. Last week I actually video'd them in practice so when we were home all week she would be able to use the video as a guide to know the cheer better (The first week when I didn't video it none of us hardly remembered the cheer or moves that go with it.) I find that I am getting frustrated with her because even just with it being her and I in our living room she won't yell even when I tell her too. It's almost like she's embarrassed or something. I try to give her positive feedback but it's not working. The biggest thing the cheer coaches want is for the kids to be LOUD, and even though I know she can be (trust me) in cheer practice she freezes up. (It's hard to hear any of the kids in this video but believe it or not they were raising their voices. You can mainly hear the little hispanic girl in the front row with super long hair.) Here is Jewel in squad practice and she is the hispanic one in the back row wearing the purple cheer uniform next to the little girl wearing yellow. (You may have to pause the right sidebar playlist to hear this video clip.) She does some of the moves good but is basically just 'mouthing' the words to the cheer. Any suggesstions to encourage her to be loud or even just somewhat loudER? Any ideas would be so appreciated!

Sunday Mishaps!

2009-08-02T09:29:00.004-05:00

I'll start this post off by announcing that it's my fault we missed Sunday School this morning at church! My fault, my fault, my fault! I should have known better even when I heard that quiet voice telling me to wait before getting in the shower, leaving my two kids alone to eat their morning waffles with maple syrup still on the table, but I didn't listen. I came out of the shower asking a quick holler to my children if they had finished eating their breakfast and all I heard were chuckles. Immediately that chuckle sprung me to my toes in the kitchen to see what all the fuss was about. I'll be honest; I lost my cool. I didn't spank them or call out negative names against them because after all like I said it was my own fault and I should have known better. However, this did not mean that they too are not old enough to know it was wrong to play with the syrup and rub it in their hair amongst other things. The biggest saving grace was that the bottle of syrup was at it's lowest anyway (practically gone) so the mess was somewhat minimal but still on their bodies, my sons skin and hair to be more exact. I did show my frustration with a few shouts and then took the remainder of their waffles and tossed them in the trash. This, to them, didn't seem to affect them terribly as they had both already eaten the majority of their food. I quickly wiped down my son and placed him in some nice dress shorts and shirt and got out my daughters clothing for her to dress herself. After wiping my son down and preparing to do his hair I realized that he didn't need too much gel in it as the maple syrup acted in it's place, almost better. I simply combed it back some so that he appeared the way he does in the photo on the left side bar here. The one where he is posed in his Christmas suit. We did miss Sunday school but were all right on time for Sunday morning service, which I was pleased about. Though my mind was still a little rattled over the morning chaos I tried my best to worship and glorify God for the many blessings He's given me. And after all, a 3 and 5 year old playing in some maple syrup wasn't really that bad; not when I can compare it to other things which could have occurred but didn't; things could have been ten times worse and I praised the Lord this morning when He revealed this to me. However the kids still did get punished by being told they would be both taking a nap after they eat their lunch when church was over. This seemed to serve them both well as neither of them can't stand taking nap alone in their bedrooms. This will also serve as time for me to regroup and spend some much needed quiet time with the Lord. God only knows between yesterdays post and this mornings post of my heartrate climbing, I desperately need to feel His peace! Blessings to you this Sunday!

Gross Encounters of The Third Kind!

2009-07-27T17:37:00.017-05:00

Mamma needs a break! And boy does she ever! It started last week when I ran into something so horrible, so ugly, so grand and disgusting that I almost threw up on myself! My almost 6 year old daughter was getting ready for bed when she spotted it. She came running out of the hallway 'Momma, come quick there's a big bug in the hall!' (Dear God, please don't let it be another cockroach!) Unfortunately God didn't hear my plea and sure enough it was a cockroach, but not just any cockroach mind you, but one I could have thrown a saddle on and ridden around the block; it was huuuuuge! Now, just to keep you informed; if you reside in Texas as I do, having summer cockroaches in your home is not a sign that your house is dirty, but rather it's because the heat outdoors is so hot and humid that's it's quite common for bugs to try to find their way indoors of people homes, garages, or anywhere else to get out from under the scorching sun. The same is true for the opposite climates where very cold weather is common; as cockroaches look for the same kind of relief from freezing temperatures. Though some sites will tell you the weather is not a factor, I have heard over and over again by Houstonians that this is not the case; that in fact roaches are more prone to be seen inside your home during summer months. And to back this up, I can verify this first hand as this is more common time our family and friends has witnessed this ourselves. I entered the hallway ever so slowly, trying to remain composed so my children knew Mommy had everything under control and there was nothing to be feared. I'll tell you right now I failed! I looked for 'this bug' mainly on the floor, searching with my eyes, wondering what I might find, until I gazed upward and saw the thing. I couldn't help it; I went in full panic mode and I screamed like a kindergarten schoolgirl who just dropped their newly made two scoop ice cream cone on the sidewalk! It was perched atop the hall bathroom edge frame looked down at all of us, as we stared back at it. I told the kids to stay calm, even though I myself was the one who was freaking out. Normally I would have yelled for my husbands help but unfortunately he was not home so it was up to me alone to take on the daunting task of getting rid of this 'thing'. My first approach was to grab the broom and dustpan to scoop the roach up in, followed by my next plan of flushing it down the toilet. If only it were that easy... I went to get the broom quickly so the creature wouldn't disappear in my absence. As I returned to the hallway I swear the roach must have tripled in size and I was terrified to knock it down, but knew I had to. I instructed the kids to get in my daughters bedroom and close the door and then I made my move; I swung the broom to push the roach onto the tile floor but as I did my earlier scream was nothing in comparison to the one I let out at that very moment. As soon as my broom edged closer to the ~~horse~~ roach it began to freaking FLY! That's right, you heard me, I had a huge flying roach inside of my house! Never had I encountered a flying roach in my life until that night and I pray I never will again. As I gave out a blood curdling scream, dropped the broom, and ran with both my kids crying behind me, afraid to open their door but did so anyway. I never in my life knew that I could scream, run, and even begin to wet myself all at the same until this night!! Who ever knows what one's body will do when placed in unpleasant and fearful situations! "Momma are you okay?!' I heard my little girl holler running halfway in tears after me. Brave, I thought of her to come out of her bedroom after hearing mommy yell for dear life. "Yes, sweetie, it's just a big roach bug and mommy just does not like bugs. I'm sorry I scared you but really this bug can't hurt us. Mommy just has to get close enough to it to get it into the toilet to flush it and mommy just doesn't like that." "Let's pray Mommy that you'll be brave." I looked at her with tears in my eyes "That's a great idea sweetie because mommy really does need to be a brave mommy right now." My kids and I prayed and then I regrettably went back to the task at hand of getting and flushing that giant roach down the toilet. Ever so carefully and once again I approached the hallway, this time my kids stayed far back in our kitchen as I took on the challenge alone. As soon as I entered the hall I saw it on the tile floor and since my broom was long enough I quickly began jabbing at it (along with short burst of screams) with the straws of the broom. Unfortunately the straw wasn't strong enough and only injured the insect, but thankfully it did so just enough to disable it so that I could swiftly swoop it into the dustpan while it was still on it's backside. I walked every so slowly to our hall bathroom as I watched it's legs slowly begin to pick up speed as it jolted around trying to flip itself over. Finally I made it to the toilet and as soon as I began to dump the dustpan over for it to hit the water, the darn roach got the momentum to regain composure and flutter it's wings to fly again. Fortunately I outsmarted this intruder by rapidly slamming the toilet seat down on it before it got away! Hooray! Mommy scores 1, cockroach 0! I flushed the seat immediately and then at least 5 more times after that, just to be on the safe side ya know? Can't take any chances! I was terrified that the little booger was on the underside of the toilet edge (rim) which I could not see unless I shoved my head down far enough, which I was not about to do (of course). Over the next 24 hours (maybe more) I kept that bathroom door locked and instructed the kids to use mommy and daddy's master bathroom inside of our bedroom. I was not about to take any chances in going through a repeat of what I already encountered. So this was the straw that broke mommas back! After being a full time SAHM (Stay At home Mom) for over 2 glorious years, there are many a days that I feel beaten down, lonely, isolated, tired from playing referee over a toy, tired of arguing with my small children to practice their letter sounds, numbers and other academics, but in the end, when it's all said and done, I am very blessed and grateful to have this rare opportunity to watch my children grow day in and out from the many things that life has to offer. And be in well known that I WILL NOT ALLOW A ROACH, FLYING OR OTHER, TO FORCE ME OUT OF WHAT I FEEL GOD HAS CALLED ME TO DO!!! On that note, I hope you don't either!

F.Y.I This is not the actual HUGE roach that was in my home, but the size of it, as you can see is outrageous and similar to the one I was forced to battle. I just found this image on the Internet to show as an example of the kind of enormous pest I was faced to deal with. If you're a man reading this post this type of thing may not disturb you but for most females I know this would be the exact thing that would make us cry for a week, because as we all know, where there is one insect, there very well may be many hiding out in the same place. Please pray that this is not the case.

After note: After sharing this story, half in tears, while my husband hysterically laughed at my expense (which I did not appreciate) he did finally agree to hire a reputable pest control to come to our home so that we will not be faced with this kind of thing again. As earlier stated this is not the first roach we had come across in our home this summer and I dread the idea of running into one again. Not to mention if there is one, there are more than likely others and who knows if one might be pregnant causing many, many more to be on the inside of our walls and home. I think something like this might cause me to take my kids and stay in a hotel temporarily until there's a semi-guarantee the pesticides being used are known to be an affective deterrent of such creatures.

A helpful tip: I have heard one helpful tip for any of you who may have suffered this yourselves; that if you have starchy foods in your pantry, such as potatoes please make sure you keep them in a locked container, as roaches are very attracted to such snacks to feed on. They are also drawn to sitting water and dark, closed sheltered areas. Once you find one try to take measures quickly to get rid of them as a pregnant roach can drop as many as 40 eggs at one time. YUCK!

Tal & Acadia

2009-07-23T12:34:00.017-05:00

*TAL & ACACIA, 'WAKE ME' CD Not to long ago I received a message through my 'Contact Us' blog site tab sent to my email from a woman by the name of Kristen from Provident Music Group asking me if I would be willing and interested in listening to one of their newer Christian artist Cd's, duo sisters Tal & Acacia and then asking if I would share my feedback about their music on a blog posting. This is the first time I had been approached by a company to ask for my thoughts about some music they would be sending me and since it was of a Christian Faith, naturally I was intrigued so I agreed. Well just yesterday I received the two Cd's (one to keep for myself and the other to us as a give away). I listened to 'Wake Me' by the duo—sisters Tal & Acacia and I've gotta say that while listening to their music in my truck with my two young kids in the back seat that it was very different, yet invigorating and fresh. Tal & Acacia music is defined under the category as Pop/Alternative/Christian and rightfully so; it matches this league yet is also in a league of its own. My initial first impression of this CD was that the music had a little too much of a 'twang' for my taste and I also felt that it had a childlike, kind of teenage type of style to it, yet it didn't take me long to find that after just listening to their songs but a couple of times that I began singing the chorus to their words in my mind, craving to listen to their soundtrack again.

The beat from the music in this CD, Wake Me, is somewhat 'different' (if you will) but also very moving and alive, and the lyrics are very catchy. But for me what changes my 'like it' to 'love it' was the words and common life conflicts that they display through their talented writing of songs. For me this is a BIG hit with any music I listen to; if I can relate to the message in what the song is producing than I am more often than not won over by the piece of melody, which was the case with 'Wake Me'. For instance the song 'Garbage In', was a very convicting one that challenged me to look at my own reflection in the mirror at what potential 'garbage' I have allowed in my own personal life. Same goes for the song 'Merry Go Round', which for me, spoke to me on a Spiritual level about moving out of my own comfort zone of everyday routines to venture out and seek God for His will and desire for my life, and less of my own fleshly wants.

I began to very much enjoy the music and as a HUGE bonus it was very family friendly in that I could listen to it while in the company of my almost 6 yr. old and almost 4 yr. old children. In fact my soon to be 6 year old daughter continually asked that I replay 'Garbage In' repeatedly as she loved the way it sounded; she even began to try to memorize the words! I explained the meaning behind the song; that the Garbage (meaning if you put the wrong information in your mind/heart, the results coming out will also be wrong) and she actually seemed to have gotten that concept. I don't know how well she's gotten the understanding of it, but all I can say is later during the evening when she was playing in her younger brother bedroom I overheard her telling him what the song represents. This is what I heard her say as I quietly listened to her convere with Little Jesse, her younger brother: 'The 'garbage' is what Satan fills your mind with like when you want to watch a cartoon with guns then you'll start to pretend to be that garbage and want to use guns too and I don't want you to use guns because they hurt people, okay little Jesse?!' Pronounced with a firm exclamation at the end of her instructions to him.

Such is the case in the adult world as well, or any age for that matter. So whether that it be watching a seductive TV show, viewing pornography on the Internet, hanging around crowds that try to persuade you into doing inappropriate activities such as drinking, driving and drinking, drugs, robbery, cursing, etc, anything that would move you further away from the Lord is to be considered garbage. Doing such things long enough is going to come out in the one who is surrounding themselves with it. So for me personally, this song, 'Garbage In', was my favorite, maybe it's because the song really spoke to me on a personal and spiritual note of conviction or maybe it's because I was touched by how much my own 5 year old daughter quickly was drawn to the lyrics; I'm not sure, but for me it has always been and will always be that anytime a song forces or prompts me to view my own convictions in my life, drawing me to serve Him better and stronger, than the song almost immediately has me wrapped around it's finger!!!

Soon after I received a request to review the CD 'Wake Me' I received another email from a Christian Homeschooling Company asking if I would be interested in reviewing some of their homeschooling products and also doing a blog posting about my review on it as well. I was in shock because both of these companies contacted me through my blog within just weeks of one another, and in the same way that I agreed to review the Christian CD I also agreed to review Crossway's Homeschooling supplies, which I am awaiting for now. I am excited about this product since I will be able to give an accurate review by applying the homeschooling material to my own kindergartner and preschooler and watch to see how they measure up with their understanding of the academics involved. I only hope that it lives up to our expectations, which I don't doubt it will. Please keep your eye out for this review as I hope to post it hopefully before school begin.

Talk to me! (Requested question by my sister-n-law, Mari).

2009-07-20T21:33:00.005-05:00

Greetings my friends, During a late afternoon conversation yesterday with my sister-in-law, Mari, she asked me if I would pose a question on my blog in hopes to get a variety of replies from others. At first she directed this question seeking Christian replies but later wanted to know how non Christians felt about this from their perspective too. So here I am doing just that. Here is what she would like to know: (Well I'll just copy and paste the question she asked in her own words on Facebook): For those of you that are Christians: Do you feel your Faith should be limited to only church or with other Christians? Do you think it is tacky if someone shows a cross in public. ie: cross necklace, cross displayed on a T-shirt or farm on Farm Town (this is a Facebook application game)? What do you think God says about this? Do you think He would want us to keep our Faith confined in certain places? Want to know as I am currently discussing this topic w/someone :) After some of the replies she received on Facebook, she later asked for non-Christians to share their input as well and how they felt about this. One of the woman on her wall replied with this: "I feel that Christianity should be shared with all. There are many ways to do this including what you wear, how you act and of course talking about your beliefs with others no matter where you are at. God says that we are to go out and spread the word, not just discuss it with other Christians. If we only talked to other Christians then how would the word be spread?" -Facebook Member I 100% agree with this reply to my sister in laws question and now Mari would be blessed to hear your thoughts about this if you don't mind sharing.... By the way my sister-in-law, Mari, is a saved woman herself so she isn't asking this by her own thoughts, but from a conversation she was having with another Facebook member, though supposedly a Christian herself, this other woman felt it was too 'showy' for Mari to have a cross displayed on one of the games she plays on that network; Farmville. You can meet Mari and follow the replies to this question she asked on her facebook wall yesterday by clicking here. Of course if you don't have a Facebook account you'll have to open one up first in order to follow the replies on this open-ended conversation. Of if you'd like you can simply leave a comment here and I'm sure Mari will leave some comments behind you at some point during the day.

Praise Report - To God Be The Glory!

2009-07-19T13:53:00.007-05:00

After sharing my post titled 'I just need a good cry!' with some of the struggles I felt that I was drowning in slowly, but not terribly slowly, God has begun to speak to me about 'sink or swim'. He has spoken through many of my wonderful friend such as yourselves, my wonderful mother in law, my oldest sister Mary, my husband, and during quiet time alone with Him in prayer and tears. He has heard my frustration and has helped me find the strength to pull myself out of the pit I had fallen into by getting up and moving. My husband and I had been visiting various churches over the last several weeks, 5 different churches to be exact, and we finally feel we are getting close to settle down with one that meets our entire family needs. The church has been very welcoming from the very beginning to when we first entered their entry doors last week. In fact there was one woman who said to me 'I think I know you, what is your name?', to which I replied 'Yeah, you look familiar to me as well, I am Sarah (last name).' She then introduced herself as she walked our family to the children's church service building. She is one of the other mother's who was volunteering to help when I was the 'room mom' in Jewels Kindergarten class last year and she was very helpful in working with me as it had been my first year to volunteer at the school. She even made the comment to me 'You've lost weight haven't you?' I wanted to jump up and shout 'Okay, we've found our church!!!' lol. But she was right; I had lost quite a bit of weight because I have been working super hard at eating healthier foods, smaller proportions, and getting exercise in more unusual ways like mowing our yard and edging the grass, or similar hot and sweaty jobs that bring much cardiovascular activity. Not fun but kills two birds with one stone; yard work gets finished and I get my heart rate pumping and exhausted; burning fat and building muscle. There are many things my husband and I look for in a church; one being the welcoming we feel upon our visit there, the general 'feel' from the congregation: Do they seem uptight? Do they respond or feel engaged to what the Pastor is preaching with nods of their heads or are some falling asleep? Are our children being taught in their class while we are being taught in service? Are they learning or just playing? Does the church share the same beliefs we do about God, His Son, The Holy Spirit, Water Baptism?; just to name a few. Do they offer other ministry services like Sunday School, Women's or Men's Group ministries of fellowship where we can get to know and bond with others like us? Do they challenge us to grow and equip us to serve within and outside of the church to those who need to hear about God's awesome unconditional love? Well the Church we've attended the last two weeks seems to have all of these blessings and then some. There is also a nice variety of diversity in this church, not limited by color, heritage, age, dress, or anything else. And the church is not too large where we feel overlooked and it's not too small either where we feel it's roots aren't defined and organized yet. Quite the opposite; this church feels to us like a place that we hope to visualize as a place that our family can grow with while learning to be better stewards for Christ. The church is Bayshore Baptist. Jesse and I are very excited about learning and befriending the members of this church more over the next several weeks while we pray asking the Lord if this is the church God would have us be planted in. As some of you know church 'shopping' is a very heavy and mentally exhausting task and one that can take a lot of time, observation, and heavy, heavy prayer asking Christ to lead us to a place we can call 'home' away from home. If any of you have been at this place like we have been than you can understand and appreciate the urgent need we feel to find the right place to immerse our family into on a Spiritual level; a church that desires to grow together in unity but more importantly in serving our Master, Jesus Christ. Dr. Mark Redd, Pastor of Bayshore Baptist Church shared an awesome message today about how we as Christ followers can either be a scardey-cat or persevere as a Lion killer during certain situations we may face. (He was continuing on from his message last week about Benaiah: The Lion Killer.) The message taught today was one that I myself was being ministered through the Holy Spirit already; sitting idle in my troubles or doing something about them by slaying them and continuing to move forward. Isn't it so awesome how God already begins to work on one's heart condition and then brings it full term to a message that you are being ministered through at the church as well?? I just love that!!! Please continue to pray for our family as we also pray and seek His Holiness in planting our family at the church that He has in store for us. Thank you already for everything you have been to us; a family, a friend, a firm believer in Christ striving to do His will.

Disappointment!

2009-07-14T17:20:00.006-05:00

Our 3 year old face of disappointment when he learned that all of the men on the ball field suddenly 'disappeared' when he was so ready to join in on the game. He loves to play ball and the look on his face speaks for itself over his hurt in not being 'welcomed' to join in on the fun of playing baseball. After all, me as his mom, preferred he not play with a bunch of teenage boys and men who were fathers themselves, with him being only 3 years old, but none-the-less it still broke my heart that his passion to play with them was quickly shattered. It's always hard to witness your child express hurt even if it is just over playing a game of ball; it is still his love. And when I say it's his 'love' I mean it to the fullest extent; he even watches the big league professional games on the sports channel with daddy.

Thankfully, unknown to him, we will be registering him in Tee-Ball which registration begins in August for fall ball to begin this year. We haven't told 'Happy' this just in case someone in registration argues about his age (so far everyone has told us he has to be 4 by the registration date and he won't be turning 4 until 2 weeks later). We did manage to speak with a man higher up the chain who directed us to another coach who is willing to accept our son to begin Tee-Ball for this upcoming fall. The only thing he suggested we work on with him is getting him used to hitting the baseball from the Tee-Ball (he doesn't like to hit it from there but likes us to throw it instead), but balls aren't normally pitched to younger players until they reach age 7. He also advised us to get him practicing to catch the ball when he is in outfield, which this will be something new, as we have never worked on him with this.

So next week we are going to Academy to have him fitted for a youth glove mitt for catching balls either in the air or on the ground and then trying to teach him to throw it to his closest team player who will make an 'out' of the opposing baseball team.

I don't know much about baseball myself but am quickly learning just by watching the games my husband does on the Sports Channel.

It will be a busy end of summer as both our kids will be in cheer leading and youth baseball but well worth the excitement to watch them flourish in their desired recreational activity.

I just need a good CRY! (sniff, sniff) ;-(

2009-07-11T18:11:00.010-05:00

I'm convinced more than ever that women are more apt to have stronger emotions, feelings of overwhelming and possible break downs more than a man is. The past two ~~weeks~~ months has been crazy in all sense of the word. I feel as though I have zero control over my two children, my husband has certain expectations of me that I can't seem to live up to, and every since I've been a full time SAHM my social life has been dead. I have missed church more than I ever have prior to before I was saved by Christ. I am 'spent', drained, and can not seem to get a foot hold on many of the things I once did. I'm afraid to go to church because I know the children's ministry will just ask me to help them watch the babies/kids, which I've done for so long and how can I say 'no' to helping out when needed? Yet I so badly want to be in service and bond with Christian females who visit one another, pray together, and possibly have kids the same ages. I desperately want females that share in my same faith to become great friends with! The only scenery and world I know is of being in the house 95% of the time with a 3 and 5 year old. Whereas my husband has a world outside of this, he is good about helping with the kids (at times) and is a great cook (otherwise we'd probably all die.). But he also gets to leave the house often to his job. Not saying that his job isn't hard work because believe me I know working with Acid is very dangerous work. But the point is that he gets that outlet to have a different scenery, a different world where he converses with male adults, sometimes cutting up jokes, sometimes enjoying lunch together, other times working. I'm not making excuses that 'Oh, poor is me that I can stay home and raise my own kids why he foots the bill.' Not at all; I'm just saying my main outlet is my adult talk online, which my husband says is turning into too much Internet usage. He's probably right though. Well he is right. When I read Lauryn's blog post about going on a 'blog-cation' (vacation from blogging) I thought that was such a neat and necessary thing to do when you realize what ones true priorities are. I might just ask her if I can 'steal' that idea and do this myself. I just need to regroup and get things in order so I don't go nuts. Please pray for me; as it stands my husband and I don't even pray as a couple like we once had and we fight more than we used to; mainly about how we differ in disciplining our kids, the lack of intimacy we share, the horrible, horrible heat, ect. I don't know what has come over me or us, but something has got to change for the betterment of our family, children, me. And I know what that change has to be; Christ. Please pray that God will help us to get our priorities in line, our house in order, our affections back where they once were and more imprortantly our prayer life on a regular basis. Thank you all so very much!

Tell Me Thursday

2009-07-09T21:07:00.005-05:00

It's been a hectic day so I'm late in posting my Tell Me Thursday, but hey it is still Thursday right? :D My photo from Wordless Wednesday is found here. It is a picture of a board game that my family threw in the fire when we got fed up with it. Can you see what game it is through the fire? If you guessed the famous aged 'Trivial Pursuit' you're absolutely right. It was a couple of years ago when I flew from Houston to Seattle to visit my sister, nephews, and brother in law. The night was getting later and later, colder and colder and conversation was coming to a crawl. It was my wonderful sister who had the bright idea to play this game which I so much dreaded but reluctantly joined in on. After only 30 min. into this mind twisting torture of not so terribly smart individuals we all agreed to ditch this game that seemed to taunt us all. The closest thing nearby was my sisters fireplace which I joyfully (but carefully) started to toss in all of those nerve ending questions on history, science, the Arts, technology, and mind boggling brain teasers. That's right we delightfully watched this game burn to ashes; well maybe not fully into ashes as the game questions are as strict and stubborn as the boardbox itself! But nonetheless, it felt good. I've always hated that game.

My cutest little nephew won 1st place in the Fourth of July Parade!!!!

2009-07-08T04:07:00.009-05:00

2009 Fourth Of July Parade

I was blown away today when my SIL emailed me these photo's from their fourth of July Parade in Dallas. She said that thier son, not quite 1 yet, won 1st place and it's no wonder. I was suprised in amazment at the work they put into turning a red wagon and booster seat (?) and made it look so good like an all out armored vehicle! I just adore these pictures and couldn't help but share them.

My newphew

My half-siblings: My younger sister who is in the Army and my younger brother, the proud daddy.

Oh, and of coure the 1st place winner; his son. Better watch out! Looks like he's eyeballin' ya! OHHHH, SO CUTE!!!

Wordless Wednessday

2009-07-08T00:01:00.002-05:00

"Under The Sea" Toddler Craft

2009-07-04T17:55:00.007-05:00

**Note: To pause a slide simply roll (not click) your mouse over it and it will stop. This is our 5 year old daughter's Toddler Craft entry, which you can do as well. Visit Onnaholl's blog site by clicking here: Toddler Craft to get all the information, guidelines, art craft ideas, and how to enter your own submission. You can also follow Onna on Twitter by just doing a search for Onnaholl. Even if you choose not to enter in the contest, Toddler Craft still has a huge amount of craft ideas geared at specific ages, tips, suggestions, and mounds of other insightful information for any parent to learn and gain knowledge from. And if you subscribe to her site you'll get all the information sent to you email regularly. I was so blessed by some of the emails I've received because they don't just touch on crafts but also on children's stages of development, tips on preparing and getting ready for school and so very much more. If you have young kids, I guarantee you'll be blessed by all the information you'll received. Just click the link above to or the 'button' on this side bar 'Toddler Craft' to view this awesome and very active site! For the donated prized my husband and I have offered for this contest you can view them by clicking here.