The kids and I went to Fox River Resort for the weekend to relax and spend some family time together. We did spend time together and we did relax but I left feeling that it was too short and I just had too many good books to read.
What did we do?
Saturday morning I got up and out of the condo early (for a getaway weekend) leaving at 6am. Why on earth would I do that you are most likely wondering? Well, I had a Missions Meeting in Gurnee at 8:00 and was driving up and back. Well, I made it as far as Morris, IL when I realized that the windshield wiper needed more than a good cleaning as the rubber tore off the arm when I tried to wipe it off. The salt from the road was totally blocking my vision and I could not get the wipers to work so I stopped to clean them off and ended up with no wipers at all on the driver’s side. It was a bit after 6am and nothing was open yet besides the gas station which conveniently didn’t have anything that would fit my car. The nice gentleman recommended I go to the auto parts store or Wal-Mart when they opened up around 8 or 9 he thought. Well, it was crazy enough to drive an hour and forty-five minutes one way for an hour meeting but I wasn’t going to risk life and limb for it! I definitely wasn’t going to sit there at the gas station for a few hours either. So like any smart person would, I cleaned my windshield really good, stocked up on wet paper towels on the passenger seat and drove back to the condo. I called the leader of the meeting explaining my absence and then… went back to sleep. NOT! I felt so bad about missing the meeting that I stayed up did my devotions and prayers and studied the maps and diagrams for Bible class until the kids woke up. Finally around 11:00 we left the resort and made our usual stop at the Super Wal-Mart. There we stocked up on grocery items for the three days. Groceries out of the way, we then found some bargains on the clearance racks. $1.00 blouses and tops for our Uganda container! I picked up 15 of the $1.00 tops, 3 backpacks at 75% off, and some sweats for the kids that were clearanced. All in all I was quite pleased. We opted not to eat out and went back to the condo for a late lunch early supper. We then decided to go to the pool.
Well, the kids went swimming and enjoyed the pool while I read a few books. I really wanted to swim but forgot the necessary attire. : ) Actually, I will not take all the blame. Jennifer and Jordan forgot to pack Mom’s swimsuit when they packed the swim bag. We have a lot of ‘routines’ that we use when we take a getaway and one of them is “The Swim Bag”. This is a distinctive blue bag that holds EVERYTHING we use or could use at the pool: Sun block, flip-flops, goggles, pool toys, inflatable’s, extra swimsuits for each of us, towels, etc… Get the picture here? Saturday, as we prepared to go to the pool, the kids were rushing to get into their suits and I looked in the bag for mine with the sinking realization that I didn’t check it before we left the house the day before. Sure ‘nuff. No swim suit for good old Mom! Ah, but it is a good thing I had a couple of extra books (9 to be exact!) to keep me from getting too restless in the steamy hot pool house.
After the kids were worn out in the pool, we went back to chill in the condo kids watching T.V. while I talked with Mom on the phone. After eating dinner, Jordan talked me into teaching him how to play Skip-Bo which he promptly beat me at. Jordan has a knack for games.
Sunday we really relaxed. We didn’t drive anywhere except the pool house. Jordan and I built a snow woman and hiked through the woods and looked at cool game trails trying to figure out which type of animals traveled on them. We came up with interesting scenarios of what we would do if…?? We had no electricity or gas but had to stay in our house without it. How would we keep warm? Where would we get water? It was fun until Jordan started asking me questions that became difficult to explain such as “What is the cold war?”, “What is Cuba?”, “Who would our enemies be?” I suppose I got carried away with my survival theories. (Sigh.. those who really know me will understand)
They swam some more after we got back and then it was a night of vegetating, playing Skip-Bo, reading, and building forts. Really, it was a relaxing weekend other than the lack of sleep I had. See, I can’t resist spending time with my kids -- playing cards, playing outside, or just talking. I also can’t put down a good book. So when I should have been sleeping I was reading. I will pay the price this week as it catches up with me. I don’t mind though because I found another great Christian author of suspense!
Monday, January 28, 2008
Friday, January 18, 2008
Our FIRST JFLL experience
Today we are going to volunteer at a Junior FIRST Lego League event and I am so excited about taking Jordan and seeing his reaction. I will let y'all know how it goes and hopefully get some pictures.
http://www.firstlegoleague.org/
http://www.firstlegoleague.org/
Thursday, January 17, 2008
The start of our collection...
Kids and I are collecting items for the children in Uganda and this is just one of our shopping trips at Target's Clearance section. What a blessing to find this all at 75%-90% OFF! Praise God!!
Thursday, January 10, 2008
I was reading some of my favorite blogs earlier and realized that I haven't really given updates on the day to day life from our wonderful home. So here goes!
Jordan's pets update:
While we were in Uganda Jordan's crested gecko, Rosie-Buddy, died and we don't know what the cause was. I feel horribly guilty for not ensuring that every detail was relayed to the friend from church who was caring for her. (I think it may have been dehydration..) By the way, Rosie-Buddy was too young to know the sex yet so we thought since 'it' was a rose blush color "Rose Bud" would be a good name for a girl but "Buddy" would be appropriate if it turned out to be a male. So somehow Rosie-Buddy stuck. We all miss 'her' and haven't had the heart to replace her with another crested gecko yet.
Let me backtrack a little. Jordan's first real pet, besides fish, was a Russian Tortoise named Celly. His next pet was a Yellow-Plated Lined Lizzard named Lizzy. Then came an Ocillated Skink named Small-Fry and then the above mentioned Crested Gecko, Rosie-Buddy. This past Saturday we added a Okeetee Corn snake which doesn't have a name yet and may never get one....
First incident was while Jordan was in Idaho visiting family, I came home from work and Lizzy had died sometime during the day. I tried to resuscitate her but it was too late. Then later last summer as Celly was getting too big for the indoor tank I read how to keep them outdoors and so we built a pen for her outside. There was one tiny little area near the A/C unit that I had not gotten around to shoring up securely and wouldn't you know it she escaped after something knocked the fence in from the outside (probably a squirrel or cat). We are still praying that she is hibernating somewhere safe to return in the spring. However, since I am the reason Celly escaped this past summer I am really feeling bad for my son who every pet he has had and been attached too has been lost or died. Then as already mentioned Rosie-Buddy died while we were gone... Then a day and a half after getting his first snake... you guessed it!
Mom (yes, that would be me!) left the lid unsecured after putting the thermometer into the tank and now the Okeetee is nowhere to be found. It is not as weird as I thought it would be having a snake loose in the house but I feel AWFUL for my son!!! Of course I have PROMISED him I will buy him another snake (he had bought it with his Christmas money) and I will also replace the gecko but it doesn't make the feelings of guilt go away. I have talked with two reptile experts who have said it is still quite likely the snake will show up especially in the next couple of days as it gets hungrier. So we are all praying that God will keep the snake safe and healthy too until we find him.
On a happier note, Small Fry is healthy and thriving but very unsociable. We also were BLESSED with another Yellow Plated lined lizzard named Leo from our friend at PetSmart, Amy. Amy had fostered Leo and she was so sad when Lizzy died that she told us Jordan would give Leo much more attention than she could with so many other critters to care for so could we please take him off her hands. Bless her heart!! Leo is healthy and thriving and loves to be held but doesn't like a lot of fast movement as he is prone to motion sickness.
Jennifer is still praying we can get a puppy but with Jordan's allergies it is looking very unlikely. She asks every other day if I will call his allergist for more tests on specific breeds to see if there is possibly one she could get for a pet. She may not have a pet but she definitely has her own interests.
Jennifer loves to read! I don't think I stated that correctly. Jennifer LOVES to READ! Now she has surprised me to no end by proving that not only is she an excellent reader but she is a very talented and creative writer. She will be entering four (that is the maximum she can enter) poems and short stories in the Writing Contest at the library. I think she will be very pleasantly surprised at the response she gets because she thinks I just say things nice because I am her mother.. She is blossoming into a beautiful young lady who loves the Lord and cares for others deeply. I am so proud of her!
Jordan's pets update:
While we were in Uganda Jordan's crested gecko, Rosie-Buddy, died and we don't know what the cause was. I feel horribly guilty for not ensuring that every detail was relayed to the friend from church who was caring for her. (I think it may have been dehydration..) By the way, Rosie-Buddy was too young to know the sex yet so we thought since 'it' was a rose blush color "Rose Bud" would be a good name for a girl but "Buddy" would be appropriate if it turned out to be a male. So somehow Rosie-Buddy stuck. We all miss 'her' and haven't had the heart to replace her with another crested gecko yet.
Let me backtrack a little. Jordan's first real pet, besides fish, was a Russian Tortoise named Celly. His next pet was a Yellow-Plated Lined Lizzard named Lizzy. Then came an Ocillated Skink named Small-Fry and then the above mentioned Crested Gecko, Rosie-Buddy. This past Saturday we added a Okeetee Corn snake which doesn't have a name yet and may never get one....
First incident was while Jordan was in Idaho visiting family, I came home from work and Lizzy had died sometime during the day. I tried to resuscitate her but it was too late. Then later last summer as Celly was getting too big for the indoor tank I read how to keep them outdoors and so we built a pen for her outside. There was one tiny little area near the A/C unit that I had not gotten around to shoring up securely and wouldn't you know it she escaped after something knocked the fence in from the outside (probably a squirrel or cat). We are still praying that she is hibernating somewhere safe to return in the spring. However, since I am the reason Celly escaped this past summer I am really feeling bad for my son who every pet he has had and been attached too has been lost or died. Then as already mentioned Rosie-Buddy died while we were gone... Then a day and a half after getting his first snake... you guessed it!
Mom (yes, that would be me!) left the lid unsecured after putting the thermometer into the tank and now the Okeetee is nowhere to be found. It is not as weird as I thought it would be having a snake loose in the house but I feel AWFUL for my son!!! Of course I have PROMISED him I will buy him another snake (he had bought it with his Christmas money) and I will also replace the gecko but it doesn't make the feelings of guilt go away. I have talked with two reptile experts who have said it is still quite likely the snake will show up especially in the next couple of days as it gets hungrier. So we are all praying that God will keep the snake safe and healthy too until we find him.
On a happier note, Small Fry is healthy and thriving but very unsociable. We also were BLESSED with another Yellow Plated lined lizzard named Leo from our friend at PetSmart, Amy. Amy had fostered Leo and she was so sad when Lizzy died that she told us Jordan would give Leo much more attention than she could with so many other critters to care for so could we please take him off her hands. Bless her heart!! Leo is healthy and thriving and loves to be held but doesn't like a lot of fast movement as he is prone to motion sickness.
Jennifer is still praying we can get a puppy but with Jordan's allergies it is looking very unlikely. She asks every other day if I will call his allergist for more tests on specific breeds to see if there is possibly one she could get for a pet. She may not have a pet but she definitely has her own interests.
Jennifer loves to read! I don't think I stated that correctly. Jennifer LOVES to READ! Now she has surprised me to no end by proving that not only is she an excellent reader but she is a very talented and creative writer. She will be entering four (that is the maximum she can enter) poems and short stories in the Writing Contest at the library. I think she will be very pleasantly surprised at the response she gets because she thinks I just say things nice because I am her mother.. She is blossoming into a beautiful young lady who loves the Lord and cares for others deeply. I am so proud of her!
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
January
This year has started in a blur. I have so many things that I want to get started on and yet realize that I need more time in the planning stages before jumping in with both feet. I am too eager to get started with working on getting sponsors for His Embrace Childrens Home and that is just one of my many projects that are simmering on the back burner of my brain.
The unrest in Kenya has me in much prayer and I was blessed to hear from Mama Gloria today and find that they are safely in Uganda and I know that they are already busy doing God's work there.
We have been having nothing but rain for about a week straight and it is depressing even though I love the rain! I really want SNOW!!! Let it SNOW, let it SNOW, let it SNOW!!! Yes, I am praying!! I realized God must have a good reason for the rain we are having so I am not totally put out but He must be tired of the same old prayer over and over. We are making homemade ice cream tonight and snow would be perfect but we will resort to ice from the freezer.
The unrest in Kenya has me in much prayer and I was blessed to hear from Mama Gloria today and find that they are safely in Uganda and I know that they are already busy doing God's work there.
We have been having nothing but rain for about a week straight and it is depressing even though I love the rain! I really want SNOW!!! Let it SNOW, let it SNOW, let it SNOW!!! Yes, I am praying!! I realized God must have a good reason for the rain we are having so I am not totally put out but He must be tired of the same old prayer over and over.
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