VBS and all that!!

Whew!! We just finished an amazing and crazy week of VBS at our church and it was a whirlwind!!

We had 15 registered...almost 30 showed up!! For our little church we were so excited!!

We played games, we made crafts, we learned about Jesus and how He is our Friend, our Savior, our Leader, our Helper, Viva!

For me, the highlight was hearing my niece tell my god-daughter that she loved Jesus because He takes care of her! Lord, I pray that is a truth she will never forget and that someday she will come to a lasting and living relationship with you!!


 
 
 
  

Snow in JUNE!!

Sorry I've been remiss with keeping up with the blog...I've been busy playing in the snow with my family! Can you believe there is still snow on top of Mammoth Mountain in JUNE!! The LAST day of June to be exact!! Amazing! The kids thought it was great, albeit very bright!!

I'll catch up with y'all later!!


  

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things that I LOVE!! 1. I love God. 2. I love my family. 3. I love my friends. 4. I love getting hugs from my kids everyday at work. 5. I love Starbucks coffee. 6. I love Ice Blended from Coffee Bean even more. 7. I love bookstores. 8. I love rain. 9. I love the beach. 10. I love sleeping in. 11. I love sitting on the beach, in the rain, drinking coffee, and reading a good book. 12. I love back rubs. 13. I love the 'ah ha' moments of teaching when they actually get it. Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Wordless Wednesday

Or "The Toothless Twins Strike Again!" (to her credit Abby's almost got those two front teeth in)

  

Happy Father's Day

Today was Dad's Day and our Dad got adequately spoiled.

He wanted a stereo for our living room. He got it even though I didn't want any more noise in my house.

The kids wanted to take him fishing. That was a little tougher to pull off. While I am fairly proficient with a fishing pole, I had no idea where all of our gear was much less where we could go fishing with the two hour time frame that we had today to get it done.

So I spilled the beans to my husband (the kids had wanted to surprise him). Well, his face lit up and he was off. He spent a good hour happily tooling around in the livingroom putting line on poles and whatever else it is that you need to do to "prepare" to go fishing. He asked me if I could pull together a picnic dinner (whew...as long as I don't have to gut or clean a fish I'm good on the food end!) and away we went.

Fishing is big sport in the lovely (albeit HOT) state of Arizona and they have something called an Urban Fishing Program. That means that they put lakes in public parks and then they stock those lakes with fish!! Right on! It's not exactly a trip to the great wilderness but it only took us 10 minutes to get to a nice grassy area with lighting and bathrooms (not to mention a splash park and playground!!) where we could "take Daddy fishing!"

So, picnic packed, fishing gear in tow, a trip back to the house for chairs and a blanket to sit on and we were on our way! We had a great time and what's better the kids caught fish! They were three inch Redear Sunfish and we threw them all back but they CAUGHT something!

Now they are so psyched to go to Mammoth next week I'm not sure I'll be able to scrape them off the ceiling until we put them in the car.

It was a good day.

I hope you got to spend today building some memories with someone. Life is too short not to.

Happy Father's Day!

Umm...Mom? There's a problem...

These were the words I heard...but let me back up a bit.

It was right after school, with only a few days left in the school year I was exhausted with end of the year parties and preparation. I was home with only my two youngest...ages four and seven. I did what all good working moms do when they need a break...

I set them in front of the television so I could find a few minutes of peace and quite while I looked through my mail in my bedroom.

That's when it happened...My seven year old came into my room with a slightly panicked look on her face. "Umm...Mom? There's a problem. There's smoke all over the kitchen!"

Needless to say I ran to the kitchen and boy, was she ever right!! There were also flames in the microwave!! I yelled for her to grab her little sister and go out the front door and wait for me. Amazingly, under pressure, she obeyed immediately. I opened up the microwave door and the flames went out, to see three very charred pancakes on one very melted plastic plate!! I grabbed a towel and then grabbed the plate and took it outside and threw it on our b-b-que...and went in to open up all the windows and doors and turn on every fan in the house. Do you know how aweful smoke from melting plastic smells? No? Then come on over because I'm not sure I will EVER get that smell out of my house!!

Turns out the four year old was trying to warm up pancakes (left over from my end of the year pajama party at school) and she punched in what she thought was 10 second and turned out to be 10 minutes!! I am NOT...for those of you wondering...in the habit of letting a four year old use the microwave alone! I DO let her push the buttons when I use it so she thought she had it handled...and I did, after all, tell them not to come bug me until their show was over unless it was an emergency...pancakes are apparently not and emergency until they are burning!! LOL!!

All's well that ends well I suppose but boy, oh boy, that was an adrenaline rush for the day. If anyone has any thoughts on getting the smell out of my house let me know!!

  

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Places I have lived in my Lifetime!! 1. West Allis, Wisconsin. 2. Tujunga, California. 3. The OC (Orange County, California). 4. La Mirada, CA. 5. The OC, CA (different location). 6. Wynnewood, PA. 7. Bellflower, CA. 8. Santa Ana, CA. 9. Julian, CA. 10. Bellflower, CA (again). 11. San Clemente, CA. 12. Phoenix, AZ (in two different locations). 13. Peoria, AZ. Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Ever Wonder What a Dust Storm looks like?

Well, here it is!! This is the WALL of dust that entered the Valley this evening causing havok for drivers and leaving a mess everywhere! It's very unusual for us to have these kinds of storms this time of year...they are more typical in late summer or early fall.

  

The Myth of the Exploding Pop Can!!

Definitely NOT BUSTED!!

 

Here in Arizona we like to welcome summer with temperatures nearing 110 (it gets hotter...this is just the beginning!!) Well, there are several things you just don't leave in your car on a hot not quite summer day...soda is one of them. This can was in an unopened 12 pk box of soda...it became a ROCKET! It was upside down in the box and it ripped open the box and hit the roof of my car with a noise loud enough we thought it was a gunshot!! My kids being the avid Mythbusters fans that they are, wanted to write to them and tell them it's NOT BUSTED, as they claimed...They also wanted to reproduce the entire experiment for their Science Project next year...we'll see, maybe if we use DADDY'S CAR!!!