Thursday, April 30, 2009

Afternoon at the Beach







Great Quote

"Would it not be an encouragement to a subject, to hear his prince say to him, You will honor and please me very much, if you will go to yonder mine of gold, and dig as much gold for yourself as you can carry away? So, for God to say, Go to the ordinances, get as much grace as you can, dig out as much salvation as you can; and the more happiness you have, the more I shall count myself glorified."
---Thomas Watson (1692)

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Prayer Request

One of my best friends from my College days has a son who's best friend passed away this morning from cancer. I have been following the Caring Bridge updates on little Darian, for probably a year now, and was very sad to get the update this morning that he was gone. He was 6 years old!
The good news is that he was a believer and is right now in the very presence of Jesus! What an amazing thought! His Mom, Abby, has been writing the updates and has had an incredible testimony! She has such strong faith and trust in the Lord, and above all, wants Him to be glorified. I have been amazed by how the Lord has been working in her and have learned a lot from her.
Please pray for the King family today and in the upcoming months as they mourn the loss of this precious little boy. Please also pray for my friends Darrin and Karen and their children as they go through the loss of a close friend!

Wordless Wednesday

Monday, April 27, 2009

Free Stuff!!!!

Free Reusable Grocery Tote Bag This site will send you a free reusable grocery tote bag if you agree to their pledge to do some things that are good for the environment. I didn't agree to everything (I'm not into composting on my kitchen counter!), but some things just make sense and save you money. A lot of stores are starting to go bag less and are wanting you to use a reusable one, so you might as well get one for free! *This is the last week they are offering this!

Free Leapfrog Music CD This site gives you the option to download 15 free songs or have them ship you a free CD. All you have to do is register (for free) on their site and tell them which leapfrog things you have. It took a couple of minutes, but I know my girls will enjoy getting something fun in the mail!

Free Elmo Bag Tag You can get this free bag tag for registering on their site (for free). It has Elmo on the front (which Anna loves!) and a space on the back to write you're child's name. I thought this would be perfect to put on Anna's bags and sippy cups while she's in the nursery at Church. And, once again, something fun in the mail!

Free Sippy Cup This is an offer by Juicy Juice, you can also get free coupons on their site. Unfortunately, I did this offer when Rylie was a baby and they won't let me do it again. (so if anyone does it and doesn't want theirs. . .) Again, this is something they will send to you once you register on their site.

Free Things For Your Birthday Some of you may have seen this link on Keren's blog, but I thought it was worth posting again for those of you who didn't see it. Several restaurants and companies offer free food/product during your birthday month. This site has a large list of those different companies. You can choose the ones that you like and go to their individual sites and register. It can be time consuming, but I think it was worth it. Not only will I get free appetizers, entrees, deserts, etc. during the month of July, but I also got several coupons in my email thanking me for registering on their sites. For example, I got a coupon for Subway for a free sandwich if I buy a drink. Then, on my birthday I will get something else from them as well. A few of the sites also let you register your kids for their birthdays also.

Freebies 4 Mom This is the blog where I heard about all of these great deals. You can subscribe to it in an RSS feeder or by email. Everyday she has posts about great deals, freebies, samples, sweepstakes, links to coupons, etc. I followed several of the links for free samples to be sent to me from several different companies.

Free Samples I recently found out that Walmart has a spot on their site where they offer links to free samples. Every week or so, they change what they are offering, so keep checking back. I got free samples of shampoo, conditioner and diapers this week.

Free Movie Rentals Redbox is a movie rental vending machine located in several grocery stores (usually Albertsons and Walmart have them, and some McDonalds even). They are already pretty cheap at $1 a night and no late fees, plus they are very convenient. They have an online feature which we frequently use. You can go to their site and reserve whichever movie you want and then go pick it up. This has worked great for us because we don't have to stand at the box browsing through all the movies (with a line of people behind us) only to find out that it's already sold out that day. If you go to their site and sign up for text messaging, they will send you a text message every Monday with a code for a free movie.

Free Samples/Coupons If you register for this site you can take surveys, chat with other women, etc. I don't do any of that, but since I registered, I get things in the mail from them constantly. I never know what I'm going to get or when. Today I got a coupon for a free box of Kashi brand frozen waffles, along with 4 coupons for $1.50 off. Saturday, I got a sample box of Frosted Mini Wheat Cereal, along with a coupon for buy one, get one free, and several $1 off coupons. In the past I've gotten postcards (which where dumb and I threw away), packages of gum (which we liked), samples of dish soap, coupons, etc. It's kind of fun to see what will come next and it has saved me some money. There has been two different times when I've ran out of deodorant only to have a trial size deodorant come in my mail that same day!

Portraits of the Park





Sunday, April 26, 2009

More on Parenting

"Train with this thought continually before your eyes: The soul of your child is the first thing to be considered. In every step that you take about them, in every plan and scheme and arrangement that concerns them, do not leave out that mighty question, 'How will this affect their souls?' Our ultimate goal in everything should be to point them to Christ."
--J.C. Ryle

Friday, April 24, 2009

I'm ok!

My Mommy took me to the doctor again today for another follow up appointment and exam. The doctor said that I'm a different kid than the one she saw the other day. She said that the infection is gone and the medicine worked good. She said she was glad I had the IV. I told her I wasn't very happy about that and that I was mad at Mommy for awhile after that yucky IV.
I'm feeling so much better, that my Mommy and Daddy and Sissy took me to the park tonight. Aren't I cute?!





Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Hydrated!

Anna's doctor called us this morning and said that we needed to take her to the ER because she hadn't had a wet diaper in over 15 hours. After a long day at the ER, a crying baby, and an IV, we are home and resting. I may go over the details in another post, but right now, I'm tired. Suffice it to say, I think it was worth the trip. Since the IV, Anna has had two wet diapers! Since we've been home, she has been singing and saying her new words ("potato", "bafroom"), eating some and (drum roll please) drinking! She drank 12 ounces of milk this evening, which is more than she had drunk in the last two days combined! She has not had a fever since the middle of the night last night, so I think she is on the mend! We are still waiting for the culture to come back from lab to know if they want to do further testing or not. We should know that tomorrow.
Thank you to everyone for your prayers!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Anna's Doctor Appointment

Anna had her follow up appointment with her doctor this afternoon. Her fever came back and her white blood cell count is still elevated. They think she might have a kidney infection. They will know for sure tomorrow morning when the urine culture comes back from the lab. They gave her an injection of a strong antibiotic today. She did not enjoy that because it stings and it goes right in the muscle. They want to do an ultrasound and some other tests to determine why she got this infection.
She is also dehydrated. We are really pushing the liquids, but she is a stubborn little girl and doesn't want to drink. She has to have two to three wet diapers otherwise we have to take her to the ER to get an IV. Thankfully, she did have a wet diaper about an hour ago. The poor thing is in pain whenever she goes though.
Right now she is sleeping and Mommy and Daddy are worn out!

Spring Day


Yesterday afternoon, since Anna was feeling better, (due to her medicine kicking in) we decided to play outside in the beautiful spring weather. Anna surprised us by saying, "bubble". We didn't know she knew that word. After we played outside, we decided to go to the park and have dinner, I'll post those pictures tomorrow.
Last night, as soon as her Motrin wore off, Anna was burning up with fever again. The doctor called to check on her and was very concerned that she hadn't had a wet diaper in over 8 hours (it ended up being 14 hours!). They were worried about her being dehydrated. They had us wake her up and try to get some liquids in her. She wasn't wanting to drink the water or milk, so we gave her two Pedialight Popsicles. We were very thankful that she ate both of them. The doctor had said that if she didn't have a wet diaper in a few hours that we would have to take her to the ER. Thankfully she did have one at 2 am. The poor thing cried when she went though because it hurt.
We have a doctor's appointment at 3:00 today. The doctor called this morning and said that if she didn't have any wet diapers this morning that we need to bring her in earlier. So far, no wet diapers, but she has been drinking some milk. She is eating a few bites, which is great, because she ended up loosing a pound from being sick and not eating. She can't afford to be losing weight. Ryan and Rylie went to the store to get her some more of the Pedialight Popsicles so hopefully we can keep her hydrated. Thankfully, her fever broke this morning! Her mood is much improved as well!





Monday, April 20, 2009

Pictures from amy

Click here to view these pictures larger

Rylie's Drawing


This is a picture that Rylie drew of herself helping a Polar Bear up. For her Cubbie's homework she was supposed to draw a picture of her helping in some way. She chose to help a Polar Bear!
I love watching her draw lately. She is getting more and more creative. Maybe she will be artistic like her Dad and Grandma!

In other news, Anna has a high fever and possibly a UTI. We are waiting to get the culture back from the doctor, but they started her on an antibiotic to be safe. Her white blood cell count is up, so there is definitely some kind of infection going on. The poor little thing is burning up and miserable! We go back to the doctor tomorrow afternoon.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

A.W. Tozer Quotes

"Why would God forgive me when I've sinned and then forgive me again and again? Because God our of His goodness acts according to that goodness and does what His loving heart dictates that He do."

"If God were to close my account tomorrow and refuse any longer to honor me with His favors, the circumstances of His grace to me so far would require that I should still thank Him unceasingly with tears of honest gratitude."

Pictures from amy

Click here to view these pictures larger

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Praise the Lord!

My Mother-in-Love, Patty had her cancer scan yesterday and it came back perfect! This is a huge praise because this was the scan that the oncologist said that he thought the cancer would be back by. We weren't sure if she was going to make it until my girls birthdays and now she's a month past that and doing great! She's feeling stronger every day and is even thinking about going back to work part time.
I'm putting her to work tonight babysitting my girls because I'm going to see the Broadway show, "Cats"! I'm very excited, I've never been to a Broadway show before! I'm going with four other friends, Roxanne, Annette, Keren, and Becky. We're going to have a potluck at Roxanne's house first and then on to the show! Pictures to come!
Please pray for Becky and her family, her Grandma passed away last night. If you know Becky, be sure to give her lots of love!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Don't Make Me Count to Three!

(Pictures: Anna and Rylie playing with their dolls together. Anna watching Baby Einstein, which she loves!)

For those of you whom I'm friends with on Facebook, you're probably tired of me talking about this book, Don't Make Me Count to Three, by Ginger Plowman. I read it when I was on vacation. I had been reading, Shepherding a Child's Heart, by Ted Tripp, off and on over the past four years. I finally finished that, which I loved. I decided to read Plowman's book because it takes the principles taught in Shepherding and applies them practically.
I highly recommend both books to any parent. They were convicting and encouraging and gave me a good sense of what my long term parenting goals are to be.
I don't want to just raise children who are happy and well adjusted to society. I want more than that. I want to raise children who truly have a relationship with the Lord and who love Him and serve Him with their lives, however they choose to do that. The goal is not just to change their behavior, but to get to the "why" behind their behavior and to train their hearts to know how to respond Biblically and want to do what is right because they understand that they are a child of God and they want to please Him.
I have been so caught up in feeling like I just need to survive every day and get to bedtime. I've been feeling discouraged, especially with Anna's strong will. I have been focused on the short term. I have also been treating Rylie as more of an equal and allowing her to make some decisions that I should have been making for her. I haven't been taking charge as much as I need to. I have also been telling her, "because I said so" instead of showing the heart of the matter and what God has to say about it. These two books convicted me of these areas that need improvement. They also encouraged me because they gave me a plan and practical ways to change.
One of the key principles that I learned was that I love my children too much to let them disobey. Because I love them, I will train them to obey me so in turn they will learn to obey the Lord. Another one was not to view their sinfulness as a failure or a tragedy, but as an opportunity to share Christ with them and to point them to the Gospel. God has entrusted them to me to train. I need to be proactive and not just respond to their negative behavior.
I could go on and on about things that I learned, but I will leave you with a verse that really encouraged me. "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Monday, April 13, 2009

Our Little Mariner




This was Rylie before we took her to Grandma and Grandpa's for her and Anna's vacation (while Ryan and I went on vacation). In the picture she is yelling, "Opening Day!" She loves the Mariners and will tell you that the Yankees are "yucky!" She told us that she wanted to spend some of her Birthday money on tickets for a Mariners game. We love our little Mariner!