For Dad and Eric!

I did it! Three years in a row!

Sad Day

I'm sure everyone by now has heard about the fatal shooting today in Lakewood of four brave Police Officers. Please pray for their families, and the other officers, friends, etc. Tonight, I'm also praying for our friend who was one of the Barista's there today, another friend who is the Chaplin helping, and another friend who is a Detective on the case. I also heard from a friend of a friend of one of the off-duty officers who was supposed to be there at the Forza this morning with the other officers, but had traded his shift with one of the ones who died. He is beside himself right now. Please join me in praying for all of these people tonight. Sad day. I'm so thankful for a sovereign God!

1,000th Post!!!

This is my 1,000th post! I can't believe I have posted that many times. Thank you to all my faithful readers!

Thanksgiving at Nana's

Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving!
What Rylie is thankful for:
-Monster Costume
-Pinky Pie My Little Pony
-Rain
Eventually she got around to saying she was thankful for her family too!
What Anna is thankful for:
-My Monkey
She said, "yeah" when I asked her if she was thankful for Mommy, Daddy, and Rylie, so I'll take that.
What Ryan is thankful for:
-not being sick any more
-family, "even though they don't want me to watch football today".
What I'm thankful for:
-Grace, I don't deserve my salvation and I'm so grateful for it!
-My wonderful, godly husband who makes me laugh
-My beautiful daughters, who love their very flawed Mama
-My family and my in-laws, so supportive.
-My best friend!
-My church family, you really are like family to me.
-Friendships that can be rekindled through blogs and facebook.
-My home and my many blessings.
-That we are all recovering from H1N1!

Nie Nie on the Today Show

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Free Photo Book!

I came across a great deal! I love photo books, especially if I can get one for free! This one comes from American Greetings Photoworks, it is an 8 1/2 x 11 1/2 photo cover book. It normally costs $39.00, plus $8.99 shipping and tax. My total would have been over $50, but I got it for free! That's right, the book and shipping and tax are all free! The coupon code to get this is: BONNIE, courtesy of the Bonnie Hunt show. The only catch is that it is for the first 25,000 people each day (until 12/7). I tried it last night at 6:00 and there wasn't any more free ones available, but I tried again this morning and it worked! The site does seem to be a little slow, so be patient with it. Have fun and let me know what you make!

To Sweeten Your Day

Another Good Quote

"It is not scientific doubt, not atheism, not pantheism, not agnosticism, that in our day and in this land is likely to quench the light of the gospel. It is a proud, sensuous, selfish, luxurious, church-going, hollow-hearted prosperity."
--Frederic D. Huntington

Update

We had a wonderful homemade chicken noodle soup, bread, and chocolate brownies delivered to us for dinner tonight, by a new friend! What a blessing!
Anna started Tamilflu yesterday and it seems to be helping her already. Her fever has broken and she is gaining energy. Rylie has been steadily getting better, she just has the lingering cough.
Ryan and I continue to feel awful.
During all this, Anna has decided to start going on the potty and talking in full sentences. For some reason, she chose this as the time for milestones. I guess this is our silver lining!

Swine Flu

Scratch that last post, Anna and I are positive for H1N1. Feeling horrible, will post tomorrow. Keeping up NaBloPoMo though!

Sickness

Thank you to all of you who have been praying for our family while we have been sick! You all are wonderful! I think I see a light at the end of the tunnel (go to the light. . .oh wait, not that light!) Ryan is feeling better each day and having more energy. The girls still have a cough, but no fevers and are back up to almost full energy. I thought I was going to die yesterday, or maybe I just wanted to. It was awful! I could hardly move. Today though my whole head is draining so I think that is a good sign. I had enough energy to do the dishes and clean the bathroom (fun, fun!) My sweet Rylie girl disinfected all of the doorknobs and light switches for me.
This is not fun, but I appriciate all of the kind comments and prayers! Thank you all!

Interesting Question

"The critical question for our generation-and for every generation-is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?"
---John Piper, God is the Gospel

Cute Girl

Sick

I don't have much to write today because all four of us are sick and miserable! Fevers, body aches, chills, sore throats, coughs, etc. No fun!

Two of my favorite pictures from this summer:

Conviction

"We've conditioned ourselves to hear messages without responding. Sermons have become Christian entertainment. We go to church to hear a well-developed sermon and a convicting thought. We've trained ourselves to believe that if we're convicted, our job is done. If you're just hearing the Word and not actually doing something with it, you're deceiving yourself."
--Francis Chan; Crazy Love

look what i got for free

Click here to view this photo book larger

Friends

The other day we had a fun play date with our friends Andrew and Sierra and their wonderful Mommy, Rachel. It's so fun watching my girls make friends.
Rachel blessed me by watching my kids all day last week when I went out of town, and she sent them home with dinner so Ryan wouldn't have to cook. I'm so thankful for her friendship!

Bring Ree to Seattle in 2010

My friend, Keren and I are starting a campaign! We (along with most of you), love The Pioneer Woman, and want her to come to the Northwest on her Cookbook Tour. So, our plan, go visit her blog, adore her, and then leave her a comment asking her to bring her tour to the Northwest. Then we will all go together to see her! And if anyone wants to buy me the cookbook for Christmas. . .

Anna and Dad

Psalm 63

I thought I would share a little of what God is teaching my in my devotions. I was reading Psalm 63 the other day and I read vs.1, "O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water." When I read this, I thought, I wish I felt like that all the time, because, honestly I don't. There are more times than I'd like to admit that I think, "oh I'd better do my devotions so I don't feel guilty", or "I can check that off the list", or "God will be happier with me if I do my devotions". Do you ever feel that way? As if I can "score points" or something with God. His grace has nothing to do with my righteousness, praise the Lord! Thankfully it's all about relationship not about keeping score.
Anyway, I do desire a closer relationship with God, I desire to have this "desire" all the time. I'm not a very proactive person, I'd rather have things just come to me, rather than me do the hard work to seek them out. Basically, I'm lazy. So that is why vs. 2 struck me, "So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory." David (the author of the Psalm), didn't just sit around and wish for a better relationship with God, he went and did something about it. He "looked upon Him in the sanctuary". He sought out God. He didn't just do it for a minute and count it good. He took time, it says that he "looked" and that he "beheld" God. I think this means that he spent time with the Lord, he really looked deeply at Him. I need to do this more. I need to not just check that Bible chapter off my list, but really spend time, see the heart of God, behold Him.
The rest of the Psalm tells us David's result of looking and beholding God. You should read the rest of the chapter yourself, but it tells us that David was satisfied, he had joy, he had a deeper, closer relationship with God. He had dependence on God and confidence, security. And ultimately he praised and glorified God.
I don't know about you, but I think that's a pretty great result!

Matching PJ's

Bathing Beauty

Chore Chart Example

For some reason I couldn't get this to post with the previous post.

Controlling my Chaos

I found this blog that I love! Controlling my Chaos has tons of great crafty and organizational ideas, as well as free downloads and printables. Don't you just love that name too!
I got the idea for a Take-out Menu/Restaurant Coupon organizational binder. I had all these menus and coupons laying around and now they are all in one place, neatly organized. Now if Ryan wants to take the girls to get an ice cream cone at McDonalds I can tell him, "get the free coupon from the binder"! I also got the idea for chore cards from her (more on that on another post). I love her free printable chore charts for the girls. (She has a boy version too.) They are so pretty and my girls are having fun using them.
I also printed out her recipe binder dividers. They look scrap booked and I love that. I'm trying to be more organized and if I can use pretty things to help me, I'm more likely to really use them.
Hope this helps you get more organized as well!

Orange Julius Recipe

• 3 cups Orange Juice (Pulp Free Works Best)
• 1 envelope Dry Dream Whip
• 1 package Dry Vanilla Pudding
• 3 cups More Orange Juice

Preparation Instructions

Pour the first 3 cups of OJ into a blender. Add the dry Dream Whip and pudding. Blend it one more minute on low.

Pour the mixture into a 2-quart pitcher. Add the other 3 cups of OJ and stir well.

I made this the other night and it was soooo good! Recipe from Tasty Kitchen, on the Pioneer Woman's blog.

Playtime

I love that Anna is getting old enough that she and Rylie can play together. It is so cute to watch them talk and laugh together. It makes me so happy when they say that they are best friends!
The love sitting behind Daddy's chair, playing and talking. They will sit behind there for a long time.
We got a new bathmat, so Anna had to try it out. She had so much fun sitting in the bathtub with all her clothes on.
Anna cracked us up the other day when we were asking her what her name was. She told me, "Abby" and then laughed and laughed. She proceeded to say the name of each of her cousins each time I asked her what her name was. Then she laughed and said, "Amy" and then "Ryan"! She's got a little sense of humor!

Giveaway!

My amazingly talented friend, Keren is having a giveaway on her blog! You have a chance to win one of the stylish nursing covers she makes (which make for great baby shower gifts if you're not nursing), or three adorable bibs, also handmade by her. Anna received one of the bibs she made as a party favor at her daughter's first birthday. It is by far our favorite bib! It is cute and soft and the snap closure means that Anna can't rip it off! It also has held up very well with multiple washings. So, go check her out and enter for your chance to win! While you're there check out her photography blog too! I told you she was talented!

Church's Harvest Party

NaBloPoMo

Say what?! That's right, I'm participating again in National Blog Posting Month. It will be my third year participating. I have to post everyday in November. There is a possibility that I may win a prize, but I never win anything, so I'm not counting on it. It's just fun to post everyday. If you have a blog you should do it to, so I have lots of stuff to read! It's all about me you know! Ha!