EASTER!!!!

Alleluia!!! He is Risen, He is Risen indeed!!!!.

Happy Easter.  This is by far my favorite holiday.  All fear, and hopelessness is gone.  We are forgiven, and saved and have the free gift of eternal life.  I love Easter.

We went to church and then ate lunch and then spent the day just hanging around.  We drove by the storm damage and I am truly thankful for being spared.  Prayers need to go out for those that weren't.

Anyway, next week is a big weekend for us.

The story continues

Easter Eve.

Today the mood is definitely lighter.  Yes last night was a horrible night, but it is amazing how many folks are reaching out to others to help with storm cleanup.  What a great city I live in.  Now today is different from other years.  Usually I am scurring around to make food and get ready for Easter, but since Erin is getting confirmed next week, I don't have much to do today.  I am having a meal, but it will just be me, Brad, Erin and Joe.  Julie has to work and Katie will be coming next week.

I also am going to church again tonight, but this service is really neat.  We go outside and light candles and then process into church.  The church is so beautiful.  Where last night was dark, cold, evil and stormy, tonight was better.  The cross was adorned with a gold and a Crown.  The Crown that no one can take from me.  I got to sing in the choir tonight and even saw Julie, as she was on call and didn't have to go to work.

I love this service.  Tonight Hope... stay tuned

Wow.  I know it has been awhile since I have written anything, but the past few weeks have been super busy.

So lets get started.

Good Friday. -- What a day this is.  Jesus' death.  This day really makes me cry, especially since I had a lot to do with him dying FOR ME!!!.  What a Savior we have that he would totally do this for all of us.

The day started out like any other, but as the day went on, I could tell it was going to end badly.  The weather was extremely hot and humid for April.  The air was so oppressive you could feel the moisture.  We went to church that night, but as we left for church, the tornado sirens were going off.  I find it extremely unnerving to be in a car when that happens.  It just plain scares me because if a tornado swoops down, you have absolutely no where to go.

So we get to church, and the service is one of my favorites.  The alter is striped so no adornments are in church.  Just a cross with a black drape and a crown of thorns, THE crown I helped put there and seven burning candles -- one for each "word" of Christ. Our service usually has a lot of solemn hymns and slowly the candles get extinguished and the room gets darker.  Only this night it was eearie.  The sky outside was pitch black, and you could feel the evil lurking around and the lights were flickering.  It was just an evil night.  In the middle of the service I heard the sirens go off for a third time, and realized this was definitely not good.

One of the ushers stopped the service and we were told to evacuate to the basement for safety.  We finished the service, but by then everyone's nerves were shattered, and the moment of darkness was lost.  I was just glad to come home and find that 1.  I had electric; 2, my father-in-law, who was recovering from surgery and staying with us was safe, and 3. our neighborhood was spared the tornado. 

Other member of our church were not so fortunate, but the amazing thing was that not one person died or was seriously injured.  I truly believe that God was watching over our city and spared everyone.  Houses and cars can be replaced.  So on that Good Friday, Jesus died...but read on.

Birthday Girl.

Age 6 Months

This past Saturday was my first daughter's birthday.  Katie came into my life when I was 27.  I realized for the first time in my life what unconditional love is, and with each subsequent daughter that love became deeper.  Katie was the smallest of my three girls.  Honestly, at 5 lbs, 9 oz, that is small.  I had no clothes to fit her, and finally my sister gave me some preemie clothes that she wore every day.  Katie also had the darkest hair of all three girls.  (The other two have more blond).  I remember the day I brought her home only to find my dad working in my house, waiting for us, and with tears in his eyes the first thing out of his mouth was "she looks like my mom".  He had lost his mother at age 13, (her name was Katie),  and he always talked about how much he missed her.  Katie is a high school history teacher. How she deals with snarky teenagers every day is beyond me, but her passion for history makes her a pretty darn good teacher.  When she was little, she played school with Julie and always made Julie sit through her "classes" until I thought Julie would hate school forever. My only regret is that she has chron's disease, and it breaks my heart to see her suffer so. But, she marches on through pain, doctors and more doctors.  Katie taught me patience, (she was a fussy baby), and that even though I made mistakes (and still do), that being a mom to her and her sisters is the greatest blessing I could ever be given.  So --- Thank you God for Katie, Julie and Erin AND HAPPY 27TH BIRTHDAY SWEET GIRL. Love  Mom

Katie and Sam 

Addendum

Okay.  So more often than not things I write come out different than I meant.  For example... Valentines Day.  I wrote about this a few weeks ago.  In my post I put that I hated Valentines Day.  The reason being is that I remember when I was a kid, I was the one that never got many valentines at school parties.  That was in the day when you only brought valentines for your friends.  Then there are all the single people.  Why is it that we celebrate a day of love when these people don't have a special person in their life.   I feel it emphasis this fact, and there are many lonely people in the world who already know that they are alone and don't need a day to remind them.   Why do we feel the need to have a day set aside to tell our loved ones that we love them.  Is it a problem to tell your loved ones that you love them EVERY DAY???  It's nice to hear all the time.  Many years ago, I went to a parenting class at a local church.  One of the things they emphasized is to tell your family that you love them every day.  Even though you know that they know you love them, it still reinforced to them that they were special to you.  I love my family more than anyone will ever know.  They are the reason I get up in the morning.  They are the reason I pray so hard for them  to have good days at work,  good days at school, good health, happy marriages and relationships, and help to support a family. So I hope this clears up what I meant by my previous post--- I don't hate Valentines Day because I don't like you, just the opposite.. I just feel bad for lonely folks. 

SPRING BREAK !!!

I am on spring break this week.  I love this time of year.  The birds are getting settled in their new home, and everything seems to be waking up.  Last week was Erin's spring break and I really wanted to spend time at home with her, but work wouldn't allow so I only got two days off.  This week I am cleaning out my garage.  It is an absolute mess.  We have way too much stuff.  It was said on a TV show of all things, that in 1960 there were no storage units in the US.  Today there are over 2 million.  What does that say about us?  We must be the greediest country on the planet.  We save everything or put barely used stuff in the trash for the landfill. When I was young, everything from irons to washing machines were fixable.  Now instead of fixing we buy new because it's cheaper than fixing.  I remember my dad fixing everything.  Our stuff lasted for years.  Take the I-pod for example.  They run on batteries, but a new battery costs about half of what a new ipod costs.  How wasteful. If they made the batteries cheaper and easy to install - have you looked at an ipod?  How do you open it?   Anyway enough of my rant.  I'm going to continue cleaning the garage and then take a walk to enjoy God's creation.  Blessings :)

Slowing down

This has been a very busy two weeks.  Last week was Erin's state tournament for basketball.  Her team got fourth place.  It was a lot of fun, but I'm glad that this is over.  Erin never got to play that much, but I think she probably still had a good time.  The week before I broke two ribs by walking and texting at the same time.  What a doofus I am.  How do you do that?  Anyway as a result of being clutzy, I managed to injure myself.  This is seriously cutting into my exercise routine, and I continue to get bigger and bigger. 

This week is finally getting back to normal.  Erin has one more competition -- the scholar quiz bowl and then confirmation and then graduation and then the summer with summer school and phew  ---- I'm exhausted.

I've decided there needs to be more family time and less running.  Hopefully everything will start getting back to normal and I can have the garage sale I've been trying to have for two years.  Anyway, that's all for now.  Have a great weekend everyone.