A cheap afternoon of fun, almost...

Mark planned a little surprise for the family today. He took us all downtown Grand Rapids to Rosa Parks Circle to go ice skating. It is really cheap, fun entertainment. It is a $1 admission and skate rental is free. You can't beat that.

Here is Anna trying to help Libby. Libby wasn't to sure about the whole skating thing.


Zack took off the minute he hit the ice. He made it look like old hat. Very impressive.

Libby thought maybe it would be easier to use one of the things that looked like a walker but she kept forgetting that she couldn't push down on it. She needed to hold it down lower and push it forward.

Look at that concentration on Mark's face. This is only the third time ever that he has been on skates.

Zack had fun giving Mark a hard time about hanging on to the rail so much. Kaylyn looked like she'd been skating forever.

Anna and I finally talked Libby into holding our hands and going around the circle but Anna kept letting go of Libby's hand thinking that was all it took to get Libby to skate alone. If you look close at Libby's legs you can see a lot of snow from her going down so many times. But she was still a trooper about it.

It was a fun afternoon for all of us. We promised the kids we would go again. Mark was told that at night they turn lights on that are under the ice so he told the kids next time we will go at night.

Love parking downtown. Yep after paying only $6 for some family fun time we come back to our vehicle to find that our parking meter ran out and we had this pretty $12 ticket under the windshield wiper. Bummer! From what we can figure the money had been out for less than 5 min when we got the ticket. Live and learn. Next time we will park in a parking lot instead of on the street. It didn't put a damper on our fun.
Smiles!

My Bella is 14 today!

Enjoy some pictures, 14 to be exact, of my sweet Bella.

Isn't she lovely
Isn't she wonderful
Isn't she precious.....

Anna and Kaylyn were flowergirls in Mark's niece's wedding.











Zack loves Anna, here is the proof.
The girls snuggling on the couch.
















Zack showing Anna how to be a detective at Grandma's house.















Here she is just being Anna at Grandma's house.
















Saturday night all clean and ready for Sunday morning church. See the dresses set out on the couch. If I could only always be that ready the night before. In case you can't tell, Anna is in green and Kaylyn is in blue.

Anna was known for randomly falling asleep at the dinner table and other odd places. She liked to play hard and that takes it's toll on a lovely little girl.


Hunting with Dad. This is one of her favorite things to do. Here she is with her first Turkey.

This is one of those pictures that I "found" on my camera. I guess the kids were a bit bored. Come on Anna you had to know I would use that.
My girl all dressed up and grown up at her cousins wedding this past summer.










Anna's deer this past fall during the Youth hunt. Way to go!















Doing what she lives to do. The girl loves soccer and she is fast.









I love you Bella! You are a beautiful girl inside and out. Your love for the Lord shines bright!





Have a Happy Birthday!
Love you forever!
Mom

Puritan Reading Challenge

Chew on this...

"Men must not be too curious in prying into the weaknesses of others. We should labour rather to see what they have that is for eternity, to incline our heart to love them, than into that weakness which the Spirit of God will in time consume, to estrange us. Some think it strength of grace to endure nothing in the weaker, whereas the strongest are readiest to bear with the infirmities of the weak." The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes

I love that quote. I think of how often in my own house we are so quick to point out each others faults.

Smiles!

Here we go again...

Current Temp = 5 degrees
Current Wind Chill = -11 degrees
Current number of kids out of bed = 2

Guess the teenagers need to catch up on their sleep.

Smiles!

Zack throwing at the college level...

Mark found out that Zack can compete at college Track meets as "unattached". So Friday night we paid to have him throw at a college meet at Grand Valley State University. There were maybe 5 or 6 other colleges represented there also. I thought you'd enjoy seeing Zack doing what he loves to do. He was a little nervous being the only High School kid throwing with all the college guys but he held his own. Out of 20 guys he placed 4th. We are very excited for him.


Thank you Melissa!

Please pray for Lydie!

Lydie is a precious little one who has pneumococcal meningitis and needs our prayers. Please read about her here.

Kindness Pays

Look at what Rebekah gave me today...

Thank you Rebekah!

I am going to blow this up and paste it on my fridge so the kids can see it. They may not believe someone gave it to their mother otherwise. Especially the 17 year old.

So now I get to pass it along! I love that part of it.

Jennifer (although there was that "yack" thing)
Mel
Tonja (Pronounce the "J". I still keep saying your name wrong in my head)
Kat
Cherdecor (Hopefully this one won't get stolen!)
Hope
and right back at ya Rebekah!

Thanks to all of you for the "kind" comments you leave. I am enjoying getting to know you all!

Smiles!

Puritan Reading Challenge

My first day of reading was well blessed this morning. Enjoy a couple of the pearls that I found...

In regards to Christ's Calling...

• "In this we may see the sweet love of God to us, in that he counts the work of our salvation by Christ his greatest service, and in that he will put his only beloved Son to that service." Oh that I may feel the "sweet love of God"
  
• "See here, for our comfort, a sweet agreement of all three persons: the Father gives a commission to Christ, the Spirit furnishes and sanctifies to it, and Christ himself executes the office of a Mediator. Our redemption is founded on the joint agreement of all three persons of the Trinity."

In regard to The Good Effects of Bruising...

• "Our hearts, like criminals, until they be beaten from all evasions, never cry for the mercy of the judge." Wow! Read that again.
• "After conversion we need bruising so that reeds no themselves to be reeds, and not oaks. Even reeds need bruising, by reason of the remainder of pride in our nature, and to let us see that we live by mercy" That ugly pride again.

Smiles!

My Cozy Corner

Monkey Giggles is having a fun little contest. All you have to do is take a picture of your own "Cozy Corner" and link it back to her post.

So here is my favorite place in my house, my Cozy Corner. Do you see the tan blanket on the bed? I love that blanket. My sister, Jodi, crocheted it for me for my graduation (from High School) gift. I received it after I graduated from college. I love a homemade gift way more than an on time gift. I am hoping my niece feels the same way. You see the blanket peeking out of the tote in the corner? That is her wedding gift that I have to finish knitting. She has been married for almost 5 months now. I guess it runs in the family.

Can't wait to see everyone else's Cozy Corners!
Smiles!

Love that Michigan weather...

Puritan Reading Challenge

I first seen this challenge on Jennifer's site and thought "oh there is no way I could read that stuff it would be way over my head".
But it just kept come back to me as something I should at least try. So I am doing just that. I am going to give it a try. We will see how my black and white, engineering, mathematical mind does at comprehending it all.

Smiles!

Happy Saturday!

Look what Mari passed on. I am all about spreading the love! Thanks Mari!

Here is what the maker of this award says:
"I have met so many lovely and very talented ladies here in Blogdom, what more can I do or say to express my humbled heart to each, than to give all my dearest readers and friends a special award filled with love. So, spread the love dear ones, spread the love to those you love."

I am too busy checking on my 101 blogs to decide who to pass this on to so I am going to revert back to my tagging fellow Jennifer's.
Jennifer
Jennifer
Jennifer
Jennifer
Jenni
Jenni
Jenna
Jennwa

Look at the next award I received. Thank you Dawn!

I am passing this one on to one special friend from Japan who yacked on me! You know who you are.

Look at what Mary is doing to celebrate her 200th post. She is have a giveaway. Who doesn't love a giveaway? Go check it out.

Smiles!

Melissa got it - Way too fast.

I knew that Melissa and I had waaaayyy too much in common. Yes indeed, it is how many subscription to blogs I have in my Google Reader. Yikes! I knew it was getting away from me.

Patty - 10? That's it, really? Such control.

Jennifer - I am 5'10" so if I weighed 101lbs. I would be more than anorexic I would be dead. You do remember my recent post on Rose's right? I love food. (For those of you who don't know Jennifer, watch out when she is in need of sleep, she starts throwing things at you.)

Jenni- You must not remember my "weird things about me" I hate socks so I certainly am not addicted to them. Giggles!

So how about y'all... How many blogs do you either subscribe to or just go to everyday?

By the way I thought you'd like to read the limerick I wrote today to enter in Shannon's contest...

Ode to "There's a pill to fix everything"

There once was a family of Hill's
Who spent to much time making bills.
Mom said, "This must stop.
I can't get on top."
So she ordered a bottle of pills.

It amused dear hubby so it was worth it.

Smiles!

101

So what is 101 you ask? I'm not referring to Dalmatians.
I am referring to my addiction...
When will it stop?
When is enough enough?
When is it too much?
How many of you have this same addiction?
Some of you are thinking pairs of shoes aren't you. I do like me a good pair of shoes but I have limits. It isn't shoes.
I was just as shocked as you when I counted them this morning.
It is clear now why it is consuming so much of my free time.
Have you figured it out yet?
I am not ready to confess yet so go ahead and give me your best guess.....

Smiles!

I am so mad at myself!!!!

Can you figure out what these pieces belong to?

I can't begin to tell you how bummed I am about these pieces. I think this clip below pretty much describes my anger/frustration...

This is where those pieces belong...

You see I was backing out of the garage this morning and I caught the side mirror on the garage door opening. If I could just have those 2 seconds of my day back. Argh!!! Here is the garage. I didn't do any damage to it. Don't be mistaken by that black smudge, it was already there.

There is absolutly no evidence of damage from this morning's incident on the garage. I guess I should be thankfull for this because I just got the estimate on fixing my Suburban...

"Are you sitting down?" that is what Ross at Tolman's asked my dear hubby before he told him.

$750!!!!!

I just want to crawl in a hole! I asked my sweet understanding hubby (you see he has caught my mirror on the opening twice it just never broke when he did it so at least he is somewhat understanding about it) if we could just leave it that way until we get some extra cash. He is worried that we wouldn't be able to get the Suburban washed with the mirror like that because the car wash brushes might grab it and then we could do damage to the side panel. And if you know my husband and his vehicles... well let's just say he won't let it not get washed if it is dirty. Now add to that the fact we live in Michigan, they salt the roads like crazy this time of year, and we just happen to live on a DIRT road. My Suburban gets dirty!

Does anyone out there feel my pain?!?!?!

Trying to smile...