Friday, September 28, 2007

Matthew is 6 today!!

This post is for my sweet Matthew. His favorite is dinosaurs so that is what I will show you all today. He will get a kick out of these pictures and even tell me what each dinosaur is. This is a town in Colorado.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Put one afghan back on E-Bay


This is the nicer of the 3 and I lowered the starting bid.
afghan

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Happy Birthday To My Sister Terri!!

Today is my sister Terri's birthday! So please enjoy all things birthday.
I love you and hope your birthday is wonderful!!

Thursday, September 20, 2007

A Funny

Did you hear about the 3 year old who refused to take a nap?
He was resisting arrest.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Look what I have on E-Bay!!


Blogger wouldn't let me do all of this post together, weird. Make sure to click on the picture to see more detail.

Look what I have on E-Bay!!

Here are 3 afghans I have on E-Bay. They are some of what I got at an auction a couple weeks ago. There are 2 more and Mark decided to keep them. I will share them another time.

Click on these for the E-Bay listing. Crochet Daisy Afghan
red white and blue
mauve afghan

Saturday, September 08, 2007

Did someone say auction?

Arcade auction that is. We went to Columbus today for an arcade auction. They are a lot of fun because you get to play arcade games for free, just gotta remember to take an extension cord. We have a mini arcade in our garage. Mark had something specific in mind today but the bids went higher than what he wanted to pay. We took pictures and here are some of them.






Here is John. He needs to be a couple inches taller to actually see what he is doing.:-)

These next two pictures are too cute not to share.


These are juke boxes, we bought one when we were first married and enjoy playing old 45's on it.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Happy Birthday To My Dear Sweet Mark!!!

Today is my sweetie's birthday. He is... wait he is looking over my shoulder and said to me "You're going to tell how old I am on a public blog?!" OK I won't do that. He said "older than dirt". He's so funny!:-)

My boys (actually Luke) picked out the card from them. The card they got him said on the front, a long, long time ago... and then when you open it it played the theme music from Star Wars and said on the inside ...you were born. "A long, long time ago you were born." They just had to get it for him because the music was so cool. I was thinking how appropriate that one would be next year, but it is still sweet of them and Mark enjoyed it!

I bought him some seat covers (I will let you figure that one out). His current seat covers were becoming very blessed. I got a good deal on some shoes at Kohles, a nice black pair for 13 dollars, and a shirt and a pair of khaki's. I love a good sale!!

That's it for today. I am going to put excerpts of old home movies on here in a few days so don't forget to check back.

The Invisible Woman

I received this in an E-Mail and thought it was very good and so here it is:

The Invisible Woman

It started to happen gradually. One day I was walking my son Jake to school. I was holding his hand and we were about to cross the street when the crossing guard said to him, "Who is that with you, young fella?"

"Nobody," he shrugged.

Nobody? The crossing guard and I laughed. My son is only 5, but as we crossed the street I thought,"Oh my goodness, nobody?"

I would walk into a room and no one would notice. I would say something to my family - like "Turn the TV down, please" - and nothing would happen.

Nobody would get up, or even make a move for the remote. I would stand there for a minute, and then I would say again, a little louder,

"Would someone turn the TV down?" Nothing

Just the other night my husband and I were out at a party. We'd been there for about three hours and I was ready to leave. I noticed he was talking to a friend from work. So I walked over, and when there was a break in the conversation, I whispered, "I'm ready to go when you are." He just kept right on talking.

I'm invisible.

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking, "Can't you see I'm on the phone?" Obviously not. No one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all.

I'm invisible.

Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more. Can you fix this? Can you tie this? Can you open this? Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock to ask, "What time is it?" I'm a satellite guide to answer, "What number is the Disney Channel?" I'm a car to order, "Right around 5:30, please."

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude - but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again.

She's going? She's going? She's gone!

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England . Jamie had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself as I looked down at my out-of-style dress; it was the only thing I could find that was clean. My unwashed hair was pulled up in a banana clip and I was afraid I could actually smell peanut butter in it. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Jamie turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, "I brought you this."

It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe . I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription: "To Charlotte, with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees."
In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work.

No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished.

They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, "Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof? No one will ever see it." And the workman replied, "Because God sees."

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, "I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become."

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride.

I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend he's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, "My mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table." That would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, to add, "You're gonna love it there."

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

A Love Story --- Pictures added

Once in a land far far away there was a youngish fair maiden who longed for her true love. She prayed every night for the man that would be her husband. She prayed that God would prepare him for when they would meet and prepare her as well. She worked hard doing two jobs having moved away from her family.

Sorry, accidently deleted some of the story. This is where I was living when I met Mark, Seattle. Not a great picture, it was taken walking down out of Safeco Field.

Here are a couple wedding pictures. We were married in Gatlinburg, TN.

Saturday, September 01, 2007

Went Fishin'


The boys and I went fishing today. It was their very first time to fish. They enjoyed it and didn't want to quit. Luke and Matthew loved to fish and John loved to play with the bait (which were wax worms). John didn't want to hold his fish for the camera. A friend from church let us come fish with him. A friend of his owns this small lake or maybe it is considered just a pond. The fish we were catching were blue gill. The lake also has bass and crappy and I think another kind of fish. Here's a few pictures and a few movies.

This is Luke's very first fish.

Look at Luke's face, that says it all!! Click on picture to see it bigger.

Another priceless expression!



This is Matthew's first fish. Not a very good picture.

John's first fish. He didn't want to hold it no matter how hard Duane tried to convince him.







I caught a couple big ones...a tree and a chair :-).