it's all fun and games...

lots of fun going on around here lately... above is Oct 31st, early morning- Jon's 11th birthday, we went to Ruby's for b-fast before school...

Cole at "Light The Night on Halloween Night, knocking a kid off his "perch"

the boys with Jon's friend, Grant, before going trick-or-treating in the neighborhood... we had a whole big group come join us - that always makes it more fun!!

Tom & Angela singing "The Gifts of the Magi" around the piano

We have SO much fun in rehearsals!

Jim, the Newport Beach Bum... (now THAT'S one Lucky Bum!! {One of the lines in a song he gets to sing, fyi})

Kerri & Mike are always up for a laugh!

i can't remember WHAT happened here... it's just a funny and cute picture of Kerri

Mike & his musical spoons...

Mike's got a bit of an "Elvis" sneer going on here, huh?

it's a roll of tape, SEE????

Doug & Jesse Brown, celebrating their 10th blender they've recieved as a wedding gift! (jk)

Our Life... in pictures

The "Magi" cast in rehearsals... from left: Angela, Tom, Duke, Mike & Kerri


"Soapy" the lovable bum... (Jim)

Soapy getting kicked out for free-loading

An incredibly animated Duke... I'm glad I caught this on camera!



Paris on Hollywood Blvd, after seeing our movie at the ElCapitan

The organist, playing before the movie. I just can't tell you how much I love that theatre! The architecture is SO incredible...

Having a chocolate malt at the soda fountain next door to the theatre.



BroomBall with the 5 & 6th Grade group (Calvary). The kids had a blast- it was "SuperHero" themed; Kelcey came with us- she won for Best Girl's Costume! She was Bat Girl, Matt was Bat Man, Jon was a surgeon, because those are the best super heroes of all... ;o)

Chris Gniffke... Ninja Turtle Dude.

are we in the clear?

the fires came SO close to our house... literally less than 2 blocks away.

God sure did have us in the palm of His hand because we did not hear until it had past that we were in a mandatory evac zone. THAT's kind of frustrating.

Thank you Lord for taking such good care of us!

Are we done now?

We aren't unpacking the car yet, I'll tell you that. :oD

so sick....

oh my gosh... i am SO sick; i feel like death warmed over.

i don't have time to be sick.

please PLEASE pray for me that i would get better to be able to sing at the women's retreat saturday. i'm supposed to be a soprano and right now i'm more like a bass-baritone... yikes. and if someone could take this elephant off my chest, i'd be much obliged...

"`If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes."
Mark 9:23

In my Bible study this morning I came across this verse- we know the story... we know that when Jesus responded to this father in regard to his demon-possessed son, that He was speaking about more than just healing the man's child... that He was speaking to all of His children.
But am I living my life like I believe it? Are you?

Jesus longs to do great things through us - In fact, he promised he would do even greater things through us than he did himself because he is now at the Father's side helping us! (like it mentions in John 14: 12-14)
WHY am I not living like I believe it???

Saturday I was SO blue... SO down; feeling like a failure in every sense of the word and truly having a ridiculous pity party but it felt real of course. Then, when I finally call out to God to PLEASE help me, my dear friend Judi Singer calls me... she was right there with prayer and comfort and a listening ear.
What an AWESOME GOD we have, huh?? How many things has He put in place for us, his children, so that we are taken care of?
Do we really realize what He can do? Or what He has done for us so that our worship to Him is a sweet fragrance and not the stench that it would be without Him???

So I think it's time I quit talking about what I can't do, and start believing in the One who can do great things. Paul said it best when he said: God can do "more than we can ask or imagine by his power at work in us." (Ephesians 3:20-21)

What scripture has convicted you lately?? :o)

my dog's tongue...

i just caught daisy trying to chew open a bottle of Anbesol; you know the stuff that numbs your tooth when you've got a tooth ache...

this raises questions in my brain:

1. how does a dog feel about having a numb tongue? Do they think about it?

2. how did she get the bottle in the first place?

3. what would have happened to her had i not caught her before she opened it?

oh well... such is my life right now.

it's like the time when the boys were little and i caught them painting the car with yellow paint & paint brushes. how did they get the brushes? where was i?

I think the real question is: How do some people just have very simple, ordered lives and ours is always, always a 3 ring circus... ???

Don't get me wrong- it's a fun 3-ring circus but there's always SO much about our lives that's not "set", you know??

I was in a greeter's meeting for church and Josh was talking about how people always park on the same side at church, always like to walk in the same door, etc. and I was thinking "do they really?? is that what 'normal' people do? because that's not even a thought in my head; to do things the same way all the time like that. why am i not like that? hmmmm... i don't know. i DO like order, i do like logic and a well-thought-out plan, but i don't thrive on doing it the same all of the time.



did you get to see ANTM? the Yale girl was a good choice to go... she didn't want to be there anyway. i almost thought in the beginning that she was going to be an 'undercover' type girl; wanting to infiltrate an industry that she thought was bad and try to make some sort of political statement by screaming out on some live broadcast about "the industry"...

Maybe i'm watching too much t.v....


But I think if Heather can hold it together despite her Asperger's situation, she could go a long way... also Chantal- i think she could win. They seemed to deliberately pick a bad photo of her last night... there had to be something in one of the other shots. weird.
although i like this week's shot of her.
They sure did hit the nail on the head with their assessment of ebony, though... don't you think?

but seriously- if you're a girl, you should go to the women's retreat on the 20th. click here for details... it's going to be FUN, we've got a rockin girl's band! we're called "10"(maybe...). (Bea & I decided that we're all going to wear our hair in cornrows...) jk

WHOLE FOODS AT THE DISTRICT.

Oh My Gosh.

GO THERE. Today.

It's amazing.

I'm SO Excited!!!!!

Here's your NEW place for booking all of your flights, hotel rooms, rental cars, etc.!!! And it's comparable or LESS than all of the others AND it uses all of the same up-to-the-second databases to get you the best flights.

It is a new business of ours:
Your Vacation To Go.com

We are SO excited!!!
Please check it out. And keep in mind- the rates quoted for flights INCLUDE the fees and taxes in the upfront quote, unlike Expedia and Travelocity who add them at the end.
I KNOW you'll LOVE it!! Thanks for giving it a try...

It's (almost) ALL ABOUT MATT

So this week was Matt's 12th Birthday... Hooray!!
Matt is seriously one of the kindest, most gently-hearted boys I know.
He's hilariously funny and quick, SO selfless and generous.
I love him more than.... well, whatever you can imagine that's unmeasurable.

Above he is heading off to his first day of Junior High...


Above: he's being silly like a girl, excited about going to the Game Store at The District to get a new video game


Here's Matt & Daisy... at 60 mph... jk

This is the "almost" is was talking about earlier... my girl Paris and I got to have the COOLEST day ever last Friday -
Downtown Disney
Shopping
Getting our makeup done at Sephora
Having a yummy lunch at the Italian place
Then going to the movies!!!!

She rocks, big time.
I took this pic with my phone... I could NOT see what I was shooting - we kept trying and trying to get a decent shot... oh well!

oh my....

2,247,000How Many Germs Live On Your Keyboard?

Mingle² -

The Lews

i LOVE these guys... they are SO cool, so nice. They're neighbors that we were SO blessed to meet. Cole & their son are great friends; they're just so neat. I loved taking these shots of them. I hope you like them, too. Click on each shot to see it in the best way.

Chomp & Our End of the Summer Party

The end of the night... everyone was pretty goofy by this time, some had gone home... we didn't want anyone to go; it would mean that summer WAS over and there was no turning back. Can't wait to have another one at the end of the next summer!!!

In the jacuzzi... I love the feet sticking up - do you see them? Adorable...

I LOVE this shot of Kelcey. There were lots of people in the water behind her but they were too distracting so I took them out. I LOVE digital photography.

He caught this one!

It's an Onion Volcano (that's leaking on the bottom!) Very cool though.


We had a great End-of-the-Summer Party with a gang of kids at our house. It was super fun!

I'm posting some pics here - but the night before school started we celebrated by going to this cool restaurant in Fullerton called "CHOMP". It was really fun. :o) The chef kept trying to throw rice at everyone so that they could catch it in their mouths... he got more rice on our clothes than anywhere else, but that's ok!

the dog days of summer...

Mia, our friend and neighbor, at Disneyland with us yesterday

Above: Matt at his new locker!!

Crave The Wave (above) {Chris Gniffke hanging out with the kids}

Above: Kelcey, Jon, Matt & Cole at the Dog Beach



Jon & Cole hangin with the Dinosaurs in Palm Springs

Jon at Soak City, Palm Springs

Daisy, after her "dip" in the ocean... she hates going in the water at the beach. Needless to say, Cole put her in.




The boys, body surfing...

Lately: Having a good time, trying to get the boys ready for school...
we're having a Big Back-To-School Party tomorrow... I'll post later about that. 26 kids... eek.