Please Don't Follow ME

I probably should just keep my mouth shut. But, hey, this is my blog so here goes...

We have these sweat shirts at church that I just don't get. The front has the church's name and logo, and that's great. The back says "Lost? Follow Me". Huh?

Let me tell you about myself. I am a dirty, rotten sinner. I have a temper sometimes (ask my kids.....wait, don't ask), I get lazy, I can spend too much time on the computer when I have other stuff I should be doing, I can be selfish, I can be judgemental at times, I struggle to hear God's clear calling sometimes, I need to spend more time in the Word, and the list goes on and on. The only good thing that I have going, the only good in me, is JESUS. If you see any good in me, and sometimes I know you have to look hard, it is Jesus.

So please, don't follow me. I guess the point is the reader of the shirt is supposed to follow the "me" wearing the shirt to my church? I'm not really sure? I wish the shirts said "Follow Jesus", or if it has to have the words "Follow me," how about "Follow me to the cross", or even "Follow me to the feet of Jesus".

Jesus, the God of the universe, Almighty God, came down in the form of a humble man and took on all my sins (and yours too) on the cross and three days later rose again so I could be forgiven and live with him forever. It is His free gift.

So please, Follow Jesus!

Once Upon a Time......

"There was a sweet little girl named Rebecca. She loved her family very much, but there was someone she loved even more than them and his name was Jesus. She loved Him so much that she gave her life to Him and called Him her Savior. But He loved her first so much that He died for her, and forgave her for all her sins... past, present and future. Now that is some kind of love. He did this so that they would always be together. In return she said you are my Lord and I will follow you all the days of my life. Then she got baptized to show the world about that commitment she made to love and honor Him. And she lived happily ever after... for ever and ever Amen.
THE END"

(The above was written in an email Rebecca received from her beloved Aunty Lynn).

Today Rebecca showed the whole world (or at least our whole church) that she is a follower of Jesus Christ. It was a sweet baptism to start off a sweet time of worship. She was so cute. Her feet went up in the air as she went down, and she told me later that was embarrassing, but to the rest of the church it was just cute. Rebecca is a very loving little girl (who can also have a temper, let me tell ya, but she couldn't have gotten that from me............;-), and hugs everyone. There are people in our church who have to get a Rebecca-hug fix every Sunday. And she is happy to oblige. God was so good when he gave us Rebecca. He was so good when he gave us each one of our kids. The pastor asked tonight do you have blessings that God has given you, and I immediately thought of the blessings of our children, and the blessing of my parents who came up today to be at the baptism. I think we were able to bless them today too. I know they loved the song Cara and I sang, and my mom said it made her happy and proud to see Danny, Nick, and Ralph taking the offering and serving in church. I am just so thankful that my mom is out of the wheelchair for short walks and is starting to heal. It's been a long road for her, and sometimes I questioned why it had to happen, but God knows and it's not my place to question.

Anyway, after church, we took a nice picnic lunch to the park. And we FROZE. Yesterday was just so nice and I guess we were expecting today to be just as warm, so none of us (except Samantha) brought a jacket. So after we couldn't take it anymore, we just had to get out of the cold and wind. Mom can't get up our stairs yet, so we decided the next best thing would be to go to McDonalds and have hot fudge sundaes! So we took our after-baptism party to McDonalds and had some more sweet fellowship with Grandma and Grandpa before they headed for home and we headed home to get ready for the evening worship service.

~

In other news, Cara is still trying to get over a terrible sinus/bronchial infection. She is also giving me the puppy-dog eyes about replacing her beloved cat, Buddy, who disappeared a while back. I don't want another pet to feed, I'm trying to cut expenses, but she just has those sad eyes.......

NO!

(at least til she gives me those eyes again......)

sigh.....

No for now, but I'll probably cave.......maybe.......

No, I'm gonna stand strong! I think....

Just when it seemed Spring was here......

we woke up to this:

And here is the newest member of the family.......wait.......that's not right, I'm not calling a lizard a part of MY family......YUK!.........the only thing worse would be a snake, but I draw the line at snakes.....the newest poor creature to be caught and put in a cage and fed crickets:

Rebecca found him, they all caught him, Nick claims him. Whatever, so long as he (or she?) stays in the cage. :-)

Nick's Toe

On Monday, I took Nick in to get his ingrown toenail fixed. So we went into the doctor's office and were waiting for him when Nick looked down and chuckled. On the floor, right next to the doctor's chair, was a dremel tool, complete with a grinding attachment, all plugged in and ready to go. We were both thinking, he's not using that, is he? It reminded us of the Jack-in-the-Box commercial where the doctor used a glue gun on Jack's head, and we just thought it was funny. I told Nick, "If he comes in here and picks up the dremel, we are OUT of here!" But he didn't, so it was all ok. He cut the nail on both sides, and put something there that is supposed to make it never grow back. So that's that. I did take a picture of Nick's toe all bandaged up, but the boys (Nick and Danny) told me that was just too gross to post. ("Mom, your weird!").

And I decided they were right.

While the doctor was fixing Nick's toe, he started asking me questions about homeschooling. I was all relaxed and answering his questions, until he mentioned he was on the school board. Then I got all intimidated, but it was fine. He was really nice. He even offered me to bring Cara in for a field trip to just observe stuff. Cool, huh?

Happy Birthday Cara!!!

Yesterday after church, we headed down to my parents for a family birthday party for Cara. Isn't she pretty?Here she is with her best buddy

She shared her birthday party with her Grandpa (my awesome Daddy!)


What a wonderful young lady she has grown up to be. I not only love her, but I like her too.

Too busy to blog!

On Tuesday Ralph ended up taking the day off so he could go to the doctor to get some antibiotics for ear/bronchial infections. Then after that was all taken care of, we went down to get Cara. I'm not sure who was happier to bring Cara home, Cara or Jackson or me. But anyway, she is home and we are glad she is back.

Yesterday was Cara's birthday. Not too much to say about it yet since we are celebrating with family on Sunday. One event that happened yesterday is that Cara and Samantha went for a bike ride, and Samantha had a big wipe-out. No broken bones, but just a sore girl with some bad road rash. I will show you the seat of her shorts and then you can figure out where the road rash is......poor girl!

I guess I've just been too busy and too tired to blog. So that's about all for now. God bless!

Dear Cara

I miss you.

Love,

Mom

:-(

We're still alive, just busy!

Life has been so busy in the Houseful of Blessings. I can't even remember all the stuff we've done, but I thought I would just list a few..

Last Saturday, the kids (Danny, Cara, Nick, Samantha, & Joey) all had their belt tests for karate. They had to perform their katas, spar, and know some other stuff. There were about 25 people who tested, so it was a busy day.

Wednesday, Ralph's mom got out of rehab, and she agreed that it would be a good idea for someone to stay with her for a few days, just til she gets back on her feet a bit more. Cara sweetly volunteered to take her school work down and be with Omi. So I was supposed to take her down to Citrus Heights, but of course, life is never that easy, and it was snowing like crazy when Ralph left for work, so he had to take the suburban. So, he got off work early (no work anyway) and came home and we all went down for a short visit and to deliver Cara (yes, that was two trips to Sacto in one day for my husband). Gerda is looking a little better every day, and as independent as she is, I'm sure she won't want Cara for long. Which is just as well, cause I already miss my girl!

Today, the kids and I went down to Elk Grove to visit my parents. It has just been way too long since we have seen them, maybe not since Christmas?, and so we just needed to do that. Sis-in-love, Lynn, came over too, and the kids roped her into some rousing games of Uno and Catch Phrase. Mom and Dad treated us to a delicious lunch of Kentucky Fried Chicken and homemade chocolate cupcakes, and it was just a nice visit.

Then, we had to come home, get ready, and head to karate. Tonight was the belt promotion night (which Cara missed, but she'll get hers next week), and we did take some pictures. Not good pictures, but I guess I'll post a few anyway:

Here is Joey getting his yellow belt

Samantha after she got her yellow belt on (not that you can see her face through all that hair....grrr....)
Nick getting his purple belt

Danny putting his purple belt on

The class with their new belts
I'm tired! Goin' to bed!