Day Two of Vacation

Elleanna likes to layer when it's hot and wear shorts when it's cold. So can you guess what the weather was like?

Answer: 80 degrees.

Day Two of Vacation

Where is the traffic, ethnic groups, two story houses, and wires filling the sky?! I have only seen two police cars and lots of bikers with no helmets. Even the stores are closed on Sunday! What a slower pace in Idaho. No one even goes the speed limit here. Ahhh, but thank God for Starbucks. Starbucks and Walmarts are everywhere!

Day One of Vacation

After 8 hours of driving, we have arrived in Twin Falls, ID. Can you tell the love my children are feeling? Behind us is a deep canyon and there are no fences and we are not standing too close!
So my first night of sleeping in the new tent. As I sleep, I am awoken by an oder. "Mommy, I have to go the bathroom." No time for shoes. I pick up Elleanna and we trek to the bathroom. I can hear Levi screaming in the tent. I am sure our camping neighbors are cursing at us or planning to throw stones at us! I return and Levi is still screaming. I nurse Levi to sleep and now he has taken over my side of the air mattress. I move to the foot of the girls half deflated air mattress. As I toss and turn and feel the cold seep into my bones, I promise tomorrow that we will buy the girl's a new mattress. This is going to be a long camping trip with memories!

The Road to Hana

Can you believe I took this with my little Canon digital? Point and shoot! I took this picture after a long drive around Maui on the famous 'Road to Hana'. This is the second time we have done this road trip. I have vowed not to do it again if we ever go back to Maui! I feel do for another trip to the islands.
Maybe Kona...Take me away!

Play doh fun!

Samantha and Elleanna are having fun together making cookies, pizza, fruit and flowers. I love to see them be creative and get along! That is a great combination!!

Who doesn't have fond memories of playing with play doh and creating such real looking sculptures of food only to discover they taste like salt?!

How many fun colors play doh comes in. I pay tribute to Noah and Joseph McVicker for creating play doh 52 years ago! Thank God the color is no longer off white! That would have been boring! And I am glad that it is used for more than just removing wallpaper. And I am glad that it can entertain my kids for HOURS!!

The Police Concert

14 years of marriage and we are at The Police concert. Who would have thought?! Everyone is so mellow. It must be because we are all in our 30's and 40's. And Sting is not looking that young himself! I am not sure if it was the beard which I could have done without. But he and his two band members put on a great show cutting loose and just jamming. This is the last Police tour. Sting's quote: "It's the end of an era."

The first time I heard The Police was at Cassandra's slumber party. I was in sixth grade(25 years ago). We sang our hearts out: There's a little black spot on the sun today...

I enjoyed the concert, but it made me realize how blessed I am every week. I worship God in an incredible church, The Rock, with talented musicians. Worshipping God is fulfilling. Sting opened his concert with a song about a hole in his life. A shadow in his heart... I thought, "Wow, this is the opposite of what I sing and feel. My heart is so filled with the Love of God." It makes me realize how blessed my life is.

Speaking of blessed. I am so blessed to have such a beautiful and great sister. Can you see the resemblance? Our kids have confused us. Especially when we have our glasses on sipping our coffee. We have both experienced people talking to us only to realize they have the wrong sister. Oh, it's fun! I noticed at the concert we even dance the same. Now how funny is that...

My Girls

Need I write anything? This picture tells all! Samantha is so sweet and Elleanna...well she is Elleanna. A recent story just for Elle. The girls and cousins were having a puppet show. Aunt Carrie was laughing and Elleanna threatened to throw pancakes in her eyes if she kept laughing. Of course Aunt Carrie egged her on and asked if whip cream came with that.

My Babies

My precious babies...where does the time go? Samantha will be in 2nd grade this year. She reasons and articulates so well. She even wrote her first song recently. Is it true that Levi is a one year old?! He is busy running all over the place. And yes, he is a momma's boy, but isn't every little boy?

Kenny's 38th Birthday....

I love this picture of my family. It is Kenny's 38th birthday at Six Flags doing what he loves: riding rides with his kids. This picture just captures my family in each of their unique and beautiful personalities.

Mickey Robinson's account of heaven

Years ago, I went to a conference and heard Mickey's testimony and had the opportunity to receive prayer from him. This was one of the first accounts I had heard of people experiencing death and entering heaven and experiencing the love of Jesus. I never get tired of hearing Mickey's testimony. How can one not believe that Jesus is not real? Or at least how can one not desire to receive this love that is so freely given despite ones inadequacies?

"He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." John 7:38

Ian McCormick's account of heaven

One night while diving for lobster on the small Island of Mauritius I was stung on my forearm by 5 Box-Jellyfish, which the local Creole fishermen called "invisables" A sting from a Box-Jellyfish often proves to be fatal - as exemplified in Australia where 70 people are known to have died from their stings. Many books quote this particular type of Jellyfish to be among the most venomous creatures in the world.

By the time an ambulance arrived my body was totally paralyzed and necrosis had begun to set into my bone marrow. On route to the hospital I began to see my life flash before me. At this point of my life I was an atheist - but I knew I was nearly dead and I didn't know if there was life after death or whether there was just nothing. As I lay there dying, I saw my mother in a vision praying for me, encouraging me to cry out to God from my heart and He would hear me and forgive me (my mother was the only Christian in our family.) I didn't know what to pray and cried out that if God was real, could He help me to pray. Immediately God showed me the Lord’s Prayer, and for the first time in my life I prayed from my heart and gave my life to the Lord.

The ambulance stopped and they placed me in a wheel chair and raced me into the hospital. The nurse took my blood pressure twice but could not find a pulse as my veins had collapsed. The doctors tried to save my life by injecting anti-toxins and dextrose into my body, but seemingly to no avail. Within a few minutes I seemed to slip away (apparently life ceased from my body for a period of approx. 15 minutes).

Without Love I am a Noisy Gong....

I am so intrigued with heaven and people's life and death experiences. Over and over again, people shared how they experienced Christ love.

I am reading Approaching the Heart of Prophecy by Graham Cooke. The first chapter is all about love. If I never did anything else but learn to receive God's love and give it out then this was one of the most life impacting books for me. I am praying that somehow over the next 20 years while my children live with me that I impart that to them. I am not sure that anything else matters as much. It is so simple, but so complex. Ingrid Betancourt was captured by Colombian guerrillas for seven years. Incredible woman - she is living God's love. She did not want to take bitterness from the jungle, but instead her response is to forget and forgive. "God was with me from the first day to the end of this horrible experience."


"Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you....if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them....but love your enemies and do good....for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." Luke 6: 28, 32, 35-36

Levi "Jonesy" Joseph

Levi, my sweet litte redhead! He has such an easy disposition. His smile just lights up the heart receiving his love. Thank you Lord for such a blessing. I love his blue eyes with this blue shirt. He can walk and say, "Bye-bye" and "Mommy" and "Daddy". Do I want to have more children? I don't know. I am feeling very full and very busy. Maybe the next time I get the "baby urge", I will just get a dog. Just kidding Kenny. I will stick to our betta fish. They are very loving and cuddly! They just need a little food and their tank cleaned once in awhile.

Evelina

Alicia is going to love this picture of Evelina. She is so adorable with lots of personality. She is on her phone talking to her girlfriends Elleanna and Samantha.

Tie-dye family

Such happy colors!