Columbia Zoo

We went to Columbia the day before Skippy's appointment to visit the college, so that we could take all the kids to the zoo. I have to say the Columbia zoo is very nice. Here are a few of the pictures.

Skippy and Mini-Me on the Carousel.

Kid-O feeding the birds. By the way, I am scared to death of birds. I have this irrational fear they are going to pluck my eyes out. I know silly, but go figure, me silly.

The sleeping Grizzly.

The kids rugrats. If they look wet, it's because they are. We got rained on at the zoo. We were very wet by the end of the day. That is the great thing about the zoo though, if it rains, they are still open and the animals are still there.

The pretty elephant. Look at those ears.

Karios on the Inside

One of the several reasons we were on a week long trip around North and South Carolina was for my cousin Mark. I have not seen my cousin in 7 years. Mark is 2 years younger than me, I believe and has daughter two weeks younger than Kid-O.

Anyway, seven years ago, he made a horrible mistake. He helped a guy rob someone, put them in the car and relocated him to another location (ie. kidnapping). Of course this is the very short version of the story.

Within the first year in Kershaw, maxi mun level prison in South Carolina. My cousin was blessed with the opportunity to go through Kairos on the Inside, which is the Walk to Emmaus for prisoners. What a blessing that was in his life. I pray that God using his testimony over, and over again. Anyway, during that time in prison, he says, "God has really blessed me. Not a hair on my head was ever hurt. I was shown favor by the guards and prisoners alike." He has stayed in God's word for all these years, daily. I pray that God leads him to continue down that path and that God's keeps temptation from him. Mark told me, "I can only do this with God's strength." Praise God that he knows that now. I just ask that you all pray for him. This is going to be a difficult time in his life. Right now he is on 90 house arrest. He can not step out of the door of the house.

May God bless Tim and his wife, who have listen to God's call on their lives. Tim was Mark's table leader 6 years ago on Kairos and his wife worked the kitchen. Thank you and all glory be to God. Tim has continued to stay in touch with Mark over the years. The hubby and I believed as Christians we are to support those who need the support, whether they are family or not. I asked for extra special prayers for my cousin.

Thanksgiving

We are in Mississippi with the in-laws and some other family came up from Louisiana. This is Little Man breaking a geo stone. When you bust these rocks open they have crystals of all kinds on the inside. Maybe later, I will get around to posting some pictures of the stones. Kid-O was trying to break some of the geo rocks as well. Watching her with a hammer is a little comical.
Grandpa and his dog relaxing on the dam while the grandkids fish.
Little man is doing a pretty good job of figuring out how to cast out a reel.
Kid-O fishing. No fish this time and it is supposed to rain all day today, so I don't think we will be fishing today either.I hope everyone has had a blessed thanksgiving.

My adopted children

I told my readers awhile back that I would post a picture of my new children. Well, me and my absent-mindedness kept forgetting to take a picture of them together. God just so happened to work that out this week at VBS. All of the kids were sitting together and I had my camera in hand, so there you go the picture was taken. So from left to right you have, BB and the Singer, Skippy and Mac Daddy.
Mac Daddy likes analogies so I have one from him. Some of you may understand this but most may not, if you do take it to heart. So here goes: there was a little boy one day walking along the beach. He was walking and picking up starfish and throwing them back into the ocean. There was a man watching him down the way. As he got closer to that man, the man said there are thousands of starfish washed up, you will never be able to save them all. The little boy responded saying, "I know, but I made a difference to that ONE." Mac Daddy I don't know if that helps, but it is something to consider. I love you guys.

Lake Winny

I am headed to Lake Winny today for the end of year Brownie party. I will update the post this evening with some pictures from the day. Enjoy your day, pray for me and all those girls.

Well we made it to Lake Winny and back yesterday. This first picture is where Kid-O received her patches for all the "try-its", cookie selling, and trips they took this semester. She got several patches: a museum patch, April showers, world thinking day, cookies to Iraq, Holiday fun, theater (Annie), amusement park, and camping are a few.

This is a picture of Kid-O and her friend going down the big slide. I have to say, I put my camera up after a few rides thinking I had enough pictures. I regret that though, because there were bigger kid rides farther into the park that would have been good pictures. I knew I would have to ride though. I don't know what this ride is called, I was quite surprised that Kid-O got on it. I will never believe her again when she says she is scared though. She rode everything except for two rides, and she was not tall enough for those. I must say though, Lake Winny is an excellent amusement park for children 4 through about 10 or so. The rides are very age appropriate, still fun and exciting, but not huge like Six Flags and the cost was not terrible either ($16 for kids, $21 for adults - unlimited rides).

Wild and Crazy

I have come to the conclusion that I do not live with three little people, but that I live with a pack of wild hyenas. As soon as Daddy gets home, they attack, and wrestle he down until he has no energy left to fight them off any longer.


All kidding aside, it is an amazing blessing to have children that love their father as much as mine do, and to have a father willing to take the time to play with his children. What a Godly man; I am so blessed.

Friends

So, I heard from an old (not age) friend yesterday. You know those friends that when you move away they become email friends then that beings to taper off. Well, I forgot that I had sent her my blog address; she has been reading it. Which by the way, I love because you might not get to talk to those friends much anymore, but they are still your friends, you still love them, and they are still learning about you and your life.

Which the Hubby mention something to me after his Walk to Emmaus, but before mine, if I remember correctly. He said, if you are talking to someone and you don't learn something about that person, something meaningful, not just about their silly hair dilemma, then you have basically wasted your time and theirs. I got that after my Walk. Which I think is part of why I enjoy doing this just about everyday, because people are learning about me and my family, the real me and my family.

Thank you to all who read, and I would enjoy to hear back for you.

More pictures of the kids to come later today. I have got to get ready to get my hair cut. We will see.

Just some random thoughts...

First, I am obsessing about this whole hair thing. I want something different, but don't know what.

Secondly, children are fun to watch when they don't realize you are watching them. For example, Kid-O and Little Man were outside playing. Kid-O sends Little Man to the barn to get some pieces of wood. He comes back with one, no that is not right she tells him, so he takes it back and brings another. She tells him that one is good, to get three or four more like it. So Little Man proceeds to getting the wood for Kid-O. When he gets the last piece, half way back to the play set, Kid-O tells him he forgot to close the barn. So he lugs the wood back to the barn closes it, then goes back to the play set with the last piece of wood. So is he kind and wants to be accepted or just plain gullible?

Third, the pastor yesterday was preaching on Ruth and Naomi. Ruth tells Naomi, when Naomi tells her to go home, that she will not leave her except by death and if she does, may God deal with her severely. The pastor said many people have used that as part of their wedding vows; which it is highly appropriate. I just hope and pray that people who have used that truly understand what they have said and understand they have made a covenant with God regarding the person they are marrying. God does not break his covenants with us, the rainbow is a prime example. Have you seen a rainbow lately?

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter in our house. We went to church, then came home had lunch and then against what I wanted to do, we went to Sears to get my tired fixed on my van. When coming home from church, in the church parking lot, I ran over a corner chip of ceramic tile (God is building an addition to the church building). Which of course punctured my tire. After fixing the tire, we came home and relaxed the rest of the day.

Kid-O got an i-Sing kareoke/mp3 player/recorder from the Easter bunny. As you can tell, she was excited.

Little Man got Iron Arry and Bert from the Easter bunny. More Thomas trains for anyone who does not know who they are. He loves his Thomas. He gets to ride Thomas in a few weeks.

This of course is the whole family. One of those silly things that Mommy makes them do every year. Go outside in the cold and take pictures by the bamboo. I love it they strongly dislike it. They will appreciate it one day, I think.

Godly Men

While we were in the cabin, the dishwasher was not working. So after cooking dinner one night the men got up, cleared the table, washed, dried, and put the dishes away. I just thought it worth noting that Godly men will do just about anything with a smile on their faces for the women they love. Thanks Hubbies.

Vacation...

So as I told you last week, we headed off for vacation. We had a ball, with the kids and the married couple that went with us from church. The Hubby and I told them it was good to get to know another couple, because since we left college we really have not had people to just hang out with. I have included many pictures from some of the things we did in Gatlinburg. I hope you enjoy them.

Kid-O thought that she wanted to try her hand at climbing the rock wall. She did not get far off the ground, but I have to give her credit for trying something she would normally not do.

Little Man ready to ride race cars with me as his driver. Just a side note. Little Man threw up coming down the crazy mountain road. We made a pit stop at the famous Wally-World to get him new clothes; we thought it cheaper then going back up the mountain. We assumed it was motion sickness especially since he threw up again going back up the mountain, and no other time throughout the day. Well come to find out, he had a stomach bug, because after the vacation was over, three days later, me, Hubby, and the wife and son of the couple from our church all had the same stomach bug. So that being said, look closely at the face of Little Man on the race cars.

Kid-O ready to go.

Little Man probably trying to hold on to his stomach while riding with the husband of the couple from our church.

Kid-O enjoying herself and probably trying to get daddy to go faster. That is what she does to me.

This picture has the wife of the couple,with Kid-O in the lead, the husband with their son in second and me with Little Man in third. Just thought Hubby got a good picture with all of us together.

Spring Break 2008

The family, minus Mini-Me, is leaving for vacation today. We have rented a cabin in Gatlinburg. We are very excited. Some friends from church are going to go with us. So of course Little Man is excited, because they have a son that Little Man just loves to play with. I am not sure if we will have internet connection in the cabin. I hope so, because I am sure I will have plenty to talk about this week. God Bless, and keep us in your prayers as we travel.

The Art of Coloring Eggs

Kid-O and Little Man coloring their eggs So does anyone know why we color eggs for Easter. I have no clue, but I do know that watching children color eggs is fun, although nerve racking. I find it interesting how boys gravitate of boy colors and girls gravitate to girl colors without being told or asked.

Mini-Me trying to get the eggs

Ah. Bright Colors. Must get them now.

Kid-O intently decorating

I enjoy watching the intensity of kids trying to make the eggs turn out exactly like they want them too.

Little Man proud of his work of art

Ah. The Pride of Success

Two of Little Man's Eggs I am not exactly sure what they are supposed to be, I just know that he was very proud of his work, and very upset that he broke one of his eggs.

Two of Kid-O's Eggs
Her man started to run before he dried. We are still learning the fine art of when enough is enough. He look pretty good when immediately finished.

Group Effort

As you can tell, the orange man belongs to Little Man and the pink egg, with the M and all the flowers belongs to Kid-O. The others are mine. By the way, trying to blow the yolk and whites out of the eggs, is not easy at all.

What a View...

The hubby is in Salt Lake City this week, which I don't like because I miss him very much. I had the blessed opportunity to go to Salt Lake with him last summer. There of course was no snow on the mountain then. Salt Lake City is really not a big as you might think it is. However, there are some wonderful places to eat.

Speaking of which, those guys out there are going to Rodizo's Grill tonight. It is a Brazilian restaurant, where everything is served from the grill on large skewers (pineapple, chicken, steak, livers, tomatoes, mushrooms, and some others that I am forgetting). I got into an eating contest with one of those unruly engineers last summer. He just thought he could out eat me. I think my hubby forewarned him not to try, but he did and lost. If you ever have the opportunity to eat there do it, the cost is expensive ($25.00), but well worth it.


We also got to go to Park City the last day; site of the 2002 Winter Olympics. It was great. I am not a daredevil, just an eater, but I went down a zip line that if I remember correctly was 1500ft long with a 500ft drop. (Hubby will correct me if I am wrong).


We also got to go down the bobsled track. In the summer, the bobsleds have rubber wheels on them to go down the track. We went 70.5mph and pulled 4G (I think). What a ride. Yet again expensive, but if you have the opportunity go for it. You will never forget it and you will always have something to talk about. You don't get to drive the bobsled, so you have a driver and we had a passenger with us also.

I hope I get to go TDY with the Hubby again sometime.