Proud...

This is a post to show off my kids and how proud we are of them.

Sarah is in her last year of Junior Bible Quiz (JBQ) and had her first match of the season on Saturday. She finished 4th in the Achiever Level. The Achiever Level is learning half of the book for the point category you are in. Sarah does 20 and 30 point questions. The questions are all about the bible, as well as having to quote scripture. We are proud of all the time she is taking to hide God's word in her heart.

Fellow JBQ girlfriends - Gabriella, Ayerim, Emma, Sarah and Cayla

Sarah has also gotten 6th grade off to a great start. In September she was named student of the month for her Physical Education class and for October she was named student of the month for Math. Her grades are all A's with one B.

For science class they performed a lab to make crystals. She said they used really hot water and salt and let it set for a couple of days. I thought it was pretty cool.

Youth group is also a huge highlight for Sarah. She loves going to Wednesday night service and being a part of all the Junior High activities. At the beginning of October she went on youth retreat for two nights and then to youth convention just a couple of weekends ago. She is making new friends as well.

Brayden just had his 5 year check-up. With Sandy his appointment got moved back a couple of weeks. He is doing great. He weighs 46 lbs and is 45 1/2" tall, still in the 75%-90% for his age. Tall and lean.

He had to draw a picture of his family for the doctor, which he went hard to work on.

This was the completed picture. I love it.

That's me on the far left with the all the hair. Brayden and Daddy are to the right, with no hair. I guess like Father like son. Sarah is in the bottom right corner.

Brayden continues to be creative with his Legos, as well as coming up with all sorts of creative games. This morning I played "Thing Ninja", which included the board game from Clue and pretending to slice through game weapons. Always interesting, never quite sure how to play and somehow I never seem to win. That's okay I love the fact that he is being creative and I got to be a part of it.

We think our kids are pretty cool in so many ways. Yes, we do have challenging days, this parenting thing is not a piece of cake, but we are so thankful that God has chosen us to be their Dad and Mom to walk through this life with.

Surprise...

The Bonded girls surprised me on Tuesday night at Starbucks. I was completely clueless as I only thought I was seeing a couple of them when over half of the group showed up.

Susie, Melissa, Michele, me, Angela, Thelma and Julissa

Bonded is a girls group I felt lead to start 8 years ago. Our Bonded group is about encouraging, challenging and supporting each other in our day to day lives and our walk with the Lord. Over the 8 years we have stayed true to that vision and I believe I can speak on behalf of the girls of the group that it has made a huge impact in each of our lives. To know you have a group of women you can call day or night for support makes all the difference. We have faced a lot of things good and bad, had highs and lows, but through it all we have remained strong because of one another and our foundation in God.

However, after 8 years I felt the Lord leading me to step away from the group as the leader. I can't explain why, just a peace knowing that he has something else in store for me and I believe for the girls. So, with sadness I shared with them in September that I would no longer be leading them. They are an amazing group of women, who I have loved sharing life with. As our group name says we have truly formed a bond with each other and whether we meet once a month formally or just see each other now and then our bond and history will not change.

Tuesday night was a thank you to me for leading the group. I was so blessed, surprised and blown away by their generosity to me. They gave me a box filled with hand written letters from each of the members. I am still working through the letters. Their words are precious gifts to me and I don't want to rush through them. They also gave me money towards my DSLR camera that I was wanting for Christmas. Wow! I think this blew me away the most and was in shock for the next day. With the money I have saved and the money they gave me I am able to purchase the camera now and not wait for Christmas. This camera will be even more special knowing it is from my Bonded girls. I can't wait to start capturing memories with it.

My gift of cards.

It has been such a privilege and honor to lead this group of women. I never took the responsibility lightly, but was excited to see how the Lord was working in each of their lives both small and big. I thank God for each of them as they have in turn played a role in my life in adding to the woman I am today. I am still in awe and keep asking myself "Who am I?" to be so blessed by these ladies.

Thank you Lord for the Bonded girls they have truly been gifts in my life from you.

B-Bear Time...

As I mentioned in my last post Jason and Sarah were out of town Friday night at youth convention, which by the way was great! It was Sarah's first one and she had a blast. Over 1400 students attended and they were challenged with the question of "Who are you following?"

At home, Brayden and I got some quality time together. I love spending time with my little guy. Here is what we did...

Last Sunday Jason and Brayden came home with a couple of empty 2-liters requesting that a jet pack be made for our little bear. I guess he heard his friend Levi and his sisters talking about it and so he had to have one. Monday morning he was anxious to figure out a way to attach the 2-liters to his back, but wasn't come up with any good ideas. I figured I would check online as some mom had to have had this request come up some time. Sure enough I found a website on DIY jet packs. After a trip to Michael's, spray paint, cutting and hot glue, here is his jet pack. We put it all together on Saturday morning.

Someone asked if he was wearing fireproof underwear. Don't you know Superheroes don't have to wear fireproof underwear they are invincible.

We got the jet pack ready just in time to jet off to the mall for a few things for me and then a stop at the Lego store. Brayden had a Lego gift card burning a hole in his pocket and being his mother's child we purchased a Lego Organizer, sounds amazing doesn't it? As soon as we got home we had to start organizing all the pieces. He was so excited. Mommy did most of the organizing and when Daddy and Sarah got home they jumped in on the fun.

A whole lot of Legos, ready for Brayden to build to his hearts content.

How could I forget...

Jason and Sarah are at youth convention,  so it is me and the B-bear.

After putting Brayden to bed I sat on the couch with my computer to do a couple of things and turned the TV on in the background for the noise. I saw "Message In A Bottle" was on, which I have seen at least twice, and figured I would have it on since I wouldn't be completely focused on it. It is a Nicholas Sparks movie, never something Jason would watch. It's a chick flick to the core.

My plan was to go to bed around 10-10:30 until I forgot how the movie ends. How could I forget? Like I said I have seen it twice, maybe even three times. I should have fought the urge to finish watching it, but with Jason not being home I always hate climbing into bed by myself, so I figured if I watched a little more it would come to me and then I could sleep in peace.

Warning: If you haven't seen the movie, but my blog has peaked your interest to, you should probably stop reading this so you don't know what happens.

It all came flooding back to me in the last 30 minutes of the movie when Garrett (Kevin Costner) goes out to sea to send his late wife his last love letter to her so he can then go sail to Theresa (Robin Wright) who has taught him how to love again. But wait...Garrett hits a storm, tries to save a family in need and dies trying to help them. I hate it when the hero dies. I hate it so much that I had to mute this part and went about my computer stuff during the whole storm and death scene. I couldn't take it.

Then, as only Nicholas Sparks can do to a story, Garrett's father finds the letter (I tuned back in at this point) that he was going to throw out to sea which declared his love for Theresa but hadn't had a chance to tell her. The tears came flooding when she reads the letter. Yes, Theresa/Robin I feel your pain. Sniff, Sniff. Yes, of course I cried and I must say not just a few tears. I would have been embarrassed had anyone been sitting next to me. They probably would have thought "What in the world is wrong with you?" LOL! Should I be embarrassed now that I am sharing it with you all? Ha! Ha! If you know me, I cry at almost anything sappy. It was definitely a good cry.

So here I am at 12 a.m. when I should have just gone to bed at 10 p.m. asking myself "Was watching that movie really worth it? How could I forget an ending like that?" To funny. Next time I see "Message In A Bottle" on TV I HOPE I remember the ending and pass it by.

Thanks for letting me share my forgetfulness with you.

What do these have in common?

What do Legos, cell phones and snow have in common? Uh, nothing except that they all have to do with our beautiful kids and activities from this week.

Brayden has been enjoying playing with his Legos every morning. He is getting so creative and coming up with different "Lego" games. First there was his own Creationary, then he came up with Lego Uno and he also came up with Lego Basketball. The rules seem to change each time you play and somehow he always wins. : )

Sarah got her first cell phone this week. She has been anxiously awaiting the day and it finally arrived.

She can't believe it!! Hiding her tears of joy.

Daddy helping her get it set up.

A big day for our girl.

To try and top Sandy we had a mini nor'easter yesterday, which left us some snow. Brayden was so excited to go outside and play. He was hoping to make a snowman, but not quite enough for that. He was able to make a snow angel.

I personally am looking forward it being 60 again on Sunday. I am not ready for the cold weather.

Trunk or Treat...

Our church was scheduled to host our first Trunk or Treat event at two of our campuses on Halloween, however, with Sandy we had to postpone until both our towns decided to hold Halloween which was this Monday.

We were so happy to be able to still hold the event in each of our communities and had an amazing turn out for both. It was awesome to have so many people from our community come out. It was from 5-8 p.m. and a bit chilly, but we all took turns going inside and warming up. We also had two fire pits to keep us warm. Those who came were able to go inside and have a cup of hot chocolate, sit and watch a movie if they wanted and check out our campus.

Our trunk was decorated with a Spiderman theme, used Brayden's birthday decorations which was perfect. I didn't plan it this way, but just happened to take a picture of our car when a little boy dressed as Spiderman stopped by.

We look forward to another event where we can reach out to our community.

Back home...

After church yesterday morning, which was I must say was fantastic for running on generators, I headed back home.

Home Sweet Home

Jason and the kids went to John & Susie's to pack up all our stuff and get the remaining food we had left over.

I went into cleaning mode as soon as I walked in the door. I got the fridge cleaned just in time for Jason to get home with our cold items.

Then I tackled the rest of the kitchen and bathrooms. For me if my house is clean then I can move forward with everything else. Maybe a little quirky, but its me.

Next, was unpacking everything which didn't take long since Jason helped me. We had done laundry the night before so was able to put everything away.

Sarah got her stuff put away and finished a few bits of homework. Back to school today.

Brayden couldn't wait to get home to play with his Legos again. Last Sunday he created his own Lego Creationary game with lots of unique rules, kind of a make it up as you go along game. Yes, that is a football game board. I told you it was unique. Daddy got recruited to play it with him last night and somehow the idea for Monopoly money was added. I love his creativity.

It was nice to sleep in our own beds again last night. We truly are blessed. So many people are still without power including my in-laws.

From coming off our missions convention at church to all that has happened this past week I have been even more mindful of all the day-to-day things we are blessed with that we so often take for granted. Thank you Lord. I don't want my heart and mind to become dull to all that God has given me, big or small.

I guess it is a great start to this month of Thanksgiving. 

Another Sandy update...

We are all still hanging in there. We think we have power at our house now. At around 5:30 p.m. tonight we saw a post on Facebook of a neighbor of ours (a couple streets over) who has power back on. We also got a call from Sarah's school that she will have school on Monday, which her school is just up the street from us. We will go to the house tomorrow after church. It is bittersweet because we have had a good time with our family, but also ready to go to our home sweet home.

We are trying to conserve our gas. You may have heard of the gas shortages around here. People are waiting in line for hours to get gas. Many gas stations are not open because of no power and those that are open are running short. They are now rationing the gas. Those with even number license plates can get gas on even days and those with odd number go on odd days. That started today and still there were long lines. Jason and I both have 3/4 tank left, so we are being mindful of where we drive.

We continue to feel blessed to have a warm house to sleep, eat and live. I went home yesterday to pick up a few more things as the estimated report from our power company said we wouldn't have power until Wednesday, November 7th. The temperature inside the house was 50 degrees, chilly. It should be warmed up by the time we get home tomorrow. I know our town had opened the high school as a warming station for many of the residents who are without power, thankfully they should be warmer tonight with the power back on.

We have enjoyed our time with cousin Stephen. He is such a sweet baby.

Brayden and Sammy have had a blast playing together. They are buddies.

This was their playground for the morning.

Ahhh, quietly enjoying their iPads.

 We have continued to enjoy meals with friends and family. We have all (mainly Susie) been pulling whatever we have together to make our dinners.

FaFa got back home yesterday and joined us as their power is out. Grandma had a retreat in Pennsylvania, and will arrive back tomorrow.

Sammy has a basketball hoop in the living room that he plays ball with. Throughout the week the guys having been using it to play HORSE. One night with all their jumping they woke the baby up that was sleeping downstairs, so in order to keep the game going they had to move it outside, 10:30 p.m. mind you. They are hilarious, but dedicated to their HORSE game. They even started a small fire to keep warm.

Today we decided to venture to the mall and see "Wreck It Ralph", which just came out yesterday. We needed to get out and thought it would be a nice treat for the kids. Thankfully we got the first showing and the mall wasn't to crowded, but by the time we got out it was busy.

It is hard to believe it has been almost a week since this all started . We will let you know when we are settled in back home.

Sandy update...

We are all fine after Sandy blew through on Monday. Our neighborhood had heavy wind gusts on Monday and into Monday evening. We lost power at 8:30 p.m. on Monday and still don't have it back on.

Thankfully my brother-in-law and sister-in-law have power, so we came to their house on Tuesday afternoon to stay with them.

Other than a few branches in our yard, our house is fine. We feel blessed after so much devastation throughout our state and in New York City.

Neither Sarah or Brayden's school have power. Sarah's school is taking it day by day. Brayden's is closed until Monday. 

So, all is well on our end. The kids are enjoying being at Aunt Susie and Uncle Johnny's house and with their cousins Sammy and Stephen. John & Susie live in a two family home, so our youth pastors and good friends Dan and Bridget live upstairs and for the past few weeks our other friends Mike, Kelly and their daughter Stella have been living in the basement while their apartment is being repaired. Our other friends Todd and Samantha from Newark who are out of power came to stay with as well. It has been a big party and the kids are loving being with everyone.

The crew!