THE COUPLE~

Pictures of Ryan and Nicole from last week...

THE FLOWERS~

Ryan will be having placed in Nicole's apartment, among other items, after he takes her to dinner...

It's a lovely day out here today. After getting a few things ready for tomorrow's barbeque Dh and I went out pricing out garages and decks. We'll see what we can afford to do. It's hard to believe that we've done without a garage in our climate but I guess you get used to it. It will be so nice to have one.

Gary: What a lovely looking couple! We'll both be inlaws to Nicole's. Keep us posted on how things went. I did read the story about Sara Renner. It was a highlight of the Olympics for our country and I thought it was a very "Canadian" thankyou. Maple syrup is a staple here and is very expensive to buy. He's going to be able to have it as much as he wants.

Pixie: The wonderful thing about God is that He forgets even though we don't. We do need to learn from our mistakes but it's wonderful to have the grace God grants us when we sin.

Off to take a break and watch the Masters with DH.

Oh Gary those flowers are so pretty and they are such a cute couple. It's just so sweet, it even gives me the warm fuzzies haha.

Wilma, you are right and even though I have believed in the Lord as far as I can remember, it's still so amazing to me that the Lord cares for us so much that he does all this for us.

SHE SAID "YES!"

Just got into bed around 11pm when the boy called to say things went as we all had hoped! He said they were heading back to her apartment and he would see me today, maybe, they are heading to Disneyland for a couple of days and Angie, Amanda, Ron and I are in the 5K this morning. I will keep you posted.

Went to step-d's high school play Wizard of Oz last night ~ very good ~ enjoyed it with Angie, my daughter and her boyfriend , nephew (although he found a few little girlie friends to sit with) Angie's mom, my ex-wife and her sister.

Well outta here....no church today with the race.

Good luck and God bless.

Hope everyone is having a great day. I've been doing well...

Question for you parents out there...At church today, the pastor did the parable of the fig. He went into comparing Israel to the fig tree, and, long story short, said that many scholars believe that at least some of those alive at the time Israel became a nation will be alive at the end of time. This made me really scared about my son. He is 2 years old and I worry "what if I can't effectively witness to him and the world ends." It makes me physically feel ill and wonder if I want to have another child. Will I be the right witness for my child? Will I do a good job? This kind of sermon is pretty unusual for my pastor...he's more about abundant living and living a Godly life. When I first became a mom, I kind of thought "what have I done?" It is so hard to have something you love more than your own life that has a free will and can make bad decisions and get hurt. Lightbulb moment...that is probably just how God feels. AGGHHH! Parenthood is hard!

HI GALS~

Well we saw the boy right before we went to the 5K. He said that Nicole's dance/cheer competition ran late (OF COURSE) and they just made their reservations at the retauranrt. They had planned all week to go to their spot at the beach, since it was so late Nicole asked if Ryan still really wanted to go, he said sure if she was up to it, she was but said it was cold and he didn't have a sweater (BECAUSE HE WAS SWEATING LIKE A FOOL!! ) He said no problem he had a jacket in his trunk. They get to their spot and since it was about 10:30 there wasn't much foot traffic (this is a very popular beach in southern California they were at) so they had it pretty much to themselves ~ He did the ON ONE KNEE proposal, she was very surprised and HAPPY

Angie and I walked the 5K today acheiving our WORST time ever!! Of course with her being in a splint for her ankel we had a great excuse. We just took it real easy so she could finish (against her doctors advice of "humm, you probabl;y shouldn't do it" ~ took us right at an hour to walk 3.1 miles ~ the first 5K I ever did was the day after I quit smoking and I did it in 55 minutes. We had tons of fun and I was able to get my beer in the beer garden afterwards!! This is a very popular race with thousands of runners/walkers. yesterday the kids race had 4,000 racers!!

How was everyone's weekend? I hope you found time to relax a little. I sure did! We had the kids home for a barbeque after church yesterday. They usually go home right after so I pulled out my book and read for a while. Then DH and I went to visit an old Aunt who we don't see too often. After that we went for a drive and then just relaxed. Very nice.

Now it's back to work and with it being a 4 day week it'll be fairly busy. We're going to have our Easter family dinner at my mom's on Saturday this year. Usually we meet on Good Friday but it suits everyone for Saturday. The nice thing about this is that we can go to the Easter services at church. I find this is the hardest holiday for me to celebrate. It pains me to see what Jesus did for me. Praise God we have Easter Sunday and to know that our Saviour is RISEN!

Have a good week!

good morning everyone
how is everyone doing??
really pretty day here
sandi

Hope you are all doing well. I had a reunion planning meeting (my 20th) thursday and things are starting to really pick up. Didn't go to Jazzercise on Friday or Saturday, but woke up at 5:30 am on Saturday and went walking/jogging with my 2 brothers. It was kinda cool. I visit with my brothers individually all the time, but that was the first time in years that we all got together, just the 3 of us, to go do something. I think it might become a tradition.

Wilma hope your bar-b-que went well. Yum, I'm a sucker for bar-b-que. Saturday we drove to my sister in laws for crawfish and fried catfish. It was fun. Lots of people.

Gary Cute couple (your son and girlfriend). Actually the dogs are pretty cute too. Yes, I believe it was a Judi that started Jazzercise. They have her picture posted in the room. She was visiting a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't meet her. I am going again tonight. I need to do stretches all day and see if that helps with my shin splints. Pray it does.

Dairy Fairy Don't believe we have met. All the children who are young and innocent and have not learned about Christ will be the first ones welcomed into the kingdom. Keep one thing in mind. We don't know when the end will come and there have been many times in history that people thought it might be near. We could be around for many more centuries, no one knows for sure. Live each day to the fullest and know that through your walk, you will be ready, but I certainly wouldn't NOT (sorry double negative) have kids.

Needmotiv8tion This is an awesome place for encouragement and "cyberspace fellowship". Post often.

Hillary Hey. Hope you are doing well. Keep up the good work. You are on the right track. Just make sure you eat enough throughout the day and keep the exercise going. You will reach your goal. I know you will. PS - I have occasionly let the big one slip (GD). It immediately shames me and I quickly ask for forgiveness. The devil makes us do it - I always say. We, as Christians, are far from perfect - He knows that. He wants us to turn to him and repent. The fact that you do and you are trying hard does not go unnoticed in His eyes and He loves you and all of us so much. Just keep striving and praying.

OK Everyone I know I have left some people out, but I have to run. I will come back.

Y'all take care. God Bless.

Hi everyone

Still waiting for an offer on our house. Lots of people have been through but no one has made and offer yet. I still believe that we are doing God's will so we are waiting to see what will happen next.

Still struggling with not eating. I liked the idea of reading scripture to work through the temptation to eat. One of my favourite verses is in Phil 4:6-7.
But when I am in crisis I tend to forget about it. Afterwards I wonder why I just didn't sit down and pray right away.

Christina it is good that you have made up your mind what school to go to. This must be a great relief to have a goal you are now working towards. I pray that God bless you in all that you do at school.

Gary hope that Angie is healing well. I did try to release my garage door manually but I guess I wasn't strong enough. It is fixed now and we are waiting to see what will be next to break down. Congratulations about your son.

Marilyn it is encouraging to see how far you are walking each day. Plus how well you are doing on losing the weight. Hope that the house will be ready soon for showing. It seems like you have put a lot of effort into getting it ready.

Campbellredhead just keep praying about your husband. Don't take back the headship of the house. You need to trust that God has everything under control and is working in your husbands life. Sometimes it is hard living day to day. I wish that God could just show us the big picture but that isn't usually his plan.

Gary, so glad to hear that the proposal went well! They are an adorable couple.

Uneventful weekend for the most part. My mother and I went to a dog agility trial on Saturday. It was a lot of fun but it was outdoors and got REALLY hot and sunny towards the end. On Sunday DH and I attended Palm Sunday services.

The latest thing in our lives is that DH is contemplating a MAJOR career change and if he goes ahead with it he will begin training next week. It will be a bit of an investment, a bit of a risk, but well worth it if everything works out. (And a much more enjoyable career for him!) Please keep us in your prayers.

Goodnight everyone!

HI GALS~ Here are some pictures from our race on Sunday. there were almost 9,000 runners and walkers total for all the races. tried to get a picture of the crowd ~ the beach view ~ my daughter, her boyfriend, nephew, me and Angie.

Hi everyone! Just thought I'd pop my head in and see how you all are doing. I'm having a pretty good day. I officially started work on my PhD thesis and will be busy working on that til mid-June or July, when I defend and then GRADUATE!! It's a big task, but luckily I have all my data, papers, and other stuff lined up so I just have to compile it and stick some fancy words (lots of them) in between. No biggie, right? HA!

DH and I are going to have some relaxation tonight. We're going to the cell phone store (oooo, exciting) but then out to dinner somewhere nice. We've both been working hard (and he has a LOT of long days of training coming up with his big career change) so we are so ready for a break!

Have a wonderful afternoon!