Guess Where We're Moving :)

Our primary residence went on the market today (we have had it for sale by owner for the past couple of weeks...we decided that Matt is just to busy to take on selling our house so we hired JJ.....if you live in my neck of the woods you know who I'm talking about)

GUESS WHERE WE'RE MOVING!!!!!

We are in the process of making the transition back to Hawaii...........................

JUST KIDDING!!
hee hee hee hee hee hee hee!!

We are purchasing a little over an acre that we will build a modest track house on in the same town we live in now (Oregon)- After the house is done we will also add a good size shop (the property is zoned both commercial and residential) and stay put until Ryan graduates from High School (Ryan is starting his freshman year this Sept.).............That is our plan at this point- we are a whimish lot so these plans could change- What is certain at this point is that our house is up for sale and escrow is set to close on that acre property we are purchasing on the 19th of this month.........................

I will post pictures of the new property later- tonight here are the pictures of our house that just went up for sale....

Hope you all are having a great Fri.- mine was spent cleaning and making sure that every nook and cranny of my house was suitable to be inspected by those looking for a home like ours........

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST.............This is so embarrassing because this picture of my bedroom made our local MLS today- ..........I captioned this picture on facebook with the following

Nothing like realizing AFTER THE FACT that you should have bought a bed skirt, curtains, a stylish comforter, put pictures on the wall BEFORE the professional photographer was over to take pictures- (house just went up for sale)...........learn from me ladies- ACCESSORIZE (and make sure your comforters are on straight)!!

Ellie's Kate....

July 21, 2017
I wrote this post in August of 2013 when Ellie and Kate were 2 years old.  Today is precious Kate's 6th Birthday (Happy Birthday, Kate!).  4 years after this post was written and 6 years after the girls were born, Ellie and I still pray every night for Kate, Claire, Jaylee, Jayme, Grayson, Linnea', Toby, and Jon.


August 7, 2013 
Every night when we put Ellie to bed we pray the same prayer- The prayer started back in August of 2011 when Elle's was just two months old....

One afternoon, a few weeks after Ellie was born, my sis and I were talking on the phone and I asked her what she was up to

'We're going to a bbq at some people from our church's house- you can come if you want.

After getting to the bbq I asked Jodi who's house we were at- She pointed out an adorable blonde with an even more adorable pregnant belly.  Jodi informed me that Kelly was almost due with her fifth child. 

The summer Ellie was born was a special summer of deliveries- Ellie was born 10 weeks after my friend Val's daughter Jayme, 3 weeks before Ellie's cousin Claire and 6 weeks before her cousin's (twins) Grayson and Linnea.  I knew that Ellie would be growing up with these precious kiddo's- I also knew that she would be growing up with Jaylee, who joined my friend Michelle's family by way of adoption the summer before Ellie was born.

On July 21 (2011) Kelly delivered her daughter Kate.  Shortly after Kate was born she had some routine testing done- It was in those tests (and confirmed by other tests) that Kate was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis.  When my sister called to tell me about little Kate I knew what my Ellie and I needed to do...

Starting that August night in 2011, when Ellie was put to bed she heard this prayer:

'Dear Lord Jesus please be with Kate Elisabeth, Jaylee, Jayme, Claire, Grayson, and Linnea......'

She has continued to hear the prayer every night since and will continue to hear the prayer until she gets old enough to pray for Kate, Jaylee, Jayme, Claire, Grayson, and Linnea (and whoever else she chooses to pray for) on her own (her cousin Toby has been added and her friend, Jon).

As Ellie and Kate were playing together several Sunday's ago my heart melted.

Heavenly Father thank you for little Kate!

thank you to Kate's mom Kelly for this picture

The pictures above were the original pictures with this post.  Below are a few I added today of the girls over the last couple of years

OPI Nail Polish Give-a-way!!

UPDATE- Ellie H. is the winner of this give-a-way.  Congratulations Ellie

I was with my sis in law Liz a few weeks back and happened to notice her finger nails...........polished and ADORABLE
Earlier this week I was with my friend Deb and noticed that her finger nails were........polished and ADORABLE!
Then I was at my friend Michelle's house Thursday and noticed that both her toes and her fingernails were...........polished and ADORABLE!

I then looked down at my finger nails and noticed that they were NOT........polished and ADORABLE

SO..............

I rushed right over to beauty supply and bought some OPI nail polish-

One for me and ONE FOR YOU!

In the celebration of friends that are inspirations to paint our nails and in the celebration of some of the best polish on the planet (OPI) I am doing a nail polish give a way-

ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS 'LIKE' THIS BLOG POST ON FACEBOOK OR SEND ME A PERSONAL MESSAGE SAYING YOU WANT TO BE ENTERED INTO THE CONTEST.  I WILL PUT ALL OF YOUR NAMES INTO A HAT AND LET MY ELLIE CHOOSE THE WINNER.  If you do not live local I will ship it to you- I am not going to ship internationally (sorry)
The winner will be chosen Mon. July 29- I will post the winner on this blog post (only first name not last) and also contact you......

The winner will receive OPI Color 'Can't find my Czechbook'.....It is pictured below

Summer Fun

Getting ready to jump off the rock into the river with my nephew Shad

Ryan is determined to teach Ellie to surf.........His heart is in Hawaii like his daddy's :)

Cousins

cousins

Ellie and her cousin Claire were born 3 weeks apart.....

play day with more cousins!!

When this is in full bloom and the front door is open the smell is heavenly

fishin' at the ponds

Eli trying to get his cousin Josh to eat a whole Jalapeno for $10....Josh was smart and didn't do it 

hanging out with her daddy

when your camping everything is considered a 'play area' to a toddler

back yard sprinklers.........

Ryan bought a boat- This was it's first time out (thanks Jed for rowing)

eggs in the back yard

playing in the fountain in the front yard

Camping Pictures

My brother Levi, his wife Liz, and their 3 sons: Eli, Wyatt, and Boo camped with us over 4th of July...........Here are a few pics of our family from their camera-

O make-up where art thou???  :)

Milk Do's and Don't (and Cake sneezing)

• If one's child is standing over their birthday cake and sneezes (and the sneeze blows out the candles with their snot) DON'T laugh and serve the cake anyway..... (one of my children did this and I, in the back of my mind was telling myself that I should not serve it but instead of listening to that thought I just laughed and served it anyway.......your free to judge me now :) )
• If milk is within 3 days of expiration DONT drink it..........yuck- that's to close to expired.  Who chooses the date anyway- It's better to be safe than sorry when it comes to dairy, chicken, and bad fashion sense!
• On the milk note- If there is only a couple of cups left in the bottom of the milk container DONT drink it........BLAH! Something about the last little bit of milk in the carton is gross- What if, unbeknown to you one of your children had drank out of the carton....that last couple of cups in the bottom of the milk container could be mostly saliva- saliva and milk.....eeeeewww!
• One more about milk...........drinking milk from someone you have just met's house just seems too personal- like the relationship has been stepped up a notch (as opposed to drinking soda, water, or tea).......'Can I get you a glass of milk Steph?'...........uh NOOOOOOOOOOO!
• Speaking about milk and too personal...........drinking milk straight from the cow (like buying it at a dairy or having your own cows that you milk) seems a little to personal too- I've been inside milking barns when cows are being milked- they take poo's when they are hooked up to those milking machines....having the poo so close to the warm milk coming out of the utter is cringe worthy..........Having some personal space from the utter to the consumption just seems like a better choice.....pasteurize that stuff before it comes to my fridge thank you very much.
• OK last one about milk............fat free skim milk looks like human breast milk- It makes me want to gag when I see people drink it.............honestly, if your drinking it for the 'vitamins' go pop a few vitamin D's and save yourself the utter (hee hee....pun) disgustingness of drinking the thin, bluish colored, dank looking liquid (if you are an avid fat free skim milk drinker please don't send me an e-mail about all the reasons why you drink it- No matter what you could ever say to me I will still think its gross)

HAPPY FRIDAY Y'ALL!! 

gross gross gross!!! :)

Beards, Bottoms, & Battles...'A soft answer turns away wrath..'

The story took me by surprise....I have read from cover to cover in my Bible and thought I would have remembered at least the 'over-view' of it- The first part makes you chuckle under your breath(and hold your breath for a bit out of shock) and the second part makes your stomach churn.

2 Samuel 10

10 In the course of time, the king of the Ammonites died, and his son Hanun succeeded him as king. ² David thought, “I will show kindness to Hanun son of Nahash, just as his father showed kindness to me.” So David sent a delegation to express his sympathy to Hanun concerning his father.

When David’s men came to the land of the Ammonites, ³ the Ammonite commanders said to Hanun their lord, “Do you think David is honoring your father by sending envoys to you to express sympathy? Hasn’t David sent them to you only to explore the city and spy it out and overthrow it?” ⁴ So Hanun seized David’s envoys, shaved off half of each man’s beard, cut off their garments at the buttocks, and sent them away.

Before I had read any further I was visualizing what those poor men looked like....After visualizing I chuckled under my breath and then continued reading..........

⁵ When David was told about this, he sent messengers to meet the men, for they were greatly humiliated. The king said, “Stay at Jericho till your beards have grown, and then come back.”
⁶ When the Ammonites realized that they had become obnoxious to David, they hired twenty thousand Aramean foot soldiers from Beth Rehob and Zobah, as well as the king of Maakah with a thousand men, and also twelve thousand men from Tob.
 
My mind was begging the Ammonite king to go to David in humility and ask for forgiveness for disrespecting David's men.........The Bible clearly states that David had sent those men to show honor and respect.........surely the Ammonite king could see what he had done may have been funny at the time (to the Ammonites) but was obviously causing quite a stir with David and his men......Instead of asking David for forgiveness we are told that the Ammonite King hired soldiers to ready themselves for battle....

⁷ On hearing this, David sent Joab out with the entire army of fighting men.....

And for the next several verses after verse 7 we read about a battle........a battle that started because someone decided to do something mean to another, not ask for forgiveness but instead hold their ground......they even stepped it up a notch and 'got ready for a physical battle'

 ¹⁸ But they fled before Israel, and David killed seven hundred of their charioteers and forty thousand of their foot soldiers.^[a] He also struck down Shobak the commander of their army, and he died there. ¹⁹ When all the kings who were vassals of Hadadezer saw that they had been routed by Israel, they made peace with the Israelites and became subject to them.

The Ammonites lost the battle.........

Like I said in the first part of this blog post, my stomach churned after reading this story.  It churned because of the way the battle started and then ended- so many lives were lost over something so trivial (the beards would have grown back and the cut off garments replaced...........the Ammorite king took 'fun and games' too far and could have asked for forgiveness before the ridiculousness of what was going on went any farther)......This had become an unnecessary battle with unnecessary destruction!

I started praying after reading it.... 'Heavenly Father what application does this story, that happened so many century's ago, have in my life....Why is this particular story seeming to soak down deep in my soul and bother me at my core....why can't I just laugh it off and focus on how funny those men must have looked with their cut tunics and half shaved beards..........'

I have shared several times on this blog that I have asked the Lord to help me be the wife that He wants me to be to my husband Matt (Matt and I love each other dearly but both of us have strong personalities that more often times than not will want to clash) ............As  I have prayed diligently and with a renewed fervor over the past couple of years over my marriage, the verse that ALWAYS comes to mind when I think of my Matt is 'A soft answer turns away wrath but a harsh answer stirs up anger'..........When we are annoyed at each other and I am venting to God about all that I 'feel' Matt has done wrong the same verse comes to mind 'A soft answer turns away wrath...' (Proverbs 15:1)


As I was mulling over the story above, asking the Lord for the wisdom to understand what I needed to learn from it, in sadness and repentance I realized how many times I have been an example of  Hanun (the Ammonite king) in my marriage- Speaking hurt to my husband but making sure that it has the appearance of funny........When I see the hurt come over him and hear his reply I am quick to hire the twenty thousand 'foot soldiers' that come in the package of twenty thousand justifiable thoughts of ways that Matt has hurt me in the past. The battle lines are drawn and the fight begins...an unnecessary battle with unnecessary marital destruction.

As much as it grieves my heart to know that I have acted like Hanun,  I can feel the truth of the Lord soaking in deeper than the grief........... 'A soft answer turns away wrath daughter (Prov. 15:1)...........my mercies are new every morning (Lam. 3:23)..........I began a good work in you and will see it through to completion (Phil. 1:6).........'

Today is a new day with new understanding- a day full of choices to make..........a day that soft answers will turn away wrath

AMEN!

I LOVE MY MATT!!!!!