For Your Viewing Pleasure

I haven't had a chance to crank out a really good blog post in awhile, but this video will just have to tide you over. This is pretty much the scene at our house every night...the toys are all over the living room, and Edwin attacks daddy on the floor...oh yeah, and I laugh the whole time! Happy New Year everybody!!

Edwin Singing

It's Almost Here!

It's almost Christmas!!!! I have so many thoughts swirling around in my head right now, it's hard to make them cooperate so you'll have something coherent to read. I'm just so excited for Christmas....for so many different reasons. Some of the more obvious reasons include watching my son unwrap his presents, spending time with family, getting to see David (my little bro) and Jenny (his wife)....they're flying in from freezing MN tomorrow!, umm..what else? Oh yeah, the food...definitely looking forward to the tasty treats we'll have. But I keep going back to a cd...some of you are familiar with Todd Agnew's Christmas cd....he goes through the whole christmas story and tries to imagine what it was like for all those involved...what was going through their minds? How could they know what was happening? Did they understand the magnitude of a tiny child being born? My favorite song on the album relates to the angels. At his concert, Todd explains his thinking behind the song. When the angels were in heaven, they must have been looking down on the earth, knowing what was about to happen...they must have been so excited - can't you just imagine it? Like a kid on Christmas morning waking up knowing that Santa brought them presents...only this was real!! The angels must have had all they could do to hold back their excitement - "Can we sing yet? Can we shout yet? "...and then the song erupts as they sing "Glory, glory to God. Glory in the Highest!!" I know I'm not doing it justice. But that's how I feel lately. Like I know this secret and can't wait to yell it at the top of my lungs! I just want everyone to know how truly miraculous it is that GOD sent His ONLY SON to DIE for US!!! It's not enough to just go to church, to know intellectually who God is, or who Jesus is....but you have to know Jesus, have a real relationship with him. And since that finally happened for me, I just want it so bad for the rest of the world! I listened to a sermon from Perry Noble today...it was from the Christmas service at New Spring church in south carolina....it was probably one of the most powerful messages I've ever heard. It was definitely not your typical Christmas isn't-it-nice-that-sweet-baby-was-born kind of story. It was in your face, it asked the tough question - what is it going to take for God to get your attention? It looked at Christmas from King Herod's perspective. God did so many things to get his attention....Jesus was born mere miles from where he was, but Herod eventually died never knowing Jesus. And he'll spend eternity in hell because of it. God was merciful and gave Herod chance after chance after chance...but he never got it. I pray all the time for people I know (and people I don't know) that don't know Jesus. I pray that they'll stop putting Him to the side, stop putting Him off until "later"....

....see I told you I had all these thoughts in my head. I could go on and on, but maybe I'll save it for another time. I found the Todd Agnew song I was talking about and added it on the right. Check it out :)

Merry Christmas everybody!!!!

Games anyone??

This is going to be a quick post (I'm trying to get out of work and go get my baby!!), but since I can't access internet again until Monday, I have to get it out there.

My darling little brother David (now that he's a grown up he has people call him Dave, but I just can't bring myself to change) and his wife Jenny are coming to NC for Christmas!!! They'll be here for a week. Since we're cutting waaaay back on the gifts this year, we're trying to find different ways to spend time together and just enjoy each other's company. So....I'm on a mission to find board games (or something similar) that we can borrow. We have Scattergories and Cranium....but are open to new games. Does anyone have something we can borrow? I promise we'll take really good care of your stuff and it'll only be for a week.

Thanks!!!!!!!

Many Thanks

You guys rock! Thank you sooooo much to all of you who commented on my last post. I've gotten a lot of great ideas for our date nights and I'm excited to give some of them a try. I have to admit I cracked up at the thought of going roller-skating with Ed, but hey, he lived through the 80's, I'm sure he's an old pro!


One other update on a recent post....the Operation Pretty Things deadline has been extended to next Wednesday, December 17th. So if anybody has something to donate, let me know and I'd be more than happy to include it in the giant stash of stuff I've collected so far.


Tonight is our final class in the Financial Peace University series. Ed & I talked about this a little last night and we both agreed that it was the best $90 ever spent. We're communicating about money, we're sticking to our budget, we're slowly but surely climbing out of debt...it's such a wonderful feeling! God has truly blessed our family - and I'm grateful for the kick in the butt it took for me to realize that!


One more thing and then I've got some online shopping to do before my lunch break is over. A friend of mine (from Financial Peace) emailed me this morning to tell me about this awesome deal at Chick-fil-A (the Mayfaire location only). Check this out!!

Ideas Anyone??

Okay people, I need your help. Put on your thinking caps and let's get creative!!!!

I'm trying to come up with some new ideas for date-night with the hubby. Yes, there's the standard dinner & a movie, or even bowling. Those nights have their place, but I don't want to always do the same thing. Our budget is somewhat limited, but thanks to Grandparents (seriously, what would we do without you??) we don't have to worry about child-care costs in general.

Any thoughts? Really, throw them out there...be bold...leave a comment!! Do you have any funny stories of places you've gone, activities you've tried? Now that Ed isn't working a billion hours a week and we actually have time to spend together, I'm trying to inject a little more fun and adventure into our rare evenings out.

Come on people!!!