I'm glad I know who Jesus is

Last night, Rebecca sang special. She did great considering how nervous she was. She sang ah-ca-paella so there was nothing to hid any wrong notes behind. She just got the lyrics for her next song to sing.

I absolutely love hearing today's youth sing downright good godly songs for the Lord.

Our church has a girls ensemble called the Lillies of the Valley. It's for girls 10 and up. Rebecca can't wait until she is old enough to sing with them, too.

I just love it!

**Oh, she sang during offering so that's why you see a man walk in the way in the beginning.

Church Remodel

The church remodel is practically done. They started in April and looking around tonight, there are few little touches here and there as well as picking and hanging the drapes that need to be completed. I think it looks fabulous. Here is a little slide show of some of the photos I took during the process.

I wanted to give a quick comment on this one photo. It's of the baptistry. The thing on the ceiling above it isn't just fancy trim, there's actually a screen hidden in there. I didn't get it in the picture very well but at the top of the picture is a dark thingy. It's the projector for all the videos and slide shows made of church functions and for the visiting missionaries. I thought that it is hidden very well and is really neat. (you should be able to click on the photo to make it bigger and easier to see)

I also wanted to quickly comment on the photo from the slideshow of the second story sound room. If you look closely, you'll see a small camera in the middle. That camera does a 180 of the church. Now they will be able to put the sermons on DVD or the internet. Too cool, eh?

The girls went to a birthday party Saturday at one of those inflatable places. The girls had a blast. They have this giant inflatable volcano that is a rock wall.Emily was the first to go and she got scared and gave up before reaching the top. Rebecca was next and had no trouble scaling to the top to ring the bell.

The parents started itching to climb the wall after watching the children climb. I videoed them all and some were a bit humorous. Here are the videos of Jay and the girls.

After the party, the birthday girl invited the children to swim at their pool. So, nervously, I let Rebecca and Emily leave with about 6 other children. They had a great time and Jay and I got to spend some time together. We ended up having pizza for dinner by the pool and didn't get home until late.

It was a pretty good day all around- and the girls were slam tired.

Rebecca's Blog

Rebecca started a blog along time ago but with so much going on, it fell by the waste side. She sees me blogging and wants to keep hers up-to-date. With her friends moving to Japan, she sees this as a way to keep in touch with Samantha. I see it as a way to improve her typing skills.
Since I don't feel that the world needs an inside look at my daughter, I am keeping it private. We don't mind friends and family looking at it. We actually encourage it! If you didn't get an invite, please accept my apology and let me know if you'd like an invite to her special blog.

Taking for granted

We just spent the morning with our friends who are moving far, far away next week. On the way to have breakfast with them, Emily was crying saying that her only friend was moving away. Rebecca, who loves to make up songs, was singing a "Don't go Samantha" medley as well. That did me in. It makes me appreciate the few good friendships that we have.

Long story short, I came across this site just a few minutes ago. It caught my attention at first because it has "precious gems" in the title and the name is Shana. That is the name my grandma called me as a child, meaning "beautiful" in yiddish. I read the page and was glad for the reminder on how short life can be for our healthy, active, God loving children.
I know that they belong to God and that He has allowed and bestowed upon us the duty to raise them up according to His Word. I know that if something happens to them, it has to be God's will. I say that having never be put to the test. I pray that I never will be put through that kind of tribulation.
After reading the memorial on Shana, I am reminded on how precious life is. No matter how frustrating, busy or chaotic your life is because of your children, take the time to give them a hug, tell them you love them, and treasure the time you have with them. Never know if an incident will come along and take your children away from you.

The children's choir sang this past Sunday at church

Funny for today

After a hardy rainstorm filled all the potholes in the streets and alleys, a young mother watched her two little boys playing in the puddle through her kitchen window.

The older of the two, a five year old lad, grabbed his sibling by the back of his head and shoved his face into the water hole.

As the boy recovered and stood laughing and dripping, the mother runs to the yard in a panic.

" Why on earth did you do that to your little brother?!" she asks as she shook the older boy in anger.

"We were just playing 'church' mommy, " he said.

"And I was just baptizing him.....in the name of the Father, the Son and in...the hole-he-goes.

Here are some pictures of the girls doing gymnastics both at home and at the gym.

End of NBT video

I forgot about this video. It has clips of video and pictures from this past week at NBT. I took a video of it-- corny I know!

Neighborhood Bible Time is over. We had a great week. I think I was told that 105 children came to NBT. I don't know how many of those children came to know the Lord but it was a great deal. Each child was spiritually fed and then given an invitation. If they wanted to know more about Jesus and going to heaven, we took them into the counsel room and they were talked to one on one. They were asked very open ended questions and were not forced to pray. Some weren't ready and we will continue to pray for those dear ones. Many were unsure and received assurance. It's a wonderful ministry and I'm so glad that I was able to be apart of it.

Friday evening, there was an award ceremony. They awarded the top four children in each grade. Both of girls friends, Taylor and Samantha placed in the top four receiving a special ribbon. Most all of the children worked very hard at learning verses through out the week. Rebecca quoted from memory 10 verses and Emily 8. They were both the top winners in their grade. Rebecca also made such a great impression on Mr. Luis, the evangelist, that she was awarded the most honorable of prizes: Mr. Luis's ribbons which reach all the way to the ground. That was a great honor and she was walking on clouds.

All week, the children do the Booster cheer. It gets stuck in my head as well and I'm sure I'll be humming it for days to come. The juniors (4th-6th grade booster) requested that the parents and visiting family also do the booster cheer. It was quite funny since most of them didn't know what to do. If they were awarded ribbons, I'd have to say that Jason, Samantha and Taylor's dad, would not get one. Who sits down halfway through the cheer? Come on!

I'm sure there are things that I left out so if I've confused you on anything pertaining to NBT, leave me a comment. I'm sleep deprived as I had a long week them got up at the crack of dawn to have a yard sale at 6:30 with our friends moving to Japan. What am I thinking?

Underwater photos

Wednesday, we were able to spend the afternoon with the Migliore's. The children went swimming and tried to use the camera. They were having a difficult time seeing the screen underwater.

A little bit of Daniel and the top half of Andrew
Better one of Andrew

A great one of Samantha.

more N.B.T. pictures

During Rally time, they split the children up and named them the Mighty Men and Wonderful Women. They take up an offering and have a contest each day between the 2 groups. It is based upon weight instead of actual amount. The children bring in all the pennies they have for offering. The children can also exchange a dollar for 2 penny rolls. If you bring $5, you can buy a gold brick. The gold brick weighs a lot so you want those gold bricks in your bucket. On the first day, they measured it and something happened that I'd never seen before. The offering buckets were balanced. So, it was a tie. But every other day, the girls have won as you can see in this picture.

Here are the four finalists from the coloring contest between the primaries. The have their backs turned so they can't see who is voting for them. We'll find out Friday night who won but I'm thinking it's the littlest girl. Another teacher and I were to pick the finalists. After I picked 2 and the other teacher picked 2, Emily wanted to know why I didn't pick her for the best coloring. Sometimes it's not always best to be your child's teacher.

We have a mystery man. He has been coming the past couple days and stealing things during Rally time. He is super fast and very well covered making it difficult to figure out who he is. I was able to get one photo of his back today. Like I said, he's very fast! The children are all having a great time trying to figure out who it is. Funny thing is, it's someone different each day!
Yesterday, Rebecca and many others guessed who he is but we can't let them know if they are correct or not. I told them Mr. Brian is too old and has a bad back. Do they think he could run that fast? haha

Here is Emily playing Simon Says. She was one of the last few out of a class of 44 but didn't win. She did great though!

Here is Emily with 3 of her friends from our homeschool co-op. We were all excited that they came to be her neighbors and have fun in Neighborhood Bible Time.

WHAT TIME IS IT?

It's Bible Time!

It's Bible Time!

It's Bible Time in our town.

Folks are all excited

And we're all delighted

It's Bible time, Bible time, Bible time in our town.

It's only the second day of Neighborhood Bible Time and it's been so wonderful. Many visitor's have came and I'm seeing lots of children make decisions about salvation. It's wonderful!

You may be asking, what in the world is Neighborhood Bible Time? It's like VBS, only more Christ centered. VBS is fun for the children, no doubt but NBT has more "meat".

There is a student workbook for the children to do at home. This includes a daily verse and activity. So far, Rebecca has learned and recited 6 verses. Emily has learned and recited 3. Children are rewarded ribbons each day for things that they do such as learn verses, do their study guide, bring neighbors, going blitzing ( door to door inviting others to come), being a special helper, etc.

Both girls have had 3 visitors each as we invited everyone we knew with children!

You can click here to check out the photos from last year after the award ceremony.

I'm teaching the Bible potion this year to the primary boosters. That is children going into first through third grade. A booster is a child. We had 34 primaries yesterday and 42 today. There were 3 absent from our class today! Hopefully more will come tomorrow!

Rebecca is in the juniors class which consists of 4th grade-6th grade boosters. Rebecca is used to winning pretty much any contest. She's up against some strong competition this year! She is working hard to learn the most verses. We'll have to see come Friday.

Here are a few photos from yesterday and today.

Mrs. Julie teaching the "gold" portion of the Wordless Book yesterday.

Rally time with evangelist Mr. Luis.

They are doing the booster theme song.

Rebecca at snack time

Mrs. Lisa teaching the missionary story about a witch doctor's daughter in Haiti.

Head shots

All photos were taken yesterday while visiting my grandma.

Be sure to scroll down as this is my third post for today!

A fire started on June 1st on the Virginia/North Carolina border has burned approximately 1000 acres in the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildfire Refuge.
Last Friday, Rebecca and were outside early in the morning. We smelled smoke and could not figure out where it had came from. After an hour, the smell had disappeared as well as the haze. After visiting with family last Sat. we were told that is was caused by a fire in North Carolina. Crazy that we could smell the smoke a hundred miles away.

A week later, while on a visit to my grandma's yesterday, the haze returned. Dissapointed the mountains weren't clear, I tried to take a couple snapshots anyway.

I know it's not the greatest of pictures but I was driving as I was snapping away on the camera.

You could just see it hanging in the air all day. It made for a very dreary drive to and from Charlottesville.

My grandma at the age of 85, is at the cleaning out her home stage. The one thing I have asked for are pictures. She's slowing going through them and passing them on down. I am slow at scanning them for the rest of the family but am getting it done. I just thought I'd share a couple of the ones I just scanned in. They are completely out of chronological order so please forgive me!

This is my sister when she was 5 years old.

And here she is again on her graduation day in 2003.

Above is a photo of my grandma, Rebecca, mom, and Emily.

This is a photo of my great grandma, me and my mom around 1983 (I'm guessing)

This was taken Mother's Day 1994.

L-R Misty, Grandma, cousin David, Mom, me, cousin Molly, Grandpa Philip
My aunt is missing so I'm assuming she is the photographer of this picture.

Oh, I had to add this one in. It was taken at Christmas time 1989 at my aunt's house.

L-R Uncle Mike, Grandma, David, me with Molly, Dad behind me, Mom, Aunt Marilyn and Misty in front of Mom. Now take a good look at Misty. This was sooo her! She's the only one wearing a tutu and crown. I'm giving mom those wonderful classic bunny ears and Molly is copying me. This picture is classic Misty as a child. LOVE IT!

My grandma has 4 grandchildren and here we are. This was in June of 2003.

This is my family in 1992. I was 16, Misty was 8.

These 2 pictures are taken in 1984 at my grandma's. The baby girl is Misty, my sister and the baby boy is my cousin David. They are only a month apart in age. Notice they are happy in the first photo? I come along and Misty starts screaming.

Hope you enjoyed a short walk down my family's memory lane.

Loving Sisters

Everyone who comes over wants to know what the blue tape is on the floor.

It's there so that they can practice doing cartwheels, roundoffs, backbends, etc. in a straight line.

They have a whole bed (king size that they don't need to share) and they choose to snuggle up together in the corner.

How to cool off on a hot day...

....have friends spray you with a hose.

Dress up

Aren't they cute?

R-L:

Taylor, Rebecca, Samantha,Emily, Katie

The girls and I were excited to have their friends come over for a few hours to play.

It was a bunch of fun!

HOT! HOT! HOT!

If we can handle this heat, I think we'll do just fine when we move south to Florida!

After an incredibly hot day yesterday spent at the water park, this is what the external thermometer said it was outside! Yikes! 112 degrees!

It dropped down to 100 by the time we reached the place Jay's family is staying at for the week.

I feel for those going without a.c. and those who have jobs either outside or in a big warehouse/shop. Too hot for me to do anything but stay inside or grab a life jacket and hop on the Hubba-Hubba Highway and stay as far into the water as I can.

*Pretty proud of myself. As hot as it was, no one got sunburned! Yah for t-shirts, hats and lots of sunscreen!

*BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE 2 POST PREVIOUS TO THIS ONE AS I'M DOING LOTS OF CATCHING UP TONIGHT.