Doomsday??

So, according to this so called christian group, May 21, 2011 is Doomsday, the day that Jesus is suppose to return back to Earth and take all of those who believe back to Heaven.

I am a Christian. And I believe that Jesus will return to Earth and claim those which are His. However, I don't believe it will be tomorrow. But, it did get me thinking... All this doomsday talk and "business" ventures that have turned up has gotten me about my children. Ok, so the Bible NEVER says what will happen to children in the rapture, or in eternity. We as humans have come up with all these ideas of how it will work and all (and No, I haven't read Love Wins yet). But since we don't know, I got slightly concerned about my sweet babies, who have yet to make a personal decision about Jesus yet. These are questions I'd never been faced with (since I've just had kids -- well within the last 4 years). So, here is the question I was plagued with... If (and when) the rapture happens, and my children aren't taken, because (of age) they haven't made a decision about Jesus, who will take care of them? Will they become victim to the evil left on Earth? UGH.

So I did what any woman does when these questions plague my brain, I posed it to my husband. And you know what he told me? The perfect answer that I needed at the moment and still rely on... the reminder that is always needed... "Don't you think that God is big enough to take care of it? Let him worry about them."

Oh, ok, I will! I will love and obey God, and follow him and let him take care of the details that I can't control.

Bed Time

When we went to Seattle, I was awake for nearly 24 hours without any sleep. Then began the week recovery of sleep and then we were back in the east coast time zone. We've been back on this side of the country for almost 2 weeks now, and I CAN NOT seem to get back on this time schedule. I still can't go to bed much before midnight (or 12:30am) and therefore, can't get up much before 9am. Seriously!! It's crazy!

My kids had a difficult adjustment, and are still on later schedules than they used to be. Finn doesn't get up much before 8 or 8::30am and Penny doesn't get out of bed until I'm out of the shower. There have been several days that she doesn't get out of bed until 9:30 or 10am. Seriously, this is so crazy! But yet still takes a pretty good nap and goes to bed on time (8:30pm-ish).

So, here I sit at 11:40pm, not even sleepy... wondering what I'll do for the next hour :)

To Seattle and Back

It has been almost a year since we moved from the Pacific Coast to the Atlantic Coast. So we saw it fit to take a trip back to visit our house and friends. We also decided to travel during the weekend of our friend Kelly's 50th Birthday and Mother's Day. And Oh, how wonderful it was to visit.

After our early morning flight from Reagan International, we arrived in Seattle with only a few moments of sleep. Finn didn't sleep on the airplane at all, and Penny only slept for about an hour. Our sweet eldest child can sit and watch movies and do activities for hours. Our sweet baby girl is every bit different than he is. She can't sit still for any part of time, unless she is strapped down. And the woman in front of us was clearly unhappy that we brought our baby girl on the plane, and I'm sure she thought we gave our kids the pep-talk to be as loud and un-controlling as possible. UGH! Then she tried to give us advice of when we travel next time of "things she used to do with her kids on airplanes". WHAT?? You have kids and aren't compassionate of us! UGH!

We arrived in Seattle and were warmly greeted by cold and brisk weather, after leaving 80 degrees and our friends waiting for us at our house. As we drove from the airport to our house, Ken and I looked at each other and noted how much it felt like we hadn't even left. What a great feeling... to feel that even though we'd been gone for almost a full year, we felt like we hadn't left for a day!

That first night, I went to the city with one of my besties, Shawnta. She got a hotel room for us in downtown, and we walked through the streets, visited the Cheesecake Factory and had cheesecake and martinis. The next day, she'd booked a Glycopeel for us at a local salon and spa. And oh my! If you've never had one done, you should. It was so great! I loved how it made my skin feel. I never understood the idea behind a facial. But this was very nice and I enjoyed it. I felt very pampered. (This was my gift from Shawnta for Mother's Day!)

Shawnta is such a "tourist". We took all kinds of silly pictures. :)

The day when we returned, I went on a shopping trip with my other bestie, Sara. We went also and had dinner together.

On Saturday, we spent all day celebrating Kelly and his 50 years! We played RockBand, the men worked on Kelly's boats for this boating season, and the women chatted and cooked :) We spent "family" time together. Oh, how sweet it was. On Friday, we took the kids to a bounce house for some fun. They had a blast!! Here are some photos from our visit...

The men in the garage doing their thing... :)

The kids were SOO tired by the end of our trip (both our kids and the others) :)

I've had several people ask, and I've come to realize that with our move to MD, I really pushed my feelings down about leaving Seattle. When we arrived in MD I really put my nose to the grindstone and got involved and meet new people. And I just came with the idea and feeling that I needed to "pull my big girl pants up and move on". I wasn't going to be able to go back and there was no reason to sulk over not being able to go back. So I didn't. But going back (combined with the WONDERFUL trip we had in CT with our family) reminded me how much I love being with my family and my friends and how blessed we been for these people who mean so much to us. So, we look forward to going back. :)

Another Couponing Success

So, I tried my hand at couponing again, I don't think I did too bad...

Total Spent: $62.09 Total Saved: 74.19 (Plus I recieved $10 Target Gift Cards)

• 6 packages of Diapers
• 3 kids tooth brushes ($.96 each)
• 2 kids tooth pastes
• 1 battery toothbrush
• 1 thomas the train toy $15 toy for $3.74
• 2 Similac Concentrate $.84 a piece
• 1 Vitamin Water (Free)
• 3 Nivea BodyWash (Free - well, actually Target paid me $.86 to take them all out of the store)

Easter in Connecticut

Our recent trip to Connecticut for Easter was a much needed rest from "normal life". And was, oh so, refreshing! We left on Wednesday morning and headed north. It took us about 8.5 hours to get there due to an hour traffic jam we sat in. But once we got there, it was pure bliss. I was over indulged in much needed "girl time" with my sister-in-law, including pedi's, Starbucks, and shopping. It was nice to be out and relaxed. But then to return home to all the kids playing and enjoying one another. I don't think we had much bickering or fighting, except for the occasional child crying over a toy (my eldest, of course). But it was so exiting for the kids to play together and for us to watch them play. Our kids played hide and go seek for the first time and loved it. We all played together and I found it to be one of the most exciting times of the weekend. We celebrated Easter with our family including church, an egg hunt, a WONDERFUL brunch put on by my sister in law and the dying of easter eggs. Us adults, enjoyed movies together and late nights of chatting. Oh, how blessed we are to have this family and to be able to enjoy them!! Words can not express.

Easter Morning: My precious kiddos

All the cousins, together: "CHEESE"

Our family altogether!

My sister-in-law, Kate, and I

Easter Sunday ended up being a beautiful day in Connecticut. It was also beautiful when we arrived home on Monday. Even so much, that I decided to put Penny's hair in a pony tail... ULTRA CUTE... And then the following day I decided to put her hair in pig tails... I can't even say how cute it is. I just love it!!

Resurection Rolls...

A couple of years ago, my girlfriend sent me a recipe for resurrection cookies. I thought the idea was great for kids... You read scripture with each ingredient, explaining it's importance to the story (and cookies). You put them in the oven, bake, then turn off the oven, and keep the door closed until the morning, when the cookies are revealed, and are "empty" inside. I just love the idea. This year, I'm gonna try something similar for a brunch that I'm attending...

Check out the Resurrection Rolls, and the tutorial offered by feathersfrommynest.com. I think they look very yummy!!

Water, Water, EVERYWHERE...

For a couple of weeks, I've noticed that the hand towels that take up residence under my sink were just a little damp. And I thought, "Oh No!". We'd dealt this this before (in our old house) and it was short of $1000 to fix our kitchen sink and all the other sinks in the house to keep them from leaking!! But, upon more investigaging, I realized that the problems we'd experienced before, were not happening this time. So we tried a few other theories and nothing produced leaky pipes. Until one day earlier this week. I reached under the sink and found ANOTHER wet towel (after they all had been washed and replaced) and I was ready to take another look. And look what I found!!

At first glance, you might not see what I saw, but between the bottom of the drain and the silver piece, there is a BROWN piece of metal. And although I'm not that "handy" I know that metal shouldn't be brown! So I pulled the white pipe down just slightly, as I'm doing in the picture, and you can see UP INTO the drain and sink!!! The brown part is RUSTED threads of the drain that are rusted ALL THE WAY AROUND!! Holy Smokes! No wonder the towels and under the sink is wet all the time... because we put water down the sink, and the pipe is simply sitting directly UNDER the drain. So any water that misses the drain goes onto everything below! When we bought the house, we saw that the cabinet under the sink had had some water damage, but we "assumed" it's been taken care of. NOPE!!

However, luckily with the help of Facebook, I had a friend take a look at the picture and he advised how to help us, and Ken was able to remove the damaged piece, clean them all up and then make a temporary fix until it could be fixed later in the week with new parts.