Laptop Down!

My computer/laptop is still fine however my battery died this week....totally gone. So I have no laptop...I have access to my computer at work and Brandon "allows" me to use his when he is not using it. Which is funny because he is always using it. So this has been sort of a good process for me....slowly healing my addiction to Facebook and Blogging..lol. Brandon is on a bike ride right now so I thought I would try and catch up my blog.
This past week was Brandon's 29th birthday...starting his 30th year in life. And I said I would cook for him so I slaved away in the kitchen and I present to you....

My tomato/mozzarella salad! He's the better cook so nothing I can do is going to be better than what he makes so I keep it simple. :) But I enjoy celebrating every year I have with him. I was blessed when he came into my life....not many men would have taken the baggage but he accepted and embraced it and I don't thank him enough.
I have been reading two books that constantly challenge me...Crazy Love and ENOUGH. That last one is really challenging the way I live. I have realized that I do a good job of seeking and challenging myself....but it is no good if you don't follow through with the challenges...after the 1st day. :) So I am praying that I start to put things into practice that I learn. One thing I really need to fix is myself...I made myself sick to my stomach this week by eating too much candy. I don't understand how as an adult I can literally not control myself and I make myself sick from sugar. REALLY?? So once again I am going to try and refrain from too much sugar...I feel like I say this every few months BUT this time it really bummed me out and I realize how much it affects my energy and mood. Well....today will be a fun day in the park, meeting some new friends and Ethan's birthday party. Pictures will soon follow. :)

Happy Easter....belated.

He has Risen and what a beautiful day it was!
We decided to wake up early along with the rest of the "crew" that does this weekly and we volunteered to work the 8am service. We weren't as prepared and the Easter bunny got the baskets out in time but didn't get the eggs hidden. The alarm was set for 530 and Ashley came in and woke me up at 445...and she was the one I was worried about getting up early. I told her to go to sleep and she did...in Ethan's room after she woke him up. So I had to inform the kids I "forgot" to take the eggs out of the refrigerator last night so the Easter bunny was not able to hide the eggs. They were fine and said they would give me some time to go hide them....outside. So I hid them and we were out on our front lawn at 6 running around looking for eggs. I better our neighbors loved us...running around giggling looking for hidden eggs. So being up that early we made it to church at 740....perfect timing. I always enjoy seeing the little kids in their new outfits. Things I enjoyed most....1)At all 3 of the services in the Lightouse hearing Travis yell "Lets sing Jesus Loves Me".."Why, because he loves us and died for our sins!" 2)Watching the kids run out of the building screaming for hidden eggs. 3)Sitting around the dinner table laughing so hard I was crying.
Here are some pictures we got...LOVING the family picture and I am guessing you might see the outfits in a few more pictures when we get our "family photo" done.

And my laptop battery died so I have no laptop...AUGH...I had to sneak in on Brandon's computer to just post this (AND ONLY GOT ONE PICTURE UP)but hopefully I will be up and running soon or else..did I say AUGH!!!!

Mama Kat's Writers Workshop

I had a few minutes and when I read this I thought I HAVE to share this story and it won't be funny unless you sort of know me.

1.) Describe a moment when you realized you and your spouse were SO different.

Back in July of 2003 (seriously the week we were getting married...a few days before we were going to be flying to CA to get married) I come home from work and I walk in the door and hear "Surprise, I got us a dog, a cute little chocolate lab named Ellie."

Enough said.

Let's try this again......

I would like to say that I have been so overwhelmingly busy these past few weeks...month, but it is just work. I have really been pushing my brain at work and I haven't had to do that in awhile. I am being tested in more ways than one and it is challenging. I like to compare everything to running...I have been told I need to run 1 mile and I need to complete it in 6 minutes and than they laugh at me and say "You better hurry up because you only have 5 min left." That has been work. And I have let it get to me. So today I am reading this great book (at least the first two chapters are great) and it says "Stress says that the things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace toward others, or our tight grip of control" (Thank you Mr Francis Chan.) Thank you for the reminder and the wake up call that God is bigger...and if God wants me to finish that mile in enough time it will happen and if not than that is up to God too. I love the fact that I am supposed to be living in faith because I can't do it and it isn't about me anyways.
So obviously I have been really bad about posting...and one of the things I wanted to do was keep family up to date with pictures and the kids "happenings". So I started a blog just for updates on the kids and I will update it every weekend. So here it is.

The Kids Blog

So all you people from MO,CO,TN,AZ,IA...that blog is specifically for you guys.. :)

Stole this BUT....

it was too funny not to repost.

Today

I've been gone for awhile and when I say gone I just mean really busy with work.
But I wanted to tell everyone that I don't like today...I don't like April Fools Day. I don't like going all day waiting for someone to pull a prank on me. I tried to pull one on my sister's Facebook page the other day....I retracted it within a minute of posting it...I felt that guilty. I am taking the kids to Disneyland today (we are getting our passes back....AMEN) and I thought I would use the old joke "Disneyland burned down"...they replied with "Than can we get passes to Knotts?" So of course it also backfired because all morning I have been hearing "Mommy, guess what..blah,blah,blah, or whatever." Me: "Really? or "What?" Them:APRIL FOOLS!
Yep, not a big fan of this day at all.