The Last Day....

Awww, they came to wish me well....

Well it's officially my last day here and I am somewhat excited about the new chapter in my life. I only wish we were not down to one vehicle, UGH. I should of taken advantage of the cash for clunkers when we had the chance, not that I wanted a car payment though, which is why we didn't. But now the car has 'clunked', I wonder if we made the wisest choice.

I was actually quite surprised that I only had a small box to take with me. After 14 years I thought Pat was going to have to come up and carry my stuff home. That's a little sad. But then I'm learning to travel light. There is no reason to hang onto all that 'stuff'. I threw out that old bottle of cloraspectic throat spray and I can't tell you how many plastic spoons I had in that drawer. Sure I could of used them, but probably wouldn't. I think I could use a little bit of this theory at home to clean out some of the clutter.

Well, I'm off, it's been great, wish me well.

What do Country Kids do for Fun?

I just had my last official Wednesday off. I really loved having a day off in the middle of the week to spend with the kids and run errands. And this being my last for a while, I really wanted it to be special. I thought of all kinds of great things to do: Water Park, Beach..... But I decided I wouldn't tackle any of those things on my own so I decided to take them out to lunch and a movie. This seemed do-able to me.

But first we had some outdoor fun. No electronics, no planning and we didn't even use Germ-X.

We discovered an adventure right in our own backyard, well really side yard.

But first we needed the proper tools. We needed a net and not our pool skimmer/net. So with an old mop stick and a surgical bootie, the kids were ready to begin their adventure. Yes, that is Owen's fishing pole in the first pic.



(Owen, Serena & Abby-the leader)


(Serena, Owen & Tommy-the exporer)


Even Anakin (our not-so-small dog) couldn't resist this discovery.




They are all so proud. Look at Owen grinning........

And here is what occupied my kids for more than an hour

Yep, those are dead minnows.

I was giggling to myself as I thought about tomorrow, or even later that night. Clearly we were not going to keep them and we were going to dump them in the drainage grate in the other yard. In which, I knew they would float out to the ditch at some point during the next 24 hrs. It would be like a whole new discovery.

They might even begin to think about how they are dying and getting in our ditch. That's when it hit me, and I looked over at my neighbor's driveway. Yep, he has a boat and was probably fishing and those dead minnows are probably from him dumping them in his ditch which they then floated down to ours, ewwww. Now, that just grosses me out.


At least eveyone cleans up nicely and in the afternoon we went out.

Wednesday at Tully's kids under 10 pay what they weigh. So I was able to feed all 5 of us for $10.10. Are you kidding me?? I should have known about that sooner. And they gave us $2.00 in tokens for the game room.

We then tried to go to the movies but nothing good for kids was playing so we rented Hotel For Dogs. And let me say this, Family Video, what is up with them having a room for NO ONE UNDER 18. Are you kidding me? That is another post. UGH.

We got 2 new rentals and Tommy got a free one, the lady says 'oh, there is a special you get to choose 2 free ones off the floor also.' If you know me, you know I will never be able to watch that many movies. UGH... not too mention the time it is going to take to have the children find something else they want. But, free is free, so we look and look and I can't even remember what they did choose, but they don't have to be back until Monday so maybe they will all get watched. And the cost $2.65. Seriously, I paid $2.65 for 5 movies.

Next time I'll tell you all about the movie I rented last week. Thought it was a love story happily ever after type movie, NOT. Revolutionary Road is the title and I was very mad after I watched it. So I gave it to me sister-in-law to see if my reactions were warranted or not. I'll let you know.

In God's Love, sheila & family

I Am Blessed....

God is moving me out of my comfort zone and security this past year and many things have come only by faith. God continues to amaze me and strengthen me, daily. Where would I be without him? Where would I be if left on my own, where would my children be? You know what, it doesn't matter, because I'm not left on my own, I'm not without direction and my children do come with a manual, it's called the Bible. Thank you Lord.

How have I been able to support our family, GOD, seriously, he has stretched my $ in more ways than I can count. And it's not only financially.

I have been blessed to be employed at Fredwal Inc. for 14 yrs. I spoke with our contracts man the other day and as I told him we were ending and I even had a new job, he wished me well. He then also started to laugh and said 'oh boy, watch out for the ladies'. For the past 14 yrs I have worked with engineers, men engineers. These men were also retired engineers, meaning they were from the era of respect for women, hard-work, and just plain common courtsey. God has sheltered me, I realized. Then fear began to creep in....what if they are catty and gossipy. What if I don't fit in, oh, the flashbacks of high school.

But, guess what, that doesn't matter to me. I prayed for direction about this job or any job for that matter and even turned a couple down, until this one came along. For some reason, this is where I am to be, for a season. If I am able to shine a light for Jesus in a college setting, great, if God is trying to teach me another lesson, great.

I'll follow, he leads, and it is not up to me to make sure it turns out how I think it should. Learning this little nuget of information has been priceless. What a load off my shouldars. I am not responsible for God. I am responsible TO him not for him. I don't have to make excuses of why something did happen or didn't. I don't have to know the beginning from the end. I'm only me and that is good enough for God, so how could it not be good enough for me.

In God's Love, sheila

and in case you were missing the

I'll just say for the record, that I did not leave a tooth in the kitchen drawer during Family Camp in Houghton. I mean, I know exactly what to do with a tooth when it falls out. The toothfairy comes and takes it and you get money. I mean, ideally that's what happens. What happens at your house?

How Do You Know Your Having a Nervous Breakdown?

Seriously, some things you just cannot make up..... Life has become complicated, again. But we perservere, with great friends and a mighty God.

I had some alone time yesterday, almost an hour... That really was alot, so after wandering the house a bit I decided to go in the pool. I debated for the first 10 minutes though, I mean it was almost 7:00 and I knew the kiddies would be home soon, but wow, summer had finally hit and it was muggy....

So I grab a devotional book and headed out. We have a small blow-up pool serving as a relaxing chair (cost-effective) and I get in (the water was not warm, but it was good), so I begin to float around and I'm looking up at the sky and I see a 'silver-lining' on some clouds. Seriously. I begin to laugh outloud, well aware that I have no one to blame this on and that is when the thought hits me, 'Do people know they are having a nervous breakdown while they are having one', well, I decide, I would know and I'm not.

My prayer starts out something like, God, I don't know what is going on, I don't understand it, but I have a peace, I have joy and I know I am not alone......Thank you Jesus......

Now, does that sound like someone who is being pushed over the edge, nah I didn't think so.

Then I open that devotional book I had brought out, hehehe, hold tight things get even better.... The passage is talking about taking care of yourself just as Jesus did. The passage they used is when Jesus was healing and after some time he got in the boat and left to go to the other side. He needed to take care of himself, pray, and even though there may have still been some people that needed healing, Jesus did what he needed to.

So here I was, alone, floating in my pool, alone, realizing again how much God loves me and knows everything that is going on and if I had any doubts about whether or not I should allow my children to go to a friends for a few hours or do everything I possibly can by myself, God answered. He knew what I was thinking and feeling.

I'll leave you with this one picture I took at Houghton. I had been reading this book for a few weeks at bedtime and this afternoon Owen just had to have my books and fell asleep. And to be quite honest I'm finding Job a little exhausting myself.




In God's Love, sheila

Oh, by the way, I got the job, YAHOOO

Let's just keep things light for today

I've started 3 different post this week and they all seemed to have an underlying 'heaviness'.

So, I've started over again. But, let me give a praise, I found my a copy of my original resume, just in time for an upcoming interview, which went well. Hallejuiah, that's a tough word to spell, I'll have to stump Serena on it. That girl is good at spelling..

So I'll leave you with some really funny photos of Refresh '09 and whatever else I want to. Enjoy...

Ice cream - Day 1

I'm sure our neighbors were loving us..

What a stinker


The day after we got back we had our nephew's graduation party. What a great time we had and the kids loved being with their cousins.

A very sorry attempt at a pyramid.



the flower bed here was gorgeous


Then, of course, the older boys played hard
(notice Tommy standing back taking it all in)



So Dad had to join in too...

COUSINS....which one is which....



I could of sat here with a good book and just watched all the fun,

does that show my age....

In God's Love, sheila