God is SOO good!

They got the results from the spinal tap on Angela and it is viral, not bacterial, so praise God for that! She will be able to leave the hospital today. I know that she still has headaches and such, but that will pass, and has to run it's course, just as a cold would have to do!

Last night was our last night of BSF, Sharing Night, where people can get up and talk about what God has done in thier lives in the past year as a result of studying our lessons (Romans this year). It's always good to hear what other people have experienced. Never in a million years would I have thought that I would stand up. I am so not good with words and can never get all of my thoughts out (whether typing or speaking, I always feel like I left something important out). All of a sudden some thoughts popped into my head (things I wouldn't have even thought about) and I sat and kept telling God (in my head of course) that there was no way I was going to stand up and say anything! Especially what I was feeling he wanted me to share, there was just NO way! But, the feeling just wouldn't go away, I was near tears just out of pure nervousness, but somehow God made me raise my hand for a microphone. It was totally God speaking through me (although I'm sure I didn't let him say EVERYTHING he wanted me to say because I was so ready to sit back down), I'm still unsure why he wanted me to share something so minor, but I know there was a purpose, someone needed to hear what I said, either that or he just wanted me to feel that completely sick feeling for some wierd reason!

I haven't shared this with many people at all, but I guess there is no harm in sharing what God is doing, right? I was scheduled to go in for a hysterectomy about a month ago on a Tuesday, not so we can't have babies (although that is obviously the case) but for preventative reasons. I had the kids all scheduled, where they would be, sleep, who would take care of them etc (big stuff, I would be in the hospital for 3 nights and not be able to walk all that well for a week or two, they were going to go in right on my c-section scars, so basically having another baby surgury without the joy of having the baby...). I waited as long as I could to tell anyone that needed to know, but pretty much didn't tell many people. Monday night as I'm rushing around after taking Bailey home from Ballet and trying to get to BSF I had a message at home and guess what, the surgury was cancelled because my insurance wouldn't cover it. So, less than 12 hours before I had to be at the hospital, I found out that I didn' thave to go. Now, I had prayed about whether or not to have this surgury for quite a while, we are sure we are done having kids, but this would make it SO final! I went to the doctor and without really feeling like I had a clear answer from God I went ahead and scheduled the surgury. (I guess I felt as if no answer was better than a no, so I would go ahead) So, this was God's way of telling me NO I guess. I have totally been at peace with waiting, God has a purpose and I may find out what it is, and I may have to wait til I meet him in heaven to find out! (I just really hope it's not that he thinks our family needs more babies, b/c one is driving me nuts right now!) I have been totally patient with His timing and just continue to wait, of course I HOPE that he will make his will clear to me, show me what the purpose of all of this is, but that isn't in my control!

So, now I've shared something I really had never planned to share, but God had other plans! (Keep in mind I was much more vague at BSF)

Good day to you all, have a wonderful joy enjoying this wonderful Michigan sunshine! (Hah, Lanodn would love that, Michigan Colors!!!!!, he was so geeked this morning when he woke up and saw that the Pistons won last night, and only by three!!!)

Weekend re-cap

So I told showed you quite a bit of our weekend, but pics can only show so much!
On Friday I had a garage sale with Julie, we both did pretty well and were able to donate a bunch of stuff too! We were able to donate all of our kids summer clothes to a family that is going to Jamaica this summer, she will be bringing a large box of our stuff along with her, so that felt good! After the garage sale (which I might add was only open from 8:30-1:30, we just got sick of it), I went home, cleaned up, relaxed for a short minute.

Then off to dinner at 84 East (YUM YUM YUM) with Kari, then we were going to go to the ballet, well, the power was out in most of downtown so the ballet ended up starting an hour late, so we waited outside with a ton of other people. It really wasn't that bad though, the girls did great! The ballet was great and much shorter than I thought it would be. Kari and I met up with another blog friend and her beautiful daughter there, it was very nice to meet her! :)

Saturday morning I had to go get a birthday present for a party that I forgot about that Bailey was going to, then I had to go wait in line to get ballet tickets for Bailey's ballet (we wait in line to draw numbers and then get in line in order of our numbers (so it's kinda like a lottery), I drew number 44 out of 100, and the girl I was with drew number 97, we were going to buy tickets off of the lower numbers, so we ended up with 44, although we were hoping for a much lower number, not great seats, but there really aren't any terrible seats). Then rush home, mow the lawn (yes, Matt could have done that, but I really don't mind doing it now that we have a rider) while Matt went and got me lunch, ate lunch really fast (like 4 minutes fast) and then off to get Bailey at her birthday party about 20 minutes away. Then we went to the kite festival (see pics below), then home!

This morning we got up and got ready for church, shortly before leaving for church though I got a phone call from Mary (my step-mom). They were at the hospital with my little sister (she's three). Long story short (yes I do know how to shorten things contrary to everything I typed above), she was admitted to the hospital with menengitis, not sure if it's bacterial or viril (did I spell that right?), they won't know til Tuesday, if it's viril they will let her go home, if it's bacterial they will have to keep her on the antibiotics for 12-15 days... in the hospital. A strong willed three year old in a hospital for 2 days is bad enough! So prayers would be appreciated for her...pray that the doctors know what they are doing and that the test results come back as viril (ok, that so doesn't look right, but I can't figure out the right spelling).

So, another subject, this morning in church we sang a short song in closing called "Casual Christian". The lyrics are...

I don't want to be,

I don't want to be a casual christian

I don't want to live,

I don't want to live a lukewarm life

Because I want to light up the night

with an everlasting light

I don't want to live a casual christian life.

and in the spirit of thinking about some deep things lately (more on that at a later date, maybe), I jsut realize that this is a perfect song for what I'm thinking lately.

Our message was great for me too! There was an outline so I'm including some things directly from that for you... (by Rev. Timothy Custer)

"Lessons on being spritually authentic from the first six chapters of Daniel"

1. Be willing to change, but also know when to draw the line (1:1-8)

2. Ask and pray for wisdom and tact (2:14), give God the glory (2:27, 28), and you will often be blessed (2:48, 49) Wisdom is just as important as being tactful.

3. But be faithful regardless of the earthly rewards or consequences, as our top priority is faithfulness to God - - who makes lasting judgements (3:16-18)

4. Show the courage to wisely speak the truth - - even to the powerful and priveleged (4:24-27) This is one I have a hard time with, I need to be more courageous in sharing my faith, there was also a video on GodTube that related to this, it's kinda long (about 6 minutes, but great viewing if you have time) 8 reasons I don't share my faith

5. While faithful living may not always be "popular" it does gain respect and even admiration (5:14) I need to be more faithful in every aspect of my living

6. Faithfulness in the "little" things (6:10) prepares us for faithfulness in the "big" things (6:12-23)

Like Daniel, we must consistently live out our faith as we go out ot our homes, jobs, schools and community.

OK, so I will leave you with that...if your even still with me. I realize this is probably the longest post I've ever posted! So if you made it this far, congratulations!

Another picture post...

OK, so reading the above i see that some of it is hard to read (sorry, but I'm not retyping all of it, it takes long enough to do it all once) and I see i have spelling mistakes... I didn't proof read any of it, just wanted to get it done...

Enjoy your Sunday!

~Lynette

NIV with the Ribbon bookmark...

Ok, so I was just pointed to this website GodTube, and after looking around for just a short amount of time I found this and found it hilarious!

Enjoy...

ETA: OK, so I can't figure out how to embed the video I want to share, so I will give you the link, but seriously you HAVE to go watch it!

Baby got book

Let's go "vintage"

OK, so I was inspired to think of the past today (by a fellow blogger)... and these are a few things I remembered...(and one I was reminded of...)

(Watching this right now in fact..., and isn't Paul soooo cute???)

OK, and someone, please tell me you remember this game...I used to LOVE this game...anyone else????? (Seriously thinking of buying it, although not sure where I could ever find it...e-bay?)

And, the kids and I discovered Smurfs were on the Boomerang channel at 5:30pm...I watched it for a bit with them, and truly there was so much on there that I don't remember ever seeing...

And..

I had a bunch of these disgusting things...

So, now it's your turn, what wild crazy funny vintage thing do you remember???? Seriously I want to know, it makes me laugh to see this stuff again!

What I did with Mod Podge...

Remember a while back when I said I was going to get some ModPodge for a project I was working on...well here it is.

It's a photo album made on cd's. I made one for Matt's mom and my step-mom for mothers day. It was a lot of work, but I think they turned out nice. My only problem was the pages tended to stick together even when I let the modpodge dry for a while. Templates for the photoalbum are by Janet Phillips (can be found here). I used products from Jen Wilson, Anne DeYoung, Gina Miller, Amy Wolff and I'm sure there are more, if I forgot someone you see something from, let me know!

Also, just a few layouts to share, I completed this one this afternoon from when we went to the Tulip Time fireworks (credits can be seen here

This one is from when we went to take pics with the tulips... (credits here)

And this one is one I finished yesterday, but the pic is from a while back! (Credits here)


And tonight Bailey was supposed to have a t-ball game with pictures beforehand, so we rushed around and ate an early dinner, got ready to go, got to the field and it started raining. Lovely. They continued on with pictures, but lucky for us the game was cancelled. I did get a pic of the team though...

Saturday was a pretty good day, we got an unexpected and rare treat from Mr. Elliot, he slept in until 8:30, so nice of him! Landon had to be at practice at 9, so rush rush and we got him there. The only thing we had on Saturday was Matt wanted to paint the bathroom. We skipped lunch so we made an early dinner of hamburgers on the grill and corn on the cob, it was so good!

Then it was time for a campfire and my favorite summer treat (ok, one of my favorites), s'mores! Elliot enjoyed plain old graham crackers! While we waited for the fire to be perfect for roasting those marshmallows the kids and I jumped on the trampoline, I'm finding that I really like to jump with the kids, the exercise is GREAT! Unfortunatley I would look pretty silly jumping all by myself!

Today is mothers day...what a great day to celebrate being a mom!
My littlest one looks to be quite a moose in this pic, he really isn't as big as he looks, it was just a "bad angle"!!!

This morning Matt got up with the kids (specifically Elliot) while he let me sleep in. I couldn't sleep so I just laid in bed and enjoyed it! After a bit I got up and got ready for church and got the kids ready (picked out clothes and did hair, things Matt can't do), Matt brought the kids to sunday school and picked up bagels for us. After church we rested a bit then walked over to Matt's mom's house to visit and bring her her gift (more on that later), then off to dinner with my family. When we got home we played on the floor with Elliot and watched AFV with the kids in between them putting clothes away and picking up. My mothers day gifts included some hanging baskets that Matt and the kids picked out (absolutely beautiful), some tennis shoes (that I picked out), a card with "coupons" from Matt for backrubs (I normally have to beg and I told him that I wanted unlimited backrubs for a year for mothers day, instead he limited it, but still I won't have to beg for a while) and eventually a kid free day (I love my kiddo's to death, but NEED time away too, I really just want a quiet day without responsibility, which if you are a regular blog reader you know), and the BEST gift of all is what he is doing right this minute... he is cleaning the house! It looks GREAT! Seriously, that is the BEST part of my day, I smile whenever I walk into the living room/kitchen area! I am so lucky to have such a wonderful husband and three wonderful children! I hope that you all enjoyed your mothers day and have a great week!

Happy Weekend...

Happy mothers day to all the mothers! Any big plans? Nothing to huge here, we are doing lunch with Matt's mom on Sunday and Dinner with my family at night. But always a great day to celebrate such a great job that God has trusted me with! He knows that I can be a good mom, I just don't always know it!

Here are a few pics of typical Elliot faces... I am starting to feel as if things are changing, he just isn't an infant anymore. He eats mostly solid foods with only 3-4 bottles/day, he can get around pretty well (although he is yet to crawl), he plays so well (not by himself though), I don't get quite as stressed out by him and trying to keep him happy anymore! I'm saddened by how fast things are going... I know the year will be over before I know it!
Look what I made this morning? Don't they look yummy? Well guess what... they sure were, the kids and I LOVED them!

Tonight we went to a Whitecaps baseball game with Landon's school. We stopped for dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings on the way...one of my absolute fav's! After about the second inning it started to rain, so Elliot, Bailey and I went and stood under the canopy for a little while, shortly later we were joined by a TON more people! It finally quit raining, but by that time the seats were all wet and it didn't look all that fun to sit, so we decided to leave. Landon was able to stay with a friend and one of Bailey's friends came home with us (both from the same family). On the way out of the game a ball came rolling right out of the gate, it was a foul ball, so I ran to grab it, but guess what a little kid (about 8-10) ran and almost knocked me over to get it. Now, not a huge deal, I didn't NEED the ball, I just thought it would be fun to give to Landon, it was the fact that the kid was so aggressive about it. Matt and I were talking on the way home about how when we were his age we would have NEVER acted like that if we had seen a mom going after the ball like that. The terrible part was that his dad was right there watching and laughing. Whatever, I don't need the ball. (I think another reason I was upset is because it seems whenever I try to get something free, I'm just so close, but never close enough, I tried to get Switchfoot tickets from a local radio station that has a studio in the mall, they had enough tickets for the first two people, I waited outside the door for about half an hour and Matt called me when the song was on that meant I had to go in, guess what, some lady walked in off the street and beat me in, making me the third person, mostly because I had a stroller and couldn't open the door that easily...I'm going ot have to start being more aggressive, watch out, don't get in my way!) Anyway, enough complaining...here is a pic of Matt and Elliot after leaving the game, I just thought it was cute to see how happy Elliot was sitting up there!


Have a great weekend!

Lot's of pics...

Quickly...

The little guy is waking up as I type this so it has to be fast... but I have a few cute pics to share... I'll try and post more tonight!

Elliot had a sucker this afternoon (after turkey, cheese and crackers which remain on his face in these pics)

Then he dropped it and picked up the wrong end!

So after all that fun, we definately had to take a bath, and with Matt working in the bathroom so much, we've started doing baths in the kitchen sink (after some bleach and followed by more bleach)...he LOVES LOVES LOVES to splash!

Isn't he the CUTEST?

And a quick little video of my guy in the tub...so much for a quick post! I did get him up, he is just sitting in his excersaucer playing... I have to say that the past few days have been great with him, I haven't gotten to frustrated with him and am just having fun with him! (YEAH, praise the LORD for answered prayers!)

Were off to have dinner with some friends that we don't see to often, Marios pizza, good friends, great weather, what more could we want on a Tuesday night??? Enjoy your evening!

Nothing to share...just a quick layout!

you can find credits here!

My Weekend...

On Friday we had a garage sale at my parents house, not super busy, but I made some money and I got some sun...lots of it. My neck still hurts 2 days later! After we closed I was exhausted so when Matt got home I took a short (but very effective) nap! Then around 7 we left for the fireworks. We got down to the park early, laid our blankets down and waited. We enjoyed the junk food while we were there and the boys played a game at the carnival. Shortly before the fireworks started some high school kids plopped thier blanket down almost on top of us! They were obnoxious and very annoying! It used to be that middle school kids annoyed me the most, but the closer Landon gets to that age, it's changing to high school kids. We had fun none the less, we didn't get home til almost 11, and the kids were exhausted!

On Saturday morning I got up early and went to open up the garage sale, Matt got the kids to Landon's practice and took them out for breakfast. Then took Bailey to her practice adn brought me the trailer to load up all the garage sale stuff that was left! AFter we got home he worked on the bathroom some more, I think he is almost done mudding it! (YEAH!!!!!) Last night we watched Charlottes Web, super cute movie, totally recommend it!

This morning we got up for church, came home and relaxed a little then Matt went fishing, Lanodn to a friends house and Bailey, Elliot and I went to a birthday party! Now we are trying to get backpacks all ready for school tomorow, get homework done (yes, I'm teaching my children to be procrastinators), all while we watch AFV! Busy week this week, but that's ok, every week is super busy, and actually the kids have half days on Wednesday and Thursday so we can go to parades (we might go on Wednesday, depending on weather), and they don't have school at all on Friday!

Here are a few pics from the fireworks...

Some new stuff

Some of the new stuff coming to The Lilypad tomorow is used in the layouts below...be sure to check it out tomorow!

Just checkin' in...

Normally I post every day, and since I didn't yesterday, I thought I should at least check in today...I have some pics to share!

Yesterday the kids and I jumped on the tramp again, what an insane workout, seriously, I can't explain, you just have to try it! So, we took some pics...even one of me, don't look to close though!

Today I took the kids out of school for the morning for no other reason than I wanted to go get thier pictures taken (and really, I took them myself), they enjoyed it and we got to take our time getting ready this morning which was kinda nice! My kids have always been pretty easy going when it's time to take pics, they sit how I want, smile when I want and just all in all are really easy going... enter baby! I forgot how hard it can be to get a decent pic with a baby involved! I didn't do to bad, but not exactly what I wanted for sure!

Fun stuff this weekend... fireworks tomorow night to kick off tulip time, we are taking both kids and they are each bringing a friend, lucky for us Julie is taking Elliot so we don't have to deal with him all night, and we are taking Avery with us, her and Bailey will have fun! Then on Saturday Landon has early practice again and Bailey has practice in the afternoon again and again, like last Saturday, Landon has a birthday party. I'm also doing a garage sale tomorow at my parents house (call me crazy, but with all the decluttering I'm having another one in a few weeks, I KNOW I will have lot's more stuff then), anyway, I'm hoping to make some money for shopping or a trip to Chicago or both... or a new house!

Wishing you a happy weekend, I may be back, but who knows with a busy weekend like we always have!

Oooooo, and if you digiscrap, make sure to check out the Lilypad this weekend, new site design, and some great new stuff! Don't want to miss that!

A Random Act of kindness...

So, 8 years ago today it was a beautiful day, we were young, but knew we were meant to be together! We had already had Landon 10 months earlier, but weren't getting married for "the wrong reasons". After the service we took a trolly to a park where we took what ended up being my favorite pictures! (I'll try and share some of them sometime, but that would require scanning and I despise doing that) Then off to the reception. By the time we were done for the night I was so tired, but we were married! Then off to Cancun for a week! On our first night there we went out for dinner at this reall nice seafood restaurant (we didn't realize how nice until we looked at the menu). We started talking to another couple that was from Lansing Michigan (not far from us in comparison to Mexico), they were there for thier anniversary. They were so incredibly sweet and we found out that they were staying at a sister hotel to the one we were staying at. Eventually they left and we finished dinner/drinks. The waiter brought us some extra drinks and dessert because he heard us say we were on our honeymoon, so nice of him! We waited and waited for our bill and finally asked for it, turns out the couple that we chatted with earlier had paid for it! How sweet was that? We were shocked and in awe the whole week! It was NOT a cheap dinner by any means (probably close to $100), and they covered it all and didn't expect anything in return. I wish I knew thier names or had been able to find them, just at least to say Thank You. It was the sweetest random act of kindness I've ever experienced!

So anyway, Matt and I went for dinner tonight to Boatwerks. We had an incredible dinner and an even better dessert...S'more sundae, it had 2 brownies with graham cracker topping, two scoops of ice cream (chocolate and vanilla) and was topped off with the HUGEST homemade toasted marshmallow! So yummy! He also brought home a dozen beautiful roses for me!

On the mommy side of my life I've been very frustrated, am I a terrible mom? I love my kids dearly, so much, but I get so frustrated with them. Especially Elliot, he is extremely attached right now, if he sees me he wants me! I can't leave him in one room while I walk into another, he will FREAK out! I can get nothing done. And when he goes down for a nap I still get nothing done because I just need to sit and enjoy the quiet! I love him so so so much, but just don't know how to handle him right now! Prayer is the only thing that I can think of right now. If you have other suggestions, please enlighten me!

I have to work tomorow and at night the kids have a family activity at church so that will be fun (as long as Elliot doesn't cry the whole time)! Enjoy your day!