Here Piggy Piggy...

Well, I hope that your week has gone better than mine. We have officially been homebound with the H1N1 since Saturday. Let's start at the beginning. Embree came to me at work complaining on Friday of her throat hurting so I assumed it was just sinus drainage which it has always been. I gave her some sudafed and sent her back to class. She didn't say anything else the rest of the day so she had a slumber party with her cousins that evening. About 10 in the morning the phone rang and it was E saying that I needed to pick her up because she was sick. I called the Dr. but all the appts. had been taken so I opted to take her to an a.m./p.m. clinic to make sure she was okay. She was diagnosed with the swine flu (yeah!) Anyway, I decided to stay home with her and let G take Hogan to his mom's so they could stay away from her. This sounded like a good idea until late Sunday evening when G called and said that H had just been diagnosed with the swine flu also. So now we have officially exposed ALL of the family to the H1N1 (however it was totally not intentional). So I have stayed home with the kids all week long and will continue until Monday. I have Lysoled, Febreezed, Cloroxed, and washed everything in the house. On the plus side, my house has never been cleaner. So if you have time say a prayer for the fam that we will continue to get better. The kids seem to be doing great, except now E has developed the crup along with her flu. I am definitely ready to get out of the house into some fresh air, no matter how crummy the weather is outside. Hopefully by the weekend we should ALL be better. I did however have a question when the kids were diagnosed with the swine flu- I was wondering if they had any type of craving for bacon or pork chops. They both said no so I guess that's not a side effect. I'm glad because I don't care for pork. Well I'll update you on our condition. Until next time...

I'M BACK!!!

Hey everyone! I am sorry for the long delay, but I think I am finally getting back to some sense of a normal life. In case you didn't know, Hogan started Kindergarten this year, so I went to work at the kids school as the lady to help pay for the tuition. I haven't worked for about 11 years so the job was quite a shock to all of us. I think my house is the most shocked as it has been a tad neglected. But on the bright side--I LOVE MY JOB!!!! I have come to the conclusion that you are happiest when you are using the gifts God has given you to bless others. My character qualities that God gave me are serving and compassion, and when you are working in a cafeteria with junior high and high schoolers, that is exactly the things you need. And in return I am blessed every single day by the kids. As I have stated before, I LOVE MY JOB!!!! This is the first time I have ever been this happy working, so I know that this is exactly where God wants me. When I first started, I was informed that I was in charge of the two bulletin boards that are in and around the cafeteria. At first I was a little worried about it but as I have started working on them I have become totally excited about all the possibilities that these hold to minister to the kids. Anyway, they have turned out so totally cool that I thought I would do a mini version on the blog. Each month I have a different character quality that I try to have the kids think about. Last month was serving. Hey- I thought I would start out with a no brainer to me. This month is character or virtue. Both of the boards turned out great. So I will try to put them in "blog" form. The first board has a poster on it which looks like this:

Then I posted several quotes on character:

1. "The best index to a person's character is (a) how he treats people who can't do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can't fight back." --Abagail Van Buren

2. "People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

3. "Character is doing what's right when nobody is looking. There are too many people who think that the only thing that's right is to get by, and the only thing that's wrong is to get caught." --JC Watts

4. "Character is what you know you are, not what others think you have." --Author unknown

5. "Character is so largely affected by association, that we can not afford to be indifferent as to who or what our friends are." -- Author Unknown

6. "You can't talk your way out of what you have behaved yourself into." --Stephen R. Covey

Then I state what God says about character: "Do not be misled: Bad company corrupts good character". 1 Corinthians 15:32-34

Then on the other board I took quotes of what our presidents said about character as this is very important as to how our nation was founded.

1. "Few men have the virtue to withstand the highest bidder." -- George Washington

2. "Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men." -- John F. Kennedy

3. "If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, then we will be one nation gone under." --Ronald Reagan

4. "I care not what others think of what I do. I care very much of what I think of what I do- that is character." --Teddy Roosevelt

These are just a few of the quotes I found and you know as much as I hope it made my kids think, I know it made me think about it. Your character at the end of the day is all that matters so take care of it, value it, and cherish it. I am so afraid that we have become a nation where character is of no value and that needs to change. Anyway, I am working on my next boards already and I will keep you posted. I leave you with this final quote:

"Character is not what others think that I am, but what God and the angels know that I am."

Lake Excursion '09

Heather, Susan, and I took the kids to the lake on Wednesday and the boys came down Friday after work. We had sooo much fun and I took soooo many pictures. So without further delay, here is our weekend in pics:

We had a blast on the boats:

We also had fun on the beach skipping rocks and digging for treasures:

We enjoyed the MANY toys we brought down to the beach:

And everyone enjoyed just SWIMMING at the lake:

But, as you get older, you start needing something more exciting to do like tubing and skiing:

When you are out that long everyone needs to take a bathroom break:

p.s. Sorry all the other ones are not able to be posted (and not nearly as cute!)

And what's a lake excursion without a few wardrobe malfunctions:

And eating: yes we do that very well also:

We even took time to admire God's beautiful creation:

But most of all we just had fun being together:

And at the end of the day we all felt like this: