Just imagine this: You walk out your front door, skip down the steps and come to a screeching halt because this crab is sitting on your sidewalk. Really. You don't live on waterfront property...you live about a quarter mile from the sound. You haven't been to the beach in about a week. How did he get here? In the picture, he is in a sandbucket, awaiting his return to the salty soundwater. We are guessing that he hitched a ride home in one of the neighbors' boats after a fishing expedition or something along those lines. THe Mr. and the kids returned him promptly.

A neat necklace giveaway

A friend of a friend is having a giveaway. Check it out here:
With the Fruit of her Hands
thanks!

let her eat cake

H got to wear some of her birthday cake. She did ask for it...literally. She begged me to squash some on her! And, loving mom that I am, I obliged. Now she can't say that I never do what she wants!

Hanging ten or whatever the lingo should be

As promised, the surf pictures. Ok, only one surf picture, but you get the idea, right? It looked like fun...but you won't catch me out there. According to H, there were baby sand sharks and lots of fish. (I did verify about the sharks... according to the instructor they were so small they could barely have bitten a toe, much less any real damage.) I was nervous about that, but hey, it is the ocean, and the sharks were there first, right? So, she's hooked on surfing, and now wants me to buy her a surfboard. Yeah, they aren't cheap.

Time flies!

Has it really been that long since my last post? Yikes. Anyway, life has been full of "things" around here. Last week, the oldest had a camp for the morning hours, more on that later. Then, H had a birthday sleepover. That was something else. really....groups of giggling preteen girls....yuck! One at a time from now on, please! I did get to enjoy a couple of hours at the YMCA pool with the Mr, N and A. Ice cream and shoe shopping were a nice follow up to that.

I've still had a bit of a sinus/cough/crud thing going on. So last night, I settled into bed and I made a HUGE mistake. I turned on the TV. Food Network. I had been watching the next food star show a couple of weeks back, but last night they had the last few episodes and the finale. I was so delirious and managed to stay up only long enough to hear that the guy that was my favorite did win!

Then, I snoozed hard and deep. I was awakened by screaming A...we had a pretty loud storm roll through around 3 or 4 am. She was trembling with fear until she got snuggled down with Daddy and Mommy. I think I can tolerate it in that case, even though she would love to sleep that way every night.

This week N and H have a tennis camp...and it is a lot of running on my part, but worth it for them to learn something new!

Mission minded Woman

I have decided to accept a position in my church as the director of the Women on Mission group. I previously taught 3 & 4 year old Sunday School. It is interesting to me see how the switch came about. I love kids. I am trained in Early Childhood Education. But, I seriously think my walk is suffering for need of adult time. I had thought about joining this group in the past, but never made time. Last summer, a gaggle of us gals would go out to dinner once a month, and that was a true Godsent thing. That group seems to have fallen off since everyone has crazy busy lives. Now, I felt a pressing need NOT to teach the 3 & 4's class again(this cycle). However, I want to serve my church, so I had been praying about where I should serve. This position needed filling. I feel that I am taking a huge step on faith...because this isn't something that I am accepting lightly. I know it could be a huge can of worms so to speak. But, I think there may be so many things that I can learn from the ladies in this organization. Who knew I'd jump in as a director???

Or are you grumpy like this...

When the almost 12 year old finds out the surf camp she has been desperate to attend was cancelled for a day due to a tropical weather system?

Is your summer this happy?

While I actually took this photo earlier in the Springtime, I was feeling good like this today! I have a summer cold and that really stinks. But after church, just hanging out with my kiddos & my Mr. Snippity was happy, nice :)

Dunked!

My sweet son was baptized this afternoon! It was a sweet time. He was thrilled and so was I. He's pretty young, and actually, our preacher talked with him, and thought about encouraging him to wait. My son was having none of that and asked Jesus in his heart. He was ready to get baptized that very night. He had been asking questions for a while, and really seemed to understand. However, he did have to wait about 5 days until our church had the service ;) There were about 11 people I think that came to be baptized this day, young and old.

Family Fun

A local historical park has had free kids stuff going on all summer. We've taken in the symphony, acrobats, music petting zoo, saxophone fun, and now a free movie. I was reading my friend smartbutnotwise's blog about the drive in movies near her. Well, we don't have a drive in, but this park is about as close as we can get. Last night they had "seussville" for the kids. Face painting, game sheets, bubble station, a rock climbing wall, stickers, and a free movie. We brought our blanket, munched on popcorn and watched Horton Hears a Who. I think I had to spend maybe $5 for some popcorn and soda from a booth that was rasing money for a high school sports team. The sunset was beautiful. I knew dozens of people and the kids could roam and have space to play. I'm thinking this was an ideal Saturday night.

I'm still in limbo

on that last post...but now the options have become more. I was speaking with one of the people that I need to give an answer to, and I was trying to explain my thoughts. SHe piped up with option # 3. I'm not sure if that makes it better or worse!

how do you know

when it is God speaking to you, or your own inner desires? There is something that I have been praying about, and I can't seem to decide if God is giving me the answer, or if it is the desire of mine that is overpowering his voice. There is a choice that I have to make. It's not life or death, or even really terribly significant. I have to give a yes or no answer, and I don't feel a peace about either one. So, pray if you will that I will find the 'right' answer.

Vacation week over

I was on vacation this week. I stayed at home, but I had friends come stay with me. We kept pretty busy, I think. With 4 adults, 4 kids, 2 different birthdays and a holiday to celebrate. It was fun. I never get to see my friend often enough, so it's always nice when we get together.

The only real work I did this week was to run a few loads of laundry, and wash a few dishes. I let everything else just slide. Now, I have to settle down, and get back into the routine. This is the not very fun part of having a vacation.