My new favorite mug...

This is my new favorite mug....

It is from China.  It say "The Foreign Wife" on it. My sister in law Kristen (Joe's sister) happens to be the foreign wife.  "The Foreign Wife" is the name of the restaurant my brother in law James and his wife Kristen have recently opened in China. This mug is in my hand everyday reminding me to pray for James throughout the day.  He begins his chemo and radiation treatments today.  It will be a long few weeks for them and their three girls. The treatment will last until around Thanksgiving. Will you join me in praying for them today and through these weeks of treatment?

If you would like to follow their journey so you can pray more specifically, check out their blog at http://www.followthehes.blogspot.com.  If you live in the Indianapolis area and would like to help out with meals or anything else, there is a link to their care calendar on the blog.

Win! Win!

We had a whirlwind weekend with my sister and her kids visiting.  It was my nephew Luke's birthday and it was so fun for him to be here to get to celebrate with him.  We've never gotten to do that before because of where they have lived.  They came in Saturday to catch the boys' football games.  And both the boys' teams came away with wins!  It was Nathan's teams' first win so it was very exciting. Here are some shots from Saturday....

John lined up on the O line.  He is the second one from the right.

The birthday boy trying on Nathan's pads

And trying on the helmet too

John and his cousins "enjoying" Nathan's game.  In fairness to them, it was pretty warm.

Nathan getting ready to hike the ball. 

Nathan on defense lined up as nose tackle.  (that is across from the center (the opposing team #72)  for those of you who may not know football positions)

Middle of Football season!

We are right in the middle of the boys' football season here!  Last night was so much fun.  Nathan's team got to scrimmage with a neighboring communities team at their high school field, under the lights with AstroTurf!  And, while they didn't win, they played by far their best game yet.  The high school band needed practice, and so we even got to have them play for halftime.  It was so. fun.  And I had these fabulous pictures of the evening and managed to delete them this morning.  Don't ask me how...it is still too painful to talk about.  So let your imagination run wild and that is what the pictures looked like.  Here are some pics of my boys.   I am going to try to get some more action pics of them tomorrow and will, hopefully, manage to post them before I delete them.

Oh goodness...the handsomeness of this picture.  And they look so huge in their pads!  And trust me when I say you do not want them to hit you unless you are also wearing pads!

"Big John" and "Big J" is what he is known as on the football field.  He plays offensive line and has been playing a little on the defensive line this year as well.

"Big Nate" (notice a theme?) and "NateO" is what he is known as on the football field.  He plays center on offense and defensive line. 

Nate is number 57 this year.

This pretty much sums up the girls at football games...snack time!

John is number 76

A date...

I got a phone call yesterday afternoon from this handsome man....

inviting me on a date.  It was kind of a miracle...we actually had a couple of hours where we were both free.  When we have had time lately, we've been enjoying some local spots....partly because i don't want to spend time riding in the car and partly because we have some really yummy places locally.  Last night we hit a small town nearby and had some fabulous burritos and then chilled out at the local coffee shop.  It was such a great evening.  I have such a great man and it seems my kids agree....

A Sunday

Sundays can be crazy days at our house, but several years ago The Lord made the importance of sabbath and rest so clear to both Joe and I. So when we get home from a long (but good!) morning and early afternoon (our small group meets after right after church) with our church family, we hit the bed for a nap. I LOVE naps..it is one of my favorite hobbies and I don't get to enjoy that hobby near enough.  And then this is typically where you find us....

You can't tell, but that is football on the tv. (The Broncos are getting whipped up on, but if anyone can bring them back it would be Manning.)  I don't even get up to make supper.  On Sunday evenings we have the same thing for supper every week.  It is a special I like to call " get your owny".  I try to ignore any laundry or dishes and chill out.  Hoping your Sundays are filled with as much relaxing and resting as ours is! (It is certainly much easier to rest at our house when the Colts are playing as well as they did today!  ;) )

Oh the things they say and do.....

**So this morning my gate wasn't working.  We have a gate that keeps the dog in the kitchen and the daycare kids out of it.  I got a brand new one this year because I think all of us had suffered some sort of injury the past year climbing over the other one.  Our family is obviously not made for running the hurdles.  So I invested in a really nice one that has a swinging gate.  I. Love. It.  And it wasn't working this morning.  I couldn't/didn't have time to fix it.  So I mentioned to Nate (the only one left at home) that it wasn't working.  Within two minutes Nate had it fixed for me without me even asking him to take a look at it.  So I gave him a huge hug and was having a mom moment...ahh my son is growing up and maturing....what a wonderful moment.  In the middle of the hug and compliments and I love you's Nate pipes up and says..."You're welcome.  That will be a dollar mom (long pause while I look down and give him a raised eyebrow)....or love, lots of love)".  Sigh.....I gave him 50 cents for making me laugh.

**we have been going through Genesis in our family Bible time.  We are at the point where Jacob has left with his entire family and possessions and is about to see Esau again.  Yesterday Joe read about how Jacob asked God for help and then sent everyone ahead of him to meet Esau.  Then Joe asked the question...What did Jacob do that was good?  There was silence for a time and then Ashley spoke up complete with jazz hands, "Well, he provided entertainment for the entire desert. It probably looked like a circus." 

**yesterday was picture day for my older three. My girls were having a slight, ahem, discussion about shirts and whose were whose,etc.  Somewhere in the discussion the subject of a white turtleneck came up.  Nathan had been observing and listening and decides to join in....."I LOVE turtlenecks!  They are super yummy!" He's says with that everlasting twinkle in his eye.

****with a family of six and then having six additional kids coming in and out of the house with my daycare, my kids have gotten used to me going through for or five names before I get to theirs when I am talking to them or simply being called a name that is not their own. I called Ashley "Amy" yesterday...just flat out, didn't even stumble over it.  There is no one that goes in and out of my house everyday named Amy.  I have a good friend named that, but know no children named that. I have no idea where it even came from and neither does anyone else.  The whole room went silent as all the kids just looked at me and the look on Ashley's face said it all "Amy? Mom? really?!"  It was like they were ok with all the other names, but I had definitely crossed a line.

And these pictures are a reminder to me that my girls really do love each...they were hanging out together yesterday afternoon.  Sara even had Ashley look over her math for her. (They are basically in the same math class). Cannot even express how much I love these moments....

A long weekend.....

We had a long weekend.  It started like this on Thursday evening...

Joe's grandmother passed away this past week and so we took off work and school early on Friday to head to the funeral.  Soooo we had to work on catch up homework Thursday night since they were going to miss some classes.....chemistry.  Do you know how long it has been since I have done chemistry?  It has been a loooonnnngggg time, so Sara and I read the book together to figure it out.  I was feeling very accomplished hat I figured it out. It was 8th grade science so I am not really sure what that feeling of accomplishment says about me.  Maybe it doesn't take much for me to feel accomplished..

Friday around lunch we left for our native land.  After a brief greeting of extended family, the kids and I went back to the hotel and they got some swim time in.

Ashley and John really enjoyed the whirlpool....especially after I turned on the bubbles.

On Saturday we attend Joe's grandmother's funeral.  This was really the first funeral our kids have ever been too and it was really a good one for it to be their first.  Joe's grandmother was a strong believer and a woman whose life reflected her beliefs.  Joe did the message for her funeral and did a phenomenol job of sharing the gospel message.  His grandpa and grandma would be just as proud of him as all the family members who were there to hear him.

There were a couple of silver linings to a sad weekend.  We got to visit with many extended family members on Joe's side.  It was wonderful to catch up with aunts, uncles and cousins.  The kids enjoyed meeting all of them and hearing stories of days' past.  We also got to see Joe's sister and family for the first time in 2 1/2 years.  They are here from China so my brother in law can get the medical care he needs.  We were able to reconnect with our nieces, hug the necks of those we love dearly, and spend a short but quality amount of time with them all.  It was so great to sit at the dinner table with all of Joe's siblings and his parents and all the kids....it had been too long. It is one of those weekends that completely drains you, but you return home with your soul feeling full and missing them already.

....a special hello to all those relatives out there from across the country who we talked to this weekend and are now reading this.  We love you and miss y'all already!

Of gusts of wind and snakes...oh my!

The week started out interesting. On Monday I was still enduring the effects of my sunburn from the weekend. Evidently my lips suffered the brunt of it.  The blisters were out in full force by Monday. The kids claimed that my lips had also turned a lovely purple color.  I had developed a nice head cold, so eating wasn't nearly as exciting as it is normally.  It hurt to open my mouth and once the food got in my mouth I couldn't taste anything.  Needless to say, Monday was a long day and I fell asleep on the couch sooner than I normally do.  I think by 8:30 I was dead asleep.  Joe woke me around 10:00 and told me it was time to go to bed, so I roused myself, brushed my teeth and headed to bed.  I pulled my covers back and mid yawn I look down and see this in my bed.....

One of my crazy kids thought this would be hilarious.  And it was....the next morning.  That night it took me until I got to the living room to realize that it was a rubber snake and not a real one.  I was fully, fully awake. It took quite a bit of time to get my heart rate back down let alone go to sleep. 

It seemed like I had just fallen asleep and I was up again to some loud noises.  It took me awhile to become conscious enough to realize it was hail and then it took me a minute to remember that hail is bad and maybe I should get up and see what was going on.  It was 4am and it was a doozy of a storm.  We found just how much of a doozy it was when the phone rang at 6am with the announcement that school was cancelled.  Fortunately we were blessed that we didn't have any wind damage. The north side of our tiny town had 80mph winds with lots of trees down and no power for a couple thousand people. So thankful that there were no injuries and definitely thankful that it is almost Thursday and Monday and Tuesday are behind us.

Game day....

The Colts and Broncos are playing tonight. For an Indiana native it doesn't get much better than that. But that isn't the game day I am talking about.  Joe had his annual game weekend with his college buddies this weekend.  One of his friends got is a new game that we pulled out this afternoon for family night.  Here are some pics.....

Our new game Saboteur.

 

That is Nathan photo bombing with the football...

Me and my mini me.  Love this girl!

Are you ready for some football?

Saturday marked the first day of tackle games for our boys.  Here is the gang getting ready to head out and watch "big John" play...seriously that is what his fellow players call him.  Friday night when he was hanging with his buddies at the high school game I heard variations of Big John and Big J as they were sitting in front of us.  He is one of the bigger guys on the team.  In years past he has been the biggest in height and strength.  I noticed this year that he is becoming the shortest.  In fairness there are several boys a year older than him on the team. He is still by far one of the strongest.  He is part of the wall that is there offensive line.

This is my new JFL hat; unfortunately it is a little big so it has become Joe's hat.  One of my favorite necklaces is draped around the hat.  

John's game was the first one of the day and wow did they start the day with a bang.  It was one of the most exciting youth football games I've see. And it certainly helped that John's team won.  It was a last seconds touchdown...4th down and inches and they made it happen!  22 to 20!

Nathan's first tackle game of his life was the last game of the day.  It was a hard fought game that they lost by 7 to 0.  The major bummer of the game was that one of his best buddies was taken away on a stretcher towards the end of the game.  He is fine and they did it strictly as a precaution, but it certainly and understandably shook up Nathan quite a bit.  But he's ready for practice on Tuesday to get ready for the next team on Saturday.

Just a side note....this is why you wear sunscreen even if you start the day in jeans and a sweatshirt.  I somehow managed to spend 2 weeks in Florida and 2 weeks in Jordan..in the desert! and didn't get burnt, but send me to the football field behind my house and it is the worst burn I have had in a long time!  As you can see there was a nice glow from the stage during worship this morning.  Sigh.