Today is a tough day.

My little Cupcake is sick. She has a bladder stone, not a kidney stone like I was saying before. She has been peeing blood for a week now.

She is in pain, but she has been a trooper. She has still been kind and loving toward us, and even tolerant of Bella, who just wants to play with her.

She is a great dog. She is sweet, although a little shy and nervous.

She just wants to be cuddled with.

She may be just a dog to you, but to me, she is my baby.

She is my 3rd child that I will never have.

I never understood the connection between a dog and a human until I had 1.

I never understood doing what you have to do to help them get better.

I realize that their is a point when you have to let them go, but I don't feel we are there yet.

We have had to make a tough decision. I hope we are making the right 1.

We are walking out on faith. Not knowing where it will come from.

Meet Bella

We are pleased to announce a new addition to our family.

This little puppy totally fell into our laps last night. We have been TALKING about a bigger dog, something that was more of a watch dog, but still a family dog.

So in the meantime, I prayed about a dog, and left it in the Lord's hands. He knew if we needed another one and I new he would provide the perfect 1 for our family if we were meant to have one.

The neighbors dog, unbeknownst to us had 10 puppy's in November and last night we saw them for the 1st time.

After school the kids and I walked over to look at them while the neighbor was outside, and he practically gave her to us. I think he could see the longing in Dada's eyes.

So anyway.........



She is a Labrador Retriever.

She is beautiful!

She follows Dada around wherever she goes.

She is very much a puppy.

Hunny and I were up with her almost every 2 hours last night.

By 4 AM, I would have gladly given her back!! :)

I am to old for this. ;)

I think Daddy is smitten.



All I have to say is ....it's a good thing she is CuTe!!!!

Cupcake doesn't quite know what to think.



Her motto is..........run away whenever Bella comes near her.

And if Bella wants to play, she growls.



Cupcakes was LoNg overdue for a haircut. She looks SO much better now.

Can you tell a difference??

Cupcake and Bella are exactly the same size.

Bella is going to be BiG!!!

At the beginning of the year I decided to have a contest and really push the Box Tops and Campbell Soup Labels. I was surprised with how excited the students were and how well the did!

I broke the contest into 2 parts. The 1st part ending right before Christmas break. The reward for the 1st part was a pizza party in which I would make homemade pizza for the class that won.

At 1 point in the contest there was only 1 point difference between the 1st place and 2nd place.

That really lit the fire under them, and the Box Tops and Campbell Soup labels kept pouring in!!

And just so you know.....it is time consuming counting all those little suckers!!!

And wouldn't you know that the BIGGEST class in school would win the contest!!!! ;)

It took me 2 days to make the pizza dough for 35 kids. I made them each their own pizza, which I thought would be fun for the kids.

I lined up all the pizza toppings and let them create their own delicious pizza.

I think that they enjoyed themselves!!

I know that I enjoyed watching them. I just stood back with camera in hand and watched them.

We only had 1 mishap!

Isaac's pizza slid right off his tray and landed right on the floor!!

:)

I was really proud of the 6th grade class! They did a super job!

I am curious to see who will win the Ice Cream Sundae party for the 2nd semester.

I think that there was more then 1 kid jealous of the 6th graders!!

Daddy's 35th Birthday....

Happy 35th Birthday to my HUNNY!!!

The kids thought we had off for Daddy's birthday and not for MLK day!!! :)

After bribing.....I mean rewarding.....my kids with helping me make a cake if they helped pick the house up.....which was mainly their stuff....it was finally cake making time!!! (How do you like that run on sentence??)


I thought it was funny that the kids immediately put on an apron. I have many new aprons for my ever growing apron collection!



The kids took it upon themselves to make Daddy some cards also. When I saw the finished product, my heart melted! They put such love in these cards.

Dada's card.......



I love how much hair he has in this 1!!! ;)

And Brother's card.....

I LOVE Brothers picture of his Dad!

I made Hunny's requested meal of Lasagna. Which we ate by candlelight. (the kids loved that! Hunny....not so much. He couldn't see. I think he might be getting old)

I think Brother might have been even more excited about the lasagna!! He had 2 helpings!

They wanted to decorate the cake all by themselves.

I forgot to pick up a #3 candle at the store....Brother said.....what a shame....everyone needs a candle on their birthday.

So they found every single candle in the drawer and tried to make it to 35. They were 6 short.

So they improvised..... they made a three out of all the other candles and put the 5 in the middle. :)

It was beautiful.

Even though there was chocolate all over the counter and candles on the floor.

They had a blast, and made Daddy feel special.

My little pyro wanted to light the candles. I thought maybe I should be the 1 to do it!

My favorite picture!!

Even though Brother cut off Daddy's head. :)


I think Daddy had a good birthday.....he even told me that I over did myself today. AND he helped clean up the dishes without me even asking!!!

The cleanness of my hands

Psalm 18-21-24
For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God.
For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me.
I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity.
Therefore hath the LORD recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.

These verses hit me so hard this morning.

Every single day I try so hard to please my God. To honor and glorify, and obey HIM.

But don't we all have those secret sins? Those things we KNOW we shouldn't do but are so hard for us to give up.

When you break it down, it just comes to disobedience. You wanting your will above what God has for you.

Maybe your sin isn't necessarily even "WRONG" in man's eyes, but you know that God doesn't want you to do it, and so therefore it is WRONG in the eyes of God.

And quite frankly, isn't that all we have to worry about?

Pleasing God and not man?

Vs. 23 ~ I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity.

WOW!!!

Its a hard thing to say....I am upright before him, and have kept myself from my sin.

In vs 24 it talks about the cleanness of my hands.

When I think about the cleanness of my hands I think about lifting my open hands to God. Showing him that I am nothing without him, that I want to give him ALL.

But for those with that "secret" sin, it is very hard to know that your hands are clean before God and to KEEP our hands clean. Especially when you have to battle DAILY to give up that sin. Sometimes those sins are ever before us.

Before you get all pious and start judging me and wondering oh my...what has she done....think about your own life. What is it that you are struggling with to hand over to God, and to tell him to just take this issue, it's yours God.... I want better for my life. I want to be able to walk righteously before you.

That is my prayer. It is my desire to have clean hands. To be able to lift up my hands to God and be able to say I have kept myself from my iniquity.

Dada drew this picture at school last week. I thought it was adorable.

Can you guess who it is??

It's CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS!!!

Can you see the resemblance??

Happy 2010.

New Years Eve was spent at the Wolf's house.(they had a little paparazzi moment in this picture, there were about 4 camera's pointed at them. it was quite funny)

The kids ran around and played.

Some of the little ones actually fell asleep amongst the kids running and screaming.






The kids were so excited to countdown the New Year. They were watching the ball drop in New York and thought is was really cool.

The mom's realized how much we miss Dick Clark doing the countdown. Carson Daly just doesn't cut it.


May you have a BlEsSed NeW YeAr.....