The Boys

This is Cody, Kyle and Chris (from left to right). My son is the one on the left with the hair over his gorgeous eyes (he tells me the girls love it).

Chris and Kyle are my 2 other "adopted" boys - the live on our street and these three are constantly together. They are so much fun to have around!

Kyle is 13, in 8th grade, and is a joy to be around, he's so easy going. This kid is always smiling and he loves my cooking. He challenges Cody to be more kind and more respectful to him Mom - I love this kid!

Chris is very cute and funny. He is 12 and in the 7th grade at Grissom. He is very smart and loves to carry on a deep conversation about finances or politics, but then will turn around and say something hilarious - he has a great sense of humor.

Every Tuesday and Friday they get together at 7 a.m. before the bus comes and they skateboard and play guitar together before their school day starts.

I am so thankful that Cody has GREAT friends - and I love spending time with them all!

I think I'm a grown up now . . .

Last week I think I officially grew up and turned into my Mother (which isn't a bad thing Mom ;0) First of all there was my first mammogram, and the VERY NEXT DAY I canned soup for the first time - WHAT THE HECK?!

When I was a kid my Mom canned all the time - with help from my brother and I - and we HATED IT WITH A PASSION! We didn't understand why we couldn't just buy beans or tomato sauce from the store like "normal" families. Well, now that I am older and on a quest to be as healthy as possible, I got the "itch".

I called my Mom after I did it and told her "Now I know why you used to get excited to hear all those can thingy's popping" (which means that your soup is sealed up and will be preserved). She was sad that I didn't call her to help, but I told her there was a certain satisfaction in doing it all by myself, like a real grown up!

So there it is, 2 days of work, but it's 100% all natural, good for you and good tastin' vegetable beef soup with fresh ingredients right out of the field - YUM! It took awhile for me to catch on, but I guess you taught me well Mom!

Yesterday Lifeline was invited to come down and help at Feed The Children in loading up boxes for the annual GCC food drop in January. My friend Ted Bryant went early to take the first shift to lead our Lifeline kids, and I was to take the second shift.

When I got there, my friend Johnny Keim was there working really hard and with a smile on his face (as usual - he's always happy!). I looked around for familiar faces of my students and at first didn't see any - then I saw one I recognized - it was Randall! Him and his sister, Michelle, came down to help. There they are in the picture to the left.

At first I was sad (and frankly, a little embarassed) that there weren't more of our students there, but then I got over that and was just really proud of Randall and Michelle for showing up and wanting to help make a difference.

God works in such funny ways - and I was so thankful for yesterday - Here's why:

1. Randall and Michelle's Mom was just a tad late so that gave John and I an excellent opportunity to talk to each of them. I had a GREAT conversation with Michelle, who has gone to Lifeline all year so far and I've never gotten to meet her or talk to her before. I really enjoyed getting to know her and was really glad her Mom was running behind.

2. I worked beside a high school kid named Tim and when we were leaving I asked him and his Dad if he'd ever been to Lifeline. Come to find out, his Dad Max had talked to me last year about Tim coming to Lifeline and getting hooked up with a mentor. Tim has been coming to Lifeline, but hasn't really connected. Now, since I was at FTC, I know who Tim is and we're going to work on getting him plugged in a little more. (Side note - I went to school with his Dad and it's the first I've seen him since he graduated).

3. Towards the end we ran out of boxes and I got to work right next to Cindy Shuder (who just hosted us last week for Chick Nite - scroll down). It was a great opportunity to get to know Cindy a little more and hear some of her story.

So all in all, even though the morning didn't go as expected - God totally turned it around and redeemed it. I LOVE watching him do that! I'm so excited to get to be a part of this big adventure that He has going! I can't wait to see what happens next!

Indescribable - Uncontainable . . .

He placed the stars in the sky and he calls them by name!


Last night my friend and Boss, Corey Mann, took my husband and I to Grand Rapids to see Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman and Louie Giglio. IT WAS AMAZING! Louie talked about how a hobby of his is astronomy and he shared all kinds of pictures from the hubble telescope site.

As he took us through each one - how far the stars and the galaxies are, how big they are, how long it would take to travel there - he kept reminding of us of how BIG God is and small we are, but yet this BIG, HUGE, POWERFUL, AMAZING ARTIST called GOD knows every single thing about us and longs for us to have a relationship with Him - to know Him. WOW!

I couldn't even wrap my brain around the magnificence of the heavens and the galaxies that He has created. What really struck me though is that He didn't create those stars, planets, and galaxies for us (which is what I always think when I star gaze). NO! - He created them to show his glory and his power! The bible says that he holds the galaxies in his hands - can you even imagine how BIG God is? If that is just a glimpse of how BIG our God is and how amazing He is - I am completely blown away by Him again! So you think following God is boring - are you crazy - just look at the things He created around us and you'll see that a life with a personal one on one relationship with the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE is anything but boring!

The above picture is a picture of The Whirlpool Galaxy and the last pic the center of the Whirlpool Galaxy. Do you see what the telescope picked up at the very core of the galaxy - A CROSS!

An interesting beginning to my day . . .

Okay ladies, how come nobody told me what a mammogram was really like?! YIKES! I began my day being a responsible adult female and finally getting my first mammogram. I was a little nervous last night, but not too bad - so when I got there today I didn't think it was any big deal. (The biggest deal was that between my physical for my CDL license and the x-ray, I had to don the gorgeous hospital gown TWICE in one hour - now that's traumatic!)

So I go into the little office and was greeted by a wonderful and perky x-ray technician who was very kind, sweet and helpful. She even was nice enough to put a brand new sticky backed soft pad on the machine for me. I am not going to go into any kind of explicit detail (that's just for you Kevin), but WOW - that was much different than I expected. Let's just say that I'm glad I don't have to have that done for another year!

After leaving the office, I did feel really good about taking care of that. My Mother-in-law, Emma, had breast cancer the year that Trent and I got married (16 years ago). She has been cancer free for 15 years and the reason she was able to beat it was because of early detection with a mammogram - it saved her life.

So all my lady friends out there 35 and over, if you haven't done it yet, or you're behind schedule, get up and make an appointment right now! It may not be the most fun part of being a girl, but we are very fortunate to have that technology available and we should use it to our advantage. I'm doing everything I can to make sure that I'm here as long as possible to do what God has planned for me - I'm not letting the enemy take me out early!

Chick Nite - WOW, what a blast!

Horseback Riding, Bonfire, Donkey Races, Hammers, Safety Glasses and Suncatchers

In my previous post a couple of days ago I was frustrated because there is so much swirling around in my head and I can't get it out. Well, Friday night I had the incredible opportunity to speak to a group of about 40 girls at a thing we do at Lifeline called Chick Nite, and I was able to get a few things out of my head and into their hearts - and I think it made sense to them - yeah God!

This was the first one of the season and we went all out - I'll let the pictures do the talking!


This is my friend Jen - she's one of my leaders on the Lifeline Leadership Team, she's GREAT!

This is Cindy Shuder - our amazing hostess for the evening. She owns Crooked Creek Horse Ranch and she let us come, hang out and use all of her stuff for free! The best part was that she played with us the whole time. Thanks Cindy - you made a HUGE difference in the lives of a bunch of great girls!

Elena made some cuddly new friends!

Go Team! Win one for the donkey!

Donkey Races - Hilarious!!

This is Rachel and her little donkey during the donkey races. This was hysterical and we laughed until we almost peed our pants!

This is Hilary and Kasie - two of Lifeline's most awesome girls. This was when we were having s'more around the bonfire.

This is Amanda and Lindsay - aren't they beautiful!

We had an AWESOME chat around the bonfire. We talked about how we all are in a larger story - that there is more than just the "Lanette" story or the "Amanda" story going on - that way before we were here and way after we're gone there is a larger story - and that is God's story. We also talked about how we each have an irreplacable role to play in the story and we need to accept the story that we've been born into. We also talked about how there's an enemy (Satan) who hates God and us so much that he wants to do anything he can to take us out - he's afraid of what we can be and the good that we can do - so he feeds us lies about ourselves (we called them agreements). I challenged them to break every agreement they've ever made with the enemy and to not make any more.

Debbie with her safety glasses

After our talk we had everyone wrtie down on a sheet of paper the wounds that they have received in life so far and the lies that they have believed about themselves because of the wound (i.e., "parents divorce - that means that they didn't love me enough to stay together" - OR- "My boyfriend cheated on me and dumped for another girl - that means I'm fat, ugly and that no one will ever love me", etc.)

The girls brought the paper up to Debbie and Jen - they laid a piece of glass over the list of wounds and lies (of course they all put safety glasses on) and then the girl's "broke" the agreements that they have made with the enemy about the lies they've listened to.

Here's Kasie BREAKING all of the lies of the enemy and making a commitment to not listen to them any longer!

Suncatchers

When the girls were all done smashing the glass (the lies about themselves), I gave them all a beautiful suncatcher and let them know that when we are crushed and broken Jesus takes the broken pieces and puts them back together. When He's done, the broken pieces becomes something even more beautiful than before, and that's what Jesus does with us. I also let them know how beautiful, valuable and irreplacable they are - that they are Princesses in a larger story who are worth being rescued by our hero and Lord and Savior, Jesus!

My Amazing Team!

This is my amazing ladies team that I get to do ministry with. They are all wonderful role models for our students and they are sooooo much fun. We're missing my friend Lisa because she was out on a coffee run.

Side note - I was a little freaked out being that close to the horse, plus he kept breathing on me so hard it was blowing my hair!

Too much stuff in my head

Did you ever have so much to say that you don't even know how to put it into words or how to say it? Well, that's where I'm at right now. There's so much God is showing me, but yet it's still foggy. At the most random times the fog will fade for a second and then things are clear, but I fail at writing them down and they lose their intensity. I try to talk to my husband or a few of my close friends about it, but it just doesn't come out right and frankly it all seems CRAZY, but yet I know deep down inside that it's not crazy, but very real.

This year has been an amazing year - not easy at all - but the work that God is doing in and around me is incredible. It's very hard to keep up - to try to wrap my brain around it.

One of these days I'd like to be able to find the words to get some of this stuff out of my head and in writing. It all makes sense in my head, but I just can't seem to articulate it.

Does anyone out there identify with this?

A Romantic Weekend at Silver Lake

This past weekend I got to spend an entire two days with my hubby - ALONE! None of our friends were up at the lake, Cody was camping with his cousins and the weather was beautiful (a little chilly, but perfect fall weather). We slept in, went to Manistee looking at art galleries and antiquing ( I found a perfect piece for our new room - an antique life preserver that says "Tiny Bubbles" on it), we ate out every meal, went to look at the sunsets, and sat out by the fire. I really didn't want to come home! This is Little Point Sable, the tallest light house on Lake Michigan and absolutely my favorite place in the whole world. Every time I go here, I meet and see God - it is an amazing, magical place. I am so lucky because it is only 5 minutes from our trailer.
Here's me standing by the base of the lighthouse at sunset.
This is the pier head in Manistee - the first time I've ever been there even though we're only about 40 minutes away.
Here's the love of my life, my hubby Trent! Isn't he CUTE!? Sorry ladies, he's already taken!

The New Addition

For a couple of years we have talked about making our kitchen bigger and adding a family room onto the house. We were going to start last spring but decided we didn't want to have to work on it all summer, so we decided to wait until fall - just in time for prices to double on construction materials due to the hurricane. Ground was broken about 2 weeks ago to pour the cement and now the construction has begun. That's Chris and Duffy, our construction experts who are building the addition.

My adorable niece Ariana

This is my adorable niece Ariana - she is 15 months old and she is such a sweetie! My Mom, my brother Allen, Airiana and I all went to Shipshewana for the day and we had a GREAT time. We don't get together very often, so that was a really nice treat! My Dad should have taken the day off and went with us too! (right Dad?)

Grandma D (my Mom) - she lives to be a Grandma!

This is my little brother Allen - he's such a GREAT Dad to Ariana

The cutest punkin' in the punkin' patch

A kiss for Auntie!

Don't Ever Drink Apple Cider Vinegar

For any of you who know me very well, you know that I am kind of a health nut. I've been on a quest the past year to change my diet so that I can get the toxins out of my body to have a healthier immune system and have more energy.

I read a couple of articles about how beneficial Apple Cider Vinegar is for your body - it detoxifies your liver, boosts your immune system and lots of other good stuff. I've had the bottle for about 3 months now and decided to try it out last night. Cody was there and decided to document it for me.

This is me with the organic Apple Cider Vinegar and a shot glass - you're supposed to take a "shot" each morning and night. Notice the smile on my face.
This is me drinking the Apple Cider Vinegar - YUM!
This is me AFTER the vinegar. OH MY WORD - I have never tasted anything so nasty. I thought it would taste a little bit like apple cider, but it didn't. It seriously was the worst thing I've ever had and Cody was laughing his bootie off at me. It made my eyes water and for the rest of the night it rumbled in my stomach and I thought I was going to throw it up.

I don't care how good this stuff is supposed to be for you - I will never drink it again even if it's a matter of life and death! If you want to try a new diet technique though, just take a shot of it before every meal and I guarantee you will lose weight!