Works of God Monday - Stretching and Inward Groanings

I'm thankful that God doesn't give up on us, but chooses to continually break us and mold us into what He wants us to be. For some reason, God has chosen at this time in my life to stretch me and I can only believe it is part of the overall big picture. I feel the stretching. As a sinner, I dread the pain and cannot wait for it to be over. Yet when I sit back and examine it, I'm thankful for the stretching because it means that God is still at work. Much more tragic would be the case if He wasn't working on me.

Yesterday morning as I was sitting in church, I heard the beginning chords of the special music and the inward groanings began. I knew the song by heart and knew that the chances were good to excellent that I would be crying by the end of the song. I'm pretty much sick of crying and wasn't thrilled that it was about to happen again.

Here are a few of the lyrics to the song that Amber, Jill and Erica sang:

"Lord, as I seek Your guidance for the day, I find my thoughts unyielding, confusion crowds my way. But then, when I bow to You, the challenges You guide me through, Your promises are ever new, I claim them for today. Your will cannot lead me where Your grace cannot keep me, Your hand will protect me, I rest in Your care. Your eyes will watch over me, Your love will forgive me, and when I am faltering, I still will find you there."

As I sat there, tears streaming down my face, the words "your love will forgive me, and when I am faltering, I still will find you there" continually hit me. What a blessing to know that even though I fail continually and I feel like my footsteps in life are faltering right now, He still loves me, forgives me and will guide me through this time.

Thank you to those who've been praying for me. Thank you for your words of encouragement. As you continue to pray for me, you might also think of my poor husband. I've been so emotional these past few weeks. I feel like I've cried more days than I haven't cried and he has been so patient with me.

My Awesome Husband - Happy Birthday To You!

Little did I know that LONG before I was born God had already created my husband. Did I mention that it was LONG before I was born? :)

Mike is the perfect husband for me. He takes great care of me and sacrifices daily for us. He is not the type of guy that needs a 12 course meal every time we sit down to eat, which is good because I'm the type of girl who is great at Campbells soup, macaroni and cheese, hamburger helper, hot dogs, etc. I do occasionally made homemade pizza, enchiladas and other better options. I'm working on learning new things and finding better, healthier options, but Mike is totally content with whatever I feed him. When we were dating this was one of my biggest fears - that I would never be able to feed him like a "good wife" could. He told me that even if we had to live on Taco Bell, it would be fine. :)

Today is his birthday. We both have colds. I spent much of the afternoon trying to sleep off my cold. He has spent most of the day vegging on the couch trying to get over his cold. We didn't go out for supper. We didn't have eggs so I couldn't make brownies or a cake and he didn't want me to go out to get them. I didn't have any gifts for him to open tonight (though he did remind me that we got all the Sears clothes for him last week and that was his birthday present). In my mind, the birthday was a disaster.

But that isn't my husband. He is fine with not making a big deal about it. He had homemade pizza for supper and he was happy with it. He didn't need brownies or a cake (but he did let me make him some butterscotch pudding to make me feel better about the lack of cake). He is content. So, I guess I must force myself to be content with it as well.

In reality, Mike is perfect for me. Things that I stress out about are no big deal to him and he calms me down over them. He balances me in an amazing, only possible with God, way. No matter what the future holds for us, I'm thankful that God has allowed me to make the journey with Mike.

So, happy birthday, Michael. I love you.

My Awesome Wife

Well, I have hi-jacked the blog again. I love do this from time to time.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know that Sandra is so amazing. Currently, I am sick. Normally, she would try to wait on me hand and foot. But, like always, she knew exactly what to do. She recognized that what I needed most was sleep. So, she let me sleep and took care of my doggies.

Some may think that this is minor, but many would also recognize that what our bodies need most is sleep. God has designed our bodies to heal itself and when we sleep we are allowing our bodies to do just that.

So, Sandra, you are truly awesome. I love you.

Works of God Monday...ahem...Tuesday?

Well, I started this post yesterday but found that I really needed to concentrate and wasn't successful. So I figured I could finish it today.

A little background before I go into how God specifically showed Himself mighty to me this week...

While I do well most of the time with the whole adoption process/waiting/not having our own biological kids/etc, the last month or so has been hard for me. We had Mother's Day at church. While a day meant to celebrate motherhood is fine in and of itself, it just seemed like the whole world was celebrating the women who were able to have kids and if you don't have kids, you are a second-class citizen. It is on days like that when I have to remind myself that God is good all the time - even when I hurt because what I have wanted now has not been what God planned for us now. I know all the Christian canned sayings about how everything will work out, how God is in control, how He will bring the perfect child for us in the perfect timing. Unfortunately, in my carnal state, knowing those things doesn't take away the pain, frustration, longing, alone feeling and just general desire to get out of this stage of life.

This past week was especially difficult. We are coming up on vacation up north with my family in Michigan. All of my sisters and their families will be there. Since we started the adoption process, I have been praying that God would give us a baby before this vacation because I didn't want to have another year where Mike and I are the only one without kids. I wanted to be able to take our baby up for this week to spend with my sisters, parents, grandparents, etc. so they could meet him/her as well. With each day that draws closer to vacation, I ache as I know the likelihood of that happening decreases. I'm not discounting that God could still make it work... my nature is just to plan for the worst possible situation so that no matter what happens, the hurt will somehow be less.

So, this is where I was last week. I was frustrated with myself for my growing lack of belief and generally hurting over the whole situation. Believe it or not, I was having to fight the bitterness that I wouldn't be able to be a huge, pregnant woman with all the waddling, stretch marks, labor pains, birth story and everything else that comes with the process. Everyone else might dread it or think that it is just something you have to go through, but I ache for it. I ache for the entire process. I was fighting the hurt and bitterness, knowing that would not make me who I'm supposed to be. Then...

I saw God at work through a friend. I received a small package in the mail that included a card, a CD and a poem she wrote.

The CD was from our Sunday night service last week. Mike had to work and I wasn't feeling good, so we both missed the service. Pastor Monroe was preaching about Sarah's faith. We listened to the CD on the way to and from church on Sunday and the sermon was very good. I told Mike that I was glad I wasn't at church myself because I would probably have sat in the pew crying the whole time. I don't like to cry very often and certainly not in public, but when it comes to this topic, I don't always have the control I would like.

The card she sent was a huge encouragement and let me know that she understands and that she and her husband are praying for us.

The poem was incredible and talked about letting go of what we most want and then when our hands are empty they are available to hold God's hand. I can't really do it justice without posting it and since it isn't my work, I'm not going to post it. However, suffice it to say that she obviously understands where I am right now and opened up enough to show me something personal like that to be an encouragement to me. Since originally posting this, she has given me permission to share the poem with you, so if you would like, you can read it here.

So this week I'm choosing to see God in the act of a friend. I'm choosing to trust God that He does indeed know what is best for me. I'm seriously working on being content with where He has me (I say "seriously working" because this is an issue I have to continue to give back over to God).

While being thankful for this friend and for God not giving up on me, I'm also working to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit when He prompts me to do something for someone else. You never know when what you may view as a simple act can become a work of God in someone else's life.

Cereal, Anyone?

Okay, here is my week at you-know-where.

Some highlights:

12 Boxes of Cereal
12 Eclipse/Orbit Gum Packages
4 Coke 12-packs (which we needed for when Mike's Dad comes - it's on his list)
11 Dove Trial Deoderants
12 Cans of Nivea for Men Extreme Comfort Shave Gel
2 Dove Shampoo/Conditioner
12 Packages of Peppermints/Gum Balls/Candy Necklaces
4 Garnier Skin Care Face Scrub

Bandaids, Milk, Reese's (for Mike), Listerine, Oral-B Toothbrushes, Brut Deoderant, Cotton Swabs, Wart Remover and etc...

Bottom Line:
$334.16 Original Retail Value of Product
-$4.39 Out of Pocket (Okay, I know this one must have you confused...I ended up returning two items that didn't generate extra care bucks, and they gave me back $12.82 cash, so by the end of the week, I actually had more cash then I started with)
$31.89 Fewer Extra Care Bucks @ End of the Week Than At Beginning
So...cost was $27.50 for all of this stuff.

Now, normally I like to end the week with more extra care bucks than I started, however, this week allowed me to get some things we were going to need, without spending "real" money. Since most of those extra care bucks were earned by using coupons, I don't really feel like this week was a loss.

Things we needed (not just purchased because they ended up free or money makers):

$8.00 Coke we needed to get for Mike's Dad
$3.99 Milk
$5.99 Wart Remover

Plus, I figure I ended up paying less than 75 cents a box on Cheerios - something I eat every morning anyway. Finally, the 12 packages of Orbit/Eclipse Gum in 60 pieces each is huge. Mike and I both like to keep one of these always in our cars and they normally cost $3.50 each. I figured I got each one for less than $1.00.

So anyway, I'm happy with this week and stocking up on some of these things.

Thanks, All You

Last month I found out about a great little magazine called "All You" that you can purchase at Walmart for $1.77. Inside this magazine are tons of little coupons as well as some good articles. Last month this magazine helped me make a bunch of money because CVS had Adidas deoderant for $4.99 that was giving back $4.99 in extra care bucks. I think I bought 9 of these magazines and between my card and friends that I hooked up with coupons, those 9 free deoderant coupons turned out to be a build up of almost $45 in extra care bucks at CVS. There were also several other coupons in the magazine that helped with other deals I did as well. As I was going through the magazines, one of them had an "All You" survey in it that said I would be sent a $10.00 check for completing the survey. I did it and received the $10.00 check this week. Now I love their magazine even more. :)

Walgreens $5.00 off $20.00 Friday

On Friday there was a deal going on at Walgreens where you could use a $5.00 off your purchase of $20.00 or more coupon. So I did two transactions.

First Transaction: Two Dr. Scholls Gel Insoles and two Nivea for Men Shaving Products. Before Coupons and sales tax: $30.00. After coupons $18.75. Paid with my Walgreens gift card so $0 out of pocket. Then the printer spit out $15.00 towards my next purchase. So basically the end result was that I paid $3.75 for those items.

Second Transaction: 2 Dove Shampoos, 2 Dove Conditioners, 1 Walgreens 60 count calcium creamies, 1 multi-betic vitamins. Before coupons and sales tax: $31.98. After coupons $19.75. Paid with the $15.00 above and then $4.75 on my Walgreens gift card, so $0 out of pocket. The printer spit out $5.00 towards my next purchase (from the Dove). Also, the multi-betic vitamins and calcium creamies are free after rebate this month, so I'll be getting $17.58 back on my Walgreens gift card at the end of the month from this transaction. So basically the end result was that I made $2.83 to take these items.

Overall, 92 cent loss on my Walgreens card to take home all of this stuff this past week. Not bad since the shampoo and conditioner will never get old and will get used, I expect to sell some of the other stuff either on Ebay, Amazon or a garage sale for more than that, and all of it came for $0 out of pocket actual cash.

Finally, a deal that I did with Cascade and other cleaning stuff several weeks back became even better this week. You see, when I purchased the items, I was supposed to get $20.00 off coupons, but only one $10.00 spit out. When I talked to the Walgreens people about it, they gave me paperwork to send in to get the other $10.00 by mail (apparently there was something wrong with the printer). I sent in my receipt and the paperwork and they sent me $20.00 towards my next Walgreens purchase instead of $10.00!! So, Walgreens was good to me this week.

Publix $22.05 Turns Into Home Depot $25.00

Thanks again to Money Saving Mom for the tip about the Publix deal going on right now. If you buy $20.00 worth of select products (including those shown above), and then mail in the receipt and form, you receive a $25.00 gift card to Home Depot. YAY! Mike eats peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch on a regular basis and Mike's dad is coming for a week when we go on vacation and one of the things on his list of foods for the week was pudding. So, I was able to get 4 peanut butter jars and 5 pudding packages for $22.05. I mailed in the receipt and look forward to receiving our $25.00 home depot gift card. Mike is wanting to get a rake and I like to buy our kitchen garbage bags at Lowe's or Home Depot. We'll definitely use the card and the food. WHOHOO.

Happy Father's Day, Mike's Birthday, etc.

Sorry for the weird colors on the picture. Our camera battery needed recharging, so Mike took the picture with his cell phone. I think you can still get the point. :)

Thanks to MoneySavingMom.com for the tip off about the great deal at Sears going on now through Sunday night. The deal is that if you buy $100 worth of Dockers products, you mail in your receipts and get a $75 Shell gas card in return (limit of one per person, two per household).
We went to scope it out because Mike can always use new dress clothes and we called Mike's dad to find out what he needed so we can hook him up for Father's Day. The best part was that when we arrived there, we discovered many Dockers items were more than 50% off. Since Mike wears dress clothes every day for work, this was a needed boost to his dressy wardrobe.

We ended up doing three rounds of the deal - two rounds for Mike and one for his dad. We will submit two for our household and one for Mike's dad. We'll give him the clothes we got on his deal and he'll mail us the gas gift card when it comes. That works for all of us.

The first round we bought 5 dress shirts and 2 pairs of dress pants for Mike's dad and paid $112.28. The product at full retail was $254.98. Once we get the $75 in Shell gas card, the total cost to us for this was $37.28. Anytime I can get my father-in-law $255 worth of dress clothes for $37 is a happy time. He's a teacher and will definitely be able to use this gift.

The second round we bought 5 dress shirts and one pair of dress pants for Mike and paid $109.63. The product at full retail was $245.00. Once we get the $75 in Shell gas card, the total cost to us for this was $34.63. The one pair of dress pants alone would have been $55.00, so I'm happy.

The third round we bought 2 dress shirts, 2 dress pants and one new wallet for Mike (which I think he is the most excited about of everything, other than the fact that he could get all that stuff for his dad) and paid $117.66. The product at full retail was $226.00. Once we get the $75 in Shell gas card, the total cost to us for this was $42.66. This transaction included higher quality dress pants that were both originally $65.00 each.

All in all, a GREAT night. While we did have to pay more out of pocket than I'm used to with all my other great shopping deals, we know that we'll use the gas cards up quickly when they come and that will offset the gas part of the budget at that time. We covered Father's Day and Mike's birthday and mainly just saved us money down the road because Mike won't need new shirts or pants for a LONG time.

WHOHOO! Thanks, Sears!

Mike Joins the Blogging World

Mike decided to join the blogging world. He started a rottweiler blog to showcase our babies and to put up information on any rescue animals we come across who might need a new home. It is still very much in the beginning stages, but I've added a link under my links so that you can check it out anytime.

Down to 5 - DOUBLE WHOHOO!!!

Yes, last night we delivered Missy & Fritsy to their new owners! WHOHOO!!!! I'm super happy. It was such a relief to come home, take down the crate they were in and reclaim the space. I'm also enjoying not hearing their tiny annoying barks. I do wish them the best of luck in their new home - I'm just thrilled it isn't MY home.

Spoiled and Loving It

Oh yeah, I admit to being spoiled. My husband takes great care of me in every way. I can't imagine my life without him and I'm so thankful for who he is. He works hard at work every day and then comes home and has no problem with helping out at home. In fact, just last night I think he folded nearly every piece of clothing we own (okay, not quite, but there was quite a HUGE pile of folding built up since I had gotten a little behind on laundry).

Awhile back I was visiting a friend in Michigan and they had a laptop with wireless internet in the living room. We watched a movie while I emailed on that laptop. She pulled her laptop out and we were both online and watching a movie together at the same time. I loved it! I'm the type that can't just sit around and watch tv. I totally have to multi-task. So, I came home and began talking to Mike about how much I would love that. With wireless internet, I could sit in the living room with a laptop and get stuff done while he watches history channel, "How It Was Made" or some other such program that he enjoys but I don't so much. Plus, during the day, when I'm home working on Ebay or whatever, I can be in the living room hanging out with the dogs. Since we already have a laptop, all we had to do was get a wireless card and router and get it set up.

We had some difficulties getting everything configured, but my wonderful husband was able to get his technologically advanced co-worker to come over and help us. So, at this moment, I'm sitting on the couch with my feet up in the living room and working on the internet. WHOHOO!

Spoiled and loving it.

Down to 7 - WHOHOO

Who would have thought that I would be excited to be DOWN to seven dogs in the house? This little guy is a three month old pit bull puppy that we've had since Saturday evening. He is going to be a HUGE dog if he is only three months right now. Anyway, how he came into our temporary possession: we followed a policeman home on Saturday night and watched as he pulled behind and blocked off our new neighbor's vehicle. We've met her once. She was arrested that night for attempted vehicular homicide - she apparently tried to run over a lady on our street who owed her $40.00. This little guy was running loose at the time and she asked the policeman if Mike could keep him until she got out. We did have an extra kennel and ended up with him and several plastic bags of refridgerator stuff she was getting ready to move into the house. Tonight at around 10:20 p.m. the doorbell rang. It was two guys apparently related to her who had come to collect the dog and food. YAY!!!! He was a sweet little guy, but I was a little stressed about the growing number of animals in the house. For awhile I was thinking maybe it was a God thing that she asked us to watch the dog. I had planned to invite her to church when she came to retrieve him. I guess I'll just have to make a point to do that whenever/if ever she is released from jail and back across the street from us.

Pray though...we are meeting with a lady tomorrow after work who might take the Maltese. We didn't really want to split them up, but if it means a good home for each of them, we are willing to. We've had several calls on the Dachsund too, so hopefully he'll find his new home soon. I'll let you know when that happens. I'll be celebrating. My dogs don't bark. These little things do. :(

CVS Ideas for You

Okay, I thought I would give some of you a breakdown of a few of the CVS opportunities this week that I have already capitalized on. I'll be more specific for those of you who want to also give a try. Here goes:

Transaction 1:

2 Dawn Dish Detergent $2.00 Total
1 9 Large Rolls Charmin Ultra Soft $4.99 Total

2 Listerine Smart Rinse 250m, $6.98 Total

1 Brut Deoderant 2.5oz, $2.69 Total

Coupons:

-$0.25 Dawn Detergent Coupon

-$0.25 Charmin Coupon

- 2 $1.00 off Listerine Coupons

-1 $3.00 off a purchase over $15 CVS coupon (which thanks to Caroline I do have a PDF of it, so I can email it to you if you would like.
Used $10.98 in ECB's earned previously

Paid $0.37 Out of Pocket

Received:

$1.00 Dawn ECB

$6.98 Listerine ECB

$3.00 Brut ECB

Overall: Earned back exactly as many ECB's as spent (term is called rolled over - especially since one was going to expire today) paid $0.37 for all this stuff. Oh yeah, and I have $4.99 now towards the buy $20 of charmin and get $10 back. I will finish that deal later in the week and my ECB's will print out when the last item is paid taking me over $20.00 in charmin.

Okay, so this is seriously my favorite transaction of the week so far. Here is the breakdown:

1 Listerine Smart Rinse 250m, $3.49

2 CVS Plastic Bandaids, 40, $3.98 Total

1 Lifesaver Bin, $0.50 (filler)

2 Brut Deoderant, 2.5oz, $5.38

2 CVS Cotton Swabs 500, $6.38 Total

Coupons:

-$1.00 Listerine - can print online

-$3.00 off $15.00 CVS purchase

-$3.00 off $10.00 purchase CVS Brand (bandaids and Cotton swabs - these print out on the little coupon printer in the store. Just scan your card).

Used $12.36 in previously earned ECB's

Paid $0.37 Out of Pocket

Received:

$4.00 CVS Cotton Swabs ECB

$6.00 Brut ECB

$3.49 Listerine ECB

$3.98 CVS Bandaid ECB

Overall: Earned back $17.47 in ECB's to spend at next purchase (thereby gaining $5.11 in ECB's more than I had before this purchase). Because I paid $0.37 out of pocket, when you subtract that from the $5.11, you come up with an overall profit of $4.74 just for taking this stuff off their hands. The most exciting part is that this stuff is for my sister, Danelle, so I have more cool stuff to take to them free when we go to Michigan on vacation (only 26 days from now, but who is counting).

So, that is how I did. Maybe you can try one of these deals. The last one should be easy for anyone. You need a CVS card, the pdf to print off the $3.00 off $15.00 purchase coupon (let me know if you need it), the $3.00 off $10.00 coupon you get in store when you scan your card at the little coupon printer and a listerine coupon which you can find here: http://www.listerinekids.com/smart-rinse-coupon.jsp

Have fun!

Target Training

Yes, tonight I was able to do a little training at Target. Mike and I stopped after church. I had two coupons for $2.00 off ANY Schick disposable razors that expired tonight. We also happened to be needing bread. The Schick disposable razors in the trial size come two to a pack and cost $0.97. I grabbed two and headed for the bread. The bread only cost $1.19, so I suggested that we should probably grab two because if the cashier did accept the entire coupon, that way our total would be in the positive (negative totals tend to stress out cashiers and would probably have caused them to drop the coupon value to the cost of the item).

So we proceed to checkout, whereupon he scans the items and then I hand him the coupons. He scans the first one and it comes up with this message (item is not located) which basically says the coupon doesn't apply to anything I bought (which by the way, I have had all but 2 coupons have this message of my Target purchases this past week). I basically pointed out that the coupon does say $2.00 off ANY Schick disposable and they are disposable. He looks at the screen with a confused expression and starts looking around like he should call a manager and even puts his hand down on the radio. I choose that opportune moment to point out that the screen says K1 - accept anyway and that all he needs to do is verify that the item is indeed what the coupon is for and then push K1. He says, "Oh, okay, thanks!" and pushes K1. It goes through. He says "Cool!". He then scans the next one and pushes K1 almost with a flourish (you can just imagine him being so proud that he knows how). Then he announces my new total is 50 cents.

50 cents for 2 loaves of bread and 2 packages of disposable razors. I'll take it.

Maybe Target should cut me a check for helping to train their cashiers?

Giving Target A Try

After seeing free deals at Target on the Money Saving Mom website for a while, I decided to give in and give it a try. To tell you the truth, I have this impression of Target that everything is more expensive, so this was a step outside of my comfort zone.

Transaction 1. Bought two of the Perfect 10 Hair Coloring Kits and 7 of the samples. $30.72. Handed them 9 coupons. New Total $9.15 out of pocket. Received 2 $5.00 gift cards for next purchase. Net result -$0.85

Transaction 2. Two of the Perfect 10 Hair Coloring Kits and two Shout samples. $25.72. Handed them 4 coupons & 2 $5.00 gift cards. 94 cents out of pocket. Received 2 more $5.00 gift cards.

Transaction 3. Two of the Perfect 10 Hair Coloring Kits and two Tylenol samples. $25.72. Handed them 4 coupons and 2 $5.00 gift cards. 86 cents out of pocket. Received 2 more $5.00 gift cards.

End result: paid $10.95 out of pocket, got all of this stuff, ended up with $10.00 in gift cards for the next time around. Since I plan to use one of the hair coloring kits this weekend and since it normally costs $12.89, I consider this a big success.

Oh yeah...one more thing. Out of the 17 coupons I gave them, only 3 of them claimed to be correct. The first cashier challenged one, but when I pointed out that it qualified for what the coupon stated, she allowed every one after that to go through as it was (including some for $2.00 off a product that cost only 97 cents). The second cashier double checked each one, but found them all to be okay and let two $1.00 off coupons go through for a product that cost 97 cents. The third cashier told me that he had to adjust the coupons down to the 97 cents (thereby eliminating any overage), but that was okay. I just found it funny that each cashier handled things differently. Doesn't Target have any type of consistent policy on this? Interesting.

Missy & Fritsy

Hi! My name is Missy. I am 11 1/2 years old (but surprisingly spry for my age). I am Maltese and I weigh less than 6 pounds.
Hi! My name is Fritsy. I am almost 6 years old. I am a dachshund and I weigh 8 1/2 pounds.
We are Missy & Fritsy. We have grown up together our whole lives. Last week our owner passed away suddenly and now we are looking for a new home. Mr. Mike was nice enough to let us stay with him until that time (our owner was a client of his). Mr. Mike is seeing our vet today to try to find out all of our medical history. All we know is that we are TINY compared to the 70-105 pound GIANTS that live in this house already. We spent last night sleeping in the same crate and did fine. If you think you would like us to come live with you, just let Mr. Mike know. We really would prefer to live together since we've been together all of our lives and just lost our owner. We don't want the trauma of having to go somewhere alone. I, Fritsy, especially want to be with Missy because I act kind of scared sometimes but Missy helps make me brave.

Update on my nephew, Caleb

Thanks to everyone who has been praying for Caleb. He just had his adnoids & tonsils removed this past weekend and everyone was hoping this would be the turning point in his health.

I received this update from my sister, Danelle, this morning:

"Just wanted you to know that I had to take Caleb in to the ER last night. He had had a high fever of 103.4 Sunday night. Monday morning we called the surgeon's office. They said to call back if it spiked again. He was already on acetemetophin with codein and the fever wasn't going down. Monday, early evening it was back up to 102.4 and we couldn't give him anything else. We called again, and, this time, they told us to take him in to the ER here. They didn't think it had anything with the surgery, and that something else was going on in conjunction with the surgery recovery. It turns out that Caleb has pnuemonia. We switched antiobiotics for him, and are watching him carefully. Thankfully, our ER doctor was very good. Sometimes ER doctors aren't. If we don't see improvement soon, we'll get him admitted (probably to the same place he had his recent surgery). This morning his fever was still 102. This is definitely a huge concern. Please pray for him. Overall, he's still fragile. I am also not looking forward to another hospital stay."

I appreciate all of you who have been praying for him during this ongoing saga. Please also pray for Danelle and her husband, Mark (pictured above). I'm sure this has been very draining on them.

My Babies

Obviously my favorite of all in these pictures is the cutie in the green shorts. :) I thought I would give you an update picture on all my babies so you can see how they have grown. They are good "kids".

Thanks, CVS, for helping my sister too!

So, my sister, Danelle, lives in a deprived place in Michigan that doesn't have CVS. So I told her that if she would register for the card and send it to me, I'd do the shopping for her and bring the stuff with me when I come on vacation this summer. With four kids and all the health issues they've dealt with in their family recently, I'm hoping this can be a blessing for them.

Here is how she did last week:

$195.68 in total original retail value
$116.69 in sale value
$60.31 in Extra Care Bucks used
$7.18 Out of Pocket
$95.33 in Extra Care Bucks earned
$14.69 Rebates Coming

Bottom Line: Made $42.53 Profit in Extra Care Bucks to Spend On Future CVS Purchases

3 Adidas Deoderants
1 Garnier Shampoo
1 Garnier Conditioner
1 Betty Crocker Brownies
1 Ice Breakers Sours (filler)
1 Johnson's Buddies Soap
1 Blood Glucose Monitor
1 Tums Quickpak
3 Packages Allergy Medication
1 Almay Eyeliner
1 Almay Mascara
3 Aquafresh Toothpastes
4 Colgate Toothbrushes
2 Oral-B Toothbrushes
3 Orapiks
1 Nail Polish Remover
2 Revlon Nail Polish Bottles
2 Sally Hanson Nail Polish Bottles

YAY!!! Thanks again, CVS.

I FOUGHT THE LAW (Well, Wal-mart) AND I WON

Oh yeah. Today I went to Wal-mart armed with a bunch of coupons and a specific list. I was getting only things I had coupons for that would make them free plus one package of hot dog buns.

I rounded everything up and figured that after coupons and tax, I would be paying less than the total of the hot dog buns. I got to the checkout and she rang everything through. I handed her the coupons and she got this frown on her face. One of the products I purchased was Kotex pantiliners for $1.00. I picked up seven boxes because I had seven $1.00 off coupons. FREE!!! She looks through them, hems and haws, and finally tells me that she can only apply one coupon to the whole order because it says "one coupon per purchase". I informed her that each item was a "purchase" of that product. She went on to insist that she could only use one coupon because that is not what it means. I asked her if she would check with a manager because I believe it could be done (please note at this point she hasn't even tried to run them through the machine - just assumed it couldn't be done).

She goes and talks to a manager. She comes over and says she can't accept more than one coupon. I told her to take off all but one and I would pay for my order (as I was trying to be respectful of the people waiting in line behind me). She starts putting them underneath. I then informed her that I would want them back because I was still going to purchase them and I would buy one at a time if they were going to stand behind that "policy". She calls for the manager. He comes over and informs me the same thing. I told him that not only do other stores recognize that each item qualifies as a purchase, but Wal-mart does too. I told him that I could go through any other line and have that cashier accept it and it would work. He is standing strong. I gave him the same speech and added that it was going to end up costing them time and money because I would stand there and check out one at a time (I could feel my face heating up at this point). He decides to talk to the group of managers standing nearby.

He shows them my coupons and two of them immediately told him that I was right. You can't apply seven coupons to one box, but you certainly can apply seven coupons to seven boxes. He came and said, "oh, I guess we can after all" (less than the stellar apology I was hoping for). He then sends me over to customer service to check out.

As I paid my 42 cents to customer service and took my six additional boxes with me, I couldn't help but humming the tune to the above-referenced song, yes indeedy, "I fought the law..." BUT I WON!!!!! Whohoo!

CVS & Walgreens Last Week

This week I ended up just about even. Here is the breakdown:

$232.10 in normal retail value
$143.30 in sale price value
$11.49 Out of Pocket
$78.26 Used in Extra Care Bucks & Walgreens Register Rewards
$57.98 Earned in Extra Care Bucks & Walgreens Register Rewards for future purchases
$31.96 Earned in Walgreens Rebate & Glucose Monitor Rebate

Bottom Line: Earned $0.19 on All of This

Here is what I ended up with:

2 Gallons Milk
10 Tubes Colgate Toothpaste
1 Schick Intuition Razor
1 Schick Intuition Razor Cartridges
2 St. Pete Times Papers (for the coupons)
4 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (fillers)
2 Glade Air Fresheners
5 Johnson's Bath Buddies Soaps
1 Adidas Deoderant
5 Bowl Appetite Lunch Meals
1 Crest Spinbrush Tops
1 EarRinse Ear Cleaner
1 Walgreens Light Bulbs
1 Orajel Kids Mouth Rinse
1 Kickers Energy Spray
1 Free Style Lite Blood Glucose Monitor ($10 profit)
3 CVS Salines (I found the sensitive eye formula was 3 times cheaper than the normal)
1 Hand Sanitizer
1 CVS Itch Relief (like Benadryl)
1 CVS Flossers
4 Bags Hershey's Kisses (needed for a dessert I was taking to a party)
1 Hershey's Reese's Single Servings Package of 8
1 York Patties Single Servings Package of 8

Yep, I'm addicted. I love taking all of this stuff and still making 19 cents. Whohoo!

Living Large

I was always the one that never wanted to drive a minivan even. I thought that wasn't "cool". Give me my mustang convertible and the wind in my hair. I find it ironic that now at the age of 31, I'm the proud (?) co-owner of a 15 passenger van. Yes, we are crazy. We purchased this van from a church down the road from us for a GREAT deal. It only has 55,000 miles on it. We are selling our Saturn. We'll end up better off financially and now have a vehicle that if we wanted to pack up the dogs and take a trip, we could. I think the plan is to sell off all but one of the seats. Thankfully, Mike will be driving this beast much more than I will, so I guess I can still be sort of cool for a few more years.

I do consider this as a good Works of God Monday post because we had been looking for vans for a while and they all seemed too expensive and not what we really wanted. Then when we were out walking the dogs one day, we "happened" to see this van for sale. We were the first to call about the van and they were willing to hold it for us until the weekend when we could get it checked out by a mechanic. They were willing to lower their asking price to offset for some of the repairs needed (nothing major, thankfully). Even the mechanics said we were getting a great deal on the van. So, even though I don't think it is cool to drive a 15 passenger van, I'm still thankful that God worked out all the details on this for us.

Free Samples This Week - Whohoo!
Sensodyne Toothpaste, Aquafresh Toothpaste, Tide with Dawn Laundry Detergent, Vasoline Hand Lotion (Perfect Purse Size)

We have 4 Giant Dogs.

4 Giant Dogs eat A LOT of dog food.

I've been trying to figure out how to save some money on dog food.

We normally buy Purina One in the 37.5 pound bags. Those bags have been running us $24.99 a piece. We go through several a month (and will be tracking this month to see just how long it takes us to go through what we got today).

So we had to go to get some dog food today. I came armed with coupons to save $1.50 a bag (better than nothing). We found two of the 37.5 pound bags for $24.99. Then I figured out that they changed the size to 34 pounds and the price to $25.99. SNEAKY. We started looking around to see if there was a cheaper kind of Purina that could work. We found some for $20.00 a bag for 37.5 pounds. We decided that to save money we would go that route and I knew I had coupons in the car for this other brand.

So on the way out the door, I spotted this stuff in the picture. 55 pound bags. Normally $18.49, on sale for $16.49. WHAT??? I called Mike and told him to come up front and scope it out. Then I went to the car and found out I had three coupons for $2.50 off a bag and one coupon for a free doggie treat with a bag. So, we ended up walking out of there with 220 pounds of dog food for $63.16. With the new price structure and smaller bags on the other kind, we would have had to pay $168.17 for the same amount of food.

My dogs will learn to love this new kind or they will starve. I'm going to save $105 every time from now on! :)

CVS & Walgreens for the Past Week

Well, I gave in and decided to give Walgreens a try. My sister convinced me due to the Cascade deal, but I'm pretty sure that CVS is WAY better in my mind than Walgreens. I might have to do a complete other post about that topic so I don't get high on my soapbox here.

So, here is the breakdown of my week.

$309.56 in regular retail value
$154.31 in sale retail value
$45.68 Out of Pocket (higher than normal due to the way Walgreens works)
$77.27 Used in CVS Extra Care Bucks & Walgreens Register Rewards
$110.70 Earned in CVS Extra Care Bucks & Walgreens Register Rewards (for future purchases)
$7.13 Earned in Walgreens Rebate
$6.99 Earned in CVS Return (I ended up returning the contact solution because I came up with a plan to better save money on getting it another way)

Bottom Line: Made Profit of $1.87 on all of this

Here is what I ended up with:

8 Cascade Dish Detergent Bottles
3 Old Spice Men's Body Wash
2 Freestyle Light Blood Glucose Meters
2 Tums Quickpaks
1 Venus Embrace Razor
1 Walgreens Maxi Pads
1 Honey Nut Cheerios
2 Boxes of Crest Toothpaste
4 Kiss Nail Glue (I'll be selling this on Ebay)
3 Pringles
2 Adidas Men's Deoderant
1 Oral B Toothbrush
3 Garnier Hair Color
2 Mr. Clean Cleaning Wipes
1 8 X 10 Picture of Our Awesome Dogs (free at Walgreens on Wednesday)
1 24 Pack of Zephyrhills Water Bottles
1 CVS Contact Solution (to be returned)
3 Boxes of Charmin Fresh Wipes
5 Copies of the St Petersburg Sunday paper (5 sets of coupons!)

So while my out of pocket was higher this week than I prefer, I did get a large stock up of Walgreens Register Rewards and CVS Extra Care Bucks to outweigh it AND we were able to get products that we currently use (Cascade, Old Spice, Cleaning Wipes, Pringles, Cheerios, etc.), so I consider this week a success.

Revolution Money Exchange

Well, I found out that you can still sign up for Revolution Money Exchange from now until May 15th and still get the $25 opening bonus. If you sign up yourself and then send a link to your spouse and have him or her sign up, you each get $25 and you'll also get a $10 bonus for the referral. Quickest way to make $60. Then start referring your friends. You can make up to $500 in referrals. I've already transferred the money directly to our bank account and made $120 without much effort, but if you don't want to give them your bank account information, you can request a check. They'll take out $2.50 for the check, but it is legitimate free money.

You do have to give your social security number because they are FDIC insured and an actual bank. Here is an article you can check out if you aren't sure about it: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/corporatenews/2007-11-06-ted-leonis-steve-case_N.htm

If you are interested in joining, you can follow my referral link on the right side.

So, Sandra, what do you do with all that CVS stuff?

Thanks for asking. Well, first I take out the items I purchased because we needed them (hair spray, milk, shampoo, etc.). Then I take out any items that I think we might need in the next 6 months (a couple tubes of toothpaste, gum, etc.). Then I call my sisters, mom and mother-in-law and offer up to them what I have left. Since I'll see all of them this summer, I've started boxes for each of them of the items that they said they would use. Then I take the rest and donate it to the missionary closet at church. I'm excited that this new adventure of getting paid to take stuff from CVS is something that allows me to provide for our family as well as extended family and the missionaries!

Whohoo!

One more thing...blood glucose monitors? Why purchase so many of them? Well, any time CVS is going to allow me to purchase for $19.99 a $72.99 item, then give me $19.99 in Extra Care Bucks for doing so, and allow me to use a $3 off any purchase over $15.00, I'm going to make $3.00 and take the item off their hands. If we don't have missionaries who can use them, I can find a group to donate them to. I wouldn't buy them if I wasn't getting them free with overage.

Thanks for asking.

CVS - SCORE!

Okay, this is my week at CVS and I have to tell you about it because if you have a CVS in your area and haven't considered saving money using their deals, maybe this will inspire you to take a look at it.

I do have two different CVS cards. We were told that we could have one per adult member in the household. I have registered both under our names and same address, and have had no problems. I do have to keep track of which purchases were made using which card in order to make sure I'm getting the correct limit on each one per product and can only use the extra care bucks earned on that specific card, but this only requires a minimum of organization before going.

So here is the bottom line from the picture:
13 Transactions
$416.34 original retail value
$12. 39 Out of Pocket (that's less than $1.00 per transaction - you should see the look on the cashier's face when you ring up a bunch of stuff, hand her a few coupons and pay $0.21 for it all).
$154.92 Extra Care Bucks spent over the course of the week
$192.30 Extra Care Bucks earned over the course of the week
So if you subtract the Extra Care Bucks spent and the Out of Pocket from the Extra Care Bucks earned, I earned $24.99 to spend on other items by taking these items off their hands!!!

Here is what I got:
3 Orbit Gum 60-Pak
6 CVS Allergy Medication Packages
3 Men's Adidas Deoderant
7 Colgate 360 Toothbrushes
3 Orapik Traveler
6 Aquafresh Toothpastes
2 Tums Quickpaks
1 Freedom Lite Blood Glucose Monitor
1 Precision Blood Glucose Monitor
1 White Rain Hairspray
3 Bic Soleil Razors
3 Bic Soleil Razor Cartridges
2 All Laundry Detergents
2 Boxes CVS Brand Neosporin
2 Gift Bags
1 Exfoliating Facial Sponge
3 Bath Sponges
1 Dove Shampoo
1 Dove Conditioner
1 Dove Creme Oil Lotion
8 3M Post-It Flags
2 Just for Men Haircolor
3 Trident Gum Packages
1 Suave For Men Shampoo
1 Gallon Milk

Air Show

Yesterday my really cool friend Julie hooked up a bunch of us from our Sunday School class and got us on McDill Air Force base to see some of the air show stunts. It was the military friends and family day and a practice time, so they didn't do the whole show but there weren't huge crowds and we were able to hang out under the plane and watch them. After supper, we went to the beach and watched a few more planes including one at the end that show fireworks and had streams of fireworks coming out the sides while it was flying. We had a great time and enjoyed the food and fellowship. Thanks, Julie!

10 A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.

11 Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.

12 She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.

13 She selects wool and flax
and works with eager hands.

14 She is like the merchant ships,
bringing her food from afar.

15 She gets up while it is still dark;
she provides food for her family
and portions for her servant girls.

16 She considers a field and buys it;
out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.

17 She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks.

18 She sees that her trading is profitable,
and her lamp does not go out at night.

19 In her hand she holds the distaff
and grasps the spindle with her fingers.

20 She opens her arms to the poor
and extends her hands to the needy.

21 When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
for all of them are clothed in scarlet.

22 She makes coverings for her bed;
she is clothed in fine linen and purple.

23 Her husband is respected at the city gate,
where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.

24 She makes linen garments and sells them,
and supplies the merchants with sashes.

25 She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.

26 She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.

27 She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.

28 Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:

29 "Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all."

30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

31 Give her the reward she has earned,
and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Well, all I can say (even though I have said it before) is that I have THE proverbs 31 woman! I think of this often. And when I see the success she has had with Ebay, sports, CVS and so many other things I can only say WHAT A WOMAN!!!

Thank you all for the friendship and support you have given to her. It brings a smile to my heart when she is able to spend time with her friends.

Yay! My friend from Northland has started a weekly plan to post works of God each Monday and allow others to link their own stories of how God is working in their lives. This originated at NBBC while we were in college. Each Monday during chapel they would allow testimonies of works of God that we had seen in our lives. Without a doubt this was a highlight of each week because we were reminded again and again that we serve a living God Who as work in our lives each and every day. We only have to look around to see it. I remember hearing how God provided from the small to the mighty. Sometimes it was a school payment just in the nick of time. Sometimes it was the opportunity to lead a child to Christ on extension over the weekend. But no matter who stood up and what they said, we were always pointed back to God and He was given glory. I'm so excited about the opportunity to go each week and read on others' blogs what God is doing in their lives. Thanks for the great idea, Jenny! You are already an encouragement to me. If anyone else wants to read the works of God each week, you can view them over at mjmuth.blogspot.com.

My praise for this week is that God has given me peace. Mike and I have finally filled in all applications, completed our adoption profile and had our home study. There is nothing left for us to do. Some have said that now is the hard part - waiting for a birthmom to pick us. However, the moment I turned in that final application on Monday, I had complete peace. I'm done. I don't have to do any more work, stress about making sure my house is clean enough for the home study, or worry about when we will get picked. Now I have the privilege of sitting back and waiting to see the ultimate work of God - a new life placed in our family for us to rear for Him. I am at peace and I view that totally as a work of God.

I LOVE CLEARANCE SALES!

Normally I don't shop at Sears, but for the last several weeks they have been running a clearance sale. Many of the items have already been marked way down and then they marked them another 75% off of that.

So, in the picture above you can see my take from Friday. There was a windbreaker/windpants combo, two sweater shirts, 5 pairs of pants and 3 skirts. The original retail value of the items was $387.00. I paid $40.00. WHOHOO!!!! The windbreaker/windpants set alone was originally $50.00. The pinstripe skirt rang up at $1.74 and it is nice skirt with a liner.

So yeah. Needless to say, I was excited.

Tilly

Well - here she is. This is Tilly. An almost one year old purebred staffordshire pit bull. She belonged to our neighbor down the road, but he didn't really have time to take care of her and she ended up escaping regularly. During her great escapes, she would often come down by our house. She looked kind of skinny, so when she came down I would give her food, water and love. Long story semi-short, she is now living with us while we seek to find her a long term home. As you can see from the pictures, she is very loving. I think she needs a home with someone at home during the day because she loves to be by people. She also needs a home where she can get tons of love and attention. With our four rotties, we already have a full house and although I'm becoming quite attached to her, I just don't think it is fair to her to keep her here where she has to share her people time with the other four.

If you know of anyone who would like her and will take good care of her, please let us know.

Score.

I love checking out and having your total come to over $58 (having already saved $9.60 on in store savings), hand a pile of coupons to the cashier, have your total come to $4.54 and then get your extra care bucks print on the receipt saving more than that $4.54.

I went in to CVS today with coupons in hand. I found the above shown items. I paid $4.54 out of pocket, used $22.99 in extra care bucks and left with $34 extra care bucks printed today. So basically they paid me $6.47 extra to take all of these items off their hands. Whohoo!!!!

In the picture are 3 different Sunsilk cremes (which will hopefully either straighten, curl or moisturize my hair), 1 Sunsilk Shampoo, 1 Sunsilk Conditioner, 2 Boxes of Excedrin Extra Strength Pain Killer - 24 count, 3 Nail Brushes, 6 Exfoliating Facial Buffs and best of all - 2 CoverGirl TruBlend Whipped Foundations (normally costing $9.29 each).

Oh yes...this totally makes me happy. They were, unfortunately, sold out of a few of the other items I planned on picking up for free which would have made the picture look even cooler, but I haven't given up. I have about 3 weeks left to find those available before the end of the month.

If you have CVS in your area and would like to get some of the same great deals, check out moneysavingmom.com for some help in where to find online coupons and other great deals. I have found that website to be a huge help.

Okay, for awhile now I've seen posts on blogs of Jenny, Pam and others that are the excellent bargains that they find and I've been wanting to learn and attempt to be as cool as them. So, after my outing today, I decided to post my own success. These were my CVS finds for today.

Glade - normally$1.69 a bottle, On sale for $0.99 each, One $0.99 extra care buck awarded & one $0.99 coupon used. Overall cost $0
Jelly Beans - $0.99, one $0.99 extra care buck awarded. Overall cost $0
Oral-B Toothbrushes - $4.49 each, $9.98 in extra care bucks awarded. Overall cost $0
Vitamin C Bottle - $2.99, one $2.99 extra care buck awarded. Overall cost $0
1 Bic Soleil Razor - normally $6.99, on sale for $5.99, one $3.00 extra care buck awarded, one $2.00 coupon used. Overall cost $0.99

So basically I got all of this stuff for $0.99. Oh yeah. Score!

My sister, Danelle, and her family (this picture was actually taken around Christmas):

This past week while I was up in Michigan I was able to spend some time with Danelle and her family. I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with them. The kids are tons of fun. We sang lots of fun songs together (they especially loved the ones that ended up with them getting attacked and tickled). :) I also enjoyed spending time with Danelle shopping (she saves me from myself when I try to buy "Old Woman" clothes). I will miss them tons, but look forward to seeing them this summer on vacation.

A friend pointed out to me today that it has been awhile since I've posted anything new. It is so easy to get caught up in the busyness of life and find yourself barely able to keep your head above water, let alone take time for facebook and blogging and real emails to friends. I feel like I have been in that busy mode since about August of last year. With the completion of basketball season this past week, I should be a little less busy for the next few months and I'm very thankful for that. I love my girls and the opportunity to work with them. I also love getting back the 16+ hours a week I've spent in the gym and on road trips since August. So hopefully I can be a little more faithful in updating...
For today's picture, I thought I would share my "baby" (or at least what used to be my baby). I always wanted a convertible. When I was in Guam, the Lord saw fit to allow me to have that desire of my heart. This is Austin, my Ford Mustang Convertible. He was only a few years old and had less than 13,000 miles on him when he came to a tragic end due to a head-on collision. I miss him. He made me feel young. I enjoyed driving around with the wind in my hair after a long day in the office. I currently drive a Chevrolet Malibu and "it" (not even worthy of an affectionate name) makes me feel middle-aged. Maybe one day the Lord will decide I need to feel young again and grant my desire for another Mustang Convertible. Maybe not. In the mean time, I can look back at this picture and be thankful that the Lord allowed me to have him in the first place. :)

Score!

I love garage sales. Living in Florida gives me the opportunity to hit a good church garage sale even in the beginning of January. For some reason, Michigan never had that.

As every avid garage saler knows, there are some where you can tell the sellers are clearly trying to make some money and others where they are just trying to get rid of stuff. This one was the latter. When you walk in and hear them say "everything is just a quarter unless marked otherwise", you know there is some good potential.

At this particular garage sale, I was able to get stuffed animals for all my dogs ($1.00 for hours of contented chewing = priceless) as well as 2 textbooks and 2 video games all for $2.00 total. I anticipate that I should easily be able to make at least $20.00 on the textbooks and video games selling them on Ebay, thereby allowing me to add $18.00 into my budget just from making a 5 minute stop.

Score!

This is a picture of Vanesa and I at a place called "Top O' the Mar" on Guam. Vanesa and I met in college and quickly became best friends. Thankfully God led us both to the pacific where I went to serve in Guam and she went to teach in Saipan. Since these islands are only about an hour flight apart, we were able to spend many of the major holidays together which helped us not miss home quite so much.

This is my friend Sarah. She was one of my soccer players and my office assistant. She was also a great friend. We had a few great adventures on hotel row with my cool convertible.

These are a bunch of my sports players at Nikka's big birthday party. I had just returned from Bali, which is why my hair was still in braids.

These are my friends, Karen and Holly. Karen was a teacher out in Guam and became a good friend. Her husband was one of the principals I worked for, so I was able to see her on a regular basis when she visited the office. Holly was a friend of mine from college, who eventually became a roommate on Guam. We had awesome times and have great memories. No matter how long between conversations or seeing each other, I know we will always pick up right where we left off.

This is Mrs. B. She became one of my closest friends while on Guam. She accepted me exactly as I was. I have great memories of Kmart at 6 a.m., tons of meals together and a summer of riding around on a golf cart on "granny patrol". She took care of me when I had my wisdom teeth removed. I'm very thankful that the Lord allowed me to know this special lady.

These are a bunch of the really cool people we hung out with and had awesome fellowship with on a regular basis. From left to right: Mike (my handsome husband who was only a friend back then), myself, Jason Scheck, Tim Harmon, Julie Plonk, Noel Infante, Jonas Macapinlac, Lisa Flower and Emily Davis.

I miss them hugely and cannot begin to express how much their fellowship was a blessing in my life.

Here's to friends near and far: (though most of these are VERY far).

I was just thinking today of how much I miss some of my friends. The Lord blessed me indeed when He led me to Guam. Each of these friendships were either started there or continued there. Thank you to those of you who invested your lives in mine.

Disclaimer: While there were many other close friendships developed on Guam, these were the pictures most quickly accessible and in my quest to blog more often, they became the ones I grabbed first. I'm sure more of you will find yourselves featured here in the future. :)

Also - no matter how much time I spent playing with the formatting on this, I couldn't get it to line up how I wanted it. I finally gave up, though every bit of secretarial perfectionism in me fought it.

Continuing Randomness...

Here is yet another random picture from "the old days". This was taken sometime in 2002 I believe. Next to me is the beautiful Mabel Duguies (I hope she forgives me for posting this picture). We were having a youth group unique dress day. Really, I promise we didn't normally look like this.
Working with the youth group at Harvest was awesome. I am so thankful that both Mike and I had the privilege to do that. I miss that type of ministry. Thankfully I still have the outlet of coaching at Providence to get my time with high schoolers. Oh yes, and if you do happen to read this, Mabel, I would LOVE to have you come show my girls how to drive to the basket.

Well, I admit to being kind of at the lack of ideas/not sure what to write point in blogging. I'm sure this isn't a shock to those of you who randomly check and find out that I haven't blogged anything in a month and a half. So, I thought I would start posting some random pictures. This is the first of said pictures.

This is from the trip I took to Bali, Indonesia in 2002. I went with April Briggs, Bob Shuck and Dr. and Mrs. Watson. Good times were had by all and I loved getting my hair braided by locals on the beach and having the awesome opportunity to touch and hold various reptiles. Maybe later on in my random pictures series I'll break out some more Bali pictures.