One week and one day

8 days and counting. 8 days and we will be here.

Metro Manila.

What a privilege to have the opportunity to travel the world spreading God's message of eternal life. There is a whole world that is in need of the gospel message and I feel so very blessed to be one of those who is taking it to them.

We have a great team going. A team that is ready to take Manila for the Lord. And maybe have some fun and a few adventures along the way. We also have a great support system. For us personally we have family and friends that have supported us financially and through prayer for which we are eternally thankful. We also have a church body that has been and will continue to lift us up in prayer while we are away. Again, we are so thankful.

It doesn't seem like it should be happening yet. We have been talking about this trip for two and a half years. Two and a half years. Never quite thinking that it would become a reality. The Philippines. Are you kidding. That's halfway around the world. So much farther than I have ever been. But not too far for God. Not too far for His hand to reach. Not too far for this servant to go. He has made a way. And soon we will be going.

8 days and counting.

Memorial Day Weekend **Edited**

Saturday

-Rob got home! He came in at 11 a.m. so we had the whole day.

-We worked around the yard and the house.

-Rob took the kids on a couple errands with him so I got to sit on my swing and read for two hours. Pure heaven.

-Austin spent the night with Taylor

-The kids built forts out back.

-I took a few pictures.

-Dinner at McDonald's. Rob was having serious cravings.




















Sunday

-Awesome service at church. Doug spoke on God's grace being enough for us. When things don't go our way and we don't understand why things do or don't happen He is enough for us. One thing that stuck out was "Disappointment with God is better than disappointment without God."

I did a less than stellar job of remembering the great quote. After reading it again I thought I should put the real one up.

"The only thing worse that disappointment with God is disappoinment without God." -Phillip Yancey

-We finished our series by Voice of the Martyrs. Underground Reality:Vietnam. I think it was the best series we have ever done in the high school class. VOM picked 8 students to go to Vietnam to see the underground church there. It is unbelievable the things that Christians have to endure throughout the world. We take so much for granted. We think persecution is a celebrity saying something bad about Christians or someone teasing you about going to church. They endure beatings, being thrown in jail for months and years at a time and harassment almost daily by the police and government officials and each of them chooses God anyway. It was eye opening.

-Drama practice. We need all we can get, I'm afraid.

-Kiki came over to play.

-We set up our pool.

-Celebrated Rob's birthday.

-Hung out with the Smith side of the family and had some girl time with Steph and Terry.

Monday

-Fishing at Herrick reservoir.

Somebody loves me

The rest of the week

Taylor has been home from school for two days with pink eye. It's not something anyone wants to get but if I had my choice of contagious illnesses to contract this would be high on the list. It doesn't have vomiting as one of the symptoms and it's relatively easy to get rid of. We didn't even have to go to the doctor they just called in a prescription. No one else has shown signs of getting it, well...except for our neighbor, so we will keep our fingers crossed that it stays that way.

Archivers had a big sale today and since my aunt and I needed to get paper for my cousins wedding invitations we figured today would be as good as any to go. I was disappointed. I got some paper that was really cute but there wasn't a whole lot of other stuff to choose from.

I finally bought my new camera. I waited a little longer than I should have. My camera should be here next Wednesday but the cards aren't supposed to be here until the Wednesday or Thursday before we leave. Talk about cutting it close.

Rob will be home tonight or tomorrow. I was telling Rachel that the kids have been so good this week. I've hardly had to yell at all :o)

Random

*Think I take too many pictures?
























*I'm getting my hair cut and colored tomorrow. I don't usually go every 6 weeks but I wanted a new color before we leave for our trip.


*I watched the Harrington clan today while Chrisanna is out of town. They wore themselves out playing at the park, riding scooters, jumping on the trampoline and playing in the sand all day. There was a huge rainstorm this afternoon and as soon as I opened the door to take a look at it they all ran out to play.

*Emily's class did a Mexican hat dance today. I couldn't get my camera settings just right so they are blurry. Go figure. And people were usually in the way. But I love her expressions in them.

* I LoVe Em's hair short. So does she.

*If you haven't tried chocolate chex you are missing out.

*Four days till Rob gets home. Three if he can get through customs fast enough and get the last flight out of L.A.

* I have always been a David Archuleta fan. Some have tried to sway me but after hearing him during the finals tonight I hope he wins. My favorites from the whole season were Imagine, Just another day in paradise and Heaven. Watch the backup singer wipe her eyes during Heaven. It's fabulous.

*I'm in the process of getting passports for the kids. We are heading to Acapulco next spring break and I figure if I do them one at a time it won't hurt the pocket book as much.

* I think they are doing the stimulus checks alphabetically. And our last name starts with an S. Great. We should have ours by the fall.

Bring on the heat

First and foremost I have to wish my handsome hubby a very
Happy Birthday.
The poor guy has to celebrate his 31st birthday all alone in Malaysia. He called and said when he got home from work the hotel staff had left a cake for him. That's what I call service. Hope you had a great day. Give yourself a hug and kiss from me.


We managed to pick the hottest day to do our yard sale. We had a lot of traffic and sold a bunch more stuff so it was worth it for me to haul it back out there for another two days.

Taylor finished up his soccer season by winning 9-3. And he scored a goal. A nice way to go out. He also came home with this little beauty.













His cheeks wrinkle when he smiles just like Rob's.











After wanting to run in the sprinklers all day the kids finally got to go to Rachel's and play. They have a big inflatable water slide that the kids played on for a while then they migrated to the trampoline with the hose.





















We had another drama practice after small groups. Keith, Rob, Chrisanna, and Kris were gone so I thought it was going to be just me leading the whole thing. Thankfully Keith had Melissa come in to help. Trying to tell actors what to do is hard work. I don't want them to think I'm mean so I didn't say everything I thought was wrong. I'll save that for Keith.

Austin and Taylor Fick went to the water park by themselves yesterday. They are getting so big. This is them leaving for their first year of kids camp. Four years ago. Where did the time go?
























After a long weekend all of my kids were in bed and asleep by 8:30 last night. The weekend couldn't have ended any better.

a rarity

Yes, you are seeing right, those are three empty laundry baskets. It only lasted for a couple of hours but for those couple of hours life was good.

Rob is winging his way to Malaysia as we speak. 9 days and counting.

We had the first of our two day yard sale today. I am so blessed to have my mom and aunt here to help me. They both showed up early this morning to help me set up and are coming earlier tomorrow. My dad even stopped by and brought us lunch then while I took Emily to dance they closed up shop and put it all away for me. Thank you guys for all of your help!!! I couldn't do it without you.

Taylor's last soccer game is tomorrow. Hurray!

Emily just came in with a $5 card we won in a fruit by the foot box. Must be our lucky day.

Drum roll please

Here's the new do. She loves it. The pink kind of threw a wrench in my plans for pictures but there's always tomorrow.

On a side note-We were on our way to monkey dooz and I suddenly remembered that I hadn't put on any makeup. Not one fleck of powder. Not one brush of mascara. I made a comment that included 'crap' in it and she said "it's ok mom, you're still pretty." Melted my heart.

Ouch

I went to a new dentist yesterday. Loved him and the office and everything about it. Except for the pain I am in now. I used to go to Willowtree dental. DO NOT GO THERE. Every time I went there I saw a different dentist so there's no Dr. patient relationship, last time I went they were not friendly, and the last dentist I saw looked in my mouth at the teeth I told her were hurting and said "they look fine to me" and walked off. Excuse me?! What part of they hurt don't you get. Yesterday I went to Stone Creek Dental. DO GO THERE. They made me feel like I was the only person there. And no I wasn't the only person there. The dentist actually talked to me and spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out why my tooth was hurting. That was on top of the regular exam. He figured that Willowtree did a bad job on my last filling and it hadn't bonded with my tooth so it needed to be drilled out and refilled. He even had time (gasp) to do it right then. We also talked about my wisdom teeth coming out. Yes I still have my wisdom teeth. Yes it's because I'm a chicken. The Dr. made me feel very comfortable about having them out and said he could do it in the office with no problems. This is the dentist I have been looking for.

Rob leaves tomorrow. It seems like this month is flying by. I keep saying there is so much to do but seriously...there is so much to do. I was thinking about all the stuff I need to get for our trip. Everything from a new camera to contact solution. I need to start a list because I just know I am going to forget something and be up a creek.

Emily has been wanting her hair cut so I asked her when she wanted it done. She said today at 2:00. I called Monkey Dooz and guess what. They have an appointment today at 2:00. Weird. Guess that means I better get ready.

The toughest job you'll ever love

We had a really great weekend. Saturday morning we were up bright and early to put our stuff out for the yard sale. 5:45 rolled around much earlier than I wanted it to. We had traffic almost nonstop all day but still didn't sell the three big items I wanted to so we are putting them all out again next weekend since it's our community yard sale. My neighbors told me that there is a ton of traffic and we should be able to sell lots of stuff. I guess we will be going over the house again this week to pull out any last minute things. Rich and Steph stayed for a barbecue after the yard sale was over. Always love getting together with them.


Mother's day was a good one too. Rob got up early and went to Krispy Kreme to get doughnuts. While we were eating he gave me my present. A video ipod. Yeah! Now I can watch movies all the way to Manila. After a great church service we packed up and went to Swan Falls for the day. It was a little windy but we had a great time playing soccer, catch and walking around the dam.

















We came home and went to our home team barbecue. We were both tired and not in the mood to go but were glad we did once we got there. It was an evening of good food, good conversation and good friends. A great way to end the day.

A few random things

1-My glasses broke this morning. I was standing outside watching the boys walk to the bus stop and I heard a pop. I took them off and my ear piece had come apart from the rest of them. Granted I've had them for about 6 years but still. I was just standing there.



2-We are doing a drama when we are in the Philippines. We've done it before(right Megan?). Actually on two previous missions trips. Here is another church doing it. Of course we do it better but you get the idea :o) Chrisanna and I are money girls. I don't know how good of an actress I am. Guess we'll see after this trip is over.



3-May is way too busy. Rob leaves for Malaysia on Thursday. We have another yard sale Friday and Saturday. Taylor's last soccer game and party are Saturday. Rob's birthday is the 19th. Emily's last day of school picnic is on the 22nd. Rob comes home the 24th. We go to court on the 30th. Emily has her dance recital on the 31st and my cousin graduates the same night. That doesn't include appointments that we have, extra dance practices and other things here and there. Calgon take me away.

Another one bites the dust

Emily lost another tooth on the way to church last night so she is now officially toothless in front.

I read on Kelly's blog that Albertsons was having a great sale on cereal. I went by there and made a fool of myself buying cereal, fruit snacks, granola bars and chex mix but hey...at $1 a box it's worth looking foolish. I was so excited about it being cheap that after Emily's dance class I went to another Albertsons and bought 20 more boxes. To give you an idea of the savings my original total was a little over $76. When she did my preferred card my total came to $21.20. I love when the total comes down instead of going up. Makes me happy.

I have a couple Emily funnies I want to jot down.

**We went to run the dogs the other night and Rob told her she could wear flip flops. When we got there it was thorny and dirty and I asked him why he told her she could wear those shoes. She says "Mom, he's a dad...he doesn't know".

**Emily-Mom did you know bark can hurt you. Not Bark like Raquel's dad but bark at the park.
Me-Raquel's dad's name is Bart.
Emily-It is? How do you spell it?

Hello there

Where do I begin? I finally finished the bathroom. Here is a before and after.

It's green. I am still not sure that I love it but it is starting to grow on me so I will keep it like this for a little while at least. I still have to put a few finishing touches on it like getting something for the shelf. In time I guess.

Taylor is almost done with soccer. He has this weekend off and one more game after that. We love watching him but sports take up so much time. The break will be nice.

Steph was kind enough to let me tag along to Parade of Homes with her. We saw some fabulous houses. My favorite was a Mediterranean style home that was more square feet than I can count and had a hallway that went from one end of the house to the other...roughly 300 feet long...that all the rooms came off of. Amazing.

Emily had her zoo field trip today. Zoo Boise. You gotta love it. It's small but getting bigger. She liked it though. My mom and aunt went with us and after the zoo we enjoyed a picnic in the park and went to the river for a little while. It was a beautiful day. Spring has finally arrived. It's about time.