Kid Funny

My son has caught the entrepreneurial bug. I've had several girlfriends over to our home these past few days to give them facials. During the first facial, Christopher sat on the couch in the living room - so well behaved at that!! I was very proud of him. He played with his Wii games and it appeared that he was well engrossed in Star Wars while I was in the dining room.

The next morning, I told him that another friend of mine was coming that afternoon and again I would need him to be on his best behavior during that time.

"Ok Mom but after your party I am having a party too! "
"You are -- what kind of party?"
" An MK Men party -- for the guys.. but you can come too."
"Really!? Sounds like fun - I'd love to come. Go tell your Dad and Uncle and we'll all be there"

Sure enough, as soon as my guest left, he marched us all up to his room and the first thing he had us do was to put our finger on our forehead and wiggle the skin around. (Please note - I DO NOT make anyone do that during a facial. LOL)

Then, he pulled out a container that holds his toys and used that as his "table". (Since I use a table for my demonstrations) Next he piled some things on top. Next he made us do some exercises such as standing on one foot and then another. It was hilarious and we were all laughing.

He finished off the party with a puppet show featuring Buzz and Woody from his favorite movie, Toy Story. What can I say.. it was precious and an event I truly wish I had captured on video camera to play back to embarrass him in years to come.

The Big X

Everyday Chris comes home from school and immediately opens up his book bag, pulls out his folder and shows me the contents from the day. Recently, he pulled out a little piece of yellow construction paper. All that was on this lonely piece of paper was his name and a big X in the middle of the paper.

"Oh -- wow Chris that's a nice X you made"
(Yeah.. we were told to write our name and to draw a picture of our pets. I don't have a pet so I made a big X instead."

I could tell that he was on the verge of sparking a debate with me about our no pet policy so, being the super mom that I am I quickly reassured him that while we don't have any pets right now, maybe one day he can get a fish. That seemed to satisfy him... for now. Sounds like a trip to Walmart is in order.

Clean Up On Aisle Four

I'm convinced it has something to do with the month of February. Last year, on the day after Valentine's Day, I made coffee for my whole family. Nothing special about that... I do that every day. On this particular day, I put as much water and coffee in that coffee maker as I possibly could. I turned it on and walked out of the room.... only to return once I heard the triumphant rumbling that our coffee maker makes alerting the townsfolk that their delicious cup of 'joe' is ready and waiting. What I came back to find was a river of coffee all over my counter and floor. It was a mess. Well... it has long since become a joke in the family. I didn't have the carafe properly inserted under the coffee pot. It was all my fault.

Fast forward to this morning. Different coffee maker.... same issue. I must have knocked the carafe out of place and walked in 15 minutes later to find a river of coffee. Nothing says good morning like cleaning up that mess (Thank you to my wonderful husband for cleaning it up for me!).

Sorry my postings have been sporadic. We had an awesome visit with my friend Beth D. ("Reever") and her family. (pictures coming soon.) Our boys became fast friends and I only wish we lived a little closer so we could all spend some more quality time together. There's something about visiting with friends that have known you for a long time. So comfortable...so familiar. They know the good and the bad about you... they've been with you through the ups and downs of life and you can just be yourself. I am so thankful for the friends the Lord has blessed me with. I just wish we all lived closer!!

I also helped my sister-in-law, Shirley, launch her MK business this past weekend. It was so much fun and a huge success. Way to go Shirley!! We wrapped up the weekend with dinner with some friends from church and had so much fun. It's been a little hard to connect with folks up here in our new church (that seems to happen when your church has over 5,000 members), but this past weekend really encouraged us and we are feeling that the friendships are coming.

This is another busy week for us and I'm praying that the weather will cooperate with me as I have many things on my calendar this week. I'm not anxious, but trusting God.. one day at a time.

I Have No Time For This

I am busy... I have a ton of things to do today, but here I am online. It certainly does not help that we've moved this laptop into our kitchen. It's sooooooo accessible to me now. I love it.

Believe it or not, I finally gave in and have texting on my cell phone. I know.... I am way behind in technology, but I resisted for the longest time. I had my good friend and neighbor, Dana-Maree, on the floor laughing when I told her that she could FINALLY send me a text message but she should be warned that my first text message to her will be "Call me!". So, texting is a new challenge and I'm figuring out the new "language" that goes along with it.

Today was a Valentine's Party at Christopher's school. Nothing like spending an hour with 19 five and six year olds to make you appreciate the fact that you are not the teacher of the class. It was actually a great party... somehow I wound up in charge of it ....I guess they didn't get the memo that I have no creative bones in my body so leading the class in a craft is way outside my comfort zone. I could have given a facial to them all LOL. Thankfully, the chosen craft was no more then taking some foam hearts and gluing them on a foam picture frame. No injuries to report.

I would post a picture of this wonderful event except the camera failed to make it into my purse this morning. Oh well... what can you do. Now I must go and get ready for my college friend (loving known as Reever to all of my college buddies who ready my blog). She and her family are coming over for a few hours today.... haven't seen her in years!! I'm sure it will be tons of fun... better go find that camera...

Must Be Tuesday

Looking out my window today, I immediately knew it was Tuesday. It snowed again. For the past 3 Tuesdays we have had snow. Oh the joys of winter. My little boy finally (insert cheer!) was able to go back to school today after being home for just about 1 week. Don't get me wrong... we had lots of fun together and tons of family bonding, but I think we were all ready for a little bit of "normalcy" whatever that is.

Steve had to work most of Valentine's Day, so I cooked a wonderful steak and we just spent time as a family here at home. Nothing is more cozy then watching America's Funniest Home Videos wrapped up in a blanket with your man and your little boy.

Hope you all enjoyed time with your loved ones!

God's Valentine Gift

God’s Valentine gift of love to us
Was not a bunch of flowers;
It wasn’t candy, or a book
To while away the hours.

His gift was to become a man,
So He could freely give
His sacrificial love for us,
So you and I could live.

He gave us sweet salvation, and
Instruction, good and true--
To love our friends and enemies
And love our Savior, too.

So as we give our Valentines,
Let’s thank our Lord and King;
The reason we have love to give
Is that He gave everything.


By Joanna Fuchs

First Snow

Here are some photos of yesterday's first huge snow fall here in NW New Jersey. No school yesterday or today PLUS the kids have off Friday and Monday for Presidents Holiday. Let the fun continue!!

This is A Test... Only a Test

"When you understand that life is a test, you realize that nothing is insignificant in your life. Even the smallest incident has significance for your character development. Every day is an important day; and every second is a growth opportunity to deepen your character, to demonstrate love, or to depend on God. " Rick Warren

The Launch

Well, Friday night was the big launch. Thankfully, the snow held off for us. I had a great group of friends come to celebrate my MK business launch and they were each treated to a facial, tons of prizes and delicious pink sugar cookies baked by my friend, Melissa of Cookie Crumb Productions. It was so much fun! A huge thank you to my sister and Director, Ruth, who flew up from Florida to endure the cold weather to help me with this grand opening. I couldn't have done it without you !!

Here are some photos of the big night.

Road Trip !

A couple of weeks ago we took a spontaneous road trip to Lancaster. Just a day trip - so please no angry comments from my Lancaster friends as to why I didn't call, drop in, etc. We were literally there a total of 5 hours. (I promise to spend a full weekend down with you all soon!) We saw the Amish, learned how to make pretzels at Sturgis Pretzel Bakery in Lititz, PA and ate at a smorgasbord. I was very saddened because both Plain & Fancy and Good & Plenty (my go-to places for quick fixes of PA Dutch food) were CLOSED!! We wound up going to Shady Maple Smorgasbord which was an experience in and of itself. The place is MASSIVE! The food is unending and the choices are mind-blowing. The lines were long, but thankfully the wait wasn't too bad. It is definitely something to experience once in your life.

Everyone agreed that the trip to the pretzel factory was the hit of the day. I had been there before, but it was everyone else's first time. What made it more special was that the great-granddaughter of the founder was our tour guide. Talk about getting personal perspective. Here are some photos of Chris outside the store.

Winding Road

The road I take to my weekly bible study is incredibly winding. There are a ton of twists and turns. It's definitely a "back road" - a road I never, ever would have found had my GPS not insisted that it would be the fastest route to my destination. As you can imagine, when my GPS first told me to take that road, I was very cautious. I drove the speed limit, careful at ever turn, every hill, etc. because you just never knew what was going to be around that next turn. I made sure to read each road sign - Yield, Stop, Single Lane ahead, Merge, etc.

Now that I have driven on those roads for over a year, they are quite familiar to me. I am comfortable with it - I don't have to wonder what is beyond that curve or hill - because I know what awaits me. That doesn't mean I speed through it - I still need to be cautious - but because I've traveled this way successfully before, I am more confident and sure that I will be able to handle the curves and turns again and again.

I was thinking how much our walk with the Lord is a walk on winding, twisting, unfamiliar roads at times. We're not sure what is waiting for us at every turn -- every decision. We know he is with us, but we cautiously handle situations. Give it thought and prayer --- follow the road signs in the Bible. God helps us through unfamiliar times and territory so the next time we are faced with decisions or choices or road blocks that seem too hard to handle we can trust in Him. Even when the road is winding and uphill and seemingly confusing - he is with us and guiding us. Trusting God is always the right road to take - NO STOPPING OR STANDING! As we trust Him more and more, and we learn that He is faithful, the roads may not get much straighter, but we can handle them with more ease knowing our faithful Saviour not only awaits us on the other side of that mountain, but is walking (or sometimes carrying us) there.

Listen closely to the Lord today and, as you spend time in His word, may your heart be sensitive to Him to hear some of the "road signs" he may be trying to impart on your journey.

Slap In the Face

It's hard enough to lose weight. I was very grateful for those little 100 calorie snack packs that are now in our grocery stores. I particularly love the Mr. Salty pretzels with chocolate - YUMMY!

You can only imagine the horror of going to reach for one of those little packets and finding that, even before opening it, that there was a problem in the packaging of the item. Something happened at the plant and honest to God, I could only feel 3 little pretzels in there. It felt like I was going to open up a bag of air. 3 LITTLE PRETZELS -- Now having had this snack before, I knew that there should be at least 10 or 12 of those little darlings in there -- but a lousy 3. Maybe that's the idea --- give the consumers air instead of the pretzels and I will lose weight -- Ahhh.. the light bulb went on. So, I did what any normal person would do (after having my hubby call the company to complains)... I had 2 bags...