The Wedding

I spent yesterday morning at the church where the wedding was held, helping to set up and decorate. After rushing back to the hotel to change we arrived at the church and saw my brother in the parking lot.

I took the opportunity to snap a nice photo of them together.

The church is a historic landmark in Long Beach and the windows and woodwork were beautiful. The flowers for the pews and the candlelabra were calalilies and ivy.

The stained glass window is beautiful!

Pew flowers...

Mother of the bride and Mother of the groom...

The bride was radiant and very relax and excited.

A whispered moment during the service.

The kiss...Rachel was taking photos at this point. Didn't she do a great job?

My brother's family.

Father - daughter dance...

The groom and friends dancing...

Pretty little tables...

Brides bouquet...

Flowers for the reception...I did these from flowers I purchased at Costco! They were in quart sized canning jars with ribbons...12 floral arrangements.

Mini cheesecakes, cream puffs, chocolate fountains, cake....perfect!

It was a lovely day.

Fun In California

Rachel and I are having a fine time in California though we haven't seen the beach or anyone famous.

We have seen more important folk than that however - one being my great nephew Cayden.

Isn't he a doll? He loves to eat and snack on puffs!

Here Rachel is helping Jill make rice crispy treats using the old family method of adding peanut butter.

Here is my mom at the get together to make wedding favors...

Jill and Rachel again - showing off their cutie pie aprons!

The one with the pink icing was a finished products. We cut out the rice crispy treats with rounds and glued them together with frosting, then added color decorator frosting! They then got packed into a cellophane bag and tied with a silver ribbon!

Rachel and I also got to babysit for Cayden this morning! He was so fun, and we liked playing with his fun toys!

Tomorrow is the wedding - I need to go to bed now and get my beauty sleep! I will try to post more photos tomorrow!

All My Bags Are Packed....

www.allposters.com

But I am not ready to go!

As much fun as I am going to have, my heart is here with my sweet family. I am going to miss my little boy climbing into our bed and rubbing my arm in the morning. I am going to miss my little girl and her great imagination. I am going to miss my big girlies too, they are my dear friends. I can't even begin to say how much I am going to miss my bestest friend Tim. He has been working lots of overtime to pay for Rachel and I to go. Thank you my love!

Once I go, I will be fine. Really. Rachel and I will get to make memories together and with my parents with whom we are traveling. We get to go and eat fabulous Mexican food! We get to see Cayden and play with him! We get to be at my niece's wedding...I remember the day she was born, now she will be a wife. Wow! I get to hug my brother and Paula and hang with Evan and Kaitlin. I might even get to go to lunch with Alicia!

Pray for smooth flying and for a really special time in California! Thanks!

I'm Learning...

Our church has been watching materials from Voice of the Martyrs in our Sunday School classes, the past two weeks.

This past week we watched a video of Richard Wurmbrand speaking in a church. The message was excellent and one of the stories he told has stayed with me. He was telling the story of a beautiful young Russian woman who was a Christian and was arrest for this. She was beaten and tortured repeatedly. During the breaks that the torturers would take she would talk to them. During one such time, as she shared with this particular man, she was able to lead him to the Lord! He even insisted that she baptize him and then he released her from prison.

Richard made a comment during the midst of this story that has impacted me - he said that God loves the world, we wonder how God could allow these things to happen to Christians, but since the world won't come to where they can hear about Christ, God sends Christians to them! This young woman didn't enjoy being beaten but she had a love for them because God loved them! This enabled her to share her faith with them.

I am paraphrasing this badly, but it has lead to me to realize that the frustrating situations we find ourselves in sometimes, or difficult people God has placed in our lives is so that we can come into contact with others who don't know Christ. It has made me realize that God wants me to stop being self oriented "I wish I didn't have to deal with this" and to start looking for the opportunities to share Him with others. Sometimes it is through a verbal opportunity to witness to someone you may never meet again, other times it is longer term relationships.

So to make a long story short, I am going to start looking at the situations God allows in my life, as an opportunity to be God's hands or voice. I know He will need to remind me about this - it's going to make for an interesting life.

So Much To Do

Last night I did not feel too well....I had some indigestion and it hung around 'til the wee hours of the morning.

I also have been having a lot of sinus issues lately. I use a neti pot every day with salt water and it really does help. I bought one for Tim several years ago, because he was suffering from sinus infections several times a year and now never gets one. He finds he only needs to use it once a week, unless he feels like he is getting a cold, then he uses it everyday.

So today I feel better but tired and I have headache. I am leaving on Wednesday for California and I need to pick up some items for my trip and teach school and take Sarah to piano today...

I don't have time to not feel well. There - I will just refuse to be unwell. Think it will work?

Seriously, I am praying, and I am asking you to pray for me as well.....

Thanksgiving

I have started to do fun and educational things with my little ones for Thanksgiving. It helps me to not skip over this holiday in my quest for being saturated with Christmas!

A friend gave me a unit study book called "Celebrate Thanksgiving" by Charlene Notgrass. It has fun lessons in it and craft ideas - just up the little ones learning alley!

I also like to use "Thanksgiving - A Time To Remember" by Barbara Rainey. Barbara is the wife of Dennis Rainey who hosts the "Family Life Today" radio program. This is a wonderful book that tells the pilgrim story on two levels - one in larger font if you are reading it to children and the whole book for adults. It also comes with a great cd of music! There are not a lot of cd's out there with Thanksgiving music. You can find this great resource here.

I am going to California next week and coming back the Monday before Thanksgiving. Tim always takes that week off and we take the week of from school. So I am starting my Thanksgiving lessons a bit early this year.

I also am having to think ahead as far as a menu for meals for the days I am gone. Lindsay and Emily are great cooks, but I need to see what they want to make that

week and make sure they have all the ingredients!

This week has been a blur for me - I haven't been home much. Every day I have been out for a good portion of the day; Monday - shopping trip with the ladies of my family, Tuesday - Tim and I took our son and his girlfriend to lunch and then I ran errands while I was in that area. Wednesday - I was at our church making Wildlife Tree Ornaments with our co-op's 4-6th graders! Then we delivered them to Longwood Gardens! Today we have co-op and being the leader I am there from about 12:30 - 4:00 pm. Tomorrow is my grocery day...although I may just get what I need on the way home today!

I would love to hear what your traditions are for Thanksgiving! I will be doing a few more posts on this subject in the next week as well.

Thank You Veteran's

Thank you Dad, Grandpa, Uncle Raymond, Uncle Davy, Cousin Rob...

Thank you to all who serve or have served. We are thankful for you.