August 2010

Celebrating Vacation Bible School at Calvary Road Baptist Church with a trip to Baskin Robbins. Cassie's cousin, Addie (can you believe she's 1.5 now?), came along with us because her parents were out of town celebrating their Aug. 17th anniversary.




On Saturday, August 14, we celebrated Cassie's 4th birthday with our neighbor and good friend, Maya, who also turns 4 in August. It was a pool party at our neighborhood pool and turned out to be a total success! Please enjoy just these few snaps of our party and our summer!!

June 2009

Hi Blog-friends,
Hard to believe how time has flown by! We've had some changes in our family--a new addition! My sister's daughter, Bryant Adeleigh, was born on April 18 so we've been falling in love with our baby Addie.

Preschool continues to go well. I'm amazed at how social this daughter of mine is! She comes home singing and dancing, full of stories of what she did at school. She's also been taking 3 hour naps! It's been a good season for her--she seems to be 'in her element' with lots of success (potty training, attitude/character growth, etc.).

In May Cassie had quite a few adventures--cheering Miss Reno (my fellow ICS teacher-friend from way back when) during her marathon run along the Potomac river (an awesome experience for us--as we cheered Miss Reno, Cassie learned what it means to encourage our friends. Now, when I tell her it's time to take a bath, go to sleep, etc. she says, "Great idea, Mom!"). Cassie's favorite part of that experience was seeing the "deer foot." Yes, friends...it was an amputated leg from a deer--bones picked mostly clean by flesh-eating critters. Cassie wanted to take it home with us and hasn't stopped talking about it since! I too learned an important lesson watching my friend run through the pain to accomplish her goal. I was screaming my head off to encourage her--and then I realized how she's been doing the same for me in my spiritual journey. When I'm stumbling and feeling like I want to quit, Miss Reno has been the one cheering me on, reminding me to stay focused on the prize. Our race-tracks are different (she's in Ohio now, still teaching), but she's been a faithful friend to come to my 'races' to cheer me on via phone calls, visits, etc. I also know Miss Reno is my most faithful blog-reader! I love you, Rachel, and am so thankful for you!



I need to wrap things up for now and get the day started. I've become a Facebook junkie so I've neglected my blog! Ah...there's always a distraction, isn't there!?!

Obedience

Hi Blog-friends,

Nothing big to report other than the fact that Cassie is potty trained and is about to finish her 3rd week of preschool! Yipes! Guess that is big news! I've been sick for the LONGEST time ever...Tim and I both have been sharing this cold/flu but Cassie seems to be doing pretty well staying healthy. These past 2 weeks, she's been really precious in how she's been sharing her growing relationship with Jesus. Since potty training began (middle of March), Cassie has had trouble staying in bed after we say good night (reluctance to have a nighttime accident, I imagine). Now we ask Jesus to please help Cassie be obedient and stay in bed, even though SHE wants to get out. Sometimes right after we shut the door, we'll hear Cassie praying by herself in her room, "Dear Jesus, please help me be obedient and stay in bed so I can get some rest. I love you Jesus. Amen." We've talked about how being obedient is when you do what Mommy (or Daddy or which ever adult is in charge) says even though it's not what YOU really want to do. I validate the fact that I understand she wants to get out of bed and play/read/go to the potty (for the zillionth time), but now it's time to sleep. We also have a little dialogue afterwards about how obedience feels so good because you know you obey God when you obey your parents. This has all been in my thoughts because I've begun to see how as a child I became rather addicted to my parents' praise. I obeyed because I wanted them to be proud of me...and lost sight of the fact that obedience is required regardless of whether I get admiration or not. I'm sure I could unpack that further but I doubt anyone reading this (with the exception of Miss Reno) would want me to pontificate regarding my philosophy of obedience. Last night we had a major victory...Cassie stayed in bed after her prayer asking Jesus' help to be obedience. And Mommy learned a good lesson: I need to talk to Jesus the same way I'm teaching Cassie: Invite him into my struggle to obey...tell him I don't want to be obedient but ask him to change my heart and cause me to obey. Then do the next right step toward obedience (don't bolt out of bed and blame Jesus that he didn't help you obey).
I had more to write about, but now I'm running late to meet my mom for a walk around Lake Ackotink. Enjoy the pictures from these early spring days of 2009!

Cassie Learns the "J" Verse with Mimi

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For Valentines', Cassie got some colored conversation hearts. Mimi, ever the Bible teacher, was teaching Cassie her letter "J" verse over the weekend and made a quick lesson about how Jesus is the "same yesterday, today and forever" using the candy hearts. We recreated the lesson at our house when the grandparents brought Cassie home. Later on Sunday night, at bedtime prayers, Cassie prayed to Jesus, "Dear God, thank you for God is our refuge and strength (the G Verse) and Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever (J verse). I love you God. Thank you for my family. Amen." Okay...did I blink and my baby grew up overnight? Sigh! How did this 2.5 year old learn how to pray back God's word so beautifully? Yep...I'll be learning a lot from this little girl!

In other news, just to balance out all this spiritual stuff, tonight Cassie was...ahem...not so nice. She fell down while playing and when I went to comfort her, the little tot whacked me with her ginormous magnifying glass (thanks for the weapon of doom, Dollar Store). I think I'll have a black eye for weeks (anyone got a raw steak? There weren't any coupons on meat so we're fresh out--I don't suppose a Toaster Strudel or Tostino Pizza roll would work...they had tons of coupons for those!!) Then, after Tim sternly taught Cass about not hurting Mommy or anyone, for that matter, she went around saying, "Magnifying Glass hurt Mommy..."
"No, Cassie--you hurt Mommy with the glass..."
"Oh, 'dats okay Mommy...you feel better if you get the tears out." And off she went to play.

Gee, I don't think this kid is gonna be a nurse with THAT limited amount of sympathy! :) Yet another area she takes after her Mimi! Ha ha! Growing up, Beka and I always wondered why our mom didn't nurse us tenderly back to health when we were sick...instead she'd set us up in bed with books, snacks, water and--if we were really lucky, clean sheets!--and leave us to sleep and nyquil. Hey, come to think of it...that routine sounds pretty darn good. Why have I been complaining all these years...what more would I want...if she sat at my bedside and stroked my feverish brow, I'd get annoyed after the first 25 seconds...so nevermind--My mom is awesome...but--back to the subject--Cassie still should not be whacking her Mommy with large glass objects and, well, we can all stand to grow in our empathy/sympathy skills! :)

Clearly, I need to grow in my sleep skills because I either have a concussion and that's why this post is so garbled or I need to sleep and I'm delirious already! On that note...adieu!

Someone Misses ME!?!

I got an email from an anonymous someone who said they missed my blog-posts! You mean someone out there actually noticed I stopped blogging?!?! Wow!

I don't have any particular excuse for not blogging...just not feeling like memorializing this past Winter. I've also been spending way too much time on Facebook, so that eats up my free time. I've been running a lot at the gym--logged over 35 miles last week--but then I made up for that with a 5 day break from exercise. :) This week I have had a cold that seems to suck all my energy--Cassie and I seem to be trading the germs back and forth. Plus, we had our first snow of the season so that gave me a nice excuse to stay home and hibernate!

I sure wish I had some great news to publicize, but all we've been doing is living our lives as best we can. Every morning Cassie wakes up and says, "Mommy, Rise and shine and give God glory" which has prompted me to think about what that actually means. I grew up hearing that phrase daily from my mom (thanks, Mimi, for teaching it to Cassie so I can once again be 'reminded'--although as a teen it seemed particularly annoying, it's not so bad now that it's coming from Cass)...but how am I giving glory to God today? I have been thinking about the 3 R's this year (2009)--
Respect for God, myself and others
Relationships
Routine

Well, looks like that's as far as I'm going to get this morning because someone is awake and ready to give God glory. :) Hope your Friday is happy--and thank you for missing me, someone!

Family Picture in front of the Christmas Tree

Catching Up

Hi Friends-
I have been missing blogging...even though I've faithfully kept up with everyone elses' updates, I've neglected my own. Thus, here are some highlights of what we've been up to lately--

Cassie has had a mysterious fever for the last 3 days. Wednesday night it was 103.7 and it's been hovering above 101 since. She's still in a pretty good mood but I've kept her away from other children so we don't share the germy-love (all together--the moms in our playgroup/Bible club say a big, "thank you!")! With Christmas approaching, however, we've had to keep up with our errands. We went shopping to Carters and Aldi on Thursday, Tyson's Corner, CVS and Ross on Friday, and will probably hit the library before nap time today.

Tim's new job at Edge Consulting is going quite well. He started the first week of November and has settled in very nicely. So far it's been an amazing change--working for a small company vs. the mammoth Lockheed Martin certainly has its advantages! His commute has increased but we're figuring out the best times for him to work in order to avoid the traffic snarls--leave the house by 6:45am and come home before 4:30pm. I LOVE having him with us by 5:30 every evening. As for Edge--they seem very family friendly--Cassie and I will be attending our first work-parties with Tim (Lockheed never invited families to their functions). Saturday (TONIGHT) the adult party is in Leesburg and then Sunday is the children's party with Santa. I'm not sure if little Cassie will be healthy enough for that, but we're hoping and have a sweet dress picked out for the occasion!

Emotionally and spiritually, I have been put through the ringer this past month...but in spite of tremendous challenges, I am joyful (Wha!?!)-yes, joyful- over how God is using EVERYTHING for good in my life. I've been at a new level of maturity in my relationship with God--and am finding freedom from old traps. I still need prayers, of course, as I know there's much more inside that needs to be removed in order for God's character to be duplicated in me. Specifically, when God brings us to your minds, would you pray for supernatural healing and forgiveness in my heart, for courage to boldly face emotional issues that I'd rather hide from, and for discernment/wisdom to recognize lies (especially those subtle ones from Satan!)and use God's truth to combat them.

Physically I'm on a roll with exercising! I have been running 6 easy 10 minute miles for a while now so I've begun challenging myself to do a few 8 minute-miles. I limit myself to an hour on the treadmill--I love it so much I could go longer easily. I've been reading books my mentor, Joanne (an older woman from Immanuel who I meet with weekly), has recommended to me while, of course, absorbing all I can from The Message. My latest favorite passage is in Matthew 5:


Matthew 5:43-48
43 "You're familiar with the old written law, 'Love your friend,' and its unwritten companion, 'Hate your enemy.' 44 I'm challenging that. I'm telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, 45 for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best - the sun to warm and the rain to nourish - to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. 46 If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. 47 If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that. 48 "In a word, what I'm saying is, Grow up. You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.

I suppose this is enough news for now. Thanks for being my faithful blog-friends!

Nov-Dec Pictures

Nov-Dec. 2008

EVIL Pampers Baby Cruisers

Yes, I said Pampers=EVIL!
We've recently used the Pampers' Baby dry brand and they were, ehh...so I thought I'd give Pampers another chance. OHhhhhh...these Cruisers are the Satan of absorbency! My poor baby's bum is covered in red spots because of the--technical explanation here-- "absorbent gel in the dry weave lining." Here's the account of some other mothers who have seen the evil of Pampers. http://www.mamasource.com/advice/pampers-cruisers/diaper-allergies

I bought 2 packages at CVS on Saturday but will promptly return the unopened one. Anybody need some size 4 Pampers--we only used 2 out of our 30 pack? Grrrr. Maybe I should try Ebay! (kidding!) Oh Huggies--I'm sorry from the BOTTOM of my heart (ha-I get it!) that I ever wandered from you!

In other news, my triple coupon Bloom trip was so not pleasant...the staff were sorta rude and the store itself was not clean or easy to walk through (lots of clutter in the middle of the isles--and this was at noon on Sunday). Boo on Bloom...I did NOT have a "come on get happy" moment in there but I had a lot of "come to Jesus" moments trying to control my frustrations!

I'm in a complaining mood, it would seem, and my Mom told me that if I can't say something nice I shouldn't say nothin' at all. SO, I shall follow Thumper's fine example (Bambi shout-out) and say, "good-night."
(Well, I'm really just out of material to blog...but ending this way makes me look like I actually have some measure of self-control!)

Haircutting at the Hoffmans

Hello Blog-friends-


Saturday mornings are nice for writing...because of the laid back routine, I have some free time to write an update.

Tim's flag football season is wrapping up...I think he has a 'double header' today at 12 (rumor has it he'll be playing Quarterback).

Cassie has experienced her first hair cut. Ugh. Yes, I did it myself. I was combing her hair after a bath on Tuesday and thought, 'how hard can it be to just snip a toddler's hair'....well, I took maybe an inch off but once her curly hair dried, it looks more like 3-4 inches! Yipes! Of course, Cassie is cute as can be with long or short hair, but I feel like I butchered her! I have always liked cutting hair...usually I'd restrain myself to only cutting dog-hair--on my Mom's long-haired malteses. We had this one dog, Tedi, when I was little who endured my haircutting experiments. I should find some old pictures of Tedi's 'bobs'--the 'style' reminds me of Cassie's curly-bob!

• Triple coupon weekend at Bloom. I'm so tired of coupons after the Shoppers' coupon trip (bought over $200 in groceries but only paid $20 due to the triple coupons) that I'm going to have to FORCE myself to go today! Thankfully I have a friend from church who is a wiz with a spreadsheet! She emailed me the 'list' of good deals so I'm going to print that up and do the best I can!
• Our Sunday night Dynamic Marriage class is over! It was an intense class-with lots of homework, but we graduated and have a better marriage as a result. There's a lot to be thankful for but also a lot of work left to be done. I highly reccommend the class to our local church friends--it starts up again this January and is for marriages at any stage (strong, healthy or struggling, detached, etc.).
• My Mom's group is going well...I've been reading our book while running on the treadmill and have been absorbing some good principles regarding mothering. Specifically, I'm learning to 'observe' Cassie better...and thus be able to shape my prayers for her more precisely. It's actually been a good habit to develop in regards to my own self maturity/development. It helps to observe/record the characteristics in my heart that need to be changed by God and leave them at His feet rather than obsess about how I can take control to 'whip' myself into shape. That doesn't usually work with toddlers and it certainly hasn't worked with myself! I guess that's one of the bigger principles I've been gleaning..raising a child begins with 'raising' yourself. I can't sow character into Cassie that hasn't first taken root in me--so I'm learning to care for my own needs just as tenderly as I care for Cassie's needs. I'm sure I could go on and ramble for many pages here...but this is enough for now.
  

Cassie just went upstairs by herself...maybe I should go see what she's doing! Thanks for checking in with our family...we covet your prayers and would love to know if you stopped by!

Say Cheese Please

Here are a few snaps of Cassie practicing her "CHEESE" smile!

CVS-All this and I MADE $7.80!

Yes folks, I MADE $8 on this deal! I didn't pay anything out of pocket! Hooray!

5 CVS type Dove Soaps ($5 back in ECB's)

1 Always Infinity ($5 back in ECB's plus I had a $2 off coupon--earned money here)

1 Gax-X Thin strips (earned $10 after spending $20 on tummy products)

1 Colgate toothpaste ($2 back in ECB's and I had a $1 off coupon)

1 Breeze Blood sugar monitor (cost $14.99, $10 back in ECB's plus $5 mail-in rebate=free)

Total: $33.28

After ECB's and coupons: $12.20

ECB's left in pocket: $20

Total earned: $7.80

CVS-All this for $11.30

It's been a tough week for us since Cassie woke up Wednesday and Thursday with a horrible cold. Today (Friday) I finally decided I needed to get out for some CVS therapy. Cassie, on the other hand, realized what she was in for and asked, rather politely-"No more CVS, Mommy!" So what did this sensitive and caring Mommy do? Go to CVS! But I did have a little talk about how we could do something she chose after we did what I chose. Thankfully, her choice was easy...go home and swing in our back yard.

Okay, so I messed up on this trip and still need to go back to get the 'final' product to reach the "spend $20 on tummy medicine and get $10 in ECBs" deal. Once I do that, it'll make my shopping report sound much more impressive, but here it is, as it is! :) I heard through the grapevine (I heart CVS website: http://iheartcvs.com/2008/10/1019-1025-weekly-ecb-deals.html )that there will be a diaper deal next week so Cassie will have another opportunity to sacrifice for her Mother! With these diaper deals, I may never potty-train her! :) (kidding!)

1 Colgate Max Fresh Toothpaste

1 Aquafresh toothpaste

3 Reeses snack bags

1 Huggies Diaper pack

1 Always Feminine product

1 32 oz. bottle of Vitamin water

1 Maloxx Tummy med

1 Maloxx chewables

1 bottle Purex Laundry detergent

1 spray bottle of hand sanitizer

2 Speed Stick deo/antiper.

Total: $52.21

Total AFTER coupons and ECB's: $11.30

CVS-All this for $2.95

Today's CVS trip was a small one...we simply didn't need much (since I've been stocking up on stuff for quite a few months now!).

1 Pampers 34 pack

1 Irish Spring 8 pack

3 Softsoap pumps

1 Pampers Baby wipes

2 Sunsilk hair product (for volume and for split ends)

1 Cover girl foundation

1 Vitamin D bottle

1 Fusion power Razor (for men)

Total before Extra Care Bucks and Coupons: $55.26

After: $2.95

I got all my "strategies" from this blog:

http://sahmmoney.blogspot.com/2008/09/cvs-this-week-928.html

Church Surprise Party

We went to Harrisburg for the weekend under the guise of "just visiting" Tim's parents but REALLY it was to be apart of the church's surprise party to honor Marvin (Tim's Dad) for 25 years of faithful ministry at Calvary! It was really wonderful to see the church express their love and appreciation for a guy we already think is terrific! Here are some snaps from Sunday after church:

CVS-All this for $11.06

Due to a mistake by the CVS manager (who kindly ruled in my favor--$10!), I was able to purchase ALL this for the LOW price of $11.06 cash out of pocket! WOW! I had coupons for everything AND 2 items were 75% off! Sorry the 7 packages of chocolate we bought aren't on display--we took them to our church group for snacks tonight and I left them there for the next time. Mentally, you can include 7 packages of snack-size chocolates/skittles that I bought for $0.88 each. :) This sort of shopping is NOT easy for me to do--it requires me to be oragnized and planned out...but wow, what a great reward in the end!

2 packages: Cottonelle 12 Double Roll TP

6 boxes Kleenex Tissues

1 pkg: Viva 8 pack Paper towels

1 AAA Battery 4-pack

1 Maybelline Mascara

1 Maybelline Eye liner

1 Crest Pro-health

1 Addidas deoderant

1 Glucerna Meal-to-go 6 pack

1 Berry drink mix-14 servings

7 pkgs of assorted Hershey's snack-packs

1 Nivea for Men Body Wash

__________________

$51.16 Before Extra Care Bucks Rewards

$11.06 After

JC Penny Pics-Cassie Age 2

Here are the proofs from our latest visit to JC Penny's...I can't recall which ones we ordered...it was a high pressure sale and I had a baby saying, "Mommy, I sleepy tired." We probably bought all the "wrong" ones...oh well...at least we got Cassie home to bed! :)

CVS-All this for $10.74

I know how much you all love to see what I get at CVS...I don't go every week because it's stressful to negotiate all the coupons and Extra Care Bucks--but I DID go today and here's what we brought home!

So what ARE you doing?

Since Kay clearly hasn't been blogging, what HAS she been doing? (other than writing in 3rd person)

-De-cluttering FRENZY...seriously, I've gone totally insane with de-cluttering. I have turned my entire house upside down. Do you know how hard it is to organize with a 2 year old? I don't recommend it! It's been a FAR less than ideal situation, but I've done it and things are starting to get back in place. So far I've redone the-

• Living room (new layout, removed toys, etc.)
• Family room (sold my treadmill and moved some toys out)
• Kitchen (mainly, cleaned out pantry and cabinets, bought a new table set too!)
• Office/library (reorganized bookshelves, rearranged furniture, closet clean out, etc)
• Cassie's Room (rearranged furniture, took out glider chair, added toys/shelves, reorganized closet)
• Guest bathroom (de-cluttered and threw out old medicine/toiletries, cleaned out linens, etc.)

My buddies over at Alexandria Freecycle have been enjoying the fruits of my labor...I've been giving away stuff almost every single day! Baby stuff, books, unused kitchen items, about 30 pairs of old jeans/pants (good grief...how did I end up with THAT many pairs?!?). If you don't know what freecycle is, seriously, check it out! Where ever you live, there's probably a group you can join. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AlexandriaVAFreecycle/

--Walking adventures with my new jogging stroller! Tim bought me a new stroller for Cassie's birthday so we've been putting it to good use! We've been walking to the library, CVS, Wal-mart and Safeway. The stroller is a bit too big to navigate in the stores, but I like being able to get exercise AND run errands. We even walked to the Springfield Mall a few weeks ago! Tim picked us up in the car for the homeward trip, so it didn't end up being a 6 mile round trip...but it was still fun and useful. I am kicking around the idea of walking to Kaiser today (right next door to the Springfield Mall). We have an 11am appointment with Cassie's favorite doctor, "Dr. Reddy, Set, Go."

--HOMEWORK! I've been doing so much reading and writing I feel like I'm in school again! So far I've completed an intense study on Spiritual Gifts, Wrote my resume and cover letter to apply for a part time job, wrote my testimony/life story, read Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge, and have been doing all this while trying to keep my 2 year old from "helping" too much. Tim and I just started our new Sunday night class-Dynamic Marriage. It's already been VERY time consuming with daily homework assignments. The really tough part isn't the time though...it's the introspection required to answer the questions. The class is designed to help couples assess their emotional needs and hurtful habits so the questions probe very deeply. I was doing my homework last night and all I could think of was, "This is SO not fun." But, I'm glad to report, I did it anyway.

--New Bible Study, Breaking Free by Beth Moore. My Tuesday morning group will start for the Fall this coming Tuesday...Uh-oh...more homework!

--New Group at McLean Bible on Wednesday nights...I've long since forgotten who reads this blog so this might be recklessly honest considering I don't really 'know' that everyone who is reading this is a 'safe' person. Still, if you know me well you know where my weaknesses are...so then you'll know what this new group is about! :) How's that for 'Unmasking'? I'm into partial disclosures right now! Seriously though, I'm honestly worried about this group because I am NOT a night person! I'm ready for bed by 7pm most nights (I don't GO to sleep then, but I could if I tried!). I have had a hard time being faithful to any weeknight meetings because of this. In my defense, I get up REALLY early in the mornings. I'd love your prayer support in this area...I want to be faithful but need a super-dose from God in order to accomplish this!

Okay...that's enough for now. I haven't even told you about my new job...it hasn't started yet so I'll save that post for when I know more details!

My assistant needs me, so I must close for now! Thanks for checking in with us! :)

Cassie is Two!

Cassie turned two yesterday and we had a party to celebrate. See the link for pictures!