Third Thursdays Thoughts - Miracles

I am no stranger to Hearts at Home.  My journey with them began 10 years ago when Jim discovered them & told me to sign up for a conference.  I was a little upset with him over it.  I mean, exactly what was he implying when he told me I NEEDED a mothering conference.  Hmp!  The nerve of that man!  I went anyway and it turned out to be one of the best things Jim ever did for me.  Later I served on an actual Hearts team and helped lead the publishing aspect of the ministry.  When it came time for me to step down from that role Hearts was implementing the internet/facebook/blog aspect of reaching out to moms.  Perfect way for me to continue to serve and stay connected with the ministry.

So, you may wonder then, what is this all about.  I have joined their blog hop to help support and get the word out about their ministry.  I can testify first hand ladies (and gentlemen) that this is one top notch organization and I will do anything to get their material into your hands.  By participating in this blog hop I am going to give my thoughts on a particular topic and help link you to Hearts at Home.  I want you to participate too and comment on my post.  And I mean more than just Steph & Suzie too.  (As much as I LOVE them, I want more of you to comment.  Please.)  In the future I plan to offer some give aways (YES, FREE stuff!  woot woot!) that are Hearts at Home related.  I won't give you this big spiel each month, I'll just launch into the subject.  Like this:


Miracles?  Have you experienced any of them in your life?  I most certainly have.  If you are a mom or know a mom, you all know the wonder of growing a precious human being.  I mean, think about.  Two teeny tiny particles that can't be seen by the human eye grow into a person.  That itself IS a miracle.  God's precious miracle that He has given to so many of us either personally or through other ways (adoption).


I know that we all can think of other miracles in our lives.  It's easy to title them as coincidences or chance or lucky.  Really, though many of them are miracles.  I think of the above mentioned and remember how miraculous it was to see the teeny tiny perfectly formed four heart chambers of son's twin at only 6 week of development.  You might wonder....Carmen doesn't have twins.  Yes, in fact, John was a twin.  But that perfect little heart of baby #2 was not beating and I did not carry that twin to term.  As sad as that was I still think on the miracle of seeing his perfect little heart on that monitor. 


Other miracles I have experienced is when John fell out of our second story home when he was 7 years old.  15 feet to the ground and the only injury he received was a contusion to his ankle.  He was riding his bike down the street two days later and telling me "dont' worry mom, I'll be ok".  Please explain that to me.  You can't.  It was a miracle.


How about when Mandy was being born and we suffered a severe case of shoulder dystocia.  Don't know what it is?  Look it up on webmd.  It's not for the faint hearted I guarantee.  Stuck she was for six minutes.  Turning blue from lack of oxygen.  When they finally got her out she was wisked away and I was warned of all the possible things that could be wrong with her.  Instead, we had a perfectly healthy baby girl.   I've recounted my exact birth story to many others in the ob business.  They all tell me the same thing.  It's a miracle that girl is alive & "normal".


I could go on and on and on.  Miracle after miracle.  I'm sure I could list at least one for each of our 6 kids and several for myself.  Even when it's not something big & grand or has a fascinating story attached to it there are many miracles in our lives.  I could tell you about some of my miracles that are being shown to me in the form of friendships (ones that I've never met in person and ones that I eat DQ blizzards with).  OK!  Now I'm going to cry.  You get what I'm saying though.  Just look around, we are surround by miracles, even if we do recognize it as that.


Ok, go blow your nose.  Stop your sniffling!  Comment & tell me about your miracles.  Or better yet, if you blog, write about it & make sure I see it.  Thank you for being a miracle in my life : )

Vloggin' Wednesday

I had this ingenious idea the other day to get my vlog video done in advance.  That way when it comes to my vlog day then all I have to do it copy & paste.  I am extra glad I did this, because then the next day my life took a little detour and I was in a (minor) car accident.  That is for another post though. I'm fine now, but it goes to show how everyday can make a difference in how you think, feel, process things, etc.  I did also go back & read Donald Millers blog.  I realized that I told you the wrong title of one of his books and I definately misquoted some of what I read on his blog that prompted todays subject.  I do mention that...."don't quote me exactly".  Just thought I'd double reinstate that.  Enjoy!

Family Pictures

Below you will find a slideshow of the pictures we had taken recently.  I added a few of the wrong pics.  Like one of the family ones Nina has her eyes closed.  We have another shot that looks the same, only slightly different and her eyes are open.  When they gave us the cd of pictures they included ALL the pictures taken, even the mess up ones & the before & after edited shots.  I'm too lazy to not stress over having all the EXACT perfect pictures in the slideshow.  You get the idea.  If you would like any of the photos please let me know which one & what size.  If I don't have it, I will order it, when we bought the cd we also bought the copyright so we can print what we want whereever we want.

We had these taken at our local Wal Mart.  I feel like I've cheated on some of my photography friends when I admit that.  I have some talented friends who have photo businesses and I've never called them to get pictures taken.  We are just too cheap thrifty with our money to pay studio prices.  Not that any of you are overpriced, just too pricey for us.  We paid plenty of money as it is for what we ordered from Wal Mart.  And honestly we've always gone to Wal Mart, well before I personally knew anyone with a photography business.  It's just what we are used to.  I've heard many comments about how good they are, much to the surprise of where we got them.  We've always had that kind of "luck" with our pictures at Wal Mart.  We've had some really, really good ones taken through out the years.

We had not had family pictures taken since baby Carmen was born.  So over 3 years ago.  Except for the wedding pictures (which we just asked a friend with a fancy camera to take pictures for us).  I don't know if we'll fall back into the habit of yearly pictures or not.  Up until 2007 we had them taken EVERY SINGLE year, without a miss.  In a few years we'll be looking at SENIOR pictures.  Oh, don't get my all teary....

Enjoy the pics & holler if you want a certain copy of a certain shot.

New Do

Brianna (Nina) has been sporting a new hair do.  She got a perm.  She's been bugging me for a little bit about getting one.  I tried to hold off as long as possible.  Up until about 2 years ago I was a very frequent perm getter myself.  Started in 2nd grade and kept going.  I want my kids to have as much unprocessed hair as possible.  Nothing against those that do, I just don't want them to get all caught up in the processing of their hair.  They have plenty of time in their lives to alter & add chemicals.  Why start them so young?    Just my point of view at this time.  Obviously though I gave into her getting a perm.  I said no plenty of times and she graciously accepted that answer for the time being.  I decided to let her get this done.  She looks awfully cute and does a great job of taking care of it.  Here's the pics of the process.

Drum roll please....prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

My 1st vlog post!





I know I need to work on my camera placement. I didn't mean to cut off most of my chin in second video. Enjoy. Send feedback.

I know....I KNOW....

I haven't forgotten about my vlog.  Really I haven't.  I should have pre-warned you that it wouldn't happen this week.  It's crunch time for the Zumbathon. Which, in case you don't know, I am the head hancho of.  So I'm pulling some major hours at the Y.  Even when I do come home I STILL have work to do.  I mean, aside from all of the regular house work that awaits me.  I've always known that I could not be a working outside the home mom.  This week alone is reminder enough as to why I've never done it.

So, while yes I did take a few moments to update and post this entry.  It's all I'm taking the time to do.  I've even fallen behind on stalking following some of your blogs.  It's just that kind of a week.  Next week, I PROMISE!  The vlog is just the tip of the iceberg.  It's been a busy, I need to blog about that kind of week too.  So there is much more to come.  I may leave ya hanging for awhile, but I'll never leave ya.  EVER!  That is either a promise or a threat, you decide.