Stay off the roads!

After several frustrating attempts, Angel finally has her driver's permit! The first attempt, we didn't get to the DMV early enough and they wouldn't let her take the test, the second time she failed the test. She was quite frustrated afterward because there were so many questions on the test that they hadn't covered in class. We soon found out they had given her the test for a Commercial Driver's License! Needless to say, the test she took today was much easier, and she passed with flying colors. For most places these mistakes wouldn't be that big a deal, but if you read my posts from a year or so ago when Nick was trying to get his license you would know that there is no local DMV for us, only temporary ones that open once a month. So, if you miss that day (or have to take the test again) you have to go about an hour away to take it. Anyway, she's quite excited. Please pray for us this evening as she drives us into town for our "pay day" shopping trip. :o)

In other news, we've enjoyed the few days of warmer weather and even broke out the bbq earlier this week. Yum! The kids have had fun playing in the creek. The water in it ebbs and flows each day. It will get very low and then it seems like a dam of leaves and sticks farther up the creek breaks through and all of a sudden it's full again.

The girls playing in the cold water. There were a few times where the water was over this bridge!

With the warmer weather I've been planning our garden for this year. Michelle and I planted up some broccoli and parsley in the kitchen already. In a week or so we'll be planting tomatoes and other plants. Hopefully this next week Mike will be able to get the tractor over here so we can break ground soon for the new garden. We will have to level out a part of a hill for it since we don't have a lot of open space on our property. Of course, we should probably wait until the ground is pretty much thawed out before we dig in!

Nick has been busy packing this week. I can't believe it's almost time for him to leave for basic. We will be taking him into the cities on the 29th. He will stay there overnight and fly out on the 30th. He doesn't have to take much with him to basic, but he's setting aside some things for Mike to take to him at graduation. The rest will go into storage for a while so Mike can use the bedroom as an office. I wonder how he will do as an Airman?

Let's see, school work is finished for the week, menu is made out for next, grocery list is made out for tonight--guess I'm ready for the weekend! I pray y'all have a great week and rejoice in the blessings He has bestowed.

Till next time,
God's love and blessings,
Tammy

I think I need knee pads!

It's amazing how one or two people's decisions can affect so many others. This week I have spent much time in prayer and supplication, both for friends who I know are hurting, and for our own family. I won't get into all the details, but suffice it to say, God is still God and He is more than capable of taking care of our concerns. Sometimes we simply need to ask for His perspective on things, and the things that seemed so awful and heart wrenching can come into better focus. I can truly say that I have felt His awesome peace and comfort this week. If not, I would be a bawling mess. The theme for our upcoming Ladies' Luncheon at church is "The God of all Comfort". How appropriate for me this week. My only wish is that it didn't take such horrendous circumstances to make me spend this much time talking with my Lord. Don't get me wrong, I have my devotion times and pray throughout the day, but this week has been different. I found myself praying almost non-stop, and about all different things. I hope that I will continue in this fellowship. It has truly been sweet.

Other life notes for us--the kids and I did a bit of exploring today on the property. The snow has begun to melt, and the creek in front of our house has water in it for the first time since we moved in here. In fact, at one point today it was flowing over our little bridge. It's supposed to continue raining a bit the next few days and be warm enough to melt more snow. I don't know if this is what it does every spring, but it's pretty cool to watch!

This is the "dry" creek next to our house. That's a lot of water!

I guess that's about it for us. Till next time...

God's love and blessings.

Blogging is just not my thing!

I can't believe it's been 6 months since I last updated this blog! Oops! I guess it's better late than never.

First off, I have to say that we've enjoyed our first winter in our home. It's absolutely gorgeous here! Our biggest challenge was figuring out how to keep it heated evenly throughout. This is probably a challenge with all 2-story homes, but since our thermostat is on the upper level, it took a bit more work to figure it out how to get the downstairs to warm up without over-heating the upstairs. Eventually we're probably going to have to replace the siding and insulation to help conserve heat better, but it works well for now.

This is a picture I took one morning when everything was covered in snow and frost.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was nice to be able to have family over. Mike and I both moved around a lot as kids, and we both missed out on the big family holidays. My folks always invited the single Marines over so they wouldn't spend the holiday in the barracks, which was nice, but that wasn't quite the same. We're both hoping that as our kids grow up and move away, they'll always be close enough to come "home" for the holidays.

Speaking of growing up and moving away, Nick will be leaving for Air Force Basic Training on March 30. I have very mixed emotions on this and I'm not going to blog much on it as I don't want all the negative ones to come out right now. There's not a lot of job opportunities here and, Lord willing, this will help him get out on his own, get an education, and figure out what he would like to do. He's hoping that it might help him to get stationed in Japan again. :o) Whatever the future brings for him, I pray that he would walk close to the Lord and honor Him in all that he does.

We have a new member of our family now. Mike's mom, Carole, surprised me with a Yorkie puppy for Christmas. We've named him CoCo in honor of when we got him (what's winter time without hot cocoa?) and the brown coloring on him that reminds us all of our favorite curry restaurant in Japan, CoCo's. He's the cutest thing, but boy is he a stinker! At the present time, he's not allowed upstairs except to go in his kennel at bedtime. He seems to think the upstairs is a great place to use the bathroom whether we're up there or not. We're trying to figure out what to do once the ground thaws. I'd like for him to come outside with us and be able to run, but he also doesn't like to "come". We've been working on it, but, unless the leash is on, his ears don't seem to work very well. :o( I'm worried about him running into the street. We're trying to weigh the pros and cons of a fence vs electric fence. Any opinions?

This picture was taken when we first got him. That's the look he gives me when he's in trouble!

This is the Prince and Princess of the house!

Let's see, what else is going on around here? Angel is taking Driver's Ed right now, and I've been teaching a few classes. I just finished teaching a basic cake course through a community education program. I'm trying to get my Stampin' Up! business up and running again and am going to teach some cake decorating classes here at home. I've also started teaching the Preschool/Kindergarten Sunday School class at church. I love it! The kids and I have so much fun, and I love to see when they've really grasped a lesson-especially when they've applied it to their own life (i.e. "God wants me to "love one another". Hitting my brother would make Him sad, so I won't do it.") It's such a fun age to teach.

Well, I have a cake in the oven, so I will close this post here with no promises as to when I will post again, but hopefully, soon.

Till next time, God's love and blessings,
Tammy