Well, it's not the ONLY reason why but it's one of many! I could not find this photo two weeks ago to post on my blog and lo and behold it was still on my phone. One of our homeschool friends had car trouble so one of my sister-friends and I helped out. I pushed them from a VERY busy and VERY dangerous intersection with EXTREMELY rude people (And I seriously doubt they were ALL from the north!) to the Home Depot just up the street. By God's grace we got them there safely. Then my sister-friend drove them home from there. It was pretty exciting. I had another sister-firends' children in our van and everyone was soooo excited and yelling and couldn't believe that I was PUSHING another car up the road!!
Here is one of my roses in full bloom!
Easter sign Number One! The other one says He is risen. I am going to attempt to put lilies of the valley on this one. Since I have more time on these I figured I would try to add a little verve to them!
Here we are at my sister-in-law's getting John and Rachel. Ning, their dog, loves Beatrice. She did not want to leave her side. It was so cute!
Best cousins!! :) John and Robert love each other so much. It is soo cute.
We had french bread pizza and everyone got to help make them. And yes, I survived! Seven kids, six pieces of french bread, sauce, pepperoni, cheese! Wow!! They all had a great time and everyone ate their food.
I promised Robert's basketball coach I would make cupcakes for his team. Beaker and Beatrice wanted to help. Thankfully, they are VERY helpful. Well, except when they miss the bowl with, of all things, the sugar! Messy. But we got it cleaned up fairly well. The boys loved the cupcakes too, which is always a plus.
I think our family has some sort of hereditary anomaly that involves underwear on the head! Beaker and Kristinie the Great are being super heroes and for some reason think they need underwear on their heads!! Ha ha ha!! They make me laugh. Please don't notice the VERY messy room in the background - we live in our house!
Here is Robert's hero! No, not Beatrice - the fella to the left. He is a Senior in high school at a high school on the south end of town and Robert and Mr. Handsome go watch him play football whenever they can. Now they are going to watch him play baseball. He promised Robert he would come to one of his games and he made it to his last game! He is such a great young man. He even has a full scholarship to play baseball at North Carolina State University!!
Here is Beaker with Mr. Handosme's hat on - always willing to strike a pose!
Here is Maddie posing for her "team" photo. She does not like getting her photo taken AT ALL.
And here she is with her trophy!
We decided to celebrate our anniversary two days early because we were going away and we didn't want the children to miss the celebration. Didn't I do a great job wrapping?!! Wait till you see what we got Mr. Handsome. Everyone but Maddie helped me pick the stuff out! She was at band.
Here is Mr. Handsome with his present!
No explanation necessary but if you look at Mr. Handsome's neck, he is wearing one of his presents. We bought him a NC State lanyard. And toothbrush. AND key chain. AND.......
Everyone needs a trashcan with a big wolf and NC State logo on it, right?! And Beaker is holding his card.
Beaker does not like to take naps - or sleep for that matter. I don't know what's wrong with her. All of our other children followed my well planned, well tuned, and very precise schedule. She won't and doesn't follow it. In fact, I don't think up until last week, I've slept five nights in a row since she was born!! And here, on Sunday afternoon, I just gave up and told her to go sit in the big chair, I walked into the kitchen, and walked back out and VOILA! She is asleep.
After Beaker woke up, we headed out to AWANA for our Birthday Bash/AWANA store/Pizza Party!! It was great. I was in charge of the pin the tail on the donkey with one of my sister-friends! We had a lot of fun. Here is Beaker trying to pin the tail.
And John....
Rachel getting a little help....
Lindsay and the egg race....
Maddie (who told me not to take a photo).....
Rachel at the egg race...
Beaker at the egg race.....
Robert getting ready to pin the tail on the donkey....
Beatrice..... (Notice the bow placed precisely on her head so she looks beautiful!)
Maddie and Rachel playing....
Last week, Mr. Handsome and I went to Myrtle Beach for the week. (which is why I got five nights of sleep!) Mr. Handsome headed toward Eagle Springs to meet his parents, who were watching the children for the week. And I finished getting ready, ran a few errands, then headed to Myrtle Beach. We had a terrific time! I didn't take any photos because we didn't do anything exciting. I did take a picture of this puffer fish at Bass Pro Shop. And below is a photo of a shark hanging in the store. I think it's fake - I hope it is anyway. That's it. God's blessed me with Mr. Handsome. If you had told me 20 years ago, I would be here, I would not have believed it and neither would anyone in my family or any of my friends. But by God's grace, I am here. And I couldn't be more content and happier. Mr. Handsome wasn't always Mr. Handsome. He was actually Mr. Annoying!! That was before he got saved. I know that sometimes we think that having the Lord in our life is not that big of a deal but it really is. It not only assures your passage to Heaven when you die, but He (the Lord) changes our lives for the better. It doesn't mean our life necessarily GETS better, but we are changed for the better. And that is precisely what happened to Mr. Handsome in March of 1998. He became a different person. He had been in love with me for quite some time but, for obvious reasons, I wasn't not interested in him. My friends, even my Dad!, were encouraging me to consider him, but I knew at the time, that it would never work out. And one thing I told the Lord was that after what I had gone through, I would not marry ANYONE ever, until they met every criteria on MY LIST. I tell young ladies they should always have a list of what they are looking for in a husband. Not things like "must have money" but things that would make the person compatible with them. I even taped my list into my Bible to remind me. Because, I can tell you, when you're in a church and you're faithful, and you're busy working, single men come out of the woodwork!! Thankfully, my list kept them at bay! I personally think they were pretty desperate, but anyway! I had something to look for in each of them. I didn't need to date them to find out they were not "the One" - I only needed to watch. But the funny thing is, my list fit Mr. Handsome and his list (Yes, he had a list, which really surprised me!) fit me! Well, actually that's not true - the one thing on my list that didn't fit Mr. Handsome was that he had not gotten saved and surrendered his life to the Lord Jesus Christ. I knew that but never told anyone. I did not want to embarass him. I knew he wasn't saved because he told me he wasn't. But he thought he was. It wasn't until a Monday night in our Bible Institute in March of 1998 that he realized he was not saved. The following night, he received Christ as his personal Saviour. And then on Wednesday he came in my office and told me. We worked together - well, I worked for him because our boss thought it would be a good idea!! HA ha! I thought he was quitting and I was so worried he was going to leave before he got saved, I didn't even notice when he told me he got saved. But it finally sunk in. So I watched and he was a different person! So different in fact, that in April of the same year, he asked me if I would go to lunch with him so I acquiesced. (I was not happy about going somewhere with him and having people think we were an "item"). After lunch, he said he had to fly to Canada and then to Madison, Wisconsin and he wanted me to think about spending the rest of my life with him. He said he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. I don't even know what I muttered but was so surprised he actually confronted me. He said he wanted me to think about it and he wanted an answer when he got back because he had to move on with his life or prepare for a life with me. So he left and I didn't know what to do. I don't even think I told anyone what he said because I didn't want anyone to get their hopes up. One of our good friends noticed I was not myself and called me and told me I needed to make a decision (they had no idea that Mr. Handsome had even spoken to me!) so I said OK. And hung up. I really sought the Lord about this. I was pretty happy doing my own thing and serving the Lord faithfully. I did want to be married and have a family but figured that would happen when I grew up. At that point, the Lord reminded me I WAS grown up. I was 31 after all!!! So I stepped out in faith and decided that I would commit myself to Mr. Handsome. When he got back from his trip, I was pretty stressed out because I figured maybe he was just kidding and by that time it was the beginning of May. He asked me out on a date and I said yes, which I believe surprised him. I don't think he ever said anything about his question, though I know he didn't forget about it. After about two weeks, he was supposed to go to his cousin's college graduation but he got very sick. It also happened to be my birthday weekend. He ended up cancelling and I made him some soup and brought it to him on that Friday and the next day he was much better so he took me out for my birthday and we went down to Wrightsville Beach and he asked me about spending the rest of my life with him. I told him I thought that was what God wanted for me and then he "offiically" proposed! We were married on February 27, 1999. God has blessed us with 13 years together and five terrific children. I am amazed everyday how God has given me above and beyond anything I could ask or imagine. I hope never to take Mr. Handsome for granted! He is the best!
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