Guess I finally thought of something to say.... hee hee

For our weekly family night tonight (Friday), it was Cala's turn to choose everything. For our entertainment, she wanted to watch a movie. We regularly use Redbox (you know, the "red" dvd boxes in places like Wal-mart, some grocery stores, McDonald's)? (http://www.redbox.com) . Tonight, all I could find was one movie, or so I thought it was a movie. It turned out to be a bunch of cartoons, but really, really cute and Cala was happy with it.

After the kids were in bed, Glenn and I finally got to see the movie Fireproof. (we got it through redbox, which by the way is only $1 (plus tax)!) It was excellent!!! If you haven't seen this movie yet, please do! It's so neat to see a Christian movie very well produced. It's main star is Kirk Cameron, who just so happened to grace my bedroom wall as a teenager. ha (back when he starred in Growing Pains). It's great to have someone like him be a Christian.

I hope to post some pictures here tomorrow. So stay tuned!

I sit here trying to think of something to say! ha ha Back to you when I find it.

More info on my PW friend's son....

As it turned out, my PW friend's son was playing what's called the "choking game". While they are comforted to know he was not trying to take his own life, it's tragic all the same.
http://www.chokinggame.net/ This website serves as a warning for parents and is a parent education site. I had no idea about this kind of "game". How sad.

Continue praying for this family as they go through the funeral on Tuesday and all the grief that goes with this.

Hug Your Kids Extra Tight....

It's hard in today's world as a teen... foot, it's hard in today's world for many of us at different ages.

My heart is just aching tonight... a PW I know online is grieving as her 14 year old son hung himself Thursday night. He was pronounced dead Friday night. Please pray for them as they grieve. He was found by his Daddy and his brother.

Please tell your kids that there is NOTHING so bad that it's worth killing yourself.

A Bit of Happiness

Amidst my stress, my sadness, my low points, God was gracious to send a smile my way. I have a facebook page and have tried for ages to find old classmates, but to no avail. A couple of weeks ago, a guy from the class just older than me found me. That was neat, but I really wanted to find my closest friends too, you know, the ones back then, that you thought you would never lose touch with! Tonight, I decided to try searching one guy's name that is less common again, and found him! Within an hour, I had found 4 other long lost friends from back then. I went to a small Christian school in Orlando and so we were a lot like family in those days.

It's cool to see pictures of these folks and see what they look like now. Funny how in my mind, they were frozen in time.

I thank God for the bit of sunshine he's sent my way tonight. Sunshine for the soul.

I'm at an extreme low point right now. Please please pray for me. I am just mentally exhausted. Physically, I am experiencing a lot of issues which I honestly think stem from stress right now. Please pray for us all. Thank you!

Baby it's cold outside...

School was canceled this morning due to extreme wind chills. (as low as -51 this morning at one point!). That's what I call "insanely cold!" It was one of those times when you're told to not go outside if you don't have to, but uh... we had no choice! We have one more therapy session to attend tomorrow in the Cities and it's supposed to be cold like this again tomorrow.

But hey! It's January... it's Minnesota! What do I expect, right?!

We are completely exhausted at the end of this week. Every Friday we have a weekly family night and we had fun last night. It was Seth's turn and we had a night of Mario Kart on the Wii. It's my favorite game to play and the kids have great fun with us playing the games too. It was much needed after a stressful week.

Next week will bring more of the same, so I am trying to schedule some really low key suppers. When I say low key I am talking hot dogs and fries, etc. We are used to me cooking and I usually cook quite healthy meals, but this coming week- no way. This week has been pretty low key too but it's needing to be even lower key next week.

We relaxed this morning and let everyone sleep as late they wanted to. I think we were all up by 7:30! The kids and I have been working some on the house... Glenn has been writing his monthly report and studying more for his sermons tomorrow.

We have more cleaning to do together tonight and are also getting everything Christmas out of the house.

Exciting Saturday as you can see! ha haaaaaa

First off, Suz asked what we had for Russian Christmas. Normally, Suz we do cook for this holiday, but with our terribly chaotic schedule this next couple of weeks, we bought our food. Groceries stores around here have Russian food, so we had some chicken kiev (ok, that's from Ukraine, but we ate it all the time in Russia!), pelmeni, Russian style salads and Russian cookies. It was all good. The boys enjoyed having food from "where Cala's from!".

I think Lynn asked me in the comments section how long we'll be going to this therapy.... it was scheduled from the 5th through the 16th. We go Monday through Friday, for two weeks.

As I mentioned tonight on my blog about Ethan, after therapy today, we went to a Salvadoran restaurant. Ethan lit up to see people that are from El Salvador like him, and to eat the food. It was good food too! I enjoyed talking to a woman there and she LOVED knowing Ethan is Salvadoran. She went and got more employees to come see him and they all smiled. It was nice.

We ate a Salvadoran dish called Pupusa. Here is a sample of what we ate:

Pupusas originated in El Salvador, and are similar to corn tortillas, only thicker and stuffed with cheese, beans or meat. They are served with a type of salad that you put on top, and then salsa. Yummy!

We also ate fried yuca and something called sopes, but none of us cared much for the sopes. The fried yuca and the pupusas were very, very good!!!! We definitely want to go back to this restaurant!

We are currently driving 100 miles a day round trip in order to be part of what is called "intensives". It's a type of therapy to help Ethan with his RAD. Glenn, Ethan and I see Cala off, drop Seth off at a friend's home right around 8:30 and off we go. We get home daily around 3 p.m. This leaves us with time to get supper prepared (thank you to Glenn who last night threw some stuff in the crockpot and so we had that waiting for us tonight... there's plenty left over for Thursday night.

Tomorrow is Russian Christmas. We have a Russian meal planned. We look forward to this each year. I miss Russia in many ways, and yet I am amazed at God's providence. He knew if we were back there, Ethan would not receive the help he so desperately needs. Life is so different than we planned, but hey! God is in charge.

The current song playing on my blog here, "Carry You to Jesus" by Steven Curtis Chapman means a lot to me. I not only love the sadness in the music at first, I love the hope that is in that song. In dealing with grief, it's been amazing the things that have been said. Many well meaning people say some, well, stupid things. It's not that they mean it to be stupid, it just comes out that way.

There's no recent incident to report, it's just in my mind right now--- I am dealing with Daddy's death right now as if it just happened! I am sure that's normal at the Christmas/New Year season, and to top things off, Daddy's birthday would have been February 7th, just 4 days after my own.... and so, I am sure that affects me right now.

I could just really use some prayer. I thought the roller coaster had stopped but it seems to have come back around to pick me up again.

The Best News Ever!!!!

Hey! I have been offline due to a computer virus! It really wreaked havoc on our big pc. We hooked up our laptop to internet a few hours ago.

My brother and his wife, and their 12 year old daughter have been here the past week, and just went back to Florida Dec. 31st. (my brother's 50th birthday- they were scheduled for the 30th but due to a snow storm here, the flight was canceled.) We had a great time with them and are sad that they're gone.

HOWEVER- I am writing to say that at 12:05 a.m (just past midnight) January 1st, 2009- ETHAN WAS SAVED!!!!!!!!!! I spent 2 hours talking to him and Glenn had fallen asleep on the couch. Ethan kept talking to me asking more questions and finally said, "if Jesus is ready for me, I'm ready for Him!" :o) I can't tell you how happy this makes us! He called my Mama (even though it was by then after 1 a.m. there!) She was thrilled to talk to him and he had already talked to Glenn's parents. Everyone is of course happy and I believe my Daddy, Ethan's beloved Grandpa is praising the Lord with the angels tonight, rejoicing over his salvation!!!!!!!!

Just HAD to let ya'll know! Oh yes... this comes the day before Ethan's 6th birthday.

2008 was a terrible year for us....2009 has started out wonderfully!!!!!!

Currently trying to stay warm! It snowed all day (Saturday) and was one of those "don't go out" days. At bed time (I am obviously not in bed yet, but I mean at decent people's bed time! ha ha), our road had not yet been plowed! I only saw two vehicles come down our road all day and they were both trucks. (and I know the mail man had to come: "neither rain nor sleet, blah blah"....)

Tomorrow we are under a windchill advisory (actually right now as I type this it's -12 real temp, and a -37 windchill. That's ridiculous! HA HA That's Minnesota. It really did hit early this year though so it makes you wonder just how long will this winter be?!

Where we meet called to say tonight that the place is not plowed nor will it be since it's Christmas break. And so, we will meet here in our home. Hopefully our church members can get to us, if not, we will still as a family meet. (and they will meet in their home). Hopefully we'll at least be together by evening.

We must get out on Monday as that's when my brother and his family arrive! I am very excited about having them here! I've really been missing Daddy lately and I know this will help being with family who miss him too.

Just wanted to share a picture I took today of some beautiful trees! I LOVE this times of year when you see snow everywhere you look! The trees are just spectacular this way.

No, I sure wouldn't want to live without snow! I can't imagine it!

Last night we had some friends over for supper and to play games. It was a very nice time, after a very trying day!

Today has been a good day of church. Weather wise, we are hunkering down for a good ol' Minnesota type winter night. It's cold and only going to get colder tomorrow morning. We are hoping for a delay at least in the start of the school day, as wind chills at bus stop time are expected to be near -30! ugghh It's -5 right now.

Just so happy tonight to be able to be at church!!!! It was great to be in a worship service as well as to see everyone again! I surely missed it.

I am thinking of getting out tomorrow. Either tomorrow or definitely Friday I will go do some more Christmas shopping. I've been so cooped up (except for going to get the Christmas tree last week- and even then I did NOT get out in the elements).

Hey Suz! You asked if that's a new picture on the sidebar--- no, I've had that up for months! :o)

It was so very nice to finally feel like cooking tonight! It had been since Thanksgiving that I was able to do so. I did decide to stay in until Thursday, because it was extremely cold today (single digits) and I want to be able to be at church tomorrow night!

Thanks to all those who have really been praying! I surely needed those prayers and still do! I've been sick with a severe bacterial infection (according to the doctor), since Thanksgiving night! ugghh.

I took a round of Z-pack and a prescription strength cough syrup (with Codeine in it, none-the-less) that should have knocked it out of me! A couple of days ago, I called the doctor's office because I noticed my Z-pack had a refill on it. I was informed that a Z-pack is for 5 days (which I knew since I took it all up in 5), but that it then stays in your system another 5 days. AND so, if not better, I should refill my Z-pack on day 10, which would be tomorrow! I am still taking the cough syrup, which thankfully is working pretty well now.

I am soooo very tired of being in the house, and especially at this time of year when I love to be out shopping for Christmas. I've missed two Sundays of church and a Wednesday night! I pray I am able to attend (and have church here in our home) on this Wednesday. I think I will be. Thank God for church members who held services in their home the past two Sunday nights and Wednesday night.

In other news- we are excited about one of my brothers (a missionary in Paraguay), his wife, and their daughter, coming here to our home for Christmas!!! They've really wanted to experience a "Minnesota Christmas", meaning the cold, the snow, etc. I am happy to oblige with lots of snow falling as I type this! It's beautiful. I can't help but sing the hymn, "Whiter than Snow".

I am extremely sick today. Glenn and the kids were getting ready to walk out the door for church this morning when I began throwing up. Glenn told Cala to stay with me, and I really am glad he did that! She was a real help for me this morning.

Tonight, they are having church at church members' house since I am unable to have it here. Since they are only less than a mile away, I insisted that I was fine alone. I confess I will be glad when they are home! Just something about when you're sick, you want someone around.

Pray for me. This stuff is rough. Be glad when the meds kick in!

Black Friday shopping overall, was a good time. However, once we got home, I increasingly became sick (have been battling a cough and congestion for days).

Fortunately, I got in to the doctor's office and found I have a bacterial infection. I am now on a Z-pack and a strong prescription strength cough syrup. (YUCK is how it tastes- YUCK! YUCK! YUCK!!!!)

Thankful though I got in so quickly.