My beautiful family in the summer of 2006. Poor Patrick was almost cut out of the picture, but isnt that the cutest smile?

this past saturday, we had a neighborhood bbq. my neighbor and i organized it. i think it went really well, it rained all morning but the afternoon turned out really well. my kids even got a little lesson in prayer. together, the 3 of us, on the way to the grocery store, asked God to not let it rain and postpone our picnic. later that night i reminded them how God had answered our prayer and we praised him together.
a lot of the neighborhood came out and we met some new people and got to know others better. james and i realized how much of an opportunity we have to be witnesses for Christ right here in our little community. we are becoming good friends with our next door neighbors, mark and margie. they are in their 40's but have a 8 month old son, adam. please pray for them if you think of it. they have already come to our church bbq and were very impressed by how "young" our church was and they couldnt get over how nice everyone was. this was so different than the churches they were used to. i think they are interested as they keep asking questions, but margie was a little put off when she realized women were not allowed to speak during the meetings.
i think neighborhood bbq's are wonderful ways to get to know your neighbors and get an "in" to be able to let your neighbors know you and be a witness. even if you have lived in your neighborhood for years, throw a block party! get to know your neighbors! get interested in their lives, show them someone cares, show them why your family is different.
some things we did was, block off a section of our street so everyone could be in one place. we got a firetruck to come for the kids (and james, he got to dress up in all the gear, i got a picture of it to post later). we set out games of washers, had water balloon tosses, sack races. it was old time fun.
well this is long, so i will stop, but start planning a block party and/or bbq for next spring!reach out to the people closest to you.

we are in the process of reconstructing a whole new kitchen. everything in it is new and redone. we moved in in july and tore the existing(pitiful) kitchen out, and have since been slowly redoing it. our cabinets are in, our floor is tiled and monday james put in the new window. this wasnt just any window. it is a HUGE window. we made it the same size as the old window, which was VERY old and falling apart. the length of this window is 96"! it really adds a lot of light to my kitchen . putting this monster in was a process. poor james had to spend 2 hours grinding out brick to make the window fit from the outside. red dust everywhere! and today, the granite countertops! this is what i have been waiting for! finally, a usable kitchen. for with the countertops, i can finally have a sink, diswasher, use my stove and put things in my cabinets. the guys were here for 3 hours and it looks fantastic. james got a good deal on the slabs, it really helps to know people in the home remodeling business. so after my pilates, i am going to finally bring up those boxes from the basement and set about to put my kitchen in order. it wont be finished by any stretch of the imagination, but it will finally be useable. my cabinet hardware is still to come in, the backsplash has yet to be tiled. we have mudding, sanding and painting to do on walls and ceilings and the poor window still needs some work around it. when the kitchen is finished i will post the before and after. it is already unrecognizeable from its humble beginnings.

ok, yeah! i think i did it. super cute pictures of patrick and ella with some of my sister,erica, in the background. these kids are so fun and funny. they keep me on my toes and laughing. they are both full of energy and so i have had to find ways to direct it. ella is in gymnastics and dance and patrick is also in gymnastics and soccer. they are loving it. patrick scored two goals at his game on saturday. he is still telling everyone he knows.

i have been saying i was going to get one of these going, but was afraid i wouldnt know how. i still dont know if this will turn out, but i had some time on my hands and threw caution to the wind.
i tried forever to come up with some wonderful, spiritual name for my blog, but decided, if i had to try so hard to be spiritual, perhaps i should quit. so, the name isnt a work of genius, but hopefully easy to remember.
i will try to put up some pictures, but it might take me awhile to figure it out.