For Kelsey Smith

WITH HOPE
by

Steven Curtis Chapman
Album Title: Speechless

1 Thess. 4:13-14 & Heb. 6:9, 10:23

This is not at all how we thought it was supposed to be
We had so many plans for you
We had so many dreams

And now you've gone away
And left us with the memories of your smile

And nothing we can say
And nothing we can do
Can take away the pain
The pain of losing you, but

We can cry with hope
We can say goodbye with hope
'Cause we know our goodbye is not the end, oh no
And we can grieve with hope
'Cause we believe with hope
(There's a place by God's grace)
There's a place where we'll see your face again
We'll see your face again

And never have I known
Anything so hard to understand
And never have I questioned more
The wisdom of God's plan
But through the cloud of tears
I see the Father's smile and say well done

And I imagine you
Where you wanted most to be
Seeing all your dreams come true
'Cause now you're home
And now you're free, and

We have this hope as an anchor
'Cause we believe that everything
God promised us is true, so

We wait with hope
And we ache with hope
We hold on with hope
We let go with hope

The Children of War

This picture was on the internet today. It broke my heart to see the scared look on the boy's face trying to take shelter behind a U.S. soldier. I can't imagine being a kid living in Baghdad. Wish I could swoop down, grab them all and protect them.

The strangest part of this picture to me is the stark contrast of emotions. Some are just walking across the street looking in the direction of the gunshots, others are just standing around, some are running. I guess this image is evidence how the human mind can adjust to even unthinkable situations.

I'm still praying for resolution in Baghdad but I'm honestly not sure how this whole thing is going to end up.

These are the lillies blooming on the west side of my house.
There's only one little plant that comes up every year.
It blooms like crazy trying to make us proud of it.

I planted all my flowers this weekend. Now it's time to watch them grow and bloom their little heads off. I love flowers!!!

I spotted this little begonia bud just starting to bloom. I liked how the petals open out of the bud curled and kind of unfurl in front of our eyes.

I thought it would make a good picture and would give me a chance to play with the macro mode on my camera.

Here's the result:

Remember what it felt like to write your name with a sparkler? Well, you've got another chance!

Check out www.sprintsweets.com I can't figure out how to write the flowers but little hearts and smiley faces come up automatically after the words love and happy. It's fun to play with and a great viral marketing campaign! Good work Sprint!

I read an interview with Lakisha from American Idol. Did you watch? She got voted off - but hey it's just the beginning for her. Great things on the horizon for sure!

She said she was crying and holding her 4 year old girl. The little girl wiped away Lakisha's tears and said, "It's ok mommy, I'm not mad."

How stinkin' cute is that?

We have a new employee at work. Her name is Nicolene. I decided her nickname should be Nico (Nee'ko). I further expanded her nickname today to be Nico Suave. So we laughed about Rico Suave for a while and I decided we needed to find the Rico Suave video. Where do I turn? Of course, trusty YOU TUBE has a Rico Suave video! Here he is in all of his no shirt, leather jacket, bad boy Latino glory. Besides Erik Estrada, Gerardo could explain my obsession with dark skinned, bad boys ..... (yeah I know, I married a blonde, white boy. I can't explain it either!)

Don't you just love 90's dancing? Enjoy this blast from the past!

Hey Sanjaya, your 15 minutes is up, bud!

Now, Let the REAL competition begin!

I love this picture. Mom's got a proud little smile on her face, Robby looks slightly shy and innocent and Grammy is gorgeous as usual. Jill's right, we've got good genes!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!

I LOVE YOU AND HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT DAY!

Snow in April. What the ............

Poor confused tulips don't know what's going on!

My little tree in the back yard really wants to
bloom and make me happy.
Old Man winter keeps coming back
and spoiling all my fun! Green grass and snow...what's wrong with this picture?

GAME NIGHT!
APRIL 2007

WITH OLIVIA AND AMANDA

Last weekend, O&A stayed all night with us. On Saturday night, we did game night. We played putt-putt (in the house), bullseye ball, basketball, bingo and of course, the slot machine. Here are some pics we took throughout the night. Overall, Manda kicked our butts - but as you can see from below, she also kept score part of the night - so we think a little CHEATING occurred!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've heard of Global Warming....

but this snow in April stuff makes me think we're going through.....

Global Colding!

What the heck!?!

Our next President?

ATTENTION BLOGGERS!!!!

DAD AND CHANCY HAVE THEIR OWN BLOG NOW!

Be sure to visit and leave some comments, here's the address:

http://chancyandme.blogspot.com/

He's the baby-daddy!

Now we can all go on with our lives!

Operation Gift Cards for Grammy
Emergency Fund

Don't know if you guys know this or not, but Grammy is running pretty low on money. She had to pay her homeowner's insurance this month and next month she's got to pay her property taxes. Mom said after both of those expenses are taken out she won't have any money left to live on. I guess her annuity is getting pretty low on cash too - and that's all the money she's got left to her name.

Just because she's got a nice home and wears nice clothes doesn't really reflect what's going on in her life. Any little thing we can do to help her, makes a big difference in her life.

She'd never tell us about this shortage of money - but it's real. Grammy always minimizes her situation - she doesn't want to be a burden on any of us, but she needs our help. So anything we can do to help her, makes a HUGE difference.

GRANDKIDS UNITE!!

I know there's not an occassion here to present her with a gift but I thought if any of you had a few extra dollars, maybe you'd buy her a gift card from Kroger or someplace to eat.

She'll appreciate it more than you'll ever know.

Rich and I are planning to dye Easter eggs with Livi and Manda. They are spending the night with us on Saturday. Not sure if we'll be able to recreate these eggs! Wow!These are traditional Sorbian style Easter Eggs at the Sorbian Easter Egg Market in Bautzen, eastern Germany. For more info and some more great pics, check this out:
http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=103&article=44132

Looking at this makes me realize how much is going on in this world that I haven't seen. I want to go see the world! Don't you?

Happy Birthday
Livi-Love
!!!!!!

You're HOW old????

Once again, Walmart has some cool free samples offered on their website. Here's a link:
http://walmart.triaddigital.com/Free-Samples.aspx?fromPageCatId=11

Hit refresh on your browser a couple of times, the offers change. I'm getting some free lipstick, makeup and Alavert. If you need some disposable underwear - well - you can get that too!

Go getcha some!