Learning

Tori is taking her first psychology class and so far she digs it. Last night she came home and talked about how her class discussed the way a person learns. The best way I can explain what she said is that people learn more from experience and story and pictures than they do from lists and outlines.

Personally I remember more about high school biology than I remember about high school geography. Why? My high school biology teacher ditched the textbook and lectured about biology. She told stories that related to biology and made biology practical. On top of that we had labs to complete where we experienced biology first hand. We watched her pet snake kill and eat a mouse – how cool is that? The day that she started the unit on reproductive studies she came to class with a bag on her head acting as if she was embarrassed to teach such a taboo subject.

On the other hand I had a geography teacher that taught China was on the other side of the world and had billions of people and the capital was Beijing. Now memorize it and repeat it on a test. Geography could have been such a good class but sadly even though I passed I didn’t learn much about geography.

I am reading a book by Fareed Zakaria called The Post American World. It is a very good book and I highly recommend it for a hopeful perspective of the world we live in. He had a couple of quotes about education that I thought were interesting.

Zakaria talks about how America has fallen behind some of the world in test scores in science and math (especially Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore) and how the statistics that are often quoted are a bit misleading. He recalls growing up in India where memorization was valued and students were taught to memorize huge amounts of information and the recall it on a test (then promptly forget it after the test was taken). During college he came to America and the educational system was a bit more relaxed than what he was used to, but it valued “developing the critical faculties of the mind, which is needed to succeed in life”.

Here are some of Zakaria’s quotes:

“Other systems teach you to take tests; American systems teach you how to think.”

“…there are parts of the intellect that we are not able to test well – like creativity, curiosity, a sense of adventure and ambition …” (from a Singaporean teacher observing American students)

“While America marvels at Asia’s test taking skills, Asian countries come to America to figure out how to get their kids to think.”

As our kids grow, I think it is more important for them to think critically and to think for themselves than to remember the capital of Uzbekistan or score well on the TAKS test (or whatever standard assessment is used this year). I want my kids to challenge basic assumptions, be creative, have a curiosity about the world around them, make good decisions and be ambitious. I believe those qualities will help them become people who live life well. I believe those qualities will give them an advantage in a world that is shrinking where competition is global. Hopefully their parents and teachers are steering them that direction, especially since this year for Jakeb and Anna their parents and teachers are one in the same.

One thing is for sure.....

..... Obama definitely knows how to say "thank you". "Thank you, thank you so much, thank you, thank you everbody, thank you very much, thank you, thank you everybody..... " and on and on and on. He must have said "thank you" 30 times before he really started saying anything. Good grief, it was annoyingly funny! We had a good laugh about that.

If nothing else comes of this election, which is probable, there are some great lessons to be learned. We had a great conversation with our kids last night about all the politics going on right now. Usually, all of what politicians have to say (Obama and McCain included) sounds really good but what are they really saying? And how will what they say they want to do affect other things? Obama presented his speech very well last night and it would be easy to just believe everything he said was great based on how well spoken he is. We'll see how McCain does but history would show that he won't do as well in the speaking department. It's just a good lesson in digging deeper to find out what they're really saying and not just take it for face value.

Thank you. :)


"Effective questioning brings insight, which fuels curiosity, which cultivates wisdom." — Chip Bell

Devotions Made Easy

I’ve said in a previous post that I really stink at having disciplined daily devotions and journal time. I remembered that I’d found some on-line helps in the past that I haven’t looked at in a while. Technology might just be the key. I re-discovered a children’s devotional site that I had forgotten about and it has an audio format so you can read along while you listen. For some children (and adults!), that's a great learning style. I listened to today’s entry and it’s pretty good. Parents and teenage siblings will probably think it’s kind of like watching Barney or Teletubbies but the message is good for younger kids and presented at their level of understanding.

I think I will incorporate it into Anna’s morning routine. She can take 5 minutes and go sit and listen before school starts or we could even listen to it while she’s eating breakfast since we have recently joined the 21st century with laptops and Wi-Fi!! I’m sure it’s not proper etiquette to have a computer at the table – kinda like elbows on... or singing at... but it’s spiritual stuff so that makes it okay, right? My mom really did teach me better than that.........

One of our main points of focus in homeschooling Anna will be to familiarize her more with scripture and teach her how to make it a part of her everyday life. Tori and Jakeb were fortunate to have this in our church through Awana when they were younger and Tommy & I want to help Anna build the same strong foundation that Tori & Jakeb had. Not to worry, we’ll throw in some etiquette lessons too.

I’ve mentioned it before but here is my favorite online or book devotion. The daily read is short and packed with truths that keep me thinking all day long.

FRIENDS

I don’t think that we get the privilege of having very many true friends. We try alot out over the years but few are what you would call true friends. You know, like David & Jonathon, Calvin & Hobbs, Batman & Robin, Mickey & Minnie, Tweety & Sylvester (ok, that’s probably taking it too far, huh?) When we do run across true friendships, it is a rare gift. I have a small handful of girl friends that I know I could call on at any time of day or night or in any situation and they’d be there for me and I’d be there for them. Family friends are even harder to come by but we have been very fortunate to find a few of those. The way we like to describe friends, true friends, is this:

1) Those who you can be yourself around and they still like you - even when you forget their birthday!
2) Those who are themselves when they are around you and you still like them.
3) Those who when you’re with them for hours, it seems like minutes.
4) Those who build you up and don’t tear you down.
5) Those who you know would be there for you anytime, anywhere if at all possible.
6) Those who prove themselves authentic and trustworthy.

I’m sure there’s more – if you have something to add to the list, comment away…..

While our kids have been growing up, we’ve had some great teachable moments with them in regards to some friends they have chosen and we’ve definitely learned a thing or two ourselves. We've learned that to have friends, we must be friends and must be those things to others in the list above. Friendships are risky! We have discovered, though, that the good ones we have were worth the risk.

Something we tell our kids is that you must be friendly to all but friends with few. This is a great quote to send young children to school with - along with "pay attention to your teacher", I guess.... I threw that in for my teacher friends! :) Our kids need to be friendly to everyone on the playground but they don't have to play with everyone.

In the last several months, it has become increasing important to me to stay in touch with my current friends and to get in contact with some friends from my past. I guess that as I look to our future of so much change, I looked over my past and wanted to reconnect with those who have blessed me and helped me become a better me. I made a mental list of those people and my search began.

My first contact was with a childhood friend from Kindergarten. We had a great time playing together from K to the 2nd grade when my family moved to Brazil. We got back in contact in high school but our paths took different turns and we lost touch. Through a very random series of events, we have met for a few coffee dates in Houston and have had some great conversations.
My second was a couple that we got to meet in a bible study that we led in our home for singles. They weren’t married at the time and in fact, she was from Spain. He had grown up in Spain and met her at some point and they carried out a long distance relationship for a few years. It was great to get to know them and then they married and moved off. Through some mutual friends and little research, I finally reconnected with them. They live far away but internet will make it possible to keep in contact with them.

Then I was on to what would prove to be my biggest challenge so far.… When we lived in Spring, we met up with a wonderful family! He, the dad/husband, is from Scotland and she, the mom/wife, is from London. We met at our kids’ school and just connected. They have two girls about our oldest two kids’ age and we just had so much fun together, eating, camping, playing games, visiting. We moved to LJ and got together a few months after we moved and then life got in the way and sadly, we lost touch. I searched every thing I could think of on the internet and finally yesterday, the magic search key word combination produced results!! I was able to connect through email and hope to get to speak with them on the phone soon and plan a “catch up” day.

For those of you that are our friends, you know who you are, you know that we are far from social butterflies and often struggle in the relationship department. The world is a big place and we're about to be all over it. Life happens, so if we happen to lose touch some day, be assured that it wasn’t my desire and that I will hunt you down and eventually find you so try to make it easy for me – unless, you don’t want me to! I think I lost track of these friends honestly because we had young kids. Too much to take are of a very few brain cells to spare..… Hopefully in our more "mature" stage of life (not to mention the help of advanced technology) we are less selfish and will have no troubles keeping in touch. But we are human, afterall, life is busy and our brains can sometimes only handle so much, so it is a possibility. Just bein’ for real – and I know that’s why you love me!

"Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade."
- William Shakespeare

(translation: hold on to old friends and be slow to trust new friends - Sparknotes)

Many the Milestones - Kindergarten to Senior '09

This is Tori on her 1st day of Kindergarten at Polk Elementary in Richwood. What a cutie pie!

This morning, she drove off in her decorated truck to begin her last semester of high school. My emotions are running the spectrum right now. I remember the feeling of her going to kindergarten and thinking she was growing up way to fast. I remember it being particularly hard to see her go into the 9th grade and begin her high school years. Then she began driving and dating and now... well, she's almost ready to fly solo.

We've celebrated many milestones over the last 12 years. But being in her last year (semester) of school, beginning her college career and becoming her own Tori and not so much "my" Tori is a pretty big milestone.

Last night, Tommy and I pulled into the driveway from being at a dinner with some friends and saw her truck decorated with "Seniors '09". It struck me hard and I was not prepared for it at all. Later, Tori and I sat on the couch for a few minutes and talked about her schedule for the week and what she wanted for breakfast in the morning, what she was wearing for the first day, etc. and my emotions just got the better of me. It was a moment indeed. The ugly cry and everything. It didn't last long, I pulled myself together, hugged her super tight and time stood still for just a little while as memories flashed through my head. I told her how incredibly proud of her I was and how she has grown up quite nicely but that I had one request. I asked her if she would just let me be "mommy" every once in a while.

















*Anna told me later that I couldn't cry like that when she was a senior. I told her that I wouldn't - it would be much worse! :) I just can't even think about that right now.......

I walked “2” miles in my own shoes!

It’s a good thing to walk a mile in someone’s shoes but it’s also good to walk in your own occasionally.

This weekend, I put on my tennis shoes for the first time in about 2 months and walked two miles. I didn’t realize it had been so long since I’ve pounded the pavement but when I put them on I noticed it just felt really strange to have them on. That’s not such a good thing considering it’s time to kick it in gear and get ready to walk/run the Houston Half Marathon in January and my cute skinny clothes aren’t fitting so great right now. My shoes and work-out clothes have gone with me on trips all summer long but for one reason or another or for just no reason at all, I never put them on and laced them up. Guess I was “doing lazy”, huh?

It did feel good to get out and walk with my sister, Gwen, and daughter, Tori, who are training for the ½ marathon too. I’ve missed visiting with my sister as it seems the only time we have to catch up with what’s happening in our lives is when we walk. I will also love training with Tori and the opportunity to walk and run with her for a solid 13.1 miles in January. Anna has no desire to be on her feet expelling energy super early on a cold January morning for 13+ miles, not to mention the training. She will be a great cheerleader, though, and will enjoy running with her Wii friends!

Tommy & Jakeb have beefed up their running schedule over the last week or so. They will also be running the ½ marathon. Jakeb will have more time to train now since we can work it into his school schedule. Jakeb thought he might train for the full this year but decided he probably shouldn’t commit to that just yet. He also thought that running his first full marathon in Singapore would be cool.

So, it’s time to get disciplined and walk/run a hundred miles or so in my own shoes over the next few months. Although that word, “disciplined” doesn’t make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, I am ready to get back into those cute skinny clothes that have been hanging in the closet collecting dust for long enough!

I really love that our family is, in one way or another, all participating in a healthy lifestyle. Wonder if it will continue through the fast approaching college years?

Bathroom Remodel - In Progress!

As mentioned a few posts back, Tommy began tearing out our bathroom shower while the kids and I were in Dallas.

Our bathroom is the original everything from 1967! It's really awful and old. I guess I'm calling us old too because Tommy and I were born the same year our house was....

We've known we were going to remodel it at some point but didn't have the funds, the time, or the mental capacity to do so until now.

In his demo, he got to a stopping point because he thought we had termites once he got to the exposed wood in the external wall. Termitrol came yesterday (they are so great, you should use them if you need an exterminator and you live in our area) and he said it was just carpenter ants. That's wonderful news! About $50 bucks for some ant bait as opposed to a potential $1000+!!

So, Tommy came home last night after work and began tearing out the thick tile & cement shower floor and the shower pan. There's alot of really wet and rotten wood down there. This is a huge set back but I'm going to call our insurance today and see what they say. We had a bathroom leak in a previous house and it was the same situation and insurance paid to remodel the whole thing. That would be a blessing too!! The wood damage that is there is more than we know how to fix so we'll have to call someone in with or without insurance.

I'll keep you "posted" on the progress - cause I know you care...........

There's just something wrong with...

... a wrecker driving wrecklessly fast to the scene of wreck! A huge wrecker weaved in and out of cars, one of them mine, just a while ago. I'm driving down the street (Dixie Dr.), most cars going the speed limit of 35mph and "Mr. I'm a big wrecker get out of may way cause I'm seeing dollar signs" almost causes an accident and flies through a really "pink" traffic light in his hurry to get to the accident. There's just something wrong with that!

There's also something extremely gratifying when about a 1/2 mile down the road he and I are both stopped, side by side, at the same red light. Ahhhh... justice lives!!!

LJ House - AFTER

Here's what our house looks like with the new paint colors. You can check out this post for the before shot. I like the colors but I'm still not used to it. We definitely need some landscaping but I think I'll wait until closer to "for sale" time so it won't all die and be a waste of money.

Euneek did a great job and they were super fast! Start to finish was 3 days with replacing bad wood, prep, and paint - and there was alot to paint! They were pleasant to work with and did not make or leave a mess.

Tommy started demo on the bathroom while we were in Dallas and got all of the tile shower taken out. Many buckets full of tile and dust and many trips up and down the stairs to take it all out, I'm told.

We think we have termite issues, though. That's a huge bummer!! The bug guys come tomorrow to check it out. Remodeling never goes as planned and there always seem to be budget issues!

Tori & Isiki

On her recent trip to Kenya, Tori left a piece of her heart with a little 4 year old girl, Isiki, but amazingly, her heart has actually grown larger in the process. As soon as they got to the project site on the first day, Isiki chose her and clung to her each day for the rest of the trip. The language barrier kept them from talking but it did not keep them from communicating.

Micaela E., a friend of Tori's and a team member on the trip, took a beautiful photo of the two of them and then Jenny worked her magic and had it blown up for her on a 16x24 canvas. It is absolutely gorgeous! Jenny gave it to Tori the night of the Kenya share meeting and it made us all cry! This will be one of Tori's life-long treasures, I'm sure. Many thanks to Micaela and Jenny!!

Tori hopes and plans to go back next summer to see her and how she is growing and also to continue serving and building relationships in the community of Segera. We pray for Isiki's safety and health while they are oceans apart. Tori is attempting to write letters to her through the mission organization to keep updated on her until she sees her again.

Hope Worth Sharing

This is a fairly recent video of the Steven Curtis Chapman family interview on ABC News. A video of how they are living life and finding hope through grief after the death of their daughter, Maria.

Mary Beth Chapman said that as a mother, she really doesn't care if their story helps others, she would just like to have her daughter back. As a mother, I'm sure my heart would feel exactly the same. She did say, though, that since she knows she can't have her back and that she will see her again, if they can help others to find hope through tragedy, then they should.

I also think this family is a good example of how their character feeds their conduct.

Your Character Will Feed Your Conduct

“Your character will feed your conduct no matter what the circumstances may be.”

This is one families’ “brand” that they used as they raised their children. I read about it on a "mom blog" and I really like what it says. Even if it is shortened to say “your character will feed your conduct” that just says so much and can be applied to every area of our life. I think we’ll be adopting this into our family.

We have several sayings we use in our family that ring out every once in a while and the kids know what we mean when we say them. “With priviledge comes responsibility” is the one most often quoted. We’ve said this to our kids since they were all little and then more when they began going away for church camps, choosing movies to watch or music to listen to, cell phone use, staying at friends houses and then dating, driving, etc., etc.

A couple of weeks ago I was talking with my dad and Anna(9) was in the room. We were talking about something and I told my dad “well, you know what our motto is…” and then proceeded to quote some random motto that applied to the discussion we were having. Anna immediately chimed in and said “No, it’s not! Our motto is ‘we don’t do lazy’!” This “motto” is one of my most recent, created by necessity, and I love it! It was so funny but also comforting for me to know that something occasionally sinks in.

If your family doesn’t have a quote or quick word to live by or brand or whatever you’d like to call it, consider making one. It may develop as your children grow as ours did or you may have one that your parents said to you or use ours if you like. Limit it to just a few though and don't over use them. If you have 20 of them or you quote it 20 times each day, it won’t have the same kick. Also, as parents, we must live out what we are wanting our kids to or our words are meaningless. Quoting one of these quickly to your child as they walk out the door or are having to make a tough decision just might make all the difference.

If you have one, please share…..

Lake Catherine Vacation Videos

Everyone jumped but Andrea. What??? Someone had to capture the moment!!

"Can ducks bite your fingers off?"

Lake Catherine Vacation Photos

Enjoy.... It's so hard on blogger to upload photos. Some of the layout may be messed up but I'm tired of messing with it. You can figure out what text goes with what photo if it's not in the right place.

Taking pictures while driving, not recommended, but I got some great shots!














Jakeb took this one. Anna rode with Tommy in his car. I don't think it was that bad!


Riding in cars with boys! That's Jakeb's leg sticking up. Quite a cozy ride!



Aflac, Sarah, and gang















Our friends from Little Rock, the Girouards, came to vist us for dinner on Sunday.

Lake Catherine State Park

Well, we’re back, sort of… Tommy’s home and the kids and I detoured to Dallas to extend our vacation at my sister’s house. Tori and I will go to a college visit on Monday to UNT.

We didn’t leave by 5:14 on Saturday as we'd hoped (previous blog post) but at 5:30 but we got off and the trip was a blast! Not without it’s normal family frustrations but overall, it was a wonderful vacation!

Lake Catherine is our most favorite family vacation spot. We got to spend four days there in a fully stocked cabin with linens and all. All we have to bring is our clothes and food. We’ve gone to Lake Catherine during the summer for over 10 years with only missing a couple of summers here and there because life got in the way. We started camping there when Tori and Jakeb were really young in a tent in the primitive camp sites and gradually upgraded to tenting in the sites with water and electricity and then a pop-up camper until we finally got to stay in our first cabin. We were hooked! We decided it was worth saving up the money to go “cabining” rather than camping.

In previous years, Jakeb and Anna caught their first fish at Lake Catherine and we’ve just made tons of great family memories there. Hopefully we’ll still be going there when our kids’ spouses and our grandkids can join us. What a treat to be able to even think about making new memories at Lake Catherine with our kids and their kids!

It rained for most of our time there but that did not stop us from having a good time. The waterfall that is usually only a trickle was jammin’! Hiking the trails is always a must and the trickling waterfall is a must see but this time it was a daily visit packed with risk-taking fun. All the "kids" jumped off the cliff of the waterfall into the pool below multiple times. The kids would probably say it was the most fun we’ve ever had there.

Tommy and Jakeb ran the trails, we slept in, sat on the screened in back porch with our morning coffee – what could be better??? We weren’t able to rent a canoe as we usually do and we didn’t get to fish (this is the first year we’ve gone in two cars rather than a van or SUV so we couldn’t fit fishing poles) but we ate good food, played games (lots of games!), watched a movie and played and swam in the rain. Good times!

Here are a few things I learned along the way…

1. Giraffe’s only sleep 20 minutes per day. I know, that’s random…..
2. When a teenager needs to go to the bathroom on a long road trip, the words to every
song that plays magically changes until said teenager finds relief.
3. 3 games of Phase 10 is probably a good limit. We played 4!
4. “Cabining” is definitely the way to spend time at a lake.
5. Red Raspberry Diet Rite makes the biggest burps.
6. Rain cannot stop the Stunz family from having fun!

Pics of the trip to follow…

No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service

No shoes - if we don't want to...

No shirt - no, it's not "one of those" camps but we'll probably live in our swim suits...

No service - no internet service for a few days...

Therefore, no blogging, no email, no facebook for a bit. We're headed to our favorite summer place, Lake Catherine State Park in Arkansas to "camp" in a cabin. Yeah, we'll be roughin' it but we'll manage okay.

With a likely move next summer and Tori moving on to the college scene, this could very well be our last "family of 5" vacation to Lake Catherine. We've gone almost every summer for the last several years. We'll be making the most of this one - as we always do.

5:14am is my absolute latest deadline to be ready and be in the car backing out, so I'd better go get ready. This is one day that the kids never mind getting up early for!!

Thankful for Organs

Typically, I pray with Anna at night. Tommy and I have prayed with all three of our kids at night when they were little. We don't so much with Tori and Jakeb anymore because well, usually we are in bed before them now. I know, we're old!

Sometimes I'm super tired and honestly just want to get the prayer thing done but most of the time, the prayer times are precious.

Last night, I made Anna pray first and then I finished up catching all of the things like "protect us as we sleep and help us to love others and serve You tomorrow". She usually prays for our family and our friends that happen to be on her mind at that time and then thanks God for a number of things. Last night she thanked God for our organs and for toothbrushes and toothpaste. I kind of opened my eyes when she said that and probably had an inquisitive look on my face. She apparently knew that I would cause she opened her eyes as if she was waiting for my reaction. She snickered and said, "WHAT? My brain is an organ, right? And I'm thankful for it!" Too funny... I am very thankful for brains and for toothbrushes and toothpaste!

What are you thankful for?

LJ House - BEFORE

Here's a pic of our house now, the before shot. I know it's a bad shot but I was in my pj's and needed to hurry. We live on a busy street!

We're getting it painted. It's sooo hot and I'm soooo glad we aren't the ones out there doing it this time! We got several quotes and I actually wanted to use my down the street neighbor but he didn't call me back to schedule. I gave him a week and called Euneek. They called the next day and were powerwashing and fixing wood the next.

The painter guys put up the two samples that I thought I wanted and well... that didn't work out. I went back to Sherwin Williams and purchased two more samples and painted those on and Tommy and I stood in our driveway staring at our house. I've got tons of mosquito bites now!

I'm still agonizing over the color scheme. I think I've landed on the two colors that I like but I have to decide whether to paint the garage doors the darker color or the lighter color and then what do I do about the columns. Do columns have to be a light color? I don't know... I think I'm going to go print out this picture a couple of times and color it and see if that helps.

We've driven all around LJ trying to see "what everyone does", you know, following the crowd, but they are all different. Some have dark garage doors to match the shutters and trim and some have light. Some have three colors in their scheme and some have two. Most only have one but we have so much wood on our top level, I just don't think one color would work and it would just be boring.

So, I've decided that it's a matter of personal preference. Now I just have to figure out what my personal preference is.....

They said they would start painting today and said they'd finish by the weekend so if anyone would care to come help me make sure I don't end up with a purple house, please come now!!

Much Ado About Nothing

Much Ado About Nothing is a romantic comedy by Shakespeare from the 1600's. He wrote it with character names like Claudio & Hero and Benedick & Beatrice. I've never seen the play or read the story but it's name is popular and quoted often. I bring this up because of the title but when I read about it I was struck by the funny names.

The tropical storm that was possibly headed for us as a cat 1 hurricane at one point was named Edouard - another silly name. I like Phillip's idea about naming hurricanes after the Peanuts characters. I think Galveston, Houston and a few cities further East on the coast got some wind and rain but the storm passed us over with minimal rain - just enough to increase the humidity level and the mosquito population down here in swamp land.

We prepared as much as we could without going nuts about it. I had already bought drinking water on my last grocery run but I cleaned up our front yard a bit and filled up my car with gas, which it needed anyway. We had flashlights in each bedroom and Tommy filled up our igloo's with water but other than that it was just a day. We ground some extra coffee on Monday night in case we lost power. Enough for a couple of days. We have a gas stove and a french press so we could have made coffee and it would have been good coffee too! Tommy said that if our supply ran low and the storm turned bad and we lost power for a while, our plan would be to take our coffee grinder to my parents and borrow my dad's generator. That would have been a great story! (Probably not near as good as one when the Willson's, Hintze's and Stunz's gathered to eat 2 gallons of Bluebell as we were packed and leaving to evacuate for hurricane Rita. Can't let that go to waste!) Tommy did get to stay home and work. We finished painting Tori's room and I worked on painting a marbles board. Anna went to piano lessons, Jakeb had his guitar lesson and life went on pretty much as usual.

The gas station lines were full and water shelves were getting bare. Some people boarded up their houses and we even heard about a gas station that was boarding up on Monday. Jakeb thought that was a bit much but I guessed maybe they'd been through a bad storm before and I would probably have done the same thing. I think we may have heard a transformer blow at one point but other than it was "Much Ado About Nothing". And that's a good thing.

" Fresh Squeezed Lemonade!!"

Anna and Reagan made and sold lemonade on Saturday during our garage sale. Here are a few pics as promised. They did pretty good thanks to some really good customers! :)

Out with the old, in with the new!

Our two day garage sale this weekend was an exhausting success. We sold alot of stuff and our leftovers are reduced to a small corner of boxes in the garage. The kids were a huge help! They even got up at 6:30 both mornings to help pull everything out and set up. They got Shipley's both days - incentive, you know! My mom came over on Friday and spent the day with us. That is my favorite part of garage sales. Once the chaotic prep is finished and the sale begins, you just take people's money and hang out. I love watching people and witnessing God's creativity and we definitely saw all kinds over the last two days. :)

We made close to $1000 total. About $650 of that was from .25 to $10 purchases which is crazy! Jakeb and Tori both sold something and Jakeb almost immediately went to ebay and purcashed some guitar accessories and Tori put hers in her laptop fund. Anna didn't have anything big to sell but she was great at getting rid of stuff in her room so we bought her an alarm clock that plays cd's and has a hookup for her ipod. She was super excited about that!

We purchased desks for Tori and Jakeb and have used some of the money to update Tori's room. No more tye dye, red ceiling or yellow walls. Out with the old, in with the new... Her room will be white with green bedding and black accents. She'll be accenting with some of her Kenya designs and photos. It's going to look sharp. She has a great eye for design and making things look great on a shoe string budget. This will come in super handy for her in life.

Anna and Reagan had a successful lemonade stand (pics later). Unfortunately, they lost heart when it got too hot - which was when they probably would have sold the most. Oh well, Anna got enough to purchase a webkinz. She loves those things! She got a little white mouse and named it "Pip".

Tommy and I purchased my new laptop last night!! I had enough saved up so we didn't have to use garage sale money. I did use garage sale money to buy a wireless keyboard and mouse, though. We got a Gateway 4GB, 250MB or 350MB or something like that. Tommy took care of the technical stuff and I made sure it looked good! Isn't that how it's supposed to work? Anyway, it's the 14.1" screen. I wanted the smaller size for travelling and it has webcam. That was a must! Tori's will have to have to have the webcam too so if we move across the world we can still see each other.

So out with the old, in with the new. Dave Ramsey says if you want something and you don't have the money for it, you either need to deliver pizza or sell something. We chose the latter and it worked out quite well for us.

Now, I'm going to go clean my kitchen because it has been seriously neglected for the last two days. Then I will go get ready for church. Enjoy your Sunday! We will spend ours being grateful for God's amazing provision for even the things that we really don't need. We are blessed.