We had a good weekend visiting Grace College with Kaili. It seems like a happenin' place. It would be fun for her to get involved in the campus life and to hang with her cousin Lindsey. Please pray for God's leading in her life as well as His blessing on her. We will get the results from the scholarship committee this next week. She feels like it was a positive experience...but ya never know!

Still to come..."Snowcoming" pictures

My big sisters and me. Something I did this past weeekend reminded me of them. We are all different and yet the same because we have the same heritage...the same mother. We all do things because of the way we were raised. I entertain guests that way, I respond to my kids that way and I even clean my house that way. I think we all use Pine Sol and Murphy's Oil Soap to clean everything! That was what my mom used and it just smells like home to me. I'm sure some of you can't stand the stong smell of Pine. On another note: We all apply make up and perfume similiar as well. I think we all go to the piano for comfort and relaxation. We get lost in the strains of music and it soothes the stressful moments away. I know Kaili does the same thing... how she plays the piano and sings depicts what emotion she is feeling at that moment. Is that a good thing? hmmm...I think it it just a thing! I wonder what other crazy things my daughters will pick up from me? I hope it more of my positive attributes than my negative! Remember to take life in stride...forgive quickly, love with all your heart and always, ALWAYS if given the chance...DANCE with gusto! Just some thought I've been having...

How 'bout you?? How are you ? loving and living your life before you kids?

ps...I really am missing my sisters and brothers today!

Congrats Kaili and Cameron for getting all Ones at solo and ensemble! Off to state you go! Get learning those scales! They each played a solo. Kaili played a duet and Cameron played in a quartet. It was awesome!

The Cranberry
So...this past week, Kaili asked if we could host her "LEAD" group for dinner before they had to go to the Talent Show that evening. I said sure. it would be about 14 people. (10 kids and 4 adults) I was immediately intimidated by the 4 adults part. All of the sudden, i began to feel inadequate and unsure of my hosting capabilites and very unsetteld with the things that I owned. I talked it over with a friend of mine (Steve's assistant) who is the "hostest with the mostest"! She knows how to throw a dinner party. She has all the cool napkins that match the plates that match the dinner ware. I really just intended to go over to her house to get ideas. Low and behold I walked out borrowing a centerpiece, napkins and all kinds of cool things to go along with it.

What was my motive in making this such a fabulous event? I mean, why the big fuss with borrowing these beautiful things and going to all this effort? i wanted to impress my guests. After all, they had beautiful homes and lovely things. I wanted them to think I was sometihing other than a shmuk.

Sad isn't it?...ok, so let me continue with the story...

So...It is time for the guests to arrive...the high school kids arrive right on time...but no adults. They call right when the gig is ready to start and cancel. They are not coming to my fabulous gig!!! OK...so rather than getting mad, I make the best of it for the kids. They appreicated my fine set up! Atleast the girls told me so.


Everything was going as planned. It truly was lovely, even down to the cranberry sprigs in the napkin holders. The dinner was delicious, the pies I made were fabulous. Whew! it was wonderful. I felt great about the absolutely marvelous affair I had put on!

After everyone had left with full tummies and smiles on their faces, sayiong that they definaely wanted to ahve another dinner party as special as this one...
I immediately took the special decorations down and placed them carefully back in the plastic bins. I then take the fine linens down to wash them, separate from the other garments. I wash them on cold and place them in the dryer. Steve pulls them out after church on Sunday morning and voowalah! there are red spots throughout the entire load of fine linens!!!! Oh, my goodness, what in the world happened!?!

Apparently, one little cranberry went through the wash and spotted everything up! What was I going to tell my friend, who is a perfectionist!? I ruined everything!

My pride absolutely got the best of me! I was so consumed by what people thought of me and my humble home, that I was pretending to be something that I really wasn't.

Pride is a yucky and dangerous disease. It causes relationships to collapse, friendships to sever, bitternes to set in and clothes to become all spotted! That one little inward sin of the heart is a dangerous thing.

Prov 16:18 says that ...Pride goes before destruction." or as Marion used to say at the top of her lungs: "Pride goeth before the fall, Mary Jane!!!" (always in King James version, ya know?) God absolutely hates pride of the heart. let this be a lesson to me. Be thankful for the things I have and not envious of others. Be the person God created me to be and not try to be or act lke someone else! I think humbleness is the hardest lesson to learn. I certainly am not going to pray that God will make me humble, because He might bring along something in my life even bigger than a little cranberry! hmmm...just some random life lessons learned this past week. Maybe you have had something similiar???

By the way...she was gracious about the whole deal...
and...I'm working on getting all the spots out with a bleach pen.. thank goodness for Clorox!