week in review

This week has been a blur... Izzy hasn't slept very well the past few nights, so as a result... neither have I ;o). Monday must have been pretty mundane, because I can't remember anything interesting... Tuesday we spent the evening at the ball field watching Emelia's games... Wednesday I cleaned out my closet, and kept Iz home from school (mental health day)... Thursday felt like Friday, ALL DAY... and then Friday was a busy busy day. We went to Bear, then school, I ate at panera with my brother ... and then had dinner out with mom and dad. Saturday we stayed in all day! Had chinese carryout for dinner and leftovers after church today! Love that. Church was good today. I missed tonight for dinner at mom & dad's. It is my daddy's birthday! We had grilled steak, huge homemade hot rolls, fresh corn on the cob, pasta salad, salad, blackberry cobbler, and cake. It was good! (I didn't eat the cobbler because fruit is yucky!)

Thanks for your outpouring of love & prayers for Izzy this week.

Tonight I just can't seem to compose my thoughts in an articulate way, not that I ever do...really... but, I am very thankful for you. I love reading your posts, it's truly like visiting you each individually. If I don't post long comments it's usually because I'm holding Izzy or feeding her while reading your blogs so I am commenting with one hand. I'm thankful for my parents, for my dad on his birthday... for my family, my sweet kiddos... for Izzy, she's such a fighter and such a miracle. I'm thankful for God's love that fuels my life everyday.

week in review

This was another week full of blessings... Monday was Labor Day, we ate Mexican food at mom and dad's house. It was delicious! Matt and I did a little shopping during the day too. I did my time travel Tuesday post all about Monday! Tuesday all the kiddos were back in school, including Izzy... who has been a little stuffy this week. She made it to school all week and was a trooper. Wednesday I got to meet Rachel, a fellow blogger. It was so neat meeting her and her family. Thursday was the day that Emelia surprised us with a full agenda. I had just pulled in earlier from picking Amanda and Izzy up and told Amanda, "tonight will be great, no plans!" and at 5:15 pm Emelia told us she had a honor choir try out and two softball games! Honestly, I enjoyed the games. I joked about softball not being a real sport like basketball. Truth is I just don't take little kids sports as seriously as some. I believe they are for fun, learning to work as a team, being a good sport, exercise... a little bit of healthy competitiveness is fine, just as long as we don't get 'crazy!' Matt and I sat on the bleachers and enjoyed a beautiful late Summer night, the breeze was almost cool. Friday we raced to see bear, home for a quick lunch and then off to school. Another busy day for miss Isabelle! (and her chauffeur!). Saturday we stayed home - ALL DAY! That was first in a long time. I got to visit with CoachJ on the phone.

• Izzy's healing.
• Parker
• Heather
• Luke
• Abbie
• Kari
  
• Collin
• Susan's granddaughter Oksana, and Susan
• Darla, one of my oldest bffs from way back who is a minister's wife and stranded in a place she is not happy.
  
• Ann, dealing with sadness.
• Michelle, Joe & Kayla as Joe is deployed next week.
• Zenaida's friend Vic who is in ICU after terrible motorcycle accident.
• K.C.'s hubby.
• 6 week old baby Emma to have a good biopsy report
  
• baby Jackson to grow strong and healthy!
• Terri, Debi's friend, who is battling cancer for the second time around, prayers for another victory!
  

I'm so thankful that I KNOW that God answers prayers! Please leave any prayer requests you might have in my comments and I'll add you on. I want to pray for you and think prayer is very powerful and necessary.

Jesus who died for me
Church to worship & recharge
friends to chat with
health
family
cooler weather
YOU!!!

week in review

What a wonderful lazy Sunday afternoon it has been! There was a scheduled potluck tonight at church, but because so many people had mentioning going out of town, they canceled it. At first I was a little disappointed, because ... well I love a good potluck and this one was Italian in theme. But, now that I'm halfway out of my first nap I am seeing the benefits. I could be in there concocting a special casserole and I get to be here on the couch instead!

Another benefit of the day is having a daughter old enough to drive to Braums to get sundaes for everyone! (mine was hot caramel). YUM. Matt's mom and her hub John were here yesterday, John made his famous and my favorite penne pasta with sun dried tomatoes, olive oil, tons of garlic, artichokes, fresh herbs, and fresh tomatoes right at the end... oh yeah, and tons of fresh grated parmigiano regiano cheese too. I had leftovers for lunch today and it was even better than yesterday. I made my garlic bread so we're safe today from all those werewolves...

This week flew by like the past few. I think the routine of school makes time go by faster somehow. Izzy had a good week in school again and is still lovin' pre-k. I can't tell you how happy it makes my heart to know that she is thoroughly enjoying herself. Seriously.

I had lunch with Laura at Old Germany one day, it was delish and I enjoyed catching up with her life. Friday I took Iz to Bear. Afterwards we stopped and ate quickly with mom at Panera. You can tell I'm doing excellent at my diet by all the food talk huh? There's always next week.

I mentioned in my previous post the movie "the ultimate gift." I forgot to mention that it is a fox faith movie. I went to that website foxfaithmovies.com sometime ago and put a lot of the movies listed there on my blockbuster queue. I have enjoyed them so much.

Praying for ...

• Izzy's healing.
• Parker
• Heather
• Luke
• Abbie
• Kari
  
• Collin
• Susan's granddaughter Oksana, and Susan
• Darla, one of my oldest bffs from way back who is a minister's wife and stranded in a place she is not happy.
  
• Betty, who hasn't been feeling well.
• Michelle, Joe & Kayla as Joe is deployed next week.
• Zenaida's friend Vic who is in ICU after terrible motorcycle accident.
  

I'm so thankful that I KNOW that God answers prayers! Please leave any prayer requests you might have in my comments and I'll add you on. If I forgot you (like I did Darla last week) just remind me and remember I'm still half asleep :o). But, I want to pray for you and think prayer is very powerful and necessary.




I'm so thankful for...

• God's love & forgiveness!
• health
• joy
• Izzy's teachers and prayer warriors
• my family
• good friends
• YOU!

My sweet friend Judi isn't doing weekend reflections anymore. She has offered this to me if I wish to do it. I am going to put a mr. linky here for week in review if you want to share your review of your week with the bloggy group.

week in review...

family~

I cannot hardly believe school starts in just one week. I am a little excited about a new year. I love fresh starts, new experiences and new chapters. It means endless possibilities! Izzy will go to the pre-k afternoon class to begin with and be pulled out for other activities. I look forward to this year for Izzy. I think having her in afternoon classes will be wonderful for the two of us! Amanda will begin her junior year in high school. Unbelievable that I have a child that old. I still feel so young myself. She is enrolled in a lot of challenging classes this fall such as trigonometry and chemistry. It should be a good challenging year for her. Bailey will be an eighth grader. I loved eighth and ninth grades probably the most of any other year in school. Bailey is considering playing basketball this year. I love when the kids play basketball! Emelia is also planning to play basketball. She is so much fun to watch, she is very tall and a good player! She always enjoys the school year.

We are steadily feeling more and more at home in the church we are visiting. The people are friendly, the message is full of faith, and it just feels right. I'm so happy we are at this point and I just thank God for getting us here.

Matt's mom, aunt, sister and her friend Clay came down for the weekend to celebrate birthdays. Jane Ann brought me a cross she purchases while in Ireland recently touring the Waterford company. It is really pretty, although I think it will live in the box it came in for a while at least. Matt's aunt gave me a gift certificate for bath & body! We all ate Mexican food at a favorite local place and then went shopping for the kid's school shoes. It's tax free weekend here. We found shoes for everyone but Bailey, but I did get his ordered online so they'll make it in time for school. I also ran in bath and body and used my gift certificate on some yummy lotion and sprays for me & Izzy. I also got a bunch of the hand soaps! I love lavender and eucalyptus fragrances. They smell wonderful and clean.

Later Saturday evening after our company all left, Julie... her hubby... and her baby W all came over to visit. They were here from Texas visiting her parents. Julie and I had a really good time visiting and we all laughed too much! Baby W is adorable...After we ran out to get gyros (to go) we came back and highlighted and cut Julie's hair...
I think we finished after 11 p.m. ...

Izzy didn't want to sleep last night for some reason. She woke up at 3 a.m. and was pretty much up from that point on. I sat in the 'cry room' with her in church this morning and it was all I could do to keep my eyes open. I think I may have even dozed off for a bit during a prayer (or two). We had Subway for lunch and watched Bridge to Terebithia. It was a sad, but good movie. I'm hoping for a nap before evening church services!

kitchen~

If you haven't made tortilla soup, you should. I made it last week and it was so good! You remember the week a while back that I let each kid pick the evening meal? Well, Emelia chose Tortilla soup and then we ended up going to a birthday party that evening so we didn't ever have it and she never forgot. She pestered reminded me constantly! I'm glad she did, it was a treat. Great avocados helped it to be a perfect meal. There are a few recipes I hope to try this week, maybe Carrie's meatballs she posted recently and Barb's spinach pasta again (it was wonderful and easy too) ... also the 40 garlic clove chicken. My next task for the afternoon is my menu for mpm! I made the breakfast casserole for company this weekend and used sausage (link) and bacon. It was really good! I love how versatile it is and it is always a crowd pleaser. Clay (Jane Ann's friend) said it was the best breakfast casserole he had ever had.

blogville~

Secret mailers has been fun. I just love my notepads I showed ya'll from July's gift. I smile every time I walk by it. It's that neat! I am on the look out for my August gift, the theme for August is "all about you" I'm thinking another trip to bath & body is likely unless I come up with something more creative. Tori sent me the sweetest card and recipe. I won a few of the bloggy contests that just ended and I got two gifts yesterday in the mail, a book and photo nature cards with a blue swirly which is for babies to carry around. Pretty cute stuff! All this good mail is really spoiling me! It's just fun to get the mail these days. My dear friend Mendy sent me a willow angel that is called "blessing of friendship" Isn't she pretty? Marcia, my organizing bloggy friend is having her birthday tomorrow! Happy Birthday Marcia! It seems quiet around blogville lately. Maybe everyone is just busy doing fun Summer things, or getting ready for school to begin. I was thinking about the next time travel tuesday... I think we'll travel back to a birth experience. I know not everyone has children or a child, but many do. I hope the stories don't scare first time mom's to be like Haley. My experiences were all pretty different so I'm not sure which I'll write about, or maybe all of them...

this week's blessings~

The church we are visiting. It is a blessing.
The kids. I am amazed at how unique each child is and love them for their own special traits.
My friends. I have the best friends a girl could dream of.
My bloggy neighborhood. You all make my days bright and I just love you.
Quiet Sunday afternoons. Especially after sleepless Saturday nights.
Birthday celebrations that go on and on. Why just have a day, when you can celebrate all week long?
God. His love is awesome and He continues to light my path in such a perfect way.
You. Because you took time to read about my little existence in nowhere, OK. Many people that don't blog (and some who do) say they can't imagine blogging because there isn't much going on in their lives. That's just not true. The mundane can be the most enjoyable to write and to read as well.

I hope you have many many blessings this week!