Nadine's new look (365-35)

Well, it's been a long time coming, and today was the day! After school we took Nadine to the salon and had her hair cut! We were going to go with a pixie cut, but the stylist thought she was too blonde for that. We may still if we end up not liking this cut, but it is adorable and it makes a great pic of the day!

Hope Community hosted the District Sunday School Teacher's Appreciation dinner this evening, being that I am a Sunday School teacher, Rob and I were invited to the event. It was catered by Spaghetti Warehouse and we had cheesecake for dessert! Our teens served us our meals and cleared our tables. They also performed for us. They are going to BLAST in March and hoping that this performance will take them all the way to regionals in June. Jourdyn is a part of this, although it's impossible to tell who she is. (She makes part of the U and the L!)

This was choreographed by one of our teens, Alex and one of our college kids, Ana! It's phenomenal!

The keynote speaker this evening was Rick Harvey, a pastor from Cincinnati. Rick spoke about the most important things in our lives. When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was He responded "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'

We try to make our journey so tough these days. We add clutter and we frankly tend to be self-absorbed. God never intended it to be that way. The most important thing to Him, really the only thing that ultimately matters is loving God (being in relationship with Him) and loving others the same way we love ourselves (being in relationship with others.) It's not the loving others that gets us. It's the loving others the same way we love ourselves that's hard. We take care of ourselves. We make sure we are fed and clothed, that we have the latest and greatest things, that all our needs are met. Yet when it comes to others we most often give them our scraps. For example, hearing about a need for food, and instead of giving the same we would eat, we clean out our pantries and give the things that we've refused to eat. (Sometimes things that are expired, but hey, if they're really hungry they'll eat it)

The greatest commandment is love God. The second greatest is to love others. That's it, yet we get so caught up in the things that Jesus himself didn't care to count as the most important.

What's up with kids today...

Picture: 365-34, Rowan's funny faces. Rowan is quite a goofy boy! He can be a ham if he wants to be.

This afternoon as I was doing my Bible study (beginning a new one Breaking Free by Beth Moore) I heard a bunch of noise. At first I thought it was just the neighbor kids, but then I got up to see why it was so loud. There were about 20-30 teenagers in my neighbors backyard with video cameras and cell phones recording a fight.

I called 911, however, someone in the backyard had come out to the front yard and flagged down a cop already. The police came and the onlookers scattered. Apparently they told the cops it was a UFC type fight, not a real fight. However, it was a real fight and planned all day long at school.

Rob went out and told them to stop and they were idiots, since we live 200 feet from the police station. He also asked them if they realize that they would all be held accountible if something happened to one of the boys and they videotaped and egged it on instead of stopping it. None of them cared.

It is just ridiculous. I don't want my kids to grow up in a world, where there is no respect for life or for each other. One of our nieces, a sophomore was out there egging this thing on, in fact it was her boyfriend or her friends boyfriend doing the fighting. I don't get it. I suppose I never will.

Idaho Trip Pictures

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It was a great four days in Idaho! I am glad to be home, but also sad at the same time that our time there couldn't have been longer. It was great to have my sister and nephew out there with me. We haven't been together as a family like that in a really long time. In fact it has been nearly four years since we were all together.

Jim is doing good, relatively speaking. I praise God that we were able to venture out for this trip. It was definitely needed and I suppose somewhat therapeutic for Jim to have his daughters out there and other grandkids.

There are lots of pictures. Mostly people shots. Not too much scenery. I cannot wait until our visit in May.

Home for a Surprise (365-33)

We have all arrived home safely! Yeah God! It was horrible in Iowa, we ended up stopping for the night because of the snow and ice.

When I arrived home my hubby had a surprise for me....my diploma arrived while I was gone!!!! He framed it and everything! So this is my pic of the day!!!