My life--Consecrated to God (Lisa's first blog)

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Consecrated2God -> My life--Consecrated to God (Lisa's first blog) (4/19/2005 7:03:20 PM)
Here's my blog, back from the grave! [:)] I changed the title of my blog. What do you think? Should I leave it or change it back?

Consecrated2God -> RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) (4/22/2005 8:27:10 AM)
Feb 9, 2004 I've got the first blog in Blog Town! Can you imagine? I don't even really know what to do with a blog. I've always said that I don't the point in blogging. I've always insisted that posting in forums is enough for me. Now, not only do I have a blog, but I subscribed to a slew of newletters so I could have one! I had to run out and be the first to get something I don't know what to do with. I'm so pitiful! Yikes! Feb 10, 2004 I got up early today. I've been getting up early lately all by myself, without the help of alarm clocks, children waking up, or Erick dragging me out of bed by my toes. It's been strange. In some ways it's nice. I kind of enjoy the quietness of the morning before the kids are up. It's nice being able to take a shower without that fear in the back of my mind of all the things that the kids might be doing during that time. In other ways, it's a little disconcerting. Am I turning into a morning person? Have I lost the ability to sleep until noon? Will this pass when our lives go back to normal? I could understand if this was because I went to bed early last night, but we were out all day and back late. Sarah was so tired she went to bed with her shoes still on her feet. She didn't even wait for supper. I was tired, too, and yet at 6:00AM sharp I woke up, just as if an alarm clock had gone off. It's strange. Feb 10, 2004 I can't believe I'm back in here again. I never thought I'd really get into blogging, and yet I seem to be drawn here by some irrestible force. Maybe the newness will wear off in a few days. I did keep a diary every day from 1991 to 1996, so I know I can do this kind of stuff. I didn't miss a single day. Then, one day, I thought, "Why am I doing this every day?" and I quit. Just like that. I write in it every so often. It's usually something like this. Dear Diary, Well, a lot has happened since I wrote last. We had the baby I was pregnant with last time I wrote, plus had another baby, and we are getting ready to build a house. We recently heard that in the year 2000 all the computers in the world are going to crash. I'm so glad we don't have one. We are going to live a simple life and never get one. We are working on being self-sufficeint. Lately we've been burning kerosene lamps at night. It'll be interesting when the economy collapses and we'll all be living like we're in the 1800's again. Dear Diary, Well, a lot has happened since I wrote last. We've had another baby, (another girl!) Y2K turned out to be nothing, and we weren't even living in the trailer when it happened. We were staying with my family because someone turned us into CPS right before Christmas. Among other ridiculous charges, they said we had no food in the house. As if a years supply of food in prepartion for an economic collapse wasn't enough! Anyway, God worked it all out because through the circumstances we tried out another church, became Pentecostal, and feel like we're called to the ministry. We feel God calling us to move to Missouri so Erick can go to Bible College. I don't know how we're going to pay for it, but I'm sure if God wants us to go, He'll provide. Dear Diary, Well, a lot has happened since I wrote last. We had another baby, another girl. We did move to Missouri, and my husband got sick soon afterwards. It was spinal meningitis and he nearly died. He spent 6 weeks in the hospital and had brain surgery. His recovery is miraculous and he has no brain damage, even though the doctors were sure he would. Since then we've had another baby (another girl), Voc Rehab is paying for his schooling, and he's in school now and doing very well, getting A's and B's. It's amazing to think how far God has brought us. It's been awhile since I've written in my diary. I think I should wait until I have another baby (which will be around the end of August.)

Consecrated2God -> RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) (4/22/2005 8:28:09 AM)
Feb 11, 2004 Good morning! I'm busy making Valentine cookies for a library Valentine's Day party. I'm cheating and using the kind you break apart and bake. I actually am finding them more difficult than regular cookies for some reason. They seem to want to burn on the bottoms. Tonight is the Pinewood Derby race. Jay has a car that he named "The Shocker" and Joy named her car "Missionette". They both thought up their own names and designed their own cars. They are hoping for trophies--we'll just have to wait and see about that! I need to find some time today to put patches on their vests and sashes. They really want to wear them tonight. I don't know if I'll get a chance to do much else today. Feb 11, 2004 I simply must not have less posts than other people. Feb 12, 2004 Joy got a first place trophy in the race last night! She actually placed second in her heat, but she got to race in the championship heat because there were only five in her class. Jay placed first in his first heat, and the championship he was third in his heat but didn't get a trophy because he was racing against about 2 dozen kids from his class. There are a LOT of boys in that age group in our church. I felt bad for him not getting a trophy, but he did really well and we were proud of him. So he's learning to lose well and Joy is learning to win well. Go Jay and Joy! We are so proud of you! Feb 13, 2004 Cute things the kids have said today: I picked up Rachel (the baby) and hugged her and said, "You're such a cutie pie." Abby, my 2-1/2 year old, said, "I pie!" I said, "Oh, are you a cutie pie too?" and she said, after thinking for a couple of seconds, "I just pie." Sarah (age 4) wanted to go outside but no one else wanted to out and play with her. She said to me, sadly, "If I go outside all by myself, I'll feel like I'm all alone." Feb 13, 2004 Oh, and I forgot one. Jay, who is almost seven and is reading really well now, has taken a liking to Carman. He pronounces it "Car-Man." It's so cute. He loves listening to it, singing along (out of tune) and making up his own dance moves! It's adorable. Feb 17, 2004 It's Tuesday. Tuesdays are my Mondays. I get Sundays and Mondays off and so Tuesdays is the beginning of the week again. It's so depressing. Sigh. I'm really procrastinating on getting started on my day today. I think I'd like to just go back to bed and stay there for the rest of the day. Feb 20, 2004 I'm way behind. I'll never catch up to Ezri. It's not my fault--it's my stupid ISP's fault! Sigh. I can't believe it's Friday already. Time is going so fast these days. A week barely starts and it's over already. I have accomplished a lot this week, though. I took apart a bunk bed and moved it downstairs and completely switched the kids' rooms around in preparation for the new baby. If we have a girl, she will go in with Rachel and Abby will move downstairs into the girls' new room. If we have a boy, he can move into Jay's room, which is now upstairs. Besides, Jay likes being upstairs better. He always got lonely downstairs all by himself. The girls like it downstairs, because now they can whisper and giggle at night and no one can hear them. Since we moved them Jay hasn't had any bad dreams. He used to get bad dreams a lot sleeping downstairs. He reminds me a lot of myself when I was little. I used to get up and think that I smelled smoke and I'd go around the house looking for fires. I'd see the moon reflecting of the vanity mirror and be sure it was a fire. I'd go into my parents room very very quietly and stand by my mom's side and just wait, ever so quietly. She's finally sense someone staring at her and wake up with a jump. I'd say, "I can't sleep. Can I sleep with you?" She'd pray with me and send me back to bed. At night things just looked scarier. I had to have the closet door shut or shapes in there would scare me. I would see strange patterns on my bedspread (Mickey Mouse) and think poisonous mushrooms were growing on my bed or maybe it was giant spiders. I'd have bad dreams about carrots chasing me. I'd think about bad guys breaking into the house and the more I thought about it, the more I was sure that I heard people prowling around trying to find a way in. I'd think about tornadoes or bad storms knocking trees onto our house, and I'd mentally calculte whether the tree across the street was tall enough to all on our house. I can still let my imagination wander and scare myself at night, but I don't. It's taken practice to get out the habit, especially since I sleep by myself a lot when Erick is working. Why is it that bad habits are so easy to start and good habits are so hard. And that bad habits are hard to break and good habits are easily broken.

Consecrated2God -> RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) (4/22/2005 8:29:02 AM)
Feb 23, 2004 I was thinking yesterday during church (dangerous, I know) and I was thinking about the holiness and greatness of God, and the sinfulness of mankind, and the price He paid for our redemption, and I couldn't help but wonder if it was worth it for him. Did He get what He paid for? Was a relationship with us that important to Him, and why? Was He lacking communion and relationship and needed some more friends? I don't think so. There was perfect love and intimacy within the Trinity. God was not lacking anything. So what was He seeking to gain in us? After all, we don't give Him the praise He really deserves. We praise Him as much as we can, but it's not as pure and perfect as He deserves, and our praise lacks in understanding of Who He is. We don't obey Him like we should. Sometimes we don't even try. And the relationship He died so that we could have with Him? Well, too many times we put it last on our list of priorites if we even spend time with Him at all. When I look at how we fail so many times to be what He has called us to be, I do wonder if it was worth it for him. Of course He would have known that, so why did He still bother? While I was pondering these questions, I felt God speaking to my spirit. He said, "I died because I loved you. I didn't die for what I could get out of it." Wow. He gave more than what He expected in return? Unconditional love. The return on the investment seemed rather poor to me, but it wasn't an investment--it was a gift. God doesn't value us because of what use we can be for Him, but because we are His precious creation and He made us in His image. He is so good. Feb 29, 2004 I just had to share a couple of cute things Abby (age 2-1/2 said) yesterday and today. Yesterday morning she came into our room to wake me up and tell me she had had enough sleep and was ready to get up, only she wasn't sure of the right word to use. So she said, "Mommy, I..I..I full!" And then today, she was just saying a bunch of stuff to me that I really couldn't decipher. Usually when she does that, I just say, "Really?" and she says "Yeah!" Today, I just said some babble back to her. She looked at me like she didn't have a clue what I had just said, and replied, "Really?" I thought it was so cute! March 4, 2004 I have great news! I went in for my 14 week ultrasound yesterday that the doctor had ordered because I was measuring large. He wanted to make sure I didn't have twins. Right away we could see there was one baby. I was just amazed at how lively the baby was! I had been told that they wouldn't be able to tell what gender the baby was this early, so I didn't ask. I just watched in wonder at my beautiful baby. The technician asked me, "Do you want to know what it is?" I was suprised and said, "Sure, if you can tell! I didn't know you could find out this early." She told me it depended on the position and stuff, and that I was pretty skinny and it was pretty easy to tell it was a boy. A BOY!!! I am so excited! I had pretty much figured we weren't having any more boys. My baby boy clothes have been sitting in a tub in a closet for so long I don't even remember what they look like! I hope they are still good. Jay is excited. Of course, they are going to confirm that at my next appointment, but she showed me on the ultrasound and yeah, it looked pretty obvious to me. We're thinking about Timothy Warren for a name. I've been showing the ultrasound pictures to Abby. At first she would say, "That's me." I told her it was Tiny Tim. So that's what she calls him now. The girls were wanting another sister, but they are okay with it. I told them that Jay really needs a brother. They said it would be weird having a baby boy. Yeah, it will be, after four baby girls in a row! I was thinking about waiting until my next appointment to confirm in and then e-mailing my parents, but the only problem is that it's March 31st. If they didn't read it until the next day they will think I'm pulling an April Fool's joke on them. We might just wait until May when we go up to Indiana for my sister-in-law's wedding and show them the pictures. March 10, 2004 I'm working on a new habit. I've never had a consistent devotion time. I've tried before havinga consistent time of the day, but morning are usually busy and at nights I'm tired, and there never seems to be enough time during the day. There are some nights of the week where I am the last one in bed and I usually get some devotional time in there, but that's only about three nights a week. I know I need more time in the Bible than that. For years I've struggled with the idea of getting up early to do them. I really, really like sleeping and I hate getting up. I usually like to get every minute of sleep I can in the morning. But I've finally gotten to the point where something's got to be done, and I set the alarm clock for a half hour early on Monday and got up to devotions. The first couple of days didn't go so well. I made the mistake of trying to read my Bible in bed. I kept drifting off during prayer. Today I decided to get out of bed and go into the livingroom to read. That worked better, but it did start out on the wrong foot because I couldn't find my favorite Bible and I had to read my old one. It's tough for me to pray first thing in the morning, though. I feel rusty and slow and can't think of anything to pray about. I guess I'll get used to it if I keep it up. I haven't done it enough to say it's a new habit, but I really want it to be.

Consecrated2God -> RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) (4/22/2005 8:30:44 AM)
March 16, 2005 My son has reached the age where he knows more than his parents do. He's seven. The reason he knows more is that he can read well now. We realized this when he bought himeself a new toy and it needed batteries. He got the batteries and the screwdriver and read the directions. When Daddy volunteered to install them for him, Jay ran off to get the instruction sheet to give to Daddy to read. When Daddy refused to read the directions before he installed them (he told Jay he had put batteries in toys before and already knew what direction to turn the screwdriver) Jay was really concerned. You could see the worry in his eyes as he closely supervised his dad to make sure he was doing it right. It must have been a bit scary for a kid who knows about this stuff to let a guy do it who didn't even read the directions first. March 24, 2004 And now for another episode of "Cute Things My Kids Said": Sarah came in the house and told me, "There are eagles in Paige's backyard, and eagles like to eat dead things, so I decided to come inside because I wouldn't want them to eat my hair, since my hair is dead." March 25, 2004 We are enrolled in Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and we're learning a lot about financial management. Next I need to take a time management course. I could learn how to budget my time. I'd write down how many hours I have and all the things I need to do and allocate time for all those things. It would be a zero based budget so that every one of my hours had a name on it and there were none left over. I would remember all the major categories--working, cooking, Crosswalk, shopping, family time, spouse time, time with God (preferably a tenth of my hours) and then a set amount just to blow on whatever I wanted to do with it. I would remember to save 10-15% of my time in a savings account at a Time Bank that paid good interest. By the time I retire, I'll have enough hours in the bank and be making enough interest I can live on the interest and never use up my principle. I can live as long as I want to, playing with my grandchildren and great grandchildren and great great great....etc. etc. etc. etc. grandchildren. I would avoid time debt. While it may be tempting to get a time credit card, it would be disastarous in the long run. Now it would be tempting to swipe the card now and then when my day runs out before I run out of things to do and borrow a couple of hours now and then, but I make it a habit I could find that the interest literally would send me to an early grave. Who knows how many years you would cut off your life just by borrowing hours now at 18% interest? I would save some of the hours in a college fund for my kids. They will come in handy for them when they need extra study time. If they write home and ask me to send them 20 hours, because they spent them all on dates or at the movies, I will have the resources to do so. I think time management would be a great thing.

Consecrated2God -> RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) (4/22/2005 8:31:47 AM)
March 29, 2004 My kids love to e-mail their little aunts and uncles, as well as their grandparents from time to time. They just tell me what to say and I type it for them as they say it. I save every one of the letters they send and I love going back over them and reading them. Here are a few samples of the letters they've written. Dear Vivi, I wanted for my birthday from that jumprope. I haven't had it yet. It's from six days. We are going camping. I wanna get a camping chair. When I'm four I wanna get that Blue's Clues cake. Joy and Jay goed to Vacation Bible School. And Jay was sick. That's just it. Love, Sarah Dear Chris, Me and Jay went to Vacation Bible School. Yesterday when we went to Vacation Bible School Jay was sick. We all are going camping for Sarah's birthday. One time at Vacation Bible School I made a pretty flower. And I made a doorknob thing for my teacher. We played Cows in the Bus. I made it up. Somebody has to be the bus, and somebody has to be the cow who bees on top of it and they have to run as far as they can, and then they turn around and get to the other side. We got hamburgers yesterday and french fries. And even some milk. And that's all. Love, Joy Dear David, Me and Joy got play dough but we lost most of it. And when I just can't wait until I get something at the Dollar Store. And I want to go to Shoney's sometime. We had lots of fun at Vacation Bible School. I wish we could come right now. Are you going to come visit us this winter? I still haven't ripped my doggy. We got a new pool. I played the Incredible Hulk video game at P.J.s house. I like John at our church better than P.J., but I like Cody better than John. We swung on a bicycle handle on a string upside down at Pow Wow. We had Gatorade. And that's all! Love, Jay March 29, 2004 Here's another batch: Dear David, How is your day last night? It was great for me. But a sad part I got a boo-boo on my knee. Me and Sarah got the best hair cuts. Daddy's is kind of weird. It looks just like his old hair cut. Sarah's crying right now. Because she has to go in her bed. How I got this trophy: I won the pinewood derby. I won first place! Me and Sarah and Abby picked beautiful flowers today. We gave them to Mom. Bye bye! Love, Joy Dear Naomi, How is your day yesterday, I think mine was pretty good, but I'm pretty sad because Pastor Nathan is going to be a missionary and he's going away, and I'm kind of sad. He's going to Memphis. And I really like him. He's the kid's pastor. He's part of Kid's church. You haven't seen him before, but I love you, Naomi. I always want to tell about my trophy. I got it from the Pinewood Derby. I always keep it up safe so Jay doesn't steal it. If Jay does steal it sometimes, I would definately take away something of his. It's really not nice when people do stuff that's nice to other people. He'd let me take away his truck. But I would definately take away his doggy. Ya wanna hear this riddle? What is round, but takes a lot of money. You'd better guess this one for yourself, until April the 13th. How we got this hair cut--we went to Authority's house, and Authority's mom cut our hair. My hair is way shorter than Sarah's hair. Daddy's hair still looks like his old hair. Today was the last day of Barbara being our Kid's church leader. But Pastor Nathan still has a few more months, and we're having fun here writing letters! Love, Joy Dear Grandma, On my birthday I want to go to Chuckie Cheese's. And my mother's going to have a baby and I'm so exciting. And I don't know if we're going to go to the beach. And I got my hair cut at Complete's house. And Joy and Daddy did, too. We aren't going to church. But I really really want to. Bye-bye. Love, Sarah March 29, 2004 Dear Jay, HI! I'm in a gooofy mood so I think I'll tell a joke! How do you make a pig get up and go jump over a fence? Take a piece of pink paper, cut out a pig and then when your done doing that, get up and go jump over a fence! Ha Ha HaHa!(: (: (: Do you think I 'm weird? HaHaHa! We watched a love story last night and it was sooooooooo romantic!!!!! SIGH!!!! It was Anne of Avonlea, and I think Anne was really stupid because she didn't realize how much Gilbert Blieth really loved her and didn't realize she was in love with him too. Love, Somebody. (This was sitting in my outbox, so I thought I'd send it, but I don't know who wrote it!--Grandma Dear Whoever It Is, I am great and you probably know I'm seven now. I hope you know we still live in the same house. Me and Joy made up this joke and it was a knock-knock joke but I'll tell you it. Knock knock. But if you don't know, I'll say the answer anyways. Lettuce. Lettuce who? I didn't say lettuce-head! So she thought it was Lettuce. I hope you know that Mommy's going to have a new baby. Bye bye whoever you are. Dear Jay, I'm sorry! I forgot to sign my letter didn't I? Oh well! Anyway It's me! Susie! Don't worry! I know your mommy is going to have a new baby, and I told all my friends all about it too! That's probably a funny joke except I don't really get it! HaHaHaHa!!!!!(: (: (: (: I think I'll tell another joke! When geese fly in a V shape, why is one side always longer than the other? Because there's more geese on that side! HaHaHaH! (: (: (: (: I have to go eat dinner now! See ya later dude!!!(: Yourloving Aunt, Susie Dear Susie, Did Robyn get Joy's letter? I hope so. 'Cause Joy really wanted to show you what it was. We have new stuffed animals and I could keep some of them and I got a wallet. And Joy got a new turtle. And a new bunny and a new chair. I got one of those Power Rangers that open up, too. We got the stuffed animals from Charla. You probably don't know her. Joy got the turtle, the bunny, and the chair at a garage sale. I got my Power Ranger thing at a garage sale, too. But Joy got the bunny and the chair for one around our house. For free. Love, Jay Dear Jay, Wow!!! you sure got a lot of stuff don't you? Do you celebrate Passover? I do! It's really fun too!!!! This year we're going to have it at The Well! and We are going to invite a lot of people from our church to come!!!! Passover is like a Thanksgiving for Jewish people only it hasn't been comercialized like all the other holidays! (comercializing is when they make the holiday a day to sell a lot of decorations and candy and make it so all the kids will enjoy it. They end up making a lot of money and messing up any meaning in the holiday!) I like Passover because each peice of food in the first part of the meal means something really neat! It's a very Biblical holiday! Some of my friends think it might be boring, but it isn't! They just think that because they have never celebrated it before! It is actually a very neat holiday! It's my favorite one what is your favorite holiday? Do you believe in the Easter Bunny? I don't believe in it(why would a bunny hop around giving out Easter baskets if bunnies can't talk or do anything ecxept eat and hop and do other things that bunnies do?) Do you do Easter Egg hunts? We don't. We just celebrate Passover, Watch "The Ten Commandments", Watch the "Jesus" film(a film is a movie), put up the crosses, eat lamb cake(don't worry! its not made out of real lamb! It's just shaped like a lamb!), eat hot cross buns and, wear springy dresses to church, and play around all day! what do you do on Easter? I like Easter Because it's the day that Jesus rose from the dead!!!! Have you seen The Passion? Probably not. It would scare you! my friends saw it and they cried! Maybe you shouldn't see it untill you grow up! I haven't seen it yet but I'm not going to see it till it's out of the theateres because its to scary! I saw the previews and even that made me cry. I'm not even going to tell you what was so scary about it ! it would scare you too much! It's about Jesus dying on the cross. That's all I'll tell you! Do you know any Jewish songs? I do! Here are some of the words: Yrushalayim shalzachave ishelna chol she mi shelom I think those are the words anyway I probably spelled them all wrong! I think I'll liven this letter up by telling a joke! actually it's a ryme but its really funny!: What did the carrot say to the wheat? Lettuce rest! I'm fealing beet! What did the paper say to the pen? I feel quite all write my friend! What did the Teapot say to the chalk? NOTHING you silly!!!!! Teapots can't talk!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!! I think I'll tell you another one!: Mrs. Mictwitter the babysitter! I think she's a littlebit crazy! She thinks a babysitter is supposed to sit upon thebaby!!!!!!!HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think this letter is long enough now! ( I always write long letters) Your loving Aunt, Susie P.S. I forgot to tell you! Robyn did Joy's letter and she like it too! Joy is a really good artist! Vivi is trying to write a letter for Sarah, but it's taking a long time because Vivi isn't very good at spelling yet. March 29, 2004 Dear Susie, I don't believe in the Easter Bunny either. We celebrate Passover too. And we break a cracker in half and hide one and try to find it. And we don't have that much stuffed animals. My favorite holiday is Christmas, but today I just got a brand new toy. You probably won't know what it is. And you can see it when we visit you sometime in May. When we come to visit you. Hey Susie, I have a riddle for you. What goes up and down at the same time? The answer is, a mouth. When your mouth opens, the top goes up and the bottom goes down. When you close it, the bottom goes up, and the top goes down. Hahahahahahahahahaha, heeheeheeheeheeheehee. Bye bye. Love, Jay Hey, Jay, I just read this, and I think you should re-think your joke. Your mom knows better. When we learned from somebody how to do puppets, we found out that really, only the bottom jaw moves when you talk. Try it! The only time the top part goes up is if you have your bottom jaw on your hand or something. Then your whole head has to move to let you talk. So when you do puppets, you have to just move your thumb and keep the rest still. Think you can do that? --Grandma Well, the answer to that riddle was actually a see-saw. I just wanted to make my own riddle. Hey, I have another riddle. What is the only kind of coat that you can put on wet? But this one you have to figure out yourself. If you haven't figured it out until May, I'll tell you then. And just tell me if you haven't figured it out. In May. And I have a new friend. I don't know his name but I know his brother's name. His brother's name is Kyle. And my room changed with the girls. I got a new hat on Friday. We're done with studying all the months in KONOS. You know that I'm seven. But when Sarah wrote this one, the one that you got from Sarah, we're not going to go to church because we were gone all day. We went to church in the morning and then we went shopping and then we went to Authority's house and then we were going home but just the time we got home it would be time for church to start. And that's why we just stayed home. Bye. Love, Jay Paint? Okay, but why did you just write "paint"? I think you guessed it, but why didn't write "a coat of paint"? It would make my letter too long?

Consecrated2God -> RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) (4/22/2005 8:36:59 AM)
March 25, 2004 My kids have this stuffed bear that I've nicknamed "Therapist Bear." It talks to you. It will say, "What is your favorite dream?" "Oh really?" "I know exactly how you feel! Bye bye" (to which I always add, "That'll be $75, please!") My five year old, after hearing me call it Therapist Bear, asked me what a therapist was. I told her a therapist is someone you can talk to about your problems and they listen to you and help you with your problem. She said, "Oh, you mean like a friend!" "Yes, sort of, like a PAID friend!" I told her. I love the insights of children! April 6, 2004 We were discussing the laws of sowing and reaping in Sunday School, and the discussion turned to tithing. We hear a lot about sowing into God's Kingdom and reaping a spiritual blessing, and I've heard numerous testimonies of people giving when they didn't have enough to pay the bills and God bringing money out of nowhere to make up the difference. I've even had a few of those stories myself. Yet, we've been faithful in tithing for a few years now, and while we're being blessed, it's not been to the extent that pastors like to preach that we should be. I've wondered a bit, but I'm generally pretty content with where we are, and also I remember that we are living in the richest country in the world, so I don't complain that we don't have so much our barns can't contain it. We're still below poverty level, still barely making ends meet most of the time. Until recently, those ends often didn't meet. We might tithe, pay our bills, go out for ice cream, buy a few things we need, and then put gas on the credit card because we ran out of money before the next paycheck. In the past few months we've been involved in Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. This has been life-changing for us. We've learned to live on a budget and we know where our dollars go. Before we'd put our tithe in trusting God to make up the difference. (Often we'd end up using a credit card to make up the difference.) Now it's all on paper--this much to the church, this much for gas, this much for bills, this much for eating out with, etc. Nothing goes on credit anymore. And guess what? We are finding that before we were using tithing as sort of a magic charm to make up for all the rest of our bad decisions! It was like we were saying, "We are really doing good over in this area, so God should bless us enough to make up for these other areas where we aren't doing so good." I know the principle of sowing and reaping works. When we sow into God's kingdom, we do reap blessings. It's not a lie from televangelists to get our money. But that isn't the extent of it--when we sow money into credit cards, we reap interest payments. When we sow money into unnecessary things, we reap the results of wastefulness. Those things eat up the harvest we reaped from tithing. I thought about the parable of the sower and the seed. The Bible doesn't say how much seed went on the ground or in the weeds or the rocks or the good soil. We can assume most of it went in the good soil, since that is where he was aiming, and some of it missed it's mark. But what if the sower had purposely sowed only 25% of his seed into the good soil, and had sowed the other 75% in the rocks, the weeds, and on the ground? He reaped a great harvest off of that 25%, but what if he had sown it all in the good soil? He would have reaped much more! Since this Dave Ramsey course we are sowing good financial decisions. We are going to sow into investments when we get our debts paid off. We are sowing into savings instead of debt. We will still sow into God's Kingdom, but our harvest from that seed won't be eaten up by the harvest from our seed sown into debt. April 19, 2004 I thought I'd share a funny story. I thought it was funny, anyway. At the very least it will serve to keep my blog active. Erick went shopping Saturday morning after working all night Friday. I sent him with the Aldi list, figuring it would save a trip to town. He got there before Aldi opened, and when he pulled into the parking space the rising sun was in his eyes. He leaned back in his seat to avoid the glare, and promptly fell asleep. He woke up about a half hour later, sweating profusely. It was a warm day and his window was rolled up. Blearly-eyed and sweaty, he went into Aldis to do his shopping. He realized then that he did not bring a pen to mark off the items on his list, so he licked his finger and smudged them out instead as he went along. I about died laughing when he was telling me this. I thought about the employees opening the store and noticing the man snoring in the car next to the store. (He snores with his mouth wide open.) They probably wondered what kind of a bum this was who would sleep outside the store, and then come in sweating like a pig and use his spit to mark out items on his shopping list!

Consecrated2God -> RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) (4/22/2005 8:37:37 AM)
April 20, 2004 I am still upset this morning over what happened yesterday. A policeman and a woman from the DFS knocked on our door. Someone had called them and told them that one of our kids was in the street. I'm sure they were--our older three ride their bikes in the street all the time, as do all the other children in the neighborhood. There are no sidewalks in our subdivision and it's the only place to ride your bikes. In fact, many houses here have their basketball hoops facing towards the street, and other kids set up skateboard ramps in the street or play games of soccer. It's not unusual to see many kids in the street. But someone complained and so the police came out. They said they needed to come inside and see the inside of the house and talk to all the children individually without our presence. (What this has to do with a child being in the street I'll never know!) I asked them if they had a warrant, and they said they did not, but if we did cooperate they would take our children away from us right then. I asked if I could call my lawyer first, and they told me that this isn't a game. I told them I know it's not a game, but I'd like to get some legal advice before I let them into my house without a warrant. As I called the lawyer and my husband talked to them, they decided to call in some re-enforcements. Two more police cars showed up shortly. My lawyer wasn't much help. "Gee, I don't know. That's a tough situation. I don't really know what the law says on that. Maybe you'd better just let them in, since they are threatening to take away your kids." So we let them in. They remarked how clean the house was. They talked to each of the kids. I could hear them asking Joy about the bruise on her cheek. Joy told a long detailed account of all her boo-boos. At first Joy was scared and crying, but she seemed to cheer up with this woman paying so much attention to them. They showed them all around the house, and everything they had done in school, and talked their ears off. One police officer stayed in the living room with us (I guess to make sure we didn't try to pull anything) and the others followed our cheerful children all over the house. Then they sat down and talked with us. The two things that they said made our children "conditionally unsafe" were that we are missing a screen in one of the windows (and it was open) and that our children were allowed to play in the street. We had to sign a paper saying we would replace the screen in the next 30 days (we had been planning on doing that anyway) and put high locks on the doors so that the kids couldn't get out. We're also not allowed to let our children ride their bikes anymore unless one of us is out there watching. They said the next time it happens they will take our children away from us. She kept pushing us to sign up for some program that would have a worker come in once a week for about ten hours and work with us on our parenting skills. I told her that wouldn't be necessary, but she really seemed to think we need it. There is no way in the world I would want that. I'm sorry, I know how to parent! I'm a pretty good one, actually. I might not be perfect, but who is? I'm not stupid. I am so frustrated and mad that they would force us to let them in by threatening to take away our children and then act like we were guilty when we had done nothing wrong. April 23, 2004 Last night we had tornado warnings and watches in our areas. All the bad storms went South of us. I don't know if there were any actual tornados or not, but we could see how nasty it was to the South. It's strange how my husband and I have almost seemed to switch personalities when it comes to storms. I remember a few years ago in the trailer when I'd be sound asleep and he'd wake us all up and make us trudge through the rain to get to his grandma's house, since she had a basement and a T.V. I'd resent having my sleep disturbed. Whe cares if the wind is blowing at 70 miles an hour? It was his job to keep watch over us, and my job to sleep peacefully and let him take care of me. Last night I was the one up late, watching the weather, checking out the TV, and staying on the internet watching the red and orange spots move across the weather map. He needs his sleep because he works third shift. He only stayed up until it seemed clear that the storms weren't coming our way and then went to bed. I tucked the kids in and then stayed up until the warning had expired. It wasn't too bad. After all, I had Crosswalk to keep me company. April 27, 2004 I'm so excited! We are going to be putting in a fence soon. After the deal we had with DFS last week, we talked about it and decided to combine our new couch fund, our replace the dryer fund, our fix the van fund, and the next paycheck which happens to be a third paycheck and not one we need for our budget and get a fence put in. If it hadn't been for the Dave Ramsey course, we would never have had cash on hand to do a large project like this. We had $1000 altogether for this project. That's not including the $1000 we have in our emergency fund. Now the fun part--trying to decide exactly what kind of a fence to put in and whether we should attempt to do it ourselves or hire it out. If we wanted a very cheap fence, some people at church have some old chain link fencing we could paint and put in with the help of some of the guys at Erick's work who volunteered to help. But we also have to keep in mind the fact we're going to have to sell this house in a couple of years, and improving the property value is important. The neighbor on our right said if we put in a privancy fence, she'll pay for half of that side. The neighbor on the left might do the same. The neighbor behind us already has a chain link fence. If we wanted to do a chain link fence, we might be able to just connect to hers. We're kind of thinking about doing the side fences for now and waiting until later on to do the back, depending on how much this project is going to cost. We've got a lady coming out from a fence company to give us some estimates this afternoon. I hope labor isn't too expensive--it would be so nice to have it done and not have to do it ourselves! April 29, 2004 I decided yesterday that my husband is officially crazy. You see, last day was the last day of finals. All he had to do was turn in the last paper he had stayed up late working on and then he came home around 8:00. Then it finally sank in that he didn't have any homework to do today! I had to go to a Dr. appointment, so I kissed him goodbye and left. When I returned, I saw him reading a book. "What are you reading?" I asked him. He held it up for me to see. It was a TEXTBOOK! I couldn't believe he was reading a textbook when he was done with school for the semester! I asked him why, and he said he didn't get to finish it and it was interesting. Crazy guy!

Consecrated2God -> RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) (4/22/2005 8:39:28 AM)
May 5, 2004 I just started a new schedule this week. It's nice. I only work 3 hours a day instead of 4-1/2. I go into work a little bit earlier in the day, though, so my mornings are shorter. Erick is working full time now and will be throughout the summer so I don't have to work so hard being pregnant this time around. I'm glad for the break. I have a lot more time in the evening now than I used to, and I've still got to get used to it. Before I got up early and did everything in the morning, then I went to work, then I came home, helped make dinner, and then pretty much rested and spent time with the family the rest of the evening. Now I have less morning and more evening. I've got to figure out how I'm going to spend my extra time this summer. I've actually had times of being bored this week, and I'm never bored! It's kind of nice in a way. May 10, 2004 And now, for another episode of "Cute Things My Kids Said." Jay and Joy were having an argument about whether God was Jesus or not. Joy said, "If God is Jesus, then who was God before Jesus was born?" And then the other night, we were having pie, and Sarah asked, "Where's Jesus's plate?" I said, "Jesus doesn't get any." "Why not?" asked Sarah. As I pondered my answer, Joy beat me to it. "Because Jesus only eats food that's good for you, right Mom?" I've got another one, but I'm not sure I should tell it. If I remember it and ever tell Abby about it when she's a teenager, it'll embarrass her to death. Let's just say it involves the nickname she has for the word "button". May 15, 2004 Jay is reading so well now! I'm so proud of him. He's finished his Professor Phonics course and can now read out loud to his sisters (when he's not busy tormenting them). He recently checked out some nature books from the library. He loves telling me facts that he read in that book. He asked me if I could read one chapter for him, though, because he said he couldn't figure it out by himself. I said sure, bring it here. The "chapter" he wanted me to read to him was the glossary! On the front of one of the books is a photo of a flying squirrel. He asked me if they really exist, and I told him they did. He asked me if anyone has every actually seen one, and I said, "well, the guy who took the picture saw one, didn't he?" I don't think Jay had thought about that before. What a fascinating idea that a real person with a camera took picture of all the lions and the cheetahs and the sharks, as well! What a scary job that must be! May 18, 2004 I moved over all of Rachel's clothes this morning. She's not quite 18 months yet, but her 18 month clothes were getting a bit small. Especially the dresses--her diaper showed from under them all. I decided I'd go ahead and move her over to her 2 year old clothes. I had them all sorted into neat piles and ready to go into her drawer, when I realized that the front of her drawer had come off. It had been loose for awhile, but with care it would stay on. This is a cheap dresser with presswood sides and plastic fronts that I bought used for $5. I examined the sides, and determined that it had been glued and the glue had broken loose. I had some wood glue, but I wanted it to be done now. I didn't want to wait for the glue to dry. Besides, the neat piles of clothes would not last long enough for it to dry. Erick was sleeping, but I was sure that nailing four finish nails through the plastic front and into the pressboard sides of the drawer wouldn't disturb him too much. Besides, I couldn't wait for him to get up. It had to be done now. I fetched some finish nails and a hammer, and began. I lined up the side of the drawer into the groove, found the spot where I needed to drive the nail, and began. It was a lot harder than I thought. The plastic was very tough and difficult to get through. I was glad I had brought up more nails than I needed, because I kept bending the nails and needing to use a fresh one. The first side went well. I felt the satisfying pop as the side popped back into the groove nice and tight. I turned it around and did the other side. The first nail went in okay, but the second nail wouldn't. I looked to see where the groove was, and somehow I had gotten it shifted. The side came up too far and wasn't going to go into the groove. I pushed, trying to force it, and nailed it down anyway. The nail tore through the wood and popped out. It would not be forced. Oh well, I thought. I still have three out of four corners solid. I went to put the drawer back into the dresser. Something was not right. It kept sloping back. I took it back out and checked to make sure it was on the runner, and it was. I put it back in again, but it still just didn't look right. It was then that I noticed the handle faced upwards on that drawer and down on the other three drawers. I had nailed the front on upside-down! Okay, so I'm no handywoman. And I'm a little impatient. Maybe that's why, growing up, my parent's called any job that was done sloppily and in a great hurry a "Lisa Job." I'm just living up to my reputation.

Consecrated2God -> RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) (4/22/2005 8:40:09 AM)
May 25, 2004 We just got back from Indiana last night. We left early Friday morning and spent a full weekend with our families. The reason for our trip was my husband's sister's wedding. Erick was an usher, and we really did a good job packing this time, or so we thought. We had quite a complete packing list. Erick worked all night the night before we left, and the plan was that he would come home, help me finish packing, grab some breakfast, and we would leave at 7:15. He could nap on the way and also work on the sermon he had promised to preach at my parent's church. By the time he got home, I was ready and raring to go. We just needed to load the carrier on top of the van. I packed all the kids in the van, and then he told me he needed a shower. We all sat and waited for him to finish that up, and took off...only to have to turn around at the first exit because he had forgotten his hearing aids. By that time the school buses were out and we had to wait. We made pretty good time once we actually got going. The kids were good and didn't fight. They colored and read and slept, and Erick slept too, and half-way through Illinois he awoke with a start. "Did you pack my suit?" he said. I thought he had packed it. Apparently not. When we got to Lafayette, we went to Goodwill and picked out a suit for him--a jacket, pants, a shirt, and a tie. We paid $15 for it, and it actually looked nice on him. We stopped in Delphi at The Well to see my parents in action at their coffeehouse. I had heard so much about it in e-mails that I was eager to see it for myself. I'd heard testimonies of all that God was doing there and how it was so crowded. Well, the crowded part turned out to not be difficult to achieve--it was a lot smaller than I had imagined. It was cutely decorated, but it looked more like an antique store than a coffeehouse. After we visited for awhile, we went up to their house and set up the tent in their yard. The kids all spread out their sleeping bags on the floor in my brothers and sisters room and we went to bed. I stayed on the couch until my family came home and then joined Erick and the baby in the tent. May 25, 2004 We remembered right before bedtime that we had forgotten to bring the invitation to the wedding, which had a map and directions. We thought about calling his parents and getting directions, but then remembered they had left for Indianapolis already and wouldn't be home. We weren't sure how we were going to find it, but then found out that Erick's brother, Daniel, had left a message with my mom that we needed to stop by his house for directions before we went to the wedding. I was relieved, and quite impressed with my mother-in-law. Of course, she would know that we would forget our directions and would need to know how to get there. How thoughtful of her to think of arranging it so we would get directions from Daniel. She had already sewed jumpers for all my girls in the last week before the wedding. Is there anything she can't do? I admired her foresight until we got to Daniel's house and Daniel asked us how to get there. He thought we were going to give him directions! It all worked out, though, because I asked him if he still had the invitation, and he did. It turned out that he hadn't even read it, and didn't realize it was in there all along. Rachel fell asleep on the way to the wedding while the rest of us were eating lunch. I didn't want to wake her, because I knew she wasn't going to get a nap any other time that day, so I saved her some. About a half hour before it started I asked Erick if he could watch the rest while I went out and fed Rachel. It took longer than I had anticipated, and when I got back he and Daniel were already seating people. I asked him where the kids were, and he said, "I don't know. I put them in the pew and told them to sit. I don't know where they went." Fortunately (for him!) they were still where he had placed them, and Daniel's wife was watching them. I thanked her and we were treated to the Longest Wedding in the World. Fifteen minutes into it, two of my children said they needed to go potty. They had involved three different pastors in the ceremony that were close to them, and each one wanted to have their say, and plenty of it. They gave testimonies. The bride sang to the groom. They went through more vows than I knew existed. My kids kept asking me if it was almost over. I felt like it never was going to be. My son put pencils in his mouth and pretended he was a vampire. My 3-year old crawled under the pew and then my son dragged her out by her feet and turned her nearly upside down. The baby was trying to unzip her grandmother's dress in front of her. I was a server at the reception, but after that we left. The kids were so tired from no naps that we thought we'd better hurry up and get back. It was already after five when we left and the wedding had started at 1:30. May 25, 2004 Sunday morning we went first to our old church in Delphi to say "hi" to a few people before we went to my parents church. We had planned on going to Mom and Dad's church in the morning and then going to our old church in the evening, but then my in-laws planned a birthday party for all those with birthdays in May and the whole family was coming--grandparents, Daniel and his wife and their baby (who I still hadn't met since they hadn't brought her to the wedding) and we just couldn't miss that. It was so nice seeing all the people we used to worship with. Mom and Dad had a pretty nice turn-out. I think they had close to two dozen people. I didn't get to hear my husband preach, because I needed to be downstairs with the Sunday School group which consisted of my kids and my brothers and sisters. Mom was teaching Sunday School, but she's lately been suffering from swollen feet for some unknown reason and it's making it painful for her to get around. So I helped her downstairs and Erick preached, and then they had Mom come up and annointed her with oil and prayed for her. We left then and went to my in-law's house where we spent the rest of the day. It stormed heavily while we were there. There were tornado watches out, but eventually it calmed down and things seemed okay. They still managed somehow to grill the hamburgers and hot dogs. When we got back it was late and everyone but Dad was in bed. He told us that a lot had happened while we were away. Earlier that week, a local high school girl had been shot by her boyfriend and was in critical condition. This was a friend of some of the kids who attend The Well. There had been a party at her house, and these kids were all there. She had been argueing with her boyfriend, and the others all left. Then he shot her. That Sunday afternoon, after we left, she died. There was supposed to have been a concert at the high school, but they cancelled it. A lot of the teenagers came back to The Well to cry and grieve, and my parents were still there, cleaning up. They felt guilty for leaving the party, thinking maybe they could have stopped it. Mom and Dad were there all day praying and talking with the kids as they worked through their grief. News of her death really rocked the small city. People were still talking about it at the doctor's office when Mom went in to get blood tests to find out what was causing the swelling. Our pastor at our church was called into the school the next day to be there with the kids if they needed someone to talk to. It's like the whole town stopped to grieve. We left Monday at about 11:00 and went home. The rest of the trip was uneventful

Consecrated2God -> RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) (4/22/2005 8:44:36 AM)
May 29, 2004 I'm finally trying to work on a quilt that I started over two years ago and still haven't finished. It's very big and definately the hardest quilt I've ever attempted. Problem is, my old treadle sewing machine isn't working well anymore. I spent quite a bit of time working on it, greasing it and cleaning it, trying to tighten the belt, finding the bobbins, and replacing the bobbin holder with a long nail, to discover that the plate to the bobbin compartment is missing. I want to get a new sewing maching. Erick wants to fix the old one (it's his great-grandmother's) and then save up for an expensive one, but I don't want to sink money into parts for this one when I could just take the money and get a cheap one for now that works and backstitches, as well. June 3, 2004 I need to post something to keep my blog active. What to post? What to post? I could mention that my mom is getting better. They never could figure out what was causing the pain and swelling, but it's going away. The tests came back negative, so her kidneys are not failing, thank God, but they didn't know what was happening for sure. She was playing volleyball on Monday. June 3, 2004 I could also mention that I went and bought a sewing maching Saturday. You may or may not have noticed that I haven't been posting as much. I've been sewing. June 3, 2004 About my sewing machine: It's not an expensive one. It's not even a Singer. We ended up getting a bottom of the line Walmart sewing machine--the cheapest one they had. Erick wanted to save up for quality, because that's the way he likes to do things. He's always been the kind to buy things you can hand down to your great-great-grandchildren, even if they cost more. I've always been the kind to buy the cheapest possible. If I can get it used at a yard sale or thrift store, I'm even more thrilled. He's never really been thrilled about getting things second hand. Our personalities in this area have always conflicted somewhat. I had found some second hand stores I wanted to check out, but it occured to both of us that the chances of finding one that was open after five on a Saturday, especially right before a holiday, were slim. We had some other things we needed at Walmart, so we went ahead and got it. So far, I'm quite pleased with it. It has a warranty and works fine. It's very easy to use and has more features than I'll ever use! I feel good that we paid cash for it. It's so nice being off of the credit cards. June 10, 2004 Just a quick one: My kids are watching Star Wars right now. I just heard Joy laugh at something she thought she heard and say, "May the horse be with you??? They don't have horses!" June 12, 2004 Sarah keeps watching the scene in "Ever After" where Danielle gives Marguerite a black eye. She keeps rewinding it and playing it over and over. I asked her "Why do you keep playing that over and over?" She insists that everyone keeps talking and moving and she didn't get to see it. I think she's memorizing it. It's an all day affair when they go to watch a video. Every time they miss anything they have to rewind it and watch it over again.

Consecrated2God -> RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) (4/22/2005 8:45:12 AM)
June 18, 2004 My girls woke me up this morning just before 7:00 to tell me there was a surprise on the kitchen table. I asked them what it was, and they just told me to come and see. I had a good idea of what it might be, and I was right. They had gotten out bowls and spoons and cereal and milk and had set the table for breakfast. They were so proud of themselves. I remember doing that when I was little, too. It brought back such memories. Joy said, "Do you know why we did this? Because we love you!" I just treasure such expressions of my kids' love. They said they didn't know what was on the menu, and they didn't know if it was supposed to be a cooking thing, but since they didn't know how to cook they just decided to make cereal. Muffins were on the menu, actually, but I wasn't going to tell them that. June 25, 2004 I have finally figured out how to keep kids from going through so much laundry! Make them dress up clothes! I sewed some play clothes the other day (really easy stuff--took me less than an hour to make an outfit for each of them) and they're all they want to wear! It sure cuts down on laundry. July 3, 2004 I had better post something before my blog gets archived! I just can't think of anything to write about. My days have been boring lately. What can I say? July 10, 2004 Today was our choir garage sale. It's a huge sale they have every year, and one of the most eagerly antipated events for me. There is always so much stuff. They collect donations from our whole church in the week before it. Our church is fairly large, so there are usually lots of donations! The doors opened at 8:00. The Missionette's group was also having a bake sale, and being a parent of two of the Missionettes, I had to stay up last night baking cookies. I thought they were going to be disasters for awhile. The brownies were quite crunchy and the coconut bars were really gooey. In the morning, however, they looked better. The coconut bars had solified and one of the pans of brownies turned out be softer than the ones we had sampled. We were supposed to be there before 8:00, but we were a few minutes late. It's kind of hard to get out the door at 7:30 when Erick doesn't even get home until 7:15 or later. I bought a few things in the morning, but only the things I really wanted. The rest I was going to wait until 1:00, because then everything is a dollar a bag. The kids each brought their dimes and bought a toy or two. I got some coffee cups (our tile kitchen floor had reduced our inventory to only one) and some adorable princess jelly shoes for Rachel, some clothes, and a few toys to put away for the kids for Christmas. One of those was one of the skateboards with the handles. Unfortunatley, Erick forgot to tell them not to look in the back of the van and they all saw it, so that ended up being given to them this afternoon instead of waiting until Christmas. Abby picked out a doll stroller that someone had put $5 on. They let me have it for $2. This is a very low-priced garage sale. The furniture is usually the only stuff that's $5 or more. When I came back by myself at 1:00, I had even more fun. A treadmill that my husband had had his eyes on was still there, and things that wouldn't fit in a bag were now half price. I bought it for $10. I bought four bags of various clothes, toys, and other miscellaneous object for a dollar apiece, and a chalkboard and a juicer. They told me the last two items were worth a bag and sold them to me both for a dollar. I was able to get a lot of clothes for the kids that they really needed. The older ones especially were growing out of their things and I didn't have much saved back for them. I am so thankful for the opportunity every year to get clothes for my kids and help out our choir as well! July 19, 2005 It seems like things have been slow on Crosswalk recently. Only five messages when I got on just a little bit ago! I'm down to six weeks left of this pregnancy. My back has been hurting a lot the last couple of days. I'm still in choir, because our choir is having a competition between sections to try to recruit and I don't want to drop out now. But last night it was pretty hard on my back. I can usually stand through our normal singing part, but then the pastor led out in another son when we were done. That's not unusual, but then he led out in a second song, and then in a third. By that time the elderly man next to me sat down, and my back was telling me that he had the right idea. So I sat, too. I was glad they did. They ended up forgoing the sermon that evening and just spending a lot of time praying for each other. I think Elmer (the elderly man next to me) and I were the only ones left in the choir loft at one point in the service. Most of them left to kneel at the altar and just worship. I stayed seated, glad it was a slow, worshipful all-night-sing instead of a lets-get-happy service. Those are fun, but I just didn't have the energy for it yesterday. Today Erick is getting the rest of the stuff for the fence. What he's got so far looks really nice. The neighbor seems to have gotten over it--at first he wasn't happy because our property line was further over than he thought and he lost several feet on his side. But he's been lending Erick tools and praising him on the good job he's doing, so he must be happy that it's a good looking fence and not an eyesore. I imagine that he was a bit concerned about a 20-something kid builidng a fence by himself who had never built one before and how that would look. But my Erick is very talented! He can build anything right, even the first time. I'm so proud of him. It's very quiet in here. I've got all four of the girls taking naps (the older ones were fighting so they got to go to sleep, too). Jay is the only one up, and he's bored. I just handed him a book so he'd have something quiet to do. They went to Vacation Bible School this morning. They all had fun, but Abby missed her older brothers and sisters. She was looking for them and calling for them. She wanted to go, too. She was very glad to see them again when we went to pick them up. July 28, 2004 We finally picked out a middle name for the new baby. I really liked Timothy Zion, but Erick said no. I also liked Timothy Michael, but Erick just wasn't sure. He came up with Timothy Mark, but I wasn't excited about it, either. We finally sat down the other night determined to come up with a middle name. We decided to flip a coin between Mark and Michael if we couldn't come up with something we both liked. We finally decided on Timothy Reagan. I think it's fitting to name him after the greatest President of the century. Timothy means Honoring God and Reagan means Kingly. July 28, 2004 I was just looking through the archives in Blog Town. It's kind of scary that 13 people have already let their blogs be archived. I need to be attentive that the same fate does not befall me! I have the first blog and I want to keep it that way.

Consecrated2God -> RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) (4/22/2005 8:46:03 AM)
August 4, 2004 I voted yesterday. It's kind of different here than in Indiana--they have a seperate state primary. That confused me for awhile. I wondered why they were having their primary so late, after the Presidential candidates had already been nominated. I must have missed the first one. This one was impossible to miss, though, because of all the ads. There were two Constitutional Amendments on the ballot. One was to allow gambling on the White River. I voted against that, and, it was defeated. Another was to define marriage as between a man and a woman, and I voted for that. It passed by a huge majority. We are the first state to add that to our Constitution, and I feel good for helping make history. There was a record turn-out here this time because of moral issues and issues that affected people's pocketbooks. I voted against building a new fire station and a new police station, as well. Our taxes are high enough, thank you very much! The fire station passed, but the police station was defeated by about 200 votes. I wonder how many other people in our town have been harrased unfairly by the police. If they want us to take up a larger tax burden to give them bigger and nicer offices, harrassing the people who vote to give them that isn't a smart way to do it. In the Democratic primary, the incumbent, Bob Holden, lost to Clair McCaskil. This is the first time in ten years that a sitting governor has lost a primary election. I think anyone would be an improvement over him! Of course, I'll be voting for Matt Blunt in Novemeber, but I'm glad to see Holden will be gone. August 8, 2004 I got to meet a Crosswalk family yesterday. Thisistheday came out with her family. Such a neat family! It's so neat to put faces with names. She has such a dimple when she smiles! I've always wished I had dimples. They followed us to Bass Pro Shops and her husband did a great job at following us. Usually when someone tries to follow Erick they can't seem to keep up, but he stuck like glue. At Bass Pro Shops, Sarah fell into a little creek. It was only a few inches deep, but it scared her a bit. That's the only time I've ever had any of my kids fall in the water there. At least she fell in the shallow part. We were planning on going to the park for a picnic, but it was a gorgeous day and everyone got there before we did. We went back to my house and had our sandwiches and Erick started the grill and we roasted marshmallows and made S'mores out on the deck. She has such a pretty baby. It's not very often I see a baby that pretty. She had such a cute smile, too. Her boy and my boy are about the same size and only a year apart, and they had great fun and found plenty of comadarie in being the only boys in so many girls. Her other daughters were sweet, too, and so funny, especially the teenage girl who told us jokes and couldn't remember the punchlines. I asked Dee if she would sell her (I could really use a teenager!) and she was all willing but her daughter didn't care for the idea, so I have to wait until my own are teens I guess. August 15, 2004 Several things have happened lately, but I have posted other places about them and haven't really been in a blogging mood. I decided though to just come in and blog about them anyway. My sister came to Crosswalk about a week ago. It's fun having her around. I'm hoping she doesn't get in trouble with her boss, though, because she is posting at work. If you see Dance4joy around anywhere, tell her "hi". My mom spent about four days in the hospital this week, sick with pnuemonia. The infection had spread to the lining of her heart and was squeezing it, causing it to do strange things. She went home yesterday, but is still in need of prayer. She still has a lot of fluid in her. I am two weeks from my due date, and my doctor doesn't want to follow my birthing plan. I vented quite a bit about hosptals and doctors and how much I miss my midwife in the breastfeeding thread in Women's Issues. The fence that Erick has been working on for the last few months is almost done--all that needs to go up now is the fence wire itself. He's just got to get some guys from church out here to help, but one of them has a broken car now and another has a girlfriend, so they are a bit distracted. We started school on the 1st of August (did I post that already?) and it's going well. It's amazing how much smarter the kids get over a summer of not learning anything! I guess it gives them time for all the teaching they got last year to finally sink in. August 15, 2004 Oh, a cute kid story. I posted this somewhere else, too, but I have to re-tell it. Joy is in Junior Bible Quiz this year, and one of her questions is "What is an episitle?" She keeps answering, "A letter written by an oppossum." She tries to remember the right word, but she keeps getting mixed up. August 21, 2004 A few days ago the doorbell rang, and when I answered it I saw two men in white shirts and ties. A look at their nametags confirmed my suspicions--they were from the church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints (otherwise known as Mormons). They were really friendly and wanted to talk to us. My husband was already outside, and had just come around from the backyard, and the kids all wanted to be outside, too. I told the two young men I wasn't interested and made the kids come in and let Erick deal with them. Joy started to cry because she didn't want to come in. I explained to her that these were Mormons, and that Mormons don't believe the same things we do. My children are pretty impressionable still and I didn't want them out there hearing the lies. So I brought them in and we sat down and talked about what Mormons believe and how they look like Christians and they act like Christians but they are not Christians. We talked about how they are deceived by the devil and how they come around to your door to try to get you to become Mormons, too. They sound like they are saying good Christian things, but they have different meanings to the same kinds of words we use and sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. Joy was concerned for her daddy. She thought we should warn him immediately! I told her that he already knows about Mormons and they'd be okay. Jay thought someone should tell them the truth, and suggested that we could pray for them. We did that, right then and there. I told them how our church sends out missionaries to the Mormons, too. Joy wasn't sure about praying for them. In her mind, everyone is still either a Good Guy or a Bad Guy, and it doesn't make sense to her to pray for Bad Guys.

Consecrated2God -> RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) (4/22/2005 8:47:21 AM)
August 26, 2004 Just a little post to keep my blog active. I'm having a few contractions. Maybe I'll have this baby tonight! September 3, 2004 I had a baby almost a week ago. I am just finally getting on to blog about it because I've had the nastiest headache of my life for the last week. I still doubt I am going to be able to say everything I want to about it, except to rant a bit that NO ONE told me this could happen. NO ONE told me that there is a risk of getting an awful headache when you have an epidural. NO ONE told me what the odds are of this happening, either. I still don't know! Is this one in a thousand? One in three hundred? One in twenty? Am I just so lucky as to be one of the rare instances where it goes wrong? And the lady who roomed with me, who also had problems with her epidural--what are the chances that both of our epidurals went wrong? Grrrrrr. If I hadn't had that stupid epidural I would have been feeling good days ago. As it is I'm just finally able to sit up for an extended amount of time. September 6, 2004 And now for another rant about my hospital birth experience: When you have a home birth, you work with one, maybe two people. I always had a midwife and a midwife assistant. When you have a birthing center birth, you have a few more. Add a couple more assistants and a receptionist. When you birth in a hospital, you have your doctor, his nurse, the receptionists at the doctor's office, the doctor and the nurse you see when your doctor is on vacation, the ladies who schedule your appointments, the ultrasound technicians, the lady who draws your blood, the lady who files your paperwork, another lady who tells you about eating healthy when you are pregnant, and this is all before you have your baby! Add on to that the pre-registration lady, the epidural interview lady, the anesthesiologist who talks to you before you have one, the ladies who check you in, the lady to file your paperwork, the nurse who straps the fetal monitor on you, the nurse who checks you to see if you are in labor and then takes you to labor and delivery, the labor and delivery nurse and about three other nurses, the anesthesiaologist who actually gives you the epidural, the doctor who is on call, another nurse to take care of the baby, a total of three nurses and three assistants to take care of you and baby during their shifts, the pediatrician, the nurse in charge of the nursery, the girl who brings you your food and another one who brings your menu in the morning, someone from the lab to take blood out of the baby, and one more nurse to take you out of the hospital when you are done. That's 40 people. Now, it might sound nice, forty people all specializing in their little areas and there to serve you, but they never know what the last person told me! The labor and delivery nurse assured me that when they took my baby up to the nursery for evaluation, they would not give him any bottles or pacifiers or anything and that I would get him back in two hours. The nurse who brought me to my room was sure I'd get him back in less than two hours. One to one and half hours was all it would take to warm him up and take his vital signs and give him his bath. Two hours later, a nurse came in to tell me that they did his blood sugar test and it was low, and so they gave him some formula and then when his blood sugar comes back up, they'll give him a bath and then bring him in to me. I was so upset! The other nurse had told me they wouldn't give him anything. They didn't even ask me first! They just gave it to him. I finally convinced them that he didn't need a bath yet, and his brother and sisters were coming to see him so could they please just bring him to me without a bath! Even still, it wasn't until after they had arrived and I called down to the nursery and asked them to bring him to me that they brought him in. September 6, 2004 Oh, on a lighter note, while I was in the hospital there was a board on the wall where they would write down my nurse's name. When the kids came to visit, Jay saw the name "Brandy" written on the board. He asked me, "Is that your menu?" Yeah. Sure. Erick asked Joy is she thought Timothy was a keeper. Joy replied, "Of course! All kids are keepers!" September 13, 2004 I start work on Wednesday. I'm actually looking forward to going back. I kind of miss it in a strange sort of way. Of course, that means I'm going to really have to use my time wisely. I probably won't be able to very much if any Crosswalking in the morning. I'll have to save most of it for after work. But that will only be on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I don't work on Tuesdays or Thursdays. I'm going to have to be up by 6:00 and get the baby changed, my shower done, and breaksfast eaten by 7:00 so we do some housecleaning before school. We'll do school from 9:00 to 11:00. Anything else they haven't finished by then will have to be done while I'm at work under the supervision of Erick while he is working on his school. I'll get on once in the morning to put up my daily poll, but I'll have to resist checking any other messages until later.

Consecrated2God -> RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) (4/22/2005 8:48:25 AM)
September 19, 2004 I'm enjoying being back at work in a way. I kind of missed it. It's nice not hurting after standing for 20 minutes. I'm feeling so good lately. I have so much energy! I love the way I feel after I've had a baby. I need to go get my hair done soon. I've been working out regularly, now that we have some good exercise equipment. Our bedroom is starting to look like a gym instead of a bedroom. If we get anything else we're going to have to find another place for the bed. September 26, 2004 Our church choir has been shrinking, despite our efforts to grow larger. Today we did this thing where they had all the choir members go into the congregation and grab people and bring them up into the choir loft with them. I didn't like the idea and didn't want to do it. I even considered not singing in choir today so I wouldn't have to. They told us, however, that if we didn't want to go down we didn't have to, so I decided I wasn't going to. Then our choir chaplain, who just happened to be standing next to me, asked me if I was going to go down. I told him no, but he pointed out a couple who used to be in choir and suggested that I go ask them, because they would come. I agreed to do that, and when the time came I went in their direction, but someone beat me to them! I had to ask someone else. Luckily, they came. I was actually surprised at how many came up! We had three times as many people as usual in the loft and had to form another row. I was in the front squashed between two very large men (I'm a tenor) and I felt very small and very claustrobic. One of them is a very <ahem> "active" worshipper, and even though I tried to discreetly move over a bit and give him more room, he just kept taking more room. I don't know how many times I about got hit with him swinging his arms all over the place. I must say, the choir sounded very nice being that full. It would be nice if some of them stick around. September 28, 2004 Back in August we entered the Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover Contest. I really hadn't thought much about it until today, when I received an e-mail that began: Dear Elizabeth & Erick, Congratulations! You have been selected as a semi-finalist in the Total Money Makeover Contest. Here's what you need to do now.... I couldn't believe it! The kids thought from the expression on my face that something was wrong. I could hardly wait another ten minutes for Erick to get home from school so I could tell him! I thought he was going to flip out! We are one of 200 semi-finalists in this contest. Now I have to send in all of our financial documents to prove what we submitted on the form. I have to get it all by October 12th. The only thing is, I don't have proof of our emergency fund. That's not good. I called the number in the e-mail for questions about it, and I asked if I have our group leaders sign something saying we had it and got it notarized if that would be accepted and she thought it might work, but couldn't guarantee it. I hope they decide it's good enough! We were going to put it in another account but never got around to it. We didn't really expect to get this far and need to have proof. But if we don't get chosen to be finalists, in a way it will be less hassle. If we are chosen we'll have to fly out to the Bahamas next January, which will mean figuring out schedules and babysitters and everything. From what I understand, they take the 10 finalist couples out there and then on the last day they award the winning couple with $50,000 on TV. I don't even know if I could take the baby with us, and he'll only be 4 1/2 months by then. I'm also not sure exactly when school starts back up, but I think it's that week. So Erick would be skipping his first couple of days of classes. I don't think that would be too terrible, because they just hand out the syllabi those first few days anyway. Surely he could get them from someone else. I think it would work out (if we won, of course!) if we took our Christmas trip to Indiana a couple of weeks later and let the grandparents babysit for a week. As long as I can take the baby. I don't know if I could leave him for five days at that age even for a chance to win $50,000. The trip is required to win. Even if you were the grand prize winner, if you don't go on the trip, you forfeit the prize and someone else is selected. Of course, the chances that this is something we even would have to worry about are pretty small. We're one of 200. On the other hand, the chances of being picked for semi-finalists also had to have been small. It's exiting just to be picked! It's exciting knowing the Great Dave Ramsey himself is going to be reading my essay! (Even though I couldn't hardly even begin to say everything I wanted to say in only 500 words!) After Dave Ramsey reads the 200 essays and they throw out all the semi-finalists who don't have the proper financial documentation (we may get thrown out if they don't accept our proof of our emergency fund) and he picks the ten finalists, he also is going to post them on his website and let America vote for the Grand Prize winner. So you all make sure to log on and vote for us if we get to be finalists! I think we'll be on there anyway for being semi-finalists. It mentioned in the rules that they'd all be listed, I think after September 30th. This is so exciting! I think I'm going to have to un-archive the Dave Ramsey thread so I can post in it again.

Consecrated2God -> RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) (4/22/2005 8:49:22 AM)
Oct 6, 2004 Soooooo, I think I have a toenail fungus! Oh joy. I've been reading up on it and it seems to fit all the symptoms. I've been reading about how if left untreated it can spread to all of your nails and you can lose them. I've got my postpartum appointment tomorrow. I'm going to ask him about it. Surely obstetricians can still write out perscriptions for toenail fungus medicine. October 14, 2004 On the way home from church last night, Sarah was talking about a card she made for our pastor in her class for Pastor Appreciation Month. She didn't really know what it was for, and thought it was his birthday. I told her it was for Pastor Appreciation Month and that was when we all tell our pastors that we appreciate them and thank them for being our pastors. "Yeah!" said Sarah. "Because he's really nice and he doesn't hit us or bite us! He's good." I couldn't help laughing. Joy laughed, too, and said, "Why would a pastor want to hit you or bite you?" I do appreciate our pastor. I need to remember to get a card this month, too. October 15, 2004 I ate too much sugar today. The Taco Bell I work at recently had an important inspection and we scored a perfect 100, and as a reward they sent us a whole huge basket full of junk food for the crew. Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies, maple leaf cookies, chips and dip, pretzels, carmel kisses, toffees, Oreos, nutter butters, etc. etc. etc. I'm not sure, but I think the store manager and I ate the entire box of maple leaf cookies by ourselves. There were only four of us there today, and one girl didn't like them and the guy that was there just recently broke some of his teeth and so he steered clear of the junk food. I'm supposed to make supper, but eating does not appeal to me right now. When Erick brought over the baby on my break, I slipped him a kiss and told him about the bounty of junk I was feasting upon. He was rather jealous and asked me to stop at the store and bring home some junk for everyone else. So I brought home two packages of Oreos (one the mint creme kind and the other the inside out kind) and the kids have been stuffing themselves with them. So no one is really asking for dinner anyway. Ugh. It's a good thing I don't do this every day. I'd be about the size of a blimp. October 23, 2004 My mom is getting a makeover! She's trying to start a new business selling reishi mushrooms. They are a natural remedy that helps with cancer patients. She's getting into it with the help of a friend who is buying her business clothes and make-up and she's even going to get her hair done! I hope she sends me pictures. She has to go make appointments with doctors and try to sell them on this rememdy. If anyone can do it, my mom can. She's great at selling things. I couldn't sell firewood to an Eskimo. She's also had plenty of experiences starting new businesses. I'm sure she can do it! I can't wait to see what she'll look like! Will I recognize her? November 1, 2004 A couple more cute kid stories to tell: We were working on the Nutrition unit in Konos for school. I bought a posterboard and drew the food pyramid on it, and the kids cut up advertisements for food and pasted the food in the appropriate sections. It looked really nice and I hung it on the wall and I was looking it over. I nearly choked on the chicken nugget I was eating when I realized they had cut out a couple of bottles of wine and pasted them in the fruit section! Apparently they thought it was fruit juice. The other funny was when Abby (age 3 1/2) was in Erick's lap running her hand over his face which he hadn't shaved yet. (He has a goatee.) She told him he had sharps in his face, and she was going to pull them out for him. She took hold of one, pulled, frowned, and said, "Hey, dey won't come out!" He said, "That's because it's attached. It's hair. It's in my skin." She wrinkled up her nose and said, "No it not! Dat not hair, doe's are sharps. Dat hair." and pointed to his head. He said "Yes, that's hair on my head, and this is hair on my face." He pointed to his goatee. "See, this is my beard. It's hair, too." "No, dat your chin. Dat your hair." "Yes, this is my chin, and it has hair on it." "Dat not hair. Dat string." We busted up laughing. String! She's such a cutie. November 9, 2004 My sister's blog just got archived. November 13, 2004 Today I am 26. It's also Saturday. I had hopes of sleeping in this morning, but no such luck. First, at 5:45 AM, Joy came knocking on my door to tell me that she was hot and asking me if I'd turned the heat on again. Yes, I turned the heat on. It's getting cold at nights! You see, when Erick's sisters came down to help when I was having Timothy, they re-arranged the girls' room, which was nice of them, but now their bunk bed is under the vent. So hot air gets blown on Joy's legs at night, and she can't sleep. I told her to bring her blankets upstairs and sleep on the couch. By the way, we have a really nice new couch now. One of Erick's professors, who is also the newest pastor on staff at our church, gave it to us because they were redecorating. It's gorgeous! Anyway, Joy did bring her blankets up, but I don't think she ever went to sleep. All the kids were soon up and playing. After a little while, they remembered it was my birthday and they began come in, one at a time, to wish me a happy birthday. First one kid would open the door a crack and whisper, "Mom! Happy birthday!" and I'd say, "Thank you. Go away." and then another one would come and open the door and say, "It's your birthday, Mom! Happy birthday!" and I'd say, "Thank you. Go away." Each kid repeated the process, then they cycled back through again asking if they could play on the computer or watch T.V. I managed to get a little more sleep, but I didn't get to sleep in like I wanted. Ho hum.

Consecrated2God -> RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) (4/22/2005 8:50:20 AM)
November 19, 2004 Jay and Joy are starting to write their own e-mails now. They've learned how to start a letter, write, and send it all by themselves. I knew Joy was writing a letter last night so I checked in the sent items to see what she wrote. Here's what she said: "dearvivi ihav a baby brother and his name si tim sarah si habpy" I also found one Jay wrote. His said the following: "Dear David, I read all the Happy Hollisters and loved them thank you. and Timothy is veary cute I love him veary mutch love Jay" November 26, 2004 And now it is time for "Cute Things My Kids Said."; the part of the blog where my kids come out and do cute things. Erick and I were lying on our bed and talking, and Abby was up there with us, and she was playing with our pillows. I have two feather pillows and Erick has one thick, firm pillow. Abby was talking about them and arranging them, and I mentioned to her that I had two pillows and Daddy only had one pillow. She said, "Oh!" and then got a very concerned look on her face. "Dat not nice." she said. "Daddy need two pillows." I said, "But Daddy doesn't want two pillow. He only wants one pillow." So then Abby said, "You only need one pillow." I told her I wanted two pillows, but she insisted that I should only get one if Daddy only gets one. Kids have such strong feelings about what is fair! Another one: We were driving somewhere, and Sarah was looking at the clock, and it was 6:03. She asked me what time it was, and I told her it was "six-oh-three." She thought for awhile. I could see the wheels turning. Then she said, "It can't be six-OH-three, becaue "O" isn't a number. It's six-ZERO-three." Very smart! November 24, 2004 Well, we didn't win the Dave Ramsey Money Makeover Contest, but that's okay. The rewards of getting out of credit card debt and getting control over our finances have been the best reward we ever could have gotten. If I had to pick between the money and the changes we've made, I would pick the changes. Before, that $50,000 would have been a waste on us since we didn't know what to do with it anyway. I am posting the essay I wrote for the contest. I think I actually did tweak it a bit more before I actually sent it, but I must not have saved the changes. So you'll have to see my rough draft. Money Makeover Essay by Lisa Luper When we got an opportunity to enroll in FPU last January, we knew it was time to get our finances in order. We are a college family with five children and one on the way. We both work part time and my husband goes to school full time. We have a limited income and we were only barely making ends meet by using credit cards. We tried to budget, but we never could figure out how to make it work when we didn�t make enough to cover our expenses--including $110 a month in credit card bills. We floated checks because the bills always came due before payday arrived. We�d forget to enter debit card transaction and end up bouncing our checks, or having them arrive late and paying late fees plus over-limit fees on our credit cards. Money just seemed to disappear. Before I got pregnant with our sixth child, we had been planning on using our next tax refund check to pay off the credit cards, but now we were going to need a bigger vehicle. More debt looked inevitable. The first decision we made after signing up with FPU was to not finance a new vehicle like we had planned, using our tax check as a down payment, but to keep the vehicles we already have until we could pay our van off and buy a larger one with cash. When we got our tax refund check, plus some extra money from school grants, we not only paid off most of our credit cards, we did something else we had never even thought of doing--starting an emergency fund of $1000. We used the Debt Snowball to finish paying them off over the next few months and we cancelled all our cards. The last one will be cancelled within the next week. We did have to use our emergency fund when the brakes went out on the van, and we paid in cash! We learned how to do a zero-based budget and implemented the envelope system immediately. With the reduction of �Stupid Tax� in our lives, we found we were able to afford to fund categories that we had never added into our budget before. We have a clothing fund now, and a gift fund, and an entertainment fund. We are telling our money what to do for the first time! Until we went through FPU, we didn�t realize that we could afford term life insurance. We did understand the need, because I nearly lost my husband due to spinal meningitis three years ago. It�s only by the grace of God that he is alive and not disabled today. If I had lost him, I would have been a widow at the age of 22 with four young children and nothing to live on. We now each have $250,000 in coverage. FPU has been life changing for us. For the first time we actually see a light at the end of the tunnel. December 2, 2004 Erick got a new job position! It doesn't have a raise with it, but we're still pretty excited about it for several reasons. He was a route supervisor over several buildings in Springfield, including Bass Pro Shops, for a cleaning company. Now he is going to do buildings more in our area, and they are going to let him take the company truck home with him. This will save him money in gas costs because he won't have to drive to Springfield in our car. Gas is paid for in the company truck. He also gets new hours--6-10 pm instead of 2-6 am. That means we get to sleep together! Woohoo! He's usually sleeping during those hours, so we don't get to see him then anyway. Another benefit is he isn't going to have to deal with this guy he works with from our church anymore who is really hard to deal with and about to get fired. It's been stressing Erick having to fire a friend. He got a new pager, too, so now this guy can't page him 14 times a night (not an exaggeration).

Consecrated2God -> RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) (4/22/2005 8:51:10 AM)
December 10, 2004 I just realized that I finally have the flaming folder icon next to my blog! Yay! It's taken me awhile to get there, but little by little, one post at a time, I've made it. Today is Rachel's birthday. She's two. She's also sick. She and Abby have both been coughing so bad at night they've been gagging. We took them both to the doctor Wednesday and they said Abby had bronchitis and that Rachel just had a viral thing. They prescribed antibiotics for Abby but not for Rachel. They seem to have the same thing to me, but the cough is still not going away. It's been keeping me up at night and making it hard for me to get rest, which I need, because I also have a viral thing that's giving me a sore throat. The doctor also said that I need to get my wisdom teeth looked at. Today Erick and I are going on a date. We've got a girl from our church coming at 2:00 to babysit while we go out to eat and go Christmas shopping. She's one of the few people from our church that live in the same town as we do. She's got such a neat family. Her mom is what my mom would be like if my mom was cool. She's funny and creative and talented like my mom, but she's cool, too. We got our tree up yesterday. I still have Christmas cards to do and presents to buy and wrap and we are having a New Year's party and going to Indiana for Christmas. I don't think I have the energy to make a cookie church this year. I've got a Christmas musical to finish learning (I've missed some practices because of my throat) and I need to finish learning "And He Shall Purify" to sing at Mom and Dad's old church on Christmas Eve. December 15, 2004 A year or two ago, Jay wanted a Bible so I gave him a paperback KJV New Testament that we had hanging around with the promise that if he took care of it I'd get him a better one. He couldn't read at the time anyway, so I figured it would be good practice taking care of a Bible. When he learns to read and to take care of a Bible, I'll get him one that's easier to understand, I figured. He lost it, of course. He recently found it, and now that he can read, he of course has been reading it. He's been reading out loud, too. He read me a lengthy passage and then said, "I don't know what that meant, but I know it was important! December 19, 2004 On the way back from church this morning (Sarah and I went--she is the only kid that wasn't coughing) I had a Christmas card from a lady in choir. She asked me who it was from, and I told her it was from Amy E____. I said, "You probably don't know her. She's in the choir." Sarah replied, "I think I do know her. Is her name Amy?" "Yes, her name is Amy. She has black hair and brown eyes." "And she has black hair." added Sarah. Sometimes I wonder if Sarah listens! December 28, 2004 This is a post to insure that my blog doesn't get archived while I'm busy catching up on all the reading I have to do from while we were Christmasing in Indiana. January 7, 2005 I just realized I haven't posted in here in awhile. I'd better get something up or my dear old blog will get archived! The kids are finally getting over their colds. They've had some really nasty ones. Rachel had it the worst, and is still coughing some, but it's not as bad as it was anymore. Over Christmas she would throw up every time she coughed. That was nasty. I've been working a lot lately while Erick is on Christmas break. We've started school back up, and I'm potty training Rachel, or at least trying to, so as you can imagine I've been almost too busy to post. January 8, 2004 I'm going to give you a peek into the Luper household. To set the scene, I have the day off, we don't have to do shopping today, so it's a rare Saturday to just be together. Erick is watching a football game. Rachel is sleeping. Timothy is lying on the floor on his tummy, watching the game. Jay is in a chair reading something, but I'm not sure what, and Joy is watching him. Abby and Sarah are downstairs. Timothy just rolled over onto his back. He's got his fingers in his mouth, again. He keeps his first two fingers in his mouth almost all the time. Joy is now sitting on the arm of the chair with her feet in the baby swing. Jay and her are having an small discussion over something, but I can't hear it over the T.V.--a woman reporter talking about how the Rams have lost the last five games. I hear crying downstairs. It sounds like Sarah. Now Rachel is pounding on her door. I guess she's not asleep. Erick just headed off in the direction to let her out. Here she comes, wearing a pink Easter bonnet with her green pacifier in her mouth. Erick returns to the couch. Sarah is calling from downstairs: "Joy, can we watch your ballet video? Can we watch your ballet video? Can we? Joy, can we watch your ballet video?" I turn around and notice Rachel has pushed her high-chair up to the kitchen counter and is about to get into the Crisp Rice. I tell her, "Rachel, get down from there." She sits down. A few seconds later, Erick says, "Uh, uh, uh, put it back." Rachel puts down the coffee cup and gets off the high chair. Here she comes, back into the living room and stands in front of the T.V. Erick says, "Rachel, move. Move! Sit down, or go downstairs. Go." Rachel goes to play with Timothy. She puts her pink Easter bonnet on him, and then puts in back on her head and goes downstairs. January 8, 2004 JOY: Jay! Jay (crying) (To Mom) Jay has my two quarters. MOM: Jay, give them back. JOY: Mommy, guess what Jay always does, every single time. MOM: What? JOY: Every single time he always makes fun of my ballet video. He always says wrong words and makes me feel sad. He's like "stupid Maxine, stupid Jazzy," he's always like that." MOM: Well, why don't you tell him to come here. MOM: (to Jay) Don't be calling the girls' things stupid. Don't be calling them stupid, don't even be saying stupid. JAY (bored) Yes. Yes. (Jay goes downstairs.) (a few minutes later) Jay arrives upstairs wearing a pink leotard and tutu. JAY: Hi mom! MOM: (looking at him strangely) Uh, hi, Jay! Jay disappears again. Joy arrives upstairs with her wallet. JOY: Mom, do you think I'm ever going to get a purse to put this in? MOM: I don't know. Maybe. Joy notices her name on the screen. JOY: What are you writing? I see, "Joy, and Mom, and some other words I know. Who are you writing to? Why does it only have Mom, Joy, and Jay on there? Why does it only have those? Why does it say, "Mom, Joy?" I don't get it. I don't get it. How do you just push on the keyboard and don't look at it? How do you don't look at the keyboard? I don't get it? MOM: I'm just good! JOY: Why did you do "dot dot..." (Joy leaves, mid-sentence.)

Consecrated2God -> RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) (4/22/2005 8:52:05 AM)
January 12, 2004 This is a test. [Edited by Admin.] January 12, 2004 This is another test. [Edited by Admin.] January 12, 2004 Wow! January 18, 2004 You wouldn't believe how many notes I got wondering why my blog got edited. Anyway, moving on... Rachel is potty training! She is finally catching on, too. I was getting frustrated at first because she would sit on the potty forever and then as soon as I finally let her up, she'd have an accident. Today she reached a milestone--she went by herself! I gave her a Hershy Kiss as a reward. I've been giving her one everytime she goes. I am starting to wonder when I should stop giving her candy for going, though. Will she think for the rest of her life she's entitled to a piece of candy everytime she uses the potty? That could cause serious problems! Oh, it will be so nice though to have her out of diapers. Then I'll only have Timothy in diapers. I can't wait. Of course, we'll probably still be buying Pull-Ups for some time yet, but at least she'll only have to wear them to bed and church. I remember with my first two we didn't use Pull-Up at all. They potty-trained much faster. I really think Pull-Ups prolong the process, but on the other hand, they help with the mess factor. They also make my kids more welcome in church when they are wearing a Pull-Up during those early days. January 26, 2005 And now it is time for "Cute Things My Kids Said."; the part of the blog where my kids come out and do cute things. Abby got a baby doll for Christmas that has a blue diaper and a blue bib, so she says it's a boy doll. I picked up Timothy and said, "Hi, buster boy!" and she picked up her doll and said, "Hi, buster boy!" so that's how I know it's a boy doll. I asked her, "Is your doll a boy?" and she said yes. I asked her, "What's your doll's name?" "Cinderella." she replied. "Cinderella isn't a boy's name. Why don't you name him something like Jimmy or Tommy or..." "Mom, I can do it myself!" Abby interupted. She thought, quietly, for several minutes. I began to think she had forgotton what she was thinking about. Finally, she brightened and looked at me, and said, "His name is Rock and Roll." Well, I guess that's a better boy's name than Cinderella! January 29, 2005 We had the most perfect snow day today! It's the kind of snow that's wet enough to easily roll into snowballs bigger than you can lift. It's not event that cold out, so the kids were able to stay out there and play for quite awhile without getting frostbite or anything. All of them (except Timothy, of course) went out to play, and I watched them through the back window. I'm not big on getting wet and cold myself. They all made snowmen. Joy made two of them, a boy and a girl. She put coats and hats on them and everything. They are still standing and they are very cute. Jay made two as well, but neither exist anymore. His first one the head fell off and so he stomped it to bits and then made another one and it's head fell off too and so he stomped it to bits, too. I saw him head over to Joy's snowmen and I called him over to the window and made sure he understood he was not to stomp her snowmen. Sarah made a snowman and hers fell over and she stomped it, too. She didn't bother making a second one. Instead she busied herself throwing snowballs at everyone, including me. There are still several snowballs stuck on the window pane. She also ate some snow, made a snow angel, and filled up a cup with snow and dumped it out. Abby and Rachel even made a snowman together. They had problems past the first snowball, though, and eventually just stuck a carrot into the bottom snowball. Later Rachel came along and ate the carrot. She's been eating quite a few carrots. I sent them out with a whole bag of carrots and the only two left are the ones in Joy's snowmen. Rachel is still eating one. I had as much fun as any of them just watching them. February 3, 2005 Ah, the kids are in bed. I love the sound of silence. February 12, 2005 The kids competed in this year's Pinewood Derby last Wednesday. We entered three cars this year from Jay, Joy, and Sarah. Abby could have, but I want her to wait until she's in kindergarten to race. I like them to do most of the work themselves. Erick helped them cut them out of course, but the kids sanded and painted them and even put the wheels on (mostly) by themselves. They won't win any workmanship awards yet, but at least it's their own work. Jay's car wasn't very fast, but he had the good fortune to be racing against some other fairly slow cars and ended up getting a second place ribbon in his heat. The way they did it this year was to award first, second, third, and fourth place ribbons for each heat, and then to average the top four times for each divisions and awarded trophies to them. Joy and Sarah were both in the same division this year, but in different heats, and they both won first place ribbons in their heats. Joy also got a third place trophy. I had to get onto her a little bit for bragging ("I guess I'm the only one in the family who ever gets any trophies, aren't I, Mom?") but all the kids were happy and no one cried this year. Jay was okay with not getting a first place ribbon, and to make things even better, a friend at church gave him a bag of hand-me-downs and so he got to go through them that evening. Another lady gave me a few little girl shoes and coats. There's the prettiest coat in there, a black leather-like coat with leopard fur trim (not real fur, of course!) but it's too small for any of my girls. I might give it away on freecycle.org. I've been doing a lot of freecycling lately. I'd better go, someone is crying.

Consecrated2God -> RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) (4/22/2005 8:53:01 AM)

February 13, 2005
I've got a couple of things to blog about today. One is sad, and the other is kind of funny.
I'll start with the sad one, because it's a major thing right now.
Erick's grandpa is dying. He had a stroke the day after Christmas and has been in and out of the hospital. He was doing pretty well at one point and they moved him to a nursing home, but they were not treating him well and he got bad bedsores. Because of the bedsores he now has an infection throughout his body and recently went through surgery to remove flesh that was so badly infected it couldn't be saved. They put him on strong antibiotics and they weren't working, and he requested yesterday to be taken off the antibiotics and let nature take its course. I don't know exactly how long it will take, but we are working on plans to get at least Erick up to Indiana for a funeral when Grandpa passes on. He's ready to go, but it's hard on Erick because they were best buddies.
It just hasn't been Erick's day. Today he spilled coffee in his lap in Sunday School. Before he left for church he was getting ready and he went to trim his mustache (this is the thing that was kind of funny that I referred to earlier). A couple of days ago I borrowed his trimmer to trim the edges of Jay's hair, and I adjusted it to trim really close and forgot to re-adjust it before I put it back in the drawer. You guessed it--Erick shaved off his mustache accidentally. He looks Amish. I've been calling him Eli today.
February 20, 2005
We got a cell phone!
We paid off our van with our tax refund check and then dropped out insurance coverage to liability. We got the cell phone with the money we saved. Erick picked it out last night. He didn't get the phone I would have gotten. I would have gotten the free one. He got the $30 that's also a camera phone. Except that we don't have the service to send or upload pictures, so there's not much we can really do with the pictures. Oh well. They waived the activation fee so at least he didn't spend too much!
Now we need to sell our van. We've outgrown it so we need to sell it and get another one that seats all eight of us. Anyone want to buy it? Or trade?

February 25, 2005
Grandpa Luper passed away this evening. We had kind of gotten our hopes up that he was doing better, because they had moved him to the Veteren's Home and he was getting a better treatment for his bedsores, but while I was at work Erick called to tell me he was dying, and a couple hours later called me again to tell me he was gone.
We will be going up to Indiana on Sunday, all of us. We had thought about just Erick going, but he can't take the car because it might not make it there and back, and if he's going to take the van we might as well all go, too. The viewing is Sunday and the funeral is Monday.
We've already pretty much mourned him since we've had so much warning, but it is disappointing because it looked for awhile like he was doing better. It did hit Erick kind of hard, but he's doing okay.
It's kind of ironic that he's been to a lot more funerals than I have, but that this is his first grandparent to die. I've only been to two funerals, and they were both my grandparents. He is very blessed to have such a close family. They are all there; all his aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, brothers, sisters, mom and dad. They all get together for holidays. It's amazing.
My extended family is all over the country. I really don't even know my remaning grandpa. I send him a card on Christmas, and that's it. My grandma I haven't seen since before my oldest son was born. Aunts and Uncles and Cousins--I saw them last when my grandma died about five years ago. On my mom's side it's been probably more than 15 years since I've seen them. I met my great-grandma once. Erick is a very blessed man to have his family so close.

March 2, 2005
Just had to quickly share something Joy said to me that just made my day.
I was helping her learn how to tie off water balloons, and I mentioned that she did a great job or something along those lines, and she said, "With a great mom like you, I can do lots of things."
What a great compliment! I always like it when my kids approve of my parenting skills.
March 8, 2005
Erick got a $6000 scholarship Friday! This is such a blessing. His financial aid got all messed up and he ended up having to take out a last minute student loan to start the semester. We had worked so hard to get out of debt and it was diappointing to have more debt, even though this debt won't have any interest. We still had the other student loan we took out back when Rachel was born, too. This will take care of that debt.
It's hard to believe that after this semester is over, he's only got a year to go. I'm starting to get excited. I can't wait until he's done with school! We are really hoping he can get a postition closer to family. We're going to start working on the house this summer to get it ready to sell. It needs some paint, new carpet in the living room, the deck needs to be sealed, the front could use some landscaping, and there's a few minor things here and there like some trim to replace. We'll probably also put down new linoleoum in the bathrooms and do something t