Easter!

I trust everyone one had a wonderful Easter as we did. It was a quiet one, but a blessed one. I was for one not ready for another holiday. But I am glad to say we don't have to be all in the commercialized hoop-la of the holiday to remember what was done for us those years ago and still applies to us today. He was, He IS, and He will be forevermore! I did manage to snag a few pictures fo the boys. Aunt Becky was able to take some coloring the eggs and baskets, which are on facebook.

Life has been good but very busy...... This is another time of year that seems to be crazy, the end of the school year. It is winding down, and I am glad another school year is coming to an end. There is a lot of decisions to be made by schools end and I am seeking what the He has planned for us in the future. Whatever it is I know that it will be what is best for us.

We had a nice spring break full of advententure. Now that we can look back on it..... Our second night in the tent and we were hit with a storm that had 40 mh winds. It scared the boys, we were right on the water and they were afraid we were going to be swept away to sea. One thought that we were in a tornado when I quickly woke them and told them to get into the van. They told us while they were in the van and we were quickly trying to gather everything that they were praying for mommy and daddy to be safe. So to the tent was never put back up but with mommy to the rescue I was able to to rearrange the van each night to make comfy beds to sleep on (thankful for stow away back seats) then each morning put everything back for our driving trips. Alot more work than I had intended but it worked out ok. Just wished we would have had a little bit more cooler breezes at night. We made it though. It is something to look back on and have great memories. We would like to go back again, only next time with a camper or hotel.

"Guess What..." Family Night


I was anxiously awaiting to tell the boys in the morning what the theme would be for this family night by saying, "Family night is....guess what" and they would answer, "what" and then would start the "who's on First" dialog. But I was sorely disappointed when I failed to hear my alarm and Evan hearing his (what are the odds). I awoke with a panic rush to get the boys and their lunches, backpacks and instruments off to school.

I was excited more to do this family night more than others for some reason. I had fun doing it. I used the boxes seen in the picture for all three parts of my family night.
1. Home from school snack. And a good way to introduce our fun night ahead.
Here are the clues for the boxes and see if you can figure them out. By the way. I was not feeling the creative juices for my clues. and I may not remember the clues to exact wording that I had on them at the time.

a. tallest box: I am sometimes straight and sometimes twisted. Sometimes salted, sometimes, not.

b. green box : I melt in your mouth

c. the "woody" tin: Charlie Brown may not think me to be a snack but a title.

d. the little purple box: You may hang me on your Christmas tree but am enjoyed all year round.

e. smaller red box: when not a snack people use me to pull things but as a snack I am black and also come in red.

I wrapped some of the boxes pushing the flaps in so the bottom is open and it is easy and fun to lift up the box to reveal the surprise. I just used left over Christmas wrapping paper. The boys didn't mind. Well I don't think they did. They didn't say a word about it.

So did you figure them out. Easy ah?

a. stick pretzels

b. m&m 's

c. Peanuts

d. A bag of microwave popcorn

e. Black licorice

They could read as many clues as they wanted but when they selected one and revealed their surprise they had to stick with it. I will later revise this to when you find your surprise you can keep it our give it up for good and select a another surprise. It may or may not be better than what you started with.

I went to the store and purchased a differnent meal (I took grandpa with me so that 6 choices). I tried to think of different things and easy to make. I was going to make one a breakfast meal and forgot. Here is what I came up with and a clue

Mac and cheese with applesauce and drink ........ "I'm the cheesest"

BBQ nugget lunchable with pudding, and drink ....... I said something about cowboy and sauce

Sweet and sour chicken and rice in a stream tray.....In chapel they were told about sweet and sour frog. so I put something about, "Frog anyone? That I am not but I am sweet and ?"

Kids Cuzine......I am every kids favorite cusine

MC Pot pie and glass of milk.......by my name you would think that I was made in a pot and sweet. to both I am not.

and last

A flatbread of chicken and peppers and drink........I am as flat as a skunk in the middle of the road(remember I have boys and boys like that kind of gross stuff) but I smell and taste better with peppers inside.

Last of all the third part was the games. I did the same for the different games I selected. We played Apples to apples......you are the apple of my eye
39 Clues game.......do you have a clue what this game may be
skip-bo.......you dont want to skip this game

The boys really enjoyed the night. It was alot of fun. They enjoyed it so much they wanted me to do the same thing with their chores the next morning. I did, but a little differently I took some old blank cards that I had and numbered them 1-4 and put a different chore on each one. After the secound or third round. I slipped in a fun thing to do like. Read a book until the others are done with their chore. and this where we revised the game to, you may trade but you have to keep it. so the chore may be better or worse than the one you already picked but you dont know!

Now what in the world do I do next week?

Family Night

Friday night is our family night. The boys look forward to it every week. I try and come up with different ideas for such an occasion. Some times things fall into place and other nights I just want to sit down with the boys and have popcorn and watch a movie. Most of the time I have a starting idea waiting to be embelished on, when the day arrvies, but usually does not break free, until that very day. I confess not all my ideas bloom into a wonderful family night and I am just stuck wondering what I can do.

Now during the Holiday rush we do many "holidayish" things so we tend to stay from the friday night, but now that school is back in swing, so is our family night. Not to be confused with Tuesday night game night which is a whole other topic.

To my friends who have asked me for ideas and for myself seeking creativiy from my friends. I post this so we can share, and all happy families be. (oh well besides the loads of laundry wishing to smells clean, dirty dishes itching to be scrubbed, and the dog.....you get the picture.) My house is not always in order(hardly at all, at the same time). But my boys will not be boys forever and the time will be here before I know it. They will be men with a life of memories and a heart full of love. A love for God and family!

So hopefully we can share ideas, thoughts and stories!

So I was going to update with so pictures but it seems there was an error in loading and I am not up to messing with it right now. So I will update with no pictures. It has been a while since I have done any kind of updating on here. I am not going to try and get everything in but, I want to praise the Lord for being with me in the good and in the bad.
Last summer I was privaleged to go with Ethan on a TLC trip to Alaska. It was a wonderful trip. We were able to help in VBS twice a day up in Minto. And also helping get things ready for the next VBS after we left. The guys on the team also helped chink and chop wood for the church. It was a great experience I had with Ethan. We met some wonderful people while we where there along with the team from UBC and our own team members.
Ethan celebrated his 8th birthday when we returned and enjoyed 2 weeks of band camp learning the trumpet. Starting school was a blurr other than Easton started Pre-K half a day. Wasnt ready for that, but felt he needed it. I think it may be a blur because mom found out she had cancer and was planning for surgery and later had to start radiation.
In October the boys dressed up as Narnia characters. Easton as Aslan and the other two as Peter and Henry. For Thanksgiving it was nice to have Grandma Jackson here. We had a nice dinner and enjoyed some shopping together. Then in December we were able to take a nice Christmas road trip out west for Christmas break. We were able to visit the Alamo, The Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Vegas, Santa Monica beach, and most of all our family in Phoenix. Papa, Mimi, and Ryan, and Shelby. It was a great trip. We were to go to a reunion but the boys and I ended up flying back to Florida to get them back to school and so Rodney could spend a little more time in Phoenix. I was going to try and get a ticket for the following day of the reunion but Rodney beat me to purchasing the tickets. I felt really bad that I missed some dear friends but hopefully we will get to see them another time.
In January things turned upside down for our family. The day of the Haiti earthquake my mother was taken to ER and we found that her cancer had come back and spread to her lungs, liver and abdomen. She had just started her second dose of internal radiation. She had finished her exturnal radiation before the holidays. It was decided that she would start her chemo. She had been in so much pain and didnt want to eat much. It was hard to watch. The chemo made her sesitive to light, sound and touch. She went back into the hospital and then released. She seemed to be in better spirits. I thought she would make it out of this. I thought it was just a bump in the road. But she still kept complaining of her pain. And then Sarah came down for a visit. She went with us to mom's last Dr's visit. On the way home she wanted to stop at the park by the water where the boats go by. I took her there one time on the way back from one of her radiation treatments. It is nice place to watch the boats. The week end she just seemed to decline. Finally on Sunday Sarah called me and said mom was calling for me so I went over and she said she wanted me to call emergency. I called her Dr and they told me to take her to ER so I did. She was having trouble breathing so the first thing they did was put her on oxygen. It was so hard to watch her go through this and it was so hard not to touch and hold her hand. She didnt want any of it. but yet she was still concerned about us in in her pain and suffering. she wanted me to take dad home. None of us knew this would be her last few hours. We still thought they would get her feeling better. so finally I told her I would take dad home and Becky would come and Sarah would stay with her. Before Becky made it there the Dr came to Sarah and was telling her things and she wanted Becky to hurry and get there. Becky called me and told me that they said there was nothing they could do to help her and that they were going to call hospice and bring her home. Well, then she called back and said they couldnt get hospice there soon enough because she was not going to make it through the night. And they didnt want to move her from ER because it would be too much they felt for her. Well by they time we made it back to the hospital and Rodney brought the boys and Pastor Vernon they felt maybe they should go ahead and move her to a room. I am so glad they did. By then they were able to have her resting comfortably but she was no longer awake. Just resting peacefuly in her room. not long after being in her room we all stood by her side and then she took her last breath. It was hard to see but you know God gave her that breath and He took that breath. We have no questions to where she is right now because of the life she lived. I thank God for her example. I was a blur the next couple of weeks. We had a viewing here in Florida for our dear friends here. I was pleased by short notice and word of mouth that we had about 70 some come for the viewing. There was such and outpouring of help from our church family here. The Lord has certainly blessed us. Then we went up to Michigan for two more viewings and and her funeral. She wanted to be burried by her grandmother who lead her to Christ. Even though it was a hard time it was also great to see so many people that we have not seen is so long. It was nice to have Pastor Bullock, Pastor Sickmiller, and Pastor Durr speak. And I know mom would have been so proud of her grandsons who sang while Ethan played "oh how I love Jesus.". The church ladies did a wonderful job with the lunchon afterward. The Durrs were so great in allowing us to stay with them while we were there. They were great host. And the boys loved playing with the "big kids"
The next couple of months has had its moments but God is always with us. We had a nice Easter with Dad and Becky. And this past Sunday was Mothers Day. We just relaxed with a picnic at the same park we went to with mom, remembering what she did and the things she enjoyed.
Now it is the busy end of the year school activities. many field trips and other activities. To add to the excitement. Evan and are going to Domincan Republic this summer and are helping with fundraisers with our team. Yard sales, dinners, car washes, bake sales, and Evan's lemonade stand. And anything else we can think of to help raise money for our trip. So if you pass me and I dont say Hello. I may be sleep walking. Have a great summer everyone! After our Dominican trip we will be going up north for most of the summer, but thats another blog. So there is scratch of an update.

Memorial Day 2009

Memorial Day 2009

After have some rather rainy days, Memorial Day couldnt have been any more perfect. It wasnt to hot. The sun was out and just a little wind.

Just a little more windy on the pier.

Ethan was happy but Evan just hit his nose on a metal bar and the sun was getting to a boy who hadnt had a nap. Thus the black and white. They did enjoy themselves though. lol