Its been forever since i blogged!!

I know that many of you have been praying for my mom and i want to say to all, thank you. Here is an update. After 3-4 wks of being in 2 different hospitals, we are now at a rehab facility where she is trying to gain her strength back. Her liver and kidneys are still not working and she is doing dialysis 3 x a week. We have a couple of more appointments and things to fulfill before we are able to be placed on the liver transplant list-but i am hopeful. Once again a huge thanks to all who have prayed and those that continue to pray! I will try to keep everyone updated. the thing is, as everyone knows, life does not stop even when there is a trying time.

awesome snow sculpture

Happy New year!!

Gosh I am too busy for the computer anymore!!!! I guess that is what happens with 4 dogs and 2 kids. hee hee notice how the dogs are before the kids! just kidding!!! Kota is on 3 different soccer league things at the moment. Which keeps us hopping. He did awesome yesterday! Nicholas still working and going to school. He just started the new semester. Vincent is sick but getting better. Everything is good. Watch this darling video and take a moment to smile and laugh!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sUL0KCIc48&feature=related

HELP LOST DOG!

This dog is lost in lenawee county! responds to sky! has tags but since recently moved- they are old numbers! lives on kopke rd by rogers hwy! please spread this around please! contact me if found! so we can tell the owners! thanks! oh and anyone looking to adopt a husky specifically let me know! The husky rescue that we are involved with took in 6 huskies just this week alone!! these dogs need and deserve a loving forever home!

cannot wait for me and the girls to go and see....

we are officially a pack!!!

meet the newest members of the family!!

the red one is Diesel and the black one is Blizzard! Shadow and Blizzard are checking each other out! So sweet! hoping all goes well with them. Oh and I know! we are mental! so no need to tell me!

The day is brighter here with You
The night is lighter than it's hue
Would lead me to believe
Which leads me to believe

(chorus)
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours
What does that make me?(THESE ARE THE BEST WORDS RIGHT HERE)

My eyes are small but they have seen
the beauty of enormous things
Which leads me to believe
there's light enough to see that

(chorus)You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours

From glory to glory
You are glorious
You are glorious
From glory to glory
You are glorious.
You are glorious

Which leads me to believe
why I can believe that
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours

You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours

From glory to glory
From glory to glory
You are glorious.
You are glorious.You are glorious.
You are glorious.You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours

It's August can u believe it?????

Updates: This weekend Kota will be in a soccer tourney in Brighton-both saturday and Sunday! Wish him luck. Nicholas went to the orthopedic surg and we both agreed to hold off on any surgery. He is actually going to try to play some softball tonite. Wish him luck. He is also setting up his schedule for school. Sad when you gotta pay to go to school. I am getting ready for Thursday school. I feel more prepared than usual but ya never know. Vincent will be laid off for two weeks in August but I like that he will be home. He can watch Kota play soccer more. All in all everything else is great. til next time! ciao!!!

A Brag Moment

Kota loves soccer and had been asked to tryout for a premier soccer team (he already plays indoor and on a travel league). This premier team is only looking for about 20-25 kids in southeast michigan and will be working with BEST (British Elite Soccer Training). The coaches are former pro soccer players (futbol) from England. Well, Kota went and tried out and today he received his letter stating congrats! he had been selected to train with BEST! I am very proud of him and just wanted the world to know! ;-) til next time!

When I get where I'm going
on the far side of the sky.
The first thing that I'm gonna do
Is spread my wings and fly.

I'm gonna land beside a lion,
and run my fingers through his mane.
Or I might find out what it's like
To ride a drop of rain

(Chorus:)Yeah when I get where I'm going,
there'll be only happy tears.
I will shed the sins and struggles,
I have carried all these years.

And I'll leave my heart wide open,
I will love and have no fear.
Yeah when I get where I'm going,
Don't cry for me down here.

I'm gonna walk with my grandaddy,
and he'll match me step for step,
and I'll tell him how I missed him,
every minute since he left.
Then I'll hug his neck.

(Chorus)

So much pain and so much darkness,
in this world we stumble through.
All these questions, I can't answer,so much work to do.
But when I get where I'm going,and I see my Maker's face.
I'll stand forever in the light,of His amazing grace.
Yeah when I get where I'm going,there'll be only happy tears.
Hallelujah!
I will love and have no fear.
When I get where I'm going.
Yeah when I get where I'm going.

am i thinking tooo hard???

Yesterday I went to the store for lotion. The lotion is regularly priced $14.93. There were two bottles of the lotion that were mismarked. I picked up the mismarked lotion and said to myself, well I will get this one since it is marked $6.43. What a bargain for me! So I go to the register with my basket of stuff and when my lotion scans in at the original and true price, I say to the cashier. Excuse me, that is marked $6.43. She does her over ride thingy and I walk out of there with my lotion. Now a similar thing happened with my dog food. It was mismarked and when I went to the register and she punched in the price that it was mismarked. She did not go for the scan. Yet when she looked puzzled I told her it was mismarked. She said well then it is your lucky day. (mind you it was a mismark of almost $10.)

So Why do I feel kind of bad for the lotion thingy and not for the dog food? Should I have just paid for the original price and not mentioned a thing! Well I guess it was bothersome enough that for next time I will pay the original price! Til next time! ciao!

Nuttin' New!

Things are finally winding down around here. School is out! All but one graduation party and a wedding is left (whew there was a lot!) Soccer is down to once a week and on a brag note- Kota and his team tied for first, for division champs! Yeah! He has an awards cermony this Thursday! Nicholas is working almost everyday and is getting ready to take some placement tests for school! Vincent, I hardly see since he is on his new ten hour schedule and works this Saturday! The dogs are cooped up more since it is hot outside and get a little restless! We have some summer plans- Cedar point (got our tickets for $21 bucks can u believe it), Creation museum, Mud hens game, Indian pow wow, some bon fires, Kota has soccer camp, and whatever else we feel like doing! No real planned vacation since we went to Florida for Christmas and then Nicholas and I went again to Florida in April! When I have something either profound or fun and exciting to share I will. till then ciao!

yep! more pics!

It was fear factor at one of the grad parties and i thought i would share some of the moments snapped up!

He made it! on to the next leg of his journey!

It's the final countdown!!!!!!!

Nicholas will be graduating this Friday evening. Pray for all those who graduate.

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, " declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. "

Ouch!

Do you believe in what the bible (God) says is true? Or do you believe in what someone tells you the bible says to be true?

for us Lost junkies!!!!!

Just an FYI... the tv series lost is scheduled to air for three uninterupted seasons. (16 episodes each season-so 48 more episodes! The show will conclude in 2009-2010 with a shocking and intense conclusion. I do have some spoiler insight into the season finale. Let me know what you guys are thinking. Do you think Locke is dead? (i dont) Did you check out the "others" down in that under water looking glass station? Oh and what about Kate being pregnant? and Charlie going to die? And last but not least what the heck was that about "Jacob"?

Why is my blog called lamplighter?

Humorist Sir Harry Lauder tells this story of an old lamplighter from a village where Sir Harry grew up. " Each evening, the old man would make his rounds with his ladder and his light. He put the ladder agaisnt the lamp post, clmbed up and lit the lamp. Then, he would step back down, pick up his ladder and proceed to the next lamp. After a while, he would be down the street and out of sight. But, I could always tell which way he had gone from the lamps he had lighted and the glow he left behind. Life's highest tribute would be to live in such a way as to deserve the words, "I could always tell which way he went by the light that was left behind."

Well, I want to be a lamplighter. I think back to the days of past and think how a lamplighter and carry the oil (heavy I am sure) and a ladder and a light, and each time had to position the ladder. Climb the steps and light the lamps. Then onto the next one. I also imagine the dark street and how this one lamplighter used his light to shine to show the way of the path! Like a lamplighter each one of us leaves a trail. I want mine to be a brightly lit path where others may follow. I dont want it to be dark and scary. I want it to be bright. I want it to be lit. And I want to be a lamplighter.

Easier said than done! But Jesus never said it was easy!

If you don't know then I will tell you! I am in a race. I am running a race to win the prize. (and that prize is a doozy I might add). But suddenly I have found myself running the race with some un-necessary baggage. Many of you will be able to relate. Many of you are currently running the same race with a certain degree of baggage. Some of you are barely making it cause you can't even drag it. Some of you aren't even looking at the finish line any more and you are just standing there looking at the baggage with your hands on your hips crying out how am I going to do this. Well, to some degree I feel ya! But the thing is, is that I recognize that I got this crappy baggage (that is not on wheels and so easy to carry) and I want to get rid of it. But guess what! In this race I am in there is this guy who doesn't want me to make it. So, he happens to be on the sidelines screaming at me. And he is not cheering me on that is for sure! He is a distraction to me and there are times when I am like ok I get it! I am not going to finish this race! BUT......I know that I will finish the race! I am a persistent person and I will not give up (here is where I can list many scriptures but I am not going to so-feel free to put the one that comes to your mind here)! All I want to do though is just go to the sidelines and drop off my baggage and come back with more pep in my step. But it will be just my luck that as soon as I do that the weather will end up changing during my race and I wont be able to see through the fog, or the torrential down pours, or whatever it may be. Thanks for letting me vent! I guess I am just tired right now! I know I will make it! I know all will be well. I know who's I am! and I know that I will win the prize!

!

Graduation- I am sure it will be over before I know it! I need to just slow down and really enjoy this last month of Nicholas being a senior! It has been amazing watching him grow up (and he will continue)! His dad and I are very proud of him, as is many other people are! Wow it is very amazing to where the time went! I just have to say it again! Can you believe it? Nicholas is graduating! Hope to post again-but it may be a bit! ;-)