In All Thy Ways Acknowledge Him

2011-07-29T05:18:00.000-07:00

We are on our last night of our 3rd VBS and we have one more to go. As usual I am getting tired of VBS's. The next thing on our list is to go to the County Fair. Where we are entering a pygmy goat as a show goat. Can't wait to be done with that project too. Sammi is going to be putting the finishing touches on her clover bud project. Then homeschool starts the 29th. We are going with a new curriculum this year K12. Beth is also starting Spanish but somehow I want to include the whole family in her language class.

There have been many losses lately of people dying, 3 in one week that I knew. So it has been a long week. 2 of them were known Christians, one was not really sure. Though it was known that the opportunities were available for that person to meet Jesus, nothing concrete about whether or not the choice was made. It has made my heart feel very heavy.

Missing my Aunt Teresa even though knowing she has no more pain. And that her and Mom and Grandpa are together again. It seems as though God keeps taking the people but I am having a hard time replacing their relationships in my life. I wonder if this is how Elisha felt when Elijha went to heaven. That the responsiblity of praying for people has fallen into his lap and that it is a heavy mantle/duty.

And of course with any passing I think of my Earl. I had a dream the other night that he was standing in a garden and had a white 3 piece suit on. I laughed and told him that 'only Jesus could get you to wear a tie'. He just kept saying "It's gonna be all right Baby Girl". I was telling him that 'they just keep leaving'. And he would answer me. Wasn't a long dream but in its own way a good one.

2011-07-17T04:15:00.001-07:00

My oldest daughter Beth is old enough this year to be in the regular 4-H at the fair. She choose to do a pygmy goat. The picture below is the first picture of when we brought her home. And the picture also explains why there is a $100 goat pen out back with the little "darling" in it. Molly a.k.a."goat pest" decided that the fun thing to do would be standing and jumping in and out of her water bucket.

The fair is a month away and we have been 3x's a day walking the goat (which gets some pretty weird looks from people driving their cars) It seems to be working. She knows when we bring out the leash that it is time to work and I don't make her work very long. Just trying to get her leash trained. Hoping that all the work would let Sammi know that maybe animals is not the way to go for 4-H, she has happily told me that she wants to do rabbits. Thankfully that will be in 3 years, gives me time to save up the money. Sammi is a Cloverbud and is going to build a cow girl and horse out of terracotta pots. We are also making a killing jar for insects and then doing a display of things that we have found in nature.

I am using Ohio Virtual Academy for our homeschooling curriculum this year. Beth is excited about getting to do some of the work on the computer. In the meantime I am trying to get Sammi's IEP updated so that the school will know where to place her.

Suzy is improving with her speech though expressive language is still a problem. We have enjoyed going to our library's reading program this summer. Last week they got to talk about the civil war and what kind of food and medicine was used during that time. The girls were all excited to tell me that if we have bug bites and don't have any medicine for it we can use Mint toothpaste because that is the equivalent to what they used during the civil war. So when we go grocery shopping next month they want to look for that kind of toothpaste to see if it works.

2011-06-25T07:17:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since I blogged. I have spent so much time on Facebook. But since I get such encouragment from other blogs I decided I should try to do both. We have been on vacation to Myrtle Beach

We went to Aligator Adventures...

We went fishing on the pier... or should I say attempted to fish, the fish were uncoperative..

Suzy in the rocking chairs at the front of the hotel...

I also found another blog. Happily Domestic. And they are having a contest for a conservative swimming suit. I would love one for the girls. The only problem I see with that is they grow so quick that it won't fit next year and they run about $40 and up. But winning one would be great. haha

Someone is Missing at Christmas by Anne Cochran

2010-12-09T09:21:00.000-08:00

To all those that I am missing this year. From friends, to Mom's, to my loving husband Earl.
I love you and miss you all.

2010-12-08T04:00:00.001-08:00

I see the countless Christmas trees around the world below

With tiny lights, like Heaven’s stars, reflecting on the snow

The sight is so spectacular, please wipe away the tear

For I am spending Christmas with Jesus Christ this year.

I hear the many Christmas songs that people hold so dear

But the sounds of music can’t comparewith the Christmas choir up here.
I have no words to tell you, the joy their voices bring,

For it is beyond description, to hear the angels sing.

I know how much you miss me, I see the pain inside your heart

But I am not so far away, we really aren’t apart.

So be happy for me, dear ones, you know I hold you dear.

And be glad I’m spending Christmaswith Jesus Christ this year.

I sent you each a special gift, from my heavenly home above.

I sent you each a memory of my undying love.

After all, love is a gift more precious than pure gold

It was always most important in the stories Jesus told.

Please love and keep each other, as my Father said to do

For I can’t count the blessing or love he has for each of you

So have a Merry Christmas and wipe away that tear

Remember, I am spending Christmaswith Jesus Christ this year

(by Author Unknown)

2010-10-16T05:51:00.000-07:00

Would have been 17 years today.

2010-10-09T05:22:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about in Esther 4:14b ...and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

There have been many times that I thought that another time period would have suited me more. But lately I have been considering Esther and that she was put there for that time. It has made me wonder what I have been put here for this time. There are things that come to mind, but I am thinking along the spiritual aspect. I know that it probably won't be for saving a group of people like Esther. However I want to make sure that I am ready and willing to be there for just one. I feel very consumed with day to day living, taking care of my girls, that I have found my self going days without really praying and without devotions. Not even realizing it until days have gone by or I'm in bed lights out when it comes to mind. So I have begun to write a scripture on Facebook every day and then I am in the word and I have my devotions. Though taking care of my family is important so is being an example of Godliness and teaching them. I don't think that I will be ready for any "Esther" duties if I haven't studied, or talked to my Father.

So what's been happening in your spiritual life this month?

2010-10-02T07:08:00.000-07:00

A new contest. The ladies are having a scrappy quilt giveaway. Go check out their blog, because there is so much neat stuff over there.

2010-09-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

Can you believe that September is almost done. October is one of my favorite months. My anniversary is in it, my first girls birthday, many of my family and friends have their birthday in Oct. Fall comes and the trees are beautiful, Thanksgiving and Christmas are just a few months away.
There are things in my life that are uncomfortable right now. Doing things I've never done before, sometimes getting sad and mad that I am having to do them. Bury animals, pay bills, fill out forms, learning how to budget. Ugh No wonder my wonderful husband was tired all the time. Yet not once did he complain, or show me how to do some things, haha.
In my Christian walk I am learning that there are some things that I can't do that other can do with no problems. I am learning that though the valley is hard, I am not alone. My Heavenly Father walks close beside. Sometimes the walk is easy, other times one step is all I can do.

2010-09-14T10:47:00.000-07:00

Homeschooling is off to a roaring start. We had a Picnic celebration to start off the new year. We have also gone on one field trip. On Sept 11th we went to tour a WWII ship, had a nice time. The kids all got these "clicker" things that was a souvenir. A gentleman told us that parachuters would jump at night and they would have the clickers with them, then when someone approached you you would click once and if the person approaching didn't click twice back, you would start shooting because you knew it wasn't one of your guys. We also observed the stern wheel boats.

Pictures of group that went, the real reason why I would NEVER be in the Navy 4 bunks right on top of each other (No way) and the children being told how to go Snipe hunting (yes I know snipes are hard to hunt ;P)

Fall is fast approaching, my favorite time of the year. Suzy goes tomorrow to have her speech evaluated. Sammi is learning so many new things. She learned to write her name in the first week of school though the S is still giving her fits. Beth's birthday is just under a month and the girls have already started telling me what they want for Christmas though that changes every week. Suzy is walking with the help of her walking toy, just not on her own yet. I am getting a little tired of facebook but are too nosy to stop looking at it. Haha

2010-09-04T03:23:00.000-07:00

September 4, 2010

Gone 5 months today.

When tomorrow starts without me.

And I'm not there to see;

If the sun should rise and find your eyes

All filled with tears for me.

I wish so much you wouldn't cry.

The way you did today;

While thinking of the many things

We didn't get to say.

So when tomorrow starts without me,

Don't think we're far apart

For every time you think of me,

I'm right here in your heart.

2010-09-01T10:50:00.000-07:00

Well school is off to a roaring start. My kindergardener is loving every minute of it except the coloring. It "bores" her. But learning do things even when you don't want to is part of growing up is the answer that the teacher/Mother gives her (while washing her dishes and folding socks YUCK). Beth is starting fine just seems a little down or something. So I am waiting her out to see what is going on. Could be that she misses her friends or that she just hates Math and English that much, who knows.

These are a couple pictures from church camp.

Beth helping out

Sammi in the ending program

2010-08-27T01:47:00.000-07:00

Its almost 5 a.m. and I have been awake for 3 hours. I have been missing Earl so much lately. It seems so many things have happened that remind me of him and everything that we would do together. As far as I know not to many people read my blog, so I decided to VENT on here.
The last dog that Earl and I owned in NY died this week and while I was burying her. I couldn't help thinking that it was Earl's job to take care of this part.
The girls start homeschool this week. Earl would have been teasing them and getting their dander up and Beth would have been teasing him that he still had to work.
Please don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have Earl back to be in pain for any reason, its just all my dreams included him and his dreams. And lately I just don't know what to do now that my dream has died. I never dreamed that the loneliness would be this horrible. I try very hard to be upbeat for our girls because they need to be happy and remember their Daddy with laughter not tears. I was thinking the other day about how when you walk down memory lane and tell stories your husband backs you up and helps you remember the details.
My brother came and got Earls guns to hunt with them this fall, Earl was hoping to get a deer this year. And he wanted to teach the girls how to hunt, especially rabbits. He thought that Sammi would be the best hunter and he didn't know about Suzy yet. Our last hunting trip consisted of me trying to push the stroller through the brush while he's 100 yards down the trail hollering for help with the dog. I wound up calling my brother and his friend to come helps us. We didn't get the dog till 2 days later.
Those that say "it is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all", should try it. THough I wouldn't give up my memories at all. I just wish we could have made more of them.
Enough venting, its not helping, but I do love my Early and I miss him terribly.

2010-08-14T05:20:00.000-07:00

Pretending that they aren't playing in the sand

The guys fixing the tarp on the roof at Vermontville.

Veiws when we left Monday morning.

The girls first time picking anything at an orchard.

At Cabella's Safari exhibit.

Sammi in "Woodsville" You had to be at camp to know what I'm talking about haha.

Its very hard to get Sammi to look at the camera haha

2010-07-27T12:33:00.000-07:00

We have had a wonderful 12 days of vacation so far. Camp meeting was good with 2 wonderful evangelist. Decisions made, friendships renewed, wisdom gained. We are still Vacationing, but I am looking forward to coming home. Will post pictures later.

2010-06-30T14:57:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday my Love,

We miss you very much.

2010-05-17T12:26:00.000-07:00

We went to a reinactment down in Point Pleasant, at Fort Randolph. The girls got to feel how heavy the bed roll was. The actor told us that in the 1700's they called it a "budget" and that the hunters would take them everywhere. The actor thought that is where the saying "Don't live beyond your budget" came from. Because they would have all their stuff rolled up in their budget.

Suzy enjoying the day at the reinactment

Sammi was helping me plant strawberries. She got more dirt on her than in the planter :).

I took myself out to celebrate Mother's Day this was the girls hamming it up.

I took the girls picture in the grass, Suzy cried and cried she was afraid of the grass

2010-04-28T18:44:00.000-07:00

April 29th, 2010

Happy 5th Birthday

Samantha Mae-Gwyn Bickford

Sammi Sidecar

2010-04-18T03:09:00.000-07:00

Goodbye my Love,

Born June 30, 1957 Died April 4, 2010

And my heart went with him.

2010-03-10T05:07:00.000-08:00

Suzy's birthday cake made by my friend April

Suzy and I at the Wildhorse

Sammi and me. Sammi loves this resturant only because it is full of cowboy and horse decoration

Beth and me. She was worried that she would fall in the wishing well. Sammi kept asking for quarters instead of pennies to throw in. Needless to say that DIDN'T happen. Earl hates the food at this place but I like it so once a year he takes me and suffers through it.

2009-11-12T05:09:00.000-08:00

I finally went for a regular check up after 3 years. I figured seeing my OB/GYN counts a little right? But yesterday my Dr told me that he was diagnosing me with diabetes and slightly high cholestorol. For those of you who are in the medical field my A1c was 7.5 and my bad cholestorol was 126. But the good news is that the Dr thinks with diet change and weight loss I could in 6 months be taken off my meds. So here I go into the holiday season with no choice of the matter of diet.

2009-11-10T13:08:00.000-08:00

We had Indian Summer on Thurs.-Sun down here. So on Sat we went to Old Mans Cave, Conkels Hollow that is "stroller" accessible. It was beautiful, we even saw a 4 point buck in the woods. Here are some pictures from that day. I didn't post my favorite one yet, because it is being used.....

2009-08-20T18:52:00.000-07:00

We are asking everyone for their prayers right now will give reasons at a later date. Thanks

2009-08-18T07:43:00.000-07:00

Well no new pictures because no camera. We are busy getting ready for the new school year. Suzy is busy trying new fruits and vegetables, Sammi is busy asking if each passing school bus is her bus and Beth ignores me when I tease her that school starts next week. Earl is busy working what hours he can get.
Last night Sammi fell asleep at 8:30 and Suzy at 9:15. So Beth and I decided to watch a Veggie tale show when Beth opened the cabinet and bent over to pick her movie she banged her head into the corner of the door, now she has a beautiful bruise on her forehead.
We attended the birthday party of one of the kids friends on Saturday. The kids had a blast catching crawdads and minnows. I am afraid that I am one of those Mom's that doesn't freak out when the girls are near water. It could be because I played in the creek growing up and without my Mom telling me I respected the water. (It could also be because I was near by watching like a hawk haha).

2009-08-07T03:47:00.000-07:00

I had promised some pictures from our vacation. We have been so busy since we came back that I haven't had the patience to wait on blogger to load them up. SInce we have been home we have gone to 3 VBS, 1 Peenview Quartet concert, 2 Dr appt, 1 fun fest, MANY yard sales haha, and now we are trying to get ready for school. Sammi goes to headstart on Sept 8th and Beth starts back to school the 24th. I am still on my diet (yikes), so far I have lost 17.8 lbs and yes the point whatevers count haha. Around 13 more and I will have lost all of my Suzy weight.

We are at (what we we refer to as ) the duck park. This was the little tykes playground. Beth and the boys let Sammi have a FEW minutes to play and explore the wooden train. Then we were off to the big kids playground.

We had a picnic at the park so we put Danielle and Suzy in my stroller, when Vicki and I saw them we laughed and laughed. Vicki said it looked like Danielle was climbing up Suzy. Maybe they were trying to escape the stroller hahaha

One morning when we were getting ready to go. With 6 kids it took an hour to get ready to drive 5 minutes down the road. I would like to say that the 2 youngest took the most time to get ready for. I told Vicki today that she needed me for a maid and the she should buy the other side of her house and we would move there. haha She was looking for her cell phone while we were talking on it, I suggested she look at her ear for it. Ah the joys of being a mother that has not had enough sleep in the last year.

We got to take the kids to a park called Knoble's. It was fun until the 3 kids in this picture wanted to go on the big Ferris Wheel and Vicki said that I should go with them. Have I mentioned that I am afraid of heights. In fact anyone who went on our mountain hike about 9 years ago would know that. I got to this point in the hike up the mountain that you had to climb a TELEPHONE POLE ladder and to your left was nothing but a beautiful view. I did not go all the way up I didn't even get to the top of the mountain. SO I guess you could say that instead of 46'r or 49'r I am a 1/2'r. Anyway we survived the Ferris wheel and the kids had fun.

2009-07-07T05:29:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful time at the 4th celebration. We are blessed to get to be in the parade every year. Not only do the kids love it but we miss out on all of the candy being thrown, haha. We have 'Rutlands Famous Roast Beef" that people LOVE so much that they paid $3.50 a sandwich for this year. Or you could buy it by the tub for $20, this way you get more meat and it seems to last longer. I know men that have a contest to see how many sandwiches they can eat, in the numbers of 15 - 20 every year.

Our church had 2 floats this year, one for VBS and one for "What Does Independence mean to Me" theme of the parade this year. Beth was on the VBS and Sammi on the other one. We know that one of them won 2nd place we just don't know yet because no one was there when they announced the trophies. Sammi got to sit in a little fire truck and ring the bell. I on the other hand walked the parade route handing out bottles of cold water. That was my exercise for the day.

I helped to paint the background for this float and had a blast. It took all day Wed, even through church. We are going to use this for a background in VBS July 20-24.

This is how Suzy watched the fireworks. Ours were at 11:00 that night. It made getting up for church difficult. Our SS teacher said that she appreciated those who made the effort to leave their house and come to church. I told her it wasn't leaving the house that was hard but the bed. haha.

2009-07-02T08:42:00.000-07:00

One of the blogs that I like to read often is The Mennobrarian so today while I was reading her blog I was asked to tell 7 things you might not know about me. Seeing that usually only family and my friends read this I'll try not to bore you with stuff you know.

1.I was proposed to 2 times before my husband asked me.

2. A dream of mine is to swim with sharks in a cage.

3.I never made homemade cookies until I was 17 and Joyce M. showed me how.

4. My fingers on my right hand can't hold up 3 fingers with the thumb holding the pinky(like the boy scout pledge salute) don't know why.

5.I've never done a cart wheel, tried to but ran into a tree and broke my Mickey Mouse watch.

6. I pulled out all my baby teeth except for my wisdom teeth, no one helped me. Though my GrandPa Dean tried except he smoked and his fingers tasted horrible. haha

7.My dream is to have enough land to have a small cabin that missionaries, pastors and those who need to get away can come for free and don't have to interact with my family but they can if they want too.

This was harder than I thought. Hope you enjoyed.

The girls and I went fishing at my brothers Sammi's first time. He also had caught a coon the night before and I was very concerned with Sammi trying to touch the creature. Usually I am not a worrier when it comes to things like that, but I wasn't sure that she understood that it was a wild animal. I was glad when Donny took it away.

2009-06-23T03:58:00.000-07:00

We went on our first hike with Suzy to our favorite place to walk. Except someone had brought horses when it was wet and made it hard to push the stroller up th e hill with DEEP hoof prints. but we managed anyway. Suzy loves looking at the trees when in her stroller. Everytime I grunted to get her over the hoof prints she would smile at me. Like I was doing the noises for her entertainment. Sammi was good until we got to the top of the hill then she wanted to go home, without going back down the hill. Huh? Sammi got 2 ticks on her in fact when I saw the first tick it was just biting into her neck so I picked it off. Can I comment here that 10 years ago I would have gotten out tweezers and tried NOT to touch the bug. Now I just pick them off and go on, what a difference 3 kids make. (By the way I have no idea what I did to make the letters blue and underlined in this portion and therefore have no idea how to fix it)

This is the hill that I pushed the stroller up!

This is what we climbed the hill to see.

We also celebrated Father's Day by going to McDonalds. haha

Beth took Suzy down her first slide.

Earl just wanted to eat in the air conditioning but sat outside with us.

On Sat. the girls went to a birthday party at a gymnastics/tumblers business and loved it. I made the girls wear pants because I knew that it would be a show for all if not, then one lady came and said that whe put shorts on under neath her little girls skirt. Never thought about that haha. Sammi loved the foam pit, Beth loved the rings (which made her arms very sore the next day) What I would have loved the most was someone telling me not to walk on the edge of the trampolines because I fell through with just one leg and laid there praying for the rapture to take place, while everyone is asking "Are you OK" I really wanted to answer "No I just shoved my dignity down a 4 foot hole"

2009-06-10T10:03:00.000-07:00

I took a couple of pictures of Suzy today trying to get one of her smiling. The pictures don't do justice to the beauty of her smile and how her whole face lights up when she smiles. Suzy smiles more than any of our girls.

2009-06-10T04:11:00.001-07:00

My camera is acting up again. But here are a couple of pictures that we took last night.

This little lane is where the girls and I walk to go visit the cows and donkeys.

Beth took this picture. I thought it would be cute to get Suzy peeking over my shoulder. Suzy was a little grumpy last night but goes through fases like that. The other

day Earl came in laughing. He said that Suzy was asleep in her swing with her hands folded on her tummy, her mouth open, tongue hanging out and that it reminded him of Gana when she was having a good nap.

2009-05-28T07:41:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from Suzy's dedication and our church's Baby Day. This is the last year that Sammi is considered a baby/toddler, next year she will be recognized with the rest of the children.

2009-05-04T04:46:00.000-07:00

Sammi at a fun fair on Fri May 1st. Beth wouldn't get in the fire truck

Sammi wanted to be a leopard like her sister, just a pink and purple one.

Beth loved the fun fair. When we were at the Columbus Zoo the girls wanted to get their faces painted but it cost $15 here at the fun fair it was free.

Beth and Sammi both love horses. This little one is 13 days old and the girls had a blast petting her and feeding the other horses apples.

Sammi on her birthday dressed up for church in the dress/outfit that Aunt Glady's And Uncle Dave sent.

2009-04-29T11:43:00.000-07:00

Today is Sammi's 4th birthday

This is how she looked this morning when she got up.

Her birthday gifts from us and Aunt Gladys's. Aunt June's came in the mail after pictures. Sammi wanted to put on her new pink stripped out fit right away but I convinced her to wait until tonight at church.

The girls got to go 4-wheeling with my brother Donny. They loved it, we will wait till Suzy is a little bit older for her first ride hehe.

The girls also sang in the Palm Sunday Childrens choir. Sammi even knew the actions to the songs even though she was off a little bit.

2009-04-14T10:58:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that I forgot to take pictures on Easter. I think the main reason is because I let Beth go to a slumber party on Sat and then we met her at church. Then after church we went to a dinner at my friends house, not to mention that I sang in the Easter cantata Sunday morning. So I am planning on having us all wear our outfits again on Sun. and take pictures.We had planned on trying to go somewhere during Earl's time off, but an unexpected bill came up and so we just stayed home.

The girls and I went to 2 Easter egg hunts on Sat. One of them was at our church. We had 319 people show up, 209 of them being kids. Both Sammi and I were claustrophobic so we stayed away from the crowd as much as we could.

These are 2 pictures of all the people

Not to mention that we had camp meeting at our church for the last week. We only missed one night. I am so glad that we are having a little break before our Revival in May.

The group of kids that we had dinner with on Easter.

2009-04-05T19:12:00.000-07:00

The girls got their hair cut for summer. Beth was very happy about how easy it was to brush and Sammi just liked the whole process and has informed everyone that she got her hair cut. Suzy now weighs 6lbs 5oz, 18.5 inches long and is doing well except for congestion and some fussiness. Suzy got a stroller from the Aunts and we have been going walking everyday, today Sammi and I gave it a spin, I think she liked having me to herself.

2009-03-20T07:11:00.001-07:00

Earl took this picture at church. Can you tell that Sammi was starting to feel yucky. I took her to the Dr on the 19th and she has ear and sinus infection.

2009-03-16T14:39:00.001-07:00

Suzy wearing her first church dress. We tried hose but they would have gone over her head and that was without stretching them. Haha.

2009-03-14T08:32:00.000-07:00

Well we have been home a week. And I need sleep. I get to sleep at night for 1 1/2 hour intervals then Suzy wakes up and wants to eat again. Every 3 hours on the hour right now. But I am not complaining just stating that 5 hours of sleep straight in a row would be nice.

We went to the circus here in town the other night. The only animals that they had were their pet dogs. Which when the owner rolled the wagon out that they were riding in one of the dogs jumped out and the owner ran him over with the wagon. The rest of the circus was acrobats and magic. Suzy stayed home with Daddy.

Suzy had her first Dr. appointment. She now weighs 4 lbs 5 oz. She also has a plugged tear duct which causes her to have a matted right eye every time she sleeps.

Everyone down here says that Suzy looks like Earl. What do you think?

2009-03-07T12:09:00.000-08:00

Our first night home. The girls love holding Suzy and helping feed her and even changing wet diapers. We are so glad that Suzy is home and we feel very blessed to have our 3 girls. Last night was VERY long waking up every hour with her. About 5am I put Suzy in her carseat and she slept for 3 hours. Iwas kicking myself for not thinking of that at the beginning of the night. She was sleeping in her bed ,but flat ,which at the hospital she was reclined and I think being flat she didn't like it.

2009-03-02T04:49:00.000-08:00

We went to see Suzy yesterday after church. She had gained and is now 3 lbs 6 1/2 oz. So she is back to her birth weight. They were going to weigh her last night as they do every night and in fact I need to call but right now is the time that the babies are getting fed. And I don't want to disturb the nurse so I am calling later. When I got home I was horrifed at the state of my house. 3 puppies, 1 dog, a rabbit and 3 fish, not to mention a husband that did the best he could do with laundry and the house but is used to me doing it my way has caused me to wait until Earl comes home from work and then go see Suzy. We have been told by parents of other premies and the nurses that the Dr will tell us that there can be no pets inside with Suzy so I have already started getting rid of some animals outside is not gone completely. My brother has been helping me I hope that Earl doesn't get mad but there are 2 dogs in the back yard that are going to find new homes this week. The good news is that they are my dogs and I can do what I want with them so BYEBYE. Would it be weird to ask you to pray that it isn't hard on Earl not having any animals inside and that we would be able to thin out the population as it is? I would appreciate it and of course keep praying for our family. I have noticed some signs of stress in Beth and Sammi. Like emotional crying spells for Beth and Sammi has gone back to needing naps and wanting me to feed her and take her to the bathroom ect.. This has been a long stressful experience but I read something the other day about God knowing what we can handle and the fact that we have this trial means He knows we can handle it. One day at a time. Love you guys.

2009-03-01T05:07:00.000-08:00

Susannah Kay Bickford

3lbs 6 oz, 15.75 inches long

5 1/2 weeks early.

This picture was Sat Feb 28 right beforre we came home I was showing the girls Suzy for the 3rd time. Because it is RSV season they are not alowwed to come into the NICU. The nurses are kind enough to allow me to take Suzy to the double doors and show them. The picture of the girls is on the bed in our room at the Ronald McDonald House. That house was a blessing for our little family.
Suzy is now in a crib and is taking a bottle every other feeding. We hope we can bring her home soon. It was hard to come home but I prayed and left her in Gods hands and the nurses. Soon she'll be home hibernating with all of us. Keep us in your prayers.

2009-02-23T07:11:00.000-08:00

If you haven't heard yet then here's the news. We had our little angel last Wed 18th at 8:33 in the morning. She weighed 3lbs 6oz, she was 15.75 inches long and 5 1/2 weeks early.
We had gone for a routine appointment on Tues and Suzy wasn't moving as much and she kept having dips in heart beat. My blood pressure was up and I was spilling protien in my urine. So the Dr sent me to labor and delivery to have an overnight stay of monitoring, but around 6:00pm the on call Dr came and told me that they were sending me to CabellHuntington Hospital because it looked like I was heading for a emergency c-section and Holzer didn't have a NICU. The Dr felt that Suzy would have to have help breathing because she was so little and early. I went by ambulance and the next morning the Dr. told me at 7:15 that we were going in for the c-section. Earl wasn't even here yet so I called him and told him to get here NOW. And they waited for him. Then we had the surgery and Suzy was here. She breathed on her own from the start and keeps her temperature where it should be. She has had no problem with her blood sugar, though she spent 2 days under the frenchfry light for jaundice which has gone from 8 to 4.2. Yesterday the nurses had a premie outfit on her, purple with little butterflies. She was adorable. Her weight had dropped from 3lbs 6oz to 3 lbs now she is up to 3lbs and 3.5 oz. We just have to get her to take all of her feedings from the bottle and for her to gain weight. She takes half of her feedings from bottles right now.

Please keep us all in your prayers and I will blog more later when I can find time. Right now its time for Earl to get here and for me to go feed Suzy. Love you all.

2009-02-05T05:02:00.000-08:00

I am getting down to being able to say "Next month Suzy comes". I am also down to every week going to the Dr for Non-stress test. I had my 3 appointments yesterday. Suzy was head down when the ultrasound started but in the middle flipped around to breach. And I have never got to see her profile she always has her face towards my back. You could see fuzzy lines on the ultrasound of her hair near her scalp. They estimated her to be 3lbs and 11 oz. and she is still a girl no question about that. On an interesting spin since I was sick I have not had to take any insulin. Even my Dr is scratching his head. It seems to have shocked my body into behaving at least for this week. I still have to check my blood sugars, now 2 hours after I eat, and if they start spiking I have to call them. I am thankful no matter the reason.

The girls are doing good. We are all wanting warm weather and spring. Sammi loves to be outside even in the middle of a blizzard. She loves the outdoors. Beth doesn't mind it but she wants me to be out there too. We are planning a little while after Suzy comes going to the Columbus Zoo for a family outing. We also want the girls to help plant their own flower pots Sammi has already told me that she wants gardening gloves.

If you haven't noticed I haven't been able to take any pictures since my camrea is broken. I am mostly upset because we won't have a camera for when Suzy is born. You know the most horrible thing is when poeple have asked what I am needing for Suzy I want to answer them "A new camera for pictures" but I behave. My mother may be in heaven but her influence is still VERY strong. Besides I can always but those disposible kind and be very thankful for any pictures that we get. There is a lady at church that is the 'church photographer' I wonder if I can convince the Dr that she needs to be in the O.R. for the birth for my own piece/peace of mind hehe!!

Have a wonderfully blessed day! Thanks for checking in on "As the Belly Grows, So goes the Mind" haha

2009-01-30T13:01:00.000-08:00

Well our family was hit with a lovely stomach bug that left me dehydrated and off to the hospital for an overnight visit. I lost 5 lbs in 2 days. I went to the hospital because I had a horrible headache and blurry vision, but only needed to be hydrated. I'm still not feeling like running a marathon but there is no place like home. Only about 46-50 days to go.

A friend of mine told me that she is going to throw me a baby shower on March 7th. So I am trying to think about that rather than Suzy's birthday. We had a snow storm on Tues. this week and according to the news we might have another one on Mon. Even though the storm was bad for this area but once you have lived in the Adirondacks it takes a pretty bad storm to get worried. You just stock up and hibernate. Beth is chomping at the bit because she still has to do school even if the public schools have snow days she is crying NO FAIR. haha. Though with being sick for 3 days I haven't been able to do much. Beth cried when I couldn't be home last night Sammi didn't even seem to care which is how I wish Beth had been, because it is very hard to do anything about it when the Dr has put you in the hospital. Though I think I need to have a plan for when Suzy is born. Any ideas?? Other than shipping the girls to relatives haha

Earl, Sammi, and Beth had the stomach bug but I seem to get it the worst which is no surprise because of my body being busy with growing Suzy, and the little stinker had been very quiet for 3 days then when I got sick I swear she loved the noises that come with the bug because she was as active as she had ever been. In fact this is the 2nd time that I have had the stomach flu in 1 month and both times Suzy has acted like it was dancing music. When at the hospital they did the non-stress test and had a hard time getting Suzy to stay in one postion so that they could monitor her heartbeat, she kept rolling and moving. In fact one nurse said that she thought Suzy might be breach, we'll see on Wed with the ultrasound.

2009-01-23T02:33:00.001-08:00

I had my prenatal visit with my Dr. on Wed and decided that I wasn't going to confront him with his comment about the children. I am just going to take the girls from now on and then when a comment comes up deal with it then. I don't want to switch Dr because I really only have about 51 days left till Miss Suzy comes. My blood pressure seems to want to play the numbers game this pregnancy. I usually run 110/70 but this time it was 138/ 80 and when I was at Walmart last night I checked it and it was 156/84. My blood sugars are still running rampant and I am going to the Dr every 2 weeks. Next time I have an ultrasound at 11:00, my diabetes Dr at 1:00 and my OBGYN at 2:15 with a non-stress test after the OBGYN and yes the girls are probably going to have to come. Sammi should be in rare form by the time we get to the OBGYN's appt, after spending 3 hours in the hospital. hahaha.

In my heart I realize that this is the last pregnancy for me and I really should be treasuring it, but I am SO done. I can't wait for little Suzy to be here and neither can Beth. Sammi seems to taking it in stride. We really wanted Earl to not have to take off vacation time when Suzy comes but I told him that it would make me the most comfortable if he would be the help at home for the first week. And I think that the girls would like it also. My friend Jenny has said that she would help too, but she has her own family to take care of, so I don't want to put to much pressure on her.

I got anxious the other day and started making list of what we need to get for Suzy and what we need to get done before she comes and what I will need at the hospital. When I showed Earl the list he read them and then as he walked away he was mumbling something about nesting and being drove crazy. hehe. I really do feel sorry for him the week before I go to the hospital, getting all the meals/food that we will need, making sure the the clothes are all caught up, cleaning the house ect... The boy better work some overtime to keep his sanity. I am going to let Beth take 1 or 2 weeks off from her school work when Suzy comes unless I feel ok she is looking forward to that. I teased Earl and told him that he would have to be the substitute teacher but was told strongly that Beth could take the 2 weeks off. I think the one thing that always seemed to take all my time the last couple of times was feeding the baby and I LOVE to just hold the baby and snuggle especially the first couple of weeks. I kind of like to be the only one taking care of her (diapers, washing, feeding) but I have my other girls to think of this time.

So that is the update from prego world and the rest of the clan.

2009-01-02T15:51:00.000-08:00

I am 28 weeks along as of today. I only have 10 1/2 weeks to go, because my Dr will take the baby around March 17th due to a previous c-section and the diabetes. I now have to go to the Dr every 2 weeks for a while then every week. We will do another ultrasound in one month and start doing the non-stress tests.

Earl got to meet the Dr more today and it was not a good impression. My Dr might be very smart for a Dr but his bedside manner with the girls especially Sammi is not going well. In fact the Dr told me today that next time I can't bring them. I was very upset and am still upset tonight about it. Sammi is a total Mommy's girl and was very clingy today while the Dr and I were talking about questions that I have, (i.e. she had to go potty and I am the one who takes her so she was insistent that she needed to go, even though Earl was in the room and kept telling me she had to go) I didn't even realize that the Dr was upset until the Dr was rude to Sammi and when Earl left the room to take her to the bathroom and told me that I couldn't bring them next time because he needed to be able to talk to me so that I could understand what he was saying. My biggest problem is that I did understand and continued to talk around Sammi just tuning her out, he was the one with the problem. And I have to admit that I was upset with Earl because the main reason why we all went to the Dr.s together was so that he could help with Sammi and hear what is going on with Suzy (this was the 3rd time he has got to go). I forget that I am used to dealing with Sammi and I usually take things for Beth to help entertain her. It is usually easier on my own.

So now I am trying to figure out what to say to the Dr, because I can't just call up someone and have them watch the kids, people work ect.. Besides treat me treat my family. I am just not a happy Mommy tonight. I have to say that I am glad that this will be the last baby for us. One nurse said to bring the girls anyway and tell the Dr to stuff it. Not the best day for a hormonal mother.

2008-12-25T17:09:00.000-08:00

Christmas In Heaven

I see the countless Christmas trees around the world below,

With tiny lights, like heaven's stars, reflecting on the snow,

The sight is so spectacular, please wipe away the tears,

For I am spending Christmas with Jesus Christ this year.

I hear the many Christmas songs that people hold so dear,

The sound of music can't compare with the Christmas choir here.

I have no words to tell you, the joy their voices bring,

For it is beyond description, to hear the angels sing.

I know how much you miss me, I see the pain inside your heart,

But I am noe so far away. We really aren't apart.

So be happy for me dear ones. You know I hold you dear,

And be glad I'm spending Christmas with Jesus Christ this year.

I send you each a special gift from my heavenly home above.

I send you each a memory of my undying love.

After all, Love is a Gift more precious than pure gold.

It was always most important in the stories Jesus told.

Please love and keep each other, as my Father said to do,

For I can't count the blessings of love He has for each of you,

So have a Merry Christmas and wipe away your tears.

Remember, I'm spending Christmas with Jesus Christ this year.

-Author Unknown

2008-12-22T05:42:00.000-08:00

What a weekend. It actually started on Thursday with me having a 24 hour stomach virus, I won't describe what that means, I think we all know. On Friday I felt a lot better with Earl suprising me with saying we could go to the mall and other stores to do shopping that Dad had asked me to do for the girls. We hadn't been to the mall since last April. However Earl's Christmas giving spirit LEFT when we hit the second store and had 3 more to go to. However to defend his scruge attitude he had got up at 3:00am that morning and after supper was in his belly he became tired. In a couple of stores he had to have the girls all to himself while for the next 20 minutes they would ask over and over "Where's Mommy""Is she done yet". This also could contributed to the mental breakdown.
Then on Saturday was our Sunday school Christmas party. We went on the back of a wagon caroling for different people around town. Sammi fell asleep and had Earl not caught her as she fell asleep she could have rolledbackwards off the wagon. She wanted to sit by herself and the area she sat in was the only place that an adult wasn't sitting behind her. I then took her held her the rest of the way. (5 mores houses). We then went back and had a ham dinner. I thought of Sunday dinners at Gana's and Gladys's, no good homemade rolls.
On Sunday was the children's play at church. Except that morning all 4 of us woke up at 4:00am and stayed awake. It was horrible. The kids have never done this before, but after we got to church we found out that a handful of other people had done the same thing. Sammi fell asleep during the play
Beth did a great job with her play and you couldn't even tell if she was nervous or not. At one point she was putting her left fingers around her right fingers and looking at the size of the hole it made. When I asked her about it she said "I just wondered how big of a hole my different fingers would make" She did this during her solo.
Over all it was a good weekend. Last nights church service was to be each family coming to church and the head of the family would talk about Christmas and our memories of Christmas, then we would receive communion. Dad had signed up our family for 5:00 and when Beth and I got there the preacher told me that no one else was coming, not even Dad. We were going to leave but Beth had never received communion before and wanted to very badly. She asked Jesus into her heart last Christmas season, so I saw no problem with it. I thought that it would have been very special for Dad to have done it but I tried to fill in the gap. My preachers wife Debbie and our assistant Pastor Ann came in and joined us. It was special even though it wasn't exactly what I had envisioned. We got to learn a little bit more about Debbie and Ann and maybe grow a little closer as friends and I got to serve Beth her first communion. Special.
So now we are getting ready for Christmas, going to stay all night at Dad's on Christmas Eve with my brother and wife and all of us. We will also have a candle lit service at church Wed. Then spend some of Christmas day with Dad opening packages and eating. Then going back to our house to recover and let the girls play. I am letting Beth have this week off from school though the original plans was to make her keep working I have found that I need the week off just like she does.
Today we are going to a friends house to make cookies and let the kids play. The great thing about the season is that it is making March come all the sooner. Then Suzy will be here and things can be completely chaotic hahaha

2008-12-15T03:22:00.000-08:00

Yeah!!! Our cantata at church was done yesterday and we wound up doing it last night also. The songs weren't too bad to learn but there were some songs that had notes up in the high F section. I had a 3 or 4 line solo. Our pastor put the cantata on our church's website www.rutlandnaz.org if anyone is interested. Now, next Sunday is Beth's play "Bethlehem Gulch" She is a sheep and had to sing 2 songs, one with the group of sheep and one with another girl. I think that I am more nervous than she is but we have not talked about it because I don't want to give her any ideas about FEAR. Sammi is very content not to be involved, in fact usually on Sunday nights she stays home with Earl. So last night I asked her why she didn't want to go to church with me, her reply " I don't like it", I was speechless. In fact I still don't know what to say, except maybe giving her the option of staying home will have to end. Yesterday she had to go to the bathroom during church, but as she and I approached the door she informed me that she wanted to do it herself. So I stood outside of the bathroom and waited, out she came with toilet paper and her pants down saying "I done you finish up". Needless to say the women that had been in the bathroom thought it was quite funny as I am shoving her back into a stall to "finish up" I want her to be independent but not a streaker.

We are not done with our shopping yet and the girls have failed to see Santa of get their picture taken, it might be because he is at the mall an hour away and with only one vehicle it is important for Earl to go to work. But Santa usuallly comes to our fire house, except I have a great fear I might have missed it so I am calling the Chief today to find out.

We finally got rid of 2 of the bunnies and have 2 males to go. But the great news is that they are OUTSIDE yeahhhh!!!. Now we have to get the Dad outside. You should see our rabbit hutch. We used what we had and it is too funny. Its like a redneck home for rabbits. All that's missing is the tire in the front yard and a car up on blocks. I even burned my finger. Earl had tried to put a screw in and he had trouble so I wanted to see how far it stuck out and didn't realize that the electric drill had made the screw hot and burned a smiley face into my middle finger.

And that is life in the fast lane at the Bickfords Cave

2008-12-02T05:11:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went to my diabetes Dr., nice young man, Dr Stout. I am now on insulin 4x's a day and checking my blood sugars as often. No problem, this is just like when I was expecting Sammi. This time I am on 2 different insulins, a fast acting one with meals and a slower one at night for bedtime.

I had trouble with my insurance trying to tell the pharmacy that I have two insurances, but I don't. Every time we go to the pharmacy with a new script/prescription this happens. I tried to fill it at Walmart but they wouldn't even try to fight the insurance company, so I took it to a local pharmacy Fruiths and they were able to figure it out. The only problem being that my insurance doesn't want to cover my strips for my glucose machine that the Dr gave me, they cover a different kind. So Fruiths was going to call and try to see if he would write me a subscrition for the new machine and the new strips. I will find out today if it will be done. If not my strips cost $93.00 to use on my new machine ayayayay!! But I don't see Dr Stout giving them any hassel about the different machine.

We are all doing OK. Earl went back to work yesterday on his line. He seems to think that he will be getting very long hours and for the first day he was right. He went to work at 7am and got done at 8pm. Our churchs cantata is Dec 14, Beth's play is the 21st,she is not nervous at all.

The girls made their list of what they wanted for Christmas and I had to tell you what Sammi is wanting. There is a show on Disney that is about a man that does repairs to things and he has 7 tools that talk. Handy Manny, and Sammi loves them. They have his tools at Walmart and the toolbox sings and you can take the toos out, that is what Sammi wants. She also wants "girl" toys but the only thing that she will say when she goes to the store or if you ask her is Handy Manny tools.

Do any of you love the electric holders that you place a small candel down in and it heats the candel up so that you can smell it but you don't have to light the candle. A store down here has them for $3. They have strawberries, apples, blueberries, fish, animals(deer,moose) all kind, I want to go back and get some for my bathroom and bedroom. The had larger ones that were beautiful with snowmen and angels on them with quilt patterns in their clothes. I'll pick you one up if you'd like just let me know.

2008-11-24T04:28:00.000-08:00

Once again the animals in our life are causing havoc. When we moved over here to my hometown, Beth really wanted a puppy. So Earl in the interest of getting into the rabbit hunting again got her a beagle. She has had 2 litters so far that we knew the father ect.. Well when she came in heat this last time we had a 3:00am visitor ,that until yesterday, we thought had just said hi and left. A big black Lab had mated with our little Beagle. So Sat. at about 9:00 pm she went into labor. And cried and howled the WHOLE night, because the first puppy got stuck in the birth canal. So at 7:00 am Earl called the vet and rushed her to the Vet ER to have some help. Now Earl has been around animals most of his adult life at least and had even taken one of the mail in course about being a Vet, so he tried most of the night to help Copper (beagle). To no avail. She wound up having to have a c-section then got spayed because the puppies had stretched her uterus to the point of never having puppies again without killing her. They are all black with some white and brown little spots for what I have seen. Copper is a very protective mother, 3 boys and 1 girl. By the way I have never been the only one pregnant in my house. I have always had at least one or two animals that are expecting at the same time. While it doesn't seem fair that they only get 1 to 2 months pregnancy then its over for them at least we humans are not like elephants who have a pregnancy of 23 months. Yes I am complaining but my sugars have been 200-260 and it makes me feel VERY ucky. Though I must say on the positive note that Suzy moving is the most wonderful thing, even though she is laying with her head over my left hip and the rest of her towards my right hip, Beth ans Sammi were already head down by this time.

By the way did I metion that Earl was going to have 9 days off in a row :0) Down to 7 days, thankfully he is home because Momma and the pups can't be outside because of the 8 degrees and 15 degrees weather that we are having at night.

2008-11-21T17:10:00.000-08:00

I had to go and have glucose test done yesterday and I found out the results today. For a 1 hour test my blood sugar came back 201 (this was the 6th time that I have had this test done in the last 8 years, 3x's with Beth, 2x's with Sammi, and 1x with Suzy). So I will be going to see the diabetes Dr on Dec. 1st and I went to the Dr tonight for my sore throat that I have had for 8 days. It is due to sinus drainage, but my prenatal nurse wanted to make sure that it wasn't strep. So now I have to take Benedryl and Tylenol and suck on Halls cough drops. This is the longest that I have had a sore throat in the longest while. Earl has the next 9 days off for vacation. He said it was to bad that he had to spend it in Rutland, haha.

2008-11-18T06:02:00.000-08:00

Greetings from the 35 year old. I thought I would blog about my birthday. First Earl Beth Sam and I have been surviving a weird cold, sinus and throats that hurts (not the typical sore throat, it only hurts when we swallow or move our heads),and extremely tired no cough, no runny noses just a weird cold. Then I heard yesterday that Mono was going around down here, I have no idea what the symptoms to that could be. So I didn't feel to bad yesterday so we got school done, then did laundry and watched movies ate lunch and laid in bed. In the afternoon I really felt yucky, very tired, blurry eyed and all that jazz. I tried to take a nap but 3 people came to the door so the nap didn't happen. I still felt bad and decided to take my blood sugar at 4:00 it was 256 I about had a fit. So I started drinking water and I went out to feed the dogs. I wanted to go for a walk but it was spitting snow and the kids have the same cold as me. I found when it gets to high if I can do some exercise then it gets better, faster. In an hour it was down to 214, but I really need to be a pill and insist on the Dr. doing my blood test. I hadn't eaten since 12:00 and that was my sugar at 4:00.
Then at 6:30 I went to a spa party that my friend had. It was fun!! I would have loved to get the products but selling my children seemed a steep price. Beth went with me to play with her friend and in the end got to try some of the products. I will say that they were great products just about $100 out of my price range. Sammi stayed home with Earl and watched Dora.
Tonight Sammi and I are supposed to do somethings together, but we need to get milk and that usually involves the whole family. Because our truck is not working right now and when someone goes to town the whole family wants to go.
On the 15th our firefighters had a turkey dinner to sell to the community. I went down to the elementary school to get it to go. When I opened my car door the wind caught it and whipped it so hard the the henge's are bent and the door panel got bent and now it won't close or open all the way. Have you ever tried to squeeze a pregnant belly into a space of 10 inches. NOT easy!!
Poor Earl has to hold the door for 40 min morning and night to get to work. My brother said he would try to fix it but we don't know what year that will be.
And that is my birthday. I got money from my Dad and brother. And Earl said that he was still thinking about what to get me and if I could pick something out that would help. I just love he guy!!! This is actually except for the spa party a typical birthday, since my Mom died.

2008-11-17T06:07:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Half way through my 30 wahhhh!!!

2008-11-09T10:15:00.000-08:00

Well we are having another little girl. And for those of you who might say "They've been wrong before", it may be true but our little ones ultrasound makes it very sure that it is a girl. We have been very worried about not having a girl name picked out for the last few days. Beth wanted us to come up with one because she wants to talk to the baby and call her by name. We have been throwing names back and forth a few of the names have been- Jean, Faith, Emma, Anna, Catherine, Grace, Sara, but each time the name just fell short of what we really wanted. So we have decided our newest little Bickford will be called

Susannah Kay Bickford

and we will nickname her Suzy or as Earl calls her Suzy Q. By the way this gives Gene and Gana a bakers dozen of grandchildren. HAHA. The Dr told me that the c-section will take place at 38 weeks so that I will not go into labour and take the chance of my uterus ripping (Because of having a c-section with Sammi). If he does it on exactly the 38th week it will be March Fri 13th. That should help me remember easily, but we don't know as yet if that will be the day or not.

I have been feeling great. No sickness, a little tired but that could be because of the girls and school and everything. I will say if one more person asks me if I am disappointed because it is not a boy I'm gonna scream. Yes we would have liked a boy but are very happy with what God has decided to give us. Besides I know about girls and I was feeling very anxious because all the little boys down here are WILD!!!!!

Have a great day, it is now time for my Sunday afternoon nap. Love ya all!!!

2008-11-05T17:33:00.000-08:00

We are having a GIRL !!!!!

2008-11-05T04:47:00.000-08:00

My heart is heavy this morning. I was greated by my husband with the words of who won the presidential election. At first I was so disappointed, but then my thoughts went to the thoughts of all the prayers that have been poured out before the throne of God in the past months about the outcome of this election. This outcome was not a surprise to our Father He knows exactly what would happen and even though it doesn't look good, our Father is in control. No matter who our president is our Father God is still in control. Now we as Christians have to make sure to pray for President Bush in his last months in office and then for our future president Obama. I don't have to like the choice but I do have to obey the Bible and pray for his decisions ect.. So now is the time to pour out our hearts to our Father and remember that God is in control.

2008-10-31T06:49:00.000-07:00

I had to post about my niece that has entered a contest with Velveeta. She has the chance to win a couple great prizes go over to www.kraft.promotions.com/velveetachallenge to see the enteries. Melanie is my niece, the last girl on the line.
She also likes to give things away in contest on her blog site www.livinwithme.com This week she is giving away a DVD where your childs face is put into the video from a picture and then a story is told to help teach ABC's. I think my youngest daughter will really like this for Christmas. You know how much kids love to look at their own pictures.
Only 5 more days and we will have our ultrasound. If the baby cooperates we will find out what we are having. We really haven't decided if we are going to tell people what we are having. When people ask us that question Earl just laughs and says that I won't be able to keep it to myself. 15 years together and he is propably right.
We did trick or treating last night. Beth was a princess, Sammi a pizza (her choice, Homemade costume). We get one hour to run through town getting the candy. They blow the fire whistle and the surge begins. We only have about 500 - 600 people in whole town and we usually get 350 kids in one hour rushing for candy. This was the first year that I took the kids I always had to work at the auction. Neither kid was very excitied to go up to strangers and get candy, though they did say thank you without me prompting very often. After a while Sammi said that I could hold her bag "but don't eat any". At the end of the hour the whistle sounds again to let people know that they are done. My church has not only candy for the kids but we also have chili and crackers and peanut butter sandwhiches. Yes, down here dipping pb sandwiches in our chili is consider good eating. I did a whole loaf of bread with peanut butter for the sandwiches then they didn't use them because they didn't see them in the corner, so Earl's lunch today was pb sandwiches and also ours. Sammi loves the sanwiches but Beth hates them. And I have reached the time in my pregnancy that I have heartburn and peanut butter doesn't help.
I will post pictures later of the girls (AGAin I can't find my camera)(It's too small).

2008-10-14T04:22:00.000-07:00

We went to Bob Evans Farm Festival for Beth's birthday. Smokey the Bear was there. Sammi wasn't even afraid. We went with our friends the Tomacks and had a great day. We took Beth to Ponderosa that night and the food was good.

The favorite activity was getting to ride the horses

This is Sammi's first time riding a horse she has sit on one before but not actually rode one.

When Sammi saw this horse she shouted "Look Mommy a Zebra" We never did convince her that it was just a horse.

The girls liked the wagon rides also! But wouldn't go with Earl and me they wanted to go with our friends.

Bob Evans has a hole in the hill that the people can look and see what an old time coal mine would look like, even has the rails for the cars to go into, but no one is allowed inside.
Beth is always palying with her sister's hair of head of face when I want to take a picture, usually I catch her but I didn't this time. That's the reason for the ponytail swinging widly

2008-10-11T04:28:00.000-07:00

HAPPY 7TH BIRTHDAY

Bethany Rachelle
Beaner Bop

We love you very much!!

2008-10-09T01:54:00.000-07:00

We got to go to the musuem a couple of Sat. ago. Here are the 3 pictures that I took. I was usually busy telling Sammi 'don't touch the glass baby doll. It will break". She has really been into her babies lately, then in the next five minutes she brings me a babydoll bottle and wants to pretend she is the baby and I have to feed her.

This was taken in one of the rooms that was used for guest to sleep overnight, the musuem used to be an inn. One of the room's info paper said that if they had a lot of guest to stay overnight the guest would be asked to sleep from side to side instead of head to foot, so that there would be more room for everyone. Can you imagine? I would rather sleep in the wagon. Women had their room and the men had their own room, even 2 or more families could have been put in one room(with the men sleeping in the mens room). Prpbably my favorite thing to explain to Beth was the chamber pot, now there is a picture that I missed.

The girls always love fountains, notice the baby in Sammi's hand.

One of the things they showed that day was weaving with a loom. This lady actually has her own loom at her home and makes rugs.

Earl has been switched to another job at work. He is now working with research and development, he usually has to be to work at 4:30am and doesn't get home until 7:00pm The girls are not liking it because he usually comes home eats, does computer then goes and "lays" on the bed(goes to sleep), Beth really is having a rough time. Beth is doing good in her homeschool except if I have to teach another story about creation and Adam and Eve I'll scream. Out of her 7 subjects four of them started with Creation and Adam and Eve and that included 5 days of creation and then 5 days of Adam/Eve sinning. Beth asked me the other day if they did that because they didn't think she would be able to get it. I told they just want to make sure you know where you came from and how sin came into the world. Beth replied"I know already can we get on with it".

The little church that we attended for a while is in revival with Bro.

James Sutherland and his wife this week. We went one night and I think we are going tonight.

2008-10-04T09:07:00.000-07:00

I had a Dr. appointment yesterday, again our little one wanted his/her picture taken. Yes the outside heartbeat could not be heard with their machine, so they had to do a ultrasound. It was so cute the baby was wiggling his/her arms and legs and moving the head. The heartbeat was fine, but we coudn't see any parts. Nov 5th I have to go and have a scheduled ultrasound and if the baby cooperates we will find out what the baby's gender is. Earl is planning on taking a personal day so he can be there too.

Tomorrow the Church of the Nazarene is planning a 100 year celebration. Every church worldwide is supposed to receive communion at the same time and have a big celebration. In our church the children are putting on a play, Beth is in it and has one line that she has to say. Then afterwards we are having lunch in the fellowship hall and different things.

We went to a Fall picnic last night. It was a little chilly but not that bad.

2008-09-27T02:22:00.000-07:00

I just had to write and tell what happened yesterday. The girls and I were going to Walmart to get some much needed undergarments for Beth, tennis shoes, ect. They have built a new bridge from Ohio to West Virginia and to get to Walmart you have to go under both bridges then come to a 3-way stop to turn left to go over the bridge or right to go to town. We went in our 87 Dodge Ram pickup truck and I had noticed that my brakes were acting funny once I got over town to a red light. Well we were coming up to the three-way stop and I pushed to slow down and had NO BRAKES, I saw that I was going to hit the car in front of me so I instead went over the curb, hit a gaurdrail and ran into a pile of dirt from the construction going on. Thanks be to God that no one was hurt and I actually only did cosmetic damage to the truck (the same one that Earl had hit deer with and that deer had run into Earl with). While it was happening the only thing I can remember is that Beth was yelling "Were having an accident". 4 or 5 of the construction guys came over to checks us the truck and let me use their cell phone to call my brother. (Yes I called my brother instead of Earl, because Donny can fix the truck and tell me what to do) I did call Earl with my brothers phone and he came straight from work to check on us. I will post a picture of the brake line later today it had broken off. Needless to say we did not get to go shopping because as we were waiting for Bubby(Donny) to fix the truck the children went to play in the big pile of dirt and I didn't want Earl to go home by himself with the truck.

We are planning on going to a musuem today for their Founder's Day because it is free and they are having things for the children to do. Then a picnic and a shopping adventure with Earl. He is SO thrilled hahaha. But we are all looking forward to the musuem. It is called 'Our House" and was built in 1819 as a home and has a building out side that was the kitchen area.

2008-09-26T11:08:00.004-07:00

Sammi admiring the cows and donkeys

Here is a picture of Beth getting ready to throw the stalks over.

Across the road from where we live a gentleman keeps his 15 cows, 1 bull and a family of 3 donkeys. The girls love any animal and yesterday I suggested that we go and look at the animals because the owner had just fed them and they were all down at the bottom of the hill. While we were there the owner brought corn stalks to give to the animals. The girls thought it was great fun to throw the stalks over the fence. At one point the gate was opened and we walked to within touching distance of the cows. Sammi wanted to go and "pet" the cows and Earl about had a heart attack trying to get to Sammi to stop her from going in. The owners girlfriend picked up Sammi and took her over to the cows which was a big deal to Sammi. There was also a 4 month old calf. The cows were so used to people that when the gate was opened all we had to do was say "hiya get in there" when they would try to walk out of the gate, even the bull just sauntered around calm. When I told the girls that we had to go home to feed the dogs, Sammi said "I'm not going home yet, I stay with the cows". She is definitely our farm girl.

2008-09-04T05:49:00.000-07:00

I had my Dr. appointment yesterday that was to be just routine, urine tested, heartbeat listened to, ect. But when the Dr tried to listen to the heartbeat with the instrument he uses, he couldn't find it, so he said that he would do an ultrasound and he still couldn't find the baby or heartbeat, then he said that he would do an internal ultrsound. By this time I was starting to get fearful, Beth was asking why she hadn't heard the heartbeat yet. Thankfully with the internal ultrasound there was the little baby with a heartbeat of 167, a little head, body, and 4 little stubs where the arms and legs will grow. I told the Dr that the first thing I was going to do was spank this baby with all the sickness and problems she/he was causing. I joked with the nurse that the baby knew I wanted another picture of him/her and that if this was a clue of what was to come with this kid, I am glad this is the last one. We will find out what the baby is in Nov. Earl is highly convinced that this one is a boy, I am convinced that it is a girl even though this pregnancy is nothing like it was with the girls. More morning sickness, more tired, more emotions. The bad thing is that I have never enjoyed being pregnant, I love having the baby, but pregnancy has never been fun for me. The only part that I like is when the baby moves, which hasn't happened yet and when the baby comes out which of course won't happen for another 6 months.

Earl goes to see the wound specialist today to get his bandage changed and see how the leg is doing. He is not allowed to get the bandage wet so he can't take showers ( I told him to duck tape a plastic bag around it) so he takes baths with his leg hanging out of the tub. He is afraid that his leg is going to stink like it did when he broke it and they took the cast off, I told him that I didn't think it would be that bad and who cares as long as his leg is getting better.

Sammi got a clean bill of health yesterday. Beth is busy with her homeschool work.

2008-09-01T15:05:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the Ohio river to look for interesting rocks of drift wood. We went to the boat launch area in Pomeroy. I let the girls take off their shoes and let the water splach on their feet. Sammi didn't like the splashing of the water, however my waterbug Beth was having a ball until she fell face forward because it is slippery at the launch. Earl thought that Beth was going to be sucked under because of the waves from the boats and barge in the river and ran forward to get her and slipped in the same spot as Beth and fell on his backside getting his hurt leg wet. I wound up getting Beth then their buckets that were floating away then trying to help Earl up, while Sammi sat there saying "I not go in the water no way"

Beth loves to use my camera to take pictures, in fact she took this one of Earl and I

Earl tried again the other day to get one of his beagles to run rabbits, for an old hand at running dogs, the fact that NONE of his beagles will chase the rabbits is really getting under his skin. The girls have to wear hats because of the ticks down here. One time we went and I didn't make them wear hats and we found 3 or 4 ticks on us. Yuck!!!

Notice around Beth's waist is the dog leash that is how Earl is teaching Beth to carry her leash, she is doing OK with her training but is having doubts about whether or not dogs really chase rabbits.

2008-08-15T07:57:00.000-07:00

The girls were supposed to be in a 4th of July parade with Beth's school but the rain on the 4th destroyed the float so the girls got to watch the parade instead. They usually don't get to because the are on the church's float in our hometown

We have had a busy summer, thanks to 5 VBS. I didn't even take pictures, I must have lost my mind. Usually I would be asked to help with Sammi's class. At one VBS we had 20 3-5 year olds. AGHHH! Probably our favorite one was the little Community Church that we went to with Pastor Steve Tomack. A small VBS but it was created by the pastor and his family, so it was original and not a cookie cutter VBS. The picture is from the Baptist church VBS. Theirs was 3 hours long every night.

Our cat, Boots, decided that the best place to sleep was my flowers but the picture is cute. However the center of my flowers are trampled.

2008-07-31T08:28:00.000-07:00

I am 6 weeks pregnant for all those that were wondering! Beth starts school Aug 25th for the 1st grade, Sammi starts pre-school on Sept 2, my job at school starts Aug 25 if they get more kids. Right now we only have 3 signed up and the teacher will not need an aide for that number. So we are just playing it by ear right now.

The Dr will do another C-section and after Little B is born, I will have my tubes tied, 3 is enough. Of course Earl is hoping strongly for a boy. I don't care one way or the other, just healthy is good with me. If it is a boy the baby will be named Benjamin Ray Bickford, girls names haven't been thought about yet. Earl decided the name. Right now my only symptoms are being tired and some smells aren't very good for the nose. So far the Dr says my sugar is fine. We are being careful though and cutting out all pop and desserts.

2008-07-30T09:23:00.000-07:00

This is not a very good copy, but it's the 1st ultrasound of the newest littlest Bickford that is due to arrive March 27. We even heard the heartbeat today.

2008-07-04T04:39:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July

2008-06-30T13:02:00.000-07:00

(Last years Birthday cake)

Happy Birthday My Love

Earl turns 51

We are having Corn Chowder Soup tonight, then on Thursday after we go grocery shopping we will have a birthday cake for Early. Sammi is very upset that there is no cake tonight but very excited to be baking one on Thursday. Beth just wants to sing to him and give him a birthday spanking. She can count to 51 but I think that her arm will get very tired haha!! A friend of mine always has a special plate for the special occasion that is going on to let the special person use. We have waited till today to start doing that. I wanted to begin with Earl's birthday first.

2008-06-28T12:03:00.000-07:00

Today our family is growing by one.

Best wished to my nephew Brad and my new niece Melissa.

Wish we could have been there. Love ya guys!!

2008-06-22T04:39:00.000-07:00

We got to take the puppies and the girls for their first beagle training walk. This was Sammi's first walk through the woods. We walked about a mile. We have an area that is called The WaterShed project. I had never been on it and told Earl that we should try it out. We loved it!! It was similar to walking in the Adirondacks(less pine trees). We saw deer prints everywhere. It got to be so bad that Sammi began to recognize them and stop at every one of them. We also saw 4 toads the size of dimes, lots of bugs, wildflowers, and Beth was introduced to thorn bushes.

2008-06-20T05:00:00.000-07:00

We had a storm on Mon. the 16th and as you can see in the pictures we had hail. The girls were fascinated by it, but Sammi couldn't understand why I wouldn't let her hold her hand out to catch the hail. OUCH!! The hail was about the size of marbles.

I had my weight watchers meeting last night, I couldn't stay for the meeting so I just weighed in and then we had to go to Walmart and Bob Evans for supper. We have coupons where the kids eat free except the coupons expire at the end of the month. Last week I gained 2.4lbs I was not happy. My excuses were a 2nd degree sunburn on my shoulders and other womanly things. This week I lost 6.6lbs so I was much pleased with that. All together I have lost 29.6lbs and I put on a pair of 16avg jeans and though they were a little tight I could sit down in them and not feel like my stomach was being pushed into my spine. Considering I did wear a 20W in jeans, I like knowing that I have come down 3 or 4 sizes in clothes. I can't wait to try on a dress to see where my size will be. However I am running into problems, having always worn Women's clothes and always bought the clothes that had a W next to the size, I am not used to the sizes when I look at clothes at yardsales. Last week I bought a pair of jeans but when I got them home I couldn't fit in them even though they were 18's. I didn't realize that 18 husky's are boys jeans. At least when I go down in shirt sizes I know that they run S M L and XL. Could be interesting!!!

2008-06-12T09:05:00.000-07:00

Bethany at the end of school had to take a 'Stanford Achievement Test'. It compared her test scores to those also in Kindergarten in both Public schools and other Christian schools. Her grade equivalent is in the 2nd grade in most of her subjects and her averages were either normal or above normal. We are very proud of Beth and are pleased with the school that she is in. She was also tested in Bible and came out with an advanced rating.

2008-06-07T12:26:00.000-07:00

I would greatly appreciate everyone's prayers at this time for the Tillis family. My Great-Aunt Ruth passed away after a very long brave fight against cancer. She passed away last night. Her husband's name is Amos and she is Bill & Naomi Tillis' sister-in-law. She had 5 kids plus grandchildren and extended family. Thanks for your prayers.

2008-06-05T18:17:00.000-07:00

I have lost 25.4 lbs so far on my weight watchers. I earned a new charm for my key chain. I thought that I would have not lost very much this week because of Sunday dinner at church. I couldn't count the points for the food, but I lost 3.4 lbs. Yeah! I have 46.6 lbs to go. My new 10% is 19 lbs, I've lost 4.4 lbs of it. I have till Sept. 1st but I hope to be there before then.

The girls are good. It has really rained here the last few days. And the thunderstorms have been awsome. Except the ones at 3:00 am when I am sleeping. Earl is still waiting on going to 1st shift, he is waiting on papers to be signed. A friend of our neighbors found a Mama deer hit and dead by a car, next to it was her week old male fawn. The people are raising it till it is old enough to go out on its own. The girls got to pet the deer which they loved.

2008-06-03T10:13:00.000-07:00

My Bethany is growing up!!

She lost her first tooth on the bottom!

Yes I cried when she wasn't watching. I didn't even cry when she went to pre-school or Kindergarden.

2008-05-22T18:26:00.001-07:00

What a week!!

First Fri and Sat I helped my neighbors (both upstairs and next door) move. Then Mon. for 4 hours I cleaned next doors house. Then Tues. my Dad had to have my Mom's dog put to sleep and I helped him bury her. Not to mention helping Bethy deal with that loss. Then Wed. I cleaned my Dad's house for 5 hours because of the Alumni dinner this weekend. Wed at school the teacher asked me to help her by cutting out apples that had the kids pictures lamanted on them. 10 x 10-15 pictures equals 100-150 pictures, which had to be done by Thursday night. My thumb is numb from cutting, but I enjoyed looking at all of Beth's schoolmates Then tonight I had my Weight watchers and Beth graduated from Kindergarten.The good news is that I have officially lost 21 lbs and earned my first 10% charm holder. I was excitied but was really focusing on Beth and her night.

Here Beth is receiving her diploma from the teacher that will be her teacher for the next two years. Mrs Asbek (Mrs.A)

I was very proud of Beth. She was one of the top readers in her class.

I am so thankful that I am on vacation for at least tomorrow.

2008-05-15T18:00:00.000-07:00

Tonight was my weight watchers meeting, I lost 3.4 lbs which brings me up to

17.4 lbs. One day at a time. I have 3.6 lbs to go till I have lost my first 10%. Then I have to make a new goal. I haven't decided what I will make it, probably the next 10% until I get to my goal weight. which I found out was 113-141 Oh brother heaven help me.

By the way our bird died after two days of worm feeding. yuck. Earl was sad that "his patient didn't make it." We have finally got rid of the last of the puppies we had for sale, but we still have three kittens. Texas, Boots and AJ.

I had to tell you a story that happened with Sammi. Since the girls were old enough to know what worms and snakes were I have used them to explain carnality. I told them that they have a worm on the inside and when the disobey or are mean ect.. their worm grows into more of a snake and that only by being good can the snake return to a worm but that someday Jesus will remove the "worm/snake" if they ask Him. When I told Sammi the other day that her worm had grown into a little snake she just cocked her head and looked at me. In a few moments Sammi cried out 'ouch' and grabbed her arm, I asked her what was wrong. She looked at me and said

"Your snake bit me"

I couldn't even refrain from laughing. Could you have?

2008-05-10T03:55:00.000-07:00

I thought that I would show you what is upstairs in my bathroom in a box thanks to my cat and husband. Earl heard a cat going after something and went out side and found the 3 week old baby robin trying to hop away from the cat. He brought it in and waited for me to come home with Beth. I had to get a box and then go find worms so that we (Earl and ME!!!) could feed the bird. I could cream my husband. Needless to say I wear gloves where the great outdoors man my husband just catches it with his bare hands.

This had better not be what he is getting me for Mother's Day

2008-05-09T03:53:00.000-07:00

Well here it is another Friday morning.

Last night I was totally bummed out for only losing 1.4 lbs for the week.

Bringing my weight lost to 14 lbs all together. So my newest stratgy is to stop eating after 7pm. I was still having snacks to make sure that I would get my points in.

Beth only has 9 days of school left, she is very excitied. One of those days she is going to Old Man's Cave here in Ohio. I had to fill out 15 blue letters with names of family and friends for pledge money or she would not have gotten to go. Beth was very concerned that I might not have 15 friends of family. haha It didn't matter if the people actually sent them back just that I had to surrender 15 people's names for the beg-a-thon. I know the school is a good reason just sits wrong in my craw. Another day she will be going to have field day down here which is going to include water guns and water balloons.(Gotta remeber to take towels and dry clothes that day)

Sammi is just happily going on her merry way. Doesn't like it when Sissy is gone for the morning. I don't dare tell her that Beth will be gone for all day next year. But hopefully Sammi will have her hands full on Mon Wed Fri in the morning anyway. I am going to go today and sign her up for headstart. It is earlier that I did Beth but if I am going to work on those days then I have to find someone for Sammi Hey do any of the Aunts or nieces of nephews want to move to Ohio to be my Nanny. hehe Better yet why don't the Bickfords just move home to the Adirondacks. Well this is enough for this time. I have to go get Beth ready to face her day. Usually on Fri. I tell her tomorrow you can sleep in, she never does, but somehow that helps on Fri. morning when the eyes don't want to open

2008-05-02T12:21:00.000-07:00

My total is now 12.5 lbs for those of you wondering

Bethany got to sing at the National Day of Prayer

Here is a picture of the Kindergarten class, there are 10 kids. One is missing because of strep throat

Earl and Sammi got to be there also. Earl tried to get up and come closer to the front but Sammi wouldn't hear of it.

2008-04-30T06:17:00.001-07:00

Sammi's 3rd Birthday

Beth got her some bubbles that blow themselves.

Sammi chose to go to Wendy's for her birthday lunch.

Blowing out her homemade birthday cake.

(1/2 a sheet cake at the store is $40. I don't think so, besides I used egg beaters instead of eggs for my husband's cholesterol and applesauce instead of the oil for my diet)

We had to take Beth to the Dr. on Sammi's b-day. She came home from school crying with an ear ache (not like her at all) She has another bad ear infection. Earl and I have decided that we are going to invest in some good ear plugs for when the girls wash their hair in the bath tub. I believe that is where all the germs are coming from. They both take their bath together, so twice the germs(and twice the drownded bathroom).

2008-04-26T21:25:00.000-07:00

3.6 lbs

Which brings the total up to 9.4 or some weird number. I just round up to a healthy 10 haha.

I am doing this post at 12:30 am because my loving husband came home and woke me up once he decided to come to bed and talk to me for 5 min. Unknown to him Beth had already woke me up twice. I had been asleep at 9:45 (very unusual). The girls had gone to bed early after playing hard at Beth's school talent show tonight. (pictures to follow tomorrow) So I did too. I don't know about the rest of you but I can't be woke up too often or my brain goes into thinking mode and not normal thinking mode but suspicious thinking mode. I tend to analogize every little thing. So here I sit hoping my brain will shut off, listening to Earl say in the bedroom "Where did she go and why is she awake at this hour" Good questions Honey, (I think I'll go make sure he's awake and explain it to him, with my shoe)

2008-04-24T04:28:00.000-07:00

Well here it is another day for my weight watchers meeting. Monday was the only day that I didn't get to walk my 3 miles. So when Earl came home early from work Tuesday, I fixed his supper and headed out the door to get my walk in. I was going to do my normal walk but as I got to the end of it I had started to think about somethings and got (worried, aggravated, confused)well pick one. So I kept walking. I wound up walking 5 miles in a loop of country roads and was gone for 2 hours. The next day I really felt every step that I took. I also get to count my activity points. Usually I only earn 3 points but that day I earned 8 points. You can eat those points that you earn or not, I choose not

The only bad food that I had this week was pizza, but I counted them. I just felt guilty (but it was goooooooood)haha.

2008-04-18T03:28:00.000-07:00

7 lbs

Thats how much I lost. I earned my first 5lb sticker. yeah me!! (and Earl for letting me walk every morning while he would take care of Sammi.)

I even have dreams about my walking,like sometimes I don't have my music and I can't figure out how to get home, or I forgot to get dressed and all of a sudden I realize it, or I'm walking and have no idea where I am!! Wonder what those dreams mean hehe.

2008-04-17T13:18:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is summer is coming, the warm weather, Earl turning on the air conditioner to see if I can freeze to death at night.

My Dr. has told me that if I don't lose weight(again) that I am going to head into a diabetes diagnosis, so I have (with the blessing of my husband) joined Weight Watchers. I am also walking 2 miles a day in the morning. May not be a lot to some of you but excellent for me. I miss Mirro Lake Dr. in Lake Placid and the walks that I used to take around it. I feel foolish to walk to a certain point in town and then turn around to walk back the way that I came. I also have taken the girls for walks at night. They don't even know that I am exercising with them. I weighed in last week at my first meeting.(Don't even think about asking what the weight was)hehe. Tonight is my second meeting and I will find out if their meal plan is helping me lose weight, I am feeling anxious. So I hope to blog later that WW is working or I will try something else.

2008-04-04T04:48:00.000-07:00

I don't know if all of you know that my brother and I are adopted. It became final on April 1, 1976 and on that day every year we celebrated as a family our adoption. This year we simply called one another and visited. This year I found myself thinking about my heavenly adoption and the relationship that I have with my Father.

I read a story where the girl in it explained all the things that she did and did not do was because her church said to, the other girl in the story explained that she did the same things but because she believed that God expected her to do the things. I believe that I am in the place of the second girl that I am do certain things or don't do certain things because I want to please my heavenly Father. Though I must admit that growing up I used the same excuse as the first girl.

I also love the scripture in

Jude 1:24

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.

I love the fact that Jesus also wants us to make it to heaven and to be joyful when we are presented before the throne of God. Especially the fact that Jesus is able to keep us from falling. When temptation hits me lately I remind Jesus of this scripture then sit back and wait for the rescue.

Have a blessed day everyone, family I have remebered you in prayer. Especially the Myers clan.

Love you all!!!

2008-03-26T12:31:00.000-07:00

It was beautiful today so we hit the town park. The children were not willing to have their picture taken so I only took one. Make sure to look close Beth is not doing what you think she is.

However Sammi had her play group today and they had an Easter egg hunt. We haven't had a play group session since Christmas and Sammi missed that due to her pneumonia and hospital stay.

2008-03-25T07:01:00.001-07:00

We had a turkey dinner for Easter.

Ham was my first choice but the frozen turkey in the freezer won out against the ham still at Walmart. (hehe!)However my girls enjoyed the turkey legs very much!

A tradition of breaking the wishbone.

2008-03-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!!

2008-03-22T18:08:00.000-07:00

Our First Easter Egg Decoration

The night before Easter and for the first time the girls and I did Easter eggs. I had never done them before with the girls. I guess growing up we focused on church and the Easter morning goodie basket we would get as kids. We stopped getting them around 12/13, but I have friends that are 24 and still expect their parents to load them up with sugar.

The girls and I decided to do the tie-dye eggs. Maybe not the best idea for a 2 year old. AGGGHHH. But thank goodness for plastic baggies that acted as the paintbrush. The finshed eggs were very nice. It took 12 shots until we got the picture that I liked. Then the girls headed to the bathtub to remove any dye.

2008-03-19T15:30:00.000-07:00

Who wants to go swimming????

Welcome to Rutland the land of the Flooded Creek

This is behind my house to the left our neighbors back yard.

This is in front of our neighbors house next door

This creek behind our house

2008-03-18T09:04:00.000-07:00

In Memory of

Mom

Saundra Kay Tillis

Gone one year today.

Don't grieve for me, for now I'm free

I'm following the path God laid for me

I took God's hand when I heard the call,

I turned my back and left it all.

I couldn't stay another day,

To laugh, to love, to work, to play.

Tasks left undone must stay that way,

I found peace at the close of day.

If my parting has left a void,

then fill it with remembered joy.

A friendship shared a laugh, a kiss,

Ah yes, they're things that I too will miss

Be not burdened with time of sorrow

I wish the sunshine of tomorrow.

My life's been full, I've savored much,

Good friends, good time's, a loved ones touch.

Prehaps my time seemed all too brief,

Lift up your heart and share with me

God wanted me now- He set me free.

2008-03-12T14:33:00.000-07:00

A picture from our hike last summer to Mercy Dam.

2008-01-01T07:39:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all of our family and friends. May God bless you in this new year. My scriptures for this year are:

Philippians 3:13-14

....but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize for the high calling of God in Christ Jesus

Philippians 1:6

Being confident of this very thing that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

I didn't make any resolutions but I would like to try to lose wieght this year and to be more determined in my relationship with Jesus. So I guess you could say I want to get skinny physically and fat spiritually. Hehehe.

Our love to you all!!

2007-12-29T11:36:00.000-08:00

Sammi loved her pots and pans from Christmas. Almost every day since she has washed them and made "soup". It was 55 here yesterday it doesn't feel like winter at all. I found my gift certificate that I was thought lost. We are still waiting on the MP3 player. I put all of my Christmas decorations away Thursday, reaaranged things in my kitchen and rearranged my house (year round) decorations. I was able to add a new black bear and a moose and bear kleenex holder to my pretties.

2007-12-26T12:35:00.000-08:00

Bethany asked me to put a picture of her newest 'daughter' on the blog. Santa delivered this new baby Christmas morning.

Sammi also got twin babies. As you can tell from the picture she could have cared less. Sammi really didn't care for Christmas package opening time. It seem to over whelm her and make her very upset

I got a MP3 player that I have been asking for (for a very long time) and much to my and Earl's dismay it turned on once and refused to work anymore. Even after trying 14 new batteries it refused to work. Then to console myself I went to find my $25 gift certficate that my Dad got me only to find that when we were cleaning up the Christmas wrapppings at Dad's house, someone accidently put it in the bags to be burned. Which Earl had done right away to be helpful. Thankfully I called the store where Dad got the certificate and the lady said that it was OK I could still come over and pick something out, but if I found the certificate to get rid of it. And Earl is hot on the trail of the company that he bought the player from.

Christmas was good, but Mom was sorely missed. I realized that the reason why Christmas was always so good for me was Mom made sure of it. Dad did a great job without her help, but Mom will always be hard to out do. So if your Mom is still with you tell her today how much you love her and appreciate her, you never know when she might go home to heaven.

2007-12-24T08:44:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends