You Won't Believe It!!!

It's been snowing here today!!!!!!! Yes, I said snowing!!!! In the desert southwest!!!! I know you don't believe me so here's the proof!!! Click on the picture to enlarge it so you can see the white stuff falling for yourself.

It snowed for about 2 hours. Even my husband called me and told me that it was snowing where he was working. I called Sileena and told her to look out her windows and she said it was snowing. Pastor didn't believe her until he went outside and saw it for himself.

On to a little something that happened this afternoon. I think this is something that only our two boys could have ever thought up. I don't believe that anyone else would have dreamed this up. So here goes. I was in the bathroom getting ready to leave when my husband got home from work. Little did I know what the boys were doing.



You see this here couch? Up above the couch is where it happened! Take a look at the curtain rod.






I walked into the living room and over to the couch to fix the blinds behind it. I noticed the couch was pushed all the way up against the wall. As I was going to move it forward away from the wall, water started dripping on the couch from the ceiling, or so I thought. My first thought was, "Oh no, another leak in our roof!" However, after looking up towards the ceiling I noticed the curtain rod. Guess what was on it! A large pile of ICE CUBES! Yep, you read right. They were melting and dripping all over my couch! Of course, I was upset. I asked, well maybe screamed, to know how the ice cubes got up on the curtain rod. Phyllip comes running and said, "Oh, we put them up there so we could sit under them and catch the drops of water in our mouths as they melted. We forgot they were there." The ice must not have been melting fast enough and obviously their attention span isn't very long. Now how can a mom stay upset with an explanation like that?! I got the ice cubes down, wiped the water off the couch and went to my bedroom as fast as I could so that I could laugh. It was just too funny to be mad at them!



Here's a picture of the curtain rod where the pile of ice cubes were. There were at least 20 ice cubes! Whatever possessed them to do it, I will never know!






Since it's Valentine's Day, I decided to have some fun with the camera and take pictures of me and my sweetie. Just a couple of the shots.

Drum Roll Please.....

Congratulations are in order to our nephew, Richard!

Today he is the proud owner of a real, bona fide driver's license!

He called shortly after the drive test was over. I gave him a hard time about it (sorry!). All kidding aside, we are really proud of you!

Absolutely wonderful...

For those of you who think the desert never turns green, here is the proof that it does. We just need to get a couple inches of rain and poof, we turn green!

The pictures didn't turn out as good as I thought they would because I took them yesterday morning while we were driving and I didn't realize there was a glare on the window. But you can still see the green desert!

Walter got yesterday off of work so we decided to go to the Leadership Conference at Lighthouse Baptist Church in Lemon Grove, CA. If you ever get a chance to go you will absolutely love it! It's great!

Our day started out by getting up at 4:45 a.m. because we needed to leave the house at 6:00 a.m. in order to get there on time. As it turned out, we got there late because we didn't know about the early bird session for the men at 8:15. Oh, well.

On a little side note - While we were driving to the church the boys fell asleep. In fact, they were snoring! Tyler wakes up and proceeds to say with a loud voice, "Hey, why are we going backwards?" To which we lovingly reply, "We're not going backwards!" Tyler says, "Then how come the steering wheel turned the car around back there?" To this we laughed and replied, "The steering wheel is always in the front of the car, son!" Obviously, he was still asleep! *smile*

When we got to the church Walter and the boys went their way and Lyndsey and I went our way. There are split sessions for the men and women. There is also a session for all kids under 12 but we didn't find out until lunch where that was.

Let me tell you how the ladies are treated at this conference. There is a "Tea Room" and it's open each day of the conference from 9:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. There is just about every kind of tea plus the goodies (biscotti, 2 kinds of fudge, little cheesecakes, muffins, mini eclairs, fresh fruit, etc.)! Oh the goodies! They are incredible! It's all free and you can frequent the Tea Room as often as your heart desires! Then there's the pampering room. Massages. Pedicures. Parafin waxes for your hands. Manicures. Haircuts. All FREE! So I decided to indulge myself yesterday. I had a massage, a parafin wax, and my first pedicure, ever (Hence, the picture below of my feet. I don't like my feet but I discovered how great a pedicure is)! Oh my goodness! I felt like a queen. It was wonderful!

All of the paid delegates at the conference are fed lunch each day. Since we weren't paid delegates, we were going to find a place to have lunch. However, one of the associate pastors at Lighthouse Baptist Church told my husband and our pastor that we could stay for the lunch. And the food was really good! We had a choice of manicotti or linguini, salad, and dessert! Wow! We were stuffed to the brim! The Lord sure is faithful to take great care of us!

When we were done at the conference for the afternoon, our family and our pastor's family ended up at a mall not too far away. It was an outdoor mall and there was some pretty flower gardens so we took some pictures. They are below.

We went to dinner and then had the long drive home. We were exhausted but it was so worth it! The Lord again showed me how much He loves me! I so desperately needed the ladies sessions. They helped put me back into focus of what my life should be as a wife, mother, and a Christian. Again, if any of you ever get a chance to attend, don't hesitate to do so. You won't be disappointed!

Thru the Eyes of Children

This morning we picked up 2 of Pastor's kids for church because their youngest, Liza, was sick and he had to pick up other people.

We get over to their house and Ciarra (top) and Kaylyn (bottom) come out to get in our van (yes, both of the girls are hanging out of a suitcase, but that's a whole different post).

We lovingly refer to our van as "The Beast."

Just as the girls start to come around the front of the van to get in they stop and decide that it would be better to get in the van on the other side. But they don't realize that our van is so ancient (1994) that it doesn't have 2 slider doors (they have a much newer van that has the luxury of 2 sliders)! We actually had to remind them that they needed to walk around the front of the van to get in. Walter and I got a laugh out of it!

Sweetheart Banquet

For our Sweetheart Banquet this year, the teen department was in charge. And since Walter is the Youth Director, that meant we would be handling the whole evening.

So, I planned everything out. It actually was fun! It was last Friday night.

The menu was Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken, Mushroom Risotto, and Julienned Carrots. I was a little bit nervous about the menu. While I was cooking it on Friday I started to wonder if I had gotten in over my head. But I kept going and Walter and I both thought it tasted fantastic! I was nervous because I've been told that you NEVER try out a new recipe on company. Guess what I did on Friday evening? Tried out 3 new recipes on everyone at the banquet!

Our guest speaker was Pastor Nathan Cook and his sweet wife, Sara. He wore a very LOUD suit.
But it did happen to fit the occasion. His message was great.

We at dinner, played some games, had some laughs, and listened to the message. All in all, we had a good time.

Pastor and Sileena won one of the games and here was their prize(s).

A Valuable Lesson Learned

This morning as we were getting ready to walk out the door for church, Walter went to our bedroom to turn the swamp cooler on (though at the time I didn't know that's what he was doing).

As I was walking towards our bedroom I looked up and a huge cloud of dust was coming my way!

I screamed, "Honey, what is this!" His answer - "I know. I know."

Then it hit me. He turned the swamp cooler on. A cloud of dust was thrust into our bedroom and funneled out into the rest of the house just as we were walking out the door!

Usually around the end of November we cover the swamp cooler with plastic to help keep out the cold air until spring arrives. But we didn't do it last November. Why, you may ask? I dunno! I forgot to remind my husband? I didn't think that dust would accumulate inside the cooler and blow out when turned on?

But now I have dust all over the house, but especially all over my bedroom.

I don't think we will forget to cover it again! A valuable lesson learned indeed!

This Tickled My Funny Bone

I was sitting at the lab today waiting to have my blood drawn when a senior citizen couple walked in. Their conversation was so cute that I have to share it with you. Because I don't know their names, I will call them Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Lab Tech: Mr. Smith, do you have your insurance card and paperwork?

Mr. Smith: Yes.

Lab Tech: Mr. Smith, your paperwork says that you need to be fasting for 12 hours. Have you eaten anything in the last 12 hours?

Mr. Smith: No.

Lab Tech: Are you sure? (He asked this because it was 4:30 p.m. I don't think too many people fast from 4:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.)

Mr. Smith: Yes.

Lab Tech: Ok. Have a seat and we'll call you in a little bit.

Mr. Smith sits down next to Mrs. Smith.

Mrs. Smith: (whispering with her hand covering her mouth so the lab tech doesn't hear her) Why did you tell him you were fasting for 12 hours?

Mr. Smith: Huh? I have been fasting for 12 hours!

Mrs. Smith: No you haven't!

Mr. Smith: Yes I have!

Mrs. Smith: No, you haven't. You ate lunch, remember?

Mr. Smith: Huh? Oh, yeah (puzzled).

Mrs. Smith: I'm going to go up and tell the lab tech that your test won't be right (he was having a cholesterol test done and it will be completely messed up if you don't fast for 12 hours).

Mr. Smith: No, don't do that. It'll be alright.

Mrs. Smith: We can't stay here. Why don't we just come back tomorrow?

Mr. Smith: Because we're already here! Besides they have to check my thyroid, my prostate, etc.... It'll be ok.

Mrs. Smith: (huge sigh)

On a side note - one thing that made this so funny is that it was absolutely silent in the waiting room. Everyone in the room including the lab tech could hear the whole conversation even though they were trying to be quiet!

Walter and I got such a laugh out of this. We realize that this whole scenario could be us in just a few short years!