There's Easter, Family, and a lot of cool stuff God does

Easter
Hey everyone, how's it goin'? We are well here, just busy living life! I hope you all had a great week and had some time to just kick back and enjoy after all the Easter planning and activities. Our Easter at Real Life was wonderful! There wasn't an adult choir (bummer for me) but the music was top rate and each of the singers did an incredible job of letting Jesus shine! The band rocks too! We have some of the coolest guitar playin' guys ever and all the musicians give their heart to the music and made it great. The service flowed very smoothly and I liked that, and the message Pastor had was a great word for people, he is such a great Pastor with a heart for others, we are blessed to have him as our Pastor! I was really proud of the kids choir, I had almost all the 1-5 graders singing with us and we had 6 different kids with a special solo or duet part. It was awesome to have that many different kids to step out and go for it! I strive to place in their heart a desire to sing to God and make their songs a gift to Him, rather than just "puttin' on a show" or "giving a performance", we don't perform, we just open our hearts and sing for Him. That's my goal and hope for the kids, I believe it is what will set them apart. They did such a wonderful job and I was very proud to be their "Teacher Karen"!

Family
My dad and Aunt Bo left this week. They were here visiting from Redding, CA and came for a week to hang out. We spent some time at my sister's which is always nice because we don't see her a whole lot. (she is a bit of a "work-a-holic" as they say) We mostly hung out and watched movies, any of you who have met/heard of my dad will understand. There's not much more to say about this subject.......

Cool God Stuff
That about sums it up! Cool God stuff is just all the little things that God does just because He loves us. I mean, we always acknowledge the BIG stuff, the gift of salvation, healing, blessing us with children, great financial break-through, things like that. But, how often do we remember those little things that He just does because? When your kid does some neat little thing that makes you go "ooohhhhh" and you know it's because God did something in them, (of course, we all want the credit, but we know the truth....teeheehee), when you see a beautiful sunny day with warm air and a light breeze, when the store has your favorite "goody" on sale, when you have favor every time you turn around, or when one day, you wake up, and you realize that your life is pretty darn good, a job you like, kids you like, a husband you like, friends you like that LIKE YOU BACK, how cool is that? God just gives me so much and I don't ever want to forget to stop and say "thank you" to Him. Parents, do you ever just steal a glance at your kid and your heart is so full at that moment that it almost hurts? I bet He is like that with us all the time. I feel adored by Him and to be quite honest, I like it. He has walked me through so much, carried me through so much, and rescued me from so much, I am blessed. I am sure that I don't even know some of the things that God has rescued me from, they didn't happen because of Him....and when yucky stuff does happen, you know what, He STILL HAS IT COVERED. Don't forget that. We live our lives, we do our work, we raise our family, we play, we laugh, we cry, we get angry, but through it all.....God has it covered.

Well, as Pastor Andrew says....."peace out"

Did you read this in the paper?

Hey guys, I was reading the Journal today and saw this interesting article. It was about this guy that had too much time on his hands and decided he wanted to see if he could trade something for a house. His thought was to start small and trade up until he had a house. Know what he started with? Come on, guess.........

ONE RED PAPER CLIP.....seriously. So, anyway, through a variety of trades, he has now gotten a year of free rent in Phoenix, including airfare for two, if I read right. He got that item through trading a recording contract with someone (Jess, you shoulda got in on that one!) Anyway, I think it was a quirky idea and will keep tabs on his blog to see where he goes. He too, is on blogspot at www.oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com. I would put him on my "links" column, but I don't know how. Well, I just got a kick out of that and thought I'd tell ya about it. Stay tuned for my Easter blog, what a service and weren't the kids darling? Come on, admit it....they were! And little Makayla (Renee, you never told me) can sing, did you know that? You do now!

Doin' the Spring Fair?

Hey, who's going to the Spring Fair this year? Justin will be working at the Pierce County Beekeepers Booth on Wednesday, April 20 from 6:30PM-10PM. If you are at the fair...come say "hi!"

In case you didn't know, Justin is an apprentice beekeeper this year. He will not have bees yet, but will be working alongside one of the master beekeepers and learning the skill. Next year, they will provide him with the equipment and enough bees for two hives. He will keep them at his grandpa's farm and work with them there. He will also make honey to sell. He is really enjoying it so far.

I have come on as an assistant editor for their monthly newsletter, which is funny because I don't know much about bees. I just include all the upcoming info and then whatever they tell me about the bees. I got involved because I go with Justin to the classes and they have no one that does administration type stuff so I am helping them out. Many of them are grandma/grandpa types and are not into computer stuff. I am surprised about how many folks are involved though, they usually have around 35-40 people at the meetings. All those people loving bees.....strange, but true. Anyway, come say "hi" to Justin and pick up a raffle ticket to win some honey!!! I will be selling those because no one under 18 can sell or buy them, so while Justin is chattin' about the bees with people, I will sell them a raffle ticket.
Have a great day and I will "chat" with you all soon!

Goin' for the Ice Cream

Ok, so you all know that everyone in my family loves ice cream. It is such a yummy dessert and we always have some in the house. Sean and I are trying to be healthy, so we have these lowfat low sugar ice cream bars that aren't half bad. Anyway, we have them downstairs and Sean decided he wanted one.....

As he was going down the stairs, he tripped and ended up falling down the stairs. He went to the doctor and ended up having a stage 3 sprain on his ankle, which is just a smidge away from needing surgery! eeks...so, he is supposed to wear this big black boot thing and isn't loving it. He has missed some work because of it and it isn't fun. But, he will be fine soon I am sure!

Stephanie has also been sick, she missed school for a week, but went back today. Other than that, we are all doing well! I'll chat more later.....