I've been neglecting my blog forever. I'm blame the neglect on facebook. Yes, I have been one of those facebook users for awhile now, and I get so caught up in status updates and uploading photos and looking at everyone's profiles.......well, poor little blog has suffered greatly. I have decided to rescue this blog from the pit of despair and give it a little face lift and some new stories. I will try to pay attention to it (although I will not be giving up facebook- I think I can do both!)

This comes at a good time since I have started a new chapter in my life. I am now a resident of the great state of Oklahoma- I never thought this would actually happen to me, but I have learned that when you say "I will never do such and such a thing", that thing will inevitably happen. God has His own ideas and admittedly, they are better than my ideas, though often surprising. So, I said goodbye to family, friends, church, and job that I loved, and made my way here- and incidentally, I am having a great time!
I have friends here- old and new- a new church where I can minister, and a new job.
And, of course, there are children here in Oklahoma. I miss my kiddos in Illinois, but I'm sure wherever I go I will be able to find children to entertain me! And entertain anyone who chooses to read this little blog!

It's been forever since I've posted anything on my blog because I've been putting all of my pictures on facebook. Well, my facebook is being absolutely annoying, so back to the blog for now.....

here are some pics from Kids 4 Truth tonight. We were playing the "freeze" game. The kids love it! I'm glad I had my camera with me!

Enjoy!

Kids 4 Truth Quote of the Week:

"God created man in His own spinach."

Tidbits from Texas

Here are a few great moments from our trip to Texas. I recorded them in a little notebook so as not to forget anything highly entertaining!

I had the joy of sharing a room with Nils. This meant that I was awakened very early each morning. I am not a good morning person......therefore I was rather whiny about my situation. But after reflecting on what happens early in the morning with Nils, I must admit that it was fun to spend that time with him! He is so "awake" and just starts talking about whatever pops into his head. The first morning I awoke to hear: "Our Father Who art in Heaven, halllowed be thy name.......who should we pray for?" He then started naming people. Then out of the blue....."what does the cow say? Moo." Another morning he woke up and walked into the bathroom. While sitting on the toilet, he said, "Jesus was sitting on a donkey." It took me awhile to catch on to this. He repeated himself a few times. We wandered back to bed and he kept talking about Jesus and the donkey. "Yes," I said. "And the people were happy and saying 'hallelujah'" (I guess they were actually saying 'hosanna', but it was too early for me to get it straight). Then I said, " I don't remember what else the people said, but Jesus was riding into Jerusalem on the donkey." To which Nils responded, "Jesus is King!" I was pleasantly surprised at his good memory. He must have heard the story either at school or church the week before. He kept saying, "Jesus is King!"

Later that same day, we were sitting around eating lunch. Nils had finished and was running around. He spotted a camera on the counter and grabbed it, dashing out of the kitchen as fast as he could. I jumped up from the table and ran after him, chasing him to the guest room, where he had deposited the camera on the bed. He was jumping up and down and turning toward me he shouted, "Jesus is King!" I had a hard time keeping a straight face. He was totally trying to make me forget about the camera by saying something which I had reacted to positively before. I am often impressed by how his mind works!

We had an Easter egg hunt before we left on Saturday. We gathered them together for a group picture after they had found all the eggs. When we told them to smile, Annika proudly held up her basket and shouted, "I love Jesus!" Then she continued, "Do you know why I said that? Because it's Easter, and Jesus rose from the dead! We get to see Jesus tomorrow!" She was so excited.....I don't know if she was disappointed the next day or not!

When we were at Sea World, Annika, Marta and I were waiting for everybody else to get off of a ride. We had been trying to see which boat they were all in when they came down the big waterfall. Annika was sure she had spotted them: "That's them. It is. But don't get mad at me if it's not cause I'm not God. I don't know everything."

While eating out at a Mexican restaurant, Marta was sitting next to her daddy. He took a spoonful of mole' sauce and held it out to her."Taste this, Marta. It's chocolate!" Marta is a very picky eater and is not usually willing to try something new. But without any hesitation, she took a bite. Her happy expression at the thought of chocolate quickly changed to confusion.....then she burst into tears! Admittedly this was not a very nice trick, but it was pretty funny!

We stopped at a Starbucks drive thru one morning. When Kendall started to order coffee, the lady immediately asked him, "What are you eating?" They had picked up some breakfast tacos from this place called "Super Donut" ( I know, weird.........) Super Donut's coffee could have been terrible, so Starbucks was a must. We just laughed and laughed because the lady talked on and on about the taco and wanted to know if it was good.......Diane accused Kendall of chewing really loud.

And all throughout the trip we would hear this from Nils when he was seemingly frustrated.......
"Ahhhh....I need a cough drop!" I'm pretty sure he's never had a cough drop, and we have no idea why he was saying it, but it was his favorite phrase.

All in all, it was a very entertaining trip! I was exhausted when it was over, but it was great to visit new places and hang out with the whole family. And I could do it again......just not really soon!