Pray.

I woke up this morning to the news that the son of some good friends was killed in a car accident.

Kipp is the second son of Cary & Amy B*la*ke. 

I guess I met this family when I was a junior in high school', and they came to AC as a teacher and a secretary.

From there, I started babysitting their youngest 2 boys when Zach & their youngest, Kurt, were only 1 year old.

Zach and Kurt are very good friends.

Kurt has really been struggling lately with life choices.

Zach likes to follow.

Amy and I have had lots of long talks lately.

Amy & Cary were on a trip with their 3rd son this weekend when tragedy struck.

Kipp & Kurt were working at the school cleaning after the ball game.  They headed home.

Kurt went to a friends house, but had a bad feeling about his brother so he called him.  No answer.  Went looking for him. 

Kurt and “a lady” (at this point Amy doesn’t know who it was) found Kipp in the field dead.

They say he might have slipped on some ice.  Rolled his car 3 times.  Died “instantly”.

I took their family photo last fall…

I took them when I was first starting out, and I have been wishing all day that they were a little better quality.

Amy had ordered a few proofs but hadn’t gotten around to making an order of some larger photos for the family… I ordered her some this morning, I hope to have them framed before the viewing.

I took Zach over there for a couple hours today.  I spent some time talking to Amy. 

This is so hard.

I asked her what I could do for her,  she said “Just pray, You’re my prayer warrior”.

Trying to live up to that…

Mostly it just been groans and tears today…

Please pray for this family this week.

And hug your kids & tell them you love them.

Pam

20 year reunion

Last weekend I went to my 20 year class reunion! 

I happen to really enjoy class reunions.  I have great memories of high school. 

So, I looked in the mirror & wished I had gotten a hair cut, realized I had some how not lost the 20 pounds we all think we need to lose before going to class reunions.  Pulled a pair of jeans from the pile of dirty laundry, scraped the chocolate off of them.  Realized I should probably be concerned that I was going without a “date” again.  But, wasn’t.  I decided that they would all accept me as I am!

I had fun.

The music was a little (A LOT) too loud when it started.  Lots of people left because you literally couldn’t carry on a conversation unless you were screaming.

The food was yummy.  I was trying to balance my plate, cup & talk and spilled my plate on the floor.  Take me as I am remember??  :)

I loved seeing this old banner we had painted for homecoming week, when we were seniors and won the class contest with…

Glad I don’t store it!!  But, it was awesome to see it again!!  And to see & spend the evening with friends from far & near!

Carol was there, who didn’t go to high school with us, but married one of our classmates & has become a good friend through the blogging world!  And Julie who lives a few miles away & I see weekly at church.  (they both blogged about the reunion too!)

And it was great to spend time with my good friend Joni again too!  She doesn’t live too far away, but it takes effort to get together.  (Like I get my oil changed or car repairs done and she picks me up and we go for lunch kind of effort!)

We tried the old cheerleader pose, but it just isn’t the same without our hair all sticking together from hair spray… we missed our 4th wheel Petula in this pose (like living in a country across the world is a good excuse for not coming to your 20 year class reunion or something!)

yes, here we are… 20 years ago… we decided it was a good thing we had all changed a bit!

Fun times!!

Pam

Zach & Friends

Sunday evening Zach had some friends over.  He has been asking all summer!  After vacations, sports started… & this is an athletic group… so with football, tennis, volleyball, & cheerleading… we finally found an evening that most of them could come over and hang out! 

It ended up being a nice cool evening, campfire felt good.. volley ball was fun… & then even though they were freezing cold (and most of them went home in clothes that were Leah’s or Zach’s) they had a huge water fight with the hose & buckets!

What a fund group of great kids!  It was a blast having them around!!

One of my favorites of the night!  Mary spraying Dalton!

Zach getting drenched (he was hiding!)

Yeah, that is full of water…

hiding in the tree house, huh? boys?

Cody being restrained by Dalton and drenched (glad your phone is still working Cody!)

Ben P…

The non-volleyball playing group…

Volleyball…

Tri-cycle fun…

drying out by the fire… Devan…

Cody G…

This girly LOVES when Zach’s (girl) friends come over…

What are they doing now???

 

SCARY HUH!!??!!!

Shooting pieces of cereal from the puppy chow mix into the air with a paint ball gun… the only dangerous part was when they started trying to catch them in their mouths when then came down… looked a bit painful… anything to impress the girls! :)

It was so much fun to have you all over!  You are a great group of kids!! 

Pam

A party, a birthday, a football game, & a first day of school…

Lots going on around here!

Last night Zach had 18 friends over!

Today is my dad’s 60th Birthday!

Today is Kiahna’s first day of preschool!

Tonight is Zach’s first football game!

Pictures to come later! 

Pam

You are Making me Smile!

Some very sweet people have been making me smile lately!  (you know, beside my kids, who while they make me smile, they don’t always act real sweet, nor do they appreciate me very often!)

Sarah @ Flying Kites sent me The Mom of the Year Award!!  You have to take a look at that! And pass it on!!  It made me smile so big this morning!!

Mimi @ He & Me + 3, e-mailed me a few days ago asking for my mailing address.  Last night, I went to the mail box and her package was in there.  How awesome is this!?!

 

She said that she saw them in the dollar bins at Target and had to get them for me!  WHAT A SWEET FRIEND!!!  Be Blessed Mimi, 10 times over, for your thoughtfulness to me!

Last Week, Cindy @ My Kids My Why, awarded me the Attitude of Gratitude Award!

Knowing that “gratitude” is not coming so easily for me these days, it was quite an honor to have her see that in me.  Thank you Cindy.

Amanda let me know recently that my blog has been nominated for an Awesome Blogs 2009 Award!  She challenged me to come over and see what category I had been nominated in.  I confess, I looked through quite a few until I found the one.  Awesomest Parenting Blog.  Hum… Not really feeling deserving of that one either.  But, I guess there will be voting on May 11, so yeah… do what you will with that.

Melissa @ Home is Where your story begins crowned me with This Queen of ALLL things Awe-Summm Award!

I am to list 7 things that make me Awe-Summm and then pass the award on to 7 bloggers I love. Make sure to tag the recipients and let them know they have won! Also link back to the Queen that tagged me.

I was thinking that it may be good for my self esteem right now to come up with 7 Awe-Summm things about myself… then I started having thoughts along the line of… well, it’s pretty Awesome that I haven’t killed any of my children, or that I haven’t ended up insane yet.  But, I figured that wasn’t very appropriate… so, I guess I’ll have to come up with others…

#1 despite me, my ex husband, and all our mistakes, our children are growing up to be pretty awesome people!

#2 I have only forgotten to pick up a child from an activity a handful of times in my life!

#3 I have really AWE-SUMMM parents, family, and friend support!!  REALLY AWE-SUMMM!!

#4 I have a really, really, REALLY AWE-SUMMM GOD!  Who continues to walk through this life with me, even though I am consistently questioning Him!

#5 I’ve learned not to expect quite so much perfection from myself, my house, my kids… most days!

#6 ummmm…. running out of ideas… I can cook a mean meal, if I am so inclined!

#7 I can remove a stain from just about any piece of clothing, in a single, double, or triple, washing!  :)

I give up!  Lets move the attention on to these AWE-SUMM bloggers… who have become great friends to me, leave me comments, pray for me, twitter with me… and I’d love to meet one day face to face!!

Bonnie @ Where did this all come from

Carol @ Joy in the Journey

Jodi @ They are only little for a little while

Lori @ My Livin' Part of Life

Mimi @ He & Me + 3

mommaof4wife2r @ A Thorn Among Roses

Sarah @ Flying Kites

Gayle @ The White House

Carrie @ Martin Manor Happenings

Girl Child @ Ahh Ooooommmmm

Pam D @ Life by the Creek

Paula @ His Ways are not Our Ways

Sheryl @ The Perch

Kelly (who’s blog link i can’t find!)

Of course there are my real life friends, who don't have a blog… who deserve this AWE-SUMMMM award… like Lora, Megan, Kim, Patrice, Rachel, Twila, Tina, Marlene, Shari, Julie, Rachelle, Terisa, Amy, Lisa, Joni, Deb, Lanae, Carla, Rhonda, Mary, Judy, June, Holly, Tammie, Bekah,… and more that I am sure I missed… who have not given up on me in this whole trial…

That’s more than 7 you say?  Well… I didn’t say I was an AWE-SUMMM counter!!

Thanks for giving me a reason to smile today!!!

Pam

I Heart Faces: My Friend & I

The theme for this week’s contest is My friend & I.  You need to have a shot of 2 children being friends… Hallie and Jadon… best of friends & cousins!  They played together all week in Florida like a dream! 

Visit I Heart Faces to enter this contest & view more beautiful friend pictures!

Pam

Wordful Wednesday

Leah

Plus Darien

equals… TROUBLE!

…their words… not mine!  ;)

Pam

I found a carnival to link up with for those of us having trouble keeping ourselves wordless on Wednesdays!!  Visit Angie @ 7 clown circus for more info!

A girl of many faces…

So, Leah FINALLY got to have her birthday party with her friends.  Kiahna told me, as I was making another cake for Leah, “it’s AllllWAaaYS Leeeeah’s biiirthday” 

Guess it seems that way when you are 4, and just learned that your birthday is in August, and you have no comprehension of when that is!  Sorry, baby, telling us all repeatedly you are 5 and that it is now August, does not make it so…

Miss K and Mr J were not invited to the big girl bash! 

I picked up Leah and her five friends, myself and another mom, took them to the big city, to an outside, covered, ice skating rink!  This has become a tradition for Leah’s birthday.  Not sure how many years now, at least 5? 

Last week we had to postpone the party, the ice rink wasn’t even open with the wind chills being well below zero. 

This was cold enough!  I can’t imagine how cold it would have been last week! 

After a couple hours of skating, we took them to Coney Island.  I had never been there, and it was a cultural experience, for sure!  A 95 year old tradition… and I never heard of it?  Why?

Coney Dogs, Coke in a bottle… and I am sure the only restaurant left in town to not take plastic, oh and local checks only (good thing they thought I was local enough!!)

So after we got home, she opened the gifts the girls brought her… I got the biggest laughs out of some of the faces she was making as she opened them!  I got some great shots of her!

And to show all her gifts, holding her alarm clock, her polka dot bag, polka dot robe, polka dot blanket, and striped hat, gloves, and scarf!

And yes I made cake… maybe I can make it look really impressive by some creative photography…

Humor me, and pretend you see that this is an ice skating pond with her name on it… and that that curly-q I tried to put on the end of her name doesn’t look like an extra “e”…

okay? uh-huh…

She was happy… that’s all that matters.  ;)

Pam

PS.  I wrote a new post called, “The Sunrise” over on my testimony blog "Standing"